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[Scotty]

So, I thought maybe I'd give the story telling a bit of a try. It's not a community fort or anything, mostly because I already had the fort going for a few game years before the idea of writing a story came to mind, that and the first couple years were fairly boring.

Anyway I should point out now that this fortress is influenced by the story of Nist Akath, particularly their dealings with the undead, and centers around the idea that the Mountainhomes decided that other outposts should be constructed to give the dwarves a line of defense against these abominations.

The outpost itself is a 3x3 site located in the freezing north and straddles forested untamed wilds and terrifying tundra, so wood is not a problem. I did however cheat a bit and used a tile editor to make a small aquifer so that my fort could have an indoor water source since the region is freezing even in summer.

The story will also be journal style and seeing as the game is already in by a few years I'll start it with the current mayor and he'll try to fill in what he can so you all know what's going on

[Scotty]

From the Journal of Amost Pointoars

5 Felsite:

Our 'entourage' has finally broken through the forests of Romul Acath and have caught a glimpse of our destination, Zulbanozsit. I say 'entourage' because of the fact that we're escorting a baroness, her consort, a tax collector, hammerer and a dungeon master to the outpost.
I'm not exactly sure why they're going, the baroness said she needed to get out of the mountain for a change. When asked about why she brought a hammerer and tax collector with her she plainly said that they were family.

Not much is known about this place except that it's on the border of a frozen wasteland that's had reports of undead activity, the only reports the king ever recieved about that status of this fort were from our caravans that passed through every autumn.

Thats why i'm out here, the lack of reports from the expedition leader Dodek Cavecrafts had the higher ups in the mountainhomes suspiscious about what was going on out here, the caravans reported the fort seemed to be doing fairly well for itself so why would the expedition leader not send his own, especially in terms of any undead in the area, the last caravan reported they had to fight through a herd of zombie muskox to get to the forts trade depot and thats rather unsettling. So i'm here to find out whats going on, and be the eyes and ears for my superiors.

As we approach the outpost I am able to make out more details, on the surface is a walled structure with a bridge facing west that looks like it can be raised and lowered, there's also what appears to be towers with catapults on top however I do not see any ammunition piles or have there been any indication that they've been used. First impressions suggest that Dodek at least had the sense to erect defenses.

Whats this? Elves are leaving the compound, looks like they were merchants but after hearing rumors of elves conspiring with undead in the southern glaciers I was certainly nervous about this place now. As we passed by them, they greeted us rather happily, from the looks of their mules, they had a good amount of trading at the fort...or maybe they're blackmailing our brethren here under threat of sending undead out...i'll have to look into this.

===


how's this for starters? i'll get you more details and maybe some images of the fortress up later. i'd like some opinions as well, i'm hoping this doesn't offend any of the Nist Akath readers or Captain Mayday for that matter, for the most part this is an entirely separate story will only lightly reference Nist Akath. also Romul Acath is the actually name of the map i generated, i thought it was kind of amusing.

[Scotty]

6a Felsite:

I managed to get a quick glimpse of things while I got settled in my new room, I should be meeting with Dodek and get a full tour later. I was actually suprised at how many rooms were dug out for the residents to stay in, heck they were already in the process of preparing chambers for the baroness and her family when we arrived, of course there weren't enough rooms available for everyone in our group, though I don't blame them, there were over 30 of us that arrived, they only had enough extra rooms for half of us. Still it sounds like they have plans for more rooms to be dug out once the nobles are satisfied with their accomodations...it's almost like Dodek was expecting them.


6b Felsite:

Met with Dodek Cavecrafts finally, he was running around most of the day cleaning up vermin remains and moving items around, he seems like a nice fellow and most of the others seem to think so too, married with two children, a real family dwarf. However there are some that think he's too easy going, sure he tries to have the best interests of the outpost in mind, but they don't think he has what it takes to lead them should things get hairy. Hmmm...

Anyway Dodek gave me the tour as I requested starting with the surface;


It was a little more than when I first saw it the day before, there are two drawbridges, one facing west, the other facing east and there are 4 squat towers. The interior was divided into two sections, the larger held the trade depot and refuse dump while the smaller was where you entered into the fort underground and the stairs themselves were covered by stone hatches. Dodek said was to keep the undead from getting in, and if they got passed the bridges before they were raised then they'd be stuck in the depot yard. To be honest it looked alot like a human castle and when I mentioned it his response was "Yeah that sounds about right."

[Scotty]

6b Felsite (continued):

Dodek then Directed me to go downstairs, I asked him why he didn't show me the upper level of the 'castle' and he said he was leaving that for last. So down we went.





The first two levels were pretty straightforward, first level was mostly stockpiles with some fields for crops, there was a Still, a Quern and a Farm shack built nearby with idea that the workers would have all the plants nearby for processing and the only lengthy hauling would be done by the dwarves taking the finished product away to their set stock rooms, there was also a seige workshop built on this level. The second level had some more stockpiles but mostly contained workshops, each alcove of shops had a set of stairs that went up to the first level and down to the next, seems to make it easier for workers and haulers to get around. I also noticed a similar theme of keeping materials close to the shops, the forges had rooms for ore and bars nearby, the craftsdwarves had a room for storing bones and shells.

I didn't see a room for stone though and when asked about it, Dodek pointed to a spot between the craftdwarves and mason shop "thats where we put the stone" I figured maybe they bring up so many stones at a time while the rest stays in the mines but what Dodek said next baffled me "All the stone we mine is put there, there's probably something like a hundred or so stones there now" I had to ask what kind of sorcery there was in that and he just shrugged "No idea, when we first started mining out the stone i told the others to just keep putting it there as we use it up and before we knew it, we were able to get it all in there." I decide that it was time to continue the tour.



The third level had most of the living spaces, an abundance of rooms, some were just big enough for a bed and its dwarf, others were more spacious. the nobles also had their rooms down here. I took that moment to ask about the nobles and why they came more bluntly commented on how I was suprised that Dodek had their rooms almost finished when they arrived to which he simply put "I was expecting them, the baroness is my wife's sister, the hammerer, tax collector and dungeon master are related to her consort, don't ask me how though it's quite complicated" I then complimented him on the size of the public dining room and proceeded to the next level.



More living spaces down here, this is where my room currently is, not too shaby, though it is kinda unsettling that down the hall is where the tombs of the nobles are being constructed. Dodek admitted that he didn't intend for it to turn out like that, the tombs were originally going to be connected to the noble's bedrooms, but the wife objected saying it would be too creepy to sleep next to your own grave and while I do agree with her on that there is something to be said about sleeping next to someone else's grave...

[Scotty]

Conversation between Amost and Dodek at the end of the tour, on the upper ramparts:



Dodek: Not much to look at right now huh?
Amost: seems to be coming along nicely. You have catapults at least.
Dodek: I'm having this whole section back here covered, to make a place to keep stone for the catapults, the front will be left open for obvious reasons.
Amost: The garbage pile, yeah don't want rampant miasma attacks here. By the way, have there been any attacks? I heard there was supposed to be undead roaming about.
Dodek points off to the northeast: There's a pack of zombie muskox over there now and you're absolutely right about the roaming part.



Amost: Shouldn't you be doing something about it?
Dodek: Don't see why I should, they haven't posed any threat yet.
Amost: But...
Dodek: When I spotted the first group on zombie elk in the area my first reaction was to make sure our expedition was defended, I ordered everything underground as fast as possible, find stone fast and start building this structure. We didn't have the ability to fight yet as we had only just arrived in this place.
Amost: Sounds like a good choice.
Dodek nods: I stayed on lookout to watch them, and was suprised when they behaved as living elk would, they just stayed out there, grazing whatever they could find in that frozen ground. After a while they just...moved on.
Amost watches the muskox for a bit and sure enough the herd heads off into the north: And this has been happening this whole time?
Dodek nods: There was one moment to be nervous when a pack of zombie wolves strayed close, we hadn't quite finished the eastern drawbridge and northern wall, I had everyone move inside and we waited, eventually they too left us alone. There was the odd time when a the human or dwarven caravans crossed paths with some of them but the merchants suffered no casualties and their guards took care of the beasts with ease.
Amost: So we're just gonna sit back and watch the undead herds come and go? I coulda swore this outpost was founded to defend against the undead.
Dodek: In due time, I have three hunters currently in training to be marksdwarves, also recruited two peasants into the fortress guard, and now that my sister-in-law has arrived i'll be needing to recruit some royal guards.
Amost: That seems satisfactory. One last question, why hasn't the council back in the mountainhomes ever recieved any reports from you?
Dodek shrugs: Would anyone have care if every report I sent was "I order such and such built" or "I saw another undead animal grazing out in the distance"? That and I never really liked writing reports. It's bad enough i'm doubling as both Mayor and Administrator here.
Amost sighs: I'm going for a drink.
Dodek: I also held the book keeping and broker jobs at first, but pawned them off onto Besmar.

[Scotty]

12 Hematite:

I've spent the past month getting settled in better. I've also managed to chat with some of the original expedition, The book keeper Besmar Fenceflare in particular was somewhat helpful in giving me the run-down of the past few years. The first year was understandably tough, it took a couple seasons to dig sufficient space in the clay and sand layers to get store rooms and farms running, Dodek insisted on getting the farms in as fast as possible, although they only had one farmer with them. Once they started mining out the stone Dodek figured they'd start on the living arrangements for all the dwarfs.

The stone itself went right into the mason's shop to be turned into blocks for constructing the surface defense. I mentioned that one section looked rough and Besmar explained that after the zombie wolf scare Dodek ordered the northern wall to be finished with rough stone instead of waiting for blocks to be made, some of the upper level floor was also made with rough stone instead of blocks.

When the first dwarven caravan arrived there was only a few crafts available, and they could only trade them for a couple stacks of meat, thankfully though the farmer had been doing well in the fields and so there was some plants to hold through the winter. Speaking of caravans though, Besmar said the humans should be arriving soon, Dodek had ordered more precious metals from them the year before and he needed it for furnishing his sister-in-law's tomb.