The Journal of Zefon "Blahsadfeguie" Simplepainted, Woodcutter
2nd Limestone, 500
Naturally, the first thing I ordered was the forging of golden goblets to enhance our dining experience. However, after I gave the order, a few of the dwarves voiced their concerns about the structure of the fortress.
Apparently, the keas will not stop at wooden training axes - they are capable of, and more than willing to, steal gold as well. Asob's suggestion was to bait them in using a highly visible (or just high) two-story building on top of the fortress and fill it with traps. They prefer the "death from above" method apparently.
In the same breath, he insisted that architecture was indeed a useful skill - it's one thing to have a fortress of gold, but it won't look nice if we just slap it all together randomly. Begrudgingly, I had to admit he had a point. Perhaps the King knew what he was doing when he sent him down here after all.
There were a couple other things - adding an additional drawbridge for good measure, putting a roof over the grazers, constructing a tavern, temples, a well... okay, more than a couple. I'll look into those if I have time, but the most important things are to create a booming gold industry and ensure its protection.
But first, another golden-goblet-full of dwarven beer because I'm worth it.
13th Limestone, 500
Work on the kea trap is coming along nicely. To avoid wasting time building a ton of blocks, the bulk of the trap will be underground, as well as the bait itself: a handful of stone mechanisms, which are a dime a dozen. Even if they make it past the traps, nothing of value will be lost.
I have also ordered the construction of a second drawbridge on the other side of the trade depot. When they'll get to it is a different story...
15th Limestone, 500
We were visited by dwarves again today. This time they weren't interested in moving in. This was our first merchant caravan, and with them, the baron consort of Earthenappear, Urvad Figurepeaceful.
My heart raced as I heard the news. We had only just started the final step in production, forging crafts out of the gold. Would the meager goods produced by our inexperienced craftsman be worth enough to purchase the supplies we needed? Would they prove the worth of our fortress to the king? It was far too early; if we had just one more month, we would have so much more to present.
It had also occurred to me that I never assigned a broker. I called a quick fort meeting to determine who would be the most suited for the task. As it turned out, Asob had quite a bit of experience in that field as well. A regular dwarven prodigy, that guy.
The merchants and the representative from Tub Nod have been given the appropriate accomodations and will begin their business tomorrow. My feelings couldn't be more mixed.
Rovod found me in my bedroom, sitting in bed and staring at my shaking hands. It was my turn to receive a comforting gesture.
"Blah, my love..." she said, stroking my shoulders, "I know you're stressed, but just think about it. We have a good fortress going, plenty of food, and more gold than we could ever dream of. What else do we need? What else could the king want from us?"
I took a deep breath and went over the past seven months in my head. She was absolutely right. We had made decent lives for ourselves here. We had a future.
We embraced, and the quivering promptly halted. I will be sleeping just fine tonight.
16th Limestone, 500
First thing in the morning, Urvad Figurepeaceful asked to speak to Udil. I guess they were still under the impression that he was in charge. I had no qualms directing him to his bedroom and quickly heading upstairs to greet the merchants, who had just set up shop.
I informed them that we would have to look the goods over and decide carefully what we wanted to trade over the next few days. They planned on staying for a good while, so they were fine with it. Perfect! That should buy us some time to get a few more things together...
17th Limestone, 500
Udil showed me the trade agreements today. He requested iron bars, steel bars, and three different kinds of iron ore. Don't take my word for it, but I think he wants us to import iron.
Here's what they requested of us:
Some of the stuff makes sense, every dwarf wants a drink, but crystal glass goblets? Can we even make glass here? If I had a coin for every dwarven noble in history with a screw loose, I could buy all the gold under this fortress seven times over.
22nd Limestone, 500
As we were bringing the last of our hastily-prepared crafts to the depot, some of which were of surprisingly high quality, I was informed that we had received more migrants. Great timing! I totally needed the induction of new residents to worry about while saving face!
I don't have a lot of time, so I'll just record their names and professions here for posterity.
Migrants, Autumn 500: 7 dwarves, 2 animals
(F) Iton Paintedutter, Peasant (Claimed to be a "dancer" but what use is that here?)
(M) Lor Doorpainted, Farmer
(F) Medtob Brassfaiths, Bone Carver
(M) Ral Yoreclasps, Architect (Another one! Not nearly as accomplished as Asob, but he does have some training in swordsdwarfship.)
(M) Sibrek Shovedcrystals, Butcher (with equal skill in mechanics, fancy that. Pretty good skill I might add)
(F) Urist Tangleplanks, Carpenter
(F) Urist Tradetested, Farmer (Two Urists... Armok help us all.)
Horse foal, Gosling
23rd Limestone, 500
Good news on the trading front today: we scored, big time!
Turns out even the small amount of crafts we had were worth a fortune - enough for us to buy out everything they had that was made out of iron, and quite a bit of steel as well. Most of it will be melted down into bars so that we can outfit our future military with gold-studded steel armor. We will be a force to be reckoned with!
I also picked up some glass, bolts, booze, and various types of food. It'll be nice to have a meal that isn't plump helmets for once. The merchants were happy to throw them into the deal. Just the mere sight of our gold jewelry was enough to send them into a frenzy. Gentledwarves, I do believe this is the dawn of a glorious and profitable future.
I might have accidentally sold the goblets along with the crafts though... They were all in the same bin, simply because "they fit". Not my decision. Oh well. Won't be hard to forge some more!
4th Sandstone, 500
In order to keep tabs on all the goods we just brought in, I will have to bite the bolt and assign a bookkeeper. Urist Tangleplanks seems like as good a candidate as any. Now to build her an office so she can get to work taking stock of everything.
10th Sandstone, 500
Urist's office has been built and she made short work of our inventory. 142 gold bars! 213 units of drink! 2 body parts! Wait, what?
Oh, they're just leftovers from the hoary marmot Rovod brought in way back in spring. This Urist really has spared no expense...
15th Sandstone, 500
Urgh... Armok, I need a drink.
Sibrek, the new butcher, spotted a giant kea, not an hour after the miners began digging out the basement of the kea trap. Those bastards seem to be flocking above the entrance to our fortress, terrorizing anyone who so much as dares to step foot on the surface. Dwarves scattered everywhere, and I swear I saw one of our ducks up a tree.
I rushed downstairs and told Rovod to drop everything and head to the entrance to take care of it, but when she showed up, she wasn't wearing her quiver. Did... did she take me literally...? I see she did take a liking to the steel crossbow we had acquired from the merchants, so there's that.
I told her to stop fooling around and get some ammo already. She... went a ways south from the fortress,
dropped her crossbow, right there on the grass, and went inside, nearly tripping down the stairs.
Half furious, half curious, I followed her downstairs, past the stockpiles, all the way down to the dining hall where she was already guzzling down another goblet of dwarven ale. Of course! She was already wasted beyond measure. Of all the days...
When she was done, she resumed business as usual, grabbing a stack of logs from outside and drunkenly hauling them in... By that time, the keas were gone.
Datan Kilrudkadol! I love that woman, but she could stand to have a little more self-control.
19th Sandstone, 500
Guess what I found out was missing today?
24th Sandstone, 500
Charcoal production is too slow to meet our ever-increasing demand, so I've ordered a second one be built. That one will belong to Ral, the amateur architect.
Don't look at me. Asob's idea.
11th Timber, 500
Work on the kea trap has been doubled ever since the incident with the crossbow. Everything is nearly complete, the only thing left is to install the spike ball traps.
I found Urist (the bookkeeper) sleeping in the building on the surface, which reminded me - in all the merchant worries, I had forgotten to dig bedrooms for our newest migrants! I'll get on that right away.
23rd Timber, 500
While watching Sibrek tote the mechanisms and wooden spike balls one at a time to their new locations, it has occurred to me that this will take forever. I could tell everyone who's available to help, but I don't want to put the entire fortress on halt while we trip over each other to get these dangerous objects in the right place. There's always so much to do, so little time.
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Topic: Deathgame - A Very Insignificant Fort - LNP 42.06 (Read 71797 times)