Hadn’t written anything here for a while, but I was very bussy with learning secrets of magic. Oh yes, this fort started a program for training mages and I am the first to undergo training. It is all so exciting! It started with selecting out those with talent, a plan crafted by ruling class of the fort, namely mayor, Splint and Arcvasti. Then Arcvasti revealed his blueprints for magic school, truly, for a dwarf who did not had a talent for magic, to think out a way for create a workable structure is amazing. And it is something that he did merely as a side though among his other research. To call him genius would be an understatement. I had great pleasure and honor of working under him when he was researching separate schools of magic.
It happened after altars of Mountainheart and Oceanguide were completed. Arcvasti called for me and I came. I had heard some whispers, but it was entirely another thing to see him for myself. Shadows were swirling around him in ways I had seen them move only around the maddest of possessed crafters. But he was still very capable of holding a conversation, was I unable to see the shadows I had thought him as a common dwarf. Turns out he wanted that I would figure out how to build altar of Everflame, the last one to be built. He gave me a book of notes and diagrams about the subject, saying that he had bought it off a caravan. Well, if he needs a book, then fine, he bought a book. Probably didn’t want me to think wrong of him, with the entire invention streak going on. Playing the political game, attempting to look less dangerous than he actually is. Well, I can see the shadows around him and they are screaming and squirming like none that I had seen before. It is obvious who is in control here and that is Arcvasti. Heh, those spirits are probably seriously regretting their actions right about now.
Met some more dwarves of interest, namely our priest, Nidor. He looks both more humble and more dedicated than those pompous bastards at the capital. It seems that gods appreciate his work, as he has continuously produced a trickle of metal for the fort. It is amazing to see goods appear out of thin air, created by faith of a dwarf.
By the gods, Arcvasti went off and done it. He has surpassed himself. No wonder he didn’t have the time to research Everflame altar himself. He was busy REVIVING DRAGONS. I was meditating at Moutainheart altar at the time, when a large commotion in the upper levels of fort alarmed my senses. I was starting to get pretty good at sensing through surrounding stone, good enough in fact, to notice that the altar should had been placed one urist to the east for it to be in symmetrical position to all four walls of the chamber. Nevertheless, I went upwards to investigate. My jaw hit the floor as my mind tried to process why and how arcvasti was showing off a red dragon just sitting there in the middle of dining room. Splint was also there, trying to drink himself into sweet oblivion and spare his brain from attempting to process this. He seemed just drunk enough to speak without thinking too much, so I asked him a few questions about what happened. Apparently, Arcvasti tinkered with a soul of a wyrm and forged a dragon out of it. Now it likes us and we are supposedly protected by it. I’m thinking that it probably considers us part of its newfound hoard, as a sort of a mix between automatic treasure producers and cattle watchers. Quite frankly, I don’t mind that. If it sees value in us, we can use that to inflict immeasurable terror to our enemies.
Curses and damnation, Arcvasti has been killed. He died at the maw of an alligator, terrible lizard with great amounts of sharp teeth. He was buried today, and many gathered to see him go. But there were no sadness in the faces of those that gathered, no! They were thinking ahead, even as the greatest mind to grace dwarfkind has been laid to rest, they though only about what dangers the future would hold. The fort would forge its way to greatness, for the dwarves here are of immeasurable spiritual strength. There is not a being or thing that could break our resolve. Though I still shed a tear for him, it was a great loss for dwarfkind, I doubt his genius will ever be mached.