[Tee]

The journals are a set of quite old leatherbound books. Over 90% of them are filled with ledgers and purchase orders, but tucked away in the margins are copious notes, diagrams, and schematics as well as a few scattered, actual journal entries. 


Winter, 1621

Finally away from them! Those hoodlums were nothing but trouble anyway. Been laying low for two months now, figured I ought to keep track of days.. And make notes. Now that I've had time to clean the grime off, I still got no idea what this thing is. All the parts seem to be connected together somehow, and it's much heavier than it ought to be. Good practice for my metal magic, this thing. Seeing into it. 


Spring, 1622

Lost track of time. Is it springtime already? This thing! I hesitate to call it armor, but it's definitely not a hollow statue. Lots of pieces missing.. The more I pore over it the more it baffles me. Keep planning to go back to the cave.. Could I even find it again? I can't stop my work now on a wild goose chase. Cylion, gemstones. And orchi, so much of it! How is this even possible? Who made this?? 


Summer, 1622

Some mysteries slowly unpuzzling. Not a golem, not a standard suit of armor. The wiring is unbelievable, as in, nobody would believe me if I told them. IS it wiring? Is it runes? How did it get embedded in the metal and cylion like this? Everywhere I look I see another impossibility staring me smugly in the face! It's maddening!

Settled in Southbend. Terrible little town. Everything stinks like fish. But the privacy is worth it.

Winter, 1624

I can't copy it without dismantling it. But do I dare? I have to know. I have to KNOW! How does this WORK? I can't think of anything else. Getting at the denser inner wiring, closer to the occupant - wielder? user? - means I have to dismantle it. If I can? But how? No identification on the metal yet either.. Nyeshk and mythril maybe? 

Closest guess so far is a Magnolian war suit of some kind. But I showed some of the Mag sailors a few of the design patterns and they couldn't identify it. It was buried in three feet of cave gunk, how long had it been laying there..? More questions, fewer answers..

Reverse engineering this won't be so hard if I make enough notes and blueprints. Just time-consuming. Two years, tops.

Summer, 1633

Hahaa! The ceramic cast-forge melting process worked perfectly. The orchi has to be cast as a single strand in three dimensions, then set it in the mold and plasma-weld the plates into the cylion. Took so long to get the treating process right, but the cylion melts against the steel, then it's cooled and reforged. At last!

Two more years to completion, maximum.

Spring, 1637

Finally got back to Southbend. How long's it been since I took a trip? 10 years? 15? The Academy was in full form but they quieted down when sufficiently bribed. My inventions aren't a competition with their laboratory! I don't even care! I just wanted to see the boot.

And what a boot! An exact match to mine. And best of all, they identified it! Ha! They gave me the picture of what they thought it looked like. Pretty close.. Maybe mine's a different version? Their version's thinner. Only has two layers..?

They said it's Astyan. ASTYAN!

Nobody will believe that! Nobody will even know the difference if I just say the design was mine... What are those Academy snobs going to do, huh? I'll show them all!

I didn't tell them about my suit, of course. The last thing I need is attention to it.


Spring, 1637

That last entry sounded very 'mad science'. I'm not mad, right? I'm just focused.

Rough estimate, 5 more years to completion.

Winter, 1649

Expanded the workshop again and found another old plate. Careless! Work continues. The orchi is the worst part. The more I look the more tangled it seems. Finally started removing the inner plates. Even more machinery and wiring! What does it all do?? 

Stop asking stupid questions, Elmar, and just work. Sense the parts, copy them in the notes, dismantle, repeat. 


Spring, 1658

Farmer's wife down the road keeps bothering me. I keep telling her to leave me alone, but she keeps putting the damn baby on the doorstep. Fine! Just to shut her up I'll hire a nurse for the brat anyway. The plates are worth a FORTUNE! If I sell them piece by piece.. I'm taking them apart anyway, right? It's lightweight but a good finger-width of steel will do the same job.

I have to be meticulous about the dismantling. Every single bit must be perfect, the wiring especially. I'll have to come up with a new forging method to embed the steel...



Winter, 1664

I'm so close. SO CLOSE!

Angharad - the farmer's brat - turns out to be more use than I expected. She's good at sensing the good orchi and she's decent pulling the wire. Don't trust her with anything beyond basic labor, though. I'm not paranoid. I just don't take risks. Not with this.

The suit locks into place from an open position, but the original was in the locked, that's why it was so hard to dismantle.. Once I make one, then I can make more much faster... Fenossi's Interlocking Plate! A fundamental paradigm shift in armored warfare! Yes!


Spring, 1666

Gods, when did I get so old? My work keeps me busy. I care about nothing else. No time for journal entries now, I'm on the home stretch. 

The last plate's been welded and the interior crystals polished. What more is there left to do? Ah, the helmet. Have to be creative with this one. Not much left of the old.. A crest? Saw it in an Astyan painting once. 

I'm more excited than I've been in decades. It's almost ready!


Summer, 1666

NO! THIEF! USURPER! 


THE BRAT!!

What do I do?? I need it back! I HAVE TO HAVE IT BACK! HOW COULD SHE DO THIS?! I have nothing left. Nothing..! She even took the blueprints!

I have to kill her! It's the only way! Literally the only way. The old bandit companies, mercs, that nonsense Academy splinter group.. Everything. Everyone! 

No time to lose! She could be halfway across the continent by now!