Open Pearl Repairs

[Magpie]

Timestamp: 28th of Autumn, 513AV

Many in Riverfall did not sleep the night of the 27th, listening to the raging winds whipping through the city and the cracks of thunder above it. It was not an abnormally terrible storm, however, so when the next morning arrived, many citizens saw their neighbors already out and cleaning the branches and flyaway shingles from around their homes. The occasional large branch had fallen, though only one place in the city had suffered any real damage:

The Pearl House.

It had occurred sometime around the third bell of the morning, and crushed in the side to a room that was, thanksfully, unoccupied. On old maple tree, much older than the establishment it stood next to, had split nearly in two, the smaller of its two boughs crashing down and rending a large section from the trunk. The dark night obscured most of the damage, and despite efforts from Nati Alva, the proprietor, and many of the tenants, morning light revealed it was simply too big a job for a handful of people.

Tenants and those who had come running to the crash after it had occured would have seen Nati crying softly as she looked at the mangled side of the building, praying to Avalis to tell her where she would find the money to make the repairs. She was close to tears throughout the morning, busying herself with attempting to assist the handful of volunteers, when she wasn't beside herself with gratitude that they had come to help. However, she was no carpenter, and had not real idea of what to do other than continue pulling branches away and piling broken masonry stones on the side of the street.

Nati being well liked, word spread quickly through the city, though volunteers were slow to come. Many arrived to help for a few bells in the early morning, but left when the bell rang for their own work day. By late morning, there were only a handful of volunteers left, most of them tenants. Nati had been sent to lie down in a neighbor's house, anxiety, lack of sleep, and worry from the tenants about her health finally forcing her away.

The branch was still embedded in the side of the building, mostly stripped of smaller branches and twigs, but most among the volunteers lacked the strength, knowledge, or tools to be able to move it. Fewer still knew what they were going to do with the hole in the building, with most of the wall and that section of the roof collapsed. General consensus was that the remainder of the tree would need to come down as well, but it was simply another project no one knew how to accomplish. Word had it that a few carpenters in town were scavenging for wood to donate, but none had arrived yet.

OOC Notes :

We need leaders! Do you know what needs to be done? No? Get in here anyway! Since we don't have any PC carpenters, feel free to pull in the occasional NPC for technical expertise. With so many who expressed interest in this event, I'd like to see a strong PC-driven effort here, though I'll be popping in occasionally to make things more difficult, interesting, fun! Good luck!

[Favchean Hronis]

Like many Favchean Hronis had been out this morning, already picking up branches from the streets and other debris that had blown in. His message sent to the smithy to inform the Master that he would be late already well on its way. After a storm like the night before there would bound to be some clean up needed, and like most citizens of Riverfall Favchean felt a responsibility to ensure the upkeep of the city. So when word came to him, by way of word of mouth that the pearl had sustained some heavy damage, Favchean began to work his way over to The Pearl. He had no carpentry skills, and unless there needed to be an edge given to metal there would not be a huge chance that his skills would bring much to the table. However he was strong, and young, so figured that someone there might be able to put him to good work. The walk to The Pearl was pleasant, the air smelling that crisp clean smell that only happens after a storm. As if the storm scoured away any grim or filth that caused the very atmosphere to smell dirty. Upon arriving the tall green skinned Akalak stopped short, his brow so dark against the dark flesh as to be almost unseen raises. There ..was a tree...in the wall. Oh perhaps not an entire tree but certainly big enough that Favchean wondered if the wall was not going to have to be completely compromised. Hurrying over, Favchean meets another smaller human who while not dwarfed in height by Favchean who was a little on the short side, seemed to be dwarfed just by the sheer girth of the Akalak. The human seemed to be a visitor to Riverfall, at least as far as Favchean could tell just by listening to the accented common. Favchean couldn't tell exactly where the man was from though, but that hardly mattered. The man did not seem to be utterly confident but he did seem to be the one the few volunteers that were left from the tenants of The Pearl listened to. "Um...I think that we need to first...um " The man hems a little, and haws a bit more, as if he was trying to dig up rusty information from his head. "Seeing as um, this is an outside wall...there is little doubt that its...uh-- uh a load bearing wall." The man looked pleased that he remembered the word he had searched for. "So we can't just go wily nily about patching it. But first we might need to remove that uh..big branch there." The man scratches his head gently, "Where are those carpenters? They will know how to shore up the wall surely..." Favchean raises a hand to run it along his smoothly shaven sides of his scalp, an old habit that he had gotten into when he was thinking through a problem. Sometimes people might think he was slow in thought simply because he was slow to speak. However he preferred to think twice and perform once so to speak. "If I might suggest.." He says, one of the rare times he does not keep complete control on the volume of his voice, letting the dark pitch that grumbled be loud to be heard above the commotion. "If someone has a hand saw, we can cut the branch in smaller bits..though I don't know what that would do to the wall around it. But I don't think removing the branch would hurt anything. It seems as good as any place to start?"[/indent]

[Caelum]

“It is exactly where we need to start,” a new voice stated with the weight of certainty, shoring up the dark skinned Akalak’s suggestion. When Favchean looked, he would find the rather surprising sight of an ethaefal of Syna behind him, head tilted back and shading his eyes from his beloved sun. He was a work of crimson and gold in his seasonal plumage, tall, lean, and dressed in the same sort of leathers and style as favored by the Akalak whose city it was. He held a heavy canvas knapsack, fresh swung from his back, and it jangled in protest as he dropped it carefully at his feet. Golden eyes glanced down, inspecting Favchean with a nod. “Caelum,” he introduced himself to the man who had raised his voice above the wavering crowd. He recognized a man of work ethic and possessed of a willingness to take charge. It took one to know one, after all, even if Caelum was come a little late in his life back on Mizahar to any real sense of leadership. He dropped into a crouch to nudge the knapsack toward Favchean and drop his second package on the ground beside it. It was a long roll of old leather that he untied to push out in revelation of an assortment of various construction tools. “We heard about the Pearl House’s need at the Sanctuary,” he explained. “So I brought these as a loaner.” In the knapsack were a few other items such as rope and tarp, but also carefully packaged food such as cheese and cold meat sandwiches and a few waterskins to share among the volunteers. He reached out to pull loose one of the handsaws and rise back to his feet. “Let’s start with removing that branch, eh?” It was, just as Favchean had said, the perfect place to begin.

[Eida]

oocHow about a spider comes to help? She lives there afterall

The night was terrible for Eida. She couldn't sleep and the Pearl House was not that safe. She looked out but Leth was nowhere. She was praying to him to the city even though Leth couldn't do anything for it. All she could do to sit down on her bed and wait. Even though the sounds wasn't really promising to hear. She wanted to look outside again, when something hard hit the window.

Another big noise. Somewhere the Pearl House. Eida still felt much safer inside her room and waited for Syna to come. And so she did, the morning has come and she went out like other people. There was a big mess, everybody started to clean up the streets. Everyone seemed tired so she wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep, but it was obvious.

Then she saw what caused that big noise. The damage was so great Eida couldn't believe. All she saw Nati was crying,praying and also asked for help. She was just standing and staring. She wanted to go to Nati and calm her down but it wouldn't help for her loss would it. Also she lived there she wanted to help somehow.

A little cleaning could help. She has started it when she saw volunteers to come to help. A green akalak, called Favchean and also an ethaefal. He looked so familiar to her, like she had met before with him. And she was right, it was Caelum. She ran to him and tried to smile a little to him. "Hey Syna child! So we meet again like that night at the Grotto? Finally I could see your other form as well." She felt better she could see a friend there but there wasn't time for chit-chat. "The night was scarier than ever...I just heard the noises and I felt and heard that something happened in the other rooms, but I didn't dare to come out." She sighed. "Where could I help here?"

[Jorin Ertihan]

Jorin had been at home when the storm had blown through. Truth be told, Jorin didn't really like storms; ever since his shocking experience during the massive summer storm last season, any picking up of the winds had Jorin looking up at the sky worriedly. And last night, while not nearly as bad as the one during Summer, was still quite bad enough that he had trouble sleeping.

And the next morning wasn't much better. The Amphitheater had been closed for the day as the stagehands went about removing random branches and other debris from the stage, leaving Jorin free to wander the city and observe the rather disheveled state the storm had left it in. Still, he had to hand it to the Akalak, they had already gotten to work putting things right, removing minor debris and branches from the streets and otherwise beautifying their city once again.

Normally, Jorin would have used this time to go home and perhaps write a few more poems, or perhaps get in some private rehearsal practice or maybe go to the Kendoka to train. He even considered going to the Stained Pelt to shore up his woefully lacking skill in archery, but his musings were interrupted when he noted that a few people were rushing somewhat hurriedly through the street. Had something happened?

"Ho, there, has something happened?" Jorin shouted at one of the people, who obligingly stopped, tossing him a look.

"Yes... a rather large branch has fallen onto the Pearl House and caused quite a bit of damage," came the response. "We're volunteering to go help. Perhaps you could as well?"

Jorin shrugged. Why not? It wasn't like he had anything better to do that day, and although he knew little-to-nothing about construction or carpentry, he knew mathematics, and he'd had some experience with logistics having been inventory manager for the Amphitheater for the last season. Besides, a little manual labor never killed anyone.

"Sure, why not?" he shrugged, and strode over to the Pearl House.

When he arrived, Jorin realized the problem was slightly more... severe, than had been implied earlier. The branch had fallen through the wall, and it seemed to be leaning precariously against it. At least he wasn't hearing any groaning or snapping sounds that would indicate lateral stress, although having not done the appropriate research he didn't know how much force that wall could actually hold.

Some of the volunteers there had already begun clearing the smaller branches and pieces of wall, but there was a large Akalak, and two others whose race escaped him by the large branch, looking to lift it. The branch was large, though, and lifting it by main force would be difficult. Deciding to draw upon his knowledge of mathematics, Jorin joined the fray.

"I agree we should remove the branch," he chimed in, nodding in greeting to the people already there, "but I wonder, is there anything we could use as a wedge? Or maybe some other branch we could use as a lever?" If they could make a lever, it may be possible for them to lift the branch with minimal force, which would be good since they'd need their strength for the undoubtedly hard work of rebuilding the wall.

[Kirsi Winterflame]

Kirsi walked a bit uncertainly up to the damaged Pearl House. When she'd heard of the clean up needed at the Pearl House, she'd figured it would be no big task to offer her services. As she drew closer to the building, however, her steps grew slower and more tentative. The Vantha certainly didn't mind helping where and when she was needed, but as she surveyed the boarding house she realized that this might be a little out of her area of expertise. Her customers that morning had led her to believe it would be simply a matter of cleaning up debris from the nasty storm of the night before. While there certainly was plenty of debris, there was, more noticeably... A hole in the building. And a tree in the hole.

But, she was here, now. It would be uncharitable to walk away just because the work was more involved than she'd thought.

Still, it was with no small amount of relief that she saw a familiar face in the handful of people gathered near the ruined wall. Jorin stood there, discussing options with several others. There were a few small piles of broken masonry, and what looked almost like stacks of kindling; smaller branches clearly stripped away from the larger branch and gathered from the ground nearby. That, at least, was something she could do. These spots of order and cleanliness looked out of place in the general chaos of the yard. If no one had a need for her elsewhere, at least she could continue to clear away the ground litter.

Conscious of her small size and relative lack of any useful knowledge, Kirsi twisted her hair into a messy braid and pushed the sleeves of her linen shirt up to her elbows. She may as well look like she could be handy. As she approached the motley group assembled around the wall, she was relieved to hear bits of the discussion taking place. No one sounded too sure of how to begin fixing things; maybe she wasn't the only one motivated more by a desire to help than any real ability. "Hello. Anything I can do to help?"

[Favchean Hronis]

Turning around at a new voice, Favchean surprise was visible, that is his raises his brows and takes a moment to respond to the man's words, even the Akalak male whose light side seemed so unperturbed by most things had to admire the beauty of the Ethaefal in the light of the sun. Yet the hesitation was mere moments before he nodded his head in greeting to Caelum, "Favchean Hronis." Was his simple introduction, though if his surprise at the Syna Ethaefal the arrival of Symenestra-appearing one was met with a coldness, the fact that she was female kept his attitude toward the Symesnestra race in check. Relieving him from having to find a delicate way to extricate himself more people joined, and the dark mood that had threatened to pervade the Akalak's mind was lifted at the general charitable nature of those around. His mathematics was barely there, able to count money and measure things were his limit but he understood the other man's idea for what it was. Did he not often work with a lever system when he was making curved blades? "Perhaps the tree that looks like it is all but destroyed, I assume the branch came from it." Favchean raised a thickly muscled arm to point toward the misshaped tree that was missing several branches and limbs. "Perhaps we can cut other limbs, if we put them together, tying them some how they might be strong enough to lever the branch up so that someone can use the saw, " His hand now gestured toward Caelum again. "I can provide the ...muscle, as my weight should be enough to lever I think." He turned toward the Vantha that came forward, and inclined his head respectfully toward her. "Greetings. Perhaps you can help gather limbs that have fallen, unless we find a stout one we will need several to lash together...If, " He stops and looks at the gathering once more, "that is we decide to do it this way. Does anyone have a different idea?"

[Caelum]

A smile rose at the sight of Eida and he reached out to give her slender shoulder a light squeeze before dropping his hand. Favchean’s reserve in regard to Eida’s Symenestra day form was noted, but he failed to remark upon it, not wanting to draw unnecessary and potentially embarrassing attention to his fellow ethaefal. “Hullo, Eida,” he said quietly, golden eyes scanning her face. “I’m glad you’re alright. What a storm, eh?” Though, of course, in comparison to the djed storm that walloped Mizahar last spring, this was nothing; but all in their time, and Nati’s tears and the safety of Eida and other tenants of the Pearl House was certainly not nothing. As the others approached, Caelum turned his attention to them with polite nods and cursory studies. A lean hip sank out as he listened and, seeing as how others seemed to have a solid action plan in mind, he did not confuse the situation by adding unnecessary commentary. He had little to no experience with construction and he was uncertain as to how reliable his ranuri was going to be in directing him on the proper course, so he left it in their hands. Sometimes the best quality a leader could exhibit was a willingness to be led. When Favchean concluded with a question, Caelum offered a nod and a wry smile. He held up his handsaw and gestured to the array of other tools he had brought. There were at least two more handsaws. “Works for me, Favchean. Good thinking –“ And that was to the human man, Jorin, whose name he did not yet know. “Eida, why don’t you help –“ He paused, looking at the Vantha woman. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. I'm Caelum. But why don’t both of you assist in gathering the branches?” To Eida, he added, “You need to be careful.” Her Symenestra dayform was fragile and, as a healer, he knew that well. He stepped back toward the ruined tree. “I’ll start sawing down branches, eh?” And he might need some help getting up there.

[Alister Val'Tec]

Alister was hearing a lot of commotion from the local town folk about the pearl house and how it had been damaged fairly bad. Alister wasn't in the town during the storm but he did see the dark massive storm clouds on his flight to Riverfall the night before. It was a storm that would have tore his flight feathers out if he was stupid enough to fly into it. Alister isn't one to help for free but he did hear a lot of people live in the Pearl house and when damage like that happens there is always things 'missing' afterwards. Being a little thief like he is he always needs to check out his next target. However the city does frown on theft but that never stopped a thief Alister has ever known.

Once reaching the building he saw that there were a few people working on it and he really didn't want to do any heavy lifting today but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to find things you want. He sat back for a few minutes just watching them and didn't know any of the people he wondered if any of them would notice if he slipped into the building and looked around but quickly decided against it when he the big green man they were calling Favchean stalking about. I really don't want to get on his bad side maybe is should just help, Never know when one of these people might get me out of a sticky situation.

"Hey Everyone need any help? i see that you all have your hands full with that tree."

[Dust]

Dust had come out from the Sanctuary with Caelum, displaying her usual cheerful willingness to jump headfirst into about any task. She didn't know the first thing about carpentry, or about the removal of trees; neither did she have strength to move large and unwieldy things. But she had a pair of willing hands, and sometimes that counted for something. While the various other people studied the branch and the tree and mused over how to move the offending limb, Dust stood near it and contemplated the way the wall had broken, the rubble being gathered and organized into stacks away from the immediate site. There seemed to be a consensus that the branch needed removal -- which was a given, even Dust could see that much -- and that the rest of the tree needed to go, too. How did one take a tree down? That almost seemed... well, no one in the Spires had ever talked about taking down a still-living tree ,that she had heard, especially not one of the great bloodwoods. But this was just a maple. Turning to the fallen bough instead, Dust listened with only half an ear to the conversation, noting at least one person she knew had joined in but not wanting to interrupt their very serious deliberations just for sake of saying hello. Mention of cutting the branch into smaller pieces piqued her attention; so too with the talk of cutting more branches out of the tree. That was reason to interrupt. "I can help cut things, if there's another handsaw," the raven Kelvic offered. She wasn't too strong, but she could either get into the rubble on the other side of the wall or up into the crown of the still-standing tree more easily than the strictly earthbound might. She also saw the way Caelum was eyeing the tree, as if uncertain how to tackle its height. "I can take a rope up for you, too...?"