Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[laularukyrumo]

Overseer's Log
Rith Katthiriden, Expedition leader of Ingizlam

(Translated from Dwarven)

25 Obsidian, 8th Year of Armok

On our way... bloody Armok, those idiot nobles up in Limulustuth have really outdone themselves. All this talk about expansion and conquering and "Manifest Destiny"... sounds like a load of trollcrap if you ask me. Good way to get us all bloody killed. Just cause the Maelstrom's passed, doesn't mean our lovely world is a safe one. Dragons and bogeymen and goblin hordes, not to even START on all the necromancers. I swear, you give the secrets of life and death to a FEW idiots and the power goes straight to their head. Here's hoping Lady Medtob is looking out for us a little more than the poor saps who headed out before us. I mean, what did you expect when you named the place Fellblood, kittens and parrots and fluffy wamblers? I bet the necromancers got 'em, last letter we got mentioned a great hairy 'skeeter skeleton going around and sucking everyone's blood. Or just stabbing them to death with its freakin' spear-nose. I hope I never see another bug as long as I live.

1st Granite, 9th Year of Armok

Blast.

Blast blast blast.

I knew I should've been suspicious when those idiots wouldn't tell us anything about -where- we were going. All they said is that they were sure we wouldn't have to deal with any reanimating corpses. Well, now I know why.

This place is too damn dry to support life in the first place!

So yeah. The cats died on the way here, sad to say, but I doubt the lil furballs would've had a chance in this environment to begin with. Did I forget, possibly, to mention that unless the cartographer made the biggest mistake of his life, THE KING SENT US TO DIE IN AN ARMOK-DAMNED DESERT! Seriously! We're supposed to live HERE? And expand? Where to, exactly? The other side of this sandy blight?

Well, I guess we'd better start digging. I'll take turns with the others keeping an eye out for any predators. I've heard giant leopards roam these parts... not interested in THAT, thank you very much!

27 Granite, 9th Year of Armok

((Translator's note: the pages from here on are damp, and as we are aware, ink tends to run when wet.))

What the HELL is up with this place?

Maelstrom had something to do with this trollshit, I'll bet. In some kind of cruel cosmic joke, there's an AQUIFER here. Imagine that? An aquifer... IN THE DESERT. Would be bloody fabulous, if we could get down there. Unfortunately, we literally just got the crops planted... gonna try and eat what's left of the various dried meats first, just in case they spoil, and then it's likely to be plump helmets for years. At least it's not hot enough to boil the booze. Can you imagine that? Oh Armok, I can't wait until we get out of this sand, and into the nice, cool stone below. Though... I have to admit, even if we can get down there, I'll be living in fear for some time. It's bad enough being out under the sky for all the time it takes to get here, but to literally have a huge expanse of water mere feet above your ceiling, waiting for a crack to flood you to death in? Nah. I'd rather die of dehydration in the sand.

21 Slate, 9th Year of Armok

BUUUUUUUUUUUGS

THEY'RE INVADING

BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!

So here's the story: I'm getting some of the lignite we brought smelted down so we can make an axe, cause we found some trees we can start harvesting, and what do I see off in the distance? No less than 6 giant thrips looking to make a meal of us. Luckily, they turned around and left when I threw a chunk of the stone at them and it caught on fire. Note to self, keeping coke up here is a bad idea, we're moving the furnaces underground as soon as there's room, and we're definitely putting the stone away for now.

But that's not the worst of it. Giant ticks, giant lice, even horrible half-tick, half-dwarf abominations. Nobody's gotten too close yet, but I'm really hoping we can get this whole aquifer situation properly situated. If ol' Minkot's plan works, we can just FLUSH the buggers! Ahahahaha! ((Translator's note: it is likely this dwarf has some sort of insect-based phobia, further exacerbated by the unnatural wildlife in the desert. For the sake of levity, I have omitted some of the less tasteful language from this entry.))

((Poster's note! hai everyone, gonna be posting more when I play s'more. Sorry about the lack of pics, but it's still early, and I didn't think to even -have- pictures cause I didn't decide to do a story until I noticed all the stupid bug-invaders, and thought it would be amusing. Expect more updates in future!))

[laularukyrumo]

24 Felsite, 9th Year of Armok

Well, it's been nearly three months, but we've almost got all the supplies inside from the wagon. Next week, hopefully, we can start sorting them. I've attached a map of our current living quarters...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah. It's not impressive, but we've got food, drinks, and a place to sleep. I'd like to get a proper gate up, but we can manage without. I haven't seen any bugs in a while...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh. That explains it. WELL! Time to get us a drawbridge. I think we ought to use the petrified wood we brought with us, just in case the logs catches fire. It's damn sweltering out here, and I think we might even tap this aquifer for a swimming pool just in case!

But first we need to get through... The plan we've got going is going well, it just takes time cause the stupid water keeps washing away the foundation of the walls we put up. It's quite bothersome....

7 Malachite, 9th Year of Armok

Work on the aquifer's been going smoothly... I'd say we're about halfway done. I'm proud of Minkot, he's been working nearly non-stop and I think he's starting to get used to the water. I think I'm gonna have him take a long break after this little project, as I can see most of the wood being stockpiled for emergency charcoal, in case we can't find new stores of lignite under the desert to fuel our forges. Haven't gotten a permanent workshop area set up yet, but that'll be first priority after we get the aquifer dealt with.

However, my secondary project is seeing some possible hindrances. Check out this little area to the southeast of the fort's main entrance:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's an eyesore, plain and simple. It obscures view, and offers literally no strategic importance. In fact, it impairs my plans for laying down traps. So I've ordered the miners to clear out the whole of it. Well, we've seen both gigantic lice and their anthropomorphized brethren. Vampires are scary enough, but giant vampire bug-people just give me nightmares like crazy. Ah well... at least they're not slugs. Nothing worse on this earth than slugs. Except maybe undead slugs. Or vampire slugs. Or just... Anything with the word "slug" in it.

21st Galena, 9th Year of Armok

Most excellent. We've just been visited by four dwarves interested in helping us out on our little project here. Which is grand, because we're almost done breaching the aquifer, and I've literally just decided what I'm going to use the first floor for. See, I never know what to do up there, cause it all inevitably gets torn down. Well, we have something up there that's rare, precious, and renewable. Sand. And we're going to harvest the FUCK out of it. I've assigned a few temporary workshops and workers out of the new blood, to get some of this spare cloth woven into some bags. Not all of it, mind you, but I could use a few extra bags, seeing as how SOMEONE forgot to bring extra. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Feb. ((Translator's note: This dwarf has an abnormally foul tongue. As such, I have provided a "looser" translation.))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

7 Sandstone, 9th Year of Armok

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT ((Translator's note: This goes on for quite a while. Literally several pages.))

I thought we'd finally gotten through the aquifer. I thought we'd finally have ourselves some stone to engrave. NOPE! There's a SECOND LAYER! Graaaah.... back to square one it seems! DAMMIT!

On the plus side, glass production is up and running. I hate the idea of using the petrified wood we brought with for mechanisms, but since I may not get any less valuable deposits for another few months.... maybe the caravan they promised will have something? God, I just feel like punching something! Over and over! Where are those damn bugs....

[Raul]

Are the spoilers supposed to contain images? I can't see any of them.

[laularukyrumo]

That's frustrating. Cause I do. ;_;

Since they're not all "maps" I can't upload them to the DFMA. They won't compress properly.

[Aseaheru]

cant see them either.

[laularukyrumo]

Try now?

[Aseaheru]

its good.

[laularukyrumo]

17 Timber, 9th Year of Armok

Been a while since my last update... been so damn busy! Aquifer work slowed down for quite a while as, in a fit of low morale, we collectively said "fuck it" and got to work on just existing. And exist we have! Another load of migrants came in recently, we've started churning out cloth, and things are looking up... we're running low on meat, but that's not too important. Nothing wrong with a good mushroom once in a while, and if things get dicey, we've got the horses we can slaughter. Plus that reindeer one of the new guys brought looks pretty succulent...

We're also working on digging out a gigantic storage room on the first floor, to make hauling easier. I'll get a minecart-based matter compression zone put in when I get around to it, but I'm tired of having to tell people to put each individual object away. Stupid lazy Armok-damned fools.... at least I've got my glass forge. We ran out of coke cause I forgot to have more of it melted down after bringing it all inside, but that just meant we got to burn one more log than originally predicted. We might have to burn a lot more, though, if I can't get through this AQUIFER to find me some lignite--and that's assuming it's even down there!

Merchants came. Nothing much to trade them... maybe I'll make a few wooden spiked balls and pawn them off for something useful...

15 Moonstone, 9th Year of Armok

Two spiked balls and the extra corkscrew I had built after SOMEONE dropped the first one in the water earned us a bin full of leather, some much-desired (but unneeded) booze, and other assorted goodies. Picked up a pig, cause they eat less than the crap we've got upstairs, and I asked the liason to bring me a mate. For the pig, I mean. Not for me. Cause that would be wrong.

Anyway.... also figured out why nobody was working on the aquifer. After I got the pump turned around... the lazy BASTARDS didn't start pumping it. I'm seriously considering windmills at this point... At least we've got all the idle hands working on getting shit put into the proper storage space. Aka, the big hurking room I dug out for this purpose. After all the work in there, our miners could probably out-pace a steam drill!

Whatever that is.

28 Obsidian, 9th Year of Armok

Coming up on our one-year anniversary of the founding of this miserable dump. In all honesty, it's not terrible, in that we've managed to live this long, but it's certainly not very entertaining, the decor could use some work, and the sloshing of water underneath us is incredibly unnerving. Oh, and the kobolds have found us. Dishmab ran into one when he was gathering plants--luckily it just got scared and ran off, as opposed to trying to shank him. I'm thinking that we need to station the pig at the entrance to our fort, to serve as a guard. It's no war dog, but until we can pick up one of the buggers, Hoggy McHogsworth is gonna have to do.

Wait. Where the hell is that pig?

FUCK! KOBOLDS MUST HAVE TAKEN IT! Grrrr, why couldn't they have snatched something less useful, like a plump helmet? Figures, they'd take out the guards first...

Glass production is going fabulously, and I've got plans to move the few remaining workshops down a floor to their own dedicated level. I've also started processing the quarry bushes we have, now that I've got enough bags--once we get a military together, I'm gonna get them trained up by throwing leaves at them and ordering them to dodge until they're really good at it. Then I'm gonna give them pointy sticks and have them shank kobolds. It's been far too long since we've had meat in our diet, and hopefully the bloodspill will tide us over until I can get a proper meat industry going. I'm hoping to start farming Rope Reeds, too... being only able to plant pig tails in summer and harvest in fall is really going to put a damper on my production, and I want to have a nice batch ready for the caravan. And for when our clothes inevitably need replacing.

Though when we start, the first dwarf I catch hoarding socks is getting minced with my handy dandy Saw Blades of Death.

[laularukyrumo]

19 Granite, 10th Year of Armok

Kobolds are getting bolder. As soon as I find some proper ore, we're building a proper set of axes and mining some proper Koboldite. Hell, I might put some armor on the miners, give them a war pick, and have them beat the stuffing out of these rotten lizards. And the bugs. They still haven't actually attacked, but I'd rather not wait for the first dwarven casualty before we go to war. Aquifer's almost done, we've just got to drain the last level out and let it evaporate.

Spring is bringing a nice, healthy crop of quarry bushes. Going to enjoy using these for drop training. I call it... the Dwarven Salad Tosser. It's based on a design by Professor QuantumMenace, and uses bridges firing seeds into the air to pelt dwarves, increasing their toughness. The quarry bush leaves I've been stockpiling should work wonderfully...

15 Slate, 10th Year of Armok

Yes! YES! Praise Armok! We've finally done it! The accursed aquifer has successfully been breached, and we now have access to a massive deposit of granite. And on top of that, a group of twenty able-bodied dwarves have arrived at our doorstep. Ingizlam is officially open for business!

We shall put the miners to work right away, digging out enough stone to properly shape. I'd like a quern or two to process all this cave wheat, and tonight, we slaughter the fatted calf in celebration of our accomplishment. I'll look over the industries we have planned, and then once we've assigned all the skilled workers, we can start up our military. Time to put that Salad Tosser to use.

Now that we have the ability to dig down as deep as we want, I'll be putting in some proper bedrooms for everyone, and a dining room as well. I'm tempted to go rooting around for some magma, though... being able to run our glass forges without need to harvest precious wood would be a massive boon. I'll set a course for some exploratory mining right after we get lodging properly established.

26 Slate, 10th Year of Armok

Today I had the brilliant idea to cram everything we own into a small, compact zone, and then use the rest of the 1st floor space for farming, or perhaps sand/clay collection. By telling everyone to load up the minecart with junk, turn it on its side to dump everything into a pile, and then repeating this, we'll have everything nice and compact in no time, and it'll also let me properly trap that zone, in case someone goes sock-diving.

In other news, one of the new guys, an armorer, disappeared. It's a damn shame, but I was hoping he'd help me outfit the new fishers. ((Translator's note: the dwarven word for "fisherman" is the same as the word for "warrior." I believe this to be a symbolic reference to the metaphor of struggling to provide for the community.)) Well, I found the little bastard the next day, tinkering around the forge. Oh dear. I'm officially worried. The Rite of Rast-Mogendo has found us at last. Now let's just hope something good comes out of it, and not just something pretty. ((Translator's note: Rast-Mogendo is a dwarven god associated with the coming of age. A dwarf does not truly become a man, regardless of his or her age, until this rite completes. It is said that Rast-Mogendo breathes directly into the soul of the dwarf, filling them with an immense creative urge, which they must then express--or die trying.))