Chapter 8: Building progress and looming danger

Authors notes:

Hello everyone this chapter will be a lot of just telling what happened since last chapter so sorry for that but it is needed to give you an image of the world and the life om Michiko. I also apologise for the lack of action but as you will read in this chapter it is coming next week so I hope you will look forward to it :)

(I AM VERY SORY IF I RAMBEL ON FOR FAR TO LONG ABOUT SOMETHING)

Many thanks to my proof reader Traluxbot101 he has, is and will be a great help.

Year: 05-09-1715 (Imperial Calendar) (± nine years and eleven months since hatching)

Location: planet Warhammer, Dragon Peak mountain

Michiko POV.

More than three years have passed since we first returned from Karak Azul with new immigrants. In that time our home has progressed a lot and just a few months ago we returned with another group of immigrants increasing our numbers even more. The new dwarves where also equally surprised when they saw their new home and even more so when they discovered I am a dragon but since then they have come to trust me and they have adjusted really well. Now they are working and living together with the other dwarves and with their help the work has sped up a lot.

Of course the arrival of new immigrants is not the only thing that has happened in the past three years but before I am going to talk about that I will explain about my progress.

Firstly my dragon form has grown to about two and a half meters in height and it seems my growth is slowing down, not by much but it does seem like it. I don’t know why it is happening but it can be so that my growth spurt is over or that because dragons are almost immortal that we just experience a slow growth?

Secondly for about two of the past three years I have mostly been working with the miners and stoneworkers. The main reason for that was that every dwarf, regardless of standing or craft must spend two years in the mines to learn the essential skills of their heritage and as to not forget the past. It was quite fun working with the mines but unfortunately I could not really go digging in my dragon form since we need clean stone bricks to built fortifications, houses and other buildings. My dragon form is great for digging tunnels or large areas but right now I do not have the precision to cut out the precise blocks we need so for now I have to work with normal picks and chisels.

Working with the miners and stonemasons I learned quite a lot about their respective crafts. While I was working in the mines the other kids that had not worked in the mines yet and where old enough joined me. We had a lot of fun together and it kind of became a race between the older miners and us.

With me leading the kids and Grond leading the miners, of course there is no way we had any chance in winning but with me pointing out the weaknesses in the rock we worked a lot faster. Of course we still lost and I’m kind of ashamed to say it but our block looked horrible and the stonemasons secretly told me that they would just use them as filler blocks. But we had a lot of fun nonetheless and our skill became better over time that is what matters.

While I was working with the miners we also reached the level where Gromril is most likely to be found and we started digging out large spaces to built the huge furnaces that we would need to refine the many ores we would mine. While we were digging we also found trace amounts of Gromril meaning that a vein could be nearby which got everybody very excited. Also because we were going to dig out another level I made another blueprint:

Mining level: (all Images in spoilers for loading purposes):

Spoiler :

AM: Karak army manufacturing and maintenance (Tanks artillery)

C: Walls with tunnels and cannons

E: Elevator

G&M: Guilds and general Manufacturing

G&S-L: Garden and Storage Level

M: Entrance to the mines

R: Ore Refinement area with massive blast furnaces

S: Special strongly reinforced area for experimentation and dangerous works

T: Tunnel from X on mining level to the X on garden level

X: Still to come

This of course made all the old dwarves very happy and when they explained to the new Dwarves that it has happened before and they concluded it was a gift from the ancestor gods it became kind of crazy. After a while it calmed down again but it was really funny to watch them like that. I also told Valaya about it and she also laughed luckily she did not mind that I made it look like it was there doing.

Talking about Valaya, Alrika and Grim have been teaching me about the ancestor gods and their powers. Of course I already know the ancestor god, I have met them in person after all but it was very interesting to learn about how religion works in dwarven society and the powers that are associated with them. Like the fact that priest of Gazul have the power to banish undead and control them. You could probably best compare it to necromancy magic. But spells like raising the undead go against the scripture of Gazul. Meaning that no dwarf will ever do it and in the very, very, very unlikely event it does happen it is a sure fire way to get the dwarven variant of witch hunters after you and those guys are nothing to laugh at.

The third and probably most important thing I have done in the past three years is learning the magic from the book I bought. That means that I have not started learning other kinds of magic yet but I can see that even learning one kind of magic to a descent level will probably take years. Of course the fact that I know a lot about molecules, atoms, physics, biology and other thinks I have picked up in my previous life will help a lot with the magic systems based on logic like the lore of metal I am learning right now. But I can’t see it help much with the lore of shadow or lore of beasts for that matter.

I mostly discover all this when I visited Karak Azul for the second time and I had enough money for some more books and to get a library pass for the level with magic books. I read a lot of books for the month we were there and when I visited Dimzad at his book store he told me he had collected some books about magic for me. He got a basic book of magic for every lore and even a more advanced version for the lore of metal and the lore of life. I happily bought them from him and I told him I would like to buy some more in the future if he could get them.

Anyway right now I am mostly learning the lore of metal because for now it I the most useful in smithing and also stoneworking I have found out. The lore of metal is mostly focused on well, metals (obviously) and by manipulating and using the yellow light specs it can form and manipulate metals. This does not mean that you can freely form it and make it fly in the air or something but a mage who uses the lore of metal can in the case of a battle give buffs to friendly troops by sharpening their swords and for de-buffs he can for example make the enemy’s weapons rust.

This is not the only thing they can do they can also do a kind of magical alchemy and convert metals into other metals. Most of the time this is a temporary change and after the magic is consumed the metal changes back to its original state. The only exception I have found in the book is that when a very powerful mage does it he or she can make the change permanent. I have tried converting metals myself but it changed back soon after and I started to do some more experimenting.

During my experimentation I found out that the change of the components of a metallic alloy lasted a lot longer than changing a metal itself like lead to gold. Using this information I made a theory: any change made in metals is unstable and can only be made permanent in two ways. One the brute force method, by using a high amount of magical power you can snap the components into place. Two the precision method by precise control and extensive knowledge you can control the components of the metal or alloy placing them in the right place. This means changing the amount of different kinds of atoms in the case of alloys and in the case of changing metals themselves you need to change the amount of neutrons protons and electrons.

Long story short, the more detail you need to work in the more precision or power it requires to make the changes permanent.

For now I can on a small scale create alloys but for the changing metal themselves I do not have the precise control for that by a long shot. But I have also discovered that I can manipulate stone to a small degree. The reason that this is not really mentioned in the book is probably that not many mages have a magic sense that can pick up the low levels of yellow chaos magic contained in them. But because I can see/sense it I can manipulate it the same way as I can manipulate metals.

Anyway for now the only major thing I have done with my magic is the fusing together and strengthening of stone blocks. By the manipulation of the traces of metals in the stone or by adding some more I have made something like reinforced, compressed a fused together stone. In the end it looks the same on the outside but it is now as strong as a wall of granite made from a single stone that is reinforced by a steal rebar. Meaning it is REALLY DAMN HARD and it is great for the strengthening of fortifications.

Now back to the Karak itself and the building progress.

Housing level

• Canals (Bleu) > almost completed

• Pillars (P) > 1/10 completed

• Roads (Grey) > main road completed other roads work in progress

• Market (M) > 1/20 completed

• Housing (H1) > flattening out cave floor in progress

• Housing (H2) > Building walls and filing in floor in progress

• Gardens (G) > started small scale

• Park (W) > Construction not yet started

• Hot springs (S) > one small-scale bathhouse built

• Kill zone (K1) > largely done

• Outside Construction not yet started to keep a low profile

Housing level blueprint:

Spoiler :

Housing level fortress/palace (X)

• Royal family home (1) > Construction not yet started

• Royal square (2) > area flattened out

• Throne/ball room (3) > Construction not yet started

• Cannon towers plus walls (4) > Construction complete and personally strengthened

• Boiling hot springs (5) > Pumping station construction started

• Waterfall (6) > Pumping station construction started

• Royal library(7) > Temporary book storage built

• Hall of hero’s and administrative building (8) > Small office buildings

• Warrior barracks (9) > Temporary weapon storage built

• Gardens and “Nobel” housing (10) > Construction not yet started

• Training Grounds (11) > Temporary small scale training Ground built

• Pillars to support overhead ceiling (12) > Completed

• Private elevator (13) > Construction not yet started

Housing level fortress/palace (X) blueprint:

Spoiler :

Garden and storage level

• Animals and grass (A) > Small area for Mountain goats completed

• Burial chambers (B) > Small amount of graves have been dug

• breweries of ale and beer (BR) > Small scale brewing started

• Walls with tunnels and cannons © > Tunnels completed Cannons work in progress

• Elevator shafts coming down from housing level (E) > Construction not yet started

• Farmlands for grains and greens (F) > very small scale farming started

• Recreation area ® > Construction not yet started

• Storage (S) > Small scale construction/mining started

• Shrine (SR) > Competed

• Trees for fruits and wood (T) > Trees planted in a few areas

• Tanks and artillery storage area (T&A) > Construction not yet started

• Wine makers (W) > Construction not yet started

• still to come (X) > Construction not yet started

Garden and storage level blueprint:

Spoiler :

Mining level

• Karak army manufacturing and maintaining (Tanks artillery) (AM) > Digging stated

• Walls with tunnels and cannons © > Tunnels completed Cannons work in progress

• Elevator (E) > Construction not yet started

• Guilds and general Manufacturing (G&M) > Basic Manufacturing started

• Entrance to the mines (M) > Small scale mining has been started

• Ore Refinement area with massive blast furnaces ® > 1 of 8 blast furnaces built

• Special experimentation area (S) > Construction not yet started

• Tunnel from X on mining level to garden level (T) > Construction not yet started

• Still to come (X) > Construction not yet started

Mining level blueprint:

Spoiler :

In the past years the Karak has grown by a lot and the fact that we have come this far stands testament of everyone’s hard work and devotion. Right now we are experiencing happy times but we are not forgetting the danger that looms outside so we fortify and built so we can create our paradise.

Well back to what is happening today. Today we are finally going to activate the first blast furnace. We only finished it yesterday and today we are going to use it for the first time which is a very happy moment. This blast furnace is bigger than all the temporary furnaces combined and if our expectations are correct, the metal that we refine with it will be of even higher quality.

It took a lot of work to be able to start the blast furnace today. Apart from having to built the thing we also had to built coke ovens, rails for minecarts to deliver ore, cranes to carry buckets of molten metal, pouring stations, casts, tunnels for the supply of fresh air and the removal of exhaust/ carbon dioxide, mine the ore itself, get the stuff we need to combine with the ore, built ore crushers and a whole lot more things I can’t even remember anymore.

But now we are finally ready to begin. I get up from my bed and transform from my dragon form to my half dragon form and walk downstairs where Freda is waiting with Endar. We eat together and then we all go do our own things and we say goodbye. I walk to the elevator and go down with a lot of other miners. They all seem very excited for the start of the blast furnace today and a lot of the other dwarves will also come to watch.

Arriving at mining level I exit the elevator and walk to the Ore Refinement area. When I get there I can see that Grond and Duregar are already there together with some other dwarves inspecting the furnace for one last time.

Michiko: “Good morning everyone”

Grond: “Hey Princess, slept well?”

Michiko: “Yes, how is it going?”

Duregar: “Very well, we already inspected it yesterday so there should not be any problems but double-checking is always a good idea, especially if you are working with molten metals”

I then go help with the inspections and preparation over the next few hours until we start. As we are approaching the time we are going to start many dwarves arrive and we complete the final preparations.

Duregar: “Okay everyone please finish up so we can start”

When he said that everyone steps away from the furnace and some put on heat resistant clothing. I do the same but for me it is just covering myself with scales. Some minecarts go up the ramp and a large amount of coke is dropped in the furnace and the airflow is started.

Grond: “Princess please light the blast furnace”

I then breathe in a lot of air and then breathe out a torrent of fire, lighting the coke and kick starting the oven. Soon the furnace looks like a blazing pit of fire from the top and we start to dump in the crushed ore and some other compounds. The metal starts to melt and the impurities are burned away or flow out with the slack.

Luckily there are no problems with the blast furnace and everything goes well. After some time the smelting is done and we pour it into the molds for a cannon. After that we congratulated each other and most of the dwarves left going back to their work.

The rest of the day many of the dwarves went on with refining a part of the ore we had mined until now. But I meditated near the cannon molds removing a lot of the remaining impurities out of the mold, strengthening the cannon.

These cannons will be very important for strengthening the defences of the Karak. While they are not as good as the artillery of my past life but right now they are the better choice. That is for a few reasons, one they are easier to manufacture, and two inventing something like that all of a sudden would be very suspicious. Three “modern” artillery can’t really fire grapeshot and four the ammo is easier to manufacture. So for now I have decided to put it off.

After I am satisfied with the canons quality I look up and see that it is already late and that many dwarves have already gone home and that the night shift has arrived. I stand up, wish everyone a good evening and go home.

Over the next few days we keep refining ore and pouring them in different molds. For cannons, ingots, coins, plates, pickaxes, shovels and a lot of other things.

Year: 06-12-1715 (Imperial Calendar) (± Ten years and two months since hatching)

Location: planet Warhammer, Dragon Peak mountain

Michiko POV.

Today it is a quite normal day and I am working on the pillars on housing level by lifting up huge stones in my largest dragon form. I place the stone down on top of the massive fifty by fifty meter pillar so the dwarves can take the stone and put it in its place. The four pillars will really be a massive undertaking which will take years to complete (and that is with a lot more dwarves than we have now) but these pillars will protect the Karak from any future earthquakes so in the end it will be worth it.

In the break when i am meditating and secretly reinforcing the pillar, I am called awake by Norgrim.

Norgrim: “Michiko, Michiko please wake up”

Michiko: “What is it Norgrim?”

Norgrim: “Something is going on outside, one of our regular patrols has reported an increase in goblin activity and Endar wanted me to call you”

I think a bit and then signal him to climb on my back and I jump of the pillar. Gliding down to the office building and the crisis/strategy room. When I arrive I let Norgrim climb of and I transform to my half dragon form. Walking inside the room I can see that Bronn, Largs and Endar are already inside.

Endar: “Ah Michiko please come in, Largs please explain the situation to her”

Largs: “Well about half an hour ago a patrol returned and they reported that they have seen a large increase of goblin activity and patrols. This in itself is not so strange since it is normal to see more goblins after the monthly extermination happened. But this time it seems to be different because instead of a small increase and then returning to the normal amount the patrol reported seeing a lot more than normal and they don’t seem to decreasing. They seem to be looking for something and we can probably already guess what it is they are looking for”

Bronn: “Yea that one was pretty obvious. But we have a problem, we do not know the extent of their forces so deciding what our next course of action will be is hard”

Endar: “And you probably already guessed it but we want to ask you to do a reconnaissance flight so we can get some accurate info to decide our next course of action”

I look at them and I can see that they find it hard to ask this of me. They fully know that if I do reconnaissance above so many goblins there is a far higher chance of getting spotted. But knowing the importance of good information I nod.

Michiko: “I will do it but I can’t take anyone with me on my back that would hinder me if I have to make a quick getaway. If I go now I will probably be back tomorrow morning if I so I can fly under the cover of darkness”

Endar: “Thank you”

I then go with Endar to eat a bit before flying out on reconnaissance. When I was done many of the dwarfs wished me good luck with an awkward smile. I can see that they also find it hard to let me go like this and it warms me to see them care so much about me because I feel the same about them.

When I walk out the gate together with Endar and Freda, Endar puts his hands on my shoulders and looks at me warmly.

Endar: “Please be careful and come back, everyone knows it’s important that we get the information but we all love and care about you so again please be careful”

I nod and get a hug from Freda. I transform to my small dragon form and fly off in the evening sky.

After flying for a sometime I am about halfway to the night goblin Crag. As I look down I can see a large amount of goblins spread out over the hills and mountainsides. Flying over the goblins I try to get an idea of how many there are, for now I have seen at least five hundred goblins. Of those goblins many of them look like regular infantry but there are also a lot of archers and even a few Night Goblin Squig riders.

As I am flying around I see more and more of them. I decide to try and find the leaders and I fly to the more or less centre of the group. When I see a large group of goblins with higher quality armour I quietly glide downward to get a better look and listen to them. When I am about fifty meters above them I see, to my great horror that in the middle of the group there are is a small group of goblin shamans. While I am listening a goblin soldier comes closer to the shamans and I listen.

(stuntiez = offensive word for dwarves or more specifically their stubby legs)

Goblin shaman1: “So did da findin’ da bastrds?”

Goblin soldier: “ No we’z are still lokin for dez stuntiez, da stuntiez have hidden findin' dem take time”

Goblin shaman2: “Then work’z harder or da Boss will krump you, now keep yer feet goin”

The goblins soldiers then scurry’s off and the shamans grin. After listening so far I have found out that these goblins speak in a strange butchered off kind of Reikspiel. But luckily by listening I can understand that they have found out that we have been attacking them instead of a beast or something.

The goblin shamans turn to a small throne with a richly decorated shaman on top and that speak.

Goblin shaman2: “Boss worry we’z will findin' da stuntiez”

Goblin shaman1: “Yez an when we’z do we’s will kill and loot’z them all”

The shaman boss gives a horrible toothy smile

Goblin shaman boss: “Yes deyz stuntiez underestimatez us we will’s eat dem and take deys stuff, livez and home. We’s are many deyz are scared deys don’t dare to foight uz”

The group of shamans then begin to laugh. But after a few seconds the boss silence them:

Goblin shaman boss: “Looks like we’z have company”

He then smiles with an evil grin, looks up and aims his staff at me. Knowing I am discovered I quickly start flapping my wings to get away but while I am trying to escape the shamans start to shoot magic missiles at me. Looking at the projectiles coming at me I start to dodge and a lot of them fly just past me. After a few seconds a cluster of magic missiles comes at me and I do not have the space to fully dodge so I try to protect my vitals. As one of the magic missiles hit it scrapes of a peace of my side and another one rips trough my wing.

After that I luckily get out of range and I fly further upward and stem the bleeding with my refined chaos energy. I check the damage on my body and to my relief I feel that none of my vitals have been hit. Still I directly fly back to the Karak because there is a chance that the hole in my wing will rip further.

As I am flying back I observed the goblins I flew over some more and made sure to not leave a blood trail which would lead them to us. About halfway back the adrenalin has faded and I feel a large amount of pain from my wounds. Not being able to sit down and meditate to supress the pain I feel it all. But I go onwards to the Karak, toward home.

When I reach the Karak it is very early in the morning and the sun is just starting to come up. The guards see me, smile and wave but as I get closer they see my strange flying and lower their hands and their expression changes from one of joy to worry. I start to descend and try to slow down but because of the hole in my wing the air flows differently around me and I have difficulty controlling my decent, luckily my landing while a bit rough goes well.

But when I am on the ground the last of my strength leaves me and I fall down. Almost immediately I am carefully picked up by one of the guards who carries me inside and runs toward the hospital.

In the hospital I am put on an examination table and half a minute later the doctor comes running in who immediately begins to examine me. A bit later Endar, Freda and Alrika also come inside. Alrika immediately begins casting healing magic om me and my mind clears up a bit.

Freda: “How is she”

She asks and I can clearly tell she I worried so I try to answer to put them at ease.

Michiko: “I.. am…. Fine… I am… just tired…. from the…. flight and… blood loss… I will.. be fine”

Freda looks at me but not totally convinced she looks at the doctor who nods and they calm down a bit. I then slowly say:

Michiko: “Dad.. there are probably fifteen hundred goblins a lot of them are regular infantry and archers but there are also Squig riders and a few shamans. Please be careful and stay calm I will be fine I just need rest”

Endar looks and me and he seems to calm down but I can still feel a silent but brutal killing intent

Endar: “Thank you”

He looks at me some more and then leaves, I smile and let refined chaos energy run through my body to heal myself. I then close my eyes and sleep.

Character list:

Spoiler :

Karak Drakk residents:

Michiko: the main character

Endar: adoptive father of Michiko and King of Karak Drakk

Freda: wife of Endar, adoptive mother of Michiko and queen of Karak Drakk

Fimbur: old and wise dwarf and Loremaster

Norgrim: Endar’s assistant

Bronn: warrior leader

Largs: hunter/ scout leader

Dern: hunter/ scout

Duregar: leader of workers, Journeymen runesmithe

Olka: wife of Duregar

Thyk: son of Duregar and friend of Michiko

Vanyra: adopted daughter of Duregar and friend of Michiko

Grond: mining shift commanders

Alrika: Priestess of Valaya

Grim: Priest of Gazul

Heganbor: friend of Logazor and Gomrund

Logazor: friend of Gomrund and Heganbor

Gomrund: warrior, friend of Logazor and Heganbor

Karak Azul residents:

Dimzad: bookstore owner

Thorek Ironbrow: Runesmith

Chaos Gods:

Tzeentch: the Chaos God of Change, Evolution, Intrigue and Sorcery

Khorne: the Chaos God of hate, rage and bloodshed

Dragons:

Tyrennus: Evil/chaotic, location unknown (please put the answer in the comments if you know because I do not know and I want to know because it could influence Michiko journey)

Dwarven Gods:

Grungni: god of mining and smiths, husband of Valaya

Valaya: goddess of healing and protection

Grimnir the Fearless: warrior god, brother of Grungni

Gazul: Lord of the Underearth and protector of the Dwarf dead

Smednir: Shaper of Ore, son of Grungni

Thungni: Ancestor God of Runesmiths, younger brother of Smednir

Morgrim: Ancestor God of Engineers, son of Grimnir