[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/250324/b71cf5ab5cebec9b4e857200f7c42a8b.png[/img] [img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/250324/dc185f5e06aa08f3af9fbb79b4040da5.png[/img] [color=EBA536][b]Location:[/b][/color] [color=E579FF]Cargo Hold[/color] [color=E579FF][b]Race:[/b][/color] [color=EBA536]Dark Elf[/color] & [color=E579FF]Human[/color] [color=E579FF][b]Class:[/b][/color] [color=EBA536]Artificer[/color] & [color=E579FF]Rogue[/color] [color=EBA536][b]Interactions:[/b][/color] [@Helo] Ezekiel [color=E579FF][b]Mentions:[/b][/color] [@Princess] Callandra; [@Oso] The Three 他妈的混蛋 [color=EBA536][b]Equipment:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] Medical bag Tinkerer's kit Arcane spindlelock (shortened) musket Spindlelock pistols x2 Hand axes x2 [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] First-aid bag Tinkerer's kit Spindlelock pistols x2 Steel daggers x2[/hider][color=E579FF][b]Attire:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] Dark brown, knee-length coat Black waistbelt Grey button-up shirt Dark brown trousers Heavy leather boots [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] Off-white shirt Red ribbon tied around left arm Brown hooded coat Brown trousers Leather boots Goggles on her head[/hider][color=EBA536][b]Gold:[/b][/color] 95 [color=E579FF][b]Injuries:[/b][/color] [hider] [color=EBA536][b]Scratch[/b][/color] NA [color=E579FF][b]Val[/b][/color] Shallow cut on her right side, just below the ribs[/hider] [/center] A shudder rippled through the cargo hold’s floor. Crates rattled. Broken girders and catwalks, hanging from the ceiling by frayed cables and mere wires, shivered. Everything, even the burnt, ashen air itself, seemed to tremble before the griffon’s frenzied rage. The squeal of its talons scraping against metal, and the crash of its beak against a blade, echoed throughout the hold. Chilling screeches that could cut a person to their quick, and furious squawks that could freeze blood, echoed off the walls, growing louder and louder until it was as if they were coming from everywhere, all at once. But despite all this—the terrible cacophony, the gravity of the situation, the danger of it all—[color=EBA536][b]Scaerthrynne[/b][/color] still allowed himself a self-satisfied smirk as he stabbed an [color=EBA536][b]infused[/b][/color] spike through the hold’s floor. His plan was going better than what he’d expected. Much, [i]much[/i] better. The griffon’s attention and fury were wholly on the red-hooded strangers—for now—and as for the latter, none of them seemed to be too interested, or were even able to break away from the fight. Perfect. That gave Scaerthrynne a little more time to work with. Time, which he spent laying and preparing a few surprises for any would-be pursuers. He gave the spike a slight wiggle to make sure it was securely in place before standing up from his crouch and continuing down the narrow passageway. Ezekiel’s shadow was stretched on the floor and splayed on a half-collapsed stack of crates up ahead, and the man himself, around a sharp corner. The former shrunk as Ezekiel followed Vallena further and further into this warren of scattered debris and strewn cargo. Scaerthrynne quickened his pace to catch up with them, along the way pulling out a short splinter from the squashed remains of a barrel. He [color=EBA536][b]infused[/b][/color] it as he moved—not with anything fancy, just enough to make it a noisemaker—and launched it in a high, lazy arch over the walls of cargo surrounding him, away from the bulkhead separating the cargo bay from the rest of the airship. The splinter, just like other pieces of debris he’d been infusing and tossing in a similar fashion, would play the sounds of thumping footsteps, shouting voices, and clattering equipment upon landing. With luck, they would distract the victor of the clash between griffon and red-hooded strangers just enough to buy Scaerthrynne the time he needed to get everyone out of the cargo hold. And if not, well, he had his infused spikes to slow them down. Of course, they would only work against the red-hooded strangers who, as far as the dark elf knew, couldn’t fly and had to stay on the ground, or close enough to it that the spikes would still work, at least. If it was the griffon that won, and if it decided to chase him, Ezekiel and Vallena… Scaerthrynne pushed the thought aside. One problem at a time. [color=EBA536]“Keep going,”[/color] he said in a hushed shout to the other two. Then, he crouched, picked up a broken length of pipe off the ground, and [color=EBA536][b]infused[/b][/color] it with arcane energy, turning it into an elongated spike with a flat, circular head, identical to the one from before. And just like before, he rammed it into the floor. He got to his feet and continued on his way. On and on he went, repeating the same actions. Splinters over cargo. Spikes into the floor. Sprinting after Ezekiel’s shadow. He couldn’t do all of them, all the time, not with the path Vallena chose, of course. Some corridors were bordered by stacks of cargo too high for him to throw over. Others, so clogged and blocked with debris that a slow clamber was the best he could manage. Several didn’t have any materials he could swiftly infuse and mold into anything usable—especially so the closer he got to the exit—and so there was little he could do aside from setting simple tripwires that, in his honest opinion, would only be a very minor, and very mild inconvenience, at best. But he wasn’t too concerned; it was a twisting, meandering route down which Vallena was leading Ezekiel and him. The dark elf had lost count of the number of corners he’d turned, or the number of times when he thought for sure that they’d been going in circles, only to realise that they were, in fact, inching ever closer to their goal. So obscure, and so hidden were some of the paths Vallena took that, even with the aid of his natural [color=EBA536][b]darkvision[/b][/color], Scaerthrynne had missed them up until the point he turned into them. The red-hooded strangers would be hard-pressed to follow their exact path. He’d be quite surprised, and to be honest, also quite impressed, if they could. And yet, despite making it incredibly difficult for anyone to pursue them, Vallena had managed to get them to their destination in good time. Scaerthrynne let out a sigh of relief as he stepped into the relatively open area in front of the heavy door leading away from the cargo hold. [color=EBA536]“Very well done, Val,”[/color] he said as he walked past the girl. She looked up at him with a shaky smile, but a smile nonetheless. [color=E579FF]“T-Thanks, Scratch,”[/color] she replied. Scaerthrynne pointed to Ezekiel. [color=EBA536]“You, Eyepatc–”[/color] He cut himself off, and tried again. [color=EBA536]“I mean, Ezekiel, find a safe spot and put Callandra down for now. Depending on how things are, this might take a while.”[/color] Then, he gestured for Vallena to follow him. [color=EBA536]“You’re with me, Val. Let’s check on the door.”[/color] The door was, as expected, locked, and a half-hearted attempt at unlocking it with the runic array revealed that it was held closed by the emergency lockdown mechanism. That didn’t come as a surprise, but all the same, Scaerthrynne muttered an expletive under his breath. Or at least, he started to, but instead chewed on his tongue when he remembered that Vallena was standing right beside him. He huffed and stepped to the side, stopping in front of a panel by the door. [color=EBA536]“We’ll have to bypass the lockdown.”[/color] Annoyance dripped from his words. [color=EBA536]“Val, lend me your screwdriver.”[/color] Vallena rummaged around her bag and pulled it out. [color=E579FF]“Here, Scratch.”[/color] Scaerthrynne took it and removed the screws holding the panel in place. Then, he wiggled the flat edge of the tool into the crack between it and the wall. With a few, hard pushes, he prised the panel away, catching it before it crashed onto the floor. [color=EBA536]“Thanks,”[/color] he said, returning the screwdriver to Vallena. After leaning the solid, brass plate against the wall, he took a look at the mechanism that it had been covering. A spiderweb of circuits, both arcane-elemental and runic, filled the rectangular hole. All of the former were dull, and little more than translucent tubes running from above and into a box in the middle of the hole. As for the latter, they glowed faintly and pulsed with energy. On the left, and arranged vertically, was a column of runes, all of them glowing and pulsing like the circuits which fed them. Two tall, thin objects sat adjacent to each other on the other side; one blocky, like a bar, and the other cylindrical. [color=EBA536]“Arcane circuits are dead,”[/color] Scaerthrynne grumbled and clicked his tongue. That complicated things. He closed his eyes for a moment. He had to take stock of the situation. What did he have to do? Well, with the arcane circuits dead, the only way of overriding the emergency lock would be to play around with the runic array. That wasn’t a complicated task—runic arrays could be drained of energy, and then the runes would simply cease to work. But it was a tedious one that took time. And time, as things stood, was a precious resource. A griffon was a fierce creature, and one that was the end of many an adventurer. But it was still, at the end of the day, a creature. An animal. Self-preservation was still part of its natural instincts—it wouldn’t engage in a fight to the death unless it truly had to, and Scaerthrynne doubted that the red-hooded strangers were here for the griffon. Once they’d injured it enough to scare it away, they would be free to return to whatever task it was that brought them here. The noisemakers would only distract them for so long, and even if he’d filled the spikes with explosives, they weren’t enough to kill. At most they would take off a foot, but only if someone stepped on them directly. Or, alternatively, the griffon would win, and it’d rampage aimlessly through the cargo hold. That gave Scaerthrynne two possibilities. Either he’d have to override the lock while defending himself and Vallena, and possibly Ezekiel as well, from three well-equipped enemies coming at them with unknown but malevolent intent, or he’d have to override the lock while being on the lookout for a very, very angry griffon that would have only just tasted blood, and would likely crave more. And what did he have, to do all this? Firstly, he had himself. One dark elf with a musket. Hardly much of a threat, or a guarantee of safety, when they were facing either two or three enemies, or one very big, and very feral creature. Vallena didn’t count in his calculations—the girl had many talents, but fighting wasn’t one of them. She’d only get in the way, or get herself into trouble. Either way, she would have to be kept out of combat no matter the cost. And then, there was Ezekiel. The man-in-white seemed like he knew his way around a fight. At least, he had a sword that looked like it’d be useful in one. And he’d kept a level head this entire time, so that meant he wasn’t a stranger to such situations, more likely than not. But he was wounded, and badly so, by the looks of things. Scaerthrynne couldn’t treat him, not if he had to work on the lock and keep watch. Even if it was just between those two choices, he could realistically only do one, if he didn’t want to lose any efficacy. [color=E579FF]“Scratch?”[/color] It was Vallena. She sounded worried, her words carrying a slight quaver. [color=E579FF]“C-Can you get us out of here? M-Maybe I can help? If you need help to over…Override that thing!”[/color] He chewed on his lip. There was only one thing he could do. He didn’t like it, but it was his only option. [color=EBA536]“Yes, I know what to do,”[/color] he said, then looked at the girl. [color=EBA536]“But you’ll have to do it, Val.”[/color] Vallena blinked at him. [color=E579FF]“M-Me?”[/color] She pointed at herself. Scaerthrynne nodded. She swallowed, then shook her head. [color=E579FF]“I-I can’t, Scratch! I-I don’t know how, I’ve never even seen how it’s done before!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“I know, I know,”[/color] Scaerthrynne said, placed both his hands on her shoulders, and steadied her. She looked up at him, their eyes meeting. [color=EBA536]“If I could do it myself, I would, but I can’t. It’s very likely those people in the red hoods are going to come after us, and somebody’s going to have to keep an eye out for them, maybe even fight them off.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“But the griffon–”[/color] Vallena protested. [color=EBA536]“It might win, it might not.”[/color] Scaerthrynne shrugged. [color=EBA536]“Even if it does, it just means we’ve to keep an eye out for it, instead of those three in red.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“Ezekiel can–”[/color] [color=EBA536]“He’s wounded. Even if he can fight, I’m not going to count too much on him.”[/color] He let go of her, and knelt to pick up the brass plate and tuck it under his arm. [color=EBA536]“Don’t worry, Val,”[/color] he said and patted her head. [color=EBA536]“You can do it. I know you can. I’ll talk you through the whole thing. Every step.”[/color] Nervousness was painted all over the girl’s face. [color=E579FF]“I-I don’t know, Scratch…”[/color] [color=EBA536]“You’re a smart girl, Val. I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think you could handle it.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“How are you so sure?”[/color] She asked. Scaerthrynne gave her a little smirk. [color=EBA536]“Because I taught you everything you know, Val.”[/color] That pulled a giggle out of her, and he couldn’t help but smile warmly at that. He patted her on the head again, and helped pull her goggles down over her eyes. [color=EBA536]“Just in case,”[/color] he said, then tilted his head towards the runic mechanism in the wall. [color=EBA536]“Now take over. Get your tools out, and let me know when you’re ready.”[/color] Vallena drew in a deep breath, her eyes closed, as she visibly steeled herself. There was still a great deal of uncertainty and a lack of confidence on her face when she looked at him, but her words weren’t as filled with nerves as before. [color=E579FF]“O-Okay, Scratch. But don’t speak so fast like you always do! It gets confusing and I can’t understand you at all!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“I’ll try not to,”[/color] Scaerthrynne said with a chuckle, and walked away. He carried the plate and walked around for a while, eventually settling on a spot not too far away from her, where he had a good view of every avenue of approach towards the door. Very gently, he set the plate on the floor, laying it flat. Then, he placed his hand on it, and channeled arcane energy into the metal, but not to infuse it, not this time. Rather, he wanted to change it. To form it into an object that combined magic and technology into something more. Something that could help them fight. He closed his eyes, and painted a picture of what he wanted, from the largest to the smallest components, in his mind. It wasn’t anything too complex, although it was something he’d only seen in person a few times. The firing mechanism was simple. Two long rails, separated by enough space for a projectile, and both etched along their entire lengths with runes of attraction. Somewhere, from under a crate, a pair of pipes rattled as they slid and rolled towards the plate. The weapon would have to be able to turn in a full circle, of course, and have good angles of elevation, in case it had to fire on a flying griffon. That also meant it needed a fast rate-of-fire, which, therefore, needed an ammunition feed system that could keep up, and hold enough projectiles to be of practical use. Luckily, the good thing about this sort of firing mechanism was that it could accelerate just about anything, even a small chip, to ridiculous speeds. Scaerthrynne recalled reading that a simple screw could be propelled fast enough to hit with the force of a cannonball. Gears skidded over. The plate itself warped and bent, forming shapes that didn’t look possible with its size and amount of material. It changed, even, from golden brass to dark steel. [color=E579FF]“Ready, Scratch!”[/color] Vallena’s voice almost distracted him, but Scaerthrynne managed to maintain his focus. [color=EBA536]“Cut out all the elemental-arcane wiring,”[/color] he called back, a slight strain to his words. [color=EBA536]“They’re all dead. We won’t need them, and they’ll just get in the way when we’ve to re-reroute the runic energy.”[/color] [color=E579FF]“Okay!”[/color] Scaerthrynne returned to creating his object. Almost done, now. He knew how it had to fire, and how it had to load, and how it had to turn. He just needed to give it a proper shape. Gritting his teeth, he channeled a little more energy into the plate and all the odds-and-ends that it had attracted. They clanged and scraped and squeaked as they bent, warped, disassembled and reassembled, before finally coming together into a [color=EBA536][b]turret[/b][/color], one formed according [color=EBA536][b]technological[/b][/color] theories, but with [color=EBA536][b]magical[/b][/color] means. Scaerthrynne finally opened his eyes and looked upon his work. It wasn’t as impressive as what he’d seen in his mind, but it would do. The exposed ends of its rails glowed with blue scrollwork, and were set into a blocky, but sturdy-looking body. Quiet whirrs echoed from within as it turned, sweeping its lethal gaze from left-to-right, then back again. [color=E579FF]“Okay! The wires are out. Now what?”[/color] Good timing. [color=EBA536]“Alright, do you see the arcane battery on the right?”[/color] Scaerthrynne asked as he pulled his musket off of his back. After a quick check of its mechanism, he popped open the breech and loaded it. [color=E579FF]“Um…Oh! There it is!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“Remove it like how you’d remove any other arcane battery.”[/color] The dark elf hefted his weapon, pressing it to his shoulder, then lowered it to adjust its sights. Then, he pulled out a battery from one of his pouches and pushed it into a slot carved out of the forestock of his weapon. It was just a precaution, in case he needed one of his shots to have a stronger punch. [color=E579FF]“It’s out!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“Pass it here,”[/color] Scaerthrynne called to her. Vallena turned and lobbed the cylinder over to him. He caught it out of the air and pushed it into a hole in the turret. A low hum emanated from it, and for a brief moment, it glowed a faint blue. [color=EBA536]“Now take out one of your empty batteries. The biggest capacity you have. Type three would be best, but a type two would work as well. Replace the battery you just took out with it.”[/color] There was the sound of rummaging. Then, [color=E579FF]“Okay! Empty type three going in!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“You’re doing great so far. There’s a box in the middle. That’s the runic array regulator. There’re a few tabs on it, but you only need to find the green one. If it’s up, push it down. If it’s down, push it up.”[/color] That was the reset switch, used when there was an imbalance in the circuit. It didn’t do much, usually, but Scaerthrynne had found out that by turning it off and on again, with an empty battery hooked up to the circuit, the system could be fooled into thinking that the capacitor—the bar—was overcharged. [color=E579FF]“Okay, done! What’s next, Scratch?”[/color] Now came the hardest part of all. [color=EBA536]“There’s a red tab next to the green one. Again, if it’s up, push it down, if it’s down, push it up.”[/color] That told the regulator to start redistributing runic energy through the system. With a drained battery in the circuit, it would start siphoning power from the capacitor to recharge it, a side-effect of the array’s internal logic systems demanding that the arcane battery shouldn’t be depleted. A type three battery, however, was very power-hungry. It would empty the capacitor, and once that happened, it would start drawing energy from the runes themselves. [color=E579FF]“Done!”[/color] [color=EBA536]“Now we wait,”[/color] Scaerthrynne said, his lips pressed into a thin line. [color=EBA536]“Val, find yourself somewhere safe, and hide until I call for you. Eyepatch–”[/color] He grunted as he caught himself again. [color=EBA536]“I mean, Ezekiel, we’ve to hold here for a while, and we might have to fight. I don’t know how long we’ve got until that happens, but if you really, really need that leg seen to, let me know. Otherwise, make yourself ready.”[/color] Scaerthrynne’s gut told him that he had to hurry, and so he did. With a quiet sigh, he scrounged around for a few lengths of broken pipes, and set to work turning them into more spiked mines, to trap every one of the approaches. He had a feeling that they would need every advantage they could get.