Civilization

Chapter 77 -  Scutum

"Old man Hus! Are you ready?"

I call out to old man Hus once I got closer. His beaming expression told a thousand worlds. I had Lime prepare another fire nearby as well as all of her black glue sticks as well ready to soften the glue at a moment's notice to begin the sticking process.

The original scutum is slightly convex however, bending wood requires a bit of time as well as resources. Creating clamps to hold down the wood as it glues together as well as build frames and molds of the shape would increase the amount of time to create the shield. 

In response to this, old man Hus suggested we make a straight shield and section it into three parts both vertically and horizontally. I start off by gathering three planks of wood and setting them elevated between two stacks of wood, with only the top and bottom of the planks touching the planks. 

"Lime start melting the first glue. Make sure to stop before it gets too runny."

"Okay!"

Once Lime had melted the glue it was time to apply it. Carefully I run the tip of the glue stick alongside the side of the plank. A black line appears on the plank running all the way from top to bottom. I let old man Hus push the two planks together while I apply the glue on the third plank. Lime watches over our shoulders curious about the whole process. Why she had heard the conversation between me and old man Hus she did not understand it fully and proceeded to bombard old man Hus with questions after I left.

The rhythmic sound of a wooden hammer slowly fills the atmosphere. Old man Hus, after pushing the two planks together was softly hitting the side of the planks. A method to ensure that both planks are properly touching. I could see small dots of black glue popping out of the side where old man Hus scraped away using a small flat stone. Applying the glue in places where the wood does not align perfectly.

I never took into account that the wood would not be perfectly touching and thus didn't have a plan to cover up the small cracks and gaps but it seems like I didn't even need to worry about it. Using glue as putty he fills the holes with the excess glue and he repeats this process with the third plank creating the first layer of the shield. 

Without even finishing one stick of glue we had already finished one layer but now onto the next. The second layer is horizontal pieces of wood, 4 pieces all together and they were smaller in size as well since the shield is rectangular. 

I apply the glue alongside one of the flat sides. Using up the rest of the glue stick and making Lime melt another one. I carefully place it at the top of the first layer and once again old man Hus prefects the piece, hammering it down and scraping away the excess. The second, third and fourth pieces were the same process applying the glue on a flat side as well as one of the long sides.

With the second layer done it was finally time for the last layer. The process is mainly the same as the second layer just with longer planks. The whole process of making the shield took about an hour or so, however, the glue had not dried yet and we were leaving the shield on top of the stack of wood to dry. 

Throughout the rest of the day old man Hus and I kept gluing planks of wood together and even allowed Lime to glue some together as well. Altogether we were able to make 5 shields, not enough for every goblin but with what we had I thought we did very well.

For some reason, I was unable to see the specs of the shield. Does that mean it is still incomplete? Then I realized it, I hadn't placed a handle…

"Old man Hus, I forgot to put a handle in the design of the shield…"

"Lad, I know. Don't worry I have a solution."

With some of the smaller pieces of wood that were cut from the log, I saw old man Hus use a hand drill and create two holes on the back of the shield. Putting some of the glue in the hole and then inserting a wooden pole into it securing it with more glue. Connecting the two poles was another wooden pole and more glue but he also secures all three poles using small thin vines, creating a wooden handle at the back of the shield.

"What do you think lad?"

I pick up the only shield with a handle after hearing old man Hus's question and I smile at him.

[ You have created a shield. Please give it a name. ]

"Old man Hus, I think this shield is great. As for the name is it okay if I give it a name?"

"Of course, lad. I don't care too much about that stuff anyway."

"Great, then from today onwards, the shields created with this process will be called Scutum. After all, I wasn't the first person to create a shield like this, the Romans had already created it millenniums ago."

[ Scutum 

Defense: 25

A shield created by layering wooden planks on top of one another. 

Made by Ian, Hus and Lime ]

Satisfied by our work I got to chopping more planks with old man Hus while telling Lime to gather more tree sap to make more glue. The amount of glue used in the process was far exceeded expectations. Unknowingly I had to continuously add more glue to the wood in order to stick them together. 

This is still the first version of the shield and I already have ways to improve it including the addition of a spindle-shaped boss in the middle of the shield to allow another form of attack when bashing the shield on the enemies. Furthermore, adding leather or canvas in between the layers and on the outside will further increase the defense and strength of the shield as well as make the shield convex in shape.

But for now, this was enough. Luckily for us, there has been no development in the situation with the stone monsters and the other players. With Celine, the goblins and the wolves guarding the only entrances to HavenFall, if there were any disturbances then I would have known by now.

Gobi is constantly instructing the goblins in the forest to move to places around the forest slowly expanding the area of coverage. I still made sure to warn him to not push too far since the forest is still a big unknown for us. Thinking back to it, I'm worried about what Luke has been up to. I sent him out a long time ago to explore but he still has not come back and since there have been no notifications of his death I can only assume he is safe somewhere.

The day rolls by and night enters. I stop making more shields with old man Hus and retire for the night. The progress for today was better than I had thought with 5 completed Scutum, enough pieces for 3 additional Scutums and about 100 additional arrows. The arrows are of higher quality than the previous stone arrows with the addition of the glue stick next to the arrowhead. It seemed Lime had given Robin some ideas after discovering about glue and she applied it to the body of the arrow, sticking more tinder and creating fletching at the back of the arrow. Using small leaves she had improved the aerodynamics of the arrow without even knowing it as the fletching creates wind drag making the arrow spin in the air and making it more stable and accurate.

[ Flammable Arrow

Attack: 1 

A stone arrow with flammable glue and tinder along the shaft.

Made by Robin, Lucina, Melody and Howard ]

It seems like the attack value is the same despite the different names and descriptions. Damage caused by fire must not have a real damage value but will do damage to the victim if they are burning from the flames.

Then there were the maces. Stone is brittle and heavy for most people to wield however, without metal stone is still my best option. The rocks around the canyon can easily shatter once enough force is applied so I told Owen and Noah to create lots of maces and just rotate them out once a mace has been destroyed. In turn, they had made about 30 maces. All different sizes and shapes but they all have a similar design with the stone hollowed out and filled with a wooden stick and the glue. The glue connects the stick and stone together and afterward it is wrapped in vines to prevent any slippage.

[ Stone Mace 

Attack: 7

A mace made out of a stone and stick found anywhere. It can break very easily.

Made by Noah, Frank, Owen and David ]

I am impressed with their efficiency and happy with the preparations and even though some of the weapons created by them looked dodgy I felt it was okay. Weapons during this time period are all about what can be found right next to me. What can I use right now in order to deal more damage than I was doing just 5 minutes ago?

So long as we have more weapons, shields and people eventually HavenFall will be safe.