Chapter 3: Secrets

Tilma takes a couple chestnuts before giving the rest of the bag to Jenks. "Here you go?" She then turns to Berry, "So? What now?"

"Well, that confirms they are looking for a big purple gem, so that's what we are after too. We could have the kids search this level while we go down into the pits?"

The kids' eyes go wide at the shiny silver coin. It is indeed a small fortune to urchins like they. Jenks accepts the chestnuts too, and shares them with his friends.

"Sure, we can search this level for you," Nat signs. "You really wanna go down into the pits? Even the Rat Catchers' Guild don't go down there—too dangerous..."

"Nah, I been down there before," Squiddly interjects. "Ain't that bad!"

"Tell us more about the Pits, lad," Laurent spoke, eyeing Squiddly intently. And, before the child had time to answer, he looked briefly to his companions, and whispered "How's Bartoz after these precise things?".

"Shhhh," Berry indicates for Jenks to be quiet, "Actually the opposite. He’s looking for the same thing we are, which is why we need skilled adventurers like yourselves on our team."

"The orphanage in the Harborside district? I know the place. Have you truly seen this child slave trade occurring?" the young scholar asked, with barely contained disgust in his voice. This just made Bartoz’ operation even more intolerable, and speeding his downfall even more urgent.

To his companions, he pursued in a more operational tone. "Sounds like some precautions might be worth taking. What do you think, Tilma" he asked deferring to their resident liquid waste management expert. "Unseen explosive gas sounds like a dangerous, heartless foe. Do we have time to look for the proper tools?"

Not really listening to Laurent for now Tilma exclaims in raised voice, "He does what now!?" you can see that she is clearly angry. "That son of a..." she struggles to find a word that would fit, but nothing bad enough comes to mind. "If I ever get my hands on Barton he's going to regret having been born. I will pick out his hair one by one, then hang him upside down in the most stinking part of the sewers, full with rats. And once rats are done with him I'll feed the rest to worms... And... And..." she closes her eyes, clenches her fists and tries to quell her anger a little before turning to Laurent and asking in a forcibly calm voice, "You said something?"

Berry was neither shocked or concerned at the mention of child slavery, such things were stock in trade for people like Bartoz. Not pleasant, but a reality. Instead he focuses on the matter at hand, esepcially with time against us

"I'll get a few things together, anything to add to the list?

Rope, torches, pitons, canary..."

"A crowbar, a pick axe or shovel, in case we need to remove obstructions..." the scholar mused, out of pure theoretical knowledge in the field of mining.

"Ok, then let's go shopping. The sooner we're done with preparations the sooner we can snatch the orb from in front of his nose. And the sooner I can break that nose of his." she kicks away a pebble. Then she suddenly looks at Berry with a small realization, "You know what Berry? Remember the cave with cockatrices? It was a pit where Bartoz threw his enemies, right? We presumed that he didn't know about the orbs there. But perhaps he knew? That would explain his men searching them. Perhaps he didn't simply know what they were for or if he Could take them. They were shooting lightnings after all."
She heads for the stalls, looking for what her companions listed as well as some non flammable light source. Cause she definitely wasn't going to let her short friend bring Torches in a gas filled underground.

"That’s possible." Berry already has some of the gear he needs and just needs to swing by his digs to grab them, "Lantern not torches, got it. I’ll bring one, might make a helpful weapon, in the right situation ," he winks at Tilma.

"A lantern with an everlasting flame is what we need… the slightest flame could cause an explosion. A canary or other such bird might be useful too… they will suffer from suffocation before we do, alerting us to unseen dangers."

"But wouldn't an ever lasting flame still ignite the gas?" Tilma wonders

"I believe not, magical flame gives light without heat. It will not burn paper, or your fingertips, if you touch an enchanted flame, it is only seeming, not a real thing."

"Cool...! Got to get some." Tilma smiles and continues browsing

"There should be a trader around these parts willing to sell such an item. It isn't a highly sophisticated incantation, overall..." Laurent said, looking about for any indications of a vendor of lesser magic items, or a trader in lamps and torches.