ROLEPLAY

Daomei recalls her conversation with the old master miner before she starts to write down her report. Gargothus Aceps was something like a friend, strangely, as he was known not to make friends easily, much less with non Fyros. Rumour he refused to comment went that he was that old even being a survivor of the first great swarming. Sure was, however, that not many homins knew as much about mining as him. She had won his esteem after a major booze-up in a miners' pub in Pyr, when she and him were the last ones standing upright, and she was still going on trying to get informations from the taciturn and short-spoken Fyros. Well, she vividly remembered the horrific headache next morning, and Diwu's usual complaints about her being a drunkard and something worse ..

This time he had been more verbose, the subject of the conversation was touching him.
Kitin tunnels? I am sure you are thinking about something like drilling into dead wood like Desertstock or Paramount stock, or crafting a barrel out of a piece of wood. She shrugged, to be honest, she never had thought about so much, but yes, sort of. He laughed a bit.

Thought so, but tell me: If I would drill a hole in your .. hmm, let's say arm, would there be a tunnel? Of course not, there would be a wound, and your body would start immediately to close it and to regenerate. Same goes with the living planet when you are piercing its living wood and marrow: secretions and resin will cover the wound, fibers start growing into the opening. Depending on the size it would vanish completely or leaving some kind of scar.

But yes, we succeed in building tunnels, and so do the kitins. How do we (and them) achieve it? We have to keep the wound open and dry, so that newgrown bark is covering it like a skin. We have special, sticky and slightly acridly pulp mixed from sawdust, resin, acid, and water speeding up that process, forming a leathery skin over the newly grown bark fending off rodents and insects. The kitins do similarly with their secretions and saliva, enriched by sawdust and kindling.

Such tunnels are more like the trunk of a mektoub, or a hose, flexible, not rigid like a barrel, otherwise they would break or be pressed flat by the neverending movement of the growing Atys plant. They must be sufficiently dry that the skin and the bark do not rot, so constant airflow inside is necessary. Therefore, they need at least two openings or mounds fixing them to the surface or a higher-situated cave, on the one side, and to a deep rooted starting point in huge Prime Roots' cavings, or other gigantic caves such as a Kitin lair. An isolated tunnel segment would be driven away like a hose sinking into a sticky liquid, it would rot and vanish in the end.

Yes, that is probably why Daeronn is thinking of termites. Miners hate them, as they may feast on the wooden structures stabilizing tunnel openings. Termites love dry, dead wood, they are a curse for homin housing, and a lasting danger for wooden bridges. And they are eating away secured tunnel openings. Moreover, they may, at least for a while, feast on the isolating skin of the tunnel walls which also contains much sawdust and dry wood. So, they are veritable tunnel destroyers. While we use certain liquids and powders spoiling their appetite for our houses, towers, and bridges, we cannot do likewise with tunnels, as that would damage their walls and the underlying bark as well, causing resin flood and other unwanted effects. Therefore we have to guard our mines and destroy termites when we see them.

Right, so do the Kitins, and they will try everything they can to fend off termites. Thus probably that idea with the potion: giving the crawling little monsters a headstart over Kitin miners and soldiers. Homins may be needed to come to their defense, anyway, much more as the Kitins may attack when finding out the origin of the pest. And no, I do not see that the termites, once in the tunnels and mounds, will spread over the whole of Atys. They cannot stand moisture, it destroys the towering lairs they are building, makes them weak, suffering rot and munching by rodents and small insects. When destroying the tunnels they are causing moisture to fill them up. Thus their destructive work will turn out suicidal in the end.