Saddle Arabian's Treasure

[Bogle]

Maenad grunted lowly as she moved closer to the urn to see it better. "Don't ask me to teach a class on it, but I can get by." She tilted her head on a few symbols, taking needed moments to dredge up the right word for them. "Alrighty now.... this is part of a set, of four, and talks about the glory and... veneration of the former owners of the treasure, so... a lot of the treasure were gifts. I think... blah blah, super great pony, blah blah... ah. Oh. Okay." She leaned back and let out a short breath. "​United the path is shown​. Well, I'm going to assume that means we need all four urns, but it doesn't specify if that means the treasure is far away or if the urns can make a key... actually," Maenad looked over to "Honey". "You want to reach in there? I'm thinking you've got a lighter touch than I." The Aerion then sent a smirk towards Agile ​Speeds. "If we need to break the urns later--that's what I meant by tampering. Ancient civilizations were fond of their puzzles."

​There was no mention of any curse on the urn so she knew she would need to keep going to make sure by seeing the treasure, or treasure room at least. If ancient relics needed to be broken for her to get further then Maenad wouldn't hesitate.  

[Lyipheoryia]

He stared at the room, his eyes on adept observational level.  Only the softer voice of a mare shook his from his trance.  Oh, this mare.  The questions posed was perfectly honest, but it hadn't been something he had expected.  It wasn't something he was used to-the criminal being sympathetic to the Guard.  In most situations that involved him in a policing duty, it involved little contact with the criminal.  He scouted and traced where the criminal went from the skies, and rounded him up for the Army sections to deal with.  There were no emotions, and he barely usually saw the criminal other than by air.  He never talked to the criminal...and this situation was most strange.  He froze for a moment before answering, his brain cooperating with little level and focused solely on compromising his thoughts on Honey's actions, "Prune.  Prune Rose-journalist for the Canterlot Chronicles.  Recipient of the Celestial Journalist Award.  Winner of the Writer's Festival Write-off.  First Runner-Up in the Read-a-thon for Equestria," 

 

He wasn't quite sure when to stop.  But he continued on, blabbing out her notable achievements and all the things she had done.  He stopped, and added-quietly-, "my marefriend,"

 

His mind was far and wandering, wondering why in the world a criminal would worry about something and be curious about something other than the goal of the ultimate thieving.  It was his wandering mind that made him unaware, if only for a second.  As if he would know Ms. Descent's comment would come in that very second, "Uhuh...," he drifted off.   

[Bogle]

 

AuroraSoul:

Aurora Soul smiled a bit at Descent's great reading, it was rare that someone knew the language of the ancients so well. She was about to respond when Speeds began to speak up on her previous question. She was amazed at the great mare this stallion had snatched, almost unbelievable she thought but not totally impossible. She was so focused on his answer that she nearly missed the comment of Descent. She gasped a bit at the comment and stepped in front of the urn, her wings unfurled hiding it from sight from the bat pony. On the opening of said wings there was a slight delay in the left wing opening compared to the right wing, it was hard to spot though.
 

"YOU won't be breaking anything, these are priceless artifacts here" She screeched, staring down Descent for a time making sure her point was across before placing her trained hoof into the urn. "Understand? I'll have your hide if you even chip this thi..." the urn was empty of course, but there was faint writing on the inside. Scratch marks that could be read like brail.
 

"huh...on the wall, you'll have to crawl...three inches, no feet, three feet high, there is one lie...one truth at the peak, choose wisely for the path you, erm, seek."she became focused on the translation in the jar, letting the earlier brawl with Descent fade away. She did file the comment in her mind though, no way was she letting either of them break anything.

 

Bogle:
Maenad Descent rolled her eyes, the action hidden by her goggles. “What if breaking the urn was a necessity to get to the rest of that treasure you want?” She tucked her snout down, hiding her scowl in the folds of her scarf. “Never mind that, then. Do either of you know which wall it means? Or anything else coming to mind from that?” Considering how vague those instructions were she felt justified with her irritation, though her company wasn’t helping either. Worst of all though was the fact that there was still no mention of a curse. “Choose wisely” wasn’t as threatening or lofty a statement as the writer could have used. 



AuroraSoul:
"IF it's a necessity, then I'LL choose when that is Miss Descent. You must look at every possible angle first because if we had broken the urn then we wouldn't have been able to feel out the clue. As for what I know on the subject, it can refer to many things."
 

Aurora Soul shrugged and set the vase back down. "on the wall, you'll have to crawl three feet high, there is one lie one truth at the peak, choose wisely for the path you seek."
 

Aurora began mentally turning the words in her head as she looked around the room, wall of course referred to any kind of wall. It was impossible to know which one they were talking about. The mention of three feet high and one truth and one lie had her thinking writing was on the wall, however, if it was the same writing as on the urn, it could look like scratch marks to deep gouges in this...wall.
 

Aurora, as she turned these words in her head slowly paced around the room, looking at the walls for any sign of gouges or writing.
 

(just to try and get the ball rolling again)

[[Up to where we lost the thread in the site update.]]


Bogle:
Maenad Descent huffed lightly as she listened to the lecture on why breaking the urn would have been bad. “It was only an example,” she trailed off as well. Maenad looked from the urn to “Honey” as she walked around the room. Frowning, Maenad moved to shadow the pegasus and pushed her goggles up on her forehead. There was enough light spilling into the room that she narrowed her eyes, looking cross when in fact it was her instinctive reaction to the light. After a few minutes, Maenad Descent stopped and reached out with her right bat wing towards a spot on the wall. “Could be those are the scratches we’re looking for.” She could have taken a closer look herself but instead she rubbed a hoof over her eyes and pulled the goggles back down. There were perks to working with others after all. 

 

 

[AuroraSoul]

Aurora was engrossed in looking around the wall, when Descent spoke up she practically leaped out of her fur. Looking over she stood on your hind legs, feeling to very bottom of the writing.

"This could be Miss. Descent."

Flairing her wings out, Aurora flew up to 'read' the scratch marks. Her wings were off sync a bit however, since her left wasn't exactly what you would call 'flight ready.'

She spent a good long while 'reading' the writing

"Let's see, King Marenkamen lived near Saddle Arabia and that is where you shall start.

Others say that the great king lived miles away at the Nile's delta and collected lots of art.

Of course others say he collected..."

Aurora flew back down and shrugged, wincing just a bit at touchdown.

"I can't make out the rest."

[Bogle]

“Bit hard to determine what’s the lie when we don’t know what all three statements are,” Maenad Descent muttered but her attention had been drawn to the Pegasus’ wings. “You alright there?” She mentally went over what she knew of her temporary comrade and frowned deeply. All Maenad knew for sure was that the Pegasus was interested in the treasure. “You know, we still don’t know your real name. I won’t push for it, just wanted to remind you that, but I do think you should tell us if you have an existing injury. If you’re making it worse doing things one of us could do for you, well that’s just stupid.” 

[AuroraSoul]

Aurora shook her head solemnly.

"Guess we'll just have to go on what we have." Aurora began writing down the clues in a notebook when Descent started talking about how she was faking her name. She didn't really care all that much as she was never going to see these ponies again and didn't know them very well either. When Descent mentioned the injury though, Aurora snapped her head   toward the batpony her eyes igniting.

"I do NOT have an injury that requires me to ask a loon and an up-tight guard for help" her wings flaired a bit in anger. While she did have a 'weak' wing she didn't believe that it     hindered her, or that it should stop her from going about everyday life.  "The ONLY reason you two are still here is because I haven't figured out what to do with you yet."

Aurora turned and wiped a tear from her eye, she did her best to hide the fact that she did. She wasn't going to cry in front of these ponies, even if she knew she should be asking for help to get to high up places, she wouldn't. She's too stubborn. To distract herself, she went back to writing the clues in her notebook.

[Bogle]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, Maenad thought dryly. "Wasn't trying to offend," was what she did out loud. "I thought you could be hurting yourself going after the treasure. The few things I know for sure about you are that you're determined, you want the treasure, and you hate us." Maenad Descent cast a look to the guard, then refocused on the other mare.

She'd been called a loon, and far worse, before, so she could shrug off the insult but she wasn't sure about Agile Speeds. She'd also been treated worse on other occasions where Maenad had run into others pursuing something. A few times, those attacking her did recognize her name and her books. Maenad had to remind herself of all that before continuing to speak. She had to tell herself that the hostility was simply going to continue to be the norm of Maenad Descent's interactions with others. Likely she'll had to tell herself that even more times in the future. 

"I'm only here to learn about the so-called curse on it. I'd like to continue working together--to make things go faster. For all of us. But just because I want to cooperate, that doesn't mean you can actually stop me from going after my own goal. I just want to remind you that I'm not after what you are and that you have no authority over me or Sergeant Speeds." 

[Lyipheoryia]

Agile finally spoke up, in a few words, "I have no control over any of you, but the Equestrian Law inhibits some of your movements,"

He had stayed silent for quite a while now, as if he was nothing more than another one of those creepy shadows on the wall.  He wasn't afraid.  Just vigilant.  He was a guard, a spy, a protector, a hero.  He was a Royal Guard.

 

And nothing else needed to be said.

[AuroraSoul]

Aurora Soul huffed obviously not very thrilled with the proposition to work with either of the ponies. She closed her notebook and stared at both her mind made up.

"I agree three heads are better than one, and Mr. Guard over there can open doors. But if either of you slow me down or hold me back, I will leave you in the dust."

She grabbed the urn and slid it into her bag replacing it with a more modern looking one. It was a bad replacement but she believed that she would have the urn back to it's place before anyone noticed, after all the urn was in a remote place of this maze. She pulled her hat back down to hide her face.

"Nothing personal, I don't hate either of you. I simply don't like complications like these." She looked at Speeds.

"Or, this"

 

[Bogle]

Maenad Descent rolled her shoulders back and stretched her wings. The sooner they could move past the tension the better, but she wasn't expecting it to leave. She wished it would, but the three of them likely weren't weren't ever going to click. In fact, Maenad couldn't stop herself from pointing out to Agile Speeds that "We're not in Equestria so we're not completely beholden to those laws." She frowned as she tucked her snout behind the folds of her scarf again. She didn't believe that the adventurous mare didn't, in fact, hate them like she claimed, but Maenad Descent figured she should start to make more of an effort to watch her words. "Alright, what'll our next move be?" 

[Lyipheoryia]

((Sorry, not much to comment on from Agile's behalf.  He's a silent Guard on duty~))

He closed his eyes and exhaled.  What am I even doing here, with some famous controversial author and a thief!  He shook his head, before following them.  He didn't feel like replying anymore...just watching and following. 

Watching and following.    

[AuroraSoul]

"MY next move will be looking at books in the old collection in the library they have here. As for you two, your welcome to join me if that is what you wish."

Aurora stopped talking about halfway back to where they had come in. Stopping, she looked out stealthily making sure nopony was watching then slowly walked in the direction of the entrance to the tunnel.