The reign of LordBucket, part 48 LimestoneAshmon was carried to the hospital, but got bored waiting around for diagnoses and is back in the barracks training with her upper body still torn open. I took our doctor off mining duty so he could give her a proper diagnosis, but I think he's too scared of her to get close. The bloody gashes on her legs have healed to just dents and bruises. Hopefully the upper boy wounds will heal as well. I've ordered that she train without the spikes at Fenrir's suggestion. It sounded like she grumbled something about
"pathetic, wimpy mothers of elves interfering with her training" but it's possible I might have misheard. I've decided not to press her on the matter.
15 LimestoneFishybang informed me that he was unable to continue brewing our last 2 out of 5 plump helmets from the harvest. This vexes me somewhat, as we have less than half the food and alcohol we arrived with. It seems we have a number of only partially full barrels, as well as one completely empty barrel that he simply refuses to use.
Fishybang:
"It doesn't smell right."LordBucket:
"What do you mean?"Fishybang:
"I'm making quality wine, here. You can't expect me to make wine in a barrel that was used for beer. It would come out all funny."I attempt to juggle with stockpiles and reissue brewing orders, but Fishybang refuses to make more wine. Eventually I simply allocate a few more of our dwindling logs to make barrels. Caravans are usually good about bringing wood in reasonable quantities. If we ever get one, I'm going to request a whole forest worth.
The lack of wood is very much a nuisance. I've never understood why some like wood scarcity. Sieges, demons, glaciers, magma...sure. But having to micromanage individual barrels for things like this isn't either kind of fun.
22 LimestoneI've come to a startling conclusion. Remember when I mentioned that Ashmon was training naked? It seems that
every dwarf in the entire fortress is naked. Including myself. It's slightly disturbing that this has gone unnoticed for so long.
Fishybang:
"What's the big deal? We've all got beards."LordBucket:
"I suppose, but how did we not notice this while trudging through the snow for two weeks?"Fishybang: *shrugs*
" Beards are warm."23 Limestone
* Besmar Glideinky, adequate shield and armor user, competant thrower and striker
* Vabok Ducimluk, skilled axedwarf, adequate shield/armor/dodge
* Zad Ketosid, Competant mechanic, competent thrower, adequate shield and armor user
* Ervad Razorlove, highmaster tracker, skilled axedwarf, adequate shield/armor/dodge
* Ustuth Copperhsades, competant furnace operator, competant axedwarf
* Thebum Hallforested, competant swordsdwarf
Sure enough, the immigrants bring no clothing with them. Curiously, those skilled with weapons and armor also bring no weapons and armor. Simply a few pieces of wool jewelry.
Fenrir:
"I notice that one of the newcomers is a mechanic. Shall I hand over that work to him?"LordBucket:
"No, your skills are roughly equal, but he has fighting experience. I think I'll draft him into the military."Actually, I induct
all the newcomers into our militia and set them to training. They all have military skills and nothing else that's useful. Besides which, we don't have much else for them to do. No trees to cut, no wood or metal to craft, no ore to smelt, no fuel to smelt with if we did, no spare picks for mining, and not enough food and seeds to keep our existing food industry workers occupied. We could use another mason. But only to mass produce stone blocks for a more aesthetically pleasing perimeter wall. And as is we don't even have spaced cleared to use the blocks we have.
That brings our total population to 19 dwarves, with 7 out of 15 adults in the military. I've also ordered the expansion of our barracks to give them more room to train, as well as an official dining room. No more eating in the hallway.
28 LimestoneFenrir begins filling our rampways with traps. It's inefficient because of the 4-way design but the surface is unlikely to be sufficiently cleared to create any kind of unified chokepoint within the year of my reign.
Also, with so little farmwork to do, Eshtan has expressed interest in making stonecrafts to clear our hallways. I allow it.
17 SandstoneAt last the top level of surface leveling has been completed, and I order the next level to be similarly cleared.
Note that this is obviously not the
entire level. But rather, simply an area large enough to allow a reasonably sized keep to sit on top of the fortress proper. I imagine this keep as housing barracks full of soldiers, watch towers, ballistae and trap tunnels. Perhaps repeating spike traps and magma or water chambers.
However, this will also not happen during my current reign. I know not what future Overseers will choose to do. I can only prepare the land for them as best as I'm able.
14 TimberPrepared food supplies have dropped into the single digits, so I've ordered the slaughter of a lamb that one of our recent immigrants brought. The farm has been running for months now, but no one amongst us knew anything about farming. So for the first few harvests each seed produced only a single mushroom, which could in turn produce only a single seed.
I've been micromanaging the process. Brewing individual plump helmets as soon as they're harvested to reclaim the precious seed to be replanted. It's important that we brew them, as when they're made into food the seeds are only reclaimed after the meal is eaten. That could take too long.
It's a bit of a hassle, but our seed stock is growing. From 5 up to 8, now. Unfortunately the lack of barrels can hinder the process too. It's all a terrible nuisance, but it is survivable provided we're careful.
15 Timber
Ahh, most excellent timing.
The month following the arrival of the caravan was a mad rush to get as much trading done as possible. While we didn't get even half the things I wanted, we did manage to trade a sizable pile of stone mechanisms and crafts for:
* Roughly 150 assorted food items
* A couple barrels of booze
* A couple empty barrels
* A copper halbard
* One bar of iron
* Four metal cages
* Some plaster for the hospital
* About 15 pieces of wood
* A couple assorted cape and cloaks
* About 15 pieces of leather
We'd have come away with a lot more except that most of the mechanisms made by Fenrir over the past year were used in the stonefall traps ordered just over a month ago. Despite resuming manufacture as soon as the caravan arrived, we only managed to trade away only 14 of them. We did also have two craft workshops contributing crafts to export, but they don't sell for much.
In any case, I feel our trades have been adequate. Would have liked more wood and leather. Would have liked more weapons. But there will be another year, and to that end I've requested lots of wood and leather, as well as some food, barrels, and other assorted items.
20 OpalFollowing the mad frenzy of trading was a mad frenzy of everyone on hauling duty rushing to get food into stockpiles to prevent it from rotting. I am pleased to say that not a single piece of food rotted. Though I'm unsure whether that's due to our efforts or the chilly environment.
Strip mining efforts resume. Both from the top as well as some clearing closer to our entrance in hopes of putting up a fully enclosed perimeter wall. Additionally, some minor redesigns and rearrangements have taken place. Most notably, the barracks has been moved above ground to delay the onset of cave adaptation in our military by compelling them to trudge through the sun and snow every time they want a drink.
My time as Overseer is soon coming to a close, and my mind has shifted gears somewhat to prevent any overambitious projects that will unduly drain the time and attentions of my successor.
22 Opal
At last we have found metal bearing ores. Tin and gold. Neither of which can be used for armor crafting. I'm not one who demands iron or steel, but without even copper, the future of our military will be greatly compromised. We may yet find more ores as we dig deeper, but I suspect that our descent is still quite some time away. The future of this fortress is likely to depend entirely on the construction skills of my successors.
Also, Fenrir has taken a break from his trap laying efforts to craft some basic leather armor for our militia. It's good that they are now somewhat protected. But it does seem strange that our military are the only dwarves amongst us wearing any clothes. We went months without noticing our nakedness. Now that some few of us wear clothes, it stands out.
1 granite
These part few months have rushed by, but it is time for me to hand off rule of this fortress to our next Overseer, Vanaheimer. Much was accomplished during my reign, but much remains to be done.
Let us review our current situation.
The main entrance to our fortress of Hellfire lays sandwiched between our former basecamp above, and the fortress proper below.
The area surrounding that entrance, and the glacial mountain of ice surrounding it have been greatly dug out, but years of digging remain before the area is completely leveled. In this next year we should expect a dark strangler siege. Nothing dangerous. Our current militia should be sufficiently trained to handle it. I think it would not be a mistake to continue strip mining the entire area down to the level of our entrance, but doing so will take considerable time and dwarfpower. Perhaps between one and two more years. The difficulty this presents is that while it will be of great benefit in the long run, and we're in no particular danger right now...in the reign of the overseer following Vanaheimer, there may be tigermen bearing copper weapons and armor. These tigermen will have the strength to inflict terrible casualties upon our present army. If no solution for our lack of fuel and armor resources is found, then we cannot depend on our military to stop them.
While the continuation of massive and indiscriminate strip mining will be very helpful, I
strongly advise the next Overseer to complete a fully enclosable perimeter wall with a defensible chokepoint, even if doing so involves a completely temporary construction that will simply be dismantled in another year after the strip mining is complete. If tigermen come bearing copper, such a construction would greatly facilitate our survival. I have laid out a number of traps on the rampways. It's possible they, along with our military might be sufficient to repel the next few sieges. It's possible they might not. I advise against taking the chance.
Our original basecamp is nearly abandoned. All that remains is a few stockpiles, the trading depot and our barracks, which benefits from the location. As described above, I envision this entire area to be strip mined out of existence eventually.
And finally, the fortress proper. As you see, it is very scarce. I have focused on the essentials: food, alcohol, and defense. There remains gems and ore in those walls, and my design intentions have been to completely mine out the level, smooth and engrave it over, and build a city grid out of constructed walls. The basics of the grid are visible, though at present there is a mix of natural and constructed walls.
Final stats:
And so ends the reign of LordBucket in year one of Hellfire. I believe I have given a worthy start to this fortress in the snow. But now, it is in your hands.
Year 1 complete file download location:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6144
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Topic: HellFire-The Masterwork succesion fort! 34.05 Be glad its not evil. (Read 34435 times)