On the shoulders of giants: a new multiple choices LP!

[treave]

C. Metal-working is extremely important. Iron Age here we come!

 

[Jick Magger]

C is probably gonna be a very, very long investment that we won't expect results out of for a good few decades. Luckily, we aren't under threat from hostile tribes right now, so we have the breathing room to make such an investment. It's got my vote, too.

 

[Esquilax]

I think we know a way to melt the iron without the use of the Wielder. In fact, we already discovered it on the mountain before:

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we discovered a stone that appeared to be a great kindred to the spirit of fire. And it was an accident.
Two hunters, bored by the ranging, set up camp while a keeper built a small campfire. To pass time, they started tossing back and forth a dull black rock they had found laying nearby, until one of them dropped it in the fire. 'Clumsy fool!' shouted the first, and they started quarrelling amicably.
A few moments later, the keeper ran back, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, pointing at the fire and babbling incoherently: the fire had suddenly started burning hotter, giving away a thick black smoke... the rock was burning, brighter and warmer than the best firewood!

If we can find some more coal, perhaps near the mountain, we might have some means for crude tools.

 

[newcomer]

C

Not to mention that this will most likely unlock pottery kiln

 

[newcomer]

I think we know a way to melt the iron without the use of the Wielder. In fact, we already discovered it on the mountain before:

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we discovered a stone that appeared to be a great kindred to the spirit of fire. And it was an accident.
Two hunters, bored by the ranging, set up camp while a keeper built a small campfire. To pass time, they started tossing back and forth a dull black rock they had found laying nearby, until one of them dropped it in the fire. 'Clumsy fool!' shouted the first, and they started quarrelling amicably.
A few moments later, the keeper ran back, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, pointing at the fire and babbling incoherently: the fire had suddenly started burning hotter, giving away a thick black smoke... the rock was burning, brighter and warmer than the best firewood!

If we can find some more coal, perhaps near the mountain, we might have some means for crude tools.

I think the real problem is how to build a structure to confine the fire and do metallurgy safely, instead of the fire itself?

 

[Vernydar]

I think we know a way to melt the iron without the use of the Wielder. In fact, we already discovered it on the mountain before:
If we can find some more coal, perhaps near the mountain, we might have some means for crude tools.

I agree that we need coal sooner rather than later. But I still the the area around the mountain is not safe at all. There was a huge explosion there, and it's still going on. Not only that! It was a supernatural eruption, anything could be there, from fire spirits to other, indeed, supernatural things. I think an expedition back there would be a dangerous proposition.

But not all is lost, just behind our camp we have a lot of hills. We could check there, coal deposits are usually very large and spread over a vast area. That said, it was even weird finding coal on an inactive volcano. Coal formation does not go well at all with how a volcano works.

 

[Esquilax]

I agree that we need coal sooner rather than later. But I still the the area around the mountain is not safe at all. There was a huge explosion there, and it's still going on. Not only that! It was a supernatural eruption, anything could be there, from fire spirits to other, indeed, supernatural things. I think an expedition back there would be a dangerous proposition.

But not all is lost, just behind our camp we have a lot of hills. We could check there, coal deposits are usually very large and spread over a vast area. That said, it was even weird finding coal on an inactive volcano. Coal formation does not go well at all with how a volcano works.

I think you're a little paranoid. Before we decided to relocate to the lake, there was the threat of barbarians and you wondered whether there were perhaps 10,000 of them in the forest. Now we will probably get the chance to explore our ancestral home in the near future and hopefully find some resources, and now you're telling me that's too dangerous as well. I don't know what's out there until we get there, but you're letting your imagination build the unknown up into the worst possible scenario.

I'm not saying that there's nothing out there, I'm saying that we have to be willing to be willing to take some risks out there and not assume that everything is out to get us. We came to the lake knowing we'd have to face the barbarians, and that was a risk, but we came out on top, right?

I know that the volcano is still smoking, but we can't let our imagination build things up into something terrifying, that's only going to stifle our progress.

I think the real problem is how to build a structure to confine the fire and do metallurgy safely, instead of the fire itself?

Our water shamans have developed bowls and pots from clay already, so we have some basic skill at pottery. With some coal at our disposal, we'll definitely have the prerequisites at our disposal.

I'm hoping that it would be a step toward uniting our faiths of fire and water. The water shamans create kilns, the fire keepers forge metal. It'll bring people together... unless the Wielder manages to fuck it up.

 

[Vernydar]

I might be somewhat paranoid. But then again, I've seen many posts here of people thinking that "somehow we will survive anyway", "curufinwe will not kill us" , and "let's not think negative". I really do not think that is the case. I think that curufinwe will kill us if we fuck up. He said so very clearly, at least a couple of times. And so, I do think that a lot of people are being reckless, assuming that things will not go bad whatever we do. And when necessary, I will play devil's advocate in order to curb what I feel is an excessive optimism.

At any rate, the point is rather moot this time. I urge you to consider the fact that we are weeks away from the mountain, at best. Maybe even more. While an expedition could be mounted, we have no way to bring here anything cumbersome. And coal, WOULD be cumbersome. After all, it's consumed in large quantities.

We only have our zebras (which cannot be loaded too much without proper packing, which we do not have) and our men. It's not like we can carry tons of coal for hundreds of kilometers

 

[m4davis]

agreeing with vernydar here don't assume he will spare us in fact never think that even if he promises that something will not kill us do not trust him think through it carefully weigh out the pros and cons and make your decision on that and only that

 

[ScubaV]

C

 

[CappenVarra]

B, just because.

Btw, you guys talking about how awesome it would be to have a tribe where every warrior can use fire magic, keep in mind that Vicissitude is a virus it probably means that the greater a person's proficiency in fire magic, the more influence the fire gem / entity has over them. So I would definitely keep fire users as a specialized minority with limited decision-making power.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

C

 

[Omicron]

B

 

[ScubaV]

I hope your work hasn't made you sick Curufinwe. It'd be a shame to see this LP fall by the wayside. And, you know, your health n stuff. Yeah.

 

[Curufinwe]

I hope your work hasn't made you sick Curufinwe. It'd be a shame to see this LP fall by the wayside. And, you know, your health n stuff. Yeah.

Nah. It's still on, don't worry, just taking it easier at least this week. I know I got you used to daily updates, but it is a pretty punitive pace for yours truly.

 

[Internet]

Let's hope the economy turns even shittier and Curufinwe loses his job!

 

[Curufinwe]

Overwhelming victory for metallurgy (yes it is metallurgy of course. No use hiding behind a finger, as we say in Italy).

The head of the militia pulled a very convincing argument, so the council decided to spend time and resources investigating the strange material the axes were made of.

The first step was of course the application of fire to the artifact. A large fire was built and the axe tossed into the middle of it. The haft burned very soon and we could observe an intriguing phenomenon: after a length of time, the blade started taking a red color. Using a stone spear we pushed the blade outside of the fire and went near to it: the color seemed to indicate that the blade had grown hotter. We experimented for days trying several sizes of fire and leaving the blade inside for various amounts of time. Nothing different happened.
We tried to cool the hot blade by tossing water on it and, after several attempt and careful observaiton, we noticed some tiny cracks had appeared on its surface. It seemed the material wasn't indestructable afterall. It didn't agree with sudden temperature changes.
The next thing we tried was to have one of the Wielder's apprentices apply his powers on the blade. To our dismay, his fire was less efficient than a normal campfire at the task. First, his fire didn't apparently burn any hotter than a normal wood fire. Second, the apprentice grew exhausted after only a few minutes of using his power continuously.

Our elders agreed we would need a warmer fire to continue the experiments, we needed to see what would happen with hotter flames. The only problem was, we could think of only two ways to obtain warmer fire, both holding problems.

A. The first way was the more readily available: we could ask the Wielder to help us and use his powers. As he was much stronger than his apprentices, his fire surely would be much hotter.
The second way involved finding different burning materials. Besides wood, the eldest tribesmen and the keepers of fire could remember the gray-black stones we had found on the slopes of the Fiery Mountain. Problem was, we hadn't seen anything like that since we came on the shores of the lake.
Two solutions were proposed: B. We could search for the gray-black stone in our area, scouring the shores and the hills for it. It would take time and would not give us any assurance of success, but it was safe.
C. Otherwise, we could mount an expedition to the Fiery Mountain. The smoke was still occasionally rising from behind the hills, but much more rarely than in past years. Some said that no stone could have survived the conflagration, but others thought the attempt at least worthy of a try.

Alright. Get voting. Unusual update time, I know, but I was free this morning so took the chance to write this. Thanks for your patience, you will have at least one day to vote (most likely more, I'm still overwhelmed by work).

As a sidenote, metallurgy (if you can get it to work) will of course take time, so don't expect to kit your militia in iron plate anytime soon.

I will most likely post another interlude soon(tm) to describe the current state of the tribe, haven't done it in ages.

On another sidenote, Jesus. CYOAs have popped up like mushrooms in the last week. Lots of competition. Hope I don't lose too much audience.

 

[treave]

Better to find a method of forging that doesn't rely on one person.

C. Take the risk and go back. Besides, we'll get to see what's happened to the place.

 

[Vernydar]

I agree we need a better, long term solution that is not dependent on one person. Regardless of what I think of him (he's the ultimate evil for now in this LP), if he dies we have no metal once again. We need a long term solution for metallurgy.

But I prefer to search the area nearby for a very simple reason. We have no means of transportation. We could never bring back from the mountain enough coal for some serious metallurgy. Let's not forget, the mountain is weeks away. It is simply not practical for a small tribe such as ourselves to have a strategic resource so far away. So, let's look around here first.

B

 

[oscar]

B

 

[Monty]

C - We could look for obsidian while we're there, as we're not going to have forged metal anytime soon. I know we don't have much in the way of transport but a couple of skins of coal/obsidian tied to a few zebras might be more than we find in this coastal region.

We're still in the initial stages of experimenting with coal. Before ramping up production in any meaningful way we would have to either improve transportation or find another source (or even move our forges to the mountain), but for now it makes sense to head for where we've found it before.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

C.

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

C.

I know we don't have much in the way of transport but a couple of skins of coal/obsidian tied to a few zebras might be more than we find in this coastal region.

Doesn't the tribe have those wooden floaty thingies they could stuff buttloads of coal/obsidian into and send downriver with only a rower or two?

 

[Zwist]

Actually I would like to combine A and B.
As much as I like going bake to barbeque-mountain, the lava most probably set fire to the coal, making it a quite useless endeavour.

 

[newcomer]

B

Transportation is not really a problem for we have rafts, but I think no coal would have survived the eruption