Testing, Testing, One, Two, BOOM - RPLOG
Participants
Date
19/9/478
Log
The old machine shop down by the docks is a bit livelier than usual. Hamish Tuttle, the renowned shelled clan inventor is directing the work of several assistants who are setting up a plethora of targets, both moving and stationary while the old tortoise himself is busy with a table full of odd contraptions that just might be firearms.
"Ah!" he cries when he sees beings begin to arrive, "Welcome! Welcome! We can get started with testing just as soon as you are ready!"
Zuri walks up among the other beings. The small salamander weaves his way past the taller folk so he cal find a place at the front to observe what's going on, and maybe even participate! He takes another bits of the peach he brought with him, chewing slowly to savour its taste as he watches the scene unfold.
Cassidy makes her way closer, looking over the objects scattered across the table before squeezing Natska's arm. "Look at all that, Natska. This should be interesting! Been a while since we've tested any weapons!"
Natska gives Cassidy a small smile and inclines her head, watching the workers for a moment. "Mmmhm. I remember the last one, the air cannon. Or was it the water balloon throwers?" She smiles and nods to the other Freeswords gathering, then waves at Tuttle. "Ready, sir!"
Siyu decided to get dressed in his old leathers. It's been a while since he's gone shooting, or out adventuring, but you never really forget it do you? He's dressed in his combat leathers and they still fit, long hair pulled back and he adjusts his glasses, just waiting to see what they're going to be trying out.
Cirra... is not a fan of firearms. Mostly due to lack of experience and no souls she has that use them. But she's here because she wants to make sure testing is safe, and to obvserve.
"The Hamish Air Cannon MkIII," Hamish answers Natska with a proud grin, "Yes! That was a rousing success, wasn't it? Glad to have you all! Today I have a number of personal firearms for testing. Very different from the air cannon of course." The tortoise points out a standard pistol and a rifle on the table of contraptions. "Modern designs are, of course, very useful," he says, seeming to have rehearsed this bit, "But one of their greatest weaknesses is the amount of time necessary to reload." He sweeps a hand over the collection of wild gizmos. "Our goal here today is to test the usability of all of these prototypes and see what those in the know think of the directions we are going." He smiles at the group. "Are we all ready to begin?"
Zuri takes a tiny bite out of the peach as he listens to the explanation attentively. He perks up and nods. "I'm ready!" He raises his hand. "I've used firearms before, sir! I'm ready!" He waggles his hand excitedly, trying to get noticed. He sneaks a peek at the devices they will be trialling. The idea of a gun that reloads faster is quite intriguing...
Cassidy frowns at that, shaking her head. "No, no. We're talking about the one the Windrunners built, I think," she says, before shrugging. "Regardless. I'm happy to test. The reloading time is why I don't use many firearms, myself. Shame my cousin isn't here, though. Or Wulf. They're the best ones I know when it comes to guns."
Natska nods her head at Cassidy. "The Hamish Air Cannon. I remember helping with the test of that." She looks back to the inventor. "Alright! I am much the same, I know how to use a firearm but have chosen other weapons because of the limitations. I am interested to see what you're come up with! Where are we testing these?"
Siyu sets up "Interesting, so firearms experimentation? Are you using half loads of powder? DOn't want to have it all explode or anything." he looks over towards the various weapons, Looking for the biggets cannon like one.
Cirra is not ready. But she will watch. She blinks, signing to Natska. <What's an Air Cannon? That makes me think of... two very different things.>
Hamish nids and smiles at the enthusiasm. "Very good, very good!" he says, "And no, no! If we used only half powder it would hardly be an appropriate test! Don't worry, everything has been tested for safety. This is just a practical test to see how well these innovations work for actual use. Please choose a firearm and come along with me. A target range has been set up for us here."
Some of the weapons on the table look stranger than others. There is a collection of pistols with multiple barrels and a peacock fan of handles and hammers, a pair of long rifles with two barrels and an odd trigger mechanism, a hand cannon with a number of pouches hanging beneath, and even some sort of device with a massive crank on the back among other things.
Zuri strides up to the firearms on display, picking out one of the multi-barreled pistols. This one is a weird thing, with three barrels set against each other, along with one trigger for each of them set along different points of the grip. The salamander's experienced enough with guns to not let his fingers go anywhere near the triggers, and keeps the gun pointing down towards the ground as he walks along.
Cassidy looks over the selection on the table, humming softly. She reaches out to take one of the pistols, testing the weight in her hand before looking over it. "Are these already loaded?"
Natska glances to Cassidy, then to Hammish; she nods at the question and picks up one of the double rifles, taking her time to inspect it and see if she can figure out the trigger mechanism.
Siyu looks at one of the heavier weapons, it looks crew mounted, like an arbalast. Rotary gears, and a draw string. Double offset draw cranks on either side. Burning whicks on either side though. A hooper of specifically shapped clay projectiles with fuses next to it, "Well then, this looks dangerous..." he considers.
Cirra loooks over the table, and sees something that looks somewhat familiar. Granted, she's only recognizing it by its ammunition: small steel discs. It's a disc thrower, and if the discs were any larger, it would arguably be called a chakram launcher.
"Oh! I should expect so!" Hamish says happily to Siyu then nods to Cassidy, "Loaded and ready, my lady. All of these weapons are ready to fire." The old tortoise waves his assitants away from the firing range, leaving the back part of the warehouse empty except for a collection of small, painted pots scattered aboutin various groupings at all sorts of levels. There are groups on the floor, some suspended from wires and even a few of varied size drifting about like reverse lowballs!
Zuri studies the targets, a bright smile gracing his features and tail whipping happily around in anticipation. He raises the gun and levels it at one of the pots with a two-handed grip, and with a shaky hand he fires the gun's first barrel - the top trigger on the grip. The gun discharges brilliantly with a flash of fire and a plume of smoke. While Zuri's aim isn't the best, it clips the pot well enough that half of it shatters, leaving the other half suspended. "Wow!"
Cassidy fires the weapon off, then gives the weapon an appraising once-over. "This isn't too unlike the turn-over mutli-barreled pistol I've got... A little clunky, though," she murmurs, turning it over to fire it again.
Siyu gently turns the crank, and the clay lands where it's supposed to, the whicks light the fuse, and one more crank and WHAP! The arbalast fires the clay, which hits a target and explode, a few more turns and the string resets and is ready to go again! "Cool, uh, the clay is filled withgunpowder?" he stares at the full hopper.
The disc launcher is set up. Cirra tries to steady it and aim, and when she pulls the trigger, there is a satisfying kickback. But instead of launching a disc, a horrible screeching noise and a sudden THUNK are heard as the weapon jams hard.
Natska takes a moment to sight down her rifle at the target, then pulls the trigger. The recoil only moves her a little as she rocks with it, then she pulled the trigger a second time. Then she grins. "That is niiice."
Hamish and his assistants watch with great interest, taking notes on each weapon's performance. "Gun powder, caltrops, chocolate, whatever you like," the tortoise answers Siyu. The aide near Cirra frowns as the weapon jams, but hurries to fetch a new one for the mute shark.
Zuri levels his gun at another pot, taking a bite of his almost-finished peach as he lines up the shot. "Wait, chocolate? Some of these pots have chocolate in them?" He munches on the juicy fruit. "Mmm.. bit of a waste.." He squeezes the second trigger on the gun, and there's another clean combustion of fuel and accompanying plume of smoke as the gun operates brilliantly and hits the target dead-center, shattering it and splilling out sand everywhere. "Aww.. not chcolate."
Cassidy levels her gun after turning the barrel over, dismissing the rattling sound as intentional. She doesn't even get the time to aim it before the remaining barrels go off with a bang, even without her finger on the trigger! It's a little startling to the fox, to say the least, who quickly points it towards the ground less it find more ways to break.
Cirra levels the gun again. This time, a disc goes out. She's surprised enough but when she pulls the trigger to launch a second disc, she finds it broken. She pouts a bit.
Natska looks over at Hammish and gives him a small nod. "This one works well. Very smooth." She turns the rifle over. "How difficult is it to reload, though?" she asks, her ear flicking and tail curling back and forth. Then she blinks and looks over at Cass. "Oh! You look surprised. Is everything alright?"
Siyu blows out a breath, "All right, so I'm sitting on a bomb. Nice to know..." and sure enough with the next turn of the crank the shaped clay projectile launches up into the air, spinning around before exploding in mid air like a firework! "Ah! Nope! No. Done with this..." he steps away from it, and brushes off his leathers.
Hamish and his aides dive out of the way when Siyu's second mortar explodes, but they are back and chattering and scribbling over the event in only a moment. "Minor alignment issues, I think," Hamish says looking at the various, exciting failures, "But I am very pleased to see at least those two models are working as expected!" The tortoise makes his way to stand by Natska and holds out his hands for the weapon. "Quite easily, my lady," he says, "Each barrel loads just like an ordinary rifle! The real trick on this one is all in the trigger method." He turns to watch Zuri take a final shot.
Zuri lines up his third shot as he takes the last bite from his peach - it having been reduced to nothing but the core. He presses down on the trigger, which feels much looser than the others. Nothing happens. He punches down on it a few more times, but the trigger just wiggles loosely. "Aww... that was almost a perfect gun!"
Cassidy nods at Natska. "I'm fine. The gun just discharged early," she says, setting the weapon back down on the table and dusting her hands off. "That looked like a nice rifle, though."
Natska smiles at the Shelled Folk inventor and is happy to let him take the rifle, crossing her arms as she watches. "It is. It still has to reload, but a second shot is... impressive."
Siyu shakes his head a little bit, "Far too random, that's a bit too...too...ugh, I would not want it to blow up in my face..." he looks at Hamish. "Yes well uh...right. Working as expected"
The nurse shark puts her weapon back on the table, frowning and shaking her head. She seems very unlucky with firearms, or her 'gun' needs a lot more refining before it can be used in the field.
"Pity about that third shot," Hamish says, shaking his head, "And the other misfires, but I am glad to see that at least one of these prototypes is working as anticipated. I think perhaps we are nearing a real breakthrough!" He hands off Natska's rifle to one of his aides, then turns to bow to the beings who helped with the testing. "You have been a great help in our research," he says, "I am very grateful to you all! You will be among the first to know when we are ready to start making these things in earnest! I have a bit of a reward for each of you. Please don't go without it!"
Zuri walks back to the display counter, placing his gun on it and turning to smile at Hamish. "Yea, that gun was good! Maybe it needs a bit of work. I guess it has lots of moving parts that can get jiggery-jammed on each other.. like the best locks around, really."
Siyu ahems, "Well nice to know I helped, hopeuflly next time it doens't explode" he nods and looks to everyone else/ "Good thing no on was hurt."
Natska bows towards mister Hamish, then offers Cassidy her arm. "Yes, please, keep us informed. I have friends who would be very interested in this, should it work out. Shall we go, Cass?"
Cirra nods, bowing to the shelled folk. She looks forward to seeing more, but she needs more skill with firearms before she feels confident testing again.
Cassidy stifles a yawn, leaning against Natska. "Well, breakthroughs that should yield interesting results in the near future, I hope. Always happy to see progress being made. Especially in Firmament," she says before nodding at Natska. "Shall we go, then? After the reward, of course."
