Solo Of Digging and Descending

[Crylon Stonecraft]

13 Spring 519 Heading out onto the lot of land were the work site would be put up, Crylon took a moment to enjoy the sight of industry. Of worked materials to come, of sweat and effort in clearing the land. Hands at work, making something of the emptiness and waste that had been sited their before. Nothing but an empty lot with a ramshackle structure. A structure now gone, the efforts to clear the land almost finished. However one phase nearing completion, it would soon be time to begin the next. In the case of this land, that meant preparing for making the foundation. But it being Sunberth, Crylon knew before that could be approached the ground had to be inspected. Literally, digging holes and poking about in search of any tunnels underneath which might weaken the structure to go above. Any such tunnels might endanger the structural integrity of the building to go above, and would need to be taken into account when building above. Where to place weight bearing features. Where not to. What was needed in terms of the foundation, how it was set up, and if it needed additional supports. Looking across the lot Crylon considered what it had been before they began work. A common sight in Sunberth, for both used and unused land. A ramshackle building put together from whatever could be found. Perhaps where an actual building had been, but replaced bit by bit or left to fester like an open would till it was not truly a building but a vertical pile of garbage. Now the building was down. A good bit of its remnants hauled away, along with a good bit of the other excess garbage all over. The sun was just starting to peak into the sky, light enough to see the lot eye for his eyes. Today he wore a bit more than usual. Pants, shirt, a glove on his right hand, boots on his feet. He also carried a pickaxe and a shovel, for use in digging dirt and if he ran into any stone. That and the long rope ladder he had purchases, for getting in and out of the hole once he dug into it. But that was for later, once he got deeper. He had set aside some good bits of wood to use as pegs, which he could hammer into the ground to secure the top of the rope ladder. Then he could drape the excess into the hole before it got too deep to climb out of. Then there was nothing to do but dig. Taking the shovel Crylon picked a good clear spot which looked promising, he used his left arm to shove the shovel into the dirt. Right to push and guide, while his stronger left arm did the work for the most part. Throw the shovel full of dirt aside clear of the hole he imagined in his mind as his final product. Another dig of the shovel, bearing in, pulling up some dirt. Toss aside. And so on, and so fourth, for the next few bells till he had a hole about two thirds his height and he was having trouble climbing out. Doing so Crylon quickly took a break, relieving himself and getting a drink before heading back to the hole. There he secured the rope to the long narrow bits of wood he would bury in the ground. Winding the rope around the bits at the top which were open and meant for such a thing. One, two. Setting them on the ground. Then using his hand Crylon bent down and using his left hand pushed the bits of narrow wood into the ground like a hammer would a nail. Open palm of his left, quick push thrust of his hand and hammering the top of the wood with a blow that impacted the material and forced it into the softer ground beneath. Softer than the wood at least, but still a firm bit of ground. A spot of dense soil not good for plants. Another palm strike, and another, each one pushing the wood attached to the rope ladder further in. And then repeating with the other. With that done Crylon tossed the end of the rope ladder into the hole where he worked, about a foot or two distant from the edge of the hole to where the top of the rope ladder was pegged in. With that done Crylon headed back into the hole with his shovel, to continue digging. Though he knew once he got too deep he would need to find a bucket or something, or perhaps an assistant to help in bailing out the soil so he could continue digging. WC: 787

[Crylon Stonecraft]

It was several more bells of digging before anything else happened. A shovel full, stuck into the ground and pulled out, tossing the dirt free. He got deeper, past five feet when his head no longer crested the top of the hole. It was also a somewhat narrow hole, big enough for him to stand in and dig but little else. As he stuck the shovel savagely into the ground again, he felt something hard below the dirt. At first he thought it was stone, until he tried to dig around it, and found more. This second blow made the ground below him shudder, like he was standing on a dish and someone was shaking it. And he was the food, sitting on the dish. For a moment Crylon considered climbing out, when all of a sudden the ground below him gave. That hardness had been a beam he soon found out, and one precariously placed. His blows had dislodged it, and with that and his weight atop it which was quite dense with him being an Isur, it gave. There was a snap and break of rotted wood, and then the bottom of the hole dropped. If he had been a human, chances are something would have broken from the fall. As it was Crylon found himself lying on a dirt floor, his hands splayed out as he struggled to pull in air. Thank his tough Isurian bones, strong as stone, that he was only bruised and winded. It still took him a few chimes to get his bearings and breath and regain his feet. Looking about he saw signs of where he had come in, sunlight filtering in from above. His eyes were adjusting, and being an Isur were better suited for low light such as in a tunnel if his range was limited. He could see the tunnel going one way, and the other. Above he could see the cave in, a wooden support that had not been maintained, which had fallen in with him. The wood had snapped, and he had been unlucky to dig right down onto it. Heading over he felt the wood, and could tell it was aged. Worn. Not maintained, as he had first thought. If they were to build here, first things first he would need to update the supports, reinforce them. And the ground itself, to support the weight of the foundation to come. Which meant a spreading out of the weight for the weight bearing of the foundation, a vertical support to reinforce and connect the two, with a larger spread out piece to distribute the weight over broader surface area. Already his brain was tumbling into the design of such a thing, simple enough. A brute force tactic in holding up a building so to speak and keep it from sinking. On his feet, Crylon inspected the hole. The tunnel. Back to the hole and the sunlight coming down. The side where the roper ladder was... The ladder! Crylon realized just then that the rope ladder had come down with him, unbundling from where it had sat at the bottom of his hole. Which meant he could not be thirty feet down, not if the ladder was reaching. Though not far off, as there was not much of a tangle of rope at the bottom. His hole had been perhaps eight, ten feet. So he had fallen another ten, fifteen, maybe more. Eyeing the ladder and its orientation to the tunnel, along with the tunnel itself, Crylon realized that its length was more or less parallel to the coast. A good sign that it did not run into the ocean, or come out over it or such. No, it dug along the coast, at least in this spot. When Kelski had spoken of tunnels below ground before, Crylon had been worried. Worried about building in such an atmosphere of uncertain ground. He had been concerned there might be tunnels below, but he had not expected to run into one so quickly. Which meant... Which meant, the Isur reasoned, there surely were other tunnels along with this one. Heading off one way, Crylon could see the tunnel was more or less flat. A chime or two walk further did not run into anything, did not find anything. Back to were he started and a few chimes walk down that way, and Crylon saw more or less the same... Except... Except it was slanted. Slanted downard. This tunnel running below the land ran more less straight in this spot, but it was descending. And who knew what one would find if he went further. Letting out a sigh Crylon turned about, and headed back to his hole. That was enough for today, and he would need to show this to Kelski. Then they would need to decide what to do. Fill in the hole, or this bit of the tunnel? Reinforce it? Block over it once that was done? Or something else? It was up to her. Finding his shovel which had fallen along with him, Crylon began to head back up the rope ladder one handed. At the top he climbed out onto flat ground, the ground of the work site. And then for good measure, he pulled the ladder up. He did not think anyone would find it, but he did not want just anyone climbing out of the hole. At least not so easily. Not till he and Kelski had a chance to look around and figure out the next steps. WC: 924

[Orakan]

Crylon

Skills

● Observation - 2XP
● Logic - 2XP
● Architecture - 2XP
● Planning - 2XP
● Bodybuilding - 1XP
● Climbing - 2XP
● Mathematics - 1XP

Lores
● Architecture: Deciding where to logically place weight bearing features
● Sunberth: Underground tunnels mean extra labour and time when preparing a site for construction
● Lore of Sunberth crude and improvised construction designs and architecture
● Use wooden pegs to anchor and secure rope ladders
● Bodybuilding: Digging holes
● Using your Isur arm as a hammer
● Lore of falling into an underground tunnel
● Planning: Must prepare and fix all rotten support beams in the tunnels below the building site in order to proceed with construction
● Mathematics: Calculating depth

Comments

Another lovely thread Thanks for the read! Do let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade and don't forget to delete/edit your request in the grading queue.