Sable smiles warmly at Nico as he tinkers with the model. It's so nice to see her co-binder actually enjoying himself. "That's looking pretty great. Maybe make one particularly wide entrance to the dungeon that can be closed and barred and narrowed in the event of a crisis, and make the dungeon copies of our infrastructure first, that way we're resilient against getting interrupted before everything's built?

"I also vote for having things prepared in case another dragon shows up. Though we're safe for at least a blue month- Probably longer too. They don't follow close to each other."

"It might take a while, but we'll have a town the envy of Lomabuyar Demesne... Jerry's a mason, right?"

"You know, I never knew you were so fast at building, Mister Nico! The pipe for water- You managed that in a single morning! Maybe we should have had stone shelters every time we camped."

"Oh, there's no way I could have managed building that fast before. I am cheating outrageously with my Binderly powers and impressive talent."

"If only it was as easy for non-Binders as it is for us," she agrees.

Did they get someone on top of finding people who could be spared for breaking in the vigas field? Is someone going to trace out the plots of land to match the lovely diorama Nico's making?

Beenu the vigas farmer has rounded up two dozen volunteers, many holding scythes, shovels, and axes. They're milling about nearby.

"I'll trace out the plots myself later. I can multiply distances with Horotracting easy enough."

Sable nods. She makes sure Beenu is apprised of the tweaks Nico made to the vigas plot, then turns to Mr. Cooper. "Do we have an inventory of what seeds we have?"

They do, not accounting for local plants that might be foraged later, or any personal stashes: Vigas (grain), Cloudbloom (fiber), Basra (carroty/beety?), Laketines (sour fruit), Roundroot (potatoes?), Sweetleaf (lettuce/kale/asparagus?), Pink Lady (peach-like fruit, but those trees don't grow to maturity for years and years), and Opel Beans.

"Solid variety, but no spices. We'll probably want to trade for those eventually, especially if we can't forage any." She smiles ruefully. "But little morale boosters like that are not remotely urgent. There's survival work to do first."

Someone she doesn't know the name of yet- Middle-aged man- Says, "I'm worried about our food in the short term. The vigas should be the absolute priority, so more people should go help with that in a minute. I think close to three hundred people is too large for a starter colony- There are lots of seels in the river, and there are beasts to hunt, but both will quickly become difficult if we rely on them for this many hungry stomachs. We need boats, preferably ones with magic drivers, to do both those things further away. We also need any other ideas anyone has for more food sources."

"You're absolutely right. As I said earlier, everyone who can be spared needs to help with getting the vigas field started. And yeah, sorting out a lumber supply is absolutely my priority as soon as I'm finished eating. Has anyone examined what sorts of trees we've got here?"

If they have, nobody speaks up right now about it.

...But they've been trying little bits of things along the trip here, actually, and only found a couple that were obviously poison on the skin-touch test, but also only found a couple that seemed... Actually usefully edible. The militia scouts probably remember those?

Sable nods, finishes her meal, and stands. Probably she needs to find some militia scouts and get oriented about local trees.

...Wasn't Rama attached to the militia or something? Yeah, she thinks she was.

What's Rama up to, and is she interruptible?

Rama is eating in a corner with a bunch of other militia-coded people. (You can kind of tell by their posture and alertness and also a certain raggedy-but-tough style of clothing). They're discussing something called a 'bait tower'.

"...Binder Sable?"

"Hello, Rama. It's good to see you. Could I have a moment after you eat to introduce me to a militia scout or three likely to have a decent sense of the local trees and what they're usable for, if you can spare the time?"

"Trees? Like which ones are good for firewood and forage? I think any of us can answer that."

She looks around. There are nods.

"I wouldn't know about carpentry, except a lot of the buildings in Covehold were made of Eker- That's the thin, white-trunked ones. Easy to fell and turn into boards, or so I heard. We also wanted to ask about getting some Whispering done. Chiba here was in a failed demesne before, well, long story but they left before a dragon took them all, and... Tell her, Chiba."

Chiba looks slightly attacked. "Uh... Lady Binder, we, uh, in Garon Demesne they noticed that a lot of the beasts living around here are not used to people and are actually really dumb. They had an earthen tower raised by Whispering with ladders, and the militia would stand on that tower and shout and holler and throw pieces of rot and meat, and beasts would come right up to it and try to knock 'em off or climb. Then they raised a flag and the Binder ran out and killed whatever showed up. It was easy meat for weeks, until the stupid beasts all got eaten."

Sable tilts her head and gets a bit thoughtful at that idea for a moment.

And then she smiles, wide and sharp.

"I like that plan. Easy meat will stretch the food supply while we're getting the farm off the ground, and improve morale as well. I'll fill Nico in, we'll see how soon we can get that tower built. Any specs for the design?"

"Eight or ten paces high. I would really rather it not fall over with me on it? And stairs or climbing handholds would be nice. Or a loophole at the top for a rope, but, like, there's not THAT much rope around."

"Eight or ten paces high, and the obvious things a sane designer who didn't want her militia to suffer would put in. Got it." She grins and laughs. "I appreciate the specificity, though; you never know when something that should be obvious mysteriously won't be. I'll get on that presently, thanks for the lovely idea."

"I can tell you all about trees too," Chiba shrugs. "Gonna do deadspeaking things, right? There's at least one bluehair tree in the demesne."

"That is exactly the plan. Going to get familiar with the local trees, plant some experimental saplings, and generally see what sorts of enhancements and accelerations agree with them. How 'bout we find Nico, tell him about your idea, and you tell me about interesting trees on the way there and after?"

Sure. They can do that.

"Okay, I can make a bait tower. I'll sink the ground around it a little to get the stone instead of hauling it there, though. This is probably a half day project even if I don't do the detail work. But food's pretty important."