When we embarked from the mountainhomes, the only thing I was happy about was never having to endure all the bugs in the summer - mosquitoes, flies, ants. Guess what:
Bugs here are even bigger, and possibly hungry for dwarven flesh.
Those appear to be infectors from a Xen hive. I'm not sure if it's possible to suppress their instincts, but I wouldn't mind having a go at it. For now they better stay away.
Alpha has been awfully quiet since we've arrived. She probably felt useless having no wood to work with, and I'm not surprised - if I didn't have the settlement to manage, I would be sitting around complaining. Apparently Alpha is a better dwarf than I am, because instead of giving up, she gave masonry a spin, and what a spin it was.
"Hey SQ, did you know that sandstone is very much wood-like in its properties?"
"Alpha, please, If you're not gonna help me carry those pots upstairs, then stop bothering me."
"Excuse me for actually caring about this whole zoo business!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I've got a couple of rock cages ready. Oh, and could we get some better nails next time? I think the steel was faulty, it kept bending and breaking.
Sure, we can survive in this hole in the ground, but sleeping in dirt is not pleasant. I ordered Nix and Scourge to make us all our own rooms. The biggest one is mine, of course. What about those two extra rooms?
I've decided to make Alpha the settlement's manager, give her something to do. CaptainArchmage will be in charge of numbers. They'll need offices to do their jobs. Me? I just want to feel important, that's all.
Now there will be more hands to help, but also more mouths to feed.
-Two masons, one of which happens to be a decent metalsmith
-Bowyer
-Farmer
-Soap maker
-A scrub peasant from the Mason's Guild
There's 13 of us now, so new plans for bedrooms have been made, new jobs assigned.
Those migrants came here not expecting much, but they do deserve a warm fur bedroll after their journey here. I'm not sure if we have enough fur for thirteen beds, but there's plenty of other materials laying around. Too bad all those materials are hard and uncomfortable,
http://i.imgur.com/iNPSwgp.pngWhile looking for caverns, our miners have found a strange old chest. We're gonna need special tools to open it without breaking whatever is inside, so I ordered construction of an Archaeologist's workshop. Let's hope we find something good.
Huh? Two anams and a rafar... made out of gold?
Those instruments have no business being made out of solid gold. The chest goes straight to my room though.
This summer ended on a high note. We're two urists of fur short, but we can process some pig tails we've harvested. Bedrooms aren't furnished yet, but we're getting close. We're about to make some jeweler's workshops and gemforges. Suppliers from the mountainhomes should arrive soon.
We should do our best to find the caverns. Without cavern moss we can't keep elks and kangaroos inside. Fortunately our new stoneforge can make more pickaxes so we can dig faster than ever. There's still a lot of work ahead of us.
Edit:
"Hey you, are you done with those pig tails?" Shouted SQ to a spinner smoking a pipe in his workshop, before realizing the slacking man was her ex-assistant Bear. "Bear? I haven't seen you in the storage room. Wait, this isn't pig tail fiber!"
Bear smiled and grabbed a reel of black thread and presented it to SQ. "No, is not pig tail, is better - buffalo hair! Is strong like iron, coarse like man beard, thick like dwarven syrup! Mmm... syrup."
"If someone manages to turn this into cloth, you're the one sleeping on it. Damn, we should be making syrup here."
I thought I was crazy when I noticed a rock moving on the ground maybe 20 urists from our hole, but it got even worse when I saw one take off into the air followed by two more rocks.
Gargoyles. These dangerous animals inhabit many rocky environments - rocky deserts like ours, mountain, even human towns. Normally they're ambush predators but when prey is scarce they don't wait for prey to show up, but actively search for anything edible. And yes, dwarves are perfectly edible for gargoyles.
Traders! We can finally buy wood, cages, tools and whatnot! I can't wait to talk to the liaison!
Or not? I don't understand, the traders claim that there was no liaison appointed. Goblin banditry is also on the rise apparently. I've got a bad feeling about this, not to mention a "reassuring" letter from our queen.
SQ, my faithful servant,
I live.
Olngo Doomscrape, Queen of The Dabbling Rags
Guys, I think our civilization is dying.