queenoflogs | the power of friendship.

Entry tags:

the power of friendship.

The Caves of the Arimoi are an extensive network of caverns, winding through the earth. Who maintains the torches which light each passage with a dim and flickering luminescence? Who placed here these treasure chest, filled with artifacts both ancient and obscure? What is it even doing here, as it is clearly not part of the Queen's domain? Nobody knows, or at least nobody is answering. But here it is nonetheless, and it is both ancient and strangely beautiful.

You are not alone in these caves, however. Echidna's children lurk, jealously guarding treasures and preying on unprepared explorers. Here a woman with the lower boidy of a dragon lurks, vicious teeth dripping with venom. There, a formless, shapeshiting mass strikes out with its terrible barbed whip. There, hydras and chimaerae patrol, and in some places the beautiful woman you stumble across may not be what she seems...

How are you supposed to make nice with creatures like these? That's up to you to figure out.

[ooc: A more detailed description of the Caves and Monsters can be found on the setting page. We will be tagging into threads with NPC monsters, if you have a specific monster you would like to encounter please leave a note in your thread.]

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Kris shook her head. As a matter of fact, she had no idea where Akiha kept her money and wasn't too worried about it. It wasn't like she wanted to steal it all.

"It just sounds like a good way for them to take all your money."

"First of all, not all the money is in one account. Then not all the accounts are in the same bank. Some of it is in investment firms and other places. So, it's not ONE person holding my money," Akiha replied, her irritation showing. "Keeping all your money on your person is a good way to invite someone to mug you. Maybe it's easy for you to just hold all your money considering how little you have, but it's a very different situation when you have extensive assets."

She sighed. "And the rest of it is societal differences. Our worlds are different. Things work differently. Leave it at that. You are more than welcome to not put your money in a bank."

"I'm really rich, you know. Really rich." She used to be poor but no more. That aside, Kris resigned herself to not understanding why someone would use a bank.

Akiha was of the opinion that what Kris considered rich was a lot less than what Akiha considered rich.

"You certainly don't act like it," she commented.

"That's because I never know what to spend my money on."

Living with no money for most of your life then coming into riches was crazy! What all would she spend that money on?

"You invest it. You use it to build something lasting - a legacy," Akiha explained. "You purchase finer things. You use it to increase your reputation in society and influence politics. You can fund research and purchase rare things..."

Akiha could go on and on thanks to her upbringing. She was too embroiled in all this back home, so it came easily to mind. "You manage your money. I own a business. That's one of the biggest things that can be done with a lot of money."

She scratched her chin while walking, thinking on it. "I wouldn't mind giving you all my money."

"..." Akiha raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you just said you wouldn't let someone else take care of your money?"

Kris' answer here should have been obvious. "I trust you."

"That much? Hmm." Akiha wasn't sure what else to say to that. Whereas Akiha had the right people at her fingertips back home to invest Kris' money well, it was still... not something she expects to hear.

"Did you think differently?" She skipped ahead, not really caring that they were discussing finances in a cave that probably had monsters in it. Just the average day in the life of an adventurer.

"I'm just not used to hearing it..."

Akiha watched Kris skip ahead, wondering how the hell she was so sure-footed in the caverns. The flickering torchlight made seeing the ground hard, so she reached up to take one of the torches down off the wall to make her own way easier. And that was when something caught her eye down a branch off of the main tunnel they were in.

"Kris," she called out, turning down the branch, and stopped in front of a--

Seriously. Seriously?

A treasure chest.

"This is like a bad fantasy novel."

Kris made sure to pull Akiha back a little. "Don't touch it!"

Treasure chests were very dangerous things, especially to first time adventurers like Akiha. How many people have lost their fingers or their life due to some trap or, even worse, a mimic.

"You have to be careful with chests."

"You're acting like it's going to bite me," Akiha grumbled, but didn't resist much being pulled back. "It's just a chest."

Clearly, Akiha hasn't read many bad fantasy novels.

"It could bite you though." To anyone else, it sounded ridiculous but to Kris, it was common sense.

"Just don't touch it without checking for traps."

"...it's an inanimate object, Kris." Akiha sighed and leaned against the cavern wall, crossing her arms. "And how do you check for traps without setting them off?"

Why was she even engaging in this ridiculous conversation about traps and vicious treasure chests? Next thing would be some fire-breathing dragon. At least that wouldn't be a problem.

"By having the skills and experience in doing it."

Like Kris, for example. Living on the streets gives these things.

"That doesn't explain how, Kris."

If Akiha was ever prone to saying 'duh', she would've just then. Of course such skills and experience were necessary. That doesn't help someone who doesn't know how these things are done understand it.

"Watch and learn."

Kris let go of Akiha long enough to bend over and cautiously head over to the chest. Worried yet, Akiha?

Given Akiha's opinion that traps on treasure chest were silly, pointless things, she really wasn't worried. This was Kris' damn adventure, so Akiha would just wait for her to poke meaningless at the chest before finding it was locked and they couldn't open it.

"Then hurry up."

"If I go fast, I'll get hurt."

But she did pull some tools out of her red robes and prodded at the lock a little. It was to make sure that there was nothing in there to make the treasure vanish if opened wrong or if it was trapped to blow when opened.

"..."

Akiha didn't want Kris to get hurt. She didn't think there was anything about the treasure chest that WOULD hurt her, but... No. Akiha didn't want her to get hurt. At all.

"Then just let it be..."

"No way. What if it has something important in it?"

She takes one of her tools, a long, thin, iron stick and pokes it into a keyhole. Yep, she's finagling with the lock.

"What if it blows you up in the process," Akiha snapped in a sharper tone than normal, bordering on being upset or angry. She sighs and glowers at the chest.

"Did you even see if it was unlocked first?"

"No but you should always do this anyway." Get on her level, Akiha. She kept it up for a few more moments before standing up and declaring it safe.

"It can be opened now."

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