Just another job Part 4 - Gardening tools
It took Rem close to half an hour to properly dress himself and that with the help of a professional maid.
Somebody once told him that donning armor was easy and... quick. One day said somebody was caught with her pants down and stabbed full of arrowheads, for you see – nobody could “armor up” on their own. Not unless you were wearing something light, like a gambeson and a chain shirt for example.
Rem looked at the nearest polished surface and carefully locked his metal mask into the helmet’s special grooves. Secured, that steel mask would not only protect his average looking face, but could also scare an unwitting bandit... or two. Forged by the same halfling armorer who created Cyant, the mask made him look like an undead.
Rem grinned beneath the skull shaped covering. Yes, it was indeed somewhat of a tired motif, but why change things when they worked oh-so-well?! The mask had a low tier enchantment which concealed his eyes, and the casual observer would see just dark, empty eye sockets.
Rem jumped and squatted a couple of times to test the fit of his suit, and walked over to the weapon racks. Nevermind that this was a simple job or at least that was what he thought at first, the solver of problems liked to be prepared. You never knew the challenge your destiny had spun for you that day, when you unassumingly walked out of your home. Altercations were sometimes unavoidable, and as much as he disliked needless slaughter, Rem thought that it was better to have the proper weapon in hand, that not.
Rem examined his collection of ranged weaponry.
At least on first glance this job promised to be a light skirmish, and his enemy probably a dozen strong. He outright discarded the notion of lugging his arcane musket around since Rem already had six of them watching his behind. Besides, the cartridges for this beastly thing cost him an arm and a leg.
Rem had also paid top coin for the services of said war band, therefore it was a needless expenditure for him to waste more gold on expensive ammunition. Taking into account the important fact that he had to shoot his chosen weapon in a forest environment, Rem had a somewhat limited choice. Nevertheless, his tools were well crafted and enchanted, their ammunition easy to procure on the Shadow market. He simply had to chose wisely a long-range stabbing implement which best suited the terrain.
The first weapon her picked up from his “gun rack” was a light, automatic crossbow.
“Loom” was a compact, light weapon of medium range and excellent accuracy. It was fed with five bolt clips by a lever which was part of the trigger assembly and allowed the shooter to load the next bolt. Said mechanism was perfectly maintained and oiled with alchemical grease, therefore it produced almost no sound when the weapon was shot.
Reloading, at least for someone experienced like him, took only but a single motion. Replacing the spent clip with a fresh one was a bit more time consuming but, still, it took a couple of seconds.
Of course, all bolt tips were drenched in poison. Cheap to make, the “Choke Death” quickly filled the target’s lungs with liquid, ensuring slow and agonizing death. The “nifty” side effect from that poison ensured that the target was also unable to scream for aid.
“Loom” was Rem’s weapon of choice when he had to go stealthy all the way. There was only one catch, however; sometimes the physically tough resisted the poison. The dark elves, for example, they were outright immune to it. Kan, most of the poisoners who made the stuff were dark elves themselves!
If that was not enough, this weapon was enchanted with “Night Watch” magic. This allowed Rem to aim perfectly well in the dark, no matter the weather. For a job as short as this one, he'd carry a total of two clips; one loaded and one spare.
"The Loom"
The second weapon Rem picked up was his War Bow “Stake.”
Somewhat bigger than his automatic crossbow, it was nevertheless a compact weapon. Crafted for his use alone, only Rem could draw it all the way. Everything was precisely calculated, both bowstring and the bow itself, so that he could make use of all his strength.
The weapon, just as any other in his arsenal was also enchanted. “Stake” had a Kinetic magic imbued in its bowstring and weak-footed, limp-kneed enemies were bound to fall square on their ass after being hit. That is, if they survived with an arrow sticking from their backs.
Bodkin arrowheads adorned all of its arrows; the compact quiver held ten of those, safely secured and muffled with oiled rags. When the archer pulled one from the quiver and notched it, there was nigh a faintest of sounds. Since it was a bow, Rem could also employ his many trick shots in battle; loosing two arrows at once or even a complicated curved shot.
“Stake” was a flexible weapon and he could usually count on its armor-piercing arrows to go through simple chainmail. Nevertheless, the bow strained him considerably and after a dozen of shots he had to take a breather.
Compact War Bow.
Last but not least, Rem weighed the “Tri-shooter” gun in his hands.
The three barreled carbine was much akin to his long arcane musket, but its charges were only a third of their cost. Its barrels rotated like a revolver’s cylinder; after firing, the shooter rotated a loaded barrel into position and then cocked the hammer. It was a muzzle loader and the arcane powder used imbued the musket ball with magical energy, therefore low tier projectile defense magic was all but useless against its shots.
This carbine was by no means a quiet weapon and had quite the kick. In most cases what you hit rolled dead on the ground with a nice gory hole... or a missing limb. A clear disadvantage was the gun took long to reload, around a minute or so in the best of conditions.
Rem usually carried nine cartridges; three loaded and the spare six all neatly packed in their loops on the weapon’s leather sling. His particular version was crafted in such a way that Rem could fire all three barrels at the same time... which he did... once. He spent a month after, healing his broken collar bone and dislocated shoulder.
Tri-shooter.
Scratching his neck, the solver of problems returned the Tri-shooter back on its rack and reached for his composite bow. Better to suffer sore muscles than broken bones, he thought to himself, and he could make good use of his beloved trick shots in that forest.
***