I'm actually quite happy with my fort at the moment! Earthspirals (The first reclaim of it, technically) went through one of the most violent, roughest starts of any of my fortresses, with so much pain, hardship and suffering heaped upon my dwarves. I'm using the Fortress Defence mod too, you can imagine that makes things a bit worse.
So anyway, heroes have risen and fallen, projects have stalled, and the ramshackle, messy fortress has spread like a tumor throughout the landscape, trees being felled and turned to black smoke in the furnaces, the ground churned and grass eaten by livestock, and most anything that moves in the area catching a bolt or two.
But the thing which makes me really happy? The fort has somehow scraped through all its crises, often surviving with barely enough dwarves to run the place, blood and corpses have been a near-constant fixture over the years, and the one friendship I saw form, between two veteran soldiers, was cut short by a giant bat to the head... But I've succeeded in one goal I set myself: Keep the child Eral Roldethathel alive through it all.
Eral migrated to the fort as a young girl, with her parents Medtob and Zuglar. I didn't pay much attention to them, thinking simply, 'Oh... They brought a child to this horrible fort? I pity the poor kid.' and then getting on with whatever I was doing at the time.
But then, when Eral's parents gave birth to a second child, the first baby born in the fort, I was rather excited! Full of plans to keep the little baby alive to reach adulthood, and all that.
...The exact details of their deaths escape me, it was so long ago and during such chaos, but I believe they were neither quick nor pleasant... Something involving beakwolves, if I remember correctly. Suffice to say, poor young Eral was left all alone, with a scar on her left foot as a permanent memory of the horrors that claimed her father, baby sister and mother in quick succession.
Seeing this small, grief-stricken child wandering my fort in shock, I felt a sadness... Almost a guilt, at having failed her so. So I vowed to protect young Eral, and make her life in my fort a (comparatively) happy one. I began with carving her out a room, placing a statue within it, and then trying my best to get her favourite things from the trade caravan. Move fowards a few years, and Eral Roldethathel has grown to become a Peasant.
It's interesting that this should happen at a time of piece in my fort; the corpses have been cleaned away, industry is fairly stable with weapons being forged, delicious meals being prepared, and progress on both the underground fort and the above-ground tower progressing apace. Indeed, apart from an unkown planter who was scared to death by a ghost as I was posting this, there haven't been any deaths for quite a long time... Well, apart from that stupid soldier who charged a cave crocodile unarmed, but that doesn't count, that was natural selection or something.
Now, I'm equipping Eral (who has risen to an Escatic mood with her coming-of-age, interestingly, up from the Happy she maintained for years) with the best armour and weaponry my fort has to offer. She's a strong, agile young dwarf, and I see great things in her future. But I fear we're due for another raid sometime soon... It's been too quiet lately.
That dwarven girl has grown up to be the pride of the fortress, a militia captain, already skilled with her *silver warhammer* and well on her way to earning herself a title, like the fort's several scarred veterans.
She took a few injuries during a siege back in 175, a broken right elbow and lower arm, but she's healed up and is good as new. Ever the brave one, her escatic smile didn't leave her face as she lay in hospital swapping tales of battle, and before long she was back up again, assisting the likes of Inod Thosbutoltar Osetnar the Militia Commander, Tun Febaval Ondinthidas Thasdoth the speardwarf, Tulon Idenonam Astal Sanad the axedwarf and her squadmate Urdim Avuzbal, who despite not having a title of his own yet, is experienced enough a soldier to help teach young Eral about dodging and armour use, and other such things.
...Although, no amount of lessons, sparring and demonstrations can match true battle experience, and in that the occasional siege of beak wolves or dark stranglers is rather helpful. The chief Medical Dwarf Monom was almost killed when a large siege of dark stranglers attacked when she was down in the fields, but she is rather a sturdy dwarf and managed to fight them off when they got too close, receiving only a few cuts, bruises and a broken finger before Commander Inod charged in, dealing death and destruction to the foolish stranglers with his silver warhammer. After a short stay in her own hospital in which she was temporarily replaced as Chief Medical Dwarf, she was back up and about, tending to the wounded with her usual cheerful manner.
Just now a new baby girl has been born in my fort, Zasit Unibthoth. I have a bad feeling about this one... She is both a sickly and weak child, and peering into her mind I can tell she craves both adamantine and something called congealed vaporstone... It would be terrible luck if such a child could grow to become the mayor.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6099959 times)