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[Dame de la Licorne]

9th Slate, 1052
The day after the new dwarves arrived, two among their number were brought Surath's attention.  

One of the peasants, Thrakor, was introduced to her by Bricktop.  

Apparently Thrakor was interested in learning to mine under Bricktop's tutelage and Surath was quite happy to accede to the request, especially as it would free up Viktoria for jobs more suited to her talents.

The other immigrant of interest? concern? was a mechanic called Arnar.

Arnar actually tracked Surath down and talked to her for over an hour about the flying machine he planned to build.  A flying machine out of aluminum, who ever heard of such a thing?  Everyone knew that any self-respecting dwarf was much happier underground than anywhere else.  A flying dwarf made as much sense as...as...an Elf building an underground fort.  Yes, Surath could clearly see that this Arnar would bear watching.

[Dame de la Licorne]

11th Slate, 1052
Watson, seeing Surath pass by on one of her many trips to and from the stockpiles, asked for a quick word.

"With all of these newcomers, we now number 26.  Considering the desperation that must have brought them here, I fear that we can't keep going as we have, without a Sheriff."

Surath had been thinking the same thing.  "But who would you suggest for the post?"

"Well, since I have spent some years training with a good friend, who was Sheriff at another town, I was thinking I might be able to do the job."

"Good" said Surath, pleased that she didn't have to think about it any further.

"But," added Watson, "I will require a modest office and a modest dining room, in addition to my current quarters.  And, I need an armor stand and a weapon rack because the Sheriff must always be ready to defend his fellow dwarves."

Well, Surath thought, he's suddenly gotten somewhat high and mighty.  But, his requests were reasonable, she supposed, particularly the armor stand and weapon rack.  "But you'll have to wait until Bricktop and Thrakor are able to carve out those spaces, they won't have time for a while."

Watson agreed that he could wait, as long as he would get the rooms before the end of the year.

[Dame de la Licorne]

13th Slate, 1052
There really were too many workers now, Surath thought as she squeezed past several dwarves for the fifth time that day.  How to take care of the problem?  After a bit of thought, she hit on the perfect solution.  The defense of the outpost had, until then been assured by whichever dwarves were nearest the threat when it showed up and therefore, a proper military was clearly required.

She returned to her office and proceeded to look through her files, examining each dwarf for his or her military potential.  At length, five dwarves were selected for the draft.

The fisherdwarf was, of course, the first to go since there was nothing he could do other than hauling, and they already had too many of those.  The milker also went, for the same reason.  One of the two potash makers went, though Surath decided to keep one out of the military at Viktoria's request.  Apparently potash was also necessary in glassmaking.  The soaper (such a useless skill anywhere) was another obvious choice.  And then, she decided to draft one of the other peasants, to make a nice round number (she did so love nice round numbers).

When the lucky five were informed of their new tasks, they could not conceal the displeasure.  But, when Surath pointed out to them (backed up by Sheriff Watson) that any dwarf who wished to eat must perform a task beneficial to all, they conceded, albeit unwillingly.

Surath ordered the excavation and construction of some barracks for the new military force.  At Watson's insistence, she also requested the excavation of a jail, though she privately told Bricktop that it was very low on the list of priorities.

[Dame de la Licorne]

Unless there are any requests/suggestions to the contrary, the military will be trained as follows:
Wrestling and Armor User until high level (grand masterish)
Then Hammer (for Marksdwarves)/Axe and Shield User until same high level
Then Marksdwarf as high as possible

[Dame de la Licorne]

12th Hematite, 1052
One of the new dwarves came running up to Surath with the news.  A human caravan had been sighted coming from the west.  This was good news indeed, for in spite of Jusk's efforts, their meat stores were beginning to dip dangerously low.  The humans should be able to supply more of the meats, and if they were really lucky, perhaps the caravan would have brought an anvil.  Otherwise, the metalsmiths would have to wait at least another 14 months for one to be requested from the dwarven caravan and then be brought.  Surath commanded that all available trade goods be brought to the Depot in preparation for the caravan, and began making a list of needed supplies in order of priority.

[Dame de la Licorne]

15th Hematite, 1052
As the humans unloaded their heavily laden wagons and camels, Surath could hardly contain her glee.  Alcohol!  Wood, and lots of it!  Anvils!  A variety of meat and plants, enough to satisfy even the pickiest of dwarves and leave enough for brewing more booze!  These humans were going to be very good friends of theirs, she decided, if they kept fulfilling unspoken wishes.

[ January 27, 2008: Message edited by: Dame de la Licorne ]

[Dame de la Licorne]

23rd Hematite, 1052
Surath found Viktoria in the food stockpile, eating a plump helmet.

"Viktoria, I have a request to make of you."

"Sure, what is it?"

"How would you like to set up our glass-making operation?  With all this sand, it'd be a pity to let it go to waste."

Viktoria was so pleased she punched the air.  "Glass!  Sure!  When do I start?"

"As soon as you like."  Surath grinned.  Viktoria had always been the cheerful one, ever since the first day in this place, and Surath had expected nothing less.

[Dame de la Licorne]

11th Malachite, 1052

"Water, water!"  The yell echoed through the hamlet.  

That's it, Surath thought.  Someone's finally lost it.  

Because, of course, there was no water anywhere in the area.

But then cheers started to erupt, few and far between at first, and then more and more as Bricktop and Thrakor, the two miners, came to more populated areas.

Puzzled, Surath went to meet them, for she hadn't thought that Bricktop was the type to go crazy.  "What's all this about water?"

"We found an underground river, to the north!  We have water!"

Though excited about the discovery, she couldn't help asking, "What were you doing way over there, I thought you were supposed to be expanding the stockpiles?"

"Thrakor struck a tetrahedrite vein and wanted me to excavate it.  I hit water on the way."

"Well, at least we now have a water source.  That should ease some people's fears.  But the prospectors didn't say a word about it."

"They probably didn't know.  The only thing they care about is the likelihood of adamantine, they don't look for anything else unless it jumps up and bites them where it hurts."

Chuckling at the accuracy of Thrackor's statement, Surath sent the miners back to work.

[Dame de la Licorne]

1st Galena, 1052
Bricktop had begun acting strangely several days previously, actually kicking Watson out of the mason's shop and refusing to let anyone work there.  He had then grabbed some andesite and some gold nuggets and started work on...whatever it was, refusing to eat or sleep.  Even refusing to drink!  

Surath tried to talk to him, but he just ignored her in favor of his creation-in-progress.  Talk about rude!

[Boksi]

"It's quite simple really. Birds flap their wings to fly. Obviously, they fly because of drag. Therefore, by flapping a rigid surface fast enough, one could get into the air. But so far, I haven't figured out a way to make them flap fast enough. I need a lightweight mechanism, and while I could theoretically use featherwood, aluminum is the only really reliable material because of it's strength. So then I thought- Wait, where'd you go? Come on, I'm not that crazy! Just a little weird! Compared to some, I'm sane!"

[Dame de la Licorne]

4th Galena, 1052
Bricktop came out of the workshop grinning.  Apparently his construction was complete and he was insisting on showing it to everyone.  It was....an andesite millstone.  A millstone.  That menaced with spikes of andesite and native gold.  What, Surath wondered, were spikes doing on a millstone?  But her appraisal of it led her to believe the thing was worth 38,400*, a quarter of their total created wealth.  Nothing to sneeze at, she decided and praised Bricktop for his...ingenuity in creating such an artifact.

[Foamy]

11th Malachite, 1052

Watson: Big news today! We found water. an underground river too. This place suddenly got a lot more comfortable and i think i may grow to like it. Hopefully with this new resource we can grow an underground forest and get a more reliable wood supply. I'm worried though because I've heard stories of horrible creatures that live in underground water sources so I'm going to have to go down there and take a look around later.

[Dame de la Licorne]

6th Limestone, 1052
Surath finally finished designing the first part of what, she hoped, would become a large underground tower-cap forest.  The first step, of course, was to mine out the area and block the water from falling into the seemingly bottomless chasm.  However, as there was a rather alarming titan toad in the river, that might take a bit more work and careful planning.

OOC: Just wanted to mention that Thrakor is married to the miller.  I noticed as I was making room assignments, since I always give married dwarves first choice.

[ January 27, 2008: Message edited by: Dame de la Licorne ]

[Bricktop]

7th Limestone 1052

Bricktop:

Well, things have certainly been getting busy around here. I think that somebody should keep a close eye on that mechanic. He seems to quite like catapult parts, and coupled with his interest in flying...well...I just hope he doesn't do something stupid. Brief madnesses aren't unknown, afterall. Take this millstone I;m stuck with... not sure why I wanted to make it, but I don't want to put it down now. Oh well, back to work.

[Dame de la Licorne]

17th Limestone, 1052
The dwarven caravan had been sighted and the dwarves set about moving the trade goods, with little guidance from Surath.  She was both hoping that their requests had been fulfilled, and dreading what the Queen would demand in exchange this time.