My first journal entry! It isn't meant to be much more than expository, so bear with me...
This is a worn leather bound book containing the journal of Baffler the Dwarf. The handwriting is sloppy, and tends to run on.
Well journal, I figure it's about time I started writing in you like we're all supposed to. I never had anything to write, a hauler's life ain't the most exciting a dwarf can get, but there's always more work to be done. I figure I'll write a little something before I get to my work assignment for today. I'm supposed to haul some bins down to the stockpile to fill up with mugs. Am I sick of mugs, journal! They make all kinds here to foist off on whatever merchant will take them. I've hauled more mugs in my years here than most dwarves'll ever see in their whole lives, and there'll still be more tomorrow. It ain't all bad hauling though, I never seen a dwarf so happy as when I come in with a barrel of booze or plump helmet roasts, and I get to travel too. I get first crack at a lot of new barrels too, at least if the brewer didn't skim off the top. I've been all across this fort and back again a dozen times, from the depot to the deepest forges and everywhere in between, even been down to the deepest cavern that they say is sure to be hell itself. That'll be a story to tell the kids someday.
Speaking of stories, It's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks! We got migrants in for the first time in Armok knows how long. I heard we even got a noble, some representative from the Guild of Bowyers. Maybe I'll meet her sometime, but I don't have time to talk to anyone I meet in the halls when there's hauling to do. There was also some big ruckus about a monster in the caverns, some kinda bird monster, That's nothing new, journal, but this time something must've went wrong. I saw a couple of the guys that usually get on hospital duty rushin' down to the caverns at full tilt like they were on fire. Not too long after I saw them coming up with a few bodies. I didn't see who two of them were because of their armor, but I recognized Uvash. He was a plucky bugger, I'll give him that, shame to see him go. I heard the other two didn't live long after that. I haven't seen the guard captain either, Megaman. I don't know what happened to him, but I imagine he'll be replaced quick enough. They usually take on haulers like me, or other dwarves without respectable jobs when an opening like this fills up. I'm not a young woman anymore, journal, and the last thing I need is a pike shoved in my hand.
Anyway, I'd better not take too much more time. The manager'll be mad if I'm late with those mugs, but you've got a good ear, if nothing else. And Armok knows a good ear's hard to come by.