Danta’ar was very excited telling us about their recent discoveries. Technokrestians speak too much!

“Here is what we know so far… There is this mineral… Starun… It used to be a source of magic according to the tales we had heard. The odds of those tales being real were below 4% but since the first readings of a kind of energy we had no record of we figured it could only be Starun. And if Starun is real, then magic is real and the chance of the legends being true is now about 82%. So that huge weird machine our elders always told us not to mess with might after all have some use. But I must warn you we have tried and tried to make it work. We know every piece of gear in there and there is nothing missing or malfunctioning but it simply won’t start.”

“We might just know how to make it work.” Said Hertanyth.

We walked for nearly an hour down a narrow path which led us to a chamber made of metal structures that resembled a gigantic oven. It was so dark and cold that we thought it would take all the energy available in the country to light a spark. There was a main burner with encryptions at the top. That led to a series of pipes and gear, and at the other end there was a lid where the product of the forge could be drawn from. I was still not sure how that structure was powered though.

“You can play with it all you want, I’ll get some Starun and show you something fun!” Said Danta’ar, as he lit a series of bulbs that illuminated the room enough so we could see that the furnace was much bigger than we had previously thought. It was composed of a series of interconnected compartments. There were lids, tuyeres, retorts and burners of all sizes, and chimneys that went up beyond the ceiling. At a point though, there was a different structure, similar to the altar I had seen in Albano’s crypt. There was a lectern engraved with runic symbols and a small slot underneath it. And in front of it, the charging door to a primary combustion chamber six times the size of a lion.

As Danta’ar returned, he carried half a dozen shards of Starun just like the one Hertanyth had collected. He placed them inside the slot below the lectern and as soon as he closed the lid the Starun’s glow became more and more intense. Once the glow lit the runic symbols, Hertanyth and I were hit by an energy wave that expanded our senses even more. I immediately knew what had to be done.

“Now that’s new! I’d seen it shine but not beam at people! Are you hurt?” He asked. Without hesitation I drew Malthus’ Athame and traced over the runic symbols that lay ahead of me. As the dagger completed the drawing cycle, a spark of lightning was cast from the lectern to the ground and it drew a stream of energy all the way forward until it reached a small opening at the bottom of the combustion chamber and lit it with the strongest and most colorful flame I had ever seen. The stream of energy from the lectern to the furnace became steady and mildly warm, and it would go through skin and metal as if nothing could stop its flow. Nothing we could do would stop it and the lid to the stocked shards was jammed.

We had no idea how to stop it, but it was running. The first furnace. And thanks to the contact with the Starun ignition Hertanyth and I knew just how to operate it in order to forge the first Crystal Runes.

“Get all the Starun you can find and bring it to us! There’s much to be done! Myridian will rise again!” Hertanyth yelled as loud as he could.