Chapter 8: Moving On

It was mid afternoon before the Nadia and Clavidicus managed to get up. Allium seemed more then content to keep sleeping. Since she would have trouble going outside with them anyways, she wasn't strongly motivated to get up yet.

Clavidicus looked excitedly at the sizable pile of treasure. "This is going to be quite a payoff."

Nadia nodded. "I have to agree. Just so we don't arouse any kind of unwanted attention, perhaps we should try to sell a handful of this stuff at a time. There are a couple of shops around town that would probably buy various different items. Trying to sell all of this at one shop would certainly raise eyebrows."

"That's fine with me, I didn't want to carry it all at once again anyways."

The sorted the stuff into piles before grabbing the first pile and heading off to the store that would buy those items. As she did the day before, Nadia put on an over the top charismatic performance to squeeze a bigger offer out of the shopkeeper then throwing everything on the counter and asking for a price would have achieved.

Nadia and Clavidicus returned to the room after they were finished with the first shop to grab the next pile of goods to repeat the process. After another two more trips like this, all of the treasure had been sold. The returned to the room again, this time to seperate and hand out each of the shares of the profits.

Clavidicus finished counting his share before storing it in his money pouch. "Now that the money thing is settled, I'd like to take a couple of days to train a little more."

Allium nodded. "Yeah, I think I'd like to train as well, try out some of these new powers I've received. I'd like to know what my limitations are."

"We're in aggreeance then." Nadia announced "Let's set aside about 3 days to take care of our own studies or training before we assess our next move. This isn't the most well stocked town I've ever visited, but I'm sure I'll be able to get some studying in at the local temple."

The three of them spent the next three days attempting to hone their skills and abilities. Occasionally they would cross each other's paths in the room or out on the streets. The reconverged in the room a few days later.

Nadia spoke first. "Well its glad to see both of you back here, hopefully your studies or training went well. So what are we going to do next?"

Clavidicus frowned. "I really hate to say this, but I think this might be the point where I have to part ways with you two. Traveling with both of you and fighting along side you has proven to be an amazing experience. The amount of gold we managed to earn was quite significant. I think my path must take me elsewhere though. I hope you understand."

Allium put her arms around Clavidicus in a hug. "I understand. I'm sure we'll see each other again."

Nadia smiled. "I figured I'd scare you away eventually."

"No, its not that. I just have some plans I'd like to start working on, and I don't want to hold you both back. I'm heading to Glacerin to gather support for my cause. I'll always remember this last week though. I had noticed a nice defendable plot of land for sale not far from here that I'd like to build a keep on some day. Perhaps soon I'll be able to return to the area to purchase that land."

"Alright big guy, come give Nadia a hug. I appreciate everything you've done for me. Don't be a stranger. I think me and Allium are going to continue on for more adventures as soon as night falls."

"Alright then. I'm going to depart as soon as possible though. As much fun as it is to travel at night, it wrecks havoc upon my senses." Clavidicus started gathering up his belongings.

Nadia said "Before you leave, I'd like to take you down to the finest tailor in town to get you a new set of clothes. That will help immensely with your efforts in Glacerin. You'll also have to give me a few minutes to write you some letters of introduction to some contacts I know in the city."

Nadia lead Clavidicus to the tailor and a few hours later, they returned to the room again with the new clothes wrapped in a bundle. Clavidicus finished gathering up his belongings, and grabbed another round of hugs. "I hope to see you two again." He waved one last time before walking out the door.

Nadia and Allium looked at each other. "What next?"

Allium grinned bearing her fangs. "Let's kill more stuff. I'd also like more treasure. I think those two go hand and hand."

"Sounds like a plan. When do we start?"

Chapter 7: No Shortage of Short Creatures

It was quite late into the night when the three arrived in the relative location the dwarf had described where he was attacked. In the darkness, it was easy to identify a couple of caves not too far off that had some light coming from them. The three approached the caves cautiously and once they were closer, the sounds of various sentient creatures carrying on loudly could be heard from within.

Clavidicus whispered "I'll give that dwarf one thing, his directions were spot on."

Nadia shook her head. "Are you still going on about that damn dwarf? I'm sure this adventure will prove to profitable, because reallocation of wealth through violence is always profitable. And had we not spoken with him, we'd probably not be here right now. I'll tell you what though, we'll go back and kill him in as many ways as possible, and maybe over and over again if this tip doesn't prove to be worth our time."

Allium asked "How would we be able to kill him more then once?"

"Some of these clerics and priests in the smaller villages will believe any sob story you bring in and provide free or significantly reduced resurrection services." Nadia gave her best doe eyed face. "Mr. Cleric sir, my friend fell down some stairs, twice, onto hot coals and this scimitar. Help me, I can't go on without ... uh ... good ole Gruntbeard at my side."

Clavidicus nodded. "Alright as long as you keep your word, now I almost want this trip not to work out so I can pay our 'friend' a visit later."

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves quite yet, lets see what sort of mayhem we can cause for some little bandit Kobolds.

The trio took one final moment to prepare, and picked the cave on the left to start with. They quickly found that both caves lead to the same cavern. After a battle broke out, it seemed like the kobolds kept coming from every direction. Curiously enough, there were at least a handful of goblins within the tunnel system leading deeper into the depths. In a brief lull in the onslaught, the three sat down for a moment.

Clavidicus asked "Have you guys noticed the goblins in a couple of these rooms. Kobolds and goblins don't generally get along all that well. I'm pretty sure they only ever work together if someone or something makes them forcefully. This is going to get a little harder no doubt, especially if we find out whats at the bottom."

"More treasure" Allium stated.

"That would certainly be welcome. Unguarded large piles of treasure are the best" Clavidicus replied.

Nadia motioned the other two to get up. "More baddies coming, break time is over."

The three fought their way for a while deeper and deeper. They eventually find what they had expected, more powerful creatures, a bugbear thug named Claw and a particularly nasty kobold sorcerer who called itself Garl. The two of them were guarding a nice pile of treasure, ill gotten no doubt. The three dispatched of Garl and Claw claiming the treasure that Garl had amassed as their own.

As the trio gathered up all the treasure they found, Clavidicus comment "We found a whole lot of coins here, unfortunately most are copper or silver pieces. We're probably going to have to drag it out of here and even worse, back to town."

Nadia pouted. "You wouldn't want one of us girls to get hurt dragging all that heavy weight around, would you?"

"OK I'm going to have to drag it back to town." He thought for a moment. "You two fight with a furiously I've never seen before in battle and carrying loot is what you're afraid is going to hurt you."

As Clavidicus dragged all the treasure back through the cave system, Nadia and Allium followed just behind him talking. "This has been a lot of fun, and not all that hard either. Look at all the stuff we found" Allium said as they walked.

Clavidicus cut in. "That's easy for you to say. I seemed like every trap in the place caught me. First I got shot in the shoulder by one arrow trap, and the next arrow trap got me in the leg. Then I fell in that pit trap, and had a difficult time getting out with all the treasure I had picked up by that point."

Nadia laughed. "You're a tough boy, you can handle a little abuse from some simple traps."

"Yeah, the pay-off should ease my pain a good amount" Clavidicus said as they reached the surface. "Let's get back to town so I can get some rest."

The trio started to walk back to town. It would be a sizable walk and they would have to make it back before sunrise for sure. Nadia added "We can't sleep in too long tomorrow, we have to catch the shops open so we can get rid of some of the items we don't need."

They all nodded in agreement. Allium stated "This goes without saying, but I'll let the two of you handle the selling. I think I'll wait patiently in the room."

The trip seemed a lot longer on the way back because all of them were tired from all the action. It felt especially long for Clavidicus dragging a sizable collection of stuff back in a large sack they had found. By the time they made it to town, they found a place in the room to stash all the loot for now and crashed for the rest of the night and early morning.