The Burning Pool

[Jackson]

Jackson found a couple of items he figured he could use to rig together a make-shift furnace. He wanted to be able to get some extra advantage over anyone else, so he decided to become a sort of arms dealer. Nevermind the fact that he'd never worked with metal before, he figured he'd go on a trial basis. It's not like there was a shortage anywhere.

He gathered up all the iron and steel he could find, and managed to snag a pair of tongs. The hammer wasn't hard to find at all. He actually found a box of pipe hammers in an old warehouse.

He put his rig together, and fired it up. It didn't start at first so Jackson looked around to find the cause. He realized he was gonna have to find some wood, or some coals to get a fire going. Lack of electricity sucked.

A couple days later, he had a suitable stockpile of wood, and some leftover charcoals from a home improvement store. He lit the fire, hoping it'd catch. Success! Stoking it, he added a couple of wrought iron fence pieces.

After they got hot enough to work with, he pulled them out using the tongs, and lay them all together. He wanted to try fusing the pieces together into a giant iron bar. From there, he'd go onto the next step of working it into what he wanted to fashion.

He used his Qi to stoke the fire to even hotter levels before adding more iron. He wanted to make a mold.

He set a basin up. It used to be the beginnings of a concrete pool.... but That had obviously been abandoned. So it had been left here. To gather dust.

Jackson poured the melted iron bars and the already melted iron into the basin. He then hurriedly looked for something to set in the center to complete the mold aspect of it.

He found some aluminum sheeting he could bend into the correct shapes. Once he'd cut off a few pieces, and formed them into the correct mold, he put the casting inside the Burning Pool. It wasn't the best thing he could've done, but it still separated the molten iron from itself.

He covered the casting and drained the rest of the molten iron into a different casting. This one was going to be a chestplate.

His first hopefully would be a sword. His first ever creation.

[Jackson]

His sword wasn't perfect by any means. It was too brittle, too hard. Jackson swung it against a punching bag, and on the first swing he heard a loud rap. On the second the sword splintered and flew everywhere. He threw up a quick Qi blast to deflect some of the pieces away.

"Well....Dammit." He figured he'd need to learn some better techniques. However, it wasn't like there was any shortage of iron in the area, so he had plenty to work with.

He set the chestplate on the punching bag, and picked up his Bat. After a couple of swings the armor had some dents in it, but seemed otherwise fine.

"Huh.." Jackson thought about what he'd done differently between the two. He then realized it was the stoking of the fire with his Qi. He didn't know exactly why, but that seemed to increase the effectiveness of the iron.

He added some more fuel to the fire, and threw on a couple more bars. While they melted, he got to work forming another casting. This one was gonna be a tough one. Jackson was going to attempt to make Chain mail. Booyah!

[Jackson]

After he got all the ringlets forged he had to see about knitting them together.....This was tricky. He didn't know how to knit, or even how to actually do this! He was determined though, and that counted for absolutely nothing. No amount of determination was enable him to learn this.

He decided he'd put chain mail on hold for a couple of weeks, and turned the ringlets back into some good 'ol molten iron. He poured it into another casting, shaped like this. He needed several castings to get every intricacy down. Damned if it was gonna look abso-friggin-lutely bad ass!

He got a couple of rivets made, and a metal awl found in that warehouse. After punching a couple of holes, he secured each piece together to form the most awesomest helmet evar!

He set it on a wooden dummy, and tested its strength with a couple of well aimed Qi blasts from his Hadouken hands as well as Airbender Staff Bat.

It withstood! hardly even a dent or anything! this right here, was his magnum opus, but would hardly be the last. He had plans of grandeur now!

Jackson molded a couple more helmets like that. He felt like making complete sets in this style. It'd look pretty intimidating....If there were folks to wear his works. He wiped some sweat off his brow, and used a small Qi burst to cool himself down.

He looked at the pile of raw material he had and at the growing pile of materiel he had made. He'd made mostly helmets now, and felt like making something different.

He went out on the street and managed to recruit a number of people to help him with work around the Burning Pool, as the sign said. Five new hands. Ten really. But it was more help to allow him to do more work.

"Hey, Dreston, hand me a casting, NO! the other one, you dunce. I'm making a pair of gauntlets. I'm gonna need the multi-caster obviously." Dreston reached over and got the multi-caster,
"Sir, we're about out of fuel for The Forge. Sir."


"Well get some more, if that fire goes out, I'll take it out of your hide." Jackson was working on a new technique, making his weapons hollow. It was challenging. There wasn't a caster he could put inside, as that wouldn't be hollow, however he thought he had a workaround. A couple of welds here and there...

"Niccolo, take this out to the range and test it." he told an apprentice as he handed him the Prototype Hollow Bow, he'd just finished.

A couple minutes later there was a loud yell, and Niccolo came back in, bloodied up with some shrapnel in his arm.
"Sir.....Welds don't hold the metal correctly. Sir."

"Well wash that blood off, and clean your wound." Jackson went back to the papers he had drawn up for the specs of the Bow. Hmmm....can't weld it together, can't use a caster.... GOT IT! Jackson whooped a loud yell of joy, startling Sera.

"Sir, what is it?" She asked him, curiously.

"I've figured it out. How to make a hollow bow, while still maintaining it's structural integrity! make a six foot length of pipe, inch and a half in diameter, will you?" He got a couple of pipe hammers and a conduit bender.

He was pumped right now, this would be a first ever, if it worked.... Sera finished the pipe and handed it to him with the tongs. He worked the pipe with the conduit bender, into a slight bend, with a re-curve at each end.

He attached a notch at each end for the string, grabbed a piece of wire, and braided it together to allow the correct tension for most power. He went out in the yard to test this one himself. He wasn't able to fire the bow though. Too high of a draw weight. He added a couple of pulleys to the bow, and ran the string through them.

It was ready now.

[Jackson]

He brought it out to the range once more, to test fire it.

"Liza, set up five targets for me. the furthest at 1000 yards."

She nodded at him, then hurried off.

While she was setting up the targets, he took the time to fashion a scope, forging the steel, and fashioning a couple of lenses. He put it together, attached it to the bow, and returned to the range. He fired a couple of shots, absolutely decimating the first few targets. Set aim for the farthest one, fired, and still shattered it. Success!

Jackson returned inside, and set the bow, on a rack.

"Make one hundred more. Just like this." he ordered his two oldest apprentices.

He returned to the forge area, he had an idea of what he wanted to make next. Scale Mail. The Dragons needed a badass looking armor, so he'd provide it to them.

He got to work, forging hundreds upon hundreds of small inch-by-half-inch scales. Next he used a drill to bore a small hole into the middle of each scale. From there it was up to an apprentice to weave them together into the protective armor. After the weaving was done, he forged another chestplate to sit underneath the scales. Scale-on-plate mail. He was rapidly getting more and more proud of his work.

Jackson's next feat was to attempt to make something utilitarian. Not a weapon, but useful all the same. He had scavenged some designs for a plow, and aimed to reproduce that.

He sent a couple of apprentices out to gather more material, he was running low on not only iron, but leather strips as well as fasteners. When they returned he began his work. He fashioned a curved arching blade, and at the top, fastened it to an identical twin. The he used a coupe of metal struts to hold the front of the plow. Afterwards, some leather grips were attached to a couple of bent handles to make it more comfortable.

Jackson set it out in his newly founded, To-Be-Tested area of his shop space. He soon added a hand-cranked blender, and a dutch oven.

After a long day, he sent the apprentices home, and continued to toil away at the forge. He made a beautiful type of steel, watery designs flowed and ebbed throughout weaving their way, etched into it. It was a longsword, this project. The weld he used allowed for such beautiful decorative patterns to be formed. He heard stories and seen pictures in some of the catalogues he used to read, but he'd never figured out how to make Damascus steel until recently.

He also had tried his hand at making a real katana. He was able to replicate the shape, but the first creation shattered. He took note of this, and softened the steel in the second. It bent. Taking note again, he melted them both down, and mixed it together, hammering out as much as he could, he folded the steel roughly twenty times to accomplish approximately 1000000 individual layers. He tested this blade out, it sliced through the punching bag with ease. Moving onto a harder target, Jackson set up a chestplate armored punching bag. Same result. He was quite pleased.

[Jackson]

Jackson had a new projekt going for him, after seeing an old magazine cover.

He was gonna build a mask.

He started out, with the optics, having one of his apprentices build the lens, then he crafted the lens holder, and the moving optics swivel. He placed the lens inside the holder, and tested it out. Perfect!

He began work on the rest of the mask, using a couple of worn metal struts to make the mouth of the mask, it was kinda creepy looking, and he could understand why no one had made on of these in a long long while.

Jackson finished the mask and hummed a tune while he tried it on, if the optics worked the way he wanted them to, he wouldn't even have to use his hands to switch them. He flexed his cheek muscle, and as it did so, it triggered a button on the inside of the mask that switched optics at will. He switched through a couple of times. And was pleased with the results. He set the mask aside.

His next projekt was to make a sword, about five feet long, heavy wedge shape at the bottom, with spikes jutting out around every six inches from there to the hilt. He threw another seven iron struts into the Forge, and from there into the Burning Pool.

He laid out a couple of molds, and poured the scalding iron into three of them. The fourth he left open for the grip and the hilt of the sword.

As he poured in the iron, he added some Air in to it, slowly, so as to not kill the iron's usefulness completely. It turned a dull black as it cooled, and for this he was pleased. It'd give the sword character. This wasn't going to be a pretty sword, but regardless, the black iron, reinforced the fact that it was going to be for something other than decoration, this sword belonged on a battlefield. Jackson sang to it as he worked the iron into it's harsh shape.

It was a song, not heard in many, many, many years. No words were remembered, just a tune. And this was the tune that Jackson sang to the iron, it had emotion, and was filled with anger, hatred, and want. Want for power, fame, and blood. He worked with the iron until at last, he had a sword he was proud to call his own, original work. It was a cold, unforgiving obsidian color, and almost glowed in the light of The Forge. It looked a little like this. Berserker Fang. Would be its name.

He swung it about, testing it's weight. It seemed..... Right. As if it was formed for his hand. He laughed a bit, as it was his blade. His.

He left that one in a place for him to pick up later. It was close to him, and he'd keep it that way.

[Mr. Kaar]

Words Counted: 2,394
Total Pay Out: $118

[Jackson]

After a hiatus, the fires of the Burning Pool were stoked once more. Jackson returned to his work with a grim enthusiasm, he was preparing the weapons and tools of war, something that really didn't bring him joy anymore, but he had a job to do, like everyone else.

He sent a message out for his acolytes to work once more, and as they returned, slowly, he assigned them all different tasks. Those who could draw, accurately and precisely, he assigned to designing. He paired them up with the more creative of the bunch to work on new concepts of old designs.

He was going to try and change how the Dragon forces fought, if only by forcing them to with different materiel. Jackson sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, then turned around to yell at some lazy workers to get them to actually stoke the fire instead of only pretending to.

As he stared into the places namesake he became aware of someone calling his name, he turned to see several of his creative group showing him the design for what they had come up with so far. It was a Zweihander greatsword that looked absolutely barbaric, spikes extended from the hilt and the pommel was made out of the base of an antique lamp. Heavy and brass, it's garishness shone and made the whole piece seem.... loud. was the word he thought to himself. He motioned dismissively, and the lot of them got to work making it a reality.

As for Jackson, he picked up the hammer, turning it twice in his hand to get the feel of it again. His time in the wilderness hadn't lessened his strength, and as he flexed he could feel and remember what it was to create with this tool once more. He had a couple of his workers pour the molten iron into a mould, and as it cooled, he broke it open with a smash from his hammer... Much to the dismay of his apprentices who'd spent months prior creating the mould for him at his specifications.

What emerged form the mould was on the outside an ugly, grotesque piece of metal. It showed in the faces of his apprentices. He silenced their looks with a glare at them, then got to work. he cooled the metal down with a gust of Air, and picked it up to take it to his makeshift anvil.

As he decided where he wanted to go with this, he looked around the shop, weapons hung on display cases, armor scattered everywhere, it was a right mess. But it was his to clean up, he knew that, he was looking for inspiration though.

It hit him as he looked past one of his workers standing there, finger in nose, he saw the corner of something sticking out of the refuse heap in the back. Snapping his fingers, Jackson motioned to the terrified worker to retrieve that something and bring it to him.

It turned out to be a large rock. Shiny and weighing in at about 120lbs. The worker had struggled to lift and then carry it all the way across the debris-strewn shop. as it was dropped with a loud thud, the worker gazed up at Jackson for instructions but he was lost in thought. Shrugging the apprentice turned and went back to mining.

Jackson had an idea, he wanted to melt this rock down and see what it could be made into, the metallic sheen of it didn't look to be iron, aluminum, steel or any other metal he'd seen.

He lifted it, grunting, and set it on the conveyor that would put it into The Pool. It settled into the furnace with a loud hiss, which eventually grew into a full-on crackling.

This rock would take some time to smelt, so in the meantime he bade everyone go home, while he stayed to tend the fires.