(21.12) Even Bigger Problems (M'riel, Il'ran)

[kendrall]

M'riel knew his request for tree sap would probably confuse poor Il'ran. Instead of repeating his request, he simply gave the younger man a knowing half-smile and started to walk past him, giving him a "follow-me" beckoning with his forefinger and middle finger.

He led the younger man down towards the lower chambers, where it was much cooler compared to the relative warmth of his office. In fact, it was the very same chamber M'riel had been working in from time to time; the boat was still unfinished, but the "skeleton" was now assembled. M'riel hunted on one of the crafting tables for a moment until he found what he was looking for: an old piece of bark, and a few small hard-looking objects that were amber in color, roughly the size of peas. M'riel took the bark and dipped it into a container of water, and let it set in there until it was thoroughly saturated. Carefully, the Weyrleader set it on the ground, then placed the few pea-sized objects in the middle.

"When I was a Guardsman back at High Reaches Hold," he started, "I spent a lot of my free time with the woodsmen. That's how I became interested in woodworking. One of the old grizzled Master Woodsmen taught me something interesting about trees - namely, pine trees. They produce this sticky-like substance called 'sap', or 'resin'. When it hardens, it's pretty brittle if you hit it hard enough. But what he also showed me, was this." M'riel always carried his belt knife and a piece of flint with him at all times; he bent down and held the flint in his left hand and his belt knife in his right. He then viciously struck the belt knife edge against the flint as hard as he could, producing a spark with each strike. Finally, on the third attempt, he got the result he was looking for.

The dried amber instantly caught fire.

M'riel looked up at Il'ran. "Dried resin makes an interesting fuel for fire if you ever find yourself lost in the woods. So does liquid resin, but you have to be careful with it. It doesn't come off very easily from your hands. Now imagine if we had some linen or cloth soaked in the stuff, or had dried resin embedded into the fabric. If those Holders want to try to approach by ship, we can greet them alright. We can greet them with enough flaming arrows to burn their ships."

He then stood up, and stomped repeatedly on the small flame to put it out. "Liquid resin, when set on fire, is also hard to extinguish."

((OOC - Yes, resin from just about any evergreen tree will catch fire. And it's not very easy to put out.))

[Katlyn]

Il'ran blinked but followed the bronzerider as he led him down to the much cooler lower caverns of the weyr. He only stopped focusing on M'riel long enough to make a note to talk to someone about finding amway to keep the lover levels warmer, considering this cold would be with them for quite some time to come. But he drew himself from those thoughts when the arroved at their destination.

Il'ran knew it wasn't his place to ask M'riel what he was doing. And while he knew that satruated wood couldn't burn, he wasn't going to say that to the bronzerider while he knelt there, striking his flint together to get the wood piece to ignite. In fact, he was so startled when it caught fire the third time, he almost yelped, but it thoroughly stunned him to see it continued to burn, no matter how wet it was. So he was quite grateful at the explination that was provided to him by M'riel.

He understood the importance, and the meaning, behind what he had just been shown. "That should be something that we ought to be able to obtain from just about anywhere on Pern, then," he pointed out. As long as there were the right trees, it wouldn't matter where the riders we gathering it from. They could easily pick a forest in the middle of no where, owned by no one. And the forests here seemed to be flourishing, with no Thread to kill them off. "I'll ask around to see if anyone knows of a store at the weyr. Otherwise, we should only have to find ghe right kind of forest, yes?"

[kendrall]

M'riel didn't react when Il'ran reacted to the flame he managed to produce with the dried resin on the dampened piece of bark. Instead, he merely shot a questioning glance at the younger man, wondering if he'd ever seen fire like that before. It was a common element, fire, and one only had to know various and creative ways to produce it. Using resin from evergreens was one way of doing that, and M'riel knew full well there were plenty of those around somewhere. Hopefully, not too far from the Weyr itself.

Il'ran mentioned he would ask if anyone knew if they had any resin stored in the area, and M'riel shook his head after stamping out the flames. "Chances are it'll be dried resin, which is fine...but liquid resin we'd have to tap the right type of trees. Just about any conifer, or cone-bearing tree, will do; pine would be best, though. If we have some around here, that'll be the first place to start. Catch is, during the cold winter season it doesn't flow as easily as, say, during the spring season or even a brief warm spell. Anyway, the trick to keep it from hardening is to store it in a container that doesn't let in a whole lot of air. We'll also need some hardwood ash, and some sort of wax or tallow to work in to the resin once we have enough. If you think resin makes an interesting source of flame, wait until you see what you come up with when you mix in some ash and some tallow." He couldn't help but give Il'ran a devious grin. "Pine pitch. It produces a nice, slow, burning flame that's just as difficult to put out, but lasts much longer."

[Katlyn]

Il'ran continued to think for a moment, guessing he had seen the desired trees on their own island here, but not remembering entirely if what was exactly accurate. He would ask those more likely to be familiar with the plants of the island. Part of him wandered if the man who called himself the master guard here knew about such techniques, if he had ever utilized them before. Perhaps he ought to get himself a bit more acquinted with Dienon then. Considering everything he was needing to do, he realized just how many of the Weyr's population here fit the billet of "former raider". How that had come to be, he wasn't entirely certain, nor did he quite care. From what he could tell, all here were entirely loyal to the Weyr, and in the end, that was what mattered most.

"I'll ask around and see if anyone knows exactly what kind of trees we've got here," he finally said, nodding at M'riel's explination at the same time. "So...drill the guests on trading routes and weather in the area, arrange a meeting with all the raider born to see what all they know, find out about trees and tree saps, get the normal outdoor training activities moved inside where possible, keep everyone inside as much as possible, ask the other raiders when they get here what they know...Am I missing anything?" he said, though he had a full list practically written in his mind. He was mostly just confirming in case the Weyrleader realized something he had forgotten he wanted done.

[kendrall]

M'riel waited patiently as Il'ran went through his checklist. Find out what types of trees they had on the island, ask the guests about the trading routes and weather, get with the former Raiders to find out what they knew, find out how much tree sap they could get their hands on, get all standard outdoor training activities moved inside, keep everyone inside for as long as possible, ask the other Raiders aligned with the Weyr what they knew...the Weyrleader waited for his protégé to double-check everything, and he knew Il'ran had already missed a few items. That was fine with him, however; he knew the younger Bronzerider already had plenty on his plate, so to speak. There would be no need to overburden him.

"Nope," M'riel said. "Like I said before, Il'ran. Rule thirty-eight. Your case, your lead." He made a grand gesture with both hands, waving at the door. "Go. If you need to grab R'en, Kate, or Aquila to help you, go ahead and do so. If any of them complain, just tell them rule thirty-eight. The sooner we can get the information we need, the sooner we can get started on figuring out how we can go about obtaining the stockpiles to keep this Weyr functioning."

((Last post for you, Katlyn, then end))

[Katlyn]

Il'ran didn't think he had missed anything, but he knew the moment he got back to his own Weyr to write it all down, he would catch anything he had somehow failed to verbally list. It wasn't easy for the bronzerider to simply forget tasks like that, particularly not with so much riding on what he had to find out. He all but echoed M'riel when he said rule 38, saying, "Yes, I know," right afterward. He'd keep that in mind. This was what he got for wandering away from the Weyr an entire day to investigate something he'd seen in the distance though. Not that he was complaining.

"I'll get right on this," he said finally, moving towards the door to get busy. It would be a long few days. Right as he was walking out though, he turned and said, "Don't forget to tell everyone they need to stay inside if at all possible," and then left, closing the door behind him. That, after all, was his job as the Weyrleader, but he doubted M'riel would have forgotten to do so.

(and end )