Tsuiraku-town, part 3

[Jack Rothwell]

"Dare I ask what that thing is?"

"I nicknamed this beauty the mana rifle." Replied Jade; her geeky side now in full control. "You see, when your ma and I were running around that weapons compound I got the chance the use one of those yukki staffs with some pretty messy results." She began walking back up the path, waving for Layla to follow as she continued her explanation.

"I've got to admit that the thing was wonderfully destructive. But the kick back was a bitch and the accuracy of a boom stick over any notable distance was dicey at best." Jade stood at the edge of a field and dropped to one knee, she hefted the rifle onto her shoulder and looked down the sights. "So, to answer your question; I gutted the thing, took out the important looking stuff and rearranged it with a long distance firefight in mind."

She squeezed the trigger, the rifle made a crackling noise and fired. But instead of a bullet, the thing released a force bolt funneled into a narrow beam by the shape of the insulated gun barrel. It streaked across the field with a faint whining noise and crashed squarely into the chest of the distant scarecrow the Blacksmith had been aiming at. The makeshift figure exploded in a shower of flaming rags. Jade laughed out loud.

"Ha! See?" She caught herself. "Oh, erm, sorry about your scarecrow Layla, Leo'll buy you another one. Anyway, the downside of this thing is that there was only room for half the power network with the nozzle inside the barrel, so you'd have to charge it up twice as often. That, and the fact using this at point blank range might set you on fire. The upside is I've got enough stuff left over to make another one. What do you think?"

[Sareth]

"Sweet yumping yimminy, what was that?" Jasmine asked, proceeding to clean the eggs she'd spilled all over when things went bewm. "I don't hear any more explosions, so I'm guessing we're not under attack. Have you people been playing with high explosives?"

[Graybeard]

"Don't worry about the scarecrow," Layla said, rolling her eyes. Then she stopped to think about the implications.

Plato and Soc had both told her that magical weaponry lay beyond the state of the art available to the Gewehr. Sure, it was possible to put a Silence spell on a rifle or a bullet; she'd even done that herself, as part of her initial testing of her magical abilities. But there was no way she'd ever seen to make a weapon shoot straight by magical means, or better yet, cause a bullet to strike its target even if the shooter's aim was off. Those things just couldn't be done.

This little toy, though ... had some possibilities. Like most Wraiths, Layla didn't like using a shotgun on jobs; they were messy, had limited range, and left too much evidence of what had happened when they were used. However, sometimes their limited range was exactly the thing that made them right for a job. So how much better would a "mana rifle" be on that kind of a gig, particularly since investigators would look at the remains and think spellcaster (therefore Tsuirakuan or Veracian) rather than gunslinger? Yes, this thing had possibilities indeed.

She tried to hide her thought processes as she turned to her mother. "So what other little surprises did you three discover while you were warping off after Jamie that I should know about?"

----------

Layla wasn't the only one asking that question.

Kitaura, of course, was far too fastidious (and suspicious) to leave any signs of his impromptu tea party with Layla behind. After their little tete-a-tete, he'd taken a few minutes before heading back to the consulate, to tidy up the site and get the props secured in a Pocket Dimension. The result was that he was still well within earshot of Jade's weapon when she fired it.

I know what makes that kind of sound, he thought, and there is no reason why anyone at that farmhouse should have one. This will merit investigation.

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC Is Faye outside? Hope you don't mind Jade fielding the question since she didn't reply./OOC

"So what other little surprises did you three discover while you were warping off after Jamie that I should know about?"

"There were a few." Jade interjected, still in full flow. "That rascal Jamie was chucking around some kind of explosive device before she was spirited away, but the other thing I managed to bring back was a weapon we nicked off a blue golem. It's an industrial sized blade that sat on the thing's forearm. Had some kind of energy field running through that discharged itself when it connected with a solid object. Fuck, it announced its presense to us by punching through a wall."

"Which I still say makes it too hazardous to use as a weapon." Leo chimed in, unplugging his ears for the first time since Jade had fired the mana rifle.

"Ok, I admit as it is it might present... erm... certain 'complications' if a human sized weilder uses it, what with the possibility of being concussed by flying brickwork, but I reckon I can scale it down in some way. If I figure out how to narrow the field like with the rifle you'd have a close combat weapon that'd tear through thick armour like tinfoil or make one hell off an entrance if you're adverse to using a door." Her eyes brightened as if an idea had suddenly occured to her. "Hey! I could mount it on something; like a pole-arm, maybe." She re-secured the rifle across her back and tried to calm her euthusiasm down a notch. "I can make you a copy of the rifle first if you like; shouldn't take as long know I've figured out what the hell I'm doing."

[Graybeard]

Layla thought about it. "That super-blade sounds a little outside our field of interest," she said. At least outside of mine. I've never liked blade work, and if you need a wall taken down, that's what plastique is for, although I don't like working with that either. "But yeah, another of these gun-things sounds interesting ... for defensive purposes only, of course." The relationship with Jade had reached the point where she thought she could spare the blacksmith-mercenary a wink.

She turned to Jasmine. "I need to head for town and my next magic lesson. Want a ride to the airship terminal?"

[OOC: Sareth, that last question is for you. Do you want to move Jasmine to the other thread? We can work it either way.]

[Sareth]

"Yeah," Jasmine grinned, shaking off the explosion and scooping food onto a plate. "Sounds pretty good to me. What time we leaving?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade smiled warmly at Layla's not-so-subtle implication and immediately began drawing up plans for the rest of the day as Jasmine replied.

"Sounds pretty good to me. What time we leaving?"

"You off somewhere Jasmine?" It dawned on her. "Did you guys figure out where Jamie got to?"

[Sareth]

"Yep!" Jasmine forked a pile of food into her mouth. "An jus' as soon as I ge' there, I am giving her skinny bu' such a hidin'" she said.

[Graybeard]

Layla smiled at Jade, trying to keep the edge off; it wasn't time to tip her hand yet about just how useful a "mana gun" might be. "Yes, I think we can work out some manner of a deal here..."

Faye had emerged from the house by now, and she fielded Jade's question, while keeping an eye on Jasmine in the kitchen. "We got word that Jamie's alive and well in Port Lorrel," she said. "It's all very mysterious about how she got there. Anyway, I'll help get Jasmine packed up and smother the kiddo in grandma love, while you take Jasmine to the terminal. It's about a five-hour flight from here to Lorrel, as I understand it, so you'll get there tonight in time to try to look her up."

And then the excrement will really hit the rotary oscillator, she thought but did not say.

[OOC: Taking a complete SWAG at travel time. We are still puzzled by geography, and have only a guess at how big Farrel is, but with a five-hour flight time, there's room for the airship to travel at whatever speed is necessary to get there. So Jasmine will be back in play tonight in Lorrel. As for the rest of us ... well, we'll find something to do.]

[Jack Rothwell]

"Anyway, I'll help get Jasmine packed up and smother the kiddo in grandma love, while you take Jasmine to the terminal. It's about a five-hour flight from here to Lorrel, as I understand it, so you'll get there tonight in time to try to look her up."

Leo exchanged a glance with Jade, some unspoken communication passed between them, he piped up. "Need an escort? There seems to be a lot of people who like to blow stuff up running around town lately."

"The Smith's is in roughly the same direction anyway. I can get going on the rifle copy when we get back." Jade said, unconsciously reaching and resting a paternal hand on the butt of the gun strapped across her back.