Gorlen Blackhammer - Journal Entry

[halfgiant]

As dawn’s light filtered through the curtains of his upstairs apartment in V’Ral, Gorlen stirred from his slumber, his small frame stretching beneath the warmth of his blankets. With a yawn, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, his feet finding the familiar coolness of the wooden floor. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Gorlen donned his favorite patched-up robe, the fabric worn but beloved. With a jingle of keys, he made his way downstairs to the first floor into his shop to open the front door, his steps light and quick. Unlocking the shop with practiced ease, Gorlen flipped the sign from “Closed” to “Open,” the hinges squeaking softly in the quiet morning air. With a contented sigh, he busied himself arranging shelves, dusting trinkets, and lighting the hearth, preparing for another bustling day of customers in his quaint little corner of the world.

A few moments passed as Gorlen made his way through the shop’s wand aisle smelling the aroma of freshly brewed coffee through the air as he busied himself into the small kitchen tucked away in the back. As he poured a steaming cup, the door creaked open, and the first customer of the day stepped inside, a curious glint in their eye. A youngling beholder floated over to Gorlen greeting him with an unusual yet disturbing smile. Gorlen immediately recognized him it was one of Dregnoth’s younglings. Gorlen looks up at the youngling and holds his index finger up signaling to the youngling to wait before speaking. Gorlen then sets his coffee down on the counter and reaches around the back pulling out a whiskey bottle called The Tinker’s Tipple to add to his coffee. After taking a long drink, Gorlen says “How can I help you?”.

“Greetings my name is Oculortheiromentathrax” the youngling intoned in a child-like voice through the shop. Gorlen sighs at the pronunciation of that name, Dregnoth should know better. Oculortheiromentathrax says “I have come to ask for a job, I want to apprentice to be a merchant.” Gorlen cocks and eyebrow finding the statement odd saying “Youngling you’re in a city full of merchants anyone of them could do a much better job than I”. Oculortheiromentathrax responds a bit hesitantly “Yes but they all know my father, and for them to apprentice me I would have to at least become a member of the church. I figured I would get a fairer shake with you.” Gorlen thinks too himself for a moment, crap this kid isn’t wrong, looking up at Oculortheiromentathrax… “Well, I don’t know I have enough work to keep you busy, business requires more than just cutting deals. You must have knowledge skills as well.” Gorlen visibly thinking, looks at him “Hold on a second” going behind the counter scanning for where he left his ‘other’ spectacles, eventually finding them he pops them on and give the youngling a good scan. Mumbling to himself, Gorlen utters “Hmm not lying, smart, nothing unusual coming up, has potential, hmmm child of an alchemist though”. Taking off his glasses Gorlen thinks about it rolling his fingers across the glass case and saying “Well youngling a couple of things, if you work here you have to attend magic school next term, in the meantime, we will practice getting you ready for the entrance exam. The second is nobody can pronounce that insufferable name your father gave you so for school and work at the shop I shall nickname you Rupert.” I assume you’re ok with that?

Rupert visibly looks excited nodding his head yes with excitement … Gorlen interrupts “don’t get too excited you are on probation for the first 90 days if I don’t see you doing your best then you get the boot.” Rupert responds … “Yes, you will see I will do my best, but I don’t have the money for magic school tuition”. Gorlen… “if you earn it here working at the shop Rupert, I’ll work it out with the school of magic but keep that to yourself I don’t need every hard luck story knocking on my door!”

Gorlen claps his hands together … “Ok Rupert, some days you can be in your natural form, others will require you to be in a humanoid form are you able to change your shape?” Rupert says “Actually, yes I can” Rupert begins to focus holding his breath, as his central eye begins to bulge and his skin begins to fade in color … Gorlen starts to look a little concerned… “Rupert don’t hurt yourself” … and then Rupert begins to shift into a 12-year human male. Gorlen looks down at Rupert and says “Yeah your shape-changing you’re going to need to practice that some more, that is something you will need to shift in and out of frequently throughout the day and I can’t have you pass out.”

Gorlen says “Ok you start today”, waving his hand to follow him, Rupert follows Gorlen to the back of his shop, passing all manner of invisible servants and enchanted tools. Gorlen looks at Rubert and says, “A few weeks ago some elementalists passing through town bought me out of staffs of fire, not existing staffs of fire but ready to be enchanted to become staffs of fire, I suspect they took them to the Ancient in town for enchantment anyway they bought me out.”.

Gorlen waves to Rupert to follow “Over here coming to a lathe station I will walk you through the process on the first one, and then you get to make the next 5” Gorlen points to a stack of Dragonwood and says “We are going to begin with inspecting the Dragonwood for imperfections when we find one that is usable we mount it in the lathe.” Gorlen showing Rupert what to look for finds one in the pile and begins mounting it to the lathe. Gorlen says “now let the invisible servant build up speed on the lathe once at sufficiently high speed we begin to carve and shape the excess wood away to create a smooth and uniform shaft.” Moving to the next station, Gorlen says “This is the hand carving station, this is where we hand carve intricate details and embellishments. A lot of times it’s sigils which may include delicate patterns and spiraling designs, but in this case, it’s a series of magical scripts with depictions of flames.” Pointing to the pattern on the wall, Gorlen hand carves the pattern into the staff. Gorlen says “Now we shift to the next station, here we etch arcane runes into the surface of the staff.” Pointing at the pictures of the runes pinned up on the wall. Gorlen says “Yep those will do” Beginning to use a fine engraving tool that inscribes the rune to the wood.

Gorlan pauses… “ Ohh yeah so I guess I should warn you, a lot of times customers will buy an item from our shop and take it to the Ancient in town to have it enchanted, he can be well a Dwarf, to say the least. The first one of these you do that gets sold he will undoubtedly come into the shop and complain about its shoddy craftsmanship. Just ignore him, you’re never going to change his mind eventually he will get thirsty and leave.”

Gorlen looking at the progress of the staff says, “Ok take a good look for a staff of fire this is what it should look like, next is we attach the red sapphire to it”. Gorlen moving to the jewel crafter station takes a rather large red sapphire and points to a precise cavity that was purposely carved near the crown or tip of the staff. Rupert says “that’s where that gem goes? How do you keep it attached?” Gorlen grins at the question and responds, “First things first do you know why a red sapphire was chosen for a staff of fire?” Rupert says “ I can only assume for its fiery hue and magical resonance to fire” Gorlen responds “ You may just work out after all Rupert, to your second question yes pointing to a magical bonding agent, and some thin adamantium wire is how we are going to attach the gem.” Gorlen begins attaching the red sapphire to the staff, showing Rupert the process. Gorlen once complete, begins giving the staff a once over with Rupert saying, “Now we give it one final inspection, scrutinizing the staff from every angle, checking for any flaws or imperfections that may detract from its final purpose.” Gorlen says “Yep I think it’s good for sale”.

“Rupert” says Gorlen… “Now it’s your turn, take it slow. Start back at the Dragonwood pile find a good piece to start from and repeat exactly what we did here.” Rupert says, “What if I screw one up?” Gorlen replies “Ohh you are going to screw many up, you start again until it’s done right”. Gorlen smacks his belly… “Ok youngling I need one good staff of fire ready for sale by tomorrow morning do you think you could make that happen?” Rupert nods “Yes, I will do my best”. Gorlen responds “OK then I’m going to breakfast, when I come back, I will bring you something. Get to work.”

Gorlen on his way out of the shop gives a subtle activation to his Golems around the shop, so that he can continue to monitor Rupert’s progress and activity. Gorlen mumbles to himself…” it’s not above Dregnoth to use a youngling as a spy, we will just have to see if the youngling can prove himself.” Gorlen strolling by the obelisk says “Hey Obelisk, where is Dregnoth these days” Obelisk responds “He is currently located in Erok’s anal cavity”… Gorlen blinks before realizing what the Obelisk said “Ohh ass mage is what you meant”… Obelisk responds “That is what I said”, Gorlen says “Ok were is Erok then.” Obelisk responds…this time with an illusionary map displayed on the ground highlighting V’Ral and the Capital City Alashan “Erok is located here, in the Capital city of Alashan, presently visiting a drinking establishment.” Gorlen responds “Interesting, Thanks O”…. and carries on about his way.

Gorlen thinks to himself…”Maybe this is a good thing if the youngling works out maybe I can get back to exploring the manaverse, freeing me up to get back to my search for the lost Xelvean library… its gotta be in the manaethereal deep.”

[dwarf]

(( fyi - dregs is FAR too absentminded and easily distracted to try and spy on Gorlen… the alchemist buys into your ONE disguise - hook, line and sinker having already surreptiously sampled you via a handshake with an Alchemical Bloodstone Ring equipped and gotten back pure gnome blood (something that was childs play for a managanger to work around), he’s chalked you up as a obscenely clever magus and moved on to more difficult targets to “acquire” ))