Believers Of The Source

[*Cenpuppie]

While Maelfina is busy with her tinkering, Vara can't help but to skip over and observe the strange object Maelfina is working it.

She never asks any questions nor interferes, but she observes what her Factotum is doing.

[*Xndar]

*Rather than bothering to explain the device, she requests that Vara help direct a number of laborers in the assemblage of a series of ballistae, relatively simple designs, save that each ballista unit is comprised of many separate giant crossbows worked together like a cross, with intertwining wires and slots for the bolts. Not a challenge for a crafter of her caliber, but Maelfina expresses a great deal of urgency in the matter, before returning to tinkering with a rather odd set of tubes and pressure pumps.
(for picture reference to what she means, but on a large scale: http://www.goblinscomic.com/11122010-2/)

The new device seems a simple derivation off a mounted hand-pump designed to spit alchemical fire rather than water. Rather than rely on the purely manual pump it employed, Mael began to add a system of gears and levers to increase the leverage and weight being brought to bear on the liquids. With Mael's tweaks, the pressure output (and thus its range) should in theory be vastly increased and she begins work on fortifying the container and the hoses with darksteel to make it suitable for acidic compounds...before bringing it to whatever room is used in the Foundry for the testing of new devices....*

[*Cenpuppie]

Said objects are properly constructed as Vara watches the assembled workers put together the required ballista. Occasionally she floats from group to group aiding in whatever way she can.

[*Xndar]

*Maelfina fetches the Queen's technicians and brings them down to the Foundry, grilling them for hours about the ways in which the Lance could be modified to allow the Queen to traverse dimensions and theoretically time, painstakingly explaining the functions and inner workings of the device to the team; with the help of the experts within the faction previously consulted.

In addition, she begins setting about constructing various prototypes of sturdy lightning rods, testing each against the might of the Lance while it still remains a weapon in order to try to find a means of creating some measure of defense against such a destructive force.*

[*DM_Duke]

The power of the lances sharp electrical beam cuts through virtually every metal they can think of creating when ever it is tested upon them. But finally they do manage to find "one" material that manages to endure the Lances vicious blow, even then, only just.

It seems a reinforced alloy of Glass-steel enchanted with a particular electrical ressistance which then had to be reinforced again with a layer of diamond glass finally managed to "endure" the blow.

It wouldnt be enough to fully halt the attack but it was enough to create something of a prototype armour against further damage. The diamond glass surface reinforced over the layer created an impassable wall of glass which ultimatley had to be melted through before the glass-steel could be damaged directly.

This breakthrough in design "finally" gave them a small defence against The Shadowsworns advanced technology.

But there was still a long way to go before they would be able to fully match their enemies capability, if they truley could. The technology way way ahead of their time and thus there was only so much they could realistically do to make "something" to counter it.

None the less, the first sign of hope was born in the form of a new reinforced layer of enchanted glass armour that would be coated ontop of the glass-steel hull.

With this armour layered upon it, The Queen would have a more fighting chance of enduring a few blows from the lance weapons while they continued to research new materials an dnew ways to counter and fire back on their foes.

As to adapting the machine with the ability to travel through dimensions. This would prove signifinicantly more difficult.

While Sigil was more or less timeless, one "depended" on things comming from the future in order to get such devices capable of "powering" something that great. Maelfina would also remember that The Shadowsworn Frigates had far more than one Lightning Lance, perhaps having something to work in conjunction to create a coil of some kind? It may also have something to do with their advanced cloaking technology?

As for creating offencive weapons to counter The Shadowsworn's tough enduring hull. They had managed to use natural terrain to their advantage before but that wasnt enough without damaging their foes hull first. They needed weapons that could truley break their shield technology and go straight through a hull.

Fortunatley, it was easily possible to begin construction of the gauss cannon project that Maelfina had been planning in order to test just that theory. There were also chunks of The Shadowsworn frigates Debris that had been caught in the nets of The Queens catch, which could be used to test such a cannon on the formidable Mechanus themed material.

[*Xndar]

*Maelfina would first begin preparations for the creation of more diamond-glass steel alloy to armor the ship, contributing her own supply of diamonds as well as whatever diamond-dust she can purchase for such a purpose. In addition, she would begin questioning her fellow factioneers if they could point her in the direction of any with connections to/with Mechanus in order that she might try and negotiate a means of acquiring the necessary power source for the dimensional device.

Meanwhile, her experiments with the magnetized specimens of Archeron steel proceed apace, constructing a two-layered tube. The outer layer comprised of regular, un-magnetic Arceron iron, while the inner layer is forged from polarized magnetic iron. Maelfina then proceeds with constructing many experimental projectiles, attempting to break and reform the crystallized iron in such a way so as to create an object of reverse polarity to the barrel, which would allow the barrel to theoretically accelerate the flight of the projectile to break-neck speed once the projectile is propelled into the barrel from the firing chamber by choice amounts of gnomish powder.*

[*Xndar]

*returning to the forge with a stash of diamonds from Mir that would put most collectors to shame, she sets about forging as many sheets of the diamond-glass as she can, leaving instructions with her Namers to deliver and install them on the 'jammer hidden outside the Foundry.

In addition, Mael can be found experimenting with a magic electrifier as a source of energy for her prototype cannon*

[*Xndar]

*Maelfina returns to the Foundry, amidst the alarms and warning calls of the coming invasion, to supervise the final preparations. A large loading team hauls the barrel and complex spring-recoil mechanism of the Magnacannon to the revealed Spelljammer hovering outside the Foundry, where Maelfina directs the chief engineer of the vessal and the workmen as they set about mounting the weapon and its pivoting base, allowing for side-to-side rotation of the long barrel. A large cart, pulled by several golems from the laboratory, filled with large projectiles is hauled onto the ship and stored below-deck underneath a trap-door allowing for ease of access to the deck for the loading team. The projectiles themselves seem to be sorted into two varieties: one, a cylindrical canister filled with smaller (comparatively) projectiles designed to act as a catapult's grapeshot would, and a pointed, heavy, and solid projectile designed for brute force and maximum hull-piercing damage.

A smaller, but no less important device is also loaded onto the ship, a complex, alien mechanism surrounded by canisters of highly heat-resistant brass the sloshing sounds of water moving within, which, with the ship's chief engineer's help, is installed in the engine room.

An extra shipment of ammunition is sent to the House of Six Fingers to prepare for air defenses while new mercenaries seem to appear from nowhere within the House to bolster the ranks defending the fortified business.

At last, the time of conflict is upon them, and her preparations begin to show themselves.*

[*Erik Vale]

Seeking to join the Godsmen.

*Signed* Aleandrea Datson

[*Azulfae]

*Clang!* The shock of metal upon metal thumped through the walls of the great foundry.

*Clang!* The shock came again, louder and harder than all the other hammers coming down on anvils and other work noises.

*Clang!* Workers began to put down their tools and stop to look at each other.

*Clang!* "What is that?" One man said to another.

*Clang!* They turned and began to follow the crowds heading off deeper into the foundry.

*Clang!* The floor shook as they entered the main forge.

*CLANG!* There it was, blue and huge with arms bigger than the average humanoid body.

*CLANG!* The ogre mage stood holding in his hands around twenty metal ingots welded together in a long heavy strip. A log of metal so heavy it may take five or six average sized humans to lift.

*CLANG!* The creature lifted the object in his left hand up infront of himself and spun it on it's axis before lowering it down slowly back onto the anvil and beginning to hammer again.

The ogre mage paused and turned to look at the small crowd watching him.

"Something the matter?" It's voice reverberated through all that could hear it with a strong yet serine and warming depth.

*CLANG!*