They head along the south side of the river, checking out any ruin that looks at least vaguely recognizable. Most of them don't have anything interesting.

This one has a pack of angry snakes in it! They coil up on their tails and launch themselves at the explorers like springs.

Cayra, suddenly very scaly, steps in front. They can break their teeth on her if she wants.

Derron alsp steps to the front. One or two of them get far enough to break their teeth on Cayra, but the rest fall out of the air as though punched in the head by invisible fists. 

"- whoa!" she says. "What was that?"

"You mean me, or the angry bedsprings?" Says Derron, finishing off the last couple snakes. "I must have forgotten to mention--I'm the security for this expedition."

"You. They seem to be snakes. I just want to know how you do it."

"Magic! One of the things it can do is apply bursts of force to things, including snake heads. I've never seen a snake go boing like that, though, they don't do that back home."

"Yeah, I think that might have been magic. I'd need to see it happen again and not as a nasty surprise before I could be sure, though."

"Want me to catch one?"

"Derron seems to have taken out all the ones here, but if we run into any more it would be very interesting to take one alive."

"I'm going to start dissecting one of the dead ones, see if there's any obvious way they could have flung themselves that high without magic." Chaenath suits action to words.

"Well, next time leave one of whatever attacks us to me and I'll grab it."

"Sounds like a plan! Want to take a look around here while Chaenath is getting her hands dirty, see if there's anything cool in here?"

"Sure!"

They check out the rest of the ruin, finding a handful of little metal bits that have managed to survive the elements. The best finds are a pair of rusty but cleanable pliers Derron digs out of some rubble, and a single emerald earring Cayra finds in the snakes' nest.

"Pretty." She creates a place to stick it in her ear and puts it on.

"The head of the Archives is probably going to want that for a museum, but you did find it. Keep it safe, I guess, and you can argue with her about it when the time comes."

"I'm not terribly attached but maybe she'll pay me."

"We three are all getting paid for this, you can probably get some money out of joining in somehow. I can't promise anything, though."

"I meant for the earring, I don't need to be paid for following you around."

"Yeah, I meant for the earring too, though you've been pretty useful to have around so far. I think we've about cleared out this building; Chaenath, are you done playing with your food?"

"You joke, but we probably could eat this, it's pretty similar to a species back home. Best to stick with travel rations, though. And yes, I'm about done."

"You eat snakes?"

"Oh, I am not saying it would taste good. Just that it probably isn't poisonous. It is venomous, though, so if either of you got bit and didn't say anything, now is the time."

"I'll be fine. I mean, I would be even if it had gotten its teeth in me but I had scales then."