AttackThe tension in the crowd had been steadily building for the last fifteen minutes. The guard-captain could smell trouble in the air, could almost touch it. In 53 years as a guard he had never seen a group of dwarves look at him this foul, not even criminals he brought to the hammerer. Things were still stable right now, but anything could set off an inferno.
The clerks in the guild office looked scared, the ones he could see behind the second floor windows. They'd been holed up in there for over an hour now, afraid to open their doors, even when half the dwarves out there were miners. Four of his guardsmen were standing in front of the doors to the office, cut off from the rest of his line. He knew they were good men, unlikely to crack under pressure. It was a miracle he had been able to keep things as quiet as they were. The crowd was unruly, shouting at the office clerks behind their windows, grumbling at the line of guards blocking off access to the rest of the administration buildings. Shouting, but not throwing. That was the key thing, as the guard captain considered it.
He had talked to some of the guards who had been at shaft four when the riot started. Things had been rowdy but peaceful until a guardsman forcefully stopped a dwarf from pushing past him, which got something thrown at his head, and it all spiralled from there. The royal guards had no prior experience with unruly crowds, but they were learning fast.
The captain turned around at the sound of marching feet coming down the street behind him. Another squad of guardsmen hurried up from the direction of the palace. Commander Tobulam ran at the head, sweat streaming from his face. As he neared the line of guardsmen, the captain saluted. "Sir, as you can see things are currently stable." The commander nodded and looked at the crowd with a pained expression. "Yes, good work. I have orders from the palace. The crowd is to be dispersed immediately, and any ringleaders to be taken into custody." The captain blinked. "Disperse them? How are we to do that?". The commander winced. "By any means necessary." Some of the guards nearby gasped. "Sir, with all due respect, these are miners that are not being paid. They have nothing to lose. We have a whole lot to lose. And most importantly, there's several thousand of them and not even a hundred guards in our line." The commander nodded, then shrugged. "Nevertheless, those are our orders. I want this area clear of people within half an hour, do you hear me? They're not soldiers, but you are. Act like it." With that, the commander turned around and high-tailed it back to the administration buildings.
The guard-captain had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he relayed the orders down the line. Each guard-sergeant was to start moving the crowd away from the mining office and towards the lower residential areas at his signal. No weapons to be raised, just a moving wall of shields. As he gave the signal, he prepared for war.
To his bafflement and lifting spirits, it was working. The gentle but firm push of a line of square shields was moving people along. The dwarves in the crowd were still angry, but not quite sure what to do against this move. The guard line had moved almost 10 urists when he heard a 'dink' off to his left. Then another from his right. He saw a guard collapse to the ground and was about to order his line to stand their ground to let the crowd cool off, when something heavy hit him square on the temple and everything turned black.
Away from the noise, guard-commander Tobulam was in his office carefully writing his resignation on official palace paper. His office lit up red as the glow of more and more fires flooded in from the city behind him.
Kadol's Journal --
Another group of dwarves arrived from the mountainhome today. I don't know a single one of them, but I take that as a good thing. Our cause is still alive, even when we are no longer in the capital to further it.
They tell us of a horrible riot in shaft number four. Miners who hadn't been paid in weeks but were ordered to return to their jobs finally reached breaking point and decided that they were owed. All the mining machinery in shaft four was destroyed beyond hope of repair, any valuable parts broken off and removed. Two dwarves died and a guardsman was seriously injured. Shaft four hadn't been producing significant ores for a while now, but the guild had to close it completely after the violence ended.
If only we had been there, we might have been able to channel that frustration into a more fruitful direction. Our new Gloomhill residents tell us of more groups like ours springing up around the city and this time the royal guards are not moving in. These dwarves are still hopeful that the crown will see how things must change, but I know them better than that. The nobles cannot see what is right in front of their eyes. But they will have to learn or risk losing everything. Either way, the people will triumph in the end.
===
halfway through summer, more migrants!
10 dwarves
tanner / leatherworker
gem cutter
gem setter
novice diagnoser
butcher / blacksmith
wood worker
crossbow making
miller / surgeon
a miller
a child
two of the migrants have some fighting experience, they will join the militia (the bowyer and the diagnoser).
The third floor and roof of the main hall are finally completed. We move the beds that were still down in the dining room upstairs, and add more furniture to the dining room.
During construction of the extended wall, two skeletal gibbons and a zombie gibbon start harassing us, one after the other. The militia can get rid of them easily enough, but it takes them a long time to get there each time. As soon as the new gate is done, the response time should be cut in half.
Just about when the last piece of wall is set to be constructed, a skeletal giant jaguar shows up. This one is still too dangerous for us to face, so everyone is ordered within the compound walls until it either leaves or runs into our traps. due to dwarf stupidity and ignoring of burrows, some dwarves wander outside and draw the attention of the monster. We'll have to send in the militia, even though they're not yet ready for a monster like this. We'll likely have injuries, or worse. one of the morons, Inod, is in the militia so he will be right on top of the monster. Probably bad.
Inod runs out of the gates, and the skeletal jaguar stops chasing the carpenter and goes after the new target. They meet just outside the trade depot, and Inod starts swinging away with his fists (he has no weapon!). The jaguar bites Inod in his right foot, and Inod dodges away before it can get worse. They circle around each other once and then the rest of the squad has arrived and all pile on top of the moving skeleton. Urdim had the clarity of mind to bring an axe, and does a good amount of damage right away.
The jaguar is chopped to bits before it can do more damage. Inod's foot is hurt, but it shouldn't be too bad. time to set up that hospital area in part of the new dormitory.
For some reason killing undead doesn't count as a kill for whatever dwarf killed/destroyed it.
After the new drawbridge has been installed, we pull down the old west wall, opening up a much larger area for our compound.
A side effect of this is felt almost immediately, as a group of skeletal gorilla's tries to path straight through our walled area. Thankfully the first is caught in the cage traps soon after we notice them. The dwarves are confined to the fort burrow again, although that doesn't seem to actually stop them.
The other two skeletal gorillas just sort of hang out at the trade depot, just in front of the traps. Very annoying. The honey badger and jaguar in the shot there are stonesense bugs - they were caught in those traps and sold ages ago.
While this is going on, a human caravan arrives from the west side of the map. They can path through the new entrance safely, but if the gorillas return to the trade depot, we'll have to deal with them. Though they do have guards, so that should be okay.
We close the drawbridge behind the humans, to stop undead from pathing in while we're focusing on trade. While we were scrambling to get some trade goods ready, another of the gorillas wandered into a cage trap, while the last one charged after a militia recruit that was walking where he shouldn't be. The gorilla was blown to bits by the weapon traps.
While moving the trade goods out to the trade depot, an ambush of goblins shows up! We're in no condition to fight them, so we'll leave this to the caravan guards. While we still can, we set up some extra cage traps in our entrance-way. hopefully our traps will suffice to keep us safe. We'll also try pasturing our jaguar and lion in the entranceway pasture, that currently only holds a dog. That should supply some extra targets for goblins to get mobbed by.
===
The militia squad was nervously hopping from one foot to another while Urdim was perched on the wall. Stodir yelled up at him "And, is it goblins?". Urdim was quiet a while longer and looked at the forest edge. Then he jerked up. "Yeah, I just saw a green skinned creature move between those trees to the north!" The militia babbled excitedly. They seemed excited to go out and show what they had been training for, yet also afraid of facing real danger. Urdim spoke up again. "There's more! I see three, no, four goblins now!" Stodir grunted. "Seems we get to show what we're made of, boys!" Some of the militia flinched, as if to say that what they were made of was mostly muscle that bruised easily. Stodir ordered up formation and was beckoning Urdim to come down and join them. Urdim had just started climbing down when the quiet forest suddenly exploded into noise. Urdim jerked himself back up to the top of the palisade and looked out.
Just beyond the forest edge, metal flashed and sounds of fighting were heard. It seemed the goblins were fighting something, but what? Perhaps it was another caravan? Urdim was about to shout down to one of the human guards hanging back near their pack animals when he saw a white flash high between the tree tops. Then he saw it again, more clearly. Bone.
Urdim hooted. "Gorillas! They found a pack of undead gorillas!"
===
A saving grace! The goblin ambush is distracted by a group of undead gorillas. They're currently pincushioning them with bolts. Hopefully the gorillas can damage them a bit before the goblins head our way. This gives us the time to quickly trade with the caravan and get our stuff over with before we lock down. The back door was already closed, we'll keep it that way.
rotfl - the gorillas pounded the goblin archers to bits. THAT was unexpected The skeletal gorilla in the pack now has a name. Snospdausluk "Pastearth". A pikegoblin died, the others ran. Apparently, the pike goblin was the leader of the ambush.
Trade with the humans goes well, some booze, plants, bars / meltable items and a few animals for the slaughter. I'm afraid to give the dwarves the all-clear until the caravan has left and we can confirm there wasn't a second group. I'm having the militia move our trade goods inside by allowing them access to the trade depot burrow. We have a large amount of wood inside our walls right now from our recent extension, so we can do without outside access for a while.
After the caravan is gone I'll have the depot deconstructed - we have a new one now, inside the walls. With a dump site for finished clothes. Doc is cranking out new clothes - he's a legendary clothier by now. I have to mark them for dumping as soon as they're ready or dwarves run in to start wearing them. I hope the mountainhome will be pleased with a wagonfull of dresses.
I'm having Doc sew in a 'Gloomhill' tag
Doc is so much faster than our weaver can manage that he can hang out in the dining room half the time while new cloth is being made.===
Asob made his mark in the compound registry and gathered his things to head off to the main hall and find a bed. That made ten dwarves in this group. Kib looked at the registry appreciatively. "Fifty-two of us Kadol. Can you even remember how we started out with just the seven of us over a year ago? It seems like something out of a story." Kadol slapped Kib on the back. "Wake up Kib, we've got rooms to build! Ten more dwarves means ten more required lodgings. Do you have the required wood?" Kib shook his head. "Not inside the compound, we'll have to move more in from outside. And now we know that there are goblins around out there, I'm not looking forward to it."
Kadol sighed. "I'll have a look with Momuz and Stodir at setting up defenses at the drawbridge so we can be safer while opening it. But we're short on stone and metal, so how we're going to make this work, I have no idea." Kadol looked back at the listing of all the dwarves who had joined them in Gloomhill, and touched the cross mark next to Astesh' entry. "At least we can plan for proper lodgings now, Kib." Kib frowned. "What do you mean?" "This group brought word from our friends back at the Mountainhome. The royal guards have stepped up security in the capital and no new migration groups are allowed out for the forseeable future. That means no more people will be joining us for a while."
"Fifty-two should be enough, Kadol." "It had better."
===
Even more migrants arrive! 10 more dwarves brings our total up to 52. This will be the maximum for a while (limit set to 50), while the compound gets set up and organised. More may come later, if it makes sense in the story.
* a high master miller. Great, that will help immensely in processing our die stocks.
* adept mechanic
* another clothier - unneeded, we already have our legendary Doc.
* two dwarves with military skills, an axedwarf that joins Stodir's squad, and a marksdwarf. It's time to set up Urdim's ranged squad.
* a siege operator that is a novice in pretty much every processing job and an adequate wound dresser. Not sure what to make of this one. One of her novice skills is cooking, which is the best cook I've had so far. Sounds like we got ourselves a meal maker!
* four other dwarves with useless skills
We start construction on the first dormitory building, with 10 rooms on the ground floor, and 5 more on the first.
Kadol was still the only brewer, but with the bookkeeping and managing can no longer cope. One of the new dwarves, a peasant, is set to brewing.
A pack of undead gorillas interrupted our (daft) wood gathering dwarves and drove one away from the fort while chasing another towards the fort. Unfortunately, the latter dwarf was caught by the gorillas before our militia could arrive. Sto is being hunted and is not expected to make it back either. She dies a bit later. Two more deaths in Gloomhill, all to gorillas