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   The baroness and her entourage approached the main entrance of Halltraded.  They were greeted by a group of dwarves led by Higar.  Higar examined the newcomers.  To him it appeared as the typical dwarven immigrant group - ragged and desparate for a new opportunity.  His eyes suddenly fixed on a hammer-wielding dwarf standing to the back of the group.  He looked strong and skilled with the hammer, but did not appear to be from the military.  How odd, Higar thought.  His examination was interupted when a female dwarf stepped forward and addressed him.

"Excuse me, peasant, is this Halltraded?"

The dwarf examined the baroness.  Though she was extremely ragged from the trip, she clearly lacked the callouses made by mining, masonry, or any of the other useful profession. Ah, Higar figured, she must be some sort of fish Dissector used to loafing around all day because there was no work.

"Yes it is. Welcome. Here's yer pick - we be needin' dwarves down below."

That was not what the Baroness wanted to hear after such a difficult trek.

"WHAT? HOW DARE YOU TALK TO YOUR SUPERIORS LIKE THIS? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?"
"Aye, ye be a stuck-up fish dissector thinkin' she's entitled to loaf around all day on account of the lack of work.  What do ye want next, a throne room?"
"Yes, in fact, I do!"

Her tone made the dwarf take a step back.  Perhaps his initial assessment of her had been faulty.  Suddenly it dawned on him.  The banner, the hammerer, the newcomer's tone - these were nobles!  Suddenly Higar realized he was in serious danger of receiving Halltraded's first hammering.

"I'm sorry m'lady, we weren't expecing you.  I offer my humblest apologies for my foolishness.  Might I ask, why have you privledged us with your presense?"
"You are forgiven. Halltraded is to be the new capitol of the Barony."
"But Halltraded is only a small outpost! Why has your grace chosen this place?"
"Small? Hundreds of dwarves have set off for here!"
"And there be only 18 of 'em alive now.  We've had hard times."

The baroness stopped in shock.  Hard times, indeed.  18 dwarves?  Well 40 with this latest wave ... never before had the Barony had a capitol in such a location.  In any case it appeared that the rumors of Halltraded's wealth were not exaggerated.  Bars of precious metals were piled around the entryway like so much junk.  If they're just leaving such bars lying around, they must be stinking rich.  Less dwarves just meant more wealth for her!  She congratulated herself on being a ruler with such foresight.

Higar, desiring to make up for lost ground, spoke up again.
"We've got a suite reserved just for you, my liege."
"Oh, how delightful!"

Higar was very glad he hadn't touched that luxury suite.

After that interchange, Likot Thobestun, the immigrant who actually was a fish dissector decided it would be best if she quietly learned how to dig.

*****

   Later that day, Higar sat in his room cataloging the latest immigrant wave.

Journal of Higar, Brother of Christes; 17th Slate 307.

A record of the latest immigrant wave follows below:

1 Dungeon Master
1 Hammerer
1 Baroness
1 Baron consort
1 Tax collector
2 Planters
1 Marksdwarf
1 Woodcrafter
1 Tanner
1 Pump operator
1 Peasant
2 Children
1 Fishery worker
1 Bone carver
1 Armorer
1 Engineer
1 Fish dissector
1 Siege operator
1 Cheese maker
2 Masons
------
23 immigrants

2 puppies
1 Donkey
1 Donkey calf
----
4 animals

Nobles?  Useless!  Tanner, Cheese Maker, Fishery worker, Fish dissector, Pump operator?  Welcome to the wonderful art of mining, friends!  The rest can probably find a niche here.  I am particularly glad we have a mechanic once again. 

That luxury suite I mentioned before will be used.  I have ordered more rooms dug out to accomidate the parasites nobles that have just arrived.  The dungeon master will get his own special place upstairs by the kennels.

It's possible that the gate got destroyed and rebuilt.

The lever had a mechanism in it but the bridge didn't.

In fact, now that I think about it, that makes the most sense given the previous tantrum spiral.  Tantrumming dwarves can destroy bridges, right?

On the morning of the 17th of slate, dwarven lookouts noticed movement on the west horizon. Initially, they raised alarms thinking it was another Goblin assault.  But soon they saw that the approaching group marched under what appeared to be a dwarven banner.  In the distance, Higar could make out a picture of two waves on the banner.  That was the symbol of the dwarves' parent civilization The Lashes of Squashing.  These were immigrants! Those poor sots must be absolutely desparate if they came to a place like this, Higar thought.  But how could a ragtagbunch of immigrants obtain such a banner?  The answer became obvious as the group approached.

   Baroness Lolor Ostavabok was anxious.  It was customary for dwarven principalities to frequently change their capitols as fortunes rose and fell.  Old, established fortresses were often given up in favor of promising young ones.  Dwarven nobles liked being in the thick of things, so to speak.  Where there were new veins of metal, there was wealth, and where there was wealth, there was comfort.  And dwarven nobles, especially dwarven rulers, valued comfort above all else.  With the current capitol having exhausted most of the surrounding resources, Lolor had decided it was time to declare a new capitol. 

   And from her perspective, no location had looked more promising than the young settlement of Halltraded.  With rumors of significant precious metal deposits and no less than three legendary idols crafted there, Halltraded was a very tempting target, indeed.  It was a bit of a concern for the Baroness that very little had been heard from Halltraded since it was founded.  But, she figured, the dwarves of Halltraded were probably just trying to keep their wealth secret from the outside world.  Yes, that must be it, the Baroness had told herself.  Those filthy peasants were probably swimming in vaults of aluminum while she languished back at the old capital and had to make do with *shudder* zinc and nickel goblets to drink from. She'd show those dwarves whose precious metal that was.  She imagined herself sitting on an aluminum throne, holding a golden scepter while directing the lower-class dwarves to their proper role.  Yes, all in all, Halltraded had looked pretty good to Baroness Lolor Ostavobok.  It had looked good on paper, anyway.  But now that she was trudging through the Rancorous Jungle with a handful of other stout dwarves, it looked a lot less appealing. 

   The thick jungle seemed to have an intelligence of its own.  Undead creatures followed their every move, staying to the shadows and preparing to pick off any straggling dwarves.  And the closer the group of immigrants got to Halltraded, the worse things seemed to get.  The Baroness's personal guard, a marksdwarf by the name of Urdim Bomreksolon, was working overtime to guard the group of 24 migrants, which included the Baroness's entire entourage.  However, his bolts were simply ineffective against the endless horde of skeletal wildlife that roamed these parts.  But the beleagured group of dwarves marched forward.  They really had no choice.  Finally, after trudging for days through hopeless jungle, the dwarves saw all of their hopes manifested in a single stone structure peaking above the hills.  They all recognized it immediately as a dwarven pump tower and rushed forward to what must surely be the richest dwarven settlement in the land.  Upon topping the nearby ridge, the Baroness was met with the same impressive sight that Higar had found months earlier - the dam.  For her, it only served to confirm the presuppositions she held regarding dwarves in Halltraded.  To dam a river in a land like this spoke wonders about the resources of Halltraded.  The hundred or so dwarves that had immigrated to Halltraded in the last few years must have been put to good use.  She approached the fortress, ready to assert her royal authority.

(Note: Yes, there have been that many immigrants.  After this latest immigration wave, there are 40 living dwarves in Halltraded and 86 dead ones)

By the way, can we get a shot of the status screen? I'd like to see how the fortress is doing in general.

What screens would you like to see?

But I'm not going to put them up just yet.  It would probably spoil the next 2 updates (a two parter!).

I had precisely this problem in an earlier fort.  I'm not sure the king was a dwarf, though.

Heh, in retrospect I realize how lucky I was to not have to make rooms for the king .

   Higar was on the third floor examining the complex system of gears and axles that his brother had designed to bring power from the waterwheels all around the fortress.  The dwarves had reconnected the millstone room with the fortress, but the millstones were not functioning.  In fact, they discovered that that entire primary shaft was missing power - the pumping systems for the well and the impressive tower outside were also non-functioning.   Unfortunately, all the competent mechanics in Halltraded, including Higar's brother, had died in the choas of the last few years.  So naturally Higar found himself secluded from the other dwarves, trying to figure out what on earth the problem was.  He was no mechanic, but dwarven common sense was often good enough for basic mechanics.  And Higar didn't like what he saw.  The mechanical work was unmistakably his brother's, but through a combination of rioting by the dwarves and insane lever-pulling by the previous overseer, everything was left in a jumble.  Then Higar saw the key problem.  There was simply an axle missing. 



Higar could fix that himself.  In the future, however, Halltraded would need dwarves skilled in mechanics.  For now, Higar told himself that he would work on his mechanical abilities by crafting mechanisms from stone.

You have a Titan?
You have ten goblins?
Have them fight! Make sure to get a video of it!

You should probably upload your map to the DF map archive if you want us to seriously look at it

If that's true, the wiki is wrong... now I'm curious

Are you sure the random people weren't dabbling leatherworkers?  That would make it a leatherworking mood.

I try to make sure all my random people are dabbling weaponsmith/armorsmith for that reason.