• Solo • [Warrick] 100 Trials

The seven Duchies of Central Rynmere and their respective baronies, cities, towns, villages, and landmarks each overseen by a Duke of one of the seven noble families and ultimately controlled by the King of Rynmere.
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Lazuli
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:09 am
Race: Ithecal
Profession: Farmer
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[Warrick] 100 Trials

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85 Ashan 716
Lazuli stared ahead at the mammoth task set in front of her, with well over ten thousand fully matured soybean plants in the ground, and about forty pods per plant, each containing up to four beans, she was looking at well over a million beans just sitting there in the paddock, ready to be plucked from the earth. The job ahead of her was so large, in fact, that a small part of her wanted to give up even before she had begun.
Ripping up the plants was a bit like pulling weeds, backbreaking work that would take her the better part of a few days to complete. Still, every task had to start somewhere, and with the wheelbarrow nearby, she set to work, plucking the plants from the ground one at a time to stand over the wheelbarrow and strip the soybean pods away from the roughage of the stem and leaves. These were otherwise rubbish to her and would be left to rot in the paddock and hopefully return some nutrients to the field before she put in her next crop.
By the end of the first row, Lazuli's hands were red, skin stained green in places. She looked at her return on the crop she had put in a hundred days ago and smiled, getting up to water them and tend to the weeds every day had paid off. Every now and then she would come across a big plant with lots more pods on it than the others. She pulled these plants out and kept them to one side in the wheelbarrow, these she would use as her replacement seeds to be planted the following year in Cylus. Taking the biggest, healthiest plants meant that her crops would just keep getting better and better, and before she knew it, or at least she dreamed, her farm would be the biggest supplier of soy products in all of Rynmere. "Not bad for a baroness," she mused to herself.

Carting the first wheelbarrow load back to the farm shed, she poured the pods out on the wooden floor to store until she was ready to come back and start popping the beans out of the pods in order to dry them out. Any of the plants she had set aside for next year's crop where tied together and strung up to the ceiling where she hoped they would dry naturally as her father's soybean crops had done in the past.
Back to work, Lazuli first returned to the house to fetch her gloves, if Zvezdana saw her hands like this, she thought, the woman would not be impressed; a lady after all should not have rough, working hands. Back in the field she slaved away, her hair tied back out of her face, covered finger brushed against her cheeks and temple every now and then to wipe away the sweat that would bead and roll down from her brow, usually catching on the end of her nose. The second row complete, Lazuli was sure she looked a right mess, with dirt on her face and hair sticky with sweat, clinging to the the shape of her sun kissed cheeks, it really was no wonder her cousins gave her so much slack.
word count: 549
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Lazuli
Posts: 133
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2016 5:09 am
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[Warrick] 100 Trials

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By the end of that morning Lazuli was absolutely exhausted. She sat down in the shade with a drink of water and a small helping of rations for lunch, leaning back against a tree in the yard. She yawned and when her eyes closed all she could see were the thousands of green pods that littered the barn floor. The baroness questioned the longevity of her plans and wondered if it would be a better idea to start her own business, hire a few farmhands and have them do all of the hard work for a fraction of the profits.
Interested in planning out the idea a bit further she went inside to get her journal and wrote down a list of the things she would need in order to start a business. Employees for a start, but they would cost money, so she made a running tally of expenses, including farm equipment, seasonal taxes, and the cost of insuring she acquired the right crop types to see to it that something would go into the ground each season so that there would be something to take out the next. Done with her musings, Lazuli left her book on the table inside and left the farmhouse to get back to work.
Back out on the field, Lazuli couldn't help but laugh, even in her tired state, she had taken on a lot more than she had first imagined and wondered how she had ever expected herself to get through it all. By the end of that afternoon, pulling up the soybean plants and picking off the pods no longer seemed like it had been the worst of it, not now that she was to face the slow, tedious work of snapping the pods open and plucking out the beans one by one. Of course she wouldn't have to do this for all of them, and most of the produce could be packed away and sold in this state, anything she wanted to keep for herself though to make soy flour, milk, or oil from, would need to be shelled and dried in the sun the following day.
She sat up working until the sun went down and the stars came out to shine. The crickets were singing all around her and the lamplight, along with her dog Jed, were the only two things keeping her company. If someone were to sneak up on her now, she thought, she would be too tired to care. Another snapped pod and three more soybeans to add to the ever growing pile, Lazuli was sure she would smell like the raw beans for the rest of the season, and didn't dare put her fingers near her mouth or eyes.
By the time it was too late to get anymore work done, the baroness could barely keep her eyes open and decided to call it a night. She left the opened beans covered and washed her hands before going inside to go straight to bed and worry about washing in the morning.
word count: 510
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Lazuli
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[Warrick] 100 Trials

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95 Ashan 716
Over the next ten days Lazuli had worked hard to shell at least three barrels of soybeans to keep for herself, with the rest going to market on the back of a wagon. She was pleased but tired as a result of her efforts and sat at the table with a pot of beans from the first batch that had been drying in the sun. Beside her she had a book from the village library with a list of detailed instructions on how to process the beans to make soy flour. she copied the list into her own journal so that she would have the recipe handy for years to come.

I. Dry the beans up in the sun for several days until hard or split.
II. Boil the beans in a pot until the skin comes loose.
III. Set the beans aside to cool before removing the skins.
IV. Drain the water and skins from the beans and leave to dry.
V. Roast the beans on a low heat until they turn a light golden brown.
VI. Leave the beans to cool before grinding into a fine powder.


Lazuli read through the instructions once or twice and tried to work out whether or not this was something she could achieve in a single day and then set to work. With the beans already in a cooking pot, she submerged them in water and put them over the fireplace until the water was boiling, giving it a stir to make sure the beans were heated through evenly. When the skins started to come loose of their own accord, she removed the pot from the hot brick surface and set it aside to cool. She checked her instructions again and went outside to make sure the dog was fed and topped up her horse's water before returning to the house.
With the beans cooled, Lazuli washed her hands before she started rubbing the beans together to remove the loose, transparent skins and drained the waste away when she was satisfied with the result. The baroness spread the beans out and took them outside to dry in the sun for a break or two, busying herself with the odd task around the farm in the meantime.
Once the beans were ready to roast, she kept a close eye on them, pulling them out from the fireplace to check every so often or rotate the outer beans into the centre to make sure they didn't over cook or brown more than the others. Happy with the progress and the colour of the soybeans, she took them out of the fireplace and set them down on the windowsill to cool.
It was dusk before she was ready to grind the beans and took a mortar and pestle to add the dry, toasted beans a few at a time and ground them into a fine dust. By the time she had finished, the crickets were chirping outside and daylight had long since past, but the end result hadn't been terribly bad for her first attempt at making soy flour and now the twins would have plenty of beans stored to see them through until next year.[/align]
word count: 538
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Plague
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Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2015 1:53 am
Race: Mer
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[Warrick] 100 Trials

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XP Award!
Lazuli:


Experience Award:
  • Agriculture +3
  • Business Management +2
  • Cooking +2
  • Research +2
  • Endurance +2
  • Mathematics +1
General Lore:
  • Agriculture: Drying soybeans naturally
  • Agriculture: How to make Soy Flour
  • Business Management: The cost of growth
Specific Lore
  • Agriculture: Planting from the best plants in your crop
  • Endurance: The feeling of a Hard job completed
Notes: Excellent yield! What a productive year.

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word count: 178
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