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[Timeless Bob]

"Benevolence society" ([laughter]That's perfect.[/laughter])

[jimboo]

21st Moonstone.
The surface water has just frozen, a date to be marked in the annual records.  We’re just digging.  Tongs the other cook is second to the Guildhall – the gold is too precious for trade and we haven’t found any iron so it looks to be a Food Industry as primary trade goods for now.  Caravan guards killed the Ogres, replaced now by three Sasquatch but they don’t seem to read as bad.  There were only ants in hives upon embark but one has changed to silk moths close to the gate so Wolf is placing a hive next to it.   

11th Opal, mid-Winter.
An Orc thief just made off with a child.  The game is running at 149 which is great except by the time a message shows or Soundsense begins to play something, it’s all over.  We were luckily dispatching a couple of the “Drive it away!” spam types before there was ever a message.  Another reminder to check the surface of this place frequently.  At present, there’s a pack of Giant Black Leucros, which are evil wolfdog types.  They’re on the far side and minding their own, so far.   

12th Opal.
Our first mood and it’s the armorer, SackPlate!  Oh, it’s a possession.  Shoot.   Tongs has also finished guild culinary school and has a kitchen of her own.  The miners have found a small cluster of cave fungus which she’s converting to cheese because jimboo rather quickly ran out of foodstuff variety to allow the fancier meals. (note to self: ‘simple meat’ in the GUI is maybe not the best idea for a Food Industry.)  The dwarven caravan brought one cheese!  The Liaison was ready to talk then and for the Wish List, we asked for basically “one of everything” metal for moods with emphasis on steel, iron and mithril.  Lots of leather – we were really counting on those leatherwings for early protection but, was not to be.  Trade licenses.  Pets.  More stuff than could ever be paid for next year: inactive golems and crates of heavy metals.  But if they bring it all, there will be options for the next Overseer.  jimboo wondered if perhaps Torch was sending a message with that list back to her contacts about the recent meager pickings – the Liaison had looked a bit distressed.  Maybe *he* was the one dipping?  That would be a risky game to play and he no doubt gathered that fact in from the exorbitant premium paid with those golden swords.  Well, that was his worry; maybe we would see him again next year, maybe it would be someone else.   

18th Opal.
The miners have found more gold and silver.  That’s good but we’re looking for iron or at least cassiterite to make all this copper into bronze.  The miners are digging down in a compass-points, single shaft manner on each lower level; not efficient and not the best for coming across a Bloody Gem but we’re looking for veins.  The digging would go faster if this bunch didn’t stop for every pretty jewel they came across.

26th Opal.
Dye made her artifact, a fur trousers spiked with pink tourmaline worth 30K, total fortress wealth is now 105K.  She was also our armorer; having a dwarf that could make early armor from leather and then later from metal seemed like a good idea – and then she was possessed and remains at lvl 5. 

Two more levels down and more gold.  More silver.  Then more gold, then more silver.  Then more gold – this appears to be treasure mountain for soft metals but we may have to pray our way to steel.  jimboo expected a celebration as with that first vein but no, these dwarves just verified the find and then kept digging.  He had noticed that each dwarf had claimed a room for his own but none had a door.  Perhaps there was an unspoken rule that no one got a door until they all got a door?  It was hard to tell; everyone *seemed* friendly enough around the wine barrels or dining tables but gold was known to do funny things to dwarves and it wouldn’t do to be the first one suspected of mischief.  Weps was taking pains to work those extra swords in among other goods and to keep them out of sight as he’d been told.  It does make for a pretty map, what with all the jewels, silver and gold.   

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2nd Obsidian, late Winter.
Clearing things, getting ready for Spring.  Notes and such.   

16th Obsidian, late Winter
The Drow are here, Torch is conducting the meeting and it’s the usual ‘who’s available to broker that isn’t eating/drinking/sleeping’ cycle.  We need steel, bloodsteel or any other kind.  They only brought two bars of bloodsteel so we got those and several pieces of low-quality armor and weapons to melt.  Weps seems to have taken it upon himself to make more of the golden swords so we used them to pick up several copies of the Book of Summoning.  These were unrequested and so only 2K each -- aren’t these the best non-cheaty way to up military skills?  Our mercenary is now equipped with a two-handed bloodsteel sword and our meager militia is changing out their copper helms for red steel.  For the wish list, they offered drakes and grizzlies along with bloodsteel and zinc.  They didn’t bring a whole lot on this trip except wagonloads of shadowbush leaves.  It’s a food variety and they can be pressed for oil, hey. 

[Timeless Bob]

Isn't shadowbush oil poisonous?  Ah well - good update!

[jimboo]

Nice catch.  We’ve been using the oil to treat leather, tallow for soap.  RAWS say the gas and liquid are poison – and the extract, of course – but the leaves are edible raw or cooked.  For a moment, you had me concerned about repeating the ☼Cathedral☼ “why is everybody always sick?” thing, had to check the Quickguides and raws.  And thanks --

[Timeless Bob]

ah ha!

[jimboo]

I had an odd RL week.  It’s better to post daily for comments but had to rush this over the weekend --
(is to say, PC problems)

1st Granite 75, early Spring.
This place is a mess.  The first year is all organization and layout anyway but only our fist level has any structure at all:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The last migrant wave brought us up to 20 but not that much from the To Do list has been accomplished so far.  Partly that’s been because of the wildlife keeping dwarves busy and occupying hospital beds, partly from just the nature of this bunch to pay more attention to gold and jewels than real work.  A rock cabinet is worth about 20; this one from Torch’s room is 2,200:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There was a lot of pleading for diamonds but we’re holding off on pressing any until ‘Jewels’ is legendary in skill.  The starting-10-used-to-be-11 have a plan to hoard the first production runs with the colored pretties for now, switching them out later for gold/favorite metals studded with platinum, aluminum and encrusted with diamonds at some later point.  Artifact has just joined the Smith’s guild and will skill up more quickly.   

It’s been only four days since posting this thread and it’d just be embarrassing to hand it off this way; it will take it another year or at least a few more seasons to get it in better shape – at the moment it’s just all organization and FPS logistics work. 

Things done:
- found gold, silver, jewels.  Lots of gold.
- farming steeloaks and berries.
- kitchens and dining hall, basic bedrooms (of sorts), a couple of smelters and forges.

Things not done:
- library, altars, research, furnishings, garrison/guildhalls, discover hard metals, defenses, military worth spit. 

17th Granite.
One of the recent migrants has taken a fey mood, a miner.  Could be worse.  A phyllite throne worth only 2K and we have a lvl 12 miner. 

[jimboo]

24th Granite.
Migrants.  29, more than doubling our population.  Maybe with some workers we can get some stuff done.  A couple of guilded fisherdwarves and our new nurse, HotLips, adept at wound dressing and bone setting and already a member of the Healer’s guild.  We have a new head cook, lvl 8.  He’s in the Smith’s guild for some reason so is currently making copper boots and gauntlets to have a moodable skill.  The word is spreading about our gold!  Fifteen adult males – time for a Garrison.  And a library.  And research …  The males without moodable skills are mining low, looking for iron.  And jewels, of course. 

17th Slate, mid-Spring.
A couple through the Guildhall, clearing space for a Garrison.  Research buildings almost complete.  Digging for hard metals. 

25th Slate.
Hematite-bearing rock, finally!  It’s 23 levels down and there have been a lot of dry shafts in this fortress.  It isn’t very big so, exploration continues.  The main staircase is offset now, behind both a raising bridge and further on, doors guarding ramps.  In theory, a forbidden door adjacent to a ramp will stop travel up from the caverns but doors jam with pets and butterflies so there’s also a bridge.  Carpenters are making wheelbarrows to haul the stone to the ore processors.  Research has just now discovered Blast Furnace and Titanic Beasts.  We were saving the few bars of bloodsteel for the Blast Furnace but with our own iron, Weps is using the bloodsteel to make spears.  The Drow swords are effective but two-handed and we’re taking a lot of casualties; these animals are Giants and our guys want to poke ‘em with a LONG stick from behind a shield.  As soon as paper and ink are ready, the first Scriptorium will start a library of warfare so our guys are at least lvl 3 on armor, dodging, shields and weapons.  No Danger Room for GreedyLittleBastards but the real bastards are the ones coming in waves, with teeth and attitude. 

10th Felsite, late Spring.
We lost a child, couldn’t get to the snatcher and thief in time.  The mother is upset, glad there’s a psychiatrist in this mod. 

16th Felsite.
The Elves are here and we’ve not much to trade: I forgot to forbid the barrels and all of our prepared food is in those, not pots.  Weps is trying to make up with those swords of his.  We went through six potential brokers to find someone who wasn’t asleep …

1st Hematite, early Summer.
The Elves set us up for cloth but didn’t bring much else.  Two bars of mithril.  Some singing arrows and great bows in case an archer migrates in but no Great Hunters Spears.  One kriss, one jitte.  Two bars of tin which we can use to make some of this copper into bronze.  No wood.  Probably just as well, we didn’t have many goods to trade with our prepped food all in barrels.  The Drow left a bonerattle in the Depot when they left (?).  It’s tempting to raise Lens back up but then we’d get all those Ogres and Thieves and nasty animals at the same time.  Fortress wealth is 139K, below the trigger but we’re working on outer walls in anticipation of Dark Elves and War Elephants.  Why isn’t any one making glue at the Screw Press?  Oh, right – machine operating, wasn’t showing in Therapist until labors-alt. 

[jimboo]

16th Hematite.
For the Wish List: lots of mithril and tin, grizzlies, rhinos, White Widow spiders (the best gate guards with their Truth Serum poison), weapons and more mithril.  We have wild grizzlies on the surface, at least they’re not giants.  And then the Diplomat left unhappy?  Already?  Torch, what’s going on?  Hey, it seems we have a mayor: Chasm, a surprising choice.  He’s unsociable, rude, loud, and a member of the Beast Warden’s Guild.  But he has an iron will, perhaps he bullied his way or perhaps dwarves here are so busy looking for riches that nobody cares.  He doesn’t want us trading away ballista parts, OK.  He didn’t have a room until the message, maybe that’s what upset the Elven diplomat.  Eh, he’s an Elf.  We can always call him back with the Embassy when there’s nothing better to do. 

Floor CudgelCrest has taken a mood, a migrant who came to us lvl 8 mason.  It’s tempting to have her make something from gold but the wealth trigger will bring invading Elephants.  A cobaltite coffin worth 64K, she’s now lvl 14 Grand Master mason.  We may guild her anyhow just to speed up the skill process. 

8th Malachite, mid-Summer.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We need more armor.  This one wasn’t even a Giant.  12 more migrants including a lvl 1 wavekin, she’s only lvl 3 for Sorceress and Druid but lvl 6 for mechanic and 5 each for gem cutting and setting.  Classic overachiever, came to us quite content.  50 years old, she worships a god of nightmares but otherwise has nothing worrisome in her profile.  We picked up another good bone doctor and a metalcrafter better than Artifact with the seven male dwarves.  Decent armor is just coming off line. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These black bears are worse than grizzlies; our hospital is full again and several are down but our new wavekin just iced ‘im.  He now has a name.  We lost HotLips; the new migrant with same skills has taken the name as an honor to the Guild.  The other dwarves are teasing him a bit about that. 

TEN PAGES of our guys beating on that named black bear before Cottage ShelterDredge finally caved in his skull with a  =silver hammer.  That skull had been dented 30+ times with jittes, hands and pommels; that was one tough bear.  Some of the dwarves wanted to engrave a monument to the magnificent beast but the new HotLips wouldn’t hear of it.  (Of course, if something ever happens to HotLips, that Ursus magnificus will get his slab.)
One of ten:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[jimboo]

21st Malachite.
We had a werekangaroo.  Before we could even muster troops, he changed back to an Orc and immolated himself; there are 40 blackened tiles on the surface and DFHack deathcause just says ‘bled out.’ 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And that started a grassfire that is taking over the surface.  Check that, took over the surface.  Skipped over the bricks at the gate?  Oh, well.  It was a flash fire, didn’t take out all the trees and we’re using those (and copper) to make the elephant traps. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not as pretty as it was but it will grow back.

[jimboo]

  Now it gets interesting --

14th Galena, late Summer
The Humans are here, bringing no wagons and only two muskoxen for pack animals. 
Our Vile Force of Darkess has arrived: eight fifteen War Elephants led by a named Great Bull.  Civilians were called in to the inside warren bunker and – babies ignore that?  We may lose a couple.  Gates were raised/lowered to attract the elephants through our trap setup and a hastily called together squad was formed to meet them along with those not in the hospital.  Our miners have stopped digging for ore and switched to digging graves; that damn black bear took out six of our best. 

The outcome:
Pros: 13 War Elephants and the Great Bull in traps, 3 Elephants down by Human weapons.
Cons: One Human merchant and one wagon were underneath a bridge when it lowered …
Storyline:
This was completely unplanned.  There was wildlife in this place, sure and they had known that – the Beasts and Orcs and such the minstrel spoke of back at the MountainHome tavern.  But War Elephants?!  Every dwarven child knew the story of BoatMurdered, it was one mothers used on unruly children.  Pick up your socks, they’d say, or the Elephants will come to your room tonight!  But no one expected to actually ever see one.  Or a dozen.  Mean animals, huge, with tattoos of skulls on their tusks.  Crypt the mercenary was now having second thoughts about having stayed on for more gold and it was he who brought the fortress concerns to jimboo. 
“One blade and one shield, that’s all I kin wield.  No one else here knows the pointy end from a pommel and there’s a HERD of them beasties outside the walls.  What’s you plannin’  to do about it?”
What was jimboo planning to do?  Stay inside the friggin’ walls, that’s what.  He’d never made any pretense otherwise.  There was gold, there was silver, there were jewels … and now there were colossal elephants with attitude camping outside the gates.  What could anyone do?  It was then that the Human diplomat came in, obviously unhappy.
“We came here to … Dwarf Caverns … expecting fair trade.” The Human had caught himself mid-sentence; the dwarves here referred to this fortress as Stupendous Caverns to the Glory of Armok but traders who came just commonly referred to it as “home of those greedy little bastards.” 
“Your stupid, panicked gatekeeper crushed our wagon, killed my friends and now I’m stranded here.  You dwarves dig in the mountains, is there an underground way out of this place?”
There was not.  It wasn’t a bad idea, actually but they had yet to reach even the first cavern under this mountain.  The mineshafts went deep but those caverns were deeper still.  Armok only knew how long it would take to carve a tunnel to and through them to the outside.   


The human diplomat is still with us, the others left either from the siege or their fallen comrade.  Perhaps we should have left the civilians inside a bit longer; on the surface, many are having difficulty breathing. 

[jimboo]

28th Galena.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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The animals here are just bitchy.  We ganged up on him 5:1 !

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just checking to see how ticked those humans might be at us from that bridge incident.  It seems they are at war with elephants and elves but not us.  Interestingly, there are two civilizations of elves and only one is at war with the humans although humans are at war with both.  Elephants just don’t like humans.  We can call that caravan back anytime but it’d be good to remember not to have humans and elves on the screen at the same time. 

Now the carnage is just getting ridiculous and three goblin thieves have come to join the fun. 

[jimboo]

9th Limestone, early Autumn.
Booze is down to nine, we’re distilling a fair amount for the five in the hospital.  The surface fire took out all the berries and with no human caravan, we’re counting on the plump helmets to come in soon.  Come to think of it, we can call the Elves now and still have time for Weps to get the golden tribute ready for our MountainHome benefactors in two months. 

15th Limestone.
A thief made off with another child while we were dealing with a half-dozen sasquatch.  There are five blinking strawberries; why can’t we brew them?

22nd Limestone.
Migrants.  And another grassfire, don’t know how this one started but only half the firebreaks are up; migrant dropped a pipe?  Eight, no standouts, three grown males, one Apostle.

14th Sandstone, mid-Autumn.
One of the newest migrants with zero skills took a mood.  Giant Coatis stealing us blind including ☼steel spear and ☼steel battleaxe.  It seems the humans left some things behind in their smashed wagon: cloth, thread, one paladin armor, 25 swamp whiskey which helped a lot and two slabs, one brown dragon and one ink (? – we haven’t made any slabs, they must be human).  Migrant Midnight made an orichalcum table worth 128K and is now lvl 10 blacksmith – that will come in handy for the greedy furniture so she’s off to guild school. 

[jimboo]

12th Timber, late Autumn.
Another Vile Force, this one is a bit bigger and with wonderful timing.  23 War Elephants, many of them Champions, and 23 Great Bulls and Cows, many of them with names.  Hmm.  We may miss the dwarven caravan this year, too.  Closing up shop while pondering this …
A couple of lumberjacks didn’t heed the civilian warning.  We trapped a few invaders but the main gate didn’t rise in time and two elephants and a cow are inside playing now.  Some extra elephant reinforcements arrive and we have 17 in cages, leaving 51 elephants and cows outside the walls.  Well, we had to build a siegeworks to keep the mayor happy anyhow. 

So what to do with all these irritated Champion War Elephants and named Great Bulls?  The first trap has only 30 cages and was meant for half that number and 17 of them are full.  A second trap set was placed up north (it isn’t elegant but was meant to be temporary so I could hand off the fortress next season without an invasion force on us) containing another 30+ traps but it’s incomplete and open to the North side.  We currently have 44 cages prisoners including a couple of coati and a thief, leaving 64 elephants and bulls to deal with.  Hmm. 
South trap:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

North traps in progress:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[jimboo]

The south trap is at least closed on each end.  When the southernmost iron bridge was raised, five or so elephants and bulls remain inside but not caged.  We can maybe lower the inside bridge, deal with those that make it through the maze and then start switching out cage traps to renew and repeat.  For the next 64, assuming there are no more reinforcements.  We’d then have to pit the elephants somewhere to recycle the cages or make a lot more out of copper (180 bars worth).  Mechanisms we have but we’re out of cages.  We haven’t gotten as much done in this fortress as I’d hoped but all hands have been working since that first siege to prepare for a possible second – but I never expected them to come at us 80 at a time.  Clearly, setting invaders to a high level (4) in Untamed Wilds was a bad idea.  But, greedy is as greedy does.   The elephant inside giving us the best workout is a Champion named Incinerateriver.  What a name!  Do you suppose elephants remember BoatMurdered? 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, it was a plan: before lowering the one gate to let the few trapped elephants inside so we could deal with them and reset the traps, all the tuskoxen were pastured right there.  It was no contest and we’re way down on tuskoxen.  The copper bridge to the Depot wasn’t raised quickly enough (elephants are fast!) and now they’re really inside.  The pastured drowspider webbed two, didn’t slow them down all that much.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of the Elephants – now with a name, Castlecage – made it to the staircase and is wrecking havoc all the way down.  A couple of craigstooth boars are gamely chewing and butting and hoping to delay descent until help arrives.  If these pigs get names, they get slabs. 

And there it is:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[jimboo]

We’ve lost 12 dwarves to this second invasion, including those who didn’t listen to the civilian alarm and remained outside when the gates were raised.  Sadly, Weps met his end on the point of a tusk – several levels down from the surface.  Torch is still with us but Wolf is missing, perhaps he was tending a hive? 

Storyline:
It was Torch who came to jimboo this time, looking for answers.  Why did everyone keep coming to him like this?  Torch was the recognized leader here and there was even an elected mayor who – but Torch cut him off with a derisive snort and a wave of her hand.  “Don’t speak to me about that boorish fool.  He’s ‘mayor’ only because he’s a bully and some of the more ignorant migrants thought we needed one.  Well, let him spend his time hiding in that dirt dugout of his, we have a major problem: if we can’t get out and nobody else can get in, our contact this fall won’t be bringing back a payment.”  jimboo hadn’t thought about that; what would happen if they missed a scheduled payment?  It was possible and even likely there was concern back at MountainHome over the foul up last fall anyhow … what would be the cost of a second? 

jimboo had known nothing about elephants or tactics but a couple of migrants had come in with animal trapping skills and while that was held in universal low regard in dwarven society, jimboo had already questioned them for options when the first Giants had begun running roughshod all over them.  The first response was always ‘stay away from them’ but there were other ideas, some good and some silly.  “Linked 100 tile retracting bridges,” “drop a mountain on ‘em,” things like that.

“There are ways, Torch.  Everyone knows elephants are afraid of fire but we don’t have the technology to throw exploding pots over the walls.  And nothing is guaranteed; even BoatMurdered was razed to the ground and they had magma to use.  But in the old days, elephants were herded into traps and we can do that.  Extend the walls as funnels and fill them with cages and traps.  Our guilded engineers make quality mechanisms and – I’m told – it’s the *idea* of a trap that stops an elephant; they don’t realize once they’re caught that they could just bust through by strength.  Even a wooden cage can hold a rampaging elephant.”  She seemed unconvinced but the fortress had to try something.  “Do it,” she said, and jimboo realized he was somehow Chief Engineer of fortress defense.  They would need traps and mechanisms.  Many of both and there wasn’t much time remaining … or booze.