Hiko the Firechilde puts on riding clothes and sets out, looking for
Gideon.

Yumi asks, "OOC Okay, how do you plan to find him?"
Hiko the Firechilde OOCLY says,  "Ask around?"

Some of the servants think he went down to the city with Prince Ota's
friend Bill Vincent.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Hmmm... where do I find Mr. Vincent?"

"I don't know, ma'am, but he runs a weapon shop, so I'd guess he's
probably in the Ward of the Armorers."

Hiko the Firechilde nods.  "How do I get there?"

He gives you long and complicated directions.

But followable ones.

Hiko the Firechilde nods.  "Can I get there by horseback?"

The servant nods.  "It's in the city, ma'am, so I'm sure it won't be a
problem.  Although it is getting kind of late; not the safest place to be
after dark."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "I understand, but time is of the essence
here..."

Hiko the Firechilde wonders if she could get someone to go with her.

The servant nods.  "Just giving you a friendly warning, Ma'am."

You could probably ask Makoto or Misato to let you take a few castle
guards with you...or ask one of them to come along.

Hiko the Firechilde goes to find Misato... and prays that Blake isn't
there.

You wander around a bit and find Misato doing handstands in her office,
looking bored.  "Oh, hi, Hiko," she says.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Hello, Misato-san.  Er, what are you doing?"

Misato says, "Oh, just doing some exercises."

Misato flips back to a standing position.

Misato says, "I don't have anything to do tonight, and it's too early to
get drunk."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "I need to get a hold of Bill Vincent, a
weaponssmith.  I was told he might be in the Ward of the Armorers, and was
told that I might need an escort."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Can you recommend someone to me?"

Misato says, "I'll go with you.  Beats sitting around on my ass and
getting drunk by myself."

Misato gets her jacket off her chair and a sword off the wall.  "Bill made
Shaft that big harpoon gun of his."

Misato cracks her knuckles one by one and comes over to you.  "Well, I'm
ready when you're ready."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "It got broken in one of his recent battles, and
I remember him asking Mr. Vincent to make another.  How quickly does he
work?"

Hiko the Firechilde gets her cloak and nods to Misato to lead the way.

Misato says, "He can make just about anything a single person can carry in
a day or less."

Misato says, "It's part blacksmithing and part magic."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Wow."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Do we need horses?"

Misato says, "Beats walking."

Misato says, "It would probably be midnight by the time we got there if we
walked."

Misato heads for the stables with you.

Hiko the Firechilde calls out for a stable boy to saddle up Misato's horse
and Pepper.

You quickly get horses and ride down into town.  The weather is somewhat
damp and hazy at ground level, though the stars shine down from a sky only
clouded to the east, out across the water.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "That's the storm around Rebma, isn't it?"

Hooves clatter on cobblestones and the stench of the city arises around
you.  You can smell the wierd chemicals as you ride into the Armorer's
Ward.

Misato nods.  "The whole Gulf is blocked off now, I hear."  She stares off
at the clouds.  "It's as bad as the monsoon fifty years ago."

Hiko the Firechilde casts the SEP field around herself and Misato.

The streets are mostly empty, and the ground floors of buildings dark, but
lanterns line the streets and lights shine from upper story windows. 
Garish signs proclaim the glories of various weapon and armor smiths.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "What happened to cause that?"

"Just one of those freaky things that comes out of shadow every so often. 
The storm drove the ocean up into the city and levelled ten wards, and it
rained for a month."  She shakes her head.  "My first dog drowned."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Ick."

She nods.  "It only stopped when Derith came and made it go away."

Misato says, "First time I ever saw him.  He was very impressive to a
little girl."

Soon, a store comes into sight.  A big sign proclaims--Vincent Arms and
Bounty Hunting.  Inquire Within.

A smaller sign lists 8 am to 6 pm as their hours.  The big 'closed' sign
is up.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Well... do you think we should knock anyway?"

An odd, acrid smell wafts down from a window upstairs, along with
flickering light.

Hiko the Firechilde says, "I need some help with magicks to try and
dispell the Leviathan at the bottom of the whirlpool surrounding Rebma."

Misato shouts up, "Hey, Vincent!  Got a Royal here to see you!"

You page, ".... DISPELL the Leviathan?? o_O;;" to Shizumaru.
In a page-pose to you, Shizumaru o.o;

A middle-aged black man sticks his head out.  "Shouldn't you be drunk
right now?"

Misato shouts, "Shouldn't you?"


The man rolls his eyes.  "I'll be down in a second."

A few minutes later, he opens the front door.  "Come on in."

Hiko the Firechilde follows Misato inside.

The front room is full of bows, crossbows, swords, axes, halberds,
glaive-guisarme-glaives, and various very obscure weapons.  He takes you
behind the counter into a back room full of crates, which also has some
chairs.  He pulls you out one, points to another one for Misato, and sits
down in a third.  "Looking for some sort of custom job?" he asks.

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Yes..."

Hiko the Firechilde takes out the schematics Gabrielle made for her.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Can you help me configure this?"

Hiko the Firechilde says, "It's for a giant robot that channels Pattern
energy."

He looks up and down the diagrams.  "Interesting, but how do you get
enough Pattern energy to power it?"

Hiko the Firechilde says, "There's a cable running out of the robot that
plugs directly into the Pattern."

He looks over the plans carefully.  "I can make some of this, but you're
going to need the help of someone whose walked the Pattern and knows magic
to build this thing here which hooks into the Pattern."

He continues, "Probably someone with fairly substantial knowledge."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "I was told that a fellow named Gideon was on
his way to meet you.  Have you seen him?"

"Prince Shizumaru took him off to work with Wasyuu on something.  That was
yesterday.  Haven't heard from him since."

Bill continues examining diagrams.  "So what is this for, anyway?"

"I mean, what are you going to do with the robot?"

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Ah... okay.  I have the thing which hooks into
the pattern.  It's called a plug, and it's in Ember right now, along with
five miles of the cable.  Gabrielle's working on making sixy more miles."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Fight the Leviathan that holds Rebma in its
grasp."

He scratches his head.  "What keeps your enemy from cutting the cable,
causing you to lose power?"

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Well... nothing, I suppose.  It's highly
protected against any attack, I'm told"

"Well, if I had the help of someone with enough Pattern knowledge, I could
probably make one of these in about a day."

Hiko the Firechilde nods.  "I'll find someone for you."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Can I leave the designs with you?"

He says, "Do you have another copy?  Stuff does sometimes get burnt and so
on around here."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "No.  But I might be able to get one made. 
Gabrielle?"

You hear the sound of someone bashing the front door in.  "All right,
Vincent!  Come on out with your hands up!"  It sounds like some young punk
type.

Gabrielle bings. "Yes, sahib?"

Bill sighs.  "Doesn't anyone know what 'closed' means anymore?"  He stands
up, gets out a cigar, and lights it.

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Can we get a copy of the schematics, please,
for the whatsit thingie we need for the Pattern Eva?"

Hiko the Firechilde nods to Bill.  "Does this happen a lot?"

You hear at least a half-dozen people coming in the front door.

Bill says, "Too often."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Oh my..."

Misato rises and draws her sword.

Gabrielle says, "Sure!" She trumps four or five copies inot the room. "I'm
building most of it myself; you just need to built the tiny bit that
configures it for fire pattern or wood pattern or whatever."

Bill goes to the door to the front showroom.  "Okay, is this a robbery or
what?"

Hiko the Firechilde looks at Misato.  "Alright then... Gabrielle, you busy
right now?  We need help with some pest control."

"Give us the magic powder!" one of the young toughs demands.  It's six
young punks in leather with knives, whips, chains, and crossbows.

"I ain't no drug dealer," Bill says.

Hiko the Firechilde unobtrusively switches the crossbow to the longsword.

Misato nods to you, then looks out assessingly.

Gabrielle says, "Little busy, but I'm sure I can spare some time. What do
you need? Flame? A different kind of flame? Or the third kind of flame
that has trump in it?"

Bill says, "So who sent you boys?"

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "Maybe a quick teleport?  Sending these six guys
to a different location?"

"None of your business, old man.  Give us the magic powder!"

Hiko the Firechilde scans them quickly.

Gabrielle says, "Sure! I hear that Harad is absolutly LOVELY this time of
year!"

Bill digs under the counter.  "Hold on, let me get it."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Thanks, dear... any time you're ready..."

Six circles of fire open under the unfortunate thugs, who quietly drop out
of sight.

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Wonderful!  Good job as usual, Gabrielle."

Bill straightens up, holding a cigar box.  "Here...hey, they're gone."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "Yep!  We got rid of them for you."

Gabrielle says, "We aim to please."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "What is it that they were looking for?"

Hiko the Firechilde beams at Juri's ring.

He puts the box back.  "Well, that's one box of tracer powder saved."  He
turns to you and starts smoking his cigar.  After a few puffs, he says,
"Damned if I know.  Had some freaky monks in here earlier after 'magic
powder' too."  He shrugs.  "This city's full of crazy fools."

Hiko the Firechilde asks, "What's tracer powder?"

"You put it in a hollow crossbow bolt head.  When you shoot someone, the
powder spills onto them. If they get away alive, you can then track the
magic in the powder to find them."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "That sounds neat.  Pity I don't have any money
to buy any from you..."

He shrugs.  "Doesn't sound like something you'd need for deep-sea diving
anyway.  I'll start seeing what I can cook up, and you find me a Pattern
expert."

Hiko the Firechilde says, "You have a neat shop.  I'll come back when I
have more money..."

Hiko the Firechilde nods to Misato.  "Let's go."