The villagers, although a bit backward in their ways as it is often the case in small places, certainly appear normal enough for Lothar. After talking to a few of them, including some of the elders who seem to run the place, he is able to arrange for half a dozen helpers for the project. These often younger men will provide the muscle he needs for the project. He is expected to pay their wages, but at a rate that certainly seem reasonable. These are Aiold, Eentsje, Formert, Maas, Myndert and Sebald.
He is shown the pile of rocks that have been gathered by the villagers near the construction site, though it has been somewhat depleted by the construction of the two crude houses there. He also learns that there aren't any pack animals on the island. And Oberland, as they call this small plateau, only has a single hand-pushed cart. Overall, nothing that is unsurmoutable, but this is certainly on the low-end of ressources to work with, compared to other projects he's undertaken before.
Lothar is grateful for the help from the young villagers and puts them to work at once digging and hacking out the cellar of the first house. He also asks if there is some quarry where we can get more stone and construction material from on the island, or how is that handled?
He walks down to the town one day to try to buy another hand-drawn cart for the project bringing some of the boys to help carrying or pulling it up if he gets one.
When Lothar isn't around at the construction site he let's Wilhelm, his apprentice be in charge of the work.
Once the thin layer of soil has been removed, the ground is solid rock. The villagers don't have the tools (they have very few iron tools), nor the skills, to simply dig into solid stone. It looks like the digging of cellars will be a time-consuming task for all involved.
The youngsters who work with you don't really know about quarries on the island. They think there might be one (or more?) but don't know where exactly. There are also some miners elsewhere on the island, one says, but again they don't really know where to find them. The rocks they gathered are all "natural" rocks that were available on the plateau. There are much more at the base all around the plateau -- including at the shore line at the base of the cliff -- but it would all need to be carried up the stairs. All told, it means the average cut stone will mostly be on the small side. Not a problem in itself, Lothar knows, but simply a bit more mortaring work to be planned.
He is also told that if he wants to purchase a new cart, he probably should talk to the carpenter in Meden, who can make a new one. People don't tend to sell those, as those who own one need them to earn a living. Though it might be possible to hire a carter along with his cart.
As soon as the solid rock is exposed and it stands clear that it will take a lot of time and effort to dig out the cellar with the means at hand Lothar locates Tristan for a discussion and showing him the situation.
"It turns out we have very few tools to dig out the cellar as we discussed earlier within a reasonable time. I have a few but we would need some more ironwork picks and hammers to make this effective. Also we need at least one more cart that we can use full time for this project. I went down to the town and asked around, either we can hire a carter and his cart for the time of the project, or I can employ a carpenter to build one for us. I would recommend building one as it will be of use after the building is done as well. Until it is finished we can hire a carter. I also recommend that we employ a blacksmith to craft some more tools for us. I just wanted to discuss this with you so we are on the same level. Without these equipment it will be a truly ardous work and you will not see the buildings finished in a long time." he looks at the young grog for approval.
Tristan nods. The cart clearly makes sense. For the tools, how much will they cost? Also, I will need to check with the Magi to see if they want to try anything diferent to get the cellar excavated. I know they had discussed it earlier and thought it would be too obvious, but they may want to think about it again.
"Ok, you go talk to those magi people and see what they want to do about this cellar. I will go down and talk to a carpenter and a blacksmith to get a price on a cart and some tools."
Then Lothar goes down to Meden and looks for a carpenter and a blacksmith, if there are several of each type he might check with two of each to see if they differ in price and amount of time they need to finish what he may order.
From the carpenters he wants a price and estimated time to make a hand-drawn cart strong enough to carry stone.
From the blacksmiths he wants price and estimated time to make three ironpicks and three sets of iron hammers and chisels for stonecutting.
Tristan goes looking for the magi. He reports to them that as they feared, excavating teh cellar is proving difficult. Lothar is looking to find out if suitable tools can be made here, and if so, what it will cost. He does not actually ask "so what magic do you have up your sleeve, but that is clearly the implication."
Only a single smith in town. He looks at you funny when you ask about making picks, hammers and chisels from scratch. "Well, I can do that, but you may want to look at the merchants first. There be some miners that work out there on the island, so olde Ingel has some shipped in regularly-like." The equipment you are looking for are intdeed available from that merchant. Prices are higher than on the mainland, but not completely unreasonable. Had you known, you could probably have acquired them before coming here for a lower price.
The carpenter says he can build you a cart. It would be ready on two weeks, as he has other jobs to complete first. There are other carptenters in town, but they work mostly on boats or houses as their specialty. The cost is fairly low, though again higher than on the mainland.
Lothar orders the cart from the carpenter taking two weeks. They will have to do with the cart the village on Oberland has until then.
Then he goes to the merchants and asks for a price on the tools, same as he asked the blacksmith.
The merchant quotes him a price similar to what Lothar has come to expect on the island -- a bit higher than on the mainland -- and admits to having most of these in stock. "But," says the merchant, "some of these aren't use much here, like the chisels. I'll have to order those. Most of the picks and hammers that I have are already set aside for my regular customers, but I could spare one or two of each. I could order the rest for you in next month's delivery?"
(I'm not going to go into the detailed cost of everything, but I'm assuming that Lothar tries to bargain on the items he purchases.)
When Tristan again brings up the question of the stone removal, Herman looks at the others. "The best I can think of would be to spend a season researching a spell to make cracks in a portion of stone. And I could not even start until after I finish the current research. There ought to be a better answer." (Not sure but some version of Rego Terram, duration momentary, range touch, target part would seem to be doable, and have a level of 10 or less, which I can develop in a season. And then cast repeatedly.)
Lothar bargains with the merchant and when he thinks that he can't get a better price from this merchant or anyone on the island he accepts the price for the tools and tells him that he hopes they can make business further on as he might need more supplies later.
He then goes to Tristan and tells him of his progress.
As the magi meet to discuss ways to help removing the rock Japik asks if they think it can be done by some spontaneous casting, either Perdo Terram or Rego Terram could work. It might be a very fatiguing and risky task of course. Japik could probably cast a level 10 effect of either of those two combinations but I'm not sure how much volume can be affected and if it's possible at all at that level to do something that helps.
Yes, unless we work something out that the Baltrum crew can buy tools on the mainland when they go on their trade trips. But that could mean further delays on the work. So put the order in.
That's actually lower than I thought. I haven't got my books at hand. Japik gets Casting Score 12 with PeTe. If I remember correctly we have aura 2 around the oak, right? So I lack one point to perform it without fatigue. According to our plan I believe the building is 8 times 13 paces so that's a lot of castings. But maybe we could do a few castings scattered over the entire area to make it easier to work with mundane tools or perhaps the level can be raised to cast the spell fewer times on a larger Target?
Well, you still need to add +1 Touch and +1 Part. Still, that is only a total level of 5. So indeed easily attainable for even young magi. There is an inherent risk of botch associated with repeated castings of a fatiguing spontaneous spell, but that isn't unsurmountable. Adding an additional magnitude for size (x10 volume), for example, would dramatically reduce the number of castings required.
Take some time to calculate how much stone this will require, that will give you an idea of how many castings will be necessary to achieve what you want.
The building is 8 times 13 paces. That's 104 cubic paces if we want to dig one pace down.
That means 104 castings at level 5, or 11 castings at level 10.
With magic aura of 3 I have a Casting Score of 15 + stress die, so statistically I need to re-cast four of them. Then the risk of a botch of course.
Unless someone has a better idea I say, let's go. How long does he have to rest between each casting if there is no botch? Is it possible to make 11 castings in a full night if we assume he doesn't botch or make too many failures so he has to cast the spell on the same area several times. Of course if there is a botch or he gets very tired he will rest and continue the next night.
Well, if you don't mind devoting a lab season to the problem, someone could always devise a permanent spell to do the rock clearing.
THE STONE THAT BREAKS PeTe 10
R: Touch, D: Mom, T: Part
Breaks up a volume of stone up to ten cubic paces making it easier to excavate.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 Stone, +1 Part, +1 Size)
All you need is a lab total of 20 to get it done in a season. Then you can cast it all you want in non-stressed situations without risking a botch.
Of course that takes a full season and uses up a precious lab during that time. It may not be worth it for just a basement. Then again, we'll be digging more basements in the future...
Yes, if we want to spend a season, we can clearly develop the needed spell. I doubt very much that our hired mason wants to sit around for 1.5 seasons while we do that. Time is about the only quantity all magi agree is hard to replace
