Second half of 207 was more eventful.
Valiant elf foe got his statue and a little statue garden near dwarven quarters. Now they can admire how great is Calmspears, attracting such famous enemies. Elf's name was Nguslu Naimsin the Sizzling Hair. Turned out this elf is of some noble family, snatched by gobs as a kid, and was a terminator under some famous goblin. Who knew.
Beginning of fall saw an invasion by undead army, lead by three necromancers. One was close to reaching our refuse stockpile (full of bodies) and then... well, fun things would happen if he resurrected them all. Fortunately he was crushed by a stone-fall trap. Zombies were generally easy to dispatch, and remaining two necromancers quickly panicked and fled. Unfortunately somewhere in the fray the valiant battle-scarred elite dwarf, survivor of the great siege of 206, was killed. His name was Tobul Konosilid and he was a Mace Lord. He died a warrior's death, which is what he probably wanted, so we shouldn't despair.
Zombie invasion proved that our defenses, even unfinished, are working well. Unfortunately it means more bodies lying around, potentially scaring merchants away. Dwarves won't touch them, probably giving priorities to other jobs, and this becomes a problem. To try and mitigate it, a very deep shaft was build, all the way from the surface to the magma sea (yes, we finally reached magma in 207; strangely enough, we haven't broken into 3rd layer of caverns yet). Dump zone was set over the shaft, but it seems dwarves use it very rarely.
In economic news - something very worrying has happen. In autumn dwarven caravan did not appear, neither did outpost liaison. Has Mountainhome been offended by us using goods their panicked traders left behind? Does unsuccessful trade last year mean there will be no more caravans? Or maybe Mountainhome was conquered and there is nowhere to get caravan from? This is very unsettling. Hopefully next year will bring some answers.
There were also some food production problems, when cooks were allowed to use booze for cooking, because of overflowing liquor warehouses. This forgotten order almost caused fortress to go dry, because almost all alcohol was used up in various dishes. Fortunately the pandemonium that is a sober dwarf was averted in time.
In military news - Foreign Legion is at full strength now, and it distinguished itself in zombie invasion. It's sole goblin member is now a swordmaster, the rest are humans of different provenience (and a dwarf mercenary). Most humans are not mercenaries (fortress attracted surprisingly few of them), but human bards, poets and dancers that applied for citizenship. These people have usually some skill with weapons, although rusty. Well, if you want citizenship, you have to serve in Foreign Legion for 25 years.
In entertainment news - somebody finally picked up the dead body from the middle of the tavern. It is not known if it was cast into dump chute, or converted into bone bolts at craftsdwarf's shop. Cloth and other crap belonging to the deceased still lay on the floor, but at least there is no corpse in our beautiful tavern.
In the winter the fortress was visited by an uninvited guest - Oggez Ugoshgosmer Tolvesh, a great shrike with lidless eyes, large mandibles and noxious excretions. All military was sent to deal with him, but it turned out that bastard can fly. Most of dwarves run towards his last landing place, whereas he flew above them (these caverns are HUGE), and attacked a straggler, Mace Lord named Imush Imodatul. He was a Mace Lord, but he didn't have a single kill attributed to him - all his skills he earned while training. I was quite worried, but he put up a gallant fight. Oggez managed to stun him with his excretions, but the monster himself was repeatedly wounded in all it's numerous limbs. Where are the rest of military, I wanted to cry. Finally, after impossible long time, during which a stunned dwarf stumbled around megabeast fighting for his life, they arrived. First at the scene was the hero Fishbutcher, but even he couldn't dispatch of the monster by himself. Finally swordmaster Eshtan Zonmemad arrived and helped to do the deed. Kill was attributed to Fishbutcher, which is kinda unfair. I think Imush did the most damage and definitely fought the bravest.
In winter outdoor barracks were created for elite dwarves. In this way, by training outside, they will avoid cave adaptation. Foreign Legion can still practice underground, close to caverns and never-ending source of targets.
There was quite a naked mole rat debacle as well. It was noticed that some naked mole rat got stuck on underground tree. He multiplied happily, and soon the tree was swarming with naked mole puppies. Soon they grew up and began spawning more offspring. That was unacceptable, so a tunnel was dug to the tree, and both squads were sent to thin naked mole rat population a little. Then for more than a month our squads ran around fortress, chasing and massacring hundreds of naked more rats and puppies. These little buggers managed to infest almost entire fortress as soon as they were given a way down from their precious tree. Even the traps set between fortress and caverns did not stop them - they simply clogged them with their corpses. Now there are their bodies everywhere, and soon there will be miasma as well, cause they are too numerous to be cleaned or cooked in time.
And finally, in the very last days of winter, werelizard appeared. Calmspears has some serious problem with werebeasts, unfortunately. This is the third visit - first two were waited out indoors, behind raised bridges, although second one managed to kill three stragglers. This one was quickly killed by elite dwarves, having killed only one wandering poet beforehand. We shall see if he managed to bite anyone.
We also have a strange visitor - human doctor necromancer. It seems he fancies our recently build library. Let's hope he won't be doing any necromancing during his visit.
208
Beginning of the year 208 did not foretell the important events that were about to happen.
Spring was relatively uneventful, although a lot of people were relieved to see elven caravan appear. With it came a diplomat, demanding we limit our tree cutting and start respecting nature. He was politely told to bugger off - although we have both bituminous coal and lignite, we need charcoal as well. Besides, these trees are death traps for dwarves, who sometimes climb them and get stuck at the top, eventually dying of dehydration. So we plan to cut them all down. Also in the future we will need large empty fields for our megaprojects.
Elven diplomat also brought news of great conquests and raids performed by our goblin neighbors, The Curses of Cackling. From the three sieges of our fortress that they performed, we know them to be formidable (first one was small and defeated by brave Goblinsbane, second was waited out inside fortress; this one was huge, but they left pretty quickly, maybe they were just marching through our land towards better target... third one was the great siege of 206). Still, we didn't care much for their exploits.
But soon after the elves left, something remarkable happened - one of our citizens, humble farmer named Mafol Ralzeg, inherited the throne and became a king! That was totally unexpected. He arrived with some early migrant wave in 204, and never mentioned his royal blood. His wife was torn apart by some creature, probably the same giant chameleon that killed "Fisher king" - thoughts of being horrified by his death are her last. So he is a widower, and since dwarves don't remarry, we will not have a queen. Why would such a lowly dwarf inherit the throne? Our civilization seemed huge, list of barons and other nobles is several pages long. It might be a coincidence that a king died, and Mefol happened to be next in line to the throne. But its also possible, that Mountainhome was razed by goblins - that would explain lack of caravan last year - and royal family was wiped out.
This is not how it was supposed to be. We hoped to invite the monarch when we are ready, with prepared royal chambers, and expected inflow of legendary warriors and rest of the court. Instead we have a confused monarch, no diplomat or queen, and we have to build a a throne room and other facilities hastily.
So the rest of spring and summer was spend building kings chambers - almost everybody was put to work, even preparations of defenses was put on hold. In the meantime, human caravan arrived, with their peculiar diplomat, Islas Saninger, a human law-giver.
He visited us before, and at first there was nothing remarkable about him. But this time, during his visit, a dwarven child was found dead in it's bed, drained of blood. There was a vampire in the fortress, apparently, but who? We haven't had a migrant wave in years, and even visitors didn't ask for residence in a long time. An investigation was necessary.
All recent arrivals were scrutinized, but seemed OK. Since vampires don't eat or sleep, they don't have any recent thoughts about food, dining rooms or sleeping quarters, and that's one of the ways to identify them. They also don't drink, which is sure tell-sign in dwarves. But all our citizens were clean - properly drunk and voracious eaters. Some recent visitor then, for sure. There were several witness - in particular, the deceased dwarven child was found by human lasher, diplomat's bodyguard. At that point, after hours of reading dwarven thoughts and characteristics, I gave up and used DFHack's curse checking utility. I already suspected diplomat or one of his bodyguards, and I was right - wretched guy was in fact a vampire! I should have known not to trust lawyers. His vampirism poses a lot of problems. This time he killed a child, a tragedy, but without serious consequences for the fortress. But what if he decides to feast on our legendary armorer? Or someone from founding seven (well, six, since Fisher King is dead)? If he kills our broker or one of the elite soldiers we are in trouble. At first it seems that he will be only a nuisance - after all diplomats finally leave. But this time he lingered a long time, several months. Fortunately he didn't claim any more victims. The worst part is, he will be back every year, a returning menace to our precious dwarves.
What can be done about him? We could dispatch our military to get rid of him, but he has bodyguards, and vampires themselves are notoriously difficult to kill. Still, that's not the worst - our soldiers can probably handle them, and even if not, vampire can be arranged to die in some other way, like cave-in or magma. The biggest problem is that it would probably mean international incident and war with humans. I think we could handle it military-wise, but that would also mean end of human caravans. Since we will probably have no more dwarven caravans, and elven caravans are near-useless, that would mean end of trade for our fortress. And trade is currently the best way to get rid of unwanted stuff cluttering our fortress, like tons of tattered clothes, products of idiotic mandates, poor quality merchandise created by training craftsdwarfs, etc.
Besides, in case of war with humans, how will the men of Foreign Legion behave? Where will their loyalties lie? It is well known that blood is thicker than water. What if their brother or relative arrive with an invading human army? If they turn their cloaks and attack from within, well, there would be a disaster. We have four human soldiers with legendary skills, and it's a quarter of our armed forces. Even if they simply abstain during human siege, it would severely diminish our military might. Well, the loyalty thing will be tested at next goblin siege, we will see which side will our goblin swordmaster take.
Another option about the vampire is to lock him up somewhere. Normally if we locked up a diplomat, he would finally got mad, die of hunger or thirst, and we would still be accountable for his death. But vampires don't die of thirst or hunger, so maybe that wouldn't be a cause for war, but we would probably get no news from outside world. Since no dwarven liaison appears anymore, we would need to rely for news on elves, and we are planning a war with them anyway. In any case vampire finally left, and we will think how to deal with him next year.
Necromancers appeared at the end of the year and were quickly dealt with, and we caught one in a cage. That is a good news. We can make him resurrect something, and then use it to identify vampires (vampires won't be scared of the undead). But that's for later.
In economic news - first trade with elves was quite successful, they took a lot of our tattered rags and gave us some nice animals, including leopard, which we promptly trained into a war leopard. But they also brought something of value - again, some kind of strings for an instrument (or perhaps a dwarven lady nether regions) - worth 15k ! We have never seen single such valuable item, barring artifacts. So we brought several platinum goblets, tons of clothes and some poor quality armor, and tried to trade. Unfortunately somebody left a wooden nest box at depot, and by accident it was offered to the elves. They felt offended and left. Well, next time they come, they will not be returning to their homes, you can bet your masterpiece platinum goblet on that.
Also in economic news, human caravan arrived in summer, and it was a big one - five wagons and two camels. Surprisingly, they didn't get scared at the sight of corpses this time, and arrived without incident. Trade was most successful - they took all our tattered clothes left over from sieges and normal wear, and gave us some dogs, bars of metals not present at our site, booze, booze, booze, and other useful stuff. We also sold them some gold and silver goblets, and bought weapons unknown to us, like mauls, longswords an greataxes. If for naught else, we can use these in traps. The only downside to humans is their diplomat, as was previously mentioned.
No dwarven caravan this year again, which kind of confirms what we suspected about Mountainhome.
As for production report - our mayor keeps ordering anvils and then forbids their export. We have anvils aplenty - some start thinking about dumping those into the garbage chute. King is a bit more useful, as he orders short swords and shields. Short swords can always be used in traps if all sworddwarfs are satisfied with their weaponry. Duke is sort of fixated on bolts and orders a lot of those. Fortunately they are useful for our hunters and traps.
Calmspears has a bit of a problem with artifacts. So far several dwarves fell into a mood and created something. Unfortunately, most of these creations are useless at best. We have artifact mechanism and artifact earring. Also, an artifact hatch cover and artifact bracelet. Artifact quiver and artifact toilet paper... you get the picture. Most of it is worth less than 5k. Early in the fortress history the armorer, legendary Nil Fikukasob, forged Bomrekzatthud, a jagged bronze breastplate, but it's worth only 15k and since it's bronze, we are not sure if it's better than andamantium or even steel.
In related economic news, we are starting production of adamantium. Our bookkeeper was tasked with strand extraction and relieved of all other dutes, besides bookkeeping of course. First deposits of andamantium were found at 101 level, which is very shallow.
In entertainment news, a giant cave spider managed to gnaw on a woodcutter a little. Said woodcutter, pale and with head disfigured, continued about his daily duties and didn't even bother to go to the hospital. Soon after, a forgotten beast Pastro, enormous three-eyed iguana, appeared. Foreign Legion made a short work of it. Kill was attributed to a human axeman with an awesome nickname of "Budo Sculpturenuts".
Just next day another forgotten beast appeared! This one wandered around caverns, not approaching the fortress. On this occasion the secret of missing 3rd cavern layer was solved. Turned out that this layer was already found and walled off during magma dump chute project. It was just so close to 2nd layer (2 levels below it, on 44th level) that it was always considered a part of it. This new forgotten beast, an enormous earthworm with wings and poisonous breath, appeared there. Tunnel was quickly build to reach it and Foreign Legion made a short work of him. Kill was attributed to Foreign Legion leader, who also once killed the valiant elf prisoner.
Also in entertainment news, there was a bar fight at the tavern. One of the diplomat's bodyguards, a human lasher, beat up senseless one of the bards. Bard at first tried to run, leaving behind trail of blood and broken teeth, but this was for naught. The victim laid unconscious on the floor for some time, then got up, picked up her teeth from the floor, and left. To make it more interesting, both involved parties were female. Maybe it was about a man? But then again, the bard was a dwarf-girl, and the lasher - human. Probably gals just got drunk and started a brawl.
Work on defenses was finished in 208 and all the dwarves' needs are taken care of. Since we will no longer have dwarven caravans we have no need for as much trade goods as before. Therefore some idle dwarves were employed at first megaprojects. A giant text DWARVES was carved out deep underground. Dwarven atom smasher, built since beginnings of Calmspears, is nearing completion. Components for magma-safe pumps are being prepared, and soon an attempt to bring magma to the upper levels will be made.
And thus ended the year 208, year of the king.