"Why don't you go grab some from the river, Ivy dearest? And maybe while you're at it you could wash all of that grey matter off your hands, it is positively unsettling."

“A saline solution would be more likely to house it comfortably, since it’s used to organic bodies,” she muses, but yes she’ll go get everything sorted. And get cleaned up.

"Are there any further detours or shall we go?"

“Not that I’m aware of,” says Ivetrielle, once the parasite is housed in a suitable environment. And the grey matter is cleaned off of her hands. The tadpole does, to its credit, look… sort of more comfortable in there? It’s hard to tell.

Then onwards they go, to the west across the bridge... where they encounter a very girsly scene. Corpses, fresh ones, litter the ground, looking like they've been picked clean and left for carrion. The wounds suggest violence, a battle, but they also suggest rather a lot of cruelty. And amidst the corpses are three people they might recognise.

"Ah. It's you," says Aradin, the human who had been arguing with Zevlor. "Thought you was busy with the foulbloods in Halsin's grove."

“Oh? Looking for more goblins to lead back, are we?”

"I ain't coming back no matter how much you pay me. Shit contract start t' finish. Lose my crew, good people, t' a bunch o' goblins, get attacked by an elf—"

"Darling, if I hadn't done that Zevlor had been about to punch you unconscious. And you did have it coming."

"Wasn't any of your business, though, was it?"

“Ah, yes, amazing how the lines of business are drawn so conveniently. Do you know what I spent hours doing? Cleaning up your tracks. Learning about your business. Do you know what I didn’t see? Any signs of you attempting a counterattack or ambush on your pursuers. Any attempt to throw them off your trail. You can bitch and whine about losing your people, but you and I both know you left them. We don’t want you back. I’m surprised you have the stones to even still be in this forest, I would have expected you to slink into a hole to quietly wet yourself for all I’ve seen of you.”

"'Course I left them! I taught 'em, taught 'em good, if you see a hopeless battle you cut your losses an' run, we're mercenaries not heroes and we ain't dyin' for gold. Gold's no good if you're cold in the ground."

"A handful of goblins is a hopeless battle? Pathetic."

"Handful? Wasn't no handful of goblins, miss. 'Twere an entire hive of them. Contract said nothin' about that."

"What was this contract?"

"The kind that leaves half your crew dead. This wizard in Baldur's Gate'll pay gobloads for a relic supposedly buried 'round these parts. Under the temple."

“Ahuh. Get into a different line of work. Baking, maybe. Because clearly you’re not cut out for this one.”

"If we'd been told there were goblins we'd have prepared, now, wouldn't we, miss? If I sent you naked into a nest o' hungry vipers you'd be runnin' too. Send us out in the wild, say's some abandoned temple, give us stick swords to fight, an' we have a whole ambush? You ain't seen 'em. Organised like I never seen goblins be. You ain't know what you're talking about, miss."

"Halsin. How does he feature into this?"

"Don't see why I should be answering your questions, mate."

Ivetrielle stares at the man.

"There's a hag based in the nearby swamp. She's been there for years now, people still keep showing up to ask her favors, even though it always ruins them. There are packs of gnolls running rampant in the north. To the far west, the woods are cursed with shadows that devour heat and light and especially people. We've been having mindflayer incidents for weeks. I saw a damned dragon yesterday. If you sent me naked into a nest of vipers I would have the sense to turn into a giant badger first. My circle isn't here because this is a lovely patch of forest with flowers and butterflies, we are here because it needs fixing. And you whine to me about your so called easy job not being as easy as you thought? About tripping face first into a nest of goblins and fucking over my home with your incompetence? Ha! Goblins are the least of your fucking worries, you self centered ass. You came to the wrong part of the Sword Coast for an easy job. You are not cut out for this business if you didn't see that before you came. Get into a different line of work."

"I ain't standing here taking abuse from another bloody elf. Go try to rescue your druid, or don't, no skin off my back. But if you try you'll die, and no one'll cry at your funeral 'cause there ain't gonna be one. Good luck, you'll need all of it."

"Half elf, thank you." She winks. "And with your perception and judgement, I suppose you thinking I'm doomed means I'll do just fine, now won't it? But yes, well spotted, I want you to leave. Stop wasting time stealing from the dead and get to getting the fuck out of the place that will chew you up and spit you out." She makes a shooing motion. Like one would to a pest. "Word of advice? Luck's nice, but intelligence and pre-planning are better."

"...I ain't stealing. I was paying my respects."

But yes off he goes, followed by the two other party members who keep allowing him to do all the talking even though he kinda sucks at it. Maybe they suck worse.

"Coward."

"Very much so. And not even a particularly good liar, either, he was definitely looting the bodies," says Ivetrielle, sort of cheerfully.