Trinity Universe: The Lost Treasure of Sir Henry Morgan

[Archer21]

Tucking his speargun into the crook of his arm, Roughneck scribbles on his writing pad, then holds it up so his buddy can see. "NOT SHARK WORRY...BODY TOO FRESH." He points to the location of the corpse.

[ProfPotts]

The Captain takes to the underwater sleigh like a proverbial (& apt) fish to water, & pilots it after his adventurous granddaughter. He also signals to one of his nearby crew to tow the Nausicaa's crane cable to the wreck - the plan being to secure the sunken ship as well as possible before anyone starts too much poking about.

[Asbjørn]

One of the divers (David's buddy) directs the crane towards the prow of the ship. Carefully swimming around the slightly drooping galleon, he loops the cable around the front mast and through a hole in the deck and hull. Seemingly satisfied with the job he turns back to the crane and winds the cable tighter before he takes in the view of the ancient warship again.

As he approaches the wreck again he turns to David and waves him closer, pointing to a hole in the front part of the hull.

Tucking his speargun into the crook of his arm, Roughneck scribbles on his writing pad, then holds it up so his buddy can see. "NOT SHARK WORRY...BODY TOO FRESH." He points to the location of the corpse.

::blink Understanding dawns in the diver's eyes as he meets Roughneck's a moment before he moves back to the body and (after a few attempts due to the bulky suit)kneels down next to it. After a brief crosslike motion across his chest he reaches out and flips the body over, revealing a wound that adds to the mystery. There's not much intact of the man's back, but a hole that could only have been made by a bullet is clearly visible next to the spine. His buddy looks up at Roughneck with a thoughtful look on his face ::confused , then scribbles a few words on the pad and shows to him: "DUMPED BY PIRATES?"

[Heritage]

Bethany points out the open cargo hatch to Tom; she pulls a speargun off the sleigh and starts swimming towards it, her eyes peeled for any movement in the shadowy interior ::unsure

[Asbjørn]

Bethany points out the open cargo hatch to Tom; she pulls a speargun off the sleigh and starts swimming towards it, her eyes peeled for any movement in the shadowy interior ::unsure

Swimming past the ancient broken railing, Bethany approaches the cargo hatch. Nothing seems to be moving in the darkness inside it, and when she lets the beam of her torch explore the opening it's reflected by something metallic and golden in the interior of the ship.

Meanwhile, the captain has followed his granddaughter over to a hole in the hull, and after finding a big enough hole has maneuvered him self carefully to get a view of the inside. The experienced sailor that he is, he knows that any heavy cargo the Challenge might have been carrying (like a load of Mayan gold, for example ::halo ) will be at the bottom of the ship. Not by the cargo hatch, and certainly not on the gun deck.

Shining the light in front of him, he sees Min peeking through her own hole examining the chaos inside. The room they're in appears to have been the food locker, but it's made a complete mess by the hail of cannonballs that apparently came crashing through from the upper deck at some time. The interior walls of the ship are in even worse condition than the outside, and as Min swims across the pile of cannonballs and out to the hallway beyond, the Captain glances through a hole in the wall and notices a shadow moving parallell to her in the next room.

[The History Follower]

Dash motions to his buddy that they should follow the Captain and Min. He heads up to the hole she went through, pointing for his buddy to follow the Captain’s path in. Inside the food locker Dash looks around the room more not following the young girl out into the hallway

[ProfPotts]

Staying (for the moment) on the underwater vehicle, Park flashes the light several times in the signal for 'danger' - trying to get Min's attention. If he manages to do so, he'll signal (with the usual signals the crew use when diving) that there is movement in the next room. He'll also ready a spear in one of the sleigh's spearguns, & heft the weapon into a firing position. That done (baring incident) he'll approach the hole where he saw the shadow & carefully peer in.

[Archer21]

There's not much intact of the man's back, but a hole that could only have been made by a bullet is clearly visible next to the spine. His buddy looks up at Roughneck with a thoughtful look on his face  , then scribbles a few words on the pad and shows to him: "DUMPED BY PIRATES?"

Roughneck raises his arms in a gesture of uncertainty, seeming to shrug. Then, the flickering lights caused by Captain Park catch his attention, and he looks over, then back at his fellow diver. Letting his writing board drop, he motions in a "Come on!" gesture, then heads quickly over to the ship.

[Ayre el KaBeer]

As he approaches the wreck again he turns to David and waves him closer, pointing to a hole in the front part of the hull.

David nods and swims over to the hole, though cautious, his curiosity is getting the better of him.

[Heritage]

Swimming past the ancient broken railing, Bethany approaches the cargo hatch. Nothing seems to be moving in the darkness inside it, and when she lets the beam of her torch explore the opening it's reflected by something metallic and golden in the interior of the ship.

Very cautiously, Bethany swims through the hatch, her every breath amplified by the scuba gear. She heads towards the golden object, shooting darting glances in all directions to look for possible attackers, human or otherwise, and to make sure that Tom is still close at hand.

[Asbjørn]

Very cautiously, Bethany swims through the hatch, her every breath amplified by the scuba gear. She heads towards the golden object, shooting darting glances in all directions to look for possible attackers, human or otherwise, and to make sure that Tom is still close at hand.

With Tom at her back, Bethany glides silently into the murky interior of the ship. ::unsure Seeing no sign of danger, she reaches the glint of metal and finds a gold coin! Removing some rubble around it she sees several more scattered across the deck. most of them are covered in grime, but a few still have that unearthly gleam that has driven men crazy for centuries. Looking around a bit she spots a broken chest lying against the wall, a pile of coins spread around it. Through holes and cracks in the floor she also can see flashlights moving around on the lower deck, but what really catches her attention as she searches the room with her own light is the pile of corpses heaped against the door at the end of the hallway. ::blink

David nods and swims over to the hole, though cautious, his curiosity is getting the better of him.

As he reaches the wreck, the two divers peer into the room beyond and see a different storage area. Shining their lights inside the two men see several almost unharmed barrels and crates, some of which have the unmistakeable shapes of bottles sticking out of them. ::sly

Meanwhile...

Seeing the flashing of the lights, Min stops and turns towards her grandfather. Signalling that she got the message, she turns towards the hole in the wall and edges closer. The captain follows as soon as he gets the speargun ready.

Roughneck & partner move as quickly as they can towards the flickering light of the captains torch, the big englishman outpacing his buddy with his long strides. Roughneck reaches the opening and catches up with the captain just as Park is levelling the speargun at a hole in the wall.

Dash's buddy shakes his head at Dash's gesturing, and follows him towards the smaller hole. Once they're there, they too see the captain and Min's flashlights pointed at the hole.

Keeping her back to the wall, Min carefully leans forward to get a view of the other room. The captain briefly sees a shadow moving in there mere fractions of a second before Min kicks off from the wall and throws herself backwards. The wall splinters as something too big for the hole crashes through, throwing its huge bulk after the girl!! ::shocked

[ProfPotts]

Not being prone to panic-fire, & trusting in Min's abilities to avoid an attack for a least a few seconds, Park makes sure that the 'huge bulk' is definitely something that needs shooting (& it's not all just an awful mistake of some kind) - i.e. something with murderous intent - then obligingly shoots it. Having done so, he maneuvers the sleigh between Min & the 'bulk', trying to pull the girl onboard, before zooming out of the thing's path. If needs be, & all goes to plan, he'll also hand Min the speargun to reload.

[Archer21]

The captain briefly sees a shadow moving in there mere fractions of a second before Min kicks off from the wall and throws herself backwards. The wall splinters as something too big for the hole crashes through, throwing its huge bulk after the girl!!

Without thinking, Roughneck lunges forward. Forgetting his speargun as it floats to the floor, he spread his massive arms wide, trying the grab hold of the bulk and stop it from getting Min.

[Asbjørn]

Min does indeed manage to get out of the way before the attacker crashes into her. In the various crossing beams of the groups flashlights, the attacker can be seen to be a huge black man, at least two heads taller than Roughneck, and wearing nothing but a pair of pants and the rests of a cotton shirt. When the smaller target dodges his charge, his dark and empty eyes turn to the captain. With his face twisted in a soundless roar he starts to move in the old man's direction.

Speargun readied and aimed the captain calmly squeezes the trigger, sending the steel bolt speeding through the murky water. It buries itself in the giant's shoulder and makes him twist a little, but does little to break his stride!! ::blink

His combat reflexes kicking him into motion the moment the wall exploded, Roughneck now fully realizes how much the A1 slows him down. The weight of the suit and the added resistance of the water makes everything seem to be happening in slow motion, and it's not until after the captain's shot has hit its mark that he slams into the black man with his full weight.

The metal arms of the suit make it difficult to get a good grip on the attacker, but the charge knocks the giant over and slams him through the other wall and into the hallway in a crash that can be felt all over the ship!! ::shocked

Roughneck lands more or less on top of his opponent and as the englishman scrambles to better hold the attacker down, he sees no expression in the eyes of the black man, and no blood streaming from the fresh wound. The only reaction is the giant hands that grab hold of his neck and right arm and starts to slowly force him back up... ::sly

Meanwhile, as the two titans crash together, Min quickly moves across the room to join her grandfather by the underwater sleigh.

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Hearing the commotion and feeling the shaking of the ship David readies his speargun and swims to where he thinks this is all taking place.

[Heritage]

With Tom at her back, Bethany glides silently into the murky interior of the ship.  Seeing no sign of danger, she reaches the glint of metal and finds a gold coin! Removing some rubble around it she sees several more scattered across the deck. most of them are covered in grime, but a few still have that unearthly gleam that has driven men crazy for centuries. Looking around a bit she spots a broken chest lying against the wall, a pile of coins spread around it. Through holes and cracks in the floor she also can see flashlights moving around on the lower deck, but what really catches her attention as she searches the room with her own light is the pile of corpses heaped against the door at the end of the hallway.

All thoughts of treasure and gruesome cadavers are driven from Bethany's mind by the violent shudder that rocks the sunken ship. Realizing that her teammates might be in grave danger, she swims as fast as she can towards the conflict, speargun at the ready.

[ProfPotts]

As soon as Min's safely aboard the sleigh, Park hands her the speargun to reload (he'll touch helmets with her to explain if need be), & banks the underwater vehicle around to gain a good run-up at the (let's face facts here ::wink ) zombie, trying to time his approach so that he rams the bow of the sleigh into the guy's head just as Roughneck is pushed off. Naturally, if the big Englishman manages to hold the zombie guy down, then Park will resist the temptation to ram him instead ::halo , & will maneuvre past the pair, allowing Min a (hopefully) clear shot at the pinned Zombie's head (he's taller than Roughneck, right ::sly ) as they sail past.

[Archer21]

Roughneck lands more or less on top of his opponent and as the englishman scrambles to better hold the attacker down, he sees no expression in the eyes of the black man, and no blood streaming from the fresh wound. The only reaction is the giant hands that grab hold of his neck and right arm and starts to slowly force him back up...

*Zombies,* he thinks to himself, *bloody zombies. I hate zombies.* Feeling the monster straining to lift him off, Roughneck decides to change tactics. Latching on to the forearm of the hand at his neck, the former marine takes advantage of the zombie's push, and jumps up, planting his booted foot on his opponents shoulder, then wrenches violently on the arm, trying to rip it free. (OOC: A little Beowulf action here... ::biggrin ::laugh )

[Asbjørn]

Latching on to the forearm of the hand at his neck, the former marine takes advantage of the zombie's push, and jumps up, planting his booted foot on his opponents shoulder, then wrenches violently on the arm, trying to rip it free.

Twisting free of the hold, Roughneck grabs his opponent's right arm with both hands and twists. The literally iron grip on the (ok, you got me...) zombie's forearm twists its hand free of Roughneck's throat, and the added pressure of his foot is crushing its shoulder and pushing the harpoon deeper. ::devil An expression that could be mistaken for panic crosses the monster's face, and it swings its free arm in a wild punch against the englishman's head!! ::nervous

The blow succeeds in bowling him over, but to Roughneck's relief the diving helmet looks unharmed and he's still got his grip on the monster's arm, even though he lost his footing and his opponent is rising to throw himself on top of him again. ::angry

Meanwhile, two generations of the Park family have thrown themselves onto the underwater sleigh. Minerva quickly reloads the speargun and readies the other of the two onboard weapons while the captain maneuvers the slightly bulky vehicle towards the large hole in the wall and the fighters beyond.

Timing his approach perfectly ::sly , the captain rams the bow of the sleigh right in the zombie's face at full speed, knocking it over again ::wacko , and then breaks right to avoid crashing into another interior wall. ::crazy At the back of the sleigh, Min squeezes off a shot from the speargun, but the bolt misses its mark and embeds itself in the wall on the other side of the fighters, leaving a trailing wire between it and her gun. Realizing that she's anchored herself to a wall she's rapidly moving away from ::blink , she quickly detaches the wire from her weapon and grabs the other one.

Upstairs...

Bethany spots a rather big hole in the deck off to the side of the ship, and quickly swims in that direction. Followed by Tom she soon reaches the lower deck, and is met by the charging headlights of the captain's sleigh!!

Outside...

David swims with long and quick strokes towards the hole the captain went through a minute or so earlier, and reaches the room just in time to see the attacker being run down by a couple of speeding divers.

[ProfPotts]

At the back of the sleigh, Min squeezes off a shot from the speargun, but the bolt misses its mark and embeds itself in the wall on the other side of the fighters, leaving a trailing wire between it and her gun.

[Ah hah! So they're that sort of speargun then are they? In that case, methinks a change of tactics is in order... ::sly ]

Park circles the zombie again, allowing Min another shot. When she finally hits the thing, he'll anchor the speargun to the sleigh, then speed out of the wreck, trying to drag the walking... er... swimming dead guy through as much underwater debris as he can find - rocks, coral, whatever seems appropriate. If the fellow still struggles after that, the Captain will scoop-up a fair-sized rock, tie the speargun line off on it, steer for the underwater trench, & drop the rock - & his passenger (the zombie - not Min ::rolleyes ) - into the depths.

[Archer21]

Still gripping the zombie's arm, Roughneck hits the floor of the hold. He glances up just in time to see Park slam the sleigh into his opponent, knocking it off it's feet.

Taking advantage of the situation, Roughneck pushes himself to his feet and starts spinning in place, aims for the hole leading outside, and hurls the zombie out of the hold!

[Asbjørn]

[Ah hah! So they're that sort of speargun then are they? In that case, methinks a change of tactics is in order...  ]

[Actually, there are both kinds of spearguns. Min just happened to accidentally load one with a fishing harpoon...]

Taking advantage of the situation, Roughneck pushes himself to his feet and starts spinning in place, aims for the hole leading outside, and hurls the zombie out of the hold!

Still dazed from the impact with the Captain's vehicle, the monster doesn't manage to fight back before it's well into Roughneck's slow motion spin. As he picks up the big body he's actually thankful he's under water, cause even he would have had problems doing the same thing above water...

Completing his 360 degrees spinning motion, he lets the huge zombie go, sending it crashing through the remains of the inner wall and on a steady trajectory towards the broken hull...

...where David just entered. ::nervous

[Ayre el KaBeer]

David swims with long and quick strokes towards the hole the captain went through a minute or so earlier, and reaches the room just in time to see the attacker being run down by a couple of speeding divers.

My God! What in the world? An actual zombie!? ::blink

Completing his 360 degrees spinning motion, he lets the huge zombie go, sending it crashing through the remains of the inner wall and on a steady trajectory towards the broken hull...

...where David just entered. 

Oh no! ::nervous David fires the speargun just before/as (OOC:let me know) he is collected by the huge mass that is the creature. Doing his best to keep the oxygen that is in his lungs to stay where it is, incase his air supply is compromised, he attempts to draw his knife.

[Heritage]

(OOC: Holy crapanoly! Much craziness going on!)

Bethany spots a rather big hole in the deck off to the side of the ship, and quickly swims in that direction. Followed by Tom she soon reaches the lower deck, and is met by the charging headlights of the captain's sleigh!!

Pinned by the lights of the sleigh, Bethany braces for impact, but Captain Park spins into a turn at the last second (OOC: If I read ProffPott's post correctly), the wash of the props knocking her off-balance for a moment. Quickly recovering herself, she tries to take in the situation all at once. She sees David about to be impacted by the huge black man who appears to be heavily damaged but also swims without a diving suit. This can't be good...

Bethany waits to see if David needs help, ready to hurl herself on his zombie attacker, for all the good it might do.

[Asbjørn]

The monstrous man glides through the water, somewhat less than elegant. Its flailing arms catch hold of a wooden support beam, which only momentarily slows him down before it breaks!! ::blink The already half-collapsing wall Roughneck threw him through starts to crumble even more as something heavy from the deck above starts bringing the ceiling down! ::crazy

Having his speargun ready the moment he enters the hull, David has more than enough time to shoot the missile heading his way before he's hit. Keeping his cool he takes aim and sends the bolt off, hitting one of the creature's flailing arms, before he drops the speargun and draws his knife. ::sly

When David has his knife up and ready in as much of a fighting stance as he can manage in this getup, the monster is upon him. With a wild swing of its better arm it attempts to flatten him against the wall, but it's not fast enough. David drops below the zombie's arm as it tears into the wall, the still embedded bolt from his speargun ripping through the rotting woodwork.

Inside the hallway, the captain brings the swordfish around for another run, narrowly avoiding Bethany and Tom and giving Min a little trouble hanging on. As he turns the sleigh, he sees Roughneck well underway with executing the first part of his own plan; getting the attacker outside. Speeding up to follow the beast outside, he's just passing Roughneck and the crumbling wall when he realizes that he'll have to ram the zombie to reach the outside, and that he can't ram the monster without risking to hit David as well!

[Just to clarify: Bethany and Tom are in the hallway, away from the point were the ceiling is about to collapse, but nonetheless in jeopardy of being trapped. Roughneck is about to have the ceiling crashing down on him, David and the monster are blocking the exit from the hold, which the Captain and Min are rapidly approaching, and Dash is watching the whole thing from a safe distance.]

[Ayre el KaBeer]

David drops below the zombie's arm as it tears into the wall, the still embedded bolt from his speargun ripping through the rotting woodwork.

Musterring his concentration and strength, David brings the knife up targetting the beast's armpit, in his attempt to disable the offending arm.

(OOC: Desperation calls for the expendature of a willpower point, me thinks ::hmmm )

[ProfPotts]

Seeing that Roughneck is likely unable to get out of the way before he's buried, Park grabs the loaded speargun from Min & fire's it close to (but, hopefully, past) his fellow Englishman - allowing the line to trail out between the sleigh & Roughneck's position. He'll hand the gun back to Min, with a quick gesture to indicate she should secure it, & keep heading towards the exit. David, he figures, is bright enough to get the Hell out of the way ::wink . The zombie he doesn't care about either way, but hitting it again would be a bonus!

[Archer21]

Roughneck, hearing the above deck crashing down, quickly glances from Bethany and Tom to the Captain. He tries to gauge how much time he has, enough to dodge the fallen ceiling and move over to Beth and Tom, or if he has to dive after the sleigh, and try to to grab the speargun rescue wire?

[Heritage]

Bethany and Tom are in the hallway, away from the point were the ceiling is about to collapse, but nonetheless in jeopardy of being trapped. Roughneck is about to have the ceiling crashing down on him

Bethany motions to Tom that it is definitely time to get the hell out. She grips their swordfish tightly and forces the throttle as far as it will go, aiming for the exit and praying that the passage will be clear by the time they reach it. She plans to get the sleigh close enough to Roughneck so he can grab onto it if need be as it surges past, though clearing the opening might be a tough squeeze ::crazy She's trying to quickly judge the movements of the various floating objects and people in the hold to be able to swerve hard to avoid a fatal collision.

(OOC: This is what having Intuitive facet is all about ::sly)

[Asbjørn]

Roughneck, hearing the above deck crashing down, quickly glances from Bethany and Tom to the Captain.

Instinctively realizing that the quickest and easiest escape route from the falling ceiling is down the hall in Beth and Tom's direction, Roughneck's legs run on pure adrenaline, probably setting some kind of world record for armored underwater sprinting.

Bethany, throwing herself onto the sleigh, is about to give it full throttle when she sees the armored englishman come thundering towards her, the ceiling crashing down behind him. Corals, debris, woodwork and corpses come falling down from the upper deck, clouding her vision completely and blocking all three of them from the closest exit.

Musterring his concentration and strength, David brings the knife up targetting the beast's armpit, in his attempt to disable the offending arm.

David, on his end, is vaguely aware that there's a sleigh approaching at an insane speed, but nevertheless rams his knife into the monster's armpit with surgical precision and twists the blade as he hits bone. ::sly It's a deep cut, and as he twists the blade's serrated edge free of the dead flesh, he sees dark blood mixing with the seawater.

Speeding past Roughneck and the falling timber, the captain turns briefly to see the big man already throwing himself in the other direction. Realizing that there's nothing that can be done for him right now, he instead focuses on getting himself out, past the big dead guy in front of him. ::angry Crouching as low as possible on the sleigh, he steers the swordfish high while bracing for the unavoidable impact with the zombie.

The zombie reaches for David, trying to bring both hands to bear on his neck, but for some reason only one arm seems to be working properly. The huge hand is gripping his shoulder and pushing him down when the Captain's sleigh speeds past, hitting it in the back of the head and knocking it out of the ship. The second it's outside and David is out of the line of fire, two speargun bolts from David and Roughneck's buddies hit the body in quick succession, then a third. The third is from Min's gun, and has a wire attached to it...

Glancing over his shoulder, Park sees that Min's second shot hit its mark and that the wire is secured, and a second or two later he feels the pull of a 500-pound body as the wire suddenly goes taut. He then proceeds to tow the man around, knocking him into as many rocks as possible.

Meanwhile, inside the Challenge...

The decks of the old ship seem to have settled. Past the form of Roughneck getting to his feet again, and in between all the rubble from the upper deck, Tom and Bethany can see the object that brought the deck crashing down; a human-sized chest that is somehow undamaged by centuries of seawater, covered in inscriptions and drawings and seemingly made of solid gold... ::blink

[Archer21]

Finally on his feet again, Roughneck looks up at Tom and Beth. Seeing their shared expression ::blink , he turns around and sees the chest. *Well, hello! If that's not what we're looking for, it bloody well should be!*, he thinks to himself. His eyes travel past the chest to the rubble from above, and he curses mentally. *Damned idiot, almost sunk the ship again with your antics. Best find a way out.*

Tromping over to the Tom and Bethany, he starts to open his mouth, then realizes they probably can't hear him. He looks at them helplessly, making motions with his hands for one of the writing tablets.

[Asbjørn]

He looks at them helplessly, making motions with his hands for one of the writing tablets.

...which is promptly handed over by Tom.

[Heritage]

Bethany leans in close so her helmet's glass faceplate touches Roughneck's, allowing her voice to be conducted by vibration. She grins like a child on Christmas morning.

Quite a find, isn't it, Sir Robert?

[Archer21]

Taking the writing tablet from Tom, Roughneck starts to write...until Bethany's face appears on the other side of his helmet's viewport. Grinning back, he says, "It sure is. Now we just have to get it out of here."

He leans back, and takes a moment to look around.

Switching to the tablet, he scribbles something down, then holds it so they can see it, pointing to himself, then up at the hole above him. CAN'T GET OUT. SUIT 2 HEAVY 2 SWIM. For some reason, Roughneck's eyes seem wider than normal, and his breathing is starting to fog the inside of his helmet.

[Heritage]

Noticing the first signs of panic in Roughneck's eyes, Bethany rests an arm on his shoulder and again touches helmets, giving him a warm and reassuring smile.

Our first thought is getting back on the ship so we can rest up a bit; we can always come back for this with more men. What tales we have to tell them, eh, Roughneck?

She takes the pen from him and writes on the tablet. USE SLEIGH TO TOW YOU UP THRU HOLE?

[Archer21]

Roughneck nods, eager to get out of the wreck. Unsure of how to proceed, he looks past Bethany at Tom for guidance.

[Asbjørn]

Tom grabs Bethany's writing pad and reads the words quickly. Giving them both a thumbs-up ::thumbsup , he swims over to the sleigh and produces a length of wire. Securing one end to the sleigh, he waves Roughneck over and hooks the other end to a metal ring on his belt. He then puts both of Roughneck's hands around the wire, signaling him to hold on tight, before he climbs on top of the sleigh.

Before he starts the engine, he casts a glance at Bethany and nods towards the chest at the end of the hallway. Seeing her confused look, he points to the camera. He then goes about slowly tugging his passenger up to the next deck. It's slow going and Roughneck has to help maneuver himself as best he can, half climbing on the beams that look like they can handle his weight, pushing himself around tricky corners and in general do his best to avoid the weak points of the deck.

After a few minutes of the slow advancement, interrupted by two incidents where the englishman nearly broke through the deck again, they finally reach the outside and set down on the sandy plain outside the ship.

Meanwhile, David's diving buddy has helped him to his feet and they've both made sure that his suit is undamaged. The Captain and Min have dragged their passenger around the area a few times, but even though the huge man is more beat up than anyone should be able to take, he still keeps trying to climb up the wire and get at his attackers.

Assisted by his crewmen and Minerva the Captain reverts to his original plan and ties the wire around a big rock which they subsequently proceed to push and tow over the edge of the canyon. Standing along the edge, they're watching the body disappear in the deep when Roughneck, Bethany and Tom come up behind them.

[Archer21]

Grateful to be out of the rotting tomb behind him, Roughneck watches the body sink into the chasm and out of sight. Repressing a shiver, he clenches his jaw tight, then grabs a writing tablet. Scratching out a short note, he taps the Captain on the shoulder and shows him what he's written. FOUND CHEST. EVRY 1 OK?

[Heritage]

Thanks to being highly selective with her choice of shots, Bethany has enough film to take a few good pictures of the chest before joining the others outside the Challenge; the eerie sight of the still-struggling giant disappearing into the gloom will probably haunt her forever.

[ProfPotts]

Scratching out a short note, he taps the Captain on the shoulder and shows him what he's written. FOUND CHEST. EVRY 1 OK?

Park nods, then takes the tablet, & writes something of his own. Turning the thing around, Roughneck reads:

Where did you learn to read & write? Your spelling is dreadful.

With a quick wink to the big man ::wink , the old timer then signals his men to follow him to the wreck. Once they locate the chest (hopefully some helpful soul will point them in the correct direction), he'll arrange for it to be removed & taken to the Nausicaa (against his better judgement, naturally - since these things never go smoothly ::tongue - but even the old man is a little curious to see what lies within the ancient casket! ::wink ). [Manpower, sleighs, & (if needed) the Nausicaa's crane should be sufficient to move the chest, right?]