Re: Newcomers to Oak Glen

[Nara-pyon]

"I'll take the cow stew," Zoltan nodded at the man.

"Sheep stew for me!" Aeris beamed. She greatly enjoyed spicy foods when she could get them. "And ginger cookies for afters. Please."

It was almost an afterthought, but sincere nonetheless.

[Kara Winters]

Reed thought about it for a moment, "I'll take the sheep stew too, and a slice of... melon cake is what you called it? Also an ale please."

Brack nodded at this, "I'll be right back, those shouldn't take long."

The half-orc nodded and lumbered off back to the counter. As he got back behind the counter, he filled out two mugs of ale from the keg. Someone shouted something from where they sat at the counter, Brack paused and filled a third mug with ease before sliding it over to the person who had called out to him.

"You know, I've never been to a tavern that's served dessert," Reed finally commented.

[Nara-pyon]

"Is it such an odd thing?" Aeris asked, inexperienced in traverns and tavern-meals.

"First I've seen," Zoltan agreed with Reed. He tapped his fingers on the table, his eyes fixed on the half-orc as he waited for his drink.

[Kara Winters]

"Taverns are mainly for drinking and for grabbing a cheap meal. So the meal is generally filling and whatever they're making for the day, or foods you can eat by hand like bread, cheese and cold meats," Reed explained, "So desserts aren't offered, and now that I think about it, he offered three hot meal choices."

Granted two were with rice, and the take out was with rice. He wondered if the guy just made it in bulk. The light thump of the mugs caught Reed's attention. Large mugs of beer was set in front of him and Zoltan. Brack also set down a tall glass of water in front of Aeris.

"Its pure," he said as if he was use to people questioning him, "and on the house."

With that he went back to get their meals.

[Nara-pyon]

Zoltan reached for his mug of ale and took a long swig of it, set it back onto the table with a thunk, and let out a loud belch.

"Ahhh," he sighed contentedly. "Tha's the stuff."

Aeris waved the belch away from her face. "Perhaps there are so many people wanting meals here who are staying around town that he felt it would increase his business," she suggested. She reached for her water and took a sip.

[Kara Winters]

"Possibly, I mean they're right next to the inn, so it's a really interesting thing to do. Granted, the Bard's Guild has somewhat done the same, but according to the Guild Mistress, she doesn't sell alcohol, so she's not encroaching on the businesses here," Reed explained.

Brack lifted the large lid off of the pot and steam rose into the air. He took a wide wooden spoon and began to scoop out rice into bowls before putting them on a tray and taking them into the back. It must have been quick (in other words what they ordered was made ahead of time), because he was back out only five minutes later with their food.

"Here," he set down the tray.

Zoltan's meal was a bowl of rice and a generous portion of the stew. It was a simple brown stew with onions, carrots, potatoes, and chunks of beef, there also seemed to be small bits of tomatoes in it as well interestingly enough which wasn't something most people put in a beef stew. He then gave Reed and Aeris their bowls, which also had onions, carrots and potatoes, along with chunks of meat, but the colour was a kind of brown-yellow and it smelled strongly of spices.

He then set down a small plate near Aeris with four ginger cookies with a crackle surface and sprinkled with sugar on top. Reed's slice of cake was white cake, with white cream and green melon that looked like it had been carved into small balls. There was a row of them inside the middle of the cake along with the cream filling and more on top, they looked like little jewels. It was a bit weird seeing a large half-orc come out with such delicate looking desserts.

Brack then set down some spoons and two forks.

"Enjoy."

[Nara-pyon]

Zoltan dug into his food as soon as it was in front of him without care for any kind of table manners.

Aeris also began eating, but properly and neatly.

"So from here, we go to the Crafters' Guild, and then to the Bard Guild?" she asked Reed as she ate, making sure her mouth was empty when she spoke.

[Kara Winters]

"Yes, unless the crafter that can make you your necklace is on the way, then we could stop there first," Reed explained.

He took a few bites of his food, it wasn't like anything he had before, but it was tasty and was indeed spicy. Which was why it was good it was served with rice, it helped with the richness and the spice.

[Nara-pyon]

Zoltan was contented with his food, though he was eating so fast it was hard to believe that he could even taste it.

"That makes sense to me," Aeris agreed. "It makes for a shorter trip. I'm sure Zoltan will appreciate that."

She grinned at the dwarf and continued eating.

[Kara Winters]

After they finished with the meal, they flagged down Brack to pay. Brack in turn went to one of his workers, a young human girl who wrote something on Brack's chalk pad.

It was from this pad that Brack read off the cost.

"For 4 silver pieces from the mister dwarf and miss dragonborn, and 5 silver pieces from the mister elf," Brack read.

The difference in price told Reed that the ale cost at least 1 sp, which was costly compared to most place, but to be fair it was really good ale. This place had high quality stuff, and it showed.

[Nara-pyon]

"I got it," Zoltan said, holding a hand up to the others and reaching for his bag. He counted out thirteen of the silver pieces he had gotten from the corpse they'd found and paid the bill.

"Thet's comin' out o' yer takes," he added with a grin. "Don' get me wrong."

Aeris sighed, then giggled. Zoltan was Zoltan, after all.

[Kara Winters]

Reed snorted at that, "Well, better than asking for change."

Because all they had were gold pieces, which was troublesome at the moment. Perhaps they should exchange at the bank at sometime.

"So, shall we get on with errands?"

[Nara-pyon]

Zoltan cleared his throat and sniffed. "Yeah, le's get this over wi'."

"You don't have to come, Zoltan," Aeris reminded him. "You could go back to your room and sleep."

"Bah." Zoltan waved the suggestion away. "I said I'd come, an' I will. Besides, if ye need more money than ye've got, I'm the one wi' the coin."

He held up one finger to her. "An' no, ye're no' gettin' coin fer yer perse. Ye don' watch it well enough."

Aeris shrugged. "If you say so." She had reached the point where she realized it was useless to argue with him.

[Kara Winters]

"Really Zoltan?" Reed asked as the group exited the tavern, "You have to let her take control sometime."

Though he supposed it could happen later down the road, but it seemed a bit unreasonable to him for Zoltan to not trust Aeris that much. It's not like they were in a big city after all. The Crafter's Guild was the smallest of the guild buildings. Really, if it weren't for the sign it would have been mistaken for a really large workshop instead of a guild.

It didn't help that whoever ran the guild used it as workshop. There benches and worktables all around, along with tools and clockwork mechanics. On one of the workbenches was a very large tome that had the guild name on it. The place smelled of metal, oil and wood.

[Nara-pyon]

"Oh, it's very easy to tell that this is where things are crafted," Aeris beamed as they entered the Crafter's Guild. "I have to say, though, the smell is a little overwhelming."

Unlike humans - and elves and dwarfs and similar - she couldn't easily cover her nostrils to defend them from strong smells. Her face was simply too long.

Zoltan laughed at her. "Easy te tell who's not been on a burnin' bat'lefiel'," he grinned. "This is nothing compared te that. An' not a bad smell, either."

[Kara Winters]

"Oh! I have guests!" a voice spoke from behind some crates.

There was a bit of shuffling until a male gnome appeared from behind the crates. His wild blond hair was kept contained in a ponytail, but only barely. He wears a vest heavily decorated with metal embroidery. On the top of his head is a pair of specs that have magnifiers on them. The man has a wild look to him, like he had been hit by lightening and was now full of energy. Even though that wasn't how lightening magic worked.

"My, my and new guests too," he pattered over to the trio and nodded, "Interesting guests. I am Griffing, the guild master here, but please call me Gears."

[Nara-pyon]

"Gears, hello!" Aeris beamed. "My name is Aeris Frosthorn! I'm a sorcerer, and I'm new to town, I've actually just joined the Adventurer's Guild - actually we all did, and we just finished our first mission-"

"Teday, Aeris," Zoltan grunted, folding his arms across his chest.

It startled her, and she fumbled for words for a brief moment. "Ah, yes," she murmured, blushing slightly. "Well, the thing is, I was given this crystal ..."

She pulled it out of her bag and held it out for the gnome to see.

"... as an arcane focus, and I thought it would make a nice necklace, so I could use it without needing any hands, so I could keep my hands free while I'm casting spells. So ... is that possible? Do you know someone who could take care of that for me?"

She looked at him hopefully.

[Kara Winters]

"Hmmm...." Gears looked at Zoltan, "You know, no need to interrupt a good story."

Reed coughed as he suppressed a chuckled. The gnome looked back at Aeris, up and down and looked at her from side to side. He even did a small circle around the group. Nodding to himself he scampered over to the big tome that was on the workbench.

"Yes, arcane focus, just like the Ice Scales, yes, yes," he muttered as he opened the book.

The book was nearly as large as him and was propped up on a book stand. He was standing a on top a stool in order to see what he was doing. Pulling down one of his magnifier he began to go through the pages.

"Let's see let's see... practical thing, perhaps... no no, not good with delicate things, ah yes here," he stabbed a part of a page with his finger, "Willow can help you."

He turned to look at Aeris from where he stood.

"She's a good jeweler, and quick with her hands. Ask her thought for a not a fine chain, it won't do you any good."

[Nara-pyon]

Aeris was fascinated by the size of the book Gears had pulled out and was looking through.

"There must be a great many craftsmen in the town, to merit a book that big eo find one for me," she giggled. "Willow. And where will I find her? Or we, I suppose, I think the three of us will be going, so where will we find her?"

[Kara Winters]

"This book has been here longer than I have been," Gears replied to Aeris, as if that explained the size of the book at all.

He hopped down from his stool and pointed in a direction.

"You'll find her shop beside the Hammer's shop, which is beside mine. They share a work space actually, they're connected, but she doesn't need that workspace as much as he does. It should be open this time of day."

[Nara-pyon]

Aeris beamed at Gears. "Thank you very much!" she said brightly. "You're so helpful. If ever there's anything I can do to help you, you just say the word, all right?"

Zoltan just sighed and shook his head. This was the gnome's business, it wasn't as if he was going out of his way to do anything unexpected for her. Honestly.

[Kara Winters]

Gears chuckled at Aeris, "I'll hold you to that then."

Reed couldn't tell if Gears meant it or not, and he hoped the man didn't mean. If he did, Reed at least hoped it wasn't going to be a big favour. He knew Gnomes had a tendency of tinkering with things and having a mage's favour allowed them to come up with interesting things.

"Let's go then," Reed went up and tugged on Aeris' arm before she could say anything else.

[Nara-pyon]

Aeris was about to speak, she even had her mouth open to start to say something, when Reed tugged on her arm, distracting her.

"Oh, all right," she giggled slightly, a giggle of being flustered, taken by surprise. As she left with the others, she called to Gears, "Thanks again for your help!"

[Kara Winters]

"You're welcome!" Gears waved as the group left.

Once back out onto the street Reed look to the buildings beside it to find the one that Gears had been talking about. Right next to the Crafter's Guild was a good sized building with an overhanging sign the shape of a hammer that read "Lovrick's Smithery". This building seemed to be connected to the building next to it by a section made out of stone that could have doubled (judging by the length of the stone wall) as a large room in itself. There was a chimney on top of this stone section with smoking coming out of it. If Reed was to take a guess, perhaps this was where the forge was. This mean the other building connected to the stone structure must be the jewelry shop.

The sign on the building didn't really confirm if his guess was right or not as it just read "Fine Designs", but it could be a name of a jewelry shop.

[Nara-pyon]

Aeris was certain that they had found the right place because its appearance matched the description that Gears had given to them, and she led the way inside.

"Hello!" she called out brightly as she entered.

Zoltan took up the rear, looking over the shop as they went inside.

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