Journal of Udil Deleratöl, Chief Miner of Plannedchambers, Year 22 Obsidian: Suicide. It's suicide! I received orders today from a courier, signed by the king himself, that I am to lead an expedition eastward into the Frost of Spoils! Some mad prospector came back a week back, Ingiz I think his name was, talking to the travelers and drunks in the tavern of an island of calm taiga in the middle of the glacier rich with minerals of all kinds. Our own mines yield gold and silver, but nothing worth making a mace out of, so he caused quite a stir. I guess someone with pull was listening too, because the site the orders mark sound a lot like what the prospector described.
I will carry out King Trammelletters' orders, if only to avoid a hammering for oathbreaking. I finished drafting a supply list for the expedition this morning, and the baron signed off on them without so much as a word. I figured he would balk at the expense of the weapons and armor at the very least. I only wonder at who else they roped into this mess.
3 Obsidian: Met the rest of the expedition today. Sarvesh, a miner like myself, Aban, a carpenter and woodcutter, Zon, a mason, Avuz, a brewer and farmhand, and two macedwarves, Litast and Kubuk. I also found a horse-cart loaded down with all the supplies I'd asked for, packed and ready to go. We leave immediately.
12 Obsidian: We finally arrived at the site, and Keng take me if it isn't exactly what the prospector described, but we'd hardly finished unhitching the horses when we caught our first sight of the undead.
Damn me for letting Litast and Kubuk walk without their equipment on! I ordered everyone inside, and we'd only just got the horses in and a ditch dug to hopefully deter the beast when it reached the wagon, when something strange happened.
It took some plump helmets and wandered off. Not even all of them. Near as we can tell it just opened up the barrel, grabbed one of the 5-cap pouches in what's left of its jaws, and shoved off westward. He can keep it for all I care, but if every half-ton pile of rot and muscle Keng sends our way can just be sent off with a couple plump helmets and a smile, I might have been worried for nothing! Only ravens are flying about now, but even with what would normally be a bad omen everyone's spirits are high, Litast and Kubuk's especially, as we get our excavation started properly.
27 Obsidian: It can't have all been good. Sarvesh dug down deep trying to make it down past the topsoil and ended up striking an aquifer. We'll be happy for it as a source of clean, and not frozen, water once we get past the damned thing, but it's the getting past that's the trick. I've been talking with him and Zon about solutions to get past, but whatever we do likely won't be figured out until after the new year. Until then, we'll just hole up here, warm up, break everything down and take it inside, and see what we can do to secure the entrance.
Tried something different rather than just doing the same embark again. Hopefully my desktop doesn't die on me too, heh. Apparently zombies still retain tags like [CURIOUSBEAST_EATER], and both dwarven civs in this world have no real access to weapons-grade metals. Keng takes the appearance of a male dwarf and is associated with night and nightmares.