Hearth Fire

The next days passed in a blur. The party systematically made their way through the various rooms, cataloging the contents, and sorting out what they needed immediately. Bauru and Rugiel worked together in the rooms while Stronric protected them, fighting endlessly to gain solo experience and level. Rugiel found an empty mining cart with mostly quiet wheels that the party pushed around on the tracks between their home base and the different rooms to wheel back the supplies they would be needing right away. Once Stronric was mostly drained for the day they would spend the evenings processing the goods and spider meat. Rugiel would sort and pack the supplies to be transported by the goats when they left. Bauru processed the spiders, collecting their meat, venom sacs and any other party he found useful. Stronric worked to bring Bauru fresh spiders and removed the unused parts and destroyed carcasses from the immediate area, trying to clear a path for the mining carts to be more useful. They worked from waking till each dwarf dragged with exhaustion, then they’d lock themselves back into the office, gorge on spider meat and ale before falling asleep.

Stronric woke in the morning, threw some logs onto the fire and looked over Rugiel’s list of collected supplies and notes. They had collected plenty of material to start smithing some actual weapons and armor. She had Bauru sketch out a map for the rooms explored thus far and she labeled them with the contents of each room. There was a room down the tunnel a short ways marked only with “Barrels?”. Stronric’s brows raised, hoping this was more dwarven ale, or could lead to a brew house.

“Up and at em! We got barrels to examine!” Stronric yelled at the sleeping lumps still in their bedrolls.

The siblings rolled out of bed rubbing their eyes, they quickly ate and left base camp to go see these barrels. Stronric lead the way, his axe slung over one shoulder and a pep in his step. I wonder what kind of brew is hidden in the depths of this hold. Is it going to be a beer, an ale or maybe something a lil harder?

Using the map that Bauru had drawn they found the room. The two siblings went inside of the room to catalog it while Stronric stood at the door guarding them.

“Watch our sister!” Bauru yelled out as he sprang forward throwing cobwebs and a dead dried husk of a spider.

Rugiel spun and saw her brother, side stepping him and putting out her foot out, Bauru tripped and fell into a barrel. The barrel broke as Bauru fell into it. The hoops of the barrel slid down and got stuck on his shoulders and waist. Bauru struggled to his feet and stood there looking red and embarrassed as his arms were pinned to his side. Stronric turned and let out a barking laugh as he took in Bauru wearing a barrel as a skirt. Actually that gives me an idea!

“Well don’t you…” Stronric spun on his feet as he heard the tip tap of spiders approaching. “Y’all finish up, I’ve got company.” Stronric closed the door and turned to face the patrol of spiders.

Ten spiders came charging down the corridor towards him. He took a deep breath and focused on activating his new runic marks. Power flooded him as he felt the marks etch across his face. Stronric started to swing his axe with a smile as he walked boldly towards the oncoming spiders. His axe became a blur and he started the dance of death. Stronric had heard of adventures and heroes using special regimented and moves. He always believed such narrow minded views in combat would get you killed in a pitched battle, but as he entered a state of martial clarity, he saw how wrong he was. The runes empowered his movements, he moved faster and with more strength and precision then before. His axe became a blur that slaughtered anything that got to close to him. Nothing could escape his axe once he was in this state. Even the dust and debris that littered the floor was cut into pieces so small they floated away in the wind as a perfect circle of death surrounded him.

The spiders launched themselves at his circle of death and destruction. Stronric never left the circle he created as he cut the patrol to pieces. Blood sprayed and flew around him, he could see each drop as if it was more than just a speck. He found himself parrying the individual drops as they made their way to coat his body. He redirected the flow, forcing the liquid down and out of his circle of power. He jumped forward into the group of spiders shredding them and leaving another circle void of all freestanding items, alive or not, as he battle for control of the space around him. When the last spider fell, he was rewarded with the warmth of another level up.

“Thoranthana’s beard Stronric, ye are truly a monster. Not even the blood can enter that lil circle of yers.” Bauru said from the now open doorway.

Stronric’s focused on deactivating his new power. He didn’t know the extent of his new powers, simply that they empowered his physical abilities. He did wonder if there was more to it, but he was more than happy with his gifts so far. The only issue he faced was the energy it depleted. He had collapsed twice using the power, without understanding the toll it would take on him. He spent most of his time finding how far he could push himself and the limits of the new power, instead of every aspect of it. He needed to know when he was out of time, he didn’t want to collapse in the middle of battle.

Stronric quickly gained the levels he needed and ended the three days of adventuring into the spider den at level twenty four.

Age:73

Race: Dwarf (E)

Class: N/A

Level:24

Strength: 21.2

Dexterity: 13

Agility: 16

Vitality: 18

Endurance: 19

Wisdom: 10

Intelligence: 10

Charisma: 10

Allocatable points: 0

Conditions:

Blessing of the Hearth (Minor)

Dwarven resistance (race)

Grudge Bearer (clan)

Titles:

Avenging son

Troll slayer

Gifts

Seeker of the gods.

World walker

Student of the Gods.

The party was merrily preparing to depart at last. Stronric sang more mining songs, teaching the two young dwarves, as they moved all the prepped supplies and pushed the dead spiders to the back portion of the large corridor clearing out the first third for when the goats came down. They were nearly finished when Bauru shushed the others and said, “Quiet, I think there’s somethin comin down the tunnel.”

Bauru grabbed up his bow and quiver, he deposited while they worked, and nocked an arrow. Rugiel and Stronric made quick work on retrieving their weapons. Seconds later a dark shape appeared at the bend of the tunnel. It crept forward, looking like a large mass low to the ground. It approached the tunnel’s mouth slowly and the party could see it was another spider. This one was Bigger than the small swarming types but not as large at the solider spiders. Its frame was also off compared to the bodies littering the ground. It was fatter, and more squat. It moved almost silently as its legs didn’t end with sharp dagger so the familial tip-tap the dwarves came to know was replaced by the faintest of sound of soft pads on dirt. Stronric moved forward his axe in hand and Rugiel flanked his other side.

Stronric’s axe slid into his taking of a Battle stance with a look of death in his eye.

“Hold up Stronric, I think its trying to talk to us. I think its friendly.” Bauru said surprised, as his eyes squinted in focus.

“What do ye mean ye think its trying to talk?” Stronric questioned threw gritted teeth, his axe still raised.

“It’s almost like how I feel with Beatrice. ‘ecpt this feels more wild.” Bauru pondered aloud taking a slow step forward, slinging his bow and returning the arrow to its quiver.

“Bauru wait! It could be a trap.” Stronric reaching out to stop him.

Bauru slid out of reach. “Trust me. I can’t explain it, but I know it means no harm.” Bauru said looking at Stronric.

Stronric let out a frustrated snort but remained where he was, axe at the ready.

Stronric and Rugiel watched as Bauru met the fat spider in the center of the corridor. It stopped when it was only a few strides away from Bauru. The spider waved its two front legs and its mandibles clicked and chattered. Behind the spider dragged a heavy webbed cocoon.

Bauru copied the movement, waving his own arms in greeting. The spider started to chatter, its clicks and hisses flowing in a rhythmic-like pattern.

“Hmm… I think its saying he wants no fights with us.” Bauru called out brightly. Stronric and Rugiel exchanged mirrors looked of skepticism, still standing rigid ready to strike. The spider used its back legs to push the webbed object to its front. “It’s brought a gift!” Bauru said, smiling as he turned to look back at the others.

“I am Bauru, Clansman of the Grudge Bearers of the hold of Hearth fire, who might I be treating with?” Bauru said, bowing slightly to the spider.

The spider paused a moment, its intelligent eyes gleaming as it looked at Bauru. For a moment, Stronric thought the beast might leap onto Bauru, but then the spider started to bounce up and down letting out high pitched clacks with its mandibles. It looked as if it was celebrating. The spider then regained its composure and bent slightly on its front legs coping Bauru’s bow before righting itself.

“It’s introducing itself?” Bauru said slowly, his face drawn tight with concentration.

“You mean to tell me you can understand this beast, Bauru?” Rugiel said tensely.

“I don’t know what its saying exactly. It’s like I can feel what it means.” Bauru answered over his shoulder, his focus remained on the spider before him. “Don’t know how. This spider is an ambassador from the Mithril Thread Hive. It’s mother… no its leader? Wants us to… No welcomes us back to our web… Home! The leader spits… gifts us with a… wants us to accept their gift of friendship and mutual fly eating… no that’s not right. Mutual health, maybe. They welcome us back to the hold and wish to rekindle the old … breeding… no rekindle the old oaths of their breeding grounds.” Bauru translated his voice full of wonder. Rugiel lowered her hammer and slowly moved to Stronric’s side

“What do you know of oaths to spider’s and breeding ground?” Rugiel asked Stronric.

“Ye think I know of every oath ever made, beardling? Talking spiders is a new one even for me.” Stronric replied with a grunt.

“Shut up you two, this is hard enough.” Bauru said over his shoulder. The spider took another step forward bringing it from the shadows into the light. Although the spider was smaller than the soldier spider it was larger than the common spider. It was covered in brown hair and had three mithril colored stripes shaped like chevrons across its abdomen. It looked like a common jumping spider but blown up to be almost the size of a dwarf. Its large black eyes shone with intelligence and darted around the corridor taking in the space and the dwarves, as if on the look out for something. The ends of its legs ending in black stubs like socks. Its two mandibles had four golden bracelets on them, two on each.

Stronric eyes narrowed as the saw the bracelets and his hand clenched on his axe. The spider spread his mandibles and Stronric saw the dwarven rune for friend etched on all four on the inner side of the bracelets. Had the dwarves here forged bands of friendships for these spiders?

Then suddenly the spider spun and lowered itself onto the ground. Stronric and Rugiel eyebrows both came up in surprise.

“Is that a bow?” Rugiel asked as she tried to hold back a smile.

The spider sensing it was bowing incorrectly flailed its arms further out in all directions and lowering itself completely to the ground. Rugiel couldn’t help herself and let out a laugh. Stronric cracked a smile and Bauru shot them a disapproving look. Bauru bowed back to spider, with one arm across his chest and the other across his lower back, he bent slightly at the waist.

Bauru coming out of his bow Bauru turned to Stronric, “So what you think? Are we gonna be friends with the Mithril Threads?”

Stronric stared at Bauru chewing his lip in thought. He weighed what benefits a treaty and oath to the spiders would mean and also reflected on how such an oath could be negative. Stronric began to pull and twist his beard. The spider moved forward pushing the cocooned gift out, presenting it to the party of dwarves. Bauru reached out and picked up the sack. It was made from spider webs, but they weren’t sticky to the touch. It was woven similarly to a burlap sack and was even pulled shut with a draw string that was tied shut.

Stronric and Rugiel stepped up next to Bauru, lowering their weapons. Bauru held the sac out to Stronric. Stronric accepted the sack and opened it. The web sack was full of threads and some sort of wooden instrument. Stronric pulled the wooden rectangle item out of the bag, before handing the bag to Rugiel. It was shoulder width wide and as long as Stronric’s torso, with two support beams on the back running parallel to the top. The top and bottom were covered in small notches. As Stronric turned the item to inspect it, he saw a long cross bar and comb were tied to both with spine silken string. He noticed the comb and cross bar were notched, matching those of the rectangle. Stronric brows raised

“This is a hand loom! Where did these spiders get a loom from?” Surprise covering Stronric face.

“Stronric, this is spider silk!” Rugiel gasped in amazement.

Both turned and looked at the spider which was still splayed out on the floor.

Bauru gave them a smug look and motioned that they should bow. Rugiel and Stronric both bowed to the spider.

“Aye, we accept yer offer of peace and mutual health.” Stronric said ending his bow. “But yer leader must come to the halls and present itself for the oath made between us. For now, the Mithril Threads will no longer be hunted or killed by the dwarves of Hearth Fire.”

The spider jumped to its feet and clicked its mandibles in happy chirping noises. The spider bowed not as dramatically and took several steps back and bowed again then turned and disappeared around the corner.

“Well, that was unusual.” Stronric said looking at the other two.

The siblings were both staring into the bag of spider silk.

“Stronric, I don’t think you grasp how big of a deal spider silk is. This is what only the wealthiest merchants, nobles and lords wear. We can make our fortunate on this product alone.” Rugiel said said while not taking her eyes off of the threads in the still open sack.

Stronric walked over and took the bag from her. He tossed the loom and its smaller parts back in, before chiding her.

“Did you forget lassie? We got work to do.” Stronric said as he turned and walked back towards the entrance to the storage level.

Originally, the dwarves planned to only take a few recovered items back up to the hold but, the amount of valuables they had found kept expending.Their base camp was filled with supplies, all packed and ready to be hauled up by the goats at a later time. For now the three each carried what they could and made their way back to the hearth. They unloaded their supplies, ate and went to wash. After everything was done, they decided it was best to get a good night’s sleep and start hauling the supplies in the morning.

Stronric was the first one awake in the morning. Spending the early hours adding ingredients to the breakfast stew. He sat by the low fire stirring in the ingredients and thought back on his old life. In the old world, all dwarves served on the deep watch, no matter the caste or position they held. Each dwarf served for ten years, down in the deeps all professions were needed. Doctors, nurses, cooks, and warriors. The deep watch served in protecting the roads that connected all the dwarven the holds together. You could travel the dwarven empire without ever seeing the sun along the deep roads. Although the roads made life easier, they were also plagued by beasts and monsters. Only the most well-traveled were free from attacks. The deep watch fought to secure the roads and to push forward to prospect for new mining veins.

No matter where you served, in the Gobi passes or the fire scorn, the guard’s stew was the center of the encampment. With rotating shifts, stationary workers and new units checking in, you could always get a warm bite to eat at the pot. Stronric had started to keep a similar pot at the hearth. Kept over low coals to keep it simmering, they just added new ingredients into the pot whenever it got low. The lunches came from the pot if they had a special breakfast or dinner. Whenever passing through the hearth, the three made sure it was simmering with enough broth to not dry out.

Another thing Stronric made a permanent part of the hearth room was weapons. Every dwarf was required to have their weapons on their boots, when they slept or relaxed. The hold was never truly secure, so a weapon was required to always be within arm’s reach. Stronric peered at the two sleeping dwarves when an idea popped into his head.

“BANG BANG” Stronric slammed a ladle onto the back of a pot.

“Wake up the enemy are upon us!” Stronric yelled at the top of his voice.

The siblings sprang to their feet, Rugiel quickly lifted her war hammer and Bauru unsheathed his daggers. They frantically scanned for enemies before spotting Stronric standing there, with a wide grin, pot in hand.

“Good morning lassies, now that yer up, let’s go over my plans.” Stronric said as he set down the kitchenware.

The siblings grumbled as they got dressed and grabbed bowls of stew to eat. Stronric watched them eat. He saw the life return to them and the sleepiness in their eyes start to disappear, the planning began.

“Now that your awake let’s go over the plan for the next week. Over the next couple of days, we are going to harvest the mushrooms, retrieve the rest of the prepped materials from down below and finish that paperwork for the clan. Then we are going to head into town, as a party of three. We will take Indomitable, load him up with supplies and try to make some money. I am going to leave a paper here on the bar for anyone to add things to a list I started. It should be of things needed from town. Rugiel you are on smithing, let’s get a couple weapons made for Mintra and Gerlad. Bauru first help me load the supplies up here with the goats then onto mushrooms and hunting.”

“Now, we are going into the town as a party, we need to visit this… what is it called Bauru?” Stronric asked.

“Foundry stone.” Bauru said as he ate.

Stronric looked over at Rugiel who was eating, she set down her bowl, wiped her mouth. “A foundry stone is a tool used to level up. Most cities over a certain population have one. You merely need to place your hand on the console, and will guide you through the process. I don’t know what they look like. Foundry stones are guarded, if you want to successfully take over a town and use its magical defense you would need control of the stone. Must citizens Foundry stones. ”Rugiel finished and picked up her bowl.

“Can we get one of those?” Stronric asked.

Rugiel shrugged her shoulders and continued to eat.

“How unlady like sis” Bauru teased.

Rugiel stared at her brother until he held both hands up in mock surrender.

Stronric placed out the Parchment and a stick of coal he fished out of the fire.

“Here the list, so write down everything we need. After all the work is done, we will go over the list together and decide what is important and what is not. Also, while we are on the road, let’s keep an eye out for any more dwarves. Any dwarf we see will return with us if they wish to. You are Grudge Bearers and slavery is a grudge. The grudge comes first, if it will kill you to honor it, fetch me first. We need workers for the hold. Not every dwarf we need to recruit needs to be a warrior. I think new clothing will be first on the list for each of ye. Yer starting to look like a proper dwarves now.” Stronric said as he patted his stomach.

Stronric was larger than most dwarves, but that was due to good genetics, and him being an axe dwarf. He drilled daily back home, ran up the mountains and worked hard labor whenever he could. The siblings had be shrunken things when he met them, but now they ate, drank and trained daily adding bulk and muscle. They needed new cloths, shoes and the like. Hopefully their trading partner had thought of some of the supplies they would need and would have some on hand.

Stronric clapped his hands together and ended the meeting. Bauru and Stronric made their way up to the stables to let the goats out.

The journey back down to the storage level was a chaotic one. The goats were “Bahhing” at everything, jumping, playing and taking off in random directions. Bauru herded the goats as Stronric walked down the passageway with his hand on Beatrice. He talked to her as they walked, filling her in on the events of his days since they had been separated. Stronric was convinced he was crazy when he saw her nodding along to his story about the mountain top, and he thought she let out a laugh as he told her about the spider presenting his butt to show the markings of the Mithril Thread.

Bauru stopped the herd at the base camp, and Stronric unlocked the door. Once safely inside Bauru, with the help of Beatrice, formed a line of goats. Bauru tied makeshift tack to the goats’ backs then Stronric loaded them up and secured the lines. Shortly the room was filled with the baying of goats as they protested the weight of their loads. Once every goat was loaded with goods Stronric unlocked the door, slipped out to ensure the way was clear then called out for the caravan to head back upstairs. It took a total of three trips to remove all the goods they found. On the way up, the caravan stopped at the smithy before continuing to the guest rooms where they unloaded everything left. Rugiel sorted through and tried to store the large number of new boxes and barrels that quickly over took the smithy. Bauru and Stronric set up the storage area in the guest rooms. The guest rooms faired worst, they were considerably smaller than the storage room and the smithy. Over half of the rooms were packed with crates.

Once the goats were returned to their stables, the new materials were sorted, three very tired dwarves ate dinner and prepared for bed with very little conversation. They all knew how important their work was and threw themselves into their tasks with everything they had. Rugiel was exhausted from using Morgal’s flame while smithing. The party agreed the spider shoots were reserved for those using their powers. Stronric and Bauru ate the legions blood and ale, and quickly fell asleep. Rugiel stayed up into the night mumbling about timing and different ways to mold iron to her will.

Stronric felt like he just closed his eyes when morning came. He rolled over and went to shake Bauru awake. Bauru was missing from his bed roll. Stronric looked around and saw the back of Rugiel as she left the hearth, and Bauru was picking up his plates when he saw that Stronric was awake.

“Hurry up beardling, we’ve got work to do” Bauru said, with his best Stronric impression, cracking a smile.

Stronric gave him a blank stare and then returned the smile with a laugh as he jumped to his feet to get a bowl of stew.

“I’ll let out the goats while ye eat yer breakfast, hurry up or the ol’ Stronric gonna boot ye.” Bauru said over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

Stronric quickly ate his meal before heading for the door. He went up to the farms catching Bauru as he was coming down. They walked into the farms together and saw that three large barrels were waiting for them to harvest the mushrooms.

“Okay now, Mushroom farming! I am assuming yer have never harvest mushrooms before?” Stronric asked.

“Picked mushrooms in the woods before, never like this.” Bauru said.

Stronric set down his empty backpack and pulled out a dagger. He bent down, signaling Bauru to come close and watch. Stronric placed his thumb into next to a mushroom head.

“Now when harvesting a mushroom patch, you will only take the largest of them. Ye’ll need to leave behind about half the mushrooms as well. If they are smaller, then use yer thumb like this to measure. Only take the mushrooms that are larger than yer thumb or if yer hungry, with no other options, ye want no smaller than your thumb nail. Now the greatest of farmers have fought a battle older than time itsself. How to harvest.”

Stronric reached down to the base of the mushroom and twisted, pulling the mushroom free of the mycelium. He then grabbed a second mushroom, making sure to go through the same steps as before, measuring his thumb, picking the largest of them. Taking the dagger Stronric cut the second mushroom off at the base, leaving the “root” below the ground.

“Now mushrooms grow in networks, they spread out their roots, making long thready channels. A patch of mushrooms can grow quite large, so we wouldn’t want them competing for the same nutrients in the soil. Some believe that pulling the mushrooms out at the base kills the roots below, so they cut them off at the stem. Some farmers say that pulling mushrooms causes the roots to rot. Others say the rot that takes place after pulling them doesn't effect the roots and adds nutrients. I was taught to pull them. They grow where we can control them, and we need to limit their expansion. So, pulling them is the proper way to go. Now if we are translocating a patch, we only want to remove one of the larger mushrooms from each patch. That will allow the patch to sustain itself.” Stronric looked at Bauru if he had any questions.

Bauru was a huntsman; he asked a few questions about the roots but seemed to have a knowledgeable enough handle on it.

“Last thing, use the torches to separate the different colors out into different barrels. I’ll start over here and ye start over there.” Stronric said.

Stronric moved over to his spot on the mushrooms patches and got to work. The first mushroom he removed was a plain white capped mushroom. These remind me of the ones back home. As he moved on he found two mushrooms of different colors. Both mushrooms had purple bases with white stems and gills and the top of cap was a deep blood red. The mushrooms differed in that one had white spots on the red cap while the other mushroom had brown spots. Stronric inspected each cap. They were identical in every way except the color. Where did these comes from? I only spored white mushrooms. Stronric scraped the gills and cut the stem. He was puzzled, he shrugged and put them in separate piles. Rubbing his hands together, he got to work on the harvest.

Dirt caked Stronric’s knees and hands, but finally the two dwarves finished the harvest. They had filled the three barrels, two to dedicated to the unique mushrooms. They had to retrieve two more barrels for the normal plain mushrooms. They ended their day with five barrels of mushrooms in total.

I have never seen mushrooms grow at such a rate. I also didn’t plant enough mushrooms for a harvest this size. We will need to take most of these mushrooms into Millstone and pay for a miller to turn it into a flour of us. Most of our stock will rot if we left them here.

They went to the pond to clean up. Bauru went first and when he finished washing he left to tend to the goats. As Stronric floated in the cool pool he got an idea. He pulled out the mushrooms he had experimented with earlier and cut them into small pie slices. He tossed one slice of each color into the pond. One red crab grabbed a brown slice and the red the other. Stronric frowned, threw in a handful of both slices. The crabs sorted the mushroom slices and ate them. The red crabs eating the browns and the blue crabs eating the white spotted mushrooms.

Well shite, if only I knew anything about these crabs this might have actually mean something.

Sighing in frustration Stronric picked up his gear and made his way back to the hearth. He set the sack down on the bar. He took a look at the parchment list and checked over it. So far the items on the list seemed reasonable. There was some stuff that could wait, like bed sheets, covers, pillows and the like for the guest chambers. All in all a good list was being made. Beatrice was sitting in front of the fire, her legs curled up underneath her.

Beatrice has never failed me!

“Hey my favorite nanny.” Stronric said holding up the mushrooms.

Beatrice sniffed both mushrooms and after a moment, ate them both.

Okay, so they are not poisonous. We are making head way.

Stronric picked up a white cap and took a small bite. The mushroom taste like mushroom. Stronric frowned, and took a bite out of each spotted mushrooms, they too taste like mushroom.

Condition gained!

Stamina recovery: minor.

“AH HA!” Stronric yelled out.

Oh crap, which one was it? The white mushroom is common food stock, but these are two are different.

Rugiel and Bauru entered the hearth and saw Stronric sitting next to the fire. He was hunched over the fire with two sticks held, each with a smoking mushroom being held over the fire. He was mumbling to himself. Rugiel cleared her throat loudly. Stronric jumped in surprise, turning to the two dwarves with a crazed look as he said, look “taste the mushrooms.”

Both of the siblings looked at each other wearily, “Sorry Stronric I’m not hungry.” Bauru said pushing the mushrooms away.

“I didn’t ask you if you were hungry now eat up beardling.” Stronric replied, his maddened smile growing wider.

Bauru said a quick prayer to Thoranthana before down the hatch it went. Stronric looked at him in earnest.

“Well? What do you think?” Stronric asked.

“Well, it taste like mushroom.” replied Bauru.

“No did you get anything, like a condition?” asked Stronric.

“Not that I can see.” said Bauru.

Stronric turned on Rugiel shoving the stick in her face. She begrudgingly ate the mushroom then also reported to Stronric, "No condition here, either." Stronric looked defeated, the great mystery of the mushrooms would be forever beyond his grasp.

Stronric tossed the sticks into

the flames mumbling angerly under his breath.

As he turned to leave the siblings both shouted out “ Stamina recovery condition!”

Stronric looked back at the mushrooms sizzling in the flames. "ye sneaky little bastards."

“I’ve had enough of these mushrooms. I am going to go do something useful!” Stronric yelled, heading for the door. “I am going to the smithy!”