Behold!
The Autumn Update-----
Continuation to Vuohiparta's overseer diary
Murderflood
206 1st of LimestoneAutumn is here. New sets of plans shall be put into motion. The northern bridge is quite defenceless, so we must improve the situation. We'll begin with a few traps.
Zuglarkun made a few suggestions. He reminded me of the dike. Yes, magma pumping shall continue after all major construction has been finished. He also pointed out that we have a large pool of lava which was meant to be utilized as another magma forge area. I approve the plan for a new forge area construction. We do have two other forge areas already, one in the caverns and one on the surface. I don't think the cavern forge is even used anymore. We'll make the new forge for our most talented smiths!
Also, this fellow Blitz Gamer came to me. He's been working on strand extraction, but he feels he should be the one making weapons out of adamantine. I asked him about his previous experience and skills in metalcrafting, and turns out he's dabbling at best..
I reminded him of his present occupation and emphasised the importance of it. Then he offered me a roast he had made:
..which tasted wonderful! I guess I could give him permission to at least train himself in smithing, now that we are going to have lots of forges. I asked him what was in the food. Giant tick, crundle and reacher bits. Wait, haven't all those cave creatures been a bit rotten recently?
4thThere's a baby gone missing. Someone recalled Bomrek shouting at one point during the ditch pumping operation (with the result of flooding the area) that she couldn't find her baby. She continued working as normal, so everyone made the assumption that everything is fine.
6thLitast is really losing it quite often. Maybe we should improve her living conditions?
9thSomeone spotted a cloud of foul mist rising from the lake. It doesn't seem to be coming at our direction however.
11thAnother mist cloud appeared nowhere near anything. There are giant ravens flying around our fort, but they don't seem to move towards the lake. I hope they never will.. And there's figures in the distance. The dwarven caravan! And our liaison is seen running away from a giant thing.. which looks like a louse. It also flees in terror.
12thGwolfski told he almost had a heart attack, as the giant louse apparently scaled our walls and entered his bunker. The weapon traps made it burst. There's all sorts of louse slime and ichor all around. Maybe we should build traps on every door entrance, just in case..
14thOur liaison, Vucar, offers us to be made a barony! This sounds great! Although, I don't know who would be suitable. Vucar says he is in a hurry and a decision should be made quite quickly. I open the latest fort census records, close my eyes and randomly point a name with my finger. Ilral, pump operator and a marskdwarf, you shall be made baron!
Vucar tells me the world is the same as ever. The mountainhome wants desperately to buy goblets from us. I tell him we need at least leather and wood. Trade agreements are signed.
15thBarony established. Ilral came to me and made it clear that her living quarters are not suitable for someone of her importance. She also wants an office, her own dining room, and a tomb. Fine, I'll try to figure something out.. The last pack animal has arrived at the depot and Nujux hurriedly finishes his drink and starts making his way towards the depot. I hope he doesn't get lost. There's also a foul stench around the unrevealed construction.. Something rots.
16thThob finally found Likot, the missing baby. He saw the body from top of the unnamed construction, drowned in one of the water-filled holes near the ditch.. That's where the stench was coming from.. Apparently the baby's mother, Bomrek, is not moved at all. She actually denies that her baby is dead.
"Thob saw the body! It's your child!"
"It's not! I know he's around playing somewhere. Stop wasting my time! Unless I see her dead, she's not dead!"
"Come! I can show you!"
"No! I will not abandon my task! Now scram before I punch your head in!"
"Aye, mam.."
18thNujux is at the depot. Earlier than ever before. Now we have WOOD. Also bags. Bought more leather. Apparently the mountainhome only has polar bear and yeti leather nowadays. Has it always been so? Got rid of all our worn clothing and a few not so valuable gems. Our possessed clothier gets finally some leather for his needs also.
20thThe overseer tower is finally finished! Someone had decided to postpone hauling a couple pieces of furniture for an indefinite amount of time, so finalizing took longer than it should have. But now, it's done! And just by sheer coincidence, it happens to also be the tallest building on Murderflood!
The tower has connections to the dike walls from 1st floor, and to the New Murderflood-building from 5th floor. The 13th floor is dedicated for overseers who wish to live there during their watch. And as you can see, I built a humble abode for myself on the 14th floor. Some haulers DEMANDED I take those two silver statues, so I didn't say no. It would've been a long way back. There's also a contraption in my room for personal purposes. I have to remember to mark that lever as inadvisable to pull.. The bottom floor isn't floored yet, in case someone wants to dig a hole there and drop goblins in it from the top or something. You can also see the new baron quarters being built on top of New Murderflood.
28thLimestone's last day. No major events so far. Everyone is quite much concentrating on construction.
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3rd of SandstoneÎton Gusidalil has begun a mysterious construction! People say he has gathered a lot of blocks and llama cloth. Also some gems and bones. Sounds.. nice.
6thJust when I thought we were having things nicely here and my mind had somewhat begun to set aside constant fear, wilderness spews out another foul beast upon us! An eyeless bison with leathery wings has been spotted near our southern entrance. Someone even saw it spewing webs! Armok, have mercy!
As I got over from the initial mind numbing terror, I summoned our militia commanders. A battle plan was made. As a direct attack against the creature would be very hazardous due to it spitting webs, we are planning to trap it! I fear nothing can save our caravan. The beast will quickly reach them. We will have to sacrifice them to ensure our survival..
When the beast has itself occupied on the depot, we'll raise all the bridges. Then, our marksdwarves can take shots at it from the battlements. Sadly we don't have magma in the entrance dike section yet, but I'll order it be pumped immediately. Everyone nodded. We have to be able to act quick.
The beast starts moving straight towards the southern entrance. As soon as the few who have been hauling things from the depot get off the inner bridge, a lever is pulled.. Ahem, the lever is pulled. What, the merchants are almost dead already?!
The creature is also seen biting heads off! SOMEONE PULL THE LEVER ALREADY! ..then a mason finally comes to save the day. The bridges go up. Actually the titan has taken many nasty looking hits. The few remaining merchants might be able to get through this. There's a marksdwarf persistently shooting the creature.
8thEven after fierce resistance, the titan emerges victorius. It has taken many gruesome wounds. Our marksdwarves don't seem to be able to get to a good shooting position from the battlements, so a change in location must be done.
Îton comes to us in the midst of all the chaos and shows us the thing he has been working on. It's.. a hood. It does have some empowering images on it. Good work, Îton!
"We'll be leaving soon", says one of the few merchants who managed to run away to the fortress. Fine. Go if you wish to DIE.
The titan lies against the depot wall. It's having trouble breathing. Then I hear one of the marksdwarves ask:
"Hey, did anyone remember to bring any bolts?"
This can't be happening.
11thEverything is at standstill. The red-haired nasty winged bison monster just stands there. Something must be done. We must get rid of it. A new plan is made. We are going to lure the creature in. We have some dwarves ready to take the first blow. The creature will propably shoot web at them. At the same time, three squads will flank the thing and will hopefully evade the webs. Everyone is preparing mentally for the worst.
12thThe inner bridge is lowered, but the beast doesn't seem to like the idea of moving anywhere. We need a lure. And a lure walks right in. "We're not going to wait any longer. We're leaving!", says one of the last merchants. I command the second bridge to be lowered. We won't stop you.
14thThe merchant has decided not to move anywhere. We'll wait.
16thThe merchant has gathered himself. Yes, you must do it. It is for the best. He starts his journey towards the southern gate. Suddenly we all realize that the titan has disappeared when we all looked away! A groan is heard from the dike.
Release. The. Magma.
17thÎton is dead. He went to the depot and somehow fell into the dike. Just one bite and his head flew a thousand yards.. And to make matters worse, the titan just climbed out of the dike back to the depot. Now it's chasing the merchant's horse. It's coming in. Prepare yourselves!
18thQuithe, the hill titan is dead. It is done. Our baroness is dead, as is her husband. Some of our finest warriors lie motionless in blood.. Flame II, one of our finest smiths has also perished. There's so much death.. Again. The battle plan worked, although the forces met with the titan just before the ramps which would've allowed flanking from the north. The squads positioned south managed to evade the webs and surrounded the beast. And what a beating it took.
No one is quite sure who gave the last blow, as it propably bled to death. But it is generally accepted, that De killed the beast.
De is looking pale. The beast ripped his other foot off. But he'll live. I heard that the doctor just gave him a crutch and let him go.
The slowly moving magma engulfs Îton's body in the dike, which then bursts into flames. Îton, why did you go there? On the other hand, did I remember to specifically order no one to enter the outer perimeter? Would the titan just have held his position in the dike if Îton had stayed in? Did I fail again?
All the debris that has fallen in the dike creates a huge amount of smoke and mist. Hot air can be seen floating and vibrating all around the trade depot. If the titan would've stood there now, it would have roasted alive. But I let it in. If ever, I wish I could turn back time..
19thRest in Dacite, victims of nature's savage fury
17-18th of Galena
206
Îton Gusiladil, Carpenter
Asën Eshtânusen, Mace Lord
Doren Èrithnoram, baron consort
Mebtob Kíddirasën, Spearmaster
Solon Ìtdùndomas, Hammer Lord
Tobul Unibinod, Leatherworker
'Flame II', Metalsmith
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Quithe Lulorifafa Idare Zepave, the Eyeless Bane of Dwarves
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3rd of TimberIt has started raining. We sure don't get rain a lot here.. Åblel has also grown up a bit. He's now a child. It's nice to hear something that's not always related to death.
10thA horrible scream resembling a neigh echoes from the dike walls. It's a caravan horse that had fallen in the dike. A pillar of smoke rises. The helpless neighing intensifies. Everyone hears it. Then it stops, gradually. Finally, there's the smell of burning flesh and hair. There's a certain look on many faces around here. I think we are all trying hard not to end up like Litast.
12thLava has reached all ends of the dike portion we are filling. Now we'll have to wait for it to rise. All construction is progressing very slowly now that everyone is pumping.
15thObok has also grown up. He doesn't seem to be affected by anything at all. It's what this place does.
17thI order a halt in pumping, as everyone is going on breaks unrhytmically, which just keeps stopping the magma flow. We'll get back to it. Our pumping force walks back in a line, passing all the dead bodies still lying in our courtyard as there were no people around to place them to rest. I can sense so many little pieces of sanity flying away from many weary minds.
19th"Hey! If there are no merchants around here, doesn't it mean there's loads of free stuff lying in our depot?"
Yes, there is. Fine. Go.
...
"Now, who's a good badger? Who's a good bad.. Ow! Hey! *groaning*"
Another badger with a head bashed in, now by Meng from our militia. Pyrotechno ran away from the site the moment the badger showed it's teeth. Maybe he was the wisest of them all. Everything that lives around here seems to want us dead.
22ndOur graveyard is full. It's true. All those rows of coffins are already filled. "Gladly", we have a large surplus of coffins. There's a coffin for all of us.. There's one for me too.. waiting...
28thThis horrible autumn is coming to it's end.. Right now at this day, we have two construction projects almost finished. Here's the new forge area:
There's some room for expansion, although I like to look at all that magma.
The yet unrevealed construction is also done. It just needs that final statue. We'll be filling the dike again soon.
We lost almost ten fine dwarves during this season.. The caravan from the mountainhome was totally annihilated, save a couple of horses. The newly appointed baroness is already dead too. I fear this might not be taken lightly at the capital. And it's been quite a long time since we even got migrants..
They can't just abandon us here, can they?
Winter is coming.-----
Another pile of bodies! I wonder what's next. I think I can make it through winter with relative ease, unless there's yet another attack. There's not so much construction left to do, so I'll propably concentrate more on filling the dike. It was also interesting to notice that my laptop can run Murderflood at 20FPS, compared to my desktop which reached only 12..