"The end of the day may suffice. Is the auction sealed bid?"

"Yes. In the event of a tie I intend to determine the purchaser randomly from among the tied bidders." 

He hears that there's a lot of interesting theoretical work on auctions coming out of Osirion, but unfortunately he isn't nearly familiar enough with that work to be confident implementing something more complicated.

How much does Blai value not having to drag the party to the crevasse, climb down, tote an old woman up the rope again if it's still there and not destroyed by passing demons, and how much does he expect Dyra to charge -

- he would have made such a bad Abadaran, he likes them but he doesn't understand -

"Do you add a surcharge for needing to go somewhere else to cast it?"

"Yes. —Pricing depends on my assessment of the associated danger, but I expect that if you are unsure whether you value a Truthtelling at six crowns you are very unlikely to value a Truthtelling at a price that includes even my current minimum surcharge for travel."

He has a chart with the details; Blai and his party could get a discount considering that they would also be providing him with escort by healing-capable adventurers, but even so it would be significantly more expensive than the Truthtelling itself.

Ugh. And nobody else offered to chip in, it's just Blai's money that he got from Gwerm, and he can cover it but he doesn't know what else he may need to pay for and does not currently draw a wage of any kind.

...actually if he just told Rathimus about that he would a) presumably complain about the wage thing, but also, b) point out that this suggests the party does not much value not making an extra excursion.

"Thank you."

He will go notify the party that Rathimus's rates seem pretty steep and if they don't mind going down to the mongrel village to ask Dyra that is how he is presently inclined.

"Excellent! I look forward to interviewing them. I wonder if mongrel Abadarans resemble human Abadarans in requiring monetary compensation to answer interview questions?"

"Do you in fact have money?" he wonders. "Before we go we should square away all the objects we picked up. Including the spare ink and scroll paper, Mr. Jefto, but the widower may well offer it if approached politely."

"I don't recall." She checks her pack. "It appears that I do! Strangely, it does not resemble Mendevian currency. I also have two potions."

Tail-twitch. "A rich guy like that isn't going to just give it to me."

"Would you like me to bring it up on your behalf?"

"That would be great."

"I would be willing to accompany you if desired."

Nod. Where is the guy.

Making polite conversation with another nobleman on the ground floor, while conspicuously not looking at Horgus Gwerm.

He is willing to allow them to use the ink so long as it's being used to copy strategically useful spells rather than for, in his words, "wizard nonsense."

"I would be offering it to the more practically minded of the party wizards and will reiterate your condition to him," Blai says. "I'm not myself qualified to closely evaluate that, unfortunately."

"I suppose that is acceptable."

"Thank you very much." And off he goes to give Woljif the good news and make sure everybody else has handed off the items entrusted to them or gotten permission to hang onto them.

They have! From their description of the bodies, the sword was apparently Eagle Watch property to begin with, and it's been issued to Seelah for her use (though she's expected to hand it off to the night patrols when possible).

(Not that Woljif is complaining here, but is he allowed to let Nenio use it? That Haste was awfully useful, and Woljif doesn't think he's close to third yet.)

"I think you can let her if you are - supervising - to make sure she's using it for useful things and not to see if she can cast Invisibility inside-out or something."

"Got it."

"Thank you."

And now they can head out to the crevasse.

Locusts! Destroyed buildings! Obscene graffiti on the wall of the Temple of Shelyn!

And eventually, the hole. (The rope is still present.)

Blai investigates the rope for soundness, and then down they go.

The cave has some enormous centipedes! Seelah and Lann are noticeably better at fighting them than they were when he first met them.