DM Kathy Monday November 22nd, 2021 10:31:07 PM Nightingale makes friends among the villagers, and seeks out herbs to add to gardens. Most cooking herbs have already been planted, but you are able to find some feverfew and echinacea to transplant.
Panzer, hearing of the looming fuel shortage, asks about nearby bogs. Alas, there are none. You are in the Tamed Lands, an area shaped by Parnoth to be pleasant and parklike. There is no place in the Tamed Lands for a smelly peat bog. You have more luck finding a suitable hillside, about a half-mile from the town's center. It's a little on the small side, but you could have a south-facing door, which is always nice.
Ash asks about fallen logs, but they are already being used for building materials. You check on the quarry, and find that a few basalt stones have been quarried and moved to the village. It is just getting started, but so far the results are promising.
Beech steers clear of the discussion, apart from his pet projects. The quay will serve the town for the time being, so plans for docks are being put off. But crews are already making sketches and measurements for the pivoting bridge.
Sahabiel takes the opportunity to tell some stories, and find she has a willing and eager audience. The townsfolk have been focused on basic survival for so long, things like play and stories and education have kind of fallen by the wayside. Perhaps it's time to pick them up again.
Lothlo proposes fast-growing trees, aided by druidic magic, as a way of coping with the fuel issue. It does seem to be a strong possibility, especially if you can keep the trees growing throughout the winter.
Zazu suggests that low-level magic could help lessen the need for fuel, and sets out to figure what has been done. Here is the list:
Two similar-sized buildings, built mostly of wood, mark the new town's center. Right now, they are being used for housing. Once actual houses have been built, one of these buildings will be the town hall; the other will be divided into four shops.
A quay has been built on the riverside.
Preliminary work has begun on Beech's pivoting bridge.
There is a lookout tower near the river, with room for up to 4 archers atop it.
At the moment, the builders are eyeing the quay/bridge area, wondering if a small building should go there, to serve as a custom-house or trading-house. And, given that it would be small, perhaps it could be built of the new basalt? But others in town are saying that there are enough public buildings for now, and the time has come to start building houses.
[OOC: Without giving too much away, your characters do have some time to work on this stuff.]
Naithi (JamesD) AC: 19/13/17 HP: 50/50 , CMD = 16 Monday November 22nd, 2021 10:57:19 PM
I nod in response to Lothlo's idea. When we planted the crops and orchards, be I put several trees a plants we wanted to cultivate together and then cast plant growth on them to create an over growth and turn it into a jungle. We then dug the plants up and transplanted them where we wanted them.
Something like a mango tree would be nice. A durable hard wood that also produces fruit. I heard the Iron Dragons had an enchanted mango tree on top of their tower that would throw fruit at would be trespassers.
Nightingale (JonS) HP 27/27 AC 18 CMD: 21 Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 2:19:59 AM
Nightingale will also pray to Queen Maab for ideas on how to help with the upcoming winter. In speaking with Sahabiel, "Sister, are there not trees outside of the Great Woods that we can harvest fallen wood from, I do not wish to upset such a glorious wood, especially if we are to be its neighbors."
Panzer Braun (David F) AC 20 (T14, FF17) CMD 20 HP 45/45 ) Character Sheet Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 6:34:08 AM
Panzer claims the small hillside and starts work on his home. He moves the tent he will live in to the site and diligently starts to shape the surroundings into the picture in his head.
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 40/40 Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 6:09:32 PM (OOC: Sahabiel would answer Lothlo and Nightingale's questions about what their 'options' are to get some wood in a way that respects the rules of the Culverwood, but I don't think I should just make something up for the Wold. Therefore, can we have a DM please tell us what Sahabiel would tell them?)
Zazu (AC20, HP25) and Boyo the bunny (AC16, HP12) (Cayzle) Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 8:21:59 PM
[OOC: According to this map, we are on the south side of the river. I *thought* we were on the north side. If we are really on the south side, I'm not sure why we even need a bridge yet at all?]
Zazu thinks about what is in progress and what needs to be done.
Two similar-sized buildings, built mostly of wood, mark the new town's center. Right now, they are being used for housing. Once actual houses have been built, one of these buildings will be the town hall; the other will be divided into four shops.
A quay is done. A lookout tower is done. A hall and four shops in a building are done. A bridge is started.
Zazu wonders if the bridgework is maybe premature. We do not have more than a track if that extending to Kovri. There is not really enough traffic to justify a bridge yet. Maybe we can put that on hold?
Zazu talks with the party and other NPC town leaders. "We need to make houses, but we do not have the building materials. We do not have enough wood. Stone from our quarry will be useful, but it is too difficult to bring in quantity."
"We need a shack near the spot on the river where Naithi found clay in the riverbank. Then we use the Lyre to make a brickworks with a kiln. Once we have a supply of brick, we can make houses."
Zazu works hard to recruit a few people here who know, or can learn, the art of brickmaking and pottery.
Ash (RobC) -- AC 12/12/10 -- CMD 12 -- HP 41/41 Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 8:29:03 PM
Ash spends her time doting and fussing on Myre to make sure her friend is ok and not suffering any side effects from her adventure.
After that she checks in with Mike and Briana to make sure they're contributing to the success of the settlement. She's sure they are. Mike is quite a capable trapper and smith. She asks about the dagger he was crafting for her. It was just a simple dagger but with some mother-of-pearl inlay on the handle. Decorative more than functional.
Briana is more than a capable healer. Ash is sure that her skills are going to good use.
Finally, she spends time studying the code book the party were provided. She wants to try and commit it to memory in case something should happen to it. She considers making a copy of it but more copies means a greater risk of one being captured/lost. Instead she reads and rereads it each night and whenever she has free time available.
Lothlo (WillD) -- AC: 20/15/16, HP: 45/45, CMD: 21 Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 9:38:26 PM While I like the idea of a custom-house/trading house, I'd prefer not to give the thieves guild an attractive target while they are still cooling off after our last run-in. I have doubts they would do anything so brazen as to make their presence known when they are trying to keep their illegal encampment off the government's radar, but not enough to give them tempting target. Unless there is a practical reason to prioritize it first that I'm not catching right away. I would also suggest a couple more lookout towers if we've grown to the point where that's needed. Actually, all things considered a few more lookout towers might not be a bad idea. As we build houses the single watch tower may not be sufficient to keep the whole settlement safe.
How achievable is the goal of building houses, and stockpiling enough fuel to heat them during the winter months? And do we look good as far as food, clothing, and blankets? And can someone pull up the land survey and let us know what it says about the winter weather here?
DM Kathy Tuesday November 23rd, 2021 10:24:21 PM Naithi approves of Lothlo's idea and gives details. She suggests a mango tree, but mangoes are tropical and probably would not do well in the temperate Culverwood. Black cherry or black walnut might be a better option.
This time it is Nightingale who asks about fallen logs, but the answer remains the same--they have already been identified, gathered, and earmarked for building.
Since this has come up twice now, your DM will elaborate. The townsfolk have not been idle while you've been off adventuring. In addition to building, they have searched for building materials. By this point, it is safe to assume that any fallen log within 10 miles of Freedom's Landing has been found and laboriously dragged back to town. You could, of course, look for fallen logs farther out, but you would have to have a plan for transporting them.
Panzer and Sahabiel continue working on their individual homes.
Zazu wonders whether you even need a bridge at this point.
[OOC: You are building a bridge because it seems important to JohnC/Beech. I am a nice DM and everybody gets to have fun doing their thing that they want. :) If JohnC agrees, we can postpone the bridge.]
Zazu recalls how Naithi found some clay in the riverbank, which is news to your DM, but sure why not. I mean, I just made a big thing about letting people have what they want.
There are still some logs available for building. One thing that might make them stretch farther is a nice sawmill to turn them into lumber. Although that would be a very ambitious project at the moment.
Ash spends time with Myre who is settling in nicely. You find that Mike has nearly completed your dagger, and is now searching for the perfect pieces of mother-of-pearl to ornament it.
Lothlo points out that a trading-house would just be a target for the Thieves' Guild, and suggests more watchtowers instead. You ask about building and heating houses. Right now, there is enough wood to do one or the other, but not both. In other words, if you build houses, you won't have much wood left for fuel. If you chop it all up for fuel, you won't be able to build the houses. Luckily, you are in very good shape for clothing and blankets, and decent shape for food.
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 40/40 Wednesday November 24th, 2021 4:19:45 AM
Sahabiel does not want to argue on what is clearly a point of pride to some of the others, but she wonders if making buildings mostly out of wood during a wood shortage, or making their own bricks in such a small community, is really the best allocation of the materials and people in their care. As far as she is concerned, the coming winter will be about survival, and getting dry, easy to heat homes and other bare essentials built for the people -at all- is much more important than making them out of advanced materials to be pretty and fancy town-like, right?
As the prayer of Plant Growth is an ever-present fixture in her daily routine, she is rather well aware of what it does, and while growing wood is a slow affair, applying it to natural fast, fibrous growers like the reed on the river bank would produce an immediate harvestable volume of the stuff in a single day. And together with a clay deposit...
(OOC: Sorry, I am a bit of a history enthusiast. Wattle and daub variants have been the mainstay of construction in many early civilizations, from ages long before sawmills, smooth planks, or brick kilns were even imagined, and lasting well into the middle ages. Simple, crude mats woven of reed will give wet clay something easy to cling to, and the composite material will hold shape for the same reasons that let the Romans build domes out of nothing but horsehair and chunky cement, or why we have rebar concrete. This was used as far back as ancient Egypt (which was similarly very short on wood but rich in reed and clay deposits) and still was used in my own wet and temperate country’s medieval days.)
If the builders are largely idle for lack of materials to build with, then for the days spent at the settlement, Sahabiel changes her daily routine to include a second use of the Plant Growth prayer (replacing the Magical Vestment slot) to grow volumes of reed, and together with any members of the community with idle time on their hands, sit and weave the reeds into rough mats that simple, unprocessed clay will stick to if pressed into. These times spent on light, fairly mindless handicraft will also serve as time in which she talks with the people and shares stories and songs while working. If some people turn out to have a knack for weaving, she will allow those to use the reed supply to work on slightly more complicated useful things like baskets.
(OOC: weaving a coarse materal like reed into crude mats is simple enough that anyone can do it, since you can Take10 on Craft(weaving) even untrained, and it only requires a DC5 check - so this work can be joined by the unskilled, the elderly, even the children… basically anyone with free time and not so crippled that they’d have a -5 modifier on their skill check. Singing songs and telling stories while weaving can make this a very social activity)
She also completely agrees with Panzer that digging half a wall height into the ground makes for both excellent insulation, and saves half a wall height of materials.
(OOC: small, low cottages, dug half submerged into the ground for insulation and then half a wall height built up around in daubed walls, and roofed with woven mats and sod, make a very quaint sight - but these were the practical reality of countless settlements from pre-bronze age to late iron age. Sure there are limitations on roof span using this technique that prevents interior space going more than 10’ between supporting walls or beams, but at least it doesn’t use any materials to build that we do not have right now, and lets us set aside the scarce wood supply for winter heating.)
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 40/40 Wednesday November 24th, 2021 5:29:45 AM ♩”Step by step the longest march, can be won, can be won; Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none; ♫ ♩ And together what we will, can be accomplished still, Many drops can turn a mill, singly none, singly none” ♫
Sahabiel’s singing is not the best, but her songs are nothing if not rousing and full of community spirit.
Zazu (AC20, HP25) and Boyo the bunny (AC16, HP12) (Cayzle) Wednesday November 24th, 2021 9:23:25 AM
Zazu thinks that Sahabiel's idea for duck houses is a great idea.
"I'm calling them 'duck houses' because you said they were made of waddle!" Zazu grins. "And we can use Rose's Temperature Control to dry them once they are made."
The elf readily works to create huts for people to live in.
[OOC: I'm not just making stuff up, LOL! See the DM post of October 8th, 2020. Naithi found a clay deposit and used it to make a primitive oven.]
Nightingale (JonS) HP 27/27 AC 18 CMD: 21 Wednesday November 24th, 2021 1:52:05 PM
Nightingale finds Sahabiel's idea for housing very interesting. I have a spell that I think might help in the construction of such houses, if not I can use it to repair or fix other broken items around the camp.
OOC: I looked up the spell 'Make Whole', not sure what she can do with it in this situation, but if it helps, she will use it as much as she can every day.
Nightingale (JonS) HP 27/27 AC 18 CMD: 21 Wednesday November 24th, 2021 1:57:08 PM OOC: How far from the coast is our community? Since I live close to the Pacific, was thinking we should make forays to gather driftwood, sand to make glass, and gather other plants and sea creatures as food/resources
Beech (JohnC) AC 14(18)/14/14,HP 20/20 Character Wednesday November 24th, 2021 4:58:55 PM
Beech thinks, whatever works... But permanent structures need to be solid and reliable. "As long as people are safe in them, whatever works is fine by me. I've seen a lot of various materials being used, just depends on what the prevailing weather is like, what materials will work the best. Having to rebuild after a short time due to rotting or weather damage, would suggest using better materials." He plans on staying out of the general housing decisions, but his living area is gonna be safe according to his mind....
Lothlo (WillD) -- AC: 20/15/16, HP: 45/45, CMD: 21 Wednesday November 24th, 2021 7:48:05 PM Well, I don't know much about construction, but bricks sound like a good addition and with the lyre we can hopefully make any expansions needed before the winter without risk of running out of firewood.
DM Kathy Wednesday November 24th, 2021 11:01:17 PM Sahabiel suggests that wattle-and-daub might be a better use of the clay than something as complicated and time-consuming as bricks. Zazu embraces the idea, calling them "duck houses."
Nightingale suggests that the Make Whole spell might be of use. It would certainly be of use in repairs, but not much good for construction. The spell was designed to repair damage, not to build new things. [OOC: You're a ways from the ocean. A closer source of driftwood is probably Blackbird Lake, but even that is pretty far away.]
Lothlo is still keen on bricks, and Beech is of a "whatever works" mindset.
So, Sahabiel gets to work on her "duck houses," training the townsfolk in how to weave mats and stick them together. You'll need to experiment with materials for the daub--clay by itself won't do; you'll need to add dirt or sand for bulk and straw or other plant fiber for stability.
[No, your DM is not an expert on wattle and daub, but the wikipedia article is really cool.]
While that project is going on, the rest of the group can be working on other things. New watchtowers have been proposed, and of course there's the pivoting bridge.
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 40/40 Thursday November 25th, 2021 7:14:01 AM “True.. we could use magic to dry it faster,” Sahabiel agrees with Zazu, “but for the sake of teaching, yer people will want to learn how ya do it without relying on uncommon ability. After all, they’ll be doing the maintenance for years and need to know they can do it when none o’ us is around.” She shrugs… “It is easy to forget, but yer Freedom Landing is a hamlet by population, a thorpe by how few buildings are up, and still worse in barely being able to sustain itself yet. For ya and me, it’s easy to think magic will always be available, because it is us that bring it. But for them… for a place like this to have a half dozen like us around, is a fluke. And any time we travel to take care of something else somewhere, it leaves them without.”
For Beech, she assures her liontaur friend that eventual decay of the woven squares is expected, but it will be slowed from being packed in drying daub, and by the time it does, the walls will have dried and solidified themselves.
DM is entirely right, I didn’t mention all of it because I already felt at risk of turning my post into a DIY guide, but yes, daub needs three components: binder, aggregate, and reinforcement. The binder here is clay, the reinforcement is all the leftover plant fiber from our reed harvesting that wasn’t suitable for weaving the squares, and the aggregate is coarse dirt and small stones - and guess what we will have plenty of when the construction of every cottage starts with digging half a wall height into the ground, in a landscape like this? ;)
To get the daub right with the local materials, well, the approximate range in which the mix works is pretty easy to establish in hand alone, but to find the one that really works within that range she will prepare nine small test batches (in a 3x3 grid, with the first approximation at the center, the parts clay kept the same, the parts aggregate being two less, same, and two more on the horizontal, and the parts reinforcement being two less, same, and two more on the vertical. These nine points form four quadrants between them, and the four mixes that form the corners of the quadrant that contains the ‘ideal’ mix will be better than the other five. Then she takes the center of that quadrant as the new center approximate for the next nine test batches, and does it again with only single parts variation in aggregate and reinforcement, then half part variations on the quadrangle that worked best out of that, then quarters, and then it honestly shouldn’t matter anymore because daub mixing is not that sensitive to small variations.
(OOC: And some, I am sure, are now wondering what I do for a living.) ^_^
Panzer Braun (David F) AC 20 (T14, FF17) CMD 20 HP 45/45 ) Character Sheet Thursday November 25th, 2021 12:40:50 PM
Panzer is happy to start working ongetting the bottoms of some houses ready by digging them out while Sahabiel leads the weaving and mixing of the clay mix. He follows he direction on how deep to dig and how close to keep the walls since he is small and whatever he is making would be much larger than he personally would need.
The half underground house concept was also used by US settlers that populated the great plains. They had little wood to work with but the turf was dense so they could dig down, build the walls with sod blocks and then just needed to find a material to shingle their roof.
Beech (JohnC) AC 14(18)/14/14,HP 20/20 Character Thursday November 25th, 2021 4:52:35 PM
Beech will help out where he can, about the only way he can magically is with cantrips, his other spells are way to destructive.
He'll spend time setting up the cooking area for people.
I as a person know what was being said, but Beech is another story... while he's seen leather sided yurts and a few thatched roofed buildings, he grew up in a stone fortress that was magically enhanced.
Ash (RobC) -- AC 12/12/10 -- CMD 12 -- HP 41/41 Thursday November 25th, 2021 5:43:36 PM
Ash isn't particularly fussed or interested in all the discussion about what substance is better than what. She spends her time with the people. She makes sure they have all the necessities for what they need right now, rather than what might be coming in the future.
Zazu (AC20, HP25) and Boyo the bunny (AC16, HP12) (Cayzle) Thursday November 25th, 2021 8:49:02 PM
Zazu helps out making houses, using hands and magic.
“This is good and fast, but we should still make a brickworks and kiln.”
DM Kathy Thursday November 25th, 2021 10:49:33 PM Sahabiel continues working on the duck houses. Panzer happily helps dig foundations. Zazu helps too, although he still advocates for his brickworks. Maybe there will be time to plan that once the town is ready for winter.
Beech helps set up a single open-air kitchen, which will be an improvement over the scattered cookfires people had been using.
Ash concentrates on helping people, making sure they have what they need. For the most part, they do, and the situation improves day by day.
A couple of weeks pass. Several homes have been built, and claimed by grateful townsfolk. A second watchtower has been built, and the open-air kitchen is complete.
Because her focus is more on the people and less on the buildings, it is Ash who notices that when the hunting party returns one day, they look concerned. They bring their meat to the kitchen, but stand about for a while, discussing something in low tones.
Ash (RobC) -- AC 12/12/10 -- CMD 12 -- HP 41/41 d20+4=11 ; Thursday November 25th, 2021 11:03:08 PM
Ash looks up from where she had been helping in the kitchen. Something is amiss with the hunting party. She excuses herself from the kitchen table and goes to speak with them.
She keeps her back to the others in the kitchen to try and keep the conversation a little private. "Friends. Is everything ok? You look concerned." Ash rubs her hands on her tunic to clean them up a little. She'll have to do some washing later anyway.
-------------- Sense Motive: 11
Nightingale (JonS) HP 27/27 AC 18 CMD: 21 Friday November 26th, 2021 2:24:24 AM
Nightingale wants to set up her tent, but raises it off the ground using stones or thick tufts of grass. She then wants to transplant herbs of flowers and pray to Queen Maab to help them grow around her new dwelling.
When not working on that Nightingale will help out wherever she can. She is trained in Midwifery and as a clothier, so she could help fix clothes or make blankets from articles of clothing that can't be mended or are too small.
Panzer Braun (David F) AC 20 (T14, FF17) CMD 20 HP 45/45 ) Character Sheet Friday November 26th, 2021 3:05:47 PM
Panzer continues to help by digging out foundations for the semi in the ground dwellings. In the evenings he works more on chipping his own place out of the stone.
Lothlo (WillD) -- AC: 20/15/16, HP: 45/45, CMD: 21 Friday November 26th, 2021 10:31:40 PM I have been thinking, we should probably also use the lyre to build a perimeter wall for a little protection from any harsh winter weather, and hungry creatures that might be want to steal our food... and of course the thieve's guild.
Sahabiel (EstherLauren) -- AC 22/11/21 -- HP: 40/40 Friday November 26th, 2021 10:53:40 PM
When Ash notices something amiss with the returning hunters, Sahabiel happens to be at her home plot which, with the passing of a few weeks, has developed into the site of a local landmark simply referred to by the settlers as Sahabiel’s Tree. To one side of which, she has begun preparing for a small private garden, as while she has nothing to plant so late in the season, she would like to have it ready as soon as winter recedes and spring arrives. She looks pleased with the tree’s growth, although by now the familiarity of her accommodation sharing arrangement with Beech has also kind of grown on her. Sahabiel wonders if it will feel quiet to sleep alone in a room of her own, without that peculiar leonine fur smell.
(OOC: How many weeks out of five is a couple? Asking so that I may know how close the tree is to being grown enough for her to start making her home in it, as that would be somewhere in week five after she started?)
From working together day in, day out with the people of the settlement, the half-elf has been learning many of their names, and a lot of bits and pieces of their stories, the downtrodden life they escaped and their hopes for the future.
(I will be treating Sahabiel as familiar with the settlement and its people from here on)
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