"Well, there's no accounting for taste. Over there's where Dyra has set up shop; she's really big on trading things, but there's less call for that kind of thing than I think she'd appreciate."

"I actually love fish. It's my favorite. Also Ky's favorite. We are fish fiends. Oh, and do you have mushrooms? We love those too. You don't need to waste rats on us."

Ky will drift over to see what's in the shop.

"Huh, I'll go let them know. They'd never forgive me if I let them miss out on a chance to make your favorites! If you have any questions while I'm gone, I'm sure Wendu can answer them."

Dyra appears to be selling a number of useful goods and services. In terms of items, there's arrows, fishhooks, a few kinds of weaponry, firestarters, and so forth, but also a handful of bottles that are apparently healing potions and pain removal. The sign, which they can also somehow read, lists prices for "channeling," "cures," "truthtelling," and "carrying capacity," as well as mentioning to ask her for a quote for other castings. Around her neck is a necklace with a stylized symbol of scales that a native might recognize as one of Abadar's holy symbols but is almost certainly meaningless to Kybele and Iskander.

"Uplanders! Feel free to let me know if anything catches your interest or you have questions, I love to trade with new people! I'll take trade in barter, not just gold, but prices are higher if I'll have to liquidate it myself to get value out of it."

"Ooh, healing potions. The sign - hm, we're from very far away, not just above the ground but also many miles off, and I'm not sure I recognize the services, can you tell me about them?"

"Certainly! I'm a cleric of Abadar, the god of trade, which means I give him my worship and do my best to foster trades and he gives me tools to help me out at doing that! When I want a specific spell from him, I have to ask for it that morning, and normally I pick things like ant haul, which makes you better at carrying things, delay pain, which means that things that would otherwise be painful aren't for a while, and truthtelling, which prevents you from lying and is great for proving you're being honest. Sometimes I also cast that one on myself, when I say I haven't been cheating people in trades or stealing things, so people know they can trust me. I can also turn any of these spells into cures, where I heal one person, and I have a couple of channels a day where I heal everyone around me. I usually sell one of those every day after dinner to the villagers here, but you could buy one too if you wanted. If you want a spell I didn't ask Abadar for today, you'd need to make a deal with me ahead of time so I can ask him for it tomorrow and then sell it to you."

"Oh, how neat. Do you sell paper, by any chance?"

"I do! I'm mostly the only one here who uses it, so I've got some supply, but it's pretty hard to come by down here so it'll probably cost you more than you're used to. If you just want something that you can do some figuring on I can also sell you slate and some chalk, it's not as good for keeping things long term but it's much cheaper especially since you can rent the slate rather than buy it."

"Nope, it's paper I want." She taps her hat. "I could improve the quality of whatever I don't buy, if that would suit you."

"Oh, I see." Dyra is a little disappointed that she didn't find someone else as enthusiastic as she is about written records and instead wants paper for a practical purpose, but she recognizes that in retrospect it was silly to expect it of everyone on the surface and there's no reason that the first person she meets would be like that. Plus, this does open some opportunities.

"Certainly. Does this mean you're fine with purchasing paper that has writing on it already at a discount? And what does improving the quality mean in practice, can you make them longer lasting? Less likely to tear?"

"I am happy to take paper that has writing on it already. I don't know how what you have now is in those capacities but most likely both! Smoother, friendlier to a pen, if it's thick enough I can thin it out and give you half again as much total surface..."

In that case Kybele can receive almost two dozen sheets and some gold in exchange for doing maintenance on records for stuff that mending doesn't catch and expanding her paper supply via standardizing sheets.

"Do you happen to know what circle that ability stabilizes at for clerics, if it does? I try not to ask Abadar for too much since I'm already near the limit of what I can cheaply do for him, but for the ability to improve my paper supply I'd definitely be tempted."

"- I'm sorry, I don't know that you'll be able to do at all," Ky says, adding the extra paper to her ensemble.

“That’s a shame. I’ll ask, then, but expect to be disappointed. Is there anything else you’re interested in getting, or items you’re willing to sell? We don’t get a lot of goods from the surface, so even some common things have unsatisfied demand and plenty of things will pick up some value from novelty.”

"Healing potions sound like they'd be great to have on hand. I don't have much else on me - we didn't pack for a trip, our departure was far too abrupt - but I could make you little ornaments, say?" One of the sheets of paper turns colors and twists itself into a seamless openwork bauble.

“Hmm. Not much practical use, but what with you being exotic visitors and waving that angel sword around there’s sure to be some value in it. I’m hesitant to spend too much of my coin on something  with a value that speculative, though, so I’m going to keep my volume low and my offer a bit lower than if my expected payout was a sure thing. I’ll take three of them at thrice what you paid for the corresponding amount of paper, or a quarter again that for four in most goods.”

She makes three similar ornaments. She has enough paper to make her angel sword a scabbard, now, so that's cool. "I'm afraid I don't expect much call for most of the inventory, but if I think better of that or meet anyone who needs something you carry I shall certainly think of you."

“Certainly! It was a pleasure doing business with you. If you wanted healing but were time agnostic on getting it, stick around for a bit after dinner starts to wind down to catch my channel. Normally I would charge you or them a nominal fee for an extra target, but we’ve just conducted a bunch of positive sum trades and the marginal cost is pretty minimal.”

"I would appreciate that! I have what is apparently a pretty treatment-resistant injury but throwing more healing at it wouldn't hurt."

At this point, Lann returns.

"You're in luck! I caught them just before they got started and told them, so they made sure to make some fish for you. It's not too much longer on the food, either; we've probably got enough time to go swing by the empty hut so you can decide who is sleeping there or not, but then it'll be ready to eat."

He grins.

"I'm not sure what you were trading with Dyra, but I can't remember the last time I've seen her that upbeat. Sometimes it feels like she's a bit suffocated, being down here with us mongrels, but I don't know what we'd do without her either so it's good to see."

"She seems lovely! Though I agree it's possible she'll have more scope for her business up top."

The hut is not, in its details, particularly different from its neighbors besides being abandoned, but it does look reasonably sturdy and insulating. If all five of them try to fit, it'll be a mite cramped, but there is enough padding for each of them.

"I'll sleep outside. I've got warmer clothing than any of you, and Anevia needs to get as much rest as she can so she can heal for the treck up, not to be crammed in like hay in a bale."

"Hopefully it's nothing a channel can't fix, but I'm not optimistic. Walking on it all day can't be great for it either."