[Ironworks] Back at Work (Solo)

[Marcus Braeden]

14th of Spring, 511 AV

Things had finally begun to start looking up for Marcus. After a good amount of rest, Marcus had managed get his job as a weapon smith at the Ironworks the day prior. It was the first time Marcus had been genuinely happy in a long time. He was excited to get back to work and start building up a reputation as a weapon smith. After all, it was half the reason he came to Syliras. The other half was dead, and Marcus needed to forget about it, and what better way to do that then to pound metal all day long. But no amount of smithing would be able to make him forget about the winter, but that was a musing for another day.

Marcus walked the streets of Syliras with a warm smile on his face. He wore his cloak as it was still early in the spring. Winter had not quite disappeared yet, although Marcus wished it had. The ground was damp in the early morning, most likely due to a light rain over night. But the sky was clear and Marcus expected a warm day. Marcus proudly walked forward with his father's smithing hammer at his side. He passed through the crowds with ease and once again began to feel like apart of Syliras. Rather than fighting with the crowd, he easily merged into it. Before he knew it, he had arrived at his destination, the Ironworks.

Marcus casually walked inside, as if he had been working there the entire winter. A few people who recognized Marcus gazed at him, probably wondering where he had been. A few of his co workers even shouted out and asked where he had been.

Marcus simply smiled and said "Just some personal business", although he was tempted to say "hell", but he didn't want to spark anyones curiosity. He had told the story before and realized it is better a story left untold.

[Marcus Braeden]

Marcus shrugged off the many confused looks he received from his fellow smiths. They had every right to give him such looks, considering he hadn't shown up in the Ironworks for an entire season. Marcus grabbed one of the many leather aprons available at the Ironworks and put it on. He grabbed some tools and materials before finding an open anvil on which he could work his craft. Marcus quickly lay everything out and then looked around the Ironworks. He gazed at all the other smiths and what they were working on. There was a large variety of products being created at the Ironworks. One man was focused on creating simple farming tools while another worked on arrowheads. Another man was working on a rather ornate axehead; he was obviously extremely proficient. As far as smithing goes, that was the sort of person aspired to be, that is, now that becoming a knight was out of the equation. Secretly he had been weary of abandoning his craft when he first sought knighthood. If there was any bright side, it was being able to continue with weapon smithing.

Marcus ended his gaze around the room and looked down at his own materials. It was time to get focused on what he was going to do. He wasn't quite sure however what to do. He was completely lost, as if the Ironworks were new to him. The pounding of metal and the banter between the smiths was almost intimidating to Marcus. But Marcus eventually decided that it would be best to start simple. He had been out of practice and it would probably be unwise to attempt something more significant such as a sword. He decided to start with spearheads, which the Ironworks had given him a good amount of practice on, considering that was pretty much all they made him craft when he first got the job back in the fall.

First Marcus began to heat the metal in the furnace. He slotted his metal into the fire with his tongs and let it rest there. A few other smiths were also gathered around the particular furnace that Marcus had chosen to use. Marcus greeted them but only received mumbles in return. They mostly kept their eyes on their metal, not making much eye contact with Marcus or each other. Soon enough Marcus's metal was properly heated and it was time to start hammering it into shape. Marcus lay his red hot metal onto the anvil and began to pound the metal with his hammer. He was definitely out of practice, as his blows were in accurate and sloppy. He glanced up to see if anyone had noticed his rather horrendous job, for his skill level that is. Fortunately no one had taken notice since they all seemed focused on their own projects or conversations. After a while, Marcus managed to start coming around. His blows were much more accurate and cleaner and he eventually managed to bring out some decent spearheads, but still below par for his skill level.

[Marcus Braeden]

Several hours went by and Marcus was back to his usual self by mid afternoon. He continued finishing up a spearhead. Just for kicks he decided to engrave a little design into it. It was a simple design, a leaf to be exact. Marcus set it aside once it was finished and quickly wiped down his workspace before starting something new. He glanced around again, looking at what other smiths were doing. He also looked at the weapon racks, looking at what was in shortage. Marcus' eyes jumped from rack to rack. Axes? No there are other smiths already making axes. Arrowheads? Nah too basic. Daggers? Nope, already too many of them. How about a sword? Yup, that'll do. Marcus smiled as he grabbed a piece of paper, so he could draw up a quick design of the sword. Since he specialized in swords he liked to personalize them, rather than create the standard cross shaped hilt with a straight blade. After a few minutes he had a rough sketch of what he wanted the sword to look like. Since he hadn't created a sword in a while, this particular design was not extremely complex. It would have a standard crucifix style hilt, with a round ball as the pommel. As for the blade, he decided he would go ahead with having the blade relatively thin and then gradually widening it out, and then of course converging on the tip point of the blade. He would most likely also engrave a design into it but he would decide that when the sword was crafted.

[Marcus Braeden]

Marcus began his design by first heating up the metal in the furnace. He carefully placed the metal into the flame and waited while it heated to a sufficient temperature to begin shaping. After a few minutes of small talk with various smiths around the furnace, Marcus withdrew the metal and quickly returned to the anvil. Marcus began to shape the metal using his hammer that was passed down from his father. His strikes were much more accurate and precise now that he had warmed himself up on spearheads. Soon enough the blade began to take the shape that Marcus had designed, but not before needing to be heated several more times. Marcus continued to strike the metal until the blade looked nearly identical to the one he had drawn on the paper. It had taken longer than it usually would for Marcus, as there were several occasions where he had made a slight error and had to try to fix it. Not to mention the occurrences where he was required to heat the metal and let it cool without any hammering.

But even after all of this, the blade was not finished. It was time to grind out the blade and give it an edge. Marcus brought the blade over to one of the grinders, placed the blades on it, and began the process. It went by fairly quickly and Marcus had results within minutes. However he continued on until both of the edges of the blade were sharp and it had been brought to a sharp point.

After the blade had acquired its edges and point Marcus brought it back to the furnace. It was time to begin the hardening process. Marcus heated the blade up to very high temperatures and then submerged the hot metal in the quenching tank, which rapidly cooled the metal, and therefore hardened it. This process was repeated several times leaving the sword brittle, which the next and final step, tempering, would fix. It was basically the same process for tempering except the initial temperature the metal was heated to was much lower. This was once again repeated several times. Marcus made sure to keep his eye on the metal and also checked the flexibility and hardness to make sure it was not tempered too much or too little, but Marcus reached a decent balance point and called it good. Marcus finished off the blade by polishing it off and set it aside. The blade was complete but the sword was far from it.

[Marcus Braeden]

The hilt was the next thing that needed to be completed now that the blade was finished. Marcus once again began to shape and form a much smaller bar of metal into a cross guard. He constantly referred back to the blade size to see how large the cross guard should be as well as how long the grip was going to be. Marcus created each piece of the hilt separately before bringing it all together. Marcus began work on the grip when he was happy with the look of the cross guard. Again, he shaped the metal, creating the proper shape for a basic hilt. This was finished quickly and all that was left was the pommel. Fortunately he wouldn't need to craft this particular piece, since it was a simple round ball this time around. There were always a few metal spheres about the Ironworks, he just needed to find the right size. He began sorting through a few crates, constantly comparing the various sizes to the rest of the sword. Finally Marcus came across a brass sphere that was of appropriate size and would work almost perfectly. He brought it over to his workspace and began to prepare to bring it all together.

First he connected each of the pieces of the hilt together. The pommel to the bottom of the grip and then the grip to the cross guard. Each piece was securely welded to the next. After the hilt was done, he grabbed a cloth and began to polish it. The hilt was done and he just needed to connect the blade to the hilt. Marcus slowly secured the blade, making sure all of his measurements were correct. These turned out to be true, and the sword was finished, sorta. There were still a few finishing touches that needed to be put on the sword. But first there was one thing he needed to test. Marcus held the sword in his hand, observing it's balance. It was not perfectly balanced but it was well balanced, and Marcus accepted that, since he decided to make the sword on the whim of the moment after all.

[Marcus Braeden]

Technically Marcus could have simply stopped here, but he wanted to add a simple engraving and some various other finishing touches. First of all he grabbed some black leather and cut some off using a knife before returning it to where he found it. With the leather he had cut off, he wrapped it around the grip, in order to give whoever would be wielding the sword a much better grip, and therefore more control over his or her weapon. This was only a minor touch to the sword but an extremely important one.

Secondly Marcus decided to give it one more quick go with the grinding wheel, just to sharpen it a tad more. He quickly did this for a few minutes and returned to his work space. He also added more polish to the blade and wiped away any debris from the sword from the grind wheel.

Lastly Marcus wanted to do an engraving of some sort. He once again went back to the drawing board to come up with some designs. He constantly sketched and then scribbled over it. Marcus' drawing abilities were lackluster to say the least. Marcus eventually decided to go with a simple yet elegant vine pattern that would go from the tip of the sword down the middle to the cross guard, on both sides of the sword. Marcus took his drawing and placed it on the sword, working out the scaling and then finally transferring his drawing to the sword. The light outline on the blade would guide him in the engraving process. Marcus began following his pattern using his tools and slowly engraving the design, working from the cross guard to the tip. Eventually he had created a sword that was quite simple in nature but had a bit of elegance to it thanks to the engraving.

Marcus took his sword and carefully placed it onto the rack. He turned and smiled, dusting off his hands as he walked away.

[Marcus Braeden]

The other smiths began to pack up there things, indicating that the days work was over. Marcus followed suit with the other smiths and also began to clean up his workspace before departing. He attached his hammer to his hip and put the rest of the tools back in their place, and then, he casually strode toward the exit, picked up his cloak, and left.

The sun was slowly descending in the sky, as only a small sliver of it was visible from the inside of the cities due to the walls. The air was cooling and Marcus began his journey home. Throughout his walk home, he had a cheerful smile on his face. He was officially back, his experience over the last season was in his past and it was time to move on with his life. But then something hit him, and his smile disappeared. Unfortunately, somewhere in his heart, he knew that his past was going to come back for him, for somewhere, there was a spark of vengeance and it was growing into a fire. He had thought of revenge before, however now, he was sure. While working he sometimes would have little debates within himself regarding the morality of creating weapons, however he had a different viewpoint now after his experiences. Unlike before, he knew where he stood on the subject.

Marcus soon arrived at his home. He took his key and inserted it into the keyhole and turned. The door opened and Marcus walked in and quickly grabbed a stool. He pulled it up besides the hearth and started a fire in it. As the flames danced in front of him, Marcus simply gazed into the heart of them, and began to muse.

[Archon]

Illumination of Development Marcus Braeden +3 Weaponsmithing +2 Drawing Lores: Getting back into the groove, Dealing with awkward workplaces Other Rewards: The handful of spearheads are of varying quality, from poor to fair. The sword is of good quality, but the etchings on its blade are simple and rough. Care to see more? : As most your work was dedicated to your craft of Weaponsmithing that is where you get the most experience. You also get some Drawing experience for the bit of drawing you did in planing out some of your work, and for your etchings. Notes:Work threads usually aren't the most fun, but you made it through this one well. Your descriptions were good, but the flow of it all felt very rushed, like it was hurrying towards the end. With a bit of slowing down and taking your time with descriptions you could earn a bit more experience for your work.