That night, after we'd loaded the Coldhold with most of the cargo that they'd bought from Emborin and Sons, I finally decided to indulge myself and went to have an early dinner at Engario's to have their highly recommended doughstrands.
It was absolutely delicious. The doughstrands were boiled, and then fried in beast fat with diced vauang and sharrods, fatty pieces of beast meat...
2023-10-19 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostI felt better once we went back to Master Yhosed's workshop and collected our three walking sticks. There was just something about having a sturdy stick in hand that was reassuring. Very good for poking, swinging, hooking legs and arms… leaning on when my feet started aching…
…
Why do my feet ache so much? I'm still young and healthy, especially now since Shana's healed me onc...
2023-10-17 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostTelref, I soon found, was a man barely holding himself together and constantly on the edge of despair. It was in the tired way he sat, the tone of his voice as he spoke, and the air of needing sleep. He seemed a worrier, probably worrying about his work, his wife, his son, whether they could afford the rent on where they lived, whether they could afford food, whether they'd be able to afford he...
2023-10-15 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostA Night Out In Covehold
Covehold Demesne was bright at night.
Light shone from seemingly random locations high up on walls, just barely out of reach. The last time I was here, I'd learned that the demesne employed Whisperers as streetlighters, who spent all day imbuing a certain number of bindings of lightwisps. At dusk, they anchored the bindings in the ar...
2023-10-14 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWhen I finally got to talk to Ravia, the news was good. The materials we'd asked them to procure were coming in, albeit slowly. Honestly, I wanted to buy more things, but we also needed the space for those we'd be recruiting, especially if they had a family accompanying them. And while what we were buying was a lot, it only used up a significant amount of the beads we made from selling the salt...
2023-10-12 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, we still had to wake up early. Even with the bound tool for moving the air around to help cool the hold, we all still woke up sweaty. The water of the bay was not an option for bathing. Even if it didn't smell, all the demesne's liquid waste had to go somewhere, and I doubted they had the sort of water cleaning infrastructure the demesnes in the old continent had for fertil...
2023-10-10 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostCovehold Demesne was bright at night.
Light shone from seemingly random locations high up on walls, just barely out of reach. The last time I was here, I'd learned that the demesne employed Whisperers as streetlighters, who spent all day imbuing a certain number of bindings of lightwisps. At dusk, they anchored the bindings in the areas they were assigned. Many Whisperers also made a side...
2023-10-08 16:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostA Lorian Interlude: Mikon
After dinner, Mikon and Umu left the table so that Binder Lori could talk to Erzebed, the Lady Binder and Master Kolinh in relative privacy. While the dungeon wasn't hot, it also wasn't all that cool. After a day of many people being out in the hot sun, the dungeon felt a little warm and smelled a bit sweaty, making lingering in it...
2023-10-07 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostSo, this isn't the usual poll. I want to leave this month's Patron Exclusive chapter open. However! I'm at something of a crossroads.
As you all know since you've been reading Demesne, we're about to add to Deadspeakers to the cast. Now, I've committed a writing... well, not cardinal sin, but really annoying thing. I've come up with multiple character possibilities, and like them all equa...
2023-10-06 14:08:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe man at the desk of the job-placement office rad over my bill before nodding. "All right. Where should I send applicants?" he asked, taking out a book.
I blinked suddenly feeling stupid. "Oh… ah, we've just arrived, we don't… uh, can I come back later?"
The man nodded, sliding the bill back towards me. It seemed this wasn't an irregular occurrence. "Come back once you find ou...
2023-10-05 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostAs it turned out, counting the wispbeads happened faster than I had thought.
We were in a small, nondescript room in the back of the merchant house's stockyard, next to what looked like barracks for their workers. At a glance, it looked like someone's office, presumably the manager of the stock yard, or maybe where they kept immediate copies of inventory records. Another of Ravia's brothe...
2023-10-03 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostAfter dinner, Mikon and Umu left the table so that Binder Lori could talk to Erzebed, the Lady Binder and Master Kolinh in relative privacy. While the dungeon wasn't hot, it also wasn't all that cool. After a day of many people being out in the hot sun, the dungeon felt a little warm and smelled a bit sweaty, making lingering in it after dinner not as comfortable as it usually was.
...
2023-10-01 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFirst things first, Happy Birthday to me!
But now that this is out of the way, a little announcement. I went tot he dentist today, and one thing led to another, and to make things short I might have a few more dental appointments in my future. Because I write in advance, it will be a couple of weeks before a disruption happens, but I felt I should warn you we all that we might have a week...
2023-09-29 12:49:38 +0000 UTC View PostKarina glared up at their prize, despite the sun's best efforts to shine in her eyes. Light and shadows kept obstructing it from her view, making her squint, but that didn't matter. She knew where it was, and it wasn't going to escape her—!
A hand that wasn’t as pale as it used to be plucked the happyfruit and Karina turned to keep her outstretched skirt under it. Hanging under the br...
2023-09-27 05:14:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe Man Whose Name Was On The Sign
The way Ravia stood up told me the man who entered was important, along with how he just interrupted this negotiation. If the guards at the door, the stairs and the hallway outside let him in…
"Ah, father," Ravia said with a nod. "Endlew spoke to you, I take it? Master Rian, this is my father Emborin, the head o...
2023-09-23 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“I thought you could reasonably promise only a hundred beads?” Ravia said.
“From your tone, you know eleven thousand is an unreasonable number,” I said. “The only reason we have that many is because our Dungeon Binder spent a long time making those beads as we waited for the arrival of the year’s first dragon.” I shrugged. “And that was mostly because they were focused on ...
2023-09-21 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostAs much as I wanted to eat at that place with the doughstrands, the men probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as I would. So once we were back out on the street, we asked the guards at the door if they knew any good places to eat. Fortunately, we were early since it was only the early parts of late morning, and founds seats at a corner table before the early crowds started coming in.
By unsp...
2023-09-19 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe way Ravia stood up told me the man who entered was important, along with how he just interrupted this negotiation. If the guards at the door, the stairs and the hallway outside let him in…
"Ah, father," Ravia said with a nod. "Endlew spoke to you, I take it? Master Rian, this is my father Emborin, the head of our merchant house."
Well, that confirmed it.
I gave ...
2023-09-17 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostValue is not only short handed by size but by type. Think the D&D copper-silver-gold-platinum standard. A large-sized copper coin would be of lesser value than a small-sized silver coin. Rian was originally asking for a large-sized bead of lower-middle/2nd tier, and instead got a small-sized bead upper-middle/3rd tier, which is worth more as currency regardless of its physical dimension...
2023-09-17 12:44:52 +0000 UTC View PostA Little Wager
The next day, we were back in Covehold bright and early to see the procession of small boats coming down the river and heading out of the bay towards the sea. While the sun was still on the horizon, individual boats were already coming in a steady stream from the river, most using oars and the current to propel themselves, although I saw a few boat...
2023-09-16 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWe had a long walk following the carts through the streets later, where I found a much shorter and more direct way to get to Emborin and Sons than the one I’d taken yesterday. I talked to Ravia as we went, asking him his opinions on the local bars, eateries, bakeries, doctors, Deadspeakers, and anything else to fill the time as Multaw and Cyuw once again followed behind me.
"Th...
2023-09-14 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostOnce all the furs and skins were moved, the salt came next, which would have been difficult if Ravia hadn't brought a Mentalist with him. Either he remembered the difficulty we'd had last time or he had something heavy to pick up later. The woman needed to have line of sight to the barrels to be able to lift them up, but I'd had a new large hatch added to the deck. That and the mount for the he...
2023-09-12 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day, we were back in Covehold bright and early to see the procession of small boats coming down the river and heading out of the bay towards the sea. While the sun was still on the horizon, individual boats were already coming in a steady stream from the river, most using oars and the current to propel themselves, although I saw a few boats where it looked like a Whisperer—or maybe a...
2023-09-10 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWorth The Price
The bound tool had been covered with a canvas sheet, and a bench was next to it, probably because it kept people from propping things up against it otherwise. Still, while the canvas had acquired the light dusting of sawdust everything does when carpentry is being done, when Master Yhosed pulled off the sheet the bound tool underneath was in good ...
2023-09-09 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostSorry the poll is a little delayed.
So... I haven't gotten around to reading Mother of Learning yet... but hey, it didn't' cause any delays from reading it, so yay!
Another reminder that there will be no updates on the last week of this month. Updates will resume on October 2nd.
Anyway, on to the options!
2023-09-09 11:12:02 +0000 UTC View PostIn the middle of the day, work ground to a halt, the heat too great for anyone to sweat through except perhaps the uncles and aunties working on the rebuilt outdoor mushroom farm where it was shady. And ever since Wiz Lori had put up a thingy to keep bugs from eating the mushrooms they were growing, they hadn't needed to keep an eye on them as much, letting them do other things or in this case ...
2023-09-07 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe sun was low in the sky by the time Multaw, Cyuw and I got back to the thoroughfare that faced the bay. It was high tide, and I could see that the cove was full of small boats. Many seemed to be making their way towards the river mouth, some moving surprisingly fast considering they had no sails and only seemed to have oars. Since some of the boats I saw earlier no doubt had a Whisperer aboa...
2023-09-05 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe bound tool had been covered with a canvas sheet, and a bench was next to it, probably because it kept people from propping things up against it otherwise. Still, while the canvas had acquired the light dusting of sawdust everything does when carpentry is being done, when Master Yhosed pulled off the sheet the bound tool underneath was in good condition.
Something clattered as the shee...
2023-09-03 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Streets of Covehold
When I'd first arrived in Covehold, fresh from a very long sea voyage in a tightly packed ship with food I'd rather not try to remember, the ship had come to rest on a solid stone dock that had been built along one of the encircling stone arms around the cove—the left one from the perspective of the cove entrance, to be more specific. Th...
2023-09-02 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWith the preliminary contract dry and secreted into my belt pouch, an address and name from Ravia, and plenty of daylight ahead, I had time to start working on trying to sell Lori's wispbeads.
The problem, as I saw it, was deciding what the best way of doing so actually was.
Ideally, we could sell directly to the workshops that would want the beads, such as carpentry or smithing wor...
2023-08-31 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post