The golems can’t really be upgraded so easily from one model of body to another. So we just made new ones out of the wood, its been a bit of a process of trial and error as wooden golems were considered an oudated idea but new materials resulted in some unforeseen results. The task was accomplished but probably not the most efficiently, but the whelps eventually figured it out. Also they might have burned about a hundred gold worth of the stuff just trying to get it to work.

The embassies have been attempted to set up after some negotiations and finding proper placement. Will be a bit before that all comes to fruition though what with some construction, fees, and traveling to be compiled. Though there have been no major issues thus far.

So it turns out that while we can send people who are less talented with mana to harvest at the coast to minimize their footprint, the problem remains that the mana they’re actually harvesting is what draws them in. Somewhere between five and fifty peasants were eaten, I haven’t taken a formal headcount yet. We do have defenses at the coastal setups but some of those monsters were a little on the larger side then expected – by an order of magnitude. I don’t even know why that thing was in such shallow water. It isn’t too bad as we can see them coming and move people to safety but progress is slow.

Also Sakki and Rakkel reached the castle bearing gifts. Yeah those people are pretty nasty, they killed Rakkel upon seeing her and almost killed Sakki as well. You should know as well as I do, killing Sakki is very very difficult. So even an ‘almost’ is pretty serious, apparently there was a lot of running around in the snow and Sakki only escaped through sheer dumb…okay through Sakki methods. We have reason to believe they intended to capture the two but they definitely were told to bring them in alive “if it is reasonably practical” if that is the case. They took the gifts though, it seems that despite how things have gone Sakki has managed to make a degree of contact with them. They are indeed subterranean experts, and not like us at all. We only lived in the tomb to hibernate until we could resurface, they seem to live down there full time. It should be noted they are technologically advanced compared to many others we have encountered out here, not quite to the degree as the reports from the Badlands but definitely a far cry from the primitives along the coast we dealt with.

Greetings Keeper! It is a glorious day for the Oda people. Iwanagi has continued along his voyage to the south, he’s come across two coastal settlements. One seems to be another fishing village, but there is also a long stretch of land upon which a fort style city stands. They have a lot of boats in their harbor.

Technically, we would have leverage over the isolationists if any of their vital resources were to go missing. With their secluded nature they are self dependent because they have everything they need, so if any of those needs go missing it would be a problem for them. In the example of Salt, while yes it would work but abducting all the salt unseen would be harder then just slipping a note to Katara that some unruly fellows are over yonder.

Also yes the troops we stationed at the fishing village are to remain there until they might advance to more notable self sufficiency in defensive options against the forest monsters. In regards to all the other economic decisions and projects, we did the things.

Also the Ballista project, along with a few others, are underway as we explore the properties of this wood. To which end our new citizens have been adapting well, it is fortunate our territory is protected by the mountains so they can see the area without encountering any ne’er do well beasts from the outside to sate their curiosity. Also Kyoko is just hanging out in Okushiri now that she has returned from her ventures if you should need her to do anything else.

Ankathi has marched on the village as instructed. Casualties weren’t too bad on our end and the village has been effectively reduced to ruin in the fighting as they put up a good effort. The men are in the process of being dragged back kicking and screaming.

KouKou ventured off and found a fort up in the mountains. They are…better defended then most we encounter. Them being a fort on a mountain certainly helps that. According to KouKou they seem to be a gang hideout for some people who primarily roam the badlands. I couldn’t help but notice that the area around this fort is desolate. We’ve found quite a few villages throughout the forests as it supports life quite easily, but there are no settlements in a rather vast radius around this fort, at least not on our side of the mountains. KouKou said they seem a tad dangerous.

The army upgrades will take a bit just to ship down from the north so try not to get into too much trouble until it does. To that end, negotiations have broken down. While Marilena has escaped Commander Neyth, a chunk of her army did not. She is on retreat to Tethalyn though it is proving difficult given that Neyth is a druid and we are in a forest. I suspect our lack of political experience has somewhat hindered us in these negotiations and perhaps we should have asked the Oda to do this.  To be noted, while Marilena is retreating to Tethalyn, Ankathi is still away at the other village so there is no reinforcements there for her at this moment.

((new hire cards will be a bit late because I got sick and just moped around instead of doing them))