8th Granite, 256A mere week and a day into the year, and already we have seen several deaths. Two of them were suicides – both of them had gone mad in the past, refusing any effort to make them eat or drink until the effects of such negligence caught up to them. Senseless though this waste of their gift of life may be, they will be buried, nonetheless.
More concerning are the reports of a murder in broad daylight: no warning, no sentence, simply a dwarf beating another into the ground until his head broke from a shield-blow. All throughout the fortress, there are similar signs of potential anarchy; violent tantrums, depressed citizens sulking in the shadows, and deranged dwarves stumbling about without care throughout the halls.
Even Nephilim, dear Nephilim, has been lashing out in frustration as of late – perhaps moreso than I feared. According to our sole true surgeon, one of the Axedwarves that died in the lower hospital today claimed with his last breath that Nephilim, of all dwarves, was the one that wounded him to this point.
It still nags at the back of my mind. No matter how much I tell myself that he misidentified his attacker, or that he was addled by the injuries to his spine, that damned suspicion will not go away, even as anarchy continues to spread: Fath Tobularban was recently murdered by one of those damned Human swordsmen, and some of the more unstable soldiers have begun to turn on one another in half-random bouts of madness.
At this rate, I fear that harsher measures must be enacted to curb this violence; Armok’s thirst must be slaked, but I refuse to let dwarven blood be that which does so. That Dumed’s blood-mad ways have cost us enough already.
For now, I have ordered that the corpse-pile in the main courtyard is to be disposed of – or, at the very least, removed to a place where it will not further affect the more unstable citizens – and have personally begun to prepare the necessary actions to exorcise a particularly troublesome spectre; it is high time that his soul goes to Him, and that he stops his constant haunting of the living.
12th GraniteHaving spent the past few days speaking with the various personages of the fort, I have found a significant issue that requires immediate correction: several deities widely worshipped in Goldsilver lack even a single shrine to their name!
I doubt I need to elaborate on why this is such an issue. With the levels of stress and trauma our dwarves have been put through so far, more than a few have taken up faith in the gods as a means of coping – yet without any proper place to worship, communion with them is all but impossible, the distractions offered by the industry of the fort preventing even the most focused from doing so.
That changes today. Orders have been given to dig out and smooth several new areas alongside the extant temples, with decoration and engraving soon to follow – Nokor alone knows we need as many of the gods on our side as we can get.
Furthermore, considering the abundance of clay in the fortress grounds, consideration must be given to –
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1st SlateThe spectre of the fallen dwarf has been exorcised from Goldsilver; in lieu of burying a body, we have been forced to erect an engraved memorial. Either way, he will be troubling his past acquaintances no more.
15th SlateOne of the Woodcutters went funny today. Locked himself in one of the workshops; won’t come out no matter what his friends do to try and draw him out. I’ve given orders to leave him for now, lest any intervention have some damaging consequence on this worker’s already-strained mind – we will simply have to wait and see what comes of this.
3rd FelsiteDamn those misbegotten half-breeds!
Those accursed kea-spawn have been harassing the workers in the courtyard, exploiting the open-air design to land and scare any dwarves attempting to pass by, then taking off before any measure of retribution can be levelled upon them! It has all but paralysed travel and work through the central courtyard of Goldsilver, with workers refusing to move through the area due to the risk of being attacked.
The Artefacts of Paper have been sent in, with orders to knock those feathered half-breeds out of the sky. Armok will have to be happy with their blood.
4th FelsiteI suppose it is appropriate, in a certain manner, that the dwarf tasked with handling our dead has fallen himself. How, I remain unsure – investigations must be made.
Furthermore, there has arisen a great crashing and roaring from the walled-off sections of the caverns; whatever beast now lurks down there seems to be venting its wrath upon trees and whatever animals it can find alike. I will not deny it: with the state we are in at the moment, the prior Overseers were far more justified in sealing the caverns than I gave them credit for.
In slightly better news, the woodcutter from weeks ago has emerged from his workshop, bearing a slate crown:
OOC: Okay, a run-down on the current state of the fort:
Stress-wise, we’re still suffering. At least a dozen dwarves are simultaneously tantruming, depressed, or oblivious at any given time, and the literal hundreds of supposed-to-be-pastured animals crowding into corridors three tiles (or one tile) wide seem to be partly responsible for the framerate being at 15-20. Half the population is either red or yellow-lining on stress, with about two in ‘harrowed’ territory and one having gone completely cuckoo.
The main gate has been drawn up for now, to prevent any more horrified/uneasy thoughts from seeing the dead hippies and goblins outside the walls. The masons, craftsdwarves, etc. are working to produce statues, chests, coffers, and trade goods to try and bump up their own happiness (by creating masterworks/satisfying 'acquire something' needs) and by kitting out the bedrooms of the fort. The less stressed workers are being assigned to dumping the corpses in the fort’s corridors down the nearest hole. The smoothing of the central courtyard’s stones continues, with the intent to have the more skilled Engravers work there once smoothed fully – hopefully, the masterwork/high quality arts they’ll come up with can help produce some positive thoughts.
All the party leaders bar Nephilim and Lucky (both red-lining, around 10,000 stress away from 'Harrowed') are yellow-lining on stress, with the exception of Fatcat. Considering that Nephilim's managed to accidentally two dwarves (the Axedwarf and the Undertaker), dealing with that’s a high priority.
I apologise for the slow speed of my update – IRL’s become rather unexpectedly hectic, and I’m trying to be careful with the fort so that I don’t accidentally cause stress to spiral further.
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Topic: The Fall of Goldsilver Succession Fort – Democracy Suspended (Read 61641 times)