Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

The elf of the group came around to the idea of cooperating as the day for the dwarves moving to the inn arrived.  I suppose the idea of staying down in the holding cell alone was enough of an incentive.  The human, however, still shows no signs of friendly behaviors.  As for how the elf can help, they're knowledgeable about both how to make bows and how to use them.  I'm sure they've probably got other info as well that we'll learn over time.

We've also now been formally introduced.  The elf's name is Ambella Elloetta.  Unlike the dwarves, who are named after the city they hail from, elves take the name of their family matriarch.  The matriarch themself only has the one name, and when they pass, there is a whole ceremony to select the new matriarch, who then drops their given name, and takes that matriarchal name as their only name.  It's honestly quite interesting.  Occasionally a wealthy enough elf may set out and form a new matriarchal family, but it's relatively uncommon.

After a bit of talking with Shasta, within that adventuring party they all speak the dwarven language, in addition to their own languages, which is one of the reasons they were able to take the mission.  After I finally started to get a grasp on the demon language, there are even more languages being thrown my way.

Shasta also asked on behalf of the group if they could travel back to the mainland.  While I'm not opposed to it, in fact, it would probably be beneficial if they could, building a boat capable of getting them back is a bit out of my wheelhouse.  A basic boat, sure, but when I asked Shasta if any of the group had knowledge as a ship captain or navigator, they all did not.  Without that knowledge, they are very likely as good as dead if they set out alone currently.

In the future, if we made some astronomic observations, at least I could give them some navigation advice, but that requires quite a bit of dedication.  I told Shasta that, and she at least was aware of some use of navigation charts using the stars.  Without paper though, making repeated observations would be difficult for her.  I can at least carve into stone with stone shaping, which is what I've been doing for a while now.  Others here rely on word of mouth, which makes me think that a writing material might be useful.

I'd like to use parchment, but getting decently sized animal hides on the island isn't easy since we wiped out the giant lizards.  Mechanically processed wood pulp for paper also isn't actually all that stable long term.  Although I suppose for the purposes of just taking notes it would be fine.  Any important info could later be carved into stone as needed.

The biggest issue with this plan is the amount of mechanical energy involved in pulping wood.  Then even more energy is involved in processing the wood pulp into paper.  We do have access to an untapped source of mechanical energy though, but it'll require quite a bit of work from some of the goblins to actually access.  Of course, what I'm referring to is a windmill.  We also have a coastal area that has decent breezes most of the time. 

One of the big holdups in building a windmill before was a lack of decent metalworking ability, because building a low maintenance windmill requires at least some metal, but considering we have that now, it's definitely something worth considering building.  Of course, it isn't a high priority, so it's just something for me to think about the design of while I work on other mundane tasks for the time being.  However, I will instruct the carpenter goblin to try to keep some of the straighter trees in a stockpile so that there is plenty of useful wood.

It's been about eight days since the elf and dwarves have moved from the jail cell to the inn space.  Many of the goblins have gotten used to seeing them around and working with them, which is good.  I've finished building a new apartment style building, bringing the total to four.  I plan on building another two while we wait for the tree cutting and clearing process to complete around the village.

One downside to the apartment style buildings is that I produce them at a rate barely faster that Zaka can fill them.  Which means that when I stop building, the population stops growing.  Back when Zaka had to go to the cave to summon imps, building houses was easily faster.  The extra available labor is at least useful.  We're starting to get a decent stockpile of stone built up, so we should have plenty for extending the wall when the time comes.  Building the road to the ocean, however, will need even more still.

Another sixteen days, and we're now at a total of 6 apartment style buildings in the village walls.  The village has completed a few other things as well now.  The four trebuchets are done, and honestly, I think they'll be plenty for the new village size as well.  Shasta has carved out enough stone for both floors of basement for the new warehouse, so Zeb will begin working on that project for a little while. 

The amount of wood has really started to be an issue outside the village.  Some of the new goblins and some of the previous ones are basically running the charcoal kilns during all daylight hours, and likely will be for a very long time.  At least the actual area that we plan on expanding into is getting cleared well.

With the extra labor, I've also picked four new goblins to help with building the new road along with assisting Zeb when they can.  The hope is that at least one will maybe get earth manipulation and eventually stone shaping.  As such, they're also going to be getting in on the next round of tree cutting where future fields will go to power level them a bit.  With plans for the village to grow, extra individuals capable of stone construction will be a necessity.  It's already the chokepoint for expansion, and that'll only get worse when there are more people.

I myself am going to start on expanding the wall next.  At least I won't be retroactively adding sections for ballistae now.  The bad news is that we'll need even more ballistae.  At least the carpenter will be busy, although the ballistae shouldn't take as long to make as the trebuchets did.

As I've been building out the new city wall for the past eleven days, Zeb has made good progress on the warehouse.  He hasn't quite finished the first floor yet, but both basement layers are complete now, along with all the storage bins.  Which means that a lot of the charcoal that was sitting in piles has been moved into that warehouse, making the area around the village a lot more clear than it was a few days ago.

Of the goblins that I assigned to directly help Zeb, one gained earth manipulation as a trait after it prestiged about two days ago.  Two of them gained improved endurance, and the last one gained heightened strength.  After talking with Zeb a little, it seems like they gained it based on how they chose to divvy up the work they'd been assigned.  That seems to reinforce the hypothesis that traits are gained based on activities you've performed that would benefit from the trait.

Some of the goblins have also started hunting with bows now to mixed success.  The bows aren't very high quality because we're relying on inferior plant material to make the strings, but at least they're functional.  The goblins who've worked with the local plants to make rope and cloth have been helpful in the assembly process, which is good.  I'm glad that the elf has had a useful function within the village.

As for the wall expansion that I've been doing, I'm probably about a third of the way done with the wall, then there will be the new gates and guardhouses to handle, which will involve some reconstruction of existing walls to move gates around.  By that time though, Zeb should be finished with the warehouse, so I can hopefully move on to a different project.

Before I finish the wall though, I'm going to need to go up the mountain for two or three days to get more metal ore for Katarko.  He's finally about to exhaust the existing supply of ore.  It's largely been processed into ingots for later use, although he's made some armor sets for the goblins, along with one for himself.  I've instructed him to make some swords and shields as well moving forward.

After I bring the ore back, we'll work on making at least one rock crusher, but probably we'll need multiple to properly break the ore into small enough pieces.  Hopefully all of that won't take more than four or five days.  We've been clear cutting a lot of the trees lately on the path to the ocean, so I'd rather not miss any more days of that than I have to.  The levels won't be wasted per se, but I personally would like quite a few of them.

<LEGENDARY LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 28
HP: 1727/1727
MP: 960/960
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike