As much as I wanted to be part of the scouting party for checking the first of the other islands, we decided that it would be best to not risk some of our more valuable individuals on such an endeavor. A captain was chosen from the higher prestige hobgoblins, and the rest of the scouting party was formed largely by either high prestige goblins or low prestige hobgoblins. They were told not to engage with any other demons, and they were only to circle the island and use telescopes to make observations before returning.
Ultimately, they were gone eight days. They all made it back, but they had quite a large number of things to report. First, it seems like quite a few demons landed on that island. Based on their reports, it seems like a few hundred are there. Many of them seem to be goblins, and they seem fairly weak. There are a few individuals that seem more powerful, with the demon gorillas being among their ranks. They seem to have set up shop in the fort we had built there, and more than one imp was spotted, meaning they've likely got someone there who can summon imps and has been replenishing their numbers.
There also seems to be no sign of the lizards left on the island, which would be very unfortunate. They seemed to be the last relatives of the ones on our island that we wiped out. There is a chance that we might have been the cause of this extinction though, as the scouts reported that the mana levels around that island are quite low, and while anecdotal, seem to be lower than the normal ambient levels. That leads credence to the idea that there is a zone of low mana surrounding our island since we installed our new large crystal. Considering how sensitive the lizards on our island were to the previous large crystal we installed, that could have been the cause for these lizard's extinction too.
Considering the number of demons on that island, there is concern about being able to actually retake it. While we do have the numbers and tech to do so, unlike on our island where the infrastructure is in our favor, we left that island relatively untouched. Some of our hunters know their way around the area, but for the most part, our military isn't as familiar. In other words, they have the homefield advantage, and losses might be high if we try to force the situation.
For good measure, we've also sent out a smaller scouting party to the other two islands, to check on them. If all the islands are infested, then we'll need to conserve our energy if we want to reclaim them. If the other demons were more reasonable, we would possibly be able to just co-exist, but they really aren't. Their existence on the other islands could prevent trade from progressing with the mainland, and they'd pose a constant threat to us. As such, I'd like to retake the islands.
Thankfully, we haven't found any more foreign demons camping on our island, so I'm fairly confident that we got them all. Clearing the other islands, however, might prove difficult. We've got a bit of a difficult decision in front of us. I had initially planned on using our new ship to try to bring new artillery and shells to Kao to use in their war effort. Instead, we might end up using the second island as a trial run for the weapon systems of the ship. If we can use the ship to break the fort down, we could use that opportunity to stage a landing with the rest of the army, using the ship as a floating stockpile of food and supplies. After a few months, we could probably have the whole island locked down.
Even if the other two islands also have demons on them, they'll be much easier to clear, but are less concerning to leave infested for longer. Kao's old island is so barren that it can't naturally support that large of a population, and the other island, while capable of supporting a bit larger of a population, is still quite a bit smaller than the second island, and lacks good coastlines, reducing the risk of the demons jumping from one island to another without first building infrastructure that would be easily spotted.
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I've been diligently working on the parts of the ship that still needed to be designed for the 20 days we waited for the other two scouting parties to return. There were quite a few components that still needed to be designed. One of the main systems that still needed some work was the rudder controls. Basically, we'll need to utilize leverage, pulleys, and steel cable to allow a wheel to turn the rudder. While fairly straightforward in practice, a bit of design work has to be done to maneuver those systems through the ship to allow the wheel being turned on the bridge to change the rudder at the back of the ship. For emergencies, I also want a speaking tube from the bridge to the rudder maintenance area, so that the rudder can be manually adjusted in the case of the cable being snapped by damage.
Basically, since we've already gotten most of the hull design worked out, I'm trying to now fit everything into the ship where I can. I did a decent amount of planning before hand, making sure I had space for some of the major components, but now everything less major has to be maneuvered around things like the engine rooms. There is plenty of space, but I still have to do the routing to make it all work.
After both scouting parties returned, we sat down and had a strategy meeting. It seems like all the islands have demons on them now. The desolate island that used to be Kao's has a few demons occupying the remnants of their fort, though they seem to be in pretty rough shape, according to the scouts. My guess is that this is due to a lack of natural food sources that are easily accessible.
The other island also had a few locations where smoke was rising up from the valleys on the island, so we assume that there are a few camps of demons there. Due to the winding nature of the valleys on that island, the scouts weren't able to spot any demons directly, but the odds of there being multiple fires on the island while everything is green seems unlikely.
We've decided to do an island hopping campaign utilizing this first ship as a base of operations. We're still over half of a year from completing its construction, but once we have it done, we'll set off to deal with the other islands. Having the first missions closer to home also should allow us to easily fix any problems that might arise due to any unforeseen flaws in the design. The last thing we'd want is for the ship to lose power somewhere weeks of travel away from our island. Most of our metal production and casting is currently being used to work on the ship right now, so the island hopping campaign should provide us with ample time to produce the artillery pieces and ammo that we can provide to Kao on the mainland afterwards.
That is, if they still need it or can use it by then. It won't be free either. I've started doing some negotiations with Shasta as a representative on behalf of Kao. It's not exactly binding, since neither Kao nor her actually have the authority to overrule any decrees that the dwarven kingdom might have, but it's at least a decent jumping off point. As long as our requests seem reasonable, then if our cannons and their ammo prove useful, it'll be difficult for the other side to go back on the agreement.
Even if Elora were spying in such a way as to try to perfectly replicate our facilities for making smokeless powder, I think that it'd take a few decades for reverse engineering to be successful without knowledge of chemistry. In other words, we'll be the sole supplier of the ammo for the long range artillery. If we provide a dozen artillery pieces and a few hundred rounds initially it might help in a few battles but it won't last the duration of the war, meaning we can use our position to strong arm them into agreeing to certain trade terms. If, after the war, they go back on any agreements, then we might just end up forcing them to comply through military might, though just the display of force might be enough of a deterrent to keep them from backing out.
