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[IndigoFenix]

Felsite 18, 101

"Check it out, Gozru.  Whaddaya suppose that thing is?"
"Fun if I know.  Gnome junk.  Prob'ly dangerous, don't go near it."
"I think it's turned off.  Hey, check out this thing."  CLUNK.  "Oh fun, it's on.  Don't seem to be doin' much tho.  Jus' makin them clankin' noises."
"Don' touch it then.  Remember what happened to Estrur?  Walked straight into a gnome thingy.  Ground up into sausage and turned 'is bones into a chair.  You wanna be a chair, Stosbub?"
"No.  Jus' lookin' is all."
"Well don' look too hard.  So iss a gnome fort, eh?  Where d'yah sppose all of them gnomes are at?"
"There was dat one by the river.  The fishing one?  Remember how she screamed?  'Help me!  Goblins!  Zach!  Dimlin!  Hide the children!'  Heh heh.  Yeh know, she was a hard one to hit.  Dem gnomes are small targets."
"Aye, and a mite spiteful for it.   Amxu was goin' snatchin' and one o' the little buggers bit 'im right on the wrist.  Left a nasty scar, too."
"Yer serious?  And here he was goin' around tellin' everyone he got that scar fightin' a big ol' human with a sword."
"Nah.  Gnome bite.  Yeh can tell by the little teeth marks.  Now shut it, I'm checkin' for traps."
"I don' think there are traps.  Look, the place is a ghost town.  Some little birdy probly told 'em we was comin' an' they all upped and left."
"There was that one by the river - oh, look!  Some more!"  THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK.  "Heh.  Got 'em.  See?  They're still here."
"I think some of 'em was spiders."
"Got to watch out for those too.  They bite.  Amxu said there was a whole bunch 'o gnomes here last month."
"So mebbe dey left a few behind.  I tell yah, most of 'em are gone.  This'll be like takin' candy from a baby.  Or takin' babies from -"
"Shut it!  I heard somthin'.  From over there."
"Think it's the gnomes?"
"Probly."
"How many?"
"Dunno.  Could be a whole bunch."
"Hey, you two!  What's takin' so long?  You almost done in there?"
"Hang on a bit.  Gozru thinks he's found the gnomes."
"Stand back.  I'm gonna shoot the door."
"Ah, come on!  Whaddaya so afraid of?  A couple gnomes?"
"What if it's more'n 'a couple'?"
"I tell you, there's nothin' to be worried about.  We open the door and shoot 'em dead."
"Stosbub, don't be an idiot.  Let's do dis carefully."
"Nah, let's get it over with.  How bad could it be?"

Spoiler: CLICK (click to show/hide)

"Oh shi-"

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

wAIT,WHAT?

[IndigoFenix]

Felsite 30, 101

"I suppose we should congratulate you on your bold tactics?"

I sat there in silence, deep in thought.

"Bold, as in kobold.  It's a pun.  Because, you see, kobolds like to -"

"Yes, yes, I got it the first time."  I stood up.  "However, we are NOT kobolds.  It is not our way to throw away the lives of our brave citizens by swarming the enemy like ants."

"Even so, I thought you performed surprisingly well, given the circumstances and the fact that we were not in any way prepared for a goblin attack at the time -"

"WHY WERE WE NOT PREPARED?" I shouted at Palu, making him jump in surprise.  "I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE TRAPS?"

"In all fairness, sir, they came through the recently made back entrance, rather than the front -"

"And is the front entrance properly trapped?"

"Well, no, but the elves were-"

"FORGET THE ELVES!  By the gods of inspiration, how could we... never mind," I relented, calming down.  "What's done is done.  The important thing is that this kind of thing doesn't happen again.  How many did we lose?"

"Three gnomes and two forest spider hatchlings," muttered Meph.  "We killed four goblins and a pair of succubi that were sneaking in at the time."

"I see.  But let's not forget the aftermath.  Three children have gone raving mad, one is in depression, and then there's Daggrinbum, who went berserk in the barracks - "

"Not to worry, I chopped the little freak into - "

"Yes, we all saw, Meph - not to mention five gnomes hospitalized, and who-knows-how-many miserable and likely to snap at any moment.  Point is, we can't take another attack like this.  And you can be sure the goblins will be back, and in greater numbers."

I sat down and folded my hands, eyes closed.  I didn't ask for any of this.

But someone has to be the leader.  And they chose me.

"Palu.  I want you to set up cage traps all along the front corridor.  Doc, set that machine to start pumping out cages, I want enough to hold a small army of prisoners.  Meph, find the best fighters who proved their mettle in the battle and start training them - maybe go look for that hooligan that bit that goblin's hand clean off, that was pretty brutal.  Stras, get the caimans Arcvasti, Casey and Bubbles outside to guard the front door.  No, wait, first armor them in dire lion bones, then put them outside.  Also, see if you can do something about training that mammoth.  As for the rest of you, we're going to need to make some new weapons and armor, so miners, start looking for metal and see if you can find a good smith among the latest migrants.  We could also use a good cook to cheer up those who lost friends or relatives in the fight.  Any questions?"

Silence.  "Cage traps?  But they take the fun out of everything!  You want to kill goblins, I can make weapons that -"

"Palu, after you've set up a corridor full of cage traps, then you can start making those superweapons you've been talking about so much."

I stood up and walked out.  "This is not going to happen again."

[HooliganintheFort]

Oh man, this just keeps on getting better.  Super weapons? Can't wait to see what they are.

[Timeless Bob]

Superweapons are logically the weapons that contain all the sub-weapons.  It's merely a logical progression.  For instance, the Multi-cart Unidirectional Repeating Death Rail System (MURDRS) is a superweapon made up of five bladed minecarts, a powered roller, a basically circular track and a door hooked to a lever.  The door activates/deactivates the weapon (often attached to a pressure plate), which allows for up to five bladed minecarts to be sent hurtling along an "s" shaped track that crosses and recrosses a raised straight track.  The system incorporates both the kinetic kill sub-weapons of bladed rail-carts as well as the highly amusing dodge-the-cart-into-open-channels-lined-with-spikes-that-lead-back-to-the-beginning-of-the-passage "eternal passageway" sub-weapon.  The system has a 98% kill rate for anything caught within the passageway when the weapon is activated, but is non-discriminatory in its charnel producing properties. 

A safer, if less effective alternative is to set up the "eternal passageway" weapon corridor in serial, lining the upper, initial corridor with mace/hammer traps, the secondary channel corridor with spear/blade traps. and a final channel corridor below that with no exit, functioning entirely as an oubliette.  Of course, the smells of rotting victims and any loot they may have been carrying remain in the depths of the oubliette, so this final portion should descend at least 15 Z-levels below the secondary corridor, with the possibility of water pressure systems pushing any survivors into rooms containing cage traps for orderly disposal at the leisure of the resident population.

[Meph]

I was more thinking of lasers. And clockwork sharks. Laser sharks.

And railguns. And elephants. Railgun-wielding, clockwork elephants of doom. That sounds much more like it.

And chicken. With flamethrowers.

[IndigoFenix]

Galena 3, 100

It's been a busy summer, if a mostly uneventful one.

As instructed, Palu and the Doc have been working together to set up a lengthy trap corridor that should be impervious to all but the most wily of invaders.  Both expressed distaste at my lack of creativity, but they'll have plenty of time to set up their more creative defenses once the fortress is secure.  Enemies can be forced to travel down the corridor by means of a floodgate that closes off the main passage, the lever located in the main dining area.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The passage off to the side leads straight down to the mines, where we uncovered a large malachite vein.  The best metalsmith among the migrants, Jaxy, has set up a crude smelter to produce copper and a forge to mold it.  Doc tells me he'll be able to set up a much more efficient smelting system once we construct a dynamo to power his arc furnace.  He and Palu have been discussing technological experiments of some kind.

Meph seems to be enjoying his dual role as primary military commander and lead animal trainer, although his latest demonstrations have been... interesting to watch.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He's recruited a couple of migrants that show promise, most notably a former mechanic who goes by the name of 'Hooligan'.

Zach, initially distraught over the loss of his wife, has starting to show signs of improvement.  The prickle berries and bloated tubers from his farm have added some much-welcome variation to our mostly-fish diet, and a new cook, Arcticil, has been putting them together in all kinds of ways.  Between their efforts and our newly refurbished dining room and living quarters, the overall mood of the fortress has improved substantially since the attack.

There's been some tantruming among the children, yet all the same, some of them have shown promise.  One, a boy named Regosi, has shown an interest in jewelry and is actually our most proficient gem cutter despite being underage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A caravan showed up recently.  We sold some of the items dropped by the invaders in exchange for some metal bars and a suit of gear armor that Palu requested.  I spotted Doc talking excitedly and furitively to one of the merchants about something I couldn't quite catch.  It seems he had a great need for certain rare materials of questionable taste, but was unwilling or unable to explain exactly what he intended to use them for.  Note to self: keep an eye on him.

Stras has been outside, taming the local wildlife.  He showed up with a cow moose and four new wolves following him the other day.

We have a mayor now, but she was injured in the attack and hasn't moved from her bed since.

[HooliganintheFort]

The superweapon sounds more complicated than what I imagined.

Well, time to serve my gnome home in the line of duty. 

[IndigoFenix]

A scrap of parchment found next to the machinery room:

Spoiler: actual spoiler (click to show/hide)

We tend to think of the passage of time in two different ways: I call them real, or experiential time, and abstract, or calendar time.  Real time, that's what we experience in daily life: the step-by-step movement of living things, the thrust and parry of combat, our bodies growing hungry or thirsty or tired.  Calendar time, that governs long-term events.  When we are born and when we die, when we take new jobs and how long they last, the movement of armies and caravans from one home to another.  Historical events, I mean.

Normally we don't think of these measurements of time as being separate because a day, a month, and a year are always the same length: A day is 1200 ticks, a month is 28 days, a year is 12 months.  A creature that can move once every 5 ticks can move 240 times in a day, 6720 times in a month, 80640 times in a year, and there's no way to alter that (or so we thought), so we couldn't really be blamed for thinking that these two different kinds of time were intrinsically connected, that changing one would inevitably change the other.

Well, we were wrong.

Not only is the connection between these two timescales tenuous, it is almost entirely coincidental.  Reversal of experiential time would cause unavoidable paradoxes, and its forward motion is functionally limited by the Universal Frame Rate.  However, calendar time is actually surprisingly malleable - although its manipulation does involve some caveats.

My earlier experiments were...poorly planned, I admit.  Insertion of historical events into time periods involving the murder of perpetrators of later events by assassins who weren't born yet and whose character screens explicitly described them as 'negative fifty years old'.  Oh, and for the record?  The Grandfather Paradox is bunk.  You totally CAN shoot your grandfather and nothing bad will happen to you.  Well, except that you'll be attacked and wind up on the run from your former civilization.

I'll have to be more careful, this time.  I'm not sure if they'll remember me, but I've got to lie low until the fortress has accumulated enough power and materials to build and run a new Omega Device.  I'll have to come up with a suitable excuse for generating those amounts of power, not to mention figuring out some way of forcing my way through the Event Cascade that will inevitably occur as a result.  But I'll get it right, and this time, the changes will stick.  We'll see what history has to say about THAT!

[IndigoFenix]

Sandstone 13, 100

Some gnolls have been stealing our adjustable armor, but that's okay - donating items to the wild is good for druidic merit.  Jaxy made a couple of copper sheets in the forge and Palu split them into pieces at the Tinkerer's Workshop, then began tinkering.

The job manager is very helpful when it comes to tinkering.  It takes a lot of pressure off of micromanagement, especially when gnomes keep moving the small parts around in bins.

We now have a huge population.  Mostly children, but a lot of them have been working, so that's okay.

Timber 14, 100

Some migrants showed up along with a Spiritwebber, but was already someone's pet.  We brought it to the animal training area in order to dismiss it so that we could train it for war, but it was difficult to break it away from its owner.  Only Stras was skilled enough to do so.  He then proceeded to train it for war and we assigned it to accompany Hooligan as his personal bodyguard.

Moonstone 4, 100

The goblins came back.

I immediately issued a civilian alert and pulled the lever to force the invaders through the trap-lined corridor, but they never entered.  Instead, they all swarmed toward our mammoth and began attacking it with whips and arrows.  The creature fell unconscious in seconds from the pain, but its broken and battered body continued to endure the unceasing attacks.

After a couple of minutes of waiting inside and listening to Stras argue pointedly about using the helpless beast as a shield ('Who are we, dwarves?  Why did we come here, if not to protect the creatures from the heartless marauders?  We must fight to defend the lives of every creature, no matter how large or small!') we finally decided to rescue the mammoth, as daring a charge as it was.

Meph and Stras, our two druids, led the charge, along with Dogmeat and our best war wolves, Arcvasti and his caiman partners, Hooligan and his new spiritwebber, and Grumat the bear.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The battle was won, but not without cost: Stras and Dogmeat were both killed by goblin lashers.  In a rage, Meph lept forward and attacked the leader, dueling and killing him single-handedly with a wolfram dagger, then pursuing the remaining goblins to the edge of the map.

On the way there, he encountered an Orc thief, which he attacked and killed as well, with the help of a war-trained great horned owl.

Meph now has a title: Meph Blazecouncil the Kindled Sack of Cooks.

Shortly after the battle, some wolf puppies were born.

Opal 5, 100

The mammoth was patched up at the Animal Care Area.  She was given therapy as well as bone armor to protect her in future fights.  Somehow she wound up with a title as well.

Doc has been cranking out stone items like crazy using that machine of his.  I think that's why our mason was inspired to show us that the manual labor of gnomekind is not truly obselete, he was stricken by inspiration and has created our first artifact... a stone millstone.  Well, you can't win 'em all, I guess.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I take that back.  An elf getting smashed by a steam-powered robot and gnomes crowning a forest giant as the king of the civilization.  Not too shabby.

Opal 22, 100

Arcvasti attacked and killed a goblin thief as he was escaping with a child.

Obsidian 21, 100

I've been learning about electricity today.  Using some nickel rods (it's a good thing we brought nickel with us, as we haven't found any magnetic ore yet) and a copper coil, Palu created a crude but effective electromagnet.  He explained to me that if you run electricity through it, it would generate a temporary magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of the coil.

In order to get a source of electricity, we'd need to build an electrostatic generator, and in order to store it, we'd need a capacitor.  Both of these require glass to produce.

Making glass has been a bit of an issue with us, since we don't have any sand on our map.  Fortunately, we did bring quite a number of bags with us - more than enough to create a green glass disk and some glass tubes.

Using the glass disk, some cloth, and a couple of pipes, Palu created a crude electrostatic generator and connected it to the water wheels by the river.  He then used a glass tube and two pieces of foil to construct a capacitor.

Placing the capacitor inside the electrostatic generator was enough to charge it up, which would allow it to produce a magnetic field when connected to the electromagnet.

"And why would we want to produce a magnetic field?" I wondered.

He explained to me that when ferromagnetic materials - iron, nickel, or cobalt - solidify in the presence of a magnetic field, their particles align in such a way that allows them to become permanent magnets.  A permanent magnet, he continued, could be used for a number of purposes - such as producing a dynamo, which could convert mechanical energy to electricity much more efficiently than a simple electrostatic generator.  Dynamos are at the root of all advanced technology, he said, from oscilloscopes and arc furnaces to particle accelerators, radios, artificial intelligence, guns that shoot lightning, or magnetic guns that shoot other magnets.

"It's amazing, isn't it," I said aloud.  "How can a tiny piece of nickel hold enough energy to create a furnace capable of melting steel?"

Simple, he said.  Magic.

[HooliganintheFort]

Woah, a Spiritwebber? What's that? Also a body my own bodyguard? I think you should reserve that for the almighty Meph, but that's ok.

It seems to be going great. The wolf puppies though, too bad they weren't direwolves hehe. (GoT reference)

[Meph]

DOGMEAT! No. NO!

Please assign me a new war pet, maybe the wolf puppies when they are grown ups. Good names would be "Red Viper" or "Oberyn". They should surely survive longer with these names.

[HooliganintheFort]

DOGMEAT! No. NO!

Please assign me a new war pet, maybe the wolf puppies when they are grown ups. Good names would be "Red Viper" or "Oberyn". They should surely survive longer with these names.

Dem names, hope the wolves aren't cocky though. That'll spell doom to Meph the Druid.

[IndigoFenix]

Woah, a Spiritwebber? What's that? Also a body my own bodyguard? I think you should reserve that for the almighty Meph, but that's ok.

Gnomes always have more than enough animals to go around.  Take your pick:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, remember that adoption doesn't have to be permanent.  A legendary druid showed up recently, so animal manipulation should be basically perfect from here on out.

[IndigoFenix]

26th Granite, 102

Traders showed up, and we bought a bunch of weapons and bags of sand for our cut gems.  I spotted Doc searching through the caravan for something he couldn't find, before taking a few large gems and disappearing into his workshop, muttering something about contraband.  Palu bought a Tear of Armok and a Blood of Armok for some 'special projects' of his.  We set up another Advanced Animal Training area aboveground so that we could train the grazers in combat techniques as they ate.

Palu finally completed a dynamo.  Doc was eager to create an Arc Furnace, but first, he said, he needed more power.  The more machines we added on to the factory, he explained, the slower it would run, and our tiny set of water wheels wouldn't provide nearly enough power for maximum efficiency.  Furthermore, he said, the river's shape didn't really allow for efficient power generation.  For maximum efficiency, a river should be straight, so that it could be filled up entirely with water wheels without any wasted space.

I asked him what he expected me to do about it.

He said he could redirect the river to make it more optimal for power generation, but for that, he would need the help of the miners.  I waved him away, and told the miners to do whatever Doc asked of them.

27 Slate, 102

A bone bed artifact has been created.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Our archeologist found a Bone of Armok and another Blood of Armok in an old chest, and Palu took them both.  He said they would be useful for the hand-held superweapons he was developing.

21 Felsite, 102

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some goblins showed up along with an elvish caravan, so we all went inside and let the elves deal with it.  They repelled the goblin attack, then left.  Not a single goblin entered the trap corridor.

It was crowded inside, so I decided to expand the dining room, but couldn't find any miners.  Where were they all?

22 Felsite, 102

Well, the trap corridor finally paid off.  Not invaders, but some goblin thieves were caught.  However, as we were about to reset the traps, a kobold thief, Shinald Bantochanild, attacked and killed one of our craftgnomes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He escaped, but we will have our revenge...

1 Malachite, 102

The Factory, Mark 2, is now complete!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It is powered by a massive hydromechanical power plant aboveground.  Doc didn't disappoint.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While using powered rollers to connect the water wheels is...unorthodox, he said that rollers are actually a more efficient means of transporting mechanical power over long, straight distances than axles.  Plus, they look cool when they move.

With this, we should have plenty of metal soon enough!  Then maybe Palu can start his more complicated projects.

15 Malachite, 102

An owl gives warning...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm recording an image of the settlement's main floor here, since I haven't done so yet.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Other than this, there isn't really anything worth mentioning.  There's the trap corridor, which I've already shown, and a few levels down there's a smelter and forge we set up inside a malachite vein.  Nothing particularly interesting.

---

MEANWHILE, deep underground...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Seems a little strange, don't you think?  I thought it would make more sense to build the main machines near the surface, where it's close to the river.  What's the point of hollowing out this area down here?

I don't know, but you heard the boss: do whatever the Doc says.

Even if the Doc specifically told us not to tell the boss what we're doing?

Ah, don't confuse me with your philosophical rambling!  Maybe the Doc just wants to have a little side hobby that he doesn't want the boss to know about.  I sure wouldn't want everyone to know about my used socks collection.

You have a used -

Not the point!  I'm just saying, the Doc's hobby projects are probably really crazy stuff.  You saw the guy.  Nutty, but not bad.  I certainly don't think he's planning anything sinister or anything like that.