Forging

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Tables: Basics    Supplies    Workshop Instructions
Sections: Crafting    Forging    Success/Failure

So, what is forging?

Well, to put it quite simply, it is the ability to create your own weapons.

Now, you're probably wondering...how do I start?

It's really quite simple.  There are a few basics to go over before getting started.

For simplicity, I'll use the workshops in the landing as an example.  To get there, head to the blacksmith, then proceed north.  You'll end up here.

[Public Workshops Supply Stall]
A tin-clad counter occupies the center of the stall, and a large sign hangs from the main post that rises in the stall's center. An almost grim faced half-elf, with broad shoulders and muscled biceps, stands behind the counter, a polished mithril toothpick held in her teeth. You also see a rough bronze halberd-head, a large queue etiquette notice, the clerk Samilla, a large placard, a wooden sign and some forging workshops.
Obvious paths: south.

Now, it's rather important to make sure there's not a bunch of other folks waiting for a workshop, so be sure you read the notice.

It reads:
"Folks are expected to respect the queue gathered here, and wait their turn in line. They should also demonstrate courtesy and ask who is next and/or who is in line, if they are unclear or confused about their position. Those folks who demonstrate a repeated lack of courtesy might find themselves subject to arrest, banned from future use of the workshops, or suffer a more severe punishment."

If you need a few general how-to's, pay attention to the placard.

And of course, you'll end up buying stuff, so read the sign.

Now that we've gone over the basics, what do you actually NEED to do?  Well, first off, buy yourself an apron and put it on (you'll have to take off your armor, so remember to wear it when you leave, aprons provide lousy defense!)  You'll then need to get some materials to work with.  For starters, I'd suggest a few bronze bars and maoral blocks.  These are numbers 4 and 5 on the sign.  Just ORDER 4, BUY it, and stuff it away.  Get at least 3 of each to begin.  Now, once it's your turn in the line (just ask the other folks if you're not sure), head over to a workshop.  Be sure you have 1000 silver, since that's the rental fee for an hour of time.  As you head inside...

As you head toward the workshops, the clerk collects 1000 silvers from you and directs you to a vacant one.

[Rat Workshop]
Uneven gaps between the rough-hewn planks of the walls make it clear that the workshop's walls are intended to only block out the worst of the weather. Crowded with a grinder, polisher and a workbench with a vise, this room is perhaps a third of the building's interior. Besides the exit, a grey iron door pierces the center of the hut's one interior wall. For whatever reason, the bases of the workbench, grinder and polisher have each been carved with images of scampering rats. You also see a large sign, a wooden barrel and a rental hourglass.
Obvious exits: out.

Of course, first thing you want to do is...read the sign.

Want to make sure you have all the time you paid for? 

look hourglass

The hourglass suggests that there are about 59 minutes of rental time remaining.

So, how do you get started? (With crafting that is)

Well, before you jump into making a weapon, you  need to make a hammer to work with.  I'd strongly recommend you make yourself a decent hammer before you even begin to seriously think about making weapons.  There are two parts to forging, crafting and the actual forging.  Each part is unique.  Any actions you perform in the first room, with the grinder, contribute to your  crafting skill.  This skill is used to make handles for weapons, as well as your hammers.  Through the doorway is the actual forge.  That's where you work on your forging skill, but you need not worry about going in there for quite a bit.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You'll notice after you do certain things, you'll see a message stating: Aha, you learned something that time.  I'd recommend keeping track of how many of these you see, and will explain more about them later.

Now, you've already got your apron on, so it's time to start working on that hammer.  If you look around the room, you'll notice a workbench, on it you see...

On the sturdy workbench you see a glaes forging-hammer handle-glyph and a glaes forging-hammer head-glyph.

Now, you have a choice.  You can either start on the hilt or the head of your hammer.  I'm starting with the head in this example.

Get your bar of bronze out and hold it in your LEFT hand.  GAZE at the blade and watch...

The forging-hammer glyph glows brightly, and the outline from the forging-hammer head-glyph slowly etches itself onto the surface of the bronze in your hand.

Your material is marked with a pattern, next you'll need to shape it somehow. Glancing around you see the grinder and the doorway to the forging chamber.

Round Time: 30 sec.

Now, if for some reason the material you're working with isn't large enough to use, you'll see...

The glyph glows brightly, and the outline from the forging-hammer head-glyph begins to etch itself into the surface of the bronze. Before the design is complete the magic reaches an edge of the bar. The outline flashes briefly red, then fades, leaving the bar unscribed.

After you're done waiting, give the grinder a good TURN and you're off and running.

You give the grinding wheel a powerful shove to get it spinning, then move nimbly to take your seat at the wheel.

Roundtime: 105 sec.

Just sit back, and watch your bar transform....

You finish your work and stand up, turning the bronze hammer-head in your hands. You nod, satisfied with the piece you've created.

Alright, you're not likely to see that on your very first attempt, but that's what a normal success looks like.  You'll end up with a rough bronze hammer-head in your right hand, and any leftover from that bar in your left hand.  For now, just toss that hammer head in your backpack, and practice making a hilt.

Works the same as the head, hold the block in your left hand, and gaze at the handle.

The forging-hammer glyph glows brightly, and the outline from the forging-hammer handle-glyph slowly etches itself onto the surface of the maoral in your hand.

Your material is marked with a pattern, next you'll need to shape it somehow. Glancing around you see the grinder and the doorway to the forging chamber.

Roundtime: 30 sec.

TURN that grinder, and wait patiently.

Now, this is more than likely what you'll end up seeing.  This is just a normal failure, and you just have to start over from gazing at the handle, then turning the grinder again.

Things seem to be going okay, but this is more difficult than you expected. After grinding for what seems like an eternity you realize that the scribed pattern has been chewed away, but the remaining maoral doesn't look like anything yet.

You decide the safest thing to do now is to re-scribe the maoral block with the glyph and try again. That's assuming the block is still large enough to hold the pattern.

Now, we'll assume that you ended up with a rough maoral hammer-handle that time, so we can go on and try making a whole hammer.

Grab either that hilt or hammer head and get ready to polish.  For the sake of an example, I'm using the hilt.  Just hold it in your left hand, and LEAN on the polisher.

You give the polishing wheel a shove to set it spinning, then lean against the armrest.

You set your right foot against the already moving rocker pedal and begin pumping to set the wheel spinning more quickly.

Roundtime: 80 sec.

Be sure to wait until you have a finished maoral hammer-handle in your left hand before you go putting it away.  Otherwise, you'll mess it up and have to start over.  You'll know for sure you're done when you see this.

You straighten up from working at the polishing wheel and run your fingers over the smooth surface of your maoral hammer-handle.

Grab that hammer head you made earlier and stick it in your left hand.  Same thing, lean on the polisher and wait til it's finished.

Keep the finished head in your hand and grab that finished hilt from your backpack.  Go ahead and TURN the vise...

You set your hammer-head in the vise and turn the handle until the part is held snuggly in the vise's grip.

Roundtime: 70 sec.

If somehow you manage to get lucky enough to actually put the hammer together...

You finish your work and step back, turning the bronze forging-hammer in your hands. You nod, satisfied with the piece you've created.

You'll more than likely end up with a flimsy or crude bronze forging-hammer.  You may want to keep it as a memento, since you're not gonna get much use out of a piece of junk like that.

Now, a bit more detail into how you actually learn from all this.

Every time you turn the grinder or work on putting the parts together in the vise, you have a chance at gaining a rank.  You need a total of 500 ranks to master crafting, aka the putting together of hammers.  Forging weapons is based on a completely separate set of 500 ranks for a weapon type.  When you see the message, Aha, you learned something that time, you have just gained a rank.  These get harder to come by as you gain more ranks, but for now you'll see them nearly every time.  You can't gain ranks from polishing things on the polisher, only from grinding and putting hammers together.  For this reason, many people, including myself, recommend not actually polishing or putting together hammers, but just grinding away to gain ranks.  It's really your choice.  At the same time, it's also much cheaper to only make handles, since blocks at 100 silver are a whole lot cheaper than bars at 500 silver.

Now that we've pretty much covered crafting, lets move on to forging.

Forging begins in here...

[Rat Forge]
A large, black iron anvil stands in the center of this chamber. Within easy reach to either side of the anvil are a brick forge and a tempering trough. Directly above the trough, suspended by a web of delicate mithril chains, hangs a teardrop-cut crystal easily the size of a giantman. One corner of the room is taken up by a cistern bearing the embossed brass image of a scampering rat, and a leather bucket hangs from a hook on the wall next to it. Heat from the brick forge fills the chamber. You also see a grey iron door.
Obvious exits: none.

But, before you can even think of starting out here, you'll need to purchase a  pattern to work with.  If you refer to the supply sign shown above, there are five categories of weapons.  You can learn two of those five types.  They each require 500 ranks to master, and if you try and learn a third type, you will actually lose ranks from the least used of your other two skills.  The groups are: One Handed Edged (6-11), One Handed Blunts (12-17), Two Handers (18-23), Polearms (24-29),  and Brawling weapons (30-35).  Below them, you'll notice a greatsword (36-37), this is a level 4 glyph, to be explained later.

In each category, you'll notice that there are three weapon types, each consisting of a blade and hilt.  The first two in each set are the level 1 glyphs.  These are what you start out with.  Once you've mastered making those, you can move on to the second set, or level 2, and so forth.  If you're wondering how you'll know when to move on, when you gaze at one of the glyphs and see:

Gazing intently at the glyph, you are able to recognize that it is too simple a design for you to learn anything from during the process of creating this item.

It's time for you to move up to the next level.  The level 1-3 glyphs are available in all towns, level 4 glyphs for one weapon type are available in each town, and level 5 glyphs are not currently available.

If you're ready to start forging, go ahead and buy yourself a level 1 blade glyph for the weapon of your choice.  Personally, I chose OHE, since that's the weapon I use.  You don't need to buy a hilt glyph for the weapon yet, but you can if you really want to.  I'd recommend buying a modwir glyph of whatever type you chose, since you get a good number of charges for the price.  (Tin is more than twice the price for twice the charges, so it's definitely not a wise investment)  Be sure you pick up a bunch of bronze bars, since each weapon you make, or attempt, will require an entire bar.  Grab your stuff, head into the workshop, and through the door.

Pull out that forging hammer you made earlier in the crafting room.  Before you go off and start forging, you need to make sure the room is in order.  LOOK in the trough and see if there is any water in it.  If so, skip this next step.  If you need water, GET the bucket, you'll pour some water in the trough, and then you'll be set.  You don't need to worry about potions or anything else at the moment.  Go ahead and get that bar in your left hand, and GAZE at the blade glyph.  You don't need to be holding it, just be sure to specify where you put it.  Once the image is etched on the bar, go a head and GET the tongs.   It'll take a few minutes of work, and you won't end up with a weapon immediately, but you will make some progress...hopefully.

You glance in the tempering trough and see that it has been filled with water. Reassured that all is ready, you commence with your work.

Roundtime: 180 sec.

After the first round, you'll see something along the lines of...(A successful round)

You finish this round of work on your bronze bar and set the tongs on the anvil, realizing that there's more work to be done before the bronze bar will resemble its intended form.

Or you may see something more like...(A minor failure)

Things seem to be going OK, but this is more difficult than you expected. After hammering for what seems like an eternity you realize that the scribed pattern is gone, but the remaining bronze doesn't look like anything yet.

You decide the safest thing to do now is to re-scribe the bronze bar with the glyph and try again. That's assuming the bar is still large enough to hold the pattern.

You sigh, then return the mithril tongs to the anvil.

This simply means you'll have to GAZE at the glyph again, then GET the tongs, and see where it goes from there.  After a few rounds of doing so, you should end up with a sword part, looking something like this.

You finish your work and straighten up. Turning the bronze sword-blade you nod, satisfied with your work.

You plunge the still glowing sword-blade into the tempering trough.

With a satisfying * HISSSSSSSSSSS * the glowing sword-blade turns the trough's contents to steam! Heat fades quickly from the bronze as the cloud billows up past the hanging crystal and spreads across the ceiling.

Now, you've got a blade done, if you want to actually use it, you'll have to go back in to the crafting room and polish it.  Then, using the handle glyph for the weapon you want to make, follow the same process for making hammer handles.  Once you have both parts finished, use the vise as before, and you're done!

And those folks, are the basics to forging.

Types of Success/Failures

Crafting

Major failure at grinding - end up with a toothpick

Things seem to be going fine, when all of a sudden the maoral block twists in your hand, and with a vindictive *SCREEEECH* the grinding wheel chews into it. In the blink of an eye the maoral block is ground to almost nothing. After a heart-felt groan of frustration you shape the remaining maoral into the only item it is large enough for.

You mutter a few choice words as you get to your feet.

Minor failure at grinding - just have to re-scribe and start over

Things seem to be going okay, but this is more difficult than you expected. After grinding for what seems like an eternity you realize that the scribed pattern has been chewed away, but the remaining maoral doesn't look like anything yet.

You decide the safest thing to do now is to re-scribe the maoral block with the glyph and try again. That's assuming the block is still large enough to hold the pattern.

Normal success at grinding - end up with a normal piece

You finish your work and stand up, turning the maoral hammer-handle in your hands. You nod, satisfied with the piece you've created.

Best success at grinding - end up with a piece one quality higher than you can normally produce

You finish your work and stand up, turning the maoral hammer-handle in your hands. You smile as you realize that this piece is the very best that you can create.

Major failure at using the vise - end up still getting a finished product, just lower quality than normal

Minor failure at using the vise

Things seem to be going OK, but the sword-hilt and sword-blade shouldn't be this difficult to put together. With all the pushing and prying you realize that the vise has loosened up.

You decide the safest thing to do now is to re-set the sword-hilt in the vise, tighten it snuggly, and take another try at it.

Normal success at using the vise

You finish your work and step back, turning the bronze short-sword in your hands. You nod, satisfied with the piece you've created.

Best success at using the vise

Currently unavailable due to the quality bug

Forging

Major failure at forging

The steady ring of hammer on bronze ends abruptly with a wrenchingly sour note and bits of red hot bronze fly in all directions! With a single, faulty blow of your hammer, you've totally shattered your bronze bar. You set the mithril tongs back on the anvil as you shake your head and stare in disbelief.

Minor failure at forging

Things seem to be going OK, but this is more difficult than you expected. After hammering for what seems like an eternity you realize that the scribed pattern is gone, but the remaining bronze doesn't look like anything yet.

You decide the safest thing to do now is to re-scribe the bronze bar with the glyph and try again. That's assuming the bar is still large enough to hold the pattern.

You sigh, then return the mithril tongs to the anvil.

Normal success at forging - No finished product

You finish this round of work on your bronze bar and set the tongs on the anvil, realizing that there's more work to be done before the bronze bar will resemble its intended form.

Normal success at forging - Finished product

You finish your work and straighten up. Turning the bronze sword-blade you nod, satisfied with your work.

You plunge the still glowing sword-blade into the tempering trough.

With a satisfying * HISSSSSSSSSSS * the glowing sword-blade turns the trough's contents to steam! Heat fades quickly from the bronze as the cloud billows up past the hanging crystal and spreads across the ceiling.

Best success at forging

You pause and lift the still glowing bronze sword-blade from the anvil. A moment of close inspection is all you need to tell that you have done your best work this time. You smile as you plunge the hot sword-blade into the tempering trough.

With a satisfying * HISSSSSSSSSSS * the glowing sword-blade turns the trough's contents to steam! Heat fades quickly from the bronze as the cloud billows up past the hanging crystal and spreads across the ceiling.