Those visiting the Silver Buckle these days have to contend with noise and dust as the second floor is cleaned out, reinforced, and remade into a resident's hall, and the back of the tavern is rebuilt. Dwarves are everywhere as well as a highly respected (and discreet) Mariner's Hold architect and members of a construction guild recommended by the former owner.
Boxes fill corners of the tavern's main floor and three-quarters of the old bar is now gone. A huge and heavy piano sits away from the hammers and saws. The dropcloth covering this grand instrument is marked with a single word in charcoal: Ironsdottir.
Four crates of dinnerware, cups and goblets are marked FRAGILE and set near the piano; the pottery boxes all bear the stamp of REID POTTERY, HUANGJIN, TILMAR burned into the wood.
More boxes arrive daily. Chairs from a furniture manufacturer in Fort of Kings. Carpets and artwork purchased on different buying trips as well as select local pieces to highlight Mariner's Hold artists. Statues from an address in Leringard. Stage pieces, stacked up and awaiting assembly.
Local merchants are perused for benches, curtains, linens, tables, stools, and many other items; the Buckle starts to pump some True into the local economy.
The Buckle crew is quick to welcome anyone braving the noise. Bartender Michael is a young man of twenty-three with bright blonde hair and a ready smile who seems in awe of the skills of the Buckle's new chef and head brewmistress. Edward, the stablehand/bouncer and Michael's "baby" brother, is twenty years of age and six-feet-four of strapping muscle and a much quieter chap than his older brother. Helping as a jack of all trades is a slight young man with quiet feet and attentive eyes who goes by the name Paddy. Last is the lass of the group, a pretty girl on the cusp of fifteen named Heloise. She has grown up in this building and will recall to customers stories as detailed as the ones who lived them within the walls; apparently she (and Paddy, one finds out later) spent a lot of their childhood hiding and watching rather than sleeping as they should have! Heloise has recently been allowed to begin waitressing (under Edward's watchful eye) as well as her normal duties in the kitchen. She is not shy in expressing her excitement about the future clinic in the Inn; she wishes to learn some nursing, don't you know? Proprietors Andrew and Elly are in attendance during most of the remodel as well as Andrew's son Ty.
For those hearty enough to withstand a little dust in their beer, the Buckle remains open and the small tavern staff seems proud of the work going on.
