At the voices calling up from the oddly ordered chaos of the shop, the response from upstairs is slightly delayed, a huge thud, then some kind of metal scraping across the floor, a door opens upstairs out of sight and a voice calls down.
"INTRUDERS!... INTRUDERS!?"
There is a crackle of electricity and coming down the stairs the group see Archie's armour, though this time it is changed. The plates have been reduced in size and doubled up, many more smaller interlocking joints in the armour make the coverage much better. There are some additional closable vents, one under the visor where the mouth would be and one on her chest. The blue flames burn within the helm but now, do not escape from the arms and the joins in the gauntlets, nor does smoke raises from the helm, merely the wavy distortion of heated air. All in all the armour seems to contain it's innards a lot better.
One arm stretched out in front of them, the armour holds their palm out toward the party, a red coloured gem inset in the palm crackles and zaps with energy, threatening to strike out at anyone too close, "IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, IDENTIFY!"
Reed waves at the armor then says to the others "I think I like this version a little better. A little aggressive but far less teen angst."
He turns his attention back to the IronMaiden.
"Come on Archie. Enough playing around," Reed says. "We're going to need a better system than this if we have to keep identifying ourselves every time she falls asleep. Maybe a secret code word. I like excelsior."
“Identify yourselves … huh huh, “YOUR MOM.” Hehehe hehe heh”. Virro is laughing into his hand and looking around at the others to see if they thought it was a funny joke.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
The suit of armour remains resolute with its palm extended now pointing at Virro as he speaks, "SCANNING SOURCE MEMORY, PREVIOUS NON-HOSTILES RECOGNISED, NEW IDENTIFIER ACCEPTED 'YORMOM'... STATE YOUR BUSINESSES.!"
Snickering into his hand and shuddering with stifled laughter, Virro answers back, “Uhhh, gettin it on with Virro.” He puts his head down on the table trying to hold it together then looks up to see if others are laughing too.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Reed watches Virro for a few moments, smiling but he doesn't make it to laughing.
"Archie, either come with us or stay here and do whatever it is you're doing," Reed says, indicating the orderly chaos. "That's very neat work. We're either going to go see the Captain and speak very loudly over the noise of his hangover, or we're going to go to the Low Lantern and speak quietly while other people begin their day seeking a hangover."
Corlith watches as the suit of armour, altered and looking improved, makes it's way down the stairs and questions them in a very sentry like way. From experience this likely meant Archie was asleep, unless she had somehow managed to get out the armour.
He gives a half chuckle half sigh and shakes his head at Virro's comments.
He himself takes a different tact from Virro and Reed.
"State your designation and purpose. Identify yourself", he says to the armour in an almost military manner.
The suit of armour listens to Reed and takes in the information but does nothing to act, still remaining with its arm outstretched though the energy has faded. Only when Corlith asks for designation does the arm fall, the new upgraded armour stands up straight, "SEARCHING SOURCE MEMORY...
Virro looks up and says “Primary purpose : Bellydancer and entertainer extraordinaire. Secondary purpose : Dispenser of justice, covert agent of action and partner of the elite six, and generalized asskicker.” He is shuddering with stifled laughter, waiting to see with curiosity what happens.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
"PURPOSE ACCEPTED, 'YORMOM'." The armour then regards itself inspecting it's midsection and tapping on the interlocking plates before exclaiming, "ASSISTANCE REQUIRED." The suit of armour turns and begins gathering bits of the disassembled clock, taking the white pearl out of Archie's bag it sets the pearl in the middle of the gathered mechanical accoutrements.
One touch and the pearl glows with an arcane spark, the gears and cogs, small motors and plate casings form around the pearl to make a tiny construct in the shape of a yuan-ti woman, the small clockwork snake person then begins gyrating and dancing, tiny metal arms gesturing around dramatically. 'Designation IronMaiden' then picks up the tiny construct, which simply continues dancing provocatively and presents it directly to Virro, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?... SOURCE MEMORY ACCOUNTS FOR ASSKICKING AND CORRECTION OF INJUSTICE, LET US COMMENCE."
"Designation Ironmaiden, do you have knowledge of the location of Archie? If you do, please divulge this to us", Corlith asks quickly before Ironmaiden leaves the shop. He tries his best to ignore the dancing snake lady construct.
If Virro does not take the dancing snake then the IronMaiden simply puts the tiny construct on their shoulder and then turns to face corlith, "SEARCHING SOURCE MEMORY FOR 'ARCHIE'...
ONE FOUND, ARCHAEA ARDOUR, ALIAS ARCHIE, RESIDES IN THIS SHOP... OTHER KNOWN RESIDENCES, FAMILY HOME, LOCATION EASTERN OUTER CITY.
...SOURCE MEMORY DICTATES, SOURCE IS ARCHIE, ERROR, I AM ARCHIE, ERROR, I AM SOURCE, ERROR..."
The IronMaiden stops, still like a statue, heat still radiating and distorting the air above them.
Virro takes the yuan-ti snake woman construct and says “Absolutely! Absolutely entertained! Hah! Will you look at that!” He admires the snake and the construct Ironmaiden in her new form… “A force to be reckoned with!” He leers at her, lost in thought….
Wilfred wakes and goes to eat in silence, mostly giving grunts and random sounds for answers. He goes up and talks to Lupin, then returns grumbling "Can't believe...Stupid tea... it's not the same."
On the way to the workshop, he notices a cart with steam around it. "Finally!" Wilfred makes a quick detour as the others continue. "I need a large black, thanks buddy!" As he gets his coffee, he takes long sip. "Ahhh, that's the stuff. Alright, lets see what these youngin' are up to."
He makes his way into the workshop as Archie is making the tiny constructs. As Archie starts to error out, Wilfred will step forward. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lets calm down there. You are the Ironmaiden, yea? Lets take a deep breath. Archie is in there too, yea? Is she still sleeping? Can you wake her up?"
Metal grinds against metal as the IronMaiden slowly turns its head to face Wilfred, tilting slightly like a confused dog, "WAKE.. THE.. SOURCE? IMPOSS..."
Before the IronMaiden can finish the word they topple over in a single frame, still somehow holding the same position except this time horizontal. Steam begins to vent out of the armour and after a moment Archie coughs and splutters. She catches her breath momentarily bringing herself up onto her hands and knees before unceremoniously vomiting scalding hot water over the floor. "What in the shit...?"
Archie stands clutching her head, and looks around the group with a sigh, she then turns 180 and takes in the state of the shop, "WHAT THE **** HAPPENED HERE? WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO!?"
Cutting the silence, the tiny construct in Virro's hand begins clapping it's tiny metal hands and then continues gyrating and dancing without a care in the world.
Reed watches the rest of the interaction with amusement, especially Virro’s new toy.
”I think you need to invent something that will wake you up at the same time your armor wakes up,” Reed suggests. “Or you at least need to lay out coffee and croissants for us next time while we wait for you to get here.”
Reed then claps his hands together as if everything is settled.
"damnit damnit all, ugh! I'll have to clean this up later... Why does this keep happening?" Archie puts a hand to her head and slumps her shoulders in defeat, wincing slightly in pain, "it feels like someone has run my brain through a mangle... Fine let's go find Zodge, I'll lock up here and hope to the gods that Thell doesn't turn up today"
A bit foggy as to what happened over the night and worried about Threll and the workshop, Archie manages to swallow her troubles and leads the group over to the Low Lantern, as it is “docked” near the workshop.
Fog obscures the Low Lantern until you get within a hundred feet of it, whereupon its tall masts and creaking bulk come into view. The converted ship has rigging but no sails, and is anchored to the wharf by thick chains. It was a three-masted merchant ship that is now permanently docked on the east side of the harbor. Far past the point of being seaworthy, the vessel was converted into a tavern and gambling house that is open all day and night.
A wooden staircase climbed from the wharf’s edge to the main deck. A lantern at the bow casts an eerie green light to signify that the tavern is open for business.
You all climb the staircase to the main deck and you see it features wooden steps that climb to the forecastle and aftcastle of the ship, and another set of stairs descending into the ship. A padlocked wooden hatch fitted with windows acts as a skylight for the deck below - the tavern proper, visible through the hatch’s glass panes.
Four dead seagulls lie on the deck and two ravens squawk at you from the crow’s nest above, a forty-foot climb up the ship’s rigging.
“Mort’s brother has something to do with those culties we dealt with yesterday.” Reed says. “So maybe a bit of killing. A little kidnapping maybe if the rest of the family is involved too. Who know. Should be fun though.”
Reed heads over to the hatch with the windows and takes a look inside.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
At the voices calling up from the oddly ordered chaos of the shop, the response from upstairs is slightly delayed, a huge thud, then some kind of metal scraping across the floor, a door opens upstairs out of sight and a voice calls down.
"INTRUDERS!... INTRUDERS!?"
There is a crackle of electricity and coming down the stairs the group see Archie's armour, though this time it is changed. The plates have been reduced in size and doubled up, many more smaller interlocking joints in the armour make the coverage much better. There are some additional closable vents, one under the visor where the mouth would be and one on her chest. The blue flames burn within the helm but now, do not escape from the arms and the joins in the gauntlets, nor does smoke raises from the helm, merely the wavy distortion of heated air. All in all the armour seems to contain it's innards a lot better.
One arm stretched out in front of them, the armour holds their palm out toward the party, a red coloured gem inset in the palm crackles and zaps with energy, threatening to strike out at anyone too close, "IDENTIFY YOURSELVES, IDENTIFY!"
Reed waves at the armor then says to the others "I think I like this version a little better. A little aggressive but far less teen angst."
He turns his attention back to the IronMaiden.
"Come on Archie. Enough playing around," Reed says. "We're going to need a better system than this if we have to keep identifying ourselves every time she falls asleep. Maybe a secret code word. I like excelsior."
“Identify yourselves … huh huh, “YOUR MOM.” Hehehe hehe heh”. Virro is laughing into his hand and looking around at the others to see if they thought it was a funny joke.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
The suit of armour remains resolute with its palm extended now pointing at Virro as he speaks, "SCANNING SOURCE MEMORY, PREVIOUS NON-HOSTILES RECOGNISED, NEW IDENTIFIER ACCEPTED 'YORMOM'... STATE YOUR BUSINESSES.!"
Snickering into his hand and shuddering with stifled laughter, Virro answers back, “Uhhh, gettin it on with Virro.” He puts his head down on the table trying to hold it together then looks up to see if others are laughing too.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Reed watches Virro for a few moments, smiling but he doesn't make it to laughing.
"Archie, either come with us or stay here and do whatever it is you're doing," Reed says, indicating the orderly chaos. "That's very neat work. We're either going to go see the Captain and speak very loudly over the noise of his hangover, or we're going to go to the Low Lantern and speak quietly while other people begin their day seeking a hangover."
Corlith watches as the suit of armour, altered and looking improved, makes it's way down the stairs and questions them in a very sentry like way. From experience this likely meant Archie was asleep, unless she had somehow managed to get out the armour.
He gives a half chuckle half sigh and shakes his head at Virro's comments.
He himself takes a different tact from Virro and Reed.
"State your designation and purpose. Identify yourself", he says to the armour in an almost military manner.
The suit of armour listens to Reed and takes in the information but does nothing to act, still remaining with its arm outstretched though the energy has faded. Only when Corlith asks for designation does the arm fall, the new upgraded armour stands up straight, "SEARCHING SOURCE MEMORY...
DESIGNATION... IRON MAIDEN? PURPOSE... MISSING?
SOURCE LOGIC APPEARS CORRUPTED,
DESIGNATION IRONMAIDEN REQUIRES PURPOSE. PLEASE ADVISE."
Virro looks up and says “Primary purpose : Bellydancer and entertainer extraordinaire. Secondary purpose : Dispenser of justice, covert agent of action and partner of the elite six, and generalized asskicker.” He is shuddering with stifled laughter, waiting to see with curiosity what happens.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
"PURPOSE ACCEPTED, 'YORMOM'." The armour then regards itself inspecting it's midsection and tapping on the interlocking plates before exclaiming, "ASSISTANCE REQUIRED." The suit of armour turns and begins gathering bits of the disassembled clock, taking the white pearl out of Archie's bag it sets the pearl in the middle of the gathered mechanical accoutrements.
One touch and the pearl glows with an arcane spark, the gears and cogs, small motors and plate casings form around the pearl to make a tiny construct in the shape of a yuan-ti woman, the small clockwork snake person then begins gyrating and dancing, tiny metal arms gesturing around dramatically. 'Designation IronMaiden' then picks up the tiny construct, which simply continues dancing provocatively and presents it directly to Virro, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?... SOURCE MEMORY ACCOUNTS FOR ASSKICKING AND CORRECTION OF INJUSTICE, LET US COMMENCE."
"Designation Ironmaiden, do you have knowledge of the location of Archie? If you do, please divulge this to us", Corlith asks quickly before Ironmaiden leaves the shop. He tries his best to ignore the dancing snake lady construct.
If Virro does not take the dancing snake then the IronMaiden simply puts the tiny construct on their shoulder and then turns to face corlith, "SEARCHING SOURCE MEMORY FOR 'ARCHIE'...
ONE FOUND, ARCHAEA ARDOUR, ALIAS ARCHIE, RESIDES IN THIS SHOP... OTHER KNOWN RESIDENCES, FAMILY HOME, LOCATION EASTERN OUTER CITY.
...SOURCE MEMORY DICTATES, SOURCE IS ARCHIE, ERROR, I AM ARCHIE, ERROR, I AM SOURCE, ERROR..."
The IronMaiden stops, still like a statue, heat still radiating and distorting the air above them.
Virro takes the yuan-ti snake woman construct and says “Absolutely! Absolutely entertained! Hah! Will you look at that!” He admires the snake and the construct Ironmaiden in her new form… “A force to be reckoned with!” He leers at her, lost in thought….
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Wilfred wakes and goes to eat in silence, mostly giving grunts and random sounds for answers. He goes up and talks to Lupin, then returns grumbling "Can't believe... Stupid tea... it's not the same."
On the way to the workshop, he notices a cart with steam around it. "Finally!" Wilfred makes a quick detour as the others continue. "I need a large black, thanks buddy!" As he gets his coffee, he takes long sip. "Ahhh, that's the stuff. Alright, lets see what these youngin' are up to."
He makes his way into the workshop as Archie is making the tiny constructs. As Archie starts to error out, Wilfred will step forward. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lets calm down there. You are the Ironmaiden, yea? Lets take a deep breath. Archie is in there too, yea? Is she still sleeping? Can you wake her up?"
Metal grinds against metal as the IronMaiden slowly turns its head to face Wilfred, tilting slightly like a confused dog, "WAKE.. THE.. SOURCE? IMPOSS..."
Before the IronMaiden can finish the word they topple over in a single frame, still somehow holding the same position except this time horizontal. Steam begins to vent out of the armour and after a moment Archie coughs and splutters. She catches her breath momentarily bringing herself up onto her hands and knees before unceremoniously vomiting scalding hot water over the floor. "What in the shit...?"
Archie stands clutching her head, and looks around the group with a sigh, she then turns 180 and takes in the state of the shop, "WHAT THE **** HAPPENED HERE? WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO!?"
Cutting the silence, the tiny construct in Virro's hand begins clapping it's tiny metal hands and then continues gyrating and dancing without a care in the world.
Reed watches the rest of the interaction with amusement, especially Virro’s new toy.
”I think you need to invent something that will wake you up at the same time your armor wakes up,” Reed suggests. “Or you at least need to lay out coffee and croissants for us next time while we wait for you to get here.”
Reed then claps his hands together as if everything is settled.
”The Low Lantern then?”
"damnit damnit all, ugh! I'll have to clean this up later... Why does this keep happening?" Archie puts a hand to her head and slumps her shoulders in defeat, wincing slightly in pain, "it feels like someone has run my brain through a mangle... Fine let's go find Zodge, I'll lock up here and hope to the gods that Thell doesn't turn up today"
A bit foggy as to what happened over the night and worried about Threll and the workshop, Archie manages to swallow her troubles and leads the group over to the Low Lantern, as it is “docked” near the workshop.
Fog obscures the Low Lantern until you get within a hundred feet of it, whereupon its tall masts and creaking bulk come into view. The converted ship has rigging but no sails, and is anchored to the wharf by thick chains. It was a three-masted merchant ship that is now permanently docked on the east side of the harbor. Far past the point of being seaworthy, the vessel was converted into a tavern and gambling house that is open all day and night.
A wooden staircase climbed from the wharf’s edge to the main deck. A lantern at the bow casts an eerie green light to signify that the tavern is open for business.
You all climb the staircase to the main deck and you see it features wooden steps that climb to the forecastle and aftcastle of the ship, and another set of stairs descending into the ship. A padlocked wooden hatch fitted with windows acts as a skylight for the deck below - the tavern proper, visible through the hatch’s glass panes.
Four dead seagulls lie on the deck and two ravens squawk at you from the crow’s nest above, a forty-foot climb up the ship’s rigging.
"what are we here for again?" Archie asks, still bracing her throbbing head every so often.
“Mort’s brother has something to do with those culties we dealt with yesterday.” Reed says. “So maybe a bit of killing. A little kidnapping maybe if the rest of the family is involved too. Who know. Should be fun though.”
Reed heads over to the hatch with the windows and takes a look inside.