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[Taupe]

( Big post, My internet was down a few days, so i screenshoted a bunch of stuff, and im now dumping all of this here at once)

Well, nevermind! That beast ran after an eagle and was absolutely oblitarated by the patrolling marksdwarves atop the wall.

8th of Sandstone, 108: Holy molly, by all that Kadol has made holy! The miners have started to dig a new mine, and came upon something spectacular today. This cavern complex looks deep, and goes down for 4 levels. At the bottom, almost in every direction we can see from up here, there seems to be an underground lurking in the dark. Our other projects have been cancelled. I've heard of those dangerous complexes of tunnels, and I asked the miners to block the entrance for now. We are converting the center of this level, as well as the other 2 above, into a mining headquarter. Food and drinks will be installed, a messing hall, and dormitories. I will ask our general to station no less than 2 squads down here for quick response against cave monsters. We have enough room for a training facility, he can have the lads sparring for all i care. All corridors are to be locked with doors, and unlocked only when in use.

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Thankfully, right above those 3 mining layers, we have installed another bridge system locking the area from upper level access in the events of a crisis.

We also found how to use advanced bureaucraty to order dwarves to deal with corpses left outside. the stairwell at the entrance has been emptied of corpses, and finally completed, after over a year of fudging around pointlessly. The corpse dump located under the nearby hill has been outfitted with a new basement, to account for all the various dead things lying in the valley. Work in the mines (and anywhere else really) has come to an alt.

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11th of Limestone: Oh no! I heard rumors that a member of the assassin squad had been injured previously. in fact, rumors dont seem to agree if it was kikrost or Ral that got injured, and in which manner, leaving me to believe both of them suffered during their dangerous training. but now the secrets surrounding this mysterious unit cannot be contained, as a mecanic discovered the body of another archer in the shooting gallery, slain by a goblin pikeman. Who let him keep his weapon after caging him? Is the general mad? This training is too dangerous, I ordered it to be stopped at once, and the squad disbanded. with 1 dead and 2 injured, the remaining 2 assassins are apparently relieed, as the next prisoner to be ''shot at'' was a troll mecanist.

We've repurposed this room as a Dingo training facility for the time being. Because dingo training has worked so well for us in the past...

Last days of obsidian, 108:

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Those fools show up near our base. They are promptly dealt with, and we discoverer more ambushers as we battle the first. sucks to be them.

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this little dude was apparently using the ambushers as a divertion. Thankfully, the general never sends out the soldiers that are currently patrolling the top of the walls, meaning this guy was spotted, and subsequently shot down before he could move an urist.

Some prisoners are showing up in the cages we set up for lions, and with no assassins to finish them off, disposing of them requires a new approach. I am ashamed of what I am about to put in motion, but I know Whisperwhip, I understand the sinister nature of its history, and the dark urges of it's population. now that the miners are done setting up the basic of the underground mining base, I set some of them to work on our glorioustest project yet. Meanwhile, I ask our manager that he stop mining and engraving, and now work full time on managing work orders. we have lots of charcoal to produce, many furniture to craft before the MB1 (mining base 1) is fully operational, and still many more slabs and statues to produce to enlighten the fortress. and lets not forget about crafts for the traders, when they show up alive that is.

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3rd of granite, 109: By Armok and Kodal, what is this? slowly but surely, mysterious spores have infiltrating the fortress ever since we opened those caverns. Now moss and fungi are growing everywhere on the upper levels. I order some of our miners and masons to step away from the ''project'' and start retrofitting the children dormitory with stone walls and flooring, so our youth doesnt fill their lungs with spores as they sleep.

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Meanwhile, storing the dingos AND the eagles waiting for training in the same corridor proves to be a bad idea. Even after this disaster, one dingo forgets his training, and eats the other one, before being dispatched by a war Lioness. Good job, girl!

Later that spring, our outpost liason finally agrees to turn this place into a rightfully honored barony. Our war and craft efforts are finally ackowledged by our great Queen, but praising her only seems to make the office liason unconfortable. s there something going on in the mountainhomes we should know of? ''No, he replies, nothing of importance. You are far away that petty rumors should not bother your brave fortress!''

Odd. Yet i send him on his way, as i cant think of a good candidate for a baron just yet. He gives me a year to decide. My own wife, and that of our absent minded mayor, died in the great Pigfall disaster of '101. With no children, this title of nobility would be wasted on us. the Bronze general has a large family, and a father living here. But with so many of our milicia officers being cousins or nephews, I dare not suggest any of them. I need someone with young children, who live here, someone with little other family in terms of cousins and uncles, who know the milicia's gimmicks but wont side with them if I need him to make a tough decision. I find that man in Tun.

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Sure, he may have some fancy tastes we'll need exports to satisfy, but what noble doesnt? Appart from his pricey preferences, he seems like a decent fellow, able-minded, and quite pleasant. He has been with us since before the great tragedy, so he knows how this place truly works. And most importantly, he was the leader of the wannabe assassin squad, disbanded after only 3 months when 2 of his fellow hunters got injured and a third died. He is the perfect man. Military recognized, yet at odds with our Bronze General.

With 2 injured dwarves, 1 dead and another becoming a baron, we now have solved the question of ',What shall our hunters do now that they cant hunt?''

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4th of slate, 109: We decide to industrialise Whisperwhip a bit, by adding a glass furnace. the elves's sand bags won't go unused for far longer. I swear, most of our crafting is still based on stuff we looted from dead elven caravaneers. This guy promptly becomes posessed, and claims our only glass furnace the second it is finished, and starts going mad because we don't have any raw glass. Well GEE dude whose fault is that? it's like someone claimed a workshop before we could even complete a single piece!

Obviously, we have to add a new glass furnace in the basement, and enable yet another dwarf to glass furnatise (or wahtever this job is called) before our first glasseroomakerguy goes mad. He accumulates a loooot of stuff. better be something good.

In the meantime, our metal industry is starting to kick into gears. 2 charcoal makers, 2 smelters, two metal crafters, working to smelt that fine tetrahydrate ore into copper and silver. With 5 ores produced, this is WAY better than using charcoal to smelt copper armors. Our metal stocks are finally decent, and in adition to producing another 500 or so copper bolts, i start to mint some coins. By I, i mean, other people who arent me, while i supervise and admire the handywork.

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Yup, that looks like a decent rendition of a typical Citadel of Crutches copper coin. The nobles there love themselves some cows.

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And the work on the artifact is finally done. Sadly, our worker was posessed and thus doesnt become legendary, but what a splendid work of art1 I immediately have it installed in the temple of Kadol. Many artifacts were produced, but this is one of the finest. Back in the day, a bone buckler was lost when a monkey looted the body of the murdered ex-general, who was shot by a crazy bowmaker during a hike outside. So was his legendary spear, alas. Since then, we produced:
-A legendary slate hatch cover, separating the general's squad barrack from his personal quarters upstairs
-an artifact slate bed, currently in the mayors chambers
-An artifact armor stand, also in the mayor's office
-Countless baubbles, each referencing the other in  sort of weird chain. I suspect this is a sort of memory game that our crafters are playing on us. ''the bracelet is on the scepter thats on the crown thats on the ring thats on the figurine... ah crao i forgot the earrings!
-A leather glove, a leather mask, and a leather trouser. Obviously someone asked the question: what would go well thematically with whip-users?
-123 custom-named weapons, shields, underwear, teacups and so on, each one pausing the fortress' activity at the moment the name is first made up.

My ramblings are interupted by the arrival of this guy:

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...Who charges at our walls. i would have LOVED to capture him and use him as part of the ''Project'' but alas, he dodges our clumsily-laid cage traps and make a go at our fortress. He dies horribly seconds later as a master lasher twirl her whip around his head and... caves it it? wow that was hardcore. Welcome to Whisperwhip, asshole. His rampage had exactly one victim:

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Goodnight, sweet prince.


26th of felsite, 109: Industries are starting to be important to us, now that we dont spend our whole life inside outliving sieges. however, whisperwhip faces a serious problem, a lack of ressources it never had before: Dwarfpower.

We are 180 or so, but 60 of them are military dwarves constantly on duty (or cant be counted on to work when battle pops up, aka every single time) and 30 are kids. We have about 5 nobles working paperwork and trade, about enough to keep our food supply active, and maybe 6 more working on food preparation and boozemaking. Our team of Masons/Engravers/Miner (look, fuck specialisation, ok) are getting incredibly good at each of those job, and can complete projects very efficiently, But the digging is starting to be harder, the projects bigger, and the towers taller and more numerous. Now, this used to be fine wen it was all whisperwhip produced, but we now need animals to be trained, and stuff to be smelted, and crafts to be stockpiled, and with every ressource i decide to turn into something of a finished product, we grow a dwarf shorter. The remaining haulers can barely keep up with the stuff we have to move around, be it corpses, stone, finished product, or trade goods for the depot. I dare not add more jobs to the queue order, for i fear that this would cause others jobs to be abandonned. Put simply: we have been running at full capacity for over a year, and some cracks are starting to appear in the system.

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I start to nevertheless designate areas to be used for future workshop mass-production. They wont be activated and used until much later, but i plan to turn all those children dwarves into competent workers when (if) they reach adulthood. for now, I'll just add the workshops and clear the space. Slowly but surely, we are leaving the upper levels behind and moving stuff downstairs, where room is aplenty. This layer here, right under our new stone deposit, will be used to store furniture. Those 30+ statue orders take space, yaknow.

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And this should become a prosperous workshop layer, right under the stone and furniture stockpiles. it's also quite close to the mining project below, so grabbing rock and tetrahidrate should be easy for workers. I start by smoothing and engraving a corner of the room, and have 2 smelters and 2 metalworking shops built. We dont have any workers to operate those extra ones, but who knows, maybe the children will want to take part in the work orders, so I decide to make those workshops available to anyone, regardless of their skills.

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27th of felsite: Spring is about over, and so are those goblins' lives. conveniently, they choose to fight atop this pile of corpses, which is both foreshadowing of their fate, and quite handy for our haulers.

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And now, our new silver coins are coming out of the metalworker's press! One side is frightening, the other quite disapointing, just like our civilisation itself.

Meanwhile, a worker creates this wonderful chair:

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Not sure what to do with this one. I want to install it in the Kadol temple, but I'll keep it aside for now. Our future Baron will be named in a few months, and he may need a fancier room to be happy.

16th of malachite:

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The children dorms are finally free of mushrooms (that will come back, im sure, once they hit their teens). I decide to simply undesignate part of the stockpiles in the adjacent rooms, instead of digging walls. Those stockpiles are way too big anyway, now that everything is stored in bins. Less work for miners, who are busy... elsewhere (still a secret). The floors will have to wait, as we cannot afford more hauling jobs right now without making other industries suffer, and I'd rather we focus on tetrahidrate hauling and corpse disposal right now.

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This is why...

The human caravan finally shows up, and we start unloading rock and leather crafts outside. but as the wagons near in to our fortress, a large, vile force of darkness arives. Chaos ensues. The traders run inside our fortress, as the milicia rushes to the wall. Many caravaneers and animal take refuge along the river, but are blocked by our walls. Many horses die that day, and in the tumult of the battle, I barely notice that 3 people are missing. One is a planter, the other our glassmaker. The third one is their parent, a milicia dwarf currently outside trying to save them. Why have they not run inside? I dont remember any jobs requiring them to go far from the fortress. This is not the first time civilian die for running away from our base, but for the first time, they have caused the death of a soldier as well.

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Asmel was our newest recruit. his squad was the sixth, created after a valliant dwarf fought off trolls alone and baited them into a trap. The first squads spent many years training, but when Asmel was drafted, most of his duty was spent patrolling the wall and keeping animals and criminals in check, not actual training. He was good with a crosbow, as any dwarf who saw the sieges of Whisperwhip from atop the stone walls ought to be, but had no real combat experience on the field. his unit were also given the lower-tier suits of armor, meaning he was not privy to the steel garments of the veterans. This in terms led to his heroic charge, and defeat, against a goblin Axe Lord.

Asmel is the first to be buried in the military crypts, taking his rightful place among the stone coffins and statues, as a brave defender of whisperwhip. No one could blame him for his action. any dwarf worth his name would have faced those tremendous odds if it was his or her family that had went missing. But his inexperience had reminded whisperwhip of something it had forgotten: fear, and tragedy. no dwarf shall take his place for now. a fresh recruit with no training would only be a liability and a hindrance at this point. Perhaps, when a new generation reaches it's prime age, some of them will be trained together until they are fit to join our proud fighting force. but until then, the 10th position of the Spinning of wheels shall remain vacant.

As the storm passes outside, I notice that the aftermath is grim. the lead trader for the human caravan has been killed, and no brokering will occur with them this season, meaning no new wood for barrels and charcoal. but darker still, is the mood of our populace... Asmel and his family were beloved, and had each spouses and relatives. Their death is a serious blow to our morale, and many dwarves threathen to tantrum. something must be done. I decide to retreat to my room and ponder on the matter.

[Taupe]

13th of Timber, 109:

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The first layer of the ''project'' is now excavated. Some mistakes were made regarding the designation of the other parts, as well as the right order to execute them. It is alas too late t cancel and revisit the blueprints, I ordered the boys to saddle on the task.

Our morale was low, but thankfully, with nice bedrooms and great dining halls, we managed to survive this terrible loss that befell us a few months back. However, while reorganising the fort to make sure eeryone was happy, I realised some things about our stockpiles. Not only are we low on wood, but we have ran out of seeds and plants as well, and our booze production has stopped completely. Soap is also nonexistant, and so is potash. I queue in a few orders so we can aquire some fertiliser and soap. The kitchens and stills are closed until further notice: we have enough to survive for a long time, and i'd rather our meat be used to feed the lions than cut into our 10th thousanth masterpiece crumble cookie. Hopefully traders will help us restock soon...

No wood also means no more smelting. I order the forges and furnaces to stop. The creation of precious and shiny coins come to an end. (for now)

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i order some masons to step away from the project and double the double staircase. The lower mines use the quadrastair design, and the upper section of the fortress could use some traffic management as well. The main door is getting busy as all hells but there is nothing i can do about that without opening a hole in the wall for now.

Meanwhile another dingo goes crazy and wildly assault random people. This is like the ninth time so far. I'd have them all butchered, but I have further plans for them, and at this point, what's a tenth slip from those doofuses? I ask that some of the miliciaman patrol the halls in case we need dingo-shooting action on the go, and simply tell the trainers to not suck so much.

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That's it, wood is officially no longer a thing we have. Good thing we arent making booze anymore...

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In the meantime, tho, I'm having a new tower built out of all this spare gneiss we excavted on our copperquest (TM). We need place to store food, and our miners are busy on the project, so digging new rooms is out of the question. Instead I'll have the masons built a storage tower, which will serve as a corner of our next walling project. this way, we can taunt the goblins with the smell of our delicious overflowing food standing there, right out of their reach.

My scheme is defeated the instant i realise that all the miners are also masons, and vice-versa. the project comes to a crawl as the minerasons start piling up gneiss. Whatever, I like towers, just keep going. We'll add floors when we start having too much of that gneiss thing.

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Adding towers and levelling the western side of our fortress means we,ll need to get rid of the fucking tons of corpses we just dumped there carelessly, litterally inches from our windows. Thankfully, sand is easy to mine, and a new expansion is added to the lower level of our necropolis. we can't go deeper thanks to the aquafier, so get ready for this thing to spread in an absurd manner in the upcoming years.


25th of Timber, 109

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Just as people were getting happy again, another ambush spawns on our land, quickly cornering our second best mecanic (first one being the ''mayor''). Having placed a goblin on either side of our unit, the enemy army flip the mecanic, and get one more point. Wait, this isn't Go... The mecanic is simply killed instead. thankfully, nobody really loved this guy.

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Later that week, the haulers complain that they are out of corpses, so i give them each a chair made of solid fucking rock and send them on a  hours trip to the mines trough a narrow serie of bridges, to furnish the mining headquarter. The place actually looks quite cozy, with it's own food storage. but who am i kidding, at this point our fucking dingos probably have their own stockpile. With our bridge designer currently unalive, and our miners busy on not finishing the ''project'' i decide that opening the caverns may not yet be the right moment.

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Instead, i order expansions to be built. We have many miners, but i also want to host 2 full bataillons of soldiers down here, and they will need more room to rest if they are to basically live there. I wanted to put copper statues around, since this is where we get the thing, but without coal, the decorations will have to wait.

My plan is to make this new place self sufficient and large enough to host a small community, so that people may relocate there should the surface fall to tantrums and goblins and murderwolves.

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Or thieves. How did the goblin sneak past the guards on the wals6 why was this child there? Seriously, people, have we not lost enough people to ambushes and sieges, that you are still wandering around like morons? Get a clue, get inside.

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Ugh, too late. We lose another child. This whole ''dying civilians'' thing is getting out of hand, and fast.

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Thankfully, our war dog catches up with another thief, and grapples him, while the army approaches and shoot the insolent creature down. This is why we have dogs. because our dwarves have negative response speeds. Good job, NAMELESS STRAY WAR DOG FEMALE.


4th of granite, 110 

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New year is upon us, and some of the dwarves celebrate by visiting the temple of Kadol, decorated with two high quality statues of the godess, and an artifact chair. I wanted more statues but heh, no wood, so no fancy things. Large empty halls are becoming the stallmark of our fortress, with no fuel to make nice metal or glass crafts. The temple isnt visited as often as I'd like, but those who do are inspired and cheered up by the marvelous artifact on display.

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The miners/masons/engravers have finally excavated the last streaks of tetrahidrate on this level, situated right above BASE1. The eastern tunnels are soon empted of the semi-precious metal, and on the next day the vast tunnels to the southwest are depleted as well. With no fuel and like 4 projects already at hand, I tell the boys not to scout further for new deposits. We have enough tetrahidrate to build a friggin tower.

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The nobles want their fancy coffins, the hospital want soap, and the farms still havent been fertilised. I send a few woodcutters outside, and progress is slowly made on our work orders after nearly 4 months of inaction.

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I am informed that the memorial to Asmel is finally ready. I have it installed in the military crypts, next to his coffin and statue.

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With the tomb officially memorialised, the soldiers make a parade, and shoot their crossbows in the air. moments later, an eagle splatters on the outer walls. More unwashed blood left on the stones. Asmel would have loved that. Whisperwhip's fashion sense revolves primarily around uncleaned piles of bodies and bloodsplatters. If Dexter Morgan visited our fortress, he would impale his own brain with the strenght of his boner within seconds.

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the workers are eagerly working on the ''project''. so eagerly in fact that they fucked it up and a bunch of dwarves were pummeled by stone blocks. The miners complained that they were literrally engulfed in dusts of magma, to which i replied that magma was not in fact stone shaped and grey and solid, and that they were making shit up. then they told me one of the milicians was killed in another accident. They werent making this part up, altho they did add that he died in a boiling cloud of magma. Seriously, guys, the floor fell and he was crushed. this is not how magma works. this is not how any of this works. I swear, once they hit real magma we are all fucking dead.

Just like this milician. Shit. He was a moderately trained soldier from squad 5. To the military crypts he goes, I s'pose.

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2 more accidents on the project, but thankfully no casualties. We've lost about what, ten dwarves this year? I've stopped counting.

18th of felsite, 110

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The newest elven caravan appeared today. because there were no goblins in sight with whom they could kill themselves, they immediately proceeded to drop a caged animal and spent their whole visit trying to put it back inside. Once they finally unpacked their shit, they told us that they were leaving, and repacked their stuff exactly zero seconds after they arrived.

I fucking hate those elves. I was about to just murder them and take their wood, but something distracted me. what's that, another accident on the ''project?'' Oh come on guys.

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The body is nowhere to be found, but another dwarf goes missing.

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The soul of the vanished/disintegrated dwarf possesses a worker, who crafts a second tetrahidrate throne. why a goblin image tho? Are the dwarves starting to miss the days where they were drinking in the halls while the milicia shot endless waves of goblins? I guess those superprojects and excavation operation are not as fun or safe as, say, sleeping all day. But this is a different time, and Whisperwind is a different fortress. Yes, we still have loads of murers going on on both sides of the war, but we are also spreading our ressources inneficiently to achieve other goals. And yes, people will get crushed by falling floors and pretend it was a cloud of magma, but that's just an unavoidable part of every great nation,s growth.

[Taupe]

Beginning of Opal, 110 (mid-winter)



Many things happened in this season, and now that our occupants are zealously working on their tasks, and the newest caravan is leaving, I'll take some time to browse over the recent events that took place in Whisperwhip, sole dwarven settlement on the northern part of the world. The surrounding savannah is home to many races, all intend on waring with each other, and the citizens of the wilted sack have learned to adapt to the bloodthirsty ways of the north.

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Well, partially. The recent ambush took our mecanist by surprise as he mantained the cage traps, and now his ghost is wandering the countryside. nobody will pick up his corpse, for nowhere his corpse can be found. what did the goblins do to him? I dare not imagine. I have a slab engraved, and ask that the horrible haunting and mutiation of his body be ommited.

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but those greenskin bastards will pay in due time, for the Project is now entering the second-to-last step.The digging is now complete, and begins the smoothing and engraving. This will take an absurd amount of time, especially if our workers are busy building something else. Like, say, A FUCKING OUTTER WALL.

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The good news is, there probably wont be any more accidents on the Project. The bad news is, we found who died last time when the floor sort of exploded: a member of the milicia. She now rests in the military catacombs, alongside her companion who died defending his family. I ask that her slab commemorates her family life and war exploits mostly, and her accidental death from tile-bludgeoning less so. Apparently she wasnt the most badass in combat, so we add something about her favorite color. Bam, done.

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This guy shows up, I believe this is our third lycanthrope in two years. Last one took a farmer by surprise, so the general takes no chance:

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We named the alert when a giantic titan of sand and snow shoting spiderwebs invaded old whisperwind. It's still pretty appropriate ten years later tho. A weremoose? The gods have really weird ways of punishing people if you ask me.

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The beast proceeds to fisticuff a random cat. Because... weremoose are carnivorous I guess? I mean, I get that werewolves hunt for prey, because thats just what normal wolves do. but a weremoose... is he gonna eat the cat6 bludgeon him out of spite? use him to attract a female?

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A kobold thief bounces out of nowhere and tries to killsteal the moose. That's right. A rogue lizard sees a giant moose-dwarf monster and goes ''yup, totally stealing that guy's dinner''. They are both promptly ispatched, and the monster reverts to a much less shaming form, that of a naked dwarf lying dead in a berry bush. My request to bury the dead cat in the military crypt is sadly denied.

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A bit later, we decide to open the caves, only to find another cave right the first one, accessed trough a bunch of ramps going downward over 4 floors. This is a very troubling discovery, as monsters and strange beast could be living down there. I don't like them having an easy access to the upper levels and by association my base, but we need logs and we need them now. risks must be taken, or else we are stuck with no metalworking, and no farming.

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The military schedules are changed: A new burrow is designated englobing the main areas of BASE1, and each squad is assigned 2 months of defending it. 6 squads means schedules are easy to make. They shall thus be ready to deploy in the caverns if need be, or hold the doors long enough for the rest of the troops to either join them, or raise the new bridge. A passage is soothed and engraved, leading to a bridge over the small chasm, and immediately our woodworkers start hacking at giant mushrooms while the miners abandon their 7 other jobs to smooth the first room of the cavern. More open space means we can spot monsters coming from the sides, and it also means more growth space for future mushroom. I order them to gather the valuable red zircon and tetrahydrate lying coseby as well.

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Inspired by this new adventure, a child (wandering around BASE1 for some reason) is struck by a vision of grandeur. Let us hope his young creative mind will bring forth a new marvel for the dwarven nation!

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While this young artist is rushing upstairs to gather every bone ever, an adinistrator cutting down a tree spots a ole (own? owl?) woman and is interupted by her in some manner. The lad reacts like any administrator would: He takes out a crossbow, puncture her bran, and track her to her camp accompanied by a war lion. He then proceeds to murder every single owl people living near the river. Noticing they have fish lying around, he orders the miners to clear this area so it can become a new fishing spot. the miners get to work, abandonning their 8 other mining jobs.

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in the midst of it all, tun has finally been made an official Baron. He is rather unhappy to be sharing meager quarter number 76 with his wife the baroness consort. I tell the hammerer that he,ll get a new room soon, but for now he must move someplace else because Tun is very mad right now. the hammerer is okay with it. he's really just a fisherman who gets to cave in skulls when civil wars explode.

Tun also wants a quern for reasons unknown. Tough luck, our masonshops are busy for 4 months right now, and nobody is using them right now because the masons are also the engravers who are the builders who are all in fact the miners, working on 9 projects at a time. Tun doesn't like my answer. I ask if one of our 3 artifact chairs would make him happy? He says yes. I order the noble district be expanded. The job is, to this day, still pending. tun also wants a tomb. we have a noble tomb area waiting for exactly that. By which I mean that we had some spare time a few years ago and something tomb-like has been dug out, smoothed, engraved, and filld with statues, just to keep the guys busy. I have the single green glass coffin we ever made placed there, withness of our short-lived glass industry.

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A symbol of eternal strife in the northern continent. War is the only thing this child knows from growing up in Whisperwhip, and so thats what he depicts in his art. It's also made of dingo bones and menaces with more dingo friggin bones, so I tell the child to run around with it in the kennels, to remind the little bitches what we make of the dingos who dare turn semi-wild. A dingo goes widl and cripples the child in response.

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Clouds of death and doom filling the kitchens, just a normal day in whisperwhip.

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A caravan is here! We all know what that means, huh? If you answered ''trading'' then you havent been paying attention. i immediately ask the general to dispatch some squads outside...

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...right in time to intercept this goblin ambush. One is captured, 5 more are slaughtered, while a goblin thief gets caugh by a cage further north.

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A pack of hyenas is also in the ay of our troops, and they get pincushioned by the marksdwarves. we tried to tame hyenas, but they ended up eating people, just like the dingos, so now we just eat them. At least those 3 wont try to gnaw the cook on the way to the butchery.

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Attracted by the corpses, a bunch of civilians come to pick up the hyenas, and the caged thief. another thief tries to assault them, but lose his hand and shortly after his life.

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To impress the merchants, I had the entrance filled with 4 statues (of echidnas but disregard those) and i ordered 2 more, our best, to be installed on the front porch. One is of me, as you can see, and we have another depicting the new Baron. A dog refuses to let anyone install the baron's statue no matter what we do about it. But at least, mine is out there, welcoming the world. Welcome to Whisperwhip, where we admire traction benches. Arent they lovely? We never use them. NOBODY EVER GETS STABBED HERE!

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as the merchants close in to the city, the armies remain on the field, ready to intercept attackers. a third sneak is spotted by the general himself...

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...who proceeds to break eighty-fucking-seven of the thieves bones before he collapse from the pain. Like, wow dude. Wow.

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Our POWs are listed under ''pets'' so i have a few of them moved to the trade depot along with our yearly 400 leather earrings. Sadly, they all end up escaping. No problem, tho, as the jail tower is only accessible from the battlements, meaning any jailbreak has to go trough the patrol routes of about 16 professional marksdwarves. The top of the tower starts dripping with blood. Oh, speaking of blood, I was busy doing the planting when the merchants unpacked, and my apprentice did the negociation. the merchants had no wood, or anything fancy, so he aquired about 30 random metal bars, and 200 barrels of blood.

Like, what the fuck. he said ',that's all they had'' fool, this is Whisperwind, blood is also the only thing we have! Oh well, i hope people like blood sausage. non-stop for a decade.

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As I boss the peasants around to move all those blood barrels into the new courtyard, i notice a dead planter rotting on the roof, being eaten slowly by his pet eagle.  How did he get there? Why did nobody notice him? was he killed by archers, or did someone trap him there? I order the south wall closed, and the food tower wall demolished. People run away with his belonging before finally, after 2 weeks, someone decides to bury the lad.

The walls are far from finished (and it'll be a year before the backorder of mason jobs and mining/engraving operation gets cleared, so work wont even begin on them for months) but the lower parts are complete. After retrieving the dead planter and sealing the south section, i designate a wall to be replaced by a door along the west side of the entrance hall. People can now access the food tower, or the new barrel stockpiles, from the woodworking district. i decide to add a new wood stockpile there as well, hoping we can secure plenty of underground logs in the upcoming explorations.

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Nevermind, we found lava! Or rather, a dingo found lava. He also claims that it is at least 10 layers deep. How can he tell? because dingos are smart i guess.

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We now have zero idlers. People are either working, or hauling metals from the mines, or wood or plants, and those who arent are bringing back stuff from the depot, or cooking it. Many jobs are now being half-assed, including egg-gathering, which has the benefit of providing us with newborn eagles. Hurray!

Are those baby eagles a sign of prosperity? Or are they proof that we don't have enough manpower to keep going much longer? Will the eagles delight us with their presence, or feed on our corpses, like they did with the roofstuck farmer? Only time will tell. but as i look out the window, i see bottled blood surrounded by bloodstained walls, erected on a blood-soaked hill. from who'se blood will the river run red?

[Illogical_Blox]

Why has NO ONE ELSE posted!

[Taupe]

HOLY SHIT, people are READING this?

[Immortal-D]

Only recently started browsing this forum during downtime at work, but I'm reading   The fact that your Fortress nearly ended due to a collapsing pig pen made me lol.  That you actually recovered is even more impressive.

[Zorromorph]

Read it all in the last couple of days.  Criminal that this thread doesn't have more activity!  Criminal I say!!  Granted I'm nearly a noob but far more interesting than anything I've done in DF. 

My favorite parts:

The tale of the bloody skypig in 101 -- pure dwarfness!

the new inhabitants of wisperwhip are thus drinking troll blood on a daily basis. Only makes them stronger.

From the wars of 105:

This is also the year where our city discovers the fabled technology of ''bins''.

our engravers start to depict incredible sculptures of miner dude a imploring not to be demoted, among a bunch of angry dwarves. he is seen crying, or confused. all our new dining hall's walls are covered by this event. no, i,m sorry sculptors, but he was in the military for 5 minutes, received exactly one order to climb a ramp, and didnt do it because he was asleep for the whole duration. I am pretty damn sure he is not as broken and emotionally shattered as you are depicting it.

The elven caravan is promptly slaughtered as they stop to wonder why the cliffside is covered in dog parts.

And then ...

On the rare occasions where this fort isnt under siege, wood cutting and hauling is our ultimate priority.

A peasant was injured severely while messing around with a falcon. He decided to go and hide all the way down into the lowest food stockpile. He refuses to go to the hospital, yet keeps complaining about his injuries getting in the way of his job. Which he doesnt have. I'm starting to think the lad is simply drunk.

107:

Ignoring orders, Usthud went outside, walked 2 days in a diagonal, and shot a lion in the face repeatedly, turning every part o his body red. He then said ''oh well, out of ammo'' and departed home, while the beast died seconds later next to him. too late, Usthud had his mind set on going back, and he sure wasnt turning back to grab this beast he spent 2 days walking toward despite everyone telling him to absolutely not do that. So he sneuck outside, killed our future pet, and let him to rot there. Ushtud, you are a huge asshole.

For the first time ever, Whisperwind is exporting stuff produced by our own dwarves, instead of byproducts of genocide.

110:

an adinistrator cutting down a tree spots a ole (own? owl?) woman and is interupted by her in some manner. The lad reacts like any administrator would: He takes out a crossbow, puncture her bran, and track her to her camp accompanied by a war lion. He then proceeds to murder every single owl people living near the river. Noticing they have fish lying around, he orders the miners to clear this area so it can become a new fishing spot. the miners get to work, abandonning their 8 other mining jobs.

And many others -- why aren't you all dead yet? 

[Taupe]

How are we alive? Hard to tell. My bet is that we chose to disregard any semblance of industrialisation, socialism or economy for a totalitarian militaristic war machine. Anything that isnt a marksman, feeding a marksman, or providing bolts for the marksman has no reason to exist in Whisperwhip...

And now, the end of the 110 winter, known as the chaos of Bosda

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Mid-Winter 110:

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Mere days after the last battles are over, and the ambushers and thieves following the caravan have been dispatched, Tun issues a ban. Now that his fucking quern is completed, he definitely doesn't want us to get rid of it. I'd put it in his room to shut him up, but his entire quarters are now host to a swarm of kids who smuggled wine there and are getting wasted on his desk. Altho tun has 4 children, none of those young drunkards are his.

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Suddenly, breaking and entering in the baron's room are no longer relevant. A forgotten beast has arrived in the caverns, after we've only gathered about a dozen logs. OMG WTF is activated, prompting the eagles, miners, and tremorsensitive dingos to escape to the upper level, while every single milicia is mobilised within BASE!. It is an enormous blob o liquid protected by a shell. The beast itself doesn't sound too dangerous, but its deadly vapors could prove lethal to some dwarves. Our military is now mighty, but upon their drafting, soldiers were chosen not for their disease resistance, but rather for their uncommon ability to not be currently dead or insane. Plus, every aspect of our continued technological advancement, as well as crafting basic shit or making food, revolves around he industrialisation of those caverns. I can't afford to have them filled wih toxic clouds of whatever.

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After about a week of panic, i notice that the Blob known as bosda the Bug of Paddles is apparently not moving much. I guess it cannot swim? The monster appeared close-by, but on the other side of this underground river, apparently sealing it from any possible entrance. I order a rock hatch built, so that we can seal the ramps to the lower levels at least momentarily, until exploration of the upper level is complete. It is added to the superfluous list of thing that will never be completed. Because money doesn't grow on trees and we don't have any trees, I disband the mobilised troops, and order the workers to return to work in the caverns... or elsewhere. burrow designation has not been very stelar, and while the base has expanded, the areas that were designated ''safe'' were not, so activating OMG WTF boils down to ordering eeryone packed into the drinking hall.

For about a week, life returns to normal in the fort. Patrols overshadow the mountainside from their walls, people turn dead things into delicious dead things, and the miners work haphasardly. A few fishermen decide to neglect important tasts o gather food in the subteranean river, because we fucking need more of THAT. Their work is similar to what happened on the surface when fishing the east river, except that instead of having buckets after buckets of troll blood coming out of the nearby well, this time there's an ancient malevolent being across the river.

-hey Urist, isnt that... dangerous?
-nah, Olin, that there be Bosda, the terrifying blob of water. It is known as the Paddle. Thankfully it cannot swim.
-oh that's fortunate.
-yeah just dont mind him.

*sploush*

-Hey what was that Urist? also where did bosda go?
-...

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As the BLOB of WATER known as the PADDLE's inherent inability to swim is suddenly disproven, OMGWTF is once again activated, and the milicia rushes to the fishing spot. The river is full of little corners and rock formations, but thankfully the fishing spot itself was emptied, and the milcia has a clear shot at the blob, if it comes out.

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However, the Blob proves both chaotic in it's movement, and very fucking hard to distinguish. A blue blob of water, hidden in blue ater. It's hard to tell, but we realise the creature is not coming at us directly on open ground. Instead it is moving alongside the river, protected by a ceiling and eclectic rock formations blocking any shots. The milicia starts to shiver: we have no idea what lurks further east in the cavern, and there are no easy engagement spot there. People wont have a clear line of sight, and the beast could come out of nowhere, right in front of a lonely soldier, filling his personal space with lethal toxins. While I dont want to engage on those terms, we certainly cannot let the beast vanish into the unknown, for then it could attack from anywhere. We need the shroom logs, and thus bosda must be killed.

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The milicia leaves the fishing spot, travels trough the caverns back to the entrance, and head northeastward, into the unknown. they are well trained, and numerous, yet the claustrophobic nature of those tunnels make it hard to feel safe. Even with the full 6 squads assembled, the dwarves are alone against an unkown attacker because of the lacking space. the threath of gas warfare is ever-present.

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A panicked messenger arrives from the upper levels after a few days of suspence. The troops are wandering the riverside, trying to catch sight of Bosda while browsing for safe engaging angles. The message is ill-timed, but not surprising: a dingo has reverted to a wild state, then promptly gave birth, and the baby dingos are both wild and able to instantly attack with all their might seconds after they were born. between this and their uncanny ecolocation skills, dingos are much like Xenomorphs.

I select some able-bodied soldiers and dispatch them upstairs to track the beasts. A master lasher engages the mother while his friends search the fort for the pups. There are now 5 squads downstairs.

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Good news, tho, for during this time, Bosda has finally made it's fight. Out of reach, it slowly starts to fill the water with deadly toxin and gasses, but a msterful strike brings it down inches before the vapors reach our troops. The soldiers quickly steo aside, while the fuming carcass dissolves back into the river, leaving behind a transluscent and lethal shell.

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The squads are still lurking over the fuming corpse of Bosda when another messenger makes it to the battle scene. This time it's more than dingos.

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There are about 90 of them. Some trolls, and two dozen crosbowmen. nothing we haven't repelled before. but most of the time, our entire army wasnt 25 levels down in the caverns navigating a treacherous unmapped river. They rush upstairs trough the deep caverns, reaching the wall second to the 2 scores of goblin marksmen. The new outter wall is far from finished. In fact, it provides and entrance to the inner fort from the northern part. Some dwarves tank a volley of arrows with their shields from atop the construction site, while a handful of hammer lords jump down to melee the archers. The sky darkens with bolts as the Hamerlords charge their target, led by Lem the Bookkeeper. Why is our bookkeeper the second in command? Because once upon a time, we had a lot of angry monsters, and the accounts could read ''more than we'll ever be able to use before we all get murdered'' for pretty much all the entries.

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Down below, the battle starts. Lem's friends are seen here engaging the enemy troops, while he climbs the mountainside to reach the archers retreating to the higher ground. Notice how it looks like there is a log lying around, but it's just a fuckton of arrows. the archers are dispatched. Now we only need to rush to the front door before the trolls break it open and charge inside. If we can kill the trolls before the main army arrives...

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Aww come on!

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A couple of trolls try to bash the door open. they succeed, but sadly for them our best squad is waiting over the antechamber of the fort, and they'll have to withstand their fire while bashing open two more doors. they decide to regroup with their friends instead of being heros, but they make certain to trash down the two copper statues adorning the entrance. Oh come on, we finally managed to install Tun's statue yesterday!

The milicia turn their attention toward the minotaur. His arrival is ill-timed, for we have our hands full, but there are two positive things to this whole story: One, people were already on alert all month because of bosda, and nobody is outside in range of the invaders. Two, our milicia is already mobilised. The minotaur is met with the full fury of Whisperwhip's crosbowmen. His legs are pinned, and his charge comes to an halt a safe distance from our walls. The two trolls, not content to destroy the main door and wreck the statues of our nobility, decide to finish off the minotaur and flee south. Assholes!

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One troll is shot down as he escapes, but the KSer runs away safely, screaming a loud KEK as he leaves the map. Another dozen trolls try to take the main hall. Two squads rain death on them while another is seen here holding the trashed doorway. They make sure to vomit all over our statues while dying, leaving a pool of green and blue smelling goo over our broken craftdwarship.

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Another bunch of skirmishers tries to move north to take the weaker entrance, while we are busy with the trolls. Thankfully, we still have a few guys available to rain death on them. They dont make it far, and those who don't turn back are swiftly dispatched.

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Half the siege is now broken, but a tribe of trolls is still around, as well as two scores of infantry. Their skirmishers have fallen, yet they wont leave the area like they normally do. They gather around a cage trap, trying to disable it so that their friend can be freed. Half the army falls on them and they die on the spot, for the most part. Few of those goblins ever got a chance to react, astonished by the ferocity of our charge.

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As the entire army rushes outside to track and murder our foes, a goblin thief enters the keep and rolls a 1 on his stealth check.

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There are still the trolls to be found. As long as they stay around, we cannot disband the OMGWTF state, else some children decide to wander around. They are spotted at last after a week of searching, right above the overgrown ruins of Ol' Whisperwhip. Attempts to paint the town red are met with failure, for troll blood is blue.

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the merchants are long-gone, but the outpost liason is still lurking around. In the middle of all this chaos, while arrows rain on our watchtower, he grabs me aside and cheerfully asks:

-Let us discuss your current situation!
-Our current situation is fucked up as all shit is what it is!

Later on, he mentions that we are impressive, and he came to elevate this land in the eye of our nation. does that mean we are like higher than a barony6 because we've been a barony for like 7 weeks, and all it got us is a fixation for querns. because discussion is a two-way business, he replies absolutely nothing and vanishes for a year.

Now that the chaos is past, I order the civilians to go back to work. During the last month and a half, we have faced an ancient beast, yet more rebellious dingos, a siege, and a minotaur. Miraculously, nobody died, primarily because nobody moved out of the drinking hall. This was too close for confort, tho. Had bosda waited just a bit longer before he did, we would have had to fight both underground and on the walls. I cannot imagine what will happen if more dangerous beasts appear in the caverns. Our strenght is in our ranged attacks, and our numbers. In tight spaces, and split up, we are not mighty. Our troops are plenty, but most are sporting plain leather boots and armors, nothing that will stop a dragon's claws. We need metal, and for that we need coal. despite the danger, the cave operations must continue.

The lads go back to their duty, and soon the idlers are inexistant. We have more work than we can tackle on, and nothing was accomplished over the last 6 weeks. at least the situation is back to normal...

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...Yup, just another poorly trained dingo, nothing exceptional.

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To celebrate our continud non-death, the smiths created some of the silver pimp statues I ordered a while back. We have two matching statues to the likeness of Limul, god of minerals, suitably made of shiny silver. This one especially is of tremendous quality and value. I ask that both be displayed along the entrance outside, on each side of the porch, down the stairs. Let our enemies see that we are rich, and unafraid to flaunt it in the face of danger! On the top of the porch, the statues of Tun and I are quickly put back in place, to match the new silver ones. now our entrance looks very impressive!

Statues are a great addition to any base. They are pretty, imposing, and valuable. not only that, but they help our crafters and metalworker in owning their trade, and that's about the only thing I've found that we can use our silver and copper bars on that doesn't require charcoal...

-Hum, erh, Dumast?
-Yeah?
-About the statues you ordered...
-Yes, I like them! They are awesome. The 12 copper ones were nice, but those first 6 silver statues are truly remarcable. I can't wait to see how the second half of the batch will turn out
-Yeah, hum about that. Little miscalculation...
-don't be silly, we should have plenty of silver
-Yeah, but hum... turns out they dont cost zero charcoal to make. Turns out they actually cost coal. a lot. Like, all our coal.
-...
-Yeah, so, all those batches of ash and potash and smelting you asked6 none of it was done, all the wood went to craft them statues.

Well, fuck. This is a very serious setback. I feel so terribly stupid now. Were those statues worth it? I decide to take a walk and contemplate our art, and the agricultural mayhem they cost us. As i step outside, i notice the copper statues are finally back in their place. I never got a chance to look at Tun's depiction, better check that out, I'm curious to see what...

...Oh COME on!

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[Taupe]

Thanks to everyone who decided to read this story! I'm very grateful that some of you decided to stick around for the ride, considering how many fortresses there are, and how time-consuming DF can get, even for people reading overviews of a playtrough.

For the sake of convenience (since it's no longer just me talking to myself in a vacuum) I've created an index linking to each update, located on the very first post of this tread. If you want to comment or discuss the ongoing blood-fueled fiasco that is Whisperwhip, please go ahead, I really appreciate the feedback and the questions. but if you are a casual reader, and you just want to pick off where you left off without browsing trough 2 pages of forum, then you can do that with a simple click. Enjoy!

[Immortal-D]

Your storytelling ability is very entertaining, especially as I went through many of the same discoveries myself.  As you are now aware, smelting metals for statues and other furniture does in fact require fuel :p  I'm curious, are you using any utilities like Dwarf Therapist or QuickFort?

[Taupe]

A friend introduced me to the game and sent me a package named DFhack which seem to contain visual mods and gameplay improvement (like, hum, clicking things?), and it's also running dwarf therapist, because i cant be bothered to switch jobs using the ingame menu, nor can I actually locate said ingame menu :/

[Taupe]

Spring 111: Protect the quern!

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Spring is soon upon us, and now the disastrous year of 110 is behind us. Our biggest problem (aside from like, ever-lasting bloodshed) is the lack of wood, and as such charcoal and fertiliser. The second has to be the total lack of manpower, resulting in suboptimal job management and many tasks being half-assed. The kitchen, for example, is full of miasma and mushroom trees and spores, and the butcher shops are filled with rotting carcasses, and spoiled leather.

We don't seem to have much free barrels, so i order a few of them, as well as new orders of ash and charcoal. By new, I mean, the same ones that havent been cleared yet. Another very terrible management issue is the training of animals. Many animals are brough from the cage traps, and the trainers are inexperienced, as well as very sporadic in the practice of their task. the result is, obviously, a fuckton of animals reverting to the wild. Thankfully, spring is the season of life and blooming, and things are up for a great start:

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Altho those two cubs are not born tame, but rather trained, that's still two more lions that will eventually become war lion. with 2 new trapped adults as well, our war lion total is going to reach 8 soon, and 11 when the cubs mature. Lions are very important to our survival, and not only because I've been injuring our workforce for the last two years building a fucking colliseum. No, lions are great bodyguards, and in time, I want the woodcutters and plant mecanics to be accompanied by them, as protection. Our military is spread too thin now that we are exploring the caverns, manning the battlements, and traveling outside.

Some dogs are also born in early spring, and altho their population will never go back to what it was prior to the battle of Dogshatter, every little canine that dies for his master helps. We have about a dozen dogs now, altho most were claimed as pets before they could be war-trained.

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In addition to dogs and lions, we get a dingo pup! This is the culmination of a long (and primarily disastrous) endeavor, as this is the first dingo to be born tame, meaning this one probably won't try to eat our children... much. In time, we may have a manageable population of the little assholes, and they make for far more effective pets than cats when danger is every friggin where.

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More important than animals, tho, is the adulthood of our first teenager, erith. He may have spent his early years working the fields, but what we truly need are more miners and woodcutters, so he shall learn those trades.... Hum what's that? He CANNOT do both? I guess axes and pickaxes are like pig and elephant DnA: you just cannot mix them. so be it, Erith shall be a miner, and give a hand with the furnaces. If he cant gather wood, he can at least burn it into charcoal.

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Birds hatch, and a flow of chicks and goslings join the eagle hatchlings. The little birds are adorable, altho they also remind me that their birth was only made possible by the negligence of egg gatherers. I don't complain much about it tho, as the reason I wanted the food tower built was to have an enclosed and locked tower for the eagles to mate and breed, but the idea was scratched when I realised I had no idea if birds could survive on quartzite blocks alone. After that, the tower was repurposed into a food storage.

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The forth is rejocing from all this influx of life, as death is common in Whisperwhip but birth and renewal are rare and hearthwarming guests. Things are about to change tho, as the cycle of life states that for each new life, another has to be brutally stabbed by goblin ambushers. Or something close to that.

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This month, it's the Squeezing Walls' job to be, well, squeezed on the wall. However, military duties have grown very lax in the last months, and none of the squad members join the call to arms to save the child outside the fort, even tho the snatcher is basically 7 meters away from them in plain sight. Are they on strike? this kid is about to DIE, people!

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ever vigilant (and somewhat, always two steps away from the snatchers) the Bronze General Muthkat charges the trade depot, and bash the intruder to death, while his underlings watch from atop the walls.

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The goblin managed to stab the youngling right in the feet, severing an artery, but aside from that the kid is unarmed, and he shall live. As a result of his severed artery, the kid's foot has lost a lot of blood, and is now thirsty.

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The last silver statues are brought in. Some are modest and plain, but a few attract my attention. I decide to have those 4 installed in the corners of the main dining hall, to increase the value, and impress the party-goers. Maintaining the morale of the secluded workers in time of war is primordial, and beside food variety, dwarven artwork is how it's done. We have a statue of dwarves, and a statue of the mineral god, looking disapointed at something. I place this second one so that it stares at the Tun statue, eating a faceful of prickle berries. The last statue is that of an elf getting killed. that should cheer people up.

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Indeed, as I mentionned once briefly, many of the dwarves who settled in whisperwip were once part of the elven wars, taking place in the Dune of dignity. Wether they came here because the queen wanted some toughened peasants to colonise this continent, or they volunteered to retire from the war is uncertain, but the fact is that all our elf-slayers are farmers. indeed, even the food-growers have had their share of battle in the days. While browsing the records, I get curious and decide to check which soldier made the highest contributions to our war effort. One guy has only 1 goblin kill under his belt, but the average soldier has killed about 6 or seven goblins. Two soldiers are particularly awe-inspiring, albeit for different reasons:

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Milicia captain Asmel is a paragon of battle. He is well respected by his soldiers, and has an impressive track record. Thirty nine besiegers were brought down by his crosbow, as well as 5 rampaging dwarves. He is by far our most accomplished warrior, worthy of the title of Champion, an idea the baron came up with. blah blah blah, we should name a super champion or something. altho Asmel deserves the title, i decide to postpone the nomination, as titled dwarves tend to request things, and the production of any work whatsoever is problematic at the moment.

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Urist the administrator (when he isnt on duty) is another story. He has an average war record here in whisperwip, but rumors go that he murdered a hundred and a half other creatures. some are animals, but a staggering amount of them seem to include semi-civilised creatures. Only one of those kills took place in whisperwhip (yes it's a dingo). Why did you come here, Urist? Are you a serial killer?

It's worth nothing that altho being an administrator, Urist was not the one who commited genocide on the olm people. Boy, office work sure has a way to drive people to murder doesn't it?

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My record-browsing is interupted by Tun the baron, barging in the dinning hall, his mouth still full of berries.

-Nice statue, very lifelike. Also, I wanted to tell you that the mandatory ban on quern export is now lifted. I think quern are glorious enough, that a people worldwide ought to be able to admire them.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The lead miner also join us for dinner, insisting that I hear his great news. the miners have struck various ores during their work, and we are increidbly rich now!  However, miners are like fisherman, they like to exagerate and embelish things  little. this i learned after they started to refer to concrete dust as ''boiling clouds of magma''. I look at the reports, and it seem that by ''we have struck rare minerals'', the miners actually mean ''so we assume there may be a lake with some like, different rock at the bottom, altho we can't be sure as it's dark, blocked by 7 layers of granite, 20 feet underwater and we learned all this by deciphering a dingo's excited skips''

Wait wait wait...

-Hey you, that guy at the last tabe, what did you just say while we were talking?
-there is nothing to fish in the northwestern cavern.
-no, not you, that guy!
-Oh, I said we have stuck hrnblende and splaredine and
-no not you, the guy with the beard
-Oh me, i was also talking about the fishing situation and...
-no, THAT guy, yes YOU
-Oh, me, I said, a child was kidnapped and is now gone forever.

Holy crap, by Kadol the godess of mountains and caves, how could this happen? Did nobody notice the kidnapping? If so, why was the child not supervised, and what were the army doing? As the news spread trough the hall, the citizens of the wilted sack go silent in unisson. They know what this means: war is on our doorstep once more, and a child has died... or worse. The army is clacking off, and goblins are trepassing on our land unseen. they could be about to enter the fort and we wouldn't even know it.

-This is terrible news, Tun says. I know what they came here for, but by Kadol, we won't let them have it!
-Oh please, tell me you are talking about the children and the food...

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nope. He isnt. We must search for those goblins, and kill them.

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Sadly within the same day, a hyena and a lion revert to a wild state. The lion is still caged, but the hyena has to be slaughtered via impromptu decapitation. I swear, everything is going to shit in this base!

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We hear panicked noises from the caverns. It could be nothing, but I'd rather check anyway. On my way down, the slack of our milicia is once more made apparent. The tomb of their fallen brothers is littered with rags of all sort.

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As i reach BASE1, I notice that the scheduled squad for this month is NOT on duty. The place is empty of any military presence, but workers are rushing out of the cavern, screaming about a deadly crocodile, and how it came from the eastern river, fastern than anything they ever saw...

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We call for the army's intervention, but it's obvious that they'll never make it out in time. Quick as a demon, the reptilian beast charged at a woodcutter, and slaughtered him violently. It's onslaught was so terrible, that a second worker, a Hunter, was also caugh and slain before he could even draw his crossbow.

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Many creatures seem to inhabit this deadly underground complex, including some pond grabbers, but none is so terrifying to the miners as this crocodile right now. As long as it is alive, working in the mines is a constant danger, for this foes is quick, strong, and patient. They call the monster Enamneshasht, or ''Purerisks''.

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Outpost liason, you may be the most ill-timed individual on this planet...

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the outpost liason distracts me for only a second, but when I turn my attention back to the caverns, Purerisks is gone, apparently lurking in the eastern river. As with bosda, this underground waterwork is filled with rocks and obstacles, and the milicia is unable to reach the monster with their weapon. they stand by for as long as they can, but empty backpacks force them to disband and return to BASE1. How long before Purerisks strike again? The beast is deadly, and clever, yet we cannot afford to spent 1/6 of our troops stationned alongside the river. The crocodile is smart, and patient, and this foe is much faster and deadly than bosda the blob. by navigating the river, it can attack from any angle while remaining undetected. The only way to strike at him would be to mine the stalagtites and rock formations around the river, but that would expose our workers to the sneaky maws of the reptile.

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Apparently inspired by the unease emanating from the depths, a planter is taken by a fey mood. I usually try to keep track of what they take and what they,ll need, but this chap will have to take care of his own artifact, for our problems are not over yet...

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remember when I said that the goblins could be assaulting our very frontdoor as we speak, and we wouldnt know about it? Well, turns out I was more spot on than I'd like to be. a goblin skirmisher is now entering the fort freely, unintimidated by the mighty statues of our bureaucrats admiring machinery while covered in vomit and troll juice. He is obviously followed by a dozen spearmen, all of which managed to walk to our porch unseen by the soldiers. Thank the gods, this dog was there to warn us...

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This dog is injured while holding the door, but courageously buys time for the tropps to mobilise (even tho they should already be mobilised by default) His feline friend tries to be a hero as well, with unarguably poor results.

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Meanwhile, the squad on duty has left the wall, because it apparently takes 10 elite marksdwarves to shoot down a pidgeon trying to fly way. Why would they abandonn their duty to shoot this fucking bird? Because they will be turned, or they will be destroyed.

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The fighters finally take care of massacreing the invaders, and shortly after the elves show up, met by the customary sight of a dying dog on a pile of various goblin chunks. While I'm all super interested in suffering their mockeries and snobism, We still havent picked up the goods from the last caravan, nor have we actually finished moving the goods TO the trade depot from last season. I tell the elves we cannot be bthered to move stuff outside as our manpower is sorta mobilised by the concept of mismanagement, but they are free to pick up anything they like from the dead goblins lying around from the last skirmish. Or the last two sieges. We havent picked those up either.

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While this diplomatic conversation is taking place, this mecanist and his son are busy repairing one of the cage trap, when they are ambushed by a goblin thief. Is it the same thief who kidnapped the last child6 Impossible to know, as nobody even noticed the previous rogue... but wether it be him or not, he is not running away with another child this time!

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...because he fucking stabs the youngling on the spot and runs away while the crying father give chase...

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The thief makes a run for it, and crosses about half the map before a guard catches up and slays the murderer, in front of a griefing father. justice has been done, but the damage cannot be undone, especially when it comes to a 10 years old's shattered brain.

 As summer starts in the Tactical Hill, the dwarves of the wilted Sack are gathering in the great hall of whisperwhip to mourn the recent and tragic deaths of 4 compatriots. A murdered child, another vanished, as well as two workers. The cycle of life and death is cold and unforgiving here in the north. Animals are befriended and born, only to die defending their masters. Child are born and raised with love, yet they are taken away before their time. War is ever-present. all those people would leave, but... Whisperhip is their home, their pride, their life creation. The glory of a Dwarven fortress is measured not by the width of it's halls, or the content of it,s vaults, but by the willpower of it's inhabitants. For a fortress without dwarves is no real fortress, and so long as a single man stands in these bloody halls, the glory of whisperwhip shall remain bright!

Plus, Zuntir the planter just made a mug that's worth a kingdom?

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[Immortal-D]

Another great chapter   However, I notice you appear to have a metric ton of trees on the surface.  Why not order a Squad to patrol a small patch of forest and chop it down?  Also, I'm imagining your Dwarven children's school goes something like this (replace God with Armok, and disasters with Goblins/Wild Dingos/SkyPigs);

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[Taupe]

However, I notice you appear to have a metric ton of trees on the surface.  Why not order a Squad to patrol a small patch of forest and chop it down?

Yes, that was my initial plan, but there were a few obstacles that made this problematic
1-Our best warriors are also the oldest, and they tend to vomit everywhere when left outside for too long. Patrolling the wall for one month is fine, but going on long trip usually leaves them drinking their own vomit and going absolutely apeshit. This is what almost collapsed society 10 years ago.
2-Our young warriors are sunlight-tolerant, but they are not great in melee. fightning on a wall with a crossbow against a guy who doesnt is one thing, going to to toe with bunches of 25 trolls is another. and boy do the younger squad members like to charge blindly at hordes of opponent headfirst
3-I'm terrible at making patrol routes, and having the soldiers follow the workers is an absolute pain. They cant even guard a wall properly. That's why the cavern workers have a setup build around ''work close to base and scream fast and loud when in trouble''
4-Chidren: They love to wander off on their own when the doors are opened, and that's the main cause fo heroic sacrifices so far. workers bring them along them, and so do soldiers. That's fine on a fucking wall, but in the wild this is a huge issue

The light sensitivity issue is slowly going down, but the number of random werewolves appearing nd lunging at woodcutters has gone up drastically. The sheet amount and crazyness of shit wandering on our land is staggering, and that's why we ruled the outside as ''not fun''. Because when minotaurs and titans show up for tea, I want my guys grouped atop a fortification at 60 vs 1, not split up on the field and surprised.

The next update wont be for a while, but as we speak, The mayor is sleeping peacefully while the ANCIENT GOD OF BLOOD AND MURDER is staring at him, accompanied by his full-plated lieutenants, so it should be worth it...

[Zorromorph]

Very good stuff!