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[Solymr]

Amberly looked at the inscriptions closely, but they were a bit faded by the passage of time. Trying to feel the engraved letters, Amberly accidentally pressed in a hidden button. The orb that Ashlyn was carrying blinked and the altar started rumbling as it slowly opened up to reveal a set of stairs leading to an underground level.

Amberly could procure a rough translation of the altar script that said "Bring key, press button to reveal trial to strength".
Asking around town, none of the villagers believed there was any sort of treasure in the island. The answers Gawen and Angelica received ranged from various variations of "piss off" to ignoring the inquire for any information about treasures, since any treasure that had been there would have already been appropriated by the locals.

The search led them nowhere, but chances were that they happened to wander near the abandoned temple when they heard rumbling from inside.
Party loses 25 gold! The barman took the price for the mugs as the two chugged them down.

Oi! A burly man approached Claude and Lavinia. Ain't ya part of Ethan's crew?

[Caellath]

"That's right." What was that? Had trouble found them or was it something else? Maybe Ethan looking for them?

[Solymr]

Bastard stole me bounty times ago! Yer gonna tell me where he is so I can set things straight! The man rolled up his sleeves as he got ready to beat the answer out of them.

[Sirus]

Amberly stood up and clapped her gloved hands in excitement.

: "Ashlyn, we're onto something big here! I don't know what this 'trial to strength' is, but I think it might be a good idea to gather the rest of Captain Ethan's crew. I would be very surprised if this didn't lead us to one of those artifacts we're seeking!"

[Chevaleresse]

"Well, investigating that will likely be more productive than talking to the lovely townsfolk around here."

Gawen heads into the temple, too.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

Alain leaned against the ship railing, idly snapping his fingers and letting a small torrent of flames bloom between them while he'd watched the others disembark. The one way he'd occupied himself since he was a boy- except with a bit heat these days than the standard crackle and pop he'd trained himself with. He'd seen enough of backwater towns for one lifetime, and he didn't fancy drinking on the job either.
     He smothered the newest burst of flames with his hands, leaving the post. The shaman seemed buried in his book and half the crew had already left. He might as well go see how Maria was doing.
     
"Seems the Boss has given everyone a little free time" he greeted the Rider with "Not that this place looks terribly interesting. I figured I'd see if you had anymore questions since our talk. Though if not, I still wouldn't mind someone to talk to."

[Caellath]

"There's only one, Lavinia. I guess he's all yours." Claude commented as he took another sip.

Being that complacent did Claude no favors, even if he was assuming Lavinia would take it from there to keep it a fair one against one and he'd be left unmolested. Instead, he was quite surprised by the sudden sound of rushing wind before his head whipped back from the force of the punch to the side of his head that got him off the chair and down to the floor with a thunderous crash. Luckily he'd just laid down his mug and it only shook atop the counter instead of spilling all over him.

[Gaterhyme]

This man wanted Ethan? Fat chance he was even going to get past the two of them.

Lavinia didn't bother with words. Though Claude didn't seem down for the count and could very well defend himself if he wanted, she had already popped up from her chair and immediately fired off a straight punch to the man's jaw. The angle was awkward, not enough for a knockout, not even enough to phase him much. But she was grinning now, blood pumping. All too excited at finding the fight she'd been looking for. The return blow caught her in the shoulder, but she dodged a wild followup haymaker before closing the distance to strike again.

[Caellath]

Claude was once more on the floor and considered the possibility of just getting his mug and finishing his drink from there. It was sad that he was starting to get used to being knocked down... But of course his pride always spoke louder. He grunted as he quickly got back on his feet. The fact Lavinia still hadn't dropped their foe with a shot to the jaw meant the troublemaker was brawnier than the mercenary had initially thought.

"Hey, I was just..." he said before barely dodging another swing that grazed his cheek. The aggressor seemed pretty confident he could oufight both of them, since he'd taken a more defensive position with his back to the counter. The barman was already going "Out, out if you if you want to fight!" but it wasn't like anyone was going to follow that order.

Claude tried to get his drink and he saw the man tense and twitch. In the end he settled for joining the fight so he could finish his gods-damned mead.

"Remember, you asked for this." he said before going almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Lavinia and putting his arms up, using only his left one to punch while constantly guarding with his right. His torso was protected by armor, though so was the other man's.

[Gaterhyme]

Their opponent was built like a barrel, and size mattered more in fights than she'd care to admit. Lavinia was tall, but that was all she had going for her here. There wasn't any use punching against his armored parts either unless she wanted to split her knuckles open.

But it was still two-on-one. She and Claude caught elbows and fists and bounty hunter spit, but they eventually managed to pummel the man until he was only twitching against the bar, upon which the bartender emerged with a crossbow and several other annoyed patrons and shooed them out.

[Aliemma]

Maria had been taking care of her mare; even though she was able to clean herself up from the battle, it was somewhat challenging to do more than the bare minimum for her horse while on the open sea. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was rather uneventful, and her horse was slightly more comfortable with being docked. That battle though...

That thunder seemed more powerful than usual. Was it just that the mage who nearly got her was more experienced? Well, probably in part; but it wasn't just that. Couldn't be. It felt more powerful, more shocking? Agh, it was hard to tell. Either way, the rider was a little down after all that blood loss; medicine and magical healing only did so much for feeling sick, and while she wasn't the type to get seasick, it wasn't like working on deck helped. Thankfully, it had mostly passed at this point. She had barely heard the mage when he approached and ended up craning her head a little to see.

   "Hmm? Oh, hey Alain. Yeah; I'm a little surprised that this place is what it is, I'd have thought that magical artefacts would be in much busier towns."

     "Anyways, there is one thing. Are there tomes that make the spirits have more will to do what you ask 'em or something? There was that one mage a couple days back, and his magic seemed more... Powerful? Direct? Y'know, more "Bam!" even if he had less magical... spirit calling power.

[Caellath]

Claude had managed to swig almost the whole mug before the owner appeared with the crossbow, and swigged the last bit while the man was already taking aim. There was no way he was wasting coin like that. Then he escaped with Lavinia.

"It'd been a while since last time. Let's search for the others, what do you say? We might find some of them wandering around too. In case no one had the same idea as we did, we get back to the ship."

[Gaterhyme]

Lavinia's mead sadly went to waste.

"Sure. I've had my fun."

Wander, possibly completely coincidentally towards a particular temple.

[Sutoratosu Akira]

"Ah, curious about tomes and other paraphernalia? They're focusing mediums, essentially. A mage calls to the spirits, and they manifest in the form of raw powers that the caller can manipulate; there is an issue of efficiency however. Most mages can manage simple cantrips and parlor tricks without much effort or exertion..."
       He held out a hand- quite far from Maria -and let a small flame bloom into life, dancing on the sea winds. As Maria watched, it morphed and grew until a fully formed bird of fire sat perched on his finger, pecking at it like the real thing woud.
"Like so... but trying to manifest something usable for actual combat, or any serious work besides it such as research or healing, takes a far greater amount of energy- enough that it could probably exhaust even the most talented after just a few consecutive instances. Hence, the purpose of Tomes and Staves: they allow us to channel larger amounts of power into the world while expending less effort." He adjusted the folds of his cloak, allowing Maria to spot the basic Fire Tome he carried on his belt, right next to it's more advanced version.
       "Inside of a tome, you will find various sigils, runes, and other inscriptions all meant to amplify arcane energy as it is manifested into the corporeal world. They may also have certain...side effects on the end result, but that depends entirely on the nature of the tome in question. Additionally, The process of the amplification takes a toll on them, since the energy slowly eats away at the materials with every use. That's the short version of it at least, according to the note's of that old wizard we killed in the desert, there's apparently an entire branch of Magic Theory devoted solely to the creation and maintenance of focuses."

With that bit explained, he allowed the little fire bird in his palm to take flight. It swooped up and over the deck, before circling just a few meters above their heads

"As for your specific question though, what makes a tome stronger or weaker is it's quality as a focus, more than anything else. higher quality materials for the binding, cleaner penmanship for the pages, and more complex inscriptions for the contents will all naturally lead to better results. And I believe I also spotted the mage you're talking about- one of the lackey's following that Carmen woman? He seemed to be using a mid-grade tome, both times we've ran into their lot ... so that probably explains why his spells may have been stronger. That, and her entire cabal obviously have some decent experience, more than most of us can probably boast of... not that it was enough to save them, in the end."

[Aliemma]

Maria instinctively flinched when the small plume of flame bloomed to life, though her horse was far enough from it that she didn't seem too bothered by it. Maria herself was able to calm herself down, though she unfocused from the conversation for a moment in doing so. She watched as the now-bird pecked away, intrigued by how it wasn't hurting for Alain to hold or how he didn't at least shake a little with literal fire on his fingertip. Except, it wasn't actual fire, it was spirit-fire or something... Geez, how did he know all this stuff? Maybe she could take to just looking at a book on it; probably not a tome... Not like she had any power in that sense; otherwise she would've been trained in it.

She glanced at the bird above as he explained more, and Ophia seemed to know that the bird wasn't natural. It all seemed so complicated, yet Alain seemed to have basically devoted his life to this stuff. Hearing all of this though, no wonder why tomes were so expensive; she knew there was something about them that helped magic, but this made it make much more sense.

     "Oh, ok that makes sense. Too bad the tome wasn't in a good 'nough shape for you to use... You're already really good on the battlefield, imagine with a more powerful tome!"

   "I'm amazed that we were actually able to get through those; granted, I ended up on the ground a lot... Even if I'm getting more used to this thanks to you - thanks again, by the way! - Ophia is still pretty nervous with this stuff, so it's hard to not have her and I end up on the ground..."