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I imported some metal gear from the caravan. I think I have lye; one of these days, I'll make some soap. Might be important, now, for the reason that I'm posting a short update now instead of waiting until I have more.

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It's been business as normal in Zonnish. I got the minecart-wood thingy to work, more or less. There's a temporary jewler's workshop next to the depot, with a minecart-shaped hole in the side.
Rampartpaddle made a fatal choice whilst riding the minecart around. Well, not fatal, but a puppy got a broken leg and a lot of bruises from being punted down a pit, and Plaitmansions got stunned when his squadmate slightly enlarged the hole in the wall, but still. The dog's passing in and out of consciousness.
Oh, dear, that's Zon. Creedbell's not going to like this...
On the 11th, tragedy struck again: Rampartpaddle was struck by the minecart again. Her arm was broken and the wooden sword which slew the first invader our fortress has seen was dropped. Rampartpaddle went unconscious. Creedbell swiftly moved Rampartpaddle to the dormitory for treatment. The minecart was lodged firmly in the minecart-and-architect-shaped hole in the jewler's workshop.
Broken has taken a break, so Ransackedsack will be assigned to diagnosis.

...And my computer crashes, sending me back to Moonstone 19th. Thankfully, my word processing program autosaves more than I save my DF.

On the 27th, Creedbell was found dead by broken, with bruised right lower leg skin, superficial [i.e. deflected] wounds to the upper body, and a caved-in skull. Broken, who discovered the corpse under the minecart she was riding at the time, thinks that Creedbell struck obstacles twice after death. Creedbell was, ironically, constructing a track stop to prevent minecart deaths when the minecart struck her, which of course has nothing to do with Broken. On the bright side, once someone else finished the stop, the system worked perfectly.
The diplomat gave his requests from the Mountainhomes. Highest priority was toys (which would sell for almost twice the original price), followed by leather and crutches at around ¾ greater price, ammo and thread at about half again, rings at 1/3 greater, fish at around ¼ greater, and cheese, headwear, and cloth at a 1/6 markup.
On the 3rd of Opal, BerserkNINJA was struck in the head by a minecartload of logs. Broken was seen running off from the scene. She has two broken lower legs, a broken foot, a broken ankle, a broken upper leg (the latter three all right), a mangled left lung, some broken ribs, and bruised guts. I designate the dormitory as a temporary (I hope) hospital, and make sure Broken is capable of getting to BerserkNINJA quickly. Quilltorch, remembering his lost wife, quickly recovers BerserkNINJA. Sadly, Broken seems more interested in standing in her doorway than helping BerserkNINJA...Oh, there she goes. And so starts the first successful medicine in any fort I've overseen (most ended with dehydration before treatment starts or death before the dwarf can even be brought to rest. Or both).
Around the 10th, I made a temporary mason's shop to make a bunch of rutile blocks. I intend to do something with them, I'm not sure what...

I think weenog's point was that messing around with moods wouldn't really help with the bone-stack-size problem.
Maybe we could try something like this:
1. No two moods may have the same skill used. Dwarves with, say, the Bonecrafting skill have that skill effectively removed from the calculations when choosing the mood.
2. The number of legendaries is taken into account when assigning skill weights to various skills, maybe something like 5%/legendary. So, 10 legendary bone carvers means that, after a non-bonecarving mood, bonecarvers would have their effective weight halved. This would provide a "soft cap" on legendaries from moods, as well as a hard cap around 20. Once all moodable skills have 10+ legendaries, this count would be reduced by the number of the lowest legendaried skill, if that makes sense. I doubt it would ever come up, but it's worth worrying about.
3. Unskilled dwarves have non-craftsdwarf options. Perhaps they'd have a chance of any moodable skill, with craftsdwarf skills having higher chances and forging skills having lower ones (for instance). Or maybe currently non-moodable skills should get kinds of moods assigned to them.



I also appologize for being undiplomatic. I thought you were starting to sound like a troll. I'm glad to see I was wrong.

That was unintended. I knew you'd notice, I was just wondering if other people were reading. I'm working on the whole "make my words mean to other people what I mean them to mean" thing in real life, too.
Anyways, I've got just enough for another update!

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From the journal of Rimtar Degelbekar, Outpost Liason to Zonnish Kukon in the year 127.

I'll be honest, I didn't want anything to do with this place. Staying far, far away wasn't an option, though, it was either become a liason or get sent here, and not come back. King Rith treated it like a favor to me--I guess it was, given what I had done to the queen's niece, although the little slut came on to me*! But that's neither here nor now. The important bit is that as my first assignment as a royal liason to the more distant outposts of the Mountainhomes, my first assignment was Zonnish. Thankfully, the reports of Zonnish's fall came before I could go to that undead-filled wasteland, and I had a year longer to train and prepare for being sent to prison before I actually did.
My first and most important assignment was to figure out how well Zonnish Kukon is doing. They have a bunch of walls and stuff, more than half complete when I got here and with a good bit more being put up by a couple dwarves as I waited for this GreatWyrmBrass to finish up trading. Their military, officially composing about half of the fort's population, is composed primarily of various unarmed, unarmored, and often untrained dwarves who are still evidently a decent fighting force. That kobold I saw (whose corpse is lodged into a fishery), and a giant slug who evidently didn't react well to being tamed, have been this fort's only kills so far, but seeing as they have about zero metal weapons and only a couple copper breastplates and shields, that's still impressive. They seem to have a system of some sort involving minecart tracks and a hole in the ground, which is supposed to take wood from the surface and send it down into the fortress with ease, but it's being hindered because no one wants to unload the wood from the cart for some reason. The main entrance to the fort seems to involve a large pit; thankfully, some stairs are also pointed out.
Soon, I go inside. The entrance is by a narrow, wooden staircase surrounded by wooden walls, evidently to keep out the aquifer's water. Going deeper, I soon find myself in a sort of meeting hall, with a kitchen in one corner and a cage in another. Nearby is a large, but mostly rough and empty, dining hall, and the living quarters. A lady is smoothing the floors; I offer myself to her chivalrously*, but she rebukes me harshly. In short, it seems to be a typical growing fort.

Then I saw the grate.

Rith, if you're reading this, sorry about the comment on your niece-in-law, and you really need to see this grate. It's gold, still with bits of rock and stuff clinging to it (native gold, they call it), but a lot of it's microcline. There's also some limonite, and hematite, and some kind of leather...mere words can't describe it. There's a bunch of neat stuff, every inch is covered in beauty, but you've got to see it. There's this image of a bunch of dwarves around you, and they're putting a lovely microcline crown on your microcline head, and it's really neat in part because you can see the back wall of the guy's office through it. Trust me, you need to come here. Visit. Say it's an inspection or something, just come.

Anyways, they asked for the normal stuff-metal, alcohol, fuel, lye, stuff like that, it's all in my full report. GreatWyrmBrass also requested a bunch of yellow gems, and tin, too. When I asked him why, he said he was paying off an old debt to someone. Says he wants to start some fortress on the coast or something. He asked me to bring a message to a Cilob, asking me to tell him about the status of the fort and inquire as to his current employment status. Says this place has a tons of beasts he'd like.
Negotiations have been impeded by a few factors. For instance, a barrel shortage. We did, however, get the export agreement settled by the time Opal rolled around.
I learned a lot about how the fortress was ever-improving. Ore was being mined; the walls and floors were being smoothed; more walls were being put up; a moat was being dug; a mineshaft was being dug to find the caverns (it had already been dug down 70 levels, though); a buthery/tanning area is being built in the actual fortress; and so on. I think they made some rock pots to deal with the barrel shortage; the pots were being made by someone who I think might be mute. She even only smiled when a little girl mimicked her, playing in a mechanic's workshop. (Very multitalented, that mute one.)
Eventually, we also made some import agreements. In descending order of the Mountainhome's needs, we have: armor, spears, hammers, cloth, anvils, seeds, amulets, cloth earrings, blocks, drinks, and shell crowns. The guy here promises to do his best, but can't make any guarantees. I leave on the third of Opal, leave the region allotted to Zonnish the next day, and catch up to the free traders within half a week.

I think I enjoy spending time with this GreatWyrmBrass. We agree on many things, such as free traders and how the Mountainhomes should be supporting this prison more. I'm thinking about asking King Rith let me move here permanently.


*Probably not true.
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And with that, we return to the journals of GreatWyrmBrass.

I think that it would make sense to embark on a sandy desert/mountain place, if such a place can be found. That way, we have sand and cliffs. A river would also be nice, some to think of it.

I'll take a dwarf. He needs to like some kind of metal, referred herein as [metal]. The dwarf's name should be GreatWyrm[Metal], ideally a weak and intellectual dwarf. If multiple dwarves fit those criteria, I'll take a woman, because everyone will want a male dwarf. GreatWyrm[Metal], hereing referred to as G for brevity, will be slightly obnoxious but still have good ideas. G will want to be at the head of the New Unheard-of Traps and Such commitee, which comes up with creative new mechanical devices.

I decide to deal with the issue of surplus population in the traditional way: Military training.
Towards the start of Timber, Townbud begins her construction. She's got some ores, a ton of microcline, and the leather made from the giant slug.
Work is being done on some basic defenses--walls and stuff. Also a lever to raise a bunch of bridges, making our fortress impenetrable.
Townbud has finished! It's...not quite what I had been hoping for.
The Rumored Wills is a grate. A recursive grate. It has an image of our good king Rith, surrounded by dwarves, in microcline parts of the grate, forming the bulk of the front of the artifact. Other images include cushion gems in hematite (which are basically flat cushion-cut hematite chunks, and mixed with non-flat versions of the same), a pair of microcline mangroves dipping their roots into a microcline sea at the bottom, microcline bugbats flying around a microcline cross near the top, and a limonite dwarf in a flood of hematite cabochons. It's also encrusted with several types of stone and ore, has loose, hanging rings of microcline in artistic places, and has spikes of microcline and giant slug leather (the latter being more like stiff bits sticking off on side). It is worth 7,520 gold or so [112800 db]; the total value of our fortress is a bit under 23,600 gold, so this single item is worth almost half of the rest of the fortress.
On the 19th of Timber, the awaited supply caravan arrived. It was two wagons, four yaks, a water buffalo, a horse, four merchants, four military dwarves (two speardwarves, a hammerdwarf, and a macedwarf), and an outpost liason. I wondered why the liason traveled separately, and swiftly learned the answer: This wasn't a royal supply caravan. It was a group of merchants who had been sent here on royal order. They said that the crown would, of course, be taxing their profits.
“Profits?”
“You didn't think we'd be just giving all of these goods away, did you?” replied Meng, the caravan's leader. Then she laughed. I suspect I will come to loathe these freelance merchants. (They were kind enough to offer to trade goods at market value, though.)
Shortly after the merchants with pack animals rather than wagons arrived at the depot, a kobold was found, hiding in the fishery workshop. I ordered the Superior Mines, the squad lead by BerserkNINJA, and the Spears of Urging, the new speardwarf squad, to kill the thief. Unluckily for the kobold, Plaitmansions (one of the Superior Mines) was right next to him, fishing. Even less luckily, the heavily armed and armored caravan guards had noticed the thief. However, before anyone else could get there, Plaitmansions won himself some honor, lodging the kobold in the wall of the workshop.

I had both squads ordered to kill the kobold (who may have been named Troker, or maybe that was just his dying cry) station themselves by the gates, and had the Constructive Fortresses (the marksdwarf squad) station themselves at the depot.
Within a day or so of the kobold incident, the traders were ready. We traded a few surplus goods we had lying aound for miscellaneous supplies, like metal, weapons, armor, and food. We'd buy alcohol, but they don't seem to be interested in trading it. Or maybe I can't find it on their list of goods.
After some trading, I have the Spears of Urging patrol a bit around the fort. After that, I decide to let the militia return...although I had work on the wall around the fortress continued.
Trading continues. I don't like the free traders, and they don't like me. I do eventually get some alcohol.

Finally, just as all parties were at the breaking point, we ran out of things I felt like selling. The merchants promised to leave soon, and I swiftly left the depot. On the 16th of Moonstone, I started chatting with the liason. The first question I had is why the hell a bunch of free traders were replacing the royal supply caravan we were promised.
“Budget issues,” replied the liason.
“...”
“Well, you can't expect the crown to dole out precious steel to keep the biggest prison in the kindgom well-stocked with weapons.”
“Okay, first off, we've got maybe six prisoners, and all but one of those are going to be kept in the main part of the fort once we get an actual prison set up.”
“WHAT?!?”
“These guys aren't horrible monsters, you know. Most of them have made big contributions to our fortress. Take Townbud, that bone-carver.”
“Ah, yes, her. What about her?”
“In a sec. We're a lot more than a mere prison. For instance...remember the bonecarver?”
“Yeah, we were talking about her ten seconds ago.”
“Well, she's a miner better than any I've ever seen before. Also, let me show you something. It's evidence of a will behind our actions that we've heard rumors about...”

In other news, the dingo packs that have been roaming around the surface pretty much since the kobold showed up have been replaced by some giant dingoes. Oh, how I hope they stumble into our traps...

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Hel-lo-o! Is anyone out there?
Except Splint. (No offense intended.) Is anyone new out there?

I thought the magma cannon was what Boatmurdered had. I'd call the magma-firing thing a magma rife or something.

Wall off the door, and have the herbalist try to make a little camp on some corner of the cavern.

Ah.
You make grog by mixing water and alcohol?

Swill sounds like something for desperate times. That could be...interesting, at least.