Before leaving, while Zeke is still deciding on his thrown weapon choices, Ethan asks Linene,

"Do you have various materials for crafting available for purchase? I'm looking for various rocks, metals, leather, cord, wood...."

Ethan continues to rattle off a list of the kinds of materials he is looking for.

(DM could I purchase 20gp worth of Misc Crafting Materials?)

------------

As the group leaves and Arvel makes his statements, Ethan adds his own,

"Yeah, I wouldn't use that junk to craft with, its of such low quality!"

Ethan looks to Arvel to try and judge if he's doing it right.

Fae couldn't help but run up to the counter to sincerely thank Linene for her bracers before she makes her attempt at following Arvel's lead.

Following behind Ethan, Fae would let out a simple huff, "Ugh." holding her nose and chin up as she exits the establishment in 'disgust'. "Disappointing."

"Louder, Etan. Let 'em hear you in the back row!"

Ethan takes in a deep breath before letting out a bellow,

"DONT EXPECT US IT WANT TO HELP YOU AGAIN IN THE FUTURE, IF THAT'S HOW YOUR GOING TO TREAT US!!"

Ethan lets out the last of his breath in a huff, his face having gone red with the effort.

Ethan takes a moment to recover from the exertion.

Elra looks confused as Avrel, Ethan, then even Fae proceed to thank Linene before leaving the shop insulting her. She thanks Linene for the tarrot cards before leaving, looking mostly uncomfortable from the rest of her party insulting her. 

Arvel gives Etan a pat on the back as the artificer hunches over to catch his breath.

"Well done."

Pulling out the map, he starts off down the street. After a few yards, he pauses, consults the map, awkwardly turns it over in his hands, and turns around and heads back the other way.

"Onward! To Gundren!"

Zeke smiles to himself at Arvel and Ethan's efforts.  The gruff barbarian always looks unhappy, so keeping up appearances simply suits the current ruse.

As the party begins to make their way out of town, Zeke glances at Arvel's map and moves out ahead of the rest, taking point and keeping his eyes open for any trouble along the way.

Tarja picks up the tools from Linene, giving each a quick heft to get a feel for it. Satisfied at their quality, she packs away the tools and the rope, paying Linene with her share of the sale.

I used to know my way around these. Seeing what Ethan can do reminded me that those skills might yet be useful to us.

--

She looks very worried when Linene mentions a "Black Spider".

I would have thought the spiders in the woods would leave us alone here in Phandalin, they'd keep to themselves... but why then are the Redbrands concerned with a black spider? This doesn't sound good at all. They're meddling with forces beyond them, beyond any of us.

When Linene brings out the magic items, Tarja looks them over, but keeps coming back to the Ring of Evasion, turning it over in her hand again and again. Finally, she puts it on with a determined look.

If all goes well, I will return this to you soon, once the hour of need has passed. Just a few days ago I would have never guessed I would be evaluating magical armaments, but the wind blows in strange directions these days. I will use this well, and Phandalin will soon be prosperous once more. 

She follows Arvel out of the Lionshield, unsure how to add to his performance.

The moment Zeke shows an interest in the map, Arvel hands it off.

"By all means. I'm obviously useless with the damned thing. I may be a spokesperson, but I'm no leader.You're much more capable in this, and one would suppose in literal ones too, arena."

As the charlatan falls back to the middle of the group and resumes his usual, effected indolent walk, a thought nudges at the back of his brain.

"Etan, I'll take that reserve potion of healing if you still have it available. Oh, and a bit of string if you don't mind."

Once the artificer produces the items and hands them over, Arvel ties the string in a particular way around the small ampule.

"Krikket!"

The sprite appears, hovering in front of Arvel. His wings buzz as he maintains pace.

"Yes?"

"Yes...what, Krikket?"

"*Sigh*...yes, my Master?"

"That's more like it. Now wipe that disgruntled look off your face and take this."

The charlatan hands the potion to Krikket, who bobs a bit as he uses the string to attach it to his person.

"That's a healing potion. You are hereby commanded to use that potion on me as quickly as humanly possible, or (rather) in a spritely fashion, should I fall unconscious in combat or due to overwhelming physical damage. You are also ordered to administer the potion to any creature I designate under the same circumstances unless I am also unconscious or unless I give you a direct order not to do so. My friends here are all hereby designated.

Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Yes...what, Krikket?"

"Yes...my Master."

"Good. I understand it's only your first day on the job, so I'll forgive those little slips."

Ethan's eyes go wide as Krikket appears,

"Wow you have a new little friend? How fun."

"Hello Krikket, nice to meet you, my names Ethan. Your wings are amazing by the way."

A thought crosses Ethan's face,

"I will have to record this in my designs book, I have a great new idea for a future design."

Ethan pulls out his designs book and opens it to a new blank page. Holding the book up so he can see Krikket a the same time as the page, Ethan uses a metal stylus to weaves a quick magical sigil onto the page.

A moment later, the sigil flares with magic and is replaced with a image of Krikket on the page.

"Right, I can trace that out later for a more permanent version. Thank you."

As Ethan begins to ramble about his various materials Linene starts to say quietly "wood?"  "Rocks?"  She eventually politely interrupts so that the party doesn't spend all day in her shop with Redbrands watching.  "Ah, well, Mr. Ethan, was it?"  "We here at the Lionshield mostly deal in finished goods, not so much in raw materials such as, ah, 'rocks and wood'.  You yourself did just give me some metal and leather not quite in a state ready for resale so there's that, and we still have some weapons, armor, traveling cloaks and the like that you might be able to reuse.  Perhaps you want to go see Barthen for supplies such as wood?  He sells that kind of stuff for furniture and home building and all of that.  Also Halia over at the Miner's Exchange should have various gems and 'rocks' from all of the miners that come through here."

Linene smiles at Tarja's words and says "come back safe."  "May you find many valuable treasures on your adventures so that you can keep the ring, and of course give me something else interesting to sell instead!"

Also Tarja would indeed know, as you said, that spiders are not really a big threat in the local hills and forests around Phandalin.  The den of a large spider deep in a wood would be rare and rather easy to avoid for intelligent humanoids.  Other than the recent rumors since meeting the party she had really only heard of spiders being a notable threat deep in the heart of the Neverwinter wood, which is where the party's new roughly sketched map seemed o be taking them.

As the party leaves the Lionshield and puts on their show, the assumed Redbrand who had been watching casually leaves the town center and heads on down the road to the East.  The elven woman near the shrine is out tending to her small garden and smiles when she first sees them but then looks more curious as they make a scene.  A few other townsfolk and miners also look their way with confusion but then return to their business.  Two other humans stop at the edge of the town center to observe the scene, looking confused.  One is a short, fat, older and balding man dressed somewhat like a banker, although a bit sloppily and a step or three down from the finest attire anyone has seen in larger cities.  With him is a taller, slender woman with black hair and a narrow but flowing emerald green dress.  They watch as the party heads off to attend to their quest.

As Arvel passes off the map and Zeke and Tarja review it, they are reminded that it depicts a trip deep into the neverwinter wood.  They guess it will involve at least one night out, perhaps two or more if you include the return trip, all depending on how quickly the party moves and what challenges they may face.  The map leaves from the previous hideout they had cleared out north of the Triboar Trail and heads deeper into the wood.  It appears to cross three streams and then a small river before skirting around some sort of jagged cliff or mountain beyond which what the goblins called 'Cragmaw Castle' awaits.

If the group approaches the edge of town where they had first entered they see several young men at work unloading the crates they had delivered and hauling the various goods into Barthen's Provisions.  There seems to be a good deal of activity here because of the recent delivery.  Several beasts of burden including the halfling's oxen and some horses can be seen on the far side of Barthen's.  Finnan and Farnin also wish the party luck and head into Barthen's themselves.

Elra waves at the Elven women as she passes by, along with waving to anyone else who is watching them leave.

The Redbrand hasn't looked back but the elven woman by the shrine smiles widely and waves.  A dwarf you assume is a miner of some sort looks confused and raises a hand in a halfhearted effort to wave, and the two more nicely dressed figures just tilt their heads, also looking confused, before looking at one another.  The tall thin woman does look back at you and raise an open palm, however.

As they approach Barthen's the tiefling speaks up loud enough for the group to hear, but not so loud as tp be overheard - 'We may be a few days on the road - everyone set to keep themselves warm and fed?'

"Um..." Elra checks her bag. "I got a blanket, but I gave all my food to Vincent," as she mentions Vincent she looks up. "I hope he comes back soon."

--- Before leaving the Lionshield ---

"Thank you very much Linene, I will check in with Barthen and Halia for crafting materials then."

--- Outside Barthen's Provisions ---

"Oh, I need to check in here for some of my crafting materials and then I need to go to the Miner's Exchange for the rest."

Ethan walks into Barthen's Provisions,

"Hello? My names Ethan and I'm looking to purchase crafting materials of various kinds."

"Linene said I may be able to get some of the kinds of materials I'm looking for here."

Elra enters Barthen's Provisions with Ethan, "Hi! I'm Elra, and I need some more rations and a bedroll maybe? If you have one, cause I've been sleeping on the ground for the past and I think the bedroll will make it better."

"I believe I have everything." Fae would take inventory of her equipment to confirm. "I do have some rations left, but a top off for all of us probably wouldn't hurt. Especially if Elra's out."