The Goblins Fan Forum

"I've no backpacks, just those two little knapsacks there. Plenty of leather and cloth though, I bet Parke could rustle you up something out of the materials if you had a spare silver or something to trade. For the pifana, the book and the two satchels, it'd be seventeen gold. If you wanted a yard or two of sail-canvas, some leather straps and some cording to see about bag-making, it'd be another two." (asks remember you are allowed to haggle) He points out the bolts of cloth that are standing up next to the shelves - there's one of linen, one of sack-cloth, one of sail-cloth, and one of leather. Next to them is a basket full of haberdashery stuff - strips of leather, bits of furs, cord, and so on.

"Well... As far as repairs, I usually take my clothes down to Parke and my tools to Arlon, but my garden wall's been falling down a while and I've been putting off seeing to it... if you're any good at brickwork, you could help me out with that, and I'd pay you a fair wage for the work. There's stone enough from the tumbled-down parts to rebuild it, and plenty of clay and sand round here to make a fair mortar. I just haven't had the time.

Debt collection's not needed - I keep a good memory of what bits and pieces I've lent out should I need them back, but it all works out in the end around here, you know that. People share what they can, and should I ever need help, I know these folk will support me in turn. There's a few people who'll need to put a couple of coins back in my purse after market, but I'm not going up to them with my hand out. They'll come to me when they can.

I tell you what, though, carrying boxes is an idea - as you can see, there's no point trying to help out in here now, there's barely room for the three of us as it is - but you could help me pack up for the caravan nearer the time, or knock doors and see if anyone's got anything last-minute to send with me, or an order to place?"

"Ah, bricklaying! I can certainly give that a go, my father was a bricklayer. I have a fair idea of how it works from him."

Jornen was unsure where the words came from, and in any case, his father certainly wasn't a bricklayer, but he let it slide for now, so as to not spook the shopkeeper.

"It would be weirder if it DID work, wouldn't it? Anyway, I'm happy to keep fishing if you want to try again... once I've got this one... under control."

"True, I doubt it'll go as well this time as it is surprisingly exhausting but I'll gladly give it a go again."

Once he helped Nix with the fish, he sits down again, ready to stare down into the ocean. This time he starts by taking a deep breath and closing his eyes trying his best to focus any energy (and glow) inwards, imagining collecting it in a ball. In his mind he pushes the ball into his right arm and all the way to the tip of his finger. He open his eyes and shuffles a bit closer to Nix and slowly and gently touches her rod as he tries to extend his glowing ball unto the rod, letting it roll up to the tip, before continueing down the line before it finally ends at the hook. From there he tries to extend it towards the largest fish, instead of spreading it all around and if he reaches it he tries to lure it to the hook and take a bite and just relax.

((OOC: My dad actually IS a brick and stone mason! Take that Jib! ))

OOC: Mine was too!

OOC: We are awesome!

Jibjib wrote:"Ah, bricklaying! I can certainly give that a go, my father was a bricklayer. I have a fair idea of how it works from him."

Jornen was unsure where the words came from, and in any case, his father certainly wasn't a bricklayer, but he let it slide for now, so as to not spook the shopkeeper.

there we have it, what you say shopkeep, two knapsacks the book, the horn and some of that artsy stuff to improve them with, and my friend will have our wall fixed in no time, we will even help you drag around some boces and help around with whatever you got laying around for the rest of they day, that sounds like a fair deal to me don't you say, jornen ?

roule will pull of his best confiding smile

The trader laughs at what he assumes is Roule's funny joke. "Ah, good one, Roule! I think I could hire a whole troupe of bricklayers and box-carriers for a week for the price of seventeen gold! All jokes aside, though, I'll pay you fair and square for any work the pair of you do for me. I've never short-changed anyone before and I won't start now. If you're interested, I'll put the merchandise to one side for you - not that there's much chance of someone buying it out from under your nose 'round here."

(OOC: Just to explain the currency a bit better... an untrained labourer normally earns one silver a day, someone with a fancy profession can earn maybe 10 gold a week, most people earn somewhere in between and a lot of smaller villages work on barter/skillshare rather than coin. Roule's offer was kinda the equivalent of "if I mow your lawn can I have that iPad?", which is why the shopkeeper assumed it was a joke. I just wanted to let you know in case you didn't understand the currency of the D&D world.)

Jornen chuckles along with the shopkeeper before making a counteroffer.

"Hehehe... well shopkeep, I'm not averse to the work, but I do have a bit of coin saved up. As you and the layer of dust say, the horn has been here just sitting a couple of years, and I'm sure cash would serve you better, especially with a new caravan shipment coming in. What say you to 6 gold for just the horn and the book for now, and we fix your wall to boot?"

Jornen shakes the shopkeepers hand.

"You have a deal sir! Point us in the direction of the work!"

Parke:
Parke, having finished darning the tiny holes, moves onto the large central one. ItÔÇÖs a little too large to fix without altering the appearance of the dress, but thereÔÇÖs enough spare material in the hem and internal pockets that he can snip a spare matching piece to use to fill the hole. He sews it onto the back of the hole and trims the ragged edges before carefully stitching them down onto the patch. The end result is a fully repaired dress! The fix is only noticeable from right up close, heÔÇÖs done a good job.

Once he holds up the completed dress to the light to get a good look at the work heÔÇÖs done, heÔÇÖs struck with a vivid memory of looking at someone wearing it on a sunny day in a field surrounded by people in clean, pressed clothes, polished shoes and formal hats. He canÔÇÖt recall the womanÔÇÖs face, but he knows that she is beautiful. She has flowers braided into her hair, and she is carrying a large bundle of matching flowers in her hands. It seems as though this was a wedding dress. He is sure now, where he had no idea before, that her name was Marian.

--

Brooklin:
Brooklin finishes gutting and preparing the boar; he cuts out the rest of the viscera and internals, washes out the cavity and replaces the edible offal for safekeeping. He now has a pile of bits that he doesnÔÇÖt want for eatinÔÇÖ, but that might be useful for non-human-food reasons, like a bladder, a stomach, the intestines, and the various connecting tubes and such. He also has the lungs, liver, kidneys and heart washed and placed back inside a nice clean carcass that he can transport or cut up further. (It does have tusks; not giant curved ones, as it was a young adult rather than a big old male, but they're there and definitely useful.)

His snares are still set.

--

Nix and Theis:

Nix and Theis dispatch the fish with relative ease between the two of them and store his fishy corpse in their boat. They set back up for another go at fishing and special-luring.
While TheisÔÇÖ visualisation of the effect seems to help him replicate it more easily, and what he pictures happening with his ÔÇ£glowÔÇØ does indeed seem to happen, he gets stuck at the same hurdle as before ÔÇô the glow finds the fish, and dances around it, but the fish doesnÔÇÖt even seem to see it.
Nix waits patiently for something to bite. Since sheÔÇÖs watching what Theis is doing, she can see that while he hasnÔÇÖt managed to lure in a fish, it doesnÔÇÖt seem that heÔÇÖs driving them away or anything like that.

--

Leonie:
Leonie checks on the cat ÔÇô heÔÇÖs nearly finished his fish head, but looks happy enough gnawing on the remnants for now. The stew is at the stage where it needs a lot of skimming to remove bits of scale and foam and scum from the surface, so she has the unenviable task of sitting and poking at it with a spoon. While she works, she continues to chat with the fishermen, asking them about Camber. It turns out heÔÇÖs essentially Head Fisherman, although they donÔÇÖt call him that and he doesnÔÇÖt refer to himself as that. HeÔÇÖs not really in charge, he doesnÔÇÖt give orders or make decisions for the group, but heÔÇÖs the savviest among them when it comes to buying and selling, so he always goes to market and represents them all in that way. She also finds out that the easiest way to prove herself useful to the caravan folk would to be armed and dangerous, but that learning enough skill to convince them in a week might take a better teacher than the few around. Parke and Arlon make up the local militia, but neither of them have really seen much action, so they could only show her the basics. Otherwise, she could always just buy or barter for passage; if she didnÔÇÖt have anything to offer skills-wise, theyÔÇÖll always take cold hard currency in return for a fairly uncomfortable and narrow seat on the back of one of the wagons.

--

Jornen and Roule:

(since Asks is away, I am going to have Roule stick with Jornen ÔÇô Jib, you can do actions for both characters if you like, otherwise IÔÇÖll have Roule just follow around and help out a bit.)

The shopkeep shows both men through to his garden, where the wall really is in quite a state of disrepair. He brings two buckets and a trowel with him from the shop stock, which he hands over, and leaves them to get on with it.

The first thing the pair decide they need to do is clear away the fallen stones and pile them up out of the way so they can rebuild in a clean area without having to climb over broken bits. Then they can assess what needs to be done.
Together they make quite light work of it, methodically stacking the stones in a large pile on the path ready to be used again. The next stages will be to find something suitable for mortar, and to knock the old bits of mortar off the stones so that they will lie flat.


--

"How's the sea behaving? I'm not sure how much time we have available out here. Enough to give it another go?"

If they agree on they got some more time, he'll retry luring the big fish to hook.

(I'm certain Ryush stole my crit!

Brooklin thinks to figure out what Book would normally do at this point, but comes to the conclusion that perhaps he should try to sell the hog. He starts to remove the tusks so that Parke has something to use. Afterwards he goes to the market to see who would by the pig and the guts for animals or using them for other purposes like a water skin or maybe a bagpipe or something of the sort.

(There's no market here - the locals club together to buy and sell at "market day" at a town further away, which they travel to every few months, but there isn't a marketplace. The tavern is a good starting point for selling the boar here though, as Brooklin will remember that he often trades game for other supplies with the locals.)

Okay then Brooklin will go to the tavern. ...edit: after washing up a little first i guess

Keeping an eye on both the Cat and the stew, Leonie hopes she doesn't stink THAT badly of fish. "Wonder what we have here to clean up with..." she thinks to herself, really wishing that she could go and stand in a nice warm.... waterfall? Oh, or a nice hot spring. The thought leaves her confused because she seems sort of convinced that she had her own hot spring... but that doesn't make sense. Not sure whether it's a Lindsey or Leonie memory, she just decides that after this she'll either go swimming or at least get some fresh water to wash her hands and face. And then help out Ungar at the tavern for supper.

While working on the smelly stew, Leonie asks the men for more information about Parke and Arlon, like where they are and what skills they're good at. She also asks about hunting, because a bow and arrow just seems a bit more tasteful, and useful too. Depending on how much they talk, she'd also ask if either of them have been to the market town and what it's like there if they have.

((Also, does she know their names? And what time of day is it now, I want to make sure Leonie is back for dinner to help Ungar))

Roughly what time is it? I've lost track.

It is 4.15pm.

"aye, we've got a little longer I think. Let's give it one more go and then head back. We both need to wash up before we go back to the tavern anyway and meet the others."

Parke carefully puts the dress away, then looks around the place again to see if there's anything he's forgotten to do. Work he's supposed to get done for himself or others about town. Anything else that might spark a memory.

Roule and Jornen continue working, splitting off to get the work done quicker: Jornen will look for sand/clay etc to use as mortar, Roule will clean up the old stones

Parke:

Parke puts the dress away where he found it, checking for hiding moths and deciding that the cupboard is pretty secure and that the damage must have been done a while back. He then checks his home for anything he thinks is out of place, that might indicate it was someone else's and had been brought to him for repair. He doesn't see anything unusual, so he decides to head outside and check out there.

The chickens cluck excitedly as he approaches. They have food and water, which he gave to them earlier. Their house is tidy and well-maintained but chickens aren't the cleanest of folk, so right up close it's a little stinky by their coop. As with any garden, he could always find something to do out here - he could tend to his few plants or his tree, and so on. His fence and the exterior of his property are in very good repair; they're not immaculate or brand new or even the best materials, but they are obviously maintained regularly and there doesn't look to be anything in need of attention.

From in his garden, he can see the main street of the little village. There doesn't look to be any requirement for a militia-man at this juncture. He can see Jornen, the man from the bar, striding purposefully past with a bucket and trowel.

--

Brooklin:

Brooklin spends some time carefully prising the boar's four main tusks loose from its jaw with the help of a sharp stone and a heavy rock to use as a makeshift hammer and chisel.
It's obviously something he's done before as he knows exactly which way to knock to fracture the jawbone at the base of each tusk and then twist and pull to loosen the oversized teeth from their sockets. After only a couple of minutes work he has the two upper tusks which are flatter and stick out and up and are about the length and thickness of his thumb, and the two lower, which are more traditionally curved and tusk-shaped and are about the length of his palm and two fingers thick. They are muddy and bloody but in good condition and not deteriorated, as this was a young boar.

He takes a moment to rinse off his hands, the tusks, and the boar's face with the contents of his waterskin, then sets back off for the tavern. It takes him most of the turn to lug the boar back there, but he arrives just at the end of the turn and stops at the doorway so as not to dirty the tavern floor.

Ungar, the tavernkeeper, comes out to meet him.

"Ah, Book, what do you have there? Another boar? You're on a roll, young man! Look at that fine beast. Are you looking to sell it, or just to store it and get back into your room for the afternoon?"

--

Nix and Theis:

Nix and Theis decide they have a little more time before they need to get back for dinner. There's time left with the tide, too. On the other side of the island, the men with the lobsterpots and nets have nearly finished - they can't see them but the noises they were making have started to fade.
Much the same as before, Theis finds that he just can't quite influence the fishy folk below the waves. He seems to be getting the hang of directing the glow; it appears to be a visual representation of his attempts to exert his will over the world around him, but picturing the glow changing gives him something to focus through.
Nix watches what Theis is doing. She can see how he's focusing on the fish, as the tendrils of light around him flare out and try to touch the large fish still swimming tantalisingly close to her line, but alas, either it isn't hungry yet, or it's wise to the fact that the bait on her line is exactly that... bait for a trap.

--

Leonie:
Leonie keeps her eye on the cat while she stirs the stew to stop any of the heads sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning; the nasty froth stage has passed, and now it's just bubbling away nicely, with all the fish and vegetables getting nice and tender and the liquid reducing down to a tasty stock. The cat's finished all the meat on his own personal fishy feast and is now batting the remaining head cartilage around between his paws.

The men have finished tying up new balls of bait for their lobster pots and the smoke-fire is going along nicely; it looks like they'll be finishing up soon themselves. For now, they're still pottering around and available for chatting (and checking how their dinner's coming along), and Leonie has a chance to find out some more information.

During the course of their chatter, she learns that Parke and Arlon are, technically, the local militiamen - but in fact, Parke is a handyman and tailor, and Arlon is a blacksmith. They just happen to be the two most able men whose jobs mean that they are in the centre of the village most days; the fishermen are down by the shore, Ungar is old, and many of the other villagers are women, children, or farmers who've no idea which end of a weapon goes into the opponent. Parke uses a sword and Arlon uses a hammer, but neither of them have seen real combat, they have only trained against each other with practice weapons. In the fishermens' opinion, Arlon knows how to make all sorts of weapons, which must give him a bit of an edge in a fight. They have assessed Parke as a good man and capable with his sword, but not really a fightin' sort of fellow at heart.

When she asks about hunting, they both suggest she seek out Book, who's staying in the tavern for a few days, having brought in a deer to sell a while ago. They don't volunteer more information about him, just like they didn't outright tell her basic things about Parke and Arlon, only gave her their opinions which contained some useful truths...it seems they think she knows who all these people are.

Neither of them have been to market, as Camber goes instead. She doesn't know their names - Leonie did, but Lin/Leonie can't recall, and because they think she knows, they aren't introducing themselves.

--

Jornen and Roule:

Jornen goes off looking for a suitable mortar substance and leaves Roule to clean up the old stones.
Jornen leaves through the big hole in the wall rather than trailing dust and mud back through the shop, and decides to head down towards the shore a little way in search of sand. He finds plenty of good sharp sand, which he loads his bucket with and takes back.

He then looks around to get his bearings and decide where he'd be best off looking for clay or lime.
He decides that there are two viable options - he could go off inland in search of clay, or he could go down to the waterfront and gather up some empty shells, of which he saw plenty last time he was down there fetching sand, and crush and burn them to make a rudimentary lime. He'd need to find somewhere that has a hot enough place to burn them safely - but he did see the sign for a blacksmith nearby, who might help.

Clay or lime would work fine (as would a mixture of both) but needs to decide whether to try and make lime or try and find clay.

While he's doing all that, Roule has the fun task of knocking the old mortar off the stones.
Roule's making good progress, and has also thought to pile up the old dry mortar into one place in case it's needed for re-use; it might be able to be crushed and used to bulk out the new stuff in a pinch.

--

Spotting Jornen, Parke calls out to him. "Ho there! What are you up to, if I may ask? Need a hand with anything?"

Leonie decides that she'll probably end up seeking out all three men at some point, but will start with Book as she knows she can find him at the tavern. After the stew is done.

"Do either of you actually like this stew? I enjoy fish, but... fish heads?? ... Honestly it smells awful! Although my cat seems to love it! Then again... it's great to make use of everything. Are there any rock pools along the shore? I haven't been down to explore the shore here.... but I have always loved being near the water." she asks while finishing up the stew.

She'll also ask them if they think that Parke is the best at wood-working, or if the think someone else is.