93. The Umbral Market II: Settling In

* Aerendyl, Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred, together with the vampire Zadimus, the fire giant Ingvild, and the elf Ilphas -- who is suffering from the Longing, the affliction that takes elves who are too long separated from the area of nature they are connected to -- have made it to the mysterious and illusive Umbral Market. With the group having rented amazing rooms from Ringleader Ibrahim's hotel, *Rhapsody in the Shadows*, Ingvild is now off undergoing the spa treatments that will restore her cut-out tongue and shrink her considerable size, Ilphas has been left in his own room, and the party plus Zadimus discuss their plans in the beautiful common room that links all seven rooms.
	+ Zadimus offers to load up Ilphas with a bunch of the Plagueman's diseases for the party's benefit. Most of the party don't really like the way Zadimus is treating the suffering elf, but Pyt is pretty keen for the idea. That is, until Zadimus says he'd like one of the party to consider taking the hit on the Red Rona contract instead of him, giving up an eye and a hand. None are keen. Zadimus shrugs and says it was worth a try.
	+ Zadimus also mentions that he suspects Ilphas is some sort of champion of the season, eladrin that are taught how to harness power from the seasons they wear. Hence him currently wearing winter and being able to use icy spells. Zadimus thinks that he should have a season that makes him good at healing and support magics, which might be more useful for the party than what he can currently do. The catch is that since he's Longing, Ilphas won't change season from winter and even under Zadimus's vampiric thrall as he is, Ilphas refuses to do so. Thus, if they want to try this, the group would need to go to Sweet Dreams, the shop run by Willow and the Hagman, get them to induce Ilphas into a sleep, to have him dream a memory that he strongly associates with this healing season of his, and then the party would need to dream quest through the memory themselves, to guide Ilphas into the change.
	+ The group sort out their haul of soul coins from the things they sold around the market. Between the four of them, Zadimus, and Ingvild, they each get 40 coins, with 70 being put aside exclusively to pay for their lodgings. Ilphas doesn't get a share, despite some wry (but brief and halfhearted) protests from Zadimus on the topic.
	+ After that, the group sleeps, ready to tackle the market again when they wake.
* After resting, their countdown ticks over. There remains 68 nights until the Umbral Market arrives at the Cocytian Docks; 68 nights to find a way to get around their legal bindings enough to inform Dispater where and when the market is going lest Aerendyl die and submit his soul to the archdevil. 68 nights in which they're also obliged to remain in the market and inform no others of its trajectory.
	+ On waking up, Zadimus tells them his Charm isn't working on Ilphas. The market, it appears, is warded against such magics. The eladrin is thus left in his enfeebled, incapacitated, Longing state.
	+ Wilfred links the group with his telepathic bond spell, and Dispater's looming, eavesdropping presence is conspicuous in its absence.
	+ The group have a meeting with Ringleader Ibrahim to look into opening their own stalls.
		- Wilfred briefly considers offering a spell scroll service, but ultimately decides against it considering the time constraints in place.
		- Clwyd plans to offer a magical meeting space with a great deal of customisation and privacy, making use of her (new) *Hallucinatory* *Terrain* and *Dream* spells.
		- Pyt intends to open a stall where he offers Bardic Inspiration to people, which they can then make use of around the market.
		- Aerendyl has no intention of opening a shop or stall in the market.
	+ Pyt and Clwyd sign yet another contract with Ibrahim to open a small shop and a stall respectively.
		- They each pay Ibrahim 5 souls up front to sign the contract.
		- They agree that they won't offer guest houses, hotels, camp sites, or similar services.
		- They agree to give a percentage of their takings to Ibrahim after every trading period (the times when the market is stationary). Alternatively, if their takings are too low, they will give Ibrahim a flat fee.
		- In exchange, they are given the ability to customise their work space as they desire and can make use of In Imps We Trust for free, so long as they are trading. They receive a loosening up of the restrictions around talking about the market to outsiders in letter form, but they are still banned from describing anything pertaining to the market's past stops, future trajectory or itinerary, current and past vendors, and so forth.
* The party then do some shopping around the market:
	+ Clwyd buys a terrarium jar filled with a colony of little grey, brown, and navy stag beetles from the Biggest Bug Emporium. The beetles are excellent climbers. As the party go to a number of other shops, Clwyd spends her time staring into the jar and naming leadership beetles.
	+ Next, Pyt has the group go to Mimicry at its Finest, where listens to Ignacius's advice for a first time mimic owner and, for 10 souls, buys a tiny mimic that can only copy the shape of a ring currently. Ignacius takes some time to walk Pyt through the basics of mimic ownership: what to feed it (they do well on a diet similar to dogs, interestingly enough) and how often, how to go about training new forms (an hour each night with an example object on hand; avoid missing a night), how to get the mimic to imprint quickly so he doesn't need to worry about it running off (thankfully, Ignacius has bred these mimics specifically to take to new owners quickly so this isn't much of an issue), and when to move up in the size of objects it mimics (for the first year, he advises sticking to tiny things roughly equal to the size of the ring. After roughly a year, going up to something 1.5 or 2x the size should be possible. Growth will slow down after three years.)
	+ Aerendyl is keen for some magical candlesticks, so the group return to Molly the gnome's shop. The shop is empty when they arrive and they have to ring for service. Molly comes from the rolling hills visible from her shop windows, wearing a bee suit.
		- Molly's typical offer is a candlestick for 5 souls or five sticks for 20 souls, but the group successfully haggle her down to five sticks for 15 souls. The candles they buy are: 2x *Beacon of Hope*, 2x *Magic Circle*, and 1x *Zone of Truth*.
		- Molly also mentions casually that she's 'trapped in Hell'. She sticks to the market mostly, but occasionally pops out when it stops - never for too long though.
	+ Aerendyl then heads to Percival's Potent Potions.
		- The elf buys 1 potion of invisibility and 3 potions of heroism.
		- Clwyd buys 2 potions of surging action.
		- Wilfred buys 1 potion of marvellous durability, 1 potion of mighty strength, and 1 potion of vitality.
	+ Aerendyl wants some stuff from the Master Gemsmith's Quarry next. The group are kept waiting again but eventually the Dao genie proprietor of the place eventually shows up and Aerendyl is able to purchase a sizeable agate and an Earth Elemental Gem. He successfully haggles for a little discount on buying the pair together.
	+ Aerendyl's shopping spree then takes him and the group to Day and Night, where he buys two of the high-pressure bottles of sunlight for 28 souls total.
	+ The group go back to the smiths at the Flaming Heart next.
		- Wilfred commissions a +1 shortsword of speed, a +1 cold iron shortsword, and a Sylvanium chain shirt, all for 54 souls.
		- Clwyd and Aerendyl both buy +1 shields for 18 souls each.
* Shopping done for now, the group shift gears and turn to work in the market.
	+ Pyt sets up his inspiration stall, shifts through a lot of different possible names for the place, and in the evenings he trains his new pet mimic.
	+ Clwyd gets her own little shop ready, calling it the Mindscape Meeting Space.
	+ Wilfred works as an assistant for Percival the potion maker while the market is moving and then for Molly the candlestick maker when the market is stationary and the crowd floods in. He gets 6 soul coins from his work with Percival and then gets 12 soul coins for his work with Molly, plus a 20 soul coin bonus.
	+ Aerendyl goes to the Yee Haw Infernal Ranch and tries his hand at working as a farm hand for a week. This turns out to be demanding, tiring work and he struggles at it. For his week of backbreaking labour, which he doesn't do a great job at, he is given a meagre 4 soul coins.
	+ After 5 more nights of travel, hopping from shadow to shadow all across the vast hellscape of Dis, the Umbral Market comes to its next stop. New customers come flooding in, and Pyt and Clwyd begin their grafting.
	+ Pyt's stall proves quite successful and, after the four nights the market spends in this spot (and after Ibrahim's cut), Pyt makes 40 souls.
	+ Clwyd's shop proves very successful in this area, and at the end of the trading period (and after Ibrahim's cut), she makes 121 souls. She gloats about her success 'in an annoying way'.
* After the four-night-period the market spent in one spot, several of the shops are packing up to go and a couple new ones have moved in.
	+ Champ's menagerie, the charmingly named **Werebeasts? Here Beasts**, is packing up in a hurry. Wilfred wants 2 silver pseudodragons and he sends Pyt to haggle for him. The bard manages to get both for 8 soul coins, mostly because Champ is preoccupied shouting at his crew to get things moving quickly and he's just happy to make another sale before he goes. The little dragonlings are malnourished, diseased, and terrified. Wilfred curses Champ again as he sees the state of the poor creatures, but he moves to begin devoting himself to caring for them.
	+ **Percival's Potent Potions** also packs up and the incredibly ordinary man walks out the market with his wares apparently bundled up in a cloth and tied to the end of a stick resting on his shoulder.
	+ And when Pyt looks for **Cully of Wid's** stall, thinking about buying that ring of telekinesis, the strange man has apparently taken his leave already.
	+ With money in their pockets, the group does a bit more shopping at the Flaming Heart forge:
		- Clwyd buys the magical liquid bronze armour for 60 souls. Once attuned, it flows over her body and is capable of forming into a +2 version of any medium or heavy armour when she spends an action to do so. She has it take the form of half plate; it has stylised abs on the stomach and a metal skirt over the greaves.
		- Pyt gets a +2 flametongue sabre of speed for 70 souls.
		- And Wilfred has his old silvered shortsword augmented into a Fiend Slayer for 20 souls - price reduced somewhat because the party has bought so much from the forge.
	+ There are two new vendors:
		- **Play the Market**: an amnizu stock exchange, full of shouting, imps flying overhead, numbers ticking over all over the place, and a generally baffling atmosphere. Pyt succeeds in stopping an amnizu long enough to get him to explain a little, and the fat, suited devil simply says, 'you wanna get rich? Get into stocks!'
		- **Roadkill**: a chop shop filled with grease-monkey hobgoblins making Infernal vehicles. They have a lot of Devil's Ride motorbikes ready to go, they have a Tormentor dune-buggy style car in the back, and they have signs and schematics on the walls showing larger, more fearsome vehicles they can make to commission.
* It is the night after the end of the four-day trading period. After 6 nights worth of travel and 4 nights stationary for trading, after the group sleep the countdown until they arrive at the Cocytian Docks will have 59 nights' sleep remaining.