Artificer

# Artificer of The Speaking House -

## Description

*"In the darkened corridor a shadow slithered slowly from the darkness coalescing into a human form standing in the recesses of a weathered alcove. As the process ran its course a hand reached to the neckline and plucked from the darkness a silvered pin, glowing with a covetous light. Almost instantly the effect ended and a woman, garbed in close fitting trews and shirt appeared plucking a slender wand from a tooled leather belt pouch at her hip. With a casual flick of her long Emerald hair she glided to a sturdy door at the end of the walkway and with a flick of the wand unlocked the tumblers that bared her way. A smile graced her lips as she remembered the meticulous planning that this undertaking had demanded. She had chosen Emison to craft the wand and it had been a wise choice, their skill and dedication, as ever, spoke volumes in these situations. Despite their direct absence from the mission it was as if her old friend was with her now using skills from afar to ensure her success and more importantly her safety."*  - From the novelisation of the life of the Starling by Lizzy Nuance.

Artificers are a rare breed of crafter who have learnt to work the rarer and more powerful commodities that Daer Akmir and the continents beyond have to offer. Their talents allow them to create all manner of miraculous inventions that contain fragments of the divine or the Wyld that can be unleashed at a moment's notice. The role of an artificer in society is an unusual one; they are highly sought after for their wares but equally the supply that they require is hard to come by. Often an artificer will be rich for months but lacking appropriate materials have to fall back onto secondary roles to pay the bills. They are, almost innately, incapable of working together for long periods of time and usually they pass on their skills via the traditional format of Apprentice and Master. However their collective techniques are shared under the common concept of a "guild" based out of Shriekspire in a huge building, once a postal sorting office, called The Speaking House and it is there that most of our journeys begin.

### From an Artificers Journal

*"There comes a certain moment in the life of any guilder and it is certainly worth stating that this moment is going to be one that you hope will never come again but that you know probably will, that something someone else made saves your life. Sometimes that is a sword or a Shield, Armour or a bandage but frequently, possibly more frequently than most of us would like to admit, when that moment happens it is a piece of artifice that is doing the saving. Some folk hate the artifice calling it a crutch whilst others swear by it and see, on occasion, to be made from it. In truth some people are actually made from it. Regardless: Love it or hate it, it is a piece of most kit for the majority of Field Operatives and has the power to emulate not only skills that many of us possess but also the hundreds of abilities that we don't have. Ask most people and they would say that, given a choice, they would be on the lookout for something that emulated the power of Yarrianne and her healing gubbins but to me that is just limiting when the scope and array of potential extensions your own power is so hugely open.*

*All of this however comes down almost exclusively to the artificer that built the kit you are looking for. If you are worth your salt you will have a wide gamut of abilities available to you when it comes to crafting. Obviously you could just focus on the healing arts; a) It's going to be popular and you are always going to make your money back and b) It's going to save the lives of your customers and those customers are the guilds folk that keep us all safe. But let's be honest; as artificers we craft because we love crafting and we enjoy our own personal touch added to everything we are making. Let's be clear: ALL Artificers specialise, in what they craft; protective items or portation or offensive and what they craft it into; Shoes, wands, hats, armour or if you are me playing cards. It's these little bits and pieces that give us the fame and ergo the wealth to continue the research that we do and to be able to provide the surface that we have for thousands of years"* - Peaches Able - Legendary Artificer.

### Notes of a Master Artificer

*"Can you hear it?*
If you, ah, press your ear, ah, right up to the, ah, casing, you'll hear it
talking, ah, too you." *She could too, even if I never could, she*
really could hear it. Her name was Aylsion Kent and she really was a Master of
Artifice, so much so that she could hear the power, the very life of what she
and others created. That is the gift that all of us seek or at least that I
believe all of us should seek. There are so many of us that call ourselves
"Masters" as though we have managed to complete a journey that
thousands before us have not. People call me a Master and my name is synonymous
with modern artifice to such an extent that there aren't many that can match me
skill for skill and yet I must correct them when they insinuate such. So let me
ask you, fair reader, do you consider yourself a Master? Have you done what
others could not or do you find yourself cobbling together ten a helm trinkets
that find themselves adorning some Daemons lair after the pauper guilder that
purchased them from you was slaughtered because they were relying on
dysfunctional merchandise. Or when you craft a piece *can you hear it singing?*

The Key? The masterpiece that paves the way to greatness? Your
first and last great piece? I speak of course of the Relic and it is here that
this text takes its direction because I remember her talking about such a piece
before she died. She lost her trepidation then, her age, it fell away from her
so much did it define her. At the very end: *"It*
is as though all your crafting experience stays with you, in the back of your
head, thinking, learning with you and waiting, evolving almost. When you work
there are always incantations flowing through your minds, ticking over but its
more than that, what you don't use you don't throw away, you keep it there. It
carries on, growing, changing and merging with the rest of the thoughts that
you discard when you are making the toys you make for children. It becomes
Chaos Gor Gor, Chaos and cacophony and noise until one day, one day you can
hear ot singing and when you do...you accomplish something glorious. It guides
itself, it defines itself but it is your work but you won't know it till the
day it arrives, with a purpose for the world and one that will grow as you age
and die. A relic my apprentice." *- Excerpts from the Guidance of*
Master Artificer and Relic Maker Gor Gor Fagnor.