Brett_Bullion
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The Forge: A New Year
🕑 Added 2021-01-01 15:01:05 +0000 UTC
It is the time of the new year and the small hamlet you find yourself in has become abuzz with movement and excitement. Surprising, given the lack of living souls you've seen the past few weeks.
Banners have been raised and hung across the streets, an effigy of some goddess or hero constructed in the town's center, and caravans are carting food and fireworks from the neighboring villages. It should be a rather jovial affair. You see a night full of celebration, laughter, and drinking ahead but something holds you back.
You pack up some gear and leave the hamlet hours before the main event, making your way to the familiar dungeon miles out of town where an old friend awaits. You bring along a bottle of wine, one you wouldn't want to share with a stranger.
The ride is uneventful and the familiar stone steps leading down into the earth provide you with a welcoming comfort. As you enter the forge you spy Kuvra, hard at work over his anvil, unaware of time or year; detached from the world above. He glances up at you with a stern look and gives what you can only assume is a smile when you hold up the bottle of wine.
He finishes his restoration, wipes his ashen brow, and lumbers over to you, dragging a kingly throne and carrying his work stool with him.
He offers you the throne and takes a seat upon his stool.
You spend the night discussing the worlds above and below, strange traditions and celebrations. As the bottle empties, Kuvra leans back and pulls a large wooden chest forward. Inside lies golden treasures and magical artifacts the world has not seen for decades, maybe centuries. He pulls out three of these treasures.
"Take one," the large minotaur speaks. "A gift for coming to visit this old monster and sharing your wondrous tales... and that bottle of wine." He grins.
