Cobbledeep: The Gnome Diary

Day 9: On Berries, Buckets and Being Thirsty

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Dear Diary,

We get hungry now! And thirsty! And tired! I know it sounds bad, but it's actually lovely, because it means there are berries, and berries are my whole job.

The Overseers mark the bushes, I pick them, and everyone eats. Mogdofast eats his berries one at a time and says each one is “fine.” That's the nicest thing he's ever said about anything.

We each got a waterskin too. You sip when you're far from the well and refill when you're near it. Korberdle has learned to sip lying down, and is very pleased with himself.

The well. We built a well. When I clicked on it to admire it, it asked me what I'd like it to make. It's a well. It makes wet. I told it so.

The stone that got away. Mogdofast was halfway through cutting a block when he got thirsty and went for a drink. When he came back, the stone he'd been cutting was gone. Not on the bench, not on the floor. He went very quiet and then made a sound I've only ever heard from a kettle.

The long walk. Pipblewort was digging deep down with a full waterskin and still walked all the way up to the surface well for a drink. Up, up, up, sip, down, down, down. She said the well “felt close.” It was close if you were a bird.

Missing bushes. I had my eye on a lovely bush right where Pipblewort was digging a cellar underneath. When she finished, the bush was just gone. It was still standing on solid floor! The floor was just a bit thinner! Also, when I drag across the hillside to mark bushes, it only catches the ones on my own level. Hills have lots of levels. I've missed most of the hill.

Little things. When Fenrikin refills his waterskin, his card says “Drinking 0%” the whole time. He is convinced he's dying of thirst while holding a full bucket. And when the only berries were on a ledge nobody could get to, nobody warned us we had no food. The berries existed, so everything was fine, apparently. Korberdle says he once walked for ages while completely out of energy and never fell asleep, which he considers a personal triumph.

Thirty days of this is the plan. We are going to be so good at berries.

Tilnazel

Overseer's note

New this build, hunger, thirst and rest, berry bushes, wells and waterskins. Since fixed: a crafter's materials vanishing when they stopped for a drink, the gather tool missing bushes on uneven ground, bushes disappearing over cellars, gnomes walking to far-off wells with full waterskins, warnings about things nobody could reach, and gnomes taking far too long to collapse from exhaustion.

Day 4: Stairs, Slabs and the Dirt Question

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Dear Diary,

Big news. The Overseers have taught us stairs. You carry a stone to an empty spot, you build, and now there are stairs where there weren't! We can get down off ledges! Korberdle has already slept on the top step twice.

Also, digging the topsoil now gives us dirt. Fenrikin was thrilled, then horrified, because dirt now goes in stockpiles, and the stockpiles were already full of opinions. The Overseers sorted it out: normal stockpiles say “no dirt, thank you,” and you have to ask specially for a dirt pile. Fenrikin wept with relief.

The new digging. When we mine a block now, we leave a thin floor behind so the gnome upstairs doesn't fall through. Very polite. If you want a hole, you channel, which takes everything out. Mining is for rooms, channelling is for holes. I've written that on the wall so I remember.

Trouble with floors. Fenrikin wanted a stockpile on one of the new thin floors and was told it “wasn't ground.” It is ground. You can stand on it. I was standing on it while the Overseers were saying no. Then we dug a cellar under an old stockpile and suddenly nobody would carry anything there either. Fenrikin has started talking to the stockpile, quietly, at night.

Floating floors. I dug out a cellar and then dug a trench around the floor above it. The floor stayed up. No walls, no posts, nothing underneath. The floors were holding each other up, the way gnomes do at a party. I tried to tell Mogdofast about it but he was still not looking at his workshop from Day 1.

Stairs, part two. Tilnazel carried a stone all the way to a stair site. Then the Overseers changed their minds and cancelled it. The stone vanished. Not dropped. Vanished. Tilnazel looked at her empty hands for a long time. We have not discussed it since.

Also. One of the other expeditions dug a tunnel right under someone else's staircase and two gnomes got stuck at the bottom. Not us this time! Different world entirely. I sent them a cheerful note.

Pipblewort

Overseer's note

New this build, dirt from surface digging, buildable stairs, floor slabs left behind by mining, and a Channel tool. Since fixed: slabs not counting as ground for stockpiles and workshops, slabs floating with nothing holding them up, materials lost when a stair site was cancelled, and one map whose tunnel undermined its own staircase.

Day 1: We Have Arrived (Mostly)

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Dear Diary,

We arrived at dawn. Seven of us, one cart, and a great deal of optimism. The Overseers put glowing yellow marks on the hillside, which means “dig here,” and I have never been happier. I dug four blocks before breakfast. Mogdofast says nobody should be that happy about rock. Mogdofast is wrong.

Morning. Fenrikin was told to make a stockpile, and made one that said it would take everything: stones, logs, blocks, the lot. Five spaces. Then ten things turned up wanting to be stored. Fenrikin counted the five spaces once for the stones and once again for the blocks and announced there was plenty of room. There was not plenty of room. There was half the room. Fenrikin had to lie down.

Midday. Mogdofast built a stonecutter's workshop and was very proud of it. Then I was asked to dig out the floor underneath it. I did. The workshop stayed exactly where it was, hanging in the air like a very heavy cloud. Mogdofast refused to look at it. Later he tried to get back on it and couldn't. I have never heard words like that.

Afternoon. Hobwick felled his first tree. TIMBER! It was magnificent. It also took half the leaves off the tree next to it, which was nothing to do with him and is now very bald on one side. Hobwick says the other tree “was leaning on his.” Trees don't lean on things, Hobwick.

Also. I carved a ramp. Then someone dug out the wall it was leaning against. It is now a ramp that goes up to nothing. I stood on top of it for a while and felt that I understood something about life.

Evening. We dug a lovely deep pit, three levels down, all at once. Four of us finished at the bottom and looked up and realised we had dug away every way out. We are still in the pit. Korberdle has fallen asleep. Honestly it is quite cosy.

Night. When the Overseers peeked down at the lower levels, the sun came with them, right into our deep dark cave, as bright as noon. Nobody could sleep except Korberdle.

Tomorrow I will dig more. I can't wait.

Pipblewort

Overseer's note

The first playable build: digging, felling trees, stockpiles and a stonecutter's workshop. Since fixed: workshops and stockpiles floating after the floor under them was dug out, stockpiles counting the same space twice, one falling tree stripping the leaves off its neighbour, ramps left leaning on nothing, sunlight reaching deep caves, and a workshop you couldn't click while a gnome stood on it. Still on the list: gnomes digging themselves into pits.