Viden Academy: Scalvoris Campus
10th Clyus, 718
10th Clyus, 718
Among the students of the Scalvoris University it had become a well-known unofficial rule that, if you valued your nose, it was best to steer clear of Taelis Selvar’s lab. The times when it had just smelt of an overpowering acrid smoke seemed like a pleasant dream nowadays, as an explosion caused by a potion that had, for who knew what reason, a cart full of onions as its chief reagent, had not only corroded half of the lab’s front door off but given the place an aroma that smelt of burnt onion tart and stung people’s eyes enough to make them cry whenever they approached.
Tio himself had, rather fortunately, grown used to this peculiar odor and was now mostly immune. He did seem a bit quicker to tear when in his lab than usual, but that could have easily been from the memory of the innocent little bunny rabbit he'd blown up in his experiment last season than anything else. In a way the unusual smell was a blessing in disguise, for now very few people had the resolve to brave it, allowing him to work in mostly undisturbed privacy.
And today privacy was something he sorely needed, for what he was attempting to create in his lab was something that he couldn't allow others to see him making. With his career in piracy really kicking off now Tio realised that in order to grow in fame, or more likely infamy, what he really needed to do now was work on his image, tailor his look into one that would expect a fierce and powerful pirate to have. A bad reputation had it's advantages after all; namely that if people thought he was good enough they'd surrender their cargo at the mere sight of his flag, making business a whole lot easier. Having his whole crew wear masks was a good start, it gave them an air of theatricality that was both practical and memorable, but it wasn't enough. His own mask and suit had been designed with thief work in mind: it was suave and classy, but it didn't make him look the part a captain should look. He needed a new ensemble, and since he had the opportunity why not take the time to add a touch of magic to it?
The scales and fang of the Scalv Ziemia he'd helped to hunt a few trials ago were laid out on the desk before him, all as smooth and sharp looking as the day he'd pried them off the creatures remains. The scales were said to be as hard as rock, making them notoriously difficult for even metal weapons to pierce, as was the fang that was said to be sharp enough to break through armour. If he could imbue the durability of the scales into a set of clothes and the fang into a mask he could make himself a veritable set of armour! And a fashionable one at that.
To begin with Tio decided to work on the satin he'd use in the clothes, the stuff the scales would go into making. He started out by reducing the scales to the rawest and most malleable form he could by grinding them up into a small, sand sized powder. This took absolutely ages to accomplish, as each of the dozen scales were so impossibly tough that even a grinder struggled to make a dent in them, but after borrowing a sharpening wheel from the engineering department Tio was able to make some proper headway and eventually had a full bowl of the scale shards.
Tio then lit a fire in the pit in the middle of the lab, hung a cauldron over it, and poured in the scale shards. He added a lot of fuel to the fire and kept it refreshed regularly so that it burnt hot and fierce, and soon the scales began to melt down like sand, becoming a glass-like molten brown mess. It was at this point that Tio added various minor reagents to the scale glass, odd plants and chemicals easily accessible to university students that would help to draw out the latent desired power from the scales: their stone-like endurance. As he did the composition of the scale glass changed, becoming less and less gloopy until it flowed like a regular liquid.
According to his calculations, Tio reckoned he needed two additional steps to make his garments the best they could be; a binding step to ensure the durability effect of the scales attached to the thread properly, and a preservation step to prevent as much of the durability effect from disappearing during the process as possible. Fortunately the university provided the basic reagents he needed to make these effects, thick ivy and rock salt, as part of his course fees.
The rock salt was fairly easy to prepare; all he had to do was grind it down into a fine powder as well and stir the cauldron as he added it little by little, as if he was cooking a stew. The vines however proved to be more of a challenge, as their thickness made them too tough to chop up, pulp or boil outright. In the end Tio had to settle for painstakingly tearing long, thin strips off of it bit by bit before adding them into the mixture. It paid off in the end however when the concoction turn a pale blueish colour, the exact colour he'd been hoping it would. Any other colour would’ve indicated he'd gone wrong somewhere.
With his mixture complete only one thing remained: to soak the bolts of satin in it. Adding the expensive fabric into the cauldron, Tio held his breath in anticipation and waited for the ear-shattering explosion that normally occured at this point in his experiments. But thankfully nothing came; the mixture remained still and calm, and Tio was able to leave it alone to infuse into the fabric while he got to work on the second item.
If the scales had been tough to grind down, the fang was an utter nightmare! The grindstone couldn't do more than scratch them, and so in order to break them down into a rawer form drastic measures were needed! To begin with he boiled it for the best part of an hour in scalding hot water, hoping the intense heat would weaken it even a little. Doing so had no visible effect on the fang, but if it helped even a little it'd be worth it. Then before it could cool he took it outside in the dead of night and placed it on a pavement running parallel to one of the walls of the main campus building.
The university sometimes liked to commemorate the scientists, inventors, doctors and other geniuses whose innovations had changed the world for the better with life-sized statues placed in various areas of importance across the campus. Doctor Aemon, the renown biqaj whose astounding intellect had discovered the cures for many of the afflictions that plagued men of the sea, was one of those geniuses, and had be honoured with one such statue placed on a pedestal high up atop the campus main building, overlooking the students below with an aloof smile. It was purely bad luck that his statue had been first one Tio had come across. In an act of vandalism that could lead to his expulsion from the academy if anyone caught him, Tio climbed to the top of the building and, with as mighty a heave as he could manage, pushed the statue towards the pavement below. With a roaring crash the statue fell head-first onto the fang, smashing it into several smaller pieces along with the statue.
As quick as a lizard Tio scurried back down the building, gathering up the shattered fang and running away before anyone came to investigate the commotion.
Once he got back to his lab Tio got out a second cauldron and added the fang shards, rock salt, more ivy strips and a host of other minor reagents, then boiled them down together until they made a glass-like substance similar to the previous one. Then he took a steel ingot and melted it down until it was molten red, and slowly added the fang-concoction into it until the liquid metal had taken on a blueish tinge. Using a mould borrowed from the technology department without their permission he re-poured the steel into an ingot shape and left it to cool.
When the ingot had cooled and the satin bolts had finished soaking and drying, Tio was glad to see that they'd both seemed completely normal other than a bluish tinge to them and a noticeable increase in durability. Now all he needed to do was take the materials to a smith and tailor under a transformed appearance to get them made into the gear he needed. He'd give one bolt of the ziemia satin to the university as something to show for his experiments so that nobody got suspicious, and explain away the missing excess of reagents he'd used by pretending they’d exploded in earlier experiments.
Now then, the next question was how to anonymously make ammends for that statue he'd destroyed...
Off Topic
Coat (Satin, Blue) = 87gn 5sn
Shirt (Satin, Brown) = 15gn 3sn 6cn
Trousers (Satin, Brown) = 64gn
= 166gn 8sn 6cn
-
Undergarments = 2sn
Socks = 1gn
Sash = 15sn
Boots(ankle) = 8sn
= 3gn 5sn
-
Mask (Metal, Masterwork) = 9gn 6s
-
Total =-179gn 9sn 6cn
Shirt (Satin, Brown) = 15gn 3sn 6cn
Trousers (Satin, Brown) = 64gn
= 166gn 8sn 6cn
-
Undergarments = 2sn
Socks = 1gn
Sash = 15sn
Boots(ankle) = 8sn
= 3gn 5sn
-
Mask (Metal, Masterwork) = 9gn 6s
-
Total =-179gn 9sn 6cn
