RP:A Hunt Completed

Summary: Meri delivers the last of Nikola’s request to her, the two finish their discussion about an order of ballistae.

Nikola’s Forge

It has been several months since Nikola and Meri had last communicated and the blonde lycan was not doing a very good job at sending communications about the status of the additional hunts that Nikola had requested of Guild. Yet just as the deadline was about to come to pass, Meri had finally shown her face. The woman has opted to show up at Nikola’s forge, just like the first time that she came to deliver goods to the blacksmith. And just like the first time, the goods were left just outside. The fire salamander pelts occupied one cart with the spine of the leviathan had to be transported via numerous flat-bedded wagons. It was a very precarious situation, trying to move something so large while still keeping it mostly intact. While Meri was confident that Nikola would ultimately end up breaking the spine down as she saw fit, Meri sought to try and deliver it with as little damage as possible so that it could be divided up as Nikola saw fit. It should be noted that both the pelt and the spine had been cleaned to the best of Meri’s abilities so that there were not bits of rotting meat clinging to either. This task was more easily accomplished with the pelt than it was the spine. Anyway! Meri will make her way through the main entrance of the forge in search of Nikola.

Nikola does leaves her forge alone on a daily basis in search of new materials from neighboring cities. Rumors of apparitions taking control of suits of armors or weapons flying from the shelves to any intruder is fairly common but today the Warsmith is sitting behind her desk like last time. She did however hear someone approaching her shop. Its next to impossible to not be able to due to the amount of noise the wagons were making. Stopping before her store, magnetizing the door to open it for the lycan, sitting up, smiling. "Ah, Welcome Miss Meri. Please do come in, its quite cold outside." standing from her seat before making her way into the store proper. "How can I help you today?" tilting her head a bit over the psion's shoulder, "Ah.. delivery." nodding at her direction. Normally she would act more refined when its a customer but as a fellow entreprenuer, its better to act in a more friendlier manner as fake smiles and fake happiness would only distract one from work. Soon she began looking around her store, trying to remember where she has put it before finally literally bumping onto what she is looking for. It was a coffin placed on the floor at the corner, lying on its back like a chest wrapped in a tarp and bound with leather belts. Weird to have one inside the store but even with its cover, the overall shape of this box does tell whomever is looking that it is truly a coffin. "As you have told me before, you'd need time to decide whether or not your guild would be purchasing one of my ballistas. I suppose this one is an appetizer of what I could offer." tapping her hand against the coffin a few times.

The blonde gives a slight wrinkle of her nose when Nikola tacks on the ‘Miss’ to her name. The blonde is not too surprised to see that the doors seem to open of their own accord, having witnessed some oddities the first time that she visited. The blonde still has not managed to fully puzzle out how this happens. Was it because Nikola was utilizing psionic abilities/energy? Or was it something else? At one point Meri would ask, but business first. Meri was never one for such formalities, even in business exchanges. “Just call me Meri, no need to add in the Miss.” While Nikola searches around her forge for something, the blonde lycan confirms the details of her visit, “Yes. A delivery. Outside you will find a couple of salamander pelts and then also the spine of the leviathan.” This conformation leads right into the line of conversation that Nikola was bringing up. What sort of weapons did the guild want? “Obviously one of these hunts were considerably easier than the other.” Leviathans, creatures of the deep, have earned themselves a terrifying reputation. Many ships and the crew members that sail upon them have found an untimely end due to these very large seabeats. “Which has helped me settle upon my decision of what may or may not be useful to the guild. I believe we discussed a few options, but these hunts have shown me that most of my guild members have already selected their weapons of choice. A ballista would have been quite useful in bringing down a leviathan. And I am sure that they would have many uses…” Intentional or not, Nikola manages to pull Meri’s attention to the coffin due to the way the blacksmith taps upon it repeatedly. Given the company that Meri tends to keep, she actually is not that off put by the coffin “Have you already started on something for us…?”

"As a matter of fact I did." smiling at the woman as she quickly began pulling the coffin from the corner and giving it space on the store center. She unclasped several of the belts away and quickly unfurled the tarp covering it. It.... is a coffin. Makes one wonder if the saurian got the weapon order wrong but she soon removed the lid revealing a complex contraption of gears inside. Underneath the lid was several ballista bolts stashed away, of varying tips it seems, putting it aside for now, she moves on the foot end of the coffin and pushed her foot through a small opening where a pedal seems to be built in. Stepping on it several times, the ballista quickly assembled itself. Nikola then reaches for what appears to be a trigger assembly at the foot end of the lid, sitting underneath all the bolts. Using the assembly, she moves at the front of the ballista and slotted it in... which would be ridiculous but in reality, she purposefully built it this way. When assembling the ballista, the cable would be loose as keeping it taut all the time would damage it, removing the trigger and using it as a dual purpose tool allows one to safely wound the cable. Removing the trigger from its usual spot also acts as a safety for the person who is setting the weapon up. After pressing the trigger several times, the weapon is now ready. Nikola easily slides the trigger assembly from the ballista's 'barrel' before slotting it on the rear of the weapon where it should be. "Well? What do you think?!" smiling at the adventurer, clearly proud of her creation, From Meri's previous delivery, the bone fragments from the Benu was placed inside the ballista's bow arms, strengthening it, allowing the weapon to fire with much power even with its small size. The ribcage was used on the body to act as a 'track' for the bolt to use. "I see... so no Bicorn tail... hmm." pondering what to do. She is happy that she has access to a Salamander pelt now, she has a previous order that had to be sold in an incomplete state because she does not have any of it.

What the ballista has been stored in still does not seem to bother Meri in the slightest. Her sister is a talented necromancer, afterall. “I suppose some might find the coffin for a box to be an interesting choice, I happen to think it is quite clever. When traveling, it’ll reduce the amount of questions that I get. Make it easier to get from point a to point b. Not many are going to want me to open a coffin to prove there is in fact a body inside, plenty do not have the stomach for it.” Meri smirks. These words are spoken to the blacksmith while Nikola goes about assembling the weapon. The blonde is also mindful to pay close attention to how it is assembled, she will be using this weapon in the future one day. “I think it is a fine creation, and I would be very proud to have it in the guild’s assortment of tactical items.” Meri might have brought in the various animal body parts to Nikola but she is not savvy enough in their autonomy to be able to identify how they have been used one Nikola has further broken them down. The fact that the benu she brought in was used in this creation is lost to Meri but that does not mean she admires it any less. Sensing Nikola’s slight disappointment on the fact that a bicorn tail was not amongst the assortment, Meri’s enthusiasm over the ballista fades just a bit. Instead, some amount of concern is displayed. Just like Nikola, Meri did not want to have a disappointed client. “Apologies, I thought in our discussion of these hunts you said you wanted either a salamander pelt or a bicorn tail. I was under the impression that we had the choice between one or the other while we also sought out the leviathan?” In an attempt to remedy this disappointment, Meri offers. “Would you like us to bring in the bicorn tail as well? I can try and put a team on it as soon as possible, though I must admit we did find some interesting artifacts in the belly of the leviathan so I will be juggling researching those finds and trying to bring you a bicorn tail. If you would like us to, that is.”

"It would be unfair to the guild. It is my fault for not making a more specific request." The saurian started turning the crank on the right hand side, though it seems the gear is repeated on both side of the weapon as to hasten its operation should multiple people try to use it, turning the gears caused a pair of hooks to hold onto the cable and stretched the ballista to its ready position. With a satisfying click, the cable is pulled to its farthest configuration and the arms are bent. Nikola dry fires the weapon and the cable snaps forward with a whip like crack. The crack quickly uncoils itself and resets, ready for the second load. "It has been a while since I created one of these. Luckily these lands have been peaceful enough not to need siege weapons." She steps aside and began pointing at the weapon should the Psion would like to try dry fire the weapon as well. Regardless of what she chose to do, the Saurian would close up the weapon, first removing the trigger mechanism and slotting it backwards infront of the ballista's barrel as slotting it backwards and pulling the trigger several times would untaut the cable. Soon stashing away the trigger back under the lid before moving to the foot of the coffin and setting on the foot pedal. Instead of repeatedly stepping on it like earlier, the saurian would hold it down this time, causing an interior mechanism to rewound and the weapon slowly hide itself back into the coffin. Putting away the last parts before covering the entire thing with the lid and covering it with the tarp and belts.

"So how much was it? twenty thousand gold pieces if I recall?" Nikola walks behind her desk and pulls out a check book. One would think that the dragon would have all her wealth, somewhere piled ontop of one another for her to use as bed but in reality, having too much coins is simply too messy and difficult to move around carrying literal metric tons of gold around. So much like most sane people, she had hers on a bank which she is currently signing a cheque for. Much like before, the suits of armors in her store began walking outside the door, most likely to pick up the delivery.

Meri watches Nikola, taking mental notes as to what the blacksmith was doing so that the ballista could be used later. The lycan woman would keep watching, observing and absorbing the details, until Nikola invites Meri in for a dry firing of the weapon. This test run is welcomed, and not declined, though once Meri pulls the trigger she will give the space back to Nikola. “Very nice. I am excited to see it in action.” The blonde is back to watching Nikola, this time how the weapon is packed up. Once this demonstration is complete, Meri will proceed with the conversation at hand and answer Nikola’s inquiries, “We had talked about twenty-thousand, but we had also discussed that the cost of this ballista would probably come out of that gold. So it would be more like we’re trading services. We never did come to a solid agreement as to what my order would be, I believe that I told you that I would think about it while I worked on your hunt for you? And I am also not confident that I remember how much you said a single ballista of such high quality would run me anyway?” Meri gives pause to really think about what she wants to order for the guild, “Well I would obviously like to take the ballista you have already made for us, and I think that I would like two more made in addition to it, for a total of three.” Maybe the guild would never use all in one sitting, maybe they would. Even if they never used all three at once, it would be nice to have a spare. Just in case. “How much gold would three ballitas be?”

"The cheap ballistas comes at a dime a dozen but as you could probably tell, this one is not a common siege weapon." The ability to stealthy move it around already signifies that the weapon is not cheap in any aspect. At times of war, being able to move siege weapons behind enemy lines is enough to alter the course of the conflict. But the psion never really told her to hide it in a coffin. Nikola built this piece on her own volition, mostly to demonstrate her ability to make such contraption. "The cost for a weapon of this quality would depend on whether or not the Adventurer's guild could move a siege weapon within through borders, legally or illegaly." Of course as adventurers are known to take care of wild beasts on the surrounding areas, they are typically given special privileges but she doubts smuggling heavy weapons is one of those privileges. the Saurian does not know the political power of the current Adventurer's guild so all she could do is speculate. "Same quality of ballistas, without the smoke and mirrors is about two thousand gold each. But if you want something similar to this one. About three thousand gold a piece." She is already holding the cheque at hand, waiting for Meri. If she wished, she could take this one home, take it for a spin if that would help her decide. Nikola could make better siege weapons of course but those might be too big and next to impossible to hide.

When Nikola explains the pricing system roughly to Meri, the blonde dips her head in a nod of understanding. After doing some quick calculations in her head, the woman settles on the order for the blacksmith. “Then I should like to take this one if you are willing to part with it and then two more models that are identical to it. I think all of the smoke and mirrors could be useful.” Which might be a clue as to how concerned Meri is to the legalities behind the transportation of these things. Though if asked, Meri would of course give a very political answer. “In addition to that, if we could have perhaps around another three thousand gold worth of gear to fire out of it?” Predicting that this would only inspire more questions from Nikola, Meri elaborates a bit, “Of mixed variety of whatever you can provide. Netting. Bolts.” Meri walks in a circle around the ballista while she speaks her wants, giving the product that she is ordering one final glance over before letting her gaze settle on Nikola. “I suppose when you are finished then you can let me know? I can have some help come out to pick up the order when the time comes.” By the time Meri is done talking, she completes that final circling of the ballista and comes to a halt next to Nikola. The blonde looks toward the blacksmith for confirmation that this seems fair, leaving the blacksmith to do the math on payment.

"Two more and several dozen more bolts..." she flicks her hand, retracting the cheque as she makes some calculations. "All coffins? or should I be more creative with the design?" she could already think of several possible designs, "A total of twelve... How about a discount of two? As a sign of friendship. For a long lasting relationship." smiling and reaching once again for her checkbook to make the ten thousand gold bill instead of an eight. "I could make some good ones using the materials you brought me... A week? Maybe more? As I'm sure I could get the local courier service to deliver the siege weapons to your doorstep." normally it would be impossible to do this but mailing someone a sofa or a cabinet is never frowned upon. She just need to make the items as inconspicuous as possible

“Yes, all in coffins.” Meri sounded confident in this answer, though if this ruse for transport of heavy weaponry did not work then perhaps Nikola would be hearing form the blonde again. “As for the pricing, I think that sounds like a deal that is too good to pass up and I know that the members of both the Ranger’s Guild and the Adventurer’s Guild very much look forward to continuing to have a working relationship with.” Both to acquire materials for Nikola and to place requests for any blacksmithing needs they might have in the future. There is brief pause so that Meri does not bombard Nikola with answers to her questions, and also so that she has a chance consider if she is answering them all. “Over a week sounds like a wonderful timeline, but if you find that something comes up and you end up needing more time…? By all means. As for delivery, if it can please be sent to the Adventurer’s Guild Museum, just on the border between Xalious and Kelay.” At least the transport was not dreadfully far, in the scheme of things. With it seeming like the details of this deal are winding to a close, Meri extends a hand toward Nikola so that they can shake on it. “I think that settles it? If so, then I should be on my way if I want to make it back home before the sun sets completely.” What Nikola said next would determine is Meri stayed just a few moments longer or if the blonde turned to exit the forge.

"Ten thousand gold it is." smiling as she takes the psion's hand and shook it, giving her the check for her to withdraw to her prefered bank. "Oh, it would be done in a week, Should it arrive late at your museum... well, I suppose that would be the fault of the local courier service. But regardless, it'll be done in a week. You have my word." smiling at her as the suits of armor moved back to their stands as they have completed the task of taking in the supplies. She finally waves her farewell and closed the door as soon as Meri left.

As it seems Meri is in a bit of a hurry, she end up leaving the first ballista at the store. A blessing in disguise really as that would mean the Warsmith would be able to upgrade the weapon using the Leviathan spine. She first inspect the delivery and chose the specific segment she requires for the build. A leviathan's spine bone is massive and one could easily make numerous equipment and weapons from it but all she need right now is a small section to act like a barrel compensator. Selecting one of the larger bones, she takes a pen and began drawing on it in order to mark which section she would need to use. But instead of working on the project right away, she left it be for now and planned for a fresh start tomorrow.

Wood is not difficult to find, common wood from the Northern Kelay forest is ideal for it. For the more complex portions of the ballistas however, the Saurian had to make purchases with the pixies and finally the cables for the contraptions would be purchased from the elves. Nikola wondered if she should try to hunt some great spiders as well, though remembering that she has a couple more in stock. Grinding the wood from logs into shape is easy with the dragon's control with magnetism, manipulating ghroundium dust and literally scraping the wood to form. Having completed the weapon many times before, their assembly was easy.

For the following days, she had to prepare the other materials for the ballistas. Using the Ghroundium dust, she carves away from Leviathan bones and began to create compensators for the weapons. Eventually coming up with three equal sized cylinders, she installs them infront of the ballistas. And just like last time, portions of the Benu wings were embedded into the wood from Enchantment, giving it both flexibility and strength. Fragments from the Firebird's ribcage were aligned alongs side the length of the weapon. The bones and the wood were soon engraved with simple runes to allow their user to imbue the bolts with magic. Ofcourse these beast parts have their own effects. The blessing from the Benu improves the weapon's overall range, the Firebird increase its damage by causing the bolt to heat up, tearing through the target more easily and finally the Leviathan bone which causes the bolt to 'swim' in the air, causing the shot to fly straighter than ever to a point one might even think the bolt is defying gravity and the laws of physics.

The bolts are alot more difficult to make, mostly because some specialized bolts shatters when handled improperly. To inflict poisons or something similar, the bolt head is to be encased with a thin, fragile metal similar to Fermin's Dark Steel. Nikola does have some of bolts already made however, all she needs to do is rebuild the shafts which is typically made of wood and would've most likely aged away.

Just like the agreed date, several couriers was sent to the border of Xalious and Kelay, The three coffins were all made with common wood. One appears to have no markings at all, as if made in a rush or perhaps for a the other has its wood carved up with beautiful flowers, lightly painted and finally the last one hand metal braces all over. All three were delivered through different route and cities, most likely the saurian has forged documents regarding them. All three coffins were sealed shut and bound by leather straps with a document strapped along side each. The uninteresting coffin apparently has a dead runaway prisoner in it. To be sent to the adventurer guild for confirmation. Likewise the one with metal straps was for a well known bandit leader and finally the one with flowers is for an adventurer who wished to be sent home. These ofcourse are all fake as the coffins are weapons. The bolts on the other hand was sent through an alternate courier system. About fifty kilos of feathers. A shipment full of it. The bolts are safely stashed and hidden inside said crate, hopefully they all remain intact once they arrive.