This is a masterwork dog leather journal owned by Kogan 'NCommander' Kelnakuth. On its covered is adored images of seven dwarfs. The image related to the founding of Scorchedgravel, the last Dwarven settlement.---
Early Autumn 550
I've been thinking a lot. We're getting pretty close to harvesting our last round of crops, and have enough iron smelted to rebuild the wagon; I do think we can get out of here soon, but I'm worried that the others won't want to go.
Even now, on a nightly basis, Imic has been reading more poetry ...
... and expanded to playing music ...
My eardrums have finally stopped bleeding, but the others seem to enjoy it. Honestly, its been nine months since a calminity has struck us, and for the first time since we fled into the underground, I'm seeing smiling dwarfs. I'm glad to see moral is higher, but we can't stay ...
When winter comes upon us, we'll have to head out.
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Mid-Autumn 550I wanted to make sure we left with excess metal supplies, I don't know the next time we'll have a realistic opportunity to mine and smelt again. Ideally, I'd like to smelt steal, but with virtually no wood, and no coal, I suspect that will remain a pipe dream. Unfortunately, Nix has struck water.
At least we know we don't need to go to the caverns for it now. We still need a way to safely pierce the aquifer though ...
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Second EntryNix has struck gold. Literally struck gold.
It's hard to say how large the vein is, but it just keeps going. It was this type of wealth that the legends of old were made out of. Directly below it, we've also hit large veins of native copper, and galena. No easy-to-harvest iron as of yet
I've had a small minecart track run up to the forges to ease transportation, and a solid gold minecart built to begin transportation.
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Late Autumn 550I had a long talk with Imic who had Derro earlier. They wanted for us to stay the winter and have time to relax. The argument they put forth was that we've been running for over a year, and constantly working since we've been here. They said that if they didn't get some
real downtime, people were going to crack.
I can't say I disagree with them, but I argued that the longer we stay, the more likely we're discovered, or our path of escape will get blocked off by something in the caverns. I won't repeat the full discussion here, but ultimately, I conceded to putting the issue to a vote.
The motion passed 6 to 7.
I guess we're here until next year. I hope this won't mean our doom.
Winter 550
The official "vacation" has started
... I don't like to think about it, but I don't think we're leaving Scorchedgravel (as we've come to call it). Everyone has gotten too settled in, and I can't help but think that if I try and push for us to leave with the coming spring, I'll face a riot. Even if I put my foot down and forced the matter, I don't think it would make a difference. All this downtime has left me a lot of time to mediate. Even if we avoided the humans and goblins from now until eternity, we're still screwed.
Baring other survivors in the wilds which may or may not exist, we are the last seven dwarfs in the world. Accidents will pick us off one by one until there is no one left. At least here in Scorchedgravel, we're not exposed to the wilds; as long as we remain undetected, we'll survive.
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Mid-Winter 550We're drowning in birds.
Damn turkeys can outbreed just about anything else.
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Late Winter 550The turkeys have been caged, and once the winter ends, we'll be having a butchering party to celebrate. However, I realized something after I managed to chase down the last errant bird.
Dwarfs can reproduce.I know this is an astonishing revelation to all, but maybe ... just maybe ... our situation is not hopeless. The seven of us might not be able to change anything as is, but if there were more of us, we could. Our mistake was hiding away from the world until the humans could dig us out. If we had been more active in our defense, maybe we could have stood our ground and survived. With a large population, it could be done ...
I've noticed our two bachelors have been getting friendly with Nix and Derro respectively. I'm no farmer, but if you have fertile ground, you could make anything grow. I need to make sure neither Imic or Gwolfski ever see this, but I decided to encourage this.
Officially, I've had the bedrooms paired together to prevent anything happening to anyone in their sleep. Standard protective measure against vampires (not that we need to worry about this).
Unofficially, I've made sure I've paired those who are most likely to come together in marriage. I don't know if I'm right in doing this; bringing a child into this hellish war might be a sin that Armok smites us all for. I do not know ...
But if there's any hope for the future, it will be in those who come after us ...
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Topic: Scorchedgravel - Swimming Towards The Next Generation (Read 16067 times)