Hector caught PAris by the scruff, dragging him out of the dungeon with one mighty hand.

“Fool! Did you listen when the guild told you not to piss off the dungeon!” Growled the giant.

“Oh forgive me great leader! I was so eager to collect goblin droppings that I must have lost my mind.” Snarked Paris, worming free of Hector’s hand.

His thin neck slithered free, and he playfully tossed the mana crystal into the air and grinning from ear to ear.

“Cmon, I got the core and a ticket out of the dungeon! Let’s go cash in and wait for this to all blow over, give the dungeon a few days to recover and we’ll go slay its dragon.”

Delphine took advantage of Paris’ loud mouth and plucked the mana stone out of middair. Her eyes glowed as she appraised the stone. Her eyes went wide, a trickle of blood running from her luminous eyes, her hands began to shake as her body convulsed.

Hector dropped his hammer, his mighty hands catching the diver in a gently embrace. Paris was no such gentleman, he only had eyes for the crystal. The instant Delphine began to collapse he snatched the stone, dropping it into an inner pocket. Delphine’s eyes shot open and she tumbled forward, retching onto the dirt path. Between her coughs and dry heaves she managed to utter a single word.

“Cursed!”

Hector scowled, rubbing the diviner’s back as gently as he could manage.

“Hush dear, the first core is always the worst. Don’t spouting off nonsense.” Chided Hector.

He leaned in, whispering into her ear. “Don’t startle the guards, let’s take it to Kendra before these Tuxford layabouts try and seize our earnings.”

Delphine shivered, stifling her heaving so Hector could carry her to the guild. The corporal who was on barricade duty let the adventurers pass without a word, knowing they would not be in the mood for conversation after a poor dungeon delve. Besides, he held no power over them, the Tuxford Militia was only here to man the barricades and build palisades around the dungeon. Throwing his life away to help sellswords was not part of his duties.

A few adventurers called out to the party, jeering at their apparent failure in the dungeon, their catcalling followed the party all the way to the guild’s front desk.

“Ya’ll look like fertillizer, shriveled up and spread too thinly.” Said Kendra.

Hector met her eyes, swallowing his sneer for the wealthy woman.

“We have accomplished our first mission Lady Roark. No casualties, but there were complications.”

“Great. Like we need anymore horse shit on this farm.” Grumbled Kendra. “Follow me, we’ll get you fed and tallied.” She picked up a slate to write on and led them into a back room, a spacious room the guild used to debrief adventurers and discuss sensitive topics. Kendra held the door open for the party, examining each of them with glowing eyes. Silently checking them for signs of malicious enchantments or curses. Her gaze lingered on Paris a moment too long, lips frowning in disgust. Though she held her tongue, slamming the door as the last adventurer entered.

“I gave you a nice safe scouting mission and you oafs come back cursed and reeking of goblins. Just look at Delphine! What the hell happened in there?”

Hector shot Paris a dirty look, and his cousin wisely retreated behind the table, whistling innocently as he emptied his portion of the plunder onto the table. The other members followed his example, allowing Hector the privilege of explaining the delve to Kendra while they counted glow stones and stacked coppers.

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Hector recounted their tale as his party displayed their meager earnings, he almost broke into tears when Kendra tallied their fourteen glow stones. Each stone had value and were easily sold, but the count was low, and the quality did not make up for the deficit. The tally wasn’t enough to pay for the parties room and board. Kendra held up a finger, examining the two red glow stones, turning them over in her hands. They were far larger than the others, and Hector thought Delphine was crazy for making the others carry the red boulders, but now. Now, his heart skipped a beat as Kendra added a separate line for them and put a value next to them that was one digit longer than the other glow stones.

“What’s so special about those heavy red ones?” Asked the assassin.

Kendra chortled at his ignorance. “Your mask makes my eyes itch, go away. Ask your mages, it might just save your life one day.”

The assassin kept his mask on, fading from the party’s collective memory as soon as they turned away from him. Hector’s curiosity piqued, only to forget about the assassin the moment his eyes left the man. Kendra didn’t even try to remember, she moved on, tallying up the weapons and coinage on her slate. Hector swallowed as her chalk scritched against the slate, feeling as though Chiron was tallying his sins on the banks of the river styx. Summing his life with a small rod of dust and a chunk of rock.

Please let it be positive, since dad lost his eye I have to send money home. If this haul comes up short i’ll be stuck on half rations for another month!

Kendra finished her tally and closed her eyes, dismissing the appraisal magic she had used thus far and handed the tally to Hector. Paris leaned over his shoulder, checking over the numbers.

Looks like it’ll be quarter rations this month. Maybe I can snag some moldy bread from the Tuxford yellows. No, By Hades balls, I’m going back into that dungeon. No way am I starving again!

“Guild fee is fair, same with the coppers, but aren’t you forgetting something?” Asked Paris.

“You can keep that cursed core, Hades, I’ll give you a gold coin to throw it back into whatever infernal pit you clawed it out of. Damn thing is so cursed I can’t even appraise it! I just hear screaming when I try.” Said Kendra, rolling her shoulders to fight the shiver running down her spine.

Hector blanched, A curse so strong that the guild’s head diviner could not decipher it was a plague that he wanted no part in.

“If the guild can’t appraise it then you are contractually obligated to find someone who can.” Said Paris, quoting a portion of the guild bylaws.

“That curse must have addled your brains, smash that core into a thousand pieces and bury it in the dungeon! There isn’t a buyer-” Began Kendra.

“Shall I complain to the guildmaster?” Interrupted Paris. His mustache floofing in an extremely punchable way.

Kendra narrowed her eyes, her jaw working slowly. From Hector’s vantage it looked like she was about to leap over the table and stuff the cursed mana core down Paris’ throat, right up until her frown twisted into a smile.

“Delphine, can you go see if Hattie is available for an appraisal?” Asked Kendra sweetly.

Delphine heard Kendra’s sweet tone, and ran for the door, panicked by her supervisor’s overly friendly tone. She blabbed a hurried “Yes, ma’am” on her way out, eager to vacate the suddenly cramped room.

“I didn’t know you were an avid reader of guild bylaws. Didn’t you register only a few days ago?” Asked Kendra.

Her change of tone should have warned Paris that he was in over his head. “Oh, I love reading, pity though, guild handbooks are the only books this guild seems able to afford.” Snarked Paris, never knowing when to shut up.

The door burst open,, thrown aside by Konrad’s half armored form. His fingers seemed to fly across his breastplate, cinching straps and adjusting his armor.

“Three black ships were spotted heading this way, looks like they are firebombing every farmhouse and building they can find. Get your armor or get out.” Growled Konrad, exiting the same way he came.

“Pity, I was looking forward to educating you on the fines regarding cursed objects.” Said Kendra, chuckling as she followed her husband.

Paris jerked as if he had been struck, he must have skipped that section of the handbook.

“Grab a hammer while you can!” Exclaimed Hector, his battlelust lifting his pauper’s soul “There’s a bounty on those undead ships! A thousand gold coins to whomever can destroy one, and two thousand gold for anyone who can capture one.”

“Death or riches?” Groaned Paris, finishing Hector’s sentence.

“No no! Not like that! Put your balls into it!” Grumbled Hector, inhaling deeply he raised his voice to the heavens, attempting to reach the gods on Mount Olypmus with his warcry.

“DEATH OR RICHES!”

—

Tantalus waited patiently for Maia’s corpse to dissolve, reading over the manual while he stood guard over her body. Goblins respawned around him, knowing better than to interrupt their dungeon core’s vigil. Though a few of the runts peeked into the tent, giving Maia’s body surprised glances. He could hear their whispers, understanding their language as natively as his own.

“Ain’t alive no more.”

“Body’s still around.”

“Humies got ‘er core.”

“Shame, she was a strong un.”

Irritated by their murmurs, Tantalus began to search hairy Heph’s manual, trying to decipher what was going on, what was the importance of a core, and how did any of their gibberish related to Maia’s respawn timer not appearing? A million questions and no one to ask. He considered asking the green devils, but shook his head, without Satharis around to interpret their meaning there would be no point. Unevolved goblins made rocks look like valedictorians. Tantalus sighed, nothing to do except hurry up and wait for Satharis to evolve.

Fine, plenty of time to recharge my MP. He thought.

Had he understood his daughter’s permanent demise, he might have had a chance to save her.