Unfortunately, the prisoners weren't willing to talk with us for this entire week. Given we haven't had any further issues externally, we're going to start sending guarded groups to gather sea food again. The first and largest guardhouse is coming along well, although I don't know that our prisoners will particularly like being relocated to it when it's complete.
Initially I had intended to make the jail cell in the basement out of metal, to help prevent escape, but given the current circumstance, I feel that it's more pressing that we get this completed sooner. As such, the basement of the main guardhouse is finally done, along with a lot of the first floor's walls.
The basement itself is quite large stretching 25 feet long by 15 feet wide. On one end there is a large holding cell spanning the full fifteen feet of width by ten feet long. The full width is spanned by thick stone bars, and I've devised a basic stone gate and locking mechanism for entrance into it. The holding cell itself has a toilet with a small privacy barrier to the rest of the cell. Individuals outside the cell can still see the toilet though, for security reasons. For the time being, I've also put some stone beds, a table, and chairs in the holding cell. In the future, I want to just have a bench or two, but considering I plan on moving our prisoners here soon, I may as well have it ready.
In front of the cell is a five foot wide hallway stretching from one wall to another. One side of the wall also has an embedded fireplace so that light and heat can be produced if needed. Above the hallway are the slatted floor sections I've become accustomed to creating to allow air and some natural light in from above.
The hallway then turns at one wall and continues to a stairway opposite the holding cell to return to first floor. Along this hallway there is a small closet measuring three feet by ten feet, and a single small cell measuring seven feet by ten feet. The general positions in the jail area allow a single guard to sit near the fireplace and see into both cells.
The first floor, when complete is intended to have a few rooms for storing guard gear, and a front desk area for handling any complaints that might need to be addressed. Since this is the central guardhouse, it isn't actually intended to have a lot of guards in it at any point in time, just those watching prisoners and handling administrative tasks. As such, it is only being built one story tall. The guard houses at the gates are intended to be built taller than the walls, and have lookout posts on top. They probably should also have a window facing the road behind the gate too.
Once the central guardhouse is complete, we'll move the prisoners there. Since they aren't being talkative anyway, I feel like it's fitting to put them in a cell underground. Use of the metaphorical carrot and stick.
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I've been finishing up the central guardhouse for the last four days, and today, it is finally done. Before we moved the prisoners, I worked with some of the goblins to show them how the gate works in the holding cell. Ultimately, the prisoners would probably be able to break free pretty quickly, but that should make enough noise that we can stop them before they actually escape. The previous cell they were kept in was close to the wall of the village, but this guardhouse is right in the center of town, which should make escape even harder to attempt.
After I was sure that at least a handful of goblins knew how to operate the new jail cell, it was time to move the prisoners. Although their attitude was clearly bad, none of them attempted escape, and they were successfully moved from the outdoor cell to the underground one.
After that was completed, I spent the rest of the day demolishing the old cell and moving the stone to where one of the guardhouses is going to go. Ultimately, they should provide some benefit if we need to defend ourselves again, so it's still pretty high on my priority list to get those built.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
After the guardhouses are complete, I need to build the bathroom locations in town. Then, it's on to more housing. Previously, I had intended to just build regular houses, like I had been for a while. That said, depending on if or when someone comes to rescue this group we have captured, we might need way more people than we currently have. As such, it might be time to introduce high density housing.
I personally am not a big fan of the idea of introducing wealth disparity by having apartment style buildings in the village, but when push comes to shove, I think I can build a building that can house eight goblins in the time it would normally take for me to build three houses, which means that it's a good investment time wise. In an ideal world, it's just temporary housing, and someone can build nicer housing that goblins can eventually move into. For recently created goblins, it's better than sleeping in the street, and gives them somewhere to keep any personal belongings, so it's not that bad.
Either way, it'll be some time before we actually reach that point. I had been hoping I could convince the group of prisoners before, but that seems like it's becoming less and less likely now, so being prepared for other scenarios is also important. As such, before I do any of this, I have one project that I want to do that shouldn't take more than a day.
Currently, the sewer is almost complete. Downstream, there is a grate made of stone that covers the exit to the sewer to prevent anything from going up the sewer to get to the village. Periodically in the sewer, I want to make more grates, just as extra defensive measures. Then, in the second level basement in the pavilion, I want to make a hidden entrance to the sewer. Ultimately, it'll just be a foot thick stone, marked slightly so that I can tell where to cut. If we need to secretly evacuate the village during a siege of some kind, I can open up that section of wall, and we can evacuate down the sewers.
From there, ideally we could then make our way out and around the village and up the mountain. On earth, taking over islands full of cave systems and hidden areas was notoriously difficult, so my intention is to start enabling those strategies here to help us if we need to fight any invading forces.
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I've steadily been working on construction for the last eight days, the whole time the prisoners have refused to talk. Finally, today, I'd had enough of it, and let them know that if they aren't even going to communicate with us, then I intend to remove their beds and cut their food supply somewhat. Ultimately, if they're just going to be a burden, its not worth wasting the extra resources on them. I understand that a blunder was made feeding them eagle meat, but I've been careful to feed them other food, and I had no way of knowing before that conversation that it would be a problem.
Even if there has been a lack of progress from the prisoners, there has been plenty of progress with projects in the village. The first of the four gate guard stations is complete, and the sewer was fully completed two days ago. There has been no disturbances reported by anyone in the village either. Our guard is still up though, and the fishergoblins are always escorted to and from the artificial tide pool.
If things remain quiet after I've finished all the construction I have planned, I think I want to make a trip to the mountain peak again. I haven't been there since any of the eagles showed up, and I feel like it could be useful. Ultimately, from the peak I can also spend a few hours and look over the entire coastline of the island to look for any ships. If I don't see any, it doesn't mean we are safe, but it should at least give me some insight into the situation.
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For another two weeks, the prisoners had remained silent, however, I noticed something today about them. Before, despite them not talking, they had seemed confident. Today, they seemed a little less so than before. Perhaps it was due to the decreased rations, the lack of beds, and being underground. There could have been many reasons, but whatever the reasons are, I hope that they'll open back up to conversation. Ultimately, I'd rather not be punishing them any more than I already am.
I also should be finishing up the second to last guardhouse today, and Zeb has been working on getting some of the tunnels dug to the sewer for the public restrooms, so that project should be much faster to complete than I had initially anticipated.