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-----Sarah’s quick brain comes to her rescue. "What in Destine’s name do you mean no time to count it? There are here 743 gold pieces." As she says this Sarah already has it divided into two halves, with the odd coin in the 'give to charity' pile. Sarah pauses to sketch a quick sum in the dirt. "That makes three hundred and seventy one coins for us. Who’s here, Me, Dread, Seth, Kazel, Sol, Raven, and Rinda, that's seven of us so we each get fifty three. Hey, that works out good."
-----"I'll just take my fifty three gold now, if you guys want to bury yours go ahead, I won't stop you." Sarah pockets, her gold and gets up ready to go. "And Sol, it's not as if me and Dread and Raven are going to go take this gold and use it spread evil in the world. We'll be doing good stuff with it. You'll see." Secretly thinking 'I hope.'
-----Looking at her gold, which she had divided into several of her pouches, Sarah comments, "Wow! I'm getting rich!" Which she immediately regrets saying.
-----Seth looks at Dread and shrugs his shoulders. He then reaches over and counts out 53 gold coins for himself.
-----The Dread Pirate stops digging and counts out his share of the loot, pocketing it in his backpack. He then turns to Sol and says, "Aye, don't ye worry about this gold. We'll probably all get killed afore we have any chance to spend it. But if it weighs too heavily on anyone's conscience, I'll undertake to carry their share. Ahem."
-----Raven stares at Sarah for a moment and then says, "Well aren't we a quicker counter! You should of been an accountant there Sarah. Ya missed your calling I think."
-----Raven gives her a small smile, "Fine, I'll take mine too. What about the rest, who is going to carry it or are we going to bury and then tell Greene where it is?"
-----Seeing no use in it being buried, Sol wordlessly collects his share of the money, dumping most of the amount into his backpack, before spilling the remainder into his pockets.
-----Kazel flips a coin into her hand and spins it for a bit, nodding her approval as she mumbles a soft "mmm-hmm". She counts out her set amount, then adds to nobody in particular. "Who's to say Greene can be trusted anyway. Krondor was a fine upstanding man too, wasn't he?"
-----Raven turns to Kazel, "He seemed like a good fellow when I met him, but I don't know about the people under him. I wouldn't trust a government official to watch over a kid's piggy bank not to mention all this gold." Raven scowls and then snarls, "Well is someone going to take the government's cut or what? Let’s get going, Greene needs our help much more than this damn gold." Raven puts his gold in one of the pouches on his belt. He then gets on his horse and waits for the group to mount up. As he waits, Raven scans the area for any sign of trouble.
-----The Dread Pirate sits astride his pony, waiting for the group to move out. As he idly twiddles his thumbs, he suddenly states, "Arrr, since we're all sittin here, I'll regale ye with the tale of how Joren created the halfling folk, as passed down from halfling to halfling since the hallowed reaches of antiquity. It was many a year ago, on a spring day, when Joren the All-Seeing drove his ivory chariot, drawn by the Dozen Holy Ptarmigans of Justice, onto a clear, grassy meadow. And there he spake forth, saying, 'Let all the people draw near that they may reap of my bounty.' And the folk of many differing races gathered together on that broad meadow to hear the wisdom that the all knowing one put forth. Dwarves, elves, ogres, mendicants, all the folk of the world met on that grassy meadow. And Joren looked about and called it good, stating, 'Let there be cheese dip.' And lo, great trestle tables, heavily laden with cheese dip and ale didst miraculously appear, strewn across the meadow for the all the folk to partake of and enjoy. And there was great rejoicing. And frolicking. Yea, the ogre didst frolick with the elf across that happy meadow. All was peaceful on that tranquil patch of ground. And Joren called it good and imbibed heavily of the everflowing ale that he had created on that day. And verily, he soon leapt atop one of the trestle tables and began the Jig of Inebriated Omniscience, whereupon, during one of its more difficult convolutions, he had cause to stumble and fell off the table, near a crystal punch bowl full of cheese dip. While he lay in a near drunken stupor, he reached out and drew forth a great glob of gooey cheese and molded it into a minuscule being, whereupon it came to life and began to frolic on the meadow with all the other creatures. And so was created the first halfling, as the tale has been passed from father to son throughout halfling history."
-----Raven cocks his head to one side as Dread tells his tale. Raven nods and says, "Well that explains a lot about you Dread. So really you're a half-cheese not a halfling." Raven chuckles a bit and then returns to keeping watch.
-----The Dread Pirate snickers and replies to Raven, "Arrrr, don't even get me started on the tale of how humans were created. Let’s just say it involves the Holy Dozen Ptarmigans of Justice and how their pens needed cleaning."
-----Sol smirks at Dread's stories. His smirk grows into a wide friendly grin as he requests, "Actually Dread, I'd like t'hear that tale. It's not often we get to hear th' raw truth behind our race's creation."
-----As Seth mounts up and prepares to go where ever they are going next, he smiles at Dread and states a simple article of faith. "Blessed are the cheese makers!"
-----"Ye suggesting we're all cheese?" Sol quips to the bard, "That should possibly disturb me more than it does." He laughs lightly to himself.
-----"You're made of cheese, huh? So are halfling pirates rotten cheese or what?" Sarah says, smiling. "And if that's so, where do elves come from? They were probably made from persimmons. And gnomes...if I had to say, probably cabbages." Sarah says, although why she has picked those plants to represent the races is anybody’s guess. "And humans...Dread may be right partways, but definitely not about me. I created myself." Sarah finishes smugly.
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