2 birds 1 stone (job)

job:

The duo that was Ustad and Josser had once again found themselves to be traversing through the dense foliage of the jungles of Meridia. A couple of days ago they had gotten their hands on the cypress wood that their latest (and first) client had requested for the construction of their latest home. They had some minor troubles claiming said lumber but were more than capable of handling the talk and the so called protectors of the trees. Now they find themselves heading towards a new location to gather more resources that seemed questionable at best to the two artists.

First it was wood that grew most commonly in an isolated grove and now it was stone and marble from a long abandoned quarry. This was a place that had existed in the plains for the past couple of decades now but was swallowed up as the new nation was formed and had sense been abandoned due to the difficulty of traveling between locations but also transporting the large blocks of stone. Now, after a couple of years, a flock of large birds had made their roosts in the crooks of the manmade cliffs and protected their territory rather fiercely. Unlike the monkeys that had protected the cypress grove, these birds have taken a few lives over the years. The two noncombatants would have to be quite a bit more cautious and savvy than they were previously in gathering their materials.

When they arrive at the quarry they would see a few traces of what they were looking for but not any clear veins of it. The quarry was large, carving a giant pit into the earth as it had been worked on for years, probably slavers or bandits who wanted to build fancy fortress strongholds in the central of the plains. But now it was littered with abandoned tools, supplies and plenty of scaffolding. The scaffolding seemed to still be in a usable condition which would be of much help to the artists as they had come along. But for now they would focus on finding the desire material for the building and sculptures that the client had requested through their middle man. It was a strange material for this region since marbles or granite were more popular, or even certain wood. It was a material more common in the regions of the desert nation of Heliohapt which was now shared by several various nations. It was a material that was hard and durable that was meant to last a few different lifetimes. The belief was that the soul could go into a statue that was made in the likeness of someone. Following this belief, they wanted to have statues and other pieces of art to be extremely durable and long lasting. So perhaps this showed a gleam of the true identity of the client or maybe it was a test of some sorts to see if they could still work with such an unforgiving material.

They would proceed to the inner most section of the quarry, finding themselves at the deepest part of the quarry. There in this man made pit, surrounded by massive, carved cliffs was a clear deposit of the diorite that they were tasked with harvesting. They would smile eagerly amongst each other as they looked at the pristine material. There was plenty there for them to end up having more than enough for their current project as well as having leftovers for a few other pieces. The sculptor and the architect would both grab pickaxes and start to dig into the rock on either side of the diorite. Their hammers striking in unison, sending out a rhythmic pinging that would ring out through the quarry, amplified by the hard walls of the cliffs.

The ping of the tools would eventually be drowned out by the sound of flapping wings. Josser would create a wall of ice using second rate which would slow the momentum of the oncoming debris that would continue to smash through the obstacle. Ustad would use fast hammer work to take care of the remaining chunks of rocks that made it past the wall of ice. The eagles had flown from their roost and were now on the hunt.

One eagle would fly high up above the duo before diving straight down at them with their razor sharp beak and claws. The duo was going to have a bit of a difficult time reaching the birds up in the air so it made things easier with them meeting the artists on the ground level. Ustad would rotate the hammer in his hand before prying a nail with increased strength, swinging the bladed end of his hammer down into the scull of the avian. Ustad was not someone who cared for fighting or the taking of lives but as he saw it, these beasts were standing in their path of achieving the perfection of art.

Seeing the other two in the air he would through a roofing nail swinging with more force than usual, sending a nail right through the temple of a second eagle. The third eagle seeing that this was not prey it could handle would be overcome by it’s instinct and flee, leaving the battle. Since they were only defending themselves the artists saw no reason to pursue the bird and would go back to the task at hand.

They would spend the next couple of days working on carving out the large block of diorite. Once they were done they would manage to use the scaffolding and other equipment that was already there to load the material onto the wagon that they had brough just for this. With this the wood and now the stone had been obtained and would take probably a week to gather the rest of the building materials which were minor and not that hard to get a hold of. The main problem was transporting them through the jungle to the location of the estate in the plains just outside of the treeline. Soon their final task for this job would be ready to begin.
WC 1000/1000
90/160 stamina

abilities and items used:

Joss the Sculptor: