NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol.2] Ch.17 What Makes a Village?
The imp summoning went fine, although we only recruited two goblins this time. When we returned, I tried to recruit the goblins to help with stone hauling for these projects, but they didn't really want to participate even if I, or rather Zeb, explained the usefulness of the project to them. Which means I'll need to figure out a different way to get them to help.
I've spent the last four days working with Zeb hauling stone that I've cut, and I'm now certain that I'll need help to get this done. The reason being that I can easily cut way more stone free than Zeb and I can haul in a day. Which means I'm actually limited by labor rather than mana now, due to the distances we're hauling. As a result, I've decided on a solution to convince the goblins to help.
I will offer to help the goblins build stone houses similar to mine, if they haul the stone for their house, the road to their house, and a set amount of extra stone. It'll slow my cutting down somewhat, since I'll need to cut specific shapes out, like when I was cutting the stone for my house, but considering this will likely entice quite a few goblins, I think the speed gained in the hauling will be worth it. I'll pitch the idea with Zeb later at the group meal.
Most of the goblins seemed excited to get to live in houses like the one I built for myself. I informed them as well that they wouldn't have basements like mine does however, but that didn't seem to bother them too much. Plus it means later I can trade building basements for them for something if I need to. The houses are going to be a standard size and shape, which I feel a little bad about, but it's the only way for me to be able to cut the stone easily up at the quarry location.
Three days in with the goblins helping me haul stone, and I've already hit another snag. The goblins use the creek for both drinking and cleaning, and I've gotten complaints about how much more difficult it is to go down to the stream now that I've put the levee through the village. It still has dirt slopes going down, with stone reinforcing it on the inside, but the slope is steeper than it used to be. Thus I've had to halt road construction, house construction, and stone cutting to put stairwells down the levee. It should only take a day or so to put stairs at regular intervals down the slopes. Hopefully that will solve the problem for the goblins. They seemed to be understanding of the need of the levee at least.
Zaka came to me yesterday and said that since there isn't any snow up the mountain right now, he's thinking about going back up tomorrow to summon imps since it's that time of the month again. Of course, last night, it rained, and today as I look up the mountain, it's covered in snow. Zaka seems a bit disappointed, so I decided to offer to build him a house different than the other goblins. He is their de facto leader, so I think it'll be fine if his house is larger. As long as it's only one house, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to cut special stone for him. Of course, he'll still have to haul it to its final location. This definitely isn't also a way of getting him to help with the stone hauling, since he's been reluctant to join in.
Thankfully, he was persuaded by the idea of having the nicest house in the village. Which is great, because given his status as a hobgoblin, he'll be able to haul larger stone blocks. The only other goblin which could be of more use is Kaga, since he's much stronger than the other goblins after his prestige. For now he seems uninterested in helping with the stone hauling, but I suspect as more goblins start to live in houses, the others will want to follow suit. Then I can always bribe them with furniture to continue hauling stone until I'm done with the entire quarry project.
Of course, I'm also dragging out house construction along side this to keep the goblins hauling extra stone. I've only finished three houses so far, and the road to them. I've also put a small storm drain in their crawlspace that runs into the storm sewers under the road. Hopefully that will keep their houses from flooding when it rains. Obviously it also means if they fail to close the drains during a flood then they're houses will flood, so it should doubly incentivize them keeping those used properly.
The village itself currently has twenty-five goblins, and an anticipated nine more next year. I think to keep things somewhat future proof, I'll plan on forty houses, plus Zaka's house. I haven't seen the goblins ever living in each other's houses, so I'm starting to suspect that they only reproduce through imp summoning. It's very odd to me, being a previous human, that they never have more than one living in a house, but for the sake of construction, it's lightening my load, since each house can be smaller.
A second issue is that I'll actually need quite a bit of space for forty houses. I'm not exactly keen on just building them in a long row either, so I'll have to make multiple roads. Plus, to facilitate traffic, I've decided to put in two more bridges. The benefit to me of extra bridges is the use of extra stone as well, which is good, because I've actually started to collect quite the pile in the corner of the village with the goblin's help.
It's been a whole month, or just about, and it has gotten noticeably cooler. Not particularly cold, but definitely noticeable. Houses are slowly coming together. I've finished ten now, along with a second bridge. I'm less than a quarter of the total quarry I want to dig though. More of the goblins have joined in working after a few started living in the new houses. I think soon I'll need to start trading their labor for furniture for their houses, as I've already housed almost half of the goblins here so far. The area is really starting to shape up to looking like a civilized village.
The progress on the palisades have slowed down, due to the goblins helping me with the quarry project. Which honestly is probably a good thing. I'm going to have so much extra stone that I'm thinking about building village gates for them, and then maybe get the palisade crew to instead build walls, and I'll fuse them together. The palisades are nice, and it's great that the goblins can build them themselves, but they decay after a few years. Stone walls are both stronger and last much longer. I'll try to have a discussion with them tonight about the idea.
The stone wall idea didn't go over that well initially. Kaga and the woodcutters didn't like the idea of their work not being needed anymore, and the rope makers felt similarly. They seemed to have really come around to the work they were doing. I did manage to convince quite a few of them though that it would be better. I explained there would still be a need for some rope, and some tree cutting. Rope needs replaced every so often, and there is always a need for wood. Kaga wasn't convinced after all that however. So, similar to the situation with giving Zaka a bigger house, I figured I'd need to convince Kaga to assist in another way.
What I decided to offer, was building him his own workshop for woodworking and making him some stone tools that he can use for making things from wood. I explained that if he gets really good at it, then he can even make furniture and spare parts for various things like the spears. I basically convinced him to take up carpentry. He initially wanted the workshop next to his house, but I told him it would bother his neighbors too much. I've decided on utilizing an area on the opposite side of the pavilion from the housing area to build his workshop at.
Eventually, all the goblins might have their own jobs and specializations here in the village. Although that is a long ways away. For now, I'll just focus on working on digging the quarry and construction that I already have ahead of me. Now that the wood cutters and weavers are converting over to building stone walls, I'll have to cut blocks for them to use for that. I initially had this grand idea for hollow walls with passages in them, but I decided that just a solid wall that was wide enough for a hobgoblin to stand on up top would be plenty. So I'll basically just cut long blocks for them to lay down in parallel, and I'll fuse them back together. With all this, I'm back to operating at mana capacity, so I guess that's good.