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[DMVA]

Raucous laughter echoed from the bar as the humans drank their pints without caution, pretending to be dwarves.
"Did you hear? Someone tried setting up a new outpost on top of a volcano!"
"No way! Must've been a dwarf for sure!"
"Stupider than goblins, those dwarves can be!"
The old dwarf in the corner stirred. He was a story teller, but rarely talked, for he had seen many horrors sweep across the Deep Continent, but now he had just set his mind upon recounting one of the most controversial stories of all Dwarven history.
"Excuse meh, humies, but perchance you'd want ta hear tha story of Delethvucar?" the old dwarf asked in a raspy voice.
"Sure! Probably won't remember't in th'morning, so why not?" one of the humans said, raising a pint as he turned to listen to the old dwarf's words.
"Why not indeed?" the old dwarf murmured to himself before raising his voice and speaking in a clear, golden tone very different to the raspy voice he had just used. "I shall tell you the story how it was told to me, by one whose name I do not know. In the year 50 of our recorded history, in the Age of the Willful Burn, our story follows a scholar named Kadol Gebarathel..."

Kadol sat outside the King's chamber awaiting announcement. He had been called from his somewhat slow studies for reasons he didn't know, and was anxious to find out.
"Kadol Gebarathel, please enter the King's Throne Room," a monotonous voice said, coming from a hole in the rock beside the door.
Kadol stood, brushed himself off, straightened his tiny purple cap and robe which showed him as a scholar, and walked slowly into the chamber through double marble doors of masterwork quality.
King Urdum Istrathrovod sat high upon his square obsidian throne, looking down into the room before him.
"Kadol Gebarathel, it has come to my attention that your skills in the many areas of administration are something to be recognized, and while they progress slowly for now, I believe in due course that they shall become Legendary indeed."
Kadol swallowed hard, taking his cap off and wringing it in his hands absent-mindedly. Bowing slightly, he asked "What is it that my King wishes of me?"
King Urdum raised his hand and pointed at Kadol with deliberate emphasis. "It is my royal decree that you, Kadol Gebarathel, shall lead a expedition force of 6 other dwarves who now await you in the entrance hall. You shall travel west until you find the stream called Mangebreeds, and there you shall begin a new fortress. You shall bring glory to the Mountainhomes, Kadol. Strike the Earth!"
Acknowledging the clear dismissal, Kadol bowed and scurried out of the Throne Room into the entrance hall, where six dwarves awaited him.
Kadol looked at each of them nervously before straightening out his cap and placing it down firmly upon his head. "Right, let's go."

"Stop right there, you old dwarf!" one of the humans said, clearly on the verge of laughter. "If your gonna tell a story, tell a good one, not some pansy Dwarf Fortress expedition!"
The old dwarf stood up, and in a flash had thrown a mug which squarely hit the offending human in the forehead, knocking him out.
"Perhaps some of Kadol's diary entries shall be more entertaining to you drunken idiots," the old dwarf said, sitting back down slowly. From between his many cloaks, coats and vests, he produced a small book bound in kitten leather. Opening it up, he found the right page and began to read...

1st Granite, Spring 51.
We have finally arrived. The expedition force I was decreed to lead has finally come to a halt on the side of a hill overlooking what we had no doubt was the stream Mangebreeds.
Over the past few months travelling I have gotten to know these other six dwarves fairly well, so I shall write something of a short introduction for each of them.
Catten, our farmer, likes to try out new things, which is why he was chosen for this expedition. He has a rather green thumb for a dwarf, and because of ridicule at an early age resulting from this, can be rather nervous at time, but he is always cheerful. He does however have a rather peculiar liking of Voracious Cave Crawler leather and Hammer-head sharks for, and I quote, 'their oddly-shaped heads'.
We have two miners, Melbil and Kubuk. Melbil is rather calm most of the time, but prone to anger. He loves yellow diamonds, and became a miner early in life to search for them. Kubuk is a very confident dwarf and miner, and mines in search for that precious metal found only in the deepest rocks, having seen a glimpse of it as a child.
Our Stoneworker, Kol, is a rather curious dwarf. Of the two female dwarves on this expedition, she is the more organized, despite the fact that she isn't too good with getting her mind around the space around her, which is also a curious trait for our resident architect.
Savesh, our other female dwarf, is the strangest I have met for a long time. She likes bogeymen for 'their terror-inspiring antics', and also has an affinity for storage containers. As our carpenter, I think I should double check my chests before using them, just to make sure she hasn't engraved pictures of bogeymen all over the inside.
Zan, our woodcutter, is a rather intelligent dwarf, and since he will be spending most of time outside, I'm hoping he'll be intelligent enough to run back to the fortress if goblins appear to lead them into our future traps, and not get killed running around in pointless circles outside. Also, for some reason he likes alpacas purely because they look like mini-llamas..but he isn't particularly fond of llamas themselves. What's up with that?
Now that you know a little about our small group, I feel obliged to tell you that while the area is noted to be a calm one, there is a volcano some short distance to the south-east, and that gives me a little bit of a chill. While the magma isn't close enough to be useful for us, there are bound to be some creatures from the deep nearby because of it.
I suppose this may be the start of an adventure for us all. I hope we survive.
Kadol Gebarathel.

The old dwarf storyteller looked up from the small diary.
Before him now was not just the few drunken humans, but several more sober ones as well, not to mention a few dwarves and elves who were quite obviously staying at opposite sides of the room from each other.
The old dwarf coughed, turned the page and looked questioningly at the assembled throng of sentient beings.
"Shall I continue?"


First time posting on the DF forums, been playing DF for several months now and have tried 23a and 40d, not to mention the current version. Over the last few days I've read Boatmurdered, Battlefailed, Reclaiming Battlefailed, One Dwarf Against The World, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie Troll and Cacame's various exploits and stories, and I felt inspired to start my own.
Yes I've encountered the HFS, yes I've lost over a hundred forts and yes I've installed a lever in my bedroom which activates a mechanism which allows a small pebble to fall onto my keyboard's macro shortcuts which starts a .bat file which runs Dwarf Fortress then counts 180 seconds before starting Dwarf Therapist which means that it starts connected and ready to 178 seconds after I've started playing. (I need to work on the timing.)
So, like the old dwarf asked...
Shall I continue?

[DMVA]

Silence echoed through the room at the dwarf's question.
"I shall continue then..."

1st Granite, Spring 51 - Later in the day
It seems we are in luck. Doing a preliminary scout of the area, Kol identified an exposed Magnetite cluster in the hills nearby. Upon seeing this for myself, I located a suitable site nearby to place the first pick-strike of this outpost, which from now on I shall call Delethvucar (Polishedurn in the common tongue) in memory of the ashes of our late King Zulgar who was struck down by a particularly fiery Night Creature in the Mountainhomes themselves.
The suitable site I had located was a natural alcove, a little further from the river than was really necessary, but I didn't want to run the risk of encountering the carp that many old dwarves spoke of from when the land was just about flat.
I ordered Melbil and Kubuk to dig as far as they could before digging out some stairs and digging the same distance underneath in the same direction. Noting that as they were digging straight into stone, but where I was standing was sand, I told them to also dig out under the open area in front of our entrance to be to find a suitable area which Catten could start our farms upon.
Zan looked like he was bored, which was nearly always, so I told him to take his axe and commit blasphemy in the eyes of the elves, which in turn made his sparkle with glee.
As the three dwarves begun their tasks, the rest of us waited. We would be needed in due time.
Kadol Gebarathel.

5th Granite
Well I was right about digging backwards under the open area for farm-able dirt! Also, while digging this out Kubuk found some Native Platinum in the walls, which meant that Magnetite was nearby at that level too!
Still nothing for us to do at the moment though.

11th Granite
I had Catten move the two horses to an area in front of our entrance so they'd be able to eat. They deserve it after carrying us and our supplies all the way out here.

21st Granite
The digging has finished for now. I told Melbil and Kubuk to start on our farming area, and they got right to it no delays. Also, while scouring the walls and nearby hillsides, Kol found some Native Aluminium deposits which might come in handy later.

23rd Granite
Kol looked a little miserable doing nothing, so I told her to use the Rhyolite that the Miner Boys had left lying about to build a wall around the alcove on the next level up so that ambushing gobbos with bows or the alike would have to run around them before shooting at our dwarves escaping into the fortress.
In truth I have grander plans for this wall, which shall be but a foundation, but I don't want to scare Kol with grandeur just yet.

26th Granite
In a brief lapse of furious mining, Melbil managed to inform me that the lengths I had told the Miner Boys for the farm area had breached into stone not halfway through. Cursing to Kovest, I managed to salvage the situation by deciding to turn the stone portion of the area into a food preparation and stockpile area, and told Melbil to continue mining.
My plans for future farms shall expand downwards, westwards and southwards.

3rd Slate
Double rations all around today!
Our first organised food area is complete! I've told Catten to make two farms, a still and a kitchen in the dug out space, while turning all the remaining Urists of space into a food storage area. I have a feeling we will be eating plump helmets for many months to come though.
From outside, Zan's occasionable scream of frustration can be heard as he decides to cut a different tree when seeing a badger. Badgers do not bode well. When, not if, we find magma, I shall burn them to entertain small children.
I have drafted plans for bedrooms and a huge communal dining room which shall eventually be of the highest quality.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I apologise profusely for the lack of quality of these planning diagrams. I studied to become an administrator, not an artist.

Ground level - see the natural alcove? The walls line the level above, and the ramps shall be removed in time.
1 level below ground level - Food area to the left. Dining-room-to-be and bedrooms-to-be in the centre.

It won't be long before we have our own rooms of stone confining the boundaries of our lives, instead of these horrible, defenceless, green, tree-covered hills...
Temporary carpentry and mason workshops are going to be constructed in front of the fortress until we set up proper workshop areas.
Kadol

8th Slate
Upon completion of his temporary workshop, I immediately told Kol to make some doors. Lots of doors. For privacy.
There are 5 male dwarves and 2 female dwarves here. You do the math.I get them both! Mwuhahahahahaha!
Sorry, power seems to be taking hold of me quickly. I promise to do nothing rash...yet.

14th Slate
The badgers are getting on Zan's nerve. One bit his foot the other day, and so he kicked it down the hillside. It limped away, apparently while staring at him with evil written across it's face in big bold red letters. I wasn't aware Zan's boot ended in a sharp pattern in the shape of 'evil', but I'll have to double check.

17th Slate
Savesh finally got around to building her temporary workshop, and as soon as she did I told her to make some beds, but she scurried away saying something about 'the seed's on the ground...must go in the bag...". This, combined with her affinity for bogeymen, has me worried for her.
Since I've been helping out set up our outpost by hauling doors into place, I've been getting quite tired. I'm not quite built for this kind of work. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to sleep now...pity Savesh is a bit slow or I could of had a bed by now.

20th Slate
I wake up, and what do I find? Everyone but Zan is asleep! Obviously my weakness had set an example for them, but as soon as I have a bed and a door, privacy shall be mine and laziness shall no longer be synonymous with the word dwarf!Who am I kidding, that will never happen.
Zan had apparently cut down all the trees in the immediate area, so I told him to go cut down the tress near the stream. I figured the badgers didn't like water any more than we did, and that they'd leave Zan alone down there.

22nd Slate
Our first bed has been constructed and hauled to it's room! It's a pity it wasn't mine, though it is still cause for celebration.

9th Felsite
Progress has been progress. Nothing much interesting has happened really, but now all of our beds are in, the doors are in place, and we finally have our own bedrooms! We even have three spare, in case some early migrants show up from the Mountainhomes.

12th Felsite
Finally! Our dining room and bedrooms have all been dug out completely.
I've told Kol to stop making doors and instead make tables and chairs. She seemed happy at the change in furniture, but still seemed a little miffed about the work load. I still haven't told her my plans for that wall...
Meanwhile, I've told the Miner Boys to dig out a workshop area and a storage area, one right above the other, as well as space for a trade depot so we can buy some more booze.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is where the trade depot will go, as well as the storage area. There is room for expansion as well, as I though it would be necessary.

This is the finished bedrooms and dining room, as well as where the workshop area will go. Again, room for expansion has been allocated.

13th Felsite
Praise Armok! We have found the magnetite!
It seems that the magnetite goes through all the levels of this hillside, and it shall ALL be mined out, except where it touches the surface, for security purposes only.
Iron shall soon flow forth, followed by blood! Both shall be to appease Armok!
Kadol

22nd Felsite
The pair of cats we have brought along seem to be especially good at killing vermin, but they leave it lying all over our food stockpiles! I have designated an area outside for all of our garbage, and for now I've told the other six to collect it from the hillside as well. We want to look as inconspicuous as possible for now, until my tower plan is completed.

25th Felsite
Savesh has surprised me! She had reserved the space in front of my bedroom for some reason, and I originally though for some other reason...but instead she opened the door for me today and showed me my brand new office! I thanked her profusely, and she left looking rather pleased with herself.
I'll never tell her this, but the first thing I did when she left was to double and triple check that there were no carvings or engravings of bogeymen on the chair and table. That would just be spooky. Luckily for me, there were none.
And so today I have taken it upon myself to administrate this fortress properly! I shall maintain it's records, be it's chief broker, and manage the general behaviour of it's dwarves.
We shall be great.
Kadol Gebarathel

The old dwarf paused, and turned the book on it's side, reading something in scribbled writing. "It seems that Kadol made a checklist for the fortress at this point."

End of Spring Report
Completed:

• First bedrooms
• First farms
• Dining room
• Mostly done with digging out the preliminary workshop and storage areas.
• Magnetite! The Iron shall flow soon enough...
• The first Office!

To-do during Summer:

• Finish preliminary workshop and storage areas.
• Dismantle temporary workshops outside and set up permanent ones indoors.
• Start making crafts to sell.
• Start smelting the magnetite for iron.
• Draw up plans for a well and reservoir, and possibly an artificial waterfall in the dining room. Anything's possible with Old Dwarf Spice dwarven engineering!

Marking the page, the old dwarf got up, to a few groans and moans.
"I need a beer," he grunted to the barman as he approached.
The human who he had knocked out earlier was conscious again, and wandered over to the dwarf.
"Ey dwarfie, this ain't no schtorie bout a" *hiccup* "failed fawtwess. It's just some dumb dorf's diary!"
Another well placed mug throw knocked out the human again. After all, that's the only the thing mugs were good for in the opinion of a dwarf.