Silver Insanity

"I don't know. Um... Would you mind if we continued to talk while following the monkey?" Lauren edges in that direction - coincidentally also away from Luma.

"Oh. Did I forget...? I'm sorry. I'm Lauren Greywind."

Stewart will lean toward Luma and quietly says, "Would you mind looking less predatory? I think the poor girl thinks you're going to eat her or something."

Following Lauren, he'll say more loudly, "Lady Greywind? Haven't you been doing archeology? I'm afraid my knowledge, like my mentor's, falls more towards alternative magic than holes in the ground." His smile the last comment is made in jest, rather than as an insult.

"Poor girl?" mutters Luma. Then she shrugs, and takes advantage of your passing through the gateway to simply hide. Presumably she's now following while being sneaky; it's rather hard to tell.

"Well, that's just the thing, really - I've found a few minor items I'm having trouble identifying..."

The monkey leads the three of you down a narrow side-ally of the twisty-turny (and empty) variety. Lauren pulls a small metal sphere out of her backpack, and adds, "Things like this."

Stewart blinks at Lauren for a moment and mutters, "Well, that's a useful ability... and enlightening."

Aloud: "Well, artifacts are notoriously difficult to identify. Given a little time, I could attempt to discover it's lore but that's an obvious step, so I'd guess you've tried that? Is there something about it that makes you think I'd have additional knowledge?"

After a moment he'll add, "And where are we headed, anyway?"

Lauren puts the sphere back.

"Anything in particular about it? No. But, as far as magical research goes - you're one of the top names in the world. And, at least from what I've heard, you aren't the sort who'd confiscate the lot of them and go blow up a city or something..."

"Towards Twill, I would assume. Presumably he ran into something he needed magic for? I don't know."

The alleyway continues, with multiple intersections and more twists and turns. Wherever you're going, someone really didn't want it found by accident.

"Towards Twill? Well, I did say the day had been slightly boring so far." Stewart sighs. "And, no, I'm not really fond of blowing up cities. Would you care to share where you found it? Them?"

"Well... the short story is: I confiscated them from someone who did want to blow up cities."

The monkey yammers excitedly, and jumps to the roof of the building in front of you. It's a large, low structure, with narrow doors, no windows, heavily built stone walls, and a lightweight thatched roof that looks like it would fall apart if you tried to walk on it.
There is a door in the center of the roughly sixty foot long wall facing you.

The monkey simply burrows in through the roof, ignoring the door entirely.

"Ah."

Stewart looks over the building. "Well, this isn't exactly the most accessible place in town. Nor does it look particularly inviting."

He concentrates for a moment and ectoplasm piles in front of him. "I suggest standing back, just in case. I don't exactly trust doors." The pile shapes itself into a vague humanoid form with broad shoulders and attempts to open the door.

The door opens. There are no explosions, no broken locks, no razor pendulums launching outwards...

"Well. That was anticlimactic," says Luma, appearing right next to you.

"Yes, well... a few days of doors trying to blow you up early in your career leaves an impression. Besides, I don't like walking in first, even if the door itself is safe."

On cue, the construct walks into the building with Stewart trailing a small distance behind.