Limestone1
The warehouse needs to be roofed and several houses need to be built and several industries need to be created. The hell with it. These ungrateful bastards don't appreciate my hard work so as the fearless leader of this village I'm placing myself first. My estate is built, it is furnished, and it is stocked with fine foods.
Then we can talk about your problems.
Limestone 14
My home is coming along nicely, I decided against pulling all other labors to get it done. The wine's shored up, the furnace is churning out charcoal at a good pace and once we get some more wheelbarrows the metal industry will start up immediately. I may assign pottery next, I don't like digging stone like this, I fear the tunnels may collapse and I can't take a hit to my reputation like that if I ever plan to sell shares. It may be advisable to [a dark pool appears here where a quill was apparently set down for some time.]
Traders are here. Bim Glazesubtles showed up with a dwarven caravan without any time to prepare. (SO glad I paid those filthy tree hippies to warn me of this EXACT THING) Bim is here ostensibly to trade but I'm certain she's been sent to look for any sort of holes in our story. I daresay she may have found one. It would seem that if a village is comprised by more than 70% dwarves and those dwarves have any sort of permanent leadership they must be tied to the nearest dwarven civilization lest that civilization be shamed by their behavior.
I told her we had no leader, she asked one of the dwarves building the one stone structure ,a stately manor, who would live there and this idiot dwarf replied “Koreg.” I clarified that I meant I was not permanent in any capacity and would be handing over control very shortly to the nearest dwarf I could physically grab which was in this case PK. If she believed me even for a moment it was not at all apparent. I suspect she will go to great lengths to report back anything she can to His Majesty's Tax Service. Unless I want to be dragged off by the MTS I'll have to earnestly entrust PK with [a word has been obliterated by tears and burns] VILLAGE operations.
No matter, I hate every part of this. There are owls everywhere but none of them giant which is convincing more and more dwarves that there never was a giant owl. There are raven and echidna carcasses left out in the sun because as of yet I haven't found the time to designate a trash heat. I also haven't had the time to assign someone to watch the animals but for now I'm quite okay with that. I chatted with the “Liaison” [read:blasted spy] in the pub and while I did so she nearly vomited at the spectacle of a pig experiencing miracle of life on the freshly cleaned floor of the Pickled Plum.
She of course had to behave as though this was simply a trading mission and asked about what we needed. I placed an order for as much drink as her team could carry, at least one bull and at least one cow, and some fine silk cloth and assured her, gesturing towards the silver statuette that we could certainly afford it when the metalworks were operating at 100% efficiency. Technically I never said we made the statuette or that there was an abundance of silver here. No, I'll leave saying that to her men who are less than disciplined and likely to tell wild stories of the tax free village situated on top of a huge deposit of mineral wealth.
She was vaguely interested but when I mentioned ,and only slightly overstated, how much iron we'd successfully pulled from the ground and she was very interested. She didn't say anything specific but her request led me to me to a few inferences.
This appears to be a list of warfare materials. Pearlash makes clear glass which makes spyglasses, drums horns and the like communicate across the battlefield, splints and thread are medical supplies, the weapons and armor are probably self-explanatory, a good hard cheese makes an excellent field ration, and the anvils would of course make more weapons and armor. It is known that the goblin menace was nearly wiped out by the half year crusade of the human general Rushan Springcradles they have been incapable of real force projection for the 56 years since his death. My theory is that the Goblin Master Kul Veiledmines who took power shortly after we left for Nevertaxed has rallied an offensive and attacked some of our less defended resources. No doubt many settlements have been sacked, many strongholds raided, and many atrocities perpetrated against our people for our defenders lacked the resources to fight effectively. This is a tragedy for all of us... who don't own an operational iron mine on tax-free land. EvictedSaint will see owls wherever I tell her to when she can't fill her orders without my iron and I can't wait until we have the money to hire some more competent hands for the plum harvest and that bastard flower picker Weird is out on his ass. Of course this is good news for others to, the fellow who takes over the animal industry may make a tidy profit trading strong wool thread and cheese. I suppose HugoLuman is going to do fairly well in the splint game too.
I plied her with some of our stiffer wines and with tactful questioning got her appraisal of the financial situation back home. It seems there's been a sudden interest in fortress reclamation.
I imagine they plan to restore the fortresses to working condition, declaring them perfectly restored, and selling them to interested parties for an impressive mark up. Fortress flipping! That's where the money is. But there's no legacy there, Nevertaxed will be my masterpiece and my name will be associated with it for all time. My home is nearly complete, the second floor is nearly finished and I'm producing furnishings for it myself. When this bloody year is done I'll be holed up in my manor with a nice glass of wine, a nicely seasoned piece of fish, and peace.