Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Starter Quest: The Lucky Horseshoe wrote:
Issued here in Winston's Wiki page.

Winston's interest in Fairies does not go unnoticed. And one night, while sleeping beneath the stars in the Sweetwine Woods, he dreams of a fairy coming to him, asking him to bring them a 'lucky horseshoe'. No other information is given in the dream, but when he awakes, he feels fully invigorated, and totally motivated to make exactly what the fairy asked him to.

Should he succeed in his endeavor, he will be treated by a visit from the tooth fairy, who sneaks into his cottage at night to leave a pair of wolves teeth beneath his pillow. Whether he catches the 'tooth fairy' in the act or not, he will certainly notice the wolves teeth that they left, only to wonder if it was a warning or a thank you. Oddly enough, when he checks on his work on the horseshoe, he'll find it missing.

Whether he seeks to pursue the horseshoe or the fairy, or not at all, is entirely his decision.

Sitting upon a giant mushroom, with the sky filled with Turtles and the water below him full of flightless birds, swimming through the waters surrounding the mushroom, Winston rested with his dangling into the water.

The birds were not bighting totrial, but it was never for the catching that he came out, only the 'coming out'.

He was just watching the giant people in the sky argue when a little voice said "Ehem ..." He sat up from the lounger he was resting on and turned to see a giant fairy. He was not giant by biggun standards of course, but the fairy was at least 2 foot tall, which was much in excess of their usual 1-2 inch size. "Nice dream you have here. You know them?" She asked, pointing at the people in the sky. Winston nodded. "Oh yeh, dat me ... ummm ... 'im es ..." But the moment he tried to focus on the faces, they became hazy and nondescript. "Huh. Me don't know 'wo dem es. Me wus share me did." He turned back to the fairy with a slight frown.

With a kind smile he shook his head, which gave off a low tingling sound as he did so. "That's OK, it's very normal when dreaming." He wondered closer. "May I sit?" He gestured to a chair and table beside Winston, which he was now sitting at also. He nodded enthusiastically. "Please do, me would love tuh chat. Me 'ave recently become a Songforged." He said with some considerable pride. "Wud yuh like some tea?" He asked, picking up a teapot from the table. The fairy nodded.

"My name is Clementine, but people call me Clem. I'd like you to do a favour for me." Clem smiled sweetly, his eyes literally twinkling innocently and his teeth shone in the light of a perfect moon. His wings fluttered a little in anticipation.

Winston took a sip of his tea as both his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Me? Do yuh a favour? Sure ting. Et wud be me honnar."

Clem's eyes glowed a range of colours, as if they were emitting all the colours of the rainbow as he let out a jolly exclaim. "Perfect! I want you to make me a Lucky Horseshoe." He offered with a nod and a smile. This ferret had made horseshoes before and even knew that some considered them lucky, but he didn't really know how to MAKE one LUCKY.

He took up a pencil from his workbench and turned to grab a pad from the side in his forge, where they now stood. "'ow big shud et be? Any particular type af shoe?" He stood poised to take down the details, but Clem gave a dismissive gesture with his hand as he handed a bit of paper to Winston and stood to leave. "Everything you need to know is on this bit of paper. It should be a horseshoe and it must be lucky ..." And with that, he was already disappearing out the door and down the hall.

Winston reached out to stop him, but before he could, the fairy was already a hazy memory and he turned back to the bit of paper. Opening it up be began to read when a loud noise woke him suddenly ... "Psssst. PSSSSST! Winston. HEY! You alive?" Joe was hovering in front of Winston's nose. He gradually became aware that his hand, which was under his chin, had gone completely numb and there was a wet sensation on his cheek. He wiped the drool from his face and and cleared his throat.

"Mun ALIVE! Cud yuh nat do dat somewhere else, mun?" His tone was not too harsh, but at the end of the day, he was in his... Oh, he looked around him to find that he had fallen asleep at his workbench while doodling. On the paper in front of him was a very roughly drawn horseshoe. "Oooohhhhh, yeah." He interrupted his two new companions. "Me tink a fairy just asked me tuh make dem a Lucky Horseshoe in my sleep." He stated, in a confused tone.

Joe paused, mid juggle with a surprised expression. "OOOooohhhhh. Yes, that happens sometimes."

Winston didn't really need the assurance to be fair, he was already feeling quite eager to get started. Something about that dream had lodged something in him. A yearning, or a 'knowing' that something needed to be done? Something that meant he knew what he needed to do and that he needed to do it. Whatever the case, he was more then happy to help a Fairy, whether they be a dream one or not.

He got up and immediately got to work, designing a 'Lucky' Horseshoe.

He was not sure what made horseshoes lucky, but if they were, then were they not simply ALL that way?

He grabbed a length of metal from the store room, Joe hovering over his shoulder gave off a disapproving "Tsk" sound. Winston paused. "Wat?"

Joe pulled a face. "Just doesn't FEEL very lucky. You know?"

The ferret looked back at the metal bar incredulously ... He picked up a small bundle of them and moved them to the forge, performing a couple of trips. "OK. Lets see then." He stood them all on one end and held them to stop them from falling. "OK, yuh ready far dis Joe? One ... two ... tree ... Let's go!"

He let go and leapt out of the way as the rods tumbled to the ground in all directions. He waited for the ringing to stop and then wandered over to the pile and from it he took the one that was pointing the most directly at the forge. "Dat one is lucky I guess?" He said holding it up. Joe made the universal 'I dunno' face, unwilling to commit one way or the other to the venture at this stage.

Whatever the case, it was about as 'lucky' as it was going to get and so Winston set about tidying up and preparing the forge to heat the metal in order to make the shoe.

Once ready and red/white-hot, he took the rod and shaped one end of it into a tiny horseshoe shape. He held it up and considered its size before heating and cutting it from the metal rod.

He picked it up with the tongs and quenched it before continuing to refine its shape. He decided that it should be more decorative and so made an effort to ensure it was symmetrical. Once he was happy with it, he started hammering the holes synonymous with all horseshoe designs.

Joe watched over his shoulder the entire time. At least that for once, he didn't have to try and make a shoe twice the size of his body. This was a 'lucky' horseshoe and furthermore, it was for a Fairy, who was smaller than even Winston himself, and so in this, he was actually at an advantage over your average smith, who might find making something so small and fiddly a very serious challenge. For Winston, it was rather like making something 'normal' for once.

He decided that the shoe could be suspended by a chain at each end of the shoe, making a necklace of perhaps just a convenient way of hanging it at a door or window.

He held it up for inspection by his fellows ... Joe pulled a face that said about all that needed to be said before he proceeded to explain in words. "That feels lucky to you?" Quite unoffended, Winston considered the question carefully. "More to the point ... You think that will feel lucky to a Fairy? ... Even MORE to the point, I really miss having hands. You know? I mean, my chin needs a hand on it what I look incredulus, right?" A solitary eyebrow rose on Winston's face. "Me nat sure 'ow me cun solve dat problem far yuh, but me will tink an et."

Joe's questions were beginning to feel overtly rhetorical. Joe's expression was one of mild bewilderment as he inspected the product of Winston's efforts. "I mean if YOU think this is good enough for our Fairy friends. I guess that's YOUR call." It might have been delivered a little like an insult, but Winston took it entirely as a challenge.

"Yuh right on de money dere Joe! Dis simply will nat do. Nat far our Fairy friends af Sweetwine. Nat from dis Forged ferret." He was now play-acting a little for fun, but was nonetheless quite serious. He really did agree. "What do yuh tink a Fairy wud find lucky?"

Joe was a little surprised and replied with an appreciative smile. To be honest, he'd not really expected the ferret to accept his opinion so readily. "Oh, you really want to know what I think?" Winston nodded, as if it was obvious, him having said it, that this was true. Joe smiled. "OK, well ... I think that it should be something they are connected to, right? Nothing is ever what it seems when you are dealing with a Fairy."

Winston's eyes bulged from his head. "When yuh right, you are RIGHT, Joe! Dem want something dat looks like a horseshoe, but es someting else. Cus ... Fairies. 'an Sweetwine es all about music, so et should actually be an instrument af some sart." He was getting excited and he held up the shoe that he just made and struct it with his tongs. It gave off a rather tuneless TING. Something about its shape, composition, design or tempering had not lent itself well to resonating ... perhaps all of these things at once. Both of them cringed.

"Yeeeaaahhhh, det's nat very tuneful es et." He put it down. "OK, we need tuh work on dat first. Me need tuh make et ring like a bell first." He said with determination. "Den we need tuh find someting mar attractive den dis ‘ere iron and steal." How exactly he was going to inject ‘lucky’ into the entire affair had been parked for tomorrow-Winston to deal with.

Continued here.