The Journal of "Sebastian Flyte" Dikegales, 1st Granite, 1082I had a dream last night.
I dreamed that Troll Fur Sock had been chosen to lead the fortress.
I dreamed of kittens drowning in magma.
I dreamed of aqueducts.
I dreamed we found adamantine...
...and then it all dissolved. I think it was fall when I was woken up, by Udib Wastedlabor himself.
"Hey, Sebastian."
"Nggggrrrrr..."
"It's New Year's Day!"
"Oh, uh...is it?"
"Yeah?"
"We must have been drinking a lot of uh...wine...chaaaampagne..."
"Anyways, you're leading the fortress now. I wrote up a memo. It is hanging in my office. Go read it."
I went back to bed, too hungover to care.
That afternoon, when I woke up again, I walked into Udib's office and read the memo.
Dear Sebastian, it read.
Apologies for appointing you at such short notice, but, blast it, I asked Troll Fur Sock if he would take up my mantle after me, and he agreed to; then, at two hours to midnight, he told me he'd rather not. You were partying at the time and I didn't want to disturb you. I'm sorry you've had greatness thrust upon you in this way, but I really do think it's for the good of the fortress. If you think you can't handle it, you can ask someone else to do it, though I'd prefer you run your choice by me first.
Here is the gist of the matter. Your jobs are threefold. Expand the magmaworks, if possible. Keep the fortress running and expansive. And, above all, for god's sake, man, protect us from the second coming of Urist McDuck. The future of Moltenchannels rests on your shoulder.
-Udib WastedlaborI read the memo two, then three times, considering turning over the job to someone else...but...
"No," I said. "I will lead Moltenchannels to a new and glorious future..."
And I'm going to. Right here, and right now.
First on my list: Bedrooms. Also, apparently, we have all of eight drinks. Magma is important, but right now I'm going to work on rectifying the food and housing situation. Moreover, I note that absolutely nobody is keeping the books, and so we have absolutely no real idea what we actually do have.
27th Granite: Mosus, the guard, has been taken by a fey mood. Let's see what he makes...
In the meantime, I've assigned TrollFurSock to mine. We desperately need better food facilities.
4th Slate: Mosus finished today. It was a millstone named Sunkmanor, worth only D$2.400. Whoopedy-do.
20th Slate:

We have congratulated her on this achievement. She has named the child Logem Booktatooed. May he grow into a strong citizen of the fortress.
12th Felsite: The elven caravan has arrived.
A quick search of the fortress stocks reveals that we have nearly nothing tradeable not made of wood. We will have no choice but to seize their cargo. They may retaliate in a few years, but that won't be
my problem.
16th Felsite: I checked with Udib. We seized D$1.675 worth of seeds, booze and fruit. It was regrettable, but necessary. We now have over a hundred booze, enough to last us until the new food quarters are up and running.
24th Felsite: Ingish, the woodcutter, got a few cuts fighting a kobald today. She'll probably be fine, but she was taken to the hospital.
Uh, do we have a hospital?
20th Malachite: Development of lodging and food is going swimmingly. We're swimming in booze. I am now ordering a set of works to ferry magma underneath the forge and smelting room.
21st Malachite: I spoke too soon, having forgotten that we had no well...

I shall order a coffin built in the new lodging quarters and her body lain to rest.
11th Galena: Cutey, the Nurse, has withdrawn from society and claimed a mason's workshop. Let us hope she produces something of value.
This reminds me that I ought to get a power source hooked up somewhere so we can build a millstone; it can be expanded later to meet other needs. I have also ordered one of the miners to dig into the volcano to drain into the lower chamber of the metalworks, barring having spotted a last-minute problem...oh wait, there is one: dacite is not magma-proof. Alunite is, however, and so I've ordered a special set of alunite mechanisms, floodgate and door constructed.
18th Galena: Work on the new magma equipment is underway. Also, Cutey finished her work today: a native copper quern named Griffonspoils the Riddled Sparkles, worth D$8.400.
10th Limestone: I just noticed the humans have completely failed to show up. Oh well. Fingers crossed...

...

...My wife failed to escape in time.
Alas. I shall never have children.
Alas, alas.
26th Sandstone: We can finally start metalworking. The first task, I think, is to smelt some copper ore, and construct furniture for the newly dug-out dining room. As well, we can make some copper cabinets for the bedrooms.
19th Timber: Smelting of copper is underway. The caravan arrived today; we'll finally have some things to trade them...
5th Moonstone: Damn. Udib became possessed in the middle of negotiating. Now the diplomat has left unhappy...On the bright side, we've bought some bars, booze and anvils.
It is also time to start thinking about my legacy. I have appropriated the aluminum bars that I smelted to be turned into statues for a brand new tomb/dining room/bedroom to forever be a testament to my power and pointless megalomania. We don't have much in the way of good metalworkers, yet, but what we lack in talent can be made up for in ostentatious materials. I have even ordered a gold vein we struck dug out to fund the venture.
10th Opal: Erush, the fishery worker, has given birth to a girl she has christened Ònul Boattome. More importantly, my palatial complex is coming along splendidly.
28th Obsidian: It has been a quiet winter, and my complex is finished; it needs only to be smoothed out and, perhaps, engraved.
Here is the magma level:
Here is my megalomaniac home:
Here are the lodging quarters, as yet unfilled:
Here is the space for the will-be dining room:
So...I dunno, all in all it was a pretty good year. I didn't get as much done as I should have, I think. I should have expanded lodgings more, actually put in beds, maybe worked with the military a bit.
Next overseer, here's your job.
-Specialize, specialize, specialize. There are dwarves running around with half a dozen skills, none of which really fit them much, and lots of overlap. Go through the dwarves and start sorting them into jobs.
-Clean everything up a bit, there's crap everywhere.
-Expand the metalworks; I bought us some anvils.
-We didn't get any migrants this year, I noticed, so hopefully you will.
-Get the dining room set up (copper furniture was my plan), and some better lodging.
-Maybe wrangle with the military a bit?
-Don't fuck with the shrine to me.
Save is
here. Have Fun!