Rebuilding Science in a Magic World

Between Tiberius's research, and the goblins taking temperature and sun spot measurements, I've got some waiting to do before either of those projects bear fruit.  Our ore deposit is probably a year or so from reaching the level where the ore becomes too poor to be worth their time harvesting, and the sulfur deposit that we found along the craggy terrain where our road goes is nearly depleted.  We've been using it for some time to make black powder, and the deposit wasn't massive, so it was only a matter of time before it ran out.

In theory, we do have a new source that we could tap by converting the SO2 from roasting ores back to elemental sulfur, but that requires a substantive amount of hydrogen gas to produce.  We do have a minor source of hydrogen that we could use in that crystal, or we could hydrolyze some at the hydroelectric facility.  However, before doing that, we should dedicate labor to finding another natural deposit of elemental sulfur, as it is significantly easier to make and use.

The issue with that is actually finding it.  This deposit was buried under about seven feet of rock.  The only reason we found it was because Konkur knew what he was looking for.  I got the gist of what he was searching for, but actually applying that knowledge is an entirely different story.

While it was found in the craggy terrain section of the island, it was under a somewhat flat area.  The area still had slope, just much less than it's surroundings.  If I had to guess, it probably was the site of an ancient hot springs, which slowly deposited out various minerals, but due to the insolubility of sulfur, over the years, the sulfur was one of the things left behind.  I also know that he checked dozens of spots before finding this deposit, so it's unlikely we'll find anything right away.

So, I plan on getting forty or so goblins to begin canvasing the craggy terrain on either side of the island.  They'll be looking for somewhat flatter areas in the craggy terrain, with soil similar to the first deposit.  The soil there had a lighter gray tone as compared to the generally darker color around the rest of the island.  That said, there are other areas that have the lighter colored soil, and as far as I can tell, there isn't any sulfur under those, so neither is a perfect indicator.

After the survey finds locations to check, I'll have them remove the soil in a small area at each location, so I can use tectonic sense to see if I can sense any buried deposits.  Once spring comes, we'll halt the search if we haven't found anything, since the heavy rains generally make the craggy terrain dangerous to traverse if you aren't on the road.

I took a twelve days getting the forty or so goblins trained up on what I planned to send them off to do.  While that might seem like a long time, I took extra time to teach them how to travel safely through the terrain and trained them on buddying up, and divvying up areas to check, along with scheduled meetings to make sure everyone is safe.  The craggy terrain has a lot of cliffs and muddy areas, so I wanted to make sure that this search for sulfur wouldn't result in any accidents.

Two days after I returned to the city, Zaka approached me with a question.  He asked why, if we could travel to go rescue the dwarves, why we weren't returning to the other island this year.  I didn't actually have a good answer for him.  The best I had was an excuse, which was that I hadn't really thought about it after I'd deemed using the large boat to be too dangerous.  There wasn't a good reason why we couldn't use the smaller longboats to go there and back, even during seasons other than winter, though I don't recommend springtime for the same reason we won't be searching for sulfur during that season.

There are two small downsides to using the longboats to go to the other islands.  The first reason is that the longboats take a longer time and significantly more labor.  It's a two-day rowing journey to get to the next island, where as the large powered boat can make it during daylight hours.  The second downside is that there is much less storage space on the longboats.  Transporting goods from one island to the other using them will be much more limited.  Though, since it's not relying on charcoal, the journey could be done more frequently by individuals to bring back lizard hides if needed.

So, after some discussion with Zaka, I'll be going to the other island again.  I'll only be there for a month this time.  I'm going there to help set up facilities for burning float vines and collecting the valuable soda ash.  Since the soda ash takes significantly less space than the dried float vines do.  Technically, finished leather products from the giant lizard hides also take less space, so that's another reason to consider setting up a more permanent colony there.  A permanent colony might just naturally evolve out of us going there frequently enough though, so I'm not going to force the issue.

After gathering up a different group of military demons from last year, along with a handful of float vine gatherers, we set off for the other island.  I had to do a small amount of maintenance around the fort after it having been neglected for multiple seasons, but after a few days, everything was back in order.  After that, I started on the float vine drying area, and then the places where they'll be burned, and the soda ash collected.

After that, I decided to do my agreed upon leveling time while here.  I took eighteen days hunting lizards while cutting down trees.  I only killed a lizard about every other day, and as I did so, I thought about the fact that keeping this island relatively unsettled actually provides us with a good leveling source.  If it becomes colonized, we'll reduce the natural animal population considerably.  By keeping this island as a military outpost only, we're essentially letting the animals on the island soak up the natural levels throughout the year, and then we harvest those levels into the individuals who we want to have them.

Despite their size, the lizards have the best yield on the island by far, and I suspect it's because they eat a lot of ground birds.  I haven't directly observed their lifecycle, but between our island and this one, I never really saw any very small lizards, which means they probably mature fast.  I've noticed juveniles, which are about 2/3rds the size of the adults, but I haven't seen any smaller than that, which means they probably stay in a nest until reaching a certain level of maturity. 

Given how the population seems to bounce back after only a year's time, I think they probably mature quite quickly, meaning they have a fast metabolism, which they'd need food to supply.  The main sources of meat on the islands are ground birds and fish, and I haven't seen any lizards in the ocean.  

Trees are a decent source of levels, but only because they've lived so long that they've accumulated the levels over time.  Ground birds, who eat small plants and nuts, don't really accumulate levels very much, and give only slightly better yields than harvesting a small plot of annual crops.  The only source of levels comparable in harvesting time to the lizards are exceptionally large fishes caught off the jetties, and it's significantly harder to do that as compared to killing a lizard.  So, preserving this island as a military installation seems like a good idea.

After a total of thirty-three days, I was back on the main island.  While not nothing, I still am disappointed by how slowly I gain levels.  I'm honestly quite worried about how slowly I'll level after capping out in levels this next time.

<APEX LESSER EARTH DEMON>
Level: 60
HP: 3169/3169
MP: 1739/1739
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance, Partial Sleep
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands, Pulverize

After returning, there was already over two-dozen potential sulfur sites for me to check so I took eight days going to them and using a full power tectonic sense at each to see if I detected any anomalies.  I detected something at a single site, though it was nearly thirty feet underground.  Given that situation, I had the surveying teams keep searching for potential sites while I considered how to to proceed with this potential find.

After some discussion, Zeb and I agreed that when spring approaches, we'd move the individuals who are expanding the reservoir over to this potential deposit to dig a small mine to see what we find.  In order to make that viable, I found some of the forestry goblins, and brought them along to the location.  It's almost a mile off the road, so I figured they'd be the best individuals to figure out the best path between the road and this location, and potentially even clear a dirt path for travel before spring arrives.  They're fairly familiar with how spring affects the island's forests, and what areas are safe vs unsafe during the rainy season, so I'm trusting them to find a path that should be traversable.