Seek thy abyss. The light blinds the darkness binds.

[Lucia]

I could use all the suggestions you have. Castle ownership isn't something I'm good at. But what is a soul forge?

[Raleigh]

Very well then. *Stone flys from the ground around the two and begins to form into gargoyles that seem perched and ready to defend the castle. For some reason the mark of life is engraved upon their heads for a moment before fading from mundane sight.* That should do for at least a first line of defense.

A soul forge could have multiple meanings depending upon both its intended and applied usage and also the worlds one is familiar with. In this case I am referring to a forge that can be used to work metals and materials into enchanted trinkets of some power through the use of soul fires. Soul fires being the energy of a dedicated soul. One way to look at it is with this progression: normal fire to make a normal blade, hell fire to make a blade of darkness, holy flames to make a blade of light, star fire to make something of a relic class blade, and finally soul fires gathered from warriors to make an artifact class weapon of immense battle power.

Come to think of it, do you have any weapons or items that you can use should you fall under attack?

[Lucia]

I have my magic, and the flesh on my back. I was given no supplies on my trip.

A soul forge sounds nice. And definitely useful.

[Raleigh]

I can grant you this but it will be up to you to collect the souls for use if you desire to apply it. The good news is that they can handle all the other fire types as well so you don't have to worry about upgrading later. *An hallway forms along the right side of the castle leading to an almost independant building, a safety precaution, that would house a forge and smithy.*

[Lucia]

That sounds good then.

Lucia smiles

Thank you for all this. You have been a great help. I do wonder though how to operate this. I don't suppose you could teach me to use a soul forge?

[Raleigh]

Hehehe, but of course I can. Any particular item or enchantment you desire? *Begins walking toward a door into the forge.*

[Lucia]

Hm. Something to provide me with more magical energy would be useful. I always need that. Or you could just demonstrate by making whatever you see fit.

[Raleigh]

Very well. *Walks through the door into the forge and slides a small brick of metal into his hand.* This particular metal is somewhat rare in a few worlds. I've heard many names for it but its basically a form of titanium. This is just enough to make a ring. *Walks to the forge itself and simply waves his hand at it. A sickly looking green flame starts up inside the forge while he puts the metal in a melting pot to place within.* That particular soul fire there comes from a powerful magician. Might I point out at this point that the idea isn't to use up all the energy in the souls fire. You want to simply use it to imbue and heat but keep the soul for repeated use. While souls can not truly be destroyed they aren't exactly easily created either. As as matter of fact that is the one power my kind does not have but I digress.

You would simply embue the captured soul into the forge and the forge itself will take care of forming the soul fire but it will always be of an alignment to the nature of the soul used. As I stated this one was a mage so therefore it will give a more magical charge and affilation with whatever is placed inside. *Uses some tongs to place the melting pot inside the forge.* Now we simply wait for the metal to melt in those temperatures. Note to be careful here since the fires of a soul, its passion, can and usually do burn hotter than hell fire. If they don't you got something of a sub-par soul to begin with.

[Lucia]

Ah, Interesting. I know a bit about modification and energy of souls, so I see what you're saying. Would it be possible to, say, link a piece of jewelery to myself using something like this? Or even another soul?

[Raleigh]

You mean soul bind an item to yourself? I suppose you could use this to do that but there are easier ways to accomplish that. As for binding souls to yourself, no. The forge can not bind souls to you but you could use it to say imprison a soul in a relic or item. Say you want a blade with a soul of your greatest enemy bound inside then this would be the ideal method of sealing him there. You would, however, have to extract his soul and contain it through some other means in the mean time. There are such things as soul gems and even fairly common crystals can do a great job of holding souls extracted from bodies though.

[Lucia]

Was just curious, sounds fun.

So.. say I want to force an imp into a ring...

[Raleigh]

Forcing an imp into a ring can be done through the soul method mentioned before, you just yank his soul out then place it in the forge here. From there you simply let the forge know your intent, they are somewhat aware of the intent of their user, and then place the ring inside. It will then work to force the soul into containment within the ring.

There are other methods such as simply reducing the physical form of the imp to pure data, the rawest level of information and life possible, and then pulling it into a ring and binding it through a simple bind spell. Though for that method to work you would need the true name of the victim to make it absolute.

Ahh here we go. *Uses the tongs to take out the melting pot full of now motlen metal. A ring cast is used to now hold the metal as it is poured inside of the casting.* Now then I just need it to cool down and we will have a nice if plain looking ring. Its advantage is that it will up your magic power by about 20% due to the imbuing of that mages soul fire. Remember to remove the soul from the forge so it doesn't get burnt out. A soul without its passion might as well be released and allowed to finish its journey to whatever afterlife or what have you it deserves. *Walks back over to the forge and removes the soul in the same method it was added.*

[Lucia]

Okay, I'll remember that. Sounds like it shouldn't be hard to use once I get the hang of things.

[Raleigh]

Its not hard at all, as you said. *The mold is split open and the ring is removed.* There you go, should raise your magical power about 20%. There are other enhancments possible to that ring but that is more of a artificiers/enchanters role to fulfill rather than the soul forge.

[Lucia]

Lucia smiles, slipping the ring on

Now to test. I'll see how my favorite summon goes, hehe.

Lucia grins toothily, as a large pentacle appears outside. A giant snake head appears from it, as the serpent slowly slithers out, long, black, scaly body emerging from the pentacle. Eventually, it climbs up the castle to it's mistress.

Mm.. always fun.
She pets the serpent, smiling.