Thorendor, B1: Forge
This is Master Arasemis’s private forge. He has furnaces with bellows, anvil, worktables, sharpening wheel, every smithing tool, and a large storeroom of fine metals. Of course, servant Yorand does most of the work, given Arasemis only has one arm.
Map
Metal Storage 1
You see several types of ingots stacked high on this stout-legged table and on the floor.
Tin
You see a silvery-white metal bar that is reasonably light which you know to be tin. It is malleable, easily melted, and easy to cast and it cools denser, allowing for complex shapes. Tin is the metal of choice for tinsmiths and tinkers, and is used to make bronze and pewter.
But in your initial metallurgy lessons under Master Arasemis, you’ve learned that the most important use of tin is for plating other metals for armor because it provides protection from rust and corrosion. Wrought iron plates coated in tin are called tin-plate armor, but this offers little protection against steel swords. And tin itself is not used for weapons.
Tin has been rare in the Old World since ancient times, when it was discovered in the New World by the Arukans in modern Calbria. Tin was eventually found scattered throughout all of central Pemonia, and became a highly-valued export to the Old World. Tin mines were also fought over in Alpenon Ministry of Donovan.
Cindersteel
You recognize this as cindersteel, the most advanced metal in Donovan for armor and weapons that only wealthy lord ministers and their most favored knights can afford. It is a hard, coarse, very light alloy of steel (50%) and cinder (50%) that is lighter than elinderum. Cindersteel armor readily absorbs blows from standard steel weapons, and cindersteel swords can shred the edges of steel swords. A single suit of cindersteel armor will ruin the blacksmithing tools used to manufacture it, contributing to the already high cost of this metal. From what you’ve seen as a student under Master Arasemis, he is probably wealthy enough to afford as much cindersteel as he needs.
Gode
This is gode, also called dumb iron. It is a slivery-gray, hard, and brittle metal that resembles iron, but gode resists rust and corrosion better. Gode is easily extracted from ores using gode acid, and its ores are often found with large veins of iron and small garnets.
Gode is not commonly used by itself. A pure gode blade will defeat the simplest armor and weapons, but it is prone to fractures, will fail against steel, and it cannot hold a sharp edge for long. During colonial times, gode was used to make basic equipment for co-opted tribal warriors. This was especially true of the Bronhildi because gode was originally discovered in the western mountains of Hanovel, now part of Donovan Kingdom. It was also added to iron to make magnes, which was known as gode steel for Bronhildi chieftains.
Master Arasemis often has you and the other students practice with gode weapons as a more realistic option over wooden weapons. Interestingly, Arasemis has shown you that pure gode is flammable. Once lit, it cannot be extinguished while it remains in contact with common air.
Unknown
You cannot identify this peculiar reddish metal. Master Arasemis has not taught you about it yet.
Bell Metal
You learned from reading that bell metal is an alloy of copper (80%) and tin (20%) that resists corrosion by developing a blue-green patina. It is prized for its attractive sound when struck, leading to its use in bellfounding, gongs, and related instruments. Bellmakers often traveled from church to church to cast bells in furnace pits dug in churchyards. Great quantities of bell metal is made in Calbria, which also exports finished bells across the continent. You’ve heard Master Arasemis comment that his friend Oghamroy Snead also makes a lot of this metal for something Arasemis is interested in, but he has not shared any details with you.
Bronze
Bronze is a tough, durable brown metal of copper (90%) and tin (10%). Equipment made of bronze will defeat common iron but it fails against steel. Bronze was invented and extensively used by ancient peoples in the Old World and parts of the New World until the development of iron, steel, anchiclade, and other metals that hold a harper edge than bronze. Although bronze is harder, iron replaced bronze because iron was easier to find than tin and the alloy was easier to process. Thus, iron became cheaper and the use of bronze in the New World dropped quickly.
Metal Storage 2
Around the far walls of the room you see more ingots stacked on and under sturdy tables.
Iron
This lustrous gray metal is among the most abundant worldwide, and Master Arasemis thinks probably one of the earliest metals to be used by the ancients. Pure iron is soft and weak to rust and corrosion if not protected, but it can be significantly hardened and strengthened by adding impurities during the smelting process, such as carbun or gode, to make steels. Iron, steel alloys, and its other alloys have limitless uses.
Bog Iron
This is a rough-melted bar of a natural alloy of iron and silic called bog iron. It is rust and corrosion resistant, and therefore can defeat common unprotected iron armor and weapons. In the marshes on his lands, Master Arasemis has shown you that bog iron can be detected by looking for an “iron slick” of iridescent oily film on the surface of the water. The bog turf is then cut and peeled up, revealing brown pea- or acorn-sized granules that are impure iron deposits with glassy sand-like silic inside. These form under the turf and can be re-harvested about once per generation. Collected granules are then melted together to form useable items. For example, the ancient Rahlampians alloyed bog iron with anchiclade to craft their legendary windrazor swords.
Because bog iron can be found worldwide and does not require traditional equipment to mine, Arasemis has taught you how to gather and melt them down to craft tools that you might need in a pinch. Some of these bars, like this one, were made by students.
Brown Lead
This is a brownish-gray soft, heavy, dense, crumbly metal similar in appearance to lead. It is used as an additive to strengthen specialty steels, as an ingredient for poisons, to reflect the effects of radiants, and to provide corrosion and acid resistance to other metals. Master Arasemis has taught you how to extract small amounts of brown lead from the ashes of swampnugget mushrooms. It can also be harvested from roasting the shells of mollusks, which also produces trace amounts of a purple-tinted copper dye.
Hepatizon
You recognize this as hepatizon, a silvery-gold alloy that quickly develops a dark purplish patina when exposed to common air. It is crafted with copper (84%), gold (8%), and silver (8%). You recall from Master Arasemis’s cultural lessons that hepatizon is particularly valued in Temeszal, where it was first found naturally, powdered, and mixed with olive oil to be applied around the eyes and on the cheeks to reduce glare from the desert sun. This mixture will also repel dangerous insects. Hepatizon has long been valued in Ovelia as well, where it is most commonly mined or crafted for the construction of statues referred to as black bronzes.
Cinder
You smile as you pick up one of these rough-hewn blocks, lighter than wood. It is a solid block of porous cinder, a rough and dense stone pocked with pits and cavities. It is a natural mixture of silic, ash, fixed air, sulfur, azote, and common air found near volcanos, often with electrum and obsidian. It resists erosion, fire, and heat so well that one who wears a suit of armor made from carved plates of cinder can walk through fire.
Cinder was first used by the Gallerlanders of the Gilgalem Mountains but later found throughout Pemonia, especially in volcanic areas. It is found as veins or blocks in blasted rock. The Maluram smiths hacked blocks of cinder from caves and used the Gilgalem volcanic furnaces to melt electrum into ingots. The heat-resistant cinder was found to be useful for protective clothing, gloves, and shoes. It was later adapted into armor and weapons and even adopted by more than a few Brintilian colonists. Today, cinder is used in the production of elinderum, cindersteel, and cindermony.
Copper
Copper is a soft, malleable metal but harder than silver and gold. It is reddish-orange when cut but corrodes to a green patina when exposed to common air, as these bars show. Master Arasemis’s lectures have often mentioned copper, as it has many uses for warfare, tools, and trade. Arasemis says copper is one of the first metals to be used by the ancients worldwide, and smelting it led to the smelting of iron and thus more advanced metallurgy. Copper is a primary component of many alloys and mixtures that you have only just begun to learn.
Blue Lead
You see a silvery-blue metal that is very heavy and dense. Based on the markings, you think this is blue lead, also called Rahlampian Steel. This metal was first crafted by Rahlampians for use as a pommel counterweight for long windrazor swords. It is an alloy of anchiclade (50%), lead (40%), and iron (10%). Blue lead resists corrosion and some acids, and is a stronger counter-radiant than normal lead. You don’t know much about radiants, as Master Arasemis says you are not yet advanced enough in your knowledge to handle them.
Elinderum
This is elinderum, a green-golden alloy of electrum (50%) and cinder (50%) that is famous in the stories and traditions of the Order of the Candlestone. It was first crafted in Gallerlandia by the Maluram smith Niberi for Rildning himself. Elinderum is darker and lighter than electrum, and it glows slightly fainter than electrum when in total darkness. Elinderum armor plates absorb steel blows well, and elinderum weapons can shred the edges of iron and some steels. Most importantly to the early adherents of Candlestone, elinderum swords could defeat colonial Brintilian steel.
Closet
In this small room you see crates, barrels, and sacks stuffed with various supplies, such as raw metallic ores that have not yet been smelted into pure ingots.
Corbalt Ore
This is a crumbly dark gray ore that you have seen as a powder in the laboratory. It gets sticky when heated. In metallurgy, corbalt is an additive that increases the hardness, corrosion resistance, heat resistance, and wear-resistance of steel alloys. Corbalt ores can also be used as a dye and source of arsenic, which are important for Candlestone members needing to blend into their surroundings and make poisons, respectively. Most intriguing to you is that corbalt is among the ingredients used by Marlan to create his Banebrand alchemical flame sword using the alterlocum and glading processes.
Flint
You knew about this common stone even before coming to Thorendor Castle. Flint is a type of hard quartz, usually gray, black, green, white, or brown, that splinters into thin, sharp pieces when struck. It has been used since ancient times to make knives and tools, and it can be struck on pyrum or steel to create a spark that will light tinder. Master Arasemis requires every member of Candlestone to carry these stones at all times, but they can also be found in flint fields near rivers, on beaches, or most anywhere limestone or chalk is found.
Cribyl
This bowl of fine powdered salts is obtained by boiling iron in spirit of niter to evaporation. Cribyl salts are used as paint pigments, fabric dyes, for staining iron. Most importantly for Candlestone, cribyl is also an ingredient in thornhest and is used as a treatment for metal poisoning and radiant poisoning.
Arsenic
You smile as you look at this ore with yellow-tinted crystals, thinking of the many tyrants that have been poisoned by Candlestone over the centuries. Arsenic is notoriously deadly to nearly all forms of life, and impossible to detect without a special test, which Master Arasemis taught you. A fluid sample from the deceased, such as from the stomach, must be mixed with spirit of salt and exposed to stinkdamp. If arsenic is present, the mixture will turn yellow, otherwise there will be no change in color. Arasemis says this rotten salt test, as it is called, was not discovered and confidently used until the modern era. As such, arsenic has been called “the king of poisons, and the poison of kings.”
Aside from this, arsenic was used to strengthen various copper and lead alloys since the earliest classical Almeric alchemy and metalcrafting times. It was also used as a pesticide, herbicide, and to treat wood against rot. Happily for you, arsenic is abundant. It is primarily harvested from smelting realgar, orpiment, and corbalt ores, but it is also found with sulfur and many other metals as traces or pure yellowish-gray metallic crystals.
Lead
Lead is a soft, heavy, dense, crumbly metal that is bluish-white when cut but immediately corrodes to a dull gray when exposed to common air. It gains a shiny luster when melted into a liquid. Like copper, Master Arasemis thinks lead was among the earliest metals used by the ancients, and early alchemists believed it to be the oldest metal of the earth. It is abundant and easily extracted from many types of ores, but rarely found as pure lead nuggets.
The Order of the Candlestone has used lead as a ready poison when arsenic was not at hand. If inhaled, eaten, or otherwise exposed to a person over a period of time, the target will experience seizures, blood sickness, and eventually death. This was only discovered by the Arukans after extensive use of lead for water pipes, weights, and other common uses. Candlestone has also used lead and lead-rich materials as absorbents for containing radiants.
Auricupride
You don’t know much about this ore, but you remember from your library readings that it is a natural alloy of gold, usually less than 30%, and copper. Auricupride is simply used as a source for these metals, which occur as grains or platy layers in the ore.
Obsidian
Like elinderum, obsidian has a storied place in Candlestone lore. It is a hard, brittle, usually black or gray volcanic glass that fractures with very sharp edges, composed of melted silic infused with common air. It is often found with cinder and electrum. Obsidian blades can defeat leather armor but they shatter against metal. This mineral was originally found in volcanic areas of southern Gallerlandia but later discovered throughout western Pemonia, especially in veins and talus heaps in volcanic areas. Like flint, obsidian struck against pyrum or steel will produce a spark to light tinder.
Brintilian colonists first observed southern Gallerlanders using obsidian spears, arrowheads, and knives. For a short time, the colonists adopted obsidian weapons to arm their native allies when better weapons were in short supply. Polished obsidian was also used for early mirrors, statue eyes, surgical knives, sun-looking optics, and jewelry. Those with small white inclusions called snowflake obsidian were especially prized as jewelry among the Maluram and other southern Gallerlandia clans.
Weapon Rack
Here you see a few pieces that Arasemis and Yorand have finished.
Rhunegeld Copy
This sword looks like a glyphblade, with the intricate design in the blade, but you know it cannot be real. Master Arasemis said these ancient swords are either lost or well protected. You reason that this must be a copy, but wonder why Arasemis would go to the trouble.
New Ax
This looks like a normal ax, but the haft seems unusual. Master Arasemis may have treated the wood with something but you are not sure.
Supply Table
You see more metals and other supplies for Master Arasemis’s current projects.
Anchiclade Steel
This is a legendary alloy that can defeat many steels. It is a lustrous dense, malleable, extremely ductile, and hard metal that has excellent resistance to weather, corrosion, and wear, particularly when alloyed with bog iron (20%). Anchiclade ore is often mistaken for silver until processed and is sometimes called white gold, although it is much harder than gold. The primary weakness of this steel is that it can be dissolved by royal water.
Anchiclade steel was first used by the ancient Rahlampians to fashion their famously long, thin, and sharp windrazor swords, still used by Calbrian windrazor knights in the modern era. Experiments in making anchiclade armor proved to be too difficult and heavy to be practical. Anchiclade was originally discovered by the Rahlampians as pure nuggets and in copper and wist ores in the Anchiclade Mountains of southern Calbria, one of the only places known to have this rare metal even today. This makes it more costly than gold.
Master Arasemis says Calbria tightly controls the supply and export of anchiclade, and violations can result in execution. These bars were obtained illegally, as can be seen from the file markings to remove the foundry symbols and numbers. Arasemis has noted that anchiclade was also extensively mined by Arukans to make a variety of weapons while they occupied Rahlampia. That equipment later served as an uncontrolled source of the metal.
Wist
Wist is an abundant, lustrous, hard metal when freshly mined and often mistaken for silver, but quickly corroded by common air. It is otherwise corrosion resistant. It is rarely found on the surface due to breakdown by common air. In Donovan, wist is most often alloyed with other metals to craft wisting metal, typically wist (30%), gold (30%), silver (30%), iron (5%), and copper (5%). This is used exclusively for making special rings, wistrings, which are a cultural and superstitious item unique to Donovards of all ranks and social status that are able to afford them. They are said to bestow intelligence on the wearer. Elsewhere, wist is used in other alloys, or used to plate other metals for protection.
Unknown
You do not know what this dark metal is.
Blackened Quicksilver
You see a small cauldron filled with a dark liquid metal that seems to move when you look away from it. The sight of it makes you squeamish and uncomfortable, and you wish Master Arasemis had put the lid on it. It is evidently quicksilver, as noted on a nearby scrap of paper, which confirms your instinctive worry about its vapors. But you are puzzled why the normally silvery metal has been blackened with dye or burned with something.
Normally, quicksilver can be used to dissolve many metals to form amalgams as part of a process to extract fine metals from ores. However, you recall from your alchemy lessons that some metals cannot combine with quicksilver, such as anchiclade and obduradum. Iron will only combine with quicksilver in the presence of fysic acid. If a large amount of quicksilver is combined with a solid metal, a new liquid amalgam will result; however, if a little quicksilver is used, a solid alloy or soft paste can result.
You know quicksilver is poisonous if held in the hand for any period of time, or if the vapors are inhaled over time. You quickly place the lid on the cauldron, still wondering why the quicksilver is black. Perhaps Arasemis extracted it from dark cinnabar ores, or perhaps he has already created an amalgam. Or you wonder if he is preparing some new trickery metals, such as gold platinate.
Anoptmer
This sack holds a white, crumbly substance that smells like anoptmer. These stony crystals are commonly harvested from shallow mines in Middlesea and northern Calbria. When ground into a powder, it will make blacksmith furnaces burn hotter to forge tougher metals for weapons and armor. Anoptmer can also be added to alchemical candles to make them burn hotter, such as blaze candles.
Carbun
You see a bowl of fine black powder called carbun. Master Arasemis has shown you that basic carbun can take several forms, such as coal dust or soot or small bits of charcoal. The properties of carbun for smelting ores and making poisons has been well-known since classical Almeric alchemy and metalcrafting. In its charcoal form, it is critical for the creation of steel. And the Order of the Candlestone has used soot to coat the shells of prepared shroud eggs since learning the practice from the ancient Naren-Dra tribe.
Billon
A natural alloy of copper (60%) and silver (40%) treated with fruit acid to create a unique black lacquer-like patina for currency and ornamentation. This suggests Master Arasemis may be making a currency or some decorative part of armor or weapon.
Aurichalcum
This is an extremely hard metal only found deep underground, sometimes alongside amiphote. When brought to the surface aurichalcum quickly corrodes, rusts, and splits when exposed to the combination of sunlight and common air. Master Arasemis says that the Calbrians have begun to use the metal to make underground boring machines. His Calbrian friend Oghamroy has reported making magnes-coated aurichalcum armor and even thin daggers kept in specially-sealed sheaths for assassins. With this, he says they could penetrate steel with one swift stab before the metal decomposes. These bars have clearly begun to decompose, so you wonder if Arasemis knows a method to recompose them.
Throwing Weapons
Here you see several sets of hand darts and throwing arrows. You are still learning how to throw these while fighting and wall-running, but you are a good aim otherwise. Aside from shroud eggs, hand darts and similar thrown weapons were most favored by the Naren-Dra tribe.
Throwing Knife
This is the basic thrown weapon that you’ve learned to use.
Throwing Arrow
This one is feathered for flight and balanced with lead weights. It is among the easiest to learn how to use, but its distance is more limited and it is not as stealthy as other darts.
Throwing Barb
This is the smallest type, nearly impossible for your target to see or evade, but also rarely lethal against armored foes.
Beetle Barb
This variation is designed to deliver poison. They have tiny internal reservoirs that, when thrown, expel poisonous liquids along the points and barbs. Requires great skill to use. For this reason, Master Arasemis trains the students using only poison ivy oil in the reservoir.
Stipple Lance
This dart has anchiclade blades and a solid core of hammered blue lead, making it very heavy and dense. It has among the longest throwing distances.
Chair Prick
This one is not a throwing weapon, but you know what it is: a tool of secret assassination. The prick is hidden within the cushion of a chair. When a target sits down, they become pricked with poison.
Design Table
You see several designs for swords here. A quick look at the details shows all of them are intended to be alchemical weapons. You are excited at the thought of wielding a blade like Marlan’s Banebrand.
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