Spider golem test - RPLOG
Participants
Date
19/2/478
Log
It's a cold, cloudy night at the Firmament Tournament Grounds. Quite empty, though the grounds are illuminated by various torches stuck in the ground to provide light. Not much warmth, admittedly, still, it pales in comparison to Thera'Dor. Which leaves Thelergramor standing next to a construct covered in some crappy tarp.
The wolf stands there, wearing his old coat, hat and plague mask, hands in his pockets as he awaits whoever chose to stop by for the golem test.
Hartford clomps steadily across the Tournament grounds, leaving big hoof prints in the turf. The huge reindeer has arrived to fulfill that fantasy held by large, awkward men everywhere: namely, breaking things on purpose by invitation. He is not wearing hus usual Blackback House armor though. Tonight, the blue reindeer is dressed in loose whit trousers, tied at the waist with a blue, snowflake sash and his trusty luchador mask tied tightly round his face with its blue flames licking around his eyes.
Cassidy trots along the city, having wanted to break back into the swing of assignments after her vacation. "This isn't quite what I had in mind," she quips to the jaguar at her side before snickering. "But it's a start, I suppose, huh?"
Natska snickers, making her way alongside Cassidy with an easy, long pace. "I know what you mean, love, but it's something, at least." She's wearing her armor today, and takes a moment to adjust her gauntlets as she grins at Thel, nodding. "Heyas, Thel! And H- erm, sir Snowmark."
Thelergramor smiles behind his mask at those approaching, glad he ended up with people he knew and not many random mercs. "Natska, Cassidy, Snowmark. Glad you all could make it. So, nice night for this. Not unbearably hot and such... Anyway, pulled you all down here to... kick the shit out of this beast here-" Thelergramor pulls the tarp from the golem with a flurish, which turns out to be something vaguely spider shaped. About 5'10" tall at the 'shoulder'. Eight legs, though two are kept off the ground near the front as... they're frickin' swords! It has a wolf head at the front, sharp (Well, blunt now, but clearly meant to be sharpened later!) looking fangs protruding from the muzzle. "That's it. Just a test fight, really. The blades are blunted, no venom's been applied, runes haven't been carved yet... Still, always a chance of injury, yeah? You'll be payed, of course. Don't worry about breaking it, either. I should be able to fix any damage you do to it... Probably..."
Hartford swallows hard when Natska greets him. "Yes!" he says, a little too loudly to be normal conversation, "I am Yugo Snowmark! I am here to visit Sweetwater! We met in Caldera!" Sound like the big guy has practiced this in front of a mirror or something. "I-I would like to test myself against your machine!" he says, his voice slow and deep. And smash stuff up, of course.
Cassidy raises her brow, peering at Hartford for a moment before chuckling and adjusting her tophat. "Hello, Thel. I dunno, I'm a little hesitant to go breaking the creations of a friend. Seems like a waste, but... I suppose it's better here than in a live battle."
Natska laughs, and then claps her hands, nodding. "That is an interesting design, Thel. I approve of it." She walks back and forth a little, looking at it. "Very nice. And you are sure you want us to punch it, though? I can hit kind of hard."
Thelergramor nods at those gathered. "Well, you have my permission, Yugo. It is what I'm gonna be paying you for." Theler takes a few steps away, still speaking. "Unless you completely dismantle it and scatter the parts, it should be relatively easy to put back together. Built it to go into combat. Things break in combat. Plus, it's not just gonna be sitting there in a heap like it is now."
Smirking behind his mask, the wolf stops next to one of the torches, looks back at the golem and commands it to stand with a short gesture/use of the magic that allows one to command golems. It rises quite easily, gaining a few inches, stopping at a full 6'1".
Once more, he speaks, answering Natska's praise. "Thanks, Natska. Came to me in a dream after I crushed a rock spider with a cannon. But, yeah, whenever you're ready, start wailing on it. It'll fight back, though."
Hartford grins through his luchador mask and hefts his enormous halberd. "Whatever you say, Mister Thelergramor!" he says, forgetting that 'Yugo' has not been introduced to the wolf. The big guy excels at few things, but smashing stuff is one of them! The huge reindeer raises his weapon and charges into battle!
Cassidy tugs her grimoire up and holds it in her hand. A wiggle of her fingers and a subtle breeze flips it open, pages turning in a flourish as she rehearses herself in her math. "I will let him have the first go, then. I shall proceed afterwards. Unless we are all to do it at once?"
Natska nods her head and shifts her feet, taking up a balanced stance. "Go for it, Yugo. Unless, as Cass said, we go all at once."
Natska gives Thel a grin. "You have been pretty busy while we were out. It's nice to see."
With more direction from it's master, the golem lifts one of it's bladed limbs and shifts into a more combative stance as it's charged by Hartford. Its movements are somewhat sluggish, seems the wolf put so much effort into the locomotive bits that the combat limbs suffered!
He looks over at Cassidy and Natska, nods. "Yeah, been really busy. Did a little painting. Of this golem. And, well, building it, yeah. Been months off and on in getting it to this point. And, attack all at once if you want, yeah. The closer to real battle, the better the test'll go."
Hartford charges in, swinging his halberd low and sweeping it up under the golem's weaponized arms, aiming for the joints in its hard plating. "Luuuuuuuuck!" he bellows his battle cry!
"Very well," Cassidy says simply, nodding at Natska and snapping her spell tome shut. "Let's see how it works out, then!" She closes her eyes behind her mask for a moment, bringing a hand up. There's a bit of static build up in the air, and the unique smell of ozone prefacing a large crack as a bolt of blue lightning strikes down from the sky towards the golem's back.
Natska watches Yugo charge in, her ears tilting back; then she takes a half-hop to the side and moves in to attack the golem at an angle, staying clear of Cassidy's line of sight and flanking the golem with Hartford as she jabs at a leg.
The as of yet unnamed spider machine is struck directly in one of the gaps in its plating! Halberd hacks right up in there, splitting the plates where they connect and leaving a hole that if one were to look up into it, they'd see another lair of plating! Redundancy!
And, now there's lightning! Lightning doing what it does, it strikes the golem, heating it by a few hundred or thousand degrees F for a few seconds before it cools; the effect of the lightning passing through something quickly. Fortunately for Natska and Hartford, the fastest path to the ground after touching the golem is not where they are in contact with it!
Natska's strike collides with the plate of one of its legs, causing a dent and a slight wobble from the limb.
The golem swings one of the blunted blades in a wide arc, sluggishly trying to hit Natska and Hartford.
Hartford leaps back, easily dodging the bulky golem's halting strike. He hold out his halberd defensively as he circles the thing, looking for a likely opening. "Are you sure this thing is combat ready, Mister Thelergramor?" he asks.
Cassidy rubs her chin as she eyes the results, humming to herself. "Interesting! Resistant to the lightning, it seems... Let's see..." She closes her eyes, then snaps her fingers again. This time, an explosion! Under the golem, and a controlled one at that, so at not to hurt her allies.
Natska dodges forward and under the strike; from her crouch, she lashes out in a rising uppercut towards another one of the spider's legs, then takes a few quick hops back, watching as the golem reacts. "Mmmh. There are other ways to test this you know."
Thelergramor shakes his head. "Nope! That's why we're testing it! And, yeah I'm sure there are better ways, Natska, but this is fun. Or, I think it is."
The golem doesn't deal too well with the explosion underneath it, as it blows right through the opening Hartford made in the plating, amplified by the small space and blows through the second lair of plate! It reels a bit, wolf head gnashing as it tries to follow Hartford's movement.
It doesn't get anywhere close to keeping up with Hartford's circiling, as Natska's blow to the legs upsets its balance and it falls over. It thrashes about, damaged but still moving. It starts making a slow circle in the dirt, can't move when all the legs aren't working together.
The wolf watches it, tries a few more commands and watches as it fails to perform any of them, aside from trying to bite things. When it can't reach anybody.
Hartford lowers his weapon and watches the golem spin in the dirt. "I think you have some work to do still, Mister Thelergramor," he says without any derision, "It moves too slowly." The big reindeer takes a pace back to keep clear of the things thrashing legs and snapping jaws and watches it for a bit.
Natska raises her eyebrows as she watches the spider-golem thrashing about, then giggles. "Yes, it's a warm up. And fun. But like he said, get it going a bit quicker. And a bit better balanced." She nods her head.
Cassidy nods at Hartford. "More importantly... It seems to be too easy to disable. Take out one or more of its legs, and the rest don't seem to work right! That could use some work, certainly."
Thelergramor chuckles softly to himself, nodding and watching the golem spin for a bit before just stopping it cold. "Well, not bad for the first test, I guess. Always had a problem keeping things balanced. Remember the first one I made? Couldn't walk five feet without toppling..." Thelergramor walks over to the golem, strokes his mask and peers down at it. "But, yeah, these were the things I needed to know about: What to fix. thinking something's wrong with the... yeah, the joint's all screwed up." Gestures to the blade-limbs. "And the legs need heavier plating. Possibly spikes to catch someone's fist next time, eh?" He chuckles again, amused. "And, here... Blew through all the redundant plating in the 'chest.' That's not good... But, uh, yeah... Strengthen the legs, fix the blades and work on a way to keep the legs going if it's missing a few." Nods again, looks up at the other three, sounding amused by the whole thing.
"And overlap the plates more," Hartford offers, "So it isn't so easy to put a hole in it." The reindeer stomps over and nudges the deactivated golem with a hoof. "It is plenty scary looking, though," he says to at least give one compliment. Thel had obviously tried really hard!
"Ridges or spikes on it would help, though, yes. Nothing... Extravagant, of course, but enough to make it unpleasant to touch," Cassidy says, hanging her book from her hip. "Or rather, unpleasant to hold, or grab. Or otherwise hit with bare flesh."
Natska flexes her fist a couple of times, then nods her head. "You don't want to keep the joint from flexing, but make sure it can take a couple of hits," she agrees. "And if you are going to make it so large, make use of the space. Maybe mount a cannon on the back or something?" she offers, grinning as she moves back over towards Cassidy.
Thelergramor blinks a bit, primarily at Natska's advice. He grins, as that's a great idea. "A cannon. Best thing I've heard all day." He stands back up, adjusts his mask. "Know what might not be a bad idea? Getting all basilisk, then expelling some toxic mist into a few sacks and lining the armor with 'em. But, uh, yeah, I'll keep your advice in mind. Ridges, better armor, that stuff..." He nods, then looks over to Hartford. "Yep. Scary. Once it works well, picture it charging an enemy line with a cannon on its back. Or, better, a line of 'em with more effective armor. Heh."
Thelergramor moves away, back to the torch he stood near, and picks up a small chest before bringing it back to Cassidy, Natska and Hartford. "Alright, here's your payment. Had enough to pay a dozen freeswords, but I'm glad only a small group showed. Wouldn't've learned as much from a whole swarm of you guys."
"If you put a cannon on it, might want to make it long-range support, then? Depends on what you want the focus to be on, but a cannon would weight it down and reduce mobility," Cassidy adds, reaching for her own portion of the payment. "And yes, a small group is better, I should think."
Natska stands there a moment, her ear flicking a couple of times as she weighs something in her mind; then she sighs, and she smiles, and takes a small portion of her own payment. "I look forward to seeing what you come up with, Thel. I am sure it will be interesting! Perhaps you have found your calling."
Thelergramor sets down the chest, nodding. "Yeah, possibly. Calling and such... It was a lot of fun to build. But, support or more up close stuff... I'll figure it out. One step at a time. Took months just to get it to this point. And weeks of that was just getting it to walk around... Not that it did much moving just now... Still, it walked down here fine. But, uh, I'm gonna jam these limbs back in properly, see if it can walk out. Might need to grab a few big guys to help drag it if that doesn't work. Anyway... Have a nice night, yeah?"
And with that, Thelergramor sets about doing minimal field repairs on his golem, tools pulled from within his coat to aid in the quick repairs...
