Kelwyn Temple Tres

[Torc Ironwood]

75th day of Winter, AV 500 Torc came walking down the path to the temple blacksmith, his breath steamed in the air as the pre-dawn light was giving everything a light grey. Snow still clung in patches on the ground, melting mainly from the daylight and not the warmer weather. Torc briefly felt his left foot slip on a patch of ice, quickly he threw out his hand to steady himself. Looking down at the dirt path Torc saw the small puddle that had formed a icy pitfall for him. Torc cursed briefly, as a cold wind blew through the yard, and chilled him in his winter clothes. He braced himself and continued on to the workshop. Two days ago, Farmer Gredue had come by the temple to ask if Torc would make him a new plow. The village blacksmith had just passed and left the workshop to his son. The poor boy hadn't ordered enough materials for the winter, so the temple seemed to have an influx of requests lately. Torc had looked at their supplies and figured that if he started up the forge today, they would just have enough to make it to their next delivery of coal. Thankfully, the Priest Ano organized the younger orphans to bring by fire wood for Torc. So as Torc enter the forge and looked around, he was greeted by the site of a large pile of wood next to the stone forge. Torc began breaking the small twigs in two and placing them into the forge. He picked up the tinder box and placed the small shavings of dry grass in the middle of the twigs. Small sparks arose from the steel that he scraped across the flint, and as a spark caught the grass Torc patiently blew fresh air onto it. Slowly the fire began to catch as the spark grew from a small point of light, to a flame. As Torc added fuel to the fire that flame began to grow into a small blaze. Finally, Torc began to feel the reward of heat from the small flame, and choose to let it fully catch before adding more fuel. Torc picked up the rusted tools, and began polishing them as he sat next to the small fire. The grind stone was oiled with animal fat that was liquidifing from the heat. Hammers, tongs, files, and even rasps were drawn across the stone as Torc watched the fire. The red rust mixed with the oil on the stone and it almost looked like the stone was bleeding as Torc picked up another piece of lumber. The day went well as the workshop began to grow warm under the forge fire. The tools looked cool and black as the rust had been shaken then polished off. Torc heard the splatter of water into the rain barrel as the heat of the forge began warming the snow on the roof. Seeing that Torc had added enough lumber to possible start the coal, Torc picked up the shovel and placed a decent helping of the coal into it. As the fire splattered at the invasion of coal, Torc went over to the bronze bars and placed the achingly cold bars into the fire. As the fire needed more time to grow Torc though he might as well start on filling some of the orders for door hinges. So Torc kept an eye on the fire as he heated up the bronze. As the fire began to grow the green tarnish on the bronze flaked off in the fire and the orange brown began to glow with inner heat. Torc pulled from the rack a pair of tongs and brought the first bronze bar out onto the forge. Torc began pounding, upsetting the bar into a flatten sheet. He only stopped to reheat the metal, and when he did he placed more fuel on the fire. Sometimes it was another shovel full of coal, most of the time it was several more logs. Torc took his time fashioning the plate of bronze, taking the chisel to give the edges a swoop or curl. Taking out a round chisel to open up holes in the plate so nails could be hammer into place. As Torc finished the orientation of the hinge me began to curl on end on the horn of the anvil to from the actual hinge. The day went by as Torc hammered out the mirror image of the hinge. The fire had now grown to a point where Torc used his blacksmith tongs to even the coals out. The extra heat wasn't wasted as Torc hammered another two hinges out, along with making bar stock for the pins of the hinges. Come spring there would be several people who would want to re-hang doors, and the hinges would sale for a decent price.

[Torc Ironwood]

76th day of Winter, AV 500 The forge had warmed the pathway that Torc know walked. Instead of ice, the fire had turned the ice and snow into a cold sludge that squished underneath ones boots. Torc entered the forge to find that the coals were still let and giving off a small amount of heat. Torc began working the bellows to provide fresh air to the coals as he watched and felt the forge fire come back to life. Yesterday, while Torc had been hammering out hinges some of the villagers had heard that the temple blacksmith was up and running again. Orders had come in and the head priest had gone over the orders with Torc during the evening meal. That night Torc had seen the first hint of greed in the head priests eyes. Torc had to tell the man that some of the orders just couldn't be filled since Priest Ano was down with a cough, but Torc would make sure he would work hard. Several farmers had dropped off spades and awls to be sharpen and repaired. So Torc began inspecting each tool to see what was needed, several had large dents in them that had come from rocks. Torc went head and started carving out the wedge so that the awl would drop off. As each awl dropped from their handle Torc placed the harden iron into the forge. He also covered the blades with coal so that the new fuel could catch and heat each one. As the forge began to transfer its heat to the metal, Torc took out the grindstone and began to polish and sharpen the farm implements. Back and forth the stone went over the metal, iron shavings began to drift to the floor, as harden steel edge slowly took shape. Torc finished four or five of the awls by midday as the forge had soften up the metal for him to pound out the horrible chips and dents in the others. Setting aside last half dozen tools he needed to sharpen, Torc began to repair the blades of each implement. At times it was nothing more then moving the dented metal back into a wedge shape. However, for those blades that had formed large cracks, Torc had to upset the surround metal and fold the excess iron and steel back over itself. It was long and hard work making sure that he poured flux wielding the implements back together. Each time he over did the flux on the tool, but thankfully he would rather have it cost a little bit more, then have a farmer swing the blade once and have the crack reappear. So Torc worked on till sunset, finally finishing the last awl, and he went back to grinding stone. He sat there thinking about Mona, about how she had seemly began to gather a woman's shape about her this last year. Her breasts would be small, while her hips had seemly grown from the work she had done. Yet it was her smile and blue eyes that seemed to wake an idea of protection, warmth, and inner strength in him. He wasn't sure what the feeling was, for he had never experience before with the few girls he had kissed, but he knew he wanted her.

[Torc Ironwood]

77-84th day of Winter, AV 500 The night before Torc had skipped dinner in hopes of finishing the work and starting on the temples projects. Instead the head priest had told Torc about how a farmer needed a plow for his fields. Apparently one of Farmer Gerdue boys had cleared some land next to his and was starting up his own farm this spring. Since the year before had been a good crop the boy had saved enough money to buy a plow blade. It seemed the Gods had smiled down on the temple this year. With the blacksmith not buying enough steel for the winter, the temple was able to fulfill the order. Though it would be a great deal of coin, Torc worried that the head priest had jump too quickly at the opportunity. Still the sale of the plow blade would put the temple off to a good start with its finances. So Torc trudge up the path to the forge and began placing the last of their steel bars into the fire. The forge had just gotten up to the heat levels to soften steel. Layers and layers of coal and ash were now in the forge and the blacksmith shop was one of the driest places in the temple. The steel began to heat up as Torc pumped the bellows again and again. As he saw the bar began to glow orange with heat, Torc brought them out onto the anvil and began folding them into each other. The steel was soft, but as Torc added the wielding flux the small steel powder began to pop and sizzle. Each strike of the hammer fell, and the bars began to be folded into one another. He spent the next three days folding the eight bars into one another, making the steel hard and tempered. Torc worked hard shaping the steel mass into a v sweeping arch. The top of the plow had to be thick and hard so it could be harnessed to the plow. The bottom was hammered into a blade like the awls that he worked on, except, Torc spent a whole day making sure the flare of the blade would up turn the dirt and rock. By the fifth day he had hammered out the shape of the plow, but now he knew the real work was about to began. Taking out steel files, Torc started to polish and form the cutting edge of the plow. The rasp of metal on metal filled the shop as only a small amount of steel fell to the floor in each pass. Torc hands ached for the next few days, filing the steel was a long and tedious job, but necessary. He had dulled several files creating this plow and wondered when would be the next time he could forge some more. The village carpenter had come up to take measurements as to where the plows holes were. The man had talked to Torc for half the day as he continued to work. People were certainly glad that their were going to be two blacksmiths in town. In fact the loggers had cleared enough space around the area that several new farms and sheep pastures had opened up. The carpenter seemed to be filled with good cheer and predictions about the future. Zeltiva was bound to order more supplies from the village, and more people were bound to come. Some of the elders were even talking about building a wall around the village's town center. To Torc it meant that chisels and block and tackles would be ordered, but nothing more then that. For the elders had been talking about a wall for many years, and the new farms were good, but the sheep pastures always had wolves and unknown dangers. Life in a small village was rough, and Torc didn't see much change in anything… so he kept filing at that blade agreeing with the carpenter because it was the polite thing to do. The forge fire slowly burn lower and lower over those last few days. Coal had ran out along with the temples steel, Torc was going to have to use wood to do any real smithing that came up, which limited a great deal on what kind of metal he could shape. So as the close of winter came with spring showers, Torc sold his first plow blade, the temple seemed to rejoice in the money it brought them, and Torc was given a decent percentage of the sale. Life seemed to have come back to the temple as well as the land, and for one afternoon Torc went back to his bunk and slept.

[Gossamer]

. Character: Torc Ironwood Experience: Blacksmithing 3 XP, Rhetoric 1 XP, Organization 1 XP, Project Planning 1 XP Lore: Building a good Forge Fire, Assessing Supplies needed for a blacksmithing project, Making Hinges on a Forge, Repairing dents in farm implements and sharpenting them, Daydreaming about women while working, forging a plow blade Additional Note: Hi there, nice thread. I wished there was a little more detail on the actual blacksmithing, but the details about the day to day life in the temple was interesting. I also award you 20 gold mizas for your share of a commission on the plow. I’m going to estimate they go for around 50 gold or more. .