Tales From a Guild Member

Slow Week - A Friend's Tale

Poor Ray. He told me about the time Roz tossed him out of the house because he "hadn't been doing enough lately."
"Not enough?"
He'd been working dawn to dusk doing guard duty, or working on the fishing platform, or any other semi-steady jobs for weeks now. Most were typically two week contracts, but they paid, and were better than off-beat adventuring as he put it.
He'd get home, exhausted, probably asleep in the parlor with one of the pets curled up with him. One night, Roz had come home, seeing him just like that, and just went off on him. Commenting how they had gotten into the 'adventuring business' together, and how for months now, she was the only one that had done any sort of 'adventuring'. She drove her point home showing of noted stacks of hides, bones, and a full gem bag from her latest conquest over a task slaying dragons.
Ray wondered why he would have to do such work, especially after her latest haul. Unfortunately, he remembered that his latest contract was up, and unless he wanted to spend a month mining tin, picking bananas or waging war, he didn't have any other work lined up until his next set assignment.
But Roz would have none of it. She dragged him to the house portal, told him she was going to lock him out for a week, and told him he would not be let back in until he'd gone out to "save the world" and such nonsense.
Next thing he knew, he was standing outside, and swore he heard an ominous 'click' from the other side of the portal.

Ray's first stop on his whirlwind tour of saving the world was teleporting to Taverly.
The Troll Warzone has taken its toll.
Luckily the Runescape Housing Authority has allowed some of the Refugees to pay for homes at the Taverly and Rimmington portals in installment plans. A local plank maker had set himself up to help with part of the work as well along with the builders.
The Sawmill Operator near Varrock had also been kind enough to donate some planks and other building materials (though of dubious quality). The Gardeners in Falador sent some basic plants to brighten up the homes. Other more caring donors sent flat-packs.
But with so much work to be done, there were not enough helping hands.
The Foreman near the portal had an opening for an Apprentice Builder (translation: no experience required, no pay.)
Two families managed to scrape together funds to buy an expanded beginner home, and the builders were scheduled to start furnishing it, but they were also falling behind. Ray offered to help.
Ray felt a little lectured and patronized by the builder, as he had plenty of experience building homes and other projects in the past. Eventually he just decided to go with it.
He started off planting the various ferns for the garden. Not much, but at least it gave the home a little life.
The 'crew' moved into the parlor. Seems the request for the parlor was a simple bookshelf, 3 Crude Chairs, Carpet, a fireplace, and curtains. (Though the builder questioned why they would want something so tatty, but it is the request.) Barely an hour later, everything was set up.

They moved onto two bedrooms to install flatpacks of the beds and dressers. Unfolding and setting up the packs were actually simpler for Ray than trying to hammer out the crude chairs with the nails. It took him less time to setup both bedrooms and even the benches and table of the dining room than it took him to fumble through the parlor.
When Ray and the builder moved to the kitchen, he was amazed to see the quality of the flatpacks that were donated for that room. A decent table, larder, water pump, shelves, and a drink barrel were all to be found there. Setting up most of it was a breeze, the plumbing for the pump was a nuisance, but he managed.
Alas, when it came time to make the cooking station, they realized they had run out of materials. They had planks left over, but no bars. Ray knew that normally they would need steel bars to make just about anything in the kitchen, but the mines near Taverly at best would give bronze. The builder though did know a few shortcuts to using bronze into making a 'crude' fire pit. Ray quickly dashed off to the mines, smelted a few bars, and learned how to make the most basic of fire pits (a job so shoddy, even he was disgusted.)
In the end, the builder was glad about the hard day's work. He commented that the tenants would be able to move in by the end of the day. The builder thanked Ray for his help before shoving him out the portal.