What Can SV Teach an Evil Sorceress? (abandoned)

[LoserThree]

0

                         NOTICES

Cacophonous Interlude is NOT active
  (the QMPC does NOT hear what you write right now)
Next story update : Sometime in July would be nice
Next vote closing : TBD
Progress toward next update : 3,146 words

Anything I post that's not in text blocks or in spoilers
may be understood to be said by the QMPC, with the
exception of the Collaboration Post
  (see Collaboration Post for details on itself)

Players do not need to use code blocks or spoilers
outside of cacophonous interludes

If you use code blocks, please limit yourself to 32 lines
and your lines to 57 characters, so that people on mobile
can read them without scrolling within the code block

This is not meant to be Plagiarism Quest.

You're not discouraged from using outside reference
material or quoting other sources.  When you do, please
cite your sources in spoilers or a code box.

 I have added some players who contributed a fair amount
the last two times as thread collaborators who can update
   the collaboration post. If you'd like to update the
collaboration post too, contact me by PM and we'll talk
                        about it.

---

Spoiler: All you really need to know to play

Check the Collaboration Post and read the latest story post in the Threadmarks to get a rough idea of where things are at.

If you're not already involved in the game, portions of either of these may be difficult to follow. But you can skip to the line that says "B R E A K" in the latest threadmarked story post and skim from there to get an idea of what's going on.

If there's no corresponding Closing The Vote post in the Informational threadmarks for the latest story post in (normal?) Threadmarks, then the game is in a cacophonous interlude and the QMPC will hear what you post, unless you do so with spoilers or code boxes. The NOTICES portion at the top of this post should also tell you if the game is in a cacophonous interlude.

So you can engage with other players, make suggestions, ask questions, and propose plans and you can compose a message to the QMPC all whether or not the game is in a cacophonous interlude. And once it is, you can vote and/or send a message to the QMPC by creating a post in the thread.

If you want to vote, simply do so as you would in other quests on this board. You may look at other players' votes to see how yours should be formatted. And you may check the tally to see that yours are counted as you intend them.

If you want to send a message to the QMPC, though, keep in mind that they are a creature of their time. They may not understand what you mean if you don't take the time to make it clear. This game rewards and demands work from its players. When a player wants to introduce a concept or tool or technology to the QMPC, that player will probably need to expend effort to explain it carefully, and take into consideration the limits of the QMPC's understanding of the world.

I think this is similar enough to Graeber's 'interpretive labor' that we can use the term colloquially to describe what is being asked of players. Put yourself in the mind of the QMPC and ask yourself how such a person can be made to understand what you want to tell them.

The QMPC has different values than we do. They have different assumptions about the world and objects and forces within it. Their goals may not align directly with number-go-up or color-get-big gaming agendas. But they want something, and will listen most attentively to players that tell them how to get more of or closer to what they want.

                    Collaboration Post!

Spoiler: How the game is meant to work

1. The Quest Master posts story updates that have 3 parts.
   • Quest Master Player Character responses to player posts made during the last cacophonous interlude
   • An update by the QMPC following a break of varying length but usually some number of years, covering what the character believes is worth mentioning
   • Requests by the QMPC for direction on a number of issues, which the players will provide in the form of votes
2. Following each story update, players posts are audible to the QMPC until voting is closed.
   This is the cacophonous interlude.
   • Players may convey any information they can represent in text.
   • No images, sounds, or hyperlinks will get through (this is my limitation, not a limitation of the game, so please do not try to transcend it with clever protocol tricks).
   • Players may use spoilers or code blocks to communicate with each other without doing so in ways the QMPC can hear.
3. When votes are tallied, the QM collects player posts so that it may be known what the QMPC heard.
   • Votes are tallied in the conventional fashion. So only votes in the most recent post by each player are counted. [X] marks what the player is voting. And only identical write-ins accumulate.
   • Some votes are querying the players for their preference, in which case the only suboptimal answer is that which does not accurately reflect the preference of the players who nonetheless chose it (I don't think these kinds of misunderstandings can be helped).
   • Other votes are intended as puzzles where there is a choice the QM believes would best meet what they believe to be the goals of the players.
     • However, in these sorts of votes the QM has in mind a choice that would provide the players with what the QM thinks they most want, but which is not listed in the available votes.
     • In this way, clever write-ins are encouraged.
4. QM reads player posts, researches their suggestions, checks notes for precedent, determines what the QMPC thinks they already know on the topic, what they're right or wrong about, how likely they are to engage with the topic, how likely the QMPC's followers are to follow-through in the matter, and finally what the result is going to be later on.
5. QM composes QMPC's responses to player posts made during the cacophonous interlude and updates their notes.
6. When narrative benefits from uncertainty and chance, QM devises tests for QMPC or other characters and makes those tests using die rolls on a post made just for that purpose.
   • Skill or attribute tests will be made with a largely undocumented homebrew modification of the Burning Wheel system, mangled to suit the format of this game. (The Burning Wheelis a good system and I encourage you to check it out.)
     • Tests may be a contest between two characters or against a static target with tiered results.
     • The rules being used and followed will be described in each post in which tests are made by die rolls.
     • Normal mortals count 7s and better as successes.
     • Heroic characters and characters who are otherwise innately magical count 6s and better as successes.
     • Demigod characters and characters who otherwise possess some spark of divinity count 5s and better as successes.
     • New gods and characters who have otherwise stolen the power of Old Gods count 4s and better as successes.
     • Old Gods count 3s and better as successes.
     • Sorcery and other magic skills lower the threshold of success by 1 to a minimum of 3 only when they are the skill being tested, not when they provide a bonus to other skills. Players may note that Old Gods' threshold of success does not improve when they use magic.
     • Bonus dice provided by Kahl's Warhorses and any incendiary devices more complicated than a burning arrow reroll 9s & 10s and keeps successes. These same bonus dice cancels successes on 1s & 2s, rerolls those, and additional 1s & 2s cancel additional successes. More 1s, 2, 9, or 10s mean more rerolling and more successes or cancelations, but only in the manner of the original die. That is, a 1 or 2 that comes up when a 9 on a bonus die is rerolled don't cancel successes or lead to further rerolling.
   • Research project results are determined by percentile dice with results falling into 5 tiers.
     • Uh oh: something has gone horribly wrong
     • Nuh uh: failure, but the boring kind
     • Huh: partial success
     • Uh huh: full success
     • Whoa: superior special case success
   • When players expect a test to be coming up -- for example if they vote for an invasion or to send a diplomat to manipulate a foreign leader -- they can improve the odds of the test turning out the way they want by providing the QMPC with advice specific to that matter. If the advice is not mistaken or outright bad, there will be at least a chance it will help. That is, decent advice adds dice.
7. QM composes the QMPC's post-break update, player vote questions, and player vote options.
8. GOTO 1

Spoiler: The Quest Master Player Character

The QMPC is intended to be the only character the players will interact with in this game. (It's kind of possible that the players could maneuver the QMPC to surrender control of the Astute Cacophony to another character, but unlikely.)

The QMPC is a small, evil woman who knows magic and has not died, despite looking like she probably should have at some point. She goes by the name Bianca the Undying. Her early life took place in the Paleolithic, in which she has said that she traveled around quite a bit and came to understand the malleable nature of populations of people and animals and even the land itself. At some point she was trapped underground, to her displeasure. She remained trapped for a very long time.

When Bianca got out, she found her way to a community of eight tribes living pastoral and agrarian lifestyles in the local Copper Age. She made these people hers and they relied on her for magically enriching their fields so that they did not need to slash, burn, and move around a bit, unlike their neighbors. Bianca and her followers formalized their relationships into the Eight Ways Pact. Later, another tribe joined Bianca's followers bringing small horses and the Bronze Age and their pact was updated with a ninth directive.

Bianca has an agenda that requires her to have more power than she does right now. She believes that achieving divinity will get her that power.

 

[liberty90]

True enough, Just Write, true enough. Pretty often we are able to speed up inventions massively. Even concrete or the bursting dust, even these things could take a thousand of years before accidental invention by mortals, and a hundred of years even with rigorously written scientific research about properties of materials. We were able to provide reasonably ready recipes much faster.

But the mass production of cheap steel is unusually complex. I remember that even the man named Bessemer had, for many years, problems with teaching and selling to other steelmakers details of his method. Despite living in an enormously rich machine age Empire, despite his own riches and the fact that great greed motivated him to sell his invention to other Buildings of Mass Production. It's a tricky thing.

Try to develop that, Bianca, sure, but keep in mind my warning about unusual complexity of the project. I'm not sure that we will be able to explain all the details. We cannot speak for too long, and it's sometimes like trying to teach a small family of Stone Age cave-barbarians how to farm - great number of details needed, and greatly different customs. It's no wonder that we sound mad more often than we are.

 

[We Just Write]

But the mass production of cheap steel is unusually complex. I remember that even the man named Bessemer had, for many years, problems with teaching and selling to other steelmakers details of his method. Despite living in an enormusly rich machine age Empire, despite his own riches and the fact that great greed motivated him to sell his invention to other Buildings of Mass Production. It's a tricky thing.

Try to develop that, Bianca, sure, but keep in mind my warning about unusual complexity of the project. I'm not sure that we will be able to explain all details. We cannot speak for too long, and it's sometimes like trying to teach a small family of Stone Age cave-barbarians how to farm - great number of details needed, and greatly different customs. It's no wonder that we sound mad more often than we are.

Click to shrink...

Bessemer's fault was that he relied on the overly precise ability to stop the blowing at exactly the right time the remove the impurities without removing the carbon. This is a rather difficult task to explain how to do to someone, and even I am not exactly sure how such precise timing would be calculated. Therefore I provided a somewhat improved version of the process that sidesteps that issue entirely by simply blowing until all the impurities and Carbon are removed, then adding the desired amount of alloying elements back in.

 

[liberty90]

Humph, possibly, Just Write. Machine design is not one of my strengths, sadly.

I believe that you mentioned sugar in your recipe for a slow-burning fuse, a thing for a more controlled bursting dust ignition. Now, I'm not sure that Bianca knows sugar. Honey, yes. But refined sugar? Humph.

Maybe such a thing may work even without pure sugar. Try to experiment with hemp or flax string or rope and the potassium nitrate, Bianca.

 

[We Just Write]

Humph, possibly, Just Write. Machine design is not one of my strengths, sadly.

I believe that you mentioned sugar in your recipe for a slow-burning fuse, a thing for a more controlled bursting dust ignition. Now, I'm not sure that Bianca knows sugar. Honey, yes. But refined sugar? Humph.

Maybe such a thing may work even without pure sugar. Try to experiment with hemp or flax string or rope and the potassium nitrate, Bianca.

Click to shrink...

Honey is over 99% sugar. When dissolved in water the difference should be negligible. As a side note, I should be able to dig up a good recipe for hydraulic cement in a bit; that will make bridge building much easier.

 

[liberty90]

I think that Bianca is simply very unfortunate in the fact that the river selected for her first bridge is truly unusually full of deep mud.

 

[FwiffoForce]

Then again a riverbed can be ten to twenty meters of mud or more, the height of ten men standing on each other's shoulders, and we don't know exactly how deep they've dug. The mud will end eventually, of course. It is not infinitely deep. The question is whether it would be more practical for her to build a hangbridge by this point, or if she would be better off succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy and keeping on digging. Instead of having support pillars in the middle, you can have a number of support pillars over on land by the edge of the bridge. These pillars must be secured firmly into the ground; they must be thick and unyielding, and quite tall at that. Then you attach thick ropes to the tops of these pillars (the stronger the better), and then attach the other ends of these ropes closer to the bridge center. If the pillars and rope are strong enough and sufficiently firmly attached, and the rope is just long enough to reach from the tops of the pillars to their attachment points without slacking much, they should hold up the bridge center and allow at least lighter traffic to pass, though it is not as sturdy as a bridge with a support pillar in the middle.

I would, of course, recommend that a singer spend some time making small model bridges to figure out how well this would work, keeping in mind, of course, that mass is a result of volume and density, not immediate size - a model twice as large in every direction will weigh eight times as much, a model thrice as large weighs twenty-seven times as much as the original, et cetera. In general, if you wish to expand something to be some number x times larger in every direction, the result will weigh the original model's weight multiplied by x times x times x.

For that matter, now that I'm on this subject, a bit of terminology. A number squared means the number multiplied with itself. A number cubed means taking the number squared and multiplying the result with the original number. I assume you know what multiplication is. That way I can use this terminology in the future.

 

[liberty90]

Health warning, coal and coke.
A word of warning, coke cannot be used in the black soil, only charcoal. Coke, if you manage to transform coal into coke, can nicely replace charcoal in manufacturing of metals, yes.

As I mentioned before, coal, and coal products, are unhealthy. And no smoke is healthy, but the smoke from coal is especially damaging. Of course wise balance between various concerns is needed here: lack of heat or trees can be much worse than higher chances of lung diseases. So I advise for use of coal, but also for understanding downsides of this solution.

In coal and even in mostly purified coke there are sulfur and other unpleasant impurities that can produce ilness.

 

[FwiffoForce]

One more thing. When it comes to the matter of your singers trying to find their texts, I would suggest implementing a library system, the sooner the better. The more texts put into the building without organisation, the more time will be spent searching for texts until your singers eventually spend more time looking for texts than doing actual useful work. For simplicity's sake, I would suggest a simple alphabetic organisation.

Your writing system has a number of symbols. I would suggest taking these symbols, writing them in a particular order one after the other and saying "this is the correct way to order these symbols." Given this ordering, it is then possible to make it relatively easy to find texts within the storage building (for syntax's sake, the word for a building that contains many texts is 'library'). Each text is given a name (whether you name every text distinctly or just name them after their creators is your choice, but I'd recommend the former), and the storage spaces within the library have a predetermined order where every spot comes before one spot and after another. Then, whenever a text is to be put into the library, you look at this name. The symbols of the name determines where you put the text. If the first symbol is the fifth in the ordering, then the text is to be put after every text the name of which started with the fourth symbol, but before every text that started with the sixth. Within this space for the fifth letter in the library storage, all the texts will then have names that start with that symbol. Within that space, you can then do the same with the second symbol of the name, where the new text's second symbol determines where in the first symbol's space the new text goes. This goes on until you either have no other books competing for the same spot, or you have gone through all the characters of the name.

Once all texts are arranged like this in the library, it is simple to find a particular text given that you know its name. You simply go to the part of the library that contains the texts whose names start with the sought-after text's name's first letter, look within that space for the spot that contains the text's name's second letter, so on and so forth until you locate the text. If you do not know where that particular letter's space is in the library, you can perform a binary search - go to the middle of the library space and check whether the character you find there comes before or after the one you're looking for, then go into the 'before' or 'after' direction accordingly, where you then do the same within this smaller space - it is a fast and efficient search method. Simply having the organisation (and making sure that people actually follow it instead of putting the texts back randomly) means that you no longer need to search the entire library in the hope that you will get lucky and find the wanted text quickly.

The sooner you do this sorting, the better - it should save time in the long run.

 

[devilgirl666]

So Kahl died? How? She was not that old.

 

[liberty90]

Anyway. After some thought, a few more ideas from the Black Cat.

Treadle-powered spinning wheel.

There are many other Voices with more wisdom about devices, especially in regards to details of devices, so I need to greatly simplify. Maybe your craftsmen would be able to do something useful with this idea despite my lack of detail.

So. You know spinning wheels. The idea is to have a foot-operated piece of wood under the spinning wheel, connected to the wheel with a shaft. To quote one of books that I know about: "spinner sits and pumps a foot treadle that turns the drive wheel via a crankshaft and a connecting rod. This leaves both hands free for drafting the fibres".

Spoiler: ooc, source

Wikipedia

Other foot-powered devices.
The same idea can be applied to power small pumps and other small devices.

Drum carder.
Another device. Basically, again I'm forced to simplify and outright cite my sources of wisdom...

"Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibers between differentially moving surfaces covered with card clothing."

"Card clothing is made from a sturdy flexible backing in which closely spaced wire pins are embedded."

A coat of wire slips is placed around a card which is then wrapped around a cylinder. Two such cylinders are moved by a crank or other means, to faster card wool, flax or other thing that after carding can be used for spinning. Fibers pass in between moving cylinders.

Spoiler: ooc source

Wikipedia

Rewards for inventions and other useful things.
You should reward doing something useful with these ideas. Reward of longer life is already reserved for the best farming device, so maybe, I'm not sure... A pretty pillar of stone with name and words honoring the inventor of a working treadle-powered device? Yes, if no longer life is available, then some people like to be at least remembered after their deaths. Of course words on such a pillar should also mention that the inventor developed details and applied idea that started in your wise thoughts.

Rewards of gold and other baubles are also useful. I know, I know, such inequality cause some discord. I still believe that sometimes benefits are bigger than problems. And even when rewarded person share with family, and then family with others, this remains a honour. Baubles from raids are also shared, but it's a honour, after all.

But I would even advise for having some Greatest Craftsmen as richer than other people, perhaps drawn out of tribes and their families, like I suggested in regards to a few very greedy Traders, especially these that could otherwise even cause problems for their families. Hmm, you shall do as you wish, of course.

 

[devilgirl666]

Spoiler: OOC TIME AND CHANGES

Could you loserthree extend deadline to 20 NOV also before voting I would like to know is this version of update finally final or any changes STILL PLANNED.

One more stupid siege and peple will start think that Bianca is weak. People should be added to Bianca Empire with trade and influence and cunning not with force like cats or demons like.

 

[FwiffoForce]

Spoiler: ooc response to devilgirl666

An extension to the 20:th is a nine-day one which practically doubles the total time. I'd say that's a bit much if you ask me.

You mentioned seeing little use for the printing press - the machine used to make many copies of the same text. I can think of at least two things that could be of good use if replicated many times. Of course, the device is of little use if the people cannot read, but that is the way of written words in general.

Firstly, instructions. Suppose, for example, that you find the person who built the best farming device. You get them to tell you how it works, how it is used and how it is built, in great detail. Then, a singer writes these instructions down. The produced text then tells the reader how to make and use such a device, in great enough detail for someone to do it. Writing clear enough instructions may take some doing, but you should be able to manage it eventually. Then, having these instructions, you can use the printing press to make many copies of these instructions, which you can then have your singers hand out to the tribes. Anyone who can read can then read these instructions and know how to build and use this farming device (though depending on the quality of the instructions some clarification may be needed). This can save your singers a lot of time which they would otherwise spend teaching people one by one how to do it.

Secondly, propaganda. Propaganda is, broadly put, information (true or otherwise) spread by rulers to influence the beliefs of the populace in order to promote some way of thinking. Your singers already practice a form of propaganda by telling the people of your greatness. The printing press is of little help in a situation such as with the nine peoples, for there the main constraint is the time for the singers to travel to a tribe, not the time needed to tell of the news. It is a different matter in cities. Cities contain many people, and finding each one separately to share some command or news can take a lot of time. With the printing press, a singer can instead write the message down, make a number of copies and then put these papers up in well-frequented areas. If the populace can read, they can see these papers and read the message written on it, allowing the message to be spread quickly to a large number of people. Papers such as this can also serve as a reminder - they will remain in place to be re-read and remind the people of the message whereas a singer eventually leaves and thus enables the message to be more promptly forgotten.

These aspects may not be as feasible given your current practice of writing your messages on parchment, and fired clay tablets are even worse a solution even if the material is abundant. What you want to use is paper. Paper is a material that is made from wood or other plant matter. It can be used to write on much like with parchment. Unfortunately, I can't really think up an explanation right now which you would understand and be able to perform. Maybe the other voices will have better luck, or I may try again later.

Spoiler: Unfinished explanation

I shall try to explain how to produce it, but I cannot guarantee that I get everything right.

The first step in making paper is to produce wood pulp. There are more advanced and efficient methods to do it which produce better paper, but I think the one that would be easiest to understand for you is the one called soda pulping. Firstly, chop down a tree. As soda pulping is a relatively crude method, you are going to want a well-suited tree for this, ideally a coniferous tree with relatively soft wood. You may try a fir tree, for example. Once you have chopped down a tree like this, remove all the bark from it. The bark is not necessary for the rest of the process but must be removed - dispose of it however you like.

Once you have a de-barked log, you must chop it into tiny pieces. Normally when an axe chops into wood, little wood chips fall to the side. You want to turn all of the wood that will be used into such wood chips. Once that is done, wash the wood chips in water to remove any sawdust or other unwanted elements. Next, put the wood chips into something large that can hold liquid. You don't necessarily need to put in all of the wood chips (for this same reason, you don't necessarily need to chop up the entire log as long as everything you do use is chopped into little pieces) so when you're experimenting, feel free to use a cooking pot and only some smaller amount of wood chips. Unfortunately, I forget the rest of the process right now. Maybe I'll remember later, or maybe another voice can fill you in.

 

[Rockeye]

This voice is called Rock Eye. I wish to explain Boats, at least what I know of them.

What makes a good boat varies with a lot of things and the details are something your people would need to experiment with but I can provide some guidance I hope.

You asked what a keel is once, Bianca. A keel is a long timber that sits at the bottom of a boat, stretching from front to back of the boat. The keel's main purpose is structure. It should be the most durable part of the boat. It is the backbone of the boat, and the place where all the other parts that keep water out are anchored on.

The keel should ideally also be one of the heaviest parts of the boat, so that like a bowl with a thick bottom it remains stable in the water instead of turning over. And finally, by making a keel stick down into the water compared to the rest of the boat, the keel will push back against the water when any force rocks it from side to side, like dragging a wide paddle against a current.

The best keels are made from a single piece of lumber such as from a large tree, cut and carved into the backbone of a boat. A boat should be longer than it is wide, perhaps one and a half times as long or twice as long. You can picture a boat like a strange tree. The keel is the trunk, and 'branches' of thinner but still strong wood should come off of the keel all along its length to make something that looks like a bizarre tree. On this frame you can secure an outer shell of thinner wood. The shell can be thinner this way, since most of the strength is in the keel and branches. Are craftsmen familiar enough with ways of fixing wood together? I imagine they would be able to figure it out. They build houses and furniture, those methods would be good enough probably. A boat should be shaped slightly like a bowl if possible, the branches coming off of the keel curving to form a bowl. Except the bottom isn't flat, it comes to a gentle point at the keel.

I don't truly understand how sails work but from what I recall they don't usually work very well on rivers, and are more meant for lakes or the open sea. Rowing with oars works better on rivers and will remain useful for a long time. Teams of rowers working together can be effective. Even lakes and seas sometimes have flowing in their waters, currents like vast rivers. A sail-boat relies on the current of the water and the flow of air in wind being in different directions. Though again I don't know the details, by using the two forces that go in different directions against each other, a skilled sailor can take a boat in any direction.

An oar is a stick of wood like a spear, except instead of a sharp tip there is a flat board on the end. The board should be about 40 to 50 centimeters long and 25 centimeters wide, and only two or three centimeters thick. The length of the whole oar can vary but should be about two and a half to three and a half meters long - a meter being one hundred centimeters or about three feet. The board at the end being as thin as possible as long as it's not too delicate is good for an oar. Being too heavy is bad for an oar. The board should not be a simple square but should be widest at the tip and continue straight for a few centimeters then curve and narrow until it becomes part of the shaft.

By sitting down in a boat putting the long stick of an oar through an eye on the boat (an opening - like the eye of a needle), one can lower the flat board at the end of an oar into the water and pull backwards, using the stick as a lever with the fulcrum at the eye attached to the boat, to push water strongly and move the boat through the water. It may be easiest to carve the oar out of a single large branch instead of trying to attach something to the end of a stick.

The most important feature of boats you were unable to use before is waterproofing, I think. Even the most durable wood is not completely and imperviously sealed against water, especially if it sits soaked all the time. When water gets into wood, the boat grows slowly heavier and heavier until it inevitably sinks or breaks apart. Water must be kept out of boats and even kept out of solid wood for a boat to last long enough to be worth building. Plus, wet wood is usually more vulnerable to mold and rot than dry wood.

Wax can be carefully spread on a surface to make it waterproof. Some kinds of oils can make wood waterproof, especially if the wood is rubbed with sand or a broom or brush or other rough surface first. Walnut oil is particularly known for this, but I don't think you have walnuts yet. Walnuts grow on trees and come in green pods that look like hard fruit at first glance, but which when broken open reveal a brown raindrop or egg shaped nut that appears slightly wrinkled, like an old man's face. This second shell can be broken open again to reveal an even more wrinkled mass that is the nut itself. Walnut oil is said to be good for waterproofing wood but I don't know the details of the method.

Tar or pitch or bitumen, which are all names for subtly different kinds of thick sticky black goop that can be found in the ground that burns with black, foul-smelling smoke if you manage to ignite it, can be a good waterproofing. You would stuff thread or rope or cloth into the seams between the pieces of wood that form a boat, and then paint the gaps thoroughly with thick tar to waterproof it with this method if you find some.

It can also be good to let the wood that's going to be used in a boat dry out before building anything with it. Fresh-cut wood is 'wet' because it was recently alive and plants drink up water, but dry wood tends to be lighter and more durable, but it's a fair amount of effort. Keeping the wood somewhere dry for about four months for every centimeter the wood is thick is probably good enough, but longer wouldn't hurt as long as it's stored somewhere dry. The winter freezes might change this. I am more familiar with how it works in warmer places.

A large enough kiln or oven could speed this up if you make a separate chamber that would grow warm but not hot enough to burn, but you have to increase the heat slowly to avoid case-hardening the wood or it will crack. Sometimes the cracks are not visible on the surface but only inside the wood. Dangerous. I'm not sure if it would be worth the effort or work well. Oh, and since water is leaving the wood it will shrink slightly as it dries! Keep that in mind if a precise measurement is needed. You might want to seal the ends of large logs with wax or something when drying them because the ends dry out much faster, fast enough that they could shrink before the center and cause cracks and damage.

Oil painted onto wood and let dry or applied to the sails of a boat can keep water away too. I'm not sure precisely which kinds of oils are best for this unfortunately, except that I've heard walnut is good. Wax, tar and pitch, and oils... The other waterproofing methods I know are unlikely to be accessible to you I think. The other one I can think of is a 'bitumen emulsion'. Mixing bitumen with water can make a thinner substance that is easier to paint on things but is still waterproof. Usually slightly more bitumen than water. However, to mix properly the sticky bitumen needs to be shredded into very, very small particles and thoroughly mixed with water. I'm not sure if your craftsmen have tools that could mange that, possibly metal with tiny holes in it rubbed back and forth? Up to you if it's worth trying, I suppose.

As to the madness of rivers of molten iron beneath the world: We have never seen these rivers ourselves, only inferred them from other observations that would take a very long time to explain and which you probably wouldn't believe. So perhaps it might as well be madness, indeed.

 

[FwiffoForce]

[ooc: is this how I tell Bianca something?]

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: OOC

Aye, that be so. Since the vote for voice system was done away with, she'll hear anything not tagged as ooc

For that matter, olives are a kind of small fruit, about the size of your thumb (the bit after the final bend) that grows on trees in southern climates, so you could probably not grow olive trees where you live. Olives are most useful for the oil that can be made out of them, but can also be quite tasty. They are commonly green or black in color.

 

[Rockeye]

Olive trees cannot survive frost. It would be hopeless to try and grow them in a place with such cold winters. Too bad, because they have a reputation for being able to grow even in awful soil, with little care or attention.

 

[liberty90]

One more stupid siege and peple will start think that Bianca is weak. People should ve added to Bianca Empire with trade and influence and cunning not with force like cats or demons like.

Click to shrink...

Bianca should simply perfect weapons of bursting dust enough to bring down these damned walls.

And, by the way, forever warm lands of the far south should be scouted by traders and spies, cunning but disposable, as many may never return from such a far away lands. I think that we provided to Bianca much more wisdom that even the biggest cities of her world currently know, but climate of the south may be generous enough to allow existence of bigger cities and Empires even without any black soil and despite pretty stupid methods of doing things. Lands warm enugh to support two harvests and lack winters... It must be easier to survive and grow wealth in such conditions even while lacking in wisdom. It would be good to know whether this is the case.

 

[We Just Write]

I come bearing word of another useful devices, this time aiming to increase the precision with which machine parts can be produced.

This is a tool known as a Lathe. Effectively, a Lathe is the opposite of a drill bench; it consists of a set of clamps on rotating mounts at both ends of the tool that can be secured to whatever piece of material the lathe is being used to work on, referred to as the workpiece. As the workpiece is spun, various tools can be applied to remove material from the outside, producing an item that is both rotationally symmetric, and which can be made to extremely high precision.

For a high precision metalworking lathe, all components should be made of either bronze or steel, and should be built very sturdily, so that the workpiece cannot wiggle as it spins.

 

[Rockeye]

While a lathe can be useful for making things that are the same all the way around, this runs into the problem of specialization as always. Everyone's first job is to get food and super specialized skills and tools need a very good reason to exist. What would she even use a lathe for? Making pointed cannon shells? Those would just tumble in the air and be worse than round balls until she can make rifled barrels.

I wonder if the idea of a Mortar is any use. Essentially, Mortars are just short-barreled cannons that you point almost straight up, so the projectile goes in a high arc. I think they're usually harder to blow up on accident than long-barreled cannons and they can launch powder bombs over walls and so on. Also, have we explained ballistae, catapults, or trebuchets? They're generally inferior to well made cannons, but... She kind of doesn't have well made cannons, does she?

 

[eternal-potato]

[Underclass] It's fine for now. As soon as there are as many Galugr as there are members in the next largest tribe it has to stop.
[Vassal] Ask her how she plans to accomplish this when you tried and failed. If her plan is good, give her the gold, but also send warriors, singers, and table-rulers. If not, or if she refuses to tell, don't.
[Hurrah] Tell him it's foolish to go alone, but he is free to be foolish as long as he makes sure his duties are seen to while he is away (possibly permanently). Perhaps by chosing a worthy successor.

 

[We Just Write]

While a lathe can be useful for making things that are the same all the way around, this runs into the problem of specialization as always. Everyone's first job is to get food and super specialized skills and tools need a very good reason to exist. What would she even use a lathe for? Making pointed cannon shells? Those would just tumble in the air and be worse than round balls until she can make rifled barrels.

I wonder if the idea of a Mortar is any use. Essentially, Mortars are just short-barreled cannons that you point almost straight up, so the projectile goes in a high arc. I think they're usually harder to blow up on accident than long-barreled cannons and they can launch powder bombs over walls and so on. Also, have we explained ballistae, catapults, or trebuchets? They're generally inferior to well made cannons, but... She kind of doesn't have well made cannons, does she?

Click to shrink...

The biggest advantage a lathe would provide at the moment is in the production of literally anything that needs to be radially symmetric, which it can do with great efficiency and precision. It's actually a very versatile tool: tight-fitting pistons, screws, smooth bowls, gear blanks, bearings, and much, much more become a lot easier to make through the use of a lathe.

For instance, the production of a worthwhile Stirling Engine will almost certainly require the use of a lathe and a drill bench to both properly size the Piston heads, and the channels they move within; other complicated machines also tend to have parts which become much easier to make with a proper lathe available.

And yes, Bianca knows of Ballistae and Trebuchets. I'm the one who told her how to make them.

 

[liberty90]

Fascinating, Just Write. Specialization of workers, mass production and use of devices to produce other devices can cause creation of more food than food used, despite some people not farming at all. Because finished farming devices could save more labor than labor used to produce these farming devices. So this talk about lathes is interesting.

I tried to suggest mass-production, after all.

 

[LoserThree]

16a

Spoiler: ooc

Could you loserthree extend deadline to 20 NOV also before voting I would like to know is this version of update finally final or any changes STILL PLANNED.

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In this case, sure. At this point I'm unlikely to finish NaNoWriMo and update this story in November. And I'm also not finding time to proof my last post. So I'm just going to leave it and we'll see how that works out.

Deadline for votes and messages for Bianca extended to
Wednesday 2019-11-20 at 2359 UTC.

Also, expect no changes to the most recent story post
unless someone points out something really egregious.

 

[devilgirl666]

Anybody said to Bianca that she can fertilize fields even with animal shit?Yes yes people I know black soil is better.I mean when there is no other way somewhere not enough charcoal this year or something.

 

[We Just Write]

Anybody said to Bianca that she can fertilize fields even with animal shit?Yes yes people I know black soil is better.I mean when there is no other way somewhere not enough charcoal this year or something.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, most organic matter if left to compost for a year or two is really good for growing crops in. The Black Soil is simply a good way to turn something dangerous into something useful.

Which reminds me: Bianca, I have another farming machine to tell you of! This device is what is known as a Seed Drill, and despite the similarity in names has little in common with a drill bench. Generally, a Seed Drill is intended to insert seeds into the ground at a regular depth and distance apart; this greatly increases the likelihood that any given seed will sprout, allowing the same amount of planting seed to be effectively sown across a larger area, increasing total crop yields. To be more specific, a good seed drill can increase the ratio of seeds harvested to seeds planted by up to nine times.

So, the main components of a seed drill are a set of wheels to allow the machine to be towed effectively, a bin to store the seed being sown, a set of digging implements on the bottom to make furrows for seed, tubes to deliver the seed from the bin into the furrows, rollers to compress the ground and cover the seed, and a way to regulate how often seeds pass from the bin into the tubes. The wheels are fairly obvious in construction, as is the bin; just make sure that the sides are angled to ensure seed rolls towards the sowing mechanism.

As for the digging implements, I would recommend knives similar to the improved plows we provided some time ago, with just enough of a wedge to make a groove seed can fall down. Another option would be a disc harrow, which is a sharpened rotating disc that's thicker towards the center; as the seed drill is towed forwards, these discs would very effectively cut grooves in the ground that seed could drop into. In either case, the digging tools should be made out of something durable and long-lasting (I would again recommend Bronze or Steel here), as they will be under the most stress of any component.

At first, the design of the tubes would seem similarly obvious to the bin, and indeed they are, for the most part. The most important thing is to make sure that the tubes are aligned correctly to ensure that the seeds always land in the furrow the digging parts produce. Also, keep the tubes steeply angled so that gravity still provides more than enough force to move the seed down in a timely manner. More sophisticated versions of a seed drill would use air pressure to force the seeds down the tubes, but the Ten Nations cannot yet produce a good enough engine to make mounting an air compressor to a seed drill practical.

The roller is a component for which strength is critical; it's effectively a long rolling cylinder pressed partly into the ground by the weight of the entire machine. Its primary purpose is to collapse the furrows over the seeds as the machine trundles onwards, rendering them inaccessible to birds and other scavenging animals. This component is not strictly necessary, but including it is still a good idea.

Now for the most complicated part: the seed regulator. The easiest possible design here would be a dowel with grooves cut into it very deeply, until it's basically just a set of thin panels connected to a retating central axis; the turning of the wheels would slowly turn this dowel, aligning the grooves with one or a few seeds at a time and inserting them into the tubes in a controlled manner. This can be achieved through the use of gears, belts, pulleys, any number of means, really.

So, that's how to make a seed drill. To operate it, just load the bin with the appropriate seeds and tow it across the field being planted. Some things to note: different crops have different optimal depths to bury their seeds at; as such it would probably be wise to include some means to adjust the depth to which the machine digs its furrows.

On a completely unrelated topic, I have some advice regarding punishments for crimes, for if you ever get around to codifying a more complex justice system. The long and short of it is that the intensity of punshiment plays very little role in whether knowledge of the punishment will deter people from taking a banned action. Certainly the punishment needs to be severe enough to ensure that one cannot gain from criminal activity even if caught, but there is no real gain in deterrence to excessively heavy punishments for even the slightest offense. No, a far better deterrent is the certainty of punishment, meaning that it is important to both have people very good at catching wrong-doers, and to ensure that their skills at doing so are very well-known.

Another important factor is having a range of punishment options available, so that the more severe punishments can be reserved for the most severe crimes. If this is not the case, then once someone commits a minor offense, they no longer have any incentive to follow any of the other laws. As an example, if the penalties for theft and murder are both death, then thieves don't have any reason not to try killing the people sent to capture them.

Another concept that may prove useful in the proper handling of crime is reduced penalties in exchange for co-operation. For example, if it is known that there are multiple people involved in a criminal conspiracy but you can only conclusively identify one of them, it is often possible to get the one captured person to identify their co-conspirators in exchange for a reduction in the severity of their punishment.

 

[liberty90]

Anybody said to Bianca that she can fertilize fields even with animal shit?Yes yes people I know black soil is better.I mean when there is no other way somewhere not enough charcoal this year or something.

Click to shrink...

Devil Girl, Just Write. Many alternative methods can fertilize fields, but most pretty poorly. As you said, the black soil idea is simply much better. And with a proper use of coal and coke there should be no shortage of charcoal for the black soil. Even the bat dung from caves is much better than waste from the livestock or horses, much more nitrogen.