***Caution***: If you haven't experienced some aspects of late-game DF, this post might have a bit of information that may be best to discover on your own.
Without further ado, the second season of Masihaz Bomreklaven as Overseer of WeatheredCastle:
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Summer of 559 - On negotiation, risk, and poisonous secretions
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1st Hematite
Trading went quite a bit better than expected. At first I was quite displeased at the wares the elves had brought. Nothing useful but food which we are up to our beards in already. I had sent our mayor with a few trinkets to go negotiate with the elves, but trade conditions were less than favorable.
It was about when I was cursing the day the first elf was born when I realized it was much more prudent to sent our military along with the mayor instead.
Needless to say, we got everything for the modest price of free from those tree-humping assholes.
8th Hematite
Ah, I'm truly reaping the fruits of migrant and child labor!
We're now fortified in case those elves are still sore about my bargaining skills and decide to bring their sticks of war to our gates. I'm almost hoping they do... it would be a spot more exciting than fulfilling our mayor Melbil's demands for crown production. We don't have any royalty, for Armok's sake! Who are all those crowns even for? I suppose he must think himself rather kingly, but it's strange for a dwarf with such a ridiculous name.
12th Hematite
As strange as Melbil's name is, it doesn't even hold a candle to some other dwarves in this fortress ... I've read from our bookkeeper's census data that some dwarves have naught but numbers for names by a previous overseers orders.
By the gods, even my squad leader and fellow axedwarves! Tuowan and the Tuotus... I guess should have noticed it odd that all my squadmates had the same first name, but I had assumed Tuotu was just a common name like Urist.
But now I see we're just mechanisms in the grand screw pump. I don't think I'll ever recover from the bureaucracy of this place...
17th Hematite
At the very least my fellow numbers and I will be living in luxury. I've order the construction of a living and training facility across the way from the hammerdwarves barracks.
It will be lavishly appointed with only the best furniture from our massive gold production facility. If the bloody nobles have any problem with our use of the precious material, I'll appease them by "appointing" their face with a sharp object.
21st Hematite
In my haste to form a squad of marksdwarves, I didn't realize that the leader of our marksdwarves/police will also need an office to do work in. I think this may be a good use of the room near the battlements. In the meantime, I'm dumping her into one of the many rooms/holes-in-the-wall on the living level. I'd treat her more courteously but the title of Captain is a little noble of my tastes even if she isn't one of those completely useless blockheads.
26th Hematite
This fortress never ceases to amaze me. I've been periodically checking up on the smiths to see how our steel production has been faring, but I made three amazing discoveries on my trip down today
1. They never leave that steaming pit. Even when I saw they were starving to death, they would not leave until ordered them to go. They said that dwarves were assigned to bring them rations but obviously they weren't doing their job right. We can't afford any of these skilled workers to waste away so I ordered them out of their burrow for now.
2. While chatting with the smiths, I learned that they have all been assigned the same name though they kept insisting I couldn't get the pronounciation right.
I said it was extremely odd they were all named Sven and when they began to contest I told them to deal with it.
3. There's precious blue nearby! The Svens made mention of some adamantine deposits near the smithing level which the fortress simply must have. I knew about the pillars into the magma sea (about which my Grandpappy McWise always used to say "beware mining the pillars, for they hold the whole world up from collapse" and my Grandpappy is always right) but right nearby one of our central shafts is a tunnel into a mining shaft and the caverns beyond.
For whatever reason, the Svens said I'd be crazy to try for it. I think I'd be crazy not to.
3rd Malachite
I may be greedy but I'm no fool. We're readying the mining shaft to be breached, but I want to make sure our military is ready if any horrors lie beyond. The interior of the fortress is seperated from the caverns and the precious material by mere meters of stone. Once doors are installed to keep civilians in and the beasties out, we're going to move our military into place and see what we're in for.
10th Malachite
After a week of digging, the tunnel is prepared. Unfortunately, due to space constraints we were unable to make an effective cave-in trap (it would work, but not be safe or repeatable). On the bright side, we'll have 3 squads of legendary warriors jammed into the narrow corridor, so if anything can make it through to the fortress we probably deserve to have our heads carved out. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
14th Malachite
Today is the day. We're ready to strike the earth!
17th Malachite
Quite a lot has transpired since my last entry. There's good news and bad news. I'm a rather upbeat fellow so I'll start with the better of it: we've secured the deposit!
Unfortunately, the cost was high. As soon as the last barrier was peeled away, I felt a strange sensation and time began to slow. I just had a feeling something dark was on it's way to the fortress. After a few minutes of silence as we brought some worksmen to seal off the chamber with the adamantine, a beast burst forth from the stairway to the caverns and charged our blockade. It was a beastly winged snail!
Then no sooner then had we dealt with that a giant eyeless hornet flew at us and attacked. What horrors these caverns hold!
Needless to say our men fought bravely, and not one was injured in battle. In fact, we kicked their asses respectively.
However, the tragic downside to all this is that Mithmis has his revenge. Two dwarves were lost to his poisonous secretions. I don't know if I can forgive myself for this loss.
At least I've managed to seal away the caverns so we are isolated with the deposit. Now to set about the time-consuming task of processing the raw material.
26th Malachite
A group of migrants have decided brave the wilderness and beasts and join our fortress. They're a useless lot so we'll throw them into the military to shape them up.
18th Galena
Mining continues and our adamantine stockpiles grow larger by the day.
In other news, some humans have arrived for trade. Surely they've brought some useful supplies. More useful than sticks at least.
23th Galena
The traders have been here for days but nobody can get that damn mayor Melbil to come up from the drink stores to negotiate. He's too busy wallowing in pity because no one will make his blasted crowns. Too bad I respect these humans otherwise sending our army as a negotiator would easily solve this problem.
1st Limestone
After what seems like quite the long season, Autumn has come. That blockhead Melbil did eventually make it up and traded booze, cheese, weapons, and some general non-stick supplies for some crap made out of bones. Our admantine stockpile is huge and still getting bigger.
We also really need to speed up our process handling the raw ore because right now we have only two laborers in cluttered workshops on it.
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Sorry for the long wait guys. Hope you're enjoying it at least. Here's the status of the fortress halfway through the year:
Author
Topic: WeatheredCastle: A noobish attempt at a succession fort ((Looking for peeps)) (Read 12927 times)