"That would leave the back corner undefended though," Terran mused aloud. They all nodded again. "Let's go with the first idea. If they breach the walls we can all encircle the Mother Tree, but leaving that corner undefended seems bad."
"We'll start right now," the blonde elf said, pushing a tress of hair out of her face.
Terran watched as they stood at the base of the armory tree and sang to create a platform about twenty-five feet up the trunk. Much like building the wall, it seemed to take much more time to grow anything that wasn't coming directly from a seed. As the harmonies of the three builders wound around each other, two roots came out of the ground and grew parallel up the trunk of the tree. Terran was mesmerized by the growing roots, which were clearly creating a ladder up to where the platform would be built.
"Terran," Sythorn called out.
Terran startled, turning to watch the elf take long, loping strides towards him. "Yes, Sythorn. How can I help?"
"I saw you upgraded the weaponmaker tree. I assume that was so we could make more reach weapons. Lhoris and I thought focusing on making bows and scythes would be best for now. I will need feathers gathered for fletching arrows, and a stash of long limbs to create the scythes," Sythorn said like a general giving orders he expected to be followed.
"Okay. I'll assign some gatherers to help. Is there anything else you need?" Terran responded.
"That's all for now. I'll get some leaves from Ara to start making arrowheads."
Terran wasn't sure how they could make arrowheads out of leaves, but the elves never ceased to amaze him with all the uses they found for things in nature. He assumed the leaves were shaped and applied to a shaft before they hardened to stone. At least there was no shortage of leaves around.
Terran walked with Sythorn on his way back to the weaponmaker tree, but stopped to talk with Petram in his hut. "Let me know if you need anything else," he called after Sythorn.
"Ahh, Terran," Petram said when he entered the shaman's hut. "Busy preparing defenses I assume."
"I wanted to see what you need help with," Terran said. "I assume you'll need more healing herbs gathered."
Petram nodded. "Yes, and I would also suggest you get some loamers to gather as many hibernating shrooms as they can find."
Terran wrinkled his brow. "Hibernating shrooms? What are those?"
"They're mushrooms that release spores when they are crushed that put you to sleep. The loamers will know where to find them. If we got enough of them, they could even put a Crag Troll to sleep," he explained.
"Those sound really useful," Terran said excitedly. "I'll get everyone to collect them."
Petram adamantly shook his head. "No. Only loamers have the skill to harvest them without putting themselves to sleep. It's a very delicate task. Kumotake and Enoki may be the only ones trained to collect them."
Terran's shoulders slumped at the news. "Okay. I'll ask them to start on that." He sighed. "Any other things we should be collecting?"
"You can tell everyone to gather any bloodroot they see, but I will spend my time gathering anything else I need," he answered.
"Okay. If anything changes, let me know." Terran waved goodbye as he left the shaman's hut.
Terran spent the rest of the day assigning tasks to people. The settlement was a hive of action with elves gathering leaves and sap from the trees, creating armor and weapons, and building bridges and platforms to connect the trees. They were an industrious people who took their role as stewards for the Mother Tree very seriously, and Terran was filled with pride to watch them all work so hard.
After several days the settlement had taken on a new look. There were platforms above the leaf armory and the weaponmaker trees. Bridges made of vines woven into thick ropes were strung between the two platforms. Each bridge was made of three large ropes, one wider one to walk on and two as handholds at waist height. Smaller vines wound from the bottom rope to the handholds, creating a fence on each side.
Terran watched the nimble elves run across the bridges and wanted to try them out for himself. His heart raced and his sweaty palms had a death grip on the ropes when he first inched his way from the leaf armory. Being twenty-five feet up in the air walking on a few vines was not his cup of tea, but the bridges seemed steady enough. He took a few more steps and tried to quicken his pace to run like the elves. Just when he thought he had the hang of it, his right foot slipped off the rope and he fell, hitting his chin on the handhold.
As Terran sat for a minute, gathering his senses, he heard a small giggle from below. He looked down to see Enoki holding a basket of loam and mushrooms.
"Careful up there," she called to Terran. "It's a long way to the ground. Maybe humans aren't agile enough to be running."
Terran's face flushed as he used the handholds to stand up. "Yeah, I'm gathering that," he mumbled while slowly making his way back to the armory tree.
Everywhere there were piles of resources collected. Sheets of leaves filled the lines outside of the armory, and long poles were propped up against the weaponmaker tree. By midweek at least half of the elves were armored and had reach weapons. Lhoris ran training sessions with the entire settlement each morning, and Terran got nightly updates from everyone at dinner. The plans were progressing well.
Terran was noticing a change in the way the elves interacted with him. Petram and Ara had always been kind, but since getting the essence, leveling up the settlement, and making preparations for the defense, everyone seemed to be more engaged with him. They smiled and waved when they saw him, and were eager to accomplish any task he sent them to do. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be in charge. If it weren't for the imminent threat of attack, Terran thought he could handle being a leader.
On the sixth day after Terran's vision he decided where to spend the resources for building upgrades. He spent 3500 loam and 25 sap to upgrade the leaf armory to tier one and the barracks to tier two, giving everyone more HP, attack, and AC. Since the gatherers had been getting buckets of sap all week, there was some left over to use in the defense. Terran grinned to himself as he reviewed the settlement tab. Gneiss Glen was shaping up to be a nice place, and the elves seemed to be in high spirits despite the looming threat.
Settlement: Gneiss Glen (Tap to rename)
+20% defense
+25% attack
+20% damage
+20% food production
+10% morale
-5 days seed production
+5% HP
+5% AC
Level: 2
Fortifications: none
Bramble wall 1/1
Watchtower 0/5
Gate 0/2
Population: 30/75
Housing: 5/10
Seeds grown: 5/10
Days until next seed harvesting: 15
Total Buildings: 5/10
Barracks (Level 2) 1/1
Fungi Garden 0/3
Shaman Hut 1/1
Chieftain Hut 0/1
Orchard 1/3
Leaf Armory (Level 1) 1/1
Weaponmaker (Level 1) 1/1
Crystalline Conservatory 0/1
Aviary 0/1
Archery Range 0/1
Occupations:
Orchard Tender: 3
Mother Tender: 1
Armorer: 1
Captain: 1
Shaman: 1
Tenders: 2
Warriors: 5
Loamers: 7
Weaponmaster: 1
Gatherers: 3
Builders: 3
Resources:
Food Stores: 1400
Loam: 500
Healing herbs: 150
Leaves: 200
Sap: 15
Hibernating Shrooms: 30
Chapter Twenty-Five
On the morning of the seventh day since the vision, Terran made the rounds through the fledgling settlement, checking fortifications and providing morale—hopefully. While he was not of their race, the battle with the Spirit Bear and the returning o
f the first essence had convinced them that he was worthy enough to lead them. Terran had a lot of work to do to convince himself he was capable, but he ignored that for the moment, instead focusing on encouraging the elves when he walked through the trees across the bridges and platforms.
When he'd entered this game on his long sleep through the stars, he'd thought he would be adventuring with his friends, not leading a defense against a murderous horde of Crag Trolls. The part that worried him most was that someone, or something, was directing the Crag Trolls to attack the settlement. Terran worried that the shadowy figure from his vision was involved, but he'd seen them destroyed when the Mother Tree exploded. He hoped that whoever it was, they were less sinister than that ancient vision.
He found Luna at the stonespike bramble walls, feasting on the preacher bugs that liked to make their home in the tangled thorns. The mess of bramble stood eight feet high, filled with leafy vines and thorns as long as a knife. The stonespike bush was a cousin of the Mother Tree, so the spikes were the same petrified wood, which made them formidable defenses, but he worried they would only slow the Crag Trolls due to their thick hide.
"I'd think you were looking at Chanterelle, the way you're staring at that bush wall," said Luna.
Terran blushed. "I just want to make sure we've done everything we can against the Crag Trolls."
The gray lynx sat on her haunches. "Terran, and I don't say this lightly, you are not the worst human I know."
He screwed up his face. "And this is helpful how?"
"You could even say that you might, possibly, be at the top of the list," said Luna, who slapped down a paw on a wounded preacher bug trying to crawl away with two of its tiny legs snapped off.
Terran gave her a flourishing bow. "I am humbled by your effluent praise."
The lynx lifted her shoulders in a semblance of a human shrug. "I don't want you to be too confident before this fight. Everything is sort of riding on you."
"Thanks, Luna," said Terran. "Like I didn't have a stomachache enough. Would you join me on my review of the defenses, or are you too busy with snack time?"
The lynx leaned down and gobbled up the preacher bug, the crunch of the insect loudly echoing from her toothy mouth. When she was finished, she stretched back her furry lips.
"All done. See."
"At least I'm not hungry now," said Terran.
At the leaf armory, they met with Ara, who was fitting Kumotake with a set of leaf armor. The old loamer looked apprehensive about the operation.
"How goes the fittings?" asked Terran as Luna wandered to the bucket of sap and took a sniff, making a face at the pungent odor.
"I have one more after Kumotake," said Ara as she crouched next to the old elf's leg, wrapping the wet leaves around his calf.
"Are you sure I'm going to add something to the defense?" asked Kumotake. "Shouldn't these leaves go to making better armor for the warriors?"
"When we win this war, I want to have everyone healthy and alive afterwards, and we need every fighter. This battle could hinge on a single arrow," said Terran, even though he knew the fear in the old elf's eyes. He was worried about his daughter, who would be on the front lines. Terran was worried about Chanterelle as well, but he couldn't let her father know that.
"Need anything else?" asked Terran. "I'm making last rounds before the final defense meeting."
Ara shifted her lips to the side before shaking her head. "I should be good. After I finish with him and Enoki, I'm going to use the rest of the sap on the sticky traps."
"Excellent," said Terran.
Before he could leave, Kumotake said, "Wait, Terran. I just wanted to apologize, for my mistrust of you when we first met, and to say that you have been a boon to the tribe."
"No need to apologize, you're just concerned about your daughters," said Terran, surprised by the compliment.
Kumotake fiddled with his hands as Ara kept working, keeping her head down to avoid the perception she was listening in, even though it was unavoidable.
"I cannot say I am happy with her role as a warrior, but I am coming to grips with the fact that she has her own opinion, and that in service to the tribe, she is much better off as a warrior rather than a loamer." He lifted his chin as if he had more to say, so Terran waited patiently. "But, I hope you understand my desire that she not be with a fickle human adventurer, no matter how worthy you have made yourself, for the sake of the future tribe."
In the awkward silence afterward, Terran caught Ara making an epic eye roll from the crouched position, while Luna, who'd been staring into the bucket of sap, said, "Hey look, a beetle."
Terran cleared his throat. "Uhm, yes, well right now I'm focused on the defense of the tribe, so..."
He didn't know how to finish the sentence, so he let it trail off, and he and Luna beat a hasty retreat.
Luna growled a little. "The nerve of that guy."
"I think that's as far as he was able to stretch himself for the moment. He's slow to change, I guess," said Terran. "But at least he accepts his daughter's position in the tribe. That's a start."
"To think," said Luna, "I held back from pooping in that guy's bed again."
"Again?" said Terran, laughing. "Well, I hope you get the opportunity again. Let's win this war, and you can lay a good one for me."
"Anything for you, my fickle human adventurer companion," said Luna, trotting happily next to him.
They met Enoki coming up from the mushroom cave with a group of loamers, baskets in their arms. There was a lot of nervous glancing as they approached, especially from Kumotake's younger daughter, who couldn't seem to find a resting place for her eyes.
"Hey Enoki, looks like a good last harvest from the caves," said Terran, trying his best to project a relaxed confidence, but finding no easy position for his hands until he placed them behind his back. He heard a light snort from Luna, but kicked his foot in her direction.
Enoki cleared her throat and glanced back at her fellow loamers. "Are we really going to beat these Crag Trolls?"
"We must, we will," said Terran. "You have your part with the sap traps, right?"
They nodded their heads with nervous alacrity.
"You're going to do great," he told them. "I'm meeting with the others for the final preparations. After you put your baskets away, help Ara collect more leaves. We need as many as possible."
As the loamers ran off, Terran went past the barracks. The warriors, led by Lhoris, were practicing their fighting techniques for the larger Crag Trolls. The lithe elves, however hardy, wouldn't stand up to the massive beasties in a straight fight, so they had to use scythe-shaped hook blades for going after the calves and tendons, which were less armored, and would hobble the Crag Trolls for the remainder of the fight.
Chanterelle was with the warriors, striking at the log with her hook blade. Terran felt warmth rising to his face as he listened to Lhoris compliment Chanterelle on her technique, telling the other warriors to emulate the way she twisted her wrist at the end, which cut through thick troll hide easier.
Judging by the sun's location in the sky, Terran knew it was time for their meeting, so he climbed the vine ladder into the upper canopies. Crossing the rope bridges still required him to grab both sides for balance, unlike the Rock Leaf Elves, who scurried across with barely a wobble. He took a moment to look over the settlement, which was alive with elves in the final preparations for the Crag Troll attack. It was nowhere near the size of the empire that Terran had seen in his vision, but he imagined it could get back to that one day. He surprised himself when he realized he was thinking about the future of the settlement, and not just about finding his friends again.
This world surprised him in new ways every day, especially the depth and history, which he'd thought would have been tacked on as an afterthought. But the vision showed him that this world must have been online long before his cohort could join it. Before he could plumb the depths of that thought further, Petram approached him.
"The
others are gathered."
Chapter Twenty-Six
When he was in the meeting room that had been woven into the Mother Tree's canopy, Terran felt like he was standing in a wicker basket. The limbs formed overlapping weaves that let enough light into the room that they could see easily. He'd only been in the room during the night once, but they had a phosphorescent fungus they used at night.
The small circle consisted of him, Petram, Lhoris, Ara, Elia, and Kumotake, who wore his glistening new leaf armor. As the only human, Terran felt uncomfortable about giving a speech, but they were looking to him to start, so he cleared his throat.
"Are the warriors ready, Lhoris?" he asked.
The proud elf lifted his chin. "We will make the Crag Trolls wish they hadn't attacked us."
Terran gestured towards Elia, who represented the tenders. "How about the bramble walls?"
The dark-haired elf cocked her mouth to the side. "They'll only slow the Crag Trolls, and once they punch through an area, the rest of the wall will do nothing."
"Which…which is why we'll have to be flexible," Terran said hesitantly. "Defend where they attack."
"But we can't defend everywhere," said Ara. "My sap traps will only work if we can reach the trolls from above, but that's not everywhere around the settlement."
Terran's heart sank. This was proving harder than he thought. They'd had a basic strategy developed once they leveled up the settlement, but now that it was getting down to the wire, holes were forming in the plan.
"We need to funnel them into the ravine side of the hill," said Lhoris. "The footing is worse there, and there are bridges that pass over the end part that reaches into the settlement."
"We need to lure them in," said Terran.
The way everyone looked at him suggested that it was too obvious of a comment. He caught a sympathetic glance from Petram.
"But how can we do that?" said the shaman.
When all eyes were on him, he swallowed and blew out a big breath. "We can...I will...I'll enrage them, bait them into following me into the ravine. Me and Luna that is. Then Lhoris and his warriors can hit them at the bramble wall while the sappers and archers go after the trolls from the bridges."
The Stone Tree: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 1) Page 17
