You've had a long rest and were wandering around the Mournland on your way to the warforged town when you come across this small campsite with 3 individuals. They have noticed you now and are on guard, watching you in the misty distance...

Despite her suspicions, Vanizi goes ahead and heads straight for where the three armored individuals are camped. As she nears, she calls out, "Hello fellow travelers! We hadn't thought to run into any one out here in the Mournlands! How are you this morning?" 

The orc keeps her hand near her blade, but responds to Vanizi, "Hail wanderers. What brings you along this way? Not many survive the Mournlands by accident..."

"Oh hey! Hey you want a brownie! Hiya! We're lookin' for a stick! Have you seen it? It's a very special stick, does like a lot of magicky things I think. I'm Zylyne by the way! Here have a brownie." Zyl flutters closer and pulls out one of her brownies for them and holds it out.

Davis raises an eye at Zyl, but doesn't add anything, waiting to see how they respond.

The orc continues speaking for the group, declining the fairy brownie. "No thanks...learned a long time ago to politely decline any offers from the fae. I am Kalyth, and we are the Turquoise Spear, a small platoon of Cyran ex-soldiers. We're scouring the Mournland for relics - specifically anything that we can sell in markets outside the Mournland. Have you come across anything in your travels? Perhaps any small metal spheres, about 2 inches across, that are studded with dragonshards?"

Zyl's face looked a bit shocked but then muttered something about how that was probably fair and plopped down to eat her brownie anyway while the tall people talked.

[ooc: I searched the tread, didn't see any description of Doncent matching what Kalyth is describing, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it's the same (meta, and davis)! 

Insight on this crew before Davis thinks about divulging to much. Insight: 20 [not nat, used luck point]

"Greetings," Davis says, turning on his full halfling charm. "We are ourselves looking for something, something we lost. It is a rod as my friend mentioned Perhaps what your searching for can point us towards what we are searching for? Are you close to finding one of these sphere? Do you have one on you know that you can show us, that may help us know if we have seen one."

"We have seen others moving along the land, what do you know of them? Friends? competiton? enemies?"

"What are dragonshards?" Vanizi asks. "They sound interesting. But I don't think we've found anything like that. Have you?" (Deception: 23, to try to get the orc to reply to her question.) 

(The opening post for this chapter {https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/play-by-post/215811-eve-of-ruin-rhanlois-romp-through-the-multiverse?comment=696} contained a basic description of a docent from the three wizards, including a link to the actual magic item that your party would likely know due to the wizards books and extensive knowledge =) Davis' insight is that these three are wary but not hostile now that they know you aren't hostile. That's about all you can get from the conversation/interaction to this point!)

The orc continues to speak for the group, saying, "We don't know about no rods...sorry. We recently discovered a stockpile of docents - what we call the small spheres - that we want to sell outside the Mournland. Happy to let ya borrow one to help find your thing, but..."

She stops and looks at her two companions, one of whom nods for her to continue. "Well, you see, this stockpile is in a ruined village currently occupied by rogue warforged. We attempted to infiltrate the ruins and retrieve the docents quiet-like, but them warforged made it clear they wouldn’t give up the things without a fight. So maybe if you helped us, we can help you..."

"You want us to go beat up the bad machine people?" Zyl asks with a mouthful of brownie then swallows. "You got it big guy, I am all for smashing things!" She punches her palm with a grin. 

Davis whispers to Zyl, and perhaps the others. "I believe they are talking about Mercy and their group. We have no quarrel with them. I say we pass on this offer, continue to the Warforged camp, borrow the Docent and find the rod. No need for us to become entangled in the machinations, ah, affairs, of the Mournland. We won't be here long."

Zyl looks up and blushes. "Oh...sorry. I thought there were bad ones too. Yeah the nice metal lady was okay." Zyl plopped back down with a sigh.

Vesta nods at Davis. The only warforged they've come across so far have been friendly. She doesn't wish to antagonize them and perhaps they can borrow a docent once they reach the encampment.

"That's a generous offer, but I'm afraid we can't take you up on it," Vesta says as diplomatically as she can. "We wish you luck on your search."

Vanizi gave Zyl an odd look as she seemed to eagerly agree to beat the nice warforged they'd just met. But she also nods at Davis in agreement. "Yea, we would rather avoid fights where we can," she adds. 

The orc walks over to your group and speaks to you in a low tone, obviously trying not to be overheard by her two companions. "Look, I'm in a bind here. In the aftermath of the Day of Mourning, I lost several valuable magic items and a purse full of gold that we could’ve used to stave off our current financial plight. I know them items are long gone, and I fear that the others would reject me—or worse—if they found out I once had the money we desperately need and lost it."

She adds the next line in a normal tone, meant for her companions to be able to hear. "Besides, these treasures rightfully belong to living, breathing Cyrans. We ain't asking ya to fight - maybe you can sneak in or draw them machines out so we can get them docents."