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Annie is on her trike on her way to school.
This van labeled HAZARDOUS MATERIALS is also on its way to school.
The van hits a patch of black ice. It goes spinning, it turns over, it slices itself open on a wrought-iron fence with spikes, and it disgorges boxes which smash open on the pavement. Some of them skitter clear into the slush.
Some of them - along with most of the van - land on Annie.
There is a whirl of bewildering pain and confusion -
- and she falls to the ground, injured and in more kinds of discomfort beyond that and moaning.
She slowly starts to heal before the eyes of her sole witness.
six artifact pileup annie in thedas
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"...I'm actually really curious about how anvils are made." And she'd be useless clearing a tunnel and it's really hard not to swoon.
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"Have fun learning!"
Stalas traipses off at the head of a squad of golems.
Caridin assembles assorted tools and does smith things. Apparently he does not need the seven-and-a-half-foot-long iron hammer for anything, because he lets Stalas walk off with it.
Stalas traipses off at the head of a squad of golems.
Caridin assembles assorted tools and does smith things. Apparently he does not need the seven-and-a-half-foot-long iron hammer for anything, because he lets Stalas walk off with it.
keep_busy
Annie tries to stay out of his way, but - from across the room - observes, and asks questions.
Caridin is kind of improbably dextrous for a ten-foot-tall animated suit of armour. He is also very willing to explain himself, although sometimes she needs to ask clarifying followup questions when he forgets that not everyone knows as much as he does about smithcraft.
keep_busy
She doesn't know anything about smithcraft but she's pretty good at articulating her questions.
Well, then, she will learn how a magic anvil is made. (The regular kind doesn't involve lyrium and is a whole different process, which Caridin is also happy to explain to an interested audience.)
It's hard to read Caridin's body language because he is ten feet tall and made primarily of rigid steel, but he seems to relax more as the conversation goes on.
first-and-final
Stalas comes back, chatting with the golems.
"...haven't changed all that much since your day. The Proving got bloodier, though, which I absolutely hate. There's a whole culture around Proving deaths now, counting them up and betting on them. It used to be a huge scandal if someone was permanently injured, and now it's 'ten gets you five there'll be a fatal poisoning tonight!'"
"Obscene!" says Tamek.
"You could've made that bet in the Orzammar I remember, in the right neighbourhood," says Kador.
"Yeah, but you wouldn't have heard it shouted from the stands," says Stalas.
"Depends where you were standing," snorts Kador. "No, no, I see what you mean."
"...haven't changed all that much since your day. The Proving got bloodier, though, which I absolutely hate. There's a whole culture around Proving deaths now, counting them up and betting on them. It used to be a huge scandal if someone was permanently injured, and now it's 'ten gets you five there'll be a fatal poisoning tonight!'"
"Obscene!" says Tamek.
"You could've made that bet in the Orzammar I remember, in the right neighbourhood," says Kador.
"Yeah, but you wouldn't have heard it shouted from the stands," says Stalas.
"Depends where you were standing," snorts Kador. "No, no, I see what you mean."
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"It's sort of hard to explain when I don't know how much context you have," says Stalas. "People fight each other, for various reasons and with various explicit and unspoken rules, in a big arena with a lot of other people watching. It used to be the custom that you weren't supposed to seriously hurt your opponent, and I still play that way when I fight in a Proving, but hardly anyone else does and it pisses me off because I resent any situation that involves dwarves needlessly killing each other."
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"It's... like a sport; I wouldn't necessarily say it is a sport. It's more serious than that, a lot of the time. You can hold a Proving to determine certain questions of honour - if Bhelen hadn't heaped bribes and blackmail on the Assembly and I'd had any chance to contest the charges, I could've demanded that he fight me over it. Or more likely that his champion fight me. It's usually customary for both opponents in an honour Proving to name champions, but I'm a better fighter than anyone I'd be willing to ask."
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"I suppose. I think dueling is a roughly analogous human custom but I don't know a lot about it."
"How did a human end up down here?" wonders Hesta. "What was that earlier about another world?"
"How did a human end up down here?" wonders Hesta. "What was that earlier about another world?"
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"I'm from a world where all the magic is in the form of magical objects, which confer a drawback and a benefit on whoever touches them. Sometimes the drawbacks are one time things like 'transported to a completely different world'. It was an accident."
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"I'm sorry to hear that," says Hesta.
"How's the anvil coming along?" says Stalas.
"Very nicely," says Caridin.
"Do I have time to go looking for something to feed to Annie?" (Caridin nods.) "Annie, hungry?"
"How's the anvil coming along?" says Stalas.
"Very nicely," says Caridin.
"Do I have time to go looking for something to feed to Annie?" (Caridin nods.) "Annie, hungry?"
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Stalas snickers.
"Eating," says Pell. "Now there's one thing I don't miss. Nor what comes after."
"Is spider a fashionable new delicacy?" asks Kador with a stone smirk.
"Don't be disgusting," says Tamek, to both of them.
Stalas laughs outright.
"Eating," says Pell. "Now there's one thing I don't miss. Nor what comes after."
"Is spider a fashionable new delicacy?" asks Kador with a stone smirk.
"Don't be disgusting," says Tamek, to both of them.
Stalas laughs outright.
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"I don't have a sense of smell and the most I can say for it is that it's improved with anise and sufficient boiling."
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"All right, who wants to help me hunt nugs and forage for mushrooms?"
"I hardly have anything better to do," says Kador.
"Might be fun," says Pell.
"I will remain here and guard the forge," says Tamek.
"I'll stay too," says Hesta. "You boys have fun."
"I hardly have anything better to do," says Kador.
"Might be fun," says Pell.
"I will remain here and guard the forge," says Tamek.
"I'll stay too," says Hesta. "You boys have fun."
first-and-final
"So, how's Caridin doing?" asks Stalas as the four of them traipse out through the trap-laden tunnels. (Kador and Pell know how to deactivate and circumvent everything; there is very little danger.)
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"It's sort of hard to tell, but he seemed happy enough answering all my questions and might have sort of calmed down over the course of it?"