Thomas and Gendry were hard at work at the forge, making small brass circles. Those small circles were then placed in a new press they had made. 20 circles were pressed into casings to hold gunpowder and a small lead projectile. Those casings were then to be loaded into prototypes of handguns. Another press made casings for shoulder guns. They had made 6 prototypes for the handguns, two of which were given to Tormund before he entered the portal. The handguns would hold five casings; when one fired, the barrel would spin around to the next casing. Their prototypes of the larger shoulder guns were still having some issues, but they were certain they could resolve them in time to go into mass production before the counter-invasion. Thomas envisioned a thousand troops armed with shoulder guns to give the wind ships a real ranged attack force. The gun corps had been testing new cadets for excellence in firing the powder-loaded small guns to create a larger force. Testing with the shoulder guns had produced a range of just under a quarter mile, plenty to keep enemy ships at bay. The accuracy wasn't good at that distance, though.
Satisfied by the production from the new presses, they rushed the plans to the stone-kin forges where mass production of casings and presses could begin. They were still working on the aerodynamics of the lead shots, as the round balls were not easy to maintain accuracy with. When the Thrain cast the first big guns, they had added small spiral guides to the insides of the barrels. Creating similar spirals inside the tiny barrels of the shoulder guns was giving them fits.
While they were standing amazed at the mural inside the portal, Hassan turned toward the doors at the end of the room. "Get ready," he said, "Something's coming!" The doors burst open, and eight strange creatures burst into the room. They stood about 5 feet tall and had greenish, slimy-looking skin. There were scales in some places on their bodies. They dripped water on the floor and made brutish guttural noises that might have been communication. Their heads were humped over and appeared like fish heads. The creatures charged at them.
Intevar shouted, "Cover your eyes, those are Old Ones from the deep." He cast a globe of light that rose over the creatures and burst into a brilliant explosion of light. The creatures froze, blinded. Tormund laughed and said, "Now cover your ears." Arya looked at him incredulously as she covered her ears and then watched him pull two handguns from his belt. Two explosions reverberated around the room, deafening the already blinded creatures. A fire ring could be seen on each of Tormund's hands. His affinity for fire was not that strong, but it only took a small amount to fire the handguns. Two of the creatures sprouted holes on their humped heads and collapsed. Brienne snarled at Tormund, "Damit, you fool, every creature in this place will have heard those explosions!" Tormund laughed at her admonition, countering that they were all coming anyway. She smiled back at him in understanding, saying, "You surprise me at every turn, you big lout." Without a word, the four frontliners dove into the fray, carving fish guts onto the spotless floor. Arya hit them with two disruption blasts from her sword and then began cutting. Hassan carved a delicate dance between the creature's swinging claws, chopping as he went. Brienne waded in with her sword swinging, but one clawed the side of her armor before going down. "Not my brand new armor!" she shouted. Four gashes could be seen in the side of the breastpiece. Torumnd was slicing the creatures into pieces with his axe, and as the last one went down, he snarled, "More are coming." Siora shouted for them to stand back, and she cast a fire spell into the next room. Two of the creatures were caught in the explosion and withered and died; several more stood back from the blaze. Tormund stepped into the doorway and said, "Ears," and fired two rounds at oncoming Deep Ones. One dropped dead, but the second shot misfired, and Tormund cursed. The fire and the explosion had startled the creatures, but they kept coming. Tormund took two steps back, and his axe cleaved through, killing three of them as they bolted through the door, flesh burning and deaf as they were. Brienne turned to him, saying, "Well struck, Tormund!"
Tormund turned on her, smirking, "I'm going to climb you like a tree one of these days, lass, and it will shock you how much you like it." Brienne snorted, "You sure know how to court a lady, Tormund." "Aye, lass, but it is no lady I court, but a glorious, gorgeous mountain of a killing machine I court. Our progeny will rule the world one day, lass, mark my words. My smarts and your beauty will make them rulers." Brienne blushed bright red and then laughed heartily. Arya snapped, "This is no place for that, you two; get a room later and hash it out then." Arya giggled.
The fire died down, and they moved into the next room, shoving the carcasses of fish things out of the way. The next room consisted of a large landing and a long staircase that wound downward. Tormund fumbled with the handgun that had misfired, removing a casing that had jammed in the breach; he reloaded both handguns. There was another mural on the landing.