Heroes' Hearth

[Recaiden]

"Crix."
The goblin nods to Thariza.
"My owner works here sometimes. I help."

[Morty]

[Forge]

Thariza frowns. Did he say...?

"What do you mean, your 'owner'?"

[Recaiden]

"The person I belong to." the goblin explains, suspecting Thariza of being intentionally dense. Meanwhile, she hangs the amulet up on a little rack, the first of potentially many. "Alexil. Shi's a monster slayer from across the ocean. Got me from the Guild as a thank-you for killing a vampire that was troubling them."

[Morty]

[Forge]

"But you're a person too," Thariza says, uncomprehending. "You can't belong to someone else."

[Recaiden]

Crix rolls her eyes.
"Anything can belong to anyone. Are you seriously from a place where there are no slaves? "

[Morty]

[Forge]

Thariza looks taken aback. Her tail swishes slowly.

"I know of slaves. But my people don't keep them and I never thought I'd run into one here."

[Recaiden]

Crix shrugs at that. "World's full of surprises, ain't it?" But her expression now suggests she's quite amused at Thariza. The little smith starts gathering materials and tools for the next work - not this jewelry nonsense.

[Artemis97]

Avalon

"Why?" It's the only word Kothar could think of. He'd never been considered an enemy because of his race before. Sure, people were wary of him, but nothing like this.

[Avalon]

"Because...because, all of Alera's enemies have been non human. The Icemen, the Canim, the Marat, well not so much the Marat anymore...but a generation ago they were as hated as anything." The legionare explains.

[bc56]

Avalon

"It okay. I follow and fight for cause too. I understand. What your name?" Kothar really doesn't take offense. He understands that the legionaire and his country have had bad experiences with other non-human races.

[WarforgedTank]

[The Forge]

Tank dropped the chest of coins on the ground next to a bench he'd erected at the edge of his forge. He began making the preparations to fix the firearms belonging to another Warforged he'd met at the beach named Frigate.

[Artemis97]

[Avalon]

"My name?" The legionare seems surprised. "It's Novus."

[Earl of Purple]

The Forge

Frigate follows Tank. Frigate is another Warforged, of a different design. Its body looks as though it's made of metal, with broad shoulders, thick limbs, and a sturdy torso. It's a shade under two metres tall, nearly a metre and a half wide, and heavily armoured. In fact, it nearly looks like a knight in very heavy armour, the impression helped by the way its carapace was clearly re-purposed from an old suit of platemail, riveted and bolted to a frame of wood. A brass mask depicting a moustached human face is bolted to the front of the helmet, to serve as a face; two glowing red garnets peer out of holes cut in the mask as eyes. The helmet, shoulders and torso are coated in barnacles, and Frigate drags seaweed from its feet.

Frigate carries a wooden cask, formerly filled with gunpowder, but now holding only a miscellany of items from the shipwreck that brought him to the Nexus- some sodden rope, a finely-crafted box containing a pair of duelling pistols, and a sextant. In addition to these, he has a finely-crafted wheellock rifle slung over his back and a pair of flintlock pistols at his waist, in addition to a cutlass. He'll pass the guns along for Tank to look at; they're waterlogged and sea-damaged, but not too badly. They're well made, and drying them out will fix most of their issues. The exception are the duelling pistols, which were in a very watertight box. They aren't enchanted, which would have probably kept them in better condition. "Do ye need silence to work, or may we chat? I've had no conversation these last three months, sailor or lubber. What happened to your warsmith? Mine drowned, three months back, when our ship went down. We'd gotten too close to Alfheim, and their pegasus knights know how to deal with cannon and muskets." Should be noted, all of Frigate's guns are rifled; even the duelling pistols, which was quite unusual in our world (the idea was to let God pick the righteous; unrifled barrels, being less accurate, made luck a greater factor).

[bc56]

Avalon

Something about the name seems to bother Kothar for a second. "Means it anything to you?"

[Artemis97]

[Avalon]

"My name?" Novus seems confused. "Nov is the root for nine. Why do you ask?"

[bc56]

Avalon

"Where I come from, god of invention named Novo. I thought you named after him." Kothar's people are at odds with the worshippers of Novo, but he's now confident that Novus is unrelated. All his unease disappears.

[Artemis97]

[Avalon]

Novus shakes his head. "No, we don't even have gods, really. Just furies." He explains, relaxing a little himself. "So, um..." He looks around, noticing the differing peoples walking the streets of Avalon. "This isn't home, is it? Any idea how I get back?"

[Morty]

[Forge - Thariza and Crix]

Crix shrugs at that. "World's full of surprises, ain't it?" But her expression now suggests she's quite amused at Thariza. The little smith starts gathering materials and tools for the next work - not this jewelry nonsense.

"You seem remarkably laid-back for a slave," Thariza says, unsure what else she could. All the slaves she's heard of were kept by centaurs and Krait, and to call their fate miserable was to put it kindly.

[bc56]

Avalon

"I know not. I arrived here by chance; I know not how to return." Kothar looks around. "Many people live here, from many worlds. Maybe someone does have a way back."

[Recaiden]

Crix shrugs. "No point worrying about what can't be changed."
"The amulet - you're avoiding something else you know you should be working on by making it, right? Because at least metalworking is familiar, even if you haven't made jewelry before."

[WarforgedTank]

The Forge

Frigate follows Tank. Frigate is another Warforged, of a different design. Its body looks as though it's made of metal, with broad shoulders, thick limbs, and a sturdy torso. It's a shade under two metres tall, nearly a metre and a half wide, and heavily armoured. In fact, it nearly looks like a knight in very heavy armour, the impression helped by the way its carapace was clearly re-purposed from an old suit of platemail, riveted and bolted to a frame of wood. A brass mask depicting a moustached human face is bolted to the front of the helmet, to serve as a face; two glowing red garnets peer out of holes cut in the mask as eyes. The helmet, shoulders and torso are coated in barnacles, and Frigate drags seaweed from its feet.

Frigate carries a wooden cask, formerly filled with gunpowder, but now holding only a miscellany of items from the shipwreck that brought him to the Nexus- some sodden rope, a finely-crafted box containing a pair of duelling pistols, and a sextant. In addition to these, he has a finely-crafted wheellock rifle slung over his back and a pair of flintlock pistols at his waist, in addition to a cutlass. He'll pass the guns along for Tank to look at; they're waterlogged and sea-damaged, but not too badly. They're well made, and drying them out will fix most of their issues. The exception are the duelling pistols, which were in a very watertight box. They aren't enchanted, which would have probably kept them in better condition. "Do ye need silence to work, or may we chat? I've had no conversation these last three months, sailor or lubber. What happened to your warsmith? Mine drowned, three months back, when our ship went down. We'd gotten too close to Alfheim, and their pegasus knights know how to deal with cannon and muskets." Should be noted, all of Frigate's guns are rifled; even the duelling pistols, which was quite unusual in our world (the idea was to let God pick the righteous; unrifled barrels, being less accurate, made luck a greater factor).

Tank set about the task of laying out the weapons to dry. He placed them near the forge in an effort to speed up the drying process.

"Talk all ye want. I can multitask."

Tank reaches into the pouch at his waist, and removes two different, heavy bound books, titled "Guns for Beginners" and "Advanced Learnings on Maintaining Your Firearms". He opens the first book, sighs, and puts it back in the sack. He opens the second one, nods, and starts to read.

"As far as my Warsmith? This is not a term I am familiar with. I was brought into being by a very talented sorcerer to be his bodyguard. I outlived him, but not without putting in my time and collecting my fair share of dents and cuts."

Tank laughed, a hollow, metallic sound.

"Since then, I've taken to learning how to craft things myself. I can fix damn near anything. Making new things, that's the harder part. Never crafted a firearm before, for example. I can make a decent sword and suits of armor though."

[Morty]

[Forge]

Thariza's ears lie back as she seems defensive.

"I'm not avoiding anything. I'm just... thinking. Working on something new helps me with that. I spent a lot of time stuck in a rut."

[Earl of Purple]

The Forge

"Warsmith's a wizard, usually a dwarf or gnome, specialising in creating magic items. Don't throw spells around so much, just make stuff. Mine had a gambling problem. Built me as a bodyguard, like you, and made me weapons to go with. Spent a while wandering around, hiring himself out and gambling on whatever he could. Then he bet more money than he actually had on a racing tortoise. Had to make a speedy getaway, and hired himself out as a shipwright onto The Lady Immortal, which totally wasn't involved in smuggling. The crew told me so. The voyage went too close to Alfheim, and he drowned when the ship sank. A lot of his magic went into me and my cutlass, it's why me guns aren't magic. Which is why they need looking at, now." When Tank mentions he's created good swords, Frigate draws his cutlass and will offer it to the other Warforged. "I doubt you could make a weapon as fine as this." It's a well-made weapon, created by a master swordsmith- and one who wasn't just a swordsmith, if it's true that it was crafted by the same person as his guns; a master gunsmith, too. Only a master gunsmith could build a wheel-lock rifle; there's a reason they never entered mass production or widespread military use, unlike the simpler snaphance and flintlock. The cutlass is also enchanted; when held, if the other hand is empty, it will duplicate itself in the other hand.

[Artemis97]

[Avalon]

"Crows" Novus breathes. "Well, do you know where I might find a bite to eat and a bed for the night?"

[Recaiden]

Crix gives Thariza an extremely skeptical look. Of course she's avoiding it.
Working and thinking are just another way.

"...people miss you, you know."

[Morty]

[Forge]

Thariza's fur bristles and she grows.

"What do you- we've just met."

[bc56]

Avalon -> Warriors' Rest

"This way." Kothar leads the way to Warrior's Rest. "Food easy, I make food. Rest also easy. Free beds here."

[Recaiden]

"So obviously I'm not one of them. I'm just supposed to tell you that."
Crix tries not to laugh.

[Morty]

[Forge]

Thariza glares at Crix. Charr are good at glaring.

"There's no one left to miss me," she says. "I've lost my warband and everyone I knew at HALO seems to have moved on somewhere while I was... away."

[WarforgedTank]

The Forge

"Warsmith's a wizard, usually a dwarf or gnome, specialising in creating magic items. Don't throw spells around so much, just make stuff. Mine had a gambling problem. Built me as a bodyguard, like you, and made me weapons to go with. Spent a while wandering around, hiring himself out and gambling on whatever he could. Then he bet more money than he actually had on a racing tortoise. Had to make a speedy getaway, and hired himself out as a shipwright onto The Lady Immortal, which totally wasn't involved in smuggling. The crew told me so. The voyage went too close to Alfheim, and he drowned when the ship sank. A lot of his magic went into me and my cutlass, it's why me guns aren't magic. Which is why they need looking at, now." When Tank mentions he's created good swords, Frigate draws his cutlass and will offer it to the other Warforged. "I doubt you could make a weapon as fine as this." It's a well-made weapon, created by a master swordsmith- and one who wasn't just a swordsmith, if it's true that it was crafted by the same person as his guns; a master gunsmith, too. Only a master gunsmith could build a wheel-lock rifle; there's a reason they never entered mass production or widespread military use, unlike the simpler snaphance and flintlock. The cutlass is also enchanted; when held, if the other hand is empty, it will duplicate itself in the other hand.

Tank sets his book down, letting out a low whistle as he holds the sword.

"Yer' right abou' one thing. I cannae make anything like this. The enchantments alone are pricelss."

Tank turns to the guns, and removes a cleaning kit from a shelf next to his forge. He then begins the tedious process of stopping them down to clean them.

[Artemis97]

[Warrior's Rest]

Novus follows Kothar through the streets of the village and up to Warrior's Rest. On the way he takes off his helmet and tucks it under one arm, revealing a boyish face with short cropped blonde hair and icy blue eyes.

"Free beds, that's convenient." He comments. "What kind of place is this? And what's for dinner?"