They're Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Of all the strange things guild master Pebline Varrero had seen in her time working in mineral acquisition, none were anything like what she was looking at now. When one of her patrol officers told her she had found some intruders, she wasn't expecting a trio of broads to stroll in naked as jaybirds. At least all three had the shame to try vainly to cover themselves, though the pudgy elf seemed to be having trouble covering her sizeable proportions with only her hands. The surface dwarf seemed to have an easier time, but Pebline wondered why she wasn't covering herself with her hat and instead leaving it perched on her head. Frankly, being utterly naked except for that rather garish accessory was more distracting than anything. As for the orc, she was smaller and timider than the dark dwarf had expected. Her squirming and shifting on her toes indicated an attempt to make herself smaller under everyone's gazes, an ironic choice given her muscular build.

Letting out a sigh, Pebline asked, "If you're here to try and steal from us, you might be a little underprepared."

The surface dwarf stepped forward, still struggling to hold her breasts in her arms, and stammered for a response. "No, Master Varrero, we wouldn't think of that. We would never... well, I mean, why would we... you see, the thing is..."

Pebline held up a gloved hand. "Look, here's what we're going to do. I'll give you one minute to explain yourselves, and if I'm satisfied with your answer, we can proceed. If not, I'll let Warden Smiles decide what to do next." Without waiting for a response, Pebline picked up a small hourglass from her desk and flipped it over, letting the sand rapidly flow into the bottom glass. She gestured to the woman in the hat, who just stood dumbfounded as murmurs left her lips.

After a few seconds of silence, the elf stepped forward, taking her hands off her privates, and let loose quite the story. As fast as she could, she let spill forth a tale of a vacation gone wrong, going through misfortune after misfortune which lost her and her companions more and more of their possessions and leaving them in their current state. Her fellow nudists stared back at her with equal surprise as the guild master, despite intimately knowing all of this already. As for Pebline, the ridiculous series of events that the elf, whose name evidently was Morgala, spewed forth had captured her attention. The image of these ladies slowly losing access to all of their clothing, money, and various possessions, as well as the sexual escapades that probably didn't need to be shared for her to get the picture, put the Duergar's mind in a spiral. It was all too crazy to be true, and yet these women were, in fact, standing before her naked, so she supposed anything was possible.

"...and after getting her head out of my butt, we ended up here." Morgala rattled off as the last grain of sand reached the bottom of the hourglass, finally taking a moment to catch her breath. It took a few seconds for Pebline to shake herself out of her trance once she realized the story was over. The three subjects looked at her expectantly, waiting for her response, to which Pebline simply replied, "So... how many times did you fuck, again?"

Morgala blushed bright red as if she had not just recounted all of her sexual encounters of the past week before replying, "Um... 3 or 4, depending on how you count them."

"Well, um... cough, I suppose you did answer my question. You have quite the fast tongue, might I add."

"So, does this mean we can go on our way?" Thurkla asked tentatively. "Since we're not here to cause trouble and all."

"Now, I didn't say that." Pebline stood up, showing her full four feet of height which did nothing to detract from the power she held at the moment. "I told you if I were satisfied with your answer, I would propose a solution. I didn't say you could just go as you pleased."

"I don't understand." Takoff cocked her head, confused. "What would be the problem with us getting on our way?"

"Well, the issue is that, given the nature of our work here, we try to keep travelers out of our way as much as we can. One way we do so is the particularly high toll we ask travelers to pay for passage through the route you three were using." She eyed Thurkla. "I take it your former guild were the ones we had a contract with for cheaper passage?"

Thurkla looked at her feet. "I, uh, always let the guild master handle the paperwork. I just carried the goods."

"In any case, the toll is pretty steep even without the vehicle tax. You three would be paying the base price without any goods to bring with you, so that would be..." Pebline did some quick mental math. "About 25 gold each."

Takoff's expression sank. "But, ma'am, we've already told you. We don't have the money for something like that. Surely you wouldn't have us walk all the back the way we came."

"Certainly not." Pebline scoffed at the idea. "The toll is agreed to upon entry in the tunnel, so even if you returned from whence you came, you'd still owe us 75 gold."

"But... but..." Takoff stammered, and Pebline thought she saw water welling in her eyes. If she really was a bounty hunter, this journey must have done a number on her.

"So we're just stuck here?" Thurkla asked dejectedly.

"Don't fret too much, ladies. We have terms specifically for this." The dwarf walked up to a large wooden cabinet and pulled a couple of sheets of parchment from the bottom drawer. As she handed on to each woman, she said, "These are labor contracts. Normally we take goods as collateral, but since you have none, this is your only option. In order to pay your travel debts, you'll have to do some work in the mines. We'll reduce your debts based on the value of what you bring out, minus the cost of keeping you, of course."

"And how long will that take?" Morgala asked, dreading the answer.

"With any luck, you'll be on your way by the end of summer."

Takoff was about to protest, but as she read the terms of the contract, she realized that they had kind of put themselves in a corner. They had nothing to barter with, and without paying off their debts, no way to escape. And she knew all too well that the alternative would be the guild taking ownership of them indefinitely. They were lucky to be getting this offer at all. Taking a gulp, the formerly feared bounty hunter timidly asked, "Do you have a quill?"