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[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

22nd Malachite, 105, Mid-Summer

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Magma!! Glorious magma!!  Finally we can... oh, that's right. It's buried over a hundred levels under the earth. Not that we can't get to it, of course, but its far from convenient for our use. We can plant forges and smelters down there, yes, but ferrying materials that far and back ad infinitum would cause production to be painfully slow. I have conferred with our mechanics and they've devised several ways to attack this problem.

1. The Bullet Train to Hell
Dig a massive tracked ramp almost straight down and use minecarts to carry items to and from forges at the magma sea. This would be relatively easy to set up as it just means digging out and carving the area for the track. We could add more track as needed. Only problem would be getting the damn things back up the tracks.
2. The Magma Pump Stack
This would be the surest method, but also the most time- and labor-intensive. We would assemble a veritable tower of pumps, each one leading to the next, that would move the magma directly upward to where we need it, and at a 100% constant rate. The payoff is just as huge as the amount of work involved; not only would we need vast amounts of specialized magma-proof materials for the pumps, we'd also have to power each individual pump somehow; they're obviously not going to pump any magma without some force behind them, and despite my wishes to do so we cannot simply get the useless Dwarves to do manual pump work. Far too many pumps and far too little Dwarves. Such a construction would surely give us the magma we need, but it could also bring the wrath of the Gods of FPS...
3. The Magma Piston
They also have an absolutely insane idea which involves literally dropping a massive piece of rock into the magma sea. This would theoretically have the effect of pushing it up into a catch basin. Downside is it takes a LOT of setting up to do and we'd only get a little bit at a time.

With each option looking like it will take a huge amount of time and resources, I'm debating whether or not the magma is necessary at all. We can currently support our smelters entirely on charcoal, especially now that we're focusing metals production on adamantine than anything else; nearly all other metals are inferior except for use as blunt weapons. I may just shelve this for now and leave it as something for future overseers to consider.

In other news, it is business as usual here at Steelbeard. Another set of migrants came, though this time it was only 13 or so. Someone else got born the other day, I hear, and one of the kids finally reached working age. Hauling duty for you! Let's see, what else... Oh yeah, some Forgotten Beast came by and wanted to cause trouble. It was chewy. Also a tribe of hamster men blundered into our cage traps; more training dummies. The minute I close this book I'm going to see about reorganizing the military in earnest. It's just not easy to manage them on a cursory basis, even though they have managed to kill everything I point them at so far. Time to split the Boyz up into two groups; one kills things, the other slacks off trains in the barracks, which by the way has been moved to the vicinity of the Hospital (and the Burial chamber... a few hairy eyeballs about that). Well, time to get on that. Farewell for now.

[Crimson]

Nice update, and its probably better to leave the red stuff for now considering that the metal industry is doing fine without it. Requesting to be dwarfed as well using my name. Would prefer someone with fighting skills but anyone is fine.

[Xvareon]

Weapon type, gender? Fighters are common as fleas on a dog right now. I'm just trying to hammer out enough adamantine to equip the sorry lot. Most of them are Hammerdwarves though I have a Speardwarf, Swordsdwarf and Macedwarf (and nine Guards that all use crossbows).

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

17th Galena, 105, Late Summer

A Goblin siege force has encamped at the edges of our territory. It's almost pitifully small, with only one squad of mace-wielders and a single Giant Olm, but it's still a serious threat. Unfortunately, we still haven't finished making complete sets of armor for our soldiers yet... we have plenty of adamantine strands, but now we need smelters to turn them into wafers. This whole thing is a cock-up; some of the Guards are literally carrying their babies around with them into battle, and almost no one in this fortress has no familial ties to the rest of the sorry lot. If one pops off, we could very, very easily hit a tantrum spiral.

Strangely, they don't seem to be doing much out there. I've shut down our fishing and wood cutting to keep the idiots from going outside, but the Goblins don't seem that interested in us; they're just sitting around, moving a few feet in our general direction each day. We should have more than enough cage traps to throw them off, but there are other problems I'm worried about; someone forgot to dig channels underneath the main bridge. How is it going to stop enemies exactly if there's no open space? The whole design is a mess, and now it's kind of too late to do anything about it since we're now officially at war with enemy troops on our own soil. I knew this day would come, I just hoped we would be more ready by now. Best thing to do is buckle down, shut the doors, raise the drawbridges and wait until we have our military properly outfitted.

If we don't all die first.

[Xvareon]

1st Limestone, 105, Early Autumn

The turn of the month saw the first real battle Steelbeard had ever seen.

No one knew particularly why the Goblins were almost leisurely walking up to the Fortress gates. Or why they had just decided to stop in their tracks in the middle of the brook. Or why their Giant Olm had just decided to take a dive in the nearest pool of stagnant water, dragging its rider with it. But everyone knew that Goblins were NOT Dwarves, and anything not a Dwarf was to be shot on sight. And so it began.

The Fortress Guards (aka. the Shoota Boyz) were sent to the fortifications that topped the roof of the small gatehouse. Even with a glaring shortage of crossbows and bolts, they still carried enough firepower to be a threat.
"You think this'll work?" One of the Guards, who went by the name of Crimson whispered.
"Why wouldn't it?" Erith replied in a low tone, loading her crossbow.
"Well... they're wearing armor, it looks like..." he offered.
She tapped a finger on the thick frame of her weapon. "Armor-piercing. This thing will knock the shield right out of their hands. And if you're really worried, just shoot them where they're not wearing armor."
Crimson shrugged and joined her at the crenelations, aiming his weapon downrange. The Goblins were still doing Armok-knows-what in the brook, not moving at all. He couldn't ask for a better target. Twang!! His bolt vanished from the crossbow.

The invader fell. Glancing to the side as he prepared another bolt, he could see Erith grinning. "What did I tell you? Armor-piercing." Twang!!

"Tch," she remarked. "Not as good, but it'll do..Don't let that one get away!"

The Goblins stubbornly held their ground, which was now rapidly becoming soaked with glistening red blood. They raised shields, which only served to prove Erith's earlier point. Vimmm! A bolt whizzed through the air, impacting one Goblin's copper shield; the force was so intense he lost his grip. The pathetic metal plate flew three feet away to splash into the water.

Their ranks began to buckle. Several of them had already suffered major injuries; five of them were now feebly crawling away from the scene in an attempt to escape. Not wanting to lose an opportunity at Goblinite, Erith abruptly pulled her attention away from the fight, put two fingers to her lips and blew a sharp whistle.
"That's our cue," Splint said with a grin. They ran pell-mell across the bridge, through the thicket of cage traps, and around the east end of the keep where the Goblins couldn't see. Their plan was to strike south while the main force was being feathered with bolts and pick off the stragglers that might attempt to retreat. They needed that armor, no matter how inferior it was to adamantine. It would prove to be a mistake, however.

One of the Hammerdwarves showed up late. Misjudging the signal, he went around the wrong end of the wall; the Goblins immediately screamed hatred and charged him, the Giant Olm (conspicuously without a rider) first. Wisely sticking near the entrance, however, he managed to defeat the Olm with only minor injuries, and also caused it to charge the wrong way, landing itself right into a cage trap. It would be a fine prize once this debacle was over with. But soon three Goblin mace-wielders were in his face, ready for blood and vengeance. He would give them plenty.


Meanwhile, seeing that the main body of Goblins had begun to move -- and quickly -- Splint cursed, wheeled his troops around the wall and charged. "For Steeeellbeaarrd!!!"





It was an extremely bloody affair. Though the Goblins were mostly in retreat by now, they managed to inflict major injuries to a few Dwarves -- thanks to the glaring lack of edged weapons among the invaders, however, there was nothing immediately life-threatening. One female Hammerdwarf had had her left leg broken in multiple places, and now she laid unconscious on the ground with her arms firmly wrapped around her crying infant. That was the most serious of the injuries; though Splint suspected psychological trauma may go far deeper than that. He sighed, keeping one eye on the retreating Goblins and another on his men, who were sifting through the bodies for any signs of life. "Get the wounded to the hospital," he abruptly shouted. "forget the Goblins; they won't come back if they know what's good for them."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Xvareon]

Bad news, guys. The Hammerdwarf that got wounded can't be taken to the hospital. She keeps falling unconscious and waking up right after, but of course she can't move an inch from where she is and isn't registered as a valid target or something so no one is bothering to take her. Even worse she's starting to get thirsty. Anything I can do?

EDIT: Never mind. Someone finally carried her to the hospital. She is currently undergoing long overdue treatment; hope we get her fixed before infection sets in or anything. Prognosis is good, though.

[Xvareon]

16th Timber, 105, Late Autumn

"What did you say?" Xvareon asked in disbelief. He was sitting in a chair inside one of the new 'Elite' houses he had ordered dug out specially for the more prodigious members of the fort. Let the commoners sleep in 2x2 cells, he had said. It was a two-room domicile with ample space for furniture and a separate bedroom in the corner. There were five more like it on that particular floor, with more being sited and dug out every week.
"We're out. Me and aussie have completely exhausted all the adamantine deposits within reach. All that's left is guarded by magma and demons. We've got bins full of strands in the stores that we're working with now, so we should be able to equip the current military, but..." Straw left it hanging and shrugged.
He had not even considered that possibility. It had seemed as though the adamantine stockpiles were full to bursting last he checked.
"You're certain there's no more?" he pressed.
"We found one more pillar... but very little of it is easily minable," she replied. "and that's already been dug out. The pillar is hollow; another one of those demon shafts."
She almost smiled as she recalled the moment. An exploratory shaft had been dug in search of more adamantine, and while it had looked promising at the time the entire thing was submerged in the magma sea; as a result she was only able to scrape a little off the top of the pillar. When she had attempted to dig further, she had found a familiar feature, and promptly closed it up with a floor of solid raw adamantine. She didn't even see any of the demons that time, and wondered if they had all gone home or something.
Xvareon sighed. "Very well... damn it... well, we'll just have to work with what we have th--"
"Not so fast," Straw snapped. "just because we've got whats within easy reach doesn't mean all our options are out."
"What are you talking about?" He shot back.
She shrugged. "Besides the fact that there might be more pillars? We've found two so far, we can just dig more exploratory shafts to look for the rest. But what I was really getting at was, if you're not using that big ol' magma sea..." she grinned.
"You don't mean..." he gasped. "are you crazy?! the Gods of FPS would--"
"I don't really care at this point," she said bluntly. "The demons are already draining our FPS enough. We get a much more long-term benefit this way; draining the magma sea into Hell will kill most of them, thus freeing ourselves up to take possession of all the adamantine. It'd be trivial to set up, all we'd need is fortifications to block the demons and one magma-safe floodgate hooked to a lever to turn it on and off."
Xvareon considered; it did have possibilities. And it was largely safe, except for the matter of carving a fortification into the side of the Hellshaft without the one doing it getting his arse burnt off by one of the demons.

"So what's to stop you from doing this?" Straw asked plainly.
"Not all those demons will be vulnerable to magma," he reminded her. "you realize that, don't you?"
She nodded. "That's what the crossbows are for. We should be able to just shoot downward and plug any of the bastards that's still breathing. Actually the magma mist this thing will create should do most of the damage..." she snickered.
Xvareon stood, stretching his neck. "Fine. Prepare a proper shaft; I'll see that you get the magma-safe floodgate." She smiled and extended a hand, and he took it in agreement. Straw then walked out the door, already thinking about the proper size and dimensions for the shaft they would need.

She was right. They needed all the adamantine they could possibly get now, and he knew that they would have to take risks for it at some point anyway. He was already beginning to see the greater wisdom of this, as if they could manage to deal with the demon horde entirely, they could safely grab every last piece of adamantine in the depths. He grinned; dealing with the magma sea for the rest wouldn't really be a problem after he cast the entire thing into obsidian by draining the cavern lakes into it. His ultimate goal was nearly complete.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Xvareon

24th Timber, 105, Late Autumn

I have never seen so much cheese in my life. 

The Dwarven caravan finally came today; it occurred to me then to look over the import agreement drafted by the previous overseer while Corai headed up to do the talking. The primary items of choice seemed to be cloth, leather, wood and food, including fine cheeses in every shape, size and taste imaginable. There were also a few bars of steel mixed in for good measure, and a few other odd items (a Llama? seriously?). We traded many, many bins of masterwork stone crafts and other things to them for this massive load of much-needed supplies. I also had Corai give them a large selection of our best trinkets to be taken back to the King himself, to show him Steelbeard is quite alive and producing quality goods. I imagine he'll be extremely happy to hear the news.

We had another of those strange moods a while ago, but he wasn't able to find his materials for the longest time... and now suddenly I hear he has, and he's now working at the Craftsdwarves' workshop near the refuse stockpile in a frenzy. He's taken two pieces of raw adamantine, two adamantine wafers, two bolts of cloth and some assorted rock crystals. Whatever comes out of this is certain to be of inestimable value. Also I discovered we have a lot more adamantine strands than I was lead to believe... around 130 to be exact. I guess we can shut down the extractors workshops for the time being. They can do hauling duty until we need them again; 130 wafers should be more than enough to finish equipping the Fortress.

We did have one stubble, though; a Goblin ambush consisting of ranged troops showed up -- thankfully far from the entrance -- and killed two cats. I have ordered everyone that values their lives inside and raised the bridge. The bastards quickly left after they blundered into a few randomly placed stone-fall traps and took broken limbs all around, but there's probably more around somewhere, so I don't want to bring our military anywhere close to them without full armor. What I'm probably going to end up doing is dropping the bridge and tempting the lot of them to come in to our nice, snug mass of cage traps. It would be an enormous coup to capture them because they are all using metallic bolts, something we distinctly lack so far. I'm probably going to have another forge built with that steel we bought just to hammer out some decent silver bolts.

[Xvareon]

Apologies; it's apparently going to take one more day before I can finish this up. I'm going to design a new defense system, and hopefully before the next ambush hits. Current one is an absolute mess. The Artifact was completed; it nearly DOUBLED our total created wealth. I'll tell you about it in next update.

[TokimiDwarfy]

Can't remember if I asked to be dwarfed but dangit this fort is pretty awesome so far any hammer dwarf will do. :3 Just get me one that uses one of the heaviest war hammers would be cool. :3 and female if possible.

[Crimson]

That was a lot. I'd just take the macedwarf (he or she).

[Xvareon]

Oh, want me to strike you off as a Marksdwarf, then?

[Teh_Duke]

Could I get a Turn and be dworfed?.

Any hunter would do.

[TokimiDwarfy]

Which one of that was us to? :3 Also can I write journals when I am dwarfed?

[aussieevil]

Which one of that was us to? :3 Also can I write journals when I am dwarfed?

Yes, Please do.