One Day in Takamatsu

Goldenblade is here in Takamatsu this afternoon, speaking with one of the merchants about a shipment. She's poised and confident, with a no-nonsense tone about her, and the Lander merchant seems eager to explain how he'll be able to put together her order within the week. She nods gravely, then proceeds on, seatching, perhaps, for some other place, her expression is purposeful, her strides bold. One shitfy type sidles along as she passes by, but his friend grabs his sleeve and holds him back, shaking his head. He recognizes something about her that the younger fellow perhaps had missed.

Eirik comes strolling through a cocky borderline arrogant swagger his strides long and his gait fluid and quick. The tall Undine male wears a long black leather duster over leather armor with knee high cuffed boots. The man's hands rest upon the two cutlasses resting upon his hip.

Goldenblade is looking for something, it seems, but what she finds instead is Eirik. "You there," she calls, and heads over toward him, doing a quick Inspect function. Pausing, she introduces herself, first, saying, "Call me Goldenblade," first, because if he inspects her, he'll see her name overflows the space allowed. "Ah, you're a nautical sort? You look the part, anyhow," she says to him as she draws close to a coversational distance. "What do you know about ships and seafaring?" she asks him pointedly.

Eirik stares for a moment at Goldenblade. "A nautical sort? Aye that I be, I'm Eirik Torsen Pirate Lord and lover of all things fun and booze." He says with a laugh. "As for what I know about ships and sea faring, why everything of course! Though alas I am in the market for a new ship."

Goldenblade nods gravely to Eirik about being in the market for a ship, and says, "That suits me perfectly, then, because I have a ship and it wants a captain. We're still outfitting it, and have a few mods that should give us a good edge, we feel. But that's down to specifics. But you're a Sleeping Knight, I figured you would be up for adventure and derring do and all that business?"

Haru is also in Takamatsu this afternoon. He notable by the silvery hair that screams 'Hi, I am an Adventurer' and a monocle that says 'With money' and a jacket that says 'That doesnt understand what armor is'. Basically if he didnt have Adventurer superpowers he would be a mark for mugging. At the moment he is speaking to a merchant that is bringing in raw gemstones and precious metals. Silver. Gold. Coin exchanges hands as he leaves with a handful of semi precious gems in one bag and another with a restocking of silver. Menu swipe. Into the inventory you go!

It is about this time he hears the calling of "You There" which has the head turn like a busy mall when a kid yells 'Dad'. He begins to wander over, noticing it is Goldenblade and someone new. Enough to catch the tail end of the introductions. "And all that business," the young man says with a light laugh. "Hey GeeBee," he offers, taking one step back to not get in the way of srsly srs business times.

Eirik grins at Goldenblade as she speaks. "Aye a ship is a beauty and a tool as are her armaments. But none of that means a thing if her Captain and crew aren't worth their salt." And the mention of adventuring and the like gets a broader smile. "Oh aye adventures and treasures to plunder its all the most fun to do." Eirik turns to look at Haru. "Hello there I'm Eirik Torsen Pirate Lord and lover of all things fun and booze related."

Goldenblade looks up as Haru walks up, but she nods a greeting. "Haru. How do you do?" She looks at him skeptically for a moment, but he's not wearing a Crown, so he's OK for now. "What brings you here?" she wonders curiously. "More projects for Eas?" That seems to be the Palace Lander's current objective, and so several sorts of players have come to Eas to support its defense. "Eirik, I assume you have come to support your Guild-mate Wake," who's Baroness at Eas just a few hours south of here, "against the Palace Landers?" she guesses at his objective. To Haru, she explains, "I'm seeing about another shipment of supplies for Eas. The Palace Landers don't have the Navy to interdict us, so things are getting in and out just fine, but some of the supplies she needs are special and need separate arrangement.

She nods as Eirik introduces himself as a Pirate Lord, and says, "Well, that's perfect, because we're outfitting about the most dangerous ship that's been seen in local waters. Armed with spell-cannons, whatever those are," she doesn't manage the details to that level it seems, "and with magic shields, when we're done with the outfitting, I'm hoping it will sweep the Palace Landers clear of the seas." She's not speaking too loudly, there's no use getting overheard by spies, but Haru is known, and a Yamato player in Wake's guild ought to be fine.

Haru offers an open handed wave. The man doesn't appear to keep any weapons on him based on his appearance. Navy Jacket. Denim Jeans. More a city goer type. "Haru Nox. Accessory Crafter. Enchanter. Lover of things magical," he introduces himself to Eirik, "also a Silver Sword member and part of the New World Alliance." As short of an introduction he can think of without getting the first of his name and breaker of chains in there.

A turn to GB. Haru shifts where he stands, thinking about that for just a moment. "No, not any projects for Eas since my aid in its recent defense. I am going to assume Wake won't have any for me in quite some time after our last conversation over in Ouph." A hand pats the side of his jeans where there is nothing there. Inventory system is great, "Stocking up on materials for my craft. I still make plenty of them while traveling around. Ever since the Moonlight advancement I haven't been able to keep the merchandise off of Miho's shelves." There is a pause there to consider GB's situation and a nod of his head. "Smart. Supply chains are so vital right now." He, also, doesn't go big on the volume of his voice. Business tone.

Eirik nods his head in thought for a moment. "Magic canons....and magic shields.....hmmmm" He taps his chin for the briefest of moments before continuing on. "Aye part of why I'm here is to help and support Baroness Wake. Another is to procure a ship, and still another is just to kick back rat drink and be merry, ya know?" Eirik says with a chuckle before listening to Haru again. "Ah yes well I'm a member of the Olympus Alliance and the Sleeping Knights guild a pleasure to meet you both.:

Goldenblade ahhhs, nods to Haru about his purpose here. "There's been a lull," she admits about the Palace Landers. "But that generally means they're saving up for something unpleasant. It was like that in the 70's, too. When things got quiet, it meant that the enemy was doing bad things in secret." Because she's old enough to remember that. Eirik won't have been told, but Haru knows how old her player is, so observations like that may not surprise him.

To Eirik, she says, "I'm with Crescent Moon, myself," meaning they're in the same Alliance. "I'm Wake's builder," she explains to Eirik, "so we may see a lot of each other. We had the steamship, probably the first of its type in Yamato, but unarmed, it couldn't do much for us. I'm hoping that armed and armored, it can hamstring the Palace Landers' supply lines."

Haru is not surprised at the comment for the 70s. He is familiar with how old GB's player is behind the avatar. "Back then intel operations were the height of it, I assume? Cold war stuff. Only instead of missiles we are talking about magical means since I haven't seen the science reach that point," he offers a point upwards, "yet. Curious on your thoughts into the matter." Give it a couple years and he assumes a lot of Scale-style tech will make its way towards modernizing. He isn't complaining. Although he is a fan of doing things in line with the locale, he does recall how nice it was to be back in familiar technology lands with the Kunie. "I'm glad this place is still here. Securing another port sounds like a strong move." His mind wanders. It often does. It can be rude when there is present company.

"Eirik, it is nice to meet you. I'll have to throw you a friend request in a little it since overseas and underwater adventures are something I am into with the Hunter's Guild or, just in general, exploration." It reminds Haru to look to GB and the diving gear. "Which goldsmithing can be a hand in for underwater regulation equipment or spyglasses for the ship, if you need any of that. An undersea installation does sound really interesting, especially with the Undine ruins a few months back."

Eirik looks between Goldenblade and Haru and runs his fingers through his hair. "Silence in any war and upon any battlefield is bad. It means those looking to do us harm are plotting and gathering strength." He says though his voice takes on a dark dry tone for a moment as if lost in a memory. Eirik's player knows war and in particular Naval combat but that's not something he puts out there much. "So this ship will be outfitted with magic canons..... does this mean they can make magic like flintlock pistols and such?"

Goldenblade hrms as Haru asks her opinion on the cold war, though she says, "It was pretty hot in Viet Nam at the time. Chinese hadn't gotten their act together, and Russians were more about looking good than being good, but the troops on the ground gave 110 percent even when their leaders were full of crap. The Palace Landers are in kind of the same situation, forced to obey questionable orders. If we could break those mind-control crowns, I wonder how many units would turn?"

She ohrights as Haru mentions underwater regulation, and she says, "I need to get with you for untethered diving, yeah. My current aparatus is tied to an air source on land, yeah." Eirik gets a nod, "Yeah, that's my concern." As far as what they can do, she'll defer to Haru, who probably doesn't know what they can do specifically? Or may be he's familiar with Pela's spell cannons? She shakes her head about flintlocks, though, "Nothing so mundane," she admits. This is a case where she had to use projects that were already complete rather than breaking new ground. "It's like Buck Rogers and rayguns, as far as I can tell."

Haru has one visible eye, blue, behind his silvery hair. The other eye is concealed with a silver rimmed amethyst monocle. When the young human closes his eye it is hard to say if it is a wink or a blink or what. It probably is 'closing eyes in thoughts' as he hums. "I wonder that too, how many would turn if they knew the crowns could be broken. When I think about the Palace Land's local situation, before we got involved, it would have made sense is someone already had. And if so, what did that do? How did they respond." He opens his eye and looks to Goldenblade in a very specific non-verbal way that he feels she would understand without outright saying it, "If someone did figure out how to break the crowns in a safe, repeatable way, I imagine they would become a key target for neutralization in the same way that creating an effective anti-missile defense system would be a hamper to the nuclear option. And then snuff out that hope." A single blink. Wink? Damn that monocle!

Flintlock technology! Haru cheerfully turns his head to Eirik, "I'm an alchemist too. Fun fact, did you know that to be a proper Enchanter you have to learn Alchemy to do catalysts in order to convert raw mana into the Enchanting Circuit?" A hand gestures in a circle, "Like how steel requires carbon as a flux or metals need to be set to a certain ionic charge to be magnitized." Nerd. "Flintlock pistols from the Old World might be too difficult to replicate. You'd be looking at certain alchemical reactions to produce the explosion of a projectile and, alas, you can get a similar or better result with the Buck Rogers and Raygun effect. Apply your own mana to conduit, like a flintlock pistol, put a projectile in, and it fires off. All the joy of a firearm but, ultimately, its a magic assisted explosion over a thermochemical one." A deep breath and an exhale. Lots to talk about, Professor Haru. "Cyrus would be your best bet for advanced alchemy if you are deeply curious, and Kaydon had a similar design with his gunblade that is ultimately part of Kat or Pela's work with Mana Batteries. Thats all the realm of Enchanting." Hence his long talk about the topic, as an Enchanter.

There is a thought on the diving suit, the man tapping his head, "We should talk. If we put an enchantment on an oxygen tank and establish a regulator, then so long as the tank is being fed Air mana it can be stored and pressurized to release oxygen. In theory. And it can also take elemental crystals if mana isn't available from the wearer or, and probably more importantly, if it runs out."

Eirik grins as he listens and nods his head. "OH aye. I wasn't specifically meaning a flintlock in itself but in that style, made to look the same way to keep with my Pirate image." He says clearly excited and the science not lost on him in fact he rather enjoys listening to it.

Tapping his chin he thinks a bit more. "If I'm going to Captain a ship with large scale magical firearms I'd like to try and procure a smaller one for myself, make sense?" Than he turns to Goldenblade. "Aye I've studied the wars before my time, part of basic training and such. The one I was a part of wasn't much different. So anything I can do to help free people and overthrow an oppressive regime sign me up!" Eirik exclaims as he places his hands upon his Cutlasses again.

Talk turns to underwater breathing methods and he chuckles. "I got you hands down on that." He laughs gesturing to his gills. "But for those without gills, the ways for you to get around that are absolutely intriguing!"

Goldenblade agrees with Haru's surmise, that the Palace Landers would come down on anyone that could neutralize a Crown like a ton of rectangullar building things. "If some knew that, in the Palace Lands, they wouldn't dare let it become known," she agrees. As far as flintlocks go, she nods at what Haru says. "It's easier, I think, to just make something modern-ish in tech level, if you're going to make a thing at all the hard way, or just use magic; if you're going to half-ass it, you might as well half-ass it all the way." That's probably the closest she's come to acceptance of magic. But Haru knows her perspective on that as well. She shrugs as to what might be done to simulate a regulator. "I'm a bricklayer, not a mechanical engineer," she claims unironically. "But I can't make a thing with weaponsmithing that will take a tank pressurized to 2250 P-S-I," which is typical of older steel SCUBA tanks, "and reduce it to a pressure than won't blow out the lungs of whoever's breathing from it. So, it's /got/ to be magic." She sighs a bit. "How you do it, I won't understand anyhow."

Goldenblade nods to Eirik about freeing people. "If you've studied the wars, you know more than I do as a hobbyist. But the situation here isn't quite as it was historically because of magic. The wind and the waves will spite the ablest sailors and serve the sailing mages," she points out. Though as an Undine, Eirik almist certainly knows. "Pela is the one to talk to about magical weapons, I think. Or Haru, here. But if you need a sharp blade that will cut through defenses, I'm your weaponsmith."

Haru nods once to help Eirik along his quest to have awesome weaponry. "And to be fair you do need a bit of both to make a weapon like that function. Like a tank, it makes a lot more sense to get a strong metalworker to construct the material that an alchemical catalyst is applied to and an enchantment circuit. That means, off the cuff, you are talking about an Enchanter, an Alchemist, and a Weaponsmith." He talks with his hands, motioning them as he goes from one profession to the next, "The personal touch you may be interested in, Eirik, is you do need base materials. As an adventuring seafarer," pirate, "you might come across these. It adds a personal touch and those personal touches just /work/ better when crafting." He offers a smile, "Give me a hand with Shibuya when we need it and underwater explorations and we can trade favors in strengths. I do not have that racial ability." A finger runs along the side of his neck and notable lack of gills. "Underwater potions are great, but having almost drown half a dozen times going to the Phantom Atoll, I am not going to discount the raw value of natural talent." He laughs at that. Oh drowning. Bane of adventuring.

"Would love to stay and chat more, but have to be getting back. Goldenblade, always a pleasure. Chim me details on the suit later and I'll tinker around with a regulator. With my Moonlight advancement I am finding new techniques and tools that bring a lot more into light," he says with an informal bow. Eirik gets one as well, "Eirik, a pleasure to meet you. I hope you get a solid ship, crew, and gear. The Goddesses know that we will need more of them in the weeks and months to come." He straightens up with a smile. A brief hand gesture to an invisible menu and Eirik gets a friend request before the Artificer starts to head off.

Eirik nods thoughtfully for a few moments. "Aye I can definitely go for a couple new Cutlasses never can have to many aye?" Eirik laughs. "But yes favors for favors works wonders in relationship building yea?" He runs his fingers through his hair and nods to Haru. "The pleasure is mine my friend."

Goldenblade shrugs about new cutlases, and says, "I will add that to my to-do list. But I will keep you appraised of our steam warshiup construction project. As it nears fruition, it will be on you to recruit and train the crew. And I think Wake will want to speak with you as well. But for now, I, too, must be about my tasks."

Eirik nods. "I'll be sure to recruit and train a crew. Speaking with Wake is on the top rung of my to do list. Well Goldenblade you have a lovely day it's been a pleasure to meet you."