87 Glade 121
With his personal triumph over the field through the creation of very useful objects, Dakkur felt there was no reason to let himself stop as long as he was on a roll. The next one! The next one! What was the next one? Another device to stop a man in his tracks- non lethally of course? But what difference would something like that have from the bolas he made? Of course there was going to be a big difference as he was going to use some runeforging products, one of runeforging's most popular products used by people with means, the caster shells of a firearm. He knew if it was going to be him making caster shells or the firearms which went with them, it would be far too early but this was different. "I only need prefabricated caster shells you see, and a huge hollow metal rod with some odds and ends to make this work. What do you mean I can't? I thought we shook on it? But the test was a different thing entirely. No, no I thought she was the one who- I guess you are right about that bu- I understand but we shook on it. Yes, sure just this once. No you won't regret it" was a little of how his conversation with the boss went when he proposed his idea.Caster shells from the bad batch which would either be discarded or reforged anyway? Not a problem if his boss believed using only faulty shells would dissuade him. Those may actually be better! Dakkur took his picks of the lot, a few pairs of shells before he got to work on the device itself. While he had no confidence in making a firearm, he understood enough of the basic principles through twiddling with his own revolver to make something inspired. One long hollow metal rod, like the muzzle of a gun. Another chamber in the middle where all the magic would happen- well of course he knew it was not magic that was why he clarified, like magic. Science! The pair of caster shells go on both ends with a long wire tying them together like... yes, a long wire; eventhough the rod did not look long, most of that long wire was folded into the chamber. Then a button, finally, thanks to the guidance of that man he met in the park. The button would work the internals in the chamber, activate the caster shells... no that would not work well. After a few hours thinking on it, it was only when he thought he found the best way to extend the mechanism to reach the caster shells that he deemed it complete.
But he was not fool enough to test something like this himself. It used rejected shells and was even haphazardly put together. In a test site far away from prying eyes, even those of the magical community since he felt the less they knew about his work the better, slowly from the aether of the Cardinal Rune in his arm, Dakkur started to build a portal in front of him. The shimmering energies which distorted the air grew into the usual size. Not expecting much of anything else, he tasked the aether of the portal to pierce into the veil of the infernal planes and said the name of, "the great one. The toughest bastard to have walked. The hungry. The unyielding. I call upon you for your assistance and benevolence." Most of the other Doelish loved to summon infernals because their pride made them easy to control but Dakkur was one of the rare exceptions who hated their pride although he could appreciate the spirits ability to perform their concordant to the letter for the right price and if it was something they enjoyed doing. That said, despite their orderly nature, Dakkur was surprised to find the usual infernal to have somehow grown? It could not even fit through the portal so he had to go back into feeding more aether into it until it got big enough for him to pierce through it again. Talk about exhausting.
To appeal to the internal's nature, during the course of their negotiations Dakkur deliberately pointed out, "very dangerous, much violence, so explosive" which though were the reasons for his choice of a devil, oh right demon, were also what he thought would be the reasons for why this demon would be more enthusiastic about helping him with his tests. Devils, demons, it was all just semantics although for some reason despite being considered the same by most summoners, both dislike being compared to or being mistaken with the other which was why it was a lot more simpler to just call them infernals or infernal spirits collectively. But on to the point of just how hard it was to work with them even if compared to the other spirits of the planes they were comparatively better to deal with, "you know what are guns right? This is something made from it's concept. All you have to do is point at the target then push the button right ov- no! Not yet!" As demonstrated by how the demon acted in Dakkur's demonstration of the device, they thought so little of mortals that but for the higher infernals who proved they were smart enough to climb the ranks and thus were knowledgeable enough to deal with mortals with the best benefits for them, the majority of the infernal spirits like the grunt he was dealing with knew nothing about mortals other than as a source of wicked amusements and aether.
"Yes you'll get your aether, as you help me test this device and not get me killed by doing it wrongly. That's why you are only getting it after, remember? We have to be able to trust one another." Well trust was a strong word as only a stupid summoner would trust a spirit, especially if it was an infernal spirit but, if there was anything which Dakkur could trust it would be in its ability to survive anything which went wrong which was the only reason why he summoned an infernal, a fucking greedy infernal who needed to reminded that "your aether... after this is made, after you push the button, remember to tell me what happened andddddd, push it now!" while Dakkur was hidden behind shelter. 'Crackle crackle crackle' that was no good and then 'boom!' As always the demon was barely even harmed and thought it was fun, even if it was weak, "weak? Look at that wall by you It has holes in it!" and where did the device go? Exploded in the demon's arms. The parts? They were scattered all around. The cord? It was dangling over the ceiling, "how did it even get there? I thought you were supposed to observe what happened?" While forgetting to do the observations Dakkur could work with would be excuse enough for him to not reward the demon, Dakkur still had to use him and word would get round he was cheap even if he decided to summon someone else so he gave the demon the aether anyway. "I'll see you tomorrow then if you want more"
Now the question why did it explode? Was it because of a blockade? Too much pressure into the shells? Not enough pressure into the shells? Components tripping over one another? User error because demons were kind of thick? There were so many reasons but Dakkur decided to go with the most obvious and work with the changes from there so he brought the shells closer to the button in the chamber, added some thin rods to keep the cord tense enough to fly out and straight along the sides of the chamber so it would not entangle itself with something else. Hmmm, how the shells and cord are positioned now are not going to work properly and after thinking things through decided to add small little hooks in the shape of the caster shells on the ends of the rod to receive them. What else he wondered... Oh he could do this with the button to make it a less precise but more sensitive and add some knobs here to stabilize the caster shells and then a little hole all along this part of the rod for excess air to remove itself. Anything else? No, that should do.
Another day and another test elsewhere. Dakkur summoned the demon one more time who noticed they were in a different spot, maybe not so thick when it tried to use the change of location to get more aether out of Dakkur but Dakkur simply said the location was never part of their deals and as the success of his experiments were the more important thing, the change of location was actually important to make sure the results of the one day would not confuse the results of the other. Dakkur held his breath as the demon took a few moments to think before it accepted the explanation for the reasons it gave to sound like it was smart enough to follow Dakkur's reasoning and was not a complete tool the summoner could take advantage of. "Agreed, totally, shall we continue with the experiments sir? It's only you I can trust to not give up on it" he said as he led the demon on to the spot and quickly hide himself again as he did yesterday for the experiment to continue. "Of course it works!" he just spent a few days rethinking the design and fixing it. No explosion this time but according to the play by play of the demon Dakkur could guess of what happened. The hooks though they caught the shells interfered too much and reduced the energies of their travels and forced them to veer off to the point they somehow got entangled, again, and through the forceful return cracked and bent the metal bar according to the demon... whose hand dents seemed suspiciously on the right spot for the rod to bend on its own.
Was it trying to weasel out more aether from Dakkur by making him do a few more experiments than he needed? That could very likely be the case but again because he needed its cooperation he decided not to confront it and sent it on its way with its reward. Whatever happened next, Dakkur was sure one more try was all he needed as he had found the actual cause for the problems. He had been too focused on the caster shells being the right way to progress and eventhough he was now sure he was closer to making his own guns, he was no closer to making this device and scrapped the idea of using caster shells altogether. Another few more days and he finally settled on a new idea. Instead of caster shells, why not what it was made out of? He had new metal spikes made which would fit nicely in the openings of the rod and then inside the chamber made adjustments to properly set a windstone- viscerite gem which had been made by himself. Nothing too fancy but something which would activate with a sharp burst of air in tandem with the push of the button. Would it work now?
With the risks of danger no longer present after the removal of the caster shells, Dakkur no longer had a reason to use the demon's services especially since he terminated their concordants promptly with the performance of his payment in aether. However there was also the consideration of the unwritten side agreement, the old informal handshake deal where the unyielding demon would see the creation of the device through. Dakkur could just ignore but the aether and his patience saved would be negligible to the very significant consequence of no longer being able to summon this demon in amicable conditions or, its friends once word got around if Dakkur got to searching for more names to call upon. Maybe he was thinking too much about the affair but he summoned the demon anyway just as he did the last few times. "You only need to push the button gently now, if you use it wrong, you might lose an eye" and whatever he thought about the lessened risks, Dakkur nevertheless took cover because there was no fixing user errors. 'Wooooosssshhhhh. Clunk! Clunk!' Was it supposed to do that? "Yes it worked! Thank you for all your help wise one, here your payment." But what about the boom? The explosions? The making pain? Well this device could cause some pain depending on how Dakkur made use of it but it was never meant for that, still "I've learned a lot from this and I'll call on you again next time when I actually try making a gun or another pain inflicting instrument like this if you want?" No it was no promise, just a polite offer.
