Whimsy, Gwendolyn, and Silvar had been trekking for about three hours now, following the rough map provided by Whimsy's sketchy informant. Silvar had a sizeable machete with which he was hacking a path in the dense undergrowth, and Gwendolyn was using her webbed feet to stamp down tall grasses and ferns.
"Kinda dodgy, this whole thing, don't you think?" Gwendolyn asked as a plant hit her face. Again. "Are you sure there's a treasure in this jungle?"
"Listen, I didn't join the thieve's guild to bother myself about the perfect philosophical ethics of what I do, I did it so our small, struggling colony has enough funds to survive," Whimsy said airily, brushing off her friend's concern. "My buddy doesn't ever want to enter this jungle again, his partner died in a mishap getting this gem, and it was all he could do to hide it. He says if we retrieve it and sell it we'll have enough to buy that medical equipment Taiah needs. I'm giving him a cut too and we'll STILL have enough."
"Fair enough," Silvar replied, giving Gwendolyn a significant look. He was a bit more cavalier about rules. Everyone was a bit concerned about Whimsy's dangerous career choice, but really, their lives on this planet weren't without risk, and there was no denying that they had needs farming and gathering couldn't supply.
"HERE!" shouted Whimsy, pouncing onto a certain tree. She climbed it and scrambled all around it, searching the base for the opening. At length she pulled away some mosses that were cleverly disguising a cleft in the trunk of the tree. Inside gleamed an enormous red gemstone, cut and polished to a dazzling shine.
"How will we get it out?" Gwendolyn asked.
"I could chop that hole bigger" Silvar offered, gesturing carefully with the machete.
"Nah, Slim got it in without damaging the tree, I can get it out, too," Whimsy said. "We don't want it to be obvious there was something in here. You never saw a gem and you never heard of Slim, got it?"
Her friends nodded.
Silvar and Gwendolyn stood quietly in the heat, batting away biting insects as Whimsy grumbled softly to herself while she carefully manipulated the gem. It took a tense amount of minutes, during which Silvar offered the blad a few times and she waved it away. At length, she pulled the prize from its prison and hastily slid it into her pouch.
"All right, let's get back to town, I know a jeweler who doesn't ask questions," Whimsy said. Grateful to get out of the jungle, they all filed behind her to retrace their steps.
Gwendolyn: 4 mentions
Whimsy: 4 mentions
Gwendolyn: 2 mentions
Whimsy: 3 mentions

A Hidden Gem
building some dexterity- and some capital
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