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[DrunkenCaveOgre]

I think its fine, nice intro

[Xvareon]

(Still) 1st of Granite 105, Early Spring

Corai and Xvareon got back to the Fortress not a moment too soon, for a fairly hefty mass of clouds had just settled over the region and begun drenching everything in sight with generous spring rains. Corai cursed, knowing there was still several loads of wood laying out in the open, but it was too late to worry about that now. Most of the Dwarves in Steelbeard didn't concern themselves with such things, anyway, since the majority of them almost never went outside except to fetch wood for the all-important charcoal. The trees in this land grew thick and tall and were ideal for metalworking, though it did put the lives (and the dry clothes) of the harvesters at risk.

"...So you hit an igneous extrusive layer, huh?" Xvareon was saying. Corai nodded as they walked down the large central stairway that connected every floor of the Fortress, passing by everyone from farmers to masons to a few dogs. "It isn't nearly as bad as you think, though. We've been able to make an absurd amount of useable gold, silver and yes, adamantine bars just on the charcoal."
Xvareon nodded. They had reached the expansive dining room hall, where he could see several Dwarves and for some reason, animals of all kinds milling about. There were several neatly set up tables and chairs, but he did note that a mere twenty pieces of such furniture did little to fill the sheer size of the room. "So, what have you been using it all on, then?"
Corai thought for a moment. "Three floors down, there's a copse of golden statues around the stairwell on the housing block. Let's see... there's also some silver war hammers -- sorry, we were actually using that for our hammers instead of adamantine... hard to keep track of these things sometimes." Inwardly Corai wondered how long the author could get away with such tripe. He wasn't the only one.
Xvareon blinked. He was glad for the silver war hammers -- it was some of the best material around to use for blunt weapons - but hard to keep track of adamantine? That worried him just a bit. "So, wait... you do actually have adamantine here, don't you?"
The ponytailed Dwarf looked miffed. "Of course we do. You wouldn't be calling me a liar, would you?"
"Well no, nothing like that... it's just that I haven't seen a single piece of it since I got here--"
"Oh," Corai said. "the Boyz are using it right now. We passed by their training barracks on the way in; they've all got mail shirts made of the stuff."
The who? Xvareon thought. He assumed Corai meant the Fortress military; a bit of an odd name, perhaps, but he did think it had a certain ring to it. At that moment a hurried Dwarf with a leather smock dotted with scorch marks brushed past him, bringing his mind back to the present. They were still on the same dining hall floor, and Corai was walking towards one of the chairs. "I thought we were going to your office?" he asked.
Corai looked confused for a moment, then gestured to a large stack of what looked to be lists and spreadsheets in neat piles laid out on the table. "This is my office."
"You can't be serious."
"I'm dead serious."
"How long has this been going on?" Xvareon asked.
"Since we dug out this dining hall and put the chairs and tables down. The only one with an office right now is the forts previous overseer, DrunkenCaveOgre."
"You put a Cave Ogre in a position of authority here?!" he said through gritted teeth, eyes darting back to the stairwell. "And you let him near the booze?!"
Corai laughed. "NO no no; not a real Cave Ogre, its just the name he likes to go by. I agree it's a bit odd, but he's 100% Dwarven right down to the liver."
Xvareon still looked perturbed, and was more than a little put off by some of the things he'd heard already. Only one office? this was going to be a looong job. Finally he sighed, took a seat next to Corai and said "Alright. Let's just get down to business, then; tell me the Fortress stockpiles situation first..."

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

7th Granite, 105, Early Spring



As I was looking around the housing block siting more offices to be dug out, one of the cooks that lives on this level suddenly stopped in his tracks, ran past me, up the stairwell and straight into one of the unclaimed Craftsdwarves' workshops. He's gathering random items -- seriously, a piece of sphalerite? -- and dragging them to the workbench. Some of the locals here inform me this is one of those 'strange moods' I keep hearing about, and that 'good things' usually come out of it. Well, we'll just have to wait and see, though I doubt anything made from a base of sphalerite will be seriously impressive. In other news, this happened.



Normally this would make me feel jubilation, but when I think about the staggering amount of children in this Fortress already -- nearly a third of the population is made up of kids -- I can't help but feel some disappointment. There's a shocking lack of skill in this fort, also, with the greater part of the population only dabbling or at least adequate in any given profession, and most of those aren't particularly useful at the moment; for example, we have no less than five Dwarves who all claim some experience at running an apiary. What's missing? Yes, you guessed it; no beehives. Period. Then we have another five who've complained to me of a lack of fish... to dissect. What? Fish are for eating, not for your morbid satisfaction. Fortunately, there are a few people here who seem to know what they're doing, and they do the jobs that really need to be done -- carpentry, woodcutting, mining, masonry, stonecrafting, metalsmithing, etc. It's enough to get by, but still a little too low-level for my tastes. I'm going to see what I can do to fix that.

I've started by creating a basic labor force consisting of about seven of these lazy do-nothings (One of them was apparently arrested for violating some obscure production order, though) and sited a few simple walls and floors for them to work on. Took a minute to get them used to the idea of laying blocks symmetrically rather than stacking them in a pile, but aside from that results have been promising. They are managing to deal with a little problem I found down by the Adamantine deposit -- despite the part of the pillar that had been mined out being roughly fifteen feet above the cavern floor, the whole operation was open, leaving the entry stair completely vulnerable should some flying beastie show up. We're working on walling that part off now as well as expanding the mining operation. There's an amazing amount of Gold ore in this region; they have about eighty bars of pure gold just sitting in storage, begging to be used. I'm considering drawing up blueprints for the construction of a compound a few floors down specifically for minting and storing coins, but that's a long-term goal; right now my main priority is defense and infrastructure.

Aside from the unprotected Adamantine operation, I've also noticed a complete lack of defensive traps of any sort at the front gate. They apparently weren't building this place with defense in mind; even a Kobold thief could waltz right in here and rob the entire Crafts stockpile which just so happens to be right next to the gate. More likely, though, it would be Goblin snatchers because of all these waifs running around. Can't we put them in some kind of concentration camp daycare center? Anyways, that's all going to be fixed, and hopefully before the Goblins smell the gold and send a raid our way. The aforementioned labor force is having more Mason's workshops being constructed for them specifically, and stones laid out ready to be cut into fine blocks. We'll have the defenses up in no time. Corai tipped me off the other day that we lack a well, or indeed a water channeling system of any sort; we're going to work on that too. I've ordered a straight channel dug from the nearby river and down one floor, which will empty out into a large reservoir. We can draw plenty of fluid from that for any water-related needs; we might even be able to make some sort of a drowning trap, which the neglected mechanic kindly (and a bit scarily) mentioned to me earlier. Glad to see there's some enthusiasm left to take on steady projects.

This ends my first journal entry.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

17th Granite, 105, Early Spring

Past several days have been the usual routine of siting more areas to be dug out; I really think we need more miners. I'm looking at minecart rail systems as a way to speed up the transportation of supplies to and from stockpiles and workshops on the crafthall floor, but we have so many different projects ahead of this I doubt it'll be finished anytime soon. I've found some people willing to get their hands dirty, gave them a pick and told them to go help our two miners. For the scale of project I have in mind we're going to need them.

The Cook with the 'strange mood' finished his little project today. I must admit, I'm surprised he could make something like this out of (mostly) rock.





I don't know what he plans to do with that thing now, I doubt there's anyone in this whole fort who can play a lick. But it's definitely a beautiful piece, so we would probably make good by hanging it on a wall in the dining hall -- which is to be further furnished soon, by the way -- for display. In any case, though, we'll probably want to be careful; if I'd made something like that and it got stolen or even scratched I would just walk up to the nearest living thing and kill it. Let's see, in other news... ... you know what? There really isn't much. I'm literally just waiting for my office to get dug out so I don't have to worry about someone spilling their wine all over my book. Do you know how hard it is to get one of these things? I had to buy it off a band of adventurers who had just raided a Necromancer's tower and taken it as loot; naturally, they couldn't even read it let alone find any use for it at all. Due to the previous owner it wasn't exactly an empty volume... some kind of obscure sigils and runes painted all over it, never really had the time or the resources to delve into it. It's funny, really, how the only people who seem to own books these days -- even regular old autobiographies and recipes -- are the ones with absolutely nothing better to do. I guess what else are you going to do when all you have to talk to are corpses, huh? Once my term here comes to an end I might actually have a chance to look into it, but I'm far too busy using the empty pages for my journal right now.

And so ends my second entry here at Steelbeard. Let's hope things get more interesting later. And that that particular remark doesn't bring misfortune.

[Raul]

Your updates are great, Xvareon! I would like to be dorfed, please. Name is Dreamerist, profession doesn't matter and I would prefer a male dorf. I will be following this thread very closely, great read so far.

[Xvareon]

Perfect timing, Raul. I actually had to revise most of the post just because of dorfing Dreamerist in. I'm going to rely on you all to make your own journal entries, though, alright? Works better that way.

--------------------

The Journal of Xvareon

2nd Slate, 105, Mid-Spring

"Oh, gods, no..." I groaned as I stood atop the ceiling above the main outside gate. A thicket of traps had been prepared in cunning locations, ready to surprise any and all intruders, and the fortifications were just in the process of being expanded. A small stairway had been punched into the once-solid rooftop to make room for further construction. But none of this held any of my interest at the moment. I was staring with a disgusted look on my face at a veritable horde of people, all traveling in single file, and all looking just as worthless as those fish dissectors we had recently confined to mundane hauling tasks at swordpoint.
Armok save us all, I thought. more migrants.

To my credit, I managed to keep a tightly fixed smile on my face as I walked down the stairs and greeted each one in turn.
"...Thank you, the Fishery is just down the hall... right as you pass the large golden memorial statue of the Enslavement of Tonguefissures... sorry long day. Ah, hello, please keep your children's hands away from the adamantine disks and spears, thank you..."
"Sir?" one of them said. I wasn't really paying attention, absorbed into the greeting routine as I was.
"Sir, are you alright?" came the voice again. I was unprepared for the direct question, as most of them were happy enough to just stroll on by straight to the booze stockpile.
"What? I already told you, the craftsdwarves' workshops are two floors down. Just steer clear of the gul-- err, masons."
He stared at me, bemused. "Err, no, I was going to ask if you needed any help setting up a magma channel network?"
"We've already got a milkman-- wait, what?" I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I looked at this Dwarf a little more closely.

"Well, you see... I've some experience with mechanical devices, and I've got two others here with me as well. We heard you had Adamantine over here, so we figured you'd probably hava magma, too... but if that parts already taken care of, we can just work on the traps instead."
I just stood in amazement, listening to his words. Mechanics? In a migrant wave? Surely this can't be possible. I would have to test this Dwarf to see if he was full of fluffy wamblers or not.
"Alright... uh... well, no, we don't have a magma system set up yet, Mr., uhh..."
"Dreamerist." he smiled thinly. "I'm not that good, to be truthful, but me and my friends never travel alone, so we can work on projects together. We'd be grateful for the opportunity to do some real work for a change, if you'll have us, that is, Mr...?"
For some reason I let the fact that he just said I could refuse him entry into the Fortress and by extension the rest of the sodding lot as well. "It's Xvareon. Yes, we'd be glad for your help. You can start by fixing up some magma-proof mechanisms for us. Thank you." It was certainly an unexpected yet welcome surprise. We could always use more mechanics; in fact, they were probably more useful (and more rare) than the stonecrafters this fort seems to have everywhere I look.

I finished and counted forty-eight new arrivals in total. Unbelievable. If the Fortress keeps growing at this rate the Gods of FPS will surely look upon us with disfavor. Gulag workers be damned; I wanted to shove my sword straight into that goofy bulging grin of that first animal dissector and get it over with. But then I remembered that by some stroke of terrible luck, nearly all the people in the fort -- including many of the ones already here -- were related on at least some level. This was going to pose a serious problem in trying to find people with the proper psychological and relationship profile for the military. Pox and privation, we must live with it, I shrugged, and walked back to check on the progress of the guard barracks and prison, envisioning myself personally administering mass hammerings to all the useless cheese makers. This was a Fortress, damn it, not a family reunion!

Later, feeling the need to vent my frustrations somehow, I had ordered the Fortress guards and 'The Boyz' to charge outside, go to the nearest living thing, chop it in half, rinse and repeat. They fell upon several giant peach-faced lovebirds and a wandering clique of hedgehog men...

...the display was quite... interesting.


I'll get back to this later. Need to finish putting in work orders for a lot of furniture we don't have -- tables, chairs, doors, you name it. This ends my third journal entry.

[Zombi]

huh, wait. shit. Can I be put back on the list?

[aussieevil]

huh, wait. shit. Can I be put back on the list?

Sure. You were absent for a few days, that's why you were skipped...

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

23rd Felsite, 105, Early Summer

Seems I was right about the snatchers. We just caught two of them and drove off another one who was snooping around the aboveground farm area I ordered built earlier. Right now it's just a curtain wall with a windmill inside and a millstone in the farm area underground... don't ask me how we get wind behind a wall... anyways, we've stripped the snatchers of their weapons and sent what was left to the newly prepared atom smasher. Goody. Things are going well so far, and I sure as HFS feel a lot safer knowing we finally have some proper defense set up. In other news I've approved the mass excavation of the entire adamantine layer, despite protests from the more conservative members of the society -- oh, yeah, I told them all they were now officially Strand Extractors and would get to work with all the new raw adamantine we're about to have, too. That means more craftsdwarves workshops will need to be built, of course, but guess who gets to build them? heh, heh.

The leaders of the military have expressed interest in the new Goblin captives. They want to use them for live combat training and target practice; beating the poor creatures senseless with blunted training weapons and the like. I have approved their request, though we will need to prepare a special area for this, of course. Maybe that would be a good use for all the cheap furniture that's now being churned out by our labor force? I could have some kind of small arena built, where our citizens can watch our brave Fortress military fight the perfidious Goblins without fear of catching a bolt in the eye. Yes! that will be marvelous. I'll bump that up the priority list to appease our eager soldiers. I imagine they're edgy by now after not getting to fight anything since the great Hedgehog massacre.

One of the self-proclaimed 'Legendary' miners here, who goes by the name of Straw, has asked to take personal charge of the adamantine operation. I couldn't tell whether she was worried the newbies might scuff it up or she wanted the glory for herself or whatever, but I simply shrugged and said; "Go ahead. But if you dig out the wrong wall and flood the tunnels with magma, we will not erect a solid gold statue encrusted with emeralds for you as we have for myself and the others." Ah yes, Tombs. I suppose I should put in a work order for some golden sarcophagi...

[Xvareon]

5th Hematite, 105, Early Summer

Straw was busy mining out yet another layer of adamantine. Despite protests from some and doomsayings about violent demonic hordes that would boil up from below to lay waste to the Fortress, everyone had reached the consensus that in the absence of iron ore, adamantine was their only hope if they were to ever have a decent military. She had never believed in such things anyway, as it was all just smoke and fluffy wamblers, told to frighten children into doing their chores. Besides, they had successfully cleared out two large sections of the adamantine vein anyway, why stop there? She carved another downward staircase to the next floor, slightly annoyed after hitting only diorite, but never one to be discouraged she simply dug in another direction and quickly found the adamantine yet again. She took a firm grip on her copper pick as she prepared to clear out yet another level of the godly metal.

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink. TiCRRakrrarar.

"That's not supposed to happen..." Straw remarked with curiosity. The wall had practically collapsed inward into what seemed to be a deep shaft roughly twenty feet wide. She walked to the edge of the pit, wondering if she had somehow struck another cavern layer. She was not prepared for what she saw next.
SPOILER ALERT -- CIRCUS

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's odd, she thought. well, maybe there's some more epic metal down there we can u--
UUURRAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"WHOA! I heard those Forgotten Beasts were ugly, but you guys take the kitten brain roast!"
"FWAGABLAAAKASHIIIRAAAAAWWW---" The lead Demon, a quadrupedal monster made of grime and filth screamed in anger and hawked a wad of acidic spittle in her general direction, which sizzled ineffectually on the wall of the shaft. Behind it, a massive horde of horrors unimaginable clawed up the walls, flew up the shaft or rode on the backs and bounced off the heads of other Demons, giggling madly.
"PARTY AWWWWWNNN!!!"
"MURDER,DEATH,KiEEELL..!!!"
Recalling her senses, Straw immediately grabbed the largest hunk of raw adamantine she could find.
"Woooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!"
She was obviously running out of time, but Straw was not worried, eyes firmly set on her goal. She laid rocks in a blur of motion worthy of a martial trance.
"Your new life awaits you at HFS Industries! We have killer karaoke nights!" One of them said in a pleasant voice.
She was halfway done. Just a little bit more...
"Will soon suffer!"
"AGARARRARAGASSSHTREAAHHHHHH--" The horde of demons had nearly reached the top of the shaft.
"Dave? What are you doing, Dave?! NOOOOOO--"

She finished. Smiling, Straw stepped back a moment to admire her work. A solid adamantine wall now separated the Demon world from the Dwarven one, and she had done it in two seconds flat. She listened for a moment to the angry shouts of the Demon horde behind the wall, then calmly set back to work mining the adamantine around the shaft; but this time she was grinning.

She had just pulled the biggest troll in history.

--------------------
Yup. We didn't die, far from it, actually; and now we have access to ALL the adamantine, including what we couldn't have acquired before. You're welcome! 

[Splint]

Glad I'm not taking a turn on this then.... After threeish years FPS starts to become a problem for me since the game has more to keep track of than it used to.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

18th Hematite, 105, Early Summer

......
Sigh..............

Well, I guess this means we'll have to make an adamantine statue for her now. Piercing the deepest reaches of the world and excavating more adamantine than all the forts previous overseers combined... It's starting to feel a little crowded behind my desk. There hasn't been much to kill except some giant insects that wandered in, either, so after the initial high of such a success wore off things began to get a little boring. And slow. The Gods of FPS must surely dislike us for disturbing the sleepers beneath the earth. Nevertheless, now is the perfect time to get this operation into full swing. That means more strand extractors and craftsdwarves' workshops to process the raw adamantine and a dedicated forge to turn the precious metal into wonderful weapons and armor. The current military is still wearing a horrible mismatch of cheap cloth, leather, bone and shell, with only a few bits of true armor to cover the vital areas. My goal right now is to ramp up adamantine production to maximum levels and get this ragtag military fighting fit before the year is out.

We apparently had another one of those 'Strange Moods' happen; only this time, it doesn't look like it's going to end well. It was actually one of the children this time, one Sakzul Kadoledan by name; naturally, he's part of a massive extended family, so the ripples that will occur if this goes south will be far-reaching. He keeps mumbling to himself about generic things like... "Bones.... yes" or "Tree.... life". The best we can do for him is gather up what we can and hope its the right stuff. We have wood right here in the fort, and I doubt he wants a whole tree, does he? Regrettably I've had to station 'The Boyz' at his workshop just in case he snaps.

I think we'll cease mining out the adamantine layer for now. It's located a good 100+ floors straight down, and we have plenty of major projects we still need to complete topside. The cistern is finished, now all that's left is for one of the miners to take one minute to run outside and carve the channels to let in the precious water. I don't know if I'll be able to finish everything I have in mind before my time as Overseer is up, but I'm sure as hell going to try. We definitely need more space; though our housing crisis was averted by my siting an extra block to be dug out, the military still lack a proper barracks; No, no, the guards already have theirs, complete with the prison. I just need a real, solid barracks for the real killers in this fort. All I can say is, the Mountainhomes had damn sure better send someone who knows metalworking and plenty more experienced miners. This shortage is going to be the death of me...

[aussieevil]

Good lord, Straw's got balls. How's my dwarf doing?

[Xvareon]

Blew him the f*** up.


Nah. He punched a hole in the caverns so we could get a better variety of wood but right after a FB just HAD to show up. I'll post the results of that particular caper tomorrow. Don't worry, he's very much alive. I'm considering giving the Miners adamantine armor and using them as an emergency military force because Mining skill affects damage with picks.

[Xvareon]

24th Hematite, 105, Early Summer

aussie walked down the stairs quietly to his work. The latest of the digging projects involved breaching the primary cavern layers to grab more of that raw charcoal the talking heads called 'Trees'. He didn't care what some people said, that they needed more variety in their wood or that some kid in the crafthall might just want a blue tree instead of a brown one. He knew what this was really about. The place he was looking for was on a single-tile stairwell that led straight down, which some people had begun to look at with awe and suspicion as it led straight to the main adamantine mines, which had just narrowly avoided disaster thanks to the quick thinking of one of the other Miners in the fort. He sighed and quietly wished lead poisoning upon her as he found the wall he was looking for and began digging.
Tink. Tink. Tink.

Soon after he breached the cavern he was hit by a wave of damp, stagnant air. Best to not stay down here too long. Still, he smiled; the plateau on which he had emerged sported half a dozen pieces of raw charcoal within throwing distance, and many more were growing throughout the cavern. But he needed to remove the ra--
Thump.
Instantly he snapped his head up and looked around. Despite the primary illumination of the cavern being a riot of glowing lichen and mushrooms, he could still see quite well, thank Armok he was born a Dwarf.
Krkrkrkrkrkrkrkrkr... The curious noise sounded vaguely like footfalls, if the owner of said feet possessed at least half a dozen all gyrating at high speed. He didn't have to listen too hard to tell it was getting louder. Taking a chance he rushed to the edge of the small plateau he had emerged on, and then he saw it.

That's gotta be the funniest lookin' crawdad I've ever seen, he thought inanely, then he realized it was headed right for him. He gritted his teeth and sprinted back the way he came, noticing that the ground beneath his feet was now alive with strange, tiny creatures running for cover. "Splint!!" he shouted.

After clearing the opening, he jogged up the stairs almost leisurely, though he was still shouting for the military to get their asses down here. About time they got some real action; and some real food. The-- krakrakrakrak he still heard footfalls, though this time it was noticeably on stone. Aghast and unbelieving at how a crab that big could fit through a Dwarf-sized hole, he quickened his pace and reached the landing where the primary stairwell was located. Half of the Fortress guard were already there, accompanied by a few of The Boyz, with more filing down every few seconds.
"What's going on?" Erith Berudar, the recently appointed Captain of the Guard asked quickly.
"What's going on?!" aussie nearly screamed. "A f***ing crab the size of a house!!" he ran up the stairs to get out of their way.
Most of the inxperienced guards looked at each other in trembling fear, but the Boyz held their ground; indeed, to a man they licked their lips and 'mmm'ed in anticipation, fingering the hafts of their meat tenderizers war hammers.
Soon after, it crawled up the service stairwell and stormed through the small connecting hallway, clacking its pincers.
Coming straight at them.
"Dibs!" one of the female Hammerdwarves shouted with glee and charged.

"...what?" the addled soldier asked to no one in particular. No one really noticed, anyway; within seconds the entire Fortress military was committed. It was definitely a curious battle; some of them seemed to still be unarmed, punching and biting the creature whilst their companions plied adamantine edge and silver hammer. The crab hissed in fury at every strike, attempting to lash out at any opportunity. They gave it none.

It didn't take long for the Dwarves to gain an advantage. It was at least ten to one odds, and they all laid into the beast with great hunger anger. It was certainly a messy fight; the creatures pain tolerance knew no bounds, and it was nearly impossible to hit a vital area beneath all that shell.

Finally the creature succumbed to the onslaught. Everyone tried to claim points for the kill, but it was truly unknown who had actually dealt the killing blow, or if the beast had finally died from simple blood loss -- for over five floors up and down half the main stairwell and the walls were covered in blood. Miraculously, it seemed that no one died or was even wounded a little. It was a textbook feast preparation beast battle.
"Huh," Erith remarked. "Well that was... kind of underwhelming."
"Tel tat to mi toof," the female Hammerdwarf lisped. "Nah, just kiddin'." she smiled. "Hey, any idea where Splint is?"
They looked around. "You're right," Erith remarked. "hey, did anyone see him get killed?"
"Nah." they replied.
"Is he pinned under the body?"
"Nope." again.
"Well, guess we know who's got corpse hauling duty." And the defenders of the Fortress grinned.
"Here's to us," one of them took out his ale flask and popped it open, prompting the rest of them to follow suit. "Who's like us? Damn few. And they're all dead!"
Roaring laughter ran through the chamber.