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[Scruffy]

Since nobody was interested I won't bother posting the pictures or continuing the journal. A shame but understandable.
I will post a few picture or something when it is finished

Ok, I am starting a community fortress with the idea of building a tower fortress (Aye, I know that it's not a very original idea)
and am currently looking for people who want a dwarf named after them.
By the way, incase you were wondering, the fort name is just something randomly generated (Masterworks adds new words)

Basically, the idea is:
-Building a tower fortress with above ground settlement under it.
-Will mine as usual but most of the bedrooms and workshops will be above ground.
-Using Masterworks mod. Enabled some new races (orcs, frostgiants, automatons and ferric elves) but not the challenging modifications (like harder mining/farming/smelting/smithing)


The demented king has become obsessed with his strange visions and finally ordered an expedition to go out and "mine the very skies themselves!". Everyone thought that it was just one of his delirious demands and thought that he would forget it after a few *Crundle tallow roasts* and kegs of Dwarven beer but he did not.
The scholars are not quite sure what the mad king ment with "mining the skies" but that doesn't change the fact that some poor suckers are going to have to go and try doing it.

No experts voluteered for the groundbreaking (or should we say "sky breaking) mission so it was tasked to Baron Scruffy, who was stripped of his title and ordered to put together an expedition. Had he chosen not to he would have been fed to the ravenous cave kobolds the king keeps in his basement. (How can an underground fortress have a basement is one of those mysterious things no-one dared to ask the king)

Thus an expedition was sent to the God-Forsakentwinkle. (What kind of a king names his pet project like that?)
The representive of the local masons and miners guild was asked to oversee the construction but they were only willing to send one representive. The idiot who was previously tasked with fetching the masons their donuts and beer.

Dwarves
1. Scruffy, exBaron. Mason/bookkeeper
2. Scruffy's manservant. A dimwit. Think of Baldrick from Blackadder. Cook/brewer Has a pet plump helmet.
3. The guild representive. Mason/miner
4. Mason
5. Farmer
6. Axedwarf
7. Axedwarf

The manservant and guild representive will be portrayed is idiots and Scruffy never fails to comment on it so don't get annoyed if you choose them and they get shouted at

[Scruffy]

It turned out that my embark was partially in a resurrecting biome and the fort fell (hard to build towers with zombie birds. Didn't see any zombies when I scouted the area before starting)
I will retry in a joyous/untamed biome.

Conversation during the wagon ride:
Scruffy: What are these?
Urist: Kittens.
Scruffy: Why do we have kittens?
Urist: I like kittens.
Scruffy: I asked you to bring war animals. Mighty beasts to slay our enemies. What did you bring? 4 cats, the menace of dwarven societies. And they are not even mature yet!

Our wagon finally arrived to it's destination (or atleast what our navigator says should be the destination. I am starting to doubt his skills with the map.
Our first wagon was carrying me, the guild representive (why did they send him?), the guards and a few workers. Our load was light but
the second wagon should bring us our much needed masons, architects and supplies including lumber, vast quantities of building materials and enough food to last for a few years.

Our second wagon containing most of our supplies still hasn't arrived. I am starting to regret trusting it to my servant Urist.
*Uristcan be seen running in the horizon.*
Scruffy: Urist, where is the wagon?
Urist: I lost it.
Scruffy: What do you mean you lost it? How can you lose a whole wagon? There were women and children riding it for Armok's sake!
Urist: Bad luck I say. You see, there was this strange structure sticking out of the ground an..
Scruffy: Stop. I don't even want to hear it. Where are our supplies?
Urist: Here. *Hands Scruffy a Plumphelmet spawn*
Scruffy: This is it? A single slightly nibbled plump helmet? The very same you have been keeping in your hat for months?
Urist: Ey, That reminds me of a story about that one guy named Soa..
Scruffy: Just shut up Urist.

We started gathering the little supplies we had and building a small fortification.

Scruffy: Urist, there are no trees. Why is that Urist? Why are there no trees?
Urist: I don't know me lod.
Scruffy: It's my lord. I don't know why I even bother trying to train you.
Ok, good thing that we have that coal I told you to bring
Urist: Yeah. Here it is.
*Hands Scruffy a Bitimious coal block*
Scruffy: Urist, What is this?
Urist: It appears to be a block of coal.
Scruffy: Yes, I can see that. What do you suppose we do with this?
Urist: I dunno.
Scruffy: *sigh*. Why do I even bother..


20th Granite
Since our expedition arrived with only small part of our planned supplies we have had to improvise
Our plant savvy friends Urist and Zaneg are running around the countryside, picking up weeds and other lowly plantlife
in our pitiful attempt to keep us alive. I yern for the days when I used to feast on the bountiful harvest of our underground gardens.
A real dwarf eats and drinks fungi, not some darn whip vines!
   
The outside looks eerie (I swear that those platypus and crocodiles were eyeballing me) so I ordered the miners to
dig a temporary underground storage and crafting hall. We need to mine more stone before we can start building our walls and make the above ground even remotely livable.

-Scribled on the side: As much I hate the idea of building UP instead of down I look forward to the day we can mine out that darn searing orb in the sky.
Getting rid of it should be our first step of mining the skies!


27th Granite

After a month of restless work we got are finally starting to have enough materials for start walling off a small part of the light ridden outside. Still, we don't have enough room for building a functioning fortress yet. We need to do what our dwarven instincts tell us and dig down.
(Down is good, up is bad. BAD I say. This whole thing is a bad idea!)

As we all know, the foundation of all great constructions is a good basement. Go Sarvesh, and dig us one. I for one can't stand staying in this blasted sunlight for any longer than I have to.
The king told us to reach for the heavens so the first step is to build an above ground setlement just like those humans.

It is not easy to get dwarves to build a tower. They prefer to dig down, not up.
A two level high building is a mighty tower to most dwarves and most likely the highest point they have been in their life.
Any city above the soil layer is a mighty skycraper to us dwarves.

I got word from my servants that Kubuk managed to get herself webbed. How did she manage that?
I have been drinking water for a month now and we don't even have beds! THis is no way for a dwarf to life.

28th Granite
I heard Zaneg screaming outside. He claims to have seen a dead giant gecko walking around. He is a nutjob but I feel like there is something wrong with the bushlands to the north.
Bah, can't I get a moments rest? A moment ago Urist came shouting to my room and claiming to have been nearly attacked by a giant platypus and a pair of nightwings!
Just a few days ago he claimed to have seen two flying lungfish! Something has to be done to this madness!

20th Slate
Suddenly a kitten grew into a cat. One moment it was all cute and tiny and then: Splort! It suddenly swelled up in size and became huge!
Why isn't anyone else bothered by this? Am I the only one who considers this strange?
Days have been strange ever since I entered this fortress. Before departing the king even made me worship Tatlosh, the god of the sky and stars! What blasphemy!

Tonight a giant owl corpse came flying in our fortress and killed both of our guards. They were good dwarves. I am starting to believe those stories Urist and Sarvesh are telling me.

22th Slate
A Swarm of giant hornets just entered the fortress while we were sleeping. They wounded Urist and we are pinned down inside the fortress. Help!

28th Slate

Scruffy: Sarvesh, what is that?
Sarvesh: It appears to be a horned horse trying to mount a rather large kobold.
Scruffy: It is a zombie unicorn you dimwit. And that is a giant platypus! Where the heck have you brought us?
Sarvesh: Atleast it's homely.
Scruffy: ...
Sarvesh: By the way, what's a kobold?

The murky pools have dried up and Urist was attacked by a dead tawny owl.
That dwarf seems to be a flying zombie magnet. He is a real menace!
I can't believe these fellow dwarves. Am I the only sane on in here?

6th Felsite
I can't believe it! I just woke up outside after Sarvesh had punched me in the face! I understand that everybody is a bit on the edge because to the local wildlife and a few deaths but how dares he? Me? I am the authority around here!

In the following days:
-Scruffy went stark raving mad
-Sarvesh continued tantrumming and interrupted a delicate cistern construction, ending up starting a flood and washing 2 masons with the waterflow. They drowned soon afterwards.

[Scruffy]

Since nobody was interested in getting a dwarf I continued with the new embark. A border of a untame ocean and two other untamed biomes. Rather bland but it is flat and there are two towers within reach.


1st Granite

It has been 5 years since my father Scruffy left leading an group of masons to "mine the sky" as the King ordered. We haven't heard a word from them ever since except for Urist who was found wandering in the wilderness outside the Mountainhomes. He was babbling something incomprehensive and rarely talks about what he saw. He hasn't been the same since he came back, though he is still a bloody idiot (I suppose that no amount of trauma can change that, though I doubt that it can make him any more annoying either)
That expedition is presumed dead and the King ordered another expedition to set out and "try again", or as he said it: "Send out more. We got plenty of fools to get rid of." Ofcourse that demented old coot picked me to lead the expedition. I suppose he thought it would be amusing to send out the son of the previous expedition leader to repeat the same mistakes. For such an old man he sure has a strange sense of humor. The life in the Mountainhomes wasn't easy but it bloody hell was better than out here! Now that we are far away from the King and his lackeys I can finally say what I really think of that bloody bastard!
...
The next few pages have been torn out.

For some reason Urist refused to drive it, (mumbled something about "losing one") so I had to make Rigoth drive it. The Guild Mason's and Miner's Guild sent a representive with our expedition. I haven't had much time to get to know him yet. We are well supplied and able to start constructing a small stone shelter soon after unloading the wagons. The building shall become the the centre of our upcoming fortress.


20th Granite.
The constructions are working as planned and the miners were ordered to start digging a stairway and some storage areas. The guild representive wants to move most of the fortress functions above ground in the near future but I overruled him. I bloody sure aren't going to spent any more time in the sun than I have to! We can worry about those things later. Now we dig. Masons have been hard at work with our remaining boulders but we need more.

The next few pages are missing.

No more booze..
Booze. Thirsty.


18th Malachite
It is raining outside. As much as I hate getting my beard wet atleast it plots out the sun.
The starting hardships of the last few months are behind us (We chose not to talk about them. Those were confusing times) and the masons are making good progress. At this rate we will have our outer walls completed before the end of the year.
The Guild Mason's and Miner's Guild representive came to my office today Well, atleast I call it an office. It is just a little table and a chair in the corner of our warehouse. I deserve better!
and claimed to have seen something large moving in the mist. At first I shrugged it off as just another gray langur or a rather large albatross
but then I too started hearing something in the distance. If you quietly stared into the mist a faint trumpeting could be heard from the distance.


20th Malachite
Early this morning (yes, I can even know the time of the day now because being forced to live so close to the darn sun)
Urist came to my office and said that he could see a shady group slowly moving through the mist and making their way towards our fortress.
Ofcourse I was alarmed and was about to issue the guards to patrol the outer perimiter but in the end the figures turned out to be migrants. Seems like the mad king has condemmed other poor sods to suffer the same fate as we us. Making yet another of his insane fixations into existence.

The strange figures in the distance have been drawing closer. Late this evening someone came to my office and asked me to come to the eastern walls.
The figures were just standing there, staring. Urist claimed that they remind him of the elephants from the old childrens tales. Scary tusked mosters that come at you at night and impale you while sleep. He also said something about trumpeting and burning fortresses but I didn't bother listening. Surely those are just old women's tales to scare bad children.
These creatures are far too large. Too large!
We spent the night staring at each other from distance.


22th Malachite
The rain stopped.
After reviewing the migrant's paperwork I found out that some of them actually VOLUNTEERED to come to this sunny little hellhole. Clueless idiots.
Our fragile food budget can't handle all those newcomers. We have to to something pretty soon or we will end up like my poor father.


1st Limestone
The air around the fortress feels drier and the pools of water are getting shallower. If if was deep underground I doubt that I would notice but staying so close to the surface has made me start noticing these things
The dry season is here.
Rigoth channeled the western side of our moat into to the river.


15th Sandstone
Strange pink birds have been seen around the fortifications. The masons claims that this is a bad omen but I think that they are just some rather ugly critters someone
painted as a prank. For some reason Urist seems to be deadly afraid of them. Something about "Flying death. The pecking. The PECKING!"
I am getting worried about one of the workers. Tirist Megidatis. That dwarf is bad news!
I asked him to engrave my dininroom and what did he scribble on the floor? Pictures of forgotten beasts, slugs and dwarves praying to a deity of darkness!


24th Sandstone
Something clearly is wrong with Tirist. I haven't dared to accuse him yet. Never seen a dwarf so skilled with so many different weapons.
Urist and his dimwitted little farmer friends complained about the lack of seeds lately. Can't they just pick something from the ground?
What would those idiots do without my guidance.


27th Sandstone
More migrants arrived. We don't have suitable lodgings for them.

I confronted Tirist today. He claims to be a worshipper of Zukthist Mistysubtle, the deity of darkness!
When I asked him about the slugs and strange beasts he chiseled in my wall he claimed to actually hate slugs!
Does that mean that he made those because he is disgusted by them and wanted to draw them in MY room!


17th Timber
I saw a kobold today. Reminds me of the good old days in the mountainhomes. Those critters used to be everywhere.
I could swear that they didn't use to be this squishy in my childhood.

Some strange rumors have come to my attention and I am somewhat disturbed by them. The migrants claimed to have seen walking corpses and strange towers to the South.
I remember the stories that Urist (that crazy dimwit) has been telling me about my father's expedition and this is starting to eeriely remind me of those events.
Though that idiot has rarely talks about those events and when he does he has been sober for far too long. Any sane dwarf can notice that his broad stories about bloodthirsty owl corpses and giant platypusses that haunt the rivers are just the talkings of a sober madman who has gone without booze for too long but I am starting to fear that there might be a hint of truth in them.


21st Timber
The construction of the outer perimeter is going according to the plan. Rigoth breached one of the murky pools that were blocking the construction today.
The darn fool just dug out the clay and proceeded to take a nap IN THE DARN MOAT! The fool didn't even wake up until the water reached beardhigh and was about to drown him. He was supposed to have a helper for the task but that darn bugger was sleeping in a tunnel somwhere and refused to come out


22th Timber
I woke up to a loud banging on the my door and a raspy voice shouting curses at me.

Urist: What room? You'r sleepin' in the dorm as the rest o' us.
Scruffy: Shut up Urist. Can't you see that I am writing.

Urist is still peering over shoulder like some strange chicken trying to get a grain of cave wheat. What is he trying to do? Does he want to get punched so hard?
Funny thing, I didn't even know he knew how to read! I suppose that a dwarf learns something new every day. Well, except for Urist.
His discipline has been slipping ever since he got back from that blasted expedition my father led. One of these days I will need to whack some sense into him. Well, I'm starting to ramble.

Ah yes, the darn Outpost liason. Stubborn little bugger. He just marched in like he owned the darn place and started giving orders. The gall of some dwarves! Who does he think he is?
I am the one who gives orders around here!

Urist: Well, me lord. Technically this fort belongs to the King and the liason was personally chosen by the King and according to the Mountainhome's law, as an official liason his orders are the same
as orders directly from the King as if he pe..
Scruffy: Can it Urist! Give me some peace and quitness. Can't you see I'm writing! We are in God-forsakentwinkles, not in the Mountainhomes. I couldn't care less what rules they have engraved in their law slabs.

Where did that simpleton learn such complicated words anyway. I swear that there is something wrong with him. One moment he is a gibbering simpleton, then the next he starts speaking like a darn scholar just to return to talking like a mentally retarded plump helmet farmer.
They say that every dwarf gets a spark of brilliance once in their life. That idiot's light has been twinkling like the rear end of a rather loose glowworm ever since he got hit in the head a few years ago.
..I wish that he would atleast throw that darn withered plump helmet away. That thing has been stuffed in his pocket ever since I first met him.

Anyway, the liason started bickering about how he doesn't see any tower or how I have been just lazing around here for a better half of a year. Foolish idiot. We are in the middle of the untamed wilds.  What the heck does he expect me to do? I can't just order the masons to start stacking  blocks at random and hope that they will produce something pretty for the King to pee down from. (Yes, he sometimes does that. You should have seen that one time in the dininghall back at the Mountainhomes. Can you believe that he even ordered the fort champion to
rise him on top of the hematite statue of a kobold and so that he could... Ok, getting off track again)
Doen't he realize that we can't just start building random large scale constructions without taking care of our defence and basic dwarven needs first. We will start constructing as soon as it is dwarvenly possible! I won't risk our safety like my foolish father did. Armok bless his zombie bones.
I told the bugger to sod off and tell the King that it will be done when it's ready.


24th Timber
There is smoke everywhere. Nobody seems to know what started the fire but the whole southern shoreline is on fire. The fire is spreading fast yet nobody seems to give a rats arse about the whole thing. They just keep going like nothing is happenening. What is it with these dwarves? Am I surrounded by blind idiots? I ordered everyone to get back inside and hope that the fire won't spread on the court yard. This wouldn't have happened if we were safely underground like dwarves are ment to.

On the other news,that darn miner is still in the tunnel. I think that he is making a nest or something like some dirty kobold. I told the Guild representive to get his minions under control. It the only reason why he is here yet he can't even do it properly! I am starting to understand what my father felt when he was surrounded by all those idiots.

Guild representive: Get yar lazy arse out of that hole and get up 'ere ya lazy bum! Ta boss tells it's time to  get back ta work!
Miner Dishmab: Up yers! Someon' dug out the staircase.
Guild representive: Then climb up. Th' hole's only beard high!
Miner Dishmab: ...I don't wanna! I like it 'ere!
Guild representive: ... lazy bastard.


6th Moonstone
The firestorm has passed. The land is covered in ash and all the plantlife except for trees is dead. For some reason this sight of ruin and warm ash pleases me. I wonder why.

The haulers found something horrible today. One of our old horses was caught in the fire and now all her fat seems to just have melted off her body. How is that even possible? How is it alive? Doesn't anyone else find these things strange? What is going on here?


7th Opal
A fisherdwarf has been missing for a while and we are quite not sure what happened to him. There isn't anything dangerous in the river. Right?

The workers hadn't seen Rigoth for a few days and went looking. After a while  they found him in an incomplete part of the moat. The stranges part was that he was muching on some unidentifiable blob of ...something. We told him to just dig a ramp and get out from there but he just groaned and started crawling around the moat like an animal until he finally found a rat. A rat! He started eating it! Can you believe this?

On slightly more sane news, the guild representive told me that we have finally started constructing the scaffolding for the skycity (as he calls it). He showed me some initial plans and they seem... interesting to say the least.
It is not even a proper tower. It is a giant inverted pyramid standing on four legs! He claimed to have gotten the idea from some engraving he saw depicting a strange human gathering hall full of sweaty people in some far-away land.

Scruffy: Are you sure the tower is safe? Look, it is hanging from that single little pillar. It is no even properly balanced.
How does it even stay up?
Guild representive: Ofcours' it's safe. What do ya mean "balanced"?
Scruffy: Look, there is no way that that tower should even be standing. It is against all the sane rules of physics!
Guild representive: I don't understand what ya mean. Look 'ere, it is supported by tis constructed support and a piece o' wall.
Scruffy:But it's impossible! Gravity should have pulled it apart a long time ago!
Guild representive: What is "gravity"?
Scruffy: ...



20th Obsidian

The walls ment for our enterence corridor are all a few urists too North. How could those masons do such a mistake? Something like this would be expected from that Miners and Masons Guild drunkard but not from the common masons. I ordered them to take the whole wall apart and start again. That should teach them.

Also, I got informed that Dismeb, that crazy old miner was found dead in the moat. That lazy dimwit. He had a pick. We even told him to dig a ramp up, but no. He chooses to die while clutching a dead, half-eaten rat.
There have been sighting of strange creatures outside  the fortress walls. Giant monkeys and what appears to be a huge pangolin.

1st Granite

The air is starting to feel moister. According to the calender it should be the beginning of the wet season.