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[Archi]

This is my first community fortress.
Feel free to request a dwarf!


The Journals of Arc Darkhelm, miner, diplomat and follower of the mountain warrior god Dolek.

Entry 5002.

So they've finally done it. They've banished me.
I worked so hard for them, digging out grand chambers and handling those angry human diplomats that nobody else could,
but I was doomed from the day the king decided that he didn't like me.
They're sending me off to the same forsaken place that claimed my friends last year.
Of course, this isn't really a "banishment", no, I'm being sent there to "re-establish the outpost for the glory of all dwarvenkind".

Utter elf-crap.

At least the name is fitting.. Even in the face of death, my friends had a sense of humour.
Ushilgor Zarut in the old tongue.
"The Ice-Pit of Insanity."

We're not going to survive the winter.

I'm gonna go see who my "party" is made up of.

I've got the official list here.

-Arc (Miner)
-Ravus (Crossbowdwarf)
-Faylone (Farmer)
-Nimbus (Carpenter)
-Anticheese (Miner)
-Fedaykin (Pump operator)
-Shoudai (Mason)

What exactly do they think we're going to do with a carpenter and a farmer in the middle of an icy wasteland?
Could always use them for food, I suppose...
At least I'm not stuck with the soapers, they were just told to go out and explore the countryside as adventurers.
Honestly, who needs soapers anyway? What a pointless profession.

I'm going to sleep. We embark tomorrow.


Entry 1.

I've decided to start a new journal and leave my old one behind. at least that way someone might remember me after I'm frozen solid.
The other party members practically pulled me out of my bed this morning, seems that they're actually eager to go. There's something wrong with 'em for sure.
I discovered today that they all have some basic military training, so at least we're not going to be eaten on the way.
The others are off saying goodbye to their loved ones, we'll be embarking within the hour.

Entry 2.

It took a long time, but we finally arrived.
It wasn't hard to spot once we were there, due to the bones and rotting flesh scattered all about the lone obsidian cap in the ice.



What exactly happened here? No report was ever made, although we did find the body of an axedwarf near the cap, still clutching his axe, his torso crushed horribly and stabbed with someone else's rib.
I don't really want to think about what could have gotten him. I'm just hoping that it doesn't come back.

After ensuring that there was nothing alive on the surface, we descended into the obsidian fortress, weapons at the ready.
Although we didn't find anything hostile, the layout of the place was horrid enough.



It was obviously very quickly carved, some parts not making much sense at all. We guessed that the previous owners of this place were trying to melt out water for drinking.

We're just settling in.
I'm sitting on my bed in the sleeping quarters, updating this thing while I have the chance before we return to work.
The others don't look too happy anymore. I guess they've realised how grim our situation is.

It's time to get back to work. We're going to try to set up farms by channeling magma underneath the ice. This may take a while.

[Glacies]

Glacies, professional archaeologist, would like to explore these ruins. So make him a dwarf.

[Haven]

Bomrek the Boot insists that he lived here first. He just went out to... Gather some buddies for a party. Yeah.

And try the glacial farming method here, if it'd work.

[Archi]

Entry 3.

We have operational farmland! We might just survive after all.



We also now have heating for the sleeping quarters, so we're not going to freeze to death either.



So we're warm and fed.
But something is missing... I keep catching Anticheese looking at me funny while we're working.
It's very distracting.

We found some recently cooked meat and the remains of a fireplace in the lower levels. Was someone living here prior to our arrival?

Anyway, it looks like we're going to actually remain on this mortal plane for a while, so I'm drawing up plans for expansion and defense.
Shoudai suggested that we make use of the magma source we have. He may be on to something.

We'll see, I suppose. Back to work!


Entry 4.

We've started building above the ground as well as below, primarily for safety.
While we were clearing out the debris and beginning construction of some walls, the liason we've been expecting from the mountainhomes arrived with a wagon and some guards.



His name is Zon, and he seemed very impressed that we were still alive, although he wasn't willing to part with his coat.
I asked to see a list of goods they had for trade... It was all useless junk! Why didn't they bring any wood?



If I wasn't already convinced that the king was trying to get us killed...

I asked Zon exactly what he thought we could give him for trade out here in the frozen wasteland.
He said not to worry about it. I don't think he expects us to survive much longer.

I talked to Anticheese about it afterwards. He's such a nice dwarf.. Calms me right down.
The others are looking a bit happier too. I'm glad that everyone is getting along so well...
Well, everyone but Ravus. He just keeps shooting dirty looks at everyone. I'm not sure why.

[Archi]

As an aside.. I'm keeping track of whoever wants a dwarf, so feel free to throw one at me and I'll add them in as soon as I can.

Name, gender and profession (even in just character terms) please!

[Archi]

Entry 5.

Today was interesting.

I was talking to Shoudai about construction plans when an extremely filthy looking, crazed dwarf ran over to us.
He was yelling at us about getting out of his "homecaves", because he had a very important party to host.
At this point he started gibbering and pointing wildly at the direction he had come, where we saw a large group of dwarves heading this way.
I pushed the crazed dwarf aside (who I now know is called "Bomrek the Boot") and told the others to grab their weapons. We formed a defensive circle around the entrance to our home and waited for the attack.
Fortunately, it didn't come.
Turns out that the group of dwarves are mostly others who were banished like us (sent to our outpost to reinforce it "for the glory of all dwarvenkind"), however, two of them actually came here willingly.

I interviewed the lot of them, starting with the two weirdos.





Glacies and his guard Ryiah are an archaeology duo who've come here to examine the ruins our home is built on.
I tried to explain to him that two years is hardly a gap worth investigating. He seemed unhappy about this, but refused to leave.
I told him that if he's going to stay then he can at least make himself useful by creating new works of architecture and artifice for future scholars to puzzle over.
Long story short, we have a new mason.

Ryiah decided she'd help out Fedaykin operating the pumps in between her weapons training.

This Bomrek the Boot guy was apparently living in the ruins before we arrived, and had fled the place when he was attacked by a skeletal polar bear.
He doesn't seem to mind sharing his home, though, and I'm sure I can convince him to do something besides eating our food later.




Also of note is Artturi, who used to work as a prison captain before he was sent here. I'm sure we can find use for him.




The other two were less interesting, really. That Nevsky fellow annoys me though.





I have no idea where everyone is going to sleep...

Ravus offered to show them around, not that there's much to show though.
It's nice that he's helping me out with the administration at least, even if he keeps giving me dirty looks.
I'll try talking to him about it tomorrow.

[d3c0y2]

Looks interesting, reading through now. Posted straight away so you know someone posted.

[Archi]

My existence is validated!

[Archi]

Entry 6.

I haven't been able to make a new entry for a few days now, we've been so busy.. And those damned fire imps!

Two days ago, disaster struck. Just as all the new arrivals were settling into their chosen positions, horrible skeletal creatures pulled themselves out of the magma and assaulted Ryiah while she was operating the pump. The nearby Glacies was examining the lower levels for "artifacts" at the time, and rushed to Ryiah's aid.

We heard the screams and skeletal screeching from the surface. Fedaykin suddenly went pale and rushed to the source of the noise while the rest of us grabbed our weapons before following.

We arrived to a horrid sight. A pile of charred bones and chunks of what used to be the archaeologist and his guard, and worse still, the burnt remains of Fedaykin, still clutching half a writhing skeletal fire imp that he had apparently been ripping apart with his bare hands.

As we watched, the unearthly light faded from its eyes before the whole thing simply fell apart into a pile of bones on top of the brave dwarf.

Nimbus pushed to the front, stopping dead still as his eyes fell upon the scene. He suddenly fell to his knees and started sobbing..
He hasn't left his bunk since the clean-up from the disaster.
He's taking the deaths a lot harder than the rest of us. Fedaykin was a good friend of his, but not doing any work for three days?
If he doesn't pull himself together then I'm going to have to do something about it.



I'm sure he'll get over whatever it is soon.

Fortunately for the livelyhood of the fortress, Bomrek the Boot jumped at the chance to start operating the pump.



He's an odd one, to be sure.

Meanwhile, Nevsky has gone missing entirely. We don't have the time to search for him, but I assume we'll find him in the course of our work.

I'm working with Shoudai on a large project above-ground. I'll copy the design sketches to here tomorrow.

[Archi]

Entry 7.

Disaster after disaster!

It's not all bad news however..
We have a new farm room operational, meaning we're not going to run out of food for a long time.
Also, I got the design sketch back from Shoudai. When I first showed it to him he was utterly speechless due to the sheer grandeur of my plan.



He said he had no use for the sketch when he handed it back to me. I'm sure he means that he can't use it because it's too detailed.. I saw him trying to copy the general idea of it in some kind of bird's eye perspective, all in one colour! How silly!


While we were working outside on the grand project, the elves arrived.



They had wood with them! This was fortunate, as we had only one log left.

However, their visit held a much darker intent than we originally thought, for sneaking in behind them   while we were distracted was the unholy menace of the north.










To be continued...

[Anticheese]

Dun dun DUNNNN!

Sacrifice the elves to the bear. Maybe he'll show mercy?

[Pexxithan]

Gimmah a dorf!

Name him.... Pexxi McScruff

... or something.

[Archi]

[Entry 7 continued]

Bomrek and Shoudai spotted it before I heard it.
The terrifying, shreaking roar that only the undead can make.
My eyes widened with fear and I stopped dead still. I could see it through a gap in the brickwork, approaching steadily,
blood splattered on its jaw from the muskox and cat it had destroyed in anger. Its eyes flared brighter than any undead I've seen before.
Then I heard another horrible sound.

The elves.. The elves were laughing! They had planned this! They started taunting me, saying that our fortress will fall for its disgusting, unnatural ways.

The anger flared in me. I would not let this happen. Ushilgor Zarut will not fall to some elitist elves and their pet bone bear!
I gave a roar of rage and smacked an elf aside with my handy pick while heading towards the fortress door.
I screamed at Shoudai and Bomrek to get inside and grab weapons. If we must fight, then we shall do it from our home and not on the bitter ice.

But of all things.. Bomrek wasn't even concerned! He slowly wandered towards the door and sluggishly closed it behind him.
I'll certainly have a talk to him about this later...
We were armed and waiting in the hallways. We didn't hold much hope for the door keeping the menace back, as it was only made of obsidian which chips away easily.

Hours passed.

We decided to finally go outside. I'd rather die fighting than die in my sleep to a stealthy skeleton. Bomrek won't stop babbling about some kind of poet, but I just didn't have time for his madness right now.

It was horrible.



I stood in the middle of the field of gore, an elven head at my feet and the bear nowhere to be found. All the supplies were still here aside from the cheese and alcohol I was looking forward to feasting on.

What in Dolek's name happened here?


http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-781-ushilgorzarutskeletalpolarbearandelves

http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-783-ushilgorzarutdefythebeartastethefearfixed


Regardless. We're safe now. The bear is gone and we now have the wood we need to finish the project. After this, nobody will be able to threaten us again.

Time to go have a little chat with a certain mad dwarf about how to behave in a crisis.

[d3c0y2]

I'll take a miner please. if possible put stone detailing on him. And when his stats develop nicely consider drafting him into the military

Name : Samson

[Dasleah]

Yar, enjoying the tales so far. I'll take a Dwarf if that's not too much trouble - I have no real preference to job nor personality, so long as you do something spectacular with him