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C - Pedal-Powered Machi-
C - Torsion Array.

What's the point of making a masterpiece if we're just going to make what already exists? We'll have the rest of our career to do that if we please!

Making the handler reload sounds like a pain, but the loss in fire rate from a single barrel autoloader sounds less than ideal. The problem stems from having to load the gunpowder, so why not do away with the gunpowder outright?

Create multiple torsion driven firing units and rig it up with golem mesh to wind and (hopefully) load.

Maximum damage per shot is probably going to be more limited versus a blackpowder solution (unless we gear it towards launching things like explosives which is probably not something we want inside our workshop) and won't hold as many shots as a true multibarrel but the ability to fire multiple shots and reload, and the novelty of it should make it a good trade-off.

Quote from: BlackPaladin99 on December 29, 2022, 02:09:09 pm

Quote from: Stirk on December 29, 2022, 12:20:27 pm

Ask our vassal why she is so...in touch with reality. We where under the distinct impression that her kind where constantly consuming chemical concoctions while she seems remarkably sober.

Then break her grip on reality by discovering a way to detect qi. Or at least pretending to so our vassal thinks we’re cool.

Let’s see... all those things with qi in them are warm. Burning energy makes things warm. What fools we are trying to detect energy with our eyes or souls or whatever, it is clearly something you do with your hands.

Touch the Smoke Gorilla with our hands looking for warm parts. These are clearly where the qi is stored.

this, and Ask Ada About Ourselves

+1 Maybe we should snort some of the smoke?

It only occurs to you now, but isn't this vassal of yours a little too straight-laced? From what you know of cultivators they should be high like, all the time. Just absolutely mainlining that shit. You've been half expecting the girl to shoot up and start chasing butterflies or something, but aside from that accidental discharge she's been shockingly sober. What's up with that?

"I... didn't take any?"

She hasn't been taking any of those crazy cultivation drugs?

"N-no I mean, not today... _{I use mine for meditation...}"

Okay so she's not strange, she's just boring. Got it.

Y'know, maybe it's for the best. If she was high she might doubt what she's about to see. You reach out into the crowd.

The gorillas have collapsed already, fallen apart into smoke. But the crowds, the crowds have qi. Ada said as much. It stands to reason then that you should be able to feel their qi too.

"Um... what are you doing Senior?"

Feeling for qi you explain. Emitting all that energy is going to render their source warm if not hot. So you if you just grope around a bit more you should be able to... Something brushes against your hand. Something ice cold. It's a bandaged hand, Ada's hand.

"My hand is made of qi."

You tut at her. Her hand is an emission, it's not the source. The source would be somewhere in her body and can she deny that her body is warm?

She shakes her head "Senior... qi isn't energy. It's deviance."

From what?

"The song of the world."

That sounds purely academic and- wait putting that aside for a moment, isn't she a bit too casual with this?

"H-huh?"

It's one thing for her to not be high right now, but this is like the third time you've shown you have no idea what the fuck is going on and she's kind of just accepting it?

"Oh um, I just figured you were an incarnated beast..."

An incarnated what now?

"An incarnated beast... it's a kind of spirit beast. They form when an animal recalls the cultivation of past lives."

They form? Like spontaneously? Just you're minding your own business doing squirrel things and then BAM! you're a cultivator now?

"I think so?"

Well that does sound like what happened to you. But wait, if you're recalling all this cultivation shit how come you don't remember basic things like not being able to sense qi?

"Maybe it's not conscious..? It comes from your mengtian so um... _{maybe it's instinctual?}"

Mengtian. You could've sworn you've heard that term before, but you can't remember where. It's... it's the thing your soul resides in isn't it? It's connected to your dantian through some sort tether(?), a cord of some-

"A spirit cord" Ada nods.

You were going to say "ghost cord".

"I think some old books call it that..."

Well whatever old books say you don't think the four gorillas barrelling down on you care. You ponder whether you could get high from snorting them but to be honest, you straight up ate one (or at least a good third of one) without getting high, and now that you think about it you think you might have been "smelling" through your mouth this whole time. You don't really have a nose and you don't breath either.

> [] Make a fighting retreat to one of the buildings. Catch them with a chokepoint and head up to get a view of the situation from above
> [] Eat them. Maybe the smoke will come in handy later?
> [] Drop the clerk in one of the carts and break through. Fuck it, let's see if they can deal with this
> [] (Write in)

Gobble it up!

EAT THAT GORILLA!

((No roll. Gorilla 1 has no chance and the clerk makes it infeasible for Gorillas 3 and 4 to stop you in time.))

As you open your mouth you realize you haven't done it before. Not to speak, not to breath, and you realize you haven't been breathing either. Your maw splits open wide bathing your surroundings with an ominous orange glow.

"W-what are you doing?"

Establishing dominance.

It's not a bad bite by any means, the gorilla's not exactly sturdy either, but you get the feeling you're not going to be tearing chunks out of your enemies anytime soon. Not that you need to.

It flows. Not quite your tongue, not quite your saliva. No word exists to describe it but it is what resides in your mouth. An amorphous mass of molten metal. It does not burn so much as it dissolves its way through the smokeflesh and you find yourself not so much tearing at its flesh so much as simply funneling it into your maw, taking care to keep the clerk between you and its comrades.

More and more smoke dissolves, dissolves into your maw, dissolves into your body. Some of it, some fundamental part of it fades, fades to nothingness - its qi you realize. But the rest remains inside you and you're pretty sure you can release it too. From your mouth, from your vents, or into your magazines. You don't think shooting the gorillas with the remains of their comrade would help much, but the option's on the table now.

You eat maybe a quarter of it before the rest of its body collapses into smoke, shrouding both you and the clerk.

"Papers please"

The clerk turns towards Ada. That's odd, you're pretty sure it didn't finish vetting you?

Seeing their chance, Gorilla 3 and 4 rush at you from either side, multicolored smoke releasing from their bodies and stirring up the crowd once more.

You're confident you can deal with them before the other group can close in.

> [] Just shoot them. Whatever they are, they aren't bulletproof
> [] Dash away, then shoot them. Take the chance to see how much the crowd can impede you, if at all
> [] Delegate. Tell Ada to deal with them for you
> [] (Write in)

B G K S V

+1

Quote from: King Zultan on December 06, 2022, 01:56:56 am

Quote from: Egan_BW on December 05, 2022, 08:53:57 pm

True. Claim the guns and make her carry them. The rest is TRASH.

+1 This is the way.

+1

((Lumping Dev and Cronos' votes together since they're asking for similar things. That ties it up with Zul's question, so I'll be having Alex ask both sets.))

Three six-shooters. Seventeen rounds between them. You wipe them off on your robes and return them to their holsters.

"Do... do you need that many?"

Of course! What sort of question is that? You'll need backups in case your weapons run dry, and what if you run into another poor unfortunate soul in need of a gun? Also, she'll be carrying them.

"...Okay but um, why?"

Because she could clearly use more. Though now that you think about it maybe you should test her knowledge, her trigger discipline certainly left a lot to be desired. Does she even know the make and model of these?

"N-no?"

Does she at least know what her own gun is?

"It's a um, Hanwei Single Action Peacemaker(?)"

And what about your guns?

"I-I don't know... they're intrinsics right?"

One out of six. Terrible, truly terrible. You shake your head.

"S-sorry I'm- wait... six? How did you get- you're counting it like that?"

Of course! Why wouldn't you? It's more important to know about common guns, and by your observation those are more common!

Ada blinks, mulling over whether to argue the point. "D-do you know what they are then?"

You wave her off. That's besides the point, the point being that this information she should know! She can't just coast along doing- ...actually what does she do anyway? Besides picking fights with bandits?

"I didn't pick a fight with them! They ambushed me!"

Okay besides getting ambushed by bandits what does she do?

"I'm a craftsperson."

What does she craft? Furniture? Ceramics? Guns?

"...H-how would I be a gunsmith?"

How would you know? Nepotism? Low standards?

"I make drones."

You weren't aware bees needed help with that.

"Wha- no, not those, these." She gestures to the grubs.

So they're a type of expendable flying construct?

"Sort of, they're not all this expendable. You can use them to scout and fight for you, a-also deliveries, I think my clan's trialing them for agriculture too. _{I um, don't have the resources to make those though.}"

But she does have the skills? Well you suppose it would be your responsibility to help leverage those talents even if you don't completely get what they entail.

"They can also use guns."

Oh why didn't she say that to begin with? Now what was that about a clan?

"Oh um, I'm from the Nest."

You have no idea what that is. Where's that sit on the nobility totem pole? And more importantly, what do you get now that you're her suzerain?

"It's a comital clan and um _{I don't know?}"

Comital eh? That's pretty high up, granted she's clearly not a scion or anything, but clan ties still carry their own benefits, and even if you don't get extra benefits for vassalizing her you're sure it won't be too hard to at least attain parity in the eyes of others. Speaking of which, which chump's in charge of dealing with bandits?

"Uh... the sect?"

Sure they'll probably be called to deal with the problem, but who asks them to?

"A town?"

Not what you're asking. There's some sort of official in charge with this sort of thing isn't there? Making sure the woods aren't just absolutely lousy with bandits?

She stares blankly back at you. "Senior... could it be that you don't know where we are?"

Some backwater ass woods apparently. Does it matter?

"We're in the Inner Frontier."

You have no idea what that means, but the mention of a "frontier" is illuminating enough.

The salvage itself takes a little more time. Ada starts with the armor, tearing through the rear lining to find a flat box filled with shimmering rocks. Spirit stones. This must be what array's power source. She presses her bandaged hand into the container, you can tell whatever lies beneath the bandages isn't solid, not complete anyways, not with the way she's doing it. After a moment, she withdraws her hand. The stones are gone. She repeats the same process for the other armored vests, the spears go similarly only difference being the location of their power supply - housed in a cavity where the wooden shaft meets the steel head.

The remaining drones settle back inside the partitioned case and Ada swings it back onto her back, now with another three holsters in tow.

With that all sorted the two of you depart for the Tap District.

*** Sometime Later ***

You're beginning to see it's called the Tap District. You haven't seen it yet, but you're beginning to understand at least why it's called a district, not a town, a village, or anything else.

See, the Tap District is a district, a small sliver of a much larger city, a metropolis in fact. The Veiled City, an urban sprawl on a scale to rival or exceed even the greatest of capitals. Paper lanterns illuminate the night with strange sigils inscribed upon their square faces, buildings stack one upon the other two to three stories high capped with glazed tile roofs, vendors hawk their wares from carts lining the road. Skewers and umbrellas, trinkets and fine porcelains. This is not a main road. The main road is too dangerous. This is not even the heart of the city, you are in the outskirts. In the heart the buildings grow far taller, the crowds denser, and survival all the less certain.

There are crowds. There are always crowds. But there is no one in the crowd, no one but you and Ada. No one you can see anyhow.

That flows through the streets are not humans but multicolored smoke. Thick ever-shifting smoke, you can see shapes in it. People, always indistinct, how many are there in the crowd? What forms do they take? The details escape you, like wind slipping through your fingers. You see a transaction at a food cart, a wooden skewer charred on an open flame, nothing on the skewer, nothing on any of the skewers, but you cannot tell who made the transaction - there is no who, there is only the crowd. Ever-changing, ever-roiling, pouring through the streets, churning inside the buildings.

It is denser deeper in the city Ada explains. So dense you cannot see, so dense you need other senses, senses specialized for the city. So dense you could be swept away, carried away by the crowd, never to be seen again.

It's not trivial here either, visibility ain't the best and while your mobility isn't too impaired it's definitely an unfamiliar sensation, sort of like walking against an indecisive wind, navigating through a crowd, and walking underwater all at once.

Your instincts tell you to climb, to head up one of the buildings. It'll be easier to see up there, more freedom of movement unconstrained by the street structure too. Ada is hesitant however, pointing upwards.

Up above, lazily drifting through the skies is a humanoid figure not so much attired so much as draped in fabric. You can't make out too much else from this angle. That a problem?

"If it sees us. We should be safe in the crowd."

Well maybe not - you think you can see something approaching. Something a little more solid. A new light shines in the distance, shining towards you, and closing in. You reach for your weapons.

"It's okay..." Ada holds out her hand and gives you what appears to be a censer. Looks strangely utilitarian though save for a strange dial and button at the top.

"Papers please" A whisper, spoken first by the newcomer, and then by all the crowd around them.

You can see it now, an individual, a being that exists independent of the crowd. A mass of multicolored smoke taking the shape of a clerk with a paper lantern embedded in their head, a sigil traced upon it. Looking down, you can see that same sigil amongst others on the censer's dial.

Ada steps forwards, aligning her dial to the sigil and depressing the button. Something ignites within the censer, flames and smoke dancing unnaturally, some of the smoke pours from the censer, but only certain colors.

"They don't understand words" Ada explains. In other words, she's saying you can still talk freely.

Is it bad to defy these clerks?

She nods "They can't do much on their own. But if we try to run there will an immune response."

Like guards or something?

Another nod. "It can get very bad."

The checking process takes a fair amount of time, especially since the clerk has to check both of you, but you are able to still at least move during the check, just limiting your pace so it can keep up. Eventually its light extinguishes with a "Thank you" and it glides past without further fuss.

Another light shines ahead.

"Papers please"

Wait what? Is this normal?

"N-no, something's off!"

You step back and a blur of motion rushes through where you head was mere moments ago.

A fist of black smoke. You square off against your assailant and find yourself face to face with a hulking mass of indistinct human silhouettes twisted together into the shape of something reminiscent of a gorilla in shape. It is comprised entirely of smoke, and yet it seems more solid than the clerks still.

Oh and there's three more barrelling down upon you right now.

Four gorillas, all at fairly close range. Another clerk inbound that you'll need the censer for (taking up one hand) and which you'll be punished for if you spur.

> [] Rush for the clerk. Use your enhanced mobility to create a gap, you can gun down these assailants while you appease the clerk
> [] Stand and fight. These chumps don't look too bad, you could take 'em
> [] Brave the rooftops. This whole situation stinks, you'd rather take your chances with cloth-clad figure
> [] (Write in)

Quote from: King Zultan on December 01, 2022, 03:53:45 am

Quote from: Stirk on November 30, 2022, 10:01:10 pm

Accept her tribute. Take the tablet and put it in whatever looks closest to a pocket or backpack. Explain that she will probably follow us around as a shadow until one of us dies, so if she really wants to communicate she can just raise her voice a bit.

+1

+1

"Ehhh?!"

Every single grub turns to face you, Ada quickly waves her arms, the message is obvious - it's okay. They relent.

"Y-you're not from the sect?"

A sect, that would be where cultivators go to hone their art under the tutelage of their seniors right? Establishments created to sequestrate all the inevitable drug-fueled violence and direct it towards the empire's ends.

No, you're not from the sect.

"Oh... M-maybe we should visit headquarters and get you registered. We can get you a new tablet too- ah, y-you can keep mine though! _{We'll need to re-attune it though...}"

Headquarters? Re-attune? You're still not sure what the tablet does or how to even use it, though communication seems to be one its functions.

Nodding slowly you move over to one of the fallen bandits, relieving them of their satchel. Bandages, a bottle of medicine, no coin, no room for coin either. Nothing of value. You empty it all out and place the tribute inside. Your body comes with holsters for your weapons and those magazine storage units, but no pockets. Nor do your robes, probably for the best - you're not convinced they'd hold anything too well being punctured by your jets however often.

Nine corpses. Five sets of functional armor, one working flamethrower (half-depleted), three revolvers, seventeen revolver cartridges, five spears (dropped in death or haste), two short swords (back up weapons for the spear wielders). Flamethrower and revolvers are likely alchemical, rest have arrays - enchantments built into them, or so Ada says.

You get first pick, you saved her after all. Whatever you don't take, she'll salvage, save for the flamethrower - too bulky. At the very least, you doubt you have much use for the armor.

After that "I was going to head back to the Tap District i-if you're okay with that I mean..."

Well, you have no idea for where else you'd go. You're guessing the sect headquarters is too far to travel to directly.

((Traveling to the Tap District will take some time, please vote on what you'd like to loot as well as any questions/conversations you'd like to have with Ada en route.))

Quote from: cronos5010 on November 27, 2022, 08:34:13 pm

Quote from: Egan_BW on November 27, 2022, 06:08:41 pm

Demonstrate proper trigger discipline by shooting the bandits only when the bullets would intersect their brains.

+1
Shoot the bandits, a vassal owes fealty in exchange for protection or whatever right? And one of those bullets could hit you out of all people too.

+1

(Hidden Roll)

Footsteps and gunshots, the chase resumes. There's a flicker of motion, a scream, and then death. The bandit your vassal shoved the corpse at? They're dead now, a hole blown through their throat. You didn't catch what happened - it was just in the edge of your vision, but you think something had crawled out of the corpse. Their comrades simply grit their teeth and push on, pausing only to turn a flamethrower upon the bodies.

Well whatever that was, it's not a threat to you. Not that the bandits are either. They're clearly uncomfortable with you, an ominous presence at their side looming concerningly close, but they're still hesitant to engage and suffer your wrath.

Good, frees your attention to more important things. Like admonishing your new vassal for her gun safety. Honestly, that should've been one of the first things you're taught - keep your finger off the trigger unless you mean to shoot!

"S-senior is this the best time?"

Of course it is, as they say - there's no time like the present. Besides, she's fine! Granted, those bullets are streaking ever closer, but this demonstration will only take a moment!

You raise your guns.

(Hidden Roll)
(Hidden Roll)

The revolvers being swung around here are but tools, interfaces to trigger their cartridges, vessels to direct what ensues. Your guns are different. Your guns are not mere tools, they are extensions of your very being. Do you pull a trigger to walk? Do you think about how your legs must move? No, you just walk. And you just fire.

You do not comprehend what happens, but understand it at some deep instinctual level, you had to - you are why it happens. Something changes in the universe. Something is drawn from your magazines. Something happens, and death is unleashed upon the world.

A bar of light rips through a bandit's head and a tree splinters behind their corpse. Embedded in its trunk is a miniature metal spear; it had been smelted by gunfire, forged by wind, and quenched by blood. Lazily, you sweep your gun across their comrades and the storm tears through their ranks.

That plating they're wearing? It does nothing.

This, this is proper trigger safety.

"Your gun doesn't have a trigger!"

Sounds like a skill issue to you. Speaking of which- CRACK! A bullet whizzes through the space you formerly occupied. Your thrusters aren't bad for avoiding fire either, the acceleration profile makes them better suited for proactive maneuvers than reflexive dodges though. Your impressive rate of fire certainly doesn't hurt either, leaving the bandits more preoccupied with scrambling away than aiming, accuracy isn't the best though, these are more suited to closer ranges like these you note.

Your right SMG is the first to run dry, magazine dropping to the ground and dissipating like the spears before it. Maintaining suppressive fire with your left hand you lower your spent gun. A pneumatic thump. A click. The sound of a fresh magazine locking into place, launched by the shield-shaped module at your hip. 25-round capacity. Your body begins preparing another.

An ominous drone fills the air.

(Hidden Roll)

They resemble rat-sized grubs carved from bamboo with strange glassy domes for heads and dragonfly wings. They fly from the same direction as your vassal's container, the one she dropped. The one with the hexagonal compartments, some of which are now open.

The flamethrowers become the only sanctuary, but two have fallen. One by your hand, another by your vassal's poor trigger safety, and the very first thing the swarm do is secure the bodies. The two flamethrowers left will be the only ones the bandits have, worse, in their zealous pursuit of your vassal, in their desperate scramble from your gunfire, they had fallen out of formation. Most are far from the safety of the flames.

Those that run away, they have the best prospects it seems. The swarm is more concerned with the others, the ones that run in blind panic, the ones that run towards the flames, they seem to be herding them, driving them towards the flamethrowers and keeping the flamethrowers separated. To their wielders they offer a simple ultimatum - burn their comrades or face the wrath of the swarm.

That moment of indecision is all it takes. A grub darts in, its approach answered by a wild sweep of flame, the maneuver is a feint, the real assault coming from another side, another grub closing in and detonating, its wings dissipating, its head shattering as a direct blast rips through its body and into its quarry. A strike aimed through the gourd and towards the wielder behind it. Prioritizing the disablement of the weapon above all else.

They act as if there is some very real intelligence behind their actions, they act without regard for their own existences. It seems your vassal isn't entirely hopeless.

The situation quickly becomes a rout, the bandits' coordination finally breaking fully as they scatter and flee. So leaves the last measure of protection against you. Their armor, worthless; their speed outmatched. Right now they are at your mercy, even if they are unaware of that fact.

> [] Kill them all and loot the bodies. They shot to kill, you will do the same.
> [] Capture one for questioning. Maybe they'll know something your vassal doesn't, like gun safety.
> [] Spare them, tell them to spread word of your deeds. Death can only deter the living.
> [] (Write in)