Stone working

Stone Working encompasses all aspects of the stonecutter's trade, from finding raw stone in the wild down to turning cut blocks of stone into things usable by people in their everyday lives.

Extracting stone from the land is a tricky and dangerous business. The would-be stone cutter should be armed with a hammer and chisel, in order to pry his quarry from the bones of the world, or at least a pick, should he be only interested in finding surfaces for others to work. As the best deposits of stone are found in wild areas far from towns and traveller's lanes, it may be wise to bring a weapon or a friend along.

To find a deposit of stone, the 'prospect' command is used, as such: prospect [for] stone

The word 'for' is entirely optional. Entering this command with the name of a valid type of stone will begin the hunt for a workable quarry. Most types of stone are not available in all areas; you may have to hunt around in order to find the less common varieties. Only one quarry may exist in any given hex at any given time.

Once a quarry has been found, stone can be extracted from the quarry using the 'cut' command; again, a hammer and chisel are required for the cutter to do his job. cut stone [p=#]

Be warned that cutting stone from a quarry is hazardous, so many stoneworkers may wish to restrain their efforts by only extracting a percentage of the available stone; this is the function of the 'p' (for 'percentage') argument, which may be omitted at your own risk. If the argument is not given, the quarry will assume you are attempting to extract all of the stone at once.

If successful, the 'cut' command will produce some blocks of stone, which can then be used in a similar manner to other raw materials. Once the quarry is exhausted, it will collapse so that a new quarry can be located in its stead.