The Novelty Hoard

The daemon motioned to the gnomes to keep silence. Three large coal carts, drawn by sweat-soaked dreyhorses, rattled their way up the road to the caves. The carts veered to the right of the entrance that the daemon was guarding, down another road. The gnomes and the daemon could hear excited cries of "Whoo-hoo!" and "We're rich!" from the carts. Six men descended from the carts. Four of them had the chisled muscular structure of a miner, and the other two appeared to be stooped and somewhat fat.

One of the fat ones addressed the group, pointing to an niche in the mountain wall. "I am going to say the four sweetest words in the common language - 'I told you so.'"

Another of the stooped men replied, "Well, Mr. Benchley, I cannot say you were wrong. Look at it. I can see the glittering in that niche yonder. There must be several king's ransoms worth of treasure!"

One of the miners, busy tying up the horses, replied, "It looks glorious indeed, Mr. Benchley. It doesn't seem right that Mr. Crossley is not going to get a cut. There is more than enough here - and he has served the firm for many years. It was you that sent him on the mission to Penn."

"Finchley, Finchley. A treasure of this size cannot just be spent all in one place, lest we devalue it. And there are the nasty tax agents from the Kingdom of Allaria, wanting their cut, which can go up to one hundred per cent. No, we have to keep this a close secret amongst ourselves, until we can launder the treasure. Telling Crossley would increase the chance that we would be found out. Remember the deal - no more than 100 gold pieces per individual, with the rest going into the hidden mineshaft in Mudspot!"

"Well, I want to start grabbin' the loot now!" One of the miners shouted.

"I admire your spirit, Ridley! You and Brantley will load the first cart - go for the gold, if you can. Wormley will keep a record of our haul - we wish to loot according to the generally accepted accounting principals!" The group laughed at Mr. Benchley's observation. The elder continued, "Finchley and Bartleby will stand guard with their trusty crossbows, and alert us to any inturders. I, of course, shall supervise, and make sure that the operation proceeds with a minimum of wasted time."

"Hurrah for Mr. Benchley!" shouted the group.

The men proceeded into the niche, and started bringing out choice bits of treasure.

The dameon smiled and shook his head. "Are you going to stop them?" asked Chucky.

"Ah ... no." said the daemon, as his smile widened, as if there were a joke being played on the six scavengers from Mudspot.

"Why not?"

"Well, that hoard is actually one of the dragon's novelty hoards. The dragon, although nasty and a bit thick, did have a sense of humour."

"Could you please explain?"

1. "Concealed in the hoard are eight Raubtalers. These are gold coins that return to their master 72 hours later - with any valuables that they may be touching. This should be interesting."
2. "They have found the dragon's utility shed. It looks valuable, but there is nothing but junk in there - silver-plated nickel, paintings of dogs playing poker, paste jewelry. We should have a little fun when Wormley has to tell Benchley this."

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