Bones and Blades IV (Solo)
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 5:11 pm
68th of Ash, 120 AS
She had made a mistake. The last artefact had been... unexpected. Lyra was forced to accept that, perhaps, she did not quite understand all there was to know of the necromantic arts, especially when it was outside of her normal expertise. She had failed to comprehend one very simple fact with artefacts... They were born from the memories trapped within the Aether, both good and bad. Thus if Lyra called out those memories she was just as likely to pull the less pleasant ones along with the desirable. That in and of itself had not been the mistake, rather in her haste to begin, she had neglected her responsibilities. Her inspection had been cursory at best. She had pulled the surface, but she had failed to do the proper research. She had not asked the simplest questions. Who was this person, why were they what they were, and most importantly how had they died?
That was why she had returned to Fletcher, sacrificing a bit more coin and receiving a more detailed explanation of each set of bones. Lyra stood now back in her lab, looking down at the stone slab with a piece of parchment in her hands. The glasses were once more resting before her eyes, and Lyra adjusted these as she glanced down at the page.
"Gormash." Lyra read. There was no surname, perhaps a precaution on Fletcher's part. The bones of the ork belonged to a member of the Sky Guard, a man who had lived and served for the majority of his life. This, at first, seemed to contradict the previous note, which said that he had belonged to the Hunters Guild. It was not wrong, but it was only recently that the Ork left the Guard to join the guild. It seemed the man had been discharged from service due to bad temper and difficulty with command.
"Curious." Lyra said as she looked at the bones. With this information in hand, Lyra began to see the details of the aura a bit more clearly. That red tinge, it was not simply the outline of a strong-willed warrior. It was an indication of the man's tendency. Bloodlust, it seemed, had saturated him to a radical degree. The aura about the skull was especially intense like it should have given off heat if it were aflame. Though what would that mean for an artifact crafted of his bones?
In his youth, he was a gifted warrior and joined the guard at a young age when, at first, he had seemed malleable. Over time though he gave in to other, more base desires. Gambling addiction, heaving drinking, and more than one act of disorderly conduct were enough to justify his dismissal. How he had lasted as long as he had baffled Lyra, as she had assumed the sky guard did not tolerate such behavior in their ranks.
He must have been more discrete than this letter gives him credit for. Lyra reasoned, eyeing the bones with a more critical eye. There was nothing in the aura that she could see that would suggest this was true, yet... If it were, that would imply that this Gormash had been quite crafty. Able to hide himself in near plain sight, or at least mask his weaknesses to such a degree that none around him could tell. It was something that Lyra found respectable, to a certain degree. Though... Maybe it was not others he attempted to fool, but himself.
She read the rest of the report. He was skilled in sword and shield, as well as grappling. It seemed he liked the fighting pits and was known for his drunken victories. After his dismissal, he joined the hunters guild to pay for his gambling and drinking habits. It was likely he would have lived for quite some time, had he not taken one job to the Wildking's forest. For whatever reason, this man, a drunk, a fool, and a disgrace, had thrown himself in front of a charging boar in an attempt to save a companion. The beast had gorged him nearly to death, but somehow this Gormash had managed to wrestle the beast twice his size to the ground, snapping its neck before all was said and done. That made Lyra raise an eyebrow. He had bled out there in those woods. Apparently, it was shortly after that that Fletcher's... assistance had fetched his body. He was still counted as missing in action, his body assumed to be taken by the beasts of the forest.
Her interest was peaked then, and she set the paper aside. On the Aviale's ring, she had rushed... This time, perhaps she should take her time.
"A warrior," She whispered, lifting the skull and turning it to face her, "Brave but foolish, easy to rage yet at the same time kind. Crafty enough to hide, but not smart enough to change his ways..."
What did one do with remains such as this? Unlike with runeforging, or even her scripts, she could not precisely get what she desired from the artefact that was created. There was no telling if the effects she withdrew would be good, or bad, or even what she intended at all. Then again... he had been a gambler, had he not?
"Why not make a game of it?" at this Lyra smiled, carrying the skull over to the Remembrance pedestal. The glyphs shimmered as she set the skull down, and she adjusted the glasses before her eyes before taking up the hook. Before she began, however, Lyra had a thought. From the shelf, Lyra took a vial of ichor, infused with a higher concentration of her own essence, and added a liberal amount on the skull's surface where it sunk in without a trace. Nodding slowly Lyra began.
Remembered artefacts were not Lyra's specialty, so she did not try to pretend that it was any longer. What was her expertise though was the Scripts, and this where she began. The difficulty with Artefacts was in the fact that one could not be certain as to what effects the item would have. If she could not directly control the parts of the artifact that were 'remembered' from the bone's past, she would instead focus on controlling everything around it. To begin she carved a curled serpent with no eyes on the skull's forehead, just above the eyes. This was simply a way to link the item closer to her, and thus hopefully give her just a bit more control over the effects.
Gormash had been a gambler, so what better artefact could be made from him than a game of chance? She could say which effect would be drawn out so... Why not draw all of them out, and simply have the item cycle through them by chance. It would require a bit of work, however... It was not something Lyra was unaccustomed to.
From the serpent, Lyra drew outward a series of links like chains that circled the entire skull. Where the chains met at the back Lyra created a depiction of a stylized eye with a serpentine pupil at its center. Here Lyra paused, breathing out slowly. The melodies hummed in her veins as she touched her rune, pressing the aether into the symbol of the eye as she activated that pictograph. She awakened it, syncing it to magic though she did not impart an effect. Lyra then began drawing a series of circles starting at the crown of the skull and adding one on either side. She linked these back to the eye at the back of the skull using another series of chain-like pathways, though between these she added vine-like lines with thorns. Wards of sorts along the pathway, capturing excess and ensuring most of the power was directed down the line.
From here Lyra continued to carve, using slow and careful strokes to etch the design in deep. These could not fail. If they did, all would be for nothing. Or worse, the effects of this Artefact might be activated and never shut off. Around each of the three circles on top of the head, Lyra braided additional lines of power, tendrils of smoke that spun and swirled, linking together and training down the front of the skull. There Lyra had the smoke billow and surrounded her serpent carving, entwining and becoming a part of the design. Turning the skull around Lyra drew similar smoky pathways leading out from the eye, flowing under the chain that surrounded the skull. At several points along with the skull, Lyra added a smaller, more simplified eye design that did not have a serpant pupil. At the skulls, Temples Lyra drew two larger eyes, and these she did give the serpent eyes, linking them back up to the serpent symbol on the forehead.
As she had worked she had let a trail of smoke continue behind her etchings, sinking into the pictographs and activating the scripts. These were not remembrance designs, however, they were carved using the tools of remembrance yet they were activated like one would a pictograph. This seemed to confuse the aether somewhat as through her lens she saw it shift and flutter as if expecting something else than what it was receiving. Lyra only smiled. Soon. Soon she would do as it wanted.
The next part was a bit more interesting. She started carving around the eyes of the skull, a pattern of curling tattoos that flowed backward to touch the smoking lines that linked to the serpent. Tilting her head as she worked Lyra took care not to disrupt the work she had completed thus far. She linked the patterns together, adding more and more lines that trailed into the eyesockets themselves. Before she completed the design, however, Lyra paused and stepped back. At the back of each eye socket was an indention, a pathway that connected the eyes to the inner parts of the mind letting one see. After some thought Lyra reached for the shelf, taking a bit of bone salve and dipping her hook into it. She then used the hook to later the inner eye socket, softening the bone and letting her shave out the inside just a bit. She worked slowly, widening the hole and sculpting the intentions until it was rounder in shape and more centered. From there she curled the pictographs around the indention, adding the outline of an eye before finishing.
Not yet. she thought with a frown, looking to the jewel crafting station, It will need something more.