Thankfully, it doesn’t take Tula too long to wake back up, but she still seems pretty overwhelmed. She doesn’t give an answer yet, but I think once she gets a chance to calm down, she’ll take Rhonda up on her offer. They escort her out, which thanks to a Teemo shortcut means it’s only a couple minutes, and then they head for the lava labyrinth.
I shamelessly look over the map they have while they go. I’ve been wondering if there’ll be people who speedrun the maze daily to try to get an accurate map of that day’s maze, but it looks like most people are going with a more generic map, with the changing sections written in different colors and leaving it up to the adventurers to figure out the layout on their own.
I think it’d be a bit more difficult for those going really deep, but the melting pot area with the crucible ants isn’t that far into the maze. They have to backtrack a couple times, but once you get the hang of reading the map, it’s not hard to navigate. They fight a few encounters and Rhonda practices her telekinesis as she can. For a lot of the denizens in the maze, she has a pretty good combo of stealing the heat from the different encounters, converting it to kinetic energy, and slamming the critters with a solid attack. The others need to keep up their guards and help, of course. One on one, Rhonda could probably handle anything in there, but I’m not going to send a single denizen against the group.
In the melting pot, the damanascus is getting pretty popular among my crucible ants. At first, it was just the one hill, but now there’s a good half-dozen to pick from. They go for a smaller one and don’t hold back much in their attack. I smile when I see them work together to haul off the chunks Larrez breaks off, glad to see them plan ahead and not go for something they wouldn’t have actually been able to carry off.
They’re all pretty weighed down, but they have enough gas in the tank to fight through a couple more encounters and eventually head home. I hope they make some cool stuff out of the damanascus. It should work pretty well as armor, and should be easy to enchant for weapons. I just don’t know how well it will hold an edge. It’s been getting popular among the ants because it’s popular among the delvers, but nobody has come back in with anything made from it, or at least I haven’t noticed. Armoring and enchanting take a while, so I’m not surprised nobody has anything yet. The crafters need to learn how to work it too, I’m sure.
Speaking of things that need work, I sit in with Teemo to hear what the nerd squad thinks of possible improvements for the composite armor. I’m surprised to see Poppy contributing, too, but Teemo’s translations makes it pretty obvious why. The resin is from trees, and they might be able to use a treated wooden core for the armor to help with rigidity. It also could give another surface for the easy layering of enchantments.
They still need something to fix the delamination problem, though. It’ll be partially fixed by weaving the layers more properly. The first pass was barely more than taking two silk shirts and some mail, then gluing them together with resin. I probably shouldn’t be surprised they tend to come apart.
Coda points out the design issue without me needing to talk through Teemo, and they brainstorm ways to work around that. They really like the metal honeycomb, but I think it’s just not going to be especially practical, at least on the scale of people. I’m pretty sure honeycomb is more for vehicle armor rather than personal. While it could work for breastplates, weaving the spidersilk through normal chainmail would be more practical, but I think there’s an even better way.
If we use a thin wooden core, we should be able to perforate it and weave the silk through it without much issue. Metal wire should be theoretically an option, but we have an easier method than trying to get tension on metal without breaking the wood: the metal transmutation elixir. As far as I can tell, it makes ordinary steel, which should be a good way to add strength to the armor, and hopefully keep the whole thing thin enough that it can be made into something wearable.
Poppy commits to dedicating a small patch of her garden to a few trees for better resin and stronger wood, and also talks about the progress she’s been able to make on the central tree with the help of Thing, Honey, and especially Queen. It sounds like a true hybrid is going to be off the table, which is a little sad, but her progress on plan B is very encouraging.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
She had been trying to get the two separate trees to not interfere with each other too much, but Queen and Honey both suggested she try active symbiosis instead of simply the two tolerating each other. Suddenly, the problem of roots for them both became a non-issue. If she gives the yew an over-engineered root system, the willow vine can tap into it for soil nutrients and water. If she cuts back on yew leaves and encourages the willow, it can handle the photosynthesis for them both and share with the yew. Shore up the yew branches a bit to be able to handle the load of willow vine, and have the willow really lean into the vine potion to have a good tensile strength, and the two separate plants should be able to survive while actively needing the help of and helping the other.
I pat the bonds with them all, glad to see what looks like a very viable plan to me! It’ll still take Poppy some time to get the trees into shape, but I think we have a workable goal to aim for now! I keep with them through the night, troubleshooting potential issues with the tree and the armor with Teemo translating. He even offers to lend his spatial expertise in the construction of the armor, which could be really cool. No need to worry about clearance for tools when you have a smart-aleck rat that can bend the fabric of reality.
The sun rises as we look over a bunch of different thin planks of wood I have available. I don’t think it’s technically ebony, but I have a very dense and dark wood that I like for the core. It might be a bit too dense to be easily worked. There’s a couple oaks that are looking like a good generalist candidate, though. My scions are leaning toward oak. Teemo’s in the middle of letting them know that’s fine by me, when I feel two familiar presences enter my domain.
Teemo pauses for a moment before quickly finishing. “So yeah, use whatever you guys think will be best. I gotta go!” He zips through a shortcut to catch up to my focus on the two familiar delvers strolling up to the house. My Voice hops up on the railing for the porch and waves as he raises his voice.
“Berdol! Olander! Time flies, eh? You two ready for the inspection, and the fight?”
Berdol nods, wearing his typical delving gear and looking eager, probably both for the fight and the inspection. “Definitely!”
Olander nods as well, wearing better gear than usual. His old stuff wasn’t exactly bad, but his armor and glaive both have the look and feel of gear an experienced delver would wear. His armor is pretty heavy looking, though you wouldn’t know it from how he moves. Before, he had basically been wearing chainmail, but now he has heavier splint mail over the top, and a solid breastplate. The mail reminds me of samurai armor with the armored drapes over the shoulders and thighs. He doesn’t have a helmet, but he does have a thick circlet that makes me think of a metal sweatband, and I can practically taste the enchantments on it. The rest is also enchanted, but I think he splurged on the circlet to be able to have maximum visibility.
His glaive is different from the simple steel one he’d been carrying around, too. This one is a black metal, or maybe a black finish? Either way, there’s very little in the way of decoration on it, making it look and feel like the weapon of war it is. In addition to his glaive, he has a large pack on his back, probably for whatever adventuring gear he likes to have. Potions, rations, and the like. Probably to be able to carry back anything that catches his eye, too. I don’t think it’ll help him too much against Rocky, but I could be wrong. Or he’s just wearing it as part of his full kit to show he’s taking it seriously.
“I am. I’m looking forward to it, in fact. I’ve done what research I can on Rocky, and I think I’m as prepared as I can get.”
“Awesome,” replies Teemo, giving a thumbs up. “Are you guys going to do the full inspection first?”
“I want to at least try,” speaks up Berdol. “I don’t think it should take too long, at least? Most of your various sections are pretty stable. The lava labyrinth will take the longest, I expect.”
“The forest might take a while, too, depending on how in-depth you want to look around. It’s a lot of area.”
“I’d like to get as close of a look as I can, please.”
Teemo smiles. “That should be fine. It’s still a work in progress, but the Boss doesn’t have any problem with letting you see how things get made. We actually just finalized the plan for the big central tree, in fact.”
“Oh?” asks Berdol, with Olander looking curious as well.
Teemo nods and slips through a shortcut to sit atop Olander’s pack. “Yeah. I’ll explain while you guys start. The manor is pretty much the same it’s always been: a good place for the newbies to start with. You should be able to examine while I chat about the tree, yeah?”
Olander chuckles and shifts his pack slightly to sit better. “I think so. If Berdol is too distracted, I’ll at least be listening. I’ve heard rumor the new forest is supposed to be for very experienced delvers, so you definitely have my attention with it.”
The elf chuckles as Berdol smacks him with his floating metal clipboard for insinuating he can’t take notes and listen at the same time. Still, he smiles at the good-natured ribbing. “Then let’s get this inspection underway! The sooner we get started, the sooner I can watch Rocky knock you around some!”