ctrlsaltdel
op2024
Ariamis
Double
Lord Zee
Goldeagle1221
wintersoldier
Snowdrops
LG
wordcount: 5293 (+6 Edward) (+3 for Minda / Rapport)
Midna: level 9 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (183/100)
Edward Portsmith: Level 3 ////////////////////////////// (24/30)
Location: The Avenger
After hurriedly finishing his cooling meal that he’d left unattended in the name of jotting down as much info as he could, Edward had three things he needed to do.
First, he headed back to his room and equipped his armor and weapons, despite the fact that neither magelock was going to be of much use in the magic suppression field that would be keeping them safe.
With his sword flattened in the train crash after he had dropped and failed to retrieve it in time, that left him potentially entirely unarmed in the magic suppressor, something his second task would hopefully rectify. That task was a quick jaunt to the spirit chamber, within which he donned the absurd hat that supposedly would improve his odds of a good item.
He had, after using his striker to heal himself, mixed feelings about if his odds had actually been improved or if the harmful headgear was merely perceived as doing so.
More data would be required.
The results were, well, interesting. Partially because he wasn’t sure what everything did. What was a feather going to do to help? Was it a quill for writing? It certainly looked like it. But then when he picked it up he felt a subtle effect taking over him once again, so perahpse not.
Properly assessing things would, it seemed, be relying on him waiting for Midna, but there were at least a few things that he could feel/see the value of right away.
The first was the Pendant. He could already feel how it would add to his store of PP when holding it, which meant one more deflected de-buff which he wasn’t going to complain about. So around his neck it went.
The second was to replace the Heavenswing Shield with the Enchanted buckler. The latter might have been heavier, but it left his hand free, which would make using a shield alongside two handed weapons such as his rifle still doable if a bit cumbersome. Not that he was going to use the rifle during the initial magic draining section of the fight, but still.
The old shield went into the crucible, permanently adding the minor boost to him, which was odd to think about, but most certainly useful. He could only imagine how absurd tossing dozens of pendants into it could get, assuming he could acquire them.
As for everything else, well, it looked like he had a very strange replacement for his lost sword in the form of the war scythe (one that certainly did not fit the scabbard he had well at all which was going to be a problem) and then beyond it there was a whole load of. Well. Very strange things was perhaps the best way to describe it. Flimsy masks, an odd quiver, and some sort of golden rings styled after halos.
Oh and a massive musical instrument. That last was very much what made his subsequent trip to the armory quite a bit of a pain, though at least the quiver helped out, attached to his belt and stuffed with odds and ends as it was.
He dearly missed both his horse’s saddle bags and his empire’s enchanted armory in that moment… which spurred on an idea.
Hopefully his arrival carrying a load of dubiously useful gubins wasn’t about to get in the way of him making an arrangement with whoever was operating the armory.
There was only one way to find out, and that was to carefully shave open the entrance to it with a shoulder, and then to say ”Good morning, I am here to inspect… to view the armory, and to make an addition or two” to the person he found waiting on the other side, while trying to angle his neck so he could see past the Sousaphone.
Sagi, the Avenger's quartermaster, received him with a polite smile. With all of the Seekers back on board, alongside a few new additions having come to and fro from the ship's stockpile, she was busier than ever that day. This man was yet another new face, but she welcomed him - and his donations - all the same.
"Good morning. Feel free to look around. Just let me know if you take something. Oh, but first, what have you got for us?"
Edward carefully deposited the pile of debatable quality loot on a convenient sorting counter, and felt like he needed to justify the musical instrument taking up most of the space, saying ”One of the kinds of false angels in skyworld used these to fire beam spells of some kind” but having no such explanation of the mask.
The quartermaster said not a word at first, just cataloging everything Edward placed down with both her eyes and her hands, her pen rapidly flowing over the clipboard she held in her hand. She didn’t seem disappointed in any of the items, even the ones that seemed useless at first glance, but she did crack an amused smile when the man started trying to explain some of them.
“I see. No need to explain yourself - if you have no use for these, we’ll find one. Even if I have to meld some items into entirely new ones, none will go to waste.”
”Melding? I am aware of a process to break down magical items into essence that can be forged into new ones, is it something similar?” he asked the quartermaster as he watched her work, looking on with approval of her efficacy and skill.
"Indeed it is," she responded, surprised but pleased that he already seemed familiar with the concept. "I use a technique called Wyverian Melding to break items down into their base properties, not necessarily magic essence, but they can then be combined into a talisman. Unfortunately there is no real way to predict or influence what properties the created talisman possesses afterward, but they're certainly more useful than a handful of items collecting dust."
”Ah, more ‘gambling’ with fate. Fascinating” Edward said, both intrigued and maybe a little disconcerted regarding how much was being left up to random chance when it came to their armaments. Then again, was it any different from gambling that the ruined wizard tower or other ancient wonder you where raiding would contain useful magical equipment instead of yet another kettle helm with a minor armor enchantment? He supposed not.
His words seemed to further amuse Sagi, and she murmured, “Isn’t every day alive a gamble with fate?” as she continued jotting things down.
After dropping things off, Edward took a look through what they already had, and came to a similar conclusion to Goldlewis, which was that it really was something of a dumping ground of various odds and ends. Now some did seem powerful to the right user, but for every specialist axe, there was an icicle, vial of blood or ”Is that a necklace of children’s teeth?!”.
Still, it did have one thing that the Drednaught found useful, and that was a very unusual pistol that apparently fired energy bolts via entirely non magical means. Its clunky size and rather grotesque adornment of fleshy trophies were rather major downsides however. It made for tolerable temporary replacement for his magelock pistol, at the very least. Though frankly between it and the war scythe, he would not like to get into any actual combat while they were magically suppressed, and so would be focusing on his job just as he said he would.
”We really do need to sort out the logistics of this place. Some of these weapons don’t even have ammo” he said, not as a complaint but as a statement of intent.
Sagi looked up from her notes, this time regarding Edward with a raised eyebrow.
“I realize you must have only recently been destoried, but do you know how many different kinds of ballistic weapons there are in this world? How many different kinds of ammunition they use? If you have a supply request, by all means let me know, but I thank you not to question my methods. We’re all working with what we’ve got,” she said. She didn’t seem upset, but she did speak more slowly as though that would get her words through to Edward better.
”and I shall endeavor to improve what you have to work with as best I can” the Dreadnought replied smoothly, attempting to smooth over the way he had misspoken rather than directly apologies for his ignorance, before segueing into a way he might be able to assist: ”Speaking of, there is another reason I am here which may make your life just a bit more hectic I can imagine, but it should be of some value to operations”
As he did this, he pulled out a smaller, lesser tome of magic, flipping through the pages, and then setting it down on the bench, revealing an arcane ritual detailed as a set of schematics, which he proceeded to explain.
”If you allow me to set this up, it will be able to provide remote armory access to anyone anywhere in the world who has been properly aligned to our faction via a simple binding spell. They will then be able to summon objects from the armory, which will prompt them to be teleported to them post haste” he explained the upside, before getting to the slight downside which was ”Unfortunately, while they can send things back, the process is a touch more involved. I can invest suitable power here, you see, to power the transfer near instantly, but on field operations will gather that power more slowly and so the returning ritual will take several seconds to complete. Still very useful, you might agree, but not so for rapid equipment swapping like Princess Midna performs unfortunately”
Though the silver haired woman read through the ritual notes with some interest, as she listened to Edward’s explanation her expression gradually flattened into a frown.
“This sounds like it could easily lead to an organizational nightmare,” she said. She didn’t mind people coming in and taking what they needed while leaving what they didn’t - that was what the armory and stockpile was there for after all. But she was able to easily keep track of everything when she was present and speaking with said people. If she let Edward perform his magic, then anyone could take anything at any time. However, she did understand the major benefits of such a ritual. It took a few moments as Sagi thought it over, then she turned to face Edward, holding her clipboard to her chest.
“I may allow it… though I do have some questions first. When items are transported back here, can you specify where they end up? It won’t do to have them randomly dropped around the room. And can the ritual be reversed or blocked? Either on the whole or an individual basis? On that note, can people be transported? You never know if someone will turn coat, become possessed, lose their mind to someone else’s whims, fall back into Galeem’s hold…” she went on to list a number of unfortunate things that could befall anyone that would be granted access to the armory, and therefore access to the Avenger - and endangering the ship was something she would not tolerate even if the pros of ritual access outweighed the cons.
Very good at her job, Edward concluded, before going down the list, specifically by flicking the tomes pages and finding additional lists of additional information: ”Naturally the spell involves designating arrival areas for received items, which comes with an arcane control circles to vet what is being received. Notably the control circles can be accessed anywhere in the ritual space, or with some additional work they can be bound to an object for remote access beyond the confines of the designated chambers. This allows for the creation of secured, sealed, chambers to be used to contain any hypothetical cursed artifacts, primed explosives or the like”
”The same controle circles can be used to approve the addition of, or remove access from, any individuals from the armory access spells, which need to be passed on from one access holder to the next. Preventing enthralled, converted, or hostile reanimated heroes was very much a known concern” he explained. Looting the enemy armory was more or less the first thing any fledgling warlord thought of upon capturing one of their foe’s champions after all, so measures had to be taken to prevent such things. As for shutting it down entirely, well, he was entirely aware that he was a potential weak link, and so explained that ”The magic will also be bound here, specifically, so if you need to destroy it due to myself being compromised, you will very much be able to do so”
As for the limitations of what could be transported, he was very insistent that it should include ”No people. Living minds do not take kindly to the process, and while a being intended to be used as steeds could be prepared to endure the exposure to the astral sea, performing such a process would damage the capacity for autonomy. There is another ritual that can be used to that, but the infrastructure for that is far more intensive”
Sagi committed all of the answers to mind, and to paper as she copied some of the information in the man's tome down. With these contingencies built into the ritual, Edward's proposal was a lot more palatable for the Avenger's quartermaster. After she was finished writing her notes, Sagi tapped her pen against the writing surface a few times as she considered the matter. Ultimately this would be helpful, she decided, and told Edward the good news.
"Alright, I'm satisfied. I'll get an arrival area set up properly... hm, let's put it over here," she said, leading him over to a spot she deemed would be good for it.
”Excellent, then let us begin”
The rituals were both surprisingly complex and yet also straightforward. No great expenditures of magic or gratuitous scribbling of magic symbols all over. Instead the man simply went to the four corners of the room, traced a rhythmic gesture in the air that quickly vanished in each, before returning to the center and making a clean and simple statement: ”I claim this place, in the name of the commonwealth. Let all who serve its glorious name lay claim to the contents, such that they may build a brighter future for all”
There was no great flash or explosion of sound, no sudden magic bond held by all. Instead the man simply held out a hand to Sagi, a circle forming in it, and it was then that she felt a connection offered.
”Now you simply, copy me and-” the executed the same simple ritual to call up the screen again, ”-there you have it”
The Dreadnaught exited out of the armory and out into the vehicle bay where he expected to find some people waiting to set off, having gotten their affairs in order. While that might have been the case, what stood out was a woman who had apparently decided here was the place she would be getting her affairs in order, namely Princess Minda, who was doing her best to repair a giant bipedal canine skeleton, as well as its buckled armor.
He was fairly certain that the hulking undead had fallen from a great height and shattered its lower legs in the process, something he’d seen more than one over eager shocktrooper do to themselves in an attempt to get a (literal) drop on their enemy.
”I was unaware you were also a necromancer” he commented with forced casualness, not exactly the greatest fan of such sorceries. While hypothetically usable for good, an undead was functionally an automaton after all, they tended not to be due to how many dark paths to power it held, tempting the practitioner into doing vile deeds in the name of whatever goal they had.
”I dabble” the princess replied with a wiggle of one hand as she used the other three to carefully stuck shards of bone back in place ”But this is my only undead right now, and also my most durable summon, so try not to get to upset about it. You won’t find me toying around with skull and bone much otherwise”
She then glanced up at him, took one look at the mismatched weapon combo he’d acquired (not to mention how it barely fit on his person due to both being so awkwardly shaped and sized compared to what they were replacing) and gave a snort of a laugh.
”That’s the best you could do to replace your magic guns? Hang on let me see if I have stuff stashed away that will work for you” before she looped up and away, presumably seeing her own personal armory through some magic means.
”That would be appreciated-” Edward began to reply, but Midna already had found what she thought he needed.
She produced a Machete and Pistol and ‘Viral Rifle’ for him, more or less perfectly finding replacements for the equipment he wasn’t going to be able to use in the magic suppression field. Suspiciously perfectly, in his opinion.
”Made a lot of use of these?” he asked as she handed him the equipment.
”Haven't touched the sword and pistol, and the rifles, eh, not had much luck hitting stuff with those. Also I really don‘t like how you can shoot either healing or harming shots from it, it's- just begging for shooting the wrong person with the wrong thing” a light pause in her words making him very worried she might have in fact done that already
”That. Yes. The entire design goes against a basic firearm safety principle” the Dreadnought agreed, and then was quietly horrified when she had no idea what he was talking about.
”Remind me to give you some pointers on that, but, for one, do not ever point a gun at something you don’t want to destroy. For right now, I’ll have to politely decline the offer of this weapon. I would need to acquire straps for it anyhow” he decided, before inquiring ”Do you have more firearms?” more to assess just how much of a risk this amateur in firearms was going to present rather than seeking a replacement.
”A fair few. Plus a few other blades if you want more options, though they are all weird. I never get a straight forward sword or scimitar for some reason.” she replied, missing his intention thankfully, which confirmed his suspicions that she was holding on to a lot of items for herself, which prompted him to ask ”Have you considered donating some to the armory?”
”A few, but we’re basically never here, and I tend to break or throw or lose the less important ones so having spares is always good” she replied casually, apparently not at all concerned about the casual attrition of the Seeker’s supplies of equipment.
”If its having replacements on hand while on campaign that is your worry, I have just made an improvement to the armory that should let you stop-” he paused and chose his words carefully ”-needing to hold on to so much redundant weaponry”
”Uh uh? Hoarding you mean? Fine, show me” she replied, cutting right through his attempt at tact this time. Rather than beleaguer the point, in instead simply did so, linking her to the system and showing her how it worked. ”Slower to use than my portals, so I’m still going to hold on to some spares, but I suppose I can toss a few more things in there”
‘A few’ turned out to be exactly what she offered, adding a pistol, rifle, pair of grenades and a bizarre gun-sword hybrid to the armory (which were sent back (a whole half dozen meters) along with the plasma pistol and war scythe she had admittedly just replaced for him). Edward would have pushed her for more, assuming correctly that the woman was holding onto a fair amount out of self interest, but that topic was derailed when she summoned two bizarre mechanical contraptions which were, apparently, called motorbikes.
”Think these’ll go work with your summoning magic? They’re like mechanical horses in a sense, though much much faster” she explained, which at least answered the question he’d had in the back of his mind as to what this machine’s sibling (that belonged to Juri apparently) currently sitting in the vehicle bay was.
”The Amory can be used to summon steeds so… hmmm… Well, we might as well see how well the formulas adapt to adding these ‘vehicles’ to the equation” he pondered, before setting out to apply the same ritual he had to the armory to the vehicle bay as well. It helped that they were right next to each other, adding a bunch of intervening corridors would have been quite the mess.
”Looks like its worked” Midna confirmed as she checked the menu and found the newly added room’s content showing up the list, before adding that ”bet the Captain is going to be happy about this, I have no idea how we were going to get any use out of that thing without it being my responsibility” she jerked a thumb towards the Blue Falcon.
”Excellent.” the Dreadnought declared, dusting off his hands, before saying that ”In that case all that remains is to wait for everyone to arrive, so I can make a quick announcement/induction into the system before we set off”
”You can help me put some bones together till then, then. Actually, with that striker of yours, I can probably skip waiting for Blazermate once I’ve put all the pieces back in pace” she told him, simply (and correctly) assuming he’d help.
”Before we set off, I’d like to take a moment to inform you that I have augmented the Armory and Vehicle Bay with a summoning and sending enchantment that will give us remote access to them” Edward stepped in to inform everyone on the heels of the information regarding how they’d be getting down there. He followed this up by offering to link everyone up, giving a quick tutorial on how to use the system, and the quirks of it, and then giving his reason for why he thought this would be relevant which was: ”I’d recommend depositing anything that might not work due to magic suppression, or indeed items that will slow us down, behind. They can then simply be remotely retrieved once we enter the tree and disable the magic suppressor”
He also had one more addition to their base equipment, thanks to Midna doing some assessing of the gear he had received from his spirits, which the princess had taken possession of keeping track of: ”we’ve also acquired an item called a ‘Giant's Canopy’ which we believe will be able to block the rain entirely for 30 seconds, so if there comes a moment where we need all our magic, that will be an option to temporarily replace the suppression field”
After that, it was time to pick up equipment, which prompted a slight issue caused by his new wings. Not only did the raincoat need some dramatic altering (via cutting holes in the back) but the personal shield pack was meant for the back too, and so ended up awkwardly strapped to his waist. It had to share space with a BB as well, resulting in quite a busy setup to say the least.
That would have been fine, he was used to carrying his own gear as much for self reliance as to connect with the troops while on campaign, but everything seemed much more precious with a baby strapped to his chest.
”Well then. Hello Mario” he said awkwardly to the infant that had been identified by the short turtle person, receiving a wave from baby Mario in response. Which was not at all disconcerting.
It must have shown on his face, because an armored up and tree spear carrying Midna agreed with his unvoiced sentiment that was ”Yeah, this does not feel right does it”
”No, no it does not” he concurred, before saying that ”I hope putting children in the line of fire this is not normal for this organization” which received the beginning of a shake of the head before she had to concede that ”Well I mean there is Bowser Junior” which resulted in a whispered argument/discussion that took them most of the flight to the dead zone.
Once there, both of them focused on the task at hand, having at least agreed that Minda was going to be the backup BB carrier should anything happen to him, prompting her to stick close to him for the duration of the mission.
With regard to said mission, Edward had thoughts about the way they should proceed with it:
”We should adopt a consistent policy as to how to warn people about the presence of these BTs. I propose we use the tree as a set landmark, and then use angles from it to point out threats, rather than attempting to use gestures or references to terrain or personal location” he recommended, as he moved to the front of the group, in order to give a demonstration of his reference method.
”For example, if I were to say say ‘90 degrees right, 40 meters’ then I’d be identifying a location that would be 40 meters to my right if I was facing the tree, irregardless of my actual facing at that moment” he gestured with an arm to additionally denote the example location.
”If we do this, it should let us better chart a path rather than simply denoting which ones are closest as these devices to” he added, referring to the odradek attached to the BB container.
”As for movement, I recommend a staggered advance. Two carriers on each side. One keeps watch, the other moves forwards in tandem to the field moving forwards. Then we all stop and let those look outs catch up, before repeating the process”
With his statement delivered, only time would tell if it got picked up, and he turned his focus from any resulting discussion to keeping watch. That was his main task after all. A task made all the harder by the constant rain slicking his ad-hockley modified coat, and sodding through his wings, rendering them more or less just a burden rather than a help to navigating the slick terrain, other than maybe adjusting his balance.
In contrast Minda, who moved up beside him, was going to have less of a problem. Clawed mechanical boots offered good grip despite being heels, her tail helped with balance, and the spear she was carrying was being used as a walking stick much like Sandalphon was using her gunstaff. Still she looked a bit unsteady despite this, the women seeming to have less grip than she should on the slick surfaces.
”Something I got ages ago made everything more slippery, and the field’s messing with the way I’ve been compensating” she explained (the latter presumably referring to the purple claws on her feet who’s purple hue had dulled since they entered the field) when he asked about it, before insisting ”But I’ll still watch my step and yours, and you focus on tracking BTs and keeping mario safe”
”Appreciated” he replied, before returning his eyes to the horizon, surveying the terrain for foes.
