"Your purchase amounts to 65 gp, so you would still receive 125 gp from me."
Linene makes a pained face seeing all the gold coins she just received disappear again.

Alice holds out her hand with grin!
Gimme back my shiny coins and more! I'd ask you to pour them directly into my mouth but that's even too much for me to stomach...

"A smith usually works at a forge, I've never done any smithing in the field. As you don't have a red dragon at hand, and I assume your cleric can't cast a sustainable hot flame, you could probably create a small portable charcoal forge. A normal campfire can heat small pieces, but that's not enough for serious iron or steel smithing. With bellows and charcoal, a field forge could reach forging temperatures. I'd have to give that some thought and we'd have to experiment a bit. It won't replace a conventional forge but we might come with something usable. That'll be a challenge, I like it!"

Alice tilts her head.
Charcoal's nice and all but wouldn't a portable furnace be large and heavy? Can we build that in the field from soil or something? I can operate a bellow and control the fire like with Cat's cooking, but that's all. Magic sure is convenient, but we don't have that option.

Alice looks over to Yulya to confirm she's not capable of producing scorching heat. After all that cleric is full of surprises. But definitely no dragon.

...pardon me the question but will you sell this loot to these Redbrands and Mr. Glasstaff? You mentioned he would come bothering you due to the acquired weapons and armor. I still do not understand what to think of those people. Are they the same as the bandits? Or do they really serve the town? I respect if you do not want to talk about the subject but knowing who we are dealing with would really help us out, Miss Linene. Yet another unreasonable request from me...

Alice nods while swallowing as many gold coins as her lolibank can hold (the 54 gp she previously gave Linene), and hands the remaining 71 gpto Yulya.
Yesh, who's that guy and what's the fuss about him?

With the smiths tools secured, Alice keeps quiet about the ball bearings and caltrops. But she waits for an explanation of a heat source.
I can help with many things, but I can't breathe fire, ain't no dragon. In contrast to - other 'people'...

Alice still hasn't completely given up on the idea that Summer might be a dragon in disguise.

She looks at Alice.
"Whoa, are you that - uh - thing from last time? You look a lot better now! Must be my clothes!
Then she notices the wolf ears on her cloak and lets out a laugh
"Did you make this? It's so cute!"

Alice feels proud someone finally appreciates her wofl cloak
Ahem, I had this custom-made in Neverwinter! By the same tailor who made my warm-weather clothes! But your shoes and cloak are wonderful, Miss Linene!



Remembering Elmina's words, when Cat presents the loot, Alice quickly takes over the clothes and attempts to give them a superficial cleaning. With significant mass of her body going into the bag of clothes, she appears even smaller than normal. In the mean time, she tries to distract Linene with the weapons.
We've just heard you had trouble with those bandits yourself, the Cloaked Wolves! So we think you might appreciate this! They were well-equipped, but that didn't help them a lot in the mine. Most had died before we even got to fight them. Guess they were just expendable tools for their leader. But he's also dead so you should have less trouble now!

Yulya nestles with her purse but finds she has no 540 sp left after shopping at Barthens. She gestures to Alice to (literally) caugh up the sum.

Without ado, Alice spits out 54 gp and hands them to Linene with a grin
Fresh and shiny as they can be!

With the debt paid and further business on the way, Alice looks around if she finds something interesting.
Hmm, I want more ball bearings and caltrops, those were hilarious!
Hey, didn't you wanna buy a reach weapon, Cat? Let's look for one! And some smithing tools, right? What can you even do with those? Make your own weapons? If I wasn't in such a bad shape I could make you an exquisite one in a few days! Not magic though...

Alice listens to Elmina's story, gracefully ignoring her glares, and nods occasionally.
Yes, that makes a lot more sense now. I think? Bandits fighting bandits. That's not good at all. We can fight monsters, probably even a dragon, but fighting bandits in town will drag us into a civil war we cannot win.



Alice looks at Yulya, knowing she does not want to fight humans.
We must not lose focus! The dragon first! You said it Elmina! We must stop the cold before everything dies. Including me. But thanks for the bandit info. We'll get them eventually. One way or the other. Stay safe! And take good care of our mules!

Elmina's eyes suddenly pop open in anticipation, but inspecting the loot, her mood drops.
"This is bandit equipment, am I correct? We are not an armory and we cannot afford such trouble. Please take all weapons and armor to Linene Greywind at Lionshield Coster! She has previously been robbed by, as I assume, the very same bandits. I am sure she will appreciate your goods."
Elmina inspects the clothes, but backs off in disgust realizing they were looted from corpses.
"You might want to clean those and sell them to Linene as well.

Alice tilts her head.
Linene who?
Ohh! The lady who gave me warm clothes! I like her a lot! Alright, we'll bring this stuff to her.

Elmina spots the olive soap box and picks it up like a treasure chest, sniffing the scent of pure luxury
Ohh where did you find this treasure? I will certainly buy this! It's been ages since we had decent cosmetics in this outback here! I will pay you the double price!

Alice smiles proudly as if acquiring the soap was her achievement.
I'm glad we have at least something to sell to you! I actually don't remember where, but we kind of found this! I guess the bandits must have lost it as part of their loot. Do you remember where we got this from, Cat?

Hobby nestles with his beard and leads Alice and Cat into the store which is a separate building from Elmina's house
"I'll see what I can do! Come with me!"

Yes please, the cold out here is killing me!

While walking he speaks with a hushed voice
"Is this really true, my friends? An Ancient Dragon? I've heard stories from Edermath but thought this was just his humor. You really want to tackle such a beast?

Alice rolls her eyes.
Actually no, but Summer has some obsession with becoming a dragon slayer. Well, I also need this cold to end for personal reasons, but I have nothing against the dragon itself. I guess somebody's gotta do it.

And my condolences for losing your team-mate. She was one hell of a negotiator. She surely would have become a great trader!"

Yeah a shame. She took the easy way out. I still can't believe she's gone for good.

"About the bandits - yes, we have heard about such groups but it's all gossip and hearsay. I feel bad for not informing you better, but there's not a lot I know. The attacks have been frequent but I did not know it was one organization! With a drow leader? I can only think they are after the mine. Why else target a simple village like Phandalin?"

Alice shrugs.
No idea. Their leader was kinda incompetent but we have no idea what he actually wanted to achieve. But it had something to do with the girls from Phandalin he kidnapped. Have you ever seen bandits inside the village? Do you think someone here could be working for them? I agree they were likely after the mine, but maybe not after the ore.

He appears uncomfortable with discussing Gundren's brothers and Sildar.
"I-I don't want to blame anyone but you know dwarves! I cannot imagine they had any malicious plans. I've known them for an eternity! Without their ambitions to re-open the mine, this town would have no future! But uhh, Gundren and his brothers are a bit - carefree. Even for dwarves. Let's call it that. Got them into a lot of trouble since they were young. Always ended up in peril. Zero preparations and at best some makeshift plan made up along the way. I hope they're alright! As for Sildar, never had a lot to do with him. He occasionally worked for Gundren and the other dwarves. Can't say I'm fond of him but he's never done anything bad either. But I'm just a little shopkeeper..."

Alice sighs.
Ahh, this confirms my suspicion. They did a lot of dangerous and irrational things right from the beginning. And they went to lay siege to the goblin king's castle while sending us to that cursed mine. I really can't if that's blatant foolishness or ingenious malice. But I guess it's the first. You guys really need to organize this town better. Everyone does whatever and ends up in trouble. Daran doesn't care at all and treats everything like a joke. Yulya said it - we're here to help you, but everyone in this town is making it a bit hard! I still feel we were sent to this mine to get rid of us!



While talking, Alice browses Hobby's hauntingly empty store, but finds nothing useful.

I honestly don't know what the Bera guys are doing or if it's just the impatient Millenial brain. You'Re right that the forum is as slow as it was before so woflo's reboot lost ts effect after a few hours. Things are not gonna improve until the weekend. We'll see if Joy ragequits before that.

Indeed, Joy ragequit before that.

At the moment forum works normally, let's see for how long.