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d1210a.jpg
Red Ruby Crumble
d1210a
>>168905
[Discharges all stored energy any time it is triggered at the moment, thought it is possible it may be able to modify it so that this is no longer the case]
>>168774
>>168833
>>168835
I make my way back out of the tower, leaving it's appraisal to Arkus, while I inspect the shattered remains of the gate. I find it completely un-salvageable, but I make note of the size and shape of the lumber involved, and set out to cut new pieces from the forest--which reminds me to apply Magnetomancy to my munitions, restoring the warped blades as I walk. I see the Trepanese militia already working diligently at clearing the field of the fallen, and call out to them as I pass, instructing them to pile the bodies, once deprived of salvageable goods, together some distance from the outpost, and they would not need to bury the corpses, instead I will incinerate them. While some seem a bit leery at the prospect of carrying the dead so far, the rest quickly silence their protests, adamantly assuring them this will be less effort. I leave them to their bickering, as those in favor of following my command seem to be the clear majority, though were they not Keddic's troops, I may have acted differently.
I take some time to carefully select healthy looking trees, and patiently align each pass with the blade launcher, until I am left with some surprisingly well-cut pieces of timber some few hours later. On my return, I observe Derkin nodding to me as he starts appraising the shacks clustered about the outside of the wall, and the militia have cleared a sizable portion of the area. After freeing the metal fastenings and joints from the prior gate, I use Magnetomancy to carefully punch the objects into the timber I hold fast exactly where they were before, and I find myself in possession of a completely repaired gate that differs from the old only in looking... fresher, the wood undried and recently cut. I place the wrecked pieces of the old gate upon a nearby pile of lumber, likely firewood from their shaping. Looking about, I realize there is a chimney coming from every house and guard tower in the outpost.... but none adorns the central tower, oddly enough.
The gate repaired without much issue, I move to help the militia in clearing the field, and with my aid they finish some time before nightfall, all the reclaimed goods safely within the walls, a pile of largely naked corpses present some distance away. I order the militia to divide themselves between Arkus and Derkin, and assist both in their tasks. Happy to be away from the smell of death, the militia readily comply, and are already en route when I turn back to the pile of dead. ....When I look at the fleshlings like this, the spark of life gone, I cannot help but see them as imperfect containers, lesser versions of my own form. Despite this complete confidence that they are inferior, I cannot help but feel them some sort of distant cousin, the same as I would think of a golem of stone or wood. I suppose to me, all fauna seem like golems forged of flesh.
...I end my pointless rumination as I reach for the fires bound within my core.
SOULFIRE
[-3 Souls. Souls Remaining: 537 Minimum: 12]
The corpses are enveloped in a sea of green conflagration, flames washing over their exposed forms with an almost palpable urgency. I turn to walk away, those that I trampled along my path burning behind me, thoughts of what to do next racing through my mind. As the outpost largely shuts down, only a few houses emanate light as Arkus, Derkin and the militiamen bunker down. I check in to see Arkus struggling to read in the dim firelight, before Derkin hands him a pair of candles, which the mage gratefully accepts. The rest of them are largely finding places to slump to the ground in exhaustion, and I leave them to their recuperation for the morrow. I spend the night pacing about the outpost, building charge for the Amaranthine Annihilator, awaiting the morning.
[DAY 71]
I return to the outpost as the sun rises, to find Derkin playing the foreman, dispensing orders to a stream of Militiamen as he walks, commenting that he shall have a complete inventory shortly. I enter the central tower, and am greeted with a much more muted type of bustle: militiamen nose-deep in books, perusing documents, all under Arkus' somewhat frantic supervision. He almost jumps as he sees me, and hurriedly starts speaking.
"Ah, yes, I'm going to need a great bit of time to document the full extent of the writings available here, but I can at least tell you what each floor is focused around, according to the construction logs, what's inside it, all that. Anyway, this is what I know so far:"
--The first floor is the Mutable Metals Division, where all the morphic fluid is stored, and all schematics/designs pertaining to it's use are stored.
--The second floor is the Arcane Artillery Division, where the hand-cannons were constructed,and several other combinations of magic and artillery were demoed, though only the hand-cannons reached production.
--The third floor is the Mutable Metals Division's subdivision, the Regenerating Reagents Subdivision. Thus far, no actual completed designs have been identified, only disproven or untested designs and theories.
--The fourth floor is the Recovered Runes Division, with most of it's research apparently geared towards developing the runes used on the hand-cannons.
--The fifth floor is a library and work-lab combined, divided into two sections: the Wordy Wiseman Division, focused around reinventing Word magic to retain usefulness at higher levels of magical skill, and the World Wizardry Division, which seems to be based around World magic and it's uses.
--The sixth floor is inaccessible, a glowing keyhole sparkling every time the door is tested.
I accept his initial findings and send him on his way to gaining a more complete sense of what texts are available here while I go back outside. I assist Derkin and the 40-odd militia members with him, and some time past noon Derkin comments he estimates our survey complete, and tells me what goods are stored in this outpost:
--Enough food to feed five thousand men for one day or one person for five thousand days of good eating.... two thirds of which will go bad in some three weeks, incapable of being stored for particularly long.
-Patches of land within the walls clearly used to grow food, but currently fallow, unattended to by the prior occupants.
--A functioning well that seems unlikely to dry anytime soon.
--collectively, a total of 1,700 marks from assorted nations (not including previously gained 140 Duran marks), much of it comprised of small coinage that add up to a mark's worth. Stockpiles were found inside several of the stone structures, likely the gains of months of robbery and pillaging.
--10 stone houses within the walls, each with two floors, two fireplaces, and room to fit at least fifty people comfortably.
--78 shacks and huts outside the walls, with a variable amounts of space. Estimated total space: enough for some five hundred people.
--162 hand-cannons (60 in incomplete states, 102 usable)
--90 salvageable suits of armor, metal
--35 salvageable sets of armor, leather
--Morphic Weapons:
---80 spike-javelins
---30 dagger-poleaxes (15 bardiche, 15 Halberd)
---15 hatchet-great axes
---5 hammer-war mauls
--12 wagons, no horses
--8 carts
--29 rolls of cloth, hemp canvas
--23 rolls of cloth, cotton
I listen to his report silently, but just as he finishes, three flares of blinding light surge forth from the southeast, but they fade before I can turn to see their source. I am left wanting for only a short while, as two new bolts of lightning flash down from the sky in the distance, starkly defined jagged lines that vanish the moment they appear. Considering the direction, I must assume this to be the work of the rebel-controlled outpost east of Trekel, though I know not who they might be fighting. The rest of the day is disrupted with intermittent flashes, the mark of a prolonged exchange, though with us this distant it has little immediate impact other than distraction. The rest of the day passes without much incident as goods are relocated to all be within the walls and neatly packed away.
[DAY 72]
Derkin and those assisting him, now free from their task, aid me in weeding and tilling the patches of land where food once grew, my Sable Executioner now serving as a makeshift plow during our efforts. Of the five fields, only two are cleared by the end of the day, with Arkus and the militia under him still diligently working their way through the writings within the central tower. I find none of the militia with me grumbling about having to work on the fields while the others read, most confessing to having ignorance on the matter of literacy, leaving this task their only option, one they do not begrudge. The day ends with Arkus telling me that he has learned that the fifth floor also contains books on the location of local leylines, within the World Wizardry section. Twilight comes with the lightning still falling.
[DAY 73]
Some time in the early pre-dawn morning, the lightning ceases, and no further sounds are heard. Once more I join the majority of the Trepanese militia in laboring on the fields, the work I did overnight as they slumbered sufficient we finish clearing the last of the five mini-fields within the walls. With a full population it would be impossible for this to suffice, but it will certainly help if I need not worry about fleshlings serving me here starving. Derkin managed to make his way to the central tower, explaining that as he is literate, his talents would be put to better use there, but did get a few of the literate farmers to come with him, and pick out some seeds from the total food stockpiles, and they return with a moderately sized pile, and just before the sun sets, the five mini-fields have all been finished being weeded, tilled, and seeded. As the day ends without much other incident, I spend the night giving the seeds their first watering, before then wandering about the grounds, pleased with the much more structured form the outpost exudes, much more in line with what I recall of Mosmordren military discipline.... though my memories are vague and imprecise, glimmers through a fogged mind of my time before sapience, so I wonder how accurate they are. I spend the rest of the night pondering the totality of my memories from pre-sapience, questioning their validity as the night wears on and I continue pacing.
[DAY 74]
As the day dawns I ask the militia to work on restoring the lodgings within the ten two-storied buildings they have been inhabiting, a task they set to with a much greater sense of purpose than than tilling the fields, eager to make their future nights of rest more comfortable. I am quick to note that new, larger beds should be made, and as they have already seen the Premen, they find no objection with my additional requirement. I take requests for cuts of wood for repairs or new furniture, and periodically leave to cut down another tree or two with my six blades. I find that successive passes allow me to cut fairly exact measurements, and the militia do not complain about what I provide them, so I must assume them sufficient to their needs. Several swathes of hemp canvas and cotton both are cut, shapes being snipped out and brought into the houses over and over. Once further requests for wood stop coming some time later, I peer through several of the windows, noting the thick glass with heavy metal bars composing the windows to be of solid make, and see dozens of stark, simple beds within each building being placed in line, some still being repaired, the dark old wood contrasting sharply with the new. A few larger beds are wholly made of new wood as well, and as I go about the buildings, I find the conditions similar in each, easily more than a hundred total repaired or newly made beds visible on the top floors alone. When I lean down to check, I find the first floors, bear the over-sized beds made for the Premen, and I count a full twenty three split between two of the ten houses, the rest still bearing beds still awaiting repair. The day ends with the militia exhausted but happy, eating well every day as they work through the more perishable foods with abandon, the prospect of a better night's sleep bringing them comfort. I find their nightly farewells as they go to sleep a good deal warmer than before, even if still full of the awe and respect I am growing accustomed to in the state when mages are concerned.
[DAY 75]
I begin to grow tired of eating the scraps of arms and armor deemed un-salvageable, Oggroth still gone with the bronze disk I usually eat from, and this thought continues to hound me till the sun rises. Arkus greets me as I re-enter the town, pleased the gate I crafted still works ably, telling me that he is getting close to completing his complete compendium of all the writings within the building, at least in terms of what each document or book's primary focus is, but that he will need another few days. He says this is a good thing, because it means there is a great deal of material to catalog, and he looks forward to finding time to read several tomes he's spotted. In particular, one on using World magic as a method to invert other magics intrigues him greatly, at which point he apologizes for rambling and dashes into the tower, it's door's still open to benefit from what the militia comment is a warm day. Once more work resumes on restoring the housing conditions to full strength, and I pass several hours cutting new sections of wood to finish repairing the beds on the first floors of the houses. The work is finished early, with some hours of light left, so I pull Derkin out of the central tower to lead some light sparring practice as a means of giving the militia a change of pace. Derkin has them work on their unarmed fighting, and runs rounds of drills that only seem to further invigorate the militia members. We are forced to light several torches to continue the sparring late into the night as several rivalries take the chance to surface, old grudges paid due, and slowly the sparring becomes an incredibly rowdy and violent party as it spills into the evening meal, yet another feast, and I realize the men are finally celebrating for having survived their first real fight some few days ago.
[DAY 76]
The day has only just dawned when I note familiar shapes to the south, and see the familiar shapes of the Premen returning, Jojo no longer the smallest of the group as someone I assume to be a Trepanese messenger runs along with them as they move to join me before I reach the gates. Upon their arrival, I see Ugrokk grinning at me from upon Oggroth's mount, much of his color back. A Premen beside the messenger nudges the man forward, urging him to speak first.
"..Ah, yes, Sir Keddic Harksburton sends his well wishes, that as you see your warrior is fine....
..Oh, he mentioned that we have got in contact with Glenston, and told them about Lord Barcho's end. End result, we are doing a healthy trade-
AH, way more important, the captive bandits? We put them to work rebuilding the burned out town between us, and after that we plan to have them work on restoring more fields. Soon we'll have crazy amounts of food. Let's see, what else, oh yeah, the first scout to Trekel from a while back returned just before I left, said the earthworks there were fine, and that Trekel is willing to trade, they mentioned having a bit of trouble with some refugees, Some real burly guy came by asking about the mage Mordre, Keddic said if you need them you can hold on to the militia members you have for a bit longer if necessary, and that if you want some permanent residents, several returning militia members expressed an interest in living at this outpost after seeing it.... what else... some kids claim to have seen some weird creature in the woods.... right, that one isn't news.... RIGHT, final thing:
We, the citizens of Trepany that is, decided that as the main reason this battle was a success, we want you to come up with a name for the town we're rebuilding.... that is, if you're willing?"
It is at this point I realize I still have not named the outpost I have claimed and spent the last several days laboring on.
What name should the town being rebuilt be given?
What name should my research outpost be given?
Lastly, now that the Premen are back, what should I do, and what should I have my followers do?
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