[DTA] All Along The Watchtower/Shrine

Carpentry and gratuitous shirtlessness poorly disguised as Religious Service.


They start with the steps. The old rickety ladder is removed and a much studier and more secure way up to the stable roof is constructed. Once they make it up to the roof itself it’s midday and a very determined spring sun is beating down on both Baine and Leek.

Leek’s breastplate, her guards, her chainmail had been left to the side for the task at hand, but even in the early season chill of spring, the warmth of the sun and the rush of manual labor ran hot. Leek had stripped down to her breast-band and trousers. It was too early in the season to break out a sweat, but the hard Goliath muscle flexed under her sun-exposed skin, the gash of a scar on top of a scar down between her neck and shoulder allowed to breathe in the daylight. She’s not as heavily patterned as some of her kin, with the dark lines on her face mimicked down her chest and abdominals, across her arms, sparing in their natural placement. The bulk of her large muscles strain as she works lifting wood and slat and half-orc up and over her head.

Baine didn’t hesitate to follow suit and is equally disrobed, revealing a heavily scarred torso; acid marks marrs the side of his neck and chest and there’s a vicious cut across his stomach. A fading mark of infernal script is still visible on his neck and in small, neat writing over his heart Leek can see the name “Helena”. The sun shines on above their work, and for all the labor of it they are enjoying themselves immensely.

Baine pauses briefly to tie his long hair up in a bun on top of his head and wipe the sweat off his forehead. In the street below, an impressionable youth walks into a lamppost.

“D’you think this means he’s happy with the progress?” he asks Leek, grinning and squinting out over Daring Heights.

“I’d say so, yeah.” Leek answers as she hefts the last of the supplies up onto the roof.

“There’s not a cloud in the sky, and everything we’re doin’s stuff he’s all about. Building things, makin’ a nice shrine, takin’ an active step towards bettering ourselves and anyone else who needs him....It’s like an invitation for a second chance if anyone needs it, you know?”

The half-orc listens carefully, intently memorizing and learning.

Baine plans out the construction, confident with hammer and nail and Leek follows his lead. They even out the slanted roof, building a small, elevated platform roughly 15 feet long and 10 ft wide, with the opening to the steps in the back left corner. They set up a low fence along the edges - “So Frankie can come up here and not fall down and kill himself” - with large enough gaps that a person could sit down and still see out over the city below. Along the back of the platform, where the roof still slants down towards the courtyard, they build a low, sturdy bench. It’s simple, but solidly built. It can hold the weight of one half-orc, one goliath and one dog, and it provides a very good view of Daring Heights.

With every bit of work and every question Baine has about Lathander, Leek regails him the best she can. She tells him anecdotes, stories, the do’s and don'ts she learned when she was still her daddy’s height and getting taller. It comes naturally to her, like the words are a gift she’s been given, to give to others, to give to Baine. Leek’s never been a preacher, not her, but all that learning in all her life has been for moments like this, warm and at work with Lathander’s blessing upon both of them.

By the fence at the edge of the platform sticking out over the street, Leek takes the lead and they build a shrine. A small structure reminiscent of a house sheltering the symbol of Lathander; a sun rising over a green field, carefully carved with the tools that small, gnomish hands had taught her how to use in her own large ones. On the floor in front of it she carefully carves the words “There is always another dawn”.

Just outside the gates to the compound, below where the two are working on the roof, sits a bowl. Behind the bowl, a wooden sign, with Leek’s best all upper-case handwriting:

(to charity in the name of the Morninglord, not for the Order, we’re fine thanks) 

Come one, come all, passersby in Daring Heights. Feel free to comment if your character has dropped a donation into the bowl (or not), while our heroes work up a sweat and are pleasing to the eye. Obviously, written in collaboration with Leek Nackle ☀️