“Where in the hell did he go?” Alcaeus asks, panic clear in his voice as he searches frantically for his friend after seeing him disappear.

“I’m right here, I’m just invisible,” they hear Kayde respond.

“Remember Xander, go ahead with your plan when I give you the signal”. They see the door open as an invisible Kayde goes through it.

“Do you guys have bullshit powers too?” Alcaeus asks Drakthar and Jorge, both of them shaking their heads in response.

Kayde walks into the dimly lit room, getting, for the first time, a good look at the fine marble all around him. He eyes the gold chest next to the pedestal in the middle and silently pads over to it. Grabbing hold of the chest, he puts his fingers in his mouth and emits a birdcall. Xander, believing it to be the signal, opens the door and teleports between the sapphire chest and the pedestal. He grabs onto the bow just as Kayde reappears and puts his free hand on Xander.

Xander grabs the sapphire chest and switches Kayde, himself, the bow and the chests with a bell outside the door. Alcaeus slams the door shut as soon as they are on his side of it.

“Grab the chests, let’s go!” Xander orders the others. Sharn and Drakthar each grab the other side of their respective chests and they begin to run. Alcaeus lets go of the door before it is immediately smashed down behind him, the pure sapphire door handle shattering like thin glass before the giant statue now chasing them. The statue relentlessly forces itself through the narrow doorway and into the hall, shards of its marble chipping off its massive form.

“Guys, that thing is really mad,” Alcaeus points out, palpable fear emanating from him. They eventually come to the room with the rats. Careful not to slip on the floor still slick with pools of blood, they run amid rats feasting upon the mangled corpses of the Cult of Chaos members that had been chasing them. Kayde frantically puts his hand into his bag, finding a piece of meat to throw at them. He is just about to throw it but holds off as they seem occupied enough gnawing on raw flesh.

Passing through the room with no issues, the group proceeds to turn around the corner back towards the room where they found Sharn. The sound of the statue chasing after them becomes more distant and they begin to let up their pace. Running past the statues with the spears and back into the room with the pit, they notice that the man isn’t there anymore.

Finally, they make their way up the stairs after passing through the last few halls, only when they make it to the top of the steps do they stop, completely out of breath.

No longer hearing the statues thundering steps behind them, Jorge exhales slowly and says, “I think we’re safe now lads”. Kayde, Xander, Drakthar, and Sharn put down the chests.

Alcaeus immediately begins inspecting them, starting with the sapphire one, he checks not seeing anything that suggests it is trapped. Excited, he eagerly opens it and sees something wrapped in cloth. Gently unwrapping it he finds a heavy firearm approximately the length of his leg.

“Dibs,” Kayde calls out after seeing it.

“No, it’s in my hands so it is mine,” Alcaeus disagrees, hugging the gun against his chest.

“Is that a pile of gold over there?” Xander wonders aloud, pointing towards the other side of the mountain. Alcaeus turns and Kayde slips the gun out of the cloth.

“Looks like I have it now, so it is mine,” Kayde smirks down at Alcaeus.

Alcaeus gives them both a dirty look before giving up.

“Fine, but I get whatever is in this gold one,” Alcaeus moves on. He inspects the golden chest and finds odd grooves along the edge of it.

“Everyone stand back, this one looks like it is rigged with something,” he warns the others. He puts it on a rock and opens it, immediately ducking as bullets fly from the grooves on all sides, just passing over him.

The golden chest is predictably filled to the brim with gold. Alcaeus excitedly funnels every last piece of it into his bag. As he does that Sharn starts to walk off, not interested in staying around and watching them count their newly found riches.

“Hold up, don’t you want something for those injuries?” Kayde offers, having appreciated the help he had given them in the ruins. Sharn shakes his head and continues to walk away. Kayde pulls out a medkit anyways and starts to wave it in the air, almost mocking him. Sharn just mimics laughter as he moves out of sight around a ridge.

Dusting themselves off, they start to head back down the mountain towards where they left Drakthar’s horse and power armor. On their way there they encounter the man who was sitting over the pit.

“Hey buddy, looks like you made it out okay too. Did you end up getting your treasure?” Kayde greets him, glad to see him again.

“No, I decided to give up,” the man responds despondent with a neutral expression, trying to mask his annoyance with Kayde and the others.

“So friend, where are you headed?” Kayde asks, wishing to travel together if they are going to the same place.

“I’m going back to the Ruins tomorrow to look for more,” the man explains, on the way back to where his camp is set up nearby.

“Oh, well we’re done there. I guess that means I’ll see you later then,” Kayde smiles at him one last time as they continue down the mountain.

They travel for a week; on the morning they are set to arrive in Aconblasam it starts to rain.

“We should just settle down inside of the tents for now,” Xander suggests, not wanting to walk in icky sand during the rain. Everyone else agrees, all of them setting up their tents and finding shelter inside.

The weather becomes worse and they listen as thunder begins to boom in the distance. Suddenly, a blinding light illuminates the tent, dispersing the darkness that had been brought on by the rain. The light is accompanied by a loud crash and an odd sound they can’t quite place.

“That was really close. Like within a mile close,” Alcaeus states in relief, just glad he is alive.

“Yeah, almost like it was right next to us,” Kayde agrees, this strike of lightning louder than any he’s heard before. Drakthar opens the tent and looks outside, seeing his horse smoking and dead on the ground, its heart stopped by the lighting.

“Damn, It killed my horse!” He shouts, kicking the sand in frustration.

“First it breaks a leg and now this? What did my horse do to become so unlucky?” He curses up at the sky.

“Close the tent lad, the rain’s getting in,” Jorge orders from the corner while sipping on some whiskey, not giving a damn about Drakthar’s horse while they’re caught in the rain like this.

After the rain clears they continue on, Xander helping Drakthar pull the cart the rest of the way to Aconblasam. Upon arrival Drakthar goes off to buy a new horse, Alcaeus tries to find a shop to sell the ruby he picked up, Kayde goes off to the blacksmith’s and Xander waits around in the most crowded part of the city, hoping Gwendolyn will be able to find him there so he can give her the golden bow she tasked him to retrieve for her.

Alcaeus finds a shop that sells minerals and heads inside, grinning widely as he sees a cute girl behind the counter. Maybe he can do more than just sell a gem.

“Hello,” he begins, smirking at her as he greets her.

“Oh, hi. Welcome, what can I do for you?” She smiles back at him.

Alcaeus pulls the ruby out of his pouch, “I came across this gem and I wanted to sell it so here I am”.

“Wow, that is a really pretty gem!” the girl stares at the rather large ruby in awe.

“That makes it the second prettiest thing in the room,” Alcaeus smoothly compliments her. The girl blushes at this seemingly suave stranger.

“I’m going to take a closer look at it,” she tells him nervously, inspecting it with a magnifying glass.

“This is really pure, I’ve never seen anything like it,” she comments, as she looks it over.

“It’s really nice. Uh... I can give you two thousand gold for it,” The girl offers.

“Is there anything I can do for you to throw in another five hundred on top of that?” Alcaeus asks as he leans in closer to her.

“Um… no, all I can offer you is the two thousand, but if you wanted to talk after the deal I… would like that,” the girl explains meekly.

“I think that sounds like a deal,” Alcaeus smiles and hands over the gem. The girl gives him a heavy pouch of gold, which he adds to the growing collection in his bag of holding.

“Now, why don’t we get out of here and have ourselves a friendly conversation?” Alcaeus winks, intending to do so much more than that.

“Okay…” The girl nervously replies but is interrupted when an extremely drunk Jorge bursts into the shop.

“Alcaeus, I finally found you, buddy, let’s go to the brothel,” he slurs in excitement.

“You go to brothels?” The girl asks, shocked that this gentleman would frequent such a place.

“No, I definitely don’t,” Alcaeus quickly assuages her fears, not wanting to blow it.

“Yeah he does, we go together and I’ve even seen this guy at work before. He’s very impressive,” Jorge drunkenly assures the girl.

“I didn’t know you were that type of guy. Maybe we shouldn’t talk after all,” she says as she starts to slowly retreat.

“No wait, this guy is crazy, I’ve never even seen him before!” Alcaeus claims, a note of panic creeping into his voice.

“I think it is best if you leave with your friend,” the gem girl coldly replies.

“No, wait…” As Alcaeus tries to salvage his chances Jorge vomits all over the gem merchant.

“GET OUT NOW!” She shrieks, disgusted by the feeling of Jorge’s wet vomit and the stench of alcohol. Disappointed, Alcaeus angrily grabs Jorge and leaves.

Meanwhile, Kayde makes a stop to see Jean the Blacksmith.

“It is you again. I do not see your manservant, is he no longer under your employ?” Jean the Blacksmith inquires, pleasantly surprised to see him.

“No, he’s off somewhere else. He just acquired a lot of gold so he is probably visiting the tavern or brothel, you know how they think,” Kayde explains.

“Yes, the lower echelon only follows their base, uncultured instincts,” Jean the Blacksmith heartily agrees.

“Anyway, I am sure he will pay you a visit later. As for me, I wanted you to take a look at this,” Kayde pulls the claw of the sand dragon out of his bag of holding.

“My, my, now that is very impressive,” Jean the Blacksmith comments, awestruck by the sheer size of the appendage.

“I wanted to make a knife out of it, could you do that for me?” Kayde requests.

“Yes, I can have it done for one thousand gold,” Jean the Blacksmith offers.

“Sounds good, you can hold on to the rest of the claw as well when you are done,” Kayde tells him.

“That is very generous of you, allow me to lower the price of creating it to seven hundred,” Jean the Blacksmith insists now that he knows he can keep the claw.

“If that’s what you want, I certainly have no objections,” Kayde hands over the claw and seven hundred gold.

“Also, I wanted you to have a look at this,” Kayde puts the firearm that was in the sapphire chest on the counter.

“This is very old, yet it seems to still be in working quality,” Jean the Blacksmith notes as he stares at it intently.

“It looks very powerful, but given the dimensions of the weapon and the make of the barrel, not especially accurate,” he adds after a closer look.

“You mean like a shotgun?” Kayde asks, trying to liken it to something he has heard of.

“Yes, one could say that,” Jean the Blacksmith agrees.

“It does seem quite rare, and is in good condition, I can give you four thousand for it,” Jean the Blacksmith offers.

“Sorry, but I’m not going to sell it. I just wanted to know if it was a piece of junk or not,” Kayde puts it back in his bag.

“What a shame,” Jean the Blacksmith sighs, disappointed to miss out on such a rare item.

“I have one more thing, my comrades and I slew a sand dragon with golden parts as you can see with the claw. I’m willing to give you the location of the dragon so you can harvest it for materials,” Kayde offers up.

“I see, yes I would be very interested in the body of the beast that claw belongs to,” Jean the Blacksmith seems interested.

“How about I give you seventy-five thousand gold for the location?” He starts out there.

“It is an entire golden dragon. I’m going to need more like one hundred thousand for it,” Kayde counters, knowing exactly how much it is worth.

“Yes, yes, but I cannot give you that much. Unless you can slap that manservant in front of me,” Jean the Blacksmith proposes.

“How about eighty thousand and I will slap my manservant in public, outside of the brothel later tonight?” Kayde makes his last offer.

He smiles, “I will be looking forward to the look on that low-class buffoon’s face when you show him his rightful place,” and they shake on it. Kayde gives him the location and Jean the Blacksmith hands over the gold.

Right after Kayde leaves Alcaeus shows up.

“Oh, it is the manservant,” Jean the Blacksmith snootily greets him.

“Yeah, yeah how much was the valuation on the sword?” Alcaeus gets down to business.

“It was worth two-hundred gold, so four hundred for the appraisal and finding a seller leaves you with one hundred and sixty gold,” Jean the Blacksmith tosses Alcaeus a pouch.

Alcaeus pulls out the tooth he took off the sand dragon and proudly places it in the middle of the shop, “Okay, now how much for this tooth?” He expects Jean the Blacksmith to be impressed, maybe even change his mind about calling him low class, but he doesn’t get such a reaction.

“I am afraid it has no value to me, your friend just sold me the location of the sand dragon that tooth came from,” Jean the Blacksmith is all too excited to explain.

“That piece of shit,” Alcaeus lets out, knowing Kayde did this on purpose.

“You shouldn’t talk about your master in such a manner,” Jean the Blacksmith sharply reprimands him. Alcaeus leaves the shop, ignoring the lecture Jean the Blacksmith seems intent on giving him.

“Ya finally ready to visit the brothel?” Jorge asks Alcaeus once he exits Jean the Blacksmith’s shop.

“Yeah, let’s go, might as well put some of this gold to good use,” Alcaeus sighs. The two of them have their night full of fun and frivolity. At the end of it, they exit the brothel.

Alcaeus feels off somehow, shifting his head down to see his shoestrings tied together, “How did that happen?” He feels a hand collide with his face, leaving a very prominent mark, but no one is in front of him. He realizes it can only be one person.

“Kayde! Where are you? I know it’s you, no one else can do that,” He starts to reach out his arms in front of him, trying to find where the invisible man is. He takes a step forward causing him to fall to the ground face first. Unsettled, he hears a familiar cackling while on the ground. As he looks up in anger he notices Jean the Blacksmith laughing at him.