Hmm, might be a thing to try with a lesser commission.
I suppose we don't get to specify trying runic combinations with things like the generic warmachines?
Nope. Also update!
Winning Vote:
[X] Plan Metal and Sharp stuff
-[X] [Simple] Runic Warmachines:
--[X] One action
-[X] [Simple] Defence. In. Depth Pt2:
--[X] Two actions
-[X] Teach your apprentices. [Cost: 1 Action] Locked in for 5 turns.
-[X] [Simple] Apprentice work:
--[X] Two apprentice actions
-[X] The Rune Metal Pt. 3:
--[X] One action
Apprentice Rolls: 31 +10 =41, 28 +5 =33
...
You stand across from the guildmaster of the engineer's guild.
With a gruff nod, you beckon your apprentices to bring in the carts.
Slowly, achingly slowly, your charges manage to push the carts, all laden with gold, silver, jewels and other precious metals into the guildhall where apprentice engineers pick up after them.
Only when the last cart is brought in do you enter, hauling the cart of reagents yourself. You are escorted by the guildmaster himself, a dwarf of some three hundred years, into the main storage hall where they have been patiently keeping the warmachines they originally commissioned, and as per your request, every machine they've built since then.
Well over a hundred Mastercrafted Bolt and Grudge Throwers gleam in the Runelit warehouse, fine wutroth and good solid steel constructions made with the precision and uniformity only the adherents of Morgrim can manage.
You know full well that the engineer's guildmaster holds you no ill will, but it rankles you
deeply that you let this be pushed off for so long.
Downright Beardling level foolishness.
Bah!
This endeavour has actually ended up costing you more than the original commission paid many times over. Having had to invoke the clause so many times finally coming back to bite you. Not enough to cripple you, not even enough to make a divot in your personal wealth, but a loss nonetheless. The fact that decades have passed meaning that there are now over a hundred different artillery pieces for you to inscribe is frankly a quibble, a penance to the blow your pride as a craftsdwarf has suffered.
Well no more! This stain against your honour will not stand!
You heft your hammer with conviction, and walk over to the oldest machine here.
…
You look at the Runes of Light with an appraising eye. The family that owns the home you're standing in looks between you and your nervous apprentice.
Casting a sidelong glance at Dolgi, you snort, only making the beardling fiddle with his beard all the harder. Behind him, Klorah Silvereyes plays with her plaits anxiously while her parents watch bemusedly.
You nod once, and after thanking the two members of Clan Silvereyes for accommodating your intrusion, walk out of the Clan compound with Dolgi in tow.
"So," you say, tone neutral, "just so happened you got a request from them?"
"Yes, Master," Dolgi says, voice flat.
You cast him a sidelong glance and raise a brow.
"I didn't tell her I was doing this, I swear on my beard!" he stammers.
You cackle internally.
Outwardly however, you only snort which only makes the boys face go as red as his hair.
"Well…" you say, mind drifting to the past.
Her eyes crinkle in silent laughter, while your master only scoffs in, what you only learn centuries later, amusement.
"...I'd say treat her well, but even
you aren't that hopeless apprentice. Come along now," you say moving fast enough to get ahead of him.
"Thank you Master," he says, voice serious.
"Hmm, don't thank me yet, we still have to see how badly you bungled that crossbow order."
"Yes Master!"
…
"Thank you again for all this, I'm sure Fjolla was the picture of good grace weren't you?" you say, looking neutrally at your apprentice's even expression.
"Yes, Master," she says nodding
"Well then, we'd best be off, wouldn't do to use up more of your time than necessary."
"Of course Rhunrikki! No problem at all! We'd happily have her visit again," the wife says while her husband nods happily.
Only when the two of you leave the compound a good thirty meters behind do you speak again.
"Only
most of the mistakes I expected from you plaitling, managed to catch a few did you? Well, better now than never. Hurry up, there's still five more orders of yours to get through," you order.
"Yes Master," she replies.
Where Dolgi's attention and commissions came mostly in the form of simple Runes on crossbows and minor bits of engineering, Fjolla's orders consisted mostly of Jewellers looking to improve the value of their stock, simple Runes of Warding or Light. The kind of work that required delicate, incredibly nimble hands.
Your opinion on the pieces was that they were
acceptable for a dwarf her age. Which, to be frank, was very high praise indeed.
You'll never say it to her face until she's won the right to Masterhood from you.
…
About halfway through the decade, you finally set about
finishing your work on this part of the Karak's defences.
You begin by inscribing Runes of Heat, Protection and Preservation on the piping destined for the field, making sure the water will never freeze and that the pipes last far longer than the millennia they were slated for.
Even when not turning the field into a mire that artillery would sink into and infantry would suffocate in, their radiant heat would melt the permafrost layer and likely keep the fields from freezing over again until the deepest part of winter.
On one hand, this meant the fields were good grazing land when not in use, letting them stay warm enough for good hardy dwarfen grass to take root on the other it meant that when they were flooded with water it would become a mire, as engineers purposefully created sections of the field that could quickly become sinkholes and cloying pits of quick-mud when bogged down by the torrent of water the pipes would unleash.
Of course, you and the engineers ensured that there would be a way to make the field usable again in the aftermath. A secondary network of pipes was laid down, Runes of Filtration and Suction on them that, when the engineers opened the valve, would let the field drain out back into the storage cisterns. Consequently, this secondary system also lets the engineers control the overall moisture of the field, draining away rainwater during the terrible spring and fall storms that, since you've cleared much of the forest, made the field a mire all on its own. In the name of good soil management, you also set down subterranean Runes of Preservation, altered so that they prevent erosion as the field dried. You were no Brewer but you understood the basics of simple soil management well enough.
Made good simple sense, after all, you didn't plan this out willy nilly without considering the environmental impact.
But enough about that, you spent the majority of your time on the
other part of this defensive set up after all.
Built deep within the surrounding peaks, large, collapsible, hallways were tunnelled into the rock itself, connecting a massive network of barracks, way stations and artillery emplacements that would rain death down on the enemy. Also part of this larger network were the massive underground cisterns that housed the water necessary to turn the field into a mire, inscribed with Runes to prevent evaporation or undue damage to the surrounding stone of course, but also act as a secured supply of water for the dwarfs of both the main hold and those stationed here.
Your work here was decidedly more mundane, using Runes of Concealment that, while nowhere near as effective as the Master Rune of Disguise, made the gazes of any would-be attackers pass over the already inconspicuous forms of pillboxes and covered artillery platforms more often than not.
Here King Otrek had a larger role in planning out the overall tactics of the defences, deciding patrol routes, stationing garrisons, and making an overall plan of action to follow in the event of an actual siege that made the most use of your dazzling array of murder.
It was also King Otrek that requested you incorporate stations for Rangers to supply from, something that increased both their effective range and length in the field. Further, he was the one who suggested that a series of recon towers/supply depots be built not just in the surrounding peaks but across much of Kraka Drakk's overall dominion. Slowly, before the eyes of the elder council, creating a network of fallback points and evacuation plans for the dwarfs who worked outside the hold to be drawn back into the safety of the mountain.
It was so detailed that even Elder Brokk sniffed in approval.
Much of that business didn't require your attention, the King choosing instead to hire other Runesmiths for that business and instead requested you begin work on the final part of your proposed defences.
The
Inner Hold Defences.
So it was that you nodded in stoic acceptance, internally cackling all the while.
Oh, you didn't think you'd even get the
chance for another decade at least but here you were, given almost total freedom to turn the Inner sections of the hold into a truly terrible time for any bastard that broke through.
So it was near the decades end that work crews began chiselling away, starting progress on what you've come to affectionately call…
...The Murder Maze.
Oh, you liked this King already! One of your better decisions to push for his crowning looking back on it. Even half-unconscious you still knew how to pick 'em!
…
In the downtime between your frantic work on the Defences you were devoting a little time towards your research around Gromril, mindful not to enter yet another fugue lest Elder Moira barge into your workshop and kill you.
The work is slow going but steady, which is honestly what you prefer.
You pour through your mental library, comparing and contrasting Runes and their effects. Over the year you devise several theoretical and practical arrays that may do the work needed. All fail, but in that failure, you make some progress.
Purifying the metaphysical essence of Gromril will not be like purifying ore. It is more than just getting rid of oxidized scale or allowing the impurity to simply float to the top as one does with Iron or Copper. This was to reach into the Realm of the abstract and wipe each and every last particle of the Gromril clean.
A process that for the life you, you cannot think of the correct modification for.
Of course, you have a body of Runes that are the likely key, the Rune of Spellbreaking, Spelleating, the Runes of Valaya or Grungni; all things that dealt with the touch of magic and disrupting it. It's simply a matter of exhaustively going down the list until you find the correct answer.
Well, no one said it would be easy.
...
Does HE notice? 1d100 +20 =33
But that wasn't all that occurred near the decade's end, because one crisp spring morning you received a letter from Jorri outright saying he was coming North a month Early.
So it was that you were left
worried for a month all thanks to that Kruthead.
You are there when he arrives at the head of a convoy that is not so much full of goods as it is full of guards.
You are there when he jumps off and rushes to you, giving a bonecrushing hug that nearly makes your ribs creak that you must pry your way out of.
"Jorri what in Grungni's name has you so riled up!"
"SNERRA!" he yells, ignoring your question.
You are there when your niece comes forward.
And you are there when you
understand why Jorri is so happy.
The lass has it. You only need a sniff to
know she has the talent and its stronger than you've ever seen it.
But you still test her anyway.
The tests only confirm it. She passes them one and all without even pausing, Its frankly astounding, not that you show it on your face, how intuitively she grasps everything.
"Have you told anyone else?" You ask Jorri after the last test, staring at him hard.
"Only the Elders and they agreed to give you first choice as tradition dictates before we start asking around," he explains, "what do you say?"
You sniff, looking at your young niece, anxiously twirling her little plaits.
Only eighteen.
Just a
child, younger than even Fjolla when she started.
Logically you know you can take the burden, but it
would take up your time. Then again, your apprentices were knowledgeable enough that you could offload the most basic aspects of her instruction to them, a good experience for them too. There was precedent for it of course, older apprentices teaching a thing or two to their newer colleagues, all under the eyes of their master of course. The only time it was frowned upon was when some fool Journeyman taught a dwarf the art when they barely knew it themselves without a master to supervise. A master kept things proper, and it would serve as a good way to prepare those two for when they took on their own foolish beardlings as well.
"This is unprecedented...give me a week and I'll have your answer Jorri."
He nods, taking Snerra with him as he walks out and back towards the Clan's home in the hold.
You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh heavily after they're gone.
This wasn't a decision to be made lightly.
You argue over it for the whole week, your mind comparing and contrasting with more effort than you ever had with an apprentice.
When the week comes to an end, you find yourself face to face with both Jorri and Snerra. Taking a deep breath you tell them,
[ ] No: You cannot teach her, your apprentices take too much time already, and taking on another would remove more of your attention at a time when the hold still needs it desperately.
[Gain: Nothing, Snerra is taught by another]
[ ] Yes: You will take her, devoting the effort necessary to train this young prodigy into a proper runesmith.
[Cost: Lock 1 action for minimum 6 turns] [Gain: Snerra Magnasdottir, 18-year-old Prodigy would-be Runesmith]
[ ] Yes: You will take her, and have your older apprentices play a part in her learning, under your watchful eye of course.
[Cost: Lock both apprentice actions for 3 turns where you gain 1 back until your older apprentices graduate] [Gain: Snerra Magnasdottir, 18-year-old Prodigy would-be Runesmith]
…
Gain:
- Over a hundred war machines inscribed with Runes, that should've been done far earlier in your opinion. Not taking the task was one thing, but leaving it hanging,
incomplete. BAH!
- Progress on Defence. In. Depth. Pt3: No respite
- Apprentices started doing work, its shoddy, but it doesn't make you sick to look at for longer than five seconds at the very least.
- Enjoyment at Dolgi's expense.
- A choice.
Loss:
- A little personal pride
- A little personal wealth
AN: your niece is crazy. As an apprentice and a super prodigy she wont take as long to prepare to be a worthy apprentice, but you can keep her on longer to offload more info into her head. Its only two turns shorter because Snorri cannot in good conscience only have her as an apprentice for less than that without her qualifications being called into question. Even then, 6 turns will make eyes turn regardless. Few
runesmiths have taken such a short amount of time to become Journeymen. As for your older apprentices' low rolls, they were never in danger of failing! You think Snorri, any master really, would send them out to do this if he thought there was even the smallest chance they did a bad job?! Are you daft?
Anywho, C&C and thanks for reading. Also I will note that I'll accept approval voting on this one :^)
