Excerpt from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.14 Limestone 75Well, it took a few days, but Logem and I were able to hash out the import agreement. I requested leather so that we can make some more armor and a quiver for Mooney. I also asked for thread, cloth, and some cheap metal, because it’s always useful to have that on hand. I’ve also asked for some gypsum, so that we can make our own gypsum powder.
Take that, King Dodok! We’ll make the things we need.
The export agreement is below.
They’re crazy.
As Logem was leaving, he happened to mention that the elves had seemed interested in visiting when the dwarven caravan stopped in their inn overnight. And he was most particular about the fact that elves, apparently, won’t take anything dead. So no wood or animal products. As I accompanied him to the edge of the map (in the name of hospitality), I couldn’t help but notice all the piles of logs lying around, and thinking of all the wooden things we’ve made so far.
Maybe, but I doubt it. I do know one thing.
The elves are going to hate us.
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14 Limestone 75 (that evening)The dwarves had gathered around the dining table to discuss the plan. All except Udil, who was playing…somewhere, no one seemed to know where, or really cared.
Lotu started to take charge, as always, when Sodel burst out with, “Who died and left you in charge?”
Lotu fired back, “I didn’t pick this job, I was put in it. If you think you can do it better, then be my guest. Take it up with the king and I’ll gladly give this to you!” He waved the sheaf of papers Logem had left.
Leaning his palms on the table he leaned forward. “But right now, I’m in charge. You got a problem with that?”
A minute passed, then another as the two dwarves locked stares, neither one blinking.
Finally, Sodel leaned backward. “Fine. Ye’re in charge.” Too quietly for the other to hear, he murmured, “Fer now.”
Lotu nodded and glanced down at his notes. “OK, some of this is going to be really easy. They want rings and ammo. Ushrir, can you take care of that?”
Ushrir nodded. She was more than ready for a change from masonry, and happily accepted the list Lotu handed her.
“They also want blocks. We need our stone for the aquifer, but there’s tons of wood lying around. Olin, can you make them some?”
Olin rolled her eyes at yet another task, but nodded and accepted her portion of the list fairly cheerfully, for her.
Lotu checked his master list and moved on. “Sodel, I’m assigning you to weaving-“
“I cain’t weave. I’m a clothier.”
“How much cloth have you got right now?”
Sodel frowned but reluctantly admitted “None.”
“If you don’t weave, you won’t have any cloth to work with.”
Sodel snorted irritably. “Give me that list.”
Scanning it he yelped, “I have to make
how many cloth bracelets??”
“There are fifty dwarves there, so fifty, according to Logem.”
“We don’t have that much cloth!”
Lotu responded, “I know. I’m going to be speaking to the traders tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I saw some cloth bins as they were unloading. How many bracelets can you make from one piece of cloth?”
“Hum.” Sodel thought for a moment. “Anywhere from one to three, depends on the cloth.”
“Dr. Urist, you’re the ma-“
Urist didn’t let him finish. “He’ll need 17 units of cloth to make 51 bracelets, assuming he can get three bracelets per cloth piece.”
Lotu made a note. “I’ll try to get a minimum of 17 units of cloth then. That’s about two bins worth. And we’ll need 50 units of leather to make quivers.”
Sodel had continued to scan the list. “And 150 pieces of actual cloth? We can’t produce that much! Not without silk!”
Lotu nodded in agreement. “But we can try. I’ll get as much thread as I can from the traders, that’ll give us a start. Then, if they have any cave thistle seeds, I’ll take a day away from the drainage system and carve out an underground farm plot, so we can start to grow that.”
Sodel wasn’t finished. “But we won’t have any cave thistle to process until almost winter, if we’re lucky, and someone will need to process it before I can do anything with it. We’re never going to satisfy this.”
“If we don’t, it won’t be because we didn’t try.” Lotu responded, then moved on before Sodel could muster another argument. “The next item is bars. We can fill that by making ash and charcoal, since we have no metal and they failed to specify what they wanted, so we need someone to become a wood burner for a little while.” He made another note.
“What about the cut gems?” Erib asked.
“We’ve got all that stone, maybe someone can practice gem cutting.” Airith suggested.
Heads nodded around the table so Lotu made another note.
“Which brings me to the last items. Meat & fish. One of us will have to learn to fish, and hunt-“
“No.” Mooney interrupted. “Wooden bolts are useless for hunting, and I need every metal one to defend against the depredations of those pesky birds!”
“Then-“
“No hunting.” Imic corroborated. “Not until this one,” he jabbed his thumb towards Lokum, “learns that axes have
blades!”
“Couldn’t he-“
“No! Either I train him, or he’s a danger to life and limb to everybody,” a finger jabbed in emphasis with each word, “sitting in this room!”
“Fine, no hunting. How do you suggest we get meat then? Butchering our animals would mean no meat later.”
Olin spoke up. “Couldn’t we, you know, cage the wildlife or something? I know we need mechanisms to power Airith’s pumps, but surely we could use some to make traps? I know I can make cages, no problem.”
“Oooh, yes! And I can tame them, and then we breed them and we get meat!” Ushrir clearly liked that suggestion.
“That will take more than a year.” Erib said crushingly.
“Not if we capture two or more males and females of each. We butcher the excess, and keep breeding pairs for future use.” Ushrir seemed to have the answer.
Lotu was nodding in consideration. “That sounds like something we can try. And if worse comes to worse, we can butcher some of our animals next summer. By then they should have produced a crop of babies that we can keep around.”
One by one the other dwarves agreed.
“Now, who’s going to do what?” Lotu consulted his list. “We need a wood burner, a gem cutter, a leatherworker, and a fisher. And who was assigned as a mechanic?”
“Someone was assigned as a mechanic?” Several dwarves chorused at once.
“Yes. We needed someone to make the mechanisms for the gears and such to power Airith’s pumps, remember?”
Dr. Urist shook her head. “You never assigned anybody to that. But I volunteer.”
Lotu shut his eyes a moment, then shook his head. That would explain why no one had made any mechanisms all summer. He had just thought they were too busy. “You have the job. For the rest, let’s get a drink and some sleep, we can figure out who takes on what extra jobs tomorrow.”
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Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.16 Limestone 75The traders brought a lot of things we could have used, including cages (some occupied by animals), but with our few acceptable trade goods, I had to focus only on the list we had compiled.
I was able to barter for 30 units of cloth and 12 units of various types of thread, so Sodel hopefully will be happy, and 20 units of leather. I also bought some metal and a few cheap gems, because it’s always good to have some of that lying around in case a project requires it, and Dr. Urist now has her paper. In return, they took all of our empty barrels and pump components, which means we have to start over from scratch.
I’ve been thinking about that, and the elves, and the cut gems we have to make, and I think we could support a dedicated glassmaker. I used our last corkscrew to barter for five bags of sand. That should be enough to get one started.
They didn’t have any cave thistle seeds, but maybe Mooney can find a surface plant we can make cloth from.
On a more positive note, the import restriction won’t be a problem for a while.
Before trading: After trading:
20 Limestone 75Work proceeds apace. We now have a new pasture, almost completely enclosed by walls (only a few more need to be built), so the animals can no longer run around the whole map whenever an imagined threat startles them.
Work efficiency has risen noticeably as a result.
With that project complete, work will begin on the super-structure Airith has deemed necessary to complete the aquifer-breaching system.
Mooney has managed to find some rope reeds, so I will designate
Erib Ushrir Vutok someone to thresh them and plant their seeds. We will be able get some cloth production going despite Trader Rakust’s lack of cave thistle seeds!
13 Sandstone 75I designated a new temple zone a few days ago, and now the gods are clearly pleased.
Thank you Thikut Luk, thank you Armok! Some of the migrants traveling with the caravan have decided to stay! We desperately need the extra pairs of hands if we’re to make our first quota. Our new comrades are:
Minkot Bannerthrone, a farmer specializing in honey
Her husband Mebzuth Cudgelleaves, a glassmaker
Logem Laborgirders, a gem cutter
Her husband Olon Worshipglazed, a leatherworker (Erib will be pleased)
Their daughter Ustuth Shieldfences, a child
Uvash Toolsport, a bookbinder
His wife Mestthos Stafftown, a fishery worker
And Lorbam Clawdike, a craftsdwarf
Looking over the list, only Minkot, Uvash and Lorbam will need to be assigned new tasks. And it just so happens that we need a wood burner, a planter, and a thresher. Erib can focus on butchering (that’s like gelding, right?), once we actually manage to catch something in the traps we’re building. Minkot will take over the fields, while Vutok burns wood (she likes ash glaze, so this should be right up her alley). Uvash will take over threshing (since he’s a bookbinder), and Lorbam…I’ll assign him the managerial and bookkeeping duties. We need someone to keep an eye on quota filling.
There are now 20 of us (of which 2 are children).
We’ll need more furniture.
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3 Timber 75“The keas are back!”
The shout came from Olin, who dropped the partially-finished corkscrew she had been working on.
This time the dwarves were ready for them. Mooney armed himself with all of the bolts he could carry (courtesy of Ushrir) and sallied forth to do battle. Imic and Lokum trailed behind, their axes at the ready.
The keas didn’t have their own way. While the two axedwarves looked on helplessly, Mooney started firing at anything that moved above.
"Hyah!" The bolt struck a wing, bringing the injured kea down to strike the earth with a sickening thud.
Another kea, bent on avenging it's brethren's fate, swooped down on the marksdwarf.
"Hahaha! I laugh in the face of death!" He let loose another bolt, which the kea dodged.
"This requires an answer!" Mooney's second bolt struck the attacking kea in the head. "Bull's eye!" He crowed as the corpse fell like a stone.
He continued firing a steady stream of bolts, racing from one side of the pasture to another, as the keas dodged desperately.
Inevitably, the keas realized that this was a fight they couldn't win.
With the keas scattering in disarray, Mooney bragged, "Did you see? Did you see? I've gotten better at shooting!"
Picking those up is going to be a pain. Lotu thought, looking around at the scattered bolts from the top of the pasture wall.
But, that's a better problem to have.
Amid all the ruckus from fighting, no one realized that Olin had announced Finderboards’ first masterpiece.
Thanks to Mooney, there were now some corpses to butcher.
Unfortunately, when Erib tried to butcher one, she realized that it was much too small to give any decent meat, calling it “guts, feathers and bone, and not much of that, either.” She flatly refused to butcher any more.
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Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.22 Timber 75I knew I could count on Lorbam.
28 Timber 75Winter is just around the corner but we have already made progress toward meeting quota during the last month and a half.
The meat and fish are my biggest concern, as we have none of them, and Mestthos is having no luck with fishing. Is she even a fisherdwarf? Hopefully we'll be able to manage. Please, Armok. Please?
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OOC:
...blowgun training...
Duly noted.
Also: Currently-dwarfed list:
Ast (Lotu) Sizzlediron -> Dame de la Licorne (alive)
Olin Coppertargets
Ushrir Anvildimples -> NCommander (alive)
Kadol (Airith) Helmflashed -> TheImmortalRyukan (alive)
Urist (Dr. Urist) Drilledhatchet -> Gwolfski (alive)
Likot (Mooney) Tongsgirder -> MooneyTheHuman (alive)
Kogsak (Imic) Stokerblocked -> Imic (alive)
Sodel Stockadecharmed
Erib Razordrinkers
Vutok Pleatsteels
Lokum Weaksilvers
Udil Roomrouts
Minkot Bannerthrone
Mebzuth Cudgelleaves
Logem Laborgirders
Olon Worshipglazed
Ustuth Shieldfences
Uvash Toolsport
Mestthos Stafftown
Lorbam Clawdike
Edit: Forgot the dorfed list.
-Dame de la Licorne
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