--Event Log: 28th Obsidian, 102--
Lucky leaned against a wall by the front door, behind which could be heard mumbling and muffled bangs. Mrs. Willsauce stood in front of him pointedly, her arms crossed. He looked back at her with disinterest.
"Lucky, we need to figure out where we're going. The building is progressing just fine, especially with everyone getting off their lazy asses. The tower needs longer-term goals."
"Yeah," Lucky responded. "Sure."
"I think we ought to start a real militia and train, because everyone knows where we are now. And we need to start digging out and smelting all that platinum. The best way for that is to dig down until we hit the caverns, and find the magma. Having a military force will be good for that, too. Then w-- hey. Are you listening to me? Hey!" Mrs. Willsauce snapped her fingers in front of Lucky's face. "Yeah, that's Tomato. Focus, you piece of beak dog shit, this is us living or dying."
Lucky reluctantly turned his head back to her. "Yeah, bitch, I got it. Real militia? Sure! Why don't you lead it? Hell, why don't you pick out some of the people with military experience and go drive that siege away? Gods know we need it!"
"Maybe I will," Mrs. Willsauce growled. "We can put those elf greaves to use."
"Fine."
"Fine!"
They turned their heads as a ragged cheer burst forth from the dining room. "What in slade is going on down there?" someone shouted from the roof.
"Happy new year, asshole!" someone shouted back.
Lucky sighed and they turned their attention away as the sounds of yet another fistfight broke out from down the hall. Mrs. Willsauce dropped her copper pick on the floor. "I'm going to take the bronze one," she said. "Then get Nako and some others and go out there."
"Oh yeah," Lucky said. "He told us to call him InZane now."
"What? Why?"
"It's his old army nickname, apparently. I'm not inclined to disagree with him in case he stabs me. Oh-- and one more thing." He pointed a finger at Mrs. Willsauce. "Tomato isn't in this squad of yours."
Mrs. Willsauce laughed.
"She's got too many things she needs to be doing," Lucky continued irritably. "And frankly I expect you all to get slaughtered, so I don't want to lose her too."
"Fine. Good. I'll get right on that." She turned and walked away, heading towards the stairs to get some armor and a new pick. Lucky shook his head and started to walk towards the dining room to break up the fight.
"At least it prepares them for combat," he mumbled.
--End Log--
--Journal of 'Lucky' Stothoaru, head explorer: 5th Granite, 103--
So it turns out Mrs. Willsauce found plenty of people to go on a suicidal death march against the dwarves outside.
Yeah, I wasn't really surprised to see the whole place absolutely coated in blood when I went outside. What's surprising is they actually won; two people died in the initial charge out the doors (one of the corpses was lying in the doorway, in fact, much to my chagrin) but they actually killed a bunch of them and drove them away.
From what I hear, one of the two remaining crawled out of sight, and they were all chasing one around when I came out. It was pretty fucking amusing, I have to admit. They broke his spine and cut off part of his arm, and he was just crawling desperately away, rolling out of the way of their strikes. Eventually InZane put him down, adding the first dwarf to his kill list. On the whole, not a bad result, though of course they all bitched and whined about losing two people. Strodno got to work on fixing them up, curse his heart. I ordered a few new shitty coffins commissioned and set up a barracks for them.
On the bright side, now we have dwarf prisoners! I assigned Arstruk to deal with them, since he has experience with a whip. And of course every bloody kid in the place is fucking
screaming about Ngokang and Stosbûb being dead. Kill me.
--15th Granite, 103--
Some kid came running up to me and showed me some figurine he'd made. Yeah, whatever, kid, I'll put it on my icebox.
--16th Granite, 103--
It kind of bothers me that all the hospital beds are covered in blood. Strodno says it builds character.
--3rd Slate, 103--
Why me?
Apparently our vast riches (ahaha) have attracted a nearby cyclops. Or maybe he stumbled upon us by accident. Either way he wants to kill us all so I'm sending Mrs. Willsauce and her crew out to deal with him, and building more coffins.
I think he's trying to get inside, but obviously I locked the doors.
For her bravery, I've decided to assign four war beak dogs and two war trolls to Mrs. Willsauce. Mainly because they shit in the dining room and that's disgusting. What she doesn't know is that most of them are cripples from all the fights by the well. Hahahaha!
--2nd Felsite, 103--
I didn't even know she was female.
Another migrant wave came. Another doctor (I set him up as Strodno's nurse. He has the same name! I will call him Strodno II). A
shitload of cannon fodder. An unbelievable amount of babies. We have over 100 goblins now. Almost all of them worthless dregs of society. I am going to go gently weep on the armor stockpile.
--12th Felsite, 103--
Oh
good. It turns out there was a whole force of dwarves hot on the heels of those blasted migrants. Let's get everyone inside and find out what Mrs. Willsauce and an impromptu force of drafted dumbasses can accomplish! There's only three squads of them mounted on rutherers and cave crocodiles, I'm sure they'll be
fine.Oops, I 'accidentally' locked a kid out there. Should've run inside faster.
--23rd Felsite, 103--
They're waiting a good distance away from the courtyard, although one squad is nearby.
I let the squads out into it to wait, although predictably a few of them got caught up in the excitement and rushed off to face the enemy.
Unsurprisingly, they dropped like flies. I watched from the roof as they scattered and were obliterated wholesale. The dwarves made sport of chasing them down.
I lost track of Mrs. Willsauce in the bloody chaos. I guess we will just keep the doors locked and hope they go away eventually. Everyone out there is dead.
Spring fucking sucks.
--7th Hematite, 103--
Sweet, marble! If we can find iron then that's pointing to some awesome steel weapons. I'm sure Mrs. Willsauce would be proud.
It turns out whenever someone dies, asshole kids take their bedrooms before anyone else can. It's actually kind of funny, though of course I told them all to fuck off.
--9th Hematite, 103--
The well finally dried up! Now we can re-install the lever. I don't envy the mechanic who goes down there to do it...
--15th Hematite, 103--
Maybe those dwarves can be useful. Yep, they tore it apart. It was a kid, we probably could have taken it.
--4th Malachite, 103--
I just found out our miracle worker was slain by someone named Amxu. I was going to have them executed, but then I found out they were dead. Even worse, their assailant was a bratty fucking kid. That's it. I am going to have all the children in this tower executed. We number
barely over twenty adult goblins in a tower of 78.
--5th Malachite, 103--
I wish those dwarves would go away.
--End Journal--
--Event Log: 23rd Galena, 103--
There is a distinct clicking sound. The front doors of the Cruel Void swing open, and several goblins step outside cautiously. Lucky is at the head of them, and he strolls carefully towards the corpse pile outside the front gate. He turns a few of them over, shaking his head, and kicks a few more. "I don't see her."
A cough. "Looking for me?"
All of them jerk their heads up. Another goblin, beaten, battered, bruised, and torn, heaves herself onto her knees on the slope.
Lucky shakes his head in astonishment. "How the Hell did you survive out here for months?"
"Well," Mrs. Willsauce croaks. "Everybody else was dead. I was fighting one of those bastards and I saw the rest of them coming. I put my pick through his heart and pulled him toward me. When he fell on top of me I stopped moving and let them think I was dead."
"They didn't check?"
"Nope. They rode off and I crawled away, and hid away from them in the forest. I'm really fucking hungry, by the way. And everything hurts."
"How many did we kill?"
"One."
"Great."
--End Log--
--Journal of 'Lucky' Stothoaru, Head Explorer: 12th Limestone, 103--
Snapdragon made something. Here's where I put it.
My revenge will be complete.
This culling has reduced our population to 30. It didn't get rid of all the fuckers, but it brought them down to a manageable level. And because we're goblins, no one cared. Time to mass-produce coffins!
--11th Sandstone, 103--
You've got to be kidding me. And they brought a shitton of kids. I need to figure out a way to drain out that chamber so it can be reused.
--1st Moonstone, 103--
Well, winter is here, and I'm almost done.
Good use of that, lad.
--16th Moonstone, 103--
We mostly traded for food with the caravan, but I nabbed a little raw green glass for my own uses. Also, we've got a few dwarven babies from the ones we have in captivity, so I think we'll start training those now.
Also, we finally got that drawbridge down and linked in case we need it. And the mass grave is going along splendidly.
--27th Opal, 103--
Apparently one of the children went insane. Good! The drowning room drainer will be ready soon. So will the mass grave; there are over 60 coffins in it.
--7th Obsidian, 103--
Complete! How glorious. I hold the life and death of anyone in this tower in my palm.
--16th Obsidian, 103--
Again?This time we can wait them out. We'll have to stall collecting our dead from last time, but... oh well. Let's not make any more. Except for children, I'm priming the chamber.
--18th Obsidian, 103--
Whoops!
Bafflingly, the dwarves slayed a tamed baby that we had left outside. I wonder if that is what this is all about? Rescuing their captured? Shortly thereafter they all gathered around it outside our walls. Most curious.
And with that, winter is over. What a year.
Surviving migrants this year:Strodno Dusmudstosbûb, Nurse
Snodub Ngusluostrasm, Clerk
Olngö Gôgustaslot, Woodcutter
Xuspgas Nakoslolspo, Mason
Tode Songrosmnu, Farmer
Bosa Urarnosmu, Farmer
Aslos Töboguksos, Leatherworker
Båx Urarkutsmob, Woodcutter
Atu Rusnutstsost, Dyer/Excessive Breeder
Estrur Snuzurar, Wax Worker/Excessive Breeder
Nguslu Snodubzukåx, Ranger
Stosbûb Olxosmunstu, Farmer
Zolak Stsostkutsmob, Fishery Worker
Nguslu Sostuksos, Mason
Almost 100 goblins to 30 in one year. I'm the best.