Hammers to Fall - 23/01/2024 - Mendal Recounts

Return to the Plane of Fire

North of the forge, where Mendal discovered his sentient hammers, was another forge which held magical tablets with the recipe and ingredient list to make magical weapons and armour. To become the best craftsman in the world, Mendal would have to demonstrate his ability at magical crafting, and Carric and Nevarra, the pair of sentient hammers, felt it was time they would share the location of the Zephyr forge to Mendal, to help him on his path. It was time for Mendal to revisit the Plane of Fire.



“Hotter than a magma elemental’s balls!” Mendal said to his friends, Kavel and Mendal, around the kitchen table summarising the environment from his recent journey to the Plane of Fire, before taking a swig of his beer.

“Is the forge fire from a forge deep down in the mountain that much better for metal crafting?” Kavel asked, trying to understand the location choice of the forge.

“That and perhaps material; location, excavation and transport are all logistically easier, too?” Archie added.

“Nah!” Mendal responded. “Well, yes, sure” he added, correcting himself and then explaining, “but people manage well enough with forges above ground, especially if you have access to magic. Nah, Carric and Nevarra,” Mendal turned to face the direction of the workshop, where the sentient elven hammers were resting neatly set away in prime position on the hammer rack, and then shouted, “they’ve just got a pointless thing for pain and suffering! That’s why the forges are on the Plane of Fire! Pair of sadistic gits!”

Mendal cupped an ear toward the workshop, testing if he could hear a response. An unnecessary act, if either of the sentient hammers were to respond to him, their voices would sound in Mendal’s mind, not through his ear canals. Mendal heard no response though. Whether this was because Carric or Nevarra couldn’t hear his comment, or simply chose not to respond, is not clear.

“No other reason you haven’t mentioned, Mendal?” Archie said, seeking an answer he would find more logical. He got one.

“Well. There’s all this business about forging weapons in secret for the elves. So maybe locating many different well hidden and well booby-trapped forges in completely inhospitable locations has some reason behind it,” Mendal mentioned reluctantly, feeling this admittance unfairly diminished the severity experienced by trekking through and down the inside of a mountain for a day and back. “So, sure. There’s that. But! Archie, don’t ever feel the need to turn the temperature right up to scorching in your Magnificent Mansion conjuration. Not even in the sauna!”

“I wouldn’t mind that. Good for the body. Good for the pores,” said Kavel, seeing a benefit to intense heat.

Mendal glanced at Kavel without turning his head, and then looking back at Archie, said, “one silly hot room in the Mansion for the goliath then. Preferably in his gym only.” And then, turning back to Kavel, “how about a silly cold plunge to follow your silly hot sauna? An ice bath room, perhaps?”

Kavel’s face lit up. “You should both join me in sauna and cold plunge.”

Mendal raised his mug, “only if there’s beer afterward.”



The Tablets of Magical Crafting

“The tablets transferred the recipe and ingredients list into your mind over a night of restful sleep - that is fascinating,” Archie was musing out loud, very interested in this particular part of Mendal’s recounting of his adventure, and adding, “ I wonder if there is any negative affect to the sleeping process and if acquiring knowledge that way has any drawbacks? It seems like it’s all benefits though”.

The tablets Archie referred to were the tablets Mendal was able to retrieve, thanks to the teamwork of the adventurers he brought with him. But also Carric’s guide to negotiating all the wrong paths, traps, and perhaps most importantly the final trap where the tablets were held. A step wrong and the translucent black stone floor would have given way and Mendal would have fallen into a stream of lava. But, fall Mendal did not. He was able to retrieve two surviving tablets, whilst his allies found 920gp worth of precious metals, which they divided equally among themselves before setting off to leave the Plane of Fire and its oppressive heat behind.

“Wasn’t bad learning with the tablets during sleep, Archie. Although, I much prefer my sleep to be taken up with sexy dreams instead.” Mendal, chuffed to bits at his own joke, laughed. “But if I had to learn a new language, I’d rather learn it in my sleep. Tell you what? Now that I’ve got the tablets in my head, why don’t you have a go at learning one of the tablets?”

Archie was already casting the Detect Magic spell on one of the tablets soon to be followed by the Identify spell, and was pleased at hearing Mendal’s offer, “splendid! Thank you, I shall. To no good crafting end, of course, but the process of learning here fascinates me.”

“Good. But, now you mention it, I’m not sure to what end I’ve learnt the Zephyr Armour’s tablet. Bloody thing sounds like it will be right bloody expensive and time-consuming to make! Little Egg will probably be a retired aarakocra adventurer by the time I’ve finished his armour. The magical ingredient for the zippy armour, by the way, is, “Mendal slowed down for dramatic effect, “hair from a djinn!”

Leaving a slight pause for his friends to give him the shocked expression he expected, Mendal carried on. “Don’t know how I’m getting that. I bet the djinn will have some swindling fey-like bargain I’m supposed to agree to before parting with some hair. The other tablet’s to do with Vicious Weapons though.” As Mendal mentioned the Vicious Weapons, he turned to Kavel and pointed at his goliath friend, “your old poleaxe, from what you told me about it, was a Vicious Weapon, wasn’t it?”

Kavel gave it some thought, and then agreed, “yes that’s right. Every now and again I’d land the perfect strike, maybe one in twenty shots, and the poleaxe’s hammer would bludgeon my opponent more savagely than I expected. It was a good weapon, but then I learnt Stone Hand Fighting Techniques. Dwarven MMA - it’s good. But, yes. Vicious Weapons, they are probably great for junior adventurers. More impact for your strikes, when you strike just right.”

Mendal began stroking his beard, “there might just be a market for Vicious Weapons among the newer adventurers, and good magical crafting practice for me…”



The Fire Plane Team

“Who was part of your adventuring group, Mendal? Anyone strong?” The goliath asked his dwarven friend as his human friend had just finished casting the Identify spell on both of Mendal’s tablets and announced his excitement to see if what he’d just learned would be different from what he would learn overnight.

“Ah yes!” Mendal began to recount the members of the team that day, “Artur - human like you Archie - was a hooded weirdo! I’m not a fan of those Eldritch spells. This Hadar spell Artur did was weird. I bet the Hadar guy’s a weirdo too. To be fair the big, dark tentacle spell of Hadar was pretty good at giving the fire golem we battled some grief. But, whatever was happening under the spell’s magical darkness sounded like it should have remained hidden under magical deafness as well.”

“Not on your shortlist of adventurers to invite to a future mission then?” Asked Archie expecting a negative response, but surprisingly getting a positive one.

“No, I would! I’d have a word about that Hadar spell, but the lad helped me get the tablets. Overall, I was grateful for his help.”

“You said there were two more, right? Do we know them?” Kavel asked.

“No,” Mendal turned to his larger friend to respond, “but I’ve mentioned both before. Bella, fairy rapier and crossbow wielder, she’s good with the rapier - stabbed the lighting golem up good. Had an absolute shit time in all the heat though! Worse than I had the first time in the Plane of Fire. She wants to know if I can craft a magical, clever sort of crossbow. Well, no tablet for that at the moment. Chartreuse was the last fella on the team. Part of the Dawnland Sleigher champions with me, you must remember him, right?” Mendal looked back and forth between Kavel and Archie for confirmation.

Both friends nodded back at Mendal agreeing.

“Fancy knight fella, he is. Irritatingly he didn’t seem that bothered by the heat while I was sweating buckets, and Bella was wobbling all over the place. Somehow Chartreuse had enough energy in the sweltering heat to run his mouth incessantly about things like posing for an ungodly amount of time for a portrait. He wouldn’t let me dip into the ice bath he made when we took a break from walking! He said that the bath was for Bella, not me. Granted Bella almost died during the battle later, and that was probably in part due to the exhaustion, but five minutes of bath time for me wouldn’t have changed that!”

“And is Bella fine?” Archie asked, ignoring Mendal’s point of focus in his tale - himself - and instead focusing on the state of the adventurer, Bella.

“Yes she’s fine, don’t worry about her,” Mendal said somewhat dismissively as if the fact should have been obvious. “I’ll give Chartreuse this, he put his body on the line against the fire golem when it was getting closer to smashing up the tablets. The man may have made the top of my shortlist for joining my ingredient-hunting future team. He made a point about being insulted that I put a notice up asking for adventurers before asking him to join first. Fine, he gets a personal invite next time.”

“Good,” Archie responded. “I’ve seen him perform in the Feylight Theatre. He sounds equally good as an adventuring partner as he is on the stage.”

“More importantly he’s good at nature magic, which means healing,” Mendal hastened to add, “which means when he’s on the same team as me, the team won’t always turn to me for magical healing. In fact, it was him who healed Bella from the fire golem’s fatal sword wound.”

Archie glanced over to Kavel to share a look of disapproval, before addressing their dwarven friend. “You’re the worst cleric to ever adventure, Mendal,” not for the first time Archie had said that, and it likely won’t be the last.

“Yes, yes, whatever,” Mendal replied before taking a swig of beer, and smacking his lips.

End