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[4maskwolf]

Certainly.  I haven't been able to play in a little while, so I'm contenting myself with narratives for right now.

[MDFification]

What are you planning Maskdwarf!

Anyway, could you, perchance, post some screenshots of new developments in the fort?

My death hell breach assembling a harem Just doing his civic duty to keep the fort running, yep, that's our Maskdwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also probably should just outline my plans for the sake of narrative:
Emdief is completely and utterly amoral, and is basically just concerned with maintaining his own comfort. Of course, his own comfort requires other people not out him as a horrible dorf who'd gladly kick puppies and eat babies to achieve his objectives. It also requires wealth and security. He doesn't want to die or live a pauper, and basically will do anything possible to avoid that.
He doesn't really know anything about the whole magic thing we've got going on here, only the existence of the force and how to detect it. He has a kind of phobia about it, seeing as its something he doesn't understand, and assumes that messing with "the thaumaturgy" will result in madness and death. Which it probably does, to the unprepared practitioner. Especially when they dig to deep...
So tl;dr, he'll try to stay out of people's way and prepare for a hell breach/Rhaken taking over (it'll happen eventually, spoilers).

[4maskwolf]

What are you planning Maskdwarf!

Anyway, could you, perchance, post some screenshots of new developments in the fort?

My death hell breach assembling a harem Just doing his civic duty to keep the fort running, yep, that's our Maskdwarf.

+1 for going on the quotes list.

[Gnorm]

What are you planning Maskdwarf!

Anyway, could you, perchance, post some screenshots of new developments in the fort?

My death hell breach assembling a harem Just doing his civic duty to keep the fort running, yep, that's our Maskdwarf.

+1 for going on the quotes list.

Granted!

[Rhaken]

Something is wrong in Steelhold.

You'd think that the place would turn to wanton chaos and self-destruction after Lenehan's death. Left without a leader or supervision, the two-hundred-plus residents of Steelhold would band together into various factions, sometimes almost at random, and individually vie for power. I could have used the opportunity to seize control for myself, since I already have my own gaggle of fifty-two misfits, outcasts and dangerous psychos.

But no. Somehow, a form of order has established itself in what should have been a clusterfuck. The farms are tended to. The stills are running. The miners are down in the depths, expanding the ore tunnels. This kind of thing doesn't happen by accident. Somebody is giving orders. But who, if not me?

I have to examine the major players. There's myself, but I haven't ordered shit. My boys are just doing their jobs, same as always, until I call them up. Then there's the doctor, but this isn't her style. She'd be happy with just a closet full of dangerous substances and a bunch of hapless test subjects. Most of the other bigshots are dead or just not that big. That leaves one option.

The masked dwarf.

They say he was responsible for raising Modi from the dead at the height of the Elf Party Crisis. I was down in the caverns, so I couldn't see this myself, but some of the witnesses have joined my ranks since then. By all accounts, it wasn't pretty. Yet for the most part, nobody can see hide nor hair of the masked one. Superstitions ones say that he can embrace the shadows and move amongst them. I'm honestly unsure of what to think. Guess I'll have to keep my eyes on him. All 106 of 'em.


The masked one thinks himself clever. He thinks he can create a cult around here and call it "secret". This is (supposed to be) a prison. Secrets travel faster here than elsewhere. Three among his congregation are my own. Also, my wife. Never would have guessed. Typically, when she calls for the gods, we're trying for Mouth to Feed #5. Couldn't get the particulars of the meeting out of them though. Fortunately, I know where they meet, and I can find out when.

I am also aware of the adamantine digs. You can't run an outfit like mine without a miner or two. Knowing the masked one, he's not planning to use that to arm our nonexistant military.

Time to act. When their next meeting comes around, I'll be there. I'll act interested, and stay behind after the meeting for a peaceful chat. The masked dwarf clearly has some influence in here. I'd like to know how. It may just be that our interests are compatible.

I've also noticed a distinct absence of engineers among my lads. This must be remedied at once. I've heard a relatively recent arrival, Emdief. I'll send two of my more subtle lads to talk to him, maybe bring him to me for recruitment. He is new here, so his mind may be relatively malleable with regards to how shit works in this place.

I believe I shall take this opportunity to thicken the plot, as it were. Hoho!

[4maskwolf]

Okay, sorry about the lack of content updates, Steelhold causes my FPS to take a fiery nosedive and modding has been distracting me.  I'll try to post some more actual content updates later.  And then go back to Machiavellian schemes.

Edit: That and the fact that the copy of DF I have that doesn't have DF hack is also my modding copy makes it difficult to play steelhold while generating large 500 year history worlds.

[fractalman]

pardon the poor italization and excess of spelling mistakes.  This one took on a life of its own, and now I'm tired.



Some people breathe complicated plots.
Others...
Others are a sentient spanner in the works. 



I pondered my plans for a power-generator. 
The biggest question wasn't whether I had enough wood; if I could simply lay the framework, then putting up 50 windmills would be trivial.  just 3 or so windmills of power would be enough to slow my slide by yet another year...maybe two...I'd need at least 50 to halt it forever, though. 

No, the biggest question was: would this windmill array even stand?
It was a rather important question: the materials of this world tended to obey gravity, like sand, except in their own way, and I sometimes had trouble with the distinction between "hanging" and "supported"...


Best to have an engineer look over it. now, who did I know...
ahah! that mid-eef (emdief) guy with the allergies was a mechanic!


I grabbed up my drawings, and skipped towards his room, humming fossils. 

I waved to Mr Mask guy ("Hi Masky!") as he zoomed through the fortress (Quasi-planar skimming tied to the prescence of shadows? What a neat trick! Much less destructive than my rip-a-wormhole-in-spacetime-and-jump-through method) but I guess he was in too much of a hurry to answer.   Or maybe he couldn't hear me when he was doing that...no matter.

I knocked on the open door. "hello, anyone ho-"

I ducked, as an arrow [bolt] sped past me...taking my drawings with it, pinning them to the wall.

"WHOA! Mideef, buddy! I just wantedtoshowyousomedrawings and...and..."
I took a deep breath.

"Oh.  just the 'armok clear your sinuses with magma' crazy guy. "
"eheh, yeah."  I took another breath. "so.  mind looking over my project design?"
"...what's in it for me?"
"...would a couple of masterwork bone crafts be enough for a consultation fee?"
Emdief considered the offer.
"For a consultation...I suppose so. slip the plans under my door and I'll get back to you when you have the crafts ready.."
pause.
"Mr mideef, you pinned my plans to the wall. I feel rather disinclined to retreive them."
another pause.
"My name is Emdief, not mideef. "
"Oh.  my mistkae. "
Yet another pause for thought.
I cautiously peeked around the corner...
and fell in love.
"wow...so shiny...what is it?"

"It's a thaumometer."-a strange mix of bitterness and smugness was in his voice.
I cringed.  Ah crap, my xylophonic bin would be found out, wait notifikillandhidethebodyinDasEbaland...and...


I shoved the thought away with another thought: if it were a genuine, working thaumometer, I could use it...and align my portal to the relevant trans-dimensional currents with an unpredicted degree of precision...and I could recalibrate it to compensate for the bin, improving its functionality while simultaneously keeping it from noticing anything suspicious....
the important part was, I could do more than STOP my slide and *maybe* controll it-I'd be able to controll my jumps and reverse the damage to my mind. 

I'd do...almost anything for that.
"If you let me use your thaumometer...I'll see to it you get yourself a royal bedroom.  Do you prefer to hog an entire quarry, or do you prefer to cosy up in an engraved adamant cubby hole?"
"...I prefer mid-sized on top of magnetite veins, actually...I distrust adamant."
"Magnetite it is, then. Assuming this fort has magnetite, of course. Excellent. So, how do I use this thing?"

"...not so fast, Crazy.  Your offer is great and all, but how do I know you can actually...provide me with such a room?"

I looked at him.
"worst case scenario, in...three years, if I haven't gotten you your royal bedroom, I'll take up engraving, smooth over the quarries for two years, then I'll smooth and engrave your magnetite bedroom for you.  deal?"

"...It's just I don't want just anyone touching my thaumometer...I need it."
"What for?"
"To locate the source of all the magic in the fort"-emdief clapped a hand over his mouth, too late.
"...Oh! cool! I bet you're running into difficulty finding it, well that'd be because there'sthere's at least three major sources of power in this fort...make that four, I forgot about the fact my bone bin kinda took on a life of its own..."

Emdief pointed his crossbow at me. "GET OUT! NOW!"
I ran.

----
After the stranger left, and his heart stopped trying to escape from his chest, Emdief pondered this new development.  On the one hand, it was obvious the 'crazy' dwarf was responsible for the horror in the stockpiles...no telling what ELSE he could do...

On the other hand, the crazy dwarf had dropped a very important bit of information...and furthermore, had offered to give him a room fit for a king...and with any luck, the crazy dwarf was NOT the masked man...

What the crazy dwarf had offered...was almost too good to be true: use of the Thaumometer in exchange for a life of luxury, AND valuable information...
Emdief wanted a solid night's sleep to think about it.

---

Would he GET one?
Well, that's between him, Rhaken, and Rhaken's "subtler" minions.

edit:
Oh. Yeah.  Basically, this is the first "recruitment effort" by my character.

[MDFification]

Okay, sorry about the lack of content updates, Steelhold causes my FPS to take a fiery nosedive and modding has been distracting me.  I'll try to post some more actual content updates later.  And then go back to Machiavellian schemes.

Edit: That and the fact that the copy of DF I have that doesn't have DF hack is also my modding copy makes it difficult to play steelhold while generating large 500 year history worlds.

Just download an additional copy of DF and play on that. That's what I do. Anyway, I'd use DFhack with your modding copy unless you can't force yourself to play without it, it's just too useful for testing purposes. Forcing sieges, removing bad thoughts so you don't tantrum spiral while you try to build industries with custom reactions... although I actually can't use my mod without DFhack since I use the plugins for bugfixes. 
Also remember that downtime is your friend. I typically gen my longer history worlds by setting my computer to stay on while I'm AFK. I go do important things, come back and the game has gone to the year 1050. Unless it crashes, which Freehold seems to do 98% of the time now.

... wait, this isn't the modding forum.  Back to scheming, gentledwarfs.

EDIT: Gnorm, have you considered marking the dwarfs who've died in the OP somehow? The dead must be memorialized or they'll rise as ghosts to haunt us. I'm pretty certain.

EDIT2: I'd rather die than work with magic, Urist!

[Gnorm]

EDIT: Gnorm, have you considered marking the dwarfs who've died in the OP somehow? The dead must be memorialized or they'll rise as ghosts to haunt us. I'm pretty certain.

I'll update the OP when 4maskwolf finishes his turn and uploads the save.

[4maskwolf]

HEY-O STEELHOLD PEOPLE!
Update train is back on the rails.

Diary of Nish Kogantan, miner
4 Slate
A group of migrants has arrived!  None of them were particularly unusual, though at this point I'm not sure what would constitute "unusual" in a place like this.

18 Slate
I grow more afraid by the day.  The other miners have gone off in search of more adamantine, as the original dig is entirely... gone.  All of it dissapeared over night.  It must be the masked dwarf's fault.

The writing appears to end here, as if something happened to the keeper of the journal.

[MDFification]

HEY-O STEELHOLD PEOPLE!
Update train is back on the rails.

Diary of Nish Kogantan, miner
4 Slate
A group of migrants has arrived!  None of them were particularly unusual, though at this point I'm not sure what would constitute "unusual" in a place like this.

18 Slate
I grow more afraid by the day.  The other miners have gone off in search of more adamantine, as the original dig is entirely... gone.  All of it dissapeared over night.  It must be the masked dwarf's fault.

The writing appears to end here, as if something happened to the keeper of the journal.

"Disappearing adamantine? Rumors spread fast within the fortress, as evidenced by my visitors so quickly after I arrived. Masked dwarf is foolish, thinking he can keep secrets. Unless it was crushed and ground away by falling bridges, adamantine can't just disappear. I'll ask Rhaken to send one of his goons to check the cloth stockpiles of adamantine threads. Maybe it was processed in a single night, unlikely as that is.
Still, the masked one's objectives remain unclear. Approached by other, who inquired after use of Thaumometer. Refused upon ascertaining their responsibility for one of the thaum emission sources in this fort. Must keep it close. Need to know if they try anything."
Emdief paused in his journal writing and looked up. The thaumometer was acting up again. He quickly slipped the journal into his coffer and drew out a small crossbow. Pulling back the string, he slipped in a single, oddly barbed arrow.
"I know you're trying to pull something. I've presented no threat to you. If you do not cease threatening me, I will have to take drastic action."
A small chuckle was heard from the corner. As Emdief shifted his aim, the thaumometer flared and went silent.
So, he though. They're spying on me. I've seen those reading's before. But why me? What danger do I pose to them, beyond being able to pinpoint their magic's location?
Disturbed, Emdief stepped out into the hallway. He had to find Asmoth. She had supplies he'd need to appropriate.

[fractalman]

I'd gotten the impression your dwarf was more...morbidly curious about magic rather than 'unknowingly hypocritical' (*cough Thaumometer uses a tiny bit of magic cough*)


Oh, and was that my dwarf, or maskdwarf, you were talking to at the very end? It looks like an amalgamation of the two of us...

To clarify: My dwarf wants you very much alive. He's not yet sure if your thaumometer works because it was designed correctly, or because you're a mech'omancer.  He ALSO wants you (in-character only) to look over his windmill plans to make sure they don't collapse as soon as half the fort is working on them.   (fully ooc: I'll be testing the basic design in my own fort before deploying in Steelhold. the 'haning' trait for windmills does, in fact, have me a bit nervous.)
-oh, sure, he's worried you can spill the beans about the bin, but he wants you to see him as a goose-that-lays-hematite eggs so that you DON'T spill the beans. He doesn't want you to panic, even if he caused you to panic with his terrible timing.


And if it's Mask dwarf...
I think we need to wait for him to drop more clues as to WHAT he sees in your Thaumometer.  Maybe a bomb that will go off if it gets hit by crossbow bolt, taking his precious 'gods' with it? (explains why he doesn't have a minion shoot it with a bolt), or maybe a Magic Annihilator?
:shrugs:

[4maskwolf]

And if it's Mask dwarf...
I think we need to wait for him to drop more clues as to WHAT he sees in your Thaumometer.  Maybe a bomb that will go off if it gets hit by crossbow bolt, taking his precious 'gods' with it? (explains why he doesn't have a minion shoot it with a bolt), or maybe a Magic Annihilator?
:shrugs:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

[Gnorm]

YES! Keep the updates coming, and let our lore grow!

Also, it has come to my attention that our fort has absolutely no patriotic anthem to its name. One thousand adamant to the man or woman who successfully composes one!

[4maskwolf]

Okay, just fyi, the Steelhold that I'm going to post on DFFD is NOT the final save.  I'm just switching computers.