Enchanting Magic Items

There are two methods of making magic items. There is the Quick and Dirty method (get all the power you need at once, and bam, make the item in a few hours) and Slow and Sure (build up the enchantment over time). The article below focuses on the Slow and Sure method, specifically, what does the enchanter mage do all day? This is a detailing out of what exactly the Slow and Sure methodology actually is. It can be tedious, but rewarding, just like enchanting items.
This methodology is primarily used for people that want to play an enchanter character, and want more detail than "you spend six months in the shop and come out with the magic sword." Basically, it adds detail to the minimal explanation of Slow and Sure enchantment. It's also useful (due to die rolls and statistics) to A) make items a little less expensive, B) take slightly less time to enchant, and C) make item quirks less likely. For most purposes, such as PCs special ordering a bespoke magic item from an NPC or Mage Guild, the existing rules per Magic are just fine and do the job.

Making Magic Items

Mage researches item enchantment to see what ritual and materials are needed
Mage gathers materials necessary
Mage reduces the materials’ alchemical inertia
Mage or someone begins construction of item
Mage or someone completes item
Mage begins enchantment
Mage completes enchantment
Mage rests
Note: other mages and their effects?

Skills required: Enchantment, Mana Channel, the spell(s) to be enchanted, Thaumatology at 12+ or Alchemy at 14+, Research, appropriate Crafting Skills to make the item, possibly Merchant or Adventuring skills, Mana Block.

The Research

This takes 10d days, + 1d days per spell effect, which can drop to just 1d days per spell effect if the mage has made the item before many times and has memorized the various rituals required. The rituals for the enchantment of various spell abilities get pretty complex; think of it much like an equation with a lot of terms that are interrelated. If one variable is changed, it effects all of the others. This is what the research is for: to find out (theorize) what the final net effect will be. The more spell abilities there are, the more possibilities of outcome (and thus failure).
This is where the skills Thaumatology and Research come in. The rolls (at -1 per extra spell effect after the first; the Enchantment spell itself doesn’t count) are made in secret by the GM. If either is failed, the GM lets the mage make the item, but tells him that it doesn’t work right. Another period of research is necessary to find the problem; this takes 5d days/spell effect. If the roll is only failed by 1 or 2, the item is only quirked; more than that and it’s a total failure. During the enchantment process, the mage has a chance to detect whether he is doing it right or not; this chance is equal to an IQ roll (at a penalty equal to the Thaumatology penalty) per month. Each month, the chance to detect it goes up by 1, so eventually even a moron will know that the item is not responding as it should (of course, doing it quick and dirty will cause more problems, i.e., less chance to see if there is anything wrong).

The Gathering of Materials

This is almost the easy step. As far as the item itself is concerned, most of that stuff can be purchased. Most of the materials necessary for the rituals are easily found (but there are few shops that sell this kind of thing in the proper, usable format). Roll 3d for the number of this type of simple ingredient (this becomes important for the Preparation step). Roll 2d to see how many “esoteric” components are necessary, then have the mage try to find them (this can be done either by having an adventure, with specific materials, or have the mage make an IQ roll (perhaps at a penalty) to locate them). It will take at least a few days to find them; roll 1d-1 per material (unless it’s an adventure, of course, in which case it takes as long as it takes).

Preparation of Materials

Alchemical Inertia (aka Enchantment Resistance), a number normally between 0 and 12, is a relative figure that represents how resistant to enchantment a material is. From the 10% of the magic energy that is invested into the item, subtract the AI (as a percentage the higher the AI, the more energy is wasted and the longer the enchantment process takes. So, for that steel item with an AI of 7): 10% - 7% is 3%; the item retains much less of the energy that is put into it. Any final number that is less than zero is treated as zero for this purpose.
Each type of material has its own AI, which is somewhat arbitrary. Rolemaster has a good list of stuff, I think theirs is based on folklore mixed with whim, and there is a list of Magically Potent Materials in Magic, page 222. See "Materials and Their Alchemical Inertia", below. This also means that there is another spell in the Enchantment College, so that there is a way for the mage to reduce the AI, called Mana Channel.
Note: any subject with innate Magic Resistance has the amount of MR added to its AI. (The average human has blood with an AI of 2; a human with 3 levels of MR has blood with an AI of 5.)
Mana Channel (VH) Regular
This spell is used to lower the Enchantment Resistance of materials for use in enchanting items.
The spell allows a mage to lower the Enchantment Resistance (Alchemical Inertia) of materials to make them easier to Enchant. Each casting of the spell drops the number by 1, unless a crit is rolled, then it drops by 3. A crit failure, on the other hand, means that the AI is forever “frozen” at that level, and can never be reduced farther; at this point, the mage must either throw out the material, or work with it as it is. Note that the material must be “pure” (i.e., a single ingredient, not a combination). It doesn’t have to be chemically/elementally pure, but it has to be a separate ingredient, not a collection of them. (You can work on the carrots and potatoes, but not the whole stew at once.)
The way the spell works is thus: the material has an innate resistance, much like an insulator. Each time the spell is cast, some of that “insulator” is eroded away; mana paths are “burned” through the material. With enough castings, all of the insulator is burned or eroded away, and the material accepts mana more easily. What the mage is actually doing during the spell is “aiming” a beam of power at the material, dissolving away the resistance, sort of like aiming a high pressure hose at a cliffside. The spell actually costs 3 fatigue per hour, and it is a constant-flow process, so if the mage is interrupted during the spell, at least some of the work isn’t wasted.
There is a variant to this spell that acts as its reverse, it is sometimes called Mana Block or Insulate. This adds to the AI, making the item harder to enchant. Although similar to Magic Resistance, it is not the same thing, and won’t affect spells cast on the item. It is primarily used to keep enchanters from messing with a perfectly good magic item.
Prerequisite: Enchant, and Mana Channel for the reverse of the spell.
Time to Cast: 2 hours to reduce the Enchantment Resistance by 1, cannot be reduced by high skill.
Cost: 6 for reducing Enchantment Resistance; 8 for the Mana Block.
Duration: Permanent.
Item: None.

Item Creation

This step may or may not be completed by the mage. If the mage makes it, he gets a +1 to both the Will rolls to stay working on it and to make the daily Enchantment and Imbedding rolls. If the item is Fine, the mage gets a further +1 to the daily Enchantment rolls, and if it is Very Fine, +2.

The Daily Grind

Every day, the mage wakes up, gets some breakfast, then spends eight hours or more working on the enchantment. During the ritual (which cannot be interrupted, or else the mage must start all over), the mage invests his fatigue into the item, of which 10% (minus the Enchantment Resistance) is retained by the item (hence the average 1 point per day per mage, assuming a HT of 10 and assuming that the mage spends all of his fatigue and assuming an AI of zero). Fractions may be kept (mana is not macroscopically quantized). Although the item now contains 10% of the mage’s daily energy, it will not keep it unless the power is “set”. This requires a specially made container or cage (a kind of mana-based Faraday cage) that isolates the item magically so that the mana doesn’t “leak out”. The amount of time it must be “at rest” inside the cage is twice the amount of time it had been worked on, but no more than three times the amount, or else that day’s work is ruined, just as if the mage had taken a vacation, per the rules in GURPS Magic.
The ritual itself and the materials used varies by item, although similar items will have similar rituals. Similar items made with different magic types will have different rituals, although there may be a small bit of overlap.
Every day that the mage is working on the item, he must make an Enchantment roll, based on his enchantment skill (actually, the GM makes this), representing the proper implementation of the ritual. If the roll is failed, the day is wasted, and is treated like a “vacation”—two days’ work is lost. A critical success gives a +2 to the next day’s roll and gives a 20% energy retention rate for that day; a critical failure gives a -4 to the next day’s roll and wastes that day. Remember the Item Creation bonuses, above.
The mage must also make an Embedding roll each day, which is the skill in the spell effect that the item is to have. If the roll is failed, the day is wasted, although unlike the enchantment roll, it is not like a vacation because the successful enchantment roll “held” the magic at its previous level, and it didn’t drain out. If the roll is failed by 1, there is a 50% chance that the day isn’t wasted, but that the item is quirked. If the roll is a critical failure, then the day is wasted and the next day’s roll is at -4. If the roll is a critical success, then the mage either: a) gets a +5% energy retention (basically another half day’s worth of energy or b) get rid of a quirk that showed up earlier (basically, the mage realizes that the item is slightly tweaked, and spends part of the day “patching” the problem instead of putting in extra energy). Again, remember the Item Creation bonuses, above.
The mage must make Will roll each week or take a break for 1d days; this Will roll starts at +4 and goes down at a rate of -1 per week; a crit success counts as 2 weeks, a crit failure means 2d days of vacation, and another will roll to go back to it (base roll, no mods). Once the mage takes a vacation, the Will roll is reset to Will+2, and the process starts all over again. If the mage takes 12 or more days of vacation, then the will roll is at Will+4. This also applies for waiting time between projects (which is why a project generally starts off at Will +4). Remember the Item Creation bonuses.

Multiple mages

The Will of the casting circle is the average Will (round down) of all of the members of the circle. Each must have his or her own powerstones; for each mage after the first there is a -1 modifier to the daily enchanting and embedding rolls; all energy contributed by the members is added together (so if one mage contributes 1.9 points per day, and another contributes 1.5, then the total for the two is 3.4).
Interruptions cause an automatic failure to the enchantment roll, and the mage must make a Will roll; if the mage gets anything but a critical failure, then it is just considered a failure. If it is critically failed, then the failure is a critical failure also, with the appropriate results. This is why enchanters try to stay secluded during the enchantment process (that is, during the “working day”), and resent anyone who bothers them.

Assistants

An assistant is someone who helps provide power to an enchantment, without actually helping to do the enchantment. They don't have to be mages. They just need access to a Lend Energy staff or wand. While it helps if they are mages, and have Recover Energy, it isn't necessary. Their job is to cast Lend Energy, feeding their mana to replenish the enchanter's reserves, then rest, get their own power back, and do it again. They basically can do it seven times in an 8 hour day, with a total of 55 points being added. This assumes the Assistant casts the spell in the morning, sending 7 FT to the Enchanter. They rest for 70 minutes, then send another 7 points. There can be multiple Assistants, but the maximum amount of power that can be invested into an item is 100 per hour (just like Q&D Enchanting).
Note, however, that although they are using an item to cast the spell, it is still being cast. A lot. Which means that there is an increased risk of critical failures. So there are a couple of things that typically happen. One, the Lend Energy item (staff, wand) will have a Power of 16, so the spell is cast at at that skill level. This drives the chance of a critical failure down. Also, the Assistants will wear Bless+1 items. These are for when the critical failure happens: they will mitigate the effects, lessening the risk. Failures usually mean that cycle of power doesn't get to the Enchanter. No big deal. A critical failure could be a problem, but it's a Healing spell, so it's unlikely to be too catastrophic. Critical successes, on the other hand, don't cost the caster any mana, so it's like getting a free cycle that day (7 free points are sent to the Enchanter, 10% of which end up in the item.)
It really lessens the time it takes to enchant. The example of the Accuracy +1 enchantment takes Harald and two Assistants only 13 days to go through the daily grind, instead of 92.
Assistants are paid about $400 a month ($13/day it's a "Struggling" job. Most of the time, the Assistants are sitting quietly, reading or doodling or some such. Once an hour or so, they cast Lend Energy, then go back to resting. It's a job that pairs well with jobs requiring simple paperwork. Accounting and similar complicated work requires too much brain work to be considered "resting".

The Final Ritual

Also known as the Ritual of Holding or the Ritual of Binding, this is done on the last day, and takes 12 hours. This seals the enchantment into the item, and requires an Enchantment roll at -2 (made by the mage, as it is immediately evident if it worked or not). When this is complete, the item is ready to be used. If the roll is failed by 1, then a quirk is put into it, and it still works. If it is failed, then the ritual must be done again. A critical success will give a beneficial quirk; a critical failure will cause a roll on the critical failure spell chart.

Notes

The daily Enchantment and Embedding rolls are technically treated as perception rolls, made by the GM: so beware of Jinxes! Also, skill 16 in enchantment and embedding is much better (and faster) than skill 15, due to the increased chance of a critical success.
In a standard magic world, where mages and enchantments are relatively common (Yrth being a good example), enchanter mages make about $50 per level of Enchantment skill per month (this corresponds to a mage with skill 15 making $25 dollars a day). The best enchanter guilds will frown on slackers who give their guild a bad name by taking more time than necessary to enchant something. Generally, a mage guild will offer a bid on an item, and try their best to hold to it, like any business that has costly, long-term, custom-made products.

Materials and Their Alchemical Inertia

Inorganic Solids
0 Meteorite, Essential Earth, Essential Stone
2 Platinum
3 Gold
4 Lodestone, Mercury, Silver
5 Amethyst, Copper, Crystal, Fine Steel Alloy, Quartz
6 Aluminum, Antimony, Brass, Flint
7 Chalcedony, Chalk, Glass, Limestone, Marble, Moonstone, Most Stone, Sand, Steel
8 Dirt, Most Clay, Onyx, Salt
9 Granite, Iron, Mithril
10 Laen (Glassteel), Lead
11 Orichalchum
12 Adamantium
Gems
1 Dwarf-Cut Star
2 Cut Star Stone, Dwarf-Cut Precious Stone, Fulgurite
3 Cut Diamond, Cut Emerald, Cut Ruby, Cut Sapphire, Jade, Opal
4 Heliotrope, Pearl, Sunstone
5 Raw Diamond, Raw Emerald, Raw Ruby, Raw Sapphire
6 Agate, Zircons
7 Alexandrite, Bloodstone, Carnelian, Garnet, Jasper, Jet, Pyrites, Semi-Precious Stones
Woods
0 Essential Wood
1 Ent
2 Mallorn, Sentient Pearwood
3 Elvish Ash, Elvish Hazel, Elvish Oak, Elvish Yew, Lignum Vitae
4 Ash, Ebony, Hazel, Oak, Hickory, Holly, Yew
5 Aspen, Beech, Birch, Juniper, Linden, Mahogany, Poplar
6 Acacia, Cedar, Cypress, Pine
7 Elm, Other Woods
Essences
0 Basilisk Blood, Black Rose, Dragon, Enchanted Flower, Essential Water, Holy Water, Mandrake, Magic Pool, Myrrh, Purple Lotus, White Poppy
1 Amber, Black Lotus, Black Poppy, Chrysalises, Dragon Blood, Frankincense, Lotus
2 Dogwood Blossoms, Fine Brandy, Great Eagle Blood, Lycanthrope Blood, Human Blood, Elf Blood, Hobbit Blood, Goblin Blood, Aarakocra Blood, Spider Blood
3 Garlic, Great Cat Blood, Musk, Orchid, Pure Spring Water, Red Poppy, Rose, Snake Venom
4 Fine Wine, Ginseng, Juniper Berries, Perfume, Stag Blood, Whiskey, Wolf Blood
5 Alcohol, Cherry Blossom, Lavender, Marigold, Orc Blood, Tiger Lily
6 Animal Blood, Gunpowder
7 Rain Water
8 Lake/River Water
9 Pig's Blood
Herbs, Nuts, Spices
0 Belladonna, Black Pepper, Magic Slimes, Mistletoe, Nard, Opium, Saffron
1 Magic Molds, Poison Mushroom
2 Arsenic, Chili Pepper, Comphrey, Rue, Wolfbane
3 Anise, Balm, Basil, Bay Leaves, Mustard, Sage, Sulphur, Toadstools, Wintergreen
4 Aloe, Asafoetida, Bladderwrack, Catnip, Cinnamon, Clove, Henbane, Ivy, Vervain, Wormwood
5 Almonds, Mint, Moss, Mugwort, Spices, Yeast, Yucca
6 Milkweed, Slimes
7 Molds, Nuts
Bones, Skins, Parts, Etc.
0 Balrog Hide, Ectoplasm, Unicorn Horn
1 Balrog Bone, Basilisk Bone, Bat's Eyes, Chimera Bone, Dragon Bone, Dragon Scale, Dragon Tooth, Elf Bone, Elf Skin, Hobbit Bone, Lycanthrope's Tooth, Pegasus Bone, Pegasus Skin, Rhino Horn, Troll Hide, Unicorn Bone, Vampire Skin
2 Bat's Wings, Centaur Bone, Ghoul Skin, Giant Bone, Giant Skin, Griffin Bone, Griffin Skin, Human Bone, Lion Heart, Manticore Hide, Minotaur Horn, Mummy Skin, Pegasus Feather, Tiger's Entrails, Troll Bone
3 Bat's Bones, Coral, Griffin Feather, Hippogriff Bone, Ivory, Monster Hide, Ogre Bone, Ogre Hide, Stag Horn, Tiger Bone, Wolf's Bone, Wolf's Eye
4 Bull Horn, Eagle Feather, Hippogriff Feather, Raven Feathers, Wolf Skin
5 Animal Bone, Animal Horn, Ibis Feathers, Owl Feathers
6 Sea Mammal Hide, Seashells
7 Animal Organs
8 Animal Hide
Miscellaneous
1 Honey
2 Eggs
3 Bread
4 Apples, Bryony, Pears, Pitch, Pomegranite Seeds, Tar
5 Berries, Fennel, Grains, Grapes, Mango, Onion, Plums, Sailcloth
6 Tobacco
7 Transparent Aluminum
8 Plastic, Metal-Ceramic Composite, Tritanium, Duralumin

An Extended Enchanting Example

The Creation of the Duelist’s Sword

Fine Rapier, with the enchantments Accuracy +2 (1000 mana) and Deflect +2 (500 mana) on it.
Harald the Enchanter (IQ 13, Ft 16, Will 15, Magery 3) will be making it. Enchant-18, Accuracy-15, Deflect-15. He owns 11 10 pt powerstones, which he rotates using 1 per day.
On average, he puts in 16 of his own FT, plus the energy in the 10 pt powerstone, for a total of 26. This normally means an average of 2.6 is invested in the item each day.
A competent weaponsmith by the name of Alisha makes the Fine edged rapier, with a basket hilt. Final price comes to $4000, with a weight of 3 lbs. The basket hilt provides the hand with DR 4. She hands it off to Harald for enchanting. Harald estimates that the item will be ready in 42+16+12+577 days (made up of the time it takes to research, gather, prepare, and actually enchant the item—the 577 days comes from the total mana required divided by the mana he can put in each day). Total of 647 days, or about a year and a half on Velyri, which has a 400-day year.
It will cost the client a total of $53,500, based on $33/energy point.

Step 1: Research.
This takes 10d days, plus 1d days per spell effect (or, in this case, 2d days), because Harald hasn’t made an item with these two enchantments on it. It takes him 47 days of research to figure out how those two enchantments will interact. It was a lot of thaumic math, power flow diagrams, and a full notebook full of charts, equations, and derivations. And a few scribbles in the margins, and a few risque drawings (Harald’s mind wanders every now and then).

Step 2: The Gathering of Materials
It will take 3d of normal ingredients, and 2d of esoteric ingredients. For this project, it takes 10 normal ingredients (usually easily found, either in a shop or in the local environment; these can be as simple as salt or pine cones, or as complicated as tempered steel cubes a half inch on a side). It also takes 8 esoteric ingredients. These aren’t easily found, although alchemists might have some of them, or perhaps a shop specializing in special ingredients (if such a thing exists). These are things like basilisk blood, griffin feathers, or the left eyes of twin blue-eyed babies. Perhaps the search for these can be an adventure. It takes 1d-1 days to find each esoteric material component. In this case, getting those special ingredients takes Harald another 16 days to acquire. (The normal materials can be gathered during this time; it won’t take any extra time).
Step 3: Preparation of Materials
For the purposes of this example, we will assume it takes Harald 12 days to get the Alchemical Inertia to a nice low amount, so that the magic will “take” easily.

Step 4: Item Creation
Alisha the Weaponsmith made the Fine edged rapier, and handed it over to Harald for the enchantments. Because it’s a Fine weapon, Harald gets a +1 to the daily Enchantment rolls (for both the Enchantment and the Spell being enchanted), and the Will rolls to keep working on it without a break.

Step 5: The Daily Grind
Harald begins the actual enchantment process. Enchantments are embedded one at a time, and Harald is starting with Accuracy. Accuracy is one of those enchantments that can be done one step at a time. The first step, Accuracy +1, requires 250 mana. Getting to Accuracy +2 will cost an additional 750.
Every day, Harald puts in 26 mana into the item, of which 10% “sticks”. The rest is “wasted” in the embedding process. The GM makes an Enchantment roll each day, to make sure the mage is doing it properly. If the roll is failed, the day is wasted, and is treated like a “vacation”—two days’ work is lost. A critical success gives a +2 to the next day’s roll and gives a 20% energy retention rate for that day; a critical failure gives a -4 to the next day’s roll and wastes that day. The mage also has to make an Embedding roll each day. If the roll is failed, the day is wasted, although unlike the enchantment roll, it is not like a vacation because the successful enchantment roll “held” the magic at its previous level, and it didn’t drain out. If the roll is failed by 1, there is a 50% chance that the day isn’t wasted, but that the item is quirked. If the roll is a critical failure, then the day is wasted and the next day’s roll is at -4. If the roll is a critical success, then the mage either: a) gets a +5% energy retention (basically another half day’s worth of energy or b) get rid of a quirk that showed up earlier (basically, the mage realizes that the item is slightly tweaked, and spends part of the day “patching” the problem instead of putting in extra energy).
In addition, there is a weekly Will roll to stay on task. It starts at +4, and drops by 1 each week thereafter. A critical success counts as 2 weeks, a critical failure means 2d days of vacation, and another Will roll to go back to it (base roll, no mods). Once the mage takes a vacation, the Will roll is reset to Will+2, and the process starts all over again. If the mage takes 12 or more days of vacation, then the will roll is at Will+4.
The daily rolls (Base skills are Enchant-19, Accuracy-16, Will 16; there is a +1 due to the Fine item)
Harald starts enchanting. He spends time each day feeding power (via repetitious incantations), some of which the item retains. The amount varies, depending upon the Enchantment roll and the Embedding roll. Critical successes mean more power is embedded (those days were more efficient, or Harald figured out a short cut that worked that day, or some other metaphysical explanation). Critical failures can mean the energy that day was wasted, or it could result in a quirked item.
On day 8, Harald has one of those efficient days. He managed not to make any mistakes while repeating the incantations over and over, and his hand gestures were precise and economical. He does it again on day 13. On day 16, he manages to do almost as well; instead of getting 2x the output, he got half again as much. One day 24, he has a really good day, this time giving him a boost to his willpower. He is jazzed, and excited about working on the piece. The following day, day 25, results in one of those really efficient days with twice the mana being embedded. Days 38 and 40 also get double the energy invested, while day 41 gets half again as much as usual. Days 51 and 52 are back to back efficient days, as is day 73. Day 77 is a moderately efficient day.
On day 80, he has had enough, and needs a break. Leaving the lab, he heads to the marketplace, just to see some other people and have a mead at the local tavern. He takes two days off, the only real break he has had in two long months. During this time, mana has been “leaking” out of the rapier.
The break must have done him some good; the day he starts back up again (day 83) is one of those efficient days where everything just went right. Day 89 is another one, and, as it turns out, the last day of investing energy into the rapier. Day 90 is the Final Ritual, a 12 hour slog to “set” the enchantment into the item, permanently. It’s a long, tiring day, but at the end of it is usually a strong sense of accomplishment.

Step 6: The Final Ritual
Roll: 8 (Enchantment -2). The rapier now has Accuracy +1 on it, with no quirks. It took 89 days to enchant. Harald had originally estimated that this portion of the enchanting would take 250/2.6 days to enchant, or 96 days. The critical successes he got shortened that time a little, the Will roll failure added a couple of days. Had he had any critical failures on the Enchantment or Accuracy spells, that would have either wasted the day’s work or quirked the item (although he could have used his critical successes to Unquirk them, taking even more time as he backtracked through the process to find out what went wrong).
The research is done, the materials gathered and processed. Further enchantment is more Daily Grind. Harald will do Deflect +1. That will cost 100 mana. He has access to a 30 pt powerstone, which gives him 46 mana to work with. If he wears 9 talismans of Paut (each with 6 energy), he will have, for a short period of time, the 100 mana required to enchant Deflect +1 as a Quick and Dirty enchantment. Of course, he does not mention this to his client, keeping to his initial estimate based upon Slow and Sure enchanting. It will just make it seem as if he produced the enchanted item a little quicker than expected. Those talismans of Paut will then take 12 days to recharge. Because of the way the talismans work, they can only be used for Quick and Dirty enchanting, of which, in this example, this is the only one that can be done that way. The higher levels of Accuracy and Deflect will require the Slow and Sure method.
Quick and Dirty Enchantment roll: 10. Enchantment is a success. The rapier now has Accuracy +1 and Deflect +1. That took an hour of time. Harald rests for a bit more than an hour, gaining his FT back. His talismans will be unusable for the next 12 days, but he’ll likely not be needing them. Hopefully.
Before starting on the next leg of the enchantment, Harald takes a vacation, taking 12 days. This brings his starting Will roll to Will +4.
His next step is to enchant the weapon with Accuracy +2, which will cost him 750 energy. It will likely take somewhere around 288 days to enchant. That’s too long. He has a few choices: he can invest in a series of larger powerstones, he can access a power plant using Draw Power (in this case, a water wheel), or get some assistants. In this case, we will assume that he doesn’t have access to the power plant, and that he can’t really afford a new set of large powerstones. He gets his assistant, Nedd Maplebark to help. Nedd has 13 FT, 14 Will, and 10 9 pt powerstones. He knows Enchant-15, Accuracy-16, and Deflect-15. He will be able to add 22 energy each day to Harald’s 26, giving a total of 48. This will reduce the time taken to enchant this spell to 156 days or so.
They start their daily grinds. They had a good second day of enchanting; things went very well, and were able to retain 20% of the mana they spent. On day 28, they had a similar day. On day 32, both mages were in great spirits, and were so into their work that their enthusiasm lasted for days. Day 43 saw another really good mana retention day, as did days 53 and 54.
Day 55 there was a setback. Harald misspoke a series of incantations, causing a thaumic gap that caused a mana leak. About two days worth of work feeding in mana was lost. But day 56 was a good day, with efficient embedding, and the lost time was made up in a single day. It would be a few eightdays before they had another good day, which happened on the 70th day of enchanting.
On day 72, the pressures of work got to them, and they had to take a break from the project. There are no weekends, so the job can get really draining. Two days away was enough, and although they lost two days worth of embedded mana, they got back to work. Days 79 and 80 were back to back good days, with double the usual amount of embedded energy into the rapier. Days 90 and 93 were good days as well, with half again as much mana being embedded into the enchantment. On day 95, while Harald was circling the rapier while chanting incantations, he tripped on the hem of his robe, messing up the day’s enchanting, causing two days’ worth of work to be wasted. On day 101, it was Nedd’s turn to mess up the enchantment, again losing about two days’ worth of energy. Day 105, though, was smooth sailing, with everything just working. The efficiency gain was half again as much energy, which was a nice thing to buoy their spirits.
Day 112 was fraught with tension, and the two enchanters had a spat, resulting in hurt feelings and five days away from the project. After the five days, the two mages got back to work, their time in the taverns making the work seem not so onerous. Day 129 was the beginning of a really efficient streak: in addition to day 129, days 131, 132, 133, 136, 138, 142, 143, 144, 145, 148, and 150 were all great days. It was like they knew they were getting to the end of that portion of the project, they could see the finish line, and they were sprinting that last stretch.
But apparently they got a little overconfident, and missed something on day 153. Somehow, a quirk was introduced, and it went unnoticed. Day 158 was the last enchantment day, and it was an efficient one. The following day, they performed the final ritual, which sealed the enchantment into the rapier.
Picking it up, Harald tried it on the test dummy standing in the corner. It didn’t feel any more accurate. In fact, it felt less accurate than after the first part of the enchantment was added to it. Swearing, he and Nedd went over everything they had done, and neither felt that the enchantment didn’t take. Everything felt successful. They spent some time using Analyze Magic, and going over their theoretical notes, and finally figured out what happened. A quirk had been introduced, and they completed the enchantment before figuring it out. As it happened, the quirk required a song to be sung to the rapier every week, or the Accuracy enchantment wouldn’t work.
The two of them catch up on their lives for the next eightday and a half. They need to do the Deflect +2 enchantment, which will cost 400 energy, and they think they can do it in about 83 days.
Harald and Nedd start the long enchantment process for Deflect +2. They start off well, with a boost to the invested mana on the very first day. It must be a good omen, because they do the same thing on the second day. Three day’s work in only two days!
On day 7, however, something goes wrong. Harald and Nedd don’t realize anything is wrong, but a “transcription error” made it into the rapier’s thaumatological DNA. It has a quirk (in this case, the wielder of the sword disappears whenever there is a communal meal in his presence; he reappears when the meal is over. He can only eat alone.)
Day 8 sees a very efficient day, with 2x the usual amount of mana being invested in the rapier.
Day 19 is Harald notices that there are subtle fluctuations in the mana flows, and they spend some time tracking them down. Turns out that there was a quirk in the thaumic matrices, and he and Nedd spend some time fixing that, removing the quirk. They got the vague sense that it involved temporal magic, and displacement, and, for some reason, both of them were utterly famished when they were working on the problem.
Day 21 and 30 both had moderate increases to the amount of daily mana investiture. Day 37 was really, really efficient: 2.5x the usual amount of mana was put into the item. (Critical successes on both the Enchant and Embedding rolls). Day 42, 44, 47, 52, 54, 55, 67, 68, 73, and 74 all had efficient mana embedding, either at the 1.5x or 2x level.
The Final Ritual took place on Day 76. 7 days ahead of schedule! The item was now complete. Accuracy +2, Deflect +2, albeit with the limitation that a nursery rhyme must be sung to the sword on a weekly basis.
The whole process took 400 working days, or 433 days start to finish. The first 165 days Harald was working alone. The other 235 days, both Harald and Nedd were working. They are paid $53,500 for the job. Harald is paid 41.25% of the total for the days he worked alone, the rest is split 50/50 with Nedd. That comes out to be $22069 for the first 165 days, $15715 each for the other 235 days. Harald pulls in $37,784 for his work; Nedd gets $15715 for his.
Since working for an entire Velyri year without pay would be difficult, we shall assume that the client puts up the money in a bank, and the bank dispenses this money on a monthly basis in equal payments. As there are 10 months in the Velyri year, this works out to be $5350 a month, for 10 months. There are 5 eightdays per month, so it works out to $1070/week, or about $134/day ($67/day when Nedd was working too). This works out to a Wealth level between Comfortable and Wealthy. During the first half of the project, before he brought Nedd on, Harald was making a bit over 6x the typical monthly pay (Wealthy). After Nedd started working, they were both making about 3x the typical monthly pay (Comfortable).
It’s a good paycheck; enchanters are rare, and always in demand.

Background Data (the actual rolls and calculations)

This is for those people who want ALL of the information, as opposed to those satisfied by the above summary narrative. But I figure, if you are going to do this, it's good to see all of the rolls to be made. In practice, if a GM is running a PC enchanter through this, the narrative will be happening for each roll, even if it's just "Wednesday you work on the enchantment for 8 or so hours, and you embed 3 energy into the item." It's the critical successes and failures (and regular failures) that make the day-to-day stuff interesting. And none of this includes interruptions by friends, colleagues, clients, or angry mobs with pitchforks and torches.

Accuracy +1

Deflect +1

Harald Uses his Paut talismans and uses the Quick and Dirty Enchantment method.
Enchantment roll: 10
The Rapier of the Duelist is now Accuracy +1, Deflect +1

Accuracy +2

Deflect +2