The Tales Of The Troublesome Three

This May be Costly

"It's been a while, aint it? How've ya been holding?" Spencer says, a slight irish accent to it, climbing off his stool which made him look taller. He walked over to Hugo and gave him a hug. Spencer wasn't the tallest, only slightly taller than Hugo.

"Pretty good, how bout you, bud?" Hugo responds with a smile.

"Good aswell. Business' be doing good up in here." Spencer lets go of Hugo. He takes a good look at the rest of the gang. "Who'd ya bring?"

Hugo introduces Tom and Alaya to Spencer. "Fancy meeting ya." Spencer extends his hand towards Alaya. Alaya took his hand and gave him a firm handshake. "What can i do for ya?"

"Well, umm," Alaya began. "We heard you sell gemstones and whatnot, and we were wondering if you had 2 of the same gems?"

Spencer smiled. "Hold right there." He dashed to a small room behind the desk and slam the door shut after him.

A few seconds later, spencer came out of the door, hauling a large chest. He places the chest on the table and opens it. In the chest were pairs of gemstones in many colours and shapes and sizes. The contents of the chest glows and shimmers.

"Go on, pick out a few." Spencer says. Tom started going through the chest like a dog digging up a bone. He was picky in his choosing and would hiss if someone came close to 'help him' choose the gems.

Finally, he pulled out 6 pairs of gems, in the colour of black, gold, purple, light blue, navy and magenta. Tom looked content with his picks.

"Ah, great choice." Spencer says. "That would be.." he counts with his fingers. "Six hundred gold."

The party's jaws drop. "But since you're a friend, that'll be 300. Just for ya."

"That is a pretty good offer.." Alaya says. Tom steps up to get closer to Spencer. "Make that 200 and we'll be on our merry way." Tom bargains.

"275." Spencer responds.

"215."

"250."

"225 gold pieces." Tom says with a smirk.

Spencer's face tense then turns into a genuine laugh. "You sure know how to bargain, huh?" He says, pulling out a smaller chest to keep the gems. "225 gold peices it is. Would ya like me to custom your container?"

Tom smirked. "Shall do." Spencer picked up a carving knife and twirled it around. "Whaddya want me to carve out?" Spencer asks, still fiddling his knife. "How 'bout 'tarrasque on the bottom of the chest?" Alaya asks.

"Gotcha covered." Spencer says. He carves out tarrasque on the bottom of the chest. "Anything else?"

"Why not the beast we're about to kill for this specifically?" Hugo suggests. "We dont even know what we're gonna kill." Alaya says.

Spencer puts his knife down. "Mind telling me what you're talking about?"

"Well, our quest was to beat the tarrasque and we heard about a scroll which contained the secret on how to defeat the tarrasque and so we set out to find it. Long story short, the scroll told us to aquire six pairs of gems, drill one of each pair to a dead beast's skull and keep the rest of the gems in a box and hide it somewhere near the tarrasque." Hugo explains.

"Ah. Well, if you want a beast to kill, i suggest that newly found forest near here. Think it's called the forest of sudden death. Just cross the river and you'll be there in less then 2 hours. I heard there's quite a few hell hounds there." Spencer suggests. "If ya want, i'll even mark it on your map."

Hugo's bag started to rustle. And suddenly, out comes map. "You called?"

"Ah, map! Been a while, ay?" Spencer says, to Hugo and the party's surprise. "Spencer? You havent aged a bit." Map laughed. "D'ya miss me?" Spencer asks.

"Aye, but these young lads shall do." They laughed and chatted for a bit until Spencer finally turned to the party. "Map will tell you the directions. So, d'ya want me to carve out a hell hound?"

"Sure."

Spencer hapilly twirled his knife and started carving out a hell hound on the top of the chest. He placed the gems in the chest and handed it over to the party. Before Alaya could pick it up, Tom had took off with the chest. "Aye! Ya dirty rascal!" Spencer yelled.

Alaya smirked at spencer, on her left hand she held Tom's bag of holding which was previously hanging securely on tom's shoulders. "How'd ya do that?" Hugo asked, amused. "Ms. Mary thaught me." She says as she pulled out 225 gold pieces and a 10 gold tip.

The party sat in the shop with Spencer as they waited for Tom to come back. After an hour of chatting and waiting around, Tom finally showed up, the chest in his hand and a scowl on his face.

"Looking for this?" Alaya says, dangling the bag of holding from her fingers. Tom angrily took the bag and shoved the chest in.

Tom angrily walked out the door without saying goodbye. Alaya chuckled. "Sorry 'bout that. He could be pissy at times."

"A rogue's gotta do what rogue's gonna do." Spencer says.

They said their goodbyes and left the shop. At this point, the weather outside was horrible, it was cold and the sky turned dark fast.

Tom suggested they make camp near the river. Once they reached the river, Tom made a campfire while Hugo and Alaya set the tents. The river was clean, unlike the lake that it leads to. They were far enough from the said lake that it's toxic waste wasnt polluting this part of the river.

Said lake was called the lake of death. The lake is pretty much self explanatory. If you ingest this liquid in anyway, you die. Long ago, a scientist by the name of Lethlehem, or Leth in short, lived, and still does, close by the lake. Long ago, the lake was full of life and one of the natural water supply khuqeahk had. Lethlehem used very toxic and radioactive chemicals in his experiments. The locals there to fish or gather water say that sometimes, you could see his house racket and a small explotion could be heard. The locals nicknamed him 'the alchemist'. Lethlehem was a decent man. He never minded the nickname and grew attached to it. One day, Lethlehem's plumming system failed, which led all the toxic chemicals into the lake, making it toxic. This toxicity eventually turned into a disgusting tentacled creature. Legend has it that Lethlehem, guilty for the damage he's cost, locked himself in his lab, trying to find a cure for the lake and bring back it's purity.

Tom sat on the river bank and scooped up a good cup of water from the freezing river. It was not cold enough to freeze the river, but the water was really cold.

Tom boiled the water over the campfire as the party ate their food in silence.