Craftsman's Fortune
Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Relath seems to find your decision to head directly to the Glass Furnace faintly amusing. "Fire to fire is drawn," he says, and in that he is not wrong, but it is not the truly element itself that draws you. Granted, the first thing you do upon emerging under the dome of the upper city is to dry yourself off with a quick spell, but it is the fires of forging and creation that you picture in your mind's eye. Not so vast as the adamant-sealed depths of the Opaline Vault, surely, but showing uncommon skill to practice one's craft in a sphere inimical to fire in all its forms.
The four of you move down sinuous paths under the shadow of amphibious 'trees' growing from pools of briny water, though their colorful waving tendrils marks them to be more anemone than plant. Thus at last, you find yourselves at the precise center of the Upper City where a thread of molten glass flows down from the dome and sinks into the depths of the city.
Or is it flowing up, constantly reinforcing the magics of the dome against attack?
After a long moment blinking up at the column of molten glass, you realize it is doing both; one thread goes up, spinning new power into the enchanted dome, while another is flowing down in parallel, old glass being returned to the furnace so that the smiths may work their magic upon it anew.
The fact that the one way down into the only dry part of the Lower City is a great spiral stair wide enough for two elephant's to pass abreast, circling the river of molten glass such that one can observe it from every angle, cannot be anything but deliberate.
***
Fire is a rare and precious thing in Vialesk, and so all who would wield it outside the use of small arcane flames, conjured at great cost, gather around the furnace. Smiths busy at their anvils and potters at their ovens, of course, but also glass-blowers forging colorful creations, fragile as a dream yet as enduring as steel. All practice their graft in the limestone alcoves whose unpainted walls show decorations far rarer than could be worked by the sculptor's chisel, ancient sea life great and small graces the walls, some that one might find readily in the waters at home and others utterly fantastical and otherworldly... at least you hope it is otherworldly.
"That is a rather impressive shark," your mother notes, following your gaze to a great set of jaws framing the door of a local tavern, somehow managing to make you feel as though you were once again seven years old and marveling over the spare swords of the Kingsguard, even though both her face and her expression were utterly neutral.
Relath leads the way in search of smiths, having obviously passed this way before, though he had been more interested in dyers and weavers to better serve the saffron fields of Tolos. The Eel's Eye proves to be a tavern of a very particular sort, found only in the most well traveled of ports; the reputable establishment putting on the airs of disrepute to draw in visitors looking for a thrill, but not so much a thrill that it might put them off their drink. The drinks are fine, the dice unloaded, and the mostly 'landwalker' staff professional, thought not above making the odd jest or light flirtation. Just the sort of place one might find ambitious journeymen looking for a new start.
For once, fortune seems to smile on your efforts to find talent in far off ports, as you find far more than a journeyman. A locathah with grey scales burnished like steel and the long mustache that marks a master is drinking alone tonight, though he does not do so for long. He proves to be one of the most respected master smith's in the city, as well as one with a truly prodigious taste for seaweed beer.
After a few drinks, he is more than happy to give you an accounting of all the smiths in the city, who is skilled and who is not, who might be tempted by a new start in far off lands, and who is 'sessile like the sea sponge'.
What sorts of smiths are you interested in?
[] Ones who can work common aquatic material (
Bone,
Eel Hide,
Living Coral)
Cost: 1200 IM Hiring Fee 100 IM Monthly Fee (11 Available)
[] Ones who can craft waterproof tools and supplies (Waterproof Ink, Books, Rope etc...)
Cost: 1440 IM Hiring Fee 120 IM Monthly Fee (9 Available)
[] Ones who can work with rare materials (
Pearlsteel and Riverine)
Cost: 3600 IM Hiring Fee 300 IM Monthly Fee (6 Available)
***
While you conversed with the smiths, Breath Taker and your mother sought out skilled and adventurous enchanters who might be tempted to join those already hired from the Opaline Vault. While you could not find so many as the Sultana's favor granted you, the presence of a triton priest went a long way to assuaging fears regarding working for a dragon
What sorts of enchanters do you hire?
[] Apprentice Enchanters (Craft Wondrous Items)
Cost: 1800 IM Hiring Fee 150 IM Monthly Fee (16 Available)
[] Journeyman Enchanters (Craft Wondrous Items; Craft Magical Arms and Armor)
Cost: 2880 IM Hiring Fee 240 IM Monthly Fee (10 Available)
[] Master Enchanters (Craft Wondrous Items; Craft Magical Arms and Armor; Craft Construct)
Cost: 4320 IM Hiring Fee 360 IM Monthly Fee (7 Available)
OOC: I know the vote says buy all the smiths but you guys lucked out on the roll, so all the smiths would be a rather hefty cost.
