"One of the scariest possible demons, good as fuck at fighting and have some spell-likes and also when they die they explode."

"I'm feeling the sudden itchy urge to make a rocket bomb. Or five."

"I dunno what that is but it sounds wicked. What do you need?"

"Hmm so - the explosives and propellant are going to be the hardest part out of all of it, it can just be a dumb fucking brick that goes in a flat arc, no fancy guidance. Maybe make a rangefinder? Some nitric and sulfuric acids, some glycerol - or maybe other alchemist stuff, I hate dealing with raw materials though it's way more work - glassware and tools for working with it, then I can mix up solid propellants and some high explosives. No, I can probably whip up something less - good, with like, acid and wood pulp. Bit of cold iron for the shaped charge liner, since it hurts demons, maybe up to a pound of it? This'd get converted into a jet of molten- Wait fuck, heat ruins it. Nevermind that. A bunch of iron or steel to work with, and the use of the smithy for a while."

"I think balors might be one of the ones where cold iron doesn't even work, or at least doesn't by itself and it has to be holy too, or something. Really if this happened we'd call in a strike team and half of us would die waiting."

"Joy and celebration. ...Anything tend to slow down the really scary ones? Block their vision with smoke? Glue bombs? Blinding light... Intense noise?"

"Sonic damage works on demons fine, if you have a way to deliver it! The other stuff might help, I don't know off the top of my head if any of the balor spell-likes are good for handling glue or light or smoke but I guess if you make it spend a spell-like that's still decent."

She rubs her hands through her (ponytailed, today) hair, then on her forehead.

"Smoke bombs are pretty easy. A noise cannon would be... Expensive. A really bright lightbeam, same. Rocket bombs are, like, single use crossbows. That shoot bombs. Damage is damage. If I make a batch, fort can have 'em as emergency gear... For use against demons and obvious allies thereof particularly. Could volley 'em against a Balor if one shows up."

"Damage isn't damage, that's the whole deal with the cold iron and the holy bow and stuff versus the everything else."

"I was under the impression it's a lot harder to hurt them without those, not impossible?"

"Yeah, if you hit them hard enough. It's just that's really hard."

"A big enough warhead will knock a mining suit's drill arm clean off and that's an inch and a half of good steel."

Hand-wobble. "I don't know if you can compare straight across unless the steel's enchanted."

"Something else to test. When I have more... Money. Smokes, what could make a lot of money... Spellsilver refining... Steelmaking? Industrial cloth...?"

"I mean, depends how good you can do any of those things but yeah, all of those, if you're gonna make a magical crucible that refines twelve grams of spellsilver a day you'll clean up, if you're gonna finally crack the problem of sticking an unseen servant to a loom same deal."

"-Oh, I was more thinking a power loom. Steam engines and waterwheels are wonderful things. What are the limitations of unseen servant, could one turn a millstone like a draft animal?"

"No, they're not that strong. They're passable at spinning but weaving's too hard for them."

"...What I should do, is figure out a logging trip. Some wood to work with would help. Spark at wood hard enough and, like, paper, experiment with some acid splash and maybe get some plas or explosives out of it. Is it terribly dangerous to do so alone, aside from the cold?"

"I mean, yeah, elevated risk of demons all around the whole place because patrols don't always catch them right off, plus there's sometimes like a bear or some shit."

"So figure to go along with a patrol or something that was planning it?"

"It's not a patrol if they're going out to the trees, but a squad, yeah."

"Life at a fort is really all about finding stuff to do, huh..."

"Some people just take lots of extra patrols for the bonuses."

"More than just extra food?"

"Yeah no there's a pay bonus too, if you go on enough of them. Like, only if they want you, you can't just follow a squad and go 'I'm helping' if they wish you would die the entire time, but when we're understrength you can usually pick up as many as you want."