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[Illogical_Blox]

There are more kobolds than dwarves? Gez...

And, actually, just to be pedantic, I had an artifact floodgate depicting the founding of my civilization, and engravings, so it IS the stuff masterwork engravings are made of.

[Zorromorph]

Well erm maybe, but certainly not yet.  We have no engravings, masterwork or otherwhise

VOLUME II:  SURVIVAL
Chapter II

12th Slate, 10 -- Ducim suspended all plant-gathering operations until other work had been dealt with.  It was estimated that around 25-30 plants, most of them edible, have been gathered so there is no immediate threat of anyone starving.  Substandard fare to be sure, but far better than nothing and indeed better than falling in a melting stream and drowning.   The 'Shack of Accounting', as it has come to be called, could not be finished due to the branches of a chestnut tree just to the west, so Zuglar added to the wood surplus by felling the offensively placed tree.  It produced a lot of wood, perhaps more than the ginkos.  Logs beyond counting. 

19th Slate -- The rivers have now melted completely and are flowing again.  It is pure luck, or the will of Armok perhaps, that nothing fell in them.  Turkeys in particular have been ... well, turkeys, wandering to all corners of the map.  They'll have to stay there for now.

This also means of course that a makeshift bridge will need to be constructed across both rivers.  Ducim cannot be bothered with such menial tasks though, because the Shack of Accounting is now finished!  He has a proper chair to sit on and triangulate tabulations with tremendously tiring ... uh ... something.  Alliteration fail.  Anyway, a new carpenter was needed.  A sensible bridge of about five feet wide, with walls on either side to prevent falling, across both rivers would require a few dozen blocks. 

Logem was the natural choice but too busy brewing at the still still.  So it fell to Ineth who is the only other dwarf without an active indifference to all possible forms of wood.  He didn't take long to become irritated by this arrangement, and soon everyone simply decided to do the work by committee.  By everyone of course, we mean those who aren't brewing(Logem) or calculating(Ducim).  A second carpenter's workshop was built to make sure everyone would have something to do.  Adil responded to this new, highly urgent task by promptly ... going to sleep.  In the middle of the wood stockpile.  That's the spirit!

2nd Felsite -- With the northern bridge about halfway complete, Ducim declared his accounting task to be finished.  He declared the current stocks of food and drink to be sufficient only for about two months.  Enough for work on the bridges to continue, but that would need to be addressed.  A few had even gone thirsty for a while as Logem built up even that meager supply of booze. 

7th Felsite -- The northern bridge was completed, and work on the eastern one began ... although this was at a slower pace.  The animals in the northwest section were now accessible, and a couple dwarves split off to herd them to the pasture. 

16th Felsite -- The eastern bridge was finished.  Ducim noted that there were yet nearly a full third of the animals needing to be brought to pasture.  Still this was a notable, if minor accomplishment, a step in bringing nature under their control.

22nd Felsite -- Another week, and all of the animals had either been rounded up or were in the process of it.  With them secure, Ducim could turn his attention to other matters.  Pretty much everyone has been annoyed at having no chairs or beds to use, but until a reasonably supply of food and booze was attained such concerns would have to wait.  At present the drink supplies were good for only a little over a month.  A year would satisfy him. 

Back to workshop for more barrels he went, Logem to the still, everyone else to gather more plants for brewing and/or eating. 

11th Malachite -- Matters had proceeded relatively smoothly for the last couple of months, and it was now the middle of the summer yet not uncomfortably hot.  Plant supplies were up to over a year, alcohol more than three months and rising.  Logem, responsible for the brewing, and Litast, responsible for getting a basic rope reed cloth 'industry' up and going in order to make enough bags to handle our burgeoning seedsplosion, both decided to go 'on break', a lovely dwarfism for refusing to work for weeks on end, right when their abilities were needed the most.  Ducim himself took a turn at the brewery in order to keep the supplies growing.

21st Malachite -- Work began on an expansion to the Shack of Accounting for use as basic sleeping quarters. 

4th Galena -- The summer is mostly over, and in less than five months a milestone has been reached.  A year's supply of food and drink has been laid away, along with the numerous other steps taken.  Ducim is pleased, and secure enough in the status of basic needs to move on to weightier concerns. 

[Zorromorph]

VOLUME III:  ESTABLISHING THE BASICS
Chapter I

This could definitely be worse.  There have been a couple birds, notably ospreys, wild boars, but now the only animals in the area were wild geese.  Nothing hostile, and enough to eat and drink for a year.   While those supplies were built up, some of the basic needs have been established, but others have not.  Lotol Kebosh believes strongly in mandatory military service to combat softness and cowardice among the population, so a military training area is needed.  A quarter of the population, meaning two at a time for the forseeable future, will train each month.  These will be chosen by random.  Additionally, the middle month of every season will be taken off for everyone not in training for 'socializing' -- all work and no play is not only boring but we need offspring.  If none of the dwarves get hitched the expedition has no future.  This leaves only a minority of time remaining for actual work, so progress will definitely slow down. 

23rd Galena -- The beds are completed, one for each dwarf, in the shack.  Today the armor stand was placed to the east of the carpenter's workshops, a proper if crude device near which we can appopriately learn from the experience of beating the crap out of each other. 

5th Limestone -- Zuglar and Logem take the first month, and begin combat training.  Meanwhile, nest boxes are being set up in the northern pasture area.  Before the day is out, a buzzard raid requires them to forgo training for actual combat.  Or they would have, if it didn't fly away like a coward.

13th Limestone -- Our first new births in the animal population:  bunnies, cavies and goats were born today!  Our first batch of duck eggs was also gathered from one of the next boxes.

14th Limestone -- Apparently this is the week to reproduce, with a kitten born as well as a litter of puppies. 

19th Limestone -- Ducim is pleased that the nest boxes and military training area are working as they should be.  Litast is occupied with his rope reed bag industry, the animal population is expanding, next month will be off for socializing and hopefully the beginnings of doing the same with the dwarf population. 

Everything is going reasonably well.  That means there's only one dwarf-worthy response:  an absurdly ambitious megaproject!

[Zorromorph]

** Author's Note:  I'm now updated to 40.16.  In general I intend to advance to a new version only when DT catches up with it.  In this case though, the changes made by Toady One in his eminent greatness to emotions and espescially ongoing world events will have a big impact so I updated right away **

VOLUME IV:  SECURING THE SURFACE
CHAPTER I:  Relational Incompetence, Dereliction of Duty, and an Unsolved Mystery

Before any dwarf is worthy to delve into what riches may lie below in this place, security must be attended to.  The burgeoning operation must be secured against all enemies, whether they be fellow dwarf, other sentients such as the goblins or kobolds, or sub-sentient wildlife.  Such security must take a form which presents a sufficiently impressive front as to intimidate and humble any being with sense.

And so began the construction of the Wall.  The dwarves of Lotol Kebosh must establish dominance over their surroundings by building a wall greater than anything nature could muster.  The tallest trees in the area reached as high as 60 feet, or 10 urists, as the accounting may be.  The Wall then must reach fully a dozen urists in height, over 70 feet, able to survey the surrounding terrain.  This would be the first great challenge, and very likely few if any of them would live to see its completion.  Their progeny(if any) would, and would be strengthened by the task to achieve greater feats.  A true dwarf, after all, shrinks from no task. 

The first month of officially sanctioned socializing was Sandstone, and it didn't exactly go as planned.  Ducim and Litast were assigned to military training, and proceeded to immediately go to sleep once thus assigned.  So much for everybody taking protection seriously. 

After a few days they got on duty, but there were other issues.  Everybody is getting embarassed if they don't have a bed, but prefers to hang out in their bedroom if they are assigned a bed.  It is clear adjustments will have to be made. 

14th Timber  -- It is discovered that a cavy boar has been missing for a week.  There is no sign of it.  This raises the serious question of where it went.  Did it wander off on its own, or did it have help?  Is there a stealthy enemy, internal or external?  These questions and more will almost certainly not be answered anytime soon. 

The status of the Wall in the north, three Urists below camp level and two above the north-south stream(the lower 'chasm' one):





Five trees have been cut down in the area in order to make expanding the Wall upward and outward possible, and properly stockpiling the remnants of them will take some measure of time and dwarfpower. 

[Pencil_Art]

Good story so far. Is that wall made out of wood?
Can wooden walls be burnt down?

[Taupe]

Can wooden walls be burnt down?

Dude, who would ever want to burn the Shack of accounting?

[Zorromorph]

Is that wall made out of wood?
Can wooden walls be burnt down?

It is, and I assume that they can. 

Dude, who would ever want to burn the Shack of accounting?

Truly spoken, although in this case we were talking about the Wall.  But it applies to both

[Zorromorph]

VOLUME IV:  SECURING THE SURFACE
Chapter II

As it ends up, I had a crash(non-DF related) which destroyed most of the writeup so this will be short.  The condensed version is, in early winter the missing cavy boar was found ... up a cherry tree in some branches, starved to death.  An interloper or saboteur we have not, apparently we just have more random stupidity.  It seems it climbed the tree and either couldn't or was afraid to find it's way back down.  The animals were already being repastured in an attempt to get some rebels to actually respect their pasture limits, and Ducim ordered all trees in the new one(further to the west) cut down immediately in order to save any more such curious animals from themselves. 

Military training continues to go well, socialization continues to reap steady but slow improvement in conversational skills and no new relationships.  There are more grudges than friends among the dwarves of Lotol Kebosh.  This could take a while.

The Shack of Sundry Activities, as it currently sits(or stands, or thrashes around throwing a tantrum): 




The roof is pretty much complete, so all that is needed is setting up the second half of the chairs/tables.  Astesh apparently prefers the tables to her own bed, since she recently slept on one of them.  I'm not asking, and you shouldn't either.  Apparently it was good dream, as she woke up declaring that 'a skilled warrior is a beautiful sight to behold'.  A dwarf who can tell the difference between an unfinished dining room/meeting area and a dorm isn't half-bad either ...

A little over half the animals have been repastured, and the hope is to get that finished and the rest of the Shack done by the time mid-spring socializing is upon us.  A 'gate'(i.e. door) in the northern section of the Wall is all that has been achieved there other than hauling some of the logs back ... invariably when a dwarf was needed for something more important around the camp.  For good or ill, the expedition of Lotol Kebosh has now lasted a year.  Nobody's died yet.  I think that makes it a smashing success. 

[Pencil_Art]

VOLUME IV:  SECURING THE SURFACE
Chapter II

The condensed version is, in early winter the missing cavy boar was found ... up a cherry tree in some branches, starved to death.  An interloper or saboteur we have not, apparently we just have more random stupidity.  It seems it climbed the tree and either couldn't or was afraid to find it's way back down.  The animals were already being repastured in an attempt to get some rebels to actually respect their pasture limits, and Ducim ordered all trees in the new one(further to the west) cut down immediately in order to save any more such curious animals from themselves. 

Right.