[SP-F1] Blood and Iron «Earning a Living» COMPLETE

[Tyr 0]

    The events of the first day left Tyr feeling lost and scared. There was no going back to his friends, to his family. Grief threatened to cripple him. After wandering around the town aimlessly for a few weeks, Tyr finally found a quiet dark place in the streets of the starting city where he could curl up and be alone with his thoughts. He would only leave his spot to find scraps to eat, though most days his grief usually outweighed his hunger. One particular day, he passed out in an unfamiliar part of the starting city due to exhaustion and hunger. Thoughts of his family farm came back to him as he slowly drifted of to sleep. He could still smell the fires of his grandfathers forge. Could still feel the shock of hammer on steel as he fixed and repaired horseshoes and tools for his grandpa. That was why he was confused to wake up to the sounds he remembered in his dream.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Tyr

[Tyr 0]

    The sound of hammer and anvil acted as a sirens song to Tyr's ear. He followed the sound to a small forge on the edge of the starting city. It was a relatively nice building in what would generally be described as the slums of the city. Approaching the door, he could smell and feel the fires of the forge burning in their pits. Stepping into the building, Tyr noticed an elderly man, carefully shaping a glowing piece of metal that he held in a set of tongs. Not wanting to bother the man and cause him to have to reheat the metal, he stood and watched the man work. The man was shaping what appeared to be the head of a spear. Tyr had some experience with metalwork from the real world, but some of the movements of the smith were rather confusing to him. He guessed it was the game designers way of making crafting simpler for the average player.

[Tyr 0]

    "Can I help you?" The old mans sudden question snapped him out of his thoughts as he looked up into the old mans eyes.

    "I was just looking around and heard the sounds of the forge. I used to do some metal work where I come from and wanted to check it out." The man gave him kind of a blank look when he talked about where he was from, but that seemed to make sense since the old man was just an NPC. 

    "Well if you're looking to buy anything, sadly I'm backed up on orders, I'll be swinging this hammer till the day they lower me into the ground. If only I had an apprentice to carry on my work when I'm gone."

 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Tyr
Punctuation error

[Tyr 0]

     Tyr was contemplating what the old man had said, when suddenly he was surprised by a ping from his menu. Scrolling through, he found an alert for a new quest <Earning a Living>. Looking back to the old man, Tyr, noticed that the man had continued his work on the spearhead. This forge reminded him so much of home that it almost hurt. He thought it would be nice to have something familiar in this strange new world. Looking back down to the menu, Tyr quickly pressed the accept button which seemed to activate additional dialogue from the man. 

     "So you want to learn the ways of a blacksmith, eh?" the blacksmith asked. "Well it wont be easy, what with me being so busy and all, but I suppose I could take you under my wing."

[Tyr 0]

      "Before I can teach you the ways of blacksmithing, you must first gather ore to use in your craft." The grizzled old man said with a faint smile on his face. "Sadly, the area around the city has been stripped bare of almost all usable ore, and I have none to spare in teaching you. Luckily, I know of a place on the fourth floor with ore in abundance. I used to gather my materials there in my younger days."

       "Where might that be," Tyr questioned, "and didn't you have problems with the higher level creatures in that area?"

      "I wasn't always a frail old man, the beasts there didn't pose an issue to me back in those days. However, I did make a map of a safe route to my gathering spot that was free of almost all dangers. As to where it is, high in the mountains to the west of Snowfrost Town. Among the snow and ice, there is an area of where the stones form a sort of clearing, where the ground and rocks are easier to search. Follow the map and you will find it, no problem."

[Tyr 0]

     "If I may ask," Tyr questioned, "how am I supposed to gather the ore?"

     "Well, I suppose that I could loan you a pickax, and I suppose a woodsman's ax wouldn't hurt either so that you can build a fire to keep warm." the old man replied.

      "That is much appreciated," Tyr said as he scanned the walls of the room looking for the tools the old man mentioned. After finding the proper axes, he hefted them off the wall and put them in his inventory. Thank goodness for this being a game, he thought, otherwise I would have to juggle both axes and his spear on his trek. "Anything else I should know before I set off," he inquired of the smith.

     "Only that you need to remember that it will be cold up there. Without a fire, you could find yourself in trouble."

[Tyr 0]

     With that, Tyr took his leave of the aging blacksmith to set off on his first adventure in this strange new world. The hunger was still there in the back of his mind, suppressed by his excitement, but instead of the grief that had been threatening to overwhelm him for the past few weeks, Tyr was surprised to find that it had instead been replaced by a sense of new found purpose. Taking this into account, he ventured off to find the town teleportation platform. When he saw the teleport list he was truly shocked. Tyr thought he had been wandering around for about a week or so, but in reality, he had been out of it long enough for the other players to reach all the way to floor 13. Luckily he only had to go to the fourth floor, Tyr thought to himself, selecting the floor for travel and taking one last look of the starting city before a blue light completely filled his vision.

[Tyr 0]

     The first thing Tyr noticed when the light had faded was the sheer cold. Opening his eyes, he looked around to see a true winter wonderland. The vast fields of white only marred by the occasional brown and green of trees poking through the snow. Looking closer, he noticed log cabins mostly covered by snow. He only realized this due to smoke rising from what appeared to be a chimney peeking above a house sized mound of snow. Getting his bearings, Tyr quickly set off west, eager to complete the first part of his quest.

[Tyr 0]

Tyr quickly realized that following the old mans map would be no easy task. There was no clear path through the snow, and most of the landmarks were so deformed by ice that he almost missed them. He had to give the old man some credit though. So far, he hadn't encountered any creatures on his path. Occasionally, Tyr would catch a glimpse of fur between the trees or behind the many snowbanks, but nothing had gotten close enough to worry about. On a few rare moments, Tyr thought he ht glimpses of other players, marked by bright colors in this otherwise bleak white landscape. As he looked ahead, he noticed the trees becoming thicker as he neared the mountains that the old man had mentioned.

[Tyr 0]

     Staring quizzically at the map, Tyr noticed that the path he was supposed to follow led through a stand of trees so thick that he didn't know if he could fit through. Looking off to the side, he noticed an area where the trees thinned out considerably. Thinking to bypass the thick grove, Tyr went to the path he had seen. Upon reaching the clearing, he noticed depressions in the snow where it looked like several large deer had bedded down in the cold. Looking up, he also saw that several trees in the area had been felled, by an avalanche or a storm he had no idea. He was so caught up in the details of the clearing that he almost missed the sounds coming from higher up the mountain.

[Tyr 0]

    The sound of cracking trees filled the clearing, snapping Tyr from his thoughts. Looking further up the mountain, all he could see was a stand of trees slowly falling and a massive patch of fur in the open spaces. That was more than enough to get him moving. Moving as fast as he could, Tyr dove into a snowdrift beneath a massive fallen tree, hoping to avoid the attention of whatever was moving his way. His sense of curiosity got the better of him, and he cleared a hole in the snow so that he could see. What he saw almost made him wish that he hadn't.

[Tyr 0]

    Entering the clearing with a final crash of fallen trees came a dire wolf the likes of which he had never seen before. It stood almost two stories tall. With fur so white that you would easily have missed it if not for the bloodstains on its muzzle from a fresh kill. The only other colors on the creature were its massive, yellow marked, glowing ice-blue eyes. As he stared into those eyes he felt only an overwhelming sense of primal awe and fear. So far it hadn't noticed Tyr's presence, so he took a second look at the wolfs status bar. Both the level and the health bar only appeared as "??" (question marks) to him. The only thing he could read was the creatures name. <Mother of Winter>. Reading that, he knew that this creature was far above him. She was a queen and this, her domain. He could only hope to escape for now, but, one day, he would come back to challenge her.

[Tyr 0]

    Snapping out of his trance-like state, Tyr noticed that she was sniffing the ground where he had been investigating the depressions in the snow. He knew now that those were merely the footprints of this titan. He was beginning to get really afraid when she started sniffing closer and closer to where he lay hidden in the snow. As she got closer, she started to growl in a pitch so low, it shook the snow free of the trees surrounding the clearing. If Tyr's bowels had been full before, they certainly wouldn't be now. When her muzzle was only five feet away, he dared to look up into her eyes. It was then that he knew, she knew he was there.

[Tyr 0]

     Suddenly, in the distance, there came the cry of another wolf. The <Mother of Winter> looked off in the direction before turning her gaze back to him. She gave him one last knowing look before turning her head to the sky, letting loose a howl so loud and deep, that it shook free the snow of the nearby mountains, causing a small avalanche higher up. It echoed with a beauty and power that sent chills down Tyr's spine. With a grunt she took off in a lumbering gait away from where he lay hidden, towards the sound of the other wolf.

[Tyr 0]

    Tyr laid there paralyzed by fear for a long time before he was able to drag himself out of the snow. Suddenly very acutely aware of his own mortality, Tyr made his way pack to the path marked by the map. Suddenly navigating through the tightly knit trees didn't seem so bad to him. Stepping through the trees, he quickly became frustrated by this grove, but would always think back to what awaited outside of the path. Little did he know that, although the Mother had let him be, her children were a little more interested as they stalked him silently through the woods.

[Tyr 0]

  ID: 44594

Loot: 7 (No Mat.)

     As he inched his way through the dense woods, Tyr tried looking among the roots of the trees for any ore that may have been brought to the surface. Sadly his search was in vain, as the only things he found were a few clumps of dirt and useless rocks. As he moved deeper, he noticed that the trees were starting to spread out gradually. Before he knew it, the trees parted completely opening up onto a scene that caused his breath to catch in his throat.

[Tyr 0]

ID# 44955 

LD: 4

      Stretched before him has a path in the crease where two of the mountains met. It snaked along in a sinuous line, with protrusions of rock jutting from the ground along the path like the earthen bones of a massive serpent. As he entered the trail, he was taken in by the sheer scale of the formations around him. Set intermittently along the path were large, teardrop shaped clearings, filled with large stones that looked to be veined with a metallic looking substance. Pulling the pick from his inventory, Tyr attempted to extract some of this material. Striking the rock several times, Tyr was surprised when the stone broke apart in a thousand pix-elated particles. 

[Tyr 0]

ID: 44956

LD: 16 (+1 Mat.)

     Confused and frustrated, Tyr lashed out at the next rock, de-rezzing it with the first swing. To his excitement, when the pixels cleared, what was left was a large nougat of metal ore. Letting out a shout of success he scooped up the chunk and put it into his inventory. He was so excited that he barely realized that the sun was going down, the clearing only lit by the last remnants of the days waning light. Sadly his excitement would be short lived. Tyr was shocked back into reality by the sound of growling coming from the stand of trees at the beginning of the path. Inching his way around the corner into the main path, he carefully peeked around to look at the entrance. Standing there was a pair of wolves. Looking exactly like the <Mother of Winter>, he knew that these must be her children, coming back to finish what their mother deemed unimportant.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Tyr

[Tyr 0]

   Looking about with a fear driven urge, Tyr frantically searched for a way out. He had come pretty far down the path and could see a few more side coves like the one he was currently in. Looking closer he could see that the end of the path wasn't that much further. Looking back to the wolves, it appeared that they hadn't noticed him yet. With a deep breath, Tyr set off in a dead sprint toward the other end of the path. Sparing a glance behind him, he saw that the wolves had started towards him in a slow but steady pace, knowing a cornered victim when they saw it. 

[Tyr 0]

    Tyr's look behind him almost cost him dearly as he lost his footing, cutting his hand as he caught himself on the rocks and continued running. It was bleeding, and the wolves could smell it. They let out a howl and picked up their pace, the smell of his blood working them up into a frenzy. At a dead sprint he finally reached the other end of the path, taking a quick look and noting a small pool of water in the middle of an ice ridged clearing, reflecting the soft silver light of the rising moon. Looking behind him one last time, he didn't notice the loose gravel beneath his feet, and slipped. Sliding on the ground, he stretched out his hand to stop himself on the rocks surrounding the pool.