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[AudiRgr8]

Hey everyone, wanted to host my own Interactive story where you guys control a fortress that I illustrate. Seen a few like this and they've always looked so fun. The original image was made by the artist: https://www.deviantart.com/shabazik/gallery, and I'm in no way trying to rip them off, just building off of what they've drawn already.

The first six people got to choose and name a dwarf, rendered here below:



Please feel welcome to join and add a character to this community story!

Now let's get started!

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Finally, you've done it! You've embarked on a journey that you have been planning since you were a young dwarf lad living in the crowded human cities. Having just sold everything you've ever earned, you managed to buy two wagons with a yak each and embark off into the wilds with six fellow dwarves. You followed one of the old roads built during the height of the Northern Dwarf Kingdom before its collapse, finally ending at a clearing along the edge of the Bluestone River. You have made camp by an old bridge, inspecting the new lands you now call home.



By the end of the day, you've set up your tents and begun to unload the wagons. The yaks are tied to a small post for now but it might be a good idea to build them a pen soon. There are two smaller streams that feed into the Bluestone River proper which seem to be full of fish and a large hill which could be quite defensible given the right fortifications. You rub the dark earth in your fingertips, rich and fertile and very suitable for farming.

That night, you reflect on your time in the human cities. It is all you have ever known; your people have been homeless since the fall of the mountainhall Atticseized almost a century ago, wandering from place to place. Many ended up fleeing east to the Ironhill Mines, crowded and squalorous. Here you will build a new home.

So... What should we do?

[Quaksna]

Enog, 77 years old male cook. Looking forward.

[King Zultan]

Name: Zultan
Age: 64
Profession: Carpenter
Sex: Male

Lets cut down the trees and remove the shrubs on top of the hill, so we have some wood and a place cleared to start building.

[notquitethere]

Enkutee, 31, Miner and Female.

Lets cut down the trees and remove the shrubs on top of the hill, so we have some wood and a place cleared to start building.

That would be a fine place to begin as we could burrow into the hill itself.

[AudiRgr8]

It is decided:

Lets cut down the trees and remove the shrubs on top of the hill, so we have some wood and a place cleared to start building.

That would be a fine place to begin as we could burrow into the hill itself.

As you sit around the next morning at breakfast, you decide to inform the other dwarves of your plans to clear the wood atop the hill and start building there. They seem to agree with your plans and begin to divide up the roles for woodcutting and so forth. Zultan offers to oversee the clearing while Enkutee expresses interest in starting to burrow into the hillside. With breakfast over, each dwarf heads to their duties. At that point you turn to the dwarf next to you, a cheerful older dwarf named Enog, who is the cook for your expedition. You remember meeting him in the streets of the human town of Bath, many years ago. He fed you when you were down on money, and gave you a hand when you most needed it.

"How are things today Enog?" You ask him as he prepares the lunch to come.

He looks up from his work and smiles.



"Oh, you know, I'm looking forward..." With that elusive answer he turns back to his work. You look around you at the new life you have, away from the noise and danger of the cities. With the day starting, you set to work...

(More to come I promise    )

[Quaksna]

He's beautiful... Looking forward again! This looks indeed very promising...

[mightymushroom]

Name: Kirrah
Age: 17
Sex: Female
Profession: ? Dreams of, but no practice at, Architecture
Actual Skills: Novice Shearer, Adequate Grower, Adequate Singer

"I know I'm b-barely off Ma and Da's farm, but I'm f-full of excitement! Not nervous, I mean, there's nothing h-here to be nervous about, r-right? Not even any fields or anything. J-Just us and the w-wolves."


I think the area bounded by the hill, the woods, the road, and the smaller stream looks like a good pasture, although it'll probably need a strong fence between our animals and the woods. A small pen may be easier to do in the early going.

[AudiRgr8]

Noted 

I think the area bounded by the hill, the woods, the road, and the smaller stream looks like a good pasture, although it'll probably need a strong fence between our animals and the woods. A small pen may be easier to do in the early going.

You spend the next several days setting to work clearing the land upon the top of the hill. Not only this, but you decide to move camp so you are closer to where the work needs to be done. The trees fall to the regular swing of your axes, how good it is to be a dwarf in the wild!

At several moments you catch Kirrah mumbling softly to herself as she tends to the yaks. Zultan tells you she prefers the company of animals to regular dwarves. Still, you and your fellow settlers seem to be fitting in quite well.

By the end of the week, you've managed to clear most of the trees on and near the hilltop. Enkutee has started digging a small shaft beneath. She hasn't found anything yet, but notes that there are signs that copper and silver could be beneath the hill.



With the new lumber, you could build some more permanent lodgings. Kirrah recommends making a proper pen for the yaks in the clearing on the other side of the hill, while Zultan says he would rather use it on building him a carpentry. Without a mill, there is only so much you can make at the moment out of raw lumber so you take that into consideration. Enkutee mentions that it would be nice to have a place to worship Alath - God of rivers, mountains and fortresses - but she is not too stressed at the moment. All agree that a meeting hall should be constructed soon, and places to sit and eat and cups to drink from...

What do we do now?

[Strik3r]

Name: "Grey"
Age: 81
Sex: Male
Profession: "Aspiring Naturalist"
Real skills: Proficent Tracker and Fisherdwarf(this is the thing he spends most his time doing). Competent Fish Cleaner, Trapper and Butcher.

[Superdorf]

What lovely pictures. I want in!

Name: Varg
Age: 76
Sex: Male
Profession: militia commander
Real skills: Novice Axedwarf, Skilled Dodger, Proficient Tactician

"I will not sit pretty upon this hill with nary a defense between us and the outside world. Let us construct a stout palisade around the plateau, and so preserve this budding settlement!"

[Quaksna]

"Temple sounds good, however, I propose designing and building a tavern instead. Taverns can lure mercenaries, who can protect us till we have good military. There should be a food stockpile and kitchen with still near this location. What do you guys think?"

[mightymushroom]

"Mr. Varg? I, uh, that is, uh, Ithinkitwouldtaketoomanytrees. The whole plateau, I mean. There's not very many of us. Can't we start with a lodge overlooking the mine? With beds for each of us and a couple stalls for the yaks to stay at night. Just to start with, and then work on enclosing more? Once we have more houses it could be an inn, if there's enough traffic for it."

[Superdorf]

"Bah... I suppose there must be a budding settlement before we can preserve the budding settlement. But I would at least suggest we fortify the underground, that we may have a place of refuge should enemies take the surface world."

Varg takes up a pointy stick, and begins to scribe strange designs in the bare earth...

Spoiler: Z-level 0 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Z-level -1 (click to show/hide)

"Like so!"

[AudiRgr8]

Loving the responses to this! Keen for more to come 

Any new comers can add a dwarf in the upcoming migrant wave !


That night at dinner, Varg pronounces loudly of the importance of ensuring the safety of the settlement, spittle flying from his beard. All the while as he gesticulates, he waves his +copper two-handed axe+ in large, flowy movements. He draws several designs in the dirt of a palisade surrounding the entirety of the hilltop.

At that point, Enog pipes up, instead arguing for a tavern that could be used to attract mercenaries or wandering traders. Kirrah seems to agree, adding that the palisade may take a while. Silence ensues, as Varg quietly strokes both his axe and his beard. All the dwarves watch him until he finally shrugs, takes a swig of his dwarven wine and heads to bed.

For the following days, Varg works like a mad-dwarf, logging new trees and preparing the previously felled ones. While the rest of you raise a new lodge overlooking the burrow, Varg begins work on the palisade by himself, making some decent progress.



Enkutee continues to dig more stone from the burrow, soon there may be enough to build something out of it but you will need one of you to step up to be a mason. It is at that point, when you have finished raising the new lodge, that Grey gives a shout from down near the wagons.

"Everyone come quick! I've got something!"

You rush down to the wagons and find him struggling in the back of one, wrestling with something beneath the sacks of plump helmets. Varg rushes forwards with his axe and the pair of them finally drag a kobold from the back of the wagon, limbs flailing wildly. Grey manages to pull the copper knife free as they hold it down.

"SHLAYDRISS!" The kobold shouts as it tries to break free.

Grey looks up at you.

"What should we do with it?"

[Superdorf]

"Hnn. I have little patience for sneakthieves... if you civilians have the stomach for it, I will gladly strike off this creature's arm at the elbow. Let it show to its broodmates the cost of disturbing what is ours!"