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[GreatWyrmGold]

Name's Stukos, Stukos Fogclasp. I'm a miner. I was sent to this forest in the Vale Beyond the Mountains. No one had ever set foot there in recorded history.
More likely, a bunch of people had and they're all dead.

I've killed a weasel, a falcon, an eagle, and a dog since I got here. I wasn't the first to kill any of them, nor the last to kill most.
My beloved, Bembul Squeezingwall, killed the same birds as I, plus a honey badger. He was a jeweler and craftsdwarf. One of my surviving friends, the fisher-turned-many-things Melbil Foldhammer, killed the eagle, the falcon three times, the dog twice, and a weasel three times. The other survivor, gal-of-many-trades Zulban Pantherportals, is the only one to have avoided killing anything.

The other three in the party? Dead. They wandered outside, for reasons I'm not sure of. The dead blocked their path before they could return. A fish dissector, a carpenter, a stoneworker. Shame. The worst part? Melbil and Zulban loved a couple of the fools. They've vowed celibacy in their memory; I haven't done the same, but I'll be going down the same path.

We've been hiding underground as long as we could, and under a roof once we got that up, to keep the birds out. It's probably early Galena, though. There was some movement. There were supposed to be some migrants this summer. Maybe that was them. We heard faint screaming, saw them running about through a crack between the wall and some trees. Two couples with little six-year-olds, a couple others. One with a pick got killed. Others died. The one with the pick dug. They continued to die. One mother was hacked to bits by a zombie with a pick--lost an arm, half of the other, then her abdomen. The last to die was the little girl, who ran towards safety and saw her father's corpse...just in time for another zombie to rush out, grab her head, and bite her skull in.
So it's just us. Four dwarves, two cats, a water buffalo bull (the cow got left topside; we meant to drag her downstairs, but the zombies distracted us). And this journal.
A couple months ago, early Hematite, we were exploring the caverns we had found and discovered two things. We saw a magma pool, a blessing, for it allowed us to dispose of corpses--a couple falcons too small to butcher, and the dogs, who we couldn't bring ourselves to cut when they weren't moving. Soon we'll have another corpse to add. Anyways, we found something else as well. I think it was Zulban, cutting wood, who noticed it.
Adamantine.
The legendary blue metal, known only to grow in volcanoes.
No one ever found it. We have.
We will mine some.
We will forge some.
We will take notes.
We will escape.
We will spread the knowledge.
Maybe, some day, we will return.

That is our goal.

Sadly, Bembul will not live to see this goal fulfilled. She went mad just over a month ago, late Hematite. Right after the migrants were spotted. We mentioned it to her; that was too much. He was drafted and fought the dead many times; he lacked chairs and beds; he had no comforts of home. Who wouldn't go mad?

Now none of us will marry if we can't escape. This project will die with us if we can't. It will die if we do, which may happen--somehow a dead eagle got in. If we can survive, can escape...we will. But first, we must study. The adamantine will not be moved; we must mine it. I approximated its location and dug a shaft to it, and am digging out more as we speak...

I embarked in an evil biome, lost three dwarves to stupidity and trying to give the (then one) dwarf outside a hand, then sealed them in and lost another to insanity as migrants arrived. (At least it wasn't berserk like practically every insane guy seems to be for me...she hasn't jumped into the cave ponds or the pool yet, hm...) The migrants died, which struck me pretty hard. A couple brothers, their wives, their kids, and two random guys. It was really bad because I had just been meeting with my own extended family...
Well then. Sucks to be a dwarf sent here. All got the custom profession name "Fool" or some variation thereof. I've got a zipped save to share if anyone wants it.

There's 20 zombies on the surface. 11 dwarves, 4 dwarf bits, a kitten, a keet, an eagle, the cow, and a honey badger. There's a bunch of inanimate stuff up there, too--a jaguar or two, a wild sow, some other stuff probably...

Fun.

I'll post updates (ir)regularly.

[GreatWyrmGold]

We're not so badly off, mind you. We've got a couple axes, my pick, another pick (not the one the zombie has, wielded opposite a leather tunic), barrels, wood, stone, and of course the adamantine. We also have some leather and bones from the beasts we disassembled, although the skulls still look at us evilly. We also have some donkey liver and cave lobster from our initial supplies, seeds, plants, and gems, among other miscellaneous stuff. And stone, lots of stone. Deep down, we found some quartzite; a few quartzite boulders form our smelter and forge, near some discarded teeth from a dog which objected at the last moment to being thrown into the lava.

Midway through Galena, I started assembling the forges proper, about the same time as the smelter was going up. Zulban was pretty sure we couldn't just smelt the raw adamantine.

I was heading to finish up the forge, Galena 18th probably, when Melbil saw dear Bembul collapse. Dead, of thirst. Bembul interred him in the magma quickly, before I had even heard of his death and right after I finished the forges.

We were all miserable. Heading away from the magma pool, Melbil threw a tantrum. He ran through the caverns, shouted at the ceiling some, then calmed down. A few days later, he threw another tantrum. Zulban tossed aside the plump helmet spawn she was planting and joined. I was the only one who remained sane, mining away at the adamantine, the blue-threaded stone getting covered in tears. I returned to dig a well, and what did I see but those two fools wailing on each other, covering each other with tears and bruises. I passed by, instead going to dig out a craftsdwarf shop for Zulban to try and extract adamantine in. As I left, Melbil was grabbing a passing cat by the tail and leg. After I finished digging out the craftsdwarf shop, I went calmly to dig the well. My calm presence showed them what fools they were; they calmed down quickly. In the tunnel for the well, I took a moment to release my rage and went to get a drink. The alcohol and such was still in the little house on the surface. Glancing between the wall and a tree, I saw a jaguar corpse standing there in the rain. It could smell life, I think. That's why none of them are leaving, or almost none at least.

It's the end of Galena, the start of autumn. I was terrified as I looked at the stockpile for our harvest and gatherings; then a single barrel, full to bursting of every plant in the fortress, was pointed out to me. Phew. I finished digging the well's tunnel and ran from the flood. The well will be set up.

I've decided to take up woodcrafting, if I get the chance. Maybe I could make wood crossbows, with wood bolts, and wood fortifications. Probably not. The only creatures, living or dead, that seem to exist down here are creepy little crawlers. They don't bite, so I don't care. I set the craftsdwarf shop up, too; maybe we can get the strand extraction up and running soon. Probably not; Zulban's following me around, bugging me.
You know what we need? More dwarves. And a dining room. I'm working on the latter. It's going to be a modest little affair, none too big; three tables, three chairs, maybe a statue. All rock. First, though, I need to calm Zulban down. She's really been sad from Bembul's death; seeing him collapse from the doorway didn't help any. Maybe it's best I never saw his kind face, forever frozen in death...
I need a break. Zulban can mine some. She does, then starts extracting strands. Melbil is working on engraving, to make the dining hall a bit less...crappy.
I need to release my anger.

Limestone 20th? This is a long enough break. I'm hauling some of the first furniture to the dining room. Melbil was sleeping on the dining room floor, content. Lucky bastard.
26th? I can't wait for Zulban to awake, I must try it now.
I take some of the "strands"--more like stuff wire, if you ask me--from the workshop and rush to the smelter. It's my first try actually working with any kind of metal. I try to soften the metal with the magma. It takes days of work, trial, error, but in the end I succeed.

A single, solitary wafer of a lustrous blue metal.

[Orange Wizard]

PTW. This looks interesting.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Having confidence I could make more adamantine if I needed to, I decide that getting my woodworking started is a little more important than the experiment, because we really need bedrooms. I should also dig out a still and an alcohol stockpile...and bedrooms...and maybe a better dining room...
Well, Zulban's better, and Melbil's still the happy ray of sunshine bringing us all up. He's smoothing the food stockpiles and workshops--a noble goal, I guess, but he says it's mostly for training so he can engrave the dining room walls.
The water buffalo keeps wandering out of its pasture. That's annoying.
I can see a hand up there, used to belong to the fish cleaner. I saw it kill a dwarf and a keet, maybe it killed others, I'm not sure. Four out of five fingers are broken; it's mostly dragging itself along by the middle finger.
Late Sandstone. More migrants arrive. There's the uncle of one of the last wave's mother migrants, his wife, his daughter, his older sister, her husband, her young son (the younger brother of the aforementioned mother of the last wave)...7 family members and others altogether, plus a poult and a water buffalo calf. The first mentioned starts throwing a tantrum after his niece attacks him--or her arm, rather. One of them orders them all to flee for the fortress, visible as a few wooden walls almost flush to a couple palm trees; frightened by the dead, they savagely attack them. Five of the dead ones collapse; one of the live ones falls. I shout for them to run, but they can't hear or won't listen. They slaughtered the dead, a couple joining their number, before running for the hole. I shouted at them to use the chalk blocks which were outside from when we were building the roof--long story--to seal the hole, then we would let them in. But no; they poured back out of the hole! Soon an orphan and a widow were all that was left; then the widow charged at a weasel corpse before another dwarven zombie came up and mashed her skull in with one punch. This left a frightened child, hiding in the woods from monsters who wanted to kill him. He was running from a hand when a herd of dead wild swine charged at him from out of nowhere, trampling him. The first hoof struck the child's head, killing him instantly. I named the deadly dead sow Kissedshot.
Dammit. We need those migrants!
On the bright side, I took a break from mining to calm Zulban down. We're all fine now. Finally, we can relax, get on with our lives, and research.
I was storing some meat, moving it down into the caverns, when what do I see but a pale form? It's one of the migrants who died upstairs! Well, then. I hope she keeps the cat company. Maybe we'll memorialize her. Maybe we'll leave her there to remind us of what lies on the surface.

It's about the 17th of Timber. I hear hooves trampling on the surface and voices. More migrants? No--the traders! Surely we could escape with them, taking our adamantine and notes along?
No. A dead kitten attacks the outpost liason until she passes out. The merchants--two, plus two water buffaloes, plus an axedwarf and a hammerdwarf for protection--get attacked as well. They hide at the very edge of our sight, to the northwest. Surely they see the fortress, but they also hear the shuffling and moans of a small horde of the dead between them and us. They seem unaware that the dead keet the hammerdwarf took down will simply rise again...
An arm joins the kitten in killing the liason. Soon she, too, joins the ranks of the dead, now 33 strong.
The guineacock rises. The guards kill it, but the frightened merchants flee south, with the guards giving chase. The guards calm the merchants and convince them to return to the safe distance, when the corpse rises again, scattering the merchants once more! A dead falcon notices them and gives chase; while it is put down, that's two dead birds to terrorize them until they flee or die. Another falcon arrives (why are all the zombies raised here standing still, like eerie guards of a sort?), and as soon as that one collapses the other rises. They're just birds, but if they stay it's only a matter of time before something worse arrives or one of them dies. A third falcon shows up, and they keep rising.
It seems the merchants will leave soon.
Moonstone 15th. I have a great idea...I'll need more adamantine, though. Lots more.
((This update, I discovered that the bug that digging out a wall next to the door let you have a door without a wall was fixed.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

Moonstone 17th? I got an office. It'll look better soon.
The traders finally packed up and left.
Drinks are running low...three apiece, enough for maybe a month. It's not good. The well hasn't even been built yet!

I'm digging a tunnel from the magma pool to the main settlement.
Opal 11th? The well was built! We won't die when we run out of alcohol!
Opal 20th? We're getting a jewelry industry set up. I made a jeweler's shop and a few stockpiles. I am currently digging a still and an alco-hall. Ha ha.
I have some alcohol ordered.

Melbil is smoothing his whole bedroom before he starts on ours. How rude.

Obsidian 5th? Zulban takes a fungiwood barrel and a couple plump helmets, and brews our first local wine. Success! I also finish the alco-hall.
Obsidian 14th? Zulban, having brewed three batches of alcohol and increased our supply to around 20 drinks, and having worked on extracting adamantine strands, has reported that we are out of raw adamantine. We'll turn our strands into wafers and go from there.

I'm cutting some gems. I cut a red zircon into a...bracelet? Somehow I'm sure that's not right...

Obsidian 24th? Another migrant has risen...I think it's a migrant? No, wait, it's that liason! It's calling itself a shearer, though...odd...

It's almost spring. Where are the migrants? Have they died on the way in, before they reached us? Were they never sent?

I'm trying to upload saves to DFFD. And failing.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Saves:
The "initial" save. There's only four dwarves, one insane. How things were when I wrote the OP.
The current save.

[GreatWyrmGold]

It's the New Year--Granite 1--so I'm organizing a party at the well. Me and these ghosts--Melbil needs sleep and Zulban's processing adamantine. Still, this isn't so bad, I'm the life of the party!
Did I really just say that?
Zulban joined the party, though. She left a couple of times for food and alcohol, but I didn't! Then she went to plant seeds; it had been a couple weeks, so I decided the party's over. Time to work on stockpile records; I figure out EXACTLY how much we have of everything except rocks. We don't have much more than a couple dozen of anything except body parts, bodywear, footwear, and rocks (and a lot of that--aside from the rocks--is topside).

Why do the ghosts follow me? They're obsessed with me. They never haunt the others as much, and not at the same time like they do to me. And then computer malfunctions eat my save. Yay.

Sorry about not playing for a while.

[Orange Wizard]

Ooh, savefiles!

And don't worry about schedules. I don't mind, and no-one else appears to be complaining.