The snow ended up coming a little early this year, only about 10 days in to the month. We were well prepared though, so no problems arose from it. The first snow storm put about two feet of snow down, and two days later, we got another foot, and were pretty much snowed in at that point.
Zeb has decided that he wants to work on the exploratory mining tunnel, to see what he can find using stone shaping. He's strong enough to push a cart up and down the tunnel as long as it isn't too full, so he should be good to go. One thing I told him is to check in with me every few hundred feet or so to determine if the path should change directions, since he doesn't have tectonic sense like I do. That way I can do some pings along the path and see if there is anything interesting that he missed in the nearby area, and direct him towards any potential interesting finds.
As for myself, I've decided to start on an interesting project. Being stuck in the mountain all winter, while not a problem, isn't ideal. So what I've decided to do is start digging a stairwell down and out. This definitely will take a long time, but we have that time now anyway. A big downside to a stairwell vs the path we made outside is transport of materials through it. Anyone who travels it will be stuck hauling materials by hand, which includes myself while I dig.
The snow line generally begins about fifteen-hundred feet below the cave entrance. The snow there is generally fairly shallow, but just in case, I plan on digging the stairs down two-thousand feet before trying to breach the surface. I thought about starting the stairwell up by the cave entrance, but then decided it would be better to start digging it nearby the crystal charging room.
The first reason is that it lets me easily recharge my mana while I carry stone up and out of the stairwell. The second reason was something that I thought about as I walked down in the cave. From the entryway all the way until the crystal charging room, the path is almost completely dark, and you have to follow the stairs by using the railing. Even then, it's not super safe. As such, I thought it would be nice to periodically light the stairway with embedded crystals, letting their soft glow light the way.
Of course, anyone who touches them if they're missing mana might result in the path darkening for a considerable amount of time, but without something like glass to prevent that, it's just the way it'll have to be. Maybe I'll embed them in the roof of the stairwell for good measure.
Something else that I haven't worked on in quite a while that might be worth considering is the artificial crystals for lighting up further towards the cave entrance. I can't work on that until the snow melts, since our smelting area is currently buried by snow, but as long as I'm not making giant crystals, I think that could be a potential way to make the main stairway safer.
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The first ten days of our winter work went well. A problem that we're both running into, however, is the distance we need to haul stone, and worse, we'll definitely run out of convenient space to store all of it by spring. We currently store them in nice piles, as we cut them into blocks already. Come spring, we'll be moving all the blocks outside and have to find things to build with them. Until then though, we'll keep piling them up.
The rate at which I'm cutting stairs is quickly falling due to having to haul the stone further which each step I cut out. I'm currently ninety steps in. Which means I've descended only about fifty feet. At this rate, this whole project will take years to complete, and the rate that I'll be cutting stone out will only decrease, making it take even longer. Of course, now that I've gotten deep enough, a lot of the time spent working on this is actually just spent carrying stone, so the pace could speed up with help.
As for Zeb's work, he's only extended his tunnel by fifteen feet. That tunnel is larger and has a cart track though, so that has slowed him down somewhat. Plus the distance he has to travel to recharge his mana is much greater. The cart track is a benefit somewhat though, since he can haul much more stone out in one trip than I can.
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It's been forty days of work since my last update. Zeb and I have been just banging away at our respective projects. Every so often, we trade which we're working on for a day or two, just to mix things up. Sometimes we both work on one together as well. It's been nice to have someone to occasionally talk to while I work.
As for progress, Zeb's rate on expanding the tunnel has been fairly steady, so he's made it an additional sixty feet. I've done some tectonic sense checks, but the only new discoveries have been more pockets of crystal. I haven't bothered to harvest them, since we don't need it right now, but they're there.
As for the stairs, I've only made it one hundred and seventy steps, which is a little less than double what I had carved before, and it took me four times as long. The stairs are about one hundred and fifty feet of descent now from the start. Honestly, I've started to really feel exhausted with all the trips up and down this long staircase I make each day. I think I'll spend a few days helping Zeb with his tunneling to give my knees a break.
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We've been keeping up the work for the last two months of winter. Any day now the snow should start melting and we can start working outside again. We've stockpiled a lot of stone, but we don't really have anything to use it on currently. Well, it's not like it will go bad. If we end up just stockpiling it outside, that's fine too.
As for progress, Zeb extended the tunnel another ninety feet, and I added another hundred feet to the stairwell. Unfortunately, Zeb's work didn't discover anything new. All we found were more crystal patches. The stairwell at this point is about an eighth of its total length completed, and about one fifteenth of the total work that will need done completed.
All the stone we've cut has started to really pile up in places, and made areas feel a bit claustrophobic. Once the snow melts, Zeb and I agreed we'd spend the first few days just hauling all the stone out of the cave, and getting an area outside set up to store it.
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The snow eventually melted a bit later than normal this year. Twenty-two days into the month. In past years, it would usually melt within the first two weeks. Either way, we've gotten quite the stockpile of stone piled up, so we'll need to flatten some areas outside where we can store all of it, and then haul all the stone inside to the new outside storage location.
It's only eight days until the envoys from the goblin village should arrive this year. This will be the first year that the goblins will have held a vote as to whether I should remain expelled or not from the village. I'm honestly a little nervous about it. I've basically just be interacting with the envoys, and I haven't even talked to Zaka all year. It'd be nice to get the opportunity for things to return to what they were before, with some more safety measures, obviously.
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We noticed something a little weird while we were hauling stone blocks out of the cave for the past few days. It's been eerily quiet outside. Normally you'd hear some birds chirping, at least when it isn't raining. This time of year it's prone to raining for days on end, so I'm not surprised we haven't heard much, but none-the-less it's been quieter than normal. It's a bit unnerving.
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Something is definitely up. We were finishing up hauling all the stone from inside today, and despite the suns shining down, there still was almost no noise of animals. I've told Zeb to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, and let him know to be on high alert, as something is wrong. We'll continue working, but we'll make sure we aren't ever resting outside, just in case. Hopefully it's either nothing, or the goblin envoys can inform us if something happened. They should be here in just two days now.
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The goblin envoys are late, which is a bad sign. They should have arrived yesterday. As of right now, we're waiting for them to arrive. We've decided to wait inside, and limit our outside activity, for good measure. I've got the windows open, so that I can hear if anyone arrives, or hear if something else happens.
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Just as the sun is about to set, I hear a goblin yell out. What's weird is that it doesn't sound like it's coming from below, or directly outside, but instead from the sky.
Then, much louder than the goblin yell, I hear a blood curdling screech that sounds almost like a bird. As I rush to the window to look outside, I see a massive shadow of wings move across the landscape and up the mountain. I rush outside, and look up. As I do, I can just barely make out the shape of a hawk or eagle like creature. Within one talon it holds an entire goblin.
I pause and stare in awe of its size. It heads up, and eventually over, a ridge and out of sight. I think that the goblin village might have a bigger problem than myself right now.