You have no difficulty getting quotes from merchants eager to buy the gems and objets d'art at half-price. Here's your total treasure:
Coin: 1967 GP
Potion,scrolls: 210 GP
Subtotal (already liquid): 2177 GP
Silver bird figurines: 600 GP
Naga statuettes: 250 GP
MW half-plate: 750 GP
Studded leather (x2): 50 GP
Heavy steel shield (+1?): 1170 GP
Greataxe (+1?): 2320 GP
Greatsword: 50 GP
Longsword: 15 GP
MW dagger: 725 GP
Red spinel: 100 GP
Moonstone: 50 GP
Amethyst: 110 GP
Malachite: 10 GP
Jewelled anklets: 2500 GP
Subtotal: 8700 GP
Half-price: 4350 GP
Total: 6527 GP
Each share: 1305.4 GP
So, if you are willing to buy desired items from the group at half-price, you each have a share sufficient to afford the item of your choice.
This listing assumes that the shield and axe are each +1.
Final XP award: 250 XP to everyone. This includes time spent (1+ months since the last award)), encounter XP (for handling Zurd well), and roleplay bonus (for portraying handling Zurd well).
Thus ends this adventure. Thanks everyone; it was a lot of fun at those times we managed to keep a good pace.
Kongu, ever the storyteller, begins talking about the place, and what she learned about its occupants. Other explorers will follow, mapping out the parts you never got to. As the pieces begin to fall together, here's the picture they get: Hase and Suna never returned from their last foray. They took the most functional of their valuables with them, and also many of their orc slaves, but left behind the younger offspring of their orcs, who then grew up in the stronghold and started running it. The lizardfolk were a displaced tribe, their presence in the area possibly related to some disturbance in the coastal areas to the west, but obviously uncomfortable in such an unfriendly (to them) environment. They stumbled on the place, and discovered the room of pools, which they made their lair. Some of the pools are connected to springs, so they had plenty of water. (Some of the pools had toxic liquids, but they soon learned which ones to avoid!) When the orcs learned you had decimated the lizardmen, they finished the job, massacring them in that same room, which is why their bodies were found there.
BTW, I'd be interested in feedback about the game. One thing I'm wondering about is my use of an NPC member of the group. I originally decided to use Kongu as I did for a number of reasons:
* to get players speculating about the mysteries of the place, and not just collecting treasure (this was based on an old-fashioned ecologically nonsensical dungeon crawl, and I was determined to make it a little more coherent than the model)
* to be able, if needed, to give the action a little push in character
* to be more credible with the plot hook
I deliberately set her up in a support role, and underpowered at that, so she wouldn't take the limelight away from the PCs. However, after the game started, I read a thread in General Discussion in which a number of people claimed that a DMPC can never come to any good. What's your take? Is it a device I should avoid in the future?
