Chapter 19


  Here we are.  To your far right, eager explorer, is our duds maker and the school.  I am happy to hear you will be looking into the textile trade.  From what the trade route boatman told me, textiles are in short supply.



  The 9 buildings are family homes, the one right in front of us is where I grew up.  My grandmother, parents, and 2 younger sisters live in this house.  Across from it is where Danning grew up.  His great grandmother, grandparents, parents, and younger brother and sister all live there.  The other houses are made up of elders, seniors, siblings, or couples with children that moved into houses that were vacated when families left the city.  There are some very old houses back in smaller caves but they have been empty for years.  Our families are very glad that Danning and I moved into the dwelling caves and then above ground rather than moving away.  I'm glad too.

  The large round building down at the end of the road is the meeting hall where friends and family gather.   Behind the meeting hall along the left cave wall are 2 passages.  One passage with the old iron gate leads to the burial grounds with very old crypts and more recent graves.  The other passage, next to the burial grounds, leads back to smaller caves, bear caves, and then down to abandoned mines and the old forge.  The upper passages on both sides of the residential area are patrolled by hunters.  A bear or 2 have made it as far as the fishing pond.





  Going back to the meeting hall, we'll go through the children's play area and out past the stone wall that helps protect the area.  The above-ground children like coming down to visit their grandparents and getting to play here.  So, eager explorer, that's the under-ground part of the Underground City.
 


 We'll take this passage to the tunnel that leads up to the 2nd storage cave; the one east of the main gates of the above-ground part of the city.  This way.

Chapter 18   


  Here we are, eager explorer, in the main part of the Underground City.  Yes, it is dark, but some natural light and water does filter down through the deep crevice above the waterfall and pond.  It is enough to allow for fish and mushrooms and a few herbs to thrive.  There are plenty of torches and bonfires scattered around the city that also provide some light, but the light is meager compared to the size of the cave.



  So, the first building to your left is the new forge where tools are made.  It's not really new, it's been here for decades but it's a lot newer than the old forge from medieval times.  No, I'm afraid you won't be seeing the old forge, the passages and caves below are not safe; there have been several minor cave-ins in recent years.



  Next to the new forge is the City's storehouse; we can put the berries in there.  You can see it is well stocked with a variety of foods, most of which are from the river boatman or what we produce above ground.  Behind the forge and storehouse are the smelter and the small mine.  We've been bringing surface iron down here, so the smelter is rarely used.  The miner only brought out crystals from the mine to carve the 3 dwarf statues you see here.



  Now to your right, eager explorer, is the Town Hall and the old Ale House that was only recently reopened when we got wheat from the river boatman.  Behind these 2 building are the main gate and the 2 dwelling caves.  Yes, Lillar, is still living in one of them.  All 3 caves lead to the above ground part of the city near the main stockpile and deadwood thicket.

  Just beyond all these buildings along the road is the waterfall pond and mushroom cave.  Fishing is quite good and mushrooms are plentiful.  Don't you just love the sound of the water tumbling over the rocks?  The waterfall pond and mushroom cave divides the main part of town from the residential area.  Follow me.

Chapter 17 


    Oh, it's no trouble at all to give you a quick tour of the underground, eager explorer.  We'll go through the storage cave by the brier; there are baskets of fresh-picked berries in that storage cave that need to be taken down below.




Mod note:  For this chapter and the next, the following changes were made to the Intro's Mod List:
Climate Cold Mountain was disabled
Old Forest terrain was disabled

Additional mods enabled:  No Snow, Do Daylight Cycle, EB Grizzly Valley terrain, Kid More Caves, Kid Forest Ponds, Creepy Cemetery (RK), Deco Tombstones (Kid)




 This way, eager explorer, careful now, there are some branches right in front of you, wait and I'll light some more torches.
 


  There, that's better.  It may look like a very small cave but you won't believe how much we can store in here until someone comes along and carries some of it down.  There are the baskets of berries, your help is appreciated, eager explorer.  We go through the tunnel there at the end of the cave.  It will take us down to the main part of the city.  The tunnel is dark and narrow; I'll grab a torch.  Follow me.

Chapter 16



 Well, yes, you're right, eager explorer, we have contributed a lot to our own wellbeing and food supply.  We've used several large deadwoods as hunting trees when elk or bears were nearby.  We've picked apples and walnuts from  a few of the old trees that are scattered around the valley. We've gathered deadwood logs, firewood, and branches from the thickets and berries from the briers.  We've picked mushrooms and herbs from the cache, and fished from the fishing tree that you saw when you arrived this spring. 







 We've given food and supplies to the Underground City, and they've given back to us.  Speaking of the underground, would you like a tour, eager explorer?  I know you're in a hurry to be on your way, but a short tour won't take long.

Thank you, autumn is in full swing, the days are getting cooler, the mornings are cold but the days are still warm, and thankfully the worst of the summer heat is long gone.
I repotted my raspberries which weren't doing very well in the hot afternoon summer sun and moved them to where they will now get more afternoon shade and can be covered in shade cloth during the the summer heat - they already look much happier and healthier.
I repotted and split my agapanthus and now have twice as many, and are half way through doing the same with my clivias.
Such is the life of a retired gardener. 

Happy spring to the northern hemisphere! And happy fall to the southern one!

I am starting mine out with a cold

I need to fix up the roof drainpipes so I can fill the rainbarrel again. My chives, rhubarb, and strawberries have made it through the winter; my mint has somehow not... The blueberry bush hopefully has, but I need to get it a new container too. My neighbor accidentally ran into it and broke it.

Hope you are all doing well!

Chapter 15






  It was late autumn and snowing when the boatman returned.  He pulled up to the small jetty we built for him the time he came when the river was so rough.  This time he used the jetty because he saw bears coming this way as he came down the river approaching the lighthouse.  He wanted to anchor farther away from where they might cross the river.  One of the laborers ran to get the nearest hunter just in case, but the bears stayed on the other side of the river; our food was unloaded from the boat.  We accepted 480 units of flour, 500 minus the 20 from the time before.  He had a few more letters for us that had been delivered to the Depot with the tools; he gave them to us before hurrying on his way.



  We were always glad to get news from family and friends in Picks & Shovels.  They were doing well; they were hunting, fishing, and raising almost all of their own food.  They even have goats and sheep for milk and wool.  We were doing well because of the tools they were making.  Without the river boatman bringing us that food, we probably would not have survived.  We certainly would not still be living here in the Underground City today; with the supplies we had on hand we knew we would be here at least one more winter.

Chapter 14




  In late spring of year 6, Catalya, the general goods merchant came to port.  He was told we would have ale to trade.  Our food supply was low but all he had with him was some seeds and a few hide coats.  We ordered flour, down, and wool.  The flour he said he could get for sure but we may have to wait for down and wool; textiles were in short supply and there were others ahead of us.  He would do his best to bring us some.



  In late summer, the river boatman came with our food shipment from Riverboat Depot.  This time we could have 980 units of food, that was 1,000 units minus the 20 we got extra the last time.   We had to build a small extension onto the trading jetty for him to have room to unload the food.  We got 320 flour, 224 wheat, 108 goat cheese, 196 potatoes, and 152 fruit jams.  He gave us the full 1,000 units and said he would subtract the 20 next time.  He would be back soon; a riverboat was leaving Riverboat depot to pick up more tools from Picks & Shovels at the same time he was leaving to come here.  It was already early autumn when he left here and we had our 1st frost of the season so we were a bit concerned about a return trip.  It snowed shortly after he left.





  We again enjoyed fresh baked bread, goat cheese, and ale while we waited for his return.

Chapter 13




  By late summer, we had a simple trading jetty built on the other side of the fishing tree.  By early autumn, Ariend from the dwelling cave built a lighthouse next to the jetty and would keep an eye out for a riverboat.



  As usual, in late autumn, we took stock of our food and other supplies.  We had plenty of logs and our woodcutter was busy chopping firewood.  Workers were still in the thickets gathering more.  We had a few more tools and coats thanks to our smith, tailor, hunters, and our friends and family in the underground.  The underground hunter got more bear meat than our 2 hunters combined.   Geese were seen again this year but they escape our hunters this time.  Only a few furs and leather were added to our textile supply, no down for warm coats.
 




  The butcher was again making sausages from venison after cutting some nice bear steaks.  The baker was using the last of the flour to bake the bread, and we took 57 barrels of ale to the trading post before the wheat supply was gone.  Going into winter our food supply was good but there was not much variety.  Our overall health was still good but most of us were now back to wearing hide coats out in the cold.

Chapter 12


  The elders and the others living underground were grateful for the work we were doing above ground.  To show their appreciation, they took some of the wheat and opened the old ale house; they invited us all to come down to have a mug of ale when we had the chance.  They gave us one of the old barrels to take above ground so we could brew some ale of our own: we still had some wheat left too. 





  When the river boatman came in the summer of year 5, we accepted 216 flour, 112 potatoes, and 72 wedges of goat cheese, a surplus of 20 units that would be deducted from the next delivery.  We could not wait to have a piece of that cheese with a thick slice of fresh baked bread and a mug of ale.  We served some to the boatman for an evening meal and he thought our ale was the best he'd ever tasted.  He said it was as good if not better than the ale the hobbits make.  There would sure be a market for such fine ale.  If we built a trading post, he would send another river boatman this way; we could order more food or whatever else we needed from that boatman.



  Well, looking at our inventory records, we had a good supply of food and firewood, but we needed more tools.  We did not want to use too many tools from below, they needed them themselves; our smith went back to work at the anvil.  Our supply of coats was again low, but again, we did not want to use too much of the underground supply; they gave us warm coats and textiles when they could.  It was the shortage of textiles that was the problem; we needed more furs, down, or wool for warm coats.  Our tailor went to work making a few hide coats from the leather we had.  Before he left, we told the river boatman we would build a trading post.