chicgeek wrote:
Try on the pot that's the size of my head-could it work as an impromptu helmet, or would it just slide over my eyes and stuff?
...this is the best idea.
Now securely equipped with your new Pothelm, you feel a bit safer in braving the terrors of the old mine. At least part of your body is covered by metal now, which should protect you as long as anything dangerous is nice enough to aim for your head and not your flesh.
chicgeek wrote:
Take the lockpicks. Hmm....that flint and steel idea the Sarah voice came up with is clever. And it has me wondering....some cheeses are coated with wax-is there any wax around? I can't burn a wax covered cheese like a candle. Or... can I? But maybe with wax and or rags, I could make some easy to set on fire torches from branches later! It's probably dark in the mine.
Ok. You've got the lockpicks. Although with all the stuff you've picked up, you're kinda running out of space to pick up more stuff. You need a backpack or a pouch or something. Or maybe if you're going to keep bringing the Wind-elemental box with you, you can just shove stuff in there. It's certainly big enough to hold a whole lot. It's like carrying around a very chilly treasure chest.
You don't really know if a wax-covered cheese would burn like a candle. You think you remember someone saying something about how the wick of the candle is the flammable part, and the wax melts just because of the heat. But you don't really know for sure, so you guess it's worth trying? Anyway, of course there WAS wax. Swiss kept some wax in the cupboards for making some of the cheeses. And you know for a fact that there was always extra wax stored out in the barn, in the storage area. There's probably some there.
Sarah McLaren wrote:
I apologize for my assumptions.
Calcium carbide is not something you're likely to find since the technology to manufacture it apparently hasn't been developed. It is a substance that produces a flammable gas on contact with water. The tin cans were not strictly necessary; any container to hold both substances and channel the gas to the flint and steel (the discovery of the lockpicks and the knives means you now only need to find flint) would have been appropriate.
...buh? Gas flame water what? Ok, now the voices in your head are making you regret not being an apprentice alchemist like your old buddy Joule. Although HIS master skipped town with all the tools of their trade and now he's just left with almost nothing to do his weird alchemy stuff with, so you guess you lucked out a bit since you can pretty much make cheese if you need to with the stuff Swiss left behind.
Sarah McLaren wrote:
But yeah, make a torch. Make several. Is there any expendable firewood anywhere? Any old cleaning rags?
There's some firewood near the fire-elemental oven, yeah. It doesn't really NEED firewood, but when your primary source of flame is a tiny elemental that gets annoyed easily, you make a note to give him regular "offerings" so he doesn't burn the place down. And wood is basically his favorite offering ever. And there's probably some old rags in the barn you can scrounge up. You take some of the firewood just to prepare.
Sarah McLaren wrote:
If you add mix sulfur and lime (chalk) into the wax (pitch would also work) when it is molten, the torch will not go out if dropped in water. Use the fire-elemental oven and the pot for this, if you feel you have the time to spare. Be careful, because sulfur burns like the devil.
Speaking of which, it's used as a fungicide and pesticide so Swiss might have some (although seeing the cheese wheel, maybe not). You can't miss it. Nothing else is that yellow.
Really? You can use sulfur for THAT? That's awesome! They found some in the mine a few weeks before all the trouble started, and you remember people getting really excited about that for some reason, but you didn't pay much attention because you were learning how to make bleu cheese. Now you wish you'd listened in more.
In any event, unless there's some sulfur in the barn somewhere, you're pretty sure you're not going to find any in Swiss' shop. He seemed to have cleaned out most of the valuable stuff here. Sulfur's valuable, right?
Sarah McLaren wrote:
If you do find and use the chalk, have some left over for marking your way on the mine walls.
You know where you can probably find some chalk out in the village. There was an old school there run by a woman named Dusk, on the outskirts of town. Although they called it a school, but you never heard of any kids going there. Just young adults... typically coming in and going out at all hours of the night. They were there for a good six months and left about a month before the death of Mayor Maer. You don't really understand why they left, Miss Dusk was a nice lady and they really should have stayed for the Wyld Hunt's Dragon Blooded Pride celebration when it came to town just a week later. But there's probably some chalk left in their old school house, you know teachers use the stuff all the time for some reason.
Sarah McLaren wrote:
If the "Sweet Cordial" is what I think it is, i.e. distilled alcohol, you could use that instead of wax or pitch. Although you'd probably be haunted by the smell of departed spirits.
Of course, whether or not you do this is up to you.
Er, you aren't exactly an alchemologist, but you seem to remember your pappy telling you that Sweet Cordial was one of the best sorts of medicine there was. Then again, he calls whisky his "medicine" too. And mead. And rum, when he can get his hands on it. So you're not really sure. You guess you could TRY? It's worth trying.
Sarah McLaren wrote:
Also: wonder why, if Swiss liked his wine so much, it is being wasted on the floor instead of him. Consider the possibility of sudden abduction.
You guess that SORT of makes sense, voice-in-your-head-named-Sarah, but why would anyone abduct lovable old Mr. Swiss?
Sarah McLaren wrote:
Also rope. You will want it, if you haven't got it.
Agreed. Man, you really wish you had some rope.
chicgeek wrote:
Check out the barn, before I follow the sarah-voices other good idea, about talking to someone about the mine.
Quote:
Sarah McLaren wrote:
(After you're done here)
There must be someone in town who knows a bit about the mine and mining. Find out if there's anything you need to know or do before you go in.
Surreptitiously of course, so they don't stop you.
Ok, ok! You finally give in to the voices in your head and go into the mine. Not before grabbing some of the firewood you talked about before, though, and storing it in the wind-elemental box.
You are now in the Barn... there's a brief smell of decaying hay here, mainly due to the large pile of it in one corner, which is bigger than you are tall. You guess Swiss never decided to bale it. There's a bunch of stalls for animals, which all are pretty empty now, and a a ladder going up to the loft, where Swiss used to store extra materials and such.
Equipment:
-Pothelm (Worn on head)
Current Inventory:
-Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)
-Proof of Ownership
-Sweet Cordial
-Arsenic container (half full)
-Elongated Fruit Peel
-Wind-Elemental Storage Box (Held in both hands)
-Cheese Knives (2)
-some sticks of firewood
So what now? Do you explore the loft to try and find other useful things, or do you go find other people in town to ask about the mine?