Giving the Edge an Edge (Solo)

[Zandelia]

Spring 38 – Night – Residential Longhouse


As she sat upon one of the low tree trunks, whole but smoothed and rid of bark now, that made up for what little seating the Crimson Edge longhouse possessed she stared into the flames, thoughts ablaze and mimicking the dancing heat before her. Her stint at Centroc’s had given her some much needed hope that the Crimson Edge could affect a considerable contribution to the task at hand. In many ways she was still reeling from the fact that their impromptu band of hired hands had been entrusted with her leadership, Cade having fallen already upon the many hazards worth evading. His loss had hit them all hard she knew, her own rudimentary skills trying to keep them from fragmenting upon the winds of change – tumultuous and bitter as they were. She looked around into the glom, the light fading not too far from the flames themselves and leaving the bunks in shrouded darkness.

Asleep, how I envy them all. That I could afford such a luxury at this moment she thought to herself as she prodded and poked amongst the scattered hunting supplies around her carefully.

The fact that lack of sleep had afflicted her as of late would do nothing to forestall her efforts in giving the band an edge over other hunting parties. She would do everything in her power to provide them with success, her own innate curiosity and innovation already piecing together some ideas, or rather their skeletal frameworks. She had many raw materials to draw upon, all items from Centroc’s wagon, and she was beginning to wonder of the wily merchant truly knew that his weapons could be harnessed to better use or found it more amusing to see if anyone else could figure out the process. She smiled into the flames as her left hand cradled a delicate Sleep Egg and her right entwined its fingers through the mesh of a Slugsuckle net. Apart the two items seemed useful, but combined together she saw far more potential than she had at first observed.

“One Sleep Egg gives off a good amount of its inner concoction,” she whispered to herself as she let the raw data of fact dance inside her skull, “but two would be better. Four however, four would provide an area of effect that could be most profitable. Especially to Jamoura, or indeed groups of them” she whispered to herself as she let her eyes flicker between the two items in her hands, licking her lips softly as she turned things over.

The net, the net can be closed. The egss, now they would need a net to be thrown together. But, the net is far too big for just four. The mesh gaps are small enough to keep the eggs in place with some re-working, but the net would need to be cut down to size she thought as she tilted her head in consideration.

She placed the egg into its originally cushioned pile and instead pulled the dagger from her boot and set to work upon her creation. The side of the Slugsuckle net that held the noose was left alone in her workings, but her blade was soon cutting a reasonable distance around it, mesh cleaved open and frayed ends left to untwine a little. After she had finished she had discarded the larger portion of the net at her feet for future usage but was left with a portion of netting roughly the size of her head and as circular in shape as she could make it. She pruned it for a few moments now, humming to herself gently in a soothing manner, hearing a few denizens roll over and fall back to sleep after a few moments. They knew she was there, that she would show concern if anything were to occur. Finally satisfied she spread the leftover net out with her hands, the ‘noose’ mechanism in the center, and smiled.

“And now for the rest of it” she murmured, pleased with her actions so far and hoping that they would prove dividends in a short span of time.

[Zandelia]

As Zandelia placed the newly cut, and far smaller, net upon the wooden bench to her side she bent down to pick up the discarded portion and busied herself with cutting small sections of its rope-like fibers off for her next task. This next part, she knew, would take much longer than the first as it demanded an exactness to detail that would not allow for speedy implementation. The idea was simple enough, to secure the smaller net into one able to hold the Sleep Eggs before moving on to tying the small strips she was now shearing off across the meshes so as to form a tighter weave, thus preventing them from falling out unduly. It took her a good number of chimes before she reasoned she had the requisite number of strips to complete her invention, or rather adaptation.

“And now for the long part too” she sighed to herself as she resigned herself to the necessary task before her.

She picked up her smaller net now and began to tie the ends together as firmly as she could. She chose to use double-knots so as to add to their security but still take a small enough time to complete. The Sleep Eggs were not overly heavy after all, and all they really needed was a sturdy hold all to be place in and nothing fortress-like in strength. She fancied that she could have made it better had she been able to make a net from scratch, knew the raw materials in their weaving, however she would have to make do with what she had – a usual staple of her existence. It took her the best part of a Bell, she estimated, just to gather all of the frayed ends of the cut netting and fasten them together with their opposites. Many times she found herself quietly cursing as she was made aware she had to untie and refasten to a differing counterpart, but in the end she held up her creation to the light from the flames and smiled.

It’ll do nicely indeed she thought to herself as a new net, only slightly larger than her hand, dangled from between her fingers, guide rope pulled fully and the top of the net enclosed. She gave it a few experimental tugs and found the construction took the force amicably.

It was only then that she tentatively took a Sleep Egg from the pile and pushed it into one of the gaps of the meshing, finding that she was not quite able to force it through the gap but seeing enough o know that a finer mesh would be needed to secure them for her own purposes. She put the Sleep Egg down once more and began to take slivers of cut netting from the pile se had made and set about tying them into her ‘Egg Net’ in an attempt to lessen the gaps. The work this time was far more fiddly and required much more focus to succeed at. She lost count of the times her curses caused one of her wards to snort and turn over in subconscious demonstration. It took her another Bell of time, the darkness of the night deepened towards the impenetrable from what she could see through the door, before she was satisfied. Lashes of cut netting now laced across each gap to create a mesh so fine she was doubtful half and egg would slip through now. She chuckled and took one into her hand again, testing it and finding her supposition to be sound in practice too.

“And we now have a nice little missile that we can blanket larger area’s with. The Jamoura won’t know what hit them and we’ll all gain both riches and respect” she whispered, the respect and allied ties far more important to her in her won schemes. The hard coin could be shared amongst the others for all she cared, it would only cement her role as the undisputed leader if her charges were appeased and content.

She set about deftly placing four of her bought Sleep Eggs through the noose hole before closing it, finding that they fit snugly enough to require no padding at all so long as she was careful with her moving of the net itself. She placed it upon the floor and to her side as she looked at the rest of her raw material and wondered how many of each item it would take to mass produce them for the Crimson Edge. It would have to be done in secret of course, so as not to gift the invention to the other bands before they could profit from it. Still, she wagered she could get a few more done the following day for true practical testing out in the mists of the city proper.

Bolstered by her success she pulled two of the aptly named Punch Signals into her grasp and wondered whether her assumptions about engineering something from them would prove as accurately founded as with the Sleep Eggs.

[Zandelia]

Zandelia placed one of her Punch Signals on the floor once more, choosing instead to take the time to fully study and appreciate the one remaining within her grasp. She turned it over in the light, feeling its smoothed wooden exterior as she tried to discern its inner workings without actual experimentation within the longhouse – a cause that was all too clearly doomed to stupidity. She reflected upon that fact and chose not to try and investigate the package she knew to be at its base, the concoction that contained whatever igniting agents Centroc’s devious mind had created. No, as she looked at its form and caressed it almost lovingly she began to know that the real place of interest for her would be the top end, the end which one was supposed to break off in the first stage of its use. Still, it did not stop her from trying out a practice she had long wished to attempt.

The reading of an object, how quaint. And the idea came from a thief too so it must be worth something she thought to herself as she focused the powers within her, still having no name for what she did but merely knew that she could so it.

Focusing the small trickles of energies from the center of her torso she began to focus them upwards towards head neck, filtering them into her head. The process was slow at first, as was always the case, but with practice she had been able to increase its speed. As the energy within her skull grew she mentally forced it, focused it, into her eyes until it was harried into place. As was befitting a perceptual art form she always kept a link between her eyes and her mind, tenuous tendrils snaking this way and that so as to better her abilities. She had no way of knowing if it actually increased the talents effect but it was the way she knew how to practice it, self-taught and rudimentary perhaps. Still, when she felt read she opened her closed eye and focused immediately upon the Punch Signal – knowing all too well the dangers of getting lost in multiple auras now.

“Let us see what can be seen, even if it is unseen” she whispered to herself as she took in the smallish aura of the Punch Signal. It was hard work but she fancied that she could detect the package at the bottom end of the tube, the igniting agents perhaps. It was jumbled, confused, but there was a larger presence there of crossed auras that spoke of a multi-layered physical property. Upon examination the top-most end seemed quite thin, the aura weaker than around the rest of the object and less vibrantly solid of color.

She took a few chimes to regain her composure as she let her energies dissipate into her body once more, absorbed and used in whatever they were when not being used. She breathed deeply as she considered her position, thinking through the possibilities before her and which route was best to take. She considered the weaker end, breakable and fragile, and knew it would not do nor suit her purpose. She would need two of the Punch Signals per construct to even stand a chance of succeeding in her endeavor of creating a mist of her own. She picked up the other one upon the floor once more and stared at them together, trying to slot the pieces together as night started to dwindle towards the next day now.

[Zandelia]

She turned the both of them in her hands now, trying to conjure a way to make them work to her best advantage. It seemed a useless endeavor until she turned one upside down so the it ran alongside the other, solid end on top, and the positioning gave her an idea worth its weight in golden miza – or so she hoped. One Punch Signal, to her eye, seemed built for a singular purpose. However, two combined in just the right way could be harnessed for her own. She set about the task with a gusto she had not felt in some time, her perceptions finally useful for something beyond mere information gathering. She took up her dagger once more and began to bore a hole towards the top end of one of the Punch Signals, carving out the initial rut before placing it between her thighs and spinning the dagger by its hilt between her palms, the blade’s point nestled comfortably within the initial dent. It took her some time but it eventually made a hole big enough through with a reasonably sized portion of smoke could escape with some speed.

And, if I have the workings aright, when combined with the other one will create enough to block the sights of even the most canny of Jamoura she thought as she set about repeating the process upon the second Punch Signal.

There was no danger of leaking the contents for they were secure in the bottom ends until the necessary force was used to lever them into action. It was quicker work than she had anticipated, the two holes bored in under a Bell as the light of pre-dawn began to percolate into the longhouse. Once done she held them both up to the flames, shadows playing a merry dance across their forms that seemed all too apt to her plans. It was then that she took a number of the left over scraps of netting and began to tie the two together as securely as she could. The holes she had bored face away from each other, the Punch Signals tied so that one was upside down in comparison to the other. She reasonably did this under the assumption that, should the top end not be broken off, the smoke would be trapped and forced out of the holes – hopefully with enough speed to cause the construct to spin and distribute its smoke across a larger area.

“Though only practical use will affirm that notion” she muttered to herself as she finally found herself content with the securing portion of her task, noting that no amount of force she exerted managed to break the two Punch Signals away from her. They were a solid entity no, their strengths combined to a higher purpose.

She thought about how the wielder would have to strike both ends for the device to work, but was not too concerned upon that. With enough speed and dexterity one person could use a large stone to hit both ends and throw the device before any large amount of smoke was given off. It would take a few seconds for the smoke to build within the chambers first before it was expelled out at speed at any rate. Still, she did find herself concerned over the weaker ends of the tube, wondering if their tops would shatter off without reinforcement requisite to the task of keeping them in place. She tried to conjure up an idea for securing them, but without an intimate knowledge of how they were made she could not discern a reasonable counter-measure. Still, she was satisfied enough in her workings that she would be happy enough to approach Centroc and ask if the man could arrange for supplies of her invention to be reproduced for her own teams. She knew he would sell to others, but she wagered that she would get something out of the exchange. He had information she wanted, she was sure, and knew more than he was letting on. Money did not appeal to her overly much, however news of any decent targets for the hunt – that would pique her curiosity.

“Let us see, then, what we can get” she grunted to herself as she levered herself to her feet and, seeing dawn fast approaching now, set about the trek to Centroc’s wagons – her new items in tow.

[Creeper]

Centroc fought back a smile as Zandelia approached. She was an interesting one to say the least, far more so than many that drudged their way into this camp. She had apparently been working on ways to improve upon the tools he'd crafted up to sell. He knew she wouldn't be satisfied with just payment, that mind of hers always looking for more. He decided to throw her a bone, though more subtly than she would likely prefer. After some inane haggling, despite him already knowing what he'd buy the ideas for, he agreed to purchase the plans for 20gm. She may be smart, but she's no haggler. However, as he was handing her the small sack of Mizas, he slipped a note into her pocket. His fingers were ghosts, his movements unseen, and she wouldn't discover the note until the following day or two. Two bells North East of Camp, use your Bright Eyes to see what is unseen. If she asked him about it later, he would deny the note vehemently, but there would always be a sparkle in his eye that told her otherwise.   Skills Organization: 1 Planning: 2 Weaponcrafting: 3 Observation: 2 Weapon (Dagger): 1 Auristics: 1   Lores Weaponcrafting: Sleep Slings Weaponcrafting: Smoke Spinners   Other -1 Slugsuckle Net -4 Sleep Eggs +1 Sleep Sling -2 Punch Signals +1 Smoke Spinner +20 Golden Mizas +1 Note from Centroc * I'm aware of your thread where you are purchasing the items used in this thread. Please try to finish it up and update your ledger and inventory. ** You may want to adjust your timestamp a bit... Though it looks like a typo. Well done, I love seeing innovation put to good use. The Weaponcrafting is for the adjustments, for I felt they couldn't be lumped in with Weaponsmithing, Carving, Fletching/Bowing, or Gadgeteering. Keep up the solid intelligence.