Waking slightly before the dawn had become a habit for Kelton since arriving on Lezseka, and his off days (such as the one in which he found himself) were no exception. Although that morning the day was his own, Kelton decided to go examine the fields on the town's outskirts, and to see what he could learn about the issues that they had in sustaining good crop growth. He gathered up a few basic supplies, ate a quick breakfast, and then headed out from his room at the inn. To be more accurate, Kelton no longer really thought of Millie's place as "the inn" - it had become more of an efficiency at this point, and as there was no sign he'd be moving on any time soon, she had given Kelton a discount to rent by the week, and was even talking now about a monthly rate. It was the place he thought of when he said he was ready to "head home," and that was good enough for now. Kelton was in good spirits, and enjoyed the short walk in the cool air of the late Spring.

When he reached the fields, he looked around, and was stumped; there was definitely something strange, but natural, about this wide open area, but Kelton couldn't figure out what it was for the life of him. It wasn't like he was some kind of expert farmer or agricultural guru, he knew, but this had to have a simple explanation. The phenomenon that was ruining crops and causing things not to grow had to be localized, or the wider forest area around would be dead too, right? So what would cause that? Being so early in the season, there wasn't any activity in terms of cultivated crops, but Kelton was aware of the lock of wild growth, too - Spring should have been making the fields explode with plant life, but it was relatively empty, other than a few hardy grasses and weeds that had found a way to make do. Kelton was curious about what was allowing these to thrive when others couldn't, assuming that there was likely something different about the soil. Well, he though, there was an easy enough test for that.

Kelton got a few good clumps of soil from the clearing into a small pouch he had brought with him, and then walked into the forest where the growth grew thick, and took a few samples from there too, placing them into a separate small pouch. He headed back to his base of operations at Millie's, where he ran into Jeremy, who was just finishing up his own breakfast. "Perfect timing," Kelton told the man, "I'm about to try a little something. Can you go ask Millie for a few bowls, as well as some vinegar and soda ash? A tablespoon or so of each ought to do." Jeremy raised his eyebrows quizzically, but did as he was asked, and quickly returned with not only the requested supplies, but Millie as well - she was more than a little curious what Kelton was planning to do.

"This is pretty simple," Kelton explained, "if it works, at least." He chuckled. "I've got soil from the fields here, which I'll divide into two of the bowls like this. Now, I want to pour a little vinegar in one - " which he did, waited, and saw nothing happen, "and some soda ash mixed with water into the other." Almost immediately after adding the soda mixture to the soil, there was a strong fizzing. Kelton nodded to himself. "Ok, now we're getting somewhere. This proves that the soil is very acidic, which is bad for growing things. Let's compare that to the soil that I collected from the forest." He repeated the experiment, and this time the vinegar had a small reaction, but the soda ash did nothing at all.

"Very different indeed. Well, it seems like the thing to do, then, is to attempt to fix the acidity of the soil in the growing fields. There are a few things we can do. Jeremy, those blocks that we're using for the walls - those are mostly limestone, right?" Jeremy nodded, "Yup, it is all over the place around here." "OK, " Kelton said, "then one thing we can do is to take the dust and lose gravel that we get when shaping the stones, and collect all of it. We can make a bed in the open field, and spread the limestone gravel and dust all over it; we'll till it up, then add more of the gravel on top. Then we take a bunch of forest dirt and put that in a thick layer over the top of the whole mixture. If we do that, I think we'd be able to get some good growth going. At least, it's worth trying; we don't have much to lose."

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Jeremy sprang to his feet, his mouth running as fast as his mind, as he eagerly began to spin his propaganda. Soon, the hype machine was in full swing, with Jeremy calling Kelton a "learned man of science" who was "unlocking the secrets of our salvation" - it was a bit much (ok, a lot much), but Kelton appreciated the enthusiasm, and figured that even if people saw through it a little, it was better to go slightly overboard than the other way around. Now, he just had to deliver some results. Kelton was reasonably confident in his conclusion; after all, this was just basic chemistry...but was his solution the right one? Would it be enough to overcome whatever was making the ground so acidic naturally? He wasn't sure. Kelton also made the suggestion to whoever was listening (which was a reasonable crowd of the inn's patrons, gathered around the small table on which Kelton had been working) that they should start growing herbs too, which might help the soil. Of course, Kelton had medical herbs in the back of his mind again, but herbs had so many other uses - food and fragrance-making among them - that it was almost inexcusable not to have them around. Most importantly, though, was going to be wheat. If Kelton could get wheat growing in his small test bed, they could scale that up to the whole clearing.

Pleased with this initial start, Kelton rose from the table and made his exit, heading across town while Jeremy continued to excite the people, and solicit volunteers to help construct the test bed. Kelton's other priority that day was to think about revenue - not from the crops and fields, necessarily, but how to deal with the pottery that the local craftsmen made. As there were only three or four people who made their living producing these crafts, it wouldn't take long for Kelton to build some sort of consensus...he hoped. Kelton's first thought was of trying to incorporate some sort of guild - that would protect them, provide shared income, control the prices and quality, and ensure that their secrets were safe. The more he thought about it, though, it just seemed to heavy-handed, and guilds often have a way of making enemies via a "join us or stop what you're doing" mentality. Kelton reminded himself how hard he needed to try not to do things that could create enemies, even for something as small as this.

No, a guild wouldn't do, but that wasn't the only option. Maybe he could do the work himself; despite what his mother had told him as a child, Kelton was realizing there was value in being "in the weeds" sometimes. If he took an agent status, with a fixed-percentage...maybe pegged to the difference in price above what they got now, there would be no reason for them to say no, and this way any wins that they did get would easily be attributable to him. Kelton couldn't think of a reason not to try this approach, although it might be possible that they cut him out once things were stable. That was a problem he'd have to deal with once he sold the idea, though. Kelton approached the house-workshop-store that he had spent time in earlier, and saw the old potter hard at work already. "Lyle," Kelton called out, "I've got an idea for you. What do you say you round up the rest of the potters, and we can have a chat?"

While Lyle had enjoyed his conversation with Kelton the other day, and appreciated his patronage (small as it was), he certainly didn't owe the man anything, and didn't particularly want to be interrupted. He made Kelton wait so long for an answer that Kelton started to become certain he wouldn't get one, before Lyle finally sighed loudly and asked "What kind of idea is it, and why do I want it?" Kelton laughed at the man's directness. "It's an idea to solve the problem you told me about, to get you better distribution and more money. Is that a good enough hook to get a few minutes of your time?" Lyle nodded slowly. "Aye. I can spare some time for that. The others will too, I reckon. Let's go."

The two men moved through the village as Lyle collected the others, pressing Kelton for details the whole time. "It'd be a lot easier for me if I could tell them what you wanted, you know." Kelton refused to budge, firm in his resolution to only go over it once the whole group was assembled. "Lyle, just tell them that I'm a fan, and a businessman. That I want you all to be as appreciated, and as wealthy, as you deserve to be. Tell them that I might have a way to make that happen. What's hard about that? Besides, it's a rest day, and a good day for a walk - if nothing else, they waste thirty minutes of their time, but they still get a bit of fresh air."