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Abandoned - Summerset Swamp - Story 24

Started by Abandoned, June 09, 2018, 01:05:39 PM

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Abandoned

#30
Chapter 5


  In Spring of year 5, 6 surveyors from Chattachoo arrived.  Like us they took the south tunnel and became lost in the mountains. They followed the river south thinking they would arrive at Riverboat Junction and could send word back from there.  Instead they too became lost in the swamp.  They decided to stay with us rather than risk become lost again.  One family built a farmhouse over by the crop fields near Frencere.  We hoped he would notice Anne, the family's 13 year old daughter.  They would make a nice couple. The other 2 surveyors were an older couple in their mid to late thirties.  They build a Forest Deep mushroom house over by the mother tree forester.  It was a beautiful little house that fit the surroundings perfectly.

  We were again in need of stone and a discovery was made when laborers went in search of some south of town.  One of them spotted a small pond, it was autumn and the leaves had just fallen from the trees making the pond easier to spot.  The Swamp Pond was full of small frogs.  Theridan, one of the new arrivals, said where he came from frog legs were a real delicacy and quite delicious.  He immediately headed to the pond to catch frogs.  His wife was the first to light a small torch in front of their forest deep mushroom house.  Soon torches appeared in front of the other newcomers houses and the houseboat.  We didn't know if it was to ward off some superstition or what but we now had 2 small children so we lit a torch in front of our house too.

   We heard a new sound coming from the swamp in the direction of that frog pond now.  By now we were used to the sounds of swamp birds and insects but this sound was different.  It was a low almost mournful sound which could be heard after dusk and before dawn.  No one was brave enough to investigate.

Abandoned

#31
Chapter 6


  The strange mournful sound continued until the end of year 5 and into the early spring of year 6.  After a period of heavy rain the ground around the frog pond seemed a bit trampled as if something had trod back and forth repeatedly.  Theridan's wife, Stel, did not want him to go to the pond anymore even though he had never seen or heard anything while he was there.  However, it was because the distance back and forth though the swamp made the pond unproductive that frogging was stopped. Much to everyone's relief, the strange swamp sound stopped too.

  In spring, 7 swamp dwellers arrived.  They went wherever collecting wild foods took them but they wouldn't mind settling down for awhile with us.  They had a number of fruit seeds they had collected and we could use them to plant a forest orchard.  We had just finished building a swamp trading post and would be happy not to have to trade for fruit.  We only hoped a trader would find his way to our port.

  A swamp house was built for one of the new families and another swamp workshop was built by the trading post.  The new workshop could make iron tools while the old one could make linen clothes while the supply of flax lasted.  Sadly in late summer before the forest deep mushroom house was completed for the second family, their son, Paul, died of starvation.  We thought that was very strange since there was plenty of food, and stranger yet that his body was found by the frog pond.  There were strange scratches on his legs as if he had been crawling through the underbrush.   Some thought perhaps he was injured trying to cross the unfinished jetty, but why would he then have gone to the pond?

  There was some happy news before the end of the year, other than the fact that the strange mournful sounds from the swamp had stopped.   As we had hoped, Frencere got together with Anne from the house boat and they were wed.  We wished them a long and happy life together.


embx61


QuoteIs there a swamp monster?   It seems like there might be. I don't suppose there really could be one in the game.


With Banished you never know.


[size=8pt][color=teal]My beloved Kathy
As you were you will always be
Treasured forever in my memory[/color][/size]

[size=10pt]For my list of Mods with download links go here[/size]

galensgranny

@embx61 , Aaahhh!   :o :o
Is that dinosaur really available for the game?

Abandoned

 ;D @embx61 really cool  8) but I think that monster is headed towards one of @brads3 settlements  ;D

kid1293

Now with Troy on board I would like that dinosaur to move :)

Hehe, Jurassic Park.  :D

Abandoned

Oh no, it would be a shame if that nice looking market in the picture got destroyed.  Yes, you are right  ;D we would need a park to keep it in.

Abandoned

#37
Chapter 7


  In early spring of year 7, our neighbor's son, Sant, accepted the responsibility of planting the fruit tree seeds that the swamp dwellers brought with them last year.  The best location was pretty close to the frog pond but Sant said he didn't mind that.  A wooden house was built near there and the open exposure to the sun had the wood and thatch drying to a beautiful golden color.  Like everything else, it soon had green moss growing on it.  Swamp chickens and deer were often seen near the frog pond, so when another group of lost surveyors arrived in spring, another wooden house  and a hunter's hideout was built there. A safety fence was built partway around the pond as a reminder to stay away.  More torches began to appear around town especially near the water.

  It was almost time to harvest the corn when a river boat trader made it to port.  It was a tricky maneuver to turn the boat completely around before docking.  Loreena, the resource merchant only had coal on board but said she could bring stone if we needed it. She told us not to expect any seed or livestock merchants to show up at our swamp port.  Neither one would thrive here and no swamp merchant would waste his time bringing them.  We made no trade but also learned that our fuel bricks would only be worth 2 trade units and our bees wax only 1.  Thinking perhaps seafood would be worth more we build a shellfishery along the jetty to fish for clams.  That winter when Pennifer, the general goods trader arrived, we were disappointed the clams would only be worth 1 trade unit.  We traded fuel bricks for wild oats.

   By the start of year 8, we needed logs as well as stone.  We added more foresters to our workforce and to the second mother tree east of the crop fields.  There was a little stone there and more up past where 2 forest deep mushroom houses were built.  It was there that laborers collecting stone and herbs discovered another frog pond.  No one was very happy about that and when the strange swamp sound started up again more torches were lit.  The sound now seemed to be coming from this direction.

We were happy that the 12 lost surveyors that showed up didn't want to stay.  We finally got houses built for the last group.  This group wanted out of the swamp, and who could blame them.  We advised them to follow the river south and eventually they would reach Riverboat Junction, but they were in a hurry and said they would take a shortcut through the swamp.  We wished them luck, they would need it to get out of this swamp alive.

  That summer we added more hunters to our hideouts.  Our food supply was good but we were often short of hides and down for coats.  Flax was also in short supply.  In early autumn, Florin the food merchant arrived in port.  It was good to know if we ever  did run short of food we would be able to trade for what we needed.  It was also good to know that if we weren't feeling as good as we should we now had an apothecary to go to for healing. 

Abandoned

#38
Chapter 8


  Nothing could heal the poor deer that was found by the herbalist a short distance from the apothecary in spring of year 9.  It was dead and both hind legs were missing.  Anne and Phylicity, the 2 hunters in that area, could shed no light on what could have happened.  Scouting around they found hoof prints by the frog pond, apparently the deer had been there drinking water.  Something had to be done, but what?   Needless to say we were all disturbed by the incident.

  Our food surplus was down slightly so we tried to focus on that.  We built an orchard gatherer near the orchard forester but we thought it would be several years before we got any apricots.  There were only a few very small apricot trees so far, the orchard forester was spending a lot of time clearing reeds from the area.  Not far from there we cleared an area for another mushroom crop field to be planted the following spring.  Since we were finding only a few wild oats, we were short on grain. We would plant corn in the field where bean now grew and we would clear another field for corn over where we were digging a tunnel mine for stone.  A quarry would probably only fill with swamp water and frogs.  We needed steel tools to finish building the mine.  By the end of year 9 we needed stone, logs, leather, down, flax, and steel tools.

  In spring of year 10, the crops were planted as planned.  A young couple arrived.  They seemed a bit shaky and unstable, they had been lost in the swamp.  They wanted to stay but did not want to live in that houseboat another day.  They joined the group of laborers that were headed northeast of the mother tree looking for stone. A stone road was partially built heading in that direction.  They were to keep their eyes and ears open for anything responsible for the strange swamp sounds or the death of the deer.  What they found instead was a beautiful waterfall and fish pond.  And stone.   The group of laborers that headed in the opposite direction, southwest past the orchard forester, found very little stone.  What they did find was a 3rd swamp pond full of frogs.

  Our 3 8x12 corn fields each yielded a different amount of corn but at least we had grain.  We traded for flax and stone in late winter.  We could build more roads to continue our search for the thing in the swamp.


kid1293

It is not unreasonably hard, I hope.
Don't take more nomads if food is going down.

Abandoned

No, it is not to hard but must keep an eye on production, especially tailor.  There are less wild foods with reeds and lakes, health and food supply a slight drop.  One corn field was not enough grain. Will no longer welcome all nomads, hope they survive in the swamp  :)

galensgranny

More legs missing!  First it was those pirates, now the fawn. OMG, I think I know what it is!  I won't say what I think in case I am right which would spoil your story.   I can't wait to find out what is going on! 

Abandoned

@galensgranny, I can't wait to find out if you are right.  ;D

Abandoned

#43
Chapter 9


  Before we continued our search we wanted to be sure our food supply was stable.  In early spring of year 11 we added a fisherman to the swamp pier and built a smoking shed in town.  Across the lake by the wooden houses and hunters hideout we wanted a campfire to roast venison.  We needed firewood so a tiny chopper and firewood shed was built there too.  Laborers were busy cutting tees because we were again short of logs. 

  When we traded for stone, Loreena, the resource merchant, told us there was a lot of stone on the peninsula right across the river from the trading post.  We thought that area would be a good place to search next and collect stone at the same time.  We built an extension onto the jetty to the point of land between the lake and the river.  From that point we could build a bridge.  We would need more wood for the bridge and stone for our roads.

  During year 12 we traded for steel tools, completed the tunnel mine, and began work on the bridge.  We were eager to continue our search.  We regularly heard the strange mournful sounds from one direction or the other.  Our searches always turned up nothing.  Often now we heard the sound of a loud splash.  We wondered if the swamp thing could be in the water, but the swamp waters were shallow, in most places you could see the swampy bottom.   

  In late spring of year 13 we traded for more stone and in summer we added another worker to the tunnel mine.  We built another wooden house for the miner.  By autumn the bridge was complete. We were exhausted, the heat and humidity plus the insects and strange worrisome sounds had taken their toll.  We decided to leave further exploration until next year.  We lit torches at both ends of the bridge and at all ends of the jetty.  We would keep our eyes and ears open over the winter.

galensgranny

Stay away from that swamp water people!  :o