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[smakemupagus]

-- Timber

The drums in the deep continue.  Every season we whispers of a vile invasion in the Crystal caverns, but still haven't managed to catch any glimpse of our foes.

Ishar finally released his hold on this second body, around 10th Timber, giving out after 9 consecutive weeks in surgery. Ishar III is a berzerker, legendary cook, mayor, and confusingly enough, was the guy who stole his own room when Ishar 1st died. 

Meph seems much happier and says he is 'fine'.

Human bandits.  I may have been a little overly conservative pulling the gate too quickly.  Still shaken by Ishar II's death, and the tough fights earlier in the year.  The bandits go down quickly, but the mountainhomes' caravan appears while the gate is closed. We miss out on the wagons but get the mules in safely.  The trade round was not great; the good stuff must have been on the wagons.

(The new Ishar, by the way, really likes millstones.  I have nothing in particular against millstones, but we didn't need 6, and we really didn't need an export embargo.  I'm just going to build them into his office, I think.)

Dragons have claimed nest boxes.  A dragonling have hatched!

-- Opal
Pumped the canal into the resouvoir and recovered the turrets that fell in last year.  I placed a couple on new battlements facing north on the second level.  I'll leave the slade and warpstone turrets for the next overseer to decide.

The weaponry and armory are built, and I started up the industry building plates and runes so that the next overseer can also hit the ground running with those.

-- Obsidian

There are evil Deep drow ambushers about.  Our shock troops (once again lead by the new Legion hammerdwarf) made short work of the few that got in, and as of the New Year our ranged forces are just taking some practice shots at the remainder across the canal.  Our forces certainly outclass them but we are so few, I am not sure it would be a good risk to let them in.  The new levers that control the outer canal bridges and the "sauropod ambush pen" are in the same place, by the main cafeteria, and are all labeled with a (N)ote.

I was hoping to wrap up the year with another firestorm demonstration, but Meph's psychological state has really deteriorated again throughout Obsidian.  He complains still about the pants, and about long patrol duty (I don't know when he's ever had this problem, but such is his complaint).  If you have any ideas to turn things around for our Magmamancer that would be a high priority first thing in the new year.

Right now our armor is in good shape, weapons are good materials but low artisanal quality.  I queue up a first small batch of patternwelded weapons which (assuming they turn out with have decent quality) should actually be a big upgrade.



This year there were ambushing invaders every season, each one potentially deadly (well, the humans seemed a bit weak, but it would have only taken a couple lucky shots with javelins to ruin our day.)  No sieges on the surface, however.

Here are some of our new constructions.  Meph's house is supposed to double as a guard post overlooking the outer courtyard, although the second floor isn't quite done yet.  The pillbox is "sauropod ambush pen" , but maybe it works better in the long run converted to a firing position for turrets/archers on top.  There are some nice trap components crafted, as well as some decent goblinite gear.  I put a few in a few weapon traps, although I don't even know whether these ambushers we have so much conflict with are trap-immune.  (Orcs are, I believe).

Fortifications on the 2nd level of the main keep are expanded too, with some more nests for turrets.  The Dragon and Sauropod breeding program continues full speed ahead.

Thus ends year 111. 

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6664

[Firehawk45]

Spring 112, Tower construction site

Firehawks Journal


I dont know whats with the leaders of this place. Most of them died off, others just laid down their leadership. This happened now, but this time, its different: There was no replacement and the mountainhomes refused to send someone (i cant blaim them for that).
Althought it may not be good for my health, i will take the job of leading this place until someone with more.... experience arrives.

First things first, there are drows out there, and they dont seem to be nice. The militia will confront them shortly..... Along with some Marksdwarfs. What are they doing there? I hope they will survive that, i would hate to bury some fellow Dwarfes.

I know for a fact that booze is somewhat low in this place, so i quickly order the stills to start brewing. Thirsty soldiers dont fight good and thirsty dwarfes in general get really grumby. With that magmamancer around, i dont want to risk my life, the remaining booze, the fortress or at worst: My beard.

It also looks like we have a lot of unused stuff in our fortress. A crashed caravan that has not been plundered yet, and a lot of weapons. Most of them will be thrown in the forges to get something more decent, but the humans left some nice rifles. I may use them for some Dwarfen-musketeer-goodiness. Also, more booze, 1300 Units of booze to be correct, just by taking what the destroyed caravan left behind.

The Drows left, our Marksdwarfes took potshots at them, not hitting jack, ive ordered our militia back into the fort.

We are still under siege... Theoretically, but there is no one who could lay siege on us, so i will ignore it. Or i send Meph down into the caverns to have some fun. Thats actually a nice back up plan, i will keep that in mind.

The state of our tradegoods is horrifying. Yes, Im wielding a crossbow, but im a businessdwarf, and the crossbow is just a necessary thing in the normal Dwarf fortress. You never know when someone goes nuts, and having a weapon is kind of handy in those situations. I need to have a look at the assignments of my fellow dwarfes. No doubt the former overseers messed with the job orders.

As i thought, he whole thing is a mess. Dwarfes with labors hardly used are just being lazy, others are completely overworked with 5 different assignments plus hauling. I ordered the manager to get this shit sorted out ASAP. On a sidenote, this should free some dwarfes for the military, and i will happily stock up the army.

We have 11 Masons! Who made this? Can i hurt him? Is that ok? I know the tower needs to progress, but 6 dwarfes should be enough dwarfpower to make that happen. The former rulers didnt even bother with the labours, thats obvious now. Two dwarfs had nothing to do then animal care..... Yeah, you get the idea. I will sort that out and then return to actually leading this fortress.

Ok, this abomination out of the way, the fort should work a lot more effective now. Althought they had some really awesome skills, the military has been freed from all duties except training. Sadly, stocking the military up will not happen, as we are a little bit short of workforce anyway.

A snatcher appeared. And he runs into a sauropod. Stomp Stomp, Deep Drow Pancake someone?

Meph is throwing a tantrum.... Man, he should cool down, before he does something stupid, like setting some dwarfs on fire. Ive ordered some trousers to be made, the manager looked at me in a really suspicious way when i told him to give the order to the workshops, but he does it, so i dont bother.

One of my crossbowdwarfs behaves weird lately. He is carying his crossbow around all the time, sometimes talking to it.... And if he talks to someone else, he never lets it go out of his view. Creepy, but he seems to hit the target more now, so i wont complain.

The bridge over the water isnt exactly what i would call save. Ive ordered it to be removed and then i will let the dwarfes rebuild it. In blue, i like blue. And we have blue bricks, how convinient.

More Mining operations have been sheduled to our (reduced) mining force. Lets see what they find, maybe some nice cases?

Im on a desperate search for the craftsdwarf workshops. Man, that fortress is huge, and im totally lost. I called the manager to put out some work orders for rock crafts. We have a legendary rockcrafter after all, so better put him to good use.

I was walking down the main entrance (well, i think its the main entrance, damn confusing place) as a planter was running towards the workshops. He may be posessed, not the first time ive seen that, but he is goddamn fast, nearly running me over.

He claimed a masons workshop. Im almost certain what he does will not be useful, but maybe im wrong, and i hope it.

Some guy claiming to be some kind of Spirit mandated that i construct a millstone. We are short on dwarfes, i cant assign one to do this, so I will just ignore this mandate.

The planter has begun his construction. He piled a lot of stuff down there, starting with native gold. Should have some value, whatever he makes.

All in all, everything is going just fine right now. I think the hidden siege down in the caverns blocks other sieges from arriving, but i dont know if goblins and Orks know about this rule, so im on guard. 

The artifact was a cabinet. It menaces with spikes of scrap (and other materials) and has strawberries on it. Impressed?

Whoever had the idea to make bins out of stone needs big slaps in his face. We dont have a lot of wheelbarrows, and the dwarfes are ultraslow when hauling those things. I also put the turrets from the top story of the tower down on the walls. Caged turrets dont help and i really want to test warpstone turrets.

Those military guys get even more creepy. A recruit did the same thing my marksdwarf did, but with his hammersling. Whats going on here?

Migrants arrived. That should help with workforce-shortage. No overseer sadly, the mountainhomes are not convinced yet.
Really? 3 Migrants, thats all? And one of them is a child..... Someone wants to annoy me.

A frost giant jumped into the moat.... well, if he wants to cool himself off a bit, but he is making the dwarfs around him run in fear, so i hope he drowns.

I sent the pillars after him. Whoever assigned sauropods to them, was a genius. Stompy stompy. Also, some forest imps appeared and got shot and thrown to pieces by the marksdwarfes. No casualties at all, good news.

An ambush, directly into a crowd of dwarfes hauling stuff, that will not go well. I quickly assign the civs to the inside burrow. i have no clue where that is, but it sounds safe.

7 Dwarfs died already, all civilians. The main bridge i unpassable for the gobbos, our melee squad holds it bravely against the lashers, supported by the rest of the military. One of my marksdwarfes actually bashed in a goblins brain with his crossbow.

"It looks like on this point, the writer of this journal was somehow unable to continue the writing, the next entry is summer of 112"

[Firehawk45]

Summer 112

Ive survived. Somehow. I think im owning my live to the legion dwarf leutnant, who killed the goblin i was fighting before he could finish me off. We were parrying everything, until he got a good strike at me. I was not crazy, like some of you might think, i was just out of bolts and had to improvise. I had a bayonet on my crossbow, and was actually able to cut his hand open. Now i will go to the hospital. Two other dwarfs ended up there too. Ishar, who got a evil cut on his right hand (he lost his shield in combat) and some scratches on the chest, and a Potter, who is lightly injured at the left hand. I have two doctors assigned only to medical jobs, so we should be back on our feet really fast. Im walking on a crutch now, damn goblins.

Looks like noone important died actually. Some reassignments and everything goes on again. Ive marked the goblin equipment for smelting and assigned two more people to do it. I dont know where those dwarfes suddenly came from, but im ok with it.

We are now officially a barony. The blue blooded Noble-prince-thingy promptly demands a tomb. I ask him if he wants it with him in it, he doesnt like that to much. Ive ordered the carving of the tomb. I could also appoint a champion, but the last thing i want is another noble.

Dwarfs are hauling stuff around. I might have overloaded them with the unforbiding of all this crap. But at least we have a considerable large number of trinkets for the next caravan, thanks to a legendary stonecrafter.

A Forgemaster has been possesed. Lets see, maybe he will make something more useful, like a iridium longsword or something like that.

Well, he took the iridium, but he is only a smith, so no weapon or armor.

WHAT THE F***? Our Iron Golem has grown attached to his rare silk bag, which he used to beat a kea to death. I dont know what to say about that, but i think i shouldnt be surprised. This silk bag probably has more kills then the average soldier in this fort.

I also developed a plan to get rid off all those useless prisoners. First, they will be thrown into a battle royal. We have:

1 Bandit
5 goblins
2 Illithids
3 Elf fanatics
1 Giant Ant worker

I bet on the win of the goblins, but others are free to bet as well.

Mechanic is linking up cages now. The artifact is an iridium ring, encircled with bands of iridium, and nothing else, just the waste of one iridium wafer. Also, another attachmend happened, hammersling.

Also: More migrants. Two Idiots proud dwarfs joined us. They directly got new work orders and will definitly prove themselves. The mountainhomes need to be made aware that we are still here, and that they should send more dwarfes. I think the autumn caravan would help in that regard.

Ok, how can a FRICKING KEA steal a grimoire of death? Thats the bumblebee princip all other again. Also, how did he manage to get to it? I think i will go to genocide mode, Meph looks like he would happily join into it.

Speaking of Meph, it looks like he does not have a lower body.... Hes got 3 pairs of trousers equipped, but all on the torso. I dont know how thats possible, but he is still complaining about not being covered.

oh, some Ants showed up.... as an ambush. To bad they ran into a kitten. Lets see how many of them survive the turrets, will not be to many, those slade turrets hurt like hell.
Wait, those are goblins riding giant ants and roaches..... No, im not surprised, just curious how many goblins died due to the hunger of an average ant colony before they were able to use them in war.

Civilians are ordered inside already, military squads are on stand by.
More siegers in the cavern. I dont know if i ever want to crack that thing open.

Those goblins brought a full fucking army! And at least half of them can fly and are bypassing our defenses. Ive ordered Meph to the inner courtyard, screw the collateral damage. The rest of the ranged fighters are getting swarmed by ants and goblins, the golems have all hands to do with a grounddwelling group of attackers and the meleesquads are not suicidal enough to go out there.

The meleetroops now arrived and instantly got gaught into a series of duels with the goblins and their mounts. Our Prince is unconcious outside of the walls, but the ants trying to kill him are unable to do it, so he might survive it.

This wandering spirit guy is slashing through the goblins, but although the marksdwarfes are in a perfect position to give him covering fire, they are also under attack by some shocktroop goblins jumping over the fortification. they are doing a good job up there, but they cant fire at the goblins while trying to fend off ants trying to eat them. We have lost 5 dwarfes so far, and im not sure if we can survive this, if Meph DONT STOP BEING ON BREAK AND GETS HIS BURNING ASS UP INTO THE FIGHT!

We somehow managed to kill off most of the goblins and the one troll they brought with them. We need to do something against flying enemies, this one was close, and without our elite-Meleesquad, it would have ended in a disaster.

More stuff comig tomorrow

[Meph]

Yessss.... I roast you all, I will burn you, till you are all black and crunchy... and then I eat you... you delicous marshmallows. Mh... Yesss.... burn.  Oh, and you guys topside, keep the noise down, I am bussssyyy.... and were are my trousers, and shoes ? Did they burn off again ? Who do I have to turn to ashes to get new ones ?

[Firehawk45]

You know what? Screw this virus thing infecting my body and trying to keep me away from the Fort, i will drop death from boredom shortly.


Autumn 112 (it actually started during the goblin-battles. but i dont care)

Im not feeling good. The doctor says my body is rotting. something similiar happens to the other marksdwarf. They have no idea what could have caused that, but im suspecting our warpstone turrets. We had them stationed at the forward tower, but those flying bastards made them spray their warpstone all over us. We need to put them somewhere where they cant hurt other dwarfs. My whole squad and the hammerthrowers got infected with this shit, and im unsure if we can survive this. I will try to lead this fort from the hospital, hopefully long enough for a real leader to arrive.

Our armorer died too, as did our cook and someone from one of the meleesquads. There are also two other deads i cant localize.

Ive ordered the warpstone turrets to be moved away from the tower. It was a stupid mistake to put it on the tower, and my dwarfs will pay for it.

Looks like we have no medical personal at the moment, the doctor got infected with this stuff while recovering me and my squad..... I assigned a farmer and a furnace operater to it, not the kind of people i want to be treated by, but if this stuff spreads, they are expendable. Hurts me to say that.

Migrants have arrived.... no wait.... one migrant arrived. Perfect, he is an armorer. I think i will give the next caravan ALL we have (assuming im still allive then). What brings me to another point: There were no merchants this far.... The humans just didnt show up. Can i blaim them for it? Probably not.

The doctors are slow, they removed some of the rotten flesh from me today. Ive heard Ishar, a mason and a fish cleaner are still out there in the field. Hope they come through, i dont want Ishar to get another body AGAIN.

Looks like i was wrong in regards to the hammerthrowers, they are fine. One of them has got some soap hammer heads in his quiver. Ok, if you want to, i will not object to it.

Ishar died. He dehydrated. That makes the position of the militia commander vacant. I will appoint the Legion dwarf who saved my life. He is good with his hammer and got 15 notable kills, at least 4 of them during the last battle.

Tun is lying next to me. His hand looks kind of bad. I told the doctors to get him treated first, after all, my treatment will take some time and he can be useful during this time.

The fish cleaner is dead to, and one of the marksdwarfs suffered severe blood loss. I dont think im better than him, my vision gets blurry, but im still living.

I ordered an enlargement of the smiths course for more batch furnaces, ammo casts and other dwarfen goodness. Planning this keeps me from looking at my body, which unstoppably rots away while iam living. It does not hurt at all, strangely. I might die peaceful, but before that happens, this fort will get a way that gives its inhabitants hope. Not a big slaughterfest with dwarfes dying, no, something better, something.....

"The journal has a big line of ink on it at this point. Its obvious the owner was unable to complete it"

[Firehawk45]

Darkhawks Journal, Autumn 112

Firehawk succumbed to the infection today, and the squad followed shortly after that. But the traders finally arrived. Ive ordered tradegoods to be hauled there, but most dwarfes are busy, and only a small fraction of our workforce is actually bringing this stuff to the depot.

Tun dont want to leave his slademantine short sword. He is still in the hospital, but he brought it with him. It slayed nine enemies so far, and thats quite impressive.

One of the planters run off to a craftsdwarfshop and begun taking all sorts of materials. Scrap wood, Chitin, goblin bones, Olivine, rusty metal. At least he is not using the valuable materials....

Another ambush! They instantly killed our engineer, who was trying to reload the cage traps. I ordered everyone inside, but included the depot into the burrow. I wont loose this traders, not this time.

Trading went well. Ive got lots of military equipment. Gauntlets, greaves, boots, welded Mithril weapons, a slademantine Kite shield (really expensive, but hopefully worth it), helmets and a slademantine breastplate along with mithril mail shirts.
I will order mithril bars and huge amounts of armor and weapons, so that they bring this stuff along and we have our military top equipped all time.

I looks like the troops in the crystal cavern got even stronger. I wonder if its only one civilization (if you can call them so) that wants to kill us, or if there is a big battle going on down there. i will not break that thing open, still, the danger is to high and our military isnt in the state to take on whatever is down there.

[Firehawk45]

Winter 112

Finally. I dont really like winter, but in this season, most of our enemies dont attack us. Also, the drows may show up, and they always bring things i like. Yes, they are technically evil, but they are also our allies, and they stand to the contract in an almost dwarfen way. Also, they live underground, so i like them, simple as that.

The merchants are leaving. The message of the wealth of this fortress should convince some migrants to get their arses to us.

Some changes in the workorders replaced our now dead mechanic, we are down to 44 souls.

The clean up is finished, thelive in the fortress goes back to normal. Im actually surprised that the Dwarfs here take all those events and just go over it. Other forts would have gone down the road of anarchy already, but this one, no, everything is fine.

I ordered more weapons and aluminium crafts to be produced. armor will follow, as we have some surplus mithril and steel and our new armorsmith needs training. Hope he gets a strange mood and makes us an awesome bodyarmor, but i doubt it.

The outpost liaison tries to talk to our prince. Doesnt go too well, the medics were unable to treat him just yet. There isnt much to do for me at the moment, our militia keeps training, the workers are doing the stuff they are assigned to and the caravan is still packing up. We dont have the power to make big projects and i dont want to risk dwarfen lives now.

I was able to have a look at the siegers down in the caverns. They are the ant people. Many Ant people. An army of Ant people beating a single gremlin into fine paste. But they are in one of the upper caverns. I highly sugest to NOT open any caves. They are getting more every year down there.

The merchants finally embarked, after their guards wiped out the whole kea population around the fort (which i enjoyed). We are down to 0 idlers all the time. Looks good you might say. Well, the job list is damn long and most of the tasks there are listed as "inactive". I have to beat the former overseers for this. They probably lost the caravans due to insecurity and lazy planning.

More enemies in the crystal caverns. Impressive how dumb those whoevers are. They bring full armies, but not a single pick. Idiots.

More enemies, but this time, the humans want to dance with us. And i thought we would get some peace and silence around here. I see riflemen, quite alot of them, but nothing really threatening. I ordered the civilians inside and the ranged troops (including meph, we are vastly outnumbered after all, and he might have some fun with this) to the forward tower.

The humans are keeping the distance. They think they can lure us out, but we will just keep our position. They cant even cut off caravans from where they are, and crossing the two bridges would expose them to the turrets and dwarfs in the tower.

Its spring, and the mountainhomes promised to send someone capable to lead this fortress.

There are no less then 3 Invasion forces around. Two in the caverns and one human squad above ground, holding distance.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6687

[cAPSLOCK]

Journal of 'cAPS' Bisekeg

Spring

Excellent. Spring time has come and the previous overseer has stepped down, realizing his true place as a lowly soldier, doomed to do the bidding of the more important and less incompetent dorfs, such as ME.

What he didn't realize is that he left it in the hands of a FOUR YEAR OLD



MY RISE TO POWER IS COMPLETE

MY YOUTHFUL MIND WILL BE THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ENEMIES! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Hmm, the first thing I notice here is that these USELESS dorfs never made any SOAP.
MANAGER! TELL THESE DORFS TO MAKE ME SOME SOAP. IWANTSOAPNOWNALSIDUBZXUOIYBAOIYUWHAIWUDHFNSDLKjndsflsefas



Hm... These humans seek to thwart my plans... Undoubtedly they sensed the danger of allowing ME to assume leadership!
THEY WILL NOT STOP ME. I WILL CRUSH THEM AS A FROST GIANT CRUSHES A KITTEN UNDER ITS FROZEN BOOT.

[cAPSLOCK]

Granite 24

I'M BORED. It's been forever and those humies STILL aren't attacking! I need something to do in the meantime...

I KNOW!
We'll dig to the magma sea! GREAT IDEA!



Uh... Actually, lets not...


Now I know I'm an utter genius of a leader, but even I know my limits.

...

SCREW IT WE'RE DIGGING AROUND. CHECK FOR AN OPENING AROUND THE EDGES, MINERS.

19th Slate

The soldiers are getting upset. Better take these worthless maggots off guard, lest they go insane.

9th Felsite

The miners are STILL working. Progress in unbearably slow. I WILL PRESS ON



15th Felsite

FINALLY our siege operator got his lazy beard over to our newly constructed ballista and fired! The shot didn't come anywhere close, but it sure got their attention!

17th Felsite

HERE THEY COME!

[cAPSLOCK]

22nd Felsite

The turrets repelled the humans quite well, killing three of them while the others ran.
However, the siege continues... the COWARDS.

29th Felsite

Well, the turrets have longer range than I thought. They got another two of the humans. Still, however, they refuse to budge!

[cAPSLOCK]

Summer

FINALLY! The miners have reached the first section and...



HOORAY! MAGMA!

However... since this magma is so far underground, I will have to save it for later use.

[cAPSLOCK]

I'm giving up here. I didn't really mess anything up that badly, but there are so many things that I haven't experienced yet, and I'm just too confused. Sorry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6698

[Ishar]

Summer, 113
Oh God, I'm awake again. This body used to be a woodcutter of all things, but a quick crash course in swordsmanship and dodging (at the creature research lab) quickly buffed it up to my standards. I went back to my old squad, the Bald Anvils, but I figured taking back the position of commander after all these years would be too much - I'm just a common soldier now. Well, not exactly 'common' in any sense of the word, but soldier nontheless.
Oh and OF COURSE I took back my chambers.

It seems like things deteriorated faster than I though. The military is in rough shape: Meph may be awesome as a magmamancer, and that Darkhawk guy holds the Bald Anvils together fairly well. We should be fine. Mokar also has a small squad of his own, still alive at least.
Zen Jr's fortress guard only has two survining members. This is a problem, because the prince himself lies in the hospital, with various broken bones, and even if he recovers from that, I seriously doubt he will be able to regrow limbs: both of his hands are gone forever. Honorable discharge of military service might be a good idea, but I won't make that call yet. Instead, I drafted two capable souls for the fortress guard, a novice swordsdwarf and a competent axedwarf. How those two eluded military service until now is beyond me.

The riflemen are still out there, laying siege and all. The turrets are keeping them at a safe distance for now.

Crap, I wanted to forge more weapons and armor, but it seems like we are completely out of fuel. I don1t know how that happened, but I'll find whoever's responsible. Mass murdering of trees will commence in the meantime. I know there is a magma lake deep within the caverns, but breaching that is dangerous on its own, and we have enough problems topside.

I've decided that the rifleman threat has been around long enough. The former overseer's automated defenses proved insufficient against ranged troops, so I figured a good old fashioned kick in the balls would be more effective. I was right.
The moment they saw the Anvils the Pillars closing in, they panicked and fired their cute little rifles as fast as they could. Not fast enough. Darkhawk and myself tore through their ranks like it was nothing. Riflemen may be effective from atop battlements, but there, in the open field, where we could close the distance fast enough (and armor to protect us from any occassional hits), their guns didn't count for much. Sure, some of those pistols were bayoneted, but that's just laughable compared to a mithril zweihander.
To cut a long story short, they were quickly massarced, without any casualty on our side. I don't even know why the former overseer didn't do this in the first place.

Just as we were bringing in the loot from the humans, a goblin ambush party arrived to take those for themselves. Well, not on my watch!
The turrets didn't exactly scare the goblins, they pressed on anyway. Two of them collapsed under the constant barrage of slade turrets, but the others got through, and killed a craftmaster and a horse. At that point, all the soldiers made it to the surface, and began mopping up. Mokar, myself, and most of the militia killed any remaining goblins in the outer courtyard, and Darkhawk went out to hunt for any additional stragglers.

Then, the illithids came. 17 of them, their leader riding on a giant a rat... this place has seen far-far worse. We've ordered the military back to the defensive lines, but Meph desided this is the perfect time for archery training - with our magmamancer taking a break from the battle, the situation suddenly became serious.
As usual, the turrets drew first blood. The giant rat fell over from the first hit, but the mind flayers themselves only took flesh wounds. Panopticon decided to ignore every possible orer (and common sense), and rushed into the siege by himself. We went after him immediately, trying to save his life - true soldiers tend to do that for brothers in arms.
It might have worked. The direct injuries weren't really dangerous, but the illithids used their filthy poison... our warriors fought bravely, but they could only bring back his lifeless body after the battle. Not a single illithid was spared, but the costs were high: in addition to our war hero Panopticon, we also lost Jakmak and a recruit, and Mokar is seriously injured as well.
Both our elite squads, the Anvils and the Pillars are down to two members. In addition to that, we have the four token members of the fortress guard (one of them is a permanently incapacitated prince), and of course, the lone Meph in his own 'squad'.

The leaves are turning yellow, and autumn slowly creeps in. Half of 113 is behind us already, and we barely did more than hold on to our lives. The constant attacks didn't exactly make things easy. Fuel production is slowly restarting, we found another bituminous coal vein, and trained a few war dogs. That's about it, I'm happy to even be alive at all at this point.

[Ishar]

Autumn, 113
The direwolf pups are slowly maturing. That's good. Mokar has serious head injuries. That's bad. I guess I can't have any sensible good news at this place. Oh well, at least the morale is quite good nowadays, I guess I can't complain much.

Furnishing the doctor's room is in progress now - somehow, that slipped everybody's mind for months (years?) now, and he saved enough lives to deserve some recognition now.

Panopticon's sauropod is hanging around the place where its master fell. It really is a depressing sight.

I think I found my own big projecrt for this term, even though I may not have the time: I want to reconstruct the hall of the mountain king. Meph absolutely wrecked it during his... awakening, so it's not an easy task: we need a steel statue (easy), and eight iron weapons/pieces of armor/armor stands. Now that's a big one. I have the forgemasters working around the clock, but it's not exactly a fast process.

Meanwhile, the tower is still being built, of course. I'm curious to see how tall it can get before we can storm the very gates of heaven itself. About the other buildings: I've had a look at our above-ground constructions, several looks in fact, but I can't make any sense of them. I'll leave it in the capable hands of future overseers, rather than screwing everything up.

One of the weapon traps caught a goblin babysnatcher. If that's all the aggression we get for autumn, I'm fine with that. Soon after that, a single gal knocked on my door. Turns out she is the only migrant we're getting this season, oh joy. Well, at least she is useful, as she is a competent speardwarf - straight to the Pillars. I know, I could have given her a chance in the anvils, but Darkhawk and myself are not exactly in her weight class, she'll be better off with Mokar.

Work on the hall of the mountain king has finally started. Well, not exactly 'started' yet, but the order is out. Lazy masons.

What? Since when do we have FIVE dragons? That must have slipped my mind, I was sure I bought four during my last term. An egg might have hatched, but there's no way a dragon could have reached adult size in such a short time.

A metric fuckton of humans showed up with hammers, they are obviously preparing for a siege. I remember a time when I was glad to see a group of humans... now they are one of our most persistent foes. I know not all humans are like that, but THESE guys are up to no good, that's obvious. They even ride unicorns of all things - that's clearly a sick elven influence. I can't do jack shit about them: far, far too many for the combined strenght of our military, warbeasts and constructs. We just raised the outer drawbridge, and that's it, problem solved. well, delayed. Mostly the same thing.

Approximately a hundred bandits gathered at the other side of the river. Some of them have bows now, so honest fight is completely out of the question by now. I hope they get bored and leave: we could sustain ourselves in here, possibly forever, but I don1t exactly want to cut all ties to the outside world. Caravans, migrants, things like that. Call me crazy, but I kind of like those things.

And with that last sad turn of events, winter rolled around. Things look grim, but I still have hope.

[Ishar]

Winter, 113
We are still surrounded by siege forces. For the lack of anything else to do, the military is constantly training (although some of them doesn't exactly like the idea), the masons continue work on the tower, building the great hall, things like that. The forgemasters also completed four complete sets of welded mithril armor and a couple of weapons, not that we can give any of that to anybody at the moment: our soldiers are very well equipped, the problem comes from the fact that there are not enough soldiers to begin with.

As a bold move, I've opened the outer drawbridge. I'm no fool, I know we couldn't possibly take the attackers on an open field, but this may provoke a reckless charge against the turrets and Meph. I know it's a long shot, but I'm kind of out of ideas.

You could call that a success. Okay, who am I kidding? Any operation that results in dead enemies and no casualties counts as a brilliant triumph around here, and that's what happened. One third of the invasion force fell for the trick.
The slade turrets killed several dragon raptors (yeah, not all of them ride sissy unicorns...), most of the unicorns, and mortally wounded two hammerguards, who bled out soon after, near the river. One of the humans tried his luck with a lone charge to the bridge, but a weapon trap cleaved his head clean off. That convinced the others to stay the fuck back, at the other side of the river - funny thing is, they are still in the turret's killzone. The cage traps right next to the river (what the hell are those for by the way?) caught a unicorn and a dragon raptor, those will be awesome test subjects. Unfortunately, the humans themselves seem quite capable of dodging turret fire. Even worse, the hits that actually connect at all cause mostly flesh wounds, thanks to their superb armor. Annoying bastards.

One of the hammerguards managed to swim through the river, engaged in a duel with a recruit, and practically crippled him. As soon as I got there, I beheaded the intruder, but that didn't help the poor lass much. I hope the doc can fix her up somehow.

One of our sauropods ventured near the invading forces - I don't know, to graze or something? I sure as hell didn't order anything like that. It immediately caved in a few skulls, caused some panic, but the humans eventually managed to take it down. Even so, this gave me a chance to shine: I stormed forward from the battlements alone (Darkhawk was asleep or something), killed five humans and a raptor, and retreated back.

Seeing the demise of their melee division, the bowmen (led by a royal rifleman) decided to press to press on with the attack. That was a terrible mistake. Right off the bat, the turrets killed almost all of their mounts - I don't know what they were expecting, those guys rode in on fucking boozebelly goats. Then, to add insult to injury, Darkhawk promptly bashed in the skull of their commander in a single swing. Then, he killed four others. then, a horse. Just because he could, I suppose.

The following battle was a bit chaotic, I don't remember much. I might have bisected a raptor or two, but darkhawk killed DOZENS during the fight. The few humans who survived the slaughter, fled. This is an unprecedented victory!

Just when the fighting was getting quiet, Smakemupagus withdrew from society... he IS a forgemaster, so any artifact he produces has a chance to be truly legendary. Dibs if it's a sword or a piece of armor. Well, he seems to have everything he needs, I can't wait to see the results.

Behold! Lir, the iridium mail shirt! This goes to my personal equipment immediately - it's only fair, Darkhawk has his own artifact armor, I see no reason why I couldn't have my own. Of course some future overseer might decide to take it away, give this to Darkhawk as well, and make him practically immortal, but fuck 'em. For the moment, it's mine.

A drow caravan arrived just now, they are unpacking. Seeing our trade supply as it is, i can't imagine they have anything we could NOT buy. The excess armor OR weapon stocks could equip a formidable army on their own, and that still doesn't count our crafts. Of course, a small group of deep drow tried to ambush the caravan, but that was more pathetic than exciting.
well that was dull. The best they have are a few golem hearts, a few bars of metal, seeds and booze. I was kind of expecting dragons, or raptors... or dragon raptors. Meh. I gave them a tiny fraction of our crafts, and they were ecstatic. I threw in two platinum amulets for free, as a token of goodwill. I hope they bring a decent haul next year, this was pathetic.
Another deep drow ambush, Darkhawk mops it up nicely again. Six of them this time, barely worth mentioning anymore. One of them was set on fire by Meph.

And that's it for 113. Darkhawk has 72 kills and is literally a one-man army, he killed more than half of the invading force. Everybody in the military has superior quality armor, the tower is slowly getting taller (wasn't a priority, on the account of trying to not die, so only one level this year), the hall of the mountain king is finally rebuilt, and we have an absurdly large supply of human-sized armor and weapons. May not be great for ourselves, but kind of awesome as tradegoods. The haulers are still bringing it in. Runic weapons also count as an ongoing project, I gave the first runic mithril zweihander to Darkhawk, and if I may leave requests, I want the second to myself, and the third to Mokar, if he ever recovers. I wanted something for the crown prince obviously, but it's not an option now that he is crippled this way. We could always turn him into a magmamancer, but I don't think he would like that. It doesn't exactly help diplomacy either.

(OOC: Darkhawk is a legendary fighter, talented swordsdwarf and hammerdwarf, professional armor user, adept shield user, competent dodger and striker, in full welded mithril gear, with an artifact breatplate and a runic mithril zweihander. If you manage to lose him in direct combat, congratulations.
My own dwarf lays in the hospital with some groin injury I didn't notice, somehow he didn't complete his legendary dodge training (assignment still pending at the creature research lab), you can cancel that if you want. Try not kill him in the first year, OK?
By the way, the deep drow were sending snatchers and ambushes during winter, a siege is possible next year.)

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