*Turn Post*
Journal of Gigmaster, SpringI guess I'm overseer? The lads came up with this new method of choosing the Overseer to follow up Flame's rule; the contraption looked like some sort of glass cylinder filled with little balls? And a crank/wheel cage powered by several energetic kittens? In any event, they let the thing run and then drew a ball from the cage with my name on it. I'm not... entirely sure this is authentic, or even if a majority of us agreed on this (they didn't say anything to ME beforehand) but the whole hovel full of us seems to agree that this means I get to decide what to do.
Um. Okay? Let's, uh. Get to work, and stuff.
First thing's first: we've got bedrooms and such, but no decent place to drink, eat, worship, read, whack eacthother with pointy sticks. We have good organization going on, but as a very hands-on kind of person, I have a few changes I'm going to put in around the farms; hopefully it doesn't get anyone killed?
Also concerned about fortress safety. I went to talk to our military leader, the.... um, really shiny, scary guy. He seems.... dark? and bottomless? I can't remove the sight of those... well. I hope they were eyes. He/It/Them told me that he and his two 'assistants' (poor lads) have got everything in hand. I'm inclined to believe him. Or, at least, inclined to not gainsay that voice.
At least I'll check out the cavern entrances.... good thing I did, too. Some of the bridges aren't linked up, and one of them raises shut - in the direction opposite it should. I've put in some jobs to correct this.
Journal of Gigmaster, SummerThe void-guy-figure-thing is scary as watery brew, but one thing my granpappy told me was 'Nothing is Forever.' We have to have a plan if Void Boy packs up and leaves, so I started asking a few miners to see what they knew about the area in terms of metal ores. Results are not promising, not at all! The only thing we can use is tetrahedrite; we don't even have the materials to make bronze! Copper and silver have their uses, absolutely, but cladding our warriors in copper is going to do naught but leak coppery dwarven blood all over the steps of Slaughterhelm - and I'm not anxious to christen our namesake.
Luckily, a few of the miners report back that the rarest of rareities, the metal of the gods, the impossible material itself has been found: adamantine. They're not keen on our chances to get a lot, but where there's one spire, we can probably find a second. I'm going to crack open the ancient lore books - or at least the scraps we have - and review how to lay our hands on the stuff safely and successfully; I've been scared by my granpappy enough by nursery rhymes of undulating tentacles and face-melting dust.
We've mined out massive quantities of stone. The three-level tavern is dug out; now we just have to smooth it down. I did a pretty drastic shuffling of labor duties for everyone. I might be a bit presumptuous to do so, but at least now no-one has much of a reason to be idle? Probably going to upset some people, but that's probably just because they don't have a good excuse to slack off anymore.
We're also training up some new smiths from the recent hordes of immigrants we've been receiving. The sounds of practice helms and trap components being hammered out below echoes faintly through the great staircase that connects the whole fortress. A shame we don't have any deposits of coal either; otherwise, the poor smiths could take a few breaks close to their bedrooms like the rest of us. At least they'll have a fantastic tavern to come back to.
Journal of Gigmaster, AutumnA siege of goblins appeared - so soon! How did they... well. They have their ways, I'm sure. Not that it mattered much; Void-Boy heard about the commotion, leaped away in their direction, and after several muffled booms and explosions of gore he came back and pronounced the first 'siege' of Slaughterhelm over.
Happy he feels like helping us.
Otherwise, things are progressing at an even pace. A few thieves came to check us out, but were swiftly chased off. I ordered fresh air to be piped in to the refuse pits up top to keep the smell from building up; lads told me they'd need to knock the whole c eiling out and replace it with dwarven stone work; I signed the papers and they got to work.
Tavern's done to the point where we can start seating boozers and guests! We got some fine-ass swanky marble furniture - marble being one of the ONLY worthwhile minerals we have around here - and most of the place is smoothed out. Common consensus is to call it "The Cave of Geniuses." Geniuses, sure. I'm waiting for some 'genius' in the tavern to say 'hey, hold my beer and watch this' just before comitting this whole fort to the grave one day. Still, I'm happy with what I've done for the place. Temple and Library are set up as well. Bookcases are in, and though we're still waiting on orders for statues, tables and thrones for the temple, people are already treating it as a sacred space, and using the silence within to contemplate.... well, whatever. Their place in the world? Volcanos? Dunno, but it keeps people sharp and happy.
We also now have proper rooms of worked stone for our carpenters, wood burners, clothiers and leatherworkers. A new room beneath has also been dug out, and is receiving a granite block floor now. It'll take some time to complete, but once done it'll serve as a general stockpile of dwarven treasures for the whole fortress.
Journal of Gigmaster, WinterINCREDIBLE NEWS! One of our smiths went into a strange, supernatural fit of inspiration and dragged away one of the new wafers of refined adamantine the smelters deep below are pounding out, along with some giant bat leather and spinel gems, and fashioned it into an impossibly well-made mail shirt! It's... it takes my breath away a little to look at too long. Apparently it's self-referential? Not sure how that happened - some spiritual action going on there, maybe - but I ordered it equipped on the Void Boy above ground. He stood still as death while we draped it across his shirtless body, and after caressing it thoughtfully he seemed... appeased? happy? amused? gassy? It's really hard to tell, but I think it'll keep him on our side. Hopefully. Please. I can still hear the screams of those goblins when I go to sleep at night.
Most of our bedrooms now sport marble furniture and fixtures, including cabinets, coffers, armor and weapon racks, not to mention fine marble doors. Everyone seems upbeat about the new changes and luxury coming into our lap. We also found a second vein of adamantine! Maybe we'll be able to turn out more of those wafers in time; for now, we need to hope Void Boy and his followers can hold the above-ground entrance secure while our builders make careful progress through the hot, steaming rock sandwiched between the underground lake and the seas of magma beneath, in their attempt to reach via tunneling this new treasure trove.
For now though, while this year hasn't been terribly eventful, I'll step aside. I had a good run, and I feel like I'll be able to happily settle in to this place, now that the basics are here. I left many notes behind for the next lad to come after me; maybe we'll be able to make something grand and wholesome of this yet.
I can only hope, anyways.
SAVE:
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12759Notes for the next player:
1. Left notes around noting activity areas and a few areas I had that were not quite completed.
2. Please engrave the temple, library and tavern for EXTRA AWESOME. Plus, giant happiness modifier.
3. There is one layer of the first adamantine spire I was able to get ~12 blue balls from. DON'T TOUCH WHAT'S LEFT.
4. We really don't have anything else to equip our military with, besides leather, wood, copper and silver. Getting more candy is top-priority, as eventually we'll start facing down 100-plus sieges that'll likely eventually get the Voidgod killed. That, or we need really, really good trade.
5. There's more marble furniture coming up; please place it as it's made for happy thoughts.
6. Make sure you finish roofing over the refuse pit; right now, it's a point of vulnerability for the fort.
7. No signs of Terry. ... Yet.