Mayor Murdoc works with his Foremen and spokesmen from among the Serfs to implement better living conditions for the lower class. While some of the Serfs' own miners are working on carving out the new chambers, simple Rock Nut Oil-burning lanterns are set up around the existing places, replacing sparsely-issued handheld candles. While the better lighting and hope of more humane living conditions is a great help, morale is still low, and the extra lights are producing enough smoke to trouble the crude ventilation systems.
Hunters from among the Serfs are equipped with muskets and birdshot, given some training, and sent to find whatever fresh meat they can. While this area is somewhat sparse on the wildlife front, they manage a good number of small ground-mammals, rabbits and the like, in addition to thinning out the local bird population. With the current level of hunting, animal populations will remain stable, but meat is provided in small quantities, by lottery. The gestures of intent to improve their condition, and of training their own to provide for them, help the Serfs' morale, but the Infantry dislike the idea of arming Serfs.
Chaotic Skies is able to secure a personal supply of the meat he seems to require, but this sours the Serfs' opinion of him somewhat.
Over the next two months, there are expected to be two food-resupply events: The arrival of the year's Mountainhome caravan, and about a month later, the next harvest cycle.
The Serfs brought livestock, most of it slow-metabolism cavern-life. They provide wool, milk, and eggs, some of the only fresh food in ready supply. If necessary, they can be butchered for fresh meat, and when they next provide young, those will be.
The most efficient, if not the swiftest, way of getting a message to the Mountainhome is to wait for the Caravan, but messengers on Tunnel-Goats can be selected from the Elite troops if necessary.
Elagn organizes his workers to begin hauling great quantities of stone from the tailing-piles to the dam site. After some deliberation, a makeshift crane is constructed over the gorge to aid in later work, but in the process of its construction, a worker fell from his perch into the river. His body was not found, and after the customary wait period, it will be necessary to have a slab carved. While the workers seem enthused by the idea of better lights through whatever sorcery this project is meant to achieve, their spirits are still low after the death of their own.
Chaotic Skies makes a jump of intuition in the field of metal refining, developing a functional scale model of an arc furnace. With sufficient electrical power and a full-size version, no fuel will be needed to smelt some ores.
Magus Patham spends the week attempting to reactivate his datapad, which may contain advanced schematics. It would appear to have been charged by some sort of motion-based dynamo, which likely suffered from diminishing returns to begin with. It should be easy enough to recharge using the main power system, an inbuilt transformer coil. Align the thing with another transformer array of the correct voltage, and it will come out of safe mode to reboot.
Those in the cavern continue work on explosives and engines, with Moony using the tiny quantities of collected Germanium to attempt improvised photovoltaic cells.
Gwolfski prepares for a camping trip in protest against His Lordship's authority, despite his Local acquaintances warning him that to travel alone at night is death.
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Topic: If Bay 12 was a fortress Part 3: RETURN OF THE CHAOS (Read 234920 times)