1st Malachite, 251 :Nine migrants arrived yesterday. A well balanced amount, not too much (I am worried about our food stocks), and not to few (I have a tower to set up). They brought some animals with them : a young water buffalo, a donkey foal, another blue peachick and a young turkey. All this walking-meat reminded me that it could be interesting to butcher some animals for our salvation.
Immediately after they entered Emeraldcity, an odd looking dwarf came at me, saying :
- "Dear Orion, I am Kogan Idezar and I bring you the next recommendations from the Mountain Home ! Please, have a look at the missive Slartibarti wrote."
I took the aforesaid missive, and promptly opened it.
"
Dearest Orion… blabla…
Please bless the bearer of this missive with an honorary title, light duties for life and luxurious accommodations and the finest robes.". The strange looking one that was just in front of me ? Well, after all she was not the kind of dwarf who is good with his hands. She seemed more like a lazy bureaucrat. Sure she was one of Slartibarti's henchmen to keep a watch on me.
"…
Please send this artifact along or at the very least provide me with every detail so that we may add it to our portfolio". This should be difficult since Zon would certainly refuse to let her beloved creation leave Emeraldcity. I'll have to send a detailed description of the artifact.
I resumed my reading :
"
Excellent. I see… blabla…
I am curious about these figurines. What is their quality? What do the represent. Whatever the answer, you must cease their construction immediately! Figurines are out!". What !? What was that
again ! To stop their production, after all the work we put in it ?!
"…
Scepters are the hottest thing. You may not have heard, but I'm known for anticipating these trends". Scepters ? I may have heard of your nonsense you mean !
I raised the eyes to heaven. What was our stocks of scepters ? And to think that we have traded most of them with the last caravan… The boss was really wearing me out.
Okay, the chief wanted to know the quality of the figurines. An easy job to do. I led to the crafts stock with the idea of getting rid of this as soon as possible. The place was a total mess. We'll have to construct some containers in order to tidy up the stock.
I looked at different figurines. Although it was not a masterwork, it was pretty good. Here a figurine by Momuz, there another… I suddently felt proud of my fellows.
But I needed the exact amount of scepters we had in our possession. Then I had an idea. I went back to the dinner room with the hope of seeing Kogan, the messenger.
- "Where is Kogan ?", I asked when I saw she wasn't there.
- "Shake ? She is giving the fortress a tour.", a newcomer answered.
- "Shake ?"
- "That's the name by which everyone call her, because of her numerous tics".
Ater a while, I finally found her :
- "Ah, Sh… Kogan ! Are you interested in an job which does not requires too much effort ?"
- "Sure, what it is ?"
- "As soon as we'll have built an office, you'll be in charge of updating the stockpiles records".
As I was under way, I thought that a real broker could be very useful too. After reflection, I found that Mebzuth would be perfect for this job.
10th Galena, 251 :Kogan's quarters are finished ! At least her study room is completed. And it appeared that she is actually good at bookkeeping. Now we know that the craftsdwarves have created 98 scepters, half of 200 !
I think we have killed two birds with one stone as the records are updated and that digging the office provided stone for the tower. Speaking of the tower, the second floor is almost entirely finished.
But we need even more stone, so I have decided to bring a great extension to the bedrooms. In a near future, we'll be able to host twice more dwarves than we currently have ! But the miners are exhausted, I wish we had more picks to accelerate the process.
- "Orion, we can't dig faster", they told me.
- "Do your very best, I have
27 masons expecting stone to construct a tower, and 8 craftsdwarves who also need stone for their crafts. So keep going and be brave, the whole Emeraldcity's industry is counting on you two !".
Although I am completely overwhelmed, I finally remembered that we had two trade depots, and that the older was no longer needed. I have consequently ordered its destruction. A caravan should arrive soon…
12th Galena, 251 :The caravan, at last ! Our stock of booze is incredibly low, they have arrived just in time.
As I expected, the path under the tower was a great idea. The human merchants seemed impressed with the basis of our construction as they were leading under it.
18th Galena, 251 :Everyone is very busy currently. The crafts are moved to the trade depot, and there is a huge quantity of them. Or more exactly, they are not gathered in containers, so the dwarves carry them one by one. By the way, I will take benefit of the merchant to take rid of the cat and some other unneeded animals. The boss will be contented to know there is no more cat at Emeraldcity.
27th Galena, 251 :Emeraldcity grows rich by getting another artifact ! The 19th Galena, Moldath Mesirtun came to me, overexcited, speaking of "an idea, an illumination, a great project that will lead Emeraldcity to even more splendor !". The dwarf requested of me that I order the construction of a jeweler workshop in order to achieve his "magnificent idea". Thinking about how Slartibarti reacted learning that a masterpiece have been created, I decided that it was definitively a good idea to let Moldath do this "marvelous plan".
After having taken up all the items needed, Moldath began the construction. It took several days, but today, finally, Moldath finished working.
All this resulted in a bed of the highest quality. This reminded me about my promise to do a detailed description of Zon's cloak to the boss.
12th Limestone, 251 :It is now autumn. We managed to trade with the merchants just before they leave. Everyone was so busy, even Mebzuth (the broker) had not enough time to trade. It would have been a shame to miss the caravan whereas we needed so much food and we had so many goods to exchange… But we did it.
After the trading, Mebzuth summed up the meeting : "I think we got a good deal. I have purchased all the meat, fish, cheese and other food they had, as well as all their booze. I think they even don't have enough to finish their journey !".
Well, we are ready for winter. At least I hope so.
21st Limestone, 251 :Some migrants arrived today. As usual when I receive orders from the Mountain Home, I am starting to worrying. I can't avoid to think that I look exactly the same way as Shake in this situation…
And then I realize that because of all the work the merchants have implied (moving goods from a place to another), the craft of scepters has stalled. In fact, we only have 102 scepters, which means we made a progression of approximatively 1 scepter for 10 days…
- "Where is Momuz, I want to see Momuz, go find Momuz right now !", I yell.
- "You wanted to see me ?"
- "4 scepters crafted in more than a month ! What's the meaning of this ?!"
- "We spent our whole days carrying stuff to the trade depot the past month, it's not my fault if you are not wise enough to order the construction of bins", Momuz answers. What a cheeky…
- "Maybe you want that I report how you behave to Slartibarti the Ultraseer ?", I ask with a sly smile. Momuz grimaces.
- "Err, I'm really sorry sir, I'll try to do my best"
- "No, you won't try, you will do your best. And this come into effect
right now !"
I decide to inspect the fortress before the arriving of the migrants.
The stockpiles are still a mess. Momuz is right about the bins, we really need containers. That holds for the general store, and the food too. At this rate, all the food will have rotten before winter.
I arrive to the bedrooms. The miners have not finished to dig yet, but they have done a good job.
Finally I visit the tower. My surprise to see that Tosid's blood has spread even further.
- "Why nobody cleans up this blood !!"
- "Rumors say that it is cursed and that touching it will bring Slartibarti's fury", a mason says.
What's that, now the boss seems to be entering superstitions. If things keep on this way, we'll have a cursed tower in few months. Cursed with Tosid's blood… I'm so blasé.
And now, about those migrants…
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