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[PyroTechno]

Speak up to be dorfed!

Spoiler: Dorfing List (click to show/hide)

Gwolfski (Mechanic)
Galena

Contents:
World Generation (you are here)

Act 1: Blockadegrasped
Spring, Year 125
Summer, Year 125
Autumn, Year 125
Winter, Year 125
Spring, Year 126
Summer, Year 126
Autumn, Year 126


------



Dwarf Fortress, in my experience, is a game of extremes. Some people complain about the absurd difficulty, and others complain that it's a simple sandbox with no difficulty whatsoever. I've seen both sides of the spectrum myself - it's very easy to create a prosperous and self-sustaining fort, and it's very easy to choose the wrong embark location and have your starting dwarves literally melt because acid rain, fuck you for setting down in an evil biome.



Pictured: An evil biome, AKA the generic nefarious purple shit.

I use PyLNP's Starter Pack, the Pheobus texture pack, and Dwarf Therapist, just so you know.

Now, let us begin.



A few short minutes later, and Enxah, "The Legendary Dimension", is born. As is customary, it is a fantasy world full of more detail than most novels, if only one can get through the dry, encyclopaedic record of it in Legends Mode.



And now we come to the founding of our Dwarf Fortress.

It took a while, but we found a place.



We shall be embarking in "the Safe Jungle", which honestly sounds like it's trying too hard to attract tourists.

"Yes, here in the Safe Jungle, we have many 5-star resorts, cute woodland creatures, and multiple local branches of McArmok's ('I'm killin' it!'). We're not anything like that OTHER jungle - you know the one."



"Hold on... It appears that the OTHER jungle has been annexed by the generic nefarious purple shit."

The Safe Jungle does not have any flux stone, but steel is overrated anyway.



"The Strike The Earth Foundation is sponsered by McArmok's. McArmok's - superior Dwarven Burgers since the Age of Myth."

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Spring of Year 125

And so, here we are. The fortress of Blockadegrasped, or, as it is currently known, "The Random Wagon In The Middle of Nowhere".



This place, this landscape of dark greens and browns, shall be our new home.

As you may or may not have noticed, we have lots of turkeys. And presumably plump helmets.

I quickly designate a stockpile for wood, and I order some trees chopped down and a 3x3 area channelled out of the ground.



While some quick rooms are dug out of the soil layer, the resident hunter uses all of his ammunition to start laying waste to the Safe Jungle's many cute woodland creatures. I spotted a dead crow and a couple other things that I didn't see again.



Pictured: Fortress Level 1, already in progress.



A farm and some workshops are set up, and nest box production begins. There are 22 Turkey hens, and they'll all be growing eggs for our new fortress.



The first crop of Plump Helmets is planted, the first nest boxes are placed, and a new office is planned. Log after log is brought down into the new stockpile, as only a few trees produce so much in version 0.40.24.

By the 20th of the second month, there are already eggs coming in and going to the kitchen to be turned into easy meals.

Unfortunately for the brewing side of things, I forgot to bring plump helmets. I brought plenty of spawn - just not any of the actual plants. Fortunately, the drink stocks should last until I manage to get the first crop of helmets in.



And then, by the third month, drink production (theoretically) starts.

Everything in the fort right now is wooden - wooden doors, wooden barrels, wooden nest workshops, and a wooden trade depot as a calculated insult to any elves that may visit and try to peddle their miscellaneous elven bullshit. This is because, quite frankly, wood is easy to obtain and work.



As spring begins to come to a close, a second level is dug out and new bedrooms are laid down. The beds will be completed at the Carpenter's Workshop soon.



Meanwhile, on the first level, two new offices are dug out, one for the Broker and one for the Bookkeeper / Manager.

For the position of Bookkeeper, which will monopolize the time of whoever I give it to, I chose the Hunter, since he already wasted all of the ammunition and we have plenty of other food sources.



His first count informs me that the Blockadegrasped is already doing quite well.

At the very end of the third month, I start setting up a second 3x3 Plump Helmet farm to keep the numbers of the critical purple plant up.

This was a very successful season, if I do say so myself.

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Summer of Year 125



Progress on the bedrooms continues. There will be 8 bedrooms currently, which is more than enough for 7 inhabitants.



I order the wood stockpiles expanded to accommodate the ridiculous amounts of wood on the surface. The miners get right to work.



And now, the problem with having so many turkeys reveals itself. 23 turkeys represent a stable food supply, but FPS like that cannot be tolerated so soon. It is with great sorrow that I start constructing a Butcher's Shop.



The bedrooms are complete, for now. They each have a bed and a door. That should more than satisfy the population.



While work on the Butcher's Shop continues, the digging continues, through the soil layer and down to stone.



And thus, the Great Turkey Murder of 125 begins.







Meanwhile, on the surface, construction of a wooden palisade around the fortress entrance begins.

At about this point, it occurs to me that there are too many things going on at once for any one thing to get done appreciably fast. I suspend construction of the palisade, which already stands in some places, in favor of mining, butchering, and cooking.



This is the dining room I've designated. Right now, it's not going to be dug out, so the designation doesn't include an entrance. Later, though, when the workforce is bigger? Sure, why not?



Well, would you look at that? I ask for a larger workforce, and two seconds later one appears. Excellent.

The population nearly doubles, with a Peasant, a Bowyer, a Farmer, a Blacksmith, and 2 children. Not bad, although I was hoping for more miners.

The migrants settle in and get to work almost immediately, and I have my friend, the carpenter, work on some beds for them.



Our first masterwork! Yes, it's a door. So? It's a MASTERWORK door. It will make some dwarf very happy, since it's going in his bedroom.



I think I may know what we're trading to the caravans when they come.

...

Waaaaaaaaait a minute.



Does this mean what I think it means? The Book of Waning is our civilization, and it's the only one on the list.

I think I don't have any neighbors.

Well. That's fine, I suppose. You just won't see any sieges in this Let's Play.

On a different subject, as of the 19th of Malachite, which is a little over halfway through summer, there's hardly any cut wood on the surface. This means that most of the hauling jobs suddenly vanish and other things start getting done.

I can get behind that.



Noticing exactly how many turkey bones still sit collecting dust in the Butcher's Shop, I order someone to do something with them. If it's carving them into little figurines or something, then that's fine.



I remember to build a Tanner's Shop too late. The turkey skins are wasted.



I begin to have some idle workers at this point, so I decide to have the miners start work on the dining hall and a new farming room.



About a week later, they get to work. I have my Carpenters work on some furniture for the dining room, and hope that this cures the "annoyed at lack of chairs" status effect I've been seeing in some of my dwarves' stat sections.



Progress continues. I'm not going to need this many farms, but I might as well build them now and leave the extra ones fallow until I do need them.



Now, for the first time, the dining hall can actually be called functional. In the future, I plan to add more tables and chairs, and a few other things to hopefully boost it up to Legendary.



2 levels underneath the new Dining Hall, underneath a layer of peat and a layer of black sand, there is granite.

Stone will be useful to me. The miners will soon get to work.



With the arrival of Autumn, we take stock once more. Level 1 of the Fortress hasn't changed much since spring, though level 2 has expanded greatly. We've struck stone, and will soon start working with it. I expect more migrants soon, which means more bedrooms. I'm considering putting them on Level 3.

But that's for later.

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Autumn of Year 125



Hello, and welcome to Level 5.

This layer appears to be composed at least partially of stone - specifically, granite. My objective for this season is to turn this Level into a stone mining and processing area, which I can use as a basis for putting statues absolutely everywhere.

Dwarves like statues, right?

I'm also going to try and use more dating, since that's a thing official succession fort people do, and I'm probably going to be playing in Doomforests sooner rather than later.

1st Limestone, 125

I have removed all other tasks from a single miner so she focuses on mining. We're going to need to do a lot of that.

I have nicknamed this person "Miner". It's not a very original name, but it's functional and effective.

3rd Limestone, 125

Let me guess...



Of course. Doing absolutely nothing is the hardest dwarven job of them all, and must be accompanied by frequent breaks to avoid serious injury.

4th Limestone, 125

I decided to follow Miner around for a while.



... sigh. I'm glad you're enjoying the dining hall I ordered you to dig out a month or two ago.

8th Limestone, 125

Yeah, I'm not getting my stone mine, am I?

Wait, what's this?



Miner is actually doing work...?!



...No. No she isn't. This is Bomrek, the other of my two miners. He is apparently the competent one.

9th Limestone, 125



Okay, Bomrek, you're apparently on your own. But you can do this. I believe in you.



And Bomrek is on the case! I will now go remove the nickname of Miner from the other one. She doesn't deserve it.



Do you hear me, "Onget"? You're just another faceless dwarf now.

11th Limestone, 125



Oh really?

Good. The trading will begin soon. They'll have plenty of prepared meals for the trip back home across the ocean.

Since this is apparently the first colony on this continent.

Why, yes, that is a half-completed wooden palisade around the fortress entrance. Do you like it, Mr. Liaison? I was going to continue building it soon...



Melbil, eh? Well met. Yes, we have much to talk about...

Also, apparently my name is "Kadol". Well. You learn something new every day.



So apparently Blockadegrasped isn't the only new colony being founded by The Book of Waning right now. Good to know.



As for trading, this is all I can think of that we need right now.



And this is the export agreement. It looks like some miscellaneous crafts, which we have covered with the turkey bone stuff, and a couple other things, including cut gems. Well, I can kind of do cut gems, since I've struck some on Level 5.



...



Well okay then.

14th Limestone, 125

I have the bone crafts moved to the trading depot. I also request that the broker go trade with the traders. Everyone kind of looked at me like I was insane.

Where is that Kadol guy I gave the job to anyway?

Wait, hold on a minute...

Aren't I Kadol?

...

Um.

15th Limestone, 125

So. This trading thing isn't that hard, I guess. I just shoved all of the bone crafts at him and asked for some pickaxes and possibly some plump helmets since that fucking brewer won't shut up about needing more of them.

I'm not sure exactly how many pickaxes we had before, but I definitely know we have more now. Hey, it's not my job to obsessive-compulsively count everything - that's the bookkeeper!

The bone crafts just keep streaming in, and I was contemplating another trade, when I heard the "good news".



Oh hell no. You get to go visit those turkeys in the nice room that no animal is allowed to go in...

16th Limestone, 125

Anyway. With the newest load of random bone trade goods, I ask to see the full selection of food and drink. I select some fine cheeses and some various aboveground plants that I've been thinking about experimenting with. I hear the strawberries in particular make excellent alcohol...



Oh, good. I see the kitchen staff already understands the concept of not getting seeds out of the plants if you cook them. Brewing them is probably fine, though. And as the Overseer's Manual says: "Variety is the spice of life, especially when it comes to food and drink."

17th Limestone, 125



The palisade is coming along nicely, which I appreciate.

You know, I intended to focus on Level 5 this season, but I can already tell that something else entirely is going on.

19th Limestone, 125



It rains all the time here. I can hear the little pitter-patter on the thin soil ceiling sometimes. I imagine a human or elf would find it very depressing. Us dwarves, on the other hand, usually don't give a shit unless we're outside, in this case working on the palisade. It's always kind of muddy out here. Oh well. Those aboveground farms I keep thinking about making would probably like the rain...

21st Limestone, 125



We probably don't need a second still yet. But we will eventually. Future-prepping, the mark of a good Overseer.

(You know, thinking about it like that, maybe I should go ahead and build more bedrooms? ... Nah.)

3rd Sandstone, 125



I was wondering when they would show up. I believe we get one more migrant wave as a new colony, and then that's pretty much it. Unless I'm wrong about that, which is possible.

4th Sandstone, 125



We appear to have gained a complete set of the three fishery workers, a potter, a lye maker, and 4 children. Basically, they're all useless, since there aren't any fish here, and who the hell needs a potter or a lye maker?

Yeah, they all get pickaxes. Go mining, boys. Make us proud.

On a related note, we had just enough pickaxes to do that.

9th Sandstone, 125

So. I just found out that shouting at people to "do task now!" actually works. Only that, mind you. Any slight variation from that shout, and nothing happens.

10th Sandstone, 125

So, remember a week or so ago when I said that there aren't any fish here?



I was wrong.

12th Sandstone, 125



Progress is definitely being made. I love it when that happens. You know, as opposed to the time I nicknamed someone "Miner" and they promptly sat around and did nothing for weeks.

17th Sandstone, 125



Level 5 is looking pretty good now! Compliments to the miners...

The statue production can now begin! The first place I need to fill with statues is the Dining Room. That's why I put all of those notches in the walls.



See?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, that screenshot was taken back in Summer.

18th Sandstone, 125

I remembered that the migrants probably want bedrooms today. So I have the miners and carpenters working on that now.

22nd Sandstone, 125



The palisade is almost complete. All it needs now is a bridge, a lever, and some mechanisms.

2nd Timber, 125

Looking over the stockpile, it seems we have a lot of leaves and so on. I've decided to have the mason build a quern to do something with that. We'll also have to start up a cloth industry to provide the bags for it.

I believe we're already growing Pig Tails, so it shouldn't be a problem.

13th Timber, 125



The Level 3 bedrooms are just some furnishings away from completion, and the furnishings are already on their way.

This will give Blockadegrasped 40 bedrooms, which is more than good enough, and will probably be enough for the next migrant wave as well.

1st Moonstone, 125

As autumn comes to a close and winter sets in upon Blockadegrasped, I will go over the state of the fortress once more.



Our little colony has grown from an outpost to a hamlet in a mere 3 seasons. Supplies of food and drink are excellent, and the wealth of the fortress is steadily rising as more and more is done.



This is the surface level of the fortress. The bridge still hasn't been built. The logs on the ground are freshly cut - the wood is beginning to run a little bit low, and two Carpenter's Workshops going on full auto uses a surprising amount of it.



Here is Level 1. You can see that wood shortage I was talking about, as well as the very impressive food stockpile on the bottom, the custom catch-all stockpile on the top, and the new workshops in the center.



Here's Level 2. The statues are looking very good, but more on those in a minute.



Level 3 contains another 20 bedrooms, and will be expanded as necessary to provide more sleeping space. The haulers have yet to clear out all of the stone, but they will eventually - it's needed for more statues.



This is Level 4. On the right you can see the communal crypt, which hasn't started construction yet. It's aesthetically designed to mirror the dining room, only with coffins instead of statues, and, of course, no tables or chairs. I might put statues there eventually. It would be the most morbid statue garden ever.



And this is Level 5. It's currently the lowest level in the fortress, and consists of some stone-based workshops and stockpiles. This is where the statues are born.

And now, the main event - the statues themselves. I'm going to screenshot all of their descriptions and put them in the spoilers below, for those of you who don't want to read them.

Spoiler: Statues (click to show/hide)

tl;dr version: There's apparently only one major event in this area's history that the statues can draw from - an elven village being massacred by a couple monsters. So, next to statues of goddesses, woodland creatures, and generic dwarves, you have... elf murder. Elf murder after elf murder after elf murder.

It's glorious.

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Winter of Year 125

So, apparently, at least half of the statues I was planning on putting everywhere will be depicting gratuitous elf murder.

I'm surprisingly okay with that.

Having preemptively changed the thread title, I shall now make this fortress worthy of the name.



The first problem we face is population.

To create a truly grand fortress, we need the population to back it up. Dwarves to build it, dwarves to maintain it, dwarves to defend it.

The easiest way to increase population is through migrants. However, we have an indeterminate number of migrant waves left, and migrants are attracted by wealth.

The quickest way to get our wealth up right now is to find and work metal. So we have to dig deeper.

13th Moonstone, 125

Two weeks later, we have indeed DUG DEEPER, but NOT DEEP ENOUGH. I'm beginning to wonder if we hit metal before or after disturbing the clown car. And then my miners all vanished.

Guess where they went.



I'm simultaneously happy that they're doing what I told them to do and digging out the communal crypt, and annoyed that they're not doing what I told them to do and digging DEEPER.

16th Moonstone, 125

Well, the communal crypt is done, anyway.

20th Moonstone, 125



Huh. Well, that works, I guess.

Copper/silver ore is a very offensive combination where the military is concerned. Silver makes excellent war hammers, which I know from experience kick ass. Copper armor is... okay. So, do a lot of damage, and try not to take damage yourself. That's the order of the day.

The key binding to designate an entire vein for mining is "Control+V". The key binding to do this across Z-levels is "Control+Shift+V".



Or at least it is if you have DFHack, which comes bundled with PyLNP's Starter Pack.



I think I'm going to need more stockpiles.

22nd Moonstone, 125

I order some Wood Burners and Smelters set up in the Level 5 workshop area. They should feed into a couple Bar/Block Stockpiles eventually.

23rd Moonstone, 125

The miners appear to prefer mining the tetrahedrite vein rather than mining the new stockpile areas necessary to process the vein. I could stop them mining the vein, but they both need to be done anyway.

10th Opal, 125

Most of the vein has been mined out. Now it's a matter of hauling and processing, and eventually finding another vein. Finding something like bituminous coal would also be good.

16th Opal, 125

I strike native gold and set it to mine the vein. Gold, of course, is a high-value metal, that should bring in all of the migrants. All of them.

25th Opal, 125



I just confirmed that this dining room is already legendary.

Of course, I'm not done yet. I still have to finish putting in the statues. Then it will be... better than legendary? I don't think that's how it works, but I'm going to do it anyway, because right now it looks lopsided.

26th Opal, 125

Production of copper and silver begins. I order a second Smelter built to process the native gold. Meanwhile, the miners dig deeper to find the illusive hematite or magnetite.

1st Obsidian, 125



Welcome to Level 6.

This will be the forge level. Any additional wood burners or smelteries I build will likely be here, and the Bar/Block Stockpiles on Level 5 will eventually feed in directly via staircase. Once I find iron and forge more anvils, the actual forge part will expand.

Or at least, that's the plan.

This all relies on finding enough and the right kind of metal, which may not happen at this point.

3rd Obsidian, 125

In native gold terms, I just hit the mother lode.

One single press of Control+Shift+V, and the entire map lit up for several z-levels up and down, traced by areas of native gold now marked for mining.

I don't think I'll run out of it for a while.

On the other hand, it's seeming more and more likely that when the embark screen said "multiple metals", it meant "tetrahedrite and native gold".

I shall simply have to dig deeper and see what I find. That's basically the motto of dwarven mining - "dig deeper". DF is very true to Tolkien in that way.

10th Obsidian, 125

And there's the mother lode of tetrahedrite. Well, I appear to have metal resources of copper, silver, and gold. Ha ha, fantasy currency systems that DF no longer models.

17th Obsidian, 125



Now that the Metalsmith's Forge is complete, it's time to begin with some silver war hammers. I believe I mentioned that those are awesome already.

19th Obsidian, 125



The first of many.

1st Granite, 126

A new year dawns, signalling the return of spring and the ever-nearer birthday of Blockadegrasped. It was founded on the 15th, after all.

And an end-of-the-year status report for you...



Blockadegrasped is still a hamlet, with the same population as last season. The food and drink stores grow ever more and the created wealth is about to breach 100,000.



This is the surface level. The bridge is complete and hooked up to a lever in Level 1. Some aboveground farms were in preliminary construction mere seconds before spring came.



Level 1 isn't the industrial center of the fortress anymore. Though it has many workshops, most of them are turned off. The shortage of wood is being caused by the demands of the Wood Burners, which fuel the metal industry on Levels 5 and 6.



The Dining Hall of Level 2 is almost complete. The statue silhouettes you can see in the bottom-left area indicate that the statues are being hauled there, but for now the Hall remains unfinished.

The notches in the hallway are possible locations for new statues after the Dining Hall is completed. Statues have a high base value, and the masons are getting pretty skilled by now, so they're a good source of created wealth. I would put them in the bedrooms, but there isn't enough space.

Levels 3 hasn't really changed at all, so we'll skip it for now.



While no one has died yet, it's better to be safe than sorry. The communal crypt on Level 4 will contain 54 coffins at full capacity. In the center there will most likely be statues, because of course there will.



This, of course, is Level 5, expanded a little bit and with a bunch of workshops crowded around in the center. It's one part of the two-part industrial machine.



And here is Level 6. Fed by the Wood Burners and Smelteries of Level 5, it is the fortress's only current source of finished metal items.

This has resulted in over 700 gain in value in less than a month.

Next year hold some exciting things, I'm sure. Will this fortress live up to the title? And how many more statues of elf murder can we make before someone loses an eye?

Who knows?

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Spring of Year 126

1st Granite, 126

As the wealth of this hamlet slowly grows, the risk of a monster attack climbs and climbs.

I've built a wooden palisade, complete with bridge to act as a dwarven gate. But who will man that wall?

The Guard, of course.

And who is in the Guard?

No one.

The Guard does not exist yet. It is a vague concept floating in a sea of future possibilities.

Long story short, I'm going to build a barracks.



Here looks good.

Meanwhile, in the same area, the Dining Hall is almost done. Just a few more statues and chairs, and the legendary room will serve this fortress well until its inevitable fall.

7th Granite, 126



Interesting. I wonder what Erush will make?

It'll probably be something useless, but it might be a masterwork gold helmet or something.



She quickly grabs some wood from the surface, and starts screaming for rock blocks. I queue up some at the Mason's Workshop, and that seems to be enough to start on the mysterious construction.

17th Granite, 126





Yeah, it's useless. It's probably fairly valuable, though, since it's artifact jewelry.



Meanwhile, on Level 2, the barracks is almost finished. The wooden weapon rack is being hauled into place already.

There's no point in creating a squad yet, of course. They need weapons and armor first.



It looks like the war hammers are done. I queue up some copper chain mail shirts at the forge. When those finish, I'll have the blacksmith forge helms, leggings, and boots. The carpenter can make wooden shields or bucklers - shields aren't affected by the material they're made from, so it's best to make them out of something cheap, like wood.

While I'm doing this, I take the spare Mason's workshop off making rock blocks, and put it on making some cabinets. Those will go nicely in the bedrooms, and might give the dwarves even more happy thoughts than they're already getting from having 5-tile bedrooms with mostly masterwork doors.

20th Granite, 126

Noticing that the Loom and Clothier's Shop on Level 1 still haven't been built, I give some people the appropriate labors.

22nd Granite, 126

Plump Helmets wither in the fields as too many farmers are distracted by the various hauling jobs. But that's fine, since we have about 300 of the things floating around the stockpiles.

23rd Granite, 126

In the unit list, I notice a "Drake" in the Pets/Livestock tab. Wondering who the hell has a dragon, I instead find that the animal has this description:



It sounds more like an ostrich-penguin than some kind of dragon.

24th Granite, 126



It is complete! (For now.)

My masterpiece! The center of the fort! It is a work of art! Some may even call it... legendary.

*ba-dum tish*

Now hold on while I designate a dumping area and flag the random dead animals in my Dining Hall as trash.

Presumably, those animals came in with a migrant wave, and stayed in the Dining Hall because it's the meeting area, before starving to death. That's what happens when you don't assign big animals to a grassy pasture. It's possible they would have survived if we'd breached a cavern layer, but I don't know if they eat mushrooms.

I'm considering having the dwarves put a stone floor down in the Dining Hall now, but I won't do it quite yet.

25th Granite, 126



This is the third, and presumably final, migrant wave. I may be misremembering that, actually - I think it's the three migrant wave rule if the parent civilization was destroyed in the past, and the Book of Waning is clearly doing fine.

26th Granite, 126



I knew that was going to happen sooner or later. I have woodcutting enabled on a lot of people, and several trees designated for chopping, but they were all occupied by wood burning and smelting and the like. The metal industry is about to crash to a halt, although we probably have enough smelted copper and fuel to keep working on the armor for the Guard.

1st Slate, 126

The final count of the migrants is some 40 dwarves all told - 22 adults of various professions and 18 babies and children, as well as their miscellaneous pets. I especially appreciate the backup male turkey, who ensures that egg production will continue.

We now have a population of 62, so we're 22 bedrooms short. That should be rectified by some quick mining, although quick may be a misnomer, since they're mostly still going through the tetrahedrite and native gold veins.



So, I designate some new bedroom areas, and a spare room that I might or might not use later.

2nd Slate, 126

Noticing that the blacksmith is done making chainmail shirts, I designate the forge to make 10 copper picks to expedite the mining process.

I assign the new migrants many new jobs. In my forts, most dwarves are generalists - which works surprisingly well most of the time.

4th Slate, 126

The Smelteries stop due to lack of fuel. Blockadegrasped's industrial machine is fueled by wood, and no one is cutting down trees.

5th Slate, 126

The forge goes dark as the last charcoal is used. Hopefully this will clear up some dwarves to go chop down trees.

8th Slate, 126

The miners have already started work on the new bedroom areas. These areas won't be finished for a while, since no one is physically capable of chopping down a tree in this place.

11th Slate, 126

For now, I cancel the production of rock statues. It's taking up jobs that could be used to cut down trees.

12th Slate, 126

As I agonize over the uncut trees on the surface, I notice a colony of honeybees.

Hmm. Interesting.

Hives are made in the Craftsdwarf's Workshop, right?



13th Slate, 126

I have the Farmer's Workshop set to Milk Animal, since the migrants brought a yak cow. Maybe we could make yak cheese?

That sounds disgusting, but maybe the dwarves will like it.

I also restart alcohol making by setting the stills to brew drinks from plants and fruit, have the Craftsdwarf's Workshop make rock pots on repeat, and switch one of the extraneous wood stockpiles to food.

17th Slate, 126



I didn't realize that bees stung people in DF, although I probably should have.

Well, the beekeeping thing is probably out now. Now I have to make a bucket so people can give this guy water.

20th Slate, 126

The cancellation spam is ridiculous. I realize I don't have a bucket, but I can't get him one without wood! Go chop down a tree dammit!

I now have two dwarves whose only labors are Wood Cutting.

One of them is fishing and won't stop, and the other one says they have no job.

22nd Slate, 126

I suspect that the two I assigned to it don't have any axes. So, I told someone who I know has cut down trees before to go cut down trees. Unfortunately, he's on break.





23rd Slate, 126



Finally...

I take a different dwarf off of everything except Carpentry and queue a wooden bucket.



26th Slate, 126

It took over two pages of cancellation spam and Dwarf Therapist-fu to take care of this single bee sting, but someone finally has a bucket.

Now, let's just hope that the river I designated as a water source isn't saltwater. Apparently this embark has some.

2nd Felsite, 126



Translation: Party in the Dining Hall!

I suppose that's fine, as long as work continues to actually be done as well.

5th Felsite, 126

Large swathes of the forest are designated for chopping. It'll grow back, right? And we need the wood.

1st Hematite, 126

For the past month, I've really just been getting the industry back up after the temporary wood shortage.



That shortage is now over.



This is the bedroom wing. It's almost done now, so I imagine the migrants will be pretty happy.

As for progress on the armor, I have all of the chainmail shirts, almost all of the helms, and some of the leggings. The armor will most likely be done next season, and then it's time to choose the militia.

Speak up if you want to be dorfed! I'm taking names now, and will be putting up a list on the OP.

[conein]

Can i be dorfed as Conein the Barbarian? An hammerdwarf.


Also, since you have no neighbours, there is only one thing to do.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

KILL ELVES. ALL OF 'EM, ALL.

[PyroTechno]

Can i be dorfed as Conein the Barbarian? An hammerdwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

KILL ELVES. ALL OF 'EM, ALL.

Sure, I can dorf you.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, no neighbors includes no elves. There's plenty of statues of elf murder, though.

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Summer of Year 126

1st Hematite, 126

Summer dawns on Blockadegrasped, the second time the warmth touches the growing fortress.



Blockadegrasped is now a village, and has been considered thus since the migrant wave last spring.

However, I only just now noticed, so let's pretend it only just happened.

Hooray!

Now, first things first: We've had people fishing on and off for a while now. Do you know what we don't have?

A Fishery.



I put one down in the room I had originally intended for beekeeping. I say "originally", because I don't want to have to build a hospital and the associated support industries for it just yet.

2nd Hematite, 126

Yeah, so I haven't used any method of locking up pets or anything to keep the pet population down and the FPS up.

Instead, I use the Absolute Puppy Murder policy.



3rd Hematite, 126

There's a lot of hauling to do in this fortress.

The number of idlers rarely climbs above 1 or 2, and it's more usually at 0.

4th Hematite, 126



The communal crypt is now complete. By which I mean, the haulers finally got around to getting all of the rock coffins put in.

I didn't need to build this so soon, and I will hopefully never need to build another one.

9th Hematite, 126



Another artifact is on its way! I just hope he doesn't claim the metalsmith's forge and then spit out a figurine or something 2 months later.

10th Hematite, 126



Okay, so he went for the Craftsdwarf's Workshop. That's fine.

Speaking of that, I should really build a second one of those...

I'll have the miners carve out an area for a new workshop or two on Level 5.

12th Hematite, 126

I feel like I should be expanding Level 6.



It's currently the smallest industrial level and it's a bottleneck in the metal industry.

But without anvils, I can't make more forges.

And without iron, I can't make more anvils.

So really, I should have asked the liaison to bring anvils last year. I honestly didn't think of it.

17th Hematite, 126



Wow. A mayor. Well, okay then. Catering to a noble is within my capabilities at the moment, so why not?



Well, Mr. Mayor, I hope you like statues.

1st Malachite, 126



The first of many to be born in this place! Blockadegrasped will surely be a great mountainhome one day!

Now get back to work, dammit.

4th Malachite, 126

Today, the mayor imposed a ban on certain exports - specifically, figurines. That's annoying, because now I'm going to have to sort through trade goods instead of blindly throwing them at the merchants and demanding anvils or something.

9th Malachite, 126

So, I was looking through the statues today, and I saw something I wasn't expecting to see.



Myself.

This is officially my favorite statue.

12th Malachite, 126



Another migrant wave arrives, and as the ungrateful noble bastard continues to whine about his office and dining room not being good enough even though I just put 4 statues in each, I watch them stream in from the north.

I asked one of them why they were coming from the north, instead of from the south where the sea is. They replied that they definitely weren't lost.

Methinks he doth protest too much.

14th Malachite, 126

The final count of the new migrants is 10 adults and 9 children.

Welcome to the colony, my friends! Please stop bringing so many small children, I'll have to wait years for them to actually be productive members of society.

Anyway... time for more bedrooms.



17th Malachite, 126



This is the completed mayor's quarters, on Level 4. I think I'll put future noble's rooms on Level 7 or below, since stone has a higher value, which means less statues wasted on ungrateful people demanding things because they think they have power over the rest of us.

I AM THE ONLY ONE WITH POWER HERE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

... Looking elsewhere, I notice that the Guard's armor is complete.

Time to do some work on the military.





In response to a dorfing request on the Bay12 thread, the captain of the guard has been renamed "Conain the Barbarian".



She doesn't seem like a very nice person, overall, and I'm not sure if being very slow to heal is very good at all for a military dwarf.

Meh, it's probably fine.

Of course, now she's a noble.



Welcome to the fort, Level 7. You have the important duty of housing the most disgusting people in the fort - nobles.

(As you can tell, I've remembered the noble dynamic since 17th Hematite.)

19th Malachite, 126



What could possibly go wrong?

I shall commission 4 of these. I will most likely put them in the Dining Hall, near the center.

-----

22nd Malachite, 126

While ordering some more work done on the bedrooms, I notice this:



...



Now, I don't have a problem with jumping spiders. It's brown recluses that I don't like.

They're just so... brown. And reclusive. Yeah, I've never actually seen one.

23rd Malachite, 126



With every statue we create, I learn more about this place's history.

The first statue of elf murder I saw was dated to the year 15. This one is dated to 22. It is clear that the elven massacre didn't take place in one year and event, as I first thought. In fact, looking through the statues, a picture is painted of a grim war between the elves and two marauding monsters, destroying elf civilization on this continent slowly and steadily, in events including at least four rampages, which presumably means the monsters actually attacking settlements, and a string of duels that depopulated the pool of elven heroes.

I have no idea if the hydra and the roc, the banes of the elves, are still around. If they are, I kind of want to shake their hands / tentacles / talons, before ordering the hammerdwarves to cave in their skulls for trespassing on sovereign dwarven territory.

24th Malachite, 126



I think the wood stockpile has recovered. Don't you agree?

25th Malachite, 126



Damn. I should have been paying more attention to that strange mood. Now I'm going to have to order the Guard to put him down in the middle of the Level 1 workshops.

The penalty for getting between me and my sandwich is death.



It is unfortunate, but I think there's enough nice stuff in the fortress, such as the legendary Dining Hall, to avoid a tantrum spiral.

But the Guard does not arrive in time.







The first dwarven death in Blockadegrasped has occurred.



On Level 1, the Loom is slick with dwarven blood.



But, in this trying time, we must band together and continue the march of progress into a new age of dwarven prosperity.

Or so I would have said if the Mayor had decided to let the fucking Overseer get a word in edgewise about it.

26th Malachite, 126

Though this tragedy has darkened this season, there is still a light.

A golden light, even.



This statue will stand proudly in the Dining Hall sooner rather than later.

1st Galena, 126



It is appropriate that a deity of minerals and metals is depicted in a solid gold statue. Though I do not worship him myself, I am sure he will look excellent in the Dining Hall.

3rd Galena, 126



I was right. They look excellent.

6th Galena, 126



In his life, he may or may not have participated in the Great Turkey Murder of 125. His profession was bone carving, and that was the only time we actually carved any bones. In his death, may he find relief from the madness of an unfulfilled artifact.

15th Galena, 126

I've ordered the miners to expand the stockpiles on Level 5. I didn't expect them to get it done this season - they still have a lot of mining to do in the tetrahedrite and native gold veins. However, defying my expectations, two miners got right to work on it.

20th Galena, 126



This is the Captain of the Guard's quarters. I checked - she's more than satisfied with them.

22nd Galena, 126



The new work on Level 5 is complete, and the stone/gem stockpiles have doubled in size.

25th Galena, 126

Every dwarf in the fortress is assigned to farming as well as their other duties, and still there are not enough farmers to fill all of the farm plots.

The clothing industry is finally starting to function, now that the brewing of pig tails has been stopped.

27th Galena, 126

Noticing the leather in the stockpiles, I order the construction of a Leather Works.

-----

1st Limestone, 126

With the end of summer and the arrival of autumn, it is time to take stock once again.



Blockadegrasped now has a population of 81, and is considered a town, dwarven civilization's sole colony on this continent - at least as far as I know.



The amount of wood we have at the moment is patently ridiculous - some 1,486 units all told.



The amount of stones, including raw ore, we own is even more ridiculous. The bookkeeper looked me in the eye and told me that yes, he had counted all 2,020 of them personally.



The amount of metal bars and fuel we have - a combined total of 190, is tiny in comparison.

And neither the native gold vein, nor the second tetrahedrite vein, are depleted.

And now, for the official records, a full map of the 7 fortress levels:



Level 1, containing the surface access and trade depot, the wood, food, and general stockpiles, the wood, food & drink, and clothing industries, and the original two farm plots.



Level 2, containing the legendary Dining Hall, most of the farm plots, the Guard barracks, and 20 bedrooms.



Level 3, the primary bedroom level, currently containing 75 complete bedrooms.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fun Fact: My computer bluescreened for no reason at this point. Luckily all I lost was a couple lines of text.

Level 4, consisting of the communal crypt (+1 occupant) and the mayor's quarters.



Level 5, consisting of the stone stockpiles and associated industries, the base buildings for the metal industry, and the furniture stockpile.



Level 6, containing the fortress's single forge.



Level 7, the noble level, which currently only contains the Guard Captain's quarters.

This season has been one full of new things - our first nobles, our first noble problems, our first birth, our first death, and so on. And still, Blockadegrasped marches on.

[Implementor37]

You might actually still find elves--v .40.24 won't show you another civilization until they visit you for the first time.  (If you weren't paying attention on embark, it's still entirely possible that there are no elves).  Here's to hoping elf murders are in Blockadegrasped's future!

[PyroTechno]

You might actually still find elves--v .40.24 won't show you another civilization until they visit you for the first time.  (If you weren't paying attention on embark, it's still entirely possible that there are no elves).  Here's to hoping elf murders are in Blockadegrasped's future!

I see. This is actually my first time playing this version, so I didn't know that. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention on embark. All I really know about the world at large is there are about 7 sprawling dwarf civs covering the main continent. I was planning on copying the save and going into Legends Mode to do some investigation after Autumn.

[PyroTechno]

Blockadegrasped, Autumn of Year 126

1st Limestone, 126

I'm pretty happy with the progress of this fortress so far. The colony has quickly grown into a thriving and functioning town, though I'm sure most other overseers wouldn't think a fortress would be complete without breaching the cavern layers and getting their entire populace killed.

Yes, if things keep going this well, I might be able to retire in a year or two.

I'm not sure what I'd do after that. With a stable colony as a foundation, I'm sure there will be many more ventures to this continent in the coming years. Perhaps I'll sponsor one. Maybe one to go over and take care of the evil lands to the east. (AKA The Generic Nefarious Purple Shit.)



We can't just leave such an evil land there - it would be a refuge for monsters of every stripe, to strike out from and savage our colonies. A settlement there would go a long way toward stabilizing the area.

Or everyone we send there might just die horribly. Who knows?

But that's for later.

7th Limestone, 126



Another bee sting. Well, at least we have a bucket this time.

11th Limestone, 126



Melbil and his merchant friends are back, I see.

I tell the haulers to bring some of the wine and wood to the Trade Depot. I just wish we could trade in statues.

17th Limestone, 126



Here we go again.

19th Limestone, 126

Olon has claimed a Craftsdwarf's Workshop, and started mumbling about thread, gems, stone, and bones. We have all of those things, so hopefully this one won't go insane and slap my sandwich out of my hands.

20th Limestone, 126

I saw the Captain of the Guard in the Leather Works today. When I asked her what she thought she was doing, she said she was doing her assigned duties.

I guess I forgot to take the Guard off of all their other duties so they can focus on training.

That oversight has now been corrected.

21st Limestone, 126

Olon has begun his mysterious construction. Hopefully, it's something useful.

The liaison meets with the mayor to discuss the situation.

As Overseer, I'm allowed to sit in on it.



This news isn't good. Three sites of our parent civ have been conquered by various forces. I'm not sure what these names mean, specifically, but I'm sure that when the history books are updated at the end of the season, we can find out what's going on.

For the import agreement, anvils and some seeds.



The export agreement is for armors, medical supplies, ammo, and basic food and drink, with some of the miscellaneous stuff typical of a trade agreement. This seems to match up with the Book of Waning going into a wartime footing.

With this, the liaison says his goodbyes and leaves.

I'd like to point out that the merchants never arrived at the Trade Depot. I don't know what happened to them - they appear to have magically vanished.

I can't even find them on the Unit list...



Just the liaison and some coyotes.

...

Dammit, coyotes, you ate them, didn't you?



I can't see anything about merchants here... Just some hunting logs and a brewer strangling a coyote to death in self-defense. She was presumably attacked while hauling logs.



Huh.



"She didn't feel anything after seeing the wagon die." Okay, yeah, the merchants definitely got eaten by coyotes. I just want to know why I had to find out about it in the personal description of some random brewer.

23rd Limestone, 126

The advantage of the merchants losing a wagon and being chased off by wolves, of course, is now we get to pick up all of their stuff for free.

Phat Lewtz:
30 assorted meat, 30 fish, 16-ish plump helmets, 20 cheese, 20 gypsum plaster, 25 misc. leaves, metric fuckton of pickaxes, 70 tanned hides, 240 cloth, 4 thread, 1 "wagon wood logs", 1 raw crystal glass, 1 silver bar, 2 misc. cut gems, 6 misc. large gems, 1 garnierite block, 1 rope, 4 cages, 8 empty bags, 31 empty wooden bins, 2 buckets, some splints, crutches, and other misc. trade goods.

Basically, we made off like bandits.

(And as for the wolves - "Hey Guardsdwarves, want some target practice?")



Ladies and gentlemen... the Hammerdwarf squad so retarded that less than half of them realize they're supposed to be Hammerdwarves.

I decided to cancel their coyote killing orders right about then.

25th Limestone, 126



Did you really have to use native gold, Olon? Couldn't you have used gold bars instead?

And I suppose you're going to keep the earring now, too, as opposed to actually letting us trade it to the next caravan for something useful.



Oh. It's an Elf Murder earring.

It can stay.

26th Limestone, 126



The mere sight of the Blockadegraspedian dwarves streaming to and from the destroyed wagon causes the coyotes to flee in terror. I suppose they are wild animals, after all. Go after the loners, not the herd.

4th Sandstone, 126

With people regularly fighting coyotes outside, it's about time to set up a hospital.



I'll go ahead and do it in the spare room on Level 3.

9th Sandstone, 126

Now I'm going to need to set up a soap industry.

I designate a room to be dug to house it on Level 1.

13th Sandstone, 126

Now that the room is finished, I order a Wood Furnace, an Ashery, and a Soap Maker's Workshop built.

14th Sandstone, 126

Some new migrants have arrived. I will tally them all up in a couple days, when they finally finish streaming in.

22nd Sandstone, 126

The total population now appears to be 94, with 7 adult and 6 child migrants joining the fortress.

27th Sandstone, 126

With the Ashery now complete, the soap production line is finished. All I really have to worry about on that front is keeping up the supply of tallow, which shouldn't be too much of a problem, considering the fortress's hunters and my Absolute Puppy Murder policy.

28th Sandstone, 126

Soap production isn't actually happinging right now because no one is taking the ash out of the Wood Furnace, so it can't be logged and taken to the Ashery.

12th Timber, 126

Further mining in the native gold and tetrahedrite veins is cancelled due to FPS concerns.

Another advantage of this is the freeing of the mining force to haul objects around the fortress.

21st Timber, 126

Halting masonry work to free up workers.

28th Timber, 126

The soapmakers finally started doing their jobs today. Apparently I finally cut through enough red tape involving the stockpiles.

1st Moonstone, 126

Winter is upon us. It is once again time to take stock.



The food stores and created wealth climb ever higher. We now have a population of 94, which I may have already mentioned.

The fortress layout remains mostly unchanged, with the exceptions of Level 1 and 3.



This is Level 1. In the top left corner is the new soap industry.



This is Level 3, zoomed out a little to get the whole thing in one shot. The hospital is roughly in the center.

Note: The stockpile linking system doesn't appear to work. I had to designate 1 and only 1 food stockpile that would accept lye in the soap industry room, and have it accept from all and give to all, when originallly I had a food stockpile set to accept from links only and linked it to take from the ashery and give to the soapmaker's. This finally let soap production begin, but too late to actually have anything to show for it this season.

[PyroTechno]

Here's a link to a version of the world, with Blockadegrasped freshly retired and the Legends Mode ready for your perusal.

In other words, "I can't make heads or tails of this mess, read through it if you're curious."

[conein]

Life in this fort looks quite easy. If you abandon it, i suggest you either settle right on a goblin settlement, or in the SPOOKY JUNGLES OF SPOOKINESS

[PyroTechno]

Life in this fort looks quite easy. If you abandon it, i suggest you either settle right on a goblin settlement, or in the SPOOKY JUNGLES OF SPOOKINESS

Do you mean the Generic Nefarious Purple Shit? I was going to settle there next, actually.