Bay 12 Games Forum

01 Hematite 90

Lorbam worked in his tiny office, counting, checking, double-checking, and then re-checking his counts.  As he worked he kept up a steady grumbling litany consigning Akrul, Bomrek, King Dodók, and all of their descendants to the deepest, darkest, dankest, most hopeless circle of Hell.

Suddenly, a sheet of kenaf paper slapped down on top of the columns of numbers, smearing the fresh ink.  Urist Bronzecities, one of the resident scholars, leaned down.  “Got a minute?”

Lorbam shrugged, placing the quill pen carefully into its stand.  He would have to re-do that sheet anyway.

“Lookee here.”  A blunt, grease-stained finger landed on the carefully-executed drawing taking up most of the sheet.

Lorbam cocked an eyebrow.  “It’s a…crossbow.”

“Nope!  It’s a crossbow-shaped training mace.  Ye know how marksdwarves always end up hammering when they run outta bolts?”

“Yes.”  This was common knowledge, after all.

“And did ye know that Sky gave the newbies in his squad crossbows before they ever even thought of picking up a hammer?”

It doesn’t surprise me.  But I’m not the military quartermaster. He gestured for Urist to continue.

“Well, I was talkin’ to th’other scholars up in the Helmed Treasury, and one o’ the human visitors asked if we had thought of makin’ the crossbows heavier.  See, if we change the grip this way, an’ then make this end heavier, and—“

Lorbam put his hand up in a ‘stop’ signal.  “I’m not a military dwarf.  I have no idea if this will work or not, so you need to talk to Imic or some of the squad captains.”

“I did.  Catten Fencedlearned’s already made a protoype, an’ it seems ter work quite well.”

“So why are you in my office?”  Lorbam asked in beffudlement.

“To have yer separate these in a different category.  Everyone else was busy.”

Two categories of crossbows?  I guess I can manage that.  “How will I know the difference?”

“Their weights, m’dwarf!”  Urist was already halfway out the door, eager to get back to his research.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.
 
04 Hematite 90

Vucar sent another petitioner to me today.



Turns out that he’s Cawcul’s son.  Apparently, two of his sisters have been cursed with the same affliction that beset his mother and Cawcul's wife, Bañec, and he has hopes that they will eventually find their way here.

Great gods and goddesses, I hope not.  We have enough troubles as it is.

At any rate, he’s welcome to stay and deal with that kind problem.


08 Hematite 90

The dwarf drew in a sharp breath and dodged back behind the rock outcropping.  Moving much more cautiously, he moved just far enough to peer past a tower-cap stalk.

What is HE doing here?

He would recognize that cocky, self-assured, arrogant human stride anywhere.  For brief moment, the cavern was replaced with weathered wooden walls and a mangled body on the floor, and the normal cavern sounds made way for bloodcurdling screams of pain that abruptly cut off as Osp’s arm rose and fell a final time.

The dwarf blinked and shook his head, making a valiant effort to lock the memories away once more.  But the human’s promise still echoed in his ears.

“And any others who serve the same abomination will be delivered to the same punishment.”

There was only one reason that man had made his way here.  Somehow, he must have found out something that betrayed the presence of one of the Master’s servants here.
 
I’m just glad he never actually saw me.  But I’ll need to keep my distance, just in case someone, somewhere, gave him some kind of identifying information.

Carefully gathering several armfuls of webs, the dwarf walked nonchalantly back to the guarded cavern entrance, his heart pounding fit to burst the entire time.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

11 Hematite 90



Yes, they came back!  Then again, we must be very good clients for them, given how much we buy each summer to ease our quota woes.

I ordered a bunch of tattered non-quota clothes and elven cages moved, along with a few other odds and ends.  I really hope they brought cheese and anvils.  And a few maces wouldn’t be refused, either.

13 Hematite 90

The children have assigned another nickname, this time to one of our human residents, Nithim Scorchedwips.  They’ve taken to calling him “Bearskie”.  It’s rather apt.  Every time he tells a story, it seems to be about some “adventure” involving bears.  Me, I much prefer staying behind our half-wood, half-stone walls than tramping around bear-infested forests.

17 Hematite 90



Kifino has really cemented his reputation after guiding the Bunnies of Roasting refugees all the way here.  I was almost inclined to let him keep the position, for about two heartbeats.

But, 1) he’s an elf.  2) He’s under Imic’s command with little time for actual administration, so not only would we have an elf in charge, but we would also have a bunch of dwarves who could never find anyone to complain to.  I clearly remember times in Theaterknowledge when that was the case.  I don’t want that kind of riot to happen here, so I spent over half the day persuading him to turn the position back over to Vucar.

However, as part of the compromise, he is now the “Elvish Mayor”, whatever that is.  He seems to think it means that he is in charge of the elven residents.  Fine.  If he can hear their complaints, that will be much less annoying than constantly having to hear them harp about “butchers” who are "desecrating life" and “killing trees” and so on and so forth.  We’ll see how it goes.

And at least we have some common ground with Kifino, for all his elvishness.  The guy likes anvils, after all. 

18 Hematite 90

With our planned trade offerings moved into the depot, I spent the day sorting through the humans' bins and barrels, bags and loose piles of random stuff.



The first thing I checked was the cheese situation.  I was very happy find 195 wheels, and promptly grabbed the entire lot. We’ll be able to enjoy some even after stripping our stores for Bomrek.  After making the trade, I immediately ordered every single wheel locked up in the new storage room.  There won’t be any repeats of that kids’ party for the next few months.

They also brought 15 anvils, which I snapped up.  A total of 30 real anvils is still far below what we need, but at least we didn’t have to raid our own metal for them.  And speaking of metal, I also bought up all of the iron gear that they brought, for melting.  We’re hopelessly over the cap, so we might as well get something to replace what Bomrek insists on stealing.

Huh. I think I may have pushed it a little too far.  Fingers crossed the King won’t hear of it.



I need to go ask Mestthos to smelt a bit faster.
 
23 Hematite 90

Agreeing to serve as a base of operations for a couple of monster hunters has already paid off.  In addition to the acting as a deterrent to the more dangerous cavern denizens, Kara has also been clearing them of pests.



We could almost hear the echoes through the stone as she ripped into it with her crossbow.


27 Hematite 90

Cawcul considered his intended victim, debating the best angle to take for maximum effectiveness.

It’s so nice to take a break from patrolling,

Deciding on his strike, he raised his axe and swung.



The earth shook as the might trunk fell, branches scattering the ground willy-nilly.

A moment later, a red-faced dwarf came charging from Tayldis Bridge.

“What d’ye t’ink yer doin’!  Yer on duty! Git back ter yer station, NOW!”  Imic was pissed.  “N’ next month, yer in the barracks, doin’ extra exercises.  Dis-ci-pline!  It’s th’ foundation of any military!  D’ye hear me!”

The whole village can hear you.  Cawcul nodded, annoyed.  Hoisting his axe hover his shoulder, he walked back to Tayldis Bridge.  This has to be the most boring duty station.

 01 Malachite 90



Bong!  Bong!  Bong!

The warning bells rang, hurrying the Helmed Anvils as they frantically equipped their gear and headed down to their posts in the upper caverns.

Listening to the rapid pounding of steel-booted feet on rock as targets raced to their doom, the dwarf smiled to himself.  Once again, the Master had sent a nightmare creature to gorge itself on dwarven blood. 

A few moments later, another set of pounding echoed from the Central Spire.  Puzzled, because usually only one squad was on duty at a time, the dwarf stuck his head out of his workshop in time to see the last speardwarf from the Barricaded Charity disappear down the spiral ramps.

Hammers and spears.  Against a gemstone creature.  If this one goes the way of the others…  His smile disappeared, replaced with a scowl.

03 Malachite 90

Besmar Minepink trudged through the narrow cavern corridors, looking for the body that needed recovery.  It’s a sad duty, but someone’s got to bury the poor thing. He thought heavily, turning the corner.

“But that’s not—!“ The troglodyte had been mangled almost beyond recognition.  He paused, confused.

An almost unnoticeable shhrr-shhrr drew his attention further down the corridor, to where two giant fleshy tails rubbed together gently.  And then the far end turned, and suddenly there were two huge glowing discs, where the cave moss’s phosphorescence reflected off of the creature’s eyes.

Still Besmar stood, frozen in terror.

And then, the thing started to move.  Terror changed instantly to panic, and the dwarf took to his heels, racing for the sentry squad at the cavern entry, so far away.  The heavy tread behind him almost drowned the throbbing heartbeat in his ears.



Suddenly a squeal rose behind him, and the ground’s vibrations suddenly lessened in power.  Besmar risked a quick glance over his shoulder, but didn’t slacken his pace.

Thank all the deities, and especially whichever ones are responsible for troglodytes!

And he continued on his way as quickly as his scrawny frame would allow.

04 Malachite 90

The monster hunter Kara had volunteered to act as a scout, having already explored much of the local accessible caverns in her short few months at Atölasob.  Carefully, she fell back before the creature’s advance, keeping just close enough to see the flying bodies, and hear the abruptly-ending screams presaging its advance.



That stinger is vicious!

 07 Malachite 90

Having spent several days eradicating every troglodyte it could find, the creature finally reached the assembled squads.  Gel’s whip was the first to enter the fight, and the creature promptly targeted her. 

Well, that gives the others time to inflict some injuries unimpeded. Sky thought philosophically, leading the Anvils into the fray.

“Watch out for the stinger!”

Keeping Kara’s warning firmly in mind, the stinger became the primary focus.  Early on the human Someg succeeded in driving the point of her spear into the stinger in such a way that the tip came clean off.  With the biggest threat neutralized, it became a dodging game, as the soldiers jumped out of the way of a foot, or tails, or teeth, and then came charging right back in to try and land another blow, many of which did little more than bruise or scratch the creature.

The battle had lasted almost a full day when Rigòth Dikepage finally stabbed her spear into one of the deepening cracks in the gemstone body.  It seemed to catch, just for a moment, and then suddenly sank deep.  Uno Ngogngouno shattered in an explosion of topazolite.  Dwarf head-sized chunks hit the ground, and the exhausted soldiers stood breathing hard as they stared at the remains of their enemy.



“I don’t—“ Gel slipped slowly to the ground, left hand holding her right elbow.  A red river flowed steadily from a gash on her upper arm.

Rigòth quickly returned her spear to the carrying position, and hoisted her squad mate over her shoulder.

“We’ll get ye to the hospital, don’t you worry.  And the rest of ye lot,” she gestured to the Barricaded Charity, “get yer arses back to the training room.  We’re not on vacation this month.”

As Rigòth walked briskly away, Sky studied the remaining soldiers.  With two squads in very close quarters, the biggest surprise is that no one else received anything worse than bruises.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

 09 Malachite 90

Vucar has sent along another petitioner, complete with a blank form.



Well, granting citizenship to residents is more of a mere formality around here, anyway.

12 Malachite 90



The Pale Roads escorted them to the border.  After all, it wouldn't do to lose such a useful group of people.

13 Malachite 90



Hmm, she must have been pregnant when we trapped her.  According to Sigun, the newborn is male.  Which means, once he grows up, we’ll have a breeding pair of dralthas.  Nice.

18 Malachite 90

Though the latest horror was vanquished with relative ease by the Barricaded Charity, the residents are growing restless.  There is a growing sense that Robek is angry, and that this is why we have gotten seven of these terrifying creatures so far.  I’ve decided to prioritize our digging on his temple, in the hope that a proper place of worship will appease him before he sends something truly dangerous.



25 Malachite 90



Umm.



Well, hopefully Såkzul won’t take after his mother in attitude.

02 Galena 90



Another human entertainer, who knows absolutely no one here.  Nope, without a sponsor her request is definitely denied.

07 Galena 90

With the village returned to quiet calmness, those residents not needed for quota production are slowly converting our slapdash wooden walls to long-lasting stone in between various trips to store things in stockpiles.


15 Galena 90



The scream came from Cawcul, who had ventured beyond the safety of the palisade to cut more trees for Spriggans’ ever-hungry furnace.  His scream drew the ire of cursed creature, who charged the human, quickly coming in too close for his axe to be effective.

As Cawcul valiantly tried to defend himself, the wererat latched on to hands and feet, biting again and again.



The other civilians collecting logs outside the walls abandoned their wheelbarrows and heavy logs, running for safety from the rabid creature.  The Oracular Golds frantically shot bolt after bolt from the closest ramparts as Imic led the Pale Roads in a race to save their comrade, but they were too late.

Blood dripping from its jowls, the wererat abandoned the savagely mangled corpse and charged toward the closest civilian, the human bone carver Gido.  Within seconds the wererat had torn out Gido’s throat, and spun toward its next target.  Deduk had run out of bolts, and had descended from the ramparts, brandishing her crossbow like a hammer.

Urist Bronzecities, sprinting with single-minded focus toward Tayldis Bridge, stepped right between the two adversaries.  Temporarily distracted, the wererat sprang upon the hapless dwarf, swiftly adding a third kill to its list before turning back to Deduk.

Long legs outdistancing the dwarves, the spearelf Iru Naturecried lunged at the killing machine before it could finish Deduk off and move to another victim.  The force of her tackle sent them both into the nearby pond.  There was a brief roiling under the previously calm surface, and then the wererat hauled itself out.  As its mouth gaped wide in a snarl, fresh blood ran down its teeth.

In a mounting blood-fueled fury, the wererat fell on the grievously-injured Deduk.  The gaping maw was poised to deliver a final savaging bite when suddenly, as the last sliver of the full moon disappeared beneath the horizon, a human stood in place of the wererat.

Eyes going wide in shock at the enraged, advancing military dwarves, the hapless Busbel took to his heels as an avalanche of bolts followed.  The soldiers chased him to the edge of their lands, but failed to extract the ultimate punishment.

As the perverted creature disappeared deep into the woods, the residents took stock.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

16 Galena 90

Our final toll from the battle with the atrocity masquerading as a rat stands as follows:

Dead:
•   Urist Bronzecities, Clan C dwarf, Scholar.  He leaves Momuz a widow, and Dr. Urist has lost a capable assistant.
•   Cawcul Polishedautumns, human, Axeman & Woodcutter.  He joins Bañec in death after valiantly defending us against other powerful foes.
•   Gido Beachdoctrine, human, Bone Carver and sometimes Hauler.  A quiet sort, he never made any waves.
•   Iru Naturecried, elf, Spearelf & Herbalist.  It is because of her ultimate sacrifice that Deduk is still with us.
•   A stray wardog who was eager for action.

Deduk Raysdyes lies in critical condition in the hospital.  Even as I write this, Dr. Urist leads our small team of four doctors in another kind of battle with Death.  The only positive is that the doctors don’t think she was bitten, but with all of the blood and other wounds, it is difficult to be sure.

And, as if that weren’t bad enough, it’s raining.  Again!  The battleground has become a sea of muddy blood.  Or is it bloody mud?



The carnage is…disturbing.  Some of the bodies, like Iru’s, are relatively intact, but some, like Cawcul, are in so many pieces that they are almost unrecognizable as having once been a person.  I’ve ordered the coffins Mebzuth made in his spare time installed in one of the unused rooms for now, so our dead can rest in peace.  One year, when the quota is easily filled, we’ll move them to more permanent resting places.



Iru’s body lies at the bottom of a pool, but given that the moat is nearby, and has a built in draining system for convenience, a temporary pump will allow us to retrieve her body easily.


17 Galena 90

The dwarf had to bite down on his lip to stop from whistling.  Cawcul has finally paid for his lies.  Excellent!  And even with the collateral damage, the remaining targets are blissfully unaware that their futures will simply become bloodier and bloodier.

Reading through the message one last time, he carefully removed the kea from its cage.  Sneaking into the above-ground pasture, he affixed the rolled up sheet to the bird’s leg, then let it fly.

The Master ought to be pleased.  This is the first attack that has been even sort of successful.  And the tool has managed to escape for further use later.  And, of course, I’ve bought myself some breathing time. The Master would not have been happy with my continued failures.  I would hate for my family to become targets.

The dwarf nodded.  Things were looking up.


Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

20 Galena 90

I’ve insisted on regular status updates regarding Deduk’s condition.  Dr. Urist has barely been getting sleep between performing surgery on the worst wounds, setting her broken spine, and working with Rimtar, Ustres and Arstruk to stitch up and apply dresses to countless smaller but no less serious injuries from head to foot.  They’ve used massive quantities of the otherwise useless hair thread and cloth, in addition to using up all of the plaster powder we had on hand and almost half-a-dozen splints. 

With all of her serious injuries, they are amazed Deduk still clings stubbornly to life.

22 Galena 90

As we slowly return to our normal routines, the village’s mood remains somber, and I’ve noticed that the general temple is seeing more use than usual.  Tölún Friendcherished, patron of healing, please watch over Deduk.

25 Galena 90

Vucar is overwhelmed with residents either soaking her clothing with their sobs, or deafening her with their yelling.



The only way we’re going to get through this is by pulling together and comforting each other.  Of course, some of us are thankful we have an unreasonable quota to distract us from our grief and horror.

28 Galena 90

A more subdued Akrul than usual stopped by my office with the summer’s final report.



And there’s another blow.  I just know this will mean another sanction from the king, if not worse.  But I somehow cannot find it within me to care right now.

---

Character list:


























Following are updated profiles for all claimed characters in the order in which they appear on the units list:

3 sounds good, I really don't mind.

Done! (You are currently meditating on fishing and your personal deity is the god of lakes, fish, fishing and beauty.)

Wonder why rest of bunnies aren't petitioning? Might be stuck queue? I recall PatrikLundell created a script to fix that (erase the queue and make DF populate it anew).

(Ah, they petitioned later. First petition in granite, last in felsite? Oi. )

What I've noticed is that groups petition for residency together, but each individual member petitions for citizenship.  I guess it makes sense?

Make sure to use 2-ramp ditches

How do you mean?  I was rather thinking that the blue overlapping tracks would be dug out later, and would be hand-guided through the overlap, but if there's a more efficient way of doing it, I'm all ears eyes.
 

Interesting, a monster slayer? You shouldn't be getting those in 42.06 due a bug. DId you upgrade?

After running some stability tests, yes.  The fort is now in 44.10 (I need autobutcher).  It's missing display furniture, and probably some mission capability, but I can get to the world screen and have some of those options, if I decide using them makes sense.  It's just unfortunate that assassination teams aren't implemented yet.

Cheese is just impossible, isn't it?

That's what the humans are for...  Though I don't think even they will bring 130 units.

Crossbows qualify as training hammers in my mind, though, given you can train hammer by attacking wildlife with wooden ones.

That's a thought.  I'm assuming that I can't add training hammers to an already-generated world, but I may muck around and make a raw for future use.  Not to mention, it's a way of using up some stone in forts that generate a lot.

- Dame de la Licorne

03 Granite 90

Lotu walked around the corner, engrossed in Airith’s updated design for the obsidian farm pipes.

“Oomph!”

Papers and logs scattering, he reeled back from the collision with Aban Swordtip, one of the better woodcrafters.

“Watch where yer goin’!”  Aban stuck his scraped fingers in his mouth, soothing the sting.

“Me!  You shouldn’t swing those logs around so suddenly!”  Lotu started gathering up the pages he had dropped.  “More accurately, you shouldn’t lurk near corners with a full load.”

“Lurking!  I wasn’t lurking!  I was walkin’, clear as yer please.  Yer the one was readin’ and not lookin’!”

“Hmmph.  You walk any quieter, and someone’s goin’ to start callin’ you Lurkey, ‘cause yer so quiet.”  Lotu groused, gathering up the now hopelessly scrambled stack of papers that Vucar kept shoving at him as part of their agreement.

Grumbling equally, both dwarves finished grabbing the items they had dropped, and moved on their separate tasks, not noticing the children half-hidden behind a nearby doorway.

04 Granite 90

Swordtip walked into the tavern, intent on grabbing a decent mug of ale to wash the wood-dust out of his mouth.  At first, he didn’t pay any attention to the child currently telling a story, but silence gradually fell as the patrons caught sight of him.

“…and then Broker Lotu called him MrLurkety!”

Pulling his dripping mug out of the barrel, Swordtip turned to Ryukan, currently grinning at his audience with the punchline.

“Lotu called who that?”

At that, the whole slew of children present, all five of them, broke down into uncontrollable roars of laughter with one word as they pointed.  “You!”

Swordtip frowned.  “Lotu never called me that.  And I don’t even lurk, he just wasn’t paying attention!”

“MrLurkety!  MrLurkety!  MrLurkety!”  The children chanted as they broke into an impromptu dance.

Rolling his eyes, Swordtip drew on his injured dignity and walked away, back to his woodshop to work on another figurine.  Those kids would soon find another game to play.

06 Granite 90

But Swordtip’s hopes were in vain.  Rather than dying down, within days the entire fort, adults, children and non-dwarfs were calling him MrLurkety.  Even visitors!  "Just because I walk quietly and like to keep to myself.  It’s not like it’s shameful!"

“Oh, sweetheart.  Is that really so bad?”  Kikrost Rocksjump cuddled in close to her husband as the couple sat near the fishing area.  “After all, it does fit your loner personality.”

“But I didn’t run into Lotu, he ran into me!”

Rocksjump shrugged delicately.  “But how many other near-misses have you had since we arrived?”

Swordtip started to respond, then paused frowning.

“You see?  Maybe being known as that is a good thing?  At least, it’ll remind everyone else not to wander the corridors blindly.  You can't always see around a full load, after all.”

MrLurkety settled back.  It still wasn’t ideal, but…  Maybe it did have its merits.

08 Granite 90

The dwarf slipped back into the Central Spire, leaving the cavern behind.

“Oh, hello!”  Sodel greeted him cheerfully, happy to see another in a smiling mood.

The dwarf, pulled suddenly from his thoughts, jerked a nod a beat too late, but Sodel was already admiring the collection of webs the dwarf carried.

“That’s good quality silk, I’ll be able to make some excellent cloth and clothes from it.  Thanks a bunch for braving the depths to collect it!”

“You think?  I just kinda grabbed the ones that looked pretty.”

“Well, you have good taste, my friend!  Are you sure you don’t want to apprentice to be a weaver?”

But the dwarf shook his head.  I have enough balls in the air, I don’t need another.

Another few moments of small talk and then Sodel resumed his trek to his bedroom.

That was close.  Thank Robek and Gorroth that there were webs not far away.  As an explanation for his presence in the caverns, it worked quite well.

So far no one even thought to suspect his primary purpose in making regular trips to the upper cavern, especially important now that the entrance was unsealed and constantly guarded.

But I think I should start working on a way to get into the lower one, unnoticed.  Surely there I could request aid from a creature that could actually threaten the soldiers?

09 Granite 90

Vucar was hard at work, carving another masterwork cabinet for one of the bedrooms, when a timid, high-pitched voice broke her focus.

“Umm, excuse me?”

“What?”





“Bowelves?”  Vucar waved them away.  “Go find Mooney, he’s in charge of all of the crossbow squads.”

Lolama & Cata walked away, and finally tracked Mooney down on the ramparts, many levels above.

“Bowelves?!? We’ve got no bows fer yer!  Go find Lotu, he’ll find something for ye.  Go on!”

It was very late by the time they finally caught up to Lotu, relaxing with his family and a pint after a late dinner.  Upon hearing their message, he raised an eyebrow.

“Mooney’s got no job for you?  Hmmm.”  He frowned thoughtfully for a minute, then perked up.  “How are you at growing things?”

The elves glanced at each other, confused.  “As good as at breathing.”  Lolama said, half-questioning.  Doesn't everyone know that?

“Good.  Then you can go to the fields and make sure we have a steady supply of plants.”

Neither elf had a problem with that.  Keeping these dwarfs from killing things was a worthy endeavor.

But as they started to turn away, Lotu had one last request.  “And see if you can get some of those fruit-trees to grow inside the courtyard, rather than outside the walls?”

“That takes years!”

Lotu shrugged.  “So?  You have years, don’t you?  Why don’t you start with some trees around your Sacred Grove?”

Another set of glances passed between the elves.  That would take much magic and meditation, and trees were well-known for being uncooperative for any but the highest levels of Druid.

Cata finally shrugged.  “We can but try.”

“Good, that’s settled.  Now off with you, I’m on break.”

10 Granite 90

Exerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

It never rains here, it pours.  Vucar just sent me three new citizens.

1 goblin:



Apparently she’s a diagnostician.  Or is that the goblin equivalent of a butcher?  I’ve sent her to the library and Dr. Urist for training in actual medicine.

And two humans:



Lashers are useless, but he claims some novice fishing skill.  Useful enough given Bomrek’s fascination with fish.  He’s long gone to the cavern fishing zone.



A pikeman is just as useless.  However, he was wearing some very interesting jewelry, among which a fairly well crafted bone amulet.  He claimed to have carved it himself, so he’s off to carve bones for a living.

There was a fourth, a spearwoman, who was sent over to Imic.  If my notes are correct, she will probably have joined the Barricaded Charity, which consists mostly of spear-wielders.



 13 Granite 90



Excellent, the garbage collectors have arrived, and we’ll be able to get rid of various worn silk clothing and the glass tables that weren’t perfect enough to meet the standard for altars, even if they are destined for the Sacred Grove rather than a proper temple.

17 Granite 90

When I approached the depot to trade, I noticed Dr. Urist sorting through the various plants, fruits, and other offerings.  I wonder what she’s planning now?

20 Granite 90

I traded with the elves and bought some moose, so we now have a breeding pair, and an emu.  Such a a weird-looking bird.  Other than some crutches for Bomrek, nothing else was useful.  But, I did manage to offload quite a bit of worn silk clothing dropped by residents, along with some other odds and ends.

Before Trade                                                     After Trade
   

And as always, there’s more work, as we now need to carve out a pasture to put our moose herd.

24 Granite 90

The first magma smelter is up and running, and Mestthos has begun melting down imported metal stuff.  Between that and the magma kiln built during the winter, our charcoal needs have been cut by a third.  Mebzuth’s glassworks remains the single greatest bottomless wood pit in the entire fort, but we’re almost ready to build his new magma furnace, too, though how we're going to get sand all the way down there is a whole other issue.

26 Granite 90

Akrul stormed into my office just before lunch, ranting about, you guessed it, the quota progress.  She’s absolutely furious that we currently have only two imported maces.  I’ve added maces to the to-do list, and I can always give the highest-quality ones to Imic to make another squad.  He’s been grousing about the military getting last pick again.

03 Slate 90

A spate of barking hurried the Oracular Golds as they took up their assigned duty station atop the ramparts.  Looking up, Urvad spied the dread menace.

“Look out below!  They’re back!”



But the warning cry was drowned out by a sudden cackling and cursing.



Urvad loaded her crossbow and started shooting.  Aim and fire.  Aim and fire.  A long hour later, she studied the corpses littering the ramparts and smiled.  Excellent!  I’ve improved my crossbow!

Exerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

04 Slate 90

With the moose pasture now dug out and waiting for cave moss spores, Ingish and I grabbed a drink before tackling the next project.  With the existing moat fully floored against tree attacks, we now need to extend it across the northeast side, almost all the way to Tayldis Bridge.  I’ve spent so much time digging out underground areas that I had almost forgotten what it felt like to be digging while wet. 

Rain.  Rain.  Mud.  Rain.  Muck.  Rain.  Rain.

We both looked like Abominable Mud Monsters by the time we finished the day’s work, and it’ll be at least another month before we can go back to dry projects.

Yes, our village itself is becoming more and more homey, but have I mentioned how much I still hate everything outside our safe walls?

05 Slate 90

Vucar has approved Kifino's petition.  He was the one who brought that large group of refugees a few years ago.  I guess, if they feel safe enough to settle in, we must not be doing too badly.  Imic promptly hussled him into the Boats of Mining.  It struck me as odd to begin with, given that he doesn’t like elves, but then I heard him muttering something about “meatshields” when I passed him in the hallway later.  That makes more sense.
 


07 Slate 90

I’ve just noticed something.  Many of our new citizens are still sleeping in the free-for-all beds on the tavern’s second level.  With all these new citizens, we need to add some more bedrooms.  When I checked with Lorbam, I found out that we have a number of masterworks sitting in the stockpiles.  I’ve ordered them into the original bedrooms to replace Lyra’s original poor-quality offerings.  Granted, there’s still the issue of sand everywhere, but the humans and elves don’t know any better.  We’ll keep the proper stone rooms for dwarves.

09 Slate 90

“Hey, Mayor, wait!  Wait up!”

Vucar stopped and waited for the dwarf to catch up.

“I’ve decided that I really like it here.  I’d like to make it official.”



Vucar had no problem with that.  “Sure.  And since you have some fighting experience, go talk to Imic.  He can always use capable dwarves in the growing military.”

13 Slate 90



Vucar quickly sent the human doctor to Dr. Urist, most likely to be found in the library these days, and strode off to find Lotu.

“It never rains but it pours!  There have been eight, count them EIGHT citizenship requests so far this spring!”

Lotu went over the names, and then snapped his fingers.  “Those are all members of the Bunnies of Roasting, that mixed group of refugees that Kifino brought a couple of years ago or so.”

“Well, why couldn’t they all have come forward as a group to request citizen status?”

Lotu shrugged.  The alien workings of non-dwarven minds escaped him.  “If I remember right, there were…eleven total?  Or was it twelve?  Something like that.”

Vucar scowled.  “Well, if the rest of the Bunnies petition for permanent status, I’m sending them straight to you to sort out.  I’ll never get anything done if people keep barging in at all hours of the day or night!”

16 Slate 90

Whistling on his way to dig the last few bots of the northeast moat, Lotu noticed some of the citizen elves huddled in intent conversation with the visiting traders.  I wonder what they’re up to?  As he drew closer, he noticed that they were discussing some of the useless nuts and pits that kept cluttering up bags.  But, as they were speaking Elvish instead of Common, the details weren’t clear, and he shoved it to the back of his mind as he walked across Tayldis Bridge.

The clip-clop of approaching hooves coincided with his jump down into the ditch.



From the deepening moat, Lotu waved them off.  Come back next year for another trash haul!

18 Slate 90

Atîs Burialpick set the finished hive aside, and started the long slog up toward the surface to fetch the next clay boulder.  How long will it be before the clay comes to me?  At this rate, I only complete two or three projects a month!  I need to talk to Lotu, and emphasize just how much that will help. And if Meb—

“Yeaaaghhh!”

The pincer had almost taken his nose off!  Screaming, Atîs bolted away from the magma crab and up the stairs toward Imic.

Several hours later, he was on his knees.  “Please please please please DO something!  I can’t do anything if those crabs move around willy-nilly!”

Stodir, the mechanic, overheard the last part of the plea.  “Magma crabs, you say?  I’ll build some cage traps down there, too.  Those are some good eating.”

Atîs frowned.  “And Dr. Urist too?”

Stodir shook his head.  “Nope.  Dr. Urist is…working on something.  It’s best if we don’t bother her.”





Exerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

20 Slate 90

I had a visitor today.



He said Vucar had sent him, and had given him a form for me.  It was a copy of the official citizenship form, with only “Citizen” marked, the rest was blank.  I wasted a good hour getting the rest filled out.  On the plus side, he’s a spearelf, so he’s now Imic’s problem.

21 Slate 90

And another one. 



Vucar is right, why can’t they all come at once?  It would be much more efficient.  Especially since so many of them seem to be spearelves.

01 Felsite 90

Geez, it never rains, but it pours.  And I’m not talking about the weather.



Soldiers are always welcome, of course. After all, we do still need to have a good military so that no caravan will ever flee again.  And a good military is key to my eventual plans for protecting ourselves from megalom…

The last few lines of the page are covered in what looks like a large ink blot, rendering the text illegible.

02 Felsite 90

Shouts, cheers, and other sounds of a raucous celebration echoed down the Central Spire from the tavern.  Akrul was walking up with Lotu, in full flood about the ongoing “quota slacking” which meant that there were far fewer maces and anvils (even of the mini-forge variety) than she had expected by the third month of spring.

Lotu had started heading toward the tavern what felt like a nam ago, as soon as Akrul appeared by his office chair.  ‘Conversations’ with Akrul always required a good stiff drink.  Or ten.

Stepping out into the Candies of Bursting, he glanced toward the source of the noise, a group of mostly children, but that also included several local adults and some visitors.

Wandering over to what was clearly a nameday celebration, Lotu froze at his first clear look at the table.  Akrul’s seemingly never-ending rant ended with a squeal.

“WHAT are you EATING!”

The sudden deathly silent stillness would have been fitting for the greatest of engravings.

“Avuz likes cheese.”  The tiny piping came from the youngest of the village’s children, Moldath.

Oh! “Happy nameday, Avuz.  But, er, couldn’t you children have found something else to make a birthday meal?”

“No, this was great!  I found it in a barrel labeled ‘lye’ in a corner of the stockpile.  It had clearly been forgotten, so I thought we’d eat it before it went bad.”  Avuz was very pleased with his good fortune.

“YOU IDIOT CHILD!”  Akrul had apparently managed to find her voice, though perhaps not the volume control.  “That cheese was for the quota!  Because of you we’ve lost the 33 wheels we had, and we need to deliver 128!”

“But—“

“No!  Before you eat anything, before you touch anything, before you so much as think about touching something, you ask!  Do you know how much extra work you’ve just imposed on everyone else just because you have zero impulse control?”

All of the children were frozen, staring at the ballistic Akrul with very wide, round eyes.

“You want mine?”  Deler held out his partially eaten wheel, which dwarfed his chubby little hands, teeth marks clearly visible.

“NO!  Argh!”  Akrul spun away, hands clutching her head, muttering about labor assignments, task progressions, and useless idiots.

Lotu watched her go, then looked at the partiers.  Running a hand over the top of his head, he made his farewells.  Behind him, the nameday party was once again going full-volume.  Clearly, the kids had already forgotten Akrul’s tongue-lashing.

I really need a drink, now.

Mug in hand, he headed back down to figure out where to put a quota-only stockpile.  Vucar will need to build some extra doors, but if I can show Akrul that I’m already fixing the cause, maybe she’ll be a little more livable during the summer?

Nah, wishful thinking.  Still, it’ll be one less excuse to yell at the poor kids for being kids.

Exerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, broker.

 03 Felsite 90

As if Akrul’s livid mood wasn’t bad enough.



Huh, that doesn’t sound too bad.  He’s down in the lower caverns, which is sealed off by a pretty solid stone wall, so I don’t think we need to worry about him.  Especially since the squads are already busy elsewhere, and the rest of us have work to do. We’ll get around to him eventually.

05 Felsite 90

With work ongoing on the magma furnace emplacements, it’s time to start planning the permanent move from our surface charcoal-based operation to a fully magma-dependent one.  With that in mind, I’ve spent time with Airith and Stodir to come up with a start on our village-wide railway system.  Given how strapped we always seem to be for quota work, it’ll be as automatic as possible, though some of the loops nearest the stockpiles will need to be hand-guided.

I’ve drawn a diagram on the following page of our planned main transshipment point right below the aquifer, with arrows pointing to the incoming tracks.

The actual diagram is almost impossible to make out, being covered in written notes.

 
OOC: The channel and stairway marker designations are not part of the actual design, but are there for immediate visual reminders of what goes where as I start getting it dug out.  Also, the unloading tiles for upward shipments are currently black spaces, again for a visual (since I only had two colors to work with).

Of the twelve railways, four will be dedicated to wood-delivery, and at least two will be dedicated to moving clay and sand down to the magma forges.  As soon as one of the magma rails is fully dug out and connected, Mebzuth will never again need to worry about a lack of fuel.  As for the others, I’m sure we’ll find some use for them.  And there’s room to cram in at least four more rails if it proves to be necessary.

11 Felsite 90

I had an odd request today.  Vucar sent her to me because she didn’t know what to do with this human.



“Eradicating monsters”?  So, she wants to live in our village, eat our food, drink our booze, wear our clothes, and in return, spend her time patrolling through the caverns, killing everything in sight?  That sounds more like a dwarf. 

But she has two cousins currently in our military, the mercenary Gel & the marksman Tohwot, both of whom Imic has said "aren't horrible", so I decided that we might as well take a chance on her.  The last time I saw Kara, she was heading down to the caverns for her first foray.

15 Felsite 90

The dwarf fumed as he went about his tasks.  A monster hunter!  That’s going to mess things up royally!  It’s going to be much more difficult to do what I need to do down there.  How do I sneak around when everywhere around here gets more crowded by the day?  I really need to get the secret access point to the lower caverns installed and useable.  But I’ll need to be very careful to avoid Oggez.  The Master wouldn’t be at all happy if I got caught instead of one of the targets.  On the other hand, if Oggez somehow managed to find his way into the village, I'm sure there would be some unfortunate victims before the soldiers got to him.  Hmmm.  That's a thought worth considering, but not to be executed without very careful planning.
 
20 Felsite 90

"That was a good one."  Lotu walked out of the tavern with Sky.

"Yeah, Ral Scalemerchant has truly surpassed herself with that peach cider.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became legend, given how many visitors partook of a mug or two, too."  Lotu nodded in agreement as he savored the last remnants of flavor still coating his tongue as they walked across the courtyard.

As they walked past Crafter’s Row, Sky waved at the heap of masterwork toys haphazardly piled outside of MrLurkety’s woodshop.  "Now that.  Waste of good crafting, sending all of that to Bomrek.  Our kids would enjoy them just as much, if not more."

"True.  But Bomrek will be receiving some very finely crafted mini-forges er, anvils."  Smirking, the two dwarves continued on their way.

25 Felsite 90

Wiping a drop of sweat from his eye, Lotu studied the new space that he had just finished hollowing out.  Located closer to the depot than the general use stockpiles, it would be perfect for storing the quota each year.  It just needs a floor to keep the dirt and vermin out, and then some locked doors to keep the kids out.  Yep, this should work very well.

28 Felsite 90

Lorbam knocked on Lotu’s bedroom door early in the afternoon.

“Lotu, do you have a minute?  It’s about the quota.”

But I’m supposed to be on break!

Registering Lorbam’s expression, he sighed as he waved him into the room.

“I need to meet with Akrul later, so I was looking at the production numbers…”



“I thought you might be able to use a heads-up.”

Yeah, before Akrul comes storming in because she doesn’t like the numbers.  But, while the cheese situation hasn’t changed one iota since that dratted nameday party, most of the rest actually looks pretty good.  With Mebzuth the only one still depending on charcoal, his speed has increased, though without the rails to move sand down deep, it probably won’t improve much more.  The maces and anvils are, unsurprisingly, the biggest problem spot.  Why is it not possible to make training maces?  Or training hammers, for that matter.  All you need is a nice heavy rock!

Huh, I’ll bring it up with Stodir, maybe he can talk to some of the visiting scholars and see if it’s possible to make something like that?

---

Current character list:


























Link to the Current List of Deities with full descriptions.  Claimed Non-Religious: Sky, Another, Spriggans, MrLurkety.

Following are updated profiles for all claimed characters in the order in which they appear on the units list:

<snip>
a cart will sail over all manner of invalid tracks until it turns at a valid curve
<snip>

Yes, and I've used that to my advantage on multiple occasions.  I was just hoping that dead-ending into a wall might cause the cart to "bounce" onto one of the valid directions.

<snip>
build a repeater, and attach its output to one of these designs:  Minecart switches

I looked at those first, and the second option is probably the best replacement, but the only way to get a rough 50/50 is to micromanage turning the roller on/off, and I try to build my rails to be as automatic as possible.  (With my luck, I'd forget to change the roller until I started getting some sort of cancellation spam, or noticed that all of my denizens were suddenly hauling instead of working.)

<snip> wave repeaters have a built in randomness.

I don't know how to build those.  Are there any threads that explain them?

- Dame de la Licorne

Huh, that's a bit annoying.  Well, good to know.  Thanks!

- Dame de la Licorne

@Fleeting Frames: I have already gotten into the next season (spring 90), and my previous post wasn't looking for "should I play" but rather "should I keep posting updates" and, given that there were almost 400 new views in the space of a little under 5 days (3 of them week-days), I figured the interest in updates was there.

- Dame de la Licorne

Judging from the number of views, I've spent the day re-familiarizing myself with the fort and the various threads of the story.  I'm planning to restart from the beginning of spring, since my notes for the latest season are rather sparse.

- Dame de la Licorne

Update: I played through most of Slate this weekend, with a bit over a month to go yet in spring.  The work schedule will start calming back down about midweek, so the next update should be up towards the end of the week.

- Dame de la Licorne