I was left staring at the corpse of the Goblin chief, Why was I the last one to adapt in killing these creatures? Even Bea was fine with killing Goblins, Ghimli was elated, Amanda looked the same, but I? I was in shock. All that speech that I gave Ghimli was good for naught, I was still with my mind on earth.

“Snap out of it, Doc” Bea knelled by my side. “We have to go through the corpses and cut some ears as proof.” I just nodded and started to rip the chief’s ear on autopilot.

How someone cut another creature’s ear in autopilot I don’t know, but it was how it felt. I didn’t think that it was another living being a few seconds ago as I dug my sword at the base of his skull and ripped the whole side off. I felt sick, but only mentally. My stomach was fine, even with all the smell in that cave.

“Good. I think that’s all of them. Contract complete.” Amanda said.

“How about this?” Ghimli pointed at the chair that the Chief was sitting on. Without the creature I could see better where he was sitting, it was a chest.

“Good eye, Ghimli!” Bea said, leaping forward to the chest.

“Wait!” I said, as she reached to open. “Check for traps first. You should always check for traps.”

Bea looked puzzled at me, but examined the chest anyway. She tapped on the sides, smelled the seams and lifted just enough for a wire to enter. “Good catch, Doc. There’s a trap. I should be able to… Oh… shit!”

A loud explosion and smoke took over the closed space, I felt a hand reach me and run to the exit, a couple more arms reaching and we booked to the exit.

“Sorry, guys” Bea said, coughing.

“It’s alright. At least it wasn’t deadly. Sad to leave all the loot behind” I said, trying to comfort her.

“Ahem… Who said anything about leaving the loot?” Ghimli said, holding the large chest under his arm.

“You’re Stupid!” Amanda said, with a smile that didn’t match the words. “If the chest was still trapped…”

“But it wasn’t. Come on, little sis, one more try?”

Bea nodded and went back to work, she started where the trap was triggered on the first time, the thin metal running through all the seams and catching on what appeared to be the trigger of the trap, she cut every single one of them. Until she spoke with confidence “Clear!”

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Now with good light I could see what looked like a shipping crate, different from the classical image of a treasure chest that I had in my mind. It was a simple box made of wood with a hinge on the back and a clasp on the front. The clasp was mingled, courtesy of the goblins, but the hinge still worked fine until Ghimli yanked the top off.

Inside there were some coin pouches, some weapons and armors, all suited for Goblins, It was a pile of junk that we had to sit through to find any real treasure.

“I guess we should get back to the city” Amanda said.

“I disagree, Amanda” I said. “It’s really late and we can find some bandits on the road. We’re not in fight condition. Maybe we can camp on the tunnels where the smell is okay-ish and get back on the first light?”

She looked at me and smile. “Good plan. I guess I’ve found some good wood for a fire, Ghimli, a hand?”

Bea was still looking inside the chest, moving every piece of loot out of the way and examining the box itself.

“It’s everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m just curious.”

“About what?”

“How did I knew how to find and disarm traps? And where is the trap that I triggered before?”

They were both genuine questions, I used all my D&D knowledge to answer the best I could. “I believe that were arcane traps, they were never physically in the chest, maybe some runes or something like that. About how you could do it, that I don’t know. It’s all really weird.”

“Yeah. I just hope I know enough to find the deadly one next time, I was lucky.”

“We all need some lucky shots once in a while. Come on, it’s been a long day, we should rest. Once we lit the fire, we can go through the spoils.” she nodded and we picked up some small branches and twigs to start our campfire.

Amanda and Ghimli were not far behind us, Amanda with the same kind of twigs that we had but Ghimli was carrying a huge trunk. We lit the fire around the trunk, the fire would consume it slowly, giving warmth and light for the night.

I took first watch with Amanda, without darkvision, I wouldn’t be in any help without the campfire light. She waited until Ghimli started to snore and sat next to me.

“Good job today.” She said

“Thanks, so do you. You’re a good leader.”

“It was your plan.”

“What?” I asked, puzzled.

“First Campaign we played together, this exact same scenario played out, and you even volunteer to be the bait” She smiled.

“It was on paper, Amanda. We had a new DM that could make some choices and our characters would be safe. This is real.” I was dumbstruck, I remembered the plan, and almost didn’t work out. If it wasn’t the first session, a TPK wouldn’t be out of question.

“But it worked, didn’t it? The greatest difference is that this” she pointed all around us. “Is not turn base. There’s no initiative tracker or monster balance. We’re on our own, true, but we’re not bound to some kind of balancing encounter either.”

I frowned. “It was risky, though.”

“Yes, and we need to take risks. Like I said, it was your plan, I just had the guts to put it into action. You’re the Leader, Doc. I was just your second in command.”

“No, Amanda. You’re the leader. I just make plans.”

“If that’s what you want, I’m glad to follow your plans and put them to action, but you can’t freeze like today. It has to be the best Doc at the whole time. Deal?”

“Deal.”

She rested her head on my shoulders and I could smell her hair, even with all the grim and soot, it still smelled amazing, like a flower camp after a light rain. She lifted her head and I could swear that she had blushed.

“I should look at our backs. Good talk, Doc.”

“Yeah. Good talk.”