"Mmhm..."

How about she tells a Heterodyne Boys story too- She always liked The Secret of the Flying Cathedral (the secret in question is that it's also an old Storm King armory with traps still occasionally murdering people)- And then they can try to sleep and be up fresh for the morning.

Zzzz.

Does Fiducia Papinia mind some questions about the state of finance, industry, and prices as they walk the next day? She'll even pay, if the fee is reasonable.

Fiducia Papinia would like no topic of conversation more! Except confectionery. She's got a weakness for confectionery. But she doesn't bring it up, she just doesn't claim that finance/industry/prices are literally her favorite topic bar none.

She doesn't stumble upon confectionery as a topic. She's thinking about building large machines that do the work of craftsmen, or parts of the work of craftsmen. Sewing machines that make hundreds of stitches a minute, waterwheel-powered looms, blast forges for steel, explosives or drills for mining, steam-powered carts...

These things all sound very exciting, though of course the important thing if you want to make a big difference to a lot of people rather than just to your own pocketbook is if you can train others to do the same things. It also sounds like a very scattered business plan. Papinia would recommend sticking to one thing to start with, something where they know what interests will be predictably opposed (for instance, anyone currently supplying slaves and convicts to mines, though not the mine owners themselves necessarily, would probably have something to say about drills and explosives with mining applications).

Yes, teaching other people is the problem. She's been trying to teach Belmarniss some of the principles... She thinks, having experienced doing it the long way recently, that sewing and weaving is probably a decent focus? Everyone wears clothes. A product with universal demand. The problem is the setup costs- A large building, waterwheel, a few tons of iron and wood and months of labor from her or hired smiths and carpenters to make them into machines, weeks or months of training people... And that's just at a guess. She probably needs to make more detailed plans and estimations when she can.

"Well, the bank of Abadar invests in worthy projects if we think they'll see a return, but the infrastructure for that is a little underdeveloped around here, you might get better rates in Osirion."

"A prototype and a sound plan is probably pretty convincing to lenders, compared to neither of those, too. Osirion is a good place to get loans?"

"- it has many other drawbacks, but it's Abadar's country. I suppose you might like to avoid it because they're very regressive on the sexism front and I've not the slightest idea if they have any systematic opinion about drow."

"Huh. I mean, drow have the opposite situation... Sort of. I think we'll have to learn more about Osirion from someone who'd know. At a port city, I s'pose."

"Yes, I've heard they're a baby-eating matriarchy," says Fiducia Papinia, probably only because she presently believes that Belmarniss can't understand her. "And you should, I've never been there and last spoke to someone who'd been more than ten years ago."

"Mmh. Can't be too hard to navigate or Abadar wouldn't work there... That's all for later, I guess."

"How are you holding up?" She asks Belmarniss.

"Craving succulent baby flesh, otherwise fine."

Snort.

"It seemed to be mostly mushrooms, actually. Fresh fruit sold for silvers. Supply and demand!"

She tries not to neglect Belmarniss too much during the trip, but a source of surface financial info is a valuable thing. It's really weird to her that steel is so expensive when iron is so cheap. It's not that hard to turn iron into steel... If you know what you're doing and have a probably-in-the-range-of-5000-gp-if-not-more specialist furnace...

Fiducia Papinia is actually really intrigued about fresh fruit selling for silvers - did this seem to vary with the surface season at all? What fruits were sold? Were they growing them themselves down there somehow or raiding, there are sometimes drow raids of caravans.

Most of the market was probably raid-supplied, any any seasonal variation was probably outshone completely by her own work- She grew small amounts of things fresh with her alchemical barbarian powers (making things that only she can maintain, more or less, though she also knows how to make things the non-cheating way) and thusly funded the construction of her new gear. The Fiducia can hear about the collapse of strawberry prices over time with a steady supply, though.

"The strawberries they grew downstairs, actually. It's trees they can't do for love or money."

"-Really? Gosh, I wonder what else I'm wrong about. I probably could have managed a tree. Be something to show off for someone important enough." Shrug.

She corrects herself to the Fiducia. Hopefully nothing ambushes them on the road, she tries to keep alert but walking is kind of boring. She ends up Mage Handing or Prestidigitating random pebbles and sticks after a while, fidget-like.

Cute.

They arrive in Chillbriar eventually. It's a smelly place. They export sphagnum, there's lots of it in the market dried and tied up into bundles.

-Would've been a lot more useful in the underdark, the stuff makes great fertilizer, but it's also decent portable fuel, and she needs that to keep the steam pressure up in the field. Sparkwork or not, her launcher doesn't stay pressurized for days at a time. The prestidigitation gloves can light fires fine but aren't really good enough to raise steam pressure. The smell doesn't particularly bother her. Belmarniss and her will ask around for rumors and information on the Wisps and look for a room to bunk together, will the Fiducia be with them or arrange separate lodging?

"I don't mind bunking with you as long as she's not going to eat me, ha ha!"

"Pass."

"-She's not gonna eat you. I'm pretty sure that'd be breach of contract and, you know, it's very sensational but it'd be logistically- Mmh, no, I'm shutting up. Let's find separate lodgings."

Papinia nods and goes off to get herself a room at the multi-shrine panfaith temple.