Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Artificer

When Fluxwell learned about Nay’s magical inventory, he demanded that she store and carry everything not bolted down in his workshop.

“Flux,” Nay said. “Just because it’s magical doesn’t mean it’s bottomless. I’m already carrying a bunch of stuff so I only have so much room left.” She tapped an old anvil that must have weighed a ton. “I don’t think it’s prudent to fill up that space with something like an anvil.”

“But I need it!” Fluxwell said. He was a maugrim possessed, gathering all sorts of artificer detritus for her to store away. “If you’re gonna take a maugrim away from his forge you might as well make him a gelding!”

“Were all maugrims always this dramatic?”

“My people are a passionate people! Our hearts pump with molten fire! The blood of the mountain runs through our veins!”

“I can see that. But let’s be sensible here. We’re going to be traveling for a bit. When we return, or wherever you decide to finally set up your next workshop, you can have your anvil then. My inventory doesn’t have the space to carry around a mobile forge.”

“Well, you should work on that, girlie. Else what good are you?”

“You self-centered, old as shit, Methuselah-bearded fuc –

Lain intervened and grabbed Nay by the arm. “How about you pick the items you’ll be using the most on our journey and put them on this table?

Fluxwell blinked and looked at all his workshop clutter. “What I’ll be using the most, eh? Well, let me think.”

As he focused on his tools and equipment and parts, Lain escorted Nay out of the workshop. “Figured you could stand to get away from him for a bit.”

“I’m beginning to rethink bringing him along with us. Remind me why we can’t just leave him here?”

“He’s the last of his kind and he’ll be safer around others.”

Nay rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes, the last living maugrim. How could I forget?”

“Do I sense sarcasm in your tone?” Lain said.

“Maybe a little.”

“Should we have to venture into The Black Ice Wastes, we can leave him with the Twelve Tribes. It will be good for him to be around a large group of people. Until then, he can work on his social graces with us.”

“Cranky bastard.”

“Artficer,” Lain said, correcting her. “He’s a cranky artificer. He’ll be useful to have around. Maybe he’ll even make you something useful.”

“I think he’s the one who built that reaver,” Nay said. “It had loot on it. Loot that he designed. A nifty helm that transforms into an entire suit of armor.”

“See? Usually one who has to commission a gnome tinkerer for such a wonder. That’s if you have the kind of coin to pay for such magical inventions. For now, you should find a way to ignore his more…unique personality quirks.”

“I’ll try.”

#

Lain brought Nay to a chamber that served as a kitchen. “I wanted to show you something you might find interesting.”

There was a large maugrim oven made out of iron with pipes that led into holes in the rock. Probably a ventilation system leading to a larger chamber where the smoke could dissipate. There was a lot of cast iron and stone cookware and utensils covered in dust.

Nay wiped the dust from a pan. “These are good pans. The craftsmanship is pretty stellar.”

“The maugrim were known for their artisanship with stone and ore,” Lain said. “As I’m sure Fluxwell will remind us.”

“I’m also tempted to take some of this stuff for the kitchen in the Lodge,” Nay said. “Maybe if there’s room left over after Flux’s figured out what he wants me to store.”

“Probably best to stop on the way back. You two can strip the place down. You for cookware. Him for…artficerware?”

“That sounds right.”

Lain went over to a rack where there were several leather-bound books. “Anyways, I saw these.”

Nay came over to inspect them. She picked one up and read the runes on the cover.

Maugrim Cousine

From Bangers & Smash to Mountain Goat Soup

Essential Recipes

By Krautwerth Spoonchop, Paleforge Epicurist & Spineshard Celebrity Chef

“Krautwerth Spoonchop?” Nay said. “Sounds like a fellow who knows his way around a kitchen. This is a good find!”

“I knew you’d be interested,” Lain said. “Maybe you can find something useful. And maybe Flux will change his tune if you ever cooked him an authentic maugrim meal.”

“Imagine his surprise.” Nay smiled and put all the cookbooks in her inventory.

#

They left Cairn Bronwyn and continued their trek to the far north, or the True North as Tuk-Tuk referred to it. Nay had provided the three fauglirs with a special stew she made for them that granted them all of the Buffs that would strengthen the animals for travelling.

Lain and Tuk-Tuk had shifted to their mobile forms. And Fluxwell kept pace on his mechanical exo-skeleton, the metal, stone and vigor-stone powered contraption affixed to his legs.

“My Mechano Legs,” Fluxwell said. “They’ll assist me until I can walk on my own again. But Nether Hells, I might just keep them on during battle.”

When he had first stepped out of the mountain, he stood there as the cold wind ran through his beard and blew on his face. He inhaled, sighing. He squinted up at the pale sunlight filtering through the gray clouds. “I reckon it’s time to see how much the world has changed.” Then he grabbed his rocket mace dangling from his belt and activated it by pressing his thumb against the vigor stone. The pegged ball on the end detached from the handle. It was connected by a chain. Steam and exhaust blew out of the pegged ports on one side of the ball and it began to swing around his head. “But first things first, lead me to the Nether Cunt so I can split his skull!”

Quincy informed everyone they were traveling to a destination called The Tomb of Salvadoon. That’s also how it was labeled on Martygan’s map. It was marked as the Njorbane’s territory.

“Tell me of this Njorbane,” Tuk-Tuk said. He had shifted from his polar bear form and was walking next to the fauglir mounts, who were currently moving at a leisurely pace through the snow.

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“Wish I could,” Quincy said. “I’d like to know about it as much as you. The most I know is that a few years back, an adventuring party came passing through Lucerna’s End. A group of slayers who said they were hunting the Njorbane.”

“Were they high rank?” Nay said.

“If memory serves me right, they had a Bronze,” Quincy said. “But the rest were Irons who were looking to make a name for themselves. That’s often how it goes. Impatient adventurers looking to take down a high-tiered creature they have no business hunting. There have been rare cases where adventurers become known because they pulled such a stunt and succeeded. But mostly it’s trading a life for a chance at fame and glory. Stupid, if you ask me.”

“So what happened to them?” Nom said.

“Don’t know,” Quincy said. “That was the last I ever saw of them. But I’ll say this. Martygan was planning to look for the Njorbane for its Delicacy. He had reason to believe that it was still alive. Which probably means that group of adventurers are either dead or they were smart and returned back to the Peninsula.”

“So does that make us dumb since we’re setting out for this thing?” Nay said.

“Maybe if it was just you and Nom setting out for it,” Quincy said. “But between me, Ilyawraith and Lain, this group is powerful and has a lot of experience.”

Fluxwell snorted. “Don’t worry, lass. You forget that I’m here. I’ll show you how a proper monster hunt is done.”

“What rank are you, Flux?” Nay said.

“I’m a Bronze-ranked artificer,” Fluxwell said. “But in combat, swinging my mace, crushing skulls, you’ll think I’m a Gold.”

Nay and Lay exchanged a look and smiled.

“To be honest, Flux,” Nay said, “I’ll be surprised if the wind doesn’t blow you away like dust.”

“It’ll take more than the wind to send me to Voreheim,” Fluxwell said. “Believe me, it’s tried.”

Nay rolled her eyes.

“But still,” Quincy said, “I want all of you to understand this is a Tier 3 monster. All may not be as it seems.”

“How many days travel?” Nom said.

“We’ll be there tomorrow,” Ilyawraith said. “Weather permitting.”

“Are you going to scout before we go in blind?” Nom said.

“Of course,” Ilyawraith said. “I will gather as much information as possible. I’m just as curious as everyone else about the nature of this creature.”

#

When it was time to set up camp, Nay’s party was dismayed to discover that they were out in the middle of flatlands covered in several feet of snow. It came up to the chests of the fauglir. The sheer amount of snow slowed their progress. But to make matters worse, there was no cover from the relentless wind that pushed against them, slowing them even more.

There were no trees, no hills, no rocks. No valleys, no mountains. Nothing to give them shelter for their camp. And the wind was so bad it would be nigh impossible to start a fire.

“I suppose we dig a spot in the snow,” Quincy said over Ilyawraith’s party line.

They communicated over her Whispering Wind connection, otherwise they would have to yell over the wind to hear each other.

“No, lad,” Fluxwell said. “You all forget you have ‘ol Fluxwell with you. I’ve got just the thing for the situation.”

Everyone looked at him with curiosity.

He took off his pack and knelt in the snow. Kneeling like that, the snow came up to his shoulders.

“Where are ye, you bastard,” Fluxwell said, sorting through his stuff. “Ah! There you are!”

He pulled out a metal drill about the size of a fat icicle. To Nay, it looked like a mini-traffic cone.

Fluxwell flipped it over, and the bottom was inset with vigor stones. Nay saw vigama fluttering around inside. The artificer pressed the stones in a certain pattern. And the drill started to hum and shake in his hand.

“Hold onto your asses!” Fluxwell said. “Things are about to get shaky!”

He set the drill tip down into the snow and backed away.

The device spun, giving off steam. The tip drilled through the snow and into the earth, disappearing into the ground. Snow and steam shot out of the hole it formed.

Nay looked around at everyone. They seemed to share her confusion. And expectation. Then the ground started to tremble beneath them. Was this device jumpstarting an earthquake?

The fauglirs started barking as the ground below their feet violently shuddered. Everyone fell as the ground bucked. Waves of snow and earth started to form and it rolled out towards the south, as if the device was pushing the earth in that direction.

“Almost done now!” Fluxwell said.

This continued for many more moments and then the quake suddenly stopped. The earth exhaled frost out of the hole in the ground. Nay crept over to it and saw metallic stairs leading into the earth.

“What is this?” she said.

“Fluxwell’s Portable Underground Shelter!” the artificer said. His head popped out of the snow and he pushed forward, tumbling into the hole. He righted himself and then disappeared down the stairs.

“I’ve gotta see this for myself!” Nom said. The tentacle slithered after the maugrim.

Nay and the others looked at each and then followed. The metal stairs led into a circular chamber made of both stone and metal. She could see vigama flying and zooming inside the surface of the material.

There was a hearth, benches made of stone and bed alcoves carved into the earth. It was a little maugrim dwelling underneath the surface above them.

Fluxwell lit some kindling with what looked like a metal lighter before it disappeared into his pockets. He set the kindling in the hearth and a fire crackled to life.

“Everyone get comfortable!” Fluxwell said. “We should get a meal going! Nom, I think it’s also time we have some ale! I’ve been craving that R’yleh Radler!”

The fauglir were near Tuk-Tuk. They were already making themselves comfortable, settling on the floor and cuddling. The tribesman looked around in wonder. “My chieftain is going to want to meet this maugrim!”

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