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freckled-words · 2 years ago

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Lulala for Hire - Ep #1

I harassed my bud @caffeinatedreese to give me some ideas.

So here is some fluff!

Context: Variety is a tiefling bard, and Nyx is tiefling monk, both of which belong to @caffeinatedreese

Lulala was over the moon.

Sure these were simple tasks, but they were hers. Something to show she was capable and could handle herself out in the world, even with her curse.

Walking into town, Lulala had to choose which task to do first. Nyx had asked her to get some vegetables for tonight’s dinner, and Variety needed new strings for his lute.

(Rolled a d4. 1 or 3, she gets the vegetables first. 2 or 4, she gets the lute strings first.)

The vegetables would make the most sense, with it being so early in the morning, the market would have just received the fresh produce from the farmers.

“Right! To the market!” Is what she would have said, except the effect of the curse was already working, squeezing her throat and muting any words that would try to leave her mouth.

There were only a couple of people out and about, most of which were shop owners getting ready for the day, but even just one person was enough.

Lulala sighed, resigned to another day of needing to rely on hand gestures and writing.

~~~~~~~~

(Rolled a d20 to determine if Lulala can find her way to the market.)

Lulala was grateful she’d joined Variety on his last trip to the market, otherwise she’d never have remembered how to get there.

She heard the clamor and bustle before she saw it.

The center of this city was an open circle, allowing vendors to fill it with their stalls. Had she taken the shape of a bird and flown above it all, she was sure she’d see it as two rings made from multicolored patches.

Despite the sun having barely risen over the horizon, there was already a stream of people. From the lists she could see some of them holding, she had to guess they were representatives from the taverns, inns, and other businesses that offered food.

When she’d joined Variety, it had been in the afternoon. There had been so many people crammed together, Variety had seen fit to tie some rope around her wrist to make sure she didn’t get trampled. Lulala had appreciated the gesture, right up until she saw a mother and two kids set up in the same fashion. Variety didn’t stop laughing at Lulala’s insulted expression for a solid two minutes.

There was plenty of room this morning, making it easy for her to weave through the legs of all the humans, elves, half-elves, orcs, and half-orcs. She smiled and waved when she caught the eye of a couple halflings. It was always nice to see people of similar height. It made her feel less lonely in a world full of giants.

The produce vendors were blessedly arranged all close together. Unfortunately, they were the busiest vendors. Customers thronged the stalls, some bickered and yelled at each other over who grabbed what first, others were trying to haggle down the price of their purchase.

Given her height, and inability to talk, Lulala didn’t see any chance of winning that fight.

(Rolled a d20 for a perception check.)

Walking around the throng of people, Lulala noticed another stall two down from the crowded fruit seller. It stood a little shorter than the others, with a weather worn light blue awning, and just the slightest lean to the left.

The sign on the front, to her delight, was written in both common and gnomish. It read “Gnome Grown Fruits and Veggies.”

She was smiling as she hurried over to the stall. There wasn’t a single customer to get in her way.

Two gnome children, an older girl and younger boy, likely siblings from their matching eyes, sat on tall stools behind the counter. Both looked ready to fall back asleep.

Seeing them made Lulala’s heart squeeze with homesickness for her own family. When was the last time she’d sent a letter home?

As she approached, the older girl straightened up with a practiced smile. “Good morning! Can we interest you in some fruits or vegetables?”

Even with the stall being lower down, Lulala couldn’t get a good look at what they had without going on tiptoe. She held up a finger to ask them to wait a moment.

Reaching behind her, she undid the ties that kept her folding step stool attached to her travel pack.

She could feel the two children’s curious eyes on her, and couldn’t help but feel pride in her family’s work. Unable to resist her old habit of being a showboat, she gave the contraption a flick with her wrist, causing it to unfold and lock into place with a small ‘click.’

“Wow wow!” The little boy was leaning so far forward, the older sister had to grab onto his tunic to keep him from falling off the stool.

“That’s such a handy thing! Where did you get that?”

Lulala put the stool down and stepped up onto it, putting her on proper eye level with the both of them.

Ever ready, she pulled out the pre-written parchment, “This wonderful contraption was built by my family, The Schweeps. Proud builders and tinkerers of products designed to make cleaning around the home all the easier! They’re always accepting commissions. You can send all questions and orders to Loretta Schweeps.”

The girl read over the words slowly, while her brother gave Lulala the shrug of a young one that still hadn’t learned to read their letters. When the sister had finished she asked, “Can I keep this, and show it to my mum? I know she’d just love a stool like yours!”

Lulala rolled up the parchment and handed it over with a nod.

The sister beamed, taking the parchment and tucking it away in her pocket. Gesturing to the trays of produce, she went back to her job, “We have lots of ripe and ready produce today, all of it was grown in our own garden at home.”

Able to see the countertop now, Lulala took a good look. The left hand side was a display of strawberries, tomatoes, and apples. The right hand side had potatoes, carrots, lettuce and green beans.

From this height, Lulala could see behind the counter. Given that there weren’t any crates or sacks filled with more produce, she got the sense that what they had on the counter was everything they were offering.

They all looked fully grown and ripe, yet they were somehow smaller in size than the usual produce she’d seen.

Her confusion must have shown, as the sister hurried to reassure, “I know they’re small, but I promise you they’ll taste just as good, and even better than the normal produce!”

The brother nodded, “Yea! Mama makes the best stuff!”

Lulala waved her hands in reassurance, and pulled out some blank parchment to quickly write down, “I’ll buy everything! How much?”

If Nyx couldn’t use the fruit for anything, she was more than happy to eat it all herself.

“You mean it?! You’ll buy everything?!” The restrained hope in the girl’s eyes was so clear, even a blind person could have felt it.

Lulala nodded again, and pointed to the question of how much.

It took a minute for her to do the math, and she even had her little brother join in so he could get practice. It was really cute watching him try to count on his fingers.

The total was a lot lower than Lulala had expected, especially since the combined produce was going to fill the entire satchel she’d brought with her. She’d gotten a glimpse of the prices the other vendors were showing for their wares. By her math, they were only charging her for about half the price.

They were clearly proud and confident in their mother’s hard work. Why would they undersell?

(Rolled a d20 for an insight check.)

She couldn’t wrap her head around the reasoning.

That wouldn’t stop her from making it right.

Lulala took out a gold coin and put it on the counter.

Both of the children were speechless. They probably had never seen a gold coin before.

The sister recovered first, “We don’t really have the coins to break this, is there any chance you have silver?”

Lulala shook her head and wrote down, “I want you to have the whole thing. I’m taking you at your word that these are amazing fruits and vegetables. So they must be worth more, plus a tip for your hard work on the sale. Just make sure you get it straight home to your mother, thieves and crooks can smell gold from miles away.”

By the time the sister finished reading, she was trying not to cry as she nodded her head, “I-I promise. We’ll go straight home.”

The brother reached over and hugged his sister’s arm, “Why you cryin’? Don’t cry!”

As the sister told her brother the good news, after pocketing the gold coin, Lulala packed up all the fruits and vegetables.

By the time she finished, the kids had collected their things and gotten off the stools.

She should have expected it, given that she would have done the same thing, but she was taken off guard when they came running around the stall and gave her a hug. The sister was nearly Lulala’s height, and the brother just a bit shorter than that.

She hugged them back, and in gnomish whispered a blessing of protection from her goddess Themis.

As soon as they let go, they were running down the road yelling big thank you’s as they went.

Lulala didn’t think it would be a good idea to carry the easily damaged food around with her to get the lute strings. A check on the sun’s position reassured her that she still had plenty of time to head back to the group, drop off her goods with Nyx, and return to town for Variety’s lute strings.

With such a good start to her day, it was hard not to skip a little on her way.

#Lulala for Hire #writing practice #D&D #dice rolls dictate the outcome #Episode 1 #Dungeons and Dragons

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