![leonid-filinov-Jp5LEHSwY1Y-unsplash.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/internutter/23xKhT5N2XLcNwxuH5C5ubXSQFN77tL2P4VWiVM7y7GtinY7QQfhSfcw2bpEs1hCxWGBo.jpg)

> The apprentice mage welcomed only enough gold, and the charm, to allow them to travel to where Wraithvine asked them to come to set up their little shop. They only accepted enough coin to survive on, wanting little else. After all, this was meant to help others, not to be rich. Helping others made them happy.
> [https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04112-k094-data-for-the-experiments](https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04112-k094-data-for-the-experiments) -- Anon Guest

Wraithvine was right. Aelinor would _definitely_ have enough data for their experiments. The time it took for the charms to wear out with heavy use. The materials that worked the best. The tools that worked the best.

...and why Artificers always kept either an Elf or a Hellkin in their workshops. And the kinds of people who could be just as useful.

Those with magic in their blood and bones could push their innate magic into solid things. And in the swamp's workshop, in the stilt houses of Muddihollo, there were more than a few Wudzgaad and Trolls wandering about. Neither of whom were terribly keen on what Humans called 'civilisation'.

They _were_, however, very interested in repelling small pests.

So they were chief obtainers of interesting potential materials. And occasional experimenters with imbuement.

Artificers know that the finger of an Elf or the tail of a Hellkin add extra power to inscribed runes. What's lesser known is the potential inherent in a freely donated branch from a Troll[1], or the toenail of a Wudzgaad.

And yes, clippings work. Just so long as they were freely given.

For the Wudzgaad, Aelinor learned that phases of the moons were especially important. When the daughter moon cast her shadow on her mother, and made an eye in the sky, that was when a Wudzgaad toenail was incredibly potent.

For a Troll branch, it did well to keep it in local mud.

Leather was always the best medium for the runes to stay in. Magical items almost always used material from living things. The theory being that life was so darn unlikely that it _had_ to be a form of miracle.

Artificers and Natural Philosophers were both working on that theory. Testing it to the breaking point.

For the _rest_ of Aelinor's research, they would be testing that, too.

[1] Trolls are cogniscent walking trees. People used to think Trolls and Ents were different creatures. Ents are actual elderly Trolls.

[Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@leonid_filinov?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Leonid Filinov</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-small-pond-surrounded-by-tall-grass-and-trees-Jp5LEHSwY1Y?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>]

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