I couldn’t see what Cambrin was pointing out. It just looked like rough cut earthen wall and mildewed tile. Cambrin and Ceylas, however, both made their way over to a section of stone where it curved as the corridor turned west. Ceylas leaned forward, running her fingers along the rock. She nodded. “Yes, I see it.” She nudged away a seam of dirt. It crumbled and a patch of slate fell away into her hand. She lowered the sheet of stone to the floor and then reached into the hidden wall compartment and drew out a wooden chest about the size of a large jewelry box.
Just hefting the chest left her puffing. Her face grew red as she turned and dumped the chest on the floor between us. It must have been pretty heavy. Cambrin carefully examined it without touching it (Investigation: 8+4=12). “I do not see any traps but that looks like a sturdy lock.”
“I’m on it,” Ceylas said, pulling a set of tinkerer’s tools from a pocket of her backpack. She set about jumbling the fine length of a set of pliers against the lock but couldn’t get the mechanism to turn (Dexterity Check (Thieves’ Tools) [disadvantage]: [8,11]+1=9).
“Let me try,” I said, reaching into the left pocket of my haversack and pulling forth a set of theives’ tools. I knelt as she’d done and worked the tools in the mechanism (Dexterity Check (Thieves' Tools): 3+2+2=7) but had even less luck than she did. “Damn it,” I snarled as the hook on the tool snagged. I jimmied carefully to get it loose again without breaking it and sat back. “So we try the hard way?”
Ceylas had already drawn a crowbar from her backpack and as I moved out of her way she wedged it against the lock of the chest. She was waving Cambrin forward but then she looked at me and tilted her head. “Actually, maybe you should do this part. You look much stronger than either of us.”
I nodded, frowning at the crowbar but gripped it and positioned myself so I could put my whole body weight into the leverage. I leaned in and the wood around the lock began to splinter. Cambrin stepped up behind me, adding his strength to mine (Strength Check [help advantage]: [16,19]+1=20). The metal shaft of the lock snapped off. The lock tumbled down, leaving the latch broken above it.
I handed the crowbar back to Ceylas then went to lift the lid but paused, “Is it safe?” I asked Cambrin.
He nodded. “I think so.” Even so, he and Ceylas both stepped back several feet.
I scowled, not liking their lack of confidence, and glanced down around the edges of the chest to check for myself (Investigation: 18+1=19). Not seeing any signs of traps or markings, I raised the lid, looked inside, and gasped at the literal hord of gems and coin within. There had to be over a thousand copper and as many silver mixed with dozens of gold pieces. And was that a diamond? I picked up one of the two beautifully cut stones. It wasn’t very big, about the size of my pinky finger nail, but it looked stunning. I wondered if it would sparkle in the light.
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Ceylas gazed into the chest, her mouth gasping open. Then she swallowed and her lips turned down as she gazed over to Cambrin with sad eyes. “I don’t think I can carry all that,” she said sadly.
I tilted my head. She was right, the coin alone had to weigh 60 pounds. “I could probably fit most of it into my haversack,” I told them. The haversack was a gift Hayvik had given Lo’Kryn two years ago when he’d had his age of adulthood celebration. Because it was so important to remain nimble and unencumbered when performing the careful and precise fighting styles he taught Hayvik had made a request to the Palladium Rise that all monk initiates be gifted a haversack when they reach maturity and are able to be called to quest on behalf of the Rise. “Actually, my pack is pretty awesome,” I told the others. “It can hold a lot but doesn’t weigh much at all. Hayvik gave it to me.”
“I know what your pack does,” Ceylas snapped, her gaze flicked away from mine and her brother put his hand on her shoulder.
“We have an alternative, Ceylas. I made a request to the Rise a few months ago regarding an account with the North Quarter Bank of Kiram Avor. You know how I’ve been requesting shipments from there for my research. It made sense to have an easy way to transfer funds.” He pulled his backpack off his shoulder and unstrapped the latch, drawing out a small wooden box about six inches long and three by three inches wide and tall.
Ceylas gasped and bent to stroke the fine beech wood. “You have a Banker’s Box!” she said, running her thumb across the sigil engraved on its surface.
“Yes,” Cambrin said simply as he placed the box next to the chest.
“What exactly is a Banker’s Box,” I asked, looking at the silver-fletched engraving of an hourglass pouring coin instead of sand.
“It is a magical portal box that will send coin from here to my banker in Kiram Avor. In less than twenty seconds they will have exchanged the funds for their highest denomination and I can retrieve it from the box. Or, should I wish to deposit it into my bank account, I need only leave the coin in the box a further two minutes and it will disappear, to be retrieved only through a bank access point.”
My jaw dropped. This guy had internet banking. That was damn insane. Hell, it was better than internet banking because you could shove actual cash into the thing and turn it digital in seconds. “You mean, we can put all this copper in there and it’ll turn it into gold or platinum in seconds?”
“Yes,” he said, doing just that. The box could only hold about 400 coins at a time but he dumped in as much copper as it could hold and closed the lid. He counted to twenty then opened the lid and withdrew three shiny gold, seven silver, and five copper pieces.
“Wow,” I said, taking the handful of coins as he handed them to me. He scooped up another box-full of copper and repeated the magic trick as I admired the coin then handed it off to Ceylas who dropped it along with the other silver and copper she’d gathered earlier into a pile next to us. I settled back to lean against a wall as Cambrin continued to repeat the exchange over and over again. A few minutes later we were left with a tidy pile of eighteen platinum, eight gold, four silver, and six copper pieces. These along with the gemstones fit easily into Ceylas’s pouch.
“What about the chest?” I asked as Cambrin tucked his banker’s box back into his backpack.
“You could put that in your haversack if you want,” Ceylas said, nudging the box with her boot.
I looked it over. It wasn’t exactly pretty and the wood had splintered when we’d forced the lock off but a part of me didn’t want to leave anything behind. Now it was empty it also wouldn’t take up too much space in my haversack so I unlatched the largest pocket and dropped it in then dashed after Cambrin and Ceylas who had already begun heading back up the corridor toward a dark, heavy wood, slightly ajar, door to the north.