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[De]

I've my final fort 1 report to my previous post. Posting this so people know.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I knew the doors wouldn't stop building destroyers, but they will slow them down while still allowing materials to be collected. And as far as adamantine goes, not enough was happening and I wanted to make some kind of progress after spending a third of my turn solving pathfinding issues.

Thanks. Uh... don't panic, but I have some urgent questions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where's the lever that closes the gate and do we have any kind of functioning hospital?

Edit: I used 'R" to find the front gate lever but I'm not seeing a hospital.

[DDDragoni]

Thanks. Uh... don't panic, but I have some urgent questions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where's the lever that closes the gate and do we have any kind of functioning hospital?

Edit: I used 'R" to find the front gate lever but I'm not seeing a hospital.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have no hospital because we have no dwarf with any medical skill.

[PyroTechno]

Thanks. Uh... don't panic, but I have some urgent questions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where's the lever that closes the gate and do we have any kind of functioning hospital?

Edit: I used 'R" to find the front gate lever but I'm not seeing a hospital.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have no hospital because we have no dwarf with any medical skill.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In my experience, a dwarf actually having medical skill isn't necessary. I assign every dwarf to every medical skill, and it works perfectly fine.

[EoyaBosan]

Summer of Fortress 2. An eventful season, to say the least.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Previously, on Parallel Fortresses Succession Game...



And so it continues...

The alarm bells rang out at dawn. Our fledgling fortress - barely two years since its founding - was under siege. We had only around a minute before they would be at our gates. I wasted no time in sending all civilian dwarves indoors, and ordering the military into place. We had three axedwarves of reasonable skill - of whom one was asleep, one was at the absolute deepest point of the fortress picking up new armour, and only one was ready to fight. We also had three swordsdwarves, little more than fresh-faced recruits. A lump formed in my throat as I realised we were outnumbered more than two to one.



I quickly reevaluated our outer defences. The surface of the fort consists of a square island, surrounded by a water-filled moat, accessible by two drawbridges: one to the east and one to the west. The eastern entrance, built by a previous overseer, is guarded by cage traps, but the invaders were approaching from the southwest. Unfortunately, even raising the drawbridges closed wouldn't suffice, as there was an underground service tunnel necessary for the project, which was open to the surface.



I carefully watched the movements of the goblins and, as I thought, found them heading for the undefended service tunnel. I tried to block them off, but the foolish dwarves were all busy losing their heads over the invasion, and couldn't throw together a wall in time. Instead, I ordered the military - still only four of them - into place and awaited the inevitable. With a clatter of armour and a vulgar war cry, the goblins rounded the corner and began their assault.



The very first attack of the battle incapacitated one of the recruits, leaving him unconscious and vulnerable, and leaving only three dwarves against ten goblins.



Thankfully, Cog - the only dwarf present with any significant training - more than pulled his weight, relieving several of the invaders of their extraneous limbs. Despite the untrained swordsdwarves being struck several times, their exceptional quality armour deflected most of the damage and their masterwork steel weapons cut through the goblin armour like butter. The tide turned when Zon - the other well trained axedwarf who was at the bottom of the fortress - finally joined the fight.



In the aftermath, every last goblin was slain, and they claimed only one of ours: Erith, one of the swordsdwarves, struck down by a copper whip to the skull. Kubuk, another of the swordsdwarves, turned out unexpectedly as the greatest hero, singlehandedly killing half of the siege.



The experience hasn't left him entirely unmarred, however. He now has a certain stony look in his eye that you see in some of the older dwarves.



After a quiet few weeks, some slightly friendlier faces were sighted on the horizon.



Unfortunately, as it crossed the drawbridge, the caravan sighted the rotting remains of the earlier siege and their wagon spontaneously fell to pieces. The humans, panicking, ran for the hills, leaving behind an entire wagon's worth of meat, poor quality oversized weapons and other such useless fluff. They could at least have left us some booze.

Some of the deeper mining operations brought surprising news.



Between the upper and lower caverns already known was a third - low ceilinged, consisting entirely of narrow, intricate, flooded passages. Worse than useless.

The calendar finally rolled around to Galena 1st, which is a very special day indeed, because it's my twelfth birthday.



Twelve, of course, is the age at which a dwarf comes of age, and can legally work, marry, join the army, run for mayor and sample all the other delights dwarven culture has to offer. I intend to make full use of my new freedom, but more on that later.



The unwelcome news arrived that one of our already meagre military had vanished - the same one who slept through the entire siege.



After a brief search, I found him on the wrong side of a wall, at the bottom of the moat, having apparently fallen victim to some sort of anomaly in the spacetime continuum. I conscripted a few more dwarves into the military to fill the missing places, and set up a new hammerdwarf squad. Let's hope they don't have to see action too soon in the future.



With my overseership term now half over, the main portion of the project nears completion, well ahead of schedule. Recent events show just how perilous a situation the fortress truly lies in, however, and I have heard all too many rumours of horrors that stalk the deepest caverns routing entire fortresses from the inside. We must be more vigilant than ever.

[Nakéen]

Summer of Fortress 2. An eventful season, to say the least.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Previously, on Parallel Fortresses Succession Game...



And so it continues...

The alarm bells rang out at dawn. Our fledgling fortress - barely two years since its founding - was under siege. We had only around a minute before they would be at our gates. I wasted no time in sending all civilian dwarves indoors, and ordering the military into place. We had three axedwarves of reasonable skill - of whom one was asleep, one was at the absolute deepest point of the fortress picking up new armour, and only one was ready to fight. We also had three swordsdwarves, little more than fresh-faced recruits. A lump formed in my throat as I realised we were outnumbered more than two to one.



I quickly reevaluated our outer defences. The surface of the fort consists of a square island, surrounded by a water-filled moat, accessible by two drawbridges: one to the east and one to the west. The eastern entrance, built by a previous overseer, is guarded by cage traps, but the invaders were approaching from the southwest. Unfortunately, even raising the drawbridges closed wouldn't suffice, as there was an underground service tunnel necessary for the project, which was open to the surface.



I carefully watched the movements of the goblins and, as I thought, found them heading for the undefended service tunnel. I tried to block them off, but the foolish dwarves were all busy losing their heads over the invasion, and couldn't throw together a wall in time. Instead, I ordered the military - still only four of them - into place and awaited the inevitable. With a clatter of armour and a vulgar war cry, the goblins rounded the corner and began their assault.



The very first attack of the battle incapacitated one of the recruits, leaving him unconscious and vulnerable, and leaving only three dwarves against ten goblins.



Thankfully, Cog - the only dwarf present with any significant training - more than pulled his weight, relieving several of the invaders of their extraneous limbs. Despite the untrained swordsdwarves being struck several times, their exceptional quality armour deflected most of the damage and their masterwork steel weapons cut through the goblin armour like butter. The tide turned when Zon - the other well trained axedwarf who was at the bottom of the fortress - finally joined the fight.



In the aftermath, every last goblin was slain, and they claimed only one of ours: Erith, one of the swordsdwarves, struck down by a copper whip to the skull. Kubuk, another of the swordsdwarves, turned out unexpectedly as the greatest hero, singlehandedly killing half of the siege.



The experience hasn't left him entirely unmarred, however. He now has a certain stony look in his eye that you see in some of the older dwarves.



After a quiet few weeks, some slightly friendlier faces were sighted on the horizon.



Unfortunately, as it crossed the drawbridge, the caravan sighted the rotting remains of the earlier siege and their wagon spontaneously fell to pieces. The humans, panicking, ran for the hills, leaving behind an entire wagon's worth of meat, poor quality oversized weapons and other such useless fluff. They could at least have left us some booze.

Some of the deeper mining operations brought surprising news.



Between the upper and lower caverns already known was a third - low ceilinged, consisting entirely of narrow, intricate, flooded passages. Worse than useless.

The calendar finally rolled around to Galena 1st, which is a very special day indeed, because it's my twelfth birthday.



Twelve, of course, is the age at which a dwarf comes of age, and can legally work, marry, join the army, run for mayor and sample all the other delights dwarven culture has to offer. I intend to make full use of my new freedom, but more on that later.



The unwelcome news arrived that one of our already meagre military had vanished - the same one who slept through the entire siege.



After a brief search, I found him on the wrong side of a wall, at the bottom of the moat, having apparently fallen victim to some sort of anomaly in the spacetime continuum. I conscripted a few more dwarves into the military to fill the missing places, and set up a new hammerdwarf squad. Let's hope they don't have to see action too soon in the future.



With my overseership term now half over, the main portion of the project nears completion, well ahead of schedule. Recent events show just how perilous a situation the fortress truly lies in, however, and I have heard all too many rumours of horrors that stalk the deepest caverns routing entire fortresses from the inside. We must be more vigilant than ever.

Fortress 2 comment

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Damn those wormholes !

[Daniel the Finlander]

For Team Fortress 2:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Make a memorial for that drowned bugger before he spooks some poor sod and gives them a heart attack. Also, we need an engraving or a statue about the events of this glorious battle.

[EoyaBosan]

A quiet Autumn in Fortress 2.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The events of Summer left me quite on edge, almost paranoid. Every waking moment, all I could imagine was insurmountable threats assailing the fortress - werecreatures, titans, goblin sieges, vampires amongst the migrants, eerie noises from within the adamantine veins, or even (heaven forbid) the stills running dry - so you can imagine my chagrin when weeks went by without a single existential threat arriving at out gates.

Sometimes, in the quiet evenings, I recalled the voice I heard last year, which originally convinced me to run for overseer: if there were truly parallel fortresses, perhaps these very events I feared were happening right now, but elsewhere? Perhaps the very same dwarves merrily drinking in the dining room next to me were, in another reality, being horribly disembowelled - how would I ever know? More than ever I longed for a distraction, positive or negative, to dispel these maddening thoughts.



My heart leapt as the wagons crossed the brow of the hill, laden with countless goods of excellent craftsdwarfship. I plied the merchants and the outpost liaison with alcohol, asking about the outside world - what had happened in the last year? Children abducted? Settlements routed? Monarchs succeeded? I wanted to know everything, anything, but all they could do was shrug their shoulders and tell me:



Of course, I knew it wasn't their fault. I traded away almost all our trade goods (mostly bone crafts) in return for all the booze they could offer, and various bits and pieces to bolster our steel industry. I made a few minor requests for next year's caravan - more dogs, flux stones, lye for soapmaking, and such. I also made a generous offering to the Mountainhomes. Before I knew it, the caravan was gone again.



A child who had been acting strangely revealed a beautiful war hammer - too light to be useful, of course, but beautiful nonetheless.



I commissioned some statues for decorating certain areas.



You would be forgiven for thinking this details Cog the axedwarf's part in Summer's siege, but this is not the case - despite them sharing the same first name, our Cog has the (oddly appropriate) last name of Violenceletters, not Furnaceblazes. You might also note that the statue shows an event dated Spring 126, whereas the siege was in Summer 127.



After a long, frustratingly uneventful season, Winter was finally upon us. To my amazement, the project I had devoted so much of my time and effort to was complete: a new, monolithic structure, forever tearing the local skyline. Even after Workgears has lived and died, even after the forests burn down and the rivers run dry, this monument will survive as a silent witness to the dwarven spirit.

But you'll have to wait until tomorrow's update to see what it looks like, or what it does...

[De]

Yeah, I'm still working on writing up spring  . I have Halloweenie things to do tomorrow but I'll try to finish it over the weekend.

I have an idea. I know we're dwarfing ourselves as they play the game, but how about the Fort 2 overseers give me the vanilla names of their dwarves and I'll see if they're in Fort 1 and then dorf them and make Named Dwarves Still Alive a competition stat.

Dastot Inodbubnus (brewer) - Dragoni: Arrived in Workclench on the 1st of Sandstone year 125

Ingiz Zolakalath - De:  arrived on the 5th of Malachite year 125

[DDDragoni]

I have an idea. I know we're dwarfing ourselves as they play the game, but how about the Fort 2 overseers give me the vanilla names of their dwarves and I'll see if they're in Fort 1 and then dorf them and make Named Dwarves Still Alive a competition stat.

Im in favor, but you should probably spoiler the names at least until origami/majority approves.

[origamiscienceguy]

Really, you can do whatever you want dorfing-wise. I was just suggesting that we dorf ourselves as our turns come up, but you can do whatever you want in this situation.

[EoyaBosan]

The much awaited Winter of Fortress 2.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Relieved that my main project was essentially complete, I spent the last season of my overseership mainly on other, more minor projects, such as creating an incinerator to dispose of useless odds and ends, including the corpses of any more goblins foolish enough to visit. Unfortunately, in the process, one of our legendary miners fell into the magma and burned to death horribly.



Nobody actually saw her body disintegrate - and, now, nobody ever will. She will be considered missing forever; nobody will ever be able to prove her death. She will never be buried in the catacombs like the rest of our dwarves. Fath did a lot for our fortress, and she deserved a better death than that - alas, there's nothing to be done for her now.

I also set about trying to drain the moat, as there were several corpses (including goblins from the siege) in it which kept horrifying anyone passing by. I very nearly got another dwarf drowned in the process, but they narrowly survived, and the corpses were recovered. Nomal the time and space defying dwarf was given a belated burial. Let's hope his corpse doesn't somehow phase through the coffin.



A four year old child created a wooden ring called The Strategic Virginity. It has an image of a dark gnome. I... I really don't know what to say about that.

In order to build a vertical shaft for easier access to the incinerator, I punctured the (flooded) second cavern, draining the water away into the third cavern until I could seal the shaft off properly.



It all went wrong from there. There was far too much water, coming from too many directions at once, to construct any walls at the bottom. I tried to cause a controlled cave in to seal it off from above, but was confounded by an inconveniently placed tunnel tube fungus. Not just that, but in the process a poor dwarf fell into the cavern and was injured. She suffered a very complex emotional response to the experience.



Thankfully she somehow managed not to drown before regaining consciousness and escaped down a service tunnel into the main fortress. She was treated for a fractured wrist and ribs, and is expected to make a full recovery.

I later found that Rimtar, our manager, broker, bookkeeper, architect and all-round bureaucrat, had decided to go for a tour of the flooded cavern.



I could only watch in horror as he climbed around the cavern, barely gripping to the rough stone walls while dangling precariously above the maelstrom of water draining out of the cavern, before climbing out the hole in the top and wandering off for a drink. I can't even guess what was going through his head at the time.



The problem with the second cavern and the incinerator shaft remained unsolved, but, alas, it was out of my hands, as that moment the new year dawned and I had to step down from my post as overseer.



I had noticed that the fortress's hammerer position was open, and decided to take it. Of course, I had to look the part as well, so I had an appropriately intimidating uniform put together.



The ceremonial war hammer is the same giant wild boar bone war hammer crafted last season. Any criminals sentenced to hammering should be appropriately terrified, but not crippled/killed as they might be with a metal war hammer. Also, despite how it looks, I'm definitely not crying about having to give up my position of power, I j-just have something in my eye, that's all. Sh-shut up!

Moving on, as my last act as overseer, here's a tour of our fair fortress, from the bottom up.



The forges, now quiet after nine months of constant usage pumping out enough metal for The Monument. We are left with a modest surplus of iron, bronze and gold.



Just above, we have a set of rooms for the smiths and smelters, as well as the mayoral suite to the left. The smoothing/engraving was never finished as the engravers were busy building the Monument, then busy engraving the higher priority areas further up the fortress.



Above that, we have the incinerator (the retractable bridge in the middle) and around it the hammerer's private bedroom, dining room and mausoleum. It's only slightly more ostentatious than the mayoral suite, really speaking.



The entrance to the third cavern. You might note the flooding from the second cavern, which has killed most of the local flora.

There is little to show between here and the fortress proper, apart from two more caverns, and many empty tunnels where veins of metalliferous ore have been mined out to provide material for The Monument.



The catacombs. Only three of the coffins are filled.



The dining room. Nearby we have the control room, with levers for everything important, several colour-coded masonry workshops, and the food stockpile - now recovering after a worrying low due to all the farmers being too busy working on The Monument to till the fields.



The bedrooms and, to the south, the hospital.



The fields. Only a few are necessary, as the growers are highly skilled and the food is supplemented by butchering and imports.



The surface of the fortress. This is where the refuse is stored, where the bonecrafters labour and where the military trains. To the east we have the wagon entrance; to the west we have access to The Monument.



And here we have The Monument itself: a vast, towering pyramid built entirely of lead, silver and other metals, chronicling our civilisation's history and future. On the ground floor we have an image of Udib Atticsquare in black bronze (don't mind the blood, that's just from those inconsiderate goblins earlier). Udib was queen of the Artifact of Fights - our dwarven civilisation - from 54 until 80. In 55 she was survived an attack by a creature of the night, and subsequently became obsessed with her own mortality, and began worshipping a mountain titan.

In 80, she was abducted by Zutosp Gravefaint, another creature of the night, and was transformed into his spouse. She now has a hideous bloated body, with rough, cracked skin, external ribs and wings of stretched skin. Zutosp, her captor, was killed in 98, but it is rumoured that Udib herself still wanders the Mechanical Jungle to this day, having achieved her wish of immortality at any cost.



Here we have an image of Genlath Whisperconfused the Ungodly Wickedness the gecko demon in rose gold. Genlath was a huge feathered gecko twisted into human form. It escaped the underworld and took control of the Sin of Weaknesses - the same goblin civilisation that attacked us last Summer - leading them in a series of successful campaigns against various dwarven settlements. Genlath singlehandedly killed 142 dwarves (in fact, only five of the creatures he killed weren't dwarves) before being struck down by a rutherer in 64. The legacy of his hatred of dwarves still lives on in the goblins of the Sin of Weaknesses.



Here we have an image of EoyaBosan the dwarf in gold. Gosh, isn't she just so striking? I mean, just look at her lustrous, flowing hair and that stoic, inspiring look in her eyes. She's clearly destined for great things. Again, don't mind the blood.



Here we have an image of an unidentified forgotten beast in raw adamantine. It is more ancient than our entire civilisation. It feels no fear, no pain, and no emotion but hatred. Even now it stalks the caverns near us, seeking fresh blood.



Here we have the top of The Monument, where a single pull of the lever will drop anything - living or otherwise - on the hatch in the centre down a shaft all the way to the incinerator at the bottom of the fortress. Or at least it would, if it weren't for all that business with draining the second cavern. Pah.



Here we have the roof of The Monument. A bit of an anticlimax, but that's what happens when I show things from the bottom up.



Long live Workclench!

And that's all for my turn!

As for the competition, Fortress 2 currently has:
Population: 127
Created wealth: 2,074,000
Dead/missing non-citizens: 124
Named dwarves still alive: 5/5

The save can be found here.

Notes for the next overseer(s):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

• The second cavern (hotkey F4) is still draining into the third cavern, and will probably damage your FPS. You could try setting up some pumps above the hole in the floor to keep the area dry and wall it off below.
• The caverns are not very well sealed off from the fortress due to the incomplete shaft business; a flying forgotten beast could easily find a way in.
• The fortress will almost certainly become a barony when the Autumn caravan arrives, so have a candidate for baron(ess) ready in advance.
• On a related note, we're only thirteen dwarves from becoming a metropolis, at which point we can try for Mountainhome.
• The squad named "[Not military]" is not a military squad; it's just so my dwarf can wear custom clothing. Don't send that squad into combat!
• The military is generally very well equipped, but, with the exception of the axedwarves, not particularly well trained.
• There's dolomite (required for making steel) near the surface to the southeast.
• All the levers are next to the dining room.
• If you want to sacrifice an animal on The Monument, pen/pasture them on the upper hatch and pull the lever.
• If you want to sacrifice a caged prisoner, I'd recommend keeping them inside the cage; otherwise, they'll probably escape.
• If you want to sacrifice one of our own dwarves, add them to the burrow named "Sacrifice" and pull the lever.

I have an idea. I know we're dwarfing ourselves as they play the game, but how about the Fort 2 overseers give me the vanilla names of their dwarves and I'll see if they're in Fort 1 and then dorf them and make Named Dwarves Still Alive a competition stat.

I fully approve! Dragoni and De have been named in Fortress 2. The following need naming in Fortress 1:

Inod Duthalmedtob - Elagn: arrived on the 5th of Malachite, 125
Urvad Imusheshtân - EoyaBosan: arrived on the 27th of Granite, 127

[origamiscienceguy]

Very Good EoyaBosan, you may now look at any Fortress 1 reports, past or future.

Urlance Woolsbane, please grab the save and post once you have confirmed that the save file is working.

About the cross-fortress dwarfing thing, I think that that is a fine idea since it shouldn't affect each fortress differently, so go ahead and do it if you want.

[Urlance Woolsbane]

The savefile is A-OK.

Bwhahahahaha....

[De]

Urvad Imusheshtan - EoyaBosan hasn't arrived in the fortress yet but I'll keep an eye for him.

Anyway, it's finally time for the Fortress 1 spring cleaning report for year 127.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

127-01-01

I like tunnels, really, but not to live in. I bring it up because that’s essentially what Workclench is, a series of tunnels connected by a handful of scattered staircases. The naturalistic look gives it a unique feeling but it does mean that getting anywhere takes forever.

My name is De Blizzardbolts and I’ve been living here for two years now and some things are really starting to get to me. Like our stockpile system. I signed up to do a lot of jobs, like every job they had available when I arrived because I wasn’t really sure what I’d be good at, (I even volunteered to try my hand at bee keeping just as soon as someone finds some bees) but mostly I help with the planting and every time I need to seed a field I have to go all the way down to the kitchens to get the seeds. Speaking of the dining area, it’s getting pretty crowded these days.

Today I managed to cram in at a table with a bunch of people who’d just returned from gathering adamantine down in the caverns. I haven’t really been down in the caverns much; they give me the creeps. I kind of question whether it’s really a good idea to have a staircase that descends directly into this nest of monsters and olm men. Our old militia commander died confronting a cave spider just last season. I brought it up to the haulers, and maybe I mentioned some other stuff that’s been bugging me lately I don’t really remember, and one of them told me to stop whining and start doing something useful if I’m so worried about it. She had a point.

I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Maybe I’m being a stereotypical twelfth child here, but I was hoping I could make some kind of lasting mark on the world when I left home. Some people said thirteen years old was too young to be going off on an expedition by myself but they’re being prejudiced. Kids are the most oppressed minority in the world. Anyone can take away our rights just because they’re a bit older and taller and everyone feels free to ignore our input. I’m going to do something about it.

I talked to Dragoni about my concerns. He’s a nice guy and his wife is the bookkeeper and manager of Workclench. They’re the ones who do the real work of running this place even though they still have four little kids to look after. He left off brewing to listen to me and he said if I could come up with some kind of plan for improvement he’d see that I got the resources to follow through with it.



I’ve decided to build a fortified wall around our entrance. It’ll be a useful addition to our establishment that will look good both to new comers and on my resume.


127-01-10

The elves arrived today. I had to stop working on my plans to help bring things up to the Depot even though the elves barely have anything worth trading for. There’s no stockpile up by our Depot. There’s just a ramp down from the surface and then the old hematite mine that leads off to the staircase down into the fort. I know it’s not really what Dragoni and I agreed on, but I decided to order the miners to dig out a room for a crafts stockpile and a hallway. I also had them expand the staircase while they were at it because I’m sick of running into people.


127-01-11

Rith Fountainsand, one of the furnace operators, started acting really weird, giggling to himself and just about bubbling over with excitement. He ordered everyone out of the forge and started demanding adamantine wafers. I was worried we wouldn’t have any, given how long it takes to extract the strands from the raw ore, but he apparently found what he needed and got to work on some mysterious creation.


127-01-14

Before I can start on my wall project we’re going to need a lot of blocks and right now all the blocks are being stored down in the forge for some reason. Anyone who needs a block has to make their way past that giggling lunatic Rith and then climb ten flights of stairs to get to the surface. I’ve decided to have the miners dig out a stockpile just for blocks underneath the barracks, and while they’re at it, I tell them to make a new room for our seeds next to the fields.



The barracks is pretty sad. Once I have my wall built, they’ll be able to have a training facility out in the fresh air. We can even set up a shooting range. It’s been ages since I was able to blow off some steam with some decent target practice.


127-01-16

Rith Fountainsand finished his project today. I had a look at it while I was organizing the removal of all our stone blocks from the forge. It’s quite a thing, and adamantine breastplate that seems to shine with a light of its own. He decorated it with scenes from the legendary Siege of Gripping and calls it The Neutralization of Declining. I’m not an expert by any means, but I reckon that it’s far and away the most valuable of the fort’s official treasures.



127-01-26

We really, really need a wall. This was made undeniably clear by the arrival of a cursed wereass today. I’m not making a dirty joke. We have a giant twisted donkey monster charging our front gates.



I don’t want to criticize but when word came down that there was trouble on the surface it was chaos. All our animals are just wandering around up there and our entrance is entirely undefended. Our militia consists of three people who have no armor. No one’s ever put any plans in place for what to do if there’s an emergency. As the only person at hand with any kind of authority I took charge of the situation as best I could. I told my miners and builders to get word out to gather in the dining hall.

I’ve read about werebeasts. If we shut the gates and wait, we should all be fine.


127-01-27

The order to gather in the dining room worked! Sort of… Once everyone was down there I ordered a head count and we were missing two people, the fisherdwarf, Thikut, and our weaponsmith, Rovod. We couldn’t just leave them out there so I had the gates opened. I don’t know if that was the smartest call though. Thikut told me later that we were only saved by the wereass’s unthinking bloodlust. It diverted from its course in order to tear apart somebody’s pet chick and no sooner had it finished doing so then it transformed into a naked human and ran for the hills. I have a bad feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of this creature.

(ooc: It’s name is Duka Gildname the Dents of Growling.)






127-01-28

Since we had every member of the fortress in one place for maybe the first time in two years, I suggested to Dragoni that access to the caverns be blocked off until we have a stronger military. The recent scare was the most persuasive evidence I could have hoped for and he agreed to my plan right away.


127-02-01

Dragoni’s wife, Fath, who makes up something like sixty percent of our administration, went down into the caverns to make sure everyone had cleared out and got walled in down there herself! Dragoni ordered the wall taken down immediately and I announced a Burrow Restriction confining everyone to the fortress proper. Hopefully she’ll be alright until we can get this sorted out.


127-02-04

Fath made it back inside but rumor has it that Meng Dabblingbolt our bowyer (snicker) and Catten Chastetome our gelder (double snicker) snuck off down into the caverns while the wall was down. Since the burrow restriction is still in place and since the wall was only down for a day or so I have to assume this was some kind of intentional plan of their part, a stunt wherein they try living in the caverns by themselves. Maybe they’re intending to release some kind of sensationalist book when they come back out. Well, more power to them.

I’m having a terrible time getting everything organized for my wall project. Today I was checking the stockpiles in the giant cavern where we keep our carpenter workshop and the masons and I got completely lost. I ended up climbing that tiny staircase that goes to nowhere and then having to come back down.

While I was wandering back down those dark steps, it occurred to me that you can’t build anything on shaky foundations. Right now our wood is next to the stairs while the carpenters on the other side of the cavern with the stone stockpile and the wood furnaces are down in the smithy. Cloth is being kept next to the mason’s workshop. The clothier’s and the loom are downstairs next to a tanner, which really should be by the butchers shop with its own stockpile for raw hide, and we don’t even have leatherworks. The mechanic’s workbench is down there too, next to the jeweler’s and across from the craft stations. That’s where the furniture storeroom is as well. I don’t even know where we keep all the raw gems we find. Before I can order the wall constructed I’m going to have to take charge and have the stockpiles totally rearranged so that supplies can get to the shops where they’re most needed.


127-02-07

I implemented my bold reformation plan today by ordering the construction of another wood furnace, some asheries and a soap workshop at the end of the cavern built because soap is awesome. Among other things, I’m also Workclench’s primary soaper. I then ordered the area walled off and had a new stockpile created. From now on, all our ash, potash and pearlash shall be kept in its own special place.

Next door I’m going to put the carpenter’s workshop and the primary woodpile. I also had a bowyer’s built just in case Meng ever decides to come back. The next room beyond will have the masons, a mechanic, a siege engine workshop and our massive collection of miscellaneous stone. Economic stone should really be kept down by the smelter and forge. I’ve heard there is some around here somewhere. I just have to find it. Maybe once everything else is sorted it will turn up.




127-02-09

The elves left. I never really got a chance to look at them, but at least now people will only have to carry the crafts back a couple of steps to the new stockpile.


127-02-15

New people arrived! They brought six new kids between them. I swear most of the fort’s population is under the age of twenty. We’re the wave of the future, I’m telling you. Other than that there was a gem setter, a wax worker, a presser, a cook, an armorer, a new gelder (to replace that deserter Catten) and, most important of all, a doctor for the new hospital I’m having built. What a stroke of luck! I hope they won’t mind spending most of their time lugging stuff around. We’ve got a lot of junk left to move.


127-02-26

I had a look into the offices down by the jeweler’s today. I never really questioned it, but suddenly it seems weird to me that we keep our nobles in little closets with a single stool and no proper door. You get in by squeezing around a corner. The supply to the well is just on the other side of the wall so you sit in this tiny space on your stool listening to the constant trickle of water. I’m sure there’s something better we could arrange. I’ll have a look around.


127-03-08

My admiration for Fath grows every day. She’s a tireless worker who gets really great results considering the only space available for her is a stool next to the main stairway. I decide, since I’m in the middle of restructuring everything anyway, that I’ll order an office built for her.



This is complicated since the well blocks off well… everything. I don’t mention it to Origamiscience, but the well really is in the most inconvenient place possible. I especially don’t bring it up while I’m in the middle of explaining why I ordered the miners to knock down the wall of her bedroom and turn it into a hallway. I’ve had to promise to build her a better bedroom somewhere else just as soon as we’ve created more space.

I’m having the area between the staircase that comes down from the Trade Depot and Origami’s old bedroom turned into a hospital. When that’s completed I’ll have a new reservoir dug and a washroom built, then we’ll be able to pave over the old well and expand to the south. I hope. There’s a raggedy hallway connecting the dining room to the staircase via two of those tight squeeze corners that might get in the way. I’ll have to do some thinking about it.


127-03-12

I’ve made a terrible mistake!


I blame is on the dwarven wine. Really, I’m so sick of that stuff I can barely choke it down. Also, we’re out of barrels. I apologize to Dragoni for distracting him from his important work and he goes about brewing some fruit. I cancelled all the orders to gather fruit because I was planning to cut down trees in preparation for wall building, but we still have some and it will make for a nice change.


127-03-26

I’ve been super busy lately overseeing all the shifting of supplies. You know we didn’t even have an ore stockpile at all? Just a bar stockpile next to the forge and a place to keep the candy (that’s what we’ve started calling the adamantine). No wonder we haven’t managed to build any armor. Just to smelt the bars takes forever. I have the stockpiles by the forge changed so that there’s one for bars, one for raw ore and one for the economic stone we will one day harvest to make steel.

While I was working on that I realized how much trouble the newcomers are having navigating our multiple staircases (some of them being straight up dead ends) and twisty hallways. Also, I’m changing everything around. What we need is some kind of directory to help people figure out where stuff is located. I’ll do my best to work something out.

OOC –Hotkey Directory—
F1 – Gate, F2 - Farms, F3 – Depot, F4 – Workshops, F5 – Administration/Bedrooms/Hospital, F6 – Dining Room, F7 – Craft Workshops/Jewelers/Clothier, F8 – Forge, Shift+F1 – The Candy Room, Shift+F2 – Cavern Entrance 1, Shift+F3 – Cavern Entrance 2, Shift+F4 – Cavern Entrance 3, Shift+F5 – The Adamantine Strike


127-04-01

It’s the first day of summer!

We’ve made so much progress. The workshops are sorted out and almost everything’s been moved to its new stockpile. The hospital isn’t dug yet and the new offices haven’t been smoothed or furnished but I feel like we’re finally in a good place to really start working. It’s time to fish out my old plans and order the first stretch of wall-


OH FUCK!


127-04-02



I don’t even know where to begin. We are not prepared. The militia consists of three dwarves who don’t have armor. We ran out of ammunition for crossbows some time ago and haven’t had the supplies, or time, to make more. Even if we had it, there are no fortifications from which we could shoot. No one ever thought to construct any traps of any kind. Our gate opens directly into the main staircase that is the heart of the fortress and provides direct access to the most vital workings of our community. We are laid bare before the ancient enemy of the dwarves.

 I never even started my project… but I have learned something from it. If you want anything done around here, you have to do it yourself.

Stay tuned for further harrowing adventures!

[DDDragoni]

Fort 1 Commentary

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All those dead-end staircases are leftovers from me trying to solve the path-finding issues during spring and summer of my year. I blocked off the temporary entrances I made so nothing would sneak in uninvited.
Also, holy crap, an artifact adamantine breastplate? Whoever wears that is gonna be untouchable! Was it a possession, or do we now have a legendary armorsmith?