Phantommountains, second year:
The year started with a short visit from the local kobold tribe, followed by a bunch of capybaras scaring everybody. After the chief medical dwarf got bitten by one, the militia commander went out to deal with them. He managed to kill one capybara, getting a few bruises in the process. Then he went for another, ...and dodged straight into a murky pool. He got badly mauled by the big rodent while struggling to keep his head above the water level.
Obviously that didn't end up well. The edges of the pools will be channeled to prevent this happening again.
The elves showed up, as expected. The preparations for them were not complete and the front door had to be locked for a few days while the trading depot was moved to a better location. In the valley between the haunted mountains. With all the ramps removed. And all ends of the valley walled up. Then we seized most of their goods.
There wasn't much time to move the goods inside the fortress. The elves tried to escape, but the door leading to the valley was quickly locked.
While the second part of the plan was still being constructed, the elves wandered aimlessly inside the walls, and finally started to show signs of insanity. Meanwhile, the drowned militia commander came back as a ghost.
Finally, the preparations were completed and the floodgate was opened! This pipe is a few z-levels above the trading depot.
However, the elves had wandered off at the end of the valley, and filling the valley with magma took a while. The insane elves started burning just when the human caravan arrived, late at summer.
A small design flaw allowed the fire to spread into the surrounding grassland. Oops.
Luckily the humans got inside before the fire caught them. Later, the burnt remains of a kobold thief and a goblin snatcher were found nearby.
Trading with humans went well. The jeweler was able to decorate some of the stolen elven crafts with gems and the humans exchanged them to food, seeds and booze. The dwarven caravan brought us everything we ordererd last autumn: seeds, metal bars, cats, dogs, turkeys and alpacas. Egg and wool production will be starting soon. Also, one of the cages seized from the elves had a tame vulture in it. Unfortunately the vulture has no mate, and her eggs will be unfertilized.
A few kobold thieves and goblin snatchers have been spotted, and they will start coming in bigger numbers. There's also been some undead activity in the haunted mountains, the dwarven liaison was harassed by undead goats. We started building a wall around the fort and placed some traps in strategic points. Below the surface the two miners have been digging rooms for stockpiles, living quarters and catacombs. The murky pool was drained, the militia commander's corpse retrieved and buried properly.
The fortress didn't get any migrants this year (the civ is alive, I think). However, two babies were born (both for the same mother, she's been busy) and there were two weddings, so more babies should appear in the future.
Plans for the next year:
- Cavern expedition
- Building upwards
- Burning elves