96. The Umbral Market V: Leavetakings

* The party, and Aerendyl specifically, find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, contractually speaking. In a bid to get around his obligation to sell out the Umbral Market to Dispater without risking the lives of the party or the many charming shopkeepers that frequent the market, Aerendyl opted to open negotiations with Ibrahim. He told the ringleader the truth and asked if there was anything he and the party could do for Ibrahim to gain his assistance in resolving the situation. But the ringleader wasn't feeling particularly charitable, and the offer he gave them was not very favourable at all: the party pay a fee of 1000 souls for the inconvenience to Ibrahim and the market, and then they carry some unidentified cargo up to the First Hell, find one of the archdevils on the layer, and open the cargo in their presence - an act that would most likely incite violence. Ibrahim turns up the pressure by saying that he would at no point divulge the contents of the cargo and that if the party walk away from negotiations now and then return later, the 1000 soul fee would increase for them.
* Wilfred had linked the party in a Telepathic Bond before they began their negotiations, and they all conducted an intense mental consultation in the wake of Ibrahim's offer. With a deep reluctance to keep kicking contractual cans down the road, they decide to not accept the offer. Aerendyl thanks Ibrahim for his time and the party take their leave. Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred would leave Aerendyl behind in the market, they'd escape Hell, and then, hopefully, they'd figure out a way to get Aerendyl back to them after that.
* The mobile market is nearing the party's stop: the Cocytian Docks. After 8 more days of travel, it reaches their penultimate stop, where it is stationary and trading for four days. Then after 7 more days of travel, it will reach the docks, a route up to the Third Hell. With the deadline nearing, the party start wrapping up their dealings in the Umbral Market.
	+ The group decide to go ahead with Zadimus's plan to turn a humanoid into a vampire.
		- Talking about it with Ibrahim, the ringleader allows them to do a one-off auction at their penultimate stop.
		- They get the ringleader to advertise for the auction six days in advance of their arrival, which means Ibrahim will take a 40% cut of their eventual profits.
		- Then when the market stopped, Pyt spent three days running the auction.
		- With the market stopped for one final night and the auction concluded, Zadimus takes the winning bidder, a wealthy, meek drow man, to the Yee Haw! Infernal Ranch, where they'd arranged to borrow a grave's worth of dirt for the night -- something necessary for the vampiric transformation.
		- When it was all said and done, the auction earned 1600 souls. Ibrahim took his cut of 640 souls, leaving Zadimus with 960.
		- Zadimus gives 150 souls to Pyt as an auctioneer's fee, 300 souls to Aerendyl to keep his debts and expenses paid for a long while during his indefinite stay in the market to come, puts aside 200 souls to pay the Rhapsody in the Shadow's bill, and then keeps the remaining 310 souls for himself.
		- Zadimus also returns to the group with the other vampire's eye, so their obligation to Red Rona could be fulfilled.
		- The drow man -- now vampire -- they didn't see again, but ostensibly he'd sworn to never travel to Faerie and to never reveal how he was turned into a vampire.
	+ Pyt and Clwyd end their contracts to run stalls in the market.
	+ Wilfred convinces Molly to leave the market and try and get out of Hell with the party. They arrange for Aerendyl to stay in her place and look after her bees in her little piece of the Golden Hills. When he steps into the tiny piece of Faerie, Aerendyl feels an unmistakable sense of unease!
* The party do a LOT of shopping.
	+ Tattoos:
		- Wilfred spends a week getting an Attribute Tattoo from Grace that boosts his Intelligence score to 22.
		- Clwyd gets a Wall of Force chest piece, 2 Lesser Restorations on an arm, and 8 Magic Missile tattoos on her fingers.
		- Pyt gets a Greater Restoration on his upper back, 2 Lesser Restorations on his forearms, a 3rd-level Counterspell on an upper arm, and 10 Shield tattoos on his fingers.
		- Not including Wilfred's expensive piece, the total is 39 souls. Zadimus nonchalantly pays the bill for them.
	+ Wilfred augments his +1 nonmagical silver shortsword with magic, turning it into a magical +2 weapon.
	+ They hit up the Keysmith:
		- Pyt buys 5 Recall Keys and 2 Passwall Keys.
		- Wilfred has to ask Zadimus for 53 soul coins, which the vampire gives away without issue. Then he buys 2 Dimension Door Keys.
		- Clwyd buys 2 Passwall Keys.
	+ They go to the House of Flowing Words for some calligraphy tags that convey proficiency:
		- Pyt gets a tag for horse-riding and athletics proficiency.
		- Wilfred gets a tag for horse-riding proficiency.
	+ They buy nightmares, ending up with one for Pyt, one for Wilfred, one for Zadimus, and one for Ingvild.
		- Pyt and Ingvild manage to bond with their nightmares, establishing themselves as the alpha in the partnership such that the fiendish horses will listen to them without much issue.
		- Wilfred and Zadimus, however, have much work ahead of them to secure the bond and the respect of their steeds.
	+ For a fee of 25 souls, Clwyd buys 50 green frogs from the Frog Sack shop.
	+ Pyt gets 8 bottles of Red Rona's Styx Juice from the little girl's stall.
	+ Clwyd buys 5 candles from Molly:
		- 2x silence candles
		- 2x see invisibility candles
		- 1x spirit guardians candle
	+ When the market stops, a new shop sets up: **the Hundred Handed One**. This strange giant appears to be made of granite and mountain rock, with pieces of his face and fingers having crumbled or broken away. He sits at the back of a massive forge, while levitating hands and arms of stone busy themselves with the work of magically forging wind and lightning into spears and lances. The giant is stoic and no nonsense, and he refuses to haggle.
		- Clwyd buys a lightning bolt from him for 15 souls.
		- Wilfred buys 3 lightning bolts for 45 souls.
	+ Mr Delicious also makes a big show of his new product that arrived with the market's stop: scratch moss, an addictive, narcotic plant. Wilfred recognises it as something Lyra had warned him against in no uncertain terms, and despite its ability to assist with maintaining concentration on spells, Clwyd and Pyt also steer clear of it. Aerendyl buys some scratch moss from Mr Delicious though.
	+ The party shrink Ilphas down to Small size, so he can ride on the same horse as Zadimus.
	+ Zadimus also convinces the party that they should load Ilphas up with four diseases from the Plagueman so they can cash them in on the Second Hell. A couple members of the party are a little reluctant, but they ultimately agree.
	+ In their final days in the market, some of the group make heavy use of Sweet Dreams.
		- Wilfred gets his Intelligence temporarily boosted, bringing him up to a massive 24.
		- Pyt temporarily boosts his Charisma to 22.
		- Pyt also gets Foresight on himself to be in effect on the day they depart from the market.
		- Zadimus gets himself six days of Mind Blank.
	+ They go to settle the hotel bill, which totals at 189 souls -- with fully half of it coming from Zadimus's drinks bill. The vampire winces, but happily pays for the whole bill from his auction money.
* Finally, the Umbral Market arrives at the Cocytian Docks and the group are set to leave.
	+ Ingvild, having worked the ranch for most of their time in the market, has managed to outfit herself with some imposing black iron plate armour and a massive +2 greathammer, as well as having paid for her own nightmare and the lessons that allowed her to master the horse. She's slung a large, twitching sack over the back of her saddle.
	+ Zadimus has got himself a beautiful basket-hilted +2 fencing rapier, and now sits astride his nightmare with the shrunken Ilphas cringing from the effects of the Longing unable to be tempered by Zadimus's vampiric charm while in the market. The vampire is having to manhandle his mount to get it to comply, but his preternatural strength seems to be more than up to the task.
	+ Pyt sits astride his nightmare with Clwyd uncomfortably close in the saddle before him. Neither of them is massive pleased with the arrangement, but it is what it is.
	+ Wilfred sits his still-unruly mount and helps pull Molly up into the saddle before him.
* They say their final farewells to Aerendyl.
	+ Pyt leaves the elf his Gambler's Ring, thinking Aerendyl will have more need to protect his thoughts in the days to come.
	+ Aerendyl leaves the group with three tasks:
		- Reasoning that his soul couldn't be claimed by either Dispater or Ibrahim if it is already the property of someone else, Aerendyl implores the group to seek out the River King and see if the fey would be interested in acquiring Aerendyl's soul.
		- He asks that the party try and contact the Sylvan Embassy and see if they can help with his situation at all.
		- And he asks them to try to not destroy Terca Mahres.
* The four horses and their seven riders ride out of the Umbral Market without Aerendyl. They follow the directions in Clwyd's mind, riding their magical mounts through the air over the waters of the Styx, up over a daunting waterfall, and into a cave system that a bifurcation of the River Styx is babbling down. Five hours ride from their departure of the market and the group emerge from the cave tunnel. A hellish swamp stretches out before them: Minauros, the Bog of the Damned.