Zenia Meets Ga'Elian
It's Kesenday, Callem 19 12:35:13 1018. The full moon isn't up. The tide is high and ebbing. Towering white clouds drift slowly through the blue sky. It's hazy and hot, and the glare of the sun seems to drain the color from the landscape.
A03: Fire Lodge
While the Fire lodge may seem like a strange place to try to beat the heat of an intense summer day, nevertheless the place has quite a healthy crowd today. Among them a Sylvanori male, carrying several weapons about his person, is standing by the window sipping from a mug of something or other, looking out toward the colosseum.
An engineer in the colosseum's fire lodge? Probably not the most usual place, but she seems to be talking with a giantborn man about some topic or another. "So how DO you get the best steel alloys anyway? I've been trying to reinforce my armor for so long, and it's just not working the way I want it to. I think it's the materials, but I'm not sure." she observes.
Ga'Elian turns his attention back inside the room and surveys the clientele. He hears the human's remarks, but know little of metallurgy or the armorer's craft, he dismisses it and finds a table where he takes a seat. He draws the dagger from the scabbard strapped to his left thigh, and extracts a whetstone from a pocket, the sets to sharpening the double-edged blade.
"...Hold on." Zenia says for a moment, as she stands up and walks over to Ga'Elian. "...Nice dagger." she says, "Who made it? I'm trying to get a handle on arms and armor of a traditional sort so I can integrate it into artifice." then extends a hand. "Zenia Petroni, artificer and general mechanical expert."
Ga'Elian sets the blade down on the table and shakes Zenia's hand. "Hail Zenia. I am Ga'Elian Faravanilas, a warden and hunter of the wilderness. This dagger is rather unremarkable, just an ordinary dagger that I bought from some wizard a while back when he replaced it with a better. Frankly I mostly use it as a utility knife, but I have no idea who forged it. If you'd like to see a finer blade, look here." He draws from the scabbard slung over his back a masterwork cold iron bastard sword and lays it on the table. The blade is wrought to resemble the figure of an angel, and the hilt-guard looks like a pair of golden, feathery wings.
"Interesting." Zenia says, poking at the cold iron blade. "...Seems a bit strangely forged, doesn't look like it was heated or tempered too much. Cold iron?" she asks, "I mean, that's the only reason I could think of."
Ga'Elian nods, "Exactly. You see, demons are somewhat more vulnerable to cold iron. Someday, I hope to get it enchanted as a demonsorrow blade, when I can afford it. Fiends are a particular quarry that I have especially focused on hunting." He takes the flail from his side and shows it, too. It is masterwork, and silver is alchemically bonded to its steel. He goes on, "Then there are also devils, and many of them are similarly vulnerable to silver, not cold iron."
"Sheesh." Zenia says, "You've picked a hell of a target." she notes, winking at the pun. "But at the end of the day, they're just no good. Why fiends, though? Not everyone gets their start hunting fiends of all things. Assuming that was your start."
Ga'Elian smiles at the pun, and says, "Actually, they're not my start. When first I learned the ways of the hunter, I devoted my focus to magical beasts. My focus on fiends is more the result of there being so many of them loosed into Ea of late, and that is also why I came to this city, this seemed to be their gateway, and the hemorrhage had to be stopped."
"...Gateway? Sheesh." Zenia says, "Must've been before my arrival here. I'd hate to see fiends spewing out like a drunkard's meal after too many ales." before she pauses. "...That was probably too gross a picture, sorry."
Ga'Elian looks grim-faced as he responds, "Gross or no, that's actually a reasonably accurate comparison. It was bad for a while. You still hear of the occasional fiend in the City, but they had been rampant for a time." He takes a drink from his mug and says, "What land do you call home, then?"
"Mostly the surrounding hamlets. Alexandros sure, just not Alexandria the city." Zenia explains, "Got my start making toys and clockwork, moved on to bigger things later. And now, I test my latest and greatest on jobs for the adventurer's guild!" she notes, grinning.
Ga'Elian smiles. "That's good. It sounds like you've got ambition, your heart in the right place, and a sound strategy. Have you gone out on any jobs for the Guild yourself?"
"Just a few." Zenia says, "Not many, it seems like they're in places I can't really get to, too easily. Titan armor doesn't... Exactly fit in some places."
Ga'Elian looks puzzled, "Pardon my Tradespeak, but I'm not sure I quite understand what you're saying. Do you mean your armor chafes?"
"I mean it doesn't go everywhere, it's kinda bulky and I don't get to deploy it everywhere I like. It's... Kind of clunky, and the mechanisms don't always run in every environment." she explains.
Ga'Elian nods. "Yeah, I try to avoid clunky armor. I rely too much on my agility to make heavy armor worthwhile. It's ironic that we should have started off by my showing you my sword and flail. My main weapon is all about agility, and my armor is too. He fingers the magical mithral shirt and then from the ornate 20-inch quiver on his right shoulder, he draws a beautiful 64-inch recurve bow--sort of like when Mary Poppins pulls the large wall mirror out of her much smaller carpet bag.