Okay, Spring 202 is complete!
At the start of the year, the dwarves took stock of where they were at. They had a basic fort, food and drink, and were just starting to emerge from the "first year pile of junk and workshops" phase into starting a proper fort. Most notably, they'd dug down to magma and placed a couple forges, though it was a multi-day walk down and back to work in the depths.
2nd Granite, 202, Early Spring: An adorable, cuddly little guy visited us! Shululujubin, Kobold Thief, ran away before we could invent Dwarven PokeBalls and catch him as a pet.
Given the scarcity of motivation, the first order of business had to be reducing workplace safety, because a few of the dwarves were already feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks they might face. After all, for many of them, having two labors was too much of a burden to carry, and the fort overseer, Gwolfski, had three!
17 Granite, 202:
Work was slow at first, with the active dwarves weighed down by how much they had to do. Especially in short supply was wooden logs, because no one could be bothered to chop down any trees. Thankfully, a caravan of elves arrived and traded several trees that had been specially naturally grown into log shape. This particular piece of idiocy was true to the nature of elves, according to the holy writings of Armok:
21 Granite, 202:
A strange contraption was built near the stairway to the magma sea. (Dug in the very upper-left of the map in year 1) For dwarves with simply too much labor on their minds, it has a strange and irresistible fascination!
Not long afterwards, Imic mysteriously vanished!
(Note: Mason and Stone Crafting lost. Mason and Furnace Operating assigned, 1 labor slot free at this point.)22 Granite, 202:
Gwolfski, Master Engineer vanishes as well! No sign of him remained!
(Note: Clothier, Mechanic, and Bookbinding lost. Mechanic, Metalcrafter, and Wood Cutting assigned. 1 labor slot still free.)27 Granite, 202:
TheFlame52 vanishes as well.
(Note: Weaponsmith and Armorsmith lost. Plant Gathering assigned. 2 free picks left now.)4 Slate, 202: 22 migrants have arrived! Arrggh! Mouths to feed, and a drain on our booze supplies, strained by having only the single brewer.
The saving grace of this large migrant wave was the arrival of a High Master glassmaker! The dwarves huddled briefly and came to a brilliant conclusion! Why work for ourselves when we can swindle others to bring us everything we need, by trading them massively overpriced glass goods. (Note: Glassmaking assigned, 1 free pick left.)
8 Slate, 202: Wood cutting and plant gathering have begun! The shortage of wood should be resolved shortly, with so many haulers to bring it safely underground. Hauling is poorly organized, as Catten is still working pm expanding a limestone quarry to be large enough for a storage and sorting area.
12 Slate, 202: The first Masterwork glass spiked ball is produced. Everything using the furnaces is an insanely long walk, so moving the forges up becomes a top next priority.
20 Slate, 202, Mid-spring. There's 482 logs chopped down. That'll last for a while.
4 Felsite, 202, Late-spring: Work on a magma minecart filling station reached the point where the dwarves could dig the hole opening up the magma inlet. Now they just need to complete the drain and forge more minecarts!
With only one architect, mechanic, and mason, all designs have to be minimal. Here's the simple design, where carts set on the grate should be filled, and a bridge smashes excess magma below. It's low on safety features and high on magma-flooding potential, so be careful to lock the door before operating it!
16 Felsite, Late Spring. One more tree is cut because a pet gosling is stuck in it, after being terrified by buzzards.
End of Spring: The magma minecart filling station is complete and carts are being loaded into the filling area! Space has been dug for permanent workshop locations, so magma will definitely be hauled up in the coming weeks!
With good progress being made on basic survival and magma relocation, the dwarves were free to start working on a few other goals:
- Item sorting. (Not much has happened here yet, other than collecting items into a central area. A lot of stockpiles and routes will need to be designated to make any real progress.)
- Securing the Trade Depot. The one from year 1 was elevated one z-level, with a retracting bridge controlling access. Sadly, that doesn't actually protect against anything that can climb, fly, or shoot. (So it protects against nothing, really.) A tunnel was dug to connect a subterranean Depot to a secured section of the map edge.
- General defense. The fort has basically no defensive capability at all, taking advantage of the very benign embark. But we know there are goblins and necromancers out there that will visit eventually. To that end, a partial and minimal (
for me) defensive hallway has been dug, to be filled with traps of subsequent overseer's choice.
The one unusual feature, if it gets finished, will be a minecart grinder. Dwarves these days don't have enough whirring spinning traps capable of murdering an entire fortress for trying to recover a single sock. I don't know if 9 months remaining is enough for that though, with limited labors, and basic survival comes first!
Here's the Dorf and skill situation, as of the start of Summer 202:
'Cattan' Ustuthzursul: Miner, Engraver
'Spriggans' Iklistzon: Carpenter, Weaver (Rusty)
'Bembul' Zanegsakrith: Cook, Architect
'McGee' Kubuklin: Brewer, Grower
'Imic2' Ezumlinem: Mason
'Gwolfski2' Zulbannisgak: Mechanic
'Sanctume' Tobulustir: Metalcrafting
'TheFlame52_2' Vabokoltar: Furnace Operator
NEEDS NAME: Shorast BasenMorul: Wood Cutter
NEEDS NAME: Sibrek Akrulmorul: Glassmaker
NEEDS NAME: Likot Cilobkon: Plant Gatherer
(1 skill slot is free, but a second mechanic is starting to look necessary if traps are going to be built. The wood cutter and plant gatherer are pretty disposable, too but I'm trying to avoid making too many skill decisions to leave more freedom for future overseers.)
Please suggest Dorf names, please! Otherwise I'll name them all QuantumMenace, Larix, TinyPirate, Quietust and Button, etc.
At the end of Spring, there are 41 citizens, 3 visitors. No combat or other excitement has happened, other than some buzzards frightening the pets. If anything eventful happens, obviously plans will change, because the fortress will be completely open to invaders until the surface area Gwolfski built can be finished roofing over.
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Topic: [Players needed] CurseKnowledge - The fort of incompetence (Read 15452 times)