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[Meph]

Adamantine-runed, Mithril long sword be about the best one-handed weapon against all invaders?

Why not a adamantine-runed adamatine long sword? 

But seriously, all I saw so far was 1 snatcher. Thats all on topside enemies. The more interesting bits are under the ground, slowly shuffling along in their slade fortress.

[mahrgell]

Could you please post the 'thoughts and preferences' and skills of my dorf?

Will post them later, but here is your dwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I finally decided what to do (what i will do in the end is most likely something completely different though^^), but it may take some time.
Reports should start to happen during the night.

[mahrgell]

I was told to come up. It was actually the first time since almost  year that I left my mining work for anything but my daily needs. Mc Meph looked at me with a serious face and then started to speak:

Mc Meph: 'I just checked the papers we had gotten from the mountainhomes again and...'
Mc Mahrgell: 'and what? I have work to do! Speak faster!'
Mc Meph: 'they say, you are supposed to be our overseer. I'm truly sorry about stealing this position from you. But now that I found out about that mistake, it will be your turn to lead us to glory.'
Mc Mahrgell: 'Erm... what? Wait, wait, wait! It is 1st Granite, not 1st Hematite. Do you not even know the difference between bare stone and the ore that powers our economy?'
Mc Meph: 'But look here! It is all written here!'
Mc Mahrgell: 'Oh... What? How? How can that be? Where did you dig that up? How did you notice this just now? How dare you to steal my powers?'
Mc Meph: 'Erm... those papers were here all the time, just...'
Mc Mahrgell: 'JUST WHAT? YOU KNEW IT ALL THE TIME?'
Mc Meph: 'Erm... no. Well, not exactly. Those papers say, Mc Mahrgell is supposed to oversee this fortress...'
Mc Mahrgell: 'and that is obviously me and not you....'
Mc Meph: 'but in our fortress records you were always written as Mc Marhgell... So there was none by the name mentioned here and I thought Mc M... that should also be me... Didn't think about them referring to you. I didn't notice the mistake in our records until now.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' hold your breath! So first you write my name wrong in our fortress records and THEN you take overseership because of that and because you THINK that name written here looks like your name?'
Mc Meph: 'Erm... I wouldn't say it that way... but... yeah...'
Mc Mahrgell: 'Now give me the overseers hat, all the documents and get to your work! What is your profession anyway?'
Mc Meph: ' Uh... ah...'
Mc Mahrgell: 'There must be anything you are skilled in!'
Mc Meph: 'Uh... I'm a dabbling mason, if that counts.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' It doesn't!'
Mc Meph: 'I'm also a dabbling carpenter, a dappling tailor...'
Mc Mahrgell: ' STOP IT! Get out of my sight!'

So this way started my life as overseer of Hammerabbey the Glory of Gods. I started going through the record of the past year. Until now I only bothered about my working, deep down in the depths. But now I saw the grand picture. And it was horrible.
There was no structure in the workforce at all. When I thought Meph was the one unskilled bastard in the fortress I was wrong. Everyone was doing everything, but almost none had any skills worth mentioning.

Next I looked at our general living conditions. We  managed to dig down to the magmasea, found adamantine (praise the miners!) and everything... But there was not even a resemblance of a dining hall, and the sleeping quarters were not furnitured at all.
Most of our stockpiles were above ground, as if we were elves, and we lacked crucial buildings. In the records Mc Meph claimed his efficiency, but certain things in a dwarven life also needed style instead of efficiency. Those were some of them.
Only thing positive were the walls and bridges protecting our fortress. At least at the top.
Below ground Mc Meph had proudly announced, that the walls protecting our part of the cavern were almost done. It was even airtight. At least if we ignore the fact that every flying or swimming monster could just fly/swim over/through the underground lake, that was completely ignored. We actually have a clear line of sight at the underground temple of doom and the amethyst golem rampaging there.

Which leads me to the most paradox thing...
Our military. Splint had a 3 man squad under his leadership, but none of them were training. How could they, there wasn't even a barracks. Splint used his trusty old bloodsteel sword and even had some basic skills in it he acquired before embarking. Dohan had an adamantine axe (praise the miners!), but had barely any knowledge about using it. How can you hand out such a god weapon to a novice? HOW? Actually Dohon was member of the carpenters guild. Guess that's how he got his token knowledge. But this wasn't the worst. Ast, our third militia dwarf, a legionnaire carried around an adamantine long sword (praise the miners!). And he had never, ever swung it. Never! Neither in combat nor in training. Maybe he thought that putting it under his pillow would give him the skills necessary to fight those out there, that were waiting for us to show a weakness.
Even though there were some rigid scaleplate armor pieces in the stash, our militia had decided to wear more fancy looking fur and whatever armor. THAT... wasn't the part where dwarves should prefer style over efficiency. This all had to be changed.
Then I found another document. I couldn't believe my eyes. I shouted for Mc Meph. When he arrived, I was showing him the document.

Mc Mahrgell: 'What is that?'
Mc Meph: 'A list of creatures fallen here during the last year.'
Mc Mahrgell: 'I knew that... Don't you see something strange?'
Mc Meph: ' Uh, I don't know.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' Then tell me, what is THAT?'

Mc Meph: ' Erm, I don't know.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' How did it happen to come at this list?'
Mc Meph: ' Mh, I don't know.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' Why did you not tell us about?'
Mc Meph: ' Puh, I don't know.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' How did it die?'
Mc Meph: ' ..., I don't know.'
Mc Mahrgell: ' Is there ANYTHING you know?'
Mc Meph: ' Uhm, I d....'
Mc Mahrgell: 'OUT!'

[spoiler]
Here is the legendsentry from the beast... Not sure what happened, maybe Meph can shed some light into it? Do you have seasonal saves?
http://i.imgur.com/AVhZeU3.png
[\spoiler]

I prepared the following urgent plans for the near future, before any other projects can be realized.
- our workforce needs restructuring. Well, it needs some structure... specialisation is the goal, dwarves were given some time to apply for desired tasks (I don't want to hijack your named dwarves, if you have special wishes)
- our military has to get a barracks and start training. I'm hoping for skilled migrants to arrive to bolster our defenses. Also their armor needs upgrades.
- caverns have to be secured, this time for real
- vital industries like farming need to get started
- a dwarven worthy dining hall has to be built.
- general living standards (furniture anyone?) have to be raised
- mentioning the god metal from now on always has to be followed by 'praise the miners'

---
FINALLY i can start...

[Meph]

Oh yeah, I noticed the name of the FB. You can build a slab and engrave it for it, it will show some more info. My guess is that it melted, because it was made of some syndrome material, like "announcment" or "spawn x", which are only used in reactions. FBs and Titans can be strange like that.

- our workforce needs restructuring. Well, it needs some structure... specialisation is the goal, dwarves were given some time to apply for desired tasks (I don't want to hijack your named dwarves, if you have special wishes)
- our military has to get a barracks and start training. I'm hoping for skilled migrants to arrive to bolster our defenses. Also their armor needs upgrades.
- caverns have to be secured, this time for real
- vital industries like farming need to get started
- a dwarven worthy dining hall has to be built.
- general living standards (furniture anyone?) have to be raised

 - Quantity over Quality, everyone does everything for the win! No idles, ever. ^^
 - No military training, they train by killing wildlife. Who builds baracks anyway.
 - Caverns were secured, because of the adamantine spire + bridge. Non amphibious creatures, even the golem or undeads, dont pathfind through the water, no matter if they can see us or not.
 - Farming? Whats farming?
 - A good dining hall I can approve of, I just didnt find the time.
 - Living standards and furniture... pah. Elvish nonsense.

Just teasing.

Hope your year will go smoothly. Target goal is to clear out the structure, at some point. Guess we have to wait till we have a big military, before we can start with that.

[Rum]

PTW.  Would like to get dwarfed as dailm, any military

[mahrgell]

2nd Granite
When I finally tapped the magmasea, my surprise was big. Besides a dozen fire maiden I actually found something else... something shiny... another adamantine spire! Praise the miners!

I still ordered the shaft to the magma sea sealed for now. We seriously lacked dwarf power, but would come back for the adamantine (praise the miners!) later. And for the magma to start our forge area deep down there.
When they heard about the magma sea, for some reasons the drow announced their soon departure. See you next year then.
I also started my work on the labor force. The militia had to start training right now. For that a training area right at the main entrance had been prepared. Next I came back on Mc Mephs words about being a mason. He is now leading our designated masonry force. I gave him 2 companions and also ordered 500 stone blocks and some furniture to be built. They would be busy for a while.
Meg Helmet was cleared of all his tasks and is now our fortress' only farmer and cook. Random dwarves in the kitchen would not happen anymore. He was also tasked with building a few farm plots so we could finally use all those seeds we had.
My apprentice and me would finish the mining designations from Mc Meph, before starting my own plans.

10th Granite
On their way out the drow decided to massacre the local gnoll population. It was fun to watch.
Since The Old Ark's only prior work experience had been in the fishing industry, but that somehow even earned him a membership in the fisher's guild, I allowed him to build a pool for himself, so he could follow his passion.

19th Granite
Big D the 145. is our first legendary worker. He beat me to it. He is now a legendary lumberjack. Not sure if I should be happy for him or sad about my missed chance. Works on the new dining hall have begun.
The Old Ark decided it would be a good idea to make fishing nets from adamantine strands.(praise the miners!) I could stop him just in time. It is nice to see that he values his profession highly.... but that's a bit too much.

6th Felsite
A kobold thief with a golden dagger managed to pass our defenses and was spotted inside our walls. Not sure how our militia and everyone else working there did not spot him earlier. At the same time the thief would have probably wished to be on the other side of the walls, when our militia now closed in on him, being between him and the entrance.

Somehow he still managed to dodge the charging dwarves, and made it back out of the entrance, but he lost the following sprint duel against Splint, who then quickly slaughtered the kobold.

23th Felsite
Elves showed up and asked for trade. Well... maybe if Mc Muzz has some spare time he will have a look. Right now we don't care too much about them. They actually entered the area outside the corridor envisioned by McMeph. When they crossed the still frozen river i was hoping for the ice to break, but that happened just 2 days after the elves passed. Sad...
They were also accompanied by a few thieves, but this time they were spotted early and turned tail quickly.

1st Hematite
Summer has arrived. Not much has happened in spring. I spent most of the time restructuring the workforce and we dug out most of the new dining hall. Mining should be finished during summer. Also furniture for our bedrooms has been produced, but isn't handed out yet. We still lack helping hands and everyone had been busy without break during spring. Hoping for migrants soon to help with that.

PTW.  Would like to get dwarfed as dailm, any military

done, i gave you the dabbling(when the year started) legionnaire (previously named Ast) You have a nice adamantine longsword (praise the miners!) right now but your skills are lacking.

[Meph]

They actually entered the area outside the corridor envisioned by McMeph.

Because they dont bring wagons. 1 tile path is enough for elves, and I think its reasonable that pack animal can go cross-country.

The kobold thief was standing on the apothecary.

A month ago in the kobold cave:
"Hibiba will die if we dont get her medicine."
"But we have no money, no traders come this way."
"I will go. The dwarves have medicine."
"Noooo Shinba, they will kill you, its too dangerous."
"I have to go. She is of my breed, I will bring her medicine or die trying."

Shinba packed his satchel, put on the only good cloak they had left, and went proudly on his mission. He never came back.

[BigD145]

19th Granite
Big D the 145. is our first legendary worker.

*sips tea and cuts down tree in one sweeping motion of his axe*
"Maybe people will like me more."

[Meph]

We are friends.

[Stormbuilder]

They actually entered the area outside the corridor envisioned by McMeph.

Because they dont bring wagons. 1 tile path is enough for elves, and I think its reasonable that pack animal can go cross-country.

The kobold thief was standing on the apothecary.

A month ago in the kobold cave:
"Hibiba will die if we dont get her medicine."
"But we have no money, no traders come this way."
"I will go. The dwarves have medicine."
"Noooo Shinba, they will kill you, its too dangerous."
"I have to go. She is of my breed, I will bring her medicine or die trying."

Shinba packed his satchel, put on the only good cloak they had left, and went proudly on his mission. He never came back.

aww

[FengYun]

Nice fortress.

I'd like to be dwarfed, please. 'Mc FengYun', Tath Sanebetest or Udil Reksaskisat look fine.

[mahrgell]

14th Hematite
The Elves decided to leave again. They were probably bored, because no one cared about them. But there surely are more important thing then those pointy ears.

26th Hematite
There was a mining accident yesterday in the new dining hall. During the final work McFengYun, my apprentice and me were both caught in a cavein. While being stunned for a short time, we both had only minor bruises.  Today we were at work again, when The Old Ark rushed in, babbling about recovering the wounded, grabbed Mc Fengyun and carried her away.



(Note: Udil was dwarfed as Mc Fengyun after the incidents happened, thus the wrong name in the screenshot)
How is work ever supposeed to be done, if now completely healthy dwarves get carried away. The Old Ark is really overly motivated sometimes. First his attempts with the fishing nets, now that. Well... If he is as enthusiastic when it comes to recovering those wounded in battle, we may thank him.

2nd Malachite
Those damn finishing touches on the dining hall. Another cavein. I wasn't there this time, but Mc Fengyun got hurt badly. She has great regenerative powers, but we still pray for her.


4th Malachite
Just when I was starting to yell at everyone for not rescueing Mc Fengyun... I saw her grabbing her pick and continueing her work. She was obviously feeling great pain and was holding the pick only with one hand, probably due to her other hand being broken, but her willpower and recuperation was impressive! She will be a role model of a dwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It may have something to do with her being a wrestler and:

This is 4 times the usual for our dwarves.

20th Malachite
Due to some mistakes in the blueprints the opening of the dining hall has been delayed. Also furniture is still missing. As a lesson from our mining accidents earlier we built a temporary hospital in our soon to be dining hall.

25th Malachite
The changelings just had given birth to a new baby changeling, when a spalca somehow got into our palisade. While our military did good work (stationing them at the entrance had proven useful again) it cause quite some confusion around the civilians lingering around the food stockpile up there. While seeds and plants were already stockpiled near the farms, it was now decided, that also prepared meals and drinks had to be brought underground close to the new dining hall to avoid future timewasting troubles like that.
In the end it was dailm finishing off the spalca by splitting it in two and and everyone finally went back to work.

27th Malachite
Somehow liking a little change from the daily sparring our militia decided to to go hunting. 3 cougars were target. Splint rushed ahead and dailm followed him. Dohon noticed he couldn't follow the two so he decided to go for the cougar that was a bit away from the others. Splint made actually short work and killed his two cougars before dailm could even reach them, while Dohon took down the isolated third one.
Afterwards they were hunting down a few porcupines, most falling to Splints sword, when he again outran his recruits.

18th Galena
The sleeping quarter is now fully furnished. We also started furnishing the dining hall. And so while everyone was carrying tables and thrones, humans showed up at the gates. We should put a sign there, saying „WE ARE BUSY, PLEASE COME BACK LATER“
But actually, i may tell Mc Muzz to trade with them. Maybe they have something of interest.

20th Galena
I don't know what dailm was doing out there, but he spotted some goblin thieves in the open. They turned, when their cover was lifted and dailm was unable to catch one.

1st Limestone
Autmn arrived. Mc Muzz traded the humans a few bins of silk clothes for some steel bars and some wooden medical supplies and several bins of cloth. Oh, and he gave them all our bone javelins. Not sure what the idea behind producing them was. Probably just to empty our refuse stockpile.
Our dining hall is almost completed, but I want it to be perfect, before I show everyone around.

Nice fortress.

I'd like to be dwarfed, please. 'Mc FengYun', Tath Sanebetest or Udil Reksaskisat look fine.

Dwarfed as Udil. You got quite some screentime in that update, but are still using your old name in the screenshots.
Your hand is still broken, and you are occasionally resting injury but I hope this gets solved soon.

[mahrgell]

btw, the lack of migrants is very disturbing...not even getting a message for it. I just noticed the diplomat is still waiting for an audience... Could that be the reason? -.-

[LMeire]

btw, the lack of migrants is very disturbing...not even getting a message for it. I just noticed the diplomat is still waiting for an audience... Could that be the reason? -.-

But I've always understood it that it was the merchants that reported on population though, which is why I've taken to imprisoning goblin diplomats so they'll stop bothering me with trade-orders they never make good on. Never had any trouble with population like this since I started doing that.

[mahrgell]

14th Limestone
Grimmash, our official expedition leader was today approached by the dwarven liason. Actually the liasn was in the fortress for almost a year, and somehow noone ever bothered to ask him, what he wanted, and he did never say a single word. Now, when Grimmash rested for the first time in a year, that dude finally started talking to him. Asked, what we want from the mountain home. Grimmash didn't know what to answer and thus made the most dwarvish answer he could think of... steel bars. Then he sent the guy away, creepy little dude...

17th Limestone
Mc Fengyun has finally decided to get her broken left hand treated. Mc Jaxey is doing his work, but the wound is already infected. Considering what she has shaken off already, I don't fear for Mc Fengyun, but it is still disturbing to see.

13st Sandstone
Somehow the dining hall refuses to be finished. Again there was an accident in which a ramp got deconstructed which trapped a mason just below the ceiling. Since all the other mason did not feel like rescuing their brother, in the end it was myself, who had to build a new ramp to save the already very thirsty mason. We are now only waiting for the final batch of braziers before we can finally officially open the dining hall.

18th Sandstone
Being able to to grasp with both hands again, even though slightly impaired, Mc Fengyun left the hospital today. Mc Jaxey had given his best to fix all the injuries, even though the wound was still infected. Still, it is nice to see Mc Fengyun back at work.

1st Timber
With the dining room fully dug out, McFengyun and me finished digging out some furniture stockpile below the living quarters. Our next goal now was more ambitious. We were now aiming for the second adamantine spire (Praise the miners!) Plan is to strike it from above. We don't know yet how many levels it raises above the magmasea.

8th Timber
Sadly the level we saw, when we hit the magmasea was also the toplevel of the spire. We mined it out, not daring to dig any deeper into it.
 
17th Timber
The dwarven caravan arrived. It had another liason with it, who then spotted a goblin ambush. While this surely was unfortunate for him, our militia was looking happily forward to what promised to be the first real battle of our fortress.

The happiness was abruptly ended, when the liason on his run from the goblins spotted another ambush. Especially their bows were causing fear in our dwarves. The liason was quickly pincushioned and killed. What to do? We were thinking about closing the gates, but I decided, that together with the caravan guard our militia would stand strong.

And so they waited at the depot behind the cover of the palisade for the goblins to come around the corner, when the first goblin flagellant arrived. Immediately everyone jumped the goblin. He could get one strike on a caravan guard, before he received several strikes by the guards, that caused him to lose his flail. But the problem were those bowgoblins behind him...

While Splint dodged an arrow aimed at him, Dohan was less lucky, having an arrow stuck in his left buttock. One of the caravan guard was already on the floor, and there was still a goblin flagellant blocking the path between the dwarves and the bowgoblins.
Splint ignored the first goblin and rushed straight for the troublemakers behind, when an arrow hit his head.

(the dwarf in the middle of all the goblins is splint)
He could consider himself lucky, that his helm deflected the arrow partially and he got only bruised. Even more enraged he charged the shooter and struck him down with a single strike.

Dailm followed his general and went for the flailgoblin, that was trying to intercept Splint. For unknown reason Dohan ran off the wrong direction together with a caravan guard and had no intention of returning to the scene.
Dailm and Splint crippled the flailgoblin and another bowgoblin and it looked like victory was secured, when another arrow hit Splint in his weapon arm. He screamed in pain and dropped his weapon. Now it was only Dailm, one guard and some animated weapons vs. a bunch of goblins. Dohan and another guard were still far away, and 2 more guards were unable to fight. Splint decided to run in panic, while Dailm murdered the bowgoblin next to him, then launching an attack on the next one.
Four more to go. Dailm could do this. Or so we thought...

Another squad of flail wielding goblins jumped out of cover, right next to dailm, who immediately understood the odds and tried to run. But it was too late. The goblins were too close and he got struck several times. Blow after blow landed on him and he stopped to defend anymore. A flail to the head ended his pain. Splint, while successfully escaping at first also fell unconcious under the pain. The goblins still alive were now heading for him and there was no chance of survival for him. Dohan had returned to the camp by now and I shouted at him to get inside instead of charging into the goblins alone as he had planned to. Since all the uninjured goblins had given chase on our 2 glorious militia dwarves, the remaining guard quickly killed all those injured goblins in front of our fort. Since Dohan was inside now, I ordered the outer bridge to be pulled.

But it feels like the goblins were shocked about the loss of their injured brethren and turned. On their run another one got struck down by our animated weapons.
Hammerabbey was safe again. But at what cost? We had killed 9 goblins, but they had hundreds of them waiting for their time. But we lost two of our militia, two out of three. And with no migrants this year every single loss was painful.

1st Moonstone
Winter has begun. But no one even noticed it. Everyone was depressed about what had just happened. And it was all my fault. I knew, I had to take responsibility for it. While I thought i could oversee this fortress until the end of time, i now realized there was no way I could continue with that burden on my mind. Yes... I had to take responsibility. I had to make up for it! I would hand over overseership by the end of the year, and until then, I would do everything possible to secure the fortress again!