7th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.Now that we have enough coal I ordered the smelting ore iron ores to begin. And with iron we should soon have more weapons and armor for our soldiers, we can't really expect Nix to defend this place all alone.
12th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.I decided to give our masons another project; they must build second floor above the ground level, where we shall store some ammo and cages. ANd after the floor is done they will build a roof over it to protect this place against anything that can fly
While our masons are busy with the project our miners are mining deeper to see what they can find. Perhaps they could discover new metal ore veins? Or perhaps the cavern I suspect is somewhere bellow us?
14th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.Just like I suspected, there is a cavern right bellow us. And today our miners finally discovered it.
We saw no dry land down there but instead there were several veins of coal, iron as well as gold and tetrahedrite.
This place is showing some potential I didn't expect to find here. Perhaps this place could be useful for our civilization, though I still can't understand how this place could be considered as the future of dwarves.
18th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.Because heading straight down in the cavern would cause some unwanted flooding I decided that we must reroute our stairs down a bit. This means our masons must build some floors and missing stairs so that we can access better spot for going down.
Our miners also spotted a section of dry land southeast from the stairs. Perhaps we should concentrate our mining operations there? That place should also offer us some underground trees.
But before we actually connect our fortress to the cavern we must expand our military a bit, there is no telling what lives down there.
19th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.The plans for rerouting our way down has been made.
The new route requires some mining and constructing of floors and walls but it should give us access to the dry section of the cavern eventualy. All other construction projects has been abandoned until the tunnel connecting the two stairs is ready.
28th of Sandstone, 103 S.B.S.Our carpenters don't have anymore wood to use so I ordered them to go outside and cut down a small section.
I know it's a bit risky to send them out but on the other hand there has been no signs of kobold or goblins lately and so far our fishers have survived without any problems. Of course I told Nix to stay alert in case someone spots anything that may put our citizens in danger, though I hope no such thing happens.
We also have enough iron bars to start producing weapons and armors. I think nine sets would be enough, after recruiting nine dwarves to train and fight under the command of Nix we have one full squad of axe wielders. Enough so that we may explore the cavern a bit.
6th of Timber, 103 S.B.S.There is no more bituminous coal to make coke.
That's okay, there should be enough veins around the cavern which are only waiting to be mined. And currently we have more than two hundred bars of coke, which should last for a moment.
10th of Timber, 103 S.B.S.The connection tunnel is ready.
While we are waiting for the full squad to be formed I decided to give our miners another task; mine out some personal bedrooms for our dwarves. Not for everybody though, only for important people. I have also heard complains that some of our dwarves are demanding personal dining rooms as well but those requests are quite absurd at this point. Only bedrooms and only for important dwarves for now.
14th of Timber, 103 S.B.S.I heard news that a caravan and the liaison from mountain home are coming.
They should be here in a day or two so I ordered everybody to get ready and look sharp.
21st of Timber, 103 S.B.S.So, our crafters have been slacking lately. It actually took me few days before I faced the merchants to find out exactly why we didn't have anything to trade? Well, we had few spare crafts so I was able to buy some metal bars but nothing else. I ordered that next six months our crafters shall do double shifts, I can't allow this to happen again!
After I was finished with the merchants and the lazy crafters I met the liaison. She was quite surprised by our progress. Really? I haven't noticed much progress. Perhaps I just have become blind on such things because I'm living here? It took few hours from the liaison to actually explain me what she meant by the progression and I think I understand now what she means. After all we have metal industry working, we have clothing industry, we have somewhat proper defense system here and so on. And our population is much bigger than year ago.
Finally, she also brought me a letter from the queen. I'm actually a bit surprised that her majesty decided to write me personally. In the letter she clearly stated that under no condition I can return as this place needs me more than mountain home does. Apparently, even though I don't remember it, I have also signed a contract that forbids me leaving this place. Even more, if I ever suggest this kind of thing again she may consider it a treason against our civilization and I shall then be removed from my position and live as a common worker here in Ringhammer.
Great! Just great! So apparently I can't return my previous home if I decide to leave here. What other options do I have? Staying here? That's not an option for me. Perhaps some other mountain home accepts me as migrant? But how could I contact them? I can't leave here and using normal methods of contacting is out of question. I think I need to consider my options a bit longer...
3rd of Moonstone, 103 S.B.S.The first set of sleeping quarters are ready. Eighteen rooms in total
First I assigned rooms for Nix, Unum, Baran and Blue, then our doctors and smiths, then our crafters. After they and their families had a room assigned I just went down the list of citizens in order of arrival and assigned the rooms until there was no spare ones left. After it was done I noticed that about half of our fortress had a bedroom, mostly because each couple shares the bedroom. No more bedrooms are going to be made though as we need all the wood for more important things than beds, like bins and cages.
9th of Moonstone, 103 S.B.S.It will take ages from our two smiths to produce all the necessary weapons and armors so I decided to draft four random peasants to work as smiths. I know they have no experience in the profession but I believe they will learn while working. I would rather have those equipment ready sooner than later.
23rd of Moonstone, 103 S.B.S.A goblin was spotted near our fortress!
Fortunately our traps were efficient enough and now the filthy bugger sits inside a small wooden cage. I don't know what we should do to it so I ordered the cage to be tossed inside the animal storage. Perhaps we should build an arena where our soldiers may kill all the trapped enemies?
18th of Opal, 103 S.B.S.Finally all the equipmen for our military has been completed and nine dwarves has been recruited. Unfortunately we didn't have enough male haulers available so I had to draft three female dwarves to the military as well. Hopefully none of them is or gets pregnant.
Now it time to connect our fortress to the cavern and do some exploration. I already told Nix to gather her squad at the bottom of the second stairs and to be ready when our miners arrive.
7th of Obsidian, 103 S.B.S.Our soldiers have returned from the cavern. The reports indicate that the dry section was actually bigger than I thought, through the easter side of the cavern. Part of it is still unreachable unless we do some digging but that's not our biggest concern right now. I ordered three soldiers to be stationed at the breaching point at all time, rest of the soldiers are free to do whatever they want.
8th of Obsidian, 103 S.B.S.I ordered our miners to go deeper and what did they found? Another cavern!
This time there is no dry land visible so, with the help of our masons, miners will just try to get past the underground sea and go deeper.
At this point someone might be wondering why I want to go deeper and deeper? Truth to be told, I'm expecting to find a magma sea down there. Magma would be crucial to keep our forges running so finding it is one of the most important things to do right now.