Marklin caught what the Dwarf was looking at, and his eyes went wide. There were great riches to be had in the piles of bones. Gold, silver and gems of many types. The Warrior knew he could wench and drink his way to oblivion on such riches. But that thought, as nice as it was, had a cloud hanging over it. Marklin had noticed the remains of Priestly attire." Blood stained gods. We have a noble’s ransom right before our eyes, but it might as well be on the moon."

 His mood was now sour, but he looked around for any dangers, all the same.

When the Party's Priestess Most Perceptive informs the others of the door being open, all that Aldara can contribute to this goodly blow in the cosmic clash between Chaos and Law, is a sidelong glance.  On her eye's way back, she marvels at the curtain, thinks of a way to convince Sarah to cut them down.  Once again, she does not seem too concerred with any moral issues her fellows might have.

She snaps out of her trance, though, when she hears the sage and priestess make their exchange.  "Is knowledge, used wisely, not one of the most powerful of tools?  We come with a tool for you." She holds up the tome.

Sarah also looks at the jewels and gems.

Valthur, too, contemplates the wealth available at his, or more appropriately at the deceased's, fingertips. But even though he figures the riches will do the bones no favor anymore, the dwarf still has a sense of what is right and what is wrong. Ravaging the remains here crosses that line.

"Aye," he finally responds to Marklin with a sigh. "These gems are beautiful, but they are not ours."

With great effort, he turns from the bones and their valuable adornment.

"Usually for the best"

Charlotte had largely remained silent lately, still finding her footing with the group, but approved of the...  Lack of looting that was going on.

Oh, sure, she wasn't some fan of austerity and the like, but...

"Generally speaking, riches out in the open are that way for a reason, best to avoid them."

" Besides, robbing the dead never be wise. Some god might get offended by us looting here. Those be Priests remains,so I nay be touching the stuff."

"This does sound interesting. Yes. New lore of infant empires is an area of which my collection is sadly, lacking," the hollow voices echoes.

"What do you wish in return?"

"We have some charcoal rubbings that we hope you might be able to translate or explain," Eoni replied, happy that things seemed to be going well.  "We would also like the friends of this man to accompany us when we leave.  A man and a woman recently lost in your maze."

She avoided any mention of their possibly being held against their will.  Eoni was hoping not to antagonize the Savant with accusations of malicious mischief.

"We hope that you will be able to lead them back to us so that they won't disturb your important studies."

A brief silence following Eoni's response is finally shattered by the thin, frail voice presumed to belong to the titular Insatiable Savant.

"Well, which is it? Would you like to have charcoal rubbings translated or the company of uninvited trespassers with nothing to offer in exchange for their transgression?" the voice asks matter-of-factly.

Ebermund shoots a look at Eoni indicating his preference, but the youthful looking man is reluctant to make his voice heard.

Eoni had been afraid that they wouldn't be able to get both with just the history.  She avoided looking back at the others and tried to create a solution.

"Perhaps there is something you wish that we could retrieve for you to cover the difference?" she asked, trying to feign some confidence that it would be a good deal for him.  She did't want to make an outright confession of what was the more valuable of the two choices.

"Some missing information or treatise you'd like us to find?"

It had been a similar bargain that had gotten them here in the first place.  She hoped it would work again.

Sarah continues scrutinizing the gems and other gaudy objects.

From a distance.

"Nothing is missing from my archives!" the voice protests. "Everything is precisely where I left it. Catalogued and complete," the Savant says with self-satisfaction and an air of superiority.

"Now, if you are to suggest new object exists, of which I may find some bit of interest, then speak now of this thing so I can better judge its merit!"

Meanwhile, Sarah continues to ogle the jewels and jewelry. She estimates the lot of them to easily be worth 1000 gold, perhaps more! Hard to be certain really without properly examining each...

Valthur shifts his weight anxiously as the negotiations continue. Eoni seems to have things well in hand, he convinces himself, although he wonders what else they might have that would be of use to the savant. "We didn't plan on needing two things," he whispers to Marklin. "I wonder if he'd be interested in the head of the Beast of Barren Hill?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:39, Wed 08 Mar 2017.

"I was hoping there was some task we could perform for you," Eoni confessed, reaching into her pocket, "but we do have these magic acorns for the two missing."

Eoni pulled the three glowing acorns from her pocket and held them out.  She wasn't sure where the Savant was, but assumed he would be able to see them.

"We collected these at a great price from the Witchwood near Drellin's Ferry.  A mad wood spirit and a tree once taller than any other, now split in twain.  These are the last of their kind.

"With so few of these left, perhaps just one for your collection would suffice."

She returned two to her pocket as if confident that the price was well worth the trade.

"I am not in the habit of taking on unskilled servants for menial chores," the Savant sneers snidely. "I dare not hazard a guess as to what you take me for," he says, barely able to contain his imperious tone.



"This! Now this is intriguing!" the Savant says, its tone much friendlier.

"Very well, I will trade you knowledge of your missing companion in exchange for the acorns," the voice says. "In exchange for the Tome of Rhestilorian History, I agree to translate the writing you have brought, assuming it is within my capability, and I trust it is..." the voice coos with a certain degree of smugness.

"Agreed?" it asks.

"Companions," Eoni clarified, emphasizing the plural.  "A man and a woman.  The man just recently and the woman much earlier.

"And this knowledge must be where we can find them, alive."  Again she emphasized that they must be alive.  Having him say that they're dead and that was the deal would not be acceptable.  He sounded llike the type that would quibble over the exact letter of the agreement.  She wanted to make sure they knew what they were getting.

"With those amendments, we have a deal."

Valthur listens intently as Eoni negotiates with the unseen savant. Yes, he and the cleric have been at odds from time to time in the past, but he can't help but admire the skill with which she presently discusses the terms.

He's thankful it's her negotiating the deal and not him...or Marklin.

"One is as good as the other, for all I am concerned. Find one, you find the others. This you will see, all in good time," the Savant says in a mischievous tone.

"Very well, agreed. Hold your offerings out for presentation...."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:05, Fri 10 Mar 2017.

 Marklin just shook his head,and looked bored at the whole exchange.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:36, Fri 10 Mar 2017.

Showing her distaste for what she felt was a callous tone, Aldara inwardly thanked a goddess she only periodically offered prayers to that one of her faithful was handling negotiations.

When the Savant requested the tome, she held it out.  Her expression was one that said she did not trust him.

Eoni turned and looked to the others to see if they agreed with the deal.  It seemed to her the best they could do.  She worried that some ill machination of the Savant's would still cause them to regret this bargain.

For her part, she held out the three glowing acorns.  She wished that she'd only revealed two of the three.  She was new to this haggling and would strive to do better the next time.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Fri 10 Mar 2017.

Valthur gives Eoni an affirmative nod, then grips his axe a little tighter as if sensing the need to use it may be close at hand.

A whisper, directed at no one in particular:

"Why not just ask him to return the missing people?"

A few brief moments after Aldara and Eoni hold out their offerings, a spectral robed visage floats through the mirrored curtain. Garbed in flowy robes and cowl, the humanoid form glides effortlessly over the floor with no apparent locomotion by its nonexistent legs. A hawkish ghostly nose protrudes from the cowl, while two pricks of violet light denote where the creature's eyes might be. Otherwise, the face is devoid of features.

The ghostly figure draws close to Aldara and Eoni and reaches out to take possession of the tome and magic acorns.

"The text please," the apparition drones in a monotone voice that is decidedly different than the Savant.

"They're the loose pages in the book," Eoni explained, pointing at the tome it now held.  "We didn't want them to get damaged but they should still be in order."

She wondered how long it would take.  Hopefully, they'd be able to collect the other half of their bargain during the translation.