RP:Taikahn presents Cornelius his commissioned weapon
Background
Cornelius had commissioned a weapon from Taikahn after a chance meeting in Vailkrin at The Hanging Corpse.
Prologue: Kelay - the prototype is examined
A couple of weeks after the commission was requested, Cornelius once again chanced upon the Preklek, who showed him a prototype
Cornelius was strolling along Kelay Way, his travel clothing made dusty by the journey thus far, when he spots the familiar figure of Taikahn and a not-so familiar figure. He diverts himself to approach the two with a jaunty wave "What ho, Taikahn old bean. You look a bit ruffled, wot"
Taikahn was about to answer Panthium but then Cornelius showed up and diverted his attention. He looked back and forth between the two, trying to decide who to answer first, and decided on first the paladin and then his customer--the order in which they'd spoken. "None that would take me, and I rather am, good Cornelius sir. I trust you--" pause, take a breath, "--got my message?"
Cornelius grins at the Preklek "I did indeed, old bean. I look forward to a display of its capabilities at some point. Perhaps when you are rested...?" He nods to the armoured figure "Cornelius Von Penzance, at your service, chap"
Panthium heard the human approach from behind and listened briefly to the conversation. as he realized these two were well acquainted he looked to Taikahn " Well I am glad there is someone here that you know. I hope he can help. I only wish I could have done more." he nodded to the human and took his leave and walked back down the cobblestone walkway.
Taikahn waved as Panthium walked off, and turned his full attention to Cornelius. "I... have it with me. You can try it yourself if you want."
Cornelius chuckles "No old bean, I would much prefer you showed me how the thing worked. A full instructional lesson and demonstration." He straightens his sleeves, and brushes some of the dust off them "I'm not in such a hurry, though, that I cannot await your recovery." He takes a more critical look over Taikahn, to see if he can gauge what is causing the Preklek's apparent discomfort.
Taikahn had pulled it out of its holster, resting in the wagon--and then sighed. "There's not much to demonstrate," he said, a little haltingly. "Just point and shoot. And it automatically cocks itself, so you can shoot as fast as your finger can pull.
Cornelius nods "Still, I'd like to know how to take it apart, put it back together, reload it, and otherwise maintain it. I'd also like to see the level of efficacy and accuracy at different ranges, and on different levels of armour, before the final transfer, as it were."
Taikahn winced a little. "Ah, yes, of course--I'll prepare something for you, then. If you want to go ahead and check the balance before I go rest, I could fix that for you if it's wrong." He held it out.
Cornelius takes the matte-black and gleaming miniature crossbow, and hefts it. It seems lighter than he was expecting. "Curious." He tosses it in the air a couple of times to see how it falls. "Hmm. Any chance of putting some more weight in the grip, so that it descends stock-first? There are certain scenarios where it could prove critical. Also, it occurs to me that the extra weight would be handy for pummelling purposes. Now, were a man to dream mightily, I'd have a retractable blade or spike in there, one which could be coated in tranquillising fluids." He smiles "Never mind me, give me an inch and I'll ask for a mile. This is a wonderful design, old bean. Quite striking!"
Taikahn thought about the suggestions. "Weight and a blade. Hm." He looked at it curiously. "Tranquillising fluids? I'll see if I can't do one better." He grinned, already mentally wrangling things. "How about making the blade out of a material that can change a victim's experience of time? So you stab them or whatever, small shards break off and enter the bloodstream, and then the person experiences time very, very slowly. They'll be out of sync until the temporal shift wears off."
Cornelius shakes his head "As wonderful a notion as that is, I need to customise the kind of sedatives for different opponents. I'd need something which I can fill at my leisure, then clean out for reuse. I need to have fine control over the concentration of these sedatives sometimes - with enough study I can time a soporific or paralytic almost like a clock. The blade/spike/or needle would simply be the vector via which my concoctions are delivered." To soften what might seem to be a summary dismissal of what the dandy personally acknowledges as a brilliant idea, he adds "I simply prefer to work with solutions I understand and have mastery of, old bean - it is no reflection on the genius of your suggestion."
Taikahn seemed disappointed for a moment, but then nodded--it made sense, and that meant less work and less use of valuable materials. "Fair enough." He nodded, then extended his hand in a gesture asking for it back. "I'll see if I can shape the blade/spike/or needle for channeling fluids, then."
Cornelius returns the crossbow with a smile "Truly, this is a marvellous piece of artisanry. I'm quite astounded, and very taken with it already."
Taikahn accepted it back and reholstered it. He chuckled lightly. "Well, thank you very much. I have to say--after I finished it, I liked the idea so much I made a few modifications and incorporated something of the kind into my own weapons system. I hope you don't mind."
Cornelius grins "Not at all. More than happy to be your muse. I've a fondness for such things, even if I don't have the talent to produce them myself. I dream of the elaborate, but must normally make do with the simple and dull tools available to me."
Somewhere in the Milous Plains - the completed weapon is demonstrated
After Cornelius left Vailkrin for parts unknown, he received a message from Taikahn advising the commission had been completed. They arranged a time and place to meet to complete the transfer.
Cornelius had found a spot north-west of Cenril which was both quiet, private, and containing the requisite trees for target practice. He has set up numerous targets, crafted of different armouring materials, but mostly variations of tough leather, ring-mail, chainmaille, and the occasional plated steel target. After finding a pair of trees approximately fifty feet apart, he has been keeping himself entertained during the wait by tossing daggers end-over-end at one tree, then trotting over to collect the daggers and repeat the exercise with the other tree. By the time Taikahn arrives, the trees will have numerous notches in them, largely concentrated at the height of Cornelius' chest.
Taikahn had sorta misplaced some things and thus was a little bit late. A door congealed out of thin air--a normal, plain-old wooden door, rather grey with a hint of blue. Taik stepped out and closed the door behind him, carrying the belt with the crossbow as well as a few other odd things that he might want to show off. The door melted away again soon after Taik had passed through it. "Hello!" he called out. "Sorry about the wait, I forgot where I'd placed a few things."
Cornelius pauses his arm mid-throw as the door appears near him, and instead walks over to where the other daggers are tree-lodged while Taikahn makes his appearance "Not at all, my good man. I rather believe I may have been a bit too early in my arrival." He pulls a cloth from his satchel and starts to remove and clean the daggers one by one, placing them tidily in a black leather bandolier. "How did the modifications go old bean? Handle weighted for aerodynamic and controlled descent? Did we manage to get the syringe-spike and tranquilliser reservoir fitted?" As Taikahn approaches closer he pays attention to the matte-black appearance of the device "I say, I am still quite taken with how light just doesn't seem to reflect back off that surface. Very handy that. I look forward to testing it out and learning how to properly maintain and repair it."
Taikahn set down his stuff on the ground and sorted it out as he spoke. "Well, when you think about it, the blade itself weighs down the handle so by merely adding the requested modifications I've rebalanced it. And yes, that's a special coating I added specifically for you." He grinned. "Well, we could get started right away if you like with that."
Cornelius grins "Jolly good show. I've set up some targets. I'd like you to demonstrate on the first three, if you wouldn't mind?" He gestures at a leather, chainmaille, and plate mail target "This will give me an idea of its capabilities for strategic reference, old bean"
Taikahn nodded. "Like I said, I'm fairly certain it won't penetrate the armour, but we'll see." He hauled it out of the scabbard and snapped it open for loading. He picked up a small metal box--about the length of a cigar box but only three-quarters of an inch thick, and connected it to a socket on the side of the crossbow. Then he snapped the arms closed again--making sure to make his every motion 100% visible to Corny. Then he held it out with one hand and fired. The three arms opened up backwards, pushing forward a set of inner arms which propelled the dart out and into the leather armour, sticking in close to the neckline. The arms slid closed and spun a third of a rotation and the device clicked. Then Taikahn fired again, and the same thing happened, only this time the dart landed just a hair to the left. The interesting part was that the gap between the first firing and the next was that there was only a gap of about a third of a second. Then the next target, two darts in the chainmail--or well, sorta. One stuck in, the other bounced out. And then the plate armour, and that one surprised Taikahn by piercing it quite handily twice. In total, from loading to lowering the weapon, the demonstration took perhaps ten seconds.
Cornelius raises an eyebrow in surprise "What in the blazes? How'd it manage to pierce the metal plate?!" Forgetting for a moment all else, he takes a close look at where the bolts had struck
Taikahn hadn't any clue, and walked over towards the plate as well, and felt it with his fingers. "Do you mind if I taste this?" he asked. "I've a hunch as to what might be the case."
Cornelius nods "Go right ahead, old bean. The armour this was taken from was old and discarded, true, but I am somewhat surprised nonetheless"
Taikahn nodded and licked the armour. "Aha." He twisted his hat sideways and pulled a string. One of the flaps flipped down and exposed several small hand tools. Taik extracted a small scraper and filed off a small portion of the armour, then pulled a small vial filled with a colourless liquid from a pocket and stuck the sample in said vial, recorked it, and shook it. The liquid had faint traces of yellow in it. "Aha." He placed the vial back in a pocket and put the scraper back in its place in the hat. "That would explain it. I'm too used to preklek armour."
Cornelius blinks at that, murmurs "Impressive, old bean. Impressive." and secretly hopes Cenril doesn't get invaded again while he is in the city
Taikahn folded the flap of his hat back into place and twisted it back normally. "Thank you. The chainmail didn't get hit as badly as the plate because it's interwoven and absorbs the energy of the small projectile more easily. This solid stuff is too rigid, though. Properly rotating, a crossbow dart can penetrate armour like this rather handily, so long as it's thin enough--and in order to be wearable, plate armour tends to be somewhat thin."
Cornelius nods "Ah. So light, age-and-weather fatigued brigandine like this may be penetrated, but heavier field plate would repel the darts. That is handy to know, my good man." He looks at the bolt launcher "Might I have a try, old bean?" Cornelius adds "How many bolts does the casing contain, out of interest?"
Taikahn nodded, offering it to him. "Certainly, it's your weapon after all. Just point and shoot, it's already loaded." Taikahn said to Cornelius, "Approximately twenty, assuming you load it correctly."
Cornelius takes the bolt launcher, tosses it upwards, then deftly plucks it from the air as it descends "Ahh, excellent. Nicely weighted indeed - the improvements are perfect. I'll ask you to show me how to extend and retract the syringe spike in a moment, if you don't mind?" Cornelius approaches a different tree with a pristine leather target attached. Having experience with regular and drow crossbows, he braces his arm in case there is any kick-back, aims, and presses the trigger once. To his surprise the kickback was similar to that of a regular crossbow, much more than that of the drow hand-crossbow. As the bolt misses the mark by several inches, Cornelius mentally calculates the forces and vectors involved with the kickback of the weapon, then fires again. This time the bolt thunks solidly into the target. "Marvellous. It shall take some practice, but I like it!" The dandy then draws his sabre, and stands casually with the device in his left hand, sabre in right. Extending his sabre to guard, he brings his left arm in close, forearm and wrist forming a straight line to biomechanically counter the kickback as he fires three times, with about two seconds between each bolt. The first lands high and to the left, the second too far to the right, but the third shot hits near the centre of the target "Yes, this shall take some getting used to, but over time it and I shall become solid partners. My thanks, Taikahn, for this marvellous device. Please, if you would be so kind, show me now how to utilise the syringe spike, and how to load, unload, reload, and otherwise maintain the weapon to ensure peak performance at all times." He sheathes his sabre, and hands the device to Taikahn
Taikahn watched silently, not wanting to distract Cornelius from his working with the weapon. When he was finished and asked for the various tips and tricks for how to use it, he nodded and accepted it back. "The spike, firstly, isn't so much of a syringe as it is a small blade." He turned a wheel on the side of the handle and the blade extended out--it was beautiful, serrated and menacing, with channels carved into it. "The way this works, you stab or slice someone with the blade, and a pressure trigger will release whatever toxin you've put in. It should flow through the blade and into their system. Poison fill valve is here." He pointed it out.
Cornelius examines the device "Ingenious. How does one retract it safely if it doesn't need to be used?"
Taikahn turned the wheel the other direction. "Quite easily, as a matter of fact." He grinned as the blade retracted.
Cornelius rubs his jawline, impressed "Truly marvellous, my good man. Incredible attention to detail. On to maintenance, then - what needs to be done to keep it working smoothly?"
Taikahn pulled a small tool out of one side of the device and used it to remove a couple of bolts from the frame, then took off the whole arm mechanism. "Keep this well-greased or oiled, it needs to be as frictionless as possible. Other than that, try not to lock up the gear mechanisms by holding down the trigger too long." He reassembled the device.
Cornelius watches carefully "Mind if I have a few practice runs at doing that? I want to make sure I have the process down adequately, wot."
Taikahn handed it back over to the man with a nod and shrug. "Go right ahead."
Under the Preklek's guidance, Cornelius takes apart the device, examines the component pieces carefully, consigning them to memory, and then puts the weapon back together. Each subsequent attempt becomes smoother, more rapid, until Cornelius is confident he has the process memorised "Splendid, and my thanks again." Remembering Taikahn's words regarding a full complement of 20 bolts requiring correct loading, he hands it back to the Preklek "Could you please show me the best way to load the bolt casing, and explain the principles of the bolt design, as I may need to have more crafted at short notice, albeit at a lesser quality than the bolts you have provided me here. It will help a metallurgist or blacksmith to know a little about the stresses which will affect the bolts, methinks"
Taikahn detached the bolt casing and opened it, removing the bolts from it. "Basically, take this part here and push it down until it clicks. Then load the darts facing this direction, with the rounded end facing the back." He removed one of the bolts and displayed it. "They're slightly helicoid, to make spiraling them easier and to make punching through things swifter. They fly well and are well-balanced." He handed one to Cornelius.
Cornelius examines the bolt carefully, finding the balance point, and noting a manufacturing level far superior to any bolt he'd seen for a regular crossbow. "Standard casting may work, in a pinch, although the bolts won't have the same durability or efficacy as the ones you've given me here. I may, if you are amenable, occasionally wish to commission the production of additional bolts to ensure I am adequately supplied with ammunition." The dandy then practices loading, unloading, and re-loading the bolt casing, then practices attaching and detaching it from the bolt launcher itself - giving Taikahn an opportunity to offer further advice and instructions.
Taikahn shrugged. "Certainly, I've no problem with that--although you'll have to forgive me, I'm not exactly sure what ammunition alone should cost. I'd offer them free but I don't want to be dealing destruction to everybody. I just want people to be safe." He didn't really have any other further advice at the moment, having seen how swiftly he was adapting to the machine.
Cornelius nods "Enough to cover costs of materials and production, old bean? With sufficient markup to enable some profit to be made? All within the realms of comfortable conscience, of course. It is my hope to have little opportunity to use this. It will be my hidden ace, as it were, for those situations where survival odds are not balanced or in my favour." He assembles the device once more. "Might I have the holster?"
Taikahn nodded--it sounded good to him. He handed the holster over. "Certainly, here it is. You've got a fine ace, Cornelius."
Cornelius grins "And don't I know it? It shall take a lot of time and practice before I can truly rely on it, but any relationship must be taken one step at a time. It was years before the sabre and I truly got to know each other. It shall be an interesting journey." He dons the holster, making plans for ways to amend it even as he does, and extends a hand in gentlemanly fashion "It has been a pleasure going over this work of functional art with you today, Taikahn old bean. I must head off soon, as there is a situation I must see to. I might ask you to ponder something though - my knowledge of metallurgy is lamentably incapable of devising a way to make a silver bolt which would not warp under the pressures of being fired at great force. If you could think of a way, I'd pay good money for a couple of casings' worth."
Taikahn shook the hand warmly and pondered the question of silver bolts for a full two seconds. "It's quite simple, really. Crystallize it." He grinned. "Strange process, but it works."
Cornelius shakes his head "I have no idea how you'd do that, old bean, but it sounds brilliant. I regret that I cannot dally much longer, as I've an appointment to keep. How many casings of bolts have you made, may I ask? And what would it set me back? I've promissory notes ready to be completed and signed"
Taikahn pondered. "Well, with the weapon you get fifty bolts--that's two and a half casings, ought to be plenty for an ace in the hole. And those come free. If you need any more just ask--I'll probably ask perhaps a hundred gold for a case. Is that a good price?"
Cornelius nods "Perfectly acceptable. How do I use that cube you gave me again?"
Taikahn pulled out the cube that mirrored it from his pocket. "Just pull this top part off here, place what you want to send inside the box, and put the lid back on." He grinned. "Then open the lid again if you like, and whatever's on the inside will be gone, and in my box."
Cornelius nods "Excellent. Most convenient, that." The dandy then bows "Much obliged, old bean, for the care and expertise which has gone into this device. If you ever need my assistance with anything, do let me know. Travel safely, and no doubt we shall meet again!" When the final exchange of pleasantries are done, the dandy strolls over to where a horse is tethered.
OOC Information
As yet I haven't put together enough money to make a decent custom of this item, and am using the Intricately Crafted Miniature Crossbow in my inventory to represent the item.
Efficacy-wise, based on Taikahn's RP, I see the item as largely unable to penetrate plated mail, only somewhat effective at penetrating chain- or ring-mail, but having effective penetration against leather/unarmoured combatants.
It's an 'Ace in the Hole' weapon, as opposed to the character's primary weapon.