Space Adventure! [IC]

[miinstrel]

Ventose looks to Zak with a quirked eyebrow, seeing what he thinks they should do with the obviously-up-to-no-good street toughs.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Zaklinan gives himselves the mental equivalent of a quirked eyebrow after Ventose gives him one. What do you think?
I believe they are more scared than threatening, his oracle mind opines.
I could've told us that, grouses his collective mind.
Yes, we're all very proud. I was saying?
I estimate a seventy percent chance that they are involved with the case of the missing alchemist, a twenty percent chance that they will attack us preemptively, and a forty-six percent chance that they will be inclined to talk if presented with overwhelming force.
We aren't really a fan of "overwhelming force."
But they do not know that.
True. Do I see any problems on our end?
I do not foresee any serious injuries in any of the likely immediate futures.
All right then. Thank me very much.

The whole mental exchange only takes an instant, and once it's concluded Zak gives the toughs a slightly threatening smile. "On the contrary, my friends, you are talking to us, evidenced by the fact that you have to talk to us to threaten us. Talk is all we're asking of you, and if you tell us why you seem so nervous about this missing friend of ours and why you felt necessary to hide something under your shirt, we'll leave you alone and go about our business. If you don't...well, you know how crazy we Guild members are. The voices in my head might tell me to do something...unfortunate."

I certainly would not! I merely told me that the most likely--
It's just a figure of speech.
Ah, right. I always forget about that one.
Well, I don't know about me, but I'd tell you to do something to him. I hate playing detective. Can we get on with it?

Spoiler

Show

Intimidate check to persuade the toughs, including his daily Intimidate use of Cunning Knowledge:
(1d20+5)[23]

[Sliver]

Zaklinan and Ventose

The thuggish looking man steps back, raising his hands. "We don't know anything about an alchemist, honest!" He says, his dumb act suddenly gone. "We were just doing business. Don't call the guards on us..."

"L-l-l-look... We are ho-ho-honest ffffolk." The other man speaks. "I j-j-j-jujust wwwwanted to tttry this stu-tuff..." He raises his shirt slightly, revealing a brown package covered in childish stickers.

---

Aster

"I can move my vitals around." Says Cringe. "Very useful when the kids want to take a stab at me. All in good spirit."

Scotty looks amused at how impressed you are as you fly down into the basement. It is dark, but your dancing lights light the room and reveal many wooden figures. They are similar to the toy soldiers the boy played with, except they are "giant" (human) sized and the wooden clothes they wear are fancier. Not for battle, but a ball.

"Your games sound dreadful, little one. Name the flower? You must know them all by heart! Where is the fun? Hide and seek? So pointless. Everything that you want can be found right here." He motions to his head. "Close your eyes."

[Archmage1]

Aster looks at Cringe a bit oddly as he says he can move his vitals around.
"That sounds fancy! I wonder if I have vitals... But I don't want to be stabbed, that seems like it would be no fun at all!"

After she heads down, she looks around the basement, noting that there are even more giants here, but only until she realizes that they are wooden.

She looks offended when he says that her games are no fun.
"Name the flower is lots of fun! You need to figure out who has what flowers, and then name them! It's really tricky, because everyone passes the flowers around all the time! But it's really fun, since there's dancing, and singing, and honey! Hide and seek is lots of fun too! You never know who you will find! They're fun because you never know what the others are going to do!"

When he motions, though, she smiles.
"Ooh! Is this one of your games? Yay!"
She flies over, and lands on his head, before closing her eyes.
Sith, who had followed them down, just lies on the stairs, watching, and Gem settles between his wings. Both of them are observing silently. The PAC stands nearby, waiting for a command.

[miinstrel]

Ventose steps forward slowly and purposefully, grabs the package off the man's stomach, opens it, and peers inside. He rolls his eyes and and a sigh escapes his lips as he shows the contents of the bag to Zak, his eyes up in the air in the opposite direction obviously annoyed at the waste of time.

After giving the thug a stern look, he tosses the bag back. "On your way then; we've no quarrel with you." As they're leaving he turns back and says over his shoulder, "And you may want to work on acting natural when doing business. Try to have a normal sounding conversation ready to switch to instead. And don't stare at people as they pass. It gets them wondering."

[Sliver]

Zaklinan and Ventose

"It keeps normal people away..." The thug mumbles as you walk away and head over the bridge to the Elven District. You are in luck, since the clouds let out their content in a grand climax, water pouring into the streets of the Human District. The thug and his customer curse and stalk off to find shelter.

The Elven District is much more impressive than the Human District, that is for sure. There aren't as many stalls and traders, nor is it as filthy. Houses are less packed together which allows for private gardens, some of which even have fruit-bearing trees in them! The houses are made off different kinds of woods, mainly, giving quite a natural feel to the place. Nothing like the Fey District, but it still makes the place feel warmer, even if the actual elves make anyone else feel unwelcome. It's a good thing that Alchemists tend to be too busy to notice.

It doesn't take long to find the Alchemist's guildhouse. Not with the random explosions and the distinct chemical stench.

---

Aster

You close your eyes. Nothing happens at first, but the sudden music startles you and you open your eyes by instinct. You are not on Scotty's head anymore.

The giants are no longer wooden, instead they spin and dance around you to the sound of the music. Your pals fly between them, trying to not get hit or swallowed by the crowd. Your dress is different, it's all purple and lacy... And the people aren't as giant as they were. No, that's wrong. It's you! You are their size.

The ceiling is high above you, but in the way that ceilings are meant to be high and not in the manner of you being so small. A giant crystalline chandelier scatters light over the ballroom, creating an almost magical effect.

A man in an impressive black suit approaches you. It's not normal black, not the dirty color of clothes that you see sometimes people wear. No, this is pure black, like the space around you. Whenever you aren't focusing on the suit, you feel like stars are born in it, sparkling in the unexplored void. The man bears a cunning resemblance to Scotty, if Scotty was twenty years older, perhaps. But then the man speaks up, and the childish voice cannot be disguised. It is Scotty.

"Why search outside, when Imagination can give so much more!" He says, and you can hear the capital I in Imagination. That's the real stuff, it says.

He bows and holds out his hand. "Shall we dance?"

[Gunhaven]

Roph woke up late. While his hummingbird, who he called Yug, had been busy attempting to wake him up since the sun shone upon the inn it was a hummingbird and he was human enough. It was his symbiont, Nayo, who finally woke him up with a little mental prodding just shy of Noon. After a little tidying up with the help of Yug and a reminder from Nayo of the needs of the three, Roph left the small area of the commandeered inn he called his own and headed to the hall proper. He ate a light lunch, feeding the occasional bit of bread to Nayo and getting a thimble of sugar water for Yug, before he finally decided that now would would be a good time to get to work.

He headed to the notice board and hummed quietly as he looked over the jobs. He dismissed the sword, research, alchemist, and party quests as soon as he read over them. Researching spells didn't suit him and neither did finding some sword for a nobleman while the alchemist quest and party were already tended to and most likely under control. After another moment he decided to go with the haunted house with the hope that a new quest would open up and he could get the other paladin he's heard about to aid him in some further quest. He left the inn and stretched out his wings before taking off. He closed his eyes briefly as he felt the wind through his hair, smelling the scent of the city below him, and briefly recalled his forested home. With a sigh he adjusted course and headed for where the haunted house was listed as being, guided as he was by Yug.

He plummeted to the house in question and pulled up just in time to not crash into the earth, leaving a puff of dust from his landing. Yug chirped in his ear angrily and set about cleaning him up while Nayo surveyed the area. The trio headed to the better kept house nearby and knocked on the door. As he waited for an answer he casually surveyed the area with the help of Nayo and Yug for any lingering evil or anything that stood out.

[Archmage1]

Aster's eyes are wide with shock as she looks around the vastly changed room, clearly admiring it. A couple of seconds after she opens her eyes, she is smiling, and clapping, clearly very impressed with the change. As she takes in the changes to everything else, she realizes that everything else got smaller, just for her, giving her the illusion of not being tiny, and she realizes that the world is very different when you aren't small. She looks over her clothing, taking in the changes, admiring the dress, still smiling.(Although she does hope that her dress is around somewhere. She loves her beautiful dresses). Next, she spreads her wings, and spins in a circle(Nearly falling over as she brings the spinning to a stop.), enjoying everything else being small too.
This is amazing! I never thought things would look so different if I was the same size!

When she sees the strange man, she just stares in amazement, starting when he starts talking, swiftly realizing that it is an aged version of Scotty.
"This is... it's amazing! I've never seen anything like it! But... Other people are what makes things truly fun."

When offered to dance, she smiles even more cheerfully, and takes his hand, wondering what sort of dancing he was thinking of.

[Sliver]

Aster

Scotty bows to you and takes your hand, moving closer to you and putting his other hand around your waist. He leads you around the dance floor, spinning with the music. "To invite those ugly beings into such beauty?" He asks, but his words flow right through you without settling in. "No... But you... You are prefect. You think wrong, but I can teach you..." The words only hang there for a moment, but they are gone before you can grab at them, their meaning slipping past you with barely a ripple.

---

Servius and Roph

The girl leaves her father in the awkward position and goes to open the door, looking at Roph. She looks at him, confused.

"Oh... Ummm... Are you about the ghost? Come in! It just came to pay rent..." She says and shoos you inside, where Servius is stands in front of a man in a dress. He does not seem too pleased about how his situation becomes even more public.

[Archmage1]

As she is lead around the dance floor, Aster is smiling cheerfully, enjoying herself, spinning around merrily. She always had loved dancing with the other petals, even if that usually involved honey, and flying.

[Gunhaven]

Roph chuckled at the situation he was ushered into. He smiled at who he could only assume was a father playing with his daughter and said, his voice feeling like a summer breeze, "That's a nice dress you have there. I would ask if I could join as well but..." He unfurled his Draconic wings that seemed to span as wide as he was tall and shrugged his shoulders. He turned to the little girl, knelt before her so he was eye level with her, and sincerely said "I'm sorry I disturbed your tea time. Perhaps after we pay rent we can play?" He turned his head after her acknowledgement and said "Just how much is the rent? Can we go inside the house before we pay? I've never been inside and would like to know what we're paying for."

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Zaklinan steps up and knocks loudly on the door, then grins at Ventose. "Hopefully they hear our knock over all the explosions."

[Sliver]

Zaklinan and Ventose

You knock on the door the to alchemist's guildhouse and wait. That's weird, because people either burst inside or use a ten foot pole to knock. The door bursts open as a man covered in green and yellow powders is escorted out of the guildhouse.

"We told you twice already, Fuzzit, to test that stuff at your own lab before!" Says one of the two men escorting the supposed Fuzzit. He is tall and chubby, with a flat hat and ear protectors. The hat is armored, but not like a helmet.

"I did!" Claims Fuzzit.

"Did you?" The other man asks. He is about the same height and build as the other one. Actually, he looks the same as the other man.

"No..." Fuzzit admits. "But I was so exc-"

"Oh come on, Fuzzit." The first throws his hands into the air. "You know how it works so please don't take us for fools. You do this one more time and you'll be the one to redecorate the kitchen and take on chamberpot duty for a month."

Fuzzit seems horrified and stands there as the two men close the door to the guildhouse.

---

Aster

Scotty leads you around the dance floor. The music goes slower and slower, the room becomes colder and colder, but you do not notice the change as you are drowned by the sensations of the dream.

Scotty finally steps away from you and pulls you by his hand towards a grand table. In your head, you don't see the white mist that is covering the table, but an impressive variety of foods. Some you know as delicious, some that you only heard off and the dream fills in how you think they should look like, and some you have not heard off, but your mind imagined how delicious food should look like.

"Go ahead, try some." Scotty says, nudging you playfully.

Spoiler

Show

Roll a Will save along with your post.

---

Servius and Roph

The man looks at Roph, confused. "Well, the ghost here needs to pay the rent for all the years he was staying at that home." He motions at Servius. "Then if he wants to move out you can check the house and decide if you want it. But I have other offers too, so you know." The man says and turns to Servius. "And don't think about not paying! I posted on the Guild's quest board, I tell you. If you cause trouble, they'll come in and kick you to the Other World and then you'll be sorry that you ever stuck around after your death!"

[Archmage1]

Aster continues to enjoy the dance, still smiling happily, clearly enjoying herself.

Gem and Sith, on the other hand, are not as happy. The shivering hummingbird had landed on Sith, and had tried to nestle herself in among his fur in an attempt to warm up, and Sith was staying near the fire, quite cold.

When Aster is lead to the food table, piled high with many types of bread, honey from every flower imaginable, and the finest milk, her eyes go wide with shock and surprise.
"It's amazing! Is it for me? Can I have some? Please? It looks so lovely!"
She looks at him, hope clearly in her eyes(And warring with good manners)
When he nods to confirm, she smiles, clearly quite pleased, and carefully selects some wheat bread, and places some lavender honey on it, before she collects some milk, and takes a bite, already smiling in anticipation of what it would taste like.

(1d20+8)[22] will save(+3 vs enchantment)(Immune to fear)

[jojolagger]

"I'm not actually the ghost. I'm from the adventurer's guild, just like my friend here. I thought I'd be wise to ask about the haunting before walking into a potentially dangerous situation." States Servius, still somewhat surprised that he was mistaken for a ghost. "What do you know about the haunting?"

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Zaklinan takes a step towards this Fuzzit and moves to clap him on the shoulder, but his oracle mind pipes up: We should be careful. Given the others' attitudes and the scent of the powders, we estimate a sixteen percent chance that the yellow substance is powdered salamander tail, a potent explosive triggered by high pressures or impacts. We wouldn't chance it if we were us. Zak immediately takes a long step to the side and turns the shoulder-clap into an offer of a handshake.

"Good morning, friend. We're here to inquire about the missing Richard Martigony. Do you know anything about that, or should we ask the gentlemen inside? And while we're here, is there anything we can do to help you with..." he motions to the powders covering Fuzzit "...that?"

[Sliver]

Aster

Scotty looks at you expectantly as you are about to take a bite, but your hand freezes short of your mouth.

If you eat in a dream, you won't want to leave.

You look down into your hand as your eyes adjust to what is really there. Kinda there. To see the dream underneath the dream? The solid mist rests within your hand.

"Is something wrong?" Scotty asks, concerned.

The music is slow and the dancers stop, staring at you.

---

Zaklinan and Ventose

Fuzzit looks at you for a moment, just noticing your existence. "Richard? Oh, yes. Of course." He mumbles to himself, repeating the name a couple of times. "Yes, his place is around... He kept to himself so we had someone check on him daily. Usually it was me..." Fuzzit grumbles. "I know they were just trying to distract me from my own experiments." As he speaks, a spidery shaped PAC crawls out of a small door built into the guildhouse's door. It crawls up Fuzzit's robes and gathers the dust, cleaning him quite well.

"So you guys are from the guild? Yeah, I can take you to Richard's house, if you want to check it out. We can talk on the way..." He says and starts walking in the direction of the bridge. After a few steps he stops due to his PAC pulling at his robe. He turns sheepishly and begins walking in another direction without saying a word.

---

Servius and Roph

"You're not the ghost?" The man repeats, doubtfully. "Are you sure? You look..." He pauses under his daughter's glare. "Otherwise-alive?" He tries and sighs with relief as she nods. "Well, if you are certain... Every time we tried to get into the house, stuff begins to shake and there is a terrifying howl... You know, I heard that the ghost took over right after the last man that lived there died? My father told me that they couldn't even clear his remains! We went to the temples but they laughed at us, saying that ghosts can't exist. The Church of Misplacement used big words at us, saying that anything without a body couldn't cling on to the rock..." He says, annoyed.

[Archmage1]

Aster looks over at him, and smiles.
"Of course not! It's just that I'm not really hungry, but it all looks so good, and I feel bad about not eating any, but I'm not hungry. Do you want some?"

[Sliver]

Aster

Scotty looks at the food still in your hand and then stares into your eyes. "Eat." His voice is cold, commanding. The other dancers stare at you, their eyes lack life, but filled with anger.

[Archmage1]

She looks at him, clearly upset now.
"You were being so nice, and now you're being so mean! I thought you were enjoying your party, but now you want to control me! That's not fun at all! Can you stop being mean? Please? I'm not hungry!"

[miinstrel]

"So... what is it you're working on with your powders?" Ventose asks, somewhat awkwardly making small talk. After some initial banter, he continues on to questions about the matter at hand.

"Did you notice anything odd with Richard or his visitors before the disapperance? Or was he working on an advanced invisibility potion? One never knows how experiments of that sort may turn out..."

[Sliver]

Aster

"I'm not being mean, but you are hungry. Try it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Scotty insists, but you won't be fooled again. The dancers move closer towards you, their forms are slowly stripped from color and turn wooden.

---

Zaklinan and Ventose

Fuzzit looks at Ventose. "The powders... Well, they are supposed to capture light and color when they are hit and then they paint the picture on paper. Instant and accurate painting! But... Well, they are more explosive than predicted..." He mumbles something to himself.

"Well, there is me and others... And the Guild came..." He muses, but his PAC speaks up. "They came after he disappeared."

"Oh, right. Of course... Well, I don't think so. But you know how it is... I'm only visiting him for a few minutes, making sure he doesn't forget to sleep and eat, that kind of stuff. He really gets focused on his work, you know? Very admirable. But no, not potions. Potions are magic, wizard stuff. They'd get all huffy if we started brewing up magical potions. No, we delve into chemistry and... Well, folks like to think that we are trying to change iron into gold, but that is just silly old legend. Besides, iron is much more useful. Oh, here is his place!"

Fuzzit points at a two story cottage, which while more impressive than most common homes in the Human District, is nothing much for the Elven District. As the other homes, this one has a garden as well, and a very well tended one at that, but it's meant for the less edible plants. You can hear the sounds of argument coming from inside.

[Archmage1]

Aster shakes her head, looking almost exactly like a little girl refusing to eat something that she should eat, out of a point of pride.
"I'm not hungry. Besides, your mother has a lovely cake for us to eat! You don't want to disappoint her, and not eat any, would you?"

She notices the dancers coming back, but turning to wood, and she looks sad.
"Aw... it's ending. Maybe we could try a game! Would you like that?"

[miinstrel]

"Ahh, of course, of course. Though you ought to work on that iron to gold thing... Afraid I'll have to disagree on the usefulness of the former."

Hearing the argument coming from inside, Ventose walks calmly through the garden admiring the flora. Urtica dioica. What a fabulous plant. Such a vigorous passion for life at the cost of everything around it. A strange choice for a garden; I wonder what he's using the nettles for? Quite irritating, those are. He opens the front door with a small creak and steps inside, moving to the edge of the room from which the verbal tirade is coming and listens patiently until noticed.

[jojolagger]

"Church of Misplacement assuming they know exactly how magic works? Why am I not surprised... More importantly, do you know how the last tenet died? Anything about him when he was alive? It could be important." Replies Servius, unfazed by the remark as to his vitality.

Might have been smarter to just head into the haunted house. Thinks Servius to himself. Ghost might not even react to another undead.

[Sliver]

Aster

"What are you talking about?" Scotty frowns and looks around. "It's not endi-" He quickly turns back at you. "I see... That's a shame. You shouldn't look too closely at a dream. Especially not mine. Things get... Unpleasant. You see, little one, you aren't allowed to leave. None of them were, and you aren't that kind of special." As he speaks, you grow smaller and smaller, returning to your normal size. Then, Scotty drops a small wooden doll that lands softly in front of you. It looks a lot like... You. "You will look wonderful in my collection." He says, darkly.

---

Zaklinan and Ventose

"Gold has some uses, but most people just like to look at it. You can take iron and color it and it's just as pretty..." He shakes his head, as if disappointed in the love of gold.

And then you enter.

"Look, this place is as clean as they come." Says a short, fat elf. His dirty look and greasy robes can only belong to one... Thing... You know. Merk from the Guild. Considering how lazy he is, it's a wonder that he is quite talented at wizardry. It's odd to see him shuffle on his fat little feet instead of sitting on top of his custom version of a floating disk. "That Rick must be quite a tidy one."

"Don't be stupid." Replies a woman, crawling about on the ceiling and examining it. Small horns poke through her red hair and a slender tail is wrapped around her waist. Prayn the tiefling warlock has quite good rogue training, so she makes everything that smells funky her thing. Figuratively funky. She doesn't appreciate foul smells. "Alchemists don't clean. You wizards do, but it's not really you either. It could be some maid at the guild or a servant that you made and forgot about, but your place is clean. Alchemists just have stuff get piled around until it blows itself up and they find a new place."

"I'm offended by such a precise description." Fuzzit says as he enters behind you.

"Oh, you guys came to check up the place too?" Prayn says with a smile and drops off the ceiling.

"I'm not stupid!" Merk exclaims suddenly.

---

Servius and Roph

"Well... My dad didn't talk much about him, but when I think about it... Yeah, he had a wife and a daughter but they moved out once the man died. They owned the house but couldn't pay for food and stuff since only he worked, so they sold it to my father and left. My dad cursed them thoroughly once he found that nobody wouldn't take the house, with the ghost and all... Let's see... Oh, and the man had a dog, I think..." The man laughs. "Would be funny if it's the dog!"

He coughs. "Anyway, I can't... I can't pay you lots], but if it's an actual ghost there then if you can bring proof to the jer-" He flinches under the glare of his daughter. "Off all the days your mother decided to visit granny at the elven district... Can't you go play outside, sweetie?"

The girl shakes her head. "It's watering outside."

"Watering?"

"You know, water falls from those puffy grey things the wizard made."

"Oh..." He shakes his head. "Already? Fine, whatever." He turns back to you. "If you can get them some proof, they might be willing to pay you for the information. At least the look on their faces will be worth it.

[Archmage1]

Aster looks even more horrified as she yells at him.
"You... you imprisoned all those people? That's unfair! And terrible! You should let them go! I thought you were almost nice, but this is mean!"

[Gunhaven]

With a smile and a slight bow of his head, Roph rose to his feet. He said to the man "Would you happen to know where the woman and child went? It may help us rid the ghost if we know more about the family." and turned to address Servius. "Do you want to check the house while I ask the family? I'm unsure if they'd have the same reaction as the one we received here if they saw you." As he stood around he mumbled something to the scarab on his right hand, hoping that his PAC could possibly aid in the endeavor.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

"Not specifically, no," Zaklinan tells Prayn while gesturing to Fuzzit, "but we were asking after Martigony when this fine gentleman told us about this place, so here we are." And we wouldn't be 'checking up the place' in any case, grumbles his collective mind. Atrocious grammar, that.
Collective, am I capable of being un-pedantic for just one minute? Zak asks himself with a sigh.
No, Overmind, I am literally incapable of not being pedantic. This is the one thousand, eight hundred and seventy-third time I've asked me about that. The two thousand, six hundred and forty-seventh, if I count questions involving synonyms of 'pedantic' or similar sentiments.
Do I really have to give us a number every time I ask?
Y--
Rhetorical question.

Zak steps farther into the room and takes a good look around. "I'm not exactly an expert on alchemists..." I am. Shut up. "...but if it's true that alchemists are incredibly messy people and don't tend to hire or animate servants to clean for them, that implies that someone else cleaned up for Martigony. The question, then, is whether it was done to cover up his disappearance. Have you found anything useful thus far?"

[Sliver]

Aster

"imprisoned? Oh no. I gave them beauty, purpose. Permanence. They were nobodies out there, came and went without anyone noticing. But here, they have a place. And so will you. Free them? I think not! What can you do about it?" He laughs as the wooden statues move closer, blades extending out of their hands.

---

Servius and Roph

"I'm sorry, my father was not a man of the written word. I only started keeping a written record lately..." He says, sheepishly.

"Only after Mommy found out that you weren't doing it and shouted at you!" Says his daughter, grinning and turns to you. "We took reading and writing lessons together!" She declares. Her father is obviously not sharing her pride.

---

Zaklinan and Ventose

"I don't think whoever did this thought about covering up the disappearance itself." Prayn says. "Hard to hide the fact that an alchemist is missing. Less noisy or dangerous. No, they probably cleaned this place up because of what Rich was doing..." She says and looks at Fuzzit.

Fuzzit shrugs. "We often take some odd job or another to pay the bills. Research is what we focus on, but it takes time and doesn't pay that well, even when you get results. We don't really bother each other about what we are doing besides research."

"But you must remember some materials that could help identify what he was doing." Merk tries.

"I'm sorry, but I really can't help you with that..." Fuzzit frowns. "Oh, Rich was always very specific about the materials he needed. Whatever he couldn't grow himself, he bought from... What was his name..."

"Glint, sir." Fuzzit's PAC quips after a few seconds of Fuzzit's mental struggle.

"Right, right. Glint... Is that his real name? A gnome, you know... He hangs around here and there. His house is at the dwarven district, my PAC will give yours the address if you want... Although he wouldn't be there until the evening. He normally sells his minerals and powders at the market, but with that watering the wizards are doing today at the Central District, I think he'll avoid the place today."

A PAC zooms into the room and unfolds a picture in front of Melk. "What's this?" He says and shows it to Fuzzit.

"Ah, that's a portrait." Fuzzit says after a closer examination.

After a moment of silence, Prayn decides to try to pry some more information out of the alchemist. "Of who?"

"Whom!" Fuzzit declares. "Lady Grace Martigony is a very important person, she earned to be a whom."

"I'm not sure that is how it works..." Merk says under his breath.

"She's Richard's mother. They are very close, but not too close that people might talk about how it's inappropriate... People like to talk about nobs that way, you know? Makes them feel better if the nobs are messed up... Shameful."

Prayn turns to the two of you. "She might know something... What do you think? Do you want to ask her or look for the gnome?"