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Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:00 am
by *Svart
Vinnadis sat outside the gnomish laboratory a little nervous, se wasn't the kind to get nervous easily when asking for things, but this project was important for her, and she needed a place to work on it.
She gathered her breath and stood firmly, in her hands were a bunch of blueprints she spent 2 full nights to flesh out and draw. they contained a drawing of a mechanical spider similar to the ones at the ethereal, but with some differences and custom armament, and an optimized external armor, she was planing to build them from scratch, starting with a small prototype (25% of the ethereal ones size) and a prototype of 2 custom weapons. One is a little metallic hollow cylinder with a mechanism to load one sling bullet into it, and a magical electrical process charges magnetically the bullet so it's propelled at high speed to one end of the tube (the prototype bullets will be of one quarter of a normal sling bullet size, so they won't have enough mass to do actual damage). The other is a small container that can store 5 small items such as an alchemist fire, and when needed, catapult them to an specific zone. The prototype is designed to move with six of it eights appendages, while the other two appendages are compromised of two pincers that can manipulate objects. There are some notes in adding also retractable blades to this two appendages and a kind of shielding.. but the details aren't all clear and seem to be scratched for the prototype, the construct would use magical electrical energy as "fuel".
After mentally reviewing her blueprints one more time she decided to enter to the laboratory, once inside she cleared her throat a little and asked energetically:
-Hello! I would like to talk with the one in charge!
OOC: well, i wasn't exactly sure how to start this post, since i'm fairly new and haven't posted anything outside Red's bio, but there i followed a model, here I was a little unsure of the best way to start this project. I hope this thread is appropriate in this location.
Also, i made a forum thread because i somewhat feel it would be a lengthy process and this thread can be used to coordinate an necessary In game time RP, and would allow DMs to post whenever they have some time without draining them ingame time :).
Vinnadis may not be the best combatant out there, but she certainly is a very resourceful gal, and a pretty smart one too (Int 18), if she can't solve a problem alone she will try to convince someone more skilled in that area to help her (Cha 16)
(here i will post her effective skill points of the skill I believe could prove useful if an outgame skill roll is needed)
effective skill points:
Craft Alchemy: 18
Craft Weapon: 4
Craft Armor: 4
Craft Trap: 15
Diplomacy: 17
Disable Device: 13
Listen: 11
Lore: 25
Search: 9
Set Trap: 14
Spellcraft: 17
Languages:
Common
Gnome
Auran
Ignan
Celestial.
Feats: Craft Wondrous Items
Backstory: She grow up in the Lantan isles, a region in Toril famous for their technological advancement, so she is familiar with more advanced technology and gnomish technology.
gold: 5722
Objective: Vinnadis Objective is to learn further of constructs and mechanical beings, and to create a fully functional and customizable clockwork construct that can accompany her in her travels (that would use the mechanical spider model and animations). Whatever she manages to learn in the process will then be used to fuel further and more ambitious projects of her
Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:00 am
by *Svart
The room she rented on the laboratory was barely lit by some magical sources, and there was a certain smell of closure, due to the lack of windows, but a humble ventilation shaft ensured that the air was still bearable. The room was tidy and clean though, and she felt a little sorry knowing that it would probably change soon, and the walls emitted a faint magical humming, probably due to the lighting wards the room was equiped with.
At the center there was a quite big work table, made of a black metal, with a central pillar and a big mechanism that permited to adjust it height, the craftmanship felt very sigilian, with the base made to resemble twisted black vines, and the top of the work table was marbled and very polished. the frontal wall from the entrance was occupied by a big desk with a nifty chair and a bookshelf with five basic but useful manuals, reading: General Magic I, General Magic II, Alchemy I, Cosmology I and General Physics, and a smaller and slimer tome called "General physics and magic changes and exceptions in Sigil" but there was also lots of space to put more books if the need arises. She smiled as she inspected the books, which looked very clean and rather new, and belonging to a same facturer. And in the corner laid some machinery that looked to serve multiple purposes.
The wall of the left to the desk had a very large chalkboard for making some quick notes and a large board for pinning in the wall any kind of paper or planes, and the last wall had an alchemichal table with various instruments to work, a second work table with some general tools and some shelves in the wall to put further materials and various things. There was also in one corner a drawer and a stand to put an armor. Overall, the room was very complete provided one could provide the raw materials and the more specific stuff.
She quickly undonned her leather armor so she could work freely, and put some casual colthes she bought on the Civic Festhall. Pinned her various blueprints on the board and took the physics manual which was the slimer and smaller one of the five manuals and started to quickly turn it pages while unpacking her things. She quickly came to a chapter regarding electricity and Smiled when she spotted a quote from a lantanese gnomish professor she knew. The quote in a raw fashion ilustrated some of the properties of electricty as an energy in the prime material plane.
While still reading she took a memento from her home, that she thought could be useful in his travels, It was an adjusted leather cap with a pair of lenses adjusted. the lenses served two purposes, to protect the eyes while working, and to grant additional zoom when needed to tend some very small details. She stopped reading then and remembered the workshop back at home, where she worked two years fabricating lantanese toys that were then imported to the mainland.
after a while she noticed how tired she was, the adventure back with Gem and the group was quite exciting, but it tired her and it was late in what looked to be "night" outside. she decided to make a quick list of "to do things".
-Find a more detailed book regarding the subject "electricity".
-Craft a set of very specific tools.
-Search for a wand of lighting, or something that can generate magical electicity in great quantities.
-Visit the ethereal plane with some monks or warriors to retrive raw materials that can be crafted into new pieces.
after that she took a white paper and started designing the specific tools she would be needing, but felt asleep on the desk.
Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:00 am
by *Svart
Back again at the lab room, she have been a little slower that she would liked in the gathering of the components she needed, but she still have made some progress, now the room was filled with several golem parts and clockwork cockroaches "bodies", some of them were made of adamantine, which would prove useful since she wasn't able to find adamantine in the bazaar. Also he got help from the best source, since Teuso managed to beat the constructs just enough with his bare hands so the construct would stop moving, so the pieces were in good shape, and his attacks were so focused that entire parts of the constructs were left untouched. At the same time, Kara's strenght was enough to bring a big ammount of raw material, so she wouldn't be on a shortage anytime soon.
Also, she managed to get her hands on some magical gloves that greatly enhanced the user crafting abbilities, this would prove useful, not only on helping her strong sides that were the crafting of traps, contraptions and mechanism, and the craft of alchemichal products, but to give her enough skill to maybe don't need and intermediate on her unskilled crafting at weapons and armors.
Still, regarding the electricity books and magical items, she haven't managed to make some progress, she read the fragments that interested her on the various manuals the rent of the lab provided her, and was useful for refreshing some basic knowledge and much of what she learned back at Lantan academy, the brief time she managed to be there, but they were still far too general. (Even though the small book that listed much of the known changes while being on Sigil proved to be very enlightening). and now the previously shinning new manuals were filled with small paper notes that stuck out the various pages.
Today she managed to buy on the bazaar a big chest at a discount price, some candles and inscence, to help give the room a little more life while she was working, and some sheets, blankets and cushions. She even paid a stranger to help her bringing the chest here.
After locating the big chest in a place it wouldn't use too much room she quickly started to store all the pieces and fragments she woudln't immediatly need inside, managing to regaining much of the space of the lab room. Then she created a makeshift bed with the cushions and blankets so she could rest withouth greatly interrupting her work and lit one of the candles.
"Maybe I could try contacting Lady Jorina at her academy tomorrow, and even if I don't find her I guess that there will be someone who can help me". She thought as she put one of the cockroaches on the table. Then she proceed to take some of the tools provided with the lab, and started the slow process of dismanteling the creature, separating in various container diverse kinds of screws, gears, springs and long structural metal pieces that she could use later.
"I even heard that some people sighted DIV there, I wonder what he would be doing there? maybe inspecting magic? well, if I manage to find him there I would be hitting two birds with the same stone!" and after some several minutes of working and thinking, she started almost naturally to sing, a joyous but tragic song of two lovers that was pretty popular back at home in Lantan, specially between the folk that hearded goats on the mountains side. She was doing the manual work almost mechanically, while her mind was still wandering, remembering the sunsets in the mountain with the slow rythm of the song.
Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:00 am
by *Svart
She woke up and gazed the roof for a while. Near the cushions was the open book "Electricty is your friend, By Dr. Franken Von Rotstein" and on the bookshelf three other new books were careless put, which on their covers read: "Lightning, Minerals, Radiance, and Steam, a guide to the Planes of Positive Energy", a slim tome called "Basics of arcane information recording" and a large but slim tome "Wonders of Mechanus automatas , Ilustration Book"(400gp in books). every book except the ilustrations book was full of notes, papers in between, and looked like have been used several times in this 2 days.
She had been working two days now, with only going out of the lab to purchase some extra materials she needed, but the work have started to give results now. she mannaged to create the prototype "core", that wasn't bigger than a marble or a sling bullet. of what looked to be a a crystalline substance with a faint glow inside. the core was magically charged with electricity and would liberate a small shock on contact. The process ended faster than she thought though. Only four failed cores littered the tin trash can she bought in a crafts store in the hive outside the lab, and she managed to understand the technique of the creation of this electricty storing glass quite fast, maybe that headband of intellect Daen the Avaryel gifted her also helped, who knows?
The once tidy room was a mere echo of it's former self, since now the alchemichal table was full of fragments of strange stones and liquids. the desk on a corner had three extinguished candles and some incense ash littered around. Near a teapot, a cup with some stains and some bread crumbs. The chalk board was full of annotations and there were plenty of new papers pinned on the other board, not in any specific order. The central table was full of springs, screws and gears of what have been previously other cockroaches and the wand of lighting that Lady Jorina have crafted for her was also on the table.
She stood up and streched herself, certainly that bed wasn't the more confortable thing she have slept on. She was wearing some loose pants and an open shirt since the temperaure of the room was now a little too warm. After sitting on the desk chair she tried to keep working, but didn't felt in the mood for today, she opened the ilustration book and looked slowly trough it's pages. She kept looking at one page containing a watercolour of what looked to be an extremely harsh enviroment, and on ink there was a drawing of a centaur like creature fighting against what looked to be a knight, the centaur like creature had some details drawn with golden ink an the knight had some details drawn with silver ink.
After a while of daydreaming she put the book again on the shelf and took out "Basics of arcane information recording" and quickly navigated through it's pages. Now that the core was ready, she needed to create a "brain". it wasn't a brain per se, since the construct would still be an automata, but she needed to organize the energy discharges so the construct would do coordinated movements, and be able to "walk", plus, it needed a way to understand orders.
There was a curious alchemichal mix of some metallic properties that could store some commands, and had the interesting feature that if blood was added to the original mix, it would create an unique link between all the pieces of that specific mix, even if the pieces were in different places once they solidify. The uniqueness of the link was guaranteed by the blood. Somehow the essence information of an individual in a determined lapsus of time is added, giving the mix an additional variable that differs from each individual, and even if the same individual would attempt the same mixture on a different split of time, the results would still vary. This way one individual could have various set of this "links" withouth one interfering with the other.
This system also allowed for ordes to be transmitted from one shard to the other, that way even if most of the mixture would be covering the electric core, if one individual hold on his hand one sollidified fragment of the original mixture, she could transfer orders to the core. Once she would manage to do that, the core would be ordered to transfer specifics ammounts of energy to any of the eight nodes ubicated in the base of each appendix of the prototype, in the node a special module would translate the electrical energy into kinetic energy that would enter into a complex clockwork mechanism that would use the enrgy to move an appendix. The coordinated movement of the prototype appendixes would make the prototype be able to "walk".
The final construct had a more complex mechanism, but the principle was the same, if she managed to succeed on making the prototype move, she would be ready for start working on "Mark one".
There was a smile on her face.. but still she wasn't in the mood of working for today...
Maybe I could take the day off... take a relaxing bath and then spending some good time at Khazeet's place, maybe even I could rent a room in the inn for today and sleep on a true bed... hmmm...
Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:00 am
by *Cenpuppie
Sure enough, there is a knock on door. When opened, Vara stands there with a bright grin on her face as she holds up a large basket and a bottle of wine.
"Damn, i was hopin to catch ya naked! *smirks* You know what they say hun, all work and no play! Have a drink and eat some of this stuff i brought. Don't worry, i didn't cook it *musical laughter*"
She peers past Vinn to look inside the room and whistles. "My, my you've been busy. Well, whatcha got so far?". Not waiting to be ushered inside, she slides into the room and meticulously looks around the room. She eyes the core but doesn't touch it nor anything.
"Not bad.. Not bad"
Vinnadis's project codename: eight gears
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:00 am
by *Svart
Vinn laughs as she welcomes Vara then she exclaims
Miss Jorina, you sure can read minds, since I was longing for a breakfast... Which time is it anyway?.. i'm still not used to the cycles of this city... I'm sorry for the state of the room though, it's not in the best shape to have guests *chuckles* oh, and that is the core I was going to use for the prototype, the Mark one will probably have the core of the size of a fist.
then she shows her annotations on some books and explains her how the construct will move... at least on theory
I sadly haven't biuld any of the mechanisms yet, but here *as she munches trough some of the baskets content she points at the board with the blueprints and the chalk board with the notes* you can see how the translation of the electric energy into kinetic energy would work, then is just a matter of magnifying and redirecting the kinetic force with different gears and springs, and you would have movement! *she smiles*
still i was thinking of taking the day off today, you know, one can't work uninspired *laughs again*... so I guess you really have some kind of mind reading powers!
probably start with a bath, then with a bar and last with a waltz! *smiles*