"Mm..." Kass's display of flexibility was not lost on Aria. She took a good eyeful of the backside of the bard when she places her palms to the floor, as well as the curves of legs and upper body running between the two. "Such flexibility explains how you dodged most of those clawings and bitings...I suppose I'd have to be sneaky were I ever try to paw or nibble."<br/><br/>Perhaps because of the show she'd put on, Kass would likely notice that when transactions were concluded by of the lankier, younger-looking wizards gave her her share of coinage in gems for the sold things, it would be a few coins heavy...but a few coins that he chose to place in individual, strategic ways upon her. It was not unlike the 'tips' sometimes given certain types of dancers, but probably higher denominators of coin than most such performers received.<br/><br/>Saturnia gave each adventurer a blessings-upon-you kiss, then cast her spell and touched them with each hand.<br/><br/>Abruptly the light and air changed. All became brighter, hotter, and drier. Aria found herself with Kass upon an arcade which ran around a courtyard, open to a bright blue Faerunian sky but enclosed on four sides by a building. The courtyard's central gardens and blue-white-tiled fountain were ringed by columns which held aloft the vaulted roof above their heads, as did the four yellow-beige sandstone walls outward.<br/><br/>They stood before a plain wooden door in the nearest wall, which was just being opened by an entering lady who then gasped and stepped back from the two appearing adventurers. She was human, of perhaps twenty-five winters (if this place had winters to speak of), with the coppery skin, straight black hair, and voluptuous hips and breasts which characterized the ethnic Mulhorandi. A quite simple white skirt wrapped those hips, ending above the knees, and hanging so low much of her hip and pelvic bones could be glimpsed. She was sandaled and almost bear-breasted, wearing not so much a top garment as an ornate rosary necklace of silver and ivory which served to adorn and lift her breasts. She wore a few matching bracelets and hair-beads, but carried in her hands perhaps more mass than she wore upon her person:a mirrored ovular tray (in fact perhaps it had been used as a mirror) heaped with dates, figs, some sort of small spherical brown sugared confection.<br/><br/>Her face was quizzical and a bit afraid at the interplanar arrival, so Aria explained and asked, "We understand your priestess Rana contacted one Saturnia about a certain missing relic, asking for help to be sent...we are that, or at least we intend to be."<br/><br/>"Oh!" the lady bowed her head, recognition on her face, but said no more. She opened her door the rest of the way, and gestured with her head to follow as she quickly crossed an office room with a desk half-covered in papyrus scrolls. "Rana said to interrupt her for such, whatever the moment..." she explained in demure and heavily accented Common.<br/><br/>Aria, noticing her manner and glancing back across the courtyard to see two other pairs of persons - one lady following another closely behind and carrying tomes, and by the fountain, a man sitting upon a bench and dictating to a girl who knelt by it with papyrus and quill rather than sharing the bench - got a bit of the sense that Saturnia had referred to: that the cultural norms of Mulhorand carried more customs of servitude, in contrast to some places further west, like the individualistic but cutthroat Luskan, the more egalitarian Silverymoon, or even mercantile hubs like Waterdeep where station was a matter mostly of coin and customer-client relationships. The girls following and carrying or taking dictation seemed perfectly happy and even eager with their activities of the moment, she noticed, and shrugged.<br/><br/>The girl who'd spoken to them opened a second door at the back of the office, and Aria followed far enough into the office to see through. The chamber beyond seemed a bit larger and almost open-air, with a roof craftily designed with slanted breaks so that sunlight filtered in but nothing falling directly down (did it ever rain here? Aria wondered) would fall in.<br/><br/>The chamber was dominated by a canopy bed whose curtains were all but transparent, merely casting that within in an ivory light. The bed's head was not against a wall; rather, a curtain on that side was parted. A girl with features and dress much like the mirror-carrying girl stood there, softly reciting poetry and slowly waving a single palm front. She was fanning one - no, two - persons upon the bed itself. A third Mulhorani woman, of her mid-thirties but gorgeous, stretched like a cat upon the bed, propping herself on elbows and buttocks, her knees high and far apart. She was bracered and well-bejeweled but otherwise bodily naked, and for good reason it seemed: the black-haired head of yet another female bobbed between her splayed legs. This one was stark naked, a skirt and necklace like the other girls' laying upon one corner of the bed. She seemed to be massaging the inner thighs of the senior lady, which along with whatever her unseen face and mouth were doing, elicited a number of pitched moans from the latter.<br/><br/>The lady glanced at the entering serving-girl, who repeated what she'd said to the guests, "The ones you asked for by sending are here...you said to interrupt anything..."<br/><br/>The lady seemed puzzled, "sending..."<br/><br/>"...about the statue of Adon..."<br/><br/>"Of course," the lady smiled, "and by all means," glancing through the open door and showing no hint of self-consciousness, guilt, or embarrassment at all. The girl between her legs briefly paused, but the lady, with a confident and guiding hand, cupped and nudged her cheek and the crown of her head; soon the girl dipped her head down again. The lady seemed to pay her no more conscious heed, but her face and breath betrayed incredible pleasure, and her copper skin beaded with hot, headily sweat mixing the scents of rubbed-on saffron and the human body's own natural responses to such an engagement. "I am Rana, ranking priestess here, and you are most,<em>most</em>, ardently received."<br/><br/>For all her airs, Kass would perceive a sense of some guile on the lady's part: that she really hadn't at first known what the entering girl was referring to, rather than just forgetting for a moment amidst her ecstasy, or that she wasn't even whom or what she claimed to be.<br/><br/><br/><br/>+3 pp (30 gp) for Kass<br/><br/>The staff could be counted against both our shares (I forget if I said so to you before, but one thing I've done for "consumables" like potions and wands and staves, as either that they count communally, or oner person takes it, but if they  use charges while the party is together,they get 'reimbursed' for the used-up value.)<br/><br/>Yeah, the rope/manacles are 'free' in the sense that, if you choose to sell them I'll add the gp value to the wealth, but I didn't bother to look it up ahead of time. (Most nonmagical things are at the armor doc, the weapon doc, or Goods and Services (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsandservices.htm)). In other words, in-character, the usual incentive to sell or not sell applies (50 gp for a set of mw manacles I think?), they aren't 'free' in teh sense that you wouldn't get gp for selling...I just didn't bother to look it up in advance b/c it's so small-ticket at this level.<br/>