1st Moonstone, 208, Early Winter
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"No. No, it's all wrong! This will never work! Who designed this stupid thing?!"
"
You did, Zon."
"Bah! Do I look like an architect to you?! Shouldn't someone have corrected me?"
"But you get mad when I tell you how to make things more artistic!"
"I'm not looking for
art, I'm looking for
practicality!"
"What exactly is the problem again?"
I tug on my beard and let out a sigh. I had requested Asob's help to deliberate over a name for the magma road project (we still haven't thought of one) when she noticed a crucial flaw - one that can't be fixed without possibly a year or more of renovation.
"The pump stack on the magma trap is in the wrong place. It only draws magma up from the second level!"
"So?"
"So?! That means there's only two levels worth of magma to fill the entire trap!"
"Hmm... well, what's going to make it take a full year to fix?"
"There's only two ways to fix this that I can see... Either we deconstruct the whole blasted thing to move it, or we add another pump underneath the stack - but to do that, we first need to pump enough magma out of the pipe to get it low enough for the workers to build!"
Asob laughed. "See, this is what you need an artist for. Your problem is that you're afraid there won't be enough magma to pump, right?"
"Obviously!"
"Well, then! Why don't you just make the top two levels of the pipe wider?"
I blinked. I blinked again. That... "That could actually work! I think... wait... yes! Yes, we could manage that... give the magma some time to fill in the expanded area, and it should be ok! Asob, you're a genius!"
"I know! You should tell me more often. Hang on, gotta get a drink."
Asob vanished, as I have come to accept as usual. Something fell to the ground where she once was, however. Something shiny and blue... microcline? No--
"Adamantine..."
A small shard of the forbidden blue stone lay in the recently vacated spot. Of course! Adamantine has all kinds of unknown properties. Perhaps this is the source of her power? I pick it up and inspect it. It looks like something's inscribed on both sides... probably with another piece of adamantine, considering how hard it is. On one side was an image of a seven-pointed star. On the other was something written in
human, no less.
[INVADERS:NO]Asob reappears, dabs of strawberry wine still in her beard. Instantly, she recognized what I had, and started quivering.
"Oh! Uh... D-did I drop that? I'll just take that back, then..."
She reached for it, but I pulled it away. "Asob, I think you need to start explaining a few things. Like your weird teleporting thing, for one!"
"Oh! Thank Armok, that's all you're talking about! That's pretty simple to explain, actually. I've been putting pieces of pitchblende in my food stockpile."
"...What?? Why?!"
"We found some a while ago! And I've heard it's great in holistic medicine. Keeping pitchblende around food is supposed to keep your weight down and help you look beautiful!"
"What are you, an elf?"
"No, if I were an elf I'd be making my armor out of a tree I hugged too much."
"Asob, look... pitchblende does
not make you slimmer and prettier. It's a rock. There's nothing special about it whatsoever! But in case I'm wrong, realize that you're doing this to a
public food stockpile that everybody eats from. What if not everyone wants to be slim and beautiful?"
"Who wouldn't?"
I sigh and turn the piece of adamantine over in my hands. "And... this. What's going on here? Come on, I don't keep secrets from you - I
can't, after all, because you keep reading my journal!"
"Oh, alright... I made a deal with a fey."
"A fey? Like, when you went into that fey mood years ago?"
"No, not that one. This one only talks to me when I'm near the adamantine."
The hair on my beard felt like it stood straight up. "And... you're sure it's a fey."
"I have to say, its original deal was pretty steep! I asked if it could protect our fortress from goblins, and it said it wanted my soul in exchange. Thankfully, my work as a clerk has taught me to become a Persuader, Flatterer, Negotiator, Legendary Appraiser, and a Competent Intimidator. I talked him down; in exchange for only protecting the fort in the Autumn, I only have to suffer the loss of a loved one to tragedy. Much better, if you ask me."
"Intimidator?! I've never,
ever seen you act intimidating before in my life."
"Well, of course not! You're my friend, and I wouldn't do that to you, even when you're mean to me sometimes."
"Well... that's nice of you, Asob. Now, let's get to fixing this magma trap before it goes live."
"Yeah... at least it's not as bad as what you did to the river tower. You realize you dug your channel a level too high?"
"...What! You're kidding! They must have read the blueprint wrong!"
Well, on to actual work. The first thing I do is make sure to block all access to pump stacks with doors - iron doors for the magma tower, of course. Then, I add more designations to the magma project. Pretty standard stuff.
It's the beginning of a new season, and Asob's...
charm, which I'm still not happy about, would have worn off if it works the way she describes. I cancel chopping of trees for a while so that no one is caught unawares if goblins decide to attack this season.
I'm interested in the vein of copper exposed outside, so I build a wall around it and have a stairway dug into the fortress. Now we can access the remainder from indoors, where it's safer and faster to access.
Now, on to that stupid, stupid river flub. Where has my head been?? Ugh... All this rushing is causing me to make terrible mistakes. What am I rushing for, anyway? Well, anyway, we can fix that with a U-bend. Nothing to fret over.
The number of idlers keeps rising, so every time I see someone slacking off I set them to masonry to help with the construction.
We get some area dug out for the magma pipe(which of course holds up the river flub workaround). I figure it's easier to make the area full of stairs, that way miners and magma alike can move freely. Unfortunately, I mistakenly order some down stairs dug above area that's actually used for the fortress, so I hastily order that area floored over before we have a nasty spill!
Humm... pitchblende in the food supply... Why am I making so many careless mistakes lately?