Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

For the past two days, I've been fixing the bridge, and finally completed it.  The goblins have been fairly demoralized by the destruction of their village.  Digging out damaged property and rebuilding their small huts has kept them preoccupied, but the destroyed huts that no longer have goblins in them leave a pretty depressing feeling over the town, and reminds the goblins of those they've lost.

At some point, I think we should probably build a monument to those who lost their lives here in the village, but first comes repairs.  I think a simple stone monument will be pretty easy to build though, so I think I'll consider a location to build it before building the levees.

With the help of the goblins, we got the pavilion repaired, and basement drained in eight days.  We also got the smokehouse operational again.  Which was very well timed, because just yesterday, a lizard attacked, so a lot of its meat is being smoked now.  Currently, I've turned my attention towards making a screw pump in the basement of the pavilion, then I'll build a monument to remember those goblins who have lost their lives.

When I asked Zaka for the names of the goblins who died, he seemed confused, but gave them to me.  A short distance from the pavilion, I've erected a small stone wall, and etched their names in it.  When Zaka saw it, he asked what the purpose was, and said it was a waste of space.  I noticed before that the goblins didn't have any form of burial rights or rituals, so I asked Zaka about it.

To quote him, "The being of those who died live on in each of us.  There is no need to mark their death, as they're part of us still."

While that is all well and good, I personally feel like a reminder of those who passed is probably a good way to make the goblins value their lives more.  I personally don't exactly like the whole mindset of, "We can just replace them if they die."  It doesn't value what contributions each individual could make.  If we had just left Zeb to die, I'd likely be unable to communicate with the goblins well right now.

Either way, after some convincing, he let me leave the memorial up.  With only half the day spent so far, I think I'll probably be able to finish the screw pump from the drainage location in the basement up to the stream area before nightfall.

While many of the goblins were impressed with the screw pump, Zaka wasn't that intrigued by it.  After asking him about it, it sounds like where he was from had lots of simple machines including waterwheels.  Which makes me think that building a waterwheel might be useful down the road.  All good things to keep in mind.

Zaka also said in ten days he wants to go up the mountain to summon imps again.  Given everything that has happened, I don't have any qualms with it.  Until then, I'm going to start doing some testing for building a levee system here in the goblin village.

Tomorrow we'll set out to go summon imps on the mountain.  My initial assumptions about how I could make the levee aren't quite going to work.  I thought using the rock from the bottom of the stream would be enough to increase the height of the edges of the stream, but that doesn't look like it will be enough based on the reports from the goblins about how much water there was.  Which means I'll need more stone.  And not just a small amount either.  I'll need a lot.  I think I've come up with a solution though, although it expands the scope of the entire project drastically.

I'm thinking of digging a quarry up stream, and lowering the grade of the stream all the way to the quarry location, and finally turning the quarry into a dam and reservoir.  I have an idea to try to make it somewhat self regulating, but the goblins will probably need to keep an eye on it, and do some maintenance or changes occasionally.  Mainly just closing or opening certain flood gates.

All of this will be a long ways away though, because the size of the project is so large.  An extra benefit of making a regulatory reservoir upstream is that it will allow water wheels to work at a semi-constant rate downstream.

As for the location, it won't actually be that far away.  While the stream here in the clearing is a relatively low gradient, after you head only a few hundred yards upstream the slope drastically increases.  Within the clearing, the slope of the stream is only a half inch over the quarter mile the clearing covers.  The point that I want to dig the quarry upstream though is already approximately forty feet higher up, which would make for a pretty deep reservoir considering I'm planning on hand digging it.  As for downstream from the clearing, the slope remains fairly shallow.

I was going to have the goblins help with logging, but actually, I think I'd like to get the levels myself from cutting the trees down, so I'll just do it myself  while I work in the area.  I'll need to dig a new channel that the stream will flow through once the quarry is done, then redirect the stream into it after.

The goblin summoning went fine, and we returned to the goblin village with three new goblins.  At this rate, it'll take many trips to recoup the fourteen goblins who are presumed to have died during the storm.  Despite the losses, the village is starting to return to normal again.  The goblins have restarted palisade construction, and cleaned up the abandoned huts.  I don't have much time for helping, though, as I've been incredibly busy.  

This project has so much work, that I actually haven't had any downtime.  I'm either cutting stone from the stream's bottom, digging soil from upstream for the new channel, or doing my daily rounds of chopping trees.  I'm currently just piling the excess soil along where I'm working, but later it will need to be piled along the edges of the stream once I reinforce the sides with stone.  As I was working on this, I realized that the project actually needs even further expansion.  Namely storm drains.

In a basic form, it would just be grates that go through the sides of the levee into the stream.  A downside to that is obviously backflow during a flood.  However, without it, the water will be stagnant during any rain.  I'll probably have to make the mains closeable along the levee, so that during a storm, the goblins can close it off if the stream gets too full.

This entire project is just getting larger and larger, which is becoming a real issue, that said, I'll have a few months to work on it, since the snow on the mountain will be setting in soon, and I'll just be chilling with the goblins for the duration.

Almost an entire month has passed again, and we'll be going up to summon imps for the last time before the snow sets in according to Zaka.  All but the biggest trees in my way have been felled on the levee project, netting me a lot of levels.

<UNCOMMON LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 77
HP: 1874/1874
MP: 781/781
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike

I've cut a lot of stone for the future path from the reservoir, but I'm not done yet.  I've actually completed the village's levee walls from it, meaning the quarry section is actually going to produce excess stone rather than what I thought would be necessary stone.  For now, I'm planning on using the new stone to make basic roads in the village, with a storm drain underneath leading to the levee.

I've already started the first road section, going from the bridge to along side the pavilion and smokehouse.  I've dug a trench down to the stone layer, and then started using the new stone to make a hollow tube under a solid stone foundation, with occasional stone grates that funnel down to the tube.  The tube then opens out into the stream a little above where the water level is.  I've made a simple mechanism with gears to close off the outlet as well.  All the goblins need to do is turn a valve wheel up by the bridge to close it.

I'm getting quite tired of hauling stone from where I'm working as well.  Zeb is helping, but that is it.  There is going to be so much excess stone that I think I'm going to ask that the goblins help haul stuff in their free time.  I'd normally offer them a trade in exchange for their help, but quite frankly, I'm going to be using all my mana for so long to complete this project that I'm not going to have much to offer them.