It's been thirteen days sihe envoys left. I finished up the depot at the stop ih dowerday m, and moved all the local wood we'd cut into it. This m it was finally a pletely clear sky. I'm actually surprised we have a clear sky this soon. It rains so mu the first months of the year here that it's rare that there are clear days like this. I fully expected to end up waiting another month before I had the ce to climb the mountain.

  Zeb and I set out in the m, bringing along a spear each, and some extra food. It was a little more than an hour after we set out on our hike that the trees started to thin, and theually stop growing, leaving us with a sparse ndscape of low shrubs and grasses. At this point, we've asded about six-hundred feet. Just before this point, we ran into some of the unknown animals that I hadn't seen in years. The plump animal with the lohat could jump and glide seemingly with magic.

  I got a closer look at them as they hopped away. Now, they're quite a bit smaller than me. Roughly the size of an imp, or about the same size as one of the ground birds that the goblins would hunt. When they're resting, they aren't nearly as plump, but once we startled them, they infted somewhat, and began hopping away from us in massive, slos. Holy, if I'd thought they would make good food before, now I doubt it. Not only would it be a pain to hunt them, but if when they're resting is any hint, they won't have much meat on them.

  In this clearing, I have a much better view of the ndscape and o, and a suspi I had is seeming more likely. The nd below us curves towards the mountain, with water on three sides. We're either on a peninsu with a mountain, or, more likely, on an isnd which is likely voli in.

  There have been a few hints along the way that this was the case. One hint was that, from the goblin vilge, there was only the one mountain visible. A sed hint came from Zaka's story about how he arrived here, washed ashore on a boat. Either way, we tinued on towards the peak to get a full grasp of our situation.

  After asding for awo hours, we reached the summit. As we reached higher altitudes, the shrubs even subsided, and we were left with rocky soil and grass under our feet. From the peak, I could see the whole isnd. Towards the goblin vilge the slope is mentle, and away from it, the slope is steeper, although not so steep that one couldn't climb it. The peak seems to be a worn down caldera, from what now seems to be an inactive volo.

  The isnd itself is plenty rge, but holy, if you had roads to get around, you could walk from one side to the other ihan a day. There seems to be oher good valley area besides where the goblin vilge is, which could house a settlement, but the rest seems to be semi-rough terrain that would require terraf to house more than a few people. Another iing aspect seems to be that the isnd experiences rain shadow effects from the volo. While the two valleys are roughly on the same side, and look like rais, the other side of the isnd looks drier, and has different pnts growing on it.

  Opposite the goblin vilge, across a long stretch of o, I see another mountain, or likely, another volid, peaking above the o. It is mostly green, so I presume that it, like this isnd, is covered in trees. It also seems to have a sed, smaller peak on the isnd, but from here, I 't say he those peaks are. I 't even say for certain if that isnd is bigger or smaller than this one.

  There are a few points of i on this isnd that I want to look into, in addition to the sed valley. There seems to be a more expansive bea the far side of the isnd from the goblin vilge. The beach closest to the goblin vilge quickly desds into cliffs, but the one oher side seems to desd less rapidly for a longer period, although it seems to be a rock beach rather than sand. That dire also seems to have a pletely different climate due to rain shadow effects, so I'm ied to see if I find new animals over there. An obvious sed point of i is the top of the volo here, where the volic rod soil are exposed, although now that I've been here, I'm not sure what else I'd do up here. On a cloudier day, I couldn't even look down and see much of the isnd, and I'm not pnning to start any astronomical studies any time soon.

  Well, it seems like hiking to the sed valley, and around the other side of the isnd are the two points of ihat I'm ied in. Obviously, the other isnd in the distance also intrigues me, but I'm a long way from making a boat on these rough seas. If the tides are stronger, I'd also expect that o waves are quite rough, even for a short distance like this.

  After we took in the views and took a break, Zeb and I desded back down the mountain, and arrived back at the cave by mid-afternoon. We both decided to take the rest of the day to rex, as we were exhausted. Zeb seemed surprised that he was as tired as he was, sidered how much manual bor we've been doing on the road, but I expio him how air gets thihe higher up you go, so we were actually experieng the early stages of altitude siess, and that is ere feeling so tired.

  Zeb and I tinued work oh down the mountain for the remainder of the month until the goblin envoys arrived. I had Zeb expin what I saw, and told them at some point, I'd be going on a long jouro explore the isnd, and would probably miss a meeting, but that Zeb would either stay here or be down in the goblin vilge while I explored. Zeb protested initially, but after some ving, he agreed that he probably shouldn't e expl with me. Either way, I don't io go expl again until after the path down the mountain is pleted. Which is still a few months away.

  We've been diligently managing the spud fields, and they're starting to grow at a det pabsp; Sihey're still a little ways from harvest, and our smoked meat is getting close to running out, we've made a habit of harvesting some lion root wheurn up the mountain after w oh.

  It took ahree and a half months, but the path to the goblin vilge is finally finished. Zeb did an inaugural trip along the whole path and made sure there weren't any pces that got missed or ged, and it all seems good. While he was down in the goblin vilge, I asked him to see what it would take to get his hands on enough rope to operate the cart winches. I'd like to use them to move the wood up the mountain from the depot I'd built earlier this year.

  Unfortunately, It's a lot harder to barter foods when you 't just e in to the vilge to build new buildings for people, when that is what you used to trade. The rope maker was at a bit of a loss as to what we could trade for it. Ultimately, I had Zeb let them know we'd need a little over ohousa of rope, in a tinuous rope, and we'd bring them things until they thought the trade was good enough.

  I have a few things in mind that the rope maker might appreciate, so I'll start w on those. Ohing is a set of various sized sade from lightstone. Another is a machete, again made of lightstone, so they cut vines and tall grasses more effectively. A third item that I'm not as sure about, and I'm ined to not interfere too much with the potter's business, is a set of botes, and potentially cutlery, again made from lightstone. I have excess lightstone up on the mountain, and I'm hoping the unique color of it impresses them enough to trade for the rope.

  It'll take them quite a while, even with the maes I made for them to make a rope this long, so I've decided we'll check ba after the envoys visit at the end of the month, and see if what we've got is enough for them.