Year 251
1 Granite
As I gaze upon the towering... tower... jutting out above my new home from a distance, Suprisepalaces, I cannot help a small blossom of hope flowering in my heart. On the journey here the other migrants had enthusiastically told me of how the system of selecting rulers for this fortress prevented oppressive tyrants from amassing power to themselves, as each here a new Overseer was selected at random from a lottery. And a groundbreaking ruling was in place, after a Overseer's term was completed all records and knowledge from his reign had to be destroyed as thoroughly as possible, to free subsequent Overseer's from being mired in their preconceptions. Truly a revolutionary ruling method!
2 Granite
As I arrived at the front gates, one of the inhabitants of the fortress asked me for my name, carving it into a wooden strip. Apparently, I had arrived just in time for the yearly lottery! Considering the reasons I had been exiled from the mountainhomes in the first place, I decided upon a new name, to leave my past behind me. I am now the Spoon Demon.
5 Granite
Kebul has favoured me! Today the selection strip was taken from the lottery barrel, and the selector said "Demonic Spoon". Apparently, they had misheard my name but it is no matter, I am now the ruler of this fortress!
6 Granite
I stare into the Overseer's Crystal Ball of Office, at turns disappointed and mystified. There are not enough bedrooms, there is no dining hall, and several half-finished workshops clutter up what space there is awaiting completion by certain types of craftsmen we simply lack completely.
Also it turns out the majestic mushroomlike tower I admired on the way here is some sort of bizarre surface farm, though built impractically high. I decided to have my farmers ignore it rather than waste their precious workhours labouring up that steep stairway.
In addition, I discovered a strange section of tunnels dug out beneath the fortress proper, seeming to carve out poorly understood runes from ancient human civilization in a misguided attempt to invoke their magical power. Fortunately it seems not to have worked.
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After this point the journal becomes much more disordered, largely lacking dates altogether and with large sections ripped out or burnt -
Elves arrived. They didn't have anything worth trading for so I ignored them until they went away. We also got some migrants, which I assigned jobs to as follo-
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One of the migrants, a metalworker, got taken by a fit of inspiration. Knowing these bouts of creative insanity could drive dwarves mad if they weren't fulfilled, I quickly ordered the construction of a forge.
He grabbed some iron bars and a block of dolomite before beginning to work furiously, soon emerging with the finest piece of craftdwarfship I ever had the good fortune to see, an artifact anvil. It was so beautiful.
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A goblin raiding party arrived, I frantically ordered the entrance walled off but couldn't complete it, so I just locked the hatches. Sadly three dwarves couldn't get inside in time and died at goblin hands, along with the three animals we had left on pasture outside. Fortunately the pasture I ordered dug inside is complete now so a repeat of the animal incident should hopefully not occur.
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Now that I am overseer those smallminded fools of the mountainhomes cannot stop me anymore! My Corpsehives are complete, the bees feeding on the blood and decay of the dwarven dead, making wondrous bloodhoney. It's deep crimson complements its mindblowing flavour well.
In addition, I have placed more hives in key locations throughout the fortress, to the glory of Kebul! These shrines to her majesty resound with the musical humming of the bees, the spastic dancing of the dwarves as they are stung by the bees, performing improvised dances in her honour, and the sacrifices as the bees as they expire after stinging the dwarves. And so the three aspects of Kebul are made manifest most harmoniously.
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When I was informed that the human liaison had arrived, I at first assumed the human traders were simply late arriving in autumn instead of summer as the stories said they always did (With spring comes elves, when summer is high expect the humans, the leaves redden and Armok's chosen come). However when I said something to this effect, people just stared at me with bafflement. Eventually EndlessBlaze took me aside and gently explained to me that the human empire had been destroyed decades ago. The liaison was from the Mountainhomes.
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I had begun the construction of a magmaworks next to the magma pipe that had been discovered just before I arrived, though I decided to leave the adamantine alone for now, the horror stories of what lurked beneath it outweighing my greed for the godmetal, for now. However, while digging a shaft from the surface to drop sand down for materials for the glass furnace, I noticed that the vegetation surrounding the pipe had been burned into ashes, leaving behind white sand. Irritated that the shaft might now have been wasted labour, I ordered a tunnel dug into the underground cavern so that we could harvest the local sand.
I had assumed the the vegetation had been burned down by an inhabitant of the Magma Sea who had then returned to its fiery home. However not long after we dug into the cavern we soon discovered the true culprit.
The long ago forgotten horror of the deeps, Mut Baruoson! It's fiery breath is what burned the fungi into ashes! Hastily I ordered the tunnel walled off again to prevent that terror from burning down the entire fortress.
Not before however, a Troll could charge into the tunnel, fleeing the Forgotten Beast poised on a tree outside.
At first I was quite worried about this fearsome creature that had managed to find its way into the fortress, until one of the workers noticed the broken off stalactite driven into its brain. The poor creature was quite defective in the head, and ignored the dwarves for the most part. Almost leisurely I ordered some cage traps built to capture it before it might come to its senses.
It was only then, somewhat belatedly, that I noticed a glaring security gap in the fortress, a hole open to a underground cavern through which a giant cave spider could crawl through at any time! Fortunately it was sealed off without incident.
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The troll was wondering around, but still completely docile, and the mechanic was taking a very long time with the cage traps, so I turned my attention to other matters.
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near indecipherable scrawling and doodles litter the mutilated scraps of parchment that follows
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Disaster! The troll finally lumbered into the dining hall, assaulting several diners! A massive fistfight is underway.
Eventually some dogs managed to rip open the creature's head, killing the beast.
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The pasture, clay collector, sand collector and dropshaft to the magmaworks are completed.
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My vassalhives are now protected from the depredations of wandering animals.
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An unknown accident occurred while the magmaworks were dug out, causing the death of the two legendary miners of Suprisepalaces. Unfortunate.
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The workers noticed the magma crabs watching them while they were busy completing the magmaworks. We believe they may have had something to do with the deaths of the miners earlier the year, though now they only watched as we walled off the pipe once more fortunately.
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Topic: Surprisepalace, The Rebirth! (Read 37083 times)