After returning to the surface, the pair found the top of the stairs guarded by a different group of soldiers than had been on guard before. After traveling to the end of the long hall back towards the fortification entrance, they were stopped by a scribe.
This scribe was much more suitably dressed for the task than the last, wearing a light outfit suitable for the warm sumr weather of Geltheas. "Hold it, are you two," the scribe paused a mont to look at his clipboard, "Jabrax the Red and Mud?"
Jabrax responded with little interest. "We are, so what?"
"So what?" The rather doughy looking scribe adjusted his round spectacles. "You've been down there for fourteen hours!"
"Is that illegal?"Jabrax crossed her arms and smirked, amused by the scribes discomposure.
"Um, well no, but we assud you died when you never ca back." Straightening up slightly, the unimpressive man tried to switch to a lecturing tone. "You really should take breaks every few hours to eat and relax, especially in tis like this."
Jabrax leaned forward, face looming close over the slightly shorter man. "I'm not going to take advice on Delving from a pathetic little worm like you." Shoving him to the side, the demon stomped forward as the man stood paralyzed in shock.
"Was antagonizing that city employee necessary?" asked Mud.
Jabrax giggled to herself. "Absolutely not, I did it for fun! The best part of being a Delver as a cover is how scared civilians are of us. I bet that clipboard of his had my tier written. Did you see his reaction when I insulted him? He practically shit himself." Jabrax looked off into the sky, smiling faintly.
Eyes squinting in thought for a mont, Jabrax suddenly turned towards Mud. "We have a lot of business to take care of, right? So, lets split up! I'll deal with the subjugation rewards, and you can go do whatever it was you wanted." Clapping her hands together, she went on without waiting for confirmation. "Great then, we'll et up here in five hours."
Before she could flee, the golems Paracusia reached her. "We will et here in two hours. Do not cause any problems for ."
"Fine, fine." Jabrax stord off, but she wasn't too disappointed. Two hours was plenty of ti to cause countless woes for mortals in a city this large. She just had to be efficient, just like her contractor.
Paying no mind to the demon it just let loose on the unsuspecting city, Mud slithered its way towards the blacksmith's shop.
The dwarven smith Ingeit pounded on a red hot glowing plate of tal, slowly fashioning it into a cooking pan. Although it was a disservice to his craft to lose focus, his mind couldn't help but return to the recent custom order. Imdiately after the strange child had placed it, Ingeit rushed to begin work.
While the design itself was not overly complicated, it was unique enough to light a fire in the smith's heart. An unorthodox layout, with features that seed to serve no practical purpose. There must be so aspect of the lad's abilities that could make use of them, although Ingeit couldn't figure out what they might be.
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As he continued to shape the pan, the distinctive chiming of the entrance bell rang out. Could this be the kid? So excited was he to show off his creation to the custor, he nearly abandoned his current project. However, decades of training won out over his excitent, and the partially ford cooking pan was properly removed and cooled. That didn't stop him from yelling out from his craft room, though. "Just a mont, I'll be out in a jiffy."
Rounding the corner to the shop, the dwarf's face fell slightly. It was just so civilian custors.
Quickly plastering on his business smile, he proceeded to sell a set of thoroughly ordinary pans and sharpen a knife. A normal sale.
Returning sowhat disappointedly to his forge, Ingeit once again heard the chi of the door. Rushing back to the shop, he was not disappointed this ti. "Mud! You're a bit early, but I've already finished your weapon." As before, the child was rapidly checking every blind spot in the shop. Did this kid have enemies that would even attack him in a store, or was he just paranoid? Unable to fight off the urge to boast, Ingeit continued. "I told you I would get it done in a day, and I do believe I've outdone myself with this piece."
Ingeit reached below the counter with his tal arm and hefted up a heap of chains, spikes, and blades, slamming the mass on the countertop.
In overall shape, the mass resembled a large octopus. The central structure was a large hollow sphere of tal as large as a man's head. Across the surface of the sphere were dozens of large holes, large enough to fit an arm through. Connecting to the bottom of the sphere hung eight thick chains, each as long as a man's arm. Half of the chains featured spikes along their length, and four of them ended with a sharp dagger-like blade. Two others instead ended in a curved at hook, and the final two ending in heavy lumps of tal the size of a fist.
While it was unclear how exactly this tool would be used, Ingeit was confident in his cratsmanship. Even just swinging the chains around by holding the ball would make for a deadly weapon, but the exacting nature of the design made the dwarf feel like there was much more to it than that.
Stopping his erratic head movents for the first ti since entering the shop, Mud leaned over to carefully examine the weapon before him. After a few monts, the artificial voice appeared in Ingeit's mind.
"There are a few divergences from the provided plan, but I assu those to be improvents due to your expertise. This result is acceptable."
"Just acceptable!" Ingeit tapped one tal finger against the sphere, causing a hollow ringing. "This here is top quality craftsmanship, and the tal has been imbued with the Ideal of Durability. Nothing short of a tier five could damage this. Abyss, you probably won't even need to sharpen the knives unless you try to cut through tal."
"Yes, that is acceptable."
Ingeit rubbed the bridge of his nose his fleshy hand. Did he not realize how amazing his work is, or was the kid just bad at communicating? At least he seed to like the work, which is more than could be said for so bratty Delvers Ingeit had done business with in the past. So even had the gall to make up complaints to try to get a discount. Ingeit liked to refuse sales to people like that, claiming it would besmirch his honor to sell sub-standard goods for any price. The looks on their faces was worth the lost sale.
While the dwarf was lost in thought, Mud reached onto the counter and grabbed the weapon. Ingeit looked over, observing how the youth would actually hold this strange apparatus. Unfortunately, the child chose to pull the entire contraption inside of his cloak, making it impossible to make out what he was doing with it. A mont later, the boys entire form seed to shift and bulge, as though he was moving things around below his cloak and even under his mask.
He could just ask how it was used, but that was boring. Instead, Ingeit would try one other thod first. "I have so target dummies you can try the weapon out on, to make sure there are no adjustnts I need to make. Want to try?"
"That is acceptable."
Excited to finally find out what the mysterious device he had crafted even was, Ingeit led Mud to the small field behind his shop, stopping only a mont to put up the rarely used "closed" sign.
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