Year 3 has ended in Swordgleams.
The seventy-odd dwarves started the year well. An archery bunker was completed north of the main complex and then a large walled pasture built beside it and the newly dug North Gate. Once the wall was complete the rhinoceroses captured in the first year were trained and pastured there with an adjacent training area in case they decide to start going wild again.
The power generator (aquifer based) was started up and is now powering a millstone in the kitchen and a mist generator down by the main dining hall entrance. A lot of recent work has gone into getting the residence blocks carved out and furnished, as well as providing sufficient tables for the dining hall.
The first mayor was put out of office and a replacement elected. No more requests for flood gates!
Migrants arrived in mid-summer taking the population over eighty. At this point the militia is expanded to thirty-two dwarves. Twenty melee dwarves split over five squads by weapon and a dozen marksdwarves split over two squads. There is still a shortage of armor and weapons, but the marksdwarves have a large stockpile of wooden bolts to work with.
The migrants were followed by a goblin siege. One squad and the the resulting attack had no fatal casualties. The goblin leader was wounded on the approach and promptly led his squad off in a hail of crossbow bolts from the wall. A few goblins wounded and a few dropped weapons to be picked up.
More migrants in the fall bring the population to ninety-nine dwarves with almost twenty being children or babies. The fortress is given barony status and one of the founders is made baron and given extravagent quarters to live in. While this is going on a minotaur attacks, but is caught in a cage trap.
And the female rhino gives birth to three calves. Who already have -trained- status.
The trade caravan brings in some iron ore, which is immediately converted to steel for additional weapons to supplement the copper and bronze currently in use. More bronze is made as well to be used for more armor.
And, on queue, the goblins arrive in greater force in the late winter. Two full squads of cavalry (spear and bow) who come in from both sides of the south courtyard while the marksdwarves man the archery galleries. Things being well with the goblin mounts and the half-squad of trolls taking the brunt of the damage from the scattering of traps and crossbow fire. Then, for some reason, one of the marksdwarf squads breaks from the gallery and goes out the gate to melee fight. The slackening fire on that side allows the axe lord leader of a goblin squad to reach the gate.
At this point the two fully equipped melee squads (long sword and axe) are rushed from their ready position to defend the gate. By the time they get there the marksdwarf squad has been exchanging fire in the open with bow goblins and then been rushed by the axe lord. Two dwarves die and two are wounded and fall into the fort's own cage traps. (Which probably saved their lives from the rampaging axe goblin.) The last cage trap in the gate entrance snares the axe lord.
The melee troops rush out into the courtyard and carry the fight to the remaining goblins. An axe dwarf is wounded by an arrow to the knee, but otherwise the melee dwarves are victorious, including the militia commander winning a one-on-one duel with the goblin lasher commanding one of the goblin squads.
The wounded are carried down to the hospital and treated. All three have leg wounds, but treatment goes well and it appears they will heal cleanly. The two dead are carried down to the catacomb and interred.*
The rest of the year is spent collecting and disposing of corpses and equipment.
*- Burial practice in Swordgleams is a bit complex. The body is placed in a coffin on the lower level. The burial location is then covered with a metal bar flooring upon which the dwarf's memorial slab is then placed. "Normal" dwarves get copper flooring, officers get silver, and fortress heroes get gold or another precious metal.
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Topic: What's going on in your fort? (Read 6196193 times)