The Forge
The heavy chopping of wood echoes around the yard just outside Starforge Smithy, as another bright and sunny morning begins in the cozy town of Modra. Lenn, the blacksmith’s apprentice, is finishing up his morning chores. He’s been working for Zaezel the blacksmith for years now, and the toned and tanned body he’s sporting is raw evidence of it, with strangely wide-set hips and a tight ass that jiggles ever so slightly with the raw force of his ax swings. He glistens in the morning sun with a layer of hard-earned sweat, and buries the ax a moment in the stump he’s chopping on to wipe his brow. Three whole logs chopped up, more than enough for the week’s worth of work. His apprentice’s apron, a gray smock with more soot stains than a chimney sweep’s face, is wrapped halfway around him and his upper body is exposed. His flat chest and visible abs glisten with his work sweat and rise up and down as he takes a few deep, heavy breaths.
Zaezel, a humanoid but distinctly demonic creature called an Otherling, steps out to see him assessing his work. She does the same. She’s built like an orc, about 7 feet tall with muscles that put steel bars to shame. Decades and more of working the anvil have chiseled her body into a beautiful canvas of burn scars, and raw strength. She’s wearing her blacksmith’s apron, a black smock with several pouches for her tools though none of them are currently present, some boots, slacks, and a short body wrap around her chest underneath the apron that conceals and protects her ample breasts. Her bluish skin is speckled with the many tiny burns of the forge spark, almost like freckles.
“Mornin’ ma’am, just finishing the chopping, then I’ll fetch the water. We have those swords to finish today, and then I’ll make the delivery?”
Zaezel grunts, narrowing her eyes and eyeing the pile of wood a moment, before nodding and giving Lenn a short but acknowledging nod. He smiles, lifts the ax to chop the final bit of wood, and buries the ax down into the stump with a THUD. As he does so, Zaezel seems to study his form a moment, before turning back to go inside and prep the forge.
After gathering up all of the firewood, he stacks it neatly next to the smithy just like Zaezel wants, and then heads off to gather the work-in-process swords from the other day. Pommels, cross guards, and shines. Zaezel would do the pommels and guards, he’d do the shining.
Normally she would give him a chance to do a little practice, but these are no ordinary swords. Lord Kent was commissioning some specially-made blades to counteract evil shadow-like spirits that had been haunting his castle. Zaezel is one of the few Otherlings around who can work magical steel as well as being able to cast the right controlling hexes for the blades to work on the spirits, so she will be required to ensure the blades are done right.
Lenn finds the swords-in-progress out behind the Smithy in the shed. Zaezel hung them up to dry the coating she had put on them. Some strange blue philter that she produced from a cupboard that is always locked. Zaezel isn’t really an alchemist, so she must’ve gotten it from somewhere else. He looks closely at the blades, making sure none of the essence remains before touching. Zaezel said it would have very bad effects if rubbed on human skin before it dried. He pictured rotting flesh and instant death, but the swords are safe and he gathers them up in both hands to haul them in. There’s 8 longswords, quite heavy, but Lenn has been working here long enough that a few sticks of metal aren’t going to slow him down. He hoists them up and takes them back to the smithy.
Inside, smoke billows out briefly from the forge as Zaezel tosses in another red rock and then opens the top vent. The smoke redirects and goes upwards, and the fires blaze hot once more. A quick softening of the end to affix the guard and pommel, and they’d be done. Lenn assists the best he can, but Zaezel mostly takes over from here. She grabs her hefty smithing hammer and tongs and places one of the ends in the fire. Again and again she puts the sword in the fire, brings it out, hammer, guard, pommel, hammer. Once she gets everything in place she inspects it one more time through narrowed eyes before sticking it in the water and placing it on the workbench for Lenn to shine.
After a couple of hours of work, they have 8 shining new hex-blade swords ready for Lord Kent. The craftsmanship is exquisite, Zaezel has really outdone herself. Lenn sheathes them each in the leather-bound sheathes that they had brought in from the tannery the other day. All emblazoned with the Lord’s Lamp Sigil. The rumor goes that Lord Kent’s entire history was fabricated by a genie, and he sprang into existence as a Lord here only at the genie’s behest. That couldn’t be though, because Lenn’s family had served Lord Kent all their lives! Various household servants, a few knights, and several farmers who pay taxes to Lord Kent. Decades and decades, how powerful could a genie’s magic really be?
Zaezel pats him on the back, her large and powerful hand lingers just a brief moment on it before she pulls it back away and pushes him forward towards the door.
“Go. Deliver them. Take them straight to Lord Kent, and no one else. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Master Zaezel.”
“No nonsense. No side trips. You’re going into town and there’s so much distraction. Straight there, straight back.”
“Straight there, straight back.”
She smiles, her long fangs show a little more behind her lips and she gives him a light swat on the butt for good measure to send him a long. He almost lifts off the ground from her raw strength. She must be far stronger than she needs to be to work metal, Lenn always had a suspicion that she used to be a Hero or an Adventurer, but they have been gone for so long. Ever since the Guilds all disbanded after the defeat of Ghost Lord Graves, there hasn’t really been a need for Heroes. The ones that couldn’t leave the life of danger behind just became local guards or Knights/Enforcers for local lords like Kent, the others…well perhaps they ended up like Zaezel, hiding in plain sight.
Lenn takes the butt pat seriously, and puts a bit of a pep in his step. With the longswords sheathed and slung over his back he can carry them much more easily so he takes off down the road at a fairly brisk pace.
Zaezel’s Starforge Smithy is located at the top of the “Cresting Hill’ on the East side of Modra. She picked the spot because it has such a wonderful view of the stars, and she requires certain constellation views to enchant certain properties. Lenn walks down the path, and towards the center part of Modra where the market is.
