Chapter 1 : A new Fortress is born
Uvash climbed atop the mountain, leaving behind his 6 felloew dwarfes, to get a better view of his current surroundings. To the north the extensions of a sparse snowcovered forest reached straight up to the beginnings of the mountain amidst it a small pond, to the south a smooth small plateu raised among the flattenings spurs of the mountain, to the east there was nothing but ever larger mountains. Uvash sighed at the prospect ofhis current situation; It had been fifty days and as many nights until they reached this point and frankly they could no lnger go on. Not only did their supports run low but also did every muscle in their small bodies hurt from marching that long. Eventually, after what Uvash seemed to be a hour, his fellow dwarfes cought up to him, behind them rustling along their wagon.
One of the other dwarves, Fikod to be more precise, a miner who seems to be as cold as the stone he mines, layed his hand upon Uvash's shoulder, a gesture of empathy to show that he was not alone. He, rather all of them did understand in what situation they were in. In the middle of a hostile terretory with barely any food left. Again, Uvash sighed, before he turned around, wiping off Fikod's hand. He looked downupon the other dwarfes - not that he was arrogant or anything, he simply stood on a slight evalation - searching each one's eye contact before speaking.
"It has been oh so many days and oh so many nights since we embarked from our mountainhomes" The other dwarfes mumbled in agreement.
"I am tired and I can see so are all of you. Carefully, the dwarfes inspected one another. The signs of Fatigue was among all of them - heavy rings beneath the eyes, an uncombed beard and to wrst of all, they looked as they sobered up.
"So I say to you, let us not travel further south. Let us remain here and start our encampment where we stand.""But what about the queen's plans?" One among them asked. For the sake of not creating a grudge against said dwarf his name will remain anonym.
"The further we travel south the sooner death will await us. I for once do not wish to join Armok in his eternal halls just yet." Uvash spoke in a heavy yet exhausted tone.
"The queen's far away and so are his judges and punishments. I say, let us stay here! Who's with me?""I am." He heard 5 times. Well, "I am" or something rather similar in dwarfish, an "Aye" might possibly a better translation. After a short moment of hesitation, the dwarf who proclaimed doubts agreed as well.
"But..how do we name it?" asked one among the dwarfes. All looked at him like he spoke something rather silly.
"Hrm" made one dwarf, anther scratched his beard. One of them even started drooling. It took several minutes until Uvash had the great insight and spoke
"Let's ... err ... call it. Hm. We all like doors, don't we?" The other dwarfes shared looks as if they did not know what to do. Eventually, one of them nodded, which caused a flood of additional grunts and nods of agreement.
"Well then, we call it "Door".""What kind of fortress is called just "Door"?"Again the dwarf who shall remain anonymous raised his voice.
"Fine, then you think of a name." Harshly Uvash answered.
"Err ... uhm ... " Uvash lifted his headto look down on the dwarf who shall remain anonymous and smiled a smile of schadenfreude.
"I ... like glazing! Yeah! And a glazing door is the best kind of door because it is made out of metal!" In various ways the other dwarfes showed their approval.
"Very well then" Uvash said
"Glazedoors it is. Now let's get drunk!" Thus, a new fortress was born.
1st Granite, 251 after Urist IVNow the seven of them just kinda stood there, looking at each other kinda perplexed. Not one of them had ever founded a fortress, so said confusion was kinda understandable. How does one, no, seven dwarfes start a camp that shall grow into a huge mighty fortress? The seven started mumbling at one another. None was sure what to do next. Until Uvash, annoyed by the constant whispering and squadling, spoke up
"We need lumber. Logem, you can use an axe, can't you?" "Aye" was the short answer.
"There are trees down the hill. Get going." Grumbling and cursing, Logem went on his way down the mountain, draging his axe behind him.
"If we had some soil I could plant us some mushrooms." Zefon, a fellow member of the farmers guild suggested. Without a word of command the two miners of their little track firmly gripped their picks and wordlessly went down the mountain to look for soil.
That left 4 out of 3 dwarfes who still just stood there with their thoughts back at their warm and friendly mountainhome.
10th Granite, 251 after Urist IVZefon had already planted the first seeds whilst the ther 4 dwarves squaddled and talked about what great plants they had for the fortress.
"Let's build it in the skies!" "No, you idiot, let's build a mighty tower made out of glass!" Uvash shok his head and breathed in heavily before letting go of a long sigh. Already he was beginning to regret that he did not flee from this treck whilst he still had a chance. But alas, now it was too late and he had to endure the meaningless squabble of his fellow dwarfes.
"No" aggrivated by the pointless mumbling he almost shouted
"We need to secure the basics first! A farm, then a bedroom and a meeting hall then we can spend our time in meaningless squabbling!"Just as he finished the two miners returned from the duty to dig a farm. Uvash, who had rested for 10 days and felt as good as new spoke with a firm and commanding voice
"You two, dig us out secure lodgings. You, Monom, make us some beds from the wood Logem cut."
"And what will you do whilst we do all the hard work,eh?" one of the miners asked sharply.
"I'll make us some mechanism."6th Felsite, 251 after Urist IVConstant movement had taken over the otherwise so slothlike dwarves. Things needed to be done; Mining,Carrying food inside;Installing beds;first crops needed to be plugged. Alot for just the seven of them. But on the upside after a long and hard day an even harder and backache inducing bed awaited them - just like the dwarfs loved their beds. They almost had finished securing their lodging, a first step onto crafing a great and mighty fortress out of pretty much nothing.
1st of Hematite, 251 after Urist IV"This will do!" Uvash proclaimed. Proudly he looked upon the other 4 dwarfes - not that it matters much however one of them was eating a mushroom and hence was not listening to Uvash at all whom this did not bother - and nodded to each one of them once.
"To a mighty stronghold" He cheered and three of the four joined him in his celebrations. Today plenty of booze would flow.
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That does it for spring. Summer shall follow tomorrow and mayhaps something might happen!(Even though I somewhat doubt that considering this is the fortress's first year)
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Topic: [DF 34.11]Fikodtun, Land of the Loving (Read 10979 times)