Sunset, 1st of Granite, 80 (early spring)
All day I’ve watched for trouble, but the only danger I spotted was a flock of incredibly large birds. They look like harmless seedeaters only crafted larger than life, much too large to eat any sort of seed I’ve ever seen. They appeared alive though, and whatever birds that big eat, it’s not dwarves or our supplies. They’ve left us alone and I cannot express how thankful I am.
We’ve survived our first day here. The sun’s setting, that flock still slowly migrating over the snowy fields. Workshops are up, essential needs are being made, and a plant’s been recovered from under the snow, some sort of odd ropy reed that seems somewhat like a pigtail, only less twisted and perhaps tolerant of bright light.
Midday, 26th of Malachite, 80 (mid summer)
We’ve managed to wrest a life from this twisted land.
It seems we’ve lost the undead horrors. Or mayhap they never existed, or were servants sent to drive us to our intended new home. The goddess of fate, Zutshosh, hides many strange things inside her beard.
The land is still twisted compared to the lands we knew. Almost all the wildlife is winged and either very small, such as flies, or very large, like the giant birds I’d watched our first day here. None of it has been hostile and some of it has been very beautiful. Some of it has been horrible though. Not all of the insects are small. Truly huge mosquitos and thrips, as well as thrips with the bodies of humans, that sort of monster often flies above these lands in large groups.
We are only partially hidden, and cannot fully conceal ourselves until we know if the dwarven caravans will be able to find us in fall when they travel. Once we know if they will come or not, then we can hide our presence more fully. But two migrants did stumble over our area and decide to stay. Disturbingly, they reported seeing the same sorts of monsters we had as we approached this area. Perhaps Zutshosh has guided us to some sacred spot, surrounded by but not entered by horrific monsters. That would make us some sort of chosen folk, methinks. Perhaps it will be possible to restore my family’s legend after all.
The land itself is far more rich than I’d feared. In addition to those ‘rope reeds’ that we found when we first came here, other surface foods have been gathered and are being domesticated. We enjoy mushy fishy-smelling berries, green seed-bespeckled berries that turn a rich red when ready for harvest, small pale-colored berries from bushes completely covered with thorns, and a sweet long grass, as well as the familiar plants that we brought seeds and spores of from Home.
The first generation of these new plants were grown above ground while special blocks with very thin slits were fashioned, wide enough for light but far too narrow for even a thin arrow to pass. Shallow pits were dug, then roofed over with these special blocks. Some light passes through, and the plants do grow in our pits, but it may not be possible to accustom them to grow in complete darkness. We need not fear being killed from above while tending them at least.
Our home is not much of a home as yet. Beds, tables, and chairs are just now being crafted, we’ve been sleeping in the dirt and eating where we stand. Our main living area’s carved from dirt, though there’s a wide and fine expanse of the most beautiful limestone below all the dirt, and a layer is slowly being carved through it. It pains me to see this stone be used to make blocks and other basic, crude materials, instead of the wonderful figurines that I could shape from it, but there is indeed a lot of fine stone. This place will be wonderful one day, with all this beautiful stone to work. And gems too we’ve found. And a shout’s just risen, someone has just struck gold!
There isn’t –supposed- to be gold here, right? I know we got a surprise aquifer, but DF hack wasn’t used to check for that, right? Cause yep yep, that’s gold I just found.
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Topic: Anyone up for a parallel fort playthrough? (Read 21196 times)