OOC: Apologies, I skipped over you giving Charles his money, handing over the gift for his son, and getting paid for the large rock and your service. In all you get 1650 gp

As the landscape becomes less purple and somehow off-kilter slowly transitioning to something more familiar you know your journey as almost at an end. Grey welcomes the ability to lounge in the wagon and recover from his ordeal - the bites leave impressive scars. You have a noticeably easier ability to breathe and wildlife becomes much more apparent - birds, insects, a herd of deer, and a lone wolf.

The wagon clatters along with the thump thump of yackle trots. A few more days pass before you come into sight of Krawl.

It is near sundown when you get close to the gates. A sigh of relief escapes as you feel at home once more. But it doesn't last long. You notice a figure looking you over then dashing into the city.

 During our wagon travels back to 'the big city'... Ember will use his healing spells to heal himself and to help out Grey recover.

*ok so splitting up 1650 gold for the 4 of us is 825 per pair, or 412 for 2 of us and 413 for the other 2*

Quote from The_DragonTamer >>

*ok so splitting up 1650 gold for the 4 of us is 825 per pair, or 412 for 2 of us and 413 for the other 2*

 Or you could throw it into the party inventory =)

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from The_DragonTamer >>

*ok so splitting up 1650 gold for the 4 of us is 825 per pair, or 412 for 2 of us and 413 for the other 2*

 Or you could throw it into the party inventory =)

*oh yeah that's a thing now*

Party Stash!..... wait... what do you mean 'Not THAT kind of party?'

OOC: You still have small pieces you could try to grind up. What could possibly go wrong?

The sun is shining brightly in there are birds singing in the breeze. The familiar smells of civilization come to you as you pass through the gates of Krawl. It's good to be ho...

"Off with their heads!!"  shrieks a vaguely familiar voice. You see Lady Johay standing with her hands on her hips, full of righteous indignation. Behind her are a dozen city guards more or less assembled for action with halberds in hand.

"Hey, aren't those the heroes of the court?"

"Yeah, I think so..."

"What is that old bags problem anyway?" a whisper overheard.

Lady Johay glares at the people nearby as well as the guards, "Those..those Criminals killed my poor helpless son! Cut him down and left his body to be devoured by vermin!" She shoves one of the guards forward, "Kill them now! or arrest them! or take them to the dungeon!"

The guardsman passes off his halberd to another guard and walks closer with his hands open, "Look, I know you guys are good folk, but Lady Johay expects us to do something. I don't want a ruckus, so probably be best if you just come with us quiet like."

Alexia shrugs. "Well, I guess turning ourselves in is an option. We'll probably get a fair trial with an impartial judg-" She begins to dissolve into laughter at her own joke.

Grey steps next to Alexia, and looks at the guard, lowering her voice. "If you know Lady Johay, then you know that her son was no innocent, quite the opposite. Give us another option good sir as I will not give up my arms to a tyrant."

The guard sergeant nods and rubs his neck, "Alright how about this, we'll just hang on to your arms until we get to the palace. The lady's an important member of the council and we gotta make a show to keep her happy. Don't worry, we ain't lockin you up or anything." You can see that he is more than a bit fearful of the lady and just wants to get away from her.

The Wiz is unsure how to handle the situation. Some dude died? Eaten after by rats? Wild. "Hey lady, that can't be right. I met these guys who rescued me from vermin. That's like, the opposite." 

Alexia whispers to the group. "I can hold the weapons and hide them. Just don't let anyone steal the robot."

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

The Wiz is unsure how to handle the situation. Some dude died? Eaten after by rats? Wild. "Hey lady, that can't be right. I met these guys who rescued me from vermin. That's like, the opposite." 

 "Kill that one first! I'll reward you richly for his head!" she continues shouting insults and demeaning remarks as you are led away.

There is no problem retrieving your weapons once you enter the palace and even though you are now once again armed, the guard seem to relax. They too are happy to be away from the cries of the harpy. They clap you on the shoulders after you agree(?) to not cause trouble while you are here, then they file out.

"Excuse me madam and sirs?" a well dressed aid calls to you. "We were informed of your return to Krawl and The Wizard Sasindideous would like an audience. If you'll follow me?"

You follow the aid to what appears to be a large well stocked mage's laboratory: racks of various liquids, powders, and animal parts, tables laden with bubbling beakers and tubes of colorful gases. Only the center of the room is clear. There you see a gold and platinum teleportation/summoning circle embedded in the stone floor with a bed? in the center of it. From across the room you see Sasindideous chuckling as he comes closer. "I heard of your return! Don't worry, I don't plan to disintegrate you or anything, but that Johay can be a ***** sometimes." He waves his hands in the air, "She's going to demand that somebody DO something to you." he rubs his hands, "I have a different idea."

"Haha!" he pushes the bed to the side "Heh, yeah sorry about that, I was uh, trying something." He picks up a pair of flasks, one containing a black, thick and smelly liquid, the other with a swirling cloud of sand.

"Alright so here's the deal, I know you're very capable adventurers and there is a volcano I want you to investigate. There are some things in there that I am interested in. I can send you to a place near the volcano with this!" He sloshes the black fluid. "Now, after you're gone, I'll tell Lady Johay I used this instead," shaking the flask of sand, "it would send you to the Sands of Innocence. Terrible place, nobody was ever able to cross it and prove their innocence."

"We can't really just let you walk out of the palace. Killing nobles is bad business. But If you're missing for a while I can say I punished you proper, when in actuality we're doing each other a favor. Right?" He hands you a familiar recall amulet, "Same like last time. You get the two artifacts out of the volcano and come on back. You can keep anything else you find. Good deal right?"

"Better than killing everyone on the way out. I'm in."

Ember

Before being shuffled away to some exotic new place, Ember made it a point to fly to The Wizard Sasindideous and presented the stone chips, giving the history of where they came from and the larger rock which was sold, etc. etc.

"... and he said it was kind of dangerous but I wasn't certain it was something I should hold on to.  And I figured someone like YOU would have a better idea of what they might be good for," Ember continued explaining as he dropped the splinters into Sasindideous' hand.

The Wiz nods at the offer. "So we have to just like, drink your mystery juice and we keep our heads? That sounds like a pretty radical offer to me." The Wiz grabs the flask and takes a hearty drink while everyone else engages in their other business. "See you on the other side, dudes."

The wizard's eyes widen when he sees the stones, "Oh yes, I know of this. Be careful, these are pieces of raw magic and chaos." He gets a metal (maybe lead) bowl and with your permission puts the pieces into it with tongs. "Too much exposure can cause warping of your mind and body...HOWEVER, if you refine it, it can be a source of great arcane power. You are familiar with spells which require special ingredients in order to cast them? The refined stone can be used in place of them and can increase the power of the spell. It is also possible to restore your inner mana with a liquid made from the powder, cautiously of course. If you drink too much your mind explodes." he chuckles.

After examining the pieces for a few minutes he asks, "Would you care to part with these for a price?"

Grey raises his eye at the mention of a Volcano, intrigued. What are these items you need?