Drinks dispensed, the three dispersed to scout the remains of the settlement in search of good enough foundations to begin rebuilding anew. Tal and Bell began to scout in a loose spiral through the center of town, but it quickly became clear that the dragon's fire had been concentrated there, on the buildings which had likely held the most people. There wasn't so much as one stone left atop another that wasn't cracked through from the heat, and even most of the cellars had collapsed in beneath the weight of fallen floors and walls above. Perhaps the strange fog distracted him, or perhaps there was simply nothing to find there anymore.
Cordelia 's search was similarly fruitless; the side of town she picked had been mostly abandoned before Edy's arrival, and there was a sense that many buildings had already begun to fall apart even before cleansing flames had finished the job. There were no likely prospects to be found there, but the strange mist obscured some dangerous rubble, and only the lightness of her foxy frame prevented further accidents.
Which left Deimos: freshly-caffeinated and with a by-now well-practiced eye for well-built walls and likely fortifications. The General's choice was, if not the best of a bad lot, at least the best immediately obvious to the searchers. Closer inspection would reveal the wall opposite his approach sagged badly, having taken the edge of dragonfire such that the chimneystones had cracked and fallen. The structural supports of that wall still held, but they were badly charred and weakened on closer inspection and they seemed unlikely to survive Deepfrost's weight of snow.
When Tal and Cordelia joined him there with the sled and supplies the courier rubbed the back of his neck as he took in the scope of the project ahead. Then he took a deep breath and gave a sharp nod. "Okay. We can do this. This is a lot better than anything I found." He bobbed his head in an awkward nod of thanks to Deimos before trying to decide on the best course of action. "I've got planks on the sled for repairing the wall, but someone'll need to scavenge unbroken rocks for the chimney from th' other houses around here. An' we should check the cellar, see if there's anything salvageable down there."
This round one person gets the exciting job of hunting down replacement chimney rocks, someone can start using the wood Tal brought for repairing the back wall, and they really should send someone to scout out the interior and check to see if there are good or bad surprises waiting.
No posting order!
Cordelia 's search was similarly fruitless; the side of town she picked had been mostly abandoned before Edy's arrival, and there was a sense that many buildings had already begun to fall apart even before cleansing flames had finished the job. There were no likely prospects to be found there, but the strange mist obscured some dangerous rubble, and only the lightness of her foxy frame prevented further accidents.
Which left Deimos: freshly-caffeinated and with a by-now well-practiced eye for well-built walls and likely fortifications. The General's choice was, if not the best of a bad lot, at least the best immediately obvious to the searchers. Closer inspection would reveal the wall opposite his approach sagged badly, having taken the edge of dragonfire such that the chimneystones had cracked and fallen. The structural supports of that wall still held, but they were badly charred and weakened on closer inspection and they seemed unlikely to survive Deepfrost's weight of snow.
When Tal and Cordelia joined him there with the sled and supplies the courier rubbed the back of his neck as he took in the scope of the project ahead. Then he took a deep breath and gave a sharp nod. "Okay. We can do this. This is a lot better than anything I found." He bobbed his head in an awkward nod of thanks to Deimos before trying to decide on the best course of action. "I've got planks on the sled for repairing the wall, but someone'll need to scavenge unbroken rocks for the chimney from th' other houses around here. An' we should check the cellar, see if there's anything salvageable down there."
This round one person gets the exciting job of hunting down replacement chimney rocks, someone can start using the wood Tal brought for repairing the back wall, and they really should send someone to scout out the interior and check to see if there are good or bad surprises waiting.
No posting order!
