Hi Antricho, Thank you for your question.
1 : It's very simple for the item slot. You can considere you have the same slot as usual on the faction board (the one in up right corner) but it's on the meeple Ball. There is only 1 slot on it. Rats and vagabonds don't just have to be in a clearing with your pieces to steal the item, they have to be in the clearing where the Ball is. And if the Ball reaches a mill, the item is destroyed. I wanted to create a countdown effect.
2 : Yes sorry, I wasn't very clear on that point. All cards are identical because each player can only have 1 warrior on your board, in other words, each player may be a shareholder only once. (There are maximum 6 players in a Root game, you + 5 players) However, the sector in which the beetles place their warrior does matter. He will benefit from the effect corresponding to the sector to which he is assigned.
3 : The cost for a player to give you a warrior is 1VP and the same way around