Completed [The Ironworks] Iron Oak Leaves

[Ethan Ironhorse]

25th of Summer 513 AV Ironworks and Ethan’s Room If someone had to say what one of Syliras' biggest industries were, armor and metalwork would definitely have to The Ironworks and the sheer amount of metal products produced there. Since Ros Vizerian also owns the The Lykolav Iron Mine, one of the largest in Mizahar, it also seems fitting that it was named for his mother who discovered it ages past. Now, fully supplied by its own prime source of iron, the Ironworks is the single largest forge in the region or even neighboring regions (outside of Kalea). The Ironworks was a normal result of the needs of the Syliran Knights, who demand a huge amount of armor, barding, and weaponry to keep at their task of re-establishing civilization in a world gone mad with disaster. However, the Ironworks aren't just about weapons and armor. Syliras has a great deal of agriculture and requires farm implements, iron for the outside of wagon wheels, and all sorts of fixtures, fasteners, and things like nails for building - rasps for farriers, horseshoes, and even bits for bridles. The Ironworks makes all of this and more. With the capacity for ten forges going at one, The Ironworks employs over fifty full time workers, most highly skilled. Ethan woke up once more to darkness, his small room called out to him with loneliness. There were times that Ethan had woken up in a girl in his bed, the smell of her filling his nostrils The feel of her body pressed against his as he woke up, it was in those moments that Ethan didn’t feel alone, almost as if his mind could trick himself into believing that for a brief moment the girl in his arms was there because they were together, not because of a night of passion. Often it was because of that false hope that Ethan stayed away from such encounters. Ethan tossed the blanket on his bed off his naked form and walked over to his chest. He opened it an briefly looked through it for his money pouch. There in the corner of the musty chest, in his spare right boot Ethan found his savings. A bad night of drinking and chasing women could empty his savings to nothing. Even now Ethan went over to the pot in the hearth and opened the lid. The food was getting low, and he could only afford so many more vegetables for the pot to spread the stew/gruel till pay day. It was time to gamble. Ethan picked up the spilt wood by the heart and placed it in the fireplace, he knelt next to the table in which four worn wooden figurines no bigger than his thumb stood. Ethan picked up a figurine with long hair and flowers about her feet. The symbol of Cheva’s rose was carved upon the pedestal and as Ethan enclosed his hands upon the figurine in a lose embraced. The head of the figurine was above Ethan’s enclosed hands and he brought the worn face to his forehead in a position of piety Ethan felt the emotions within come to the front of his mind. “Cheva… Goddess of Love, every day I feel alone, filled with the want to have someone in my arms. Filled with the desire to know that person is in loved with me and me with her. At times my hands fill so lonely without her hand to hold. I do not know her name, or her face. All I can tell you is that I yearn for her daily, that I look upon my room and only see what it is missing. At times I have fallen to this loneness and sought the embrace of women. I do not feel that I have betrayed her by doing so, I also only showed the women I have been with kindness and joy. I pray to you not to ask for greatness or the face of the woman I am to love, for that is not my path. I pray to have the strength to get up and face the people who are in love and be happy for them. Cheva, I pray that their happiness strengthens the world. Please know that my own desires for love were spoken to leave the poison of loneliness in the air, and for it to be replaced with hope that I find her. Praise be to the Cheva.” Ethan kept the figurine to his forehead, while the feeling of loneliness fled him, it wasn’t replaced by new found strength, but calm came over him as his emotions were purged. He kissed the face of the figurine of Cheva and placed her on the table. Ethan picked up the figurine of Izurdin the feeling of strength spread through his arms and chest. Ethan paused for a moment as the head of Izurdin rested against his own forehead. Ethan focused on the feeling of strength in his arms and spoke his prayer, “Izurdin, I go forth today with my savings to bid on a job. I ask that the strength of my arms do not fail me, that I have the patience to plan well and embrace the vision of my own creation. I may not be a child of Isur, but today and the next I seek your patient inspiration. My hand will fall with hammer to create from iron a piece of my upmost skill, I pledge that as I create this piece I will seek the strength within for as you teach we your children have the gift of creation within us, and I praise you for that spark.” Ethan felt the strength in his arms spread to his heart and mind, it was not supernatural but as if by praying his own mind, body, and heart aligned. Ethan placed the figurine back amongst the others. Some quiet had come over Ethan soul, and for the moment he didn’t feel the need to eat or want of something more. Softly he got dressed and removed his savings from the chest and left his room allowing the words to hold in the air as he went to work. Ethan was able to go into the Ironworks earlier than normal having missed his morning meal. However, though his stomach was empty his was ready for work. Ros’ clerk was putting up orders on the gray slate outside near the forge, but Ethan knew that today he wouldn’t be filling the order’s on the list. Today he wanted something of skill and effort, today he wanted to purchase the materials from Ros and make something his own for private sale. Ethan entered the workshop office that Ros used to review orders, the Isurian was behind his desk reviewing slips of paper, while behind him a slate board and chalk designs with notes were scribbled. Ethan waited for Ros, feeling the strain of his own patience to interrupt. Ethan stood still allowing Ros to merely feel his presence, not to be alerted by scratching or coughing. Ros put down a piece of paper and as if he was going to look up and address Ethan, he stopped and picked up another paper. Ethan closed his eyes and let that feeling of strength and inner patience come back to him. Ethan choose this time for inner reflection, he didn’t know if Ros was testing him or if he was simply choosing a technique to rid the man of a what he could consider a nuisance. Ethan allowed the thoughts to drift away and he focused on the feel of hot iron under his hands. The feeling was familiar and the vibration of iron, as well as, it musical note when he struck it came to him.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

"What do you want Ironhorse?” Ros spoke. Ethan opened his eyes and spoke with a clarity in his voice, “I wish to fulfill a customer order.” Ethan walked forward and placed the small amount of savings he had on the desk of Ros. “I have the need to create Master Vizerian and to test my skill.” Ros watched the man, and Ethan looked the blacksmith in the eyes. Today, Ethan felt the need to bring forth all his skill and strength into iron. For Ros it was a surprise, Ironhorse rarely asked for customer orders, as the risk was that you could lose the cost of materials and in the end lose the wages of each day of work. Yet, in his eyes he saw the not only the desperation by the need to challenge, to Ros it had been a subtle change in the man’s character over the past year. His senior apprentices had been talking about Ethan for some time now, stating that he should be tested to see if he was ready for better projects then just shoeing horses. Yet, Ethan hadn’t put the time in at the foundry to be considered over other apprentices for better jobs. Perhaps this would help force the man to greater devotion to the craft, or it would break his savings and would force Ros to post the man out at the outpost for the foreseeable future. Ros poured out the Ethan’s savings on the desk, and looked at the little amount of coin. Most customer orders required four times the amount of starting money, due to Ros requiring twice the payment in materials in case he had to recreate the order. Still there was something the young man might be able to make… Ros, searched through his stack of orders. Deep in the stack of orders there was one from the Sylirian Knights. They wanted a new design for candle holders found throughout the offices and rooms of the higher knights. The older ones had been crafted twenty some odd years ago. Simple and sturdy, the candle holders were nothing impressive, but now the Knights wanted a little something more grandiose. Though Ros never refused an order from the Knights the Candle Stick holders weren’t high on his list of things to do. He was able to hold off the order sighting the numerous other orders the Knights requested with higher priority. Besides, if Ethan could forge one piece of the candle holder Ros could then use molds to create identical pieces being able to finish the order. “Here boy, create one of the legs for a new candle holder and after I inspect it, we will cast four of them binding them into the final product. The Candle is to be a floor holder for the Knighthood leaders, it will have to be casted multiple times so nothing so complex that the mold would have to be a onetime use each time for a quarter of the holder. Yet, the holder needs to be designed pleasing to the eye and meaningful. Since the design will be in quarters, apprentices can practice their wielding techniques by wielding all quarters together. Put together a piece and I will see what it is worth, since I can use it to recast over again and fill multiple orders.” Ros scope up the miza’s on the table and then went back to reviewing different orders. Ethan walked away from the office slightly depressed, he had wanted something grand. Something that was significant, yet a candle holder was something for a simple smith. As Ethan walked over to his forge, he couldn’t help feeling like he had been handle something normal, yet he couldn’t back out of the task now. Ros had taken his savings for the metal and had given him an order. Ethan placed his hands on the anvil and felt stood with his eyes downcast. The emotions of feeling like a fool and a common smith came to him. He wanted so much more… slowly Ethan began the exercise that Devandil, Ethan took a deep breath and allow all the tension to leave his form. His began to focus on the cold iron anvil below him. The touch of iron took away his thoughts of defeatism. His deep breaths allowed him to calm himself, and the cool touch began to work his way up his hands. The feeling of strength began to take root in his arms, and Ethan allowed his deep breaths to fill his arms with that feeling. The energy began to spread to his heart and slowly the two connected. It was like a great stream of strength as it came up his arms it swirled in the well of his heart, and slowly a thin fog became drifting up in his mind. Thoughts of disappoint and wanting to prove himself left him. Something stirred inside of him, his own soul cried out to create visions of candle holders came to him and he realized that the simple shapes of triangles with tree holders weren’t enough, and yet the shape of the tree began to morph inside of him. A tree was often used as the name of a holder that had evenly spaced basins decreasing by steps. Yet what if a tree could be something more? Ethan went up to the gray slate for the apprentices to draw designs. He began by drawing a crude representation of the Windoak tree that was on every Sylirian Knight shield. Ethan had seen the symbol done in tapestries, shields and even decorations. The old candle holders had even some of the elements of the symbol, yet Ethan wanted more. He began to erase half of the tree and looked at the branches. The Windoak had always been without leaves, and so Ethan began to add oak leaves on the lower branches, connecting some of the leaves with other branches. His first few attempts made the leaves to big, as he looked at the problem he began to draw oak leaves in bunches, smaller and smaller off the side. Finally, he found the right size and began to draw strikes at the points in which he would insert the bunches of leaves at. In his mind he began to see the light of a candle simmering back and forth across the pattern making the floor look like the forest canopy. Yet on the upper branches he began to leave bare so that he could insert holed branches which would allow a spike candle holder to drop down. Ethan stopped for a moment as he realized that the casting wouldn’t be able to compensate for the holes. Instead Ethan began to draw a candle cup with a hole and used the spike of the branch to hold the candle and cup. Ethan reviewed the bottom of the tree and drew the standard curled legs. Looking at the top of the candle tree he began to think that the standard bottom didn’t fit. Ethan instead began to draw the bare branches that the original sigil had for roots. However, the wide curled ends of the feet gave better balance the thin branches that Ethan had drawn. Ethan knew that he could add complexity, but if he did so it would end up requiring the mold be more complex and would run the risk of being more than multiple use mold. So he began to compromise, gentle sloping roots with wide curls were drawn. Ethan looked up at the slate with his notes, and felt that beginnings of a good piece.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan sat looking at the drawing feeling that he was missing something. The grouping of leaves added a dimension and depth to the piece; while Ethan was a little disappointed with the legs of the candlestick holder, when compared to the top. Not coming up with any interesting ideas on how to exchange the legs for something more visual Ethan began to figure out the sectioning work. Overall, Ethan had to be grateful to Ros for asking him to make an original casting. He could make the candle holder into parts and then place them in a clay mold to cask the final piece. The senior casting apprentice could help Ethan in development of the runners and needed channels for the piece. Reviewing the grouping of oak leaves, he looked at the drawing and thought about how thick the grouping needed to be. His original thought was to make them as thick as the center rod and he began to calculate how much iron would be needed for a single grouping. If the leaves were a little less thick then his little finger and the grouping was roughly diameter of his palm. He figured it would weigh roughly half a pound, and it was at that point Ethan realized his mistake. The tree with branches would roughly five pounds while the trunk and stand wouldn’t weigh more than three. Even though casting the candle stick the iron could support the weight, he realized that the candle holder would be top heavy and in the end it was likely to be unbalanced. So Ethan began to redesign the leaves, the deep groves and curls that originally he hoped for would have to replace with something simpler and lighter. Ethan recognized that the light of the candle would keep the lower leaves from really being seen, and in truth he only wanted the effect of leaf cover on the ground as part of the shadows cast from the candles. So Ethan drew a simple oak leaf that could be placed multiple times in the clay to give the entire tree a sense of leaves. Once the general shape was determined, Ethan went to the forge and pulled a small left over iron bar piece from the scrap bin. The iron began to heat up as Ethan went about the forge pulling tongs and wedges to start the hammering and cutting. He also picked up a blacksmith hook for the anvil, the hook was a long circle that came to a point to pin smaller pieces to the anvil to allow the blacksmith use of both hands. Once the iron was hot enough Ethan pulled the piece from the forge and began to hammer it into a flat oval shape. Flakes of iron began to fall off the piece after each hammer strike. For Ethan, he felt that the first step to his piece was on its way. Ethan allowed the energy that he had felt in the morning to carry him on making the leaf. The oval took shape as Ethan was careful to make sure that it had even thickness before he took the wedge to start cutting the shape out. The wedge hammer was nothing more than a long chisel that Ethan could hammer. Ethan knew that he would have to make long straight cuts and then pound out the upset iron. As the wedge did its job the general shape of the leaf took placed. Once the rough shape had been hammered out Ethan picked up the wedge on more time to make indents down the spines of the leaf, giving it a little more life. Once done Ethan gave the left over bar a bit of pounding to form a ring so that he could imprint the leaf into clay. As the leaf went into the quench barrel, Ethan realized that he had worked most of the day. A headache had began to form because Ethan had skipped eating in the morning. Still he knew that if didn’t finish the leaf today he would be able to form the clay mold on the morrow. So when the steam and hissing stopped, Ethan took out rasps and files. Placing the leaf in a vise, Ethan began to round the sides of the leaf to a smooth shape using the rasps and files. It was a longer process then the actual forming of the leaf due to the imprecise cuts from the wedge, as Ethan worked he heard the other apprentices began to leave and head home. Only a few of the junior smiths stayed to watch over the forge fires and smelting pots. Black iron dust coated Ethan’s hands at every pull from the file. By the time he finished the leaf, he was exhausted and hungry. He pulled the work from the vice and looked it over. Feeling that it might not be the grandest of works, but it still showed skill and craftsmanship. OOCCredit for the oak leaf goes to Green Mountain Fire and Hammer.com Ethan placed the work down on the anvil and went to the wash barrel to clean himself up, before leaving to eat a bowl of stew and sleep.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan awoke swore and tired; the day before had been a hard task to file the oak leaf shape down. Ethan had gotten home late in the night, glad for the security of Syliras. As soon as he had gotten home, he had eaten a bowl of stew and went to bed. Ethan was glad that today he would only be working with molds and not have to do hard hammer work. Getting up he placed a log on the fire and lifted the lid of the pot. Looking at the brown simmering gruel, Ethan took a small half ladle and poured it in his bowl. Hunger ate at his stomach, but he would have to let be careful at how much he ate. There was no more money for him to spare, until Ros paid him for the customer order, or he received his wages for working at the Ironworks what he had in the pot was all he was going to eat. Ethan was slow in eating the tasteless gruel, he wanted every water thin bit of gravy to last before he went back to the Ironworks. As Ethan looked down at his bowl he used his fingers to lick up the last bit of food, before he got up and went to work. It was still early in the morning as he walked down the hallways. People were starting to get up to perform their daily tasks, voices behind doors and hushed morning conversations drifted through the hallways. Ethan entered the foundry during the morning hours and picked up a mold box. The mold wasn’t very thick since it would only hold thin grouping of the leaves. Taking the box back to the gray slate that held his notes, Ethan began to push the leaf into the soft clay mixture, taking a small bladed knife and wiping always the excess clay that came up from the pressure of the placement. Before Ethan removed the leaf to press it in a new spot, he thought about the pattern that he would make, focusing on the general shape and how much metal would be used. Once done, Ethan brought it over to the senior foundry apprentice and asked him to help put casting and channel lines in the clay. The man did so explaining where they needed to go and how the clay would take a day to fire and harden before they could risk pouring copper into it. Ethan was glad that copper would be used, since the softer metal would allow him to file or add details easier. The leaf had to have been iron to stand up to the repeated use of the clay and still hold its shape firm. If Ethan had used copper, the thinness of the metal could have bent after the repeated imprints. Ethan view the mold as it went off to kiln. It would come back and Ethan would have the pattern set for the tree. However, that meant another mold would have to be made to cast the final overall quarter shape of candle holder. Once done, the iron stock could be casted in hard die and Ros could start casting the candle holders, by having the apprentices use flux to wield the four quarters together. Ethan looked around the forge knowing that Ros didn’t allow smiths on customer orders to go to the next order before it was finished. It had only taken half the day to form the pattern and pray that ask for help. So without other work to do, Ethan went back to his room, hoping that the firing and cooling of the mold would go quickly. Ethan looked at his small room and began to wonder, what he was going to do. He couldn’t eat and he wasn’t tired, he couldn’t go out and spend money that he no longer had. He looked up at the lone philtering book he had and just couldn’t bring himself to review the formula loving dreaming that one day to make a potion or tonic that would learn him something. The only thing left for him to do, was the one thing he had been putting off. Ever sense Devandil had slapped his forehead and called him out for not mastering the most simple of shielding technique’s Ethan had been putting off practicing the skill. Perhaps it was shame that had kept him from trying, or perhaps it was the sense of absolute embarrassment that he would fail yet again. Whatever the cause Ethan realized that right now he didn’t have an excuse not to practice, so Ethan pushed a table out of the way and sat down cross legged on the floor. Ethan began his shielding practice, much like he had before. He took deep breaths in through his nose, allowing the deep cleansing breath to fill his body with energy and slowly soak into his muscles relaxing him. As he exhaled, he pictured all the stray thoughts and feeling of hunger leaving his body. Once, Ethan felt a state of calm and the intrusion of only a stray thought now and again, he opened his eyes and looked down at his palm. Ethan focused his mind on an iron ring, his anchor of information, as his mind brought forth the changes in Djed of the air right above his skin. It gave him a soft tingling sensation as to his mind’s eye a bright pinprick of light appeared above his palm. Ethan moved his palm and saw the bright little dot of light move with his hand in delayed response. Ethan allowed the anchor point to collapse, as he tried to understand why the anchor only moved as a delayed response. Softly, Ethan continued his deep breathing as allowing his mind to review the feelings and thoughts of the anchor point. He had summoned the anchor in his mind and force his will and energy to effect change. He had pictured where the anchor point would be by thinking of his hand and a small point above one of the deep lines in his palm right at the wrist. It was then that Ethan felt the small tiny thread Djed that trailed behind his hand. Ethan hadn’t forced the information of the anchor to tether it to one spot. Djed was about the altering of reality through replacing information. He hadn’t really provide the location of anchor and his mind was moving the anchor along with his hand. In his excitement, Ethan realized that he had lost his calm state and had to go through the breathing exercise once more to open himself up. As Ethan, painstakingly went through the breathing mantra. He once again envisioned a iron ring for his anchor, however, this time before pressing his will into action he gave the ring absolute feeling of one small spot of his palm. Pushing with effort the tiny dot once again appeared on his palm, but as he moved his hand the dot stayed where it was, and Ethan smiled at the small accomplishment. Slowly Ethan brought up his hand to pull the anchor forward. Though Ethan saw the light divide in two and in his mind he pictured a brown leather strap connecting them. Ethan saw two points on his hand and a small wavy thread between the two. Taking his fingers, Ethan pinched the anchor point and pushed it back till the thread became sturdy and strong. Each time Ethan seemed to have to adjust the distance between the two anchor points to provide a consistent shield. As Ethan griped the thread and began to move think about dividing the line to form a square, he saw the new anchor point drift as he tugged. Trying to keep his calm, Ethan focused on the floating anchor point and pushed the impression of location on it. Ethan painstakingly worked the shield into a tiny cube like before, having to adjust the anchor points and tethers to make the shield strong and symmetrical. When Ethan had force the impression of the location at the last anchor point, he pressed the feeling of cube into the shielding almost as if imprinting the idea of forever into it. Once done, Ethan broke his concentration by standing up and walking over to the bookshelf, and trying to read a passage or two. As he did so, he felt the sense of the shield slip his mind, but instead of popping out of existence the shield slowly melted away after three long breaths. Ethan smiled, he had done what Devandil had wanted and allowed a shield to exist after his concentration was broken. Granted it was far from a long time, but only have seven bells of working at the problem his mind had come up with a solution, because of that and that alone Ethan humble meal was as close to a victory feast he would receive.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

26th of Summer 513 AV Ironworks and Ethan’s Room Ethan awoke about his usual time, and lightly swore. He really didn’t need to be back at the Ironworks till midday to see if the casting was done, so he had the morning to himself. However, just like last night, he had nothing to do because he could not spend money. Opening the pot he looked down at the gruel and felt the heavy weight of his stomach. He was hungry, but in the end he spooned out half a ladle full into a bowl. Ethan saw the thin gravy layer swoosh back and forth, as a few carrots, potatoes, and little onion sunk down to the bottom. He was providing himself with half rations, in hopes that he would survive till payday or until Ros made his determination if the quarter for the candle stick holder was sufficient. Sitting down Ethan tried to savor ever bite of the tasteless gruel. Once done, Ethan sat in his chair, looked around his room. Feeling the need to do something, Ethan cleaned the room as best as he could. After tiding his space up, he sat at the table to go through his breathing exercises. Ethan felt that every time he practiced the deep state of relaxation, it came one or two breaths quicker. As Ethan slowly slipped into his meditative state, he began to focus on the bridle ring that served as his anchor for a shield. Ethan allowed himself to ponder the nature of the ring. To him it was an image or foci to state where the shield should start. However, Djed was nothing more than information manifested from his own mind or soul. Right now he understood location, the ideal or knowledge of where the shield should exist and where in relation to something else. Location was key, otherwise his mind was burden keeping the shield approximation to where his hand was. He had used the thought pattern to focus on the point right above to intersect lines in his palm. Yet he could put that information anywhere, around a book, in his doorframe, on his storage chest; any of it was possible as long as he had information about the place. Realization that sight also was a factor, in order for him to try and do something at a distance, the details of the place were needed in order for it to be feasible for him to accurately shield the space. Yet, perhaps he didn’t need detail, but a general impression of the area. Ethan thought of his palm, his knowledge of the area right above it was easily obtained and he was very familiar with it, therefore in his mind he had a feeling or imprint of the location for the shield. If he had tried to cast somewhere else that he didn’t know, he was likely to end up with a crazy and imperfect shield. In fact it made sense to him that unless someone understood the area in which they were casting the shield for, the sense of location of self was the safest and easiest way to start. The location of here, was imprinted in his mind since it was a part of himself. In his relaxed stated he began to feel every part of his body, though some areas weren’t as familiar as others, his back for one, and understood that the sense of location made sense. So with that Ethan focused on his palm and forced the idea of there as a tiny point of light appeared coming from his mind. Ethan realized that tiny point was just how his mind thought what a shield should look like; its physical presence wouldn’t be detected since the Djed was merely information imprinted in reality. Deciding to try and erect the biggest shield he could in the least amount of time, Ethan pinched the anchor point like he was holding a piece of chalk. Ethan began to move his hand back and forth like he was filling in a slate board. Hundreds of little points of light started to appear, and in between them were tethers. As he continued, he saw the lines and anchor moving back and forth. In some cases the lines bunched up or thinned out, while the anchor points began to fizzle, pop and release. It wasn’t till Ethan stopped brushing and focused on certain anchor points giving them a sense of location could he continue. By midday Ethan had a shield around his entire left arm. If he held it out straight the shield look evenly spread and as powerful as he could make it, but as he bent his arm, hand, or fingers, the lines and anchor points adjusted budging at certain points. Ethan suspected that he had to whimsical setting anchor points whenever the shield go to big and would began to collapse on itself. Ethan focused on the shield and trying to impart endurance into it, but just like before as Ethan stopped concentrating on it the shield faded out after a few long breaths. Ethan was going to have to come up with a way, to make shields last longer before he went back to Devandil. As Ethan got up, he realized that he had been sweating from concentration of creating a shield. He went over to the wash basin and lightly scrubbed himself before he headed out to work.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan went into the Ironworks with a tired look. He was hungry and the hours of concentration from performing shielding had exhausted his mind. The only thing that was allowing Ethan to continue to move was the idea of seeing the mold and the casting for the upper candle tree. Ethan went into the Ironworks and headed over to the foundry. The ceramic mold for the leaves had been set out, no more than a hand’s width deep, Ethan touched the cooled clay surface. The senior apprentice came over and told Ethan that they had already a small pot of copper melted and ready to pour. Carefully, Ethan removed the ceramic mold from the table and moved it over to the blast furnace. Apprentices more familiar with pouring and maintaining a die after the pour would handle the leaves. Ethan had just come by to watch and help with the pour. The senior apprentice setup a steel funnel to help with the pour of the copper. Ethan took one of the long poles of steel with a hood as him and another apprentice snagged the pot in the blast furnace. Normally Ethan could lift twenty pounds without trouble, the problem was that even though the small pot and melted copper was no more than twenty pounds the long pole multiplied the weight and difficulty of the task. Yet to shorten the pole was to get too close to the blast furnace and risk with the terrible heat that melted metal. Ethan called out to the other apprentice to make sure that watched his step and knew where they were going. When Ethan and the other apprentice came to the mold, the senior apprentice was ready with another steel rod to help with the pour. Slowly the Senior apprentice began to raise the smelting pot as Ethan struggled to keep the pot level and still. The bright orange liquid began to move from the smelting pot down into the funnel, and Ethan slowly saw the metal began to move across the surfaces of the mold. Another apprentice came in and began to move the melted copper into all the mold, in order to prevent slip over of the copper. As more and more metal was poured into the sprue, the channel allowed the metal to flow into the form. After the first initial help the apprentice had performed, he was able to fill in little areas as the metal didn’t want to go to the tips of the leaves. The pot ran empty, the pot was moved back unto the sandy floor. The weight removed from his shoulders felt good and Ethan took the moment to stretch. The pot would cool and an apprentice would come in with a sledge hammer to beat the left over copper from the smelting pot. Ethan left the area to collect his own tools before coming back to an anvil and vise. The apprentices were already setting up a sand box for a casting of the finished product. Ethan was able to copper casting from the ceramic mold without breaking the mold, and Ethan saw one of the apprentices move the mold off into a back room. Ethan knew that it would be labeled and placed so that the foundry could use it again for other projects. Setting the copper into the forge Ethan heated up the sections which connected to the channels so that he could use the wedge like hammer to cut the pieces off. He also had grabbed files and rasps to smooth out the die casting and finally he would as the second dimension of depth to the other side of the leaves. Ethan spent long hours filing and heating the metal to form the last of his the candlestick holder. By the time he was done the apprentices had already place the quarter bar and candle tree spikes as he requested into the sand box. Ethan placed the leave decoration into the sand box and after having started some thin bar stock for legs. Ethan worked till he had the legs forged and placed in the sand mold. Quickly the apprentices placed the top half of the wooden frame on and began to fill the box with sand. Pounding down the texture to make sure that the sand was firm, once done the apprentices removed the top frame and set it gently to the side, Ethan and the senior apprentice went in with small knives cutting and scooping the sand from the frame, while Ethan carefully scrape the inside of the mold to smooth out edges and lines that would prevent the metal from flowing into all the edges. Ethan nodded to the Senior Apprentice of the Foundry and knew that know he would cast the mold for Ros’ inspection. Ethan would know in the morning if the casting was acceptable for Ros. ~Fin

[Radiant]

Ros inspected the casting that Ironhorse made, his keen Isurian eyes examined every detail of the cast. He didn't show any visible emotion, purely the concentrated look of an experienced Isur smith, after about twenty chimes of inspection, he nodded. The smith had done a good job, Ironhorse may be one of his most talented smiths in the Ironworks... for a human at least, but Izurdin favored all that put effort in their crafts. It would not surprise Ros if one day, Izurdin himself would grant his mark to the human.

He made his way to the human smith and coughed "Hmmm, good job, Ethan. Acceptable, but not remarkable, you need to try harder in your crafts, with experienced and practice, who knows? Maybe Izurdin himself will favor you." As usual, the proud tone of the Isur made him looked like he was mocking Ethan, but if one knew Ros well, he was actually complimenting him for a job well done.

Ethan :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+3 XP
Philosophy	+1 XP
Meditation	+2 XP
Drawing	+2 XP
Blacksmithing	+3 XP
Metalsmithing	+1 XP
Cooking	+1 XP
Shielding	+3 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Loneliness

A Prayer to Cheva

A Prayer to Izurdin

Customer Order: Candle Holders

Smithing: Leaf Decorations

Shielding: Cube Shape

Shielding: Sense Of Location

Loots

Notes :

Very descriptive and solid solo as always, Ethan. I love your work.

As requested I put Ros' feedback on the last post.

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.