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[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Diary of maggarg.
Our favourite idiot marksdwarf got mashed by Sgt.Pepper today. That dwarf is/was massive, nearly as tall as a human. Needless to say, he broke Zako's leg like dry tinder.
That Likot is one hell of a scary dwarf as well. I admire those two though.
Even death didn't stop them. They might be monsters, but I actually kind of trust them. Tech'nicly, I've come back from the dead, but that was only an inn-sure-ants scam back in Chainwalled with old one-glove Problemcats.
I hope no-one finds this diary and reads it, otherwise I'm in BIG trouble.

[Heavy Flak]

From the files of Aryn Estetar
24^th of Malachite, 1065

There is an epidemic of wounds around this fortress, brought on by the unaware, the inept, and the perpetually lazy.  I was worried when Lucy became wounded, but I believe, now, many months later, that she's milking this injury for all it is worth.  There has been much use for her, making sure the detonation pillars are secured and in place in the quarry, and instead, I see her lazing about in bed with that pretty-boy Rice doting on her hand and foot. 

After the complaints of the merchants, of Nationtempt, and of the majority of our haulers, I've had an olivine roof installed over the main entrance.  It's use it purely aesthetic, a design copied from a colleague of mine.  What use is a domed roof over top an entrance to an underground over a desert?  The last time I've seen rain was fifteen years ago, the winds of the desert blowing sand in sideways swirls.  But perhaps this will appease that group of grumblers.

Some peasant I grabbed for mining detail that arrived with the migrants has sealed herself off in a masons shop.  Inexcusable!  So far she's managed to steal some rose quartz and silk, a few chunks of basalt and alunite, but she's been spotted skulking around the warehouse and Glacies has been unable to detain her.  Just wonderful.

It's been some time since the Goblins assaulted us.  The respite is nice, the trade is nice, the peace is nice.  I just hope this isn't the tide before the storm - especially if our military keeps finding ways to hurt itself.  I'll be forced to try and get Fillwhips to go out and deal with the problem, though I'm sure that will go just as well as expected...

[Glacies]

Diary of Glacies

I found the 12th ledger, but it's missing six pages and now I have to recount the rocks. Wonderfull.

Recently, one of the new people began to feel creative. The "mood", I guess. I've been helping her claim some pretty materials while feeding Ayrn some rubbish about my inability to find her. After all, she's probably going to make somthing pretty, with the rose quartz I got her.

Meanwhile, that marksdwarf who has nearly killed me on multiple occasions has had his leg broken by an irate Sgt. Pepper. Which reminds me: The grass around the volcano. Bertrand says he got the seeds out of the cloth the elves brought with them. If, perhaps, it's the truth and he has only planted some seeds, that's all very well and good, but somehow I think he has alterior motives. The fool is mad;  he waxes desperate with imagination.

Now I have to wait until the dwarf caravan arrives before I can ask about Jack or Hielo. Depending on how the merchants answer my inquiries, I may be leaving with them, Ayrn and the others be damned.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Diary of maggarg.
That old goat Estetar is apparently worried about the amount of injured dwarves in the army. Funny thing is, he wants to send Stravich out to stop it!
From what I know of the old bastard, he's broken more dwarves than the hammerer.
Estetar myst be going off his rocker, and that big dome goes to show.

[Heavy Flak]

The events of the 13^th of Galena, 1065

"KOBOLD!"
"Stop that game, right now!" Rolland shouted as he slotted another bolt.  "Concentrate on the task at hand!  Protect the masons, don't forget the face of your fathers!"

Maggarg began to say something snarky in response, but the burly dwarf was set upon by two of the Dread Camels as they came bounding over the ridge.  He was barreled into by one, and as he was sent sprawling Maggarg was able to swing his arm in a hard, graceless backhand.  The Camels head was severed from it's long, weak neck, and the air was knocked out of him as the heavy petrified bones smashed into him.  The second was rearing up to trample, when Sparrow placed a bolt between it's eye sockets, dropping it to the ground.

Adol was picking his targets with care, his helmet throw onto the ground to give him better peripheral vision.  As the best close-quarters fighter in the group, Rolland had sent him to the forefront with his mighty hammer, and the stout, silent dwarf took steady aim, crushing spines and heads.  Occasionally Rolland would fire a bolt and bring a beast down, but the majority were left to Adol.  In less than ten minutes, the hordes of Camels were gone, bones and grit and dust staining the red sands white.

While everyone caught their breath, Rolland stepped up on top of a boulder, shielding his blue bombardiers eyes with a hand.  His thin mouth tightened even more, drawing up the hard lines on his face. 

"What are you looking for, sir?" Sparrow called from the ground.  "More of them?  I think they're all dropped."
"Yes they are.  But It's not the camels... I'm looking for The Goblin in Black, he's around here somewhere.  This is his work."

Adol and Sparrow exchanged a glance.  Maggarg, shoving the bones off of him, growled out, "There ain't no goblin - wearin' black or nothin' at all.  They're all on the run'a this place, too many hardasses choppin' them to bits for them ta' want any more of Dwarven Steel."

"Nay, they'll be back, they always will.  These corpses, they stink of that Wizard Olngo."
"And just who is he, sai?" Asked Adol, wiping dust off his hammer's head with a rag.
"A Wizard, a troublemaker, a fiend, and a betrayer.  These goblins, they follow their Red King Olsmo and he plays with lost souls, raising the dead for amusement and war, but who's been his right hand?  Who's been his little bird, his whisperer, his conspirator.  That's been Olngo.  And because of him, my Kingdom has fallen.  And that is why I search for him, and for the Dark Tower where Olsmo resides."

Shaking his head, Rolland stepped lightly down from the bolder.  He waved his hand impatiently before setting off towards the service stairway.  "Come on.  It's time to train once more."
 

[Zako]

If only Zako wasn't hammered by Sgt Pepper... he could use some more training as well obviously...

What is his level of skill anyway in fighting?

[Jools]

Olsmo's conspirator? Interesting... dare I hope that this mention of a Dark Tower will be linked in to the future release of updates using the promised Army Arc?

Oh, and is anyone else having any luck with the cryptogram? I've not had much time to work on it, but am not getting anywhere so far...

[Heavy Flak]

Zako: I'll see about putting up a generic skill-list for the Three new military Dwarves sometime soon.  The only ones I'm sure of, off the topic of my head, is you're a novice wrestler (ha!) and Maggarg is an expert with a shield. 

Jools.  It's actually kind of funny, because you said something key in a previous post that was either silently taken and used, or just ignored.  Anyway, seeing that, and Kuli's next response mulling over the crypto, I was all, "Nice, they'll get this soon for sure!"  Guess Stravitch was right: People work faster when there's a deadline ready to burn them alive

[Zako]

Novice? No wonder he got mashed... Perhaps I should have trained wrestleing first...

[Kuli]

Eh, I'll admit I haven't been working on the crypto.  My past failures have rather discouraged me.

I did make one attempt, but I think I misinterpreted a hint and wasted a lot of time trying to use the wrong cipher.  Maybe if I look over Jools' post (and my own...apparently) for the hints you just referenced I'll get a new idea.

Juicy bit there about Olsmo.  Too bad I don't think it will have reached Kuli's ears.

[Heavy Flak]

Eh, I'll admit I haven't been working on the crypto.  My past failures have rather discouraged me.

I did make one attempt, but I think I misinterpreted a hint and wasted a lot of time trying to use the wrong cipher.  Maybe if I look over Jools' post (and my own...apparently) for the hints you just referenced I'll get a new idea.

Juicy bit there about Olsmo.  Too bad I don't think it will have reached Kuli's ears.

I understand that's been a bit of a complaint about some of the others, and I've worked to make this one more accessible by the community at large.  I had a real ramp up in difficulty and it didn't really dawn on me until the last one that "Hey, it's a hell of a lot easier to make these than solve them!"

So, this one one, and any that follow, have been severely toned down.  It's more tedious than anything, once you've worked the clues out. 

[Kuli]

I just get so frustrated because I can't tell what is and isn't a clue.  Take that "Roaroak" image for example. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why are there K's and S's floating around?  Are they even K's and S's at all or are they supposed to be abstract?  Is the "HR" under the "OA" in OAK supposed to mean that H=O and A=R, or am I just reading too much into that and the placement is coincidental?  And don't get me started on the wavy lines.  The wavy lines made me think of the Rail Fence cipher, but trying to use that has turned up no results.

Sigh.  I'm only good at relatively simple substitution ciphers.

[Jools]

So what clues has everyone worked out?

(Don't look at me, I've got nothing better than "Well, there's definitely a suggestion of a square and, if you really push me, some deep-seated psychic instinct suggests that 'Roaroak' might be involved".)

There's also the HR thing, which is either another part of the clue or a sign that Heavy Flak has turned to the Dark Side.

Anyway, looks like we have a matrix of some sort, two columns denoted K and S, three rows - one denoted K, two denoted S (possibly K squiggle and S)

Roaroak or Roaroakhr won't fit into a matrix that size... if we try and squeeze it in going across, we get what might mean R->O, A->R, O->A. Squeeze it in going down and we get two columns saying ROA, suggesting that either those letters are encoded as themselves, or I'm barking up a rock pillar thinking it's a tree.

I'll just go and poke the little decoding tool I have and see what any of that has to do with cracking the algorithm. I'm putting a fiver on me making a good (key, even!) point in my first post on the cryptogram before galloping off in the wrong direction...

[Heavy Flak]

I definitely see the confusion.  I took out a sharpie and quickly redid the image on a note card instead of playing around with the El Cheapo tablet I bought and Photoshop.  It might, or might not, be clearer.  Who knows!  But here it is, safely nestled away in spoiler tags. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One note.  Look at the shape of the symbols, specifically the added third one on the left.  I should find someone with a steadier hand than mine do any crypto-needed artwork in the future, haha. 

[Jools]

Zeta?

And there was me hoping that K and S were for Key and Substitution or something...