Swiss Arms 32 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms
Chapter 32

-VB-

[Available Quest: Porcelain

Porcelain is a very valuable trade good that all of the world is willing to have. Learn how to make one yourself.

(Expand)]

Yes… I had forgotten about this particular quest.

It was one of the weirder quests that had no reward or consequences.

Still, it reminded me of what I should try with my pottery experiments. I, however, knew nothing about pottery beyond what little I have seen so far in my life (considering that my parents nor any of my siblings were potters, this meant very little).

This was what I knew from living my current medieval life:

1) Clay used to make pottery is important.

2) How the clay is shaped is important.

3) How the baking process goes is important.

4) Air inside the clay ruins the ware.

I also knew a few more tidbits from my past life:

1) Glaze is as important as clay (for sale).

2) Making any ware with a handle adds a lot more time to the production process.

Now, with these knowledge but little practical experience, I pressed on the available quest’s expand button.

[Available Quest: Porcelain

Porcelain is a very valuable trade good that all of the world is willing to have. Learn how to make one yourself.

Requirement:
*Successfully make a porcelain ware

Reward:
*International Recognition
*+5 LvL to Pottery

Failure:
*Cannot retake Quest: Porcelain for the next 6 years
*Creative Slump (1 year): cannot take Crafting Quests for the duration of the Creative Slump]

Huh.

So this was a serious quest. The rewards might not be much compared to the consequences, but I believed that was because being able to recreate porcelain in Medieval Europe was powerful in and of itself.

The problem with this was that I didn’t know how to start?

Sure, I could go about gathering clay…

But I didn’t even know how to do that.

Hmm.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

Ping!

[Quest: Improve Davos Pottery
Davos has a potter, did you know that? However, he uses some … archaic methods. Normal methods as far as he is concerned for the Swabian lands but archaic nonetheless. Improve his methods to get a reward!
Requirement:
Either
*Reduce pottery production time
Or
*Improve pottery quality

Reward:
*Porcelain Clay Recipe
Or
*Cold Porcelain Clay Recipe
Failure:
*-1 CHA]

I blinked at the quest and its reward. ‘That certainly makes it easier.’

-VB-

“You… want to learn how to be a potter?” Gunther the Potter of Davos asked the unofficial lord of these valleys.

Hans von Fluelaburg (that’s what everyone called him when he wasn’t around) nodded from where he stood respectfully outside Gunther’s house-workshop. A small crowd had come to watch the man, though they should all be working just like he was because it was high noon right now.

“... May I ask why?” he asked incredulously.

Lord Hands hummed while looking up. Probably thinking something ridiculous again. When he looked back down and answered, Gunther was proven right.

“I want to find out how to make pots by the hundreds.”

“... Buh?”

“Let’s start with how you source your clay.”

---

“So you spin your wheel … using a stick?” Hans asked as he sat in front of the pottery wheel with his lump of moist clay on top.

“Yes, Hans,” Gunther answered. He called the man by his name and not the unofficial titles because he was asked to. Hans didn’t like formality, apparently, which was understandable considering that they were all fighting together without distinction mere months ago against the Count of Zernez. “You stick one end of the stick into that hole,” he said as he gestured to the aforementioned hole in the thick wheel. “And you spin it around as fast as you can make it go, then quickly start molding the clay.”

“... Seems unnecessarily manual labor intensive,” Hans murmured.

Gunther raised an eyebrow at that. What did the man expect?

“I’ll be back tomorrow with something, Gunther. Thank you for your help today.”

“Of course, mi- Hans.”

---

Gunther saw salvation and he was Hans.

He stared at the divine device in front of him and felt tears prickling his eyes.

“I’ll call it a pedaled pottery wheel,” Hans declared plainly.

The rest of the village surrounded the two of them, and they all stared at the device Hans had made specifically for him. Hans got on the device to show how it works.

“See these two foot pedals here?” he asked Gunther, who nodded. Gunther didn’t need to be told the little details. He was a man who saw things spin all of the time, and the way those water wheel like wheels locked with one another showed how pushing down on the pedal…

Hans pushed down on the pedal, and the wooden wheels began to click and clack quietly as they spun to the pace Hans set. The wheel on top of the device, set at waist level of the person sitting and spinning the wheel, slowly spun up.

Gunther ignored the aw’s and oh’s of the villagers and bowed to Hans.

“Thank you!”

“Don’t mention it,” Hans replied, and when Gunther looked back up, he saw Hans smiling as if this was what a normal man should do. “Now, about how to pot stuff…”

-VB-

Ping!

[Quest: Improve Davos Pottery
Requirement:
*Reduce pottery production time
Reward:
*Porcelain Clay Recipe
Or
*Cold Porcelain Clay Recipe]

I chose Porcelain Clay Recipe. I didn’t know what Cold Porcelain Clay was supposed to be (related to pottery, I’m sure), but I wanted the OG recipe.

Ping!

[Porcelain Clay recipe learned. Please check your recipe book.]

I mentally brought up the Gamer’s recipe book, which was basically mental sheet of all recipes I knew, and looked for my latest one. Porcelain Clay… here we go!

10 part clay and 5 part kaolin/lithomarge.

“... What the fuck is a lithomarge?”

I sighed.

I guessed that I had to start sampling and mining a lot of different places now to find a deposit of whatever this lithomarge was, huh?

-VB-

“A letter?” I asked Arnold, who had become my right hand man in all things here in Fluela Fort.

“Yes,” he said as he shakily pointed towards the western gate. We were standing by the eastern gate right now. “The King of the Germans sent a messenger.”

I felt my stomach drop.

“Oh shit.”

“Yeahhh…”

I quickly made my way toward the western gate, dropping the pickaxe and shovels I used to sample the soil in the far eastern portions of Fluela Valley.

I was met with seven people, six men-at-arms serving as guards and a nobleman serving as the messenger. I could tell that he was a nobleman because he had a signet ring with what looked like a coat of arms on it. Not all nobleman got to wear such rings; only those with power in a noble family could wear that ring (i.e. head of the family, trusted and powerful patriarchs, heir of the family, etc).

I bowed.

“Greetings, milord,” I spoke, even if calling someone milord mildly irritated me after the recent conflicts.

“Raise your heads,” the messenger, sitting atop his horse, spoke up, and I did raise my hand. “Who among you is Hans von Fluela?”

“I am he,” I said as I spoke up.

He looked up and down at my attire before snorting. “A mere peasant like you dared to raise your hand against your betters. I do not understand why my king has deigned to write a letter to you… but here it is,” he said and gestured for one of the walking men-at-arms to come forth.

One of the armored and armed men-at-arms walked up with a letter sealed with what I assumed was the seal of the king.

The man-at-arms gave the letter to the messenger, who broke the seal and pulled out the parchment within the envelope. He unfurled it and began to read.

“To my subjects,

This is I, Albert the First of his name, the King of the Germans ever majestic by the grace of God, Grand Duke of Austria and Styria, Count of Habsburg and Kyburg, and Landgrave of Alsace.

I write to you from my home and birthplace of the city of Rheinfelden, and have heard of the conflicts that have plagued my eastern Swabian Alps in the brief time I have spent setting just and fair rule of law upon the Lowlands and the Saxons. I find myself grieving the loss of lives and families as a result of this war of greed against God’s own ecclesiarch in these lands. I order the cessation of all hostilities that may still be ongoing at this point in time.

To the people of the newly formed Compact of the Eight, I hereby absolve you of any crimes that you might have unknowingly committed during the current conflict and give you the rightful designation as an independent polity and the title of barony. However, this is not a reward. Should you once again seek and strike down nobles outside of sanctioned wars, then you will answer for your crimes.

Signed,

Albert I, the King of the Germans.”

The messenger folded the letter and looked at me.

“This letter is for you to keep,” he said and gave the letter to the man-at-arms, who walked up and handed the letter to me. I took it gingerly. “It will serve as the king’s peace and evidence of your … people’s newfound title. What say you to your king?”

I bowed again.

“I thank you for your grace and mercy.”

The messenger nodded imperiously. “You seem educated despite your attire. Good. May you never find His Majesty’s ire.”

And then they left.

I looked around at the people who’d been in my fort at the time, who included village chief Kraft.

“Well,” I smiled nervously. “That just happened.”