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mc776The knucklebone jiggled in Sam's grasp as she took it from one point of articulation to another on the sheet. She shooed it away as it tried to head-butt her eraser as she made the changes.
Krys was going to be in town in three days. Sam was just glad her wife had no love for animated human remains, which made her job vastly simpler. The slaughterhouse and tannery at Hsion'Abaad were quite happy to let her glean what she needed and charged very reasonable prices.
It helped that she'd made damn sure before she'd set into town that none of her paperwork referred to the town as "Xionebarr". The locals had no love for the Commonwealth nor for what its official language did to their names.
She had two plans before her and only time and parts to build one.
The Sweet Little Piggy had about two-thirds as much carrying space in its trunk as Sam's horse, but could take up to two riders of normal (Kolodonese, not Xhel) adult weight. It probably couldn't run exactly, though its power-walk should be able to keep up with a horse and buggy assuming it didn't spook the horse. (In rocks or forest the buggy would soon be left behind.) A fringe could be done under the harness to keep most of the moving parts away from dust and prying eyes, but time constraints meant Krys would have to do the sewing. The design was familiar and she felt like she could build one in her sleep.
The Bearing Boar could theoretically lift up to three tons and carry such a load across even terrain for up to twenty yards. It could run as fast as a charging warhorse and would be able to knock down an obese, fully-armoured six-foot-two Xhel shieldmaiden with its reinforced iron head after a ten-foot running start. It could carry two short swords, two bucklers and maybe a couple blunderbusses inside it - not as much as Sam's horse or the SLP, but not nothing either, and that was not including any containers it could bear on its multi-arms. It would cost twice as much time, effort and money to make, including commissioning the local carpenter for some of the inside stabilizing work. There might be more delays if it went rogue and she had to turn it.
Sam grabbed her jar and another bone, and flicked a couple stray beetles back into the former. Krys needed something to help carry supplies and samples on her excursions into the Midbar. She would encounter nothing human there that would consistute a foe to be defeated in open battle - a fellow traveller here, a scarred refugee there, a deranged mutant yonder who might as soon flee from Krys' presence as turn into a million eyeless tentacled bees and devour the bones of whatever undead construct was in front of them. Sam had no technical, magical or social skills to deal with any of these that Krys could not do infinitely better.
And yet the Sweet Little Piggy still seemed like a cop-out. She moved the first bone back to where she had it previously.
Her horse's eyes lit up and it stepped out of the barn, turning towards the makeshift Imperial barracks to the south, mouth opening to extend its antenna.
Sam walked over to check the display. "hey tsuga its sgt bathtis u got ne wood glue the carpntrs run out of town some family emergncy so its diy day here lol"
Krys was going to be in town in three days. Sam was just glad her wife had no love for animated human remains, which made her job vastly simpler. The slaughterhouse and tannery at Hsion'Abaad were quite happy to let her glean what she needed and charged very reasonable prices.
It helped that she'd made damn sure before she'd set into town that none of her paperwork referred to the town as "Xionebarr". The locals had no love for the Commonwealth nor for what its official language did to their names.
She had two plans before her and only time and parts to build one.
The Sweet Little Piggy had about two-thirds as much carrying space in its trunk as Sam's horse, but could take up to two riders of normal (Kolodonese, not Xhel) adult weight. It probably couldn't run exactly, though its power-walk should be able to keep up with a horse and buggy assuming it didn't spook the horse. (In rocks or forest the buggy would soon be left behind.) A fringe could be done under the harness to keep most of the moving parts away from dust and prying eyes, but time constraints meant Krys would have to do the sewing. The design was familiar and she felt like she could build one in her sleep.
The Bearing Boar could theoretically lift up to three tons and carry such a load across even terrain for up to twenty yards. It could run as fast as a charging warhorse and would be able to knock down an obese, fully-armoured six-foot-two Xhel shieldmaiden with its reinforced iron head after a ten-foot running start. It could carry two short swords, two bucklers and maybe a couple blunderbusses inside it - not as much as Sam's horse or the SLP, but not nothing either, and that was not including any containers it could bear on its multi-arms. It would cost twice as much time, effort and money to make, including commissioning the local carpenter for some of the inside stabilizing work. There might be more delays if it went rogue and she had to turn it.
Sam grabbed her jar and another bone, and flicked a couple stray beetles back into the former. Krys needed something to help carry supplies and samples on her excursions into the Midbar. She would encounter nothing human there that would consistute a foe to be defeated in open battle - a fellow traveller here, a scarred refugee there, a deranged mutant yonder who might as soon flee from Krys' presence as turn into a million eyeless tentacled bees and devour the bones of whatever undead construct was in front of them. Sam had no technical, magical or social skills to deal with any of these that Krys could not do infinitely better.
And yet the Sweet Little Piggy still seemed like a cop-out. She moved the first bone back to where she had it previously.
Her horse's eyes lit up and it stepped out of the barn, turning towards the makeshift Imperial barracks to the south, mouth opening to extend its antenna.
Sam walked over to check the display. "hey tsuga its sgt bathtis u got ne wood glue the carpntrs run out of town some family emergncy so its diy day here lol"