A dusty tome sits abandoned in a corner of the library. It is a book of history, a tale of the past. It details the life and times of Vayus Grim and the early years of the foundation of the Abbey of Sands.Dear journal, today is an important day, a glorious day. The king has decided to have a great monument erected in honour of our nation and I am one of the people who has been chosen to do it! Sure I'm not in charge, Miss Asa is leading us, but I've got an important role! I'll be manning the furnaces, smelting ores and refining coal for the smiths to fashion into idols and statues and weapons.
The King gave Miss Asa a lot of money to purchase supplies with, we have so much stone, wood and ore, I've never seen so much in all my years in the capitol. I don't know how the draft horses will pull it all. I shall have to speak with her about gathering the materials for my craft. Why we'll need lignite and tetrahedrite and...
...Several pages are missing......The others and I were sitting around the campfire getting to know each other, I must say we're a rather odd lot for building a cathedral.
Dragon is a blacksmith who makes armour and weapons. I don't know what we'll be needing with weapons out in the desert, but I trust the Kings choices in sending him.
Crystalstar is a farmer of some sort. Never did learn much about farming. She's brought a bunch of dogs and cats and chickens and pigs. Says they're to supplement our crops and help keep us safe.
Granite, one of our miners has been a bit distant, but she seems to be quite sensible.
Gamer, the architect who's going to examine the land we're building on seems a bit rash and impulsive, and a touch gloomy as well journal.
...The following page has been worn away...We're here, we're here! Oh it's such a beautiful place, snow covered sand stretching out before us with dunes rising nearby and a great hill not far from us. I think I saw ice in the wagon wheel furrows a short way back, there must be a river beneath the snow. I can't wait to see this place filled with a great bustling of people; traders, craftsmen, priests and artists. This will be an important place one day, and I'll be a part of it.
Arrival:
1st Granite
We've been scouting out the land for the past few days, and it appears that there's a tunnel of some kind on top of the hill. Miss Asa says not to go in, it could be dangerous. She's got Gamer making blocks out of the granite we brought, apparently she wants him to get me a furnace built as soon as possible so we can ward off the chill of the snow with the heat. Meme has started shoveling snow aside to make room for some fields.
I'm a bit nervous journal, we saw several really large animals trudging through the snow, one looked like a colossal scorpion. I don't want to meet that thing while out for a stroll.
The locals:
12th Slate
Things have been pretty uneventful journal, we've started work on a hall to shelter in, and I've been hard at work smelting tetrahedrite and refining lignite, Dragon's been using some of the silver from the ore to make goblets for when traders come, but the only real event of note that happened is the desert thawed and I saw that I was right, there was a river under the snow. It's a bit of a walk away but it's not too far to the north.
Sping Thaw:
1st Hematite
Things are so boring here sometimes journal, but today something interesting happened. Dragon was wandering around and decided to check out that cave, Miss Asa was furious with him when she found out he went in alone, but she was more interested in what he found in there.
It was a body, some sort of large hairless thing, like a rat crossed with a dog. I think I may have nightmares tonight. It was rotting and riddled with maggots and worms.
2nd Hematite
Meme followed one of our cats into the cave, apparently it was squishing the maggots left behind from the body and she was trying to stop it from running off when she bumped into something big and soft in the dark. She came running out to get us and we all went in to check, by the light of some torches we were able to work out that it was the body of a giant worm thing. Something had pulped one end of it, it must have been the head because it's brains were leaking out. We decided to haul it out of there in case the body attracted whatever else lives down there.
5th Hematite
Another giant worm has been spotted! It's on the surface near the cave. It seems to be enjoying the sunshine, though I always thought that worms liked the dark.
Worm: