Heading down the left corridor, the group ends up going down a stairway and into a lower level. Heading into a new corridor with many rooms, Kyouka spots a small idol made of gold. Jian sees inscriptions on the wall, illuminated by torchlight. They show several figures, clad in beautiful robes and wearing luxurious jewellery, in a large chamber.
"She's has a taste for other women, and tends to prefer lovers who are elegant and refined." The empress makes eye contact. "According to the gossips, she enjoys a chase, so it might help to not give in to her advances too easily. As for the object, it's a small wooden box, gilded in gold." She takes some paper and ink, drawing a character in her native language in beautiful calligraphy. "It will have this symbol on the lid."
Midori listened silently, smiling. When the Empress' eyes met hers she did not look away, but said nothing until the busty woman had finished talking. “I see... this seems like a task that will take a few days, at least. It will also require some preparation... but it can be done.” She nodded. I should probably avoid using my real name if I can help it. “Anything else you can tell me about her? Such as places she likes to visit and people she's close to?”
@unisol_gr44 "Hmm?" Cooing as she spots the golden idol, Kyouka inspects it for a moment. "Hmm. Seems suspicious, leaving gold here. Unless this place was filthy rich, it must be bait. What do you guys think?" She asked the group.
Inspecting the wall, he gets the sense that the chamber represented on it is actually in the ruins, down a few levels.
"She enjoys going to the nanban cathedral in the city, walking through the gardens there. As far as the people she associates with, mostly intellectuals, from what I'm told, though she'll go after any beautiful woman regardless of her intellect."
"Question is, what sort of trap? Think we can run away from it? It's a waste to leave gold..." Kyouka sighed, pondering what sort of trap it would activate. She looks around for any clue she could find.
Poking her head ever so slightly into the room, she sees holes in the walls, covering them. Chitsukiko takes a look and frowns. "Looks like those might shoot arrows or darts."
"Is that it?" Kyouka raises an eyebrow, "If all it does is shoot arrows. Then maybe... hmm." She looks for a rock, or pebble she could use to knock the gold idol down from its pedestal, which she figured would be the trigger. "All we have to do it trigger the trap from right here, and watch while it fires all its arrows."
She finds a bit of masonry and tosses it. The chunk of wall hits the idol and sends it clattering down to the floor. The pedestal depresses and Kyouka hears a mechanical noise from the walls. Suddenly, there's a burst of flame, and the room erupts in the sound of gunpowder exploding, bullets flying from the hole and impacting all over the room. Kyouka, Chitsukiko and the ronin all take cover, but the sound was loud enough to deafen them.
The moment the trap activated, Kyouka covered her ears as the familiar sound of exploding gunpowder echoed. "Hah! Reminds of my first year in Santila!" She shouted, though with how loud the trap was, her group probably wouldn't be able to hear anyway. But, as she watched the room get engulfed in flames, a sudden realization hit. "Crap! The gold is going to melt!" She cursed, while also being amused. So the creator of this ruins know about gunpowder. Hmm. Wonder what else he has in here.
As the last bullet fires, she sees the idol on the ground. It's charred slightly, and has a bullet lodged in its skull, but is mostly intact.
"Urgh." Groaning as the gunfire finally stopped, Kyouka takes a peek just in case some other trap was waiting to get triggered. If the coast was clear, she still waits for a few seconds to cool the charred idol before picking it up.
Though damaged, the gold still seems mostly good. She should be able to fetch a good price for the artifact. The ringing in her ears becomes more quiet, and she hears the ronin shouting "Good find".
"Yeah, hopefully this isn't the only one here." Kyouka hums, "Anyway, did you guys find anything else?"
Kina bowed "Welcome. I had a couple of questions. But first, allow me to put on some clothes." Kina disappeared for a moment, then returned, clean, clothed, perfumed and with tea. "I was wondering what this stage was testing - can you tell me?" She asked as she gave the concubine some tea - spiked in such a way that made woman more willing to suggestions.
"Oh, thank you." The woman takes a sip, pupils dialating a little, but otherwise giving no sign of a behavioural difference. "A number of things. This stage tests your ability to please your master with another concubine, mainly."
