Steamknuckle scowls as he approaches. "This thing had better start saying the right things, or else these Redbrands will be cleaning up its shattered frozen pieces for the next month."

The party quickly encircles the creature. Willow steps forward to gingerly remove the projectiles embedded in the monster's tough hide. It groans from the pain, but otherwise yields without complaint. She manages to recover one usable arrow and Rudo's javelin, which she hands to him.

As Zhaquadan edges around the creature to block off its escape to the north, he feels a strange chill emanating from the crevasse beneath him. Glancing down, he sees steep natural rock walls dropping about 20 feet to the floor of the narrow fissure, which is strewn with stone rubble and what appears to be scattered heaps of broken and well-gnawed bones. Tucked in among a pair of larger boulders he catches a glimpse of tattered cloth covering what looks like a humanoid leg.

"Yes, do not fear..." the telepathic voice murmurs. "We have many treasures, but will share only those you wish to see. Please do not hurt us. The treasures you seek...and only our life in return. A wise bargain."

The creature fixes its eerie green eye on Zhaquadan. "The dark one came just a while ago. We do not remember days, only that we ...smelled the secrets of..." The voice hesitates for several seconds before continuing. "...this place...long before they came.

"The dark one brought with him his...red ones. It was ours first, we found it, but they were many...so we struck a bargain. We were hungry, and he wished to keep others out of our place. We wished this too. No need for...blood.

"The dark one is not our master. He merely...feeds us. You know him as...the staff of glass."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:48, Tue 11 July 2017.

"What is Glasstaffs real name?  What did he want here?"

"We do not know the dark one's name. He...hid that well from us. But we tasted his desires...yes. He was sent by his own master to...perform some duty...but he was no dog. He hungered...bought the red ones with coin of greed to seize and conquer. Now they are his dogs, and he is the master."

The creature crouches, breathing wetly and wringing its hands as it looks around at the party members surrounding it. "We do not serve the dark one...we made a bargain. Yet...you seek to drive out the red ones...we see. We will not stop you. We will make a new bargain. The red ones are weak and tasteless. Their flesh will feed us, but their secrets are petty and bland. We will eat their flesh, and gnaw their bones...and trade whispers with you.

"If you kind ones would be pleased, then we will make the same bargain with you. We will...keep unwanted ones out. Away from our place. Their flesh will rot from their bones, and you will...be safe."

The creature gazes deeply into Zhaquadan's eyes, as if entreating the one it feels most open to diplomacy. "Please...give us the flesh of the red ones you slay. We will eat them, and the bright rooms will be clean of their bones. But..." The voice hesitates a moment. "Please...spare the one whose name is paper. It is black and speechless, yet...its treasures are rich. It has...given us company in the darkness here. It knows secrets that you will wish to taste as well. We do not wish to chew its bones."

"Tell me what he wanted to protect down here.  Is this the Wave Echo cave?  Do you know where that is?"

"We do not know the...cave of echoing waves. We did not taste any such thing in the dark one. This place is only our home. It is...old. And it remembers. But the dark one does not see this...he is here only for his own greed. He protects nothing here, save his own petty appetites."

"Where is Glasstaff?" Willow asks impatiently.

The creature turns to Willow, its luminous eye glistening with an uncanny fervor. It stares at her for a long moment before turning back to Zhaquadan. "Oh...my...how delicious. This little one...so little she knows of you. Or...indeed...you of her. Ah, it has been so long since we tasted such mystery...black as oblivion to both of you. So sad...for such a thing to go unknown between friends brought together by such rare chance."

Willow's eyes, startled, dart between the creature and Zhaquadan. "What...what is it talking about?"

The creature turns back to Willow. It subtly runs its tongue across the edges of its teeth as its voice reaches out into the party's minds. "The dark one...he is near. He lairs down below." It points a bony claw to the northwest, toward the passageway just beyond where Zhaquadan is standing.

"We were to protect the dark one from...intrusions. But...where one bargain fails, another creeps in to take its place."

The creature sweeps its unsettling gaze across the rest of the party. "Beware...the dark one hides many secrets. He knows. And he comes and goes by many paths. The darkness is...safer...than the light."

"Tell me where ALL of your treasures are hidden in this cave.  Tell us where everything is, shiny or dark." Zhaquadan demands almost manaically.

Rudo laughs. "Now there's a dwarf after my own heart! I was just about to say the same myself."

The creature recoils a bit. "Of course...but...surely you need not...relieve us of all our treasures? Surely, in light of our new bargain, you will see fit to leave us...but a meager share?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:54, Tue 11 July 2017.

Rudo responds only by taking a step forward, his axe raised menacingly.

The creature backs away slightly, raising its hands apologetically as it lowers its head in submission. With its eye still on the floor, the creature slowly turns to point a crooked claw toward the rocky slope of the ravine just below the nearby bridge.

"And it's all there?" Steamknuckle asks sternly. "Every bit? You'll want to be honest with us now."

"Yes...all of our shiny treasures. There.

"Our dark treasures are yours to have as well. You have only to ask...and we will tell."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:40, Tue 11 July 2017.

Rudo slings his greataxe across his back. "Keep an eye on this thing. If it tries anything, you know what to do."

He turns to descend the rough wall of the crevasse. The slope is gradual and strewn with wide boulders, so the dwarf quickly makes it down to the floor of the chasm without difficulty. He disappears into the gloom beneath the wooden plank bridge.

His voice drifts out a moment later. "Oh, yes. Come to papa." After a few moments of shuffling and scraping, Rudo emerges back into the light of Willow's claw. He looks up at the assembled party staring back down at him. In his arms he carries a battered wooden chest.

A few moments later Rudo hands the chest up to Willow and Steamknuckle from just below the lip of the crevasse. He clambers up to stand beside them as Steamknuckle eases the chest open.

Inside is a heap of gold and silver coins, a handful of smooth green gemstones, two stoppered glass vials filled with a foamy reddish liquid, and a tightly rolled parchment scroll bound with twine.

Across the top of it all lays a beautiful longsword in a silver-chased scabbard, its hilt worked in the shape of a bird of prey with outspread wings.


This message was last edited by the GM at 16:22, Tue 01 Aug 2017.

Rudo frowns with disappointment. "Well nine hells. Had to be a piddly one-handed weapon, didn't it?"

After a moment he looks up. "Oh yes. Forgot to mention, there's a corpse down there. Looks like old cyclops here got started on him for breakfast. Didn't look like a Redbrand; probably some hapless fool from the village.

"But by Moradin's hammer, damned if I didn't freeze my balls off down there! That body might have been laying there a month and it would still be fresh in that cold."

"Looks like a couple hundred coins in here," Steamknuckle mumbles, sifting through the treasure. "About half gold, half silver. We don't exactly have time to count it out right now, though. And I'll need time to identify the potions and scroll. Sword looks like it might be enchanted, too."

He looks up at Zhaquadan. "What do you think we should do? It will take time to lug this back into town, and who knows what might happen in the meantime. We've made a lot of noise in here, so we might already have lost the element of surprise. But if we leave the chest here and move on, then what's to stop this thing from just taking it and running?"

Steamknuckle fixes a sour glare on the one-eyed monster. "I'd say we can't trust it either way."

Zhaquadan stares at the creature with both disgust and pity in his eyes.  Reluctantly he says "I don't know what to do with this thing.  I am fairly certain that Ishtishia would want me to cleanse this world of such a thing but it seems to have  slightly honest desire to want to help and just to be left alone.  We have essentially entered into a deal with it which makes me ill to say but it's continued existence may yet be for a greater good.  I say we carry the treasure and be ready to drop it for a fight and leave the decision as to this one's fate for a later time."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:55, Thu 13 July 2017.

Willow gives Zhaquadan an impatient look. "We can't sneak through a bandit stronghold carrying a chest full of treasure," she says flatly.

"Well, to be fair, this chest is not very full. We could just remove its contents and leave the chest here, then sort through it all later. Seems like a good compromise to me."

Steamknuckle shakes his head in disgust at the creature still cowering before the party. "I can't say I'm fully in agreement about sparing this thing's life, but if Zhaquadan thinks we should, then that's enough for me."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Fri 14 July 2017.

"Agreed." Rudo sifts through his backpack until he produces a plain canvas sack. The others quickly help transfer the contents of the chest into the sack, after which he ties it shut and drops it into his pack.

He looks down into the chest. Only the sword in its fine silver-chased scabbard remains. He picks it up. "Lovely piece. Probably worth some hefty coin, especially if it's magic." As he speaks, the creature, standing nearby, stares despondently at the weapon glittering in the light of Willow's claw.

"Not my style, sadly. Anyone else want to use it?" Rudo looks around at the party.