Iron Kingdoms: Tides of War

[Hotfoot]

"Paranoia is a healthy thing. I'm more than a bit curious myself, but chances are he got it the same way he got his body made. He seemed to be able to blend in enough with magic that he probably didn't need minions to purchase things for him. Let's barricade the entrance from the sewers and get ready to lock this place up again. I think we should plan on coming back here later, and I'd rather it not be picked clean by anyone but us." Rogan began to carefully sort through the contents of the chest, still mindful that some traps have a nasty tendency to be set with pieces of treasure.

[LadyTevar]

Teghe voiced the thought that was probably in the back of everyone's mind. "Cryx."

Isle of Pirates, Necromancers, and other Abominations, ruled by a god who was also a Dragon. Some said the isle glowed at night from the evil contained upon its shores.

[Cynical Cat]

There were no traps. The treasure was defended by a stout chest, a complex lock, undead guardians, and its massive weight. There was a considerable fortune contained within, with coins both ancient and new mixed together. Illusion would allow the iron lich to spend time among men and buy what he couldn't steal or take, probably mechanikal or alchemical components that were not easy to come by. And with this war chest, it could get almost anything it wanted.

Of course, the bones beneath the churchyard were not for sale and that had lead to its destruction.

[Charon]

Akina had pursed her lips in thought at the mention of Cryx. It was a damned place, and certainly no place she had any intention of visiting. The Umbrean warrior walked over to the heavy chest "Do hyu tink ve can carry it? Or vould callink a coach to put it in vork?" The Umbrean looked up at Rogan. "I vould prefer not to see hyur new friendz vhile I vas draggink dis t'ru da streets."

[LadyTevar]

"M'Lady, if you can lift that by youself, I will be amazed," Teghe replied, trying to mentally calculate the weight of chest plus gold. "And I would really pity Malkamar when you get him alone."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"Or envy him, as the case may be..." Corey said, with a wry grin

[Charon]

Akina only laughed as she began to resort the bags of gold. "So shout I get dat couch or vhat? Or vill vun of hyu men be a gentlemen unt kall it for me." The umbrean woman flashed a sweet smile at the crowd of men infront of her.

[Cynical Cat]

After joking and discussion, the treasure chest was emptied of its contents and left behind. The adventurers returned to the church, where they were paid a quite respectable wage in the form of bank drafts. They were now quite prosperous men and women and exotic goods, including mechanika, where now within the reach of their pocketbooks.

[LadyTevar]

Teghe kissed the letter of credit with the many, many zeros with a wide grin. "Well, boys... and lady ... I've got some shoppin' to do. I think Zedrin and I both need to restock our ammo supply."

[Charon]

Akina grinned and whistled softly under her breath. Her armor had been left in a spare room for now, and the Umbrean was back in normal clothing, which still consisted of a reinforced greatcloak. "Vell, I has not seen dat many zeroes in long time. Maybe I get someting nice lookin'." The Umbrean glanced to Malkamar and winked. "Den again, der is plenty of Mechanika I could use."

[LadyTevar]

Teghe eyed Akina, then looked over at Malkamar with a grint hat was -far- too wide. "M'lady, I'm sure that we have enough to do both. Would you like a companion as you shop?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

Corey had his acid staff, and hand managed to procure the power sources for his new Mechanika staff from the pile of things pulled out of the Iron Lich's compartments...

He then proceeded to whistle innocently to himself as he walked in search of a place to obtain more Mechanika in this city

[Cynical Cat]

Rivermet was a small city, but it was a city with all that implies. On the riverside trollkin and humans hauled cargo, assisted by lumbering steamjacks. Near the river were the workshops of the mechaniks and steamos who maintained and repaired the advanced machinery.

Corey passed several shops that were clearly just repair shops run by bodgers before stopping at a two story store front. It had a Union Steamo sign in the front and inside there was a counter separating the entrance from the rest of the shop. The eyes of a bronze owl perched on a shelf followed the wizard as he entered. Parts, tools, and odd contrivences along with jars of alchemical solutions lined the shelves. Several accumulators were recharging in alchemical baths located by the walls of the workshop.

The owl hooted. A portly man, just under average height with a thick, dark beard came from the interior of the shop. He wore alchemical goggles and gloves as well as a thick leather apron. "I be Lazslo," he rumbled. "What can I do for you sir?"

[The Nomad]

A short, stocky man, wearing a reinforced trench-coat and a wide-brimmed hat, approached Lazslo. An iron-shod staff in his right hand, a mechanika gauntlet on his left, he seemed to carry a whole arsenal on himself. Raven-haired, with a short beard, his grey-green eyes expressed utmost annoyance.

"Your apprentice is a fucking moron, Lazslo," he said without preamble. "Last time I got here he assured me you could have an eight point five elemental-transduction coil restored to full functionality, and it's only now that he realized your tools can't deal with anything over six. Which means I'll have to go to the industrial workshops in a bigger city, which will eat up my savings in no time. Abso-fucking-lutely great. I'd have taken that last job if I had known."

Suddenly, he seemed to forget what he was complaining about and eyed Corey's staff with an appreciating eye. "Acid-spreader, right?" he smiled. "Veery nice. Where did you get a motherfucker like that? By the way, I'm Angus."

[Cynical Cat]

Lazslo sighed. "One, you will keep a respectful tongue in my workshop. I don't care how good a wizard you believe yourself to be. Two, the problem is not with the conduit. Whoever told you that is trying to cheat you. I don't mind you getting a second opinion, but whoever you got it from is a liar who is trying to cheat you. The conduit is damaged, yes, but that's not the problem. Its the elemental emitter, or more precisely, the connection between the elemental emitter and the conduit. It's comparatively cheap to repair, which is assuredly not the case if you get an entirely new set of conduits."

[The Nomad]

Angus' jaw clenched, looking at the mechanika expert with rising contempt, then he smiled, as comprehension dawned in his mind. "Of course, it would make perfect sense if I used a standard coil, but it's not the classical Cygnaran makeup," and with that he rotated two parts of the outwardly mundane coil, revealing quite atypical guts. The markings that would have allowed immediate differenciation had been eroded, which was not that uncommon. "True, you know your stuff, the dysfunction I had described the first time would perfectly fit a Cygnaran, but here I can assure you that it's indeed the conduit that is at fault." He sighed. "Your apprentice ignored the exotic technicals I provided the first time, thinking I was talking out of my rear end, and registered it as a standard coil. In retrospect, I shouldn't have expected an apprentice to recognize this by name only. Explains the caliber mistake," he said.

"From memory, it's an AAT-079K. It's from Cygnar too, but from a small workshop line that stopped making them a decade ago. That being settled, do you think you can do something ? As far as I know, it's not very complex, but you are the expert, and you know your tools' capabilities. And the most important question - for how much?"

[Comrade Tortoise]

What a rude, shrill son of a bitch. Corey kinda liked him. But he had to show his dominance in the situation.

"If you must know where I got it, I earned this staff in combat through the shedding of far too much of my own blood, and before you interrupted was about to see what Lazlo had for sale, specifically, mechanika of a battle-oriented bent. But, you interrupted our greeting with all of your...hooting... So if you will get back in your rightful place in line I would much appreciate it."

[Cynical Cat]

"It's not what I have for sale son, it's what I can build," said the mechanik.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"It's not what I have for sale son, it's what I can build," said the mechanik.

"Either way..." Corey smiled

" The question is, what are you capable of building?"

[Cynical Cat]

"What are you looking for son?" asked Lazslo. "If I don't have schematics on what you're looking for already, odds are I can draw them up in a couple of days. Supposing its possible to build in the first place."

[Comrade Tortoise]

"I have a few things in mind. The first is a set of goggles that will allow me to detect magical effects and the second is rod that would allow me to cancel out said magical effects. Lastly, if possible, a power gauntlet that I can use to shock hostiles in combat. If you are capable of produces even one of those I would be most appreciative. And thanks to recent... contracts, I can pay you well for your troubles"

[Cynical Cat]

"I have no idea why a wizard would want goggles to detect magic with, but I have the schematics for those if you want them. Easy enough to do. I can have the rune plates made up for the other two items easy enough and alchemical gauntlets and goggles I have in stock, of course. The conduiting will take a few days and the rod itself will be quite expensive, even more so than the arcane conversion engine for the gauntlets. If you're intent on all three of those, I can put the rune plates for the goggles and the gauntlets in the same conversion engine."

[Cynical Cat]

"Son, you've been had," said Laszlo to Angus as he examined the workings of the gauntlet. "This is hack work. Whoever made this should be ashamed of himself and its quite obvious that he lied to you to cover up his deficiencies. If he's a member of the Union of Steamworkers or the Fraternal Brotherhood, you should report him. This is just shameful. That conduiting line is the worst lie I've heard in a long time. A mechanik produces conduiting as needed because its too expensive to have laying around, its easy if not cheap to make, and making mechanika with too expernsive conduiting is a good way to go out of business."

[Hotfoot]

Rogan saw the various members of his group wandering off, and not wanting to be outdone, went out to replenish his supplies of potions and do some additional shopping. He was careful to avoid direct line of sight with the Union Steamo building. He knew what the Union thought of people like him, and it wasn't good. Best not to make wave in new places.

[Cynical Cat]

The city had a fair number of members of the Golden Crucible. It wasn't long before Rogan found himself in tidy, modest shop stocked with curatives, solvents, glues, acids, incendiaries, mist makers, sharp salves, and all the sundry wares produced by the science of alchemy. A handsome blond woman, perhaps in her late twenties or early thirties, looked out from over the counter. "May I help you?" she asked.