1st Moonstone, 1054
My name is Hyperbox, and I'm the bookkeeper.
In any other fortress, that would be a respectable enough job. You get to spend a great bit of your time in an office. Yer OWN office, might I add, which is a sight more than most dwarves get. That's how it would be in any other fortress. But, as it stands, I am the bookeeper here in glorious Ishlumumid... the most cluttered and disorganized fortress I ever laid eyes on. By Armok! These confounded dwarves haven't the least respect for organization! There are odd-shaped stockpiles everywhere and many of our workshops are literally buried under little mounds of furniture and other goods. In spite of all this, I've somehow managed to keep accurate records of everything in this blasted place, down to every log, stone, and blessed pint.
You can imagine my surprise, today, when I found myself put in charge of this... circus! It seems our poor doctor has had enough "leadership" himself, and so he passed the command on to our Broker, Snook, who was far too busy pawning off a towering pile of junk and oddments upon a hapless caravan (Kadol bless her for that, and help the poor merchants' beasts!). At any rate, she insisted that another take up the blasted mantle of running the place, and that unlucky dwarf turned out to be me.
13th Moonstone, 1054
Over the past two weeks, I've decided to take a more positive view of my newfound power. As I have come to see it, leadership carries certain benefits. Perhaps I can garner a few nicities while I try to bring some sanity to this place (not much sanity, mind you... can't be too optimistic). Kadol knows I'll need something to offset the burden of trying to lead this band of nincompoops. Luckily, there is plenty of alcohol! 281 flagons of wine, 95 of ale, 48 of beer, to be exact, and even some assortment of the foreign stuff.
Yes, the benefits of leadership can be good: I've ordered some new rooms dug out. A lovely throne room/office, a dining room, a bedroom and a tomb, all wonderfully spacious. I have noticed that the miners in this place seem to suffer from an inability to cut out regularly-shaped rooms, but it can't be helped. As I write this, the workers are finishing up clearing my new apartments of loose stone, and the work of smoothing has begun. They have also finished a pretty glass throne for my throne room, and are setting to work on a matching dining set as well.
As far as my attempts to bring order to this chaos, I have laid a new gem stockpile to help clear out our gem and glass workshops. A second furniture stockpile will soon follow. Several of our masonry shops are literally hidden in little caves of stone furniture. I am also planning the digging of a new refuse stockpile. The original one can't be expanded as there is nothing but a wall of sand separating it from the outside world. Thank Kadol goblins are too stupid to dig! The last of my immediate plans is to have floodgates and grates installed in the unfinished water channel so we can finally breach the river and bring water into the fortress. I might try and experiment with some of the unlabeled levers I've found strewn about too... here's hoping no one dies.
7th Opal, 1054
Today I discovered that a good bit of food was never brought in from the depot after the last caravan left. Much of it has rotted. Luckily we have enough food to survive, but it seems I'll need to add to our food stockpile space as well.
6th Obsidian, 1054
The temperature finally dropped enough to allow the river to thaw. The channel has been completed to bring water into the fortress, and it is beginning to fill, though no cistern had been dug at present. At least now we shall have access to water for our hospital in the event of a siege.
7th Obsidian, 1054
On of our dwarves, Mistem Tenothlogem, died today. It seems he fell into one of the murky pools in the plain before our fortress and drowned. Upon closer inspection, his waterlogged corpse could be seen at the bottom of the pool clutching a willow log. In his zeal to retreive it, he must have been unable to swim up to the surface for air. Ah well, he was just a lye maker.
10th Obsidian, 1054
My quarters were completed today!
26th Obsidian, 1054
I think it's time we began to see to the fortress's defenses a littl more seriously. To that effect, I have ordered the construction of a small tower overlooking the fortress entrace and trade depot. We should be able to station marksdwarves there in the future to shoot at any enemies that make it past the cage traps.
17th Granite, 1055
I have drafted a squad of four marksdwarves and have begun construction of an archery range, as well as a practice bolt industry. A handful of first-rate shooters will - I hope - go a long way in protecting us from invaders. The archers' tower overlooking the fortress entrace is complete. A larger one may be built over the trade depot in the future.
28th Granite, 1055
Lor Zimzon, one of our armorers, began acting very strangely today...
7th Slate, 1055
Lor Zimzon finally came out of his odd mood... He emerged this morning from a forge wherein he'd holed himself for the past week or so, holding an amazing iron mail shirt. "Dallithnonub," he called it... "The riddled punches." I suppose that might be an accurate description of any punches which might be received by the wearer of this shirt.
28th Slate, 1055
About 26 migrants showed up today. I hope to Kadol they can make themselves useful. The last thing we need in this fortress is a bunch of vagrants.
16th Felsite, 1055
An Elven caravan has been sighted coming across the plain... I think I'll just stay in my room until they leave. Let the broker deal with them.
30th Felsite, 1055
Well, one of our idiot dwarves managed to haul a wooden item out to the depot, so the elves won't sell us any of that massive load of alcohol they brought. We have enough... good riddance to the Elves, I say! As I watched them depart I noticed a large... construction, hovering over the fortress entrance. It looks like a wide sheet of stone suspended over the field by a slender buttress of rock. I questioned the architects about it and they said that I had told them a month ago to start building defensive structures (I had told them to start designing something, but it looks like they went ahead and built something without consulting me...). The result looks rather... unstable. While I pity any goblin upon whose head this monstrosity might fall, I won't be leaving the fortress, at least not as long as there is only the one entrance and as long as that contraption remains.
