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Auraglass Creation
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:28 pm
by Masagh
14th Day of Frost, 123rd Year of the Age of Steel
Continued from here...
“Well maybe if you finish this project soon she will be pleased enough to return you to duties.” Sabrione said, a crooked grin crossing her features. “She always wanted you doing all that bookish stuff. Now you are grabbing it by the balls.”
It was odd to see Sabrione like this. Her normally dour and cynical attitude had been replaced with a bright sort of optimism since Masagh’s return. He had to repeatedly remind himself that for her and the rest of them, it had been a year of thinking him gone. So while she probably would have preferred him with the knights, alive and home was a very close second.
It was hardly as hard a situation in her eyes as it was for him. He was alive after all, and returned. Masagh smirked at her. It was nice to see his presence could give her so much happiness. “Maybe, although an auraglass is no great accomplishment for any Bonecaster worth their salt.”
“Well, got to start somewhere right?” Riah said, from right behind Sabrione. The new knight, Kern, was grinning bemusedly behind her.
“Yea, you just got to get some more ink on the ol’ nose.” He said in a deep voice. He was shorter than Masagh, but as broad as Cleon had been. “Look real sad and lonely for a bit, then boom back with the gang in no time.” He bit at a chunk of meat he carried.
“Not so sure.” Masagh growled, leaning against the wall outside the library. “But that’s no worry for you all. I’ll be relaxing while you go on your mission. Where are you off to?”
Sabrione shrugged a bit. “Just taking a cart to the King under the city. Standard fair.” She clapped him on the shoulder. “Where’s your misty friend? Indira?” Sabrione asked with a keen sort of interest.
Masagh raised a brow and tilted his head. “Still finishing up in the library. Why?”
She shrugged again, smiling at him. “Oh I like the way she checks your grouchy ass.”
The other knights were appreciative of that. Masagh scowled at all of them. Sabrione’s laughter became a fraction more genuine. “No I think it’s good for you. I like her.”
“Well that’s very kind.” Indira said, appearing through the wall next to them. Everyone gave a startled jump and Sabrione hissed out a curse. “I like you too, Sabrione.”
Masagh’s sister gave the ghost a scowl and pointed a finger menacingly. “I take it all back, misty. Don;t go floating around scaring the shit out of people.” She curled her thumbs through her belt. “Alright, knights. Time to fuck off. Let’s go. Dinner later?” The last to Masagh.
“You know where to find me.”
When they were gone Masagh turned to Indira and smiled. He tried to keep his true feelings off his face, but he saw her eyes soften. “You ready to go finish this damn auraglass? Been long enough.”
She gave a small smile. “You know for an immortal corpse prince you are quite impatient.”
“Prince?” He barked a croaking laugh. “Do I look like a prince to you.”
Indira floated along behind him as he set out towards the lab at the end of the hallway. “Your mother does have a throne, and it sits on a dais.”
Masagh nodded as he pushed open the door and allowed her to pass in front of him. “Fair point, although I like to think that says more about her than me.”
As always these days Arthur was within conducting one casting or another. Today he was there with two of the other Bonecasters working an animation ritual for one of the thralls the house used for outer security. They were in the middle of a complex three person chanting, their ichor pulsing into the circle on the ground. The flesh altered horror in the center still dormant. Large boney claw-like protrusions sprouted from a muscled set of limbs.
Indira stopped and stared, her face a mask of horror. Masagh stepped up next to her, letting his shoulder brush her own. The cold chill of her ghostly form permeating through him. It was how he had attempted to provide comfort to her in the times the new environment seemed overwhelming.
“It’s not like how Lithicus did it.” Masagh said quietly. “Nothing living. Anything that went into that thrall was already dead.” He watched her as she stared. The necromancy seemed to be the the hardest thing for her to deal with. It was also the only aspect of life on the Creth Compound that was probably familiar to her. Which meant trauma. “We do own a mausoleum and cemetery.”
Indira visibly pulled herself away from the ritual, turning to the less gruesome Runeforging side of the laboratory. “Right, it’s just jarring.”
Masagh nodded and followed her over to their auraglass project. “You don’t have to take part in any of that.” He assured her gruffly.
“Do you?” She asked, looking up at him with a sort of worried apprehension.
Masagh thought about lying to her. She was in a precarious situation, pulled away from her home and placed in this foreign place full of undead. It may have been a horrible home, but at least is was familiar and safe for her. He was her only link to this new place. Recently he had become just all too aware how much trouble these self-serving lies could be.
“Yes, sometimes.” He said as he pulled the recently ground and polished auraglass lens out of the project shelf. “I helped replace my own arm when It was lost in battle.” He pulled the finished chain and bracket from the same shelf and reached up to unlace his sleeve and pull it up. The twin etched runic lines around the stitching scar were almost the only indication that the arm was not his original. The skin was a slightly different shade of greenish grey undeath, though it was hard to make out when one wasn’t looking at the scar.
Re: Auraglass Creation
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:30 pm
by Masagh
Indira manifested enough to run a fingertip along the line. Masagh smirked and wiggled his fingers. “See, works. Other stuff I’ve done has been building ichor and ghost wine, standard tools. Surgery skills too.”
She watched him lace his sleeve and retrieve the etching toolkit from the project shelf. “I suppose it is necessary when you are… a ghoul.” She said finally.
“Eh, we’re pretty resilient. But ghouls aren’t the only Graveborn.” Masagh shrugged. “But enough yapping, time to do the real magic.”
Indira looked down at the specialized etching kit. “Real magic?”
Masagh nodded and then indicated the edge of the lens where they had painstakingly carved the Nio Uvverece runes spiraling around a set of glyphs for revealing, illuminating mysteries, and sight. “These runes and glyphs are what brings out the latent magic in the lens and create its function.” He pointed to the metal bracket and chain he had made. “Scrivening. It’s what allows u to control the magic of things. No doubt you have seen Lithicus use it.”
He carefully set out the smallest and narrowest chisel, designed for very fine detail work on the smallest of projects. “Here in House Creth we only create using the script of the ancient tongue. But the ideas will be the same.”
Indira nodded. They had over the past ten days spent many hours in the library working on the language. When Masagh had exhausted his energy for lessons in the language she would turn to the books they had in the common tongue and read voraciously. She often spent hours on end reading in the library while Masagh’s own attention drifted to his predicament.
“But if the lens is already etched why do we need to inscribe the metal parts?” Indira asked as Masagh went to the shelf of Aetherite storage.
He rummaged about in it for a suitably sized dragonshard before answering. “Been ten days of work on these damn pieces. Shame if it bent and broke. We are going to reinforce the strength of it.”
He bent over the etched and began to explain as he worked. Setting the fine edge of the chisel against the metal of the bracket, Masagh tapped carefully on the end with the small accompanying hammer. “An even stroke means it will have a uniform depth. That’s important when we soak it further in Viscerite made from the Aetherite dragonshard.”
Indira watched him work, leaning across the table. Her elbows rested on the stone surface, manifested in just enough area to provide her with support. Her palms rested on her cheeks and her mouth formed a frown of focus. Masagh showed her the line so far.
“This is the Nio Uvverece form of a path.” He indicated. Her long silvery hair fell over her face a bit as she leaned forward to look. “See I’ve left room for periodic convergences. Then after I will add the etching for vortexes as needed. It may be a bit of overkill for such a light project, but aether spill is always a danger. We will want to have an even reinforcement of the magical enhancement.
“And this space here?” Indira pointed to an open space on the bracket that ringed the inside and out. “What is that for?” Her grey eyes raised and met his over the table.
Masagh blinked and looked back down at it, leaning back slightly. “Well, that’s for the glyph of strengthening. I like to leave it for after I’ve laid the framework across the rest of the surface.” He turned back to his work, bending down to put his face nearer the fine details of the work.
He explained the function of the vortexes and convergences when she asked and showed her how he carved them. Indira drifted over to his side of the table and leaned in close to look. He felt the cold chill of her presence and stood up. She frowned up at him slightly.
“Something wrong?” She asked, tilting her head at him.
“Got to add fire to the kiln so we can melt down the aetherite now.” He grated, indicating the large Runeforging kiln. “The aetherite is what allows us to reinforce it.”
She stood also, the mist from her form swirling lazily through the air as she went to the wood pile. “I can at least help you load it.”
They worked for a time in silence. Indira’s pale form bending over the stockpile of wood and loading the aether kiln, Masagh prepping the tongs and crucible. When Masagh added the aetherite dragonshard Indira leaned over to watch the crystal break down in a mass of shimmering thick liquid. Masagh showed her the scrivener’s runes along the inside of the crucible, carved into the smooth cup of the thing, where it would separate the magical traits of whatever was melted down in it.
When the aetherite was completely melted down into viscerite Masagh moved the crucible to the edge of the film opening with the large tongs. He called over Arthur, who was just finishing his work on the animation of that thrall.
Arthur produced his own very impressive auraglass for them to use to extract the reinforcing traits Masagh was looking for. Masagh let Indira hold the glass before his eye while he worked the much finer runic tongs. He pulled at the glimmering traits and watched as their essence illuminated the runes on the tongue when he got a firm grip. Whenever he needed rest Indira would put the glass to her own eye and move her sight around the room.
“What do you see?” Masagh asked when she turned it on him.
Indira frowned slightly, then removed it from her eye. “Definitely no prince.”
He barked a low huff of laughter. Then he pulled the crucible from the kiln with the large tongs and brought it over to where he had set the lens in the bracket and chain.
They spent the next hour manipulating the viscerite over the project, folding and reinforcing the glyph. Indira watched passively, or else peered through Arthur’s auraglass at random things. Masagh caught her turning it on him a few times, but didn’t say anything.
Finally Masagh finished the new auraglass with a relieved sigh. It was neither as large or skillfully crafted as the one Arthur had leant them, but it would do for his skill level. Someday he could forge an improved one perhaps. But for any magical crafter who lacked the Sight Magic, this was essential.
“Good, good.” Arthur said, inspecting the creation where it cooled and the final bits of viscerite dried and faded. “You are finally building your own tools so I don’t have to keep lending to you.” He reached over and held his hand out to Indira for the auraglass he had given them.
She handed it over a bit reluctantly. But Masagh simply offered her the one they had just finished. “Here, you can test it out.” He said. “I thought the tools in here were for everyone.” He turned back to Arthur.
“They are, but a master creates his own tools. They are extensions of the self.” He indicated his heart with both huge hands. “Here this is for you, to hold all the tools you will be making now.” He handed over a black bag with an adjustable strap. It could loop through a hip belt or be worn across the shoulder.
“Another borrowed tool?”
Arthur shook his head impassively. “No, you will keep this Featherlight Bag, I made it for you with the help of a few others. Very expensive, you will be paying for it from your account. It can hold all the tools you will be making over the next season for your works within the lab.”
“Paying from my account?” Masagh rasped, glaring at the big ghoul. He sputtered at that, but Arthur threw up a hand.
“The only gift in here is knowledge, and it is priceless.” He said in his slow and deliberate speech. “You pay for all else, in one way or another. You may need this in the years to come, Masagh Creth.” Arthur said, leaning forward and weighing his words with Masagh’s full name.
Masagh peered at him through narrowed eyes.
Arthur pocketed his own auraglass and gave Indira a brief smile.
Runeforged Item
► Show Spoiler
Auraglass
Structural Improvements: Minor (5), to strengthen both the glass of the lens and the metal bracket and chain housing.
Magic Improvements: Moderate (5), to bring an object or person’s aura into focus to obtain magical properties.
Activation: Always active
Aesthetic Improvements: None
Total: Moderate, (5) Minor (5), Item level 10
Cost:
1 lb silver: 3gp
Average Auralyth Dragonshard: N/A (Already owned)
Average Aetherite Dragonshard: 85gp
Total: 88gp
Ledger
► Show Spoiler
Average Aetherite Dragonshard cost: 85gp
Silver, 1lb: 3 gp
Featherlight Bag cost: 5,000gp
Total expenses: 5,088gp
Re: Auraglass Creation
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2024 5:35 am
by Zora
Review
XP: 3
Magical XP: 5 runeforging
Loot: This is the new price list
So an average aetherite is 1gp and a featherlight bag is 150 gp. Material cost is WIP so I can't advise you there
In any case:
+Auraglass, item level 10
+Featherlight Bag
Injuries/Ailments: -
Comments: As far as I can tell, the crafting was done appropriately. Nice to see some IC crafting, not many seem to take advantage of that part of the game.
Unlimited Power