"Seems fair enough. Very well, we accept your conditions. Here are the 25 gold pieces."
Talwyn hands the money over, ignore the latter part of Aethon's statement.
"A pleasure doing business with you."
He signs the page in his book, and then passes the pen and book to you. "A pleasure."
Lucos then pulls out a sealed envelope and mutters a command word, likely to dismiss some form of ward.
He hands the envelope to Talwyn. "I will return at five o'clock exactly this afternoon to update you on our progress in arranging the meeting. Do you have any other engagements that would prevent you meeting him at any time within the next seven days?"
He pauses. "I must inform you, that should you attempt to inflict physical harm on him during this meeting, you will invoke the wrath of my family, as our relationship with Silas Cross, the Bloody, is strictly professional."
Aethon nods.
"Of course. We hope to maintain a professional relationship with Ser Cross ourselves."
"Excellent."
Lucos rises from his seat, and says, "Well, I had best be off. Best of luck on all your endeavors, and remember: five o'clock, sharp."
Fine.
He goes shopping.
Not long after leaving the Mithril Gauntlet, Aethon feels a hand slip into one of his back pockets, doubtless intent on stealing something.
Aethon whirls about and grabs the pickpocket.
The thief squeaks, and Aethon realizes the pickpocket is nothing but a small girl, her hair dirty and tangled. Slight bruises are visible on her arm and face, and she rapidly but uselessly tries to pull away from Aethon as she begins to try to pull away from him. On her shoulder, leaning out of a small carrier on her pack, a small, starving puppy yaps at Aethon.
Tears of fear in her eyes, she pleads "Please don't hurt me, mister! I didn't mean any harm!" She carries the soft accent of someone from Valest, a theocratic city-state not far to the east of the City of Thieves.
Talwyn whispers to Aethon what he knows.
Aethon waggles his finger chastisingly at the little girl.
"Now, now. Little girls shouldn't steal. Go along and find something better to do with your time."
"I don't have any other choice! Bloody Silas will set my bones on fire if I don't!"
Aethon furrows his brow.
Aethon can tell she is 100% for real.
Aethon frowns."Well, I'm afraid you should find your money somewhere else, kid." He will lean over and pat the girl's shoulder.
"Surely a talented child such as yourself could find another skill to hone than pickpocketing. Be resourceful."
As he speaks, Aethon palms a silver piece and places it in the girl's hand with a wink.
He stands up and gently shoos her away before continuing on.
Her eyes wide, she takes the coin and vanishes into the crowd.
After a few minutes, you arrive at a small market, bustling with figures clad in dark, concealing clothing. It smells of alchemical substances and arcane expenditure. Talwyn and Aethon see stands peddling tomes, scrolls, potions, strange knick-knacks, and various alchemical devices.
Talwyn approves greatly of Aethon's decision.
He heads to the scroll and tome peddlers, making sure Aethon keeps close.
Talwyn finds himself particularly drawn to one vendor, who sits on a blanket with his wares spread around him. The vendor himself is a old man with skin dark as the night, wearing clothes of various shades of blue and a heavy red blindfold over his eyes.
There is a noticeable area that is clear around him - the usual pickpockets and loiterers seem to steer clear of the blindfolded man.
As you approach, he smiles, showing off a fine set of flint teeth with small runes etched into their surface.
"How can I be of assistance on this fine day?"
He only has four items of particular note - the rest are just tomes detailing topics, that though erudite indeed, are well known to Talwyn and utterly useless to Aethon.
The first is a book bound - seemingly somewhat recently - in baby-smooth human skin. It is ever so slightly larger than one's hand, and as thick as a pinky finger.
The second is a book with velum pages between two almost paper-thin sheet of onyx, and is rather large, large enough that it would take both arms and a desk to read efficiently.
The third is a book carved from a single piece of basalt, and almost seems to be a paperweight.
The fourth book is a decently-sized black leather grimoire with intricate designs of bones and thorns embossed across its cover.
"Please, illuminate me as to the nature of your wares. My interest is piqued."
Talwyn eyes the tomes as if to drink in every last detail the covers could offer. He then glances up to the merchant.
His nostrils flare, and he grins again. "You sound like a smart man. I'm sure you've noticed my four more... interesting items."
Next, he taps the stone book. "This is the research of a master of petrification. Very scientific."
His other hand flicks to the thorn-and-bone embossed grimoire. "The man who wrote this tried to pull Madness up by the roots. It pulled him down and showed him things men should not see."
Next, his hands dance together to touch the onyx-surfaced book. "This details the process of summoning and binding various types of extraplanar undead. A risky business, to be sure."
Finally, he reaches over to the skin-bound book, and lightly brushes his fingers across the surface, though he seems loathe to touch it. "This is the journal of a worm-that-walks. I find his insights rather unsettling."
Talwyn will grit his teeth to keep from licking his lips.
"How much are you asking for them?
"A pair of eyes apiece."
"Are you being serious? If so, what kind of eyes?"
"Of course. I like being able to see, and I go through them fairly quickly. As to what kind? Health, very fresh, undamaged - just bring me a decapitated head, no more than a day old, and it should be good."
"Make sure the person you get eyes from isn't too squinty, I don't want to be nearsighted. They've got to be human - nonhuman eyes make me nauseous."
"No children's eyes, they don't fit properly in the socket."
Talwyn will inhale deeply.
"My line of work is a dangerous one. Who knows, I may satisfy your conditions before the day is out."
He turns back to Aethon, a far off look in his eyes.
"Let us keep moving."
Note that Talwyn is keeping constant track of the time, so as not to miss the appointment..
"I'm here every day."
As Talwyn readies to drag Aethon to the next vendor, he hears the sounds of a scuffle.
"IDIOT! THIEF! DON'T SHAKE THAT!"
A heavyset man, his face bearing the scars of many fights, pulls something away from the vendor at an alchemist's stand.
"Fool!"
The alchemist grabs a four-inch long bone tube, plugged on both ends with steel, and hurls it end-over-end at the fleeing thief. A sickening, grinding crunch and a wet tearing sound fills the air, as the bones near where the tube strikes are pulled out of his body to gather around the tube.
"Idiot!"
The crowd in the area clears out extremely quickly - other than the vendors, few people remain. The vendors themselves seem upset with the alchemist - understandably so, as he just scared off many of their potential customers.
The flint-toothed vendor seems to taste the air, and starts to scramble to his feet, likely to retrieve the corpse.
Talwyn glances to Aethon and rapidly intones, "The gods are kind to us this day. I am meant to have at least one of those books. Back me up, I need that head."
He will then sprint to the body even as he speaks and pull it up by the neck, slinging his arm about its throat like it was an old friend. He will say to the vendor, "Sir, I have your item."
Note that he gives the rod a wide berth.
He glances to the alchemist. "Feel free to take back your device, I mean you no ill will."
Aethon follows closely behind Talwyn. He casts Mage Hand and returns the staff carefully to the alchemist, leaving it about a foot or two in front of him on the ground just in case. He turns to Talwyn.
"Do you have a knife or other such tool? I have nothing, myself."
"It matters not. We were instructed to bring him a head. We have a head. He may wield the knife himself."
He turns to the original vendor, awaiting his response.
The alchemist grunts. "It's useless now."
The flint-toothed vendor hisses in frustration when Talwyn grabs the body, but shrugs. "Well, you reached the corpse first. Which one do you want?"
Talwyn considers briefly. "The manual on petrification, I believe. Yes, that one."
"Very well..."
He raps twice on the surface of the book and mutters an incomprehensible string of command words before handing Talwyn the solid-stone book.
"The command phrase to turn it to stone and back is "Udmunda Ter", but only when it's closed."
"It's in Dwarvish, by the way. I presume a scholar such as yourself would be fluent, however."
"Naturally."
"Thank you kindly for your business."
He turns to Talwyn.
"Well, let's be off then. Do you have anywhere you'd like to visit?"
Aethon thinks for a moment. "Hmm. Now that I think about it, I would love to see if any of the guys around here sell wands or rods or the like. Maybe even scrolls, if anyone has them. After our last job, I'd like to expand my spell choice a bit, you know? And my hands aren't really put to good use holding a weapon, anyways."
"Seems logical. Lead on."
After a brief walk, you arrive in a small section of the market that sells wands and rods.
They are selling cheaply - some as much as 50% off - and all likely missing more charges than the signs and salesmen claim.
Aethon looks for quite the variety of spells. In order of preference: Nereid's Grace, Bungle, Vanish, Entangle, Murderous Command, Thunderstomp, Acid Maw (if it would work with my eidolon), Comprehend Languages, and Brand.
Alright, revised list (with less of a particular order): Vanish, Nereid's Grace, Comprehend Languages, Keep Watch, Alarm, Detect Secret Doors, Disguise Self, Floating Disc, Ant Haul, Air Bubble, Magic Aura, Obscuring Mist, Endure Elements, Abstemiousness, Honeyed Tongue, Borrow Skill, Glue Seal, Bungle, and Entangle.
Aethon finds the following wands for sale, each with the listed amount of charges, supposedly.
Detect Secret Doors - 25 charges
Ant Haul - 10 charges
Magic Aura - 24 charges
Endure Elements - 14 charges
Bungle - 13 charges
Aethon is pleased with the available selection. "Hmm. With these prices, I may be able to afford a couple. Talwyn, I must ask for your judgement on this. And do you know of any way we could recharge these wands?"