Imaginary Journal of Catalyst, Dwarven Baby16th Opal, 506When last I left you, it looked like Mego was trapped to be drowned in a failed attempt to dig a dining room. Well, I suppose I shouldn't have worried you. Though he wasn't a miner himself, one of the miners, in their haste to get away, dropped their pick - and Mego was able to dig a staircase upward and save himself. There are still 11 of us!
The sounds of digging continue below as ceaselessly as the pitter-patter of fetid-muck raindrops outside, and the petulant moaning of Fernnourished the Ogress Corpse behind the wall now blocking our backdoor. The miners have to take constant care over the nearby aquifer, but we seem to have all learned our lesson from the earlier accident.
More nefarious mist was spotted (don't ask me how), this time coming from the southeast. Even MORE directions migrants can't make it in alive, HOORAY.
What's this? What....
Even with almost 20 new burials, the ghosts are still active.
Then a Kobold thief appears! ... Outside? I wonder who saw it.
Oh... oh that's not pretty. Poor cutebold.
That's it. Engraving some slabs pronto. I've had it with these motherfucking ghosts in this motherfucking fort. Good night and good riddance.
The miners are really gaining some skill... and by Armok is there a lot of mining to do! We've laid out plans for a fort much bigger than our current population, so there's a lot more designated than we're actually digging yet. Workshops, catacombs, a dining room with food storage and miasma-locked animal processing area. And we're starting to dig deeper now so... wait what?
Praise the miners!
Just a little deeper we found the magma sea. While in the process of constructing some magma forges, we had both a caravan and another kobold thief arrive. The thief only took one blow from Fernnourished this time, sock to the head and dead. We're looking into a safe way of trading with the merchants, but it is a bit of a long shot. We'll see how that works out next time...
Or not. As soon as I unlocked that hatch a ton of zombies charged. I don't know how they could have seen us... must have smelled our stench. It was locked again quickly. I may build a wall around it. There's little hope of building a successful depot at this point. We have a few ideas, but we simply don't have time. Some other overseer can do that, perhaps. Trade would be nice but we're surprisingly self-sufficient at the moment, actually.
Now we are Twelve.
So, Mommy and I will keep crawling around the fort for now. I should be able to report back one final time soon.
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So, uh... guys... don't hate me... I think I made this fort functional, sane, and efficiently designed. Can you ever forgive me?One more update (just a few months to go) in the next few days. Not tomorrow, but perhaps the next day.