28th of ObsidianI started wandering around today and I noticed all the dwarves were partying and harder than usual. Some sort of jaunty tunes. It was only when I heard one of the marksdwarves complain that she couldnt join the festivities did I realise it was new year's eve.
Arceus above, its been one hell of a year.
I became overseer due to without doubt, a fluke. I turned it from a dictatorship in the making to a bastion of dwarf/pokemon relationships. Nearly everybody I seen in the fort is content or at the very least not unhappy today beyond the occasional petty grumble.
Honestly...its also become a home I want to protect and continue learning in. At the start of my overseership that I wanted to learn how to craft as the dwarves do then move on and maybe get my dream of raising a family elsewhere.
Now...I don't. I want it to be here.
I'm still fully aware that the dwarves will oust me as soon as my disguise lets up. I haven't been able to make any true friends yet...but I have made a few acquaintances that hopefully would object if I got tossed in a pokeball. Not just the higher echelons of the fort either, but a few up and down the classes
Not being one for socialising with large groups I decided to walk around the fortress and have a look at the changes I made in the year.
I bumped straight into Cole as she was leaving her Royal level chambers as per usual in the morning. Nearly every day she comes out of her bedroom smiling and had done ever since I gave her it and nearly always with a stack of scrolls or books. A mimikium gem window, bed and a few pieces of furniture and engravings plus a bookcase for her paperwork and Cole went from downtrodden with the occasional frustrated twitch to a ray of sunshine that had recently attracted the attention of a few foreign scholars.
"Morning Cole"
"Good morning Recon!" She beamed back at me.
After 2 years of living here, I still can't believe the pokemon professor hasn't seen me as anything other than a shy but strong dwarf with a red ponytail with green tips. Either Cole is sober at the times of day I see her or she already knows but keeps quiet out of kindness.
I noticed that she had a mason's document on top of her pile today. That got me curious so I asked her about it.
"Oh that? Just a little thank you statue I did for you."
I was struggling not to tear up at that. We walked along to the library and Paddy's chambers.
Earlier in the year I put in a new entrance to the library and added some more storage. This last month I had a quern and screw press made just outside for any more scrolls to be crafted they could be done at the library. Every shelf was full of papers, organised beautifully and there was even a small section on crafting that always made me giddy inside when I browsed it.
Paddy came out of her office and gave me a curt nod as I was about to leave. A far cry from the glares she used to give me in Hematite. She had recently begun contributing to some of the shelves in here on leatherworking and carpentry.
I headed upstairs to the sounds of music and found a pair of my mechanisms littering the floor next to the door to living area. I say a door, its actually the artifact floodgate that I was going to display in the mini museum if it wasn't indestructible and better used as an emergency barrier in case of flood or invasion. I saw a few dwarves leaving the statue garden too. More stuff needs putting in both rooms in my opinion but I'm content to let everybody party today. I also heard the well for the hospital splash a bit. Seems somebody got themselves too drunk again.
I continued down the corridor to the new dining and food area. Of all the achievements of my reign this one I'm most proud of for myself.
A beautiful ornate marble floor with granite and limestone furniture, cabinets and chests for goblets and crockery. Gemstone windows, statues of prominent fort members and an automated indoor, mist producing waterfall built with the culmination of all my knowledge of mechanisms and smithing. It isn't finished yet since I haven't been happy with some of the latest statues which I'm ordering to be sold to the next caravan from the mountain homes and a few of the gem windows are still being installed.
As soon as I find out who designed the 2 statues of commander opuntia sobbing after getting removed from the position of militia commander by a mistake in the paperwork a few years ago, they are going to be on the next sparring practice with him and axed from masonry duties.
Now that I think about it, its about time I went to sparring practice with him.
*12 pages of combat logs later*
Opuntia recently had the bright idea to have a metal casing to attach to his crutch which allows him to walk with it in combat while leaving his arms free. This way he can have some good mobility and still hit goblins with it and in that sparring session it showed. One kick he did with that crutch actually cracked my steel low boot so I had to get a new one.
After bidding goodbye for the day I went outside to check up on Zygarde. It was relaxing in its building and watching a couple of new tree saplings grow in its home. I looked over at the roof of the fort entrance and it was still holding up too, no damage from the elements or from goblins. The dwarves did a fine job on that.
I saw Petrel head to Zygarde just as I went back inside. I still can't believe Petrel trained Zygarde so well and without a scratch too!
he also informed me of this
It was getting dark so I decided to head to my chambers for the night. It doesn't bother me but the dwarves are usually diurnal so I try to keep with them a bit to keep my disguise up. They are pretty grand these chambers, my overseer's office is pretty opulent, my bedroom grand with engravings of the biggest events of my first year of reigning on the ground and my dining room is much the same but with different engravings and some rocks for me to smash when I'm frustrated
The dwarves of RubySapphire or Redgem the blue gem are nice enough to leave my room undisturbed for the most part- the one place in the fort I don't need my illusion. I popped a mace design in my bookshelf and took The Witch Of Bands Abridged off its pedestal, took my armour off then went next door to my dining room, reading for a little bit before bed.
Which was promptly when a dwarf by the name of SQman barged in, a tray of roast eelektrik in his arms
TO EAT IN MY OWN! PRIVATE! ROOMS!
"Huh, I didn't know Recon had a pet Zoroark. She's gonna be mad when she finds out you're sitting here in this beautiful dining room"
I promptly planted my head on the table in front of me with a massive sigh as he then looked around at the statues of my dwarf disguise and me together.
Every dwarf that made or saw them commented on how I was a good trainer protecting my pokemon like that usually with a quip about how it must be like a family member to me given I'm a bit lonely by nature.
Instead he kept looking between me and the statues curious. I growled at him as he was trying my patience and I was already getting a few thoughts about how to punish this dwarf for his insolence of using my private dining room.
"Hey don't be like that. She probably won't be back until the festivities are over so it'll be fine."
I growled again, baring my teeth this time and slammed the book shut. SQman got the message and promptly backed towards the door muttering curses under his breath. He turned around and started speed walking out the room then paused next to one of the statues in realisation and promptly turned back towards me.
"These statues...it can't be. You're the overseer aren't you?" He exclaimed in shock, realising the true meaning of the statues. They are my disguise hiding me, when I didn't need to hide, i was going to smash them.
"I gotta tell the others about this!" He started moving towards the door in excitement.
"SQ" I spoke
He stopped again turning around as I said his name.
"If I give you the overseership tomorrow, will you keep quiet? I did after all retrieve and entomb your previous body in Paddy's grand mausoleum second casket. Which you still haven't thanked me for."
After a few moments deliberation he agreed.
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I would be grateful if I could keep my quarters, office and dining room. I did after all gift Opuntia, rainbow and Cole bedrooms and added some extras to paddy's
For the next overseer
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14491We need more military and defensive emplacements. I did some testing and Zygarde can still beat us.
Add a bit more furniture to the dining room please and don't ever unlock the floodgate to the pumpworks or floor over the drainage hole unless you want !!FUN!!
The new farm was for paper making but I didnt get chance to add the plants
I tweaked the raws to allow for platinum weapons and armour. Platinum for blunt stuff is basically the equivalent of adamantine for sharp weapons.
Keep the military away from Zygarde, or it goes nuts.