Yep, a black man by the name of Ol' Brody basically sorts the scrounged items for the shop and does most of the work of taking out the useful parts, doing minor repair, re-lubricating, straightening, buffing, etc. He's got a small foundry outside of the main RBW compound where he takes the unsalvageable metal to melt down. He does mostly cast items and blacksmithing. He doesn't have anything for making wire.
"Brody! Ah bin thinkin'" (yeah, I thought I'd remind everyone that I'm doing the Mississippi accent, but that's enough for now) "about all this metal work, and wondering if there's a way we can make wire. I've got an idea for a way to do it--don't know if it would work, but figure it's worth a try if you think it's a good idea."
Assuming he wants to hear it, I continue.
"The way I figure it, we have to smelt the metal like we were going to cast something from it, and pour it into something like a mold, but hot enough that the metal doesn't harden right away. Our mold should have a hole in the bottom, just about as wide as we want our wire to be, so that the metal we pour into the top will go out the bottom like a funnel. Then we need to have another tank right next to it, filled with cold water, and a nozzle at the bottom that will let the water out in a fine mist--lots of tiny pinholes in it. That way the cold water comes out in a spray that doesn't have enough force to distort the metal, but will cool it quickly. I'm thinking if we do it right, the metal should harden in a long string like a wire.
"Anyway, think it would work? Is it worth trying?"
--M. J. Young
Ol' Brody shrugs. "Reckon it couldn't hurt to try some, now. Ah kin help y'all with puttin' it all t'gether, but yer gonna haf t'scrounge yer own parts. All o' RBW stock's spoken for that tin-can they's a makin'. Them tiny drill bits ain't easy t'find, y'hear, but if'n yer careful I gots a couple."
He's got a furnace and a tipping steel tundish to melt the copper down. He's got tools and a lot of know-how, but this is your project.
"I understand."
It strikes me as a sort of catch-22. After all, my scrounging is part of my job, so whatever I find belongs to the company anyway; but if I'm going to build a wire making system, I am going to need to collect the materials for it.
I'm inclined toward a stone or pottery basin, partly because I don't want it to melt, and partly because if the hole clogs from the metal I can toss the basin in the heat and let the metal melt out of it.
I'm assuming that Ol' Brody has some equipment made of stone and/or terracotta. I'll ask him about clay and pottery as materials around here.
--M. J. Young
Ol' Brody does have clay-graphite crucibles if you want to use them, but the melting point of copper is well below that of steel so you could get away with using his steel one.
There are a few potters around, mostly near Newark. Mostly people use what they find in the junk heaps so there isn't much demand for new stuff. Not to mention its pricey. The clay is dug out of the banks of Sludge River.
I don't really want to drill holes in his steel crucibles; I need something like a funnel with a spout the diameter of the intended wire, that I can heat and still manipulate (so the metal won't cool on contact with the funnel).
Maybe I should start more simply. How far is the Sludge River, and how dangerous is it to dig clay there? I remember we pulled that truck out of the swamp to adapt the engine for beer; is that closer, and might there be clay there? Would Brody mind if I used his oven to fire pottery? I might take a trip out to Newark and see if I can get any pointers from potters out there, but first let me see what my options are here.
--M. J. Young
The swamp you pulled the truck out of is definitely closer than Newark. No one has heard of whether or not there's clay there but you recall that the mud is pretty sticky so it's likely there's some. It's possible that it might be harder to extract on account of the marshy ground. The river runs more or less east-west so it passes to the north of RBW as well. You could make a trip directly to the river without passing through Newark but you still have to go through Boot Hill country. As far as safety, there is always the fear of HOWard banditry, especially if you're headed north. The clans in Boot Hills are also fairly ornery and do not always take kindly to strangers. And if you fall in the river, may God help you.
Well, my first trip is to visit the potters in Newark and see what they are willing to tell me.
--M. J. Young
On your way to Newark, you stop off at the Duke farm. It has been decided that the stage will be built next to the orphanage. They have the space and the context is appropriate. Daisy, while she was waiting tables at the Boar's Nest, overheard that the Sherriff has hired a driver of a fertilizer truck to deliver him a bunch of reclaimed slot machines. The Dukes are complaining how crooked the "law" is in Bio-Hazzard county. No one else would be allowed to install slot machines in any business or clubhouse.
At Newark you find two potters. They are both focussed on smallish items like plates and jugs but they have large kilns to fire a lot of items at once. They tell you where they get their clay (from the river bank) but they usually go up with a few clan members in case of trouble. They could sell you clay if you preferred.
(GE=13)
I comment to the Dukes that if people really feel that way about the slot machines, they should simply not play them. After all, you can't make money playing the slots, only running them, and if no one is willing to lose money to the slot machines, you can't make money running them, either.
I'm mostly interested in what I can learn about how the potters make things--what do they use for glaze, how do they recognize good clay. I'll be clear that my interest is to make tools for use with metalwork, so the better I understand the process, the better I can adapt it to our needs.
I want to walk out of here with skill in pottery.
--M. J. Young
Getting the potter to chat would probably need a Charisma check (25, fail). Failing that, a Persuasion check (15, good enough).
You convince the potter that you're not going to into business in competition with him and you get to chatting about clays, kilns and glazes. He demonstrates and shows you his equipment. You feel well prepared for hunting for clay and firing your own pottery.
(MJ has 151% chance of success, rolls are 88 and 92. Gains 1@3 Oven Firing Clay T1@3 and 1@3 Glazing Pottery T1@4)
I thank him for his help, and before I leave I ask if I can pray for him. I'll pray for about a minute that God would bless his efforts, resting either hand on him while I do so.
I'm thinking that this would be a M+1@4 bonus checks, focused on his pottery skills, improving his ability at them for "about an hour", RS minutes is fine. I'm not really worried about whether it works, but if it does I'll want to add it to my sheet. I'd like it to be generalized, that it bonuses whatever technological skills are useful in the target's primary occupation.
--M. J. Young
(MJ has 180% chance to learn the spell. Roll=94. Gains 1@3 Bless Worker M1@4 Bonus Checks. Pray for a minute that God would bless his efforts, resting either hand on him while I do so. Bonuses tech skill package used for primary occupation. Duration: RS minutes. +5 SM)
He agrees and accepts your blessing. He is pleased and gets immediately back to work, seemingly inspired.
I note that the prayer seems to have helped, uncertain whether it's simply that it is ingrained into the culture from which these people arose that prayer helps or whether the prayer actually worked. I thank God just the same, and remind myself to keep magic in mind here.
I'll head back to RBW; probably my day will be over by the time I get there. If there's nothing pressing the next day, I'm thinking to visit the nearest waterway, which I expect is probably the bog from which we salvaged the truck. I want to explore the area and dig through some of the shore and bottom looking for something similar to the clay being used by the potters. A local source would be much better than one that requires me to deal with bandit types.
--M. J. Young
You can be spared so you grab a spade and head out to the swamp-dump. You spend the day digging here and there, most of the time up to waist in smelly (and unnervingly shiny) water. You find clay, to be sure, but next to a small island of garbage, on which is perched an old candy-floss machine, your spade brings up some premium clay. It's under a foot or so of water, but it's good stuff.
(GE=12)
I could wish for a wheel barrow, but I'm going to have to make due. I think I can probably manage about twenty pounds of the stuff, and with a bit of effort once I've got it to high ground and let it drain a bit I should be able to form it into a pyramid-like mound that I can carry back on the spade.
I probably couldn't get far with a wheel barrow anyway--but you know what, that truck had tires, and we didn't use the tires for the mecha I think, so I might be able to make something like a wheel barrow when I get back.
I'll take my treasure to Ol' Brody. "I'm not an expert, but this looks like good stuff, and there's more of it. I'm going to see what I can make of it."
I'll cart the clay maybe fifty yards or so from the heat plant, and get myself a bucket of water. If it's a big enough bucket, I'll submerge the clay in it. If not, I'll put part of the clay in the bucket with the water, and start working the rest.
I figure that the furnace has a door, and that limits the dimensions of any object I would fire in it. What are my limits? Or is it larger than anything I might need to consider?
--M. J. Young
You get yourself a big 50 gallon drum full of foetid water to put your clay in. The furnace has got a large door but it's not infinite. It is about 3 feet wide and 4 feet high.
You don't have any trouble scrounging up a nice wide tyre, some old piping and the stern of a canoe to slap together a serviceable wheelbarrow.
(Die Roll = 19. 1@1 Build Wheelbarrow T3@1 .
GE=11)
Excellent.
I probably have enough clay for my first project; let me see what I can manage.
This starts with a roughly rectangular shape, open on top, like a fish tank; its internal volume is about the same as two gallon milk jugs set next to each other, that is, not quite two feet long and not quite one foot wide and not quite one foot high. (I don't expect precision will be important.)
I will work the inside bottom such that it is low toward the middle of the length and toward one end; from the lowest point of the low end I will create a hole leading into a spout.
At this point, I will have to place the box on its (long) side so I can bring the spout away from the (short) side perhaps eight or nine inches out from the side and five inches down. The spout will narrow as it descends, coming to a point in which there is a hole between one sixteenth and one eighth inch in diameter.
At each corner I will extend a "foot", about six inches beyond the bottom. Using a board, I will make certain that all four "feet" are in plane--no, better idea. I am going to put two feet on the spout end, one to each side of the spout, and one larger foot in the middle of the other narrow end, this one broader based and perhaps an inch longer than the two on the spout end.
Hopefully I can turn this and place it upside-down on a flat board; I'm assuming that Brody has such tools for placing objects into the furnace. I will take care to adjust any part that appears to be sagging or out of line, where it is critical.
When it has had a bit of time to set up, I am going to place this into the furnace and fire-harden it. I'm sure that my pottery teachers gave me some ideas about how long to fire objects based on thickness and such.
Holding my breath on my first pottery project.
--M. J. Young
Carefully I will
It stays in the furnace for several hours. It is serviceable but it must have heated up or cooled down too quickly because it is somewhat warped. In addition, the end of the nozzle cracked so the hole is quite a bit bigger than you had originally planned - more like 3/8" diameter.
(Dice roll=05)
Well, that's a pretty big hole for wire, but I've seen wire that thick.
We don't have a water tower here, do we? I'm thinking that that would make my life a lot easier, but that I'm probably going to have to pump water from the ground by hand and put it in some kind of elevated container to make my cooling system. I'm also going to have to make some pipes of some sort, and a nozzle. Some of that I'll make from pottery, I expect, but I'm going to scrounge around a bit and see what I can find already here among the scrap. I'd love to find something like copper tubing or plastic or garden hose, and I think I don't mind having to patch something if necessary.
--M. J. Young
--M. J. Young
There is no water tower, and no indoor plumbing.
There is a pile of scounged pipe-like scrap in the RBW compound. It is a wild mixture of copper tubing (mostly around 1" diameter), steel piping (also in the 1"-2" nominal diameter range), plastic piping (3"-4" diameter), garden hose, and fire hose. All of it has been reclaimed from somewhere so they are complete with elbows, tee-joints, bends, crimps, cracks and ruptures. It is quite a jumble.
When Ol' Brody sees you poking around and pulling on one end of a pipe, trying to see how it is hooked around another piece, he sighs to himself. He brings you over to one of the tool sheds. One of the things they seem to manufacture here, instead of cobbling together from junked parts, is duct tape. When Ol' Brody swings wide the highway sign they use as a door, the pegs on the walls are full of rolls of nice, new, shiny duct tape.
"Ya'll be need some o' that if'n ya expeck t' fit all 'em pipes together. Good fer stoppin' leaks, too."
I thank Brody.
The first thing I think I want is a steel or iron pipe that's threaded on the end, preferably threaded to match the fittings of a garden hose--a valve such as would be found on an outside wall or by a washing machine would be ideal, although I think those might be brass--but brass might work. If I find one of those, I will disassemble it and save all the parts (because some of them will not withstand the heat).
If I don't find that, I'll go with whatever piece of heavy metal pipe I think can withstand the heat of the chamber.
I'm going to need to place a board over my wheelbarrow, the sort I can use to slide something large into the furnace, and work atop that.
It strikes me to look around for something like what I think rebar is--steel bars used to reinforce concrete. It might help if I can build a metal frame and encase it in clay.
The object I am building is a tub, probably cylindrical, probably between fifty and a hundred gallons capacity. The pipe extends from the bottom, and again I'll taper the interior slightly such that the entrance to the pipe is at the lowest point when the bottom is sitting on a level surface, and the pipe slopes slightly downward (through the clay) and extends at least a couple inches beyond. This is probably between two and three feet in diameter and the same height, maybe a bit taller. I'll build it from metal-reinforced clay and then roll it to the furnace and fire it.
--M. J. Young
You hunt around in the pile and find threaded steel pipe but none that fit a garden hose. You do, however, find a threaded brass that does.
Re-bar is easy enough to find and you borrow a sledge hammer to free it from the confines of the cracked cement piling its encased in. With it you build your clay tub 2 feet in diameter and 2 feet high (94 gal). You fire the tub but it doesn't go that well. The brass pipe melts and the difference in the thermal expansion between the steel re-bar and the clay causes the tub to crack.
(GE=20, skill roll=66)
It was not my intent to attach the brass to the device until after it was fired; the iron pipe I figured could withstand the heat, but not the brass.
I'll take my failure away and study it carefully, looking for clues as to how I could have done better, and then smash it to recover the rebar. I'm going to reconsider the thing and start again.
--M. J. Young
Scratch that about the brass--I was unclear. The brass melted, I need to find another iron pipe and another brass fitting for it.
--M. J. Young
You remember that the potter you spoke with had a large piles of sand, ash and sawdust that he immersed certain types of pottery into. It allowed him to vary the cooling time of the piece.
You attempt the tub again, with modifications, and this time you are met with success! But it is now the end of the week. Do you head back to the Duke farm?
(Skill roll=47)
Oh, I'll take my weekend off. As eager as I am to get this wire manufacturing system running, I don't think it's worth missing Daisy or her home cooking.
Anyway, I need an update on that fundraising festival.
--M. J. Young
At the Duke farm everyone is talking about the music festival. They've got Crazy Cooter (a local mechanic) to loan them a big truck with a half a tank of diesel to haul scrap to the site to build the stage. The boys (well, most Luke - Bo is often very distracted by Jill) have been visiting everyone nearby to drum up musicians and labour to build the stage.
Daisy is very pleased to see you and has one of your favourite meals ready when you walk up the lane.
I'm pretty easy to please food-wise, as long as it's not Mexican, Indian, or similarly too spicy; and Daisy is an excellent cook, so it's easy to find positive compliments, which I will be certain to mention, and to express my appreciation. I also tease her as to whether she's psychic, to be able to have the food ready just as I'm arriving.
I'll ask Daisy if she's got someone to accompany her when she sings, or whether I should get my guitar and see if I can learn her songs.
--M. J. Young
Daisy is pleased to have you offer to play the guitar for her. Her songs are very Country/Nashville.
The next day everyone gathers at the orphanage to ready the site for building the stage. Cooter hauls over a whole load of useful supplies and people get to work duct taping it all together. Shortly, however, a patrol car drives up and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane steps out and wanders over to your general area, adjusting his gun belt and cowboy hat as he goes.
"W-What's that you got going on there?" he says to the group in general.
I'll step forward.
"Good afternoon, Sheriff," I begin, using my southern accent. "I'm sorry, were we doin' somethin' wrong? Well, maybe I should tell you what all we is doin', an' you kin tell me where we erred." (I realize as I say that word that it's a particularly difficult one to do in this dialect, but there's no turning back now.)
"Y'see, the orphanage needs to raise money to pay its bills so's it kin take care of all these homeless kids who would otherwise become your problem, wand'rin' the streets and sleepin' wherever they kin find a place, eatin' out of garbage cans and stealin' food from votin' taxpayers. We don' want you to have to deal with so many juv'nile d'linkwince, so we is puttin' on a concert, featurin' the lovely Daisy Mae here whose new song you prob'ly heard on the radio, an several other wunnerful musicians who are volunteerin' their time and talents to play so's the orphanage can raise money to keep runnin'. An' these folk here, they is all volunteerin' to help put up the stage so's there's a place to play.
"Now, far as I know, this is still the property of the orphanage, an' if they wants to make some improvements by adding a temporary stage for a concert, I don't think no one would tell them otherwise--why, that would be a right Federal Union sort of thing to do, wouldn't you say, telling people how's they kin use their own property? That's not what our Confederacy is all about, is it? So I figure unless there's some law against building stages on your own property, or holdin' a concert to benefit a charity, or makin' sure that homeless kids have a place where's they kin eat and sleep and grow up t' be decent citizens 'stead o' juv'nile d'linkwince, we is prob'ly not doin' nothin' wrong. But you are the sheriff, so's if'n you think we's doin' somethin' wrong, then I do hope you will 'splain it to us."
I make this speech loudly enough for the whole group to hear. I am hoping on the one hand that the sheriff will see the logic of my position and be persuaded, and on the other that failing that he will want to avoid a riot and will back off. I'm talking to him from maybe thirty or forty feet away so that it doesn't seem unnatural for me to speak loudly about it.
Do I have my kau sin ke wrapped around my waist? I usually wear it as a belt, but it's not been mentioned for a while, so I want to make sure of my options.
--M. J. Young
"Ooh! Them Duke boys is all the juvenile dink-wits I need! But, ahh..." He looks around, thinking. "Oh! I got you! You're gonna need a permit for building that stage. And one for selling tickets to all the people. And if the Dukes are involved, then they're probably using this music thing to pass off their illegal moonshine."
"Well, thank ee for that information, sheriff. I am not actually in charge o' this here projeck, but I will see to it that the lovely lady who is gets your message. Now, where do we go to git the permits, an' what is involved in that? Also, I don' know if we're selling tickets or takin' a collekshin, but does that make a diffns?"
While I'm talking, my eyes are scanning for Jill. I want to put her forward to break the connection to the Duke farm.
"I know the Dukes have been helpin' out wi' all this, but they're not runnin' things. Daisy is real excited about it, cuzn she wanted to help the orfnidge, an' she shore kin sing, an' if that'll help the kids she's gonna do it. But the boys have mostly been haulin' stuff--I think Bo is sweet on Jill, an' there's no lyin' that you kin see why any young man'd fine her 'tractive, but I think Luke is here jes' cuz it needs doin'. I ain't seed their uncle nohow, though. Might be he'd help if he wuz axed, but no one axed him, an' he's got other things to do."
If I find Jill, I'll introduce her to the sheriff. "Sheriff here says we need permits to do some of this stuff, but mebbe I should let him 'splain."
--M. J. Young
You find Jill without problem. It turns out that permits are issued at the town hall but they are closed on weekends. The sheriff doesn't quote an exact price but it will probably run close to 200 bottlecaps.
It puts a major damper on the party and once the Sheriff drives off, everyone is kind of listless, tossing down tools and idly kicking scrap.
"Where are we going to come up with the bottlecaps for the permits?" asks Bo.
"Whoa, Sherriff? I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused here. We is all charitably workin' on a chari-table function here, to raise money to save the orfnige, soze there won' be a lot of juvnile dlinkwince makin' trouble for you, an' you sez we need a permit, but I don' know for what we need it. I don' know that we're sellin' any tickets; this was gonna be one o' those free will offrin' things, I think, or if not it wasn't decided. An' I don' see as we're buildin' anythin'--we're jes' settin' up a temporary platform soze the people who come to help the orfnige k'n see the musicians. It ain't like we're buildin' something here. It's more like we're stackin' some stuff and makin' it secure enough that it won't fall over when we stands on it--which I'm sure you will appreciate when we invite you to stand on it an show the good voters of Joisey how concerned you are for the welfare of these poor orfinned youngun's an' what a good sheriff you are what needs our support. If we don't build this, where are you gonna stan' when you talk to all these people?"
--M. J. Young
"I-I-I'll just throw them kids in the slammer! You know, if they cause trouble. Coo-coo! Boss Hogg wants that old wreck torn down so I'm not givin' any breaks on permits. If this stuff is all here tomorrow without the proper permits I'm arrestin' Miss Jill, you, the Duke boys and Daisy!" He says all this with a waggling, accusing finger. When he's done he walks back to his car and drives off, possibly to check on the profits from his slot machines.
(This calls for a Persuasion check. I'm torn between a simple and a difficult check. On one hand Ol' Roscoe does like the sound of his own voice, but on the other he's got orders from a higher power. I guess one cancels the other for a simple check. Dice roll: yoiks! 39!)
You know what? I'm starting to think that the worst thing in this world is Boss Hogg, and it might be time for someone to call his attention to the fact that he is not going to be the king of this world.
I will excuse myself apologetically, and say I have to see to something.
I need to check on the current condition of several objects, including:
- Kau Sin Ke ~8'
- Steel String Acoustic Guitar with Strap
- Muscle Toning Web Suit
- Monomolecular blade (T12@9): katana which can cut through practically anything, but it also erodes upon contact with stuff so that two good whacks at something and its practically useless until he sticks it in his scabbard (T14@2), and lets the blade re-crystallize. Damage: Annoying with varying intrinsic damage rider. On first cut it is Lethal, after every successful hit it drops one damage category until the blade is recrystalized in scabbard (which is a T14@2 device) taking 10 minutes.
- Scabbard
- The Visitor gray-on-gray superhero outfit with hood
- Lightning Carbine
- 3 Steeljack pistols, one of them superior to the other two
- Katana with Scabbard
- Metal case of 20 throwing stars
- 15 Steeljack Clips, 15 shots each
I want to check the condition of everything, and see whether the lightning carbine works (1@2 Create Ball Lightning M*9@7 range 10:30:60:120:+5/6 feet, RF1, damaging, must successfully aim and operate lightning carbine device to succeed.
1@2 Operate Lightning Carbine Device T9@1)
Once I've inventoried my equipment, I'll start working out the next part. I'm going to ask Daisy where Boss Hogg lives and where he works and where else he's likely to be.
--M. J. Young
All the things on your list seem to work fine except for the Lightning Carbine. It seems to create the little arc of electricity when the trigger is pulled but you can't seem to launch the lightning.
Daisy tells you that Boss Hogg has a large house in the country. He has his fingers in a lot of things. He can often be found in the back room of the Boar's Nest (the roadside bar that Daisy is currently waitressing in), sometimes in an office in Newark (counting his bottlecaps), or driving around in his huge white Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible inspecting his various businesses, properties and schemes.
I will put the muscle toning suit on beneath the Visitor suit, with the hood hidden, and put regular clothes over this. I'll want to be near the country house before dark without being identified or noticed, so I'm going to have to pack my other stuff somehow. The guitar and the lightning carbine stay here; I'll stash the other things in the canvas duffel for now.
Getting directions to Boss Hogg's place, I'll start out on foot. I'll want to get to the house and survey it before making any plans.
--M. J. Young
You find the Hogg estate without too much trouble. It is on a Compost Hill overlooking Sludge River but far enough away that the smell isn't persuasive. The ground seems quite fertile and the trees seem to be flourishing. The house itself sits in a wide clearing. It is a large, two-story house made in the style of a Southern mansion complete with white pillars flanking the front door. Like all other houses here it is constructed of salvaged materials, but the quality is much better than most. There is a large barn-like building set in the trees at the edge of the clearing, and judging by the dirveway leading up to it, it must be a garage. There is car track that leads off into the trees to somewhere else on the estate.
You are well-concealed in the tree-line and watch the property for a while. There are a few men tending to the grounds and buildings.