Calliope is an archeologist specializing in music and played by Jill. She's known Jaimus McNulty for years now as a consultant and sometime "finder" of artifacts. Calliope's speciality is the people known as  The First Men, their cultures, history, etc. She has advantage on History check in this area. 

In her earlier days she studied musicology with Professor Marius and as her capstone project she wrote the an operatic piece know as "The Songs of the First Cycle" telling the story of how humanity was created by the gods and favored by them. Little did she know, her professor was to rework these songs into something shadier, more cynical and well... discordant with the truth, because he claimed credit for this work along with another student Antiope Shadowsong. Their careers took off and Calliope tried to fight back, she was bad-mouthed and nearly driven from the community.

Since then, Calliope took up the study of The First Men and has become one of the foremost authorities on them. Too bad these academic studies are ignored by the public who favor the very popular, if corrupted works of poetry and musical fiction stolen from her.

Long, one of the finest magical shoppes on the continent, former owner Jaimus McNulty was somehow able to keep the place running long after his contemporaries had given up the ghost. But over time the reputation of the place has faded a bit. 

With the death of Jaimus, perhaps the new owners will provide the much needed energy to rejuvenate the place. Otherwise, there are other shops around including Marvelous Marvels' Magical Menagerie where most customers prefer to shop now.

This is the adventuring party each with a partial ownership in the Little Shoppe of Curiosities.  Jaimus owes each of them a debt and respected each of them for the things they brought to him in life:

• Calliope (Jill) - Character Sheet - An archeologist/musicologist/appraiser who worked with Jaimus on the provenance of curiosities.
• Dana's Druid - ???
• Katrina (Barbara) - Character Sheet - A Katari gambler with an uncanny knack of winning money from Jaimus.
• Kustos-749 (Calvin) - Character Sheet - A Clank recently liberated from a cursed imprisonment.
• Willow Sablethorn (Dana) - Character Sheet - A druid... perhaps the hippy granddaughter of Jaimus McNulty.

Former Members

• Kaiser (Leland) - Character Sheet - A Katari kid next door who helped Jaimus by chopping firewood.
• Cosma (Griffin) - Character Sheet - A mystic Faun specializing in magics both deep and dark. She was called away to help with an urgent issue in Grellan's Grove.

According to elven scholars, the name was originally "Echoes Field" due to the echoing of the pit, but has changed over time to Ekersfeld. The present, Lady Ekersfeld doesn't believe that, preferring that the mines have been a family venture for hundreds of years.

The village, itself, if mostly built around the outside of the pit, but some have made their homes in the ancient chambers below. Further down are the iron mines, where many of the residents work.

The villagers may know more about the pit than anyone else, but they don't know much. The stairs leading below the mines are closed with a locked gate and no one ventures beyond it.

Still, they do know a few things about what's below.

First, there are bats living down there. Very large ones, which come out at night. For this reason, the villagers tend to stay indoors after dark.

Second, there is-- or at least, was-- somebody living down there. The old folks say their grandparents told them stories about the pit people, who used to come up to trade on occasion. No one alive has seen a pit person, but they were said to be small and strange-looking, but friendly enough. These "pit people" are actually a tribe of goblins, who do still live below.

The villagers don't know anything about the origins of the pit, but they have plenty of theories. Maybe the people were digging something up. Or maybe they just liked the darkness. Or maybe they were demons digging a pit to hell. In any case, the villagers don't believe dwarves built it. Dwarves do build underground cities, but a few dwarves passing through have told them it doesn't look dwarven to them.

The villagers don't know how old the pit is, but they believe it's at least a few thousand years old. They are correct.

A few out-of-towners have gone down into the pit over the years. Most of them didn't return. Those that did weren't down there long and didn't venture very far.

The villagers' shrine is dedicated to the god of mining or smithing.

The villagers don't process the ore they mine. They send it to a nearby mill to be crushed and smelted.

Vatha argues incessantly with her brother Glaber using every tool available to her, be that the Senate where she is "First among equals" or in the streets where she is arguably the most fair-minded person in the city of Kashal.

She may promise to 'paper over' problems for a proper discount at the magic shop. She is a good friend to have.