Solo A Stack of Stone Part II

[Crylon Stonecraft]

71 Spring 520 Rising on the next day, Crylon headed to the side of the Riad where there was an open sided patio. There he found the pile of materials he would need to begin working on the buildings repairs. Sand, lime, in large sacks. He had the equipment he had used before, the bucket and things for mixing, and there were water in the Outpost without too much difficulty. He had seen when he first entered their plentiful nature, small artificial ponds, fountains, and other sources used for watering people. Crylon was curious how such a seemingly dry place had water so plentiful, knowing there was an interesting story or work behind it, but more focused on that day on doing his work. All that mattered was he had water, a large tub of it which he could use via a smaller ladle. He did not expect to use all the material that day, but would need it later so would stow the remains for next time. Due to the construction of the building with "Stucco" as it was called, regular maintenance was required to keep the walls smooth and without any markings. Dragging the materials into place, Crylon started by adding in some scoops of sand. One, two, three. He had to be careful, measuring them out as careful as he could to be a pull scoop so that everything kept equal. In making mortar, as in much of building, math was important. In this case it was all about fractions, keeping the ratio of sand to lime right along with the water. Once he had enough sand in he took another scoop, this time a carefully measured scoop of lime, and added it into the bucket. Then he mixed, wanting the material in the bucket to not so clearly be one or the other. This was as much of a work out on his arms as hauling the raw materials around, as the materials did not want to mix easily. It meant brute force and labor, working at the materials by the long mixing stick he moved about inside the bucket. Slowly as he worked the materials changed, slowly shifting from being two disparate things to one mixed thing. A hybrid, rather than two separate layers in the bucket. It took time. A chime. Two. Ten. On he mixed, focusing on the labor at hand. After what seemed ages, his arms tired-or at least the one normal one, Crylon set aside the pole and peered down into the bucket. He went across the room and rested for a moment, lounging on a chair and pulling out his waterskin which was in his pack resting beside one of the patio chairs. He took a small pull, then another, basking in the heat of the outpost. After a few chimes his more normal arm seemed to ache a bit less, and so he rose and headed back to the bucket. Sifting with one hand he looked for clumps or disparate materials, not finding any. Satisfied with his work Crylon scooped out a portion of the mixed material and set it aside, something he had learned long ago. One set aside a portion of the dry mix before adding water, in case too much water was added and one needed to dry it out. A good first step in his work. WC: 558

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Done with the dry mix, Crylon started by adding in a ladle full of water. This did not do much so he added in a second, and then began to mix. Of course seeing as their was so little water not much happened just yet, doing little more than turning the top layer of material mix into muck and leaving the rest dry. This was always the hardest part, slow and tedious even to an Isur. But Crylon knew he had to take his time and do things in small steps, or else he risked ruining the mix by adding too much water. For a moment or two Crylon considered waking Tide who was slumbering inactive in his pack, but he did not think the small statue would overly enjoy being in the outpost. He was of the sea, and the outpost was about as far as one could get from the sea. Hot, dry, not at all to the Laviku followers liking. Crylon added in a few more ladles of water, then continued the mixing. The more he added the deeper it seeped, but it was a slow process. Faster though, he felt, than the last time he had done it. He was still relatively new to making mortar, or working with masonry, but having done it before he had a better grasp of the steps and concepts. Another ladle, and more mixing. This time the consistency started to change, requiring Crylon to mix deeper and move around more bits to get at the dry lower bits. Some shifting and scooping, and he was left with some oddly clumping pieces and more dry layers. Ladling again Crylon watched the water trickle down and soak into the hungry surface, requiring more mixing. Each bit loosened the substance up, but also made it heavier. Before it had actually been easier to mix, as it was just dry material. Now it was more like trying to turn around and mix a thick mud, straining his arm strength. Another scoop and he felt like he was getting close. There were no more dry chunks or layers, all at least a bit damp. Now he needed to pull some of the drier bits up, not just mixing in a circle but also trying to shift the lower parts up and the upper parts downward. This broke up a few more clods, leaving Crylon to his mixing. Onward and ever more, falling into a steady rhythm. He kept going, a chime, two, five, ten, until he felt once more that some semblance of uniformity was reached. Then he tested it, sticking the stick in and check its consistency and reaction. Too dry. Another ladle of water, and more mixing. A sigh, as he mixed in the newest ladle. And more mixing, onward with the task that seemed nearing its completion but was difficult to target and clearly say it was done. Finally when he was done mixing he felt the consistency was right. Resting once more he sat and let his arms droop, taking a sip of water from his waterskin to cool down, basking in the heat of the Outpost which reminded Crylon in some ways of a smithy. WC: 535

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Now that he was done making the mortar mix, Crylon hefted the bucket and some tools and headed off to the first room. He had a long flat wooden spatula type tool, for use in spreading out the material. Though he was new to stucco, so was not sure exactly how it worked. When he had made mortar and held bricks and things together for masonry he had stacked and layered. Here however, it was more of a spread over layer which he felt was pretty different. Scooping up a small pat he placed it against one of the larger cracks he had found. Then sweeping the wooden spreader over he moved it about, over the surface. The first thing he realized was the color was wrong. The other walls and the area around the crack was paler. His mortar mix however was a darker not quite grey color. Pausing to inspect another crack, he could see the area below and around the edges. That was when he realized that over the stucco there was a layer of paint, more of a whitish hue. So the walls were stucco which provided a flat and smooth surface, and then were painted over. Which was a bit odd, but made sense if one waited until the mortar dried. Likely then there would be paint around somewhere, which he could use to touch over once the repaired stucco had dried. For now though he needed to focus on fixing the stucco before it dried, or else he would need to start all over on the mix. And if that happened the entire batch would be ruined, and he would need to do the entire laborious process from scratch. Not wanting to do that Crylon returned to his work and smoothed out the mortar. The small bit he had used filled in the hole of the crack, with excess leaving a slightly raised surface. Using the side of the flat wooden tool Crylon scraped over the newly placed layer. This resulted in removing a bit and flattening out what remained. Scraping off that excess on the lip of the bucket Crylon returned again and scraped till he had a relatively smooth surface. Then once more he removed the excess onto the bucket. He could still tell the old bits from the new, more by color than anything else, but also by a tiny almost imperceptible layer which made a lip. Barely a lip though, perhaps as thin as a piece of parchment, or perhaps less than that. But then he did not think he was going to get it perfect just yet, and once it was painted over he believed it would under general examination not be noticeable. It was just the combination of height of layers and differing colors which made it so noticeable. Letting out a sigh Crylon took his tools and material and headed to the next spot in the next room which needed patch work.He was focused now on the more dramatic cracks, but next time he would try to repair the wells and redo the stucco on a rotation. But first the initial issue of the cracks. WC: 528

[Crylon Stonecraft]

The next crack Crylon could see was not like the first. The first had perhaps dried out or something, he was less sure on what happened to that one. Here though it was more of a divot, and it was at a low level. There was also a low bench right at the same height, and near the mark. Clearly someone had bumped the bench, which had hit the wall and marred it. Perhaps they had been in a hurry and so had not realized the damage at the time. It was a simple enough mistake, busy heading to or fro and not realizing the thing they had bumped had hit anything else. If the particular bench did not have such a hard lip in the one spot, it likely would not have resulted in such damage. Using a rag Crylon wiped of the lip of the bench, removing the bit of stucco and paint that had stuck from the contact. The bench seemed none the worse for wear, which made sense as one was a harder wood surface and the other a much softer spread over surface. It did leave Crylon to consider if other such incidents might have occurred, might be the reason for the cracks, rather than general wear over time. Thinking back to when Kelski had bought the place, this seemed a bit more likely. But then, had it been pre-made, or made to order? He was not sure, and the situation depended on which was the case. If it was pre-made wear and tear over time seemed more likely. If it was made to order then direct conflict and damage like with this bench seemed more likely. It seemed logical enough, but in truth did not affect his work even if his mind went down such trails by their self. Taking another pat of material Crylon slapped it onto the crack, and then began to spread it out. Once, twice, thrice, till the layer was relatively thin and filling the crack and around it a bit. Then once more he used the side of the tool to scrape off the excess, pulling it across the wall and each passing moving a bit more of the over spread material. Again he ended up with a small bit of the excess of his tool, which he scraped back into the bucket using its lip. Taking his time to inspect his work Crylon eyed it closely, moving close to the wall clear of the wet spot to sight down the surface. Once more he was left with a nearly flat surface, however less noticeable than the large cracks from before. And once he had let it dry and painted over it, he did not think even that would be too noticeable. WC: 463

[Crylon Stonecraft]

Once he was done with the bigger cracks in the stucco, Crylon moved on to the smaller bits. A hairline crack here, another there, which needed little more than a tiny bit of the material mix to fill. But the rest took almost as long, as it took little less time to scrape a few inches as it did to scrape a half an inch. The more he proceeded with the work the more Crylon saw that the work was not hard. In truth it was not difficult, just tedious. Of course if he was better he could likely do some things quicker, or perhaps leave less of a height difference when doing the repairs. Not that there was a huge difference now. But he could always get better and faster. Of course, Crylon had to remind himself, it was only his first time and so he was still learning. He could not expect to be perfect right off, even with somewhat simple things. Sometimes he was his own worst critic and, he had to acknowledge, expected too much of himself. Even Sultros had not been built in a day, and it decidedly had not been built by someone who was on their first day of the job or making their first try at something. Moving from one spot to another Crylon worked through the building, making small repairs to the stucco here and there. A pat, spread, once twice, three times, a scrape, once, twice, and then on to the next spot. By the time he was finishing up he felt he was getting a rhythm to it. He was less focused on looking at everything, and knew better by the size of the crack the size of the motion he should make. It was almost like a dance, just with less spinning. Pull up a bit of mortar, apply it, spread it with several motions, then scrape off the excess with several more motions. Then a moment to sight down the wall and check his work. Sometimes this meant applying a bit more mortar and starting back over, sometimes it meant a bit more scraping. Once he was done he checked through all the rooms once more, not wanting to miss any while he was at it. He still had a good quarter of the bucket left, more than he expected. But then he had used less material than he had expected to fix the cracks, and had not run into as many as he thought. Plus the bucket had only ever been an estimate. Now he had a better idea of how much he needed for the size of the repair work, and would be better able to size down the portions for smaller jobs. It was, he reminded himself, his first attempt, and so meant he had the chance to improve later. Today was just some smaller maintenance, and learning the task. Next time he would do better, he assured himself. But then that was the truth of all things, the second time was easier, the third even more so, and on until one was a master of the task. WC: 524

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades

Crylon Stonecraft

Skills

Body Building – 2
Endurance – 2
Logic – 3
Masonry – 5
Planning – 1


Lores

Masonry: Creating ‘Dry Mix’
Masonry: Creating ‘Wet Mix’
Masonry: Creating Mortar
Masonry: Repair Priorities
Masonry: Time Limits On Mortar