The forge is what feeds a fortress, the anvil a fortress in and of itself. A young fortress of a single year, Ularezum, has made its first artifact symbolizing this relationship, called "Ganadegom". It is a bronze anvil, encircled with bronze and menacing with spikes of milk quartz.
On the item in bloodstone is an image of Cave wheat. The food of the fortress is metal, the life is the anvil. Ganadegom is the first of hopefully many in the fortress, a symbol of great things to come.
Journal entry of a soldier of the Abyssal Handles
I remember the first "mission" we went on. Some kind of falcon got stuck in our fort and kept scaring off everyone who got near the food. Back then it was just me and the commander, and even without armament we managed to rip the poor thing to pieces. Still, can't have birds in your booze.
For a while it was all just training and hauling rocks. We had a training room right next to a meeting room which everyone packed into because of all the nice engravings, even though no one used the archery range. I don't think we've had a legitimate lesson on anything, but it's not like we really know what in Armok's name we're doing.
Oh, there was one Kobold thief that decided to try and get in when the Elves were trading. One of the haulers saw him, and the Commander took all of two seconds to chop the kobold's arm off and haul it's carcass to the dump. Our value steadily rises, however, and I wouldn't doubt the elves telling of our wonders to any goblin who'd listen. I fear the cage traps we have set up will not be enough to deter an invasion, but hopefully our -silver short sword- and other arms will be enough to hold them at bay.
Journal of one of the Original 7
Life is nice here, even though we still don't have a dining hall. Nonetheless, we recently started installing cabinets in people's rooms, and soon a bookkeeper will be appointed. The fort's really coming along for only 1 year, and no one's even been injured yet. Booze production was limited to one crop for a long time, but now we've switched to three kinds of crops in seasonal rotation, so all is well again. I'm also glad the bitchy elves didn't send a loudmouth to talk about trees, like I have nothing better to do. In any case, with an artifact anvil, a great party room, and general happiness all around I'd say we're doing just fine.
OOC UPDATE
HOLY SHIT ROUGE KOBOLD ARM, AS SOON AS HUMAN CARAVAN APPEARS
I knew the humans were bastards, being the only fuckers with a tower, but come on, I'm halfway across the world! Glad I didn't kill anything big and angry!
I think I killed it, I don't even know what happened to the partial skeleton. I traded the arm away to the human caravan for lulz.