4th Galena, 204
A group of migrants arrived from Pitwebs today, largely stoneworkers, all smanges and a few children. The colony is holding out against a siege, but food shortages prompted a sacrifice of about forty smanges. This group managed to escape the elves after they were ejected from the fortress. The zosto and the sostu Fortis both argued quite passionately for their inclusion, so I have allowed it. The outer part of the outer bailey has been completed in its most basic form now, so they will have to take the long route to get into the fortress.
Or so I thought. Apparently there is a short cut that allows them to get over the walls through some ramped earth. I have ordered the work crew responsible for that segment whipped, and the error corrected promptly.
24th Galena, 204
A part of the basin actually collapsed today whilst the work crews were 'trimming' excess from the obsidian pits. Grimes and Song suffered minor bruising, and the offending dirt ploughed straight through the wood stockpiles, but no serious injury occurred. The hole is being patched duly.
7th Limestone, 204
Autumn is here, but there has been no news from the raiders. Our food supplies are hardly plentiful as-is, but without restocks from the roaming hunting parties we stand a strong chance of starvation. This is particularly an issue as one of the hunting rors was taken down by a wolf today, who his partner has named Xamaxosten.
10th Limestone, 204
The ror has been duly avenged, and the wolf is duly prepared for supper. All is well with the world. It has occurred to me that we also have one of those annoying raccoons that keep harrassing workers in storage. I flipped a coin as to whether to have it broiled or not, and it came up tails, so one of the smanges has been assigned to trying to tame it. If we can get another, maybe we can start work on a more stable meat supply for the future.
16th Limestone, 204
At long last, the raiding caravan has arrived and we are ready to purchase supplies. My heart swells with joy and my stomach growls in anticipation. This would be an excellent time to offload all that human junk we stripped from those corpses, too.
17th Limestone, 204
In lieu of a priest, I presided today over the wedding of the sostu Azstrog Olngorusnut and the smang Bosa Urarusta. As is custom, Bosa has been elevated to the rank of sostu to match his wife (it is considered implicit that she has freed him).
20th Limestone, 204
Our best woodworker, Stozu, was possessed today by a force calling itself Ustasnogspo. Fortunately, he went straight to the workbench and does not seem to be showing any signs of insanity. He may pull through this alive.
25th Limestone, 204
Ustastnogspo has apparently bound itself to a an alder cup that it used Stozu to produce. Stozu has emerged from the experienced unchanged, which is something of a boon in that he is a capable woodworker in his own right.
4th Sandstone, 204
Freshly resupplied by the hunting caravan, we received more migrants today; a blacksmith and mechanic and their work crew from Breakvalleys.
13th Timber, 204
A great deal of work and frustration later, my chambers on the uppermost level of the tower are at last completed. I have had one of the human prisoners installed there for interrogation.
------
"So when are you going to eat me?" growled the prisoner, rattling the thick alder bars of the cage.
"Eat you?" asked Atu, raising a fine white eyebrow. "We're not elves, human. We prefer to eat things that actually taste halfway pleasant."
"Then what will you do with us?"
"Your friend will be sold to support the outpost. You have the honour of being my companion."
"Your companion?" The prisoner's eyes flicked to the naked breasts of the dungeon keeper, whereupon he began edging away to the other side of the cage. "Does that mean you'll make me-"
"What? Oh, Uslot, no!" Atu's face became a picture of revulsion. "With a human? What kind of pervert do you think I am? No, our intercourse will be of a purely intellectual nature. Well, largely intellectual."
"Largely intellectual?"
"I am quite fond of torture. Personal thing, I'm sure you understand."
"I'm sure I don't," retorted the prisoner disdainfully. Atu considered that.
"What is your name, prisoner?"
"Screw you," the prisoner replied belligerently. Atu sighed, then walked over to a small maple box on her desk and opened it. A neat array of needles was visible inside. She selected one apparently at random, then picked the thin pipe from the box's lid and walked over to the cage.
"Let us try this again," she said, then inserted the needle into the pipe and blew it at the prisoner. The prisoner winced slightly and pulled the pin from his arm, throwing it to the ground.
"What is your name, prisoner?" asked Atu.
"I told you, screw y..yy..aaauauagggghh!" The prisoner began convulsing, writhing on the floor of the cage as Atu calmly picked up the discarded needle and replaced it in the box on the desk. After a few minutes of patient watching, waiting for the writhing to die down, she spoke again.
"What is your name, prisoner?" The heap on the floor gurbled weakly. She reached meaningfully for the box but stopped when the heap blurted out.
"Dema!" it managed. "Dema Felepap." Atu smiled, placing the needle back in the box.
"Thank you, Dema. This will go much more smoothly with your cooperation."
8th Moonstone, 204
Another boy has been born to the outpost.
17th Moonstone, 204
Traded one of the human prisoners as a slave today, should consider stripping them of their equipment in future to save weight.
18th Moonstone, 204
We changed our plans today and bought back the human prisoner (at double the price!) when we discovered she had been pregnant (funnily, we had not noticed this previously) and gave birth to a child. Why worry about capturing slaves when we can breed them?
22nd Moonstone, 204
One of our children has become increasingly withdrawn and now begun working with materials at one of the craft shops. I think we all know where this is headed. Not a nice place, either, as he is requesting cut gems. Oh well.
We have kept the human child in a slave pit below the surface. Attempts to do the same with her mother met little success, as the guards beat her to a pulp upon seeing her. The child, at least, is not so troubled, and is thus more valuable. We can always get more humans, and it is probably best that her mother is gone. It will make conditioning easier. Some of the smanges can play wet nurse until she is of age to consume solids.
21st Opal, 204
Well, despite our best efforts, the baby drowned itself when we were attempting to give it a drink. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Next time, we'll keep it locked in with its mother. Or maybe just locked in.
Additionally, one of the immigrant children has come of age. He has undergone the rituals of adulthood and subsequently been put to work operating the new pump on ground level. The magma moat as-is is impractical, so revisions will need making and at present we have blocked off the original channel.
Fortis' Notes
4th Obsidian, 204
Girl was born today, so celebrations there. To mark the occasion, a major demolitions accident happened taking down the floodpipe the olbosa ordered in place to block off the magma channel. One of the amsmanges working on the project, a bowyer, was seriously injured and will need continuous bedrest for a few good seasons yet. As if competition for bunk space wasn't bad enough. We're already sleeping in shifts to make the most use we can of the space.
On a lighter note, the kid who'd been hogging the craft station for the last month went Glacies on us and had to be slaughtered. Don't we love this outpost of ours? Isn't it just brilliant?
Author
Topic: Hateslaughter [Goblin Dark Fortress] (Read 3436 times)