 Barry the Blacksmith, 1647 GUE Barry (A) / (B) Barry Artwork Barry takes the Sword of Zork Barry waving to Rooper's nephew after Morphius defeat Barry's Voucher for Ben Fyshin Blacksmith Shop, Ext. (low) / (high) / (artA) / (artB) Blacksmith Shop, Int. (low) / (high) / (art) Blacksmith Shop (before transported underground) Misc. Artwork |
Barry the Blacksmith in East Shanbar had a reputation for being enigmatic, dishonest and shifty. He did nice work, but really had to be watched. In the words of Rebecca Snoot, "Count your fingers after you shake hands with him."
Other sources describe Barry as 'one not to fling a lot of BS around', and harshly blunt, saying whatever came to mind (not for effect, but for the mere sake of conversation). This did not mean that he was unfriendly; quite the contrary. He was always open to help others or fix something. Magic was never a passion of his.
At one time, Barry was the county's Chief Swordmaker. But in the 1640s, the curse of Morphius dislocated his East Shanbar Blacksmith Shop to the underworld, along with the rest of East Shanbar. There, he continued his smithy trade, almost always covered in soot and grease from constant labor. Although horses no longer roamed the region in those days (no animals at all save for the vultures), he continued to fashion horseshoes, hoping that they would once day be useful when horses returned to the Valley.
Circa. 1640~1642, Canuk, as he was making his retirement to a condo shack on dreary Ferryman’s Isle in the new underground took one of the horses belonging to Barry, promising to pay him later. Before the smith could open his mouth (Canuk had sealed his lips with a spell), he was already heading south towards the Whispering Woods.
In 1647 GUE, he shined the Sword of Zork on behalf of Rooper's nephew for a mere zm2. The wrong sword was accidentally returned to the adventurer and the Sword of Zork was later sold to Ben Fyshin. When this nameless human found that the wrong sword easily broke upon use, it the blacksmith was threatened. A voucher was given, and taken to Ben in exchange for the sword's return to its proper owner. This blacksmith knew the Old Tongue, and attempted to translate one of the same adventurer's joke, but was unable to as the book's page was ignorantly smeared by one of his greasy fingers.
While Rooper's nephew was raiding the Citadel of Zork, Morphius, the mutant evil who had drawn Shanbar into the underworld, staged a counterattack against the citizens of the Valley; his vultures petrified and captured many and brought them to Morphius. One of these was Barry. After the nephew had defeated Morphius, Barry, along with the rest of the citizens were freed from their stone imprisonment. With the defeat of Morphius, his former cheer-heartedness quickly returned.
TRIVIA:
On one occassion prior to 1647 GUE, Rooper saved Barry's life (further details are wanting).
| SOURCE(S): Return to Zork (game, design documents) |