SCM2814

Demesne 358 - The Ship

That night, after we'd loaded the Coldhold with most of the cargo that they'd bought from Emborin and Sons, I finally decided to indulge myself and went to have an early dinner at Engario's to have their highly recommended doughstrands.

It was absolutely delicious. The doughstrands were boiled, and then fried in beast fat with diced vauang and sharrods, fatty pieces of beast meat and mushrooms, with a dash of salt and ground green nigrum to taste. It was all I could do not to c...

Demesne 357 - Looking For Deadspeakers

I felt better once we went back to Master Yhosed's workshop and collected our three walking sticks. There was just something about having a sturdy stick in hand that was reassuring. Very good for poking, swinging, hooking legs and arms… leaning on when my feet started aching…

…

Why do my feet ache so much? I'm still young and healthy, especially now since Shana's healed me once or twice and probably fixed things I didn't know needed fixing! I'm only twenty-two years old! I m...

Demesne 356 - The Interview

Telref, I soon found, was a man barely holding himself together and constantly on the edge of despair. It was in the tired way he sat, the tone of his voice as he spoke, and the air of needing sleep. He seemed a worrier, probably worrying about his work, his wife, his son, whether they could afford the rent on where they lived, whether they could afford food, whether they'd be able to afford heat in the coming winter…

In other words, he was a perfectly normal, responsible adult with a...

Weekly Digest 110 - (#353 - #355)

A Night Out In Covehold

Covehold Demesne was bright at night.

Light shone from seemingly random locations high up on walls, just barely out of reach. The last time I was here, I'd learned that the demesne employed Whisperers as streetlighters, who spent all day imbuing a certain number of bindings of lightwisps. At dusk, they anchored the bindings in the areas they were assigned. Many Whisperers also made a side business of selling light to people, where ...

Demesne 355 - Installments, Bound Tools And A Deadspeaker

When I finally got to talk to Ravia, the news was good. The materials we'd asked them to procure were coming in, albeit slowly. Honestly, I wanted to buy more things, but we also needed the space for those we'd be recruiting, especially if they had a family accompanying them. And while what we were buying was a lot, it only used up a significant amount of the beads we made from selling the salt, skins, and furs, not all of it. That wasn't getting into the profit from the wispbeads.

"I a...

Demesne 354 - The Lawyer And The Letter

In the end, we still had to wake up early. Even with the bound tool for moving the air around to help cool the hold, we all still woke up sweaty. The water of the bay was not an option for bathing. Even if it didn't smell, all the demesne's liquid waste had to go somewhere, and I doubted they had the sort of water cleaning infrastructure the demesnes in the old continent had for fertilizer and drinking water.

We didn't really need to take a bath. After all, it was just...

Demesne 353 - A Night Out In Covehold

Covehold Demesne was bright at night.

Light shone from seemingly random locations high up on walls, just barely out of reach. The last time I was here, I'd learned that the demesne employed Whisperers as streetlighters, who spent all day imbuing a certain number of bindings of lightwisps. At dusk, they anchored the bindings in the areas they were assigned. Many Whisperers also made a side business of selling light to people, where they would imbue bindings and people would pay them some...

Weekly Digest 109 - (#350 - #352)

A Lorian Interlude: Mikon

After dinner, Mikon and Umu left the table so that Binder Lori could talk to Erzebed, the Lady Binder and Master Kolinh in relative privacy.  While the dungeon wasn't hot, it also wasn't all that cool. After a day of many people being out in the hot sun, the dungeon felt a little warm and smelled a bit sweaty, making lingering in it after dinner not as comfortable as it usually was.

And so, everyone in Lorian spent their nig...

Super-Rush October Poll! This Weekend Only!

So, this isn't the usual poll. I want to leave this month's Patron Exclusive chapter open. However! I'm at something of a crossroads.

As you all know since you've been reading Demesne, we're about to add to Deadspeakers to the cast. Now, I've committed a writing... well, not cardinal sin, but really annoying thing. I've come up with multiple character possibilities, and like them all equally.

So, this weekend only, I'm offering everyone the chance to try and vote on what kind of n...

Demesne 352 - Going Out Tonight

The man at the desk of the job-placement office rad over my bill before nodding. "All right. Where should I send applicants?" he asked, taking out a book.

I blinked suddenly feeling stupid. "Oh… ah, we've just arrived, we don't… uh, can I come back later?"

The man nodded, sliding the bill back towards me. It seemed this wasn't an irregular occurrence. "Come back once you find out the address of the inn you're staying at. Be sure to have someone there to receive applicants." Ye...

Demesne 351 - A Little Bit Evil

As it turned out, counting the wispbeads happened faster than I had thought.

We were in a small, nondescript room in the back of the merchant house's stockyard, next to what looked like barracks for their workers. At a glance, it looked like someone's office, presumably the manager of the stock yard, or maybe where they kept immediate copies of inventory records. Another of Ravia's brothers had met us when the wagon had come into the stock yard, directing the sacks of beads here. Presum...

Demesne 350 - A Lorian Interlude: Mikon

After dinner, Mikon and Umu left the table so that Binder Lori could talk to Erzebed, the Lady Binder and Master Kolinh in relative privacy.  While the dungeon wasn't hot, it also wasn't all that cool. After a day of many people being out in the hot sun, the dungeon felt a little warm and smelled a bit sweaty, making lingering in it after dinner not as comfortable as it usually was.

And so, everyone in Lorian spent their nights outside, sitting on the outdoor benches and stools and...

9/29/23 Status

First things first, Happy Birthday to me!

But now that this is out of the way, a little announcement. I went tot he dentist today, and one thing led to another, and to make things short I might have a few more dental appointments in my future. Because I write in advance, it will be a couple of weeks before a disruption happens, but I felt I should warn you we all that we might have a week of two with only two updates. I'll try not to let that happen, but given dental procedures, I might...

Demesne Patron EX SS 29 – Fruit Picking

Karina glared up at their prize, despite the sun's best efforts to shine in her eyes. Light and shadows kept obstructing it from her view, making her squint, but that didn't matter. She knew where it was, and it wasn't going to escape her—!

A hand that wasn’t as pale as it used to be plucked the happyfruit and Karina turned to keep her outstretched skirt under it. Hanging under the branch with one arm hooking the branch under her elbow and both ankles, her hair falling down Shana lo...

Weekly Digest 108 - (#347 - #349)

The Man Whose Name Was On The Sign

The way Ravia stood up told me the man who entered was important, along with how he just interrupted this negotiation. If the guards at the door, the stairs and the hallway outside let him in…

"Ah, father," Ravia said with a nod. "Endlew spoke to you, I take it? Master Rian, this is my father Emborin, the head of our merchant house."

Well, that confirmed it.

I gave Ravia's father a quick glance up ...

Demesne 349 - Only Just Starting

“I thought you could reasonably promise only a hundred beads?” Ravia said.

“From your tone, you know eleven thousand is an unreasonable number,” I said. “The only reason we have that many is because our Dungeon Binder spent a long time making those beads as we waited for the arrival of the year’s first dragon.” I shrugged. “And that was mostly because they were focused on how much we could sell so many for. With the coming year and things like the harvest and the other t...

Demesne 348 - The Final Negotiations

As much as I wanted to eat at that place with the doughstrands, the men probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as I would. So once we were back out on the street, we asked the guards at the door if they knew any good places to eat. Fortunately, we were early since it was only the early parts of late morning, and founds seats at a corner table before the early crowds started coming in.

By unspoken agreement, there was no stew of any sort. Instead, we ordered shredded meat served on long brea...

Demesne 347 - The Man Whose Name Was On The Sign

The way Ravia stood up told me the man who entered was important, along with how he just interrupted this negotiation. If the guards at the door, the stairs and the hallway outside let him in…

"Ah, father," Ravia said with a nod. "Endlew spoke to you, I take it? Master Rian, this is my father Emborin, the head of our merchant house."

Well, that confirmed it.

I gave Ravia's father a quick glance up and down. He wasn't very tall, standing at about his son's height, ...

Relative Bead Values

Value is not only short handed by size but by type. Think the D&D copper-silver-gold-platinum standard. A large-sized copper coin would be of lesser value than a small-sized silver coin. Rian was originally asking for a large-sized bead of lower-middle/2nd tier, and instead got a small-sized bead upper-middle/3rd tier, which is worth more as currency regardless of its physical dimensions.

When mentioning bead sizes, the first word/set of words describes physical size, seco...

Weekly Digest 107 - (#344 - #346)

A Little Wager

The next day, we were back in Covehold bright and early to see the procession of small boats coming down the river and heading out of the bay towards the sea. While the sun was still on the horizon, individual boats were already coming in a steady stream from the river, most using oars and the current to propel themselves, although I saw a few boats where it looked like a Whisperer—or maybe a Mentalist?—was doing the work of moving the vessel...

Demesne 346 - Ravia’s Party Trick

We had a long walk following the carts through the streets later, where I found a much shorter and more direct way to get to Emborin and Sons than the one I’d taken yesterday. I talked to Ravia as we went, asking him his opinions on the local bars, eateries, bakeries, doctors, Deadspeakers, and anything else to fill the time as Multaw and Cyuw once again followed behind me.

"They have doughstrands?" I said intently as we passed one in particular that seemed both strangely emp...

Demesne 345 - The Tour

Once all the furs and skins were moved, the salt came next, which would have been difficult if Ravia hadn't brought a Mentalist with him. Either he remembered the difficulty we'd had last time or he had something heavy to pick up later. The woman needed to have line of sight to the barrels to be able to lift them up, but I'd had a new large hatch added to the deck. That and the mount for the heavy pulley directly over the hatch had been meant for us to lift up the barrels—we'd practiced it ...

Demesne 344 - A Little Wager

The next day, we were back in Covehold bright and early to see the procession of small boats coming down the river and heading out of the bay towards the sea. While the sun was still on the horizon, individual boats were already coming in a steady stream from the river, most using oars and the current to propel themselves, although I saw a few boats where it looked like a Whisperer—or maybe a Mentalist?—was doing the work of moving the vessel around.

There were a few boats docked in...

Weekly Digest 108 - (#341 - #343)

Worth The Price

The bound tool had been covered with a canvas sheet, and a bench was next to it, probably because it kept people from propping things up against it otherwise. Still, while the canvas had acquired the light dusting of sawdust everything does when carpentry is being done, when Master Yhosed pulled off the sheet the bound tool underneath was in good condition.

Something clattered as the sheet was pulled off.

Master Yhosed looked down an...

September Patron Exclusive Poll

Sorry the poll is a little delayed. 

So... I haven't gotten around to reading Mother of Learning yet... but hey, it didn't' cause any delays from reading it, so yay!

Another reminder that there will be no updates on the last week of this month. Updates will resume on October 2nd.

Anyway, on to the options!

Demesne 343 - A Lorian Interlude: Karina

In the middle of the day, work ground to a halt, the heat too great for anyone to sweat through except perhaps the uncles and aunties working on the rebuilt outdoor mushroom farm where it was shady. And ever since Wiz Lori had put up a thingy to keep bugs from eating the mushrooms they were growing, they hadn't needed to keep an eye on them as much, letting them do other things or in this case take a midday break with everyone, since even the magic winds Wiz Lori had set up weren't enough to ...

Demesne 342 - Rian Is Betrayed

The sun was low in the sky by the time Multaw, Cyuw and I got back to the thoroughfare that faced the bay. It was high tide, and I could see that the cove was full of small boats. Many seemed to be making their way towards the river mouth, some moving surprisingly fast considering they had no sails and only seemed to have oars. Since some of the boats I saw earlier no doubt had a Whisperer aboard, perhaps they were propelling their boats so they could get home faster.

In their midst, th...

Demesne 341 - Worth The Price

The bound tool had been covered with a canvas sheet, and a bench was next to it, probably because it kept people from propping things up against it otherwise. Still, while the canvas had acquired the light dusting of sawdust everything does when carpentry is being done, when Master Yhosed pulled off the sheet the bound tool underneath was in good condition.

Something clattered as the sheet was pulled off.

Master Yhosed looked down and sighed. “Edjrond, you left your chisel on th...

Weekly Digest 107 - (#338 - #340)

The Streets of Covehold

When I'd first arrived in Covehold, fresh from a very long sea voyage in a tightly packed ship with food I'd rather not try to remember, the ship had come to rest on a solid stone dock that had been built along one of the encircling stone arms around the cove—the left one from the perspective of the cove entrance, to be more specific. The dock had been made of Whispered stone, something I'd only properly recognized the second time I'd ...

Demesne 340 - Back On The Streets Of Covehold

With the preliminary contract dry and secreted into my belt pouch, an address and name from Ravia, and plenty of daylight ahead, I had time to start working on trying to sell Lori's wispbeads.

The problem, as I saw it, was deciding what the best way of doing so actually was.

Ideally, we could sell directly to the workshops that would want the beads, such as carpentry or smithing workshops who had bound tools that have probably become very expensive to run. As long as the ...