Re: Chapter 7 - Something About Steel
"Merely because steel's road began upon the mountain does not mean that it did not gain from every mile it has travelled, and every hand through which it has passed." replies Kedo smoothly, both managing to retain Dragonish humility and encapsulate it around the subtle reminder of just who it was that invented the process of making a blade in case he should be mistaken for a complete patsy (which is rather unlikely at best) before offering a respectful bow and extending his hands to accept the metal in question, which he weighs in hand and by eye afresh, as though measuring them for the form they will one day take and setting aside several of the blocks which do not have the... feel he's searching for.
That done he moves aside to a quiet corner of the forge and settles himself, taking a little time to centre an image in his mind, picturing which of the soft and hard steels will become which part of the blade, occasionally reaching out to touch or weight one or another of the ingots in order to keep them clear in his mind's eye, though never with bare skin - always with the edge of his sleeve.
The final step in what is obviously a hasty procedure in which many of the traditional corners the Ronin would prefer to indulge in have been cut is to formally bow before the small shrine that every good forge places in a spot of honour to thank the Fortunes for their gifts of wisdom to men - and only then does Kedo feel able to turn to mundane matters of tools and forges.
He begins simply enough, selecting not the finest of either but rather those that will put least strain upon the vital work now in progress, understanding that harmony is more important than the decoration upon a hammer-handle, arranging matters so that as each stage of the forging to come occurs he will be able to slip between the work of others in a dance as profound and finely judged as any he has flowed through with bared blades.
From there the heating begins, bringing the softest and most pliable steel to a fine glow and beating it out, using several twined bars to provide the necessary mass for what will be the spine of the weapon, extending and folding them back to purify them with a pause between each reheating for a short prayer, scraps of old songs - some childish, some profound and each addressed to the spirit that will sleep in the steel to come - murmured over a process that is increasingly one that occupies him to the exclusion of all other concerns.
Unmeasured time passes in this manner before he's free to select the very hardest steel from those bars provided him, giving it the still-warm bars one last caress before fierce-heated and sharp-cooling them, leaving them shattered upon the anvil to provide the fragments which will be forge-welded by countless hammer blows over several hours, united into a single block that will be folded and hammered out again for a full dozen folds and half as many again - a nicely symmetrical number that contributes to the finest steel, but without pressing past the point where it becomes meaningless repetition.
At the end of yet more hours, five bars of steel - one soft and flexible to form the spine, two of medium temper and hardness that will flank the first and the final pair of the keenest, fiercest and most unyielding metal that will one day lead and follow the cut wait to be united and though tired, the Bushi sets to work with a will to unite them - not without yet further prayer and meditation however, each step guided as much by the touch of insight as that of conscious thought and reason, the weakness in his limbs more than offset by the joy in his heart as every action, every step along the way sings with its rightness, with the perfection of every hammer-stroke and the song of steel that rises about him until the heat of the forge and the touch of harsh eyes are but a distant memory belonging to another life, and only the steel is real, is true.
The Dragon comes down from the mountain... and in time, with love and with care... Earth and fire and give birth to a blade sung in Air and quenched in water. Simple, mortal steel forged for Mans hand. A blade called simply 'Lesson'.
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This takes ages - but basically by the end of the process, I imagine that Kedo will have no void left. He'll only spend one, but he pours himself into things he makes - the rest will just be expended on prayer, meditation and simple purity. Oh, and it's Intelligence for craft skills.
07:34, Today: Kedo rolled 74 using 10d10, dropping the 5 lowest rolls, rerolling max with rolls of 9,(10+10+1)21,2,(10+3)13,4,7,(10+10+2)22,4,5,9. Making a blade with... five raises?.
Okay. My target was 35 (because I get a free raise for being good) giving me six to make an excellent quality polearm blade. So I pass by... 39, or three full raises and one off a fourth.
It should also be noted that at 60, I passed into the realms of a Legendary blade, for which I got two raises.
I think there are also some raises to be had from the fact that I'm using one of the finest three forges in a major Crane city...
I think I'm going to go and burn some incense for the dice roller. ^_^
This message was last edited by the player at 06:18, Sun 13 Dec 2009.