That night, the group met up again.  Brutus looked around, "Hmph, where Valgrim?"  

Dirrg shrugged his shoulders, "E told me to gather as many wee animals as possible, and bring em here tomorrow.  I left after he 'ave me de mission."  Brutus shrugged, as he was used to Valgrim's strange antics.  He looked around the camp fire, "Day report, snort?"

Saharra nodded, "Brutus and I spent the day gathering wood.  He cut down many trees and I helped him carve them into viable construction material.  Of course, not as high standard material as I am used to, but it will have to do.  All this labor was exhausting as well."  Of course, her definition of work involved a lot of sitting and throwing orders and complaints toward Brutus's work.  He didn't care much, at least she had given some smart inputs, other dark elves merely yelled out impossible orders and punished the inevitable failure.  He had managed to knock down 20 large trees in the morning, and had cut them into usable building materials in the afternoon.

"Tomorrow, build houses. Hmph." he said.

Scald began his turn next, "My minions and I found the tunnel leading back to the bone beach.  The water level was starting to rise, so I had them seal the entrance to the lake with rocks and mud until they drowned.  After re-summoning them, I had them begin preliminary digging into the wall.  They sniffed out iron, coal, and small gem deposits deep in the ground.  It will be awhile til they can reach them."

Dirrg raised a hand, "What ye call dem strange beasties?"

Scald considered, "They have a proper name, but I just call them bitches."

Everyone fell over.  Accurate term though, he worked them til they died, then re-summoned them.  Even if they were devils and demons, everyone felt pity toward them.

Meridia began her turn.  "...Flat land....found.  Cleared.....for plants.....slow, no plant seeds.....  Need...time....and workers for...planting."  She was right of course, they had come for killing, not starting a civilization.  They had no seeds for planting, tools for caring for the field, and minimal knowledge on growing in general.  After all, few plants grew below ground, and the ones that did were taken care of to feed the herd animals, not to be eaten by sentient people.

They had already heard Dirrg's account for his day, now the only one missing was Valgrim.  Not willing to wait, Brutus pulled out some meat to cook.  Before he started though, Saharra asked him, "Are you going to use your ale to cook that?"  He shook his head.  He tried explaining, but the elves still had no idea what he was saying.  Brutus could understand dark elf, he was a former "guest" of their's, but besides short words accompanied by gestures, they might as well try to understand a fish.

" E' says 'Me ale is low, can't use now'" Dirrg said matter of factually.  Startles, Saharra realized that the strange dwarf had been able to talk to them in their own language this entire time, as well as with Brutus and Valgrim.  "The oddities surrounding this dwarf just continue to grow don't they?' Saharra muttered.

Then, the elves realized what Dirrg had said, and immediately jumped Brutus with a shout of  "Noooo!"  They had no desire what Brutus defined as food.  Only his ale cooking was good, everything else was pure poison and a threat to the world.

After a brief struggle, Meridia was volunteered to cook for the group.  They all went to bed with growling stomachs, deeply missing the cooking of a certain gnome.

v

Kingdom SituationWood1500 poundsLumber500 pundsStone0 poundsIron0 poundsGems0 poundsFood (agriculture)0 poundsFood (meat)75 poundsFood (ale)10 pounds (Brutus only)Inhabitants6 humanoids, 1 bearArmed ForcesNoneThis kingdom is just a kingdom in name.  There are minimal citizens, little to no supplies, and not even a house to live in.  Unemployment does not exist.  The name of the kingdom has yet to be decided.  They symbol of the kingdom has yet to be decided.  There is no currency system or form of payment in this kingdom.  There are no armed forces for this kingdom.  It is not advisable to migrate to this kingdom.  Low life expectancy.

{Day 2, Month 1, Year 1}

The next morning, the party woke up to a warm and delicious scent.  Dirrg woke up drooling immensely, next to an equally drooling bear.  Running to the fire-pit, they found Valgrim cooking up morning stew that smelled heavenly.  Valgrim looked up, huge dark circles under his eye, and said, "Morning guys, have some breakfast."  He had to calm them down quickly, otherwise they would have run him over, even Brutus.  As they wolfed down their food, Scald looked up and asked suspiciously, "What were you doing all night?  Planning our deaths in revenge for our kind's treatment of you?"  Valgrim laughed, "If I wanted you and your companions dead, I would have poisoned the food."

Saharra quickly put down her food, stared at it, and shrugged, quickly bringing it back up and wolfed it down.  There were worse ways to die then delicious food.

Valgrim ate only a little of the stew before he announced he needed to sleep.  "Wake me up at lunch time." he said, "I have to recover my magic for the next step."  On that note, he fell over and started snoring.  Everyone looked at him in wonder.  "What did he do that took so much out of him?" they all wondered.

After finishing as much stew as possible, they split up and went back to the work they started yesterday.

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Brutus continued to cut a few more massive trees down, then under the careful eye of Saharra carved the trees up into usable timber.  Saharra even helped him some with the cutting, teaching him as much as noble elf would know about lumbering.

Meridia  worked on the field some more, but made little progress due to lack of equipment, experience, and stamina.

Scald had his bitches using their bare hands to dig into the ground, thankfully for them their hands were designed for digging so this wasn't too bad.  It got worse, though, when they had to dig through the harder stone, but Scald had them work til they expired, and re-summoned them.  Cursing in their demonic language, they kept at it all day.

Dirrg continued to gather animals atop Girr, and directed all of them to come to the clearing at lunch time.  He also had the smaller animals gather all the nuts, berries, and other edible seeds for them.  Talking to animals is different from talking to a sentient humanoid.  They didn't understand things like betrayal, selfishness, or pleasure.  They understood survival, in which everything they did stemmed from this knowledge.  Dirrg got them to do what he said by communicating an increased chance of survival if they helped.  Animals had no notion of payment.  

Once lunchtime came, they all gathered in the clearing between the destroyed town and The Crater.  Many animals had also come, driven by curiosity and the delicious smell of food.  Though, if Dirrg hadn't been there to calm them down, they would have all fled from the sight of Brutus.

Speaking of Brutus, the big lug had picked up Valgrim and was "lightly" slapping him awake.  Valgrim woke with a start.  

"Hmph, now talk." Brutus demanded, putting Valgrim back down on the ground.  Slightly disoriented, it took Valgrim a moment to stand up straight and gaze around.  The animals gathered were a healthy mix: bird, mole, bunny, deer, squirral, snake, lizard, groundhog, armadillo, chipmunk, boar, and 3 wolves.  Valgrim raised an eyebrow at the wolves, and looked over to Dirrg for an explanation.  "Dey were curious on what ye wanted." he explained, "Promised not to eat any of de wee beasties if ye fed dem."

Valgrim shrugged, then began cooking a feast for everyone.  He made meat more the party and the wolves, and made a berry and nut stew for the herbivore animals.  Soon the clearing was filled with snorts, grunts, chews, munches, and gulps as everyone ate.  Finishing his meal, Valgrim activated his own ability to talk with animals.  Explaining with a series of grunts, whistles, shrieks, whines, and dirt scratching, he communicated his plan to the animals.  They listened while they finished their meals.  When he was finished, a few of the animals nodded their thanks and left.  The majority stayed though.

"Alright Valgrim." Saharra said, gulping down the last of her meal, "You have been up to something since last night, now, are you going to spill it or do I have ask Brutus to shake it out of you?"  Brutus flexed an arm for emphasis.  Valgrim almost cried, 'It took you one night to turn against me?!" he yelled in his head.

Shaking his head, he said, "It's okay guys, I was praying to my god all night.  It took a bit of praying to get my request through to him, and longer to give him good enough reasons for him to grant me this power."

"And what power is that?" Scald asked, backing up a little.

"This."  

Valgrim stretched out his hand and shouted words of power granted to him by his god.  Golden light erupted from his hands, showering the animals.  The party watched, stunned as the golden light wrapped itself around the animals, pulling them into the air.  Their forms changed, morphing softly, not violently, into new shapes.  The intense magical pressure left Saharra and Scald speechless.  This was one of the highest spells a person could cast without exploding into magical energy or transcending into godhood.  This was polyshape, the spell to change forms.  There were various levels of polyshape, but only the highest allowed the caster to change others into something else.  Mental limitations still applied though, but this still was a master spell.

When the light faded, Valgrim fell on his back panting.  But he had been successful.  Where a horde of animals had been, now there were only people, all kneeling.  They rose, examining their new bodies with interest.  The kingdom now had it's first citizens.  At least for the next 12 hours anyway.

v

Kingdom SituationWood1700 poundsLumber800 pundsStone50 poundsIron5 poundsGems.5 poundsFood (agriculture)5 poundsFood (meat)50 poundsFood (ale)9 pounds (Brutus only)Inhabitants6 leaders, 1 bear.

People (changed)

  Birds: 20

  Deer: 15

  Ground animals:27

  Wolves:3

  Tree animals: 63

  Boar: 13

 Bunny: 15

Total inhabitants:163Armed ForcesNoneThis kingdom is just a kingdom in name.  There are a few citizens, little supplies, and not even a house to live in.   Size of a small village currently.   Unemployment does not exist.  The name of the kingdom has yet to be decided.  They symbol of the kingdom has yet to be decided.  There is no currency system or form of payment in this kingdom.  There are no armed forces for this kingdom.  It is not advisable to migrate to this kingdom.  Low life expectancy.