Post by Wayland on May 5, 2021 11:37:31 GMT -8
Thank god for the internet. There are all sorts of resources you can find there. Reviews, materials, instructional videos. It’s a new era of cottage-industry, if you have the time and the energy and the skills then why buy when you can just make for yourself? Or modify, customization is a big deal right now. It’s a big benefit to Wayland, because before coming back from Arcadia, she knew nothing about kevlar. Sure she’d gone shooting some with friends in the SCA, but she never imagined she’d be in a situation where she’d be liable to get shot at.
But when you’re a Changeling, you might get shot at. If you’re in the Summer court, the chances are even better. And when one of the local Strangers is known as Warmachine… Well, the military surplus flak jacket in her closet starts to feel like it might not be enough protection.
So yeah, the internet. You have to be careful to separate out the bullshit from the information that’s actually useful, but it’s still a godsend. Turns out you can actually order kevlar as a civilian. Even riot suits, the closest thing you can find to a medieval knight’s cap-à-pie armor. The idea is to have protection against blades, bludgeoning, and bullets all in one, from head to toe. That’s the idea, anyway, the execution? Well… buyer beware. Trusting your life to one manufacturer is not ideal. Besides, the best armor is custom-made and custom-fitted to the wearer. Wayland knows that, she’s made mail hauberks, plate cuirass, gauntlets and greaves. She just has to marry those skills to bulletproof materials.
She’s done some testing, in her workshop in the hedge. Ordered a few products over a long period, set them up at the far end of her shop (well away from anything combustible) and taken a few shots at it with her revolver and her rifle. Chopped and stabbed at it with her blades. Smacked at it with her hammer. What’s going to work best for her, she’s decided, is a suit assembled from components from a variety of different sources. Plus some custom-made plates, forged and cut by her own hands.
She’s surprised at how fast it goes. If she was making a full plate harness using medieval methods, it would be months, even a year of work. Even for her, and she can work with the speed of a team of four all on her own. But with many of the pieces pre-made, requiring only modification and assembly, and the rest forged by her own hand using fairly basic techniques, it doesn’t take that long at all. What takes a while is fitting. Making sure the suit is comfortable. That she can move in it, that it doesn’t pinch her anywhere. And that it’s still providing protection no matter how she might twist and turn.
What she’s left with looks like something that should go onto one of her movie sets. Armor suited for a scifi or cyberpunk adventure. She’s painted it in flat, matte colors that shouldn’t stand out too much if she needs to creep around, but that gives it an air of menace. She’ll be no shining knight when she wears this, no hero on a white horse. This is for killing, and avoiding getting killed.
There’s one final touch that’s needed. She opens the armored jacket, and cuts a hole in the kevlar behind one of the armor plates. It’s small, barely the size of her thumb. But a weakness. A vulnerability. A bullet could get through there, if she were very, very unlucky. Fortunately, she’s got something to patch it with. The cogleaf is shiny and metallic, as she sews it into place to cover the hole. It’s a universal replacement part, the strange goblin fruit, and she’s applying it for a purpose. Back during the revenant crisis, the chain hauberk she’d worn to protect herself had stood out. More than she was comfortable with. But anything repaired with a cogleaf becomes unnoticable to mortals. They just don’t acknowledge that it’s something important.
Of course, the effect is reversed for anyone with any supernatural oomph at all. They’ll sense right away that something is strange about Wayland’s new suit of armor. But if she’s wearing it, chances are that anyone that’s more than mortal is going to notice something off about her anyway. But if anything like the revenant crisis happens again, something where she’s going to be both risking her life and exposed to the public at the same time, she can at least give the Sunbanishers one less oddity to try to cover up.
But when you’re a Changeling, you might get shot at. If you’re in the Summer court, the chances are even better. And when one of the local Strangers is known as Warmachine… Well, the military surplus flak jacket in her closet starts to feel like it might not be enough protection.
So yeah, the internet. You have to be careful to separate out the bullshit from the information that’s actually useful, but it’s still a godsend. Turns out you can actually order kevlar as a civilian. Even riot suits, the closest thing you can find to a medieval knight’s cap-à-pie armor. The idea is to have protection against blades, bludgeoning, and bullets all in one, from head to toe. That’s the idea, anyway, the execution? Well… buyer beware. Trusting your life to one manufacturer is not ideal. Besides, the best armor is custom-made and custom-fitted to the wearer. Wayland knows that, she’s made mail hauberks, plate cuirass, gauntlets and greaves. She just has to marry those skills to bulletproof materials.
She’s done some testing, in her workshop in the hedge. Ordered a few products over a long period, set them up at the far end of her shop (well away from anything combustible) and taken a few shots at it with her revolver and her rifle. Chopped and stabbed at it with her blades. Smacked at it with her hammer. What’s going to work best for her, she’s decided, is a suit assembled from components from a variety of different sources. Plus some custom-made plates, forged and cut by her own hands.
She’s surprised at how fast it goes. If she was making a full plate harness using medieval methods, it would be months, even a year of work. Even for her, and she can work with the speed of a team of four all on her own. But with many of the pieces pre-made, requiring only modification and assembly, and the rest forged by her own hand using fairly basic techniques, it doesn’t take that long at all. What takes a while is fitting. Making sure the suit is comfortable. That she can move in it, that it doesn’t pinch her anywhere. And that it’s still providing protection no matter how she might twist and turn.
What she’s left with looks like something that should go onto one of her movie sets. Armor suited for a scifi or cyberpunk adventure. She’s painted it in flat, matte colors that shouldn’t stand out too much if she needs to creep around, but that gives it an air of menace. She’ll be no shining knight when she wears this, no hero on a white horse. This is for killing, and avoiding getting killed.
There’s one final touch that’s needed. She opens the armored jacket, and cuts a hole in the kevlar behind one of the armor plates. It’s small, barely the size of her thumb. But a weakness. A vulnerability. A bullet could get through there, if she were very, very unlucky. Fortunately, she’s got something to patch it with. The cogleaf is shiny and metallic, as she sews it into place to cover the hole. It’s a universal replacement part, the strange goblin fruit, and she’s applying it for a purpose. Back during the revenant crisis, the chain hauberk she’d worn to protect herself had stood out. More than she was comfortable with. But anything repaired with a cogleaf becomes unnoticable to mortals. They just don’t acknowledge that it’s something important.
Of course, the effect is reversed for anyone with any supernatural oomph at all. They’ll sense right away that something is strange about Wayland’s new suit of armor. But if she’s wearing it, chances are that anyone that’s more than mortal is going to notice something off about her anyway. But if anything like the revenant crisis happens again, something where she’s going to be both risking her life and exposed to the public at the same time, she can at least give the Sunbanishers one less oddity to try to cover up.
Wayland creates a suit of Riot Gear (Armor 3/5, Strength 2, Defense -2, Speed -1)
Wayland spends a point of Glamour rolls Wits + Crafts to invoke her Maker kith benefit:
rolled 4 dice and got 2 successes. 7 5 10(1) 10(1)
Success. When Wayland wears this armor, the Defense penalty is reduced to -1. When anyone other than Wayland wears this armor, the Defense penalty is increased to -3.
Wayland incorporates a cogleaf goblin fruit into this armor: Beings without a Supernatural Tolerance trait can see the object, but it does not hold their interest or attention at all, and quickly slips from their memories. Beings with a Supernatural Tolerance trait immediately sense something is strange about the armor.
Wayland spends a point of Glamour rolls Wits + Crafts to invoke her Maker kith benefit:
rolled 4 dice and got 2 successes. 7 5 10(1) 10(1)
Success. When Wayland wears this armor, the Defense penalty is reduced to -1. When anyone other than Wayland wears this armor, the Defense penalty is increased to -3.
Wayland incorporates a cogleaf goblin fruit into this armor: Beings without a Supernatural Tolerance trait can see the object, but it does not hold their interest or attention at all, and quickly slips from their memories. Beings with a Supernatural Tolerance trait immediately sense something is strange about the armor.
