Hill silently nodded, clutching his head as he racked his brain. Had any of the flowers, plants, or trees he had bought back from Icewind Ten-Towns been hacked to pieces by him...? Back when the Nether Scrolls were at the Tower of Wind Song, they had been disguised as some kind of golden shrub.
But the scrolls were gold!
He had been very careful. He had not kept anything gold-colored!
"Liszt." Hill raised his head and spoke slowly. "Look for black metal fragments and brown wooden residue first."
"There are quite a lot of those." Liszt answered cautiously. "There are plenty of battle remnants in Icewind Dale. You brought back quite a bit yourself last time. Later, after we dealt with the Orcs, the barbarian caravans brought over quite a lot to trade for food. After all, across the whole of Faerûn, only you probably... have to pay a little to get involved."
Hill covered his face with both hands and said bleakly, "Check the things I brought back myself first. No matter what, the things sold by others must have something special about them.
"The ones with... absolutely nothing special that I still bought—only that one time of mine..."
Liszt's hand directing the golem paused. He could not help saying, "Sir, could you be a little more selective when you buy things in the future?
"If you hadn't bought everything in one go back then, would this have happened?"
"But those things didn't add up to even 1,000 gold coins." Hill was utterly helpless. "You want me to crouch there and pick through such cheap things for several hours?
"My time is worth far more than that!"
"Watch two fewer days of entertainment, and you'll have enough time for anything." Liszt's mutter was quiet, but everyone and every god