[The Sanctuary] Hammer Time

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 8:29 am

33rd Day of Winter in the Year 515 AV

As Ialari continued life at The Sanctuary, she was slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with the concept of living among other living, thinking beings. That being said, she still enjoyed the periodic stays in her Dominion where she was able to relax and rest while being surrounded by the magnificence of the Ukalas. She couldn't help but notice the effects that the Ukalas had on her after so many years of frequently living there for extended periods of time. If she spent more than a few days away from her Dominion, she would suffer from bouts of anxiety and paranoia that, while usually mild, occasionally flared up into something more significant. She also found that due to the unique folding of space within her Dominion and her ability to expand her senses in ways that mirrored such folding, immediately upon leaving her Dominion and lasting a few hours after, she was able to perceive odd patterns of energy within objects and creatures in the physical world. Unfortunately, this enhanced sense upon exiting the Dominion only occurred after Ialari had spent more than a few days inside.

Her visits to her Dominion while living in The Sanctuary also had another bit of significance in that it allowed her time to spend with Arith and Reth, the two snakes she had recently given life to through some odd empowering of her blood. Thanks to the strange powers that had popped up throughout Riverfall, Ialari's blood was able to transform some inanimate objects into full living snakes. While she hadn't experimented with the creation effect after having brought to life Arith and Reth, she had spent great amounts of time observing them and learning their mannerisms and individual traits. She discovered that Reth, the larger of the two snakes, was a female while Arith was a male. They had a varied appetite which included rodents that Ialari provided them as well as a few insects and the occasional lizard that inhabited the Dominion where they lived.

Ialari also learned that the two snakes were bonded to her much like items that she imparted upon were. She could sense their general moods and knew their location without having to see them. Their affinity for one another was potent and as such both Ialari and the snakes acted much more favorably when the other was around.

With Ialari's growing comfort at The Sanctuary growing more solid with each passing day, she was engaging in a number of smithing projects at the local forge. Having already begun work on a variety of candleholders, sconces and other decorative and functional items for the facility, she began to see the need for her own personalized tools. While most of these were easy enough to acquire, modify and construct, she felt the need to have her own, personally crafted blacksmithing hammer. Such a hammer would aid her greatly in her work at the forge and would help to produce higher quality items for Kavala and the facility as a whole.

If she was going to craft her own hammer, she was going to go all out with it. The first thing she considered when thinking of the design was the imparting process. By employing her gnosis from Izurdin, she could impart a piece of herself into the hammer and thus grant it a related enhancement. The problem with doing so however was the extreme toll it took on her body. Having discovered that she exists with but a small piece of a soul, she found that using Izentor on an object tended to have even greater negative effects on her than it may otherwise have if she possessed a full soul. This often left her completely incapacitated for the better part of three days while she recovered from the extensive strain on her body. This in mind, she considered only imparting the smallest sliver of her essence upon the hammer which would grant it unparalleled strength and durability. Any other fantastical properties she wanted to add she could do so at a later date once she found access to magecraft lab.

The use of Izentor, even a minor imparting, would make the materials used in the construction of the hammer nearly impervious to mundane wear and tear. This opened up all manner of thing that Ialari could use in the creation process. Before making a visit to the forge to begin her work, she went through her possessions to find the right type of materials to use. A whale vertebra, retrieved from the coast of Syliras during a beachcombing outing was one unique item she chose. There was a femur from a zith, one of a group who had attacked her years ago. Both items could be of some use in the hammer’s construction. Packing the items with her, she made her way to The Sanctuary’s forge.

As usual, Ialari chose times of the day where the forge would be empty and/or would take a break when others did come around. She preferred to keep to herself when working there as it wasn’t a place she was able to feel comfortable being around others. With a bit of paper, rulers and writing instruments, she began drafting the plan for the hammer.
The overall form and function of the hammer would be that of a cross-peen. One end would be rounded while the other would have a wedge shape. This would allow for maximized shaping and movement of metal during smithing. When it came to the construction materials, Ialari realized that she could go simplistic and use a simple wood handle with an iron head. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the isur way. While function ultimately took precedence over form, the isur preferred to have both and thus Ialari had to have both as well. So she considered alternate materials. First, wood was usually used for the handle because it did a good job at absorbing the impact of a hammer strike. In this instance, she looked to the zith femur she had brought. It was long enough to provide the right length for a handle and with a bit of imparting, it would gain enough durability to make it a good choice. Of course it would take a bit of carving to get it just right but a little would go a long way.

As for the head, a combination of whale vertebrae and iron would make for a solid look. Of course without Izentor it would never work but obviously that wouldn’t be an issue. As Ialari sketched her design, she made notes to the side. The notes were more to help seal the design ideas in her mind than anything else. She noted how she would need to find a way to connect the iron to the vertebrae for the head. As she thought more about it, she decided she could probably drill a hole through the vertebrae and run a metal core through it that would connect the two iron pieces of each side of the head. Then, if she carved a larger opening in the vertebrae for the handle to fit into, the metal connecting rod would tie the entire piece together. After imparting on it, the entire form would become extremely durable and solid. Before imparting, she could also etch and carve some designs into the head while leaving the handle wrapped with leather.

Finishing her sketch and her notes, she leaned back and took one more look at it all. With a smile, she decided that the design was workable and started gathering the rest of the materials.

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 8:52 am

Ialari chose to begin with the handle. Taking the zith femur in hand, she placed it securely in a vise. She then chose a few different chisels to begin carving with. Each chisel had a different head for a different type of cut. She also chose a couple different sized files to help with smoothing out any rough areas that may form during the carving. Ialari carved away at the bone both by tapping the handle of a chisel for some cuts and pushing it with her hand for the more detailed ones. She didn’t want a simple straight handle as it would ignore the potential inherent in a different shape. She carved the bone so that it would maximize the force expended upon a strike while keeping a comfortable grip. The end of the handle that would connect to the head was carved with a hole drilled in it. Ialari used a simple hand drill to cut the hole. Where the bone had become rough during the chiseling, she used the files to help smooth it out.

The ends of the bone where it would have connected to the hip and knee, had to be trimmed down significantly both for proper fitting together with the other pieces and for appropriate balance. The hammer needed to be balanced so that the maximized force was focused in the head. When the handle looked and felt as though it would be both comfortable and perform its job well, Ialari set it aside. She then moved on to the whale vertebrae. It was a small one, perhaps one located toward the smaller part of the tail. Ialari’s knowledge of whale anatomy consisted of recognizing the bone as a vertebrae based on what she had seen in other animals. Beyond that she knew nothing more. The fact that she was able to determine it belonged to a whale is because she found it along with a number of other bones that formed a partial whale skeleton.

The vertebrae would still need some trimming down to be the right size but Ialari’s design called for a medium-sized head meaning that much of the vertebrae would remain intact. Again she used the vise to hold the vertebrae in place while she began chiseling and filing away to get the desired shape. Part of the shaping process also included drilling the hole that would accommodate the iron bar which would connect the entire thing together. Ialari decided to go more with a bar shape than a rod because of the added strength. The vertebrae itself would about four inches long, four inches tall and three inches wide. The bar would be one inch square and would run through the vertebrae and handle while connecting each of the metal ends of the head to one another.

Ialari drilled the hole for the bar and then proceeded to trim and carve it into more of a square shape so the bar could slide in with relative ease. Unfortunately, due to the mixed materials she was using, she would be unable to heat the metal which meant she would have to work with cold metal. While this could be accomplished easy enough with her metallic hand and isurian gifts, it would still have been a bit easier with some heat.

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 9:21 am

After finishing with the chiseling out of the drilled hole in the vertebrae, Ialari put it aside to begin work on the metal striking ends for the head. The striking ends could be heated to aid in working them but they would need to be cooled before being joined with the vertebrae. This meant that connecting the two with the iron bar would be done by creating welds with only her hand. The first striking end was the wedge. Using iron specially structured for crafting tools, Ialari heated it just enough to aid in working it but avoided overheating it. She had made the mistake early on in learning the basics of blacksmithing of overheating tool grade iron which essentially destroyed it for being any use as a tool. Afterwards, she always paid attention to how hot she got metal that was going to be used for such a purpose.

When it was heated correctly, Ialari pulled the short iron bar that she had chosen for the wedge and began hammering it into a taper. She didn’t want too narrow of a taper as that would create too much of a cutting edge. The edge that she wanted would be tapered yet rounded at the tip so that it could be used to quickly move the metal being hammered. Using a pair of tongs as well as various parts of the anvil for control, she hammered the metal until it began to take the appropriate sized taper. Moving on to the steps needed to round the end, she rotated between using the hammer and using her fingers to get just the right form.

When she was satisfied with the final shape of the wedge, she used the wedge end of the borrowed forge hammer she was using to make the new one to narrow and ultimately cut the wedge from the rest of the bar. After smoothing that cut edge with a file, she placed it in the basin of water next to her for it to cool and moved on to the other striking end. That end would need to be more rounded so she used a short piece of thick iron rod. Heating one end of the rod, Ialari began hammering the end while rotating the bar. This served to round the end and with the aid of her metallic fingers, she rounded and smoothed the end until it began to take a more acceptable shape. This end took her a bit longer to perfect as it would be the hammer’s main striking end. After a bit of tinkering and a couple mistake corrections, she finally started to like where it was going and with a few more minor touchups, finished the rounded end. Instead of putting in the water to cool, she left it lay on the anvil while she retrieved a six-inch-long, one-inch square piece of iron for use as the connecting bar. Heating one end of the bar and securing the round head in the vice, Ialari then took the bar out of the flames and set the heated end down on the backside of the rounded head. With her hammer she made a few strikes before using her fingers to further blend the two pieces together. Then she allowed them, now one piece, to cool in the water.

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 8:19 pm

With all of the pieces now ready to assemble, Ialari first took the handle and slid it through one of the holes carved in the vertebrae. The fit was a little too tight at first which forced her to separate the two pieces and use a chisel to clean up the opening a bit more. After a few more test fittings and a bit more carving, the handle slid smoothly yet snugly into the vertebrae. Before moving on, Ialari checked to make sure that the other hole in the handle lined up right with the square hold in the vertabra that would accommodate the metal bar. This one was right on track so she took the rounded head with the bar attached and slid it into the vertabra.

With the hammer mostly assembled, this left the last piece, the wedge, needing to be attached. This was the trickiest part as Ialari was unable to heat the metal in order to join the wedge to the bar. She left the wedge as the last piece since, due to its shape, would allow the most freedom to merge the pieces with her fingers. The iron bar stuck out the side of the vertebrae far enough to allow Ialari to get a couple of fingers around the wedge and bar so she could smooth them together. As the iron parted and moved like clay in her hands, she pushed it together and rubbed the joint smooth. It took some positioning but she was able to get the wedge attached and balanced correctly.

There was still a bit of a gap between the wedge and the vertebrae which required some filler. Pinching off a few clumps of scrap iron, Ialari smoothed it around the gap until the gap was seamless. With the hammer finally assembled, it was still rather rough in places. This is where she employed a file and another small chisel to smooth and shape the final details of the hammer that would turn it into a less rough piece of work that would be worthy of imparting upon.

Picking up the assembled piece in one hand, Ialari took a few practice swings in the air with it. There was a little vibration to it where the pieces didn’t fit tight enough. The vibration wasn’t terrible though and after several swings, Ialari felt that the imparting process would help solidify the hammer as a whole as the use of the gnosis tended to have such an effect. The imparting process hardened and strengthened an item to unnatural levels. In doing so, it removed many of the minor flaws and inconsistencies that may be present in the construction of an item. Since Ialari’s hammer did manage to remain in one piece during her practice swings, she hoped that any present flaws would be minor enough to be fixed with Izentor.

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 8:46 pm

With the actual physical construction complete, Ialari turned to the smaller details that would give the hammer a bit more style. Into the hammer’s head, on the whale vertebrae, she used a fine chisel to carve a symbol on each side. On one side, Ialari carved the symbol of a scythe, not unlike the one positioned in the palm of her off hand; the mark of Dira. In the case of the hammer, the symbol represented the bones of the dead used to form more than half of the hammer’s form. One the other side, she carved the symbol of a hammer. This was the symbol for Izurdin and represented the hammer’s purpose in crafting. On the upper part of the handle, just above where Ialari was going to wrap a leather grip, she carved a snake wrapping itself around the handle. This snake was Ialari’s symbol and represented her construction of the hammer itself.

Once the carvings were complete, Ialari made a small cut on the tip of her finger with the nearest sharp object. She then took pushed her finger into the carvings and outlined them in a bit of blood. Although it was completely unnecessary for the construction of the hammer or even the imparting process, it was more a personal choice for style than anything else. Ialari was careful however not to smear too much blood on the hammer out of concern that she may inadvertently transform it into another snake thanks to the new power that had imbued her blood with such an ability. Whereas before gaining the strange power, she often used her blood in a number of ways for a number of reasons, now she had to be ever careful. While she loved the idea of having more snakes made from her blood, she wished control over the ability and over their creation and randomly creating them through carelessness was anything but control.

As the cut was not terribly deep, it didn’t bleed too much and had basically stopped by the time Ialari had finished outlining the symbols. The last thing she needed to do was prepare the grip. Finding a strip of leather that was the right size didn’t take much searching considering the forge itself was designed to supply a horse stable. She also had to find and prepare a bit of hide glue; another item that while not in a large, ready supply in the forge, was still present in smaller amounts for various projects that may require it. Brushing the glue on the backside of the leather strip, she carefully wrapped the handle starting towards the bottom and working upward. She stopped just short of the carved symbol of the snake and cut the strip there. She positioned the strap so that it was smooth and uniformly wrapped and wiped away any excess glue.

Pleased with her work, she cleaned up the work station and closed up the forge for the time being. She then left for her chambers where should would prepare for the final stage of the hammer’s construction, the imparting process.

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 10:37 pm

Back her chambers, Ialari got into her bed and tried to get comfortable. While she was only going to impart the most basic of qualities upon the hammer, the process would be taxing enough to basically knock her out for the rest of the day and into the next. Getting comfortable would not only allow for to reach the required meditative state more easily but would also allow her to fall asleep and recover after the imparting was complete. She sat with her back against the headboard with the hammer resting on her lap. She wrapped her metallic hand around the hammer’s handle and let her other hand rest against her side.

The room was dark with any lightening put out in order to avoid any added distraction. Thankfully, being underground, the chance of outside sounds disrupting her concentration was simply not there. Since she could still see in the dark, Ialari closed her eyes. Her mind was much calmer than it was when she first arrived at The Sanctuary so there wasn’t as much difficulty in clearing it. Despite that, Ialari began her self-discovered technique of clearing her mind anyway. This involved imagining any disruptive thoughts and feelings as being clutter in a room; the room being her mind. She then pictured herself holding a broom and using it to sweep back the clutter behind a series of doors leading into the room. As always happened, the more she would sweep, the more clutter would try to fall through open doors and fill the room back up. Even with a relatively calm, clear mind to start, this mental preparation always brought on some amount of distracting thoughts or feelings. The exercise however was perfect for preparing the imparting process.

As she pushed her mental broom against the clutter of her thoughts, she closed each of the doors leading into the room, one by one, after the clutter had been swept through. She continued this until no more clutter threatened to fill her mind. There was a small window of time though that this took place because any thought focused on the fact that her mind was clear would bring a renewed round of clutter fighting to fill it back up.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ialari began focusing on a memory that would empower the imparting process. The memory needed to somehow represent her intent for a quality to be imparted. In this case she simply wanted to reinforce the hammer’s form and structure and make it extremely durable; able to withstand great force and use. As she remembered a moment in time that she felt would best represent her intent, Ialari embraced the memory and began to focus on the details. As she did, she could feel a slight tingle in her metallic arm. It wasn’t enough to break her concentration but it was enough to let her know that the process had begun.

With her eyes closed she could not see the soft, chromatic colored illumination began to surround her arm. Slowly, as she embraced her memory and allowed herself to relive it in her mind, her arm grew brighter until ignited in a swirl of chromatic flames. The flames while not hot, did fill the room with an electrified charge. The flames were the outward representation of the power of Ialari’s soul. Even with only a fraction of a full soul, the flames were strong and bright, their flickering color of reds, greens and blues bounced off the surrounding walls.

Ialari remembered a time, not all that long before she left Sultros on her search for the answer to her question of, “Why?”

by **Ialari Pythone** on February 27th, 2016, 10:38 pm

She had been exploring one of the newer tunnel constructions just outside of Pitrius City. Always one to avoid others whenever possible, Ialari chose to engage in her explorations alone. She was dressed in the apprentice robes afforded her to her as a new student at the Silver Tower and carried with her little more than a small belt pouch with a few coins, her journal and a few sticks of charcoal for writing. The new tunnel that the engineers and diggers were building was destined to create an underground path from the city to a mining camp a couple of miles away. It was roughly half completed with huge wood frames supporting the tunnel walls and ceiling. As Ialari casually made her way through the tunnel, she couldn’t help but admire the construction.

The diggers were amazing individuals to be sure. With their isurian arms, they would dig and carve away the stone as if they were digging through mud or clay. They would pull out massive armfuls of stone and toss it into huge carts. These carts would be hauled away and the stone would then be used for construction projects elsewhere in the city or even further into the Kingdom. Due to their use of their arms, the diggers left impossibly smooth walls, ceiling and floor as they made their way in the direction of the mining camp. Behind them the engineers and builders would come through and add the wooden support frames to help strengthen the tunnel against a potential collapse.

The diggers usually worked in two shifts on normal tunneling projects. If a tunnel was considered extremely important and its finished construction was urgent, the diggers would work in overlapped shifts which meant the tunnel was in a constant state of construction. The diggers of the tunnel Ialari was exploring appeared to be in-between shifts and likely wouldn’t continue work for several more hours. This left Ialari with the peace and quiet of the dark tunnel. As isur had little need for light, they often dug in the dark with lighting used only occasionally or in a case of some emergency. The wooden support frames all had small sconces attached to them that held small steel globes that bore a bit of magecraft in them. They were simple constructs that would allow anyone who spoke the trigger word to cause them to illuminate with a dim light that would help light the immediate area. In the case of the tunnels of the Kingdom of Sultros, all of them, regardless of the clan that constructed them, used the same trigger word.

As Ialari continued her little exploration walk, she wondered if she would ever achieve something great or even notable in any way. Her family sported a number of notable individuals. There was Ialari’s parents who both were instructors at the Silver Tower. Her mother had even become so favored by the Divine Father himself that he made her one of his priestesses. Ialari’s ancestors too had been influential figures in their own right with Pythone Pitrius, the family founder having been one of the first apprentices taken by Pitrius, the clan founder. There were many other notable figures in her family who had performed all manner of grand deeds yet, here she was, an awkward girl who never really fit in. Sure, she was good at some things. She was quite adept at mixing and preparing poisons. She had begun dabbling in magecraft with some degree of success. Her parents kept telling her that one day she would find her calling and that once she did, she would change the world. Of course it was a tale told to all children by their parents. Ialari was confident in performing the things she did well in but never considered herself as being able to achieve things of any greatness. As she admired the digger’s work, she realized that even they had attained great prestige in their ability to create such a masterpiece of constructive engineering.

Pausing to look at one of the wooden support frames, Ialari noticed something a bit odd about one of the beams that ran up the wall and connected to the overhead frame on the ceiling. Leaning in closer she saw that the beam looked to have a few splits in it. Though she was anything but an engineer or even a carpenter, she could see that the splits in the wood could, if put under just the right amount of stress, split further and compromise the strength of the entire frame.

Irony often found its way to Ialari and this situation was no different. Just as soon as she stepped back from the damaged beam and looked up at the one overhead, she felt what started as a small vibration in the stone. Quickly it turned into a tremble followed by a full on quake. Ialari spun around in the direction she had come and started to run. She took two steps before the damaged beam split and gave way. This caused a cascading effect that brought down the overhead beam along with a shower of stone caused by the collapsing ceiling. Ialari raised her metallic arm to shield her face from the falling wood and stone. The overhead beam came crashing down on her, forcing her to her knees. If not for her arm, the beam would have slammed down on her head.

As the stone fell, the wood beam fell one first with the other end still supported by remaining beam on the opposite wall. Unfortunately, the way the tunnel collapsed, it left Ialari having to support part of the beam with her arm else the added weight of the stone on top of it would shatter the wood and come crashing the rest of the way down on her. As it was, she was already surrounded by fallen stone with only a small open pocket created by the awkward position of the beam. That left little air for Ialari to breath along with having to support an immense amount of weight with only her arm. If she moved, she feared upsetting the surrounding stone which could end in her quick and crushing death.

Scared yet relying as much as she could on the discipline of patience, she considered her options. There weren’t many. She couldn’t move her arm to use it for digging as it was the only thing maintaining the small space she had left. She didn’t have anything else with her that could take the place of her arm for support either. That left her having to wait. The diggers would return in a few hours and would notice the collapse. Hopefully they would work to clear it and find her. Ialari realized that there was a possibility that the diggers wouldn’t continue but they were normally a stubborn lot that, when faced with such barriers, continued through them. She hoped that was the case this day.

So, Ialari waited. As she did, her body began to feel the burn followed by the ache and then the pain of supporting so much weight. She thought how likely it was that the diggers may never find her and that she would end up dying beneath tons of stone, insignificantly crushed. As those thoughts began to dig in deeper, Ialari fought to shake them away. No, she wasn’t going to die like this. While she may have been a lonely, awkward, antisocial girl with little hope for ever achieving anything great, she felt deep down that there had to be something more. There had to be a reason why she felt so isolated and why, just out of reach, she thought she felt something greater. It was there, like a smell you know that you recognize but can’t quite remember how or why. She knew there had to be something she was missing in life; something that would answer all of her questions and make her feel more…well, more alive.

She continued to wait as one hour passed followed by another and another. She was still standing albeit hunched over with her legs beginning to tremble and her back muscles beginning to spasm. Although her metallic arm itself felt none of the pain, the rest of her body was forced to make up for it. It was getting harder to breath as the air in the small space was almost used up. In an attempt to save as much as possible, Ialari began to take shallower breaths while trying to hold her breath as long as possible. This only served to make the strain on her muscles greater as they became deprived of the large amounts of oxygen they so desperately needed.

Into her fourth hour, Ialari was taking the last few breaths of air she had left. As she started to feel her body begin to give up, she thought she heard something. Perhaps it was just in her head; echoes of the past she was hearing as she died. Then she heard it again, this time it was more pronounced. It sounded like shifting stone. Was the tunnel starting to finalize its collapse? Then she saw a hole form in the stone next to her head and through it came a dim bit of light. Her eyes widened and she shouted out for help; her voice dry and her throat cracked.

Quickly, the stone started clearing away as the hands of a couple diggers worked to remove it and find the source of the cries for help. As the diggers cleared away the rubble, they found Ialari holding up the beam with her arm. As her strength finally gave out, the diggers moved in immediately to pull her out. As they did, the beam that she had been holding split and the rest of the tunnel in that spot finally fell. Before passing out from exhaustion, Ialari remembered hearing the diggers comment on how remarkable it was that she had survived and that in doing so she’d honored Izurdin with such a display of strength and fortitude.

The hammer in Ialari’s lap quickly became consumed by the chromatic flames surrounding her arm. A tiny piece of her soul seeped into the hammer itself. As it did, the hammer’s structure was solidified. The small inconsistencies in its construction vanished and the seams and joints all fused into one. The parts of the hammer made from bone hardened with the strength of iron while maintaining their lighter weight. The iron striking ends became unnaturally hard and the entire piece took on a finished sheen.

Ialari slowly blinked her eyes as the ceased recalling and reliving the memory. The chromatic flames softly dimmed and died. She looked down to see the hammer in all its strengthened glory before the wave of fatigue and muscle soreness bit down hard. It wasn’t as bad as it had been when using the full extent of her marks but the feeling was more than enough to cause her to slide down the headboard until she was laying on her back. She pulled the hammer off her lap and let it rest next to her while she welcomed the sleep that would help her body recover from the ordeal.

When she awoke, it was well into the next day. Although she felt rather stiff, her body had recovered for the most part from the imparting process. Slowly she sat up and swung her legs around to hang off the side of the bed. Reaching over she retrieved the hammer and took a better look at it. It was light in her hand and felt well balanced. The overall form looked more complete than ever and as she took a few practice swings, the hammer felt comfortable in a way that only an item fused with a piece of one’s soul could. It was an extension of her mind, her memories, her body and strength and her soul.