Myrth, still paying attention and allowing Anachain to watch and listen through his eyes and ear holes, is feeling a bit prankish...  Moving slowly and carefully (and of course invisibly!) they move under the mayor's desk...  If the mayor is wearing the kind of boots or shoes with laces Myrth has every intention of tying those laces together.  If not, Myrth sets about exploring the office for some string or twine or such that they could maybe pilfer and use to accomplish the task.  Anachain, privy to his senses but not his every thought, is unaware of his intentions and presumes he is just moving around to be stealthy?

With Togar having asked the mayor questions, Kulloda finally joins back into the conversation.

"Little pixies cause trouble to west. But we kill some and they run away," Kulloda says. "Kulloda not want to fix bridge, but happy to kill bandits. We kill them, town give big reward. Everyone happy."

Togar looks over to Kulloda, nodding, saying “Yes, quite so.”  He ignores her comments about the pearl when it is clear that she doesn’t have any useful information about it.   “So… we encountered some of those little annoying invisible things … quite a run in there.”  He pauses and looks down at his feet, just to make sure there are actual feet there, instead of roots.  “But we can handle the bandits for you, if you wish.  If there is a reward… “.  Togar looks to the others, then back to the mayor.  “How big of a reward… say?  To open back up these routes into your town?”  

"Little pixies you say?  What makes you think they won't return since you all have left?"  She rubs her hands over her face, "So just the bandits?  Well... since trade is so bad lately, I'm afraid I don't have a lot to offer you.  If you could open up the way blocked by the bandits.." she trails off a bit as she thinks.  

Regaining her composure she looks at you all with a bit more conviction.  "Look, can I level with you?  With the lack of traders, hiring mercenaries or adventuring parties as well, been a bit out of reach for our coffers and I've been thinking of sending some one from town off to sell some of our prize magic items that are held in our town vault."  She lets that settle for a moment, "But!  if you are able to open trade on all our routes, then I'll just give you the magic items instead!  Otherwise, if you'll do us the favor of getting rid of the bandits, I'm afraid all I can offer is 20 gold."

Kulloda shrugs at the question about whether the pixies will come back or not.

"What magic items offering?" Kulloda asks, suspicious that they might put their lives on the line only to discover a box full of spoons that never get dirty is all that's available.

"What items?  Oh dear, I don't know.  They are good enough to bring plenty of money to hire adventurers if that's what you're worried about."

Kulloda looks around at the others and shrugs.

”Kulloda okay with this. Happy to go hunt bandits now.”

     "Magic is good!" a tiny, hushed voice says close to Togar's ear followed by a very faint sound of movement as the invisible Myrth quickly scrambles away to a different part of the office.

The mayor looks at Kulloda and as Togar or Drip aren't saying anything else, she nods figuring this was better than nothing.  "Good.  If you take care of the bandits, I'll pay you the 20 gold.  If you take care of whatever fae creatures are disturbing the west and the bridge issue, I'll doll out the magic items to you as well.  You should be able to find me here, if not, one of the guardsmen outside will know where to find me."

"Now, with our business taken care of, I'll walk you out, I have quite a few things I need to take care of this morning."  She stands up and as she goes to take a step, she falls with her laces tied together.  Luckily she misses the chair as she tumbles and lands on the plush rug.  Looking down at her shoes she sees what happened and her eyebrows raise in surprise but then she gets angry.  "What?!  How did this happen!!"  She unties them and stands up, pressing her hands along her clothes to smooth them and glares at the three of you.  "I demand to know how my laces were tied while we conversed.  Tell me, now."

     Myrth does their best to suppress their giggling as the Mayor stumbles.  Anachain, hearing the beginnings of the giggling through her connection with the invisible imp, quickly banishes them to their pocket dimension and then re-summoning them next to her.  

     "I told you that it would cause trouble!" She hisses at her familiar in a hushed voice, trying to scold but having to struggle to keep her own amusement out of her voice.  "If they get in trouble due to your prank..."  But she never finishes that threat, they both know Anachain would do nothing.

     Anachain does stand, however, and brushes off her backside after having been sitting on the ground.  She then turns back to the building and waits and watches for the others to emerge...  She hopes Myrth didn't spoil the deal for the group but if he has, well they did have a destination to get to.

Kulloda shrugs.

"Someone tied them," Kulloda answers wondering why the mayor would miss the obvious. "How else they get tied?"

He turns and heads for the exit.

"We bring heads back. Show dead bandits."

Togar hides his beak behind a feathered claw hand, making an “Ack!” sound as he suppresses a laugh, his eyes blinking quickly at the mention of magical items.  “Any way that we could have a preview of said magic items before we bring in said bandits, dead or alive?  I just want to make sure of what we are after here…”.  Togar spreads his wings and brings them back in, standing beside Kulloda.  

The mayor takes her time to untie the laces and retie them, using the time to get her anger under control.  These people supposedly might be able to help Rivermark, she needed to not let petty differences get in the way...

Finally she stands back up, runs her hands over her clothes, straightening nonexistent wrinkles and then sighs looking at the group in front of her.  "No, you may not preview any magic items.  You either take care of the situation or you don't.  I'll give you four days, after that I'm sending said magic items on to hire people from Taligbar to settle the issue.  They are a much bigger city than us and I'm sure they can handle these situations.  Obviously I would rather it be done faster than that, so I'm hoping you four can take care of it."

Without waiting for another response, she starts heading out of her office, holding the door for you all to leave.  Once outside the keep and seeing the skinny, somewhat forlorn woman still hanging around, she isn't surprised.  The mayor figures she's with the group as well.  Oh well, more to take care of the situation.

"Come find me when the job is through.  Thank you."  She debates telling the big one that heads are not necessary, but decides against it.  She turns on her heel and walks back inside.  The guards straighten up a bit as she does and then breathe a sigh as she disappears within.

     Anachain does her best to look inconspicuous when she sees the group and the mayor come outside again but by the way the mayor is staring daggers at her she doesn't think it worked.  She cannot help but let a smile creep onto her face but she waits until the mayor leaves before she stands and actively rejoins the others.

     "So...  What's the job?  Anything worthwhile or should we just hoof it on our way?" She asks, as if she hadn't already heard most of it through Myrth.  Since they don't know about the imp yet she figures it best to keep it on the down low.  "We are still looking for the pearl, after all.  We can't allow ourselves to get distracted for nothing..."

"Mayor says have lots of magic in basement." Kulloda says. "Kill bandits, kill pixies, fix bridge, get magic. Maybe magic help find pearl."

He looks back at the townhall and turns his head slightly askew, sizing the building up.

"Could just go in and take magic," Kulloda says. He pauses for a moment, shrugs, then adds. "But not mind killing bandits too."

     "So bandits first then?" Anachain asks / suggests, wanting to get Kulloda's mind off larceny and the inevitable murder which would accompany it.  "Do we know where they operate?  I could adopt a more wealthy facade and perhaps we could spruce up our cart a bit to make it look more tempting to try to lure the bandits out?"

Kulloda thinks for a moment and then eventually points south.

"Bandits south. Nasty pixies west. Bridge -" Kulloda pauses, not knowing where the problematic bridge is but eventually gestures vaguely east assuming the bridge crosses a river that way.

He nods at the rest of what Anachain suggests.

"Kulloda hide under blanket and jump out when bandits come," Kulloda suggests. Then he starts looking through his gear and frowns. "Have blanket. But no sack. Need sack to put bandit heads in."

He turns and looks back to the townhall guards.

"You have sack? Need bandit head sack."

     "I'm sure the bandits could provide us a sack," Anachain answers with a smile.  "They must have some to carry away what they steal, yes?"

     "We may be best passing by their hunting grounds closer to twilight," she suggests.  "Perhaps we should spruce up the cart a bit before heading out?  But it occurs to me..." Anachain pauses and seems to debate with herself for a moment.  "If they are so active that they are effectively cutting off travel from that direction then perhaps a lot of deception isn't needed.  We could just head out in that direction and see what happens..."

(Whenever we get underway, Anachain will have Myrth fly ahead of the wagon by 30 feet or so, invisibly of course, spying out for roadblocks, traps, ambushes, etc...)

((Safe to assume we can get a short rest in before we take off?))

Togar straightens himself up, taking some time to preen and comb his feathers, then settles his helm on his head.  He nods to Mother Anachain, then uses prestidigitation to remove any dirt or remnants of soil from his eloquent vest (his family is known for their textiles, after all), making sure that all buttons are intact and fastened correctly, with style.  Then, he conjures a gaudy-looking faux gold necklace around his neck that catches any sunlight and swings about to and fro on his chest just so.  "That appears nice, doesn't it?  I guess you have to give them something to go for, some motivation.  If there is a ringleader to this group of ne'er-do-wells, I'll try to convince him or her to do something awful to their comrades or inactivate them in some fashion.  That big lump under the blanket back there can jump out and cause mayhem. I don't know what you have in mind, Anachain, but I'll fly up in the air and, easy peasy, put their lights out.  I'm just pissed that we couldn't preview what we are doing all this fighting for.  If she brings out some cloak of billowing or some other nonsense, I think I'll just throw a tantrum and cough up a pellet on her.  Sheesh!"  

Kulloda starts back to get the wagon and horse but looks back over his shoulder at Togar when he mentions magic that might be minor at best.

"If not good magic, we just take it then burn down town hall," Kulloda says. "Win win."

He then continues on to get the wagon, keeping an eye out for a suitable sack to hold heads in as he goes.