With his return to his kingdom Thorushk was eager to see his wife that was definitely showing the baby bump. “Thats one strong baby” he kept claiming to his wife as every day they could see the baby stretching her belly.
“Do you wish it to be a boy or a girl” Abigail asked Thorushk at one point. The only thing he could think of saying was “As long as it has the love and attention that I got from my parents, it doesnt matter to me either way”
Erastus
The first month that he was there, Thorushk spent most of his time by his wife’s side. Helping her and getting her whatever she required. Even though they now had servants to do these things, he enjoyed being able to spend this time with her. Due to him being so busy with his wife, he may have not taken too much interest in the Kingdom except to approve the opening of a store that sold mythical and rare creatures, and made sure the dwarves had houses built in the newly created settlement of Striken.
On the last day of the month, Thorushk met with the populace in the town hall to hear the people out. It had been a while since he had let the meeting and was glad to hear the peoples voices. When he opened the hall for the first petitioners, there was a throng of dwarves waiting. They had made the long trek down the mountains to speak in the hall.
“You Thorushk?”
“Yep”
“Might wanna build a road to yer other settlement ya know.”
Thorushk points to the scribe and motions for him to write that down. He looks back to them.
“K”
“And we want a damn smithy built in Striken. We are sick of having to trudge down here, or wait on the damn rip off merchants coming up and selling us their stuff for a fortune. We won’t have any of that.”
“Ok”
The dwarf squints and looks at him……. “Ok?!”
“Yep, I value your work and ethics. They say there is no better miners in the world and I want to make sure to keep you happy. Consider it done.”
“You sure you a Half-greenskin?”
“Yep”
The dwarf spits in his hand and approaches the chair Thorushk is sitting in “Swear to me”
Spitting in his hand, Thorushk reaches down and shakes the dwarf’s hand “I swear”
The dwarves all grumbling to themselves behind this occurence start heading towards the door, as their spokeperson reaches them he says “Damned softest hands I ever felt.” With that the dwarves start roaring with laughter and left the chambers.
Looking to the guard at the door, he wipes his hand on a cloth and says “Well one down one hundred to go. Send in the next petitioner.”
Arodus
The dwarves stayed true to their words with their work and Attin saw the most prosperous months it had ever seen. As promised he set first thing with the creation of a Tool smithy in Striken. Also he had his people clear the area south of attin and claimed another area.
After he saw to that, he went and sought out Molly Chatman. “Molly sorry to disturb you but Abigail and I would like to go for a walk with you if you have the time.”
“Of course Thorushk. Is Abigail ok?” she said with a worried look on her face. During the pregnancy Molly has been overseeing Abigail.
“Yes, yes. Please come with us”
Walking through the town to the salutations and smiles of the folk, Thorushk brings her to the town hall.
“Uh what we doing here” she stated while looking at the town hall.
“Turn around and tell me what you see”
She does and squints….. “Well a few streets down is the Smith I see. But thats it.”
Laughing, Thorushk says “Heh the lady isnt the only one with mysteries”
Abigail puts an elbow in his ribs and admonishes him with a smile on her face “Tell her and stop being a jerk”
“Fine, fine.” Coughing he composes his demeanour. “Picture this….. bricks….. walls…….doors”
“THORUSHK” Abigail elbows him again
“Heh ok. Molly I have ordered the creation of your temple to be built here close to the town hall and castle. Is that ok with you?”
She stares at him for a few seconds, then looks to Abigail who nods. Then suddenly leaps at Thorushk putting her arms around him in a hug “YES, YES” Switching to hugging Abigail.
“I figured it would be a good place. Especially at the end of the month when petitioners are lining up directly outside the church heh.”
Looking back to the spot as though she could see the Temple already. “It will be perfect”
Rova
Sitting in their parlor talking to Abigail one night . “I think I want to expand to the water to the East. Eolande says its filled with her kind and well, I think it would be good for Attin”
“Yes dear” is all she says as she is reading a letter.
“Oh and I want to grow a bulls head on my back”
“Yes dear”
Sigh…… “Abigail……. ABIGAIL!!”
“Oh what sorry, I was just reading this”
“You dont say.”
“Turns out we are invited to Restov for their festival. I am not even sure what the festival is for.”
“So tell them we can’t make it”
She turns and looks at me “Are you new???? You can’t do that. This is how we get diplomatic ties. Perhaps a foot into Restov, maybe later combine into one big kingdom”
“Sigh ok…. but you are not going in your condition. I will go. Should I bring a bottle of beer or something.”
Shaking her head she starts “I will arrange to have the gifts made. It wont be too extravigant as we are a fledgling kingdom, but around 8,000gp should do. Ok to start when you meet them you should step forward with the left foot…….” It went on like this for days. Trust me….. you don’t want to know.
Because he was so distracted. Thorushk ordered the building of a foundry in Striken and expanded to the east. After the foundry was built even though there was objections to building it, the dwarves proclaimed Thorushk and “Idjeet” as there is no water there for them. With a sigh he went to Restov to make friends.
Lamashan
Thorushk expands a little to the South east. While he is up in Striken overseeing the aquaduct being built, he noticed that there was always a cadre of Dwarves on constant rotation heading to Attin and back.
“Kaz, what is with you dwarves always heading to Attin. It cant be for R+R cause you come right back.”
“Well it be like this, ahem..(with a small voice) we need supplies”
“Sorry, what”
“We need supplies ok!”
“Oh what do you need.” Thorushk looks around at Striken “Other than you know food, clothing, you know the necessities that you are NOT carrying back”
“Cough @#er Cough”
“WHAT?”
“Beer ok….. are you happy. We are getting beer. The clean clothes, the fresh food, hell up till recently a roof over our head. These are things we can live without. Now beer. Dont even try to stop us.”
“So it means so much to you”
“Does your precious books?”
“Touche”
“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME” As he rounds on Thorushk.
“Never mind….HEY JIMMY!!! Whistles” A human walks over
“Yeah whats up boss.”
“Do we have extra materials, like wood after we do this Aquaduct?”
“Of course boss, we always bring extra and take back what we need when building in the mountains”
“Good build another building large enough to house a brewery”
“Sure thing boss” As he heads out giving instructions to the other workers
Thorushk turns back to Kaz, “There would that be better…… wait is that a tear in your eye?!”
“SHUDDUP, course not. Got some rock in my eye, thats all. Get outta my way greenie.” With that he walks away towards the mine, stopping to give Thorushk a smile before heading into the dark.
Neth
Neth came the greatest gift that Thorushk could ever give to his mother. A theatre named after her. The month had many people and dignitaries come to see her sing. Thorushk worried greatly about the health of his wife as his child was quite large in her womb, everyone thought it to be a boy considering the size of the bump. But Abigail tired easily. One day while sitting at home and getting her a glass of water he noticed that the water had little particles in it. Not being happy with this he went about seeing his Grandfather-in-law. But only seeing his Homunculus he decided to talk to it.
“I have no time for the political banter and gentleman manners to talk to you so I will be frank with you. I need to know if you have the capability to purify the water in Attin. I will not have Abigail drink it in her condition.”
The creature stared at me for a while. Then spoke “Yes, but it is not cheap.”
“Fine lets get it done I will assist in any way I can.”
“Let us begin” Thorushk reached for books that was pointed out by the Homunculus and combined magical theory with engineering. After a few days, they had the technique figured out and the everflowing spring was created in Perlivash Parkland.
Kuthona
With the birth of his daughter Thorushk didnt have time to read all the requests of his patrons. This was the first month that he or his wife didn’t hold the town hall meeting and had one of his council members do it for him. Conveniently it was Gloinus. At the end of the month when the books were getting settled my father brought me the accounts
“An inn was built in Striken son, they say they needed it to be able to house the temp workers”
“Acceptable and logical, but I bet it was really to have somewhere to drink their beer”
“Another smithy was also built there, they say there is creatures under the mountain and need protection so a weaponsmith was built”
“Fair enough”
“I hope you dont mind son but your mother and I ordered a school built. It was breaking our hearts, we held auditions for the theater and we were handing the music out to people to sing. Well they couldnt read son. So I know it wont bring you money, but it will make your kingdom stronger in the long run. People will want to move here if there is education for all classes, and not just those that can afford the academy.”
“Dad you dont need to explain. I trust you and I couldnt agree more. Besides if it puts a smile on mom’s face, its worth it.”
“Now son you must realise this wasn’t my fault”
“What”
“You see you signed it”
“What?”
“You agreed to build a brothel in Striken”
“WHAT!!!!!!!!”
“Gloinus must have slipped it to you. And with Meg being born you were kinda distracted.”
Looking around himself, Thorushk asks “Does Abigail know?”
“Not yet. But you might want to tell her before she finds out on her own”
“Ok dad…….Dad?!”
“Yeah son”
“You know how I should tell her?”
“I am not getting into this at all….. your on your own. Mystra be with you”
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and an owl bear will eat me or something first.”