-----Prologue-----
I was shaken by the events of last year, the foul creatures tried to kill me on the 2nd Opal 204, but I was lucky that I only escaped with a broken left arm.
Its healed now, and I guess I should be thankful of all that has transpired, given how everyone that has taken the '
Zuglarkun' title was killed already. How ironic that the rescuer would in turn need to be rescued?
I believe that I narrowly escaped certain doom. I remember being accosted in the caves by a foul gremlin corpse that had risen and unfortunately I was caught unawares. I was trying to rescue some of our fellows that had been caught down there, but little did I know what foul horrors lurk in the depths. Now I know that the dead have risen and are prowling the depths. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I left home, and now I know. I dreaded the prospect of having to fight off the undead and quite frankly I would rather just run away from it all. Recently, Flame II conjured up a device that would rid us of this foul infestation. But I do not know if it will hold up. They just keep coming and there is no sign that things will let up anytime soon.
In light of this dreadful discovery, Taupe gathered several of the more noteworthy dwarves together. He had only one thing to say.
After much discussion, it was agreed upon that we would need to find some way to deal with the undead. We did not have much in the way of military might so perhaps dwarven ingenuity would be the way to go? Gwolfsky quickly pointed out that when in doubt, just use magma. Flame II concurred with this notion, pointing to the strange device he had made and how effective it was against the undead. Most agreed with this solution, though not all.
Some of the other dwarves felt that we could drive the undead away, and they remained optimistic about our chances.
While others were more realistic in their outlook.
I turned to TriaxxII, "
What do you think?"
Taupe turned to me and asked if I was up for the challenge. He explained that they had lost their chief planner early on, and needed someone with expertise in engineering to pull it off. Though I had come at the behest of the elders, I was but a lowly mechanic, what could I achieve?
Though at times I fancied myself as a rather capable military advisor.
It was a difficult decision to make. But Zan, wise beyond her years, offered a nugget of wisdom.
Thus it was that I took up the mantle of Overseer.
-----Year 205 - The quest for magma-----
1st Granite 205I quickly set my plans into motion. But immediately it became apparent that there were many hurdles to overcome. I was notified by the manager that we lacked the magma safe rock to construct the magma drain and flood system I devised. After a quick survey of the rock quarries, I ordered all the obsidian blocks used for the magma dikes to be cannibalized. I ordered workers to replace them with common granite blocks afterward.
That was not the only problem though, there was too little sand available though we were in the middle of a desert with sand all around us. I ordered more sand to be gathered, no excuse not to have sand. We will need sand for glass components for the pump stack device.
Another quick survey of the stock records provided by the bookkeeper showed that we did not have any soap at all, though we have all the necessary materials. I setup a bucket and lye only stockpile in the stockpile caches, taking care to forbid any lye from being stored in our other food stockpiles. We will need more wood for ash though. Speaking of which, it is a waste to use scarce wood for the bridge. I'm having it dismantled. I will put up a new bridge afterwards.
Another quick glance at the records and I could tell that too much silver and copper was being melted. The coffers overflowing, and we had little need of silver. I stopped the furnaces from melting silver ore, focusing on melting the spoils of war we captured last year instead. Especially the iron. Meanwhile I have Flame II put his skills to good use. I put up an order for 10 of each masterwork silver maces and silver warhammers. I put Pyrotechno on armorsmithing duty to churn out some copper shields and other various armors. I was also notified that bolts in the lake were marked for melting. I shook my head in dismay at the furnace operators. I explained to them that if they wanted to melt those so badly, they could swim out to the lake and get it themselves. I forbid all the bolts and the one mosquito man corpse in the lake.
2nd Granite 205Flame II immediately set out to work and quickly produced results, making a masterpiece silver mace!
Edem, the resident mace lord hurriedly reserves the weapon and snatches it up immediately.
I didn't notice it before, but the magma forges and smelters all have open air holes in them that lead down to the magma. What if something comes up from the magma depths? This is most unsafe.
Meanwhile, FlameII just keeps churning out those masterworks. I do admire his attitude and excellent craftdwarfship.
5th Granite 205I made alterations to the military uniforms. Full metal melee, full steel melee and full steel crossbows. With all the orders going about, this will keep everyone busy for awhile. In the meantime, I will have time to do some geographical surveying.
10th Granite 205I had taken the time to scout ahead and ascertain the position to build the pumpstack with none or hopefully minimal disturbance to the caverns. I could hear the undead shambling about all the time in the lower depths as I went about my surveying, it was terrifying. I showed Taupe the schematics of the magma pumpstack design I had drawn up. It includes a safety system for maintenance which includes a drainage system to drain away the magma if the situation calls for it. I got the miners to start working on it right away.
In the meanwhile, the wooden bridge was dismantled. I'll have granite one up to replace it soon.
12th Granite 205I was notified of unhappy dwarves in our midst. I would be unhappy too if I had to deal with the undead and hauling stinking corpses that befouled my clothes. I removed refuse hauling duties from the most stress prone dwarves in hopes that it will improve their disposition. I also made alterations to the refuse system. The new one will be deep in the bowels of the fort, away from sneaky corpse raisers.
16th Granite 205An elven caravan from Alu Inó has arrived. Since the bridge is still under construction, they came in from the northeast entrance.
There are so many dogs loitering about on the trade depot, and they are happily fornicating away. Awww how sweet, its like an animal shelter more than a trade depot. I order all of them gelded.
22nd Granite 205This puppy surprise is the gift that just keeps on giving.
I suspect this recent outburst was caused by the elves and their fabled '
animal touch'. Damn elves, no good could ever come from those treehuggers, but we shall suffer their presence, we have much need of wood.
26th Granite 205Some migrants arrive, trudging over the chalky northern wastes.
They are quickly ushered into the relative safety of the fort, though Momuz gave one look around and remarked why the dwarves all seem so glum around here.
28th Granite 205Meng Umeravuz, Thresher dropped the item he was hauling to the trade depot and quickly made for the fortress, a strange look in his eyes.
1st Slate 205Meng claims a mechanics workshop and begins frantically gathering materials from around the fortress.
2nd Slate 205Doren bestows the name Elikbakust - The Single Urges upon his plum wood shield.
6th Slate 205Meng has begun work on a mysterious construction.
7th Slate 205Orders for the 10 masterwork silver warhammers and silver maces are fulfilled. I'll get Flame II to work on some masterwork copper crossbows next.
8th Slate 205We traded a whole bunch of old, foreign and unusable clothing for plenty of wood, fruits and some caged animals because i want the featherwood cages they are housed in, not because I intend to keep these useless animals around. What with the dog outbreak and all. Damn dogs!
In the meantime, the new morgue has been excavated. This will hopefully prevent the more squeamish among us from having a nervous breakdown every time they pass by some corpse or body part.
I dropped in to see how the military were holding up. Shorast has been praying to
Cog Standknight in hopes of being bestowed with his blessings in combat. He remarked that military trances are when a dwarf is touched by the gods upon the field of combat, and he was hoping to boost his chances. I tilted my head to the side and gave him an odd look, but I left him to his own devices.
De approaches me and suddenly starts demanding an animal companion to be assigned to him. He specifically asks for the grizzly bear. I ask if he will reconsider, since in my experience animals do not fare well in martial combat unless they have superior numbers.
Well then, at De's request, I had the animal trained and assigned the war grizzly to him. As I approached the marksdwarf quarters, I spied a dwarf in a makeshift cactus costume shooting out '
cactus needles' at a nearby archery target.
We have a odd collection of folks around here.
11th Slate 205Meng has created
Urdimmeng Öseek Uker - Towerlashed the Councils of Waving, a slate mechanisms. Nice, I could make good use of that.
I order some magma dike walls to be put up on the southeast and northwest end. I know getting in the vicinity of the lake is dangerous. But it is a risk we'll have to take.
18th Slate 205Litast is throwing a tantrum. I gave her a quick once over as a practicing medical professional, and the prognosis is bad.
When I asked if she perhaps needed some help in coping with her stress, she stubbornly replied she was better off dealing with it alone. I fear for the worse.
Well, looks like the naming fad is continuing to circulate among the military dwarves.
20th Slate 205Troubling news. The mayor came up to me and reported that the dwarves have found Kib the shearers corpse.
There had been no indications of any fights or confrontations recently, and no one reported anything unusual. Is there some unseen malign influence at work here? Perhaps this is the foul work of that '
Magdark' that the elders spoke of.
28th Slate 205Since we have some extra hands about, and there is too much trash lying about in the moat, i order it all temporarily dumped somewhere more convenient for access.
2nd Felsite 205Lately, I've been busy reconstructing the bridge that I ordered cannibalized for its wood. Bloody dogs keep getting in the damn way. I renamed the place '
Idar Gulnas'.
We have some spare wood now, which I've allocated towards constructing some buckets and ash
(for soap production). Building up a surplus will be key I feel.
I fear that we will need to be self sufficient before long, I order more pigtails planted. Cloth is running low. Drinks are in a better state than it was in the beginning of the year but it can still be improved. We are still short on magma safe rock though. The only types naturally occurring in these parts is obsidian. I will have to place orders with the caravan. Also, the farm plots are way too large for our farmers to manage. I suppose I will be cutting back on some of these before long, but I will let them run for a season or two just to see how its being handled.
5th Felsite 205Looks like the bridge will be done soon. Good, I will need to make some adjustments to the northeast bridge access in order to fit the re-designed moat.
11th Felsite 205Miners are busy at work clearing out a cistern from which we can extract magma safely, and some obsidian to boot!
25th Felsite 205Was notified of unburied dwarf corpses left in the cavern. With all the undead shambling about the caverns, we will not be able to retrieve without great risk. I am most impressed with the makeshift device that Flame II had devised to deal with walking corpses. Most ingenious. But what if corpses fly or do not dodge? What if corpses can leap across 1 tile gaps? I decide to wait till later to put it to the test.
Summer has arrived on the calendar.
Never seen anything like that before.
