Forge of Fury - DM GrubaMcD

You locate a blacksmith on the main road of Blasingdell. The sign above the door reads ‘Smith & Wes (Son)’ and the building is plain timber. 

Inside you find a shop counter staffed by a human male in his mid-twenties with blond hair in a bowl cut and wearing a leather apron, sporting a nervous smile.  Behind the counter is an open doorway, through which you can see a human female, late-middle aged, working a bellows before moving to the forge and hammering a piece of steel. 

“H-hey” says the young man, darting his eyes around your group before starting a clearly scripted and badly-rehearsed patter: “Welcome to Smith and Wes, I am Wes the apprentice and son of Smith, master of her trade.  Which of our exquisite wares may I interest you in today?” 

As they leave, Gruenic mentions the desire for a design and she starts to consider.  Then when out of earshot of nearby townspeople and travelers, "What do you think of a V prominent on the helm and hood of our gear?  With it wrapping from the temples at the top to the mid-back of the skull ending in a point?  Perhaps in fur or varying colors based on your preferences?  I could easily start carving wooden tokens for us and its a plentiful enough resource."  Sila says looking about at the group wondering if they like the ideas.

Lucy wasn't kidding, this was hard on her gear too.   She needed clothes, rations and other gear as well.  The Arrows she could make but didn't use, though definitely not an expert.  She should have practiced on the spares she picked up.  Hearing Lucy's mention of arrows, she comments.  "I can make arrows should you wish, though a fletcher would be ideal of course.  Perhaps, a specific feather color that you always use in the arrows could help boost the image?"

 "Bree, I'm just throwing ideas out there, you have much more a knack for colors and design than I."  She says gesturing at the skirt, "What do you think?"

 Garavant practicing V gestures and a date?  The 5th of Marpenoth?  She's curious at to this reference, but he seems to withdraw it as soon as its said.  She'll wait to see what he says about it later should he do so.   She smiles at his mention of keeping up relations with the local Tavern, "Must keep up relations.  Good meal and drink will be a pleasant finish to our shopping trip."

As they enter, she notes the sign, catchy.  She could see them being in business for many years to come.  To the clanging in the back she looks about at any displays in the front and at the nervous man at the counter.  Then strides forward.  "Hello Wes,"  Flashing a V gestures as if she does it all the time.  "My friend here has a set of plate to adjust to his size and I have some gear to sharpen or replace if you have finer, which by the looks of your shop you do.  My other Van Gogh companions have other needs as well."  She starts to unload weapons onto the counter for him to look at.  "My daggers," Laying all 4 out one by one, "my shortsword," laying this out, "a javelin, though I think I'd prefer to know what you'd offer me for it, and these darts to trade as well.  Do you deal in darts?  I do sharpen them myself, but nothing beats the edge a Blacksmith can put on a weapon."  She concludes looking up at him expectantly over her array of gear, feeling much lighter. 

>>Bree

Lucy blinks her eyes, opens her mouth and closes it. Unlike her usual self who jumps back at insults or attacks in an instance, the elf girl freezes at the spot and looks not knowing how to respond to Bree's words. After another three or four awkward seconds, Lucy opens her mouth again. "That was…Ah…nothing. We are on the same team. So I just did what I should do. But if you want to return the favor.…" Lucy hesitates a moment and says. " Bree, you are good at needle work. Probably know a lot of patterns too. I want to add good decoration on my new longbow. Can you recommend something beautiful and elegant to me? Also teach me how to mend clothes …please"

"Hello young Wes, nice to meet you.  Gruenic is my name, and I hope you can help us.  I have this plate armor that needs a little adjustment so that it could fit me, I took it off an orog.  Could you help me with that?  I would love it if you could put a large V on the back of the helm, and another V on the breast plate on the front if possible.  We are the Van Gogh squad you see, (flashes V sign) maybe you have heard of us?  We are helping to keep this town safe, we are adventurers!  We are working on a calling card.  What would be the price for such an alteration?"  Gruenic flashes him his biggest toothy smile, despite missing a tooth.

To Sila: "Those are great ideas! Or maybe we can create some V shaped necklace." She then looks guiltily with a big smile "Maybe with an ear shaped piece of wood hanging from it. And then we can also create those wooden ears as call cards, with VGS engraved in it".

Bree get's a big smile on her face when Lucy asks for help: "OF COURSE I will help with that. Though I don't know if you would want to hide too much of this beautiful bow! Making recognizable arrows however... That is great for marketing! I think I have some yellow dye left, maybe we can create yellow colored Vs in the feathers as Sila suggested." (@DM I took some creative liberty with the dye, does Bree have some? Otherwise we should definitely buy some at Tolm's)

Over the coming time in downtime Bree will most definitely teach Lucy to mend clothes as long as she wants to learn. However Bree is very stern and serious in her teaching, so it might not always be very fun.

(Bree will walk with the others to Smith & Wes (son), but doesn't need anything there)

Sila thinks of all the silver she'd save on clothing if she learned a little bit of the sewing skill too, she'll ask Bree about it later.  Gruenic seemed to be embracing the V in his gear.  

Bree's design suggestion intrigued her, carving an ear would be a challenge but what ear?  A standard design or a different one each time?  Just the general shape or with detail?  The letters she could on top of the design.  Was she good enough to pull this off over and over?  Now the feathers, she could switch out some of the feather in the arrows for yellow instead of the paint.  Which would be riskier - the weight of the paint or switching out the feathers?  Was she overthinking this?  

Sila nods to Bree at her design suggestions.  "What should we say when people ask why we chose an ear?  The Master at Arms seemed put off by it, would others react the same?  And what shape ear do you suggest?   The necklace might be too much material for now unless its non-metal, but a token piece added to our gear somewhere?"

"Well... Depending on the situation we could explain it differently. I think the most common explanation should be: 'We like to keep out an ear for problems that need our attention', that would lead to a less strong reaction I hope. If they continue asking we can explain the whole story. As for the shape. I think that depending on the client/person you can just have something ear shaped or a very intricate carved/molded ear. But I don't worry about the quality. I have seen your work with carvings and it's AMAZING. I even think you can put it down 11 notches and it would still be of a quality above what is needed!"

She thinks a bit on the necklace part. "Yeah that is fine as well, we could also start of with just a V-shape broche and then when we have a good idea and spare time create something additional. Start small and stuff."

"Putting our signature on arrow feathers is a good idea. I want you to add silver branches and a gold moon on my bow. That's the symbol of my house" Lucy secretly rolls her eyes when Bree mentions V shaped necklace and wooden ears. Vincent van Gogh must turn in his grave. Either for anger or laughter is unsure though. No one could understand the mad painter, including his own brother and wizard partner,  Theodorus van Gogh. Speaking of the Van Gogh family, Vincent never married and didn't have any descendants, however Theodorus had a wife and offspring. The widow must be gone but how about the children? Are they still alive? What will they think if they know that a bunch of strangers use their uncle's name as the group symbol?  (Who cares!) The bladesinger shrugs. There are dozens of versions of Legend of Drizzt sung in every tavern of the North. Lucy is pretty sure that none of them got approval from the drow (and Drizzt probably never got royalty from those songs) . Portrait rights and copyright don't exist in the land of Faerûn YET. And V shaped ornaments sound COOL!

Lucy separates from her friends and heads to Tolm’s Superior Out­fitting and Dry Goods. Buying new arrows is easy, but finding adventurer grade garments which suit her taste would be a hard task. It better set to work first. 

Wes looks excited at the prospect of some decent business. “Some plate armour to resize?  That sounds great, let’s take a look!” he says with puppy dog enthusiasm. 

When Gruenic lays out the suit of steel and leather, Wes’s face changes to a mixture of fascination and fear. “Oh my, that’s an...impressive suit.  Hmmmm” he looks Gruenic up and down, then moves to the end of his counter and ducks under it, emerging the other side and then coming round to where the large cleric stands.  Wes produces a measuring tape from the large pocket on the front of his apron and holds it against different parts of the armour. 

“Oh yes, it’s proportioned for a bulky soldier that’s for sure.  A big fella. Or, erm, lady” 

Having taken a few measurements and recited numbers to himself, he looks Gruenic up and down: “I don’t think you’ll be too far off a match, although without adjustment you’d be getting some VERY painful blisters in VERY painful places after a half mile of walking in it”, he accentuates the word ‘very’ by popping his eyes wide open. 

Proffering his measuring tape towards Gruenic, he says: “May I?” 

While measuring the half orc he looks at the weapons that Sila has arrayed on the counter and says “I can give you 25 copper f-for the javelin and two copper for each dart.  The blades I can sharpen for a copper piece each” 

Once Wes has finished measuring Gruenic he steps back smiling, still slightly nervous, and says “The plates are a good match, just need pinching in at the edges.  It’s the strapping that will be the most work – a lot of it has to be replaced completely but you’ll feel the benefit for it.  I heard that we were sending some heroes to the Stone Tooth, I didn’t realise you were them” 

He copies the V sign awkwardly, very self-conscious.  After a moment he says “The resizing we can do for, er, six hundred gold. That will include smoothing out as much of the dents and chips as we can without compromising the strength of the steel.  I can throw in the decoration for free” 

(@Bree: Happy for you to have some dye already, it fits with the character)

Garavant listens to the young man offer up his prices, and while he knows little about the true cost of crafting armor, the quoted price of 600 gold does seem high indeed. He thinks as he takes a long, slow breath, trying to find a reasonsable way to convince the proprietor to do the work for less. 

"Hrmph." He clears his throat. "While I know that resizing armor is no simple task, you do understand the steep steep sum you've just stated, eh? Of course, who doesn't want to make more money--we all do!-- but I must say that you'd be wise to see us as the long-term business interest we do in fact represent." He quickly flashes the V sign again. 

He leans forward, lowering his voice. "They say the dwarves of old were the most masterly of master armorers. It's quite possible we'll soon have some of their secrets--and even their wares--to share with you. But I believe a gesture of good faith may be in order. My friend here is after all a 'man of the cloth' so to speak. Perhaps you can find it possible to pay but a bit of that price you quote, on the anticipation of future business?" 

Persuasion 17

Gruenic gives a big smile and thumbs up to Wes, then the V sign for VGS.  He flexes a bit and generally helps Garavant persuade Wes to give us a deal on the armor and the other items.

”You know that we will send future business your way.  And with the big V on my chest I will be an advertisement for your business as well.  A calling card!  Perhaps in the lower back you can put your own logo, how about, hmm, S&W?  For Smith and Wes (son)?  If I walk around with an advertisement for you on my body, that will knock off the price a little, won’t it?  But I have one other request, if you can.  In the center of the V on my chest can you put this symbol?”

 “It is the symbol of my lady, Selune, who gives me power.  With her on my chest, I cannot be bested!  Hah!”  Gruenic gives Wes his best smile and gives him the V sign again.

Sila grins at Bree.  "I like it!  I could use the group member's ears as models, on their heads of course." She adds quickly as if there might be a concern, "Then you'd each have your own ear to give out as a token saying that they have our ear - or something similar - if they need help."  Thinking about it for a moment, then "I appreciate your confidence.  I'll have to get started on these right away.  I'll get one done for each of us to see if you approve of you're own as a base, then build on that. If not, each could choose the ear they want.  For the Brooch, I could personalize that as well, based on the person with images on the V. Do you sketch at all?  For your designs I mean?  I need someone to sketch a picture of my ear, I rarely see my own in any detail."  Ideas already rolling around in her head.  

She watches Lucy head off to the Tolm's and thinks for a moment then adds to Bree, "You could have quite the client there, trimming and tailoring her gear along the road, though I'm not sure how much you'd earn...  Seems she's ok with the arrow feathers.  Not sure how much about the ears.  I'll have to be careful with hers."

Sila looks on, pleased that Wes seems to be able to accommodate Gruenic with his adjustment request.  A decent compliment provided by comparing the Half Orc to the Orog's size.  The kid's good at the counter.  

At his offer of 28 copper for the 14 darts and 25 copper for the Javelin minus 5 copper for the sharpening, she'll agree to the 48 cp. "Fair price, I'll take it.  How long to sharpen?  I don't mind waiting on them."  His quote of 600 gp didn't seem to bad either.  We could certainly manage it if needed.  But Sila knew when to keep her mouth shut. 

(Happily passing along her earned inspiration to Garavant for his use if DM so allows - think of it as a 'help' action.)

Wes nods emphatically at Garavant and Gruenic’s double-act patter: “Th-those are excellent points sir. Sirs. I agree with every single word, and assure you I have cut as much as I can from the price” 

He looks over his shoulder nervously at the smith working in the back room, then back to you: “But I guess if I factor in the new business opportunities then...” 

He looks uncertain, weighing up all your words in his mind. 

(Garavant, make your second roll for the Advantage given by Gruenic’s help) 

(Sila’s question and Gruenic’s request will be covered in next post after Garavant’s roll) 

Second Persuasion roll for Garavant 17 

He pauses for what feels like an incredibly long time, biting his lip and making a high-pitched 'hmmmm' noise in his throat while looking over his shoulder, to the armour, to you.

Eventually Wes relents: "OK, er, how about f-five hundred?  Any less and I'll be paying mam for the loss"

He takes the blades from Sila while the party consider his new offer, chirping over his shoulder as he takes them into the smithy "About an hour or so".

When he returns to the front counter he gratefully collects Sila's coins and then waits expectantly for an answer to the 500gp price, biting his lip and looking for all the world like a lost puppy who sells lethal weaponry.

Sila speaks up, "That sounds fair.  I say you should take it Greunic, we can work it out."  

Gruenic looks around to everyone, with a questioning and hopeful look.  If the others agree with Sila, he tells Wes to go ahead and make the modifications to the armor.  He offers to cut his palm and seal the deal in blood if needed.

While Wes is fitting Gruenic properly for his Plate, "We should next see if Tohm's can do anything with these furs before they are too far gone.  I don't think my work on them was  particularly good."

Garavant nods smiles and nods enthusiastically at the second offer from the young man. "Agreed then," he says. "I believe we may have the makings of a mutually beneficial long-term business relationship here! Also I am interested in finding a particular weapon, a one-handed crossbow, that I believe might come in 'handy' as they say. Throwing daggers is certainly not my strong suit, not like my friend Sila here." He nods and smiles at the monk.

OOC: Price for a hand crossbow is 75 gp, so not sure if it is readily available. 

“Please don’t!” exclaims Wes as Gruenic makes to slash his hand. “A h-handshake will do” 

He proffers his hand and accepts payment with a humble smile. 

Once the deal is done and Garavant explains the weapon that he is looking for, Wes puts a finger in the air as if to say ‘one moment’ and darts back around the counter, smiling (as ever). He reaches underneath and his arms disappear while his head, seemingly floating on the counter top, explains “We had a gentleman bring this in to get the string re-tensioned and the gears oiled.  He paid up front for the work and never returned, so mam said to sell it if we had any interest” 

He stands and places the fruit of his search on top of the counter; a small crossbow with a handle near the rear of the stock.  It is beautifully maintained, recently varnished. 

“Given the, ah, good custom already displayed by yourselves, I could let you have for, erm, 65 gold pieces?” 

(OOC: I have already priced in your bargaining work so far)

*** 

Sila (and anyone else who wishes to) finds Tolm’s just a little further up the main road.  Inside is a wide array of outdoor survival clothing, travel rations and some camping gear.  Keldegan Tolm, the proprietor, is a male dwarf with tied-back braids.  He puts a hand in the air as welcome, fingers splayed apart, but says nothing and his face remains expressionless; it seems browsers are welcome. 

Sila thanks Wes, leaving Garavant to negotiations and says, "I'll be right back!  An hour you said for those blades?"  

...

She heads to Tolm's, appreciating his light manner and moves to the counter, pulling a pile of furs from her pack and passing them to him.  "I'm sure I did a botch job of it, but I have furs from two Dire Wolves that I attempted to save.  Skinned them myself, and as you will see, not as an experienced skinner.  I'm wondering if there is anything you could do with them?  I have wonderous hopes of fur cloaks, wolf hoods and fur trims for our gear." Then realizing that she's likely the only one here at the moment.  "Van Gogh Squad," pausing to flash the V hand gesture, "my friends will be here soon.  You come highly recommended, so I'm hoping you can help me."