Eloise traced her finger along the fuller of a nearby sword. “You have changed a bit. Your eyes aren’t blue anymore.”
“I didn’t notice,” Tristan replied. “Must be part of the fused bloodline.” A gnome produced a mirror from their pocket, and he saw what Eloise was talking about. His normally icy-blue eyes were slowly shifting hues between all different colors representative of the dragon crucibles he had consumed. “Huh. Neat.”
Dorni came over, holding a large pair of tongs that a smith would use. “Lord Tristan! Welcome back.” He eyed the armor. “Ah, that looks quite messy.” He then saw Eloise behind Tristan and dipped his head. “Lady Serre.”
“Dorni, I believe I recall,” Eloise said as she curtsied.
“Aye, that’s me.” Dorni looked at Tristan. “Lord Tristan, you know how I told you we would revise and improve upon your armor as we practiced?” Tristan nodded, and Dorni continued. “Well, we have developed the next iteration of your arms and armor.” He gestured for Tristan to follow him. “Oh, and Lady Serre; we have also made some wonderful upgrades to equipment that you seem to favor. You can find them over in the marketplace.”
Tristan added. “Take whatever you want. A gift from a friend.”
Eloise smiled. “You are too kind.” She turned on her heel and excitedly headed over to peruse the various wares.
Dorni chuckled as he led Tristan to the forge. To Tristan’s slight surprise, the bowyer spriggan; thinner and more lithe than Krik’s more bulky variant, was present in the same area. “Our next iteration blends the prowess of the gnomes with the ingenuity of the spriggan.”
That spriggan bowed. “Indeed, Lord Tristan. Working with Dorni and his kin has been a pleasure and delight.” He gestured behind him, and Tristan felt his heart skip a beat.
On an armor stand was the most resplendent suit of armor he had ever seen. Half-plate design like the prior one, but the scales in between the larger plates were even smaller, and woven together with Adamant Wood laced with goldwood. A dual-support structure of whatever lay underneath and the hard-as-steel living substance. Dorni quickly explained. “We wanted to blend living wood with the metal, that way you could repair it on the go with a flora spell.”
The spriggan handed Tristan a slip of parchment. “This has the spell for the blended flora and metal elementalism. Fourth Order. As long as you can use flora, then you can use the spell.”
Tristan grinned. “I actually just consumed a metal dragon’s crucible. I can use that spell type now.” He kept taking in the suit of armor. There was not a helmet. Instead, the gorget sloped up and would hug his neck and protect it from injury. A small, scale coif could be pulled up from behind – and he presumed Scales of our Foe would be able to integrate that into the design. The pauldrons were form-fitting and not as bulky as prior versions; with intricate draconic features blended into the metal. He inspected it more closely, and saw that the scale structure was layered on top of the metal beneath it. The breastplate was embossed with the image of a tree; the Queen’s Wood. The couters, vambraces, and gauntlets were all covered with the same layer of tiny, metal scales, but the underlying metal went from more Elvish themes of trees and shifted towards more draconic; with the fingers of the articulated gauntlets sharpened points like a dragon’s claws. The fauld and tasset, likewise, slowly shifted from the central torso Elvish themes and into more draconic design, with the cuisses, greaves, and sabatons becoming more and more bestial in design.
Dorni spoke. “We kept the multi-layer design with varying metals from different realms; but were able to make them even thinner with the help of the spriggan.”
The spriggan smith spoke. “Quite literally taking shavings of the trees and layering them on top of each other until they hit that perfect inflection point of flexibility and hardness.”
“Except for the Aegisium layer, which has that flexible quality until struck,” Dorni added. “But the rods in the gauntlets? We were able to figure out an ingenious setup.” He lifted one of the gauntlets and tapped the finger, which Tristan noted was slightly raised. “Slid the rods along the backs of the fingers, and were able to use that same tree-shaving technique to not inhibit flexibility. Five rods apiece. That, with the extra layers? Five rods per hand, and ten spells in the armor itself.”
“It’s perfect,” Tristan said. He spun his crucible, pushed it into his amulet holding Pocket Dimension II, and then pulled out his Omnitome. “Grab my cloak, and a bunch of scales. We have artificing to do.”
“That’s not all,” Dorni said as he chuckled. “We have more.” He led Tristan over to a few chests and opened them. Inside were weapons. The sword was the most prominent, and Tristan accepted it reverently from Dorni’s grip. “We were able to improve the alloying process with our spriggan friends. That meant even more metals stacked and forged together; even hybridized trees grown into brand new metals. We call it Scalesteel. Unlike your prior sword, five spells can be artificed into this – blade, hilt, cross guard, inner core, and pommel. However, this new sword will have better balance, slightly longer reach, and an extended hilt to help with the new gauntlets’ bulk.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He offered Tristan the sheath, and Tristan slid the blade home. The design of the sheath was fully Elvish, and nicely offset the draconic blade. The pommel stone was sapphire, held in a dragon’s claw. A matching dagger was pulled out of the chest, and a brand new bow that was just like the Adamant Wood Bow in design and function – except this one was made of that hybrid metal-wood. The spriggan quickly added, “It can hold five spells thanks to the way I designed it.”
“How about the maul?” Tristan asked.
Dorni tapped his forehead. “Now Lord Tristan, give us some credit.” He chuckled, and the spriggan smith opened another chest and pulled out a large war hammer. The shaft was covered with textured leather that Tristan instantly knew was dragon hide. Vine designs were forged into the shaft, and the head of the hammer had a pointed tip shaped like an icicle for piercing, and a flat, square end for devastating crushing blows. A blade was affixed to the bottom of the shaft, but with a quick motion, the spriggan slid the blade into the shaft and rotated it; locking the blade in place. “And here is the best part,” Dorni said.
The spriggan put his hand on the bottom of the shaft and pressed down. To Tristan’s surprise, the entire shaft collapsed down, until it was a little nub underneath the massive hammer head. “For storage purposes. Oh, it also can hold five spells.”
“You both outdid yourselves. I never even knew that so much could be artificed into singular items. I don’t think anyone in the Mortal Realm does this type of stuff.”
Dorni and the spriggan smith both swelled up with pride, and it filled their voices. “You give us great praise, Lord Tristan,” Dorni said.
Tristan felt giddy, like it was his name day and he was opening up a present from his grandfather. “This is . . . just incredible.” He looked at Dorni with barely held-back exuberance. “Let’s start right now. I’ll start listing while you get the scales and cloak together. And, we need to de-layer the armor for the artificing.”
Dorni began barking orders to the other gnomes while Tristan ripped a page from his Omnitome and began writing furiously. A list of the spells he would put into the layers of the armor, a quick notation on what they would do to ensure they would work together – he was trusting Dorni’s expertise with that – and then a list of the other items and what he wanted to artifice into them. A full overhaul of his gear, especially since the Cloak of Winterbloom and its hundreds of scales was removing the need for some of the spells he had previously artificed into items he held or had in the amulet belt.
In fact, I can remove the amulet belt entirely. I think I have an idea . . .
=====================================================================
- Armor Layers: Scales of Our Foe, Aspect of the dragon – claws, Aspect of the dragon – tail, Aspect of the dragon – muscles, Armor of Ice, Good Luck, Lucky Instinct, Near Miss, Cure Wound, Cleanse.
- Left Gauntlet Rods: Frost Flurry, Rime Blast, Winter’s Wrath, Hailstorm, Glacial Bolt.
- Right Gauntlet Rods: Fireball, Fiery Burst, Inferno Trigger, Rising Flame, Combustion.
- Sword: Elemental Imbuement – Multi, Dragon’s Doom, Breath Weapon – minor, Breath Weapon – lesser, Breath Weapon - greater
- Dagger: Elemental Imbuement – Multi, Greater Invisibility, Disguise Other, Distraction, Bad Luck.
- Bow: Elemental Imbuement – Multi, Bolt, Split Bolt, Chain Bolt, Boltstorm.
- Maul: Elemental Imbuement – Multi, Frost Wall, Frost Screen, Frozen Bulwark, Cryogenic Cube.
- Silver Ear-Cuff: Spoken Message: Half-Realm (bound to Merchant Fleet “set”)
- Platinum Ear-Cuff: Spoken Message: Realm (non-bound)
- Queen’s Wood Staff: Control Ice
- Fey Realm Ring: Interrealm Warp
- Dragonscale Cloak of Winterbloom: Every spell at my disposal, First through Fifth Order. Reference the sewn-in sheet for scale number, location, and association spell to direct essence flow to activate.
- Omnitome: Endless Knowledge
- Citadel Student Pin: Limited Teleport
- Anorox Family Crest: Disguise Form
- Archon’s Favor: Locate
- King’s Favor: Break Enchantment
=====================================================================
“Dorni, does this look like it will work?” Tristan asked.
Dorni came over and looked at the plans. “Seems like it should. Your cloak is going to take us a few hours. You have . . . dozens of new spells to put into it. I’ll have to get more gnomes over here.”
Eloise came over and looked at all of the bustling activity that was going on. She had a woven basket filled with items. “I would love some help with these.”
Dorni glanced over at her. “Hotep! Barry! Go help the lady out.”
Tristan glanced at her. “If you need one of my spell types, let me know.”
The entire process took most of the day and into the night. Eloise excused herself to sleep, but had made a “wish list” of artificed spells – and Tristan, not needing to sleep thanks to his both-direction spin of his crucible – was just fine staying up late. The gnomes had to cycle through in shifts, but by the time the sun rose, they had completed the great work.
Note to self; re-set the realmwalking retreat spell to the Citadel’s infirmary.
Zeltana spoke in Tristan’s mind as he paused to drink some clearcool. You have a brand-new setup. Are you satisfied? She sounded a little irritated.
“I am,” Tristan muttered into his cup. No one else heard him, thanks to the bustle of activity going on around him. “I am sticking to the basics, not worrying about memorizing spells, and just using the resources at my disposal.”
You said you would not have to reference the cloak during combat, and yet you did during that delve into Abyssia – that Lost Realm you grafted.
“That was an extenuating circumstance,” Tristan replied. “We were well away from danger.”
Regardless, do not forget my lessons – do not rely overtly on essence-weaving. You never know when you might come across someone who you cannot use it against.
“Have you ever experienced that?”
Once before. A realm we went to during my conquest days, where all essence-weaving was disabled. It was as if the ambient essence itself suppressed all other essence like a thick, smothering fog. We retreated and closed that incursion. She sounded irritated. My point is you can always trust in your strength of arms and martial prowess. But essence-weaving is fickle. She chuckled. The sheer number of spells at your disposal is quite silly. That cloak looks so gaudy.
Tristan couldn’t disagree, as the gilded scales were absolutely gaudy and flashy. But, he also thought them fitting of a dragon slaying lord of an entire realm. “True.”
Oh, good news. Your little spiral on the tree in your inner world is at the sixth ring. Ready for the next vault?
Tristan leaped to his feet. He spoke with the voice of the realm. “Matriarch, to the vault. We open the sixth door.”