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Uneventful night. No attacks, bug or otherwise. This world is fascinating. I have still not seen any birds or mammals. So far, all ecological niches have been filled by insectoids. I would worry about trace elements and whether we can actually digest the "foods" we find here...but what good would it do. We can either use it, or we will die. It is all we have. This insectoid dominance appears to hold in the water too. Several folks tried fishing yesterday. They were successful in that they caught edible creatures. On the other hand, I can't call what they caught fish. Form did follow function. The animals were streamlined and had fins. They also did not appear segmented, but had smooth, flexible exoskeletons. But they were obviously related to their land-based brethren. One happy note came when we realized that the "fish" might become a source for leather if we can't find something suitable on land. A couple of other comments on the flora and fauna: The flora, while not earth normal, appears close enough not to be jarring until you look closely. Fungi and fern classes seem a bit more prominent. The flowering grasses and grains are less common. I mentioned that Voodoo found fruit trees. They looked like apples, but had a pit. The taste was something like a crunchy strawberry with mango overtones. Weird but good. Better yet, no one who sampled them got sick. No one that is except Tigger, who sneaked a dozen for himself. He developed a well-deserved "green apple stomachache", and was assigned a week's latrine duty for his theft. I hope we don't have trouble with him. We are making progress. The flint tools are getting better. Small baskets appeared today. Our first building, a longhouse, is about half done. We found a willow analog. Its branches, once beaten, can be formed into withes for baskets or lashing. I sure hope we can find sinew-producing bugs. We are a long way from vegetable twine for bowstrings. We are working on a kiln, and clay vessels. We have a solid thorn kraal-style wall surrounding the camp, and running down to the river. The flint bed is inside. Our numbers have grown too. We are almost a 150 strong. The original Eight, minus Tigger for the week of his punishment, have become the de facto town council. I expect to hear rumblings of unrest soon. Voodoo has been put in charge of our militia. We will all have to train two hours a day, in shifts. We have decided on a Roman/Zulu model. We are working on squared semi-cylindrical roman style shields. Weapons will be a throwing spear, and thrusting spear ala the Zulu assegai. We are also forming sling and spear throwing auxiliaries. We will be a power to be reckoned with, if we have the time. Day 5 Major breakthrough: Someone named Jester made contact with the bugs. He can control some of them. He walked a couple of them through the front gate, and had them stand in place while they were slaughtered. The possibilities are staggering. Aside from food herds, we may be able to initiate crossbreeding programs. Whole new species developed to fill niches in our technology that we might not be able to fill through "normal" means. We have found flint, but who knows what chemical or mineral shortages we may run into. One that springs to mind is saltpeter. I don't believe that bug wastes will produce it. And even though we can get it from human waste, I'm not sure even large populations would provide enough for meaningful amounts of gunpowder. For that matter, we haven't yet found any sulfur deposits. Who knows whether we will find iron, copper, tin, or all the other basic materials (what used to be) modern society's building blocks. For that matter, will we remember all the steps? Only time will tell. Hope continues to grow. (It seems that Voodoo's name for the place has become official, by acclimation.) Other towns have started too. We have offered to trade flint for almost anything useful. We want peace. But are preparing for war. We are trying to develop a leather substitute. We think we have found tannin or something close to it the under-bark of some of the trees. It is amazing what simple things we miss: Adhesives for one. Lots of sticky substances, but nothing that seems to act like real all-weather glue. That leads back to the bug controllers. I am almost certain there is a spider analog here, probably in small, medium and giant sizes. When we find them, and if we can control them, we have what may be the world's best lashing medium. There are other possibly usable excretions. On other fronts: we have built a kiln, and have begun firing pottery pieces. Next we need to work on glazes. The giant beetles Jester brought in have been useful. The carapace will make good shields, or body armor. The under wings can be used for windows. The legs, if we are careful, will make good war clubs. Nice spikes. My guess, is that we will eventually be able to pull a "hoof to horn" on most of these insects. Day 6 Tigger ran away last night. Koshmar, who was on guard, also disappeared. They have been thick as thieves for some time. Now they have become same. Someone broke into the armory and took several stabbing spears, two quivers of throwing spears, and two complete sets of armor. Worse yet they killed another guard, RangerX. They left us considerably poorer. The council has declared them to be dead to us. We have posted a reward of a complete set of armor, or its equivalent value in other supplies anywhere in town for the head of either Tigger or Koshmar. I may go after them myself. The reward would be nice, but they have betrayed us. The council has begun to work on a medium of exchange. Barter is fine for exchange between two people, but for the town to prosper, we need something else. We need some item to act as a basis for our economy. On earth gold acted as the nominal base. No gold yet, we need something here. What? For the time being, we are using a labor for food system. Half a day's assigned work earns three meals from the communal kitchen, and a night's sleep in the longhouse. Anyone who wants to sleep within the walls must pull an hour of militia training every day and a shift of guard as the duty roster dictates. We, as a side note, we have been arguing about measurements. High levels of technology require precise and consistent means of measurement, not to mention the effect on trade. The argument is between the decimal proponents and the binary advocates. The latter are divided between the octal, duodecimal, and the hexadecimal groups. We are on a new world. There is no reason we can't simplify the systems of old earth. It makes good sense to me to go to a new number system. Decimal is traditional, but there are real advantages to each of the others. I lean towards the hexadecimal system myself. It makes sense to use the same system in time measurement. With 8-day weeks, and 4-week months, and an adjusted period at the end of each year, we can develop a fairly straightforward calendar. We would have a 10(16) hours/day, with 25(64) minutes/hour, and 50(128) seconds/minute. The duration the seconds can be of can be adjusted to reflect the actual periods, once we have accurate astrological measurements. The same goes for the number of days in the year, frequency of leap years, etc. Day 7 We have learned something new. Death may not be quite absolute. RangerX, or at least his basic essence, is back. He says his memory of his time here is dreamlike, but he seems to have the same basic personality as the RangerX who was killed when Tigger and Koshmar left. He even claims to have a recollection of the murder. He remembers making pottery, but he doesn't remember the actual pottery making skills. His weapon skills are in the same shape. He remembers our basic formations and tactics, but had to re-learn the efficient use of the weapons. There are ramifications here, but I am not sure what they are. The council has decided on an eight-day week for the time being. The old end of the week rest day has also been reinstituted. The week will be Firstday through Eighthday, with Eighthday being the rest day. It will be interesting to see how long the year is. Voggarth has begun making observations of the sun's position at sunrise and sunset. It will be interesting to find out how long the year is. We have yet to decide on the number system; though I suspect that inertia will triumph and we will have a decimal system, especially if it is put to a general vote.
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