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[SQman]

I'm kind of surprised the weirdest things on this embark so far were those teardrop-shaped floaters. Giant louse seem really mundane compared to a lot of stuff that could be popping up.

Besides urhags we only had giant insects and demon ostriches with hands so far. That and a couple of tentacle monsters that were slaughtering dolphins in the river. Having said that, it's only summer, so we definitely haven't seen everything the embark has to offer. I expect dinosaurs and crazy d&d monsters to show up any time now.

I had no idea that was possible either

It's no joke, this madman is worshipping a sorceress goddess.




HOLY SHIT GUYS, IT'S THE GRAND MATRIARCH:



ZM5 is worshipping the valsharess as a living goddess. She could migrate to our fort and hang out in her own temple. Isn't that something?


SQ was trying to catch up with everything that happened in the settlement during her month long hissy fit. Actually, not that much was done during that period, maybe except for the spider enclosure commissioned and excavated by Fred the Mitey.
While inspecting wood and stone stockpiles, she noticed something unusual: the female troll was chiseling something out of dolomite. According to Lunardog, this troll wasn't born in captivity and wasn't properly civilized, so it was even stranger to see her working with precise tools.
"Ummm... What are you doing? Carving blocks?" SQ asked.
"YOU IS WRONG, RUNT-BOSS!" the troll answered with her booming voice "I DO ART!"
"A-art?! What sort of art can YOU be doing?" SQ didn't know trolls understand the concept of art, but she realized that she shouldn't be admitting to it "Not that trolls can't be artists, some of the best artists I know were trolls."
"STATUES OF ALL DROW! I IS MASON NOW!"













"Wow, these are fantastic, all things considered" SQ said. Those statues weren't horrible, but they weren't masterpieces either. One thing that really influenced SQ's judgement was that she was a thirty-five kilogram drow talking to a half ton monster with huge tusks and horns.
"LEARN SLOWER THAN DROW, BUT BECOME MASTER ONE DAY! HAVE ETERNITY, HO-HO-HO!" the troll roared with laughter. SQ was somewhat startled, but the monster's positivity was strangely heartwarming.
"I'll have then installed on the bedroom level"




There are three ways to get silk from a drowspider - force it to spray web, milk it for unsolidified silkmilk, and unweave its egg sacks. Schmendrick was given the task to sneak into the spider enclosure, take egg sacks from nest boxes, and clean them at the silk reel. For a moment she thought that Scourge wanted to use her as food for the spiders, but then she remembered she was a drow, which granted her an affinity with those creatures.
"I got it, Scourge, now what?" Schmendrick asked, hoping she wouldn't be sent to milk the spiders now.
"Damn, I thought you would chicken out. I owe Lunardog five billon now. Go clean those sacks or something, I'm getting SQ to help me milk those buggers"



Imic and Darkening Kaos were working together at the butcher's workshop, dissecting a giant louse.
"What are those parts? Should I remove them or..." Imic was poking some organs that were protruding from the louse's intestine.
"Wait a minute, where could it be... here!" Kaos found what she was looking for in her thick book "These are... mal-pigh-ian tubules. They filter out waste from the hemolymph."
"The what? I was just asking if they're edible" Imic was getting desperate, he was hoping it would be a quick job, preferably without books being involved "I think this thing is the heart?"
"Let me check... this is a salivary gland, the heart is this tube here" Kaos poked a tubular organ with several openings.
"What? It's on the wrong side of the body! And it has holes that I haven't made!" Imic stopped trying to understand insect biology "Can we just cut out all things we recognize and be done with it, miss Kaos?"
"I was waiting for you to say it" Kaos slammed her book shut, and reached for a knife to get the job done once and for all.




"Scourge! Scourge!" SQ was running around the settlement helplessly, calling her friend.
Scourge came up from the almost finished smeltery "Could you have a mental breakdown a little bit quiter? We're waiting for Kaos to set herself on fire while burning flarestone."
"The baby is on the way! The baby!"
"I didn't know you were pregnant, SQ" Scourge said, probably not seriously, but SQ wasn't sure "Who's the father?"
"It's not me, it's the troll! Fred is a doctor isn't he? Get him into the mason's workshop!"

There was no denying it, the baby was definitely a troll - sixth the size of an average adult drow, shaggy fur, unsatiable appetite. A new life came to be in Dungeonevened. Someone could have said something profound, but after watching a troll give birth, no one was able to say anything.

[Darkening Kaos]

     You see what I mean now?  We need more and better books of questionable science! I really don't want to have to start writing my own, I have too much more important shit to do.  And I certainly don't want to be the hauler carrying the unidentifiable bits of louse out to the refuse pit.

[scourge728]

I wasn't aware trolls could be masons..... huh, learn something new every day you you shove a dozen mods together

[SQman]

I wasn't aware trolls could be masons..... huh, learn something new every day you you shove a dozen mods together

Trolls coul always have professions, they're just slow learners. I had goblins bring troll beekeepers and architects to sieges in vanilla.
We don't have any drows commited to masonry, so the troll had been churning out coffers and statues.

     You see what I mean now?  We need more and better books of questionable science! I really don't want to have to start writing my own, I have too much more important shit to do.  And I certainly don't want to be the hauler carrying the unidentifiable bits of louse out to the refuse pit.

I'm sure there is a skeleton out there who's written a book on which parts of a giant louse are edible. Hopefully the next migrant wave will be more substantial so we can get the militia ready for pillaging.

[ZM5]

Yeah, trolls and other semi-sapient creatures (ogres in vanilla, or eliminators/gorecyclopes from my DD:DA pack) can have professions, though from what I recall you can't toggle them without DT (and ones you buy from caravans can't have professions switched on even in that way, since they don't count as belonging to your site government).

They make babies like crazy too. In a (hopefully) long-lived fort you could potentially draft them into the military - obviously the rate at which they gain skills is abysmal, but their size should make up for it, especially if they're also armored.

[SQman]

I can't even properly express how salty I am right now. My laptop decided to crash while I was saving a rough draft of an update in notepad. I've written some stuff about our drow civilization and nearby eldritch cults, and then I played a little bit. Everything is gone, and I'd rather just play right now.

They make babies like crazy too. In a (hopefully) long-lived fort you could potentially draft them into the military - obviously the rate at which they gain skills is abysmal, but their size should make up for it, especially if they're also armored.

The fact that they can wield two handed swords with one hand excites me for some reason. Too bad we can't make armor specifically for trolls. I'll probably have to dig through raws to check what other creatures have comparable size.





Darkening Kaos was walking on the surface, looking for bolts and crossbows that ZM5 and Schmendrick have left behind. Suddenly something red flashed in the grass. Could it be the priceless spartan metal? Yes, those were definitely bolts made of spartan metal. Kaos rushed to pick them up, but she wasn't fast enough. A bizarre little monster jumped out of water berry bushes and grabbed the bolts with its beak.
"IMIC! COME HERE AND KILL SOME VERMINS!" the bolts were lost, but there was also a diamondium crossbow laying around, and another rexagon stalking the plains. Kaos couldn't let more metal to go to waste.



"Imic, you lazy bum! What took you so long?" Kaos was furious over the lost scrap metal.
"Not my fault, miss Kaos, SQ stopped me on my way" Imic responded "turns out she won't banish me for getting engaged to Scourge"
"Uh-huh... If it was up to me I would kick you out for not defending priceless metal"
"Oh, don't worry, I have some stuff in my craftsman's workshop"


"Scourge, I've talked to Imic! He's not mad at me, and he called me his friend! I have a new friend, Scourge!" SQ was jumping around excited, risking spooking the spider that was being milked by Scourge.
"Wonderful guy, isn't he? When a real priestess arrives in here, we're gonna get married and live happily ever after, and maybe have like seventy children... no, that would totally ruin my body, maybe twenty will be enough." Scourge was getting excited just from thinking about her future with Imic, meanwhile SQ's good mood was gone. "Oh, I'm sorry, SQ. Maybe I shouldn't talk about this kind of stuff with you. Don't worry though, I swear I'll find you a good man to settle down with!"
"Here we go again..."



Fred the mitey and ZM5 were standing in front of the entrance to the settlement. No sugarcoating it, it was just a hole in the ground.
"A tower" Fred said suddenly
"A tower?" ZM5 asked
"A tower" Fred confirmed
"I'll get the sawmill going"



The first floor was done. The second floor had to wait until someone chops down the trees around the tower.



The rothe herd was growing. Three bulls were born in the span of a week, but not a single cow. Scourge was over the moon anyway - a rothe is a rothe, the noblest of beasts.



Speaking of Scourge, she was trying to place a statue near the tower staircase, when a herd of abrians bursted inside. Their eyes filled with hate, their feathers smelling of brimstone, there was no doubt those were creatures of the abyss.



Scourge didn't care about the creatures's origin. She was heavily outnumbered, so she called Imic, but if it was a one on one fight, she would have strangled the feathered menace.




The swordsman came running from underground. He gestured at one of the monsters, and cast faerie fire to make it easier to hit. This scared the abrians, and set them running awaybefore they could be touched by Imic's blade.
Imic didn't want to give up so easily, so he dashed after the birds. Two stragglers were quickly dealt with. Having a long, thin neck is good for looking around grassy plains, but on the other hand it's an invitation for swordsmen.
Imic wanted to continue the pursit, but he got lost in his own cloud of darkness.

SQ was hanging out by the sawmill, where ZM5 was working. They were talking about the last twenty years, when they couldn't see each other.
"...I never actually found out if they were involved. One corrupt nobleman I can deal with, but a whole clan? I know my limits." ZM5 rambled "In the end, I realized the investigation wasn't going anywhere, so I just focused on my pottery shop."
"What about the menagerie overseer? Have you... acquainted yoursef with her?" SQ inquired.
"She's a feisty one, that gal, but hard to reach without raising suspicions. All I got from her was a solid slap to the face, not even a word. If I pressed too hard, I would have got you and Scourge in danger, and you know I wouldn't want that to happen. Honsestly? I don't think she was involved."
Before they could finish the conversation, a troll came down the stairs and shouted:



"Migrants? How many?" SQ asked.
"Uh... This many" the troll showed eight fingers. "They have animals with 'em too."
"Gotta gather the commitee! That's Lunardog, Kaos, Fred and Scourge, can you do it, troll?"
"Sure thing, bwoss!"
"Why don't you want me on the commitee, baby doll?" ZM5 pretended to be offended.
"Don't be silly, ZM5, if you started hitting on everyone and everything vaguely resembling a woman, someone could get a wrong idea about this place."

The commitee gathered in front of the entrance. Unlike the last time, when ZM5 was dragging half-conscious Schmendrick behind him, this time the migrants moved at a reasonable speed.



A well-built woman emerged from the group. She had a mannish pompadour, and was wearing a leather jacket over her robe. A stiff upper lip and an arrogant look in her eyes suggested that she wouldn't be a pleasent person to talk to.
"Which one of you, losers, is the leader" the menacing woman asked.
"It's me, SQ Hateromanced, welcome to my..."
"Yeah, whatever. I'm Freshcannon, leader of the Helmet Snakes, don't get in my way." Freshcannon reached to her pocket and pulled out an ivory comb. "Oh, I guess I'm a priestess of Lolth too. They sent me here to provide you with spiritual guidance or some shit."
"YOU are a priestess?!" Scourge couldn't believe Freshcannon's words.
"Got any problems with that, bitch?" the priestess bared her teeth, and pointed at Scourge with her comb.
"No problem with that, but I've got a lot of problems with your attitude... bitch." the fake priestess growled back.
"Ladies, please calm down!" Lunardog pleaded. With those two the things could easily get out of hand.
"Shut up!" both women shouted in unison. Lunardog frowned and crossed his arms in a grumpy manner.
"I'm the house priestess around here, and you WILL listen to me!" Scourge continued.
"No, you're fucking not! You better pray that Lolth doesn't turn you into a drider for such blasphemy, because I'd personally rip each of your new, spindly legs off, and it would be personal! I've been sent here SPECIFICALLY because you DON'T have a priestess."
"I-if I could... Scourge, you weren't doing anything as a house priestess anyway" SQ interrupted "What difference would it make if you gave up your position?"
"Fine, but I'm doing it for you, not for this... this..."
"If you finish this sentence..." Freshcannon was losing what little patience she had.

"For Lolth's sake, stop this bickering!" Fred the Mitey was getting impatient. He was supposed to be digging out a dining hall, so that the drows wouldn't have to eat on the floor like animals "Tell us what is that you do, Mistress Freshcannon."
"As a leader of Helmet Snakes? I take care of my little... let's call them a troupe. You see Bireta and Melici over there? My people. Helmet Snakes rule!" the priestess shouted to her two leather-clad friends.
"Helmet Snakes rule!" the two repeated.
"As a priestess I make sure that no one leaves Lolth for Eilistraee or Vhaeraun, or some other troublesome deity."
"I was asking if you can do anything that's even remotely useful for us" Fred wasn't satisfied with Freshcannon's answer.
"If I was a different priestess, I'd call you an insolent male, but I don't give a shit if it's a man or a woman who wants to start something with me. If you want to know that much, I'm a world class markswoman"
"And that axe on your back?" Darkening Kaos noticed.
"Oh, this..." Freshcannon looked nervous for a while, but then she returned to her usual, menacing state. "I'm also a mistress of an axe."
"No offense, but this isn't battle wear. It's been used to chop wood." Kaos refuted her bluntly.
"I'm tired of talking to you, losers. I'm gonna go check out what kind of militia you've managed to assemble."

"NEXT!" SQ shouted.
"Asithi, fish cleaner"
"Really? Do you know anyone named MottledPetrel?"
"No, I really don't."

"NEXT!"
"Biretha, Helmet Snakes rule!
"uh-huh, what can you do?"
"I make crossbows. You could say I'm talented"
"Whatever you say..."
"Damn, I'm good."

"NEXT!"
"Liceyi, you could say I'm a farmer, but..."
"But...?"
"I'd be lying if I told you I'm good at it. I'm an aspiring poet, though."

"NEXT!"
"Melici, Helmet Snake"
"..."
"I make cheese and soap. Actually, I'm an important figure in the cheesemaker and soapmaker's guild"

"NEXT!"
"Menari, gem cutter and cook"
"Weird combination"
"Just wait until you try my schorl-quarry leaf special!"

"NEXT!"
"Tharumi, high master of the spinning wheel!"
"Oh, that's actually helpful!"
"But I believe my place is in the army!"
"Aren't you a little scrawny for a trooper?"
"Huh?"

"NEXT!"
"Vemini"
"..."
"..."

"Wow, all of those guys are kinda useless" Scourge noticed "Maybe we should turn some of them away?"
"We let Schmendrick in, those guys stay too" SQ protested.
"And I've already designated their crossbows for melting" Kaos added.



"Okay guys, you can stay!" SQ said to the seven drows. "Now for the animals..."



"A bat of some kind..." SQ wasn't an expert on bats, and neither was Scourge.
"It's a Desmodu bat" Biretha the Helmet Snake clarified "They were domesticated by a race of bat people who were eradicated a couple centuries ago"
"Neat, it would be hard to catch in the wild, I bet"



"Two young ironheads, a cow and a bull. We could have a breeding pair right here." Said SQ excitedly.
"I don't like these buggers all that much. They're the antithesis of a rothe - mean, ugly, and not useful at all" Scourge shook her head at the animals. The ironheads looked at her indifferently.



"Oh, I know this one, it's a bugbat!" SQ misidentified the little critter.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a bugbat." Scourge agreed.



"Ugh, an occula, they're common ironhead parasites." Scourge said, jabbing the poor creature with a stick.
"Dislodging them isn't fun, but look how cute it is!"
"Sometimes I worry about you, SQ... I mean, more than usual."


The commitee was disbanded for now, and the members headed underground. On the way, SQ  almost tripped on something. It was ZM5 laying on the ground with a hideously swollen eye.
"Fi... ZM5, what happened to you?!" the expedition leader was shocked, not because ZM5 was injured, but because for some reason everyone else ignored him.
"SQ... I... I think I'm in love. What a woman! What a punch!" ZM5 mumbled.
"Is it Freshcannon?"
"Fresh... cannon, huh? That's her name? Oh boy, she ticks all the boxes!" ZM5 said, lifting himself up.
"Your only boxes are 'looking vaguely feminine' and 'actually being a woman', so it's not that hard." SQ snarked "Hell, you called Lunardog a beautiful woman, so I guess he checks one of the boxes."
"Very funny, baby doll. I'll have you know that you check only one box too" ZM5 smiled meaningfully to let SQ know he was joking. "Anyway, my delinquent angel dropped this."
ZM5 gave SQ a small scroll with an official stamp of the Ministry of Surveying and Settlement.

since your now setled and not on an expedition, I guess you can call yourself a house overseer
good luck
wothana (the guy from the minestry)

SQ decided to ignore the fact that the letter was written horribly unprofessionally.



"SQ, I'm a house overseer now! House Umbralrelief, how about that?"
"How about house Hateromanced? I think the letter might have been for me." SQ smiled at ZM5, waving the scroll in front of him playfully. "You shouldn't have opened it in the first place. Oh, and I want an extra storage container in my room now. And move Scourge's statue from Freshcannon's room."
"Now that you got a snazzy new title, you think you can order me around? You know I can still do this, right?" ZM5 effortlessly lifted SQ off the ground. The overseer was struggling to free herself, but ZM5 just held her and laughed.
The newcomers were just coming through the entrance corridor where SQ and ZM5 were celebrating SQ's promotion in their own, peculiar way. Some of them lost all hope for the future.


I was hoping to get a miner in the second migrant wave, but a heavy steel axe is good too. Admittedly, Scourge has better attributes than Freshcannon, but in-story stuff is more important.

And it turns out that drows can cast faerie fire and darkness spells in game. Who would have thought?

[ZM5]

Damn, that's a shame - I'm curious about the eldritch cults to be perfectly honest, as well as the relations our civ has with them and our neighbors.
The ironheads you can war-train, actually - would make pretty neat pets for the military. More occulas could be useful since they'll hunt vermin - I don't know if there's any particularly bad ones aboveground, but some of the underground ones could rot food or sting dwarves.

[Darkening Kaos]

     What a load of useless Drider turds these migrants turned out to be.  Wouldn't be surprised if their most important contribution to society is to be sacrificed with a blunt knife ... I certainly would risk the edge of a sharp knife on any of them.  And a house priestess!? I'd be surprised if she actually knew what one did, she fooled the others with her arrogant demeanour, but that was pretty shallow ... perhaps I had better take a step back and watch that one, there is something about her that ... well, I dunno, it was not priestess, more assassin.  However, I need to make sure before I confide in Scourge.
     All that precious metal lost, as if I wasn't depressed enough without an anvil, or the comforting warmth of a forge, I think I might murder a few trees and turn them into something more useful, like chairs, or tables, perhaps ...  ...  ...  Actually, the tower Fred the tick ... er mite is half-heartedly building looks interesting, I might sit and watch supervise the progress on that for a while.

Spoiler: Edit: OOC - RAW question (click to show/hide)

     In the context of the mods, what is aether?  My drow has a preference for it and I'd like to know whether it is a metal, wood, cloth or whatever.  If it is a metal, is it weapons-grade or furniture only?

[SQman]

The ironheads you can war-train, actually - would make pretty neat pets for the military. More occulas could be useful since they'll hunt vermin - I don't know if there's any particularly bad ones aboveground, but some of the underground ones could rot food or sting dwarves.

The two ironhead we've got are both calves and pets, and we need them for our zoo. Maybe in a couple of years.
Drowspiders already hunt vermin (or at least would, if I hadn't locked them all up, whoops), and the only vermin I've seen so far are goblizards

In the context of the mods, what is aether?  My drow has a preference for it and I'd like to know whether it is a metal, wood, cloth or whatever.  If it is a metal, is it weapons-grade or furniture only?[/spoiler]

It's a weapon-grade metal from Seiggrain's Farming and stuff mod, probably light and sharp, but I'm not sure.




Freshcannon called the militia members to her office to evaluate their equipment and skills. She wasn't surprised in the slightest when only Imic and ZM5 showed up.
"Okay, that's exactly what I expected from this hole." the priestess said, looking at the two men "You with the sword, can you even swing that thing?"
"Yes, mistress, I'm really good at it." Imic answered proudly.
"It's up to me to decide. And you, creep?" Freshcannon asked ZM5 "You couldn't take a punch, what makes you think you can stop a dwarf's battleaxe?"
"Hah, it's quite simple, my little spiderling! The secret is to avoid getting hit. Once you get that down, you're unbeatable."
"Where is your weapon?" Freshcannon noticed that ZM5 was unarmed and unarmored. "Are you actually a member of the militia, or are you here just to piss me off?"
"They took away my dagger when they arrested me back in the capital..." for a moment ZM5 wondered if it was a good idea to tell the priestess about his mishap "It's a long story you don't need to hear. I volounteered for the service so I could spend some quality time with my lovely old friend Scourge, but seeing how an even more gorgeous lady took over, I'm not planning on quitting."
"One time wasn't enough? You want me to make your face symmetrical again, or should I go for the other eye this time?"
"Come on, baby, don't be so cold!"
"Rrrghh! You're now Helmet Snakes." Freshcannon was speaking through her teeth. She couldn't stand ZM5's compant for much longer. "Not official members, not even honorary members. I'm just used to calling my people Helmet Snakes, and I won't make an effort to remember a new name. Okay, Helmet Snakes out!"



Lunardog was working at the still, brewing underale, and occasionally looking at Menari who was cooking something in the kitchen. The cook would bring seemingly normal ingredients for his dishes, but Lunardog felt suspicious. When Menari once again left his station to fetch something from the stockpile, Lunardog sneaked up to the kitchen. At the first glance there was nothing out of ordinary - mussels and louse parts were abundant, so it's no wonder a cook would use them, but Lunardog noticed something that could be easily overlooked - a small pouch.
Overcome with curiosity, Lunardog opened the pouch. It contained fine black powder. What could it be? What if it was poison? Should he alert SQ?
"MY SCHORL!" Menari came back earlier than Lunardog expected "Hands off my special ingredient, dirty thief!"
Lunardog made a mental note not to eat anything that Menari cooked.



Nobody could say that Darkening Kaos disliked progress, but this time she had mixed feeling looking at the first bar of metal produced in Dungeonevened. It was a small bar of crude bone, ancient bone that turned metal-like through the ages. The only problem was that the bar has been made by melting bolts and crossbows, not by smelting ore.
The drows haven't dug deep yet - fred was busy all the time, stone was abundant, and there was no anvil to work the metal on, but Kaos knew this could turn into a huge problem if not addressed properly.

Kaos decided to take it straight to the highest organ of the local government.
"SQ! We have to talk!" She said, barging without a warning into the loom area where the overseer was weaving silkflower cloth.
"Gah! Don't scare me like this!" SQ jumped in surprise "You of all people should know better."
"Sorry about that, but I think you should know that we barely have any metal." Kaos explained "I'd be more comfortable if the stockpile was, I don't know, fuller."
"Is it really that important? You know Fred is busy."
"We don't even know what kind of metals there are down there. I'd like to know what we're standing on..." Kaos stopped for a second. SQ thought she heard her chuckle quietly "literally and metaphorically."
"Okay, okay, I'll get Fred looking for ore."

"There's one more thing I'd like to ask you. What do you think about that priestess?" Kaos whispered. If Freshcannon heard this, she would have to ask SQ to help her as the overseer, then SQ would cry, so they would need to ask Scourge to tell SQ to stand up for herself, and it would be a huge mess.
"I don't know... She was rude to my two best friends, but she does have a cool haircut. Oh, and I like the way she points her comb at people. Maybe I should get a signature trinket too..." SQ wondered.
"You're a strange person, SQ"
"I get that a lot."



Fred struck the earth once agian in search of ore. He struck coal and compact clay, and found a few shiny red rocks, but the real success was finding quartzite - a new stone layer. Who knows what can be found here. Suddenly...



Diamondite, the ore of diamondium, a very valuable metal. The metal can be used for weapons, tools and armor, but nobody could really tell how effective it would be.



Meanwhile, the first masterwork was made in Dungeonevened. Unfortunately it wasn't a legendary sword or a throne of pure mithral, but a handful of little stars carved out of mussel shell and stuck into a chair. Imic was proud of himself nevertheless.



Not a single drow realized that it was already winter. The area has been hot and dry the entire year, and there was no way of telling until someone notice something moving on the horizon. A caravan from the capital! Lead by the icedweller, Weri Sofipualetha, who rushed forwards to speak to SQ before everyone starts stampeding to the trade depot.



SQ's heart was pounding harder than ever. She was expecting bad news, even though there was no reason for there being bad news. "W-what do you mean by 'situation'?"


"...so I might have overdramatized it." the human woman admitted "Anyway..."



"We would appreciate if you brought metal of any kind, coal, maybe some lye, goblinium cages... umm... I think that's it." SQ said, writing it all down at the same time.



"And we will pay well for weapons, especially quarterstaves, and fish, prepared meals, and rings" the icedweller informed SQ. "Now tell your people to bring everything you want to trade to the depot, our rothe are on the way."
"Rothe? You don't have a wagon?"
"There's a rock in front of the entrance, we wouldn't be able to get in"
"WHAT?"



"Oh for Lolth's sake! I'll get someone to get rid of it." SQ said and left her office with the diplomat.



Fred the Mitey decided to put his financial talents to good use. He managed to convince the traders that the shell amulets that Imic made were actually worth something. They were exchanged for an anvil, some rope, a few buckets, miscellaneous plants and fungi, and three backpacks for the militia. Several bales of cloth and silk were given as an offering to the Valsharess. It won't hurt to have friends in the highest of places.


Darkening Kaos wanted to build a forge as soon as possible, so she visited the trade depot as soon as she finished other work.
"Fred? Where is the anvil? I thought you got us an anvil." the smith asked. She didn't know herself what she would have done if Fred forgot to buy the anvil.
"Imic was here first. No idea what someone like him would need an anvil for."




We can start seriously thinking about defending ourselves now. No idea what diamondium is for, but according to that one dfhack plugin, it's sharper than iron.

There are some problems I've noticed while playing:

-Drows are human-sized despite being the smallest of elves in d&d. The women are slightly bigger than men, which is also not quite consistent with d&d. I guess it's because their connection to spiders, or to justify their matriarchal culture, but I'd prefer their matriarchy to be completely cultural, without women being physically superior. edit: albinos are larger than normal drows for some reason.
Changing their raws during the game probably won't do anything, and even if it will, the existing drows will still be giants by elven standards. Probably. Maybe it would break everything? I think I'll make a back up and check it out. edit: Yup, everyone is still over 60k, smallest being SQ at 61k and largest being Imic at 75k (women were supposed to be larger...), but they can't wear human sized clothing now.

-Diamondium smelting and making refined diamondium in the crucible may be switched around. I don't like using exploits, so I'll fix it later. For now we'll be smelting in smelters.

-I forgot that vermin escape from cages when you buy them. I wanted to give my drow a cave roach pet  . I want my roach back!

[Darkening Kaos]

     Darkening Kaos will haunt the trade depot whenever there are merchants, she will urge the broker to purchase any items made of aether, or even bars, raw ore, whatever, she can get her hands on.  Any bars should be kept in a small stockpile deep inside her domain where only she can access it.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

     Any chance of getting hold of the raws, SQ?  I'd like to gen my own world and experiment with a few ideas.
     Also, try to keep my mechanics skill as the highest skill, if she has a mood, I'd really like it to be based on her mechanics skill.

[SQman]

     Darkening Kaos will haunt the trade depot whenever there are merchants, she will urge the broker to purchase any items made of aether, or even bars, raw ore, whatever, she can get her hands on.  Any bars should be kept in a small stockpile deep inside her domain where only she can access it.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

     Any chance of getting hold of the raws, SQ?  I'd like to gen my own world and experiment with a few ideas.
     Also, try to keep my mechanics skill as the highest skill, if she has a mood, I'd really like it to be based on her mechanics skill.

I've already made a personal forge for you, and it probably won't hurt to fit it with a mecahanic's workshop and a small stockpile of aether bars.

The raws are coming soon. I still have to fix bulk diamondite smelting, make dwarves playable again and remove spidery workshop from dwarves (they can't tame drowspiders anyway).

edit:
Here it is.

This is definitely not the final version, and I already see some issues with it:

-I have shrunk the drows form 65k-70k to 60k all over the board, but I haven't changed their weapons. That means that drows smaller than 57500 will have to use drow long swords two-handed, and won't be able to use drow two-handed swords at all, while lances can be used only by exceptionally large drows above 62500.

-I haven't actually taken the spidery workshop away from dwarves, if they even had it. It's useless for non-drows, don't build it. dwarves don't have that workshop anyway.

-The default tileset is Duerer. I know some people may not like this.

-Some mods are outdated, but since I've tinkered with some of them, I'm kinda afraid to touch them

I'll fix those things, but not today.
I'll eventually make a thread for it in the modding board.

[Darkening Kaos]

     I have a feeling that with the basic Drow personality, she will restrict who is allowed into the area, only those with the appropriate skill-set and personal vetting will earn permission.  As you can imagine, that might not be many at all, perhaps there is a low-security area where the common rabble work, and a smaller area where only the elite work, with individual high-value workshops and personal workspaces as befits the needs of a master craftsdrow.

[SQman]

     I have a feeling that with the basic Drow personality, she will restrict who is allowed into the area, only those with the appropriate skill-set and personal vetting will earn permission.  As you can imagine, that might not be many at all, perhaps there is a low-security area where the common rabble work, and a smaller area where only the elite work, with individual high-value workshops and personal workspaces as befits the needs of a master craftsdrow.

Personal workshops for the best craftsdrows can happen, but I probably won't be restricting movement. Your drow will have her own forge and mechanic's shop regardless of skills, because named drows should have it better.


It was a pleasant afternoon, SQ was sitting at her desk writing in her diary journal. On here right there was a bowl of mussel chowder, on her left a cup of underale. It's been a long time since she had such a good time. Suddenly someone knocked on her door. She reluctantly closed her journal, and got up to check who it was.
SQ gasped in surprise when she saw a line of drows waiting for her outside. "W-what's going on? Have I done something wrong? I'm so sorry!" she wimpered seeing Freshcannon in front of her, with her usual menacing stare.
"I'm not gonna lie to you, it's just not my style, a lot of drows are pissed about some petty bullshit, and I've got something important to tell you too, so get off your skinny ass and listen to your people." The priestess assumed her signature pose, and her comb stopped uncomfortably close to SQ's face.
"Do... do come in"

"Tell me, SQ, who's your patron god?" Freshcannon asked while combing her hair.
"That's a very personal question... I've been told it's very rude to ask." The overseer said. She remembered being scolded many times for asking inappropriate questions in the past, and this was one of those questions.
"If you want to be a moral authority, why don't you become a priestess? Oh, right, you wouldn't survive the initiation because you're a wimpy piss-child, not a real woman." Freshcannon was getting irritated.
SQ's eyes started watering up, but she didn't want to show weakness in front of the priestess. Unfortunately she was horrible at managing her emotions. "P-please don't call me th-that! I... I could be a... a p-priestess If I wanted!".
Normally the house priestess would bully her victim some more, but there was no glory in making a little girl cry. Granted, this little girl was almost one hundred thirty years old, but it didn't feel like it. "Will you tell me already? I have little patience for people like you." Freshcannon didn't mean to sound harsh, but that's just who she was.



"Ne-Nelare Maroonoils" SQ replied "The old menagerie overseer was an albino, and..."
"I'll stop you right here, because I just don't care, although it's a fine deity choice. He's also one of my patron gods." Freshcannon attempted not to intimidate SQ any more than it was needed, according to her. "The point is, when was the last time you prayed to the Ruby-Eyed?"
"I don't remember..." SQ scratched her neck somewhat embarrassed.
"Exactly. You're evidently not the most ardent worshipper, but some people have more faith in higher powers than you." The priestess started combing her hair again and stopped maintaining eye contact with the overseer. SQ felt relieved not to have Freshcannon's piercing gaze directed at her. "They feel uneasy because there isn't even a single shrine in this hole you call a settlement."



"The pile of planks over the entrance would be a good place for a shrine, but I'll leave the planning to you." Freshcannon tucked her comb back into her jacket's pocket. "I can't give you orders, but I can make suggestions and tell you to follow them. Heard me? Build shrines so people can pray."
"Understood. Is that all?"
"Yeah, for now"

As soon as the priestess left the room, Darkening Kaos came in.
"SQ, first of all, thanks for telling Fred to dig deeper." She started before even closing the door. "I even had him make a room for my own personal forge, and I think I'll ask him to expand the room to make space for a mechanic's workshop."
"Kaos, you should thank him personally, I did nothing, really. Although I appreciate that you took your time just to tell me that." SQ didn't actually mean that. While that made her feel warm inside, staying alone in her room had the same effect.
"That's not everything, though. I wanted to ask if I could keep a small stash of aether just for personal use." Kaos felt weird asking this, but she was so fascinated with the mysterious metal, that it didn't really matter.
"Aether? We don't have any, do we? I mean, sure, if you want it so much..." SQ was trying to figure out why Kaos would need to stash aether in her workshop, but she couldn't think of anything.
"You know, there isn't much documentation about this metal-like substance. It has some fascinating properties that those close minded scholars weren't even trying to understand. Actualy, the whole academic society is just a bunch of hacks who care only for fame and money, not actual progress! We should cherish the simple people who try to understand the world their way, there's a lot of wisdom in their works!" Darkening Kaos was getting a little bit too excited.
"So... you're saying we should just ignore the actual educated people's findings and listen to people who still think creeping eyes feed on evil?" SQ asked.
"Wait, they don't?"
"They don't. I'll keep an eye out for more... dubious books for you, though."
"Thanks a lot, SQ. I'll be going now. I need to work on my mechanics skills in case we need them."

Kaos left the room. A second later came in Lunardog.
"Oh, Lunardog! We haven't talked in a while!" SQ brightened up. This conversation won't be any more confusing than Kaos's ramblings. "How's it going? Does Scourge still pester you?"
"She's a real scourge of my existence, heh. Although she's no longer that commited to making my life hard." The brewer noticed a cup of underale on SQ's desk. "How do you like my underberry ale? I'm berry proud of how it turned out."
"It's pretty good, unlike that pun"
"Come on, you've been down for so long, I thought a bit of humor would do you good." Lunardog smiled in a friendly way, but SQ could only muster a nervous half-smile. "Well, I consider myself a funny person. Aaaanyway..." He turned his eyes towards the bowl of chowder. "I wouldn't eat that if I were you. That new cook is a psycho who adds crushed rocks to his dishes. That's what I wanted to tell you. See you later."

SQ looked into the bowl of chowder. She noticed some tiny black specks floating about. Was it the crushed stone Lunardog told her about? She didn't get to find out because when Lunardog left, a silver-haired man took his place.
"Why is this settlement not producing gems? How am I supposed to garnish my culinary masterpieces?" The drow whined loudly.
"What?"
"You heard that well, overseer! No more Chowder con Schorl until I get more gems!"
SQ considered telling him that she doesn't want his chowder, but then she realized he was a thoroughly unpleasant person, and arguing with him would be tiresome. "I'll get some jeweler's workshop made. Now can you leave my room and..." She wanted to say 'never come back' but she bit her tongue soon enough.

SQ had enough socializing for the rest of the year, but one more drow came into her room.
"SQ! I've got important news for you!" It was Scourge, more lively than usual.
"Are you finally getting married?" SQ guessed.
"No, I'd rather die alone than let that gutter princess officiate my wedding. Wait, can't you officiate weddings as a house overseer?" Scourge raised heir eyebrows.
"Maybe, but I couldn't do it. I would get nervous and make some stupid mistake, and everybody would laugh at me, and I would be even more nervous, and I would cry, and everyone would get uncomfortable, and... and..."
"Yeah, you could accidentally marry me to yourself, and I'm not sure if you could reverse it." Scourge joked. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. You're still my last resort in case the thing with Imic doesn't work out. I know you're not into girls, but you wouldn't say no to me." This time SQ wasn't sure if Scourge was joking.
"Enough about that, okay? What's the big news?"
"Imic, Five, Kaos and I are playing M&M tonight, wanna join? I'm MMing." Scourge was so excited that she instantly infected SQ with her excitement. The overseer intended to spend the rest of the day alone in her room, but the game was much more interesting than that.

Late evening. The five drows gathered in SQ's room. It was the biggest room with a table other than the high priestess' office.
"...Come on! This was such an easy roll, I can't believe I failed this!" Imic complained after his duergar warrior failed to intimidate a svirfneblin town guard.
"I'll let you reroll this time." Scourge said, handing the dice over to her fiancé.
"Hey, Imic, which perk lets you get rerolls all the time like that?" Kaos asked sarcastically "I've been playing since the eighth edition, and I've never heard of that one."
"Oh, I know!" ZM5 exclaimed. "It's called 'banging the MM'."
"I'll have you know It's actually 'improved banging the MM'" Scourge corrected him. "Come on, it was all on meaningless rolls. Not like he coldn't kill that gnome with a single strike. I swear I'm not going easy on him."
"I bet you're not going easy on him in bed either." ZM5 continued his attack. He was having too much fun to lay off.
"You know, I kinda wish you stayed in hiding for another twenty years, maybe you would have matured at least a little bit." Scourge grumbled.
"And what? Let my favorite socially inept girl SQ go mad?" ZM5 ruffled SQ's hair affectionately. The overseer didn't protest "I only tease you because I care. Check."
Scourge rolled her eyes. "Wrong game, Five. Let's get back to M&M."

[scourge728]

*snort*

[Darkening Kaos]

     "I feel certain that my diplomacy skills exceed Imic's, after all, my thief/warrior has recently purchased a new Warhammer, (which I have called "the diplomat", by the way)"  Prepares to roll THAC0, and grabs damage dice.