"Oh, you're a friend of MURPHY's, are you? Well, that brokedown, lord-licking son of a warlock OWES ME MONEY!" The eruption of rage is startling in such a dapper looking man... but then he ruins it by doubling over with laughter. "A joke, friend, only a joke. Murphy's done me some service, so I think I can give a friend of his a good deal. Although... is your mind QUITE made up about this... patchwork... idea? And in OLIVE, with your skin? Ah, well, I can see that it is. Let me see..." He rummages through a pile of fabric in the corner, coming up with something that's a fair match for the colour of your cloak. "It will be a bit short, I think, but between the two there should be plenty of fabric to fix that. Now, I don't usually sell my tools and thread... alterations cost a pretty penny," he giggles, "... but since you're a friend of Murphy's I can let you have them for cost. 30 silver for the lot."
Despite his hurry, Balth is able to talk the man down to 20 silver, and still feels that he overpayed slightly. Still, the cloak seems to be of good quality, so he heads for the ship in relative satisfaction.
[sblock=Janus]
Alanax lowers his voice. "Naturally, the first priority of this mission is to dispel the freezing effect, and I don't wish to override that. But I think it would be of great help in the future to know as much as we can about the magic behind it - powerful magic, obviously. Understanding it is the first step in countering it and preventing any further occurences. If it was created by a ritual - or some sort of experiment gone wrong - there may be items of great intellectual value to be found on the island. Material components, experimental notes and logs - spellbooks, perhaps. If you should come across anything of the sort, I should be obliged if you'd turn them over to me, rather than destroying them. Unless, of course, you feel that destroying them is necessary to break the spell - I don't wish to distract you from that main purpose."
"Still, if you find anything that I could learn from, I would be grateful. I could reward you handsomely for the service." He glances toward the gray scribe, who is paying no attention, and lowers his voice still further. "My employers, in their stinginess, don't budget for such things, so you would need to give the items in question directly to me. In fact, please don't mention this to anyone else. I could get in trouble for disbursing unauthorized funds, and you could get in trouble for accepting them. Not anything ILLEGAL, mind you - just that skirting Guild rules would be a black mark on your record and make it harder to do business with the authorities in the future.
But still, a nice bit of coin in your pocket would do well for funding your own researches, eh? Or whatever ambitions you may have. I'll pay you separately for each book or artifact you can give me, so if you can find much you stand to make a good deal. Just keep this between us... Do we have a deal?"
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[sblock=Everyone]
Anyone who wishes to hang around and try to listen in on this conversation as they leave the room can make a Perception roll. That includes Murphy, but not Balth, as based on what he's already posted he left in too much of a hurry.
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