Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

For the last week, we've been working on the steam cannon and watchtower.  Zeb has mostly finished the tower, with it standing at about sixty feet tall, so that he has a decently clear view down the mountain.  In that time, we've seen the eagle three more times.  One time, it circled above our area for a while, and we ended up working inside for a few hours until it continued down the mountain.

The hardest part of the cannon is the only part that is left.  The copper base for the boiler.  The plan is to melt copper into a thick disc, and then heat and pound it to the right shape over a stone hemisphere.  This cannon has its own risks as well.  If any part of the pressure chamber breaks, then I'm likely to be blasted by shrapnel and killed.  This is why I'm hoping that the two inbuilt failure points work.

The first is a section at the top of the chamber that is slightly thinner than the rest of the chamber, but slightly thicker than the second failure point, which is the cannon section that I'll stone shape out as the firing valve.  In the case of failure, I'm hoping that one of those two places fail first, and spare me the worst of it exploding.

It took six days for us to shape the copper dome, and to attach it to the steam cannon.  As much as I'd like to do a test firing of it, I'm concerned that if the sound is too loud, the eagle might choose not to fly over the area again for a long time, which would make the whole cannon useless.

The cannon boasts a ten foot barrel, and a seven inch internal diameter barrel.  Inside that, we've put over fifty single inch diameter spheres of darkstone, all packed tightly with plant matter, to help them seal the barrel better when they're propelled out.  The barrel has a basic aiming reticule aligned with the length of it, to help me aim.  Attached to the barrel is the boiler chamber, which measures two feet across, and thirty inches tall inside, not counting the domed bottom and top.  We've already loaded the chamber with a few gallons of water to boil.  The boiler is mounted on a U-shaped bracket close to the barrel at the center of mass, and attached via stone bearings.  The stone bearings won't last forever, but for a few uses, they'll get the job done.  Then the whole thing is mounted again on a larger bearing system to allow it to rotate left and right, with the boiler chamber having a free hanging basket made of stone that charcoal can burn in no matter the orientation.

All we're waiting for now is the eagle to leave down the mountain, and we'll see how well this works.

We waited almost a whole day, and the eagle left a few hours before sunset.  With that, I lit the charcoal fire under the boiler, and begin using a rudimentary fan to help make the fire burn hotter.  Zeb climbed up the watchtower, and started to watch for the eagle.  We built the cannon right next to the watchtower so that Zeb can point with a long stick to give me a good idea of the direction to aim, so that I'm close before I fire.

With that, we waited.  I shoveled new charcoal into the boiler basket and kept it stoked as the minutes dragged into hours.  Then, as night was getting ready to set, Zeb gave the signal that he could see the eagle, and I aimed the cannon.  I'd been hearing the water boil for a while leading up to this, so I'm certain that there is at least some steam pressure within the vessel.

As I waited, ready to rotate the cannon to aim, I heard the eagle let out a loud screech, like I'd heard it make before.  I also heard a deeper yelling than before accompanying it.  Soon, I saw the eagle, and quickly rotated the cannon at it.

What I saw as I aimed I could barely process.  The eagle, while not badly injured, had areas that were seemingly damaged and singed by fire.  As I got lined up, tracking a little bit ahead of the eagle, from the eagle's talon, a fireball burst out, hitting the eagle on its chest, and the eagle screeched again as it flew.

Deep down, I probably processed what was happening, but I couldn't actively think about it.  I have to fire this cannon.  I only have a few seconds.  I get the cannon into position, double check, and stone shape the opening.

The sound that follows is a loud blast, followed by a loud whoosh and burst of steam, as all the pressure escapes from the barrel.  I can't see as the steam cloud completely covers my vision.  It's unbearably hot now.

I dash out, and realize that I can only hear a ringing sound.  I look up.  I don't see the eagle in the sky.  I also don't see Zeb in the watchtower.  Disoriented, I look around for a few seconds as the ringing starts to subside, and I'm startled by something hitting my back.

It's Zeb.  How did he get down here so fast?  I look at him, and he's talking, but I can't really make out what he's saying.  He seems to be able to tell I can't understand him, but he points along the side of the mountain, then begins pulling me along.

After we travel for a minute or so, the ringing fully subsides.  I feel like I start to regain a bit of my composure.  He's probably bringing me to where he saw the eagle fall, which means I probably hit it.  I ask, just to check, "Did we hit it?"

"Yeah, we hit it.  We're rushing to go help Zaka first though.  The eagle dropped him before crashing further up."  Zeb replies.

I think for a moment, what does he mean Zaka?  Then I finally process the scene I saw before.  The fireballs, and the eagle having singed sections.  It'd grabbed Zaka, and he fought back.  I mean, I can't say for certain it was Zaka, but it sure matches his description.  I start to move faster as my balance is regained, and we begin running ahead.

Soon, we find Zaka, badly bloodied, on the ground.  His body is covered in tiny lacerations that are bleeding, likely from falling through the trees as he fell.  There are also two larger slashes across his torso, and his clothes are in tatters.  The worst injury though by far appears to be his leg.  The lower leg seems completely obliterated.

I hurriedly tear what I can from his clothes, and tie a tourniquet around the destroyed leg.  He's breathing now, but unconcious, so I know he's alive, but I recall my fight with a goblin where I nearly died, and the blood loss nearly killed me afterward.  The tourniquet may not be enough, he's bleeding a lot from the various lacerations as well.

We've got one real option here.  We need to stop more bleeding, which means we need to cauterize the wounds.  I heft Zaka over my back to carry him.  He's quite large, but I think I can manage.  I tell Zeb he needs to go and make a few flat stones of various widths matching Zaka's wounds, and get a fire going in the house, then get them hot.  I'll be behind him carrying Zaka.

Zeb runs ahead as I carry Zaka back through the forest.  In the distance, I hear the eagle cry out repeatedly.  I have no idea if it'll die from what I did or not.  It might recover if I leave it for too long, but Zaka is the priority right now.  After a few minutes, I make it back to the cave and bring Zaka in my house, and place him on the dining table.  The fire is going, and Zeb has a few of the stones sitting in it, while he's shaping more to place inside.  I elevate Zaka's damaged leg, which thankfully, isn't bleeding nearly as much now.

I grab the cooler end of the largest stone, but it's still hot enough it damages me and I begin to slowly lose hitpoints as I hold it for a few moments, then stop losing the hitpoints.  I bring it over to Zaka.  For the largest wounds, I think this is absolutely necessary.  Those two large gashes need to be dealt with, or he'll bleed out.  They both don't seem to go deeper than the muscle thankfully.  It'll damage him immediately when I do this, and the shock might kill him, but if we don't do this, he'll bleed out.  Thankfully, the tourniquet seems to be working as well.  That leg will almost certainly need amputated when he recovers enough to handle that happening.

I push the hot stone into the first wound, and hear his flesh sizzle as I move the stone through the wound.  It smells awful, and by the time I've finished the first wound, the stone has cooled too much to use on the next wound.  I go back to the fire, and grab the next largest stone rod, again ignoring my own pain.  Zaka's breathing has gotten more shallow as well.  I bring the stone through the wound, searing the flesh and preventing more blood loss.  After the two major wounds were treated, I decided that cauterizing the smaller wounds would do more damage than good.  Instead, I sent Zeb out to get a bucket with water, and needle leaves from the trees.

Inside, I craft a moderately sized mortar and pestle.  The intent is to make a paste that I can use to seal the small wounds.  All the while, in the distance I can hear the eagle screeching.

Once Zeb comes in, I show him what I plan to do with the paste.  I then give him instructions on how to handle Zaka's leg once he's done.  Keep it elevated, and loosen the tourniquet, and if it starts to bleed, apply pressure until the bleeding stops.  Now that Zaka is as well treated as I can get him, that eagle needs to be taken care of before it recovers enough to fly.  I grab my spear and buckler and set out towards the screeches in the night.