Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

Eighteenth Day of Ikomi-hamba (Ikomi Descendant) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Fire!" Aubert bursts through the door of the hall at a dead run, looking like he had seen a dragon in the sky. "Fire in the workshop! Milord, come quick!"

As you rush outside you see it, a crown of flame upon a newly thatched roof burning like kindling, and for the first time all winter you curse the snow for its absence. Tom was nowhere in sight, but luckily John had taken command of the handful of men in the courtyard, sending them rushing with buckets to the creek just as you had planned... and even more luckily Inge was near at hand. The girl was sitting next to the workshop, one hand on the white-plastered wall and murmuring a prayer as wave after wave of water spun from empty air, putting out the flame with an angry hiss.

"Well ain't that handy to have around," you hear someone say, George or Peter by the broad Saxon accent.

You have no time to sit and be amazed though. "What in God's name is going on?" No one seems to remark that you took the Lord's name in vain, and little wonder, for the whole keep is more wood than stone and fire might reduce all your hard work to ash.

That is when you spy Zaia stumble out of the door of the workshop coughing and ash stained, in his hands cradled steel and fire. Durendal it was, but not as you had known it. Where before its flame only burned when it struck, seeking to cleave through stone and metal, flesh and bone, now the fire burned eternal by the light of day, and the hilt, which before had been plain bronze, was now bound in dragon scales that glittered like emeralds, yet when you gingerly gripped it it fit in the hand more smoothly than any weapon you had yet held.

"Your sword, Sir Knight," the alchemist manages to get out, pride and chagrin mingling in his voice. "It has been improved more than I had hoped, some virtue of the dragon's scales perhaps, which made the fire shine hotter..." he looks back at the workshop, which had thankfully not suffered too much damage thanks to Inge's quick aid. "Hotter than I would have hoped."

Durendal gains Flaming Attacks

"A man skilled in that art told me to never set a blade to fire lest one is a smith. That is twice he has been proven wrong, to our good fortune. Perhaps it is best not to tempt Providence a third time, eh?" At these words the scholar gives a shaky laugh and a few moments later your men join in, as much in relief as mirth over the jest.

Esha later calls the whole affair 'a ritual not of craft but of chance', beyond her skill and indeed beyond the skill of any sorcerer in all of Orinilu as far as you know. "It is as though a man running his errands one fine morn was to stumble and fall not into some of the less savory things that can be found upon a road, but into a pile of silver coins, as though a song were so near completion that it had sung itself with only your lips as the instrument."

Inge nods gravely and adds: "You should probably get a stone house before you try any more fire magic."

As the keep rises ever higher and the moat is dug, by sorcery as much as shovels, the training continues apace, though there is still time in the evenings to speak to your companions as much as those other folk whom you have gathered to your company and hear what they hope for the coming seasons.

Whose company to you seek?

[] Runs in Rain as he tries to learn how to fight as well as gain the weapons to do so

[] Neios, his attempts to ingratiate himself with the nobility of the city have ended in abject failure, leaving him prey to black moods, barely speaking a word

[] Your men, you will have to pick someone to be left in charge of the keep in spring, best to see who would most fit the task

[] The strange owl, the thing has been following you for more than a moonturn by now, there has to be some reason for its strange behavior, see if you can discern it

[] Antonio as he goes to the market to pick up trade goods for the journey in the spring, perhaps you can do some buying or selling of your own

[] Esha, to learn the tongue of the city more thoroughly so as to stumble less over the words of Engur

OOC: I am at least thankful you did not roll a 95+ on what that enchantment would be or else I would have had to balance future encounters around you having this. Still, you did not roll the lowest bound either which would have been thawing. This was pretty much the middle of the road option with Flaming Burst being the third of the four options.