[Haven] Bare Necessities and Hobbies

[Balthazar Black]

29 Ashan 721

Things had been going well for Haven ever since they started working on the research station and the clam farm. Elisabeth and the Munny girl had found a unique berry plant and the family planted a few on the side of what was supposed to be their vegetable garden. At the moment, no one was too picky about what the Munny's grew as long as they were growing something people could eat. The bushes seemed to be thriving and it made Balthazar wonder if it would be worthwhile to plant a line of the bushes around the windbreak. He wasn't sure if it would improve or hurt the windbreak but he put it in the back of his mind to ask one of the builders later for their opinion. Apart from that discovery they had finished setting up the shack for cleaning clams that the fishers dug from the shore during low tide. Alone it wouldn't have been nearly enough but the research station had been finished as well... though 'finished' was a relative term. The researchers were given the building where the guards had been staying while Balthazar made a new barracks for his guards.

The Ashwoods had been a blessing because they provided a source of lumber for them to use and animals to hunt for food while they waited for the farm to produce a substantial amount of crops. Not only that, but some of the trees they'd found were strange and beautiful pastel colors. Settlers had taken to calling it Phoenix wood and Balthazar wanted to learn how to grow some of the trees so he could surround Haven with them, but he did not know how. Once they had a firm hand on the clam production and research, he'd ask the scholars from the University what they knew about planting trees.

"Well, what do you think?" Balthazar said aloud to Fuego who stood beside him, invisible to the uninitiated eye. Tib'ron, the Flame Trooper guarding Balthazar today, was standing a few feet behind the prisoner. They were standing outside what would be the sturdiest building in the settlement to date. He didn't want Elisabeth to go to Scalvoris Town but he understood why she had to so he wanted to be sure that when she got back, she'd have something great to greet her on the island. She'd once proposed he build their new home with the Serenity Garden in the backyard and in the end, he'd picked a location not far off. Selling the old house while bound to an island made it take a little bit longer than he wanted to get the materials to the island but construction had been going as round the clock as it could. Earlier in the morning he had felt a strange and uncomfortable sensation in the pit of his stomach. He felt like she was in danger and could do nothing about it so he tried his best to convince himself to trust in her training. He'd come to work on the house more to distract himself from his worry. He could not do anything unrelated to Haven and his people without violating his sentence.

"It's better than anything your settlers have." The Sev'ryn said with what seemed like judgement in his voice. Balthazar did his best not to care but he had a very similar feeling when he'd seen the proposed blueprint for the house. His old house had afforded him more than his settlers who had nothing to sell to build their new homes. They'd lost their old residences and everything invested in them with the eruption. A generous, charitable leader might have scattered his wealth throughout the population so they could all get better housing... but Balthazar had not. He decided to build a strong center for the city- somewhere people could come to him at any time that was not tethered to the ground outside a beach. Somewhere with space to walk around and be trapped as the Albarech wanted. Somewhere with a little board for people to put up notices for things they needed.

"It cost more than anything they have." The structures were not completely build but they were not very far from it. The foundation had been laid and the bones of the structure erected, a few walls set up and the rest soon to follow but the workers were all on their break while Balthazar was taking a look around the structure with Fuego and his guard. He had the resources for a much larger house but had sacrificed additional rooms so that he could provide for his guards. Just to the right of the house (if approaching towards the Serenity Garden) they had a building up for the guard barracks. It was really just one decent, but not large, room that would be crammed with cots from the tents they'd had and chests with their personal belongings but Balthazar only had three guards working explicitly for Haven so it would be plenty of space for them. If the Flame Troopers wanted to stay there, closer to the house, he would move in extra cots for them and had offered to do as much.

To the left of the house there was a smaller foundation set up for a little project Balthazar was working on. Woe's gift had shown him that he only really needed three rooms, one to sleep and store his collection of books, one to practice magic, and one to practice his alchemy. He had no use for the room to practice magic in and he had a work order to build such a structure underground, but he hadn't done it yet because he was waiting for the right place. He thought Haven would be the right place but he couldn't shake the feeling that building underground on Faldrass would be a mistake. So when he planned this house- and 'planned' is a very loose term here because he just described what he wanted to the crew that build it, he reduced the main building down to the bare needs as much as he could.

A master bedroom for him and Elisabeth, a large room to hold meetings, gatherings or celebrations, and a smaller room to cook, study, and practice alchemy. It was probably a bad decision to do both in the same room but Balthazar decided he really didn't need to pay for another attached room at the current time. The extra materials went into the barracks and the little building to the left that Balthazar had dubbed 'The Workshop.'

[Balthazar Black]

29 Ashan 721

The Workshop was small, there was no denying that. It had been pulled together with the leftover materials once the main building and the barracks were set up but Balthazar couldn't deny that some small part of him thought the workshop might become his favorite room. Once it was done, he would put one of his sets of alchemy equipment in it and begin working on some improvements for the settlement. He had plenty of ideas and while his blood magic was now limited to Elisabeth's domains, alchemy was about far more than blood magic. The workshop would start off only a little bigger than a large shed but he would add to it in time and maybe one trial link it to the real workshop when it was built.

He would have done it using dream walking had the Untold not shut down suddenly. Sometime he still pushed his hand against a wall trying to see if he could slip back there but nothing happened. It was troubling to think something had changed but there was a lot going on. The war and the visions probably weren't related to his inability to cross through the veil. He didn't get to admire it all trial because eventually the work crew returned to get back to building. He'd watched and hounded them so often when working on the settlement that they were used to his presence now. He insisted on helping build his house. By now the job had come down to the fairly basic portions so there were plenty of simple tasks for a man of his strength to perform.

Balthazar had the hammer he'd been gifted by the man named Grabthar in Quacia- or perhaps the man had taken it from a Grabthar... all Balthazar knew was that it had been presented to him as 'Grabthar's Hammer' and it was an incredibly nice weapon... that he did not know how to use. He'd become very good with a sword during his time in traveling Idalos, even better with his hands, and he was decent with a staff or spear, but he'd never put time into learning how to swing a hammer with decent form. He could swing it with power, no doubt, but he would always lack the finesse he had with other weapons if he didn't start using it more. He wasn't thinking about using it for building when he'd considered using it more but he hadn't expected a lot of things to turn out the way that they had.

Construction didn't seem like an incredibly complicated skill after trials of watching people building houses. As a watcher, Balthazar learned very little about their methods but he did see what they were doing and seeing was the first step towards replicating. With a memory like his, seeing was a very important step towards replicating. For every building, his included, they crew put up a wooden skeleton of what would eventually become the building- his house, the barracks, and the workshop were no exception. While putting up the bones of his house, the workers called them a 'frame' and Balthazar (confused because he was thinking about picture frames) asked what they meant. They'd explained what he'd come to know through experience- the frame was built on top of the foundation they made and the walls were built onto the frame. It was a little slower than the prefabricated walls they'd used for the other houses, but it was also going to be more sturdy and reliable... supposedly.

Now they were putting the wooden panels onto the frame they'd erected. One person (most often Balthazar) lifted the panel and held it in place while another worker on either side hammered the nails in. "Pass them the bucket?" Balthazar asked Tib'ron who stood just far enough out of the way that none of the passing workers hit him with beams or planks as they came through. He wanted to build the house out of stone but all the others were made of wood. Besides, he could make stone houses later if he every got his magic back... or if he taught Elisabeth enough about what he knew. Tib'ron brought the bucket of nails closer to the workers who picked a few up and moved over to help lift the next board into place on the wall. Building without magic was a team effort and even thought Balthazar did not know what he was doing, he was good at pretending he did. His experience as a leader and his many, many social visits made up for his lack of know how.

Eventually he got the opportunity to be more than an ox, lifting and holding panels in place. He was a little taller than the builders working on the wall with him so when they got to the higher panels the two men held the panel up against the wall and Balthazar drove a few nails in carefully. It was a brief but educational experience. He'd watched the others for long enough to try and imitate what they did. He held the nail in place, gave it a few taps to drive it into the wood (but drove it a little further in than he meant to), and then he hit it hard to drive it the rest of the way in. "You don't have to hit it so hard, you might split the wood." One of the workers said as Balthazar moved over to the other side. Balthazar gave him a small, agreeing nod and then proceeded to do the other side more gently. He'd help them for a while longer and move onto a growing issue among the settlers- the need for a source of clean water.

[Doran]

Balthazar:

Knowledge:
Construction - Easier with proper tools, not a warhammer
Construction - Building onto a frame is sturdy
Construction - Basic hammering nail safety
Construction - Wood beams can split if you are not careful
Strength - Lifting heavy wood beams

Loot: A new Tier 5 home on Faldrass!
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: 5, for offering to house the Flame Troopers in the barracks.
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

Consequences: The Element reports to the Albarech that Balthazar confirmed that his new house cost more than anything that the settlers have when he (the Element) remarked that it was better than the homes of the settlers.

Please tell Kura about this here.

Furthermore, some of Balthazar’s settlers are not happy with the fact that their leader has decided to build a nice house for Elisabeth and himself while they lost everything during the volcanic eruption.

- - -

Comments: I appreciate the little summary of what’s happened in Haven so far at the beginning of this thread as I don’t remember everything. And what more, it makes it obvious just how busy Balthazar, Elisabeth and the settlers have been. Haven seems to be doing well!

It seems as if Balthazar has truly arrived on Faldrass now. Building a house so that Elisabeth will have something great to greet her when she comes back sounds like a wonderful idea, and it does seem like something that will distract him from worrying about Elisabeth!

I appreciate that you also had one of the Elements that are watching Balthazar criticize the fact that he’s building such a nice house for himself while his settlers have lost everything due to the volcanic eruption. It seems like something that might give people mixed impressions!

I love in how much detail you described Balthazar’s new home. It sounds like it will be ana amazing place. I thought that it was nice that Balthazar was willing to let the Elements stay in his new house even though he probably doesn’t always get along with them.

That being said, I look forward to seeing the finished house – and Elisabeth’s reaction when she returns home!

Enjoy your rewards!