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[Aldaris]

I got bored with Pillarshot (See sig) so I copied the save, abbandoned, and found a prety awesome site in a dot of volcanic mountain at the north edge of the world. It's  freezing, there ain't no soil in sight, so the tower cap bug MIGHT give me sand. and the starting 7 once again decided it was cold. So they settled near the magma pipe and hit the river.
For some reason 40d11 doesn't like the DFMA, so there's no upload for now. I'll just post a little map of the region and leave it at that.
#^^^^I
####^^
UU^#^^
^UU##^
^*UU#$
^M^O##
I = glacier, U is underground river, M = magma pipe, $ = HFS O = pit. ^as in game. * = the ^on which I started my camp.

This is the story of the founding of the Ice-Pillars of Artifice.

The Ice-Pillars of Artifice. 308.

Log of Tholist Talulast, Admin of the Eternal Workers of Frost.
Yeah, I know, our naming department and official leader, even if I do all of the leadership (The endless, ENDLESS paper...) , Lňr Zuglarkęhshak, is terribly optimistic, isn't he? He does have a point though, It's cold outside. We're on the edge of a volcanic mountain range, there's a glacier half a days walk from here. There's also a large chasm in between us and the glacier, although pretty much the entire thing is underground. We settled just north of a magma pipe breaking the surface nearby what the surveyors say is a cave river. A bottomless pit should be a bit to the southeast, and there are legends of unimaginable wealth and unimaginable horrors* in this region.
*And this is Dwarven legend, dwarfs are very good at imagining wealth and horrors.
-Back to work again.

-We haven't gotten a sense of date back yet from our seemingly endless journey through the lands of eternally lit ice, but we hit the cave river, from above. Its pretty wide here from what he can see. And there's sounds of a lot of big things moving around in there. Plans are being made on how to exploit these things better than a simple well adn garbadge dump. Plans are also being made on how to get a farm up in an area without any soil at all. Even under the glacier there is only more mountain rock.
Luckily we know how to work alunite to resist magma, so we're not dependent on bauxite for magma ssafe rock, seeing it's utter lack around here.
-Back to work again.

-We've combined the plans! Glory to my brain! We are making a system to safely carve out fortifications in the side of the riverbed, and rig up a system to flood a cave to the brim without letting the river dwellers in. We'll drain it back out into a lower stage of river.
-Back to work again.

-We-eeel... It all went according to plan, except the walls of the farm have been redecorated with a red that reminds me of the lovely flash opals I sold to supply a large part of our expedition. But only one critter managed to worm it's way through the fortifications. The water tight doors are shut now, I'd like to see them get through solid rock. Once they're halfyway we'll just smash in their heads.
-Back to work again.

-It's been a busy and long time since the last entry, but merchants we got a while ago told us how to keep track of date in eternal day, and gave us the current date. Turns out it's winter already. 4th of moonstone to be prescise. Our little burrow is up and running, although Sarcog, one of our miners, is resting in bed, and I fear he might not get out of it. he lost his leg up to the hip and got a nasty hit to his head when we found a group of river creature had snuck through the exit drain of the irrigation system. We've installed a door there as well. We're also diggin out the entrance to what will be the fort proper, and trying to make a bow and some bolts using some of the wood we brought from the mountainhomes.
-Back to work again.

[Aldaris]

The second year, comments appreciated. Grammer nazism accepted in PM form, but keep it out of the thread.

309, 19th of Felsite, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice.
Log of Tholist Talulast
Armok help us. The mountainhomes have given us more than 20 migrants. Most of them useless, but we did get a miner and 2 metalsmiths. We're setting up a temporary forge at the surface of the mamgam pipe in order to forge some picks and set some migrants to work digging out the new fort. We had elf traders a while ago, they only had a few surface plants taht where worths trading for, they didn't even have wood to turn into beds. We also started clearing out the cave river with bone ccrossbows and bolts, all is well on that respect, the beasts can't get at us through the fortifications above the water level.
And now I'm back ujp to today...
I hereby officially regret casting Lňr in a bad light in this journal. He has died to the magma man that crawled out of the pipe, for some reason neither he nor the recruits had any bolts with them, but the fire man succumbed without further casualties on our side. The only fire beast left is a single imp, we are confident we can handle that bastard. We also found the pit a while ago, digging a staricase down to investigate the hollow sounding of the earth. It isn't in the way of any plans, luckily.

We also have a plan to handle any aggresive traders in the future, the depot has already been moved to it's final posistion.

And as an added horror, the migrants have made even more paperwork needed, I had to lay down working with a pick in order to keep up. But work orders are being worked again.
And once again, may Lňr rest in peace. This means there are only 5 2/3 founders left, seeing Sarcog isn't looking good, he's somewhat content, but he can't think clearly any more.
-Back to the endless paperwork and the mourning, Tholist Talulast.  (This line has been scratched through, there are a few patches of water damage on that paper.)

I must report bad news, one of the bloody recruits died of his wounds outside in the cold on the bare rock scoured of snow by the heat of the fire man. Her name was Sĺkzul Rakustsat. That, ironically, means Tombsstroke. And she also loudly complained about fire snakes when she got assigned to defend the forges. May she rest in peace, and shout loudly at Armok to give us some better fortune.


11th of Malachite, log of Tholist Talulast.
I was wrong. There has been another death, and one is happening right outside our temporary dining room. The leatherworker that went fey the moment he got hre just went berserk, and the last fire imp has claimed the life of our sheriff. By the look of the area where we found his corpse, he sidestepped a fireball, but then got burned and passed out once the little devil jumped on him. We later shot it down. We are making graves for those lost above and around the magma pipe, one in a small hewn out deposit of aluminum near the pipe, one on the ash of the fire man, suspended over the pipe, and one on the copper bars we made there no matter what tried to stop us.

We are also getting a lot further with digging out the main fort. The dining room is done, and the industrial pillar is coming along nicely. We haven't started on the farm and park yet though, and we're not sure where to place the livng area. Last time we all sat down in our little cave, we heard quite some complaints about that, but none of us, including the newcomers and the new members of our little council, are quite sure what to do about it. We're also setting up a trap tunnel to clear out som more cave critters.

-Side note: A copper vein was found at the edge of the dining hall, once we dug it out we noticed we had dug exactly within the desgination. Looks like Tombsstroke shouted loudly alright.
And now we're back to digging and building, and one the already unconscious Deduk Dodókâl bites the dust, hopefully without death. Now THIS is what I signed up for!


4th of Gelena, log of Tholist Talulast.
We are lucky we found a vein of tetrahedrite right in our ore stockpile! Nothing else has happened though.

13th of Timber, Tholist Talulast's log.
All who died here, get back to shouting at Armok.
We tried to attack a pocket of river creatures in the irrigation outlet using stone fall traps.
We didn't set enough traps.
Our small military has been halved, and a single civillian has already died. Mulch, who previously  wielded a crossbow in exterminating these pests has been recruited agian to stand guard at the corridor.

Other stuff is progressing according to plan, however.
-And back to the bloody work again.


*This page is sprinkled with red dots. The handwriting is shaking and looks uncertain.*
Ouch.
Really, Armok, this hurts
I lost my entire right arm to the bastard, Mulch is the only reason I'm still alive, I've offered him the leadership, but he declined, saying I'm right about the paperwork, and he too prefers a good pick over a pen. I can't say I blame him. Moral is our official leader right now, and she accepted the offer. I'm transfering leadership and administration over to her hopefully capable hands.

Once again, this hurts. I'll be joining Sarcog, I guess.
Final piece of advise: Don't join a civilization called the Crypts of Cleaning. It's bad for your life insurance costs.

][3rd of Moonstone, winter of 309, The Ice-Pillars of Artifice, administrators log, Moral Rovudunâl][
I knew that if anyone would react to the screams and shouts and rather... ah, imaginative swearing of Tholist, it'd be Mulch. After all, they're both founders, and Mulch has been the first of any of us to ever wield a crossbow, or fell a beast with it. What we didn't expect was Tholist's wounds, he lost his entire right arm. I'm afraid that like poor Sarcog he'll never be able to even raise a pen again in his life. Poor bastard.
Anyway, I'm hereby taking over administration of the fort, I'll still regularly consult Tholist, as he has the most experience with the paperwork he so hates. There isn't much else he can do, so he doesn't mind. 
On matters of the fort itself, everyone is doing something usefull, but we're still very short on masons. Work orders for stoneworking are becoming a solid wall covering at the entryway to the eactual fort.
On the subject of the entrance, Tholist explained the details of the plans he had for it, and I must say it has a lot of potential. The alunite drawbridges are being built and I think the hatches are done, although I'm not too sure on that. They still need to be linked up at any rate.
-Moral Rovudunâl


][4th of Moonstone, winter of 309, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Tholist, you'd better be shouting at 'em up there!
Half of our remaining military just went berzerk. Leaving us with just under one recruit. Who happens to be in a coma due to spine damage.
Yippie-ya-yay.
-Moral Rovudunâl

][27th of Opal, winter of 309, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
And the river strikes again, to much swearing of many, this time it is Mulch. He broke his leg fighting 2 creatures that wormed tehir way through the outlet. He also has some other bruises, and he stated to the world at large that 'It hurt somewhat.'. Of all his good side I must say his understatements are somewhat lacking. Still, for a change, these are wounds he'll recover from. But with a population 19 after the madmen died, and about 3 constantly on a hospital bed, we're hoping the migrants make up their minds and show up, we really need more masons and soldiers.  On the other hand, food and lovevely booze isn't a problem.
Unfotunatly, a killed tower cap sapling revealed the soil inherent of this region. Silty clay loam, as far as you can get from usefull sand.
Damn.

(Writers note: Moral and Mulch are in game lovers. It might not be clear in the writing, but this allows me to put cynism up to 11, which, losing Mulch's marksdwarf capabilities isn't.)

[Aldaris]

SPRING HAS ARRIVED!
And so year 3 begins.
][Date unclear, spring 310, the Ice-Pillar of Artifice. Admin log, moral][

And elves came to trade, they had nothing of worth to us, althought the monetary worth is still somewhat unclear to me.

][4th of Slate, spring of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Well...
We had a goblin ambush today, how they found out our hole in the ground even exists is a mystery, much less why they bothered coming here. Our brewer Urdim Udilbathel was cought outside and got slaughtered by the marksgoblin. When we heard his scream we immediatly mass drafted the entrie able-bodied population of the fort, about 15 people, and we ambushed the ambush at the bottom of the etrance tunnel to the original camp. Nobody else on our side was wounded.
We will, from now on, bury anyone that died during the construction of the mian fort in alcoves in the entrance tunnel, wall those alcoves off, and put a statue representing the one inside in the alcove, they will be remembered.
Mulch is feeling better and is fully healed except for his still broken leg, but he thinks he'll be up and running again by summer.
-Moral Rovudunâl


][14th of Slate, spring of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
MIGRANTS!
They're still streaming in through the tunnel, but we've already doubled our total population, we might actually get some work done now!

][1st of hematite, spring of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
And it happens again, and again. This time the new military leader, Oddom Zastileh has been struck down by the now desceased Katterist the snakeman. May he rest in peace. Following his death Mebzuth Kűbukíkthag lost his throat, and suffocated later. May he rest in peace.  Following that was Ilral Ushatmelbil. May he rest in peace. This means our entire drafted military died to the river. AGAIN. On the other hand, the section of cave river we use is empty now, so no more fright of the monsters climbing up the rope of the well.Still, we'll be smelling the rotting corpses in the water from the other side of the fort, and that's not even mentioning that's the wellwater our wounded drink, poor bastards.

][18th of hematite, summer of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
No, dammit, no.
Another ambush, this time led by a hammergoblin,
Catten Vabôktholest, Sarvesh Monomfash and Mistęm Tanlolor were trapped outside when this happened, and where promtly struck down. We are organizing a dogpile again. We are considering building some kind of gate.
It worked again, without major injuries, although Mistęm, the wounded marksdwarf, started shouting at the entire fort from him bed, and reports are the Tholist finally lost hold of the edge and started kicking, screaming, and yelling at people to give him back his arm. We had to lock him up, and we dobt dare open that door until the screaming stops.
-Moral Rovudunâl
l
][23rd of hematite, summer of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Mistęm calmed down.

And antoehr ambush, this time discovered by Obok Râlukkol the planter, may he rest in peace. Dogpile in progress.
This fort must be cursed, Cerol Ferzefon died in the attack. May she rest in peace.
Lorban Kelgósmer. May he rest in peace. The tombs leading to the depot are full, more are being dug into the sides of the depot chamber itself.
Ňnul Suvaskol, may he rest in peace. We are down to a population of 29. if migrants don't come, they're completely right. We're sealing ourselves in anyway.

A population of 30 now!  Rovod Lokumdodók has given birth to a girl! I just hope she won't become orphaned or get killed herself. 
-Moral Rovudunâl

][1st of malachite, summer of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Arten Kulalňnul just became possesed, we're hoping for a legendary crossbow or something else that has a practical use.

He claimed the mechanic's workshop! Huzzah!
My bets are on a rhyolite mechanism, the stakes are not having to join the next dogpile.
Thank you, stockpile knowledge! I won that bet. The mechanism is called Watchfulaguish the Pure Poet, and it's covered in spikes. It looks extremely complex, some of those cogs are smaller than my beard hairs!
-Moral Rovudunâl

][9th of galena, summer of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Tholist died. Mulch and Sar cog are still immobile, this leaves us with abtou 4 1.3 founders.


][1st  of limestone, autumn of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
We are finishing up the tombs, the trader suprise is complete, except for the last section of the drain, and no-one else died so far, we are expecting the caravan from the mountainhomes around now, and we have a number of trade goods ready.
-Moral Rovudunâl

][16th of limestone, autumn of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Ater a hectic time organising a number of things weel enough to leave them alone, I ran into Mulch, making bone bolts, out of bed.
Needless to say, I was very happy about this. He finally healed up.
I made this clear to him by shouting at him that it was about time, and why the hell didn't he go to see me?

And another setback, the caravan was ambushed by goblins, the caravan lost a wagon and they fled.
dammit.
-Moral Rovudunâl
][28th of limestone, autumn of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Ambush, many marksgoblins, our cook was trapped outsdie when we closed the gate. Dogpile assembling.
Fikod Kinvabôk bit the dust to the ambush. May he rest in peace.
Ďteb, our original planter, died. May she rest in peace. Founder count is down 4 living ones, and 4 able bodied ones.
Total fort population: 24, just 5 more than we had before the migrants.
Back to shouting, lads.

][25th of sandstone, autumn of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Goden Kűbukzafal went weird and claimed a craftsdwarf's workshop, I'm betting on something useless this time.
Also, some migrants have arrived, although they where a bit nervous about their potential fates here after hearing from the caravan, they were afraid we'd been concuered by goblins.
Oh, and Goden made a rhyolite crown.
-Moral Rovudunâl.

][25th of opal, winter of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
This may be the final entry for this year, things are going smoothly, work is getting done, the magma drain is complete, the barracks is done, the river is clear near the new farm cavern, and we're getting ready to flood it. We'll pump the water back out through fortifications. Nobody died since the last ambush, and we put a row of cage traps and a row of dual copper axe-bladed weapon traps in front of the entrance. We're staying underground all the time these days, we live like dwarfs at last.
Moral Rovudunâl

][8th of obsidian, winter of 310, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
During the preperations for new years eve Mebzuth Kibalĺth, a planter, started talking with a deeper voice, nothing special about that, everybody is doing weird stuff after so long without deaths, they're expecting the worst around the corner any minute. What is strange was the echo and that's in the short and narrow people filled hallways. Her eyes have begun glowing like small fire snakes (Incidentally, she hates the critters.), and she doesn't reply to anything that doesn't have to do with her sudden demands for resources. We've agreed she's possesed, she didn't reply.

She claimed the clothier's workshop. She's asking for metal and lots of cloth. We're hoping the elves come early next year.

[Jackrabbit]

This is quite good, a fun read.

[Aldaris]

There may be quite some typo's and errors as I write this while I play, I'm also taking bit of a break from this in order to play a succsecion fort on the forum I managed to get hooked on DF. (At least 4 people recruited, at least one of which is already active and already posted on this forum.)

[Aldaris]

Rest of year three edited into that post, here's the current bit of year 4:

][17th of granite, spring of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
should've know.
Anyway, the elves came. And this time we've got trade goods. (endless river creature skull totems.)
We were doing an emergency drill with the military, getting them into emergency position at the site of the old depot, when we heard the screaming of Tulon Aristkeskal, one of our what-used-to-be-4 marksdwarves, we raised the gate, throwing of Dakost Dogenmothdast, one of the planeters, while we heard the traps tearing something apart. We don't know what it was.

][21th of granite, spring of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
A group of goblins lead by a mad human entered the tunnel today while we were installing traps, we thought the gate had been raised... Rakust Idenstelid the peasant was slaughtered by the invaders, as was Tun Lolerlesast the farmer, and Urvad ětdůnimush the potash maker.
Sabotage? Maybe, I guess you'd be safe enough down in the main fort if you activated the trader suprise. But who? I'll ask the people I really know to look out for people doing suspicious stuff.

After even the elves couldn't bring what he needed, Mebzuth ran out of his workshop, shouting absolute noncense at everybody, we don't think this will end well.

][13th of Felsite, spring of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Busy times, busy times.
Our goblin suprise is nearly complete, as is the trader suprise, we just need to finish the bridge. The elves went insane anyway, probably the amount of sunlight they live in catching up with 'em. One of their mules went berserk and killed our miner Deduk Rakustazuz, he was suspected of the betrayal anyway.
Adil, one of our marksdwarves, however, took a few nasty wounds from the bastard child of the forests, but nothing he won't recover from.
Mebzuth finally bit the dust and died of a thirst, no one knows why he refused the booze, but we're low on it anyway so ohwell.

We also found a use for our artifact mechanism, and a number of copper pointed discs, and those axes...

][2nd  of Hematite, summer of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
According to the calender it's summer, not that you can notice on the surface. It's still as cold as ever.
We're opening the gates to lure the goblins into our traps.

And it worked, some of the chunks were even launched up to the battlements!
Blood for Armok! Bones for the Boltcarvers!

Also, migrants came in right after the goblins, I'm now officially mayor, and we now have a fortress guard.

][19th   of Hematite, summer of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
I put a ban on scepters, I'm not sure why, but it seemed proper. Not that we ever traded them, anyway. Godem engraved a masterpiece in my study, next to the door, of me becoming mayor. It is exactly what the place needed.
Also, Zuglar Ugutnish, our only gem cutter, withdrew himself from society, we'll see what he makes.

][20th   of Malachite, summer of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Zuglar began working a while ago, we didn't have any gems at all, so when he said he needed them, we started looking down the bottomless pit, and we saw something gleaming. Black Zircons. Zuglar took the one we dug out and set to work.
From a black zircon, he made a Perfect Black Zircon, note the capital letters, he insisted on those.

][15th   of Limestone, autumn of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
I can't say that not a lot has happened, but there isn't really anyhting significant going on, there's a project to clear out the top level of the cave river from behind carved fortifications, and our level of river, the one right under the top level, is completely clear. We're  also finalising the barracks and it's various access tunnel to militarily significant locations. Everyone is busy, and with a population of 50, even if nothing big is going on, that means a lot of activity, including a gnetle expansion of our dangerously small alcohol reserve, which is halted somewhat by our lack of wood, but the dwarven caravan has arrived today, so we'll see if they have any. The wood we salavaged from the broken elves has been turned into beds and a few bins.

I would also like to say again that this area is EXTREMELY rich in copper, but not in anything else. We're having trouble finding any gems at all, and we have yet to find a vein of anything that couldn't be used to make copper in some way or another.
-Moral Rovudunâl.

][19th of Limestone, autumn of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
They brought much more than we expected, Giant cave spider silk! Iron and platinum ores and bars! Nickel silver, rose gold, many more metals! Tower cap wood! Barrels! Cages! I think I'm even getting the hang of what's worth how much. We're gathering up the giant cave spider clothing the goblins that attacked us wore in order to buy the next batch of usefull good, as we are already out of our own wares.
Oh, and a few thieves wandered in, they were deposed of.

][24th of Sandstone, autumn of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Migrants arrived, they said they heard about dangerous things happening around the place, not that we noticed anything of this, but it means this wave consists mostly of idiots if they came anyway, or smart people if they knew who not to believe.

We now have a population of 59.
I have an idea on how to combat our current lack of work, and how to combat the goblin menace.It will, unfortunatly, require work to be done under the sun.
Small sacrifices must be made, I guess.

][1st of Moonstone, winter of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Our metalcrafter withdrew from society. Work is progressing, and the tower caps in the park cave are almost big enough to cut down for wood should the need arise.

][3rd of Moonstone, winter of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
The basics are complete, we are now puncturing the magma pipe, we don't think it'll reach the chasm before we close up the gap.

][18th of Opal, winter of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Rith Nogleshrigňth, the metalcrafter created a legendary copper mini-forge. Good for him. He's the first metalworker to get one of the quarters near the smiths specially for those of great skill in working metal, and third to become a legendary and get a room for it. The other two being the legendary engraver Goden Kűdukzafal and the legendary gem-cutter Zuglar Ugutnish. Although we're considering giving Imush Degëldumat the miner one as well, as he's practically legendary in his skill of digging.


][4th of Obsidian, winter of 311, the Ice-Pillars of Artifice. Admin log, Moral][
Almost at the end of the year, The fort is steadily growing here and there, mostly in the way of storerooms, a number of trees in the forest cave are now full grown, some have already been cut down. We are also starting a project to create an underground road reaching to the already existing dwarven tunnel network. It'll give any migrants something to do while we find permanent work for them.

[Aldaris]

312, the 5th year after settlement, and why the hell isn't anyone commenting when there's this many page views? Last post now included all of 311.

][1st of Granite, 312. Log of the Ice-Pillars of Artifice's Mayor, Moral.][
The new year, everyone's still drunk, but that's nothing new. The road is progressing, we've already crossed the river once, and we'll probably cross the chasm in a while. Other than that, there quite frankly isn't much to write down other than that I am now sending a copy of this journal to the mountainhomes. From now on I'll be sending an update on both the 1st of Granite by runner, and another one in fall by caravan. A few of the travellers noted interesting features in the lands surrounding our fort, perhaps some other settlers would like to exploit the riches of copper and molten rock present in this area?
-Moral Rovudunâl, Mayor.