Aria giggled a bit, "As an adolescent I<em>hated</em>dressing up, but later realized, it was because I<em>had</em>to...aristocratic circles, you know? My parents, in fairness, were understanding for their own part, but felt it an...inconvenient-but-important necessity for schooling and social events and the like. I'd like to see I envy your probably-...freer? wilder?...upbringing, but that might just be me being spoiled, and I hope it doesn't sound patronizing or anything." She smiled; since learning Rose hadn't learned to read she'd grown to infer or at least assume that they had fairly different upbringings, which was a source of fascinating to her, and precisely because she<em>was</em>from a place like Luskan and understood what it was, where successful retired 'pirate lords' dressed up their brats in the dandy frills of socially climbing would-be nobility, she'd be the last person in Faerun to defend or tout it.<br/><br/>She showed Rose to her favorite cafe she'd found near the Fifth Queen, a somewhat exotic place (or so it fancied itself, at least) with Kozakuran-style decor of rice paper walls, bamboo shoots growing along the walls, and even a narrow carp pond winding through a small courtyard, to which many tables looked through great gaping windows. A place served a variety of odd dishes which Aria usually associated with Kara-Tur, the other end of the great Prime megacontinent whose western end was known as Faerun, such as noodles in various savory or spicy broths, raw fish rolled up in rice and papery-dry seaweed, sweet-glazed land meats, as well as plainer tavern-fair, perhaps for the sake of patrons who found the rest of the menu an unwelcome surprise.<br/><br/>The meal itself gave Aria an idea, and, when she showed Rose after to a boutique clothier she'd also found near her inn, the tiefling chose a style of dress which she knew as a cheongsam. She mentioned to Rose their being a fad in Neverwinter, at least the last time she'd been, and had never been rare in that city, thanks to its plentiful trade circling the globe back to Kara-Tur.  The cheongsam which'd caught Aria's eye hugged the body all the way down, in lustrous crimson silk with faint gold embroidering of the noble cat-whiskered creatures known as gold dragons. The gown was fairly short-skirted for a cheongsam, knee-length, and nearly sleeveless. She explained to Rose that the color was a common one for this style, and also roughly the color of her own patron goddess, the Red Knight.<br/><br/>By the time they caught sight again down the Avenue of Effulgent Light to the pier, they saw the other pleasure-craft were giving the pirate ship a fair berth, docked with its starboard side to the pier's narrow end, and a rope-railed gangplank leading into the galley. A small crew of fellows - a few of whom Aria vaguely remembered from the Flaming Mermaid's Hair when she'd gone for directions to the Coin on Edge - were visible aboard. They were tossing streamers through the rigging, from which candle-holding paper lanterns hung, not yet lit but probably destined to hold either candles or motes of mage-light later.<br/><br/>A small boy rushed up and handed off a one-page pamphlet to the pair, and then went on. Aria recognized the 'advertising' pamphlet made by some previous owner, which Aria herself had found on board, or rather a copy of it made either by swiftly-working printers or fabrication magic. Probably the former, as the ink was still wet, listing the attributes of the vessel and even illustrating an idyllic ,one-color scene of it shown from several angles and with a cutaway. She laughed and told Rose as much.<br/><br/><br/>I did make a mistake in the 'liquid' totals, they're about 5K higher (edited now). Rose's by itself (62,680) still isn't enough for the 3 items (84,590 plus the 6,250 from selling the hat) but like I said, Aria doesn't mind spotting her the 22K. I'd picked out a few more things for Aria (about to add to the last post after posting this) but left her with about 30K liquid.<br/><br/>The 43,200 for the mind blank 1/day (over a fifth of Aria's starting wealth!) was from 360 x spell level 8 x caster level 15 (min for 8th).<br/><br/>Chronocharms added to her other items is fine (throat wasn't a particularly affinity-esque slot for teleporting to begin with; amulets and rings seem to be catch-all chakra) and it's very cute, like a signature for Rose's gear.<br/>