SPRING/SUMMER 259
Spring sun shines clearly on the deck, and another girl was born on board. I wonder if a whole generation can be born and raised all on the ship?
In preparation for our main raid on Lionbalance, the human fortress we tried to sneak in without detection and see what we could find
we managed to grab many very boring books, but one actually stands out as a good find:
Having judged their defences to be weak the main attack begun:
Quite a few humans, 31 in fact, defending, but they are no match for our raiders, led by King Zultan we killed 8 and withdrew suffering no losses!
immediately afterwards a second attack was organised:
A decisive result! With no significant defence left we took what was left, given that their library was already empty there wasn't much to get.
But now that the fortress has been dealt with with the surrounding hamlets are defenseless and ours for the taking!
After some time for our dwarves to recover, with a specific aim to obtain more animals for the ship we set forth to the prosperous villages of plungesearch and sprymatch:
Nevermind it says we found nothing, we came back for animals later
The raiding dwarves set about what can only be described as a series of brutal executions! hopefully this will teach these humans not to resist and hand over their possessions without a fight next time.
At any rate nothing organised to pose a threat to our brave crew
The have a lot of birds in these parts! That's very good for us, eggs can provide a steady source of food. Eagles seem very useful while traversing the seas too, able to fly over and harass enemy vessels and keep an eye out from the sky for us. What does the crew think shall we try and breed up the eagles and assign them or just use them for eggs like the others? Unfortunately eagles cannot be trained for war but even without training may be helpful.
As for the cats, they can survive easily on a ship not needing to graze of course, and could be a good source of food as well. Some dwarves may balk at the idea of a diet of mainly cat meat, but then not all dwarves are cut out for the sailor's life.
For the time being though cat meat will not be necessary, Farvin is making the most of the horrors from the deep Maloy keeps hauling up
Since we haven't travelled very far we heard word from the locals that silkyvoice, which we raided in winter, has offiial pledged their allegiance to King Zasit, of our own kingdom, the Lustrous spear
though not our doing directly, no doubt they only did so to avoid further raids from us. I can assure all of the crew none of our activites have been undertaken to line
the king's pockets. Hopefully if the king's servants ever catch up with us they will take a positive view of our activities now at least.
That other dwarf we took on board during winter has studied all the books we recover most diligently, but he has been saying all sorts of crazy things, about building a structure atop the crows nest of all places? And he insists it have glass? Well it is known that when dwarves insist on strange nonsensical constructions, often including obscure materials like glass, it's best to give them what they want. We have begun adjustments to the galley to fit a glass kiln, and will put ashore during autumn or winter to obtain some sand.
For the autumn and winter we will remain in the area and take what we can from the surrounding hamlets, no major resistance is to be expected. we will also need to put ashore to gather a significant amount of wood, it amazes me how much the ship uses on a day to day basis, mostly for melting down our metal spoils and turning them into deadly ballista arrowheads.
Here's a shot of the lower deck, note the many birds and cats, finally we had an excuse to use some of those empty rooms, to make a separate pasture for the cats.
Delphonso spoke of being worthy of a throne or something if he kills enough people, he will be pleased to hear he managed to score a few more kills this season:
As always im happy to take on more crew members, we still have room for lots more, so if you want to join the crew post your name, profession and if you want to take part in raids.