>>4469763
Your muscles bulge and shift uncomfortably under your skin, straining against your bones as your limbs begin to morph and your eyes practically burn like molten gold. But like this, in this strange, halfway state, you can begin to sense the venom at work around the edges of your wounds. This you begin to force back through your veins using your own yōki to vitalize and reverse their function, pushing the venom out into a little cup that one of the caravan drivers gave Serana to drink from. The fluid, mixed with your own blood, simmers angrily in the cup until Serana pours it out into the gutters nearby.

Then you repeat the process a second time, just to get the last of it out.

Eventually, light-headed and exhausted by the strain, you force your wounds to close. The edges of the hole in your gut hiss and steam as the flesh knits itself back together, and once the task is completed you force your yōki to quiet once more.

“That should do it,” you sigh, slumping to the bottom of the wagon where your own blood has started to pool. “I’m gonna just shut my eyes a moment.”

…

When you begin to stir, it’s pleasantly cool and bright… accompanied by an odd sensation that your body is floating.

“That’s brisk.”

The first voice you hear is Justina’s. “You’re filthy.”

“You’re washing me in a river.”

“A creek.”

“Close enough. The principle is the same.”

You open your eyes to find that Justina is holding you under your shoulders in a shallow pool, floating on your back near the edge of an otherwise swift, clear-flowing creek.

“You stopped the caravan?” you ask. “How long has it been?”

“Yes,” Justina replies curtly. “Several hours.”

>Can I just stay here a while? It’s nice.
>We should keep moving. Help me up.
>Give me an update on the situation.
>Other?

>>4469764
>We should keep moving. Help me up.
>Give me an update on the situation.

No time to waste.

>>4469764
>i want to stay here a while, but ...
>We should keep moving. Help me up.

>>4469764
>>Give me an update on the situation.

>>4469764
>We should keep moving. Help me up.
>Give me an update on the situation.

>>4469769
>>4469764
In with this. Would love to stay, should *probably* stay, but we need to move.

>>4469764
>>4469769

>>4469764
>i want to stay here a while, but ...
>We should keep moving. Help me up.
>Give me an update on the situation.

>>4469764
“Catch me up,” you insist, “and for that matter, help me up.”

Justina does as you request, helping you to your feet so that you can stagger out of the water. Your clothes are a mess, full of holes but now thankfully clean of blood.

“We left,” Justina explains tersely. “Ten hours, maybe.”

“How far have we gotten?” you ask calmly. “And do you know when we’re likely to reach our goal?”

“Tomorrow,” Justina replies. “We’re on time.”

“That’s good to know,” you grin. “At least there’s that. Is the back of the wagon clean now?”

“More or less.”

“That’s also good,” you admit with a chuckle. “I’ll have to apologize to the guild for making a mess. Honestly, it’s kind of embarrassing.”

“Not to us,” Justina assures you. “We understand.”

“Yeah, but to explain it to anyone else would require explaining what an awakened being is,” you sigh dramatically. “And I just don’t think that’s good information to be spreading around.”

“Agreed.”

…

[You seem like you’re feeling better.]

“I am,” you tell Serana. “Still a little lightheaded though.”

“We can get you something to eat and some water,” Nessa offers, “if you think that will help?”

“That will, thank you.”

>We need to keep moving.
>I need to ask about our contact.
>We could afford to stop at the next town, I need new clothes anyway.
>Other?

>>4471177
>We need to keep moving.

But

>I need to ask about our contact.

>>4471177
>I need to ask about our contact.

>>4471177
>>We need to keep moving.
being lightheaded better leave stuff to the other warriors we trust

>>4471177
>We need to keep moving.

We should have kept the poison for study.

>>4471177
>We need to keep moving.

>>4471177
>>We need to keep moving.
>>I need to ask about our contact.

>>4471177
“We need to keep moving,” you insist curtly. “Serana, would you lend me your shoulder for a moment?”

With Serana’s help you manage to seat yourself at the front of the wagon, next to the driver and a representative from the guild. Both seem surprised to see you, or else surprised to see that you’ve been so badly wounded.

…

The town you’re travelling to is called Krinzik, and the man you’re looking for is named Ebenezer Cromwell, shipmaster of a vessel called the Skimmer’s Flight. That gives you enough guidance so that once you’ve arrived in Krinzik you’re able to navigate your way fairly well. It’s a port town, though not one quite as harsh as those you’re used to back west. Instead Krinzik is dominated by a gentle slope down towards the water, with lower buildings that overlook one another to face the sea, and protected by a fairly low outer wall.

The plaster is colorful, and the windows and columns are marked with little shaped flourishes and scrollwork: you think that it’s a building like this that your father based some of his later public works off of. The sea air is fresh and slightly cool, the sun is warm, and the people seem content and lazy.

“This is a problem,” Nessa sighs dramatically.

True… heavy cloaks would seem extraordinarily out of place here. And going without your cloaks will make you stand out even more thanks to your obvious combination of pale hair and silver eyes. So while you can pick your way through some of the back roads it really isn’t possible to get all the way to the harborfront without being seen.

[We could wait for night.]

“Pink is less obvious,” Justina suggests.

>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.
>If I were properly dressed I could do the job myself in person.
>We should send a letter and confirm a meeting place. We’ll pick an inn and stay there.
>Other?

>>4473046
>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.
>We should send a letter and confirm a meeting place. We’ll pick an inn

Get clothes, pick an inn

>>4473046
>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.

>>4473050
In with this.

>>4473046
>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.

>>4473046
>>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.

>>4473046
>I think we could all use new clothes. Disguise ourselves thoroughly and move in the night.

>>4473046
>Other?
So we may not be able to dye our hair, but what if we wore glasses, or face veils, and cut our hair and put on wigs?

>>4473976
AB have it so easy. They can just shapeshift . . . wait a second.

Okay guys, many of you probably aren't going to like this but hear me out: what if we had our group disguise themselves as men? Men's clothing would probably be easy enough to get a hold of, and a Claymore's unique physiology would let them disguise their voice as well. Heck, they could probably manipulate their build as well to further throw off observers. They can't exactly shapeshift, but they can make their vocal-chords and muscles more yoma-like in ways that could be useful here.

Still might need that haircut unfortunately. A worthwhile sacrifice if it gets the group where they're going undetected, though.

>>4473987
Wouldn't that require yoki expenditure which can be detected?

>>4473987
Can we just wear think clothes and armor?

>>4473990
I would argue that yes, but barely more than a Claymore has in a resting state.

Depends on how QM rules it to work, but I'm thinking if it's just for show it wouldn't need to be the same thing as when it happens involuntarily at, like, 50%.

There are examples of characters in canon that are able to sustain each without apparent effort: Claire and Undine respectively.

>>4473046
“I think that with a change of clothes we can move in at night,” you muse, carefully considering your options. “I’d try to arrange a meeting by letter, but the longer we linger here the greater chance someone recognizes us.”

“Agreed,” Justina nods curtly.

[If it’s one brief but greater risk against a lower but prolonged risk, I think you’re right to act swiftly,] Serana silently agrees, her features graven as she weighs the uncertain odds in her mind. [Less opportunity for random chance to interfere.]

“Vanessa?”

“Hm?” she replies, as though you startled her.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t agree or disagree,” Nessa admits quietly. “I don’t think there are any firm numbers involved… so I don’t think there’s a right answer. But I can say I trust your judgment.”

…

You start the process by having Nessa buy you a new dress, which lets you discard your old torn Hazari travelling clothing for something a bit more suitable for the purpose. Lightweight, breathable linen trousers in a neutral tone are the first step, something to connect whatever top you end up choosing with your Hazari riding boots. A short blouse, fitted through the waist but loose around the hips and upper thighs with three-quarter length sleeves, seems to be what the local women wear over trousers, so that’s what you buy next. Over that goes a short mantle to guard against the light rains, which comes with a hood and closes in front with a silver brooch.

At least it’s made to look like silver… you can tell that it’s not, but honestly that’s not a problem right now. You want to blend in, not stand out.

In turn, you buy a few items for each of your compatriots at a number of stores: a mantle here, a pair of trousers there, so on and so forth until you’ve assembled three more outfits piecemeal with none of the shop owners having seen anyone who might look clearly like a silver-eyed witch.

“It feels good to not be covered in blood,” you sigh, after taking watch at the end of an alleyway so that Vanessa, Justina, and Serana have a chance to change.

As you tie off Serana’s empty sleeve for her, she flashes you a quick question. [What about our swords?]

“That is a bit of a question, isn’t it?” Nessa muses.

“Horse?” Justina offers bluntly.
>1/3

>>4474778
It’s… actually not the worst idea, if you’re being completely honest. No ordinary horse will carry a half-blood warrior, and it takes an expert handler to get a horse to follow one of your number without starting. But a horse will gladly carry your swords in a pack saddle.

It’s under this assumption that you rent a particularly calm horse for twenty-four hours, though in your presence it becomes noticeably more skittish. Nothing you can’t handle however, and so the four of you conceal your swords in bundles that ride low on either side of the horse’s saddle, with your spare clothes bundled and slung over its back to reduce the whole business to a shapeless mass of who-knows-what.

“Perfect,” you muse. “We’ll go around sundown, agreed?”

…

With no reasonable grounds for disagreement, you find yourselves on your way to the waterfront as the sun hangs low in the western sky, light still streaming through the high hills in that direction. That being said night will come abruptly here, so you move about as quickly as you think you can get away with without drawing undue attention.

To passersby you simply look like a group of lady travellers, outfitted for riding with your hoods drawn up around you, perhaps unusually tall on average but not inhumanly so, leading a horse saddled with goods towards the docks. Nothing worth gossiping or raising an alarm over.

The docks seem to experience a lull towards the end of the day, ships on their way out having left with plenty of daylight still to work with and ships on their way in having, for the most part and weather permitting, tied up and unloaded.

It takes very little time and effort to find the Skimmer’s Flight, a triangle-rigged ship of two main masts and middling length and beam, neither built for speed like a clipper nor for heavy cargo loads like a square-rigged clinker. This is a vessel designed and built to strike a fine balance between handling, speed, and cargo load: in a word, reliable.

“Watch the horse,” you tell Serana after hitching the borrowed beast to a pole near the docks.

She nods curtly, choosing not to respond.

“I’ll stay with her,” Vanessa suggests. “It should dissuade the curious to see two people standing here rather than one.”

“Good idea,” you agree.
>2/3

>>4474782
Aboard the Skimmer’s Flight, you pick your way belowdecks: unlike many ships this one lacks a defined sterncastle, with all its crew quarters lying below the level of its main deck. Instead the entire stern portion of the main crew deck is dedicated to the shipmaster’s, surgeon’s, and purser’s quarters. It’s here that you find the man you’re looking for.

“Ebenezer Cromwell?” you enquire of the grey-bearded man seated at a table in the shipmaster’s quarter.

He nods curtly. “I take it the two of you are the silver-eyed witches I was told to expect?”

>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.
>How would you like to do some spying for us? It pays well for little work.
>Tell us how much you know about Lavinia and the Organization.
>Other?

>>4474810
>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.

>>4474810
>>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.

>>4474810
>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.

>>4474810
>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.

>>4474810
>>We are. We have a request of you, for your coming voyage to Lavinia.

File: original_drawn_by_sakimor(...).jpg (182 KB, 579x818)

182 KB JPG

>>4474810
“That’s correct,” you bow politely. “I am Noel, and my companion is Justina.”

“I’ve heard a little from the guild back west,” Cromwell informs you calmly. “Evidently you have something you want me to do? Well, I can’t say I’m too thrilled at the idea of doing any sort of work for your kind, but if the guild thinks it’s a good idea then I guess I’ve got no choice but to listen.”

“You can say no,” you shrug. “If you want. But even if it’s over your own doubts, thanks for at least hearing us out.”

“Thank me later,” he shrugs dismissively. “Now what’s this mysterious thing you think I can do for you?”

“We need you to observe,” you insist, staring him straight in the eyes. “That’s why the guild suggested we contact you.”

“Observe?” Cromwell repeats, nonplussed. “Just… observe?”

“Observe,” you repeat. “Specifically, we need you to observe the defenses around Lavinia.”

“The normal ones,” Justina adds bluntly.

“That’s right,” you agree to the specific point. “We’re just talking about the things that aren’t half-blood warriors… walls, towers, barracks, soldiers, that sort of thing.”

“Why?” Cromwell narrows his eyes. “What could that accomplish?”

“Because if we start trouble with other warriors that’s one thing,” you explain carefully. “We can use our full powers, albeit with some discretion. It’s normal humans that are a problem for us.”

“They’re weak,” Justina adds.

“Right,” you agree.

Cromwell is obviously confused by your reasoning. “And why is that a problem for you?”

“Because it’s hard to hold back enough,” you admit. “I could kill every single person in this town before sunrise, all by myself… but to beat you all while holding back enough not to kill any of you would be much harder.”

“And we half-blood warriors never take human lives. It’s one of the very few rules we choose to live by when we become this.”

“So what would happen if it came down to your life or a human’s?” Cromwell presses. “Assuming the most contrived, inescapable scenario?”

“We’d die,” Justina shrugs.
>1/2

>>4475779
“Is that so?” the shipmaster muses with a frown. “Yes… quite interesting. So your request is that I collect information for you, in a place where you refuse to go yourself?”

“That’s right,” you declare. “We need the information, but there’s every chance that if we went ourselves we would be forced into a situation we all try very hard to avoid.”

“Then I have one final question,” he concludes. “What do you intend to do with this information?”

>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.
>All we need to know is whether it would be safe for us to go there in person.
>It’s prelude to a raid. We need to know if we can disembark there.
>Other?

>>4475879
>>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.
>>All we need to know is whether it would be safe for us to go there in person.

>>4475879
>All we need to know is whether it would be safe for us to go there in person.

>>4475879
>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.

>>4475879
>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.

>>4475879
>>All we need to know is whether it would be safe for us to go there in person.

>>4475879
>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.

>>4475879
>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.
>All we need to know is whether it would be safe for us to go there in person.

>>4475879
>Depends on what the information you get me turns out to be.

>>4475879
“That depends entirely on the information,” you admit. “Either we will or we won’t consider going there ourselves.”

“And why’d you consider that?” Cromwell demands to know.

You shake your head. “That’s for us to know.”

“That makes it a hard sell,” Cromwell admits curtly. “Not knowing what you might be implicating me in.”

“That’s not our concern so much,” you observe. “We’re trying to determine what we’re going to do in the next few months… it can be difficult to tell what’s best to do by the ordinary people we’re trying to help, as well as by our own fellow half-bloods.”

“So what you want is just the information,” he presses.

“Correct,” Justina insists.

“Can you do that job?” you ask flatly. “No dancing around the question.”

“I can,” he confirms. “But...”

“No, stop talking,” you interrupt. “Now again, no dancing around the question: is there a scenario where you will agree to do the job?”

“Maybe...”

You glare at him.

“… yes,” he admits.

“What is your price?” you press.

He gives you a figure.

“Too high,” you reply. “We’re asking you to keep your eyes open while you’re abroad, not fistfight a yōma for us. If that’s what we needed I’d do it myself.”

The second figure is much more reasonable.

“Agreed,” you nod curtly. “Is there anything else you need to do the job?”

He shakes his head. “No… no there isn’t.”

>Then do it. We’ll pay you half now, half upon your return.
>Then do it. The guild will pay you upon completion of the job.
>If you have something else to say spit it out.
>Other?

>>4477318
>>Then do it. We’ll pay you half now, half upon your return.

>>4477318
>Then do it. We’ll pay you half now, half upon your return.
>If you have something else to say spit it out.

>>4477318
>Then do it. We’ll pay you half now, half upon your return.
>If you have something else to say spit it out.

>>4477318
>>If you have something else to say spit it out.
tying the vote

>>4477343
>>4477318
In with this guy

>>4477423
That's me, by the way. Phone doesn't remember my trip randomly.

>>4477318
“Then we’ll pay half your price now,” you decide, “and the guild will pay the other half upon satisfactory completion of your task. Is that satisfactory?”

“It’s irregular,” the shipmaster admits. “But this whole business is plenty irregular already.”

…

Your business concluded, you withdraw to meet with your other teammates.

“How did it go?” Vanessa asks you cheerfully.

“Done,” you reply curtly.

Serana signs her own thoughts over to you. [Can he be relied on?]

“I don’t know,” you shake your head. “But I figure that’s as good as we can do.”

[So we just have to trust him to pull through for us?]

>I think we could find a way to hedge our bets if we really tried.
>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.
>Sure, lets’ head back to Scaithness. Nothing more we can do here.
>Other?

>>4478676
>>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
>>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
>>We should remain in the area for when this little trip of his is over.

>>4478676
You elect to remain in town for when the Skimmer’s Flight returns with the information you sent them to gather, and so you head for an inn near the town wall, as close to the waterfront as you can get.

“What can I do for you?” the man at the bar asks you jovially.

“We’d like a room, please,” you reply calmly. “My companions and I are travelling on a bit of a tight budget I’m afraid… if you have a room with four bunks that would do fine. A privy of its own would be a bonus.”

“All our rooms have private… erm… ‘accomodes’,” the man offers, trying his best to be polite. “So that’s not a worry at all, and we’ve got a room with four bunks available. How long’ll you be needing it?”

“Not sure,” Justina admits bluntly.

“It’s a long-term stay,” you add quickly. “See, we’re waiting on someone to finish a job we requested and it could take some time.”

“Well, I wish you luck with that ladies,” the man replies, bemused. “Whatever it is.”

“A little luck is always welcome,” Vanessa muses. “Thank you.”
>3d10, best of four

Rolled 2, 9, 6 = 17 (3d10)

>>4480198

Rolled 10, 1, 8 = 19 (3d10)

>>4480198

Rolled 9, 3, 8 = 20 (3d10)

>>4480198

Rolled 4, 8, 10 = 22 (3d10)

>>4480198

>>4480198
You wait out the first three days in relative peace and quiet, only leaving your room to eat and get fresh air, and to pretend to be busying yourselves. But this is what it was always like for warriors of your kind… when you’re not out killing yōma, you’re left to wait for your next mission. Especially back during your time as the Number Thirteen it was sometimes days between assignments, most of which you spent outside. With hardly any need for food or water, and no ability to go into town for the mundane tasks that consume most of a normal person’s time there was a lot of boredom.

Honestly, you got used to it. You could simply stop thinking for a while, sit still, and let time pass you by almost as though you were a rock, or a tree, or a river. Anything at all, except a human being.

But now the boredom of simply waiting is excruciating to you, and so you begin to write.

“What is that?” Vanessa asks you on the morning of the fourth day, which dawns with all the suggestions of a brewing storm to the north.

“I’m writing to pass the time,” you explain.

She snorts as she tries to suppress a laugh. “I can see that much. What is it you’re writing about?”

“A speech,” you muse, “written from a hypothetical position.”

“What position?” Justina presses, having little else to do.

“From my own position, as though my people knew I was alive,” you explain, “but were just finding out about what happened to me after the coup”

[I see,] Serena muses with a playful grin. [The politician in you needs to keep her skills sharp.]

“The last one, which you saw me burn last night,” you add, “was about the existence of the ‘outside world’ we’ve been gradually learning about. That one was tougher.”

[Because we know so little ourselves.]

“Right,” you agree. “But now that I’m the actual ruler of Hazaran, it’s like you said: I need to keep those skills sharp. Whether they like it or not, and whether I like it or not, there are going to be times when they’ll look to me for leadership and for guidance.”

“The hardest thing I can imagine is trying to tell a worried kingdom something that’s difficult for them to hear, but which they need to hear and deserve to hear, without babying them or spreading panic.”

“Sounds like a tough line to toe,” Vanessa muses.

“No kidding.”
>1/2

>>4480244
By the next morning the storm has blown in, rattling the shutters and shaking the buildings in a genuine cacophony. You think you can hear roof tiles peppering the side of the building, both whole and in pieces… and that’s all before noon. It just keeps getting worse from that point, obliging you to reposition the bunks to barricade your windows.

“This isn’t going well,” you frown.

…

By the late afternoon things have well and truly gotten out of hand.

The roof off the building next door tears off completely, and you can hear shouting from the waterfront and from downstairs.

>Run to help at the waterfront. That could be developing into something bad.
>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.
>Ride out the storm. Anything you can do will just expose you for what you are.
>Other?

>>4480340
>Ride out the storm. Anything you can do will just expose you for what you are.

You can't help everyone and doing anything would risk our mission. It will make Noal look harsh, but if we succeed we are going to change the world more than single storm and helping few people will.

>>4480340
>Run to help at the waterfront. That could be developing into something bad.

>>4480340
>>Run to help at the waterfront. That could be developing into something bad.

>>4480340
>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
>>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
>Ride out the storm. Anything you can do will just expose you for what you are.

>>4480340
>>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
>>Ride out the storm. Anything you can do will just expose you for what you are.

>>4480340
>>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
>>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
>Head downstairs and see what you can do to help a little closer to home, as it were.

>>4480340
“We should go downstairs!” you determine. “Even if we’re trying to avoid drawing attention to ourselves we can’t just sit here anymore and ignore this!”

[Agreed!] Serana signs, not having to shout over the noise but emphasizing herself anyway.

…

Downstairs, it’s pandemonium.

“What can we do to help!?” you demand of the first man you see downstairs, someone different from the one you booked the room from.

“You can just stay out of our way!” the man shouts back.

You grab him by the shoulder as he tries to rush past you… and he gets the opportunity to feel for himself just how strong you really are. Or at very least, he can sense the tip of the proverbial iceberg as you bring him to a sudden halt: in reality there’s no frame of reference for an ordinary human to understand what has him by the shoulder.

“Put us to use,” you insist, tightening your grip a fraction. “Tell us what you need done.”

“Okay!” the man agrees. “Seems you’re awfully strong for a bunch of ladies, so we can put you to work with the sandbags!”

…

The man leads the four of you outside, and as a group you back up several men who are stacking sandbags in a barricade to keep the ocean at bay. The town is built well above water level, but the madly-frothing sea has been lifted up by the storm so that each wave sends about an inch of water rushing into the lower parts of the town.

Even Serana has an easy time slinging the sandbags despite only having one arm to work with, and you help raise barricades that help to keep the water in the streets instead of in the ground floors of the buildings that happen to be too low for their own good.

…

By the next morning it seems the entire adult population of the town is exhausted, but the storm has lost much of its punch. The cleanup hasn’t yet fully begun, since the water has only begun to recede. It’s probably going to be a titanic effort, and there have been huge losses along the waterfront. Several buildings have completely collapsed, and rooftops ripped off throughout town. Even two of the five ships in harbor have sunk at their moorings, their hulls smashed against the docks and opened to the sea, while a third pulled loose and ran herself aground.

As you rest, Serana nudges your shoulder to demand your attention.

[Do you see that?]
>1/2

File: 27740746_p0.jpg (69 KB, 637x777)

69 KB JPG

>>4481528
It’s well out to sea, but there’s something out there for certain. As for what it is… it’s hard to say at this distance. It’s all grey, against the grey of the calming sea and the grey of the sky, like an unnatural lump atop the water.

You ask a sailor, who’s resting and having a smoke at the moment, if there’s anything out in that direction.

“Yeah,” he tells you. “Big chalk reef, very dangerous.”

“A chalk reef?” Vanessa repeats.

The man nods curtly. “Chalk runs in seams, you know. Sometimes the stuff around ‘em wears down first, leaving the chalk stickin’ out. It ain’t all that much to look at, but the chalk seams poke outta the seabed out that way, so any ship tryin’ to sail through there gets her bottom ripped out.”

So… it could be some kind of ship? You suppose the proportions are right, but it’s missing a lot of what you’d identify as being ‘ship-like’.

>Raise the alarm, see if you can’t get some of the locals to row you out there to check it out.
>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.
>This MAY warrant dropping your disguise of ‘normality’, if it means getting out there.
>Other?

>>4481530
>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.

>>4481530
>>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.
maybe come up with a decent cover story, and sync it up with the other 'girls' in case there are any questions

>>4481530
>>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.

>>4481530
>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.
just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

>>4481530
>Swim time

>>4481530
>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.
BEACH EPISODE!

>>4481530
>You guess it’s time for a swim. No one else needs to get involved.

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26 KB JPG

>>4481530
“I’m going for a swim,” you declare to your compatriots, taking off your outermost layer and handing it off to Serana as you all walk together towards the water. “I’ll go out there in secret, poke around a bit, then come straight back.”

“I don’t like this,” Justina admits.

“Neither do I,” you admit. “But so long as none of us sense any yōki, there shouldn’t be too much danger so long as I’m careful.”

…

You leave your boots, trousers… basically everything except the short slip and the subligar-styled bottoms you’ve been wearing under this local outfit… on the shoreline, and well out of sight of the locals you leap into the water.

If you were ordinary flesh and blood you’d be freezing, but to your modified body this is pleasantly cool. Your strong arms and legs make up for the fact that you’re not entirely used to swimming, having only ever done so in the open waters of the sea during your training on Lavinia and in the lochs of your homeland. You do not tire at all… this distance, even in a strange form of motion, is hardly a problem. Though it does feel as though it takes entirely too long to accomplish.

As you draw closer to the object you spied from the shore you grow increasingly certain that it is in fact a ship, though not one of any kind you’ve ever seen before.

Its hull is resting in the water with a heavy list, having run aground on the chalk outcroppings you were told about during the storm. That hull, bizarrely, isn’t just metal below the waterline, the same bronzey-looking alloy used on the clippers and the newer slow vessels like the Skimmer’s Flight… instead, the upper hull also seems to be clad in painted iron, riveted onto the wooden frames and timbers underneath.

No wonder, you muse, treading water in the still-heavy seas. It’s camouflaged.

Sure enough, the paint scheme is a darker grey up to a certain point on the side of the hull, and when you catch a wave that manages to lift you up high enough to grab hold of a ladder on the side of the vessel, you see that beyond a certain point it’s painted in a lighter shade of grey. It’s meant to disguise itself between the dark seas and the lighter skies. Very clever.

“What a strange design,” you muse, taking in the details as you look at them for the first time. Two ‘top’ decks to speak of, one lower to the waterline and one above it by one level, with large cannons aimed fore and aft, with one aimed broadside. But aft, and upon closer inspection fore on the opposite side, there are low-slung, rounded barbettes with two cannon each, which seem to be able to swivel.

“How would they turns something so heavy?” you wonder aloud.

On the top ‘top’ deck, you think you can see some sort of control tower… that must be the wheelhouse, given its height and visibility. There are also two large metal chimneys, along with two masts that have both been snapped.
>1/2

>>4481849
“It feels stable… for now,” you muse. But you know that if the waves pick up again that’s likely to change.

What you’ve found is clearly a warship, though not one like you’ve ever seen. The larger cannons, the ones which can turn, are more like what you’d find in a large castle… they must be necessary, if the other vessels this one was designed to fight against all have iron plating as well. Even the smaller guns in their stationary ports are formidable enough to be the main guns of a warship like those you’d be more familiar with.

And there’s still a question of those two large chimneys… could this ship be steam-powered, with the now-broken masts being a reserve option?

>First thing first, look for survivors. Or at very least… the crew’s remains.
>Head belowdecks, try to confirm your suspicion that this is NOT something built anywhere on your own continent.
>Take a more careful look at the ship’s condition. Figure out how bad the damage is and what caused it.
>Other?

>>4481854
>>Head belowdecks, try to confirm your suspicion that this is NOT something built anywhere on your own continent.
>>Take a more careful look at the ship’s condition. Figure out how bad the damage is and what caused it.

>>4481854
>>First thing first, look for survivors. Or at very least… the crew’s remains.

>>4481854
>>First thing first, look for survivors. Or at very least… the crew’s remains.

>>4481854
>>First thing first, look for survivors. Or at very least… the crew’s remains.

>>4481854
>Take a more careful look at the ship’s condition. Figure out how bad the damage is and what caused it.

>>4481854
>First thing first, look for survivors. Or at very least… the crew’s remains.
I'd rather bolt before rescue comes a looking but....

>>4481854
>Head belowdecks, try to confirm your suspicion that this is NOT something built anywhere on your own continent.

>>4481854
>>Head belowdecks, try to confirm your suspicion that this is NOT something built anywhere on your own continent.
>>Take a more careful look at the ship’s condition. Figure out how bad the damage is and what caused it.

>>4481854
The first thing you have to do is look for survivors… or failing that, to determine the fate of the crew. To do that, you first head for what you believe to be the wheelhouse located fore of the two smokestacks. It’s an awkward climb: the metal shell of the vessel is slick from the rain and the salt spray, and the list is annoying. But you manage to find an internal stairway that gives you a reasonable change of getting there.

When you do, it’s a scene of carnage without the blood.

There’s damage everywhere you look, with great twisted chunks having been taken out of the metal walls. Some of it looks fresh, while some of it looks older to your eyes. There are a few bodies, but for a ship this size and obvious complexity you wonder if it’s enough to serve as a command crew. Each of them has been torn open in some fashion, even before they had a chance to be drowned, though the water and blood has since had a chance to drain through an open hole at the lowest point of the room.

Standing near the front of the room, near one of the spots that’s been damaged freshly, is a cluster of shining copper pipes. Many of them have been bent or torn free by fragmented bits of metal, but through one of them you can hear a faint voice.

“Who is this?” you speak into the pipe. “Is anyone still alive?”

“A woman?” the voice replies… you can hear that the man it belongs to is struggling a bit. He’s probably hurt. “Nevemind, this is turret A, gunnery chief Holmes reporting… my mates have had it and the magazine’s flooded. No one down there’s still alive.”

“What’s a turret?” you ask. “Simple terms please.”

“It’s… a rotating gunhouse,” your conversation partner, the ‘gunnery chief’, informs you. “Man, just my luck… I guess that means the bridge crew’s had it too, eh?”

“Seems that way,” you admit. “Are you trapped?”

“Yeah,” the gunnery chief admits. “There’s a hatch on the back side of the turret, but the damn thing weighs eight hundred pounds. You’d need three men to open it from the outside, since we’re at a list they’d be working against its weight.”

“Can you rotate the turret?” you ask him.

“Wish I could,” he sighs wearily. “No steam means no power, so the turret ring’s frozen.”

“Well, I guess I could use someone who knows the ship,” you admit. “Okay, I’ll be down to let you out in a few seconds.”

“Wait,” the man realizes what you’ve said, “you have a rescue party?”

“Nope,” you reply. “See you in a few.”
>1/2

>>4483041
After sliding barefoot down the side of the wheelhouse to the upper deck, you have a better idea of what the damage is like. There have been a few hits, probably from cannonfire, that splintered the wooden decks and put holes in the armor plating… amazing that any cannon in the world could match this kind of defense.

You find the turret in question in the forward position, on the port side. As you were told to expect the guns are fully submerged, and the turret itself is pointed down into the water, meaning the hatch that you can see would be quite impossible to open for a single person.

So you turn the heavy locking mechanism a few times, then use a little yōki to flip the hatch open.

“You’d be ‘chief Holmes’, I presume?” you muse, extending a hand and pulling a young man with a crisp beard and short brown hair out of the turret.

“Good heavens you’re a strong lady!” the man realizes, aghast at having been lifted out of the dark hole as though he were an infant. You set him down.

“Thanks,” you muse.

He gets a better look at you… a woman taller than he is by half a hand, statuesque and powerful, with sharp eyes in a cold silver, clad only in her underwear despite the cold. You get a better look at him as well, battered and wet and shivering like a dog just pulled from a river, still wearing half a stained uniform from a military service you don’t recognize.

“Let’s get you somewhere out of the wind at least,” you suggest, lifting him and throwing him over your shoulder.

“Normally I’d protest at being manhandled,” Holmes admits. “But I can tell you’re not quite what you seem, miss...”

“Noel.”

“Miss Noel then,” he continues as you carry him aft towards where you recall there being a stairway. “Mind explaining to me what the hell it is we’ve stumbled across here?”

>A corner of the world that for the most part doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.
>A science experiment. I’m one of the main subjects, neither human nor monster.
>First, tell me where you’re from and how you got here.
>A chalk reef.
>Other?

>>4483055
>A chalk reef.
>First, tell me where you’re from and how you got here.
>A corner of the world that for the most part doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.

Cheeky, but we just saved his ass so he gets to answer questions next. If he wants answers, then go with the corner of the world

>>4483055
>>First, tell me where you’re from and how you got here.
i know that sounds suspect, but we got the cards and need info on how to approach this

>>4483055
>A chalk reef.
>First, tell me where you’re from and how you got here.

>>4483055
>>4483056
This seems like the order to do things.

>>4483055
>>A chalk reef.
>>A corner of the world that for the most part doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.

>>4483055
>A corner of the world that for the most part doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.

>>4483055
>A chalk reef.

Should we be telling him our name and such?

>>4483189
being in that boat and knowing how to opperate it, the chance is low he would know us/of us

>>4483055
>>A corner of the world that for the most part doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.

>>4483196
But he would probably tell his superiors, and comrades about us....

>>4483201
currently he is in our hands and couldn't flee if he wanted to, so why bother?

>>4483206
Are we gonna hold onto him forever, or just till we finish the raid? Don't we want to leave the Org in the dark as much as possible about who did the raid to avoid harsh retaliation?

>>4483208
you got this wrong, this is just a contact mission for information gathering
the boat/ship incident is a lucky coincidence

>>4483215
But we are very likely going to the island to raid it aren't we?

>>4483222
that very much depends on the info we get here, and even if it would be possible there are other approaches surely

>>4483055
>A chalk reef.
>First, tell me where you’re from and how you got here.

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>>4483055
“A chalk reef in a distant corner of the world,” you reply, keeping your answer deliberately vague as you set him down on the stairs leading up to the bridge. “You’ll have to tell me a bit more about who you are and how you got here before I say anything else.”

“Well, we’re from the Kingdom of Dinant,” the ‘gunnery chief’ explains. “We were out on open-water patrol with the Grand Fleet when we encountered the Hinosian High Seas Fleet… there was a shootout, and our line was forced to hide in what we thought was just a squall line.”

“I gather it turned out to be more than you bargained for,” you guess.

“We were adrift for a month,” he nods in confirmation. “Most of our wounded, including the Captain, died. Our rations ran low, fresh water started to become a problem. Then we got swept up in another storm.”

“Eventually we managed to find a little uncharted island where we could resupply at least… but we came under fire before we could finish repairs. Some ship bearing an ensign we didn’t recognize.”

“Describe it.”

“An ironclad, like ours,” the man explains, “only a lot bigger, with more guns. More rigging for sails too. We didn’t stand a chance and we knew it, so the ex-oh decided to take a gamble with another squall line.”

“The storm from last night.”

“Right.”

“And so one more question,” you muse. “The Kingdoms of Dinant and… Hinos, is it?”

“Yes?”

“They’re… at war?”

The man stares at you. “How remote is this place?”

>Extremely. Opposite side of the world from what I know.
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.
>How do I know that anything you’ve told me is true?
>Other?

>>4483377
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.
So not organisation affiliated. And that also tells us that the organisation has ironclads.

>>4483377
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.

>>4483377
>What about the Dragons? His answer will tell you all you need to know.
well, not remote enough seeing as we comprehend one another save for a few words or terms

I've finally caught up!

>>4483990
Welcome to what I would argue is Queen's greatest quest yet. It's certainly the most ambitious.

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>>4483377
“What about the dragons?” you ask curtly… his answer to this question will tell you just about all you need to know about who he really is, and whether he can be trusted.

“Dragons?” he muses, seemingly confused. “Ah, those ‘dragons’… you mean the Ikoshians. What about them?”

“What do you mean, what about them?” you press. “Isn’t there still a war between humanity and the dragons?”

The gunnery chief shakes his head in disbelief. “I think you’re a bit behind the times… that war ended more than three hundred years ago.”

“We won?” you frown.

This time he actually laughs. “Hell no! We lost that war, of course! Sure we killed a few dozen of them, that much was true, but we lost tens of thousands of lives doing it. How could we possibly ‘win’ a war like that?”

“So you sued for peace?” you press. “What were the terms?”

“The Ikoshians have most of their territory back,” he admits with a shrug. “But that’s just how things are. Sure it’s rough that they dictated so much of the terms but it is what it is. If our ancestors hadn’t done it I might not be here.”

“So now you’re free to fight among yourselves?” you muse.

He nods, with an obvious frown. “Well, any conflict can be made to look silly if you try… but yes. Seems lately people keep squabbling over the bits of the world that aren’t Ikoshian territory instead of being thankful for it.”

“I know that may sound weird coming from me, but take my word for it: the other guys started it by occupying our western neighbor for their coal seams.”

“Coal?” you muse. “So that’s how you power your steam technology… interesting.”

“What, don’t your people do it that way?”

You shake your head. “Steam technology isn’t really that common… it’s mostly still thought of as a novelty even in heavy industry.”

“In any event, tell me about this ship… where should I look for survivors?”

“What shape is the bridge in?” he asks you in return.

“Most of the voice tubes are silent,” you admit. “Either flooded, shot away, or...”

“Unmanned.”

“Yes.”
>1/2

>>4484648
>The Ikoshians have most of their territory back
Wait, weren't they the invaders? What is "their" territory?

>>4484654
It's been 300 years, maybe they forgot it was ever theirs.

>>4484648
Chief Holmes gives you a fairly detailed explanation of what you’re probably dealing with here: below you are four decks. The first is the gun deck, which is divided between external decking that provides the turrets with their arcs of fire and three gunhouses, divided so as to provide firing angles across the ship for each turret. Each of these gunhouses is accessed primarily from below, on the second deck, which is covered by a thick belt of iron armor. This is also where the crew quarters are located.

Below that level are two more decks, divided into spaces for the ten main and two secondary boilers. These generate power to turn two large fan-shaped devices called “propellers” aft, as well as the power necessary to operate heavy equipment and turn the turrets.

“The lights will be out down belowdecks,” Holmes informs you. “That’s probably going to be a problem.”

You can see far better than ordinary humans in low light, but with no light? That actually is a problem, even for you.

“Agreed,” you admit. “Is there any solution you can think of?”

He shakes his head. “No. The boiler rooms are probably flooded already, so there’s no turning the lights back on. And worse, the water’s going to be damn cold.”

“That isn’t an issue,” you insist.

“No,” he agrees. “I guess for you it wouldn’t be… you’re standing there soaking wet and you don’t even look like you don’t even care, do you?”

You shake your head. “The light though.”

He sighs. “You’ll be able to see near the entry point.”

>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?
>Is there a secondary station for the voice tubes that may be in better shape?
>I may be able to get through the open ports of the gunhouses.
>Other?

>>4484699
>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?
>Is there a secondary station for the voice tubes that may be in better shape?

>>4484699
>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?

>>4484699
>>Other?
could try punching holes into the hull, some light will get in unless it's all submerged.

If that's an impossibility due to water then.

>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?

>>4484699
>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?

>>4484699
>I may be able to get through the open ports of the gunhouses.

>>4484699
>>Then I’ll just have to head belowdecks and find another light source. Maybe a candle?

>>4484699
>3d10, best of three

Rolled 7, 7, 5 = 19 (3d10)

>>4485210

Rolled 6, 10, 7 = 23 (3d10)

>>4485210

Rolled 1, 10, 2 = 13 (3d10)

>>4485210

>>4485210
“Where are the ship’s stores?” you wonder aloud. “Maybe I could find a candle there.”

“Deck four,” he replies, “well below the waterline. But you may be able to find something in one of the crew cabins closest to the starboard stairwell?”

“It’ll have to do,” you shake your head.

…

The access point to the lower deck that the chief selects is through a wooden frame and hatch in the aft deckhouse. It’s locked, but it’s easy enough to just rip it off its hinges and drop through into the deck below. The light is dim but not beyond what you can work with, so you search this area for what you’ll need to go deeper into the ship.

Thankfully you find not one but a bundle of candles aft… seems like the former captain of this ship liked to have dinner by candlelight, so one of the galleys has what you’re looking for. Unfortunately you find no survivors… several compartments have been gutted. Holes punched through the walls, splinter damage, burn marks, old bloodstains. You realize that the shells must have been explosive to do this kind of internal damage.

You find no survivors here. Only four bodies.

Belowdecks you find yourself up to your thighs in cold water… so the lower decks are a total loss. By flickering candlelight you find mostly bodies floating in the cold dark. Many of them must have been knocked unconscious by the impact, only to drown in the shallow water. What a waste of human life, and a miserable way to go at that.

…

There were, however, a few survivors. Men half-frozen and wet and miserable, some wounded and bandaged too. Six men you found huddled together for warmth in the midships gunhouse, surrounded by men who didn’t make it. A seventh here you realize passed while you were topside, helping the chief out of his wrecked turret… his chest was crushed in an explosion and his face badly burned.

From the forward gunhouse you pull a further three survivors in a similar state.

The other turret, you learn, is a tomb.

…

“Ten men,” you muse topside. “Ten men from a crew of three hundred and sixty-seven.”

“You shouldn’t feel too badly,” chief Holmes insists. “Most of our crew were already dead by the time that storm caught us.”

>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, let the ship to rot on these rocks.
>This ship can’t remain here. How do we get it off the rocks?
>This ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.
>Other?

>>4485813
>>This ship can’t remain here. How do we get it off the rocks?
after we leave on the lifeboat aft.

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, let the ship to rot on these rocks.
>This ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

We will scuttle the ship, we are in a foreign nation and too far from our own territory to order people to salvage it or man it and we lack necessary resources to get it in running shape. Also if it ends up in the wrong hands, be it Organisation or neighbouring foreign countries, it could boost their standing in our corner of the world.

We must remember that we have a mission going on, salvaging an armoured cruiser of some sort would jeopardize it greatly.

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, let the ship to rot on these rocks.
>This ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

>>4485813
>This ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, let the ship to rot on these rocks.

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, but this ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

>>4485813
>>This ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.


Pretty sure that huge unmarked ship was the Organization's. Still having others nations salvage this is a kettle of fish we do not need.

>>4485813
>>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, but this ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

>>4485952
>>4485813
supporting

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, but this ship needs to be destroyed, and you’re going to tell me how best to do it.

>>4485813
>There’s still a lifeboat aft. We’ll leave on that, let the ship to rot on these rocks.
We can scuttle it and salvage later.

Interesting to note, we can understand them perfectly with no accent or language barrier.

>>4485813
>>Other?
Let the chief salvage the ship's bell before the scuttle so the survivors can have some dignity.

>>4485813
“I saw a lifeboat aft,” you declare. “Big enough for ten men.”

“I saw that too,” Holmes agrees, “but the oars were swept away. If only the pinnace hadn’t been...”

“Don’t worry about that,” you insist curtly. “Right now you need to tell me how to blow this ship up.”

“Blow it up?” one of the other survivors wonders aloud. “Whatever for!?”

“She doesn’t belong here,” you insist. “Chief Holmes, you understand, right? It has to go.”

After considering what you’ve said for a moment, he nods. “She’s right. This place is technologically backwards, so who knows what might happen if people get their hands on the Saint Teresa?”

“Pretty name,” you muse. “Sorry to have to see her go, but that’s my decision on the matter.”

“And it’s a wise one,” chief Holmes agrees. “Her hull may have been damaged fore but she’s still plainly got enough reserve buoyancy to keep afloat… if we can detonate the aft magazine she’ll probably rip free of the chalk reef and settle.”

“And the wreckage will become unrecognizable,” you agree. “Can we rig it to blow up the powder reserves in the casemate decks as well?”

“Probably,” Holmes agrees, staggering to his feet. “I’ll be relying on your brute strength to manhandle the charges.”

“Just tell me where you think they’ll do the most good,” you agree.

…

It takes probably half an hour to shift the powder and explosive shells to the locations where chielf Holmes wants them. For the most part the flooding has been contained to the compartments around the armored barbette for the turret, which is a blessing because it means the overwhelming majority of the powder is dry. In the mean time, Holmes starts to build some sort of contraption from what looks like a pocketwatch, some metallic wires from one of the bulkheads, and one of the unfired shells.

He probably means to rig a time-delay device that will complete a circuit and set off one of the fuses inside the explosive shells, which in turn will set off the powder left both in the aft magazine as well as in all three casemate gunhouses.

Not bad… not bad at all.
>1/2

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>>4487098
“I know I’ve said it before,” Holmes wonders aloud as you push the lifeboat and its ten passengers towards shore, “but you are ridiculously strong.”

You’ve made good distance by the time the warship Saint Teresa’s magazine explodes, tearing the whole ship apart from the inside and shattering its upperworks. After such a blast, which you can definitely feel in your chest, there won’t be anything left recognizable as a ‘ship’ at that site… just twisted bits of unidentifiable metal, splintered decking and wooden braces, and bodies.

Eventually you feel the water warm ever so slightly, and you can stand in the surfline, carefully pushing the boat until you feel the keel lodge in the sand. It shifts once with a coming wave, and you push a little further, until the wave after that doesn’t move it at all.

“Survivors,” you tell your comrades. “From an iron-clad warship, powered by steam. Not the Organization from what I can tell.”

[Not the Organization?] Serana presses.

“You’re certain?” Justina frowns as well.

You nod. “Like I said, from what I can tell. And there’s more...”

…

[… lost?]

“That’s what I told her,” chief Holmes declares calmly. “Humanity lost the war you seem to be talking about, a long time ago… what does all this mean, miss Noel?”

>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.
>The four of us are part-dragon. As for WHY… the Organization that made us this way plays things too close to the chest for us to know.
>It means that you're all in trouble, and we're your only chance for survival. Do exactly as I say, starting now, and you might see tomorrow.
>Other?

>>4487102
>It means that you're all in trouble, and we're your only chance for survival. Do exactly as I say, starting now, and you might see tomorrow.
>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.

>>4487104
>>4487102
This combo, its unpleasant i know, but they have to trust us until then

>>4487102
>>4487104
Have to agree. It is unpleasant, but it is the only way.

>>4487102
>>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.

>>4487102
>It means that you're all in trouble, and we're your only chance for survival. Do exactly as I say, starting now, and you might see tomorrow.
>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.

>>4487104
This, but make it clear that you know it's unpleasant and that the situation is bad.

>>4487102
>It means that you're all in trouble, and we're your only chance for survival. Do exactly as I say, starting now, and you might see tomorrow.
>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.

>>4487102
>It means that you're all in trouble, and we're your only chance for survival. Do exactly as I say, starting now, and you might see tomorrow.
>I’ll tell you all what you need to know once we’re safely back in my country. Until then, say NOTHING to ANYONE other than we four.

>>4487102

>The four of us are part-dragon. As for WHY… the Organization that made us this way plays things too close to the chest for us to know.

>>4487104
Support.
Loose lips sink ships....

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>>4487102
“It means you’re all in trouble,” you grumble. “And we’re your only chance for survival, so here’s what you tell anyone who asks: you were sailing west with a cargo of blasting powder when the storm last night put you on the reef. You all evacuated, and blew up your cargo to keep it from being salvaged by anyone else.”

“Nothing about the outside world, nothing about the war or dragons or anything like that. We’ll explain more when we’re in a more secure place.”

“Justina,” you wave to your companions, “Vanessa. Take these men and arrange lodgings for the next two nights.”

…

After they’ve left with the survivors, you sit by the shore to finish air-drying yourself and your underclothes with Serana at your side.

“This is a complication,” you sigh.

[So they really are outsiders?]

“Seems that way,” you sigh. “If not it was a very convincing act.”

[What does their future look like?] Serana wonders thoughtfully. [Several years from now, assuming that they are still alive.]

>I think we need to keep them on a short proverbial leash. Keep them where we can watch them.
>A village or small town in Hazaran would be a good place for them to ‘disappear’ to.
>We should split them up into twos. Ten refugees anywhere would probably be noticed.
>Other?

>>4488924
>>A village or small town in Hazaran would be a good place for them to ‘disappear’ to.

>>4488924
>I think we need to keep them on a short proverbial leash. Keep them where we can watch them.

>We should split them up into twos. Ten refugees anywhere would probably be noticed.

>>4488924
>That entirely depends on what THEY want and how ell they do or don't assimilate. However since their ship was intercepted by a bigger meaner ship than what they had ever seen with no markings? It's safe to say the Organization will want them dead and has far more technology at it's disposal than what it is seen using.

>>4488924
>>I think we need to keep them on a short proverbial leash. Keep them where we can watch them.

with shades of

>That entirely depends on what THEY want and how ell they do or don't assimilate. However since their ship was intercepted by a bigger meaner ship than what they had ever seen with no markings? It's safe to say the Organization will want them dead and has far more technology at it's disposal than what it is seen using.

>>4488924
>We should split them up into twos. Ten refugees anywhere would probably be noticed.

>>4488924
>>4488963
supporting

>>4488963
>>4488924
In with this guy.

>>4488924
“I guess it depends on what they want and how well the decide to assimilate,” you muse. “Though I think for obvious reasons we should keep a watch on them.”

[Pretend the reasons aren’t obvious,] Serana muses silently. [What are your reasons?]

“They know that they were attacked by a bigger, meaner warship than their own,” you explain carefully. “It should already be obvious the position their in, and we’re in a position to confirm the suspicions.”

“It’s best for everyone involved, especially them, that it never become publicly known who they are and what they represent… at least, not unless things change drastically in our corner of the world.”

[I don’t disagree, of course. I just wanted to hear you say it aloud.]

“What, you enjoy the sound of my voice that much?”

[Maybe I do.]

“That’s sweet,” you smirk as you pull on your clothes.

Serana rests her hand on your shoulder as the two of you walk back to the room where you hope to stay the night again. When you arrive you find Nessa waiting for you on the ground floor.

“We’re all settled here,” she insists. “The survivors are in two rooms on the same hallway as our room.”

“Very good,” you smile. “Now let’s get those bunks down from in front of the windows, shall we?”

…

After having arranged the furniture correctly to actually sleep in the bunks provided for you, the four of you call all the surviving sailors into one room and shut the door behind you.

“So this is the situation,” you insist in a low voice. “The ten of you have run across a really troublesome situation… this land is kept isolated by an Organization, well-funded and well-armed. The ship that fired on you during the storm was probably one of theirs.”

“An Organization?” Holmes repeats. “Can you be more specific?”

You shake your head. “Unfortunately no. They keep the specifics about themselves fairly well hidden.”

“Then as the ranking survivor,” chief Holmes continues, “can I at least ask who the four of you are?”

>We’re part-dragon warriors created by the Organization I mentioned.
>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not… I’m a queen by the way.
>We’re an independent faction. That’s all I think I can tell you at the moment.
>Other?

>>4489196
>>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not… I’m a queen by the way.

>>4489196
>>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not due to having been giving suicide missions. We’re an independent faction now.

>>4489196
Supporting >>4489200

>>4489196
>>4489200

>>4489196
>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not… I’m a queen by the way.

>>4489196
>>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not… I’m a queen by the way.

>>4489196
>The organization's main goal was to make weapons to fight the dragons. To do this they made experiments on youma, flesh eating monsters capable of shapeshifting but with a pathologic need to eat human flesh. They then took the remains of dead youma and sewed the bits into the flesh of young women, as apparently men were too unpredictable and easily corrupted by their new found power. The resultant warriors had thier hair bleached and eyes turned silver, and were given super human abilities with strength and speed well above the human norm as well as the ability to self regenerate, in addition to requiring little food or water compared to normal humans. In addition we can harness the same energy the youma use to shapeshift and hell to sense them and hone our abilities further. however, we are no longer part of the Organization, mostly because they treat us like disposable pawns, and we disagreed with that. So we're basically softly rebelling super soldiers.

>>4489196
>>4489200
Supporting this.

>>4489196
>We WERE a part of the Organization. Now we’re not due to having been giving suicide missions. We’re an independent faction now.

>>4489196
“At one point we were warriors for the Organization,” you explain carefully. “They gave us too many suicide missions, so I went back to being queen of my home country and some of my closest companions came with me.”

“Wait… you say you’re a queen?” one of the men muses, his confusion self-evident.

“This place is divided into twenty-three kingdoms,” you continue to explain. “One of them, Hazaran, is mine to rule by right of birth. I do so through my chosen regent due to my… personal peculiarities.”

“Your inhuman strength and resistance to cold?” the chief wonders quietly. “What is it you’re tiptoeing around? You’re no ordinary sword-swingers, with your matching eyes and everything...”

“We’ve been modified,” you admit. “Surgically enhanced and put through a gruelling training regimen since childhood. I don’t want to say more until I’ve spoken with the rest of my cohort, but suffice it to say we’re not exactly what you’d consider normal humans anymore.”

“I see,” the chief nods quietly. “Alright, since I have the highest rank here I’ll speak for all of us… tell me then, does this mean you’re willing to help us?”

“It does,” you confirm.

“And you’ll offer us shelter against this… ‘Organization’ you mentioned?”

You nod in confirmation. “Both for your safety and that of my people. If one kingdom makes a technological leap, it’s likely to lead to annexations, possibly even peasant revolts… open warfare if it’s more than one kingdom.”

“So you intend to keep a close watch on us?”

“That’s right.”

>I can send you back with two of my cohort. You’ll be kept in the castle town we’ve been using as a headquarters.
>You’ll stay with us for now. We’re waiting on information from a spy who should be back here any day now.
>Other?

Ah. That’s right. Noel and crew still don't even know that the creatures they're talking about come in more than one phenotype. And that the process that created Claymores involved utilizing some creativity with that fact. That'd be why they might say they are part Dragon when the truth is . . . complicated.

Those things were pretty frikkin weird.

>>4490021
>I can send you back with two of my cohort. You’ll be kept in the castle town we’ve been using as a headquarters.

>Goes without saying but please don't do anything rash.

>>4490021
>>4490034

Supporting!

>>4490021
>I can send you back with two of my cohort. You’ll be kept in the castle town we’ve been using as a headquarters.

>>4490021
>>4490034
In with this.

>>4490021
Supporting >>4490034

>>4490021
>You’ll stay with us for now. We’re waiting on information from a spy who should be back here any day now.

>>4490021
“I can send you back to Hazaran with two of my cohort,” you suggest. “Serana, Nessa, I think you should escort them.”

[Split our single-digits,] Serana muses, nodding curtly at the same time. [That makes sense. What route should we take back?]

“It’s an interesting problem,” you admit. “You could get back to Alness by sea, from a port somewhere along the north coast, or by crossing Hibernia on foot. Any other way of doing it would be… inadvisable.”

“We’ll backtrack across the border,” Nessa suggests. “We have a cover story to get us through the checkpoint the legal way this time.”

[Agreed.]

“Then good luck,” you muse. “See you once our ‘contact’ gets back.”

…

It takes two more days for the Skimmer’s Flight to return to port… by then some of the damage has been cleared up, at least to the point that ships can dock properly. When it does you’re waiting patiently with Justina.

…

“So what did you learn?” you ask her captain, once you’ve been allowed to board the ship.

“I only saw basic defenses of any kind,” the old greybearded sailor recounts. “The city wall, city guard patrols. I’d guess maybe two hundred men?”

“Anything else?” Justina asks curtly.

He shakes his head. “Nothing that I could see, no. Just regular city guards, a regular wall, barracks for about two hundred men. Then there’s the Organization’s castle of course, but you’d know more about that than I would.”

True enough.

“Well then,” you sigh wearily, “if that’s all there is to your report, the guild will pay the last of your fees after my return to Hazaran.”
>1/2

>>4491377
“Frustrating,” Justina grumbles as you leave what remains of the port town behind.

“There’s certainly not much new information to act on,” you agree, frustrated by the fact that your spy mission has told you so little. “Or, to not act on, either.”

“Either way,” Justina shrugs.

That does certainly seem to be the short of it… you could try to sneak onto the island of Lavinia yourselves, and it would probably be okay.

>When you get back to Scaithness, suggest that you make an attempt to contact Zoe.
>When you get back to Scaithness, suggest that you travel to Lavinia to investigate.
>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.
>Other?

>>4491392
>>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.

>>4491392
>>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.
maybe try 'talking to' first, since they are gonna have a ton of questions themselfs

>>4491392
>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.

>>4491392
>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.

>>4491392
>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.

>>4491392
>Right now, interrogating the sailors from the outside should take priority.

>>4491392
Your priority right now should be to question the survivors from the outside that are going to be waiting for you in Scaithness, assuming everything goes according to your plan.

“Let’s return to Scaithness for the time being,” you suggest to Justina. “I think the information we can get out of the sailors we rescued is worth more to us right now.”

Justina frowns, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of Lavinia. “Agreed.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“I am,” she admits. “It’s not what I want.”

You think you know what she means. “You’re concerned about Zoe.”

She nods curtly as you continue walking. “Yes.”

“She’s a big girl,” you remind Justina calmly. “She can take care of herself.”

“I know.”

“But that’s not going to stop you worrying, is it?”

She nods. “That’s right.”

You heave a short sigh, clapping Justina on the shoulder. “Justina, I know I don’t say this as often as I should… you may be aggravatingly terse, standoffish even, but you’re a good person and we’re lucky to have you.”

That earns a faint smile. “Thanks.”

“We’ll see to Zoe,” you assure her, “I can promise you that. But I don’t think she’d want us to escalate things with the Organization until we’re confident. Would you disagree?”

After a moment, she shakes her head. “No, you’re right.”

“It’s okay not to like it,” you add.

“Understood.”
>1/2

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>>4493156
It’s chief Holmes who comes before your cohort first.

“So many silver eyes,” he muses aloud, still stunned at being brought into an actual castle. “And an old-style castle… this has been a bizarre cruise alright.”

“So,” Helen muses quietly. “You are from the outside world, you say?”

“That’s right.”

“Would you say the outside world is a violent place?” she asks.

Holmes frowns. “I suppose you could say that. We did after all arrive here in a warship.”

“And one of considerable technical advancement,” Laura observes. “Would you say that all nations elsewhere in the world have attained a comparable level of technology?”

“At least comparable,” Holmes admits. “Some are more advanced in some areas, like medicine, while others have no navy at all.”

>What sort of medical technologies are you talking about?
>How often do humans interact with these ‘dragons’ we’ve heard of?
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?
>WRITE IN

>>4493201
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?

>>4493201
>What sort of medical technologies are you talking about?
>How often do humans interact with these ‘dragons’ we’ve heard of?
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?
>Why did no one try to explore this area?
>What is the history of the human-dragon war as you know it?
>What are the dragons doing now?

>>4493201
>WRITE IN
What kind of nations exist? How many?
Would you happen to have a map or be able to draw one for us?

>>4493201
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?

>>4493201
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?

>>4493223
>>4493201
Supporting

>>4493201
>We as a people don't know the world outside of the island we live on, can you draw us a map of the rest of the world??

>>4493201
>How often do humans interact with these ‘dragons’ we’ve heard of?
>Are there any other dragon-like monsters? Things that can take human form?

>>4493201
“Tell me something,” you muse. “Where you come from, are there creatures smaller than these… Ikoshians as you called them… which are similar? Smaller perhaps, and capable of disguising themselves as humans?”

He shakes his head emphatically. “Oh nothing like that… the Ikoshians can change their forms of course, that’s true, but they start off twice as tall as humans and looking very little like us in any real details.”

“But they can transform?” Valentina muses. “Into what?”

“Into what we call Asarakam,” the chief answers. “The ‘Empty Ones’ you’d call ‘dragons’. They’re monsters, like living engines of destruction… but they can’t go back once they change.”

“They awaken,” you realize.

After a moment, chief Holmes nods in agreement. “I guess that’s a good word for it, yeah. As for the Ikoshians, they mostly leave us alone these days, content to live and let live… albeit on their terms.”

But most important, and you’re pretty sure every single person in the room aside from chief Holmes knows it, is the news that evidently the yōma don’t exist in the outside world. They only live here, on this small continent, on the far side of the world, in a land cut off by what appears to be an Organization blockade.

…

“Troubling,” Justina muses,

“Very,” Sabrina agrees.

“So there are no yōma anywhere but here,” you add.

“So either their endemic,” Laura begins.

Serana frowns. [Or they were created here.]

What follows is a loud silence.

>So the Organization creates the yōma… but why? Just to turn around and create US?
>It makes sense. They control every other aspect of how this continent works, so why not that?
>The real question should be ‘how’? With Ikoshan tissue transplants, same as our yōma tissue?
>Other?

>>4494611
>>So the Organization creates the yōma… but why? Just to turn around and create US?
>>It makes sense. They control every other aspect of how this continent works, so why not that?

>>4494611
>>The real question should be ‘how’? With Ikoshan tissue transplants, same as our yōma tissue?

>>4494611
>The obvious reasons to create youma would be to give us training fodder, or to force us to awaken. But given how pathetic the average youma is, it's not likely. Perhaps their purpose is to serve as a source of transplants for us? But then how are they created? Maybe they can multiply naturally?

>>4494611
>Claymores were clearly designed as weapons. They control the rest of the continent so why not this?
>Make the monsters
>use the monsters to attack the palces who dissent from your control
>eliminate them or bring them to heel
>while acquiring more test subjects you make into claymores, attempt to awaken them, and then use that as data to make your perfect weapon.

>>4494611
>>It makes sense. They control every other aspect of how this continent works, so why not that?
>>The real question should be ‘how’? With Ikoshan tissue transplants, same as our yōma tissue?

>>4494611
>>It makes sense. They control every other aspect of how this continent works, so why not that?
>>The real question should be ‘how’? With Ikoshan tissue transplants, same as our yōma tissue?

>>4494611
>So the Organization creates the yōma… but why? Just to turn around and create US?
>The real question should be ‘how’? With Ikoshan tissue transplants, same as our yōma tissue?

>>4494611
“So… was it done with Ikoshian flesh?” you wonder aloud. “Same as it was yōma flesh for us? It makes sense that they’d control that aspect of our corner of the world too, since they seem to be in control of just about everything else.”

“You’re right about that,” Valentina agrees. “But there are some other questions I have...”

…

“Can you draw us a map of the continent you came from?” Valentina asks another sailor who you have brought in to answer questions.

He frowns at the inkpen and the paper in front of him. “I’m not exactly the best at this sorta thing, but I’ll give it a go.”

He draws something that looks a bit like a crescent moon, with a roughly circular inner sea at the center of an irregularly-shaped continent. So that follows what Tomas told you about this continent, confirming that at least part of what he told you is true.

…

“What do these Ikoshians eat?” you ask as Serana signs her question in the direction of another sailor.

“Mushrooms,” the man declares. “Though, maybe not mushrooms exactly? I think they can eat a lotta things, but they really need the glowing goo that grows on the undersides of ‘em?”

[So that matches the mushrooms and the ‘spice’ we discovered.]

“That’s interesting,” you muse, directing your comments to the sailor. “Thank you for the information.”

>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.
>That’s enough of that. Time to make arrangements for these people in Scaithness.
>Ask about technology, specifically their guns and exploding shells. You could use some of those here as bomb throwers.
>Other?

>>4495642
>>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.
if he asks questions, mabye answer them slowly, build a basis of trust
they are already dependant on us, better if they don't start to question that

>>4495642
>>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>>Continue asking questions about the outside world… political situations, cultural traditions, that sort of thing.

>>4495642
>other
>How did the war end? What terms were dictated and who negotiated the agreement on each side? Does it look like the peace will hold?

>>4496721
I'm just trying to think: if the outside world has any factions that find the peace distasteful, they would be a good bet for having ties to the org.

Alternatively, maybe it's a secret alliance of dissidents from a whole bunch of factions. Or maybe the Org. has become a secretive, forgotten splinter faction with no connection to the outside world beyond spying on them, biding their time until they feel the time is right to strike.

>>4495642
You decide that it would help put the castaways at ease if you asked them somewhat less probing questions.

You and your cohort ask them about other subjects… what sort of foods are common in their homeland and in the neighboring countries, what sort of art they make for themselves, what sorts of songs they sing, and that sort of thing. Some of them are obviously saddened at the thought of home… those are the ones who must realize their situation.

What they tell you is that there’s an entire world out there that isn’t like this one, full of vibrant cultures and advanced technology centuries beyond anything you know. That world is much as yours might be were it not somehow stifled… from what you understand, at a point like where they were centuries ago. That means everything you know is hopelessly behind the times, what the sailors from the outside might consider ‘quaint’.

They tell you about steam-driven locomotives that run on iron tracks for miles and miles, and buildings that stand three times as tall as any block of apartments you’ve ever seen even in your biggest cities. Steam power is even harnessed in great, massive structures, enough to light the homes of tens of thousands through the night, and to illuminate the streets as well. There are cities in that world that never go completely dark.

And there are no yōma there.

But you do hear that the world is far from perfect… poverty is still a problem everywhere. Most of the people do things other than growing their own food to make a living, like your own familiar culture taken to an extreme. Even here many people who don’t farm own some means of production of their own, such as tradesmen and craftsmen. Even most merchants have some physical, tangible assets. But in this other world, many people have only their own personal possessions… even their homes are owned by someone else.

Honestly, for all its inventions and vibrance, you’re not sure that the world these men are talking about is any better than the one you live in. Perhaps it’s neither better nor worse.

You’re not sure at first how to think about that.

>You don’t care to ever see that world. It’s not for you. THIS is your home.
>You’re curious to learn from that world, to bring the best of it here, in time.
>That world will be the ruin of your own. They’ll strip your home for resources, and you'd be powerless to stop them.
>Other?

>>4497113
>You don’t care to ever see that world. It’s not for you. THIS is your home.

>>4497113
>It is inevitable that the two separate worlds meet, and once that happens your home needs to be ready or else it will be overwhelmed by a technologically and logistically superior nations. Pursuant to that you'll need to learn about it and use it to improve your own, albeit at a gradual pace.

>>4497113
>>You’re curious to learn from that world, to bring the best of it here, in time.

>>4497122
>>4497113
i support this write in, if ever the organisation fails or falls, this is going to be inevitable

>>4497122
>>4497113
Throwing in with this.

>>4497113
>You’re curious to learn from that world, to bring the best of it here, in time.

>>4497113
>You’re curious to learn from that world, to bring the best of it here, in time.
>That world will be the ruin of your own. They’ll strip your home for resources, and you'd be powerless to stop them.
>>4497122
also support

>>4497113
Supporting >>4497122

>>4497113
>>4497122
Supporting

>>4497113
>You don’t care to ever see that world. It’s not for you. THIS is your home.

Honestly, yea they are a threat, but so are the alien monsters, the org, the other abyssals . . .

Point is: we have no shortage of imminent and specific potential threats. It wouldn't make much sense to freak about the outside world, because if we can't handle any of the living extinction events, we probably don't need to worry about smallpox blankets and industrialization.

>>4497113
“It may be inevitable that their world stumbles across ours some day,” you sigh deeply, considering the problem for the long term. “I suspect if the Organization weren’t holding up a blockade it might have already happened. But when it eventually does, their world will tear ours apart, carving out new fiefdoms to be exploited for resources.”

“Are you certain of that?” Valentina asks you nervously. “I mean, coming from you, that seems… well, unusually grim, I guess?”

“It almost sounds like something I would say,” Laura sighs. “And I agree with it in substance.”

“It will have to be done slowly,” Helen frowns. “Not too much at a time. No revolutions.”

“So what are our priorities?” you ask carefully.

“Steam power is something our region currently lacks,” Laura decides. “Achieving a breakthrough in reliable steam power would feed into other advances.”

“Such as?” Sabrina frowns. “What, in building new guns? Using what bronze? What iron? What fuel to burn?”

“These things we must determine,” you realize. “The formula for a bursting charge, the method of attaching a fuse inside the shell, a way to design the guns to withstand larger charges… we’ll have to use the fuel sources that the outsiders use.”

“So it’ll have to be a long term matter,” Nessa sighs.

“We’ve also confirmed that we’re on the right track with the spice,” Helen observes.

“That’s good,” Justina nods curtly. “But also...”

[We’ve all but confirmed that we’re descended from these ‘dragons’ we heard of.]

“And what’s more we were meant to fight them,” you frown, “in a war that ended centuries ago. It’s clear that the Organization exists to change the political order in their own part of the world, using us to do so.”

“So our preparations will also be against the Organization,” Lucia recognizes your logic.

[We can’t do all that much more to prepare ourselves,] Serana shrugs.

“Aside from what we’re already doing,” Jenna butts in.

[Exactly.]

>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.
>The cannon technology that ship used would be of great use.
>I think we need to focus on the materials they use for now.
>Other?

>>4498613
>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.

One of the simplest applications of steam power are pumps that keep mines from flooding.

>>4498613
>>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.

>>4498613
>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.
and pumps for air

>>4498613
>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.

Attempts to open up diplomatic channels or poach scientists from other countries outside of the blockade would be good in the future.

>>4498613
>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.

>>4498613
>>We should focus on the technology required for steam power.
if we start with the applications, the improvements will come over time, as long as they are opened up and not isolated
there is even the potential that different and/or superior advancements are made in these fields, compared to the outside, with time

>>4498613
>I think we need to focus on the materials they use for now.
The number of people dying from industrial accidents, horrifically i might add, echo in my mind.