Spring, 107Welcome to Shadowgraves, population 175.
The first I knew that anything was amiss, ol' Maxcat the so-called Minion came stormin' around a corner and flung the overseer hat at me... fair cracked me skull! He were shoutin' summat about he couldna' take any more, an' magma, an' Ber knows what else. I wasna' listenin', on account of bein' thankful not to be dead from that gurt purple hat flyin' at me! Finally he stomped off... emotional sort, is our Minion. Werrrrlllll, I'm not a proud dwarf, but how could I let the hat jus' sit there an' not try it on? Maybe this was how Utost and Ber were rewardin' me, seein' as how I have been a devoted worshipper of them since I was but a wee sprue? Pwaorr, would you look a' that!
Here's a hint, dear reader... it won't a reward. A trap, more like. No sooner did I put the bloody thing on, than aroun' the corner comes stormin' a whole wide-eyed troop of others, claimin' now I'm the overseer! Could have knocked me over with a featherwood yolk! They'd hear naught but that I'd do it, though, so here I be. Lessee if I can sum up Spring in short order...
No sooner had the hat hit my hair than I got word that... what?
Then word of a goose dying... then another mole dog... then a war dog... then a regular dog. No wonder Minion was in such a gurt steamin' hurry to run off... he was an animal murderer! Either that or we had some sort o' weird night critter what only ate animals. We still don't know what killed 'em, why they died, or nothin'. All a bit of a mystery.
The other thing it would have been nice to know was that one of me mates was downstairs, pinin' away for resources we didn't have. That ended poorly on 17 Granite, as it usually does:
If only I had known poor ol' Nish needed silk, I could have made some... but nooooo, it were too much like work for Maxcat to provide any notes of such. Now Nish is scamperin' about in the altogether, babblin' nonsense, shamin' himself and his family. A tragedy... but an avoidable one, dammit! Why, who knows, he might ha' made somethin' truly magnificent! Och, well, I guess now we'll never know.
Nobles in general are a cantankerous lot, and this set is no exception. Mark ye, I like gems as much as the next dwarf... more, maybe; gems are the eyes of Utost Diamondmined, great god of jewels, and I ha' bowed to Utost since me mum taught me to walk. Still... the king has an odd fixation on large gems; mad ol' thing demands more, and more again, as if any ol' stone could be cut tha' big and not be a mess of flaws! Betwixt him an' that duchess, always puttin' on airs, I begin to see why Max was in such a stompin' hurry to give up the job. Large gems! Battle axes, and be quick about it! Where's me buckler? We need more! More bucklers! Then they both started shoutin' about bucklers! Was nigh enough to drive me sober.
Slate came and went with nothing really to report, other than runnin' out of gems. In an attempt to
shut his arsin' majesty up keep the jewelers busy, I ordered a tunnel dug into the first cavern... worryin' a bit about the dire tales of monsters and such, I got a bridge built to seal it off in a hurry if some hideous critter came leapin' out at us. Lots o' gems were mined. As if that weren't enough, I got the miners over to where they said there was more adamantine, and blow me down if there weren't! We're swimmin' in the good stuff now, and the strand pullers are pullin' strands as fast as their little fingers will go.
Felsite... didn't go so smooth. First I know of things amiss, I hears shoutin'... and that ain't like these dwarves (well, except in the drinkin' hall, and that's different). Seems that not only did poor Nish finally kick the bucket, but Sarvesh went with him.
I have no idea how the hell he managed to dehydrate, because he were in a major hallway! I swear there's somethin' unholy about. Maybe the king is right; we need more gems around to keep out the night devils.
The other thing that went awry was one of the metalcrafters headed off into the caves with a determined look and then word came back:
'Tis my sad duty to report tha' the interruption proved fatal. The toad bit 'im in the head, and that were that. The A Team soon sent the toad to the kitchens, but the damage were done... poor Muthkat was off to his new home in a stone box. Sad it was, and I can't 'elp but wonder if I were to blame.
Well, here's hopin' summer goes more smoothly... I've asked the smiths to make an adamantine statue for 'Is Bleedin' Majesty in 'opes it will give 'im somethin' pretty to look at so he will shut up about bloody requests for a bit. Hope makes the forge go, as me mum used to say.