Howdy All --
It would not be amiss for the Nezumi to visit the smith, although for side items like 4-Mirror armor and Dastana, not a critical as for the Mithril shirt he already wears. And the Nezumi, with his new found Endurance and base speed of 40' and high CON, may well be able to keep up on foot with Zenako riding her horse! At least in the long run, so to speak... Hey, might as well USE that Endurance feat... :)
Anyways, for those wishing to remain at Waterstone Temple, accommodations will gladly be provided -- they are but simple monks' cells, and the fare is healthy but not very exotic, but the cost is right (i.e. free). Special inks and parchments for scribing scrolls, and a quite place to work, would be available to those who might need it, though the ink (being a fairly costly substance) would have to be paid for at the normal price. Anyone staying at Waterstone but with little to do is welcome to help out with the common tasks of running a community of this sort. Anyone with an interest in Religion is welcome to help sort and catalogue the prayers and other holy writings you have recovered from Ming Yo. And let's see, where shall we put the Bell of Meditation... :)
For those wishing to return to Marike for a few days, but not in a hurry, there is a squad of sohei going to Brightstone in a couple days, and people are welcome to travel with them, there would be a wagon to ride if desired. For those in a hurry, well, there may be a riding horse or two that could be loaned out...
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Evidently, although the change has been somewhat slow, the efforts of the valiant adventurers (including a few NPC groups as well as the Zenako-led, Hatori-advised band you comprise) to put an end to the marauding bands of bakemono and ogres in the vicinity of Marike, along with the re-occupation of Brightstone Keep by sohei and monks from Waterstone Temple, have resulted in increased prosperity in town. Stories have been filtering towards the coast, and recently, some of the older inhabitants have apparently returned, along with new individuals hoping to take advantage of the rebirth of commerce and such here near the border. The town is recovering from its recent period of depression! In no small part thanks to the brave warriors who have chased away the evil denizens of the wilderness...
The immediate impact as far as characters are concerned is that the market limit of Marike has been upgraded from 3000 gp to 4000 gp maximum. Note, for arms and armor, this is the maximum value of the base enchantment, not counting the masterwork cost -- so for instance armor +2 (or +1 with a +1 ability) is possible, as it has a +4000 cost on top of the masterwork item itself, hence you can get the masterwork item and then find someone to put 4000 gp worth of enhancement into it.
The other main potential impact is that characters can if they wish (and can afford it) can get +1 armor and shield items increased to +2, in addition to potentially adding in +X gp abilities.
A special note regarding +X gp cost abilities. The availability of these abilities is determined by whether a +1 enhancement item plus the cost of the ability would fit within the 4k limit. For example, Agility +2 or Stamina +2 cost +2000 gp, so could be added to +1 armor (cost +1000) for a total cost limit of 3000 gp, similarly Agility +2 could be added to a +1 weapon (2000 + 2000 = 4000). That means that there is someone who can enchant Agility +2 or Stamina +2 into armor, and someone who can enchant Agility +2 into weapons. However, because these are abilities which cost the same regardless of the base enhancement of the item, the difficulty of doing them is not increased by the value of the item being enchanted. SO -- in an exception to the market limit rules -- you COULD take a set of armor at +1 or ++2 (or even better if you had it) and add one or more of these cheap +X gp abilities to them. Essentially, these are like 'wondrous item' effects, except that rather than being enchanted into a separate item, they are added to armor or weapons. (They tend to be abilities which affect the wearer/wielder, rather than abilities which affect the power of the item.)
That is, of course, assuming you can afford it. In town at least, the 'sell or barter for 1/2 normal value' rule is in effect.
One of the main impacts the increased market limit has is that now, for cash, you can buy +2 ability score items of your favorite sort. Physical improvement items are already pretty common amongst you, and perhaps of less interest due to the buff spells you have anyways, but items enhancing mental abilities are now available and I don't believe anyone knows any spells to increase those scores normally...
GORVAK:
The battle axe, much like the scimitar you now have, needs two hands for you to wield, and would take advantage of your two-handed STR bonus. As a +2 weapon, you would hit as well as you currently do with your +1 Scimitar (since your Weapon Focus(Scimitar) feat doesn't translate over) when it isn't enhanced with Greater Magic Weapon. The Frost ability is easy to activate -- a boring command word 'Cold!' turns on the effect. The +d6 damage adds to any hit against any foe which is not immune to cold effects, and counts as cold damage for the purpose of Endure Elements spells etc. -- you personally are not harmed by the coldness of your weapon but it clearly does become cold to the touch, and COULD be used to chill liquids in a non-combat sense.
However, I expect anyone seeing you sticking your axe-blade in a barrel to cool stuff off would hope that you cleaned your blade VERY carefully... :) Probably better to use the axe blade as a "cool plate" to set stuff down on to chill...
The extra die of damage is on top of any extra damage from criticals, it is not rolled multiple times when you critical. (That is a general rule -- bonus points of damage are doubled or trripled or whatever, but extra dice from any source -- Iaijutsu, sneak attack, magical cold or flame, etc. -- are rolled separately and added on only once.)
Note that the Mighty in Zenako's treasure division did NOT refer to any special ability of the weapon, but was instead simply dramatic speech on her part... (She shouldn't capitalize things which could be construed to be abilities, like Mighty Cleaving or Mighty Smiting, but hey, it IS the coolest weapon found so far, so to speak...)
All for now, hope everyone is enjoying themselves!
-- Ernie III / DrakaraGM