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[IronyOwl]

Ooh, neat.

Ask where the sword came from. If that's secret, ask about one step back from that until we hit something that isn't secret. Then coax that answer into the thing that was supposed to be secret, except they're excited and on a roll now.

[King Zultan]

Ooh, neat.

Ask where the sword came from. If that's secret, ask about one step back from that until we hit something that isn't secret. Then coax that answer into the thing that was supposed to be secret, except they're excited and on a roll now.

+1

[Devastator]

Ask where the sword came from.

"Here!"

It is universally agreed upon that the sword was made here, and you quickly get the official story.

Spar Hessom warned the city properly about the upcoming disaster.  But, naturally, she was not believed.  The next two years of her life involved rounding up allies, convincing people, training, and organizing, both people in the city and outside this city.  Starting with one person at a time.  Her biggest allies were the Concordat, who made everything much easier once themselves were convinced.  They opened doors for her and connected Spar with Arngrim and Carina, two of the Four Swords.  Dorren, being from Mossberg, was a local and was recruited by Spar directly.

As for the weapon, that was not really the work of one person.  Dorren did the scrying work to find out there would be a demon lord, and provided magical assistance necessary for the construction of the weapon.  The weapon was made by four or five experts, not one person.  Someone did the metal forging.  Another did the materials purification and alloying.  Another did the enchantments.  Another did alchemical work.  Another did the necessary finishing.  In the end, producing the weapon took the efforts of at least half-a-dozen craftsmasters.

The battle itself took the work of more than just the four leaders, it took the efforts of thousands, but the Four Swords themselves were absolutely necessary for the battle to be won.


There is some disagreement with the official story.  There are rumors most of the work was done by only one person, with outside assistance being necessary for only small portions of the job.  It is also unknown exactly who did what, which is fishy, but its commonly agreed upon that if one person was famous for making the best sword ever, that person would be so swamped by adventurers they wouldn't have a moment's peace in their lives.  That said..

..There are a lot of warnings about bad or fake swordsmiths in town, who make junk and sell it to fools.  At the same time, there are a number of excellent weaponsmiths, both individuals and organized groups, who would be happy to make high-end weapons for you.  You're given a couple names and businesses that you should check out.

[syvarris]

((Quiet reminder: our priority here is figuring out a counter to Spar.  While we might be interested in getting an awesome sword for Trence, that's a secondary goal; Trence will be fine with any old +5 weapon he can use, and his final build might change or benefit from something we can't think of right now.))

[IronyOwl]

My goal was indeed to track down whoever made the weapon to get a more complete story out of them.

Speaking of which... hrm. If nobody knows who did any of the work, that might indicate the official story is a bit off and whoever (or whatever) they really went to for help was more private, exotic, or adventurer-y than one might expect.

Check out some of these businesses, and ask a lot of pestering questions about The Sword and exotic weapons in general. We need to find out how the sword works to beat it, but we also want to know the limits and methods of making fancy weapons just for the sake of it.

[NJW2000]

Visit some of the local master craftsmen, and use the special material of the Black Blade as a pretext for finding someone able to bring out the special properties of exotic metals.

Stay away from the subject of the Valterre sword. People may have been warned about us.

[Devastator]

(I'm afraid I can't resolve both of those.  You're either asking directly about the sword, or you are not.)

You do find out one thing immediately.  The bit about there being seperate experts is more true than usual.  In most places one person would make advanced items from start to finish, although with assistants and other aid.  Here, in Valterre, they make a good chunk of the best weapons in the world, and this goes back to before the invasion.  They've advanced to the point where there are many specialists who do specific jobs, instead of acting like artisans who do most of the work.

...although, there are still artisans as well.  If you want one of those beartrap weapons, for instance, the person making the beartraps is likely doing a lot of the enchantment work as well.

In general, when you make a high end weapon there are several stages.  Some of these might be combined or unnecessary in a particular project.

1.  Collection of resources.  Not every fancy weapon needs fancy materials, but a lot do and there is a lot that can be done with fancy materials.  Some are just mined or collected conventionally.  Some are gathered by adventurers or gained through monster drops.  Some are cultivated professionally.  And some need special treatment to collect at all.

2.  The materials might need some kind of pre-forming or treatment.  The metals might need alloying or various magical treatments applied to them.  There are also mundane treatments, such as properly seasoning wood.

3.  Then there's the forming, in which case parts are made seperately and, well, formed into their final shapes.  This can be done all at once or by different people at different times.  Sometimes some of the next stage is done during this time as well.

4.  Then there's enchanting, where the spells or special abilities are worked into the final material.  In general, the piece needs to have a sort of magical quenching to make the enchantments permanent or fixed, else they'd wear off after a few months.

5.  Last is finishing.  The magical quenching is applied, and the piece is polished and sharpened.  Additional decoration and personalization is added.  And, in a few cases, there's one last layer of things to be applied.  If a piece needs the blessing of a deity or elemental spirit, it's usually done as the very last step in the process.

[Devastator]

(Also note, for upgrade purposes, this is the only place in the world that will have +5 equipment available without any quests.)

[King Zultan]

Since we're in the area why don't we see what the prices for the more interesting +5 equipment are.

[NJW2000]

Since we're in the area why don't we see what the prices for the more interesting +5 equipment are.

+1

We’re flush with cash, it’s smart to have options.

Also, could we try to learn more about the peridot amulet or the counter-resonator?

[Devastator]

Peridot amulet

It grants water breathing.  Huh.

Counter-resonator

You could hang onto it or sell it for about 1.5 upgrades.

[+5 stuff!]

To be continued

[Devastator]

Spoiler: Trence (click to show/hide)

Trence Colunstin, Venom Dragon Champion.

(+4) Dwarven Masterwork Steel Spear
Silversteel Cuirass w Nature Emblem. (+4)  Normal defense, Slight magic defense.
Haste Boots
Ring of Elemental Armour

Resistances:
F+/C+/W+/D+/L+/E+
N+/P++++
V-
Immune to instant death

8 armour (6 armour +2 Dragon Scales), 3 magic damage resistance (1 armour + 2 Dragon Scales)

Can use swords, large swords, spears, polearms.
Can wear medium armour.

Options:

Weapons:
Valterre-pattern Titanite Greatsword. [+5]
Narrow-bladed Adamant-Alloy Spear [+5]

"Sunbreaker", custom heavy longsword.  [+5], grants two ranks of resistance to lightning, 50% lightning-attuned.
Dwarven Dark Metal Longaxe. [+5], grants +1 defense.  Double attack skill will be replaced by Power Slash, ++++ (tiring).  50% Earth Attuned.

Armour:
(Most armour can have emblems attached to it for additional elemental resistance.)

Dwarven Masterwork Triple Chainmail.  [+5], +1 defense, no magic resistance.
Brazen Silversteel Half Plate. [+5], minor magic resistance.
Gleaming Magma-forged Red Steel scale armour.  [+5], -1 defense, moderate magic resistance, immunity to fire. (+++)

Spoiler: Willis (click to show/hide)

Willis Naver, Blaster Mage.

Silverwood Bow (+3)
Silversteel Cuirass w Nature Emblem (+4)  Normal defense, Slight magic defense.
Web Shooters
Ring of Elemental Armour

Resistances:
F+/C+/W+/D+/L+/E++
N+/P
V

7 armour (6 armour + 1 Web Shooters), 1 magic damage resistance (1 armour)

Can use swords, bows, and crossbows.
Can wear medium armour.

Weapons:
Valterre-pattern Titanite Longsword. [+5].
Mage-quenched Lorebreaker Blade. [+4], grants minor magic resistance.
"Starlight", custom standard longsword. [+5], grants one rank of resistance to lightning, 50% lightning attuned.

Alchemized Pine Ash Recurved Longbow. [+5]. 75% fire-attuned.  Large bonus fire damage.
Compound Shortbow of Haste.  [+4].  Improves Rapid Fire to Haste Shot.  Hitgroup ++, not tiring.

Armour:
Dwarven Masterwork Triple Chainmail.  [+5], +1 defense, no magic resistance.
Brazen Silversteel Half Plate. [+5], minor magic resistance.
Gleaming Magma-forged Red Steel scale armour.  [+5], -1 defense, moderate magic resistance, immunity to fire. (+++)

[syvarris]

Can we have the cost of training Willis in staves?  I think giving him a +5 staff would be for the best in the end; we're ultimately building to fight the four swords, and we're probably going to down a lot of mana potions in that fight.  We might want to use a +4 staff first before committing to that, or try using a +4 crossbow for awhile, because a crossbow might be better for general adventuring (Willis doesn't make many mundane attacks).

Trence... I dunno what we're planning.  The sword that nerfs double slash is a bad idea, Trence has been building towards synergistic buffs and multiattacks.  The rest seems fine but not huge.  The -1 defense armor is relatively good for him, since he has natural armor and a natural (void) magic vulnerability.  Having a single high element resistance on anyone is also just good in general.

Armor is generally a safe bet.  Especially for Alice, I think she's still using +3 armor despite being a tank build.  The only reason not to buy armor immediately is because we're not sure exactly what Valterre does, and it might help to have purpose-built for it... or it might not, and our strategy may revolve around mitigating Valterre with summons or negation enchantments or something.

The haste shortbow interests me, not because that's at all a good choice for Willis, but because we might be able to transfer its power onto a Trence sword.  Being able to stack that with proper haste for double counter attack or double double slash or something would be amazing.  Or maybe it'd do precisely nothing on a sword.

Edit: an accessory to raise mana capacity would also be a great thing to buy.  Allowing Willis to cast twice per combat/potion would be great value.

[NJW2000]

Hmm… upgrading Trence’s weapon to +5 might be the most crucial thing, unless we want to make him a legendary weapon, which we don’t really have the materials for.

Would be useful to find out if the mana burn is a property of the Band metal, an enchantment on the black blade, or a combination.

Question: what is the difference between the great sword and the spear?

[Devastator]

Training Willis in staves

Just one upgrade, if all you want to do is to allow him to use them.  Two upgrades if you want to include a few combat skills.  Three upgrades if you want him to use any magical skills that might be added to them, as opposed to simply an innate magic boost.

Difference between greatsword and spear.

For Trence?  It's just cosmetic.

Finally, if you want something specific you can probably get a quest to do it.

Oh, one more question.  Do you ask specifically about the sword Valterre, or do you avoid talking about the sword while trying to find out about it?

-edit-  Also note, I'm editing in the other Elemental ring to go on Willis.

Double Double Slash

That exact enchantment would likely give Trence a hitgroup attack, not a boost to Double Slash!  Willis, already having a hitgroup attack, improves upon it.  The obvious combo would be with one of his weird dragon-granted hitgroups, but like all dragon magic, nobody on the planet knows how it combos until you test it.