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[jrrocks05]

You mean Thanatos. Those are RUMOURS!!!

[danmanthedog]

Rumors are always started for a reason so what is the reason?!

[Deus Asmoth]

Well, Dan's been following Thane around for the better part of a year now for no apparent reason other than not being sure if she's female or not, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he'd steal Thanatos's journal and read it.

[Gnorm]

Chapter I: A Naïve Leader

Gnora’s Journal
1st of Granite, 655
--
I don’t know how or why it happened, but today Brenzin came up to me and straight up gave me control of the fort. Why me? I never studied any politics or histories or any of that; I’ve always just focused on my work. My only guess is that Brenzin – who I still don’t trust – is trying to find a leader who knows how a fortress works from a worker’s view; I reckon that that’s it. I guess I should do the best job as overseer as possible.

I picked up a report on our stocks from Miss Thane, and I do declare that Brenzin’s spent all his time in some cushy barracks in the Mountainhome if he thinks that cooking our tallow is a good idea.



The next time I see him, I’ll be sure to inform him that tallow is rendered fat, ‘cause I don’t know if he knows that. It doesn’t taste good, and it can be used to make soaps. I made it my first order of business to fix this.



With Brenzin acting weird, I’ve decided that it’s high-time we bring some justice into this fort. We need law and people to keep it; cages are indispensable as well. As much as I would hate to see it happen, I’ve asked Miss Thane to forge a hammer, which will be used if necessary.



I’ve had enough of Brenzin and his “order” taking command of things. For this reason, I’ve appointed a commoner to be hammerer of the fortress. I, myself, will be sheriff until I can find someone better; I have no intention of being captain as of now.



I’m slightly concerned by the lack of wells in this fort. We have water in the ground, though nobody’s taken any notice. What if a fisherdwarf was to fall and break his epindix? He’d need water until the monk could get his bones set. Good thing it should be fairly simple to make a couple of wells



I don’t like that there’s nowhere in the fort to just relax, so I’ve asked the miners to dig out a space for a small garden. Put a couple of chairs in and it’ll be the best place in the fortress – not counting the farms.



Miss Thane’s reports on our stocks tell me that we lack copper ores, and I’m fairly certain that she will need it to make that bismuth bronze they use in the militia. It shouldn’t be too much trouble to dig some more out of the mines.




I’ve sent a few production requests to Tarmid, and I hope he’s more reasonable than his partner. Walls are nice, but if we want to keep the gobs away we’ll need traps, and glass is nice and sharp. Also, I want to prove to Brenzin that we’re perfectly capable of making cheese right here, and that it’ll taste better than the humans’ anyway. Last, there are plenty of seeds with no bags, and there’s plenty of leather in the fort. That Fractalentity fellow claims to have vague knowledge as to how these bags are made, though he doesn’t have any experience that is shown in the files. If he wants to do it, I’ll let him.



That’s all the work I feel like doing in one day. I’ll be sure to get back to this journal as soon as possible, but I need to sleep for now.

[MDFification]

Just noticed - we seem to have a bunch of silver axes. Not sure why. It might have been better to go with silver warhammers and just switch Vlad over. Too late now I guess.

[danmanthedog]

Well, Dan's been following Thane around for the better part of a year now for no apparent reason other than not being sure if she's female or not, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he'd steal Thanatos's journal and read it.

Well that and because I smelled the ancient arcane magic on her/him plus I remembered a old legend in my old times of my camp about a avatar of death it self killing the hobgoblins called Thanatos or Thane.

[4maskwolf]

Just noticed - we seem to have a bunch of silver axes. Not sure why. It might have been better to go with silver warhammers and just switch Vlad over. Too late now I guess.

ah, that.

That was because I needed a battle axe to put in the vault, and the only weapons-grade material I had left was silver.  The one copper bar was used for a pickaxe for the vault.

[Rhaken]

Interesting note: Tarmid can actually move pretty quickly when he wants to. He got ambushed by an entire squad of hammer goblins in the save I'm using and outran all of them.

RETREAT IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR ADVANCE THE OTHER WAY


Tarmid pulled away from the shelves, finally finished cataloging the new books. They had arrived with the caravan, as he knew they would; a whole cartload of books and writing supplies. Mostly harmless volumes of history, science and mathematics. Of particular note were a handful of tomes written by Karius Durtis, a dwarf from before the journey across the seas, said to have been present during many crucial events of fabled Steelhold.

The Codex Arcana was still missing, however. Tarmid's many inquiries into the matter had turned up nothing. The book would have to be found soon. There was no telling how much harm it could do in the hands of the irresponsible. Perhaps it was time to bring this to Sir Brenzen's attention. Worse yet, he could not shake the feeling that he was being followed half the time he left the office. Footsteps half-heard in his wake, whispers of breath, the hairs standing on the back of his neck. And this had been going on for months.

A knock at the door. It was Gnora, who had taken over Demongate at the turn of the year at Brenzen's behest. A hardworking lass, yet another who could have benefited greatly from proper schooling. She handed him some work orders to fill out. Tarmid took the papers and set them down at a small desk.

"Thank you, Gnora," he said, smiling. "Say, could you do me a favor and call Thane to my office? I would like to talk to her."


A name had come up in his tomes. Another book by the mad human Amsan Jestedbow, this one a lengthy autobiography titled The Fair Immortal and the Warlord. Though it contained no forbidden or arcane secrets, the pages were rife with interesting tidbits of the early years of the colonization of the New World. The artifact Walledcoasts featured prominently in many chapters, the details finally revealed. He did not have time to commit them to memory, however. Thane would be coming around soon.

Tarmid had just finished hiding the book away when the knock came. He opened the door and ushered the lass in, motioned for her to take a seat. He took the chair opposite her, and laid down a thin, featureless book on the tabletop between them.

"You'll be glad to know that I sent a request for a Writ of Schooling back to the mountainhomes with the caravan," he told the bookkeeper. "If it gets approved by my superiors, I will be empowered to teach history and basic mathematics to the dwarves of Demongate. I'd like to know how you feel about this."

He measured her reply, taking in the weight of every word. He would be asking the same of Sir Brenzen and Gnora soon. Perhaps Vlad as well. The mercenary's opinion might give him some unique insights.

"One more thing, dear Thane", he grinned. "Would you like to know more about the book you started reading?"

His hands rested on the leather cover of the book between them. Within was an abridged version of the Primer of Political Ideologies, one he had transcribed himself for such an occasion. Writ or no Writ, he was still permitted to take an apprentice.

[MDFification]

I am incredibly confused by this whole Olympians thing and I think I'll just never have Vlad get involved with anything.
Also stop following Thane or get cut. Is varning, yes?

[Rhaken]

Well, Dan's been following Thane around for the better part of a year now for no apparent reason other than not being sure if she's female or not, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that he'd steal Thanatos's journal and read it.

Well that and because I smelled the ancient arcane magic on her/him plus I remembered a old legend in my old times of my camp about a avatar of death it self killing the hobgoblins called Thanatos or Thane.

Your nose must be off-kilter. What Thane stole was a history book.

[TalonisWolf]

Downloaded save, checked dwarves, etc, etc...

First thing to discover after vault: we have an interesting hunting practice. With horses running on the newly-built walls and dwarves running after them, shooting. As if it could get even more ridiculous.

Hehehe...

  Me and da boys were bored and decided to create a new sport, which I dubbed 'Horseplay'. It is becoming a sensation, with dwarves coming to place bets on which dwarf will hit which horse, where, and whatnot... never'd thought I'd become a athelete. Meh, the rations are good.

[4maskwolf]

urk.  One of these days I'll get around to actually recording all of the plot things that have happened recently.

Within her chambers, Olin examined the book in her hands.  The cover had stopped glowing soon after she removed it from the shelf, and she had gone through many parts of the book by now.  She had heard that Tarmid was asking around for a missing book, but surely it would do no harm if she borrowed it for a little while longer.  She knew the vows of the knighthood, but something told her that there was something off about the way the book presented magic.  Perhaps most knights believed that magic was exclusive to demons, but something told her that it was a fallacy.  The knighthood was hiding something, something major, and this was the best way to find out.
Already she could sense the magical currents of the fortress.  She knew things nobody else did: the dwarf who followed Thane from the shadows, the books Thane kept within his room.  But most of all, she could sense the presence of one far more powerful than herself within the fortress.
She sighed, then settled into a position to practice.  If the bloodkin were real, the fortress would need all the help it could get, and her learning to channel magic into physical form would be a major boon in any battle.  She opened the book to the page on summoning fire and read it, frowning as she went along.  The book spoke of calling demonic power, but surely there were other ways to channel power.  Armok himself was a powerful being, perhaps she could channel it through her belief in him.
She focused hard, feeling the core of power and life within herself.  She focused on the great Armok, the lord of dwarvenkind here and in the afterlife.  She could feel the power flowing through her, out into her hand.  She opened her eyes, and to her delight a bloodred flame was dancing across her fingertips.  She smiled, then fell to the ground, unconscious.
When she came to, she found herself exactly where she had fallen.  The Codex was still next to her, and nothing in the room had changed.  She felt drained, yet exhilarated: she had done it.  She had channeled the holy fire of Armok.[/i]

[danmanthedog]

*SNIFFFFFFFF* That smell it can't be! The all devouring flame, who would summon so dangerous or even read about it?! It can't be thane I been watching her for the past hour and she hasn't done any thing strange yet.... then my nose was wrong!!!! *Kneels and cuts the palm of hand so to drip blood on to the floor* "Oh great lord of the hunt please forgive me for my failure and please give me the strength to stop the mighty flame."

[Gnorm]

Chapter II: The Spring-time Surprise

Gnora’s Journal
19th Granite, 655
--
Our siege operator, probably out of boredom with not being able to operate any sieges, has gone into one of those creative spurts. He’s gone off to one of the craftsdwarf’s workshops and is running about to find the items that he wants. I wonder if he’ll make anything of use.


4th Slate, 655
--
The siege operator finished his project today: a rock scepter with some bones and gems for decoration. It’s apparently worth thirty-thousand, according to Fractalentity at least, but I can’t see anyone finding any use of it. Brenzin maybe, but I’m trying to keep his noble attitude in check.




25th Slate, 655
--
One of our miners broke right into an enormous cavern system, much to the joy of Dantheman. It will require some work in order to actually reach the bottom, but some of our dwarves was eyeballing the ores and gems to be found down there.
27th Slate, 655
--



Some more migrants were attracted to this fortress, and being the overseer, I went out to greet them. A pretty standard bunch, though there was one dwarf that struck me as odd. A gold-eyed dwarf, wouldn’t strike any sort of conversation with me. Instead, he actually wrote out everything that he wanted to say. I certainly hope that he’s not an assassin or a spy.
18th Felsite, 655
--



The elves have arrived in their caravans to trade with us. They might have some useful supplies, but I hope they don’t plan on selling us their fancy exotic drinks.
23rd Felsite, 655
--
The gobs made their ambush on us today, thinking that we was unprepared for them. The good news: two hunters forced them into a retreat, and Brenzin was able to kill all of the ones that weren’t shot down with his pick. The bad news: both of the hunters died. We’ll have to set up some proper graves to commemorate them, and we’ll hold services in the dining hall tonight.

[Deus Asmoth]

Thane hesitated. On one hand, she was worried that the history taught by a member of the Knights would be far more abridged than she would like, but on the other, many of the dwarfs in Demongate weren't even able to read, and any sort of education was better than none.

"It seems like a good idea to me," she nodded. "You'll have to clear it with Gnora first though."
"Of course," Tarmid nodded. Thane stood up. "One more thing, dear Thane," he grinned, pulling out a familiar tome. "Would you like to know more about the book you started reading?"

Thane's eyes widened. It was a tempting offer, but ever since she'd read that book...
"First, tell me who you've had following me for the last six months," she growled.