The House of Inspired Hands
The shiny automaton on the clock tower struck its hammer against the anvil shaped bell with a chiming toll, once, twice, and again and again until it rang it seven times.
"I am guessing that is a representation of the god Gond," Aleina said. "Think, if we'd come a little later we'd not have seen or heard that."
Up on the clock tower the ledge holding the brass automaton and the anvil retracted back into the tower with a whirring of gears and the clock face closed back over it.
"By all that dances," Jhelnae said with an incredulous snort. "I'm guessing it rings again at eight bells, or nine, or even possibly twelve times at high sun."
Somehow, after a late evening visit with the Open Lord last night, the half-drow found herself awake and standing in front of the House of Inspired Hands at this early hour rather than snug in bed.
"Probably does," Aleina agreed. "Look, I'm not the one who woke us up so early, but I'm trying to find the slivers of moonbeams through the clouds."
For the most part the aasimar was a perfect friend - great bookstore browsing companion, very helpful if you lost a staring contest against a medusa, and never failed to scooch over and make space on her bed if a nightmare woke you in the middle of the night. But her trying to force Jhelnae to see the rainbow-sunshine-moonbeam side of things after the half-drow had been forcibly and unexpectedly woken up early?
Definite flaw.
"Well stop it," Jhelnae said. "And it still is a little bit your fault. Who let Sky into our room?"
"She was pounding on our door," the aasimar said with an open palmed gesture. "What was I supposed to do?"
"Throw your pillow over your head and ignore her," the half-drow said. "Like I did."
"I'd have just picked the lock," the tabaxi said with a dismissive wave and swish of her tail. "We can't waste time on sleep. The Open Lord gave us a mission to find the Stone of Golorr."
"Says the cat who usually naps all throughout the day," Jhelnae said, rolling her eyes.
Normally Sky treasured her sleep, unless her curiosity was aroused, then she barely could get a wink. She had wanted to go questing for this stone the moment they'd left the palace but collectively Jhelnae, Aleina, and Kuhl had forced her to agree to wait till morning - which the tabaxi interpreted as up at dawn.
"The temple actually doesn't even seem to be open for visitors yet," Kuhl observed.
The House of Inspired Hands looked like a cross between a temple and a workshop - the main three story portion included arched windows to take in the morning sunlight through stained glass, decorative doors, cupolas, and spires while the one story wing featured bay doors and chimneys. All of it was roofed with copper shingles that time and the elements had aged to include a blue-green patina covering which glinted in the morning light. The half-elf was right, all the doors, whether the bay doors of the workshops or the grander double doors to the temple proper, were closed up tight.
"Sky," Jhelnae said. "I'm going to kill you."
"Someone in the temple is up and moving," the tabaxi said, pointing upward. "Or on it anyway. Look."
The rising sun partially revealed a humanoid shape perched on the rooftop. It sat on its heels in the shade of a dormer, which is how the half-drow missed seeing it before. She still couldn't make out many details other than its form, which gave the impression of a nimblewright. It extended an arm and released something.
"Watch out!" Aleina yelled. "Fireball bead!"
But it wasn't. It was a tiny metal bird which glided on metallic wings. The bird did a few loops in the air, then dove and swooped right towards the group. Jhelnae found herself so mesmerized by the flight of the little thing that she just watched it speed closer and closer. It would have struck Sky, but she dodged with a graceful no handed cartwheel.
The bird veered, circled, and chose a new target - Jhelnae herself. Instead of an artful dodge, like her friend, the half-drow lifted an arm to protect her face and cringed in anticipation of the coming impact. It never came. Kuhl stepped forward and it struck him with a thunk then clattered to the cobblestones of Shark Street.
"Ouch," the half-elf said mildly.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae yelled, looking up and shaking a fist. "Hey! You! We see you up there!"
Shark Street was a short street connecting two larger thoroughfares. No one was in their immediate vicinity but a pair of women walking past on the neighboring Seawatch Street glanced curiously their way in response to the half-drow's yelling. Apparently seeing a fist shaking dark-elf screaming skyward convinced them it was better to be elsewhere, because they quickly looked away and hurried on.
The perched figure on the rooftop regarded them for a moment, then scrambled over the blue-green copper tiles to the dormer window next to it and slipped inside, shutting the window behind it. Jhelnae could tell from the way it moved and from the way the sunlight reflected off the bits of its polished brass body not obscured by shadow that it was a nimblewright up there.
"Look at this," Sky said. "It's amazing and really delicate. Hitting Kuhl bent up its beak and head."
She'd scooped up the little bird replica from the cobblestones and stared at it, golden eyes narrowed in study. It was finely crafted, but looked to have been built with scraps of foraged metal because it was a mishmash of parts expertly pieced together. Nothing matched - copper and bronze on one wing and tin and brass on the other and the same amalgamations on the rest of the body.
"How did that thing even fly?" Kuhl asked, with a glance at the small hole the metal bird's beak left in his linen shirt. "Let alone so well?"
"More importantly," Aleina said, with a baleful stare up at the rooftop window where the construct had escaped inside. "That nimblewright seems to like to throw things down on people from rooftops. It could be the one who threw the fireball bead in front of the Trollskull."
"We need to find out," the half-elf agreed, nodding.
His eyes narrowed and his lips settled in a determined line, then he marched to the large double doors of the temple. The half-drow and the others followed his lead. Kuhl lifted the right center bronze ring and swung it downward onto the blue-green plated surface of the portal where it sounded with a thudding clack. Jhelnae also heard the chime of a bell coming from beyond the thick door inside the temple. The half-elf dropped the door knocker again with another resounding clack accompanied by another chime from inside. Sky nudged Kuhl aside and reached for the brass ring herself. She lifted the knocker and lowered it as gently as possible. It touched the plated door surface with a slight clink, but the simultaneous chime from inside remained equal in volume to the times before.
"Neat!" Sky said with a sharp tooth smile.
The door cracked open before she could experiment more, revealing a bronze hued reptilian eye.
"I heard you the first chime," a feminine voice hissed. "The Hall of Exemplary Inventions doesn't open for another two bells. Go get some breakfast or a cup of kaeth and come back later."
"Your nimblewright just attacked us!" Jhelnae growled. "So no, we're not going to leave and come back later."
"Nim attacked you?" The door opened a little wider revealed both eyes and the snout of a bronze dragonborn. "That's not possible, he can't leave the temple."
"Well it was more his bird who attacked us," Sky said, holding up the little creation. "Attacked Kuhl anyway. Really mainly attacked his shirt."
The Dragonborn's eyes went from the metal bird to the hole in the half-elf's shirt.
"That is definitely Nim's craftsmanship," she sighed. "And a nice shirt. Sorry about that."
"Thanks," Aleina said. "I picked it out. Well with Jhelnae. It reminded us of the one our friend Derendil used to wear. He was a quaggoth."
The dragonborn gave the aasimar a sidelong look.
"Your friend was a quaggoth?" she asked. "The bestial creatures of the Underdark? And a shirt wearing one?"
"Well when we knew him he was a quaggoth," Aleina explained. "But he was really an elf prince."
"Playwright," the half-drow corrected. "Who thought he was a prince."
"Yes, playwright," the aasimar amended.
"I see," the dragonborn hissed , now regarding them with a wary skepticism. "Well, sorry about your shirt. Thanks for letting us know. I will give Nim a scolding, rest assured. Keep the bird as a souvenir."
The door started closing, but Sky jammed the toe of one of her magic boots into the opening.
"Just a moment," she said, tail lashing. "We have a few questions we'd like to ask you and Nim."
She brandished one of the blue and gold Badges of the Watch they'd each received from the Open Lord last night.
"You're with the Watch?" the dragonborn asked, opening the door again. "Why didn't you say that first instead of telling me about shirts and quaggoths?"
"Sorry about that," Aleina said with a slight wince. "We're sort of new at this."
"Apparently," the dragonborn hissed.
"I'm Aleina," the aasimar said.
"Valetta," the dragonborn said. "Look, I haven't thought of anything new from what I told the other two yesterday."
"What other two?" Kuhl asked.
"Short fellow in purple robes and taller one always writing notes in a little book," Valetta said.
"Barnibus and Cromley?" the half-elf asked.
"I think so?" the dragonborn answered.
"What did you tell them?" Jhelnae asked.
Valetta's bronze gaze focused on the half-drow, eyes narrowing.
"You don't know?" she asked. "Seems like you should talk to them first rather than questioning people again."
She tried to edge the door closer to closed, but found the tabaxi had surreptitiously moved her boot further in the way to keep it open.
"We're kind of doing a separate independent investigation," Kuhl said.
"Kind of a separate independent investigation?" the dragonborn repeated. "Run by a group 'sort of new at this'? Are you trying to trick your way in or something? If you try and play me for the fool, be warned, I can and will breathe lightning on you if needed."
She showed her teeth and sparks of electricity crackled to push the point home.
"Well our newness gives a completely fresh perspective, doesn't it," Sky said brightly, seemingly oblivious to the warning. "Just a few questions for you and Nim and we'll be out of your fur."
Valetta looked again at the badge in Sky's hand, at each of them - Jhelnae tried and probably failed to give a very trustworthy smile - then finally looked down at the tabaxi boot keeping the door open. She gave a long sibilant sigh.
"This is either the worst con ever," the dragonborn said. "Or you're somehow telling the truth. Just a few questions and you're off my scales?"
"Few questions and we are out of your fur," Sky promised with a nod and a lash of her tail.
"Very well," Valetta said. "Please come in."
She opened the door fully revealing the saffron vestments and crimson sash she wore. Morning light filtered through the vaulted windows illuminating the main hall behind her where a marble statue of a bearded muscular craftsman smiled down on a room full of strange contraptions that immediately roused Sky's curiosity.
"What's that?" the tabaxi asked, pointing.
"That," the dragonborn said. "Is a horseless cart."
Which was pretty much what it looked like, but that didn't explain why it was right at the entrance in a position to catch the attention of anyone entering and roped off to discourage anyone from touching it.
"It's spring powered," Valetta continued to explain in her hissing voice. "Wind that wheel and the tension in the spring underneath builds which is translated into movement."
The wheel in question was a big steering helm like on a galleon. It was attached onto what the half-drow guessed was the rear of the cart.
"Oh, interesting," Aleina said. "How far can it go?"
"Around fifty feet," the dragonborn said.
"That's…" the aasimar trailed off.
"Impressive," Kuhl said.
"Yes, impressive," Aleina hurriedly agreed. "That is the word I was looking for."
"Needs a different name," Jhelnae said. "I mean an ox cart is also a horseless cart if you think about it, right?"
"It was proof of concept," Valetta said. "The priest who invented and crafted this moved on to steam power and designed a carriage fueled by a Decanter of Endless Water and a Flame Tongue Sword. Unfortunately, he hasn't been seen since he and his invention trundled across the Zundbridge and down the Trade Way over a hundred years ago and he took his design schematics with him."
She paused, staring at the cart in thought, then gave a slight shake of her head.
"Forgive me," the dragonborn said. "I started giving a tour of the Hall of Exemplary Inventions instead of taking you to Nim. This way."
A slight tug on Jhelnae's sleeve stalled her from following Valetta.
"You could say the inventor really put the cart before the horse," Aleina whispered with a sly smile and a nod at the wind-up contraption.
"By all that dances," the half-drow said, chuckling and rolling her eyes. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."
But a bemused smile continued touching her lips as she followed the aasimar after the others. Valetta led them to and up a spiraling staircase. Jhelnae's leg muscles twinged slightly with each step - the remnants of soreness from their mountain workout two days ago.
"What did you talk about with Barnibus and Cromley yesterday?" Kuhl asked.
"They told me about the dreadful incident with the fireball," the dragonborn said. "And said someone reported seeing a 'puppet man' throw it. I explained to them it couldn't be Nim."
"Why is that?" Sky asked.
"He can't leave the temple grounds without one of us taking him," Valetta said. "He is under a powerful geas spell that prevents it."
"He's trapped here?" the tabaxi asked as they continued their spiraling ascent.
The slight growl in her tone hinted at her disapproval as did the lash of her tail.
"It's really for his own safety," the dragonborn said. "A nimblewright is rare and valuable and he could be a target for wright-napping. As you've already seen from the mechanical bird incident, he is impulsive and also approval seeking which makes him easily manipulated by strangers. So…"
They'd come to the top of the stairs and on the other side of the small window lit landing was an iron banded oak door. Valetta stopped and stared at it for a few breaths.
"Something wrong?" Kuhl asked.
"That isn't the lock that was there before," the dragonborn said, voiced confused.
She crossed to the door, tried the handle, found it locked, then started pounding on the door with a scaly fist.
"Nim!" she yelled. "Did you change the lock on this door? Let me in!"
No answer came from inside nor did the door open.
"Allow me," Sky said, pulling her lockpicks from her pocket.
Valetta stepped to the side and the tabaxi kneeled to squint into the lock. Metal rasped on metal as she inserted her tools and just a few sways of her tail later there was a click. Sky pulled down on the latch and the door swung inward. The dragonborn was the first past the door, brushing past the tabaxi. A low feral growl sounded as soon as Valetta entered the room followed by the ferocious barking that made Jhelnae heart jump.
"Nim!" the dragonborn yelled, pausing to pick something up off the ground. "How dare you try and lock me out! How dare you use your barking box on me!"
The companions shared a glance as the barking cut off then followed after the Valetta. The dragonborn stood in the pose of a stern parent as she stared at a crouched nimblewright cowering behind a large, sturdy cluttered work table, which was the only furniture in the small room. Valetta held a painted box with carvings of snarling dogs on its sides in one clawed hand. The work table held scattered tools, a mishmash of materials, and partially completed contraptions - including a helmet with a pair of thin automaton arms attached to it, a set of extendable stilts, and an oddly shaped device consisting of a copper handle and an undersized red and white umbrella that might keep a pixie dry in the rain but would be useless to anyone larger.
"What has gotten into you lately, Nim?" the dragonborn lectured. "You spend all your time up here in your room. We only see when you need scavenged parts or to forge or weld something. Now these people tell me one of your creations attacked them?"
The nimblewright stood at that, stamped his foot, and started signing, which ended with a pointing finger of accusation.
"They got in the way of your experiment?" Valetta translated.
"Oh please!" Jhelnae said, throwing up a hand. "He stared down at us before he threw and then his bird came right at us."
"Nim," the dragonborn said, tone going gentle. "You need to be more careful with your creations. This is actually the second group that has come to ask about you. Something bad happened and people thought it was a nimblewright. I explained how you can't leave the temple, but when you do something like you did with the bird… well it makes them suspicious of you. Not those of us at the temple, we know you could never…"
She trailed off as Nim's posture changed with her words. His pointing hand fell and he suddenly found the view out his attic window very interesting, because he turned and fixedly stared out of it.
"Nim," Valetta said, voice going stern again. "What do you know?"
"Ask him if he is the one who threw down the fireball in the North Ward," Sky said.
"I already explained," the dragonborn hissed. "He couldn't have. Nim can't leave the temple grounds without one of us priests of Gond."
But when she had told them this before, downstairs, her voice had been certain and unquestioning, now doubt had crept in.
"As you say he can't leave the temple grounds without a priest of Gond," Kuhl said. "That doesn't mean he wasn't in the North Ward with a priest of Gond."
"Just what are you insinuating?" Valetta said, reptilian eyes becoming slits and an edge in her tone.
"Not insinuating anything," the half-elf said. "Actually trying to rule out possibilities."
Which, Jhelnae thought, was a diplomatic way of insinuating one of Gond's clergy might be involved in the explosion in front of the Trollskull.
"Fine," the dragonborn sighed. "Tell them, Nim. Tell them you weren't involved in this fireball incident. Tell them you haven't left the temple since we went on a parts and materials run five days ago."
The nimblewright continued to stubbornly stare out the window for a time, but he finally turned, eyes downcast, and started to sign.
"You see," Valetta said. "He hasn't been off temple grounds. And he is telling the truth. Part of the geas he is under prevents him from lying to a priest of Gond."
"That isn't the same as him saying he wasn't involved," Sky said.
"If he hasn't been off temple grounds he can't have been involved," the dragonborn said with a dismissive snort.
"Like Kuhl said," Jhelnae put in. "Just ruling out possibilities."
"Very well," Valetta said, breathing out another exasperated sigh. "Tell them, Nim. Tell them you had no involvement in the explosion in the North Ward."
Instead of answering the nimblewright went still as a statue and continued to stare at the floor.
"Nim…?" the dragonborn prompted, voice concerned.
Slowly one of the construct's right hand lifted then waggled side to side.
"What do you mean maybe?" Valetta asked.
A furious bout of signing followed with the nimblewright keeping his gaze downcast.
"You were lonely," the dragonborn translated. "Wanted a friend, how can you be lonely, Nim? Everyone in the temple is your friend. So you created a… you created a brother? Another nimblewright? And it worked?"
Neck gears whirred as the nimblewright nodded.
"The secret of the construction of your kind is a Latanese secret," Valetta said, seemingly to herself. "You must have the inherent ability to replicate one, including the arcane parts of it, fascinating."
"If this other nimblewright is the one who threw the fireball," Kuhl ventured, breaking into the priest of Gond's musings. "Eleven people are dead because of its creation."
Unbidden, his words brought the image of charred bodies on cobblestones to Jhelnae's mind. She gave a slight shake of her head to clear it.
"The new nimblewright wouldn't be under the same geas spell?" Aleina asked.
"No," Valetta answered. "It's something we specifically had cast after the Lantanese wizard donated Nim as a safeguard."
Her voice had sobered, lost its fascination, and she seemed to be now focused on the responsibility of eleven dead, potentially at the hands of a rogue invention.
"This is important, Nim," she said. "Where is this nimblewright now? What happened?"
Nim pointed at the window then started signing.
"It was afraid when it woke up," the dragonborn translated. "Confused. And it escaped through the window the same night you created it. You couldn't follow it because of the geas and you haven't seen it since."
The priest of Gond took a deep breath and let it out in a long hissing sigh.
"Nim, Nim, Nim," she said. "This is the House of Inspired Hands. We encourage creativity and craftsmanship. Why did you not tell us of your creation? We could have helped you. Now your creation may have done great harm. How long ago did it run off?"
Nim signed, then picked up the copper handled device with the red and white umbrella from his work table and held it up.
"Nim does not do well at tracking time," Valetta explained. "He says his creation escaped many many days and nights ago and in that time he was able to build a detector for nimblewrights. I would guess around a month ago based on that. Hold down the lever on the handle and the little umbrella will spin. The closer the nimblewright the faster it spins.
Nim clamped down on the lever with a click in demonstration and the umbrella began to spin, slowly at first but very soon its top whirred in a blending of red and white that could barely be differentiated.
"Can we borrow that?" Kuhl asked.
"I figured you were going to ask that," the dragonborn nodded. "Of course. Please, if you do capture Nim's creation, bring it back here for us to care for properly. Or, if it must be destroyed, so be it. Nim, you've lost tool and material privileges."
The nimblewright depressed the lever of his detector with a click and the whirring of the top slowed then stopped. His shoulders slumped and he stared down morosely at his cluttered work table. Jhelnae felt bad for the poor construct.
"So we walk around the entire city holding that device until it starts to spin?" she asked. "Waterdeep is big."
"My feet are killing me just thinking about it," Aleina said.
"We are working for the Watch," Sky said. "For the Open Lord. There is a much much better way of searching the city using Nim's device. Faster too. Much faster. And more fun."
A nervous pit formed in the half-drow's stomach at these words and the excited glint in her friend's golden eyes. Things were about to get crazy, tabaxi crazy.
This took a long time to write. I felt like I was just wading through a morass trying to write it in such a way as to make you poor readers feel like you weren't wading through an info dump morass. But then on the other side maybe I'm pushing the plot along too fast? Its a conundrum.
My one non-internet friend who is reading this has just discovered Brandon Sanderson (she is reading the Way of Kings). When I get a chance I want to ask her what Sanderson does to make his characters and world so beloved and engaging. Its a tough nut to crack of course (every writer is looking to figure out wherein layeth the magic where the reader becomes 'hooked').