sp [F17 - SP] Visiting a "rival" - «Challenge Of Olympus»

[Macradon 0]

Spoiler

Floor 17
<<Challenge Of Olympus: Blacksmith>>
Recommended Level: Any | Party Limit: 1 (Solo Only)
Must be Rank 2+ Blacksmith | Non-Repeatable
Credit: @Hestia / @Itzal

Rewards:

• 1 Additional SP
• (+1) CD Tool, Hephaestus's Hammer

Objectives:

• Roleplay The Challenge:
  • Meet with the satyr on Floor 17.
  • Meet with Hephaestus outside of Mt. Olympia and accept his challenge.
  • Describe the details of the challenge, face-off with Hephaestus and roleplay out how you best the God of the Forge.

Summary:
Disclaimer:  The God(s) in this quest are NPCs for RP flavor only and cannot engage in combat nor affect the world in any way other than what’s described.

Blacksmiths who have reached rank 2 in their profession receive a notification stating that a rare quest is available to them on floor seventeen. Upon arriving to the floor, a satyr's sudden appearance will easily startle nearby NPCs, and he promptly inform you that you have been invited to the gates of Mt. Olympia. It seems that Hephaestus himself would like to challenge you to a Battle of Crafts.

Players must RP meeting with Hephaestus, and they are free to describe the details of the challenge that is issued however they like as long as it pertains to blacksmithing. They must RP the challenge out appropriately, encouraged to make the crafting battle very difficult, though not impossible. 

Requirements:

• At least one [1] Page (20 or more posts)
• All crafting done in this quest is RP only--no rolls required, and items cannot be given stats or submitted for evaluation.

“@Alec, I’ll leave the shop in your hands. I’ll go give Hephaestus a visit.” the grandmaster blacksmith said with a smile as he exited the shop. Formal jacket on with his sword on his back, Macradon went on a short weekend journey up to the 17th floor. On his left arm was his vambrace etched with each incident, wrapped around it was the chain to hold down Belphegor so the hound wouldn’t just scram wherever it wanted to, everything else was pretty casual as for attire goes, but something peculiar was hanging around Macradon’s neck, the Immortal Stand of Zeus. It was the item that Macradon was given to defeat Leonidas and his 300 soldiers, with power getting as strong as Zeus as lightning arced with every swing, dealing heavy blows to crowds in a single arc, this was probably gonna give him something to bargain with and see where it would go.

[Macradon 0]

Walking up to the teleportation plaza, he uttered “Floor 17, Athenaia.” and blue light covered the knight’s body as he was transported from the first floor to the 17th. Upon arriving at the teleportation plaza, Macradon stepped out and awaited the arrival of the Satyr, as described in what rumors he had heard from wherever. He did not get to take many steps before a portal opened out of nothing, and a goat man walked out of it, having a clipboard in hand like he was some kind of secretary. As the satyr looked over at Macradon, it sighed heavily “Oh no, not one of these … specialties … again …” the satyr said, rather disappointed of its existence and its work it had been set to do. “So this is the satyr, rather weird creature.” Macradon mumbled to himself as the civilians around him screamed in panic from the mythological creature. Macradon looked over at the goat thingy and grabbed his talisman and shook it like it was rustling for some reason. “Medallion’s humming. You must be the target.” Macradon said as he raised his arm up to grab the hilt of his sword and drew it just a bit. The holy light emitting from it as its blade got revealed from the sheath shocked the satyr and made it take back a few steps to get out of range of Macradon.

[Macradon 0]

“I have heard things from my apprentice, and I do not like the way you treat others, and especially not my apprentice.” Macradon said and slowly drew his sword even more. The satyr, shaking in fear while having its hands up tried to plea “Please don’t kill me! I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything to Alec!” the satyr said. “So you know who I’m talking about. Then you should know what you have done.” he said and fully drew out his holy Blade of the Dictator. “I’m sorry! It was rude for me to act this way, it was rude for me to not find respect in you, blacksmith!” it pleaded, but Macradon just stabbed his sword right besides the satyr “It’s Grandmaster Blacksmith to you.” he snarled at the creature and walked into its portal. “No! You need to be checked out on this board, as well as be accepted for an audience with the Lord!” “Do you think I care? You were to my successful apprentice, and he came back supreme, how dare you treat his mentor like this? You’re lucky I'm in the mood for trophy hunting yet.” he snarled once again.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon would begin the mountain climb up to Mount Olympus, soaring over the skies, the place where the gods reside. While Macradon passed by the satyr, the creature noticed the form of the talisman around his neck, it was of clouds and lightning with a distinct aura to it. The satyr gasped and kept its distance from Macradon “An arbiter of Zeus. I am not worthy!” it said in fear and respect “I’m aware. Be glad I didn’t just disintegrate you like I did with the Spartans.” he said with disgust in his voice as he began walking up the trail “You know what, why don’t you carry me up to the top.” “What?!” the satyr replied with shock in its voice, “You can’t be serious, why should I carry you? Do you really want a piggyback ride up there?” “I’m dead serious. Either you carry me up there, or else.” “Or else?” “Well it doesn’t seem like you need those legs if you’re not gonna carry me.” Macradon said and drew his sword again.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Macradon

[Macradon 0]

“No, no! I’ll carry you!” the satyr said, quickly running by Macradon, got down on one knee and held its back ready for Macradon to embark upon this creature. “What are you doing?” he asked what he now thought of a lower life form “I’m preparing myself to carry you, Grandmaster Blacksmith.” “Tsk tsk tsk.” he retorted “When did I ask for a piggyback ride? I want to be princess carried all the way up there.” “You ca-” “Yes I am!” he interrupted the satyr and stood ready to be carried “I can’t carry you like that all the way up ther-” “So you don’t need your arms that’s what you’re saying?” Macradon replied and drew his sword half way “No! NO! I can carry you up there! May I take breaks?” “Now that you’re asking, no.”. The despair on the face of the satyr was obvious, this nearly impossible task for anyone to do like this.

[Macradon 0]

“Sounds better.” Macradon said and donned his heavy steel plate armor and the despair in the satyr’s face only grew worse. As Macradon was picked up by the satyr, Macradon would lay mostly relaxed as the small mythological creature were to lift this knight in full plate up to the top of Mount Olympus “Oh, and it’s Sir Grandmaster Blacksmith Holy Arbiter of Zeus, to you.” he said as a snarky remark to the satyr as he was now satisfied with his treatment "Very well, Sir Grandmaster Blacksmith Holy Arbiter of Zeus." it replied. Macradon had no idea how this satyr actually was, he just did an act for fun, and it seemed to work. Alec hadn’t told anything to Macradon about his journey other than that he succeeded in winning the challenge. The only reason Macradon got a hint to how this satyr would’ve reacted was the way it came out and saw Macradon, so he took advantage of that for now.

[Macradon 0]

Countless minutes, perhaps even multiple hours was how long it took for the satyr to lift Macradon fully clad in battle regalia up to the top of Mount Olympus. Eventually they arrived at the top “Do you intend to fight the Lord, hence the armor?” “Nah” he replied and doffed his armor and went back to his formal jacket “I just wanted to see how far I could push you. You’re a real pushover when you’re face to face with a God.” he commented with a smile as he went into the great buildings. The satyr stood with a defeated expression all over its body, it had done all this for no apparent reason than to stay alive because of this tyrannic dictator. As Macradon was getting close to the smithy, the satyr rushed up and stopped him “No! You can’t just barge into the thr-” “When did I give you permission to touch me.” Macradon replied with blood lust gleaming in his scarlet eyes. “Sorry, Sir Grandmaster Holy Arbiter of Zeus … but you can’t just barge in! I need to introduce you!” “Oh he knows who I am.” he replied and quickly went up to the door and kicked it open “I’m here for the challenge.” he said to the giant room.

[Macradon 0]

Taking a few steps into the smithy, it was darkly lit, the only light coming from the inferno of the forge. It was dead silent in the smithy, no one was working, and the furnace only made a few noises here and there, but nothing spectacular of note. “Alright mr. cripple. I’m here to throw you off Mount Olympus like your step dad did.” he retorted as a joke. A dark silhouette rose up, towering above Macradon like he was nothing but a mere insect “Ahh. Macradon. I see you have chosen to arrive. Your apprentice gave us a visit not long ago, he did a splendid job, I cannot wait to see what you have in store.” a loud booming voice emitted throughout the room and out to the plaza of Mount Olympus. “You, why did it take this long to get him up here?” Hephaestus roared at the satyr “H-he wanted me to carry him up here … “ “And you actually did it? Are you an idiot?” Hephaestus snickered back at the satyr “I am severely sorry for this one’s incompetence. If you would like to punish him, please do.” Hephaestus offered him.

[Macradon 0]

An evil eerie smile adorned Macradon’s face as he turned towards the satyr “Oh no.” the satyr simply said under its breath as the knight approached it. “Come.” Macradon said and walked over to the cliff of Mount Olympus, the ground was shielded off by the clouds, so no actual distance to the ground could be seen from up here. “I-is this my punishment?” “Hm?” "Is this my punishment, Sir Grandmaster Blacksmith Holy Arbiter of Zeus?” “Yeah, I want you to jump over the edge.”. The jaw of the satyr looked over in horror, was it about to commit suicide? Hephaestus came out of his smithy, his crippled appearance was as described, horrible like a defect of his entire body, which was probably why he kept to himself in his dark smithy. “Fun games you have going, Grandmaster.” “I need to get by somehow, toying around with lesser life forms is slowly becoming my hobby.” he replied, holding up his left arm, pointing to the etches of his vambrace.

[Macradon 0]

“Now, do as he said.” Hephaestus ordered the satyr. Frightened from what was about to happen, the satyr had no choice than to do his Lord’s bidding. Getting up to the edge of Mount Olympus, the satyr was about to take its leap, perhaps its final leap, when Macradon pushed it over the edge “Oops.” Macradon said with a snicker as he saw the satyr fall down the mountain “Aaaaaarrrrrrhhhhhggggg!” it screamed in fear as it kept on falling and falling, never ending until it pierced the thick layer of clouds. “He’s immortal, like me, right?” Macradon asked Hephaestus “He should be.” the God replied with a hearty chortle “Let’s get to the business while he get back up here.” Hephaestus said and walked back into the smithy which Macradon followed suit. “I know that since your apprentice bested me beyond my imagination, I can’t fathom how I could even get close to your workmanship.” Hephaestus praised Macradon.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon chuckled “I figured. I got the message of a challenge a long time ago, and I just ignored it. Instead of going as a second rank Blacksmith, I just yearned for the spot as Grandmaster, and here I am. Can it just be any challenge?” he asked the God “I will challenge you to make a sword that will surprise me, show me your finest craft and I will show you mine.”. Macradon nodded in agreement to the challenge “What’s the time frame?” “Whatever you think you need.” “2 days.” Macradon replied, extremely confident with what he could work with. “If you say so, Grandmaster.” Hephaestus said and accepted the challenge “It is clear, then!” he said with his booming voice. A large dark red hourglass appeared from within the walls of the forge and began ticking down. “Your time has started!” Hephaestus exclaimed for Macradon, who quickly left the area to gather what he needed to show off.

[Macradon 0]

Running down the stairs with his cerberus besides him, Macradon quickly went by the crippled and hurt satyr that was slowly stumping up the trail to the top of Mount Olympus again. Stopping suddenly and walking up to the satyr, Macradon offered some help “Should I piggyback you up to the top?”. With a broad smile the satyr nodded, as it seemed to exhausted to say anything than panting for air. As it got up on Macradon’s back, Macradon would let it fall and roll down “Seems like I’m not strong enough, oops.” he said and fell down to the ground himself and rolled down with the satyr, it was fun, it hurt a lot, but it wasn’t actual pain, and it was faster than walking or running. As he got down to the bottom, the satyr just sat up against a rock, defeated, Macradon got up and brushed off most of the dirt off of his jacket and looked over at the satyr “Tell me …” the satyr began “What did Alec tell you since you hate me so much. Was what I did really that bad for your apprentice, Sir Grandmaster Blacksmith Holy Arbiter of Zeus?” “Nope. Alec told me squat about his experience up here, you just mentioned him and I just wanted to see how you’d react. Cya later.” Macradon said with a smile and waved at the satyr as he walked out of the plane of Mount Olympus.

[Macradon 0]

Stretching his body after the long walk and his nice fall down the mountain, Macradon would think of what to work with and what he had at his disposal. Opening his inventory to see if his materials had any value to this challenge. He had a few from the 9th floor that was like a proper hellscape, he had some from the overgrown 19th floor, and a bit from the 22nd floor. He could probably do some work with those. He quickly got out his notepad and began sketching as he found a bench on the 17th floor. “That’s a really nice pendant you have, sir.” a stranger came and said, pointing at Macradon’s talisman of Zeus “Thank you very much. I was given this as a chosen against Leonidas.” Macradon replied and kept on drawing until he had a proper sketch to work out with, something that could wow Hephaestus.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon would sketch further with the design of the weapon as the stranger kept asking questions, slowly beginning to gather a crowd “It’s only day one, but I already hate it.” Macradon through for himself as he kept on answering the many people’s questions. “You’re the hero that defeated the brute’s army?” and “Are you a God?” were some of the many questions that were posed towards Macradon. Most of them he would just keep silent as they had no merit, but the questions where he would be put on the spotlight he would shoot down “No, I’m not the Hero, I’m just a soldier that helped clear out the field.” and “No, I’m not a God, I am a mere immortal.”. After a while he got tired of all the questions and the attention he got and got up from the bench and waved his hand and said “Could you please not disturb me on my work. I’m trying to compete with Hephaestus right now, and you’re all a nuisance for my new Magnum Opus.”. Most of the crowd began dispersin in respect to the Immortal in front of them, but some stayed to be in the presence of what they thought was some God-like creature, but eventually left when nothing else happened. 

[Macradon 0]

There was a lot of bullshit being thrown around at the moment, and even though much of what he said was false, it was still mostly true. He was not immortal, but he was an immortal. He was not a hero that fought Leonidas for the people of the 17th floor, he were a frontliner just fighting the boss raid like he had always done at that time. He was finally alone to work, but he already got what he needed, and he had only used a few hours of the day on creating a mere design for the weapon of choice. He called it his Magnum Opus, but it would probably not be that, since it was just gimmicky, but still felt like it was something a God, Demi-God, or some other arbiter like entity would use. With everything gathered, Macradon would venture up Mount Olympus again to meet Hephaestus.

[Macradon 0]

At the top of Mount Olympus, Macradon kicked down the door to Hephastus’ smithy as the satyr came running towards him “No! You can’t just interrupt the lord when he has an audience wi-” the satyre said as it tried to reason with the knight, but the knight didn’t care. “I’m back mr. big vegetable!” the knight said as he entered the big dar smithy, and within stood not only Hephaestus, but another person, another god. White draped adorned his body, a big white beard, an olive crown, the one he was an arbiter of. “Oh hey big guy.” Macradon said to the god who was confronting Hephaestus “Macradon! My son!” the big man said as he knelt down to get a close look on the human. “Ah, Father Zeus. Nice to see that you’re finally here. Come to pay your child support?” Macradon asked sarcastically as he entered the smithy. With a look of distraught and fear the satyr looked up upon the God of Lightning “I-is he your child, oh Lord?” the satyr asked Zeus and pointed at Macradon. Laughing with a booming voice, Zeus stood up straight and found a seat to sit at “I don’t know what earthling words you’re uttering to me, son, but I came because I heard you were here. I want to know what my Immortal Chosen is capable of.” the god said, ignoring the satyr. “Macradon, you’re here early, we weren’t expecting you until the morrow.” Hephaustus said “Well I wanted time to gather materials to craft with and to design an idea, but I already had everything I needed, so let’s get this duel on.” he replied.

[Macradon 0]

Hephaustus nodded with a big smile and ignited the battle furnaces. Roaring flames erupted in sheer force, and even though the flames were great, it was still all controlled, as they should be. Macradon for the first time donned a great smile as he went on with unpacking everything he needed. “If you lost to my apprentice, I don’t see how you would have a chance against me.” he said with a mocking tone “I don’t intend on winning, even if I ever did give my all. I just want to bask in the presence of a Grandmaster’s work.” he replied. Macradon could but chortle at the reply as he was being praised by a literal God of Smithing. Lifting up his hammer, Macradon began forging all the materials he had in an interlaced pattern to form the base metal to work with. Squaring off a long tube like shape, Macradon was slowly beginning to widen the material to form the main blade of the weapon.

[Macradon 0]

Trying to get off his great design, Macradon began making a big diamond cross section of the long tube of metal he had been working on, slowly widening out to a flatter diamond with a few variation down the blade. Four distinct sections from the base of the blade to the tip were untouched, still chunks of metal, while the rest was getting forged into proper shape, this was a design idea Macradon had had when thinking of what the blade should look like to look as exotic as possible. When the main parts of the blade had been forged into shape, Macradon began working on the chunks of metal and forging them into position, slowly making sure that it didn’t have too much of an impact on the rest of the blade. Over the course of hours, Macradon was finally done with the blade’s shape and it overall design and then began working on the hilt.

[Macradon 0]

The hilt was a breeze and he quickly got through it like it wasn’t anything. With his finished piece, Hephausts looked at it with pity and disappointment “You can’t mean this is your final product as a Grandmaster. This can’t be your Magnum Opus.” the god said and looked over at Macradon. Zeus’ face was not amused either, this wasn’t what he had come to watch. The only thing special about the weapon Macradon had made was the overall shape of the sword, it was exotic, but that was about it, nothing else really shined from it, it was plain, it was mediocre, there wasn’t anything to really show that it was a masterpiece at all. Macradon smiled “It’s not that special like this, I need something to show how well it does. Do you have some kind of testing dummy I can use? Can I use the satyr?” Macradon asked.

[Macradon 0]

“Go ahead.” Zeus replied without letting anyone else say anything, not the satyr, not Hephaestus, not Macradon. Zeus was looking very unamused by the lack of skill used on the weapon, and wanted to see what it was capable of since Macradon had alluded that it was more than meets the eye. The satyr shrieked in shock when it heard the words “Go ahead.” because it didn’t want to be a testing dummy, but knew that it would be fried to a crisp if it didn’t. Brandishing the blade in a flurry of blows, there wasn’t much being portrayed than Macradon’s skill in swordsmanship, but something that happened while attack was what peaked Zeus’ and Hephaestus’ interest. Between some of Macradon’s attacks the blade shined in a bright yellow, but sometimes a bright green, but sometimes a bright red. It was like the blade turned into a crystal and shined light out of it. Multiple status conditions were inflicted on the satyr from the single weapon, and that was when Hephaestus and Zeus clapped and stood up for Macradon. “Very well done!” Zeus’ booming voice said as he applauded his arbiter. “This was what I was hoping to see!” Hephaestus said and applauded alongside Zeus. The satyr, now crippled as it laid on the ground, bleeding, paralyzed, and struck from the blade was incapable of doing anything and just had to wait out the intense pain, it was immortal after all. Handing over the sword to Hephaestus, Macradon would in exchange be handed a hammer “This is my gift to you, or rather, my reward for you. It’s a hammer handcrafted by me, something only a god can manage to make. It will guide your strikes for perfection every time you craft and I hope you will make good use of it.” the god said to Macradon and accepted the sword as a memento. “Now go back to your people.” Hephaestus said and guide Macradon towards the stairs down to the bottom of Mount Olympus again. “Twas nice meeting you, son.” Zeus said as Macradon departed from the mountain top.

Thread Complete
Acquired:
400 Col
2 Sp
Hephaestus's Hammer

Edited October 9, 2019 by Macradon