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.