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Early Winter 90, Swordgangs

"And?"  Bomrek charged into Meng's tiny cubbyhole of an office. 

Glancing up at the interruption, Meng hastily moved the sheet of figures he had been calculating safely out of the way.  This time he won't ruin almost a month's worth of work.

As he shifted his piles off the table, he responded warily.  "What?"

"My windows!  Did they send my windows?"

Meng retrieved one of the sheets and glanced down at it.  Biting his lip, he debated how to deliver the bad news.

"Well?  Spit it out!"

"You know how you sort of, well, damaged the depot a week ago?"

"Shoddy construction, shoddy material, being replaced.  What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, the traders didn't exactly have time to unload everything, before the depot caved in."  Speaking quickly before the building explosion could spew out, he finished, "And there were an awful lot of glass shards."

Bomrek stalked to Meng's table and planted his fists on, looming over the smaller dwarf alarmingly.

"What are you getting at?"

Meng swallowed.  "Well, I only counted 5 windows.  But the falling depot must have shattered the rest."

"WHAT?  I needed those windows!  What kind of arena has hidden fights?"

"I'm not finished."  Where he found the courage, Meng didn't know.

The unexpected interruption shocked Bomrek into temporary silence.  Meng took advantage.

"If you'll recall, this is a copy of what we ordered."  Meng slid a sheet across the table for Bomrek's perusal.



"And, in addition to a fair number of those odd training maces, this is what I've managed to recover from the wreckage."



"This is appalling!  That Lotu--!"

"No sir.  This isn't Lotu's fault.  Whatever his faults, he has never provided a delivery that fell so far short of what we asked in every respect.  No sir."  Meng gathered his courage.  "The traders couldn't have unloaded everything in the time they had, and the falling depot broke a fair number of things.  Including, unfortunately, the windows."

"Then get me the idiot who broke the damned thing!  He deserves a hammering!"

Meng took great pleasure in his next words.  "Sir?  You did.  Remember that training mace?"

Bomrek spluttered for a moment.  Meng waited, patience personified.

Then Bomrek paused, struck by a sudden thought.  He started nodding, faster and faster.

"Meng!"  He actually snapped his fingers.  "Get a sheet of paper, then find a messenger to deliver it to the King!"

Sighing, Meng did as he was told.

"Take care of the proper salutations and language.  But the gist is this: we have discovered an excellent new design for a training mace, make sure you get the local scholar to include a copy of the design.  This design has already proven far more effective in early tests than any other training weapon currently in existence.  While we continue to refine our spear-making capabilities in order to make one worthy of a dwarven king, I humbly suggest to Your Majesty to arrange for whatever tests you feel necessary, using the prototypes accompanying this message.  Make sure you add at least one of the ones Lotu sent.  Got that?"

Meng nodded, writing furiously to keep up with Bomrek's fast dictation.

"Good.  Now a second one, to that incompetent Lotu.  Tell him that good quality dwarven-made glass is shatterproof against all but the mightiest foes, and I will not stand for sub-par items better suited for the refuse pile.  I expect the highest quality possible in the future."

Meng finished writing.  "But sir--"

"Now find me a messenger to deliver those!  I need to find replacement windows.  Though how I'm supposed to do that on a map with no sand..."

Bomrek's voice faded away as he strode down the hallway.

Meng sat, staring at the two rough outlines.  Slowly, he reached out for a fresh sheet, and started re-writing the first message with the proper formality, complete with all of the necessary and expected flowery language.

Ah, of course, the one place I didn't look.  Thanks!  *off to browse announcements*

- Dame de la Licorne

Crystal glass instruments?

We have 16 rock crystals dug out and forbidden (for use solely for a mood that requires crystal glass).  I refuse to use them for a quota just on principle.

But hey, it looks like that's a good and effective ...mace? Didn't they request hammers? Maces would have been much harder.

No, they ordered maces.  The whole hammer conversation in the summer update was used as a lead-in to get "training maces", since both weapons use the hammering skill (from what I can tell).

Of course, the timing may be inopportune - after all, Vucar just threatened the king themselves, and now Swordgangs reports complete failure of caravan as well.

Hehe.

- Dame de la Licorne

Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.
 
01 Limestone 90

Deduk's list of injuries is extensive.



The doctors think she’ll live, though she’ll may never walk again.  Imic has relieved her of military duties until we know the full extent of her recovery.  She’s also been told, in no uncertain terms, that she is not allowed to haul anything larger than a goblet while she has so many splints and casts that it’s almost impossible to see the dwarf inside.  Meanwhile, the scholars keep complaining about a lack of quires for the library, so I’ve tasked her with taking the paper Tun has been churning out and turning it into books.  That should be fully within her capabilities, once her hands heal.

But the Oracular Golds are now down a dwarf, probably permanently.  Mooney re-assigned them one of his dwarves, the new widow Momuz Swordfigures, from the Pillars of Ink.  Hopefully the need to get integrated into a different squad will distract her from her grief.

06 Limestone 90

With most of the walls and roof built around the tavern, we’ve set up the necessary storage areas and furniture.  Some of the human visitors seem to think that it’s quite homey.




10 Hematite 90

I never noticed how much stuff gets dropped on the floor and forgotten.  Deduk was amazed at how much difference a new vantage point made.  There’s so much used clothing.  And the kids leave toys all over the place, and…

Picking up a tattered cloak, she slung it around her shoulders for easy carrying.  Then she stretched forward and anchored one forearm on the clay soil.  With a grunt, she slid herself forward a bare hands-breadth.  Placing her other arm a little further in front, she repeated the process.  Inch by agonizingly slow and painful inch, she moved down the corridor to the Central Spire.

Thank the deities Lotu dug out ramps instead of stairs.  I don’t know how I’d get myself down those!

She slowly started down head-first.  But now, instead of pulling herself forward, she had to brace herself against her arms in order to stop from falling.  All of a sudden, the throbbing pain of her broken and splinted left arm and both hands spiked as she mis-judged the next placement of her arm.  A white-hot spear shot through the injured limbs.

“Ahhh!”

Convulsively jerking her broken arm back, she was unable to compensate against the sudden forward tumble.  A moment later she stopped moving in an ignominious jumble of arms, legs, and splints at the bottom of the ramp.  But I still have that cloak!

“Hey, are you all right?”  Neo had been heading up to the Candies of Bursting for a drink.

Deduk focused on breathing as the pain began to die down to its previous merely painful throb.  Her glare spoke for itself.

“Here, I’ll help you back to the hospital.”  Neo reached for the less injured arm, ready to sling Deduk over his shoulder in an easy carry.

“No!”  She wasn’t going back there.  “Ah kin manage!”

Neo frowned uncertainly.  “You sure?  Only I could’ve sworn Commander Imic said th’ doctors said yer ter rest.”

Deduk snorted.  “As if Dr. Urist ever takes her nose outta her research long ‘nuff ter know anythin’ beyond broken bones and bodies.  Bed’s borin’ ‘n’ there’s tons ter do.”

Neo shrugged.  “Okay then.”  He certainly wasn’t going to go out of his way to try to convince her otherwise.



13 Limestone 90

Vucar carefully chiseled a beveled embellishment on her latest olivine door.  Yes, this will be my best masterwork yet.  Just another tiny, tiny—

“Mayor Vucar!”

The chisel jumped in her hand, and a sudden crack appeared in the stone.

“You idiot!”

MrLurkety hunched his shoulders in dismay.  “Sorry.  But I’ve been shoved outta my crafter’s by some kid.  I’m here to make a formal complaint.”

Vucar tossed the chisel onto the masonry’s table.  It was pointless to even think about resuming her painstaking work with her focus shot.

“What do you expect me to do about the kid?”

MrLurkety shrugged.  “Kick her back out?”



Vucar shook her head.  “That won’t work once a dwarf has an idea in their head.  Better to borrow one of the general-work crafters and let her get this out of her system.”

“But it’s my craftworkshop!”  It was almost a whine.

“By the time we finish moving the quota, she’ll have done whatever it is she wants to make.  She’ll just leave an almighty mess fer you ter clean up after.”

“But—“

“Trust me.  Now have a drink before the dwarven caravan arrives.  They'll be here any day.”

With a sigh that must have originated clear down in his toes, MrLurkety headed to the tavern.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

14 Limestone 90

The cry went up as the setting sun flirted with the horizon.



Crud.

They couldn’t have waited, I don’t know, another three months?

Well, we really don’t have much of a choice, so I ordered all hands to move the quota.  Well, except for Deduk.  She doesn’t need the added stress.  Not to mention the one or two items she’d manage to deliver won’t save anybody else work in the long run.

And except for Spriggans and Minkot.  We’re still short a massive number of windows, despite Mebzuth’s best efforts.  They can keep making charcoal so that Mebzuth can continue crank out as many windows as can in the little time we have left.  Even just another one or two might be the difference between the King being merely angry and being in a flaming frothing fury.

20 Limestone 90

After much running around, Lokum has finally started on her project.





She doesn’t seem to have much imagination but…what’s with all of the bone?


23 Limestone 90

Bearskie stretched his arms over his head.  This was one of the nicer dwarven cities he had been in, but it seemed to be innate to every dwarf that all they did was work, work, work.  They do make very good beer, though.

With a smile of appreciation, he headed up the Central Spire to the Candies of Bursting.  It was much more welcoming since the dwarves had started putting actual food and drink in the tavern itself, instead of making a poor man trek halfway across the village for a goblet and then across another half for the actual drink, when he got a mite parched.

Yes, this is quite a nice place, for dwarves.  And much safer than any human settlement I’ve ever come across.  Though why they tolerate the presence of elves is beyond me.

Shrugging a bit, he walked into the tavern.  Heading over to choose a roast for dinner, he caught sight of Pesor, sitting at one of the tables.  He grabbed his dinner, an exceptional dog tallow roast, with giant mole tallow and giant porcupine tallow mixed in.  I’ll never understand how something that is pure fat can taste so good.

The passing thought disappeared as he sat down and got a good look at Pesor’s drawn and haggard expression.

“Hey, what’s wrong?  Who died?”

Pesor didn’t answer, just lifted her goblet and drained it.  Then, as if in a trance, she got up and re-filled it from one of the barrels nearby.

No matter what Bearksie said, Pesor simply sat, turning the goblet ‘round and ‘round and ‘round, staring into its depths like the alcohol held the secrets of the universe.  Occasionally she would quaff a deep draught, but mostly she just sat there silently, oblivious to the hustle and bustle of the noisy tavern.



“Okay, then.”  At a loss as to what to do, Bearskie finally gave up and went back to work.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

25 Limestone 90

Lokum has emerged from her “borrowed” crafting shop, brandishing her new treasure for all to see.



Well, that’s one of the most useless things ever.

And she’s very attached to it.  Every time anyone tries to take it for a closer look, she screams out “mine!” in this ear-shattering pitch.  So we can’t even trade it as part of a quota.

From what I can tell, it’s actually not bad, for a nine-year-old’s untutored attempt.



Sabrequills, hmmm.  Nope, never heard of her.  Why did Lokum pick a random dwarf, anyway? 
OOC: Doren Sabrequills is a great-aunt of Lokum's, who hasn't done anything other than get married and settle in Theaterknowledge, according to Legends.

26 Limestone 90

Vucar has sent another human complete with an almost completely blank resident form.



Well, at least she’s a soldier and not an entertainer, which explains why Vucar marked the form “approved”.  We can always use more soldiers.  Plus Uso has several cousins here, including Gel and Kara, so she’s welcome to stay.

I sent her off to Imic, who complained about having no mace-dwarf squads.  He’s added her to the Pale Roads, instead.  I can bet that he’ll be in my office demanding complete sets of equipment for a new squad, this time of macedwarves, as soon as the quota has been shipped out, if not sooner.  I might as well add it to my to-do list now to bring up to NCommander the next time I see her.


27 Limestone 90



Vucar gestured for Echoworked to have a seat at a corner table in the Candies of Bursting, and brought over two brimful goblets.  The drunker I am, the easier this is going to be.

“First off, let me bring you up to date on events elsewhere in our great empire.”



“But the highlight is that we’ve lost all contact with Helmsmatch.  The King’s Council fears that the goblins have seized it, as they have other settlements to the far south.

Vucar obediently updated Atölasob’s maps.



“Is there anything else?”

“Well, a few positions have changed hands, that sort of thing,”  Echoworked replied.

“Any changes to Swordgangs?” Please Gorroth, let there be changes there.

“Swordgangs has had the deities’ favors this year.  They’ve gained four dwarves for a total of 68.”

Not what I was looking for.  “Anything else?”

Echoworked thought for a moment.  “No, I believe that covers it.”

Vucar barely managed to not roll her eyes.  Like that’s not bad enough?  For two coins I’d go up there myself and—

But Echoworked was already asking about Atölasob’s needs.

Vucar thought for a minute.  “Some blue peafowl, since we only have a blue peahean.  Oh, and some olivine.”

“You do remember that you’re only allowed to import one item as long as you’re so far above the import cap?”

Vucar did roll her eyes at that.  “Yes.  That’s what the peafowl are for.  The olivine is for me.  Mark it as my personal allotment.”

Echoworked looked affronted.  “The King won’t allow that.”

“Then tell the King that if he insists on refusing me my personal allotment on the caravans, and Rigòth Dikepage’s, for that matter, given everything that we and our husbands did for him almost a century ago, that he will regret it.  He became King with our help, but will he stay King if the Founders are against him?”

“You want me to threaten King Dodòk?”  Echoworked spluttered.

“I want my personal allotment free of his grubby little fingers.”

Echoworked started to protest.

“If you don’t see to it, I’ll deal with you, first.”

Echoworked froze, mouth partly open.  A careful swallow later, he pulled in a deep breath.  “I’ll do my best, Honorable Vucar.”

Vucar relaxed, satisfied.



The rest of the meeting passed quickly, with Echoworked handing over Bomrek’s newest set of demands, and then excusing himself to get an updated herd count.

No sooner had Echoworked taken his leave than Vucar swept up the list and headed off to find Lotu.  She finally found him hauling a window.  “Here.”  She stuffed the list into his mouth.  “Per our agreement, you deal with this.”

“Mm-mmph.  Mnoof!”

Vucar waved as she went to grab her own quota load.

Lotu hurried to drop off the window, then looked at the slightly smeared list.  One item immediately caught his eye.



WHAT!  He rubbed a fist over his eyes, then looked again.  No, it definitely wasn’t a hallucination.  Crystal glass anything is impossible!  I’ll tell Akrul that he wants green glass.  She’ll never know the difference, and Bomrek will take it, curse his hide.  But at least the rest looks easy enough at first glance.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

28 Limestone 90

Rimtar seems to have trouble sleeping these days.  He keeps stumbling around the corridors, aimlessly.



02 Sandstone 90

And now Arstruk has followed suit.



A maudlin goblin is just wrong.

04 Sandstone 90

And Ustres seems to have felt left out. 



Why are all of the doctors incapable of dealing with reality?

07 Sandstone 90

I took some time away from hauling far too many windows, and investigated the whole “doctors getting depressed” issue.  We can’t afford to not have a medical team.  What did I find out?  You may well ask.  Rimtar is the most vocal one, and he keeps babbling about seeing horrifying corpses.  I was rather confused, until I realized that all three doctors have been hauling body parts out to the corpse pile.

Of course they’re going to see dead bodies.  But, because we kind of need doctors, I’ve relieved them of refuse-hauling duties.

09 Sandstone 90

Echoworked stopped me this morning, before he left on his long journey back to Theaterknowledge.  He wanted to praise our efforts to build up a diverse zoo operation.


OOC: *** indicate animals that were added to that category since the previous fall.  We either acquired one of the sexes, or we acquired both at once.

 17 Sandstone 90

We’ve finally finished moving the quota, and the traders have warned us that they’ll be leaving soon, so I girded my loins and waded into the counting.  Before I started officially handing things over, we were not in a good spot regarding imports.

Before Trade:


I choose a single platinum bar as our import allowance.  If we do have to chain someone up for disturbing the peace, at least they’ll have something nice to admire.  I also turned over a lot of imported items that weren’t part of the quota, just to try and get the import numbers down.

I succeeded, to some extent.

After Trade:


But our final numbers weren’t great.



Ummm.  The only items definitely not fulfilled were windows, and we weren’t even halfway on those, despite everything that Mebzuth could do.  What’s with Bomrek’s window obsession, anyway?  Is he trying to build a mountain out of them?


18 Sandstone 90

The wagons started moving at first light, before the sun had even peeked over the horizon.



Lotu watched them start across Tayldis Bridge, heading toward ever farther toward the northwest.  Those windows still bothered him.  Well, nothing I can do about it now.  He hefted his pick, then turned toward the Central Spire.  But, there’s always more digging to be done.

21 Sandstone 90

Step.  Swing!  Step.  Swing!  Step.  Swing!

Lotu was almost in a trance as he added a shortcut from the western living wings to the Central Spire.  Ingish was working almost in tandem, though he was still slightly slow compared to the far more experienced Lotu.

Step.  Swing!  Step.  Swing!  CRACK!



“Wait, what?  There’s third one of these things?!?”

Both dwarves stood stared, first at the jagged opening through which leaked phosphorescent light, then at each other, then back at the opening.

“How did we manage to avoid it for so long?”  Ingish wondered out loud.  “We’ve done so much digging around here by now.”

Lotu ran a hand over his head.  “I don’t know, but we need this like we need a hole in the head.  Quick, grab those boulders and let’s block this back up.  It looks like this won’t be a shortcut, after all.”

The Autumn of Bad Luck, that’s what I should call this.
OOC: I'd been wondering for a while when I would hit it, because I've been mucking around a lot in that general area, and I had genned the world with three cavern layers, so I know it was hiding somewhere.

23 Sandstone 90

Lotu was still mulling over the implications of the newly discovered middle cavern. 

I wonder how much will it affect the planned aquifer pipes and railways on the other side?  Not to mention some of those pipe-dream plans of expansion.

Quietly, he headed down to dig an exploratory shaft eastward.




Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

24 Sandstone 90

After digging what turned out to be a second exploratory shaft that I promptly blocked up before anything dangerous could sneak through, I sat down with Stodir in the library to give him some idea of my findings.  He is convinced that the first long-distance railway down to the magma will need to be completely re-drawn in order to avoid possible cavern issues.

I left him to it.

25 Sandstone 90



And another one.  These are starting to get routine.  Imic sent the Helmed Anvils, the Boats of Mining and the Barricaded Charity to the caverns to deal with the thing.  I suppose it makes since if he’s feeling a little leery after the damage that rat did this summer.

26 Sandstone 90

After a short but bloody battle, Äs Tomefenced struck the killing blower, smashing through the creature’s skull with his hammer with lethal precision.  It definitely wasn’t a serious threat.

27 Sandstone 90

I finally sat down and worked out the necessary numbers for this next quota.  68 dwarves are nothing to sneeze at.



All of this should be perfectly manageable, assuming that we don’t get any other nasty surprises.  Well, except for the crystal glass.  I’m sure Akrul won’t notice that I accidentally spilled some bilberry wine on that part of the agreement.  Not when it’s clear that I went back over it and made it legible again.

04 Timber 90

Stodir finally finished redrawing the railway design.  The downward railway makes sense, but I had to ask about the distinct lack of power sources and all of the upward ramps in the upward segment.  After all, the whole point is to free up hands, not tie down even more dwarves pushing carts around.

He went into a long, complicated explanation.  I have to admit, it went completely over my head.  About the only thing I could follow was that the upward-moving railways will use some sort of “impulse ramp” magic.  Whatever that is.  I’ll just dig it out, and leave the actual workings to the mechanics.

07 Timber 90

I much prefer when things are quiet.  With our craftsdwarves and carpenters primarily responsible for this next quota, the others have started building some more walls on the tower, and re-organizing some of the stockpiles, preparatory to setting up our full magma workspaces.


13 Timber 90

The dwarf studied the wall blocking his way into the lowest, and most dangerous, caverns.  That Lotu.  He couldn’t have left even a single, tiny, little crack that I could use to turn this wall into a secret door?

Running his fingers over each and every barely visible seam, he grimaced.  Anything he did would be noticeable given how perfectly the wall had been built.  Anyone not a dwarf would never know that it wasn’t a natural wall.

Now how am I supposed to get that Oggez Arak Shedim to accidentally enter Atölasob?  Wait a minute, maybe I can trick some poor idiot into taking it down prematurely?  But which idiot?

Muttering to himself, the dwarf started back up the Central Spire to his workshop far, far above.

17 Timber 90

The seven elves gathered around, mourning the life lost.



“I don’t get it.  It should have worked.”  Lulo touched a leaf on the dead sand pear sapling.

“We did everything they told us.”  Cata added.

Kifino was down on one knee, inspecting every inch of the tiny tree.  “We knew when we started that we were attempting the very difficult.  Maybe when our brethren return in the spring, they’ll have some more advice.”

Masami took a more practical bent.  “In the meantime, we can nurture the peach sapling up in the northwest part of the Sacred Grove.”

“What!”  The elves rushed over to where Masami knelt.  Sure enough, four tiny green leaves stretched bravely upward.

Kifino gave a single sharp nod.  “One of you needs to always be on duty here.  Make sure no one steps on this precious little one.  Our Sacred Grove will have trees.  Trees that even these dwarves will have no reason to kill.”
 

Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

23 Timber 90

Somehow Imic and NCommander keep finding time to themselves.  I’m amazed!





Imic is convinced she’ll be another great soldier, like himself and her oldest sister, the hammerdwarf Thîkut.

I need to find a way to distract Airith from her work long enough to actually get some “us” time.

28 Timber 90

With the end of the season, Lorbam came to report on quota progress.  We're off to a pretty good start.



Now, if only we can keep it up…

---

FYI: All of the depressed citizens are atheist, so the temple fix wouldn’t work on them.  None of the others are unusually stressed…yet.

Thanks for the answer.  I thought I checked that...  Is it just the number of dwarves that changes, or did I simply not notice changes because I didn't look at each specific site?

- Dame de la Licorne

Yeah, the enraptured thought is the most powerful positive emotion in the game currently, so maybe you should prioritize the temples a bit more. Would hate to see this place collapse due to a buggy update.

Thanks for the tip, I'll see about designating some more dedicated temples for the most stressed.

- Dame de la Licorne

Even so, you can web collect and fish in enclosed areas.

You think they have time to build FB proof multi-level walls down there?  It's easier to put 5 dwarves on FB duty than to sacrifice months of quota work.  Especially since I don't know if we'll ever get goblin sieges, and I'd rather have a fully blooded military if we do.  And then there's all the cavern wildlife that don't yet have breeding pairs in King Dodók's commanded "zoo".  I did seal off the bottom caverns until I've got the upper one mostly dealt with.

Glass: I take it the lowest level of soil on map isn't sand, thus preventing you from caveing in a tile to the forges?

Yes, the lowest level is damp clay (which also needs moving but is currently much lower on the priority list) and that's the type of exploit I'm not a fan of in my forts.

Though I usually bring magma up, filling a copper cart with magma only takes two submerged and 1 non-submerged ramp. Well, there are roleplay advantages to making things down there.

Roleplay-wise I consider magma to be one of those things that needs actual piping, bauxite or adamantine to move.  Anything less just feels like another exploit to me (though I've done it in testing situations if I need to get a magma smelter up and running fast when testing reactions or new workshop buildings).

But..Oh. Atölasob? Typo, or does the raised pitch indicate a fresh arc for the export challenged?

No, that's just the "real" spelling, which humans are so bad at re-creating.  Atölasob = Atolasob, especially since not all keyboards can easily do accents.  Mine does, so I try to be more accurate as the story-teller.

-Dame de la Licorne