Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

As I sprinted towards the watchtower, I counted myself quite lucky that I was heard by Zeb.  Moving forward, I think I should probably actually dedicate myself to at least learning some of the demon language, even if it's only the basics.  From behind, I could hear fireballs bursting against the eagle.

Entering the watchtower, I grabbed the prepared charge of Zaka's blood, and made my way up to the steam cannons.  By the time I'd made it to the cannons, it seems that some of the other goblins are throwing their lives down to distract the eagle.  In all likelihood, since Zaka shot fireballs at it, they've needed to further distract it to protect him as well.

I open the back chamber of the cannon, and start emptying the blood charge into it as I witness the goblins attempt to do anything to distract the eagle.  Every second is precious as the eagle tears through one goblin after another in short succession.

Finally, after tens of seconds, the blood charge has been loaded into the steam cannon.  I seal up the back chamber, and begin hurriedly loading the front of the cannon with a packed charge of large grapeshot and padding.

Each second things become more dangerous, with the eagle slowly advancing on Zaka's position, taking out various other goblins who are attempting to throw spears up towards its body.

I rotate the steam cannon, and take aim.  Despite everything, I count myself lucky that the eagle hasn't taken to the skies again, seemingly hell bent on causing as much ground destruction as possible which, for the sake of aiming the cannon, makes things easier.

I take aim at its head and upper torso, and infuse all the remainder of my mana in order to fire the cannon.  For the second time in about ten minutes this steam cannon fires, and for the second time in ten minutes, an eagle dies.  The shot hit true, shattering parts of the rear of the eagle's skull, and shredded parts of its neck and spine.

The eagle's body collapsed forward into the village, breaking some houses, and collapsing parts of the road in the village.  The destruction is widespread, far beyond just that however.  About a quarter of the village wall has been destroyed, the pavilion roof has been sheered, major damage was done throughout various parts of the village, and reconstruction is likely going to take months.  Beyond that, over a dozen goblins died to the second eagle's rampage.

As I went out into the village to more directly assess damage, I noticed a trend which may be useful for rebuilding.  Goblins which were underground in one basement or another were all safe.  They also, however, failed to hear or notice when any of their fellow goblins needed help.  The goblins who rushed out to form a distraction were all goblins who were hiding within their houses when the eagle was making its way to Zaka.

I'll have to discuss the issue with Zaka once village reconstruction begins, but right now, the village is still in emergency mode.  There are goblins who were injured by the wing blasts who aren't dead, and some who are trapped in debris.  For as long as we can today, we'll be attempting to save as many goblins as we can within the village.

Yesterday, after we'd accounted for all the goblins, many of the goblins were quite tired, and fell asleep early.  Today, I've found out why.  The goblin who was nearby when the first eagle died prestiged, alongside 8 other goblins who were nearby the area where the second eagle died.

I had though previously that killing a creature is what levelled us up, but now I think it might just be the act of being in the immediate proximity of a dying creature that provides levels.  Zaka was also nearby the final eagle's death, and he's now more than halfway to his next prestige.  Meanwhile, I didn't gain any levels.

After having Zeb discuss with the goblins who prestiged, a few of them gained a new trait that I'm calling "Last Stand".  The gist of what it does is it allows the possessor to overexert themselves beyond their normal limit.  It apparently has some nasty downsides, like losing levels alongside extreme pain, so it isn't just a straight boost on its own.  That said, it could obviously save their lives in a pinch, so it's not like it's a total loss.

Sadly, among the losses in the village were two of the craftsgoblins.  The potter, and the main ropemaker were killed during the second eagle's rampage.  There are a few goblins who can easily replace the ropemaker, but the potter, I fear, will probably not be replaced for the foreseeable future.  This is partially my fault, given that I can easily make items that they spend a long time working on.  It's still an unfortunate loss to the village though.

Today, repairs will kick off in earnest, and I'll be starting my repairs at the bathhouse, as it's arguably the most important damaged structure.  I'm also thankful that we still have quite a bit of spare wood piled about, because so many wooden items were destroyed in town.  I don't mind using stone doors myself, but I think the goblins much prefer the lighter wood for their daily activities.

After I repair the bathhouse, I plan on fixing the pavilion, then I'll discuss with Zaka what should be done about basements or safehouses within the village.  We also need to discuss the idea of expanding out the village wall, given the eagle has already knocked down a considerable portion of it.  We'll likely leave the wall for last, after fixing all the other existing buildings in the village, but knowing what we're planning on doing might influence our decisions on other construction matters moving forward.

It's now been two days since we killed the eagles and plans for reconstruction were discussed with Zaka today.  We've decided that expanding the walls to the village is a good idea.  As part of that initiative, it was also decided that the lower prestige goblins should be the ones to cut down the additional trees that are in the way of where we want the village to expand.  Zaka had already cut quite a bit of the area down, but once we build into that area, we'll want clear visibility from the walls again.  As for exactly how much more space will be in the village, it was decided that the smaller field that was built on the edge of the village will be enclosed in the wall, along with a mirroring area on the opposite side of the creek.  Overall it should add about 50% more area within the wall.  In the future, the field can also be cleared if necessary to make room for more buildings.

Before that though, we also decided on two changes to the existing village.  First, all the houses are going to be retrofitted with basements.  The stone from that should be helpful for building the new extent of wall.  Second, on any particular week, a portion of the goblins will be on duty for protection purposes, and a few guard stations will be built near the existing gates of the village in addition to one central building as well.  In the future, we might switch from this cycle system to having dedicated guards, but at the current population, it's not quite feasible to support as many guards as would be necessary.

For the next few weeks, Zeb and I will be busy with repairing and updating the village's houses and the pavilion.  The goblins themselves have a lot of small repairs they can take care of alongside cleaning all the debris.

After a solid week of work, we've gotten the bathhouse and pavilion repaired, and gotten a lot of the rubble moved to places where it's useful.  Everyone has been very busy working in their respective areas.  The only person in as much demand as Zeb and I is the carpenter goblin, who seems to be experiencing quite the learning curve related to his profession.  He is, after all, attempting to repair things in the village all at once, that previously took months to slowly be built by someone else.  At least Zeb and I have the practice of having made all the things we're repairing at least once before.

The artificial tide pool has been quite handy, as the easy food has allowed more labor to be dedicated to repairing the village.  It's gotten to the point where we're directing goblins to haul specific amounts of stone rubble to locations so it's already set up for us when we get there. During our brief respites while we work, I'm trying to have Zeb teach me the demon language, but, as I suspected, I'm really not cut out for learning a new language.  I've got a few basic phrases down, but my pronunciation is apparently quite abysmal.  I'm hoping that it'll get a little easier when I'm not also trying to repair buildings while I work.