The detailed meeting took about half of the day to complete. Many of the finer details were left to be planned later, but, to prevent any extra suspicion among his soldiers, Kao called the meeting to an end so that his group could return in a timely manner. Kao said that we should expect his troops to return in a little over three weeks, and that he'll also give the go ahead for the Elven emissary, who has been waiting on their island, to travel to our island. He had apparently held up any traffic until he could verify the situation, which seemed reasonable to me.
After the dwarves left, Zeb, Zaka, and I started discussions of what we should do right now. We decided that, until the merchant leaves, we shouldn't inform the populace of the situation, so as to reduce any chances of information leaking. Once both the merchant and Elven emissary leave, then we'll begin the process of converting to a war economy. Given the level of threat we're going up against, I agreed with Zaka that relying on our economy in it's current state simply won't work.
When the time comes, we'll be suspending money, rationing food, and everyone will be working non-stop to make sure we have as many defenses prepared as possible. Before then though, we'll still be doing things behind the scenes to start preparations for the war economy. First, I'm going to set aside a large area to become a niter bed. There, I'll have goblins combine potash, manure, urine, and soil in order to get the saltpeter for gunpowder. That process takes months to complete however, so we need to start it now. I can't say for certain it'll work, but given that I've seen cannons on ships, I'm assuming they aren't just mining saltpeter from the earth.
Thankfully, everyone in the village is used to me making weird requests, so this shouldn't stand out too much. After that, I'll be taking a period of time to go make a second vault in the mountain where goblins can store their existing coins as well as where we'll hide our giant crystal when we remove it from the bathhouse.
The fishing jetty project is going to be put on hold and work is going to be diverted to building a last batch of apartment-style buildings before we stop summoning completely. Although we could expand our forces, low level goblins are basically useless outside of their ability to haul things and they'll require food. Given we'll already be having about 500 additional dwarf soldiers stationed on the island, we're going to already be having some food issues.
We've decided that Zaka should spend some time with Boggs, as odd as that sounds. His goal should be to learn fishing using what primitive forms we have access to. Ultimately, that will be a source of both food and extra levels we wouldn't have otherwise. Having Zaka reach a high level before next year could be incredibly valuable for combat, as he's likely the physically strongest individual we have, in addition to his access to fire magic.
We'll also be putting a few other tasks up on the task board for the time being for things which we'll need. We want a few more forests cleared around the village where we can grow more of the dwarven crops, to not only expand our food supply, but also to increase the overall levels of individuals in the city, and expand our vision range from the walls. We'll also be putting in requests related to building more salt evaporation ponds. Salt is very helpful as a preservative, and once the time comes and the invasion begins, we'll need preserved food to sustain ourselves.
I'll also be making the request to Konkur about helping us find sulfur on the island. If not on this island, then we'll potentially need to send an expedition to the next two islands in an attempt to find it.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
----------------------------------------
After 14 days, both the merchant and the Elven emissary arrived. I was pleased to see that it was Elora who arrived, and she seems to have brought the various fungi that we requested. We've also received everything we requested from the merchant, including the fermentation agent. Leave it to the dwarves to be ahead of the technological curve on that one.
Historically, it wasn't until the enlightenment that the actual cause of fermentation was figured out, and many batches of alcohol went bad because it was basically left up to chance what would break down fruits and grains. We'll also have to see if it's useful as a leavening agent or not at some point.
I kept our interactions short with both parties, requesting a repeat delivery with the merchant of more waterproofing supplies, bargas, and a decent chunk of dwarven coin. I felt bad about requesting things to be delivered next year, but if he's smart he won't actually try to travel here next year when it seems like we're going to be invaded by a massive force. To pay for our trade, I gave him a large number of crates of paper.
As for Elora, she gave me the warnings that I'd already heard from Kao related to the potential for invasion. She said she couldn't promise that no Elven matriarch would join, but she thought it unlikely that any would, though she also said we should expect at least one dark elf tribe to join. This was the first I'd heard of dark elves, but apparently, they're a more tribal race of elves which live in the darkness of the great forest floor. They're wandering hunters, and if any join in, we should be aware that they're highly skilled trackers and are very competent at forest and jungle fighting, though they'll be few in number.
Elora also shared my belief that Rathland was likely trying to frame us. She said, given our size, she doubts any of the other major human kingdoms will join in, as we likely won't be perceived as much of a threat. She then wished us the best of luck, and said that if we somehow manage to survive the upcoming war, she'll be in touch. I sent her off with another handful of crates of paper as a gift.
----------------------------------------
Two days later, we made the general announcement about the upcoming battle, and the wartime economy shift. There was a very grave mood that fell over the village after the news was given. Considering we're dealing with an existential threat, everyone at least understood the reason why normal job handling was being suspended, and why food would be rationed.
We were brutally honest about the odds involved, which made a lot of individuals worried. I also mentioned that I believed it would be possible for us to win, if we work hard. In order to do so though, everyone needs to work together. I informed them that we'll have dwarven soldiers joining us on this endeavor, which seemed to help improve their moods somewhat.
Moving forward though, individuals will be working more than they have in the past few years. Fishergoblins won't just be fishing for a few hours, then selling their goods. Some will be processing fish, and others will be moved to other jobs for part of the day. The paper mill will be shut down as well. Basically everyone is going to be working more than before.
We have plenty of work to do to get the island ready, so we'll need every hour we can get from everyone. Though that doesn't mean that all the work will be manual labor. Some will be gaining levels through fishing if we can get enough rods made. We'll have Boggs and other skilled individuals fish all day, and other goblins will be around to help kill large fish, so that everyone nearby gets the experience.
We'll focus our work in and around the city first, since after the eighth month of next year, we will no longer have the bathhouse to provide us with unlimited mana. This also means the battle of the city next time is going to be much harder than the last time, although we do have more walls and weapons this time.
We'll also be having some of the dwarves run training drills to get individuals trained up on various techniques. I'm also hoping that this training will potentially unlock combat related abilities that some of the lower prestige goblins could gain before next year. If things go well, I'm hoping that the youngest goblins will prestige a few times before the actual fighting begins, and that we can get more of the high level goblins to evolve into hobgoblins.