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[escherfan]

From the crumbling diary of Kulet Zanegshin, sometimes leader of the Arcethilral:

5th Hematite:
    I have just discovered that Unib, who has been busily churning out doors,
    thought that one of the four pieces of bauxite that we brought with us
    would be an appropriate material. Now we have three pieces of bauxite and
    one bauxite door. Ast is understandably upset, since many of our plans
    involve magma. I guess we will not be doing much magma plumbing early on;
    hopefully by the time we want to start in earnest we will have found a
    bauxite deposit or two and will have plenty to go around. In the meantime
    though I have instructed Unib not to make any more doors until Ast has had
    a chance to turn the three remaining bauxite stones into mechanisms. I
    shall give Ast's bedroom the bauxite door to console him.

9th Hematite:
    Erush has been doing some exploratory digging in the south of the site,
    and has stumbled upon a pool of magma! We can tell from the continuous
    currents on the surface of the magma that this pool goes way down, maybe
    even to the centre of the earth, and will probably supply us with more
    magma than we can find uses for, once we start to drain it. Unfortunately
    it is a fair way from our central shaft and will require quite a lot of
    digging to transport the magma nearby, but Erush is getting better with
    his pick every day and will relish the challenge, I expect. In the
    meantime we have a neat little hole we can dump unwanted refuse down,
    where it will be burnt up or sink towards the centre of the earth.

    I have noticed that we are rather low on alcohol, and have ordered Ast to
    put aside his mechanisms and get to work setting up a still immediately.
    He agreed but only if I explicitly forbade Unib from even touching the
    remaining bauxite.

14th Hematite:
    I asked Erush to dig an exploratory tunnel to the south, about two
    dwarf-heights below the surface of the river, in the hope that we would
    strike earth without the risk of flooding the fortress. In the process he
    stumbled upon some aluminium ore, which I'm sure will come in handy one
    day. He has hollowed out a room in the sand for underground farming; I
    will get Zefon started in planting immediately.

1st Limestone:
    Wow, Autumn already. The last two months have flown by. I'm constantly
    trying to juggle everyone's workload to keep our supplies of food and
    alcohol above zero while still allowing work on the fortress to progress.

    Ast got carried away and used two of our three bauxite mechanisms in
    connecting a lever to the drawbridges at the entrance. I shall put a note
    on the last one to remind everyone that we need it to control magma flow
    into our magma forges when we get around to building them, and that it is
    not under any circumstances to be used until I say so. I hope I'm not
    turning into one of those old lady-dwarves that leaves notes everywhere
    but it seems some of us need reminders.

    Now that it's been six months since we arrived, I'm expecting a caravan
    from the mountainhome soon; I shall ask someone to construct a shelter for
    their wagons. We may even get some dwarfs coming to live with us; the
    extra hands will be a help but at the cost of extra mouths to feed.

    Somehow I thought progress would be faster than this, but I guess these
    things take time. We have the day-to-day labor to keep ourselves alive as
    well as trying to expand our lodgings and enact our plans. Hopefully the
    next few seasons will see our little home really start to take shape.

Spoiler: Inside (click to show/hide)

DFMA Link

[escherfan]

15th Limestone, 201:
    Did a test of the drawbridge lever today, and everything went quite
    smoothly. I am quite impressed with Ast's handiwork. I had to order
    everyone to stay underground while the lever was pulled just in case
    something went wrong; you never know with these things. There was some
    grumbling about that but you can't be too careful.

23rd Limestone:
    As I predicted, some traders have shown up from the mountainhome.
    Unfortunately we have little in the way of valuables. Unib has been
    churning out bricks for construction and has had little though for
    craftwork, and until we can utilize some of that magma for a furnace I
    have forbidden Zefon to do any glasswork; it's too expensive in fuel. So
    we're left with trading seeds and mechanisms, about the only things we
    have of value. They have little that we want anyway. I traded some
    mechanisms for a few cages and ropes; they will help us establish a
    primitive defence and it gave me a chance to practise my negotiating. I
    asked them to bring lots of flux next time.

4th Sandstone:
    Two thieving kobold scum turned up on our doorstep today; presumably drawn
    here by the riches the traders are carrying. One ran away when we spotted
    him; the other made it down our central shaft and was dispatched by one of
    our war dogs; in celebration we named the dog "Ledshorast."

13th Sandstone:
    The traders have informed me that there didn't seem to be much interest in
    moving here among the residents of the mountainhome. I guess we have yet
    to achieve anything impressive enough to attract migration. I doubt our
    relative lack of impressive trade goods will have done much to further
    that impression. A shame, because we could have done with more hands.

1st Moonstone:
    Winter has arrived. We have almost completed building fortifications
    around the entrance to our fortress, and Erush has been hard at work
    removing the slopes down into the valley, to section off a larger portion
    of the above ground for our use. Everyone is settling into a routine now,
    finding their place in the grand scheme of things. It will be interesting
    to see how our roles change as the fortress grows.

Spoiler: Entrance (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Inside (click to show/hide)

DFMA Link

[escherfan]

Well, that exhausts what I've written up to now. I'm finding it quite slow going, trying to write and play at the same time, and since nothing especially interesting is happening yet, I'm wondering whether to keep going the way I am or just leave off writing until I have something more Fun to write about. You've all probably played this part of the game many times before; will anyone be disappointed if I stop journalling it?

[Riversand]

heya. i would like the armorsmith/cook, of you don't mind. keep the name

[escherfan]

From the Histories of Avarice and Dynamism continues the story:

The first two and a half years at Arothberul were a time of hard work and discipline. Building a fortress takes time, and few of leader Kulet Zanegshin's visions were realised. The largest achievement of these times was the damming of Shrivelfrays, resulting in a beautiful lake within the grounds of the fortress.

Both Kubuk the weaponsmith and Dodok the armorsmith took grand inspiration from these happenings, working their experiences into objects of magnificent value. Upon completion of their times of introspection, these two smithed with unprecedented speed and skill, producing weapons and armor of extremely high quality. Their frustration at the lack of any real metalworking industry soon grew.

Stories of these events trickled back to the mountainhome via travellers and traders, and soon many arrived on their doorstep to try their hand on the new frontier. Along with a few births amongst the population, they numbered seventy-four beards, adult and child, by the summer of 203.

Two dwarves lost their lives in those early years. Shem Vucarenol, an immigrant clothier and mother of two, drowned when the icy pool she was walking over thawed suddenly from under her. Since in the mountainhome surface water rarely thaws, Kulet had to issue strict instructions to all dwarves never to walk on ice in the winter. Shem's younger daughter Erush was snatched in 202 so her death left her elder daughter Logem without family; Logem became a beloved member of the larger family of Arothberul.

The other to lose his life was Thikut Ruriton, the hunter, who was caught outside by a goblin ambush. He valiantly defended himself and the fortress against seven armed goblins but succumbed to their evil blades. Four war dogs also died in that struggle, but the vile creatures were repelled. Thikut left behind a wife and child.

DFMA Link

[Dermonster]

Wait my dwarf made an artifact?

What is it?

[escherfan]

Legend recalls that Kubuk Idokiden constructed a silver war hammer of the highest quality. It was encrusted with bands of Bronze and menaced with spikes of silver and turtle shell. She named it Gatzimasos, "Fondletalked" (legend does not recall why it was named that).

[Dermonster]

She is very... grabby.