The detailed meeting took about half of the day to plete. Many of the finer details were left to be per, but, to prevent ara suspiong his soldiers, Kao called the meeting to an end so that his group could return in a timely manner. Kao said that we should expect his troops to return in a little over three weeks, and that he'll also give the go ahead for the Elven emissary, who has been waiting on their isnd, to travel to our isnd. He had apparently held up any traffitil he could verify the situation, which seemed reasoo me.

  After the dwarves left, Zeb, Zaka, and I started discussions of what we should dht now. We decided that, until the mert leaves, we shouldn't inform the popuce of the situation, so as to reduy ces of information leaking. Oh the mert and Elven emissary leave, then we'll begin the process of verting to a war ey. Given the level of threat we're going up against, I agreed with Zaka that relying on our ey in it's current state simply won't work.

  Wheime es, we'll be suspending money, rationing food, and everyone will be w non-stop to make sure we have as many defenses prepared as possible. Before then though, we'll still be doing things behind the ses to start preparations for the war ey. First, I'm going to set aside a rge area to bee a niter bed. There, I'll have goblins biash, manure, urine, and soil in order to get the saltpeter funpowder. That process takes months to plete however, so we o start it now. I 't say for certain it'll work, but given that I've seen ons on ships, I'm assuming they aren't just mining saltpeter from the earth.

  Thankfully, everyone in the vilge is used to me making weird requests, so this shouldn't stand out too much. After that, I'll be taking a period of time to go make a sed vault in the mountain where goblins store their existing s as well as where we'll hide iant crystal when we remove it from the bathhouse.

  The fishiy project is going to be put on hold and work is going to be diverted to building a st batch of apartment-style buildings before we stop summoning pletely. Although we could expand our forces, low level goblins are basically useless outside of their ability to haul things and they'll require food. Given we'll already be having about 500 additional dwarf soldiers stationed on the isnd, we're going to already be having some food issues.

  We've decided that Zaka should spend some time with Boggs, as odd as that sounds. His goal should be to learn fishing using rimitive forms we have access to. Ultimately, that will be a source of both food ara levels we wouldn't have otherwise. Having Zaka reach a high level before year could be incredibly valuable for bat, as he's likely the physically stro individual we have, in addition to his access to fire magic.

  We'll also be putting a few other tasks up oask board for the time being for things which we'll need. We want a few more forests cleared around the vilge where we grow more of the dwarven crops, to not only expand our food supply, but also to increase the overall levels of individuals iy, and expand our visie from the walls. We'll also be putting in requests reted to building more salt evaporation ponds. Salt is very helpful as a preservative, and ohe time es and the invasion begins, we'll need preserved food to sustain ourselves.

  I'll also be making the request to Konkur about helping us find sulfur on the isnd. If not on this isnd, then we'll potentially o send an expedition to the wo isnds in an attempt to find it.

  After 14 days, both the mert and the Elven emissary arrived. I leased to see that it was Elora who arrived, and she seems to have brought the various fungi that we requested. We've also received everything we requested from the mert, including the fermentatio. Leave it to the dwarves to be ahead of the teological curve on that one.

  Historically, it wasn't until the enlightehat the actual cause of fermentation was figured out, and many batches of alcohol went bad because it was basically left up to ce what would break down fruits and grains. We'll also have to see if it's useful as a leavening agent or not at some point.

  I kept our iions short with both parties, requesting a repeat delivery with the mert of more roofing supplies, bargas, and a det k of dwarven . I felt bad about requesting things to be delivered year, but if he's smart he won't actually try to travel here year when it seems like we're going to be invaded by a massive forbsp; To pay for our trade, I gave him a rge number of crates of paper.

  As for Elora, she gave me the warnings that I'd already heard from Kao reted to the potential for invasion. She said she couldn't promise that no Elven matriarch would join, but she thought it uhat any would, though she also said we should expect at least one dark elf tribe to join. This was the first I'd heard of dark elves, but apparently, they're a more tribal race of elves which live in the darkness of the great forest floor. They're wandering hunters, and if any join in, we should be aware that they're highly skilled trackers and are very petent at forest and jungle fighting, though they'll be few in number.

  Elora also shared my belief that Rathnd was likely trying to frame us. She said, given our size, she doubts any of the other major human kingdoms will join in, as we likely won't be perceived as much of a threat. She then wished us the best of luck, and said that if we somehow mao survive the uping war, she'll be in toubsp; I sent her off with another handful of crates of paper as a gift.

  Two days ter, we made the general annou about the uping battle, and the wartime ey shift. There was a very grave mood that fell over the vilge after the news was given. sidering we're dealing with aential threat, everyo least uood the reason why normal job handling was being suspended, and why food would be rationed.

  We were brutally ho about the odds involved, which made a lot of individuals worried. I also mentiohat I believed it would be possible for us to win, if we work hard. In order to do so though, everyone o work together. I informed them that we'll have dwarven soldiers joining us on this endeavor, which seemed to help improve their moods somewhat.

  Moving forward though, individuals will be w more than they have in the past few years. Fishergoblins won't just be fishing for a few hours, then selling their goods. Some will be processing fish, and others will be moved to other jobs for part of the day. The paper mill will be shut down as well. Basically everyone is going to be w more than before.

  lenty of work to do to get the isnd ready, so we'll need every hour we get from everyone. Though that doesn't mean that all the work will be manual bor. Some will be gaining levels through fishing if we get enough rods made. We'll have Boggs and other skilled individuals fish all day, and oblins will be around to help kill rge fish, so that everyone nearby gets the experience.

  We'll focus our work in and around the city first, sier the eighth month of year, we will no longer have the bathhouse to provide us with unlimited mana. This also means the battle of the city ime is going to be much harder tha time, although we do have more walls and ons this time.

  We'll also be having some of the dwarves run training drills to get individuals trained up on various teiques. I'm also hoping that this training will potentially unlobat reted abilities that some of the lower prestige goblins could gain before year. If things go well, I'm hoping that the you goblins will prestige a few times before the actual fighting begins, and that we get more of the high level goblins to evolve into hobgoblins.