Move 401: Full Moons and Wet ClothesTunnels--Early, Day 41 (Marpenoth 24)
Aloysius, abandoning all pretense of modesty, dropped the blanket he was wrapped in and cast a ward on the doorway. Everyone settled back down eventually, trying to get some rest. It was even more difficult to get to sleep now, but the being did not return to the cave. This section of the tunnels seemed to be more occupied than the last place they had explored; according to Renn, there were now two creatures of different sorts that had had encounters with the party within the last day.
The watches passed and everyone awoke to start their preparations for the day. Aloysius and Arachne looked like they felt much better. Those who had washed garments in the pool found that their clothes were not dry. The best that could be said for them was that they were not dripping wet.
Kanon got up from his morning prayers with an irritated look on his face. He pulled on his itchy tunic and breeches and more than once let out an exhasperated sigh of disgust. After all his armor had been donned he pulled on his necklace and looked over at the pool before standing to move to the opening of the cave looking rather impatient and disconcerted.
"Is everything okay?" Echo asked uncertainly.
"Who wants invisibility spells today?" she asked.
Kanon kept his eyes turned towards the darkness and mumbled a few incoherant words before turning back to Echo, "Of course. Everythings just sunshine and flowers isn't it ?" At that he picked up his morningstar and ignited it with a flash of light holding it uncertainly out towards the darkness, "I forgot to memorize the prayer to repair the corrupt food but I did study the one that will create more at least for a few meals." He slumped against the wall looking down and waited patiently for the others to finish their
morning buisness.Echo looked momentarily taken aback before she pulled up her cowl and shrugged.
Aloysius reblanketed himself and went back to sleep after casting his spell.
When he awakened he inspected his clothes and frowned. "Not certain I can wear these as yet . . . " he muttered.
"Why is it," Jana groused as she pulled on her wet padding, "we got people what can heal horrible injuries and shoot bolts of zappy light and create food or wood outta nothin' or even go from here to there without actually going from here to there, but can't no one make our damned clothes get dry?" She made a whimpering noise as she settled her chainmail onto her shoulders.
Dalgaer laughed, "Isn't that always the way of it! The practical stuff gets forgotten."
"It isn't forgotten at all," Arachne said, inspecting her damp dress. "It's simply that you are asking too much. There are spells that dessicate well enough -- in degrees that would render a washload dry or turn a creature to dust. And there are numerous wizards who could take care of the wash and perhaps fewer with the training to work the more powerful magic. But a washwizard is suitable only where damp clothes are the worst vexation of the day. We here have to worry in a hundred different ways about survival and our spellcasters focus their talents on those concerns. Next to being dead, feeling clammy is minor. "Or so I keep telling myself," the gnome added, fingering the cold, dank material of her dress. "Oh well." She dug out of her pack the other outfit, the one of thin, unprotective suede, and began to dress in that. "Ordinary clothes are so easily sliced to ribbons by hostile, sharp, pointy things -- like claws and swords -- that you have to have a spare." When she was dressed, she picked up the damp dress. "Don't want to pack you," she muttered. "You'd never dry out then..."
Jana made a pained noise. "You're making my head hurt," she complained to Arachne. "I was only kidding. Although," she continued, turning to Aloysius, "if when you get to be the most badass mage around, you wanted to invent a 'clothesline of drying' or somesuch, there's a lotta people who'd sing your praises." She thought for a moment then added, "And a portable bathtub that always has hot water, that'd be nice too. That's a little tiny one that gets big, like that cabin thingie, once a day or something. I'm just saying."
Aloysius looked up from his wet clothing and nodded. "Aye . . . such things could be done. Theoretically. 'Twould simply require the redirection of certain cantrip elements, and a dimensional flux matrix or two, along with thermal alteration magics. The trick, of course, would be in joining all that within some permanent item for ease of use . . . . ." He gazed off into space, lost in thought.
Echo, after spending the night wrapped in her cloak, cast a longing glance at her blanket. "I'm sure it could be figure out," she commented. "Aloysius' Shoppe of Practical Magic. There are spells to alter temperature, but I don't know one," she told Jana. "I can mend clothes, but I can't dry them."
"I think we've accumulated enough money to finance making one," Jana commented. "It'd be cool if there was some magical do-hickey that'd clean and dry clothes and stuff, maybe clean and polish armor. Bet merc companies would pay big for something like that. Totally sucks bein' out in the field for months without being able to get really clean. Almost as much," she sighed, "as it does down here."
"Misery is the mother of invention," Echo remarked.
Aloysius perked up. "'Sucks', Stargazer recalls that term," he said happily. "Doesn't that mean that something is . . . unpleasant? Perhaps even extremely so? What an odd way to express something . . . ."
Noting Echo looking longingly at her blanket, Aloysius stammered incoherently before handing it back to her. Still completely bare, he turned back to the task of inspecting his clothes.
Echo accepted the blanket hesitantly. "You could have, uh, kept that."
"I can see it now, Aloysius' Practical Magic Items." Blacky laughed. "You could set up shop right next to my brewery."
Azrun smiled as he put up his spell book and bedding from the night before, "Great dreams and I hope you all get to see them come true. I'm not sure what I want for myself after all this is through. Guess I'll just have to see when I get there. I've not had much luck making plans and having them come through yet." He finished his packing and gathered and the entrance with the others.
Dalgaer looked with a touch of awe at Blacky. "You are... a Brewer?"
"Yes, in my previous life i brewed a mean tankard of ale. Hopefully someday I'll do that again. This region of the world seems to lack any brewing skill to say the least." Blacky replied to Dalgaer.
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