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[Travis Bickle]

Don't forget to take that vampire out of the militia squad. Unless, of course, you were planning on having her hunt forgotten beasts.

[Staalo]

"Are you awake? Can you hear me?"

"_...wsf?"

"Bembül? Uh, just blink if you can understand me. Carefully!"

"_{wdhbbn? nnnnn mhdhrz...}"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bembül opened his eyes. Staalo breathed a relieved sigh.

"Thank Thukkan you're alive! We thought we'd lost you for a few times already."

"What... happened? Uhh... I didn't get... Imic'd suddenly, or did I?" Bembül felt his neck.

"No no, don't try to get up - you've lost a lot of blood. The vampire tried to eat you but luckily she was interrupted."

"That... that explains why I feel like a skin of carrot wine after Captain Roughgully has had his way with it. Did you say 'she?' You found who the vampire is?"

"Yes! She was Zefol Atticpoint, from your squad. Unfortunately she managed to escape into caverns before we caught her."

"Hmmm. She's probably gone for good, then. Well, you have my gratitude for my saving me. Just ask me anything _and" Bembül sank back to his hospital bed. "Schist! Just how much blood I lost, exactly?"

"Nearly all of it", a measured voice broke in behind them. Chief medical dwarf 'Doc' Wavedshot walked in. "There couldn't have been more than a thimbleful left. So you're going to stay here awhile, rest and regain your strength."

'Doc' turned towards Staalo. "And I thank you for not bothering my patient overmuch, Mr. Pillarmagic. Don't you have... a fortress to run?"

"Wh... how do you..?"

"Some of us have also had encounters with a certain hat, Mr. Pillarmagic. So I bid you good day, and good luck... overseer."

Staalo left, confused but happy. The vampire was gone, and had been denied one last victim. And knowing that there were other overseers out there, past and future, made the burden just a little bit easier.

Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

I promise to get on with actual fortress gameplay in my next update. All this exposition is getting out of hand.

[Imic]

Your writing is superb, Staalo. Don’t feel like you have to post a specific quota of pure gameplay.

[Staalo]

Midsummer.

It seemed like a great weight had been removed from the collective shoulders of the entire fortress. The vampire was gone and people could finally sleep in peace, without fear of being greedily drained dry like the last wine pot in the fortress. More smiles were seen on the corridors of Doomhollow, and in general dwarves went to their jobs with spring in their step.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The most visibe indication of lightened spirits was seen when one day ranger Dastot Treasuresabre suddenly laughed in a fit of divine inspiration and went off to create a wondrous musical instrument for everyone's enjoyment.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This instrument would surely be put to good use by Doomhollow's burgeoning cultural scene, which was centered on the renovated The Fragrance of Purging. Tavern's new rental rooms now housed a motley crew of various entertainers who peddled their arts daily in the spacious common room.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To keep the tavern well supplied, kitchens and stills were already running at the nearly complete new food production area. Although some dwarves complained about rather unorthodox layout, no one could fault the convenience of this new location.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Access to finished drinks and roasts was even easier; their stockpiles were only few steps away from the main floor.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New farms and nesting rooms were also immediately accessible from the kitchens. All grazing animals were moved to a vast indoor pasture, safe from predators. Doors were still missing from some enclosures, but they would follow shortly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Door shortage was also felt elsewhere in the fortress. With a vampire at loose it had made sense to keep bedrooms doorless, but now huge production runs of doors, cabinets and coffers were ordered to give everyone some privacy and comfort. It was estimated the fortress would need hundreds of new doors to fill every empty doorway.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While the summer was turning towards autumn, some effort was made to improve workshop efficiency. Similar workshops were moved together to benefit from a common resource stockpile. Some completely new spaces were built for soap production and other previously ignored crafts.

Now, for once, the fort seemed to be running smoothly and safely. Staalo felt himself relax while watching the dwarves going on with their daily tasks, without problems, without panic. Everything was going well.

Maybe this overseer business wasn't so bad after all.

[Staalo]

Air outside was noticeably colder, heralding the arrival of autumn and another caravan. With it came also outpost liaison Etur Violetmines who had big news for Doomhollow.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"A... barony?" exclaimed mayor Minkot Paddlestabbed. "A barony! This is a great opportunity! A great honor!"

"Indeed, my good mayor. So I suggest finding a suitable candidate for a baron as soon as possible. These things can't be delayed, you know!"

"I... of course. I'll put the word out immediately!"

Nobility was bestowed in dwarven culture via a method called a polite discussion with local rivals, a process which could involve anything up to and including a heated fistfight. Luckily permanent injuries from the selection process were very rare, lifelong feuds and grudges less so.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the end it was Vucar Boulderteaches who wore her rivals out through sheer bloodymindedness and monstrous sense of self-importance. She herself maintained she won by virtue of her regal bearing and noble countenance, a claim that caused a lot of embarrassed coughing whenever it was brought up. There might have been something in her words, though: her bulging eyes and splayed ears certainly reminded some of historical rulers from the more tangled family trees. Compared to those paintings about nobles who seemed to be almost entirely composed of teeth or chin, Vucar appeared almost common.

"What... *ahem* Hwat a glorious day!" the newly appointed baroness gloated. "I have always maintained there was something separating us from the common rabble. Haven't I, Libash?"

"Yes, dear." Her husband Libash Yawnedrag had learned long ago that it was just easier to not argue.

"But we really can't be seen in a dreadful hovel like this, one in our position must think of appearances. We need a new house to suit our status in the societeah. Isn't that right, Libash?"

"Yes, dear."

"We need to find someone to make the arrangements, sureleah they can't expect a baroness to handle these matters herself, do they? Oh, it's so hard to find decent help these days! Isn't it, Libash?"

"Yes, dear."

"'Yes dear, yes dear!' Don't you ever say anything else?"

"Yes, dear. Um... no, dear?" Libash's brain had engaged just a bit too late. "Yes, dear."

"Hmph! Oh, there's someone planning a workshop! Yoo-hoo! You there, my good man! A word, please!"

"Y-yes?" Staalo had been startled from his thoughts.

"My good man, as your new baroness we requireah new accommodations to suit our position. We have formulated a list of requirements; nothing extravagant of course, just bare necessities..."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Everything in ordah? Jolly good! Remember we like electrum; we trust the decorations will be handled accordingly. Off you go then, my man!"

Staalo was left standing stunned in the middle of newly carved statue plaza. He sensed trouble ahead.

Just when things had been going so well.

[Travis Bickle]

Good thing we have plenty of ore for electrum.

[Staalo]

We have plenty of EVERYTHING. There was even a repeating order to smelt electrum already in place. How did you guys manage to hoard this much stuff in just few years?


Newly promoted baroness and her increasingly megalomaniac demands threw a wrench into many projects all around the fort.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New library next to tavern, roomier, airier and situated in a way which discouraged dwarves trying to eat their lunches there, was postponed. It would be completed eventually but for now it was in a sad state.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Extension to the forges to store coal, flux and ores was finished, but hauling ore and bars to their right places would still take months with reduced workforce.

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New leatherworker's and bone carver's workshops were now in place. Still few workshops remained in hard to reach places.

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On the other hand, baroness's mansion and tomb were progressing smoothly. They probably would be completed in time before her crowning. Only obstacle was a shortage of electrum, her favorite metal, and smelters were now churning it out at full speed.

While the mansion was getting its final engravings, performer Thîkut Tacticbridges suddenly stiffened in the middle of the library and started blubbering in a strange language. He marched stiffly into a craftsdwarf's workshop and started working like a dwarf possessed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He emerged with an apparently useless bone gauntlet of which he claimed to have no recollection. Since it was adorned with his own image some dwarves called him "a Thukkan-damned liar" and "full of schist." Situation escalated into a fistfight in which Thîkut proved the bone gauntlet to be a very effective weapon indeed, before the fortress guard broke up the rabble.

With no further distractions autumn gradually grew darker and colder while the work progressed. Just before the winter began, horrifying noises were heard from the caverns.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A Forgotten Beast. As if the caverns didn't already have enough monsters...

[scourge728]

Is that performer even part of our fort?

[Staalo]

Is that performer even part of our fort?

He's a long term resident approved by some earlier overseer. I didn't even know they could get moody.


Time was running out.

Soon the rutile hat would demand to be given to a new overseer who would then in turn steer Doomhollow forward, dodging potential catastrophes one after another. It would only delay the inevitable, but still it would be a noble cause; to ensure they at least would go into their demise heads held up high, instead of gibbering wrecks reduced to near animals.

Staalo went to his cabinet to look at the purple, misshapen object. He knew the whisperings would in time point a worthy dwarf among Doomshollow citizens, he would hand the hat over in secret, and that would be it. The trial would be over.

But there was so much to do! So many things were unfinished! How could he finish everything in such a short time?

He didn't know but by Thukkan he would try.

[Staalo]

A terrifying, bubbling roar echoed in the eternal, suffocating darkness of the caverns. It was followed by crackle of toppling fungal trees, huge ancient trunks which were thrown aside like cheap toy hammers by a tantruming child. Then another roar, closer this time.

A vaguely dwarf-like figure rose up from among the floor fungus and slowly, jerkily scanned the darkness with her unnatural eyes. Zefon the Doomhollow vampire craned her head and sniffed the still, oppressing air. She couldn't detect the Forgotten Beast, but she knew it was there, somewhere. And it would no doubt already know about her.

Sooner or later there would be a confrontation. Monster against monster.

[Travis Bickle]

From the Private Papers of Doc
Dated: Autumn 503
Staalo has done a fine job overall of finishing my work of making the fortress secure. Although I don't think I would have personally gone so far as to seal off the original ground level, bringing our livestock inside was a wise move. This has allowed him to tackle the fortress itself, expanding several sections of the fortress, including the formerly crowded library and tavern. I can only hope that Staalo's expansions to these areas will not encourage more vampires to show up. I would prefer that our present state of being vampire-free would continue as long as I'm here in the fortress.

With all that said, I'm a bit uneasy about the future of the fortress. One of the residents is being promoted to the nobility and she seems to be a bit eccentric. I do not number myself amongst the dwarves who hate the nobility as a concept—many of the well-established noble families frequently prove themselves to be capable leaders—but Doomhollow isn't the first frontier fortress I've been in, and it's been my experience that these new nobles appointed from the general population tend to let the power go to their head. Once that happens, they're inclined to make bad decisions that put lives at risk.

I should probably be optimistic. Minkot is still the mayor as of now and she proved herself as a good leader and a friend during my term as overseer. As long as she is around to keep our new noble in check, hopefully things will not go too badly.

[Staalo]

"Thief! Protect the hoard from skulking filth!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Winter began with a minor commotion outside when a stray war dog chased an ugly squat humanoid across the landscape. The intruder, a wandering thief from some nearby kobold cave, ultimately foiled the war dog's attempts and escaped. This caused some grumbling among dwarves who had gathered outside to watch the chase; clearly there had been some betting happening, and many dwarves had put their money on the dog.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shortly after the incident came news about two new hillocks being built in the vicinity of Doomhollow. Clearly a new barony attracted new migrants to the area, further securing the foothold of The Greatest Tombs here in the northern half of The Noiseless Continent.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After the latest migrant wave it had become obvious Doomhollow was facing a housing shortage. Luckily this was one of the easier problems to solve in a fortress and a whole new residential district was planned to be built to a prime central location.

While the new rooms were dug out, days grew shorter and shorter. Skies clouded up and snowstorms blanketed the landscape with heavy white cover. It was the coldest and gloomiest winter on anyones memory, and it only seemed to get worse each passing day.

On the darkest, coldest day of midwinter, disaster struck Doomhollow.

[Staalo]

Dawn broke, sending pale, feeble rays of light across the winter landscape. A fortified granite block tower stood on the top of a low hill, the only sign of a dwarven settlement existing at all in this desolate area. On top of it, muffled voices could be heard coming from under a snow-covered floor hatch. Then the hatch cracked open and rowdy laughter burst into frigid air outside.

"...so I says to her, 'well it isn't a masterwork limestone scepter either!' Ahahahaha!"

"Cut the chatter, Private. What do you see?" Militia commander Kivish Paddledoils had heard all the bad jokes, and wasn't impressed.

"Yes, sir." Marksdwarf Meng Stockadecastle had just enough sense to act embarrassed. "Lessee... south clear, west clear, uh, uh...."

"Private?"

"Jus' a second, sir. Yes sir, north clear... oh, schist."

"Language, Private. Let me guess, it's again that... oh, flux."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

DUN DUN DUUUNNN!!!

[Staalo]

Please excuse me while I take some time to write the next update; so much intense stuff happened that I'll have to think about how to present all this.

What a way to end the year.

[TheImmortalRyukan]

By Armok, your Turn has been one of the best I've seen so far Staalo, I can't wait for this epic conclusion!

Also we're at the end of the Player List, so now if anyone wants to sign up for a second go, now is the time