"Jameson and his three sons from Triel. I will find them when we get there. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it." Roen bowed to the man before turning to Amara "OK, let's go. I'll follow you now, since my knowledge is lacking in that department. Are we going to do this as a group, or give Byron and Kalliyan their portion of the money when the deal is done?"

"Yes I do, and I also will be voiding the debt with the blade Miss Kalliyan got from me. I'm sure Stavis would be overjoyed that another Druid got his blade."

Amos goes to a shelf behind the counter and pulls off a nice looking Long Sword for Lorrik and hands it to the young lad.

"Take care of it kid."

Lorrik is given a Masterworked Longsword.

Amos, is that the one I think it is?

Byron looks closely at the sword as Amos hands it to Lorrik.  Suprise and a bit of awe in Byron's voice from Amos' cancelling Kali's debt and the quality of the sword.  As both exceed his thoughts.

"Don't make me regret anything." Amos says about the sword "What are your plans now? I never even expected you to run into that thing in the forest. Why were you there in the first place?"

"I went in the forest looking for treasures, so I could pay off the debt my family's farm has. All my friends were killed by gargoyles and Byron and his friends found me in an old ruined building. I've been with them ever since."

We were looking for one of the stones of balance to restore it to working operation.

Byron pauses before continuing.  Thinking carefully about how much more to reveal.

It was disrupting the stone's operation so we took care of it.

Byron smiles at Lorrik.

The kid does have potential if he decides he wants to learn and works hard it.  However, my friends and I feel it is in his best interests to take care of his family first before making any such choice.

Roen and the girls leave the wood mill to go find a place to get the items identified and Amara knows a place: Aki the Merchant. They dealt with the Elvin merchant the last time they were here and got some fairly useful items from him, so Amara figures he'd be the best bet on getting the items identified and sold. Walking down the street, they pass by the fountain and that's when Myarra hears her name with a squeal!

Myarra Myarra!

Myarra, Amara, Aliana and Roen turn and see kids playing with toys in the fountain and a little girl holding a piece of candy runs up to Myarra and hugs her leg. You also see Twiggy playing with the kids, too...

The little girl is growing like a weed as she hugs Myarra's leg. You saw her and her Brother Willie the last time you all were in town, but she was with Rufus' sister and Myarra was disguised with her magical headband, so you didn't bother them. Amanda is perhaps 5 or 6 years old and still has curly hair and a big smile. She's a cute little girl who brightens up anyone's day.

"Myarra, Myarra! Pick me up!"

"Pick you up?" Myarra exclaims, a smile you don't often see lighting up her face.  She reaches down and plucks the child up, lifts her over her head, and spins her around in a circle.

"If you get any bigger you'll be picking me up!"

She slows down and lowers the child to rest on her hip, giving her a big hug in the process.

"How are you, my little sprout?  You and your brother still causing trouble, I hope?"

"Stone of Balance? I don't even know what that is. You and your group got those Transporters working? That is amazing. I explored the forest ruins in me youth, but you'll uncover more than most people ever will. And if you need a place to sell your loot, remember me first."

Then he looks at Lorrik,

"Take care of ye family lad. They be dependin' on ya."

"I'm doing good. Willie is in school. I'm not old enough yet, but I don't care. I get to play with my friends and eat candy. He gave it to me." Amanda said as she points to Twiggy "He's our new pirate friend and he's going to protect us from him." she points to the weird bum sweeping the street and picking up horse manure

Roen smiled when the little girl ran up to Myarra like she was her mother. He didn't really know either of their stories, but Roen knew that Myarra probably had a tough time in towns in the past and to see this little girl run up to her and to see Myarra smile, made Roen's day. Walking up to Twiggy,

"We came to town for supplies and your playing with toys in the fountain?" Roen laughed

Byron says with a rueful smile.

I wouldn't say we have them working without error yet.  It is my theory that the stones of balance being out of whack are causing errors in the transport system.  We have restored a couple of them to working order at the moment.  And I wouldn't be talking about those things to just anyone.

Byron looks around before continuing in a low whisper.

Amos, you know good and well that I'll urge the others to come and see you if we have stuff worth selling that we are unable to use ourselves.  If the kid comes to you for training, send me the bill.  I'm sorry about Stavis.  It took me too long to figure it out to try save him and Lennox.

"Ah, Captain No-Beard.  I've heard of him," Myarra responds with a knowing look.  "Good man, the captain.  Sailed the Dragonsea for several years as a privateer, battling the Evil pirates of the Bandit Kingdoms.  But best of all, I hear he always carries a pocketful of sweets.

And you know what I always say about eating sweets before meals?  Do it!"

Are you looking forward to school?  Study hard and you could be a great wizard like Nolan or Amara.  Or even a world-class librarian like Aliana.  Or anything else you want to be."

She looks around like she's making sure nobody is listening, regardless of whoever actually might be.

"But you come see me when you have some spare time, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about swinging a sword.  A proper young lady should always be able to defend herself.  Plus, I'll teach you how to beat up Willie ... but just a little, and only when he truly deserves it.  It's not good to be a bully, right?

Now, do you think you could manage to charm another sweet from the captain for your good friend Myarra?"

Amara smiled a bit at the children, but then just kept going, heading for Aki's place to get the items identified. She wasn't particularly a "kid" person - perhaps because those who grow up in the Underdark need to grow up quickly.

When she reached the shop, she went in, smiling coyly. "Good day to you! We've got some items that we need to have identified. Would you be able to help us or recommend someone who could?"

Twiggy did a somersault the rolled comming up on his knees swinging his imaginary sword "Arrrr, and that how I be killed the dreaded evil pirate Calptain Noshares." Twiggy dusts himself off a bit and walks over by Myrra and Amanda "That be a good lass first luitenant Amanda, you be bringing yer captain a lovely lady. Ye have earned yerself some more treasure" Twiggy winks at Myrra and holds out a bag of candy to Amanda and Myrra.

"I was about to go find a cart and mule for the landlubber, Lorrick. Ye care to join? We can even get ye a fancy dress to dance later to a jaunty tune."

"Well, I thank ye for trustin' me. Just be careful. I've known many people over the years who gone in that forest and never returned. Any weapons and armor you find, I'd give ya fair market value. I have to stay in business, ye know!" Amos chuckles

"No, I don't want to go to school. I'm going to be a princess and marry a prince and be rich! Willie wants to be a Priest!" Amanda giggles

Just then, Twiggy the pirate walks over and hands out more candy,

"What's a Lew-ten-ant?"

Making sure Myarra and Twiggy knew where they were going, Aliana and Roen follow Amara, who already disappeared into the crowd heading for Aki's place. By the time they get inside, Amara is already talking to the "sly" owner. Perhaps she wanted to talk to this handsome elf alone?

"We meet again, Miss Amara." Aki said with a smile "You have items that need identification? Come into the back room." Roen and Aliana enter the business "Bring your friends."

The back room is the same as before. A simple table with 4 chairs, a stairway going up with a heavily armed human standing next to a door. Aki motions for you to take a seat as you place the items on the table to be identified.

Dagger (magical)
Chainmail (magical)
Longbow (magical)
War Hammer (magical)
1 Magic Wand

"Five items. That will be 505 gold pieces."

Myarra oohs over the candy Twiggy offers and appears to take great care in selecting one.   She pops it in her mouth and moans "Oh, these are so good.  Thank you captain!  You are a true gentleman pirate."

She waits until Amanda has selected one of her own before continuing.  "Princess would be good.  You'd make a fantastic princess.  Just be very careful about your prince.  Some of them are frogs in disguise.  I know, I've kissed a couple.  Really icky, no matter how much money they have.

And lieutenant is a foreign word from a country so far away that it's known only as The Vast.  It means person who gets things done.   That's an important job too."

Myarra gentle puts the little girl back on the ground.

"Go play with your friends now.  The captain and I are going to do a bit of really boring shopping."

She grabs another pair of candies out of Twiggy's back and hands one to Amanda.  "If you ruin your dinner with sweets, make sure you tell Rufus it's all my fault."

Twiggy chuckles at Myarra and waves a goodby to the kids "That is a good bunch of kids, they see more than they realize and adults do things around them that they think they don't notice." Twiggy popped a piece of candy in his mouth "So where do the have some asses in this town, well besides Byron."

Amanda waves good bye as she returns to playing with her friends, which are jealous that she got candy. Myarra and Twiggy walk around, looking for a mule and cart for sale for Lorrik. They see the scary guy Amanda was talking about cleaning up the street sweeping up horse manure. Both of you remember him from the last time you were here about a week ago. He's dressed in rags and and looks and smells filthy, but Myarra can tell that this man was a Warrior of some kind. He is well muscled and has battle scars. Now he's cleaning up Horse poop to buy his drinks...

The both of you locate a Livery, but they currently don't have any mules for sale. The owner says a couple farmers bought up what he had. You shrug your shoulders and figure Lorrik will be home in a few days anyways...

"It is a pleasure to see you again," Amara smiles. She follows Aki into the back room without hesitation. She gives a small nod of acknowledgement to the guard, but says nothing to him as she sits down and pulls out the items.

She nods at the quote, but reaches into her haversack and pulls out a small pouch. She undoes it enough to reach in, extracting five pearls, the sort used for identifying items. "I believe this is what makes up the majority of the cost? Am I right to say the service itself would be five gold?"

The guard at the top of the stairs chuckles and Aki gives Amara a slight smile.

"Clever."

Aki quickly looks over the pearls and puts them into a pouch of his own. Putting the pouch away under his cloak, he then pulls out four scrolls and lays them on the table. Picking up each item, he reads from a scroll. Amara can tell that he has Identify spells on several scrolls. One scroll disintegrates after he finishes the spell. He then tells Amara, Aliana and Roenthelm the properties of the items he identified for you.

+1 Returning Dagger
+2 Shadow Chainmail
+2 Composite Longbow of Distance
+2 War Hammer, Giant Bane
Wand of Ghoul Touch 7 charges

"There you go. I'm interested to know where you found these items, but I suspect you found them in the forest like everyone else does. That will be 5 gold pieces, please."