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To arms! Death to all friends of nature!

32 (66.7%)

Indifferent

4 (8.3%)

Let peace return, we've humiliated them enough.

12 (25%)

Total Members Voted: 48

[Splint]

SANDSTONE

The beetles stir.

I feel vibrations in the stone.

Shaitan is worried the evil wizards come to finish us. I am still powerful, and will crush their head bones when they come. It has been too long since I last wrote. I have lost track of the years, but this will be a boon.

I have much space to write and ample ink that has not dried away as a result.

-

I felt a strange strength drain from the altar some months past. One of Shaitan's kin has been freed. He felt it as well. It is Magnus, he says. I recall Magnus. She is a good shrew. She bonded Shaitan to my meat.

-

A draw upon the energy happens again. I sense a record keeper is responsible. I suspect a great piece of attire will result.



-

A rat attempts to steal the water I mop from the walls. I have strangled it and eaten its meat in retaliation. I have speared its head bone on a marble spike as a warning to the rats, but they continue to accost my water.

-

I hear sounds of carving around me. Miners? Why have my kin taken so long to save me? These unscrupulous rats and beetles have been infuriating and I tire of wall water mopped with my shirt!


TIMBER

The carving sounds are still evident. Where are they?

-

Shaitan does not believe the brothers come. I have held hope for this long. I will hold hope more.

-

The record keeper has finished his item. I believe it to be a head wrap or turban. But I am unsure which.



-

 A liaison of the plains people has come,as do merchants seeking commodities.

-

A spirit now intrudes upon us but the brothers do not follow. It says “My Name is Medtob, how did you get here?” I said back “I do not know any Medtobs.” The spirit then left.

My shared mind schemes against me, because spirits do not flit away like that and Shaitan observed the spirit as well and concurs.

Shaitan has gone mad.

I have gone mad.

We do not know what to do with this conclusion, so we stalked rats and beetles about the dining hall for their meat and piled their head bones in the corner to honor Akrulnil.

-

I wish I had my arms and mail. Why could their be no oil to maintain them for so long? If the brothers come, they will not accept the head bones. Arms and armor in such sorrowful condition are also not good for trade with fellow beardkin for ale and roasts.

-

The spirit continues to haunt us. It says the brothers will come, but they labor to uncover other parts of Akrulnil. Shaitan says  the spirit lies to us to calm our minds.

I cannot trust the spirit as I know no Medtobs.
I cannot trust Shaitan because we agreed he has gone mad.
I cannot trust myself because we agreed I have gone mad.

The brothers do not come, only rats and beetles.

MOONSTONE



-



-

I am told by the madness spirit that the brothers have dragons. The dragons nearly slay several in protecting the fortress from vermin large and terrible in the shape of flies, but luck prevents some from being slain with fire. A ranger is not so fortunate and several greenskins are not so fortunate and die in fire while others have their limb meat severed and head bones pierced with sword.





I still do no trust the spirit.

-

Medtob says merchants come and they are sick. Why does the spirit continue to haunt me when I and Shaitan  both know it is not real?

-

The digging noises continue. I hear voices through the aging ironbark doors. Voices I do not recognize and in great number. The madness grows worse.

-

I beg Shaitan to end the voices. To find the source in my mind and stamp it out. He blocks the sound of voices from my ears but I still feel the tromp of boots and the cleaving of pick through rubble. Medtob will not cease its accosting of us.

Nefarious mind! Read the words!

THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.
THE BROTHERS DO NOT COME. THE GHOST IS A LIE. THE SOUNDS ARE A LIE.

-Nearly all of the next pages are the same phrase on an endless repetition. Either the writer actually had gone insane, or he was trying to convince himself of such.-

-

The sounds return. Something bangs upon the old ironbark doors of my home. I have locked and barred them. Madness or not I do not wish to have my throat meat cut while I snooze.

-

Shaitan tells me he senses a second thunderous presence.



An ancient one, as old as Akrulnil itself. If any brothers yet live, they will slay it. But what then? Will it change form like all the others and remain? Medtob says the brothers now reforge dragons of poison into dragons of fire.

The ghost clearly lies. Nobody has such arcane might.

OPAL

A month passes. The sounds of boots and banging continue. Medtob continues to haunt me still.

-

The voices continue. They speak praises for marble halls and of sorrow for the dead brothers who litter the hall and scorn for the dead wizards there as well.

-

Greenskins attempt to war upon the brothers according to Medtob. I shoo Medtob away as I do not believe him.

-

Medtob returns to accost me again. He informs: Murder is done upon the greenskins. I shoo Medtob away as I do not believe him.

-

Shaitan manifests and confronts Medtob. Medtob flees. Shaitan informs: The ghost is real, and we are not mad.

-

Medtob returns and I ask: Why does it not inform the brothers we are here. Medtob replies: To help calm us and inform of events. To allow us to be ready for matters among new brothers.

The brothers will come. Shaitan and Ulfric wait for them.

OBSIDIAN







Medtob comes. Medtob informs: Panda men make war upon the brothers. Panda pike cuts open stomach meat of a plant picker. I do not know the panda men and inform him so. The pandas struck in Opal alongside greenskins. Or perhaps unaware of each other.

The brothers do murder upon them, piercing head bones and slashing limb meat away in great arcs with swords. Shaitan claps in my mind and commends the brothers for the murder done on invaders. I am filled with delight and clap as well. I ask: What of the injured brother. Medtob informs: He goes to the hospital room to receive care.

-

The cave elves come to trade. The brothers ignore them and inform they want for nothing. It is good they do not have to bargain for commodities. The brothers are strong in both war and industry and this is  the sign of such.

-

Medtob asks: What is the legend of how I became entombed and forced to live on vermin and wall water.

I share the evil wizards open gates from elsewhere to bury Akrulnil after many decades of murder done upon them for their invasions. Each season the wizards would send hordes of bone men and corpse rot breath minions and the youngers of their ranks to war upon Akrulnil.

Each season the ferocity increased. Each season still Akrulnil exported death to the wizards. But time began to murder heroic war dwarves who faced them each time. The brothers became fearful of losing all the war dwarves, as beardlings who came of age and took up sword or spear and mail to protect Akrulnil would die in great numbers. The brothers sought aid and used an aged tome brought by the founders of Akrulnil to open a gate to call for aid.

Those who consorted with the wizards answered and informed: We seek the same goal. To destroy the evil doers and defilers of the order of life and death. The brothers asked: How could they bring them through? The consorters answered: By way of the all-metal.

Akrulnil had long since used all of its all-metal to forge blades with which to war upon the wizards. All but one bar. A compromise was made and the monarch searched among the brothers for one to take up demon spirit to protect Akrulnil.

Ulfric spoke out: I will take the demon.

And so Ulfric performed the ritual as instructed, and Shaitan made home within me. Shaitan halted the wrath of time, and as other war dwarves passed, Ulfric the Demonbound endured and crushed the head bones and severed the meat of many wizards and their minions.

Medtob then asked again: How did Akrulnil get buried if I was there to deliver murder upon them?

I answered: Whilst I fought a deep cavern monster, the wizards assaulted the entrance twice in a season. Younger war dwarves fought them back but the wizards had prepared a scheme and used their magic to open gates to other worlds full of sand and rock and sand and buried Akrulnil in it. The sudden burial caused much bedlam and many parts of Akrulnil collapsed. Most of the brothers perished. However I held hope the brothers yet lived and would come and unbury us. Shaitan called me a dolt and pointed out only he and I had made it to the entrance.

And so we waited in the dining hall. And now the brothers come like I believed! It simply took many years to unbury Akrulnil under the piles of sand and rock.

Medtob departed looking solemn as if to speak but held his tongue. Shaitan is the dolt and accepts such. The brothers come!

GRANITE

Medtob returns and is solemn. He informs me the brothers have since died. New brothers are the voices and boot tromps we hear.

-

I have great sadness. It is wrong for the brothers to be dead! Those treacherous wizards will see their minions broken and their blood in stacks so high it will drown smaller minions.

-

 I wait to meet the new brothers and inform Medtob so.


-Excerpts from Miner Urir Painthelp's journal-

Granite 10

I hate being on clean up detail. Those damned swordsdwarves always make a massive mess when they do their jobs. Would it kill them to limit the chopping to just heads or even just one quick head stab?

At least the duke waited until after new years to have us hop to it.

Granite 13

Medtob's been going on about some dwarf in the caverns named Ulfric. I know he's a ghost and all, but has he gone soft in the head? There's nobody named Ulfric in the whole damn fortress. Stupid ghost. We memorialized him, why is he still here?

Granite 15



Some kid's acting weird, speaking in tongues and all that strangeness. Even Magnus can't understand what the girl's saying, which is saying a lot. Can't even believe how quick I got used to that thing being around us.

Granite 21



Kid finished her project. Pretty nice looking hatch cover I guess.

Granite 25

Apparently the brainy fellow who digs around the rocks and shit found another one of those huge statue-golem-robot-things.

Slate 8

OH MY GOD MAKE THE GIANT FEET STOP AT NIGHT FOR GODS SAKE CANT SLEEP

Slate 13

Sent down to investigate Medtob's claims about that dwarf with someone else. All I can see is dark and dead guy. There are those doors we can't force open though. Maybe I should take out the wall to get a look inside.



-

Sweet mother of all that's holy. He wasn't lying.



We found a dwarf in there with near freakishly sized muscles that stank of death. The whole damn room was full of piles of vermin remains and there was a suit of steel plate armor that was so rusted up the chain under armor wouldn't even move; it just sort of crumbled when I tried to move it.

The dwarf says his name is Ulfric and that he's been waiting to meet “the new brothers.” Told him we were the current residents so he says good and that he's been waiting almost half a year for us to finally come in and get him because he broke the locks a while ago. Something about thinking he'd gone insane when he heard us cutting through the rock and nosing around.

Anyway, he gave us a chest he had in the wall and said he'd like to trade it for food and drink. I took the box up to the archeologist and showed him to the food stores.


FELSITE

I am now among the new brothers and after quenching thirst for ale and downing a barrel of meat I asked to be shown the fortress and asked the name of the keep. The new brothers have renamed Akrulnil Igerrur.

So be it. May Igerrur stand tall and strong!

-

I write of the dwarves I have met. The first was a dwarf of the pick named Urir. She is a dwarf of dry humor and general rancor even when in good spirits. As I followed her to get needed meat and ale I pass four dwarves of the arm. They are lead by Tirion the woodshaper and move with the purpose of heroic war dwarves of old and bear armor of bloodsteel and spears made from the bones of giants. I congratulate Tirion on his profession as woodshaper and inform that the lumber surely feared his chisel and mallet and elves surely cursed his masterworks with every fiber of their mithril plants.

We passed through long storage rooms filled with boxes and bags and racks of weapons and other commodities then passed more warriors lead by a Huntress named Vexxy. She is a good leader and her mithril shield is a good sign of office. We passed by an “embassey” and a place to armor what I thought would be war mutts when I peeked in. Igerrur is a mighty place to have frightful lizards as warriors.

We continued past an empty jail room and the offices of the sheriff and record keeper. Many dwarves stared and the large war mutts remind me of my long dead companion Borik who was like them but bigger and with larger teeth. Many of the beardlings did not pay me heed and made fake war upon eachother with toy axe and hammer amid a great red fire dragon.

I asked Urir: Why does the dragon let small dwarves make fake war upon its back and tail? She answered: Because the dragons protect Riverrun, even if they drop the ball sometimes.

I do not understand this phrase.

After food I was shown much of the rest of Igerrur. Beardlings played and all were content if not full of greatest mirth. There were no quarrels for bucket water to drink of and when asked Urir spoke that bucket water is for cleaning and watering injured brothers. In Akrulnil many haulers were forced to quarrel with fellow beardkin over bucket water as the wizards sabotaged the fields and murdered our crops with fire.

In a bank for storing coins and pressing them with a mighty press without fuel I met many dwarves but most seemed preoccupied with making merry over the discovery of a great avatar of the gods that stood in their midst. It has been long since I gazed upon the destroyers. I ask where they come from and Reudh tells me they come from here, buried in sandstone and gneiss. They are guardians of Igerrur with dragons.

I met the sorcerer-dwarves of the four elements, warriors of the arm. Khaziraad speaks the language of stone and wields a bronze blade as tall as some dwarves as I would my axe and hammer. Unib speaks the language of water and wears a helm shaped like the head of an asp. It is a frightful helm with fangs and rubies set in the eyes. Bobnose whispers to the air and is of ill spirits when Unib calls him “The Flatulent.” I chortled at him and he ensnared me in webs conjured from nothing and hung me by my ankles from them in a way that I struck my head. The Firebender Tenderroast showed me kindness and cut me free of the webs with fire. He is of energetic and jolly humor and he is pleasant to speak to. All have symbols carved into their plate. All will be powerful warriors of the arm in time.

Shaitan chortled at me for banging my head.

I saw a great stable full of frightful war steeds and rooms filled with mail and weapon and craft and bolt. I saw a room devoted to smelting ores of silver and lead and copper or firing coke from coal. I saw a room devoted to working wood into bins and other items and a room devoted to working steeloak and ironbark but little was made there. I saw a room devoted to firing bricks for mosaics that sat empty and to the cutting and shaping of stone and a room devoted to painting in which three young beards played games of dice for coins with slung muskets on their shoulders dressed in mail and dragon scales.

I declared stone working to be one of the great the arts beside war making and metal working and the dwarf Reudh agreed. He is an amicable dwarf who walked with Urir and I while I was guided about Igerrur. We continued into part of the smithing wing whereupon I saw a priest confer a blessing on a suit of plate.

I recognized the plate.

It was a design of Akrulnil. It was made of the volcanic metal of the old brothers and polished to perfection. It had spaces for mighty runes to be set within it. I shoved the priest aside despite Shaitan's bewaring of the priest. I placed my hands upon the helm and saw the old brothers in the shining black with red vein metal. I saw my family and others. I saw friends long gone: Catten, Ferro, Gordak, Urif, Mar, Sodel. I saw Borik my great bargehst companion.

I am not ashamed.

I blubbered endlessly for minutes in front of the new brothers. I blubbered like a child to whom his favored miniforge was lost. I blubbered like a widower whose wife lays dead from murder done upon her by greenskins in war. I blubbered like a count whose slade thimble mandates went unheeded. Shaitan attempted to comfort me but I continued to blubber.

When finally finished the Priest asked: “Are you okay? Something bothering you?”

I Answered.

“All is well. Because Akrulnil Endures.”


So we have a veeeeery short update that actually covered the whole of winter and spring plus Sandstone.

We now have a demonbound warrior I've decided to name Ulfric, and for story purposes he is the last of the dwarves who once called this area home (from whom we've been digging up all kinds of shit and can attribute many discoveries to.) As you can see he writes and talks in a very archaic way to modern speakers of his language. He was buried for several centuries in the ruins of his home by some very powerful warlocks and the demon spirit within him prevented time from catching up to him like it did all the other legendary warriors of his home, subsisting on vermin and water he sopped off the walls with his shirt or the remains thereof.

I've since named him champion of the fortress and got him set up with Volcanic plate armor, a bloodsteel great axe, and a wolfram sledgehammer. A second suit and a longsword are being made for anyone not in a squad that wants to volunteer to join him as his training partner and war buddy.

We didn't trade much. Sold some garbage and paid off the company debt with the dwarf caravan and ignored the drow because we didn't need anything. Also upgraded our depot to Bifrost as a show of force. Because suck it Frosty! We also have fresh batches of raptor chicks running around, the archeologist found a second guardian at some point, and an herbalist got stabbed. How he didn't die I have no idea but the flee interaction and all the traps on the roadside probably had something to do with it.

I'm also prepping for a monarch to arrive since I'm positive the sheer amount of shit I offered up might get his attention.

I just read through this, and I think its great. I would like to request a dwarf please.
Female dwarf name Thelia Profession sword dwarf
I would prefer someone unmarried and with no relatives if possible. Thank you

Once more I thank you for your kind words. Also, I've set you up with Cuggan Odinal, a Soaked Darkness Swordmaster. She has no friends or family, her only pet went MIA some time ago, and her only acquaintance is Ilral the Fortress Guard

Heh, sorry about my drop in contributions, shortly after my last post I had broken my right hand in an accident. That kinda killed the journal entry side of things for my part.

Ouch. Gotta wonder what happened, but yeah, totally understandable.

Hey, I'm just the cavern militia captain, I can't know much of demons... and if I did, saying my opinion would at the very least be considered sedition if not outright treason.

Yup. And you were among the first to meet Ulfric after Urir found him.

Anyway, sorry for so short an update with so little. Enjoy guys. And I hope I did a good job conveying that Ulfric was of a very different culture to modern dwarves.

[Tirion]

We found an ancient warrior, and he approves of me? I'm flattered.

[Splint]

We found an ancient warrior, and he approves of me? I'm flattered.

That he does! But then what dwarf wouldn't be approving of a spearmaster who doubles as a legendary carpenter? Hell the only way you could get more dwarfy is if you were an axe or hammer dwarf (but it'd take a while to retrain you and I don't feel like making new weapons.)

[Tirion]

Does my weapon/armor have any runes on it? Or poison?

[Splint]

Does my weapon/armor have any runes on it? Or poison?

Armor.... I don't remember but pretty sure your squad's got anti-stun, nausea, pain, and dizziness runes in the armor (to help combat the odd flu outbreaks mostly.) I have to check when I get home. Weapon has no runes/poison since they're made of bifrost. Didn't think your guys would need them since thier packing the second best metal in the mod for weapons.

But I'm sure I'll know what runes you guys did and didn't have if something kills you.

[Tirion]

Sounds great, though web immunity might be a good addition.

[Splint]

Sounds great, though web immunity might be a good addition.

Unfortunately there's no runes for that (which I do approve of.) Only fire and air mages are webimmune, the former able to burn them off and the later able to walk on them.

You guys will like the next update. More dead dorfs.

[Tirion]

Okay then. And if we have NOSTUN and still wake up from sleep, that old bug is finally fixed.

[Splint]

Okay then. And if we have NOSTUN and still wake up from sleep, that old bug is finally fixed.

Dunno what bug that is. The surface squads have had those nostun runes for over a year or so with no ill effects.

[Tirion]

Okay then. And if we have NOSTUN and still wake up from sleep, that old bug is finally fixed.

Dunno what bug that is. The surface squads have had those nostun runes for over a year or so with no ill effects.

The bug where a creature with NOSTUN goes to sleep and never wakes up.

[smakemupagus]

Good stuff Splint.  Nice work with the art like the drawing of the battle too.

[Splint]

Okay then. And if we have NOSTUN and still wake up from sleep, that old bug is finally fixed.

Dunno what bug that is. The surface squads have had those nostun runes for over a year or so with no ill effects.

The bug where a creature with NOSTUN goes to sleep and never wakes up.

Never encountered such an issue.

Good stuff Splint.  Nice work with the art like the drawing of the battle too.

Thank you, thank you, I try. 

[Splint]

-From the official record of Suthmam Atoriton, 2nd Captain of the Fortress Guard of Riverrun-

FELSITE 24

Patrols continue to be unimpressive. I found Captain Erush's journal and there appears to be a group that's been staying in the tavern for most of the past... Three years maybe? I managed to catch one and they just like to use the tavern as a base for exploring the forest. The arrival of three of his associates an hour after seems to confirm this.

FELSITE 25

11:18 AM: Busted the Thunderguards for illegal gambling. Again. They know they're only allowed to gamble in the tavern. I told them this for the fifth time and smashed their dice with my hammer.

2:45 PM: Duke Rakust has had enough of the crab hiding out in our lake. He's looking for someone to volunteer to lure the thing into an ambush; two guardians should be more than a match for that thing.



3:00 PM: The Fortress Guard has been assigned to an extermination mission to give our weapon arms some stretching and clear a path for the miners. I guess that's fair, plus if something goes wrong the Paints can bail us out.



FELSITE 28

9:12 AM: Found a pet reported missing roughly five days ago. The Commander will be happy I'm sure. The dwarf seems to hold an acute hatred for the pet in question but there's likely no foul play. Moleweasels are known to be killed in this general vicinity every so often by frogmen. By the looks of things it was probably killed by a group of tribals of the same race.




9:32 AM: Cave crocodile spotted near the eventual work site by Guardsdwarf Angzak. Hopefully we'll be able to best it with weight of numbers if nothing else. We're moving to engage now.

9:52 AM: Guardsdwarves Angzak, Ilral, and Udir have been killed in action. The Crocodile has been dubbed Alchemyadored for the intents of this record. I've killed the beast but only barely and I'll put in to have anti-exertion runes set in my plate armor and to have a new hammers forged for the guard to replace the gemstone ones, along with some non-ornamental armor.



As of 10:00 AM the Fortress Guard is severely crippled and in need of recruits. The Granite Paints will be deployed to guard the work site.

HEMATITE 1

Remained on guard by the work site until 6:00 AM, at which point the Granite Paints arrived to take over the duty. A miner is en route to prepare the kill zone and draw the crab into the guardians. In the internment period, my armored raptor Bomrek killed two giant roaches with my assistance.

HEMATITE 8

Guardians in place. Zanmuth Datlad has gone down to lure the beast. I hope he's quick on his feet.

HEMATITE 9





The guardians perform admirably and crushed the beast! Finally we can rest easy. A work crew is already rigging that thing up to drag to the butcheries.

HEMATITE 10

3:30 PM Report of an assault came in. A child with aspirations to join the smithing guild was attacked by frogmen in the caverns while she was following her mother around (Guardsdwarf Angzak's corpse hasn't been buried yet.) Swordlords Vexxy and Urvad took care of it. The kid's miserable and needs some serious medical treatment though.

I've put up posters around the fortress hoping to get volunteers to join the fortress guard, but I'm not holding my breath after last month's debacle.

4:17 PM: The child's died of the injuries sustained when she and her rescuer were ambushed by a cave crocodile. Armorer Gumka was the one who'd recovered the girl and brought her to the hospital following Sergeant Vexxy's swift intervention, where it was discovered she'd died en route.



Between the rot along the way to the equipment and corpse recovery site and these deaths, morale is beginning to drop. If rioting starts, there's no way in hell I'll be able to contain it alone. And Rulush help us if the Paints flip out... I mean what the hell am I supposed to do about them? Use foul language?

HEMATITE 14

The carpenter Tath has reported extreme unhappiness due to the events of the past month. I'm shadowing her for the next few days just in case.

HEMATITE 28

Tath seems to have stabilized as far as mood goes. She says she's fine now, and her son Bot is feeling better thanks to ample supplies of some drink or another. Patrolling this place alone has been a complete hell and I've only gotten about three or four hours of sleep per night because of it.

I really need volunteers.

MALACHITE 7



Fix one problem, another springs up...

MALACHITE 17

Patrol ran afoul of a more inebriated-than-normal bowdwarf. He was firing arrows into the ceiling, making a general racket, and annoying people trying to have their mid-day meal. Jailed him for the day to sleep it off and confiscated his weapons. Commander Splint says that waking up in jail should “scare the  piss out of him enough to not do it again,” due to what happened to the last dwarves to be jailed here.

MALACHITE 22

3:23 PM: Found a barrel of Corpse-shock acid that had gone missing last month. I've since returned it to toxicology and I'm going to do an investigation on how the hell it got into the alley behind Urist's Steel Emporium.

9:14 PM: Had to break up a fight in the tavern, military personnel involved. The tavern needs three new tables and a chair and I've submitted the order for the tavernkeeper. Jailed three human explorers, a Thunderguard member, and Carpenter Tath for the day.

GALENA 2

The Fortress Guard is due to get a new armor set up, since my request finally went through. Dunno what exactly the new guard equipment will consist of besides the dragonscale armor.

GALENA 15

1:15 PM: Human caravan's arrived, so I'm probably going to be fairly busy watching the tavern.

2:23 PM: Giant hornets tried to pick a fight with the dragons by the river. Ended about as well as you'd think. Personally next time they accidentally torch someone the responsible dragon should be put down.

GALENA 19

Badgermen are laying siege to the place. One unit from each cardinal direction. Duke Rakust has sealed the south gatehouse,  while the militia is engaging the squads keepside. There's already a betting pool on  who'll get first blood! Damn it, Lien got the first kill. I'm out 40 sovereigns. The south unit also fled.

LIMESTONE 4

Another attempt is being made at copying the katana a ward burned out and left behind some time ago. Apparently the last attempt didn't ehh... Quite go as expected. Apparently Rakust wants it copied because he has a grudging respect for the old orcish smiths and this is probably the only example of an orcish blade of any real worth we''ll ever see, what with them getting trounced pretty soundly before the current era.

LIMESTONE 5



Somehow I don't think that's quite the weapon the Duke wanted. I've dispensed a beating (a mild one that only left a few bruises,) as ordered due to the waste of precious bifrost resources. Still, I'm sure there's some soldier who'll be able to make good use of it somewhere.

LIMESTONE 7

That stag beetle still hasn't reared its ugly head. This is pretty worrying, but I have other issues. In two days I've had to break up four fights in the taverns, run off some boars that got into the paint shop, and get a kid out from behind a damned pane of glass he somehow got behind in the new palace.

Migrants man, who needs'em? This dwarf!

LIMESTONE 16

The merchants are finally packing up. Might just be sick of having to pay 100 sovereigns a head to get their boys out of prison for starting fights and generally being annoying. Good riddance; it'll make my job a little more tolerable.

LIMESTONE 28

Seems the courtyard is getting renovated. Count Rakust wants to build a spire on the recommendation of that hulking freak Ulfric.

SANDSTONE 7



Another monster was sighted by the Paints during a routine sweep for frogmen and crocodiles. They've fallen back and I'm leading one of the guardians down to fight that... Thing.

SANDSTONE 16



An orderly's behaving very strangely. A “Fey Mood” as it's known. That big fellow says it may be due to an arcane altar somewhere in the fortress, which frankly narrows that down by about none and fuck-all since there's five of the damn things here. Regardless, I have to abstain from my usual patrol route to keep an eye on him.

SANDSTONE 22

These fucked up hours are getting to me. Last night, I had dreams about cheese. I don't even like cheese.

TIMBER 2



The Orderly calls it The Named Moons. What moons? There's only one!

TIMBER 4

Farms are being shut down due to an overabundance of food from all the animals that die in the area any given year and plentiful bread and meat-based meals stored up. Should last us a year or two, probably longer. Any plants are being siphoned into producing alcohol and medicine since there's going to inevitably be a flu outbreak when the Company merchants arrive.

TIMBER 5



The Omon representative went berserk after being trapped with Erib for several months. Seems the Mayor accidentally locked the door without bringing his keys. His raptor was pretty quick to jump on the human and tore him up pretty soundly by the time I got there.

TIMBER 6



More of those magic fellows showed up and got attacked by... Well, the walls. They spat out a bunch of little demon things like last time and they made a bee-line straight for the wizards. Chased them right out of the area.

TIMBER 15

4:45 PM: A small horde of mounted orcs have arrived with at least two packs of sabrecats right on top of the caravan's arrival this morning. The cats set on the rear of their convoy from what I understand, but it seems the guards took them out pretty handily. Duke Rakust wants the gates sealed, since we don't really have a reason to keep them open with the merchants safely inside.

I've also been asked by the Commander to headline a project. Seems we've been tasked with setting up a  proper garrison/recruitment center for the Army. Not sure why. I'm fairly certain the militia's caused enough grief for everyone who'd want to hurt the homeland that they'll come here first to make sure they don't have the feared Riverrun Militia at their back!

5:23 PM: Seems the west bridge was improperly built and it receded into a hole in the ground instead of locking off the gatehouse. The big guy Ulfric is heading out with Commander Splint's squad to eliminate a nearby group of the orcs while that situation's handled. We're all taking bets on who'll get the first kill, and if this Ulfric guy is really as hardy as he says.


Sundown. A beautiful sight to a dwarf who had been trapped underground for so long. He had gotten to see it many times since being rescued, and Ulfric still had not yet tired of it. He only wished this occasion was a better one to see it, as this eve he, along with three others – Fergus, Dailm, and Commander Splint - marched into battle.

As they left the main gate to the keep, a dwarf alerted them that one enemy squad had tried to force their way through the thickets of razorwire and spring-loaded traps on the south bridge. All well and good, but that wasn't their destination.



They went to the north as they passed through the eastern gatehouse. A group of foul greenskins had camped close-by enough to be a threat to workers if they made a move.

“Right then kiddies, same procedure as usual. Get in close, then rush them.” The Commander said, drawing his sword, a shimmering bifrost blade called “Indignation.”

The dwarf in the lead of the force drew a second, dubbed “Purity” by its wielder. “Any idea how many there are? Any war hounds?” The voice of the warrior belonged to Fergus.

Dailm drew his polished wolfram blade “Meditation” at the same time, saying “Twenty probably. Not counting the mutts. Erib says it looks like the whole lot of'em brought wolves.”

Ulfric hefted his weapons. “The number of war mutts does not matter. Their blood will lay in great stacks when we set upon them.”

“That's the spirit big guy.” Splint said, motioning for everyone to get down. They could just barely see the enemy and they were in fair disarray, as was typical of orcs. The cook-fires were scattered, many spears stacked against eachother as the orcs set up their camp. The leader was a burly common orc with a black bronze saber who was shoving the others around, trying to get them to organize their camp better.

“Right. Same as usual. Fergus?” The Commander turned to his right.

Fergus turned and nodded. “On point, gotcha boss.”

“Dailm?” Splint said, turning back.

Dailm nodded “Rear Guard, got it. I'll be here.”

“Right then. Newbie, you're behind me.” Splint elbowed Ulfric in his freakishly sized arm.

“Of course Commander.”

They spread out in the agreed 'pattern' and crept closer and closer. Their beards were practically on end before the dire wolves started barking. Then they charged, screaming like demons.



Fergus made first contact of course. An orc who hadn't yet dismounted charged the Swordmaster, spear couched like a lance, but a sidestep and cut sent his wolf face first into the ground with a pained yelp and the orc tumbling over himself into a tree. A second attacked from behind, getting his spear parried effortlessly by the skilled dwarf who then slammed Purity through the attacker's ankle, sending her tumbling to the ground. He ended the orc with a swift stab through the side of her head.

Ulfric charged in beside Splint, loosing a roar fell and terrible that gave several of the common orcs pause and sent a handful of wolves scurrying for safety. A Snaga leapt for the dwarf officer though and landed on Splint's back, jabbing at his head fruitlessly with an old dagger.

“Oh no you don't you little shit!” He bellowed, barging past a common orc and booting a wolf in the face before spinning around. He smashed the snaga between his armored bulk and a tree, knocking the wind out of the doomed greenskin as another charged him from the front, threatening to strike him with its spear as if it was a great axe! Splint jerked his arm upwards, sending Indignation's point through the snaga's head and pinning it to a tree.

He quickly stepped forward, seizing the sword in a reverse grip and yanked it free of the tree and snaga skull, and whipped it around, catching the charging orc in the neck! It staggered and spluttered as it choked on its own blood, Splint adding further insult to injury with a shield rim to the groin to put the dying orc on his face. He finished the orc with a merciful stab to the back of the head.

After taking down a second orc and a dire wolf, Splint took a moment to survey the battlefield. Several orcs and wolves were in pieces and at some point a tent caught fire. He could see what appeared to be an Uruk with Meditation sticking out of its chest and Dailm nearby smashing something's head with his shield. Fergus was yanking Purity out of a dead snaga, and Ulfric was dueling an Uruk, who suddenly went limp when Ulfric's axe got buried in his head.

“Not bad boys.” Splint said to himself before a charging dire wolf snapped him back to the fight.


TIMBER 21

With the siege lifted the fortress has been extremely busy, mostly with cleaning up the gear and corpses left behind. I got lucky and got my 40 sovereigns back, plus a little interest for betting on Fergus! That'll teach those painters.

TIMBER 22

Preparations are underway for the recruitment center. Duke Rakust ordered most of the stored paint destroyed (along with most of the regular leather,) and wants to have the center built out of as much gold and red painted blocks as we can manage. I've also been asked to investigate a strange occurrence: Two plump helmet men have shown up out of the blue.

Magnus avoids them like she might die if she's near them and Ulfric threatens them every time they go near him. The dragons don't seem to fond of them either.

MOONSTONE 17

Nothing unusual for the record happened over the last few days/weeks.

There's been the usual daily arrests of caravan guards, merchants, and citizens getting into fights at Morul's, breaking up illegal gambling games and such at the Hunter's Lodge, and continued dreams about cheese.

New smelters are being built to hasten the melting down of garbage gear, the palace is just about finished, that sort of stuff is all that's really going on. At this point I'm just waiting on the supplies to start directing the garrison's construction. There's also talk of some ceremonial suits of armor being made, and that big guy Ulfric gave me his sledgehammer. Says his axe is more than enough to fight with.

MOONSTONE 19

The wyvern that died a while back finally got processed, netted us yet another dragon that goes by the name of Balefire. We really need to stop with that... Do we really want to be remembered as the ones who began the age of the Red Dragon?

MOONSTONE 22

Oversaw the delivery of materials to Arcvasti's Study. Dumed wants to try and design a means to build our own turrets and rifles using some of what Arcvasti left behind and some damaged plans he found in the old ruins.

OPAL 1



A crocodile that didn't get tended too started snapping at someone today. My raptor, two jaguars, and a snow leopard dogpiled it and took it down without much hassle, and thankfully no dragons passed by. If one had, I'm certain there would have been civilian casualties.

OPAL 10

I'm pleased to record construction has finally begun on the recruitment center! We'll probably run out of paint before the building itself is finished, but that's okay. So long as the main floor is handled, all is well.



OPAL 21

The merchants are finally gone. Good riddance. I can finally go back to my normal route. In other news,  Dumed's managed a breakthrough! Good for him, been a long time since he discovered anything in that mess of crazy. Says he's gonna try the gunsmith next.

However, there's also the matter of that little girl Alina. She wants to join the engineering guild according to her mother. She's been behaving oddly so I'm going to have to keep an eye on her in case something goes wrong.



OPAL 25

I just spoke with Mayor Erib, and the recruitment issues I've had should be resolved come spring. Thank the gods.

OBSIDIAN 5



All's well with that kid. Good. I'd have hated to have to smash her head if she flipped shit...

OBSIDIAN 6



There was a pair of explosions this morning. The first I found to be the result of a hellfire mine we built detonating in the caverns. I could tell by the scorch marks and charred crocodile remains. Plus the dragons don't go down there.

Second was Dumed's experiments. He's finally figured out how to produce firearms! It only took the index and middle finger of a kid he had helping him with some measurements (for which I issued a warning.) At any rate, construction's going well and with these developments I may be able to get the construction of what I'm going to call “killboxes” in the caverns to deal with potential problems. Plus we may be able to finally repair that old hellfire turret and salvage that trashed acid one that's been sitting outside the front gate for only the gods know how long now.

OBSIDIAN 13

Drow caravan's arrived. Workload increase. Fuckin' great.


Hay guise, I maked a update for ya.

Alright, so where to start... Decided to do this one from the current Guard Captain's perspective. And she didn't die mid-update! Unlike the last one. The Fortress Guard got it's shit pushed in, a child was killed, and there's some monsters roaming the caverns but too nervous to approach!

We had morale drop to the lowest point for the fort with a rash of drops to content, three into fine, and one into unhappy (Tath was wife and mother to the child and a guard who died.) That was pretty much the high point of the whole mess. We finally killed that giant crab monster, but now we have a stag beetle hanging out in the upper cavern lake and a monster made of peat in the other.

I'm also working on setting up a military recruitment center, a mill (to put that millstone we got a while back somewhere useful,) I've greatly raised the popcap, and built a palace for the monarch who I'm sure will arrive after we get 20 or so more dorfs. We also now have access to machinery and gun production for those interested in such things, and got a couple artifacts!

I've also started destroying.... Tons of stuff honestly. Over a thousand separate things of paint, piles of cave animal remains, and other garbage to improve FPS and got 10-15 back as a result, and I'm melting down things fast enough that hopefully the backlog of garbage equipment won't be an issue in the future. For story purposes though the caverns are still cluttered to hell with remains. I've also stopped manual dumping for the same reasons. The remains are just too numerous to be worth dealing with anymore. There's also a matter of what to do with the literal thousands of old bones we have. Honestly I'm tempted to just destroy them. We have like... So many bones it isn't even funny. Not like we can't get more pretty easily at this point.

Enjoy guys, more to come eventually.

[The Master]

I demand a dwarf. His name will be The Master. You will have his essence take over the most fearsome hauler and he will rule over all.

[Splint]

I demand a dwarf. His name will be The Master. You will have his essence take over the most fearsome hauler and he will rule over all.

Oh god, I've drawn the eye of he who shall be the only one allowed to touch chestnut.

And define "fearsome hauler..."