"Normally I would recommend consulting with the magician and sage Khonnir Baine, but given the circumstances that may be impossible. While I could perhaps create some concoctions that generate extreme cold, it would be expensive and time-consuming, and I gather that in your case time is of the essence," says Darian.
"So do we go back to the caverns now, or honor these invitations first? I would rather get on with exploring the under-mountain, but Garmen Ulreth is a big-wig here in town, and he may not appreciate waiting for us..." Kayla says, fingers twisting her hair a bit nervously.
"Hmm... I don't know. Perhaps we ought to meet with him first, he could have something--either information or equipment--that could help us as we continue to explore the caves. And, as you mentioned... well, it's likely he won't be pleased waiting for us." Adrien gives a friendly smile to Darian, beckoning him towards the group. "Would you like to accompany us? Someone familiar with the alchemical could come in handy down in the caves."
"I am curious to know more about the ecology of brown mold," says Darian in a tone that seems more like habit than actual curiosity.
"Is not Garmen Ulreth influential because of his financial stake in the town? Given that you have undertaken a mission that is of some importance to the town's health and leadership, is it possible that his sudden interest is driven by his own financial or personal gain?"
"I don't know him personally, but I wouldn't be surprised. Although, until we hear what he has to say we don't know that his gain isn't also ours. For all we know, it will benefit him if we find Khonnir and bring him back, and figure out what happened to the flame. After all, that was Torch's claim to fame."
"We could probably spare a couple of hour to win big in a Casino... probably. Let's at least hear what he has to say, but I'm not here to line his pockets!"
"Then it's off to see the man." Kayla says out loud.
"I hope he doesn't remember me from that thing last year..." she adds under her breath, glancing over at Preli...
Arkady will come along with the rest of the group, keeping his longsword sheathed but ready if things get out of hand. "Unexpected invitations. Free certificates to enjoy ourselves with. Wonder what the man wants from us in return, hmmm?"
Darian replies to Arkady's rhetorical question, saying, "Information? Promises of mutual assistance? First rights at anything interesting that you retrieve from below Torch?"
Preli winks at Kayla when he thinks no-one is looking
"like old times, eh?"
Kayla grins at Preli and nods. "If it goes sideways, let's go with the manticore gambit this time..." The two then lower their voices even further, occasionally making intricate hand gestures and emphatic grunts.
Thüm moves his bulk in front of the door of the inn.
"Who can say how many hours remain in Khonnir Bhane's life? Thüm would not risk further delay. Who is this Ulreth but a face for Rope Fists and perhaps a dupe of the Technic League? Besides, no games run at Silverdisk Hall until evening--this Thüm knows. Let us return to the caves while day is young, and find diversion in town when sun has set and spell of sea breathing faded."
Preli ostentatiously mimes loosing his coinpurse, patting down his jacket then holding his empty hands out, smirking with Kayla.
the place will be busier tonight, less likely to be noticed...
"Thum's right, we can't just leave people down there while we have a chance do something... Thing of the people in danger!"
He looks around, checking is people believed him
"If Khonnir Baine is in danger, we should prioritize aiding him," says Darian. "He is a fixture of this town and essential to its continued functioning."
"Agreed. I don't know what I was thinking..."
"That's true. I just hope we don't make him angry, since he's got a lot of pull here in town." Adrien, taking a moment to prepare for the day, pulls a small metal sphere about the size of his fist from his pocket and sets it on the ground in front of him, before sitting cross-legged on the ground. He props his staff up in front of him, reciting an incantation in an odd language. "ആവശ്യമായ തുടക്കത്തിൽ ഡയഗ്നോസ്റ്റിക്സ് നടപ്പിലാക്കുക - ഓപ്പറേഷണൽ ദൂരമാണു മുപ്പത്തഞ്ചു ശതമാനം പ്രവർത്തനസജ്ജമായ ." As he speaks, blue light seeps from the ridges in the metal sphere, and a small circle of blue runes are projected from the shell. "സാധാരണ ഓപ്പറേറ്റിങ് പ്രോട്ടോക്കോളുകൾ സഹിതം ഓപ്പറേഷണൽ കോംബാറ്റ് സബ് സിസ്റ്റങ്ങൾ , സജീവമാക്കുക." Slowly, the little metal ball begins to unfurl; gear and pieces of machinery unlatch from each other as the obviously magical sphere begins to increase in size. "വിജയകരമായ ഭാഗം സജീവമാക്കൽ ." After about a minute's time, the sphere finally completes its transformation, and Ozymandias rises to his full height in front of Adrien.
"Hello." Ozymandias moves about for a moment, apparently checking to make sure he is operating correctly. "As per our previous discccuussion, Adrien, I will be scanning our new comrades for use in my primary defense matrix." After a few moments of techno-babble and some scanning by Ozymandias, he looks at Darian. "You were not here during my prev--s--ious activation; my name is OZ-M1, or Ozymandias."
"Before we descend beneath hollow hill, let us find a flame that in water will not waver. Thüm has seen faces of thralls in Technic League mines lit by flying flames. Stranger things are sold in the markets of Torch. As we go to the temple for the spell of sea breath, let us look for such everburning stones."
Kayla holds up a sunrod and says, "You mean like this? I have a few of them."
"Lets see if we can get by with Kayla's sunrods. Shame to waste disks on lights."
Preli takes out his gun and deftly checks it over, before holstering it
"Shall we get going? Treasure rusts you know!"
Thüm leads the group through Torch's market square on the way to the Temple of Brigh. There he stops at a dusty peddler's blanket, where among other trinkets and petty carved charms, something like a piece of anthracite burns without scorching the blanket.
After a bit of friendly bickering, the barbarian nods and shakes the peddler's hand. He takes the stone from the blanket and tosses it into the air, nods with satisfaction as it weaves a few circles around him, then snares it and tucks it away in his pouch.
"Little blue-haired chicken-man carries Thüm's money, friend," Thüm says to the peddler over his shoulder, as he strolls away towards the bridge at the south end of Crowfeather lake.
"I will presume that you are in need of further assistance unless indicated otherwise," says Darian, and falls in step with the group.
Preli is fiddling with a buckle on his coat as Thum deals with the trader but his head snaps up as he hears the big man's departing words
"no because... but..."
mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, he looks from Thum's retreating back to the trader and back again several times then scowls and tosses the trader a carefully counted quantity of coins. Before chasing after his companions.
Kayla lets out a choked laugh at her friend's distress, then slaps him on the back and says, "The big guy certainly won that round! I haven't seen you so flustered since that time the egg you swiped and was getting ready to crack open for breakfast hatched!" Kayla keeps up with the group as they head back to the lake and the caves under it.
"Wait, we need to speak with Father Kyte!" Adrien calls after them, jogging to catch up as Ozymandias's long strides follow behind him. "He's got the spell we need to get in, remember? We can't just head there, we have to get that spell or we'll be stuck on one side or the other." Once he catches up, he stops to catch his breath; clearly Adrien is not one for physical exertion. "Also, we can ask him about those cards before we leave... it might prove useful," he says, breathing heavily.
As he crosses the bridge south of Crowfeather Lake, Thüm points calmly to the Temple of Brigh, down the road and at the base of the town's great hill. "There is Father Kite's temple."
"Perhaps while we are at the temple, we should see if Father Kyte has some healing potions that might aid us while we are in the caverns beyond Sef and her strange folk," Arkady says, his voice back to its raspy tone, before turning to the rest of the group. "If we do, should our group to pay for this, or do we split what we have found before doing so?"
Father Kyte meets the group at the temple. "Welcome friends," he says. "I see you have brought Darian with you. Are you ready to re-enter the caves? I can get my wand and walk there with you."
Preli, once more at the back of the group, prepares his accoutrements, placingbpowder and gun into the waterproof bags and tying down loose clothing.
"We should split the cost of healing potions. I would hope anyone would share one with one of the group in need..." Kayla is eager to get back into the caves and walks at the front of the group.
Arkady nods in Kayla's direction and turns to Father Kyte. "Father, do you happen to have any potions with healing properties available at all, and how much would it cost to purchase from you?"
The priest leads the party over to a small stand, set in front of the temple. "This is the temple store," he says. "We use it to fund the temple's work. The council has told the merchants in town that your group should have access to a general discount - a fifth off the market price. We have three such potions, and, given the circumstances could sell them to you for 35 gold apiece, which includes some additional money off. You won't get such a good discount, but you should also try the General Store for goods, and the guildhouse, for armour and weapons."
"I have 15 gold I can pitch in to purchase the healing potions..." she says to the group, counting the handful of coins left in her pouch. "No point having money if you ain't around to spend it!"
"I've twenty gold coins to pitch toward the purchase of one. But with Preli holding the rest of the gains from below the town, we will need him to divvy the rest when the time comes," Arkady states, tipping the contents of his belt pouch out into his hand. He counts out the twenty golden coins and hands them over to Kayla.
Preli sighs loudly before taking out the pouch of disks and hurling them to Arkady
"oh yes let's 'share the wealth,' let's be 'fair' you don't even realise do you"
The outburst it acoumpanied by much flapping of arms and hopping. Preli huffs of and kicks dust in the corner.
While waiting for the group to sort out its buying plans, Kyte inquires:
"Did you find anything of interest in the caves?"
"A dying skraeling tribe. Do elders of Torch have food enough to take thralls?"
As the gnome stalks away, Arkady picks up the bag of silverdisks from the ground. "Is your friend always so tetchy when it comes to treasure?" he asks Kayla in his normal raspy tones, frowning as he counts out a further seven discs to pay for the other two potions in Father Kytes stock, along with the one purchased from the gold split between himself and Kayla.
From his distance Preli grumpily retorts
"and the cards, we got the cards. Going to share those out to? Share, share, share!..."
Then as he wanders back to the group he looks up at father Kyte
"They worth anything anyway? Those cards?"
"Oh, don't mind Preli. You know how gnomes are...like a raven, wanting anything shiny for himself but no worse than dwarves hoarding gold under a mountain. It's nothing aginst us...he has an unnatural attraction to treasure..." Kayla reassures the grumpy Arkady with a smile.
"Now back to the caves! We have some doors to open!!" she says to the group, her infectious grin and eager tone lightening the mood.
Darian nods at Kayla's comments and says, "I was unaware that such personality traits were universal to gnomes. This is useful information." There's a notable pause before his following sentence, which seems to be a deliberate attempt to space them as they are on different topics, and he says, "Please give me a minute when we reach the cave. I will make a concoction that will assist me in swimming through the lake."
"Ah yes, the cards! Father Kyte, we procured these interesting cards from the tribe that Thüm mentioned, after we performed a service for them. We were hoping for information about Khonnir, and we received them along with passage through the tunnels we believe the Councilman took." Adrien pats his own pockets, not remembering if he carried the cards or not. "I know I didn't take them... wait, Kayla has them! Show those cards to Father Kyte, they may be a clue of some sort."
Kayla complies, holding out a couple of the cards for his inspection.
Kyte examines the cards, then shakes his head. "I'm not familiar with them, I'm afraid. Though they obviously are techwork. There's a man in town, called Sanvil Trett. He's the person people tend to go to for appraisal of this kind of stuff. You might want to go and see him. The same applies to anything else you might find, though I think he charges for the service."