4 Marpenoth
The workshop has been busy the last tenday, with the four of us setting up storage and management for the cold winter that will arrive imminently. There’s still plenty to do, from setting up new shelves to making sure there is ample storage space for things like firewood, our crates of vials, and vats of test chemicals.
The silk we harvested en masse from the forest colony has been somewhat stubborn, we’re still testing different compounds and mixes to find the right ratios for the best result. Too much and the silk deteriorates, too little and it just doesn’t do enough. We got put on the right track though by throwing some money at the Order of Weavers and Dyers for some advice. There isn’t exactly much here for silk production, but there were some documents on the process further south for the use of moth cocoons.
There was also a less helpful treatise on drow silk weaving, that ended up being entirely theoretical based on decayed samples from drow raiding parties on the surface. Also full of racism against them, which unfortunately calls much of the conclusions into question. Somehow, I was doubtful the need to feed humanoid flesh to their giant spiders was actually a key component for them to make usable silk for weaving.
That reminds me, I do think I saw some new weaving technology on display during the Day of Wonders yesterday. There were a few more explosives and such demonstrated compared to previous years so it sort of slipped my mind, but maybe seeing if we could get a prototype or something custom-made for us would be quite helpful. We certainly have the money now with all the poison we’re selling.
I think we might actually be crashing that economy given a bit of time. We’ve been selling in bulk to two dozen different apothecaries for a discounted price. They don’t ask too many questions with their discount, and they seem to be happy to have a cheap product they can mark up for adventurers and other legal but dangerous lines of work. I’ve tried to be a bit more selective on who we’re selling to just so it doesn’t easily get traced back to us from an unrelated investigation from the guards.
We’ll have to try and figure something out for me to actually be able to access that money. At this point, I have plenty for the tuition to go study with the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors. Hells I could probably sponsor myself to go study at the Blackstaff Academy, though from what research I’ve done into it that would require decent proficiency beforehand. So the Watchful Order first to learn the basics, then try to move on to the more advanced stuff once I’ve proven myself.
13 Marpenoth
Virla made a request of me this morning, just before I left to go study with Orsik at the Font. Apparently both she and Tulgor realized that they maybe ought to get to know my tutor given how much time I spend with him according to my siblings. Not that I don’t often use him as an excuse for what I was off doing for the entire day rather than explaining the lizardfolk.
So I made plans with him while we were at the library. He said he’d actually be free in two days, during Gods’ Day, so he’ll be coming over for supper then. I suppose it makes some sense he’d be free, spellcasters aren’t supposed to use magic on that day, some association with a big magical disaster that happened. Not that it stops him from reading and researching exactly, but I suppose I understand why he’d have already been taking the day off.
More importantly to the world, though less so to me, more word has come down from Silverymoon. They found out what was attacking, and it’s basically the entire list of options. Drow aligned themselves with an orc city-state, and then they also managed to get giants and white dragons to also join them from up north in the tundra.
It’s certainly concerning, that such a varied host of evil is not considered a common event. It’s well coordinated and likely years in the making. Much of the city is praying that things go well, the forces we sent weren’t a massive portion of the forces of the city, but Silverymoon actually managing to fall would be catastrophic for the region for a variety of reasons.
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15 Marpenoth
Orsik visited today, and I’d hesitantly say things went well. They didn’t explode in my face anyway, nor did any important secrets get revealed.
Things started off pleasantly, Virla had made some delicious lamb ribs with a side of vegetables and some sort of red-coloured sauce to go with them. Thankfully we had a slightly taller chair for Orsik to sit in, given the whole being a dwarf thing. It was actually just one of the chairs we kids use, but it meant that Orsik wasn’t sat too low to the table.
I wonder what sort of furniture situation a family would have that included one of the taller races and one of the smaller ones.
Anyway, Tulgor did somewhat interrogate Orsik on a few things, surprisingly not just about me. Orsik spends enough time around the classrooms to at least be passingly familiar with Pelsot and Jespa, even if they don’t join us for studying. Pelsot, thank the gods, actually knows to be more behaved than normal in the library recently. Either he’d risk getting kicked out, or I would give him another stern talking to if he did again.
Jespa, despite her attempts, isn’t one with a predisposition to be able to just sit down and read something for long periods of time. Which makes sense given she’s a six-year-old. Rather be out playing games most of the time, though she does enjoy listening to me read to her before we go to bed sometimes.
I was forced to speak more about my wandering of the city though. Orsik certainly backed up that I was studying with him often enough that it wasn’t so bad as to compromise my cover stories, but there were a few gaps that raised questions between when Pelsot and Jespa said I was with them, and when I was studying with Orsik. I was able to spin a mostly true tale though about my wandering about the northern half of the city, thankfully considered to be reasonably safe for me as long as I wasn’t going into the alleys. The scare with Bhaal’s return had generally alleviated after a lack of noticeable events in the city, though people did still try to keep more of an eye out for each other out of paranoia.
Still, using kernels of the truth for places I had been, even if the days I was in those areas weren’t quite accurate, was convincing enough to alleviate most doubt about my activities. Not as though they were easily able to investigate that, and being able to recount the landmarks and such that I’d been working on familiarizing myself with was seen as a positive trait, despite the reality of being a young child wandering unattended. This whole free-range parenting thing that was the local culture was pretty useful.
That, and I think my parents are just relieved I don’t get into trouble as much as a lot of the neighbourhood kids. Pelsot’s had to be walked home before by some upset adult or even a guard once or twice for stuff he had gotten pulled into. Jespa, bless her, was at least clever enough to stay out of trouble or slip away when it arose.
3 Uktar
Today I was forced to take much of the day off, at least with my body. The workshop was mercifully within the limits of my power’s reach still from my home.
Jespa managed to convince Virla to try and teach us some baking. I haven’t really done any baking or cooking since arriving here, and haven’t had a reason to with Virla preparing meals for us. One in the morning, one in the evening, with some occasional snacks during the day.
The actual process was kind of messy, and quite difficult honestly. Kneading dough manually is hard, harder when you have little childlike arms that aren’t used to such exertions. Messy from the flour that kind of got everywhere. We ended up making pretzels at home.
It’s funny, the last time I would have done something like baking my own bread like this was back with mom when she was alive. I think there might have been one point we did it when I was in Chicago, but that was with a mixer that actually did most of the work for us.
We took the raw dough over to the communal neighbourhood oven. One of the neighbours a few houses down actually ran a bakery, but would let us use one of the ovens basically just for the cost of the wood needed to heat it. The pretzels turned out well enough, at least the ones that Virla had made. The ones that Jespa and I had been responsible for… not so much. There were bubbles in them so they didn’t quite all have the right shape, and some were a little burnt.
Unsalted pretzels were also something I was less used to, but when we ate them during dinner we had them with some dipping sauces. Pelsot stuffed his face with them so they couldn’t have turned out too bad anyway.