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[Mjattie]

Forenote:
Hello, and welcome to our little community fort. I should let you know, I'm a bit rusty, but I hope to get back into this. If you would like a named dwarf, feel free to ask for one; there's over 100 to pick from!

The Battered Diary of Solon Monangsazir
1st Granite, 6:
Well, we've landed our boat on this desert island in the far Northern reaches. I thought the North was supposed to be cold, but not here apparently! Anyways, the boat fell apart when we landed, and it looks like we're stuck here with the wagon, some animals, and 6 other "colonists".

You see, the Mad Queen wants a SURFACE town built in the middle of nowhere. Why? I couldn't fathom, but no one disagrees with the queen. I suppose we ought to get to work before we burn to death in this hell... Oh, and here's a quick sketch of our area:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

12th Granite, 6:

After more than a week, we've finally managed to hit stone and carve out some farms. Our two miners will now be excavating the stone we'll need to build a town. No one knows much about surface construction; like any dwarf should, but it looks like we're going to have to make do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1st Hematite, 6:

I can't believe it's already summer! As if this place wasn't hot enough as is. Our first building is finished, the dining room - which has a few temporary beds is made out of smooth shale bricks, cut by the mason and the miners. It's alot cooler than outside, or in the dirt-walled tunnels, which is a welcome bonus. I think we're going to be working on a dormatory next. Who knows, it might even have two floors!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For now I'm busy doing paperwork, running an outpost has more of it than one would think!

[Brewster]

Dibs on farmer/brewer dude.

Miller the Farmer's Journal Entry:

I've harvested and harvested but the sun as burnt most of the bushes. I've only gathered a few plants on the surface. Thank the stars we've dug underground and set-up a farm. Even though the Queen did say ABOVE ground fortress... but we cheated.
I love just watching plants grow. Each morning I wake up and notice them getting taller and larger! It's a good feeling.

Wonder what the leader has for me next!

[Mjattie]

10th Malachite, 6

Some migrants have arrived today. Great, we don't even have any more houses, and the queens already giving us more mouths to feed! I was about to start yelling at one of them who asked why there were buildings on the surface, but he's a farmer, and it looks like we'll need him to help feed all these people. I count six new people in total; two farmers, the others are pretty much useless, except as haulers.

14th Limestone, 6

We've completed the dormitory and four houses; two on the ground and another two on the 2nd floor of the dormitory. I still have to get the masons to build some doors, but they should be ready within the month. Also, today I've had our farmer request that s/he be known as Miller.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

19th Limestone, 6

Some exploratory shafts dug by the miners have discovered a vein of native gold. It could start up an industry, gold is valued not only by dwarven caravans. If only we could find some coal now...

16th Sandstone, 6

More migrants, I'm surprised we havn't been getting food problems yet! If anything, we'll start having them now; ten new people. From what I gather, we have three peasants, a fisher, a glazer, animal trainer, a junior doctor that only knows how to dress wounds, a veritable jack of all trades for anything farming, a weaver and a jeweller.

The miners have been turning up quite a few gems aswell, perhaps the jeweller could provide us another source of trade goods. I'm building a forge right now though, so that'll have to wait.

15th Timber, 6

I've completely forgotten about the Autumn trade caravan. I've ordered someone to try and quickly cobble together a trade depot, but we don't have much to trade either way. We should be good through the winter though. I've ordered some steel, alcohol and food, aswell as some thread. The liason wants us to produce

22nd Timber, 6

The wildlife around here has been outright alien; animals in the shape of humans, most recently albatrosses. I don't like the feeling of this, no one I know has ever told stories of animals like this. Oh, and miller was actually attacked by one of our chickens. In other news, I've ordered the construction of four more houses for the winter. Buidling is alot harder than just digging it out of the ground, I don't know what the queen was thinking.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Lastly, we've found some ore; Tetrahedrite, a mix of copper and silver. I think I'll get someone to smelt a bit of it into bars, we could use some metal equipment, even if it's just copper. Winter is also apparently coming. Let's see if it snows in this scorching hellhole.

13th Moonstone, 6

No snow yet, but that's besides the point. One of our masons, Aban, has been taken by a fey mood, and withdrawn from the town. It is said in legend that sometimes, the Gods will inspire someone to create an artefact in their name. Perhaps that is what is happening here. I'll be watching him, let's hope he can make what he wants. He's pushed another one of our masons out of the workshop, and he's asking for metal bars. Looks like it was a good idea to start smelting the copper!

9th Opal, 6

Aban has finally finished his construction. He's made a brilliant weapon rack, I would say it's of the best quality possible. It's made out of shale and studded with iron, and has an image of a radiant gem. He calls it Tathtat Dartur, dwarven for "The Plunge of Spires". I'm pleased with this, and he seems to be legendary in his craft now. I think I'll encorporate the weapon rack in an armoury or barracks if we build one.

1st Granite, 7

We've been here for an entire year, I'm going to end this entry. We've made quite a bit of progress, and I hope next year we'll be able to look back and see how much we've grown. We sadly don't have a broker, so I can't give the value of our town, however we have 23 people, the finishing touches on a few houses will bring them up to eight, and we have built a blacksmiths and forges. Here's a rough sketch of the current state of our little village:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((Here's Millers character, sorry about it being a girl, hope you don't mind.))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Brewster]

Miller the Farmer's Journal Entry:

I continue to ask if we can build above ground farm plots. I advised the Overseer if the Queen came she'll have his head that we're growing below ground! He just dismissed me with a wave of his hand, oh well. I'm sure he's worried about us farmers being able to keep up with the growing population, but we've yet to fail him yet! People often ask me how I became a grower when I detest worms so much. I still don't know, but somehow I make do.

 I continue to warn them but one of the masons keep letting the chickens indoors. It finally happened. I thought it only would happen in my nightmares but it happened; one of the damned chickens attacked me! It was straight from a theatrical horror play. The hen latched onto my foot and wouldn't let go. With all my shaking and flailing of my leg, it wouldn't release. I've avoided the demon-chicken ever since.

[Mjattie]

9th Slate, 7

I've finally decided to oblige Miller with his request for surface farms. The foragers have recently found a whip vine seed, which I hear makes alcohol, that should bolster our drink supply. There isn't any actual edible surface seeds yet though.

19th Slate, 7

More migrants! The Queen must still want us to grow, by sending nearly our entire population in one wave; 19 migrants. I'm going to need to reserve some more barrels to alcohol, the farmers keep using them to store plants. Among the migrants we have a few skilled people, though not anything of what we need just yet. There is a broker and a high master crossbow maker, though we don't have a military yet, and there aren't any goblins on the island, so we shouldn't need the crossbows for a while.

1st Hematite, 7

In light of the recent influx of people, I've ordered the construction of an administration building. It is two floors tall, with two offices per floor. The offices are for anyone who needs them for their job, such as book keeper and broker. Our new broker has also determined the value of the fortress to be about 31000 Urists, more than half the value apparently comes from our furniture. I guess that's credit to our fine mason. We've managed to find some strawberry seeds, which make very good wine. Whip vines will be grown for two months, and then strawberries for the other two.

I've also asked the miners to dig out a pond incase we run out of alcohol, so the rainwater can get us through.

25th Hematite, 7

More migrants. Thankfully this time there's only 7, one of which is a decent metalworker. We're really starting to have a problem with alcohol, the barrels are being used up for food instead of alcohol. Some masons also trapped themselves on the roof of the administration building for two days before they had the bright idea of tearing the wall down.

22nd Malachite, 7

A child has been taken by a mood. Is it something about this place that does this? It's said in myth that these moods usually only happen once in a lifetime, but two in two years? He's claimed a craftdwarfs workshop, and he's asking for logs and cut gems. Looks like our jeweller has a job now.

5th Galena, 7

The child has emerged with an acacia amulet. It's a brilliantly made amulet, amazing that a child could make something like that. It's encircled with bands of oak, and has an image of two diamonds carved into it. The gem is shaped somehow into the image of a spider man. The child insists it be called Kun Girust, "The Cat of Scintillating". It looks like this child also has a wide vocabulary. Our appraiser says it's worth atleast 6000 Urists, not like we're going to sell it or anything like that. It's a shame the Old Laws prevent the child from working until he comes of age, he could make many great crafts to sell.

28 Limestone, 7

Another seven migrants have arrived, a miner, mason, and bone carver are most relevant, though there is apparently a siege engineer. We've also found a vein of haematite -  iron, it'll help to make equipment out of a stronger metal. We'll still use the tetrahedrite for furniture. Oh right, my most recent count has 56 people. I'd say that'd upgrade us to town status, atleast. Last in the news, our first child was born just a few days ago.

26 Sandstone, 7

After building 6 additional houses, I've ordered the construction of an apartment complex. It'll be 4 floors tall with 3 units per floor, which equals room for 12 people. This'll help get quite a few out of the dormitories.

16th Timber, 7

The Autumn Caravan has arrived, I'll be sending the broker to sell some of our rock crafts and a few gold bars. We have just over 600 Urists to trade, which is from some crafts and two gold bars. I bought a bunch of alcohol, and the new gold bars should give us some more useful metals and maybe some cloth. All the alcohol brings our drink reserves up to 160, plenty to last many months. With a few bars of gold, we've got 3 bars of steel, for making weapons. I should ask around the town to see if we can get and volunteers for a police force.

The first floor to the apartment is finished, we're just moving in beds. Just today the miners found a vein of coal, this will help us smelt ore at a much quicker rate.

8th Granite, 8

I know I missed writing about the new year, but now Miller's apparently getting married; with another one of our farmers. Anyways, this year we've got up to 57 people, and our town is now worth 50 000 Urists. There's a bunch of new houses, and the apartment's only missing one floor. Here's a drawing of what the village looks like.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mjattie]

4th Slate, 8

Another gigantic wave of 18 migrants have arrived, bringing our total up to 75. It seems like just as we are about to get everyone settled in alright more just come. I don't mind the extra people, but I think I'm going to have to expand the dining hall; there literally isn't any space left inside the current one. I'll draw up a design for a permenant one when I have time between paperwork.

28th Hematite, 8

It looks like we've had an election. The old laws stated that as a town of 75, elections for a mayor have to take place. Mayor Id has started his career by building himself a large house, and banning the export of some obscure goods.

16th Malachite, 8

Seven more migrants. We're almost as big as the mountainhome now! Where is the queen finding all these people? In other news, one of our children has begun throwing a tantrum. While I doubt he's able to hurt anyone, I hope he comes down from this unharmed; we don't have any doctors yet. I'm thinking about making a clinic and asking the liaison if he can get a doctor down here incase something like this happens again.

It looks like he attacked a sheep, and a stray kick smashed his skull in. I've ordered a coffin be made, I am sincerely sorry for whoever his parents were. May he rest in peace.

26th Sandstone, 8

Yet another wave of 7 migrants, bringing our total population up to 90 dwarves.

1st Moonstone, 8

The second child has went insane, and was killed by a ram, the same way as the previous child. I don't know what to say about this, maybe it's a curse?

3rd Granite, 9

It's the new year, and we sure have grown! Migrants from 5 days ago have pushed our population up to 108, and we seem to be settling in to life here; people seem to be getting used to the heat, and thanks to all the hard work, we've been growing. Our broker says our fortress is now worth about 95 000 Urists, a big leap from last year - our population and wealth has doubled; in a single year! I should ask around to see if anyone want something specific built.

Lastly, I have a sketch of our current town. The great hall deserves attention; asides from a bit of floor work, the last tiles of the roof are being placed. The second floor is a large balcony with many statues in it; even now it has become a favourite gathering spot for the townspeople.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((Sorry for the lack of pictures this entry, despite the growth there's not much to show.))