A particularly rugged looking gent, whose gloved hands made even my thick dwarven digits look dainty, stepped forward for the adventurers.

"Hi, I'm Srijan, an associate member with skills for finding loot. Been helping out this lot for a few months now." He jerked a thumb back at the others in a teasingly longsuffering fashion earning a few light-hearted jeers in return. "Between the Quartermaster and I we're fairly sure the stuff left on the table is valuable, but we're not exactly sure what for. While I've got some idea what parts are most worth harvesting, given the rarity of some of the creatures and having porters with a dimensional box, we mostly just tried to grab as much as we could and sort it out here."

I nodded, "Yeah, I can see how tryin' to carve stuff up in a sandstorm might not be ideal. I'll take a gander and try to work out what some of this might be suited for."

"Great, then we can sort the taxes, get packed up, and hit the tavern," his eager grin was matched by many of his companions. "I'll start you off with the one we were having most trouble with. This snake was damn near invisible in the sand, and as you can see, we had to pretty much impale the thing to stop it. Not that we could hit it with much, it was a slippery little bugger."

The snake itself was small as monsters go, only about as long as my wrist to elbow with a gaping wound near the centre that looked surprisingly clean of blood. The mouth was closed but given its size, it seemed a good bet the thing was venomous rather than a constrictor, though of course magic, qi, and the like, presented other options. The mottled terracotta of its scales suggested its camouflage was at least partially mundane, and combined with its small size and a sandstorm I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to spot it in time.

Taking a breath, I stepped nearer and focused my appraisal skill upon it. Only to be surprised as I felt resistance. I'd felt something like this once before, but that was because the scarab-

"It's still alive!" I shouted jumping back.

Everyone around me was reacting quickly, drawing weapons, but snakes were practically designed for sudden strikes, and given how little I knew about dungeons, perhaps literally so in this case. The snake's eyes flashed open, a brilliant gold and it lunged off the table towards me, fangs wide. In sheer panic as the world seemed to slow down, I inanely noted that the fangs were indeed impressive for its size. The points dewy and rapidly approaching. None of the adventurers or soldiers reacted in time, but Taffy, moving like a blur, batted it out of the air.

The deep growl that rumbled from Taffy's throat as the snake smacked and tumbled against the ground, felt like it belonged to a much, much larger creature and about half of those present took an instinctive step back. The other half practically minced the snake with axes, spears, bolts of fire and ice and practically any other weapon or offensive skill that could reach.

I bent and gave Taffy some soothing pets, though how much of it was for him and how much was to steady my own pounding heart I wasn't sure. "Thanks buddy, I'da been in a real mess without you." He just nuzzled against me in response, keeping one eye out for further danger.

"Is it dead?" someone asked.

"Damn well better be after that." Another replied.

I had to admire the caution; the thing was practically a bloody smear and everyone still stood tense with weapons ready. Steadying myself with Taffy's reassuring presence, I focused my skill once more. There was no resistance this time which confirmed it, and little response in general, though given how little remained I wasn't surprised.

"Yeah, you got it, thanks. From what little I could tell the thing was qi and stamina based, which is probably how it held on so long and could still attack. Not going to be able to do much with it now."

"Damn, I get its focused on both vital and physical attributes, but to survive with a hole in it for that long? It must have been real potent." one of the adventurers commented.

"Aye," Srijat cut in, "that would explain its value. Unfortunately, we're going to need a way to kill the damn things without totally destroying them first." He turned to me, " Are you sure it's just the fundamental elements? Venom breath can get nasty." The last was said with a shiver from the weathered adventurer.

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"Not this time, but beware of variants." The guildmaster said with utter confidence causing most of us to jump having not noticed her arrival and still being on edge.

One adventurer nearly threw a dagger before stopping himself at the last moment and turning pale as a sheet, though the guildmaster was unphased. Only after passing her scrutinising golden gaze over the table as well as the assembled soldiers and adventurers she finally broke the tense silence that followed her announcement.

"Nothing else is alive, but I expect greater care in future from all parties. I should not need to remind you, but anyone who allows a dungeon species to take root within the Kaltaran Empire shall surely die, such is the emperor's will."

There was an uncomfortable weight to the statement spoken as simple truth. No one responded, I doubt anyone dared. The storm raging outside the sheltered area, an annoyance in proceedings up till now, suddenly felt ominous. The quartermaster had returned somewhere in the kerfuffle and the guildmasters gaze lingered on him a moment longer, some silent conversation playing out between them.

"Still, you all reacted admirably once the danger was revealed. Good job on that Vaul." She bent down beside me and in a sudden relaxation of her official manner gave Taffy a good pet as she added, "And of course Taffy, you were brilliant as usual. Quite the growl you had going there, need something for your throat?"

Taffy shook his head and gave an enthusiastic bark before relaxing into the scritches. With that, the spell seemed to be broken, and murmuring broke out. The guildmaster soon departed, presumably returning to whatever work she had been doing before her sudden appearance.

Catching Srijan's eye I said, "I suppose I should probably take a look at the rest of the stuff, if you don't mind walking me through it?"

***

The rest of the items while valuable, proceeded smoothly. Most notable for me were the corpses of some desert tigresses, or more specifically their pelts. While the skin was unusually dark, their short hairs were specially designed to trap grains of sand between them to help the tigresses blend into their environment. Better yet, the pelt was surprisingly difficult to cut for its weight, and the creatures seemingly had little difficulty regulating their temperature in the hot environment. I had high hopes that once properly treated, they might be the perfect leather for Ha-Na's armour.

Of course, all that would mean nothing if the adventurers were unwilling to sell, though I could try posting a hunting job for the creatures I supposed. Thankfully as soon as I expressed an interest, they were quite eager. Partially, because it was such a big group with so many auxiliary members both regular and specially brought on for this delve, so money was just easier to split than loot. However, they were also eager to thank me/apologise for what happened with the snake. That, I had more mixed feelings about. It wasn't like they had intentionally endangered me, and I doubted the snake would have gotten too much further regardless of its skills. However, it would mostly benefit Ha-Na rather than me anyway, and it was easier just to roll with it.

It also helped that there was so much loot to go around. Even the small percentage I helped evaluate (though it was on the more valuable end of the loot they collected) was worth almost as much as many parties brought back from a regular delve. Clearly the combination of unusual conditions within the dungeon and talented auxiliaries with the right equipment was highly lucrative. Though of course the party had to be plenty skilled themselves to not just end up dead, given how much of their loot had been trying to kill them. They'd taken a risk, and for this group, the gamble had paid off handsomely.

However, not everyone was so fortunate. As I was about to leave, another party stumbled from the dungeon, battered and bloody. The conscious members' speech was slurring and disjointed to the point of being near incoherent as they mumbled something about flying, flaming, sentient stones. The guildmaster swiftly reappeared, stabilising them with a burst of golden light before rushing them to Argat.

Finding out if those stone monsters were still present in the dungeon once the storms calmed would be a priority. Hopefully once the other party recovered, we’d get a less garbled account. A few members of the successful team wanted to go back in immediately and hunt the creatures, but their leader was firm that they need rest and their cook was quick to add that they’d feel the difference once the buff he gave them for the last push out of the dungeon fell off. Sure enough, as I looked around the group, while they all looked as if, well, they'd fought through a sandstorm, a few of the members were visibly flagging, almost falling asleep on their feet.

It got me thinking, I'd gotten so used to the benefits of Bartan's food, even in such a short time, I had to wonder what it would be like to try and live without it having experienced it. Then I decided I'd much rather think about all the delicious things he might make with the many potential ingredients the party brought back from the dungeon. Mm-hmm, leopard would be tough, so maybe he'd slow roast or broil it with some kind of spice blend...