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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:19:52 GMT -6
Bones probably didn't come up super often, but there was still a chance that it had heard the word used before.
The gargoyle seemed to understand now what Aster was trying to say. It inclined its head in the other direction, this time looking as though it were thinking. Aster, meanwhile, tried to scope out the wreckage, to see if there was anything else valuable in it. Probably not, since the gargoyle wasn't having any sort of reaction anymore, but maybe it had missed something in the excitement of all this fuss about the fossil. It wasn't likely, but hey, it was possible, right?
As far as he could tell though, it was rubble rock as far as the eye could see. He was just turning his attention to the area beyond the wall they had cut through, lifting his torch to get a better look, when a movement at the edge of his vision caught his eye.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:20:15 GMT -6
He turned, and found the gargoyle shaking its head, probably in response to the question that he had posed to it earlier. "That's not it, huh? Then what is it? Is it just because this stuff is rare?" Aster said. It was true that even the fossils he'd found before had been few and far between, come to think of it. He had just never thought much of it at the time, since they weren't really good for anything except to display.
Some people coveted them because of their rarity alone, and possibly because of some rumors about what the labs could do with them if given enough specimens and a little extra funding, but seeing as those rumors had never come to fruition as far as Aster could tell, interest in them had died down in recent years. Now it was all about crystals, and finding the right crystals, and finding enough crystals.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:20:41 GMT -6
Magic was becoming more widespread, and now that more peaple knew about it, more people wanted a piece of it for themselves. But the crystals themselves stayed almost as elusive as they ever were. If there seemed to be more cf them around, Aster had figured that it was because more people were looking for the things, as a result of the spike in interest. It was something he was very familiar with himself, however, given that he was also on the hunt for some fire crystals for his next node. It had been a long time since he had made his first one already, but he just hadn't managed to gather enough materials for another powerful one like he'd made before.
That, and he was pretty sure that Summer was still upset at him for the last time he'd made one, possibly enough so to stop him from trying it again.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:21:32 GMT -6
As it turned out, the creature most attached to your soul didn't have a great time when you cut a piece of that soul off. It hadn't been hers, but she had felt his pain, and considering he hadn't explained the situation to her beforehand, he could only imagine what she thought might have happened to him.
He would do things differently this time.. That was, if he got a chance to, anyway. He still had to find one more crystal before he could make that a reality.
The gargoyle nodded this time in response to Aster's question, though based on its expression, Aster guessed that there was more to the answer than just that. It was probably more a close approximation, or a best guess alternative, to a more specific reason that the gargoyle couldn't figure out how to convey to him. But that was fine for Aster. He hadn't expected anything more than that anyway.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:21:47 GMT -6
Even their current level of communication was better than what Aster had managed with it last time, and a good deal better than what he was used to with other creatures, or other mining familiars for that matter.
"Well, if you like it so much, you can hold onto it for now," Aster said to the gargoyle. He tried to make his offer sound magnanimous, so that maybe the gargoyle would actually take him up on it, but in the end, the gargoyle revealed itself as too smart to fall for that kind of ruse. It shook its head adamantly even when Aster tried to insist, and then cemented its position by grabbing the opening flap of the pouch at Aster’s waist and jamming its apparently precious cargo firmly inside.
Well, Aster had just been joking around anyway. Even he wouldn’t have benefited from the outcome if he had gotten his way with that one.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:22:00 GMT -6
The gargoyle needed both its claws to dig, after all, and it wasn’t equipped with anything to help it carry stuff hands free the way Aster was. Though that was a worthwhile thing to look into, the idea of getting some packs for the gargoyle. He liked being able to carry his own stuff around, so it made sense that a fellow sentient mining explorer would appreciate the same.
If he managed to get anything like that though, it wasn’t going to be on this trip. All of Aster’s bags and the like were strictly made for human proportions, and the gargoyle, while almost the right shape, wasn’t quite the right size. And it would have been rather narrower in the shoulder than Aster was, even if they had been the same size, so unless something was adjustable by width, it wouldn’t have fit the gargoyle very well.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:22:19 GMT -6
It was a thought for another time, when he was out of the caves. For now, they had to proceed as they were, which meant that Aster was the pack mule, more or less.
Casting a gaze over the lot of rubble they’d left in their wake, Aster turned to the gargoyle. “What do you think? Any more valuables left in here?” he said. He hadn’t been able to find any, but he figured the gargoyle might as well have one last look too, in case they really had managed to miss something. It wasn’t out of the question, with all the other things that had been going on.
The gargoyle seemed to think that the idea had merit too, and cast a look about itself with a thoughtful countenance. It must have really been listening for any valuables, or whatever it was that gargoyles did to find the stuff.
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Post by Noa on Dec 5, 2019 21:22:30 GMT -6
And a minute later, it seemed to actually chance upon something. Aster saw it dash to a different part of the rubble pile, digging around in the same way that it had done with the fossil. Aster wandered over to its side just to make sure it wasn’t getting stuck on another massive rock blocking its way, but this time the gargoyle had been luckier in its choice of place to dig. There was no massive rock, and therefore no significant obstruction to its progress. In a matter of moments, it had a couple of gems in its claws, which it presented to Aster with little fanfare.
It certainly seemed to be over whatever anxieties had plagued it when it had found the first stone on their foray today. That was all for the best, since its unease made Aster less easy too by default. Besides, he much preferred the way they were carrying on right now.
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Post by Renathan on Dec 5, 2019 23:41:44 GMT -6
A single metal vein can be found nearby; in addition to a lovely hunk of crabfire. Sadly, there isn't much else in the area; but there appears to have been a cave in further-down.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:04:23 GMT -6
Thus, Aster was able to take the gems from the gargoyle with no real ill feeling on his own part. He was about to place them in the pouch with the rest, but then he noticed that one of the stones he'd been handed looked a lot like an ordinary rock. Granted, some gems looked like ordinary rocks until you polished them up, but this didn't look like anything he would recognize as a gem, and he had been working as a gem crafter long enough that he liked to think he had some idea about that kind of thing, at least. So he turned to the gargoyle and presented it with the stone in question. "What is this?" he asked.
Of course, he realized belatedly that the gargoyle could hardly give him an answer regarding what the name for this kind of stone was in a way that Aster would understand.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:05:35 GMT -6
Even if the gargoyle were able to speak, it wouldn't have known the names of gems as humanoids had named them. The gargoyles themselves might have their own names for the things. Heck, they might even have their own language, Aster didn't know. But whatever those were, they would be no help to him. In the meantime, the gargoyle might try to explain to him about the chemical composition of the stone, if it was something that the gargoyle knew. But Aster wasn't so well read or well versed in the study of geology to be able to figure it out from that kind of explanation… Never mind the amount of effort involved in getting the gargoyle ta give one in that form.
Fortunately for him, however, the answer turned out to be much easier than that. The gargoyle inclined its head at Aster's question, then took the stone from him.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:06:54 GMT -6
It was a fairly large one, of a curiously round shape that was almost uniform, and at first Aster had been surprised that the gargoyle had even managed to find a valuable stone of that size. He'd wondered that the gargoyle wasn't more excited at the prospect of it for a moment. And then he laid eyes on the actual surface of it, and his questions turned more towards trying to figure out what kind of stone it was at all.
The gargoyle took the stone and walked over to the buggy, where it produced the mallet after a little rummaging around. Aster watched it with curiosity. Clearly it had something in mind. Last time they were here, it had asked Aster, in its own limited capacity, what each of the tools were used for, and Aster had shown him. That was why Aster wasn't stopping it from doing as it liked now.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:08:11 GMT -6
After all, it knew how to use the things, and it was smart enough and savvy enough about rocks that Aster trusted it not to fool around too much.
Besides that though, the gargoyle didn't really seem like the fooling around type. Aster couldn't have said that he had a really good grasp of the gargoyle's personality yet, but if the gargoyle were a more mischievous prankster type, Aster felt that he would have seen more signs of it by now. They'd spent enough time together, and deep down in the mines where they were, surely there were ample opportunities. Aster was, after all, just another bumptious humanoid who relied a on the guidance of a familiar to help him navigate these caverns. The advantage was all with the gargoyle when they were down here, for good or for ill, which would have been the perfect opportunity for an incurable prankster.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:08:56 GMT -6
But neither was the gargoyle haughty like Cinna, or even particularly proud the way the gem drake often was. If anything, Aster would have characterized what he had seen of it so far as being earnest almast to a fault. In that sense, the gargoyle reminded him a little bit of Aubrey, funny as it was to make the comparison, It was a shame Aubrey had moved out. Aster wondered if they would have gotten along it the gargoyle had had a chance to meet Aubrey in person, though what they would do or talk about... That much was beyond his imagination. So, then again, maybe that wasn't as good an idea as he had initially thought it was.
The gargoyle, meanwhile, was reconsidering its choice of the mallet, after having hefted it and levered it at the rock. It hadn't swung down though, and seemed to be hesitating over something.
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Post by Noa on Dec 6, 2019 16:10:15 GMT -6
It set the mallet aside, then dug through the buggy's contents for something else. After a little searching, it pulled out the chisel with a look of triumph; that must have been what it usd been looking for. Then, returning to the rock with ththe chisel, it set the point of the chisel carefully on a particular spot on the rock's surface. Taking up the mallet in its other claw, it swung the mallet down, but only gently, on the end of the chisel. This ended up not being quite enough pressure to do what it had wanted, so it was forced to swing again, harder. The second attempt got the amount of force right, and the rock split neatly down the middle, not unlike cracking a very strange egg.
And then the gargoyle pulled the two halves apart, and Aster could see for himself why it had picked up this rock.
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