Soot Covered Alley Cat.

    Provisional log of Blacksmith Hephy in the service of the Paladin.

    Day 1

    Entry 1

     Well this is new. After being contracted by the Paladin ta better service the whole of the kingdom i was deemed…

    “Worthy”

     Or whatever for me ta learn how ta write like those civilized folk. Gee, aint that just nice of them letting the poor lil ‘Soulless” learn how ta read? Now, I aint complainin’ too much, them pictures we use aren’t the greatest for numbers, so this’ll help me out plenty enough.

     Anyway, the same upitty lil priests that brought me the “Holy Magic Orb of Learning” or whatever brought my materials for this commission. And BOY, did I jump in the deep end, this is Dread Metal, the stuff from the old war. I know the old coot Paladin Napoleon said he’d get me the element-resistant material I would need for that crazy handle idea, but I didn’t expect the armor forged from the infamous “Blood Ore.”

     Legend has it that this stuff was made by the Dread Emperor himself. Combining his own blood with one hundred members of each of the other five races. And then casting an aging spell on it so that it would age ten thousand years in four nights. The resulting fossil had all of the metals in its blood coalesce in the center, surrounded by another magical material, “The Amber of Tears.”

     Out of that block of murder, metal, and magic was forged the armor of the Dread Emperor, twenty five feet tall. Out of the Amber of Tears his helmet and armor were adorned, melted down by some unknown spell ta fill the places gemstones had originally been intended. That was the legend of the Blood Ore.

     In a manner of speaking, the three metal plates in front of me was the single biggest monument ta the genocide of all groups don’t seem “Normal”. Truthfully, it had been my little brothers idea, something along the lines of “and from that oppression they will make us stronger than we ever were before.”

     A fine sentiment all right. Seeing the guards in charge of beating the whole neighborhood forced inta handing them food with a smile, poetic irony feels pretty great. Giving two Paladins weapons made outa the hide of their old nemesis seemed just right. Plus, from what the guards told me through some tears of laughter, the Lord-Governor was none too happy it was lil ole me doing the work.

     Now, the first problem. The armor plates aint melting, my forge is magically insulated by the two kobold brothers from down the road, the temperatures reach 5000 degrees fahrenheit. Yet, the metal remands cold ta the touch, I have some friends ta call in, plus now that I can read I can go in the churches library with these guards peekin’ over my shoulder.

     Entry 1 and a half

     This Vem stuff Napoleon told me to eat inside the walls is just great. The thing I got had the meat cooked with peppers and onions and then this massive amount of cheese in some sort of flatbread. Apparently the new Paladin had asked for this when he was in here too, gotta say, kid has good tastes. I think me an him can get along.

     Entry 2.

     It’ been like two hours, accordin' ta the last book I read, the metal only moves “when the suffering of all wills it” or whatever. That’s the most detail the dang thing would give me.

     Entry 3

     Three more hours since the last entry, I called in Brenda, a friend of Napoleon’s, shes’s pretty high up in the church. She’s been callin’ in some engravers and stuff with experience in legendary stuff like this.

     Entry 4.

     I really need ta get in on this teleportation magic stuff… Work is going good, I will write it in the morning. My home is a little more full than I had planned.

     Day 2.

     Entry 5. 1. No 5. The next one.

     Seven different masters of different trades are all in my home right now. We’re going over the designs and we all agree we could touch them up. Napoleon is a lot of great things, but a master designer… well I’ll just say fisherman don’t make the best boats. Right before midnight we cracked it. Myself and six of the others had tried bending the metal using my vice and accidentally injured ourselves doing it. It is for the Paladin after all, so we didn’t think the smallish injuries caused would be any trouble. And if it got too bad we could always call in a priest.

     A pool of blood we’d honestly not bothered to mess with was in the floor as we moved one of the massive six foot armor plates. When it touched the puddle, the part that did turned soft, like it was heated in the forge. I think we found the way they made this armor. When we all had the same thought dawn of us we all got sick to our stomachs, two of the pros puked. Still, we all volunteered our arms to get the job done.

     Entery 2.2

     If we soak the metal long enough it starts ta spread out inta thin strings, they’re just as strong as the whole plate though. None of our cutting methods have worked without the blood mixture.

     Entry 2.3

     I’m currently slicing a small nick in a kobold’s arm.

     I feel bad taking their blood, but we all agreed. We needed to get more blood, and we could give those in the blood drive some well needed chow. If we’re gonna take their blood, then we sure as hell won’t give em nothin’ for it!

     Entry 2.4

     Whew, that’s it for the day, alright, ta fill you in, peoples of the future. We got a total of fifty folx willin ta let the priests jab their arms with collectin needles. Not takin too much, but, we still wound up with a total of five buckets of the blood mixture, all five buckets work.

     If you leave the metal in the blood long enough it turns kinda like clay, it’s moldable by the hand yet when the blood dries I have not found a way ta make the same metal budge. This is truly a cursed piece of history.

     Master Erickson and I finished Napoleon’s special order mask, seriously, all the little switches and doo-dads? And the enchantments as well, if the armor plate wasn’t this moldable we wouldn’t have been able ta complete it.

     After the mask was complete, the flyin’ daggers seemed a bit overkill. Master Vulcan took the idea and ran, modifyin’ multiple small slivers of metal from the Dread plate, six small puppets could be used with the thirty strings that Grimalkin had intended ta use daggers for. I know my little bro and puppets don’t get along anymore but he used ta be the best street performer in town when we were little.

     Myself, I worked on the three-part polearm, or sectional staff, in secret. Usin’ instant spell scrolls made by the enchantment master Brenda had given me, I enchanted it as I forged. The elemental lightning metal gettin’ a fluidity spell placed upon it, allowin’ two other objects ta move about the weapon freely while appearin’ solid ta all other entities. A psychic lockin mechanism ta change it between staff, spear, and three-part pole. And a few other secrets of my own that I have no doubt other legends will describe in great detail.

     Day 3

     Entry 3.1

     Lil bro came over today, curious how work was goin’ and bringin’ the final weapon order out of the five Paladin Napoleon had contracted of me. It’s this crazy idea on how to deploy a tower shield. Takin advantage of the Blood Ore’s unique strength even when cut near paper thin it can handle anything I could throw out it. It would be two fist-type weapons, the grips bein modified metal knuckles. When lifted up a certain way the shield would just telescope out of the backs of the gloves.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

    With the way this metal works atleast this’ll be easy, it’s a simple design, as per usual from the old coot. Why make it more complex when simple works just fine?

     On a side note, Grimalkin told me what was botherin’ him, it’s hard ta console him. The situation is so many shades of grey and no side wants ta come out and admit what they’re up to. He said he couldn’t stop thinkin’ about his mom, and the life he had after Leere had taken him away from us.

     That cruel old bastard, someone should take a whip to HIS back! I’d do it myself if i ever saw the cowards face.

     Entry 3.2

     The medical blacksmith finished her set of tools, wrappin’ them in a leather case and puttin’ it on my desk. They had left without tellin' me upon completin’ their job, apparently cursin’ ever comin' ‘ere and bein made ta use the Blood Ore.

     Entry 3.3

     I have ta agree, this stuff is unsettlin', we gotta keep the blood at a certain temperature or it hardens. It stinks like a battlefield in ‘ere.

     If we ignore the past and do not confront it, we allow it ta control us. At least in this small way I can take the blood back from my ancestors and use it ta arm their descendants.

     Entry 3.4

     While simple, these sheets of Blood Ore are slow goin’. We’re all turnin’ in for the night and finishin’ it in the mornin’, right before they are due ta show.

     Day 4

     Entry 4.1

     We all woke early ta finish the project, another five plates needin’ ta be shaved off, due ta the process of applyin’ blood only penetratin’ so far we had ta shave them off one at a time like meat off a flank. The enchanters were finishing up their final touches ta our adventures gear.

     Entry 4.2

     It took… Three hours, none of us has showered in like three days, but FINALLY we are done with this!

     4.3

     We have more work… I hope that old man rots in a ditch.

     Day….. +1

     Entry: one too many

     Wakin’ up late, atleast we have a week for these four. A rush order but it’s one less project and three more days. First up is somethin’ we’re goin' ta need for pretty much every one of these new projects.

     ‘Dread Thread’ or so the great Paladin Napoleon’s notes call them, what a load of whooey. Pretty much we’re ta pull the metal out in such a way it stays malleable after the blood wears off. Brenda has a theory how we can do it, but if it doesn’t work it’s back ta the drawin' board.

     Entry: Another one too many.

     Brenda’s plan worked, at least this job can be expedited now, might as well start on the next hardest bit, all of these armor plates…. Who in their right mind puts armor on a sumo?

     Day 5 I guess, wait, i mean 6.

     Entry 5a

     Egh, this is a lot of work again, these front line fighters and their armor. We already gave the xeshieen the load of practice armor we made ta test how much we could mold the Blood Ore. If we’d a known we needed more plates of the stuff we’da just cut up the stuff we used for it.

     That woman better be grateful, but she did look so good in it… No time for daydreamin’.

     The ball of Dread Thread was done, that was simple enough, meanwhile, the multi-machine was takin a while. Brenda’s brought in more clockmakers ta help with the transforming shenanigans havin’ a bunch of inner workins and whatnot.

     As for the Punk-Pole, we were testin’ fulmination spells ta see what would work underwater. It was known that one of them would but, between all of the master craftspeople ere, none of us knows which.

     Entry 6b

     Okay, all of the plates have been extracted from the final giant armor plate, not much is left now, but we only need two more items.

     Entry 6c.

     We had all wondered where the extra went… every time we’d made the metal squishy it felt like we got less out than before. The drain buckets confirmed it, we had twelve extra buckets of dried blood than the five we had used…

     Tonight, we go ta bed knowin’ blood of our ancestors is literally on our hands.

     Day 7

     Entry 7d

     None of us woke up early, last night’s news was drainin', we just want this work over with so alla us can both literally and figuratively wash our hands of this.

     Entry 7e

     We did some sewin’.

     Day 8

     Mornin’

     We woke up, Brenda havin’ taken possession of the waste material as a hand of the church had informed us somethin’ amazin', horrifyin’, both? The extra blood had turned inta somethin', regainin’ age? The oldest of the buckets had turned ta the Amber of Tears.

     This was good news, the amber we pried out of the armor plate had dissolved after it was free. We had plans for the Paladin’s group havin’ the stuff in their weapons holdin’ them as powerful reagents.

     The power of an enchantment is directly affected by the quality of the material. While the Blood Ore was very receptive ta it, amber was already known as one of the best materials for ingredients. Amber made as a byproduct of the manipulation of Blood Ore, well let’s just say us enchanters were disappointed when we thought we couldn’t use it earlier.

     Some time round noon.

     Oh, this stuff is good, these “gifts” from Napoleon are goin ta be gettin an upgrade.

    Goin’ ta bed soon.

     We’ve already completed the enchantment ball for Eisho the slime, the channelin’ ball will get finished in the mornin. After that we’ll make the hand-straps with the sumo armor and multiple ambers in the multi-weapon. If we have enough time we might finish the upgrades we’d planned for the crew before they left too.

     Day 9.

     Roughly 2 days till deadline.

     I was checkin’ Napoleon’s plans over again, findin’ a secret route drawn in invisible ink. Sayin’ that in an emergency I should go there. I hope I don't need ta use it, it’s down in the poorest part of town, which is sayin’ a lot ta be honest.

     Anyway, the Sumo-armor (Seriously I can’t get enough of this idea, does this man even know what sumo is?) was done, a holy rope ready ta be worn with it. it also enchanted with several protections for health and luck and many other things I didn't care ta memorize.

     Somewhere around 1.7 days till deadline or somethin?

     The ambers for the multi-weapon are done, the clockmakers are finishin’ workin’ on the inside. Even more giddy than when they were workin’ on the puppets. It seems this isn’t work for them, but play, designin’ such extravagant mechanisms had been their lives dreams.

     1… well the sun is goin’ down on the night before the last.

     The crazy clockwork weapon was done, ambers installed in it ta fire any spells it wished in its natural bow form, ice arrow, fire, wind, all useable without reagents.

     The gauntlets for the armor are done as well, givin’ them multiple reinforcement layers on them, wearin’ these on the back of their hands, any person’s skin would be able ta stop a pressurized water spell.

     The Channelin’ Ball as we are callin’ it is done as well, just activate the spell and count ta twelve. A reusable explosive.

     Many growth spells and a few others were packed inta the Honor Core. Eisho would be able ta generate over twice their current body mass, bein able ta control their transformed state with even more intricacy.

     With these weapons. I truly pray ta the Paladin he has a plan ta stop whatever foul air has filled the city as of tanight. I have a bad feelin' about the next few days.

     Judgement Day.

     Entry-1 due ta how early I got up, bite me.

     The heat in the forgeroom was massive, needin’ ta harden the ambers inta their finalized shape, only the kobold brothers and I could stay in the room with Brenda as she supervised ta make sure no cracks happened. Bein a Lava-Lynx has its advantages, namely bein' able ta stand up ta volcanic temperatures with little trouble. Honestly, I don’t know how my species aint a magical beast with this immunity.

     Entry 2.

     The heatin’ is done, and the coolin’ is close ta finishin’, we’ve done the same for the Paladin’s group’s amber as well, readyin’ it for them, they’ll just have ta modify the stuff we already gave them instead of partially meltin’ them in like we did.

     All of us are readyin’ ourselves a drink, finishin’ half a day ahe

***************************************************************************************************

     Memo to the Honorable Julius Ozymandias Leere.

     Month 7 Day 21 Holy Callender 427

     Upon entering the business the occupants panicked, throwing down some sort of spell it destroyed the front door, killing 7 of my men. The inside is scorched, no one will survive being in the front room except for the kobolds which were gone by the time we had cleared the rubble and casualties away.

     The Blacksmith is to be presumed dead.

     The search for the materials has only revealed scraps. All weapons were either destroyed or removed before our entry. All blueprints were destroyed in the initial blast in the front room. You have my word, the soulless will be brought to justice.