Largeropes, Kingdom of the Hydra (see above), has now survived and thrived until its fifth year.
The baroness is obsessed with millstones. We must make them, many of them, store them, love and pet them, even mill with them occasionally, but we must never never never sell them. Not one precious millstone can be trusted to the outside world.
Our mayor is a dwarf who is very fond of bats and coffins. He swears he's not a vampire. Periodically Urist and the miners challenge him to an eating or drinking contest just to see if he will consume food, since food is known to sicken vampires. He's passed each time so far - for a small dwarf, he can really do some damage to the liquor stocks. He's constantly bemoaning our lack of gutter cruor, and the Master Brewer told him last Slate that if he would shut up and go get the plants, he would brew him some, but until then to, and I quote, "Hush yer bloody clack, ye ferlin kakapo-humper!"
We recently had a giantess, a creature rarely seen. There's one less to see now. She encountered the Dwarven Cuisinart of 10 angry Axe Lords in steel armor, and went to lie down in the stream. The fish are happy; lamprey catches are up 15% since so much food landed in the river.
A vile force of darkness arrived, but barely managed to get their feet onto Hydra land when they too met the Cuisinart, with the expected results. The vile force of darkness departed in unseemly haste, and the militia, loving scamps that they are, waved a fond farewell with exposed dwarven buttocks and raucous laughter.
A forgotten beast made of ash with deadly spittle wanders the second cavern, but it doesn't come near the dwarves. One of the miners swears she hears it crying from all the hateful things the haulers say about it, but that miner has always been a bit notional.
Magma forges have been erected on the 85th deep, not far below the surface at all. Steel production has commenced, and now that flux has been located in abundance, things will proceed much more quickly. Unfortunately the caverns on that level include unpleasant denizens; attempts to fish in those waters, rich as they are with aquatic wildlife, have met with pond grabbers. If they can locate the culprit, members of the militia are looking forward to grabbing back... with axes.