Cutting a Path in the Deepwood Forest

[Chargul]

25th Brightening of the Second Cycle of the Month of Junctior in the season of Autumn; Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIV Post Fractum.

Sweet scent of falling leaves permeated the air in the colder east of Sherian. Chargul had been charged with creating supply lines and new forts and by the Aetherians he was going to do it. With the help of soldiers of course. Whilst there were forts to be built, rebuilt, redesigned and refitted, one of the primary objective for Chargul remained the successful implementation of adequate supply routes for the imperial armies.

In this event, Chargul required the assistance of every able-bodied man, soldier or civilian, who would freely pick up a shovel and an axe. They needed to improve existing roads to the Everdark Keep and they needed to create new, improved roads from thereon through the forest. It was going to be somewhat of a project, but the cheapest of its kind.

From his book on architectural design, Chargul noted how roads for heavy duty wagons were supposed to be built. It was necessary that the top of the road be as smooth and hard as possible. The lower parts of the road should consist of gravel and broken pottery shards, which should effectively create a buffer that would give the road a longer lifetime. For the moment, however, they just needed to dig a straight path. They could fill it up later once they had the time and figured out where the resources came from.

[Eyvind Redbeard]

Mounted upon his black Carmelyn Warsteed, Cencoris Eyvind Redbeard Avornmagor Björnsson, Acting Provost of the 9th Legion, was surpervising the beginning of the construction of the road through Deepwood Forest. The Architect in charged of the project had been given green card to whatever he wanted as long as things were well done. The 6th and the 7th Regiments had been ordered to assist in whatever Chargul wanted, they were there to cut trees, to dig holes, to build walls, to pave roads, etc..

To protect the constuction sites the 8th Regiment had been ordered to form a perimeter and prevent anyone from disturbing the works. A unit of the Carmelya Blades had also been assigned to scout the woods and find whatever spies or raiding parties of the enemy. To complement, a Cohort of the Silvered Blades had be stationed on the projected line of the road that was being built. They'd be the closest unit of soldiers to the workers.

A smile appeared in the Vagaran's face as he saw the men lining up and starting to work under the orders of the Architect.

"When do you expect to have a way open to the other side?"

He asked the Esh'lahier.

[Chargul]

Chargul looked around him at the surrounding terrain. He then looked at Eyvind and spoke "That depends, sir, on how much we care about the forest. Personally, I wouldn't advocate burning a path through it as a wildfire is more than we can handle. Furthermore, we might be able to use the lumber we acquire to help in our future constructions." Retiring back into his thoughts, Chargul attempted his best to give an estimate.

To himself, he began to calculate the estimates "We'll be digging a foot deep, for the foundations of the road, six feet wide. We'll need supplies brought in from Taralon to build the foundations and we'll make use of any stones or suitable gravel we find in the field. The road will have to be as straight as possible to give us fast travel and as flat as possible to give us a steady route. Hills and valleys shouldn't be too much of a problem in this area and any severe examples of such we'll have to circumvent, tunnel through or build bridges over, though bridges may present a strategic point too valuable and costly to have standing..."

With that said, he knew better what estimates to give. "...For every man at work here, twelve hours a day naturally with a full complement of food and water, we'll get about eighteen feet closer. As the men get some experience with a shovel, I think we can expect that value to increase, but that'll be offset by any natural variations in the landscape, not including trees." Taking up the plans that Eyvind had given him, Chargul quickly calculated the distance to Everdark Keep. That was the first destination from Taralon and from there, they'd have to start chopping down quite a few trees.

"I'm assuming I'll have a hundred men working with me, so that's a sixth of a Aelyrian mile every day. There's some twenty miles or so to Everdark Keep, though I'll have to get that confirmed, so it should take roughly forty days with a hundred men on the job." Chargul finished "They'll need food and water too, though I doubt we'll require much protection this far back. Their own weapons should be more than enough."

"Oh yes. I meant to ask. We'll be slowed down heavily by the forest, so perhaps we could ask the gagdeteers of Taralon if they had any nice solutions? Some good machinery could come in handy. I'd be willing to pay about a thousand crowns for every working design that could chop down trees faster than a group of soldiers."

[Eyvind Redbeard]

The Vagaran couldn't avoid a chuckle. Hadn't Chargul noticed the amount of men mobilized to this task?

"Mister Architect, you don't have one hundred men ready to work for you, you have ten thousand. I ordered the 7th and 8th Regiments of the Provincial Army to come here. You have enough manpower to open a path through Deepwood in less than a Cycle I think. No need to burn the trees, whatever wood you don't need send it to Everdark so we can store it for future use.

Haste is of the utmost importance, and once the path is open and the workers know what to do you should move to the Hills of Peda. We seriously need to fortify that region and then move to the lowlands of Sheria, between the Hills and the coast.

Chargul I trust in you to accompish your task in record time, war may start at any moment and without these structures we are at a serious disadvantage."

That said he continued watching the workers, if the Architect had nothing else to say he'd ride off to attend to other tasks.

[Chargul]

"Ten thousand?" Chargul chuckled "We'll have this road built as we walk, as long as the various commanders know what to do." He realized he wasn't quite familiar with Aelyrian military titles, so he figured commanders probably covered the type of people he was referring to. No doubt Eyvind was smart enough to understand how a civil architect could fail at knowing military titles and appropriately accommodate for such a lack.

"Still, as these men may be needed in the war effort, I will once again state that having lumber cutters, of any kind, from the gagdeteers would come in enormously handy once these men are needed elsewhere. Not to mention their alternative use as siege weapons. Do not worry, I shall handle that amongst the commanders of the regiment. Ride on, I'm sure other fronts need you at this time, we will work good and hard here." And as a former slave, Chargul knew the meaning of hard work. If he found any soldiers resting without permission, they would be punished. Harshly.

Leaving Eyvind to ride off, Chargul's first order of business was to calculate how long it would take. With ten thousand men, that effectively multiplied the work done by a hundred. From a sixth of an Aelyrian mile to sixty. Obviously, the men could not possibly wander that fast, but they would be able to make it to Everdark Keep in a single day and still have at least six thousand troops ready to proceed the next, with four thousand troops making it the next. The entire road network to the Hills of Peda and all the way on the western front would be finished before, similar as to what Eyvind had so boldly stated, winter.

And that was a good thing.

[Steve]

The 6th, 7th and 8th Regiments are devoted to this project until its completion.

Gadgeteers provided 10 hydraulic assisted saws to cut trees. Gnomes keep the saws in good repair. When the project is completed, the Gnomes resume possession of the saws.

Not burning a path added time. Obtaining proper tools for that many workers also caused delay. The magnitude of efficiently organizing and utilizing that many workers also caused delay.

The completed parts of the road are usable before the the entire project is finished. ie, when half of the construction time has passed, the first half of the road is ready for use.

The timber is cleared from the roadway and piled a short distance away. There is not sufficient time, labor and transport to move timber to other sites. That will have to be role played after the road is finished.

Until additional troops are deployed to guard the completed portion of the road, it is open for use by Orcs as well as Legionnaires until Adder may rule otherwise. The 8th Regiment has been posted as guarding the area under construction, not what has been finished.

The road will be completed on the 5th Brightening of the 5th cycle of Kalandryas, Winter Season, Era 1.

This is a subjective call that makes parts of the road usable immediately. Thus, the matter is not open to discussion because that would delay War Threads. Subsequent matters are now in the hands of Adder.

[Chargul]

Secrets : Due to failure to fix errors in this post: The listed regiments were not under my command and thus cannot work on this road. All construction work was ordered to cease on the 1st Brightening of winter, as mentioned several times prior to the post, due to FT issues.