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[Oshha]

Lorius and his clerics verse Maskdwarf and cultist will end up being a religious war. The Old Dwarven Gods, which are pro-dwarven science and anti-magic verse the Demons/True Gods, which are pro-magic. And of course it the current politics might affect what they will do since I doubt either side wants the destruction of Steelhold.

Okay.  It would help if you established a few things about your character:

1. Does he have a following?  If so, how large, and where do they meet?
2. Where did this following come from in a fortress of criminals?
3. What actions are they able/willing to take against the cult?
4. How are they going to protect themselves if the cult retaliates?

1 and 2) Basically any magic fearing dwarves that are enticed by the a cool and collected leader who offers a return to the old gods and the old ways without this scary magic which is beyond their control (Scared people will follow someone who looks like they'll protect them). Where they'll meet? In a reasonable large room with pillars and engravings, like the temples in adventure modes.
3) Generally whatever major actions the current leader Emdief allows, but whatever major actions Rhaken (Lorius' boss) allows in the future. Will always resort to insults and aggressive behaviour. The more devoted members of the clerics may get into fist fights with the more devoted members of the cult. Won't endanger the fortress unless the cultist are already endangering it, in which case, they'll just go all out on the cult.
4) If the cult retaliates, its war. Probably a crusade by the clerics to purge Steelhold of the heretics.

In short, a sort of following of scared and magic fearing dwarves who see Lorius as a way out of fearing these magic users and the cult. They'll gather in a temple. They'll generally act like a rival gang, but won't back down as some of the members will be generally devoted. If the cult retaliates other than insults or shunning, they'll blow it out of proportion and go to war with the Maskdwarf and his cult.
Hopes that answers your questions.

[MDFification]

I'll probably post more turns later today, got things to do in the meantime. So, MORE LORE. Plot for the plot god! Skulls for the skull throne! Wait...
EDIT: Nevermind, posting.


I'm Running out of Titles, Also FPS

2nd Galena
Garbage fills the halls. Dropped worn clothing is everywhere. This is unacceptable.
Fortunately, garbage makes an excellent trade good. It's not very valuable, but you can trade worthless items for worth, or just use caravans as a free garbage disposal system! I hope the mountainhomes enjoy our "craftsdwarfship".
We've finished our upper barracks. From now on, all melee squads will train there. When they're not engaged in live training, that is. Or sleeping. Or eating, although I've designated a food stockpile up there. It's a good thing they're not sleeping so close to the eventual battles, though.

11th Galena

The enemy is upon us! To arms!
Alarms sound throughout the fort, ordering all dwarves inside to shelter. As far as I am aware, a single dwarf was outside the walls when the attack came. I'm not sure if they'll make it, but I doubt it; there's a large contingent of enemy archers between them and the gates.
Curse this lever plan! It's down in the mayor's office, where it takes forever to seal the main gate! I blame myself for this. I should have reorganized the levers. In future, I will order one man to always been in the mayoral office.
We manage to seal the fort, but a child foolishly runs outside just in the nick of time. Guess your parent's won't be missing you much then, kid.
Or regular line of defenses holds. Marksdwarves rain bolts upon the enemy, although with less efficiency than I'd like. Goblins and trolls are launched flying by bridges.
We have captured many goblins in cage traps I placed in the depressions by the road. This is pleasing to me.
Less pleasing is the loss of one of my men. He stupidly engages the foe from outside the fortification and is killed.

19th Galena

The siege continues. Only 19 invaders remain uncaged or unslain. Many have simply fled rather than face the might of Steelhold. I order Rhaken and his gang to assemble at the main gate. We can end this struggle now!
Sure, his gang may be outnumbered by the goblins 2-1, but they kill cyclops for fun. I think they can handle this.
We suffer no fatalities in the sortie, which finishes off the last of the invaders. We do however suffer several injuries. One of these is Rhaken - a lasher broke his foot and ankle. One of my rangers takes a bolt to the spine - I know not if he'll recover. One of Rhaken's gang took a bolt to the ribs, but if he avoids infection he should survive.
One particular member of Rhaken's squad distinguished himself in the battle - a martial cleric named Lorius Zane or something along those lines. He only managed to kill two of his foes, but he successfully maimed them thoroughly before finishing them, which is exactly the kind of moxy the military needs.
The alarms cease, and the dwarves exit the fort to retreive loot (cloths! huzzah!) and our wounded. In that order, unfortunately. Greedy bastards even start hauling goblin corpses to the refuse heap rather than take our wounded warriors to the hospital.  Our population is now 215 - we lost a grand total of 3 dwarves in that siege. Hopefully the medical system can save the others. I'll ask Melek to  keep an eye on her mother - I suspect her skills are not what they used to be.

25th Galena

Both Rhaken and his wounded soldier are brought to the hospital. My ranger is left in the sands to wither. Unacceptable.
Autumn is about to begin, our best soldier is in the hospital, and I've got even more garbage to clean up.
I suppose I should consider myself lucky that so few casualties were had. There have been occasions in the history of the fort where much greater losses have been sustained. At least our medical system managed to act quickly.

9th Limestone

Since neither Asmoth or Melek is competent in setting broken bones (according to Melek, that is) I've assigned them an assistant who is.
Medical treatment continues to be an arduous process. We're still in the diagnosing stage.
Two dwarves (a non-military dwarf apparently took a bolt. Unlucky.) have simply dragged themselves back to their rooms and are resting there rather than go to the hospital. I order them moved.

19th Limestone

As I ponder the fate of our dwarves receiving medical treatment, I realize there is still work to be done. The War on Litter must be fought. I order vast amounts of old, torn clothing to be dumped by the trade depot for easy disposal exchange with the mountainhomes.
I have yet to fix the forges, but I still need them running to meet Corley's insatiable demand for bucklers. I imagine he's just giving himself something to do since he spends most of his time down in the forges rather than performing his mayoral duties anyway.
Rhaken's wife is very unhappy. Very unhappy. I fear she may snap. She's not the only one. One of her squadmates is also close to the brink, as is a random cook. One common reason they're upset: They're unable to find someone in charge to yell at. I guess that explains why Corley's down in the forges so often. I'm going to have to order him to come back up and do his job.
Ironically, her husband is completely ecstatic, the happiest I've seen him. Says sitting in the hospital not getting treated by Asmoth and Melek is the closest he's had to a vacation since he arrived.

25th Limestone

The War on Litter continues. I'm restoring the dignity of these dwarves, whether or not they're content to live in mounds of garbage. It seems to be a rather popular move, regardless. We're always making popular moves. If we don't, who knows what these dwarves will do?
I still haven't decided who my successor will be, but I'm rapidly tiring of my position. I've started to receive anonymous death threats, presumably from the cultists. Although who knows, in Steelhold it could be anyone.


OOC: That could have gone better. At least we're only guaranteed one death from this; if we loose Rhaken though I'm going to throw a hissy fit. He's our only truly elite soldier.
Also Fractal, just noticed, you designated a graveyard a hospital zone. I don't understand. I really don't.
Also there's a hospital zone in the old bedrooms? I don't know who put that there, but it causes patients to be taken to the wrong place. We have zoning issues I take it, Steelhold.

[fractalman]

I can totally envision lorius overhearing my character slipping and referring to the demons as clowns.
"oh, yeah...clowns...I think they're funny to watch, but wouldn't want them running around the fort...yeah..."
-if MDFI/Emdief moves everyone to the new bedrooms, you could probably meet in the old bedrooms. they're pretty much what you're describing.

EDIT:

The graveyard+hospital? You mean the one in the middle of the workshop halls?


Believe you me, that was an accident, not intentional.  I thought I'd kept it south of the graveyard. also: both of those were hastily set up out of convenience/necessity, NOT elegance/aestetics/longterm efficiency.


Zoning problems? I agree. 

I left the old hospital zones in place because...well...usually I wind up with one or two dwarves wounded for every dwarf killed in my forts, so I didn't want to short-change my hospital capacity by moving precious beds at the worst possible moment. 

[Gnorm]

Corley's Log:
Quiet in the Depths
--
I have begun to realize why Emdief assigned me to the position of mayor; it's simply something that he does't want to do himself. Quite a few of the more -- how should I put it? -- insane denizens of the fort seem to find it stress-relieving to yell at administrators, and it's my job to meet with disgruntled workers. I've been avoiding my office as much as possible for this reason alone; I have been using my authority to mandate production of bucklers, giving me an excuse to run down to the forges. Down in the forges it's nice and quiet, and hard work can help a dwarf think at times.

I have not been shirking my duties, though. I have dedicated much of my time to drafting my "Steelhold Charter," which will finally bring order to this blasted place. I'll present it at the council meeting once it's finished.

[Oshha]

Rhaken went to the hospital today. I hope dearly it gets better. If he, doesn't I might do something stupid in a fit of rage. Like kill a cultist. Speaking of the cultists, I managed to get a few of their foes to become my followers. Having spent a few years here and what it has entailed a quite alot of the inmates are willing to follow some offering a return the old gods. None the less, I will keep a watch over Rhaken when I can as I don't want a magic user doing anything to him again like they did before. Yet it has not all been bad as I slew two goblins in battle.

OOC: What weapon does Lorius use?

[Oshha]

I heard that many of the unhappy dwarves here have been unable to complain to the Mayor. Perhaps these miserable souls will be willing to join my following if I listen to them?

[fractalman]

OOC: lorius is impolite without using swear-words, and loyal to Rhaken, right?
edit: oh, he's also supposed to be calm and collected...
IC:

As I carried a pile of xclothesx to the quantum stockpile, I bump into Lorius.
"HEY! watch where you're going!"
"Oh. Whoops." I need a conversation starter here, something much less controversial than the subject of demons...something that sounds like it stems from two rumors fused together..."Say, is it true the masked one locked up the vampire in a wood-encrusted adamantine coffin so he couldn't hypnotize anyone ever again, while fractal fixed up the problems he caused?"
"Ah, no.  There was an adamantine coffin, yes, but they didn't put the vampire in it, and I don't think the masked dwarf had anything to do with that."
"Oh...so is there still a vampire running around ready to suck blood from sleeping dwarves?"
"Idiot, no, they sealed it away with a pair of constructions."
"Ah. well. Then...did Rhaken have an epic battle where he beat up a cyclops with a hatch-cover?"-another 'rumor' based on fact. The hatch had distracted the cyclops, who'd stepped too close to get a proper grip on it.
"HMPH! Rhaken would never be so incompetent as to wield a mere hatch cover instead of a  proper weapon!...well, except maybe when the Maskdwarf was influencing him... now move it!" (italicized part is quieter, but still heard)
I smile and nod politely.  "Thanks! Hey, watch out for the undead pets! I got pounced by one of them a few days ago.  Undead wolf slobber is GROSS!"
As I turn the corner, I hear a yell.
"...undead PETS! WHAT is WRONG with you people! Oh, I'll tell you what's wrong, those magic users keep messing things up and-"
I hurry out of earshot. I've heard enough.
I need to warn my pets NOT to pounce this guy. 
______

POV: lorius. (you said you wanted others to do most of the writing for him, right?)

Un. dead. pets.
I have officially heard everything. 
That dwarf who bumped into me.  I hadn't even gotten his name! Well. Whoever he is, he seems to be a clumsy idiot, but at least he's polite.  He doesn't seem afraid of what's going on, but he does seem confused...I can work with that. Where he heard such distorted versions of fortress events, I may never know.   Could be usefull as a distributor of misinformation, though.  gotta agree with his attitude towards vampires: seal them away so they can endure the full brunt of the curse assigned to them by the Gods.  at least he views Maskdwarf with curiosity rather than fondness...as for his attitudes about the Fractaldwarf...well, those will have to be corrected.  fractal was not THE enemy, and he may have given us that beautifull, mechanical windmill farm, but...he was still a *magic* user


OOC: My character starts to chill with the new migrants, and makes a subtle(ish) attempt to get Lorius to think that not all magic is bad. 
 

[MDFification]

Well then. Corley's writing a constitution, Lorius Zane's building a conservative faction, within Rhaken's faction, which is generally part of the wider revolutionary faction Emdief leads. Fractal's back, though he isn't doing much. Nobody knows what Maskdwarf and his cultists are doing. Meanwhile, Melek and Asmoth fail to provide medical treatment in a timely fashion (seriously, Asmoth was initially set to be a miner, a mason, a hauler... she hasn't been in the hospital for so long that her skills are rusting).

I wonder how this will all add up to Emdief's downfall? Although who knows, a peaceful transition of power is possible < ignore this, this is Steelhold.


Now is the Autumn of our Surprising Content

10th Sandstone
Two babies born on a single day. As if we needed more children.
I notice our farmers are spectacularly lazy, but I let is slide since we already have enough food. It'll do them good to have some off time. They can spending it carrying garbage to the depot.
I've started beautifying the fortress a bit as it's cleaned. Smoothing the stone, that sort of thing. Again, a popular measure. I figure so long as I can give these dwarves back their dignity, they'll be willing to forget that I'm both patently insane and the wrong gender.
I'm told now that my mechanisms are truly masterful, and that I am legendary among engineers. Beyond the obvious flattery, I've finally manged to get this body's fat hands to build good mechanisms again. It makes me happy. Few things do these days.

28th Sandstone

Only Rhaken remains in the infirmary; Asmoth and Melek do know their trade well, even if they sense of urgency could be improved. I suspect he's orchestrated events to give him as much time away from politics as possible.
The vampire continues to bellow from his prison for us to let him out. We don't. He serves no purpose at the moment. I suppose I could make him our primary lever puller, but would you trust a vampire with the keys to the fortress?

2nd Timber

Some migrants have arrived, despite the danger. After another round of birthing, that brings our population up to 231. That's a net increase of 50 dwarves since the last overseer. I have rooms to assign.
And with that, we're out of rooms. While every adult has a room of their own, many of the children do not. This is an issue we should bring up at the next seasonal council meeting. I'm ordering a dormitory dug simply on the basis that it would be a good thing to have, but we have the furniture to make more bedrooms. Fractal carved out a lot of spaces before he was sent back from whence he came.
For the first time in recent memory, probably in years, the number of idlers has reached 40 dwarves. This is in itself a cause for celebration; we can afford to have persons not working. It's also a cause for celebration because I can put them to work cleaning up the fort.

More stockpiles will be designated in available space. More space will be made available. More garbage will be dumped. Steelhold will actually be fit to live in! Huzzah! Morale is greatly improving as worn-out clothes are removed from the living quarters and dwarves are able to wear new garb.
Will they remember how I secured the outside of the fort? How I set in motion to recovery of our population and the rebuilding of our military? My additions to our defenses? No, they'll probably just remember me for my litter collection service.

9th Timber

The inspection is late this year. I wonder how the mountainhomes will react? I've declared the dwarves of Steelhold free within Steelhold. Will they take the effort to crush our rebellion? I think not - it'd be a lot more trouble than it's worth.
I really should convene a meeting of the council before hand. It'd be a good idea anyway. We have much to discuss. Steelhold is more secure, more prosperous, and more dignified - what remains to be done?

Sarrak's ghost keeps bringing me demands from Modi to kill the Masked Dwarf. I haven't agreed to it - I must think of the fortress - and her demand for vengeance only grows with time.
I can only pray it makes her move soon. I've studied the records carefully - most of the known cultists are the same dwarves with the most reported unhappiness, like Rhaken's wife. Everyone else is much happier since the revolution. It seems our harassment is working. I wonder how many cultists it has left?
In any case, I revealed to the fort the missing adamantine today. I've been busting open its caches and stealing the adamantine back for some time now. The fort has no idea that the cultists are behind it, but they're quick to assume. If it's smart, it will attempt to negotiate with me before this fort is so poisoned against the cult that it's purpose will become impossible.
I'll need my most loyal allies if the fort is going to be taken back. But Corley's up to something - he gives me these looks when he thinks I'm not watching. As for Rhaken, I've never been sure that he's happy being a subordinate. I've tried to run this fort with as much delegation as possible, but he may resent me for taking over his organization.
And I still have no chosen successor. What to do?

[Oshha]

OOC: lorius is impolite without using swear-words, and loyal to Rhaken, right?
edit: oh, he's also supposed to be calm and collected...
IC:

As I carried a pile of xclothesx to the quantum stockpile, I bump into Lorius.
"HEY! watch where you're going!"
"Oh. Whoops." I need a conversation starter here, something much less controversial than the subject of demons...something that sounds like it stems from two rumors fused together..."Say, is it true the masked one locked up the vampire in a wood-encrusted adamantine coffin so he couldn't hypnotize anyone ever again, while fractal fixed up the problems he caused?"
"Ah, no.  There was an adamantine coffin, yes, but they didn't put the vampire in it, and I don't think the masked dwarf had anything to do with that."
"Oh...so is there still a vampire running around ready to suck blood from sleeping dwarves?"
"Idiot, no, they sealed it away with a pair of constructions."
"Ah. well. Then...did Rhaken have an epic battle where he beat up a cyclops with a hatch-cover?"-another 'rumor' based on fact. The hatch had distracted the cyclops, who'd stepped too close to get a proper grip on it.
"HMPH! Rhaken would never be so incompetent as to wield a mere hatch cover instead of a  proper weapon!...well, except maybe when the Maskdwarf was influencing him... now move it!" (italicized part is quieter, but still heard)
I smile and nod politely.  "Thanks! Hey, watch out for the undead pets! I got pounced by one of them a few days ago.  Undead wolf slobber is GROSS!"
As I turn the corner, I hear a yell.
"...undead PETS! WHAT is WRONG with you people! Oh, I'll tell you what's wrong, those magic users keep messing things up and-"
I hurry out of earshot. I've heard enough.
I need to warn my pets NOT to pounce this guy. 
______

POV: lorius. (you said you wanted others to do most of the writing for him, right?)

Un. dead. pets.
I have officially heard everything. 
That dwarf who bumped into me.  I hadn't even gotten his name! Well. Whoever he is, he seems to be a clumsy idiot, but at least he's polite.  He doesn't seem afraid of what's going on, but he does seem confused...I can work with that. Where he heard such distorted versions of fortress events, I may never know.   Could be usefull as a distributor of misinformation, though.  gotta agree with his attitude towards vampires: seal them away so they can endure the full brunt of the curse assigned to them by the Gods.  at least he views Maskdwarf with curiosity rather than fondness...as for his attitudes about the Fractaldwarf...well, those will have to be corrected.  fractal was not THE enemy, and he may have given us that beautifull, mechanical windmill farm, but...he was still a *magic* user


OOC: My character starts to chill with the new migrants, and makes a subtle(ish) attempt to get Lorius to think that not all magic is bad.

Lorius is impolite only to those who aren't followers of either Rhaken or the Old Dwarven Gods.
Also I don't have a problem writing for Lorius, I just struggle to write for other characters. Talking about Lorius, he's going to try and get Emdief to start having a temple to the old gods built before someone less anti-magic gets in charge. Probably going to persuade him by going on about turning to the old and proper dwarven ways. I think Emdief would like the idea of returning to the old and proper dwarven ways.

[Oshha]

Well then. Corley's writing a constitution, Lorius Zane's building a conservative faction, within Rhaken's faction, which is generally part of the wider revolutionary faction Emdief leads. Fractal's back, though he isn't doing much. Nobody knows what Maskdwarf and his cultists are doing. Meanwhile, Melek and Asmoth fail to provide medical treatment in a timely fashion (seriously, Asmoth was initially set to be a miner, a mason, a hauler... she hasn't been in the hospital for so long that her skills are rusting).

I wonder how this will all add up to Emdief's downfall? Although who knows, a peaceful transition of power is possible < ignore this, this is Steelhold.


Well Lorius will be supporting Rhaken in any upheaval, but won't want magic users to gain more control or power over Steelhold. I'll also want Emdief's survival as an anti-magic ally.

[fractalman]

[snip]

-I'll just assume that was an accident on your part.

________
IC:

Emdief runs the fort better than I could, at least on the surface.
Under the surface, though, steelhold is sick, and my magic is not of the sort that can help heal it.

Lorius, with a fear of magic, preference for mechanisms, a view of demonworship as heresy, and the worship of the old gods...
And the Masked entity, with a preference for magic, a fear of mechanisms, worship of the demons, and views the worship of the old gods as heresy...
One fort-dwarf. One caravan guard. One face slap.  That's all it would take at this point.

It gets worse.
Many of the adults are fearful of magic, especially my pets. The children, instead of picking up the adult's fear like you might expect, have been repeatedly caught spending hours just petting the deer on the ribcage, or riding the tiger around. 
the children are already splitting themselves into factions: the tattle-tails and the shutmouths.

I haven't seen the fourth of them in a while.  I hope he's ok...whatever he is.  At least the other three are happy.
_________________________________

I scatter ideas; little ideas, scattered on the wind along with obfuscation.  9 tiny ideas, 7 small ideas, 3 big ideas...
but one idea to rule them all.    One idea to bind them. One idea to save them. one idea to bring them all and in the...*cough* ah forget it.   I'll do what I can to calm people down and encourage rational thought.  it won't be easy. 

but one idea burns, like a bright warm campfire in a dark cold night: Sufficiently advanced/dwarven mechanisms are indistinguishable from magic. 

Was I too late? Had I spent too long napping on my comfortable wool bed? *sigh*.  I had to try.  I owed these dwarves. they'd helped me save reality...the least I could do is give them a hope to wrok out their misunderstandings. 
___________________________


The following, highly cryptic message is soon found in the middle of the old bedrooms. You didn't need an expert to see that whoever wrote it had gone to great lengths to keep their handwriting from being identified, like painstakingly copying someone else's handwriting: 
"White king starts on black square.  Black king starts on white square. Cat starts off of board.
dwarf to move: argue about who moves first.
cat to move: meow.
dwarf to move: white moves first.  But White king moves first, or king on white square to move first?
cat to move: Cat to board. 
dwarf to move: cancel play, creature occupying site. 
Cat offers draw. do dwarves accept?"

[Oshha]

"Maskdwarf," I said as I sense someone watching me from the shadows in an old, rarely used section of Steelhold, "I know you're listening. I spent seventy years suffering the Queen's wrath and attempts to kill me. I am not eager for it again. Lets not either do anything to ruin the inspection. Once the caravan is gone, it's back to normal."

[4maskwolf]

This is the first time they met:

Lorius barged into a room, searching the demon worshiper.  Rumor had it that this was where the cult met. Some secret hideout, if everyone knew about it.

It never occurred to him to check for signs of traps. Suddenly, his feet flew out from beneath him, the ground rushing up too quickly to react to. His head hit the ground with a sickening crack.

Lorius awoke in a room he had never seen before. He found himself sitting in a chair facing an obsidian desk, in which sat what could only be the masked dwarf. After all that he had heard, he had to admit that the masked dwarf was less frightening then the tales said.

"You have intruded."

The voice, while not harsh, was obviously irritated, as if it had not been expecting guests.

"How I did not see you coming, I know not. I see everything I need to see. Until today. How did you sneak up on me?"
Lorius attempted to straighten himself in he chair, "So you are the masked liar."
The mask betrayed no expression, but the voice bespoke of anger, "You are the betrayer. You serve the false ones, bring their worship into these halls.  I was willing to leave you and your followers in peace, Lorius. I have taken no action so far because I do not wish to intrude on your beliefs. But you stepped over the line. You attempted to intrude upon our meeting chambers. For this, there can be no forgiveness."
"None was expected, traitor."
"Good. Then get out. I know you are blessed by your false gods, but I have abilities beyond your wildest imaginations. Begone."
With that, the world swirrled around Lorius, and he found himself in his quarters.

In response to your most recent post,

"The cave air howled around Lorius's ears, bringing the masked dwarfs response, "very well. A truce."

[Rhaken]

Amazing. All it took to get me a few days of relaxation was a serious foot injury. I haven't felt so well rested in decades. However, this does not mean that everything is fine. Far from it.

Onul hasn't been too happy lately. While I approve of Emdief's policy of discrimination - easiest way to turn the maskdwarf's followers against him - I'm not happy with what it's doing to my wife. I know the masked bitch has been using her against me, just as I've been using her against the bitch. I don't hold it against her - Onul is a victim here, an unwitting pawn in my machinations for well over a century now. That she takes it all in stride and still manages to love me is something I'll admire until the end of my days.

I have specifically instructed Melek to treat my injury herself, but to mind the others first. They have more time to live, and I need the rest. The lass does an admirable job in the hospital, even while monitoring her mother's mental health. It's like when we had Asmoth in her prime, minus the 'mysterious disappearances'. Come to think of it, the resemblance between mother and daughter is striking.

Lorius , one of my old spies, has come to visit. He drops by every now and again to check up on me. He hasn't changed much in the years since I've seen him - as little as a spymaster sees his agents. Still pious, still efficient. I haven't told him about the conspiracy yet. He sent me some of the many relevant reports, but only I ever got to see the full picture. For now, I just tell the lad to meet in my office when I'm discharged.

As a matter of fact, I haven't spilled the beans to Emdief either. He of all people deserves to know. I'd be more reluctant to tell Corley, or the fractaldwarf if he hadn't been executed, but Emdief should know the truth about our resident bloodsucking menace.

So when I'm out of here, it's back to the good old days. A meeting in my office.

[Gnorm]

Corley's Log:
The Perfect Candidate
--
It is only now that I realize what a fool I've been recently. For the longest time I thought that Rhaken would be the prime candidate, and that Emdief would only be useful as a back-up. It only just dawned upon me that -- despite his lower military experience -- Emdief is the perfect candidate for my project. Every trait of him is perfect, from the insanity to the hatred of all things magic. And to think, I thought that elves would be a necessity in this project; daemons and magicians will do just fine.

All I have to do is encourage him to hone in his military skills. I understand that he serves in a marksdwarf squad; perhaps he'd be willing to undertake more serious training. Nothing else will even need any influence from me, for his insanity and anger is growing on its own. My plans to take command of this fort are also in their later stages; all I must do is sit back, and Emdief will bury himself.