"One shimmering vampire fish cooked, one raw, and was that a diamond throated carp?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tandor replies.

"Much obliged, ma'am, thank you." Liber eagerly awaits this meal.

She returns as her son gets the last few standing orders out, his mother looking over his shoulder and nodding approvingly as she moves to prepare food for the party. The carp comes fried atop a bed of fragrant rice, garnished with curled slivers of green onion, and the shimmering vampire fish is served alongside rice, a rich thick curry with chunks of tender fish, garnished with a scattering of extremely thin, slightly iridescent slivers shaved dried fish that wave and wiggle in the steam when freshly added, but beginning to settle by the time you dig in.

Gilbert gets a platter of diced pink fish meat.

Liber thanks the cook, and starts eating; the curry blended in with the rice gives a barrage of tastes and aromas that make him have the dumbest grin he could have, he likes it that much!

"Thank you, both," Tandor says and Gilbert purrs and loud rumbling purr.  He takes the plates over to a nearby table where he can watch as much as possible and keep his back to as little as possible.  He puts Gilbert's plate down on the ground.  The cat familiar glides over and with a soft Thanks starts to eat in the daintily voracious way cats have.  Tandor watches fondly for a moment before tucking into his own food.  However, he does not forget to keep a watch.

Gilbert, I'm glad you're enjoying the food but don't forget to keep watch.  He expects one of the familiar's tart rejoinder but, he could swear the cat gave a guilty little jerk before he glanced up and around for a moment.  He didn't respond but Tandor noticed he started looking around while he was chewing, only looking down to take a bite.

The kobold woman tries to give you space and time to eat your meals, she's clearly trying not to push you, in hopes you'll agree to help her, but keeps glancing over.

"now then, as to the business." Liber starts up, after finishing his meal. "i presume you want physical proof of misconduct and/or malfeasance against you, or will verbal memory be sufficient to start your judicial proceedings?"

"Uhh... If by that you mean something I can take to the council that shows who's behind the vandalism and thefts from our cart, then yes."

"physical proof, then." Liber nods to himself, formulating the start of a scheme. "would these gnomes have any public associates, what are the hours of their restaurant,and where are they located? I'm sorry for asking in such rapid order, but in order to start the work, we need to know how they work."

"They're almost directly across, but a bit shorter going the north way around. Not sure WHO would want to publicly associate with the likes of them, but they're open while the market is, same as us. Can't make sales if you're closed!"

"hmmm......" Liber ponders the situation in front of him. there is clearly a cause for greivance, but he's missing a vital clue. what could cause such an anathemic relationship between the two shopkeeps that measures no smart businessmen would resort to are used?

((Can make an insight check if you're at a loss of what to ask.))

Mialee turns away from the tender fish to speak up.

"Were your two shops always so at odds? What makes you think they're stealing from you and not someone else?"

4 insight roll

"Going back generations, unfortunately. I don't want that for Gammon though, he'll have this when I retire. When Lamai took over for her old man, I thought we might be able to put some of that behind us, as kids we used to run around together at the market until our folks found out. We sat down and hashed things out, and it was good for six months or so, until a few weeks ago when things started going missing, and the sabotaging started up.", she shakes her head.

"I thought things were going to be different, but I should have known a Tyenmo couldn't be trusted to stay honest."

@Liber

Tandor considers the kobold's words.  This was a familiar pattern, he thought.  Gilbert, do you see anyone around? Anyone paying maybe too much attention to us? Anyone interested in why we came here?

The cleric looks around also, asking Pelor for aid,

Perception with Advantage from Gilbert, plus Guidance 23

Assuming he notices no one like that, he says to the kobold woman, "Tell me, and please give it some thought before answering, if both your shops fail, who would benefit?  What competitors do you both have in common?"

 Liber ponders the information, and waits for more to be said. He trusts the shopkeep, but feels that there is more to this than she is aware.

Does Mialee know of any sort of criminal organization in the area, through having seen thieves cant marks or similar?

Tanador and Gilbert, constantly on high alert, clock a number of folks in the area, some of whom are occasionally glancing over to where you're meeting with Kusa Xungoon.

"Why would she... if we both fail? Not sure what you're getting at, but I suppose that if both of our shops were closed, it'd fall to the other food vendors to take up the slack, but I'm not sure they'd be able to manage, ours are the two most popular shops here, though ours is better of course. I think it's much more likely that she's trying to nudge us out of the market so she can take over and get even bigger."

((Mialee, you can make a Perception check for thieves cant marks?))