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[Torgue]

Date 1st Timber 159

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning (not that I got much sleep to begin with) and found the halls outside my quarters absolutely covered in vomit.



Thinking that some idiot actually ate food that came from the kitchen that's made of cinnabar, I go to the hospital to find the unfortunate soul.    Along the way I ran into two cats, a duck, and a dog all rotting away and leaving trails of vomit behind them.  Turns out, no dwarf ate from Cook Ilral's pot, but almost every pet is undergoing rapid necrosis.



I set out to find the cause at once.  I head towards the caverns, where most poison-spewing beasts call their home.  While conducting my search, I find the bodies of a hunter and son drowned in the caverns.  Idiots probably fell off a cliff. 



I think I did find the cause of the mysterious rotting syndrome, however.



Due to a design flaw, the only way to traverse between these two staircases is to go through the caverns.  I didn't find any contaminates aside from a bloodstained chunk of giant beetle chitin, so whatever was causing this was probably worn away from constant footsteps.  I designate an internal passage to be dug, and the cavern passage to be sealed.

Date 19th Timber 159
Winter is almost upon us, and the Dwarven caravan arrives.  As well as a bunch of snatchers.  Hopefully they aren't the precursors to a siege.



Date 20th Timber 159



Armok damn it.

Even worse than a siege, an ambush.  At least with a siege you have time to prepare.  Not with an ambush.  The pump operator Vabôk Zadisrom and her child are caught with a squad of goblin lashers between her and the gate.  Thankfully, the goblins are distracted by the hunter LonLon Udiles and charge her instead.

The squad is defeated just as the caravan reaches the gate.  Unfortunately, there are probably more squads approaching the fortress walls, so I order the soldiers to protect the caravan at all costs.



A goblin snatcher suddenly appears next to a group of elite soldiers.  The results are predictable.



After a few days, I decide to lift the alert.  I keep the military on high alert, however.  One squad ambushes are very suspicious.

Date 1st Moonstone 159
Winter arrives, and with it another round of animals dropping dead from rot.

I don't know if I can go on.  The nightmares are so bad.  I only get a few hours of sleep every day.  What little there is is plagued with giant beasts of ash and steam.  Blood.  Screams.  Death.  I only feel better when I punch something.  I feel I'm going to have to pass on the job to someone else.  Someone who is smart enough to continue the project.  Who will finish the project.

I give a bunch of useless crafts to the caravan.  Bring on the queen!  Pale bitch is gonna get what's coming to her.  Oh, yes.  She's gonna scream.

On that note, some notes appeared around the fortress praising that bloodsucking parasite.  Can you fucking believe that?  'Cause I sure as hell can't.  Freaking cultists.  They'll go with her.  They'll all burn.

The caravan brought steel and coke with them.  This is perfect, but not enough.  We must have more.  MORE!  The liason says more stupid shit about elevating the land or something.  I was more focused on trying not to beat his head in for wasting my time.

Fed up over the amount of animals in the fortress, I order a large number slaughtered.  They'd all die anyway from rotting.



Date 20th Moonstone 159

I can't take it anymore.  Every time I turn a corner I encounter a rotting corpse of an animal.  I need to end my leadership, if it can be called that.  I grabbed the nearest dwarf and dragged her into my office.  Seemed a bit paranoid.  Perfect.  I told her the plan.  About the project.  I stormed off into my room without waiting for a reaction, and here I am now.

I'm gonna go to the little combat training contraption I made.  It's the only thing that can keep my mind off the nightmares.

I will finish this.




Well, hope it's been worth the wait.  The start of winter was pretty uneventful aside from the constant animal deaths, hope the rest of it stays that way for you, escondida.  I to just before the beginning of Opal, so you have a couple months left of 159.

Some things right off the bat, MAKE CLOTHES.  Dwarves are starting to get pissy between all the miasma from their pets and their clothing rotting off.  Expect to see stuff like the below image every time a pet dies.



The new meeting hall/statuary is pretty much completed, the only thing that needs to be added is a waterfall generator.



Keep digging for ores and flux, you're gonna need a lot of them.

These rooms are now yours, and for every subsequent overseer.  I already assigned them for you.  Might want to do something about the vomit, however.



I took everything I wanted from the caravan, though there's still some stuff there that might be of use.

Other than that, best of luck to you.

Challenges:

Short term

• Deal with our population of caged goblins somehow.  (Perhaps use one in a silk farm?)
• Build a suitable tomb for Dhoor.  I've already designated one near the central staircase, but the furnishing is up to you.
• Finish the statue garden/meeting hall.

Long term

• Outfit all existing bedrooms, and construct more as needed.
• Finish the project.  I'll send you the details in a PM.

SAVE

[escondida]

Great turn, Torgue! I have the save.

[NCommander]

Sign me up for a turn and a dwarf; preferably any miltary, with the hope to go in a blaze of Dwarven glory!

[escondida]

It has been...quite a spring. Just as things were starting to settle down after the winter-long riots, a seige came to destroy us all. They managed to take out at least Beirus II and the Prophet (I could have missed some; the announcements were flooded with job cancellation spam as well). Benev also died at the hands of tantruming dwarves after murdering a citizen at behest of the mayor. I'm so sorry; I don't think there's anything I could've done (I don't know why the Prophet was on the surface, and Beirus II died in the line of duty). If y'all want to be redwarfed, please let me know. )-:

NCommander, I gave you a veteran military dwarf, Mistèm "N. Commander" Languagelashed the Friendly Speaker of Growths, Commander of N., swordmaster.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, and the queen finally came, and she's definitely cut out to be a tyrant:

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The following are fragments from the journals of Uzol "Escondida" Whirledurns, overseer of Harvestcoast

#-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~#
S P R I N G ,   y e a r   1 6 0

Improvements to fort security continute. Not all the threats come from outside; I'm constantly worried that some grief-stricken lover or friend or parent or child will tear down the doors to the caverns or the door holding the unfinished well back from the living quarters. I'm having walls put in everywhere.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-~-~

Since my assignment to this job, I have reclaimed my old job as a biological engineer and have been getting back into practice. I let everyone know that they could find me in my workshop anytime I needed to know something about the fortress's operations. I may have to rescind this policy, because it seems like every day dwarves are coming to me, shouting about how they lost the specific shale block they needed to build something. Naturally, I tell them to get another block, and then they get back to work. I just don't know why they don't think of these things themselves.

-~-~

It turns out that I was by no means the only skilled dwarf to be assigned menial tasks; many have approached me since I took office and begged to be allowed to do their jobs, their real jobs, and stop hauling and all the other asinine tasks best left to those without useful talents. Naturally, I acquiesced, as long as they could provide me proof that they could do the job they requested. A few have tried to fake it in order to get cushy jobs without hauling duty; I assigned them even more drudgery as punishment.

-~-~

Today was truly terrible. Benev...why did you do it? Gods, I just can't believe it. Today, that louse of a mayor, Led Paintlove, claimed that Goden, one of the miners, had committed treason by failing to produce enough millstones. We don't even have mechanical power here! What possible use could there be for a millstone? Benev apparently took him at his word and immediately beat poor Goden to death without even asking any questions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In response, some nearby bystander sought vengeance and somehow killed Benev.

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Naturally, I stepped in and spoke to the remaining guards about who was truly to blame: Led Paintlove. Furthermore, he's directly responsible for ordering the deaths of numerous other citizens. I also may have exaggerated his involvement in various other recent murders.

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Unfortunately, it turns out that the rest of the Guard is in on it. They gave this mass-murderer a light beating, when Goden lies dead and Benev sullied his name before his own death at this fiend's behest.

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There will be blood, Led. And before you die, you will suffer, I promise you that.

-~-~

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It seems that people are starting to behave somewhat more rationally. I've never been happier to go to a party.

-~-~

Gods...I'm not ready. The fort isn't anywhere near ready. But here she is. The queen.

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What can I do? I need to prepare. I knew she would come eventually, but I always thought I would have more time to prepare a suitable reception.

-~-~

--lic works projects continue as planned. Elitist snobs didn't even let most people have basic furniture in their bedrooms. Well, we'll see about that. I'll put statues in every bedroom before I'm done!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-~-~

Torgue just rushed into my office to tell me in grisly detail about how he single-handedly took down a blind cave ogre in the depths. If all the soldiers feel the need to share this stuff, I'm not sure my stomach can take it.

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-~-~

--and the kid finally finished that big school project. Don't know why he bothered to tell me; just looked like a really nice earring.

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~-~-

--have to write this up. I have to record this for whoever comes next, or for historians, or, hell, just to get this out of my system. We drove back the seige, but at a great cost. Both the child prophet and Beirus II were slain by the craven beasts. I don't even know what to say. I thought I was getting used to all the deaths, but I guess you never can.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Beirus]

Do we have any male Spear Lords or Hammer Lords? If not, I'll take any male weapon master we have. He shall be Beirus III. And maybe I'll start putting dome journals up.

[Zaerosz]

OP has been updated with deaths, dwarfings, and post links.

[Beneviento]

Scrawled writing on a cave wall in a mixture of blood and rock dust
I'm dying. I've failed. Failed Capital, failed this fortress, failed my friends. I was one of the last ones left of us early founders, but the others were smart, they've kept their heads down. So did I during Torgue's rule, and he ruled well. We smashed invasions and everything went alright, except for what happened to Dhoor. Something had gone out of him toward the end, so I'm glad he went out with some semblance of glory and honor. Escondida's the Overseer now. What's happened isn't her fault.

Can't you see I was trying to protect you all? I fought for the people, damnit! And now here I am in a pool of blood because the mayor fecking poisoned Goden! He fabricated some story about millstones and told me to put a fist in Goden's face, which I did happily because of all the damn paperwork I was going to have to do, and his skull caved in. That doesn't happen to normal dwarves! The only answer is that Leadpaint Love or whatever that bastard's name is did something to Goden that was eating him from the inside out, or Goden was already dying from a cavern sydrome or something. That doesn't matter now though, because his death set off a whole wave of anger and suddenly the rest of the Guard was nowhere to be seen. They were in on this too. What's more, not everyone in that crowd was a normal rioter. Some of them, especially the one that's really done me in, had the look of professionals, who probably belonged to the mayor. What was I about to find out that I needed to die? I got away, but I've got a broken bone or two and someone put a knife in me, so I'm bleeding out. Not too great for someone who couldn't walk in the first place. They'll be back too, I think I can hear them a floor or two away. Maybe I deserve this. I let Houn die, I let Dhoor die, I let Beirus and his 'son' die, among the dozens of others I could have saved too.

No. My watch is not yet over. My body may die, but my duty will not. I hear Capital calling, I can see the golden light. Damnit, here they are to finish me off. There will be another Benev, and he will not falter. I will retu(splotches of blood are all that can be seen)

EDIT: Yeah, a new dwarf would be great! As far as preferences go, gender doesn't matter, and I'd like to be a metalsmith I think.

[escondida]

Nice post (-:

By "there will be another Benev," I'm guessing you mean you want a new dwarf! Any preferences?

[escondida]

Summer's proceeding. Should have an update up tomorrow; 'til then, it's a seeeeeeecret. Whether a boring secret or an exciting one, I leave to your febrile imaginations.

[escondida]

Happy out-of-character summer update!

Turns out the summer secret was that nothing much happened during the summer. You know, other than a handful of children going insane, a bunch of unclaimed dwarves (no named deaths! Huzzah!) dying of thirst in the hospital, where they've been hanging out for ages, an easily-broken seige, and continuing to try and shore up defenses in the caverns and on the surface. I'm also about ready to start having squads execute prisoners (fixed the aborted mass pitting project), and I've been moving industries down into the stone layers where there's more room! Oh, and the queen has gotten herself elected mayor, and I locked her into her room.

I know I've been building up to a mad-science themed execution for...certain notables...but I honestly don't know if I'll be able to make that happen by year's end. If it helps, I kind of figure that ol' Uzol "escondida" Whirlurns is the kind of dwarf who really would get sidetracked trying to save the fort and improve infrastructure, particularly since the Queen is locked safely away for now. \-:

There wasn't really anything notable to take pictures of all summer, but I have a few ready for autumn...tomorrow.

[Torgue]

There's a couple KIA named dwarves you forgot to cross out, both Mr. Wiggles and Lord_lemonpie met their ends in the caverns.

[than402]

also, NCommander asked for a turn

[Zaerosz]

Fair warning, my turn may run a bit longer than the usual. I assure you this is for PLOT reasons of the best kind.

[escondida]

By the way, sorry for the delay. I've been sick, but better now! Autumn and maybe winter tomorrow, for real this time.

[escondida]

I got through to the end of autumn. Luckily, there was no seige this season! Since I started in winter, I'm declaring this turn done. Here's the save. I had issues uploading to dffd. If you use Windows or an older Macintosh (or a really old--pre-xzip--Linux), 7zip does speak tarball.

Oh, and next overseer: I left notes on every bridge/lever/whatever-machine I set up or discovered the function of, so you can at least see if there's a note for whatever you're wondering how to raise. Also, there are now a load of useful hotkeys, though F4 ("workshops") is now, happily, mislabeled. You'll see.

Alas, once again, I didn't get much of any mad science or vampire slaying done, due to still trying to get the fortress back on its feet. Next overseer, things should be a little easier for you, but this place is madness, sheer madness. Therefore, since it was all administrativa, I'm afraid poor Uzol "Escondida" Whirlurns will have to do without a farewell journal entry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've moved all industry that isn't farming-related down to the stone layers.

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The military needed a serious reorganization--there were, like, 3 squads of 1-3 axedwarves apiece, I really wanted to disband the Guard before they did any more damage, uniforms were all over the place, and there was a macedwarf. There's no good reason ever to use maces over hammers, so I just added Urist McUseless to the hammer squad so hopefully they'll be useful at some point.

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The clothing industry is up and running again! This time, we even have a weaver! Not a very good one, yet, but he's been working very steadily for a while, and we no longer need to depend on foreign cloth.

Not pictured: I downloaded an agèd edition of Dwarf Therapist and redid the labors. Now, generally, there's one or two (preferably skilled, unless all skilled dwarves were dead) dwarf assigned to most skilled labors and allowed to create stuff, and a ton of haulers/unskilled laborers. No more of this cranking out loads of no-quality goods.

This brings me to my long-term challenge: get rid of the low-quality furniture around the fort and replace it with high-quality stuff. It'll really, really help dwarven moods like you wouldn't believe, and good moods are what this fort needs more than anything right now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, and the queen is safely locked away. I built a wall outside her room.

The fort's grand old tradition of chaos continues unabated. For instance, I have no idea how this happened, but you know what? I'm perfectly happy that it did.

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Someone tore down the bridge to the hut on the surface. I'm okay with that, since I couldn't find the lever for it, anyway. So I rebuilt it, hooked it up to a (labeled) lever just underneath it, and---and this part is important---closed it. Hopefully it will now bring a little less death...until someone pulls that lever without checking its note. (-:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Medical malpractice! The doctors now have nothing to do but practice medicine (except "The Butcher," of course, who still gets to be a butcher)! Also, note for future overseers: medicine is unskilled, so I just gave all the quacks all the medical labors. Oh, and we need soap. There's a little ash ready to be processed, I think, but I'll leave that to the next poor fool in charge of this place.

Of course, not all is rosy in the hospital, because the lazy assholes are still letting people dehydrate in their hospital beds, so now the hospital is a sea of miasma.

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Oh...and can I just say...ew. This does not bode well. The fort apparently has some sort of numbing/necrotizing contaminant...somewhere...that someone should probably find and block off.

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Speaking of contaminants, why do we have barrel upon barrel of blood on hand?

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And now, gentle readers, I leave you with some good news. I managed to deal with nearly all the prisoners, except for a few trained enemy mounts--we'll need to wait for them to forget their training if we want to kill them sans loyalty cascade. Luckily, all it will take is pitting them--and the arena pit zone is all set up. It's not much to look at, but it's functional. Oh, and butchering most of the animals is going well. In fact, both of these sets of deaths, plus all the dwarf deaths, leads in to the happiest news of all: 10 years, 1,000 deaths!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Harvestcoast, for your 10th anniversary, I got you 1000 deaths!

Here's to another 10 years and another 1,000 deaths.

Long-term challenge: Good furniture for dwarven happiness!
Short-term challenge: Finish roofing over the outside constructions in case of titans and/or flyers, and walling the caverns (see hotkeys for the last construction site) in case of FBs and/or flyers...or, you know, in case of out of control wildfires that half the fort is screwing around in the middle of for no reason, kicking off a ton of deaths and a year-long tantrum spiral. sigh

Sorry this turn wasn't wackier...just trying to get this place back on its feet has been insane, and there's still a lot to do. I wish all future overseers luck...and fun.