NOTE: Dwarf Fortress crashed on me halfway through summer, so I had to start again. For laughs I'm using the lost timeline to bring out the "temporally confused Urist" schtick again.
Summer, year 6'So what happened to that shield of yours, Sarvesh?' Urist asked.
Sarvesh Palacelances, a herbalist, looked confused. 'Huh? Uh... what shield are you talking about, boss?'
'That leather shield you spent so much time on in your workshop! "Excavation of Pines" or what was it called?'
'Umm... I don't remember making any leather shields, boss. Are you feeling all right?'
Urist noticed her stealing a surreptitious glance at his mug on the table.
What is he drinking? it seemed to say. He felt the familiar headache taking over again. What were these false memories? In them things had seemed to be going so well... they had a new tavern, Sarvesh had made a legendary artifact...
Well, it didn't pay to dwell on it; now there was just even more work to do. Better start cracking.
'Miners! We need a tavern everyone can fit in: start digging over there!'
It turned out that bizarrely, underneath the excavated rock in the new tavern area there was a soil floor which immediately started sprouting various subterranean molds and fungi. That wouldn't do: orders were made to start paving the tavern with nice, neat rock floor.
Seeing the half complete floor Urist was shocked. 'Uhh... was there any reason why you decided to use
bauxite blocks for the flooring? It's very... red.' he finished lamely.
'Well, it's a tavern, innit?' one of the masons reasoned. 'Which means there's going to be lots of brawling an' all. So we made the floor red, on account you can't see the blood on it.'
Well, what's done was done. It was going to be eyesore but now it couldn't be helped. While the masons worked, Urist thought about other things to do. "Excavation of Pines"... now that name gave him an idea. During the spring there hadn't been any elves around, which meant the dwarves of Cobaltearthen could freely attack the surrounding forest without any whiny treehugger coming to nag them about it. Time to do some "excavating" on the local pines, and maybe other trees as well. Oh yes.
While the woodcutters were busy turning a large part of the forest into logs, which in turn would be transformed into beds and bars of charcoal, a Human caravan from northwest Nation of Exaltation was seen in the distance.
'Greetings from the lands of humans' said the caravan leader. 'We have come to trade and... uh, was that a bridge of solid gold we just came over?'
'Yes! We have lots and lots of gold, wouldn't you like some? Now shall we trade?' Urist teased, but in the end there was no gold on the table, just various crafts and few barrels of roasts traded for metal bars, farm animals and all the cloth, leather and thread the caravan happened to have.
While the spoils of trade were being hauled away, yet another group of migrants approached from south. This time eight brave souls had made the trip across the continent:
Dishmab Godlyshoot, Shearer
Likot Walledswallows, Fishery Worker
Dumed Bellslessons, Glazer
Udib Plankearthen, Farmer
Sarvesh Blowncrypt, Suturer
Dakost Armorleagues, Glazer
Kogsak Ringsinged, Thresher
Lorbam Bridgesling, Mason
This brought the population up to 44 dwarves. As Dumed and Likot were showing some talent for military work, they were immediately drafted to The Puce Castles and issued some spare crossbows. Now total headcount of the militia was eight regular soldiers. That would be nearly enough for worthwhile defence.
Few weeks after the migrant wave, a word came that the new hospital area, alongside with an enlarged temple, was nearing completion just above the entrance level.
Getting a hospital naturally brought up the problem of staffing it.
'So...
Kogsak Ringsinged, wasn't it?' Urist leafed through migrant documents. 'It says here you're the only dwarf in the fort who has any knowledge about diagnosing patients. What other medical skills do you have?'
'We-elll, nothing as such sir' Kogsak replied calmly. 'I can butcher a carcass or dissect a fish quite handily, though, so I figured it might help a bit, wouldn't it, sir?'
'I guess it will have to do, Kogsak. It will have to do. You're hired!'
And that marked the end of summer. Few last things to finish that season were diggings for a new residential complex, along with few small offices for future managers and bookkeepers.
Sorry about the shocking tavern floor, I just happened to have a load of bauxite blocks I had to use somewhere. This fort is blessed with the most unattractive stone types imaginable: bauxite, olivine, serpentine and schist, side by side. Only thing missing are blobs of microcline in between.