In one of my last questions (How Can I Protect Medieval Villages From Plops?), Joe pointed out that Plops would likely make farming unfeasible:
"The problem with anything else - fences, extremely aggressive burning/etc., salt - is that the plops would inevitably invade their food-growing areas. It's too hard to keep them out of large farming areas, and it's too hard to feed even a small medieval town on anything less. Thus they need to be able to pick up and move houses, while still being able to keep their farms."
As logical as that is, I'd like to prevent village rotation to preserve some of the traditional feel of medieval fantasy (ie. "monsters exist, yeah, but other people deal with them while us villagers stay put in our village"). Since monsters enchant items used to kill them, though, I've come up an idea: what if someone were to use stone bricks, smash monsters with them, and then make walls from the enchanted bricks? As crazy as this sounds, looking at the enchantments listed below, I think this might work!
Potential Solutions
Calcification Gained by killing a Chomper; if one were to smash a Chomper with a brick-shaped piece of wood (a squared-off log, perhaps?) it would petrify the wood, essentially turning it to stone. As a side benefit, the wood would be much harder and stronger than before, but oddly not heavier. (If you want more on Chompers, click here.)
Bloat Gained by killing a Bloat Blob, a bigger, tougher, hungrier, minivan-sized Plop with attitude and tentacles. The Bloat Enchantment oversizes objects; since a regular sword used to kill a Bloat Blob would become huge, too huge to wield properly (I believe Cloud's sword from Final Fantasy is a good example of this, though I'm not familiar with the franchise) a regular stone brick should become the size of an Easter Island head after killing a Bloat Blob.
At first glance, this is clearly the most feasible option, as it is relatively easy to feed a Plop into a Bloat Blob (it just requires a big pile of garbage). However, killing a giant, rubbery, slimy ooze with bricks just doesn't seem plausible. (For more on Plop, please click here.)
- Engorge Gained by killing an Engulfer; due to an Engulfer's size and dangerousness, this would require the Engulfer to be trapped in a pit then crushed by an entire load of stone bricks. On the other hand, an Engulfer has enough magic to enchant that many bricks, quadrupling the size of each one.
It's feasible, but not exactly easy to do, in other words: you have to trap the Engulfer in a pit trap, then drop or let fall two tons of brick before it manages to escape. (For more on Engulfers, please click here.) Engulfers are like elephants or hippos in terms of size and numbers.
- Recycling Gained by killing a Trashmaw, a monster that is essentially a living metal trash can (complete with eyes, teeth, a long, prehensile tongue, a digestive system, and a sneaky/grouchy attitude). This enchantment upon a stone brick would cause it to naturally maintain itself, powering said maintenance (AKA repair) by absorbing ambient magic. This would have the side benefit of lowering the numbers of spawning monsters in a medieval village.
One Trashmaw spawns for every trash-producing household, maybe two if they produce a lot of trash.
- Paragon Gained by killing a Flamoth, a flying, fiery, moth-like monstrosity. This would be difficult, but the Paragon Enchantment transforms whatever item was used to kill the Flamoth into an optimal version of itself, which in this case would mean adamant bricks that generate a magical barrier (read: force field) immediately around them (1 in. around in all directions). That being said, Flamoth are rare....the ratio is 1 Flamoth per every 4,900 Droppers (AKA flying Chompers), and there is 1 Dropper for every 100 Chompers, and there is 1 Chomper spawned for every thirteen chickens in an area.
This makes it feasible to "farm" a lot of Flamoth, but they're difficult to kill and this would entail a lot of additional monsters spawning.
- Flameheart Gained by killing a Torchblow, an egg-like creature that walks around using its mouth's built-in blowtorch to sear prey into submission. This would make stone bricks hot, literally hot, like bonfire hot, which would A) repel and kill Plop that touch them and B) be a major fire hazard/liability to children and idiots.
However, one Torchblow spawns for every 400 Chompers within an area, so it is possible to get a lot of these for the purpose of enchanting bricks.
My question is: Which Of These Enchantments Would Make Stone Walls Feasible Against Plop?
This question of course demands information on Plop, which can be found by clicking here or on the link under the Bloat entry. I'm specifically looking for which Enchantment (or combination of enchantments) would make stone walls feasible for villages (as well as towns and cities, obviously), more specifically stone walls that would prevent a Plop from getting to the village's food stores and crops.
