Shiny smiles confidently as he looks over at the wizard. He'd been mostly quiet about his adventures so far.

"Oh, I didn't lose the stone in my night of gambling (though I did lose my affection for gnomish chile- a story for another time!) You see, I reached the giants' camp successfully, running into no adversity except a few centaurs along the way (luckily I knew their only weakness, a spot right above the left hind hoof, so they presented little trouble). When I reached the camp, it was packed with giants and dire wolves, but thanks to my spells, I passed by every guard without them being aware in the slightest of my passing."

"Not everything was so easy, though- turns out the queen giant was using the hoard as a pillow! I couldn't get close without waking her, and once the alarm was set off we were off to the races. Luckily, my familia was nearby."

Shiny points over his shoulder behind the group, where a surreal glowing figure has appeared, acting for all the world as though he'd been following them all along.

"Feel free to introduce yourselves, but know that he's very shy. Anyway, my accomplice was kind enough to distract the giants while I gathered up all the treasure I could. But soon I tired of the usual old treasure, and I started taking a look around for this special stone. A little tinkering and some good old fashioned gnome sense, and I quickly found its hiding place- a compartment, built right into the stone above the treasure!"

"The door was heavy and difficult to move, but luckily I had had a lot of downtime on the way up to the giant's camp, and had spent it almost exclusively doing pushups. A few moments later, I had shoved the huge stone aside, and reached into the compartment- only to find an empty shelf right where the stone should be!"

"So you see, I fulfilled my part of the bargain- it was the intelligence of our employers that was at fault. We'll see how this explanation suits them (since they have little proof, perhaps I should ask you to assure them of my honesty and integrity)."

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