Diary of Tulon Ostnish, New Mayor of Edtulon
25th of Hematite, 128
I am the newly elected mayor of the City of Edtulon, Tulon Ostnish. My predecessor, Inod Likotamem, decided not to run again for some strange reason. Lately she'd seemed very stressed out, like something was weighing heavily on her shoulders. I supposed being in charge of various things in the fortress would be worrying, but that stuff usually falls on the Overseer to actually get done while she just banned the export of helms so our forces would be stronger. I didn't think much of it and ran for the hell of it. I didn't expect to run unapposed, and I damn well didn't expect to actually win. Oh well, whatever. I've got a nice bedroom, an office, and a dining room all to myself now. That's more than most of these assholes can speak on.
What does bother me is what Inod told me when she came to visit my office as I was having an engraving of myself put on the walls next to her's. She walked in cautiously, looking over at the engraving on the other side of the doors of goblins suffering. I casually asked why she had that put there, since none of us have ever even really seen goblins before. She muttered that she didn't have it put there and asked how I was getting used to the position. I mentioned I was doing fine, it wasn't all that hard. I hadn't even done anything yet. She nodded a little and just nervously looked around. I asked what was wrong.
"Has... Has Overseer Alchemist spoken to you yet?" Inod asked in a hushed tone.
"No, I haven't even seen him lately. He's always busy these days." I answered.
She stood there for a second, looking around as if watching for boogeymen. Then she spoke, "Whatever you do, be careful around him."
"Why?"
"Something... Something's WRONG with him."
"What do you mean?"
"For awhile now he's been really agitated. Muttering about crashes and goblins, crashes and goblins. He says there's a siege coming, that goblins are coming to murder all of us in bloody, horrible ways, but he's been through it twice, and he knows what to do now. He swears he'll massacre them all."
I sighed, "Sounds like he's drinking too much. Sounds like YOU'VE been drinking too much if you believe him. It's not like he can travel forward and backward in time and magically see some goblins coming."
She shook where she stood. "I... I don't know why I believe him, but he sounds terribly convinced. Just... Just listen to him, humor him. Everything he's been doing has strengthened the fort, I find no reason not to hear him out now...."
"Whatever." I shrugged. Not like I could stop Alchemist if I wanted to. Fucker was crazy and everyone else listened to him.
With that, Inod took her leave, and I looked at my now completed engraving. It was fine. Just me, settling. At that point, another engraver came by. I asked what they needed and they just plopped down by the suffering goblin engraving and started working. I asked what they were making, and they told me an image of Alchemist slaughtering goblins. I mentioned having not requested that, and was told that Alchemist did. I sighed. This was going to be my first headache. I then decided to go see Alchemist.
I remember that awhile ago he joined the military, and went up to see if he was training with Sazir. I did in fact see him up there, decked out in full Steel. By fucking Armok, it was better than Sazir's gear. Some of the soldiers didn't even have armor yet! What did he need steel for?! I was going to walk in but... I felt intimidated.
I couldn't see his face, nor was his training that rough. i just... I felt murder comin' from him. He radiated death. Whatever was going on in his head, it was best not to interrupt him. At that moment, someone came up and informed me we had migrants coming in. Alchemist stopped training and just stared in my direction. It felt like eternity that we stared at each other. I turned to the other dwarf once I could and told him to conscript the useless fuckers into the military and get them training. He nodded and went off. I looked to Alchemist one more time, still staring, and I headed back to my office.
Our overseer is a monster, but I want to see where he goes with this. The moment I think he's a loon I'm going to have him locked somewhere far away, where he can't hurt the fortress. For now he's having the rest of the military outfitted. I'm willing to give him a chance if he's willing to do that.
We'll see where this goes.
~Tulon Ostnish