After navigating the twists and turns of some alleys, Tommy, Reta and Cooper made it to what looked like an armorer's front, complete with displays of armor hanging off walls. Cooper's attention was being taken by a fancy looking helmet.
"It's probably not for combat, ceremonial more likely." Tommy noticed Cooper's stare and commented on the subject.
"It does look a little too fancy for combat." Cooper agreed with Tommy's line of thinking, having come to mostly the same conclusion before his verbal intrusion.
"You two ready to go inside or are your eyes still hungry?" Reta joked, having almost gone inside before she noticed the two still staring at the helmet.
"Right, inside, armor." Cooper shook himself out of his awestruck state, following Reta inside.
The trio walked inside to a human with a similar build to Rull's, surrounded by more displays of armor.
"Hello there, what can I help you with?" The man greeted the three with a pleasant sounding rumbling.
"We're looking for some armor for these two, preferably light, durable and fit for being out for months at a time." Reta quickly answered, before Tommy could say something stupid, Cooper assumed.
"I can do special stuff too, if needed, but let's have a look here." The man kneeled behind his counter but you could still easily see the top of his head, despite the counter being quite tall. "Light, durable, probably easy maintenance..." The man muttered to himself.
"Do you two have any preferences or ideas? This would be better with Darren here, I'm not too well versed in armor." Reta directed his question towards Cooper and Tommy.
"I could probably use some form of plate on my arms, and something for my back and chest." Tommy answered first. "Padded too, don't want a repeat of what that troll did to me, but if it did happen again, padding would probably help too."
"That sounds good for my needs too, leg armor would be beneficial." Cooper said, going along with Tommy's ideas.
Before Reta could say anything, the man popped back up and slid some material across the counter. "First we have some standard leather, cheapest but also the worst of the lot. Next up is the middle of the pack, naga-scale. Lastly, we have Kandrite."
"Ah. So we're looking at materials first?" Reta asked.
"Yup, anything you need to know, ask. If I have it in the form that you want, great, but due to a wide variety of materials, I can't exactly have every type of armor made with every type of material, now can I?"
"Makes sense. I'll admit, I'm not very knowledgeable about armor, so you'll have to do most of the thinking on this one." Admitted Reta.
"Okay, well, the standard, basic leather is just that, no special qualities, it can be used in places where your armor won't see a lot of action. So, little straps and pieces that likely won't be directly hit, under a layer of different armor." The man held up the basic patch of leather and showed a few different spots where it could be utilized.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"The naga-scale is light and durable enough, though, once it does start breaking, it's not worth the effort to mend. It should last a long time though, a year or two, depending on how heavily it is utilized. Usually I make it into a breastplate of sorts, or lengths of armor for your limbs." This time the man lifted the naga-scales, they were somehow interlocked and stayed together as he lifted them up.
Then the man took up a hammer and smashed into the naga-scales, the strike bouncing off, mostly effortlessly. "As you can see, there's no damage, or very little, now that I take a closer look, but I've done this a lot of times as a demonstration so it's not unsurprising there's finally some chipping going on here." The man brushed off miniscule bits of naga-scale, almost indistinguishable.
"Impressive." Tommy commented.
"It's still best used with an underlayer of something, could even be something cheap, the scales take most of the force out of a hit, but without it, you will definitely feel it." Explained the man.
He continued. "Finally, we have this Kandrite piece. It's a small piece but forged like I would forge a breastplate, so imagine it is one. Kandrite's one of the lightest metals, if we don't go into the sky-high price bracket. It is also durable and easily mended on-the-go if it we're to break, even by a mage, if they know how to work metal."
"That might be something I'd be interested in. Breastplate probably, front and back. Leg armor too." Tommy chimed in. "Reta, do you know how to work metal like he mentioned?"
"Not to that extent. Maybe small chips and molding it back if it were to get dented." Responded Reta.
"I think I'd like that too, specifically for my left arm." Cooper said.
"Mm. I think I have that. Hold on." The man opened a door to the back of his shop. After a brief moment of waiting and listening to boxes being opened and moved, metal clanking against metal, the man reappeared, holding a metal armguard, going down to the top of the elbow but no further.
"That actually looks like something I'd envisioned." Cooper fitted it on himself in his mind.
"I'm not sure if it's the right size for you, it's made for a, well, bulkier man. We can try it on the top without attaching it though, see if it's something you'd be interested in." The man offered the armguard to Cooper, who took it and tried it on, getting a feel for it.
"It does feel good, though it feels incomplete."
"They usually come with a bit more protection, that one's incomplete. There should be an elbow guard of sorts, and people often prefer it with a plate sticking upwards on the pauldron, like on the full suit of armor behind you." The man pointed towards an armor stand with a fully enclosed suit of armor seemingly made of fused together scales on it.
"Woah, I didn't even see that. What's that armour made of?" Cooper stared in astonishment.
"Dragon scales fused with Star Silver. Star Silver is also called Meteoric Iron by some, Star Silver just sounds better."
"Sounds wildly expensive." Reta interjected.
"Right, right. A fully completed one of these sounds good, I was also thinking of the naga-scales for a breastplate of sorts. Could you layer them on top of just the regular leather?" Cooper asked, trying to picture what he wanted for armor.
"Yeah, that's doable. Legs too?"
"Yes, front side only. Same for the breastplate. What would you suggest for padding underneath?"
"Any thicker cloth would do, I've got a couple of basic thick cloth and wool shirts if you wanted to add those to your order?"
"That would be good, but it depends on the pricing of all this, considering we still have Tommy to go through." Cooper looked at Reta and Tommy.
"Mine's simple enough. That dragon scale, but in Kandrite, basic leather is probably the most we can afford." Tommy pointed at the dragon scale and announced his simple order.
The man thought for a bit. "I think all this could come down to 25 gold. Is this in your price range?" The man looked at Reta, having picked up on her holding the money.
Reta looked in the pouch of coins Darren had given her, finding quite a bit more than that. "I think we can do that. How long would all this take to make?"
"Since I have the materials on hand, maybe the rest of the day. Might take some of the morning too, depending on how the metal and glue set."
"Anything else you two want to add on before we finish up here?" Reta asked Tommy and Cooper.
Tommy and Cooper looked at each other and in unison, said "Nope."
"Well, here you go then, mr... I don't actually know your name, come to think of it."
"Hull. You might know my brother, Rull."