A Grand Opening

A grand reception was held at the castle of S.D. All the local dignitaries were in attendance to pay tribute to the heroes that stopped a war and freed a cursed kingdom. Gifts were given and well received in recognition of the great achievement. Some were given new weapons, all were given commemorative medallions entitling the bearers to complimentary lodging in Midway and some were give “other offers”. There were please faces all around the banquet. But not all was pleasant for the citizens of Midway as reports of odd tremors and rock movement filtered back to the ears to the town leaders.

The disturbance started sometime after the construction of the new orphanage began and the foundation for the new building was being excavated. No one could quite explain them. The ground would shake, tremors would occur and sometimes rocks just seemed to roll of their own volition. S.D. sent a party of dwarves in to the mining areas to scout for any sign of trouble or hopefully the source of the disruption. All authorities of Midway were scattering around town trying to see this event first hand. The first reliable source to spot it was Kozmo. He cast Detect Magic to determine if there was something supernatural . The rocks themselves seemed to be imbued with something special but not quite the rocks exactly, more like the rocks were being moved by magic. As he turned the spell to detect the area he was surprised to have a shotgun of stones flung his way. The rocks were more than dangerous as they pelted him knocking him out and left him bleeding and requiring assistance to prevent possibly dying. Fortunately he was not far from the new orphanage site and there were numerous healers nearby able to revive the fallen spellcaster.

Kozmo went to his local church to pray for guidance and insight from Isis. S.D. ordered all guards and town wizards to use whatever means available to scan for invisible creatures and any aura of evil while employing any and all protection and shield spells. He even had his owl familiar John Houseman go on fly abouts to attempt to spot the events. And on one such flight he did. John was able to categorically state there were no invisible creatures in the area but could not add any further explanation for the event. And the search went on.

Meanwhile, Raifer paid a visit to his old mentor, Rollin Hand, to discuss certain future options he had in mind for a new group. Rollin listened and Molly chimed in with her usual snide comments and the discussion was left open for future development. But Rollin was most certainly interested.

The other thieves of the group also met with Rollin to discuss the offer placed on the table from S.D. that offer allowed the members of SUGAR the opportunity to set up a local guild here. Cade and Books approached Rollin, as the head of the local guilds, to speak about the options. The best option discussed was a ‘merger’ between the two organizations. As SUGAR no longer had a ‘regime’ to oppose with the downfall of the cursed Sudalon, their goals have changed. A joint venture, expanding the network of both organizations, was considered the most profitable option.

The construction of the new Orphange, designed by the master architects from Al-Alin, constructed with Marble from the quarries of Oolm and and built by a cooperation of dwarves from both kingdoms and the wizards of Midway, proceeded at a brisk pace. The foundation was dug and the laid. The walls went up quickly and the master masons and stoneworkers took only about 2 months to complete the job. The announcement of the project was sent to all corners of the continent as follows :

The city of Midway is pleased and proud to announce our first major public works project to aid our citizenry.  In cooperation with 
representatives from the Dwarven kingdoms of Al-Alin and Oolm and the Wizards Guild of Midway a brand new orphanage is 
planned for construction here in Midway.  This new structure will be built in the stone section of town and will comprise 
a larger footprint than any other building currently in place.  It is our hope to provide a good home to the many children
who have lost their families and through partnerships with many of the service businesses and our defense force we hope to 
establish apprenticeships in all sorts of life skills and occupations to give these children a real chance at a good and productive life. 

The kingdoms of Al-Alin and Oolm have graciously donated their time, effort and materials as needed to complete this construction project.  
Engineers and miners from these kingdoms are renowned for their mastery and Oolm is well known for their Marble, of which the 
building will be composed.  A marble exterior, ground floor and supporting walls will all be constructed using Oolm Marble.  
Paired with the unparalleled construction and engineering skills of Al-Alin the building is sure to be a work of art as well 
as a building to stand the test of time for many generations of needy children to come.  The Wizards Guild of Midway has offered 
their services to assist in the moving and placement of such large stone slabs. Theirs will be no small role as the plans call 
for a building 3 stories in height! 

When completed the orphanage will be able to comfortably house well over 100 children!  Lest you think there is an epidemic of orphans, 
current plans call for the use of any spare space in the new building to house and ill or injured city workers and provide 
emergency space should there be a natural disaster.  The new site will be home to a satellite location for the Healers and 
be equipped with all the necessary facilities to provide medical attention. 

The building itself will be conveniently in the center strip near the rear of the city near the Healers, the rear Troop Barracks and the 
central Police Station.  It is expected that ground will be broken shortly, Marble will soon begin being delivered and the 
building will start going up.  Once started it is anticipated the facility will be complete in a few short weeks under the 
leadership of our first assigned head master, Jerri Fittumfatum!
    

The edifice of the building was in Marble. When the sun rose the marble on the east side of the building revealed the image of a dragon in flight. When the sun set the western side of the building revealed the image of a number of large trees blowing gently in the wind. The marble entryway was inlaid with a design of 6 swords, each with a different color stripe running down the blade, intersecting a larger circle of black where in the center of that was another bronze colored circle inscribed with runes. The front entrance was adorned with a sign bearing the name of the orphanage and a special icon enchanted with a Magic Mouth that announced the name of the facility, "JJ's Kids, You make 'em, we'll take 'em (That is if you don't want 'em or can't afford 'em because life is to precious to us and we will take 'em rather than them growing up on their own and without supervision and doing stuff they're not supposed to be doing and being a burden on society)." for all to hear.

The grand opening of the site was celebrated with a gala week long festival. Attendance at the event garnered more visitors than all the hotels and inns of Midway could accommodate. From common folk up to the royalty of 10 different kingdoms or collectives attended and the town was easily overcrowded for the duration. There specials run by every establishment, food wagons on every street corner, raffles awarding prizes donated by local establishments and special contest events held every day. The highlight of the week was the Three-Legged Race where each participant was paired up with one of the orphans to be housed in the facility. Several of the royals in attendance participated for the nominal entrance fee of 1 gold piece. There were fast kids, slow kids, clumsy kids and rude kids. But no one was happy to be paired with the ones that threw up... The winner of the race was Patrick O’Furniture followed by Kozmo and Parker. Each of the winners graciously donated their prize money back to the orphanage.

The last event on the final day of the festival was the pie eating contest. Jerri was hard at cooking all week in preparation for this event and over 400 contestants showed up to try their hand…or face… at this one. In the end it was Ruurik that took home the first place prize of free drinks at the Crusty Mug for one month and Ollie came in a close second.

Unfortunately this event was marred by the strange tremors. This time they were more violent and centered not too far from the orphanage. And this time a giant hole opened up in the open area nearby. Out from the opening came a stream of dog sized ants swarming the area looking for food. S.D. was able to Dimension Door directly to the spot but others had to weave their way through the throng, struggling against those fleeing, delaying their arrival at the site. A call went out for the town guards and an excited scream for the Druids employed by Midway. The town archers began firing at the ants and trying to hem them in but they swarmed out in every direction.

Ollie, PJ, Ruurik and Nord came to the conclusion they could distract them with food from the food wagons. They dragged as many as they could near the hole and a good number of the ants were redirected, gathering up food and returning back down the hole with their booty. But as some returned in to the hole there were rocks spewing forth from the in the hole, similar to what they had seen before. Peering down in the chasm there could be seen 4 rock like creatures moving about and working their way up the side wall. No one could identify them but Dal recalled some myth he had heard long ago while learning his mining craft of a rare creature that resembled this.

S.D. was prepared to have the town guards attack the newly revealed creatures but Raifer dissuaded him. Suggesting instead that the creature might be intelligent and a possibly not actually hostile towards them. Calling for a wizard that had the Tongues spell available they tried to speak with it. Surprisingly, the rock creature was very intelligent but the conversation was balky at best in translation. The druids that had been summoned were able to recognize the creature as a Neutrally aligned being. Taking a gamble, S.D. attempted to converse in Neutral tongue and the conversation escalated to a very workable interaction. The Rock creature revealed that the new construction had caused a collapse in the chamber his family unit used as their lair. An agreement was reached to assist him to clear and reconstruct its lair and support the orphanage above so it would not crush the home under. The surprising note came as they discussed the over sized ants. The rock creatures did not like them either and wanted them gone. So a negotiation was reached for mutual assistance and a party of adventurers would be sent down in to the tunnels to exterminate the ants.

This new deal seemed to please all parties except the orphanage folks. Unfortunately the facility had to be temporarily closed until the supports underneath could be secured otherwise it would be too dangerous due to the potential for a cave in.

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