Ellri

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Based on real info, but not solely. We had to run around cleaning up last time we meddled with the weather. Nah. Joking.

It is well-known that weather is not merely local. Mess it up one place and you might trigger climate change. But you might also not do it. It depends a lot on where you mess it up and how. Disrupt one of the major ocean currents and you're sure to get climate change somewhere. We've not studied it sufficiently to say whether a single thunderstorm is enough, but there are enormous forces at play in one, so it is possible. But again it depends on the where.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

There's noise all around. Besides, notice is one thing. Mentioning is another. If everyone mentions everything invented by everyone they might have awareness of, the posts will be unnecessarily long.

Weather control would be a very high class of relic. Messing around with that is extremely dangerous. A minor thunderstorm where one doesn’t belong is highly likely to have global consequences. Sure, it's impressive... But do you want to spend the next six months running around correcting weather patterns so that an ice age is avoided?

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Things happened.

Too summarized? Someone with a keyboard might provide a more enlightening summary.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

We'll be on less this weekend. Only on tablet now, as we're not home. But we'll be around. Ish.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

More enjoyable than many forms of school, though. Especially more enjoyable than dry lecturers who have never heard of the concept of a sense of humor.

Post is up. We closed those inner gates for you, Spark. With the imperial army still outside too! Ain't we nice? There might be a few imperial agents inside the inner city, but not enough to easily open a well-guarded gate.

Sep: Flash has now been sent.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

Thora did not realize that though she saw no observers when she checked after feeding, she had been observed earlier, during the feeding. She ran through the city, winding through the crowd with far more ease than she should have had. She had never before been in a crowd as dense as this, let alone one in mixed panic and confusion. It was as if she knew where people would move before they did. Not long before, but it allowed her to plot out the ideal route through the crowd.

Even as she ran, she could feel the newest blood beginning to affect her. She had tasted something different about it, but had not been able to figure out what. The itchiness of growth came from her fingers this time. She held one hand before her, and thought she could see how her fingernails thickened and sharpened, even though the changes were so subtle that they ought not to be noticeable. Had Thora been able to see, or sense, it on a cellular level, which of course she could not, she would have seen the cells of her nails twisting into new shapes, the very stuff they were made of recombining into stronger elements, their structure becoming more durable. Through that microscopic process, her nails kept looking virtually the same, yet became so much more.

Though that was the most significant change, it was not the only change. She could feel herself being stretched even more. The more she changed, the more stretched she felt, as if her soul no longer fit her body. Or maybe it was the other way around? It was impossible to say. Suddenly she came out of the crowd, where large groups of strangely dressed soldiers were moving in organized fashion. They surrounded groups of panicked civilians, worked to calm them down, then led them away. In dealing with the civilians Thora was surprised to see that not a single weapon was lifted. Still, she felt that there was something strange about it all. She did not like it. She turned about, running the opposite direction.

Climbing up to the rooftops again, Thora found again that that route was even quicker. Only when she neared the inner walls did she jump back down to street level. As had been the case for a month or so, she had no trouble landing with ease even when jumping down several times her height. Unfortunately, just as she reached the inner walls, she saw to her horror that the gates slid the last bit closed. She could hear the loud thunk as the crossbar was set in place. She was trapped outside, like so many others. She could also feel the thirst once again starting to build. Her body had burned through the blood of the foreigner quickly, and it wanted more. Trapped as she was, she feared she had few options.

Elsewhere
Slavómir nodded once to the Empress' agent. He dared not take the darkness down completely, instead letting a single flash of light pass out through it. He was no fool, though. He made sure that the flash was centered well away from his hiding spot. Even with just a brief flash, the darkness would need a minute to recover fully after it, a result of the truly wide area it covered. He personally would have preferred if the Imperials had used one of their pet evokers for the task, but of course he did not decide imperial policy.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

If you're going with wood found on earth: Generally seen, the lighter the wood, the less durable it is. For dugout canoes, the ideal is a wood with dense and long fibers. Sure, that is heavier, but its more likely to survive outside flat water. If on the other hand you're building a canoe with framework and a thin shell on the outside (bark, hide, etc), then you would end up with something lighter.

An eight-man canoe isn't much for scouting, generally speaking, but it is better than a hundred-man canoe, of course. When you scout, you want to be quick and maneuverable. For a pure scout canoe, we'd suggest 1-2 man. Its only when you need to move a lot of cargo or men that you need larger. Seeing as you're intent on moving numerous folks out of the city, we'd go with a canoe designed to transport a small group. A hundred-man dugout isn't very maneuverable or quick to build up speed, but a 1-2 man canoe doesn't have room for more. A canoe suited to hold 8-10 seems decent for that purpose. Its not the quickest out there, but if everyone helps, it can be quite fast. Its also not so large as to be very hard to maneuver. One advantage with canoes over regular masted boats is that they're much harder to spot. Which comes in handy when fleeing.

We'll get a post up later on.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

The thing about those massive war canoes? Their hull is made from a single log. It would make more sense for the canoe to belong to Bor's tribe. If its large enough to hold anything more than ten or so it would require more than one person to paddle. A regular, small canoe can be paddled by one, but not a War canoe of decent size. Given that some war canoes could hold up to a hundred, they can be pretty huge.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

We woke up in middle of night. Got a decent answer, then will sleep more.

Why not? Perhaps there aren't regular boats on that lake/inland ocean? A huge canoe like that is in many ways much better than a boat. There's no saying that its design is the best design available in this kingdom.

The Relics (No Plot/Fantasy/Character Driven/Worthy of Skepticism)

The thing about the Vocators is that not even the more knowing citizens of the Empire know about them, let alone someone on the other side of the known world. Other than things related to the empress, there's no secret in the Empire that is better kept. Just because something is old, does not make it more known. If you've kept something secret for several hundred years (while all that time, information technology has not changed much), you'll be pretty good at keeping that secret. If anything, people would assume they're an odd part of the Imperial Army, maybe some sort of elite vanguard.