Combatshield's back!
Happy fun exploration time in the second cavern layer revealed just more mangled corpses and blood splatters. My guard captain also followed a passage to the first layer, but apparently it doesn't actually connect there; it just ends in some standalone hollow the same height as the place it should lead to. I returned the captain to the fortress after that.
The well next to the hospital finally got finished. Good job, everyone who's hauled buckets of water up there over the last few years!
The temple of Mathus, goddess of death, birth, rebirth, poetry and inspiration, has been expanded so there's more room for slabs now. A performer has also been assigned.
Three blind cave ogres showed up on the second layer, smashed a door, and walked off. I had my professional militia attack them, which they did with horrifying efficiency. First ogre got himself brought down by blood loss from a punctured heart, second one got a spear through the brain, third one's skull was crushed in with a hammer. Then one reanimated and was killed again, then a gremlin showed up and got killed in a single blow. Note that all this happened without any dwarf getting hit.
On the surface, less heroic battles were fought as my guard captain killed a porcupine by chopping it in two and punching its skull in. Remains have been dumped; I'm considering a mass surface cleanup once my military forces are less occupied.
Finally, some migrants arrived; we're up to 120 souls now.