A/N Happy Easter. This chapter is following the previous one, i. e., merging two chapters in one go. With the release of movie of this particular genre, I noticed suddenly there is a surge of readers. Me likey. As usual, all comments are welcome. I've got all the plots spread out and all the drafts scribbled at least ten chapters ahead, without the aides of ChatGPT or any form of AI. All I need is a bit of time to type them.

Everything Forgotten Realm belonged to Haspro/Wizard of the Coast. Nhilva, Sabastian, Greg, Boyle, and Viessa belonged to me.

26

The body of a remorhaz is very valuable. Almost every part of the beast is useful in some way. The scales alone are a key component in armor making. The secretions of the creature, called thryn, cost a small fortune in the market, for it is great in making heat-related magical items. Its body fluid is a key ingredient in many potions. The kidneys of the creature are delicacies to several orc tribes.

To drow, too.

"I had a piece of remorhaz liver at a feast once," remembered Nhilva fondly as they were busy harvesting the dead ice worm. "It was absolutely divine. You need a special set of skills to cook it, though. Most of the fluid is acidic."

"Did you eat it in the stew?" asked Greg, who had just pried off another large chunk of scale and dumped it in the pile near him. His twin brother, Boyle, was busy stuffing them into a rather small leather bag. "It is beautiful in stew, mate. I can eat a whole cauldron! My brother and I used to fight over them when our tribe had one for dinner!"

"Large family, common scene," added Boyle.

"How's your arms, Greg?" Bastian asked.

Viessa tended his burnt arms. Part of his armor was removed and laid around his feet. "Splendid, mate. The potion and healing spells worked like a charm," grimaced the half-orc before looking at the giant hole at a bit of distance away. "Yeh think we should check the lair, too?"

The remorhaz usually hunts alone. So the chances of them encountering another one in there were quite small.

"There might be a young one in there," warned Viessa.

"I will take a chance," shrugged Greg, making his way to the large hole on the ground.

They didn't encounter any more ice worms.

Instead, they hit a small jackpot.

Inside the cavern that was four times bigger than the remorhaz they slayed, they found a treasure trove that contained enough items that even a seasoned pirate would be impressed. Most were armor and weapons, of which Nhilva could only assume abandoned because they were indigestible. Three full suits of armor, one of them aramentine, two beautifully crafted swords, five daggers, four scimitars, much to Greg's and Boyle's delight, a handful of gemstones, one diamond, and one metal box. Whatever they were paid to come here, what they got in this lair valued two to three times more.

"Did the T&C part of the contract say we get to keep these?" asked Viessa as she was inspecting the gemstones.

"They only want the white bear furs," shrugged Bastian. He was looking over the swords.

"They are bloody crazy, I reckon," snorted Greg. "These are enough for two to three of the damn furs."

"Very strange," Nhilva agreed. She was looking at the thin metal box. Other than a few dents here and there, it was remarkably undamaged.

A shimmer of energy moved past her shoulder. She turned her head and saw it was Viessa. The matua maker cast what Nhilva believed was a detect magic spell. "Magically protected."

Nhilva arched her brow. She sounded intrigued when she suggested, "Should we try to open it up?"

The thin metal box was a lot like the ones people used to store cigars in her world, Nhilva observed. It was designed for easy carrying, one that could be put it inside a pocket or bag without much trouble. On the side of the box fit a tiny gnome-sized padlock. It was unlike any padlock she had ever seen, at least in this world. It was of a cylindrical shape with multiple dials on it. And on these dials, there were strange markings.

"I have removed the magic protecting it, you can go ahead and open the box now," said Viessa, before she noticed the oddness of the lock. "Interesting. What markings are these, I wonder?" She cast a comprehend languages spell and shook her head. Clearly it wasn't a language she understood.

Nhilva recognized them, though. "Arabic numerals."

"Pardon?" Viessa asked.

"These are Arabic numerals," murmured the drow with disbelief. How did these get here? She was in a world where Arabic did not exist. There were multiple languages, spoken by various different people, but she was absolutely certain Arabic wasn't one of them. Yet, this padlock was here. Its design and mechanics were very familiar to her. And the symbols on it were familiar to her, too. Up until this moment, she had thought this world she had come to was a fantasy realm only existing outside the one where she was. Everything here was supposed to fit into that roleplaying tabletop game she had grown to adore. She was confused. Was there a logic in this?

"So you can open this padlock?" asked Viessa.

Wordlessly, the drow moved her fingers to push around the dials. Of course she could. There was a way to open this without knowing the passcode. Her grandfather had taught her how this was done years ago. She moved the contraption around until all the numbers on the lock returned to zero. After a small click, it was undone.

She opened the thin metal box. Inside, resting on the deep velvet purple silken cushion, was a flat stick with bits of steel perching on one side. There were a few cuts on the metal, otherwise it was unremarkable.

"What's this?" asked Greg, who had finished stuffing all he could manage into his bag of holding. "Yeh guys won't believe what I found. There were two remorhaz eggs in here. We must kill their mam up on the surface. That worm put her babies on some kind of seal heated materials-"

"A USB Stick," Nhilva cut off his rambles.

"Sorry?" The half-orc blinked.

"This is a USB stick." The drow hiccupped. Two unusual items in a short time. Suddenly she wasn't sure what to think anymore. Nor did she know how to explain these to the others. Those things weren't meant to be here. What exactly was happening?

"A what now?"

"What does it do?" asked Bastian.

"There should be something, somewhere, that you can 'plug' this in." Nhilva rubbed her face with her free hand. "Seem one around here?"

They checked, and found none.

"Hey," suddenly Boyle called out, getting everyone's attention. He was standing before one of the many 'tunnels' the remorhaz had dug. "Does this wall look unusual to you lot?"