"It will not always be summer; build barns" -- Hesiod

As always, I got started by tackling those projects I thought I had a handle on already, always hoping for inspiration to strike on the less defined pieces. I had encountered the remains of what I had taken to be a barn in my original surface explorations, but there wasn't really a lot of it left besides some foundation stones and low walls marking out the basic floor plan. Most of it had been wooden, judging by the amount of ash and charcoal. I'd gone ahead and mimicked the floor plan of the original structure – realigning the two rooms into a more accurate representation, with one room growing to match the main barn space and the second shrinking to match the tackroom in the back.

I considered adding live animals, particularly an aurochs or two, but the original barn had clearly been intended for horses (so maybe stable was a better term?) and I was trying to keep at least mostly true to the archaeological evidence. I raised the ceiling of the room to what seemed a plausible height, given the size of the horses they'd raised and even added a hayloft. The barn/stable had a low stone foundation wall that defined the physical extent of the dungeon room; the wooden side walls were a bit misleading, as they were mostly a decorative facing on the actual stone of the dungeon walls. There were four stalls on each side, facing out onto a large open central space. A feed bin was immediately to the left as one entered, and to the right there was a large rack of agricultural implements ranging from rakes and scythes to hoes and even a small horse drawn plow. The stalls dominated the majority of the barn, but as one approached the rear and the entrance to the tack room, there was additional space including a hand pump (and that had taken some work to acquire a blueprint for), buckets, and water trough on one side. The pump only led to a small reservoir of water I'd created, rather than reaching any actual water table or flowing water – just enough to appear functional. On the other side, I placed an array of curry brushes and cleaning equipment. Those other elements were easier to secure blueprints for, though the quality was fairly low, on average, presumably due to my haste and lack of real interest.

Blueprint Received: Simple Rake

Blueprint Received: Simple Steel Scythe

Blueprint Received: Simple Steel Hoe

Blueprint Received: Simple Iron-plated Plow

Blueprint Received: Simple Screw Pump

Blueprint Received: Crude Wooden Bucket

Blueprint Received: Crude Straw Broom

Blueprint Received: Crude Scrub Brush

Blueprint Received: Crude Curry Brush

I'd installed only two Greater Warhorse skeletons (to generate the assumption that the ones in the paddock and farrier shop also lived here and to avoid a major fight) in the stalls themselves – carpeting each stall with a layer of wood chips and stocking them with hay and some barley for atmosphere.

Up in the hayloft, I'd left a pair of lesser skeletons, each armed with a simple pitchfork.

Blueprint Received: Simple Iron Pitchfork

They wouldn't be hard to defeat for most parties, but scaling the ladder to get to them would be problematic if they knew adventurers were coming. As a reward for defeating them, each skeleton carried a small coin pouch with a couple of silver coins each. And for the truly thorough searcher, there was a small set of earthenware cups tucked in the corner and hastily concealed below some hay with a full jug of whiskey, a set of dice made from mastodont ivory, and two short stacks of copper and silver coins.

Blueprint Received: Dwarf Mastodont Ivory Dice

In my continuing efforts towards verisimilitude, the scenario was one of farmworkers taking a break to drink and gamble in the hayloft. I hadn't actually seen any evidence of dice in this world, as yet, but I was willing to bet, so to speak, that they existed in a recognizable form. Gambling is a fairly universal practice in my old world, after all, and I assumed this one wasn't THAT different. It may have varying degrees of social acceptance, but it almost certainly exists. Having them hide the evidence might indicate they were doing something socially unacceptable, but that might just be skipping out on their work, after all. It was mostly just to amuse myself and to provide a reward, but if the adventurers wanted to get drunk and gamble, all the better for me.

In the tack room, I placed a greater cavalry skeleton to be their boss. This one had a cavalry sabre, as well as a gold armband and a coin pouch with 5 silver and 10 copper coins. I should note that at present, I had no blueprint for Aubesan imperial coinage, so these were simply small coins of the mostly pure metal (about .900 for you collectors out there) stamped with the symbol I'd placed on the entry shrine for myself on both sides. I did hope to eventually swap these out for more authentic looking coins (though I'd keep a small mintmark of my own to avoid simple forgeries). I wasn't sure if the local authorities would care, but I'd try to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

That seemed like plenty for a barn, so I left it at that -- aside from throwing in a variety of simple halters, bridles, pads, and a couple of saddles. I didn't have blueprints for those either, but I could at least model them after the burned example I'd found in the original barn to fill out the tack room.

Blueprint Received: Aubesan-style Cavalry Saddle

Blueprint Received: Simple leather halter

Blueprint Received: Quilted Cotton Saddlepad

Blueprint Received: Simple iron bit/ leather bridle

Pausing briefly, I checked in on Hakdrilda. I didn't think that any of the work I was doing would be a particular distraction for her, since there didn't seem to be any inherent noise or lights that went with acts of dungeon creation. I did wonder about that a little, figuring that if nothing else the displacement of air should generate a breeze and maybe a little popping noise, but no - whatever dimensional tricks were involved with the process seemed to take care of that. I was a little disappointed not to get a *bamf* and a little cloud of smoke, but it is what it is.

And I was correct to assume that she wouldn't notice the change, busy as she was with taking some initial baseline readings of both the airflow and manaflow in her dedicated lab space. Apparently, she'd had enough of poring over my basic textbooks and decided to get stuck in on her experimental work – or at least, set the space up to do so. Having learned from my first attempt that I needed to draw her attention to the logbook if I wanted to communicate, I had relocated it to a small shelf between her sleeping space and her lab space and placed a fairly bright mana light above it.

I expended some effort to write a quick note, then triggered the light to blink steadily. Ironically, she still noticed the disruption to the manaflow of the room before registering the blinking light.

"Hmm. Good morning, Vay. Can you please turn off the blinking light? It's throwing off my readings. Oh! It's telling me I have a message, right? I'll go look, if you'll turn off the light."

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Satisfied that my system had worked, however circumstantially, I turned off the light and awaited her attention.

Logbook Entry: The rooms the priests stayed in have been turned into a barn. The skeletons there will not attack you.

"Ah. Thank you for the notice. I will take a peek in a few minutes, but I promise not to damage anything. If you have some time later in the day, I may ask you to perform some simple tasks so I can take some basic readings. Will that be okay? The Redcrests haven't arrived yet, have they?"

Logbook Entry: Not yet, but the first probably in the next day or two. Afternoon tests should be okay. Working to finish second floor.

I stopped the conversation at that point, figuring that she might need directed input in that later session. I didn't bother warning her about the new traps, since I'd just put them all in safety mode for the time being.

Instead, I went back to work on the second floor, pausing to consider the suggestions that Norfoth and Hakdrilda had made during his visit. Given the number of visitors I was beginning to receive, and my apparent need for periodic socializing, I actively considered converting those first three rooms around the second-floor entrance into a brewery/bar/restaurant. I didn't really have the blueprints to make that work very well, though I supposed I could slowly improve the array of offerings. I'm a decent cook (or I was), but trying to use raw ingredients and skeletal hands to do so sounded like too big a challenge for the moment; I really have bigger concerns to devote my attention to than piloting a skeleton around the kitchen. Plus, I wasn't at all sure people would eat anything apparently produced by the undead. Similarly, I could construct a brewery easily enough but making one appropriate to the setting was a stretch, and actually brewing things would have the same issues as cooking. A bar would be a bit simpler, but literally all I could serve at the moment was dwarven lager and whiskey – which is likely NOT what workers in the Aubesan empire would have been drinking, at least not most of the time.

I considered some specialized production areas as well – ranging from an olive oil pressing room to a fumarium for smoking amphorae of wine – but those seemed a stretch for the first rooms of the level. In the end, I went with rather more basic production areas – from west to east, a potter's workshop with a small kiln, a carpenter's workshop, and a masonry shop.

Once again, I suffered from a lack of appropriate tool and material blueprints, but they mostly weren't too difficult to obtain. In the potter's workshop, most of my effort went into generating a throwing wheel and the kiln itself. I wasn't really convinced that either was particularly well made, but a basic foot pedal wheel was simple enough. The kiln was trickier, as it probably should have been an outdoor structure, but a fairly simple keyhole kiln with an abnormally long chimney and unnaturally assisted airflow allowed for a basic firing, if I really wanted to.

Blueprint Received: Basic Potter's Foot Wheel

Blueprint Received: Basic Keyhole Kiln

Other potters' tools were pretty basic, ranging from simple wooden shapers to small knives, and smooth burnishing stones. They were, in fact, simple enough that the burnishing stones and knives warranted no new blueprints, and the shapers got a fairly generic one covering some variation.

Blueprint Received: Basic Wooden Clay Shapers

To find actual clay, rather than already fired pottery, I had to send a badger scouting up along the streambed until it found an appropriate deposit.

Blueprint Received: Fine Gray Clay

I stocked the carpentry shop with an assortment of sturdy wooden tables, knives, files, hammers and handsaws, and a selection of artificially cured woods from most of the tree varieties I had available.

Blueprint Received: Simple Wooden Mallet

Blueprint Received: Small Iron Hammer

Blueprint Received: Small Steel Handsaw

Blueprint Received: Small Steel File

Some things I still needed to produce from scratch – and I had my doubts about their quality. In that category, I'd include the planer, clamps, and small nails. The nails, like the knives, turned out to count as simply variants of an existing blueprint.

Blueprint Received: Simple Steel Planer

Blueprint Received: Iron C-clamps

Other things, I simply had to omit for the moment, not really having the time or knowledge to produce effective wood glues or finishes, for instance.

The masonry shop wasn't much different, really, though the tools ran more towards larger hammers and chisels and a smaller selection of raw materials. This particular shop was better set up to produce flagstones or foundation stones, rather than any sort of finer work.

Blueprint Received: Small Steel Chisel

**********************

I'd just managed to build out most of this by mid-afternoon, and decided I'd wait on adding creatures, traps, and resources until after I'd stopped by to work with Hakdrilda. She had finished up her initial setup and had paused for a late lunch involving some sort of crackers, hard cheese, dried sausage, and preserved cabbage, along with a warm beer. Hard on the digestive system, one would think, but basically non-perishable. She was tidier eating than some of my other guests but deliberately laid out small samples of each item for me to absorb.

Blueprint Received: Dwarven Soda Cracker

Blueprint Received: Daekaran Goat Cheese (hard)

Blueprint Received: Daekaran Spiced Goat Sausage (hard)

Blueprint Received: Dwarven Preserved Cabbage

The beer seemed to be the same lager I'd already received. Interestingly, none of the other items seemed to warrant the brand names on some of the other foods provided, so perhaps they were homemade or simply cheap and generic. I could believe either, easily enough.

Her mood seemed a bit sour, and I wasn't sure if she was doubting some of the decisions she'd made in getting this far, or whether the limited sleep and basic diet were beginning to affect her. It was possible that her initial readings were also giving her issues, but she'd seemed happy enough while jotting notes on those earlier.

Still, she seemed to shake off her bad mood by throwing herself back into her work.

"Alright Vay, I appreciate your assistance, and I thought we might start by having you absorb some blueprints of the materials I've brought for you. I figured we'd start with the pantry staples, a bit at a time, so if you run into any trouble, it won't be especially problematic. I thought we could place items into this sealed, mana-neutral crystal box, and that way, as you're gaining blueprints, I can collect some data on how dungeon absorption and creation works in terms of both mana flow and airflow. There's been some debate about that in the past; are you converting air or stone into other materials, generating them in some other space and bringing them here complete, or are you generating them here from pure mana? I'm going to weigh out 15 grams of each thing I give you, place it into this box, and then seal it. At which point, if you would absorb the sample, I will take readings on the variations. The crystal box is rated to withstand significant pressure changes, so even if you remove the air, it shouldn't break – at least with these small samples. We might try it again later with the box filled with water, rather than air, as well."

I already had some of the answers for her, having discovered long ago that I could either convert materials from one thing to another or generate them purely from energy, but was happy to play along here while absorbing some new blueprints.

The pantry staples would look familiar to anyone who planned longer trips to places where shopping for fresh foods was impractical and refrigeration wasn't expected. Mostly it comprised an array of dried meats, fruits, and vegetables along with hard cheese, potatoes, rice, flour, oatmeal, dried noodles, and the like, along with containers of salt, beet sugar, and a vegetable oil of some sort. Canning didn't seem to be available, at least at an industrial level. Some of those items were new and provided blueprints, while others weren't. It wasn't terribly diverse, but if she could supplement it with some basic foraging, she'd be fine. Or, of course, I could just help her out with fresh produce and meat, if I opted to – and I expected I would.

The tests were a bit more interesting, at least to her, though she had no ready explanation for why the air pressure in her test chamber didn't vary – either when I absorbed materials or when I recreated them. I believe the term she used, under her breath, was "dimensional fuckery". I was enjoying her running commentary, though I'm pretty sure she'd almost forgotten I was an active participant and not a piece of test machinery. I'd never been much for colorful language myself, but you aren't going to find any archaeologists who are easy to offend with rough talk, at least, unless offending was the intention.

The mana flow experiments were more useful to the both of us, and I burned a few more lines in my logbook to demonstrate that I could both convert the air and other materials in the chamber into small amounts of different materials or simply generate materials from the ambient mana. The first option required less mana than the second, by a significant amount, and Hakdrilda certainly thought that made sense, though she was surprised at my degree of control.

We stopped after a few hours, as she had enough data to work out some rough estimates, and I had some other tasks to complete.

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