Azure: Gunner

Attaching a piece of armor to your baselayer makes it a component of your Class Armor. There are only two requirements – the ‘weight’ of the piece and its Level both must be equal to or lower than that of your baselayer, which is the same Level as you. An armor component will mold itself to fit perfectly and remain in place as if attached tightly with straps made of the same material as the armor. It takes on the effects of your armor mods, and can be cleaned and repaired by feeding mana into your baselayer.

The incredible convenience leads to the common stupidity that anyone can use any armor component regardless of size or shape. To disprove this, just give an orcish friend of yours a dwarven breastplate and see what happens when they put it on and it gets stretched out like a tin can. Fucking hilarious! Gets me every time. In fancy terms, the mass stays the same, only the shape changes. Also, if you don’t have an orcish friend, get one! Great big companions are another form of armor that doesn’t depend on your baselayer.

- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 6.3 – “Armor components”

Thanks to Block’s generosity, I ended up with the armor components, both dregs, two t-shirts, a long-sleeve shirt, a pair of thin gloves, some socks and underwear, a pair of shorts, and a medium weight canvas jacket with a thin quilted lining that was big enough to fit over my armor. Even with all of that, I would still have a little over six eagles left.

“Hassan, am I going to need to spend money on anything else soon?”

“Need? No, I don’t think so. You might want to be able to buy a beer or two, but you shouldn’t have to spend anything for a while.”

“I don’t like beer,” I told him, then looked at Billings. “I’ll also take two Level 2 mods, one weapon and one armor.”

He beamed, pleased. “Wonderful, Miss Zimmerman. Your total will be 11 eagles, 4 talons, and 2 feathers.”

I instructed PAST to transfer him the amount, and suddenly I was down to a more comfortable 4 talons and 7 feathers.

Hassan helped me fit everything into my new pack. The belt with canteens, pouch, and knife went on my waist. The knife was small, with a blade about four inches long, useful for eating or cutting a rope. According to Hassan, it belonged on my belt and not in my Inventory in case of emergencies.

Billings had me wait while he disabled the store’s alarms. Those would go off if you put anything into Inventory, to help catch thieves. I wasn’t sure if we had any of those in Sunland, but maybe someone would be tempted if there weren’t any protections. The pack and the rope, but not the waterskins, went into my Inventory, draining my stamina noticeably. It felt sort of like I’d just run around the block a couple of times, but I wasn’t breathing hard or anything. It was a strange sensation, but I’d get used to it.

The armor components went on easily, magically attaching to my baselayer. The added weight felt reassuring. I wanted to use the mods on the spot, but Hassan said the others were waiting for us in the square, so I slipped them into my new pouch. Carrying the bulky waterskins, we found the rest of the group in the square near the inn.

I’d thought I’d met everyone, but to my surprise there was someone new standing with them, someone who looked nothing like anyone I’d met before. Most obviously, his skin was a stone-like grey. The shade varied slightly, making it look a little bit like rock, but as we got closer I could make out that it was actually smooth, like regular skin.

His eyes were a golden color, with no whites, and he had no hair or eyebrows, though his other features seemed relatively normal. He was about 6’ tall with an average build, and he was wearing a set of dark blue robes with a few pieces of leather armor. Identify.