I'm fairly sure the only way to survive being an overseer after your turn is to sleep with the next overseer. 100% of Overseers who've survived a full year after taking their turn have done so.
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This is the Journal of Emdief, located in the Museum of Crime and Punishment. The writing is crisp and neat. There are, remarkable for a dwarf text, no spilled alcohol or blood on the paper. Sections of the journal are speculated to be calculated lies.
Undated
My clients made their first request today. The mechanisms I'm to provide might just be the smallest ever furnished. Demands for beautification of the product implies that at least one of the clients is a noble. Access to large funds for the purchasing of rare resources implies that either the group has access to the treasury or foreign backers.
Will tread with caution. Told them they'd have to find their own mountain gnome - I'm a mechanic, not a zoologist.
Undated
Offered a job by my clients. Their former engineer is implied to be fired, though not explicitly stated as such. Makes sense to me. Why employ a mechanic who can't build the mechanisms their design requires?
Mountain gnome abducted from zoo this week, according to one of the guards. Official sources suspect the Elf Party. It's probably my clients - the Elf Party hasn't been active here for some time.
Undated
The project my clients have undertook is, to say the least, interesting. Nature is a great designer, creating both simple and complex solutions, but has some notable inefficiencies. The need to save energy prevents the usage of many performance-increasing processes. Inefficient levers are used - just look at your arms. Materials that could improve the body's function greatly are discarded due to scarcity.
Uncertain as to the practical application of this project, however. Can't imagine a dwarf undergoing this surgery and taking these substances of their own violation. It's neither pleasant nor aesthetically pleasing.
Client group disturbed. Apparently, one of their former associates was carted off to some prison out in the provinces. I think I've figured out who specifically amongst the nobility is backing this project - it goes very high up indeed. Must tread carefully.
Undated
Told to alter mechanisms for usage in a dwarven body today. Probably best to go along with it. Must take care to avoid becoming a loose end.
Saw the corpse they were operating on. Looks fresh. Oddly, no report of a dwarf gone missing in the fortress.
Clients are increasingly agitated. Pestering me to make the project more presentable. I doubt that that's possible. Replacing these organs is never not going to involve gore and chronic pain. Nor is it possible for me to completely regulate behavior of the subject with purely mechanical means. Funding appears to be drying up. Not surprised.
Taking the precaution of removing documentation that could indicate criminal behavior on my part.
Undated
Called in to fix broken surgical machinery. Noticed operation was commencing on unconscious dwarf. Assured he was a volunteer, despite never expressing interest in how he wound up on the operating table. Troubling.
Funding has been massively decreased. They've abruptly found new places to conduct their experiments. I have taken the precaution of arming myself. I'll keep providing their mechanisms so long as the money's good.
Undated
The writing is scribbled, as if written very quickly.
Clients appear to be arrested. List of their crimes published. Glad I kept my distance from subject acquisition.
Doubtless guards are aware of my involvement. Mechanisms clearly my handiwork. Confident no evidence of me being involved in the planning of the project or the experimentation will be found. Considering leaving town; don't think the guards will care much that they can't prove I did more than sell them materials.
Backers of the project apparently let off and record of their involvement destroyed. I hope they never find out I know who did it. That kind of blackmail potential could get one killed.
Undated
Informed by captain of the guard that if I don't leave the fortress, I'll suffer an unfortunate accident. Specifically falling down the stairs and into a pile of spears. Not very subtle, our captain.
Only one expedition leaving the fortress within the next month or so. Thankfully, it leaves in a day. Less promising, however, is that it leads to some penal colony in the desert. There's no way out of this "Steelhold" unless you catch a ride on a caravan, and those lead either to foreigners or back to the mountainhome. Possibilty of escape; slim.
Doubtless I cannot take much wealth with me. I can only hope I have a chance to earn it back at Steelhold. No point in living poorly.
Author
Topic: The Insidious Sons of Steelhold -- Revival Succession Fortress (Read 269242 times)