Two miles southwest of the RHC Headquarters, in the largest public park in Flint, the expo resembles a small tent city. Dozens of small booths, a score of modest tents, and a trio of huge pavilions house the various vendors.
Pavilions
In the centre of the park, these semi-permanent structures are near the recently completed and lavishly appointed Kaybeau Subrail Station.
Military Tent
Here the Risuri military demonstrates its technological grandeur. Officers guide guests through small models of famous battles, each with progressing levels of technology. A small museum showcases weapons and armor, trying to win propaganda points by presenting firearms as if they’re a natural development, while offering only brief mentions of magic in combat.
One massive installation displays the cross-section of a scaled-down R.N.S. Coaltongue. For a gold piece, a visitor can fire a cannon into the outer hull. A small field is littered with flattened cannonballs.
Rail Tent
The conglomerate of businesses who coordinate with the Royal Rail Ministry give visitors here only one path through their exhibit. First, models show the mechanics behind steam engines. Then a somewhat ominous hallway has a relief map of the Avery Coast, with a model train constantly running the length (powered by magic). Flags mechanically rise and fall as the train passes through foreign nations, and a guide helpfully points out that the rail line, funded mostly by Danorans, is almost ten times as long as Risur’s own railroad.
But the exhibit climaxes with a huge room thrumming with the sounds of trains. Here a scale model of Risur shows five majestic rail lines criss-crossing the country, while guides tout how much the nation will prosper from the faster travel.
Industry Tent
Completely ignoring the civil unrest over the past half year, this pavilion highlights how much industry and the factories of Parity Lake have improved life in Flint, and presents a vision of the city of the future. A steamboat adorned with gorgeous women cruises around an indoor lake (subtle fans in the ceiling clear out the soot and steam). A model of the city is enchanted with an illusion showing “heroic” smokestacks sticking up from the Cloudwood, and steel towers rising everywhere.
Major Tents
In a ring around the main pavilions, twenty large tents anchor the swaths of smaller booths of individual vendors. These tents belong mostly to local factories, with a few national and international arms manufacturers. You can find any sort of non-magical weapon, armour, or technological invention here, as well as a few magical ones.
Apex Tower Construction
A local construction firm has no tent, just an open patch of ground, and throughout the expo they build a tower. Starting on the first day they dig a bit to lay a foundation of stones and steel. Using techniques
fairly advanced for Risuri society—including primitive welding—they will manage to reach 50 ft. high by the end of the month.
Colleen Fuel Prospectus
Funded in part by Risur’s military, this company has been experimenting on using different fuels for mechanical engines.
Gonzel’s Cannery
A half-orc culinary entrepreneur is showing off his canned foods. People can buy a can full of food, which his cooks will prepare. Then, in a rough mockery of the Apex tower, he begins stacking empty cans on a table. By the end of the month, he’ll have to stop because his tent isn’t high enough.
Liontamer Mechanical Orchestra
The tall, wise-cracking owner of this tent builds crank-powered musical instruments that play themselves, from simple music boxes to his showpiece “orchestra,” which has a piano, four violins (each playing just one string), a small drum set, and bellows that pump air through bassoons and oboes.
Pemberton Industries
The wealthy Benedict Pemberton hosts exclusive parties here for aristocrats and high-ranking members of government and military. Wary guards keep away the uninvited, but you can catch a glimpse of Pemberton, who was one of the guests aboard the Coaltongue the day of the sabotage.
Sechim’s Alkahest and Alchemicals
The alchemist is riding a wave of popularity and selling intricately etched glass and weapons to fair-goers. He also lets people play a game of 'Taste the Acid,' except the acid is just really strong liquor.
Swords of Tomorrow
This tent touts various bladed weapons that are precision-made with high-quality steel refining techniques on a large scale.
The Trinket Stand
This tent is a cooperative venture by several trinket sellers. They offer various knickknacks that seem out of place at a technology fair, but do brisk business because people are already here with money to spend.
Stage Area—Gun Alley
On the northern edge of the park, a stage hosts daily performances of local orchestras, international celebrities, and the occasional military reenactment.
Area 1. Gun Alley Stage
Backed by a wooded hill, the stage is shaded by a large canopy. A broad field in front of it is often full of audiences.
Area 2. Rock Rackus’s Tent
Famed explorer and musician Rock Rackus is scheduled to perform on the stage in the afternoon, followed by a lecture about his journey to the moon, then a book signing.
- Arrested for accidental manslaughter while trying assist with the monsters released on the Incident on Autumn 1st, he was released a few weeks afterwards with a large fine and some minor penalties. Still performing.
Area 3. Shooting Range
Using a reinforced hill as a safety backdrop, Timothy Lammers, an enterprising war veteran missing half his lower jaw, lets people test fire weapons sold by nearby vendors. In exchange, the vendors give him a tiny share of the profits.
Area 4. Al’s Ammo.
A Drakran dwarf named Alfonse Irongut sells a variety of magical ammunition at this huge tent-booth.
- Simon Langfield started the Incident here while trying out the Ancient Staff he bought from Kaja Stewart in the smaller shooting range in this tent.
Area 5. Badger Gun.
A pair of gnome twins named Fildi and Dilfi decided to combine their two favorite things: badgers and guns. They do not understand why not everybody is as excited as they are about their badger gun.
- Later found experimenting with a couple badgers that appear to have been mutated by exposure to Apet (Gidim?) energy during the Incident.
Area 6. Nock’s Gun.
Nock, a half-giant from Ber, had a brilliant idea. If a gun that shoots one bullet is good, one that shoots seven bullets is better! Unfortunately current gun barrels aren’t strong enough to survive the shot without magical girding, so the weapon’s prohibitively expensive. And the gun has some recoil issues for people shorter than 7'5". But that doesn’t stop him from selling the weapon.
Area 7. Steam Powered Armor.
A group of human and tiefling engineers from Danor, led by a straw-chewing halfling named Alloquicious, have constructed a prototype of a new kind of armour, one that uses steam power to enhance the wearer’s strength, speed, and resilience. Unfortunately it’s experiencing technical difficulties, but Alloquicious is itching to test out the arm-mounted flame-spewer.
- Ernst Gohins managed to point out some of the faults with the machine, but it was shortly thereafter confiscated by the RHC after the Incident. Returned a few days after the assault on RHC HQ, with the closure of the case.
Miscellaneous Tents and Booths.
Several other vendors sell more mundane arms, or offer gun-themed accessories like holsters, bandoliers, paintings, and ten-penny novels about gunslingers.