-- Granite, 111
"Baron Zen! You're alive!"
"Ha. I'm not a Baron, and you're the one that's been passed out in the tower lobby since this morning. Sixteen hours." Zen was giving me a somewhat doubtful stare. "Get it together. The others elected you overseer again while you were unconscious, and there's plenty of work to do. Half my squad is missing."
"Wait. Seriously, I need a minute. I think I had the vision. The breakfast drinking rune vision thing." I still wasn't sure I believed this at all, but I certainly wanted to stall for a few minutes while my head stopped swimming.
"Riiiight. So what did you see?"
"Well, we're on the verge of delving too deep and awakening ancient terrors. There's already an unplugged breach in the crystal caverns -- we'll have to send a team down there to convert the miners' up/down stairs to up-stairs -- but it gets much worse if we try to dig any deeper. Also, you are going to swear bloody vengeance against Panopticon over a credenza. Also, you are going to get eaten by a giant flying koala or something."
"It is not just a credenza. It is an IRIDIUM CABINET. With an image of chocobons, the SYMBOL of our ENTIRE CIVILIZATION."
>>>
Zen's quarters in the tower are actually really nice. His griping is probably due to the fact that he sometimes sleeps in his old flat in the wards, and sometimes in his wife's place in the Forge course. I free'd those old rooms, and I think he'll be OK. His lost squadmates were in fact, sadly, dead. We currently have only 52 adult dwarves, and 19 younglings. We'll have to keep the topside gates open for migrants and trade despite the danger.
Ishar's outer moat looks good. There is a nice outer courtyard that we can eventually turn into some kind of kill-zone. For now, I'm just going to have the masons put up a pill-box that we can fill with war-sauropods in a position to ambush intruders. Simple but effective. I once again get to spend my year in office tearing out cage traps -- Not that I mind them so much per se, but due to the recent change in traders-guild regulations, these traps are currently blocking the wagons' path to and from the depot. In fact there are a few grumpy dwarven wagoneers still hanging around the depot from last Fall.
There are two wounded soldiers in sickbay, and despite Doc's complaints that we need soap and traction benches "stat," they're doing fine.
Just as in the vision, Zulban is dying of melancholy. "Embarrassed to be uncovered," although he is wearing full military gear included padded leggings. The rest of the militia seem fine though. Maybe the onset of the melancholy happened long ago.
-- Slate, 111
With a small population, our workforce is pretty stretched, but Ishar had the workflow balanced nicely, everything is running pretty smoothly.
An unskilled but promising Legion Dwarf is added to Zen's squad; and a few of Mokar's new recruits are missing hammer slings. The ranged troops are pretty short on ammo. Otherwise the militia's gear kits are in good shape. However, spending some extra time with the stranded Caravaneer guards, our military has discovered Runerobes. The only piece of gear that they don't already have. Somehow Jakmak has scored the only two of these robes in the fort, and the other recruits are jokingly calling him "The Dungeon-master." We are short on steel and mithril at the moment, but we fire up the forges and order up a stack of titanium runecloaks. At least we'll *look* better than the Caravaneers!
Vucar, another Smith's Guildmate takes a mood. Iridium chopping axe. Not my first choice, but now we have a legendary weaponsmith.
I gave the dragons some nest boxes, and forbid the Chefs from cooking Dragon eggs. (Although we do have a berzerker-caste legendary Chef, and I am very curious what kind of omelet he could put together -- but, the good of the fortress comes first, and we must all make sacrifices.)
There are a LOT of sauropods in this fortress. At least 8 adults and 6 calves, some of which are already maturing this season. In a moment of idleness I wonder what it would be like in an alternate universe in which they took a bit longer to mature, or if they had to graze to stay alive.
I tried to order the river pumped out to recover the lost shipment of turrets, by hooking up two screw pumps to a watermill. It very nearly worked, quite surprising considering how poorly thought out the plan was, but ultimately resulted only in a wet and annoyed mayor. Fortunately there was an off switch, at least. Now we're digging out a big cave in the soil layer, maybe as a resourvoir for another attempt at drying the moat; either way it can serve as a tree-farm.
-- Felsite
Vile force of darkness; in the hidden depths of the crystal cavern, which I suppose we can safely ignore for now.
Of course the 'Anvils' get the first pick of the new gear, and now Ishar is wearing two titanium runerobes, over 'Egarakrel' the iridium razorplate.
Meph has been spending a lot of time poking around the Hall of the Mountain King. He claims that the Oracles are getting restless, that our path is too similar to that in the Vision, and that drastic action is needed. He has some plan that he needs time to put into action, so although he is a fine axedwarf I have given him a leave of absence for one month from the 'Anvils'. He is one of the King's most trusted advisors after all, so I will give him some leeway.
-- Hematite
Three times he's run up and down the stairs, muttering, grabbing oddly flammable supplies. Twice now there has just been a harmless poof of smoke from the Hall. The coal miners are getting nervous, and tell stories of Meph taking off his pants and dousing himself in flammable oil. The most prevalent story is that he is in some terrible Fell mood and is trying to butcher himself to make a dwarf-bone coffee table. I don't believe most of these rumors, but I did let the miners dig themselves a new passage that skirts around the great Hall.
Well, damn. Those red puddles are molten remnants of the silver bars that used to make up the foundation of the Hall. That cyan garment in the middle -- right on top of what used to be the Most Holy Altar of Armok, Mighty and Extreme Deity of Greed and Tenacity? -- Those are Meph's pants.
Council of overseers: What now? -- How should Meph be equipped, burrowed, deployed, etc.? Any other recommendations? If we are to believe the visions, a great goblin assault comes soon.