I took it on myself to recover the body of the dwarf who had drowned, by simply knocking a hole in the side of the pool to drain it. The death was senseless, and it upset me. I decided to cut ramps in the sides of all the other pools I could find, to ensure that a dwarf who fell in would be able to climb out again.
"Mr Madushkubuk?" said Tannen the cook, as I walked back in the gate. "We're out of food."
"We're
what?" We had two huge farms!
"Also, the brewers say they're out of stuff to brew. And, uh, space to put barrels."
...Ah.
All right, don't panic. We had plenty of animals. "Kill some pigs," I said. "And that horse foal. And--the cow calf. And I know there's several fisherdwarves, Taup Caudata likes to fish--send him over to the river. And did anyone ever process those quarry bushes?"
"What quarry bushes?"
"
We have over a hundred quarry bushes," I said, with careful patience. "I am the bookkeeper. I know these things.
Go and process the quarry bushes."
I thought about quarry bushes for a while. Funny sort of plants, oily seeds. What did you call them? Rock nuts? They felt funny when you rubbed them between the hands... sort of... well, a bit like tallow actually.
I wondered if... possibly...
..nah. That was
crazy talk.
The field mushrooms started coming up in the aboveground plot shortly after. Crisis averted.
2nd Timber"I've got a mandate for you, Zephyr," Dr Kosotham said. "I'm fed up of this aquifer water, it's always laced with mud. I hate cleaning wounds with muddy water, I'm sure it raises the risk of infection. Can't we build some sort of cistern?"
I thought about that. I was getting annoyed with the water situation too; I kept finding my lye buckets full of mud, and I was sure it was affecting the quality of the soap. "All right," I said. "Get Medtob to work it out, though; I'm busy." We'd gotten low on soap this year, what with the siege and all.
12th Timber"Caravan's here," Endok said.
There were just four merchants this time; probably because of all the heavy stuff we'd ordered. They came in over the corpse road, looking deeply disturbed.
"You are a sick, sick man, Mr Madushkubuk," the liaison said, attempting to scrape something horrible off the bottom of his shoe.
"Don't blame me, it was Endok's idea. What have you got to trade?"
"Everything you asked for--wood, metal bars, and lye. What have
you got to trade?"
"Er... goblin clothing again?"
The liaison looked at me for a moment. "You know, we'll take it, there's a fairly decent market for this stuff if it's not too bloody--but I'm wondering when you're going to actually produce something of your
own here."
"We've been busy," I said. "Anyway, you turned your noses up at our soap."
Still, he had a point. Perhaps there
was something else we could make. I'd have to make some enquiries amongst the fortress population, see what skills were currently being unused.
5th Moonstone
The new soapmaking area was getting towards finished. Aside from the irritatingly funny-shaped bar stockpile, it was a wonderful place to work--roomy, with everything to hand.
This is what it should be like in every fortress, I thought.
Clean.
Dr Kosotham would be happy too; he was getting his cistern. The miners were working on digging out a chamber just off the soapmaking area. The plan was to tap the aquifer and let it flow into the cistern, then build wells over the top. Two levels of clear water should be deep enough to prevent mud getting into the buckets. I prayed that Medtob wouldn't accidentally flood the place doing this. He seemed confident, but still...
"Where's Yem?" I said. "She was here just a minute ago. Oh--never mind. I'll do it myself."
The last wall was dug, and aquifer water began to flood into the cistern. I watched anxiously as a small curious crowd gathered. Medtob had included a floodgate and lever as an emergency shutoff, and at the first sign of overflowing I was ready to pull it.
"And you doubted my engineering expertise," Medtob said triumphantly. "Right! Let's build some wells."
"By the way," the liaison said, "the mountainhome is specifically looking for large gems this year."
"Large gems, eh?" That was a possibility. I thought about all those rhodolites littering the floor. Were there any decent jewelers living in Soaplanterns?
21st Moonstone"Excuse me, Soapmaster." It was the dwarf with the long name, Ubendastot something or other. "I'd like to volunteer for the military."
"Talk to Endok," I said absently, grabbing another piece of tallow.
"Yes, I have already, he said I could join the Seas of Silver with him if I cleared it with you first." The dwarf shifted from foot to foot. "What I'm wondering is, why don't we have a danger room?"
"We are not having a danger room!"
"Why?"
"Because I say so!"
He looked baffled. "But--it's a great way to train. Why wouldn't you want one? It could save lives!"
"No," I said. "No danger rooms. I refuse to have one of those murder machines in this fortress. I will not shift on this decision, that is
final. Go and get yourself a crossbow if you want to help out."
Letterlegends looked rather put out as he walked away. He glanced back with an expression that said,
this isn't over.
I can't tell you why, I thought. You'd all laugh at me...
22nd MoonstoneI stopped Keltik in the corridor.
"Have you seen Yem? She's gone off somewhere, and I can't find her."
"Yeah," he said, "she's up top in a mason's workshop."
"A
mason's workshop? But she's not a mason..."
25th Moonstone
"You made a millstone?" I said, baffled.
"Did I?" She looked dazed, half asleep. "Ooh. That was clever of me. I do like millstones."
"Well, that's nice," Tannen the cook said. "Very useful. Let's build a windmill for it, Zephyr. We could have flour then. Longland flour and dwarven sugar biscuits, mmm..."
"Er..." Vudnis said nervously. "Take a closer look at it, Mr Madushkubuk..."
Author
Topic: Ubenudil, Soaplanterns - Soapmaker's Guild Fort (Read 57042 times)