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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2025819" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 323With a final heave of effort, Mole laid the last suit of armor—sized to a human, and therefore cumbersome—onto the low counter.  The breastplate still bore a nasty cleft in it, and bloodstains still decorated the armor where the hasty cleaning hadn’t quite reached, but it still bore a potent enchantment.  One that hadn’t saved its former owner, but made it valuable nonetheless, even damaged.  “Okay, that’s the last of it,” Mole said with a grin, refastening her bag of holding and tucking it back into the pouch at her hip.  “Quite a haul,” Skie Aldersun said, giving the objects scattered along the long counter a preliminary survey.  In addition to Velior Thazo’s breastplate, the display included the half-fiend’s morningstar and magical gauntlets, Pratcher Olann’s magical rapier, a dozen assorted masterwork weapons they’d taken off of slain Last Laugh rogues, and a few suits of magical chainmail worn by the mercenaries in Vhalantru’s manor that Mole hadn’t gotten around to unloading yet.  She’d had to dump out the usual contents of her magical bag to make room for it all, and there were still a few things in her quarters at the Temple of Helm that had been too bulky for this particular trip. “Don’t forget the adventurer’s discount for the Heroes of Cauldron,” Mole replied with an even wider smile. The other gnome lifted one of the weapons and examined it with a critical eye.  “You’ve done well, Mole; almost too well.  I’m afraid that my coffers are nearly empty, thanks in no small part to the activities of you and your companions, and I won’t get more coin until the payment for the last shipment of merchandise that I sent to Almraiven arrives at the end of the month.  I will certainly credit your account until then, if you wish.”Mole frowned, but then, as she often did, she quickly spotted the positive side of a setback.  “Maybe a trade?” Skie gestured toward the various displays throughout the main room of her shop.  “You know my inventory better than I, nearly,” the older gnome said.  But there was a canny look in her eyes as she added, “Although... there was something new that I just recently acquired, that you might be interested in...”Mole’s smile returned; she knew that Skie had been leading her to this since she’d walked in the door.  It was refreshing, dealing with another gnome; human merchants were just so damned serious about everything. Feigning disinterest, as she looked over an amulet that she’d sold to Skie only a tenday back, Mole said, “Oh?” The ring was very impressive, even before Mole picked it up.  Lying on the white cloth that Skie had brought it out in, it was nearly invisible.  The band was crafted of a transparent material much like glass, except that it was as heavy as metal and solid, too; Skie demonstrated that by bouncing it off the nearest wall and catching it as it flew past.  “What’s it do?” Mole asked.  “Try it out.”Mole put on the ring.  “I don’t feel any diff... oh!”  Looking down, she gleefully realized that she couldn’t see herself; she was invisible.  She reappeared a moment later, her grin as wide as it had ever been.  “Interested?” Skie asked. “Oh, I think we can do business.”* * * * * The counter was made of thick, very solid wood planks, but it squeaked in protest as Arun laid the last of the heavy sacks upon the polished surface.  Metal clinked slightly as an indication of the contents of the bag, which joined its fellows to make an impressive treasure.  Vortimax Weer’s eyes were wide as he took in the fortune in hard cash sitting on his counter.  “I trust you and your elvish companion will be content with the enhancements,” the mage said.  “I don’t normally do armor, mind you, but for the Heroes of Cauldron...”“Thank you, master Weer,” Arun said, gesturing to Hodge who was folding Dannel’s mithral shirt into a compact bundle for travel, awkwardly juggling that with the wooden box that he carried under his other arm.  Arun carried his own armor, and he looked somewhat uncomfortable clad in a simple tunic and leather breeches, not dissimilar from any of the hundreds of laborers who made their living in Cauldron.Of course, not many laborers carried a holy longsword slung across their backs. “I’m sure that your elixirs will be as useful as always,” Arun added, as the wizard started transferring the heavy sacks to the cart on which he’d wheeled out the upgraded suits of armor.  Weer waved at them absently as the two dwarves exited the shop. “I’ll feel better once I have this back on,” Arun said, fastening a leather strap around the compact bundle of armor and slinging it across his back.  “Damned but yer could buy yerself an inn for what yer paid that wizzerd,” Hodge said.  “Knowing what we are up against, we will likely need the protection,” Arun said.  “In fact, I wish you would reconsider, and allow Weer to upgrade your items as well.”“I heard ‘ow much he wanted to magick up this stuff,” the other dwarf retorted, rapping his own breastplate with his gnarled knuckles.  “I got better uses fer me money, thank yer.”“I would have been happy to pay for the upgrade out of my own share...”“Nah, yer spent that extra coin on folk who needed it more, I reckon.”  The dwarf frowned, as though the comment had snuck up on him unawares.  Hodge stuffed the mithral shirt into the strap that held his huge axe in place across his shoulders.  “Come on, let’s get this junk back to that elf.”“That elf” was at that moment testing his new bow in the long but narrow yard behind the rectory of the Temple of Helm.  The target he’d hung up on the back exterior wall of the temple stables was small, only about a foot across, but it may as well have been half that size based on the holes he’d already punched in the thick cork.  He had a small audience; a few of the newcomers that everyone was referring to as “Arun’s recruits” had taken breaks from their chores to watch his archery.  But Dannel ignored them as he took another practice arrow from his magical quiver, drew, aimed, and released in a single smooth movement that took less time than the space between two heartbeats.  The arrow struck only an inch from the center of the target, but Dannel frowned, checking the string of the bow.  The weapon was still new to him, in no way the match of the magical bow he’d lost in Vhalantru’s secret dungeon, but still an exceptional construction.  But Dannel’s attention was only partially upon his practice, and the song that filled him when he drew his bow in anger was discordant.  He was distracted.  Mole materialized right in front of him, a bit disappointed that Dannel didn’t jump.  Mole had been trying out her new ring all afternoon, and already Hodge had threatened her with dire consequences if she came within so much as twenty paces of him.  Without turning his attention from his examination of the bow, Dannel said, “You stepped in something, and left tracks.” “Eeew,” Mole said, looking down at her boots.  Dannel ignored her, looking at the target as though he could transfix it with just his stare, then he shrugged slightly and unstrung his bow. “Arun and Hodge aren’t back yet?“No,” the elf replied.  “Zenna?”“She has not returned.”  “Well... she didn’t leave a note this time, but it’s too soon to worry, I think.  She probably just went to Saradush again for some more scrolls.  I mean, she’s been distant and all, ever since... well, for a while.  She’ll be back, she knows what’s at stake...”“With everything arrayed against us, I am not willing to wait.  This morning I  asked Jenya to scry her, and to try and reach her with a sending, Dannel said.  We’ll have an answer tonight, after the meeting.”Mole made a face.  “We still gotta go to that?  Bunch of nobles... booo-ring!” Dannel’s features were tight, betraying the depths of his worry of Zenna, but he forced a smile.  It had only been a day since Zenna had vanished, and Mole was probably right, but Dannel could not shake the sick feeling in his gut that something ill had befallen her.  They’d already had one group of assassins seek them out... When she did come back, he was going to kill her. “Those nobles will have a lot to say about Cauldron’s future,” Dannel pointed out.  “Besides, you had fun at the Cusp of Sunrise that last time.”“That’s true.  That Vanderboren... man, you remember the look on his face when I rolled the twenty?”  But Mole’s grin faded too, after a moment, as her thoughts too drifted back to her friend. Where was Zenna?</blockquote>

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