Once an isolated and dying township, an influx of academics, adventurers and thrill seekers have made Scalvoris Town their home. From scholars' tea shops to a new satellite campus for Viden Academy, this is an exciting place to visit or make your home!
The heat of the forge slapped Tio across the face like an invisible wall, making him recoil back on pure instinct. Morgana, standing by his side, shot him one of her patented unimpressed looks and headed inside ahead of him without so much as a flinch at the harsh temperature. Evidently despite her much younger age she was made of sterner than him. Should he be embarrassed about that? Yeah, probably.
Their reason for being at little korlasir today was to create a very special set of items. Tio had had another of his patented genius ideas, but to make it work he needed access to a proper metalworking forge and little korlasir was the best in town. He had commissioned Hurk to build his pieces but, on a whim, requested to be involved in the forging process himself.
After a quick greeting and a smatter of small talk Hurk declared that it was time to begin, and told them to start piling fuel onto the fire. If it had been hot before it soon became scorching, and within a few minutes Tio was sweating bullets, yet despite it all Hurk didn't look even the slightest bit uncomfortable even as he began getting to work hauling piles of tools and bars of iron over to his work table.
Tio's first task was to fill a thick stone bucket with bars of metal and place it into the forge to melt down. It sounded simple, and yet the strength involved in the act was immense. Stone bowls filled with metal bricks weren't exactly light after all. Harder yet was getting it back out again, as the bowl had been heated to such an extreme temperature that tongs had to be used when lifting it. It took both him and Morgana to lift it back out again, but when they did the sight the liquid metal, still red-hot like liquid fire, was strangely enthralling.
From there Hurk poured the liquid metal into a set of moulds, all the templates to create long, thin bars. They were each no thicker than a pencil and long enough to stretch out across half the room, and due to how thin they were soon cooled enough to be reasonably solid yet hot enough to be malleable.
At that point Hurk tipped the first three poles out of their moulds and onto the floor, then lined them up next to each other. Like braiding locks of hair Hurk used a set of heavy tongs to twist one bar over another, hammer them down at the joint, and then twist another two over and repeat the process over and over again. When they'd seen enough of how it worked Hurk handed each of them a hammer and gestured them to do the same thing. Between the three of them the work passed quickly, and soon all three bars were permanently entwined together in a simple but elegant pattern.
With his hammer and tongs Hurk then began bending the entwined bars at certain points, folding the long bar down into a circular shape. Both ends of the bar met, and with a few bashes of his hammer were forged together to make the bar into a complete circle frame.
Finally Morgana brought over one of the reflective glass panes that'd been bought from a glassblowers in town, and she and Tio laid the pane down in the middle of the frame. Hurk hammered down the last few adjustments, and very soon the glass pane was fixed within the frame. They had created a mirror: basic and unassuming, but something that Tio felt oddly proud to say that he had helped create.
That was one down. Now they just had nineteen left to go…
word count: 637
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.
Floats
Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.
Explodeibur
Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.
It was night by the time that all the mirrors had been finished and taken back to Silver Point. Hurk had asked no questions about what they were for, no doubt realising that it was for the sort of weird supernatural business that it was healthy to keep your nose out of, and for his discretion Tio had left a little tip for him. The man had earned it, even if the mirrors were as basic as could be.
Once they were back home Tio took the mirrors to one of the empty rooms and hung each of them up around the walls. Then one by one he went to each mirror and placed the flat of his palm against the middle, scrunching his eyes shut in concentration as he tapped into his natural connection to his dreamscape. Within the reflections small, shining silver stars appeared; Tio’s dreamwalking brand.
Once all twenty mirrors possessed his brand Tio walked backwards, watching reality fade away as he crossed over into Emea. The sturdy wooden deck of his ship-shaped dreamscape greeted him. Kicking off the deck Tio floated up high into the air, past the rows of empty cabins that formed the back of his gigantic arc, until he reached the very top: a temple-like structure that oversaw the entire ship. Like the vast majority of his ship the small temple was completely bare and empty.
Extending out his hand, Tio allowed the familiar sensation of the fluid reality of Emea to wash over him. He took control of it, twisting the chaos with his will to create form out of the vast expanse of formlessness. Within the room twenty mirrors, identical in appearance to the ones he’d created in reality, appeared upon the walls, each one shining with the same silver starlight of his brand, yet none of them showing a genuine reflection of their surroundings. They were like windows now, peering through into the room in Silver Point Tio had been standing in moments ago.
Tio walked up to one and reached out a hand to touch it, smiling in satisfaction as the glass rippled like water and instead let his hand pass straight through. He moved further forward, allowing his whole body to pass through the rippling mirror and emerge back into reality: back into the room of Silver Point.
Each of the mirrors he’d created was now a doorway; a permanent passage into his dreamscape through the identical counterparts he’d built within Emea. With them stepping in and out of his dreamscape would be instantaneous, and no more difficult than knowing the trick to using them he’d devised to keep intruders out. One mirrors would remain in this room, and another one would be sent to each of the other properties he owned: The Crimson Sanctum hidden in the Badlands of Desnid, the hovel he’d built within the caves of the Goblin Sanctuary fracture in Yaralon, and the Windwing Stables on the coast of Almund not too far away. The rest would go into storage within the Crimson Sanctum; hidden away until he found a new property he needed to establish a quick link to.
word count: 539
Fast Facts
Noticeable quirks your character can see when threading with Tio.
Floats
Tio floats in the air, usually just a foot off the ground.
Explodeibur
Tio wears a scary looking gauntlet on his right hand that is clearly magical. It creates explosions.
Smithing: Melting down metal
Smithing: Using moulds
Smithing: Twisting with tongs
Smithing: Hammering hot metal
Smithing: Folding a frame
Strength: Lifting heavy smithing equipment.
Renown: none
Skill Usage: Appropriate to levels
Loot/Losses: 20 branded Mirrors of Basic+ quality (I'm making them basic+ because you're at the higher end of Novice smithing.)
Injuries/Conditions: none
Consequences: You may want to actually place the mirrors in character in a thread in order for them to be where you want them. Otherwise, have fun with them!
Comments: This was a little light on word count, so please bear that in mind for the future, to try and reach 1500.
Otherwise I enjoy a bit of crafting threads. This was especially fun with Tio's magic-like abilities of dreamwalking giving the mirrors that ability. Seems very useful too. I wonder how Tio plans on using these portals...
Good job and enjoy the rewards!
If you have any concerns about this review, please PM me about them.
