Dearest Stakud,
I have arrived safely at Cursecoppers, and I am sending this letter back with the trade caravan that just arrived. While the journey was long, it was no longer than any normal trade route with the other kingdoms, and though the land was harsh, it travelled quickly on our journey. Like any new outpost, Cursecoppers is rough around the edges, and still struggling to make it's mark on the land. But work is progressing quickly, and food and drink are plentiful.
But I hesitate to say we could make a life here, though...already the outpost is almost a year old, and the it has yet to make any more concessions to security than a wooden hatch. Already one of the dwarves who came here with me has died, murdered by a stinking kobold that followed the trade caravan to this place. I did not know her very well, and apparently no one else did either. But if a simple Kobold could strike down one of our own, deep inside the fortress, than for everyone's sakes we need to invest more in defense. I was trained as a guard back at the mountainhomes, and intend to volunteer in the outpost militia. It will be dangerous, but it will be worth it to have a solid suit of armor.
Your dearest wife,
Urist RuthoshkeskalWelcome back to Cursecoppers, land of the brave and home of the free. After bit of time fixing the absolutely embarrassing amount of typos in the previous post (including mistyping the name of the fortress in the topic title, oops) we can finally continue our tale.
With spring fast approaching, and with it our first ambushes, I get to work designating a simple outer wall and moat. On the left I'm digging pits for some outdoors cashcrops, not to mention more pastureland until I breach the caverns.
Meanwhile, I've designated space for new facilities, especially the guildhall and garrison. If I'm going to be swimming in sovereigns like a bearded Scrooge Mcduck, then having dwarves in guilds will be extremely useful. You might even say that we would have Guilds by association. With effort, we could even start a guilded age.
I'll stop now.
I send some stone baubles over to the trade caravan, and my broker, Meph, in hopes of scrounging some booze and food from them. More importantly, we need to address defense. I double our standing military (to two) and start saving money to get some proper metals for our as-yet nonexistant forge.
Wait a minute...I can get 500 shillings for 5 marble? Not bad...it adds up to less than wood, though, but at least I don't need to go outside to harvest it.
I'm a Cobalt fan myself. I like the color, mostly. The stuff is pretty expensive, but I only need to few bars to outfit my soldiers with basic equipment. Later on, I'll simply buy weapons and armor direct from the shop. Very expensive, but with a talented negotiator I should get high-quality equipment.
While getting the supplies together to outfit the new recruit, I send Oldark to bring home more snow leopards. All this running about after farinaceous felines has given him some results...he can actually catch them now. He bags four handily, supplying us with plenty of meat and leather.
I now have the world's most specialized militia.
A modest cemetery is dug out, and poor...what's his name...becomes the first dwarf to get an honored burial.
Farewell, sweet prince(ess?), we 'ardly knew ya.
Pending some more chairs and tables, the dining hall is complete. Now we can start abandoning the quarantine zone.
Wait, is it late winter already? Sheesh, I was hoping to have at least something interesting happen. Wait, what's that?
Gnolls. Not much of a challenge, but should give Oldark a good workout. SICK 'EM! Oldark chases 'em off, but not before a tailor got beat up pretty bad. And Oldark didn't even get the kill! The tailor did. By punching it's skull in, naturally.
If only there was something to take his frustration out on.
Ask, and you shalt be provided for.
This is for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, you spotted bastards!
Oldark decides to save the butcher some work.
YOU CAN'T RUN FOREVER!
Oh, wait, what's that?
Spring is here?
And so, with the sound of snow leopards running in terror, the year came to it's end. Aside from the above, we got the smelting industry online so we can start using all this copper that's floating about. All we need to get the metalworking industry going is an anvil. Fortunately, all we need to do is buy one with the money I've been saving up from marble and lumber sales...wait, whaddya mean you can't buy anvils? CURSES! On a side note, the potential epidemic seems not to have materialized.
Meph's, McTeelox's, and Sharpkris' quarters have been dug out, and we'll soon branch into research. I'm beginning to feel the stress of not having another trade license...we need to get Teduk's Fine Goods online as soon as possible if we're going to get magma forges before the end of next year.
I'll update the forumites dwarves in the first post come sunrise. Done.
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Topic: Cursecoppers: A MWDF .4d Merchant Fortress (Read 9273 times)