[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=598527][i][b]Kathryn Pyke[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=598527]Human, Fighter (Rune Knight), Level 05[/color][/b][/i] [color=598527][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 49 / 49 [color=598527][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 21 [color=598527][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=598527][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Study [color=598527][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=598527][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=598527][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/7884b36a-e3f0-48fb-9689-1a8fd4af7f5a.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Kathryn wasn't totally sure what to expect when she opened the box. Apart of her worried something creepy and evil would pop out and try to attach itself to her face. Maybe infect her with some sort of evil parasite creature. However, and thankfully, that did not happen. What did surprise Kathryn was that the box was attached to the floor, making it impossible to move. She wondered if the box was in fact a cover for a secrete ladder into an even deeper basement? If so, would it be smart to go down without proper backup? Sure Lizbeth was here but if things went really bad, then the most Lizbeth could reliably do for Kathryn was provide an extra swing against a foe or rush to find help. The fact of the matter was if there was something that Kathryn couldn't handle, Lizbeth would be in way over her head. Or if Kathryn got hurt, she was simply too big for Lizbeth to carry. Probably too big to drag, especially in full kit. But even if there was no secrete sub basement, those facts were true in any problem that may arise. When the box opened with surprising ease, Kathryn was pleasantly surprised that there was in fact, nothing forcefully attach to her face, and also no ladder to a creepy sub basement. Instead it was... sacks? The box, had also been sorted with enough gold to run the vineyard for... a long time by Kathryn's guess. It was the funds to run a small kingdom. To build and maintain connections, hire workers or soldiers, build infrastructure, and live a life a comfort otherwise unknown to those without casual spending gold. "[color=598527]Holy mother of Selune.[/color]" Kathryn mumbled. The temptation to pocket the funds was strong. Stronger than she wanted to admit. Strong enough to make her feel shame for taking riches that weren't hers. In fact, they likely belonged to Lizbeth, the girl she had been training with the last few months. Shaking her head, she saw the note tied inside of the box. Cecily. That guilt returned, she wanted to see what was inside of the letter, she wanted to know. But it wasn't for her. But people were dead, and more were likely to follow. And though Kathryn would never admit it to Lizbeth, Cecily was also a suspect. She had a lot to lose if things didn't go her way. She let Kathryn perform her investigation, but didn't offer up the keys. And she made it a point to point out what had happened to Lizbeth in such a tense situation. She couldn't be sure on the older woman. And thought Lizbeth was likely involved, she was more likely a victim. Standing up, note in hand, Kathryn let out a deep sigh before opening the note. Kathryn read the first leg of the letter before taking a moment to stop. This felt like a point of no return. They were finally going to get answers, but she was terrified what they could be. Then she looked over to Lizbeth, thought of what this poor girl had been through, and knew she had to get to the bottom of things. Sitting down in the desk chair with a loud [b][i]thunk[/i][/b], Kathryn read the rest of the note, her expression getting more and more grim as she read. As he talked about these cursed lands, as he wrote about Lizbeth and her condition, as talked about his second study. Then, the words that made her stomach drop. Made her forget all thoughts of gold, made her do the briefest of gasps. Catching her breath, she let out a heavy exhale and finished the note, folding it up and putting it in the leather pocket partially hidden within her armor, only to realize that was her old set. Folding it again, she slide it into a pouch, and then pressed that pouch underneath her breastplate. "[color=598527]Lizbeth. What do you know of The Prince.[/color]" She spoke, at one point the words almost catching in her mouth. "[color=598527]If you know nothing that is fine, but I need your honest answer if you do know anything.[/color]" Kathryn spoke out before she took a moment to breath, listen to what Lizbeth had to say, and stood up. "[color=598527]We need to head back to the coach house. I think we can get some answers there.[/color]" Looking at Lizbeth, and remembering the note, her hesitation took hold again. "[i]When you find the place, please remember me gently. I made mistakes and was desperate to fix them.[/i]" That probably meant that whatever was in there was going to be unsettling at best, and downright evil at worst. "[color=598527]It may not be best for you to join me there. Not where I am looking at least. We may find out things about your grandfather that may hard to process, and I don't want to skew your memory of him with whatever we find.[/color]" Kathryn said cautiously. "[color=598527]We don't have to decide now. Let's see what else we can sort out here yeah? I'd hate to spend the whole day walking back and forth as we figure things out. We've already had our workout today, and cardio for work is far less fun than cardio for fun.[/color]" Kathryn joked trying to lighten the mood some. Kathryn turned to look back at the box and sighed. Closing it, and locking it back up, sliding the key afterwards into the pouch under her breastplate. "[color=598527]It appears to be funds to help run this place, as well as a few other reserve funds. It belongs to you under care of Cecily. And I hate to do this, but I am going to hold onto the key for a moment. I want to talk with everyone else what we have found first before we risk that box being opened again and tampered with. After I talk to everyone, I will give you the key to do with what you see fit.[/color]" She felt terrible commanding the situation like that. Especially with how tempted she was to pocket the gold. But the fact was this whole room was also evidence. "[color=598527]If you have an objection to that let me know, you're an adult, and the key is yours by right. But you're wise for your years. So never be afraid to tell me what you think.[/color]" Kathryn had moments she acted childish for her age, but on the opposite side of that, Lizbeth had moments where she acted more like an adult than one would expect of someone her age. To keep working on the investigation, Kathryn was the mammoth in the room. The sarcophagus. Apart of her wanted to ignore it, move on, pretend it was all not a problem. But her job was to find the problem and deal with it. Walking up to the massive coffin like structure, she feared what could be within it. She feared that is also had some sort of wicked creature with intentions to attach to her face. Attempting to inspect the outside, it told her nothing she could use. "[color=598527]Can you make sense of it?[/color]" Kathryn asked hoping she didn't look like a dumbass. Before deciding "[i]Fuck it[/i]" and deciding to just open the fucker. Grabbing the edge with both hands, bending into a squat, she then began to lift the cover, shifting a fair bit of rocky soil as the lid began to move.