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[Ishar]

We removed most of the ramps leading up to our mountain refuge, save for a small path we left open. That will be fortified in the far future, but for now, at least it prevents any nasty surprises.
I took a pick and started digging, Freya and Sir did the same. In a few days, we had a decent farming area, and we are now carving out some temporary housing, which can later be converted to a hospital. Meanwhile, the Metal Lady began digging out some storage space for our precious raw mithril. I have to say, that was a pretty good idea from her. The plans for a basic workshop area and some food storage and processing are already laid out, even though it may take us a while to actually dig it all out. I'm sure we'll get the hang of this pick business, but I wish we had at least ONE miner, instead of all these warriors...

Anyway, here's how it all looked like by the end of spring:


Entrance and farming area. Of course the entrance will have more serious defenses than an empty corridor. That lever there is a sign of things to come. Also, only the fungiwood spores were planted by the end of spring, I assume Greenhorn has much else to do - he's our resident farmer now, since he at least has 'green' in his name, and that makes him the most capable farmhand right now.


Food processing. As you can see, the chickens we have are already safely locked away in their underground henhouse. Both the kitchen and the dining room are empty right now, that will soon change. Food stores are filling up nicely: whoever's not mining at the moment is hauling food in from the outside.


Some workshops. This is HEAVILY under construction.


Some levels below, this is mithril storage. I suppose we can store all our other metal ores and bars here in the future, to avoid confusion. Needs expansion of course.


The Metal Lady carves out her new workshop area: we will have every metalworking facility in this giant room, smelters, forges, crucibles, the whole thing. Below all this will be a big-ass lavapit, if everything goes well. And it never does, so we may possibly destroy the whole fort there. So, it deserves mention.


Our unimpressive, unfurnished dormitory/hospital will be directly below the lava pit. Just because.

Tomorrow: Migrants!

[Ishar]

1st Summer
Oh joy. It seems like Sir actually checked out my resume, and knew I grew up in a brewing colony. Now, I'm stuck with brewing muck root beer for the whole team, even though I've never done it before in my life. I tried to explain that to the others, but... I guess you know how that turned out, since I'm on brewing duty anyway.
The lava pit is kind of dug out, but it's of course not connected to the main fort yet.

Migrants! Just in time, too: we can welcome them into our new, albeit a bit modest dining room. Okay, it's just a big hole with ten tables and ten chairs thrown in, but in time, this will be shiny, too.

Most of these guys aren't good for anything, but at least they can take the brewing duties away from me, and Greenhorn won't have to work the farms alone. There's a half-decent doctor, that's nice, she can help Doc if needed. there are a couple of guys who can handle a crossbow, but that will have to wait, since we are sorely lacking in those.
Well, at least none of them brough any useless children. That's good, I guess.

The rest of the season was fairly uneventful. We started digging out some standard 3x3 rooms for ourselves... Well, I HOPE not for ourselves, but for the newcomers - I don't want to lvie my life in a half basalt, half sand little hole. When I asked, Sir said 'anybody worth shit' will have decent quarters, these rooms are only temporary, and only the 'good-for-nothing little pussies' will live here permanently. I hope I don't fall into that category. I couldn't tell from the way he looked at me.

[Ishar]

1st autumn
We finished hauling all the precious ores from the future lavapit (some gold, aluminum and native silver), and the floodgate system is in place and operational. All that remains is some brave (but stupid) soul to breach the magma.
We found a 'volunteer' (suspiciously beaten face), one of the migrants by the name Sosh, who for some reason doesn't know anything else but tanning. He's the kind of dwarf Sir calls a good-for-nothing pussy, but he wouldn't... he's the legendary militia commander of Shadytorments, accomplished general of the mountainhomes!



Predictably, Sosh didn't make it. That was... brutal. when the magma broke through, he was immediately engulfed in flames, and we didn't have a choice - we had to lock him inside with the floodgate system. This is... unsettling. There are five intended breaching points, and Sosh only broke through the first. If this goes on like this, we are going to lose more men. What's even more frightening, I'm not all that confident that I'm on top of the food chain here. I started fearing for my life.
We have to wait for some spilt magma to cool down before we try again. It's not exactly a life insurance to go down there now.

I met Greenhorn today. He told me that Sosh has been 'missing' for a week, and asked if I've seen him. I quietly walked away. Is it possible that nobody else knows what's going on? Or they do know, just don't care? Oh god, what's this place? This is a nightmare.

[Ishar]

Another migrant wave came yesterday. Most of them aren't noteworthy, but somehow there are two master armorsmiths with them. That's... highly unusual. There are a couple of fish cleaners and such, so I guess Sir will have his cannon fodders for the breaching operation. I suppose I should thank Armok for these new arrivals, since this means I'm fairly safe, it will surely NOT be me who goes down there any time soon. Still, I'm not really thrilled to hear those screams again.

We set up an engraved slab in the memory of Sosh, our first casualty. At least he got a decent personal tomb, courtesy of the Commander. I suppose he could have dumped him into a mass graveyard, but instead chose to give him the honors of a good craftsman or a fallen soldier. I supposed he isn't as unfair as it seemed first: he knew the risks, and kept the interest of the whole fortress in mind when he sent in the weakest of us, to minimalize losses. When things turned out bad, at least he had the decency to give the man a hero's farewell. I still think it's cruel, but I can now see the reason behind it all.

A freshly arrived bone carver claimed the craftdwarf's workshop. That's quite bad, since we don't have any spare bones to speak of. We butchered a horse foal that was born during the summer, and that calmed him down a bit, but it seems he wants something else. I have no idea what, he mumbles about cloth and bones, but now he has access to both. This could get ugly.

The lava is cool enough to let another poor soul try the breach. This time, it's a novice gem setter woman called Lur.



She did it! I can't believe it, but she managed to breach the second opening without incident. Unfortunately, there are three more to go, and it would mean superdwarven good luck if she did it all.
Actually, fuck that. She DID breach them all. Oh. So I guess Sir was right about Sosh. If a woman could do this properly, he was a pussy to fail indeed. I guess it's time to fill that bitchin' lava pit up.

The autumn traders are here. We don't have much, but one of the migrants came in with a javelin thrower and some ammo, we traded that for some leather and a copper pick. The Metal Lady stood up as a trader, and nobody disagreed: it will be her crafts we'll sell the most, so it's only fair that she learns the art of trading. Besides, it's not like we have anyone better for the job.
In the hopes that we will have the magma facility up and running soon, we requested mithril, wood and some slade turrets. Who knows, maybe we can even afford all that next year.

Oh good, the bone carver went insane. By the way, winter is here. Hm, it seems I've lost my ability to care for things like this. Wow. That was quick.

[Panopticon]

I can't believe I missed this restart. Dwarf me if you please.

Panopticon, a cheerful, enthusiastic, and incredibly unskilled recruit for our glorious militia. Gender doesn't matter, nor does marriage or baby status.

I figure I'll either die amusingly or do something awesome, or both.

[Ishar]

Sure, but it will take a while: I plan on doing daily updates, and I like to have a buffer: I'm far ahead in the story - almost through the second year.

[Ishar]

1st Winter
There's a snow storm outside. That's cute, I'm sure that would be awful if we were elves or something, but it looks kind of... pretty from inside here. The lavapit got filled nicely, that's definitely good news. The Metal Lady grabbed some of the migrants and started setting up a few smelters to begin metal production.

Meanwhile, Sir gave Lur the title of Chief Miner, and everyone just calls her Lucky Lur after that stunt she pulled with the breaching points. I think she deserves every bit of the praise.
Oh, and the crazy bone carver died of thirst. Thought I would mention that.

Anyway, it's a real industrial boom. The smelters are pumping out various bars of metal, and two of the three forges are already producing aluminum and gold crafts. When the pointy-eared hippies show up, we'll have some really sweet crafts to sell them.

Of course what we'd really need is some military-grade metal, but so far, not much luck there. We found a small iron vein, but that's it. Coal is also on short supply, but I guess we could burn charcoal for the steel reaction. Flux won't be a problem, even though our main fortress is composed of sweet-sweet basalt, there is a visible layer of marble at the base of the volcano. we can definitely use that if needed. Still, that ain't worth jack shit if we don't find more hematite.

Tomorrow: The first combat situation!

[zenerbufen]

Awesome on the restart. Can I be dwarfed as "Zin"? Preferably as nobility/royalty or failing that the most insane dwarf in the fort.

[Ishar]

Is it a problem if it's a woman?

[zenerbufen]

Only if he can insist he is a man trapped in a womans body.

[Ishar]

2nd Spring
There's a wolf inside the courtyard. The Elite Blades, the primary military squad is sent out to deal with it. Turns out I'm considered a member now - how exciting! My only two squadmates are Sir and Freya themselves. I guess I have to work hard to match their valor.

It was awesome. Freya dealt the first blow, crippling the beast's front paw. Then Sir came in with a stunning slash that damaged its lungs, but then... Then! Then it was my moment of truth. Three swift cuts with my zweihander, and it was all over: the third cut simply bisected the wolf at its lower torso, effectively ending the fight. Even Sir acknowledged this with a silent nod, and Freya muttered something about stealing the kill, but even she didn't seem to mind. I will never forget this - my first kill!

Another migrant wave. Among the usual riffraff, there two that stood out: a mace- and a hammerdwarf. They were promptly drafted into the not-so-elite blades. I suppose Sir is just throwing everybody into the main force until there are adequate barracks and real equipment for each platoon.

One of the new aspiring soldiers disappointed everybody when he stormed off to claim a craftdwarf's workshop, and came back with a wooden cup, claiming it as the first artifact of Newtorments. If Sir was around to see it, I'm sure he would have issued him a good hammering, even though we have no hammerer. Seriously, it's a rough wood cup, worth a puny 4800 urists at best. You call THIS an artifact, Sarvesh? This is worse than a simple amulet Metal Lady throws together in an afternoon.

[Ishar]

2nd Summer
Migrants, I don't even care about them anymore. If there's a need for soldiers, I'm sure we can find decent fellows to draft. By the way, hematite. We found a large vein, really close to the main fortress area - that's amazing, iron production skyrocketed. Steel will be a bit tricky, since the marble layer is waaaay down the mountain. I'm not sure how we should approach it: we could go outside and start to mine it in the open, but maybe it would be best to go around, and mine the mountain from the inside. The fortress is trouble-free since we dispatched that wolf, but still, it can't hurt to be careful.

Actually, two of the migrants are distinguished fighters. It was a mistake to ignore them: Silus already got to them, and drafted both to his True Phalanx, in addition to Greenhorn. Any other capable souls went to the Elite Blades as usual, but since there are seven of us there, the time to split the squad may be near. Barracks are already under construction, but I haven't seen the layout yet - I'm sure it will be something glorious to behold.

Holy shit a centaur just barged into the fort. It went on a crazy rampage before the Elite Blades could even reach it. It threw Sir on the ground with a surprise attack, breaking his forearm, and Sarvesh got seriously injured. Broken elbow and a nasty stomach wound - it was pretty ugly. Luckily, Gesith, another one of the recruits arrived with a silver warhammer (it was a good idea to throw together some emergency silver blunt weapons), and broke the charge of the beast. He occupied it long enough for me to catch up to them, and behead the centaur with a heavy swing. It seems I'm getting pretty good at this.

The injuries wouldn't be life-threatening in a normal situation, but the thing is, we don't have a decent water supply. There are a couple of murky pools outside, and strictly speaking, those are good for the moment, but they are frozen for most of the year. We will NOT lose Sir to something as laughable as dehydration.

Autumn comes, and the Commander is known for healing slowly... Sarvesh doesn't look any better to be honest. I don't know what will happen if we don't do something about this, and soon. Of course we could go for an underground lake, I'm fairly sure there would be something like that under our feet, but we are not ready for the dangers of the depth. Not by a long shot.

[Ishar]

2nd Autumn
None of the veterans were interested, so I took on the title of overseer, at least until Sir is down. First, I've ordered the carpenters to make a few more buckets, to keep the water flowing to our injured people as long as we can. The miners reached the marble layer, and some of the wood we cut down went to the charcoal furnaces, so there's nothing to keep steel production away from us - in theory. In practice, caring for our injured soldiers takes priority now.

When I woke up this morning, the pools were frozen solid. I really don't want to go into the caverns without decent precautions, but there may not be any other choice to save Sarvesh and Sir. I've asked Doc to find another solution, and he is in his office, furiously going through his books, but so far, he hasn't found anything useful.

Sarvesh stumbled out of bed today. He still can't hold or lift anything with his fractured forearm and elbow, but at least he's up, drinks alcohol like a proper dwarf, and eats on his own. The commander is still down of course.

Finally, Doc has found a solution: we should just mine the ice from the frozen lake like stone, and he can melt it down to hydrate the patients. It's not perfect, as our ice supply is sorely lacking and he can't seem to able to do it with snow for some reason. Still, this might be enough for Sir to recover, or failing that, stay alive until the spring thaw comes.

A siege. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo. A group of white tigermen showed up... if we had our steel industry going as we should, this would be no problem. At this point though, the only things we have are our starting kit, and that's... really not much at all. Most of the soldiers are unarmed, and everybody is definitely unarmored. I won't have the men fight a siege like this, we don't need any more thirsty souls in our hospital.

[Ishar]

A young recruit called Panopticon came to me with an idea to stop the tigermen. And what an idea! It has a very high chance of actually working, and what's even better, it's VERY dwarven.
Quite simple, really: we just channel a single urist wide breach into the side of the volcano, and pour some lava onto the side of the mountain they're scaling right now. With a bit of luck, most of them will be engulfed in boiling lava, but even if they escape the avalanche of liquid rock, they will surely be blocked from entering the fort anytime soon. Let's do this.



This... looks... awesome. Unfortunately none of the tigermen were caught in it, but anyway, we have a bitchin' cool lava waterfall now. Lavafall? Is that a word? It most certainly SHOULD be a word.

Armok be praised! Doc managed to heal the Sir's broken bones, and now he got up and solved his dehydration problem by drinking three whole barrels of ale. Boy, am I glad to see him back in action again! The other guy who was knocked out at the same time he was, didn't get so lucky. He died of starvation a few days ago, even though we have plenty of food. Natural selection I guess.

The tigermen found a horse foal to torture. The poor thing quickly succumbed to their numbers and weapons... bastards. That was a cruel thing. We found a small cluster of anthracite, so we have some coal now. Steel industry is slowly starting, and when I have decent weapons and armor for both of the squads, we are going to bash in some tiger faces... I mean if the commander thinks that's what we should do. Damn, I keep forgetting I'm not in charge anymore. Anyway, the Metal Lady is working around the clock with the other smiths, but there is just too much work and too little time for all this.

[Ishar]

Sir called for me today. To tell you the truth, I almost shit my pants: it's very rare to be called by him just for a pat on the back, mostly it involves a lot of yelling, and occassionaly some beating. This time, it was different though. He was calm. Somehow that creeped me out even more. He even offered me a drink, and a seat at his table. I still remember his exact words.
- Come now, why are you shaking like some first day recruit?
- Sir, I beg your pardon... did I do something wrong?
- What? No, no, far from it. Sit down already.
- Thank you, Sir.
- That's better. Now, I called you here for something important. You are dismissed from the Elite Blades, effective immediately.
That struck me like a bolt of lightning. This can't be happening! I... I did everything I could! I stood with them, back to back in battle, I was keeping up with them during every fight, even managed the fort for a little while, when Sir was injured... Why is he doing this to me?
- Sir, I...
- Shut up. I'm kicking you out because you are too valuable for this. I can always find some dumbass who can wield a sword. That takes training, and not much else. I need you for something bigger.
- I'm not sure I follow you.
- It's not that complicated, son. You know we need a fortress guard, and I can't think of anybody here who's better for the job.
- What? Me, captain of the guard?
- Yep. You can take that Panopticon guy too. He's not that great as a fighter, but he has a good head between his shoulders. It's your job to keep it there from now on. Greenhorn will show you your new quarters.
- New quarters? But Sir, this... this is a bit overwhelming. What should I even do?
- For now, just help me prepare for battle. Those tigermen don't seem to be leaving anytime soon. We'll have to make them. The problem is, we can't beat them head on with equipment and troops like this. Figure something out.
- Like what?
- Like decide if we should wait for the Metal Lady and her little friends to throw together some decent equipment, and take our chances. Or design some basic trap system to take care of the enemy. Or, shit, drop some more lava on them. That seems to work wonders.
- Hm... I'll consult with Panopticon.
- Good. I expect something by tomorrow evening.
- Yes, Sir. I won't disappoint you, Sir!
- I hope you won't. For your own goddamn sake, maggot. Dismissed!