12th MalachiteWork on the new temporary fortress quarters is underway, along with a basic barracks and range. Alath's current plan is to cobble together a temporary fortress, which will serve Gloriescloister in its infancy; in the meantime (once we gets more miners and builders), we'll start designing and building the fortress proper without having to worry about the kittens and the immigrants and the wild, escaped animals and the tantrums and the blood (ooooh boy, the blood) getting in the way of construction. Kingfisher – our solitary builder (he told me about his nickname today over some blueprints) is working with a central staircase design – a large, 8x8, unbroken pillar, surrounded by a winding staircase, inside which can be put lava pipes, water pipes, axels, and vampires (or other undesirables), transversing the whole fortress, floor by floor.
Our current design problem revolves around getting military personell to where they need to go, without endangering the whole fort. Queen Alath Lashcare left us mostly to our own devices in desigining our curtain wall – just as long as it can be linked up with the forts to our southeast and our northwest. Siege weapons are going to be useless: thanks to an obscure, ancient dwarven law, adjusting the trajectory of siege emplacements to hit higher or lower enemies is considered 'treasonous', and that leaves us with a whole handful of meters before rendering our might ballistas useless. Also, the gate houses... I'm arguing for one, and Alath is arguing for two, emphasizing our need to have multiple avenues for hapless immigrants who lose their way in the Lurching Hills (not to mention escape for military expeditions). Honestly, I think he places too much faith in our steel; I've seen badger skeletons rip right through chain mail like butter with one expertly aimed tooth.
In other news, Nish just uncovered a great cavern underneath the fortress, only about fifteen floors down... looks promising. We're sealing it off for the present - only a suicidal fort, or a desperate one, would go exploring in the dark before its first year.
Malachite 15th
Hot damn!
Parshuram took on the red cloak of an elite brother today... I can't lie, I'm a little jealous, journal,
Galena 13thDecontamination unit set up at the entrance. Still don't know what that ooze will do to us, but I for one am very, very okay not finding out.
In the meantime, our food and drink stockpiles are slowly increasing... our current situation:
I think I can allow myself a
small amount of cautious optimism at this point, journal.
Limestone 2nd
Our first hatching!
A really good showing too - over 13 chicks. Weird thing though; it was literally an
explosion... before we knew what was happening, we had a crowd of little turkey chicks running around everywhere like firework sparklers, waddling out the door and down the hill. *sighs* More turkey wrangling...
Leader and Chef Athel is just happy to have more meat to work with - in the future, anyhoo. She's been cranking out some damn good brews, too...
She's also talented in both cooking and brewing by this point.
Not all is as comforting, journal... I was talking with Athel about her God, and his
gigantic, long name.... Apparently Amas Hollowcrested has some... dangerous ideas about certain animals...
Oh god... were-elephant dwarves. Armok help me.
Several people - myself included - have been complaining about the lack of wells around the fort. Sure, booze 24/7 is great, but I don't mind getting at least a little bit of the solid cake of clay off of me from time to time.
Stupid typo.
So Athal now has this great idea for how to build a well to the cavern down below - "And it's so much safer than just digging straight down!" Apparently it involved something about controlled cave-ins and punching through floors and... gaaaah. I'd just as soon not want to know, as long as I'm standing on something nice and solid when that support is dropped.
And more hatchings! A batch of nine this time. We're going to have to expand the above-ground fort just to give us enough
space for all of them...
We also had the first birth of something we weren't going to slaughter for food! Possibly not, anyways.
In other news, Kingfisher has been feeling a little bit better as of late... he's been kind of grumpy for the past couple of weeks, but I think we're finally settling into a routine here.
Maybe that's because of a new past-time she's found...
I hope it works out for them. Most fort romances have this tendency to fall apart in blood and fire.
Limestone 23rdOh Allas, whyyyyy....
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Topic: [Community Fort] Workedwheel, Defense From the Undead Menace (Read 10208 times)