Making Things

[Tyr]

Sometimes things just needed to be made but there wasn't a convenient time. In such instances Tyr tended to side with what was important to him and ignore convenience. He'd lived at the Artificery before and things had been run just fine, it could be done again. The expanded managerial aspects of having more land hadn't really impacted things a whole lot anyway, it was just...slightly difficult to manage the newer places that weren't exactly happy about his forceful takeover. They loved the improvements mind you, fresh food was great, didn't like his hostile actions. Never you mind he'd stopped the potential killing of thousands of hostages.

In today's instance he needed clothes. Sure he had the basic homespun he'd worn for years, but Tyr was a Duke and appearance mattered. Walking through town wearing full war regalia wasn't always the best choice, even if his armor looked amazing. With the recent acquisition of fur from Innorsford it was time for an upgrade when out-of-Duchy. It'd be a piecemeal process for now, clothes weren't something he was overly familiar with at the moment and he didn't have an abundance of materials to work with yet. His belt would function just fine, as would the boots and gloves until he had more materials. The main focus was a coat and pants for now.

Bolts of cotton and leather were laid out with some of the fur and Tyr began the long process of carefully cutting them down. He had some patterns to rely on but most of it was by sight, oddly an even more difficult task than making regular armor. At least that held a shape, you had to guess how regular clothing would fit over someone's body.

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Crafting "Noble Garments" (Clothing/'armor') from 5 soft fur, 5 fur, 2 cotton, and 2 wing leather.
Easy (15) + K (35) + ArmM/Tail3/TanM (55) = DC 105, autosuccess.
Masterwork: 55 + 20 = 75. 4 degrees possible.
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Masterwork failed.
Noble Garments: (5sf5f2c2wl) DR 14, 37 Cold Resist, +30 Charisma & Diplomacy; (16Str, 7A, 2Cha, 32K) Clothing/Light/Chest/Back/Abdomen/Sides/Shoulders/Upper Arms/Thighs

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[Tyr]

There was an earthy smell floating about the shop, coming from a new addition sitting in the corner. A large pot hung above a loose wood fire, reeds and straw boiling down inside it. Every now and again the shaper would mix the pot with a thin, bladed, rake-like tool, shredding the softened materials into a pulpy mixture. It was the beginning of his new papermaking process, and the longest part too. Add more materials, let it boil down, mix, repeat. There wasn’t much room for failure and it was easy to do while working on other things, which Tyr was taking full advantage of via all the multitasking.

With an identified gap in his knowledge the Duke was tackling the challenge of plant-based stuff in a more direct manner. By, y’know, chewing on things to figure out what it did to him. Probably not the safest of methods, but as long as it didn’t kill him then why not?

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Chewing on Helixan to figure out what it does because Tyr's a genius.
Herblore 0 + Simple (30) + K (35) + Laboratory (5) {Just because I can} = DC 70.
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Fail.

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While the paper brewed and the weeds were munched Tyr sat on a stool near his forge working on yet another area of shaping. With a set of precision tools and some silver the Duke worked on making a shiny. There wasn’t much in the way of jewelry floating about these days, and with plans for an upcoming tournament he needed some form of a prize to hand out. This would be valuable, if not for the craftsmanship then at least for the material, and not overly excessive. The thought was to make rings of various quality, the better ones going to those that made it farther. For lack of a better reward idea the Champion of his tournament would receive the best ring he made plus a pre-signed order form.

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Crafting a ring from 1 silver. Assuming simple difficulty because nothing is listed.
Silver (30) + K (35) + Race (5) + Forge (5) {Silver is a metal after all} = DC 85.

62, success! Masterwork: flat 30.

20, success! 1 degree earned.
Made: Silver ring: 1 socket.

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Speaking of the forms it was about time to check the paper-in-progress. Taking the rake through the liquid Tyr felt the resistance of a fairly thick pulp mix, pretty much plant slurry. The fire was killed and left to cool while even more tools were prepared. The paper was made by getting small sections out and left to dry. Tyr found the paper came out even finer if it was pressed dry, and wouldn’t you know it he just so happened to have some weights on hand. Ignoring the slight heat of the liquid the Duke started using some wooden frames to get said sections out, setting them pulp-side down on a blanket to dry. After a little time the frames came clean off the newly made paper and could be used again. Once all the pages he could get from the pot were set and semi-dry Tyr stacked them, set a flat board on top, and stacked some weights to press dry it the rest of the way.

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Making paper from 2 reeds and 1 straw. Simple (30) + K (35) = DC 65.

Success! 2 paper made.

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···

[Tyr]

Tyr absentmindedly stirred another pot of mash over the fire, breaking the plants down into an ever-finer paste. Paper was boring to make, but increasingly necessary these days. Unless he felt like buying a whole bunch of it from someone, mind you very few people were selling it, he'd had to become fairly self-sufficient with it for all of his order forms, important letters, and other random uses paper often had. Contracts for workers, receipts for payment to people, it had endless uses. In the back of his mind plans stirred about as quickly as the rake did, formulating a way to have this process performed automatically. Automation was a beautiful thing when done right, but so rarely used these days. Once the mash was set he pulled out the frames and got to work on making some actual sheets.

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Making paper from 2 reeds and 1 straw. Simple (30) + K (35) = DC 65.
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Success! Crafted 2 pages.

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Almost as soon as the pages were made Tyr set about starting another pot with the same ingredients. As the plants softened in the heated water he cut one page into five smaller sheets and started drafting a letter. Not knowing entirely it was going to Tyr addressed it simply to 'whomever is in charge' and kept on going. It was a quick thing, simply telling said leader that he was coming to take their land under his wing. Should they bend their knee there would be no problem. They could stay in charge of that land and he would improve it to match what he already owned.

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Rolling for writing a letter. High Cruic I + Literacy I + K (35) + Simple (30) = DC 75

Success.

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With the first draft down Tyr stirred the pot and muddled over the writing. His brain nitpicked little things here and there, order of words and strength of adjectives. In the end he let it be and started writing another copy. He needed two more copies at least, perhaps a third if he felt like it.

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Rolling for writing a letter. High Cruic I + Literacy I + K (35) + Simple (30) = DC 75

Failure.

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In transcribing the second letter Tyr made some quick mistakes. Reading too far ahead and smashing letters together, trying out improvements and finding something completely wrong with it. The letter was tossed on the fire to burn and he started again.

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Rolling for writing a letter. High Cruic I + Literacy I + K (35) + Simple (30) = DC 75

Success!

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The third draft went smoothly, a near copy of the first. Only letter left to copy.

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Rolling for writing a letter. High Cruic I + Literacy I + K (35) + Simple (30) = DC 75

Success!

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With three similar letters made out Tyr had a choice to make. Ralon had made a good point when the pair first met, Tyr was courting war, and Cruinthe had seen plenty already. The people were getting tired of it, they weren't going to be happy about any of this at first. It would take some solid leadership to keep them in line until things showed some serious improvement. Taking on three counties to hit an even ten under his banner would be a lot. Adding a fourth? That would be a challenge, but it would allow him to hold a clear line along the Darthaks.

Something within him said screw it and started writing the fourth letter. In his heart of hearts he believed this was the best thing he could do right now. If the people rose against him then so be it, he would deal with it then.

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Rolling for writing a letter. High Cruic I + Literacy I + K (35) + Simple (30) = DC 75

Success! High Cruic II and Literacy II earned!

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Four letters were set side by side to dry on a table. He would get his army training for combat in the morning and plan a series of quick campaigns for the lands that refused to join him peacefully.·····

[Tyr]

With that out of the way Tyr started working on some easier things. First he needed to replace his belt, the thing he'd brought with him to the forest had served no function at all. That crow demon had torn through it with a will, nearly crippling him for life. Something better was needed, and with the combined receipt of Kable's shipment and the products from his own land's effort he had plenty of materials to work with now. Hydrillium was back on the table too, and it was about damn time. Gathering his mix of materials the shaper went to work, bending the materials of reality to match his imagination. Some iron was tossed in a crucible with coal underneath to refine into coal, leather was stitched into a set pattern, the hydrillium was made into plates, and cloth bound everything together to finish it off. Simple, sort of.

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Crafting a belt. 1 Hydrillium, 1 Iron, 1 Leather, 1 Steel, 5 Cotton.
Difficult (-30) + K (35) + ArmorM/IronM/Steel3/Tailor3/TanM (90) + Skillful Crafter (17) = Autosuccess.
Masterwork check. 10 + Knowledges (90) + Designs (22) = 122. Seven levels possible.
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Three levels earned.
Made:
Excellent War Belt (1Hyd1St1I1L5C), DR 146, 22 Slots.
Req: 35 Str, 17 A, 13 K, 5 Cha

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The belt came out magnificently, better than he could have hoped for at the outset. Hopefully that would set the tone for the rest of the day. Priorities complete it was time for some side work. Taking out a small bit of silver the shaper started working away to make another ring, trying to carve a simple engraving all around the band because why not. He needed practice with the skill and now was the best time.

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Making a ring from 1 silver.
Silver (0) + K (35) + Race (5) + Forge (5) = DC 45.

Fail.

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The engraving ended up cracking one part of the ring, making the whole thing a wash. With a shrug the Duke scrapped it and started over.

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Making a ring from 1 silver.
Silver (0) + K (35) + Race (5) + Forge (5) = DC 45.

Failure

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A flaw in the melting process caused the ring to crackle during cooling, shattering into fragments all over. At least it was a quick failure, it allowed him to get back to work quickly. Turns out the belt going so well wasn't a good sign. At least not so far. Oh well, nothing to do but keep trying. He'd have to manage it eventually.

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Making a ring from 1 silver.
Silver (0) + K (35) + Race (5) + Forge (5) = DC 45.

Success!
Masterwork check: 10 + Designs (12)

Fail.
Crafted: Silver Ring (1 socket; 1 property)

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Finally a successful crafting! The ring was of fairly simple design, with what appeared to be braided lines carved all the way around. It would make a good prize for his games, if he ever managed to finish preparations for that.····

[Tyr]

Tyr sat in his workshop trying to mentally keep track of everything coming in these days. His efforts in rebuilding and improving things had finally taken hold, and production was at a near all time high. At the very least it was the highest anyone had seen in their lifetime and there were no records to say it had been better. His warehouses were filling rapidly and he was at a loss as to how to use all of it. Public works were being planned, but without much experience in how to actually make such things he was having difficulty moving forward with them. If he was to get other people to make things for him he had to nail down a fool-proof process. That meant starting to mass produce stuff himself as a test case.

Using wood to make charcoal was first, and the easiest. Put the wood in, light a fire around it, and let it burn until it died. Boom, charcoal. Following that was steel. Either take that charcoal, or regular coal, and use it to melt down some iron and bam there was steel. For Tyr it was nothing, an almost automatic thing these days. Now though he carefully worked through each step, trying to record everything he could onto the small stock of paper he had. Speaking of which, that was process number three. While a set of iron sat burning into steel, Tyr started a pot of paper boiling away. There was always more work to be done and Tyr was always working away at it.

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Using refine to make four charcoal from eight walnut, and then four steel. Autosuccesses.
Making paper from 5 straw, 6 times because reasons. Each success will make 5 pages.
Simple (30) + K (35) = DC 65.
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2 successes, 4 failures. 10 pages made.

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One batch process of materials down and Tyr was done for the day. It was long, boring work that left him relatively exhausted even without a whole lot of physical effort.

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Earned Steel Smithing Master!·····

[Tyr]

After some rest, a hot meal, and a nice bath to get the previous day's grime off, Tyr went right back to getting his hands dirty making more stuff. Today's work was more mass production methods, starting off with some jewelry making. Because when you have little experience with something why not try to find a way and make it so anyone can do it? The first step was to use what he already had, the pair of silver rings, and make a mold out of them. Casting sand was put in a box frame and the rings were imprinted three times each. After that all he had to do was melt some silver, pour it in through the holes, and the easy part was done.

Finishing them up was the hard part. The excess silver had to be carved off and the outside re-filed down to a perfect circle. Then some polishing and they could be added to his small but growing collection.

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Making six silver rings, one silver each.
Silver (0) + K (35) + Race (5) + Forge (5) = DC 45.
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Two successes, four failures.

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Two of the rings came out wonderfully, the rest either had an imperfection from the casting or were left marred after he tried to finish them. Oh well, it was a learning process.·····

[Tyr]

With the two successful rings Tyr tried his hand at some engraving, trying to put a carved design around each band. If it went wrong polishing them back down wouldn't be hard and there was no chance of failure with it at this point, so why not?

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Masterwork checks on the two successful rings.
Masterwork check: 10 + Designs (12)
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1 success, 1 failure. Without jeweler no gains can be had.

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With one ring he was able to manage a design similar to twisting vines all the way around, the other ended up looking horrible and had to be polished down. Such was life, you lived and learned. Rings done for now it was back to paper making. Honestly paper was a resource he was finding he never had enough of, and if he didn't cut it into letter sized sheets it stored quite well. He could cut it as needed then and never have to worry about a supply. Even better, Kable could probably use it for a whole bunch of things and having a supplier meant he could sell it. Given a source of paper who knew if the country could start sneakily writing things down again, although Julgrava was likely to catch wind of that soon enough of come looking. Oh well, might as well try.

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Making paper again. Five straw each.
Simple (30) + K (35) = DC 65.

3 successes, 1 failure.

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It almost seemed like he was getting better at it, most of the batches of paper came out just fine. Good! Maybe soon he could nail this process down as well as he had steel and he could move on to finding more interesting things to try and simplify for the common man to make for him.·····