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[joeclark77]

Diary of Reg F. Parchedmachines, Spring, 182:

We were assigned to journey south to found a new settlement, "Windtundra", for the glory of our native land, "The Pillar of Joy", when we arrived here.  Far from the tundra, the cliff proved too steep to portage our boats up the waterfall.  Climbing upon the height of the land, we numbered our supplies and took a look at the surroundings.  Here, a nameless tributary cascades down five z-levels off a red sand cliff into the stream our map names "The Regal Pantomime".  The valley below is dry and barren, but two spurs of the cliff jut out above the plain.  Obok notes that, if only they came out a little farther and meet in the middle, a vast reservoir of water would be captured here.  And wouldn't that be interesting.

And that's how I decided that we would found our new settlement here.  The goal: to dam the tributary, form a reservoir, and engineer a mighty hydropower project in the midst of this desert.  There are no trees or plants on the surface, but the wildlife seems abundant enough, there's water, and Udib says that the earth smells of tetrahedrite.  (Anyway, who wants to walk all the way to the tundra carrying a few dozen boulders and 40 logs on their backs?)

Due to inability to agree, we kept on calling the new fort Oslamkekath, "Windtundra", and that's how it got its odd name.



We have begun to unload supplies on the promontory sketched here.  Here we will ultimately construct the visitor center, gift shop, control tower, and hydropower transmission shaft.  The dam will extend west and then south to meet the spur seen on the larger map.



OOC: Let me know if you can see these images!

Udib is forging picks for the miners and swords for Obok and Rakust, who will form our militia. Asen will be our farmer, and Risen and Ast will be our diggers.  I'm acting as an all around handydwarf (as are Obok and Rakust), until we have enough hands for specialized workers.

[joeclark77]

28 Felsite:
We have dug in, moved our supplies underground, built a drawbridge, turned the horses into -biscuits-, and established a "base camp" for our excavations complete with distillery (of course!) and a few other essentials.



Two more layers of red sand sit between us and the stone.  By luck, we bypassed the aquifer and were able to dig down into claystone, then schist, quartzite, and then we cracked into a vast underground cavern system.  Blocking it off and bypassing it for now, we dug into marble layers beneath it.  Veins of sphalerite were spotted in the caverns, so we'll prepare an expedition to pacify them sooner rather than later.  Our dam will shine with polished marble and brass!

[darkpaladin109]

I can see the images just fine. This looks decent enough to warrant a PTW.

[joeclark77]

24 Hematite:
Ast and Risen have begun quarrying marble and to our surprise, discovered the second cavern layer.  It seems the caverns are pretty close together, on this map.  I've also had them dig me an office so that I can take over the duties of bookkeeper and manager.



And a few weeks later, digging down to try and find some slate...



At least we'll have interesting trees growing in our soil layers!

25 Malachite:
6 migrants, none with particularly useful skills.  Bet they can haul stone blocks, though.

[here some pages are missing from the journal]

3 Felsite, 183:
With the arrival of spring, 24 new migrants join our 16 original settlers.  In the first year, we've managed to get a lot accomplished, including the start of our great dam.



Human engineers would start building a dam from the bottom up -- stupid!  If you do it that way, you're going to have to mess around with water the whole time, and it also makes it pretty hard to fix mistakes.  Dwarfs are better builders -- we start from the top and work down.  From the sketch above, you can already see the shape of the dam and eventual reservoir.  With only one full-time worker in the masonry workshop (Sakzul A), our building crew got to a point where it was working too fast for poor Sakzul to keep up the supply of marble blocks.  We'll draft a couple of migrants to that duty, and we should have the bridge completed soon.  The next task will be constructing the first floor of the control tower (gift shop, visitor center, etc) and fortifying the entrance against goblins.  We've already spotted a couple of kobolds (Obok got the first kill) and goblins are sure to take notice soon.

We have breached (and re-sealed) all three caverns, located tetrahedrite and sphalerite, mined a substantial quantity of rock crystal and other gems, and equipped our two swordsdwarfs with bronze gear.

Currently our main problem is the lack of wood for fuel, cages and bins.  We bought a few logs from dwarven traders in the fall, but not enough.  Our miners have carved out a large area in the top sand layer that I'm calling "the grotto", and cavern spores have already begun sprouting there, but it will take a year or two before there are enough trees to harvest.

Other than that, we have a severe lack of interesting drink, and everyone is getting sick of plummet wine.  Hopefully an elfish caravan will be dumb enough to stop by in the spring, and bring some seeds for above-ground fruit.

[joeclark77]

20 Felsite, 183:
Elves are here. They brought a number of fruits, some quantity of wood, and lots of bins -- something we'd been desperate for. The militia completed the "trade" without any trouble.  And we got some free elf clothes and meat/leather/bones from the pack animals as a bonus. 

Dumed U created our first artifact, Rithzam Arkoth "The Bulwark of Prophecy", a schist ring.  Nice name, not much of an artifact though.


24 Timber, 183:
We are 59 dwarves now, with the birth of Windtundra's first baby, and a caravan from the mountainhomes has just arrived to bring back report of our success.  They will leave much laden with schist crafts and cut gems, but will not yet be able to leave across the dam/bridge as we have been focusing on constructing a fortified castle on the cliff.  Its structure is clearly visible, but it hasn't been roofed over or fully walled-in yet, so we are still using the temporary entrance.  A goblin snatcher was sighted, but our two militiamen (now swordmasters) chased him away and stand watch for any others.



The coming year should see the completion of the castle and of the dam's span.  We will begin training up a larger military, particularly a marksdwarf squad, in anticipation of conquering the first cavern.  We need its timber and its wild game!

[joeclark77]

27 Granite, 184:



Unfortunately he became legendary in Tanner, not Leatherworker.  Back to hauling bricks for you, buddy.

20th Slate, 184:


Never seen that before.


27 Felsite, 184:
Just as our fortifications are about complete, the first goblin ambush arrives!  Our two swordmasters easily killed six swordgoblins and their hammergoblin officer.  One of last year's migrants was sadly killed. [Edit: Erib Sibrekarzes (Salveknight) was a Lye Maker and was the father of the triplets.  The hilltop where he was killed is now known as Salveknight Bluff.]

Soon after....



And I also discovered that the dwarfs have gone and elected a mayor... and it's not me!  Alath L is a brand new migrant.  He's demanding that I make breastplates, which is okay, since I was just about to build up some new militia squads anyway.

[joeclark77]

4th Galena, 184:
We are now 111 dwarves, and have reached a major milestone in the life of the fortress, with (a) the completion of the dam's topmost span, and (b) the completion of a rudimentary welcome center and gift shop on Salveknight Bluff.



Here the dam's initial span is seen.  Dwarves and cats can be seen using it to fetch a drink of water from the river for some reason.

Now for a tour of Castle Windtundra, the dam's welcome center and future control tower.  We start with a look at the roof:



The control tower is built out of slate, to contrast it with the white marble of the dam.  Eventually it will rise higher than one level above the bluff, but for now it does a suitable job of protecting the fort from flyers.  That's a statue of hedgehog men spattered with goblin blood.

The main entry way is seen in this sketch:



Traffic over the dam and traffic from this side of the river (including flyers) are funneled through narrow entryways covered by a marksdwarf station.  Caravans may approach through a twisted hallway below, thereby avoiding the traps we will set for invaders.  The trade depot is appointed in brass.  (Note: the red squiggles in the main entryway may look like red sand, but they are NOT.)

On the lower level, you can see the entry hallways for wagons and invaders on this side of the river.  The lower/interior levels of the castle are still carved out of red sand, and you can see some of our initial stockpiles, as well as the refuse pile and butcher/tanner stations outside. 



Eventually this will all be hardened and re-architected to look good and work well, but for now, our attention turns back to the dam.

[joeclark77]

17 galena, 184:


3rd Sandstone, 184:


3rd Slate, 185:

It will go in the center of the dam control room!



18th Slate:

[joeclark77]

25th Hematite, 185:


With a new wave of migrants, we are up to 138 dwarves.  I suggested to Obok that he take on some new recruits -- two swordmasters, no matter how skilled, will not be enough to defend the entire hydropower project.  He selected eight novices and put them in copper and bronze gear.  They are training now, and some of them show real promise.

Our only talented male marksdwarf is Shorast K, a hunter who arrived late in the first year of our settlement.  He has been tasked with creating two squads of ten marksdwarves each.  They will be vital to the defense of Castle Windtundra.

To honor their leadership, I have granted Obok the right to don Oram Taron (see above) and Shorast the right to wear Babinalnis (see above).

[joeclark77]

8th Limestone, 185:
As the human caravan unloads its wares in our trade depot, two goblin ambushes are discovered.  An excellent mason, Urdim O, and her baby Dakost were killed outside the fort before our swordsdwarfs arrived and made short work of the goblins.  One of the new recruits was bruised a bit, but we otherwise suffered no military casualties.

Just as the fight was concluding...



It has been issued to Rakust O, our best swordmaster.  Now that we have a legendary armorer, it's time to start smeltering steel.

[joeclark77]

Time for another tour of the dam.
The top level has been widened, and walls have been added to protect it.  Cage traps and stone-fall traps have been added in such a way that wagons can avoid them, but foot traffic tends to hit them.  So far, no goblin ambush squads have crossed the dam, but a few snatchers have been caged and a lot of the wildlife has been clobbered or trapped.



The first level below the waterline is also complete.  Its main features are two trap rooms for capturing swimming creatures (or flying creatures, while the reservoir is empty).  The marble floodgates and bridges are all attached to one marble lever -- currently the trap rooms are exposed to the reservoir side; pulling the lever will close that side and open a drain in the face of the dam.  The orthoclase bridges which grant dwarf access to the trap rooms are attached to an orthoclase lever, not to be pulled until the trap room is entirely drained.



In the corner, you can see two bedrooms assigned to the two marksdwarf squad captains, and a secure stairwell which will eventually connect the lower, dwarf-safe floors to an upper marksdwarf gallery and a statue garden on the roof (without giving access to the goblin-accessible floor in between.

OOC: Sadly, the crystal glass walls of the captains' apartments does not differ from the appearance of marble in this tileset!  (We have lots of rock crystal mined.)

The next three levels will focus on hydropower generation.

[Skullsploder]

Looking awesome, just one question: what could you possible be planning to do with the amount of power a 5z hydro-power damn can generate?

[danmanthedog]

Well i think he should use that power to make the dam move.

[joeclark77]

Looking awesome, just one question: what could you possible be planning to do with the amount of power a 5z hydro-power damn can generate?

Sell it to the peasants!  Every housewife should have a powered millstone in her kitchen.
No, actually, I have no idea.  Pump stack for magma, of course.  But this game needs more uses for power.

[ajr]

I like this. The colors are cool, the architecture such pleasure to the eye. All has reason. It's just that the bridge is... weird.