[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/146572ed-ee3b-477b-a1cb-fbd6adb87448.png[/img]
[b][color=96512B][h3]Gerrik Far-Teacher[/h3]
Level 7 Hain Hero
26 Khookies[/color][/b][/center]

In Tallgrass, Gerrik had managed to figure out a good daily routine. In the morning, before the heat of the day set in, Gerrik would head out with Sharon to forage for food. With his exceptional abilities, they had often collected more than enough food by midday, which they returned to the village. From midday until evening, Gerrik would experiment with the star-fiend carapace. Then in the evening Gerrik would teach and share stories, as was his typical mission. Occasionally Gerrik would join a hunting party rather than go foraging, where he was able to prove his reputation as an excellent archer.

All this hunting and gathering was not typical of Gerrik's visits to villages. As was always the case, he had to earn his keep, for the village had to feed and shelter him. Normally, teaching and crafting was adequate, but in Tallgrass he was spending many hours on a personal project. Compounded with the fact that this was a very small village, with only 14 adults, Gerrik would have been an intolerable burden if he didn't help provide food.

This had some other benefits. Thanks to Gerrik's great efficiency at foraging, the people of Tallgrass were actually collecting a small surplus of food, and thus able to spend a bit more time performing other activities. The villager with the most free time was Sharon, since she went foraging with Gerrik. In this time she weaved, producing clothes, tents and baskets, using some techniques already known and some taught by Gerrik.

Another benefit was that this schedule gave Gerrik a lot of time with Sharon, while they were out foraging. Gerrik's profession meant that he rarely spent time with individuals and did not stay in one place long enough to develop meaningful relationships. But with the unusual circumstances here, things were different.

One afternoon Gerrik was at work shaping the star-fiend carapace. The big stone which he dropped from a tree, while delivering a massive amount of force, was very slow and strenuous to use and quite inaccurate, so Gerrik had built another hammer. This was a hammer with a hardwood handle almost as long as he was tall, with a hefty stone head. Such a hammer was perfectly suited for delivering great force in each blow, and the only reason he hadn't had one before was because it would have been much too big and heavy to carry long distances.

With this big hammer Gerrik flattened a chunk of star-fiend carapace against a flat rock. The sharp clangs of the stone against the metal rang out rhythmically throughout the village, only interrupted whenever Gerrik had to stop and readjust the position of the carapace.

Sharon sat down nearby with her weaving. She had threads made from twisted tall grass, a simple loom made of sticks holding the threads, and a bone needle, and was weaving together a square of coarse fabric. But while one pair of eyes watched her loom, her other pair of eyes furtively inspected Gerrik. With each lift of the hammer Gerrik's arms bulged slightly, his exoskeleton expanding to accommodate his flexing muscles. And each swing of the hammer was delivered with impressive strength and equally impressive accuracy. Gerrik was strong, agile, smart too, and-

"You missed a weave," Gerrik said casually between hammer blows.

Sharon was jolted from her thoughts, and looked properly at her loom and found that she had indeed just made a mistake. Sheepishly she undid the offending thread and wove it properly. Gerrik didn't break from his task, although his eyes betrayed amusement.

"How do you do that?" Sharon asked in disbelief. Gerrik hadn't even been properly looking at her loom at the time, and he had noticed a small flaw from several metres away.

"As I've said, I'm very perceptive," Gerrik replied.

Sharon tilted her head back slightly. "So you've said." Although Sharon was almost certain that Gerrik had some secret behind that superlative perceptiveness. She then set down her loom and leaned a little closer, looking at what Gerrik was working on. To visible inspection, it was a flattened piece of that star-fiend carapace, roughly 5cm wide and 20cm long, tapering to a point, and relatively thin. The edges were still rough. "What are you making there?"

Gerrik stopped his hammering, set the sledgehammer down, and knelt down to pick up the object. He held it out to Sharon for her to take a closer look. "I'm making a blade. Star-fiend carapace is malleable like clay, but hard like stone, so it should be sharper than a bone blade and larger than a flint blade. Should last a long while, and be easier to repair."

Sharon simply nodded, looking at the rough metal blade. Gerrik continued, "It still has a bit of work until it's finished."

Gerrik and Sharon went back to their crafts. Eventually, Gerrik finished hammering his blade. It had been a long and tiresome task, but the chunk of star-fiend carapace had finally become a refined product. Gerrik picked up the blade and held it close to his eyes, inspecting it more closely. On closer inspection, it was [i]almost[/i] finished, but the edge was still fairly dull. It needed to be sharpened, and Gerrik had already thought of how to do that.

Gerrik took out his flint knife. Flint was exceptionally hard and sharp, so could possibly be used to shave the carapace knife's edge. Gerrik pressed the edge of the flint against the carapace and pushed it along the blade.

To Gerrik's surprise, this action threw red-hot sparks out ahead of the blade. Sharon's gaze snapped up from her weaving at the flash of light.

Gerrik paused for a few moments, until he tentatively brought the flint knife back up the carapace blade and repeated the action. More sparks were thrown.

"How did you do that?" Sharon asked, surprised.

Gerrik brought the carapace blade up to his eyes and inspected where he had carved. "I'm not sure," Gerrik slowly replied, "It has something to do with scraping flint along the star-fiend carapace."

After studying the blade for a few more seconds, he lowered it and repeated the scraping action, this time scraping it multiple times in succession, spraying out more sparks against his working stone. Gerrik inspected the blade again, as well as where the sparks had flown. He noticed that he had indeed shaved a tiny bit of carapace off the blade, and that the sparks had deposited minuscule flecks of material onto the stone.

"The flint knife shaves off tiny flecks of the carapace, and these somehow burst into flame," Gerrik concluded, "Why the flecks turn into sparks is something I can only guess at. This action would produce considerable heat from the rubbing, which probably helps, but would not be enough to light a fire on its own. Perhaps the remains of the star-fiend's spirit grants its carapace this fire-starting power, although that is only a guess." Gerrik leaned back and laughed, his hands turning upwards. "But do you know what this means, Sharon? I've invented another way to start fires!"

Sharon leaped to her feet. This was exciting indeed. "Gerrik, that's wonderful! Wait-" Sharon's expression shifted from glee to puzzlement, "another way?"

"Yes, another way," Gerrik answered, "You know the bow drill?"

"Yes, of course."

"I invented that."

Sharon's eyes widened in surprise. She took a few moments to absorb the revelation. Her mouth gaped for a few moments, lost for words, until she finally said, "How [i]old[/i] are you?"

Gerrik glanced down at himself. His body was close to that of a hain in his physical prime. Yet how long ago had it been since he had gone off with Stone Chipper to travel the world? It had been many, many years. A few generations, even. Yet the only sign of all those years on his body were the results of that much physical activity. Gerrik looked back to Sharon. "Much older than I look. Being blessed by a god has its perks."

Sharon gaped in awe for a little longer, until the silence became awkward. Gerrik broke the silence, holding up the two knives. "I think I have a good demonstration for tonight's lesson."

Sharon nodded. "I think they will find that to be spectacular."

[hr]
Gerrik walked around the hill and over the burnt ground towards the corpse of the Realta. He needed to collect another sample to experiment further and make new tools. It was a trip which would take the better part of an hour, so he had time to think and observe the world around him.

His thoughts wandered to Sharon and Tallgrass. Tallgrass was typical of many small villages. The able-bodied villagers all had to spend most of each day foraging or hunting if they were to gather enough food to feed everyone. This left scarce little time to do other activities, like the weaving and sowing Sharon liked to do. While food collecting was important, it did nothing other than maintain the status quo. The boundaries of technology and culture can't be pushed when people are just barely making ends meet. Additionally, unless the landscape were particularly fertile, villages often had to roam between multiple locations in order to not exhaust the local food supply. If only there were some more efficient way of gathering food.

Around him, in these ashen fields, grew young green shoots of grass. It was nature recovering from the destruction the star-fiend had wrought. This particular grass was the kind from which Tallgrass had gained its name. This grass grew relatively tall, and when mature its seeds were useful for food and bread.

Being the naturalist he was, Gerrik considered the grass for a while longer. It was regrowing. This place would eventually become a field full of grass. Grass which produced edible grains. Plants spread and grew, this was only natural. But how did they spread? Gerrik had observed many plants over the years, his Perception and eidetic memory helping there, and had figured out that it was the seeds which grew into new plants. What if he could bring many food-bearing plants into the one location?

Epiphany struck. He would gather the seeds of plants, such as these tall grasses, and grow them in a single area, making collection far easier. If he could achieve such a feat and teach it to others, then villages would no longer need to spend the majority of their time searching for food. There would be more time for everyone to follow other pursuits, and, he thought to himself, more free time for Sharon.

It was a brilliant plan, but one which would take time and effort to implement. He retrieved a second chunk of star-fiend carapace as he had originally planned, then headed back to Tallgrass, his mind abuzz with plans.

[hr]
Out in the forest, Gerrik and Sharon were busy digging up roots to eat. Gerrik seemed to always be able to find those which were ripe for collecting. As they dug, Gerrik spoke up.

"Tell me, Sharon, how much do you like foraging for food?"

Sharon seemed a little surprised at the question. "Oh? Um. It's always been something I've had to do. Foraging is important, for we need to eat. And we all need to contribute."

"That wasn't what I asked," Gerrik said. "If there was no need for you to forage, would you choose to do it, or would you choose something else to do with your time?"

Sharon paused to consider the question more deeply. "I suppose I would do something different. I like making clothes and fabrics. I've even been putting patterns into them. I find it relaxing."

"What if I told you," Gerrik said, "that I had figured out a way for Tallgrass to get most of its food without spending all day foraging?"

Sharon's eyes widened. "Really?"

Gerrik nodded. "It's just a plan at this stage, but I'll set it into motion soon. My plan is to grow all these plants in a single area near our village. By being close to the village, we won't have to spend hours walking and searching. We'd need to care for the plants, of course, but by my estimation everyone should be better off."

Sharon's head tilted upwards and her palms bared towards the sky. A small laugh of glee sounded from Sharon's mouth. Gerrik saw Sharon's happiness, and was in turn filled with warm joy. "Can you really make that happen?" Sharon asked.

"It will take time and hard work. It might be a couple of seasons before the plants are big enough to bear fruit. But yes, I should be able to make it happen," Gerrik replied.

The idea was so exciting that Sharon wouldn't drop the subject all day. Gerrik carefully outlined everything he knew about plants, their various stages of growth, the source of their seeds, what time of year they tended to bloom and fruit, and so on. Sharon was rapt, and Gerrik was happy that Sharon was happy. They made plans to start this project as soon as possible.

[hider=Gerrik, Inventor of Fire Twofold]
Gerrik is living in Tallgrass. He spends half the day foraging with Sharon, several hours working the star-fiend carapace, and the evening teaching. His supernatural Perception, encyclopaedic knowledge and nomadic experience combine to make Gerrik an exceptionally efficient forager. It is unusual for him to spend so much time with an individual person, and as such he has grown quite fond of Sharon.

At one point, Gerrik is using a sledgehammer to work the (cold) star-fiend carapace into a knife, and Sharon is nearby weaving. Sharon finds Gerrik to be quite attractive. (-2 Khookies to invent cold forging of metals)

When trying to sharpen his newly made blade, Gerrik accidentally discovers a new fire starting method (flint and steel). (-2 Khookies)

While out walking in an area of regrowth, Gerrik derives the basic principles of agriculture- planting fruitful plants in abundance near home. (No Khookies yet, it's just an idea at present)

When Gerrik tells Sharon of his idea, she is quite excited. This makes Gerrik happy.

Start: 26 Khookies
Spent: 4 Khookies
Earned: 9 Khookies (13,000+ characters)
End: 31 Khookies
[/hider]