The Piggyback Acorn (Chapter 1-11: Alchesmith's Forge)
The wooden door of the Forge, three inches thick and reinforced with iron ribs, clangs against a delicate bell. Cold, damp mist hangs in the foyer, stinking of molten metal and all sorts of exotic substances. Woodberry shivers. The handle of his Q'uonan's axe strikes the door frame, forcing him to dip low to enter. Q'UONAN: "Zudin, this place is much like my homeland..." WOODBERRY: "Ew, it makes my eyes sting." Stacked from floor to ceiling against each wall, leaving only a small patch of open floor in the center of the room, are strange objects of every shape and color. Filthy piles of cloth and leather, hunks of contorted weaponry and household tools, colorful jars filled with powders, insects, glowing liquids, preserved animal parts, and bones. WOODBERRY: "Anyone here...? We're looking for... someone... um..." Q'uonan inches toward a cluttered counter resembling a work station. Further inside, an ashen black