Episode Two: Gone are Better Days
At the armory, the group is taken in to a room with a vault door on it. Inside, a plethora of firearms hangs on three of the four walls. Rows of shelves also line the room with various suits of armor (some familiar looking, some not). On the fourth wall, an assortment of combat shields, trench raiding clubs, and bladed weapons adorn the built in racks. A gruff looking older Marine with an eye patch guides you around the room, showing you what's available.
Of the fire arms, the primary categories are trench guns (shotguns), long range single shot rifles, medium range bolt-action rifles, and short range burst rifles. Each gun the three of you look at appears to have been meticulously cleaned and oil. Even the wooden stocks smell of linseed oil.
In a small section of the wall there are several large guns with what look like small drums attached to the bottoms. You're told they're called "light machine fed guns" or LMFG's for short. They look anything but light, and you're also told these weapons are used more so to lay down prone with and send out a blanket of gunfire rather than carry accurate marksmanship. The armory marine leaves an open invitation hanging in the air to answer questions about each weapon and its available rounds. Beside the LMFG's there is a gun with a barrel that by Shiaran's reckoning has to be at least five foot long, and the inner diameter looks big enough to stuff a small apple down it. There are two sled-like feet that stick off just as the barrel starts, and look to be designed as a way to rest the gun on the ground. The marine calls this the "rocket gun". "This baby here will punch a hole through dang near anything, if you got the stones to shoot it. Only way to do so is be layin' down though, and even then you're gonna scoot back at least a foot in the dirt. This one here is our own design, after we picked something similar off a PCA unit that was tearin' up our armor columns. Ours shoots a really big bullet, but their shoots all sorts of stuff. Fireballs, frozen orbs, acid canisters. If you can pick on theirs up out in the field our boys would sure be happy to have it on our side".
There are several smaller guns hanging on the walls as well, each designed for being held in a single hand and fired. Before the three of you entered your stasis, you'd heard of gnomish designed "pistolas", which operated like small hand held cannons. Slow to load, but good for a single attack. These on the other hand, like their larger rifle cousins, seem to utilize pre-packed cartilages of dragon's powder tucked behind a lead slug, and offer multiple shots before needing to be reloaded.
Over on the melee wall, cutlasses and scimitars, as well as curved long swords similar to the Whiteraven's katanas can be found. The varieties cover a range of one handed and two handed sizes. Five complete suits of full plate also hang on armor stands. They look exceptionally bulky. You're told they're extra thick on the torso and face areas, and reserved for assaulting trenches and bunkers. They weigh enough to bog down even the toughest of humanoids, but the protection they offer negates small arms fire and non-magical rounds. Next, you're shown a variety of maces and clubs, both spiked and non. The marine refers to these as truncheons. Some of them carry wicked looking barbs that would almost qualify them as elongated morning stars. Next to those, there are several steel shields that appear to be made for combat. Each has several runes etched into the perimeter of the shield face, and if the three of you didn't know any better, they almost seemed to be floating in place.
In the center of the room are several tables with shelves on top of them. They hold a variety of ammunitions, packs for everything from rounds to sleeping equipment to field mess kits. There are small hatchets, and small shovels as well used for digging trenches. The shovels have a knife edge on one side of the blade, suggesting they can be used for self defense if need be. Sealed metal tins marked "F-RAT" are stacked in neat rows. The marine explains these are field rations. Easy meals on the go. They taste terrible in most cases but they fill an empty stomach none-the-less.
There are more cylinder shaped cans as well, each with a symbol painted on the side. One type has a flame painted on it, while another has a series of lines radiating out from a center point. Another has what looks like a cloud painted on it. The last, has a skull and cross bones painted on it, but the skull is a strange looking mask.
Sitting on a stand in neat rows are the strange looking masks you saw on the cylinder, which the marine referred to as "'nades". They have what appear to be glass eye coverings and a sort of attachment at the mouth area, that looks like a puck. The mask appears to be designed to fit over one's entire head, and has liner around the neck area that looks similar to a lion's mane.
Finally, tucked over in a corner is an odd looking contraption that has a sort of tripod shape to it. Sitting next to it is a large satchel that looks to be filled with tin cans of some sort or another. The lids of the cans are hinged, suggesting they have something inside meant for quick retrieval.
One of the walls has a door way sitting in the center, with the word "UNIFORMS" stenciled on it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:38, Sat 08 Apr 2017.