The Runesmith

by Galen Wolf

  Armor Rating

  Helm of Cherry Aura 200

  Silver Chainmail - 400

  Silver Greaves - 100

  Bracers of Breathing - 100

  Chainmail Leggings - 200

  Total Armor Rating 1000

  #

  After Jimmy left, I went down into the cellar. As I descended the cool stone stairs to the underground vault where I kept all my ingots and valuables, I mused how fortunate I was to be so wonderful.

  I unlocked the heavy iron door with its barrage of protective runes and stepped into the vault, locking the door behind me. The vault was cool and damp. The heavy bolt grated across the door, giving me a satisfying feeling of security.

  Also giving me a feeling of security were the runes engraved in silver on the floor of the vault. I'd done them myself of course. The first rune you engrave in a place you want to protect from entry is the ghost rune. Thieves at higher levels get the ability to change into incorporeal form and ghost through doors and walls. This rune in the shape of a cross prevents all undead from entering a place, and of course, in ghost form--thieves count as undead. The second rune you draw is an anchor rune. The purpose of the anchor rune is to stop ghosts leaving a location. In the Enchanting skill set, it's possible to create a teleport pill from a certain location. So you go to a location make a pill and then later when you swallow the pill you can return to it. Some clever thieves did this and then switched to ghost form. So they could teleport in, steal what they wanted, and then ghost out through the walls. The anchor rune stops them doing this. Finally, each of those runes has to be protected so that thieves cannot simply lift them off the floor with another of their skills. Runesmiths can do this too. Each of the runes is protected with a shock rune and each shock rune is protected with a lock rune. That prevents anyone with a lower skill than the Runesmith who created it from removing the rune, and as I was the best Runesmith in the Greenwood, no one could remove my runes.

  I walked over to the stacks of ingots. The metals we used to craft both weapons and armor in the Greenwood have the same names as metals in the real world, but their properties are different. Generally, they look like the original metals from the real world but their properties are different. So in the real world gold is very heavy and soft. That is not the case here.

  The most abundant metal. and the cheapest and weakest is copper. Copper gives +1 to attack rolls and a basic armor durability of 50. The next metal up is nickel. Which gives a damage rating of +2 and an armor rating of 100. We go then through iron, silver and gold with gold the best of the earthly metals. Gold provides an attack bonus of +5 and a base armor bonus of 300.

  But rarest of all metals, and the best, is meteoric iron. This is rarely found, and when a meteorite strikes the surface of the Greenwood, everyone goes to try to find veins of meteoric iron melted by the impact.

  I stood in the chill of the vault and stroked my beard as I perused my stacks of ingots. I had the different metals in different stalls: more copper than I knew what to do with, an abundance of nickel, iron, and silver but not so much gold. I only had seven ingots of meteoric iron, and that shows how rare it is. If I haven't got much, no one has.

  I snapped my fingers and, within seconds, I heard a tentative knocking at the heavy iron door. I withdrew the bolt and one of my gnome slaves came in. I believe they do have names but I don't bother remembering them. I indicated the ingots of meteoric iron.

  "How many, master?"

  "I think five."

  "That only leaves you with two, master." The gnome furrowed his brow. I think he was trying to be helpful. I reached over and slapped him. "I can count, you dolt."

  The gnome struggled to pick up all five of the heavy ingots. I left him wheezing behind me after I unlocked the vault. I mounted the steps up the slender tower until I came to the forge.

  The gnome struggled and gasped under the weight of the ingots. As he came up to the forge, I indicated the bench and said I wanted him to put them there. "Will that be all, master?" He spluttered.

  "No, wait here. I might need you later."

  I began to forge my new rune sword. First, I heated the meteoric iron in the forge itself until it glowed white-hot. Then I took out the hot metal with my tongs and with my hammer beat the metal into a rough sword shape. I plunged the glowing metal into the trough of water that surged with a boiling hiss. Then I hammered it and tempered it in the trough again, returning it after that to the forge to be heated and hammered another time. After a number of repetitions, I was sweating profusely, but the metal was beginning to take on the quality of a sword.

  I selected some walrus ivory to use as the hilt. I also had sapphires that I wanted to inlay on the ivory hilt - the pommel I would make of gold. When I was satisfied with the Runesword, I put it aside and began to think of the runes.

  All runes are made of silver. As you advance up the levels of the Rune skill tree, you get more rune skills and can make different kinds of runes. Runes are divided into three classes. To create a rune in a certain class, you add one of the three spirits. The spirits are sulfur, quicksilver, and salt. Runes with sulfur additives are offensive rooms, runes with salt are enchantment rooms, and runes using quicksilver are those that transmute their victims. For example, there's a Level 11 rune known as the Shape Shifter. This is made of silver, quicksilver, and iridium.

  When placed on a sword the Shape-Shifter rune will force any creature that the sword hits into its natural form. This is useful when fighting Rangers shifted into bear form, any werewolves, or other were-creatures.

  Each rune has a level. A sword made of meteoric iron will be level 20 because working with meteoric iron is the highest skill in the smithing tree. You can put as many runes as you like on a rune sword as long as their cumulative total of levels does not exceed the level of the weapon. So a copper sword is Level 1 and can only have one Level 1 rune on it. For a Level 20 sword, you could have one level 20 rune or twenty Level 1 runes, or any combination that made up 20.

  The rune known as the Life Sucker is the ultimate rune in the rune smithing skill tree. Anyone hit by that has a 10% chance of having their soul drained from them and a soul gem being created that can be a power source for various other magical operations.

  I looked at the sun getting low in the west. The day drew on, but I still wanted to finish my sword before I logged out for the night. I asked the gnome to hand me batches of silver and I went to the rune table and planned my runes. One Level 10 rune is a 5% critical hit chance. So you can put two of those runes on a Level 20 sword and get 10% crit chance besides the weapons natural critical chance, which for a sword is 5%, therefore 15% total crit chance.

  But I wanted more of a show. I chose to put four elemental damage runes, which are each Level 2 and cause 1-10 damage for fire, ice, electricity, and acid. So that is potentially an extra 40 damage to my sword per blow, as long as they don't save.

  I then chose to put on a Dazzle rune. When hit by a Dazzle rune the victim is temporarily blinded and stunned for five seconds. Willpower save negates this effect. But as I noted because I am a level 20 Runesmith the DC difficulty check of my runes is my level 20 plus my intelligence bonus and as my Intelligence is 29 that means I get an 18 bonus so the total difficulty check of my dazzle rune is 38 – and the victim has to save against 38. Few people have a Willpower save that high.

  The Dazzle rune is Level 4. I added a Blindness rune to the sword, which is Level 3, and a Bleed Rune, which is Level 5. My runes now totaled 20, which was the limit.

  I went and got my granite pestle and mortar. I took a silver rod and snipped off about a half inch with the heavy black shears that lay on the wooden table. I had an apothecary's cabinet filled with glass bottles in which I had the trace minerals that I would add to the runes to give them their specific qualities. My hand hovered over the bottles. The first contained cobalt. The teardrop-shaped bottle was made of translucent electric blue glass. It had a mid-length neck, stood about two inches tall, and most
of its label had been torn off. Not that one. The second was an onion-shaped bottle made of opaque lime green glass. It had a long neck, stood about eleven inches tall, and its label was faded by age. It contained magnesium. I didn't want that just yet. It was the third bottle I wanted. The coffin-shaped bottle was made of transparent royal purple glass. It had a short neck, stood about twelve inches tall, and the label said Iridium in my own handwriting.

  I heated the snipped off silver until it was molten. I reached over and got a spoonful of sulfur that I dashed into the mixture. Then I unstoppered the bottle of iridium and shook out a few grains, which fell into the molten silver, disappearing with a wet hiss.

  I did this mixing and remixing for each rune, selecting the exact additives for each one. I used my brass pen to draw them on black slate. They would dry there and cool down.

  Once I had drawn the runes with my pen, I wanted to transfer them to the sword blade and engrave them in the silver there.

  Once I had placed all the runes onto the blade and sealed them with fire, I laid the sword aside for a minute while I dried the damp palms of my hands. I couldn't afford to mess this up. But then, I saw the runes were fixed and I smiled.

  The next thing I had to do was sharpen my sword, which I did with great pleasure. I held the blade against the whetstone and it gave off showers of rainbow colored sparks in the gathering evening light. After some time the sword was ready with its rune engraved blade sharp enough to slice a hair in twain. The walrus ivory inlaid with sapphire and the gold pommel looked very comely. I tested it in my hand hefting it to try the balance. She was an exquisite weapon. I called her Dazzler.

  All this time the gnome slave had stood dutifully quiet nearby helping me when I asked him to reach things but otherwise not making a sound.

  With my sword in my hand, I beckoned him over.

  "Yes master?"

  "Come here a sec?"

  He nodded and trembled.

  "Bow your head a little please?"

  The gnome did as I had told him. I saw the sweat beading on his brow. With one sweep of Dazzler, I chopped off his head. If he had been higher-level, the runes would have fired but the damage from the sword was enough to kill him outright. Still, as his head thumped on the stone floor and rolled under the rune table, I thought, she sure is sharp.

  I looked down at his dismembered body and I was filled with pity. It was a pity to waste gnome servants like this. But then again, I could just buy another one.

  I danced around my rooftop forge slashing my sword this way and that at imaginary enemies. Finally out of breath but happy I kissed the blade of Dazzler and said, "Soon it'll be time to kill some hippies."

  #

  Weapon Statistics

  Dazzler: Level 20 Haunted Runesword

  Material: Meteoric Iron +6

  Durability: 500

  Crit: 5% x 2 damage.

  Runes:

  Shock - Dodge Save

  Frost - Dodge Save

  Fire - Dodge Save

  Acid - Dodge Save

  Bleed - Toughness Save

  Dazzle - Willpower Save

  Deafen - Toughness Save

  Haunted Runeswords have a rudimentary intelligence and are said to be haunted by a spirit of hunger and revenge. They have a will of their own.

  To Hit: 1d8 + 6 + Strength Bonus + Level Bonus

  Damage: 1d8 + 6 + Strength Bonus + Level Bonus + Bleed Rune 1-10 bleed damage every 2 seconds per level of wielder + Shock Rune 1-10 electrical damage; 1-10 acid damage, 1-10 fire damage, 1-10 frost damage.

  Damage range when wielded by Harald

  41-84 + 1-10 damage over time, max 5-50

  Max Crit: 168 (5% chance)

  #

  I got a message from Jimmy the Zit the next day. In the Greenwood when someone sends you a personal message, it arrives in the mouth of a Dove, which drops the letter on your mat. The bird dropped the letter with a flop, and then fled in a flutter of white wings. It must have thought I was going to kill it. I bend and opened the crisp white envelope and read the message that copied itself instantly into my journal.

  Jimmy invited me to meet him that afternoon by the Jeweled Tree in the Old Forest. I was still tired after my long day crafting my new rune sword. I selected a scabbard I already had from my previous sword so I didn't have to buy a new one and strapped it to my belt. I know that was cheap but if you look after the kopecks, the roubles will look after themselves. I admired myself in the mirror, arranged my beard, and inspected my pecs. Then I clenched my bicep and kissed the bunched muscle: welcome to the gun show! I winked at my reflection. Hot.

  I walked up to the top of the tower. And I stood for a second, breathing in the clean spring air of Birnam Woods. Then I launched myself into the air with my Boots of Flying sword over the tower and its clearing, seeing the yellow brick road that led from my Runestore to the Icknield way. The tops of the trees of Birnam Wood waved in the slight breeze, and the crows that had been diving and swooping in the air currents flew away when they saw it was me. I glanced back at the rounded slopes of the Emerald Mountains. I hoped that my gnome servants, the ones who survived at least, would be working there slavishly for me today to bring in more ore and precious gems. Beer was running low, but I didn't mind owing them for their work. Old Tom would be there soon enough from Salonika and they could drink their rations of the sour ale then.

  I soared north-west from the tower across the Spider Woods taking in the tranquil azure waters of the Blue Lake to the north. The last meteorite strike was on the shores of the Blue Lake and I enjoyed several very pleasant days there recovering meteoric iron.

  From there I flew west over the Old Forest seeing the glittering golden domes of the city of Vinab to the south. I orientated myself by finding the Old Stone Cross and then struck north-west high above Ermine Street. After about five minutes, I could see the Druid forest of Avalon to the west just over the glittering waters of the River Running. Where Ermine Street crossed the River Running was the Ford of Dreams, and that's where the new Ranger village of Pennred was being established.

  But I wasn't going that far. I descended towards the Jeweled Tree.

  The Jeweled Tree was a landmark along Ermine Street. It looked like a huge spreading oak tree but every Fall it would fruit with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. These precious fruits had magical properties and were valuable for crafting potions, so every autumn horrifically bloody battles took place below the tree as people fought for the gems when they landed on the ground. Of course the Rangers Guild were able to harvest the gems from the treetops themselves, but those who had no ability to fly or climb the trees were reduced to throwing sticks form the ground to try to knock the precious stones down into their grubby cupped hands. Some people thought the Jeweled Tree was exquisite in Fall when the evening sun glittered through the hanging gems. But I thought it was shit. The only good thing about the scene was the heaps of player corpses on the blood stained glass below its spreading branches. I laughed as I remembered the pain I'd inflicted there on the young and innocent.

  Jimmy came out of stealth as I landed by the tree trunk.

  "Good afternoon, Harald. Nice to find you looking so well."

  "Shut the claptrap, Jimmy. What news have you got?"

  Jimmy eyed the hilt of Dazzler with greed in his eyes. "You got a new sword?"

  "Yeah. You want to see it?"

  Jimmy nodded rapidly. "Yeah, sure, of course."

  I drew the sword from its scabbard and even to myself I must admit I'd done a fantastic piece of work with the walrus ivory hilt and its sparkling sapphires and gold pommel. On the blade, the runes shifted and whispered to themselves, pulsing their dark magic.

  Jimmy's eyes widened, and he whistled. "That's a real beauty," he said. "Can I touch it?"

  "No."

  "Pity. It looks like a very powerful weapon. I bet it's worth a bit of gold."

  I hefted the sword in my right hand. "See this sword?"

  Jimmy looked puzzle
d. "Yes. Of course. You just showed it to me."

  "Well, with this sword, Jimmy, I am going to cut off your fucking head if you try to betray me, even if you think of betraying me for a second I will chop of parts of you that you cannot spare."

  He gulped. "Sure, Harald. Easy. Understood. I've never betrayed you, Harald. Never would."

  "So, just as long as we understand each other." I looked at his hand. "I see it grew back again."

  He waved the hand energetically. "Yeah, it was there when I logged in the next time."

  I was bored with him already. "So tell me about this druid cargo train. How long before it comes along the road?"