The Celebration - 12/09/2024 - Mendal Recounts

The Camaraderie of Crafting

“Mittens had a tantrum when what he was making didn’t go well. Egg was utterly down in the dumps for most of the day, and Matches doesn’t seem to have spent a single day of his life working with his hands - I got the feeling that a hammer was a new concept for him.”

Mendal’s summary of his teammates was hardly flattering. It was in reference to their performance in a crafting competition held at the Temple of Creation during its opening celebration. Archie was expecting to hear more scorn. However, Mendal surprised him.

“Despite their shortcomings, I really enjoyed myself, Archie,” Mendal recalled fondly. “It was good fun working in a team of crafters again. Making something together; it creates a bond and brings people together for a shared purpose. You create meaning, as well as something.”

Seeing Mendal happy because he was crafting as a team again brought a smile to Archie’s face. “How wonderful.”

“Don’t get me wrong - they were hardly comparable to the Vultan Clan Crafters, or any professional crafting group for that matter. Sure, I’d hire them out of pity if they fell on hard times. But, they weren’t like Zola, a surprisingly good stone worker, or Fern, a natural at working with their hands at anything.”

“It’s a shame Fern was busy,” Archie mused out loud, “I’d assume she would have loved to be at the Temple on its opening day and would have possibly joined all the Circles.”

Both men laughed a little at the thought. Fern valued crafting skills immensely, and was extremely keen to learn as many trades as possible between arcane learning and adventuring. And the Circle of Fire, the Circle of the Shield, and the many other crafting groups would have gladly welcomed her.

“I insisted they keep what we made together!” Mendal went on. “Not only would the items serve as mementos for the guys, they would also serve as reminders to them of the good that comes from crafting. Also, I felt each of the items I insisted each of the team got provided tailed little lessons for them.” Mendal was particularly proud of that last bit, feeling it demonstrated a degree of sageness that, in this household, only Archie was credited with having

“Oh?” Archie’s interest was genuinely tweaked. “Go on, please.”



The Sageness of Mendal Vultan and the Pairing of the Three Creations

“First there was what we called ‘Our Nice Arrow’, a decorative piece really. Functionally naff. Though it was a good idea for the skillset we had between us. Little Egg’s not bad at making arrow shafts - his woodcarving skill is not bad, and I’m me so I could handle the arrowhead. Together we were the foundations of the arrow. Mittens’ got a keen artistic eye with paint, and Matches, the workshy scoundrel can actually work when he’s got pressure on him, like not wanting to let his team down.”

Mendal stroked his beard, readying himself to admit something. “...I actually buggered the arrow up a bit.”

Archie’s eyebrow raised eager to hear this rare admittance of error on Mendal’s part. Mendal was not looking directly at Archie when he owned up to making an error. He didn’t want to. But, desiring to check for a reaction from his friend, Mendal did chance a glance at Archie, and caught the raised eyebrow, and the cheeky grin that was emerging on the old wizard’s face!

“Only because I went all out on trying to temper each side of the bodkin arrowhead a different colour!!!” Mendal said defensively, and at some volume. “And I bloody achieved it like no one else could!”

“So where was this error of yours?” Enquired Archie pressing for clarity.

“I forgot we had agreed that Matches would scorch up the arrow for a decorative finish! It ruined my multi-levelled tempering.”

“And you did make it clear to Matches that it was your fault?” Archie asked, wanting to make sure Mendal had taken full responsibility.

“Yes! I said it to him and the whole team!” Mendal said annoyed. “I guided the construction, I’m the crafting genius, I should have spotted the error in the plan!”

“Well good for you.”

“Most importantly though,” Mendal hurriedly said to move on, “since Mittens had a tantrum when he stretched his talents too far with one of our other creations, I thought Our Nice Arrow would serve as a reminder to him of when his patience and skill with painting was a great contribution to the team, and that the way I responded to my error, more calmly, was the right way to handle mistakes rather than get frustrated at challenge. Young Egg helped Mittens too - with the item Mittens was having trouble with, the Hand. But I think the arrow was best for Mittens, since he did so well with that.”

Archie expressed agreement. “Nice. Very good Mendal.”

The story reminded Archie of times he had tutored Mittens during spell practices, and it gave him thought he wished to share with Mendal. “Mr. McKittens has on occasion shown an unwillingness to continue practise when things don’t go right on the first try. I agree, the arrow is well paired with him.”

Mendal was pleased to hear this. He paused to absorb the moment a little before continuing.

“‘The Helping Hand of Holding’, as we called it,” Mendal began anew, “I insisted Egg take that. I stretched my tinkering skills getting the skeletal structure of that hand correct. And as I said, Egg did a good job helping Mittens re-work the rather ambitious wooden ‘flesh’ to the skeletal hand he had mucked up.”

“What a good young man,” Archie remarked.

“I thought the hand was best paired with Egg, as I thought it might remind Egg of good things in the world, you know, like being there to help your friends when they need you. A hand to help or hold, if you will. You see, Egg had seen some depraved blood draining shit the week before. Did a number on his head, it did. I thought it’s important for him to see that most people - like himself - are more likely to give a hand than steal your blood. And if he continues adventuring he’s going to see more horrible shit, and will just have to adapt and not let it get him down. Hopefully The Helping Hand of Holding reminds him that most people work together to create good things.”

Archie again found himself in agreement with Mendal’s thinking. “Very good,” he acknowledged to Mendal. “And so that leaves Matches. What was the last item you made with the team, and paired with him?”

“Ah! Yes, he got the masterpiece of our three crafted items!” Mendal remembered the final piece fondly, it was easily his finest contribution that day. “The tributary piece to Moradin and Gond, we called it, ‘The Hammer of Creation’. It was a warhammer, a decorative piece again rather than battle ready. But where the head of the hammer on one side was a gear head tribute to Gond, and the other half of the hammer head was an anvil with fire, a tribute to Moradin. Beautiful piece!”

“Oh it sounds spectacular,” Archie expressed. “But why this for Matches?”

“Ah! Yes, well, I thought the most religious of the items would remind him he’s yet to find a god to worship. Silly bugger’s destined for the Wall of the Faithless if he doesn’t hurry up.”

“Ah…” Archie acknowledged. This time though, Archie was less delighted to hear the lesson reminder being imparted to the owner of the item. Mendal had reserved for last, the least heartwarming of his pairings!

Mendal took exception to Archie's less impressed reaction. “What?! Come on! Who wants to end up on the Wall for eternity with shitty faithless neighbours sharing a shitty view of the City of Judgement. You don’t think that’s worth avoiding?”

“Well no,” Archie had to agree.

“That’s right! Just because he’s a Herald to an ancient Archwyrm doesn’t mean he’s protected from the Wall! Bloody hell, Vulcanax ought to remind his herald about having faith. After all, those archwyrms are likely to get their heralds killed at some point.”



A Sanctuary for Adventurers and Sentient Hammers

Some time went by as both men sat in silence after the remark about the heralds.

Mendal broke the silence with something he was chuffed about. “I can get us back now, if we go off home to Waterdeep!”

“You can?” Archie asked intrigued.

“That’s right! Moradin has blessed me with more of his mighty power. I can recall myself and allies to a sanctuary of my faith, and the Temple of Creation is a sanctuary to Moradin!”

“Brilliant stuff old boy!” Archie said delighted to hear of his friend’s promotion of sorts.

“And Moradin’s Sacred Hammer Archie, it’s now safe in the primary statue of Moradin’s hands at the temple. You needn’t worry about it going back in your demiplane with your clone for safekeeping. Boffer’s and Rickon’s divine magic has it protected until the day Moradin calls me to wield it.”

Moradin had recently responded to Mendal’s prayer and intervened in a mortal matter, using Mendal as a conduit for his holy power. Archie reflected on that instance, and considered it now a strong possibility that one day, his dwarven friend may indeed be worthy enough to wield the great artefact of Moradin.

Mendal interrupted Archie’s thoughts with more stories from the temple. “Carric and Nevarra bloody loved the temple as much as I did. Those two obviously preferred the Gond tribute stuff though, like Thundercog’s mithril altar.”

“Oh that’s good.” Archie was aware of the sentient elven hammers’ admiration for forging, and the god Gond himself.

It was Mendal who became lost in thought then, as he pondered a time when the elven hammers had taught him all they could about crafting magical items. When that point came, and with the constructed Temple of Creation, Mendal decided that one day, he would give the hammers to the temple, where they could be housed where Gond, the god that helped them, was revered and a place where they could seemingly be part of forge work forever.