2 Hematite 75Lotu had taken a break from digging, and was flooring the surface of the living tower with Imic.
A sudden bellow from the aurochs cow split the peaceful afternoon.
“What has her upset?” Imic wondered.
Dr. Urist came tottering up, arriving out of breath.
“Lotu! We need to protect the ho-hahaha-hoa-hohoho hao hihihi hoar –“
“Whahahahahahahaha!”
The three doubled over in laughter.
Several minutes later, Lotu finally caught his breath enough to chortle, “Hoard? That pile of rock? I shudder to think what that poor creature is used to, if it thinks
this is a ‘hoard’!“ His gesture encompassed the flatness that, other than the steadily decreasing number of trees, as yet showed little sign of dwarven occupancy.
Imic sobered. “I’ll get Mooney and we’ll chase it off. Wouldn’t want it runnin’ off with the anvil. That’s the only valuable thing we’ve got.” Hefting his axe, he grabbed the helm he had removed earlier that hot, humid day, and headed south.
He didn’t return until after sunset. “Mooney, you sorry bastard! Where are you? I’ve spent the entire day gettin’ so hot ‘n’ sweaty my armor’s stickin’ to me through my clothes chasin’ that little blighter! YOU WERE S’PPOSED TO HELP!”
Mooney looked around vaguely. “Huh? That was urgent? I was enjoying a nice cup of ale.” In fact, the cup was still in his hand, half full. Mooney had had another episode, staring into space for hours, contemplating only-Armok-knew-what.
“You’re hopeless.” Imic grumbled, pouring himself a generous serving, dwindling supplies not-withstanding.
3 Hematite 75A startled squeak sounded from the eastern end of the pasture, and a pair of large pointy ears suddenly popped above the shrubbery.
“Another one!”
Imic was on the western side, but gamely headed toward the distant interloper. Mooney, however, was seemingly determined to make up for his inattention the day before. Wielding his crossbow like a hammer, he charged toward the hapless kobold.
That one, seeing the irate dwarf bearing down on him, turned so quickly that he tripped over his own two feet. In a haphazard scrambling, crawling run, he dashed eastward, crying the entire time, “Tayldis sorry! Tayldis apologize! Tayldis not mean it! Tayldis sorry! Tayldis going! See? Tayldis leaving! Tayldis goooonnee!”
Mooney chased him until they were almost out of sight of the tower, before finally stopping and shaking his fist after the departing wannabe thief. The watching dwarves had no difficulty in interpreting the gesture.
“And don’t come back!”
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Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.3 Hematite 75Having two thieves try their luck with us made us re-evaluate our security measures.
They were non-existent.
We were lucky. Both that the animals were vigilant in our place, and that the thieves tried to approach through the pasture.
Even though we have nothing of value, just heavy stone, who would believe that? We are dwarves, after all, renowned for our craftsdwarfship. We must take proper measures.
Imic and Mooney will now officially split their time between actual military duty (namely, guarding our workshops and living quarters), training (they’ve asked Olin for some relevant furniture, which means putting the pump components on hold for a few days), and their civilian duties of woodcutting and plant/brewing-related stuff.
I’ve already had the dogs moved from the pasture to our rock pile. The two puppies are having the time of their life playing in and around the massive boulders we somehow dragged here from home. The two adults (both females) seem to miss the nice, cool shade of the shrubbery lining the pasture. I don’t blame them, the summer days here are
hot.
They’ll be a good warning system and should be able to defend our vulnerable supplies until I finish the stockpile room below.
Ushrir also insisted that we build a forge, because “we really need to nail down that anvil.” Apparently she likes anvils. I saw no problem with it, so we now have a shiny new forge, though no metal to inaugurate it with.
10 Hematite 75At lunchtime, Airith and Ushrir reported that they’ve made not only enough blocks to finish flooring the tower’s surface level, but also the stockpile room that I’ve just about finished digging (only two
bots to go, it’ll be done tomorrow).
By unanimous vote, we’ve decided to floor the room before moving our supplies in. The idea of worms and other vermin from the soil getting into the food is…nauseating. Not to mention, sand gets everywhere. And I do mean
everywhere. Digging it, I’ve noticed that.
All other jobs have been temporarily suspended while we get that floor laid down, then we’ll be able to sleep at night with all of our stuff safely under a ceiling of dirt. Stone would be better, but this will do for now.
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11 Hematite 75“Bilberries again! We had bilberries last night!”
“And the night before that!”
The dwarves groaned at the unimaginative fare. The food supplies were almost gone, having gotten them through the spring. Soon, they would have to hunt, which would mean any other chores would fall by the wayside.
The grumbling and complaining drowned out the whistling approaching outside, but even so hardly anyone looked up when Mooney threw back the tent flap.
“Look at this!”
Mooney tossed his load down on the barrel serving as a table, garnering everyone’s attention at once.
“Prickle berries!” They chorused. Finally, something that was actually edible.
“Is that…lettuce?” Olin breathed. "Oh, I could kiss you! But I won't."
“What’s that stuff?” Dr. Urist pointed to several weeds that Mooney had included.
“Some of it’s longland grass, we can brew that. This stuff over here, that looks like it might some kind of bitter melon. And then that other stuff, I think that’s rice, which should also make a halfway decent booze.”
“You
think?” Imic responded. “The last time you ‘thought’ you’d found something brewable, we all ended up at death’s door for
three days!”
“Yeah, yeah!” No one had yet forgotten that experience, and none wished to repeat it.
“Calm down, Imic! I’ll keep collecting the plants we know are edible until we’ve built up our stocks, and I’ll experiment on my own time.”
“Just don’t expect us to taste-test.” Dr. Urist growled. “One poisoning was plenty, thank you.”
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Excerpts from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.12 Hematite 75Well, things have gotten a bit more dissturbing since the beginning of summer. Throughout the spring, all we saw were some badgers and the occasional bird. So far this summer, in addition to the birds and now, an armadillo, Olin has reported sighting a monitor lizard. It seems to watch us from the deepest undergrowth of the south-west portion of forest. This is not reassuring.
There is also the occasional moose, and Mooney supposedly saw some sort of bird-person (person-bird? birdon? persird?). But, given his “episodes”, none of us believe him.
But…better be safe.
Ushrir volunteered to train our adult dogs for war. She’s really turning into our dwarf-of-all-trades, always willing to lend a hand. Nothing seems to faze her self-confidence.
14 Hematite 75The frequent rains from the spring have developed into almost constant rain now. I’m very glad we moved underground when we did, sleeping in this would be the worst punishment imaginable, save a hammering.
With the rain and humidity, the bugs have come out with a vengeance. We’ve found so many worms and other creepy crawlies in our meals (today was a record twenty-four) that I went and pulled the kitten away from his bush shelter and locked him into the tent. Everyone has orders not to let him out, on pain of catching the vermin themselves, so hopefully he will take care of the bug problem for us.
That tent is really getting tattered, with rain leaking in at some of the seams so it’s a good that that we’ve finished flooring the stockpile room, and we’re ready to start moving supplies tomorrow.
With well over 300 heavy boulders…
This will take us the rest of the summer.
While prioritizing our supplies for the move (food first, rocks last), I noticed something. Olin has been working furiously in the carpentry, but we have no bins. No barrels! (Other than those we brought along with us, that is.)
When I went to speak to Olin about this glaring oversight, I noticed:
Who ordered a bookcase?!
Dr. Urist, of course. She really wants that library, so I’ve designated a corner of the common area for her use.
Once Olin has made some more bins and barrels, and the armor stand and weapon rack the militia requires, we’ll see about getting some other furniture and making it a bit more like home. I’m tired of eating standing up or squatting on the floor, with only barrels as makeshift tables.
15 Hematite 75Good news! Mooney’s finally figured out what plants are edible, and our food stocks are increasing every day.
He’s also made a borderline acceptable rice beer. Of course, we all insisted that he drink it, and only tried it when it was clear that he wasn’t going to keel over. I was a little queasy after, but it has promise. I’ve ordered him to brew several of the inedible plants as an experiment, because I don’t know if anyone else realizes that our drink stocks are almost gone, and I
really don’t want to field those complaints.
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20 Hematite 75Imic was chopping the next-to-last tree to the southeast of the Hole, when something odd caught his attention. Freezing, he squinted, trying to make out the distant movement. Slowly it drew closer, until he realized:
Greeting the fivesome, he led them back to the Hole, where Lotu was debating the merits of Mooney’s latest brewing attempt. The others soon also gathered around, drawn by the sound of new voices. These were the first dwarves they had seen since departing Singedclasped the previous fall, and all were eager for news of home.
Chief among them was Sodel's announcement. “King Dodok instructed me to inform you to expect the first caravan sometime during Limestone. They are to stop here on their way to Whippedesteem.”
This was greeted with silence. In the busyness of creating the start of a new home, and finding solutions to the food situation, they had managed to forget the reason they found themselves in the middle of nowhere in the first place.
“Did he give you any information as to what Whippedesteem might want?” Olin asked.
She, Ushrir, and Airith, would be the ones to make most of it, so naturally she was concerned.
“No. I’m sorry.”
The jubilant attitude present just that morning, due to the successful booze brewing, was noticeably absent as six of the starting seven returned to work. It might well have been a completely different group.
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Excerpt from the journal of Lotu Sizzlediron, expedition leader.20 Hematite 75We received five migrants today.
Sodel, a clothier by trade, is married to Erib, a gelder.
I’m not sure how much use we have for either, though Erib may be useful when we get around to butchering things. Anyway, Sodel apparently managed to lead them all the way here from Singedclasped, so he’s probably going to prove useful.
Vutok, a bone specialist, and the hammerdwarf Lokum, who happens to be Erib’s nephew, have one child, Udil.
For full accuracy, I should write that Lokum claims to be a hammerdwarf. He arrived with no hammer, no armor, no weapon of any kind. Supposedly they were all lost when they crossed the Mire of Slaughter (a particularly nasty swamp, I remember). Still, why wasn’t he wearing the armor, at the very least?
I’ll arrange for Lokum to train with Imic. After all, if he lost his hammer, he can’t complain that he gets an axe instead.
Vutok owns a cavy boar, and they brought along a fat female piglet, because Vutok apparently likes pig cheese. Well, if she likes it so much, I know what her job is going to be.
Udil is barely eleven, so next year we’ll be able to put him to work.
Anyway, both animals have been pastured with the rest of the herd, and I stopped by Airith’s masonry to ask her to design a trade depot for us. It sounds like we’re going to need it.
We're going to need more beds, too.
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OOC: Here is the current dwarf list:
Ast (Lotu) Sizzlediron -> Dame de la Licorne (alive)
Olin Coppertargets
Ushrir Anvildimples -> NCommander (alive)
Kadol (Airith) Helmflashed -> TheImmortalRyukan (alive)
Urist (Dr. Urist) Drilledhatchet -> Gwolfski (alive)
Likot (Mooney) Tongsgirder -> MooneyTheHuman (alive)
Kogsak (Imic) Stokerblocked -> Imic (alive)
Sodel Stockadecharmed
Erib Razordrinkers
Vutok Pleatsteels
Lokum Weaksilvers
Udil Roomrouts
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Topic: The Story of Atölasob (A Community Fort with an Export Challenge) (Read 59067 times)