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[Unknown72]

Clearly Nil is the sort of dwarf who likes their warfare set in a pleasant and calming locale.

Fountains of blood and ribbons of gore in a scenic meadow with a little brook and some butterflies and so on.

Sigged :3, almost over my sickness and should be fine by tomorrow, can't wait to post!

[Grim Portent]

Hmm, if possible could I be dwarfed as a soldier, sword or axe or spear preferably.

I think I'd like to take the perspective of a loyal guard of the queen after having trekked long to reach the place where rumours said the crown once more rests on a worthy brow.

[Tirion]

Do you have any squads training 24/7? They'd have less trouble with leaving equipment in the stockpile.

[Splint]

Do you have any squads training 24/7? They'd have less trouble with leaving equipment in the stockpile.

Not training but there's no uniform conflicts to worry about. Part of the issue is shortage of raw materials. Moving the junk gear below deck has proven to be very difficult due to the sheer weight of the frost giant (I think?) armor that's laying around; it's so damned heavy even stronger dwarves are having a lot of difficulty moving it quickly. We don't have enough armor and materials on site are less than great, being mainly galena, though there is tetrahedrite around for copper armor (hell most of our few mail hauberks are some form of copper.) The problems compounded by the fact that I needed to upgrade some of the weapons, using the last of our wrought iron to do so.

[Splint]

Log Entry 36

Amazingly enough, the caravan arrived, the merchants while still ragged, looking far better off than they had last year. Frankly, I'm just glad to see them alive and at all. Atir and Insightcopper bought whatever was worth buying for ridiculously high profits for the merchants, not that it matters to us. Most of this junk was here when we first arrived, what do we care how much they ask for it? Among the items secured were a few chain hauberks, coifs, helmets, food, drink, and some cloth for uniforms.



And of course like always there's banging on that damnable door. We've started taking bets on whichever it is now, and my money is on another troll. Some of the militia (I'm not sure who, because everyone is busy doing something,) are heading down to see what it is and make it quit with the racket. On top of that there's a mess of giant ants roaming around demanding the militia's attention.

Gecko has also demanded Sazir (the medic) cease all work not pertaining to tending the wounded, as it turns out Nil and someone else got a hand broken in the fighting with the goblins. Minkot is taking our squad down to kill the troll or... ogre, or whatever it is. Urvad is heading up the ant eradication with the rest; the things are too numerous for one squad to handle.

Log Entry 37

Amsel is dead to the militia now. She lost a hand fighting the ants. It's a shame to lose her skills, but without a hand to hold a weapon she is as I said, dead to us in that regard. An army has no use for a one-handed soldier. Her other hand was maimed as well and she's lucky to still have any feeling left in it. If she lost the use of her left hand as well we may as well have dropped a bridge on her or locked her in her room until she expired. Maskwolf has also been discharged until he “has finished chasing that stupid dream of a family” as Sazir put it. Gecko has ordered us (that is Minkot's squad,) on full time training from now on.

Minkot wants Urvad to find two dwarves to replace Maskwolf and Amsel in the meantime. And I'm also out 15 silvers; it was an ogre banging on the door.

Log Entry 38

Dastot Ravencave has joined Urvad's squad in Amsel's place and Ilral Realmscraft has joined my squad. Good enough. Nil is also training with us, his hand mending nicely. Also migrants arrived, and one of them has joined us as an axedwarf.

The miners are also working hard mining out the one exposed tetrahedrite vein in the fortress (after searching for days up and down the place's ramp system. There is also a place prepped to receive the raw ore, so we may all have at least some form of protection. We can make armor out of copper, but not silver, lead, or zinc.

Log Entry 39

Production of copper armor is going quite well. I even have my own full suit of armor now! But not all is good news for this entry. Goblins come again, mainly wrestlers with a few marksmen and a sand raider crossbowman leading them. As always they attack from the north.



The militia masses for the fight. Goblin marksmen are not to be trifled with; many of us with prior training before coming here have seen all too many cocksure dwarves cut down by them. I was lagging behind due to the weight of my new chain armor but I saw at least one goblin start sobbing over the corpse of one slain last battle, and both a marksgoblin and the sand raider became overwhelmed by sheer terror when our militia broke the treeline and charged on the queen's order.



Two more quickly had a change of heart and started running when Dumed delivered a hard strike to the lead goblin's chest, a sickening crunch audible even from where I was. Gecko then took out the next who leapt on Atesh's back while she pried her morningstar out of the first goblin's head.





Ravencave and Gecko disabled the next, leaving the greenskin to Atesh's swift 'mercy.'



Ravencave is an impressive dwarf I must say. She swings slow and purposefully with her massive war axe in one hand, the blows almost always crushing bone if nothing else. It's a good thing she has the rest of the militia to back her, as using a shield with such a large weapon is difficult.

Uvash took the next, his hatchet splitting the goblin's head in two and Idolcastle killed the sobbing goblin and the one trying to shoot her without any aid, her movements betraying the trance that had taken her. I saw her block two hastily fired bolts as she charged, her first two moves putting down the weeping goblin while the next blocked the second bolt (the first having missed horribly and striking the wall of the siege battery.) She then literally jumped for the goblin, and put her spear through it's shin as she smashed into it. The goblin threw up its crossbow trying to defend itself and she stomped on it, driving the bow into the owner's throat followed by a spearpoint punching through the greenskin's leather helmet and into the ice below.

As we gave chase to the sand raider, he fired four more erratic shots, nearly all of them hitting ice and one hitting shield. Uvash caught up and batted his crossbow from his hands, and the queen hurled her hatchet at the would-be warlord, the bit striking him squarely in the head above his left eye, sending him tumbling backwards for several feet. She ordered us to get the last one  while she went to fetch her axe.



Ravencave couldn't take it anymore and collapsed on the snow-laden ice, crying quietly in a ball. Atesh ended the seige when she called out “I GOT'EM!,” tackled the last goblin into the snow and bashed it in the head three times with her morningstar.

I've noticed a stark change in the way those of us who've seen several battles carry ourselves. Where there used to be solemn and empty gazes aimed at the ground there is now a sense of pride as the more hardened dwarves talk of splitting heads and screaming foes running for their lives, myself included. We speak of bloody battle like Sazir does, and she is overjoyed we have “finally seen through the horror to the glory.”

War has changed us all. Some say it is good we take joy in the deaths of our enemies. Others say hard dwarves are dwarves hard to relate to. I'm unsure how to feel.

Log Entry 40

Banging on the cavern door, but I know that sound A cave crawler is out there. Minkot is taking Realmcraft to “investigate and terminate” the threat. To make matters worse some fool weaver went through an accidental breach into a passage between cavern layers to collect webs. Hopefully she isn't dead.
-
Turns out the weaver was Atesh and the crawler is quite dead now, from what Id calls a case of morningstar-to-head syndrome.

Log Entry 41

Sigun is truly a master of chain armor construction. I have spotted no less than three flawless copper mail hauberks and two sets of mail leggings. Thanks to the magma our forebearers found, we'll soon have the entire militia armored with at least some basic protection, and discovery of casseirite means bronze helmets for all.

And finally, at long last, the first of a new generation is born!



They've named the child Mosus, after the mother's aunt, killed in Leafsyrup years ago.

|You reach for a flask of vodka, something that was evidently a staple brew in this ruin, and take a long swig. It was clear the bugbears were working with the goblins, or at least they were unwitting allies. You set your flask down when Ari and Ravod return.

“Anything interesting?” You ask the two.

“Not really, unless you like looking at lots of big numbers.” Ravod says back, a satchel full of dusty leather-bound tomes under his arm. “You find anything?”

“Well, if you don't mind sifting through old bones and bins, there may be some valuable suits of copper mail around here somewhere, made by one of the last Leafsyrup Forgemasters!” As you finish speaking, Ravod's eyes light up. His family had hailed from that place long ago.

“Any clue where?” he predictably asks, barely able to contain his excitement over finding mail made by a dwarven Forgemaster.

You shake your head and reach for your flask, downing a small sip of vodka before speaking again. “Couldn't say. Could try on the skeletons of the dead militia or maybe check the rotting bins around here. How's everyone else doing?”

“Fine, all things considered. Everyone else is setting up near that well we went by on the way in here.” Ari answers, opening a zinc cabinet and sifting through it for valuables. “On and Lokum think we should set up here, maybe try and make a business out of selling artifacts and such to passing merchants.”

“Certainly couldn't hurt to consider it.” You say, rereading the last few entries. “Not like we can go far with that blizzard anyway, gives us an excuse to get comfy.”|


Alright, so, after a loooooong cooldown time, here's another update.

Apparently during the first goblin attack Nil and someone else each got a broken hand, but they're fine now. Didn't see that. Had some small tussles with cavern wildlife, Maskwolf was discharged, finally found the damn copper ore vein, traded with a caravan amazingly enough, finished the battery wall and loaded the ballistae (distance of the crew prevented their use in this battle,) and the mgama forges were expanded!

Also, the goblins took a second swipe at us fairly quickly with a supremely incompetent sand raider leading a team of wrestlers to their deaths, one of the militia was crippled for life with a hand being torn off by a giant soldier ant, a baby was born, migrants came, and armor production is now in full swing. Most of it will be copper, but copper armor is better than no armor and many pieces are masterwork quality, mainly the mail hauberks all of those being courtesy of our resident Forgemaster Sigun.

All in all, not a bad bit here. There were some bruises and I think one of the new militia members got nicked by an crossbow bolt but nothing serious.

[Monitor Lisard]

Gecko Bannerspear
Castlefly region
11.40

After long discussion, the council members asked me not to leave the militia, because my presence boosts our warriors morale greatly. I'm not really satisfied with that... Whatever. At least, I'm getting used to my new weapon. This hatchet is quite handy, just like my old shovel - funny enough, the former is made of crude iron while the latter is constructed using high-quality steel. In the previous half a year I took part in a couple of skirmishes, with goblins and bugbear alike. By the way, a while ago, a caravan arrived, bringing correspondense. They handled over two letters. The first one was from the bugbear leader, written on a piece of dirty vellum, with a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. The other one, pretty well-written, was from the goblin warlord (obviously, he has a dwarven secretary). Both of them declared war on us.

As for my other duties, I had to pass another couple of laws. In order not to burden people, I tried to stick to the easier tasks, like making a quern. I'm also planning to commision a bronze or gold statue to commemorate the efforts our medics have been making to heal our warriors' wounds. I hope Sigun will find some spare time to construct it himself, as far as he's our best metalworker.

Since two enemy races are willing to wage war with us, reorganising our scattered military is important as well. Castlefly is, in fact, a new mountainhome, and forming a royal guard is essential. Therefore, I'm going to promote Minkot Pagewalked to general. Her subordinates shall now be called guard infantry. Might have to look into other ways of making our defences more efficient, like building towers or assigning war animals to guards.

[Splint]

Wrought iron, not steel (it's better than normal iron regardless,) and our general is currently roaming about with the caravan, which is fitting I guess.

[4maskwolf]

Diary entry to of Maskwolf, forgedwarf
I have finally been released from the military, diary.  After much petitioning of our militia commander, I have been released to continue my work in the forges.  He says that I will be recruited when I have finally acheived my dreams, but I sincerely hope not.  I hold our military dwarves in the utmost regard, but that simply isn't me, diary.  I am a simple dwarf, a forgeworker, not a soldier.  Battle does not scare me: to the contrary, it is exhilerating.  And that is what scares me: the rush of battle.

[Splint]

Log Entry 42

Equipment mismatches are a constant. All of the armorers produce better quality armor, leading to all of us to seek out said better armor. Many were overjoyed to hear that glowcaps are to be sown. Most of us save those who arrived this year got at least a goblet's worth of moonglow from last year's caravan. A glowing longland beer-yellow with all the best of rum and firewater... So good...

The marksdwarves are finally getting a small stream of broad bolts to train with, made mainly from reindeer bone and some of featherwood. They won't be any use in a fight, but they're starting to get their old skills back. There's also enough ore together to make a fair sum of bronze, so we'll likely have a handy amount of fresh bronze hauberks.

Log Entry 43



The monster's title is something to the order of “The Ripe Season of Saints.” I didn't think we'd have to face a monster like this, being isolated like we are. The beast being made of some kind of gemstone means while unable to be felled by conventional means (blood loss or brain damage,) we can still chop it apart and smash it to pieces.



Nil delivered the killing blow, the beast's body already crumbling from our strikes when his copper-plated foot shattered it! However Trusttraded felt the need to take part while she was out checking on the yak herd and just before its last functional limb was rendered useless it threw out its leg and crushed her arm.

I think Led was a little overzealous in her description, since it didn't “explode” so much as get broken really, really badly. It couldn't have been too serious since Clamrampart went out and tended to her wounded arm in the woods.

|”Well, that explains that yellow crap outside.” You mutter to yourself as you turn the page.

“You say somethin'?” Ari says, pulling out a disturbing dark gnome leather amulet from the cabinet. “Oh these dwarves were some right sick bastards weren't they? Who makes amulets out of dark gnomes?”

You grunt and look up. “That pile of yellow gem-looking shit topside was apparently that Forest Titan, the one that disappeared from its shrine years ago. And it wasn't them.”

“Oh to both. Who made the amulet then?” Ari tosses aside the amulet with an audible “Eugh.”

“Well, according to this maybe goblins. Seems the goblins, sand raiders, and frost giants did a whole lot of fighting around this place. Changed hands more than once”|

Log Entry 44





On the first of Granite, year 190, one of the newer dwarves has been elected our first official mayor. Udib won on the grounds she was one of the three dwarves who smelted the copper ore that got the militia properly equipped. As such, we now need to establish a Fortress Guard and dig out the proper accommodations.

Speaking of which, some of the others have decided to open up the less used magma wing and install more furnaces and an additional forge to produce silver statues and the like, the first four of which are going into Gecko's dining room. The decorative supports by her bed are also going to be replaced with gold ones, and her primary office chair with silver. Also, in regards to the statues already in her room, they're being moved. In honor of they who built the initial fortress before our kin and others took control at different times, the two frost giant staues are being placed outside our main entrance.

Log Entry 45



Apparently Bannermobbed and Ravencave are married. They were heading to Udib to have an official marriage paper written up so they could make their (apparently hastily done in one of the hillocks,) marriage official. They've decided to have their family line switch to matriarchal, to honor Dastot's service to the fortress and country.

Migrants also arrived, among them a fellow by the name of Grim who came here after hearing from the caravan that one among us had taken the throne. Minkot told him we needed a Fortress Guard commander and he took the job. Minkot gave him a layout of a uniform, and that they can use whatever spare weapons are laying around. He grabbed one of the khopesh left laying around by the bugbears.

I personally think it's slightly heavy-handed but it makes the intent clear. Anyone breaks the law and they can expect being whacked with a hunk of silver.

Log Entry 46

Some of the miners have decided to do some digging in the tombs going west, mainly to look for ores but also to easily expand the tombs when needed, when they made a discovery.



Apparently there was an area that seemed to be encased in solid stone, apart from the rest of the fortress! I'm personally excited, as is the queen and several others as it means a chance to find out more about our home. However most of the others are fearful, worried that there may be something lurking in halls that appear to have been untouched for centuries.

Obok says there was a few anvils in the room closest and that alone is worth nosing around for so we can secure the magmaworks with forges and smelters rather than solid floors.


Okay, so a short lil update here folks! We got us a baby, Ravencave was apparently married, the militia seems to be fully outfitted, we now have a fortress guard (sorta; it's just Grim and one other dwarf with metal hats, a couple khopesh, and featherwood tower shields right now,) and we hit some kind of abandoned industrial area while digging out a hallway in the tombs. There's a bunch of usable anvils in there so we can add more forges to the lower decks without waiting for the humans/vamarii (who might not show up.) or the freedorf caravan (which could be blocked by a siege.) I'm actually a little scared, because it means Mothram could be lurking in the place. We also killed our first megabeast!

It also seems that this was the last holdout of either a Frost Giant nation on the opposite side of the world in this area, or the last hold for a separate one entirely. I'm not sure if that's a good sign or bad sign.

Another update will likely come today.

[Quartz_Mace]

The Journal of Nil:
A Titan?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gecko was elected Queen. She mostly just mandates the construction of a few things we might need later on and tells us not to export harps or something. Apparently she's royalty. None of us knew it until she was digging around one day, found the evidence, and was coronated on the spot. You should have seen the look on her face!

Well, we've fought off quite a few raids and "sieges" lately, but the Goblins are not nearly as deadly as they are cruel. Our soldiers have become so experienced that by the time I reached the last one, the final  foe was tackled and having his face destroyed by Atesh. I told them to save more for me.

Well, today a Titan showed up. It was made of gemstone, so it made for nice hammer work! We smashed the thing until the body began to crack and I kicked it to pieces! To think some underestimate blunt weapons...

Well, our Capital is growing. Plenty of migrants have come. Our military's been training nonstop. Even with the Bugbears, Caverns, Goblins, and Titans to deal with, it looks like there's always hope, even here of all places.

 Nil, Titan-Slayer (trying out a new name. Does it work?)

Also, where's the updated download for this mod? It sounds so cool!
EDIT: Found it, nevermind.

[Tirion]

Is that random blood splatters on the walls? Proceed with caution, I say...

[Splint]

Log Entry 47

Cursory exploration shows lots of old clothes with cave spider cobwebs and dust clinging to them in old cabinets and many smaller apartments. Nothing crawled out to kill the initial exploration party unless you count that roach that crawled up Nil's pantleg (I've never heard a hardened wardwarf scream like a small child before, and frankly I don't blame him. Disgusting little creatures those things are.



Even if it's a little... Morbid, having to pass through the catacombs (which need to have coffins installed ahead of time for Tobul's sake,) I'm going to go with Minkot to ask the queen about moving the new arrivals into these areas.

Log Entry 48

Atir started acting oddly, up-ended his wheelbarrow full of gabbro without a word, and made a bee line straight for the mechanic’s shop. He rolled in a boulder and sat there, scribbling away.



Quarry: Rock. He had that.

Cut gems: We had some (several quite valuable) in the depot.

Shining metal bars: There's plenty of metal.

An alpaca, ewe, and llama: Bone or wool? Gecko correctly deduced he wanted wool cloth. Fortunately a sheep and llama were present, having followed some refugees here, and they were shorn two weeks ago.





Days later he finally set down his tools, declared “Done!” and strode out proudly with a pair of exquisite gabbro mechanisms. However I feel I need to point out more dwarves are developing a freakish obsession with the frost giants.

Anyway, Atir put the mechanisms in Gecko's bedroom, saying it should be good enough now. Some of the gear assemblies are being relocated to her office to make it look nicer supposedly.

Log Entry 50

Sazir's been training religiously lately and pestering Urvad, Minkot, and Gecko to get her squad training full time. Dunno if any of them will want to, since some of the squad are valued masons, but I think by now we've enough people to retrain for masonwork if needed.

We also finally got Gecko her tomb since she brought up being a little worried about not having one befitting her station (she's being smart about asking for things. She also has a blood crystal hatchet, which I'm guessing belonged to one of the goblins.

Four statues have been removed to be replaced with good ones to increase the value of her majesty's mausoleum. Two, a statue of goblins and one of frost giants, have been set up as the center pieces of the (still unsmoothed,) communal dining hall. Udib was re-elected mayor as well. Apparently she has a way with words.

Log Entry 51

Apparently there was a reason for Sazir's obsessive training.



Some part of her has gained such a hold on her skill with an axe that we must declare her Axe Lord. Not long after, Gecko inspected us all and said that Minkot (according to my old Tradtional Law tome,) showed the makings of a Spearmaster. She then told Minkot, Sazir, and Nil to go to the caverns because there was a “situation.”







Sazir, as always, was happy to regale the tale of a battle well fought. Fir they found a giant toad and though that that  was the situation. After a few hard chops, thrashing around, Nil whacking it with his hammer, and Minkot pinning its leg to the ground, she lopped it in half.



They were heading back to the fortress entrance when they (or more Nil,) ran into a towering beast!



Nil ran into it first, and when it tried to stomp on him he smashed its foot. When it reared up and tried to smash him? He climbed on to it and bashed it in the side! He then crawled across its back, leapt down and bashed its back leg on the same side. The abomination went sideways and nearly crushed him, but he instead continued with his assault, slamming his hammer into its back, leading it to jerk slightly from the injury, its tail nearly smashing his head. We could hear the thing roaring in rage even on the surface!

He delivered to strikes to its head after that, one kick and one hammer, when Sazir says she and Minkot finally got involved as they were ahead of Nil when the beast struck. By the time the battle was over (the beast finally expiring shortly after Minkot's spear pierced it's heart, though it wasn't instantly fatal,) Sazir says Nil had the makings of a full-fledged hammerlord!

To hear her and Minkot praise him so highly was... Different. Regardless of his newfound status, Minkot is credited with the kill by Both Sazir and Nil, as it was her spear punching through the beast's heart that ended it; Sazir admits she couldn't cut deeply with her hatchet and Nil, after asking him, said the beast's bones were far harder where it mattered.



Log Entry 52

More refugees have arrived, among them a talented swordsdwarf who has joined The Combat of Tongs (My squad,) and two others who've joined the Fortress Guard, which pleased Grim. We now sit at 82 adult dwarves and 3 children.





And then a mechanic decided he wanted to be a hero and picked a fight with a polar bear now called Chainwhip. Let this be a lesson to the reader: Just because there's other dwarves close-by that does not mean they'll back you up when you decide to fight a polar bear. Ringpassed had it coming. We avenged him on principle, but everyone is in agreement: Anyone dumb enough to try and fight a polar bear unarmed deserved to be chewed on.

The plan was to capture it, but polar bear steak works too.

As a precaution against future animal attacks, a sealant bridge is being installed down below in the caves and The Worshipful Orbs are going down to run interference with any locals. Which came in the form of a giant ant queen, which was subdued by the first member of the militia down there and then punched in the face hard enough to kill it by a weaponsmith (one of the new arrivals I think.)

The smith then proceeded to continue with the militia and while Sazir and Ducim took down a soldier ant, a drone dropped off the ceiling and attacked the smith. It turns out the smith is a surprisingly skilled fighter!



After Minkot heard about that, she handed the smith her “Welcome to the Army!” paper and told her to pick a weapon and get some armor.

Log Entry 53

Captain Zefon started behaving oddly and predictably, her being a gem cutter means she wanted a jeweler's workshop. Someone put a temporary shop together so she could do her thing. I have no interest in gems myself but I'll record the result. She came to a day later in the makeshift shop with a door made out of green jade.



I don't understand how she managed to make an entire door two inches thick from a hunk of jade that was only the size of my head.  I am also declared a Swordmaster.



As little of note is taking shape and I'm almost out of room, I am going to get a new logbook.

|”Aww man...”

“What?”

“Don't suppose you have any Logbooks in that bag of crap you've been loading up do you?”

“What's it to you?” Ari starts sifting through his bag, having obviously forgotten you were reading a logbook.

“Well I wanna know whats happens! Do you have any or don't you?”

He eventually produces a second leather-bound tome with the same introduction, continuing in entries where the previous left off. “This what you wanted?”

You graciously take the book and open it to the first page “Aye, thanks.”

“Well, 'fore you go getting all engrossed again let's head back up. Bobur's cooking some roasts and Snang found a few barrels of moonglow!”

You chuckle and shake your head. “Sometimes I bet he thinks he's a dwarf with that nose for brew of his. Alright, then, let's go.” With that you grab your flask and bag and follow Ari up, meeting up with Ravod who has a mishmash of other books and a bin full of stone harps under his arm. Ravod notes he found it odd so many small rock harps were stored around the fortress.

“Queen bannerspear seemed to have something of a femstiffie for the things.” You point out, holding up the logbook. “At least according to the dwarf who wrote these logs.

Ravod rolls his eyes. “Coulda done with a less vulgar description man. Seriously.”

After regaling some of what you read, from the fights, to the odd artifacts, to the cave crawler, you reach the camp set up by the old well the inhabitants made some time ago that tapped the aquifer. In what you recognize from an illustration as the hospital, there are two small cooking fires with the rest of your band enjoying moonglow and roasts.

While Ari and ravod set to getting themselves some food you get the logbooks out of Ari's bag and look for the one that you took from him before and crack it once you get hold of it.|
-

Log Entry 54

Ringpassed has finally been interred, and the caravan has arrived and too our astonishment rather than the same three weather beaten wagons, we see two additional (and quite new,) wagons! And as glaze on the roast, a cave crawler was captured instead of eating another resident! Atis says he plans on spending a great deal of time with the creature.



Led's been declared an axe lord as well, and all of us weaponmasters for a fight when we heard something making noise in the cavern we don't make much use of. That I know of.



Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be fine.

Log Entry 55

Migrants have come and several of them joined the militia and Fortress Guard, and another Whispercastle joins us. And amazingly enough, a harp order that went ignored for months was met, meaning our jail still sits empty!


So, after the forum crapped itself in the wake of .40.12 being released, I bring you guys another update before I go to bed! We got visited by a mercifully quite beatable forgotten beast, Gecko's rooms are now all up to snuff, had a mood hit, trade was done, we captured a cave crawler, a polar bear killed a guy, the militia and fortress guard saw more recruits their way, a kid was born, a boatload of migrants arrived, and by some twisted miracle a mandate that had no progress done on it was suddenly completed just before the deadline ran out by sheer dumb luck.

Sadly we got no belligerent neighbors visiting us which is sad since I was hoping to be attacked so we could see some fighting with our ramshackle militia in terms of skill, though we do now have 5 weaponmasters (2 Axe Lords, 1 Hammerlord, 1 Swordmaster, and 1 Spearmaster.) I'm probably going to activate the whole militia soon just to give the dwarves something to do since nobody seems to want to make any friends. Besides, if a larger scall attack does come we might get lucky and have some of the less skilled fighters die so I can get some more use out of the tombs besides the odd animal attack taking someone out. Not like anyone will flip out since nobody seems to make any god damn friends anymore.

Is that random blood splatters on the walls? Proceed with caution, I say...

Nope, sadly. Almandine clusters.

Anyways, I'm beat. See you tomorrow guys.

[Monitor Lisard]

Gecko Bannerspear
Castlefly region
19.12

Things have been going pretty dull recently. The fortess council does most of the daily tasks and routines, so my duties are pretty limited. I mostly serve as a living banner during the battles. I don't really enjoy it... Local dwarves are too used to self-governing, and I sometimes doubt they need any monarch at all.

This really depresses me. If not for my studies, I would have been drinking all day long. Is there anything I can do for my people? Maybe I should grant knightship to the bravest warriors of the fortress, like Nil the hammerdwarf... This is more of a human thing, actually. Anyway, human knights are usually granted estates for their service, and I have neither domain lands nor the power to give away those that I rule. Not to mention that the greater part of our nation still lies in ruins, controlled by the treacherous dictator and goblin warlords.

*A sidenote at the bottom of a page*

The miners have found some curious underground passages. Seems to be a part of our fortess. I'm gonna investigate it myself...

[kibaseviltwin]

i would like to claim a dwarf, Oddom if no one's got her yet

[Grim Portent]

Excerpt from the journal of Grim, Commander of the Fortress Guard of Castlefly

It has taken me some time to find a blank journal here. I intend to record my thoughts as I serve under our noble monarch in the hopes that others may later learn of how the lineage of our rulers rose up from the inglorious fate we dwarfs had seemed doomed to.

I was living in a human village when I first heard rumors of the queen. At first I dismissed such tales as the fevered dreams of the foolish. I believed our people to be doomed to a slow death in perpetual war, our leaders slain and our people scattered. It wasn't until I met a band of my kinfolk traveling north that I truly believed that there was any truth to the tales. They had a map, purchased from a caravan and a description of an old fortress built in the lands to the north and spoke of the last halls of the dwarfs. I decided to go with them, to keep them safe and see if the rumors were true.

Our journey was arduous, many a time I regretted deciding to go with them. But when we arrived my doubts, my regrets, they all fell away.

While Castlefly was by no means populous it was still on a scale I had not seen since the mountainhall I once called home fell. We were greeted by a young man. I could tell he was a soldier the moment I saw him. It wasn't his weapon or his armor that told me, no, it was his eyes. I had seen eyes like that in the veterans back home. They were eyes that had seen the light fade from someones eyes and had not blinked.

His name was Mebzuth and he took us down to the halls. I asked him if it was true that there was really a queen here.

He brought me to her.

I did not know what to say, I did not know what to do. She is clad no finer than the rest of us, but she carries a certain grace about her. The weight of centuries of former rulers gathered about her like a cloak. I sank to my knee and pledged my sword arm to her service. I was appointed the task of enforcing her laws and maintaining order in the fortress.

Since then several dwarfs have been assigned to my command. We will do our duty to the queen, to the fortress and to all of dwarfkind. We will fight and die in the service of her majesty.