From the skeletons, we got four shortswords, four shortbows, and eighty arrows. From the three hobgoblins, we got three longswords, three longbows, sixty arrows, three sets of chain mail, and three shields. From the bugbear, we got one morningstar, two javelins, one set of hide armor, and one shield. From the duergar, we got one war pick, two javelins, one set of scale mail, and one shield. From the imp-statue offering bowls, we got six sapphires, each worth 100 gp. From the hidden wall compartment in the goblin room, we got one small stone chest with about 5000gp worth of coinage inside. From the dead padin's visible gear on the floor, we got one rusted and ruined set of pte mail, one explorer's pack, and scattered mundane adventuring supplies, which, in the face of everything else, seemed useless in the face of all the items. From the dead padin's Heward's Handy Haversack, we got an Ioun Stone of Sustenance, an Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location, an Eversmoking Bottle, Eyes of the Eagle, Slippers of Spider Climbing, a Gray Bag of Tricks, Boots of Striding and Springing, and a Neckce of Adaptation. From the dead padin's Portable Hole, we got a Spell Scroll of Sunburst, Horseshoes of Speed, two Folding Boats, a Chime of Opening, two Dusts of Disappearance, two Potions of Animal Friendship, a Robe of Useful Items, Dust of Dryness, a Ring of Swimming, a Cloak of the Manta Ray, a Potion of Thunder Resistance, a Cap of Water Breathing, a Decanter of Endless Water, a Wand of Magic Detection, a Potion of Hill Giant Strength, a Staff of Adornment, an Orb of Time, a Moon-Touched Longsword, a Staff of Flowers, a Shield of Expression, Boots of False Tracks, a Talking Doll, a Rope of Mending, Hide Armor of Gleaming, Cast-Off Half Pte Armor, Smoldering Padded Armor, a Clockwork Amulet, a Ruby of the War Mage, a Wand of Pyrotechnics, a Pot of Awakening, and a Cloak of Many Fashions, on top of the other Bag of Holding he had on him. From the Ice Devil's treasure chamber, we got massive piles of gold and ptinum coinage, a golden child-sized sarcophagus engraved with mantis imagery, multiple silver chests, a Belt of Frost Giant Strength, an Ioun Stone of Leadership, a ring we still needed to identify, a Manual of Iron Golems, Boots of the Winternds, and a Staff of Fire.

  It was an absolutely obscene amount of gear. The big haul came from the padin- he had three separate storage items to hold all his stuff, and it looked like he had to be a level 10 padin at least. His armor was too rusted to tell which oath or order he belonged to, and he didn't carry a holy symbol. Either that, or the shield that bore it had been destroyed.

  It took a good few hours to account for everything correctly, and in the somewhat secure location we found ourselves in, it was difficult to decide how to split it all.

  The surprising thing was how few of these items would require attunement. One thing to note is that most powerful items require attunement, and a person can normally attune to only three items at a time. There are optional rules to take boons that can give you more slots, artificers can generally have more slots, and some dm's ignore attunement slots altogether. I had no way to test this before, but now I was curious whether such a thing was present here. I doubted it would be, but again, I had no guarantee either way.

  The biggest deal at the moment was organizing the attunement items. These were the Ioun Stones of Sustenance and Leadership, the Belt of Frost Giant Strength, the Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location, the Eyes of the Eagle, the Slippers of Spider Climbing, the Boots of Striding and Springing, the Neckce of Adaptation, the Boots of the Winternds, and the Staff of Fire. The Horseshoes of Speed also required attunement, but that was for the creature we put them on, not the one mounting the steed.

  I organized these items into another pile and looked them over. Bucket joined me on the steadily warming floor, examining each of them.

  "So, anything in particur you want?" I asked, curious. I had a great set of ideas on how we should split them, but I wanted to hear her thoughts.

  "Hmmm.... well, if I were to split them to optimize for the rest of our trip and our confrontation with that asshole... I should take the neckce, the eyes, and those slippers. I think that way, I could kinda live in the bag while you fly around, and save us some time and travel. You would take the belt, the staff, and those ice boots so you could fly stupid high in the sky and avoid everything below. Kinda copy our strategy against those bears, but all the time, since I'd just be able to breathe in the bag without worry. You'd struggle with the limited oxygen higher in the sky, but you could fly lower."

  She was holding her hands to her head and was crouched over as she spoke, sitting cross-legged, deep in thought. It was amazing to see the gears in her head turn. She wasn't wrong- this was the ideal way to go about organizing them.

  The Belt of Frost Giant Strength would bump my strength up to 23, giving me an absurdly rge amount of strength, nearly quadrupling it. Not only would this be better for carrying anything, but it would also make smithing and building things far easier. That, and carrying around the 3 Bags of Holding we had, the multiple backpacks, the Heward's Handy Haversack, and the Portable Hole. Mind you, all of it could carry something like 500 cubic feet of stuff. Easily 1620lbs+ worth of things. Mind you, the actual process of carrying all that, even with this supposedly buffed strength, would be complicated, if not impossible, especially if I tried to fly with it all.

  The Staff of Fire would give me additional resistance to fire damage- I didn't know if this would stack with my natural resistance and turn into immunity, in which case, it would be impeccable. On top of that, it could cast spells like Fireball and Burning Hands using charges that were restored every dawn- meaning I could consume fewer spell slots every day on offensive spells, and focus more on preparation spells or utility spells.

  Boots of the Winternd were great they let you easily survive frigid temperatures, as well as giving the wearer resistance to cold damage. Great for high altitudes, surviving in mountains, and so on. More damage resistance was always a solid boon.

  "I like those, seems fine to me. Now what about all the other items? There's a lot to get through, and I do mean quite a few." I said, looking over to the other pile, which had more uncommon and common magic items than I had seen in any campaigns I'd started. Looking at it all in person was unreal. How much did all of these cost to get? To build and create? It was surreal. A veritable pile of repeatable, constant, in many cases, powerful magic.

  The other items we had were as follows, not in any particur order, with the following effects:

  Eversmoking Bottle: Can produce exceptional amounts of heavy obscuration via smoke over the course of a few rounds.

  Gray Bag of Tricks: creates animals when stuff is pulled out and thrown, good HP sponges

  Bag of Holding (has been expined previously)

  Heward's Handy Haversack(two compartments holding 20lbs, and one big one holding 80lbs)

  Folding Boat (two): Turns into a big ol boat with some setup time, and can fold back into a small package when not in use.

  Chime of Opening: 10 free, quiet uses of opening locks, doors, tches, etc.

  Dust of Disappearance (both): one-time use invisibility for 2d4 minutes.

  Potion of Animal Friendship (both) can cast animal friendship for an hour upon drinking.

  Robe of Useful Items: Has generically good stuff on it, ranging from money, dogs, to pits and windows you can just... make appear.

  Dust of Dryness: 1d4+6 pinches of dust that can either hurt water elementals or trap a lot of water at once for use ter.

  Ring of Swimming: gives you a swim speed.

  Cloak of the Manta Ray: grants you a swim speed and the ability to breathe underwater.

  Potion of Thunder Resistance: in the name.

  Cap of Water Breathing: breathe underwater while worn.

  Decanter of Endless Water: infinite water production with varying flow rates. Huge for survival.

  Wand of Magic Detection: detect magic 3 times per day.

  Potion of Hill Giant Strength: 21 strength for a few.

  Spell Scroll of Sunburst: In the name.

  Staff of Adornment: makes small objects float close to the staff, up to three objects. Functionally useless.

  Orb of Time: tells if it is morning, afternoon, evening, or night when used. Minecraft clock.

  Moon-Touched Longsword: basically a torch-sword.

  Staff of Flowers: can grow flowers 10 times a day, and can choose the flower type, which is a regur flower but is innately harmless.

  Shield of Expression: literally just a magic shield with a face on it.

  Boots of False Tracks: prevents you from being tracked by non-magical means while worn, but is effectively useless for us.

  Talking Doll: actually requires attunement and can spend a long rest within 5ft of the doll to give it 6 phrases, no more than 6 words each, with their own triggers, to say.

  Rope of Mending: a rope you can cut as much as you want and will always coil together again, so long as no piece is lost.

  Hide Armor of Gleaming: never gets dirty.

  Cast-Off Half Pte Armor: can be taken off as an action.

  Smoldering Padded Armor: constantly lets off wisps of smoke when worn. Badass?

  Clockwork Amulet: once per long rest, can turn an attack's roll into a base of 10.

  Ruby of the War Mage: requires attunement, but can turn a weapon into a spellcasting focus.

  Wand of Pyrotechnics: 7 shots max per day, 60ft range fre gun with signalling sounds.

  Pot of Awakening: turns a shrub into an awakened shrub before it breaks.

  Cloak of Many Fashions: can look like any other cloak you could want.

  "I'd like the bags, given I'd be carrying you... the bag of tricks, we can each take a Folding Boat, a Dust of Disappearance, a Potion of Animal Friendship..." I continued to rummage around in the pile.

  "I'll take the robe and the Cloak of the Manta Ray, I'll take the Wand of Pyrotechnics, the Clockwork Amulet, the Pot of Awakening, the Orb of Time, the scroll of Sunburst, the Magic Detection Wand, and the decanter. You should be able to take everything else." I said, shoving the items I spoke of into my own little pile.

  "That's quite a few... although I'll give you credit for the solid pn, and actually figuring out a way for us to come out of this pce alive... even if it was your idea..." She seemed both grateful, spiteful, and suspicious, all at the same time.

  "I think we should split the gold 50/50. Even if I came up with the pn, it never would have worked had you not been here." I said with a bit of a smile. I don't know if Chagrin had ever been this humble, but this was definitely me speaking through here.

  She seemed taken aback by the proposition, in the sense that she thought she would have gotten less.

  "You DO realize how much money that is, right? I mean, this is crazy! We could retire after we get that anvil back. Go buy a castle, and just feast off nothing for the rest of our days with another Ioun Stone of Sustenance we could buy. Spend every day just experimenting and reading books."

  She wasn't wrong. This amount of money could very, very easily produce some absolutely absurd outcomes, preparation for dungeons, and buy even more magical items. Not that I was compining, by any means, but I had a feeling that the death of this Devil was going to have some serious repercussions if we couldn't find a safe pce to store all of it. Sure, in our extradimensional spaces, it would be alright, but that was no guarantee that they wouldn't get stolen from us if we weren't careful.

  We had separated the money, the equipment, the magic items, and the treasure as evenly as possible, and taken what we could each realistically get the most use out of. Now it was just resting for the remainder of the night, and hopefully, getting a solid night's rest.

  There had to be more to come. This couldn't be it. I had barely been in this realm, what, a week? Two weeks? This type of luck, if you could call it that, was unreal. Sure, I had survived a fight using probably the most busted strategy I had come up with in a long time, but even with that and an enemy well above our level, this felt like too much of a reward. And, as what I could only assume to be a random encounter? What was significant about this devil? What had happened in those old wars the tapestries depicted? Why were goblins exploring this pce? What had that druegar been trying to do, summoning another one? Why had the skeletons been reanimated?

  I spent the next hour scrounging the pce up and down, and the only thing I could come back to was that Druegar's summoning book.

  It wasn't magical by any means, just a set of pages filled with means of summoning and making contracts with Devils for power or favors. A small note slipped out of one of the pages as I was flipping through it.

  This is the fourth year I've returned to this pce, and I've brought more sacrifices with me. Soon enough, I should be able to free the creature that dwells here and sy it for its treasure. It was a monster back then, reduced to nothing but a groaning, hungry pest now. Surely, with these sacrifices, I'll be able to get back at it and all of its kind for what they did.

  I read over it twice, still trying to determine what to make of it. I was too tired to truly bother; I was fully drained of magic, and going through the same two halls 15 times had bored me to exhaustion. I rolled out my bedroll not too far from Bucket's, who was already asleep, before going to bed myself.

  I'd deal with it all tomorrow.