1st of Granite, 128Jim was no longer overseer, but that left the question of who would take his place.
Many of the prominant dwarves gathered together to decide what to do.
"Well, I'm not doing it." declared Toaster. "Too much work. I can't keep up with all this book keeping
and make all the plans!"
"I'll take over!" Shouted Persus "I'll have this fortress working like clockwork when I'm done. Everyone assigned tasks. No leisure time! None of this free thinking nonesense! And...oh, I'll figure out who's at the bottom of this traitor business. We'll need a torture chamber for that..."
"NO!!!" Shouted quite a few dwarves at once.
"I. Well. FINE!" Persus stormed out of the room.
The bickering went on for a while. Dwarves who wanted the position where opposed by dwarves who didn't want them to have it, and dwarves who no one objected to bowed out with protestations that they hadn't a clue as to how to solve the problems the fortress faced.
Finally, Mephansteras stepped forward. "Well, I don't know about this overseer business, but I think I have some ideas that may help us." He pulled out some rolled up documents. "Plenty of time to think down in the forges, while the ores smelt." A few dwarves cleared off a table and he laid out the plans.
"First up, wood. We can't use the caverns while that monster is burning it down, so we'll need a place for trees to grow. I propose that we dig out a cavern of our own and collapse a layer of dirt down. The spores from the caverns will sprout soon enough. It's a longer term solution, of course, but it'll be helpful to have a supply that can't be blocked off"
"As for the caverns, I think if we carve out some fortifications in the walls we may be able to have our marksdwarves fire upon the beast in relative safety. Not perfectly safe, of course, but much better than the alternative. And we'll have some defenses in place to help keep the caverns safe in the future as well."
There were murrmers and suggestions, but a general assent from the group. These were plans. Solid plans. Maybe the not best plans, but at least they didn't involve torture.
Dorsidwarf burst in, shouting. "Kobolds! The thieving scum have sent an ambush party against us!"
"What!? They're after the gold!" Mephansteras shouted. "Dorsi, get the civilians inside and order militia up top to deal with the scum. And have someone close the fortress up once everyone is inside!"
"Yeah, right!" The militia commander rushed back out and started yelling at the troops to assemble.
"Congratulations, Mephansteras," Shakerag clapped him on the shoulder. "You'll make a fine Overseer."
"Wait, what?!"
But his protests were no use. The assembled dwarves cheered his name and gathered up the plans. There was work to be done.
"Huh. I...guess...we're going to need more miners and picks for all this digging." Mephansteras muttered to himself as he headed back down to the forges. "And more stairs! Damn chokepoints make this hike a beard pulled pain!"
------
A while later victory was announced as the kobolds are all slain or driven off by the brave militia. A few poor souls were cought outside during the attack and wounded, but no deaths.
-----
A few hooded dwarves gathered around that night in a secluded part of the fortress.
"The kobolds didn't manage to accomplish much"
"They weren't supposed to. They caused a panic, and that is enough."
"Let us hope this plan of yours works..."
"It will. It will."
-----
Meanwhile, In dead chat....4maskwolf threw down his cards and stood up from the table. "That's it! I can't take it anymore! I'm supposed to be
mayor!"
"Well, no, you're dead now." Said notquitehtere, trying to calm him down. "They've elected a new mayor by now."
"Yeah, well, I can fix that! I'm leaving!"
"Wait! Don't go!"
"No! I'm. Going. To. Be. Mayor!" he slammed the door on the way out.
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Topic: WIFOM Fortress - Night 4 - "Peerless visionary" floods fort with GCSs (Read 61655 times)