Meph leaned against cold, black stone. His arms seem to embrace it, his forehead resting on it. He blinked.
'Where am I? ... Did I black out again?' In shock, he looked down upon himself. No blood on his clothes. No blood on his hands.
'Oh, thanks Armok, it didnt. But why can't I remember anything?' He looked to his left. A river in the distance. He looked to his right. The other river in the distance. Behind him, only the woods.
But behind the wall, he could hear his comrades. Still bickering about theoratical combat advantages about things that we did not have. The wall was solid, black rock. But... what rock? It was maddening, but he couldnt quite identify it. He walked to one end, one corner as it turned out, because the wall was short. Only 5 steps on each side. He walked around the corner and could see the camp behind it. Good. He wasnt lost. Curious, he walked the length of the wall again. Around the corner, again, around the next, till he stood exactly where he started.
There was no door.
Whoever build that thing, whatever it was, walled it shut. Still a bit confused about the matter, Meph walked back into the camp, which had grown significantly since he last remembered it. More wooden pallisades. A trade depot. A air-lock with bridges, even if the walls werent quite done yet. The architects had finished the bridges. It was warm. It was summer. Meph had the feeling that underground, the fort would have changed as well. But he couldnt see any Altars. No Shrines, no Temple of Armok. Even the Ward wasnt in sight.
"Hey-o Meph, you are done?"
"Absolutely" -
'Dont show weakness.'"It's a fine thing you did there. We are all quite proud of... it."
"Well, thanks. Its my job after to lead this place after all. Say, what about the Altars and Shrines?"
"Yup, it's a mighty fine Altar you did. Took half of the season to build, all by yourself. You wouldnt even stop till it was done."
"I did... Of course I did. Glory to Armok."
"Say, Meph, what exactly did you build it with? Because no one saw you go down into the fort and get blocks from the Mason. Instead, you were just... building. And how are we supposed to pray, if no one can walk in that place?"
Meph stared at him blankly. He couldnt quite believe what he heard. He turned around wordlessly, looking at the stone again. It was.... some kind of... solid... material. (?). An unkown material block, yep that was it. For sure. Absolutely, not problem.
A few dwarves had gathered around their leader, no one quite sure who should ask first, and what exactly to ask. Oldark, Sawgile, even Jaxey and McMuzz came over. Splint was watching from a distance, not leaving his guard post. He spotted the migrants before anyone else, 3 dwarves that came to our doorstep, arriving at the growing group of dwarves around Meph, and the unkown altar. But before any of them could say anything to anyone, they heard yelling.
A dwarf. Yelling very, very loudly. It was Mc Marghell.
The voice was coming from underground, carried up the stairway. Everyone heard it. No one understood it directly, not daring to believe the words that their ears told them they had heard.
'P..e...Ar..ok''Ad...ma...ine!''Glow.... Ad....am...ine!'"A spir....f it!''Third ...vern!''Just thi..rty levels below us''Adamantine everyone''We struck Adamantine!'All stood still. Only one quitely uttered four words. It was Meph.
"Praise the miners, indeed."
There is a unknown material altar, completely walled off at the entry. Dont ask me how it got there. We have bridges and a depot for trading, and build bridges over both rivers. The upper-left corner will get a tiny 1-tile bridge, as a backdoor. The lever are placed outside, I wouldnt want to make it too easy to wall us of. The wooden walls are not yet finished, but we have a well and a few drinks which I forbid, because winter (aka frozen season) is quite long. Took till early summer to get water. We have lots of food, but no drinks (20 or so), because *someone* *Not-looking-at-Megahelmet* cooked 220 drinks into lavish meals. We have basic wood and food production, 2 military members:
Splint with a bloodsteel sword and full rigid scaleplate armor.
Sawgile, a wrestler with a small horn knife and full rigid scaleplate armor as well.
We got 3 migrants, which I will name with the people that wanted dorfing, if the profession fits. These, and the underground part of the fort come in the next update.
PS: Unknown Material = Parquet. I gave the parquet block names, but apparently DF overwrites that with just 'block'. So instead of a parquet tile, we get a 'unknown material block tile', which doesnt even have the color of wood anymore.
Proto and Pi Age are dwarved, the two migrants that arrived. Third one was a child, so no grizzled old axedwarf for Dohon yet. And someone asked about the date: 21th Malachite, of the year 31, Mid-Summer at the moment.