Phase 01 — First days: water, fire, shelter / About year 1
01.09
Ember carrier
keeps and moves fire so it is never lost
AWhat it needs
Needs 6 other products in all, 1 of them directly.
View
- 01.09 Ember carrierMaking Year 1 needs 6 products
- 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
- 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
Making fire with the drill can take hours in wet weather. A slow ember that travels, and a second fire kept somewhere else, mean the camp never has to start from nothing again.
CYou need
- A burning fire (01.08)
- Either a hard bracket fungus from a dead tree, dried by the fire, or dry crumbly rotten wood
- Or a thick bundle of dry shredded inner bark
- Green bark or large green leaves, and strips of green bark to tie with
- Two large clam shells, or a roll of thick bark, as a case
DSteps
- Fungus ember: hold a glowing coal against the soft inner layer of the dry fungus until a patch glows red on its own. It will creep through the fungus about a finger-width in an hour, with no flame.
- Put it between two clam shells or in a bark tube, with a gap left for air, and tie the case shut with bark strips.
- Bark-roll ember: pack shredded dry bark into a roll as thick as the forearm and as long as the arm. Wrap it tightly in green bark or green leaves and tie it every hand-width.
- Push one end into the coals until the dry core glows. Take it out and blow off any flame.
- Carry it with the glowing end sheltered from wind and rain. Each time you stop, blow gently on it until it shows red.
- To make fire, break the glowing part into a tinder nest and blow it into flame.
- In camp, keep a second fire under a rock ledge, away from the main hearth, with its coals banked under ash. Each fire watch checks both.
EIt worked if
- After half a day's walk, the carrier lights a new fire within a few minutes.
- A storm that kills the main hearth does not leave the camp without fire.
FWhat goes wrong
- It goes out. Packed too tight, or the wrap is too wet and thick. Loosen it and leave an air gap.
- It bursts into flame and burns away. Too much air. Wrap it closer and keep it out of the wind.
- Rain gets in. Carry it under a hood of bark, glowing end down.
- Nobody checked it. Give it to one named person on every journey.
GIn the story
On the fifth night a storm drowns the hearth. They sit out the dark wet and silent, and it takes Adam and Kofi most of the next day to raise an ember from damp wood. Kofi remembers how the old people at home carried fire between villages. After that night the island always has two fires and a carrier.
HFigures
