The Royal Artificery Society - IC

[MrAbdiel]

It's past midday when Aiden awakens. No one had the heart to bother him, it seems; and he is woken from his slumber only by Ambrose nuzzling at him with concern. After a brief start, and a tumble down the three stairs that lead to the boardwalk infront of the bakery where he normally busks, he is rubbing the sleep from his eyes and enjoying the warm flush of embarrassment - an emotion most people avoid at all costs, but which he can sometimes seem to get outside of himself to appreciate. An autumnal pinkening of his face is what he gets for falling asleep with his face tilted up toward the sun, but aside from that, he's alright.

In fact, he's much better than alright. Dreams are a kind of workshop all of there own.

"Ah... Ahah! Hah! Eureka!"

For the next forty minutes, he is there on the steps with the wad of papers he had brought to take notes about the experimentation with the Tundra Oak. He had overshot as it turned out, but now he finds purpose for the surplus - sketching, scribing, imagining, treatising. And the moment he has his thoughts down, before the dreamfog has completely lifted, he laughs aloud again. "Haha! Ah - Julianne! Julianne!" He skids inside Julianne's Brew. The proprietress knows him well enough by now - he's been serenading the comers and goers outside her establishment for weeks, and has bought no small share of croissants for himself. "Julianne, I have to leave Ambrose tethered outside for a few hours - he should be fine, but keep an eye on the old boy, will you? I've got - I've got to run!"

This is not strictly true. He does not have to run. There is no urgency to the matter that demands that Aiden should have to travel so fast he cannot slow down for plodding old Ambrose. But the urgent feeling is sufficient compulsion for him; and with that one announcement he is taking off down the street in great strides, slowing down only when his lungs are burning and he is plodding up the steps to the Vilfaren estate; sweat-backed and flapping his hat in salutation at the no-doubt alarmed estate guards.

"Duncan-", he wheezes, "I need... to see... Majordom..o... Duncan!"

Spoiler: Aiden's Artistic Proposal

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The proposal is almost illegible with the frenzy in which it was written in places, but Aiden will be very animated in filling in the details. The title on the proposal papers is written with such enthusiasm it seems to have broken the nib of the pen used to write it, commanding a chance to a new color of ink shortly after.

The Legacy Tree

The commissioned work shall be a tree of singularly attractive proportions no more than 20ft in height so not to soar beyond the ceiling of the estate. The Tundra Oak, having been harvested in this fall season, will have shed its leaves and I will strip it of its pliable bark to reveal the smooth hardwood surface within. I will carve the surface of the trunk with pictorial celebration of the Vilfaren family, and illuminate them with precious metal inlays. Finally, I will select an appropriate arrangement of branches in the upper region and I will fashion the strings of a pair of grand harps and seats for two harpists. Thus, the work will be a functional and singularly beautiful instrument in addition to being salutory for the Vilfaren family and a celebration of the seasons. It will not be an inexpensive or easy project, but I think with a few specialists and dedicated action we can accomplish this wonderful feat.
I will outline the matters of difficulty below as I see them.

1. The Tree must be Tundra Oak. Symbolically it is most perfect, as it is deciduous and will have shed its leaves and thus marks the season; but also the species has other qualities. It is hard as stone, and all but immune to frost and fire; a symbol of the enduring power and majesty of our empire and its reach. The tree is in demand to armor the ships of the fleet, and so the choice is not without a touch of military grandeur. It is not enough that the message of the art should be beautiful; the materials for a project like this must be similarly rare and commanding.
2. This will require an expedition. Teleportation magics are, I must imagine, quite expensive; but in this case there is no choice if the initial showing of the piece is to be a debut in the mid-winter of the same year of its harvest. And even if a team were told to set sail right now, fetch a tree and bring it back, it would not arrive with enough time to make the work complete. This expedition will require a considerable investment in itself. The reasons why will follow.
3. The harvest will require tools that do not presently exist. Collection of this tree's wood has so far existed only for military and industrial purposes. I am experimenting with it for small projects presently but the logging teams no doubt have enchanted or adamantine axes to fell the trees and then saw off the limbs. This will not do for our purpose - we must have the tree unmarred by felling. It will need to be taken down surgically, which means people in the tree using tools to cut it down in segments then lowering those segments for preservation, packing and transport. Handsaws, two-man saws and the like are not sufficient for this. Ideally the cutting will be done with some kind of powered saw, like what is normally confined to action in a saw mill, running an adamantine or equivalent blade. I do not know how this will be accomplished; but I do have an idea of a machinist capable of conceiving and operating such a device. Additionally, it will need to be dug out from the permafrosted ground; but my machinest is the inventor of a device that will make that matter, at least, very easy.
4. The tree's preservation is problematic. It can not be allowed to rot and the process of the tree drying once it is taken down will rob it of the aspect of vitality and endurance which is part of the subject of the piece; and the distortion of the wood as it dries may mar the carving. It will require something like a permanent application of the Gentle Repose spell, but it will need to work on plants and indefinitely; perhaps by some token or tonic hidden in the interior of the segments. This is beyond my ability, but one of my best friends is an enchantress par excellance and will certainly be able to overcome this problem.
5. I will need to be advanced a set of adamantine tools. The wood is harder than stone which is excellent for the durability of the art but very difficult to manage instrumentally. I have recently conducted experiments with such tools and I know they are suitable for this purpose. I would be happy to sign a binding agreement that, upon my death, the tools are to be returned to the Vilfaren family for them to bestow upon the artisan of their choosing. This is important, because the upper reaches of the tree will be prepared for carving but left uncarved for the deeds of the the generations to come.
6. We must begin all these operations as soon as possible to supply the greatest freedom of time in which I can apply my craft to the medium. This is a grand project and will take me many, many weeks of work. Before I can begin this, the preservation and harvest processes need to be developed by my colleagues and an expedition undertaken where I can select the tree, and a team of helpers can assist in boxing the segments for travel. But the final result will be a work of art that has, perhaps fifteen segments of trunk and more than a hundred segments of branches. The joins will be mechanical fasteners but they will be hidden by goldwork. Once the festivities are over, it can be disassembled into crates for storage and moved to another location at the Archduchess's desire. No one has made anything like it before and the few parties who would be able to extend their resources to do so after will be seen as imitators. Hundreds of years from now, the descendants of the Archduchess will gaze upon it and consider what they will do to earn their own addition to its design.

Note: As a matter of perfect transparency, I am currently working on another project which uses small amounts of this wood and which I would first complete with the tools I am asking for. It is both a contract I intend to honor, but also it will be useful to have worked to completion with the material before I embark on this greater work.

Yours enthusiastically,

Aiden Sorveaux, Society Artificer
Proprietor of the Saw and Fiddle

Spoiler: OOC:

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That's Aiden's proposal. And, fortuitously, it involves roping in two special friends. Without their consultation, but one thing at a time!