Anakis puts the berries back. She was hoping that the wagon driver and the guard would think that she caught the mouse on the cart.

Thinking that the wagon driver was accusing her of littering though, she stamps her foot in the mud, "Excuse me mister! I don't throw things on ground!"

The driver doesn't fall for your trick. She grunts with approval when you replace the berries and then prompts the guard to drive you off. 

The guard seems quite charmed , however, by the little mouse you're holding. Make a DC 12 Charisma (Deception) check with advantage cancelling out your disadvantage (so a normal roll) to see if the guard believes that you caught the mouse on the wagon.

Deception : 18

"Good job catching that mouse, kid!" says the guard and turns her attention back to the driver. "I think your wagon might be infested with mice. You'll have to unload out here, so as we can inspect for vermin. Wouldn't want to unleash a plague of mice on the city now, would we?" The driver protests, and they begin to argue, leaving you and Rowan to do as you wish.

Torrent, Tarek, Ulben, and Fluin, arriving at the city gate, a guard asks each of you to state your business and destination.

Anakis giggles and skips away as Custard disappears back into her top. 

Torrent looks at Ulben, troubled, "That was well handled, it could have been much worse.  Tell me, how do you feel about expeditions into the Bog for supplies?  Do you know if they give anything back to it?"

To the guards Ulben over explains what going on with looking into the Bog, and his missing wife.  

To Torrent Ulben says "My cousin promised me that should I aid him in this he would aid be in finding my wife.  Work any luck it's not that dangerous, I'm really just a cook."

(OOC I'm not sure why it took me so long to think of this analogy but the way Ulben moves is much like The Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, especially when he first came off the post, perhaps a little more exaggerated.)

"Heading out to do some work in the bog."  Fluin says with a nod to the area outside the gates. 

"To be quite frank with you, I don't know my business here. Torrent over here can tell you. I'm merely assisting him," Tarek answers the guard. (Is there a fee for exiting the city gate? If so, Tarek will gladly pay for the four of them.)

"Ah, I'm sorry. What happened to yer wife?"  Torrent brushes past the people who are walking so close to him.  He uses Druidcraft to make an unpleasant odor near him to make people give him more space.

To the guards, "Aye, I've enlisted th' help of a few folk ta help get rid of a coupl'a the Giant Toads."

"A healing potion would be great!  I have a set of common clothes, It's a pair of leggings and a tunic, and this,"  Aluzira reaches into her backpack and pulls out her costume clothes.  It's a plain purple dress with an embroidered sash.  "It was my mothers.  I also have 10 gold." 

Tarek, a full schedule of taxes and fees is posted at the gate. There's no fee to exit the city, per se. There is a gate entry fee: 1 copper "common" for citizens and 3 for non-citizen foreigners. In the outgoing direction of travel, there's a 1 copper piece toll for anyone who uses the Cursed Passage, which helps with maintaining the causeway through the swamp to the southeast, and for which purpose travelers must state their destination, so the guard on duty can determine whether the toll should be levied. The city also imposes a duty on goods brought through the gate for sale in the marketplace at a rate of 1% for citizens and 2% for non-citizens. Having spent your entire life in the temple, this would all be new information to you.

When Torrent mentions going to deal with the Giant Toads, the guard takes some interest. "The Hunters' and Fishers' Guilds will be pleased to hear of that, I should think," he says. "Many a hunter or fisherman has come through here with tales of companions swallowed by those beasts, or of nearly having been swallowed themselves."

"Keep your commoner's clothing," says Elicia with a smirk. "You'll want to keep something to wear under your leathers, especially in this chilly weather we're having. But I'll take your mother's costume and the beautiful one you're wearing." (You should have two sets.) "I'll also take the gold, which still doesn't quite cover my expenses. You must think I'm very materialistic, but that couldn't be further from the truth. As you can see," she says, indicating the small hut in which she lives, "I lead a very simple existence here. I make these compounds not for profit, but to practice a craft that has been passed down to me from my grandmother. The things of value are those of the mind, not the physical world."

"I want to help you," she says, "but the special ingredient that I need to make the potion is quite costly, and I need to be able to afford to buy more once I sell you the vial I'm making." She notices you fiddling with your pan flute. "That's a very beautiful flute you have," she says capriciously. "Throw it in, and I think we have a deal."

"Aye, I reckon they will.  The Bog is good to us most days, but when it decides to strike at us, it uses monstrosities like that."  Torrent muses that if the hunters and fishers weren't taking so much, they wouldn't have to worry about the Bog rising up as it is.  "One thing at a time."

"Oh,"  Aluzira looks down at her flute and looks deep in thought.  After thinking for a moment she asks "How potent is it? the potion I mean, and may I ask what the special ingredient is?" she unties her panflute, and with a sad look, carefully places it on top of the purple dress.  "I don't want anyone getting hurt out there.  Also is there a place I can change?  If not, I can run back to my place and be right back with both outfits."

Aluzira, you're aware that parting with your pan flute will render you incapable of casting any of your spells that require a material component until such time as you can procure another musical instrument, a component pouch, or the specific materials themselves.

In answer to your questions, Mistress Elicia says, "The potion of healing has the power to revive when one has been beaten, or to stave off defeat, possibly turning a defeat into a victory. It's potency lies in the special ingredient used.

"This batch here," she says, pointing at the red, bubbling liquid in the cauldron, "has the power to return a normal man to full strength. It's made with a small amount of blood from a certain type of ogre that's very rare in this part of the world. My craft is in adding special herbs that make it digestible and enhance its healing qualities.

"My grandmother taught me the process of brewing an even more potent potion that's twice as powerful, made from the black blood of the "green giant" you've heard tales about that lives in the bog to the northeast of Ekuepool. She made potions of greater healing long ago from the blood of this creature, whose true name, she said, is Troll. If your band of adventurers can bring me some of the blood of that creature, I can make you a potion of high potency for a reasonable price.

"I can also compound antitoxins for you if you can bring me the venom of some of the creatures that live nearby. I'm sure you've heard of the poisonous snakes that haunt the city's road to the northeast of here, but there are also great wasps with poisonous stings that live to the southeast, in the region of the Vast Hill. I once had a supplier that would bring me the venom of these creatures, but alas, he never returned from his last expedition, and I fear that he was dragged off to their horrible nest to serve as food for their young." She then grows quiet, lost in thought. The Vast Hill, as you know, is a broad hilly region visible from Steepgulch, rising from the bog to the southeast. In fact, the ridge upon which Steepgulch is situated is but a thin, outlying finger of the Vast Hill.

Elicia directs you to a screen behind which you can change if you wish.

(I actually had no idea I could use my flute in place of materials lol. it's my first time playing a Bard.  She will still go ahead with the transaction.)

Aluzira listens closely as Elicia talks, interested in what she is saying and hoping to remember as much as possible to put onto paper later.  "I'm sorry about your supplier...  I will try to bring back anything that might be of use.  Your craft sounds amazing."  She will change into the common clothes and hand her two sets of neatly folded clothes with her pan flute resting on top.  Aluzira gives one last look at the flute before sitting down to jot down the information Elicia just gave her while waiting for the potion to be ready.  "Sorry!" she says looking up from her paper. "I didn't mean to be rude, I should have asked.  Is it alright if I sit here and write while I wait?

"Ah, yes," Tarek nods his head as he puts the copper pieces back in his pocket. "Thank you all the same, sir."

MIstress Elicia accepts your costumes and pan pipes, and the 10 gold coins in your possession. "Yes, of course," she says and energetically sets about stoking up the fire below the cauldron. "It will only take a moment." The concoction begins to boil rapidly, sending up a column of black, acrid smelling smoke, and reduces down to a shimmering, dark red liquid. Elicia quickly decants the contents of the cauldron into a ceramic vial, firmly puts a stopper in place, and presses the vial into your hand. "Remember what I have told you," she says, "and good luck!"

Outside Elicia's hut, the sun is rising behind thick clouds away beyond the Vast Hill over your right shoulder as you turn north towards Ekuepool. What pace will you choose for your morning's travel? (Encumbrance has no effect on your travel pace.)

The rest of the group, Rowan, Anakis, Ulben, Fluin, Torrent, and Tarek, gather outside the city walls. The light of day grows bright in the direction of the Cursed Passage, although the sky is obscured by heavy clouds on this chilly day. The fallow farmlands that surround the city are intersected by canals, ramparts, and levies, beyond which the swampy marshland of the Clouded Bog awaits. What plans do you make for the day's activities?

"Thank you so much!" says Aluzira as she leaves Elicia's home.  She winces internally seeing how far the sun has come up already.  "Sorry guys." she thinks to herself as she starts heading for the gate.  She walks at a slow pace, she doesn't want to get lost and cause any more delays.