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[The_Fool76]

Well I got my Migrant wave.... And it is another lone dwarf. 
This time it is a female soap maker. 

Akigagak has first dibs unless the fact that the dwarf is a she-dwarf is an issue. 

[The_Fool76]

Staving off the Boredom of Winter

Winter passed without much of note happening. The new dwarf, Jarvious, made the bones and skulls of the two butchered animals into crafts and totems and then filled his time with hauling stuff. He kept to himself mostly but that was probably because the rest of them were mad about the letter he had brought. Not only was he an outsider to their group, he was also the bearer of bad news. The funny thing was that he didn't really seem to mind.

As for how the rest of them were dealing with the idea that they were stuck here, the answer was booze, more booze, and roasts. Having a dining room out of the weather seemed to cheer everyone up and Mandy and Art had gotten good enough that most meals were actually something to look forward to. Mandy also suspected that the two couples were finding other ways of keeping their spirits up. She would wash her beard if there wasn't the pitter patter of little feet in a few seasons as a result. Now there was a thought to encourage an extra dunking in the beer barrel, their kids would probably wind up growing up in this Armok blessed forest.

Work on fulfilling the trade request was progressing slowly. Hopefully as Brick improved in her agricultural skills they would get more ropeweed to make into cloth and handwear. They still had the better part of a year before Athel returned which should allow them to make enough to satisfy the greedy witch. Though if she didn't arrive with that pick... Mandy once again entertained pleasant day dreams about force feeding an entire bin of rope weed gloves to the liaison.

The fort itself grew a little more as they walled off the area where Jarvious had built the craftdwarf shop for his bone carving. They also set up a storage spot for cut logs so that Loki wouldn't have to be constantly running out into the woods. Mandy also had them start roofing over more of the fort. She had the booze stockpile moved up on the roof over the food stockpile. Since it was safely sealed in barrels, the weather wasn't likely to hurt the booze much. Looking up at the wood roof, Mandy dearly wished they had a pick.

Once they did get a pick she would probably have Skuz do most of the digging. She also spent some idle hours playing around with how she would designate the fort to be dug out once they did get a pick. The only two forts she was familiar with were her home fort and Axegrind and she didn't much like the layout of either.

Her home fort was a typical example of the kind of busywork that nobles favored. No sooner would they finish one pointlessly huge construction project than another similar massive project would be started. There was no real reason behind it and it took forever to get anything done. The smiths were constantly complaining that by the time they had hauled a bar of metal and some coke to the forge they were dehydrated and half starved.

Axegrind on the other hand was nothing more than a huge pit in the ground with a massive stone wall running around it's perimeter. The stone wall contained all the rooms for the guards and other officials. The miners and craftdwarves also had their own rough carved rooms in the stone under the wall. This was partially to keep the more valuable dwarves happy and less likely to go insane and partially so the guards could keep a much closer eye on the more dangerous dwarves. The rest of them were forced to sleep wherever they could. As miserable as this place was, Axegrind was worse.

Mandy was favoring the idea of having store rooms on the top level with workshops below that and bed rooms dug way down as deep as they could get them. She was sick and tired of being on the surface and longed for the comfort of being deep below the ground. While she was sure they could continue to survive as they were, it was no way for a proper dwarf to live. .

They had almost finished putting a wall up around the cart when the budding of leaves on the trees and warmer weather announced the arrival of spring. Only two more seasons to go before they would see that blasted caravan and get something to dig with. Athel was not going to live to regret it she didn't bring those picks.


(Yay! Spring!)

[The_Fool76]

Escargot, Yum!

Spring too started off fairly uneventful. They finished work on the last wall and continued roofing over most of the fort. Brick got the rope weed field fully planted and Vulk managed to produce a few pairs of gloves and mittens from the first crop of rope weed. Life had mostly settled into a routine when Jarvious burst into the fort shouting and waving his arms.

“No bones!” he wailed.

Mandy ran out of the dining hall where she had been actually enjoying a Strawberry Wine Roast. The whip wine and prickle berry wine that Art had added worked well with the strawberry. The sewer brew however, well it was still better than most of the other meals Art had made. “Someone had better have a really good reason for interrupting my lunch.” she insisted. “What is going on?”

“I don't know, he just keeps shouting about there not being any bones.” said Gear.

“Of course we don't have any more bones. He used the only ones we did have.” said Mandy frowning at the distressed dwarf.

“No, no. You have bones!” Jarvious said, grabing Mandy by the shoulders. “Bones in you. They don't! Horrible horrible.” he said while gripping her shoulders hard enough to hurt.

Mandy pushed him away from her. “Grab me like that again and I'll remove your bones. They who?”

Jarvious gestured towards the door he had come in, “Them! They have shells, and arms but no bones!” he wailed.

“Sounds like snailmen.” said Loki who had just arrived. “They are related to slugmen but have a hard shell on their backs.”

“Ugh, first slugs, now snails. We picked a lovely spot to get stuck in didn't we?” said Mandy “Oh well, I'll go have a look at these things while the rest of you see what you can do about settling Jarvious.”

Gear looked at the distressed dwarf, “Any suggestion on how?”

“How do you think? Dunk him head first in some booze. Just don't use the good stuff.” Mandy replied.

“We have good stuff?” said Loki looking doubtful.

Mandy scowled at her, “The better stuff then. So sorry my efforts do not please your obviously refined palette. Now if you are done critiquing my brewing, I have some snailmen to welcome to our fort.”

Mandy stalked off out into the woods heading in the general direction Jarvious had been waving. A short while later she came upon the snailmen.


(A herd of smailmen roam the woods.)

Mandy watched them for a moment and then, hefting her axe, she charged into the group. Despite the shell, the snailmen proved no more difficult to dispatch than the slugmen had. Mandy got a perverse pleasure out of picturing Athel in the place of the snailmen as she dismembered them. Some day Mandy would have her revenge on her for forcing them to stay out here. For now though they would have to please the goblin kisser. Sighing, Mandy returned to the fort.


(A herd of snailmen parts roam the woods while Mandy cleans off her axe in a pool of water.)

[Jervous]

Woe is me, nothing except the dwarves have bones in the swamp!!

Hm.. > : )

[Akigagak]

A female, huh?
No problem. It's quite funny that she's a soapmaker as I've been using the name Akig_soapmaker in peoples live streams

[Grendus]

I'd like to request a dwarf when you have one to spare. A shamed former expedition leader who lost all 6 of his companions before the first caravan came and is hiding from his creditors in the mountainhome. Any profession will do, though I'd prefer a metalworking skill.

[The_Fool76]

Invasion of the Tree Huggers

Alatha turned to her companion, “How much further to where this new fort is supposed to be?”

“I'm not really sure, based on what that Athel fellow told us we should be close.” Imere responded “Can't say I liked the way he was grinning at us when he said there was no way we would be able to miss it.”

“Well he was a dwarf. Bunch of dishonest, tree murdering psychopaths the lot of them. If they were not such good craftsdwarves I wouldn't have anything to do with them. Their stone and metal trinkets do sell well back in the groves though.” said Alatha.

Imere nodded, “Don't forget the spider silk clothing. My aunt had a spider silk sock that was simply to die for.”

Just then their mindless banter was interrupted by that most horrible of sounds, the steady thud of an axe striking wood.


(Oh gods, Elves!)

Mandy looked up as two horrified elves ran up to her. “Be with you in a moment.” she said as she finished felling the tree she was working on.

“You, you monster!” sputtered one of the elves. “That tree has seen more in it's existence than you ever will and you just cut it down like it was deadwood!”

Mandy tried not to grin behind her beard. She wasn't terribly surprised to see a pair of elves wandering around, these woods did seem like the sort of spot the pointy eared things loved to live in.

One of the elves turned to the other, “See, I told you this was a bad idea, we should just take our trade goods someplace less barbaric.”

Mandy stopped grinning. Sure the elves were notorious for brining piles of useless cloth and wood items, but right now they actually needed some cloth. “I'm terribly sorry about your tree friend here but we have little choice. We need the fine wood for making barrels. Unless you think having a bunch of sober dwarves running around is a good idea?”

The elves looked thoughtful for a moment. “Our tree friend will be missed but sometimes one must suffer so that the rest of us are not chased around the woods by a bunch of insane axe wielding maniacs.” responded one of them.

The other nodded with a look of profound sadness. “Yes, but let us not dwell on such a sad topic. Do you have a trade depot sir dwarf?”

Mandy grumbled to herself. Why was it that none of the other races seemed to be able to distinguish dwarven genders? Oh well, if they brought the stuff she needed to make Athel happy, they could call her whatever they wanted. “Sure, we have one, just follow me.” Mandy replied and turned to lead the elves through the woods back to the fort.


(Mandy greets the elves in the traditional Dwarven manner, by cutting down a tree in front of them.)

“By the great grove's leafy crown, I think I'm going to be sick.” said one of the elves upon seeing the depot and the fort behind it. The other elf just looked pale and more than a little green.

Mandy just shook her head at the over-sensitive tree huggers. “Look if it's any consolation, we would much rather have not used the wood, but we don't have a pick to dig with. The good news is that if you trade with us for some things we need, we should be able to get a pick when our own traders visit us next. So think of trading with us as a way of making it so that we don't have to clear cut the whole woods.”

The pale looking elf shuddered at the mention of clear cutting. “You horrible little man. That's blackmail!”

“I'm actually a girl thank you very much.” snapped Mandy.

“Bah not like we can tell or care.” snapped back the other elf.

“I have a pile of axes and dwarves who can use them. Do you want to trade or should we just liberate your pack animals and their loads?” growled Mandy as she fingered her Axe.

Both elves' eyes went wide at this. “N-n-no we will trade.” one of them finally managed to stammer.

“Good, unload your stuff and I'll go see what we have that you would want. Do you happen to like roasts by any chance?” Mandy said.

“Ooooh roasts!” The two elves said in unison, any alarm or anguish they had apparently forgotten.

Mandy just shook her head. Blasted flighty elves. “Ok I'll be back in a moment.” she said and then went inside the fort where Brick was planting strawberries.

“Hey, Brick!” Mandy called out. “We have some more visitors.”

“WHAT?” cried Brick.

“Oh don't get worked up, it's just a pair of elves wanting to trade.” said Mandy.

“Oh, meh. Do they have anything worthwhile?” asked Brick.

“Dunno.” replied Mandy. “I need you to go get the others and round up all the roasts you can carry and bring them to the depot. Their tongues just about fell out of their mouthes when I mentioned we had roasts.”

“What are you going to be doing while we haul roast?” inquired Brick.

“Keeping an eye on them of course.” replied Mandy “Well that and seeing what they have brought with them.” With that, Mandy went back outside and headed over to watch the Elves unload their wares.

[The_Fool76]

Well What do you Know?

Mandy watched with some amusement as the two elves grunted and groaned unloading their pack beasts. She was amazed at the amount of stuff they managed to balance on the back of a mule including a huge cage. Peering at the cage she saw a large dark mass of fur. “What is that?” she asked the closest elf.

“Oh that foul beast we caught sharpening it's claws on a tree.” said the elf.

“I asked what it was, not why you had it in a cage.” said Mandy

The elf gave Mandy a look that seemed to indicate that it thought Mandy was asking something any reasonable being ought to know. “It's a grizzly bear of course.”

Mandy gasped and backed up away from the cage a bit.

The elf snorted, “We gave him a talking to after catching him. Don't worry he will behave and just think of what a glorious pet he would make for you!”

Mandy did have to agree the thought of having her own pet grizzly bear was appealing. She pictured tossing Athel in the cage smothered in sweet pod syrup. Yes, if she could she was going to acquire this bear. Entertaining further daydreams of what she wanted to do to Athel, Mandy wandered the depot. She saw several bins full of cloth which was good since she wasn't sure how much they were going to be able to produce themselves before autumn. She also saw a few bags heaped in a corner of the depot. “What is in the bags?” she asked.

“Oh just some berries from our grove.” replied one of the elves.

“Berries? What sort?” asked Mandy

“You know the usual, prickle berries, strawberries, that sort of thing.” said the elf.

“Oh, well we have plenty of our own berries that we have gathered. Doubt we will want any of those then.” said Mandy with a frown.

The other elf shook her head and laughed. “Oh stop teasing the poor dwarf Imere.”

Imere grinned and winked. “I also might have a few Sunberries in there as well. I'd heard you dwarves were fond of them.”

Mandy's mouth began to water. They could make Sunshine! She could make Sunshine! She tried to keep a straight face as the rest of the dwarves finished bringing in the piles of roasts. Fortunately the elves seemed to be too fixated on the roasts to pay her that much attention and she managed to get her face under control before the last roast was delivered and it was time to get down to the trading.


(I'll have an order of Sunberry Surprise with a side of grizzly bear.)

In the end Mandy suspected that she had still gotten the short end of the deal as the elves wound up with their entire store of roasts. She didn't really care though. Mandy had gotten all the bins of cloth, two bags of Sunberries, and a Grizzly in a cage. That was more than enough to make her day. The only thing that would have been better is if the Elves had had a mated pair of bears.

Looking at the bags of berries Mandy started to grin again. Sure they might be stuck living in a wooden fort in the middle of a slug and snail infested forest with a price on all their heads and a liaison who was blackmailing them, but they were all going to drink and eat like royalty.

[The_Fool76]

Comic Kobold Relief

Meanwhile in another part of the fort...

Brick was going to pick up an empty barrel for storing some of her produce in when she nearly tripped over a small scaly figure attempting to drag off one of their axes.


(Brick gets ready to demonstrate that when it comes to Kobolds, even a farmer can be a fierce warrior maid.)

The kobold let out a startled squark and attempted to run for the door. It was hindered somewhat by the axe which was nearly as large as it was. It was hindered even more by the irate dwarf, Brick, who was much larger than it was.

Brick tore the axe from it's hands and gave it a sound kick in the belly. “Those axes are the only tools we have you nasty little scaled rat!”

The kobald tumbled backwards from her kick but somehow mangaged to get back on it's feet and away from Brick.

“Hey get back here!” yelled brick as she chased after the fleeing Kobold

The kobold wanting no part of the hairy yelling monster behind it, threw it's whole weight against the door just swinging it open enough to clamber out. Brick slammed the door open right behind it as it tore off into the woods as fast as it's small legs could take it. So focused was it on escaping Brick that it failed to pay enough attention to where it was going.

Gear was out in the woods finishing up the wood cutting that Mandy had left when she went to go trade with the elves. Her cutting was interrupted by the loud bang of a door followed shortly by a shout.

“HEY! Gear! Stop that Kobold!” Brick yelled upon seeing Gear standing ahead of the kobold.

The kobald turned to see what the dwarf chasing it was yelling at. Realising the dwarf was looking in front of it, the kobald swiftly turned back around and let out a terrified yelp as another dwarf stepped in front of it. This one had an Axe! The kobald made an attempt to dive to the side to avoid the dwarf with the axe but this slowed it down enough that Brick caught up to it and tackled it to the ground. The last thing the kobald saw before blacking out was the axe swinging down to remove it's left hand.


(Brick chases the now abused kobold right into Gear's waiting axe. Why should Mandy have all the fun?)

[The_Fool76]

Pardon me but do you Have any Axes?

Aside from brewing sunshine and converting the prickleberry plot into a sunberry plot, life at Apexwhips returned to normal after the elves left. Mandy and the others had settled into a routine. The only other thing of note that happened was that Jarvious kept anxiously checking the rotting kobold remains and as soon as all the flesh had rotted off them he gathered them all up and ran off to the craftdwarfs shop with a big grin on his face. Aside from that somewhat creepy moment, the days rolled on past.

Mandy was working on brewing up some of their other plants while she waited for the new crop of sunberries to ripen. While she had enjoyed the calm they were having at first, she was starting to get bored. There hadn't even been any slugmen sightings lately and she had missed all the fun that Brick and Gear had with that kobold. Suddenly the door burst open simultaneously reliving her boredom and granting her a nice robust panic in it's place.

Into the room charged a dwarf Mandy had never seen before. Mandy grabbed her axe and dove behind the still sure that the guards had now found her. “Hey! You!” yelled the dwarf, “Do you have any weapons?”

“You will never take me alive!” Yelled Mandy. She clamped her hand over her mouth wondering at her own stupidity. She wasn't sure what had possessed her to say that as she would rather that they take her alive if they took her at all.

“What?” Asked the dwarf looking a bit confused. “Oh never mind.” he said spotting the unused axes piled next to the door. He grabbed one and ran back out the door leaving Mandy to wonder just what in the hells was going on. She clambered out from behind the still and cautiously went out to see where the dwarf went. Now that she had calmed down a little she realized that the dwarf had not looked like a guard at all. Not unless the guards had taken to wearing soapmaker's aprons anyway.

Mandy didn't see any sign of the Dwarf when she emerged from the fort. She gazed around the woods for a minute before spotting some movement off behind one of the ponds. She ran around the pond only to startle a group of slugmen. Momentarily forgetting about the dwarf she charged and batted the closest one right off it's feet.


(Mandy gives a slugman flying lessons.)

A short, but gore filled, moment later Mandy was rinsing slugmen bits off her axe when the mystery dwarf came walking out of the woods similarly smeared with slimy guts. “Oh good, I see you got this group.” the dwarf commented.

Mandy eyed the new dwarf warily, “Yes, I've had quite a bit of practice killing these things. Now do you mind telling me what you are doing with one of our Axes?”

“Oh, I ran into a group of snailmen on the way here. The dwarf I encountered when I ran into the fort to ask for help just hid in a corner so I decided to deal with them myself.” the dwarf replied.


(Akigagak surveys her pile of snailmem bodies with satisfaction.)

“And just why were you even out here?” asked Mandy somewhat thankful that the dwarf apparently didn't get enough of a look at her as she was hiding to recognize her.

“Hold that thought, there are some more of those snailmen behind you.” the dwarf replied.

“What?” yelped Mandy spinning around. Sure enough another group of the snailmen was creeping through the woods towards the fort.

[Akigagak]

Awesome entrance, even if I do say so myself.

[The_Fool76]

And another one Joins the Fort

The two dwarves charged into the group of snailmen and a short while later were sitting on a rock and comparing kills.


(For a new dwarf, Akigagak is doing pretty well.)

“You aren't bad with an Axe.” commented Mandy. “Now would you please tell me what brings you to our fort?”

“I heard you didn't have any nobles.” replied the dwarf.

Mandy sighed, “Let me guess, Athel rold you that right?”

“Yes, that's the daughter of a kobald who told me allright.” replied the dwarf.

Mandy grinned, anyone who didn't like Athel was allright by her. “So what's your name?” she aksed.

“Akigagak” replied the dwarf. “Was the elf kisser right? There are no nobles here?”

Mandy nodded, “Not a one. Welcome to Apexwhips. Since you seem to be decent enough with that axe, how would you like to just keep it and watch out for any more of those slugmen or snailmen? That last group was larger than any of the other's I've seen and I can always be running out to deal with them, as fun as it is.”

“Shouldn't I talk to the dwarf in charge first?” asked Akigagak.

“You are.” replied Mandy grinning.

“Oh.” Akigagak replied looking Mandy up and down. “And you are sure you aren't a damned noble?”

Mandy laughed. “You really must hate nobles. If I was one would I be standing here covered in slugmen guts?”

“You have a point.” replied Akigagak.

“Speaking of points, mind making the point that they are not welcome to that group of slugmen?” said Mandy gesturing towards three of the things she had just spotted squishing their way towards one of the fort doors.

“Would be my pleasure, care to join me?” inquired Akigagak.

“They are all yours. I need a drink badly. Enjoy.” Said Mandy leaving Akigagak to her fun as she went to go find the closest barrel of sunshine.

Akigagak grinned and charged after the slugmen.

[The_Fool76]

Well that was Fun...
While playing around I somehow managed to corrupt my main save.
(oh noes!)

Fortunately, I was able fix things from one of my backups so there won't be any "Magma floods everyone dies." moments just yet. 

I'm still waiting on the next immigrant wave in the game and I'll let folks know as soon as I actually get there.  (It takes a while when you stop every five minutes to write up a new chapter because of something going on.)

[Akigagak]

So, I'm your only soldier, apart from Mandy's part time work hacking snailmen?

[The_Fool76]

So, I'm your only soldier, apart from Mandy's part time work hacking snailmen?

So far, but don't worry, you are getting a fair bit of training from said snail and slugmen hacking.  Why I'm sure that once I do get enough spare dwarves for you to have some folks to spar against you should be crippling them with ease.