Ve solved the mystery of the missing corpses. GPeters corpse vas found on the ground just outside the barracks. I guess some DISGUSTING FOOL decided he'd had enough hauling corpses for vun day und left GPeter to rot.
Luckily, Tosid vas already on it by the time I found it.
GPeter is now interred for good in her gold tomb. Ve vill mourn her, und alvays remember the important things, like her love of backpacks.
Summer creeps avay vit it's tail betveen it's legs in ze face of Autumn's chill breeze, und ve continue vork. Ze militia are vonce again training hard, und are now vorthy ov being called something vaguely resembling a militia. At ze very least, they are no longer all recruits.
I vonder how the cavekitten did exploring the caverns?
Still, alive, huh? Und now a cavecat. Und the caverns are almost entirely explored, too.
You know vot? You've earned it, little vun. You may come back up.
Progress continues slowly. Vit half the fortress training for battle, construction vork is slow, but steady. Ve vill get there eventually.
The outpost liason is here, vit an offer.
I considered it for a vhile and eventually came to the conclusion that the dvarf most skilled in martial prowess should lead us from the front. Congratulations, Baron Speciesunknown!
Zere vas some other papervork. I requested steel und the ores vith vitch to make steel. In return the mountainhomes requested toys und plants. PATHETIC.
I traded the dwarven caravan some meltable steel and iron knicknacks, plus a variety of raw food, in exchange for the useless bronze crown Olon made. Zey told me it vas "a great treasure" and that they respected this was "no mere trade". Funny how it's a priceless artifact now that the trade is complete. Didn't seem that vay vhen we were spending hours haggling about it's vorth und throwing in a bit of free food on the side to finalize the deal.
"Here's your glorious crown, vould you like fries vit that?"
The caravan is leaving along the highway we've been working on.
https://imgur.com/L5GKvf5.pngAh, excellent! A test of our mettle. All sqvads, advance!
The sword sqvad vill be the first on the scene, but probably not in time to save Deler, a brewer, and Adil, a fishery worker. Ve vill haf to see how fast they can run.
Luckily, our dvarves are not the only vun's at the gate. A few stragglers from the dvarven caravan are still in the area. A female macedvarf by the name of Kadol bravely turns to defend our fleeing citizens. Vith luck, she vill be able to hold the beast until ve can arrive.
Battle is joined! Kadol shows off her expertise with the mace, und it is immediately clear that our dvarves still haf much to learn. Even our most skilled Macedvarf, Kaemurl, could not have matched her blow for blow. Not by a long shot.
In spite of her skill, her veapon is bronze: a poor material for a mace. Incapable of defeating the beast vith it, she nonetheless doles out a swift and terrifying series of hits, receiving only slight bruises in return. She is certainly formidable, but the Minotaur is many times her size: one solid hit is all it would take to kill her. Thankfully, she can no doubt hear the shouts of the sword sqvad approaching and knows she does not have to hold out forever.
The frontrunner, a female swordsdwarf who is also named Kadol arrives to help back up Mercenary Kadol.
The minotaur promptly grabs swordsdwarf Kadol by the sock and lifts her over his head, presumably to use as a blunt force veapon against Mercenary Kadol. This proves to be an error, as our Kadol uses the extra height to sink her sword up to the hilt into the beasts throat. The minotaur is unfazed, und casually informs everyone that he has improved his fighting.
Kadol takes advantage of the momentary confusion to crush the beasts hand, causing it to collapse in pain.
All the other dwarves fall on the beast in a flurry of slashing and stabbing, and it is Imic who swoops at the last moment to claim the final blow, separating the beast's head from it's shoulders.
Vith the beast dead, all is vell. Ve say goodbye to the caravan and Deler profusely thanks the mercenary Kadol Bluntnet for saving his life. She says she vos just doing her job, but nonetheless leaves here a hero of Mountainbreed.
It's finally time to ensure our vater supply vonce and for all. Zefon does the honours.
Run, Zefon, you PITEOUS PIG CHILD!
In moments, the reservoir fills. All that is left is to pull the lever to close the floor bars, und ve vill have safe access to the clean, deep vaters.
Start of vinter: