A Brilliant Enhancement

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Wherever Elarris was, he was probably not expecting to hear Mendal's voice inside his head.

"HEY ELARRIS! IT'S MENDAL!! Are you busy? Get your arse round to my place. I've got this brilliant idea for that mithril suit of armour..."

The message appeared to have cut off. But no more than a couple of seconds passed before Mendal’s voice boomed inside Elarris’s head again.

"... ME AGAIN! Where was I? Yeah, the suit that I altered for you. Bring it round! Bring one of those yellow diamonds and some topaz!"

The Sending spell had a twenty five word limit. This was too short for Mendal. So one more time, he cast it again.

"... YELLOW GEMS! Bring em! Grab some pastries or whatever from Orianna's kitchen, too. BYE! BYE!!"

Elarris shook his head for a second. He could have sworn he heard Mendal in his head. Then he thought harder. Mendal can talk to gods. He can probably use the same telepathy magic as Calla.

Elarris stood up and moved slowly towards the armour he had been staring at for the past couple of hours. It was as if Mendal read his… oh… right…

The knight bowed his head briefly at the carving of Eroshira, then started the process of strapping the armour on. It took a surprisingly brief time for plate armour, another thing he thanked Mendal for silently, then he scooped up the bag of gems Eroshira had given him after their journey to the Plane of Vacuum.

Elarris took a quick glance into the kitchen. There was no sign of Orianna but, as usual, a large plate of freshly baked goods stood on the side. Scribbling a note of thanks and explanation, he scooped up a few, wrapped them in napkins and popped them into his backpack.

Less than half an hour after Mendal’s message Elarris was knocking on his door.



At the House of the Dwarven Cleric

"I'll get it!" Elarris could hear from behind the door, and then the door opened.

"ELARRIS!" Mendal boomed. His eyes went to Elarris's backpack and then focused on Elarris's plate armour, specifically the Mithril dragon tribute on the breast plate. "Got the gems?" Mendal asked eagerly.

Elarris nodded respectfully. "I have Mendal... Can I...?"
He swung the pack off his back and hauled out a small sack of gems and a smaller sack of baked goods.
"I mean... so... obviously.... I am still, quite frankly, coming to terms with the way you saved Eroshira... I would like to give you all of this and more."
He paused.
"But what's this about?"

Mendal glanced into Elarris's bag of gems, and then looked up at Elarris. "I only need a little bit off of a single yellow diamond and maybe a couple of topazes - I'm going to add highlights to the scales on the breastplate with slivers of topaz, and then eyes for the head with the diamond." Mendal’s excitement was clear to see from his ear splitting smile.

Mendal reached out to Elarris's nearest hip with his right hand and slapped it. "It's a great idea, heh? Come on, get in here. Let me show you my forge. I had Archie put in a jewellery crafting table, too."

Elarris beamed. “Yes! That’s a great idea indeed. It’ll make a perfect tribute to her.”
He followed Mendal, curious to see the clerics forge which he imagined to be something a little like a shrine

Elarris followed Mendal to the courtyard. The Herald of Eroshira had been there before. He saw the usual assortment of training equipment in one corner of the courtyard, the metal dragon sculpture, the table and chairs in the middle of the enclosure, and the strange amethyst decorated wooden door against one wall of the courtyard that only the goliath in the house opened. But, there was another door in the courtyard. It wasn't there before. It had a magical shimmer to it, and it was open.



The Magnificent Mansion’s Formidable Forge

"Here we are!" Mendal led Elarris up to the new door. "Ever been in one of these?" Mendal pointed to the inside of the conjured entrance, before continuing. "Unsurprisingly they're a bit rare. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion is what the spell's called. When Archie-boy conjures it for us, it's really more; Archie's giant office, Kavel's big exercise space, and My first-rate forge!”

A few ethereal servants stood patiently inside, lined up, ready to welcome the two adventurers.

“Oh, there are conjured servants in there too - much like in Fort Ettin - and we usually put in a fake outdoor bar inside the mansion! Isn't that great?!” Mendal explained, the same expansive grin from earlier adorning his face. “We can have the servants make us some tea while I work - you brought some pastries from Orianna's, right?"

Elarris stared in amazement. “This is new to me, I confess. Mendal, about two months ago I thought a plane was something a carpenter used to smooth wood. Now I’m seeing new ways of playing with them every day.”
He shook his head and handed over his second small bag. “Baked goods as suggested. Orianna’s finest, of course.”

"Perfect!" Mendal replied, looking at the baked goods and eyeing up his favourite.

Mendal then looked up at his human friend, and slapped his side anew, "right! In we go! Come on, follow me!" And Mendal led the way into the mansion-demiplane.

Whilst leading Elarris past the outside illusion of the summer garden cafe, as the servants walked behind them, Mendal started making commands, “take the baked goods off of Elarris here! Get us some refreshing iced tea to go with them! And serve them to us in the crafting area - thank you!"

One of the translucent servants took the baked goods from Elarris and carried them over towards the cafe portion of the summer bar, where another servant had begun making the tea.

To the right of the summer lounge was a grand open-air study, where an elderly human wizard was busy writing. Archie, the wizard, and conjurer of the mansion demiplane, smiled and waved at the mansion's new guest.

"Pastries from Orianna, if you want one, Archie-boy!" Mendal shouted, as he led Elarris to the opposite side of the mansion to Archie's study.

In the left hand side of the expansive conjured space, a pre-lit forge was raring. Translucent servants kept the fire stoked and worked the bellows. A bit away from the forge were various anvils, the hammer rack and tongs. Next to the forge in the crafting space was a large table for jewellery work and tinkering. Smaller tools were arranged on the table, as well as various spectacles with a selection of different lenses that could be interchanged for different magnifications. The table was also magnificently well lit by what seemed to be multiple castings of the Dancing Light cantrip’s moveable bulbs of light, which a person could manually reposition if needed.

Elarris was getting used to epic scale insanity, vast cosmic forces at play and twisted fey fuckery. He was grasping the idea that devils are more than dark fairy stories. He’d even accepted that his bloodline came from one of the nine Archwyrms. There was something so domestic about this enchanted enclave, however, that made it somehow more astonishing. It was the difference between finding out there was a tooth fairy and finding out your mum was The Tooth Fairy. He gawped

"This is us today!" Mendal boomed, excited to have his friend here in the crafting area of the mansion-demiplane. "Take a pew! Oh wait! First at least take your breast plate off. I'm going to work manually today."

Elarris wasn't taking off his breastplate though. Mendal looked up at Elarris's face, and then noticed Elarris' eyes were soaking in the new, magical environment like a young child taking in a new location.

"What’s caught your eyes, heh?" Mendal asked. He then made an observation about the interweaving of magic into ordinary life. "You know, for all the extraordinary power of magic on display here. You can really mess up. You have to be careful with all this power. I'm not just talking about lethality. This Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion spell, for example; can't leave anything inside it when the spell is dispelled. Say you leave an axe in here when 24 hours are up, or Archie chooses to dispel the conjuration. Well, that axe will fall out into the real world, and could hurt someone. You follow me?”

Though Elarris’s eyes were darting from one part of the forge to another, he nodded confirmation to Mendal.

“Good,” Mendal continued. “Now imagine what happens to piss and shit if you don't figure out a work around for any water closet you set up in the mansion, heh? Let me tell you, Prestidigitation and Unseen Servant are both helluva spells that the gods, for whatever reason, don't bless on their divine servants."

Elarris burst out laughing. “High magic doesn’t do toilets?”

Then he smiled at Mendal. “But the gods do give their messengers astonishing powers if they’re blessed. Enough to defy a primordial single handed.”
He shook his head. Mendal was not one for mushy gratitude. “And I owe you for that,” he finished up, turning his attention to the straps and unusual fittings Mendal had added to his armour that allowed just one person to take it off and put it on rather than a team of squires.

"Well, don't expect any divine miracles like that again anytime soon. It was by very definition miraculous!” Mendal then began to lecture. “Heavenly power does not display itself to mortals willy-nilly. I pleaded to Moradin, and Moradin is well within his right to ignore pleading from those he's already substantially blessed. He must have been pissed off that Malignus was beating on one of his students, I reckon, and that’s why he cast his mighty power through me that day."

Mendal took the armour, and removed the breastplate, and grabbed a pair of magnifying spectacles for himself and Elarris, as well as some gem cutting tools.

Elarris peered through the specs. He noticed how like Eroshira the dragon's face looked now he could see it close up.

Mendal retrieved a yellow diamond, and a topaz gem from Elarris’s pouch, pinched them between a pair of tongs each, and held them next to Eroshira’s resemblance. “Yellow diamond for the eyes - easy. Crushed topaz, almost powder, pipped into the indents of the scales - insanely difficult! But, if your sword flashes with radiant energy again, the reflection against your breastplate will make the centre-piece shine. How bout that, heh?”

Elarris smiled uncertainly. “Yes… I don’t know what that was. But candlelight on the breastplate will look astonishing, and it will hint at power in combat. It’s a powerful idea even if that never happens again.”

Mendal took off his magnifying spectacles to look up at Elarris. “Never happens again? You just have to ‘herald’ better, surely? No succumbing to banishment spells when your boss is on the ropes, lad. Bloody hell! When Malignus had Eroshira beat, then turned to us and casted that banishment spell, and you all vanished one by one - I’m surprised I didn’t piss myself all alone to face a bloody great primordial! Maybe Moradin answered my prayer to save himself from having his cleric embarrass himself so badly, ha!”

Elarris laughed. “I wonder if the ballad of Mendal and Eroshira will mention that? Fortunately the bard was also banished.”
Then he shrugged. “I don’t know if and how it might happen again. I’m not sure how the herald business works really. I’ve performed one quest which almost went south and would have failed without you and Calla, so I figure I have to step my game up a little. Must try harder. I need to avoid being banished at the critical moment for a start. I wonder if there’s a way to overcome that which doesn’t involve me joining the academy for ten years…”

“The Academy!” Mendal’s face screwed up. “Fuck that! Look over there, Elarris, look!” Mendal pointed to the other side of the mansion to the open plan study where Archie was sat studying books he had brought back from Daring Academy. “Look at Archie just reading a writing. It’s all he does! If he’s not doing that here, he’s at the Academy reading and writing.” Mendal doubled down on his point, “it’s all he does, Elarris! And if he’s not here or at the Academy, he’s at the Mossy Mug Cafe on a tea break… where he still brings his books and writing implements so he can read and write some more!”

Mendal was shaking his head. “The Academy’s probably not for us, mate. Maybe Eroshira can help? If not, maybe these two,” Mendal put his hands on his magical hammers, Carric and Nevarra. “I want to forge with the mithril we got. Of course I had planned to forge your suit, but then we found some absolute treasure down below and now I don’t need to create a suit of mithril from scratch. So maybe the elves can help with anti-banishment stuff? Don’t see why not. They helped me make armour that makes the wearer more swift with their defensive movement. There’s got to be more gold they’re willing to share, if I keep my end of the deal.”

Elarris pursed his lips and nodded. “I’m not properly connected with the elves if I’m honest,” he admitted. “Most times I’ve been to the feywild I’ve entered weird trippy death matches with tortured images from my darkest dreams. But I’ll give it a go if you’ve got any tips.”

"No, not the Feywild! Definitely no bargains! I meant these elves," Mendal drew Elarris's attention to the pair of elvish hammers on his belt more clearly. "Carric and Nevara," Mendal said, pointing to each of them in turn. "They're like your sword, except more sentient and a hell of a lot less cursed. I made the Vultan Zephyr Armour with their instruction on how to craft magic items. Maybe they can help you with anti-banishment magic. Although they’ll probably suggest you need to be more resilient to force of will magic, which sounds right to me. Hahaha! Actually you know what? Just make sure there’s a bloody good wizard in your party!”

Elarris laughed. "Always remember the wizard. I need that as a tattoo. I am working on my head, trying to get more focussed and stronger so hopefully."
He looked down at his sword and gave a brief shiver. "I'm not sure I'm ready for this to be sentient yet. I think there's a whole lot of purifying needed."
Then he glanced at the gemstones. "They are going to look fine. I'm heading off with Digs this Fantasy Tuesday to deal with some ancient dragon curse of his tribe. It'll be good to carry the light of Eroshira on my heart when I do."

Mendal’s grin returned. “Alright then. Let’s get cracking!” Mendal put his magnifying spectacles back on, and set down to work.



Clerics of the Forge Craft and Forge

As Mendal worked, he explained everything he was doing for Elarris’s benefit, so that he could be fully engaged. Occasionally Mendal would have Elarris assist him. After Mendal would crush some gems in the stone crusher, he would have Elarris assist him in straining the crushed stone to separate the newly formed smaller pieces from the pieces that required more crushing. Elarris was then given the task of separating the crushed topaz into similar sized pieces, as Mendal prepared the glue, and cut pieces from the yellow diamond to further cut into tiny marquise gemstones for the eyes of Eroshira. All the while, Mendal would explain the tasks they were performing with excitement in his voice, encouraging Elarris to share his love for the beauty of crafting, and the magic a person can make, not with spells, but with tools.

With the topaz gems crushed into tiny pieces, the glue ready, and the ball bearing sized marquise yellow diamonds; it was time to put the pieces together.
Mendal brushed the glue into the separations of Eroshira’s mithril scales on Elarris’s breastplate, and then poured the tiny topaz pieces onto the scales, yellow gems falling into the crevices of the scales. And finally, with a curved hardened steel file, Mendal filed away the mithril eyes he had made for Eroshira, to make space for the new eyes, the tiny marquise gems. With a pinprick of glue, a steady hand, a pair of tweezers, the total lumination of the many Dancing Lights and the magnified spectacles’ lenses; Mendal set the marquise yellow diamond eyes in place. The work was done.



A Brilliant Tribute

Mendal breathed in deep, and then let it go with a smile on his face. "It's done! We should let the glue set a bit more. Don't touch it! But, it's done."

Elarris stopped squinting, relaxed his tensed up shoulders, eased his stiff neck, unclenched his jaw, straightened his back, let his breathing return to normal and stepped back from the table.
"How often do you do this sort of stuff? I need a sports massage," he twisted his back around until he felt his spine click and rubbed feeling back into his fingers. "It's impressive work. She... it... looks beautifully realistic. Artistry indeed."
He stared at the result, lost in thought.
"You have a lot crammed into your head Mendal. Those skills, the connection with the divine, handy fighting techniques..."

Mendal beamed at hearing all the compliments as he observed his assistant for the day work out some hard earned arches and pains. With the work done, and compliments paid, Mendal felt his assistant deserved a treat. “Servants, please!” Mendal called out, and a couple of the translucent servants appeared before him. “Could you prepare a couple of the massage tables in the outdoor lounge, please? Thank you!”
“Come Elarris!” Let’s leave your breastplate for a while. A sports message is an excellent call.”

As the craftsman and his assistant walked to the massage tables, Mendal tried to answer some of Elarris’s questions. “I’ve worked with metal and stone of all shapes and sizes since I was a very young boy. I was always keen to imitate my father and uncles at the workshop. When I saw the splendour that the Clan Crafters created - I knew I simply had to put in all the hard work I could to be part of them, and eventually my efforts paid off. In fact, I became divinely blessed for them! Haha! But, the Vultan Clan Crafters - not so many of us now.”

As they reached the massage tables, Mendal sat down on one of them, and continued talking as Elarris sat on the other, “I really want to build my reputation here in the Dawnlands.” Saying so reminded Mendal of something that worked against his reputation building efforts. “Bloody Adelard! Not accepting my maker’s mark on his plate on religious grounds! He’s a great ally, but a shit advertiser! Now you have to do twice the advertising work with your plate!”

Elarris laughed. “You’ve more than earned it today with this superlative work. Feel free to add any advertising you see fit.”

“Actually there is something you could do in exchange for my superlative work - get me some adamantine! The original deal was that if you got me the mithril; I’d forge your plate armour. Well you’ve got yours, and I found the mithril. It’s my turn to have awesome plate armour. Can’t you ask Eroshira if she’s got any adamantine stashed in a horde somewhere?”

Elarris nodded. “What could possibly go wrong?”

"Well make sure there's no curse first before you pick up anything." Mendal reminded Elarris of his earlier good advice, "again, bring a wizard."