Some months passed before DwarfyDwarf sought out Rith with a grin on his face.
"Come with me", he said simply and dashed off toward the exploration tunnels above the aquifer, Rith scrambled to keep up. As they entered the warren Rith realised that the miner had been busy. They twisted left and right and then left again through junctions in narrow long corridors until they reached an area where Dwarfy had cut a three by two stair.
Descending here brought the pair into a little chamber where stairs ran both up and down. the area was mostly dry, though Rith could see a few damp spots in the stone in one wall.
"Dry all the way down." said the miner proudly.
"We had some real luck, the aquifer was two layers thick but theres a rock cluster in the soil and we're through."
Rith grinned broadly and slapped the dwarf on the back.
"Alright, new areas of work are up in the soil layers" said Rith, "Just give us more areas to expand into temporarily till I decide if we move the entrance shaft here or not."
Rith kneeled and picked up a chunk of the rock left from the carving of the stairs and turned the black lump over in his hands.
"Jet?" he asked.
DwarfyDwarf nodded. "Not something we had back home, but I recognize it."
The two returned to the central halls.
On arrival Rith swiftly sought out Zrk2, described the location of the find and set him to work building first a masons workshop and then some doors, hatches and floodgates, tables and chairs. Regretting his immediate move of mining a few days later he moved DwarfyDwarf back to the shaft through to the rock layers to find the caverns and provide Zrk2 with a little more material. Differant stone turned up but no further ores were found before the miner reported striking through a cavern roof.
Rith surveyed the site before having one of the newly completed Hatch covers installed to seal it off. At least he knew what he had to work with for now.
He also began plans to initiate underground farming, ordering large sections of soil near the river cleared for eventual flooding. They had no seed suitable but the recent cavern exposure would do its part and he knew his original crew all knew how to pick plants...oh yes. What fun that had been.
A passing camel was brought to the floor toward the end of winter with fireballs from the population's two obsidian dwarves, Kol and crundle, at which point the mob of angry militia wrestlers did their job. Rith joined them in this and there were fortuntely no injuries, so he had Fniff make new bolts for the return of hunting just in time for spring.
Rith saw this as a good omen. Thinking of the surface always gave him ideas of defensive walls but he had to decide where first...
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Topic: Playfuloiled - A community penal colony (Read 16050 times)