Strengthening my shield

I rather like my shield, so while I am becoming more and more proficient at floating large things, I am loathe to swap it. So I decided to reinforce it a bit. As you will have already learned, there is a spell that has the capacity of making your shields sturdier and heavier. So after a short trip to Skund forest to get the spell, an ironwood riving and a sliver of octiron, I went to my favorite smithy in Ankh-Morpork and got working:

This is the smithy attached to the weapon and armour shop. A large forge sits in one corner of the room with a blazing fire inside and a kettle on top. A large battered anvil stands in the middle of the room while next to it resides a table which holds a wide assortment of tools. A slightly burnt door to the east leads back into the main room.

There is one obvious exit: east.

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You are unburdened (34%) by:

Holding : a gold-veined khopesh (left hand) and a Klein bottle (right hand).

Wearing : Wyvern's Talons, a gold and mahogany ring, Koi Mistress, a star sapphire ring, a spinning elegant ring, My Precious, Fata Morgana, a fine cool white burnous, The Deceiver and a blue crystal ring.

(under) : a jewelled belt loop, a twisted black amulet, three Blorplesses, Everbright Bauble, Frostkiss Sentinel, a blackened canteen, a Sung family crest, a mobius strap, an ornate bone backpack, a dark violet wizard's lunch sack, a pair of dark sapphire earrings and a medal of greatest honour.

Carrying: an ornate bone shield, an orange sliver of octiron and a foot-long riving of ironwood.

Your purse contains 5 Ankh-Morpork ten-dollars, 131 Ankh-Morpork dollars, one Ankh-Morpork ten-pence, 7 Ankh-Morpork pence, 2 Agatean Empire ten-rhinus, 4 Agatean Empire rhinus, 6 Ephebian minae, 63 Ephebian staters, one Ephebian drachma, 2 Ephebian oboli, 4 Ephebian derechmi, 6 Genuan livres, 2 Genuan vingt-cents, 17 Genuan cents, one Lancre crown, 6 Lancre shillings, one Lancre sixpence, 2 Lancre tuppences and one Lancre ha'penny.

cast lleb on shield

You prepare to cast Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast on the ornate bone shield.

You hold the octiron sliver in one hand, urging it to liquify like molten gold.

Holding the ironwood riving horizontally, you command it to spin in place in front of you.

You slowly draw the liquid octiron across the full length of the spinning ironwood, coaxing the two to merge into a single, miraculous amalgam.

You stretch out the liquid octironwood into a thin sheet and wrap the ornate bone shield up in it completely.

With a final exertion of your will, you bind the octironwood to the ornate bone shield and watch it sink below the surface.

The ornate bone shield feels sturdier now.

Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast

What's it called? Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast (or LLEB for short)               

What does it do? It makes a shield heavier and sturdier. Why would you wish to do that, you might ask? Well, this is due to the characteristics of magically floating a shield for self-defense using Endorphin's Floating Friend. Heavier shields are more difficult to float but resist more damage before being knocked out of orbit. Once you acquire more proficiency in magical defenses, you regularly need to 'upgrade' to a heavier shield and abandon your previous one. This new spell allows you make the previous shield heavier, and therefore, to continue using it, which you might like to do for a variety of sensible reasons (old shield looks cool, the recommended upgrade is too expensive or it is too scarce...).

Where is it? It is one of the new hedge-wizard spells that are to be found within the pages of the Pracktical Hedgecrafte grimoire, in Skund.

What does it require? a sliver of octiron and a riving of ironwood, both of which are consumed ('merged' with the shield) in the process.

What skills do I need? gold, turning, enchanting, water, binding

Has it worked? A successful output should look something like this:

You prepare to cast Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast on the antique round shield.

> You hold the octiron sliver in one hand, urging it to liquify like molten gold.

Holding the ironwood riving horizontally, you command it to spin in place in front of you.

You slowly draw the liquid octiron across the full length of the spinning ironwood, coaxing the two to merge into a single, miraculous amalgam.

You stretch out the liquid octironwood into a thin sheet and wrap the antique round shield up in it completely.

With a final exertion of your will, you bind the octironwood to the antique round shield and watch it sink below the surface.

The antique round shield feels sturdier now.

Notes: A line of description is added to the shield on whom the spell has been cast:

Occasional shimmers of multi-coloured light ripple across its surface.

The spell can be cast multiple times on the same shield, making it heavier each time (and perhaps increasing the casting requirements? Needs to be tested). A failure brings the shield upon your head, destroying it in the process.

The weight increase, in my case, was roughly of 3 pounds (about 7 before casting, about 10 after casting). I imagine it would be the same for everyone.

Help Information:

Luquayle's Longevity-Enhancing Ballast

A second-order miscellaneous spell that reinforces a shield. This process causes the shield to weigh more than before, but also increases the amount of protection it provides. In most cases, this process will also increase the overall durability of the shield.    

 It is possible to cast the spell multiple times on the same shield, but there is an upper limit to the amount of additional mass that any shield can be expected to accommodate.

This spell requires a sliver of octiron and a riving of ironwood to cast.  Both of these components will be consumed in the process of casting the spell.