"I can froggin' open it when I'm finished here," Aarnr offers, his tone suggesting the ornately carved box will be reduced to so much kindling in the process.

Eilieen, he supposes, as she searches the body, is conducting some sort of ritual for the dead.  Priests of Bowbe like to get in much earlier, at the start of that process or indeed slightly before ... but to each their own.  Except necromancers.

The priestess's suggestion regarding the shovel strongly implies that she's expecting more fatalities along the way ... and that he can't argue with.  Besides, a sturdy shovel makes a good weapon when push comes to shoving and shouting.  You could probably do a fair bit of damage throwing one of those big books that Erista has too.

Aarnr grunts noncommittally at Eilieen's offer of assistance.  He's been around his companions long enough that he won't take that as a sleight on his manhood ... and anyway, he's not fond of burials himself as a funerary rite.

Eilieen searches Tursach's battered corpse, but doesn't find a key, let alone a copper one. 

Colwyn sighs as Eilieen tells him that she couldn't find a key on the body.  The rogue climbs down from the cart and goes to fetch his tools from the other cart.

To pass time while he waits to see what's in the box, Arkan drags one of the books towards him and cracks it open... and closes it almost immediately, with a nervous laugh.  "I believe," he says, "that our friend Tursach may have been a wizard."

"And an artist," Erista adds, holding the book she was looking through over to Arkan.  "The drawings in this are beautiful, but it's not finished.  I think he was writing it."

Curious, she pulls out another one.

A wizard that slew three pheasants.  Upon hearing Arkan's words, an entire profession goes up a notch or two in Aarnr's estimation.  It might have been more had not Erista fouled the waters with the accusation that he was a sheep-bitin' scribbler and scrawler.

"Has he got a froggin' dagger ?" the priest asks Eilieen, looking up from his excavations.  The brave soul will need something to defend himself in the battles to come in the afterlife and Aarnr does not intend to set him in the ground without such means to hand.

Arkan places a hand on the new book, before Erista can open it.  "Careful!  Wizards are known to be a trifle possessive regarding some of their books.  We should check these for magical traps before opening any more of them."

He indicates the book that he had opened a moment ago.  "That one, I believe, is a book of Tursach's magical knowledge.  There are diagrams that I recognised in the brief glimpse that I had, though I could not read the script."

"I know a spell that can help with that."

Erista blinks at the interruption.  "He seemed awfully nice," she points out.  "But I guess it doesn't hurt to be careful.  Thank you," she smiles at Arkan.  Then she says, "偵查 魔法!"

Colwyn returns to the wagon with his roll of tools, eyeing Arkan suspiciously as he gets close, at least until he sees that the man is only interested in the books.  The rogue moves the chest to the end of the cart, unrolls his strip of cloth, and begins comparing tools to the lock...

Aarnr meanwhile is tearing a sizeable hole in the earth, although it seems that his digging tool may not stand up to the task for much longer.  The end of it is becoming quite frayed and ragged.

"Our poor acquaintance has a dagger," Eilieen notes, "at his belt."  She frowns.  "He also held a staff before he was flung to his death.  Perhaps I will search for it."  And she puts words to action, rising and beginning to trace a path between where the man had been struck, and where she finally found him.

She's not likely to forget either place, not soon.

"Good luck with the book of spells," she notes in passing to the pair of mages.  "I hope it bears fruit."  It galls her to take the possessions of the dead, but leaving them in the ground to rot does no-one any good.  If a mages uses the spellbook to strike back at the dark, or Colwyn the dagger, then good has come of their repurposing.

OOC - will start casting about in search of the staff.

Eilieen's confirmation that the pheasant slayer does have a dagger sets Aarnr's mind at rest.  It certainly doesn't occur to him that she might take it, leaving the corpse defenceless.

And having already forgotten Eilieen's offer to assist him in the digging of the grave, so is not all all perturbed as the priestess goes searching for the fallen wizard's lost staff.

The priest eyes his makeshift digging tool with some venom, displeased that it is falling apart in his hands, though should that happen before the hole is dug to his satisfaction or someone else calls a halt, he'll just find himself another.  Unlike most things in these civilised lands, sturdy branches do grow on trees ...

Erista glances over as Eilieen stands up.  "Oh!  So he does.  Colwyn..."  She turns back towards him to speak, and pauses again.  "Um, you might want to be careful, too.  Either the chest or something in it is magic.  Give me a minute and I'll try to sort out which."  She scoots a little closer, pulling the book she had picked up with her, but looking intently at the chest.

"But you might want to go pick up that dagger, too.  He probably wouldn't want it going to waste."

The grave, while perfectly adequate in length and breadth is not quite deep enough, so Aarnr keeps on working, while Eolieen wanders off again, searching through the undergrowth. 

Colwyn is torn now.  The chest, or the dagger?  Erista has warned him of magic on (or in) the chest, but he suspects that Aarnr would take it badly if somebody tried to remove the weapon from the body after the priest specifically asked about it.

The priest sets to digging the grave with renewed vigor, approaching the task in much the same manner as he fights, with dire intensity and vigor, each thrust and stab with his branch (be it the original or a quickly found replacement) a blow to the very heart of the enemy.  Nor, it seems is he likely to give up before it is done or he is.

Staring at the chest, Colwyn clenches and unclenches his fists.  A bead of sweat trickles down his nose, as he is forced to simply look at the lock without touching it while Erista studies the potential treasure trove.

"'ow long will this be takin'?" he asks, striving for casual good humour, and achieving only irritable whining.

Eilieen is still searching the undergrowth around where Tursach had landed.  On impulse, it seems, she extends her search to include the tree tops, just in case the staff has become lodged among the branches.

Arkan moves away from the cart, making his way towards the Zadasthan priestess.

Meanwhile, Aarnr is surprised to find that his current digging implement has suddenly grown larger, and the grave has become deeper.

Erista gives Colwyn an apologetic glance.  "I'm not really very good at it," she admits.  "But it looks like it's something inside, at least, and it felt more... protective, than dangerous."  She turns, going to the end of the wagon to hop down, and pauses at Arkan.  "You'd probably know the word Tursach would have used," she notes.

With that, seeing the depth of the hole Aarnr is digging himself into, she decides she'd best rescue that poor dagger before it's lost forever - she certainly can't imagine someone as big as Aarnr holding something so small.  Climbing down, she hurries over and kneels down by Tursach's side, sliding the dagger out of his belt.  Having never considered the possibility that anyone would need to be buried with weapons, or indeed anything else still needed by the living, it doesn't even occur to her why Aarnr might have been asking.

"Well, he HAD a staff," Eilieen notes with total disregard for how one might interpret that particular phrase.  "Sadly, I cannot locate it at all."  With a sigh, she gives up, heading back toward the camp.

Nothing to be done but the burial.

"Is there aught with which I might assist?" she inquires as she closes.  "The burial?  Or anything further with this search?"

Aarnr is both surprised and pleased as he discovers he's making much more progress than he'd thought, and his digging implement suddenly seems to have a lot more heft to it.

Though the priest is utterly froggin' bewildered as Erista casually steals the dead man's knife.  Grave robbing is fine ... unless you know the occupant personally and generally (even specifically) wish them well in their battles in the afterlife.

He tries squinting at the Halfling, uncertain as to whether he should believe his eyes or not.  Perhaps she believes that a man who could slay three pheasants has need of no weapon but his bare hands ?

"Did ye find his gleepin' staff ?" Aarnr asks of Eilieen, again in the mistaken belief that the priestess wanted to bury it with the corpse.

Arkan considers the situation.  The staff was obviously somewhat lighter than Tursach, so there was nothing to say that it would have landed anywhere near the unfortunate mage's body.

He shakes his head at Aarnr.  "Unfortunately not.  If he doesn't have a weapon of his own, I can furnish him with a knife, if it will help."

Colwyn relaxes visibly and goes back to selecting tools from his not inconsiderable collection.

"Let's be seein'...  A spider leg an' a nummer four pick should be doin' it I reckons, an' a crow's beak, of course.  The mica strip too."

A few minutes work, and the lock opens under his gentle touch.  He uses the tip of a dagger to lift the lid and peer inside, giving a low whistle.

"It's bein' coin, an' a fair bit of it.  Oh, an' a old stick in a cloth bag."

Erista looks up at Arkan, slightly confused, absently tucking the dagger into her belt.  "Why would we..."  She pauses, thinking back.  She hadn't really been paying attention at the time, but...the axe in the Nameless Monk's pyre.  His own sword to Fergus!  And hadn't he stopped Ozzy's bearers to give him something, too?  She thinks he had.  She turns slowly, looking at Aarnr as though she'd never seen him before, and then nods, pulling her own dagger out.

"This one is silvered," she offers, sliding it into Tursach's sheath, replacing the one she had just taken out.  "I think it would serve him well... here."  She looks back up at Aarnr, and adds, "I'm sorry, Aarnr.  I didn't understand.  Thank you."

The look on Aarnr's face reveals that he didn't understand either ... and still does not.  Nor does he realise that the dagger which the Halfling puts back into the dead man's sheathe was not his own ... but as long as the pheasant slayer has a blade with which to take on any malevolent spirits that may accost his soul, the priest is satisfied ... and nods slowly in recognition that Erista appreciates that.

Other puzzles remain, however (even setting aside the melting pot of odd items that Colwyn lists aloud) - just why would someone keep a stick in a cloth bag in a locked box ?  Kindling must be hard to find and precious indeed in the lands that Tursach hails from.

And for another ... Arkan has a knife, Colwyn has a dagger and even Erista has one tucked into her belt, he sees ... just why do so many carry such small weapons ?  Why those blades would barely penetrate but a few inches into flesh ... surely any sane person would rather at least a foot and a half of steel at their side that they might strike fear in those they meet ?  Madness ...

The hole is dug, at last.  And while it is not the most precisely excavated grave in history, it should serve its purpose adequately enough.  It simply remains to inter Tursach, and take whatever precautions are required to ensure that his body will not be disturbed by wild animals, or by less natural threats.

Arkan, meanwhile, approaches the cart and peers into the open chest.  "It's a wand.  Tursach was a mage, and quite a strong one by the look of it.  It would make sense for him to have access to magical tools."

Nodding enthusiastically, Colwyn replies, "I were knowin' that.  A... thing... a wand I's meanin'.  Yeah."

Erista grins a little at Aarnr's nod, but then suddenly blinks and turns towards the wagon.  "`A fair bit' of coin?" she asks, suddenly.  "How fair?  Would it be enough?  Eilieen, you know the temples, how much would we need?"

Even as she asks, she hurries back over to the wagon, climbing up quickly and going to have a look at this coin for herself.

"You'll have to tell me your plans, Erista."  Having returned with Arkan, Eilieen assists with the preparation of the body for burial.  The addition of the weapon is, in her eyes, unnecessary, for Zadastha will no-doubt enfold the man into her loving embrace...but it's a nice touch, and she appreciates Erista's gesture.  "Resurrection?  Or something else?"

The wand...that is something for Erista.  "He will strike back from beyond the grave at the evil of this land," the priestess murmurs thoughtfully.  Wrapping the body carefully in its own cloak, she moves it to the edge of the makeshift grave.  "Well done, Aarnr.  Hard work, and yet you have managed mostly alone."

Standing, she sighs.  "I am ready.  HE is ready.  But I would hear what Erista has to suggest, first."

OOC - Bleah, Religion roll of 11.  Not sure Eilieen knows ANYTHING about the temple other than the harassment.

Colwyn shrugs.  "I's not knowin' fer sure... a fair bit.  I can be countin' it out later.  So's I can be sittin' in the cart an' countin'.  Gives me somethin' ter be doin' while we's goin' along.  Best guess now... " he squints at the chest, turning it from side to side... "A thousan'.  Maybe two.  Mix of silver, gold, an' copper.  Why?"

Erista nods.  "That, yeah!  Bringing him back.  They can do that for a big enough donation, right?  Would that be enough?  Those Justicars kind of arguably owe us a favor, maybe?"