Gird your loins, kids! It's the final update for Ghoullights, year 2!
When we last saw Ghoullights, it was mid-autumn. We have a population of 53 dwarves and 25 animals. We’ve hit Adamantine, have a massive underground forest for tree farming and grazing, and have a basic, sustainable fortress with ample supplies.
That being said, we have no military, traps, or defenses save the wall surrounding the fortress’ entrance. Given the fact that Ghoullights is located in a haunted jungle, this is a very grave matter. Thanks to caravans, traders, and our metal industry, we could easy forge weapons for a military, but we have few weapons actually ready for use, and nobody is skilled with the few weapons we do have.
And now we have a horde of zombie badgers standing between Ghoullights and the next migrant wave.
Oh, and we’ve completely forgotten about the spider silk thing. I should fix that.
Well, let’s gets started.
27th Sandstone…come to think of it, we did sorta have a military. Back in spring, while we were channeling out an artificial lake, one of the miners fell in and drowned, raising as a zombie. Most of the miners were drafted into the “Eviscerators of Labor” to deal with him. While inactive, the Eviscerators were never officially disbanded. We’re gonna have to replace some of them, though. We can’t send all the miners out to their deaths, now can we?
The Commissar is being drafted as the Militia Commander. I considered drafting the Halfling as well, since she’s the dwarf in Ghoullights with the most hammer experience, but I resisted. We don’t have any hammers, anyway. Maybe I should make her the hammerer?
Of course, the Commissar is currently busy at a party at a tower-cap table. May take a while before we get any re-killing done.
The army is picking up their equipment, and the gate is lowered, and the fisherdwarves naturally sprint toward the undead-pearl-ridden river, like they always do. Hopefully, we won’t even need the Eviscerators today.
We’ve got a Farmer, two fisherdwarves, two children, a miner, three rangers, two poults of opposite gender, a pump operator with some combat experience, a fish dissector, and a mechanic. Our population is now 65, and no trouble from the undead badger horde. I swear, undead porcupines and badgers should be our mascot, they’re everywhere.
And now I have a military to provide barracks for. Now get those fisherdwarves back inside!
5th Timber, Late AutumnOrdering some iron weapons to be made. I’d melt down our silver spears and swords so I could turn them into something useful, but our smelter is cluttered. Digging out the barracks is in the process, and we need training weapons and furniture for the military.
14th TimberA caravan and outpost liaison from Udin Nir has arrived! Oh, joy!
Their wagons have bypassed your inaccessible site. Oh, crap. Lower the gates! Those mussel shells and badgers could be a problem, so I’m positioning the Eviscerators at the depot as backup. Maybe they can get combat experience with the caravan bodyguards watching their backs.
Are we out of silver balls? Let’s sell some of our fifty-something pickaxes.
15th TimberInvasion of the pearls and shells! As the caravan made its way inside, the mussel parts rushed the fortress in a blind rage, prepared to slaughter all within! Until our military stepped on them. The bodyguards didn’t get in on the action.
But it didn’t stop there. I completely forgot about the elephants. One was just outside. It followed the mussel parts toward the depot. The militia goes out to meet it. Sabretache was the first to fall, gored in the brain before he could defend himself.
Now his corpse fights against his own men, swinging his comrades around by the arm. It doesn’t take long for the militia to fall, their corpses rising to aid the elephants and the mussel shells. As they make their way for the fort, the inner gate is sealed, leaving the merchants and their bodyguards to fend for themselves. The lone elephant corpse enters the depot, and single-handedly wipes out the caravan. We now have our own undead militia, the undead caravan, the undead elephants, and the undead mussel parts all chilling on our doorstep.
We have several tantrums in the works already. Hopefully this won’t go full spiral.
The entire militia is dead, save Degel Althkin and Iton Orrunthob. They were off collecting their equipment when the elephant hit.
Crap, now I have to think of a way to take care of these freaking zombies…
27th TimberTrap labyrinth is underway, glass furnace and metalworks are working non-stop.
Iton Orrunthob, Warrior-Miner and one of the two survivors from the Eviscerators has been stricken by melancholy. In one week. I’ve never seen a dwarf break so fast.
9th MoonstoneIt’s winter, my time as overseer is coming to a close soon. Seems to me like I made a mess of things.
Three miners have given birth. A boy and two girls. Three births in two weeks? Wow. Congrats and whatnot.
Our drink supply is running low, ordering more booze. Our wood supply has ran out as well, so we’re harvesting what little we can from the tree farm.
Our clerk is missing. Maybe he was caught outside when the horde arrived?
21st Moonstone“A diplomat has left unhappy.”
Durr hurr. He can’t leave, he’s sealed inside with us. In fact, so is one of the merchants and their pack camel.
A farmer has gone stark raving mad. Crap. Looks like four deaths hit the fortress really hard.
And a glassmaker has given birth to a boy.
10th OpalBarracks are finished, and we’ve put together another military. They’re sparring as we speak.
We also built a jail. Just in case.
Our melancholy miner is starving himself to death in the labyrinth. That isn’t good. If he dies up there, there’s a good chance his body won’t be found until it reanimates.
I’m building another atom smasher. Preferably in a location where it won’t be so easy to accidentally get crushed under. The one at the entrance is too close to where dwarves go to mingle, so someone could easily get accidentally crushed.
14th OpalA mechanic has taken to a fey mood and claimed a mechanics workshop. Gee, what could he possibly be building?
I’m building the new atom smasher in the main staircase. Since he’s most likely building mechanisms, I can use them in the lever next to the main staircase for all to see!
20th OpalShock and awe, he made a mechanism. Worth 57600*
And yet another childbirth. Our marksdwarf-miner gave birth to a girl.
…waitaminute, the marksdwarf-miner is our militia commander! She gave birth in the middle of a combat drill!
26th OpalThe melancholy miner made it to the lower fort before dying of thirst. We managed to drag the corpse to the atom smasher before it reanimated.
Yet another childbirth! Iden Berarzes, a ranger, gave birth to a boy.
With the miners death, I just realized that I haven’t been engraving slabs for the previous militia. I should get on that.
10th ObsidianThe end of my term as overseer draws to a close. Things that I wanted to get done aren’t near completion. And we’ve got a massive zombie problem on our doorstep. I don’t think I did a good job in my career. Leading clearly isn’t my thing.
Oh, the engraver gave birth to a girl. As did the glassmaker. And the animal trainer had a boy. They immediately start a party to celebrate.
20th Obsidian
WHAT!?
HOW!?
Theres a dwarf skeleton running around the tree farm!? How!?
I don’t understand! How could any dwarf have died without me noticing, then rot away to a skeleton without being found? It must’ve been that farmer that went mad, but…how did she rot to a skeleton in one month? And how did she die without having her corpse found?
Eviscerators! Attack!
She appeared in the pasture, scaring away all critters except our single dog and the cobra, which attack on sight. The snake gets killed easily, but the dog puts up a fight. The militia arrive quickly and re-kill the skeleton with relative ease. One recruit has a torn open arm, but that’s the only injury. The dogs heart and upper body are torn apart, so she’s put in the atom smasher before she dies.
A ghostly merchant decides this is a good time to rise and haunt Ghoullights, and a macedwarf follows suit. We need to get to work on those slabs.
And a fishery worker gave birth to a boy.
1st GraniteWell, here we are. Turns out leading just isn’t my thing. I’ll stick to digging holes. I like digging holes. It’s up to the next overseer to deal with the mess I left them.
And here's the fortress as is.
And that’s pretty much it. Atom smasher is to your left, adamantine vein is down there, the save is through
here, trap labyrinth is through here, there’s the outpost liaison, trying to find a way out, and the forgotten beast is still chilling in the third cave layer. Good luck, have fun, and do a good job of cleaning up my mess! I’ve got holes to dig!
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Topic: Ghoullights Chapter III: The Lamentation of Dyes [Succession] (Read 41212 times)