Dungeon Life-Chapter Four-Hundred Thirty

Rezlar

The young elven lord mayor of Fourdock peers closely at the walls in the Hold, scrutinizing the work. The pace is steadily increasing as the masons and miners gain skill, and get used to what needs to be done. The trade level is nearing completion, enough that work is starting on the residential section, with the main stairwell diving deep to get started on the industrial area, too.

They’re going to need to prepare the ventilation shafts for the entire Hold, now it’s getting deep enough that air quality could be a concern. He puts that thought aside for the moment, and resumes examining the work so far. While he’s not a proper mason, he’s familiar enough with their work to know what should be done, and he may have a better idea of what Coda wants done than even the master masons do.

Said masons are also examining the work, ensuring everything is as it should be. Rezlar even takes the time to check the maintenance areas. They’re shorter than he’d prefer. Miller might be able to easily bow and walk through the cramped spaces, but Rezlar finds himself wishing he was short like Rhonda, or at least able to change his form like Pul.

But just wishing won’t change anything, and if he’s honest with himself, he’s just complaining to himself to give him something to do. The work is immaculate, following Coda’s plans precisely. By the time he exits the maintenance hall, it looks like the masons are finished with their own inspections, and their dwarven representative steps forward.

“Does everything look in order, Lord Mayor?”

Rezlar nods. “It does.” He smirks before continuing. “I suppose I’ll have to stop putting off the paper work for merchants to apply to have a place in here.”

The lead mason laughs and nods. “Your work is never done, eh?”

Rezlar shakes his head with a chuckle. “It really isn’t. How goes the rest of the Hold? Anything that might cause delays or a redesign?”

The mason shrugs before patting himself, looking for something, before one of the other masons steps forward and hands him a clipboard. “Ah, there it is. Let me see… There’s a few pockets of rubble, but nothing our earth affinity people can’t stabilize. Progress on the ventilation shafts are going well. I have quite a few masons eager to see the ventilation system in action. I have the skilled miners on those. We don’t need the whole system yet, but there’s no harm in getting it running as soon as possible, and it’ll make people happy to know they’re not going to need to worry about bad air.”

He hands over the clipboard with the planned and completed work for the last few days, and the next few days, and Rezlar nods. “I’m not going to argue to leave the airflow for last. Will the cisterns be next, then?”

“For now, just enough to get by. With nobody actually living in the Hold yet, there’s not as much demand for water. We’ll need to get a few ready just to make sure the plumbing is working properly, but they’ll be the emergency backups to the main cisterns by the time we’re done.”

“Good,” he agrees, mentally tracing out where the emergency cisterns will be. He’s a bit biased toward ensuring the water system is properly installed, but he readily admits it’s at least partially because of his water affinity. “Any problems with shipping the mined stone to Lord Thedeim? Or in getting gravel for the concrete?”

The dwarf shakes his head. “The deliveries are going smoothly. It might be easier to use the rock we mine here for the gravel, but the dungeon node gives the mining lads a good place to practice. And a few rounds with the denizens helps keep them in line, too,” he says with a wide smile. “In fact, we might petition the dungeon to upgrade the granite node to a proper quarry, too. Gravel is all well and good, but granite is useful for a lot more than that.”

Rezlar nods. “I can ask Him if you like, but the simplest way to get Him to upgrade it would be to keep using it. If He thinks there’s enough demand, He’ll upgrade it.”

The dwarf nods along to that. “Aye, like with the limestone quarry. There’s plenty of mining apprentices to keep the node busy around the clock, so I’ll make sure the mining foreman knows.”

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Rezlar nods once more, prepared to let the masons go, before he pauses. “What about the farming section? I’d like to have regular harvests, not just for a bit more income, but to make sure the fields are ready, should we need to hunker down for a siege. People will be hungry if we only start planting after we’re trapped inside.”

The mason hmms as he looks over his copy of the plans, frowning at the problem. “A good point. We’ll have a lot of grains stored once the agriculture storage area is finished, but it’ll be smart to have the farms up and running smoothly soon.” He waves the other masons forward and Rezlar joins them to look over the plans.

“We’ll need more than just the emergency cisterns to get the fields up,” points out a wolfkin, to the murmured agreement of the others.

“Can we do them in stages?” asks an elf, using her finger to bring attention to what she means. “Each field has its own cistern assigned, and the emergency ones are connected. If we start with one layer, we shouldn’t need to change too much?”

The others nod and start planning out the changes, even setting out a rough schedule to get a field up with each set of residential areas, and Rezlar soon leaves them to it. The staggered schedule will also make it simpler to store the harvests, letting the populace eat fresher, since there’s no real need to harvest a subterranean crop all at once. It’s not like the seasons change much when so far under the ground.

He takes the time to check in with the miners, giving them a heads up that the schedule is going to be changing soon. They’re unhappy at first, but once Rezlar explains about the crops, the grumbling dies down. Nobody wants to be trapped inside without food.

Outside, he makes his way for the military encampment around the Hold, looking for the ranking officer. The Knight-Captain is helping escort Paulte back to Horlon for his deserved punishment, but he believes one of the scouts is in charge of the troops left here.

He peeks into the commander’s tent, and smiles to see the elven woman looking nearly overwhelmed with paperwork. “Lt. Julour. Can I have a few moments of your time?”

She looks up, haggard, but manages to lurch to attention and give him a salute. “Lord Mayor! Of course! How can I help you?”

Rezlar smiles and waves for her to relax. “They’re putting the finishing touches on the barracks inside, so you should soon be able to move in, if you’re all tired of living in tents.”

She clearly resists the urge to sag in relief. “I’d do unspeakable things for a proper bed and bath, sir,” she admits, earning a laugh from Rezlar.

“I believe you! It will be a bit longer for proper plumbing to be finished, but I imagine most of the camp feels the same way?”

She nods and gestures at the papers. “About half of these are requests for leave. A rag bath in the field keeps disease down… but everyone is looking forward to being properly clean, sir.”

Rezlar taps his chin in thought. “I may be able to do something about that, Lieutenant. Beds will be simple enough. Baths will take more effort… but I think I could convince Lord Thedeim to do something for morale.”

“If he does, he’ll probably gain half the company as converts,” she half-jokes.

Rezlar smiles. “I’ll talk with the church. I think individual baths are out of reach for now, but two communal baths should be something we can pull off.”

She gives him an appreciative smile. “Everyone will be happy to hear that. Morale is still good, the training is intense but rewarding, but it’s the little things like baths that soldiers miss when on duty.”

“Maybe we’ll make a whole celebration of it,” comments Rezlar, his mind quickly listing what they’d need to throw a bit of a party. “I understand most of the soldiers missed the ceremony in the cathedral. Your presence here at the Hold definitely kept Paulte and Toja from acting directly, and I don’t think I’ve properly shown my appreciation for that yet.”

“You don’t need to do that, sir,” she starts, only for him to shake his head in disagreement.

“I may not need to, but I want to. You can say it’s your duty all you want, but there’s no denying having all of you here played a major role in how things played out.” He smirks at her. “Besides, how would the rank and file feel if you actually talked me out of throwing you all a party with a temporary hotspring involved?”

The Lieutenant snorts. “They’d probably wrap me up in this tent and toss me up into a tree. You’ve convinced me, sir. It’ll be just the sort of thing to let them all know they really accomplished something more than learning how to sleep in the dirt.”

Rezlar smiles. “Good. I’ll leave you to your paperwork, Lieutenant. I have a kobold to talk to about a party.”

She gives him a salute as he goes, and Rezlar smiles as he sees the huge Tree of Cycles. He could stare at it all day, just taking in the majesty, but he has duties to attend to. That he’s not buried under paperwork like the Lieutenant is only a testament to how much more used to paperwork he is.

He hums as he heads for the tree, and the cathedral nestled into its base. He doesn’t doubt Aranya will be happy to help, as will the others. Uplifting people is just the sort of Change Lord Thedeim encourages.