Solo How to Make an Enemy

[Malefic]

Winter 28, 512 AV

The blank sheet of paper was layed out before him on the dark wooden table sunken into the shadows of the common laboratory. He wanted to make something to demonstrate his logical ability, and creativity. But he needed to start out simple. Though he hadn't seen very much machinery, he was always fascinated by it. Simple rotating gears drew a sparkle in his dead eyes. Like a moth drawn to light, he was always drawn to the clanking of metal against metal, and the resulting outcome of something even as simple as a clock. Yet he understood practically none of it, him being more of an wild nuit rather than a civilized human. He squinted in the darkness for a moment or two, before standing up out of the oaken chair, and making his way to where a torn was hung against the wall, used as light for the experimentation there. Staring blankly at them with the eyes of a crazed killer, he swiped the torch from its holster, and strode back to his own place, placing the torch into a holster closer to where he was working. Ah... much better..

The feather and ink he borrowed from the lab lay gripped between his fingers, inked and ready to write whatever it's wielder desired. Which was, at the moment, as simple gear. Scratching noises echoed through his section of the lab as he escribed the picture of a horizontal gear in the dead center of the paper, following up by drawing another. This time, the additional gear was vertical. They appeared to be connected in Malefic's eyes, though to another it may appear as a strange and spiky circle connected weirdly to another weird a spiky circle. His eye twitched slightly. The OCD was kicking in. He sighed, and scrapped the paper, crumbling up into a ball and carelessly throwing it over his shoulder. Needs to look at least decent. He attempted it again, this time taking his time, and carefully moving his hand and casting the drawing into the third dimension, the best he could manage. It still looked kinda funny when he was finished, but that was ok for now. Now was to make it do something more.

Cracking his neck to the side and flexing his wrist, he leaned over his drawing, and focused. He drew a cube, representing the case of the machine, and proceeded to implement a lever into the side of it, connected directly to one the gears by the teeth, and held down by a metal screw. Malefic frowned. If I do that, the side of the nail will stick outside the case, casting the possibility of someone injuring themselves unnecessarily while using it. He snickered to himself. Maybe I should leave it like that, and then let a scummy pulser try to use it. Huh... He grinned widely, before reconsidering. Well, I want to use it...Bah... so be it. He scrapped this drawing as well, starting from scratch once more. Whipping a piece of paper from the large stack at the right side of the table, he placed it in front of him. He carefully inked the feather, and then redrew the two initial gears, the case, and the lever. This time, the lever would be held in by a screw going the opposite direction, into another section of wood of which Mal drew with the utmost precision that he was capable of. There... now by pulling the lever, the gears will move a bit. He peered over at the large volume opposite the stack of papers. Wheel and axel... check...Screw, check. Now to make it accomplish something... He stroked his rotten chin, and thought for a bit. An idea flew into his mind, creativity flowing. Ah... I see...

Taking the flint and steel from his cloak pocket, he placed them onto the table beside the paper, using them as models to artistically draw flint lined across the edge of one gear, and steel trimming on the other. An automatic spark generator. That may come in handy later... He finished up by sketching an opening in the side of the initual cube case, where the sparks would come out from. "Blueprints... done..."

[Malefic]

The fun has just begun.

Malefic shuffled through the shelves of the lab, searching through the Gadgeteering section and finding a few gears, levers, screws, and other such simple parts. He found what he thought he was looking for. Two equally sized metal gears, a wooden lever with a matching sized "tooth" at the end, a variety of screws, 6 thin plates of metal, and excitement. He chuckled madly to himself and made his way back to the desk bearing the blueprint as well as his flint & steel.

He placed one of the metal plates on its side and another on the table, pressing them together. Gah... welding... He sighed and, using a paintbrush he withdrew from a nearby drawer, dipped it into the ink, painting numbers on the inside of the plates. He labelled each one 1-6, the 6th having a small rectangle painted in the center. That's where he would make the cut , and thus have made a hole for the sparks to fly out off. Shifting his chair to the side, he stared into the gadgeteering book, written in Ancient Tongue and brushed off a thin layer of dust that hung there. After a few moments of reading the book quickly, he turned back to his series of parts. He placed gears on side 1-2, and drove a screw through the center of each one, making sure they would line up once the case was welded together. To test this, he used his index finger to spin one of the gears while he led the case parts where he intended them to be in the end. They spun together, but took quite a bit of effort. The screws were in too tight. Damn... He manually unscrewed the pieces, and rescrewed them with new screws, this time much looser. He spun the gears again, and found that they spun too much, too easily, and wobbled a bit as well. Too loose... I need to get it... just...right... As he thought, he screwed each screw carefully in more, minimizing the wobble of each gear, so that had more of a solid hold of each other. He spun the gears with his finger once more, squinting in the dark to see how much each wobbled. Perfect...

He checked his design again. If he messed up anything, he probably wouldn't know it until the end, once it was too late. The nuit mentally checked the direction of the gears, the flint and stone scraping against eachother, the lever pivoting on its joint. Immediately a few flaws were apparent. "Hmmm... Gears where going in same direction, obviously they wouldn't rub together very much. Also, there was no drawn hole for the lever to fit through. There was no simple way to make one of the gears turn the opposite direction held within Malefic's mind. To the book I go... Several pages where flipped, and he found his place. Changing the direction of force... A multitude of minutes passed until he finished reading the entire section of directional force a plethura of times. "Well... that was easier than I thought it would be." He only needed another gear connecting them at an angle. A smaller one. He stalked over to the supply chest in the gadgeteering section, grabbing a few of the smaller gears from small box and heading back to his isolated desk.

On metal plate #3, he placed one of the miniature gears on the corner, where it would interlock with the other two gears. The first one was too small. The second one, also. But the third one fit perfectly. Next came one of the screws he took earlier, screwing it into the metal plate and securing it. Next, he tested how it moved by manually moving it with his index finger once more. The tips of the two larger gears lightly scraped against each other. Now for the lever. Once more, he stood from his seat and traveled to and from the
gadget chest, this time retrieving a simple wooden lever with a sphere on the tip, serving as a grip. Sanded off and all, so it was smooth. It had a metal ring built into the center of it for a screw in order to give it a point to pivot on, and gear teeth at the very bottom. Staring at the pieces now, another problem became apparent. How to put the box together? Blacksmith welding would damage the gears and the levers. Ah! Another idea descended into his mind. Strips of bent metal, screwed in to hold the metal box together.

Now to cut the metal, and bind the box together.

[Malefic]

The next step was more strength than skill.

Another swing of the mallet rammed the sharp spike into the place of metal and partially through the table beneath. The next did the same, but slightly to the side of the first hole. Malefic repeated cutting the metal with the spike continuously until he made a rectangular cut in one of the sides. Reaching for the lever, he then compared it to the hole he just made. It didn't fit well enough for his taste. Not quite. The rectangle wasn't long enough for the lever to move far enough in either direction. So he went at cutting it again, lengthening each side carefully, attempting his best to make the rectangular cut just right. Once he finally deemed the cut fit, he tossed the piece of metal he cut off to the side of the table, and compared the gap to the lever once more. I think I'm getting better at this! He proceeded to cut another rectangle from another side of metal, this time for where the sparks will shoot from. He went about it with the spike and hammer, slamming the hammer repeatedly into the spike. He felt the familiar feeling of his late responding hands. That 1/10th of a second is killer...Gah...I despise it... He urged his hands to land another blow onto the spike, and waited the delay before he saw his hands respond. How many times had he nearly died because of that mere 1/10th of a second? 200 times, at least. Maybe even 300. The wild wasn't merciful in the slightest.

Despite the lack of immediate response, he managed to cut out another rectangle from the slab of metal, placing it on the right side of the table, alongside the other cutout. Good, good, good. Now, moving on to the pieces to hold it together... Malefic plucked both of the scrap metal pieces he cut from the larger slabs, and placed them in front of him. He blinked a few times. "How many edges does a cube have...? He looked it up in his thick tome of gadgeteering from the ancient days. 12 edges. That meant, he had to make 2 pieces of metal into 12 pieces of metal. It took him a moment, but he figured out the simple math, and determined that he needed 6 pieces for each piece of scrap he had. So he went to it with the hammer and spike, cutting each piece scrap metal fragment into 6 different pieces, once more giving it his all. The end result was roughly the same lengthed and width scraps. Good enough for him. The nuit began to assemble the entire box together. He bent each piece individually by placing it on the side of the table, and hammering it until it was roughly bent 90 degrees, before moving on to the next piece. In this way, he shaped all 12 pieces.

After punching a miniature hole in each side of every edge piece, he set up the cube, and screwed together the first two metal squares, the ones with nothing on them. He then proceeded to put together the rest of the case, leaving only one side open. The panel where the lever would go. Putting it upright, Mal stuck the lever in through the rectangular hole, and screwed the lever into place, where the teeth would meet one of the gears' teeth. Almost finished. He stood up from his chair, striding over to a nearby desk where he spotted some clay being used by one of the assistants. He hissed at the assistant, grabbing the clay from her hands, and walking back to his own desk, leaving the assistant to glare at him. Let her hate him, he didn't care. Ripping a chunk off, he stuck it to each of the larger gears, and then stuck the flint and steel on each glop of clay, using the clay to secure them to the gears. Now he just had to wait for it to dry, and seal the machine box. He smiled. First gadget, complete. It would go much farther than this simplistic machine, though. He had a massive ambition, and it had better things to do than dream about mere spark boxes. Sitting there for several hours, he simply closed his eyes and tried to brainstorm for ideas that would further his ability. His eyes whipped open. Malefic had several, but they were for another time. The clay is dry now. He gently placed the last panel against the rest, and screwed it in carefully. There. Perfect. Done. A wide grin crossed his face. The beginning small was small. The end? There will be no end. Now to test it... He gingerly picked up the box, and made his way to the center of the room. Glancing about him, the apprentices watched him with caution. Good... keep your distance, trash. He cranked the lever, and in response a small shower of sparks flew out the opening in the bottom. He snickered at the good result, and dropped the machine onto the table, a job well done.

Now... what next?

[Mirage]

Malefic

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Gadgeteering	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	N/A

It's Not What You Think...

Hey Malefic! So in your thread Malefic seemed to be a bit TOO good at gadgeteering. Honestly with 0 points in Gadgeteering he should not have been able to make a working leaver, let alone something as complicated as your Spark Box. However, because it was well written, and had plenty of details, I decided to be lenient this once and give you 1 point in gadgeteering to get you started. You may even add the Spark Box to your inventory. In future threads I expect to see a lot more effort put into each step, as well as a lot more failure. A novice Gadgeteer should not pick up on concepts so quickly. He should not be able to formulate complex diagrams and creations from scratch, nor should he be efficient when it comes to the physics portion of the mechanics. All in all it was a very well written thread, but realistically it was way out of Malefic's skill range to create the Spark Box. There were also no lores I could give you because you overplayed your skill level as well. Since this was your first Gadgeteering thread I am letting it slide, but in the future more details, more failure, more frustration, ect.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.