There's a light rap on the door, "Mz. Pawtuxet?"

Pawtuxet puts down the book she was busily reading, and looks towards the door. "Yes?" she replies.

"Mz. Pawtuxet? Can I come in? I've got a… got some news for you!"

Pawtuxet places a bookmark on the page, before putting down the book, then gets up and approaches the door, "News… who is this?"

"My name's Jarvis. I'm a messenger from Kallas, I'm sure you've heard of him… "

Pawtuxet pauses for a moment, thinking to herself, "Kallas? My, my… " Then sheunlocks and opens the door. "Come on in."

A nervous looking Kavi wanders in. He offers his paw to Pawtuxet, and looks everywhere but her eyes. "I have, uh, a proposition for you… A temple, or crypt, or somesuch was found not long ago, on the side of the mountain. It looks very small, but since it was one of Kallas's servants that found it, he wants to check it out himself."

"He wants to avoid any Temple involvement. Your name came up."

Pawtuxet smiles to the obviously anxious Kavi and shakes his hand. Closing the door after the servant, briefly looking outside, she gestures the Kavi inside. "In other words, an unauthorized exploration? I must admit, that sounds rather interesting… Oh, my manners. Would you like a cup of tea?"

Jarvis looks out the window. "Umm… I'm not supposed to."

He looks in the direction of the teapot. "But, okay!"

Jarvis seems a rather young Kavi, anxious to do his job right, and make a good impression.

Pawtuxet smiles and nodnods, padpadding over to the stove, to return, moments later, with two steaming cups of tea. "Here you go." She tilts her head at the Kavi, "Suppose I agree to join the expedition, when would it be? And can you tell me more about its nature? Apart from it being illegal and potentially dangerous."

The Kavi sips at his tea, "The expidition is… well, it's you. And me. I'll be your porter, but Kallas wants to keep involvement to a minimum. And whenever you can be ready. It is one, perhaps two days' journey. Danger… well, nothing is known. The entrance was found, but nothing else has been explored yet."

Pawtuxet nodnods to Jarvis, occasionally sipping at her tea and wincing slightly, finding it too hot. "Hmm… okay. I don't see how I can turn it down, so you may tell Kallas that I agree to undertake the exploration. Though I'll really be upset if it gets us killed."

Jarvis smiles nervously, "Me, too. Wouldn't you, er, like to hear the terms first?"

Pawtuxet's left ear droops slightly. o O { Terms first, then agree… terms first, then agree. } She grins slightly and nods, "Oh, of course. Yes."

Jarvis looks a little less nervous, "Okay, well, it's going to be two silvers, plus one copper per day after the first three, to account for travel time. Kallas gets anything recovered, but you may perform any research on it you wish once it has been brought back." He sips his tea, and winces.

Pawtuxet's gaze travels across the room, eventually settling on the fire visible through the stove grid, as she considers the terms. She nods and looks back at the kavi, "Very well, I can live with that." With a grin, she adds, "I hope."

Jarvis grins toothily, "Great! Umm, then you're supposed to sign this… " He roots through a small leather pack, pawing this and that out of the way. What on earth is… ? Nevermind, there's the paper." He hands it over to Pawtuxet.

Pawtuxet peeks curiously at the bag, as Jarvis roams through its contents, then takes the paper she's given. After skimming over the print, she looks up at the kavi, "I'm running a big enough risk, by participating in this… Stating that I'm perfectly aware of its shady nature by signing this, doesn't make it much better. If the Temple gets ahold of this, it'll surely mean the end of my career, and a nice sparkly future of enslavement."

Jarvis's ears quirk, "Okay, I was told to expect that. Kallas said you weren't a fool, since you've renounced the Temple. I'm told that I can offer you terms without a signed agreement… but that it will be therefore payment on completion only, nothing up front."

Pawtuxet smiles and nods, as she hands the contract back to Jarvis, "Alright, good. Here, better hang on to this. There is one more thing… If this expedition reveals itself to be exceptionally dangerous, or unpleasant, I want to reserve the right to demand an increased payment."

Pawtuxet grins and adds, "And if so, I promise trying extra hard to keep you alive, to prove my statement."

Jarvis utilizes the fireplace to set the contract alight. He smirks. "Without a contract, you can reserve any rights you want. Upon completion, you will talk to Kallas himself; you can demand extra payment then."

Jarvis drinks the last of his tea, "When can you be prepared?"

Pawtuxet sits down on her rear haunches and looks really thoughtful, "Well… I still need to do the dishes and finish the laundry, not to mention getting the shopping done." She grins and twitchies her tailtip, "Depends if Kallas provides the equipment. If not, I can be ready by tonight or early tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll be ready after inspecting it."

Jarvis chuckles, "Kallas assumed you would have the equipment. He's covering supplies such as food, but if you needed anything else, I'll have to speak with him. And it would be best not to leave tonight. Tomorrow, early?"

Pawtuxet smiles and nodnods, "Tomorrow would be perfect… Means I'd be able to actually get some sleep."

Jarvis smiles, "Okay, then, tomorrow it is! I'll be here at dawn, with the food and, er, anything else we need?"

Pawtuxet scritches her chin with a finger, "Food, water… the Temple to never find out." She grins, "No, I think that'd be fine."

Jarvis starts moving towards the door, "Then, I should be back at that time?"

Pawtuxet walks Jarvis to the door, "Tomorrow at dawn? Oh, how are we getting there?"

Jarvis walks out the door, "Oh, walking, of course!"

Pawtuxet raises a brow, "Walking? Eh, apart from this excessive glamour of transportation, you don't think that might attract some attention? I mean, the equipment."

Jarvis chuckles, "I think transportation would attract more attention. People leave for day hikes all the time into the wilderness here."

Pawtuxet says, "You're right. I must've forgot this isn't an official expedition." She smiles and opens the door for the kavi, "Tomorrow at dawn."

Jarvis smiles nervously again, "At dawn… " He slips out.

The next morning, a familiar Kavi arrives at the apartment of a familiar 'taur, and they set off for high adventure in the mountains of Rephidim. Guiding himself by who-knows-what senses, the Kavi leads Pawtuxet unerringly. They camp for a night, and set out the next day at the crack of dawn. Shortly after midday, a halt is called…

Jarvis points to a dense clump of trees, "It's in there… "

Pawtuxet slows down and stops next to Jarvis, looking towards the trees, "I don't see it… but I take your word for it. And no one's ever been inside, before us?"

Jarvis shrugs, "We don't know. It was discovered a week ago, by a friend of Kallas's on a hike. He fell down the slope and into those trees. If it's old enough, though, it's probably been found before."

Pawtuxet nods, "Probably. Though I'm unfamiliar with it, and I believe to know most of what have been discovered on Rephidim."

Pawtuxet looks to the kavi, "Shall we?"

Jarvis nods, "It was thought that everything had been discovered already. This was a surprise, but it looks small, and Rephidim's large… "

Jarvis swallows, "After you… "

Pawtuxet grins to Jarvis, "A true gentleman. Very well." She resettles her backpack and proceeds towards the trees.

It takes some doing to get through the trees… they grow quite thick, and low to the ground. Pawtuxet is almost upon the ruin before she sees it: a simple shaft leading into the mountainside. Flowers have grown down over the entrance on long stringy stems, and leaves have fallen atop the lattice, almost completely obscuring it.

Pawtuxet pushes aside the vegetation obstracting the entrance, and looks inside. "Oy, issa dark place." She reaches back to a satchel bag and retrieves a torch, which she lights up using a flint against a shovel, then nods to the Kavi, before turning back to the entrance, drawing a deep breath.

Moving the plant-life aside dislodges quite a bit of underlying dust, and not a few scuttling beetles. The entrance looms darkly…

Pawtuxet eeshes and wrinkles her nose as the air fills with dust. Coughing a little, she brushes away the beetles, "Nothing to worry about, see?" She grins to Jarvis and steps inside.

Jarvis takes another torch and lights it from Pawtuxet's, "I'm… not worried. I'm just supposed to let you lead; you're the expert." His ears must normally be pale like that.

The shaft leads down what was probably once steps carved into the earth, but could now more accurately be called a ramp. It's a long tunnel, just slightly over head-height, and it hooks to the left out of sight some twenty feet down. Cobwebs, seemingly abandoned, drift near the entrance, but become less frequent further down.

Walking down the severely eroded steps, Pawtuxet, with visible dismay, is taking special care of staying well below the cobwebs dangling beneath the ceiling. "Aw, I hate these," she groans. "Not to mention those who put them there. Careful, it's pretty steep here."

Jarvis climbs down behind Pawtuxet, using one paw to steady himself against the ground, "I'm fine!"

After the curve, the passage seems to end about ten feet further on. The floor becomes a stone panel, and the walls change to stone as well.

Holding the torch high in front of her, using her other hand to shade for the light, she stops to examine the stone floor and walls for markings, that might reveal who constructed this.

The floor is unmarked, though there's a crease running in a straight line across it, across the tunnel the short way. The walls are a little more interesting, though not much. The wall directly in front has no markings, but it does have three stone 'latches' on it – moveable chunks of the stone.

Jarvis says, "A pity, nothing here. Oh well!"

Pawtuxet giggles at Jarvis and shakes her head, "Nono, not so fast. I think there might be something here." She holds up the torch before the three latches and points, "See? Unusual stuff." She carefully takes hold of the left 'handle', if indeed that's what it is, and carefully pulls it towards herself.

The handle moves, sliding out of the wall. Pawtuxet is left with a smooth cylinder of stone in her paw, and a hole in the wall.

Pawtuxet's left ear perks up as the latch is moved with surprising ease. She grins and looks to Harvis, "Oops."

Pawtuxet turns the cylinger over in her hand, examining it.

It seems very plain. The handle at the end Pawtuxet grabbed is the only noticeable feature.

Pawtuxet turns her attention to the recess she accidently made in the wall. With obvious difficulty, she tries making the light fall into the hole, while looking past the torch, in an attempt to make out any features inside.

The torchlight doesn't reach back far enough to make anything out, though it seems the other side of the slab leads to open air.

Pawtuxet squints into the hole for a few moments. "The hole seems to merely lead through the wall… if indeed it's a wall." She looks at the other two handles.

Jarvis squints into the hole, "I guess one of us could reach in, see if it opens out on the other side."

Pawtuxet looks back at the hole, "Well… yes, though I have no idea what might be in there. Surely they must represent some function, rather than just being pretty holes."

Jarvis shrugs, "That's what you're here for. I'm just supposed to carry your stuff, and help you where I can. You think the other two are the same way?"

Pawtuxet crouches down on her front legs, facing the hole and two remaining latches. She carefully inserts her left hand into the dark opening, feeling around its sides. "We'll know in a moment. Unless I lose anything important, doing this."

The inside of the hole feels like cool, smooth stone, same as the outside face. After perhaps half a foot, the rock opens out onto a larger area.

After retracting her hand, Pawtuxet looks up at Jarvis as she gets back on her paws. "Seems to be just what it looks like. A hole through a wall." She returns her attention to the last handles, and carefully seizes the middle. She slowly pulls it towards herself, listening for any tell-tale noise.

This one slides out much like the first, though it's a little harder to pull, and there's a heavy grinding noise as it comes out.

Pawtuxet turns over the cylinder in her hands. "This could be some kind of… hm, progressive locking mechanish. If this is a door, perhaps if I remove the last… " She puts the cylinder down next to the first, and removes the third and last in a similar manner. "… it might open."

The last cylinder is very hard to pull out, and it makes a horrible grinding noise as it does so. When it is about halfway out of the wall, the wall itself starts to slowly slide downwards, with a cloud of dust and a lot of grinding.

Pawtuxet erps and pulls harder on the cylinder, as the wall sets in motion. She steps backwards to what she believes is a safe distance, and surprisingly ends up standing next to Jarvis.

Jarvis is watching, "Umm… you meant to do that?" When the wall has descended about two feet, there is a deep, rumbling *THUMP* in the floor. The wall continues moving down.

Pawtuxet erfs at the approaching cloud of dust. She grins and nodnods to Jarvis, "We were supposed to get in there, right?"

The *THUMP* is repeated, and the floor they're standing on slowly swings downwards. Jarvis answers Pawtuxet with a quick, "Ack!"

Pawtuxet's ears perk up in alarm! She looks up and the two disappointing feet of space, then looks behind her, "There's no way I can get through that! You could, perhaps." She grins briefly at Jarvis. Very briefly, then continues, "Let's move back… floors usually doesn't move, unless they're part of a trap."

The floor flips downward abruptly.

Pawtuxet nearly drops her torch, as the floor increases its drop. Her walking backwards becomes a struggle to just avoid sliding towards the wall.

The floor quickly reaches a vertical position, and Pawtuxet and Jarvis drop. The drop is no more than ten feet, maybe fifteen, and neither are injured, though Jarvis curls into a ball with his eyes shut. Both are now in a square hole in the ground, with their supplies and the cylinders beside them. Above, the wall keeps sliding down, until it stops with a *thud*, leaving an opening. The bottom lip of the opening is at the level of the rest of the floor above.

Pawtuxet groans and mumbles something about unreliable architecture, as she stands up after the fall. She reaches a hand out towards Jarvis. "Are you okay?" she asks.

Jarvis stays in a ball, "Oh, fine. You?"

A slight clicking is heard up above.

Pawtuxet looks up at the edges of the pit that appeared beneath them, "Oh, just wonderful… perhaps I should've removed the cylinders in a reversed order. Or have stayed in bed."

Pawtuxet's ears prick up at the click. She picks up her torch and holds it up.

Nothing can be seen offhand above.

Pawtuxet holds still for a few moments, expecting more noises and perhaps their origin. She glances down at the kaviball, "Your torch is dying… just thought I'd mention it. I'd hate to be here, without light."

Jarvis slowly stands up, "Oh, yes… erf."

A spill of sand starts to fall from above.

Pawtuxet's ears wilt to their sides. She steps back from the sand and looks around at the walls, "Something tells me whoever built this, weren't too fond of visitors."

The sand fall slowly builds up in speed, until there's a rather large torrent of it falling right into the center of the hole.

Pawtuxet steps sideways towards the wall below the entrance. She motions to Jarvis, to move over to her. "There's no immediate ceiling on this pit! If we keep our feet above the sand, we might be able to stay on the surface."

Jarvis nods, "Okay, worth a shot!" The sand is very loose and dry, much like the Sea of Sand in the Himaat. It's hard to stay on top with so much more coming down all the time.

Pawtuxet quickly realises their effort as pointless, "This isn't getting us anywhere." She looks up at the edge of the wall, which is still rather high above her, "Oh, but if I jump up against the wall, perhaps you'd be able to use me as a ladder!" Still stepping to keep up with the rise of sand, she grabs a rolled-up length of rope from her bags, "Here, take this. That is, if you'd like me to accompany you."

Jarvis nodnods quickly, "Yes, er, I would much rather I didn't have to explain your death to Kallas!" He slips the rope over his shoulder, struggling to climb back to the sand's surface, "Okay, I'm ready!"

Pawtuxet struggles with the sand, to step a little back from the wall. She quickly measures the distance, then rears up on her hind legs and rests against the wall with her front. She's almost able to reach the edge, "Okay, go for it! And, eh, do try being quick about it."

Jarvis scrambles up the taur nimbly, and hoists himself up onto the edge. There's a pause for a few moments, then the rope drops back down on Pawtuxet, who is now finding herself rather inconvenienced by sand. "It's tied up at this end!"

Pawtuxet grabs the rope firmly and starts working herself free of the sand. Being rather heavy, she cannot climb the wall, only follow the pace, set by the grainous substance, "Great! Be right with you."

The sand rises rather quickly, and Pawtuxet rises with it. Soon she finds herself standing atop a mound of sand that levels with the floor they were on earlier. Looking through the doorway, she can see that the entrance is quite large. There is a stone bar across the doorway, with three holes in it, and the rope is tied to this. Jarvis is standing just behind the bar, in the room beyond, watching. "You okay?"

Pawtuxet hops off the tiny fleck of beach, build amidst the complex. She wags and nodnods to Jarvis, "Yep! Thanks." She starts pulling at the rope, eventually freeing it from the grasp of sand, and rolls it up as she approaches Jarvis. Pausing in front of the stone bar, Pawtuxet regards it curiously, "That's odd… again, three holes. Not to mention it obstructs the passage." She unties the rope and puts it back among her other items.

The bar is about waist-high across the entrance. The three holes are about four inches across. Nothing else about it seems interesting, it's simply stone.

Pawtuxet looks over the bar and in particular, the holes. "Seems about the same size as the ones in the Door of Betrayal, back there. Perhaps it was just used to hold the cylinders, so they wouldn't get lost. Heh. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be much to this thing." She crouches down, as she passes under the bar, "Let's see what else is here."

As Pawtuxet ducks under the bar, the light from her torch illuminates the area beyond. It's a wide room, which extends in both directions. The far wall is lined with alcoves, in each a long box. To the right, a portion of the floor reflects the light more darkly than the others. To the left, the room seems to hook around behind where she is standing.

Pawtuxet cautiously pads into the room, looking around as she proceeds. Initially, she heads towards the wall opposite the entrance, to have a look at the alcoves and the boxes they contain, hoping they might give away a clue as to the nature or purpose of the complex.

The boxes are unmarked, each about five feet long, and two feet high. The hinges are rotted pieces of cord, and there are no latches.

Holding up her torch, Pawtuxet carefully examines the boxes, but finds no apparent marks or clues to their purpose. She turns to look at Jarvis, "Judging from the location of these boxes, I'd say offhand they might be coffins. For a fairly small people. Which their state of decay also seems to suggest… unless you have any objections, I'd refrain from opening them, at least for now. Ew."

Jarvis tilts his head, "You're the boss… " He pokes his torch into a couple of empty alcoves, dislodging a few beetles.

Pawtuxet erfs, noticing the beetles, "Careful with that… who knows what might reside, down here." She steps back into the middle of the room and stops, listening intently for any sound whatsoever, then moves her torch upwards, to see how high it is to the ceiling.

The ceiling is only about two feet above her head. The only sound is the crackling of the torch.

Moments pass, revealing only the sounds the small party provide themselves. Pawtuxet looks to the right and slowly walks towards the dark area of the floor, still listening intently. "There's something here, which stands out. A hole, perhaps."

A square of the floor right next to the wall shines darkly, the edges clearly defined. It reflects the light from the torch, almost like glass.

Pawtuxet stops before the dark surface, and carefully lowers her torch towards it. "Lookit this. It appears to be a large glass tile." She avoids the reflection of the light, trying to determine if the glass is transparant.

The glass doesn't seem transparent. It looks almost like obsidian.

Bending down on her front legs, Pawtuxet carefully touches the surface, beginning with a gentle poke near its rim.

Ripples slowly spread out from the edge touched, revealing the square to be water, or some similar liquid.

Pawtuxet's ears prick up in mild surprise, "Erp? It's a liquid, of some sort." She stands up, retrieving her hand and holds it up between herself and the torch, in an attempt of determining if the dark color was merely an illusion or the actual color. Then sniffs at her hand, uncertain of what to make of the liquid.

The dark color of the liquid seems to have been caused by the poor light and the dark surroundings. On the finger, it appears clear, and it has no noticeable smell.

Pawtuxet steps back from the pool and towards the kavi, "Seems to be water… which is about all I can make of it, at the time being. For all I know, it could be another trap. Or perhaps whoever built this, just really liked beaches." She grins to Jarvis.

Jarvis chuckles, "There's, eh, little beach here. Well, rock doesn't make good beach, at least… " He walks up to the edge of the water.

Pawtuxet grins and shakes her head, then points towards the entrance from where they emerged, "I was thinking of the little dune that fell on us, back there. Do you make anything else from it?"

Jarvis sniffs at the surface, and shrugs, "Dunno. Stagnant."

Pawtuxet turns away from the pool and walks along the wall, passing the entrance, towards the other end of the room and the only other exit, examining the wall for significant features.

The wall doesn't have any noticeable features. It hooks around to the left, revealing a continuation of the room in an L-shape. The far right corner of the new section is indented a little, but otherwise, there seems to be nothing there.

Pawtuxet slowly proceeds into the other part of the room, examining walls, floor and ceiling as she walks along.

The indented corner is crumbling slightly. It seems to be made of stones with mortar, as opposed to the smooth rock of the rest of the walls.

Pawtuxet pauses before the corner and looks to Jarvis, "This part looks like it has been added, later than the rest." She takes the shovel and pokes it at the structure.

A spill of mortar falls away, with a few chunks of stone. It's very unstable.

Pawtuxet steps back as the inquisitive poke reveals the indented corner to be close to falling apart, "Looks like their funding was withdrawn, for this particular area. Or perhaps it's sealing something off. Perhaps an entrance to another part of the complex. Certainly the trap near the entrance doesn't justify anything we've found, so far." She looks to Jarvis, "Water, boxes and a possibly hidden entrance… What should we begin with?"

Jarvis shrugs, "I'm kinda' curious about what's in the boxes, but you're probably right about them. It's up to you!"

Pawtuxet nodnods to the kavi, "Could be. Something puzzles me, though… unless this part of the wall was just crappily built, it shouldn't be in such a state of disrepair, considering the ropes around the boxes hadn't yet disappeared entirely. But of course… the ropes might just have been very good ropes, and any possible corpses have long since dissolved entirely. I say we have a look at the boxes, before breaking this wall down."

Jarvis nods sagely, "Okay. You first."

Pawtuxet hrms and sulkily padpads back towards the first part of the room, "Ladies first! Such a gentleman."

Jarvis crosses his arms, "Look, there's a reason they hired you! I'm not trained for this!"

Pawtuxet stops in front of a randomly chosen alcove, and taps gently at the box within, "Yeah, yeah… I know. Manners don't hurt, though."

Jarvis grins slightly, "With weird boxes, they can… "

The box sounds like it has something inside, by the sound of the tap.

Pawtuxet uses her shovel to break the ropes around the box, though they appear to be in such a state of decay, that the slightest stress would cause them to snap.

The ropes do indeed crumble quite readily, leaving the lid laying unbound on the chosen box.

With great care, Pawtuxet inserts the blade of the shovel between the box and its lid, jamming it slightly downwards.

The lid cracks off with a cloud of dust, and a whiff of stale, dry air.

Pawtuxet's ears lie down flat as the lid comes loose! Jumpy. Keeping the crack's width steady, she takes her torch and shines the light into the box, in an attempt of making out any details.

The light shining through the top of the box reveals that Pawtuxet's suspicions were correct. Inside the box lies a skeleton, slightly shorter than the box itself. The arms are crossed over the chest, with nothing left but the skeleton. There seem to be no adornments from the burial.

Pawtuxet allows the lid to replace itself, by aligning the shovel and pulling it out. Stepping back, she turns to Jarvis, "This box was a coffin after all, it seems. But I couldn't determine what species we're dealing with. We might want to examine that, before leaving… and we probably should do it right away, as we might not be getting back here, if the crumbling wall indeed leads into another room."

Jarvis wrinkles his nose, "Okay, if you think we have to check it out… "

Pawtuxet looks back to the alcove, "We don't have to… I just thought it might be interesting to know.

Jarvis shrugs, grinning, "Hey, you're the boss!"

Pawtuxet hesitated in front of the alcove, glancing towards the dark pool. "Would you mind, perhaps, to go check on the entrance? I would like to know if we can get out that way, if necessary. We've already encountered one trap and there might be more. Especially if this is a tomb, of a kind."

Jarvis nods, "Okay, back in a jif!" He walks out the door.

Pawtuxet investigates the remaining alcoves while Jarvis is gone – in particular the empty ones – for signs of hidden triggers or mechanisms that might indicate trouble.

The rest of the boxes seem about the same as the first, though some have the ropes almost completely gone. The empty alcoves are just that, it seems: empty. No triggers or trap doors are apparent.

There's a shout from out in the entrance hallway.

Pawtuxet spins around, away from the boxes, and bounds towards the entrance!

Jarvis comes running back in, "Ugh… well, the sand's drained away, it seems… the hole's still there, but it looks like we could reset the floor to its closed position. And a spider dropped on my ear."

Pawtuxet stops as Jarvis returns, before she got anywhere and perks her ears with obvious dismay, "A spider?" She seems oblivious to the other information. Or perhaps she just has her priorities. "Well, then… I suggest we have have a look at that corner, in the other room."

Jarvis nods, stepping back behind Pawtuxet again.

Pawtuxet glances an extra time at Jarvis' ears, before returning the the second room.

The other room remains much the way it was left, including the notch made in the corner from the blow by the shovel. Jarvis wanders up to that, and pokes at it inquisitively.

Pawtuxet stands next to Jarvis and retrieves her shovel again, "Looks like it won't present us too much trouble, getting through. At least if the entire wall reacts like this."

Jarvis nods, "Well… you're the one with the shovel!" He steps back a bit.

Pawtuxet raises the shovel to about her head-height and hacks it into the wall, trying to direct stones and mortar away from her eyes.

After a few blows, a large section of the wall falls inwards, raising quite a cloud of powdered stone and mortar. The inside is shadowed from the light.

Pawtuxet erfs and hophops backwards, waiting a few moments until the dust settles.

The dust eventually settles, leaving a rather large hole in the wall of the room.

Holding her torch high, Pawtuxet approaches the newly opened hole.

The hole opens out on a small room, walled off from the main chamber. In the center, seems to be a small cell, with just a cot. Lying on the cot is another skeleton, as dried as the rest.

Pawtuxet hacks away at the remaining part of the corner, to remove enough rubble to allow her passage. Issa big taur. Stepping inside, she regards the room, "This is interesting… a cell, of some kind. Could it be some kind of prison? The trap suggesting perhaps a political prison, meant for disruptive activists." She grins to Jarvis, then looks around inside the room.

The room is fairly bare; it seems to have been erected rather hastily. The skeleton on the cot is surrounded by the rotted remains of clothing, only preserved by the dry air in the cell. Around one finger is a ring, the only artifact in the room that has withstood the test of time.

Pawtuxet returns her attention to the skeleton within the cell, as she notices a slight reflection of light from a ring around one of its fingers. She walks around the cell, searching for ways of entrance.

There are no doors apparent; the cell itself seems to be made of just the stones erected around a corner of the main room. The ring is a simple gold band, dusty, but clearly untarnished gold.

Pawtuxet crouches down and uses her shovel in an attempt to push the skeleton's hand within her reach.

The hand moves quite easily. Naturally, the rest of the arm doesn't follow, but Pawtuxet soon has the hand right up next to her.

Pawtuxet pushes the hand all the way outside the cell, before trying to remove the ring.

The ring comes off quite easily, of course; the finger it was on used to be much wider. Picking it up, it really does seem very plain, with no markings or jewels. But it weighs like solid gold in the paw.

Jarvis sidles up to Pawtuxet, "Whatcha got there?"

Pawtuxet rubs off the dust and dirt from the ring, as Jarvis approaches, "A small circular ornament that reveals nothing about its wearer, except that he once might have been wealthy. Or mated, depending on the culture."

Jarvis nods, "Ahh… any more?"

Pawtuxet opens an empty bag and drops the ring into it, then shakes her head, "Doesn't seem that way. Except that I can't find a door for this cell. It looks as if it was built around its prisoner."

Jarvis shudders, "That's… neighborly! So, is that all down here?" He starts walking towards the entrance.

Pawtuxet looks around the room one last time, before following Jarvis, "It looks that way… quite a disappointment, really."

Jarvis nods, "Weird, considering the trap. A gold ring's valuable, but not that valuable."

Pawtuxet padpads back towards the first room, "There's still the remaining boxes in the alcoves and the weird pool. I don't believe the complex trap at the entrance quite honors what we've seen, this far."

Jarvis nods, "That water seems a little out of place. But then, so does our friend in the cell there." He shrugs, and pads quietly after Pawtuxet.

Pawtuxet returns to the main room and approaches the alcove she already opened, "Let's try pulling this one out."

Jarvis nods, "Okay, I'll get this end." He grabs the foot-end of the coffin. "Ready?"

Pawtuxet nodnods to Jarvis as she takes place next to him, waiting for him to begin pulling. "I'll get the other end."

Jarvis hefts his end up, sliding it out of the alcove. As the 'taur and the Kavi pull the box it reveals… nothing.

Jarvis and Pawtuxet places the rather light box on the ground. She takes ahold of the loose lid and slides it off and onto its side, next to the box.

The contents are much as they seemed at the cursory glance earlier. A small species, that can't be identified right away, just that they've got a canid-like muzzle, and a shortish tail.

Pawtuxet regards the box's contents without gaining any significant knowledge, "Beats me… I don't think I've encountered this species before." She looks up at the remaining boxes, "Let's see if the rest yields similar results."