(with my fren Rehtul Orlouge)

John muttered to himself. The ‘charm’ sitting on his table, in two pieces, was a family heirloom of some import to a nobleman living in Corone. John had forgotten his name already. To be honest, he hadn’t really been listening to the man’s name. He wasn’t as interesting as his armor, which sat in three pieces on the table. It was an ancient, decorative breastplate, which was imbued with “powerful protective magics” which enabled him to survive quite a large rockslide. The inside of the breastplate had faint markings, indicating both the age of the thing and a partial nature of the magic involved in its creation. He ran a finger over one of the few remaining distinct characters. Though he did not recognize it, he felt confident that his book held the knowledge required to make the repairs.

He stood, leaving the fragmented plate behind. The windows were open in his workshop, and afternoon was fading to evening. He opened his closet, and withdrew a large tome, covered with cloth. He removed the cloth, and ran his hand on the cover. ‘The Book’, as he called it, had its title worn away long ago. John had rebound the cover, now blank. Laying it down, he opened the book, looking for symbols similar to some of the ones on the interior of the armor. Like most magical artifacts from more than a century ago, there weren’t many books which explained what spells were involved in their creation, much less how to repair them when the enchantments went awry. Thankfully, the volume in front of him was kind of an encyclopedic manual for forging and crafting, magical and otherwise. A few of his techniques he used in his forging had been taken from the volume, and had helped immensely in improving his craft.

“Let’s see,” John said, flipping a page to where he needed. “A spell to increase resistance to injury…” He skimmed the section. Recognizing some of the symbols, he began to read more carefully.

“Repair of spells…residual energies....physical components...Tularan Greenwood?” John paused and read over the list of components again. Everything he had, except this wood.

But everything there was destroyed in the demon invasion…

Wasn’t it?

Well he wouldn’t be getting any of it down at the general store in Radasanth, that was for sure. And if there was any in Tular, it would be hard to get, especially without some help.

Maybe I should hire a mercenary…..

Someone would have to watch his back as he found this, if he could find it at all.