Exploring

Timestamp: Lowood late afternoon.

The vagrant lowers his voice even further. "I heard they can pull a man's soul from their body and make it their slave..." he looked around looking for anyone that could be overhearing the conversation. "And that their cattle dogs are actually demons made flesh." the wiff of alcohol reaches you before the words do.

"Them keep their distance." he said shrugging as you eventually leve him to his fate. You will not see him again. He will be joining one of the last ships back to Helias in a few days.

With the afternoon coming and the light of the day slowly fading, you decide you want to visit the sawmill at the heart of Lowood. It is a hive of activity, you see hundreds of people involved in the operation, with wood being transported from the nearby forests by sturdy lumberjacks, into the building where its processed.

You manage to see logs being split and planed by teams of two men with a whipsaw, using saddleblocks to hold the log, and a saw pit for the pitman who works below. The process is slow and brutal, and requires strong men.

Speaking to a few nearby workers you discover that a much larger sawmill is under construction, east of Misty Ward. One that will use the nearby river to power several water-wheels to speed up cutting the process.

You find out that the ebony wood is traded for luxury goods such as cabinets, desks and trunks, but that the heartwood is actually traded in powder form due to is use as a red dye in the manufacturing of luxury textiles, such as velvet, in high demand back in Helias.

Light is fading now and knowing Lowood reputation as a dangerous place you decide to leave more exploring for another time.