To the root

[Anastasia]

Within are forges, the heat of this place heavy. Dozens of dwarf-ants work here, all at the art of forging weapons, armor and tools. They work in smooth tandem, coordinated and precise. Not a step is misused, they go from task to task, often aiding one another without needing to be asked.

[Iron Dragoon]

"... They are born for this, I can tell..."

Alyssa wanders the forges, inspecting tools and projects while keeping out of the way and watching to see who the forge master is.

[Anastasia]

Smooth as the ripples in water, the dwarf-ants work around you. You look around a bit and the answer is not obvious - no one commands, they all simply work in harmony together.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa wonders to herself if there's some sort of low level telepathic bond in play here while she looks for any new techniques they're using while she returns to their escort.

"Very impressive. Which one is the Smith you mentioned before?"

[Anastasia]

"He is not here," Is the answer, Castel stepping forward to answer. "He should be here soon. If he is not here, he is seeing to his mate."

There's noting truly new you're seeing. It's simply an unnatural level of skill, precision and cooperation. It's doing things very well rather than doing it in a new way. When they help one another, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts. Weapons end up stronger, sharper - sometimes even gaining or losing mass with no reasoning that you can tell, and once you catch silver inlays turn to platinum on a sword.

[Iron Dragoon]

"Is anyone in charge?"

[Anastasia]

Castel shakes his head, "They work in harmony," Is his answer.

Emily watches this before, "They work so well together. That's the real prize rather than the techniques."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods, "It is. How do they manage it? Identical thought process? Telepathy?"

[Anastasia]

"It is natural," Castel gestures with one strong hand, out at the workers. "Many are stronger than one."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Yes, but their knowing of each other's movement is unusually exact. I'm interested in how they do it. Are they reading physical cues? Do they simply do the processes exactly the same, every time, without deviation?"

[Anastasia]

"Watch and find out, as Queen commanded me to let you," Is what Castel stays, stepping back.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods and watches while waiting for the armorsmith to show up.

[Anastasia]

Give me a check with a relevant skill as well as Perception.

[Iron Dragoon]

Craft: Blacksmithing/Bibliotheca:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+67 : 12 + 67, total 79[/blockquote]

Perception:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+58 : 4 + 58, total 62[/blockquote]

[Anastasia]

I just noticed. Am I going crazy, or doesn't Bibliotheca Arcana only apply to knowledge skills?