"Oh, it's alright," Elra says, "I'm sure things must still be confusing for you."

"Yes, yes, perhaps I can improve my mental acuity with some time.  I'm not sure how long it has been since I had a proper conversation.  Let's see.  Is it still the end of the 6th Age?"

(Disclaimer: I am FAR from an expert on the timeline of the Forgotten Realms, and find tracking time in a campaign in general to have its pitfalls and prefer to keep it somewhat vague where possible.  The intent here however is that the shield is referring to the years approaching "600DR".  A quick google search suggests that most modern 5e campaigns are intended to be around the time frame of 1491DR or so, and thus the characters would be well aware of the fact that the simplest answer to the shields question would be a hard 'No', it has likely been in the ballpark of 900 years since the time he seems to be referring to.)

"Um..." Elra searches for a way to say this gently, "no... it's been a very long time since the 6th age..."

As Fae takes off her robes and exposes the extent of her burns, Ethan responds,

"Oh, that must have been one hell of an accident. I've been lucky really, I only have a few small burns and cuts myself."

"Did it hurt, it looks like it would have."

Ethan winces as he talks, imagining the possible pain from his own much more limited experience.

As Fae hand Ethan the bracers, He looks from person to person around the group, doing his best to assess the defensive capabilities of their armaments.

"Hmm, maybe Arvel? I think his defensive capabilities would be the lest among us now."

Ethan looks to his friends to see if they agree.

"Oh, are we well into the 7th?  8th even?!  Oh dear, would the Lord even still be alive?  Oh, oh dear, did I save him at all?!!!"  The shield seems more distressed about the fate of the Lord than the initial question of time.

"Um..." Elra isn't sure what to say at that moment, so imporvises, "Once we get back to the town we're staying in, I'm going to ask the Loremaster about your Lord... see if you did save him. Alright?"

Tarja agrees with Zeke's plans.

Yes, hopefully if we get on the road while it's still light, the spiders in the forest won't be bothering us quite as much! Well, and if we're not misled into a spider nest by goblins.

She doesn't like being accompanied by Frak and Izzak, but recognizes that it might keep the spiders away, so grudgingly accepts.

Elra, seemingly realizing that she forgot to mention what the goggles do, "Oh, I almost forgot. These give you darkvision!"

"Oh that sounds really useful, can I give them a try? I've never experienced that before and it always sounded fun."

If Elra gives the goggles to Ethan, he will put them on and look around for a dark place to try them out and see how they works.

"Wow that's really neat."

Ethan looks at Elra and Fae.

"We can shares these whenever we need to see in the dark for something."

"Do either of you want to try them, it neat."

Ethan holds the goggles out for the other two, and turns to Tarja,

"Dwarves can see like this, hey Tarja? You can see in the dark, that's so neat and useful."

Tarja looks through the glasses.

Yes, I can see like this already! It's quite nice, in the forest at night. Still can't make out color, so best not try to pick any berries when it's dark!

When we camp out, whoever's keeping watch could probably use these.

"If no one else wants them, I'll take them. All of you were kind enough to give me this fine armor. Anyway, Krikket! Let's do the thing! Get it over with."

Krikket appears in the air in front of Arvel  and a soft white glow suffuses the sprite's hand as he touches it to Arvel's chest, the charlatan looking slightly nervous for the first time in days.

A moment later, the glow diffuses and Krikket nods at Arvel.

"HA! Knew it! Karma can't catch ya if ya just keep movin'!"

Elra looks confused. "Why'd you have him do that?"

Ethan hands over the bracers and watches as Krikket and Arvel preform their ritual.

Ethan nods his agreement with Elra,

"Yeah, what was that all about?"

Fae would look to Ethan when he would ask the question. She'd offer a small brief smile to him as he comments about his luck for never experiencing a large accident. That was comforting to her for him. The wizard's eyes would waver as she'd be unable to hold eye contact for very long, focus fading as she dips into her memory archive to recount her story for their curious artificer.

Her eyes would close and she'd swallow, pushing down her emotions to try to show none. Fae will blink away the images flashing through her mind. In order to tame her fidgeting, the Wizard would begin gathering up some supplies to start packing up for the journey "I was young and just starting early studies." She'd take a deep breath, "...I didn't take into account an accelerant. And... I lost control... Of everything..." The scholar would swallow again to take a pause before continuing, thinking over Ethan's second part of the question, pain. "Between adrenaline and blacking out, I did not register pain until the healing process..." Fae would finish her very brief and general response to the artificer. Considering they were gearing up to head out, she did not want to burden anyone with details of her history. If they cared to know, they'd notice she avoided details. Should she be asked to ever elaborate in the future, she would. For now she was going to take advantage of the change in subject to something more fun and lighthearted, the goggles.

The scholar would simply observe and smile as Ethan, Elra and Tarja pass around and comment on the goggles. She would wholeheartedly agree with Tarja's comment for them to be used for watch.

Fae too would be curious as to what Arvel and Krikket just did, pausing her tasks to tilt her head in curiosity.

Zeke watched as Fae methodically undressed and layered the armor on under her robes.  He too, noticed the heavy scarring on her arms, but held his tongue.  When Ethan spoke up about the scars, the tiefling would shoot him a hard look to warn him away from what was undoubtedly a traumatic experience. 

Listening as Fae opened up, ever so tentatively, about her past, Zeke would remain silent, letting her share exactly as much as she felt comfortable and no more.  As the conversation moves on, he would drift behind her and lightly squeeze her shoulder without making eye contact or even slowing down.  Just the barest touch to let her know she had been seen and heard, before moving on to complete his preparations for their move out.

A hard look at Yeemik and their two goblin guides and a curt nod before turning to Arvel 'These gobbos will make getting through the forest easier - assuming they don't lead us into another ambush.' He favors their guides with a  broad toothy smile as he pulls a hatcher from its holster and drags his finger along it's sharpened edge  'Of course if they do I'll gut them both first before I do anything else.'  

Yeemik happily chimes in after Zeke's threat, "see, that's why the big guy should stay here with us!"  "Keep those orcs and the Spider away, maybe.  Don't you want to stay here where everyone would look up to you, like, actually up at you, instead of where those humies probably look at you funny everywhere you go?  I'll even make you my right hand man, ah, tiefling, that is!"

Ethan doesn't seem to notice Fae's emotional reaction to his questions.

"Oh accelerant? Yeah that can get bad real quick."

"Its good you didn't feel too much pain then."

Ethan smiles at Fae, not realising he has caused her to relive past sorrows.

Ethan goes over to the chest of wealth the party had claimed the night before.

"Hmm, I wonder if there is a..."

Ethan starts rummaging through the chest looking for something among the mound of coins, gems and jewellery.

Zeke snorts in laughter at Yeemik's joke about 'looking up to him' and favors the goblin with a smile.  'I'm not sure you'd like me much if I stayed behind.  I find banditry, treachery and murder to be unacceptable traits in my friends and charges alike.  And unfortunately, I tend to react strongly to that sort of behavior.'  the last statement is punctuated by his large hand drifting to his blade hilt and all the humor draining from his face.  'Probably worth remembering that if you get tempted to go back on the deal you've made with us'

Elra watches Fae during her recolection from her past. "Oh dear..." she says when she finishes. "I'm... I'm sorry that happened to you so young..."

"Easy big guy, we're changed goblins here!  We'll probably just spend our days fixin' up this castle a bit, fishin' in the lake, hunting with the beasty, that sort of thing.  Come to think of you, you could stay too and help repair this castle, Mr Fix It."  Yeemik is obviously speaking to Ethan.

(Nice post Ixi!  Inspiration to the wizard, I vote!)