RR-Nordock Wiki

(or, how to become a master bowyer in Nordock classic or epic)

Once upon a time there was a young elf woman, well - young for being an elf, who came to the big city of Benzor, far away from her elven home. She realized soon that starting a craft would be a good way to get gold and let her have better bows than the one she used or could buy.

She bought a woodchoppers axe and started out a search for oak. It wasn’t hard, even though some nasty goblins and beetles sometime disturbed her work. Once, even a small pixie attacked her, sadly she sold the fairydust from the pixie, not realizing she would need a lot of that stuff further on.

She became better and better in her craft, and one day she found out that she needed other types of wood - elm and ash. She searched the vicinity but couldnt find any. Then she asked a hunter that spent a lot of time in the woods outside Benzor, and he told her that there were some ash and elm trees in that area, but, as he said “beware of the badgers, it’s plenty of them around and don’t go to far to the north or east or the cats and bears will eat you”.
The hunter was right. She wasn’t eaten and she got plenty of wood needed. She gained seasons too, and too late she realized she needed knuckles for special crossbows, but then she never met any skeletons, searching the areas where the undead use to be. She had to ask other fresh members of the city to hunt for her. She also needed different dyes, but being friend with a tailor helped a lot.

Bowstrings were a nightmare. She couldn’t make silver bowstrings, but a kind tinkerer helped her with that. She also needed wisp essences, and they where gathered along the road to Brosna.

Step by step, she gained in her profession, until she began searching for yew. It was nowhere to be found around where she worked. A grumpy half orc told her to look far north where the polarbears roam. She put on her warmest clothes, went through Benzor and continued towards the northern traderoute, only to get killed by evil zhengi tribesmen. It took several seasons before she trodded that path again, and now the zhengis wasn’t such big threat anymore.
Hindered by cold, wolves and ogres - but not stopped, she finally made it to the small grove where the yew trees grow. But she needed a lot and when time went by, she grew more and more tired of fighting her way every time she needed yew.

No tinkerer helped her with the pulleys either, so she had always a pouch where she could see the bottom when she began making compound bows.

One fine morning, she had finished it all. Too many times, she had travelled between Mulrok and Benzor. Even though she had a lot of bags, they were instantly filled when she began making her bows. Her tools, even if a kind weaponcrafter had made them out of gold, were breaking constantly. She had mourned the fact that she couldnt make tools or ingots on her own at least a hundred times. But finally she had reached the end. Or nearly.
There were only two bows she hadn’t made, and to become a master she had to at least try to make one of them. She quickly realized that the demon horn needed for one bow was too hard to get, so she concentrated on the hardest one. A battle bow that suited her heritage. It had several disadvantages though. She needed a lot of dragonblood, fortunate a great killer of huge lizards helped her with that. She needed a mithral bowstring, and a kind tinkerer helped her with that. She needed ironwood, and a mighty lich killer helped her with that. But no one helped her with the ideal cut rubies neded.

The price for them offered by a master gemcutter was 70 000 each, more gold than she had seen in her whole life, so she began the grand arts of gemcutting and mining. It took long time and she nearly learnt to speak gnomish before she was finished. But at last she had made the rubies needed. First try making the bow was a failure, but several weeks later, when she had gathered all material one more time, she finally made it, got the last experience needed, got a really good bow and could titulate her “master bowyer”.

Rarania Dy’nesh, arcane archer on epic