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[TheCheeseMaker]

The sky danced with a million twinkling lights.  The moon was low in the sky that night, casting long, dark shadows through the forest.  The silence was only disturbed by the occasional rustle of the bushes or chirping of the crickets.  Nothing could be heard of the industry, of the parties, of the chaos below.

Only two figures ventured outside that night.  The smaller one walked slowly, observing his surroundings with a wonder only seen in the young and inexperienced of the world.  The other had a purpose.  He quickly climbed the great stone wall surrounding the entrance to the fortress, then lifted the smaller one up.

"Pa, what are those?" The younger dwarf asked, staring at the sky.

The older dwarf smiled.  "Dastot, those are called stars."  He pointed behind the child, "And that big one over there is called the moon."

Dastot whirled his head around. "There so bright, and pretty."

"Just wait," his father said, "Dawn will come soon."

There the two waited, all night.  Before long, Dastot had dozed off.  When he awoke, he saw the sun setting the sky aflame with a brilliant pink and orange.  Birds soared past, and deer ran across the nearby river.

The older man smiled, "So Dastot, what do you think?"

Dastot didn't say anything.  He just watched, staring all around him.  His dark red eyes sparkled with the rising sun.

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Events of the 15th of Granite, 50

The wagon stopped.  They had arrived.  Immediately, one of the seven jumped on top of their supplies and began speaking with the others.  While age had changed his appearance, his eyes still sparkled with enthusiasm that had never left him.

"My friends," he shouted, "They called us elf-lovers and nature-freaks.  They made fun of our love for the sky, for our desire to be outside, but no more!  For here, at this spot we will build a new fortress, one that will bring the mountainhome to shame!"

The other dwarves cheered.  For years they had waited, begging to be able to leave.  Each time, however, they were refused.  But with the death of the old king and the rise of a new monarch, they had finally been granted permission to start a new fortress.

"Lightcastles will be an inspiration to all.  A fortress that not only was built entirely above ground, but one that never dug a single tile with a pick.  Here we will created a new era of dwarven philosophy and ideals.  Here, we will build the future."

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OOC: I've heard of fortresses that are built entirely aboveground using only stone and ore from belowground, but I've never heard of a fortress that has never dug a single tile.  That's my goal here.

Here is what the embark looks like:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The embark also contains sheep,pigs, dogs, cats, the pack animals, and 5 geese.

As with all community fortresses, feel free to claim your own dwarf and write journal entries.  Here are the other 6 dwarves.  Their professions are listed next to their names.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Onol is also an herbalist.

Obviously, the biggest threats are the two necromancy towers.  Hopefully they attack late enough that we have time to build a wall before they come.  If not, this will be a short-lived fortress.

[Elagn]

This sounds like an awesome potential fortress, but does the challenge also preclude digging a moat? Also, doing absolutely no mining will eliminate any opertunity for mechanics, so no draw-bridges, and no doors that cant be broken down by most goblin mounts.

EDIT, i realized that metal mechanisms are possible, as are metal doors, so with importation, that can occur.

Therefore, I would like the first mechanic. Indifferent about gender. Named Elagn

[TheCheeseMaker]

Journal of Dastot, Granite 15, 50

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've never seen very many wild animals before.  Well, besides the monsters in the caverns. These ones are very strange creatures.  I've never seen anything like them.  They seem to be similar in shape to a dwarf, just larger, and with much more hair.  Maybe once we're done with the first set of work we can observe them more closely.

Anyway, we began work immediately after my speech ended.  I may be an optimist, but I'm not an idiot, and soon we'll be facing much bigger threats than gorillas.  No one wants to be outside when the dead find us.

I plan to build an interior "safe zone" at the center of our new fortress.  Inside will be our temporary dining hall and dormitory, along with the food stockpile and some smaller farm plots on the lower levels.  This way, even if we are besieged before a capable military can be produced, we will have a place to hide and wait out the invaders.

First off, though, we needed wood.  We didn't bring an axe on embark in order to save money for other necessities.  I began by building a mason's workshop with one of our wooden logs.  I took one of our granite rocks and produced four blocks, which were used to build both a smelter and forge.

Tetrahedrite was smelted and we produced a single copper axe.  With this axe, Melbil began chopping down as many trees as possible.  We'll need a lot of logs.

Spoiler: Here's a drawing of our position by the end of the day. (click to show/hide)

Journal of Dastot, Felsite 21, 50

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of the gorillas got a little too close for comfort.  I'm not taking any chances, so I sent the dogs to attack them.  Actually, I sent the dogs away last week, but they are still chasing it around the area.  They haven't even gotten a good hit on it yet.

Progress on the tower continues.  We finished the ground floor today.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This will be our farm level when it's finished, so even if we can't go outside for a few months, we can still have a constant supply of food.

Events of Hematite 6, 50

Rith was fishing.  He never really had a chance to fish very much at the mountainhome, on account of there not being any water besides in the caverns, which seemed to be attacked by giant cave spiders or forgotten beasts every other day.

So he liked it here, in Lightcastles.  He could practice his trade, talk with those who share his interests, and listen to gorilla screams every once in a while.  Today, though, something caught his eye.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Quick!" Rith yelled. "Kobolds!"

Two kobolds had arrived to steal the riches of Lightcastles.  No one knows what they were trying to steal, considering that only four things of value had been produced in the fortress: 1 copper axe, and 3 copper mechanisms.  The mechanisms were used in the construction of the drawbridge, and the axe was being used to chop down trees.  So really, there was nothing of value that they could steal.

"Where are the war dogs?" Rith asked.  No one answered, but as he finished speaking after, a gorilla raced by, still chased by the dogs, none of whom seemed to be tiring from their 3 month chase.

The kobolds got away.

Journal of Dastot, Hematite 27, 50

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Migrants arrived today, our first ones.  It seems that there are others in the mountainhome who share our sentiments.  Vabok claimed he was a novice hammerman, so I make him the military commander and order him to begin training.  Of the other four, two are children, one is an accomplished brewer, and the other has no noticeable skills.

Journal of Dastot, Malachite 22, 50

The dogs chased the gorilla through the middle of our tower today.  It then promptly ran off and escaped our territory.  And so after a four month long chase, the dogs accomplish exactly nothing.  I'm glad we brought them.  In other, happier news, we finished with the second floor of the tower today.

Spoiler: This will be our stockpile room for now. (click to show/hide)

Journal of Dastot Galena 9, 50

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The tower is finally finished.  The third floor will be our temporary dining hall and barracks as the rest undergo construction.  If necessary, we can completely seal it off from the outside world and be self-sufficient for long enough to wait out whatever threat comes upon us.

Additionally, we finish a barn for the animals and have begun taking inventory of everything we have.  I need to now begin to focus on producing trade goods so we can have some purchases when the caravan arrives this fall.  This fortress is safe, now it's time to make it as brilliant as I've dreamed.

OOC:  So there's the first six months, roughly.  In the future I probably will make more frequent updates with less content in each of them.  Elagn, There wasn't a dwarf that was a mechanic, and I really needed the labor, so I haven't dorfed you yet.  I'll probably do it with this next migrant wave.  Also, no, we won't be doing any digging whatsoever.  I will not make or buy any picks, and any that arrive with migrants will be melted down immediately.  This doesn't mean we won't have any rock or metal, though.  Caravans will still bring everything we need, it just will be in an extremely limited supply.

[Pencil_Art]

Can I be dorfed as a farmer?