Archmage<--You were killed by a GCS, I'm redorfing you now. Edit: Done! You're a weaponsmith.
Diary of Urist McKiwi II, Bombardier
2nd Obsidian
It is ready. In 3 days, I will escape from the fortress under the cover of darkness.....the decoy will take my place.....and all will be well. Someone else can deal with the insane priest and the stupid military and the stupid, stupid count. I'll have a full set of adamantine armor and wheelbarrow full of loot and supplies to take with me to start my new life...where ever it may be.
In the meantime, I've ordered the miners to dig a new graveyard and do some exploratory mining. The burial space is sorely needed....one more reason for me to get the hell out of here while I can.
3rd Obsidian
Fired some food and drink over the wall in the evening.
5th Obsidian
Tonight I get out of here. Farewell, Moltenchannels! I've stuffed the necromancers tome into an old production record and installed the decoy in my chambers.
8th Obsidian
Well, it worked. I'm out of the fort. Didn't manage to retrieve all the adamantine I'd fired over the wall, but I've got most of it and the rest has sunk deep enough into the ground that it will never be found. I stumbled across somegoblins the other day. Told him where the fort was in exchange for them letting me go about my way. Seemed a nice bunch of chaps. Told me about a city some way away where I might be able to sell my goods.
Wonder what's going on back at Moltenchannels now? I bet that decoy has them all flummoxed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diary of Urist McKiwi III, Dashing Swordsdwarf
7th Obsidian
Something is gravely wrong with our overseer. For the last few days she's been a shadow of her former self.....unable to even speak! I fear foul sorcery......
8th Obisidian
Or it could be that she decided to abandon us to die and left a crudely-disguised zombie in her place so we wouldn't notice. We probably should have worked that out a bit earlier, to be honest. Still, she appears to have taught it siege engineering so I guess we'll be keeping it for now....not that anyone's able to decide that because no one is in charge here. Poor Udib Wastedlabor is filing orders left behind, and McDonald is preparing to meet the royals (He thinks we've given them enough that they may turn up at any time. No one has the bravery to tell him the caravan with our offerings hasn't actually left the fortress yet).....but we're leaderless now. I'm not really the sort to stand up and take control.
Apparently I've inherited a title from the last overseer as a result of her leaving her post, which is awfully nice. Even if she wasn't a very nice person, "McKiwi" has a decent ring to it that works well for a dashing woman such as myself. Very dashing.
10th Obsidian
One of the engravers has been taken over by a fey. Guess he's out of the running for the elections. Udib's been getting the little boxes and papers ready and all that. Bit of a waste of time, if you ask me....these things are probably rigged years ahead of the vote. Still, we need some leadership around here. I'm a farmer and a swordsdwarf, and a damned good one at that. Heroic too. And dashing. But I need people to tell me what to do. I've taken it upon myself to ensure that the last works on the schedule are completed before the elections.
11th Obsidian
After skipping around the fortress like a madman for a full day, e's claimed a workshop right on the surface. Jolly good. I don't think he'll be making us a nice sword or anything like that, but we could use a nice statue to make the place look nice.
We could really use a new dining room as well.....The old one's covered in blood and spittle and is far too small for everyone. Not to mention that's how that worm thing got in to cause havok before yours truly and her friends put an end to that. That was not a fun fight. But it was dashing in the extreme. Guess the new overseer will have to look into that. I'll give 'em a poke when they're elected. Us soldiers like a dwarf who cares for us, especially when we've been on active duty for most of a year.
12th Obsidian
Some children are ripping down walls so the order to seal the staircase can be finished. About time too.....some dwarves panicked at the sight of a crundle today and barred the doors into the cavern. If we knew where it was we'd arm up and take it out.....but no one's telling us! ARRRGH. How is one supposed to be dashing when there's no one to give orders?
17th Obsidian
The burial grounds are more than half-finished now. Someone suggested a "Community mural project" in the hallway outside it to take our minds off recent events. We've really cleaned the place up, and we've got some nice engravings turning up. Looks a little eclectic, but it's making people happy and that's what's important.
18th Obsidian
An ambush has come, just as we planned to let the caravan out through our walls. The marksdwarves ran off to shoot at one squad while we suited up. Guess I'll have to cut this short in case the commander puts us out there.
20th Obsidian
The bastards are after a turkey. They must have run out of food. We're all stationed at the gate, waiting for the order to move. They've got a squad of lashers and one of speardwarves. I don't think our armor is good enough for this.....still, I am a dashing swordsdwarf. If the order comes, then so be it.
21st
I can hear the count screaming from all the way out here. Something about needing a tin table in his dining room. Guess that's why the old overseer made his room in the shape of someone flipping him a middle finger......McDonald's a nice chap most of the time, but when he gets worked up like this he's just crazy.
22nd
Wait, is that SMOKE? What the hell is going on?!!
*ahem* Dashing......dashing....
There appears to be a fire somewhere outside the fortress. I shall investigate and report to my colleagues.
23rd Obsidian
Something sparked a fire across the volcano. We don't know what, but I guess it'll flush out any more squads that are hiding out there. I also guess it means we're not getting ordered out there just yet. Time to go have a drink. Dashingly, of course. The marksdwarves are staying put, because they don't have to walk through fire to shoot at things. Fine by me!
I walked past that engraver in his workshop today. Whatever he's making, it's going to be interesting....he's got EVERYTHING there....copper and gold nuggets, leather, cloth, wood, emeralds, glass...even one of the adamantine wafers the overseer had the smiths making (heh. She'd be apoplectic if she saw that...).
27th Obsidian
The election is underway! It's rigged, sure as hell, but in a few days we'll have an overseer again. And I'll be able to be properly dashing and such again!
Meanwhile, the landscape outside is a mix of dead corpses, dead undead corpses, ashes, goblins and fire. And bubble-bulb. I like bubble-bulb.
Unfortunately if this fire keeps spreading like it has been the whole place will burn up. That should take care of the ambush (and give those smug marksdwarves something less to brag about), but the landscape will look even more desolate than usual for a time.
28th Obsidian
The election continues. That engraver has finished his work. All those materials for a small copper ring.....it is fantastically pretty, though. Must be worth a pretty penny too. Wonder if I can get him to make me something. I'll save up some loot from the next few battles I fight. A dashing swordsdwarf needs to look the part, you know.
I think I'll take a break now....have a nice rest, come back in a few days and see who's ordering us around. My vote's in, but I don't think it'll really count for anything. I'm too dashing for democracy anyway.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And so it ends for Urist McKiwi II, with a ladder in the night and a wheelbarrow full of stolen adamantine. McKiwi III is the best swordsdwarf we have (not that this says much), and has a candy sword and (hopefully) breastplate. And is very, very dashing. Also: Dashing.
This has been a pretty successful turn from my perspective. I've mined my first adamantine, learned how to use the military, stabilised the fort *twice* when it was looking like morale was plummeting, and built a really nice amulet. So I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.*
*On fire, covered in blood and with horrifically inefficient management.I'm uploading the save and will edit the post with it when it's done.
Edit: Here's the
save, and here's some pictures:
Important things for the next overseer:
1. Some of the "Seal the caverns!" projects got stopped by stray socks and bins and the like. You NEED to seal the cavern compound and stairs next to the dining room. Also, stop people wandering out into the caverns to reload cage traps next to a pack of crundles. I've forbidden the traps for now and locked some doors.
2. Likewise, our dining room is too small, covered in blood, and open to the caverns via the waterfall drain. The giant worm thing got in that way and we have been
really damned lucky that none of these FBs have had deadly dust or something else that's actually dangerous.
3. The military really needs an overhaul. I've expanded it massively, but they've taken quite a lot of casualties and need more training, more dwarves and more equipment if they're to hold off the FB/Goblin/Kobold armada. We had 3 new FBs this year, and only one of them decided
not to break in and kill people.
4. You''ll need to let the dwarven caravan out some time, but wait until AFTER the fire has killed the goblins and burnt itself out. They're carrying the offering that'll make us the capital (I think). We really need them safely on the road and out of the fort, but we can't afford to burn them to death by sending them out early.
5. Don't ask me how the fire started, I honestly don't know. I like to think McKiwi II went back and tried to torch the place after stowing her stolen goods somewhere safe.
6. The graveyard isn't quite finished, and you may wish to complete it given our average life expectancy in the military.
7. McDonald wants a tin table. His dining room is right next the adamantine mines and looks (very very roughly) like the room is flipping him the bird. He was being
very annoying earlier.
8. It is vitally important that you
