(Nicely done, you two! Also, the fucking
stock screen is laggingn while the game is running at 27 fps. It takes five seconds of downtime whenever I pass over the cloth section. This is a special fortress. Also also, I just read a hundred pages of Syrupleaf recently, which may have inspired the disjuncted narrative bits, instead of the clear monthly reports I had in mind initially)
* * * * * * * *
''What do you mean, it's *missing*.
-Sir, I have no idea where...
-Find it.
-I looked. Everywhere. I even consulted the official record books, the journals, everything. It's gone. Nobody has seen it in the recent years. I even went back to previous files about Doomforests, to make sure it didn't disappear in the last months.
-There has to be something left.
-Not... not if lava swallowed it, sir. Then there would be no trace.
-You damned dwarves and your obsession with destroying things...
-Should I... tell everyone to cancel their current assignments?
-NO! No. That would just be a waste of resources. Everything is already in motion, we'll just have to tweak things a bit. You deal with the next meetings in my stead, I'll need to overhaul the farming division
again. ''
* * * * * * *
The general sat in her chair, twisting and crossing her legs. Edêm was a ranger by profession, and they hardly stodd still for too long. The threads of politics and bureaucracy made her uneasy. She stared at the secretary before saying:
''Where is the Prime Minister?
-He is currently unavailable. I will be discussing the matters at hand with you. A treacherous dwarf has been hoarding and sabotaging the booze distribution, and Minister Smunstu is busy handling the aftermath. better not disturb him, unless we want to skip our next mug of ale.
-Hum, yes, I suppose. I have the list of our soldiers right here. Three squads, all of them full.
-What are their status? Could they defend the fortress against a snail at the time being?
-The Constructive Cups have trained long and hard, and they are now masters of their chosen weapons. I'm currently training a group of marksdwarves. Militia captain Ast Oddomlikot is forming a new batch of recruits.
-So 10 able soldiers and 20 on the way. However, your own squad currently contains Major SenshukenVI, who is bound to detach herself from the Large Picks and attend other duties. that puts us at 29 soldiers.
-That is exact.
-Most of them still untested in battle.
-Well, miss, I'll have you know that being tested in battle and living to tell the tale is a strange and difficult experience here is Doomforests.
-True. Here's a list of creatures stalking the caverns, and associated entrances. Try and give the soldiers some first-hand training. Keep in mind, Minister of Engineering TechnioXanII requested a no-crundle agression clause as part of his cooperation. For now, the list safe opponents are mostly Dralthas and magma crabs. Major SenshukenVI will keep you updated on any new creature, so make sure to give the freshest troops some combat experience appropriate to their level. Keep our elite troops on standby near the used gateway into the caverns, to avoid any surprise or sneak attacks.
-That seems reasonable.
-You will also select 20 additional recruits once we receive new migrant waves. anyone who claims to be a peasant, a hauler by trade, or has some combat qualification should be drafted. In the meantime, try and identify four weapon masters from our elite troops who will be promoted into squad leaders. Their expertise will greatly speed up the drilling process.
-I will need equipment. The state of our gear is definitely not what it used to be, what with steel and all, but 20 more soldiers will spread our ressources.
-Glad you asked. The metalworker Flame has been informed that she is to be made quartermaster. She will respond to you, and be in charge of any equipment request. She will also personally craft the new steel suits of armor.
-Excellent! I will request 40 quivers, backpacks and flasks. 30 additional steel suits too. This fortress is large, and things get misplaced. the last thing I need is for my guys to spend two days looking for the last pair of steel greaves instead of joining a fight. I say, ten spare sets of full military gear is a good idea. There's also a few used and damaged leather items I'd like replaced and dumped in lava when we have a chance.
-Excellent. Quartermaster Flame will also supervise the metal industry, to ensure that the flow of steel bars and melted equipment does not go stale.
-Well, if that's all, miss TaupeIII, I'll be leaving. Don't wanna get my crossbow muscles rusty, heh.''
* * * * * * * * * *
Flame was in a serious discussion with the miners. Apparently they were used to dealing with the overseer directly. Answering to a smith was uncommon.
''Well, ma'am, usually we just drink booze until the overseer comes with his big ol' purple hat, and tell us to dig random tunnels. sometimes it's a big giant room, and people forget about it after a year and we spend the next year just hauling the rocks from that room to the stockpiles, until the new overseer tell us to dig an all new fortress sumwe're.
-Do you seriously think this fortress needs any more redundant digging?
-Well hum, I ain't in charge of the where, I just do the diggin' is all. Plus I get maybe the new Prime ministr'seer busy half the time dealin' with bein' sober, what with bein' a goblin an all. But I assumed we'd be working under that dude Longshank. Mining and masonry are basically the same thing.
-No, you dimwits, they are actually the exact opposite. Mining is creating holes everywhere, and masonry is patching those holes to make sure a fucking monster doesn't kill us. And you guys have dug an awfull too many holes, so we also need arms and armors to deal with them monsters. So we need metal. That means we need hematite, and we need flux stone.''
She laid out the plans of Doomforests before them, as clumsy and vague as they were.
''See, you can find a lot of flux stone between astville and Old Doomforests. We won't have to open any caverns, just dig a few veins starting from the central staircase and following them. You'll be focusing on large veins, and important stones. digging a few spare gem clusters is fine, creating a 10x10 square everywhere just to ''See what's around'' is a big no.
-Ma'am, that's called exploratory minin', where's ya sense o' discovery?
-If I wanted to be an adventurer I'd be outside travelling to Datetatooed or some other dumb place. We need flux stone, and we need hematite. If you dig anything other than that, I swear I'll make you haul it without a wheelbarrow. Or worse, make the next armor suits your size, and tell the general that mining has made you beefy enough for military duty.
-Aye, aye, ma'am, I get it now. no tunnels leading nowhere, no giant rooms, no digging orthoclase just cause it looks like gold, just hematite and chalk.
-Good.''
She'd still need some charcoal. They had 200 bars of iron, 9 chunks of hematite, and about 70 charcoal lumps. They'd need 130 more to convert all the iron into steel, which was a no brainer. steel was always superior to iron, and worth more anyway. She told one of her apprentices to unforbid some logs and have the haulers bring it inside. The idlers went down by ten in an instant. Now she just needed to convince PsychoAngel that the wood furnace should be used for charcoal, not ashes. She'd talk to the Prime minister about splitting the wood furnaces into two departments...