Undul Street Crafting Expo

[Azuloth]

Results:
-Failure
-Success.

Gold and Cotton Dress
-Dr: 10
-Cold Resist: 10
-1 Gem Socket
-2 Enchantment Slots
-Reqs: 10 Cha, 10 Str

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Vekkia completely ignored what was going on with the Elkagr and the dress. The children watched her closely however. Grayson was sure the woman was going to take his soul. Lily was convinced that wasn't going to happen but if it did happen she wanted to witness because why the hell not? Not like her little brother was any level of useful right? That childish level of sibling competition was normal. With Grayson out of the picture Allyria wouldn't need to spare her any attention or expense for his sake.

But those were crazy thoughts.

Lily just watched with a creepy grin on her face. But the dress was pretty, gold and cotton, very nice.

[Deleted]

It had seemed that Tyr was skilled with leather. Leather would go well with the dress she had just made, what she needed was a better cloak and a better bag. Best to start with the cloak. Silver would serve well enough, she had a particular enchantment in mind and it would be the only required, that is if she could make it in the first place. She had the design she had made previously, it was an adequate cloak, but she wanted one that was a bit longer.

---

10 bolts of cotton, 1 bar of silver
K=13, Tailoring II, Jeweler I, Simple
Threshold 58, JqDpjoDz

---

It turned out beautifully. Now for a better bag, she still wanted it to be smallish, but she also wanted it to be a bit more functional than present, and she wanted to give it a bit more space than it would appear outwardly, necessity of enchantment once more. Another ingot of silver into thread. The cotton sewn together, designs stitched, a silver clasp to keep the bag closed.

---

10 bolts of cotton, 1 bar of silver, (6 big slots, 10 small slots)
k=13, Tailoring II, Jeweler I, Simple
Threshold 58,

---

Just ruined. She was still working on her bag design. Tyr had shown off a leather ruck, she supposed it would be suitable for the journey, but it lacked a certain aesthetic. She could always decorate it, she could make it her own working silver or gold accents into the design. She guessed she was done with her attempts at crafting clothes, her stocks of cotton all but depleted. Now she wanted to make some jewelry, she supposed it was as good a place as any to begin by making a gold ring. She drew the gold into wire, then she began to weave the heated gold into a pattern such that it made a ring which was woven from gold wire. Or at least that was her intention...

---

1 gold bar
K=13, Jeweler I, Guessing Simple from previous examples.
Threshold 48

---

...and it turned out quite beautifully if she did say so herself. Perhaps she could make another of the like, she did have one gold bar remaining. First she needed to take a break, calculate all her successes across the various threads, and see if she has leveled any of her skills.··

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Vekkia had finished going over the books. Now was to draft letters and instructions, as well as cheques. Three cheques had to be written, for construction orders. The county that Allyria had taken over was in desperate need for buildings. A problem money could partially solve. The money would come from Allyria's accounts, which was easy enough to access. All she needed was for Allyria to sign the checks when she returned. The first was for the construction of a mill, which by Vekkia's estimates would cost roughly fifty ritz in labor and materials, since the tools had been delivered. The other two were for farms and a fishery. The fishery for the town of Clemency, and the farms for the entire county. This would cost twenty five ritz each.

With the cheques written out she moved on to the letters and instructions for the persons who would be doing the building.

-"Lily, I need you to take a letter for me, write it in Cruic."-

"High Cruic."

-"Yes, High Cruic."-

"Ok. Ready."

-"Dear Aghartans, the funds arriving with these letters and the equipment that you have received are from your liege lady Countess Allyria Allenmorde. She has requested that you immediately and with care construct a mill, farms, and fisheries. There will be a few more letters much like this with instructions such as these. Once construction is complete, assign a labor force of able bodied persons to work the fields, the mills, and the fisheries to the benefit of the entire population of the county."-

"Slow down! I'm only at construction!"

-"Write faster... and clearer. Those letters are blending together."-

"Yes ma'am. Do you want me to start over?"

-"No, it's a waste of paper. Continue. And practice your Korasuan."-

-"Yes ma'am."-

---

Grayson was busy elsewhere. He had wandered back over to the Elkgar lady. She had made a dress, and worked out a pretty gold ring. He was impressed. The tools for gem and jewel crafting were small. The hammers, tongs, and other tools for the forge were massive in comparison. He hovered nearby, still curious about that process.

[Deleted]

With her first ring quite the success, if she did say so herself, she was most certainly going to have a go at making a second ring. As she began her work, she noticed the little boy returning. She was a little taken aback by his fear in response to her creation of his simulacrum, he had screamed something about her trying to take his soul. Children had the wildest imaginations, he was too young to understand how magic worked. He seemed very interested in her crafting though.

Once more she made sure she worked in such a way that the child could easily see her working. She wouldn't use any of her more obvious magics in front of the child, he didn't seem to like that and she didn't really want to scare him away. The process of drawing out the wire and weaving it into the delicate ring was tedious, but it would be worth it when the ring was finished.

---

K=15, Jeweler II +10, Simple +30
Threshold: 55 g705DaSC !39 Success

---

Now she possessed a matching pair of rings. She was a little disappointed that the gem settings were empty, she would have to wait until she came across some better gemstones before she filled them. For the time she would leave it empty. Now she needed to figure out how she wanted to enchant the rings and her dress. There were several enchantments she would like that she could think of off the top of her head, but she was lacking some of the knowledge she would need to enact those enchantments. What she needed right now was access to the libraries back at university. Fat chance of that any time soon. 

The child seemed to know that Allyria was a mage, perhaps she would know the required magics to be able to assist her in her endeavors once she returned? "Little boy, earlier you said 'You can do magic too,' it would seem that Allyria knows magic as well?" Hopefully the boy wasn't still too terrified of her to respond, it would be most useful if she knew what Allyria was capable of.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Grayson watched her work her skills, having already found his bravery again after she had threatened to steal his soul. He was still wary of her witchery, but she was rolling another ring. Jewelery was interesting in the fact that it was shiny. That was about it to Grayson. Shiny. He liked the shiny. He was a simple lad.

"Oh. Yes. She saved Lily and I with magic a little while back. She's powerful. My name's Grayson."

He was trying to introduce himself now, Vekkia had impressed the idea of politeness into him. She was coarse, but she was straight with him whenever they talked. Grayson hadn't had a reason to be polite to anyone before. No one had been polite to him before then. Sure, he knew that she thought he was generally useless. But that's because he hadn't learned anything of use yet. Nor anything that interested.

---

-"We need to edit."-

-"Ok, why?"-

-"Forgot about the mine. Put the mine in there. Allyria wants to be sure that we get a mining operation going."-

-"Right. Ok."-

Lily scratched some parts out, and wrote new bits into the margins. Vekkai checked on Grayson, looking over her shoulder. The boy had grown some in the past few minutes apparently. He was talking to the Elkagr again. Vekkia went back to the paperwork. There didn't seem to be anything strange going on. But Vekkia couldn't understand the language.

-"Can you hear what they're talking about?"-

-"No. Probably something stupid."-

Vekkia growled.

[Deleted]

"Well Grayson, it is nice to formally meet you. My name is Nadera." She mirrored the boys courtesy. She doubted that the boy would know what types of magic Allyria knew, he seemed fairly unfamiliar with magic. He had, after all, believed that in her casting of a minor summoning spell that she was trying to steal his soul. Better to get the information more surreptitiously, "Now that sounds like an interesting story. I don't know your Allyria very well, but she sounds quite the hero. So what exactly happened?"

But if she could convince him to tell her the story, perhaps she could ascertain some of Allyria's talents with magic. It would be good to know more about her new employer anyways, and children are so often happy to tell stories of things that excite them, be it for good or bad. She did run the risk of going into territory where the child would withdraw in thinking of the horrific things that happened, but she hoped that she asked in such a way as to avoid such situations. Her crafts were set aside for now, Grayson had her full attention.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"Nadera. Nadera. Pretty name I guess."

He guesses.

"Lily and I were playing in the Sorath graveyard after the tournament. Because we couldn't go in with our parents. They don't allow kids in. Too much blood. So we were there, playing in the graveyard, and we fell into a hole. It was really dark in there. Lily and I bumped into some monsters and we ran. But we got separated. Then Allyria found us and saved us from the monsters with her powers. She blasted them! Pew! Blam! And cut them with her pole-cutter-thing! Swish! Slash!"

Full sound effects and facial expressions. The kid was animated while describing what happened to Nadera. She was right about one thing. He wasn't able to fully express what kind of magic Allyria used.

---

-"The hell?"-

-"He's talking about how Allyria rescued us."-

-"Oh for the love of Azuloth. Grayson! Don't bore her!"-

The girls had nothing else to add. They were busy figuring out the corrections to the letter that had been written for the people of Agharta. Statecraft wasn't easy. Especially with a finite amount of ink and paper. Korasus never ran out of that stuff.

[Deleted]

She listened to Grayson as he spoke. She wasn't sure whether to take his response to her name as insult or complement, so instead she ignored it entirely. Children often say the damnedest of things, she could recall some that she had said in her childhood that still made her blush to this day. He had gone the animated route and told her the story of his rescue with much enthusiasm and almost no useful details. Clearly Allyria had some decent offensive magic and some skill with weapons, but beyond that the story provided no useful information. The telling of the story by the child was not unentertaining, the content perhaps, but she found some enjoyment in his enthusiasm.

The story left her with a few questions though, "Where are you parents now? Don't you miss them?" She missed her father and she knew exactly where he was. Wouldn't the children miss their parents? Did they know where their parents were? Did Allyria kidnap the children after rescuing them? So many questions, but she thought to let the child answer the first two before going any further down that road. Surely the Allyria wouldn't... Clearly this situation was complex, now she just needed to understand it before she leapt to conclusions. She wouldn't be surprised if Allyria had kidnapped the children though, drokagr weren't to be trusted afterall. And they call elkagr unstable.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"Of course. We went looking for them immediately after. And we couldn't find them. Allyria and Vekkia have put up posters in Sorath there and again here in Morith. We even helped. But there's been nothing."

Grayson was immediately saddened. Of course he missed his parents. And they spent quite the time looking for them, as well as putting up notices and such. But there hadn't been any responses. Grayson missed his parents, but he still had Lily. Vekkia and Allyria treated the two of them well. Though sometimes Allyria left them alone to either work, or travel. Since Vekkia's arrival however, they haven't been alone.

"Vekkia's been teaching us her language too. It's been fun."

He of course ignored Vekkia's shout at him. Stop boring Nadera? Nadera was enthralled of course! At least he thought she was. He was the best story teller, according to himself. No one else he knew added sounds and hand motions to their story telling like he did. To him, he had the sound of explosions down.

[Deleted]

She regretted her question as soon as she learned the situation. Even moreso due to the effect it had on Grayson. To lose both parents at once in such a way as to not know what happened to them, not knowing if they had just been abandoned. She couldn't even relate to that, not entirely. She understood how it felt to lose a parent in such a way, her mother had vanished all those years ago without so much a word. Questions often ran through her mind, Was it my fault? Did something happen to her? Is she trying to come back to us? She imagined Grayson must be asking himself the same questions.

"I'm sure your parents are out there looking for you. Maybe they're just looking in all the wrong places." She thought for a moment, they had put up signs. How common was it for cruinthians to be able to read? Despite her extensive education, she had trouble deciphering the mess of letters the human's called writing. It was nothing like the elegant precision of her own language. She thought to ask the child if he knew about his parents,"Do your parents know how to read?" She was genuine in her question, how were they supposed to find their children by posters if they couldn't even read what the posters said? Sure they could find someone to read it for them, but would they even notice a poster that was looking for two missing parents for two lost children.

She would have to address the fact that the drokagr were teaching the children their foul language later. If anything, being part of the empire of the highborn, the children should be learning Elkagr. Right now her own history was pulling her into the story of this child. The rest could wait.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"Maybe or maybe not. Allyria says there are twenty thousand people in Sorath. That's a lot. But maybe they don't want us. But... but..."

Grayson had a moment. He paused and tried to choke back his tears. A few managed to get through the bastion of his tear ducts, sliding down his cheeks. He couldn't understand it either. But he had been there. He had seen how hard Allyria tried. They even worked the stand in the market to see if anyone would recognize them. No one said anything. He was shaking, and then he remembered that his sister and how she'd tell him to stop crying. How Allyria would tell him that she'd take care of them. He remembered the sorrow in her voice.

"But.. Allyria's been good to us. She's given us food and a home, new clothes. I can read now. And Vekkia isn't that bad. She's short and stern with us. B-but she's good to us too."

Lily got up from the table and walked over to Grayson, sensing her brother was in pain.

"You ok? You being mean to my brother, lady?"

"No. I'm ok Lily. Just remembering mom and dad."

-"Everything ok over there?"-

Lily waited for Nadera to respond before answering Vekkia's inquiry.

[Deleted]

In a moment that was rather uncharacteristic of the elkagr woman, she nearly broke down into tears herself. She knew at least to some extent what he was going through. She was glad to know that her employer was not a kidnapper, but it was a small relief compared to the grief she felt from the child and that she was now feeling herself. "I'm sure your parents want you. Something has to be keeping them from finding you, just like something has to be keeping my mother from returning."

She had always thought her mother would come back, at least for her. She was not sure what her mother thought about her father, but surely she was loved by her mother? She had been in school almost the entire time her mother had been gone, she had never really addressed her own feelings of abandonment. She now felt them creeping up starting to consume her. She tried to push them back, but still a tear rolled down her cheek.

The boy's sister approached, being protective of her younger brother. Was she being mean? She was bringing up painful memories, but it was for the purpose of helping. She wasn't sure, "I don't know, I didn't intend it if I was. Hearing of your missing parents brought up memories of my missing mother." Another tear rolled down the side of her face. These weren't feelings she wanted to deal with, she wanted to push them back from where they had risen, but it was beginning to feel as though she had opened Pandora's box. (or whatever the cruinthian/elkagr equivalent to that tale is)

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"Oh, wow. You're an orphan too huh? What does an orphan do when they're an adult? Kids like us hope to get adopted."

"Or we wind up on the streets. That's scary."

-"Hey... don't ignore me!"-

-"Everything's alright. We're talking about being orphans."-

Vekkia scoffed. Orphans. She could care less about the bonding of orphans. It was standard fare in a world like this. People died all the time. Some of those people were parents. Some of those people had children that survived whatever they didn't. That's what children were for in her view, to perpetuate the bloodline. To survive what you will not. It was a cold and callous way of looking at it. But it suited her needs. She didn't want any children herself. She didn't want to commit the necessary acts to make one.

Lily sincerely hoped that Allyria would choose to keep them both. Herself and Grayson. She wanted to continue her studies and become a person like her. Though she knew she had no talent for magic, and that magic was illegal for her kind to practice. It was more the scholar part of Allyria she wanted to be like. And the perceived fearlessness.

Grayson was happy just having a place to live and bread to eat on a regular basis. Other than that, all the boy wanted was a craft to learn. Allyria could provide that. He was no good with the books, but with his hands. With his hands he hoped to work wonders. Hence the attention paid to Nadera.

"Oh. Lily. This is Nadera. Nadera, my sister Lily."

[Deleted]

"Well, an orphan does much as anyone else. I was lucky in that I still had my father, but I was more raised by my school I suppose. It was there that I learned my magic, among other less interesting things." Part of her was shocked that the children would have given up on their parents returning for them, and she almost spoke to the point, but she did not wish to further unsettle the child.

The Drokagr woman frustrated her a bit. She supposed the Drokagr was just expressing concern for the children, but speaking by speaking that debased language, it was difficult to tell the intention behind the words. Nadera had come close to winding up on the streets, if the rebels had removed the governor from power in Viktoria, she would be without home or funds. She would be out on the streets despite her wish that she couldn't even imagine the situation.

When Lily was formally introduced, Nadera did whatever the cruinthian equivelent of a slight curtsy is. "It is nice to meet you Lily, Grayson here is lucky to have a sister such as yourself to look after him."