Omen: 16, 20

“You are feeling lucky today?” Sonarot asked, holding a sleepy Lanarot up.

“Yes,” Adam said. “Very lucky.”

“Shikan was going to ask you for some assistance, but if you are feeling lucky, you should go smith.”

“Was it something important?” Adam asked. “Since it’s smithing, I don’t really mind.”

“You need to smith for your project, yes?”

“Yeah,” Adam replied, rubbing the side of his neck.

“Then you should smith.”

He trained lightly in the morning and played with the children. During breakfast, he fed Lanarot some porridge, who sat on his lap, before letting her eat some fruit.

“You’re growing up so quickly,” Adam said, brushing her hair. “What did I say about growing too quickly?”

Lanarot chewed on the fruit noisily, before looking up at him, sticking some more fruit into her mouth, with the rest of her hand.

Fred stared at the pair for a long while over breakfast, gathering some stares himself. He recalled how they first had met. He was half dying on the hill and Adam came with water and food. He spoke of his little sister, the girl right in front of him. Then Vonda and he had spoken about life, and finding purpose.

‘Purpose,’ Fred thought, before falling deep into thought about the inn. ‘The face of the inn.’

Adam lifted the girl up after she was done eating, the same way Jurot did. He stared up at her, narrowing his eyes. “You think I didn’t notice?”

Lanarot babbled in response, kicking up her legs, before grunting at him.

Adam held her out, glancing aside, trying not to smell the ghastliness which was within her clothy. “Baktu,” Adam coughed, “what the hell are we feeding you?”

Once Lanarot had been taken by her mother, Adam went to find Elder Zijin at the warehouse. “Morning,” Adam called. “I’ve come for some materials.”

“Which materials?”

“The best I can get,” Adam said. “No. Not the best I can get. The best I can get without worry that I will need to hand it back to the Iyr.”

Zijin sighed, but offered him some Iyr steel and Iyr ash. Adam smiled, wondering just how much he should bother Elder Gold.

“Please, Adam,” Zijin said.

Adam took the materials for the axe. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Zijin raised his brows, and Adam retreated away, making his way to the forge. He fired it up and then sat down, looking at the fire.

‘Should I make the same axe she handed over to me?’ He tapped his knee gently. ‘No. I should use the design that Aunt Sonarot gave to me.’

Smithing Check (Strength)

D20 + 6 = 22 (16)

Omen: 16, 20 -> 16

20 + 6 = 26

The King Serpent snapped its maw, causing the air to whip about, threatening to kill the person nearby. However, the young Iyrman had swayed backwards, almost touching the ground with his back as he calves burned with effort, keeping him barely off the ground. He swung wildly with his axe, which tore into the King Serpent’s neck, barely managing to dig into it as fire licked at the creature’s neck.

“Jurot!” Jaygak shouted, bringing her own blade down from the heavens. Her blow was heavy after slaying an Earth Snake, her Bloodseeker full of blood lust for the creatures which had come to assault the Iyrmen.

Kitool struck the King Serpent against its side, managing to land several blows, but it was not dead yet. There were seven other Iyrmen, each ready to slay the King Serpent, which was their greatest prey, though many of them were dealing with the smaller creatures nearby.

Smithing Check (Constitution)

D20 + 5 = 18 (13)

Adam stared at the axe, which had been perfectly forged, as perfect as he could manage. Of course, a Dwarven Smith may have been able to forge a greater axe, but it was the best he had made.

‘Nice.’

“That is quite the axehead,” Sonarot said, swinging it around on its temporary handle, before checking the metal.

Mina was standing beside Adam, holding onto his knee, all the while Redboulder was admiring the axe from afar. Eventually, Sonarot handed the axe to the Dwarf, allowing him to check it.

‘Ay,’ Redboulder thought. ‘He forges well.’

“I’m going to enchant this one,” Adam said. “For myself, I mean.”

“It is a great weapon,” Sonarot stated.

Lanarot crawled over to Adam and began to pull herself up to a stand, grabbing onto him to do so. She grabbed onto his other knee and began to babble at him.

“You don’t say? Really now? Oh that’s nice. I don’t know about that. I like that too.” Adam responded to each babble separately, before brushing her hair gently with a hand.

‘Isn’t the girl a Princess?’ Jonn thought, looking to Mina, who was sucking on the side of Adam’s hand. ‘Should they really allow her to remain at Adam’s side?’

Lady Elowen, however, was chatting away with the other Iyrmen. Rojer, who was slowly regaining his strength, was sitting down in the corner, reading a book. Ylra was chatting away with the teens, exchanging all manner of tall tales with them. Redboulder sat near Adam, and though he was keeping an eye out on Lanarot, he was mostly checking Adam’s work.

“The trust they have in Adam…” Vonda began, leaving the rest of the words unsaid.

“You need to have at least that much trust in Adam,” Dunes said. “He might be crazy, but that’s because he is strong. They say the strong, like the wealthy, all have something off about them.”

“What of the King’s Sword?”

“He, too, has something off about him,” Dunes said. “I don’t know what, but he does.”

“You must be careful speaking ill of the King’s Sword in Aldland.”

“This isn’t Aldland,” Dunes replied.

Vonda slowly bowed her head.

“I think Adam is good,” Nobby said. “He is always helping.”

“Even if he is weird, and even if he does seem suspicious, he has helped me too,” Brittany said. “Even though I’ve waited a year to do something, he has still taken me out of my small village, allowing me to stay in the Iyr. We also travelled to Deadwood, a place so close to home, but foreign to me.”

“I…” Dunes began, but he fell silent. He thought about what he should do. He thought about why he had come to Aldland. He thought about how he could complete his goal, and how likely he’d be able to do so travelling with Adam. “I think Adam has enough faith in us, and we should return that faith to him. He moves quickly sometimes, and slowly other times.”

“Yes,” Vonda said. “He’s rather chaotic.”

With a design in mind, Adam understood what he needed to do. This entire month, he was going to forge as many axes he could, with Laygak’s help in making the handles. This axe, however, would not have a handle make by Laygak.

Omen: 14, 19

Smithing Check (Strength)

D20 + 6 = 21 (15)

Smithing Check (Constitution)

D20 + 5 = 13 (8)

Adam had created another axehead which was of acceptable quality. This one, too, would be enchanted as one of the first weapons for the Guards. It was only then that he realised that he should probably enchant other weapons first in order to fund his project.

“God damn it.” For a moment, he thought about enchanting the weapons he made to auction them off. ‘No. They’d be able to trace it back to me.’ He sighed. ‘I can’t believe I’m that stupid.’

He stared at the axehead.

‘No, I definitely can believe it.’

Omen: 13, 19

Smithing Check (Strength)

D20 + 6 = 7 (1)

Omen: 13, 19 -> 13

19 + 6 = 25

A Wolf almost tore into the villager, who had tried to push away the beast with his spear. However, he was too old, and his muscles would not move the way he wanted. Lightning flashed, and an even older man appeared, laughing with such joy, that he may have been a little boy.

“It seems you need some help,” the stranger said. “I’ve come just in time?” He raised a hand, and shooting out from his finger tips came countless bolts of lightning, which flooded the area and killed off dozens of creatures. The lightning arced, bouncing from creature to creature, causing them to wail in pain.

“Wh-what are you?” the old man gasped, staring up at the handsome fellow, who looked between thirty and a hundred at all times.

“I’m just an old man,” he said.

Smithing Check (Constitution)

D20 + 5 = 19 (14)

Omen: 5, 7

With the lack of a decent Omen, Adam spent the day training with the others, playing with the children, and reading to them.

This was how he would spend Nightval. Forging. Training. Playing with the children. Assisting the Iyr.

“Adam,” Sonarot said. “Should you not also play with Sky?”

“Sky?” Adam said. ‘Who the hell is…’ “Oh! Sky!” Adam had completely forgotten about his mount, the Awakened Wolf. ‘Right. I should do that too.’