Forging the Serpent's Coils

[Ialari Pythone]

Early Winter in the Year 509 AV: Sahova Island

In connection with Living Among the Dead

With her interrogation of the renegade nuit wizards progressing and her experiments and studies providing a wealth of new information, Ialari was nevertheless in need of a break. Her lab was currently occupied by bound prisoners however her meager living area containing a simple bed and wardrobe, was divided off by a stone wall. After a short but long-needed nap; thankfully the nuit didn't like to talk much, Ialari woke and left the lab. Not far down the corridor was a small forge designed for those skilled apprentices to craft their own materials for use in magecrafting. Ialari's purpose for the forge was two-fold. First, her idea of a break was immersing herself in working the forge and thus communing with Izurdin. Second, she needed to construct an item that she would then magecraft. She had pondered several ideas as to what exactly she would make. Her first thought had been to forge an item to aid her in her experiments on the renegade nuit. The problem with that was she still needed to understand the nuit physiology before she could design something effective and useful.

Instead, she decided to work on something more for her own pleasure. She wanted something that would help remind her of her true purpose; to restore greatness to her people. With such an item, she could then perform the Izentor ritual upon it thus giving the item a tiny piece of herself. With Izentor, not only would the object carry a sliver of her soul, it would also become gifted enough to receive the magecrafting that would come next. Although her knowledge of magecrafting and her skill with Izentor were limited, she possessed the drive and the focus she felt was needed to succeed.

It was after quite a bit of her own mental dismantling of the different ideas that Ialari came to a conclusion on what she would make, a simple iron snake coiled to fit around her forearm. The snake would remind her of her family and why she did what she did in life. Along with representing the Pythone family, the snake was something she found personal comfort in. In a place such as Sahova, comfort was fleeting at best.

Ialari's dark eyes gleamed as she stepped into the forge; the shape of her would-be work coming together in her mind.

OOCEdited to fit the evolution of her plans

[Ialari Pythone]

Although the particular forge she chose looked like it hadn't been used for many years, the basic materials she would need were present. It was a comparatively small forge, obviously meant for apprentices. Like many of the chambers in Sahova, the dim mystical lights in the chamber illuminated as she entered. Looking around she took stock of all that was there. Included was a hearth, small but sufficient in size, a gear-driven, crank operated blower and an ancient but serviceable hood and chimney for ventilation.

Near the hearth was the anvil. Approaching it, Ialari could see that it was of modest quality being made of iron and not steel. It was of appropriate size though and sitting on it, covered in dust, was a pair of tongs. Also quite old, the tongs still appeared usable as did the hammer. While Ialari had little need for the hammer; her own metallic fist would serve the same purpose, it was still comforting to see a familiar symbol of her lord's art. In a small barrel next to the anvil there were a series of chisels and punches. A step or two from the anvil was a heavy vise anchored to the floor that would aid in any heavy hammering or bending that Ialari couldn't otherwise do with her own arm.

Leaning against the hearth was a small shovel and poker to help stir the fire and against one wall of the room was a small pile of firewood and coke to heat it.

The choice of raw materials was slim but Ialari didn't need anything special for what she wanted to do. There was a large barrel filled with a few scrap pieces of iron though no other higher quality metals could be found. Iron would do just fine for the project considering Ialari had little experience working with anything else.

Opening and closing her metallic hand; flexing the powerful muscles and iron grip, Ialari reached into the nearby barrel and pulled out a piece of iron that she felt would work best.

[Ialari Pythone]

Setting the piece of iron on the anvil, Ialari walked over to the hearth. She added fuel to the hearth from the piles of wood and nearby barrel of coke. With a few clangs of flint against steel, she was able to start a fire. By turning the old crank-operated blower with no small amount of elbow grease, she eventually got the fire burning hot thus starting the process of creating burning coals. When she was satisfied that the fire was on its way to being hot enough, she turned back to the anvil and the bar of iron.

With bar of iron in hand, she thrust it into the fire halfway up its length. There it would remain until the metal grew hot enough to work. It was then that she noticed something hanging on the wall. Walking over to it, she noticed that there was an old, dust-covered piece of slate hanging from the wall. There were a couple small pieces of chalk resting on simple, short wooden shelf next to the slate. Smiling to herself, Ialari used the chalk to begin sketching out her ideas for what to forge.

She started off by drawing a rough representation of the iron bar and marked out certain points where she would focus on drawing out the metal; thus causing it to thin and lengthen. In addition, she sketched out a shape that she wished to top the project with; the head of a snake. It would require the use of punches which a few were present in the forge already. Unlike human blacksmiths, she would not need a hammer and the use of her metallic arm would allow her to shape the metal with greater ease and precision.

Jotting down a few measurement figures, Ialari finally put the chalk back on the shelf and stepped back from the drawings. Doing a few more mental calculations, she nodded to herself in satisfaction and returned to the hearth to check the iron.