The first thing that they all did was to survey the town and see if they could find a suitable location for the new temple. They found a few abandoned warehouses, but none that suited their purposes until they made it to the south side of town. Here, in a more residential district, they found a shell of a warehouse that had recently suffered some structural damage. Discovering that this was to be the best place for the cheapest price, he negotiated with Leonard the property master. Leonard worked out a deal with Alton where the security deposit was the wagon and the horses as a deposit, plus a disclosed amount per month in gold. The two agreed on the deal, and Alton busied himself with brewing potions back at the Inn to sell to a mage in the area.
While Alton busily brewed potions of healing, Rykasha, Tai, and Naphistra decided upon a clever way to make some added income to their party treasure. With a purchase of rope and a loan of wooden weapons, the three adventurers constructed a ring in the middle of the public park where they would hold an exhibition of fighting prowess. The first match was between Tai and a local brawler. The man came up and attempted to hit Tai again and again, but Tai nimbly danced away while simply hitting him in the ear, or tripping him to the ground. The brawler became very angry and pulled out a powdered poison dust material which he threw into Tai’s eyes. Blinded by the cheating attack, the brawler was able to lunge and pin Tai to the ground choking the life from her. Rykasha came to her defense, and was able to lift the brawler off Tai and threw him out of the ring. Shamed and humiliated, the brawler left the ring, and took many of his friends with him. There were a few more takers after the brawler left though, and the profits of the day were quite impressive.
Every day that Alton was brewing potions, our three heroes were fighting in the ring. Slowly the profits of the fighting ring were building up, but after a short burst of popularity, the ring began to loose interest, and few came to see the ladies fight the men any longer. They all had a meeting to figure out what to do, and it was decided that while Alton was building his temple, the ladies would change the strategy of their fighting ring to have locals fight other locals in matched fights with a victor at the end of the evening. The popularity of the ring grew and the local weapon dealer grew more and more involved.
While the other adventurers were busying themselves with perfecting the fighting ring, Alton was working hard to get his temple in order. He went to a local magician and sold his entire assortment of healing potions for more of a profit than he had gained back in LoBan. The mage, trying to keep Alton from going to his competitors, paid the reverend in raw currency and allowed him to borrow a magical bag of holding to keep the large sum of money in.
Alton then quickly hired workers from the begger class to work on his Temple to Pelor. He commissioned holy symbols from a local jewler, and had an altar created by another. Vestments for his followers were being constructed all the while the temple was being constructed by the local people of the town of Gelsmug. On the tenth day of the reconditioning, tragedy struck. A man working on the second story of the temple fell to the ground and nearly died. Alton rushed to his aid, and with the help of Gizur and Eyestein was able to bring the man from the brink of death with his powers of healing. The man was so grateful for the help that he asked to join with the temple as a cleric like Gizur and Eystein. Realizing what he had before him, Alton began selectively recruiting clerics to be trained from the workers and those that gathered for the daily prayer before working.
Quickly the temple began to take shape, and the fighting ring began to gain more and more popularity.
One morning, shortly after the morning prayer, Alton received a message from Lucious in LoBan. The message was delivered magically, as if on the wind, detailing the Preachers exit from Loban heading toward Gelsmug. Lucious also mentioned that the Preacher had taken from him all the potions of healing given to him by Alton and that the Preacher considered the group of adventurers wanted criminals. Alton brought this information to the rest of his adventuring companions, and they decided that there was much more work needing to be done, but they would do some scouting and try to delay leaving Gelsmug until the last possible moment.
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