My Little Fortress: Shadytrails

by PersonalGamer

[3] ★ Isolde's Journal: 16th Granite 222 to 8th Slate 222

First small update is here! I'm going to try to get one in per week if there's nothing holding it up, but I probably won't be able to stick to that for long. In any case, only about a month has passed so far in game, but more substantial amounts of time will pass for future updates as less interesting things happen so quickly.

Isolde's Journal - 16th Granite, 222

As promised, we took the rest of yesterday to get settled in and get ready for today, which is the first big workday. The very first thing I wanted to get done was to get some of these trees cut down and sawed into lumber, since we're never going to have enough of it. I marked out a space just off to the side of the wagon to take the felled trees, asked Jack Pine to see what he could do, then went off to see Tunda about our farming prospects.

Gotta make sure the trees are cut down before any pegasi or griffons get stuck in them... setting a forbidden traffic zone usually helps. The game wasn't built with flight in mind, yet alone for town residents. So the pathing is kind buggy around roofs, trees, and waterfalls. It's not too bad, though.

As I feared, it's early to be planting much of anything. Most of the seeds we brought with us aren't frost tolerant, which makes this pretty hard. I don't want to wait for spring to start planting though, because I'm not confident our supplies will hold us out if we do. So, for now, I asked her to take stock of what we had, figure out if any of it would grow, and if not, take a look around the camp for any local shrubs that maybe withstand the cold and are edible.

In the meantime, everyone else was pretty much sitting on their claws and hooves waiting for something to do, so we got together and started clearing out space for the future farms. There was a lot of snow to shove aside, and we found some larger stones in the way that Silver Rush took care of in short order, but it's looking better. The ground isn't frozen very deep, so maybe we'll be able to plant something soon.

P.S. Tunda had an interesting little poem to sing about me. I'm going to have to watch and see if she does that for everyone, or if I'm somehow already made an impression on her.

18th Granite, 222

Already things are growing out of nothingness into a few workshops. Jack Pine is nothing if not a fast worker, and we've already got a lot of logs ready to be put to use making buildings to get out of this cold. I wanted to get a sawmill set up immediately, but I discovered that we're lacking some needed machinery for something like that. Unfortunately, we didn't hire anyone specifically for that line of work, but Patina Dreams is the closest thing we've got so I asked if she could handle making whatever we needed. She seemed a bet reluctant but agreed eventually. Now we just need to get some stone or something for her to work with. That will be Silver Rush's next job.

On the bright side, the snow is already starting to melt! We'll have clear ground to plant on in a few days Tunda tells me.

In other news, I did get Rosewood to set up a little carpentry workstation so she can start making some necessities. We didn't have room in the wagon to bring a big, heavy wheelbarrow, for example, and she says she can make one without any trouble. After she gets that set up, I think I'll see about getting some equipment racks set up for Kiume and Shooting Star so they can start practicing.

The other news is that Shortstack didn't have any trouble getting a little semi-permanent cooking fire set up, so we've got warm meals coming regularly now. I tell you, hiring a chef might seem a bit unnecessary for an expedition like this, but fresh food makes all the difference when everything else is stressful enough.

19th Granite, 222

Looks like stone won't be as easy to get to as I'd hoped. Silver Rush took to digging out a cave for us to move some supplies into, and at the same time tried to guess which way to go looking for something durable enough for Patina to make mechanisms out of. So far he's only turned up soil and clay.

Clay will be useful if we get anyone with any pottery skill later, but for now it's not doing us much good. Oh well, I told him to keep up the good work and keep digging for now.

We did at least get some training grounds established for the guards, so they don't have to stand around feeling like a fifth wheel anymore. It's not much to look at...

A couple of racks for weapons and they're good to go!The brown music notes are the weapons rack symbols. Telgin doesn't use a tileset, so we're stuck with ascii graphics.

...but it's something, right?

Right now I'm mostly trying to figure out what to do with poor Gunther. He's been trying to help out in any small way he can, but there isn't anything really needing his expertise right now. Maybe I can get some clerical duties set up for him to keep him busy? We still need to take stock of everything after all.

24th Granite, 222

Looks like I shold have joined the weather patrol back home, since the weather cleared up just like I'd hoped. Within the span of just two days most of the snow has melted, leaving the farm plots nice and pristine for Tunda to tend. She's already got some strawberries, millet and alfalfa planted. If we can combine that with some local shrubs and herbs I think we can get some pretty passable food growing.

That hasn't left a whole lot for me to do though, so I've been helping move supplies to better locations. The seeds and food are all stockpiled near the kitchen and farms, which until we get a permanent storage building set up should suit us fine. It's still plenty cold enough that I'm not worried about any of it spoiling.

I am hoping to do something about our eating and working arrangements soon. It seems that we won't have any stone, and so nothing substantive to build the sawmill out of, which means that we won't be able to make the best use of the wood Jack has hewn so far, but maybe Rosewood and Patina can get something temporary set up at least?

1st Slate, 222

Cut into planks or not, wood logs are still perfectly serviceable construction material if you know what you're doing, and fortunately Rosewood does. And as they say, many claws make for light work, so we've actually made a lot of progress toward getting a little shelter put together.

It's framed in and already much warmer inside than out, but we're still waiting on Rosewood to finish making some tables and chairs. None of the rest of us have the skill needed for that, so it's up to her for now. She's doing an excellent job so far, so I'm sure she'll have them ready soon.

Anyway, I took a short flight down to the river today, as a few of the others have been doing lately, hoping that it would have thawed out some more by now. I can see the fish swimming around down there, and I can't wait to get a few of them up on a cooking fire. I used to fish a little back home in my spare time, but it's been quite a few years. Maybe I can be the first to take a spin at that when the ice does melt. If Shortstack doesn't know how to cook fish then I guess I can give that a spin too.

8th Slate, 222

A week later and we've all pretty much moved into our new home away from home, if you can call it that. We've finally got a civilized place to sit down, eat, talk and do any light work we need to do. That means I finally have somewhere to sit down and really go through our stock records. Maybe I will get Gunther in on that after all? He still hasn't had a lot to do. Maybe now that things are thawing out a bit he could help look for edible herbs around? I should talk with him and find out if he has much of a pharmacological background.

Silver Rush tells me that things aren't looking too good on the stone front either. The ground is very damp around here, so he says there probably isn't much stone or metal near the surface. So much for the sawmill, at least for now. We may have to trade for the parts we need...

And that means that Patina hasn't had a lot to do aside from help put the shelter together. We do have clay and sand, so maybe she'd be willing to make some clay or glass crafts of some kind? I should ask her about that.

Anyway, now that we have an enclosed building of some kind the next step is to get some beds put together. It's been far, far too long since I last slept in a nice, soft, warm, fluffy bed.

I wonder if the ponies would find sleeping on griffon feather pillows strange?

Author's Note:

Entry as found on bay12.