Kelwyn Temple Quad

[Torc Ironwood]

15th day of Spring, AV 500 Torc waited the new shipment of coal and steel from Zeltiva. The wagon seemed to creak and wobble as the team of horses dragged the wagon through the courtyard to the forge. The teamster seemed to be ancient having made the delivery for a hundred years, yet this was the first time that Torc had seen the man. “Ho there! What happened to Gerald?” The old man seemed to awaken for a moment, chewing his lip, “He died trying making the trip.” The teamsters voice seemed to crack and for a moment Torc understood. Gerald hadn’t died because he was old or ill, he had died because the world outside of the village was still very dangerous. The only reason why this settlement existed was to produce food for Zeltiva. Grains and produce was how the city was able to maintain its hold, yet the forest that surrounded them was a dangerous place. As the teamster pulled up, Torc began helping the man haul the goods to the forge. The coal would last them for several months, while the steel and iron bars that Torc off loaded would last them the rest of the year. Then he spotted some of the iron round stock, “How much for the round stock?” Torc asked. “40 silver extra on top of the order.” Torc began doing the math in his head. The round stock was definitely lower quality, but was perfect for nail making. He began doing the figures in his head, and decided it was worth the risk. Torc counted out the coin that was owed the teamster, then he picked up the bar stock and placed it in the forge. Twelve three foot long round bar stock went into the fire. With their business concluded, the teamster went back on the road to try and make it back to Zeltiva in one piece, while Torc began to pump the bellows of the forge as he added a shovel full bit of coal to it. The fire had died over the past few days, but deep inside the coals were still lit and with the added fuel it soon came back to life. Torc pulled out a wedge and placed it on the tool hole of the anvil. Going over to the blacksmithing tool he found a long handled circle tool. The tool had a hole in the circular piece of iron, and it was a nail maker. He choose the finer hole tool instead of the bolt maker. Torc brought out the first of the round stock, He picked up a hammer with his left hand and began striking the end of the round stock forging a thin point. Twenty beats of the hammer made a slim needle like point. Torc checked the width of the nail with the circular tool. Seeing that the nail was going to be as long as his thumb, Torc placed the bar back into the fire to heat up about an half an inch past the shaft of the nail. As he pulled out the round stock he placed it against the wedge tool of the anvil and hammered a wedge around the bar. Then Torc took the circular tool and began stress the iron till it broke. As the nail still held itself in the tool he placed the needle point down in another tool hole and began hammer the head of the nail from the broke iron on its top. Once down he picked up the tool and quenched it in the bucket of water next to the anvil. The whole process took less time than if someone counted to ninety, and with the renewed energy and purpose Torc began to make as many nails as possible. The day went on as Torc rotated the round stock that he used to create nails. In the end Torc had made nearly two hundred nails, enough to justify about half the cost of the bar stock, but the temple needed the nails and so did the village. As Torc stopped for the night retiring the bar stock to the inventory, he saw Mona standing at the entrance of the forge. Turning around she held a covered napkin in her hands. Torc felt like his heart was in his throat, as she walked forward and held out her hands. Slowly Torc held out his hands and felt the powerful lighting sensation as Mona placed hers in his. Slowly as she withdrew her hands, Torc briefly closed his around hers and as she looked up with a shy smile… he wanted to kiss her and feel every soft part of her. Wants of primal urges and ones of pure honor conflicted as he looked at the girl turning into a woman before him. He wanted to protect her from every danger, he wanted to pick her up and take her to his bedchamber to kiss slowly till the light of day. He wanted to tear off her clothes and make passionate love to her on the ground. He wanted to live forever in her smile, then slowly she withdrew her hands and the spell was broken. Torc swallowed the saliva that had accumulated in his mouth, and simply said thanks as she left the forge.

[Torc Ironwood]

16th-18th day of Spring, AV 500 It was the day after Torc had touched Mona, and Torc didn’t really understand what was happening to him. He spent the day working on nails as he replayed the whole event in his mind. How could just one touch seem like the world was brighter? How looking into her brown eyes and seeing that soft shy smile make him want to conquer the world if it would make her happy? He wanted to be so much more then what he was as he looked at her. She ignited in him something that pushed everything he was outward. He felt like instead of being a piece of the world, he felt like the world accepted him and turned about them. As Torc hammered the nails he realized just how much he wanted Mona; wanted to be around her, his head in her lap, his hand in hers, her body pressed against his. Torc had felt more happy with a single touch then the tender embrace of a girl he shared last summer. Somehow, it felt more real being with Mona that actually having sex with the Lisa. Afterwards, Torc had felt empty, the sex had just didn’t mean anything, it was an act, a pleasurable one, but from all what every man had said, it was a lot less. Yet now Mona’s touch felt more powerful the Lisa body on his. Confusion of feelings, of wants, and desires cascaded through Torc as he worked the forge. He felt like he was going crazy, he wanted Mona so bad and yet there was no real reason that he could speak of. She hadn’t fawned over his muscles, her physical appearance wasn’t breathtaking. She was trim and had shapely legs, but in the end he logically would have called her plain. Now, with that smile, he would have said she was more beautiful than any woman he had ever met. He wanted to put his hands on her generous hips, actually he wasn’t sure if he wanted his hands or lips on them. Torc cleaned up and went to the communal dinner. Priest Ano was finally feeling better and would be back to the forge tomorrow. To Torc it felt kind of disappointing to have the smith priest back. Over dinner Torc couldn’t take his eyes off of Mona, and at times she seemed to giggle with other girls as she caught Torc looking. He felt like a fool, and inner emotions of abandonment came to him. The next morning seemed to have cleared Torc mind, as he went to the forge. He had an order to make a few buckles for the loggers, and Priest Ano would take over the more crucial work. Torc began to pull out some of the spare round iron bar stock and placed it in the forge. Priest Ano seemed to be in a bad mood as he yelled at Torc about how tools weren’t in their proper place or hung up wrong. Torc paid no mind, and as soon as he began work the sound of iron ringing drowned out the priest. He shaped the iron around the horn, drawing out the iron and then bending it into a common buckle for a leather harness. It took Torc perhaps a bells worth of work to create three of them. The shaping of the buckle hadn’t been hard at all it was the wielding of the two piece together that gave Torc pause. He knew that flux would help the two to join, but he began to carefully add small amounts for each buckle till one of them showed the wielding line. Torc smiled and broke the wield and reworked the buckle doing his best to fix the poor wielding. He was beginning to understand how much flux it took to wield two pieces of metal together, and thankfully that would allow the temple to spend less on. Putting away his tools, Torc felt good at fulfilling the order, and looking at the orders he decided he could leave early. Heading out off the shop Ano began calling out about how he wasn’t done yet. Torc felt like he had earned it, and left the senior man to do his own work. Torc went out with a single purpose, to find Mona. He came upon her why she was feeding the chickens. As her hands flung the seed into the yard, something possessed Torc. He walked up to Mona and reached out a hand for her bicep. As he touched her and saw her brown eyes look up, closing slightly against the light of the sun, Torc felt like the world dropped away. He was in a haze, and he knew he was talking to her, because she giggled and laughed, but he couldn’t remember one word. All he remembered was that she threw the last of the seed and took his hand in hers as they walked to a pasture. They talked till the dinner bell rung, and Torc simply felt so amazed that she was talking to him. About how her dreams of living in a real house, and being comfortable with her husband, there were moments when he wanted to kiss her and make love to her, and yet as he saw the sun shine off her brown hair, he didn’t want to ruin that perfect delicate moment of looking at her.

[Torc Ironwood]

35th-50th day of Spring, AV 500 The lazy days of spring went by in a flash as Torc spent his afternoons with Mona. She was perfect and pure, and yet had such big dreams. At times they would lay on the grass and hold hands, and every time he went to sleep he saw that sun kissed face as blades of grass waved back and forth in front of their eyes. His mind was filled with dreams of a happy house, of making love to her, of their children. He wanted to tell her that he would make every dream of hers true, but he had barely worked up the courage to put his hand on her bare shoulder. As they became closer, Torc felt like the world was being pushed completely out. How many hoes, shovels, and saws had Torc done while thinking of only Mona’s face. He saved ever miza for hope that he could show Mona a fortune of money. He even forgot to look at other women, which had garnished him a hard slap from a priestess and a lecture about paying attention. He couldn’t, it was like he was in a downward spiral drowning in pure obsession over Mona, he wanted her above food or sleep. Priestess Lara had asked him if something was wrong, or if he was ill, and all Torc could say was that he was whole, but at times he wondered if that was true. When he was with Mona he seemed to be a better person, the small minded comments didn’t come to mine. He had no stray thought about other women, he spent his time helping children and work for others. Every moment he smiled with her there, and when she was gone he felt like some kind of lesser being. Torc had been hammering something on the anvil when the sparks from the steel few about and hit right arm. The momentary pain seemed to snap him out of his haze. He looked down at the steel cutting plane wedge at the end of his tongs. How many times had he folded the steel on the wedge? It seemed stronger than any other tool he had ever fashioned. The dull glow began to fade from the steel, and Torc realized that he most have folded the steel twelve times and was forming the cutting blade against the grain structure of the steel. It surprised him so much, it was like another smith had forge the blade in his tongs. Torc tried to remember how he had wrought such a thing from common steel stock, and all he was thinking at the time was one more tool for Mona and my future. He had forged the cutting blade, thinking of the pure face of Mona. Was she some kind of muse that joined his hands and mind together? Working steel should have been much harder then this, and yet he didn’t feel tired. He felt confident in the tool he had forged. Sticking back into the fire, he looked about and saw Priest Ano sitting down enjoying a brief break. Going over he sat down for a moment, and Ano seemed surprise. Torc tried to come up with something to speak with him about and realized that he didn’t even know what day it was. “Nice sunny day isn’t it?” Priest Ano raised an eyebrow and spoke, “The first words you have said to me in 14 days is about the weather?! Torc whats going on?” Torc had no answer for a moment he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t spoken to Priest Ano in a fortnight. He had to cough, because otherwise his mouth would have been opened for no reason. “I… don’t know. I simply been spending time here and then with Mona… I guess I didn’t realize I hadn’t spoken to you in a while.” Priest Ano let a soft chuckle from him and simply got back up. “Torc, get back to work, when it ends there will always be work.” Torc shook his head, when what ends? What did he mean by his comment. Whatever Ano had meant Torc went back to work as he saw the priest smith do the same. Picking out the blade from the forge the glow seemed to almost twinkle, and Torc laughed thinking that he would have to tell Mona about how the steel dances within its own light, and with that thought. Torc began hammering the cutting edge on the anvil. His mind drifted off as his body seemed to know what to do with the steel wedge. He went over to the grinding stone and began to polish the steel to a high shine after he quenched it in his bucket. Just like the steam that rose from the bucket the rest of the day was a haze. He remembered polishing the wedge to an almost mirror finish. The blade was heavy and sharp, but not so much that you could shave with it. That afternoon Torc told Mona about the steel and how she laughed and told him that he had such a lovely way of seeing things. He didn’t know how it happen, but as she finished that sentence, he kissed her. It was chaste and yet more powerful than any kiss he had ever experience. Her soft lips seemed to spark every nerve in his body, he felt like he could have picked up a wagon and threw it across a field. He had closed his eyes and for some reason he could feel every fiber of her being through her lips. It was like kissing pure sunlight, like the gods and goddesses flooded his being with every ounce of Djed. He felt like he could have ascend to their plane as the kiss continued, eternity was within his grasp for he was more powerful than any man that had lived. Then he felt it, their beings backed off and the kiss ended. Torc opened his eyes and saw Mona’s skin flush with blood, and for one more moment he wanted to tear open her dress and take her. Yet… he felt so weak from what had just happened. It was like having more strength then ten men, and then finding out you only had enough for yourself. It was like that great divide had emptied him, and then Mona jumped up to run back to the temple, and Torc was left there wondering what had happened.

[Gossamer]

. Character: Torc Ironwood Experience: Blacksmithing 3 XP, Rhetoric 1 XP, Project Planning 1 XP Lore: Judging the quality of stock, Buying Stock, Making Nails, Having a Crush on Mona, Making Poor Wields, Correcting Poor Wields, Making good Wields, First Kiss of Love Additional Note: I have to be honest, the bits with Mona in the first post feel kinda ‘thrown on’ at the end. It would really flow more beautifully if they were woven in or she was mentioned throughout a post rather than in the last paragraph going from blacksmithing to passionate feelings about some girl that seems unrelated to the actual work Torc does at the temple. The second post is much better and flows with the multiple subjects intermingled throughout. I also have to admit I’m a bit confused as to how you actually wield in Mizahar. I can see joining two pieces together using the forge, but I’m not sure wielding fits the fantasy theme? The kiss was a nice touch, and so too was discovering folding the steel made things stronger just by daydreaming. I liked that part. Your description of making things is getting better too. .