1 Hematite 202The cave moss experiment was a failure. I’m still tasting sounds and have only recently started to regain feeling in my extremities.
On the plus side, the potent neurotoxic and psychoactive effects give me hope that, once I’ve isolated the active compound, we’ll be able to make millions selling the stuff for military and recreational purposes.
I’ve decided to lock Nuri in the masonry area until we can get the needed supplies:
On that note, I’ve designated some new farm plots so that we’ll have more pig tails in the future:
Side Note: My little misadventure with the cave moss has given me a healthy dose of perspective. Wine is quite nice, actually. In fact, I could really go for a keg or two of the stuff right about now.
The order for the quarantined dwarves to be released has finally been given. The floodgates are being opened and the walls blocking off the hospital have been marked for tearing down:
I imagine that this must be a joyous occasion for all, especially The Master, who is apparently in desperate need of some alcohol to calm his spirits:
I must say, he burned through his wine rations
awfully quickly. I wholeheartedly approve.
4 Hematite 202The new forge room has been completely dug out, so I’ve ordered the construction of the new forges:
As well, I’ve ordered the digging of a second room above the forges to store supplies in:
Of course, we’ll have to wait a bit before any of this is actually built, as our entire labour force is currently dedicating its efforts towards scavenging the late trade caravan’s goods from the depot as quickly as possible:
I must say, their sheer focus and determination in completing this task is truly admirable.
7 Hematite 202I have begun my reorganization of our military arrangements. All current squads have been disbanded so that we may have a clean slate to start from. In addition, I have marked three new sets of uniform specifications, all identical except for the weapon. This should greatly simplify equipment regulation:
I am deeply concerned by the fact that this civilization apparently lacks the quite-basic technological know-how required to produce something as simple as a high boot. Between this and the pitchblende lever, I am frankly depressed by the apparently-quite-primitive state of these dwarves’ science.
In happier news, the (patent-pending) Fiend-Revealing Observation Garrison has been completed:
This room pictured here is situated directly over our nascent entrance, which can be more-or-less clearly seen through the floor grates. Upon detecting an unannounced guest, the Avian Detection and Alert System affixed to the center will -- through means which I am not permitted to disclose -- remotely alert every dwarf in the fortress to their presence.
I also tried to teach it to sing little welcome songs, but both it and the other dwarves objected quite violently, so I sadly was forced to abort that operation.
10 Hematite 202I’ve marked off a dumping area in the new magma forges:
This should help us keep things a little tidier around here.
I’ve divided the military into several squads of three for easier training. Each squad uses a different weapon. The equipment is all there in the uniform specs for each squad, so we won’t have to worry about that as much.
The division of labour in this fortress continues to baffle me, but from what I can tell we don’t have enough furnace operators or smiths to meet our needs. I’ve assigned some nonessential workers to perform these tasks; they aren’t skilled, and they’re rather irritated at being asked to divert their live’s paths away from their dream careers as fish cleaners/tanners/etc., but I’m sure they’ll pick up skill as they go.
19 Hematite 202
The clearing of rubble from the forge stockpile is now mostly complete. I have designated stockpiles for hematite, magnetite, and various bars. Having the materials all nearby should greatly increase the rate of production.
I’ve ordered the new smelters to begin smelting iron ores:
We’ll be ready to start forging armour once they’ve produced enough bars. Happily, it seems that the deceased traders had brought several anvils with them, so I’ve ordered the construction of another forge.
22 Hematite 202
I’ve ordered our new entrance hall to be floored over entirely. Should look a bit nicer once it’s complete.
Bombzero’s sheer focus on butchering her yak corpses is truly exemplary:
I’m sure her determination will be a go a long way towards inspiring the rest of our workforce to a similarly-high level of dedication.
1 Malachite 202I was confused by the fact that the dwarves all seemed to be dumping bars onto the floor of the new bar stockpile instead of placing them in bins as I had expected.
I at first worried that the previous overseers had been too busy to produce bins, but I soon found the true reason:
Mugs. Hundreds and hundreds of mugs. Big mugs. Little mugs. Mugs with things like “#1 Dad” engraved on the side. Mugs that smell as though they have been recently used to prepare certain illicit substances. I cannot imagine
any earthly reason to have so many mugs, but that hardly changes the fact that there are in fact
hundreds of mugs in here, overflowing out of bins and littering the floors and piled to the ceiling around every crafts shop like little mug mountains. I am actually deeply,
deeply disturbed by the sheer number of mugs in this fortress. My most basic assumptions about the nature of the dwarven psyche have been completely shattered by all of these innumerable mugs.
...Wine. I need more wine. That should fix it.
In any case, I was going to have more bins produced, but then I realized that all of our wood supplies were locked inside the masonry room with Nuri.
Fortunately, I located a bar stockpile which presumably had been in use for the old forging operations, and there were some spare bins there. I’ve cancelled the stockpile designation, so we now have some bins.
I noticed that we don’t have enough axes to equip our new axedwarf force, so I’ve ordered some to be produced:
4 Malachite 202I’ve noticed two more architectural oddities while surveying the fortress:
Some sort of odd half-finished cloverleaf structure located down near the level of the first cavern layer. The left “leaf” appears to be in use for burial purposes, but if the other three had any intended purpose then there’s no indication of it.
A similarly-unfinished tower located a bit away from the old entrance. Judging from the fortifications on top, I assume that it was originally intended for use as a protected location for archers to shoot from, though both the placement and sharp firing angle are less-than-ideal. Happily, I may have figured out a way to repurpose this.
The voices in Nuri’s head seem to have finally gotten the better of her:
She seems fairly harmless, so I’ve ordered the reopening of the masonry room. Now we can produce some more bins.
17 Malachite 202Our stock of iron bars has increased to 45. Soon, we will have enough to fuel round-the-clock armour forging for a time. I have ordered the construction of a third smelter to further increase the rate of iron production.
20 Malachite 202
Ashsaber still remains confined to his cell, his monstrous screeching echoing through the halls.
Happily, I think I’ve figured out a way to make him useful.
23 Malachite 202Our crop of pig tails is starting to come in. I just need to get a work area set up and we should have textile productions going.
28 Malachite 202
Disappointing. Fortunately, the small fortune in armour we’re about to produce should soon send visitors swarming to this place.
In other news, construction on the additions to the Mysterious Tower of Mystery has begun:
I’ve cancelled the flooring of the entrance hall, as it was taking far too long and tying up our entire masonry force. We can get back to that later.
3 Galena 202I’ve decided that, even if we won’t be putting a proper floor in quite yet, we might as well make our entrance look presentable, so I’ve ordered the floor to be furrowed:
5 Galena 202
I’ve ordered another hole to be channelled above Ashsaber’s cell, this one high enough so that he won’t be able to reach anyone standing next to the channel. I think that this’ll allow him to be useful in some respect.
Meanwhile, construction on the tower addition continues:
9 Galena 202The additional drop shaft into Ashsaber’s cell has been completed. This one is of a slightly different nature than the others:
Now all I need is a suitable test subject...
11 Galena 202
On my orders, The Master has grabbed a stray cavy boar and is escorting it to the shaft. It does not appear to belong to anyone, and cavies are too small to be an effective meat source in any case, so I doubt that it will be missed. He throws the subject into the shaft...
I am delighted to report that the test execution was a complete success on all counts. The subject landed in Ashsaber’s cell more-or-less unharmed, after which the subject was immediately torn to shreds by the crazed ex-dwarf while I watched in interest through the surveillance devices I had set up:
Before the subject expired due to severe hemorrhaging, Ashsaber somehow managed to bite off a single toe, a feat of precision made all the more astounding by the size and accompanying unwieldiness of the Spawn’s mouthparts:
Until now, I was not aware that the Spawn possessed such dexterity. I believe this merits further testing, perhaps with a larger subject to prolong the observation period.
(Hypothesis: The great degree of manual precision demonstrated in this experiment is related to the fact that the Spawn in question was once biologically a dwarf -- a species widely renowned for having well-tuned fine-motor skills even when heavily drunk.)
The subject’s carcass is still in the cell, lying on top of Ashsaber’s discarded clothing:
Perhaps next I’ll test how the Spawn react to a large quantity of mugs being dropped on them from above.
13 Galena 202A human caravan arrived today to find a sealed-off fortress in the middle of a corpse-strewn woodland, the better part of which was covered with a thick, stinking coating of coagulated blood. We still aren’t ready to open back up, though, so they’d better get comfortable. They weren’t immediately killed on arrival, which means that the goblins are now gone, so that’s good.
Also good is the fact that our iron supplies are now large enough for us to begin forging armour full-time:
We have enough weapons now, so I’ve set our military to train at the barracks:
Many of the troops are still fairly green, despite their readily-visible emotional trauma, but we should have an effective fighting force built up reasonably quickly.
17 Galena 202Today, I learned something that horrified me. Every piece of wood in the fortress has now been converted into bins -- that isn’t what’s distressing me at the moment, however:
The mugs. The
mugs. We still haven’t managed to pack away all the fucking mugs. Even after completely exhausting our wood supplies, we
still have piles and piles of mugs lying everywhere, flooding bins and stockpiles and burying helpless crafts shops through sheer force of numbers.
I need a drink.
19 Galena 202It seems that the dwarves have taken notice of the cavy’s absence:
There are now roughly 3,000 posters plastered over various parts of the fortress, each inscribed with something along the lines of “Have You Seen This Animal?” along with what appears to be a crude drawing of a cavy. Apparently, Talvieno has been solely responsible both for producing and distributing said posters. Her work ethic should be taken as an example by the other labourers.
22 Galena 202It appears that one of the deceased would-be migrants still isn’t quite finished with the mortal coil:
Fortunately, I’ve compared the apparition’s behaviour with current documentation on spectral phenomena and confirmed that it does not pose a significant threat to the fortress’s operation.
The equinox is nearly upon us. Soon, it will be autumn.
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Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2279473 times)