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Going live at 8:00 PM UTC! Coming up is our fifth year (I believe) in Tombstakes, our fourth undead siege, and the upwards construction of the quintuple phallus palace fort. Come on down and watch us stand tall against the Necromantic Triad surrounding Tombstakes!

*Turn Post*

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Journal of Gigmaster, Spring

I guess I'm overseer? The lads came up with this new method of choosing the Overseer to follow up Flame's rule; the contraption looked like some sort of glass cylinder filled with little balls? And a crank/wheel cage powered by several energetic kittens? In any event, they let the thing run and then drew a ball from the cage with my name on it. I'm not... entirely sure this is authentic, or even if a majority of us agreed on this (they didn't say anything to ME beforehand) but the whole hovel full of us seems to agree that this means I get to decide what to do.

Um. Okay? Let's, uh. Get to work, and stuff.

First thing's first: we've got bedrooms and such, but no decent place to drink, eat, worship, read, whack eacthother with pointy sticks. We have good organization going on, but as a very hands-on kind of person, I have a few changes I'm going to put in around the farms; hopefully it doesn't get anyone killed?

Also concerned about fortress safety. I went to talk to our military leader, the.... um, really shiny, scary guy. He seems.... dark? and bottomless? I can't remove the sight of those... well. I hope they were eyes. He/It/Them told me that he and his two 'assistants' (poor lads) have got everything in hand. I'm inclined to believe him. Or, at least, inclined to not gainsay that voice.

At least I'll check out the cavern entrances.... good thing I did, too. Some of the bridges aren't linked up, and one of them raises shut - in the direction opposite it should. I've put in some jobs to correct this.

Journal of Gigmaster, Summer

The void-guy-figure-thing is scary as watery brew, but one thing my granpappy told me was 'Nothing is Forever.' We have to have a plan if Void Boy packs up and leaves, so I started asking a few miners to see what they knew about the area in terms of metal ores. Results are not promising, not at all! The only thing we can use is tetrahedrite; we don't even have the materials to make bronze! Copper and silver have their uses, absolutely, but cladding our warriors in copper is going to do naught but leak coppery dwarven blood all over the steps of Slaughterhelm - and I'm not anxious to christen our namesake.

Luckily, a few of the miners report back that the rarest of rareities, the metal of the gods, the impossible material itself has been found: adamantine. They're not keen on our chances to get a lot, but where there's one spire, we can probably find a second. I'm going to crack open the ancient lore books - or at least the scraps we have - and review how to lay our hands on the stuff safely and successfully; I've been scared by my granpappy enough by nursery rhymes of undulating tentacles and face-melting dust.

We've mined out massive quantities of stone. The three-level tavern is dug out; now we just have to smooth it down. I did a pretty drastic shuffling of labor duties for everyone. I might be a bit presumptuous to do so, but at least now no-one has much of a reason to be idle? Probably going to upset some people, but that's probably just because they don't have a good excuse to slack off anymore.

We're also training up some new smiths from the recent hordes of immigrants we've been receiving. The sounds of practice helms and trap components being hammered out below echoes faintly through the great staircase that connects the whole fortress. A shame we don't have any deposits of coal either; otherwise, the poor smiths could take a few breaks close to their bedrooms like the rest of us. At least they'll have a fantastic tavern to come back to.


Journal of Gigmaster, Autumn

A siege of goblins appeared - so soon! How did they... well. They have their ways, I'm sure. Not that it mattered much; Void-Boy heard about the commotion, leaped away in their direction, and after several muffled booms and explosions of gore he came back and pronounced the first 'siege' of Slaughterhelm over.

Happy he feels like helping us.

Otherwise, things are progressing at an even pace. A few thieves came to check us out, but were swiftly chased off. I ordered fresh air to be piped in to the refuse pits up top to keep the smell from building up; lads told me they'd need to knock the whole c eiling out and replace it with dwarven stone work; I signed the papers and they got to work.

Tavern's done to the point where we can start seating boozers and guests! We got some fine-ass swanky marble furniture - marble being one of the ONLY worthwhile minerals we have around here - and most of the place is smoothed out. Common consensus is to call it "The Cave of Geniuses." Geniuses, sure. I'm waiting for some 'genius' in the tavern to say 'hey, hold my beer and watch this' just before comitting this whole fort to the grave one day. Still, I'm happy with what I've done for the place. Temple and Library are set up as well. Bookcases are in, and though we're still waiting on orders for statues, tables and thrones for the temple, people are already treating it as a sacred space, and using the silence within to contemplate.... well, whatever. Their place in the world? Volcanos? Dunno, but it keeps people sharp and happy.

We also now have proper rooms of worked stone for our carpenters, wood burners, clothiers and leatherworkers. A new room beneath has also been dug out, and is receiving a granite block floor now. It'll take some time to complete, but once done it'll serve as a general stockpile of dwarven treasures for the whole fortress.

Journal of Gigmaster, Winter

INCREDIBLE NEWS! One of our smiths went into a strange, supernatural fit of inspiration and dragged away one of the new wafers of refined adamantine the smelters deep below are pounding out, along with some giant bat leather and spinel gems, and fashioned it into an impossibly well-made mail shirt! It's... it takes my breath away a little to look at too long. Apparently it's self-referential? Not sure how that happened - some spiritual action going on there, maybe - but I ordered it equipped on the Void Boy above ground. He stood still as death while we draped it across his shirtless body, and after caressing it thoughtfully he seemed... appeased? happy? amused? gassy? It's really hard to tell, but I think it'll keep him on our side. Hopefully. Please. I can still hear the screams of those goblins when I go to sleep at night.

Most of our bedrooms now sport marble furniture and fixtures, including cabinets, coffers, armor and weapon racks, not to mention fine marble doors. Everyone seems upbeat about the new changes and luxury coming into our lap. We also found a second vein of adamantine! Maybe we'll be able to turn out more of those wafers in time; for now, we need to hope Void Boy and his followers can hold the above-ground entrance secure while our builders make careful progress through the hot, steaming rock sandwiched between the underground lake and the seas of magma beneath, in their attempt to reach via tunneling this new treasure trove.

For now though, while this year hasn't been terribly eventful, I'll step aside. I had a good run, and I feel like I'll be able to happily settle in to this place, now that the basics are here. I left many notes behind for the next lad to come after me; maybe we'll be able to make something grand and wholesome of this yet.

I can only hope, anyways.

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SAVE: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12759

Notes for the next player:

1. Left notes around noting activity areas and a few areas I had that were not quite completed.
2. Please engrave the temple, library and tavern for EXTRA AWESOME. Plus, giant happiness modifier.
3. There is one layer of the first adamantine spire I was able to get ~12 blue balls from. DON'T TOUCH WHAT'S LEFT.
4. We really don't have anything else to equip our military with, besides leather, wood, copper and silver. Getting more candy is top-priority, as eventually we'll start facing down 100-plus sieges that'll likely eventually get the Voidgod killed. That, or we need really, really good trade.
5. There's more marble furniture coming up; please place it as it's made for happy thoughts.
6. Make sure you finish roofing over the refuse pit; right now, it's a point of vulnerability for the fort.
7. No signs of Terry. ... Yet.

Agh. Sorry for the, uh, quadruple post... please don't kill me....

Doing my second and last stream of the save tonight. Overall, been pretty quiet. Voidgod Voidgod'ed pretty fucking hard earlier. Going to do this all as a single writeup and post the save tonight. (Hopefully).

Still Ryukan's turn I believe yeah.

Unless you were asking about me? I posted the save; GD will have to continue with Workfamous kicking back and relaxing.

Damn, this save takes FOREVER to load, next time lets just go with a 250 yo world instead of 1050 eh?

And damn... Gig really straightened up. I'm just gonna let it run and have the dwarves finish everything. I don't plan on accomplishing anything my turn, just a clean up turn. Probably the only "project" is finishing the P.M.'s (me) Palace.

Bald head, decent build... I am the Mr. Clean of Dwarf Fortress succession forts.

Bump!

LATE ARGLEBARGLE. Sorry. Here's the write-up for my last turn. I apologize for not putting in more detail; I want to get this update out so Ryukan can get on with describing his turn.


*Turn Post*

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     25th Timber, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

Work progresses, as work should! We're making some serious changes now - or at least completing them, anyways. More issue come up though. Hardly a fucking surprise, but this one involves the fort's safety: our military doesn't have full sets of equipment. Some half-intelligent knucklehead DID make some steel gear. Enough steel gear to outfit 20, maybe 25 dwarves. We have a military of FORTY dwarves, friendly gobbo-gubs and humanfolk. Not to mention that we don't have any steel bits to slap onto the taller boys and girls. No one bothered to draw up proper uniform equipment rosters. Fixed their fuckin' little red wagons with lists of my own. Got light, medium and heavy sets of armor for most weapon styles the boys and girls in blood-red use drawn up. Hopefully future overseein' arsehats take note and use 'em.

'Course, steel production needs to get stepped up something big to kit all them out. Of course, fucking site doesn't have any coal. Only thing we have are a FUCKTON of trees. Guess that's changing real fast-like.

If the elves get pissy about it, fuckin' tough. They want to attack, we'll have 40 homicidal, teeth-shattering maniacs clad in steel to pound them into the fucking trees that'r left. Maybe it'll make em happy again, being with nature and shit.

Got orders in for over 200 runs of pig iron and steel, along with double wood burnin' production up top. Don't think it'll all be done by the time I'm through, but it'll get us up to snuff. Hopefully.

     6th Moonstone, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

Road out of the fortress is almost done. Just got a bit of supports on the slopes to put in, but Gloomdiamond now has a good, paved, fuckin' solid connection to the kingdom. About fuckin' time. Made out of cobaltite, one of the best damn stones in my opinion, with a schist boarder we've mounted more of those damn fractal cat statue nightmares on. Might as well EASE IN all the fuckers coming in to spend some quality time at Gloomdiamonds. Kinda like, "If this shit drives you nuts, get the fuck out now." At least we won't have to deal with their whiny asses then.

Main staircase is also done. We've now got a solid, 4x4 equivalent staircase that runs throughout all the fortress, down to the last levels where the mines start to come in hard-core. Can't say the traffic organization doesn't bring a small, tobacco-colored tear to my eyes. 'Course, that might just be the cigar smoke.

     18th Moonstone, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

Complete work areas and sub-level farms are coming together good. Whole area few levels down from above ground is designed with high-output, high-efficiency in mind. Should satisfy everything comin' from the farms and pastures--meat production, leather production, clothes, soft military gear, booze, more booze, soap, you get the fuckin' idea.

Also, king's finally fucking happy with his quarters. Maybe we can get some of the fuckin' freeloading knife-ears in the tavern inside now. King loves to see his goddamn graceful fuck-wits and all. Creepy, if you ask me. At least he'll be happy and not order anyone killed for not supplying yet more fucking toy boats.

Still need outpost liason's shit put together. Arsehole can wait his damned turn; we have shit to do. Also, Ryukan's making a bunch of noise about his own quarters. I've lumped his needs in with the liason. Maybe when Gloomdiamonds has finished getting it's shit together. Hopefully we'll still have a world to stand on when that time comes, too.

     30th Moonstone, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

Dumps are in place. Now people'l have a decent spot to dump all the useless shit the fortress makes. Apart from nobles and more fuckin' elven bards and dancers and plant whisperes and wood lickers and fuck all.

Also got a bunch of smelters up and running in the GIANT ECHOING CAVERN the previous overseein' ass munchers made. Charcoal production is up big-time. A wholesome cloud of wood smoke now billows up from the courtyard on a regular basis. Warms my dwarven heart.

Still waiting on ANY kind of progress to be made deep below on the power station. At least we have the glassers blowing out a bunch of screws for the magma pumps. Still twists my brain up how glass just thinks magma is like thick muddy water to it, but I've seen it myself: stuff just churns through magma like it's nothing. Strangest shit I've seen. Still, it works, and we've got fuck-loads of sand around here. Also another excuse to burn down more trees, heh-heh.

     4th Opal, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

Looks like the gobbo arseholes beat the tree-humping knife ears to the punch. Watchers sighted a force of over 60 of the fucking green-skins over the horizon, coupled with a bunch of those giant shaggy shitheads and those funky dog-things of theirs.

Certainly not the hardest battle I've presided over. Got all the crossbow-toting killers up in that strange tower some previous overseer made, blocked up all the secondary doors and stationed the military around the corners of the keep, waiting for their temporary best bloodlettin' buddies to show up. Thing was a massacre; not a single loss of dwarven life.

Say what you will about how fucked Gloomdiamonds is otherwise; fellas in the military know how to mine out some gobbos.

5th Obsidian, Year 1057, Journal of Overseer Gigmaster Workfamous's

We're well and truly into Winter now, but you wouldn't know it by looking around. Swamp is still humid and drippy as fuck; probably won't ever change.

My time's at an end; King says he needs me for other things in the fortress, and (now) Prime Minister Ryukan is all eager 'n shit to get his own stuff going. Can't imagine how badly they could steer things now, after what I've done, but there's always room for stupid. Plenty of fuckin' room for stupid.

That said, I don't think it can go too badly as long as I'm here. After all of this time, I kinda think of the ol' GD as a wounded puppy: you can't help but love its stupid ass a little, even as it rolls in the mud and knaws on its own tail. I'll stick around for a while, see how long it takes for everyone else to fuck it up. In hope of pushing back that day, I've left a fuckton of notes on areas within the fortress for Ryukan; hopefully it'll keep things neat and efficient for a time. Also ordered up and started planting iron statues of my visage striking down the gobbos from last month; took a few liberties with the design, but fuck it, it doesn't have millions of fuckin' cat faces on it. They'll be watching over the caverns where dwarven industry is going down; hopefully they'll serve as a reminder that hard work, guts and clear thinkin' gets the job done.

Let's see how long it takes for some arse to kick me out of the rooms I appropriated. Honestly, as long as I got a decent place to stay, a good bed and good booze, I don't give a damn. I'm called 'Workfamous,' not 'Stuffy Noble Puss-Bucket.' My real reward is seeing this fuck-fest hammered out into something liveable, something workable.

Penned in heavy, thick script at the end of the journal, almost tearing the page, is the following:

Don't fuck this up.

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Out-of-character notes:

1. Orders are in to finish out needs for steel uniforms. Hopefully we should have enough steel coming up to fill those needs, but if not, make sure you queue up more steel. We got so much wood outside, we should be able to get it all done on wood alone, before we move on to adamantium.

2. Got a lever-specific room in the fort now to centralize controls. I set some levers that control specific things - like the dump smashers - right next to the thing controlled, but all others should ideally go in that secured room.

3. Construct additional rooms above in the giant useless cavern. We got plenty of blocks for it. Also got overflow rooms as needed already made.

4. DON'T ACCEPT MORE ASSHOLES INTO THE FORTRESS! Every person we accept = lower FPS, and we already have a 3:2 ratio of dwarven citizens to free-loaders.

5. I wasn't able to finish a complete, end-product storage area for stockpiles, but you can see the areas I mined out for them beneath the workshop levels. Do what you will with them.

6. We need to improve the walls above ground. Lip them off and set up fortifications for our crossbow users.

7. If you go down to the nascent power pump level, you can see a partially cleared-out area above the water for our water wheel battery. Nearby on a higher z-level is the cafeterium for deep-level workers, to help alleviate travel time. There's one wheel set to be made on a single mechanism as a test; make sure this works before continuing construction.

8. If we want magma at the surface, we're going to need 80+ sets of glass screws and magma-safe gears and blocks, not to mention areas mined out for the pump stack. Keep that glass shit coming in.

9. We still need nobles rooms for the outpost liason, and anyone else (stares!) who wants em. King should be nearly satisfied though. Finally.

10. As workfamous said, there's notes everywhere to help locate where shit is. Use them. Please.

My turn is coming to an end. Expect a write-up from the last stream Soon(TM); I'm currently letting the fort idle and lumber along at 13 FPS until the end of the year, at which point I'll be uploading the save to DFFD. Also going to PM the next person in turn order.