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[LMeire]

I wonder, how good would frost giants be at fighting demons and undead? Would it be viable to pit a few "mercenaries" down there, should a few happen to find themselves captive? IIRC, hatch covers can't get destroyed from below, so in theory it might be possible to construct a vertical airlock for that, right?

[jimboo]

Construction of such a shaft would be easy and the fortress has a Frost Giant already caged.  But it isn't even necessary to dig a shaft after The Hammer Incident; the cage could simply be constructed and linked, allowing him to go wander into the corpsemen.  I'll leave that for somebody else, my time as fortress Overseer is drawing to a close and I want to leave the fortress infrastructure a bit better for Proto105. 

[jimboo]

Write down the names of those wizards- we'd want to know if they return, and if we bring Dwarven justice on them.
 

SM Mestendqdhar – Ice Wizard, drowned.
Berbery Meancurse – Corrupt Spellcaster, killed by the animated warhammer id abshothtokthat.
Nayer Aherbab – Ice Wizard Spearman, bled out.
Krahey Tekhefyetzenzan – Corrupt Spellcaster, still out there somewhere with two others, names unknown.

I’ve ordered L’Meire’s  memorial slab to be made from smoothed wooden planks – seems appropriate for this place.   

[jimboo]

A jimboo question:

Where is Diplomacy now?  In the last couple of releases, DwarfTherapist has changed and sometimes requires Labors-Alt to enable jobs.  Nobody is calling for the immigration wave at the Embassy.  Why not?  Also, DT now sometimes will not scroll unless it is windowed back and forth max to min; does this happen to everybody else, too?

[jimboo]

“Hmmm … No migrants this season.”  Gruff voice.
“Sir, if you want migrants you have to – (cough cough cough).  Chippy voice.
“Umm, it’s worth looking into.”  Gruff voice, again.

Say what?  I couldn’t make out what Chippy was saying because of all the interrupting coughs from the corpses interacting with breaths of cold air from the wraiths! 

[jimboo]

5th Malachite, mid-Summer.

The miners have found several tiles of platinum, nothing else.  Without migrants – for whatever reason – there’s no need to hoard the coins so another worker was requested at the Portal.  FPS is stable now on my machine at 25; still low but much better than before.  Others are counted now at 456 as the wraiths continue to cull the corpses.  Peasant #2 now dabbles at weapons and has that as highest moodable skill.  Peasant #3 is taking his sweet time making those helms.  PeaSent had been tasked to make buckets back in the Brigade days in order to keep our wounded alive and so unfortunately has Carpenter as highest moodable skill.  As if we needed another one of those.  She’s our best researcher, though and I hesitate to pull her off of that until we have a blast furnace.  Teduk is willing to pay 500 sovereigns for netherwood and we have that in stock as soon as somebody gets around to selling it.  One crate of netherlogs was ordered last season from the Elves; someday we might need fireproof shields for a Colosseum but in the meantime, it’s the only thing that Teduk is willing to pay gold for at reasonable prices.  Rare silk thread and cloth really should be worth more and dang it, he’s not interested in any aluminum goblets or doodads of any kind.

Grimmash has stopped minting coins as we’re out of gold.  If the miners do not find some soon, looks like we’re reduced to trading coppers for silver at Morul’s.  Myself, I’ve never had much luck with the gambling thing – has anyone else?  The Elven merchants have left but the Treasury Master is still wandering around, counting logs.  I wish he’d leave so we could close that outer gate before anybody else shows up.  18 dwarves and no idlers, I’m just watching the calendar change.  A catalyst rod has now been created, another step along White Hunter Way. 

☼Cathedral☼ was embarked as a religious-theme fortress.  We have altars and shrines, a Monastery and a School of Wizardry.  Wouldn’t this be a great place for a Temple of Armok and a Volcanic Oracle of Armok?  We can build those.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately, this is what is directly under the dome:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[jimboo]

16th Malachite, mid-Summer.

Teduk’s was just sitting there, unused, and Grimmash is our only dwarf with any negotiating skill at all so he was retasked from processing malachite-bearing rock to selling.  He’s 90% of the way to being a Dabbler.  Big whoop.  But he’s sold the first batch of netherlogs and a couple more will bring enough geld to order another peasant. 

20th Malachite.
We’ve discovered Blast Furnace technology.   Grimmash now dabbles as Negotiator.  The Embassy called for migrants and the answer was “No.”  2K coins, wasted.  Ahh, it was worth a shot.  After making a few leather cloaks, Peasant#4 now dabbles as a Leatherworker and has that as highest skill so all leather was forbidden excepting the six chitenplate; might as well have a couple of the lightweight, good ones.  “Military Commander Dohan cancels drink, resting injury.”  That happens a lot with these clumsy dwarves.  Now Shorad and Peasant#4 have joined in resting injuries.  Oafs.  Now Talanic; we have five resting injuries from mining (I guess).  Galena, malachite-bearing rock, cave fungus, rock crystal and a dozen or so more platinum on level 91.  It’s not the most efficient pattern for finding a solitary Jewel of Armok but we’re looking for veins of gold.  Another peasant has been summoned from MountainHome. 

17th Galena, late Summer.

Coming up on time for the human caravan and I didn’t notice; the last month has just flown by and this is the first time in my turn as Overseer there’s been more than one or two dwarves to work with.  Mostly, we’ve been digging.  Six Orc invaders unannounced until they were already across the southern river bridge.  Perhaps we should fashion some scarecrows.  Fortunately, these Orcs are as easily distracted as the Drow and another moleweasel kit is making the ultimate sacrifice for her kin.  I’m raising the bridge; anyone know how long it will take the oh-so-slow Elven Treasury Master to go insane?  Ah, crap – Ago Jackalcutter, a Berserker Basha more clever than the others is now making a beeline for the lowered bridge.  He’s clad in crude steel and armed with a steel flail.  “Berserkers are the strongest and wildest of Orcs.  They feel no pain in their rage.”  No dwarf is standing very close to the surface lever but either Id the animated war hammer or Olin the animated war axe (?) got it up in time; Ago was five steps away from joining us inside. 

[someone12345]

Make the chitinplate rigid! If you do not, then it is an absolute waste. Also, you have only just researched the blast furnace? I never smelt anything beyond the few bars needed to research and build the building before building it. It is inefficient to not use it.

[mahrgell]

efficiency is not in the dictionary of this fortress!
At least not in the traditional way. Well, but we have adamantine equipment and the best wood industry ever made!

[jimboo]

“What the … ?  Where am I?  What’s happening?  WTF??  WHAT’S HAPPENING??”
jimboo stood by, quietly watching the new peasant struggle to orient himself within the Portal.  It was always the same: the disorientation, the questioning, the anger and resentment.  It was always the same.  The newest warm body in ☼Cathedral☼ finally noticed jimboo in the darkness and started demanding some answers.
“You!  Who are you?  Where is this place?  Tell me what in Armok’s name is going on!  Tell me now or I swear …”
jimboo calmly walked up to the peasant and kicked him in the shin.  Hard.
“Trust me, it’s the fastest way.  Now listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you and listen as if your very life depends on it, because it does.”

It was jimboo’s fourth time giving that orientation speech.  After mapping each level, he had gone to every dwarf and asked for the history of the fortress.  Some knew more than others and it was Old Ark, the fisherdwarf who had known the most. 
“It’s a shame you didn’t get a chance to talk to old Pi_Age before she died.  That dorf was one of the Original colonists and had a hankerin’ for history like you do.  But she went crazy and starved herself to death.  That was just about the time you showed up.”
jimboo knew that.  All the dwarves of ☼Cathedral☼ knew that.  The ‘official’ cause of death as recorded in the Therapist Scrolls was that Pi_Age had gone insane, tantruming over the loss of a child during one of the many skirmishes with invaders.  There was an unofficial cause known to everyone, too; this was a very superstitious group of dwarves and it just so happened that Pi_Age’s insanity struck immediately after the newly-arrived jimboo had made a rather poor joke about Pi’s name and the similarity to that of a Forgotten Beast then plaguing the laborers struggling to seal off the lower levels right after The Hammer Incident.  A very superstitious bunch, these dwarves, and jimboo had tried hard to keep his sense of humor to himself after that. 

PeaSent had been the one to orient jimboo, if one could call it that.  The High Priest Kamikazi had summoned him but then had gone into spiritual seclusion.  5,000 pieces of gold and Magyk – that’s what it took to summon a soul and body to ☼Cathedral☼.  From anywhere, it seemed; each arriving peasant had a different story and came from a different village or hamlet but none arrived with any skills and certainly none knew anything about Sorcery.  And all jimboo knew about it was, that’s not the way the Portal was supposed to work.  Mining for gold and minting coins was the obsession that drove this fortress for they were but few and the Others were many; summoning in bodies one at a time was slow but it was all they had.  The elders had pleaded with jimboo to summon the next one when 5,000 coins had been saved since Kamikazi had by then entered into his seclusion and nobody else knew the Portal’s secrets.  Neither did jimboo but they hadn’t listened to that and so jimboo had been appointed ‘acting priest’ as well as Overseer.  Not knowing what else to do, jimboo had taken the gold inside the small building, set it upon the small alter and prayed.  Peasant#2 had appeared and the gold vanished.  It was just that simple.   

Kamikazi had finally emerged from his retreat and was again walking among them, resplendent in silks and carrying his long staff everywhere (although it should be noted, those robes were beginning to show some wear as was all the clothing in the fortress).  jimboo liked Kamikazi for several reasons, not the least among them being he was so dismissive of that little snot, PeaSent.  Jimboo had seen her several times approach Kamikazi and begin speaking to him in conspiratorial whispers, and each time Kamikazi had roared with laughter in her face.  Whatever plans she had for leaving ☼Cathedral☼ for her home involved Kamikazi’s help, she had said, and he evidently found her schemes rather amusing.  He was also candid and sincere and he took the time to answer jimboo’s questions.  Most of them, at least.  jimboo had tried to abdict from his ‘priestly duties’ when Kamikazi returned but the High Priest was having none of it.

“But, the summoning and prayers are YOUR responsibility.  I don’t even know what I’m doing!”
“And yet you worked the Portal, didn’t you?  That’s no small trick and the others couldn’t have done it.  You share a bed with a legendary witch and didn’t expect any of that to rub off on you?  C’mon, jimboo, think about it.  I have other responsibilities, too, and it was in preparation for those that I entered my retreat.  No, you keep with the Summoning as the gold becomes available – I have other duties to attend.”
“But – why the gold?  What does Armok do with the gold?  Why does the God of Blood need or want gold?”
And so Kamikazi told him a story of ‘an arrangement’ that had once been made between Armok, the King, and the priests of MountainHome.  A somewhat complicated arrangement.
“So … you’re saying the gold is necessary because Armok lost a bet with a minor deity of some long-forgotten priest?”
Kamikazi laughed and said,
“Lost a bet.  Yes, that’s one way to sum it up.  Don’t worry about it, jimboo, the Magyk works and that’s all that you need to know.  Now excuse me, for I must attend to those other duties that only I can perform.”
“Wait!  The Magyk doesn’t work – why does the Portal summon us instead of a mage from MountainHome?”
Kamikazi looked pained but did not say anymore as he walked away.
jimboo also had other duties.  There was no time for idleness in this fortress.

[Meph]

Actually, its more a price for hiring the crafter, than a ritual reagent for the magic, but no worries. Yours fit the story a lot better.

How far has the year progressed?

[jimboo]

 

1) How far has the year progressed?
2)Actually, its more a price for hiring the crafter, than a ritual reagent for the magic, but no worries. Yours fit the story a lot better.
 

1) Six months, wrapping up later this evening as my one week RL time expires.  Didn’t get as much accomplished as planned but I’m passing it along in better shape than when I took over.  Hey. 
2) I tried to leave it open-ended for the next guy (Proto?).  Kami is working on – something – in this religious-themed fortress, and PeaSent is the foil.  Maybe she’ll go all Dumplin-bitchy when things don’t work out for her.    jimboo, he has a plan.   

[kamikazi1231]

I'm glad you made it 6 months. I was running at 45fps before Hammer fall and just squeaked by a year in a week. I'm happy to see you got some dwarves specializing for when we can get moods. Armok knows we need some skilled crafters. Also happy so many injured survived. Jax had some really good medical skills before a goblin put a bolt through his head. Was certain many injured from the giant bats would die after Jax fell.

[Will_Tuna]

I asked earlyer if i could be teleported and as we have some new peasents, could one changed to McTuna?

Or is storytelling obliged? ive been following the story very close!

[jimboo]

Make the chitinplate rigid! If you do not, then it is an absolute waste. Also, you have only just researched the blast furnace? I never smelt anything beyond the few bars needed to research and build the building before building it. It is inefficient to not use it.

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention a step:  Tanner is making the chiten plate ahead of time.  And before constructing the forge which isn’t really needed yet, I wanted the Scriptorium to copy the plans.

17th Galena.
Five snipa Orcs and a Shaman have come to join the festivities.  Work continues, moving much faster now with the extra dorfs.

1st Limestone, Early Autumn, The Year 36
 
The time has come to hand off the save.  Page One Rules say turns of six months to a year, one week RL and it’s been a week so Proto105, it’s all yours.  The game runs now stable at FPS 26 on my old laptop so anyone should be able to pick it up.   

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions
   
Inventory#2:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The blanks are drinking, sleeping, hauling (coins) and selling netherwood at Teduk’s

Things constructed in the past two seasons:
- Enclosing wall around the Depot with new raising bridge
- Temple of Armok
- Scriptorium
- Thatchery
- 2 Slag Pits
- Kiln for making hospital plaster
- 1 phyllactory, 1 catalyst rod for upcoming Sorcery to face the Others
- Several linked bridges isolating lower levels
- A couple of walls, isolating lower levels
- Misc. workshops next to raw materials to minimize hauling
- A cistern for next winter’s freeze

Things in Progress:
- Volcanic Oracle of Armok (candelabras, etc. under construction) along with a cleared space; if you start construction and suspend or make it a fallow farmfield that will prevent the nether-caps, spores, crystals, poisons and whatnots from growing there until active magma is available
- Engraving slabs for two more ghosts.  They keep popping up --
- 4000 gold coins in stock, almost enough for another summoning
- A windmill (bones => flux)

Things done:
- The two smelters which “should be the heart of any fortress” as Wiki says were cluttered to the point of being useless, now clear
- The fortress is still haphazard but less so
- Most stockpiles were removed
- Steeloaks, quarry bushes planted for next Spring
- Exploratory mining shafts, mostly disappointing
- Five new worker bees were Portal’d in, trained in moodable skills
- Mithril ordered from Elves.  (New migrants were refused at the Embassy)
- Set Civilian Alert Burrow, DefCon_Two

Things I wish I’d done:
- Renamed the Peasants#1-5 as requested on the forum thread
- Set banners over the library, metalworks, etc.  I forgot how.   
- Linked that bridge over the south river; it’d be a start
- Noticed earlier the entire Depot has been roofed with parquet flooring and fortifications
- Either labeled or deconstructed all those levers now not connected to anything
- Started earlier trading shillings for sovereigns to get more warm bodies
- Noticed earlier the burrow settings
- Been able to clear more of that horrible mess on the surface
- Noticed earlier the scattered cage traps near the Depot are useful for catching monkeys who come in troops and quickly scatter, spamming every job
- Spent more time reading and not just skimming over posts from the previous Overseers

Suggestions for next Overseer:
- Kamikazi is now a High Priest in this religious-themed fortress.  He’s just returned, has been praying for soft metals, maybe not the best use of his time
- We’re out of gold, but minting shillings to trade at Morul’s
- Grimmash is now able to sell netherwood logs for gold at Teduk’s, a crate was ordered and many others are growing everywhere on soil levels, should be ready soon
- You have one more Trade License to play with
- When a violin is available, playing a 25% quickjig is the same as another 5 dwarfs for labor
- Smelting galena will give silver to be traded for gold and more peasant workers
- Current five peasants are mostly trained now with a moodable skill
- Therapist is all over the place, was necessary before but not so much now
- Only Dohan and Stormbuilder have any aptitude for training in Sorcery, basics are now in stock
- Metallurgist is making spring-steel quills for the Scriptorum
- You have only a season or less until all the water freezes; I recommend a screw pump to fill the new cisterns mined from fireclay and dirt.  A surface opening for the well is already in place.  The Bucket Brigade hauling water from booze to keep our wounded alive took a large part of my micro-managing time
- The quarry bush field next to the Thatchery and Scriptorum could be the basis for a library.  The library is not what it used to be in earlier releases but +3 military skills are a lot better than what we have now, same with medical training
- Most of what is still forbidden is outside the protective walls
- Only McMeph remains immobile in the hospital, bellyaching for a better diagnostician.  Have been training one at the Apothecary but it’s slow going; at least he has scars now instead of open wounds and busted bones
- Military action wasn’t an option in my turn so I ordered mithril on high priority from the Elves, extracted the remaining raw adamantine, made some mithril in the Metallurgist, set it to make more and left those bars for you to use.  There are a couple of mithril mailshirts now, I’d recommend mithril cloaks but it’s your call.  Heavy armor is useless on a dwarf without armor wearing skill
- There are various notes scattered around; not enough but, hey 
- There’s enough booze and food for 200 dwarves, easy
- Peasants#1-5; ready to be re-named as requested on the forum thread

The save:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8367