Vesper flips over a gold coin so that she can have a cloak.

"Oh, an' one more cloak, please," Chrys says, picking up the gold coin and handing it over to Sadie.  "Forgot I had a friend who wanted one," she says, smiling sheepishly.

The woman sifts through the her piles of fabric and pulls out the requisite number of cloaks, as well as a long length of heavy, tan cotton fabric that's been oiled slightly and waxed. She then produces a long knife and cuts the cotton into a number of pieces that are slightly larger than one square yard each.

"There, that should do... Hey... wait a minute," she says with a sly, slightly surprised look on her face as she sees Chrys's subtle interactions with the oversized saddle bag.

"Wot have you got hidin' in your bag there, dearie? A wee little gnome or something? Why's 'e in there?"

Lumen

"Well, you've certainly got an interesting style of playin', Master Vork," Ellywick says. "I rather enjoy it, though. Reminds me of what's like to be in the mountains. Sounds a bit like the wind, when it's still thinking of turning itself into a storm. I'd say your talents are much better spent adventuring and spreadin' your song among the folks of the world than raiding and pillaging. I should like to hear more, perhaps when you return from your goblin adventure."

"And yes, those buggers don't usually band together and form organized, regular raiding parties unless they've got a strong arm leadin' 'em. They're opportunities. Not strategists. At least the little ones. Sometimes they get bossed around by the bigger, stronger goblinoids, but on their own, they just go for the easy pickings."

"Oh, and that owlbear wasn't the only thing I've seen out there, just the biggest. At least in the woods around here. There's plenty o' dangerous creatures if you stray out into the open wilderness, it's just that most of 'em don't come close and bother us villagers. An owlbear deep in the woods is a dangerous thing to come across, but if one is walking right past the gate, you just stay on the other side of it 'til he wanders off again."

"At any rate, I hope we don't run into one of those during our walk today!"

"Go on, Master Vork. Play me another song!" the gnome says as she sits down on a stump that's been placed against the wall of the house and folds her arms together at her chest.

Hearing the woman outside, Krackle would start to panic a bit. "Meow.... meeeooowww......." He would say before lightly scratching at the inside of the bag.

Vesper hears the question the shopkeep asks and then Krackle meowing in panic. She internally sighs as she thinks up a response. "Our cat. But he's got a condition where he panics if he sees a stranger, so we keep him in a bag when we travel." She makes a note that when they're not in public, to tell Krackle that he'll draw attention to himself if he keeps trying to have conversations while you're in the bag.

Chrys begins to panic at the question, a few beads of sweat forming on her brow.   By the Duin... I shouldn't lie... Lying to nice old women is terrible... think, think!

Vesper comes up with a clever lie just in the knick of time, but Chrys can't help but feel obligated to give the nice tailor woman something closer to the truth.  She pats the bag reassuringly, following up Vesper's bold declaration.  "He's just a lil' scared," she says, which is true.  "This town ain't been too friendly to us here, thanks to Constaple Crabapple's warm welcome.  He don't like stayin' in the bag too much, but I think he wouldn't like bein' run outta town even more."  Also true.  "I wish some people weren't so judgemental 'bout these sorta things, but we wanna protect our friend here just as much as we wanna protect this town, and it'd be a real pickle ta have to decide between the two."

At the mention of Constable Crabapple, Miss Sadie seems to forget all about the fact that you're carrying around a cat in an oversized leather saddle bag. Or at least she accepts your story and moves on. Either way, she seems eager to come forth with a bit of honesty in response to  respond to Chrys's statement about her fellow villagers.

"Crabapple! She's nothin' but a spoiled apple, that one. Too tart for my tastes, but please don't take her to be the shining example of Melton, dear. We're good, honest folk here and we try to do right to others and each other. Maybe we're a little wary of outsiders, we got plenty o' them coming through here and they don't usually cause any trouble. Occasional fracas at the inn after too many ales, or getting folks a bit on edge with stories of monsters and untold evils that lie far out beyond our little wall, but nothin' that should make us fear people from other places."

"Frida used to be fine, but she's gotten a little rotten lately, and she's got some folks scared. I don't know what's gotten into that woman, but I wouldn't let her bruise your idea about our little home. An' if she didn't give you a proper welcome, then I will do it myself."

Fiona (oops... Edit: her name is Sadie. :) smiles and does a small curtsey. "Welcome to Melton! You girls just passin' through or are you here to visit someone?"

Vesper smiles and curtsies back after Fiona tells her story. "Thank you! We're here to take care of some goblins that have been causing problems for people in this area." If it hasn't been done already, she puts down two gold for Kess and Lumen before thanking Fiona for being so nice and selling them these cloaks and then leaving the store to wait for the smith to finish up. While they pass through the town, she casts Message again and Krackle hears another whisper in his bag. "I know that you're not trying to cause trouble and that it can't be comfortable in that bag, but you have to stop moving around and whispering to people. It attracts attention to you when people see Chrys talking to a bag with something wriggling inside it and we honestly got lucky that Fiona believed the cat story."

"Sorry... maybe she would like kobolds... ... well.. I guess you are right... no one likes kobolds" Krackle would reply before going quiet. The saddle bag no longer moving.

Vesper casts Message again. "We don't have a problem with you, but this isn't like Yartar, where the people will at least give you a chance because you're with us. They're already scared of the goblins and we don't know if they'll give you that chance. But it won't be long until we find the goblins and you can come out."

(Kess should already have a cloak, so Vesper can -1 gold, or make it 5sp only if you want to get her a raincloth.  Chrys bought Lumen a raincloth already, so you can still nab him the cloak for 1 GP.  I don't think anybody got Krackle a raincloth yet (sorry, but Chrys is kinda out of money after this), so if you want to keep it at 2GP spent, you can say you bought 1 cloak for Lumen, and 2 raincloths for Krackle and Kess.)

"Let's pick up the pace, I think somone's gettin' a lil' restless," Chrys says, patting the saddlebag comfortingly.  "Go on an' meet up with Ellywick and Lumen," she tells Vesper and Kess, "I'll be in an' out of Flint's shop to pick up them caltrops an' oil, fast as my legs can take me."

Chrys does exactly as she promised, hurrying back to Flint's shop to stick her head in and check on the progress of her order.  "How's it goin' in here?  I got the coin if you got the goods," she says with a wide smile.

OOC: Ok, Vesper will spend the gold, but she'll change who gets the cloaks and rainclothes.

Vesper will nod her head towards Chrys and head off with Kess towards Lumen and Ellywick.

Vesper

"Well, that's good news! I've heard that goblins have been causing trouble out on the road lately. Fortunately, they haven't bothered us here, but that doesn't mean they won't if they get greedy or if they start to get a little too brave. Good on you to try to take care of that problem for us. We don't have anyone in the village who can fight off a handful of those little monsters, let alone a whole tribe of 'em. By the looks of you, though, I suspect that you're a little more capable in those areas than the rest of us."

"So, good luck to you, my dear. And be careful out there. I don't want to hear stories about three fine ladies who were felled by goblins arrows." Sadie accepts your payment and bides you farewell, and says that she hopes to see you again. 

Leaving the shop, you return to the house at the end of the street and find Lumen and Ellywick enraged in a merry band of song and storytelling.

Chrys

Doing your best to dodge mud puddles as you hurry back up the street, you find Flint working feverishly on your caltrops. He's heated a number of small scraps of metal inside his forge, pieces from broken blades, remnants of unfinished work and other bits of spare steel, and now he's hammering and twisting them into shape and grinding the edges to a fine point.

They're not uniform by any sense of the word, but each piece is made well enough to serve its purpose. You stand there and watch him finish his work, which takes about 15 more minutes, and then he looks up and smiles. 

"They ain't pretty, Chrystoberyl, but they'll do the job. Here, let me show ya." The dwarf tosses a few of them down onto the ground, and each caltrop lands so that it's essentially a small three-inch spike pointing straight up. One by itself would be easily avoided, but tossing all of them in front of an enemy would make it more challenging, and probably quite painful if someone was trying to move past them in a hurry.

He then gathers them all up - fifteen total, and drops them into a leather pouch. Handing you the pouch, he says, "Made 'em fast as ah could. I'd say hope you don't need 'em, but truth be told, I'd love it if my work ended up being a pain in the arse for some grimy goblin."

"Now run along, my friend, and come back soon so I can buy you an ale and listen to ya tell me how many of them bad ol' greenies you slaughtered!"

"Thank ye, Flint... I hope I'll be back soon enough to report some good news for ya, and all o' Melton," she says with a smile, tossing him his coins (for 1 set of caltrops and 2 flasks of oil).  Hurrying out of the shop, she gives the saddlebacks a cursory pat.  "We're almost done here... once we're outta sight o' that Crabby Constaple, I'll see 'bout gettin' ya outta there," she reassures Krackle. 

A light jog soon brings her to the others, who've gatheed outside to listen to Lumen and Ellywick's merrymaking.  She gives everyone a small wave, and digs through the saddlebag to hand Lumen his waxed cloth when he has a spare moment free to accept it.  "Sorry it took so long," she says, rubbing the back of her head with an apologetic grin.

Vesper waves back to Chrys as she enters Ellywick's house with the caltrops and the cloak for Lumen. "Oh you're here! That's all of us, so I think we're ready to go hunt those goblins."

Lumen springs up as the others arrive and when Chrys gives him a waxed cloth, he bows deeply, thanking her generously. 

To Vesper he says, "Ellywick was just telling me all about the woods, and I was sharing some songs with her. Thank you all for taking care of the procurement. Let's get going!"

Krackle will try his best to remain perfectly still inside the stuffy bag as his limbs begin to ache.. Curled up into a tight ball and fighting the urge to try to stretch out or get any fresh air...

"You'll have to tell us about it on the road. Let's get going!"  

"Okey doke, blokes!" Ellywick says as she slings on her backpack. Turning to the butcher, the little gnome says, "Going hunting, Master Fenwick. I'm not sure when I'll be back. A day, maybe two. Who knows, but I hope to return with a couple more coneys for you!"

"Off we go then, lasses and lad, follow me!"

After a very quick stroll back down the main street (Flint nods at you as you pass his shop), you arrive once again at Melton's front gate. Now that you can see it in the daytime, the sharpened log palisade looks like like it would be even less secure against any kind of coordinated attack. It will certainly keep winding beasts from staying into town, but would do little to repel an organized band of humanoids or any kind of giant sized creature.

There's no sign of Frida Crabapple, but a young man in his twenties greets you and closes the gate behind you as you set off. With quick, but quiet strides that equal at least two to your one, Ellywick leads you around the outside edge of the palisade and into at the light woods that north of the village. After tromping through the sparse, open forest for a few hundred feet, you hit an old game trail and begin following it on a northeasterly direction as it winds through the trees.

Ellywick sets a brisk pace for her size, occasionally skipping along and whistling as she walks. She points out birds and other small critters that she spots and occasionally talks to the little furry animals that she sees with the same kind of enthusiasm that she greeted you with, just in slightly more hushed tones. She's clearly an adept guide and it's apparent that she knows her way through these woods. 

By now, the air is starting lose its chill and the heavy clouds have begun to break up. At one point you even spot a small patch of blue sky overhead. 

"It's a wonderful day to go walking in the woods" Ellywick says. "Of course I say that about every day."

(With Lumen having conversed with her for about an hour and exchanging stories, does he have the sense that she would react to a well-managed introduction of a nice kobold more like the friendly people in Yartar, or the less friendly people in her town?)