1: Do You Know the Rifle Man?

[Powderhorn]

Cassandra holds the door, listening carefully for the body on the other side to stir.  When she crossed into this room, carefully stepping around the blades herself, she metaphorically stepped into a new world herself.  One where traps lurked around every corner, and thieves and assassins owned the shadows.  She was used to hunting for food, and railing against the system that she knew was unfair to people like her.  However, this was her glimpse into the why of how the world worked.

 

Also, he had guns, and a desire for them to be used.

 

"Do I get my pick?"

[AbsentWizard]

Dyord flops the blanket over Cassandra's shoulder on his way back out the door, "You may borrow one of them. Bind the assassin and keep them here. I'll be back."

 

He turns past the blades and storms down the stairs two steps at a time, then exits the building, leaving Cassandra holding the open room door against the wall. Some weight is pressing against it from the other side, probably a body slumped over.

 

Does Cassandra:

- Continue holding the door?

- Release the door and inspect what's behind it?

- Release the door and go look at the weapons?

- Something else?

 

[Powderhorn]

She's not one hundred percent certain how conscious the man on the other side of the door is, or isn't, but she knows that as soon as she lets up on the door, she will be alone, with an unknown person, who she was previously detaining by way of door.  She doesn't have a match in her sad pistol, but at the end of the day, it was at least a handy cudgel. 

 

Bracing the door with her body, she flips the pistol in her hand so as to use the handle as a bludgeon.  She slowly peers around the door to get a feel for who is actually on the other side, deciding suddenly not to reach around with the pistol and hammer it down on the person's head as she had previously planned.

[AbsentWizard]

There's a bloody red spot on the wall, about head-height. It smears downwards, pointing towards the man crumpled over in the tiny door-wall triangle. The lower half of his face is a mass of blood from a badly broken nose. He is pale-skinned, unlike one of the locals here in Reng'pya, and he is very close-shaved all around. He's dressed in a baggy, ill-fitting dark green tunic and chalk-colored trousers, and a longshoreman's sun-hat is snapped in half and fallen against the wall near him.

 

On the back of the door is wide, bloody spot matching the one on the wall, as well as a long dagger stuck sidelong into the wood. The dagger is slim, pointed, and straight - a stiletto for armor work. There's faint wisps of smoke near where the dagger is stuck in, and the wood on the door looks charred around it.

 

The man's right hand lays limp against the wall and his left hand is unseen - pinned behind and under him somewhere. His eyes are shut, but he breathes, bubbling noisily through the flowing blood.

 

(Roll Notice and Initiative)

[Powderhorn]

Well, he doesn't seem dead... yet, Cassandra thinks to herself.  Not really sure what I've gotten myself into.  Still, she tries to look the person over and figure out just who they were and why they were here.  It seems like just another pawn, but on the losing side of the board - a position she could easily find herself in if she's not careful.

[AbsentWizard]

Cassandra watches the man's eyes pop open with the speed of someone who was definitely pretending to be unconscious. They are grey-blue and bloodshot and wild and desperate. She sees him start springing off of the floor and reaching for the dagger hilt. She sees the round ball in his left hand, with the unlit fuse hanging from it. She is ready.

 

Take your turn

[Powderhorn]

She knew he was faking from the beginning.  (She didn't really know that.)  She knew it!  As someone prepared for just such an eventuality, she tries to bludgeon the man with her sad pistol before he can reach the dagger!

[AbsentWizard]

Cassandra's sad pistol runs buttlong into the man's outstretched fingers, then hammers his hand into the nearby wall. There is a chorus of pops, accompanied by a whining grunt from the man. He falls back on top of his grenade-clutching hand, breathing heavily where a moment ago he was barely breathing at all. His eyes dart between the dagger handle and Cassandra.

 

"Kill!" The man's voice is thickly nasal, and he spits blood that had flowed into his mouth. With his broken right hand, he points at himself, "Kill!"

He sounds pleading.

[Powderhorn]

She doesn't know why the dagger point is smoking, but she knows that's probably a bad sign for anyone holding an unlit grenade.  Happy to oblige the insane person, however, she brings the butt-end of her pistol down onto his head with all the force she can muster.

[AbsentWizard]

A bit of the man comes away with the pistol, and it seems to have been an important enough bit that he goes limp in his little cubby-hole. The insane person still twitches a bit, but in that uncoordinated, dead-fish sort of way.

 

Victory Fanfare Noise.

[Powderhorn]

Finally unburdened of the lurking assassin behind the door, Cassandra goes to the bed to take her pick of the long guns.  Equipping herself appropriately, she then looks to see what might be in the closed chests.  Certainly tempted by the dagger in the door, she is equally certain that if she pulls the dagger, the door will somehow explode.

[AbsentWizard]

Contents of the stash:

 

Hand Cannon Adarache

This is a large-bore, short-barreled muzzleloading cannon on a heavy wooden stick. A solid steel double-hinge at the stick-breech allows the stick to fold down to be a rest, or straighten out for carriage. The stick has brackets holding a sponge, a separate ramrod, and a waterskin. The cannon has a nub at the muzzle for aiming but no rear sight.

Damage 1d12 or Grenade-like weapon; Attribute Dex; Range 5/100; Traits AP, M; Reload 10; Enc 3

 

Blunderbuss Featherbolt

This is a matchlock blunderbuss with etched and silver-chased barrel, but the wooden stock is just a square-ish stick bolted on as either an afterthought or a replacement. The name is on a metal plaque brazed to the rear of the breech.

Damage 1d8 max; 1d10 within 40; 1d12 within 20; Attribute Dex; Range 5/100; Traits AP; Attack +2; Reload 2; Enc 3

 

7-barrel Volley Gun Tunray

This is a 7-barreled, matchlock, smoothbore volley gun with separate pans and locks on each barrel. Each barrel bears an inscription from an unknown language, alongside a small engraved scene highlighted in a red substance. Presumably it tells the chapters of some story or legend. The name is taken from large letters etched to the muzzles.

From 1 to 7 barrels can be cocked or decocked as a single Move action. All cocked barrels are fired simultaneously during the next attack.

Damage 1d10; Attribute Dex; Range 50/150; Traits AP; Reload 1 per barrel; Enc 3

 

Revolver Gun Untitled No. 3

This is a matchlock rifled musket with removable breech cylinder with revolving chambers. 3 cylinders are stacked next to it, and it can be seen that each has 4 chambers.

A second attack can be made as a Move action immediately after a regular attack, so long as the cylinders are still loaded.

Reloading cylinders are 2 chambers per focused action, as long as the cylinder is removed from the weapon.

Damage 1d12; Attribute Dex; Range 75/1000; Traits AP, PM; Reload -; Enc 2

 

Rifled Musket pair

These are two identical wheellock, rifled muskets with delicately-made diopter sights. Their stocks are decorated in leaf-patterned, curling silver filigree and their barrels are smooth and polished. A small measuring cup for powder is tucked skillfully near the ramrod-holder.

Damage 1d12; Attribute Dex; Range 200/1000; Traits AP, PM; Reload 2; Enc 2

 

Unknown two-forked gun-like object

This looks like a musket, but instead of a barrel it has two long, bluish-gray metal tines stiffened by several wooden rings along the length - like a skeletonized barrel. The open-air "chamber" is backed by a large, spring-loaded plunger. The trigger seems to release the plunger forward. Three glass vials stick out of the breech-like area, but they contain nothing in them and seem to only open inward into the breech.

??? You do not know how this weapon (?) works ???

 

4x Narwhal Powder Horns

Open the chests?

[Powderhorn]

So far, everything she had seen has her fighting at a relatively close range, and she is certain that while the delicate rifled muskets would be fascinating to use, and genuinely a work of art, she knows too that the revolver gun is her best bet.  Grabbing the cylinders and shoving them into a haversack, she slings the firearm and sees it lacks a name.  Something to resolve later.  She shoves two powder horns into her bag, and takes a long look at the mysterious air gun.  Beyond my knowledge.  Likely to blow it up in my face.

 

Now armed, she opens the chests to see what might be inside.