Milo trudged into the Mining Guild Assay Office with his bag of ore. Several miners were ahead of him. Several of the miners nodded at him. He'd been seen before, and was coming back with a full bag of ore. He had a good pick, a full bag, and mine dust all over him. That earned him a bit of respect, even if a couple of people were scowling at him. He'd take indifference over outright hostility.

The indifference lasted until the dwarf at the counter emptied his bag onto the heavy metal table, they used to sort ore. He looked at one chunk, then another. "This is all deep copper, and freshly mined." Milo just nodded. Several of the miners took notice. "Any nuggets?" Milo tossed the three nuggets of pure copper on the table, and then the chunk. The dwarf whistled. "Copperheads?"

"Two," Milo said. "One was a hatchling, the other was bigger, a Vein-Lurker. Tough as hell. It dropped the chunk." At the mention of copperheads, several miners cursed and made signs. No one liked the snakes.

"Well, the guild will certainly buy all of this. The pure copper is especially nice to get. There's a noble family in the capital, House of Franklin, they pay top dollar for it." He handed Milo two gold coins and swept the ore into a cart. Puffing on his cigar a bit, he looked Milo over. "You plan on mining more of this? I know you have to haul it a ways. Might have a deal for you."

Milo was intrigued. "Sure, what kind of deal. And yes, it's a long way down."

The assayer came back with three large and heavily constructed sacks. "These are guild ore bags. Each one holds 150 chunks of ore, but only weighs as much as 25. Here's the deal. I'll give you three of them. You return and give me one full bag of deep copper chunks and I'll call it even for all 3. They cost more than that, but if you can spend less time hauling and more time mining, the guild will buy it all. Most of these pansies are afraid of a few snakes."

Milo said, "Hell, I am too. That poison hurts like hell. I was lucky I had some potions from Harry."

The dwarf nodded. "Thought that might be the case. My folk are pretty resistant, but we still avoid copperhead territory. Hope you stay lucky. You'll need it."

Milo put the empty sacks in his pack, and headed upstairs to find the Alchemist Guild

=*=

The Alchemist Guild was a few blocks away. Milo got directions and headed there, walking through the night market. He saw a halfling waving excitedly at him and stopped to talk. Milo assured him that he'd be by the family shop in just a bit to pick up some more cheese. The young halfling went off to tell his cousins the good news.

There was a guard on duty at the alchemist shop. Milo had to explain three times that he had items to sell, and mention Harry's name. Finally, he was taken to a room and told someone would be with him shortly. He took advantage of being alone to summon his chest and pull out all of the bags of various mushroom powders Harry had sent with him. It made quite an assortment. Some of the bags were also sealed in jars and had labels on them with small skulls. Milo had sampled nearly all of those and could attest to their potency.

Eventually a sour faced man in a brown robe entered the room, along with a young woman in a blue robe who walked behind him. The man was immediately interested in what Milo had to sell, but acted suspicious for some reason. "Yes, we do buy all of these goods, but I'll have to test their potency and frankly, I'm wondering where you go so much and such variety."

"Oh, well that's easy to explain. I'm just playing delivery boy for Harry Earthtongue, the Mycologist. I'm sure you know him?"

The girl in the blue robe got excited. "Oh, you got to meet him? I'm so jealous! We still use a collection of his scrolls to teach Mycology 101. Are you apprenticed to him?!

The sour faced man's face tried to grow a smile. "Ah, Dr. Earthtongue you say? Yes. We know of him

Milo smiled back hesitantly at the girl. "I guess you could say so. He's teaching me Mycology in exchange for my help at the farm and in delivering his goods."

"Ooh, False Algaric and Blackthistle powders? We need these. We haven't had any for months." She made small comments on each of the bags, getting happier and happier. "Oh, sorry, my manners. I am Journeywoman Amarilla and this is Senior Alchemist Roulf." Milo shook his hand and said simply. "I'm Milo."

Milo looked at Roulf. "I should be on my way. Dr. Earthtongue said this load of stuff would be 20 gold pieces."

Roulf seemed unhappy, but Amarilla nodded as if that seemed like a fair price. As she started to gather up the bags, Roulf let out a snort. "Well, I suppose since Harry is an old friend we can pay a bit extra." He counted out 10 gold coins. "I'll also get you a bottle of his medicinal tonic. I know he'll be anxious to get it. The tonic will cover the remainder of the cost of the powders."

Milo smiled. "No need to go to the trouble. 20 gold is fine. Harry is feeling much better. Totally cured. Amarilla clapped. "Oh, that's grand. Maybe he'll consider coming back to teach!"

Roulf was not happy. At all. He scowled at Amarilla. "Please, don't think to presume such things. I'm sure he's happy down where he belongs. "And since I have doubts about a complete cure, I'll keep the medicine handy, just in case."

He counted out another 10 gold pieces. Milo helped Amarilla carry the bags into another part of the Alchemist guild. She helped him purchase the glassware Harry had requested. With Harry's errands done, he headed off to an appointment with a cheese shop.

Milo's current Character Sheet. Some help with the numbers:

STR adds 10 to Health and 20 to Stamina

CON adds 20 to Health and 10 to Stamina

WIS, CHA, and INT all add 10 points each to mana.

AGI adds about 5% per point for the chance of actively dodging attacks.

STR or DEX help with hitting and damages with melee weapons. Melee is mostly DEX

COR and RAD are opposed. A character has one or the other. Light or Dark. Not both. (sigh...except one troublemaker..)

Name: Tallsqueak Milo Class: Scout Race: Were-rat Human Level: 2 EP: 2620 Boss EP: 750+500 Total: 3870/6000 Heritage: None Current cheese bonus: +50 Health, +2 STR Base Per Level From Stats From CSP Total Health 100 100 60 360 Stamina 600 100 800 Mana 100 50 120 +200* 570 Stat: Rank Cap EP Bonus Total STR 2 5 300 0 2 DEX 3 5 805 2 5 AGI 3 5 1100 2 5 CON 2 5 300 0 2 INT 3 5 1115 2 5 WIS 1 5 150 0 1 CHR 0 5 0 0 0 PER 2 5 365 2 4 COR 0 5 0 0 0 RAD 0 5 0 0 0 CSP earned 38 Cronk-15, Malskitter -3, FreedSouls-5, Copperhead-5, petrified bone-10, CSP to Foundation 0 CSP to CS 38 CSP Saved 0 Skills Stat Level EP P/S/T Bonemancy INT

3

800 Primary

Poison Resistance

CON

2

300 Primary Skulk WIS

1

150 Primary Climbing AGI 2 300 Primary Dodge AGI 2 350 Primary Small Blades DEX 2 575 Primary Tail Fighting DEX 1 200 Primary Mining STR 2 300 Primary Acrobatics AGI 1 150 Secondary Throw Sharp Thing DEX 1 50 Secondary Fleet of Foot AGI 2 300 Secondary Weak Claws DEX 0 30 Secondary Sense Danger PER 0 15 Secondary Forage PER 2 300 Secondary Skinning DEX 0 Tertiary Manipulate Locks and Traps DEX 0 Tertiary Hide INT 0 Tertiary Identify PER 1 50 Tertiary Mycology INT 1 50 Tertiary Open 0 Tertiary Mechanic INT 2 315 Crafting Bone Carving DEX 0 0 Crafting Skrimshaw DEX 0 0 Crafting Rune Lore INT 0 0 Lore Core Skills Skill Costs Rank Max Rank Spent Smugglers Stash 3/5/10 2 3 8 9 sf Jumping Jack 2 1 1 2 Whip Tail 2 1 1 2 Unseen Tail 3 1 1 3 Invisible Tail 3 1 1 3 Bonemancy 5 1 1 5 Poison Resistance 1/3/5 1 1 5 primary con Disease Resistance 1 2 secondary, con Un-noticed 2 1 1 2 Silent Step 2 1 1 2 Abundance 1/2/3/4/5 1 5 1 Breathless 1/1 2 2 2 Skilled Provider 1/2/3 1 3 1 Total 38