Posts: 6,064
Threads: 303
Joined: Aug 2007
Staff roles: Story Dev Economy Dev
All new sign-ups have been added to the first post.
Day 76 - 90: If you can't beat them, join them
For the first time in a while, things seem to be going really smoothly. This is usually a precursor to something horrific happening, but Randy Random appears to be placated for the time being.
Auzari has a bit of a silver tongue and has been dropping in on the prisoners a few times a day. This seems to be doing wonders, with no further attempted murders or breakouts. Having spent some time figuring out what makes them tick, Auzari reckons he can convince the prisoners to put aside past grievances and join the Guild.
WolfsGhost has also racked up quite a backlog of construction tasks, and sets to laying some roads between various areas of the base, and paving the internal corridors. One of the wind turbine batteries also exploded and needs patching up.
Given that we've had a field of hops for some time but nothing to actually do with them, Auzari sets to mining out a new area to act as a brewery. As he works, WolfsGhost installs a brewing station and some fermentation casks. Unfortunately, before this can be completed Auzari, Spectre and one of the prisoners are bedridden by a particularly nasty flu strain.
Between treating patients, Ramke has marked out and ploughed a new growing area for some smokeleaf. Between the brewery and the joints, it's hoped that the colonists will be able to blow off some steam and cheer up a little. Unfortunately this plan is significantly delayed by a nasty case of crop blight.
The fast growing disease spreads across all of the Courtyard's crops, and before long the entire harvest is destroyed. Both Ramke and WolfsGhost are forced to drop their other tasks in order to burn the tainted crops and replant the affected fields. Most seriously, this issue resulted in the complete destruction of a crop of medicinal herbs that were nearly ready for harvest.
Auzari's brush with flu is almost a fatal one, with Ramke only just managing to nurse him through it with our dwindling supplies of medicine. Once he's back on his feet he finishes up the brewery and gets back to negotiating with the prisoners. Spectre takes over as master brewer, and begins fermenting the hops. We should have our first batch of Gallic Beer within 5 days.
Before long, Auzari's succeeded in turning the most recently captured prisoner: a 54 year old woman called @Venkman . As she leaves the cell, she throws off her clothes and announces that she's a nudist. The others can deal with it or do one. She's also a capable animal tamer and goes to find Lythrilux for a catch-up on Project MONKEY MASH's progress. She'll also be able to give Auzari a hand with the mining jobs, which are starting to back up given his other responsibilities.
While all this is happening, Lythrilux has been working with the war monkeys. Unfortunately she's getting a little too attached to them and starts giving them names - including Calamity and Ulyana. This will probably cause trouble when it eventually comes to the point of unleashing them in battle. During one training session, a lone raider attempted to harass the monkeys. After chasing them away, the pirate instead settled for vandalising ONIKS' memorial. Lythrilux responded quickly and put them down with her shotgun, but takes two arrows for her troubles. While she's injured, Venkman takes over the monkey training.
After another foolish raiding party is shishkebabed on our traps, Venkman has an idea. Instead of dragging the corpses all the way to the river, why not feed them to the monkeys? The taste of human flesh might even put them in the right frame of mind for tearing asunder the flesh of our enemies! The others back away slowly and leave her to do what she wants. (un)fortunately(?) the monkeys don't seem too keen on this idea and continue grazing the grass instead.
Not long after, Auzari has another breakthrough and reconciles with @Skorak - the tribal who originally murdered ONIKS. Despite having shared barely a word, Spectre already considers Skorak to be a friend - the others are far warier of the pardoned killer. Despite his advanced asthma and missing foot, Skorak will make a useful researcher and craftsman.
Living accomodations are now getting a bit cramped. Auzari has been mining out some new bedrooms in between chatting to the last prisoner. Fortunately @Typrop agrees to sign on with the Salt Miners Guild without further hostilities.
While she's not a great shot, she's keenly interested in improving and has an almost innate understanding of animal behaviour. After a quick rummage in the storeroom, she's given a machine pistol and sent out as the colony's new duty hunter. It'll be good to have a steady source of meat again.
Now that there are no prisoners staying in ONIKS' old room, the lock is removed from the door. The three new recruits are asked to stay in their old beds on a temporary basis, just until their private rooms can be arranged. A little disgruntled at having to stay in a place associated with some fairly bad memories, they reluctantly agree.
In other news, the monkeys have been embroiled in a near constant orgy ever since Lythrilux gathered the newly tamed pack together near the Courtyard gates. This has already predictably resulted in a slew of simian pregnancies. The pack is now looking to be pretty much self-sustaining, so a hard veto has been placed on taming any further wild monkeys. If we bring in any more, we'll end up with some kind of planet of the apes.