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Kill the king, but leave queen consort and relatives be.

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Murder the king and his wife, leave other members of their family alive.

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Kill'em all!

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[Grim Portent]

Mines on the way to being a bloodthirsty psychopath.

[Grimmash]

Picking up the save.

[Grimmash]

Chapter 3 – Chamberdrums, the Third Home

Entry 9 – 9th Granite, 127

Armok has smile upon me this day.  It seems I am headed for Chamberdrums.  Our “caravan” leaves tomorrow, although I very much doubt this is anything resembling the caravans I recall coming to my old fortress.  I doubt any fine works of craftsdwarfship will be going out to the penal colony masquerading as a trade outpost.  Time will tell, though.

Entry 10 – 8 Galena, 128

Five damn months of scraping through these damned mountains! For a hole in the rock, surrounded by damned goblins and apparently the undead!

We started with a fair number of fellow convicts, but ended with only 8 of the bastards.  Two in particular might be willing to help me in my plans.  RoughRogue, an engraver who was drugged and then dumped onto the cart when we left, seems alright, but may be addicted to some weed he keeps babbling on about.  Aseaheru claims he is a medic of some sort, but when I asked if there was anything that could be done to help RoughRogue through his sweats and ravings while looking for his “weed” Aseaheru just kept trying to get Rough to pray to Armok with him.  Odd for a medic.  They do some barbaric stuff, but this just seemed pointless.  Aseaheru swears this is based on the ancient teaching of the cult of Armok the Dwarfish Scientist. All I know is we had five dwarves fall ill on the trip and none of them made it…  Regardless, Rough seem pliant enough to suggestion, and Aseaheru has shown a promising ability to believe in longshots, so I think they can be made to see the bloody light I have in store for our king.
This fortress , despite the hellish location and cursed neighbors, is at least surviving, so the dwarves inside must know a thing or two…

[Grimmash]

Some notes, narrative update probably in the next day or so.

The spring migration wave had 54 migrants.  That survived getting in.  Everyone is dorfed.  Except Blenheim.  You were dorfed.

[Monitor Lisard]

From the diary of Monitor Lizard, expedition leader:
It's been a while now since I have left the position of the fortess Overseer. Grim seemed to do fine managing Chamberdrums, so I could focus on my responcitilities as a ringleader of our gang.

We've been attacked by goblins several times. They must have somehow known that we now have a certain amount of gold in our posessions. Funnily enough, we're sitting on a mountain of gold ore, but we don't have enough fuel to smelt it. At least, the golden ore is practically of the same value as the metal. We traded some goods made of native gold for steel weapons that were brought by the caravan. I saw Magni talk with one of the merchants. I'm pretty sure he's organising a new business.

There is something that makes me a bit nervous about our enterprise. Back in the Mountainhome, my team used to be a part of a bigger criminal organisation, known as the Quad. It consisted of four branches: "The Channel" was a smugglers' assosiation, "The Steel Bears" was a group of mercenaries and contract killers fighting for gold, "The Shrub" used to run drug deals, and "The Perfect Gem" was the one we were assosiated with - This part of the Quad was responcible for the most well-known robberies in the kingdom. Those clans were not coexisting peacefully - the struggled for power in dwarven society. Criminal wars were waged, the gangs set up each other, paying the fortress guard to ensure their loyalty. Back in my days Grim, Nuckles and I were recruited by the Perfect Gem. Daria was a contractor from the Steel Bears, and Magni used to be a smuggler from the Channel. Just before the heist, the Shrub decided to take the leading position. I am inclined to think that those f***s told the guards about our plans.

In other news, my crew made me a present! It's a weapon rack constructed of native gold by one of our masons, Cyatica. This beatiful piece of furniture is now standing in my room. I keep my crossbow there.

By the way, Grim's tour of duty had ended, so we chose a new Oveseer. His name is Grimmash. He's not a member of the Quad, but he seems to be aware of our plans and supports us.

OOC note: Here's a fun fact you guys may enjoy:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He's gotta be veeery careful about this....

[Grimmash]

Chapter 4 – When it rains, it pours…

1st Granite 130

I’ve been working the farms and doing some masonry work the past year and half, slowly working on convincing trustworthy dwarves to aid me in my plans.  I would count a few dwarves confidants.  I am worried that my faith in these dwarves was somewhat misplaced however.  First off, when I arrived, Aseaheru was made Chief Medical Dwarf, and then proceeded to declare that no hospital was needed, and forbid construction of one.  The overseers agreed to this folly and now we stand with no way to treat our wounded.  This is despite the fact that in a few short years the fortress has been attacked by goblin ambushes and necromancers!

Compounding this challenge is the fact that in all the planning to create a trade depot that doubles as a slaughterhouse, and deck the bedroom in gold, we have corpses INSIDE OUR WALLS WITH NECROMANCERS ON THE PROWL!  I know it’s been a hard few years, but Armok be damned!
Apparently tired of listening to me rant, Grim (not be confused with me, dear journal) decided to hand me the overseership rather abruptly last night.  Well, let us hope I can make sense of this fortress.  It may be too soon to start my plot, but hopefully I fix the places that need shoring up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I went to take inventory, and we only have ten bottles of wine!  At least we have some spare plump helmets, so I’ve ordered the brewers to get to it.  I don’t want anyone going sober on my watch.  Asea may decide to try his hand at surgery…
I’ve also started making plans to move the workshops out of our courtyards, and make a pit into which we can throw the dead so any bastard necromancers cannot see the stupid things to bring them back.

3rd Granite

My courtyard clearing has been interrupted by the remaining goblins macemen.  Time to send the archers to the tower to see if they can fix that problem.

12th Granite

No luck with the marksdwarves.  I’m thinking of testing the traps out front and giving our first squad a chance at those goblins…
Blenheim also took strangely, and stopped working.  I hope if he goes fey we can help him build whatever it is he needs.

16th Granite

Great news!  As part of my plan to dig out a below ground animal pen and tree farm in all this sand, we have struck hematite!  I’m not sure how much there is, but this will be a boon if I can find the caverns and start a tree farm safe from the ravages of the outside world.  I also saw Blenheim grab some gold ore and take it to a craftsdwarves shop.  So far he seems to be finding what he needs, but he is yelling for stacked cloth, and won’t use any of the pig tail fiber cloth on hand...  I hope the elves come soon enough for us to “aquire” some of the cloth he needs.

26th Granite

We hit the cavern!  I’m ordering a bridge built to seal off the massive cave.  Monitor was part of the crew that found it, and he said it looked nearly 40 levels deep.  Luckily the spot I found just has a vast cliff face and no way for anything without wings to get to the ledge, so we should have time to build the bridge. 

A small clan of tick men appeared outside.  Maybe they’ll run into the goblins…

22nd Slate

We’ve been digging, a lot.  Things are looking poor for Blenheim at this point.  The goblins are still outside, and no caravans seem to be coming.  Cyatica however made a wonderful door!

27th Slate

Some migrants showed up, a milker and two kids.  Apparently the Mountainhome is either daft or more wretched than I thought.   I have to choose, open the gate and tempt the goblins, or leave the children to fend for themselves…

2nd Felsite

I opened the gates, not being able to stand sentencing a family to death.  As we let the bridge open, a veritable horde of dwarves appeared on the horizon.  Some broke in fear upon seeing the goblins, and a brave few engaged. This horde of migrants laid into the goblins with a fury.   A farmer punched her hand through one of the goblins’ skulls!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The milker and his children fell, however.  My hesitation may have cost them their lives.  I will shoulder the blame for my indecision.  The king, however, sent those children here.  I will add their deaths to the long list of crimes the nobles of the Mountainhome have committed. 

It is time to figure out just how many dwarves have come to Chamberdrums today.  We have almost no booze, and little food.  This blessing of new hands may become a curse of empty bellies and sober stares.

4th Felsite

One of the migrants is throwing a tantrum. Apparently the milker was woman, and the mother five children, of whom the mother and two young dwarves fell to goblins before the rest of the dwarves arrived.  Blenheim is thirsty and miserable, and has gone mad.  He is wandering around, babbling at anyone who passes.

The migrants.  51 made it to Chamberdrums, not counting the three dead on our gates.  Of those dwarves, 22 are children.  Of a population of 84 dwarves, now, a full 30 are children or babies.  Chamberdrums is no longer a penal colony.  It is a dwarven summer camp.  I’ve heard some of the earlier migrants joking that we should implement a dwarven daycare system.  I’ve no idea what that means, but I may have to look into it.

I’m glad I ordered the underground farms started and had designated more rooms, we will need the space, the food, and the wood.  I’m also burning some of the wood to make charcoal so we can smelt some ore and make axes.  I need more miners.

15th Felsite

Some elves showed up to trade.  We can’t afford to trade much right now, and I haven’t even been able to think of what to make for the Dwarven caravan this autumn.  And some of the other former convicts have been pestering me to try out the trade depot’s secondary function.  It seems a good time to test it, and see how well our marksdwarves shoot. 

1st Hematite

The depot works wonderfully.  Although we ran out of bolts, the first militia squad was able to do some fine damage.  Our stocks of food and drink are greatly increased, and we have a small stockpile of wood now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I’ve taken the liberty of drafting enough dwarves to fill our two militia squads, and I’ve converted the melee squad to men only, save for Daria, who was adamant I let her stay.  I’ve also assigned most of the migrants to work at anything that comes up, as there are far too many dwarves.  Summer is here, hopefully we avoid any nasty sieges while I get the food and housing situation sorted out.
Maybe by the end of summer I can begin implementing the plan… 

I've included some sketches of the additions to the fort:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New space for farms and pasture.  Notice all that hematite?  We will have weapons, and wood.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are three stacked floors like this.  We also found more gold while digging.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Space for stockpiles and workshops.  There is a large aquifer, so we dug down a bit.

[/i]

[4maskwolf]

Did I get any kills? I'm not actually obsessed with my dwarf getting kills, but it makes it easier to write the updates.

[Grimmash]

You didn't.  So far your kill list is one zombie horse and one zombie human.  We have no bolts, and currently no good way to get more until the tree farm gets going.

[4maskwolf]

From the diary of Maskwolf:
12 Granite
Grim stepped down at the beginning of the year (good riddance for bad trash) and appointed a successor, a dwarf known as Grimmash. Not sure who this guy is, could have sworn I'd never seem him before. Whatever. As soon as I heard of the change, I asked him about the archery range, only to be told there were no bolts. No bolts! DAMN YOU GRIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Hematite
Well, some elves showed up recently, and we would have shot them to pieces (the dogs deserve no less) but oh right, NO BOLTS! Grimmash had better get on that soon or he may be the second one with a bolt through his skull.  Speaking of which, I need to study Grim's habits, plan my time to strike.

[Grimmash]

Summer - Part 1

17th Hematite

I'm not sure what to do, journal.  The migrants were bad enough, trying to sort everyone out.  Grim has been giving me the evil eye, ever since we ran out of bolts.  I was trying to make more, how was I to know one of the old overseers had an order buried in the stockpiles that said our craftdswarves could only use raw gold?  Oh well, I have fixed that.  He will have to make do until the carvers have had some time.  Not that it really matters.

A child has gone mad, the sibling of the other dead children.  Blenheim finally died of thirst, poor bastard.  And Maskwolf has been possessed.  I order a leatherworks built for him, and that seemed to do the trick.  I was following him around, checking to see that we had all that he needed, when I stopped to look out over the bridge.

I thought madness, suspicion, depression, hordes of children, goblins, starvation, sobriety and necromancers were pretty much as low as it could get.  I was wrong.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

OOC:  This will be interesting. He webs.  He can step down into our fort in a number of places.  All of the bridges above ground are retracting, so in theory he can walk into the courtyard from above, then down into the trade depot, and straight into the barracks.  My first thought is to wall off everything for now, then try and build some sort of pit to trap it.  That, or hope a siege comes along.  Goddam migrants.

[FireCrazy]

OOC note: Here's a fun fact you guys may enjoy:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He's gotta be veeery careful about this....

I wonder who.. Relationships of the miner FireCr- oh.

[4maskwolf]

Mask paced her room, muttering to herself
"There's got to be something, some way to catch Grim by himself, some way to trap him. I must..."
A smile creeps over her face,
"I must BUILD something. That's it! It's the solution!"
She leaped to her feet, off to find a leather working facility.

[Grim Portent]

Knew I'd forgotten something with the gold stuff, yeah I forgot to unlink the gold stockpile after I was done making shiny stuff. Also it's maskwolf whose been giving you evils, my dwarf doesn't mind if we're out of bolts.

[Grimmash]

Oops.  This is my first time trying to write for a succession game, and it is a lot harder to keep the out of game plots straight along with the stuff going on in game than i thought:).  I need to reread some of the journals to see who and what i can try to get into the next update.

It may be a day or two before the next update.  I have plans tonight, and i want to do a few short tests on a copy of the save to make sure i don't accidentally the fortress so soon.  I've never had a titan show before, and we have at least 3, maybe 4 or 5 entrances, all of which are only blocked via doors, or only vertical space for the guard tower.  I'm not sure if that thing can fly.  It has feathers, but i forgot to check for actual wings.  If it paths straight to the fort, i have to hope we can build walls fast enough to buy some time.

[Grim Portent]

Well let's see, we have the tower, but that should be safe unless it can fly, there's the main entrance which it can probably stroll right through, and there's the depot which I think it might be able to step into the fort from.