THE CHRONICLES OF THE FIRST YEAR OF PAINTOWN
In the year 350, the dwarves of Vabok Kon, The Orb of Mastering, had stalled. They'd conquered their mountains, and the surrounding lands were riddled with horrid aquifers. The magenetite deposits had nearly been mined out. Expansion was required! Rovod Olonmamot, queen of The Orb of Mastering, called seven dwarves to her throne room.
"Ah yes," she said. "You are… Nish Minedchained? You speak for these dwarves?"
(This is Nish Minedchained.)"Why yes, my lovely queen, I would love to prove my -"
"Good. You will lead your group here, and strike the earth."
"Here? That place is called The Forest Of Spurting."
"Good day! Your name will be the Eternal Pillar." The queen waved him off and returned to tuning the mechanisms in front of her. "I expect a new crown in 2 years. And build us a pillar."
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Seven dwarves set forth. Friendly Nish, the expedition leader and a small-time jeweler, strong Zasit, a mason and part-time swordsdwarf, fat Momuz, a miner and weaponsmith, arrogant miner/armorsmith Asob, nervous farmer and mechanic Iden, helpful farmer Degel, and woodworker Dobar, the most logical dwarf of the group.
"Let me understand," says Dobar as the wagon comes to a stop. "We're to found a settlement on the other side of the continent next to 'The Forest Of Spurting', and we've decided to call it 'Paintown'."
"We've been over this dozens of bloody times," says Asob, biting his nails, as he does.
"Well it's hardly the worst project I've been involved in," shrugs Dobar.
"Seems quiet enough," says Nish, second off the wagon behind Asob. Dobar peers further into the woods, and then north to the river, wandering closer to assess the situation.
"Alligators and some tigerfish in the water. This place isn't as bad as all that, huh?"
"Perhaps not," Nish says. "Momuz, Asob, mine east then north and down until you hit stone. Dwarves, let's unload this thing!"
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Journal of Nish Minedchained
18th Slate year 351, Mid-SpringFinally we have struck stone! It is about 50 dwarf-feet below the surface. Andesite and native copper, not the greatest riches but it will do. We have not died yet. However, there are disturbing reports. Iden reports "undead peacocks" to the northwest, but then, he reported "undead maggots" in his plump helmets the other day. Still, I'm keeping all foraging close to the burrow, and Dobar is walling off the entrance to the burrow, since all we have are logs.
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25th Slate year 351, Mid-SpringEveryone has seen the undead peacocks. They scuttle around, run into trees, lose feathers, and wail the worst wails you've ever heard - and birds are bad enough as is! Luckily, they are not heading directly for us. Actually, they seem to be ignoring the camp. I've ordered everything moved below ground as soon as dwarves can move it. Meanwhile, strong Zasit is laying a stone roof over the entrance, since the dead peacocks seem to be able to fly.
Below ground we have just carved out farms, some hallways, a preliminary great hall, and a couple of rooms that could become barracks or dormitories. Currently that's where the beds are going, as soon as we get them out of the dirt hallways. That is no way for a dwarf to sleep! It is a way for a dwarf to eat, for the time being, since that's where we put our tables. It is hard to plan with zombie bird calls going on day and night!
There's a few amethysts here which I have carved. The pressing need, though, is to smelt some of this copper, for trap components. I'll handle that myself. The bituminous coal we brought will be helpful.
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1st FelsiteIden is trapping the entrance. We've spotted undead ocelots in the woods, and while they shouldn't be able to kill the whole camp, they're more dangerous than peahens! Also rhinoceroses have come thundering in from the hills to the east. Live rhinoceroses, thank Kurel, but we don't want any wandering into the burrows. Dobar thinks we should capture some. If we can get a dwarf to train them, that will be an additional line of defense against the dead.
We are starting to become good friends, us dwarves. There have been no personality conflicts.
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18th FelsiteAs if to prove our hopes for rhinoceros defense, Degel says she saw a rhino crush one of the zombie peacocks outside the woods to the south. And it has stayed dead! Outside of the dark magic of the woods, the undead's power is diminished. We'll have to be careful when it comes time to kill the creatures.
Why did we bring quivers? None of us can shoot and we have no crossbows. I'm encrusting them with amethysts. At least we can sell them.
The most important event of the day was the arrival of migrants from The Orb. I met them myself and assessed their skills. Unfortunately, mostly useless. There is Rakust, an athletic dwarf, a butcher and miller, who will make a good axedwarf as soon as we can buy or forge good axes. Her husband Ingiz is a brewer and miller. We aren't milling anything yet, so these two will smooth the walls of the stone part of our burrow.
Urvad's an extremely arrogant artist, but, she's an artist, and we need stone crafts for me to encrust with all these amethysts. Her young husband Libash is much more even-keeled, and is a farmer, which will serve us well, since we have new underground farms to tend.
Finally I have to find work for Datan and Ushat. Datan is a fisherdwarf, and there will be no fishing in this settlement! – not until we wall off part of the river at least. Ushat, horribly, is a potash maker. After some thought I had Datan help with the wall-smoothing and gave Ushat my furnace-running duties. He asked if he could forge any of the copper he smelted. I told him he could make small trinkets but the main user for the copper would be more trap components and shields.
Asob has begun carving out large bedrooms for us, the founding seven. "We'll be neck-deep in useless dwarves before we know it," he said. I've come to appreciate his sense of humor.
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28th HematiteTwo finds! Digging out the luxury bedrooms, we have struck hematite! None of it was smeltable but we know it's there, and that means iron axes and swords. Also, trying to carve out more luxury bedrooms to the south, we've hit damp stone. I've ordered some digging upwards so we can tap the aquifer and set up a well. If we have the option to seal ourselves entirely below ground, we should do it.
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19th MalachiteI was worried it might be the end of us. The undead peacocks came for the burrow! It was chaos as Degel and Iden and the others, out gathering, ran towards the entrance, begging steady Dobar to fend off the fiends with his axe. Well, Dobar cast down his axe… and everything… went better than expected.
It turns out a fit dwarf is more than a match for an undead peacock. Dobar dispatched the things with his bare hands! The settlement is overjoyed at the news. I've ordered him and strong Zasit to temporary military duty, naming Zasit as militia commander (he would have been insulted otherwise). They march on the remaining dead birds in a couple of days.
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25th MalachiteIt is my fault. I normally do not do things like this, take risks when I don't have to. Well, except for founding this fort. And talking to the queen so that I could found this fort.
Strong Zasit is dead. We're not sure how. Apparently the creature pecked his foot, he fell, and then his throat was pecked out. He's dead. I sent Dobar to rescue him, and when he got there he destroyed the bird, but Dobar… I've never seen him look at me like that. "Is this what you sent us to do, Nish?" he said. "For your pretty little gems? Will we become dead dwarves shambling around and picking out new gems for you to polish, is that it?" He is still working but I fear for the camp's state if he doesn't.
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7th GalenaThe undead peacocks have been replaced by undead dingoes! We are done for. I've designated safe zones in the burrow and ordered everyone within.
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Journal of Iden Bridgeevened
22nd GalenaLet me see if I understand what happened just now. Zasit we all know got himself killed idiotically trying to wring the necks of zombie peahens last month. I was never friends with the dwarf but everyone else seemed to be. Dobar took it especially hard and has been just misearble this past month. So:
I see him crying on Nish's shoulder. Nish and Dobar, they've always been a little distant, but I guess Nish is an authority figure. I wish we had an authority figure. But I guess Nish will have to do.
Nish must have said something stupid, because I see Dobar just fly into a rage, and pummel Nish to the ground.
Dobar takes his rage out on the plump helmet farm. I've never seem anyone destroy a farm with his bare hands, but there it is. Seeds everywhere, what a mess.
He chucks a wooden bin at one of the central column. An empty bin, thank Kurel, we need to sell those goods.
And then, he calms down, and all of a sudden Nish and Dobar are friends! The next time I want Nish to do me a favor I'll punch him first.
Dwarves have strange moods even when they aren't making artifacts. Especially when they're not making artifacts, more like.---
28th GalenaZombie black mambas?! I'm going to bed.
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Journal of Nish Minedchained
12th LimestoneThings seem calm again, at least for the moment. I've ordered a trade depot and monument built. The monument is there to help guide caravans to our burrow. We'll top it with a statue as soon as we have a decent one, but that may be some time, since Zasit was our only skilled mason and he's dead. He is staying dead in the tomb we made for him, at least.
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8th SandstoneAt last we have some usable hematite! I've commissioned four iron axes to hack apart any undead incursions. Also, a kobold showed up some time ago, and surely there's goblins. The sooner we start training soldiers the better.
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12th SandstoneI saw it myself, a dead cougar stalking the wilds. Hopefully that is as big as the undead creatures will get. I doubt it.
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17th SandstoneAgain we have migrants! We will soon lose count, but for now they are few enough that I can record my impressions of each one, so I shall.
Atir Equalbolted is an armorer, which is very welcome. I told him he can smelt ore and burn wood if he has to. He is fairly fit, and willing to fight if he has to, but doesn't seem up to confrontations. His wife Inod, however, is athletic and durable; I have her doing miscellaneous farming tasks but she will get one of these axes as soon as fat Momuz forges them.
Farmer Lor Hamepillar is strong, fast, young, and confident, though short and fat. I've decided he will make a good new militia commander for Paintown's actual militia. I pray he survives at least two fights.
His wife Kosoth is a siege engineer. Sod that, she'll be a stoneworker now.
Atir Balancelances has the makings of an excellent warrior, which is good, since he's a hunter by trade and there will be no free hunting in these woods. His wife Sodel is, unfortunately, a glazer and fisherdwarf, neither of which she'll be doing here. She is, however, quite creative, so I'm letting her pursue leatherworking, stone carving, and bone carving. We need more goods.
Sad farmer Ushat will be tasked with various agricultural tasks. We have little enough of that to do at the moment, so he can be our gopher dwarf. His wife, Libash, is also a hunter and fisher – well, she is a miner, now, as soon as we forge a third pick.
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13th TimberAt last, the caravan is here. It is good to see dwarves from our homeland again (well, except for mostly useless migrants. The Forest of Spurting is not for hunting!) though they seem almost insultingly surprised that any of us are alive, plus Dobar says he saw a map of theirs pointing to a naerby elven retreat, "to sell the clothes off our dead backs to" he says. But what does he expect? Dwarves are a practical people.
My amethyst-encrusted stone goods fetch a high price and we are able to buy much of the caravan. Unfortunately, there is no leather there (a state of affairs I firmly remedy with the outpost liaison) but we trade for liquor, wood, ingots, wool, fish, plump helmets thread – and, bronze short swords and the prize, a pair of steel greaves! We also trade for a couple of steel anvils. These will be melted down and turned into sharp instruments.
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6th Moonstone, Early WinterPreliminary defenses of the fort are being prepared, with four dwarves being assigned to training duties. Lor Hamepillar has gladly taken up the duties of militia commander - "We'll purge the dead from the forest one day," he says - and has picked 3 of our most fit dwarves to train for battle.
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7th MoonstoneTo all dwarves of The Eternal Pillar:
Henceforth it is forbidden for any dwarf to shout "She's possessed!" whether a dwarf happens to be possessed or not. In a place like Paintown, this involves barely-trained militia forces being mustered to incompentently wave axes in the middle of the great hall, and a lot of unhappy thoughts. Instead, please QUIETLY inform the militia commander, expedition leader, or other nearby authority figure so we can see if said dwarf is going to pick up an axe and start killing children, or else sit in the leatherworking shop muttering incoherently like a normal possessed dwarf.
Good mining, etc. etc.
P.S. Someone go slaughter the donkey, we have no hides. Degel can have donkey meat for the next two months. For the next year if this thing turns out to be a thong.
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27th Moonstone"Routedcleansed." The spikes of donkey leather are beautifully formed, I have to admit. The two sole fish dance ingeniously amongst the spikes. Only a possession could create such a thing! Also if you pinch your finger and thumb together just so you can make them kiss.
A mitten for the ages. Degel can eat donkey for the next six months, I suppose.
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18th OpalIt took about a week for me to persuade Iden to retrieve the thing, but we have - a caged black mamba. Militia commander Lor is absolutely fixated on the idea of a snake pit. I've tried telling him that snake venom does nothing against the undead, but he is a young dwarf and easily transfixed by the promise of bizarre constructions. If we build one somewhere deep underground to throw live naked goblins into, will he shut up about it?
The embark includes an evil biome so death may happen anyway. You can "dorf" yourself in game if you like, but I haven't. In this writeup I drop in and out of a couple of dwarves' POV.
