Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

[Wumpus Slayer]

A gray-skinned gnome wearing a distinctive blue hat walks into the Ironback Brothers' shop. Lost in thought, he notices the others in the shop, but assumes they must be customers of the dwarven brothers and proceeds to the left.

"Good to see you again, Friam. What'll it be today?," says the dwarven proprietor.

"Greatsword," replies the gnome with a smile on his face. "I'm telling you, you're missing out on a gold mine here."

"Aye, laddie, but the iron we work with has a steady supply, and there's somethin' to be said for that too."

"True enough, my friend. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a place like this where I can keep a full stock of materials. In the meantime, Hojnenrhy and I gotta take our work when we can get it."

The gnome takes the greatsword mold and heads to the workbench at the back of the shop. He takes out his smithing hammer and places it gently on the bench. The handle is worn smooth in some spots, a testament to its many years of faithful service. "Someday Hojnenrhy... someday we'll have a forge of our own. I promise."

As he takes some ingots of dark hued ore from his pack and begins heating them in the forge, he can be overheard singing a prayer to Brintha...

[SnorriHT]

Latishe, lost in the pell mell of the ongoing conversations, fails to see the Gnome. However her ears pick up the familiar prayer. She glides over to Friam and respectfully waits for the prayer to finish.

"Goodday, I am Lady Latishe, a Priestess of Brintha. You sung that prayer from the heart. May I assume that you are a follower of the Earthmother?" Latishe then looked Graham and Wright for consensus. "I'm not sure if you heard, but we are looking to establish the Order of the Diamond, a crafting guild, in the Province of Dasaria. Would you be interested?"

[stoned-raider]

A halfling appears behind Latishe, and gently pushes her to the side, placing himself next to her.

"uhh ohhh .... Diamonds? Ye lookin fer diamonds? Uncle Trapjumper always used to say that diamonds grow very far beneath the earth .... like .... erhmmm" *scratches his head* "...like potatoes, only much further down"

He offers a hand to Friam

"I´m Pat. But ye call me Paddy."
"So ... erhmm ... what else were we talkin about ?"

The halfling looks from Friam to Latishe and back.
Suddenly the halfling´s attention is drawn towards the open door .

"Oh look! Yikes! They usin magic out there"

He starts running towards the open door, and shouts over his shoulder:

"Good luck with yer diamonds, but i gotta be goin!"

[TheFabledFist]

"You're bloody right there'd be a demand! There're tons of folks out there who have no clue what they're doin' with their lives, much less with craftin', and what better way to live then to be livin' ta create a masterpiece! It'll take hard work, and community, and devotion! But we'll need at least one master craftsman to take on apprentices."

Graham rubbed his beard and admired the vivaciousness of Latishe's stock. "Now a priestess of Brintha, she said she was! This is almost too good to be true! But what do you mean when you say Misty calls her the Gift from Varana?"

As Graham continued to size up the priestess of Brintha and wait for Wright's explanation, Aegis had decided to get back to work. His hammer clanged loudly on an order of chainmail, leaving Graham and Wright to join the blue-hatted gnome and the lady Latishe in conversation.

"Yeah! Hello! I'm Graham Mantlegyr! That's some greatsword yer temperin'." Glancing over the gnome's work with a keen eye, Graham rests two giant fists on his barrel torso and patiently waits to hear what they have to say.

[SnorriHT]

Wright cleared his throat and pulled Graham aside "Well ya might not know Graham, but Misty is going away, and we were lamenting the fact that we might not find another Earthmother to breath life into our creations."

Wright wriggled his eybrows. "Misty said that Lady Latishe was a gift from Lochwar to serve Brintha. Hence that's why she calls the Lady the Gift from Varana. But no mistake, I knew the first time I looked at her that she was one of the Earthmother's Daughters."

Latishe turned her head and smiled at the retreating Paddy "Cheeky!" was her only comment.

She then sensed Wright and Graham standing behind her, but found it difficult to hear what they were saying above the hammering. So she swung around her whole body to face Wright and Graham. Wright was suddenly confronted with well developed breasts an inch away from his face. Wright, trying to focus went cross-eyed, and his jaw dropped. Latishe, trying not to laugh at the comical look of the cross-eyed, slack-jawed Dwarf, put two hands in his shoulders and gently turned him around.

"Haven't you got something to do Wright?"

"Oooh Aye, Earthdaughter" Wright walked into an adjoining room and stuck his head in a bucket of cold water a couple of times. "Forgive me Earthmother. And I'd never thought I'd ever say this, but thank you Lochwar" he muttered happily to himself.

Latishe smiled as she watched Wright leave, moving like a robot. "So Graham, would you be interested if I advertise the establishment of the Order of the Diamond?"

[TheFabledFist]

Graham grinned broadly at his fellow dwarf and watched Wright atone and give praise in a fairly common yet practical method. Throwing back a head as smooth as marble with a tamed brush of hair flowing down the middle, Graham laughed to the ceiling that was audible over the rest of the bustling smithy's interior. Giving Latishe a joyous appraisal with his friendly blue eyes, the zealous dwarf smiled, "With Misty gone, it looks like the task of Earthmother will fall on one of the Earthdaughters. I can tell ye, as the rest of my dwarf kin have said, that you be well suited fer the position."

Rubbing his beard again, Graham turned facing Latishe with his full attention to take this opportunity. He started at the bottom of her foundation and gazed up along her midsection, noting her symmetry with a crafter's eye, and finally studying the fullness of her lips as well as the other well developed features of her bone structure and shapely eyes. With the slightest of smiles that reflected in the kind lines around his eyes, Graham gave a single nod. "Lass, ye got the looks, and Brintha's own blessings bestowin' ya with graces I've ne'er seen in a female who ain't one of me own kind."

Giving a well-practiced bow and a sweep of his hand, Graham lowered his mane and then looked up at Latishe with his genuine smile. "By the request of your own breath, I would be pleased to give my service to the Earthdaugther of Brintha."

[SnorriHT]

"Splendid Graham!, I shall start at once" Latishe looked around the shop "Good day to you all, and may Brintha, the Earthmother, bless you" She then smiled and made her way out the door, her curvy hips moving with noble purpose.

After Latishe had left, Wright returned, looking like a drowned rat, but in a cheerful mood.

[TheFabledFist]

As Graham and the Ironback brothers said their goodbyes and watched Latishe go with dwarven pride, Wright came up to stand beside Graham at the doorway. "Finally! Things in this city are gonna be grand with the Order of the Diamond. Keep your good set of eyes on our priestess, Graham. She's the Gift of Varana, an' the only one we got."

"Will do! You can count on me!" Going out the door now, Graham turned to give his farewell. "I'll see ya! Goodbye!"

[Wumpus Slayer]

OOC: I don't usually get to post on Fridays, so this is going back in time a little...

"Goodday, I am Lady Latishe, a Priestess of Brintha. You sung that prayer from the heart. May I assume that you are a follower of the Earthmother?" Latishe then looked Graham and Wright for consensus. "I'm not sure if you heard, but we are looking to establish the Order of the Diamond, a crafting guild, in the Province of Dasaria. Would you be interested?"

The gnome looks up at the priestess. He just stares, dumbfounded for a moment, then regains his composure. Forcing himself to look all the way up to her eyes, he replies, "Did you... Excuse me, but did you just say you were a priestess of Brintha?"

"Yes," she replied, looking at him expectantly.

He looks back at the metal warming on the forge, at the hammer in his hand, and then back at the priestess, and then a big smile breaks out on his face.

"Then once again, Brintha has answered my prayers. It is a pleasure to meet you." He bows and then extends his hand, "I'm Friam... Friam Fole, and I would be honored to join the local chapter of The Order of the Diamond."