Sambal the Treasure Hunter

Sambal Dragor wiped his sweating hands at his pants, after he dropped the last out of 350 maps on the pile. Blast! Now he was a master in the skill of cartography! He dug himself through the huge stacks, and left The Oaken Oar, leaving a cursing mapmaker behind. "And who is going to clean up all this mess?" the shopkeeper shouted angrily. Sambal ignored him, and walked the few steps to the Bank of Britain. Time to go home!
As Sambal arrived at the Red Skull Bay, he pulled out his fishing pole to pass the time. A small pile of fish was already lying beside him, as suddenly the pole twitched strangely. He pulled with all his power, the sea seemed to boil at his feet, and with a loud roar a big sea serpent appeared at the surface. Sambal dropped his fishing pole in horror, and ran off. When he returned to the place later, the creature was gone, and had also eaten up all his fish. Then Sambal caught lots of shoes and boots, peculiar fish, and other trash, when suddenly he pulled out a sodden piece of parchment. As he looked closer, he found that it was a tattered treasure map!
At once he contacted his pirate friends, and they set sail to make a large fishing tour and find more treasure maps.
Sambal became more and more experienced in fishing, and he finally was a master fisherman. This was the day, a small bottle containing a message dangled from his hook. Carefully he opened the bottle and extracted a waterstained SOS. What could be its meaning?

  The SOS message looked interesting, and Sambal would have liked to sail to this spot at once. "The best comes last" he thought, and first took care about the tattered treasure map he had pulled out of the Red Skull Bay.
Carefully he decoded it, as he was now a skilled cartographer. "Blast!" he muttered. The map showed the region of the crossroads west of Britain. He had heard many stories about murderers haunting this place. But he would risk it. He packed up the parchment, grabbed his shovel and a nice scimitar, and wandered off.
He had been digging for half an hour, and almost given up his hopes, as suddenly he hit something hard. Sambal dug faster, his greedy eyes peeking into the hole. There it was! A big metal chest! With quick fingers he snapped the rusty lock open, when an explosion made his ears ring. He cried and looked at his burned fingers. But he had survived! Slowly he lifted the lid, and what he saw made him cheer! Gold! Reagents! Magic items! Scrolls! He was rich! As soon as he grabbed into the chest to pull out his prey, a few mongbats appeared and attacked him immediately. Some strikes with his magic scimitar send them under the earth again.

03/99

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