The group set about plundering what was left of the goblin’s corpses. Gelwyn found some gold on the burned corpse, and Ruthrrien dug through the pockets of the corpse she had dissected to no avail. Ianz and Lucerin went to inspect the wizard goblin more closely.
“Ho, what’s this?” Ainz said suddenly, picking up a strangely crooked wand. He inspected it further, finding runes on a metal tube that held the wood in place. A strange glow came from a crack in the tube, revealing a rudimentary power source that channeled the magic.
“That’s a rather crude instrument. Not a very skilled tinkerer was he?” Lucerin said inquisitively.
“I doubt he made this,” replied Ianz in a dark voice, “so what was he doing with it?”
While they debated, Ruthrrien and Gelwyn joined them. Ruthrrien noticed a messenger pouch laying next to the wizards body and picked it up curiously. She opened the flap to reveal two strange black flowers with thin white stripes and gold flecks near its center. “Well that’s lucky.” Showing the contents to the rest before throwing the bag over her shoulder. It was these very flowers that they had been hired to collect, needing ten in all before they could return and receive their payment.
“Why should you have the bag?” Gelwyn protested
“One, it’s too big for you. Two, I actually know what I’m doing when it comes to plants.” The males didn’t seem to care, still wondering about how the goblin came to have such an odd magical item. Eventually, Ainz tucked it into his rucksack and they all began to move back towards the trail.
“We should see if there are any more flowers around,” Ruthrrien suggested, “they might have found these two nearby.” Mumbles of agreement came from the other three and they searched the trees for several minutes.
“Found another!” Ruthrrien called, pulling out her trowel and carefully digging it up, adding it to the bag with the others.
After searching a few moments more, they determined there were no more in the immediate area and continued on down the trail. At one point, Ainz summoned a raven, his familiar, which took off to scope the way ahead. About midday they reached a fork in the road. To the left the trail lead towards the Mountain range way off in the distance. To the right, the path led deeper into the forest, the sound of a trickling stream just ahead. They agreed that following the water source would likely result in finding more flowers, and continued to their right.
Gelwyn spotted another flower about an hour later when her pony had decided to take a small break to graze.
“Here, let me.” Ruthrrien insisted, angling towards her and pulling out the trowel again.
As she worked to dig it up properly, Ainz sneered some, “Probably would have been just as easy with a knife.”
“And cut all the roots in the process, you idiot. You heard the woman. They won’t pay us for broken roots. At least I was smart enough to bring a proper tool.”
“And yet you’re still the one who fell in the pit.” Lucerin said with a smirk.
The three of them chuckled softly as she finished scooping the flower into the bag. “Keep laughing,” she thought to herself angrily, “but I am currently the one ensuring we all get paid.”
The Whitney Scott 
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