Character || Juno
Stage || Rogue
Crafting || Painting
Crafting Stat || 26 + 3
Difficulty || 9
Roll Needed || 50-100
Rolled || 24
Outcome || FAIL!
Experience earned || 4.5

In Neued, Juno noticed that many of the stores had rather nicely-painted signs at their front doors. All of them were brilliantly coloured, just like the vibrant jungle around them. Some were accompanied by an illustration of what they sold -- the fruit-vendor’s sign, for instance, showed a heap of glossy, ripe fruits so realistic they made Juno’s mouth water. After dropping off his shipment of barrels at an ale-house that catered to Obans who had a hankering for familiar drink, he spent almost a half-day wandering around and checking out the storefronts.

At the end of the day, he had resolved to try something like that himself. He didn’t have a store yet, and he wasn’t even sure what his future brewery would be called, but surely that sort of thing took practice… and if he didn’t get on it now, there was no way he’d be good enough when the time came.

The next day, when the light was nice and bright, he found a scrap piece of wood behind a grocer’s shop. He bought some paints and brushes at a hardware store, figuring that that sort of stuff might come in handy for some other purpose. Then, taking advantage of the cleared canopy of the campsite reserved for the use of caravan-traders like him, he began to paint. He figured he’d start simple -- just a sign that said ‘fine ales’ or something. Juno put down the words first and wrinkled his nose at the look of his messy handwriting. He’d have to work on that! He kept painting, surrounding the letters in rich red paint. The work was rather pleasant… relaxing, really. But when he took a step back to look it over, he couldn’t help but laugh.

It was a complete mess! The letters were sloppy, the paint was streaky and the wood was showing through under the paint. Well, he’d been right about needing practice, that was certain!

[ word count = 322 ]