Diary of Urist McKiwi III, Dashing Swordsdwarf.
18th Slate
Meng and I finalised the design today. Our king took a look a while back and approved of it, but it needed some tweaks for security before I could give my personal approval. Udib's been rather quiet of late, but I think he approves of it as well. No news is good news on the McDuck front, and the fortress should be a lot more secure if we can get 'The Project' finished. Meng's.....oddities....seem to be fairly stable. And this new defensive ring should be invaluable if Udib's ideas about McDuck prove valid.
Builders and carpenters are swarming around the fortress, hammering and sawing. Ramps and pillars go up to support the new walkways and provide access for the builders, and the old siege batteries are in the process of being dismantled. I've been doing my own part too with the masonry. Think I'll try my hand at carpentry as well. It can't be too hard, can it? Once I've had a drink, I'll go talk to one of Meng's foredwarves. While it's not as dashing as a good victory in battle, this whole enterprise does have a certain thing to it.
Odd that young Meng would come up with an idea like this out of nowhere though. I wonder what drove him to design it?
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Writings of "Mad" Meng Rirnolas, 20th Slate, 1098
Commander McKiwi's feedback has resulted in a few changes, but the overall design is sound. I spend all day thinking about the project....it keeps the thing away. The bees will keep it away in time, but for now I have to stay thinking about the project to keep it away. It's angry, but I won't listen to it. I must be quick.
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I have hinted previously about what exactly is wrong with Meng, but I've decided to get progressively less subtle until it gets obvious, then keep going until I've had some fun with it. I'm looking forward to seeing how I develop this guy. He's only 13 years old, but has somehow survived to adulthood here in Moltenchannels. Given he was born here, aged magically by CaptainArchmage II, and has lived his entire life in this wonderful locale......the possible range of causes for the not-quite-madness is actually rather wide.
In other news, a mason has been possessed, thus robbing me of another worker for no major gain, and I've designated a lot more construction. Now I just have to keep an eye on things and add more designations (and mess with labor settings) as time goes by. I'm currently almost at the end of Slate. I've recruited some more soldiers as well, just to keep the training going effectively.
The hardest bit of the building process is going to be retrieving the bodies from the 1095 sieges from the NW wall of the eastern compound. I'd left them up there after the siege by accident after the goblin army was lured up there by stray goats and shot up by the military. They have to come down for safety reasons...a necromancer arriving at the wrong time could cause interesting (read: "Fun") problems for the builders. Since McKiwi's Tower is right next to it, I'll station marksdwarves there when the time comes.