Midnight Conversation

I have been spending much of me time lately with Forgrim trying to gain some information from him about his latest ideas fer weaponsmithing. It took a long time tae get him tae talk tae me about his oh so jealously guarded secrets of forging.

Many a night I had heard him hammering away in his private forge, working upon ideas tae improve mithril. On this night as I went tae speak with him, I passed Arch Magi Gent leaving Forgrim's shop fer the night. At the time it struck me as odd tae see the elderly mage in the shop at all, but mages have been known tae visit his shop before so I did nae think much of it until later.

Upon seeing me Forgrim waved me into his back room where he has his private forge, away from the prying eyes of his assistants and customers alike. He was just sitting down to a hurried meal set atop his anvil and motioned for me tae sit across from him, filling a mug with a beer from his private keg and handing it tae me.

I looked around the back room hoping tae catch some signs of what he had been working on but tae no avail. I turned me gaze back on Forgrim and found him smiling at me.

"You'll never find anything that easily, 'Troll. I'm not *that* old yet." he said as he laughed between bites.

Setting his mithril plate down, he reached into a small chest beside the anvil and pulled out a small sack and spilled the contents upon the anvil. Magical runes, the type I had seen many a mage create, scattered about, some falling to the floor.

"I can tell from your look that you know what they are and are probably curious why I would have these." He said, taking his time to get to the point.

"The good mage Gent and I have been talking lately about somehow working together to create something new that neither of us could do alone. Long and hard have we worked and finally, just last week, we stumbled on something ..."

"... The good mage Gent and I have been talking lately about somehow working together to create something new that neither of us could do alone. Long and hard have we worked and finally, just last week, we stumbled on something." With that he rose and motioned for me to follow him into his storage room, a place I had yet tae be invited intae before. the room was small and led on intae an even further room tae the East, but his business seemed tae be in here. He led me tae four sand filled buckets set down in the corner. Flame leaped up from one, while another was covered in frost. Another was filled as if with the webbing of several hundred spiders and the fourth bubbled and smoked, the sides of the bucket fairly bulging with whatever it contained.

I marveled at what I saw as Forgrim spoke, "Here you see the first failed attempts at mixing the mage runes with mithril. You know my fascination with the stuff but this was the best we could do. It mixed but was unharnessable."

He took up a pair of tongs and reached into the midst of the flame and pulled forth a rune shaped object that burned with a near white flame. I was forced tae cover me eyes until he again placed it intae the bucket. I blinked me eyes, trying tae force away the white spots now dancing before me eyes.

"I have to bring in a new bucket about once a week to contain it. Otherwise it would probably burn itself right through the floor and into the earth. As it is, it fuses the sand in the buckets into glass and then begins to bore even through that. Gent and I worked many hours on this and finally came up with something that seems to work."

With that he reached underneath his blackened forging apron and pulled out a necklace of pure mithril that held a small chunk of some black rock. The light in the back room seemed to dim as he did. It was strange in the way it seemed to pull me in as it was so obviously pulling in the light.

I reached out to hold the stone but Forgrim pulled it back, an immense smile creasing his face as he withheld it from me. "Oh no you don't! No one gets to hold this ... Watch ..."

He moved closer to an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling and held the stone beside the flame. I watched in wonder as the flame bent towards the stone, as if moving before some unseen wind. Before long the flame was extinguished, literally put out as it was sucked into the stone.

Forgrim grinned maniacally at me and pushed the stone back below his jerkin before relighting the lamp.

"What ... What IS that?" I asked, stunned by what I had seen. "Where did you find such a thing?"

"I call it adamantite and it is the key to all Gent and I have been working for."

He must have seen the question in my eyes because before I could even get a word out he replied;

"... and don't you start askin' me where to get the stuff. Only I know where and how to get it and that's the way it's going to stay if I have any say about it."

Feeling somewhat dissapointed and frustrated with his response I asked, "Well, why, in the name of Kali, did ye bother tae show me any of this if yer nae going tae let anyone else know how tae do it?"

Forgrim laughed at my frustration and said, "Patience you old elf. Follow me into the back and I will show you ..."

... Feeling somewhat disappointed and frustrated with his response I asked, "Well, why, in the name of Kali, did ye bother tae show me any of this if yer nae going tae let anyone else know how tae do it?"

Forgrim laughed at my frustration and said, "Patience you old elf. Follow me into the back and I will show you ..."

Forgrim led me intae an even further back room. As we passed through the archway, I saw it glow with a faint blue light as though Forgrim had put some wards upon the door tae keep the unwanted out.

The room was very darkly lit in spite of several flaming oil lamps set on the floor, their flames bent towards a small table in the center of the room. Set on the table was a large leaden box. Forgrim opened the small chest and turned it towards me so I could see within.

"Go on, take one. THESE you can hold." he said laughing all the while.

I reached within and pulled forth what looked to be mithril but laced within the metal were several thin, black, swirling lines. Holding it before me I placed the molded piece of metal next to the flame of one of the burning lamps. The flame did bend slightly towards the metal, but nothing like what I had seen in the storage room.

"You found a way tae mix it with mithril?" I asked with a bit of uncertainly.

"Good eye, Troll. That's exactly what I have done. Now, look at this ..", he said as he reached within a metal cabinet against the wall. He appeared to open something within the cabinet and a faint light shone forth. He turned towards me and in his hands were four glowing pieces of metal, each with a rune mounted into it.

"I call them weapon glyphs. The power of the adamantite seems to override that of the rune when mixed with mithril. It harnesses it. Listen, can you hear it?"

I looked at Forgrim oddly but listened intently as the room fell completely silent. The 'weapon glyphs' in his hands fairly hummed with the energies coursing through them.

"Now fer the real question ... Do they do what I think they are going tae do?"

Forgrim's smile spread wider, "Aye, Troll', they do ..."

With a flourish of movement, the old weaponsmith pulled the sword he had belted to his waist from its sheath. Flames sprang from blade as if it had caught fire, yet the mithril remained untarnished.

"So far I have only found a way to make the fire, ice, web and snake runes work in the glyphs, but give me time ..." he smiled as he spoke "... give me time and only Ica knows what I will make."

I left his forge that night in stunned silence. Enchanted mithril ... it was a huge step fer the weaponsmiths of the land, but was the land ready fer it? Only Kali knows ... And what of this new metal, this adamantite. Something tells me this is not the last I have heard of it.