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[jimboo]

Since it was recently asked here why After Action Reports aren't so common anymore,

This embark is not working out at all as planned.     Here’s the writeup I *was* planning to post, minus much of the fictional story as yet unwritten since that is so much more work than playing the game:

Noltulong – TongueRoads

Nosimdok in Romomon had proven too much: the aquifer was many layers deep and those Orcs were right next door.  The Rare Road civilization was all but fallen, the “King” in his MountainHome presiding over a failed and shrinking Empire, his emissaries able to trade only stone goblets and items crafted from bone.  Bookie had had enough and simply slipped away one night, making her way to the Ilaslathonkivish stronghold. 

Stated Goals:
1) a learning fortress (for me) as I integrate features of the latest ☼Masterwork☼ mod release w/ the vanilla meeting areas.   [Ha!  Spoiler alert – surprises in store]
2) Posting the fortress design then on the Masterwork board to get constructive (?) criticism/advice.
3) Irondwarf style, no DFHack cheating.
4) A storyline maybe worth reading.     Maybe a community fortress project.

[jimboo]

Bookie woke up and looked at her surroundings , a back alleyway in Ilaslthovkivish where she had collapsed late the previous night, exhausted, and been unbothered for the time she slept; a good sign.  Her worldly goods were on her person and in the bag she carried: a few coppers, a rather nice pilfered gemstone mug and – she was ashamed to admit this – the clothes from a recent migrant who’d arrived much better dressed than she’d been.  And the woodcutter’s iron axe, a fine one and she felt a bit bad about that, too.  But it had all been just been too much; an aquifer seemingly everywhere and Orcs living in a Stronghold not 200 paces away; certain death had been only a matter of time.  So she had slipped out one night and made her way across the Wilds to the city of the True King, Morul the Magnificent.  Rising up early in the shadows of the alley, she knew what she next had to do.  Changing into “her” good clothes, she made her way along the wide city streets to the Tavern.  That part of the journey was now easy because dwarves in a Tavern are a noisy bunch. 

Once inside, she looked around and saw, sure enough, the face she was looking for: the mongrel drummer who’d peddled that map to cursed Romonmon.  Taking a deep breath, she strode up to him and said, “Hi!  Remember me?” and punched him square in the nose, laying him out to a raucous chorus from onlookers.  She then kicked him hard in the crotch just for good measure and strode to an open table, calling loudly for beer.  She poured it from a stone goblet into her gem-encrusted mug and waited.  Bookie wasn’t a bad-looking dwarf but actions spoke to Dwarves louder than words and that map-peddling dog was well known to most everyone.  She didn’t pay for that mug of beer or any of several others that followed as others gathered to hear her story.

[TheImmortalRyukan]

hmm, Ryukan, Dwarven Veteran approves of this. Keep me posted

[jimboo]

Starting Skills:
These seven have mostly good or great creativity – great – but are physical wimps: weak, flimsy and easily tired.  One decent-enough male was renamed Axe, our first line of defense: he has single points for Ambush, Axe, Shield and Dodge.  Our least wimpy dwarf, Kogsak, has 2 points in Farming.  The deep soil will have to do for training miners.  Our Expedition leader has 1 point each in Bookkeeping, Appraisal and Judging Intent along with a point each in Diagnose and Glassmaker (she dreams of creating a masterpiece).   Other single points scattered around: woodcutter, mason, clothes, and weapons: the plan is for quick weapon traps as initial tradegoods, shifting the fortress over long term to Textiles and Food Industry.  Special: 1 point Herbalism for that initial forage but, assigned it to our woodcutter by mistake. 

[jimboo]

Punching that low-life dwarf had been the right thing to do; Bookie made immediate friends that day, with drinking and discussions lasting well into the night.  Eventually, she settled on six new companions: n’eer-do-well artists, mostly.  Artist wannabees, if truth be told.  These dwarves had *dreams*.  And talent, or so they said.  Fresh-faced and without immediate prospects, they were willing to join up for the next adventure in dwarven colonization.  Enthusiasm was all well and good but this was not a strong-looking crew by any means, that much was certain.  Still, settling on companions answered the Who and the Why but, Where?  That last map had disaster written all over it, just not in any language Bookie had been able to read.  But it was pointed out to her that here in MountainHome, there were shops with royal authority that sold maps to just such as they!  Who’d ever heard of such a thing?!  After making plans to meet up the next day, Bookie spent her few coppers on a proper bed for the night and slept better than she could ever remember.  And just as scheduled, at noon the new companions together visited such a shop.  And there were indeed dozens of maps for sale – no, hundreds of maps, for any kind of biome or challenge imaginable.  Mirthful lands, Terrifying lands, there were even maps to abandoned settlements where things were just there for the taking!  Of course, there wasn’t ever very much detail as to *why* those settlements had been abandoned …   One map showed much promise but was priced less than expected, compared to some of the others.  “Ah, that one,” the shopkeeper said.  A Human shopkeeper.  “Plenty there for an artist to work with, or a farmer!  Fresh flowin’ water with fish ‘n turtles, easy diggin’ soil, a mountain of jewels and riches – maybe gold -- in a land with pleasant weather and NO ORCS.”  (Clearly, he had been eavesdropping as the group had discussed their options; Humans are like that.) “Well, then,” Bookie asked, “What’s the catch?  Why is this one not priced like the others?”  After a silent moment, the shopkeeper said, “Those wilds be Untamed.  Do you know what that means, little Master?  Some things are not listed on any map because they’re UNKNOWN.  Untamed Wilds, you savvy?  There are no Orcs next door but you likely won’t be the only ones tryin’ to make a livin’ out there.  No doubt, there will be some surprises – someday.  So you have to ask yourself a question:  Do ya feel lucky, dwarf?  Well, do ya?” 

[jimboo]

Remembering Nosimdok, Bookie had her doubts but the others were all incredibly excited so with some lingering concern, she traded over a shiny, finely crafted, stolen sapphire mug for the map. 


15th Granite 89, early Spring.

7 dwarfs, everything standard in the GUI.  Invaders: 4 easy and 1 medium ON, all at lvl 2 to start.  A couple of mis-clicks: meant to turn off Strike the Earth, missed one of the three (Secrets) and that’s evidently enough.  Necros OFF but evidently didn’t notice the 1/3rd of this 3x3 embark that is Terrifyingly Purple in color.  Preparing for the journey, all of 28 points to spend; sold back almost everything to have any skill points at all – most seeds, wheelbarrow, food, booze, etc.  Taking 3 blocks of granite stone, 2 picks, 1 copper axe, 4 bars of copper and one of iron, some sand for cheap bags, a bit of extra leather and thread.  4 Turkeys, 2 dogs (1 hunting), a breeding pair of craigstooth boars, 2 moleweasels for vermin, plump helmets for early food and booze, planning to forage off the land early in a temperate clime and process/brew for seeds.  A horse and camel pair pulled the wagon.


2nd Granite

Everything had looked so good to start: a flowing brook, decent-enough looking mountain, woodlands with plenty of flora.  The wagon was dissembled, animals were placed in zones as perimeter defense and lots were drawn to see which of these unskilled 7 would begin life in their new home as a miner.  (Bookie held the straws for the draw; Bookie cheated and was never going near a pick herself.) 

I’m going to condense the first two seasons to a couple of short paragraphs with bullet points (because, it wasn’t written up at the time  :

- The mountain was surprise #1: what looked like soil and easy miner training on the big map turned into rock almost everywhere with just a bit of soil covering.  With dabbling miners and two picks, that makes for very slow going, starting out.
- Surprise #2: Evidently, I missed seeing the Terrifyingly Purple color on a full third of this 3x3 embark (!).  Can’t see how but, must have.  Was very surprised to see purple tree trunks on the surface.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

- Surprise #3: Masterwork mod comes with an easy-to-customize GUI.  Also, an easy to miss something GUI.  In this case, there are three clicks to remove Strike The Earth mod and evidently I hit only two of ‘em.  This is my first time with sometimes living and pissed-off boulders.  Very odd, that.   

Hitting rock almost immediately and with no mining skills, digging stopped almost immediately.  What happened next, very much immediately, was a seemingly never ending parade of monsters, Giant monsters, flyers and visitors in these Untamed Wilds that kept the dwarves from getting much of anything done.  Very surprisingly, the 7 accounted themselves well and nobody died early.  The one soldier-wannabee, Axe, used his copper weapon and one-point skills to dispatch some things as they came along and shoo off many others.  And usually more than once, as those purple tiles kept reanimating parts.  That was not expected in this supposed to be easy, supposed to be a learning experience embark.  Nearly all the time first three seasons was spent just trying to stay alive and I have a newfound respect for those players skilled enough that they seek out Terrifying biomes and high skill level FUN to start w/o DFHack cheating or extra points.  It was all I could do to hang in there.  But these 7 did – living in a small dorm w/ 4 wooden beds, everything piled in one spot, FPS running at 148  , alternating mining shifts going up and down in that mountain trying to find metals.  Any metals.  Prospect said they were everywhere.  I thought Prospect had lied.  12 levels down, the first metal discovered was native gold.  That was kinda expected, one reason this site was chosen is that gold was the primary metal along with a bit of hard metals and deep flux.  Easy, right?  That gold wasn’t discovered until late in the Summer season, with the fortress mood getting pretty surly about all those undead about – especially the undead parts that kept reaching up and grabbing people and pets – but word must have spread quickly because at Summer’s end, migrants.  Only 3 but, the best group of migrants I’ve ever seen.  That’s when I started writing it up.

      Maybe?

[jimboo]

8th Limestone, early Autumn

Just scraping by, absolutely nothing to write about, expecting to trade in a coming month having only wooden trap components.  It was a sad little hamlet, TongueRoads, spending all its dwarven effort just fending off the Undead and trying to stave off becoming that way themselves.

Then 3 amazing migrants arrive: already near-legendary in Weapons, Herbalism and Gem Setting.  Reminded me of a community fortress long ago, Greedy Little Bastards: dwarves living as they should, in mountains, with skills in metals and jewels.  So,

Change of plans: shifting over to Greedy Little Bastards, The Sequel.  Two jeweler’s workshops next to the golden Depot, cutting all those discovered gems and encrusting them on as many ornaments as we can make before the dwarven caravan arrives. 

Present Security: one copper halberd so, not much.  No armor.  Hmm.  Setting up a leatherworks for a couple of leather armor sets.  Smelting some tetrahedrite: silver makes decent for hammers, anyways, better than a copper edge against the undead.  No idlers at all but making some charcoal.  Digging out the already-exposed gems.  Making some stone blocks and a couple of mechanisms.  Planting a few blackberries ‘just in case.’  Clearing some early room granite for inside masons (temp?) and blocks.  Many many blocks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

13th Limestone

The dog just had pups; expected to have the bitch trained before now but didn’t expect to have Jules join us as an early migrant.  Or the angry rocks.  Or the Undead ... Two wood furnaces cranking on charcoal just to smelt and forge.  Dabbling woodburners, takes flippin’ forever to coke a log.

15th Limestone

Hematite!  And only 120 paces from the smelter and staircase! 

[jimboo]

17th Limestone

The dwarven caravan is here, led by the Baroness Consort Atir Fikodotol.  In News of the World, it seems that MountainHome has been busy, sending out multiple embarking groups and a number of expeditions to reclaim old sites.  For the Wish List: they asked for earrings and amulets next year at a 191% premium.  All right then, we can do that.  We asked for: everything, especially cut gems now that dwarves have taken over the old Gnome Masterwork gem distribution network and we have Jules, our great gemsetter.  For trade, we have 20 wooden spiked balls and novice metalsmiths are using our one anvil to pound out golden amulets and rings and bracelets to be encrusted.  Alternating production with two iron hammers and two iron axes since we still have only the one copper halberd for defense …

Sure enough, 3 Porcupine People come trailing in behind the caravan wagons.  Axe is up to it, he says.  He and his dog.  It’s a battle, of sorts – Axe is still novice so the dog is doing most of the damage.  Parts drop off the Pocupine People and then attack as undead.  Undead parts.  Axe switches his iron axe for a newly forged silver hammer and begins pulping the pieces.  Meanwhile, Bookie is dragging out the trade as long as possible, giving Jules time to affix gems to the gold pretties.  All those dry shaft mines dug while searching for *anything* are proving useful after all; there are many gems lying about and we’re hauling and cutting for Jules as fast as we can. 

4th Sandstone, mid-Autumn

Migrants.  Word sure spread quickly about gold and gems; we don’t have kitchens, bedrooms, proper workstations, any military besides Axe, almost no booze … but, gold and gems, we have.  Seven come to us, 3 males, absolutely no useful skills at all.  Well, we need haulers for the moment anyways.

7th Sandstone

Bookie left to go sleep but the traders were ecstatic before she left so, no biggie.  There isn’t much left for us to trade, the remaining wooden balls went for another iron anvil, one of the no-skill migrants can maybe crank out some additional jewelry for Jules.  In the meantime, the warren idea has kind of backfired; he’s encrusting musical instruments we’ve just acquired instead of rings and amulets.  The overseer needs to be quicker on the Forbid button! 

16th Sandstone.

Drag negotiations out long enough, they’ll just up and leave after one of the transactions w/o any notice.  Hmm, hadn’t been through that before.  We got a lot but not nearly all we wanted: there were sets of mithril armorplate and steel weapons just out of reach.  But overall, we can’t complain and encrusted low-value rings are still worth many times more than a spiked wooden ball.  Now, about that Porcu-Part:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That dog is still worrying his bone – kinda.  It’s so small (?) that it doesn’t show up on the u screen for visitors; we’ll station Axe and his now-iron hammer right on top of it and see what happens. 

“Attacked by the Dead.  I am not upset by this.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of course not. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, OK then.  Flimsy, I worried about him as our first militia captain but as long as he keeps pulping the parts – now renamed as Zombie Porcupine People in the z screen – then, hey. 

[jimboo]

18th Sandstone

Job cancellations by “awakened granite.”  Oh, man – I was certain that mod was ticked OFF in the GUI.  Hmm.  I took a moment for the READ.ME on living stone and, why didn’t I pay attention to that first hidden emerald?  Living rocks we can maybe deal with, the others are going to be major hassles. 

Oh – then it crashed the game …
The Earth Strike Back WAS off in the GUI!  At least the top two; Secrets was still on – does that override the others?  And that crash – it took the log files with it!  How??

 Game restarts at
1st Limestone, early Autumn.

This is now kind of an unintended cheat – I know where the hematite was discovered, we’re digging straight for it. 

17th Limestone
Caravan arrives.  See above.

New 27th Limestone:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are quite a few levels like this one with multiple dry shafts when we were looking for metals, any metals.  Going back now and picking the exposed gems (again) for Jules.

4th Sandstone, mid-Autumn

Slow going; had the Jewels warren set up wrong this time.  Slow going, slow to pick up on it …

15th Sandstone
2nd time around = better planning, no question.  Used the first hematite to make a second anvil, even the no-skill migrants can make a few somethings for Jules.  This caravan didn’t have half as much as the earlier one – figures – but so far, no zombie groupies following behind.  Cloth, a few exotic bars, a few animals big enough to butcher for tallow so we can tan hides sheared from our bats, no weapons or armor available that we’d want.  Cobalt high boots, that sort of thing.  Tungsten bucklers.  Some food and booze, naturally so we’re set in those. 

[jimboo]

18th Sandstone

Again (from save), the caravan left w/o notice  as soon as one particular trade was complete.  There’s more we could have nabbed since there are now 8 remaining gold flasks, amulets, bracelets and rings but, they left.  So, taking stock,
This place is a mess.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

From the beginnings, this was supposed to be a soil-based farm and kitchen area next to the main staircase.  That didn’t happen.  18 dwarves so finally some labor.  Two wood furnaces are cranking charcoal for the beginnings of a metalworks.  Hematite and flux but for now, a few iron weapons – axes and hammers – to deal with wildlife.  WildUnlife, whichever.  We did get some booze and food, those will have to be put up into pots or the quick rot will set in.  Weps is the only migrant who’s come to us with any military skills and she likes the mace so, she’s making herself one now but hoping we don’t have to risk her and her skills, planning on steel trap components next fall to pay for the many wagonloads of stuff ordered.  Setting up masons for blocks – either we’ll go with fortification walls or just seal up and military train for awhile, we’re not ready for serious zombies or serious invaders.  There have been a few giant animals come by, Axe took care of them with his first copper halberd.  And snakes and such, naturally.  We’ve a few casualties, only scrapes and bruises, nothing requiring a Hospital yet. 

The mines down below are just as bad:
A bit of gold at the staircase, hematite way up top and tetrahedrite lower on the screen.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Such as it is: two metalworks stations w/ iron anvils, 1 smelter.  A 1x1 staircase!  But – this is quite a bit below the surface, when we were scrounging for any metals and with only 7 dorfs with 2 picks, all newbie miners and surprised by all the unexpected rock.   A quick “staircase for one” was OK at the time but we’ll be expanding it to at least 4x4 even at this level.  This might be the final forge works area, haven’t decided. 

[jimboo]

A cockatrice has paralyzing hiss?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It looked like the caravan’s pikedwarf took care of this monster with his +cobalt pike+ but Axe went out to make sure/claim the skull for a totem when this happened.  The Miner’s Mighty Militia and a new draftee are heading out to try and save him but they’re being dive-bombed by six keas.  The cockatrice is twirling Axe around by his head.  Things are not looking good for our military commander. 

3rd Timber, late Autumn
And a damn swooping kea has now stolen the weapon meant to help Axe!  Sorry, Axe.  Any last words for your engraved memorial slab? 

Then he got lucky:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of the milita mandwarfhandled the hen until it was no more.  That might be worth a slab in and of itself.  The squad thinks Ingez Kogan needs a new name. 

****
And I thought this was going to the The Perfect Embark.  Wrote up a good backstory, PM’d a couple of folks with ‘This is great!  Let’s have a new release ☼Masterwork☼ community fortress.  Yeah!’  Then, Surprises:

#1) zombies.  Necro OFF in the GUI, monster parts keep reanimating and messing with the dogs anyhow.  OK, hammer ‘em to a pulp and continue on, you know how dogs are.  And

#2) living rock.  Turned OFF Earth Strikes Back before embark or thought I did, after having read the many thread comments on game crashes and such.  Red x’s on two of the three, didn’t notice Secrets still ON.  Should have noticed the pet rocks available at embark, didn’t.  Living Stone is a bit of a hassle, followed the GUI link for the first time to read Dirst’s thread and – sheesh.  Unhappy rocks are only to start and the least of it.  And for rocks, they’re fast little buggers, aren’t they?  This is worse than Digging Invaders, it’s Already Dug Invaders.  How do people deal with this??  Warren every rock shaft and room for a particular, charmed miner?  Limestone Fred and Granite Gus?  Or dedicate a militia to stand there for every single time a stone tile is removed??  Why isn’t there a DFHack command line to salvage this?!

So much for my Perfect Embark.  Still, playing dwarves as Greedy Little Bastards Part II, lots to be said for a skilled gemsetter migrant wave.

[jimboo]

--- game crash ---
Again.

18th Sandstone

Problems, from Earth Strikes Back being left (partially but sufficiently) ON?  Possible.  Restarted the game, popped up at this point, traders have halted sales – again -- but still currently standing in the Depot meaning Axe has yet to meet his Poison Chicken.  It’s not a cheat if Fate throws it your way, right?  Making a few more iron weapons. 

Ah, no – Axe is lying out there, paralyzed.  One hammer, one axe in stock. 
Wait, it’s not Axe, not yet – it’s that merchant from the recent caravan.  Screw him, we have our own problems.  One migrant, Kogsak came to us with Legionnaire novice military skills, he’s being posted with an axe next to Axe.  This time, they’re not going out to investigate.

20th Sandstone
A couple of merchant traders down, not our problem.  Out of charcoal, cutting trees. 
Decision Time:
Security is Job #1 for any group – do we set up walls and passive defenses or just hunker down behind the new Silver Depot gate and train?  Oh, game crash – have to rebuild that gate, reminds me to check around and see what else has changed.  Three dabbling masons in the Commons area now churning granite blocks for walls.  This mod release does not allow for tree farms, there’s no coal that we can see, compressing regular peat for fuel no longer works (right?) and magma would take who knows how long so, walls around an outside area.  Might even be able to keep a few grazers that way. 

24th Sandstone

Hauling blocks.  Lots of blocks.  Going to push our luck w/ the calendar and try a courtyard enclosure large enough to encompass some trees and a bit of the brook – that might make water easier later for medical care.  (Would be faster to just divert the flow closer, didn’t think of that until 30 tiles of wall were already up.  In RL, it’s early a.m. and I’m on my first cup of coffee.)

6th Moonstone

Removing upramps to secure the courtyard, lots of job cancellations.  Started maybe with BlueJay Men divebombing us but seems to go on forever.

8th Moonstone

Well, finally – that was full digger mortis.  Finally used Therapist column orders to make everyone a miner, now they’re removing the remaining upramps. 

25th Moonstone

Again with the miner refusal.  Did the Therapist column thing twice before all the final upramps were removed.  The outer Iron Gate is linked.  Setting an Inside civilian warren. 

2nd Opal, mid-Winter

Many, many combat pages of zombie part bashing and strangling.

The mood is bleak but we’re now secure behind walls and an Iron Gate.  Secure from outside forces, at least.  Gave the guys two days off to recuperate.  Set the new parameters of animal zones to be within the walls: tuskoxen now gone, almost all the pigs and dogs are down due to zombie people parts.  Five more BlueJay men are still harassing work on the surface.  We could use marksdwarf practice as a surface-to-air defense but downing one just makes more zombie parts.  Oh, need to remember to bury our dead, the coffins should be ready.  Looking at those new white walls, they don’t seem nearly as large as they first did when timing was so tight and, the butcher shops are now outside them.  A month and a half to go still in the first calendar year; can we risk expanding the walls around the ‘good’ refuse pile?  A lot of trees, there … we go for it.  A full enclosure, we can deconstruct a section of inner wall later.  Maybe we’ll expand this place that way, concentric or adjacent sections, Alamo-style.  Maybe not a good example, that one –

[jimboo]

15th Opal

Looks like we’ll make the new wall additions in time.  Even am now used to the continual job cancellations from awakening parts – just takes a militiaman standing nearby with an iron hammer. 

25th Opal, mid-Winter

Hey, the walls are up.  Didn’t even wall anyone inside but it was close, nearly forgot to re-station Axe before the last block.  Time to celebrate.  The walls have a funny wiggle at one corner disturbing my OCD but, of course, our first honeybees showed up right under the wall as it was nearing completion.  Earlier releases of Masterwork had a Chandlers shop for beeswax candles/Rendermax but, no longer.  Axe’s companion hunting dog seems to have a puppy following it around; even with all the death in this place –

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overview, upper level/surface.  This place is still a mess but, a couple days of well-deserved relaxation before work starts again.  The new walls to the West incorporate the ‘good’ refuse stockpile, someday to have butcher shops, tanners and a crematorium.  All the zombie parts are up top in the rapidly-filling corpse/rots pile.  We’ll deconstruct a couple of inner walls for doors (first) when work begins again.  A full month before New Years and true invaders!  We have booze, some seeds, a secure location and 15 very unhappy dwarves. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What the hell?  I remember that first embark screen well: Untamed Wilds.  Didn’t say anything about, “Hey, be sure to notice the 1/3rd terrifying colors there on the Westside.”  It didn’t, I swear. 

2nd Obsidian 89, late Winter.

Maybe the first thing to do is expand that central staircase.  Starting four levels up on the surface (well, a flat spot on the slope directly  above current stairs), 4x4 down to the Depot level.  The surface down staircases are then being floored over; hatches can stick, walls and a bridge gate would be better but, someday.  Maybe.  One of our missing milita miners is now zombie’d and disturbing our calm – digging out some deep stone now for Tombs and the coffins.  Those hapless merchants sure left a lot of stuff on the surface when they died, we’ll remember to go pick that up.  Again, someday.  Their Baroness Consort is still here looking around, she’ll have a good story to tell about this outpost at her next stop.  I can just imagine, “Hey, let me tell you about these fools over at TongueRoads, their map was colored in and everything …”

The new staircase is now to the Depot level, it’s another 11 lvls down before we found metals, nothing but solitary staircase between.  Still, only 11 steps so guessing that first location will become the new Metalworks after all.  A 1x1 staircase leading to it.  Wow. 

11th Obsidian
Time for a MASH unit

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Past time, actually.  Making buckets, tables, a few more wooden beds.  Poor Ingez was duking it out with a dead dog head when he perished of thirst, up in a tree.  We should really warren everybody now to the Inside.  Down to 13.  Was waiting until Tombs are ready for those bodies,  which are of course outside the walls.  Maybe warren all but one or two expendables?  Hey, that sounds like the name of our next Zombie Militia! 

The Tombs   (Hot Key F8, always)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eventually, this will be much larger, fancier and all smoothed but for now, just the tiles under anticipated coffins (3) and their someday-slabs.  There will be a raising drawbridge next to these new stairs, lever up top; a Necro visitor would be all we need.  Should never have to bury the same dwarf more than once –

Putting the extended staircase down to the Metalworks, one adjacent tile of yellow sand discovered 4 levels down.  Good, that will be the new Glassworks.  What an odd mountain – mostly rock at surface level, soils down much farther below than expected even in a sedentary biome. 

Our best miner, Ingez, is now up in a tree, dehydrating.  All the stepladders were sold back at embark and nobody has had a moment for fruit picking so, carpenters are tasked with making another.  Ideb is mostly laid to rest in the Tombs, parts of him keep popping up around various places and disturbing work jobs.  Turns out, Ingez was in that tree but standing on the inner used-to-be outer wall, was simpler just to put some up/down stairs there for him which reminded me, we aren’t actually secure until that +1z level is walled off from all access on the slope.  Two small section walls, in progress now. 

[jimboo]

This place could still be an amazing fortress to rival MountainHome: a mountain embark in a temperate, Untamed Wilds biome chosen because Prospect says gold is the primary metal.  Outer courtyard walls now encompass a bit of the brook and some trees.  To be self-sufficient, lots still needs to be done: for Textiles, none of the wild rope reeds at the brook are anywhere near us, we have bats for leather but no tallow for tanning or grazers to breed and butcher, some were ordered for the next caravan but it won’t come for another year.  I’ve just never been a fan of pig tails but we might not have a choice.  The next caravan should bring some of the new tunnel tarantulas spiders but that seems a cheaty way to have a silk farm.  Elves and Humans don’t seem to bring much of use anymore, particularly seeds.  And we were really hoping this temperate biome would have either cotton or hemp for seed oil.  But first, we need to work on the morale before everyone starts killing themselves; a Tavern could be easily dug to be entered from outside the walls but not in the Terrifying part and with a secure, inner bridge gate-guarded entrance for the dwarves.  It’s a bit of a walk then for the dwarves but best to avoid Terrifying and it could always be relocated later.

A day in the life:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

26th Obsidian, late Winter
Happy day – the hematite vein is small but last tile out revealed the first tile of magnetite.  Only 120 steps from the smelter down a 1-tile wide corridor:

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28th Obsidian.
Winding down the first year, don’t invasions usually start right off in the 2nd?  Maybe not triggered in a fortress this poor, though.

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Not too impressive, these totals.  5 farmers because Everybody Harvests.  As if we've been planting crops --
We’re still under 100K total fortress wealth, primary focus has been surviving surprises.   
What number is the current trigger for invasions?

[jimboo]

Works in progress:
- digging towards what will soon be our Tavern.
- laid out one room for a generic Temple.
- expanding the Metalworks beyond the current one smelter, planning stone stockpiles, ore processors, a Blast Furnace, steel, etc. The standard stuff.
- MASH unit, to be a proper Hospital someday.  Maybe even with a well!
- control room; as yet, our single lever for the gate is just inside next to the Depot
- there is an all-Inside warren, not yet set as civilian alert. 
- the central staircase from the mountain mostly-top down to the Metalworks is now 2x2, at least. 

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The beginnings of a Metalworks plan.

And just noticed: now Cog is up in that same damn tree, one level higher. 

Not even started yet:
- kitchens.
- textiles.  The bats are roomed where the farms were expected to be along with the turkeys.  The many, many turkeys which will next year become tallow/soap/leather treatments.
- bedrooms.
- proper storage.  We’ve lost some things to thieving birds, all is still dumped where the wagon was.
- proper decorations room.  For now, three jewelers stations are next to the Depot.  That worked OK and quickly for the first caravan, Jules was warrened there inside. Safe.
- proper stone stations; masons, craftsdwarf and mechanic are where the kitchens were expected to be.
- glassworks.  But we found a tile of sand, hey. 
- mining any of the newly-discovered magnetite.
- Library system. 

1st Granite 90, early Spring.

What an interesting year! 
The save is here.

I need a break.