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[Meng Lolorked]

215

With the spring of 215 Calmspears celebrated the start of 12th year of its existence. No dwarves expired of old age, although several animals were found dead. We haven't slaughtered anything in years, since our stockpiles are overflowing with food. It seems the water buffalo, donkey and other lamas, alpacas and the like, reached their age limit and died peacefully in 215. Or something is hiding, lurking in our corridors and killing the animals. As long as it doesn't touch dwarves, we don't really care.

In the caverns the spring was busy. Jaberrers intensified their hunt for the weaver, only to be cut down by our military. Soon something unexpected happened - crudle encroachment reached such an extend that it can be called an all-out invasion. Nearly fifty of these small annoying creatures appeared almost at once in several waves. They are usually harmless and cowardly, and the only annoyance is chasing them all around the caves. This time, purely due to their numbers, they caused some mischief. One of the mechanics working in the caverns stumbled upon a group of them, and decided to thin their numbers a bit. He was also an auxiliary miner, so he at least had a weapon. Crudles, probably putting their trust in numbers this time, didn't run for it, as is their custom. Instead they surrounded the unlucky mechanic and put up a fight. Of course they had little, if any, chance of actually killing him, but he got quite wounded and required hospitalization. The few crudles that survived his pickaxe met their demise at the hands of our military.
In another part of the caverns a gang of crudles got so bold as to actually attack a human crossbowman from our marksdwarf squad. After releasing a few salvos he was forced to fight off the rest of the creatures using his crossbow as a mace.

Such a thing is only an annoyance, however. Dwarves didn't pay much attention to restlessness in caverns and carried on their work. Design of the second, great library was finished and now the construction started. Hundreds of golden bookcases are already in production. An artifact honey badger bone door, created in 214 by some resolute dwarf and worth 30k, was installed. Other doors will be made of gold, as will all the thrones, tables and other furniture.

Two and a half weeks into the year, this busy work was interrupted by a disquieting message. A dragon, named Amayi Laweofi, approached our lands, attracted by our immense wealth. We already had a dragon visit, but that one perished in a weapon trap. Dwarves debated how to deal with this new danger. Some proposed to wait and hope that traps will save us once more. Others advanced a bold idea to catch the monster and use it to our advantage - after all, dragonfire is a formidable weapon. In the end, both plans were rejected as too dangerous. Traps were inside our defensive perimeter, and if the dragon started a fire there, the losses would be terrible, especially among war animals. Cage traps were rare, and we had no hope of putting new ones during the dragon's approach. Only option remaining was to send out our military to kill the beast.

Since the dragon approached the fortress on the surface, the task of defeating him belonged to the Elite Squad. Ten legendary warriors marched outside our fortifications and engaged the monster.
As expected, the dragonfire was the worst, and at the beginning the combat resembled the fight against Garetho. This was unnerving. Clouds of smoke hid the dragon and made any attacks impossible. Fire itself was fortunately blocked by shields. Luckily one dwarf, an axelord veteran, member of Elite Squad since its creation, managed to approach Amayi close enough to engage it in a fight.
The fight itself, or in fact a duel between a dwarf and a dragon, was peculiar. For a long time the dwarf didn't even attempt to attack the beast - he only dodged, jumped and evaded its attacks. Was he mocking the dragon? Never a good idea, me thinks. Was he showing off in front of his buddies from Elite Squad? Most likely the smoke made it impossible to actually attack Amayi, and so the soldier waited for the right moment. The moment apparently came and the axe lord swung his adamantine axe at the monster's leg. The leg flew in an arc, dragon fell down, and the next blow cut the dragon's head clean off. And thus it ended.

We were impressed. Just two blows were enough to dispose of the beast. It looked so clean and professional - our soldier dancing around the dragon's blows, blocking its fire with his shield, and then, in the right moment, delivering two surgically precise cuts - one at a leg, and second one looping a head off. Were the dragons so easy to kill? Improbable. More likely, our soldiers are just that good, and the adjective legendary is actually valid when it comes to this axe lord. Or maybe the warrior just got extremely lucky? In any case this soldier will get a commemorative statue and maybe even a mausoleum.

The dragon affair didn't end at that, unfortunately. During the fight the beast caused serious fires, which now engulfed more and more of the countryside. Elite Squad didn't show much intelligence at this moment -they stood around like idiots while the fire was getting close to them. Finally, ordered to station, they ran back to their barracks, but it was too late. One of the soldiers, quite recently added spearlord, was cut off by flames. Surrounded by fire, he just stood there, choking on smoke, not knowing what to do, while the flames engulfed him. For a long while he suffered in agony, and finally he died, dragon's revenge from beyond the grave. One small solace was that the deceased soldier was probably the least valuable member of Elites, with only 2 notable and 8 regular kills on his account.

Meanwhile, the conflagration intensified, and the civilian alert had to be extended indefinitely - otherwise, idiots as they are, the civilians would probably run straight into the flames to recover a masterful steel flask or something.

There is a shallow but rapid river in the northern half of our site. Since most trees on our side of the river had been cut down, the fire had only the grass to feed on. But somehow it crossed the river, and the conflagration on the other side was savage. Meanwhile, on our side, all the garbage not yet dumped was incinerated, which was a good thing. Unfortunately also all the logs our woodcutters left behind were gone. Soon the fire approached our defensive perimeter - we were a bit unnerved, since inside our war animals reside. It seems, however, that drawbridges are a decent fire barrier, even if not raised. Only in one place did the fire cross the bridge - the narrowest one, near the orthoclaste road. But on the other side there was nothing to burn, so it died away by itself.

In some parts our defenses were damaged, since we never paid any attention to the material used to build traps. All lead, copper, and other fire non-resistant mechanisms used in these traps were melted, and traps themselves were gone. In case of weapon or cage traps, the fire devoured even the weapons, if they were made of non-resistant metal. Such a waste.

When the fire finally died out, the countryside presented a depressing view. It was barren, covered in ash, dead. All the trees we cut down, and logs we left for the elves to see (before we slaughter most of them), were apparently for naught. We have sent a woodcutter quickly, to cut down some of the remaining trees before elven caravan arrives, in a vain hope to enrage them. Unfortunately, some of the burned trees still stood, a barren husks of their old selves, supported only by their non-burn neighbors. When our woodcutter cut one down, everything collapsed right onto himself. He lied there for a while, unconscious, in a cloud of ash and smoke, but fortunately wasn't seriously hurt. In the end it was all in vain - smelly hippie traders didn't honor us with a visit this year.

[Meng Lolorked]

2nd part of 215

In the beginning of the summer a goblin siege arrived. There were only around a hundred of them, mostly goblins, with very few trolls and a single beakdog. We sent all our military to the fight, and the enemy didn't even cross our perimeter - about third was massacred, the rest fled. Disappointing. It is to some degree our fault - we should've lured them into the plaza, cut off escape routes with drawbridges, and then exterminate all of them. But nobody even remembers now which drawbridge is linked to which lever, and we expect they would have run for it just due to trap related losses, so it was probably futile anyways.

Soon afterwards, a metalcrafter fell into a strange mood and created our most expensive artifact yet - an adamantine crown worth almost 800k dwarfbucks. It commemorates a masterful engraving that commemorated our weaver creating a masterful piece of cloth. Pretty weird.

In economic news - a human caravan appeared in the summer, with a diplomat of course. No interesting news from the world, it seems the region quieted down a bit. We noticed that shield embargo is lifted for now, so we quickly sold them tons upon tons of shields, of every material and quality, most of them created due to idiotic mandates. The dwarves still managed to violate export prohibition somehow, although we don't know which one. Justice says that the Duke's embargo on bolts and anvils was infringed upon - which is weird, since we are pretty sure we didn't sell any bolts nor anvils. Bolts are useful so we never sell them, and we have several nobles completely in love with anvils, so there is always at least one embargo there. Of course, due to export prohibition violation, all the hilarious justice quagmire took place.

This time a lot of dwarves were convicted, at least 15 of them, including important and famous ones. It turned out we have a hammerer (we don't remember reappointing him - he was fired when he beat up the weaver within an inch of his life), so he was quickly fired again, before he kills somebody. Then it turned out one of the new squads we created doubles as guards. We don't even remember if it was on purpose or by mistake - it's enough to say there are two fairly untrained dwarves walking around, asking questions and putting other dwarves in jail. When they arrested for 110 days the only decent engraver we have, we decided to put an end to it. Freeing the room of jailed engraver didn't make him go anywhere, so his restraining chain was deconstructed. To avoid further arrests the entire jail was deconstructed as well.

But things are never so easy in the dwarven world. Having nowhere to put the prisoners, the guards proceeded to punish them by beating them up. They beat up a bard quite severely, in a busy road next to his quarters. Now there is blood everywhere, and vomit, since some weak-hearted witnesses retched in horror all over the staircase. So this was not the way to solve the problem - jail was quickly rebuild.

We decided to try to disband the guard instead. One of the guards was moved to the Elite Squad, the second was honorably discharged into the civilian life. But, again, things are never so easy in the dwarven world.

The fired guard captain apparently has a passion for justice. Despite being a civilian now, he continues to walk around the fortress and arresting dwarves suspected of embargo violation. He put the engraver back in jail, although this time the engraver is quite "happy for being near a beautifully made restraint". Several other dwarves are in chains, and at this point we gave up - let them do their time if there is no other way. All we do is make sure they get food and drink.

Soon after the caravan left, a bronze colossus appeared. We never had one before, but with adamantine, steel and silver weapons we felt pretty confident. The fight took longer than expected, however, and the colossus proved to be more problematic than anticipated. Almost all hits glanced off his body, and he managed to force his way almost to our entrance. Finally he was destroyed, leaving behind a handsome bronze statue. It was quite unsettling, that at this stage of the Fortress development, with huge and powerful military, extensive defenses and unparalleled wealth, there are still creatures that can be a threat to us. Few realized that it was a dark foreboding of the horrors to come.

The rest of summer and beginning of autumn passed without any notable events. The military was forced to run around caverns, hunting crudles that still encroached upon us in ridiculous numbers. The rest of dwarves slumped back into their routine, forgetting for a while that the dragon and the colossus caused them more trouble that they expected. The dragon's conflagration was still causing problems, by the way - two scrolls, laying around in the wilderness, caught fire that refused to die out. Months after dragon's visit they still exuded smoke, and  from time to time they reignited, causing minor fires nearby. Dwarves were afraid of a new conflagration swallowing entire countryside, so some provisions were made to contain the danger. A moat filled with water was build around one of the scrolls, but it was deemed insufficient. Two cisterns were therefore designed under the scrolls to be filled with water. Afterwards the fragment of the surface with scrolls on it will be made to collapse into the underground lake, hopefully extinguishing the troublesome fire.

But this project had to be abruptly put on hold.

Half way through the autumn, just as the dwarven caravan arrived, a beast like no other emerged from the deepest caverns to threaten the very existence of Calmspears.

In it's 12 year long history, Calmspears experienced close to fifty megabeast incursions, be them giants, Forgotten Beasts, ettins, titans or dragons. Most were dangerous, but manageable. Some were laughably weak and pathetic. Selected few were horrifying and savage, putting our soldiers to a severe test. One, Garetho, laid waste to our military and caused loses so disastrous, that nothing worse than him was even imaginable to dwarves.

Nothing until the day that Utesh Pasmug Gisla arrived.

It was as if Armok himself was mocking Calmspears: "You complained of boredom? You wanted a challenge? I'll give you a challenge. You will remember it, I guarantee it."

Bad enough that this monster could shoot webs, he was so fast and so immensely strong that stopping him was unimaginable. He caught a straggling soldier, returning from crudle hunt, and attacked the poor dwarf without even using his webs. With the first kick he crushed the soldiers head like an eggshell, killing him instantly. The soldier was a legendary dodger, legendary armor user and had a masterfully made adamantine helmet on!

The beast marched through the caverns as if he knew them like the back of his hand (if this abomination has hands, that is). It seemed like he was returning home from some journey, and found his house crawling with annoying pests - the dwarves. Soon it will be clean again, and twelve years of history of Calmspears, so glorious to dwarves, so insignificant to a monster living since times immemorial, will be wiped clean. As if they never existed.

The only thing that stood between the Calmspears and annihilation was the fortress' military. Three squads of melee fighters and one marksquad, albeit none were at full strength. Web-shooting monster should be dealt with by archers and crossbowmen, but there was no place between caverns and fortress interior that this strategy could be executed. Besides, our marksquad is far from experienced, mere green boys, most of them. It fell therefore to foot soldiers to face the horror.

By the cruel twist of faith, the monster approached us by the same corridor that Garetho was slain in. Traps of course were useless. A drawbridge was built after 210, but no known lever connected to it. There was nothing left to do but fight.

A silver door existed near the end of the corridor, close to the staircase. It was probably put there to keep vermin out and pets in. Now it was decided that the military will amass behind this door and wait for the beast to destroy it. This strategy should limit the time monster will have to shoot it's webs.

The beast approached the door... and stopped few steps shy of it. He was evidently waiting for the dwarves to advance. A tense, charged stand-off ensued. Finally, the beast destroyed the door, and the soldiers attacked.

Our strategy failed miserably. They were webbed in an instant, and slaughtered without mercy. Three veteran warriors of legendary skills perished, all in the same gruesome way - a kick to the head, that crushed their helmets like an eggshell and killed them instantly. The rest of the military moved back, upstairs, not really knowing how to deal with the monster. An alert was belatedly sounded and the corridor was not yet clear of civilians - the beast mercilessly slaughtered whoever he chanced upon, although luckily for the fortress, these were mostly visiting bards, scholars and some animals. Finally, when he busied himself with two visiting mercenaries, a goblin hammerer and a speardwarf, Calmspears military charged again. This time they managed to close in on the monster without being webbed, and a brutal fight commenced.

Two more soldiers met their end with skulls kicked in, but a resolute axe lord managed to cut off the right front leg of the beast, which he seemed to exclusively use for these deadly kicks, and "the severed part sailed in arc". Thereafter the combat was more balanced, since the monster limited his attacks to bites. No more regular soldiers died, although dwarf mercenary was gnawed to death. And then, finally, the forgotten beast was killed.

Our losses were significant. Five veteran soldiers gave their life in defense of the Mountainhome. Garetho killed six, but he fought smaller military with few adamantine armor parts and few veterans.

3rd caverns layer entrance proved to be very dangerous once again. Defensive arrangements were therefore implemented - ten guard war dogs with a war grizzly bear were stationed at this crucial juncture. More high quality traps were built, although these are useless against forgotten beasts. Several upward spikes were build in the narrow corridor, connected to levers at dining halls. These at least can damage a forgotten beast, although it will be difficult to time them properly. Also, a large area was prepared and walled off, for marksquad to assemble.

Fortifications were carved in the wall, so our crossbowmen and -dwarfs will be able to shoot at any beast while it fights our war animals. Let's hope that will be enough.

Soon another forgotten beast emerged. It couldn't find a way to our fortress due to underground trees blocking the way, so it went for a swim. Unfortunately it could also fly, and when it swam near our adamantine-extracting area, it flew right up into it, and charged downstairs into the midst of our miners. Foreign Legion reacted quickly, but not quickly enough - one of the miners was torn apart before soldiers disposed of the monster.

Work on cisterns under flaming scrolls was resumed. First one was finished and the scroll was channeled around to cave it into the reservoir. Unfortunately, the miner that did the channeling fell in together with the scroll. He regained consciousness, but drowned soon after. Next scroll was caved in before cistern was filled with water, which was a good idea, because the miner again fell into the hole with the rest of the cave-in. He lost consciousness temporarily, but was otherwise unharmed. When a third flaming scroll was discovered, it was decided to do things correctly, i. e. in a dwarven way. Cistern was dug out, but before cave-in a support was constructed and connected to a lever. Then cistern was filled with water, channeling finished and the lever pulled. In this way no dwarf suffered any injuries and everything went smoothly.

Before the year ended, one more tragedy struck Calmspears. One of the founding dwarves, miner nicknamed "Digger", ventured into the caverns and was ambushed by a jaberrer. Jaberrer was wounded seriously by the miner's pick, but "Digger" was severely gored too. Before help arrived, the respectable dwarf died of his wounds.

It wouldn't be fair to "Digger" to just leave it at that. Perhaps he wasn't a glamorous dwarf, but he did his duty without complain. It was him who single-handedly built the first dining room, dormitory, and even the huge rotunda tavern. When he was put to work at the traps, despite having no skills at it, he didn't even grumble - he simply said "if fortress needs it", and got to work. Soon he was a master mechanic in addition to legendary miner. The same was with any other work he was needed at, be that gem cutting, pasturing animals or hauling garbage. He was the kind of dwarf that is a backbone of every society - humble, hard working, inconspicuous but ready for self-sacrifice. He was laid to eternal rest in his mausoleum, on 50th level, next to Fishbutcher and other legends of Calmspears. He truly earned his place there.

And just like that, there are four founders left in Calmspears - "Leader" - the Duke, "Oaksbane" - captain of Elite Squad and legendary axe lord, "Stoneborn" - legendary mason and "Shinystones" - broker and a legendary gem cutter.

[Meng Lolorked]

216

In the very first day of 216 three dwarves died of old age. Luckily, only one of them was a soldier. Military was replenished with anyone skilled we could find, and now it is training fiercely. Surprisingly, a lot of miners died in 215, so we needed to convert few haulers to this profession.

The elves again didn't sent their caravan nor diplomat - a pity. We liked to celebrate a new year with a massacre of these hippies. They still didn't send a siege, unfortunately, nor war was declared. We checked the civilization screen and it paints a depressing picture. It seems our fortress is almost all that is left from our once glorious dwarven civilization. Only one noble from outside our fortress is listed, and he is a diplomat. At the foundation of Calmspears the list of our baronies and duchies was several pages long. We don't think our atrocities against the elves are the cause - our civilization was crumbling even before that, and we don't have a war with elves anyway. It seems the goblins are to blame. Humans suffer as well, with only two nobles left in their civilization - a diplomat and a king. The rest - barons, dukes and the like - are wiped out. This is strange, since humans are not at war with anyone, but then again, goblins raid everyone, no matter if there is war or not.

In international news, another memorable event happened in our fortress - one Bekat Boardpillars inherited the position of Lady of Teneborous Society, being a rightful heir. We suspect all that is left of this society is poor old Bekat, leading a lonely life of a bard in one of our taverns.

Several unwanted guests visited us, but none did much damage. First a forgotten beast, cutely named Ula, arrived. She was an enormous humanoid composed of coal and armored with a square shell. She was supposed to have poisonous gas, exuding from her mouth (hopefully), but didn't even manage to use it - she was disposed of with ease by Foreign Legion. Then a werechameleon arrived, lusting for blood and mayhem. He received several heavy blows to the head instead, courtesy of our Elite Squad. No injures on our side, obviously.

In the meantime, it was noticed that the fortress' smelters are overflowing with lead (to the point of cluttering). This useless metal is a byproduct of galena smelting, which is our main source of silver. To remedy the problem, most of soil corridors are being tiled with lead. We also designed a huge lead necropolis underground, with fifty small burial chambers. All of them have lead sarcophagi, lead doors and lead chests. If it's not enough, we will build a lead tower and a lead wall somewhere in the wild. Because tiling of the floors goes fast and is a lot of fun, a mosaic of a dwarven head was started on the surface. So far the work is progressing nicely, although large parts of the mosaic were vomited on by unknown perpetrators. Let's hope somebody will clean it up.

In other economic news - we have intermittent shortages of refined coal. We make a lot of charcoal, and use lignite and bituminous coal as well, but apparently it's not enough. It seems we will have to return to magma pump megaproject soon.
Also in economic news, traders from human civilization got scared of a single goblin corpse, and didn't even attempt to trade. Simply circumvented our gates and skedaddled. Their diplomat made a meeting with our duke, however, and informed us of world events - some site was abandoned by somebody, some other site razed, and somebody died. Our region seems more and more desolated.
Fortunately, dwarves in the autumn arrived on time with their caravan. Trade was successful, although we need to produce more trinkets for the next time.

A few children grew up to become peasants, farmers and even one stonecrafter. Peasant was drafted into the Foreign Legion and given a masterfully made silver hammer. Yeah, he is not a mercenary, but we don't have any free spots in Elite Squad, and no new visitors to recruit from. So we have to replenish Foreign Legion from our own population. Another young dwarf, the farmer, was drafted into 2nd Foreign Legion and given a silver mace.

Ati Soundfire still bleeds all over the fortress. It is getting to the point of us planning some mishap for him - maybe not to kill him, but damage him severely enough to get him to a hospital. Maybe during this visit he will be patched up properly, including his old wound.
At one place in a corridor a book rests on the floor. It can't be dumped (grayed-out option) nor forbidden, and no dwarf wants to touch it. It cannot be moved and therefore it's not possible to build a floor underneath. Freaky.

In the late autumn, after the dwarven caravan left, another horrifying monster emerged from the 3rd Cavern Layer. Work on defenses in this area was just finished, with long walls carved with fortifications, corridors full of upright spikes connected to levers, war dogs and bear, and so on. But once again, dwarven plans made Armok laugh. The forgotten beast, named Oxut, was able to fly, in addition to its fire breath and fireball-throwing ability. Oxut noticed our garbage chute, piercing both ceiling and floor of the caverns, and immediately flew up this narrow chimney. Dwarves panicked - the chute pierced our entire fortress, with all important levels connected to it for speedy garbage disposal. It was surrounded with a wall at the cavern floor, but the wall did not reach the ceiling, so a flying beast could easily enter. An alarm was sounded, and the military was sent into a staircase that was built next to the chute.

The beast was fierce and fearsome. His fireballs flew up the stairs, and the smoke made it unreachable for our warriors. Unluckily, first soldier to engage the monster was the new recruit from Foreign Legion, the young peasant that just that year reached maturity. He trained all summer and most of autumn and managed to become a proficient hammerdwarf, but it was far from enough. His poor armor and shield skills sealed his fate - he was set on fire by Oxut, and in horrifying agony jumped or dodged into the chute. Hapless young dwarf fell almost 150 levels down into the magma sea, dying a gruesome death.

Oxut proceeded up the chute, sending flames, fireballs and smoke all around the fortress. Some unlucky animals and a visiting scholar, which wandered too close to the chute, lost their lives in horrible flaming agony. Finally Oxut reached the very center of the fortress and left the chute, to wreak havoc among the defenseless civilians. But fortunately some soldiers were ready in the corridor leading from chute to workshops and attacked the beast. Fight was long and difficult, mainly because of the smoke. After hours of fiery, smoke-filled Armageddon one of the soldiers, a veteran macelord with over a hundred kills, managed to engage the fearsome Oxut. They traded a blow for a blow, but fortunately the macelord managed to avoid most of beast's attacks. Despite the smoke he pushed Oxut towards the chute, still trading blows and shielding himself from fire with his adamantine shield. Oxut, moderately wounded, went back into the chute, maybe looking for a less guarded way into the fortress proper. He would have been successful, since few levels above there was easy path to rotunda tavern and dining room, but at this moment our macelord dealt a decisive blow at monster's head and Oxut died. Since he was hovering in the chute, his corpse fell down 150 levels into the magma sea, a poetic justice done to the poor killed peasant.

The incident with Oxut was pretty dangerous. All defenses were scrutinized to find vulnerabilities, and it was discovered in horror that flying beasts have easy access to our most vulnerable areas. Urgent rework of our defenses was started immediately.
Another lesson from Oxut regarded new recruits. They should not be sent into combat on the same orders as their better trained comrades. One recruit paid for this with his life, another (the former farmer) was severely injured. His head was disfigured and his arm mangled. Surprisingly, despite bleeding all over corridors and stairs, and despite fainting all the time, the recruit didn't go to the hospital, but carried on attending training sessions. He was immediately discharged from military in a hope that he will rest and recuperate.
The valiant macelord was injured by Oxut as well, and he too didn't bother with the hospital. It has to be investigated why our dwarves stopped seeking medical help - after all we have qualified personnel, chief medical dwarf appointed and medical resources aplenty.

The caverns are source of never-ending anxiety for the fortress. A lot of dwarves work there, especially on the 3rd level, which is our main source of wood nowadays. After all, we cut down almost entire surface forest, and the rest was burned down by a dragon. We also gather webs for silk in the underground, to make beautiful clothes for our citizens. The problem is that recently monster activity in caverns is increasing. Maybe they resent our presence, or our statues standing at every corner. Crudles keep invading in groups of 20 or 30, inflating our soldiers' kill stats. Bugbats are another nuisance, and since they can fly, our foot soldiers have some trouble with disposing of them. But there are also some dangerous ones, like reachers, jabberers and giant cave spiders which also visit us regularly. To remedy the danger somewhat, we started building weapon traps scattered all over the caverns floors. So far it is going slowly, but one cave spider and one reacher already died in a beautifully gruesome way, shredded to pieces by traps full of swords and axes.

After Oxut one more forgotten beast visited us - a towering feathered porcupine named Sodor Ludosmesnust. He had poisonous blood and generally could have been dangerous, but showed the kind of cretinism usually afflicting the dwarves. He entered the caverns from the east, but stepped right onto underground tree's branch. Not being a flyer he couldn't get down, so he lingered on top of the tree, not knowing what to do. We sent all our soldiers to station under the tree and ordered it to be cut. This was not necessary however - some hammerlord, apparently taller than others despite being a dwarf, managed to reach the monster on the branch and pummeled him mercilessly. The creature died an ignominious death.

We started enjoying the challenge of forgotten beasts. To attract more of them, we decided to increase the value of our fortress even more. Currently it's valued at 32 million dwarfbucks. We decided to produce some very expensive furniture to boost it even more. Two adamantine statues were ordered, and this time our smith of legendary skills, Nil Fukidasob, proved his worth. Both statues were of masterful quality, each worth 90k. One commemorated Fishbutcher being appointed militia captain, the second one showed Garetho being killed by Quihu Estusronic. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Statues were moved to great rotunda tavern, to attract few more guests there, since golden tavern is severely overcrowded.
 
And thus the year 216 crawled to an end, at a abysmal pace of 7 FPS.

[Meng Lolorked]

217

New year started with several animals dead of old age, but no dwarven fatalities. The animals were butchered and cooked into masterful dishes by our two legendary cooks.

At the end of the first month another forgotten beast emerged in 3rd cavern layers. It was essentially a flying skull, since it had no body parts except two wings and a head. It exuded poisonous dust.

This time we were ready, or so we thought. Magma chute was walled off. Pillboxes made of walls with carved fortifications guarded the approach to our fortress, followed by a plaza full of war animals, and a narrow corridor with upright spikes ready to impale any monster that would made it as far. At first everything went according to plan - markssquad was ordered to station in a pillbox, and one elite crossbowdwarf, which apparently was nearby, reached destination just as the beast approached. He released three bolts, but all hit the only pillar that was present in the pillbox area. Me thinks he wasn't as elite marksdwarf as he claimed to be. The forgotten beast responded with huge cloud of dust, which went right through the fortifications and even reached war animals on the plaza.

At this moment, of course, the carefully prepared defensive plan went right down the drain. Again. Will anything ever work as planned in this fortress? It turned out that this pillbox had a small, 1x2 sized hole in the roof, completely unnoticed during construction. The monster flew right up there and descended onto the hapless marksdwarf inside. This way the beast circumvented both war animals and spikes, and had clear access to fortress' main staircase.

The massacre was averted only by belated heroics of the sole elite crossbowdwarf. He fought the beast single-handedly, using his crossbow as a mace, for long enough for infantry to arrive. Unfortunately he paid for his bravery with his life.
Now the infantry engaged the flying abomination, but initially they had little luck. The dust blocked view and made attacks impossible. It was poisonous as well, and soon some affected war animals and soldiers started coughing up or vomiting blood. But finally they overcame the beast without further casualties on our side.

The poisonous dust gave us a scare for a while. Quite a few soldiers vomited blood as they crawled towards hospital. Several unlucky civilians were also affected. It looked serious. Unfortunately we have only two diagnosticians, one dabbling and one novice. They are self-taught, as no members of this profession migrated to our fortress. Soon some soldiers started leaving hospital even before being diagnosed, but it seems they made a complete recovery. So apparently it was enough to sleep the disease off.

Patching of the fateful roof was quickly ordered. Let's hope it will be finished before another flying beast incursion.
Meanwhile, a second installment of Hunger Games is being prepared. We have way too many prisoners and caged animals, monsters, and the like. The prison, aka cage storage, is almost full, especially that there are some goblins, trolls and beakdogs still held there. Some of them have lived in these miserable conditions for over 10 years, since they were captured during first sieges of Calmspears. Their suffering will soon end.
There also is one last necromancer imprisoned there, a dwarven doctor. He will not take part in Hunger Games 2, however, as he is to valuable a prisoner and can be useful in the future.

New, larger arena was built and paved with slitstone, to get rid of webs and dirt. Forty six cages with prisoners and beasts were built and now levers are being connected to them. We plan to release everything at once and experience the beauty of general slaughter. We hope that it will bring more entertainment than the meager Hunger Games of 213.

Lead necropolis is almost finished. It was built to get rid of excess lead, and 40 lead sarcophagi, lead chests and lead doors were constructed. Now we have 40 tombs furnished with lead, but these are too meager for dwarvenfolk to use. It was decided to assign these low quality burial chambers to outsiders - human and goblin bards, performers and the like. Foreign Legion soldiers also got their resting places here.

The mosaic of bearded dwarven head is halfway finished as of spring 217, but the effect so far disappoints. It is unrecognizable due to vomit covering almost every inch of it. There is also clear, easily distinguishable vomit path, wide as a highway, from the fortress entrance to the mosaic. We plan to build a water pump and wash the mosaic clean as soon as it's finished, since no rain ever falls in our region.

In international news - another year without elven caravan, nor an elven diplomat. Even though we massacred their merchants and messengers regularly, and even though we cut down entire forest growing at our site, the smelly hippies neither decided to declare war on us nor invade us. It's a pity. Among our neighbors, only elves seem like a powerful and growing civilization, with many nobles and sites. Curiously, we sometimes get news about elves raiding humans, and our stone detailers often engrave such violent encounters on walls. Some of our human mercenaries have numerous dead elves on their accounts, from before their employment in Calmspears. Civilization screen shows no human-elven war, however.

Caverns still spew out numerous hostile creatures. Recently several reachers appeared in quick succession in 2nd cavern layer. They approached our entrance corridor, currently guarded by about ten war dogs. The animals disappointed us this time, however. They didn't react to the reachers, and when one of them assaulted one dog, the rest remained indifferent. Fortunately the attacked dog put up a decent fight, savaging his assailant quite seriously. But he didn't even pursue the reacher when he disengaged. Another disappointment. We had to send Foreign Legion in, to deal with these pests. Of course, in the meantime, our weaver managed to get in the way, and he immediately charged the reachers with his bare hands. Valiant dwarf even managed to beat one of the creatures senseless, but others ganged up on him. He would have been in trouble if not for the Foreign Legion. Lazy war dogs didn't move their paws. If they don't pick up their act soon, we will have few more masterful dog meat roasts in our stockpiles.

In summer, another goblin siege arrived. This one was by far the largest invasion that ever menaced our lands - 300 beakdogs with riders, around 100 infantry goblins and 100 trolls. Almost a thousand enemies, against our less than forty soldiers, quarter of them poorly trained marksdwarves. The enormous size of the enemy force made time itself crawl at 1 FPS, if not less. Yet another battle for survival was to take place, and nobody was pulling any punches - Armok is a cruel and malicious god indeed.

They arrived from the west, squad after squad of beakdog cavalry, endless torrent of vicious beast riders. First lines also contained some foot soldiers, with a several elite crossbowgoblins and few recruits. These were probably meant as trap-clogging fodder. At the end of enemy column marched trolls and some more infantry.

Our defenses were in disrepair. The last siege was in 215, and it was paltry. Frantic search for levers connected to bridges commenced, as we decided to implement the same tactics as during the great battle of 210 - close off each pathway to plaza behind enemies, as soon as all traps are used in it. This way enemy would be forced to traverse all our trap filled paths. But first we decided to use our beautiful archery tower, which at this point was completely surrounded by beakdog riders and other enemy units. A five story tower, with three top stories with carved fortifications, standing in the middle of enemy horde. A secret, underground pathway led to the tower from fortress proper, with archery range, barracks and bolt/arrow stockpile nearby.

This was supposed to be marksquad's moment of glory. They would stand on high levels of tower, raining arrows at the torrent of enemies below, bravely receiving enemy salvos themselves. Alas, it was not to be. Underground corridor that led to the tower collapsed, which was not noticed until too late. Trolls and goblins swarmed this passage just as our bowmen were marching toward their designed station. We quickly raised the drawbridge that cut off this passage, but five marksquad members were already in the tunnel, doomed. Few traps that were built in this tunnel were quickly clogged by goblins, and enemy viciously attacked defenseless dwarves. They fought well, using their crossbows as clubs, but they were eventually overwhelmed. Once again, our long trained and equipped with great pains archer team was massacred.

Meanwhile, our troops inside the defensive perimeter took their position. To avoid premature charge, the Elites were cut off with a drawbridge at their designed station. One of their members, Ast Othododok, didn't make it on time, so he was temporarily moved to Foreign Legion. Little did he know that he was never to return to his old comrades.

At first the strategy was working. Northern passages were cut off as soon as all traps fired, but these traps were among the oldest in the fortress - poor quality, mainly stone-fall. Few enemies were killed, some were merely maimed or lightly injured, others escaped entirely unscratched. Now enemy vanguard entered our plaza, while his main body was forced to march toward eastern approaches (as you remember, there are no western paths to our fortress, all walled off after Battle of the Funnel in 209). We hoped to keep our military cut off with drawbridges in their stations, lest they charge enemy outside plaza, before all traps fire off. Therefore task of dealing with vanguard was left to war animals, swarming our plaza in great numbers (around 30 war dogs, few war leopards and a female war grizzly bear). They disappointed us completely. Dogs died one by one, not even trying to help each other, standing around uselessly as if shell-shocked. War leopards fled in horror. Grizzly was nowhere to be seen. The only thing doing any good were the traps, scattered here and there around the plaza.

Meanwhile, enemy rearguard, consisting mainly of trolls and infantry goblins, entered the map and went straight to our western wall. It was scaled with horrifying speed and trolls poured into the plaza, joining forces with their fellows already slaughtering our animals. There was no point in waiting any further - with teeth clenched, we gave order to open drawbridges and release our soldiers.

to be continued...

[Meng Lolorked]

Around 40 trolls and quite a few beakdog riders swarmed the plaza. The charge of our infantry, the best of the best, was a thing of beauty. Elites and 2nd Foreign Legion attacked from the north, while 1st Foreign Legion moved from the south, in a pincer movement. Trolls are tough enemies, but they were hunted down and killed relentlessly. Beakdogs took even more punishment before giving in to the pain. Goblins were cut down like grass.

After initial shock the enemy force in the plaza put up a stubborn defense, while their main body marched towards eastern pathways. Trolls were pressed against the western wall, which they so successfully scaled just a short time before. New squads scaled the wall all the time and soon our soldiers fought a grim, determined battle against overwhelming troll forces. It was here where earlier mentioned Ast Osthododok, a veteran with over a hundred kills, met his fate. He dodged or jumped in such an unfortunate way that he found himself on the other side of our western wall. Enemies swarmed around him with absolutely no way for the rest of our forces to support him. After a long and grueling fight, with tens of enemies cut down, he finally fell unconscious - giving in not to the enemy but to exhaustion. The fallen hero was torn apart by jubilating savages.

The rest of trolls that stayed in the plaza were soon finished off with no further casualties on the side of the dwarves, although our soldiers were exhausted. And the battle was just in the opening phase. Incidentally, the entire plaza battle was witnessed by two unlikely spectators - an armorsmith and a mechanic. They were stragglers, last to heed civilian alert, and only now they were approaching the safety of fortress entrance. They decided to carry with them heavy boulders they were tasked to use in some construction earlier, therefore their pace was hopelessly slow. Nevertheless, by some absurd miracle of luck, they survived to tell the tale, while all around them trolls and goblins slaughtered war dogs and fought bitter duels with our soldiers.

In the meantime, enemy main force approached eastern pathways, setting off first traps placed there. Here something quite extraordinary took place - the huge force of beakdog riders, after loosing around 20 soldiers to our excellent traps, stopped in place. As if they suspected (rightly) the rest of passage of being booby-trapped. We anxiously waited - after all, our soldiers were released from their stations, and at any moment overconfident dwarf could charge into eastern pathway at the enemy, sealing his own fate. This tense standoff was interrupted by enemy rearguard, now consisting mainly of infantry goblins with a few trolls, reaching southern approaches to our fortress.

After all southern traps discharged and enemy still pressing on, Elite Squad, despite exhaustion, was ordered to counter this new thread. Drawbridge should have been raised here, but we panicked and forgot about that option.

Elites made a quick work of enemy infantry, but went too far and charged outside fortifications in pursuit. Here they clashed with trolls and some beakdogs that separated from the main force (still stationed at eastern pathway and not moving - only some trolls tried to tip our catapults there). One of the Elites, macelord Sakzul Thatzilfazir (known mainly for his hatred of elves - he is always the first to slaughter their caravans and has 5 notable elves killed) separated and got surrounded by beakdogs, trolls and goblins. He fought like a devil, killed all but three enemies, which were finished off by the rest of Elites coming to help.

Elite Squad pursued fleeing enemy rearguard around the fortifications, but luckily they went west and not east where the main force stood. The pursuit went on all around the fortress and finally one of horrified trolls fled towards enemy main host, approaching it from the north. Sakzul, apparently the fastest of his squad, made a fatal mistake of pursuing him. The troll got killed, but enemy beakdog cavalry noticed our brave macelord and moved at him with all its might. Crossbow salvos covered quarter of the map. Fifty beakdogs charged the hapless hero. This time even his skill and bravery could not save him, and despite killing several assailants, he met his death at the northeastern corner of our fortifications.

Now we returned to a tense standoff. Our soldiers amassed on the plaza, trying to catch a breath, while enemy host, still almost 600 strong (beakdogs and riders), encamped on the east. But they wouldn't enter the trap-filled pathways. They didn't even move south, where they could use already cleaned way. After some time, the host started slowly moving east. It seemed that they are abandoning the siege.

That was unexpected. At their current strength, they were still capable of destroying Calmspears, even if they marched straight through trap-infested corridors. On the other hand, we didn't want just to let them leave like that - they were supposed to be crushed, like every earlier siege of Calmspears, so goblin mothers would scare their children straight with stories of dwarves. We reopened all drawbridges to lure enemy back in, but to no avail. When about half of enemy forces were on the march towards eastern border of our land we decided to send out our forces. Elite Squad went north and both foreign legions advanced south. We even sent in what was left of marksquad, as a distant support.

Northern force quickly caught up with enemy detachment that killed Sakzul, and our brave elf-hater was avenged in a bloody, horrifying way. Our southern group engaged a lot of enemies, mainly survivors of enemy rearguard, some detached beakdogs and trolls. Some of retreating cavalry turned back to attack our legions, but our forces kept together and had no problem dealing with them. Most of the time we kept local superiority in numbers, or at least none of our soldiers got separated and surrounded. This was 7th day of battle, however - dwarves are extremely exhausted and most are injured. A larger group of beakdog riders suddenly swung back and a fierce battle with legions ensued. Dwarves were in dire straits. One of the mercenaries, the famous spearwoman named Quihu Etrusconic, slayer of Garetho, was overpowered by numerous enemies and killed. Finally beakdogs were repulsed, but several legionaries stayed behind, too injured to move. The rest continued pursuit, despite exhaustion and bleeding.

Another mercenary separated and attacked single-handedly the group of trolls surrounding our catapults. He got badly injured, especially his legs were crushed and broken in several places. Fortunately for him, the rest of Legions arrived in time to save him.

At this point most of the enemies left the battlefield - it was not possible to catch up with beakdog riders, they were too fast. Some were killed however, as well as a lot of trolls and infantry goblins. One last injured on our side was human crossbowman from marksquad, who charged fleeing enemies instead of firing at them. He got mauled badly, but was saved by Elites.

Here and there maimed and injured beakdogs, trolls and goblins limped towards map edge or lied near the trap that hurt them. They were quickly mopped up by our soldiers. Few trolls and a goblin were cut off in marksdwarf-tower corridor - all military was sent to kill them off.

Afterwards, battlefield was littered with injured, unable to move dwarven soldiers. Fortunately civilians, as soon as we released them from alert, took them to hospital. Still, the dwarves felt disappointed with the enemy escape. It left us wanting, somehow. Enemy avoiding our traps was something new, and this prevented us from cutting them off on the plaza. To remedy this we decided to build The Walls of Calmspears - a ring of outer walls encompassing most of our lands. Numerous bridges were designed, and all of them will be risen as soon as enemy army arrives. Nobody will escape next time.
 
Despite most of enemy force withdrawing, we still managed to inflict serious losses on our goblin foes. At least 300 invaders met their demise in our land. Dropping their often dismembered bodies into magma will be a formidable task.

[Meng Lolorked]

217 part 3 - after the battle

I just noticed: chief medical dwarf mourns every single death in Calmspears. Often he is the only one to grieve.

State of our military is worrying. We lost quite a few soldiers, and many are injured or maimed. These injures often add up with previous ones, and now our veterans have stumps, stitches, crutches and the like. Such a military, despite legendary skills, cannot be expected to perform with the same excellence as fresh, healthy soldiers. Meanwhile, the population of Calmspears is slowly decreasing - from peak of 150 citizens in 213 it fell to 130 in current year. We are now below population limits, but still no visitors ask for residence nor citizenship, and no migrant waves arrive. We cannot therefore draft many citizens to the army without negative effect on the economy, and it is working poorly as it is. We have to few people to reset traps, build defenses, and clean garbage in time.

One week after the battle a forgotten beast named Zitha emerged from 3rd Cavern Layer. This time our defenses performed better, and the beast was engaged by war animals long enough for military to arrive. Marksquad, or what was left of them, arrived and at first their shooting through fortifications was good, but then for some reason they stopped. The beast exhuded noxious gases and a lot of dogs vomited blood. Foot soldiers finished the work, as usual, and the beast was killed.

Soon after, another forgotten beast, named Biretha, approached - this time in 1st Cabern Layer. Underground forrest spread there, and it was inhabited by quite a few bugbats. The beast tried to hunt them with her fire breadth and caused conflagration. We waited for the monster to approach our stone-tiled corridors, to avoid fires. There 1st Foreign Legion killed this uninvited guest, albeit it took some time. Underground fires died out by themselves after some time.

In the economic news, summer passed without human caravan. It seems they tried to approach us during the siege, and resigned. Or they are angry at last year's debacle, when one of their horrified merchants left all his goods and fled. In the end it doesn't matter - there are so many corpses everywhere that they would flee this year too. In related news, dwarven caravan in autumn, despite a lot of decomposing bodies everywhere, reached our depot. It was not without any problems - one of the merchants got scared shitless and dumped all his cargo along the way, but eventually he reached the depot as well. Strangely enough, and with huge relief, we were able to commence trade. We sold them all the goblinite we managed to transport to depot in the short time they were there, and a few goblets. We are still left with tons and tons of clothes left behind by the invaders. We are starting to dump it all into the magma.

In other economic news, artifact gabbro saram was created by am engraver in fey mood. It is worth 134k. Not bad, considering he didn't use adamantine. It shows two scenes - one is Mafol becoming king in 208, second is killing of some dwarf by a hill titan in 95. This titan is often present in my dwarves' engravings and artifacts. I wonder if he will visit us.

Less favorable news is that our shallow adamantine deposit, located at 45th level, reaches only down to 70th level and is already nearly depleted. A shame. We will have to conserve adamantine from now on or attempt risky deep-level mining.

Aban Larrith, an armorer, fell into fey mood and created adamantine high boot. Finally, something useful. Worth over 800k too. But there is an image made in spinach on it... Kinda ruins the whole thing.

Cavern beasts and monsters do not give us respite. At one time a cave dragon appeared. It was wedged between two underground trees at the map border, which presented an excellent opportunity to catch him. Unfortunately, before me managed to build a cage trap, the dragon left on his own.
Soon after, hungry heads swarmed 3rd Cavern Layer. Many were killed by traps and our soldiers, but few managed to ambush a worker named Tun Likotkogan, a jeweller collecting rough stones nearby. Unfortunately he was killed before help arrived.

We decided to explore dark, uncharted parts of caverns, mainly corners. We built tunnels and ramps under and over underground lakes and reached all previously unknown parts. Apart from some blowguns, darts and reptille women bodies we didn't find anything of note.
A lot of people attended hospital with "resting injury" info. They get diagnosed and released. Sometimes they come back to hospital. What happens? Maybe last forgotten beast spread some disease - no fatalities so far, though. This strange epidemic died out by itself after some time.

Forgotten beast Quazi Radirmete approached towards the end of autumn. He had toxic blood - not very dangerous compared to fire or webs. Still, he emerged very close to our fortress entrance at caverns 1st level. He hunted down guard war dogs, however, which gave time to Foreign Legion to arrive. Otherwise dogs disappointed again - didn't attack Quazi, didn't swarm him, just let him kill them one by one. Foreign Legion quickly got rid of the beast, although it was a bit tense when youngest recruit attacked him first. Dismhab Kubukonshen was his name, a swordsdwarf of mediocre skill. He fought valiantly and soon his friends joined. The kill was attributed to him, which is fair in this situation.

Another goblin siege at the beginning of winter! This is a thing unheard of - two large sieges in one year? The winter one was smaller than in summer, but troublesome, taking into account our recent losses. Around 80 infantry, 20 beakdogs with no riders and 30 trolls advanced from the east, where the last invasion retired. Maybe it's what's left of them? Some traps were reset, so they didn't enter plaza easily. Before they managed to penetrate corridors, one idiot marksdwarf decided to go opposite way to pick up equipment, despite having station ordered in archery tower. At least he fought them with salvos of bolts, and not charged them. He managed to finish off few maimed by traps. We tried to close this passage's drawbridge to save him, but he somehow climbed the wall and continued shooting at them. Unfortunately, at this exposed post, he was a target to all the enemy archers and was eventually killed.
 
We have no luck with marksdwarves.

In the meantime, we sent our infantry to attack from the north and south, in vain hope of saving the marksdwarf. Elites went north, both foreign legions south, but some trolls managed to climb the walls of refuse stockpile. One of the Elites engaged them, eight at once, and somehow 2 crossbowgobs managed to scale the wall as well. Needless to say he was in dire straits. Foreign Legion had some soldiers nearby and was sent for rescue. The legionary in question was Meng Lolorked (chronicle author's namesake), well liked veteran (in fact he is so well liked that they keep electing him mayor). The rescue came just in time and Meng was saved, althought severely wounded.

Similar situation took place in the north, where one of the Elites, speardwarf named Sodel Thabumirlal, sprinted forward and was surrounded. Another Elite, one of the most veteran and distinguished soldiers (11 notable and 135 regular kills), came to his rescue first and was surrounded too. Here the fight was even more intense, and by the time rescue arrived Tun was severely injured and unconcious, while Sodel was bleeding profusely and fighting for his life.

At this moment we managed to stabilize the front, with no separated individuals and ordered line of advancing soldiers. Enemy gave way quickly, retreating to the west, but only the beakdogs had any chance of outrunning us. Some infantry and one or two trolls managed to flee as well, mainly because our soldiers were too busy slaughtering their comrades.
Trolls managed to destroy half-built pump, designed to clean our mosaic. They also destroyed our two catapults that we use to train siege operators.

The biggest problem however is the huge carnage left after the battle, before we even started cleaning up the previous one. The bodies of invaders piled on the bodies from previous siege.

Soldiers got taken to the hospital quickly and were efficiently taken care of. Our health service is very good, even if we have shortage of qualified doctors. Soldiers got stitched up with adamantine strands - I hope they appreciate it. We cannot help but wonder if our military is still capable of defending the fortress. This winter siege was not that large, and in the olden days we could face it in an open battle without fearing losses. Meanwhile we struggled, and even loss a dwarf (albeit more due to his idiocy than our ineptitude). We suspect this is due to our soldiers being mostly maimed invalids by now, deserving rest and retirement instead of new risky battles. We cannot do much about it, however.

Soon after the battle a forgotten beast Simo Ehrathulet, giant weasel with poisonous bite approached from 3rd Cavern Layers. He swam a bit, but when emerged from water he was quickly killed by a single axelord of Foreign Legion named Thur Ngospush.

In entertainment news, the end of 217 was celebrated with long prepared Hunger Games 2. We have built a new arena and placed almost fifty cages with prisoners, animals and monsters in it. All creatures were released at once, which led to slightly more entertaining spectacle than previous one. Cavern beasts fought everyone and each other, while goblins kept close together, as did the few tame animals. Soon goblins emerged victorious, although cave trolls gave them a good fight, and even managed to kill one (with the help of a warthog). Few remaining goblins were dispatched by Foreign Legion. War Leopard also charged into arena at the end, and was disappointing as usual - got wounded without even scratching the enemy.

[Meng Lolorked]

218

Eight days into the year - elven ambush! FINALLY! Oh the joy! Although we would prefer a full sized siege, we will take what they offer. Let's see how their wooden armor fares against adamantine weapons.

The smelly hippies didn't stand a chance. We didn't even need to rise civilian alert. It was as if they fell into a meat-grinder. They sent a party of around 20, half of them bowmen, the rest spearelves and swordselves. Didn't matter in the end, all were slaughtered without our soldiers breaking a sweat. Pity they didn't left anything useful behind, even their weapons are useless in traps, as they are made of wood.

Jailed woodcutter was released by means of chain deconstruction. He was in prison for at least 2 years and it seems he was forgotten. There was no information about his sentence in justice screen, and we were afraid he would be jailed indefinitely. Besides, he was given water at the very last moment, as he was nearing death from dehydration. We decided to put an end to his torment. He returned to his duties happily.

The Walls Of Calmspears, despite initial stagnation, are being constructed quite efficiently. Numerous drawbridges were designed, in a hope to avoid path-finding problems. Hills in the south were partially removed to ensure smoother, less complicated construction. In the north the walls run south of the brook, therefore about quarter of our land, that lies behind this streamlet, will be outside our walls. It's also the only area with dense forest left.

The great library we were built for several years now is nearing completion. It is huge, larger than our rotunda tavern, with seventy golden bookcases, numerous golden tables, thrones and statues, all masterful. It was finally opened and renamed to "The Great Library of Spears".
In the summer human caravan arrived. We spent a lot of time designating tons and tons of stuff to sell - mainly sieges leftovers. The clothes alone spanned almost hundred pages. All was for nothing - the stupid merchants got scared and fled the map without even approaching our depot. This is the third year in row they don't trade with us. We are starting to think we should deal with them the same way we did with the elves.

Diplomat arrived as well, the same old guy that visits us since we killed the vampire one. He tried to reach duke, but duke was in 3rd Cavern Layer, as he is a carpenter and we mainly use wood from underground nowadays. At that exact moment a forgotten beast appeared almost next to the duke, some abomination with poisonous sting. We were worried we would lost another founding dwarf, but luckily this time duke was more reasonable than courageous. He usually charges any enemy nearby with his bare hands, but this time he ran for his life. Before our military arrived, the monster managed to slaughter a hapless bard, carrying a huge stone to reset a trap. After that, everything went smoothly - neither his sting, nor his size, nor his undulating somethings helped him.

Meanwhile the duke went to sleep, and the diplomat, accompanied by two female guards, followed him. Then they repeated the orgy from 10 years ago, and first diplomat, then his guard, then all together entered duke's bed. Freaky. But what happens in Calmspears stays in Calmspears.

Meng Lolorked, legendary macelord of elite squad, was elected mayor. Again. Of course we cannot have mayor in the military, therefore we have to meddle in election results, yet again. Usually we put a bard or a herbalist in mayor position, since they both have pretty decent social skills. Still, they didn't process any petitions and held no meetings. This time we put a human bard in charge and immediately petitions for residence started pouring in. We accepted two bards and three desperately needed mercenaries and now Foreign Legions are again at almost full strength. New guys are still pretty green, but we have put them into rigorous training in danger rooms. One of the recruits is a bowman, but we are still training him for hammerlord, since our marksquad is less than useless.

And finally, after five years of fruitless wandering between taverns, temples and library, our guest elven mercenary, a slave swordself, asked for residence. He was cordially accepted and drafted into 2nd Foreign Legion. Welcome home, brother. Your treacherous brethren, who made you a slave and a fugitive, will haunt you no more. Now you have powerful allies and friends - as long as you renounce nature worship and embrace industry. Here, in Calmspears, dwarves despise slavery - hard work, creativity and craftsmanship are respected, rewarded and admired, not exploited. We hope you will soon have an opportunity to avenge all your sufferings. But first - training.

The elven swordsman already picked up a masterfully made adamantine short sword. Good, it wouldn't be acceptable if he used a wooden weapon. He didn't pick up any armor so far, therefore it was decided that new set of adamantine armor will be created, specifically for elven user. It seems that it's the same size as for dwarves and goblins (goblins already use armor made for dwarves), but one can never be sure.
 
Towards the end of the year another dangerous forgotten beast, named Ngogngo Ablozu Akon Utes approached the fortress from the 1st cavern layer. As he was a web-shooting variety, and our markssquad is decimated, it was decided to engage him in the staircase using regular infantry. 1st Cavern layer drawbridge was rised to buy some time for dwarves to execute civilian alert. Unfortunately, for the sake of convinience, few levels below a corridor was dug to give another access to web-rich lower caverns. Thus the monster had an open, albeit longer way into the fortress.

The beast travelled downstairs and ambushed our famous weaver, killing him instantly. Poor guy was tough, but not nearly tough enough for a forgotten beast. Then apparently Ngogngo gorged himself on his victim, since he didn't move for some time. Meanwhile all the military assembled in the main staircase, ready to face the enemy.

At this moment marksquad leader, named Tekkud Bavastineh, decided to pick up some bolts laying in the caverns and went straight into the corridor claimed by the monster. Ngogngo slaughtered several cats and devoured each one, making a long stop at each carcass. Brave Tekkud immediately opened fire - unfortunately, he was only recently drafted into the squad and was merely an adequate marksdwarf. He managed to wound the monster, but son got webbed and torn to pieces. Possibly his sacrifice helped us to beat the monster - when he finally reached the staircase the amassed military disposed of him quite efficiently.

Soon after another beast, named Rithi, emerged. It was huge flying something with a poisonous bite. He was troublesome only because he flew a lot over underground lakes, hence military squads needed to be deployed at every shore. As soon as he approached 2nd Foreign Legion he was slain, and our new elven recruit distinguished himself in combat (although the kill was not attributed to him, unfortunately).

[Meng Lolorked]

219

Beginning of the year was pretty much uneventful. Dwarves worked hard on removing heaps of bodies from the roads to our fortress. Smiths toiled in armories, creating tons of iron, bronze and silver weapons - all for use in weapon traps. You can never have too many of these. In 2nd month a forgotten beast approached, but it was quickly killed by 1st Foreign Legion. A month later a wereiguana named Hethre Dipubspidsia appeared, but was disposed of easily as well. The only entertainment was provided by Omus Ubralwash a forgotten beast, humanoid composed of steam... he was killed easily, although in clouds of steam, by Busla Iwokeye, one of newer recruits of 1st Foreign Legion. The beast left behind a pool of water instead of a corpse, which we find quite funny and appropriate.

In the summer, a human diplomat visited, but no caravan appeared. News from around the world: goblin army from a civilization called The Hatred of Finders on a rampage. Gadan Routpraises, a goblin general, is their leader. Also, a guy called Ismir Firstwipe was replaced as a leader of The Tufted Councils. Small wonder they got rid of him, considering his name.

Quite a few mercenaries volunteered, therefore 3rd Foreign Legion was created and given to Meng Lolorked to command. Recruits are mostly retrained marksmen mercenaries. Their performance is abysmal, completely hopeless. One got severely injured in training room, landed in hospital for a month with massacred legs.

At the start of autumn - a siege arrived, consisting of mere 6 enemies. They were killed quickly, but siege marker somehow was not removed. Guess no caravan this year either - these never arrive during a siege. Meanwhile, possessed chief medical dwarf created hungry head bone ring worth 70k.

Another marksdwarf, Minkot Alather, asked for employment as mercenary. He was drafted, but into normal infantry, i. e. 3rd Foreign Legion. He almost immediately got depressed... wtf? Now he throws tantrums and vandalizes the fortress...

Human Scholar Vampyre is visiting! Will he feed while in the fortress? Better not risk it - we decided to kill him. He was finally terminated after very long hunt and entire army running around our lands. Very fast and agile guy. He had a lot of stuff made of human bones, hair etc. Creepy. His real name was Nubi Mebenebe. Engraving him a slab revealed that he was quite young for a vampire (89 years old), but apparently he was someone important - High Lord of The Doctrine of Dragons from 168 to 178, whatever that was. And a slayer of humans.

3rd Caverns Layer spits out never ending stream of abominations. Now we have severe hungry heads infestation. These pests are quite dangerous for civilians, so we try to exterminate them as soon as they appear. One idiot marksdwarf fell in water while hunting them and drowned. The same happened to a new recruit from 3rd Legion while on creeping eye hunt. We have to think about creating a swimming pool for the military, or even civilians, to teach them how to swim.

Training of the rest of 3rd Foreign Legion is going horribly. All of them got severely maimed in a danger room and all landed in a hospital. One actually died and it was decided to turn off all danger rooms. It seems these morons are easily harmed even by wooden training spears.

With the start of winter siege marker disappeared, but it still means no trade this year. Quite a few blind cave ogres started to appear. They turned out to be surprisingly easy to kill by untrained military, considering their size. The 3rd Foreign Legion was usually sent to dispose of them which they did with ease - maybe the retrained marksdwarves are starting to pick up their act at last. There is only two of them left in 3rd Legion though.

Ever since trade stopped, our booze and food stockpiles decrease steadily. In last year they diminished by 20%. To avoid hunger in the future, new farms are being prepared deep near 1st Level Caverns, and two dwarves were turned into hunters. We are also starting a beekeeping industry, to increase amount and versatility of available drink.

Cavern creatures increased their activity again. This time we have an influx of maneras, strange and unpleasant monsters with several arms attached to teeth-filled mouth. We use them to train 3rd Foreign Legion, or what is left of it, now that danger rooms are too dangerous to use. Blind cave ogres also continue to appear in short intervals. Good, more training opportunities.

Without us noticing, the surface forest regrew quite quickly. We will cut it down again, and again if need be. Dwarves are starting to think about flushing the surface with lava, to get rid of corpses, trees and tons of refuse. Pump stack is being prepared, and spans almost a hundred levels, from magma up to 50-ish level. It's not connected yet, however, and a lot of work still needs to be done.

And, considering the numbers of encroaching monsters, it had to happen - a woodburner, named Kivish Stinmorul, was killed by a jabberer in 3rd cavern layer, just as 1st Foreign Legion was arriving at the scene. Kivish was a decent dwarf lady, and as she was a woodcutter at some time in the past, she carried an axe. She was also a dabbling axedwarf and it was hoped she would survive the encounter. Sadly, she fought  using her fists instead of the axe, and she quickly perished.

The 3rd Foreign Legion should be renamed Manera Disposal Team. Every time they kill one, another appears almost immediately. Each member has at least 7 maneras killed on his account.
Another mishap in 3rd Cavern Layer - woodcuter ambushed by a reacher. He founght valiantly (although stupidly - why use only punches when you have an iron axe in hand??). Both sides of the duel inflicted severe wounds on each other. Finally, the woodcutter executed strategical retreat, while 1st Foreign Legion took care of the beast. Woodcutter is seriously wounded but can walk - let's hope he will reach the hospital in time.

And at that - spring arrived, and year 220 with it.

[Meng Lolorked]

Start of 220 is as good a time as any for a decent tour of Calmspears.

The small region that dwarves of Betanlokum call home, looks like that:


Goblins usually approach from the west or northwest, while elves attacked from the north.

Right on the 1st level underground, there is our small but popular Golden Tavern:


On the 10th level there is our famous Great Library, furnished with best golden furniture and exquisite engravings:


King's quarers:


King's tomb:


Hospital is not far below (it needs extension - it was built with quarter of current population in mind):


Main industrial and living area is on 20th level. Here are offices, old workshops, kitchens, general warehouses, etc. The great Rotunda Tavern is also placed here:


Just on the next level we have our heavy industry district, with foundries, forges, etc.


Quick look at the living quarters district:


...and second one, designed for less well-off citizens:


Deep underground, below 50th level, there is the old library, as well as duke's and liaison's quarters:


We put duke so deep because we expected the king or the mayor to conduct all the business with foreign diplomats, mercenaries etc. That's why king's throne room is so close to the surface. Meanwhile, all the representative functions are fulfilled by the duke. Oh well.

Even deeper, we have tombs of our most distinguished citizens and warriors:


Last place of note - fortifications at 3rd Cavern Layer entrance:

[Meng Lolorked]

220

A farmer named Mosus Guzducim and Erush Idenidod, a hammerdwarf, died of old age. Erush wasn't actually a citizen nor even a soldier - he was a visiting mercenary who didn't ask for employment yet. Now he probably won't anymore. We will engrave him a slab anyway, just to put his soul at rest.
Mosus, on the other hand, was our citizen since first migration wave. He was appointed a bookkeeper in 203 and held this position until his death in 220. I guess we need a new bookkeeper now.
Three war dogs died too, of old age, we assume.

2nd day of the year - another  elven ambush! Hooray! More glory to dwarven soldiers. Formidable force for an ambush - over 90 enemies. Soon to be 90 corpses. We sent Elite Squad and 2nd Foreign Legion, should be more than enough for these smelly hippies.

The battle was a thing of beauty. 20 dwarves and mercenaries completely massacred almost a hundred elves in a few hours. Nobody escaped. Two enemies fell in our cage traps. Our own elf, member of 2nd Foreign Legion, distinguished himself in battle, slaying seven enemies. The only concerning event that happened was our champion, one Led Onuldumat, falling unconcious of exhaustion early in the battle, after slaying four elves. This should not happen - battles can last for days, he should be more resilient. Maybe it's because of his age - he is 140 years old. But he still should live for 30 years in good health. He has no wounds either. As for the elves themselves, we regard them with a mix of contempt and admiration. Contempt, because even in a large numbers they posed absolutely no threat to our military. Admiration, because despite complete defeat and slaughter, they did not attempt an escape, like goblins are known to do - instead they fought with a grim resolve to the bitter end.

Meanwhile, in the caverns, a manera killed a swordsman from 3rd Legion! How could that happen? Now we are left with only one, and badly wounded at that, recruit at this squad. This recruitment of bow- and crossbow- mercenaries as foot soldiers was a complete disaster. Poor Meng Lolorked will soon loose his command and return to Elite Squad. Of course, immediately after killing that manera by Meng Lolorked, a new one arrived. Ridiculous - how long can you chase maneras around caverns?? Maybe if we cage one, new ones will stop appearing.

For the next two months very little happened. Open air farm is being planned, to provide some surface plants and therefore more variety in food and drink, now that caravans lost their way, again. Curious event in international relations - human-goblin war erupted.
In second half of spring a forgotten beast, enormous three eyed silverfish named Dipiula, appeared. It was a pathetic creature, with nothing more than venomous spittle, but it ambushed a lone woodburner, Udil Koraklul, in 3rd cavern layers. Poor fellow was killed, although he managed to break two legs of the beast, using his bare hands. Then 1st Foreign Legion arrived and disposed of the monster quickly.
Some dog died exactly in the middle of main staircase, just between Rotunda Tavern and Dining Hall. Now there is miasma in the most used part of the fortress, because of course no dwarf can be bothered to dump the dog's body into chute.
Beginning of summer - human caravan appeared, and a diplomat too. Finally, after years of isolation, merchants returned. Diplomat told us about huge raids performed by two goblin civilizations - Curses of Cackling and The Hatred of Finders. This may be connected to the recent human-goblin war and it seems humans aren't doing that well.

During caravan's visit outpost liaison fell into a mood and created an adamantine ring - worth almost 800k. Nice.
Middle of summer - a migrant wave arrived, first one in years. Good, our population fell again to 133, with all the drownings and mercenaries killed by danger rooms. Decent dwarves arrived, too, with one great swordsman (immediately drafted into elites), two medics (we are in dire need of these), woodburner (good, two perished recently) and others. One, a dabbling marksdwarf, was even made a commander of until-now-leaderless Bolts of Fury, our archer team. They immediately started picking up equipment and going to archery range to train - it seems they were slacking off since their previous commander untimely death.

In autumn, a dwarven caravan arrived, but the traders were scared by three goblin bodies and returned home without even unpacking. Soon after another migrant wave arrived - this time they were mostly farmers and hunters, with one administrator. Not very useful bunch, they will spend their lives in Calmspears hauling refuse to garbage dump. One, adequate axedwarf, was drafted into 3rd Foreign Legion, which was renamed Training Squad. They will not be used in normal battle except in dire necessity. Instead, they will serve as a reserve to first line units and a place for new recruits to gain experience. This move is necessary, now that training in danger rooms is too dangerous and soldiers gain skills at a much slower pace.

Quite a few incidents with soldiers stuck ontop of walls happened. It seems soldiers can dodge somehow during training in such an unfortunate way that they land atop a wall and cannot get down. Fortunately we managed to build staircase and a ramp just as they were nearing dehydration. This probably can also happen during combat, so we decided to connect all walls and create a staricase and a ramp to make them always accessible. This is probably unsafe, since enemies can dodge onto walls too, so we created only two access ways and both of them are near Elite Squad's barracks. They will also be heavily fortified with traps.

Towards the end of autumn a limonite mechanism artifacts was created by a woodcutter in a fey mood. It is worth 164k, which is nice for a non-adamantine artifact.

Back in the summer, a forgotten beast appeared, and was, well, forgotten. It climbed a tree in an underground lake and couldn't get down. We are thinking about tunneling near it and setting marksdwarves on it, but it's the fire-spitting variety, so we are a bit afraid to lose whatever marksquad we have left.

We executed the plan nevertheless, only to see it go down in flames. The beast, named Ovus Echotunnel the Bewildering Horn, set the miner on fire the very instant the tunnel was finished. Poor dwarf run away in amok, trailing blood, smoke, fire and body parts. He died in horrible agony just as he was reaching the stairs. The tunnel reached the lake, but there was a single branch of an underground tree that connected to the tunnel's end. Ovus immediately advanced into the fortress, hungry for victims after months of sitting in a tree. 1st Foreign Legion was sent to deal with this abomination - such a threat is obviously no task for Training Squad. Enemy was met in a narrow tunnel full of traps and a veteran goblin mercenary named Ulco Nithimur, was the first to engage the beast. The fight was difficult as usual, with smoke blocking view and fire raging in the corridor. A single cat wandered into the tunnel together with the soldiers and was evaporated in an instant. A swordsmaster mercenary, recruited few years back, was severely burned as well. But Ulco was an experienced warrior and monster slayer, with three forgotten beasts killed, as well as over one hundred and sixty other kills. Soon he had another forgotten beast added to his account.

Ulco's formidable performance warrants taking some time to know him. He is 66 years old and arrived in Calmspears in 207. Before that he was an active warrior an had some dwarves and goblins killed on his account. He is a member of Violent Confederacy, which is a human, not goblin civilization (the same one which sent us a vampire diplomat that caused us so much trouble). It was him who during the great siege of 210 ignored station order, but later led levies to a desperate assault against trolls that breached our defenses. In following years he proved to be a great soldier and accumulated a lot of kills, including three (now four) forgotten beasts. This is probably the reason he received a long nickname "Ulco Tomerocks the Tangle of Brands" (this is not a nickname given by me, but earned in combat). Currently there are six warriors with such honorable nicknames in our military.
As for the burned swordsmaster, he trailed blood a long time, but then got better without even going to hospital. Still, he is "faint" all the time, so we aren't sure if he will survive.

Middle of winter - king himself got possessed. He created a raw adamantine cabinet worth 950k. Nice. We expected nothing less from a king. This cabinet will be placed in his throne room.

And finally, in the winter, the huge pile of troll corpses lying on the orthoclaste road is being moved into the garbage chute. About time. They were designated for dumping months if not years ago.