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The Calm Before the Storm Mini-Event
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| 🜙 By the Sea | |
| With the return of life to the bay the waters are once more shimmering, flashing, rippling and splashing with all manner of sea life. Dolphins perform acrobatic leaps and dances out in the deeper waters, fish dart in and out of the waves, following them to the shore and retreating with them. Near the Sunset Gate leading out into the Glass Sea the waving sail fins of small sea serpents or hunting flying fish can be seen breaking the surface before disappearing into or out of the bay.
The docks of Didymos are loud with cheerful songs and shouts as fishermen and merchants work together to load or unload the Didymos fleet of fishing ships, and the sudden influx of fish causes the previously quiet, hungry city to erupt back into vibrant life practically overnight. As Didymos dives back into renewed daily life, spectators observe the city from the edges of the bay, sneaking closer to shore in the hours of dusk and dawn, studying the people and the boats but not interfering unless specifically engaged. If those who encounter them react with hostility, the merfolk respond in kind, attacking with water magic, spears, or weighted nets and throwing weapons made of lashed-together shark teeth. If they do not sense hostility, however, they quietly and curiously mimic the actions, facial expressions, and rough sounds of those who make eye contact or try to speak to them. | |
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| 🜙 Return to Einjar Preparations | |
| After the volunteers have taken the oath, King Sitka introduces a tall, dark-haired elf to the group as Ser Medraut, Expedition Leader and Lead Commander of the Krimnos Knights. Medraut and Sitka explain what happened on the last trip to Einjar and caution that they do not know what to expect with this excursion, only that things have gotten more dangerous in the mountains since the last trip and they need to get to the root of the problem before whatever happened to Einjar happens to Preciposte or Krimnos.
Following the briefing, the volunteers are given rooms in a currently unused inner wall barracks, should they wish to take them. They can temporarily live together in this space and be provided with food, armor, weaponry, clothing, small personal rooms, warm showers, and anything they might request to bring along on the mission, as well as the opportunity to get to know the others who will be with them. The knights do not remain in the same area, returning to their own barracks on the other side of the gate. Those under oath are able to discuss the mission or anything else freely with each other and can find maps and the plans to the new airships at their disposal. | |
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| 🜙 The Travelers | |
| On the night of the full moon the moon rises an unsettling pinkish-red in the sky. Normally this offset hue isn't paid much heed but with the call of more werewolves in the air, the color only adds to the general air of unsettled discomfort permeating every corner and cabin in and around the city. Once again Koroc is no where to be seen, and once again the defenders keep the unified pack of attacking werewolves at bay.
In the days following the full moon, the surrounding wildlands and the city streets are disturbingly quiet. Many residents of the city forego their day to day activities in favor of hiding in their homes and the Defenders seem to be the only ones patrolling the streets. Until a few days after the full moon when a large caravan of boats arrives from the North floating down the river into the canal streets. The boats are covered in colorful canopies and the people who emerge from them are a mixture mainly of humans, beastfolk, arboreons, satyrs, and tieflings with a few dwarves and kobolds tagging along. They wouldn't normally be an unusual sight, their garb giving off the familiar impression of the traveling merchants, except that the city is meant to be closed off to anyone entering during this crisis and the traveling merchants don't usually arrive for spring trading until May. The Defenders seem confused by their sudden appearance. Their attempts to bar the strangers from entering the city are met with passive responses as towering arboreons lift them up to set them aside or dwarves duck under their arms and weapons to continue on without breaking step or their current conversations. They speak with thick mountain accents and wear brightly colored clothing. The unusual group makes their way toward the still standing fixture of the Immortal Duke carrying large barrels and casks they proudly proclaim to be wines or ale. Gifts from the North. As they pass through the streets windows and doors open and the eyes of the city follow their paths. The boats in the canals are left tied and unguarded and curious winged cats quickly overtake the colorful playgrounds. They are soon joined by inquisitive children and brave city dwellers wanting to learn more about the guests who seem so unperturbed by the city's unwelcoming display. During the night a large, central section of the warcamp is set on fire by a volley of arrows from outside the city and the resultant spread and destruction of fire through the warcamp absorbs much of the Defenders' forces and attention. During the resulting chaos the Duke's front doors are flung open and the sound of raucous laughter and merriment spill out of the old building's creaking doors and windows, drawing in even more spectators and curious folk. A smaller group of Defenders rally to seemingly storm the Duke armed with torches and weapons, but despite shouted demands for them to set the building alight for harboring the rebellion they make no move to attack it, enchanted by magic older than the rebuilt city that prevents those with intent to kill the patrons or destroy the Duke from lifting a hand or claw against the once favored drinking grounds of King Ioanrí. Eventually, Dervish arrives and orders the Defenders back to the warcamp to help with the fires Inside the Immortal Duke the casks and barrels are nowhere to be seen but it seems Lorna is footing the bill for any and all drinks, food, or beds claimed by any patrons of the old tavernkeep for the evening. She can be seen having a cheerful conversation with a dwarf woman at one of the upper-level tables, but neither move to join the festivities below. An unusual satyr with striped legs carrying an unfamiliar instrument and an avian beastfolk with very colorful plumage sing unfamiliar songs by the fire. The strangers seem eager to talk to anyone willing to listen. If asked where they come from their response is vague but forthcoming: Either Over the mountains. or Far, Far Away | |
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no subject
And it fires small, rounded arrow-heads loaded with powder at a speed you can barely see when you pull the trigger. As far as I can tell it uses a small, contained explosion to fire them that fast, and this is the stuff that makes the magic happen.
[He uses his sparker to light the powder, quickly jumping back with an almost manic grin on his face. In a flash, the tiny collection of powder goes up in flames that rise up off the stone about 6 inches with no wood or fuel in sight. The flare-up only lasts 3 or 4 seconds and leaves behind nothing but black powder ash and scorched stone. He looks to Billie, clearly expecting her to be as impressed as he was.]
no subject
What Rocket described sounded a lot like-- ]
That thing Shura had. Kind of shaped like... [ She gestures in the air, making a general outline of a pistol. Barrel, grip, like a sideways L-shape. ] Kind of like that?
no subject
Called it a pistol. Dumb name. I would have called it a- [He stares down his broken crossbow bolt, rubbing the burnt wick between his fingers with one eye shut and the other squinting.] Handcannon. No- A boomshot.
[He sounds gleeful about it, like a kid naming off collected sweets. No one should ever put him in charge of naming anything.]
Anyway this stuff is explosive and it burns big, but it burns too fast and too hot. The timing's a beast to deal with.
no subject
[ Her bet is on him shooting himself by accident at some point. ]
Does it have to use the powder to do what you want? [ Moving on back to the crossbow bolts, though. ] Because that fuse is always going to go out unless something is protecting it.
no subject
I think the fuse is more the problem than the powder. The pistol doesn't even have one. The bullets, the ammo for it, they've got this little metal bang button pin that the pistol slams into the powder in the metal case, and the powder ignites and slams off the solid metal head. [In the case of those bullets, it had been a hardened silver tip.] But I tried packing the powder into the back of a metal tip like the bullets and I can't get the crossbow to ignite it, so it hits, but it just acts more or less the same as usual.
[He could maybe replace the fuse with a metal rod, but he doesn't yet have the knowledge of how to progress from that to actually sparking it.]
If I can just ignite it directly I shouldn't need to even worry about that, but then the bolt launches the arrow head too soon. I need a delay.
[He's as much of a nerd as Strange, though Rocket would vehemently deny it. Weapons were his dragons.]
no subject
I was just thinking that alchemists might have something explosive to strap on the bolt instead. [ But that may not be the effect Rocket is aiming for. She looks down at the crossbow he's already working with, considering it a little more closely. ] That is what you're after, isn't it? Exploding arrows? I mean, it sounds like the pistol's ammo doesn't really explode itself.
no subject
Explosives are nice when they hit their mark, but they'd be nicer if they couldn't be dodged. [And that last bit is ultimately Rocket's main goal. Crossbow bolts were fast, but with so much magic in the world, all it took was the slightest forewarning and his bolts would hit useless against a rock shield, be burned up, thrown off course by air, miss due to reflexes or magic faster than his 'mundane' weapon. It wasn't fair and Rocket had a mind to even the playing field.
His crossbow is heavily modified, designed to hold smaller and larger bolts, the mechanisms stripped and streamlined, it's obvious this isn't Rocket's first step into the world of 'improving' his weaponry.]
Launching the arrowhead is good, exploding it is good, both happening at once just makes a mess and only one or the other happening is ineffectual.
I need it to work. [He wants it to work, but Rocket had made a habit of treating want exactly like need.]