The first size is pretty close to what would be standard A4 printer paper oh, although it's slightly thicker to at for the fact that it isn't chemically processed so it will st longer. The sed size is the same printer paper size, a bit thinner, but not so thin as to tear while writing on it. That paper is meant to be used as scratch, and throhen one is done using it. The final size paper is quite a bit bigger. In total, it's about the size of four A4 sheets arranged in a regle, and even thicker than the first sheet. These sheets are meant to be used for blueprinting. Basically, I wahem rge enough and rigid enough to be useful even when brought to a stru site.
The only thio do is a test run of the paper mill, however, I want to find about three goblins to man the mill, and teach them how to use it.
Thankfully, finding a few goblins ied in running this mill was fairly easy, partially thanks to the job board at the city hall. By the sed day, I had filled the three positions I wanted. It seems that the goblins who were ied were ohat were ied in the first mill, and were excited to get an opportunity to work in a new one. That said, the other mill and this mill have quite a few differences, so I hope that doesn't scare them away.
We've also gotten the first of the snowfall on the mountain, which means that robably expect the mert to be returning within a few weeks. I was hoping to get more paper made before that point, as its a bit more renewable thaal, so I'd like to use it as a trade odity, but we probably won't have much if any made by that point. Thankfully, outside of getting a few more bargas, and whatever Karsh and his family needs, I don't think this year we're going to be trading for mubsp; Though I'm more than willing to trade for some to keep the mert happy. If we don't keep the trade el open, it be much harder to reopen it iure.
As always, when starting up something this plicated, there are going to be problems. It took nine days to actually get the whole process w. Most of the issues were easy enough fixes, but they required downtime for Karsh to make a new part to relieve the issue. The biggest issue ended up being the steamer chamber, which I ended up having to rebuild as two chambers instead of one.
I had just made a stone base with small holes to separate the wood and the water in a single chamber, but as it would turn out, that caused a lot of buildup anik ier chamber, and by the fourth time we started to use it, it had bee so caked that some of the gunk started smoking. So ultimately, there is now a boiler which pipes the steam into the steaming chamber, rather than it being a single unit.
In any matter, we got the paper mill running from start to finish, and I got to see the first pieces of paper go to start the drying process. Ultimately, as long as the frame fits in the pulp tank, we shouldn't have any issues making other sizes of paper if the need arises, so I'm pretty tent with the whole facility. My only is that with more and more meical devices being used, we might end up having an issue as things break down. Right now, we're nowhere hat limit, but with a single bcksmith in town, there is only so much metal that be worked in a single day.
The paper mill finally gives us a mueeded sed output for all the excess wood that we get while expanding. For the loime, we've used it for charcoal, which has been nice, but we have more than we'll need for many years. Now that all the dwarven crop fields are harvested, it's time to get to expanding those again while it's wiime. With popution expansion ing any day now, we'll he extra food, plus I'd like to use the wood for paper making.
I've been cutting trees down behind some of the existing fields now for ten days, while keeping a for the mert's return. Since I'm no longer in charge of stru, or for that matter, a lot of the ma for the goblins, I've taken to keeping the levels to myself for cutting trees down.
If someone else needs levels, they either cut down more trees for some other project, or they take t with the fishergoblins for a while. While individually, most of the fish aren't worth much, the sheer hey've killed over time has really maed itself in a bit of a power imbanbsp; Most of the fishergoblins who have been at it siaught them have evolved into hobgoblins. Even some of the newer ones have prestiged a few times.
At this point, the guard that we position at the artificial tide pools isn't really there for prote, just to collect tax. Which means we'll o sider a way to get the guards leveled up more. I'd sider waiving the entrance fee in exge for having the guards help with the fish catg, but that would take away from the moary sink that is necessary to keep inftion low in the ey.
I suppose an option would be to reserve a portion of the tide pools where a few guards would be in charge of killing the fish inside, but the fishergoblins would still be allowed to take them for free. The fishergoblins themselves have gotten quite good at precision strikes to kill the fish while keeping the meat as pristine as possible, so the quality of the fish probably won't quite be up to their standards, but its better than having weak guards.
It took two days of ving the fishergoblins and Zaka to get the ge made to the guards regimen. The fishergoblins were obviously the first to be ed with the idea of suddenly losing access to some of the tide pools, but after some promise they ceded the point. What we agreed upon was that not all the fish in those ses would actually be killed by the guards. The guards would have to learn which fishes were inexpensive and only kill those. In exge, we got a few extra tide pools to make up for the difference.
While I was overseeing some of the guards while they worked iide pools ohird day, I got word that the mert had returned, along with Shasta, two other people whom no nized, and signifitly muards than have arrived previously. I then promptly returo sort out our trade while also going to see who these new people were.
When I arrived, I could tell two things before I actually got close enough to speak. First, the extra guards weren't dwarves, aher were the two individuals who weren't armed. Sed, whoever these people were, they were important. They were dressed quite nicely, and held an air about them exuding authority.
When I finally got close enough to speak, I could tell that one was an elf, and the other was a human. When I actually arrived at the group, the human started speaking first, in a nguage I couldn't uand, and hadn't heard before. As he spoke, he maintairict eye tact with me, and finished with a flourishing bow. I bowed back briefly, and waited for someoo transte.
Unfortunately for Shasta, it seems like she ended up being the transtor for this as well.
"I am the Baron of pfur, servant to his majesty the King of Rathnd, Besmond III."
After Shasta firansting, the Baron tinued.
"It seems that we have a bit of a legal drum on our hands. You see, these isnds are ours. We have a dot from a few hundred years ago detailing the as of a fishing vessel that got lost during a storm, aually returned back to our kingdom. As those mehe first to set foot on these isnds, they're legally our territory."
As the Baron spoke, his speech was filled with haures as flourishes. I'm certain he's normally quite the speaker. Something about his eye tact bothered me however. It seemed that the versation wasn't directed to me, so much as all the others who could hear him talking. Ohe transtion finished, I responded.
"Then I suppose we do have a bit of a problem. We discuss it further this evening."