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[Martin]

Gather around children, I want to tell you a story.


In the olden days, before stairs were invented and dwarves believed the world was flat, we dug our homes into the mountain, careful to not dig too deep out of fear something terrible might be unleashed. We encouraged our children to learn a task well, and maybe they'd become famous for that task, but time was always short because the world was a dangerous place. But one year we sent a number of our young dwarves out into the world to start a new mountainhome, and one among them, Morul Cattenmat, wondered if he focused on learning everything the dwarves knew, if he could hold those dangers at bay. He became the most learned and interesting of our kind, and he indeed was able to hold those dangers at bay. But Morul eventually left the mountainhome and it's time we found a successor. Much has changed since then. We invented wheelbarrows and discovered that goats were easier to milk than maggots. We domesticated bees, learned to document our knowledge, and play music. And new dangers have arrived, and we must again prepare to face them. So today we send off a another band of our young people, along with the namesake of our great hero, Morul Nicolgomath, to found a new mountainhome and once again learn all that our kind knows.


They have recently embarked and are to send us reports of their progress. When we receive word I will call you all together to hear their stories for some day we may send you off on an expedition of your own.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

9 years and many versions ago, I explored how to bring a single dwarf, Morul Cattenmat, up to legendary in all skills. I had started a sequel story for Morul which was aborted due to a combination of game breaking bugs and real life intervention. I intend to return to that in some capacity, but the game has changed enough that I really should master the changes, and what better way than to see how to achieve that same goal now!


If you missed it or weren't born yet, you can follow along here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=34933.0


Morul allowed me to learn many of the corners of the game that I simply had avoided and it had its challenges. Tools like dfhack and Dwarf Therapist were pretty primitive and not available on my platform, so I had to get a lot of things set at the beginning to allow it to happen. But now, I can just jump in and rely on those tools to regenerate extinct vermin or whatever, and the game mechanics are quite a bit more flexible than they were. Some things should be quite a bit easier but there are also a lot more skills now. At a minimum, I can train milking without Morul eating all of the purring maggots. Holy hell was that painful.


So, here's how it works: Morul Nicolgomath sets out to become legendary in every skill that we can find a way to make legendary short of simply hacking the character - social, military, craft, etc. He does that by basically being the only worker in the fort, to the extent possible. His 6 companions will serve as guards and haulers, and then when Morul has reached legendary for something, then other dwarves can start doing that task. Some things do require a bit of cheating. There's unlikely to be enough candy to train up strand extracting to legendary, and it looks like we're still dependent on moghoppers being on the map, so I may have to hack some raws to make a given skill achievable, but there is no cheating to make it go faster, etc. Previously I had modded orcs into the game to give solid military training, but sparring was pretty busted then. We'll just throw him at gobbos and see what happens, and sparring works better now.


Along the way we learn some science and build a crazy fort and possibly tantrum spiral everyone to their death. I'll turn the fortress over to the community to play with, and then figure out what I want to do for sequel concept.

[NRDL]

PT motherfucking W

[Imic]

Yeeesssss...

[Basil ii]

did morul have any children?

[Martin]

did morul have any children?

No. He had a wife, who thankfully didn't die during the fortress tantrum spiral (she was injured though) but they never had kids. Some of that was due to the low children cap I had set, but even after the spiral when most of the children were sacrificed to the bottomless pit and the fort was under the cap, they still didn't even though they may have been the only surviving married couple. That bit of science was never really answered but my theory was that because Morul pretty much never hit idle status in almost 50 years, and things like parties weren't really implemented yet, whatever trigger was needed for pregnancy simply didn't hit. I always wanted him to have kids, so I'm hoping for a better outcome here. Another possibility is that his mood was always ecstatic, even when ⅔ of the fortress died and his wife was wounded. Those are the only real constants I can think of that might have blocked the trigger firing.

[Fleeting Frames]

Spiritually, Spriggansly, yes: Korgoth.

On that note; the scholarly skills are going to take a while. The first subject? Ok, maybe start at proficient, and perhaps in a decade and half, perhaps longer, one will be legendary. The second scholarly skill? Not going to start pondering it on their own; discussion with a scholar of that skill might work at half the speed. Lets call it 45 years for each additional one. Mörul would have to be a necromancer and/or vampire, and the fortress would have to run sealed-off and lean for a while (at 400 fps could pass bit over 85 years every 24h).

Strand Extracting: I don't quite recall if it yielded that much, but at 30 exp per strand you need 1050 candy for legendary+6 status(-6 levels for rust); that might be doable in 4 veins (and with adjusting worldgen bottom to be fatter, you can have four digits candy per vein).

Musical Skills: I haven't paid attention enough, but if dwarves focus on only their preferred musical skills only way to train the ones they won't use would be in adventure mode.

Animal Caretaker: Does feeding animals even yield any exp in this?

Social skills: If personality isn't right, Mörul will never be Liar or the like. Also, not sure consoling increases consoler?

Blowgunner: Need to ensure you embark on group of subterranean animal people, then steal theirs, and use repeating doors/boltfall towers to reuse the ammunition until user is legendary.

Climber: Like blowgunner, going to need bit of setup; most setups use water, though I've seen a miner frantically climb out from 1x1 pit too, which might be useful if top walls are smooth.

[Martin]

Spiritually, Spriggansly, yes: Korgoth.

Ah, missed that thread. Shame he didn't finish - it is a real slog and takes a massive amount of patience. There's a reason people don't do this...

On that note; the scholarly skills are going to take a while. The first subject? Ok, maybe start at proficient, and perhaps in a decade and half, perhaps longer, one will be legendary. The second scholarly skill? Not going to start pondering it on their own; discussion with a scholar of that skill might work at half the speed. Lets call it 45 years for each additional one. Mörul would have to be a necromancer and/or vampire, and the fortress would have to run sealed-off and lean for a while (at 400 fps could pass bit over 85 years every 24h).

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. But, hey, it's science. Perhaps what I need to do is start his companions pondering in these areas so that when Morul gets there, they're already legendary+n and can tow him along. Worth a go at least.

Strand Extracting: I don't quite recall if it yielded that much, but at 30 exp per strand you need 1050 candy for legendary+6 status(-6 levels for rust); that might be doable in 4 veins (and with adjusting worldgen bottom to be fatter, you can have four digits candy per vein).

Yeah, I don't mind simply hacking more material in to do this. Last time I was modifying the raws of other materials to give this skill. Didn't speed the process up any, so maybe we invent a mechanism whereby they import raw candy. Not a problem.

Musical Skills: I haven't paid attention enough, but if dwarves focus on only their preferred musical skills only way to train the ones they won't use would be in adventure mode.

We'll find out! Maybe this is a place where we do need to hack the game a bit to overcome what seems like an arbitrary limitation. If he hits legendary in keyboard and refuses to pick up another instrument, maybe we need to clear keyboard out so he'll tackle the next one and then when the music is done we add them back in. Again, doesn't speed things up, just overcomes an odd limitation in the game. We'll try other things along the way - forbidding all keyboards and whatever.

Animal Caretaker: Does feeding animals even yield any exp in this?

Is that a thing now? Then I had to assign all the dogs to him and let them all get injured when he went out to fight the orcs. I'm hoping this one is a bit more direct to work on now.

Social skills: If personality isn't right, Mörul will never be Liar or the like. Also, not sure consoling increases consoler?

Had the same problem them. It wasn't really possible to hack their personality, but I think I can do that now. I may not get all of them, but we'll try.

Blowgunner: Need to ensure you embark on group of subterranean animal people, then steal theirs, and use repeating doors/boltfall towers to reuse the ammunition until user is legendary.

I don't see why some caravan can't just so happen to have a blowgun and ammo on it. I'm a capitalist. Seems to me if Morul puts out word that he'll pay good money for blowgun ammo, the trading world will find a way to bring it to him.

Climber: Like blowgunner, going to need bit of setup; most setups use water, though I've seen a miner frantically climb out from 1x1 pit too, which might be useful if top walls are smooth.

Yeah, swimmer was a PITA last time for the same reason. One benefit of this is that I learn how to develop reliable/efficient ways to solve each of these problems. Hopefully I won't have to pit him a million times. There were some then we couldn't do - thrower, etc. It's just how it is. Can we find a way to do knapper? Do we add a reasonable reaction for that? Seems like a straightforward enough skill to do in a workshop. Those adventure mode only skills are tricky, or do we decide to take Morul out into the world after the fortress skills are done and have him sharpen knives and climb trees for a while? Maybe. This is going to be a long journey. We'll figure it out as we go.

[Martin]

Report from Mörul Nicolgomath, 8th Slate 88.


We have arrived safely at the new mountainhome, a remarkable but unusual place that has left the others a bit concerned, but which I believe will suit us well. We followed the great river to a point where it met another and resulted in a waterfall of immense height. Scouting the edge we realized that a large volcano shares this location and that sign of good fortune that served Lashedwines so well may serve us as well. We descended from the falls into the valley below, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a sheer cliff face at our disposal. The great river is teeming with shad and trout and salmon, and there are eagles and turkeys about as well. Plenty of trees - bayberry, and pear, and apricot so that we can cook as the humans do. The only bit of bad news is that we used the frozen river to cross to a more favorable position in the valley and upon crossing realized the ice was soon to give way. In our haste to salvage the goods and livestock we brought with us, we left the booze to last and it was lost to the river. Our toast to the new mountainhome would have to wait. I've spent the first few days gathering plants and I am taking a short break from building a still to write this, but tonight we shall toast and celebrate our new home, and tomorrow I shall strike the earth.


In some ways I feel unprepared to be here. I've focused so much on learning dwarven culture and traditions, learning how to lead an expedition of young dwarves and start a mountainhome, and yet I've never felled a tree or mined a stone. I carry with me tomes written by the scholars at Bukètkoshosh so I feel knowledgable of the world yet inexperienced. But that is why I'm here, isn't it? We will send regular word back. It may not always be by my hand given the work ahead of us, but you will hear our story.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I spent less time planning this effort than the previous one. For one, I do have a lot more experience now to rely on. We were barely into the z-level period when I did this before. And the tools to compensate for poor planning are better now, so we'll just dive in. Over the years I've build a lot of fortresses, and participated in a number of competitions as well, so I expect this to not focus exclusively on Moruls task but also on the construction of the fortress itself, and it's a pretty cool location for one, I think. The volcano sits 45z above the river floor. I chose to not include the waterfall on the map because the river is 30 wide and a 45z x 30 waterfall, while epic, would reduce my FPS to intolerable levels. I expect to build much of the fortress in the 45z surface/cliffside space above the river incorporating the volcano. At Lashedwines I chose to drain the magma pipe and build Moruls suite inside of it, and I may do something like that again, or maybe something different. I may choose to cast the fortress out of obsidian, or other pointlessly stupid things. I think we can assume the river will get dammed at some point. The volcano extends from z75 to z148. The river is at z102. The possibilities are endless.


It's a 5x5 embark to give enough space to build and hunt. Hunting was a huge challenge before to allow enough space for sneaking. There's flux, sand, and clay including fire clay on the map. So all of those boxes check. The sand is quite high up so there may be some map collapsing to get it where I want it. The clay I've found is down by the river. There's iron on the map, but it's not visible, and at least 2 candy spires. And obsidian. There should be 3 caverns since I didn't modify any of that kind of stuff. I'll get an upload onto DFMA once I remember how. And Flash still? [smh]


The dwarves are unmodified at embark other than Morul's name, and no embark points were added. We left with a typical embark for me - 1 axe, 1 pick, some booze, a LOT of raw food, a breeding pair of cats and war dogs. I typically get a bare minimum shelter started, then make meals out of the food as it gives a good early trade item. The booze was lost when I used dfhack to teleport the trade items off the ice before it melted on day 2. I could have salvaged the booze, but I figured there should be some penalty to embarking in the middle of a river. I've started with much worse.


Morul really has very little in the way of starting skills. I focused on putting a toehold in social things - student, teacher, wordsmith, critical thinker, poet, musician, dancer. Here's his profile:


  Mörul Nicolgomath, "Mörul Afterlegend", Peasant   
"I finished up some work.  I am very satisfied."
He is annoyed when caught in the rain.  He feels satisfied at work.  Within the last season, he felt fondness talking with a friend. 
He is a worshipper of Onget Goldgorge. 
He is a citizen of The Ancient Rim.  He is a member of The Prestigious Standards.  He arrived at Zatthudasmel on the 15th of Granite in the year 88. 
He is twenty years old, born on the 12th of Sandstone in the year 68. 
His long sideburns are neatly combed.  His medium-length moustache is arranged in double braids.  His very long beard is braided.  His hair is clean-shaven. He has very low cheekbones, and he has a deeply recessed chin.  His raw umber eyes have large irises.  His small-lobed ears are somewhat short.  His lips are slightly thick.  His nose is slightly hooked.  His hair is russet.  His skin is pale taupe. 
He is susceptible to disease and quite clumsy. 
Mörul Nicolgomath likes cinnabar, pig iron, blue jade, coral, giant skink bone, the color lime, scepters and ducks for their quacks.  When possible, he prefers to consume goat, lettuces and papaya wine.  He absolutely detests bark scorpions. 
He has an amazing spatial sense and a way with words. 
Like others in his culture, he holds craftsdwarfship to be of the highest ideals and celebrates talented artisans and their masterworks, has a great deal of respect for the law, greatly prizes loyalty, values family greatly, sees friendship as one of the finer things in life, believes that honesty is a high ideal, greatly respects artists and their works, really respects those that take the time to master a skill, deeply respects those that work hard at their labors, respects fair-dealing and fair-play, values cooperation, values martial prowess, respects commerce, values knowledge and finds nature somewhat disturbing.  He personally sees introspection as important, sees merrymaking as a waste and finds leisure time wasteful.  He dreams of crafting a masterwork someday.
He is quick to form negative views about things.  He is very humble.  He has an active sense of humor.  He has a noticeable lack of perseverance.  He doesn't seek out excitement.  He takes offered help and gifts without feeling particularly grateful.  He does not have a great aesthetic sensitivity, and he is conflicted by this as he values artwork and its creation.  He is curious and eager to learn.  He is not particularly interested in what others think of him.  He  sticks out his tongue when he's thinking hard.  His hands move frantically when he's trying to remember something.  He needs alcohol to get through the working day.  He likes working outdoors and grumbles only mildly at inclement weather. 
Overall, Mörul is somewhat focused with satisfied needs.  He is level-headed after spending time with people.  He is unfettered after staying occupied.  He is not distracted after being unable to acquire something.  He is unfocused after being kept from alcohol.  He is not distracted after a lack of decent meals.  He is not distracted after being unable to fight.  He is not distracted after a lack of trouble-making.  He is not distracted after being unable to argue.  He is not distracted after being unable to be extravagant.  He is not distracted after not learning anything.  He is not distracted after being unable to help anybody.  He is not distracted after a lack of abstract thinking.  He is not distracted after being unable to admire art.  He is not distracted after being unable to practice a craft.  He is not distracted after being away from family.  He is level-headed after being with friends.  He is not distracted after a lack of introspection.  He is not distracted after being unable to practice a martial art.  He is unfettered after practicing a skill.  He is not distracted after being unable to pray to Onget Goldgorge.  A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry.


Pretty sure I'm going to have to figure out how to make war ducks. Skilling strategy comes later. Morul needs to run around and just get the basics set up. He'll probably hit legendary miner just out of that effort. Will take a few seasons as none of the other dwarves can do anything but military and haul until Morul hits legendary in a skill. Plenty of time to work out a strategy.


I'll introduce the other dwarves as we go, but their points are all in military/scholar areas. There wasn't much story behind the other occupants of Lashedwines, but I think this situation will be different. I think the other dwarves have a more prominent role to play in helping Morul along. All dwarves have had their age reset to 20, so we should be good for at least a century.

[NJW2000]

PTW

[Fleeting Frames]

If you want to take him out to the world, you're going to need to start him as adventurer. Though there are some things you can do with companions (I'm not clear what the limits are), your adventuring character won't be able to recruit someone more awesome than them.

Dwarves with animal caretaker enabled feed hungry grazers on chain - mostly useless, unless you're trying to raise elk birds or elephants on a glacier. I don't know if there's a way to raise them with injured pets? Dwarves don't treat them in vanilla, so what action boosts the skill?

Personally, my flavour of vanilla purism is looking for a vanilla, even exploity, way to do something before considering modding or hacking alternatives. A weapon that shoots lies or workshop that boosts user in desired arbitrary skill are neat little modding projects, but they don't really say much about the skill they use if you have renamed legendary marksdwarf/carpenter.

But you do you; it is clear that asking questions like "reliable and efficient way to obtain a legendary butcher" misses the most common point (higher-quality and faster jobs) for having a skill leveled to legendary. There's near no benefit to better purely scholarly skills, either.

(Honestly, I think withouts mods or hacks Swimmer is the easiest to train skill out of those I mentioned - I'm fond of training whole fort via military alert into 1x1 burrow that then gets water added in - so if training Swimmer is too finicky just forget training the rest of those skills the expected way.)

[NJW2000]

Yeah, starting with him as an adventurer would let you use the demigod start, as well as letting you train some skills otherwise untrainable like thrower. Furthermore, you could always unretire him if unforeseen circumstances necessitated it.

Then again, it's perfectly understandable if you want to keep to Dwarf FORTRESS.

[Martin]

If you want to take him out to the world, you're going to need to start him as adventurer. Though there are some things you can do with companions (I'm not clear what the limits are), your adventuring character won't be able to recruit someone more awesome than them.

Dwarves with animal caretaker enabled feed hungry grazers on chain - mostly useless, unless you're trying to raise elk birds or elephants on a glacier. I don't know if there's a way to raise them with injured pets? Dwarves don't treat them in vanilla, so what action boosts the skill?

Personally, my flavour of vanilla purism is looking for a vanilla, even exploity, way to do something before considering modding or hacking alternatives. A weapon that shoots lies or workshop that boosts user in desired arbitrary skill are neat little modding projects, but they don't really say much about the skill they use if you have renamed legendary marksdwarf/carpenter.

But you do you; it is clear that asking questions like "reliable and efficient way to obtain a legendary butcher" misses the most common point (higher-quality and faster jobs) for having a skill leveled to legendary. There's near no benefit to better purely scholarly skills, either.

(Honestly, I think withouts mods or hacks Swimmer is the easiest to train skill out of those I mentioned - I'm fond of training whole fort via military alert into 1x1 burrow that then gets water added in - so if training Swimmer is too finicky just forget training the rest of those skills the expected way.)

Yeah, I agree overall. I try to do things as vanilla as possible - this is a science effort after all. But there are some arbitrary restrictions to get around. Why can we only dissect certain animals? Expanding that to similar ones seems reasonable. We can't make a blowgun, so why can't we just buy one? So, I may spawn a blowgun during a trading encounter.


Some of the medical skills will be tough. I need to decide between deliberately harming my dwarves to give him someone to skill on, or finding a reasonable alternative. Now, that problem may solve itself through ambushes, we'll see, but a workshop that takes a dead gobbo as a reagent and produces a small amount of suturing isn't unreasonable to me. For training lies, I'm inclined to just make a temporary change to his personality via dfhack to allow that to skill up, and then merge the result.

[Fleeting Frames]

You can make a blowgun (via a bowyer mood). The problem, as the Swiss grasp, is ammo, which you can only loot from cavern civ (though if your embark doesn't have any, an adventurer could potentially hunt down a group and bring some on site).

You can spam diagonosis requests on a dwarf by having no crutches in fort but an injury that requires one. (1 each day, as I showed in latest Solstice Chronicle).

I've read that a dwarf may become legendary surgeon when operating for four months on 1 dwarf caught in the cloud of skin rotting fb.

Other three, I'm not sure how to go about limiting sacrifices for.

[Martin]

Report from Sibrek Ulabkubuk, 18th Galena 88.


Morul turned over expedition leader duties to me so he could focus on his work. Morul has dug out a rudimentary shelter and should have beds installed soon, and then will turn back to food and booze production as we routinely run out. We have named this place Zatthudasmel. He tilled a pair of small farm plots and planted plump helmets and sweet pods. The rest of the fortress has 3 main jobs. Right now hauling the things so that Morul need not, which we take turns doing, and military training because we know danger is coming and we are not up to handling any kind of serious threat. Fortunately, nobody knows we're here - we've hardly left a mark on this place so far, but we can hear trade caravans passing near our location and soon we'll want to trade with one. Word will spread and danger will come. Once we get a bit more settled we'll return to our scholarly work as well. It was nice to get away from our studies in the mountainhome, but we are getting restless hoping to return to it.


We've been discussing how we want to develop this land, and defending it will be very challenging. Being low in the valley means that threats will come from above, and the advantage of height is extremely powerful. Only Morul seemed confident we could do this, so I hope he is correct. Much of this goes against what our elders have taught us: "Dig deep into the earth, force them to move in the dark, through dwarven traps and into dangers they are unfamiliar with." Morul has studied the humans and elves as much as the dwarves, and they seem to thrive above ground, so it is possible, but unfamiliar. He tells a tale written by the humans of scholars who live high up in their mountains and spend their time between studying and military training. It sounds very much as we've been trained to do - and I think this is what Morul intends to build here - a great mountainhome, only partially in the mountain, a city of scholars and warriors. We like the sound of that. Only Morul is excited about chopping trees.


We will be in contact again next season. There is much to do before then.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sibrek is a proficient Macedwarf and Logician. Ideally I'll skill him up almost exclusively in those two areas.



  Sibrek Ulabkubuk, "Sibrek Squirtlances", expedition leader   
"I've been rained on.  It's annoying."
He is annoyed when caught in the rain.  Within the last season, he was annoyed after drinking water without a well.  He felt love remembering  a new romance.  He didn't feel anything after being unable to practice a craft for too long.  He felt fondness talking with a friend.  He was annoyed after sleeping in the grass.  He felt satisfied after getting into an argument.  He felt tenderness talking with a lover.  He was annoyed dwelling upon  having a drink without using a goblet, cup or mug.  He was annoyed after sleeping in the dirt.  He felt satisfied after getting into an argument.  He felt euphoric due to inebriation.  He was annoyed after having a drink without using a goblet, cup or mug.  He was annoyed at the lack of chairs.  He felt satisfied after getting into an argument. 
He is romantically involved with Logem Brasspine.  He is a worshipper of Tosid Healguard. 
He is a citizen of The Ancient Rim.  He is a member of The Prestigious Standards.  He is the expedition leader of The Prestigious Standards.  He is the militia commander of The Prestigious Standards.  He arrived at Zatthudasmel on the 15th of Granite in the year 88. 
He is twenty years old, born on the 7th of Malachite in the year 68. 
He is thin but has incredible muscles.  His very long sideburns are braided.  His medium-length moustache is arranged in double braids.  His medium-length beard is braided.  His hair is clean-shaven.  His raw umber eyes are protruding.  He has very low cheekbones.  His lips are thick.  His ears are somewhat broad.  His hair is russet.  His skin is pale taupe. 
He is mighty, but he is slow to heal. 
Sibrek Ulabkubuk likes periclase, aluminum, green diamond, amber, clouds, bucklers, cavies for their adorable call, termites for their ability to devour wood, the words of The Mines of Iron and the sight of The Poem of Smiles.  When possible, he prefers to consume asparagus, mead and sliver barb seeds.  He absolutely detests large roaches. 
He has a natural ability with music, very good intuition and a good memory, but he has a questionable spatial sense, next to no empathy and lousy creativity. 
Like others in his culture, he holds craftsdwarfship to be of the highest ideals and celebrates talented artisans and their masterworks, has a great deal of respect for the law, greatly prizes loyalty, values family greatly, sees friendship as one of the finer things in life, believes that honesty is a high ideal, greatly respects artists and their works, really respects those that take the time to master a skill, deeply respects those that work hard at their labors, respects fair-dealing and fair-play, values cooperation, finds merrymaking and partying worthwhile activities, values martial prowess, values leisure time, respects commerce, values knowledge and finds nature somewhat disturbing.  He dreams of raising a family. 
He does everything in his power to avoid excitement and stress. He does not easily hate or develop negative feelings.  He is stubborn.  He occasionally overindulges.  He doesn't tend to hold on to grievances.  He has an active sense of humor.  He doesn't mind a little tumult and discord in day-to-day living.  He likes to keep things practical, without delving too deeply into the abstract.  He is not particularly interested in what others think of him.  He licks his lips when he's nervous.  He gnaws his lips when he's annoyed.  He needs alcohol to get through the working day.  He likes working outdoors and grumbles only mildly at inclement weather. 
Overall, Sibrek is unfocused by unmet needs.  He is level-headed after spending time with people.  He is unfocused after being unoccupied.  He is unfocused after doing nothing creative.  He is unfocused after being unable to acquire something.  He is unfocused after being kept from alcohol.  He is unfocused after a lack of decent meals.  He is unfocused after being unable to fight.  He is not distracted after a lack of trouble-making.  He is not distracted after being unable to argue.  He is unfocused after being unable to be extravagant. He is unfocused after not learning anything.  He is unfocused after being unable to help anybody.  He is unfocused after being unable to make merry.  He is unfocused after being unable to admire art.  He is distracted after being unable to practice a craft.  He is unfocused after being away from family.  He is level-headed after being with friends.  He is unfocused after being unable to practice a martial art.  He is unfocused after being unable to practice a skill.  He is unfocused after being unable to take it easy.  He is unfocused after being unable to pray to Tosid Healguard.  A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry.

[Martin]

Report from Mosus Zegkadol, 9th Felsite 89.


We tried to send word but the winters here are very harsh. Parts of the river barely melt in summer, but we are all well. Sibrek suggested I write because Monom and I got married! We're still so excited. The mountainhome is coming along slowly. Morul has been running all over and steadily improving life for us. He's really excited to finally be able to put his studies to use. He's getting better at so many things and the practice is really making him faster at doing the work. Every time he builds something he remarks about how he'll be able to do it better. Food and booze are a bit scarce still, but that's to be expected after winter. The spring crops are planted, and the fortress is expanding.


We've been spending our time training and patrolling the area. The ruggedness of the terrain is going to make combat difficult but we're forming plans on how to deal with that. I think the plans are really starting to become solid, and Moruls digging is increasingly confident, so we expect big things this year. In the fall a trade caravan came very near the fortress but we avoided trading. A dwarven diplomat stopped by to see how we were doing but we asked him to keep our existence quiet for now as we still don't want to attract attention. We'll be ready for trade in the fall so send some wagons to us then.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mosus is a proficient Hammerdwarf and proficient Fluid Engineer.



  Mosus Zegkadol, "Mosus Tattoohatchets", Peasant   
"I feel so good!"
She feels euphoric due to inebriation.  She is annoyed when caught in the rain.  Within the last season, she was annoyed after having a drink without using a goblet, cup or mug.  She felt fondness talking with a friend.  She was bored after being unable to practice a craft for too long.  She was bored after doing nothing creative for so long.  She was uneasy after being unable to acquire something for too long.  She was uneasy after being unable to help anybody for too long.  She was uneasy after being unable to admire art for so long.  She was annoyed dwelling upon  having a drink without using a goblet, cup or mug.  She felt tenderness talking with the spouse.  She felt tenderness remembering  talking with the spouse.  She was annoyed at the lack of chairs.  She felt euphoric due to inebriation.  She felt fondness remembering  a new romance.  She was embarrassed dwelling upon  sleeping without a proper room.  She was embarrassed after sleeping without a proper room.  She felt satisfied after getting into an argument.  She was annoyed when caught in a snow storm.  She felt euphoric due to inebriation. 
She is married to Monom Palacespell.  She is a worshipper of Lurit. 
She is a citizen of The Ancient Rim.  She is a member of The Prestigious Standards.  She is  of The Prestigious Standards.  She arrived at Zatthudasmel on the 15th of Granite in the year 88. 
She is twenty-one years old, born on the 23rd of Galena in the year 68. 
Her narrow raw umber eyes have very large irises.  Her hair is clean-shaven.  She has very low cheekbones.  Her lips are slightly thick.  Her small-lobed broad ears are somewhat short.  Her nose is slightly hooked.  Her nose bridge is somewhat concave.  Her hair is russet.  Her skin is pale taupe. 
She is slow to tire, but she is flimsy and very weak. 
Mosus Zegkadol likes calcite, trifle pewter, yellow zircon, the color goldenrod, millstones, flasks, impala men for their mighty leaps, the words of The Rainy Zephyr, the sound of The Cardinal Gloss and the sight of The Lyrical Droplet.  When possible, she prefers to consume sea serpent, turnip wine and blood amaranth flour.  She absolutely detests mussels. 
She has a great feel for the surrounding space and a good intellect, but she has poor empathy and meager creativity. 
Like others in her culture, she holds craftsdwarfship to be of the highest ideals and celebrates talented artisans and their masterworks, has a great deal of respect for the law, greatly prizes loyalty, values family greatly, sees friendship as one of the finer things in life, believes that honesty is a high ideal, greatly respects artists and their works, really respects those that take the time to master a skill, deeply respects those that work hard at their labors, respects fair-dealing and fair-play, values cooperation, finds merrymaking and partying worthwhile activities, values martial prowess, values leisure time, respects commerce, values knowledge and finds nature somewhat disturbing.  She personally strongly values tranquility and quiet (due to a new romance in 88) and finds those that deny their impulses somewhat stiff.  She dreams of raising a family. 
She is moved by art and natural beauty, and she is troubled by this since she dislikes the natural world.  She finds obligations confining, though she is conflicted by this for more than one reason.  She prefers that everyone live as harmoniously as possible.  She doesn't cling tightly to ideas and is open to changing her mind.  She tends to avoid crowds.  She generally acts impartially and is rarely moved to mercy.  She tends to avoid any physical confrontations, and she works to square this natural tendency with her respect of martial prowess.  She is somewhat quarrelsome, and she is bothered by this since she values friendship.  She finds helping others emotionally rewarding.  She is slow to trust others.  She has a greedy streak.  She  is currently more rude.  She  is currently more fearless.  She  is currently more confident.  She  is currently more shameless.  She  is currently less private.  She  is currently more thoughtless.  She tends to stretch out when she's bored.  She needs alcohol to get through the working day.  She likes working outdoors and grumbles only mildly at inclement weather. 
Overall, Mosus is unfocused by unmet needs.  She is unfocused after being unoccupied.  She is distracted after doing nothing creative.  She is unfocused after leading an unexciting life.  She is distracted after being unable to acquire something.  She is unfettered after drinking.  She is unfocused after a lack of decent meals.  She is not distracted after being unable to argue.  She is unfocused after being unable to be extravagant.  She is unfocused after not learning anything.  She is distracted after being unable to help anybody.  She is unfocused after a lack of abstract thinking.  She is unfocused after being unable to make merry.  She is distracted after being unable to admire art.  She is distracted after being unable to practice a craft.  She is unfettered after being with family.  She is unfettered after being with friends.  She is unfocused after being unable to practice a martial art.  She is unfocused after being unable to practice a skill.  She is unfocused after being unable to take it easy.  She is unfocused after being unable to pray to Lurit.  A short, sturdy creature fond of drink and industry.


Getting through the winter was a bit challenging. The booze stocks remain low. Starting with no skills for really basic things like brewing and herbalist makes it hard to really get ahead much. But, those skills will need to come up eventually, so no harm done just handling the work around the place. I've got the basic idea of the fortress worked out in my head, a combination of fortress types I've made in the past, and I think I may have an incredibly stupid idea for the volcano. I'll start putting the skill list together soon. It's a lot longer than it used to be...