Visitors to the Lion

It can be said that whenever one gets in a mood (not that mood as a note) that one does forget to do more than eat or drink, and often times stays to one's self. Since all the troubles, Giganpor has been doing such. His forge is currently blazing hot with something that looks like a giant scale being trimmed down by him and a current piece inside the forge itself. Said trimming is taking precision hits with a hammer and a very sharp looking hatchet as he works on the durability to decrease it just enough to break a piece off. This one appears to be rather circular.

Whatever Giganpor is in the process of making, he already has a basic layer setup on a mannequin off to the left of the entrance. Leather backing with what looks like chain. The giant scale piece seems to be the part giving him the most trouble at the moment, and he often looks towards the open flames of the forge as if judging something out of view from the counter.

But otherwise, seriously, Giganpor's not been seen in days since he started this. And his forge has been going day and night with whatever he is making now. Except for that weekly trip to Fort Ouph, at least.

Uta wanders into the forge, greeting with an enthusiastic, "Hi, Miho! I have done some clearing of Spinner's Deep, and the spiders there dropped some armored shell, so I thought to myself, hey, maybe I can have them made into some sort of wall-climbing set of matching boots and bracers? That would be sooo cool. I could- wait." She looks around, finger on her lips. "...Miho? Where are you?" She turns to the Were fang. "Oh, hi Giganpor," she greets with a smile. She resumes looking around, mildly perplexed. "Where's Miho?"

    Setsuna had only ever been in Shibuya once before for any reason outside of a passing through and grabbing a quick meal to go or something like that. Lately though he makes a bit more of a wave when he enters towns, as he seems to have a monster entourage in these situations and well rumors are like wild fires. 'The undead are here.' 'The undead have captured wolves as mounts' 'That must be there vampire leader' Things that may have passed through several lander mouths and possibly some adventurers as well due to Setsuna's Setsunaness.
     The necromancer would leave his pets outside, tied to a mount station as he slips in to the Forge. It was as good a spot as any for Setsuna to search for Shiruba, and well she has to buy her arrows from somewhere. As he walks in he looks at Spriggan in white giving a nod, " Hey there, is this your forge?" It is casual, as if it was expected before he continues to look around for Shiruba from everyone else, ever so often sticking his head back out the door looking in on his minions as if someone was afraid for their car parked in a bad neighborhood.
     Turning back he blinks as he finally recoginizes the Spriggan, "Uta! When did you get here? Really is this your forge?" Obviously again he had never really explored Shibuya.

    Merek seems to be assisting Giganpor, with that project to make armor. The man walks along into the place with equipment, his beltcape about the waist while he nods to Uta and takes a moment to find a place. "It's good to see you both, and Uta. I... Think you're in Giganpor's shop," he says. A wave to Setsuna.

Giganpor looks up from the careful hammering and cutting he is doing. He looks back at what he is doing after Uta arrives... then in comes Setsuna. And calls of the undead being here. Sighing at that, he looks carefully at the piece he is cutting before giving a few more solid hits and breaking it off. Picking it up, he turns to see what the commotion is about.

And that has him just staring a bit at Uta for a moment, "Uh... Miho is back in the Ninetails Dominion, I believe. You are in Shibuya. Which is across Yamato. Literally a different continent." He rises up to his full height and moves over to the counter, "And yes, this is my shop. Why are people saying something about undead?" He questions as he looks between Uta and Setsuna. The Were Fang just looks slightly annoyed. Just a little bit.

Looking over at Merek, he gives a nod, "Thank you for picking those up. I still can not believe they were mixed up with the building supplies of all things."

Well Setsuna has the right idea and reasoning, but the wrong location. Shiruba gets the majority of her archery supplies from Miho, as Miho actually knows how archery works in a real sense as well as game mechanics. On the other hand, he's right about Shibuya being a good place to eventually find her, even if she hasn't been staying in the town for long periods of time. Just it being the center of the Alliance's presence means she's got to pass through regularly to deal with the more official aspects of her position.

And it's passing through that the wolfgirl notices the now familiar dire wolf 'parked' outside Giganpor's shop. On top of the weird fate of anything Scale Emblem visiting Giganpor's shop in general after What Happened. That's double the curiousity, and double the reason for her to stick her head in the blacksmith shop. "Hey does anyone have the parking permit for this beast out here?"

    Setsuna gives Merek a nod of a greeting in return and then looks at Giganpor and seems to be staring at the expression on Giganpors face before nodding his head, " Hmm it must be a cat thing but I swear Prophylaxis makes that same expression when I walk into his clinic. That is weird." He says before really taking in the shop a little before looking back over to Giganpor, "I was wondering if you had any Shiruba in stock. Perhaps with Map reading kung fu grip. " It was all casual really in his actions as he continues to browse some of the wares.
     Looking over at Uta he smiles and adds, " I don't suppose I could file this under an extended lunch break, in terms of why I should be at the slime lab but here right now. " Lets ignore the travel time that would be obvious he had to have left the Slime lab like yesterday to make it. Fortunately a distraction walks in named Shiruba, "Oh yes , he's mine. Don't worry he is potty trained and only chews on buildings and wagon wheels."

"I have a forge now?" She... she seems to frown in concentration over the question for... longer that would be sensible. "...I'm pretty sure I don't own a forge." Merek's word provide final reassurance, and her expression can finally distend in a smile again. "Oh, phew. Thank goodness. I have no idea of how to run a forge, much less how to forge things, so-" Uta flushes a little in embarrassment at the revelation. "...oh. Oh, well, that's fortunate you're here then!", she hurries to say, possibly as a save. "See, I've been helping with the Shibuya library for the New World Alliance, and now we're building the one at Castle Eas. So, I-" She frowns in concentration, rubbing her temples. "...I ...I" A short pause, more concentration, more rubbing, more strain.

Uta snaps her fingers. "-I came here to Shibuya to take notes and inspiration for the interior decoration, that's it!"

After she gets a few seconds to smile, she seems to become aware of the world around herself for the first time. Her eyes stop being unfocused at some vague point in the distance, and she follows the items that Giganpor is handling.

Which causes her to exclaim, "...oooooh... what... what is this material?" She hunches over, attempting to look nonchalant, but those who know her can tell by the way her wings spring up and flutter slightly that... well, that's the equivalent of a dog wagging its tail. "It... it looks /amazing/!" This is where Shiruba enters -- but Uta is too enthralled by the material Giganpor is working on to notice her.

    Merek looks then to Setsuna and Shiruba, "It's good to see both of you," he states, then he will assist Giganpor with a nod, "Of course, with being a Merchant, you learn a few things." The man then shifts all of his attention to Uta, "Ya, it's nice to find inspiration." He doesn't comment upon the woman needing to think about it a moment. "I will let him answer that. Also, I should be making contracts for Olympus eventually to transport coffee along to their HQ."

Giganpor looks to Shiruba, giving a nod. Then he looks to Setsuna, "No, I do not."

Then he looks to Uta. "Dragon scale. Well, Dragon Emperor scale."

He looks to Shiruba, "No, I did not invite them. And yes, I am still alive." He shrugs. A small gesture, but he is looking carefully at Setsuna and Uta at the moment. "So why do I have some sort of beast outside of my place of business at the moment?"

Giganpor moves to a stool behind the counter, settling on it as he pulls a bucket and a file over, and starts to work on shaping the piece in hand from the looks. Slow, methodical filing as he works at finding the angle he wants to make the item whatever he has in mind. He glances up at the group, "Oh, and we had some armor rivets get mixed up with the building supplies, Shiruba. Probably a bit of paperwork mix up."

Uta just stares at the exchange about the beasts parked outside, chalking it off as Setsuna being Setsuna, and, honestly, the others already taking care of this.

"No you can't file this as an extended lunch break," is what she replies to the Necromancer instead, turning to face him. "But don't worry, I'm not deducting this from your salary. I'm writing up a hourly debit which you can repay by helping me with a little project of mine later on. It involves-" Her eyes widen and she returns to look at the scale Giganpor has just identified. "So /this/ is it! This is the legendary item I have heard about! The..." She gulps. "The /scale/!", she says, her voice lowered in reverence, slightly stiffeed up, her arms pulled closer to her body. "I... I have heard /rumors/ about it... they're true then!"

"...So...uh... about that commission with the Spider shell...", she begins, but she sounds far less certain now. "...think you could do something about it? When... when you're done with this armor of course. I've just realized that I have to travel over here far more often than Ninetails where Miho is." She frowns in concentration. "Or was it Westelande?" More temple rubbing ensues. "...wherever it is. It's not important. I'm offering you the commission instead of Miho. Do you have a slot for it down the line?"

She turns towards the Wolf Cait Sith this time. "Shiruba! You're here? Hi! How are things?" And finally, back to Merek, "They would serve coffee where I used to work before ETO. I wasn't much into it, but I might give it a try again in this new world."

Shiruba laughs softly at Setsuna's response. "In other words, training is going well. Glad we tracked down a reasonable one for you." She doesn't comment on Giganpor's 'still alive' snark, instead just nodding a bit and "You're keeping busy, at least." As far as she's concerned he's gotten enough punishments thrown at him. "I'll have that guffaw looked into. Probably someone not familiar with having to do paperwork for materials in this world."

"Hello Uta. I worked part-time in a coffee shop myself. It became a console gamer hang-out during the 'off-line' years too, so that was always interesting."

Then her attention finally wanders back to Setsuna, though she just sort of stares at him for the last part of his remark. "What's kung-fu got to do with anything? I'm a Hunter, not a Martial Artist."

    Setsuna watches his employer for a moment and his smile and upbeat attitude blips off for a moment replaced with concern before it appears she is ok. So in the end he lets it go for the time being and digs deep to pull back out the positive nature he was projecting. He smiles at Uta and nods his head, " Of course, I would expect nothing less." Taking a breath his eyes find Giganpor's and gives an answer to the question at hand. " Oh I ducked in here wondering if Shiruba was a patron. Apparently I was right , but I didn't know it was your shop, I might have knocked first or just shouted real loud through the door."
     At the mention of the scale he peers from the counter top but he could be respectful of lines and other works and stayed in the customer area. He toys with one of those newbie knifes sold at the front, like candy bars. Not really sharp enough to do much damage if something had armor, but great for starter knife. Finally though Shiruba asks the question and Setsuna puts on his serious face, " So the undead have a base of operations in the north of Ninetail Dominion and I was hoping you might remember a map we found a few months back."

    Merek listens to the people while they talk among themselves, the man looking at the book which he keeps with him, taking the time to think about it. He then begins assisting with the project, placing the equipment upon the table while he takes a drink of cream milk that he keeps with him, "Anyway. Uta, it looks like we'll need to look into a lot more to learn any Alv."

Giganpor looks considerate. He looks over at Shiruba and Merek, then back at Uta, then at the two with a small shrug before he looks to Uta, "I am not weapon based. What I can craft, I can craft. If you seek a weapon, you would be better to seek out Kaydon or Miho. And this is not a... legendary item."

A thoughtful look comes on his face, "What are you even seeking to make, that you need Miho or myself in any case?"

A small nod is given towards Setsuna, "I would appreciate it. But it is a shop, and unless people are threatening me, my wares, or my customers, then I can not turn them away technically. Bad for business and all that."

The Were Fang hums as he looks at the material in his hand, turning it and looking at it considerably before going back to the filing. Then he rolls his eyes as he looks to Shiruba, "I imagine it is someone just a bit disgruntled with me. I did expect what I did to make a lot of waves, after all. And most of the time I simply go and get my own supplies. This, however, has taken up a lot of my time recently." He motions at the armored mannequin stand.

"Yes, I know," Shiruba replies to Setsuna. "Likely more than one, strategically speaking, but they have a few that are of major importance... or the places they take Landers for feeding rituals. Gabriella confirmed that to me, as she had been there before Athur had taken her away personally. But she wasn't able to recall the actual location or travel path -- likely intentional on Athur's part."

"As for the map we found," Shiruba reachs back to pull a rolled parchment from the scroll case strapped to the side of her quiver, "I added as much as I could recall to my own map. That's how I figured out there's a northern island that was once a pennisula before being flooded partially at some point. That's where the ruins we had previously been to are most likely located... But we have yet to find a way to get back out there. Understandably, none of the Landers really want to sail that close to potential hell on earth."

She does give a brief nod to Giganpor. "I wish they wouldn't do that, but..." She shrugs. She doesn't want to bring the subject up any more than it has to be, and right now, focusing on this other important matter is better. Before someone else decides they have to go to similar drastic measures about it.

Uta blinks at Giganpor. "The... the boots and bracers out of that spider drop at Spinner's deep? Didn't I mention it when I enter?", she says, scratching her head. "You know, spiders can climb walls, and these shells are a drop from them, spiky and all, so... I was wondering... think we could make a set of bracers, you know, the kind that covers the palm but leaves the fingers free, and... boots? That can possibly scale walls?" She hesitates. "That counts as armor, right?"

She looks at the mannequin, briefly. "Yeah... making a mannequin probably doesn't fall under Armor Forging. Probably Woodworking. Or Artisany, if it's not wooden."

"Oh, nice! So that's where your gaming knowledge comes from, Shiruba?" After a short hesitation, she adds, "My place was not a coffee shop. It was a restaurant that catered mainly to the locals. Coffee wasn't... ah... /popular/. But it was on the menu, so-"

Merek's comment piques Uta's interest. "Oh, yes. The Alv language. Our little experiment... while not /final/, gives some pretty convincing hints that the strange language the Landers seem to be singing in might be, indeed, the language of the Alv. That would be /big/."

She begins to pace around, suddenly appearing oblivious to anything going on around her, and gestures in the air like a teacher getting carried away while teaching class. "The phonograph prototype I was working on is completed. It's transportable, so we can deploy it to record any Lander song we find. Then we can hand invite a linguist over to the Slime Lab to listen to the recordings over and over and try and figure out its structure. Possibly cross-referencing it with the markings we've found."

Giganpor glances over at Uta, then down at the piece in hand. He seems to consider. Getting up, he moves to put the piece on a table away from the counter area. Then he sighs as he moves back over and starts to rummage under the counter. "I did have that thought, but I ended up doing my shield instead. The problem with this idea is you need the enchantments. Which I can not really do, because I do not normally stick or climb to walls. I either go through or over them."

He finally pulls out a rolled up piece of parchment, opens it and peers at it. Then puts that away as he goes back to looking. "Hm... the other is you probably need more than just the shell if you are talking about Spinner's Deep. It's enough to make a set of sabatons. I can probably help with it, however. They do fall under armor. I am actually incorporating a piece into the armor I am making now."

    Merek nods a bit to everyone, while he thinks about it. "Well, interesting enough. I am thinking about scouting to find more of the undead and bring people together so that we can fight. We need to keep bringing the fight to them and not just waiting." And to Uta, "You are right. I think we should look for more music while we wait."

    Setsuna looks at Giganpor for a moment and seems about to say something but stops and shakes his head, deciding another time would be better at the moment. This was obviously a happy moment and Setsuna can respect that. So instead he simply studdies the map as Shiruba talks, every so often he touches it here and there. His ears were listening to all the words around him but for now he was making an effort to do what he needed to do. "I just realized I should have set up a better meeting spot Shiruba. I didn't meant to turn Giganpor's forge into a war room."
     Finally Setsuna points to a general spot on the map and then circles it with his finger, it was in land but had a decent line of sight to the island. " I ran into the scout , the harbinger, and likely would have found their fort in this area. " His finger gestured to a spot southeast of the island . " Heavy fog in the area made it hard." Looking up Setsuna smiles, " Thank you for the information Shiruba. With this I should probably get out of here and not scare off customeers anymore. Sorry to have bothered you Giganpor. "
    Setsuna steps towards the door having gotten the hint he gives a smile and a wave, though it appears he almost speaks up again at Merek's comment but decides that too was better left unsaid. So with things now said and unsaid Setsuna opens the door and begins to head out the door.

Uta taps her lips a few times. "Hmm. Sabatons. I'll have to give it a bit of thought, I suppose. I was interested in the wall-climbing effect, but... probably more for exploration than combat, to be fair." She sighs. "I'd love some cool armor, but I'm an Aerialist. Godhand/bard. My defense is all based on Evasion, and my attacks on speed and freedom of movement." She looks down at herself. "Any attempt at wearing any kind of armor in combat has slowed me down up to now, so I have to stick with plain fabric or... hm. I'll have to try something lightweight. Leather, perhaps?" She looks back up at Giganpor. "The enchantment wouldn't be an issue. I mean, I already need to find an Enchanter for getting my monster handling getup enchanted. Apron, gloves, et cetera. People have been giving me lessons in that of late." She scratches her head. "Or maybe I'll have to undergo some specific training in order to learn to do martial arts in... not heavy, but... heavi/er/ armor. Better than leather." She flicks her menu open and flicks through her inventory, mumbling, "...and probably get me more spider drops, to create a set of boots and bracers..."

She springs to attention again. "Oh, that reminds me. When you're done with your armor, can you save me some scrap material from the crafting? You know, the kind of shavings and leftover bits you'd probably sweep and throw away. I would like to run some experiments on this material."

Noticing that Shiruba and Setsuna are talking about the undead, she wanders over. "Oh? So... you've found where the undead come from?" And at Merek, "If you know where I can record the original, Lander version of that song you've shown me, let me know. I'll try and set up a recording session for further study."

"Whoa hold on there buster." Shiruba is quick to grab for Setsuna's arm before he can stray to far from her. She's actually quite strong, considering how much effort it takes to properly draw a bowstring, so it's probably not that surprising. Then after considering it a moment, she seems to change her mind, and just follows after him. "On second thought, yes, we should probably clear up the shop area. It's not a war room after all."

But the look she gives Setsuna is clearly one of her realizing he probably intended to go off on his own or something crazy like that.

Giganpor eyes Setsuna, "Wait a moment." He says.

"I have no issues if you wish to discuss such here. The undead are all of our problems, after all. Besides, it is not like I am that busy as it is." Giganpor states. Then seems to consider before he looks at Shiruba, "We definitely need a tavern, inn, or something. I will have to forward that one to Bear. Hifumi would have been my first choice, but he likes it at the Ryokan."

He looks back over at Setsuna, "If you have something to say about the undead, I have met some of them on the battlefield as well. Even Arthur in single combat. Granted, my skills have gotten rusty since then."

He sighs, looking considerate before he looks to Uta, "And sure. I can. What do you plan for them?"

    Setsuna stops and looks at the group, he really hadn't wanted to interupt the good times talking about war but it seemed like this was a time for discussion. So Setsuna turns and comes back in but holds the door for a moment as he makes a come here motion. A moment later , the Skeleton Knight that fomerly belonged to Helena walks in. How was it obvious it use to be Helena's knight you may wonder, well it still wears the same armor that it wore the day Setsuna stole it. He gives a few hand motions and the knight stands in the corner looking at the group he answers the question before asked, " Possibly for visual aid later on. "

     So taking a deep breath he steps back to the counter and acknolowedges Giganpor, " Yeah met him, fought him, he is kinda pissy quiet type. More so since we stole his grandaughter, she is spunky by the way. We also have the Harbinger, black knight dude who turned adventurer dude into a skeleton barbarian, we have the vampire trio, Odelle, Jester, and Top Hat Cat." Taking a moment he finishes gathering his thoughts and continues on, " Hector who is like an undead version of Merek, and then those are the only people I know if. " Taking a moment more he asks, "Did any of the alliances get my memos?"

Kaydon has been looking to make...Something. He has a vague idea, something he saw in a video game one time...A different video game, not this one they're currently in.

But to make something, he needs a forge. And he did help to get this one up and running. Plus he made a promise to Arashi that he would, shall we say, keep an eye on things.

The gnoll were fang has his tools with him as he wanders into the forge, only to find, well, everybody.

"Jesus, is somebody holding an intervention and didn't tell me? I'd have brought cake."

"No going there alone and dying in battle," Uta remarks to Setsuna. "I know you, you are not above getting yourself killed to exploit the loophole in your employment contract that grants you a day off for respawning in case of death."

Uta bites her lips. Thinks for a few moments. and finally she answers Giganpor, "...I'd like to see if we can somehow learn more about that dragon by feeding those biological samples to the slimes. Maybe make a flying mount out of it. Even if that doesn't work out, semi-replicating the features of that monster- was the Dragon even a monster, by the way? Did anyone inspect it? -- Anyway, replicating the features of the dragon within creatures of our own world and studying them could shed some light on the threats that are being thrown our way."

"Oh, hey, Kaydon!"

Shiruba snorts softly. "Arthur REALLY does not like me. Between helping Gabriella being more independant after 'taking' her from him, and stabbing him in the neck to the point that it actually appeared to do rather severe damage before he pulled that damn teleporting trick they have..." She stops and shrugs. Followed by a short snicker as Uta voices the same thing she was thinking.

She looks at her map again, and walks over to a clear counterop to set it down, take out a quill, and add the bit Setsuna just reaccounted. By this point the map has a lot of notes and markings on it, as it's been her means of keeping track of everything Undead Army related.

"Yes," she replies to Setsuna. "But a lot of people were still distracted by other.. recent events I imagine." Again she avoids going too deep into the matter, just to not distract from the more immeadiate discussion. "There's also the ghost princess. But we've not heard from or seen any of her after the ventures into the Misty Ruins. It is likely Helena has her locked away 'for safety' in their main fortifications."

    Merek seems to be listening, though he seems to be in his mind as well, while he takes the time to drink that milk from the flask which he keeps along with him and nods.

Giganpor shrugs, "I did fight him to a near-draw. I could have finished him, too, but apparently Tremor now opens fissures in the ground. Not something I intended, and I did not want to take advantage of it."

He seems to consider something, then moves around to the forge and picks up a pair of heavy metal tongs, "Excuse me a moment! I need to pull this out." He reaches into the forge and actually does pull out a piece. A large piece. It looks vaguely like it was the same armored shell piece that Uta was talking about, only with holes punched in it. Moving to an anvil, he starts to hammer away as he bends and turns the piece occasionally.

Then he sensibly calls over, "If any of you are good shots with a hammer, I might need some help with this before it cools. A lot bigger than my buckler and a lot more work!"

Uta knows her limits. Hammering is one of them. "...I...I think I have to go now. I have a library to oversee. I have to talk to a Spriggan about a Grunty. And go buy something healthy to eat at Hifumi's. I... I recently noticed my diet contains a ridiculous amount of actual soggy crackers, which is not healthy."

She steps backwards towards the exit, and almost stumbles a couple of times. "Giganpor? Let me know about those scraps, okay? Setsuna? Don't-" A pause. A sigh. "...what's the point. You're doing it anyway... Shiruba? You... you keep Setsuna from doing the thing while I'm gone. Kaydon?" She points, finger waggling in the air a few times. "...bye." She takes a bow, and heads for the exit.

It seems Kaydon arrived just in time. He had just finished setting his tools down when he hears Giga call, grabbing his sledgehammer out of the pouch and moving towards the anvil.

"I've got you covered big guy." He says, as he begins to take the hammer to the piece of metal.

He gives Uta a thumbs up with his other hand, Nodding, "Don't you worry about a thing, I'll handle it." He has no idea what he's handling, he thinks he missed that part of the conversation.

    Setsuna blinks and shakes hiead head at the question of the hammering and decides to not give any reason for more trouble. He simply stays where he is at the map and looks at Shiruba, " With what was and what will be, it doesn't matter in the end. " Pointing at the inland of Ninetails he adds, " Given scout reports and my own sightings and understandings, I think the majority of the army is here, not at the island. The problem is it is growing ever stronger and one day Helena is going to be all bored now. Then boom , undead everywhere. I mean I suppose it would be one less place to care about if a cataclysm drops. " He deadpans the last bit before he fishes a charcoal pencil from the belt and taps a dot on Shiruba's map. " I am trying to get permits and what not put through to start construction of an operation outpost here. I had really hoped I wouldn't be the one doing it but I did."

    Merek will assist with Giganpor, lifting up one of the hammers to begin working the metal. He does look to Setsuna and nods a bit while he thinks about it, then waves along to Uta.

"Hi Kaydon.. Hey, have you heard from Arashi lately after she wandered off again? I want to talk to her when she comes around again." Shiruba turns her attention back to Setsuna, giving her a flat look for that crack about the cataclysm, but just brushes it off as some kind of necromancer humor. "You're most likely right, and while knowing where the castle is a big deal, it's not the immeadiate problem." Instead she nods at the mention of an outpost. Her tail flicks a few times idly. "If you need help from someone with actual Ninetails connections, let me know. I can probably help sway a few minds, or as the Dominion goes, put some extra gold in pockets to get things done."

Giganpor nods, moving the piece around as Kaydon and Merek pound on it. Eventually the leather piece is shaped how he wants and he holds up a hand to stop them. "Phew. Thank you both. That would have taken a few more days at least. Now I just need to fit the straps and the pieces of the Scale to this thing. Perhaps work on enchanting it as well."

He picks up the piece by the tongs, then dips it into a water basin, causing steam to billow out. It's a very large basin. Pulling it out, he checks it over with a smile on his face. Turning it this way and that, he nods in satisfaction that it looks like the back of a chest plate before bringing it over to the mannequin and nodding again when it looks like it will fit perfectly over the leather. Setting the piece down, he moves back over to the others.

"So what brings you by, Kaydon? And if you are planning something on the undead, I would say try to do it aggressively. Their Queen doesn't seem used to actual opposition as of late."

He waves at Uta, "I will be sure to send them to you when I am done." He notes again.

    Setsuna gives a nod of his head towards Uta as she ducks out, acknowledging her at least before looking over at Shiruba, "Doc said he might have some pull as well. We may need all of it, especially to man it. Obviously resources are going to be a big deal too." Frowning he steps back no longer needing to stand infront of the map, everything from here was conjecture and future guessing. " Do any of the alliances have a presence on the Ninetail island?" It was a question that had been bothering him every now and then, like someone had decided they knew better at land distribution then how it was suppose to go.

Shiruba smirks a bit. "You're looking at them." Then settles back into a more serious tone. "Before Shibuya was re-established New World worked mostly out of the Ninetails Root Town. We've got people still operating out of there even now, and I've got Silver Sword patrols assigned to assist the local Hunter's Guild and Dominion units in patrolling."

"I have not heard from Arashi since she found the two shards on our last adventure. Most likely she is trying to find the next location to find some more." Kaydon replies to Shiruba, "Also Shiruba, there is something I need to speak with you about, in private, when you have time."

Turning his attention back to Giganpor, he nods, "I had...An idea. I wanted to test some things out to see if it was even feasable, and if so, maybe work up a prototype. I doubt it's going to be easy, will probably need a lot of armor forging expertise that I don't have."

    Setsuna sits on a cabinet display and sighs heavily, " I really need to find time for history lessons." It is said obviously in regard to Shiruba's comment as some small things began to make sense. "Ok so the N.W.A. may be put on the spot to help with the resources. I think we, as Scale can certainly help supply man power,, and we will likely need it. I have no idea what Olympus would want to give and frankly part of me doesn't care. " There was definately a little bit of salt on those last few words.
     " Such a thing will make a decent spot to launch any big moves forward, however I think Giganpor is right. " May Prophylaxis never find out Setsuna said those words, or there would be a glare and a heavy sigh and the doctor would say those words again. " I think we need to get aggressive. I think we need to start hit and run tactics. Some old school MMO kite moves, grab a few monsters and kill them. Grab another few and kill them. Run if it gets to troublesome. "

Shiruba turns her head to respond to Kaydon, ponytail swaying with the motion. "At least I'm not so hard to find when you need me."

Then turns her attention back to Setsuna. "He *is* right. The Undead, for all their strengths, still have difficulty dealing with people that will directly oppose them. Especially us Adventurers, who can adapt and change tactics and not follow rigid patterns in activity." Her tail flicks a few times though as she nods. "But it needs to be a -proper- aggressive push. Nothing foolish and wreckless to just try and make a point. Building a proper outpost for a staging point is actually a good start." She jabs a thumb over her shoulder towards where the others are working to help Giganpor. "We can use the trade company Merek established to help with supplies, especially what we'd need to trade with the other Kingdoms to aquire."

Giganpor nods, looking to Kaydon as he seems to consider, "Go for it. You have an idea, I don't mind helping on it. It seems our creativity is what will turn the tide in a lot of this. It's why I am making the suit of armor."

He rubs his chin as he listens, "I suppose I have some extra armor and a few side weapons you can use as well. They are not top quality, but can at least get some more people out there. Or act as spares."

    Setsuna nods his head as he listens and hears the comments, " Well I will continue to drive getting an outpost up. I think we need to figure out another thing though. I think it is a common problem that we have all faced." For the first time Setsuna walks behind the counter and over to some of the sand for casting and grabs a handful. Turning back he holds his hand up showing sand slipping through his hand, onto Giganpor's floor. " Their ability to run away beats us often enough. We would have taken several of her generals already but they can run away."

"The way they teleport through the ground, yes." Shiruba nods. "We need a way to block it. Or break the connection that allows them to do so. Don't know if they need to be in contact WITH the ground or not to do so, and it's a bit hard to... Wait." She turns to peer at Setsuna's 'friend'. "... Are you already onto something?"

    Setsuna shakes his head as he looks over at his friend, " Sadly no. He either loss it in the capture or never had it. However maybe this guy just had it trained out of him, lots of others seem to have it. Especially the vampires." Standing up he approaches the knight for a momeent and peers at it before looking back at Shiruba, " Nope, it only has one interesting skill of use. The ability to turn the living to the undead. " WIth a smile he walks back to the sand bucker and dumps what little sand is still in his hand back into the bucket. " I suspect we need to figure out how to glass the ground, or wall it off or something. I don't think it is instant, I suspect there is travel time. Otherwise why would they not just pop the entire army up in every town on the continent. "

Shiruba tucks her map back away, and folds her arms thoughtfully. "It probably has energy and range limitations. That would be a reason why they use that fog and nighttime as camoflague for larger movements." Raises one arm to tap her finger to a chin. "There is an old mythology story about an ancient being that would heal as long as he stood upon the earth. So to defeat him, he had to be lifted away from it. I forget if that was Hercules or someone else, it's hard to remember so many different foreign myths without being able to directly look it up." She waves it off and refolds her arm. "The point is, they're undead. They technically 'are' of the ground in ways, as you know being a necromancer. There's a good chance the ability and the element are linked in some manner."

Giganpor looks thoughtful, then shakes his head, "Probably no way to break it, really, unless it is some sort of wide area magic. In the case of the undead, you would have to kill the Queen to make it happen, I bet."

He shrugs, "I mean, Merek already destroyed the sword. So that is the next step up."

    Setsuna nods his head as he snaps his fingers and the knight's head turns to face it's owner before Setsuna again issues a few hand signs and the knight walks out to go wait with the Dire wolf. Contemplating for a moment longer he grins, " Hey you know those stupid ideas that Uta said for you to stop me from doing? Hear me out." Taking a moment to gather his thoughts fully he begins, " The Harbinger is patroling in the fog around the fortress. We could always hunt it. Take out that which can turn players. OH I almost forgot they have signal fires setup for alerts."

"Taking out one of their converters WOULD be a blow." Shiruba narrows her eyes a little at Setsuna. "I think it was more 'stop you from doing alone'." It's followed by a shake of her head. "If there's one thing I've learned its usually easier to make sure certain kinds of people are watched out for than try to actually -stop- them.... Though getting up that close to a base point is still extremely dangerous."

As the gathering goes on the door would open and someone would be sanding there, they try to loom failing. she does have a tail, horns goggles, Oh dear it's Mihop and she's find her way into this little gathering. "Well well lookks like you have something imporant going on? Ah ... the undead." the cheer in her voice drains away a bit at this...

    Giganpor sighs, "Uh-huh. Apparently my shop is the current war room. I need to send a message to Bear to make a tavern or something for this stuff."

He looks considerate. "The problem is finding one and making sure it can't run, however."

"Ah hah, Miho!" Kaydon calls out and waves to her, "Good to see you. It's been far too long." It seems Kaydon is in a good mood today, must be something good going on for him.

    Setsuna nods his head, " We can always ask the scouts to try to track the Harbinger, to see if he is always the one patroling the area. Then as you say Giganpor, we just need to make sure he can't run away. That will take more effort." Setsuna looks at Miho as she enters and then looks at the others. " Anyways I should get out of here before someone complains about my monsters, or tries to kill them. I should be on my way. I will send notice once I have permission to start setting up the outpost." With a bow Setsuna steps out the door.

Miho says "it has been far too long Kaydon hows it been going you want to learn anything more from me?" She's always looking for new students be they Adventurer or otherwise. She seem to have some of her good spirits back. "Sounds like that is something we should do and I have an idea how to help the Ninetails..."

"Miho!" The wolfgirl practically bounces over to grab the short Salamander smithy in a big hug. "The new bow is working better than we could of hoped for! Even one of those otherworld invaders started thinking twice about taking hits lightly after feeling the Storm Blast." She lets go and takes a step back before getting too awkward. "But even that worked out because she paid attention to intercepting my attack instead, and other people were able to get strikes instead. If only she hadn't been cheating with some regeneration shenanigans."

"Actually Miho, I had a new idea...I need to figure out if it's viable, but if it is, I may rope you in on the prototype." He grins in her direction, "What's your idea?"

Miho is nwo hugging Shribua and seem pretty happy again and hold on to the hug for a moment with the wolfgirl and he tail seem pretyt happy. "That's great to here Shiruba! It's good to see my creations being used and not ending up as show pieces!" She sem very pleased abotu that she pauses for a moment. "I would be itnerested and I'd like to talk about KA-BARs later. As for idea a set of undead killing weapons to give the Kingdom's strongest fighters...Also what are you planning...?"

Shiruba smiles, leaning back against the counter. "Anything you can come up with to use against the undead is a good idea. The more advantages we can stack in our favor the better."

Giganpor shakes his head, then moves back towards his project. Which is taking up a bit of space from the looks. He picks up the hatchet and mallet he was using before he was interrupted and starts to cut off another piece.

Then it occurs to him on something, "Hey, Miho, you know anything about the old armor rivets from back home? I know I made the one I normally wear, but something felt off about them."

Miho thinks for a moment "I know somem what do you need help with and do you ahve any I can take a look at? I'll ahve to get to work forging again and ... make sure I ahve food stockpiled. I got a feeling if I do this..." She's going to go into another mood.

"It's...Not unrelated to the Ka-BAR actually." Kaydon replies. To demonstrate, he takes off his left gauntlet and sets it on a table, and then pulls his knife off of his belt and sets it next to the gauntlet.

"So what I am thinking is esentially a blade not unlike this, though probably sharpened on both sides instead of one.." He says, as he slides the blade out from the back of the wrist, "Concealed but not really, It'd be proudly on display, but the blade would retract into the gauntlet when not in use."

"I will leave you crafters to doing your handiwork," Shiruba says with a brief wave as she turns to head for the doors. "I need to check in on things at the HQ before I head out again." Her tail wags as she leaves though, as running into Miho here saved her a trip back to Ninetails before going off on another scouting venture.

Giganpor nods, "Sure. Just got some that were mixed up in the building supplies somehow."

He motions over towards the forge, "Come on, Miho, Kaydon. Let's see if we can get that gauntlet blade and perhaps you two can help me figure out the best way to rivet dragon scale to spider skin."

Yep. Only this game would have armor where you could do THAT.

Miho says "I'll help out with that sure I have no issue with you waning to learn from me." She pauses "Spider have shells not skin!" Protest the lizard girl as she moves to go on this. "I like your idea Kaydon It's possible I would sya not the best idea on earth but here?" She grins "Well we don't care about Earth now do we?""

"Oh the idea probably wouldn't work at all. I'm basically stealing it from a video game." He replies to Miho, "Not this game obviously. But the concept should transfer over well enough. I'm bringing Giganpor in because he's the best armorsmith I know, but I could definitely use some more folks who know weapons."