Late Autumn, 111, in Soapwashes.
Finally a combat death. The Duke was out hauling goblinite (well, technically, humanite) from a small siege that decided, unwisely to charge the new entrance. They were teased, I admit. The humans were dead or run off. Then an orc kidnapper appeared and was chased off. It was clearly a ruse because next an orc ambush popped off on the southeast side. When the guard (there are now two geared and trained pairs meant to get into the blood and guts, and another pair to drill for blood from above with their bladed (just in case) composite longbows and steeloak arrows) charged off to deal with that ambush, a second one spawned right on top of the Duke who was near the front gate. He ran, he did have some padded on chest, legs and feet, but not full coverage, but the orc standing next to him had a wicked, wicked bladed chain thing that might well have sliced through steel. He died way off to the west when he was dragged down before the guards could react. Revenge was swift but not terribly satisfactory.
And then a third ambush spawned. And was dealt with. No injuries in the military. Just one dead duke. At least the work on his tomb isn't wasted. His poetry recitations and readings of the combat reports will be missed.
Mostly Soapwashes has been buttoned up while moving and finishing the tower. It is done, aside from some building of research labs and such inside. There also a cemetery now. Most of the residents are visitors caught outside with a bad case of poor timing. Aside from that original baby, there are two others now from Soapwashes: on priest who went and dove into a webbed cage when no one was looking, then died of thirst since no one knew, and poor Incest Salvelight, a Soapwashes born and matured legendary woodworker wannabe whose delusions of grandeur led to delusions. (There was a small miscount on bones, and he ended up short one of three and didn't scream loud enough.)
Three new peons were also ordered up via town portal. Two went to the bow guard, the third is lugging stones for now. There is enough gold and silver around that importing new residents on demand is no issue. Most of the last eight years' increase in population has been from locally produced dwarflings though. Soapwashes stands at 42, with ten of those children and babies. Six are full-time military.
A titan showed up, but charged the human siege that was equipped with spears. Bad decision on the giant wasp's part. Another FB turned up in the first cavern, and died fairly quickly... somehow. Aside from the current rash of ambushes, mostly had to deal with more buzzard flocks, stray owls, and such. And some fire maidens and such as I figure out what leaves entry and what doesn't downstairs.
Yes, magma has been tapped and at least the smelting is going much better now. After a couple invaders (fortunately, one of the pairs was on station down there just in case) from below, some rethinking happened and the access to magma has been re-engineered. Now the process of adding magma-fueled forges and other buildings down there can proceed.
The library is complete, though the military section is expanding to allow more parallel classes. The whole militia has basic training in defense and spears. That means all but the dwarflings. They don't have any real experience though, just book larnin'.
The new entry and tower defenses:
The ramps up on the tower top are to the four shooting positions. There are three bridges to break up invaders into chunks, if they get that far. So far none have. The one weapon trap near the top bridge has knocked off the two that made it that far through the slade turret and arrows from above. When better equipped enemies come, more are apt to make it to the cage traps. If those fill, the melee fighters will meet them in the southwest barracks area. Unless there's a wild party to delay lever pulling, should keep things manageable. Fliers are a whole 'nuther matter, of course. The turrets have handled the minor stuff, with some help from the bow guards who are usually shooting at the archery targets.
The two lower (raised to the west) bridges are in the open position. When they "close" they drop over the up ramps so nothing can come up. The top one just retracts and drops anything on it.
The design works reasonably well, but has an issue or two still. The narrow gaps down between the up slopes present some access issues. Enemies that fall in there tend to get lost and just stand there. Not a huge issue as once the rest are run off the archers can find a spot to finish them off from above. I haven't managed to help the melee teams find anything in those gaps yet.
It's going out of the tower to harvest goblinite that is a problem still. I have some ideas to improve the range of the defenders so they have better overwatch the goblinite mining parties. Of course, some of those might result in some blue on blue issues. Webs are definitely two-edged. They are great for making things vulnerable, but they don't much care what things. Hmm, is there a rune for web immune? That might be a real help.
A peek at the developing area around the great hall:
Cemetery obvious on the right. Just to its left is the new hospital, which still waits its first patient. The doc is upset the duke didn't get dragged in injured. Dead is just not the same. Not that his body has been recovered yet. Hey, a trade caravan from home just rolled in! Priorities. Got to load this rag pile onto it.
And a look into the tower, a relatively complete floor:
