(A letter dated 5th Granite)
“Gentlemen,
Though the information gleaned from it has proven valuable, our position has become unstable. The nature of Project Crystallake (See Camp, Crystallake, Camp, DFM, Camp, Spoopy) is at significant risk of discovery due to the failure of certain staff members to cover up the deaths of dozens of the ‘volunteers’ there.
Thankfully, the guards are at least sufficiently equipped to put down a riot should it arise, being in possession of full iron armour and steel weaponry due to the efforts of Splint Orderdyes (See Orderdyes, Splint; Employees; Overseers; Wankers).
The stock records are well-maintained: the fortress is sufficiently supplied with alcohol and food, with a significant surplus of iron bars and a small quantity of steel. Cloth, wood, and other such vital goods are in similarly good supply.
Standard procedures for dealing with the dead, however, have been all but abandoned. Numerous spectres (See Appendix A, section 9, Ghosts, Creation of) have been allowed to rise without authorisation and have been given free reign to cause likely irreversible mental damage to several campers, corpses have rarely been disposed of, and reports indicate that at least one employee, Mr. Eric Giltsunken (See Giltsunken, Eric; Employees; Deranged Loons) is guilty of unapproved witchcraft (In direct violation of our policies on such matters).
I have sent an employee there to mitigate the damages, though I must formally request that you consider liquidation of Project Crystallake’s assets if it becomes clear that a legal disaster is unavoidable (Reference Liquidation Methods, Circus, Fun).
Signed,
(Name illegible)”
(A journal, recovered from the former quarters of Overseer Quantum Echofortress.)
14th to 15th GraniteWhoever designed this place needs to be fired. Preferably from a ballista. Then beaten to the consistency of ground meat, reanimated, shot from a ballista again, then fed to starving Beak Dogs.
We’re certain to get butchered in the courts over all the shit that’s been going on down here. Even if the legal bigwigs manage to get away with the lack of organisation, the rotting corpses everywhere, and the gross incompetence that practically defines this place, whatever semblance of a brand we have is going to be fucked after this.
Plausible deniability and contracts don’t mean shit when a miner goes psycho in the most trafficked corridor of the fort, and drives someone's ribs through their heart.
The poor bastard was stone dead in moments, and the idiots hired as ‘staff’ just left him to rot there, in full view of dozens of campers. That’s not something we can just explain away, goddamn it!
And then there’s all the ghosts running around. The campers are buying that ‘actor’ bull less and less as time goes on – the fact that at least two of the campers are right on the edge of a full-blown breakdown from those asshats constantly harassing them at all hours, never pausing for sleep or sustenance, is rousing more and more suspicion.
About the only good thing so far is that the fort is mostly secure and has enough resources to get by – and then there’s the [obscured by scribbles] in the depths. I’m still waiting my orders as to what to do with that, before the law brings the hammer down on us all.
25th GraniteI’ve dealt with the worst of the ghosts. Official line to the campers is that they breached company policy by taking the ‘haunting experience’ way too far and got their contracts terminated; we’ll see if the law’ll swallow that in time, but for now, Mister Spookyface and his risen buddies can go back to the grave.
The remaining ones – two dwarves and some psychotic-looking raccoon-thing – seem pretty docile. They just float around, all mysterious-looking and don’t stir this diarrhoea-drink even further. They can stay for now, but the minute one of them starts making funny noises… well, the memorial slabs are ready for engraving, and we’ve got one for every camper in this hole.
Speaking of slabs, I’ve begun working on cleaning up the corpses around the fort. The boss wants as much of the blatant evidence of wrongdoing gone ASAP. Most of them’ll go in the atom smasher, with the slabs shoved off into a side room.
1st FelsiteSeems like those ghosts didn’t want to go without a parting shot. One of their buddies showed up just outside the fort and chased a couple campers around for a while, before one of the guards thought to drew their axe and hack the damned thing in two.
18th HematiteManagement seems to have finally gotten around to my request for more reading material. Sent me a dozen-odd books from some monastery down south, along with some unskilled labourers told to carry them all, though most of it’s about as bland as it comes. It’s been shoved into the big spider-shaped library with the rest of the books; with luck, it’ll provide the more deeply traumatised campers something nice and inoffensive to read. Failing that, at least we can claim it’s a sign of how we at least tried to care for the campers.
…
As if! Management’s orders came today, mixed in with the books.
My orders are to strip-mine the veins down in the depths, and damn the consequences. If it all goes well, we can sell the ore and its wafers to help with funding, if it all goes badly – well, then it won’t matter much. The magma forges and workshops are already in place. All that is left is to start mining the ore, and pray that we don’t hit the hollow centre and give the bastards what they’re no doubt hoping for.
28th MalachiteA Suturer who started hiding away in one of the glass workshops suddenly came out today with a green glass barrel.
Looks pretty good, if a little bit of a waste of valuable materials.
18th LimestoneAnother murder in front of a dozen-odd witnesses. Broken neck, this time – that quack serving as the coroner of the fort went apeshit on Zultan out of nowhere, snapped her neck, and carried on pummelling her once she was down. Then she just stood up, and walked off like it was nothing.
Times like this almost make we wish we had a Hammerer. Damn that quack to Hell!
27th LimestoneExtraction of the material in the depths is being carried out at speed. Though significant quantities of magma will require draining or outright elimination via water, the quantity of Adamantine mined so far has proven enough to make several breastplates and helms (some of masterwork quality, due to the efforts of one of the more stable campers).
5th TimberThe CMD, a smelter, and a glassmaker somehow managed to starve/dehydrate to death down on the forge level, despite there being a clear pathway back up to the fortress. No-one seems willing to go back down there, no matter what I do. Guess that’s another three lawsuits to add to the pile.
There haven’t actually been that many issues with morale, beyond the three lost causes (CMD, miner, and Broker) and their constant tantrums/depression/occasional murder. No sieges, either, just the occasional Wight passing through. Most of the fort is around 0 stress, or is at least in the grey area represented on DFHack. The top layers of candy have been mined out, and the remaining ones will all need at least some magma draining before they can be properly mined (unless you're looking to HFS it immediately).
That said, for some reason, the dorfs won’t go down to the forge level anymore despite having tasks enabled down there. Several of them almost dehydrated/starved to death because they were just standing around there, forcing me to DFHack-teleport them back into the main fort. Now none of them’re going down there, and teleporting them back down just causes them to stand around and not do anything. As far as I can tell, there are no locked doors, obstructed passages, etc, nor is the error log showing any pathing issues.
I have zero damned clue what’s causing this, but at least I’ve managed to forge a couple candy items. Going to try and figure out what's causing the issue in the remaining two in game months.
