Icecoon, nice work repelling the goblin invaders! You forget, though, that their intentions are basically good. After all, there are few worse fates for a child than being raised in a dwarven fortress. They're more righteous rescuers than kidnappers, when you think about it...they may teach children to hate and kill, but you never see a goblin so traumatized as to not care about anything anymore.
Houn, is there any chance of a widescreen version of that glorious fishfight? I most definitely want to add that to my wallpaper rotation. I'll happily use the square one if not.
All these new plants and animals added by the mods...craziness! Doubtless uses can be found for all of them, though...
~-~ Property of the Harvestcoast Research Division ~-~
Owner: Uzol "Escondida" Whirledurns, head of research
If found, please leave lying wherever you found it because the hauling of owned items by anyone but the owner would be a mockery of the sacred laws of property ownership, naturally.
[most of the book is a meticulous log of experiments and their results, interspersed with mechanical diagrams, but a few pages seem to have been used for personal reminiscence. -- ed.]
The new plant hybrids are growing surprisingly well. Luckily, the brewers have already managed to distill some of them, so overall I'd call them a rousing success. Glad I joined the expedition after all. I was worried they would mistrust me, since my area of expertise isn't exactly in vogue at present, thanks to the publicity the escapes from Hilltriumphs generated. Hell, most of the people here seem to take all the invasive species released from there completely in stride; they talk about centaurs like they've always been around! Maybe it's just that people out here on the frontier are more adventurous than the bourgeous city people back home, sitting comfortably in their ever-so-tasteful-yet-fashionably-modest statue gardens and sipping imported water (a filthy habit) like the decadent aspiring aristocracy they are. Yes, the frontier is the place for me, and if they're willing to fund my research and imbibe the results, all the better!
Unfortunately, despite being receptive to my botanical work, Icecoon, the current overseer, seems to have an aversion to mechanical engineering. He asked me to explain how cage traps work--apparently, he couldn't quite grasp how simple wood could contain a dragon, or how an arbitrarily large number of animals could be stuffed into a single cage--and by the time I was finished with just the basics--using wood or metal as a focus for a controlled, semi-permeable dimensional rift into hideous unknowable realities beyond our own, he looked ready to punch me. I can only imagine his reaction if I tried to tell him about levers or pressure plates.
Was saddened to hear about poor Beirus; he seemed like such a reasonable, down-to-stone fellow. Apparently, he even had family here; I'm told another dwarf has stepped up to take up the hereditary title of clan Beirus.
Hmm...I wonder whether I could combine an apple and an orange, to create a peelable apple? Very little utility, but unquestionably amusing at parties.
~-~
[Edit:] Note to self: proofread first, post second.