bookpower 3.1 State of the Settlement
3.1 State of the Settlement
1 – State of the Settlement
Andy stood in the Garden Square—what they’d begun calling the old dog park area atop the mesa—with a crowd of others, watching as the Lurikeens’ airship rose above the tree line, carried on currents of mana that pulsed in faintly sparkling waves of magenta light from its “wind rudder.” Overall, the weeks the little people had spent among them while they made repairs to their ship had been pleasant. Even so, he felt a knot of tension relaxing as he watched the ship depart, growing smaller with the distance.
“Glad to see them go?” Bea asked, putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling as he looked down at her. As usual, he was struck by her youthful appearance; she’d been certifiably elderly when he’d first met her, but now she looked like she could have been a member of his graduating class. Her hair, once gray and thin, was black and lush, and her light brown eyes were bright with mirth as she took in his expression. “What are you thinking?”
Andy shrugged. “Just how weird everything is.”
“Won’t get any arguments from me—won’t hear me complaining, either!” She winked, gave his shoulder another squeeze, then turned to walk over to Bella, who was teasing Jace, giggling as he tried to keep her giant-rat companion, Chani, from crawling up his pant leg. The creature had grown to the size of a small dog, but Andy knew from experience that she was very light, and despite her rodent origins, she smelled good and was very gentle; never mind that she was always wearing the blue-gray robes the System had awarded her.
“Welp, they’re gone!” Tucker announced. The statement of the obvious was like a signal, and Andy laughed as most of the people in the crowd cheered. It seemed he hadn’t been the only one feeling some tension with the Fae people lingering about.
“Meeting time, Andy?” Violet asked, taking a few steps closer. Like so many of the other survivors in their community, she reflected the positive aspects of the apocalypse, or, more accurately, the coming of mana and its effects on people. Despite her current, mundane-seeming class—Gardener—she exhibited all the traits of someone gradually being enhanced by magic. She seemed stronger; her eyes were bright, her skin healthy; even her curly brown hair held a sheen that might have landed her a shampoo modeling career in the old world.
The truth was that everyone—at least those who hadn’t died—seemed physically and mentally more fit. Eduardo chalked it up to how the System used mana in a ritualistic sort of way to grant “levels,” increasing people’s attributes and magical abilities. There were other arguments to be had, too—no pollution, very little processed food, the impossibility of leading a sedentary lifestyle. Andy figured it was some combination of all those factors.
“Andy?” Violet prodded.
He blinked, chuckling. “Sorry, was spacing out. Yeah, let’s go ahead and get the council together.”
After the storm, one of the first buildings the community endeavored to build was a community center. It was a place for people to gather, primarily for celebrations and meetings, but with everyone’s home either under-construction or in the planning stages, they’d been using it for pretty much everything. It was a simple structure—large and rectangular. The Claywrights of the community had created the durable clay-block foundation, and then they’d used lumber from Grace Refuge—formerly Construction City—for the building. It wasn’t finished, but it had four walls, a roof, and a pair of sturdy doors.
Andy climbed the steps and nodded to Tucker, who held the door for everyone as they trickled in. Tucker’s class, Frontier Steward, had proved invaluable during the rebuilding efforts. Of course, there were plenty of others who knew a lot more about construction than Andy, but it seemed like Tucker had a hand in everything.
He and another man, Rigo Navarro, had even built a winch-powered cargo hoist so they could haul thousands of pounds of equipment and supplies up the side of the cliff. That alone had saved them days and days of labor during the exodus from Grace Refuge. The exodus—Andy shook his head as he walked over the plywood subfloors of the center. It turned out that the people of Grace Refuge, those who hadn’t been at the mesa during the storm, hadn’t had an easy time of it.
The wind had damaged the roof of the big box store, and the torrential rains had gotten inside, flooding large sections of the concrete floor. People had been forced to build makeshift platforms on the larger inventory shelves, and over the course of the week-long storm, things had gotten very unpleasant with regard to backed up sewer lines and flooding in general. A lot of the inventory had been ruined, but thanks to a lot of hard work over the last couple of weeks, the remaining goods were slowly being transferred to the mesa.
Someone had set up a long, folding table and chairs for the council meeting, so Andy moved to his customary spot near the center and sat down. James was already seated beside Lydia, and one by one, the others filled in: Violet, Omar, Tucker, Bea, Bree, and Bella—filling in for Lucy. While people got comfortable, Lydia, grinning, leaned closer to Andy and asked, “So? Now that they’re gone, are you going to start the great IP push?”
Andy smiled at her and nodded. “I guess I’m out of excuses, huh?” The truth was that he’d been putting off “grinding” for Improvement Points over the last couple of weeks because he wanted a break from all that damn System stuff. At least, that was what he’d been telling himself. What he’d been telling others was that he didn’t want Lurikeen spies watching their methodology, and that he wanted to focus on helping to get the settlement rebuilding underway. There truly was a lot to do; every time he turned around, someone wanted his opinion or help with something.
It felt like yesterday that Lucy had embarked on her hunt, so seeing the Lurikeens’ ship fly away that morning had been a stark reminder that the time was passing; the clock was ticking down on the eventual arrival of “settlers” from other worlds.
Lydia shrugged. “Well, we’ve all been busy. I won’t argue about that. Now we’re secure, though, I hope we can get moving.”
Andy nodded again, clearing his throat as he gestured to the table. “We can bring that up.” More loudly, he said, “Are we ready to begin?” People stopped their side conversations and, as their eyes turned toward him, Andy continued speaking, “I know we have a lot to cover; we’ve been putting this meeting off for a while—” He paused and turned to look over his shoulder, ensuring someone had closed the door. As he did so, he chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m so used to looking over my shoulder, worrying that one of those little buggers would be there listening.”
“You ain’t the only one, young blood,” James said, slapping a palm on the table as he barked a short laugh.
“Well,” Andy said, smiling at the older man, “they’re gone, and we managed to avoid some kind of war or unhealthy bargain with the Fae.” He nodded to Violet. “You have the agenda?”
She cleared her throat and sat up straighter in her folding chair, lifting her notepad to better read the list. “Today we have several items to discuss. We’ll get an update on the major construction initiatives from Tucker, then we’ll get a crafting update from Lydia and James. Um, we’re supposed to talk about the Trade Beacon to see if our stance should change. Bella has a report on the Foothills Dungeon, and Bree has a scouting report. Finally, Bea volunteered to get a mine report from Raya. Do you have that ready?”
Bea nodded, smiling serenely. “And an update on the running water situation.”
Violet looked at Andy. “Should we just go down the list?”
“Sure, but I want to make some comments about classes and IPs—you know, getting ready.”
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Violet diligently scribbled into her notebook, then looked up, squinting toward the far end of the table. “Are you ready, Tucker?”
“Uh, yeah.” The slender man nervously tugged his long hair back, going through the motions of putting it into a ponytail, even though he didn’t have anything to tie it with. “Well, you all know the cargo lift is up and running. We’ve got plans to expand on it, though—beef it up. We want to be able to bring up objects as large as...oh, I suppose as large as a small trailer. Of course, we don’t have power tools, so we’re taking our sweet time about getting anchors into the bedrock. Rigo’s done some figures and we’ve got all the materials. Just need to finish the work.”
He referenced a small piece of grungy paper, then continued speaking. “We’re gonna start finishing this building, too—finally got the last of the drywall over from Construction City. Um, let’s see here... We’ve got people digging trenches for the new water lines. Bea can talk more about that. As far as the residences go, we’ve kind of handed that stuff over to Tyler and Jordan; they’re working with Casey and the others who are making the adobe blocks.” Not everyone agreed that what Casey had learned to make with magic was appropriately called “adobe,” but no one really argued about it.
He paused and nodded toward Violet. “Everyone’s sticking to the new rule—no wooden structures outside the protection of the mesquite grove.” Violet smiled; it had been she and Eduardo who’d proposed the ordinance; if they suffered another big storm, which seemed perfectly likely, they didn’t want their new buildings to get blown away like the trailers had been. After a pause, Tucker shrugged. “I guess that’s about it for now.”
“What about the mesa entrance?” Andy prompted.
“Oh, right!” Tucker glanced at Omar, then kept speaking. “The ramp’s paved, and the first floor of the guardhouse is done.” The “guardhouse” was an adobe building they were constructing to secure the interior of the mesa. Eventually, it would have a gate that blocked access to the ramp when they needed it to.
When he stopped speaking, everyone looked at Violet, and she cleared her throat. “Ahem, thank you, Tucker. Lydia? James?”
James leaned back, looking at Lydia, and the copper-haired Forgemaster began speaking, “We’ve crafted a surplus of spears, hammers, and axes. I’m trying to make some swords out of old leaf springs someone scavenged from wrecked cars. Um, both James and I have taken on two assistants, and they’re already picking up forge classes. Keshawn is making nails, but just for experience; we still have plenty of stock from Construction City. We’ve got people learning to make pottery, glass, burlap—all kinds of things.”
She tapped the table idly as she continued, “Magic makes things faster, of course. I think we’ll be addressing pretty much all creature comforts inside a month or so. Once Bea gets running water sorted—”
“It’s sorted.” Bea winked, and Lydia smiled.
“Anyway,” the Forgemaster continued, “we’re learning armor—me and James—but it takes a lot of material and time, even with magic, to do anything much more complicated than hanging plates on leather. Still, it’s great experience to make even a tiny piece of chain-mail, so we’re sticking to it.” She took a breath and then turned toward Andy. “I’ve also been working on the enchanting, but you know, there’s only so many hours in a day. Looking forward to you getting into it with us.”
Andy held his tongue, turning to Violet. She hastily scanned her notebook. “There’s the matter of the Trade Beacon...”
“I don’t see that much has changed with regard to that,” Andy said. “I don’t think we should stick our necks out yet, especially when the Titan Silo Society is the only group advertising.” When he’d told the council about the message on the Trade Beacon, several of them had immediately recognized the “Titan Silo” part of the name as likely referencing the Titan Missile Museum down by Green Valley. Andy had never been there, but apparently there was a very large underground complex there that used to house a cold-war era ICBM.
They weren’t exactly close, and the fact that they advertised mostly militaristic hardware made Andy nervous about trying to reach out; he figured it was something that could wait until they’d made their own situation more secure. Most everyone on the council was in agreement, Lydia being a notable dissenter.
“Andy, they’re advertising rare monster trophies. They might have access to a dungeon—could really give our crafting a boost.”
“Yeah, true, but we’ve got a dungeon nearby, too, and so far we haven’t had great luck with other survivors.”
“I’m with Andy,” Bella said—to no one’s surprise.
“Well, for the record, let’s have a vote.” Andy was hoping to mollify Lydia, but she waved him off, shaking her head.
“No point. I’m the only one who wants to reach out right now. We all know it.”
“Just give us some more time, Lydia.” Andy turned back to Violet. “Next?”
“Um, Bella? Any news on the dungeon?”
“It’s still there. No one tripped my alarms or left any tracks nearby. I pulled about a hundred more tumbleweeds into the cave opening, so I doubt anyone’s going to find it anytime soon.”
“We should explore that soon,” Bea said, turning pointedly toward Andy.
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. I was just hoping that Lucy would be back, but—”
“But we have no idea how long that will be,” Bea finished for him.
Bree cleared her throat. “You know I’m down to fill her spot. I mean temporarily, of course.”
“I mean,” Bella said, “there are about ten other people who want to get in on the action, Andy. We need to make adventuring parties. What do we have before the invasion? Two weeks?”
Andy nodded, chewing his lower lip. “Something like that. Can you make a list of the people interested? We can talk about that after the meeting.”
“Got it, Boss.” Bella grinned, and Andy sighed; there was no point complaining about the title. She’d gotten it from Omar and they all teased him with it now.
“Violet?”
“Um, Bree’s up.”
The other woman sat up straight, brushing some sandy-blonde hair away from her eyes. “Um, Cheechee has been doing his regular rounds, and nothing alarming has come up near the mesa. He saw a herd of cattle about ten miles to the east, and I’m pretty sure they were being driven by minotaurs—no idea how that works, but yeah. Um, there’s a goblin encampment in the foothills that’s kind of growing at an alarming rate. Oh, and he won’t fly much more than a mile to the west; ever since the storm, the city freaks him out.”
Andy nodded along with her report. It was pretty much the same as the last one she’d made. He was interested in something else, though. “And your class?”
“Still Small Game Hunter, but I’m working on those tips you gave me—hoping to get a morph or a new option soon. I think I’m on the right track because the System is dropping hints.”
“Cool.” Andy nodded.
“Bea?” Violet prompted.
“As I said earlier, I’ve figured out the water situation. PVC won’t hold an enchantment worth a darn, but if I carve my runes on stones and use copper wire to hold them against the pipes, it works. We should have running water to every dwelling soon—just waiting on Tucker’s folks to finish digging the reservoir deeper.”
“We’ve got a lot of projects going on at once,” Tucker said with a chuckle. “Uh, but as long as Casey and her folks keep making adobe out of the mud by the spring, the reservoir is pretty much going to dig itself.”
As everyone around the table chuckled, Andy turned to Bea. “What about copper pipes? Something about using PVC—”
“Way ahead of you, kiddo; it’s just that they haven’t hauled those from the store yet. Only one wagon and a few horses, you know.” Bea shrugged.
“Doesn’t help that we get attacked every couple of trips,” Bella added. She was referencing the many monstrous fauna attacks the caravan had suffered—from a giant tarantula to rampaging javelina to a trio of hostile harpies that Lyta swore up and down had nothing to do with her flock.
“Anyway,” Bea said, “we’re moving things along, but there’s just a lot to do. As for the mine, Lena has a list of people interested in staking a claim with the MMM, but she doesn’t want to let anyone get started until we’ve finished the infrastructure.”
The MMM was the Mesquite Mesa Mining Company, and it was, so far, only an idea—an idea for a mining cooperative that would share profits among all shareholders. Nothing had been set in stone yet—so to speak—and Andy was just fine with a slow launch; there was more than enough on his plate. “Okay. Well, that’s a meeting in and of itself, wouldn’t you all agree?”
Nobody argued; the mine situation was proving complicated, and everyone on the council was feeling that same sensation Andy had been dealing with: too much to do and too damn little time. Omar cleared his throat and said, “What about you, though? You said you wanted to talk about something?”
Andy inhaled deeply through his nose, leaning back in his chair as he looked around the table. “Yeah, while I was listening, though, I had another idea. We’ve got a lot to do around here, but meanwhile, we’re letting some dangerous situations sit on the edges of our territory. We’ve got the dungeon to explore, goblins in the hills, hostile fauna in the desert, and an unknown risk in the city. I think I have a way to kill a few birds with one stone, though.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little black book—his Codex entry about Improvement Points. “One of the strategies in here for gaining IPs quickly is to use strong unbound skills to gain experience quickly in a new class. Like, my spear skill for instance—if I took on a new class, like a plain Fighter, which Bella can attest is easy to get, I could level it rapidly by fighting goblins or exploring a dungeon or—well, you get the idea.”
“So...what?” Bea asked. “Get ten or so IPs, then switch to a new class? Didn’t you say the guide warned you that five classes was the limit?”
“Well, yeah, but it also told me you could merge, morph, or abandon classes somehow. I mean, this isn’t for everyone, anyway; but I figure some of us could take care of some looming threats while also building up some IPs.” He turned to Bella. “Which means we ought to get started on that list of potential adventurers.”