Day 3.1: Goliaths, Halflings, & Shopping?

The next thing we knew the five, yes five of us, reappeared in what seemed to be the master bedroom of a gorgeous palace. Janott, Medea, Wraith, myself... and Goliath woman. Immediately I had no trust for this woman as she was wearing the uniform of the Emperor's guards and stoody there haughtily and imposingly. I immediately primed an Eldritch Blast for her as I was no longer stunned and feeling a tad bit irked by my experiences this morning, I demanded that she tell us who she was and why we should not attack her on sight. She introduced herself, she apparently is just a Goliath Barbarian and wandering mercenary who picked up this job on whim almost. Such logic checked out with me, as I'm familiar with Goliath culture during my readings and they tend to be quite an honorable, honest, and yet competitive mountain race.
 
No sooner than we finish introductions the a small, polite, and rather meek looking Halfling knocks on the door and lets himself in. He says that he is Servant of the Empress to which Janott replies "well, I think she's dead", which causes the Halfling to start bawling his eyes out. Medea goes and gives the Halfling a hug while I admonished Janott. Wraith says the Halfling deserves the truth, while I am inclined to agree there are better ways of saying it and breaking it to him. The Halfling guided us out of the room and as we questioned him, he left us more confusing questions than answers. He brough us before a Gate, teleporting ring of sorts and told us to leave before vanishing into a light. The teleporter began to crack so we swiftly left before anything else could happen to it.
 
On the other side of the Gate, we appeared in the center of a bustling and beautiful city. We recognize it the capital of Empress's land as the place bustled with elves, shops, half-elves, stalls, non-humans, and markets... I stuck out like a thumb here. Medea immediately threw back her hood with her slit-like eyes glowing with excitement as she yelled "Shopping!", as she grabbed Janott and our new Goliath friend by the arms and dragged them to various little boutiques. Wraith and I followed a long a bit, I acquired some much needed coin and sold most of the gear issued to me by the Imperium Academia. I traded by Crossbow, Bolts, Pitons, Hammer, and my remaining Torches. I gifted 6 of my Rations and my Rope to Twitlick to keep in the bag that Medea bought him. The best purchase I made though was a Leather Binder, a leather cover and a few free pages where I can add and remove sheets in order to keep records and scraps of information I come across, such as the "shopping list" I found or the "rubbing" Wraith made. In fact the very Journal your reading is kept in this Binder... I think I'll call it Bran's Leather Tome, maybe, might change the name later. I'll be using the materials in my Writing Kit for this, perhaps I'll turn my records here into the IA's collection after I'm finally able to return home?
 
Anyway, after some chatting with Medea, I gave her the weird deed I found on a cultist in exchange for coded a map of the entire labyrinthian mess of the catacombs beneath the Empire. Wraith and I promised each other look in detail as it was written in Infernal and a bit in code, before he immediately spied some gamblers and irreputatble sorts in order to make some coin and possibly get some information. I suggested to Medea that we should look into a bookstore, perhaps they will have something on "snakes". She narrowed her pretty eyes at the statement, but agreed with the idea. I suspect that she suspects that I suspect what she is. In any case, I plan on having the shopkeeper helping me identify a strange book I found, it's blank but the pages hold no ink... perhaps they may help in identifying it?