10 Eleint 2993
Axle, after receiving word from the Azure Keep sent by Shuaz the Vivid, climbs the ramp leading from the main part of Gosterwick to the gates on the north end of Keep Hill. Showing the city watch the invitation, they direct him to the two Azure Knights inside the guard post. After verifying his credentials and noting his name, reason for the visit, and other information, one of the knights escorts Axle past the Residence and to the Azure Keep. Axle is stunned by the fortifications of this newly refurbished keep and the order and precision of its workings. He notes that in addition to the thirty Azure Knights that the Lady Alexia Basileon is said to maintain, a number he notes is ten more than any other garrison he has heard of, each of the knights seems to be attended to by a squire.
Led through the Keep’s courtyard and into a building built into the outer wall of the Keep, Axle enters a world he could not have dreamed of before. A tidy, if eclectic, workshop full of all manner of gears, wheels, and mechanical elements greets him. The hiss of smelted iron mingles with the back-and-forth saw rhythm of precision woodcutting, as weapons of war are churned out for the Keep’s defense. Overseeing the assembly of a large ballista, Shuaz the Vivid turns and greets Axle. Showing him around the shop, Shuaz tells Axle that he can have access to the shop and its team of ten skilled workers to build any of the following items if the materials and labor are paid for:
The workshop may build one of the following options at any one time, the statistics for all of which are found in the DM Guides (page 255):
- Ballista - Takes 7 days, costs 1,000 gp in materials and labour
- Suspend Cauldron - Takes 7 days, costs 1,000 gp in materials and labour
- Mangonel - Takes 15 days, costs 3,000 gp in materials and labour
- Ram - Takes 7 days, costs 1,000 gp in materials and labour
- Siege Tower - Takes 30 days, costs 5,000 gp in materials and labour
- Trebuchet - Takes 30 days, costs 5,000 gp in materials and labour
Shuaz provides Axle with permanent credentials that will allow him onto Keep Hill and into the Azure Keep for access to the workshop. After spending hours of bliss looking through all the tools and meeting the workers, Axle returns to the town proper a very happy mechanical boy.