The aftermath of the expedition...
Corai's injuries, severe though they seemed at first, were dealt with by Doctor Cain in record time. Months of treating Rakush had left the doctor with great experience in cleaning and closing wounds. Corai never showed any signs of infection, being cleaned with Jacen's finest giant thrips soap within moments of reaching the hospital. One broken bone did present a novel challenge to the doctor.
The delicate job was performed expertly, with no injury to the nervous tissue. Corai walked out of the hospital with no loss of feeling or motor control. His first act was, of course, to grab a good stiff drink.
His second act was to grab an axe and run around warning against the dangers of the depths to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately for Corai, most of the longer-term residents had developed strong mental blocks against his voice. His warnings went mostly unheeded.
Which is not to say that there were no precautions taken at all.
In the weeks following the expedition, Cilob met with an anonymous mason, with an unusual request. Make me a door, he asked. Make it with whatever decorations, spikes of this and bands of that, that you like. On this door, put images of the most terrifying and unpleasant things, images that will keep any dwarf from wanting to look inside it. But most of all, and this is the important thing, build me a door that will keep back the monsters of the deeps.
The mason complied, of course. Through fey means he couldn't describe and could never reproduce, he made a door that would be impervious to even the most horrible demon or forgotten beast. And on the door, to keep the curious as bay, he made the image of some horrid monsters he had heard described in a story one. And then, between the harrier brutes, for those who were not scared away by demons, he made the image of an elf.
Erush Fatheggut, Genius Clothsdwarf, was increasingly disappointed in this 'asbestos' cloth. At first he had been fascinated. A thread derived from stone, like the fabled Adamantine, but made from a common stone rather than the pillars of hell. To be the first dwarf to make a masterpiece from this material was just the kind of thing he couldn't resist.
When his beloved Geb told him about it, he had rushed down to Alpha Labs, to the asbestos loom, where crushed stone was being made into thread. He had endured the irritating fibers drifting through the air as he watched the loom at work.
As soon as enough thread was ready, he had taken a spool of the asbestos up to his personal loom to weave it into cloth.
But gradually, as he wove enough cloth to start trying to weave it, his enthusiasm began to wane. The resulting weave of asbestos fibers was heavy, scratchy, and brittle. It lacked the strength of pig tails, the smoothness of silk, or the warmth of wool. It was too stiff to be made into gloves or pants, too heavy for a decent shirt. The only strength it had was being nearly impervious to heat or flame - though even there it was not quite as durable as adamantine was said to be. Perhaps if someone needed fireproof mittens it would do, but otherwise he could see little use for the material.
Eventually he tired of trying to make anything useful of it. Setting aside the asbestos cloth and thread, he turned back to more productive work.
Athra's quarters gleamed, at least as well as anything could gleam in the darkness this far beneath the surface. The diorite walls and floors had been polished smooth, with streaks of cassiterite and white marble running across the bedroom, and clusters of smoky quartz and red zircon glittering in the walls of the dining room and foyer.
It was still a little plain. The walls needed decoration. He reached into his trousers pocket and pulled out the simple stone and metal chisels he'd made.
Now was the time he could really get creative.
... and just let his mind wander.
End of year address. Cilob stands on a cage in the dining room, addressing the handful of dwarves who bothered to attend."My fellow dwarves! I can't tell you how glad I am to see you all here. We have had an eventful year, and it pleases me to see so many of you alive and uninjured."
"Tragically, we did have one death this year. Ash the Marksdwarf, who gave his life to defend against an attack by goblins earlier this year. Fortunately, one of our new immigrants has stepped up to take his place, as soon as he can get his gear together."
"I'm sure you all have heard about the wonderful expedition that our Champion Graknorke and four others took into the caverns this year. Now, I know it's impossible to keep the news of the Adamantine from all of you. I have been asked by many of you if any of it has been mined yet, or if not, how soon will it be? Well, I have to say that it's Geb's decision first of all. And I can ssure you, neither her or I intend to do anything that would endanger the fortress and everyone who lives within it."
"Besides which, this isn't a mining fortress. Oh, we might have mineral wealth here in abundance, but we mine it only to help with the primary task of this fortress. Catching and taming exotic animals - especially those from the ocean."
Cilob gestures down at the cage he is standing on, a cage which is implausibly stuffed full of orca whale.
"I haven't yet figured out how to tame this thing, and I'm not even sure it's going to be possible. Don't ask me how it's managing to breathe in this thing, either. But even if it can't be tamed, there are methods I've developed to breed hostile aquatic creatures - assuming we can catch a female."
"And there are females out there - I saw a pod swimming past just the other day. Many more creatures in the depths, too. Quietust's trap-chamber is filled up and working again, we hope to have a second one finished in the upcoming year, and as our fisherdwarves can tell you the fishing pier is working quite well. We've started work on a second pier down south. So I hope everyone here likes seafood - though with the way the giant sparrows have been breeding, there's plenty else available if you don't."
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Topic: Brightwater: Community fortress of science, oceans, and animal taming (Read 154886 times)