D.A.B, day 13
Rest
Reiley comes back to bed after checking screeching birds call, and confirm the weather is nice, that the carcass is still there, and no rain during the night to fill the shower pot. It feels good to finally take a 'rest day', but I better ask Reiley.
"Should we take a rest day? The hut is basically finished except the balcony upgrade, and stuff like that and furniture can wait a day or two. We have plenty of dino meat. We don't actually have to work the high fields today. Sure, there is a bit to work on the tanning project, and the creek project should be checked on and maybe refilled." Reiley looks up at me, and she is really curious about that project as she doesn't understand why, but I really don't want to get her hopes up. I just give her a kiss. "We also need to make another kiln burn for all those small belt pots for sanctuary flowers and other pots. But it doesn't need to be done now. We can at least take a slow morning."
"I agree." Reiley snuggle up against me, and we lie there having a lovely moment. "Although we should prepare for next Pillars of light and explore. I suggest we fire those small bottles and other things today so we can fill them tomorrow morning. I don't think we should go exploring before we have that."
"Yeah, you're right."
"Then try the canoe on a trip north along the coast to explore and try to find that Salt Boon, and the day after that explore the ridge and head inland up on the hill. If the weather is good."
"Sounds like a good plan to me."
"Should I quickly light the kiln and come back to bed?"
"I'll keep the bed warm."
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The water have leaked out of the pots and there is a thick muddy paste at the bottom that I collect into another smaller bowl, and then we refill the pots. This muddy paste really doesn't look like much, but it has to dry, then be crushed to a fine powder using river rocks or my mortar, and then I need to burn the powder when I have enough. I should probably use the furnace in open top mode so I can add powder in small batches and fill up with coal as it burns. I think there is something something oxidation or reduction going on. The furnace got a blower and can reach high temperature, and there is a fairly smooth bottom. I expect it will be a heck of a job sifting through the fire residue and slag to find small metallic beads. Then collect all those beads and make another proper furnace burn to really melt it together in a crucible. Since we don't know how fast the water leaked out, we will return later today to see if we can fill the pots up again. We will move upstream to try and find more orange slime and make a furnace burn before even trying the bottom mud. I should make some kind of scale to weigh the dried mud and any iron that comes out so I can guesstimate how much will be needed for say a knife or axe.
On the way back up I collect a large amount of sanctuary flowers in two pots that we will dry while protected from rain and wind. We head up to the cliff work area after I washed off and while Reiley do today's work on the tanning project, I improve the temporary structure. My mind wanders a bit and it's easy to get carried away. With plenty of clay bricks, that wood ash cement and time, this area and a couple of other areas on this cliff could be made into quite a good fort. We would still need people to defend it, but it would be easier to defend than Reiley's large former camp that had hundreds of meters of wall and cliff. Sure it stopped animals and had space inside for crops, animals and herbs, but a certain number of people can only defend a certain length of wall, and with too few defenders that becomes a big issue. If the attackers are more and the attacking surface is long with plenty of blind spots, the defenders need to counter people with people. The attacking force can just send 2 people to flank and try to get up and in from another direction, which force the defenders to have to send at least one to counter them and probably two. Ignoring them might mean they make it inside and take a defensible position and starts to shoot arrows or attack from behind. That is part of what happened when the raiders attacked her camp. Two small flanking forces drew away defenders from the main attack, and they had to abandon the wall defence. Reiley and Tiola was one of those defender pairs drawn away, and when the defence fell on the other side, they realised it was too late to make it to the tower. They really should have focused on making that tower good, but I get why they didn't. They didn't know about the raiders.
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The cliff and terrain here is much harder to attack. Far higher cliffs with few places to attack from, and in most places the enemy can't even really get up close against the cliff face. We can clear out terrain and use natural choke points like the blocking passage that can get a proper gatehouse and wall with a sturdy gate and murder holes, and we can just shoot arrows and throw fire and spears, while attackers have a hard time to reach us, and we can make that harder. If the enemy is about to take the gatehouse, we can just retreat up to the higher ground. Mountains and difficult terrain usually favours defenders. Small band of resistance fighters or terrorists hiding in mountains are very hard even for big and highly advanced armies to attack and wipe out. Sure, we will become much more noticeable depending on design and camouflage of the defensive works, but just two people should be enough to keep a fairly good watch if they are in the right position, especially if we do that lookout from the top of this high cliff. Four or six people could defend this cliff pretty good. Yeah, we should make that lookout, with stairs, plus the balcony and path and stairs connecting over the lower top to this cliff work area. And we should do a crenellated wall with arrow slits around the edges and try to camouflage and hide the battlements. Safer than not having it, and we have protection if - or more likely when - we need it. We probably could use some of the stone up here or just below to build with instead of making clay bricks, and it would help clear out a few areas.
But that only really helps against raider attacks, and is a lot of work without any benefit against dinos. And there is the issue with food, water and so on. Plenty of opportunity to attack people leaving the fort to tend fields or fish and so on, although we could add a couple of smaller fields in terraces on the lower cliff top. Another downside is that, situated up here the cliff fortress won't actually project power over people using the river or coast. Just building a fortress here because it would be good against raiders is kind of a stupid idea, and it would probably be far better to use the same amount of bricks and wood ash cement to make a several brick thick sturdy tower on that rocky grass knoll down by the beach, and there is clay very close by to make those bricks. Then again, the beach stretching up and down the coast have plenty of stone so that project only need cement, sand and water, and further away the beach to the south looks to be more sandy. It might not be perfect sand for building, but it is sand.
From that knoll you could project power and quite easy defend the tower from attacks from both raiders and dinosaurs. And there could be crop fields close by, with plenty of river water for irrigation. Wind pumped irrigation is a possibility. From a tower there you could see at least a kilometer along the coast, and the grassy valley and river. The best way to attack would be from the jungle, but that is still 100-150 meters away across open grassland and obstacles would make it harder. The fortress could be built in sections and start with a 'small' three story medieval style keep that have a second floor entrance and other defensive features, that gets a curtain wall on the rocky knolls outline to make the enclosed area bigger and add a layer of defence. Six or nine people defending that would have a far easier time than the lake camp, and attackers have to worry about dinosaurs too. It would take lots and lots of brick and wood ash cement to build that keep, and so much wood to fire the bricks and get the ash, but it can be calculated and prepared in advanced and just moved there. It should be relatively quickly built. But it is not a quick project, and depending on manpower it will take months. Months were we need to feel secure and have food.
Shit. Now I want to try and build a small castle. That is just stupid, and I bet I would find a far better spot if we explored a bit. It shouldn't be that hard to find some kind of defensible rocky outcrop. Or an island. So, better to improve this cliffs defence, and if we ever become enough people here, maybe decide to start preparing for that keep or try to find a location a short distance away in the mountains inland. Honestly, every camp will eventually run into the issue of over population if they take in newly arrived people each week. It's an issue about water, food, living accommodation, work and need. The dinosaurs means that you can't just build another house and plant fields anywhere, and every settlement have to be safe and defended. So, basically a camp should start another camp when needed, in a spot where it can be safe and they have resources. And the camps can't be too close to each other because they will compete for food, wood and other resources, while still not being too far away to help each other or trade. Within visual line of sight would be best to be able to use light, flags or smoke signals.
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Reiley helps me clean away all the bark, wood chips and shavings and we make the hut nice and tidy. It's been a nice and fairly relaxing day, and I spent time on furniture and using the tools to just debark, shape, plane and trim edges on pretty much everything. It just looks so much neater and less like branches or logs joined together, and is also nicer to use and grab. Just the stair railing makes a big overall difference. Sure, this is a hut with bare rock on three walls and an uneven rock floor, but it does makes a difference, and it has annoyed me since I started to build everything. If you're going to do something, you might as well make it right. This is a home that I would be more pleased to have been Reiley's first look of it, instead of how it looked. Better furniture and two proper chairs with backs. Shelves with pots and tableware. A proper kitchen area with a sink and water tap. A pantry. Water storage. Outdoor shower and toilet. Racks for tools and weapons.
A home.