June 2021 - Sheep Island

[staymods]

So Fluffy!

The first month on the island has been a lesson in patience and hard work. While everyone can survive on the island, it takes much more to thrive, and there are plenty of projects that will help make life on the island seem just a little bit fuller.

Through the efforts of several individuals, the first of those projects has been complete. And on the first day of June, a herd of 50 sheep in both white and brown varieties arrives at the settlement. They are quickly ferried off to Sheep Island, where the repaired fences and passable barn make for a good home. These sheep will prove to be important to life on these islands, Milk, wool, and mutton are now all available for use on the island, though take care to ration your use of each! These 50 sheep are all you will get for now, and if you want more you will need to breed them.

Along with the sheep come a pair of Finnish Laphunds, Jorkki (male, the black dog) and Taimi (female, the brown dog). They're trained up and ready for sheep herding.

The Skald

The sheep aren't the only new arrivals to the islands on this day though. A man in his 50s, with red hair that is starting to go grey, also disembarks with a bag of personal effects.

Once everyone is settled and the sheep are taken care of, he will give a gruff greeting: "Mauri Möttönen, Skald. I'll be here for the next month, surveying the area for hidden Troll nests and making calls for the Cleansers to come as needed. They said all of you were doing alright on your own, but if you have any questions feel free to ask. You're not the first Otherworlder settlement I've been to, so this is familiar territory for me."

After that, he will take his things to the Main Hall and set up a sleeping area for himself, one a bit of a distance away from everyone else. It seems that he was right about being familiar with the area.

Comments

[staymods]

...come again?

[He definitely heard it, but he wants to make sure he heard her correctly.]

[maidofmistakes]

[She winces.] I know it was dumb, I already kind of got lectured. But I just wanted to see if I could help out.

[staymods]

[He's got that 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed' voice here.]

It's not wrong to want to help out, but proper precautions have to be taken whenever someone leaves the island. If they go out into the Silent World, they're supposed to quarantine for two weeks. Did you do that?

[maidofmistakes]

I didn't actually go onto the island, but I kind of kept to myself anyway just in case... It's pretty serious, huh?

[staymods]

It's serious if you're not immune. And even if you are immune, you can still get hurt out there.

[maidofmistakes]

Okay, I'll be careful. [She bites her lip and looks away.] It's kind of creepy knowing there's something out there but not being able to do anything about it.

[staymods]

That's just how it is. There's millions of those things in the world, we're never going to be fully rid of them. The best we can hope for is to keep the settlements safe.

[maidofmistakes]

And we can't even help with that? ...Sorry. I know I shouldn't be saying that when we can barely take care of ourselves yet.

[staymods]

[He doesn't seem annoyed by it. Maybe a little tired, but not mad or anything.]

It's not that you're not helping. Just living here and making sure nothing comes back onto this island is already a lot, especially for how small the group is. And if you learn how to fight trolls, then eventually you could be able to clear out nearby areas yourself. But don't expect to save the entire world or anything. This world is beyond saving.

[maidofmistakes]

You mean... you don't think you could ever get things back to the way they were? Even though we're here?

[staymods]

Not back to how the Old World was. Maybe back to how this village was more than 20 years ago. That would be pretty nice, actually.

[maidofmistakes]

...You can count on us. I don't want to give up on doing what we can to help you. Okay?