MESSED SCRIBLINGS
of Radiofort, the Mess Cleaner JanitorLooks like I found out who wrecked up the Goo Hive's control room:
What in the deep you're doing, you freaking moron?! Maybe you're planning to just say to another blood-thirsty goblin "sorry, gobbo, I was pissed off, so no stones for ya"? Guilty! And I don't give a shit if you're our only proper armorsmith! I don't even need an interrogation, the whole fortress seen you there!
Useless monkey, if you feel regretful after it, just don't do it!
Elpho, on the other hand, shows a good signs of repent:
But still no mead for you! You haven't repented enough! Yakt!
Meanwhile, Dastot gone nuts again, this time as a ghoul. Now she's running commando, spewing some nonsense. And you know what? I don't care. If you wanna go nuts, lassy, go nuts then. At least she can't starve anymore, and our fortress are too macabre in a last years. Maybe we can employ her as a mad strip-jester.
After we took Solon in custody, Goo Hive's lever system was repaired. We fixed Wave 2 and TooMany, though I couldn't find where's so called 'Stinger' is located. Maybe my documentation is too obsolete. The broken stone-fall traps, on the other hand, aren't worthy of fixing, as I think I have a better replacement for them:
As we still can't afford to waste our supplies of metal on traps, we can use glass blades and discs in our weapon traps. Though they cannot slice through iron, they can penetrate copper and as so is damn good at cutting off unprotected body parts like foots and hands, rendering enemies bleeding and helpless. They're also fire-proof and magma-proof, easy to install, very light and worth quite a cash, so exceeding stock can be just sold out. Not to mention that rooms trapped with this lasses are really rich...
Though I, myself, am actually pretty grumpy too, as my plans to glassificate the Smallhands was effectively scuffed by recent assault. Though we successfully repelled the foes, they left our entrance and labyrinth so messy that for all autumn we only tossed their rotten chunks into atom smasher. I must admit, though, that while I was dragging the enemy slave's severed lower part to the cleaning room, a stench of miasma reacted with melted part of my brain in... a proper way. My mind finally became clear and realised our true target. There's no time for us to indulge in fancy glass furniture - the greenskins landed a strike on us one time, so they're likely to do it twicely. I must be more focused, more... militant-minded than I was before. When enemies attack us, we do not just roll and cover behind the traps - nay, we strike back.
First of all, I revised the uniform of Vile Goo squad, assigning them metal harness. In the last battle we managed to scavenge a lot of dwarven-sized armor, and though it's all iron & copper, of lame quality and battered, a crappy armor is still better than no armor, not to mention that our smith is jailed for 180 days and going to be beaten after that. At least they can train in armor usage with it till the moment next overseer decide to melt that stuff and forge some better gear.
Seconds, I passed my temporal duty of guard captain to ZultanKing (by the way, do his name sound somewhat familiar, or it's just me?), as I feel I'm just not cut out for that work. In a course of hardening our defences, the Small Guard regiment was expanded with two recent migrant groups (the second one, fortunately, came through the sand area) to a full 10-beards unit. They was assigned a new barracks and scheduled a new timetable - while some of them patroling a fortress, the others are going to train in a spear & shield combat, so if things would go messy they'll be able to hold the ground, at least. I know that most of overseers are reluctant to arm guards, as they have a tendency to become stab-happy when administering beatings, but I'm not going to change my decision. A safety of the whole fortress is on the stake, and if some scoundrel are going to pay for his crimes with his blood, so be it. In such a harsh times, no troublemakers will be tolerated.
Thirds, I also reworked a schedule for Vile Goo training and re-assembled another squad, which was almost empty before - the Overseer army. In the most of fortresses present and former overseers are frequently viewed as a special caste and tend to refrain from military duties, but now it's time for us to be a role model for all good commoners of the Smallhands. I personally signed myself in and is currently training under Recon's command (she, between us, is the most experienced in art of war). The schedule was composed in a way that at least four of us can carry out our civilian duties, while the others are sweating in barracks. It's not easy, but Recon says it's better to flog soldiers before battle than to bury them after, and I think she have a point here.
Thus way, our life has become quite martial, as out of 65 citizens of Smallhands 50 is in the army now (though not on a constant basis) - only children and a skeleton crew of farmers and craftsmen was spared of recruitment in any squads, so tending the fields and doing essential works won't be delayed even if all four regiments would be mobilized.
I should remark it's a way we must resort to - looking on the map I, with a heavy heart, must admit that we, in fact, are fighting a losing war. Our allies are weak and scattered, our Mountainhomes are taken from us by greenskins, so there won't be any help for us - it's us who became Mountainhomes for other settlements, and it's now our duty to lend them a helpful hand. Smallhands is in the center of an evil axis between our former capital and a foul Dark Fortress ruled by the blind demon.
Now it's time for us to sever that axis.
[1]Sadly, reclaiming Mountainhomes are beyond our strength, yet we still can deal a blow to goblinic communications, cutting off their supply lines. We found a weak spot - our former hillocks near mountains, now occupied with greenskins. Though once it was a dwarven home, now it must be erased from earth, like a pediculous robe that must be burned. I must admit I gave a quite risky order, sending Siege Breakers, backed up with Vile Goo, into assault, as they're our main defence force, yet sometimes some things are just need to be done.
It eventually turned out quite well, though not without shenanigans and casualties - we lost one fighter from Vile Goo, and one of the ghouls, Kubuk the miner, returned home as a ghost. I heard that things like this happened before and we know a way to deal with it, but decided to not use that methods after some thinking. Ghosts are invulnerable, aren't they? Maybe we can use it in a future clashes...
The loot was mediocre, but whatever. It was never a main goal, to begin with.
While our brave soldiers were going to enjoy their rest, the Swamp Hunters received another order. Their target was another hillocks to the southwest, poor and unremarkable, where they were tasked with forcing the local greenskins to pay us tribute. Potentially, this could lead to disorder and growing mutual mistrust between their capital and local gouvernments. Potentially...
The raid's results was somewhat dubious this time, but a ten dead trolls are still better than nothing. Moreover, my suggestion about ghost was right! But...
But now it's time for me to step aside and make way for someone else, probably more talented than me. Looking back now, I must admit I was at most mediocre overseer and my achievements, compared to others, was mediocre too, but it was my best and I doubt I could do it any better way. I won't demand not an important place in this fortress' history, nor a special room, office or tomb, and even the pompous title of Mess Cleaner, as I see now, is not suit me, as on my duty I probably made much more mess than was before. So from now, just call me Janitor.
NB: still no mead for Elpho! He's not repenting hard enough!
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OOC: I decided to not memorise Kubuk off-map, as he's not a named character and would work nicely as a lab rat for that ghoul-turns-ghost glitch. I'm not sure but it seems he became invulnerable and also have a tendency to rush into any missions not minding the squad assignation. Maybe, if we manage to gather a whole squad of ghosts, we'll even be able to claim Mountainhomes back? The story suddenly recieved a bit of Tolkien aroma...
I also had at some point the weird idea of claiming Cactushexes. That fort's defences stayed sound for about 150 years of constant war, and as no one seems to have any interest in it's ruins now, it probably could be used as a sort of chronocapsule for our civilization: new settlers can bulk up their forces here, while gobbos are wasting their time with Smallhands. I don't think other hillocks will last for long with 4000 enemies in Mountainhomes and 6000 in their own shithole, but Cactushexes probably can. I had not time, nor the spare hands to try this, but if some next player would have any useless migrants, he/she may try - if wants, of course.
There's a loads of food and booze in stock now, yet the mood is still somewhat low: I tried my best, but basking in miasma had done a bad job. I probably should be tossing the corpses outside... Keep an eye on Solon, Elpho and Urist the surgeon - the latter was haggard for a whole year and is very likely to snap. He's in custody now too, after tossing some knuckle sandwiches around in a feast hall.
As Salmeuk is in the army now, the validation of orders can take a time, so just remove him from squad if something important will be needed.
[1] This screenshot was modified, as at first I wanted to send all three operational squads into assault, but then decided to hold Swamp Hunters for next mission yet forgot to make current shot and also forgot to replace 3 with 2 when uploading. Sorry, folks.
Sorry, again, for poor writing and grammar. All dorfing requests was fulfilled. Here's the save file. Good luck, Recon!
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Topic: Smallhands - nearly 40 years and still tiny! (Read 409873 times)