"Hey Zuggles you dead?"I rubbed my eyes as I rose from my bed wearily. It was Taupe.
"I have some things to speak with you about."
Well, I tried to gather my senses, sweeping away the webs of wooziness that still lay draped over my consciousness. Taupe informed me that the mantle of leadership had come back around to me. Huh.
Its been years since I've last lead the fortress, years of waiting and trying to grasp what the
hell is going on with this place. Bereft of purpose after learning of the fall of the capital, I have been indulging my sense of powerlessness and despair by throwing myself at work day after day after day. Well no longer. The mantle of power has come around, and I plan to seize it with both hands!
Unfortunately, seizing the mantle of overseership is like trying to fish for carp. Once you catch it, it tends to slip away from your grasp. But worse of all, it might take the opportunity to bite your face off.
1st GraniteI had plans. Plans within plans. But I needed the might of the Usānlåluth military to carry out these plans of mine. Thus it was my first priority to make an inspection of the military, to make sure the foundation of my plans would not go awry.
Well whoever did the weapon assignments did not do a good job I fear. I understand the sentiment of utilizing our shiny new adamantine spears for combat, but you'll have to get rid of the previous weapon assignment first. As a result, the new recruits are hardly adequate in their spear training. I fear I will have to revert them back to their original weapons which they are more skilled at.
Asmoth on the other hand had a different sort of problem.
He had 2 sets of mailshirts on; a steel one and an adamantine one. I tried to convince him that one was enough and that other dwarves needed the armor, but he insisted on staying the course. Those damn nobles. I don't even have much of any clothes! Got to get the manager to make more clothes for the crossbow dwarves.
It seems our chief medical dwarf was also not involved in any capacity with diagnosis or anything. I insisted she take up a starter course from Logem, the only other qualified doctor here in Usānlåluth. I sent Zas on a mission.
There were some weird designations in place.
5th GraniteHmmm... Tosid has been behaving oddly recently.
Tosid Athelcudist has claimed a jeweller's workshop. He hauls a fire opal into the shop and begins secretively working on his magnum opus.
Try you as might Tosid, but nothing escapes from the all seeing overseers eye!
6th GraniteZefon Lekgusil has filled the pond area as instructed.
Inadvertently making an obsidian wall that blocks off the magma from draining out of the forge area.
Praise Armok! That building flaw had been bothering me for awhile, now the moat can drain and it will not affect the forge operations one bit. Later on, I ordered the reindeer butchered for meat, they were steadily growing in number, besides the place stinks of reindeer musk.
Meanwhile, corpse hauling continued.
Yeah, we don't think much of the worth of silver apparently. Some of the corpses I recognize from my turn at overseer years ago. Sigun the hauly-dwarf works hard at the task, alone. At least he goes about his task earnestly.
No mercy for corpses!
Meanwhile, the work orders kept piling up.
I named myself manager because
Haerdalas II is simply neglecting filling in work orders in order to train.
You tell them
Adil! Can't take your eye of a single thing otherwise nothing ever gets done around here.
Further inspection of the fortress reveals some glaring building flaws. As a result, I walled off
Gwolfsky's personal well.
It opens up into the caverns and can prove to be a strategic liability to our defenses should some critter discover the path and try to fly or climb up through the well. Besides, it will encourage everyone to use the wells i made on the surface
(that nobody managed to figure out how to operate after all these years). Speaking of which...
There. Communal property over personal property! Stop living and behaving like humans you dwarven dregs!
See! The well works!
I plan to assault the third caverns soon
(I won't bother with the second caverns as we already have traps in place there), so I've ordered
Imic to construct the iron gates at the breaching point so we can at least retreat and regroup lest we are overwhelmed.
I rearranged the training rosters so that the inexperienced militia are given priority to train over the elites. We'll need all the training we can get for these greenhorns before we commence the assault on the caverns.
10th GraniteTosid Athelcudist Ralmeb Arkoth has created
ikthaglashed,
Squeezeprophet! A fire opal crown, worth 36,000☼!
On further inspection, it appeared rather plain looking, but still fit for royalty.
A day later, and
Endok Kikrostlun has grown to become a dwarven child!
Endok is now a year old, the sixth child of
Thob Nunursolon, engineer and
Sarvesh Atheldolil, doctor. Already the poor child is getting used to tragedy.
Time to get indoctrinated into the ways of Usānlåluth you pup!
14th GraniteAn elven caravan has arrived from Alu Inó. Those damn elves, taking their own sweet time making their way from the southwest on their pack animals. They better have brought something worthwhile to trade!
The elf diplomat arrives from the northeast, how they navigate their way through these treacherous wastelands is something I'll never know nor something that they would reveal to us.
17th GraniteThe merchants have arrived and are unloading their goods.
Well, there wasn't much of anything worth in their stocks. Whatever. There was trash I needed to get rid off anyway that they would gladly accept. Trash for trash! I got the military to get off their collective asses to help with the hauling, which meant hunting down the last assigned barracks we have and disabling it and removing everyone from their training schedules.
"Everyone hauls! No exceptions!"22nd GraniteThe elf diplomat convenes a meeting with the duchess.
Yeah more tree talk nonsense. We granted them an audience. We don't even have 115 trees to chop down, unless we breach the caverns successfully, so yeah why not? Dumb elves.
Well, that was to be expected.
23rd GraniteThe Fortress attracted no migrants these season. Whoop dee doo daa why am I not surprised?
5th SlateA giant desert tortoise wandered into our death traps. It did not survive.
9th SlateThe merchants have announced that they are leaving soon. Damn it, there's still lots more trash to haul. I urged
Nujux to conduct trade before the merchants scampered off.
Nujux traded for a bunch of
fruits trash, another grizzly bear, a giant moose cow
(which was bloody expensive), a giant tiercel peregrine, a great horned owl, a wolf and a male giant snapping turtle. I don't know why we keep getting more animals when we already have the magnificent giant kea.
Hmmm got to do something about that.
13th SlateThe merchants have left, along with all our trash upon their pack animals. Thankfully, most of the litter on the surface has been cleared now, all that is left is to dump these skeletons and corpses.
Thob Nunursolon gave birth to boy,
Zulban Istbareral.
I can't complain really, the couple are single handedly keeping our population numbers afloat and may be integral to the survival of the fortress as long as this migrant drought continues.
I tasked Blitz gamer with cooking all the reindeer meat we got from slaughtering. After much grumbling about not wanting to cook anymore, he gave up protesting and went to work. When I asked him about how it was all coming along, he replied rather sarcastically that,
"this is a masterpiece. I am very SATISFIED."Well. Life goes on in the fortress.
5th FelsiteYou would think years spent here would have acclimated me to the sight of the vile mist emanating from the lake, but that is not the case. It is a most unnatural event, and when you observe the mist close up
(No get back you dope! Not that closely!), you'll find it alarming to note that the mist seems to have a life of its own, at times flowing against the direction of the wind. I am certainly glad we have erected a barrier around us.
But what is more disturbing is the realization that certain forms of life aren't at all affected by the vile mist's husking properties. Like for example the equally disturbing flying lung fish that not only defies gravity but the effects of the vile mist. Truly a formidable opponent.
The alert goes up and another swathe of vile mist is sighted, near the haulers. On the northeast coastline.
Well Fuck. This can't be good. I order the items that they were assigned to dump to be forbidden.
Welp that did not help one bit, the haulers are already hauling the corpses merrily with nary a care in the world. Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong. I hold my breath in anticipation...
10th FelsiteWell so much for that. Surprisingly, nothing untoward happened.
In other news, the
"unknown material" tables were filled in by normal tables.
It was then that someone spotted a ghostly apparition flying above us.
Some one identified the ghast as
Tulon Daroslitast, Ghostly Teamster.
Consulting the records, it was revealed that
Tulon was struck down by the desert titan
An Onshenurus Telingamud a few years back.
Yeap I spot his corpse in the moat surrounding the bear temple. As i watched
Tulon flitting about, I was alarmed at the appearance of yet another ghost;
Likot Endokerith Erush Etost, ghostly administrator.
Likot died in year 211 as per the records. Worse yet, was the new arrival that I did not notice...
Well no danger from that front yet. I was content to let the monstrosity stew in the evil lake. Meanwhiile, I searched the slab stockpiles and sure enough, there was a slab for
Tulon already engraved and good to go.
Unfortunately,
Likot did not have a slab and his corpse was largely neglected all these years.
I order a slab engraved for the poor dwarf.
Soon enough,
Tulon was put to rest.
16th FelsiteThe traps were cleaned and the corpses above ground were all incinerated. I sensed that it was time. I could not tarry any longer. I activated the entire military and sent them down to the third caverns where the iron gates were. We were about to breach the third caverns and will need all the firepower to deal with the named gorlak and any undead that would block or interfere with the clearing of the entryway. We cannot take the risk of undead swarming in to the fortress.
Speaking of undead...
R.I.P.
Likot.
As Duck went to clear the path for the breach,
Otngebistra the gorlak came stumbling into the tunnels.
The Amazons dealt with the foe swiftly, dismembering it into many tiny pieces. A Molemarian corpse wandering nearby was also destroyed.
20th FelsiteDisaster averted! Massive chaos ensued as dwarves attempted to breach the safe perimeter in order to dump corpses or bury loved ones. Thinking quickly on my feet, i activated the burrows alert, forcing everyone back inside. I then extended the burrows til the perimeter wall, which was not fully dug out at the moment. The military took care of any unruly corpses wandering nearby as
Duck came to clear out the mess.
It was only through the heat of battle that I realized many of the newly drafted dwarves did not have appropriate weapons. Will have to postphone the invasion until we can get them all up to speed. Hmmm... the fortress records indicate that we should have enough...
GWOLFSKY!!!!!!!!
DAMN YOU MEDDLING NOBLES!
Well, no matter with the initial breach secured, we decided to retreat and regroup. Already more corpses had sensed the smell of dwarven flesh and were shambling towards the gateway.
I ordered the lever to be pulled.
We are safe. For now.
Further examination of the military reveals more inconsistencies that I overlooked.
Zefon (crippled) was discharged from the military. He'll be a liability on the battlefield and we needed his hands working on the forges or the fields more than whatever feeble contribution he could muster on the military front.
27th FelsiteSome of the orders for the leather armor were completed. It feels good to finally not be naked. Also, Imic is marshalling the giant keas for war.
Summer has arrived on the calendar.
EDIT: I may have gone way overboard on the pictures.
EDIT: Derp. Forgot about existence of spoiler tags. Fixed now.
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