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Necromancer apocalypse

Lack of booze (bob's fault)

Lack of booze (overseer's fault)

It won't, Sealrim will live forever

[MaiseNow]

Hey everyone! This is my third fort or so on the Steam edition, and the first one I've decided to do a write-up for along the way. I can't promise consistent, regular updates, but I do intend to see this fort out to its conclusion because the world it ended up in is intriguing to me.

A brief summary:
There are four dwarven civilizations in the world of Xah Acath (The Dimensions of Prophecy), an unknown amount of humans, elves, goblins, and at least three necromancers. Of the four dwarf civs, one in particular has a notably lower population than the others. I changed my Mountainhome civ to be that one. I love the drama of "you 7 dorfs are literally 1% of our total population, go make a successful outpost and DO NOT DIE".

My goal with this fort is to have a population of at least 100, because that'll be a significant benefit to the kingdom. A subgoal is to become powerful enough to take down some settlements from the largest dwarf civ.

I clicked the option to fully control your embark stats without realizing you can't back out of that once you enter it, so I had to create dwarves by hand for this. I'm also happy to dorf anyone who requests it in comments.

With that said, let's get on with it!

Index

Entry 1: Prologue and Embark

Entry 2: Year 1

Entry 3: Year 2, Part 1 (Spring and Summer, aka The Seasons of Botched Workorders)

Entry 4: Year 2, Part 2 (Fall and Winter, aka The Badger Invasion)

Entry 5: Year 3

Entry 6: Year 4

[MaiseNow]

Prologue

“Well, something must be done!” the king pinched his eyebrows with two rough fingers. The Infamous Room was in danger of being wiped out in the next lifetime if something wasn’t done about it. At least two outposts had been destroyed in dragon attacks over the last 50 years, not to mention the surrounding wars and goblin ambushes. Thîkut Firstfortress had known nothing but stark ups and downs for his entire reign.
A gaunt dwarf whose beard was wider than his body stood stoically nearby. The King’s advisor lost weight from illness years ago and never could gain it back, which made rumors of him being a secret necromancer very convincing, though untrue. He cleared his throat to gain his lord’s attention.
“My liege, the mountainhome has a stable population at the moment. Perhaps sending out a small expedition crew to build a new outpost ought to be considered. It has been decades since the last attack.” His raspy voice echoed slightly in the throne room as the King sat, silently pondering his options.
He had 800 souls to his domain, while Dîshmab Helmsgrouped had practically taken over dwarfkind with his 10,000 citizens and nearly 100 settlements.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

                 

While there is strength in numbers, it also pays to have those numbers spread out. Could we really spare one whole percent of the population to try to form a new outpost?
“Very well, Ingor.” A weariness crept into the King’s voice that he didn’t like. “Send out notices to suitable candidates and tell the workers to get a caravan ready.”
“Aye, my lord.” Ingor Slashedcoals bowed, and began to leave the room.
“Oh, and, Ingor?”
“Yes, my lord?” He stopped, and turned to look at King Thîkut Firstfortress. The leader of the Infamous Room suddenly looked life-sized rather than a King, as if Ingor was seeing him as a mortal being for the first time.
“Instill upon these settlers that they must succeed. And if they ever grow mighty enough to take settlements from Dîshmab and The Bright Trades, they will be heralded as heroes in statues and engravings for all time.” There was something else that Thîkut meant with this message, but Ingor could not quite tell what it was. He decided it meant “We will check on you annually and you’d better be successful”, and included such in the paperwork he devised to make the journey legitimate in dwarven government.


Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, Expedition Leader - Embark:

Ingor graciously gave us a map with some highlighted suggestions on it for where to put our new bloody outpost. Daft bastard suggested several locations within a day’s travel of necromancer’s towers! Didn’t he say that the future of the Infamous Room depended on us? So why send us to death? Whose side is he really on? I bet he’s a thrall, skin-n-bones arse that he is. Ah well, we’ll work with it.
I ended up picking a plot of land on a peninsula since it was the furthest away from other civs I could find that didn’t sound like it would end in me boiling alive in my shoes. I had no idea that the southern wilds were so hot!
We’re far from the mountains, but Ingor says there’s no aquifer and that the nearest civs are Elves and Humans, a few days away.

Good. Nice and safe, just like the King wanted. We have a long way to go, I’d best put down the journal and make sure everything’s ready. Ingor really hand-picked this crew, I expect us to do quite well before the first supply caravan comes that he promised us.

...

Well, we’ve finally made it. Somehow, with all our animals, stores, and dwarves intact even. Ingor gave me a letter before we left, saying “do not open this until you reach your destination”.

I just opened it. Bloody bastard named the outpost before we even got here. What kind of name is Sealrim?! Come to think of it, how much of this venture was even our choice? I feel unsettled and as if Ingor is watching us, somehow.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While everyone else sets up the fort and puts the animals in the pasture, I’m going to write about each of our new citizens of Sealrim for the history books.

Obviously, there is me–Asmel Plaitchannel (in the common tongue, anyway). I was an administrator at the Mountainhome so it was sensible for me to be the expedition leader on this fool’s errand. I’m close friends with everyone on the embark except for Lòr Wallfurnace and Kadôl Metallisten. Both consider me a friend, though, for reasons I am unsure of. I consider us kindred spirits.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Normally I’m not this good at writing, but something about these journal entries Ingor insisted I write has me coming up with words I forgot even existed. Bet he enchanted this book or summat. Anyways. I’m not too good at much of anything, but I’m pleasant enough to talk to so I do all the paperwork.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next is Lòr Wallfurnace. She’s our everydwarf–she has a little skill in several necessary labors. Perfect for honing in on whatever assignment she’s on, as she’s already prone to do. She’s impatient with a bad memory, but somehow she’s good at conversations and has a lot of willpower. She likes causing small problems on purpose, and she’s always fidgeting somehow.

Kadôl Metallisten, despite her name, is our farmsdwarf. She’s adventurous, good with words and people, and avoids conflict. I think that’s because she is secretly a coward. I’m hoping if we get more settlers here, she can help with the administrative duties. Maybe she’d be a good trader.

Etur Tinwork (why did Ingor choose so many metal-surname dwarves for this mission?) is our physician. I have no idea why he is a physician, because he’s critically impatient, bad at intuiting what to do in a given situation, and has no empathy for others. But he’s friendly, and I guess someone at the Mountainhome decided we needed a doctor who makes people feel at ease. He’s rather scatterbrained, even in conversation.

Zon Thronefortresses is our craftsdwarf. He is also a novice warrior with a hammer and armor. I suspect he will end up as a squad leader once we get our military up and running. Of course, I’m the expedition leader, I could just tell him to. But he’s a bona fide pacifist who likes to start arguments, so maybe not. He’s not good with social situations–indeed, he’s prone to hating others, which is one of few qualities of his I don’t get along with–and is easily swayed due to his low willpower.

Onol Daubcloister is our woodworker, with a little farming experience from his youth. He has great memory and a great way with words, but his intuition and reflexes are not great. He likes helping others, but finds collaborative work tedious. Unlike most of us here in Sealrim, he can handle stress without breaking.

Finally, we have Deduk Diamondflies, our stoneworker. He’s rather similar to Lòr, but he’s a perfectionist who gets nervous in combat despite appreciating martial skills. Truthfully, he’s just generally a nervous, jealous dwarf. Letting him dig holes and hew blocks is probably for the best, at least until we find something else that suits him better.

Phew, that was a lot more writing than I expected myself to do! But now we have a record of the original dwarves of Sealrim. I hope to Budam Zefonzalud that we live long enough for this to matter. For now, it’s thunderstorming, everyone is wet and unhappy, and I need to help convince the alpacas to move to the pasture. I'll write a new update in a few weeks, once we've gotten things under control.

[MaiseNow]

Dorfing list

To be dorfed:
N/A

Already dorfed:
* brewer bob, as a Brewer
* MaiseNow, as Cilob Fencedverse

[MaiseNow]

Year 1

Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, Expedition Leader - 11th Felsite, Year 250:

Well, Ingor, so far so good. We’ve got several rooms set up, bedrooms even, and space around the workshops for walls just like home.

A large portion of these early levels is being hewn out of rock salt. Which means our workshops, walls, doors, tables, and even our mugs are being crafted from rock salt. Who’sever bloody idea rock salt MUGS was is going to get a rock salt mug to the head. Then again, it does add a nice depth of flavor to the dwarven ale we brought from the Mountainhome…

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Anyway. I’ve never designed an outpost before, so my ideas are probably not up to peak dwarven efficiency. But they’re good enough to get us off the ground. On a, erm, personal note, I’ve been quite taken with Onol Daubcloister. We truly see eye to eye about most things, and love has unexpectedly bloomed between us. I’m not usually one to open up to feelings like this, so it’s very strange for me. While I was distracted by Onol’s courting, I forgot to tell everyone else to stop collecting vermin corpses from the cats. Now we have hamster remains all over the stockpiles and no one is dumping them in the new corpse dumping pit despite my putting signs on all of them telling someone to do it!

Mid summer
out of food somehow as best I can tell! We switched the farm from cave wheat to plump helmets, gathered plants outside to make meals but the meals keep getting eaten before they can get stored.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We dug down a few more layers earlier in the summer, and finally found stone that wasn’t rock salt or hematite. But for now, the food situation is much more urgent than finding ores and gems. I tried to ask Lòr to hunt, but she’s ignoring my requests. Maybe I should go do it. We need the meat.

20th Malachite
I have been informed that we have some plants saved up now, they’re in a barrel next to the dwarven rum so I missed them while searching. I truly need to consider who should take care of accounting in this place. All anyone can tell me is we have about 40 Urists of food, no meat, and 4 plants. That’s not acceptable.

After a brief thought, it makes sense to have Deduk be the bookkeeper. He’s a neurotic perfectionist, I’m sure he’ll do a good job for us. I’ll ask the others to build him an office. At some point over the summer, Onol improved his woodworking skills. He’s now an Adequate carpenter. I guess building enough tables, beds, and storage chests for each dwarf in the outpost was fine practice.

2 Galena
It took a few weeks after designating some mining tasks, but Deduk and Lòr are finally digging out the new hospital and hospital storage, and will hopefully move on to Deduk’s bookkeeping office before their next ridiculously long ale break. Soon I hope to be done with basic construction so we can get to work on improving what we have. Better temples, higher quality meeting halls, maybe even a tavern up near the surface!

But, for now…we continue mass-crafting doors for new rooms.

3 Galena
I spoke too soon. Migrants have arrived! We have 2 new dwarves on our roster. That should help ease the workload for us all. Let’s see what skills they have…

Etur Labordroar is a young dwarven man with some mining skill. He has an average sized extended family with 20 or so dwarves, great intuition and empathy, but he’s bad at words and can’t carry a tune in a barrel. Maybe someday I’ll make him an assistant medical dwarf, if he ever gets over his disdain for being told what to do by authority.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Tulon Helpgems is an odd dwarf. He’s a bowyer and a lyemaker, he’s a marksdwarf, and he left behind his family but brought his two pets–a cavy pup and a gosling. He made this journey with two baby animals but left his wife at home? Perhaps she will join us in another migration. That would be nice for him. Tulon will make a decent squad leader, I believe. With almost ten dwarves, we should start military training once construction on the new bedrooms is complete. I’ve heard some forts double their population with their first migrant wave! By the grace of Budam, I am glad that wasn’t the case today.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

14 Galena
One of the baby alpacas we brought with us has grown up and is ready to be shorn. I am concerned about it surviving the winter if we shear it now, so close to the cooler season. It is worth a test, we do have two alpacas.

25 Galena
Deduk has been finished cataloging the outpost for a few weeks now. Looks like we’re doing alright for now, Kadòl has been doing a great job farming.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

12 Limestone
I was busy assigning people to begin military training, when the caravan arrived. The merchant was swearing at me from across the valley, and it wasn’t until he got closer that I realized something critical.
I forgot to build a trade depot!!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While everyone is working on that, the outpost liaison, Monom Dancewires, caught my attention and updated me on some news from home, before asking what we wanted the caravan to try to bring next year.
Thinking ahead, I suggested some light armor, heavier armor, and some leather goods including water skins. There are not many hostile creatures around here, so far, so leather will be hard to come by until we have to start culling stray creatures.

Monom tells me they’re trading at a higher price for cloth and headwear for next year. Having shorn all four of our wool producing creatures and made wool yarn from their hair, this will be an interesting experiment to see how much cloth we get out of two sheep and two alpacas.

Upon reading the updates from Monom…we are not the only tiny outpost within The Infamous Room. Another has had its population lowered below 20. But, the mountainhome still has the vast majority of our population with 400 or so citizens. It’s still surrounded by human settlements and abandoned monasteries. One of the larger dwarven civs is at war with us. Perhaps that is why our population is so meager? I never paid attention to current affairs before, so I’m just speculating. Either way, he circled all of The Infamous Room's settlements, and even starred the mountainhome. I suppose I don't look like someone who can read a map?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I put both squads on rest, set up 22 goods to be traded, and now we wait for dwarves to move the items to the trading depot. Onol is busy doing his everyday tasks, but I’ve told him as soon as he finds time he should head to the trading depot.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   

Come on! I know Budam is important to us both, but you’ve been praying for a week straight! Sigh.

Oh, great, some migrants have arrived too. Another pair, bringing our population up to 11. I’ll introduce myself to them once we get these merchants dealt with.

Out of frustration, I undesignated the temple and took Onol off the squad roster. Once he put his waterskin down, that seems to have caused him to realize he was needed at the trading depot. I’ll redesignate the temple now so no one gets mad about not being able to pray.

Most of what we’re trading this year is our excess of rock salt, and the few crafts I was able to get Zon to bash together right before autumn started, so we don’t have much value to trade. We’re doing alright for the moment, though, so I’m going to make the best of the 148 Urists’ value our trade has.

The mountainhome has sent some interesting goods, but I think getting some training weapons (so we don’t have to waste time crafting them). I desperately want the silver kanzud they are selling, to improve the merrymaking in the dining hall, but it is significantly out of our budget. Hopefully we will strike gems over the next year and have higher quality crafts to sell.

Except…..
What?!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What do you mean you can’t take what I’m offering and that you’re 2,000 Urists over capacity!

Oh. Wait. It’s the rocks, isn’t it?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Removing those takes our value down to 112 Urists. Let me see how many rocks I can convince you to take…just one? Fair enough. Raw hewn boulders are the heaviest thing in the world after all. Next year I’ll cut them into blocks first.

Now, let’s have a look at our new citizens.

Rovod Matchedpaddle, who only knows his deity, the dwarf he arrived with, and Tulon the militia commander. Novice stoneworker, and the first thing he did upon arriving was go to the temple and meditate about gems. I think I’ll try to make him our gemcutter.

Cilob Fencedverse is much the same–only knows her deity and Rovod. But she’s an accomplished armorsmith and a plant presser. Her most notable skills though are in music. If I ever get instruments, I hope she enjoys them. (Author note: if we do start dorfing people, I’m going to dorf myself as her.) I’d like to keep her as an armorsmith, but we have a long way to go before our smithing enterprises get off the ground.

23 Sandstone
I may have made another novice overseer's error. I did not retrieve our goods after the traders from the mountainhome left. Nobody wants to touch them even though they’re not forbidden. I’ve set everything to dump, changed the dump square from above the pit I wanted to put the hamster corpses in, to a random place in the entrance hallway. But NOW suddenly everyone has decided “let’s move these hamsters that have been rotting since Granite!” Despite my handbook saying I can place a dump over an open space, evidently the rest of my citizens didn’t get the memo that I didn’t mean literally ONLY the open space above the pit. I’ve corrected this.

At least we’ll get our barrel and training axes out of this.

…I had accidentally told everyone to ignore items that were outside.
By the grace of Budam, I was much better at this job when I wasn’t also trying to start from the ground up. Someone else had already set all the rules, I just made sure it kept working.

15 Timber
I’m tired of there being boulders all over the fort. I’ve undesignated the stone stockpile, and made a 2x2 dump for stones. Hopefully the quantum stockpile effect I’ve heard of will work this way. It’ll make it much easier to understand what materials I actually have available.

I’ve also re-enabled one squad and they are on a training cycle now. We’ll hopefully be slightly ready if anything ever happens. But considering the only creatures I’ve seen so far have been badgers, I’m not holding my breath. Maybe this will be the start of our military might that helps us bring The Bright Trades down a peg, someday.

For now, it is winter.

—

6 Obsidian
Some damn fool cooked all the plump helmets, so we didn’t get any seeds from processing them into booze. Having to brew pig tail beer instead of plump helmet, because we bloody ran out of drinks entirely.

Luckily, my dear Onol is quick to learn, and he decided he’d be the one to re-hydrate the outpost. So far he’s doing a good job. But we quickly ran out of pig tails too, and we can’t plant those again until summer.

Hopefully the beer we do have will hold out, or Onol knows how to brew something out of surface plants.

Yes! Crisis averted. It’s no plump helmet booze, but quinoa beer will still keep us alive.

25 Obsidian
The alpacas have given birth to a baby. Between them and the lamb born earlier this year, we could someday aim to be the cloth capital of Dwarfkind.

1 Granite, Year 251

Despite my critical errors, we have survived a whole year in this valley.

It could be exciting if we became the mountainhome someday, in our relatively defensible position here on this peninsula. Unless goblins learn to make boats. But, for now, a small victory of survival is enough.

[brewer bob]

Nice to see some new fortress write-ups coming!

Also, I'd like to be dorfed as a brewer, if possible.

[MaiseNow]

You got it Bob! You'll be dorfed in the next update, or as soon as it makes sense.

I've decided to just keep this a solo fort with dorfed community members, so the next update will probably happen today or tomorrow. I want to put more time into editing the journal writing this time, rather than writing it all off the cuff as I play.

[Maloy]

I hate when all the plump helmets get cooked

It's so frustrating to get more because you gotta wait that whole year for a caravan

good story so far and I'm enjoying it!

[MaiseNow]

Holy cow, a LOT happened this year. I'm going to split it into two posts for ease of reading.


Year 2, Part 1 (Spring and Summer, aka The Season of Botched Workorders)
Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, expedition leader of Sealrim

I’ve been informed by the rest of the dwarves that, despite my lack of overseer experience, they’d like me to continue on as leader, at least until we get a mayor. Zon read my reports and he thinks I have an unexpected knack for overseer work, so I may continue writing these entries even after we get different dwarfagement.

With the change of the seasons, the squads have rotated out their training schedule. I never was interested in military service at the mountainhome, so I do not particularly know if it is a good idea to have squads like this with such a small population. I am considering dropping us down to one squad total. That may be best until we get more dwarves who can be dedicated to their respective tasks.

Oh, speaking of dedication, Etur Laboredroar has informed me that he is going to be our dedicated brewmaster, and that we should refer to him as “Bob the Brewer'' from now on. I have marked him in our records accordingly. Similarly, Cilob Fencedverse has told me she wants to be called Maise, now, though she did not have any demands about job assignments.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

From here on we will refer to them both thusly.

As far as supplies go, we are stable for the moment. Rovod is complaining about not having enough gems to cut. There’s a pile of yellow jaspers down in the mines, but no one is willing to haul them. Someone got interrupted while mining to go on militia training and even left their pickaxe on the stairs! Speaking of mining, my next goal is to find more metals. We need to start smithing, so we can use Maise’s armorsmithing skills before they atrophy. Just because we’re safe for now doesn’t mean we’ll be safe forever. Which means…digging.

Which, as always, could cause problems and introduce danger to the fort. We should build carefully, and add doors as we go. They won’t stop monstrosities, but a locked and forbidden door can stop many mundane threats. Maybe someday Onol will create a masterwork door that will be indestructible! But we won’t know until we get more citizens to trigger the dwarven subconscious and allow us to achieve Moods.

14 Granite
I’ve asked the miners to dig 5 levels at a time until we find something notable underground. Ten levels down, and we finally found caves! As well as some new gems for Rovod. Although….something strange seems to be happening with this cave. It’s a giant hole as far down as we can see. Lòr says we encountered it at level -19, but it stretches up to -7 and we can see open air all the way down until -81. Except–wait, there’s something over to the northwest!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Our dwarven senses say there’s a shallower opening there, with towercap mushrooms stretching into the space. That will be our way in. I cancel the stairwells and start a dig request heading toward that space. Unfortunately, we can’t build a bridge without having dug out a space on both sides, so we have to resort to digging around the hole.

Lòr tells me that as she approached the high point I sent them to, that she sensed an even higher one that may be more useful to us. She claims it has cave spiders for silk, muddy water for plants, fungiwood trees, pig tails, and other mushroom delicacies. Well, consider me convinced. I re-route the dig even further north after checking where she marked on the map.

Suddenly, Deduk informs me that a human is visiting! Deduk hasn’t been outside in weeks, I have no idea how he knew a visitor had just entered our territory. I wonder what he wants. Shortly after he arrived in the dining hall, Deduk tells me a human spearman has arrived as well!

Perhaps this is because we breached the caves? Humans love to hunt and there are spiders down there. Surely enough, as soon as the hammerman found me, he asked if he could live here and help fight monsters. The spearman likely will, too. Luckily for them we built extra bedrooms during the last expansion.

What the…while assigning the hammerman a bedroom, I learned that our first round of bedrooms are developing floor fungus since they were on a silty clay soil layer. I hope that isn’t bad for us.

I suspect that we will need to start to relocate a portion of the population deeper into the earth, so they have less distance to walk as we progress downward.

Onol notified me of some distressing news–we attracted no migrants this spring. Of course, we have no way to know if they were waylaid on the way here, or if nobody wanted to come. We have enough citizens for the moment, at any rate.

26 Slate
I have been very busy and unable to write entries recently. We are building a bridge over the path into the cavern, and I have asked the miners to carve out a new living space and crafting space in a nearby but slightly disconnected area. I’m sure everyone is tired of walking up 10 levels of stairs every time they decide to haul a boulder. Here is a rough sketch of the new area plans.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We still have not found any lava, so magma furnaces are still off limits. I am inclined to resort to regular furnaces soon, which would mean we need to build and learn to manage a fungiwood farm if we want to play nice with the elves nearby. Plus it would be much more convenient than hauling surface wood a dozen levels down. I would give my fort for an elevator…

15 Felsite

Bob has informed me we are almost out of drinks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My good dwarf, YOU are the brewer! What happened?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

…this bloody squad. Forget militia training, we need more dwarves for that to work. I’m disbanding the squad until further notice. Get on with your actual jobs!

1 Hematite
The miners have finished the first half of the stockpiles and are currently digging out my two experimental bedrooms, which will likely become the bedrooms for Rovod and Zon so they can craft more efficiently. I hope to eventually have only administrators and guest citizens on the upper floors, with all the working dwarves closer to their jobs as we continue to expand.

I’ve also increased the allotted space for crafts workshops, so they can be in one room. The usual wall space around each station applies, of course. The hard part is going to be farming. I will need to wall off a section of the cavern, which is likely going to be hard when the ceiling is so many Urists high.

21 Hematite
I have just realized a major flaw in my design of the new craftsdwarf room. If we need to wall someone in after a failed Mood, it has the potential to block off other craft stations as well. Looks like we are deconstructing some of these stations and moving them over to keep that from happening.

I’ve also added a wood furnace and a smelter. Now we can start melting down some of the hematite and making iron goods.

14 Malachite
We’ve started building more of those spacious bedrooms down here for workers on this level. Several dwarves are neutral instead of happy, and it’s because they keep sleeping on the ground in transit between the new level and their existing bedrooms. Unfortunately this means constructing and moving furniture, building new doors, and re-assigning rooms. It’s not difficult, it’s just tedious. But it’ll be worth it.

The first to get their bedroom moved is Bob the brewer. He has a lot of work to do and shouldn’t spend all his time traversing staircases.

Speaking of Bob….where did he go?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Curses, I haven’t moved the temple off the surface level yet!

27 Malachite
Almost out of booze again. Bob won’t stop praying to our goddess. I’ve sent several dwarves out on the surface to collect plants again, so Bob will have something to brew. We just need to hold out until the caravan arrives, then we can buy plump helmets and their spawn and we’ll be okay again.
But it’s only mid-summer. We have a long ways to go. I’d better get used to that weird nutty flavor that’s unique to quinoa beer.

Oh, I discovered why we’re constantly out of brewable plants. I mistakenly placed two standing work orders for meals and set their satisfactory condition incorrectly. So we were making food until infinity, which left nothing for Bob to brew.

2 Galena
Deduk informs me that we have once again attracted no migrants this season. My worry for the mountainhome grows. I wonder what news will come with the caravan this autumn? Will the caravan come this autumn? Well, we certainly won’t know anything if we dehydrate to death first. Bob, please, stop praying. You have things to brew now. We need you.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

…Bob?
That’s water, Bob. What are you doing? Are you alright? What do you mean Rovod is there too? What is going on here?? Half the fortress is constantly praying to various gods, never returning underground to their beds. Opting to sleep in the makeshift temple instead. It feels ominous somehow. I’m going to undesignate the temple for a moment, again, just to get everyone unstuck.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yep, that worked.

21 Galena
After almost a month, Bob has finally figured out that he needs to brew more alcohol for us. Thank you, Bob. We’ve also had 5 more petitions from monster hunters to live here, all of which I’ve had to deny. We can barely keep up with the 17 people who live here, maybe next year once we have some damn plump helmets again. Well, now that I’ve solved the brewery issue, let’s see what else is going on…

Wait, my dwarfish cave senses tell me something…
There’s plump helmets in the cavern just beyond where we’ve dug! Alright, that settles it. We need to build a mechanism for the drawbridge, and a lever further in the settlement to open and close it. I refuse to leave this entrance unable to be blocked.

While waiting for the mechanisms to be built, I’ve seen Tulon in the halls. He’s slightly unhappy after being in the elements, drinking water without a cup, sleeping on the ground, and missing his wife that he left behind when he moved here. Sorry, Tulon. You’ll feel better soon.

Deduk began work on the mechanisms–made of rock, for the time being. We don’t need these to be lava proof.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Maise decided to be the one to hook up the lever and mechanisms to the bridge I had everyone build a while ago.

It works! Thank you Tulon, for the inaugural lever pulling. Now to install a set of doors further up the corridor as an airlock, and we can breach the cavern and start collecting spider silk and planning our new farms.

[MaiseNow]

Year 2, Part 2 (Fall and Winter, aka The Badger Invasion)
Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, expedition leader of Sealrim

6 Limestone
While preparing the doors for the airlock, I got a note from Deduk (why is Deduk the one who learns of everyone’s presence in the area? I suppose I may never know) that a baron’s consort is visiting?

I’m sorry WHAT?!

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While waiting for him to make it to the fort, Deduk continues speaking, and informs me that the caravan has also arrived! And that Monom Dancedwires is our liaison again. I took my time in the booze stockpile, because he always knows where to find me. But I didn’t expect what I saw when he skidded around a corner as he ran into the store room. Monom is completely soaking wet (likely from the recent rainstorm), and stark naked except for his beard.

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What happened to the careless yet polished dwarf from last year? At any rate, he updated my map and gave me a paper with some notes about recent events, then quickly moved on to next year’s caravan. Due to this year’s near dehydration, I am going to request dwarven wine–which we don’t make here, to my knowledge. I’m also going to request cheese, and some dwarven sugar. Just to give us some variety for our meals. Monom says next year’s caravan will pay extra for splints and rings. Rings are easy. I look forward to a hearty trade next fall.

Now, back to the trading depot with the merchants. My dear Onol is helping stock the trading depot, before he sits down and negotiates with them. Thank goodness for Deduk, because we know that the pink tourmalines that Rovod cut earlier this year are worth a thousand Urists each! Brilliant work, my friends. We’ll have all the goods we need, and send them home with a profit to brag about. With any luck we’ll get more migrants next year because of this. But of course, I forgot how merchants work. They don’t want to pay the real value of the tourmalines. Oh well, 300 Urists each is still quite nice. All told, all the gems and sheep’s wool fabric sold for 2200 Urists. Even after splurging and buying some copper armor, clothing, and an extra barrel on top of several bags of plump helmet spawn and pig tail seeds, they still got 1600 Urists of profit. I am not an economy'minded dwarf. I hope this was a good choice. Immediately after shaking hands with the traders, Onol was accosted by a monster hunter looking to live here. No, I’m sorry. We need more workers first.

And, as if on cue, Deduk approached me in a worried manner. Even with the caravan’s arrival, we received no migrants along with it.

I checked the information that Monom gave me, to see if there was a reason for this. I scarcely could convince myself to open the parchment, suddenly seized by a feeling that something terrible had happened to The Insidious Room. But that’s silly, I realized. They wouldn’t be able to send a caravan and a liaison if something had gone wrong. On the contrary, upon opening the note–we’ve grown significantly over the last year. There are two mountainhome worthy settlements now, plus two new ones. Sealrim is still the furthest away, which may be why we didn’t receive anything. Why, then, did the king send us so far away only to never send us more citizens after the first year? Perhaps this year was a fluke. Wait…what’s that marking?

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Dark Dwarven Pits? The settlement of Murderworks has grown significantly, too.  A brief chill ran up my spine. Why do we have 5 settlements with less than 20 dwarves (Sealrim included), 2 with between 50 and 100, and three with a combined 1,100 dwarves? On the one hand, we’ve increased our population by at least 500 in the last year if my math is correct. On the other…we have absolutely no contact with any of the other dwarven civilizations. Is the fear of our impending colonization exaggerated? Or does the king know more than he’s letting on? I wish I could visit the mountainhome and see how things were going there. Maybe that would give me some insight, now that I’ve been on the fringe of the fringe of civilization for two years.

Unfortunately I can’t do that, so I must remain here, speculating via my limited information from home, and hope we get more migrants in the next seasonal wave. For now, time to finish the airlock and open up the caverns for the monster hunters. Over this winter, I plan to finish organizing the move into the deeper settlement, and decide what workshops are staying at the old mid-level. It won’t do to have everyone bouncing around all the time. But my head is reeling with the implications of Monom’s update, and I need time to think first.

23 Limestone
Tulon just came to cry on my shoulder about how lonely he is. I supported him, but inside I can’t really empathize. He misses his wife but he moved here without her. It just feels silly to me. I couldn’t imagine moving somewhere without Onol.  On my way to dry off, Deduk informed me that the alpaca has given birth to a second baby. It may be time to geld one of them so we aren’t overrun with them someday. In the meantime, we’ve breached the cave. Tulon has gone to collect spiderwebs for silk, and I’m sending out a request to collect some of the mushrooms in the area.
Wait, is that blood?

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Giant cave toad…I want to say I hope those aren’t dangerous, but they probably are. Next order of business is to move the monster hunter bedrooms down here, so they’re closer to the caves.

25 Sandstone
We ran out of logs. It took two years from when we got here (and cut down several trees) to run out of wood from the surface. Not bad, not bad. I submitted a request to cut down a few of the tower-cap trees that litter the caves, and now we have an abundance of “wood” available to finish making new beds and chests for more bedrooms. The monster hunters keep wandering into and out of the caves without any purpose. I’m hoping once their bedrooms are closer, they won’t spend so much time traveling and maybe they can go fight something interesting to them.

1 Moonstone
I’ve moved everyone’s bedrooms down to the new main level. Hopefully that will reduce travel times for everyone and they will sleep in their beds more often. I’m also adding some more crafting space in the craftsroom for a loom, leatherworks, and a clothier’s, which just means moving those from upper levels as well. The monster hunters have been fighting smaller creatures, like cave spiders. I hear someone spotted a troglodyte family across the lake, but we cannot reach them yet.

More and more citizens have complaints that their lives are uneventful and boring. Several want to fight more often, many miss their families (which, I cannot overstate, they left behind when moving here and they should have known that they would miss them eventually). A few haven’t crafted in some time and are antsy about their skills. I promise, my friends, as soon as we get even just 3 more citizens, things will get more interesting. Speaking of interesting…whatever happened to that baron’s consort that came to visit at the same time as the caravan? Deduk states he is no longer within the boundaries of our claim, so I have no clue. I hope he made it home to his wife safely. We never even got to speak with him.

14 Moonstone
I sent Lòr to cut a 2-Urist wide path to a nearby portion of the cave, so the monster hunters have some other paths to roam.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A hunter almost immediately informed me that the troglodytes are trapped within our borders. Something happens to the land when a settlement is created, and nothing within can step out without another settlement in mind as a destination, unless a dwarf comes near and expands the land’s claim. So the trogs are stuck, forever lamenting that they miss their families and…their intellectual pursuits?

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Perhaps our classification of them as “wild animals” is wrong.

18 Moonstone
The hunters have informed me that they saw a pile of large skeletons in the cavern lake. They said they’re troll skeletons, and Serpentfolk skeletons. Upon closer inspection using my dwarfy senses, I can see there was some type of terrible battle just across the water from where the troglodytes are trapped. There are skeletons of Serpentwomen, trolls, and troglodytes, all with various amounts of blood and a few weapons.

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There’s even still one Serpentwoman alive, though it seems whatever was last to die mashed both of her hands.

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These weapons are all bismuth bronze…that would prove to be exceedingly useful once we get a larger population and can actually afford to have a militia. I need to decide, would it be better to carve and build our way over to that corner of the cave and let the hunters end the Serpentwoman’s suffering, but risk her coming to attack us? Or should we wait and let her starve to death first?

…Is leadership making me heartless? Or have I always been this way?

20 Moonstone
I just heard Bob complaining that he couldn’t get a drink because his “water source vanished”.
Excuse me?

WHY ARE WE OUT OF BLOODY BOOZE AGAIN YOU USELESS BREWMASTER

Ahem. I checked the stocks to see if there was anything blocking Bob from completing his one and only job in this place.

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No, we have an absolute glut of plump helmets. Ah, some of my conditions on the work order were the problem. I added additional requirements to prevent us from brewing all the plants or seeds, but that seems to have backfired and prevented Bob from using anything. I’ve re-designated the work order to just make booze if we have less than 40 drinks.

Bob, however, claims he has nothing to do and has gone to meditate on metals.
Sigh. There’s no helping a dwarf sometimes.

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I am once again a godsdamned fool. In my sobriety I misread the work order template and accidentally ticked off “if we have AT LEAST 40 drinks, then make drinks.” I’ve corrected this and now Bob is doing his job at last. Crisis averted once again.

3 Opal
While I was dealing with Bob, something unexpected happened.

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Badgers? Why are the badgers suddenly hostile? Why are they 13 levels underground in the heart of my fortress?

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Well, they need to be dealt with. I re-establish a squad, temporarily, under Tulon’s leadership. He names them The Handles of Slapping. I briefly consider keeping this squad intact and making them focus on grappling. No, not the time for this kind of thought. Give them weapons for now. Going through level by level, I select every badger I find and mark them for death.

…why are there so many in here though? What happened on the surface to send these creatures diving into our settlement? It seems like this involves every badger on the map, more or less.

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The Handles of Slapping immediately set out and start slaughtering the poor badgers. A dog injures one before they get to it, and it proceeds to vomit all over the main hallway and the craftsdwarf room.

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I investigated the old storage level, to discover Tulon fighting the badgers alone. He’s mildly injured. At least our medicaldwarf can stop complaining about his skills going rusty now.


Journal of Onol Agoddom, broker of Sealrim
5 Opal
Asmel spoke too soon. Deduk Diamondflies, our bookkeeper, got slashed by a badger sow. His upper body is cut open, and his right ear is broken. Asmel herself got bit in the arm hard enough to knock her out. Don’t ask me how that works. I need to consult the guidebook Ingor gave to Asmel before we departed for this mission. We need to quickly stock the infirmary with bandages and such.

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Shit. It’s also the middle of winter. The river is frozen up above, covered in snow as well. I wonder if the invalids will drink cave water? It’s not stagnant, but it’s not surface-fresh. I hope it is sufficient. As temporary Sealrim manager, I’ve swapped the injured out of the Handles, and put in a few other dwarves. I will worry about cleaning up the badger corpses once all the badgers are corpses.

…Asmel, my dear, I cannot believe you forgot for so long that a settlement needs soap for the infirmary. All of you are like to die if I don’t get you some soap! After consulting the guidebook, I’ve scoured through our stocks to see if we have any fat to render. While resetting the kill order for the badgers, I found something surprising. Two of the remaining adult badgers ventured into the caves, and are now attacking the injured Serpentwoman. I will focus the squad’s efforts on the cubs, for now.

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9 Opal
After a careful inventory of all the remaining live badgers, we have eradicated them from the halls of Sealrim. Three are still in the caverns, fighting the Serpentwoman, and one adult and three children are on the surface. I am closing off the caverns so we can focus our efforts on cleaning up this mess. I tried to set up an ashery to start the soap process, but it needs blocks and buckets. Etur in the infirmary also requires buckets–wait. If i close off the caverns to prevent badger incursions, I also cut off our water source. Hm.

A simple solution–I’ve built a door. Once all the cats have deigned to return to this side of it, I will lock it. That will keep the badgers on their side, and we can still access water. Meanwhile, I personally am building the buckets Etur keeps screaming about for the infirmary.

24 Opal
We finally have a Soapmaker and an Ashery. I’ve set up ash production, a quern to be built (because the small creatures we’ve butchered don’t produce fat to render, I need to use seed oil for the soap), and have designated the badger corpses to be dumped. Hopefully people take care of those sooner rather than later, before everyone is fully traumatized by walking past dead creatures all the time.

I’ve also heard that the two badger sows in the caves have both given birth to triplets in the fortnight they’ve been fighting the Serpentwoman. There are now ten badgers in the caves, seven of which are children. But they are locked in on that side, so for now I am not as concerned as I probably should be. We have more important tasks right now than a badger genocide.

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Evidently, cave water is good enough for invalids, as Etur has been dutifully sprinting back and forth to fill buckets. After she’s healed, I will suggest to Asmel that we move the infirmary closer to the current residential level.

Wait, what’s this? By the grace of Bodom, badgers are big enough to produce tallow! We can make soap out of these! I set up a work order for butchering the badgers, and went around canceling the dump designations. I moved the butcher’s station down to the new kitchen, and requested more soap to be made. I also asked to move some of the cloth from the main stockpile to the infirmary stockpile. Suddenly, I've realized that Asmel is healed and out of bed! Excellent. I will turn my notes over to her and allow her to resume her job as overseer.

Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, expedition leader of Sealrim
28 Opal
After the pain wore off from the badger attack, I felt fine enough to go back to work. Somehow, during the confusion of moving the badger corpses to the dumping site, some cloth got sent along with them. People refuse to acknowledge the cloth as different than the badgers, and everything from the dump site gets moved if I try to move just the cloths. I suppose those are lost to us for now. And just in time, too, because the corpses finally started to rot and spew miasma. I forbid the door so no one walks into the purple haze of death.

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Things are finally calming down. Tulon and Kadol are still resting in the infirmary. The soap production line that Onol set up is clumsy but working. Now I just pray that somehow word of this doesn’t get back to the mountainhome. We need migrants. We’ve been successful, I don’t understand why no one wants to live here other than monster hunters. After assessing everyone’s moods, I note that Tulon is grumpy despite being unconscious. He doesn’t like to rest, so he is feeling restless and lonely. I hope he finishes recovering soon so he can go back to work like he wants to. Kadol has woken up as well, she has gone back to work without delay.

1 Granite, Year 252
That was a mostly uneventful year with a badger-pocalypse at the end of it. Whoever prayed to have a more interesting life, I hope you’re happy now.

No casualties, but Tulon is getting ever closer to going mad due to missing his wife. He is the dwarf we need to keep the greatest eye on at the moment. If the mountainhome is truly not sending any more migrants, we can’t afford to lose a single soul to madness, at least for as long as possible.

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[MaiseNow]

Zooming out for a second here.

After I finished this write-up I did two things.

1. I forked off a timeline and checked out Legends mode to see what the hell is going on with my civilization.

2. I played around with starting some other, less important forts.

Because of 2 (and reading the wiki aka "the guidebook"), I've figured out a LOT of mechanics I was missing during Year 2. Namely, don't sell all your valuables to the caravan, because it's them reporting on how much value you HAVE in the fort when they leave that brings in migrants. So that'll change for Year 3, hopefully leading to immigration in Year 4.

As for Legends....this world is weird. The civ I picked is one of several that have a similar flavor of weird. I hesitate to say more because I don't want to spoil it if it ever comes up naturally in the story that happens.

But I can say, that if my dwarves ever figure out what's really going on, the fort's goal may change drastically.

As always, dorfing requests are still up (15 dwarves left undorfed) if anyone wants to take part in the madness.

I may try a slightly different writing style for the next update, and break up the year into seasonal posts. That'll give me more room to actually get into character (like in Nist Akath from the HoL). It depends on how much !!FUN!! occurs. Or I could switch to a real POV and just tell it from my perspective, like DS does in Roomcarnage. I can't decide. Let me know what you think, I could use feedback.

[MaiseNow]

Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, expedition leader - Year 252

I have spoken to Onol, and we both read the guidebook more closely. The mountainhome sends migrants when traders report on how much wealth we produce, not just how much we sell them. So we must create more crafts, and embed gems in them. I would like one dwarf to create a masterwork this year, if that is even possible without a Mood. At a minimum, it is imperative that we create as many high quality items as we can, so we can get migration started next year at a minimum.

8 Granite
The wall enclosing the new cavern farm is coming along nicely.

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Etur tried to help, but I told him to sod off because Tulon needs water. Etur decided to go get a drink for himself first. I suppose I can have one labor assigned to me and help out with the hospital as needed.

10 Granite
A fight broke out on the surface when a badger family roamed too close to the pasture and they got angry at the rooster and hen.

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I am tired of these damned badgers. I hope the Handles of Slapping can manage 3 babies and a mother badger without Tulon.

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12 Granite
As the Handles head up to slaughter the badgers, Deduk informs me that a dwarven prophet is visiting. Fascinating. I can’t wait to speak with him and see what he wants…assuming that he isn’t frightened of the wanton badger slaughter he’s about to walk into.

16 Granite
Deduk began to complain while on badger duty. I removed him from the squad and replaced him with Zon. Onol is the other one in the squad currently, and I heard him say something distressing.

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I checked his file in the dwarfbook and…oh, my dear Onol. How did badgers do this to you? Of the original seven you were the one who could handle stress the best!

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I cancel the order to fight badgers–the mother is dead, the babies are less of a threat at the moment. We have more pressing matters, such as overall sanity.

Out of curiosity, I check a few other dwarfbook entries.

Deduk…

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Lor…

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MYSELF…

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Good grief, one bout of tragedy is apparently enough to traumatize us all into numbness. Lor can’t stop thinking about her accidental foray into the caverns, where she saw a dead troglodyte. I banned spiderweb collection immediately to prevent further distress, but the damage was already done.

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At least Kadol is just ‘getting used to tragedy’.

While she brings in our one mare for milking. …I want to ask why we’re milking the horse, but at this point I probably shouldn’t ask. Whatever keeps her occupied and away from anything to break her spirit.

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22 Granite
Deduk has informed me we attracted no migrants.

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I am unsurprised. No matter. We will remedy this migration situation by next year. Right now the foremost need is food. I am going to set up a second farm in the caverns. Unlike most of the workstations, I am leaving the existing farmer’s station up on the surface so Kadol can easily shear and milk creatures. Though…I’m sure there will be an easier way to do this, once we have more workers. Perhaps we could have two farmers, one for the surface and one for the caves. That would be impressive.

I digress.

While waiting for the doors I need for the farm to be completed, Tulon walked out and dropped a bar of soap on a pile of badger blood.
He then stood around thinking for a moment, before cleaning the blood and leaving behind the soap.

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Wait a second. Tulon! You’re awake!

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Good, I’m glad you’re feeling alright at least in the short term. We really need to get some armor made so everyone doesn’t end up dented or worse.

Erm…Tulon…please stop wasting all the soap on cleaning the caverns.

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6 Slate
The cats keep running into the caverns to kill various vermin. After watching them, I locked the doors once the last one finally came back in. While waiting, I set up the farm and seed stockpiles. We need plump helmets, badly. I’m hoping with the new dwarftools I’ve learned about from the guidebook, we can better manage the stock so we don’t lose all our spawn again.

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8 Slate
The dog gave birth to more pups again. Four this time–no, five. I’ll save them from slaughter for the moment, because we could benefit from training war dogs.

23 Slate
The plump helmets are in progress, but we still need more booze in the meantime.
Bob’s back to his usual prayer cycle, and I’ve sent several collectors out onto the surface to gather plants.

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Bob finally breaks off from praying to his numerous deities to brew some of them to tide us over until the farming stabilizes.

1 Felsite
I remember that this year’s caravan is going to pay extra for rings and splints. Luckily, rings are easy. But the gem stock is still at the surface, it will need to be moved for Rovod’s convenience while he’s working.

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13 Felsite
I tried to start melting down some of the hematite we have lying around, but was quickly informed we’re out of wood. It took nearly a week for someone to get around to chopping down a tower-cap in the cave, but it eventually got done. I can’t wait until we find magma so I stop having to waste wood on charcoal.

20 Felsite
I have arranged it so Maise is the only one assignable to the smeltery and the armory. This should keep her happy and reduce the amount of unnecessary dwarves in the supply chain by one. Now we have one more set of hands to haul wood from the cavern.

I think I’ll stop requesting new tasks for a little while, just to let everything get settled out and allow my friends some downtime. We may have 17 citizens, but 6 of them are monster hunters and do not do any day-to-day work to contribute. So, really, we have 11 citizens plus 6 bonus resource users.

15 Hematite
While letting things run for a while, a human caravan arrived with a human royal treasurer.
I quickly set up the fort to put some gemstones and a few smaller items up for sale. I see that the statue I had commissioned for one of the temples is…a horse. Lovely.

Onol discovers that the treasurer, Mastrosp, is the humans’ equivalent of trade liaison. He graciously updates our map and our notes, before the usual trade plans occur. I requested barrels, and some muskox meat. Since the only creatures in the area seem to be those damned badgers, we don’t have much meat to work with naturally. Next year the humans will want splints and shields.

The merchants and Onol are finally ready to trade. Upon looking through their goods, we saw that they have a barrel of gnomeblight for sale.

Seriously? You would store a dangerous poison (to gnomes at least) right next to the beer? Humans are so careless.

They brought quite a lot of clothing and armor, but it’s all human sized. Since we have no human citizens (they’re all monster hunters), this is worthless to us except to smelt and for that, it’s not worth the cost. I bought some meats, a ring (the dwarven caravan wants rings this year), a copper shield for the squad, and two barrels of alcohol. The traders still get a profit. The crafting and bejeweling of rings continues.

25 Hematite
No migrants again this season.

Curiosity gets the better of me. I check the map with the human treasurer’s updates.

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It seems The Infamous Room has developed an alliance with The Blockade of Evenness, our closest neighboring dwarven civilization. We also seem to be allied with…The Confederacies of Watching?? That’s a human civilization with a lot of Dark Human Pits as settlements. Then again, we seem to have a dark dwarven pit ourselves.
Interestingly, no new settlements were founded this year from our mountainhome.

I have to wonder, though…why did the king send us so far away? What purpose does this mission really serve? Perhaps I’ll find out more if we ever get more migrants. I still hold out hope, though I worry it will take hundreds of rock crafts to make a masterpiece strong enough to entice anyone to travel nearly a fortnight to get here.

9 Malachite
I finally tired of Rovod the visiting Marksdwarf’s complaints. She misses her family, her crafts, hasn’t had any monsters to fight, and spends all her time roaming the caverns. We don’t have room for dead weight right now. I’m sorry, Rovod. I hope you find a more exciting fortress elsewhere.

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Wait a second. Upon checking on my friends, I notice that Deduk is furious! Oh no. Let’s see what’s wrong.

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Well, we can fix some of that at least. I’ll put Deduk and Tulon on training duty with Lor. We don’t need much mining done at the moment, and this will keep all of them occupied. Even just taking Deduk off of hauling duty has improved his mood slightly.

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17 Malachite
A goblin dancer is visiting. Hmm. I heard tales of goblin dancers lying about their true identities in the mountainhome. I am wary about his inevitable petition to stay here.

He said he is here to perform, that he heard this is a good place to be. But…we don’t have any performance areas set up, we’re not prepared for this.

19 Malachite
Farewell, Nguslu. I hope you or someone like you visits again someday when we’re ready for an entertaining guest.

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16 Galena
Deduk is doing much better after crafting a stone table and wrestling for a while. Tulon is still upset about his family, “acquiring an object”, and “being extravagant”. I’ve set him to hauling duty for the rings we’ve crafted. Hopefully moving those around will help him. I’ve also smoothed the stone in his bedroom and gave him the table Deduk just made. He can’t be with his family, so we need to do what we can to keep the rest of his strong needs mostly satisfied.

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20 Galena
While keeping an eye on Tulon, I saw an unexpected visitor.

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A Human faded butcher?

I wonder what he wanted here. On a whim I checked out what he was wearing and realized he is wearing human jewelry.
I spoke to him briefly, but he seemed disinterested. Perhaps because he’s some kind of undead.

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I don’t like this.

After he spoke to me, he left without a word. Maybe it’s presumptuous of me, but I’d rather not allow undead to become citizens of Sealrim.

1 Limestone
The caravan comes within the season, and no one has bothered moving any rings. Tulon keeps cornering me to alternate crying on my shoulder and yelling at me for his problems.

Oh, I know.

I set the only person on hauling duty to Tulon, then I request rings be moved to the trading depot.
…except, you can’t move things to prepare for the caravan. Dammit.

Well, either way, Tulon’s mood is slightly better now that he watched Bob perform something.

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Hm, Bob would also like to acquire an item. Once I get Tulon to move a damn ring somewhere I’ll try it with Bob too.

5 Limestone
A goblin lieutenant is visiting?!

Strange, she entered the fort, found me, said hello, then made a mad dash for the edge of our holdings. It all happened too fast for me to even record an image of her!

12 Limestone
The caravan from home has arrived! Monom is our trade liaison once again.
We made 16 rings during the crafting rush. I will not sell the most valuable ones this time, in attempts to keep our fort value on the rise.

Unfortunately for everyone with eyes, Monom is still covered in water and nothing else.

He says the caravan next year will pay extra for backpacks and potash. Such a strange combination.

I bought some clothing, plump helmets, and some obok bellows. We have already crafted the other parts of an obok. I just think it’ll be a nice addition for people to blow off steam.

Deduk is furious right now due to not having “decent” meals, and being unable to practice a specific craft. He won’t tell me what either one is, though, so i’m assigning him to various crafts he knows in the hopes it helps him.

18 Limestone
We attracted no migrants. I am unsurprised.

1 Moonstone
I spent most of the autumn following Deduk to try to improve his mood. He finally ate a meal and I got him to craft some trousers, but he is still irate that he hasn’t helped anyone, hasn’t wrestled in some time, and lives a boring life.

As soon as the season changed and the Handles went on training duty, he became satisfied with wrestling at least.

Hm…if we make armor, we could probably take on the Serpentwoman and the fleet of badgers that never stop harassing her. That would allow us to get more armor and weapons from the fallen trolls around that area.

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But it would also traumatize all of the dwarves that go there, due to the sheer amount of corpses. So we’d need to send only dwarves who don’t feel much of anything anymore. Which, luckily, is most of us. Somehow.

I’ve tasked Maise with creating several pieces of iron armor and a few iron swords.

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I’m rationalizing this with the knowledge that, if we take back the eastern half of the caverns from the badgers, we can get more gemstones and ores. We can’t afford to wait around for all the dwarves to be happy again. Some of us are just happier out in the trenches, I suppose.

20 Moonstone
Due to a shortage of charcoal, Maise gave up on her crafting. I’ve asked someone else to make several bars of coke instead. As I was walking away from posting the request on the crafting station, Deduk stopped me, and informed me that a human “ringleader” was visiting.

I have no idea what that means. Perhaps this guest will actually stop to talk to me this time, unlike the goblin dancer.

No…just like before, they rushed into the fort, wandered around, greeted Rovod, and then left without a clue as to what they wanted. I didn’t even get a chance to determine what gender they were!

7 Opal
Maise needs fuel to make a sword, and nobody is following my work orders. Something has clearly gone wrong. I need a moment to figure out what. I suspect it may be from turning off the dwarfhack that the guidebook recommended to help manage labor.

Against my better judgement, I turn that back on.

I realize we have yet another human guest. This one is just…a criminal. Straightforward, at least. But by Budam Fountainfutures can we please get some normal visitors? Or migrants??

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Alas, she did the same thing the last three have done. She came in, greeted one random citizen, and left. Is this how the mountainhome ended up with so many liars? They tried to make friends with the citizens and succeeded?

4 Obsidian
Maise refuses to forge anything, despite having plenty of materials and time. If I assign a general task, Rovod tries to complete it instead. I really would rather our skilled smith be the one to make our swords, but…if making one will get her un-stuck, then so be it.

I notice that the same faded butcher Human is visiting again.

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I’m officially suspicious of all visitors who aren’t here with a given purpose. He claims he is here to relax, that this is the place to enjoy yourself.

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At this rate I should build a small tavern so all these Sealrim enjoyers have somewhere to go. He didn’t find whatever room he was looking for to enjoy himself (though he did compliment the quality of our dining tables), and quickly left. Hot on his heels was the human ringleader again.

What is going on!?

Once again, she (she spoke to me this time, so I saw her) walked in, said hello, and left.

9 Obsidian
Having Rovod make one sword, and reiterating to everyone that everyone is on hauling duties seems to have gotten Maise unstuck. She’s forging more swords, as I wanted her to a month ago.

Two of the badger children in the caves have already grown up. The fight ahead just got significantly harder.

Actually, wait a second…all the badger children have vanished instead. What…?

I won’t question it too hard. Good riddance. Looks like constantly being harassed by badgers has made the Serpentwoman depressed, among other things. We may just be able to do something about this endless fight.

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23 Obsidian
Armor is coming along well. Our three-dwarf squad is going to be fully kitted out soon. It feels like overkill just to fight some badgers and a near-death serpentwoman without hands, but without any guarantees of migrants I don’t want to take any chances.

That goblin lieutenant has returned. I wonder who she’s going to speak to before leaving without a word.

It was me. Again. She called me a rock-sucking mudbrain and left with a smug look on her face. Rude.

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I asked the squad to collect their new equipment, and had Maise continue smithing.

1 Granite, Year 253
252 was a mostly uneventful year with a lot of strange visitors. We are preparing for some excitement in the near future, which will allow us to increase our wealth and encourage migrants to come all this way.

For now, Sealrim endures by the skin of our teeth.

[MaiseNow]

Year 4
Journal of Asmel Plaitchannel, expedition leader - Year 253

Preparations for the reclamation of the eastern caverns are going as expected. Maise is smithing full sets of armor for our squad, the Handles of Slapping, to train and battle in. With any luck, by the start of summer we should be able to go fight the two remaining cavern badgers.

Updates will be sparse this year, until something of note happens. I’m tired of writing down every time Deduk’s mood sours or an uninvited guest visits only to leave again. We currently have plenty of food and drink, so I am hopeful that we won’t have another plump helmet fiasco.

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18 Slate
I’ve updated the squad’s training schedule to be one month on, one month off. We’ll see how that goes. I want to be ready to fight by Hematite at the latest.

As Tulon and Lor set up a spear demonstration, I get a note from Deduk. Migrants!

We attracted migrants at last!! 5 to be precise.

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Obok Evenedhatchet is going to be our new medical dwarf. He’s more highly skilled than Etur, and, more interestingly, is Bob the Brewer’s father.

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As Rightspaddle is a weaponsmith, with only a little skill in anything at all. I don’t know what to do with him yet. He also somehow knows no one except his god, Ino.

Mestthos Oiledbolt is a novice ranger and animal handler. I believe he will be the start of the wardog training initiative.

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Edzul Tinnotched is a furnace operator with some siege weapon experience. She will probably be tasked with helping equip the squad with armor and weapons. But she does have a creative streak, so I should choose a craft for her to pursue if and when a mood happens. We have reached 21 citizens. I know the dwarven consciousness allows for moods once 20 dwarves live in one place, I do not know how that works if 5 of your citizens are human visitors…we shall see.

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Finally, there is Kivish Stoneconstruct. Despite his name, he’s an acceptable waxworker. I don’t know what to do with him yet, but we’ll find something. He has good stamina, perhaps he would do well in the squad.

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At any rate, we need to hollow out five more bedrooms and relocate some furniture from the surface rooms for these new arrivals.

23 Slate
I made myself a new squad with a few citizens, just for grappling training. This is to satisfy important craftsdwarves who crave martial skill work but I don’t want to bother with gearing them up for actual battle with the badgers just yet.

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Work is coming along nicely on the new bedrooms, just below the existing bedrooms.

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I’m also having the miners hollow out a new spot for the medical bay that isn’t seven flights of stairs away anymore.

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12 Felsite
Another faded butcher is visiting, this time a dwarf. I know these reports are boring, but the undead visitors unsettle me and I feel it necessary to take note of them in particular.

25 Felsite
I’ve set up a dog training area for Mestthos, across from the barracks. I heard shouting from the barracks and poked my head in. Tulon was yelling at Zon because Zon tried to borrow Tulon’s shield. Something about how it’s his favorite shield and no one else can use it.

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1 Hematite
It is time to face the badgers. We are not ready yet, but I doubt we would be ready anytime soon. I also forget we have a half dozen monster hunters hanging around doing nothing since we blocked off the one monster area we could see. So they may come help us.

I send the Handles of Slapping to kill the two remaining cave badgers and the Serpentwoman. I’ve unlocked the doors along the way, and will lock them behind the squad so the cats don’t run all over creation.

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Oh no! As soon as my squad ventured further than we’ve been before, on the way to the injured serpentwoman, two fresh serpentwomen spearfolk appeared! I hope the monster hunters join us shortly.

Nevermind, there are WAY too many serpentfolk here. Retreat!!

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In the midst of the confusion, a group of kobold thieves arrives to pillage the fort!

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I lock the front door and they immediately scurry away. Fools. Once they’re out of sight, I unlock the front door.

In the mere moments that that took place, both Tulon and Etur Tinwork, the former medical chief, were killed by serpentwomen. It looks like Etur was trying to collect Tulon’s items.

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I’m so sorry, my friends. My hubris is why you are dead. I did not think there were other serpentwomen since the badgers did not discover them.

Tulon seems to have died from…having his teeth pulled out? By the grace of Bodum, that’s horrible.

Etur was both more and less fortunate. He would have suffocated to death if she hadn’t killed him, but at least he wasn’t tortured first.

I forbid my friends’ corpses and items, and lock the doors before the serpentwomen can infiltrate the fort. So far, no one has bothered trekking through the sludgey water along the edge, so we should be safe—Kadol NO!

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In the time it took me to say her name, a spearwoman killed her. It was nearly instantaneous. It appears she was fighting one of the badger cubs when the serpentwoman stabbed her twice, with the last hit tearing her brain apart.

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I quickly set up a burrow and send everyone back inside the fort, to prevent them from trying to collect things in the caverns. Everyone quickly retreats, and I lock the doors as the last wandering wardog returns. The serpents stop and mill about. I see one underwater–I did not realize they could swim. That must be what happened.


4 Hematite
The one that is swimming is now named, because she killed Tulon. Two others on land have names now, too, for killing Kadol and Etur, respectively.

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And they’re all traumatized from seeing one of their dead friends and three of mine.

Good. Someday I will avenge you. I’m so sorry.

For now, we dig. We dig for more treasure, more metals, more wealth. The more citizens we gain, the easier it will be to destroy the serpentfolk and take back the bones of our comrades.

And somehow, despite it all, the only dwarf on the verge of a breakdown is still Deduk.

7 Hematite
That human criminal is visiting again, along with a goblin who claims to be a “holy love”, whatever that means. I doubt he will stick around long enough to explain.

…and he didn’t. He insulted me and left, as usual. Bastard.

14 Hematite
The human caravan has arrived for the summer. Their diplomat says they will want musical instruments and leather waterskins next year. I doubt we’ll be able to do that, but sure. That’s fine.

All the trade goods finally get unloaded, and Onol gets to trading with the humans. Curiously, they’re perfectly happy to wear our worn-out clothing for a decent price. I won’t question it to their faces, but I do wonder why.

I buy a copper whip, an iron pickaxe, some meat, and two cages. I think we’ll need to be sneakier in order to beat the serpentwomen.

14 Malachite
I have not given up on finding treasure in the caverns, but we are going to have to be a lot more cautious now.

I’ve heard screams in the distance–one of the named serpentwomen found the band of troglodytes. She started with one, and another came to investigate. She cut them both down, and now all the trogs are running in terror on their little island.

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Oh? It seems she got winded and while she was recovering, the trogs surrounded her and killed her.

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One down, two to go. Of the named ones, that is. There’s probably a dozen more actual serpentwomen that need to die.

Oh, great, now one of the trogs is named because of killing Kingdomstower. Good to know.

16 Malachite
More migrants! 4 of them. That puts us at a net positive population count for the month.

Deduk Shotscale is a talented pump operator with some stonecutting experience. She’s tough, impatient, not analytical or creative, easily tired, but she has musical capabilities.

Asmel Ashenhame is a grain thresher by trade, but he’s got a small amount of military experience. Perfect.
Fikod Granitehandles has several skills related to mechanics and pumping, but she doesn’t like working. Hopefully she won’t loaf around too much.

Thob Hamesalves is a bone carver with an idiosyncratic personality. He hates self-control but values tranquility. He’s got a good kinesthetic sense, analytical abilities, but he gives up easily. He also brought his pet keet.

None of these new arrivals have any relations other than their gods or their pets. Which means no one will get the everpresent “missing my family” loneliness.

Before I carve out some new bedrooms and start assigning them to the new citizens, I need to do a check of the fort. I have been meditating for some time on our struggles and the dwarven consciousness has enlightened me. We are not ready for the caverns. We must strategize and optimize Sealrim if we wish to survive.

First things first, I rearrange the Handles of Slapping. Asmel will be the squad leader, and some of our other newer citizens will be in the squad too–Edzul, Kivish, and the female Deduk. I intend for these four to be the basis of our new military. They will not be tasked with certain jobs to make sure they can keep their uniforms consistent. We will need to move the barracks, as well, to make it easier for the Handles to reach the surface if we get inundated with badgers or something else.

I add a new barracks where the old hospital used to be, and set it to also include beds. The miners will carve out a small stockpile area for food and drinks.

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WHAT IS THAT?

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As soon as Lor starts carving the new stockpile, a horrifying sight descends the staircase. A guard that came with the human caravan has turned into a werebison!

There is nothing we can do right now without damaging relations with the humans…I will wait to see what happens. Unfortunately, that’s the best we can do right now. Please don’t let this werebison be the end of Sealrim.

No, it actually said hello to Edzul and she reacted positively. Perhaps Utes Malignname won’t be the end of us after all.

Spoken a moment before they murdered Cilob and Maise in cold blood and started massacring the fort. They are here to relax and enjoy themselves. What in Budom’s name…

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I mobilize the entire military and allow the monster hunters to participate. They corner Utes into the butcher’s shop and kill him. But not without cost on our side.

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I am so sorry, my friends.

We will rebuild Sealrim–restructure it from the inside out, so this cannot happen again. But first, we need graves. And quickly.

I personally see to digging out the new tomb, and set a newer dwarf with no other notable skills to create ten coffins. It’s more than we need right now but we will need them sooner rather than later, I fear.

7 Galena
Despite having enough coffins available, only one body has been moved into the new tomb. Now there’s miasma stinking up the fort.

Oh. I messed up. I did not realize tombs needed to be separate rooms, you can’t have one mass tomb-room. I set up crafting of doors and let that go for a moment. I also set r–

Wait…

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Rrr-AaAAAAAAGHHHHHHH

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17 Galena
I…
What? I’m hurt? …Everyone’s dead?! Well, almost everyone.

How inconvenient that we four passed out right before whatever happened to everyone. Oh well, perhaps I should write a letter to Ingor, informing him of this situation.

— End


So ends Sealrim. Technically I could have continued on with the 4 remaining survivors, but they were all werebison.

I learned a LOT from this fort and will be more strategic in the future. This world is too full of necromancers and werecreatures for me to try it again just now, but I’ll try to figure out how to upload the seed in case anyone else wants to try their hand in this cursed world.

Thanks for reading my newbie attempt at the game! I'll learn to manage a fort better and come back with a better writeup someday in the future.