Trap Boogaloo

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In camp, well after leaving the area of the chaos magic storms, and after his conversations with Gus and Alexis, Telosh approaches Ethelred while the others are busy elsewhere.

“The ballista is coming along well eh, Red? Looks wicked!”

He looks truly excited about the project, his Westlander accent is showing..

“Do ya think it’ll take the giant out in one shot or should we prepper some follow up measures? More traps maybe?”

“I’ve been tryna figure out how to.. embiggen the deadfall traps that the Gus uses to catch small animals like squirrels, maybe have it set up for a tree or two to fall on the giant?”

“Digging a deep pit might be tough, but a shallow pit with spikes in it could trip the giant up pretty bad… Based on it’s behavior before, I bet it will want to charge at the ballista if it survives the hit…”

“Oh, I should let you talk… I’m getting excited about taking on the giant!”

Trap Hows

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In a moment with Gustav:

“If you had to take down a really big animal, like an elk or a bear, say to feed a big hungry group right as fast as possible, and your bow was broken, and you didn’t have any bow-making tools, how would you do it Gus? What kind of traps would you use?”

Multifaceted Approach: Giant Attack

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In a moment with Alexis, when Ethelred is busy elsewhere.

“Alexis, we need more than just the ballista. We were successful with both the dragon and The… Pit because we worked together and because we used more than one…tool.

“we need need to do more that just one thing. Immobilizing it, or at least slowing it down would be good. Spike traps, deadfall, and giant-sized snares too, I bet there are other things we could to do too that I’m not thinking of, but

I’m getting ahead of us though, what do we already know about the giant?

It ignores us if we play dead? At least as long as there are other things for it to worry about. It stinks. It has three arms. It has a lair. What else do we need to know? It’s movement pattern? Where along it’s path is best to set our ambush?

Beyond the Trail of the Giant

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In camp, some days after leaving the valley of chaos and cold.

“I’ve a thought… what if we don’t have to kill the giant to get the sword? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for killing the giant, but it seems like there is a lot of other things going on, and the longer this takes, the more… strange things get. Maybe we should try to deal with the swords first.

“The giant is our goal because of the Twice Broken Sword, be believe it is in the fort, right?

He looks at all his companions.

“Raff is… concerned about the Twice Broken Sword, but the Chaos Blade is not, correct?

He looks at Alexis.

“We know Earycka has more access to the inner workings of the fort that we do…”

He looks around at every one and pauses to see see if at least Alexis and Red are following his line of thinking…

“We are deal-makers after all…”

Materials are just materials

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After leaving the mine Ethelred can’t stop thinking about all the materials they found in the old Copper Hills mine. He is still confused as to why some materials were allowed to be taken, gems, copper, pix ax heads, broken handles. But other materials were off limits, rope, hooks, shovels, pix axes.

Ethelred brings up his confusion to the group.

“If we need more rope to capture the Giant, where should we go to get it?”

Who Were Those Mystery Horsemen?

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While the group is at the spring talking about what to do regarding the four horsemen.

“The last time someone wanted me specifically, rather than The Crimson Calling as a whole, was Creepy Doll and the undead wanting my key. Before that was Barra because of my memory of giving the eyes to Lady Sofia.” Alexis gives a nervous shrug.

“With the eyes retrieved, the key seems to be the most likely culprit. Any other ideas?”

To walk through a door

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For a while now Ethelred has been convinced that there are paths to ‘magical’ powers that does not lead through a God. Watching Telosh it was clear that chaos can come from materials. But chaos is not a viable path for Ethelred. Even before that the cleaning that Karnoha taught Alexis uses materials to power the cleansing.

Creating the wooden door and then using it as the last piece to close the pit finally revealed a clear path. Materials themselves, no just words and wishes, can do work beyond what Ethelred understands.

The lesson to be learned for Red is how to take what is available and balance it with what is possible. He has seen how Telosh can offer items, and break items to powerful effects. He has seen how Alexis gives all the reverence to the Gods. Ethelred’s path must be to walk between these. Order, understanding and materials must be combined intelligibility to gain the desired effect.

As the days pass on and Alexis works to help Ethelred learn ‘magic’. Red is keeping his eye on how best to use materials, the power within them, to the effects he needs. His first task is to learn how to reverse the open effect to close the trigger on the ballista he and Gus are building.

Does he build a tiny pair of doors and use one to trigger the other? Does he make a stick from the same wood as the door, and break the stick to cause the door to close? Does he bind the door open with some string and cut his own piece to have the door snap shut?

Many options. Many possible paths….

All out ballista

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Gus and Ethelred spend evenings, before the sun sets, working on making a miniature ballista. The old cross bow from Telosh is where they start. Studying how it work, how wood bolts are best made. Once some form of mastery of the machine is in hand they take it apart. Study each piece, how it is formed, shaped and what it’s purpose is. Then they put it back together. This is repeated again.

Then they take it apart one more time. This time they work to replicate the parts, but twice the size. Fashioning the part from wood, rope and sinew.

After a week Ethelred feels like it will be possible, but still difficult to make a much larger ballista.