When Tim returned to his own shop, none the wiser for having consulted his old tutor, he'd hoped the old wizard might have some knowledge pertaining to strange musical instruments but no such luck.
He'd said that he would return to the problem when time permitted, which was really a euphemism for 'I've given it up as a bad job', but in all honesty he really hadn't the spare time from keeping up with the flow of orders from the Citadel merchants.
Timothy Tinkletap Toymaker had an enviable reputation for the quality and unique nature of his products that, it was said, fetched almost any price asked abroad where wealthy princes and potentates were amused by such thing s although the toys were meant for children and their games that imitated real life occupations such as farming and soldiering with tiny warriors that fought with real swords and rode on mechanical horses.
Clockmakers also bought these mechanisms to imitate the clockwork if they could but rarely succeeded, muttering darkly about the forbidden use of magic when in fact it was simply a matter of patience and precision that few of them possessed.
His conscience now goaded him, was he too just another artisan too idle to really make the best use of his time and experience?
"I think not!" he expostulated aloud 'where there's a will there's always a way' his old tutor had gently remonstrated as his parting remark after Tim's feeble excuse about lacking the time to work out the problem.
Time to sit down at his drawing table and sketch out a few ideas. Break the problem down into seperate parts, deal with them step by step, that was the way to go. So having ascertained that the instrument must be driven by air pressure and that quite a lot would be needed to provide a constant supply, then surely a large chamber or chest possibly room sized would need to hold the supply. So a very large pair of bellows possibly powered by a water wheel suitably geared up would do the trick and as it happened he knew exactly where to find the one required.
Since the elves had requested he turn his talent to making such a music engine, it would make sense to ask the dwarves for help by adding some new machinery to the laundry he'd designed and built for them. In fact they would be the ideal help mates because when he succeeded he'd need them to carry the disassembled machine over the mountains to the elves.
That brought back memories of how he had sailed across that lake to the perilous island where he discovered those perfect reeds for his earlier attempt at making a portable wind instrument he called the harmonizer.
Reeds not pipes, would generate the tones that then the pipes would modify by their length and diameter. So he would need an array of lever actuated valves to direct the stored air to the reed or reeds. So far so good but it didn't explain how the sounds he'd heard in the tower were made, they had a depth and quality he'd never heard before. That was the nub of the problem, the rest was straight forward.
Worse yet the machine would be bulky, heavy and have to be constructed on site not transported there ready to be assembled because the Barrier would not allow any thing to pass and only a few any ones it deemed as non threatening.
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