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Red Ruby Crumble
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>>185745
[Since the caravan may not arrive for some time, putting this on hold until the documents are in Mordre's hand]
>>185755
I consider myself a fool as a simple set of blocks and bracket-sheaths come to mind as a minimalist and simply formed all-metal carrying method for Diozagrath's cleaver. I start rebuilding my form, confident in finishing the relatively simple modifications as I consume the last bit of foraged resources. I estimate this shall take me no longer than thirty minutes, to make the necessary modification to the largely immovable mass of my upper chest, avoiding the interlocked plates about my lower torso for, unsurprisingly, torsion. Soon I should have a balanced method of keeping Diozagrath's Cleaver on my personage, without occupying one of my limbs constantly.
>>185766
>>185767
>>185825
>>185898
I motion to the men to resume their duties, as I walk a short circuit of the Arcanoworks, several changes evidencing themselves:
--Outside the wall, on either side of the gate is a stable and guardhouse alike, now staffed with some dozen personnel each that I can see, lights still kindled. The wood for these stables came from where once a shantytown was built against the wall. Now, nothing is in direct contact with the walls of the keep, the ground clear of obstruction.
--The five fields inside are finally showing results, several crops starting to grow quite readily, and the five stone buildings show filled beds nearly everywhere I look. All said and done, I spot a total of two hundred eighty individuals, either through windows or on active duty, and I feel certain there are more. My numbers seem to have swelled considerably..... and so shall my food needs.
--Which thankfully do not seem to be an issue. Within the walls, a wooden warehouse has likewise been assembled from the deconstructed shantytown, and is stocked with food I am told is from Shellik, Trepany and Glenston. There is little danger of starvation here, and the wells have been providing water without end.
--I note the walls and five sentry towers about the Arcanoworks to now be staffed with three dozen personnel, each armed with a hand-cannon. I also note the sentry tower opposite of the gates to now have a newly restored Skyfall Cannon sitting within, and a dozen metal shells stacked on either side of it, four soldiers about it at any given time.
[DAY 92]
I content myself with these discoveries and stop moving in the early morning hours, and wait for dawn to come, and with it the waking of those I need to speak with. Sure enough, as the day begins I find Derkin come to peer at me suspiciously, before promptly nodding and darting off. A few minutes later, Derkin, Oggroth, Ugrokk, Oggroth, Jojo, Ulzrick and two other militia members, I presume Ellorika and Vespinto, all make their way to stand before me. Arkus seems to still be inside the tower at the moment... Hm, I shall leave telling him for later, as information about Wendelin's gift is to be treated as confidential, if I am to honor our arrangement. Once everyone forms up, I give them brief explanation, to expect Keddic in the near future with both an inventor and a golem operator (golem included). I do not mention the caravan will bring Mage Wendelin's pack, filled with instructions and explanations of runework, and instead ask if the State inspectors have arrived. After hearing they have not, I am informed of the changes to the Arcanoworks, and I take note of the information I had not already deduced.
--The Arcanoworks now has a permanent staff of 340 Personnel, But only 100 of them have had more than a few weeks of training in martial craft. Derkin has been working on it with some of those that remained after the bulk of the 60 loaned militia left. The Arcanoworks staff is now comprised of people drawn from Trepany, Trekel, Glenston, Shellik and several refugees, and are all in their early adult years, with no preexisting impairments, as far as I can tell. They are apparently mine to keep, happy to work for a mage (Again I am grateful for the choice to come to a land that honors mages and to enact a persona of heroism, as it is paying off in spades), a bed and steady food. As it is, they still are not asking for pay, which considering the relatively easy work, the quality of living conditions they found, and the amount of local fame I seem to be acquiring, it is not all that surprising.
--five of the new personnel had pre-existing experience with blacksmithing, and have restored the smithing equipment and facilities within the central tower to functionality, the first floor now cleared of books (I am told they were moved to a higher floor), and only the crucible of 1,500 gallons of morphic fluid accompanies the metalworking equipment. A full three forges are worked into the walls, apparently having been behind some of the book-cases. No one is sure where the smoke goes, as nothing emanates from the tower when the use them. Likewise, even though they are open staircases, the sound of smithing does not pass the first floor, or escape the tower, though again they are not sure how this came to be.
--An exceedingly strange individual stopped by, calling himself Magnum Bang The Human Dynamo, Annihilator Of Armies, Smasher Of Sieges, Cracker Of Castles stopped by, demanding to know if there were any disasters or currently active battles he could attend to. Even stranger, he left without issue or comment or issue when told there was nothing pressing in the immediate area. This was two days ago.
--Roads now extend cleanly from the gates and on into the forest, reclaiming old merchant paths. Thus far it has reached Shellik, who had been working from their end as well. After travel between the two places got markedly faster, the other roads have had construction increased, but no other places are directly connected yet, as every town labors to extend roads towards their neighbors. It is expected that Trepany will have an direct road running past Shellik and on to the Arcanoworks in the next two or three days. People have been noted as starting to prepare for the coming roads, getting ready for more prolific trading.
--The four Premen sent to bring Verther's skin to Kyorto then journey to Mordreden have returned, builder and shaman both with them, who are introduced to me as Bokk the Maker and Krump the Shaman, who have been eagerly awaiting my return, after all that they have seen and heard from the other Premen here.
[Premen forces restored to full fighting force + 2! [25 total]]
As the reports on the capabilities of the Arcanoworks in general conclude, I start addressing individual people, giving orders and seeking updates alike.
""Derkin, how goes the training of the recruits,
specifically Ulzrick, Ellorika, and Vespinto there?"
"Pretty well, actually. Ellorika here's been doing superb at the pep-talk, inspiring people thing, pretty good at getting your blood up, a useful trait in a leader. Pretty good at direct martial craft... not so much on the sneaky stuff. Vespinto's a mad fine hand with... well, anything with an edge, really, the lad has a knack. He can stay hidden, and can irk information out of people.... but not so hot at the field tactics. Ulzrick here, pssh I swear he can get anywhere, guy most have a collapsible chest or something, but anyway the sneakiest of the lot, despite being the biggest. He's got a good grasp of tactics, and he fights creatively, always a useful thing.... but he just isn't that good at talking with lots of people, so leadership is out. Boy lies like a natural, though, so hey, there's that. ...Yeah, I'd say that's all I got to comment on about them right now, training's only really just begun, all that."
"And you, Jojo?
Any luck with either matter I asked you about?"
"...Human has gift, and Jojo wonders how Mordre knew, Souldreaming is exceedingly rare. But learning has begun, Ulzrick has learned of how to master own dreams, is learning of the craft. ...And as to the other matter, it was not possible, it remains broken."
"I see. Well, we will need to make sure there is some space cleared,
Within the Arcanoworks for the engineer/inventor whose services I procured.
Some 10 tonnes of incoming equipment, all told.
Additionally, I've been ruminating on the problem of establishing a sustained line of income.
Jojo, I don't suspect Lorgk would be averse to my request, but just in case,
would Mordreden be willing to establish a trade with the Arcanoworks -
rubies in exchange for weaponry and such?"
As people nod and depart to see to getting a new place readied, Jojo informs me that he has already spoken to Lorgk through Souldreaming about the marvelous weapons here, and Lorgk would be more than willing to trade for them, as well as send down the accumulated rubies pledged to Mordre since the last time they were collected. Good news indeed.
I make my way into the central tower, noting people already at work, trying to pound and repair every piece of armor they can, the mass of broken equipment from the shantytowns now slowly being restored to use. ....If they all became functional, I could well armor all my new soldiers in full metal, much of it steel of some grade or other.... interesting. I wave to the workers to resume their work as I trundle past, moving up the thankfully massive staircase. Sure enough, as I reach the second floor the his of bellows and clang of hammers fades to nothing, and I find Arkus at work, ordering about dozens of people, all carrying books as he continues to write... until he spots me. At that, he jumps up, already babbling.
"Ah, there you are! I got the Skyfall cannon fixed, and figured out that literally all it needs to work are prepared cannon shells with the complementing rune built into them, just drop them in and they immediately fire, more a mortar than a cannon. Ah, once we get the smithy downstairs up to snuff we might be able to make another cannon, not sure hey what are you made of, what's that sword, and what happened to the cannon?"
"I made augmentations, you can ask the details later.
Arkus, how long do you think it would take before we were set up,
Capable of manufacturing weapons like the hand-cannons,
Or the morphic fluid itself for sustained crafting?
"Ah, as to the morphic fluids... not really, I still have no clue on that. BUT, as to the hand-cannons, yes, yes we could with enough steel, actually, we've only got six of the incomplete hand-cannons yet un-assembled, it's currently just an issue of time, as it's still new stuff, need training, blah blah. Oh, and speaking of training, I assume you wanted me to get a sense of the axe's heft and balancing, which I did get. Because otherwise all I got out of that was wasted time, personally, though in fairness it did give me time to run over ideas, I sometimes try to do too many things at once back to your comment about production, are you planning to go into business? Ah, might want to make crappier versions of the guns for sale to others.... plus crappier's easier to make, which would let us get more experience, as currently we have zero experience building a hand-cannon from scratch, only finishing partially constructed ones, and... it is going to be rather draining, even with the staff and axe both to act as amplifiers, to do the enchanting part required to finalize the runes."
I am about to say more when a runner dashes up the stairs, and shouts out to us.
"STATE FORCE SPOTTED APPROACHING ARCANOWORKS!!"
Ah.
What should I do?
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