(S05) Downtime in Phandalin

Ten days passed in Phandalin, the normally quiet town buzzing in activity, with folks streaming in from the surrounding countryside and awaiting an attack any minute from either orcs or the dragon itself.

Idris:

Idris decided to spend the week joining the workforce that worked on using the timber from disassembled houses and making sure the wall could stand up to an orc attack. His lineage and years of training as a holy warrior meant that he was much stronger than the average man. However, swinging a sword is one thing, being part of a work crew another. Idris struggled, finding the labour to be perhaps less intense than combat but that it just kept going on and on. It was easy to make a mistake aswell, all it took was taking your attention away for a moment and you've accidentally broken a good plank in two.

Thankfully his cheerful personality meant that his work mates saw him fondly and dismissed any accidents he made with laughter and ribbing. The men and women of Phandalin seemed to enjoy his company and often sought him out on breaks to ehar tales or simply to talk. Truthfully, his presence kept nerves calm as dragon and orc atttacks seemed a bit less terrible when a warrior blessed by the gods worked with them. The workers seemed to work all the faster for it and keep a good humour. In the end, Idris even made some coin. Enough to pay for his day-to-day living, even reaching a comfortable level in the cramped city. After his expenses however he found he had but a single gold coin to keep for himself. But perhaps more importantly he made some friends among the people and smiles greeted his presense.

Koraliki:

Koraliki could be quiet but in the quiet you can find focus. She spent two entire days investigating the two suits of armour that they had found in the Dwarven expedition. She wasn’t a wizard but many times when it comes to magical items all it needs is attention. The first day yielded nothing much beyond finding that the leather these were made from seemed resistant to being destroyed and that the golden studs on them would mean they would fetch a pretty price on the market. On the second day she started trying dwarven words, fishing for a keyword. Aetharnor did it, a word meaning a “person consumed by greed” in Dwarven. By saying the word and thinking hard when the armour was worn, she found she could change its appearance. She could decide what it looked like, including colour, style, and accessories, but the armor always retained its normal bulk and weight. After that success, she simply picked up her gear and ventured out of the city, hunting for the next eight days. While her skills were more than up for the task there was little to be found outside the city, the cold and overhunting having made the land pretty bare. Heading farther out she was able to hunt and bring back some game, enough for twenty rations for herself and some relief to the town’s food stores.

Pine:

Pine found the Rockseeker Brothers at the Miner’s exchange, while they were trying to haggle for a good price for the diamonds that they had recovered from the excavation. He expressed his desire to learn from them how to work stone and as the brothers intended to stay in the town for a while they readily accepted. Under the tutelage of Nundro and Gundren, Pine found Masonry a hard and thankless endeavour, the stone refusing to yield without the required strength and it punishing a badly angled strike with it shattering and destroying a day’s work. Days passed, Pine’s muscles burning with the effort and seemingly making little progress. 

And then, five days, Pine woke up, headed to the makeshift masonry yard and felt…at peace. The work hadn’t changed. But his perspective had. Every success was a victory, every failure simply a learning opportunity. While there was still a lot of learning left to be done, Pine emerged the tenday being able to use a Mason kit if not proficiently, good enough for most basic functions if he had the time.

While they didn’t speak too much, he could feel that the Rockseeker brothers were familiar to him now and saw him fondly, as a teacher sees a student. He heard much about their future plans on how to protect the town – landing on finding and then reclaiming the old Dwarven fort called Axeholm theorising that the towns stores of food could be kept there and it could serve as a entirely dragon proof shelter.

Zenari:

 Zenari would join Adabra, who has situated herself in a large tent that has been erected in the town green to serve as a pop-up herbalism and treatment centre. Adabra had at first planned to look at a few things and leave but with the recent troubles there had been more wounded than ever before. Hearing of Zenari’s request to learn more about herbalism she had exclaimed that nothing teachers better than real world practice and tasked Zenari to create various medicines that she then used on the townsfolk. Merrowroot, Cyaliantha, Curpus… The unfamiliar names for plants made themselves known to Zenari as the days passed. And she had learned them, one by one.

And truthfully, she had always had a good touch when it came to medicine. Was this not part of the process, just a step before? Adabra’s guidance lessened as Zenari grew in proficiency and between the two women, the townsfolk were cured of their ills be it a sore stomach or a deadly fever. Using the knowledge, she had acquired Zenari was able to replace the missing items in her healer’s kit by crafting them herself. All it took was some gold…and some skill. However, after the tenday she had not only gained a skill but also the respect of Adabra, work having brought them closer than before.

All the while Zenari was aware of that odd crystal that had been taken from the Dwarven expedition. One day, she took a closer look and while she could discern nothing from peering into it’s multifaceted surface, she had an irrational urge to try and cast one of her spells through it. Perhaps she should?

Siax:

Meanwhile Siax simply…vanished. Heading out of the city, he returned a ten day later, full of bruises and cuts but with a small smile on his face.