Return to the Pearl

It was his first return to the sunken manse in over two years. Ebon ducked the low hanging entryway and guided Oarman inside by the light of his anima. The eerie darkness still clung to the edge of the light; gnawing and searching it looked for a way in. Beyond that were only the voices.

Oarman was saved from their taunts now, but Ebon knew the meaning of their words. His first venture they were curious, but now they wanted his attention. However, they were unimportant.

Quickly he made their path to the archive. The tomes had hidden their secrets before in ancient unknown script. Now he could read these diaries of older times. The most recent (or, at least, least decayed) recounted a failed plan.

"Had the terrestrials not already looted this place, we may have been in a better situation. As it stands, Manet and I have only a handful of combat artifacts to hold off the Uprising. I managed to store into the archive as many basic combat artifact designs as I could before I AM died in hopes that we can keep the mortals armed well enough to hold back the others until help arrives."

Further on

"Supplemental, I have managed to restore communications with a mortal led fleet of ships near the south eastern most teleport location. They are reporting that it is heavily guarded in the event of my landing. Manet thinks we can modify the control center enough that we can send a detonating PSV instead of the manse. If we can get through soon enough after the explosion, we might be able to maintain the geomancy of the demesne. Worst case scenario we have a defended position and have captured the Dragon-Blooded between two armies."

Oarman interrupted him, "Ardmiral, I have only managed to find full plans for three artifacts. There are, however, partial plans for at least a dozen more." He unrolls the first set of scrolls, "These seem to be called Tiger Shark armor. They allow mortals to attune, can be used under water, and seem to be rather simple." The scroll was made of many layers of a transparent material. Laying them all out presented a beautiful sketch of high first age armor. Peeling each layer back revealed a single component and the precise method of making it.

"And this one," rolling up and unrolling a second scroll, "appears to be a magitech engine. What is actually amazing is that it requires no external power source, it runs on essence respiration alone. There is also an example of a flying craft made using this engine as a heart."

"And finally, " unrolling the last one. "a Lightning Ballista" they say in unison. Oarman continues unfazed, "these set of plans include the basic model, but they also describe how to build more advanced units. It will take me time to fully understand the upgrades."

"So, Togeri, what can we make?"

"It is feasible to assume that the skyships and ballista will take two week each, but I think we can equip the preisthood sufficiently with materials from the Wyld that they can build a set every two days given a three month lead time and appropriate labor."

"Good work, let's get back to the boats."