Season 24 Excerpts from:Journal of the Overseer
Winter, 1056
Another casualty to the Rot
The Rot itself doesn't kill anyone, but rather it lets vicious secondary infections in. We have never seen some of the diseases; or else they are very rare for a stout and healthy dwarf. This is troublesome, and I have ordered a new hole in the aquifer dug, so that we might cleanse the hospital.
As a precautionary, I have ordered the most heavily affected areas floored over, to hide the poison Rot. It works well enough, but items are another isssue, I'm afraid. We just don't know how potent the Rot is.
---
Terrible news. The aquifer was lower by the hospital than we anticipated. Unknown to me, we irreversibly pierced the aquifer with no contingency to save the hospital. Only the doors of the hospital save the fort from ruin. The rot is cleansed from the hospital, but at a cost. Those too badly injured to be moved have been abandoned, three dwarves. One of them, the hunter from the starting seven, has drowned. Gods save us, we were unable to save them . . . This Rot is to blame.
---
We added walls to the statue garden recently, to prevent liaisons from attacking our guests, however they seem to have proved inadequate. Our liaison has died attacking a chained up bugbat, the fool. We were unable to get any news from him, although the caravan did trade several thousand urists worth of goods with us.
Shem hasn't warmed up to us yet, but he is as good as any long-term trading partner can be.
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We have sealed off the hospital for good today, furniture, bodies, and all. We will never be able to step foot in their again . . .
Rest well, Geshud.
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A Forgotten Monstrosity has appeared in our local area. Apparently they are drawn to us. Why, I wonder? Maybe we disturbed the caves, and they come to investigate or destroy the intruder. Perhaps the smell us, or the vast world outside? Or do they just rage against those not like them?
Our other two surviving guests are still busy reclining by our gates, and I have decided that we must free the caverns from their tyranny.
---
Our battle with the beast has gone well enough. Star Ruby monster was slain in front of the door he so coveted, chopped off at the head
Our new uninvited guest was slain as he attacked a furnace worker, a squad of three responding to his advances.
And the terrible beast feeding on our waste water proved to be the most irksome of all, webbing our dwarves and succumbing only after slaughtering three pet cats and mortally wounding a warrior. We only succeeded because he was unable to web us all at once once we surrounded him.
Naked mole rats, who came to feast on our dead animals, had to also be driven off, and that distasteful task was much more annoying to coordinate, as they seemed to lack the will to fight.
The cavern is ours again, for now.
---
Journal, the infection is still spreading. It seems to rot the bodies of the beasts and men. Never the lungs or internal organs, but rather the outside, where external pressures vie to upset the body's balance. The lucky die in combat, like the dogs. Those unlucky enough to be too skilled in battle to die easily are doomed to a slower death. The ones I most pity, though, are the animals and people who catch it as it spreads. Its a virus, a plague, and its consuming our bodies to rot the mind.
It continues to affect the beasts, from unknown sources. What can I do? Our fort was so well contained before the accursed Rot arrived. We have been only moderately successful in identifying warning symptoms before madness or death sets in.
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A miner created a granite grate. Furniture is infinitely preferable to all trinkets and most weapons, to be honest. Better still, this artifact has history on it, however bland it may be. Praises are in order, and engravings may now flow. However, we will make sure we smooth the proper areas first.
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I checked our cages today, and one zombie is unaccounted for.
The cage that was set up as a trap for the 'Ghost-friend' is empty. We don't know where the creature inside went, but we can only conclude it was slain with the rest of the zombies. A mystery, but given the nature of the undead I would imagine one that is already resolved.
I don't remember telling anyone to kill a lone zombie goblin recently . . . Am I infected too?
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An ambush! Merlocks have returned to wreck havoc upon us. Catching both a pleb and a loomworker outside, the squad split up to attack both. Which is good, as both got inside safely and their bowsquad was rendered weakened, and open to an assault by us.
Our Captain of the Guard was unfortunately mortally wounded.
Mappy
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Topic: The Last Fort [FIN] (Read 17161 times)