Chapter 2Spring & SummerAll went well for a while, with renewed vigor the dwarves started to work, making beds and rooms, having some infighting about who become what kind of noble, and where to build walls. Then... the alarm sounded. Stranglers had arrived. A small warband of unarmed combatans. Quickly all guard dogs were brought to the lone caravan guard, and Meph took position as well. Unarmed.
A battle ensured, and suprisingly enough the stranglers were beaten back. Dogs died... 4 stranglers died... but none of the dwarves. A good day for Worktoes.
The dwarves started to make workshops then, 4 masons, 2 stonecutter, 2 mechanics, 1 rockforge, 4 butcherys and tanners, 3 kitchen and fisheries... everyone was working, nonstop. Elves came by to trade, and we gave them gemencrusted totems, worth roughly 10.000 urist... for mithril, cloth, food and drink, wood and seeds... wells were made, bedrooms with beds, doors and cabinets... rockarmor and weapons for the militia... chairs and tables for the dining room and studies... chitin, scale and leather was tanned and worked with, the dead animals butchered... soon enough we had 500 food, enough clean water for everyone, enough material for basic armor, even a small metal industry was started, making iron... cages for traps were made, a thief killed, the first plants harvested... and then... and then one mason. dropped. one. stone...
The surface was being walled in, but a well was blocking access to a wall that should be build. So the wall next to it was razed, to allow space for a tile of floor, to give access to the last unbuild wall... but this severed wall piece fell down. Into to water. Onto the sand floor. Through. the. sand. floor. INTO THE FORTRESS.
Ups.
Seeing no way to fix this hole, since no floodgates of any kind exist in the extensive waterways, which are linked to 6 ponds and the river... I abandoned the fort. The dwarves razed all buildings, dismantled all furniture, took all the food and literally everything that could be carried... and carried it outside:
It was then walled in, planning for a giant aboveground fortress. A quick hideout was dug into a nearby hill, a DRY nearby hill, and cautionary explanatory mining was done. The waterflow could be slowed down enough to actually get to the hole and fix it. Brave dwarves waded through water, dug away the wet soil, and one hero-mason had enough time on the fluctating waterlevel to build this one floor tile.
It is now autumn, and there are no buildings in the fort. No rooms and no furniture. We still have 400 units of food. We have more then enough water to drink. We still have all the items made. But everything has to be carried back into the fort. All furniture reinstalled, all workshop rebuild. Maybe... just maybe... this evacuation has been premature. But at least we are safe. No one died, on the contrary, we even got migrants. Our military has 10 competent fighters, as well as several archers. But progress is slow...
Meph, under martial law, still has 2 seasons to fix this... each legionnaire can only assume control for one year, before he is outvoted by the dwarven community for a real leader to follow. But so far, he has done good. His son is safe.