(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"I need to buy a coffin pillow," I interrupted him.
Hamrys beamed. "Ah! You are here to purchase then. I assure you, what I do
is a labor of love. The real value of my profession is in the building of the
coffin... in doing it and doing it well. It is an act of perfectly ordered creation,
every piece must fit just so for the betterment of the whole. It is much like a
metaphor for the Harmonium philosophy... we create order, and it is
beauty..."
"I just need a pillow..."
He nodded. "I need fifty coppers for the basic boards used in construction,
though the expense doesn't cover the time. Usually, it's either whitewashed
or painted some color of the person's choosing. The boards themselves are
usually a sixteenth handspan thick, maybe even thicker depending on the
nature of the corpse, whether it's a human being buried or not. Or whether
they're worried that the person might get back up again." He laughed.
I blinked and tried to catch his attention, "I just need a pillow..."
He nodded at me again. "Some prefer Bytopian pine, which is fine and
traditional, but I prefer the heavy Arborean oak materials, simply because
they have a good weight about them. Even a twentieth inch of the oak is
stronger than a sixteenth of a handspan of pine..." He paused for a moment.
I took the chance to slip a few words in edgewise, "I said, I just need a
pillow..."
They fell on deaf ears. Hamrys only nodded and continued his incessant
yammering. "From there, I might need about a score multiplied by a score of
steel wood-screws, gauge about eight by one and a quarter inch, or so. Lots
of shops around here carry them, not a big deal to acquire them. I'll also
need some sort of metal pins for securing the interior lining, best to pick
them up with the bunch. Then there's the matter of the battens and corner
blocks, depending on how you wish to do it."
"Are you listening to me? I said I just need a pillow!"
He placed his hand on his chin. "And although I usually let the natural wood
speak the color of the coffin for itself, sometimes the person commissioning
it wants it painted special or engraved... I don't usually do the finer work for
587