The Slayers Quest

[Merc]

Nobody really comments on Zel's incidental groping as Lina returns fuming to gathering up her treasure. The others soon join in helping.

After about an hour of gathering the variety of treasure in some large bags, Lina stares at her treasure pleased. Gourry is struggling under the weight of his bag, which contained what Lina considered the most valuable of the bunch. Zel and Amelia seem fine, if still feeling a bit burned and annoyed with Lina.

Before the subject of carrying the treasure comes up, Kizel moves towards Lina, figuring she's as happy as she's gonna get. Besides, better to start talking before the chimera and princess begin stating that they won't help carry Lina's "treasure" and ruin the mood he'd worked hard to set up.

"So was the treasure worthwhile?" Kizel starts asking, hoping to lead up conversation to the map and further treasure.

[Corwin]

Lina smiles. "It wasn't bad for such a group of losers!" she replies cheerfully.

[Merc]

Kizel reigns in the temptation to twitch. He had been a member of those 'losers' after all. Managing to keep his sense of business, so to speak, he continues smoothly, "Well, then, if you thought this wasn't bad, would you be interested in a search for a treasure much more vast? I'm sure someone in your occupation has heard of the Condemned and the secret treasure?"

OOC: Okay, just making the name up, but consider the Condemned to be a notorious bandit gang from the past thought to have hoarded treasure enough to possibly fund an entire kingdom if they so desired, and the power to simply take over one as well. They chose not to of course, instead prefering the life of pillaging and being the strongest, as well as living off well from their treasure, which consisted not only of gold and jewels, but just about anything man ever dreamed of attaining.

Even some mazoku respected them, and it was thought that some of their members had in fact been mazoku. Though their leader was a great strategist, he was also a paranoid and selfish man. It's not certain how, but just before he died, the vast majority of their treasure disappeared as well as fifteen of his best members. Without the support of their leader and the power of those fifteen, the rest of the gang soon found themselves breaking apart, caught, and condemned to death.

Over the ages, one frequent rumor was the the treasure had been hidden and that a map existed that could lead one to it. Neither the map or treasure had apparently ever been found and the story lost to legend and myth.

[Corwin]

"What do you mean by 'someone in your occupation'?" Lina asks suspiciously.

[Ebiris]

"I think he means because you're a Bandit Killer, Lina," Gourry pipes up helpfully.

[Merc]

"...And adventurer, of course," Kizel corrects smoothly after Gourry. "Because of what you do, I would imagine that you'd have heard of that gang of old and the treasure now thought to be merely a myth."

Kizel pauses, as he digs into his jacket to pull out a scroll. "This treasure truly exists however, and I hold part of the map that is the key to finding it."

'This was it,' he thinks as he stares at her in eyes, waiting for her reaction. He remains confident that even if she attempts to steal the map, she would still need him. He hadn't shared everything just yet after all.

[Corwin]

"Come on, Gourry!" Lina calls out, turning away from Kizel. "Let's carry this stuff to town, where we could sell it!"

[Ebiris]

"Okay," Gourry says, falling in behind Lina. The sooner they sell it, the sooner he gets to stop carrying it, after all.

[Merc]

Kizel blinks, a bit shocked. Of all reactions, he hadn't expected her to turn -down- the thought of a treasure hunt.

'Think, man, think,' he thought, trying to figure out a way to convince her to partner up with him. He may have had knowledge to get there, but not the power for it. 'Hrmmm...'

"You know, it -was- rumored that besides gold and jewels, the treasure consisted of spellbooks, talismans, and various other items of power..." he mentions in an almost idle tone to hide any desperation. People of power sometimes had a desire to gain even more power, if Lina Inverse didn't, he'd have to go looking elsewhere.

[Corwin]

"Too bad one part of the map is useless by itself..." Lina drawls out, making a show out of picking up one of the bags 'o loot.

[Merc]

'Score!' the ex-bandit thinks gleefully. She hadn't ripped out the map from his hands either, so it was safe to add at least a bit more information.

His tone grows more animated, and he states, "But what we do have -isn't- useless."

Opening up the scroll, he reveals it to be the top half of a scroll. Near the top is some written statement, and further down is a ripped map, showing a large X covering over most of a certain area. The desert of destruction.

Letting Lina look, he explains, "The map states that there are keys needed to get in. We can assume that the lower half probably shows the location of the keys, as well as maybe a more detailed map of the treasure's location in the desert of destruction, but we know the general location."

"I also hold one of the keys," he says with a smile.

[Ranma_007]

"The Condemned... wasn't their leader Salazar Kloh?" Zelgadis chimes in.

[Merc]

"Yes, his home base was originally in Ralteague. It's where I found the key that I have, in fact," Kizel says with a nod to the chimera.

[Corwin]

"I dunno." Lina looks at Gourry. "Do you want to go on a wild goose chase?"

[Ebiris]

"Me?" Gourry points at himself and blinks dumbly at Lina's question.

The blond swordsman holds himself in silent contemplation for a moment, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Well... isn't the Desert of Destruction really far away? I'd rather just... I dunno, travel around places where we can go to inns and eat good food every night." Suddenly stuck on that thought, Gourry jolts as if struck by lightning! "I just remembered something!" he exclaims, thumping a fist in his open palm, "Hey! Won't that Dragon Cuisine we wanted be finished cooking now? What was the name of that town..." he trails off, scratchin his head in thought.