Respar nods in agreement.  "Done and done, my good man.  Though I fear Wulfric, what with his old bones, might not help all that much."  He sighs.  "But rest assured myself and Annaryth will certainly make ourselves useful, and I think my sister will as well.  Now, will you butcher it first, or cook it whole?"  He defers to the man's choice, as he knows the crowd's preferences.  He then offers to help as best he can, so he can finally get inside the kitchen to start surveying.

Martha's eyes light up at the discount. "Thank you so much for the generous discount, Master Scaramore. Of course I will come visit occasionally to talk theory," she says with a soft smile. "My brother doesn't quite understand magic, but I can bring old Wulfric by. He will surely be interested in some of these spells."

She spends a bit more time with Master Scaramore talking about the different schools of magic and just getting to know the man more. After some time with him, she says goodbye and leaves. Then, she walks around town for some time while she waits for Master Valison to return. During this time, she introduces herself to various people in town and is just generally being a social butterfly. 

After a couple of hours, she returns to Master Valison's manor.

Barhold scratches his chin and says, "That thing's big for even our biggest spit. I'm thinkin we'll roast the torso whole, but lop off the head and limbs, cook those separately. Hey Alicia? where'd that recipe for jellied brains get stuck? I think we finally have enough on hand to give it a shot for the braver customers."

Scaramore's disposition seems much improved by the time Martha leaves, and he waves her farewell almost jovially.

Back at the Valison manor, Mr Darby welcomes Martha back and ushers her into a fairly well appointed study, where a tall and thin man with crooked fingers sits reading a book. He smiles warmly as "Martha Rose" is introduced, and extends a hand in greeting. "How can I help such a lovely visitor as yourself my dear?"

Martha blushes a little as she shakes Valison's hand. "Thank you for having me, Master Valison. My name is Martha Rose and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I came here today to inquire about perhaps renting an old home that's no longer in use, Jannete Millry's old home. My brother and I are merchants and we were hoping to open up a small shop here in town."

Valison waves towards a seat, "Oh, I see. Well, the property is available at the moment. Just what are you and your brother hoping to bring to our humble town?"

Martha takes a seat then continues to answer his question, "Well, I'm an alchemist by trade and was hoping to provide various herbal concoctions or useful items for the people of the town. It will take us some time to build a proper inventory, but having a nice shop to work in would be a good start. I've already met with Master Caldwin, the other alchemist in town and he seemed cordial enough, if a little odd. I hope not to have too much overlap in inventory between his store and mine." 

Valison looks a little uncertain, "Well my dear, I hope not to dissuade you, but Caldwin doesn't get a great deal in the way of business as it is. There isn't a great deal of demand for what he carries other than the fireworks and the occasional antivenom, I do hope you have something that will appeal."

He stands and moves to a desk in the corner, rifling through a set of ledgers before pulling one out and then returning with it to his seat, "That said, I'm definitely not going to turn you away. Now, ms Millry did a little bit of weaving business, so you shouldn't have to remodel much to be able to open shop. There's a root cellar, two bedrooms on the upper floor, and a halfway decent kitchen. Will that serve your needs?"

On being told it would, he states, "Very well then. Now, I am going to ask for an upfront deposit, not least because of the dangerous nature of your business. What manner of assets do you have available?"

Martha replies, "We have gold mostly. How much would you ask for a deposit and to rent the place on a monthly basis? Despite the rumors about alchemy being dangerous, I won't be making anything that could combust or explode. I'm very careful."

After making the deal with Mr. Barhold, Respar sets out on foot to survey the keep from a distance.  He does not attempt to hide.  If questioned he will simply say he is new in town and wished to see the keep.  Then he will also start touting the upcoming barbecue, "Courtesy of Rose's Elixirs & Solutions, at the Lord's Dalliance!"

"Gold?" Vallison smiles, "Well that's a welcome change. You wouldn't believe how many people around here only have livestock and the like to trade. That certainly makes things easier."

"In that case, here is what I am thinking, A fifty gold deposit, and another five a month for the first half year while you are getting set up. Ten a month after that. Keep that up for the rest of the year and we can start looking at a plan for you to own the building. What do you say?"

---

Respar scouts the area, getting a good sense of the layout of the fort, or at least its outer walls. Two bridges connect the keep to the other side. The main one is wide, with a drawbridge at the far end. The other is high and narrow, connecting the main fort's battlements with the roof of the gatehouse. The catapult you heard about before is just barely visible on top of the main keep. It looks big enough to hurl a full grown man.

You've heard the locals talk about the main bridge as the bridge of death. Supposedly it earned that name twenty years ago, the last time this place was attacked. An army of ogres broke through the portcullis on the far side. Their vanguard, including the chief, ended up trapped between the drawbridge and the main keep door, and slaughtered by the defenders effectively surrounding them from above.

"That sounds fair," Martha replies with a nod. "Let me go tell my brother and my other companions. I'll be back with the gold. Thank you for your time, Master Valison."

---

Martha returns back to the Inn for now and smells pig everywhere. "What in the world is this?" she asks Jesla and Kiven.

Later, she fills the party in on everything she learned today such as the 50 gold deposit for renting the building from Master Valison, the spells that Master Scaramore sells and the discount price on them she got, and finally about the herbs and chemicals the alchemist is selling that could be combined to leave many guards bedridden for days.

"I don't know how much of that stuff he has though, and I'm not sure how to ask without alerting suspicion. What do you all think?" she asks the others.

Respar will hand over 50 of his gold to Martha.  He also tells them about his purchase of the pig for a major roast this coming Oathday.  "The whole town will probably show up, including folks from the keep I'll wager.  We will get a cut of the proceeds, and we can tout our upcoming business venture.  I thought it a good way to ingratiate ourselves with the townsfolk.  By the by, I took a stroll up by the keep.  It's a mighty impressive structure."  He boasts about its bridges between the gatehouse and keep, and what he heard about the assault on it from 20 years ago.  Anyone listening in will think he is quite awed by the fortification, which he is.

Kiven has done his best to simply keep quiet and observe all he can about the town and the people in it.  He takes great interest in what Eya has learned about the more arcane minded folk in town including the battle mages but also Scaramore and Caldwin.  When Eya mentions Caldwin's supplies Kiven says "I think I can persuade him..." but then gives a quick look around the inn to suggest he dare not say more.  Only later at night in the privacy of their rooms does he suggest that they observe Caldwin's behavior closely for a brief period before simply killing him.  Kiven offers to use his circlet to be both Caldwin and Wulfric as needed, noting that at least everyone thinks Caldwin is odd and hopefully he doesn't need to speak with the townsfolk very often.

When not helping Eya with anything she needs Kiven divides his time between a number of activities.  He explores the town trying to smile at people but avoid conversation with the real intent of detecting any sources of magic.  He goes to meet master Caldwin as Eya did, introducing himself as her apprentice, Wulfric, and just chatting with him about his shop, alchemy, etc. just to get to know his mannerisms, his business, and anyone in town he might talk to regularly.  The Prince takes walks up towards the keep as Respar did but cares little for the structure, its history, siege warfare and other such things.  He hopes to catch a glimpse of the battle mage brothers and monitor their behavior.  Ideally Kiven can find a relatively private place to watch the keep's battlements from, or anywhere else the mages might frequent.  Lastly, with what little time he has left, Wulfric takes the disguised ancient bow out into the woods and practicing his archery, hoping to improve upon some of the embarrassing mistakes he made on their earlier adventures.

Respar replies to Kiven's idea regarding Caldwin, "Not a bad idea, but let's hold off on making the switch until we are ready for the assault.  Trying to keep up the pretense of both of you being around could cause us more trouble than it is worth.  But overall, I like the plan."

Martha assists the Innkeepers with the prep for the giant huffer. It's a large pig, so she is quite tired by the end of the process. Afterwards, she goes to clean herself up in her room then goes back to the bar area.

Once the dwarves arrive and begin their drinking, Martha sits at the bar and lets out an audible sigh. She tries to sit near whoever appears to be the lead dwarf at the bar and says to the barkeep, "Mr. Barhold, it's been a long day. Give me your strongest drink please." After sipping the drink a little, she turns to the dwarf and introduces herself, "Hey there, you look like you've been working hard today too. My name is Martha Rose. It seems as though we're sharing this nice establishment for a while. How are you enjoying this small town?"

The dwarf, whose name you've learned is Barnabus Eisenbauch, grunts a bit as he turns to greet Martha, his response is short and to the point, "Its pleasant enough."

"Yeesh, this guy is a ripe peach," she thinks to herself. 

"It really is. I hear you all have been making repairs to the keep. Hows it coming along?" she asks.

---

During the night, Eya will have Killi go out and scout the keep while invisible. Perhaps he can locate an easy way in, or locations of important things like siege weapons, or any other information of value. She also offers Respar Invisibility if wants to search for the potential secret passage in the Inn at night. 

After making some small talk with Barnabus, Eya will go somewhere private and turn invisible herself after all the dwarves are nice and drunk. She will investigate their rooms for any potential info on the keep or anything magical via Detect Magic. To get into the rooms, she will Dimensional Slide by looking either under the door or through the keyhole.

The dwarf takes another long drink before responding, "Can't really talk about it."

Later, Eya slips into Barnabus' room, she quickly discovers that the dwarf's cloak is magical. But he's been wearing it every day to work, and just might notice its absence.

Respar finds it simple enough to ingratiate himself to the people around as the days until the big roast roll on by.

Kiven regrettably doesn't find much of interest to him, though he does notice the magic auras in back of the alchemist's workshop are stronger than he'd expect.

Jesla, in her roamings away from town, happens on something odd. A pair of young women seated by the eastern road a few miles out of town. They're talking with each other and occaisonally glancing to the east, they're clearly waiting on someone or something.

  Annaryth is out walking like she does daily. Seeing two women up ahead she slows to observe them . They appear to be waiting for someone. She quickly moves away from the road and seems a vantage point where she can watch whike hidden. 

One evening, after it sounds as if everyone in the Lord's Dalliance has gone to bed, Respar accepts the Invisibility offered by 'Martha,' and goes down to the kitchen to search for any basement.  If found, he will search it for a secret exit from it.  And if he finds it and opens it, he will follow it a bit.  He would begin the search on the east and norhten sides, as they are closest to the keep.