Yvonne is back, and so she and Teemo are relaxing a bit. He demands belly rubs, and she’s more than happy to give them. I want to ask her about what her ranger stuff actually entails, but that can wait for now. She’s been on the road for a while, so I want to give her at least a bit of time to just relax with Teemo and not need to do anything.

I’ll also probably ask her to look around in the caverns and in the area by Violet that I’m going to call the aquifer. The various expedition wolves are getting unsettling feelings coming from both the aquifer and the underswamp. Right now, my worst case scenario is an army of undead from a piece of Neverrest that somehow managed to escape.

It’s also probably the least likely scenario, but better to be prepared. My most likely scenario, and honestly still pretty bad, is some unknown dungeon with scythemaws as denizens. Then the next couple on the list are other variations of ‘lots of scythemaws want to eat us all’. I’m considering asking Thing to try to make magical traps that I can trigger directly, but not yet. He’s got a lot on his plate right now.

The work on the axe has stalled a bit. He’s made some serious progress, though. It wasn’t difficult to make the quartz pickups, and not difficult to get it to make a separate bit of quartz vibrate with it. The problem is getting it to actually sound right.

We first tried just putting it in several different boxes, to see if the vibrations would work. It made sound, sure, but it sounded like a box with a big bee in it, not like an electric guitar. We then tried a couple slats of wood, trying to sound like a xylophone, but… well, it sounds like a xylophone. It also wouldn’t work to do a wide range of sounds with. It’d take an entire array of crystals and… keys? Do xylophones have keys? Either way, I’m not going to make Slash haul around something like that.

My next idea was to try a pipe and be more like an organ, but after the xylophone experiment, I shelved that idea. Besides, now that I think on it, it might come out sounding more like a kazoo than a pipe organ. And, you know, pipe organs aren’t exactly the most portable instruments either.

I do have an idea for an amp that could sound how I want it to, but that’s going to take a lot of effort. Right now, I have Thing experimenting with copper coils and steel plates, to help him get a better understanding of how electricity works. He’s going to be making a magical tesla coil, and once he has that running as efficiently as I need it, we’ll work on making it sing. If all goes to plan, it can be integrated into the tophat.

Slash is going to make a lot of invaders and hostile delvers wish they wore their brown pants, once he’s ready.

The ratkin have been working on making the axe itself, too, but they’re having some difficulty with the processes. They don’t have any problems smelting the ore, at least. They also don’t have any problems working on the alloy… kinda. Actually making alloys is a breeze for them. Smelting was one of the first things I had my ratlings do back when I first got them, before they even became ratkin, so it’s basically in their blood.

The real trouble is in making the correct alloy. They’ve been mixing various different steels, adding in various other metals to get it right where I want it, and Honey has been helping test the parameters.

I need a steel that hardens properly, so it’ll keep an edge, but not so hard that it’ll shatter from the repeated impacts. I’d like to make it stainless, too, but I’m uncertain how well stainless works for weapons. Considering the process involves an acid bath and… maybe electrolysis, it might be a bit too complex for a weapon. It might mess up the hardening, or might mess up the edge, or just stop being stainless once it’s resharpened.

Maybe some magic can make the weapon stainless, too, but Thing still has more than enough projects to keep him busy right now.

Another trouble the ratkin are having is that they simply don’t have a lot of experience making large weapons like an axe. They’ve made ones for chopping wood, or spears and arrowheads, but an axe is a totally different beast.

For starters, a classic double-headed battleaxe is big. Like… big enough that there are a lot of people who argue that something like that would have never been used in actual combat. Weight is less of an issue here, at least. Pretty sure Slash can swing something heavier than a battleaxe all day long without tiring out. The problem with it being big is actually forging something that large.

I think it’s going to have to be done in three pieces: two separate heads, and the piece in the middle. The middle will need to have the space for the pickups as well, and the three will have to be forge-welded together. I might be able to get some of Queen’s fire ants to weld them together, though… but we’re nowhere near ready for that.

And speaking of people getting ready, Larx is on his way to greet his soon-to-be fellow Dwellers. They still have about a quarter bar to go, but I get the feeling he has a lot he wants to talk with Folarn about.

He makes his way to the caverns easily enough. My denizens don’t stop him, and he’s still in my territory, so there’s not a whole lot of other potential trouble to come get him. When he approaches the enclave, the tarantula guards don’t bother him, and so he enters and looks around with an approving eye.

Aranya soon notices him and brightens up. “Larx! I didn’t expect you’d come visit!”

Folarn simply eyes the elderly ratkin as he approaches, using his staff/scepter/whatever as a walking stick. I can see her tense slightly, though none of her arms move for the axe on her back. I guess she’s not going to let the grandpa schtick get her guard down.

Larx, for his part, utterly ignores her tension, and smiles at her like she’s his daughter. “Folarn, right? Aranya has said so much about you! She was instrumental in helping my fellow ratkin ascend to dweller status, you know.” He smiles and looks around. “Looks like your people are growing strong quickly.”

Folarn slowly nods, still cautious of the ratkin that smells so strongly of magic. Seeing as it’s my magic, though, she’s not hostile. “Yes. I take her advice when I feel it will work for us, and refuse when it won’t.”

Aranya chuckles at that and nods. “I think it’s about 50/50. I’ve tried to push a couple times, but the decision really is on her and her people. Thedeim doesn’t like to force a specific choice on someone, after all.”

Larx and Folarn both nod at that, and the tarantula lady speaks up. “The Weaver adapts to the situation at hand, instead of forcing the situation he might prefer.”

“Indeed!” says Larx with a wide smile. “I might have to come down here more often just to discuss theology, Ms Folarn. As it is, though, I came more to ask you about what you have on your back.”

She gives him an odd look, but takes the axe from her back to hold in her hands. “Why?”

“Because Lord Thedeim wishes to make something similar for one of his scions, and has asked my enclave to try our hands at it. He wishes one made of metal, rather than stone, as well as some other differences.” He shakes his head as he avoids getting off topic. “My point is: you've made one already, so you know at least the basics. Together, our people could forge the artifact Lord Thedeim wishes.”

Folarn seems to weigh her axe along with the decision. She looks around the enclave for a few seconds, before focusing back on Larx and nodding. “We will do this. We will build forges down here together. You will teach us to use them, we will make weapons and armor, and this axe the Weaver desires. Your people are the intricate swirls of fine threads in the weave. My people are the thicker strands of support and strength. Without both, the tapestry would be lesser. Together, the Weaver makes us more.”

The other two smile at that, and soon Folarn and Larx are talking shop about forging and weaponsmithing. I expect they’ll probably talk about their ceremony for becoming true dwellers, too, so I let them have their fun. I let my mind wander with the implications of what Folarn said about the spiderkin.

I was actually getting a little worried for them. They’ve been growing more militant, and I was afraid they’d go full skull throne on me. Thankfully, they seem to appreciate the finer things in life, even if they seem to feel they can’t produce them on their own. I’m going to need to have Aranya remind them about their weaving. I don’t mind them wanting to take up a position as strong support, but I don’t want them to think they can’t have a softer side, too. Just like with the steel I need, if the spiderkin are too hard, they’ll shatter.