An Adventure in Dwarven Summer Kit – Pic Heavy
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:30 pm
There seems to have been a heat wave in Erebor of late. It's brought some most unnatural weather that can only have been caused by some, as yet unknown, evil sorcerer seeking to weaken our defenses. For us local dwarves are quite un-use-to it. Work to foil the plot is underway, however, in the mean time, we just have to put up with it.
This has given rise to some changes in equipment for the average traveling dwarf and the common use of rare and unusual artifacts such as the sun hat:
The overall shape of the hat is inspired by Udwin's cattail hat, although I couldn't imagine a dwarf wearing straw. The most likely material for a dwarf to use to make a hat seemed to be wool, although, since that would be to hot, I needed to compromise. The brim is made from wool felt, as if cut from a wool hat, and sewn onto a linen hat body to create a partly wool hat that's still good for hot weather.
The tunic is made from a medium weight linen and will eventually have sewn patterns similar to the ones on the hat. I'm hoping it will work well as an added layer to my usual kit because the hot weather isn't likely to last for ever.
I was pleased by how well camouflaged the whole thing seemed to be:
Little did I know I was about to need it.
A Short Adventure
I hit the woods early in the morning to test my new kit and had a bit more of an eventful time than I expected. I took a usual route through the trees and entered an area that was surrounded by warning signs for forestry work, however everything was silent so I carried on along the track. Until the distant sound of trucks got my attention so I hid in a hollow formed by a fallen tree to wait for whatever it was to drive past. Only I couldn't decide which way it was coming from. The reason for this was quickly apparent, when two forestry trucks came down the track, loaded up with machinery, from opposite directions. They then pulled up facing each other, each side of my position opposite a turning area and turned off there engines, plunging the forest into silence, to discuss the plan for the days work. What to do? There's no rule against being on the land, so I wasn't breaking the law, but I didn't fancy explaining why I was there to them and if I could get away unnoticed it would be a good test of ranger skill.
Slowly and carefully I started to pick my way up the hill side away from them, knowing that if I carried on straight up, even though it was steep, I would come out on another track in not to long. I had one dodgy moment where I stood on a rotted branch that broke with a loud crack and one of the guys looked straight at me, I was about thirty yards away from him, was in the shadow of trees and stayed completely still (remembering Halt's teaching in RA), he looked away, phew.
I just wish I had more photos, here is one of the hollow I hid in that's next to the track however if I'd taken photos in the direction of the track my auto focus light might have given me away:
After almost half an hour climbing the steep slope:
I decided to stop for a break and a drink of magic elvish energy cordial
:
Then I found a trail of heavy set foot prints in the pine needles, only there was something odd about them. There was one trail leading up, and one leading down in the same place, both left by, what looked like, the same shoes. Someone had gone one way and back tracked the way they had come. Only I had no idea which way was which, not being an expert tracker and I wasn't going to go back down so I followed them up. In about ten minutes time I found they ended at a random tree? Knowing there must be a reason I had a good look around, then I found it. There was a pine cone lodged in a hollow in the roots that didn't look quite right, it seemed to be made of plastic:
When I turned it over I found it was hollow:
And inside was a piece of paper:
A Geo-cash clue? Sadly I had no GPS device on me so I couldn't make anything of it and I'm not going to get the chance to go back for a while. Never mind, it was satisfying to find something.
Eventually, with the distractions over, I did reach my goal of the track at the top of the ridge:
And the rest of the trip went without incident.
This has given rise to some changes in equipment for the average traveling dwarf and the common use of rare and unusual artifacts such as the sun hat:
The overall shape of the hat is inspired by Udwin's cattail hat, although I couldn't imagine a dwarf wearing straw. The most likely material for a dwarf to use to make a hat seemed to be wool, although, since that would be to hot, I needed to compromise. The brim is made from wool felt, as if cut from a wool hat, and sewn onto a linen hat body to create a partly wool hat that's still good for hot weather.
The tunic is made from a medium weight linen and will eventually have sewn patterns similar to the ones on the hat. I'm hoping it will work well as an added layer to my usual kit because the hot weather isn't likely to last for ever.
I was pleased by how well camouflaged the whole thing seemed to be:
Little did I know I was about to need it.
A Short Adventure
I hit the woods early in the morning to test my new kit and had a bit more of an eventful time than I expected. I took a usual route through the trees and entered an area that was surrounded by warning signs for forestry work, however everything was silent so I carried on along the track. Until the distant sound of trucks got my attention so I hid in a hollow formed by a fallen tree to wait for whatever it was to drive past. Only I couldn't decide which way it was coming from. The reason for this was quickly apparent, when two forestry trucks came down the track, loaded up with machinery, from opposite directions. They then pulled up facing each other, each side of my position opposite a turning area and turned off there engines, plunging the forest into silence, to discuss the plan for the days work. What to do? There's no rule against being on the land, so I wasn't breaking the law, but I didn't fancy explaining why I was there to them and if I could get away unnoticed it would be a good test of ranger skill.
Slowly and carefully I started to pick my way up the hill side away from them, knowing that if I carried on straight up, even though it was steep, I would come out on another track in not to long. I had one dodgy moment where I stood on a rotted branch that broke with a loud crack and one of the guys looked straight at me, I was about thirty yards away from him, was in the shadow of trees and stayed completely still (remembering Halt's teaching in RA), he looked away, phew.
I just wish I had more photos, here is one of the hollow I hid in that's next to the track however if I'd taken photos in the direction of the track my auto focus light might have given me away:
After almost half an hour climbing the steep slope:
I decided to stop for a break and a drink of magic elvish energy cordial
:Then I found a trail of heavy set foot prints in the pine needles, only there was something odd about them. There was one trail leading up, and one leading down in the same place, both left by, what looked like, the same shoes. Someone had gone one way and back tracked the way they had come. Only I had no idea which way was which, not being an expert tracker and I wasn't going to go back down so I followed them up. In about ten minutes time I found they ended at a random tree? Knowing there must be a reason I had a good look around, then I found it. There was a pine cone lodged in a hollow in the roots that didn't look quite right, it seemed to be made of plastic:
When I turned it over I found it was hollow:
And inside was a piece of paper:
A Geo-cash clue? Sadly I had no GPS device on me so I couldn't make anything of it and I'm not going to get the chance to go back for a while. Never mind, it was satisfying to find something.
Eventually, with the distractions over, I did reach my goal of the track at the top of the ridge:
And the rest of the trip went without incident.
