15th of Granite, Year 100We have finally arrived to our destination. The scout reports indicate that this would be a good spot for a new outpost, with water available to power our pumps, proper soil for growing food and enough trees to our forges until we find proper source of fuel, which of course is magma. However, we don't actually know whether there are any valuable minerals available in this site, but the stories of riches of nearby human villages gives us hope.
I'm not sure about the group I was assigned to yet, I haven't actually had any serious conversation with anybody thus far. I think they try to avoid me as much as they can since they know that I'm going to be their boss here. The king said we should feel honoured to be assigned to such an important task. Well, I call that bullshit! I say we are just expendable assets and it wouldn't be a huge loss to our civilization if we perish. Otherwise the King would have sent some soldiers with us. Or even some of more skilled workers! But no, we are just a bunch of middle class dwarves whose future wouldn't have been glorious back in Mountain Home.
I already sent a message back to Mountain Home that we have arrived to our location. The King promised that, if everything goes well, we should receive more dwarves before too soon. Hopefully that promise holds because otherwise we won't have much of a chance.
16th of Granite, Year 100The work for our new home has already begun. I ordered Smithrocks and Granitechasm to start mining the entrance, while Treatyhopes is cutting down the trees so that we can get some wood to work with.
We don't have any actual major plans of how we should establish the outpost, it was left to us to decide how to use the land. But I do have some ideas what we must do. First of all, we need the entrance, which is currently under work. Secondly, we need to have some sort of wall around the entrance so that we have some safety until proper storage areas are ready. After all, I don't want to loose any of our precious equipment or supplies to wildlife. Thirdly, we really need to get the food production going. So long as we have no farming area set, Nightabbeys is idling near the wagon. Note to myself: make sure that Stilledrocks, our mason, doesn't get any ideas of stealing food or beer. Until we have proper food production going, I must ration all our supplies to make sure everybody has enough. And Stilledrocks has tendency of not respecting rules and society. Or that's what I have heard from other dwarves.
23rd of Granite, Year 100The construction progress surprisingly well, Treatyhopes has just finished building a crude wall around the entrance, made from wood. I know, proper dwarven way would have been to construct the wall from stone, preferably from stone blocks, but we just can't be too picky right now. Also, the miners have finished with the entrance tunnel and are now moving the work with second floor, where the farms will be placed.
I'm actually a bit surprised how smoothly everything has gone so far. Hopefully our luck holds...
14th of Slate, Year 100Our miners, Yokin and Smithrocks, have finally finished mining out crude farming area, and Nightabbeys is planting the first seed as I write this update. While we do have lots of different kind of seeds available, thanks to generous merchants back in Mountain Home, I decided to go with plump helmets for now. The reason is that, while being edible, plump helmets can also be used to make alcohol, something we really need. It will take some time before we can get our brewing operation going, and I'm not too sure whether we have enough people to turn it efficient.
Right now the miners are working with some storage areas for our food and drinks, hopefully the project is finished soon so that they can start to mine dormitory, dining hall and, most importantly, a proper office for me.
20th of Felsite, Year 100It took over a month but finally we have all our food hauled inside to safety, which is good. I was kind of fearing of spoiling if those were left outside for too long. Or thievery, we never know what may lurk out there.
Speaking of lurking, so far we have only seen few wild boars outside. Otherwise, the area seems to be quiet. Too quiet for my liking. Where are the animals? Not even a bird has been seen since we arrived here.
By the way, our miners finally found solid rock down there. They actually had to dig pretty deep, I think it was something like fifth floor where they finally discovered some microcline and granite. I hate microcline, that colour just makes me nauseous. Hopefully Daeron, our mason, doesn't use that to make the essential furniture...
Well, at least we have solid rock now, which means we can finally have some decent rooms for dining, sleeping and offices...
22nd of Felsite, Year 100By the name of Armok, we are just got lucky! Yokin reported that they had found a vein of native silver!
This is very good news indeed, silver products are considered very expensive back in Mountain Home, and even humans are eager to get stuff made from it. This could actually prove our King that this outpost deserves more workers and is worth of holding.
22nd of Hematite, Year 100It has been some time since my previous update. I just haven't felt the need of write anything, mostly because nothing worth of mentioning has happened. Well, at least until today, when Gamedragon, our crafter, spotted dwarves heading towards our outpost! I ran outside to see it myself and it was true; there were dwarves travelling towards our meager outpost.
Six dwarves in total had been sent to help us establishing the outpost. Now, I actually appreciate certain choises the King had made. For example, Frillflags is very good armorsmith and Manorhale has some decent skills with diagnosing patients. Combined with the fact that Dashworked has some knowledge of dressing wounds and suturing, I think we have at least partially healthcare covered. Now, what I do find interesting is that Dashworked is actually bone carver, not doctor. I wonder whether these two have connection?
They also brought some animals with them. I would really love to order Nightabbeys to butcher those, but I think the owners wouldn't appreciate that. Oh well, at least we have some backup if our farms don't provide enough food...
By the way, I'm actually surprised none of the dwarves who arrived actually had any skills in fighting. Is the King actually thinking that we can protect this outpost without proper soldiers?
5th of Malachite, Year 100Yokin reported that they have finished mining a dining hall, dormitory and my personal quarters. Yes, I saw it only right to have proper quarters while everybody else will sleep in the dormitory. I am, after all, the leader of this expedition!
I ordered the construction of furniture, only to find out that we didn't have any area designated for industry! Why did I forgot that? Without area for workshops, we won't have any furniture nor stuff to sell. Well, at least that explains why I have seen Daeron hanging around the wagon pretty often. I decided to fix this neglect immediately and ordered the miners to dig out an area for workshops and storage rooms. Storage rooms are more important since we really need to get everything inside as soon as possible.
10th of Limestone, Year 100Out of nowhere, the liaison from Mountain Home appeared at our entrance. I was very surprised to see her, didn't think the King would send one this soon. But what surprised me even more was the fact that she had been travelling with a caravan, which was intended to come here to do some trading. Unfortunately we don't have any trading depot ready, so the caravan left almost immediately after they realized that. Oh well, no trading this year then. Of course, we didn't have anything sell, so there wouldn't have been any trading anyway...
Just as the caravan was leaving, they spotted few capybaras outside the entrance. And as any bloodthirsty caravan guard would do, they immediately attacked those pathetic creatures. To my surprise, Daeron and Treatyhopes joined the fight. Treatyhopes did some damage with her axe, but what surprised me even more was Daeron; her punches were very lethal, though she didn't actually kill any of the capybaras, since the caravan guards took care of the finishing blows. Still, I'm pretty proud of her, she acted immediately and didn't hesitate at all. We need dwarves like that here.
When she returned, I noticed some bad bruises in her head. She tried to shrug it off but I'm going to send her to Manorhale as soon as the dormitory has beds.
The meeting with liaison went well, though there weren't any important news to be told. She was basically checking us out so that we could make some special orders for the next caravan. I was actually unable to think of anything we would need immediately, besides more dwarves, so I didn't make any requisitions. Before leaving she promised to come back next year, at least if she was still in the job.
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Topic: Bustraven - Spreading Dwarven Might (Story Fortress, DF 0.42.01) (Read 1659 times)