Bay 12 Games Forum

Summer 203

The big news this season is that I lost the mayoralty. To Kubuk. I suppose I should have seen that coming. I'm trying to be a good sport about it, but it annoys me that I never got to sleep in the mayor's quarters before they were fully finished. Kubuk, by the way, is now sleeping with Rovod.

 At least I'm still broker and stockkeeper. I still run this place, and nobody's going to forget it.

 I give Koji and our migrant engravers a field test-engraving the Founder's bedrooms. They don't do too badly. A couple of masterpieces, a lot of superior ones. There's many images of the symbol of our parent civilisation (the "Coastal Ropes"). Its a table. Sometimes I'm glad we left. We also get quite a few of our own symbol (thin crosses, I suppose it's a step up), a lot of my ascension to mayor, a couple of Neo's death, and one of me trading with the Elves this spring. Plus a number of our founding and the creation of our artifacts. It would have been nice to get a few crossed dead werewolf motifs on a field of werewolf bone gauntlets, but you can't have everything all at once.

 In really bigger news, we got traders from the Humans! The "Kingdoms of Flesh" didn't contact us last year, and I'd almost written them off as too scared to come. I'm VERY interested by the circuitous route their wagons take to arrive. Starting from the north-west they moved down the stream  almost to the eastern border of the local area, then struck west to reach us. The lesson is clear. The forest is just getting thicker and we're going to have to attack it heavily if we're not going to find ourselves cut off from trade. I've already ordered an extra axe, and told some sap to use it. Now I sanction another and order woodcutting to concentrate on cutting a clear path to the brook.

 With the champions manning the gate (the newer recruits keep to their training) we trade a lot of Ubid's crafts (he made a masterwork ring the other day), some totems, some of Rickvoid's pre-legendary bone items and some silk socks for metal bars, booze, leather bins, some funky ores, barrels, a mare, a dog, and meat. While this is happening another werewolf appears to the south, and panicks a couple of planters out gathering the silk. A couple of champions deal to the problem.

 We didn't even bother giving this one a name. We are so getting slack.

 While we're carrying the stuff back to the stockpiles I get word that Kubuk, bless her little black heart, has mandated the making of black bronze items! I was afraid of this. Black bronze is gold and copper [EDIT: and silver], two [three] ores we've been conspicuously unable to find, but a panicked look at the stocks shows we got ONE black bronze bar off the human traders. I order it made into goblets. Somebody told me once you get more than one of those from one bar.

 While we're fussing over THAT, Datan, the blacksmith I put on armourer duties, gets possessed by unknown forces and kicks everyone out of the forge. That's really awkward, especially since we've build the forge for ease of access and have no way to lock him in if he goes ballistic. However, he grabs some iron bars and some (imported(!)) copper and produces an iron table. Banded with copper. With an image of Ubid's weapons rack on it in iron. Not so bad. I have it put at the head of the dining hall, with a jet throne that menaces with spikes of ruby.

 I'm going to have to talk to the jewellers about that last thing.

 Our fortress wealth almost doubles this season, exceeding our imported wealth for the first time. The factors behind this appear to be the forging of Platinum and the previously mentioned black bronze goblets, the aforesaid iron table, and the more regular armour production thanks to having two smelters going. Rickvoid, when he's not giggling to himself and talking to the air, is doing a pretty good job in turning our bones and shells into gauntlets and leggings. I feel we could definately equip a larger military, but we have no one we can spare.

 However, it's becoming quite clear that fishing catches and silk gathering is getting a bit beyond our ability to process it. I've ordered a second fishery built, and more farmer's workshops and looms. There'll be waste next season I suspect.

 The goblets manage to satisfy Kubuk, and she issues another mandate. Vests. Oh dear. Give me something hard.

 No, don't.

 Some mining probes in the first slate layer (we have enough coal and iron, so I'm giving up on the mudstone for the moment) find another sphalerite vein, but no copper. Got to keep trying.

Spring 203

I saw Rickvoid muttering to himself, his hands up to the wrists in what I swear to Armok looked like a lump of REALLY rotten meat. The blood gnats follow him like a halo. I think I did the right thing moving him downstairs.

I didn't look closely at what he was doing. Looked like he thought he was writing or something. Whatever. Just so long has he keeps doing good work and doesn't try to stand next to me.

[OOC: I think you meant Elf-SKIN. But if it's Elf-FLESH, I'm going with it...]

Lolol has announced that she will henceforth be known as Koji. Never really paid that much attention to her. Good miner. Acceptable smoother. Our two migrants engravers are apparently in the habit of laughing at her detailing skills, but she never asked for the job.

 At some point, we've got to get the dining hall engraved. Don't trust any of them to do it right though. I order a whole lot of bedrooms and workshops smoothed. One of the engravers is trying to tell me that workshops don't have to be smoothed. I'm stroking a Kimberlite mechanism (so cool, so deep blue. Not like that crappy microcline stuff.) and not listening. It's not smooth walls on the butcher's shop I want, it's better engravers.

 I paid a visit to Neo's old bedroom, wondering if we should give it to Neosen when that fellow heals up. I discover Neo's old clothing (minus his left shoe and sock. Funny that.) strewn all over the floor. I'd forgotten about the superstition about not touching the belongings of the dead. I order it hauled away.

 I also find his axe. He's had it with him the whole time. This sort of raises the question of what the various saps I ordered to take on the woodcutting duties after Neo were actually doing.

 I think of having a serious talk with Mebsuth about this. Then I remember that Mebsuth, miller, is now Mebsuth the legendary Champion and I think again. Whatever. I find the fish cleaner who was supposed to take over woodcutting and tell him to do it, at least until a more promising sucker turns up.

 Speaking of fish cleaning, there's a bit of a problem. We have almost no bones and shells left, and no meat or fish on the accounts. This is a bit of a worry. The food situation is not important because of the amount of plump helmet we have, but we need bones and shells. For moods, and to keep Rickvoid busy. I don't like to think of the possibility of Rickvoid idle.

 Initially I'm thinking that we're just not catching any fish, then I'm told otherwise. We got a pretty fair catch of rainbow trout and chad in the winter, and the turtles are back within the perimeter, so where are the bones going?

 Then I discover that the saps I've got on cookery duties have been grinding them up to make biscuits. I put a stop to that. The lads will grumble about the lack of prepared meals. Feh. Let them eat tallow.

 We really need more animals.

 Oh no. I didn't wash and now I have elves! We trade a couple of mechanisms and lots of Ubid's crafts (he's actually getting not too terrifically terrible. Also having more than mudstone to work with helps a little) for some booze of some description, a bin of cloth, and a couple of wooden weapons for sparring. We didn't need the cloth, but let's show willing.

 While the Elves are here I put the champions on guard. They turn up holding their crossbows from the wrong end and half of them have empty quivers, but they do turn up. Any goblins will die. And, considering the marksmenship of our gallant defenders, probably very slowly.

 Speaking of crossbows, I've put up a workshop for our Bowyer but I can't bear to order anything from him. A crossbow, to me, is a hammer that shoots people. It should be made of iron or better. I don't want wooden hammers. Even if they do shoot people.

 One of our children is all grown up, and become a peasant. I explain to him his duties to the community and draft him forthwith.

 This is Fogcrystal. Nobody stays a peasant for long here.

 After trading with the cannibals I get back to cooking keeping the books. It's a little sad. We are a poor fortress. We just haven't had the right combination of migrants to make real money. We have metalsmiths, blacksmiths when we need armourers. We have amateurs making clothes.

 Someone is tugging on my sleeve. It's a leatherworker. He's complaining that the tanner is doing all the leatherworking and that he isn't being given a chance to practice his skill. He's right, of course. It's a pity he wasn't around when we had leather and needed it made into things.
I tell him he'll be doing all future leatherworking.

 Someone alerted me to the presence of our new Werewolf, "Angry Arthur", near the southern wall. He isn't making trouble but his presence is disrupting silk-gathering. I send out the boys.

 Goden, our ex-trapper, turns up first. It really impressed me how the almost untrained (with a crossbow) Champion waited until Angry Arthur was right on top of him before shooting him point-blank in the nadgers. It would have impressed me more if he'd then hammered the thing to death instead of firing more valuable iron bolts into it with painful slowness. Eventually, our ex-milker turns up and hits the werewolf with the blunt end. That's it.

 Some migrants turn up. A gemcutter, another blacksmith, a weaponsmith (useful), several peasants, two woodcrafters (bleah), a pump operator (wait...that's a PROFESSION? I thought it was a predicament), a dyer (we can use that one eventually), a milker (drafted), a trapper.

 Owing to the bone shortage I get the woodcrafters on making training bolts. We are not short of wood. I order an iron axe forged and give it to one of the peasants, because clearing the forest from around our walls is taking a while.  Most of the others I put to fishing or general masony/furnace operating/farming tasks. I'd like to draft more, but it's limited by our armour production. I've had to establish a second smelter.

 I tell the pump operator that since his shirt's the right colour, he'll be working with me as a mechanic.

 Hey, I'm now the mayor. I go mad with power and order all turtle shell exports prohibited. I find myself dissatisfied with my own housing arrangements, and order a new suite of rooms dug out for me. We strike coal while we're at it.

 The migrants actually bought some animals this time. There's a she-donkey calf, meaning our donkey can have a child bride, a mule that I can't kill because it's a pet, and a cow and bull calf. Eventually, we can have inbred redneck cows.

Our horse remains a bachelor.

 

Yeah, I'm aware the absence of traders=no contact. It's just everytime we get one of these threads we get people posting with the impression that the "c" screen shows all potential contacts, as opposed to present ones.

Well, of course you can find sedimentary rock and magma in the same REGION, just not in the same biome. Putting the magma in a corner generally gives you the best chance.

Fire Imps are generally pretty passive until something gets near them, then they start looking for trouble. One of the fun aspects for my haunted tundra game was watching the Skelks and the Fimps square off. I generally either have a major battle against local Fimps in the first year or else they stay down deep and never cause trouble. Once you've got the magma tapped there's usually no reason to bother them. Fimps are pretty easy to beat up, although the fireblast attack can be nasty. Always try to draw fimps away from the pipe if you're going to fight them, they can pull people into the magma.

Note that if you get a region with steelmaker's dream region (flux, iron, coal, magma) then your fortress wealth will increase very quickly because steel has such a high value. This can lead to getting nobles and things earlier than expected, and also a LOT of goblin activity. I have such a fort, Basicswords. It's had 124 Goblins die assaulting it in the last year or so, the Dwarf pop is 118.

Food stocks don't seem to have anything to do with it unfortunately, you can be starving and get migrants. Death is certainly a factor. So is fortress wealth.

No sand. No mechanics.

I've just got a pump operator, will that do?

Nothing around that needs to be pumped.

As recounted in my story thread, my current terrifying forest has only one werewolf at a time. Everything else is pretty normal.

I KNOW the "Purple=no undead" thing is wrong though. Look at Nist Akath. It's a purple tundra. My haunted tundra/wilderness taiga was purple in the tundra area and had heaps of Skelk, Zelk, Skolf, and Skusmox.