Beastland wanderings

[Anastasia]

Perception.

"Could be, but no," Jarem shakes his head, "In Arcadia, in Celestia or Elysium? I'd believe it. Here it's the Beastlands. It's not the Heaven to care that much about it, not like that. It may still be the wrong way, but I don't think it's that sort of trial here."

Jessica hms, "I don't see any magic around it and a simple spell says it's real gold, not fool's gold."

"Do we have time to mine it, though?" Bastian points out, "We have more important goals. We can play prospectors later."

[Iron Dragoon]

Perception:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+58 : 17 + 58, total 75[/blockquote]

"Oh, I wasn't intending to mine it. Not now, at least. After? A teleport back here should be easy enough."

[Anastasia]

No sign of tracks.

"Still, this has to be it. The Night Lord's still up there," Jessica says, "And insists there's no other scent or trail from the lake."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods, "I don't see any tracks, so it's a guess. Who feels lucky?"

[Anastasia]

"I do," Jarem says, pulling out a coin and flipping it.

> roll 1d2
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 1 > [d2=1]

A catch and a glance at it. He starts to head down the gold marked passage after.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa follows!

[Anastasia]

You go down this passage. It leads to an open cavern, a dead end. Here great big hunks of golden ore is laid about. Hundreds of pieces of it, ranging from pebble sized to larger than a pit fiend. It's all left here, littered about and dropped.

"Ho-" Bastian begins, stopping cold the moment he sees it. "I've seen dragons that would kill for that much gold. Most of them."

"And it's just sitting here?" Jessica agrees, eyes radiant blue. "...no magic? That or it's concealed beyond even my sight."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Beastlands are a big place. And we're underneath it. We'll definitely have to come back... Or... We could summon some Earth elementals and leave one of our bags with them to fill and come back around after we finish with the bear?"

[Anastasia]

"Let's come back," Jarem agrees, "It's a fortune, but it's not going anywhere. Besides, if the bear's intelligent it may be its treasure."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Other path, then."

[Anastasia]

You go to the other path. It opens up into another cavern. Several burrow paths go from it and in the center? On a bed of dried leaves and grass sleeps a large golden bear. It shimmers a metallic gold, curled into a ball and fast asleep.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa whispers to the others, "Well, there it is. Anyone come up with ideas for this?"

Alyssa does her best to study the bear from where she is, to spot it's weaknesses.

[Anastasia]

Headshakes all around.

In your mind you hear, 'I can't see any reason to attack it while it sleeps. That goes against any meaning of the hunt on this plane. Why don't we awaken it and see? I can talk to it.'

You don't see any weaknesses beyond that or a normal bear. Which it isn't, so it's anyone's guess here about weaknesses.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods to Jessica, "You're more of an expert here than I am. Follow whatever bear protocol you know."

[Anastasia]

Gildas level rising, for the lurking pixies.

You get puzzled look from Jessica, but she comes forward. She says not a word that you can hear, but the bear rises. In an instant it stands on its hind legs like a human, taller than any of you. It peers at you, "Well, about time!" It says. "I wondered how long I'd have to be mysterious but conspicuous for someone worthwhile to find me! You'd think Creation's run out of hot headed adventurers with more lust for coin than life." It speaks in an old man's voice, clear and smooth Common spoken. "There's only so many ways I can trim down the herd of legendary predators here before it bores me, and I passed that some time ago."

The bear points one claw right at Jessica, "So you got a taste for one and thought you'd find another? About time this got going. Do you know how BORING a forest is after a few hundred years? I should fail you all now and rend you into oblivion to make a point to the next group who finds me." The bear throws its hands up into the air, "But with my luck, that would take a billion years."

"...I'm sorry?" Jessica tries at last. "We would have come earlier if we'd known."