Lumen is good with filing down the jewelry. He's a little confused about what ten minutes of protection gives us, but something is better than nothing.

While Chrys spends an hour to cast Ceremony, Vesper will ask Kess to tell Krackle one of her stories while she goes on a quick walk with Lumen outside. Once outside, she'll use the same Mage Hand trick to put the third shard in his pack.

"Hrrrr?" Kess was mid-bite into a piece of toasted bread with spread berry preserves when Vesper suddenly laid that at her feet, causing her to nearly choke. "Ghhhhk!"

ACK! Vesper, whyyyyy???

A moment later, after comically groping for a nearby cup of water and chugging it down, Kess took a moment to clear her throat, her face flush with embarrassment at losing her poise. Brushing her hair from her face, Kess turned to face Krackle, her expression somewhat blank as she tried not to seem overly flustered.

Oh no. What story can I tell him that's appropriate for younger ears? C'mon, Kess, figure it out...

"Hm. Well... say, Krackle... how familiar are you with the stories about Icewind Dale and the ranger drow known as Drizzt Do'Urden? He is a bit of a living legend in my homeland, at least for some. Not so much after the incident with the demon, however, but I personally see how he's at fault for the actions of another. Regardless, where was I? Ah, yes... well, Drizzt Do'Urden, they say, is one of the best swordsmen in the north, a friend of the late King of Mithral Hall, Bruenor Battlehammer. It's also said that he was instrumental in, of all things, establishing relative peace between the original Obould Many-Arrows and the rest of the north if the stories are to be believed. Drizzt is..."

Kess would do her best to make this sound interesting and HOPE Krackle wouldn't wander off!

((DM, can it be assumed that Kess pretty much narrates some of the better and more publicly known bits about Drizzt's legend to Krackle? XD ))

Krackle would stuff himself full once more and even take the scraps from his companions plates once they had finished and slide them into his pockets. After breakfast the bloated kobold would let out a small burp and look up to his companions. "Hey! If you want I could try to turn into a horse or a bull or something. I could carry all of your bags for a while so that it is easier for you all to walk! Wouldnt' that be a big help?" The kibold would offer once the group is ready to leave, looking up with his big eyes and a toothy smile.

"Nah, my bag isn't heavy. Thanks for offering though. Also, you shouldn't store food in your pockets, it'll mess up your robes and attract bugs. If you can't eat it all, you should throw it away or get a bag to store it in."

Lumen just squints his eyes at Krackle in response, face expressionless.

While he waits for the others to return, he asks the bartender if he'd mind some musical entertainment, and an open hat for donations, to brighten the days of the customers. If he accepts the offer, Lumen strides over to a stool in the corner where there was entertainment last time, opens his lute, and tries out the unfinished ballad of the Pie Pals.

He'd tried to perform it on the way back into town, but he was mauled by a bear, and so he hadn't really been in the mood. But he was in a common room and he found the opportunity irresistible.

The melody starts slow and heavy, and weaves up and down the scales, and before you know it, the song's burrowed a hole in your ear and it stays there for a while. The stanzas cover competitions and contests, travels, mosquitos and unfriendly towns, friendly gnomes and sleepy bugbears and ominous caves that are not caves, too many goblins, deeply terrifying statues, hidden cubbies, and the undead, barbarian torture rodeos, masked villains, treasure and fiendish pools, tough noble dwarves, helpful if deeply concerning kobolds, knowledgeable, efficient, yet forgetful elves, quiet, compassionate, and skilled humans, triumphs and partial triumphs, mysteries solved and more mysteries found. Pies. 

If people are enjoying it, he'd try a few more songs, crowdpleasers, more for himself to brighten his mood than for any audience. He'd play the music he found rewarding later. Today was to get back into the swing of things.

Krackles smile sound slowly fade and his shoulders would droop a bit. "OK.. I guess I can help later maybe." He would say as he slides his hands into his robes and pulls out a piece of bread from the night before. "but.. this is my food.... I don't want to get rid of it." he would say as he looks over the bread and gives it a small sniff and puts it back into his pocket.

If Lumen hears this he suggests someone get Krackle a bag.

"Do you want to eat food that's moldy and infested with bugs? Because that's what'll happen to your food when you go hoarding it. Food's meant to be eaten quickly, not stuffed in your pockets. I bet that the food you have from last night has lost some of its taste. Soon it'll go bad."

Chrys returns to the others, her supplies in tow.  "Sorry fer keepin' y'all waitin'," she huffs.  She nods appreciatively at Lumen's entertainment, and addresses the others when his set is over.  "So, we finally ready to hit the road?"  Noting Krackle clutching his pocket and the look in Vesper's eye, she looks between them and then glances at Kess.  "Did I miss somethin' here?" she asks, scratching her head. 

"Not much. Just telling Krackle that if he keeps hoarding his leftovers in his pockets they'll start to go bad in there."

"Got that right.  I once tried to save a wedge o' cheese for a journey up to the mountains in my pocket when I was a girl.  It was summertime... by the time I got halfway up the rocks, I was smellin' worse than a dead possum," she tells Krackle, wrinkling her nose at the memory.  "I did actually have to run away from a mountain bear who wanted to know what the stink was 'bout, an' my mamma ended up scoldin' me right proper, and givin' me the worst punishment a kid could imagine when I got back:  a bath."

Flint gladly grinds down a few of the silver jewelry items into fine filings. During the process, he continually makes comments about how these particular pieces are better off as powder used in the service of Duin than mere decorative pieces, especially since, in his opinion, they're well below the quality that any dwarf jeweler would produce. 

Once Chrys has the proper materials, she sets about doing necessary ritual to cast her Ceremony spell, while the ret of you try to distract Krackle while you separate pieces of the mask into different packs and prepare for your journey back to Yartar. 

Master Grimhill, the innkeeper at the Weary Knight seems as grumpy as ever this morning, but he reluctantly allows Lumen to sit in the corner and play for the very small breakfast crowd at the tavern. Most villagers eat breakfast at home, and so the only people in here are the few travelers who have stopped for the night in Melton during their journey along The Evermoor Way. It's a small crowd, as is often the case in Melton. Even though it's located on the popular and important trading route between Yartar and Everlund, for whatever reason, it's situated at an odd distance for people who are traveling on horseback. Many travelers pass right by and stop at the next inn up the road, which means that Melton usually gets foot travelers and the occasional mounted journeyman who wants to shorten his or her day. 

At any rate, Lumen performs for the small audience, some of who seem genuinely interested in his songs, or at least entertained while they finish eating and prepare for their next day of travel. During the course of his performance, earns a total of 9sp in his hat. 

By the time Chrys finishes her ritual, it's still a couple of hours before noon. 

Lumen’s mood has brightened considerably when he finished performing. He thanks the audience for their contributions and attention, and stops by Grimhill to ask if there is any food they could bring with them for the road. Perhaps some savory pies. Whatever they have easy to transport, not in pockets. Either way he is ready to go and if anyone else has anything to do, he spends his time waiting focused on trying to put one of the studs back in the leather armor where the bear jaws got him deep.

Grimhill the innkeeper seems as detached and impartial to your performance and your presence as he’s been every other time you’ve interacted with him. However, he does offer you a handful of fist-sized sausage and pastry pies that he made this morning. 6 total for 1sp. 

After watching you funable and trying to repair your armor, he said in his normally gruff, but inviting tone,

“C’mere son..,”

Then, reaching under his counter, he pulls out a hammer and some pliers. With an expert hand, he deftly grabs the stud with the teeth of the pliers, works it carefully into the proper part of the armor, and hammers it securely into place.”

”There. That’ll help keep yer hide a little safer.”

Vesper is ready to leave this village once everyone else is.

"I am used to eating leftovers... me and my mom and dad and my sister would always eat leftovers that mom would bring home after work." He would reply as he looks to Vesper with a small frown. "We didnt really have a kitchen above the stable where we lived so leftovers were good, they were already cooked!" He would add with a tiny smile. when Chrys mentions a bath, Krackle would get excited and jump up and down. "I like baths, sometimes I would jump in the tubs of water with the animals when I would wash them and we would have lots of fun."

“...Thank you, sir, almost as good as new. We will probably see you soon.” Lumen says after the pies and the help with the armor. He nods with a clarity of seeing himself through the other man’s eyes as just another person deserving of help, instead of an afterthought.

He brings the pies over to the group and hands one to Chrys, Vesper, Kess, and Krackle. A smile is playing over his lips but he doesn’t fully surrender to it. It’s his sign he’s back and ready to go. He checks to make sure the mask fragment is still safely in his pack.

”See, Krackle, pies come in their own pocket. Avoids mess. Let’s get going to Yartar.”

Vesper will take her pack and get ready to go. "It's fine after work because the food is still warm. But I bet that the stuff in your pockets from last night is cold. Food's not supposed to lie around for that long. Besides, we've got money, we don't need to hoard every scrap of food we get our hands on."  If Krackle continues to hoard his food, Vesper won't belabor the point further, deciding to let the Kobold learn for himself when nature takes its course.

When all of your preparations are done, you finish packing up and get your journey underway a couple of hours before noon. Gareth opens the gate for you and give you a friendly nod, and you all pass through and find yourselves out on the main road once again. Turning right, you begin walking on the wide dirt track of The Evermoor Way and being your three day journey back to Yartar. 

At first, the road passes though the sparse forests around Melton, but after a couple of hours, the trees thin out and you find yourselves surrounded by the wide open grasslands, that stretch for miles in all directions. During the early afternoon hours, you pass by the location where you were ambushed by the goblin band a few days ago, though with all that has happened recently, it could almost seem as that was weeks ago, instead of mere days.

Between spending time in Melton, the long two-way hike with Ellywick, and the entire episode with the goblins, the zombies and the frightening ambience of the underground temple, you are all very different people than you were when you met up for the first time and set out on this errand in Yartar. And now you are returning once again to Yartar to claim your payment and try to get your questions answered about certain dark matters that now hang over your head. 

The first few hours of your walk are pleasant, and relatively uneventful. The sun is out, the wind is blowing faintly from the north, and the traffic on the road is light. You pass a handful of other travelers and a couple of merchant carts with interactions no more urgent than friendly waves and smiling nods. The only creatures you see are flocks of birds in the sky, the occasional hawk and a few deer that scamper through the tall grass at a safe distance.