Cilob's Journal, start of the year 54In all the fuss and bother of the visit of the traders and the liaison from the mountainhomes, I never did an end-of-year address. It completely passed my mind, until when I was burying the body of another dead giant thrips - they always seem to die around the start of the year - I realized another year had passed. Well, it's a good time for me to note down for myself how we're doing.
The fortress population is about the same as last year. The Mountainhomes made good on their threat to withhold further immigrants for now, not that we need them, but we did have a few babies born locally this year.
Our bookkeeper tells me that our locally created wealth this year alone is over three times that created in all the previous years of this fortress. There's a good variety of goods there - gems by Rachel, bone crossbows by Geb, clothing by Erush, foodstuffs by Will_Tuna, and of course Phenix is continuing to improve our architecture. I had to yell at her about the lack of ramps onto the walls flanking the main roadway, after I was briefly stuck up there.
I notice that she and our Doctor Cain have been quite close lately. I really wouldn't have expected those two to become a couple, but such things can happen. I do have to say that the Doctor has been doing a remarkable job of keeping our soldiers patched up and fighting well for the goblin and minotaur attacks this past year.
Our military commander is quite the terror on the battlefield, though she has an impressive collection of scars now.
And our Sheriff, Alath, has been backing her up - not exactly fighting along side her, but standing some distance back and picking off enemies with that amazing crossbow her daughter made.
Geb hasn't quite managed to equal that crossbow since, but she's been getting closer. She's become close with our clothier Erush. Not terribly surprising, since their workshops are so close together, and they seem to think and act alike in may ways. Both aspiring to be genius artists at their crafts, that sort of thing.
Erush, well, I never really took to him. Bit of an arrogant sort. Best clothier in the fortress, he'll proudly tell anyone, not that that's an accomplishment since he's also the only clothier we have. But, the fortress needs clothes. Can't have people going naked these days.
Rachel works down in the crafting area with them. She's still producing shiny rocks for us to sell to the elves and human traders that come by.
And I have been quite happy to spend my time taming these darling giant sparrows, along with the other animals we've caught locally.
Our former liaison from the mountainhomes, Ral, has been a great help to me, taking over the record-keeping and job management tasks to permit me to focus on animal training full-time.
She seems to have made friends with a child who goes by the name of 'Athra'. At least, they've been spending some time together, and Ral seems less annoyed with Athra than with the other children.
Can't forget Argel. She's been butchering the few giant creatures that we have to shoot instead of catching and taming, as well as the surplus kitten population.
And Will_Tuna is becoming quite the chef, cooking all manner of meals. We export some of them, but the best are reserved for our own dining hall.
Speaking of which, I noticed there were no syrup candies in storage this year. When I asked Will_Tuna, she said that the entire crop had failed. They're going to have to rebuild their seed stock from scratch to get the sweet pod farms working again. Very strange, I've never head of this happening before.
Finally, our friendly couple CoraiUnki and Fishybang are still together. Corai has been splitting his time between gathering plants and cutting down trees on the surface, and carving bins, barrels, and beds out of wood in his workshop.
And Fishybang has embarked on a fortress-wide beautification project, with smooth stones and decorative engravings everywhere.
I have sketched a few architectural drawings here, showing some of the fortress's main features.
Our food production hall is one of the oldest areas of the fortress. This was once where everything was stored, and all of the workshops and dining area were there. Most of that has since been moved elsewhere, and only food-related industries are left here.
Cain's offices, and the hospital, are right next to my animal training and breeding facilities. We have also started working on a jail and expanded goblin holding facility.
The crafting hall and trade depot. Currently undergoing renovation and expansion.
There's the living quarters Phenix designed. I still get lost trying to find my way around there sometimes.
The grand dining hall. We're working on expanding the storage rooms to the west.
Far in the depths, we have begin digging out what will become the magma smithing facility.
And finally, while taking the staircase back from the magma smithy, I noticed a strange construction in the pit. Phenix tells me that Cain had asked it to be built, part of some experiment or other.
It's probably better not to ask.
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Topic: Brightwater: Community fortress of science, oceans, and animal taming (Read 155536 times)