Master of the Crafts [Q]

'How Exciting!''

Beatle's mouth moved wordlessly as he expressed his enthusiasm. He was bothered by the lack of voice, but besides that, he couldn't help but feel so elated by it all.

'My first quest! It's like I'm one of those adventurers from old times!.... Maybe it's a good thing they can't hear me, I don't really sound like I know what i'm doing... oh yeah, I DON'T know what i'm doing.'

Beatle paced around the door to the Craftsman's house, trying to plan out how he was going to convey his desire to learn how to make an instrument. Given his current lack of voice, his music and muse skills didn't seem like they'd work without an instrument. 'Perhaps grab a stick and pretend to play said instrument? Could an NPC really understand such gestures? Perhaps he could have another Player help him describe it? That would require another player to be here... come to think of it, didn't the quest list a player requirement of 2? How am i supposed to find another player when I have nobody on my friends list? Ugh, I need a better headset.'

Beatle continued pacing, full of energy and excited to start, but unsure how.

@Sera Phim

 

As she often did when she was alone, Sera walked holding in her hand the strange glowing prism that was created whenever she cast the first of her two spells. She was at a decent loss about it - she had thought that as she increased the mastery level of her Astramancy, that more spells would become unlocked for her - that is how nearly every other player had described how their schools of magic worked. Yet, here she was, classified as "Trained" in her school of magic, and yet stil only two spells appeared on her list - the ability to teleport a short distance (though she had noticed that the distance could be a little longer now than it had been when she first started), and the creation of the strange prism which glowed slowly, starting from red and transitioning all the way to violet, and then back again. The only thing Sera had really determined so far about it was that the colors on the ends of the spectrum did not seem to glow as long as the colors in the middle, though why that might be the case she wasn't sure.

She closed her hand, and the prism vanished. She could work more on figuring that out later. By a miraculous stroke of luck, she had stumbled upon a quest to learn from a Master Craftsman. Such a thing fit perfectly into the current lists of projects she was to be working on, as given to her by her... sponsor. That's what she'd call the woman around other people, as it was her official role. But of course, few people are only ever what they officially are.

As Sera approached the house where the Craftsman lived, she paused, notification a boy pacing around the door. The quest had said that more than one person would be participating in it. She supposed that he must be the other person. With that, she put on a friendly smile and began walking toward him, rather than the house. "Hello!" She said with a wave. "Are you here to learn from the Craftsman too?" She asked. "My name's Sera. Sera Phim, nice to meet you!" She extended her hand toward the boy for a handshake.

(Hey, so just as a tip - it's hard to read when the entire post is colored, so generally, it's better just to color dialogue so that it stands out :) )

 

Bealte looked up at the stranger and smiled, elated that he didn't even have to move in order to find what he was looking for.

"..."

Beatle shook the hand and his mouth moved, but again, nothing was said. He resigned himself to waving his hello and pointing at the name floating above his head for reference to his name. Afterwards, he pointed at the door and looked to Sera, moving his finger from her, to himself, to the door again, and back. All the while, his eyebrows were raised in a questioning manner. Then, without waiting for a response, he began walking over to the door, excited to get the quest started.

"...?"

Beatle hesitated at the door, then walked off to one side in search of something. Not long after, he returned with a stick, roughly the size of his forearm in length and no more than an inch thick. With the stick in hand, he proceeded to open the door and motion Sera inside.

(Thanks for that, it really does make it look better!)

 

Sera tilted her head in confusion over the fact that the boy was very clearly moving his lips, yet no words were coming out of his mouth. Was he mute? She wondered. She looked at his name, though, and opened up her menu, opening the message application. She tapped out a message and sent it to him.

A flashing notification would pop up in the corner of his vision that he had received a message, and if he opened it, he would read "Did you know you could send messages like this? Just hit the reply button, and you'll be able to communicate with other players. Not NPCs, though, to my knowledge. I can relay anything you need to say to the Craftsman, though." She smiled at the boy when she was pretty sure that he had finished reading her message. "Well, does that sound good to you?" she asked.

When the boy opened the door for her, she laughed gently. "Thank you very much," she said. It was refreshing - most of the guys she'd met on here so far weren't the most polite. Not that many of them had said rude things - which interestingly enough would also not be a problem with this boy it seemed - but they just didn't seem to have been taught manners. Maybe it was just her partially-Southern raising.

She was curious what the boy's stick was for. Briefly, she worried that the boy might think they were here to attack the Craftsman, though she figured that was unlikely. No one would bring just a stick to attack someone.

(Uh, so do you know if there's supposed to be someone posting for the craftsman, or no?)

 

While holding the door, Beatle nearly lost his grip in surprise as a notification appeared in front of him. Swiping his hand down to open the message, his face gave away his excitement at the capability to communicate. He immediately replied.

"Thanks so much! I bought my system used, and apparently it doesn't transmit any vocal input. It's slightly frustrating. My name's Beatle, by the way!"

After sending his reply, he nodded at Sera and followed her inside.

From the outside, the house didn't seem to be much. A log cabin in the forest with a forge and tanning rack set up outside. It felt like a vendor's cabin. Inside, however, it was a crafting wonderland, almost comparable to Santa's Workshop. Every kind of tool you could think of was displayed on a wall reaching from one side of the building to the other, and all throughout the house were various crafting-related messes, such as parts of some armor, stones that looked mystical, staffs without any power source, and a number of other trinkets Beatle didn't know what to think of. In the midst of it all, there was an older gentleman, hunched over his desk with some form of magnifying glass, inspecting a shining blue stone. The man looked up at the two newcomers and gently put the stone and magnifying glass down.

"Ah! Greetings, travelers! Welcome to my workshop! I've been quite busy recently with my projects, so pardon the mess. So many things to make, not enough time..."

The old man sighed, staring wistfully at the gem he'd put down. Then he smiled at the two players and said "So, what can I help you with today?"

Beatle attempted to greet the man, but stopped himself as he remembered that he couldn't talk. Instead, held up the stick and pretended to play it like a guitar. The Craftsman gave no response to Beatle, and looked puzzled by his expression.

Unsure of how else to express his desire, he sent another message to Sera.

"Can you tell him I wanna build a string instrument please?


(I was told we basically take turns Controlling him, quests are essentially just Story prompts to help guide RP interactions between players)

 

Sera smiled at the boy's response. It made a certain amount of sense, she supposed. "Yeah, trying to save money on things usually ends up costing you more when you have to buy it a second time," she said. "Which is why, incidentally, if you ever need a weapon after we finish our task here, you should come by my shop. I might not give away my work for free like some people do, but you won't need to replace it until you can use something of a higher tier than what you got, I can promise that."

Upon entering the shop, Sera marveled at her surroundings. The place was an absolute mess, but the workmanship of all the pieces were of an amazing quality. There were swords that had obviously not seen use in quiet some time, if ever, yet there wasn't a hint of rust upon them and their edges looked sharp enough to cut a piece of paper dropped on top of them. She opened the message Beatle sent to her upon receiving it's notification, and gave the boy a smile and a nod in response.

Sera cleared her throat when the man spoke to them. "Yes, we're here because of the notification that had been put up, that you're looking for some students to each some crafting techniques? I'm a weaponsmith myself, hoping to join a guild very soon. This young man right here is named Beatle. Sadly, he is a mute, but he still wishes to bring joy to people through music, and so would like to learn how to craft a stringed instrument," she explained, waxing eloquent a bit in order to appeal to the man's obvious creative nature. "If you are willing to teach us, I would request you teach my friend here first. As I already have some grasp on the most basic of things, I think it would be easiest to get what he needs to be taught out of the way, first. And, well, look at him. This could be his only way to communicate audibly with people." Sera smiled at the man, before pulling up her menu and sending Beatle a message.

"In case you weren't aware, the NPCs don't respond well to things about us being 'players' or an outside world or anything like that, so that's why I'm saying you're just mute."

 

"A mute, you say?"

The old man looked Beatle over once or twice, nodding in understanding.

"My, my... well, he's not the first I've met. I've taught all kinds of different travellers. He should be no different."

The old man hobbled over to one of his various piles and began digging around.

"String instrument, eh? Not often a muse wanders my way. Most adventurers come to try and make fancy weapons or stronger armor. As fun as working the forge all day sounds, its nice to escape the heat and stay indoors.... aha!"

The Craftsman pulled out a few reels of various sizes of string, among various other equipment, and carried it over. He placed the small pile of supplies in front of Beatle, who picked up a piece out of curiosity.

"His guitar shouldn't take long to make. The trickiest part will be tuning properly, but we'll get there when we get there. Once it's built, we can head over to the forge and I'll show you what I know."

Beatle nodded his head in agreement, eager to begin. Just then, he noticed another message in his inbox.

"Oh, good to know! Not that I could really convey that stuff to an NPC anyways..."

...

After watching the Craftsman build a guitar out of the supplies laid out in front of them, Beatle set to the task of repeating the steps. The game laid it out in front of Beatle like a mini-game, instructing him on which piece went where, but from the outside it looked as if he were simply putting the guitar together, piece by piece.

"That should keep him occupied for a while. When it comes to instruments, you must have complete focus. One wrong move and you'll ruin the tone. Now then..."

The Craftsman opened the door to the Forge outside and grabbed two sets of forging gloves. He offered one pair to Sera.

"Anything in particular ya lookin to improve on?"

 

Sera chuckled at the boy's message to her. She shook her head gently with a laugh. What he said was true, so she probably never needed to actually bother telling the boy about why she explained his situation the way she did. Even so, if he did get his microphone fixed, or got a new headset, it would be good for him to not be so far behind everyone else.

Sera watched as the Craftsman demonstrated to the boy step by step the process of creating a guitar. She wondered if the boy had set his options so that he would actually have to go through the process himself, or if it would use the more minigame-like configuration, or the hyrbrid setting. Sera herself preferred the hybrid. It gave her a sense that she was doing something, but took the particularly difficult tasks out of her own hands.

She accepted the forging gloves from the man with a smile and a "thank you," before putting them on.

"Anything in particular ya lookin to improve on?" The man asked her.

Sera nodded. "Yes, actually, something particularly specific even. You see, my girlfriend is part of the group that's helping to take down the blood witch coven..." Sera trailed off a bit and frowned, before looking off in the direction the Bloodthorne Mountain was at. She shook her head, and looked back to the Craftsman. "Sorry.... Anyway, as I was saying, I wanted to make her a present, for when she gets back. Because she's comin-" Sera cleared her throat. "Excuse me. She likes to go camping, likes to hang her hammock up in the trees by using her bow and some specially made arrows to get the ropes up. Only problem is, she made the arrows herself the first time around, and, well... as good as she is at a lot of things, weapon crafting isn't one of them. The arrows are starting to deteriorate a decent bit, so I wanted to make her some new arrows that she could use to get the ropes up in the trees."

The man smiled kindly at Sera. "It's always hard when those we care about are off bein' heroes, ain't it?" He stroked his chin for a few moments. "It sounds like ya gonna be wantin' something sturdy for them arrows. Won't be wantin' them comin' loose in the tree, and ya ain't gonna be wantin' the rope to come off of them either. Gonna have ta be one solid piece, probably made from metal for the extra sturdiness. I think I might know exactly what yer gonna be needin'."

The man walked over to where he kept several crates full of molds. He fished out a blank one and returned to Sera. "Ya happen to got on ya an arrow of the right size fer yer gal?" He asked, placing the mold into the forge.

Sera nodded and reached into her back, retrieving a regular, unfletched arrow that she had made for Lucia just the other day.

After several minutes, the man retrieved the mold from the forge. The edges of the mold were a red-yellow, and Sera could tell the material the mold was made from had become malleable from the heat. The man pressed the arrow into the mold, making a cast of it. He then took a knife and traced a small circle into the mold just above the nock. He repeated this process on the other half of the mold, and then lined the two halves up to be sure they fit correctly. He handed the cast to Sera once he was satisfied. "Now then, what yer gonna wanna be doin' is, once that's all set in just a bit, yer gonna be wanna to pour some molten down iron into that cast there and let it cool just a bit, but not too long. Make sure ya got those two halves sealed together real good and tight now, otherwise everything will spill out and you'll burn yerself."

Sera nodded slowly as she took the casted molds. She had figured the process wouldn't be too difficult, but she hadn't realized it would be this simple.

"I ain't done, missy. Once yer done letting it cool, but before it's cool enough to touch with yer bare hands there, yer gonna wanna take the arrow out of the cast. Yer gonna wanna hammer the tip a bit, make sure it's as sharp as yer gonna be wanting it. Molds don't really make things sharp too well, so it wouldn't hurt to run it over a grindstone after yer done with the hammering neither. Yer also gonna want to smooth out the shaft of the arrow, get rid of the mold line that'll form. That's simple enough, just give it a good scrape before the thing is too cool. After that, you should be good to go. Here, why don't ya try makin' one or two of them now, I'll stand over ya, give some pointers where I see ya needin' them?"

"That would be perfect," Sera said with a smile. She would go through the process exactly as the man had explained - or as close as she could, at least. Three times she messed up by taking the arrow out at the wrong time, twice too late, and once between them too soon, though luckily not so soon as to injure herself. She messed up a fourth time when she forgot to remove the mold line, and a fifth when she had mistruck with her hammer and misshapen the head. But by the end of everything, she had made four arrows exactly the way she needed to. This would take longer than Beatle's project, most likely, so the man would suggest to Beatle he watch the process as well, in case the young man ever decided to dabble in weaponsmithing as well.

"Thank you so much for all of your help," Sera said to the man. "She's really going to love these." Sera looked toward the mountain again.

"She'll be fine, lass. If you were the one who made her equipment, she'll be just fine."

Sera smiled, grateful for the man's words. "Thank you," she said again. She turned toward Beatle, holding the bundled arrows in her hands. "Well, is there anything else you need?" She asked.

 

Beatle tilted his head to the side, baffled at his own creation. The instrument that lay before him was a fairly standard guitar, no more intricate than the cheap guitar he'd received in his youth. Above it, an item title hovered.

{Simple Guitar}

Beatle grinned to himself. Sure, it wasn't much to brag about, but it was his first item, and his first crafting experience. This was more than just a simple guitar; this was the first step towards a world of adventure!

Curious as to the game's muse mechanics, Beatle began to play. To his amusement, several options appeared in front of him, listing different methods of playing. The game apparently had a variety of ways to be a muse, and while the 'realistic' mode seemed interesting, the last option caught his eye. 'Classic'. Curious as to what it meant, Beatle selected it.

Suddenly, a strip of black came into his vision, followed by 5 colored bricks at the bottom. There appeared to be bars scrolling down towards the buttons, separated at regular intervals. Before Beatle could react to it, a bright green bar began falling along one of the scrolling bars, headed towards the green brick. Beatle couldn't help but smile at the reference to guitar hero.

Naturally, Beatle tried pressing down with the appropriate finger. As he did so, he felt his finger find the right string without even trying. It was as if the game guided his fingers to the string. He plucked the note in time with the screen, and the sound reverberated around the room. It sounded like a professional guitar, though a little pitch-y. Beatle winced a bit at it, and stopped strumming. The black strip vanished, just in time to see the Craftsman and Sera return.


She turned toward Beatle, holding the bundled arrows in her hands. "Well, is there anything else you need?" She asked.

He looked at them and wiggled his new guitar at them, then played yet another experimental note on it. The resulting sound was slightly less than pleasant, but sounded more or less like a guitar. The craftsman smiled at the sound.

"Yes, it's quite a bit tricky to get the Pitch just right." The Craftsman extended his hand and Beatle handed him the guitar. He inspected it thoroughly, holding it up to the light and twirling it every so often. "For a first timer, that's some quality work, lad! Nice string placement, tunes well, fantastic attention to detail... aha! There's your problem."

The craftsman fiddled with the guitar slightly, though Beatle wasn't sure what he was doing. Then, he pulled out the stick that Beatle had brought in earlier. Upon seeing it, Beatle was sure he was blushing, if that was possible in the game.

"Now how'd that get in there? Ah well, it should sound better now."

He returned the guitar to Beatle, and a new title appeared.

{Simple Guitar (Fine)}

Beatle stood and bowed in thanks, holding up a thumbs-up to Sera and moving to the door. He opened it and held it with his feet, offering it to Sera while simultaneously playing a simple guitar riff, testing out the limits of his new instrument and the game's potential.

 

Sera winced at the note the boy played, but tried to smile to be polite nonetheless. Yeah, that sounded pretty terrible. She wasn't going to tell him that though, but she felt like she had to say something. Time to lie, she supposed. "Hey, that sounds great, you're a natural," she said.

She breathed a sigh of relief, though, when the Craftsman took the guitar and fiddled with it a bit, before eventually pulling out a stick. Sera blinked. How had that happened? She wondered. When the boy played another note, Sera tensed at first, before relaxing as the sound this time was rather pleasant. "Oh, thank Goddess," she muttered. She smiled at the boy when he opened the door for her again. "Thank you very much," she said.

She gripped her arrows tightly, and once more she looked toward the bloodthorne mountain. Things would be fine. Everything would be fine. A notification popped up in the corner of her eye. Quest complete! She smiled at the boy once again. "Well, I guess this is good bye. See you around! Who knows, next time we meet, you might be a world famous musician, and I'll be a world famous weaponsmith!"

 

Beatle nodded excitedly, strumming a short, upbeat riff in response. Then, he bowed and began on his merry way before screeching to a halt, opening his menu, and sending a friend request to Sera, as well as a message.

"Thanks for your help! Hope you found the what you were looking for, cuz I sure did! Catch ya around!"



With that, Beatle danced into the forest, excited to explore the possibilities with his new guitar.

(So how do we mark a quest as "complete"?)