The cost of the furnace was deduced from the cost of a portable forge (57,536 as of 6th December 2016) rounded up to the nearest 100k. Also, with the average profit margins of smelting and/or smithing, 100k coins would take a large volume of products (other than rune) to recoup that investment. Whilst rune items will appear later in the story, he doesn't make the volume that players make in-game, otherwise it would be too easy for him to become rich.
They must be legit, Doric wouldn't have trusted them to deliver that money and note if they weren't.
Urist thought as he headed to Sani, the blacksmith south of the back next to the Grand Exchange. The sound of banging and clanking confirmed he was still at work.
Urist popped his head around the doorway and took a step inside once he could see Sani had seen him. Sani thrust the sword into a bucket of sand and placed his hammer on the anvil.
"What can I do for you, stranger?" Sani mocked, Urist smirked.
"I was wondering if I could use your desk to draw some designs. I might be a while though."
"Be my guest, come and go as you please."
"Thank you." Urist took a seat at the desk and pulled some drawing paper out of the umbrella stand styled container next to it. He started his trail of thought by examining how walls are currently built. Large blocks of stone were chiselled perfectly into rectangle blocks and the blocks were glued together with a paste similar to wattle and daub. The problem was; if a block for some reason fell out, it was very hard to replace. A new block would have to be chiselled to the exact measurement, or else it wouldn't fit. Even if it were perfect, to hold it and push it into the gap at the right angle, without damaging the now solid paste, was like finding a needle in a haystack. Then, and only then, the paste would need to be reinforced to make the new block stick in place.
Clay, on the other hand, was far easier to work than stone. You can always add more clay, where you couldn't add more stone. You can mould clay, where stone needs to already be a particular shape to begin with. But how to use clay to make blocks that could replace stone? Blocks. Rectangles. Bricks. A rectangular shaped piece of clay, that conforms to a mould, smaller than stone blocks and a size that could be held with just one hand. That would work! But it would need a mould for it to go in the pottery oven. That wouldn't be hard, just need a mould that leaves one side open. That would require a mould for every brick though, making each brick expensive. Unless, the mould could be used to shape the clay into a brick, and once a dries out a bit, the brick would be soft enough to slide out of the mould but hard enough to hold shape afterward. The bricks could be loaded on an oven tray, like cakes, and the tray put in the pottery oven to fire.
Urist quickly rolled up his designs and left the smithy, only to be greeted by complete darkness and a quietness Urist had noticed appear. Most Varrock folk were at home asleep by now or in the taverns drinking.
He took his designs home and was content to sleep on his chair by the fire. The following morning, excitement woke Urist and he ran straight to King Roald's palace, ignoring his stomach's warning of hunger. A guard at the front door of the palace put a hand up to Urist to stop him from entering.
"What is your visit concerning?"
"I would like to patent an idea of mine."
The guard nodded. "You'll want Reldo in the library. Follow me." The guard led Urist through a few rooms, one of which had King Roald whispering to a man with a cape that had the Ardougne symbol on the back. Both men glanced at Urist as he passed. In the library, the guard coughed causing Reldo to jump and look at them. "This gentle- ... dwarf is here to speak to you."
"Thank you." The guard exited the room and stood outside waiting for the meeting to conclude. Reldo offered Urist a seat at a table in the center of the room that was covered with books, closed and open. "How can I help?"
"I'd like to patent some designs I've created."
"Ah, certainly. I'll need to keep the designs here with me in this library, and a few days to complete the paperwork, but your designs will be patented."
"Will I be able to produce these creations now? Or will I have to wait for the paperwork to be completed?"
"No, you may do as you please now. Your designs are protected from the moment you leave the designs in this library."
"Is there anything I'm required to do?"
"Only collect the paperwork in a week's time."
"Thank you." Urist shook Reldo's hand and left. The guard made sure he led Urist out to save Urist accidently stumbling into the presence of the king. Urist ran to his stall and opened up, but using a chisel and a small block of marble, he started working on his mould.
During the day, he contemplated the incoming gold ore and having to travel all the way to Lumbridge again just to smelt it.
It's a shame we can't have a furnace here in Varrock.
Urist looked over at the gypsy tent and stared closely at behind it. He just made out the ruins of what appeared to be the foundations of another building attached to Sani's smithy.
I thought I saw ruins there. If he'd be willing, I could extend the smithy and we could have a furnace in there somewhere.
Urist visited Sani once more after work.
"Blimey! Something must have happened for you to appear two days in a row."
"I have a proposition for you. The ruins surrounding this smithy ..."
"Aye, the foundations for some more rooms."
"If I were to build those rooms, would you be willing to house a furnace here in your smithy?"
"I can't afford the construction costs."
"I'll do it. Might take me a while, but I can do it for free if you're willing."
"I can't afford the furnace." Urist had to think for a few moments.
It's going to cost roughly a hundred thousand coins to buy the furnace. I haven't that sort of money. The only way I could do it is through a loan.
"What if I can find a way of paying for it? I'd need to be able to use the smithy whenever I pleased."
"Tell you what, how about a partnership? If you can buy the furnace, I'll put aside the money I save from what I would normally pay out for bars instead of ore, and when I have the money, give you half towards the cost of the furnace. It'll save me money, so it's the least I could do. Might take me a while though."
"I agree." Urist shook Sani's hand.
The following day, whilst Urist was still chiselling at the marble, a shadow appeared over him. Urist looked up and saw the adventurer that he'd seen some time ago standing over him.
"I had no idea you were the crafting supplies seller here in Varrock ..." the adventurer said.
"Aye, here I am. And I think I guess why you're here." the adventurer pulled out a small stone and handed it to Urist.
"How much would you give me for that?" Urist knew at the first sight of it what it was. He lifted the stone up to the adventure and scratched the surface. Paint flaked off and the natural surface of the stone underneath appeared.
"It's not worth the stone it's painted on." The adventurer cursed. "I'm terribly sorry. Gems should only be bought from licensed gem sellers. There are a lot of fraudulent people out there."
Drorkar could be one of them.
The adventurer walked away quite solemnly and left Urist to make his mould.
At the end of his trading day, Urist made his way to the bank opposite Sani's smithy and spoke to the first available cashier.
"How can I help?"
"I'd like to talk to someone about taking out a loan."
"Certainly." The woman fetched a diary from a table behind her and looked at the days for that week. "We have a slot available on Friday at an hour before midday.
"That'll do."
"What is your name?"
"Urist." She wrote it down.
"And if I may ask, how much is the loan you wish to take out? And for what purpose?"
"Business, and ninety-five thousand coins, please." She wrote it down. Urist thought he saw her eyes bulging a little as she wrote it, but shrug it off as his imagination.
"Thank you, your appointment is now booked. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thank you." The woman nodded and Urist returned to his stall to pick up the mould and chisel. He continued chiselling it beside the fire.
Urist dressed in his finest clothes, the suit he kept for weddings and funerals, except he hardly attended many of those so his suit needed brushing down and the odd leave of basil here and there to freshen its smell.
He was fifteen minutes early to his appointment. The cashier let him through to the back room and down a spiral of stairs to a room where he was offered a seat. Urist put his hand in his jacket pocket to reassure himself that his mould, finished last night, had been put there. Ten minutes later, an elf walked out of the office with his hand firmly on the hilt of his sword, followed by a member of staff. Urist only knew he was an elf, as he wore forest green attire, trimmed golden, with a gold trimmed emerald green chest plate, and bronze gold vambraces, knee high boots and plateskirt. White cloth weaved into the pattern and gold trimmed leaves added to the decoration. He held his golden helmet in his left hand, allowing for people to see his infamous elf ears and wheat yellow blonde hair.
"Mr Urist, please." The member of staff said as ad the elf glared down at Urist. Urist stood and entered the room, the member of staff closing the door once he had. "Take a seat. Would you like a drink?"
"Just some water, if I may." The member of staff poured some water for both of them and sat opposite Urist.
"My name's Ronald. I believe you are interested in a business loan for ... " He checked the paperwork. "Ninety-five thousand coins."
"Correct."
"What do you plan to use this money for?"
"The purchase of a furnace, which will be located at Sani's smithy across the road." Urist pulled out his mould and presented it to Ronald, who examined it eagerly. "I have created a way of building walls without the need for stone. This mould can be filled with semi-soft clay to shape it into a brick. These bricks will be a lot more manageable to work with than stone blocks and can be used to repair damaged walls much more easily than stone.
"I plan to use the ruins, the foundations, surrounding Sani's smithy to extend the building eastward and southward. This will provide plenty of room to house a furnace, and maybe even another couple of anvils."
"How do you plan on repaying the loan?"
"Sani has reassured me that with the money he saves buying ores instead of bars, he will save fifty thousand coins over a period of time and use that to pay his half of the furnace. Whether he pays this in time for the loan repayment or not, I will repay the loan myself. I will repay it by buying ores from the consortium in Keldagrim and smelting them into bars and, or, finished products such as armours and weapons. These weapons and armours, I can sell back to shops in Keldagrim, and shops all across Gielinor -"
"And the kingdoms of Gielinor."
"If need be to repay the loan."
"That would mean this bank could be seen as supporting the wars of Gielinor by financing its weapon maker."
This isn't good. What do I say now?