They look around and see themselves in the inn they stayed last night.
“This not where kobold want go,” Bartimus says confused.
They look around the inn they stayed at and they spot a fait blue glow at their feet in a circle filled with runes. They have teleported into a standard teleportation circle, or maybe not so standard. The circle’s runes are a little different. The runes seem to be used to force teleportations made within a mile to come to this circle.
“Circle,” Ghort says shaking his head, “well we are back.”
“Oh, I am so glad you got here,” the innkeeper says quickly.
The inn is dark and the a few candles are lit to help illuminate the room.
“Do you want something to eat?” the innkeeper asks.
“Yes please,” Jerrus says quickly.
Everyone else quickly realizes how hungry they are and nod in agreement.
“I’ll bring something out in a few minutes,” she says and walks towards the kitchen, “we still only have the two rooms, and a total of four beds, but they are yours if you want them.”
“Yes, thank you,” Ghort says nodding, “that will be nice.”
Ghort motions towards a large table and sits down. Everyone else follows suit save Tomb who stands awkwardly in the circle.
“Come on,” Ghort pulls out a chair and pats it, “sit.”
Tomb comes to the table and sits down and looks down at the table.
“I don’t have any money for the food,” Tomb says softly.
Bartimus and Jerrus laugh.
“You are not paying,” Ghort chuckles, “you are my guest and I won’t charge you. But down to some other business,” he turns to the group at large, “Leena, empty out our stash. It needs to be sorted properly before we sell it tomorrow.”
Leena glares at Tomb before turning out the bag of holding onto the table. A good portion of the table is suddenly covered in copper and silver jewelry, miscellaneous weapons, some gems, and various other trinkets.
“Haiewe, let’s set all non-magical items here for now,” Ghort pulls out a large normal sack and places it on the table. The two then detect magic on all the items on the table. Most of the jewelry are put in the bag, but they are left with seven silver amulets, two silver rings, and a bracelet made of copper and silver. After the jewelry they sort the few weapons they received and one dagger is magical, one long bow, and the two quivers. The trinkets are all ordinary.
“Well, Leena,” Ghort starts, “you’re good with a bow so I suggest you take the bow and one of the quivers.” He hands the short bow and one quiver over as the innkeeper comes back with a large tray expertly balanced with all the food, and multiple mugs of a fruit punch.
“Thanks,” Jerrus says quickly, “I didn’t realize how long we were down there.”
“Food tasty,” Bartimus squeaks after taking a few bites.
“Have you seen anything like these amulets before?” Ghort asks.
The innkeeper looks at the amulets and shakes her head.
“Sorry, no,” she shakes her head, “you should go to the mercantile tomorrow.”
“And, is there a church nearby?” Ghort asks.
“Yes, but they are closed for the night as well,” she says.
Ghort pats Tomb on the back. Then starts eating. Tomb devours the food but, even though Leena looks like she might say something, everyone remains quiet until everyone is finished eating. They filter into their rooms. Leena takes one room to herself. They move one bed into the second room, and Ghort sleeps on the floor.
“I don’t fit on these beds anyways,” Ghort says reassuring Tomb.
Tomb keeps the three bags close to him when he falls asleep.
In the morning they move the bed back, and go down for breakfast. They eat potatoes, sausage, and boiled eggs.
“Well, let’s go sell our catch, so to speak,” Ghort says.
“I was hoping I could bury my friends stuff first,” Tomb says.
“You don’t need us to for that,” Leena says roughly.
Tomb looks down and clutches the three bags tightly. Ghort looks down at Tomb for a moment than then hands the bag of unmagical jewelry to Leena.
“You go with Jerrus to sell this stuff,” Ghort says softly, “Haiewe and I will go with Tomb to the church.”
“Fine,” Leena says and takes the bag.
They all get up from the table, Leena and Jerrus go to the mercantile and Bartimus and Ghort find the church with Tomb.
Tomb walks into the church and looks at the two clerics that work there and starts breathing a little heavy.
Ghort puts his hand on Tomb’s shoulder and gives him a reassuring shake.
“You can do this,” Ghort whispers.
Tomb nods as the head cleric walks towards the group.
“Can I help you with something?” The cleric asks.
“I was hoping we c . . . could bury my friends,” Tomb says and holds up the bags.
The cleric smiles warmly and nods.
“You came from the temple?” the cleric asks.
“Yes,” Tomb says and nods stiffly.
“Well, we do have a graveyard for visitors to use,” the cleric says, “but we do ask to look at the belonging before we bury them. Some items should not be buried.”
“Okay,” Tomb says softly and holds out the three bags.
“Thomas, go dig a hold for a temple burial,” the cleric says quickly.
“Yes sir,” the younger cleric rushes outside.
The older cleric then takes the bags and puts them down softly on a table and open the first one. The bag is full of twigs, bits of string, stray cloth, old copper coins, wire of different kinds, feathers, a change of small clothes, and a bracelet.
“That was Krek’s,” Tomb choaks.
“It all looks fine, but I don’t think we should bury this bracelet,” the cleric says holding it out for Tomb, “It is a magical item and the spell will cause problems while the item decays.”
“Haiewe says Kreg would want Tomb to wear the pretty,” Bartimus says jumping up and down to see the items on the table.
Tomb smiles at Bartimus and then takes the bracelet from the cleric. Tomb puts the bracelet on and holds his hand over the silver band, his lips trembling.
The cleric closes the Kobold’s bag and puts it aside. The next bag to be opened is Tomb’s cleric friend. The cleric sifts through the bag and then pulls out the holy symbol.
“I don’t have a problem burying the rest of the items, but it would be a sacrilege to the cleric that wore this symbol,” the cleric explains, “I can hold onto it and pass it onto another cleric of Deneir or you can hold onto it yourself.”
Tomb seems to be thinking hard about the statement.
Ghort and Bartimus pat Tomb as he thinks.
“Give it to another follower of Deneir if you see one,” Tomb says finally.
“Very good,” the cleric closes the bag and opens up the last bag.
The bag has a few daggers, a broken bow, some more clothes, a broken inkwell, a journal (Tomb seems to hold his breath as the cleric flips through the journal), multiple letters, and a few silver rings.
“Did you read the journal or the letters?” the cleric asks.
“No,” Tomb shakes his head.
“You should,” the cleric puts the letters down in front of Tomb and then walks away to a little chest and takes out some envelopes, a wax candle, and a seal.
Tomb opens the journal, and finds that it is a journal of his journey, the writer, Seth, says how he is happy to have all the people in the party. How each and every one is like family. How Kreg the kobold is funny and a pleasure to be around. How their cleric Markus’ request to find a library was a thrilling adventure. And how Tomb was young and very much like a younger brother to everyone else in the party and is a joy to be with.
When Tomb finished reading the journal his eyes are wet, and his tears have spotted the last few pages he read. He pulls the journal tight to his chest and smiles before putting it down and taking a great sniff. Tomb looks over the letters, they are letters addressed to Seth’s family. They state that if Seth dies on his journey that he must have died among friends and he is certain that the letters would make their way to his family in the end. Each one is addressed to whom the letter should be shipped to.
“We should follow his wishes and mail the letters,” the cleric says calmly and lights the candle.
Tomb nods.
“Did you want to address the envelopes?” the cleric asks and puts down an inkwell and quill.
Tomb reaches out, but his hands are trembling too much to be able to hold the pen. He then waves his hand towards the cleric.
“I understand,” the cleric turns the letters around and address the envelopes.
Tombs turns to Ghort and the half-orc, kneels and pull the tabaxi into a hug. Bartimus wraps his little arms around the tabaxi’s legs. Tomb sobs.
The scratching of the quill stops and the cleric puts each letter into the envelope and seals each one.
“I’ll be certain to have these send out as soon as the next messenger comes to town,” the cleric says after a long wait.
Tomb pushes away from Ghort. Tomb then wipes his eyes and nose on sleeve and nods in understanding.
“I think I’ll keep the journal too,” Tomb says with a heavily choked voice.
“The hole is dug,” the other cleric says and he must have come it very quietly as even the main cleric is surprised to see him.
Tomb puts away the journal and the picks up the three bags.
“Follow me,” The cleric leads them to a large field, with very few graves.
There is one large hole with a blank wooden cross marking the little plot.
The cleric gives a rousing eulogy. Making it sound like he has done this many more times than there are graves. Ghort and Bartimus wait patiently as Tomb fills in the grave and packs down the soil. Tomb hands over the shovel to the clerics and stands and tries to write the names on the cross.
“We’ll carve the names into the wood properly later,” the cleric assures Tomb.
Tomb takes a deep shaky breath and nods before turning to Ghort and Bartimus.
“I can’t tell you want you should do next,” Ghort says softly.
“Are you going back into the temple?” Tomb asks.
“Yes,” Ghort nods, “We went down to read books in the library and didn’t get a chance to do so.”
“I want to go with you,” Tomb says rather quickly.
Ghort and Bartimus look at Tomb for a moment.
“I won’t say no, but we aren’t going today,” Ghort says, “I think we need to make plans for going down there.”
“I want to avenge my friends,” Tomb says fingering the bracelet and clutching the journal tightly.
“Kobold be happy to fight with Tomb,” Bartimus says happily.
“Yes, but we need to go to the mercantile, I forgot to send them with the amulets we found,” Ghort says.
Tomb nods and they walk to the mercantile. Upon entering the can hear Leena complaining.
“That is far too little for so much jewelry,” Leena says with a raised voice.
“We get this kind of jewelry all the time and it never sells as well as people think. It’s mostly copper, and it’s tarnished and will take more money and time to make presentable than it’s worth,” the man says back.
“He’s right Leena,” Jerrus says trying to help out, “I told you it’s not worth much before we got here.”
“But maybe we can make it worth a little more,” Ghort says calling over everyone.
The three strides to the front register and Ghort pulls out the seven amulets and he sets the amulets on the table.
The merchant, looks at the amulets for a moment and then pulls out an odd-looking jar and puts it next to the amulets.
“I will give you ten gold for each amulet,” he says and also pulls out some coins.
“Well, do you know what kind of amulets they are?” Ghort asks.
“Yes. These are protection from good amulets,” the merchant says, “they protect undead from holy spells. They are a real pain the in butt.”
“Yeah, then we would like to sell them,” Ghort says quickly. “And we have some miscellaneous weapons to sell too.” Ghort puts down the non-magical weapons down as well. “We do have a few magical items, but I haven’t identified those yet.”
Ghort casts a spell in each of the two rings, the bracelet, and the long bow. A ring of jumping, and a ring of water walking. Considering they are going back into the temple they are not really worth keeping and Ghort puts them on the counter for sale. The bracelet is a bracelet of spell storing. Ghort murmurs admiring, and hands it to Bartimus.
“It can hold one spell of level three or lower and can cast that spell once,” Ghort says smiling.
Bartimus takes the bracelet, and since it doesn’t fit his arms he wears it on his tail. Tomb smiles.
“That’s what Krek did,” he says softly.
“It fit on tail better,” Haiewe says shrugging.
Ghort finds that the longbow is just a standard light magical weapon.
“This is just a standard low level magic bow,” Ghort hold it up, “Leena, Jerrus, did either of you want it?”
“It’s too big for me,” Leena says shaking her head.
“And I’m not good with a bow,” Jerrus says waving his hands.
Ghort then looks to Tomb.
“Did you want it?”
“No, I’m better with my fists,” Tomb says after a moment of consideration.
Ghort puts it down on the counter as well.
“Okay, so with everything here,” the merchant tilts his head and writes some figures down on a piece of paper.
“And this one quiver of holding,” Ghort starts to put in on the counter, “Leena, did you take all the arrows?”
“Yes, they’re all in my quiver,” Leena says nodding.
“Alright,” Ghort finishes putting it down on the counter.
The merchant scribbles another number on the paper,
“So, all together I’ll give you 388 gold for all of this,” he says pulling out move gold.
“I’m good with that, but we will need to buy some more stuff first,” Ghort says nodding, “Do you have any general antidotes?”
“You have that salve,” the merchant says, “each jar had quite a few uses.”
“We already had to use most of those,” Ghort says frowning.
The merchant sighs and pulls out six bottles of antidote.
“They are the only thing that we use regularly, so they are twenty gold each,” the merchant says.
“Just four then,” Ghort says and the merchant put two away.
“Haiewe, was that our only scroll of teleportation?”
Bartimus nods, “But kobold know circle telport to take us to inn.”
“Great,” Ghort claps his hands.
“But kobold want see other spells,” Bartimus says and scurries off.
Tomb follows Bartimus.
“I didn’t have any teleport spells,” the merchant says.
“We had it from a previous adventure,” Ghort says and then looks towards Tomb and Bartimus, “but we figured that we needed to use.”
“Did you find him in the temple?” the merchant asks.
“He was on the third floor in the library,” Ghort says, “he was probably in there for weeks.”
The merchant whistles. Tomb looks away ashamed.
“Do you have some jerky? I mean rations are good and all but dried meat would be nice.” Jerrus asks.
“I have some in the back,” the merchant says turning around a little.
“Sell us all you can, and do you know when you would get more of that ointment in?” Ghort asks.
“I expect we would get another shipment in soon, but it usually comes in at the end of the month,” the merchant says, “I suspect that would be in about a week, maybe a little longer.”
Bartimus comes to the counter with two scrolls both marked simply as instant door.
“I don’t think you want that,” the merchant says, “all it does is make a door. It’s not dimension door.”
“Actually, I think that is exactly what we want,” Ghort says.
“You can have them,” the merchant says, “I’ve had them for years and no one has ever wanted them. But the dried, meat, and the potions, would come to 87 gold.”
“Dried meat isn’t worth that much,” Leena says.
“I have about ten pounds,” he retorts.
“Yes, I would say that’s fair then,” Ghort says and Leena reluctantly nods.
“Good,” He then opens the pot and an immense heat fills the area and he drops the seven amulets into the pot.
“What are you doing?” Leena asks sharply.
“I’m destroying them,” he says simply, “with what they do, I don’t want them to be used by more undead.” He then reached in with some tongs and pulls out a silver ingot.
“He did buy them so he is free to do with them what he will,” Ghort says, “and we know that if we see any of those amulets that we have ten gold in our hands.”
“Fine,” Leena says reluctantly.
“Then you will be left with three hundred and one gold,” he counts out the gold and then states moving all the items off the counter.
“Back to the to the inn then?” Jerrus asks.
“Yes,” Ghort says with a nod.
The merchant goes back into the back room and comes back with a heavy sack of dried meat. The party takes the sack and head back to the inn. They order lunch and while the innkeeper is gone. They start talking about plans for the next day.
“We should be able to reach the library quicker tomorrow,” Ghort says.
“Aren’t we going today?” Tomb says quickly.
“You’re the last one I would think would want to go back there,” Leena says.
“Yeah,” Jerrus says nodding, “Have a peaceful day then we can go.”
“Besides, we need you to tell us what you know,” Ghort says looking down at Tomb.