The Cottage Descriptions

Ao Wed Nov 26, 2014 11:56 am

Shorjahl thanks Cherous as he arrives at the cottage, finding a certain elegant peace of the place. He dismounted and hitched his horse, patting its muscular neck on his way inside. He allows Cherous to give the basic tour, then breaks off from the rest of the party to find some semblance of solace in the small estate. Despite being abandoned and somewhat overgrown, it has the undeniable quality of a home to the mage. Immediately he feels at peace here.

As he ascends the stairs onto the second level, he makes his way to a well-lit room connected to a balcony that overlooks the creek and the surrounding forest. He moves into it, and sees an inordinate amount of papers, bindings, and pages strewn incoherently around the floor. His brow knits in curiosity as he squats onto the balls of his feet - gingerly picking up a page with arcane energy and examining it.

It seems to be pulled from a text at random, discussing the merits of a silver-based economy over other currency formats. He sets it down where it was, and steps around the rest of the room, carefully trodding on as few pages as possible, to a small table that is covered with a dusty tarp. Pulling it back and clearing a swarm of dust away with a wave of his hand and a gentle chime of his bracer, he finds what appears to be some kind of mechanical device, including several cogs and simple levers.

He isn't sure as to its full purpose, but due to the templates it has wrought in iron, the rectangular presses and some of the other mechanisms involved, he surmises it has something to do with the assembly of books. As he turns back to face the what must be thousands of pages of carefully inscribed text pages, most of which are loose, his curiosity gets the better of him, and he begins organizing the pages and books as best as he can.

The menial, slow, focused work will help him take his mind off of the words that he can't read, those that whisper darkly in the recesses of his mind.

--------------------------------------

So I basically want a library that's been ripped apart with a very rudimentary early printing press / book bindery. Ideally I'd like to have some kind of tangential relevance to what we're doing, but that is not necessary whatsoever. I like the idea of him leafing through thousands if not tens of thousands of destroyed books and trying to reassemble them into something coherent.

Shorjahl
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Re: Chapter Two

Post Custer Thickett Yesterday at 17:30
"Exactly, all our's but in ya family's name. Call it homage to the path luck has placed us on. If it weren't for ya bloodline, none of this would have been possible, Osvald. Besides, Lord Hale sounded a bit of a cruel jape for a human without at least some land by Amn's standards." Cuss winked at Osvald. "If ya become a king someday, I hopes ya'll have a fancy title for me?"

...

Custer takes a long, deep breath and lets out a pleasant sigh as he stands in the middle of the bridge. The property was more beautiful than he had hoped. If only you were here to share it with me. Agata said, 'I am, love. It is beautiful. Custer replied, No, I mean really here. We could have made our own lives out here. Good ones.

The chimney caught Custer's eye. He had seen plenty of them in his time, but this one was huge, even for humans. It seemed to form the center support for the house built around it, and towered several feet above the 2nd floor. Custer trotted forward and asked Chereous, "Why is the chimney so large?"

"Ah, because it isn't one."

"Isn't one, what? A chimney?"

"Aye, a chimney. Well, it is a chimney of a sorts. Several, actually. But first, it was a tower. Small, even for the likes of you and me, but it has 4 rooms stacked inside. Too small to put much more than a peg for your coat in, but five or six can stand shoulder to shoulder in each. The walls are thick. The only way in is from a door in a hallway on the second floor of the house. Well, and the top, I suppose. It is a hold-fast. I'll show you more when we go inside." Cherous promised.

Custer thanked him, then spotted some flowers in the bushes that lined the porch around the house. His eyes went wide. "Is that.." He pointed, "Pipe-weed?"

Cherous smiled, "Aye, some of the best Halflings' leaf you'll find in these parts."

Custer laughed to the sky, and kissed the symbol of Waukeen on his necklace of charms.

.......

I imagine the hold-fast to be an old tower that was built up over time before the house was built up around it. It would have a level mostly below ground in the foundation. The stone of this room and the one above it would be different than the stone in the two rooms above as they were a later expansion. The bottom two rooms were built by Halfling's prior to the fall of Meiritin, and as such men and elves would need to squat inside them. The top two rooms are tall enough for average sized humans to stand up in.

The original entrance at the base of the tower was walled up during an expansion, and as such the only two ways in are via a gated door on the second floor of the house that leads into the third story of the tower. The gate is stuck open, as the metal has long ago rusted it in position. There is a scared hole in the gate where the lock use to be, probably knocked through 100 or more years ago. There is a hole in the roof of the top floor room that leads to the roof. It is covered by a wooden trap that is only slightly rotted, having been replaced only a few years ago by Cherous. There is a rough wooden ladder used to access the trap.

The top does not have embrasures or merlons, and is disappointingly flat, offering little cover. There are several holes at the top of the outside walls. Some are shallow, and were used to hold wooden poles that must have served as support for some type of wooden roof long ago. Others are much deeper, and partially covered by thin metal cones. Cherous explains that they are for the fireplaces built into the walls of the tower for the rooms in the house below. What must have been the final expansion of the tower came when the house was built around it, and stone fireplaces set into the outside walls below. As such, the stone on the entire outside of the tower is uniform, but distinctly different from the two types of stone used within.

The bottom room that is partially underground has some old rotten empty chests that fall apart if moved or kicked.

The second room is barren.

The third has old metal racks set in the stone for what was once an arsenal.

The fourth has two merlons the shape of upside-down keyholes in each wall, but the outer most layers of stone cover them. The clash of the two different types of stone in the walls are beautiful to some. There is a three foot tall slender column of stone in the center of the room, polished smooth and shiny. It looks as if to display an item, mayhaps a shrine, but whatever treasure sat upon it once is now long gone.

Oh, and pipe-weed (Halflings' Leaf) is from Tolkien. Custer wants to grow, smoke, and maybe even sell some of it some day.

Custer Thickett
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Re: Chapter Two

Post Osvald Hale Yesterday at 18:37
Osvald looked happily at the cottage. While obviously unoccupied and overgrown, its walls stood straight without buckling, and the foundation was still strong.

Cherous lead them first to a modest open faced stable about 100 feet from the cottage, little more than than 3 walls and a thatched roof, but it had space to comfortably accommodate a dozen horses. Though the interior was partially filled with dead leaves that have blown in, it only takes Cherous' company a few moments to clean it out while the halfling leads the party to the main building, explaining on the way that the stable was a recent addition to the property to replace an older, smaller one that lies elsewhere.

Osvald is immediately impressed with the old tower portion; from the roof the view is good and unobstructed, save for the tops of a few towering trees. From the tower it is evident that the cottage is built on a slight rise. The low wall completely encircles the land on three sides and even along a portion of the creek, though it has crumbled in places and the old stones are nearly overgrown with ivy and moss. Osvald estimates the wall to fluctuate between 3 and 8 feet in height. Rotted wooden posts still jutted upwards from the most intact areas at regular intervals, it appears an additional wooden barricade was once affixed atop the stone wall, perhaps reaching a full 15 feet high.

Looking back towards the creek, Cherous indicates how the fruit trees were once arrayed in a small grid for easy harvesting, and the lines of the old planting are vaguely apparent, but years of neglect have allowed the trees to spill into the aisles and they grow freely amongst much of the property.

When the group is lead back inside, Osvald splits off from the others and wanders the house. It is modestly furnished, and sparsely decorated. The walls are discoloured in places where it seems tapasteries or paintings once hung for many years. The second floor contains a series of separate private rooms, the largest of which opens into a private study or library with a balcony, where Osvald finds Shorjahl shifting through stacks of old papers.

"Any indication on who may have owned this land over the ages? Seems to have undergone quite a few changes."

Osvald finds a modest room with two tall, narrow windows that face inward, overlooking the creek. One wall of the sleeping quarters is the ancient stone exterior of the old tower. After a moments inspection, he leaves his pack on the bunk and moves on.

Moving through the main hall of the ground floor, Osvald notes a large fireplace above which rests a grand carving, ornately worked into the stone of the hearth itself, but it's too dim to make out much detail without a fire going.
Wandering outside, Osvald walks along the creek to a dense copse of trees near the back of the property close to where the outer wall meets the gently flowing water. Ducking low through a gap in the branches, the ranger finds inside a small glen of ferns and moss covered rocks. A small trickle of water flows from a crack in the rocks.

'A natural spring?' He follows the trickling water with his gaze as it flows downward into the creek. Hesitantly, he cups a sip into his mouth and finds it cool and fresh. Satisfied, he turns back toward the cottage, eager to see what else the others have discovered.

=====

Quick survey of the property before heading back to meet the others, Osvald will relay everything he's seen.

OOC: My bad, Cuss. Missread your post as speaking to the halfling, not speaking in halfling on my phone.

Osvald Hale
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Re: Chapter Two

Post Forgeless Kilik Yesterday at 22:51
Homes - nae just 'houses', but homes are sacred to the Wayfinder; they be the beginnin's an' the ends o' journies. Places that set our feet on the dusty road for all sorts o' reasons; the places that keep our hearts pointed true as we fight to find our way back to 'em. This has been a house for some time, an' ye can hear these old stones achin' to be a home again. Kilik patted the solid foundation of the fireplace. But, first, there are certain rites that must be observed.

The dwarf busied himself with bustling from room to room, opening doors and windows wide and repeating in dwarven Be welcome, Watcher-Over-Wanderers. This home shall be a haven to the lost an' the weary; guide their steps to our threshold, an' they shall find no doors barred to 'em. He repeated the phrase, again and again, in the heavy rolling language of his people, occasionally favoring one of his companions with a wink or a smile and the explanation It takes a bit o' time to welcome a god, but it can make a fair spot of difference, if it comes to it.

As he bustled from room to room, consecrating with his prayer, it occurred to Kilik that he hadn't spoken this many words in his father's tongue in many years. It felt good, but strange - like a chance encounter with an old lover.

Ach, but there are a lot o' doors an' windows in this place...do nae worry; I know yer particular 'bout these things, an' I'll make sure to get 'em all.

...guide their steps to our threshold, an' they shall find no doors barred to 'em. he finished before the open stable doors, the last portal to be offered to Marthammor Duin. That was some right thirsty work...I wonder if this place has a keg or two tucked away in the basement? He closed doors and latched them, turning back to the cottage to see how the others were faring.

In a small stand of trees a few dozen yards away, he spotted a small, ramshackle outbuilding that looked as if a good storm might bring its stones clattering down. That must be the old stable the 'alfling mentioned. I doubt anyone'll be seeking refuge there but, still, all doors must be opened to the Watchful Eye... An' one more'll make little difference he grumbled to himself.

He clomped over to the small stable, and found its rotted wooden doors barely clinging to their hinges. Still, the traditions must be obeyed. He swung them wide and began his chant, a touch more hurried than when he began now that he drew near the ending of his task. Be welcome, Watcher-Over-Wanderers. This home shall be a haven -- his eyes roamed over the accumulated debris of years of neglect inside the stable, until a distinctive shape in a darkened corner brought him up short and the words of his prayer died upon his lips.

He moved toward it cautiously, and as he drew near both his fears and his hopes were confirmed. There, in the forgotten corner of the stable, sat a small iron anvil, no doubt intended for shoeing and the other routine maintenance required to keep a home in working order. Beyond it, a simple coal hearth lay buried in soot, the distinctive handles of hammers and tongs protruding from the ashes.

Kilik laid his hand upon the cold iron of the anvil, and its strength and its silence flowed into him, stealing his breath. Faith; the anvil is faith, to be hammered upon and forgotten in darkness. To lie cold and abandoned for decades. But solid, unmoving, and always ready for the smith to resume his work. A great wrenching sob shook the dwarf's body, the single word Laina! mingled with tears that flowed freely for the first time in years.

He steadied himself with deep, shuddering breaths as he smeared the back of his hand across his watering eyes.

Thank ye, Holy Marthammor he whispered as he regained his composure. Thank ye.

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Re: Chapter Two

Post Kellar Yesterday at 23:45
The cottage was old, very old, but very well built. Two levels tall, without so much as a slight lean to it. Nice, sturdy, well built. Kellar approached the side of the cottage and rapped the side of it with his lance, listening to the ting! against the stone every few feet. It'd been a long time since he'd stayed in a place like this, usually it's a stable or an inn. Orbaugh, what do you think? Master, this place is safe! I agree, it has a nice stone fence, protecting it here.

Kellar could tell that this place had been picked in particular. It was close to the water source, it was positioned to be higher than the water flowing by, but low enough that the winds coming off of the ridge wouldn't affect the cottage. He looked at the fruit trees that were interspersed throughout the area inside the stone fence. There's a decent amount of fruit growing here, the soil seems to be nutrient rich to sustain these trees. They're overgrown and unkempt, but I can fix that, he thought. He set his lance against the side of the building and dropped his backpack nearby. He took his battleaxe along with him and he went to the first tree...

Orbaugh, can you collect a few of the apples that have fallen, they need to look clean. Set them by the backpack. Yes Master, I like this game! Orbaugh set about his task while Kellar started cleaning the trunk of the first tree, removing the smaller branches, and making a small pile about a yard from its base. Kellar moved to the next tree, cleaning that tree as well, and piling more small branches for collection. He came upon a half rotted tree, it looked like lightning struck it on one side. With a few dozen chops from his battleaxe, the tree was felled, and he set up removing the branches and piling them. The trunk and thicker branches were chopped down into serviceable size for use in the fireplace.

As Kellar made his way around the property, he noted Kilik over at an old stable, a perfect place to keep extra tinder for the fire. He rounded up some of the extra branches he had cleaned from the trees and headed over toward Kilik. Pardon, Master Dwarf, do you think I'd be able to take a section of this old stable for tinder storage, asked Kellar. He noted Kilik's demeanor after he asked, I'm sorry if I interrupted anything, I just saw you here, I figured this place would be good as any. Can't have the tinder next to the house, termites you know, he concluded. Kilik nodded slowly. With that Kellar put the extra branches onto one side of the stable, and then returned with the extra wood that he chopped into smaller pieces to be used in the fireplace. These will dry out in time, no need to worry about that just yet.

Kellar finished collecting all the extra branches and wood and walked along the edge of the property. He could see Orbaugh still busily clawing at apples and nudging them along playfully. It looked like he might have only placed about a dozen or so apples, but he looked like he was having fun all the same. He continued looking along the edge, along the stone wall, he noted the direction of the wind. Lord Hale has a fine residence here, it's a shame I won't be staying for very long. He passed Osvald and nodded to him politely and then made his way back through the trees and grass and gathered up Orbaugh and the apple he was pushing. Good job Orbaugh. Good job. Orbaugh chittered softly on Kellar's shoulder as they headed toward the cottage.

Once inside, Kellar noted that there wasn't much for furniture, but it did feel like it was "lived" in.

OOC- I explained what the outside of the property looked like aside from Osvald's finding of the natural spring. The description of the interior was pretty spot on and didn't want to impede on that description.

Kellar
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Re: Chapter Two

Post Custer Thickett Today at 3:38
After touring the tower, Custer sets about looking through the house for a room he might claim as his own. He walks around the second floor using the hallway that circles the tower. The hallway had four intersecting it at each cardinal direction. A fireplace was set in the tower where the hallways met the center, and the far end of each opened into large rooms. Looking down one, Cuss spotted Shorjahl through the archway leading into a library. He could see the blue sky beyond the human through the open window in that room.

To the left and right of the archway leading into the library were more halls, following the rooms that made up the outer walls of the manor. Where these hallways met at the corners, stone stairways led down to the first floor. It appeared as if the construction of the place used them to anchor the strong thick beams that were set in the tower at the center on their other end. Atop them was the gray slate singled roof he studied from atop the tower.

The spaces between the hallways was open, looking down into the spacious great rooms that defined the lower level. Custer had to stand on his toes to see over the solid half walls that lined the hallways' side facing the open room below. The humans could easily use the walls to rest their hands as they leaned out over those down there, but Custer just could rest his chin on them. As he walked the halls, he thought, If this were in town, it'd make a hell of an inn. If only I could find the kitchen. Did you see one? What about privies. Did you see any of those?

It was on the direct opposite side of the house from Shorjahl's library that Custer found his room. The bed could fit a family, and had spiraled post at each corner. Nearly everything between them would need to be replaced, which would not be an easy feat given the location. There was a large table across the room from the bed. It seemed to be of the same type of wood. Mayhaps they were both made right here, from dark wood found in the forest. All the same, they were beautiful. Yes, a room like this could surely make his father jealous, and that thought brought a smile to Cuss's face. He hoped Osvald would let him have it.

When he stepped out onto the balcony that covered the porch below, he finally spotted the kitchen. That's a crying shame. He was use to kitchens in town being inside the building they served, if a building was fortunate enough to be served by one. He had almost forgot that most rural estates built them separate from their main hall, so that an unfortunate grease fire would not burn it all down. It was no different here, and in this case, Lord Hale was fortunate, for there the kitchen was, a pile of ashes and charred stone.

Just beyond the ruin, he spotted some small, slender, shed like buildings with moon windows carved into the doors. And no privies, either. Such is the nature of good luck, so it would seem. Custer hung and shook his head, quietly laughing to himself.