Day 19
Things were wild here the last couple days. I'll try to remember it well but between things I shouldn't put down and stuff I'd rather not remember clearly this may not turn out well. Fortunately we're all alive if a bit battered and scarred.
The quilboar did something crazy to us and intentionally drove the lions and raptors towards the Crossroads and Ratchet. I spent so much time running through the plains trying to turn them further South into centaur land that my blisters have blisters. Ratchet at least proved willing to airdrop enough torches for us to redirect the animals with while they kept their road safe.
Let me tell you that running around with a torch in the middle of the day sucks but at least everything fears fire. More than half our warriors ended up with at least minor burns doing that but the real danger proved to be centaur who were more than a little pissed at our plans. Thunderbolts and lightning are indeed very frightening. The arrows didn't help either.
I'm honestly not sure what kind of stupid plan the quilboar came up with as they just chased off a food source but they may have stockpiled enough to last for a while. Dealing with hundreds of beasts didn't leave me inclined to care about the quilboar in the end however, and having to go fight centaurs pissed me right off. I don't like getting shocked!
Two kodo wagons arrived under heavy guard yesterday while we were dealing with things and loaded up most of the remaining stockpile. Now we'd only see a wagon weekly though since we did have some remaining stone Gurnag had the peons working hard on the walls. Lucky Joe told me the Sergeant personally commanded a team of archers to eliminate anything that got close to the workers. I quietly handed them some drinks I'd stashed in my bag the moment they went off duty, I think it was appreciated.
Surprisingly enough Greentitan showed up with a shaman cousin by the name of Bullhorn to answer my questions. Unfortunately neither of them really knew much about tree growth, as that was more of an elf thing, though they did tell me the centaur had done quite a bit of damage to the Barrens and prevented the elves from replanting here. I guess I can let them off the hook there. I gave Greentitan a bit of money to travel up to Moonglade and research it for me so it wasn't a total loss.
The thought of a druid and shaman run landscaping company amused me for a while until I had to scare off more beasts. The progress we'd made days ago was completely wiped and now they want to keep coming back. We'd been kindly asked the lay off the slaughter without reason so I guess we're trying to do that now.
The concerns of nature are important but honestly take a back seat to survival. The next thing that lunges for me is getting the axe. I guess the leftover flares and torches will get used after all. I wish I could remove the stink from my nose however.
Several of the warriors and hunters were placing bets about what comes after this. Most of their ideas are a bit silly but a few are outright crazy. I definitely had to laugh at the thought of turning the mountain into a giant thorn monster or raising an army of earth spirits to swallow our souls. A couple of them were intentionally scaring the others but as long as none of the impressionable peons were nearby they got to have their fun.
Oh man, Gurnag is coming this way and he looks pissed. I'd better go.
-Borgin