The Coveted Forge
Chapter 4 - Forging from Steel
The Commander went ahead, marching out from one of the lodges to the snow fields surrounding the wooden square. He knew he had drawn Rox' curiosity enough for her to pick up the pace. "Wait, what do you mean?", she asked. She pulled her shortbow off the straps on her back and once she had caught up enough, presented it. "What did you mean by finding me a weapon? I already got this bow."
"How much success have you had hitting targets with this bow?"
She let her head sag down and grumbled. "None. But what does it matter? I tried lots of other weapons in the past, they always broke, or I broke something bigger with them. If I tried something new now, why would it be different?"
The Commander led them across the snow surrounding the big square between the lodges, towards Raven lodge where they had visited Varont the day before. "I don't know it'll be different, I'm just guessing. For the same reason why we didn't do this when we were still at the Citadel.."
They visited one of the two Whispers agents in their camp, but there was no news of a sudden deployment. They had at least one more day. Upon heading back towards the square, they took a sharp turn to the left, into the caverns far beneath. These caverns were almost as expansive as the area between the lodges.
They were known as 'Shelter Rock', an entire district carved into the interior of one of the mountains surrounding Hoelbrak. The many tents and tiny houses built inside, housing less fortunate inhabitants had always given the Commander the impression that Shelter Rock was perhaps a tacit admission from Hoelbrak's builders, that this place was no longer just a few homesteads for a handful of rich Norn families, but an actual town with many other people that lived there for their entire lives.
Inside Shelter Rock, there was one house that dwarfed everything around it. A Norn homestead as large as those only found far out in the snowy mountain ranges. Its curved form was cradled by the outer wall of the cave.
There were several Norn sitting and standing outside the building, but one in particular kept watch right at the front door and immediately took note of the Commander and Rox approaching. He was a bearded man with black hair, and his clothing was conspicuously elaborate. Unlike all the Norn dressed in makeshift harnesses adorned with animal pelts his getup was tailored and tanned completely, much like a human's. Enormous leather belts dyed brown and red wrapped over his dirty white shirt like suspenders, holding up the elaborate and carefully dyed trousers, with stray ends of those red belts hanging down from several angles. Even his gloves were of the same, unusually artificial make.
Upon noticing that they were walking right towards him, he waved at them. "Hail, strangers. What can I do for you?"
The Commander knew who this was from being told about him when he traveled through the Shiverpeaks in the past. "Greetings. You must be Einar Blackforge."
The Norn smiled and nodded. "The one and only."
The Commander turned to Rox. "He is a famous blacksmith. Weapons made by and for the Norn are also durable enough to withstand being used by Norn. If anyone can make a weapon so strong you can't break it, it will be Einar Blackforge."
Einar immediately understood and folded up his arms. "It sounds like you're coming to me with a challenge. I accept it. Provided you can pay, I will see if we can find your friend a weapon. Follow me."
He led them into his house. A strange oddity was that on the opposite side, where similar buildings would simply end, there was another door, a solid metal door located where the back wall should have been. Presumably leading into another cave or room further inside the mountain. He unlocked the door and under a strained effort, pushed it open, revealing a hallway that led even further into the mountain and branched out in three directions further inside. Unlike the very improvised cave, this area was completely even, with the walls and edges perfectly smoothed out.
The left and right of the hallway were lined with weapon racks and displays, holding a range of weapons fashioned in different styles. The runic filigrees the Norn were known for, were far from the only designs present. The walls were adorned with framed paintings of foreign-looking weapons, including variants from Krytan and Charr styles, all the way to Canthan ones.
Rox was in awe. "Wow, how far into the mountain does this place go?"
The blacksmith stayed at the door upon closing it again. "Pretty far. It was only a small room at first, the bare minimum for operating an anvil. But when people saw the quality of my work, I made a fortune supplying hunters and soldiers from far and wide." The reason he stayed behind was that this door was not just immensely heavy, but there was a set of over a dozen locks lining the entire frame that he had to secure before joining them. "I hired an expensive Asuran crew to expand it, and they gave me everything I could ask for."
The Norn led them through the corridor, past several staircases and crossings. "Several layers carved into the mountains and reinforced, a fully equipped forge, a stream of water funneled from an outside creek to cool my irons with, personal living quarters, an armory, they even set up a mine so I can mine my own ores." They stopped at one of the upward staircases. "We will first go to the armory." Einar turned to Rox. "I want to see your skills with my own eyes." The Charr showed an understandable degree of apprehension, but she nodded and followed the other two upstairs.
They arrived in the armory, which as it turned out, doubled as a training room of sorts. Three of the large rectangular room's four walls were covered in more shelves and weapon racks featuring every type of weapon commonly used from swords to bows all the way to firearms. All of them engraved with tunic designs making them recognizable as being made by a Norn. The floor was covered in wooden planks, as were the walls to give the interior a feel more in line with the lodges of Hoelbrak. One side was dedicated to storing a supply of training dummies of various kinds, some of which were set up around the room. Some were standing on the floor and made of wood or straw, others were sacks of grain hanging off the ceiling.
Blackforge pointed at the bow on Rox' back in-between adjusting one of the wooden dummies. "I take it that shortbows are your weapon of choice?"
She shrugged and pulled it off the strap holding it. "It's the closest thing I've had to any success. My aim isn't good enough to hit targets at long range, so no longbows and the legions never trusted me with a gun."
"That is fine. Just show me what you CAN do and we will see from there." The Norn wandered back to the others and scratched his beard while watching the freakish-looking Charr prepare herself. The training dummy Einar set up had a wooden target attached to it, which was facing Rox and the Commander. The dummy had been secured so it couldn't turn around anymore, perfect for practising with a bow.
The Commander had a bad feeling right away and hid behind one of the training dummies. He also thought to advise Einar: "Uh, Blackforge, you might want to take cover."
The Norn waved his concerns away. "Nonsense, we're all on the other side of the armory. It'll be fine."
Rox readied an arrow, took aim and shot. Her arrow flew cleanly past the target and hit the floor near the wall. The Norn encouraged her. "No problem, try again." The readied another arrow, took aim and shot. This time, it soared over the target and hit the wall on the other side, barely missing the weapons lining it. "Try to aim at the target, not the wall behind it. Again!" Again she nocked an arrow, took aim and shot. This time it didn't even reach the target, it hit the floor before it could.
The blacksmith walked off to the side. "Maybe there's an issue with the bow itself." He picked one of the shortbows off the displays on the wall and returned to her. "Here. Try one of mine."
"Thanks." Rox accepted Einar's bow, put her own on the floor and pulled another arrow out of her quiver.
"Now remember, you want to aim at the target, not the wall. But you still want to put some force into it."
"Got it. At the target, but with force." The disheveled Charr pulled out another arrow and lined it up against the bow string. She was unsure about this shot, so she adjusted her feet. Unfortunately, she ended up standing on her old bow, which set her off balance.
She was too focused on pulling back the arrow and aiming at the target to notice in time, so when she loosened the arrow, she lost her balance and ended up botching the shot. It flew past the target, ricocheted off one of the metal parts of the wall, ricocheted off the metal frame of another wall, and then another, and another…
It went too fast for anyone to follow, all they heard was the loud wince coming from the Norn. "Argh…" the arrow was stuck in Einar Blackforge's chest. He trembled, but stood and the fabric of his white shirt quickly reddened around the arrow.
The Commander needed a moment for it to register, but he came out from his cover and ran to the pained Norn. "By the gods, what has she done?"
Rox joined them as well, immediately excusing herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"
The Commander took a look at the arrow. The arrow head was firmly stuck inside. "We need to get you a monk, or some other healer."
The Norn, visibly strained, made a dismissive gesture. "No need, kind stranger." He reached for the arrow and pulled it out. It came out without issue, its head still attached. "It's barely a cut. I've walked off way worse things."
The Commander's alertness made way for confusion. All tension was tentatively withdrawn. "Wait, really?"
The Norn simply gave the bloodied arrows back to the Charr, by this point his stance was back to normal. "I'll need to replace the shirt, but one measly arrow can't do much beyond that."
The human faced Rox again. "I didn't know that arrows ricochet off rough surfaces so easily, how did you even do that?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like I was trying to do that."
The bearded Norn, now that he had his bearings again, looked down on Rox with a stern expression. "Either way, I can now clearly see that the problem lies with you. You are so clumsy that you are a danger to yourself and others." He turned around to go back to some of the weapon displays. "I recommend that you try melee weapons instead. An axe and a mace should work."
He brought her one one-handed axe and a similarly sized mace. The blade and blunt of both were solid metal, but the grips were made of wood with leather wrapped around. One side of the mace had a wooden slab with more tunic carvings attached. And the axe's hilt was so short that the blade wound over most of it. "These two should do the trick for any immediate emergencies. If you're willing to come by tomorrow I will forge an axe and a mace just for you, tailored to your needs. I'll make the designs more crude, but in return it'll all be solid steel, much harder to break."
The Commander asked the obvious question: "Why an axe and a mace?"
The blacksmith laughed. "For starters, she can't hurt anyone with those unless she's within striking range or she decides to throw them. But also, if she can't wield any particular weapon effectively, why not take weapons that can double as tools? Need to knock someone out without carving them open? The mace is your friend. Need to crush some herbs and there's no mortar? The mace is your friend. Need to crack some stones? The mace is your friend. Need to chop some wood? The axe is your friend."
Rox wasn't convinced, but she was open to the suggestion. "If you say so. I'm willing to give it a try. It's the least I can do after what happened."
The Commander was content with this outcome as well. There was one more issue the blacksmith had to raise though. "I'm still going to need you to pay for those. At least for until your actual weapons are done."
"Oh of course." They went to a different room where the Commander and Einar exchanged coins so he could pay an affordable price. They agreed that he paid for the weapons to be forged, and once they were done, they could exchange the borrowed weapons for Rox' new ones.
On their way back, Rox stopped. "Commander!"
"Yes?"
"Thanks. For doing this." She held up her new weapons.
"The gold I brought was intended to be spent on us as a group. That's part of the point with guilds. To pool resources and spend them where they benefit everyone. But I'll need you to use those new weapons. I don't want to get shot."
"I won't touch the bow until you say otherwise. I promise."
Rox couldn't wait for her new weapons. First thing in the morning after they left their rooms at the inn, she asked to check in at Blackforge's homestead. For lack of other specific tasks, the Commander obliged. They descended into Shelter Rock, past the tent city and to the large house on the other side.
"Strangers, welcome back." Einar Blackorge was already waiting, he wore a new shirt under his usual brightly coloured get up, as though nothing had happened. There were two small wooden cabins set up next to where he stood. "One crude but built-to-last axe and mace coming right up."
The giant pulled a small key out of a pocket and unlocked the wooden cabins. On a display within each was one of the weapons they had ordered, along with a leather sling and steel ring to attach them to a belt with. The mace especially looked very basic, it really was just a solid ball of steel with a grip not just forged onto it, but as part of the same mold. The axe's blade wrapped even more closely over Rox' hand when she grabbed it than the borrowed one, almost like a brass knuckle.
They were exactly as ordered. No wooden grips, decorative slates, engravings or filigrees. Just simple, each was a single object, with no components that were prone to breaking off. The safest bet for a weapon Rox could have. "I'll call them 'Rox' Club' and 'Rox' Cleaver', the names are simple and to the point, just like the weapons themselves."
The Commander stepped aside and gestured for the starry-eyed Charr to fetch them. "Go ahead, take them."
She was frozen in place, for a moment at least, when she snapped out of it, she hurried to hand over the borrowed weapons and grab the new ones. "I'm sorry, I'm just kinda…"
The blacksmith gave the borrowed ones a quick look. "No signs of use. Perfect. Our business is over. Have fun with your club and cleaver. I'll go and put those away."
They thanked him and left. While they strolled across the snow outside Shelter Rock, the Commander couldn't help but notice that Rox was clenching her new weapons instead of using the holding components to attach them to her waist. He casually asked his lynx-like companion: "Why are you getting this excited over those things?"
She stuttered. "Sorry, I, uh, I've had people let me use tons of weapons before. But those were always standard issue, these are personal. Weapons for me personally. I haven't gotten something like this since my sire gave me the bow."
"Your sire? As in your father? Aren't Charr supposed to avoid contact with their relatives?"
"They're not supposed to, but that doesn't stop them."
"I see. Well, congratulations, I suppose." With Rox' business wrapped up, it was time to visit the Whispers agents. The Commander hoped they would have had more time to stick around for several reasons, but he had a feeling they weren't going to be this lucky for much longer.