Summer 251:23rd Hematite:The hot season deserves it's title. The lakes around us are already drying up. We might need to drill to the brook to get fresh water nearby, or use those potentially dangerous underground caverns.
But that little annoyance pales before the joy that we felt when when we saw 5 tired migrants appearing on the horizon. It is really a shame that no one did a proper engraving of this event.
Two married couples and another single dwarf managed to reach us through the dunes of tentacles and eyeballs. One of them, named
Wynz, quickly talked to me about joining the militia later on. Besides his adequate skills at arms he was also a higly skilled soapmaker, which he claimed will help us "clean the world from evil" or something. The fisherwarf named
Spishhaban on the other hand makes up for his lack of useful skills with ambition. He plans to be our future Sheriff. At least he should be able to notice when something is fishy, so I permit it.
Other than those future defenders we were also joined by an amazing cook called
Xieg and asomeone with knowledge about fish and, more importantly, booze called
Slag. Those two should help Anti-Paragon with the food, so he can finally concentrate on doing the paperwork. The last dwarf was so unremarkable that I even forgot his or her name already, but I guess he/she will do just fine as a miner.
30st Galena:Both Malachite and Galena were productive, but uneventful, just like the months before. We mined, improved on our homes and stabilized our supplies.
But I think it should be worth mentioning that we got the first birth of new life in our modest shelter.
I see great carreers as watchdogs in those little buggers.
And that was us, braving the hot summer.
Autumn 251:29th Limestone:The mining operations of our brave diggers brought us informations on another gigantic cavern that was even deeper underground.
We of course walled it of for now. We will need to find a better way to access it anyway. Just dropping down from the ceiling is not a valid option, all the miners agreed.
19th Sandstone:8 more migrants made it to the fortress, including two children.
It's a very pleasant surprise that so many of our kind still survived in the wilderness, with all the elves hunting us. Most of their learned professions and skills are of little use to us at the moment, with the exception of a stonecrafter with an almost legendary skill who will turn all those stones in our corridor's into valuable objects of trade and culture. All of them are welcome as helping hands nevertheless.
25th Sandstone:It was fortunate that the migrants reached us this quickly, since another haunted cloud appeared a mere week afterwards.
This way though it will only make those giant eyeballs cry. I won't complain.
7th Timber:Somehow Anti-Paragon has replaced me as the new expedition leader.
I'd wager it is because he was in control of all the food and booze for a long time. I doesn't really matter though, since that title remains purely represantive as long as I am in control of the fort through my military position. Rulership can be returned to civilians once we built up an adequate security.
17th Timber:Praise Kol, a dwarven caravan has arrived!
We definitely didn't expect that there were still real caravans around. That would also mean that there still exist some settlements somewhere. I will have to ask the outpost liason about that later. For now we must concentrate on building a Trade Depot so they can actually unload their goods and move away from those eyeballs.
There were also two small incidents with goblin thieves later.
He managed to sneak into our very fortress but was then spotted by a kitten and chased away. Another thief appeared a few days later with the same results.
While this little infiltration did no lasting harm, it should teach us to be very careful in the future. Goblins may send thieves now, but what will they send in the future? Elves might not even be our biggest problem it seems.
21th Timber:Another haunted cloud appeared in the east yesterday, with the caravan still standing on the rotten area!
They were very lucky that the cloud appeared and moved in a different pattern this time. It only stayed in the far east and barely moved at all. Still, we definitely must make haste with that damned depot!
29th Timber:That trading depot has FINALLY been finished a few days ago. The travelers promptly moved into it and unloaded their goods. To my frustration they still expect us to pay for the supplies that might very well decide between the life and death of our entire civilization. Do they have no honor? No sense of duty?
Anyway I send for the stone crafts that our masterful artisan produced and hope that those will please the greedy moneygrubbers.
At least I can't complain about the dedication of their guards. One of them was diligently hunting a few of the more dangerous wild creatures around our area.
He and the other guards were not able to kill any of those flying pests, but they at least managed to hurt and scatter them. Maybe this is even for the best, since I do not want their blood and corpses to nourish those cursed worms.
And on a small sidenote for the end of Autumn: Our lifestock is developing well.
I was also told that some kittens were born earlier this year. I once heard that those can make for a tasty dinner.
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Phew...not a lot of exciting events have happened this time either. It's still good that everything runs along so smoothly in the first year, so that we can properly prepare for the 3 forces ambushing/sieging us.
I also checked the legens about the migrants: It seems like DF just pulls new dwarfs out of it's ass when there are no useable historic figures left. That is good for us, since we still get migrants that way, but it's kind of a shame that none of those have any interesting backstories. Well, it shouldn't matter all that much.
Anyway, I'm trying to wrap this year up today with a report about the last season.
@trygar: No Axedwarves and not really a lot of soldiers available so far. I will put you on the list for later.