[[OOC:Glad to see you're back and that you enjoyed the shenanigans we've been up to, Woobmonkey. We now return you to your regularly scheduled sucession fortress.]]
15th Felsite: Frustrated at the population running outside to get goblin clothes, I forbid them to touch any more siege remnants.
16th Felsite: An Elven caravan has arrived. I've decided to let them into the old Depot, in case of ambushes. Plus, there are tons of trade goods just lying around in the Depot, so that cuts down on hauling a lot. Blade Weed Pudding, our Mayor, Manager and Broker has gone out to deal with the elves. Peacefully, of course.
18th Felsite: Turns out most of the "trade goods" in the Depot were wooden medical supplies we bought from the elves. I've had to dispatch a bunch of Artisans and some of Construction to haul trade goods from the nearby stockpile to the Depot. We have stoneware crafts overflowing from every metaphorical orifice and then some.
19th Felsite: The fort is running low on clothes. Maybe we can buy some from the elves[Or at least some more cloth]. I'm hesitant to get the non-Citadel workshops making anything though, since that means more things to relocate to the Citadel, and the Citadel workshop's basement stockpiles still aren't finished, so I can't use those yet.
20th Felsite: Everything has been hauled to the Depot, so Blade Weed Pudding has started trading. He bought some overpriced clothes, some thread, some rope reed seeds and a tiny bit of fire clay. He offloaded several thousand more in value then he received. He says it encourages them to bring a lot more next time. Plus, its a good way to get rid of all those excess crafts.
21st Felsite: I've assigned the miners to dig some HUGE food cellars underneath the future dining hall. After they're done the basement stockpiles, of course. They'll need to contain ALL the food we have in the fort. And then the excess we produce later. The secretive dwarf has started his construction. He's so far collected: A boulder of Andesite, 14 Horse bones, some rough onyx opals, two pines logs, a pair of larch logs and some bars of fine pewter. It'd better be impressive.
22nd Felsite: I've implemented some of the basement stockpiles. Its going to take a little while to get all that stuff over to the Citadel, but once they do, I'll be able to start production on site.
24th Felsite: Construction of the basement stockpiles is complete. The miners have started work on the enormous food cellars.
25th Felsite: Most of the fortress is drinking right now. Or rather, ON THEIR WAY to get a drink. We seriously need consolidation. Moving completely into the Citadel is simply the only way at this point.
27th Felsite: Then ENTIRE NON-ARTISAN POPULATION of Charmcrafted is hauling things to the basement stockpiles right now. Progress on the further construction of the Citadel has stalled to a halt.
28th Felsite: The secretive dwarf is done making his artifact. Its an andesite puzzlebox. It has an image of an outpost liason being removed from office on it. I've requisitioned it for myself. I'm the person best suited to getting it open. In other artifact news, the Forgotten Beast trap has captured the second Forgotten Beast who was loafing around in the old bedrooms. The artifact itself is very interesting. It has an engraving of a Forgotten Beast on it and its purpose is to trap Forgotten Beasts. Going over the written descriptions of artifacts in the records, I've come to a few conclusions about their nature:
#1: They are divided into three categories:
-Secrets sent by the gods[Books or slabs, generally] I don't know much about them, seeing as Charmcrafted doesn't have one and necromancers are secretive.
-Masterpiece artifacts[Those with no pictures and low value compared to the others]. Not sure how significant these are, but I don't believe they're that powerful or useful.
-Prophetic Artifacts[Those with images and usually high values]. These seem to be the most important.
#2 Upon examination, the Prophetic Artifacts seem to relate to a few things:
- Other artifacts. Closer examination of the records seems to indicate that some of the images predate the creation of the other artifact. This is the first clue that the Prophetic Artifacts foretell/create the future. The most mentioned artifact by far is Tombsconfined the crown, which was claimed by King Arcvasti once he arrived here, has raw adamantine in it and references the founding of Charmcrafted.
- Events. Most prominent are: The ascension of King Arcvasti to the throne at the beginning of time, King Arcvasti's death, the foundation of Charmcrafted, various victories by the goblins, various accomplishments of members of Charmcrafted and the ascension of a necromancer to the position of general at the beginning of time[I'll need to take a closer look at that last one. Something doesn't quite seem right about that event]
- More vague images generally seem to be less important and are often just decoration. They CAN be important though, as seen by the steel floodgate's purpose[Trapping Forgotten Beasts], being represented by an image of one. I should mount a more thorough inquiry into these types of images when I have more leisure time.
#3 Their function appears related to their meaning. Tombsconfined, a crown, has symbols of triumph, The Geared Trade, a steel floodgate, has symbols related to imprisonment and warding, both Relievewax and Dishattics the Flimsy Goals, a bone weapon and helm respectively, have symbols of defeat and violence and the latest one, a puzzlebox, has a symbol of resignation on it. I suspect that last one's meaning will become more clear when I get it open.
Analysing the above lead me to a few more conclusions:
#1: Charmcrafted is cosmically important in some way.
#2: King Arcvasti's crowning and death mark the start and end of an era.
#3: Some ancient necromancer general is VERY important, both to Charmcrafted and the world in general.
#4: Artifacts have a purpose, and know that purpose themselves.
#5: The goblins are, and will continue to be, a major threat to Charmcrafted and the world in general[This one isn't particularly shocking].
and finally, #6: I am meant to discover something relating to resignation at a later date in the puzzlebox.
29th Felsite: Work on the Citadel stockpiles continues, and its ground everything else to a halt. I've also ordered both Forgotten Beasts locked away in the trap. I'll probably breach the Goblin Training and Execution Area later, once I can spare the dwarf power. Its actually decently close to the Citadel, so that won't be ALL that much of a problem. Actually, given the danger inherent in training goblins into super-soldies, distance might be a plus. Plus, its got a lot of captives in it which will be very useful if I ever get King Arcvasti's old project working. It SEEMS like its safe from any IMMEDITE Forgotten Beast incursions, and a couple well placed floor hatches should remove that danger altogether.
1st Hematite: It is now Summer. Human season. They might have more useful goods then the elves did. Or they might attack us. It seems that the caravans they sent here don't have the best track record for coming back...
2nd Hematite: I've devised a completely safe way to breach the Goblin Training and Execution Area with no risk of a Forgotten Beast getting into the fort. I have the miners dig a down stairs, then a tunnel to the other side of the wall, then I put a floor hatch on top of the down stairs, then I dig some up stairs on the far end of the tunnel. End result is that any potential Forgotten Beasts won't be able to break the floor hatch from underneath and should be catch-able by the Forgotten Beast trap.
3rd Hematite: Most of the non-stone basement stockpiles are all stocked up by now. The food basement stockpiles haven't been started yet, mostly because of the incompleteness of the giant underground food cellars underneath the Citadel. Once those are finished and full to the brim, we can start sorting the food into different categories and such.
4th Hematite: I've decided on some new labels for different areas. The labyranthine "old fort", containing most everything, is now "The Ticking Catacombs". Considering most of it is old graveyards and filled with death and its riddled with old mechanisms, traps and machines, I think its an apt description. The "Goblin Training and Execution Area" should be renamed "Gobtech Center", which flows much more easily.
5th Hematite: The Gobtech Center has been breached. No immediate dangers looms, so I've sent in Construction to put some floor hatches in, to stop any Forgotten Beasts that might find their way into the system.
We actually have a DWARF in a cage. It looks to be a caravan guard. Not entirely sure what to do with that one.
6th Hematite: I've FINALLY given the orders to put in some training spears. I've also put in a blood thorn one at the bottom of an exactly calibrated pit. For science. If my intuition is off and this new addition goes wrong, all the traps in the world won't save us.
8th Hematite: We're all out of steel bars. They've all been turned into giant axe blades. I've also got our bowyer working on some more crossbows, marking the first job to be given inside the new Citadel compound.
9th Hematite: I order a dog dropped down the Gobtech Death Shaft. For Science.
10th Hematite: Hauling has finally died down enough to resume construction of the Citadel. I am also assured by our crack animal training squad that we are now quite knowledgeable cave crocodile trainers. Not sure how useful that'll be, since the current batch we have are all dwarf-hostile and must be kept either caged or locked up at all times. They're also trap-immune, they could spell disaster if they got loose. Best use for them would be to breed them and tame their offspring. But thats a VERY long-term goal.
11th Hematite: I've started hooking up the needed connections for Gobtech. It'll probably take a while.
12th Hematite: The dog I ordered thrown down the Gobtech Death Shaft is dead. I'll send down the ogre and troll prisoners we captured soon.
13th Hematite: I've ordered the whole fort sealed off, on general principle.
15th Hematite: Most of the trolls and ogres died quickly. A couple ogres are still alive at the bottom. Then they migrated up and a couple got caught in cage traps. We won't be able to retrieve them from there.
17th Hematite: Progress on the Citadel is going well so far. Its taking a little while to get Gobtech set up properly.