*****
* Granite 304
Statues and beds were on Repeat. Awesome. There are over 100 unbuilt statues in storage here!
I set some of these crazy Drowish animals that Darkhawk ordered for war training, and take a look at the defenses he's set up. Enemies approaching the gate have to run a deadly gauntlet of fire-, bullet- and slade-turret fire before they even approach the warhound killing ground. I remember hearing that the King's mad advisor, Meph, created a new way of crafting ballista arrows that increases the manufacturing yield by a factor of 9 or so, so, I decide to add some ballistae to the corridor. Since these can only fire on one z-level, I will move the bullet turrets to a new balcony up one level. This involves some dangerous channelling, but as a vengeful spirit, I don't really have as much compassion for useless mortal meatbags being crushed in a cave-in as I might have in the past. Ultimately, noone actually dies, although a few meatbags are crushed a little bit.
Wow, so many master level profession Dwarves here. The cream of the crop in the Mountainhomes must have heard of the great successes in Angelictower, and are flocking to our new stronghold here. In particular, the standard of metalcrafting at this fortress is amazing.
The only armed forces consist of the 4 recruits fighting under the banner of the Bald Anvils, the heroic regiment of Angelictower. SpaceCat, a legion axe, is recruited to join the Anvils. I also draft an extra melee squad and start a marksmen squad to support them. We're still maybe vulnerable to marks-enemies if they climb the hill side behind the fort, but I'm probably going to leave that particular problem for future overseers to deal with.
Since there is a Vampire problem, I also appoint a Hammerer and make a few silver hammers.
Drink is short. There are dwarves running out to the BROOK. For WATER. This is not only a security problem, but somewhat embarrassing. We ramp up booze production quickly and also, begin the construction of an underground pond.
* Slate
We ordered more dangerous varmints and turrets from the Drow. I'm a little surprised that Drow have the technology for turrets, but so it is.
Our animal trainers report that the dwarves of Doomedstupidity of Testing now know a few facts about Drowspider training! Wait, that's the name of our civilization? I'm starting to think that Ol' King Zen is a few ingots short of a foundry.
Our hunters are getting some good live action marks practice out in the countryside. Did you know that Pangolins roll into a ball when they're terrified? And then they skid across the ground and crash into an obstacle. And you can shoot them dozens of times before they give into pain. They're like nature's archery target.
Installing gem windows in nobles rooms to help provide visibility, and combat vampire attacks. Because, if they kill the vampire, I'll finally have some interesting company here in the spirit realm.
* Felsite
Just found at the trade depot a figurine that solves the mystery of my death -- "Smakemupagus is withering away... relates to the dehydration of the Dwarf Smakemupagus,". Case closed. Take that, Matlock.
The pond is finished, silver wells are delved, and tame Pangolins are pastured. I recall that living dwarves like to look at other, smaller, meatbags, because it provides a respite from the torment of their doomed and ephemeral existance. Look upon your Pangolins, and despair.
I notice that among the heap of statues left in the storage pit, among the piles of turkeys and firesnakes, and frost-giants and octopuses, there are a number of tastefully executed statues of the Founders! Ishar, and Ishar II, Panopticon, and myself. Later I come across one of Zean, too. A Pagoda of the Founders is added to the pond. Hopefully it will distract the peasants from how bleak their sleeping and dining quarters are.
Elf traders arrive with only 3 pack drowspiders. Each is carrying one sauropod and one piece of cloth. All right then, we'll take everything, I guess. Maybe the magmacannons will be done by the time they come back next year.
*Hematite
Quite a few Migrants, including Savants or other Master craftsmen, but other than warriors and metalcrafters I'm ignoring a lot of their requests for job placement. We need mechanics, smelting, mining, and masons for the Magmacannon, so that's what y'all are doing.
*Malachite
While the peasants toil, I visit the Anvils' barracks to see how their doing. They've been sparring quite actively all year, and are at least beginning to resemble a shadow of the Anvils of old. I take orders for types of equipment that's in short supply, and try to get them all the gear they want. Of course, they all want to wield five swords in one hand and a keg of ale in the other. The only request that I tried to veto outright was Zean's ... After promoting him to Captain of the auxilla, he decided he wanted to trade in his elegant, deadly mithril spear for an extra shield. Appearently he once heard a story from the Ancestors of an elf wielding two shields that didn't die immediately, and even severly wounded a psychologist. While I admit this is an impressive accomplishment for an elf, I would maintain that dwarves should perhaps aim for loftier goals, and initially turned down the order. Over the course of the next week I caught him three separate times trying to dispose of his spear, first claiming that it was in fact a STATUE of a spear, and filing it in the statue storage annex in between section SN:(Snakes) and SW:(Swords). Next, he was seen trying to cut it up and feed it to a Pangolin. Finally, we caught him in the act of taking it up to the top of the volcano and tossing it into the magma cannon's windpowered pressurization chamber. This was the last straw, if the meatbags want to sign their own death warrant that's their own business, but don't mess with the engineering. Panopticon was happy to have the rescued spear.
*Galena
The trap corridor just defeated a goblin master thief, but the fire turrets also vaporized a pet dog who was nearby. Not sure what to do about this, that might just be a feature of this fortress. On the plus side, verified that the upstairs turret balcony works fine. A week later a Gob ambush was totally devastated by the traps. A single lasher adeptly dodged the fire and bullets only to be cut down by massed crossbow volleys; neither the War animals nor the Anvils even saw any action. The fort lost only the one peasant who spotted them.
*Limestone
The main firing channels for the magmacannon have been mined out. Power system going in for the kompressor. The meatbags complain of what they call "two small setbacks". One is that we burned through all the iron to make steel armor, and now we have to quickly find up some more hematite for the magmasafe machine components. Two, this is one of those becalmed zones where the wind only produces 20 urists of power, so we have to add a couple more windmills to the original design. Peasants! If you complete the cannon without interupting me with any more small setbacks, I will both allow you to toil on the vain and useless project of beautifying your own dining and living quarters, and additionally I will not have you all thrown bodily into the volcano. The serfs return to work.
Human caravan, bought cloth and leather mostly; the peasants are tired of draping damaged, threadbare trousers upon their damaged, threadbare mortal frames.
*Sandstone
Moved a lot of the peasants back into their old rooms, carving fortifications towards the hallways so they can keep an eye for vampires though. Not only did little Zulban (Darkhawk's kid) grow up and survive, he is now testifying that Mayor Kilrud is the vampire/murderer! For good measure I convict the guy of another cold-case crime as well. He's sentenced to a beating and 200 days in prison. This might hamper our diplomatic efforts, though, I no longer care for the foolish and petty affairs of mortal Barons or Kings.
*Timber and Moonstone
Modified the Anvils uniform to wear both mail and breastplate. Traded with the Dwarves for the dreary rudiments of existence; metals, armor, booze. Anubite thiefs are everywhere in the countryside. They wound several of our outdoor workers badly but I don't think any were killed before the Anvils drive them off. Forbidding out of zone fishing .. if there's nothing in the underpond, then don't fish. It's not worth trying to be a hero to run out there and be murdered by ancient tombdwellers on account of a handful of brook mussels.
The Magmacannon is done, but the pump installer got himself stuck outside. Trying to mount a rescue mission, but certainly it will not be at the expense of dismounting the pumps. The other meatbags build some kind of scaffolding inside the volcano's caldera. It could almost be considered heroic, were it not ultimately a futile expidition to buy the poor fool a precious extra gasps of living breath before oblivion.
<< Overseer's Journal, Special addendum >>
<< Chief Engineer's Log >>
*11th Moonstone.
We finally installed the slab to put poor old Smakemupagus' ghost to rest. The Council of Overseers are meeting in some ceremony down in the necropolis, until then, they say that the magma cannon is the main order of business for the rest of us to attend to. They say if all goes well I'll get my own corner office right by the magma station controls, with my own bedroom made of the Blood of Armok! Its all a Magma Engineer could ever want! But enough about me, Ima supposed to keep my own notes here in the Fortress Tome itself for the next couple weeks!
*12th Moonstone.
Damn fool apprentice Mechanist is rescued. Stress test on the expanded power supply checks out. Pressurizing the Kompressor.
*17th.
Cannon 3 primed.
*22nd.
Cannon 2 primed.
*4th Opal.
Cannon 1 primed.
This battlestation is fully operational!
*7th Opal
Well, it wouldn't hurt to test fire it just a little bit, right?
The Council of Overseers are so pleased that they asked me to join them in a special ceremony down in the Necropolis! They're probably going to give me an engineering medal. I saw the ceremony room this morning, it's filled with soulstones and a bloody pentagram! I assume it's the emblems of a secret honor society.
<< Overseer's Journal, Final Remarks >>
<< Smakemupagus' Log >>
The ceremony went perfectly, it is such a relief to once again see the trees, pangolins, and rolling hills of the countryside, framed against the beautiful billowing liquid fire, once again with a new set of mortal eyes. It is now already Obsidian, and the business of the fort is running smoothly enough. We spend the final weeks of my rule assigning some Cave Dragons and other warbeasts to our militia, expanding the dining room, making ballista bolts and mining for some mithril. The drow traders came late this season, so I will finally retire and allow my successor to deal with them.
** Thus ends year 304 in Demonictowers **
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Topic: Uthgururdim Telnashon Okil ☼Ishar builds crazy contraptions☼ MDF2 (Read 3995 times)