Topic: Commissions

Lord Ayreg

Date: 2006-06-25 12:54 EST
Author's Note: This post actually should have been made some two months ago. Sorry, Grem, omg~!

Normally, such work would require the smaller anvil and tools of the silversmith.

However, Grem had specifically stated that it be made large. He didn't really go into details, so Jodiah Ayreg did not press him. A piece of steel, flattened and broad, was easily the width of his hand and as big around as his chest when folded over. That's how Grem had wanted it, though -- like a giant ring or collar.

Next that came were the silver spikes. It took some doing, but Ayreg had finally managed to squeeze the stock of silver he had available in the silver shoppe of the Dragon's Breath to form the cone-shaped spikes. What was odd, though, was that instead of the spikes being on the outside of the collar for aesthetic purposes... Grem had wanted them mounted facing the interior curve.

That would be paining to wear, were my neck large enough.

Still, it wasn't his place to really question what commissions he had taken.

Once all of the spikes had been mounted onto the steel ring, Jodiah Ayreg was finished as far as he was concerned. He tested the melding of the metal construct with a sharp tug. It held firm.

Nodding with satisfaction, Ayreg buried it into wrapping paper and a large box. He had allowed himself this time to be talked into making delivery. He needed to speak with Grem anyway, and he could use with the leg-stretching of going out and about.

Hefting it up beneath his arm, Jodiah Ayreg made his way toward the Red Dragon. The first of the commissions had been complete, and it was a simple and easily-performed task. Hardly even worth the twenty crowns that were attached to the price.

Lord Ayreg

Date: 2006-06-25 16:45 EST
Author's note: This should have been written almost a month ago. Sorry, Amber, omg~!

The dwarf's commission was the next that he had. She had need of a strange device of sorts to make her... taller. Said she wanted to work a bar and would need the height.

Dwarves should stick to mines and anvils, where they belong.

This one was somewhat more complicated than the collar was to make, and required tapping the ingenuity of the gnomes in the form of interlocking half-barrel bolts.

Or so they were called by the silly gnomes he worked with.

She wanted to temper price with functionality, so he had settled on steel for the boxy shafts, one inside the other, and adjustable up to twice its full length via moving the half-barrel bolts. He wasn't sure exactly how, but it wasn't his job to explain how it worked. It was just his job to craft it.

Attached to the bottom of those shafts, quite permanently, were a pair of heavy boots filled with some kind of... substance. Ayreg wasn't sure exactly what it was when Joshel the Large (the Gnome) poured the bucket into the boot, but it came out like liquid -- and in a matter of an hour, became hard as iron by itself. It made the shafts a bit heavier, he decided, but should also greatly aid in balance.

Measurements were made of the dwarf's legs, and so the stand-offs were precisely placed that would set her feet on the top of the shafts where she had set the height to, while extending up the back of her legs to offer support and balance. It was jointed in a single direction -- which didn't bode well for twisting and bending, but so long as she was simply using it to walk and turn there shouldn't be much of a problem.

That, perhaps, is something he probably should mention to her.

Leather padding and straps were attached where her shoed feet and legs would be, and he decided -- by laying down atop them -- that it would be sufficient to keep from being terribly abrasive so long as she didn't try to wear them for hours on end.

Lashing the stilts together with a leather cord and then wrapping them up in paper, he hung a note with a single word onto the front, and set it with the rest of the finished pieces that were not for sale to the public who might walk in.

Amber

Now all she had to do was come and get them. With her payment of one hundred twenty crowns, of course.

Lord Ayreg

Date: 2006-07-09 14:26 EST
Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis (otherwise known as Bob) sat in the chair, surrounded by Joshel the Large (the Gnome), Dohick (the Gnome), Relit, Ritap, and Rendap (the brothers). On the bench in front of them was a mechanical-geared heavy crossbow.

"Monster, th' ol' crusty I-Reg called it," Joshel the Large (the Gnome) muttered, "belong to one o' them thar Bloods. Tasha, methinks."

"Aye, mate" Ritap responded. "An' it be broke."

Dohick (the Gnome) piped up then, his voice considerably more squeek-ish than the others. "Thar be good work here, seys I. Gonna be hard to match?"

Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis (otherwise known as Bob) spoke at last, stroking his fingers through the fine whiskers of his beard. "Ye' all be daft. Easy enough to see what be broke, aye? Lookie at that." He lifted his wiry finger, indicating the bent-in portion of the turning mechanism.

Joshel the Large (the Gnome) nodded, faintly. "No wonder it be no' werkin'. What ye' wan' do, Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis?"

Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis (otherwise known as Bob) leaned back in his chair. The other gnomes waited anxiously to listen to what he decided. "I be thinkin', mates, that we can improve 'pon this. The load-holes are large, savvy? Ye' can very well be stickin' y'er finger inta' it."

"Aye." Rendap grunted, more than spoke.

"Well," Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis (otherwise known as Bob) continued, "I t'ink if we be shrinkin' the size o' the holes, an' findin' a way to mount a mana ba'ery an' a com'ress'r..."

"Th' Blood c'n jus' pull th' trigger an' hol' on, aye?" Rendap ventured a guess.

"Aye, mate. Le'z git started, by the powers!" Zorbenastrocalipermeneotullis (otherwise known as Bob) said with a raised fist.

_______________________

Some time later, the gnomes were once again standing around Tasha's Monster, grinning just as proud as Lucifer at each other. The large, hulking rotary assembly had been removed and recast, replaced by a more streamlined one. A small compartment in the back had just been fitted with a mana battery to power the gnomish-tinkered air compressor. It hissed softly, but that was a small price to pay for what else had been done.

The action of The Monster had been improved considerably, causing less force to be kicked back against the one who wielded it, and it used that energy to kick a mithril leg out against the spinning canister after every shot, automatically bringing up the next bolt and ready to fire again.

The original canister that it came with only held six bolts. It took some work (and Tsiolos the Swabby's understanding of geometric physics, of course), but the gnomes had managed to drill and mount no less than forty load-holes across the bolt canister itself. The bolts were now, of course, somewhat smaller -- but specially designed with flaring mithril tips that spread out like little ripping daggers after exiting the barrel of The Monster. Two replacement canisters were made as well for Tasha, easily replacing the one already there. The bolts themselves were ribboned together like a chain, one pulling from the other and detaching when fired, but the material used was so light that it was disintegrated in the action of firing.

Crossbow? Meet machine gun.

Machine gun? Meet crossbow.

The gnomes were quite pleased with the work that had been done, even if they did go over-budget. Still, with a price tag of only thirteen hundred crowns silver, it was one of the cheapest bits of tinkering work one could find for a gnome to do.

It was set into a large box marked "Tasha Oberon" and left out to await pick-up.