He compliments the vendor on how clever the devices are and buys one that plays a song, asking as he pays whether the vendor knows of anyone selling other interesting machines today.

Well, depends on how you define interesting. There's clocks, some of them quite complicated, and clockwork toys, and someone made a steam toy...

Oh, yes, all of those. Maybe the steam toy first, if it's especially unusual; does the vendor mind giving directions?

If this seems like a workable way to navigate the marketplace he'll spend a while at it, likely all the way through to dinnertime.

The vendor gives directions!

Assorted other interesting things that he gets directed to includes books - travelogues with printed images, a book of plants of the Land of Fire, fictional books, science books, someone has purported to have put together a history of the late Empire - and someone selling an electric heating device (with many warnings about not setting it on or near anything flammable) and assorted other odd toys.

Ooh, press-printing makes books marvelously inexpensive. He gets a few travelogues, a couple of science books, and the book of plants, along with a variety of toys and gadgets, making a point of getting at least one with each method of functioning, storing the smallest ones in his belt and going back to the inn a few times to drop the bigger ones off in the room.

Come dinnertime, he picks up takeout and brings Ertan and it back to the room; the halfling is in a good enough mood to be interested in hearing about his afternoon and looking at some of the less intimidating machines.

They make an early night of it, and Raafi's up before dawn to go wandering and prepare his spells.

Ertan sleeps in a little. About twenty minutes after he wakes up - well, you might think someone just died, from the emotions he's giving off.

Tobirama will find Raafi to let him know his friend seems to be experiencing some kind of intense negative emotion.

He teleports back to check on him.

The halfling's mood is only moderately improved by the time that Raafi seeks Tobirama out again, an hour or so later.

"Is something wrong?"

He nods. "We're, ah, stuck. Ertan's magic is too complicated to prepare from memory; he needs his spellbook, and he didn't pack it."

"That does sound like a problem. Will he be able to reconstruct it? I can also make researching interdimensional travel on my end a higher priority, if you or your world won't have a solution soon."

"We'd appreciate that, thank you. There are people from my world who will look for me, but I don't know which of their spells will work between worlds, and it'll take years at best for Ertan to recreate his spells."

"I don't know what my development time will be like there, since I haven't tried this before. Likely I will have blind jumps first and can just send clones through."

"It's something, at least. Have you given any thought to what you'll want from us for staying?"

"Healing would be of most help to us."

He nods. "I have some healing spells prepared, if you'd like to test them today."

"That'd be appreciated. What is the usual recompense for healing in your world?"

"By spell and caster tier, the same as any other spell; effects other than wound healing start at third tier, except one spell of second tier that removes magically induced paralysis."

"Which tiers are curing disease, restoring limbs, and resurrecting the dead?"

"Curing disease is third tier; one spell cures one person. It's possible that I'll be able to get a spell that can cure a small group all at once; if I can, I'd expect it to be seventh tier, and restoring limbs is also seventh tier. The resurrection spell I described yesterday is also seventh; there's also a spell of fifth tier that can restore a recently dead person if their body is intact, with a smaller offering requirement."

"Our main concerns short-term are divination for if transplants would work for resurrecting the person transplanted from, curing blindness, and restoring limbs. Blindness is four hundred and fifty gold, limbs one thousand and fifty, and eleven thousand and fifty for resurrection, correct?"

"Mmhmm. And the divination spell we'll want to use is fourth tier, and it requires the burning of blessed incense, which I'm equipped to make - being in a new place is an advantage for me, there, fortunately - but which adds twenty-five gold to the usual cost; six hundred twenty five total. I have four of those prepared today if I don't convert any of them to other spells."

"That is reasonable. We won't be able to do extensive experiments at those prices - one experiment would earn you a year of lodging very easily - unless you want to trade your time for mine."

"I am also curious, especially if I'm going to be here for a while; I don't think we need to track finances too carefully while we're both interested in the same things."

"That's helpful, yes. Would you be amenable to a time-spent trade on some of the more repetitive things? I believe my relative power and experience level is close to yours, and my spending time on things like interdimensional travel does trade off against my study of defensive sets, or native resurrection abilities, or in-world transportation."