closed.

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa, Derrica
WHAT: Follow that treasure map!
WHEN: One day in late Kingsway/early Harvestmere
WHERE: The Wounded Coast/Kirkwall/The Gallows
NOTES: Vibe check: National Treasure

Following the map will require:

A lot of hiking through the Wounded Coast's winding, disoriented terrain, some of which has changed since the map was first created—some landmarks marked on the map are now missing, time and wind have moved some of the sandy hills around, etc.

Digging through sand to find a cave entrance that's since been overgrown with roots and debris, then breaking through those roots and debris to drop down into the cave.

Wading through water and briefly swimming through a fully underwater passage. Not for very long, but it's unnerving anyway.

Especially because the room after it has a dozen skeletons pinned to the wall in various contorted poses.

But beyond them, there is a treasure chest!

The chest can't be unlocked and will have to be busted open. It will contain:

- A few old coins. They're of ancient Tevinter origin, so selling them to a collector will get more value than trying to spend them. Sold for their full worth, it will be enough to buy a nice outfit or have a couple of good nights out on the town, but not a substantial amount of money.

- A somewhat rusty enchanted rope made of lyrium and threaded metals that will form an above-ground column of water, up to 15' in diameter if the rope is set down in a circle. If you set it on a flat surface and connect the metal hooks at either end of the rope, it will turn rigid. Raising it like a bubble wand will fill the area beneath it with a column of water. So it's basically a magical above-ground pool. The water (including any imbibed or bathed in, so don't count on it for hydration) will vanish instantly if the ends of the rope are disconnected from each other.

- A glass wine bottle with a stopper shaped like a little skull. Remove the lid, and the jar will release the sound of different people's terrified screams, one after the other, until the lid is replaced. It never seems to run out. There's no wine, though.

Comments

[sulahnan]

"Well, she either thought it was worth enough to wager, or she just wanted to get rid of it," Athessa shrugs once she gets to her feet.

According to the map, now updated, the cave they're looking for is beyond the next marker, but who knows whether or not that'll be where it should be.

"But she wasn't too drunk to balance a beer on her head so. That's... something. This way, I think."

She points with her pencil in a direction, but rather than simply lead, she angles the map for Derrica to see in case she can see something Athessa can't.

[tender]

At least Athessa hadn't paid money for a potentially useless map. Derrica squints in the direction Athessa points, then nods.

"Yes, I think that's right. That squiggle might be the scraggly bushes there?"

It's hard to tell from the map whether the owner had been maybe drunk or in the middle of a storm on a ship when they wrote it or if they were just only talented at drawing certain things. A mystery.

"Do you think we're getting close?"

Which one of the squiggles marks the spot, so to speak?

[sulahnan]

"I think so, if that squiggle is those bushes," she nods. There don't seem to be any other squiggly things around, unless it just means sand. Remembering something, Athessa laughs to herself.

"We're either getting close, or we're not."

Setting off toward the bushes in question, Athessa points to the path they've taken thus far, then to where they're theoretically going.

"If it's that squiggle there, we should find a cave ssssomewhere off that-a-way, then we'll really be close. Unless it's the wrong cave."

[tender]

"Maybe it'd have been faster if we just searched all the caves," Derrica teases, following along the path. They might just be lost, and have to resort to that anyway, assuming the prize was something Athessa really did want.

Speaking of—

"Did you hear what they were said to have hidden?"

[sulahnan]

She laughs, like yeah, maybe so. But they're already here, they've come this far. To switch tactics now would only take more time. Not that Athessa would mind.

"A treasure chest, what else?" She teases right back, before shaking her head and giving a real answer. "Some old pirate treasure, but I'm not holding my breath on a cache of gems or whatever. I figure the most we'll find is a big heavy box filled with sand and maybe an old goblet or a dusty wine bottle, maybe some old coins if we're lucky."

They reach the squiggly shrub (which Athessa redraws on the map for the sake of clarification) and adjust course accordingly.

"Mostly I just think it's fun to follow a treasure map, don't you? The mystery, the excitement, the— the poorly drawn bullshit," a tap at the map for emphasis, but her grin is genuinely entertained. Happy.

"If there is a treasure, what would you want it to be? Not what it might be, realistically, but what you'd like it to be."

[tender]

It's so good to see Athessa joyful over this escapade. Derrica can almost trick herself into the idea that they can exist as easily as this together all the time.

"Oh, I don't know," Derrica says as they follow the curving upward loop of the path. "Jewelry, maybe. But I can't think of anything I want that I don't already have somewhere in my room."

Which is already too cluttered with things by half. She'd meant to give some away, or sell some of it away.

"What do you want it to be? Very old wine that tastes too bad to drink? Or coin?"

[sulahnan]

"Most old wine tastes too bad to drink," she says sardonically. Force of habit, even now that she's able to stomach it without bad memories bubbling up like bile. It's nice, though, not to have to worry about explaining why. Derrica already knows. And the joke can just be that: a joke.

"I think I'd want it to be a...a concept, more than a thing."

Athessa squints, making sure the words sound right.

"Like an experience."

[tender]

"An experience would be difficult to fit in a box," Derrica points out. "Unless finding it counts."

It probably did, unless Athessa is going to be particular about the rules in a way Derrica hasn't anticipated. She taps Athessa's elbow, pointing ahead.

"There, that tree? Is that—"

Interrupting the flow of banter to point at an angular scratch towards one side of the map.

[sulahnan]

Of course finding it counts, the experience starts with the map and ends when they get to where they're going.

Athessa holds up the map, high enough to replace the tree with the bad drawing of it in their line of sight. Lowers it, just to check. Raises it again. And twice more just to be funny.

"Let's go check it out."


It is the tree from the map, she thinks, circling wide around it. It's meant to be the marker above a cave, but there's enough sand around it that she could be wrong.

It starts to seem that way when she taps her foot on the earth at the tree's base and finds it quite solid. Compacted soil over stone, perhaps.

"Hmm." She pulls the dagger from her belt (the one Deimos left) and uses it to test the depth of the soil, confirming that there's rocky substrate not too far down.

"Maybe not... There should be a cave by the tree, far as I can tell, but I don't see—"

She's interrupted by her own surprised whoop! when she circles around to one side of the tree and the sand beneath her feet gives way. The map flutters out of her hands and the pencil gets tossed somewhere and Athessa drops a couple feet before catching herself on the edge of the tree's solid footing.

"Well. I guess you were right after all!"

[tender]

In the span of time it takes between the whoop and Athessa's light affirmation, Derrica has a vivid flash of how very bad it would be if Athessa had fallen down a hole. Injuries aside, how would Derrica get her out?

Ergo, she's a little breathless when she rounds the tree to skid carefully to the edge and grasps for Athessa's hand to either help her out or lower her most gently, whichever is more appropriate based on the height of the drop.

"Maybe, but now I think we need to hope it's something easy to get out," Derrica answers. "I hadn't really been thinking about carrying anything we find back."

Biceps aside, what a pain.

[sulahnan]

Athessa laughs, the way one must when falling into a hole becomes a sudden possibility, (wheeze) and grips Derrica's hand. She uses it as an anchor point while she peers down into the hole made by the shifting sand instead of being lowered or pulled up onto terra firma, but won't resist being pulled once she's had a better look at what's what.

"Looks like the roots of this tree have grown down into the cave," is her assessment, before turning a teasing grin on Derrica.

"So you're saying you hope we don't find any treasure?"

Athessa will be fine taking nothing but a fun day with Derrica back, but shouldn't Derrica want something more worthwhile than her company?

[tender]

"I'm saying I hope we find something very small and very valuable," Derrica returns sensibly, before she hauls Athessa upwards. "Do you think we can climb down by the roots or will we need rope?"

As long as they can climb back up again. She casts about for the map, snatching it from where it snared itself in the prickly boughs of a nearby bush. The pencil is a lost cause, but Derrica wants the map at least in case they get turned around on their way back.

[sulahnan]

"The roots'll probably work, but I've got rope in my bag just in case. We're gonna have to do some digging first."

Athessa looks around, brushing the dirt from her pants. There's a log a short ways away, old and dried out. She trots over to it and rips off a chunk of the bark to use as a makeshift shovel and clear away some of the sand.

"So, let's say we get to the end of the map," she says between scoops. "And there's nothing there. Nothing big and worthless or small and valuable, either. Would you be disappointed?"

[tender]

"No," Derrica answers, serene as she eases down on one side of the hole to let her legs dangle. Nothing seems ready to give way under her, for the moment. "I don't think so."

Maybe not bringing shovels was an oversight, but it's too late to do anything about it now.

"Would you? I can't tell if you're the type who'd like to have a pile of gold for yourself."

As far as Derrica can tell, Athessa might, but she'd spend most of it on everyone else.

[sulahnan]

Well that's a relief, anyway. If Derrica won't be disappointed, the stakes are far lower with regard to what awaits them at the end of this trek.

"Nah," Athessa shakes her head, pausing in her digging both to assess her progress, and to just take a break to talk. "I get to spend the day with you. Hard to be disappointed about that."

It's true, of course. They both know it, but for the sake of not getting too honest, Athessa keeps her tone light, friendly. She shrugs dismissively to move on to talk about gold and keep digging at an easy pace.

"I don't really care about piles of gold or having lots of money or any of that. My family used to trade favors, not coin, usually. And in Rivain I didn't have much need for it unless I wanted jewelry, and here—" Another shrug. "—Most of what I earn gets shoved into a bag under my bed or spent on my friends."