• Solo • Clam

[Rorom]

8th of Ymiden, Arc 718

The sky was clear, the streets empty, and the morning sun low in the sky. It was a perfect time to get up to go fishing.

About three breaks ago.

Rorom had always been an early riser, from the time he departed his parents' small fishing fleet, to the time he landed on Rharne. It was the lull of Cylus and subsequent malaise that arose through Ashan. He'd been down in the dumps for about a season, after his drunken escapade with Mirq. The man was a bad influence, even Rorom in his hungover haze could see that. He tried to see the best in people. From time to time, he met a bad egg that was rotten to the core. Yet, it was rare for him to meet someone so charismatic, who could command a person's loyalty while leading them through all manner of ills.

Rorom rose from his bunk with a groan. This is usually where Fortuna, his albatross, would squack and caw at a sudden activity disturbing her nap.

When he sat up in bed, nothing, silence. The sound of winds and tumbling litter flowing through the cobbled streets outside. A wind blowing in from the vast lake Lovalus to the east. Little wonder he'd gotten more sleep than he was accustomed to.

With a grunt, he rose from his bunk and walked over to the divider, checking to see where the bird might've gotten off to. She wasn't in the other side of the small, humble apartment. The window was ajar. He figured that she'd flown to find food.

Which reminded him, he needed to pick up some hardware to help with his plan to ply the banks of the lake for clams. The fisherman was only relieved that he would be able to do so without the harassment of his bird companion.

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

A few breaks later, he had bought much of what he needed. The previous season he'd bought a pair of leather waders and heavy gloves, along with some other articles that would help in his work.

He'd come off the boat in Rharne with little more than the rags on his back and some tools he'd heldover from Ne'Haer. It was his new friend, Mirq, who had impressed on him to buy more clothes, and hold onto those old rags as a washday outfit. Thus he had a new outfit, and a pair of socks and undergarments for everyday.

In any event, he wore simple clothes these work-days, leaving his new leather coat and shiny vest at home while he went clamming. He wasn't keen on being known as 'Captain Mackerel' as many drunken louts took to calling him when he was about town.

He dragged the small wagon he'd purchased from the wheelwright, down to the pier, where his rowboat floated at rest in the docks. He stepped into the rowboat, untied it from the pier, and pushed off. He had designs on the clam beds that outline the geography of the lake on it's western banks. It would be a good haul.

Expenses:

4 large pairs of socks 5 gn
7 undergarments 1 gn
1 large pair of leather waders 24 gn
1 pair of large leather gloves 8 gn 5 sn
1 large wool shirt 3 gn 1 sn 8 cn
1 large pair of leather pants 12 gn 7 sn 5 cn
1 large leather coat, black 31 gn 5 sn
1 large blue chiffon vest with tin buttons 5 gn
1 pair of leather suspenders 4 gn

1 small wagon 30 gn
3 buckets 9 gn
1 spade 4 gn
1 large shovel 1 gn
1 rake 3 gn

total 141 gn 9 silver 3 cn

[Hanabi]

Hanabi was on yet another adventure exploring the great outdoors. She’d never been a big fan of boats, but she was just here to check out a part of the city that she hadn’t seen yet. She had only moved here less than a season ago and so much had already happened. She’d fought a necromancer, been initiated into abrogation, and now she was contemplating joining the Thunder Priestesses. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was stepping. Had she been looking in front of her she would have seen the coil of rope that had been piled up onto the pier.

Unfortunately, Hanabi’s foot got caught in the rope and she tettered right onto the edge of the pier. She breathed a sigh of relief but a powerful gust of wind knocked her small body right off the edge and into the water. Not being a swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, it was all Hanabi could do to fight to the top of the water. She’d blindly claw at the sky until her hands touched something hard. ”Is this a ladder?” she’d think, not knowing that it was indeed the side of Rorom’s rowboat.

Without asking any permission, Hanabi would hoist herself out of the water and lay panting inside Rorom’s boat, probably causing quite the scene. She’d cough out a bit of water that had gone down the wrong pipe then finally get a grasp of what exactly she was sitting in. ”A boat?” she’d think puzzled.

“Oh hi there,” Hanabi said when she finally saw who she shared the boat with, “wonderful day isn’t it?” Her voice was cheery, without a care in the world. If Rorom hadn’t just witnessed her epic fail he would have never known by her tone that she had come inches from certain death.

[Rorom]

Rorom saw the woman struggling in the water, after she tripped over a coil of rope, headfirst into the water. He winced for her sake. He was about to crawl across his rowboat to give her a hand, when she made a sudden spring from the water, grasping blindly with her hands. Soon enough, the hands found purchase on the bow of his rowboat. He knew how this would go if he didn't do anything.

So he used his own weight to present a counterbalance to her climbing aboard, leaning the opposite direction from where she was climbing up. Rowboats were rather finicky when it came to standing in them, let alone people splashing and trying to board from the side. Her efforts to climb up may well have resulted in them capsizing. Good thing, then, that Rorom was a fairly competent mariner, with experience in capsizing rowboats.

As she crawled into the boat, Rorom nodded at her, and gestured for her to take a seat. "How do you do, my name is Rorom." He gave her a genuine smile.

"Yes, lovely day, Miss..." He let his voice trail off, allowing her to give him her name if she wished.

"I'm going clamming today, on the lagoons west of Lake Lovalus. I don't suppose you'd mind granting me a pleasant conversation and some company?"

He rowed along, grasping the oars and pushing them backward, casting a glance behind him every once in a while. For the sake of assuring there weren't anymore incidents of crashing against other crafts. He lifted his face to the sky, letting the bright sun warm his face.

[Hanabi]

Hanabi was glad that things had worked out and she wasn’t in some kind of trouble for clambering onto a boat. Had the boat capsized she would have never known that it was her fault. She’d scoot to the seat and realize that she hadn’t introduced herself. She didn’t blame herself though, she’d only just escaped death!

“Hi Rorom,” she’d say pleasantly, “my name is Hanabi, and I’d love to accompany you. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be but I’ll give it my best!” She would, in fact, have almost no ability to help whatsoever. Perhaps her strength or endurance were of use then she’d be able to help with some of the grunt work. She wouldn’t see any other oars in the boat, because why would there be extra oars, so she’d just sit and pretend like she hadn’t accidentally crawled into this boat.

“So, what do I need to know about clamming? And how long have you been in this business? I just moved here myself, see and I’m not all too familiar with the area. I’ve certainly never been on a boat before!”

As the boat rocked, Hanabi started to wonder why she was feeling queasy. She’d have a bit of sea sickness even from this which was a completely new experience for her. Her symptoms would be easily visible, but thankfully she’d be able to hold back any vomit. She’d busy herself with wringing out her hair to take her attention off of the incessant rocking.

[Rorom]

Ooc

Sorry for the lateness.

Rorom shrugged when she asked him what was involved in clamming. "It's a lot of scraping the floors of the lagoon with a rake to try and suss out any clams that are hiding. Once we find them, we pick em up, and put them in buckets full of saltwater to keep the buggers fresh." Rorom gestured toward some tools he'd placed in his rowboat. There were a couple of buckets there, as well as the rake, spade, and even a fishing rod if the clamming turned out to be a bust.

"Anyway... You say you've never been on a boat but are new in town? I take it then you're from one of the outlying villages?" He let that question and whatever answer followed it to hang on the air for a bit, then took them toward the shore which they were fast approaching. The waves lapped at the hull of the rowboat as he went along, but for the most part the day was calm and sunny. He got to the shore by noontime. Once there, he'd help Hanabi out of the boat if she required help. Once they were both out of the vessel, he'd pull it up to the shore, and begin rifling through his tools.

He came up with a bucket, a spade, and a rake. The rake he gave to Hanabi. "Here, you can have the easier part, if you'd like to help out. I'll even let you keep some of our catch if you do well. What you want to do here, is look at the surface of the water. You'll be looking for bubbles coming up to the surface. That'll tell you where clams might be hiding. They create little air pockets where they hide, you see."

Rorom filled his bucket with saltwater in the meantime, and took his bronze spade in the other hand, ready to dig wherever Hanabi uncovered some bivalves. "Are ya ready? Or do you have more questions?"

[Hanabi]

Hanabi was glad her boat host was friendly. She could think of a few people that might have thrown her back in the water just for taking up space. It looked like she was going to learn some stuff today and potentially help out with this so called ‘clamming.’

“I’m from nowhere,” she’d say somewhat less cheery than before, “my parents were travelling mercenaries so I guess I’ve been all around. I finally saved up enough money for a house and now I’m trying to get settled down! What about you? Are you from here?”

She’d accept the rake with both hands and stared at it in wonder. She hadn’t ever gotten acquainted with a tool such as this before. She listened to the instructions absent mindedly and picked out keywords. She’d get the impression that if she saw bubbles she was supposed to shove the tool into the water and start scooping the bottom of the lake. “I’m ready,” she’d say with a mischievous grin, “I don’t eat water food though so you can keep it all!”

The young woman would peer out at the water with an untrained eye and waited for some bubbles to appear. She squinted and strained her eyes and finally she saw two lone bubbles in the water. Whether these were clamming bubbles or not she’d roar and shove the rake into the water and start raking furiously. She had no idea what she was supposed to do after raking so she’d keep it going until she was asked to stop.

[Rorom]

Rorom laughed uproariously as the girl took the rake and attacked the water like she was fighting off a leviathan. He went out to the water where she stood, and helped the rake out of her hands. "No, no. You've got to go gently with the rake. Wait until you see a sign of the clams, and then dig into the dirt." He scratched his head. "In fact, we're meant to do this on land, I believe. Part of the reason why clamming goes best during the day, when the tide is low. You can see some of them squirting seawater out of their hiding holes in the sand, here..."

Rorom led her onto the shore, and bid her to simply watch what he was doing. He knelt on his feet, looking across the sands to find a sign of the clams. When he spotted tiny holes in the shore, and subsequent breathing of lake water, he began digging. He unearthed many clams in this way, both large and small.

He did manage, however, to break a few prongs off of the rake while doing his work, and at the last dig broke the shaft entirely. Well, what could one expect from a cheap wooden tool? It was easily replaced. At least the buckets that he filled with lake water and clams seemed to be holding water. It would do. He left the rake behind, to become driftwood or else a child's toy. He had no further use for it this season or the next.

This all settled, he put the buckets of clams into the rowboat, and set off for Rharne Harbor. Oddly, the girl he'd been digging clams with had departed while he was absorbed in his work. He shrugged as he got into the rowboat. Off to the fishery to see how much his catch would earn him.

[Kasoria]

Review Rewards

Rorom

Points awarded: 15xp

Knowledge:
Fishing: Clams hide in the sand.
Fishing: Low tide allows for easier clamming.
Fishing: Clams reveal themselves with a bit of water spittle.
Fishing: Buckets full of water/saltwater can keep clams alive for longer.
Fishing: Rakes are useful to dig up clams that are deeply embedded in sand.
Seafaring: Keeping a rowboat steady as someone clambers aboard.
Navigation: Watching for obstacles while rowing your boat prevents disaster.
Strength: Row row rowing a boat takes a bit of strength.
Logistics: Preparing for a fishing expedition.

Loot:
Deduct all monies from your Ledger, add to your Inventory (minus the ruined rake), and Wages will have to be posted in the Wage Request topic in Rharne. Don't worry, they'll get to ya!

Notes:
Hey, now I know how to clam! By the by, you've inspired me to read the Coleridge poem tomorrow. This was all good, with plenty of little touches that were both personal and introspective, balanced with a nice narrative. That and Rorom is just a pretty... nice guy! Very decent, which is a novelty from the usual brooders and bastards, hehe. Fine work, mate.

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