Sorry, not a lot of images this time. Mostly just worked on the fort while getting some story stuff up.
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27th Slate, 14~It is getting difficult to put on a smile each morning. Or each night, for that matter. Mightygrips continues to grow, yet I feel as if I’m withering away.
We’ve had another influx of migrants that changed everything. The nineteen of them showed up confused, asking who was in charge. “I am,” replied Bodark assertively. I did my best not to show my discomfort. After all, I
had been selected as the expedition’s leader by that bastard from the mountainhome, Melbil. But it’s three years gone, and what leadership I had has transcended to pure authority - yes, my job instructions will be followed, but nobody looks to me for answers. All for the better, I suppose. I don’t look to myself for answers either. Still, I couldn’t help but be a bit jealous.
“Ah, so you’re the king’s steward, eh?” commented one of the new members of our party, Logem Newflag. I shared a somewhat confused glance with Bodark, one of the few times we’ve locked eyes in the last few months.
“Well, I… suppose,” he said. And that was that. Now that Bodark was officially in a position of authority, he needed his own room as well. We’ve set him up above the stables, in some of the unused rooms there. …Sam’s there too. They married a few weeks ago, without much ceremony. Rykue was best man. I wasn’t invited.
Despite all the progress on the castle, I haven’t been able to shake this bitter funk I’ve been in. The elves came to trade, but instead of bantering I just gave them some goods and walked off with barely a word. Even the one that continues to wear the skull hat didn’t get me to crack a smile. I’m finding myself lashing out more than I’ve intended to, and I accidentally snapped at Jyrvus the other day when he came asking about work. He’s the closest thing to I have to a friend – I don’t think what I was thinking lashing out at him. He’s done more than his share of work, too, having dug out half the upcoming moat on his own. He’s got an apprentice now, Sazir, who’s getting good.
The populace seems to share my poorly-contained anger. We saw two goblin thieves and trying to sneak into the fort… and all the dwarves around them dropped what they were doing and tore them to shreds. It was somewhat horriffic to see, but not so much that I didn’t wish I could’ve joined in.
The goblins have certainly begun to take note of us. A horde of them tried to ambush us while we were expanding our walls. Our knights, Sirs Sulvor, Grath, and now Angron, were nearby, but had little defense against the crossbow-wielding ones. They all took at least one bolt to the chest before they were finally taken down, leaving Sulvor and Grath injured and Angron in bed. They missed one, though, a wrestler making his way for the children who were idling in the yard. I tell myself I intervened for their sake, but had they been there or not I might’ve done the same. All my pent-up anger was released in one rush. Tendons were severed; limbs became limp and... just came off, really. Before the goblin’s eyes went glazed, there was this despairing, pained look in them. It was the kind of look I imagined Urdim had when the orcs had descended upon him, just meters away from safety. I stopped, and looked at the ground, littered with chunks of innards. Looked at my hands, like bloody paintbrushes. Looked around me at my workers, all silent, staring, shocked.
“What?!” I asked, somewhat waveringly. “Don’t you have better things to do?!”
Nobody moved for a few moments, then they slowly continued along their way, eyeing me nervously. I stood there alone with the bloodied cadaver. Static in a sea of flowing dynamos. Eventually I shuffled to a pond and washed my hands. It took two hours before I thought they were clean enough.
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Okay, I really focused on story progression there, so I’m just going to cram in a ‘here’s what’s going on’ bit in here.
Walls are looking great; I’m trying to rush to get a single, thin 1-z high barrier up for defense. Then I can relax and work on thickening them and starting to build up. Also, remember how the jungle used to have trees? No more! Yay for clear-cutting.
Doom got a secretive mood and actually used a fair amount of stuff in on her silly earring, including billon and trifle pewter bars as I forbid the other types when I saw she was going for bar storage. It’s pretty nice, at $74400, but it’s got a picture of Tomescinder, the hatch cover on it. Tomescinder has a picture of the
first hatch cover on it. Yeesh.
Here’s Kriega, Ingish, and Gale’s personality info. 'Major injuries' are a reference to sparring, since their sparring partners wield obsidian swords. There are a lot of 'Rest' messages, even with armour :\
Nalar and Sir Angron are dating now. Wooooo, military couple. Speaking of couples, Rykue and Gutendorf had another kid, a girl. That’s two children and one baby, as we had a child immigrate and the first baby grew up.
After that rather poor showing when the goblins ambushed, I’m a little worried about what will happen during the next orc siege, which is almost certain to be very early on this winter (I paused just at ‘it is now summer’). Admittedly, I had three melee soldiers go up against seven crossbowgobs, but even with my full military I don’t think I can take down an orc squad yet. Maybe if I have the archers cover them at the same time. Dunno. I’ll need a big ammo stockpile, at least.
'Steward' is what I'm calling the mayor... which, yes, is Bodark. Huzzah!
Quick migrant list:
M – Ezum Spinmirrors, soap maker
M – Monom Blotpainted, miner
M – Momuz Roughtwinkles, herbalist
F – Alath Necrotorch, fisherdwarf
M – Bomrek Basementshower, weaver
M – Stakud Puzzledcloistered, peasant
F – Ezum Tattooedracks, jeweler
F – Logem Newflag, engraver
M – Iteb Shoveabbey, weaponsmith
M – Asmel Bannerspines, peasant
F – Bomrek Purewind, miner
M – Urist Immortalityroad, peasant
M – Medtob Constructesteemed, craftsdwarf
F – Mestthos Sensepillar, peasant
F – Kogan Boltlured, blacksmith
F – Eral Conflicttombs, woodworker
F – Dumed Purplegirder, stoneworker
F – Momuz Inkgleamed, metalcrafter
M – Momuz Ponderedcrafts, miller
Legendary list is now up to 12 and includes Sazir the immigrant miner and Doom via her artifact work. I admit, I kind of wish I'd changed the init to have artifacts off when I started - I kind of wanted to build up wealth purely through continued effort. According to Dwarf Therapist, Ubik’s nearly a champion archer, Sulvor’s approaching champion swordsdwarf, and Quinn (with 7 strength, 6 agility, and 3 toughness) has almost got his
third legendary skill in appraisal.
Aaaand we’ve got a new chapter title: Of Knights and Days. I’ve updated the first post to contain links to the first story post and this one – the first segment has been titled ‘The Depressed Guild of Misery,’ after the expedition’s name. Incidentally, the best I could come up with for this update title in my notes is 'Quinn is unhappy.’
If she's still available, I'll take the female dwarf named Controlinked. Dub her Kriega and make her a mechanic, if the position is not already taken. If not, into the army with her.
Done, and personality sheet is a bit higher up in the post.
Put something like this:
<image>
Thats my tavern from the fort I'm making, with the booze stockpile placed under the bar (See the ramp-hole?) and 6x5 upstairs bedrooms for minor nobles (Or richer dwarves when dwarf economy comes). Mine is 3 z-levels tall right now. How tall can you get yours? 
I've got different plans for Mightygrips. Believe me, if I wanted to build a big megaconstruction, I would. Mightygrips is progressing intentionally slow mostly for writing reasons.
I was thinking about what might be interesting to see in a DF castle, and for some reason the word 'arch' came into my head. I thought it might be impressive to build a great archway for the main gate, between guardtowers or whatnot. I don't expect this to be smoothly round, but it should be able to look awesome if you spread it out a bit both width and z levels.