The Great CoverupMorul's Journal --
The screeching appears to be getting closer. Closing off these caverns becomes the highest priority. We quickly designate some trees north of the chasms to be chopped down, so we can start placing wood panelling to block off the openings.
We're going to stockpile our goods closer to the chasms, but for the moment we need all hands to finish this flooring. There are only two axes, so Sarvesh, our expedition leader and third woodcutter and Unib the Biologist will be given Carpentry duty to help with the building.
I will start by setting up a charcoal burning oven and a smithy with two of our granite boulders. Eventually these will be torn down and rebuilt more safely somewhere else, but just north of the chasms will do for now. Once the workshops are up, I will create a charcoal and smelt a brand new axe for our third woodcutter. I have no gift for smithing, but it just needs to be functional, not pretty. Then I will join the others in helping with hastening the construction.
The dust plume now towers over the forest. Even though we had nothing to do with it, I'm afraid it will draw unwanted attention from dozens of miles around.
===
the first update tick after unpausing froze again, then logged a grand 3 fps - all that water falling down after the quake will need to resolve first. One of the 'collapsed' lakes was pretty big.
To 'help', the collapse also opened some lakes in the caves, which are in the progress of flooding the lowest levels. And this may very well be going on in all undiscovered caves below. I hope the collapse didn't punch a hole in the aquifer. If it did, the fps drop would be permanent. I'd have to DFhack that to save the fortress.
Which of our three woodcutters would get axes was a coin flip - and Sarvesh lost.
The dust plume is ridiculous, it goes up 15 z-levels. Too bad stonesense doesn't show dust.
I started by setting up a stockpile north of the chasms, but turned it off when I realised it would take them weeks to move everything over. Flooring first!
Wait, scratch that, looking at slideshow first. 2 fps while the water settles. sigh 
Here's a shot of our two woodcutters and Morul halfway between the wagon and the chasms to do their jobs. After about half an hour of real-time. Kivish, one of the carpenters, is going along cause he's bored (actually I set a meeting area near the planned workshops 
).
When the guys arrive, the water has subsided enough that the fps is up to 8. still bad, but at least they're moving.
As soon as the first two trees are down, flooring is planned across the ramps on the southern chasm.
The battle axe is ready to be forged! Ofcourse Morul, who was hanging out way north next to the wagon, first decides to go up to the woodburner's shop, move the bar of charcoal three squares to the smithy, then jog all the way back to the wagon for the copper bar. Ah well, keeps him in shape.
The water has mostly settled in now, but I'm still at 8 fps. I'm seeing permanent mist on the left edge near one of the fallen pools, I wonder if there's a water source off-map there which is now causing a waterfall.
21st of Granite, first hole is blocked off. Second is underway.
Just as we're finishing up the second hole, a Grimeling appears from the south.
It's an evil biome Wild Animal. As long as it doesn't stray too close, it won't attack. But it appears to be heading straight towards the cavern entrances. If it does get too close, we'll draft the woodcutter dwarves into an axesquad and attack it.===
As the dwarves work to put the last logs in place, sealing off the entrance, Morul was frowning while working on designs for a palisade wall. Listast walked up to him. "Hey Boss, I had a thought."
Morul looked up and brightened. "Do tell Listast!"
Listast hops from one leg to the other. "Well, that wall you're planning here... is that a smart thing to do?"
Morul looks confused. "Well, we need a wall to defend ourselves from creatures like that walking heap of slime you saw a while back."
"Well yeah, ofcourse, but I mean is this the right spot? We want to keep the existence of this cave a secret, right?"
Morul nodded. "Yes, that's why we're boarding it up."
Listat hesitated. "Right, only... A large surface area of boarded up something seems a but suspicious-like to me, you know?
Maybe we shouldn't be building our settlement right next to it?"
Morul frowned. "I see your point. So where should we build it?"
"Well, the way I figure it, these woods are all pretty much the same thing, so we might as well build it where all the supplies are, back at the wagon."
Morul looked thoughtfully at the woods for a moment. "Well Listast, that makes more sense than any other reason I can come up with. We'll do it."
===
After we've cut down enough trees around the chasms to cover them up, the woodcutters are sent back to the wagon area to cut down trees there in preparation of the first palisade.
On the fourth of slate, just as our dwarves are setting up the last logs to close off the caverns, the Grimeling comes barging onto the construction site. The dwarves spread in all directions in panic. We quickly form a squad out of our woodcutters (The Oaken Halls), tell them to wear battle axes (which they have already anyway).I was planning to order them to attack, when I looked up how strong a Grimeling is and got scared. Instead I'll order all dwarves back to the wagon and hope it'll lose interest.
Oh crap, it looks like it's after the livestock. Also, one of the woodcutters that turned into a recruit decided to ditch his battle axe, because I guess it didn't meet his uniform requirements of a battle axe? now it's unarmed. great.
It killed our ram 
All of our woodcutter dwarves are now unarmed, having dropped their axes where they stood. THANKS.
The grimeling is chasing our squad leader Litast, who runs faster so appears to be safe. Though after running about a screen of distance away, he turns around and heads back to the wagon, pathing right by the grimeling! Battle ensues. And ofcourse he's still not holding a weapon, so it doesn't look good.
Thankfully he's agile enough to dodge the first couple of blows.
He even managed to bruise up the monster!
I order him to back off and the other two woodcutters to move in. One of them has an axe, hopefully together they can manage to defeat the monster.
Unpausing after setting the orders caused a short hang and then several messages popped up. One about a magma pool in the caverns in the far south east of our map, and two about adamantine deposits!
The magma pool is more of a big deep hole in the ground, we can't even see the magma.
Directly after that, Litast is struck down ===
Morul's Journal --
I can't believe I have to write this down... Litast... sacrificed herself for us. A swampmonster showed up at the chasm site, probably attracted to the dust plume and the noise we were making boarding up the holes. It attacked our sheep first, killing the ram. It would have gone after us next... but Litast lured it away from the camp and our supplies. As she ran off, I climbed a tree to see what Litast would do. It was horrible to watch. First, Litast was outpacing the beast, even trying to confuse it around a watering hole. But running in these dreaded woods is dangerous, and she tripped. Before she could get away, the beast as on her and caved in her head with a blow that I felt in my gut.
As horrible as it was, Litast did what she set out to do - she saved the camp. The monster was no longer interested in us after killing one and left the area. We'll have to finish that palisade as fast as we can, or we'll all end up dead.
As Litast fell, the earth itself roared. The sound came from the chasms, by coincidence some volcanic event was happening down below. We may have a magma deposit somewhere below our ground, which could be the cause of the earthquake! either way, it was fitting.
===
The grimeling is now called Sickanguish. lovely. Thankfully it appears to be sated and moves away from our dwarves. For now I've forbidden Litast's corpse and belongings. We'll bury him later.
We start constructing a palisade around the wagon. The now spare axe is given to one of the carpenters to speed along the chopping. A pasture is planned in what will be the palisade area, to keep the livestock from wandering off and getting themselves killed. Here you see Unib dragging one of the wayward sheep over to their new grazing area.
I've set up a butcher's shop so that Morul can at least butcher the poor slain sheep, but it won't allow us to butcher the grimeling's kill! I guess it's not ours?
Unib is going to be gathering seeds from the nearby plants, and start our first farm plot. We need food and drink fast.
Construction is only just started when a break is called - all dwarves hang out at the wagon and eat and drink. They take ages doing it, but at least the social interaction is good for the two woodcutters - they are both unhappy from being friends with Litast, probably from doing all that chopping together.
I'm keeping an eye on Sickanguish, thankfully it's chilling along the north edge of the map. Also walking around is a tribe of Capybara men, and a clutch of turkeys. That's good eating, if you can get the fur off 
. Sickanguish finally leaves the area at the end of Slate.
A family of ducks wanders past our encampment while we're erecting the palisade. We have no time to hunt or catch these animals right now, so we'll just have to let them go.
Ustuth, one of the two remaining initial woodcutters, throws a tantrum because Litast's body has rotted away without us burying it. Whoops. Time to set up that carpenter's workshop and build a casket, to avoid further unhappy thoughts. Sarvesh, our expedition leader and other woodcutter, also throws a tantrum, but he snaps out of it within setting two steps.
Morul keeps wandering off a ways south of the construction site towards the chasms when he has no job. I imagine him being doubtful of this enterprise.
on the 23rd of felsite, the palisade is completed! Construction begins on the entranceway.
A small farmplot to the side of the courtyard will be used for growing the first crops. Unib has gathered around 15 plants so far. We'll brew up any that can be brewed but not eaten, then plant the seeds.
in other news, we're at an amazing 16 fps now. Something is still flowing, and it's not just that small waterfall at the western edge.===
Morul's Journal --
Sarvesh and Ustuth, who signed up for this expedition because of Litast, are giving me dark looks and grumbling that we should be giving Litast the proper burial she deserves. I agree with them, but we can't afford to wait with constructing the pallisade first. our lives may well depend on it! As soon as I feel we are safe enough, we'll spend some time on getting her remains properly interred.
(she's interred in a willow grove, next to a pond. Fitting of the explorer.)The pallisade is nearing completion. The only way off this stoneforsaken peninsula is to the north, so we'll build our entrance way facing the direction we expect any traffic to be coming from. Though I still have my doubts if that noble bureaucrat will even show up.
===
I saved and reloaded here to reconnect stonesense, and there was another cavern collapse as I unpaused. This one and the one before were both but a single tile. But it seems like this will happen for a while to come. I wonder why it only collapses on load, and not during normal play?
We made our first Gloomhill booze! A barrel of Whip wine. it's not much, but more will come! Work has started on the first building, which will be a dorm / dining hall until we get better areas set up.===
Morul's Journal --
Great news today. There was a loud racket to the southeast, and for a moment we were afraid that Sickanguish had returned with friends, but it turns out it was dwarves! Pike came through on his promise to scrounge up more supporters in the Mountainhomes and join us. He had expected to arrive here last week, but he couldn't find us. Apparently, our tracks were hidden by the dust settling from the earthquake and they found us from completely the wrong angle!
Pike has brought his friend Doc, and a butcher named Risen. He promises more are on the way, and that the three of them went ahead to see if we needed the help. Pike and Doc are both ex-military, Doc is a field medic and Pike is named after his favourite weapon, the spear. Their help will be invaluable if we have to face more swampmonsters! Pike and Doc aren't actually their real names, they're actually both called Kivish, but with old Kivish Sr. around it was much to confusing so we have been calling them Pike and Doc for years.
I don't know Risen, but if Pike trusts him, then so do I. A butcher won't be of much use until our livestock starts breeding, but he tells me he's worked in the large slaughterhouses in the Mountainhome and his administrative skills will be put to the test. He can start by cataloging what's left of our supplies, it's been a bit of a mess so far. I've asked him to begin with the foodstocks, and help out Unib where he can.
Before they arrived, we had just started to construct some lodgings so we can get out of the rain, it seems we'll have to add some more beds to the list. Doc will want a makeshift hospital soon, but we won't be able to get to that in a while.
I'll ask Pike to oversee setting up the defenses, he's by far the most qualified.
===
I have a question:
Does anyone know of a way to stop the waterfall I have at the edge of the map? It appears to be caused by a watersource outside the map which trickles in at the speed of a murky pool. it's not much, but it's wasting fps. I obviously can't build there to stop the flow of water.
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Topic: The story of Gloomhill (Read 2349 times)