Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

Zaka left later the next day with two new goblins in tow.  There was an interesting commotion at one point in the night when an imp made its way up to the exit door, and started making noise and trying to break some of vent slits I had put in previously.  Long story short, there was one less imp participating in the battle royale.  Once Zaka left the next day, Zeb and I got to work on processing imp bodies and preparing to cremate the rest of them.  For the next while, we're going to be finishing Zeb's house, and then properly cleaning up all the rubble I sent down the mountainside from when we were hurriedly building the terraces.

We've only been working for three days at finishing Zeb's house, but when we exited this most recent time to haul stone out, the wind started to pick up.  It is also quite dark out despite being midday.  I'm concerned we might be getting a bad storm.  For the time being I think we'll pause on working on Zeb's house, since there is no back entrance to the cave.  Instead, we'll work on the new warehouse area for a little while, and wait for the storm to pass.

I'm pretty sure that was a hurricane, or whatever this world's equivalent is.  I asked Zeb if he's heard or seen a storm like this before, and he hasn't.  The whole storm took almost 24 hours to pass.  First, the wind picked up, then it started raining, and the rain and wind got progressively stronger, then progressively weaker after about the halfway point.  Up here on the mountain we had torrential rains for quite a while, so I hope the goblin village is alright.  Well, given the winds I'm sure there was some damage, but I hope the goblins themselves were alright. I wonder if the pavilion and my house down there survived as well.

As the storm finally seemed to clear, Zeb and I agreed that we'd need to go down the mountain, if we can, and help.  We'll have some preparations to make though.  We'll set out in two days.  I want to make spare tools to bring down, and get the cave and house locked up so nothing moves in while we're gone.

The path down the mountain took twice as long normal, and we had to take multiple detours due to mudslides.  If there was one promising thing on our way, it was that once the slope of the mountain started to become more shallow, we stopped seeing mudslides, although there was still a lot of debris and damaged trees.

The goblin village itself was almost completely destroyed.  The only things left standing are the things I made out of stone, and even among those, there is damage.  The bridge is partially collapsed, as is a corner of the pavilion.  The palisades have been completely uprooted, and are left splintered and scattered into the nearby tree line.

In the village area itself, I only see Zaka alongside one other goblin.

Zeb and I approach and ask "What happened?"

Zeb translates for Zaka, "The rain and wind kept going for so long, all the goblins were in their huts.  Then the stream breached its banks, and those who were lucky fled into the nearby forest.  I've only just come back, I'm going to go look for other survivors shortly."

I glance around the nearby area.  The ground is all muddy, and what previously where goblin huts are now barely depressions in the ground.  In some of those depressions there is still some of the furniture I made from before embedded in the mud.  The whole area is very obviously a disaster zone.  The first thing that needs done is trying to find survivors.  I put the supplies we brought under the non-collapsed part of the pavilion building, and then have Zeb teach me a few phrases to call out to goblins that might be lost or trapped.  Shortly after we split up, and the four of us go looking in different directions.

Nightfall came quickly, and each of us had little time to actually search, not to mention each of us were exhausted from the day so far.  Zaka and Zeb both found a goblin that had taken shelter from the storm.  I, unfortunately, had searched downstream, and hadn't found any living goblins, but I did find the remains of three goblins pressed into trees near the stream.  As much as we'd like to have made a fire tonight, all the wood here was either washed away, or is soaking wet, and the same thing goes for the meat in the smokehouse.  Worse still, the pavilion basement and my house basement are both completely flooded.  Its another thing that will take time to fix after search and rescue completes.

The next morning we agree that we need food to continue searching.  With six of us now, we split into two groups of three to hunt, thankfully we brought a few spears as part of the replacement tools.  The wildlife is still pretty heavily disrupted from the storm, and the group of Zeb and I weren't very successful.  Zaka however, returns with one of the large lizards.  According to Zaka, they haven't had any lizard issues in a few months now, so he was a little surprised when they realized they were being followed by something, only to have the lizard aggressively attack them.  This is obviously worse news, as it reduces our chances of finding more surviving goblins to even lower amounts.

Given the apparent danger, Zaka and I decide that other than him and myself, no one should leave the village alone.  Although the village itself isn't much safer, at least here there are a few stone buildings to hide in.  I'm not certain that the buildings could actually hold up to a lizard attacking in full, it hopefully would deter them enough to give up.  Zeb volunteers to stay back to butcher the lizard, and watch for any other goblins that might make it back on their own.  Zaka and I will each go alone to search, and the remaining three goblins will search together.  For good measure, they each are given a spear, and I make sure they at least recall the basics of how to use them.

By the evening, when we call off the search for the night, we've found a bit more than half of the village.  Some found their own way back during the day, and others were found.  Thankfully, there weren't any more lizard attacks today that we are aware of.  I'm concerned about how many goblins are still missing, so I hope that we have better luck in the next few days.

Two more days of searching only resulted in finding two more goblins.  Some goblins want to go out and search today even further away.  Zaka has given them permission to do so, but he makes the call that its time to start also fixing the village, and getting it into working order.  Among those staying around to help with repairs I see Kaga has survived.  Although I suppose with a burly body like that, I shouldn't be surprised.

My initial repairs are going to be focused on the bridge, then pavilion.  The pavilion basement needs to be drained of water, which is going to take a long time and a lot of bucket loads of water.  I'm half tempted to try to make a screw pump, but that will need to wait for when it is already drained of liquid.  I'm not confident in my ability to shape the whole thing while I'm also underwater.

While everyone starts getting to work clearing debris, I have Zeb ask Zaka "Have you ever experienced a storm like that before?"

Zeb translates for Zaka, "I have, but it was many many eclipses ago, when I first arrived in this land by boat.  The other goblins I was traveling with had starved, or perished fighting each other when supplies dwindled.  At first, the rain relieved my thirst.  Then, the winds and waves became almost unbearable.  Before I knew it, the boat I was in had crashed in the forest near here, and splintered against a tree.  I grabbed the tree and held on for dear life, and after a while, the waters retreated and the skies calmed, so I climbed down."

Well, it seems like these storms do happen on occasion here.  I'm even more intrigued to learn about Zaka's background now though.  Something that I'll try to remember to ask after we've actually gotten the village in a better state.  Which, given the apparent threat of severe weather, I think a new construction project might be in order.  Between improved stone shaping, and the damage done to the village, it seems like I'll actually have surplus mana to work with, as a lot of the repairs are going to involve manual labor more than magic.  The pavilion roof and bridge will take some time, but the amount of stone work needed isn't actually that high.

The new construction project I'm going to work on, if I can make it work, is a levee going through the village, and slightly up and downstream of them.  That way, should another storm like this hit, hopefully, the stream won't breach its banks here during the rainstorm.  My plan is to actually deepen the channel near the center where the bottom is rock, and use some of that excess rock to build the levee walls up.  Now, I haven't done any studies on the height of the water when the flood came through, but I'll try to gather some info from the goblins who survived the flood to plan out the exact dimensions of the levee.