1 Moonstone 202It seems that Mekkia has finished her project:
I guess a phonograph was too much to hope for, considering that the greatest technological achievement for the past two centuries for this iteration is apparently the mug.
On top of the fact that the thing is nigh-on-infinitely recursive (it has an image of
itself on it, and close examination on a microscopic level revealed that the image is perfectly-detailed possibly to the atomic level), I am also questioning whether it’s really necessary for a mechanism to be so ornate -- the thing would be more suited to the inside of an art museum than the inside of a machine.
It
is worth well over 70,000 of whatever unit of currency these dwarves use, so it should at least be useful for luring in migrants.
6 Moonstone 202The screeching of our various trapped Spawn is getting on my last nerve. I’ve ordered construction on the addition to Talvieno’s tower to resume so that we can at least do away with the one on the ledge:
I swear to absinthe, I will shut that blasted thing up even if I have to drop ten entire fortresses on it to do so.
8 Moonstone 202
Unbelievable. It seems that Fischer took a horse lung into his bedroom and then just left it there to rot. Absolutely
disgusting. I understand that these dwarves are relatively-primitive – I’ve had that fact beaten into me over the course of the last year -- but I’ve really come to expect more from them than
this. Fortunately, the doors here are reasonably airtight, so we at least don’t have to smell the mess.
13 Moonstone 202 ARRRRGH!
Apparently, I’ll have to keep on listening to that stupid thing, because – even though it has literally no means of accessing anyone – it’s just too scary for our poor little cretins to come within a mile of without completely losing their meagre wits out of fear.
It seems any construction done must occur far enough away from the abomination for our little dwarves to not see it. I’ll think of something.
In other news, I’ve ordered a new hospital area dug around the well so that our injured can have their wounds cleaned in a timely fashion:
15 Moonstone 202It think I’ve come up with a new solution for the stranded Spawn. First, we’ll need to clear some land so that our miners can dig channels:
20 Moonstone 202When I woke up early this morning, I could almost swear that I saw Talvieno peeking through the door at me. I was still half-asleep, so I’m not really sure.
25 Moonstone 202
The land has been cleared and the channels has been dug. We now have a safe location from which to open fire at the Spawn.
Talvieno’s swirly walls are in the way, however, so I’ve ordered our engravers to carve some fortifications into it.
While I do engrave for a hobby and have a fair amount of skill, I won’t be assisting in this endeavour. There are some vital tasks that need my attention at the moment:
27 Moonstone 202
I give up. I fucking
give up. I have tried to explain to these little morons, slowly and carefully, that there’s nothing to be afraid of, that the Spawn using black magic to transform dwarves who look at them directly is an urban legend, and that the Spawn transformation is a well-documented viral effect transmitted through direct contact between the Spawn’s mouthparts and the victim’s bloodstream, but they don’t believe my “fairy tales”, as they call them. These damned rustics will be the death of me. I can’t wait to get out of here.
1 Opal 202I've realized that we have no form of antiseptic anywhere in this fortress. While these rednecks obviously haven’t developed any refined means of sterilization, we should at least be able to produce soap. I’ve assigned two medical dwarves to potash and lye production, Sus to actually produce the soap, and Talvieno to press rock nuts into oil (she, at least, seemed more than happy to assist in this operation).
I’ve issued some work orders to Splint. While he fills out the paperwork, we’ll work on getting the needed facilities set up:
7 Opal 202I can’t get away from the sound of Ashsaber’s and Softa’s screeches coming up from the quarantine cells. I think that I hate it even more than the noises from the damned Spawn up on the ledge (as nice as Talvieno is, I don’t think I’ll ever forgive her for getting the stupid thing stuck there, accidentally or not).
To my knowledge, the transformation is completely-irreversible – the infection permanently alters the victim's biological makeup.
Attempts at developing a cure
had been made... some things, I think, should not be explained in detail. I think it’s telling that the reason for the research into finding a cure being called off was fear of the researchers suffering permanent emotional and psychological damage.
There’s still hope, I suppose. Not much. But it’s there.
15 Opal 202Slightly embarrassing thing today – I had not considered that we would need jugs to store the rock nut oil in. I’m not sure why we can’t just use some of the hundreds of mugs around here instead, but in any case I’ve ordered some stone jugs to be produced.
17 Opal 202I’ve ordered that our new hospital area be smoothed:
It’s a bit frivolous, but it’s best to communicate to our patients that our healthcare facilities are of the highest quality possible with the means that are available to us.
While, again, I am perfectly capable of assisting in this task, I really feel that it’s best that I take some time off:
The strain of being the Overseer combined with the horrible living conditions here are taking a very real toll on me, I feel. Fortunately, I only have to keep at this for another month.
19 Opal 202Sus has been running back and forth upstairs through the halls to the main wood stockpile even though there’s a smaller pile located right next to the wood furnace.
I can’t even guess at his motives, but I’ve ordered the offending stockpile to be sealed-off for now:
He seems to be using the closer pile now, so that’s sorted out.
Our iron stocks have already been refilled to an acceptable level (whatever I may say about the dwarves here, they at least work quickly), so I’ve ordered our forges to resume full equipment production for now. I’m also having them begin production of proper breastplates.
In military matters, I seem to have mistakenly assigned Zuglarr to a hammer squad even though he has a great deal of skill with a pike. This has been rectified.
The slow pace of our recruits’ training is somewhat worrying, but we should be able to get by.
26 Opal 202I apparently don’t know the first thing about how they make soap here.
I was receiving complaints from Talvieno about how she didn’t have anything to press oil out of. I got a bit angry with her and told her that we have over 180 rock nuts and that she should probably try using those.
Apparently, you have to first have the nuts ground into a paste at a quern before they can be pressed.
I’ve ordered a quern to be produced at the mason’s and assigned Kannan to milling duty.
I find my complete ignorance regarding the workings of these dwarves’ more-primitive technology to be both extremely embarrassing and slightly poetic. I suppose I've been a bit harsh in my judgment of them, though their lack of magnetic accelerators to blast these stupid Spawn into oblivion will always be a mark against them in my eyes.
3 Obsidian 202The slow pace of work in the hospital is irritating me, so I’ve decided to pitch in, potential nervous breakdowns be damned:
9 Obsidian 202I must admit to being fascinated by the frequent bloody rains around here, though it is well outside of my field of expertise and in any case I won’t be able to get any work done what with all the bloody noise around here. I’ll have to see about organizing a formal scientific inquiry when I get back.
17 Obsidian 202We seem to have gotten the mug situation more-or-less under control:
While we admittedly still have hundreds of the vile things, they’re at least tucked away into bins where I don’t have to look at them.
19 Obsidian 202Another fallen dwarf has risen from the grave:
This one certainly took its time – from what I understand, this dwarf was among those that died in the Spawn attack over a year ago, during Talvieno’s reign.
I’ve arranged for another animal to be thrown into Ashsaber’s cell:
This one is far larger than the previous test subject, so it should hopefully keep him occupied long enough to give me something of a reprieve from the Spawn’s awful cries.
The animal is apprehended and dragged to the pit, after which it is thrown in:
I was concerned that the greater mass of the animal would cause it to become grievously injured upon impact, but it was only briefly stunned:
Ashsaber tears into his prey immediately, biting its neck and leg before engaging in a manoeuvre which will be burned into my mind for all eternity:
Despite the fact that the animal is unconscious and thus unable to defend itself, its great size and accompanying cranial thickness appears to be making it difficult for Ashsaber to land a killing strike:
It was a long, grisly fight – though I suppose “fight” isn’t quite the right word for it. The animal sustained every sort of injury imaginable save for that one crucial strike to the brain:
After having all of the soft tissue in its body thoroughly pulped, the animal finally dies from blood loss:
Ashsaber seems to have quieted down for now, though I’m not sure it was worth having to witness all of that carnage.
26 Obsidian 202The F.R.O.G has detected a squad of concealed goblins coming in to ambush:
As my term as Overseer here is almost up, I’ve ordered the bridge to be raised so that my successor can deal with them on their own terms:
The bridge goes up long before the goblins can get in. Again, I’ll leave it up to the next overseer to deal with them, whoever they turn out to be. I don’t really know any of the dwarves here well enough to distinguish which would be the best candidate, and I really wouldn’t leave any of them in charge of anything more important than a rock nut, so I’ll just draw a name out of a hat.
Our hospital isn’t yet furnished or even officially designated as such, but that’ll be simple enough for the next overseer to see to themself. We're not done with soap production either, though I set it up so that it should continue along by itself without need for further management.
I can’t say I’ll really miss being in charge of this hellpit. Perhaps now I’ll finally be able to relax somewhat. I’m now fairly certain that I will not be called back out of here anytime soon, so I suppose I’ll just have to make myself comfortable.
Poll
55 (71.4%)
Author
Topic: [34.11] Spearbreakers - It shudders and begins to move (Read 2279731 times)