The Log of Idek26th Limestone 660Up until today, nothing much has happened since my last entry. We kind of fell into a routine with our work to expand this place and get some much needed tools and other equipment forged.
Then Dewsif and Alev returned from their patrol with some newcomers in tow. At first I thought there would be another three or four who stumbled upon us, but instead a total of over twenty people, mostly dwarves with two humans and an elf mixed in for varietys sake, together with some assorted beasts of burden soon stood in our entrance hallway. Alev just pointed and me and told them that I was the leader of this place and since noone objected to that statement I probably got promoted along the way without anyone telling me.
Anyway, Im starting to ramble.
I talked to their leader and after explaining why we where settling in this hole, he told me his story. He was leading a group of freed slaves, just like us, but instead of trying to find a safe hideout they kept moving. They where mostly traveling the southern parts of the tundra, where the goblin patrols are sparse, to remain undetected and mostly survived by hunting and trading with some settlements where the greenskins didnt keep a close enough eye on what their slaves where doing. Unlike the last group, they didnt expect us to be here and just wanted to use the heat of the volcano to repair some of their weapons and forge some replacements from bits of metal they acquired.
I allowed them to stay with us for a bit and in exchange for a symbolic amount of food, they could use our forges for the work. There is some small, lingering doubt about trusting this group but they had many warriors with them, outnumbered us and probably could haven taken whatever they wanted by force if so inclined. Instead they where very polite when speaking with us and while we discussed their stay, some of us already mingled with the group and started to chat. It will probably be alright and considering our own situation, it wouldnt really do to not stick together with others that share our fate.
3th Sandstone 660When I agreed to have this group stay here for a bit, I didnt expect this to happen. Ten of them want to stay. Ten.
That nearly doubles our population.
The worst part is that I saw the signs over the last week and ignored them mostly.
The first ones to approach me where two marksdwarves named Mafiawhale and Torg. An odd couple if you ask me. He was rather gruff when he approached me and I cant shake the feeling that he thinks mostly about himself and his wife. She on the other hand was very friendly, if a bit rude and seemed to have taken a liking to most of us in a mere two days.
We talked a bit about this and that. What we where doing here and a bit about how we organized ourselves. Mafiawhale seemed rather pleased by how my "leadership" was mostly people coming to me with their problems and asking for advice. Torg on the other hand considered it admirable how we stuck together.
Today, when the visitors wanted to leave, they where the first ones to step forward and proclaim their intention to stay. After that, the dam hat burst.
The next one that spoke was the dwarf they had nicknamed Doctor Skull.
He said that he was tired of running around the frozen wastes instead of claiming a place for our own kind and since the travelers had another doctor, he wasnt needed there terribly much while we could profit from his presence tremendously.
I wasnt terribly surprised when the girl that insisted on being called Fishybang walked over to me as the next one.
We talked quite a bit in the last days and I took a liking to her. Its hard not to since she is very nice and cheerfull and you can tell from the way she talked about her dream to become the best fisher she can be that this world so far failed to crush the last bit of hope and dreams out of her. I sincerely hope that it wont succeed in that. There are to many of us here where it already did and even with her I sometimes noticed a pessimistic streak shining trough.
Back then I wondered how she fitted in with the far more somber people she travelled with. Not terribly good it seems, but I fear that the company in Igrishilrom will not be much nicer.
The next one, Guylock as he was called by his peers, was a bigger surprise.
He struck me as a bit vain when I first met him, probably because he is the cleanest of both of our groups. Not that that is saying much. He went on about how the other of his group didnt trust him to help to defend themselves, but with his evident talent he would be able to achieve great things for us if we just let him.
It seemed that the last one that joined us would be a rather sturdy fellow named Glendale Vorus, mostly called Vorus.
While the others of the travellers had started to mutter among themselves, altrough seemingly noone else considering to leave the group, he strode towards me and turned back to his leader around the halfway point. Its probably best if I just quote what he said next:
"Datan. I said it once and I say it again. You are a moron if you think your little roaming circus is going to work out. I will stay too and anyone with half a brain will do the same."
Needless to say, I turned rather pale when he pretty much urged the others to join us.
aul
I didnt catch who else joined us after that. There where four others, I know that, but the details blurred a bit while I desperatly tried to think of a way to keep the new people fed.
The group left soon after that. I had a last quick chat with them and they agreed to have a look if they could aquire wood for us, as I had asked them some days ago. After what happened today, the price will probably be a bit higher then we initally agreed.
5th Sandstone 660We are still trying to sort the mess with our new "immigrants". Some workes where easy to integrate. Just point them at something that needs hauling and they happily went to work. All of our new fighters not so much.
We now have offically a militia, organized in two squads. One for close combat fighters and one for our marksdwarves.
Dewsif and ShadowHammer where the obvious candidates to lead it, but when I brought the point up they immediately said that Dewsif would have the honor. It seems like they worked that out between each other already.
The other squad will be led by Mafiawhale since he has the necessary experience and I somehow doubt that he would be content with having someone ordering him around.
The oddest thing was that Spehss approached me with her request to leave the farmwork to some of the newcomers and join the militia too. She said that the food situation was stable enough and that we now had mostly to worry about attackers. Instead of "waiting to be slaughtered" like she put it, she wants to help defend the others. I would have been moved by her request to fight for us, if she hadnt felt the need to point out the getting slaughtered part so much.
Notes: Massdwarfing go!
Still no goblins on the horizon but winter isnt far away anymore and our ramshackle militia might get a trial by fire very soon.
I noticed a few missing mountain goats on the unit list but havent been able to locate the bodies. Therefore, the mist is probably just plain old lethal.
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