"So..." Rainbow Dash squinted nervously at the dormant hovercraft. She trotted around the Herald's makeshift vehicle at a cautious distance, wings tightly coiled. "...it still runs off the chaos metal... buff thingy?"
"Yes," Flynn nodded, polishing off one of several lunar runestones where he stood in the middle of an elevated bridge. He gestured at the wagon—almost fully packed with the Herald's equipment. "Only this time, it isn't all half-assed together." He smirked as his mechanical eye rotated in and out thoughtfully. "You can thank the Spindlers for chewing up all the remaining trolls to shit. Without those pale buggers on our flanks, we can take off for real this time."
"But... it's still chaos energy." Rainbow gulped. "So I'll still have to keep my distance, huh?"
"Mmmmmmmmhmmmmm." Flynn nodded again. "I'm afraid there'll be no Hoverplank rides for you. But—you're nothing if not used to the solo flight thing."
"I'll manage."
"You sure?" Flynn's good eye flicked up towards her as he arched his eyebrows. "With all that spider crud stirring inside you, it wouldn't be that much of a crime for us to wait and shove off later—"
"We've waited long enough, Flynn," Rainbow said, continuing to stroll in a half-orbit around the vehicle. "If there's anything I've learned—it's that allowing myself to stay grounded for more than a day really screws up my pace."
"Well, I won't pretend to argue with you there."
"But... uh... the wagon's good to fly now? Like for real fly?"
"The key word is 'glide,' but... more to the point... yes." Flynn smirked wryly. "What the Hell do you think I've been doing these past two weeks? Winning chicken dinners?"
"Sorry." Rainbow shrugged. "I've been vacationing in a spider coma."
"Bet you're itching to get moving again. So's the rest of us."
"Only... I don't really have much of a destination marked out." Rainbow's ears drooped. "Meeting Dihmers or figuring out this whole 'Grand Ocean' business would be really smexxy, but that's not something you can sketch on a map—now, is it?"
"It will be once we've accomplished both!"
"Come on, Flynn..." Rainbow shook her head. "Even you have got to run out of patience at one point or another."
"Yeesh. Did the arachnid slumber lay on an extra thick layer of angst or what?" Flynn stood up straight, staring at Rainbow evenly. "Once a member of the Herald, always a member." He gestured boldly. "We're in this with you to the end, Austraeoh. And in case you can't take my word as a member of the Sovereign Seven... then take it from a Job Squadder." He winked. "No job is too big or too stupid to tackle. It's Dark Side or Bust—and we've barely pierced a third of it so far."
"Heh..." Rainbow Dash smiled crookedly. "You know what they say about 'going into a forest.'" A flick of the tail. "You can only do it halfway."
"And once we're halfway, then we can talk about stressing over strategy." Flynn returned to polishing the lunar rocks. "Until then—time to move move move."
"I've got a question."
"Shoot."
Rainbow's brow furrowed. "So we've been stuck here for over two weeks... here in this city." A blink. "How are we on rations?"
Ariel grinned wide. "You're gonna love this..." Ch-Chtunkkk! She yanked open the lid to a Darkstinian crate. The air around the supply cache dropped by ten degrees as white vapors emanated from the container.
"Guhhh!" Rainbow Dash leaned back, flinching slightly. "Whoah... who the heck ordered the penguin sauna?"
"The Spindlers—actually!" Ariel beamed, her eyelashes batting. "Check it!" She wrapped her left forelimb in a blanket until it was nicely bundled. Then—after sucking her breath in—she reached her insulated hoof deep into the container. When she pulled it back out, she was cradling a cluster of large red vegetables that were covered with an ivory sheen of frost. "Ta-daaaaaaa!"
"Wow, it looks very... ... ..." Rainbow blinked. "...cold."
"Rainbowwww..." Ariel smiled slyly. "They're vegetables."
"For real?"
"According to Merula—well, one of the Merulas—the Emeraldinian Expedition had a huge supply of these things when they first arrived at this city generations ago. What's more, they had the means of refrigerating the stuff." Ariel pointed at a series of dimly glowing stones lining the interior of the cold, cold container. "Turns out to be an old Darkstinian spell that harnesses cold from manastones. Flynn was able to recreate it—at least well enough. It's a good thing, because the vegetables tend to rot quickly in non-freezing temperatures. But—as Kepler discovered—if you defrost the stuff, heat it up, and eat it shortly afterwards—it's very nourishing! Sorta like beets with the texture of potatoes."
"Uhm... yum?"
"Yum enough!" Ariel slapped the frosted morsel back into the crate and fastened the lid shut. Th-Thap! "There are three crates of these. They should last us a while. Or—at least..." She winked over her shoulder at Rainbow. "Last you a while."
"How... did the Spindlers even get these for us?" Rainbow asked, her muzzle twisted in confusion. "Don't tell me these things have been frozen for hundreds of years...!"
"From what I understand, a supply of these... uhhh... 'dark beets' were left behind by the Emeraldinian Expedition. For whatever reason, the Children of Abaddon were motivated to grow them deep in the lower recesses of the city... where the temperature is cold enough to allow for full planting and germination."
"So these are spider-grown?"
"Mmmhmmm." Ariel nodded. "They must have figured they'd have mortal guests in the future."
"Or... more to the point..." Rainbow Dash strolled past the crates. "...they probably realized that Commander Gwen wasn't the Austraeoh of Ilrifa's codex... and so they felt the need to prepare for the actual arrival of me and Eljunbyro... or Odrsjot... I mean..." Rainbow's eyes crossed. "Grnnngh..." She rubbed her forehead. "Now I just confused myself."
"Hey... it's okay...!" Ariel smiled sympathetically. "If it's any consolation, I give myself a headache twice as hard over it all."
"I doubt it. But thanks anyways."
"Y'know..." Ariel giggled sideways, hugging herself. "Wouldn't it be hilarious if—after all this time—all of the important elements of the codex was just this 'Ilrifa' pony tossing darts at a crossword puzzle?"
"If that's true, her throwing hoof's got a fetish for vowels."
"I'm certainly not complaining." Ariel shrugged. "If something's gonna roll off the tongue, might as well butter the front end of it."
"To each their own." Rainbow squinted at her. "Did the Spindlers graciously donate anything else to our snazzy cause?"
Twnnnng!
An arrow flew across an urban courtyard and—
Thnkkkt!
—embedded into the glass windshield of a long-abandoned vehicle. Dust flew in a ring around the impact, and soon the quiver rattled still.
Logan released the string of a large bow from his muzzle. Exhaling, he turned towards an applauding Rainbow Dash. "I'm a bit rusty, but I think this will help us save ammo on the Bleak's Plummet boomsticks."
"Pretty boss!" Rainbow Dash finished clapping. "You and the rest of the Job Squad are pretty experienced with arrows, then?"
"Well. Me and Flynn, for sure," Logan said. He took a moment to draw his hoof along the polished structure of the bow, admiring its sturdiness. "Ariel and Keps? Not so much. Double-Yoo—of course—he can be skilled at anything. Long story, in a pinch, at least three of us should be able to provide ranged cover in the event that we run into trolls."
Rainbow gulped. "Or worse."
"Or worse."
"I think this is a darn good idea, Big Show," Rainbow Dash said. "Especially when it comes to preserving the runestones. We'll definitely wanna conserve those for when the big baddies turn out extra big and extra extra bad."
"It's gonna take some work to maintain, of course," Logan said. He pointed at the arrowheads sticking out of a leather quiver lying on the ground. "These pointy-bastards are simply chiseled out of rock, stone, metal—anything that we can get our hooves on. The tools and weapons we borrowed from the Emeraldinians are enough to help us fashion them."
"Sure." Rainbow nodded. "Should give us stuff to do during the lengthier moments of our trip."
"Damn straight." Logan nodded back. "Although—something tells me—we're probably not gonna have the luxury of being bored."
"Maybe. Maybe not." Rainbow stepped over the new weapons, admiring them closely. "Tell me, though..."
"Yeah?"
"What's the rest of them made out of?" Rainbow pointed. "The bows? The arrow shafts?"
"Well, the strings...?" Logan ran his hoof along the taut fiber of his bow. "Spindler silk. As durable as it gets."
"Sweet. But what about the rest of the stuff?" Rainbow looked at him. "Looks like wood—almost."
"Uh huh..."
"But... there aren't any trees left standing about, are there?" Rainbow blinked. "At least none that's ancient and petrified from the pre-Sundering days. Seems like Lexxic and the Bloodwings made quick work of that centuries ago when they did their final assault on the Midnight Armory."
"Right..."
"So... uhhhh..." Rainbow picked up an arrow, staring close up at the polished narrow stalk making up the shaft of the projectile. "Just what is this stuff anyways?"
"Well..." Logan cleared his throat, leaning back. "Y'know how we all figured out that there's more than one Merula?"
"Totally."
"And... like... how she's always dying and being replaced by other Merulas?"
"Yeah... ... ...?" Rainbow cocked her head to the side. "The Winter Children of Abaddon live super-short lives. I'm sure we all figured that out weeks ago."
Logan's nostrils flared. "Well... what do you suppose the Queen's eight-legged maintenance teams do with all the piling corpses of their brothers and sisters?"
"... ... ..." Rainbow stared at the chitinous material making up Logan's bow. She then looked at the polished carapace-smooth surface of the arrow shaft in her grip. "... ... ...!!!" She dropped the thing like it was on fire, flinching.
"They gave us these things with their blessing, Rainbow," Logan said in a straight tone. "I dunno about you, but I think it'd be a shame to waste it."
"I-I think so t-too... but... b-but..." Rainbow brushed her limbs off repeatedly—as if trying to rub clean a sea of invisible cobwebs. She resorted to shuddering in place... ultimately relaxing as well as she was able. "Luna poop... why's everything on this side of the plane have to be so friggin' hardcore?"
"And to think..." Logan arched an eyebrow. "This is the one and only faction on the Curve whom we can actually call allies."
Rainbow flashed him an anxious look. "... ... ...it really is our greatest hope to run into the Dihmers next... out of everyone that's left."
Logan nodded. "And you can bet your ass that's gonna be a notch higher on the 'hardcore' scale."
Rainbow sighed. "I don't know what Verlax was thinking... believing that she actually had the capacity to prepare me for all this ultra dark nonsense."
"Even Mortuana couldn't prepare us." Logan smiled tiredly. "And she was the Alicorn of Death."
"When all of this is said and done, and I'm back in Equestria..." Rainbow gingerly picked the arrow back up and placed it back in its quiver. "I'm gonna take the girls to a griffin rock concert and I'm going to laugh my friggin' head off."
"Why not do the insane cackling now?" Logan shrugged. "Save yourself the time."
"Nah. I don't want to insult Wildcard and Seraphimus."
"Pfffft. Girl, please..."
"I'm going to wait for a moment when it'll actually be advantageous."
"That's more like it."
It’s bold.
Food, weapons, transport. All good things to have, too bad Flynn couldn't have worked on repairing one of the broken down vehicles already in the city.
So those arrow shafts are made out of spider legs, I assume the bows are too. I'm too squeamish to actually look this up, but I know spider's don't have bones in their legs, so I assume they don't have muscle in there either, since they control their blood flow to move and lengthen/shorten their legs, so with nothing to cause rigor mortis after they die, those limbs would still be pretty wobbly.
Also, you missed a bold break again ):(, pretty badly.
-Through the path long forgotten, into the darkness long begotten. Ofolrodi.
8782293 I think you mean:
It's Bold!
Almost on the road again! It's been a while. This is exciting!
Floydien would approve, yes yes yes.
I think Verlax was trying to prepare you for the inevitable murderfest when you run across the three factions, Rainbow. There's gonna be a whole lotta murderin in the days ahead.
The emblodening begins.
They got just about everything they should need! Food is prepared, weapons and ammo are replenished and the Hover Sled is ready to go. Time to gather everyone up and head on out.
That they are getting new supplies and weaponry, coupled with good if not general intelligence, makes me more that a little concerned about the enemies.
Spider corpse bows. Neat.
Flynn confirmed as fan of the Shrinking Map Pochinki Scrap.
8781092
It takes place basically just after Utaan and features the Jurors, since you were wondering about Roarke.
8782358
Damn, I miss the Jury.
It’s really good to be off. High time we got out of the spider city.
Well, that is one way to honor the fallen On the road again it would seem, but this time with better preparedness, they will need to upgrade their transport at some point. Next stop, who knows where.
Hehe, never change, Rainbow
Also, the spider leg arrows/bows are making me squeamish
They should try to take some silk/web with them when they go, never know when you could use some super glue or rope.
I like how Dash and Co seem to be stocking up as best as possible... perhaps Dash should learn to use a bow herself as well.
Creepy badass bow...nice
Waste not, want not.
Seriously though, the only thing that would make the bows more awesome would be if the arrows had been dipped in the spoder’s venom.
And to think, every time they use one of those bows they'll be flossing their teeth with something that came out of a spider's ass.
8782358
You beat me to it. Floydien would definitely approve.
Food? Check. Weapons and ammo? Creepy, but check. Friends? Looks like all set and ready to go.
I'm betting WC and Sera are having a heart-to-heart. Talon-to-Talon? Beak-to-beak? Cloud-talk-to-cloud-talk? It's gonna be heartfelt and nice and who am I kidding they're gonna fight over who gets to watch over RD.
It's a bone arrow bow, I guess.
I see what you did there
So food's covered, but what about water? Its by far the more important resource over food. You need more of it to survive on a day to day basis, and its even harder to store and carry over a long distance trip like this. Normally I'd say they'd need to actually have the means to find water as they travel. Maybe one of the many Merula's can provide locations of underground springs. All those spiders need to be hydrating themselves somehow, and I don't think troll blood alone would do the trick. Then again with local water sources you got the issue of contamination. Dysentery is no joke.
And the chitin bow is giving me some Monster Hunter vibes. Just making weapons and armor out of local fauna seems like totally a thing that would happen a lot on the Dark Side, more so given the fauna we've seen thus far.
Seraphimus x Logan Ship Confirmation Chapter Counter: 11
:O I am in all things!
And so the party got a level up, including upgrades for the equipment and an "airship".
Ilrifa as IC self-insert confirmed?
Weapon shop is open, and as first customers we give free basic set. Upgrades are available to purchase and if you have the materials, you can forge items you have knowledge of here.
Spider legs are hollow, and spiders have venom?
Blowpipe and darts.
Spider thread, rope, sheet, nets, fabric containers. If spider silk gets stronger when wet, would that make spider silk fabric water containers as being almost indestructable, as you can boil the water over an open fire, if it can take similar flame as paper?
Spider Bow is at the very least a plus 2 on the damage roll. Then you add the Spider Arrows and bam ez oneshot.
8782305
But the spiders do have rigid exoskeletons. So it would be like shooting tubes with your bow, if you use one segment to make one arrow. Or if it's thick and solid enough, you could divide those tubes into thin sticks, like one does when building a kite with bamboo.
Also, they do have muscles.
findaspider.org.au/info/images/Tarantula%20leg%20muscles.jpg
8783055
Fair points, I hadn't thought about their exoskeleton.
I'm not opening that image.
My fear of spiders demands that I don't.
Pierce the bones of your enemies - with the bones of your allies!
Wrong A word.
A... third? Of the entire plane?
That would put you two thirds toward the Armory at the midway point. If I read this map right, it's roughly between Alafreo and Pegasus Sex Crater. That's where you got in less than one book? All the way past Rohbredden, the Choke, and Val Roa?
8783055
Yeah, not clicking on that sorry
Flynn, Top 100 of Pubg
I FINALLY CAUGHT UP AFTER 4 MONTHS WOOT!
8783059
8783751
Fair enough. If it matters, I can promise you it's not a drawing of a muscular anthro spider.
8783838
Probably not. Unless they have some sort of long-living Merulz that acts as a sort of 'main singer'
8783898
That would be better than a cross section of an actual spider.
8783872
Welcome!
IRL interfered. I'm sprinting to catch up.
Nice we have upgraded weapons, food stores and the beginnings of a plan!
Time to get going while the going is good.
Unconsciously adding Sera as a member?
Wait, do you actually play? I’ve never seen this game light up under your name before.
Don’t be a tease :|
8782358
Yes yes yes.
Spider Bow
A gruesome bow crafted from the silk and chitin of a giant spider.
DEX + 3, LUK - 1
[+ Spider Arrow]
Increases damage dealt by 25%.
Poison an enemy when you attack (success chance 10%).
Type: Bow
Attack: 109
Weight: 70
Weapon Level: 3
Applicable Characters: Logan, Flynn, Wildcard
They have some crossbows too though I don't remember who could all use those, it sounds like they have a lot of weapons ready to rock with.
And YOU were the one freaking out about it.
The spindlers have been crazy helpful. Probably the last creatures that will treat them this way on the Dark Side.
Honestly, IC's titles feel like this sometimes. Yay-fae-duh, Yaerfaerda, whatever.
I would actually call them friends, they have certainly earned that title. That and it spites Verlax, who said they wouldn't make any on the dark side
11/17/2019
16:26 UTC
Title naming convention analysis time! So what if it's 1 am right now?
A = 1. First vowel and letter of the alphabet, Austraeoh starts with A, chapter titles are 1 word.
E = 2. Second vowel, first letter of Eljunbyro, two-word chapter titles.
I through Y = vowels/chapter title word counts 3 through 6 = Innavedr through Yaerfareda.
Ynnanhluutr is the 7th book out of 12, the vowel list/chapter title word count goes backwards from 6 to 1.
Utaan through Ofolrodi = vowels/chapter title word counts 5 through 4
I bet my bottom dollar that the next book will be titled Ilrifa and have 3 words per chapter title.
As well, all the book titles come from Old Norse words, and rifa means tear, cut, etc. in Old Norse and Icelandic. Sounds awfully Sundering-related...
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Etymology is a wonderful thing.