As I walked along, past the shanties and learn-toos, I spotted one clearly made quickly, but newer, with a clear trail of smoke, and the smell of charcoal burning. As I got closer to the crude wooden structure which was, half house half partially enclosed work area. I could hear, the puffing of bellows interspersed with the rhythmic dull thumps and bell like tings of a smith at work. I looked for the smith, expecting a big burly man, or a buxom woman as Thorbjorn might have dreamed of in his sleep. Instead, I a lean tough woman with a ponytail of thin black hair. She was in her 30’s. Her hands were strong and competent. Her face may have never been beautiful, except perhaps when smiling at her son, but never ugly either. Her hands sure, but her arms tired and her body far skinnier than even an ultramarathoner back home should be. In the corner, slowly pumping the bellows was a tanned darkhaired boy of about 13, skinny as well and small for his age. I suspected hunger was the cause of both. The boys clothes though, like his mothers were neatly mended, and if dirty, they were the honest dirt of today’s labors, not the ground in filth of weeks and weeks. The smith glanced at me quickly, but fire and heat wait for no man, her hands kept forging the butter yellow bright metal, sparks squirting out horizontally with each of the initial clever blows of her hammer. Forging upon what was clearly a small single sided pick, one made parsimoniously with as little iron as could do the job, with a bit of finer steel being forge welded into the tip as I watched.
Having more than dabbled into blacksmithing myself, I recognized and appreciated the crisp precise movements of her hands, tongs and hammer as they went about her work. The precision of the power in the blows, fast and light to set the weld, then harder to form the scarfs down into the shape she desired.
As I waited, I looked about the shop as well, neat as a forge running on charcoal could be, but with just the minimum of tools to do the job lying and hanging around the stump upon which the anvil sat. The anvil it’s self a square affair, with no horn or heel, though a bick horn, or bickern was in the stump nearby the anvil. The building its self was clearly of new and hasty construction. The roof not yet thick enough to be water tight over the shop section, though the house section looked tight and dry. I waited till the woman poked the pick into a bucket of ashes to slowly cool, annealing the steel for final work before heat treat. The boy having stopped the bellows sat tiredly his hands in his lap.
I tucked one hand behind my back, and said to the boy, “Hey kid catch!” And tossed him one of the few apples I still had from his inventory. The boy caught it greedily, and then looked to his mother hopefully. She gave me a hard measuring glance. Seeing the half healed wounds on me, and pausing longer at my speedoes than was perhaps polite, then rising to look closely into my eyes.
Something she saw there reassured her, and she nodded to the boy, who tore into the apple hungrily. When her eyes returned to me, I was wordlessly holding my last apple out to her. She took it slowly, still looking into his eyes, and then at the small roll of pudge around my waist, before nodding and taking a bite.
I breathed a bit wistfully at that, and made a mental note to start saving up to buy back that “Chubby’ disadvantage that hadn’t seemed important before.
In the sing song voice familiar to all who hail from the land of Wales in his old world the smith spoke. “I’m am Fannon, apGofannon, the smith of this shanty town, what can I do for you stranger?”
The name started Bill, “Gofannon the Tuatha god of smiths? Also know as Goibhniu”?
“Aye, not that it’s your business, I was born an orphan, a foundling far from here, and when I was taken up by his church and taught a trade, I took Gofannons name, as I had none of my own. Where I come from the name is as common as Smith is east and north of here, across the channels. You’ve treated my boy Rhuad there, nicely, so I don’t mind chatting, but I’ve work to do to earn our feed. What is it you want from me?”
I smiled at the boy’s name, after Rhuad, the boy that killed Goibhniu, not missing the undercurrents of that, and said “I was hoping to buy some weapons and armor, but your cupboards look a bit bare. What will these get me here? I said, setting 4 of my 6 lumps of gold upon the anvil?”
She looked at me again critically, “A meal and about 6 beers, or a night in the inn, such as it is, from here, a small wrought knife with just a miserly piece of good steel for the edge. I saw as you watched me finish that pick. You know a bit of my trade, I’ll speak plainly with you, as long as you do the same.”
I burst out spluttering in surprise, “That’s nearly a half-pound of good bright gold, why are the prices so high here, famine?”
“Famine is why I left my homeland and traveled by ship to be here. Why I carried my tools on my back and walked 3 weeks up river after my husband Garoth died. But that’s not why the prices are high here man, you’re standing at the leading edge of a Gold Rush. I was taught that during a gold rush it’s not the miners who get rich, but those who sell them shovels and food. But I’m barely making enough to pay for food and buy raw iron here. It’s not the land of plenty I’d hoped for my boy and I. The Merchant who controls everything here including the food and supplies is making all the money now. Soon I’ll have to close up shop and go north looking for ore to smelt. There is plenty o’ black sand mixed in with the gold, so there should be a good source of ore up in those mountains. I hope there is food as well. Prices are high here because everything is dear. And all the miners scare off all the beasts for hunting. It’s all we can do to keep body and soul together.”
I bowed my head in thought at the moment and asked, ”which is more dear to you now, today, food or cold iron to work?”
“Cold Iron, after this pick, I’ll be forge-welding scraps, but soon after that, we’ll be needing food for our journey north. I’ve answered your questions, y’now owe answer some of my, fair for fair. Why did you give me and my boy food, when you are so poor for gear, and how come you here not knowing of the gold rush?”
The boy perked up and listened for this answer as well.
I sucked my teeth and said, “I’ll do my best to make 2 long stories into two short ones. Firstly, where I was raised, you shouldn’t let kids starve. Obviously I’ve never done it myself.” I said gesturing at my middle. As to you, It seemed rude to feed him and not you. Plus, you looked like you could use it. As to how I got here, we came south along the river, on my partners Goddesses business. We just established a safe place a way north of here, and came here looking for trade.”
“Your partners goddess? Where is he? And why is his goddess not yours?“ She asked wryly?
“Her, not him and she’s right up there” I said pointing to a spot of light by the door. And her goddess is my goddess and her business is my business, I’m just so new to it, it feels weird to talk about it that way, I supposed. Come say hello Yamina.“ I said, lifting my hand for her to perch upon.
Yamina flitted to my hand, landed and dimmed her light enough to be clearly seen in the dark smithy. Then politely she spoke “I greet you Fannon mother of Ruad, smith of GoFannon. I am Yamina Danudottir, and I serve the goddess of the river, and seek to learn and become strong in her service.”
The words burst out of Rhuad's mouth, but politely still, “MOM! A Fairy, like in the tales!”, The first he’d spoken in Bills hearing.
Yamina turned to Rhuad and said just as politely, “Not a Fairy Rhuad Fannonson, A Devas, it’s like a fairy, but waaaay better.” A smile dancing at the corner of her lips.
“A devas,” whispered Fannon, “what great sign of luck, though whether good or ill remains to be seen. “She turned to her son, “Devas are kin to fairys, have the wings and light of a firefly, and are even more magical than the other small fae. They are also, known to be as often good as bad, as often kind as cruel. So, button your lip and mind your manners.” The tired woman turned back to me.
I spoke up then, trying to soften the hardness that had returned to Fannons with those words. “Yamina is a Devas, yes, but a young one, but by my word and oath she’s a good girl she is.”
Yamina looked at me wryly, “That’s not what your kept telling my mom.” But couldn’t hold the smile in.
The hard look was replaced by confusion? “She is your Daughter?”
“No” said I perhaps a touch too quickly, “She is my charge, it’s my job to escort her in the world and help her to grow strong and wise. I was appointed this duty by her mother, and I was paid for it at the time.” Then I smiled in turn, “Besides, I can’t even imagine the logistics of that, can you imagine trying to change her diapers?”
Fannon laughed a mothers laugh at the idea, then said, “But you have children then?”
My joy quieted, and Fanon’s eyes dimmed in turn feeling the turn of the conversation. I held up the hand with the ring, “I do, but I am now lost to them as much as if I were dead, 2 boys, one not much older than Rhuad there. One man tall and strong, and a wife I’ll love till I’m pushing the grass up from the underside. But I am washed up on this shore never to return. Yamina’s mother explained it to me quite clearly before she offered me this job.”
I paused before continuing with a bit more cheer, “Before we go too far off into the weeds, let me offer you some trade. I walked over to the small table holding what little Fannon had for sale. I dumped out 20 small ingots of iron, and 3 of good bright steel. “What can I get or commission for these?” Then remembering how skinny they were, I said “oh and these” and he pulled out the bodies of the 2 large lizards and set them beside the ingots.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Fannon stepped to the large front doors and pulled them shut. Don’t let that bastard of a merchant see you carrying that, you’ll be pushing that grass up sooner than you planned. Then she went and picked up the steel ingots, rubbing her fingers on it and smelling them. Her eyebrows rose, “These are good weapon and tool steel, is the carbon soaked all the way through, or just on the surface?”
Bill replied, “The ingots are all the same through and through, cut one in half if you wish to see.”
“From these I can make you a simple sword, or a dozen spears, or a half dozen axes? With this food, I can work on it exclusively, from the iron I can make what you need, or take it in trade for my time making the weapons. 3 weeks for a sword, less for an axe or spear.”
“I don’t have that kind of time, what can you get now? I need a large load of charcoal, and a Firesteel. A good knife, armor and weapons if you have it, Some basic containers, and I can go back north and get more iron and steel, if needed. Time is more precious than anything else I need gear to see me and my little friend her safely north tonight or in the morning. What kind of Ironsmelter are you that can make iron and steel, yet can’t make charcoal?” said Fannon in clear disbelief.
I picked up one of the iron ingots by way of answer, coming to a decision by gut alone. “I am no ironmonger, not in this land, I am a mage and a shaper.” At this point I pinched off a corner of the iron with my thumb and forefinger, and twisted it into a dart, which I rolled about in my hand. Next I handed it to the smith, who took it over to the light by the back door and looked at it closely. “This is how I was paid by my partners mothers’ people, this is part of the wages that bought me for this duty, though I must admit, it doesn’t lie heavily upon me.”
I waited till the smith looked at me, and continued “You are right, in the mountains north is much of the good black ore, lodestone, or magnetite. In the safe place Yamina and I have wrought for ourselves, there is a sandbar of deep black lodestone sand as wide as a man, and probably 11 men long. I know not of its depth, for I have not looked. Here is my deal for you. In exchange for what gear and clothes you can get me to use to survive in the wilds, and to fight off monsters, by morning, I will trade you this.” He added then added the rest of the iron, and all but two of the ingots he’d recently converted to high carbon steel.
“As well as the gear you can get for me, you will speak kindly of our goddess, and let me have use of your forge whenever I need it. You will start on such weapons and armor as you can make in a week. Bring it to us at our safe place north of here along the river. Perhaps an hour’s brisk walk from here. You will know it by its large circle of trees that cross the river, and at its center a huge oak, a stone altar to Danu, Goddess of this river beneath the great oak’s branches. There you are welcome to spend the night if you wish. I like you, if you worshiped our goddess, who just claimed this river and so proving her power, I would invite you both to stay with us, and let the miners come to you to buy. Instead of you trekking back and forth. But only worshipers of Danu are welcome, or members of our party. There food is plentiful, it’s where I got the blessed apple I gave to you and Rhuad, though not all of the food is the quality of the blessed apples..” he said gesturing towards the lizards.
At this the smith picked the apple back up off the anvil and examined it closely, clearly casting her blacksmiths equivalent of an ID skill. Her eyes widening, then looking at Bill.
“Part of my job is to be the gardener of this little weed here,” he said gesturing at Yamina. “Part of my job is to spread the word and worship of our Goddess, though I must admit, it is the part that is newest and strangest to me, and does not lie comfortably upon my shoulders.”
I continued “Don’t decide now, make the deal and run around and trade for what gear you think you can get me in exchange for this steel, all I have is what you see, and my spear of soft raw iron. So I need everything pots pan, water, skins, bottles, to trade with us. I will work here at your table turning what cloth I do have into what I can make. When your weeks commission is done, deliver your work, and see for yourself what we are building. Actually, building is a bad word, because we both still sleep on the grass under the great oak tree. But see what potential we have.”
“Oh and I’d promised Thorbjorn, a recent recruit to our faith, I’d haft an axe for him, he’ll be stopping by with his mate. Watch his mate, he’s not the evil sort, but the stickiest fingers you ever saw. I’ll be working on that for him here tonight if it’s okay with you.”
“I Know Thorbjorn and Jimni well, and agree with your description, I’d trust Jimni at my back with a knife, but never with an unsupervised purse. Let me think a bit.”
Fannon sat down and thought, then pulled out a small slate and a bit of chalk and started thinking visually. Then she looked at Bill “How much can you shape at once?”
Thinking I knew where her mind was going, and liking it. I picked up a tool steel ingot, crushed it in my hands, then spinning it back and forth between my palms, rolled it out into a wand about an inch thick and 4 feet long.. “About this much at a go, till my mana runs out. Then I have to wait for it to fill. I then rested a bit and used the surface of the table and flattened it into a bar, just the size for a being made into a good sword.
“Can you teach that?” Fannon asked her eyes staring at my hands work hungrily.
Bill replied “Alas I don’t think so, but our Goddess can, and does seem to have a penchant for field promotions. That gives me an idea though.”
Bill opened Diety chat, and quietly prayed to the goddess. Unsurprised, she answered quickly.
[“What Bill?”]
[“I know I’m not level 5 yet, but is there any way I can get access to their character sheets, and the ability to buy or spend points, theirs or mine for them, each change would require their approval of course, no evil. I’m thinking the ability to do that, especially if it’s common for folks to run around with unspent points, might be the fastest way to recruit followers. Even better if it unlocks the character sheets for them. Love of a goddess is great, but direct personal gain may be a faster way to convert folks to your team.”]
[“I like the way your mind works, it’d have to be super limited and hedged on all sides. But we might be able to do something. Even then you’d have to be level 5 or 10. What about this, you ask me questions about their sheets, in a general non numeric way, and I’ll pass on what I can, then you ask me to set up a quest, and I can grant you the ability to offer it in my name. I’m not actually giving you any powers, so no rules break, but you can still trade your way into their favor. CP would have to come from them or you. If I spend them, we’re back close to a rules break, or at least other gods with clergy nearby knowing something is going on. So be judicious”] said the Goddess.
Bill said out loud, “Fannon, would I be correct in assuming that the GoFannon church and the Blacksmithing guild are pretty much one and the same where you come from? And that you’re out here in the wilds because you can’t earn or buy your way to more training, or a masters rank?” The black haired woman nodded and started to speak. “Hang on, I think I know the rest of answer, let me ponder a second.”
[‘Tell me please Danu, is my hunch right, is she a senior journeyman, person whatever…, with plenty of skill and training, but kept from becoming a master due to politics and money?’]
[“Yes indeed, how did you know?”]
[“A nose for bullshit, and a knowledge of how guilds, mysteries and secrets worked on my world. Does she have enough points to buy Master if she had the opportunity? What about Enchanting? Smiths have to dream of making magic weapons in this world, right?”]
[“Got it in one, Point Bill, 5-3 , but still in my favor. What exactly do you want?”]
[“Give me a quest to join us in the grove, convert to your worship, and work there as a smith for a year and a day, running her own business, just from there instead of here. In exchange she gets Master Smith, with a specialty in whatever kind of Enchanting works best. Basically just a fair chance to spend the points she already earned in the way she’s always dreamed. I’m thinking of setting up a community of artisans, and a village of trade. Where a person’s hard work fairly earns themselves the shot at riches.]
I continued, [If the Guilds and Churches here are half as crooked as in my history, we’ll have folks beating a path to our door just by treating them reasonably fairly. This far out in the wilderness, we should be able to get rolling before the big Guilds can come and try pressure us into compliance. Combine that with our invite only safe area we should be under full steam before we can get stopped. I figure the folks who wind up here are the ones who got screwed over by the powers that be, the dreamers and the desperate. Ripe for this kind of offer. If that doesn’t work, figure out a way for me to teach them Jack of All Trades and then they can teach themselves the specialties they desire. I’m learning stuff left and right, based on general crafting knowledge and JOT, Right, couldn’t they do the same?”]
[“You are right, but Jack of All Trades, is a rare skill for a reason though, that might draw too much attention. Hmm, twisty, twisty, I need to think twisty…ah”]
I accepted the quest and said [“I assume all the heavy-handed stuff if protective coloration using the points, I owe you?”]
[“Yeah, I’m trying to make it look like a land grab on my part, and you as the poor bastard who owes me favors getting strong armed into it. Hopefully that will give you the coloration to keep you two safe. Plus, If we can bum rush your settlement to Village then Town before anyone else, we can make it the capital of the Region and declare this a territory in my name. Then it -will- be a land grab, waste not want not. As long as we have free trade and open borders, most of the Gods will not even care. Local politics will be a lot messier, but that’s on you two. The gods are busy playing politics on the other continent. After the River, they’ll be half expecting this kind of move from me. Speaking of which”]
[“Forcibly Updated after it’s accepted, oh man, am I glad I didn’t give you unbounded favors”]
[Would you like to renegotiate?] Asked the Goddess carefully.
[No, no, that’ll do fine]