Autumn 669Ah, here we go! Limitless magma for our industry and some kind of oddly fibrous cyan ore. If only we had anyone with enough metallurgical experience to figure out what to do with it. Oh well, something for the future, I suppose.
Fall is slipping away without much excitement. I can still hear the bandits stomping around up there, but they’re weirdly tight-lipped so no chance of overhearing their plans. The mountainhome must have abandoned us to them, cowards! The bandits aren’t even armed from what I’ve heard! If They didn’t outnumber us, I’d have everyone grab an axe and take their chances.
Well, at least Splint is preparing for if we need to fight our way out of here. He’s recruited Moldath, our manager, as a sparring partner. I guess he chose her because she claims to have killed a demon with her bare hands. Well, she may be a terrible liar, but at least she’s been reliable so far. She can’t use her right hand since the “demon” incident, but she gets by.
Winter 669Whatever the miners think they saw in the lower caverns seems to have really affected them. Truly absurd. I’ve told them over and over that there’s no plausible biological mechanism which could support an ecosystem like they described! Hmm… this is the perfect opportunity to acquire some exhibits for the Face Your Fears project! I’ll have them carve an entrance and lay some traps down. I imagine we’ll catch some worms and rodents and such. Once the peons see that, they’ll realize how foolish they’ve been, and I might even make a novel scientific discovery! Get to work!
No sooner had I announced that I had opened the cavern than Likot, our broker, rushed past me mumbling something about “hydro devil drudge upper front tooth,” whatever the hell that is. She made a beeline straight into the cavern. Damn fool is going to get herself lost in there. I had to grab King Zultan before she ran off as well, and then sent our two militia to search for Likot.
Well, Likot’s back, but she twisted her ankle pretty badly. One of our miners found her curled up in a hole where she must have fallen. Moldath of course had some absurd story about her sweeping in and punching a horrific monster to death while the miner carried in Likot. I asked, if this supposed monster actually attacked Likot, why did it apparently wander off instead of finishing the job? She replied with some nonsense about using him as bait, really!
King Zultan seemed upset when I expressed my doubt for Moldath’s story and ran off to “retrieve the body.” Whatever, I’ll send another search party down once she gets herself lost… Oh wait, here she comes now, and… What the hell is that!?
Ha, ha, guys, very funny. That’s some impressive taxidermy! (I’m going to die in here) How long have you been hiding that thing? (These people are actually insane) You really had me going there! (Where did they even find an octopus for the lower half?)
Momuz says one of the cages caught something. Good, I need to start filling in the exhibits right away. If these dwarves keep embracing their delusions, who knows what they’ll do?
Another one!? How… how is it moving? Did you sick bastards sew an animal in there!? I can see the seams! Why are you looking at me like I’m the crazy one!?
Do I still want it in the library? Sure, whatever, just get it out of my sight!
Okay, I’ve calmed down a bit. Someone’s got to keep their head on in this place. Just sit down, relax, and enjoy some delicious scrambled eggs.
Whatever those alchemists cooked up may not be magic, but it makes a great seasoning!
Spring 670The library is finally ready. It’s filled with skeletons on display to help get the visitors to revaluate their relationship with death. Also, that bloated monster thing they stitched together to… reveal the absurdity of clinging to superstition. Yes, that’s it.
I can only hope that my efforts here will restore some measure of rationality to this place. Someday they’ll see the light and thank me for dispelling the fog of primitive thought. Until then I think I’d better lie low. They’ve been pretty riled up about the whole cavern incident and have reacted increasingly negatively to my attempts to talk sense into them. Best to let them cool down and digest my teachings.
SAVE