Resonant Hammer's Descent
Hammer left the guest house angry, though the rhythmic work of dismantling the portcullis. Several hours later he left Zala, cart hitched to the palanquin, both laden with iron bars, wood, and leather. He made good time back to his demesne, not having to pull the cart was a godsend. When he arrived home the sun was still making its descent, and he felt the urge to put the rest of the day to use. After coating his skin with Bronze he entered his forge, and scooped a handful of Creation's blood from the demesne's focus onto his anvil. He began to shape it, forming a squat, broad shouldered quadrupedal obsidian frame. He gathered some earth from the little valley, and formed the soft tissue of the elemental, huge digging arms, and a musculature reminiscent of an ox. Finally, he laid sod across the nascent being, in a facsimile of skin, and added shovel shaped claws of iron to its paws. As he dripped molten metal into the eye sockets he tied the spell he had been weaving for several hours with a breath, and the elemental rose into being. Hammer reached out with his anima, binding the elemental with it to act as his familiar.
[Summon Elemental is a ritual, no roll required. Binding it to my anima as a Twilight caste, gaining a familiar merit and enabling Survival charms to affect it]
Suddenly exhausted, Hammer entered his modest hut to find it occupied. "I thought you might have questions," rasped the figure, from atop a waist high (to Hammer) pile of books. "Come on, out with them. Let's lay that overactive head of yours to rest."
[Spending time with my Mentor to increase my Lore to 4 and Craft Architecture to 3, spending 7 xp and 2 Solar xp.]
Hammer awoke the next.?. day... thre¿e... days. later? with a splitting ache behind his eyes. It felt as though his brain had gotten too big for his skull, or like a hot wire was wound around and through his memories. The feeling was familiar, he remembered feeling it... even as he tried to concentrate on those memories he felt them slipping away, and the pain with them.
Just like last time a small part of his brain whispered.
Regardless, with the headache banished, Hammer's real work awaited him. As he once more covered himself in an impervious layer he envisioned the outfits he would be making. A pot helm, nice and simple, though with a wide brim to protect the neck, runes of luck and accuracy etched inside. Heavy buff coats, splinted with steel, etched with runes of warding and vigour. Three short javelins apiece, heads runed for rending, shafts for strength. A short stabbing sword, enchanted for tearing and puncturing. Finally a light buckler, the crest of Zala emblazoned upon the front, sigils of stamina and turning upon the back. Hammer laid out his tools as Essence began to flow, and then Resonant Hammer's Descent
worked. It was a marvel, the small smithy lit as by the setting Sun for ten days. Hammer was one with the project, his essence carried materials to his anvil almost without him noticing. The lava heated steel flowed like metal into the shapes he had envisaged, at times his hammer blows seemed to be echoed time and time again by the hands of lives long passed. He tore the leather panels for the coats bare handed, simply feeling how the coats should come together, allowing the rivets to fall into their correct places. As the heads of the javelins fell from the anvil they met shafts cut on the edges of the rocks below, kicked by Hammer, unable or unwilling to break the rhythm of his hammer blows to afix them by hand. As the arms fell onto their racks the symbols Hammer had envisaged impressed themselves into the surfaces, a slight hint of smoke trailing each one. Hammer finished as he began, with a helm. As he paced it by hand on the final stack a deep satisfaction welled up within him. This was what he had been made to do, and he refused ho hide it any longer.
[Spending 10 sxp, Rolling Craft Weaponsmith/Armourer (Same value) + Int, spending 10m on a full Excellancy, spending 1 wp for an auto success]
[Making a Sorcerous Working to grant the battlegroup wielding the weapons Might 1; Ambition 2 (TN 10); Finesse 3; Means: Complimentary Ability (Crafts Weaponsmith/Armourer), Complimentary Spells (Invulnerable Skin of Bronze), Sorcerous Infrastructure (Demesne 4; 2 extra intervals): Terminus of 9]
Threshold Successes: 3
Threshold Successes: 7
Threshold Successes: 7
Threshold Successes: 7
Threshold Successes: 9
Threshold Successes: 11
He surveyed the fruits of his labour he felt something was off. Though the arms were well made, they were unadorned, with no way for the troops to recognise their officers. Using some gold his simple elemental had dug up Hammer crafted some torcs of braided steel and gold, with rank markings reminiscent of the guard of Cherak.
[Basic Project, unaugmented Armourer+Int]
Hammer also crafted a helmet for Red Snow's Herald, to make her more distinctive again on the field. A heavy helmet, the crest shaped like a wolf snarling, the beaver forming the lower jaw, and rubies inset for its eyes. The wolf's mane he forged from chain, and grafted strands to it so it appeared to be fur rolling over her shoulders.
[As the rank bands above]
[Crafting xp at 17sxp and 9gxp]
Finally, Hammer, his cart and palanquin loaded with wares, made his way back to Zala and his new friends.
