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[joeclark77]

It was the 78th year of the new age of the world, and I was a fisherdwarf of the dwarven civilization The Mountainous Arches.  But there aren't that many fish in the mountains, so I had a radical idea: bring dwarven civilization to where the fish are.  Now fisherdwarves don't have much clout in dwarf society, that's just a fact, so my idea of building a fortress on the seashore wasn't going very far.  I did what anyone would do: cram my proposal full of lots of needless attention-getting stuff to make it exciting, and then show them the money.  I would construct a fabulous port complex, the first in the world to systematically harvest the riches of the ocean -- whale soap, shark leather, fish roasts, you name it -- and make it available to trade with the awestruck humans.  I would build a gleaming offshore platform, seafloor magma pipes, and a five-star dwarf hotel.  Who's prone to great ambition, now, by my beard!

Well, I only managed to convince six others, and we couldn't even get authorization to take a single pick or weapon, but we all agreed that the plan was worth the risk of stealing an anvil and some copper and tin ores. 


By mutual consent, we dubbed our new group The Sack of Sport, and set out for the ocean.  Our group:

Ducim "Dreamer" M, fisherdwarf and expedition leader.  Your narrator.
Melbil Urdimlar, lady miner. Very cheerful, loves ducks.
Libash M, armorer/weaponsmith. An optimist. He likes steel and unicorn horn.
Kogan A, lady farmer. Not affected by the sufferings of others. Uh.
Dr. Ral V, physician. Lady physician. Mighty physician.
Mistem D, swordsdwarf. He's just incredibly fat, but promises to work on it.
Stukos A, hammerdwarf. Impervious to the effects of stress.

1 Granite, year 79:
We drove the wagon right up to the ocean before disembarking. (Nobody ever told me about the tides!)
Somebody suggested the name "Rooterquake" and it just stuck with us.  Behold the beginnings of Port Rooterquake.

A giant osprey soared over the deep ocean as we began to chop trees and forge picks.  We're dealing with flat earth, here (at least for now), so we're going to have to dig down instead of sideways.

[joeclark77]

This isn't a succession fort, because I don't want to just play the first year and miss all the !!fun!!, but you're all welcome to follow along.  Please let me know if you'd like to be dwarfed.  "Dreamer" is open to suggestions and armchair quarterbacking from all dwarfed members of The Sack of Sport.

[joeclark77]

22 Slate:
Praise the miners! We bypassed whatever aquifer there might be.  I ordered an excavation to the depth of ten urists below the soil layers.  Beneath the sand there are layers of siltstone, then marble, then gabbro.  We struck native platinum, bituminous coal, and galena on the way down.  [Okay, yes, it's a "frequent" minerals worldgen.]  I fished to my heart's delight while Mistem and Stukos cut a clearing out of the forest and Melbil dug what will be our entryway for the next few years (until we have the infrastructure to pour "dwarven concrete" and build the port facility I envision).



After a break for lunch, I ordered Mistem and Stukos to put down their axes and grab picks to help Melbil carve out warehouse space underground.  They're both eager to suit up and begin their military training, but we've got to get our supplies out of the surf fast, and all this physical labor will make them stronger.  Anyway, Libash isn't done smelting bronze and forging their armor yet.

Meanwhile I began to contemplate architectural goals.  Long term, the "surface fort" of Port Rooterquake will consist of a port complex and defensive castle of cast obsidian.  An offshore platform of gleaming metal will allow us to capture the resources of the deep sea, and subsea connections between platform and shore will help us make those riches available to traders.  But before we construct these surface structures, we need to think about how to architect a "lower fort" that will redound to the glory of The Sack of Sport.

18th Hematite:
It's summer, and five migrants have come to join our happy band.

Nomal U, a farmer who will be our military's first draftee. He says he loves a good thrill.
His wife Atir S, who will become our full-time carpentress.  She likes donkeys for their stubbornness.
Their 2-year-old daughter, Momuz, who already has a great affinity for language.
Rakust K, a young fisherdwarf. Sorry bub, that job's taken. You're drafted into the army. You may be easily moved to pity, but I'm not.
His wife Sigun K who I intend to train as stonecrafter.  She likes sperm whales for their vengeful nature.
Both couples are very young, 16 or 17 years old.  They're making us feel our age.

Work continues getting the supplies inside.

[StLeibowitz]

His wife Sigun K who I intend to train as stonecrafter.  She likes sperm whales for their vengeful nature.

Call her Ishmael and make sure she gains some skill as a speardwarf. 

[joeclark77]

His wife Sigun K who I intend to train as stonecrafter.  She likes sperm whales for their vengeful nature.

Call her Ishmael and make sure she gains some skill as a speardwarf. 

I'm open to dorfing an Ishmael, but I don't put ladies into my militia.  Maybe next migrant wave I'll find a guy for the name.

[joeclark77]

5th Limestone:
All our supplies are inside.  I was beginning to sketch out a layout for the lower fortress when I was alerted that we were under attack by... a horse hair?  What the...?  Ah, it turns out we embarked within walking distance of a necromancer's tower.  We've embarked in a tropical moist broadleaf forest called The Contested Flower-Forests (untamed wilds) adjacent to The White Copper-Sea (tropical ocean, untamed wilds, 2 biomes).  Our embark is 2x6, only one of those tiles being the land biome, so we're almost all ocean.  If you look under the sea a bit, it seems we've located a nice place for a deepwater port -- the ocean floor just offshore dips down to 4 z-levels deep, then farther out it's shallower, so we're right up next to a kind of inlet where larger ships or beasts might feel at home.

Finally, I let the boys be militiamen.  Mistem killed the undead horse hair with one punch to the... head?

7th Sandstone:
Excavation of bedrooms has begun, and now we've just got another wave of migrants.  Two men and two ladies, with four kids between them.  One's a skilled swordswarf and will be partnered with Mistem to form a squad.  The two ladies have been made miners, and the other guy will form an archer squad with Nomal.

11th Sandstone:
Disaster!

Militia commander Mistem and new recruit Rakust were torn to pieces, as was most of our livestock, before this creature transformed into an ELF and fled.  Armor is being forged with new enthusiasm so that we will not be so vulnerable from here out.

17th Timber:
The dead have been buried.  A trade depot was constructed just in time... here comes the caravan we were promised.  I hope the trinkets Atir has carved will be worth something.

So here's the architectural concept: a five star subterranean hotel with rooms built around a many-Z-level hollow courtyard.  The stair from the surface is near the south, and is walled in to keep intruders from flying or shooting into the main facility.  The main stair for residents will is the one to the north.  These floor tiles will be channelled out leaving only a catwalk from the northern stair to one side or another.  Rooms will be arranged around the hollow with windows (when possible) facing the deep.  Somewhere near the bottom, the two staircases will be connected by catwalk so that those with surface business can get in and out.  In this way we ensure maximum luxury while insulating the workers from the military areas.  The northern stair could even be modified to reach the surface in a safe (totally enclosed) way, so that dwarves can get their Vitamin D through a sunroof perhaps.


A first set of bedrooms is being designated and carved as I write this.

We bought leather and poultry from the caravan. The rooster we brought with us is still alive, but the hen was killed by the were-bull-elf, and we got a couple of new ones to repopulate the breed.

1 Granite, 80:
Our first year has been one of hard work and too few hands.  Well, at least I've had plenty of time to fish, and the ocean's not looking like it's going to run out.  We're starting to move into stone bedrooms and establish proper workspaces so we can get out of the temporary dirt ones we started with.  Looking forward to the next wave of migrants in hopes that we can provide the many industries a burgeoning fort requires.


17th Granite:
Our first baby has been born, a girl, to Sigun K.  Perhaps this will be a good year for Port Rooterquake!

10th Slate:
My wish has been granted.  Forty-six migrants!

25th Slate:
ONe of the immigrant children just created our first artifact:


17th Malachite:
I wanted to find out if cassowary men were flightless, so I sent the militia (two new recruit swordsdwarves, two hammerdwarves under Stukos, and two spears under "Ishmael" T, a recent migrant).  I think our sword squad is cursed, because again they had a casualty.  Catten K apparently dodged an attack from a cassowary man and dodged right into the ocean, where he drowned.  A pesky necromancer raised a cassowary man to fight again, but our troops quickly dispatched it.  The best defense against necromancers is to stop going above ground so much, and we'll soon be able to make that happen.  Currently our only aboveground workers are fishermen, and masons building the ceilings over our "above ground" farms.

22 Galena:
Human caravan is here. And we have our second artifact, another one made by a child.


11 Sandstone:

Thus ends the journal of Ducim Menggusil. May he rest in peace.

[slothen]

Now fisherdwarves don't have much clout in dwarf society, that's just a fact.

They don't have much clout because as an overseer I've forbidden the profession at Holyspires.  If dwarves did whatever they wanted the fortress would be nothing but the squatting place of some dirty sober hilldwarves instead of a mecha of engineering, architecture, and industry.

[Spirallances_]

Please make me Dr. Ral (renamed "Bill Nye the science guy" yes I know she is a girl- if that's ok with you oh great fisherdwarf