Emeraldlanterns 1: The FoundingEmeraldlanterns 2: Migrant MoodingEmeraldlanterns 3: Animal ControlWinter #2 has been full of butchering. The tame animal population is now under 100 and the raws modified to cap number of eggs per clutch at 10 or less, to keep certain creatures *coughcavecrocodilescoughs* from overwhelming the lists. Grazer species each have a grand total of
one pasture, with a maximum of three adult females and two adult males being kept alive for future breeding. At one point the animal population was pushing 350, which is just ... ridiculous. So. At least that's under control. It's a pity cave crocodiles don't give leather, though, I was hoping to make shoes (LOTS AND LOTS of shoes). Guess we'll have to use turkey skin (wtf?)...
The sixteen-story tall residential tower / saferoom-type burrow for civilians is finished - hospital on ground floor, followed by twelve stories of apartments for married couples, a dormitory floor for the unwed, small legendary dining room with storage rooms for prepared meals and booze, and at the top, a domed meeting room with masterwork gold statue. The whole thing is built out of green glass, and securely connected to the main workshop stair shaft / office and beekeeping tower by a channeled-out-roofed-in-glass tunnel on Z -1 and a drawbridge.
Anyway, after the craaaaaazy amounts of butchering, I went ahead and tossed all the non-legendary prepared meals (HATE tallow, fat gets tossed now). Next step seems to be building a military tower / main entry point, probably using stoneware bricks. Eventually I plan on a spiral of towers and domes surrounding the main residential highrise. The human caravan, my signal to turn invasions on in d-init, didn't come this summer, and if they don't come next year, I'll likely just turn invasions on anyway. I wanted a year or two to prepare, and I've had it. Time to meet the zombie hordes in battle, and goblins, and cannibalistic hippies, and those 88-someodd titans and forgotten beasties that survived worldgen... So far the worst we've had to deal with is constant flocks of giant crows and ravens.
Life is good, everyone is working their fat asses off, I've got eight married couples now among my 21 adults and the danger room is actually dangerous this time around (all sorts of bruised skulls and broken arms, yay!).