Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Stormlock]

Here are recorded the exploits of the dwarven team 'Invisible Discovery': brave souls who dared to begin the Skyseal project, to enshroud the sky with glass and build a palace worthy of dwarven kings and queens above all other creatures. The following is an excerpt from the log of the project's inspired (insane?) inventor.

-----
14th Slate, 1051, Project 'Skyseal'

I've arrived at the site with what little dwarfpower I was permitted to take with me. Only a couple of them seem like they are intellectuals, but I suppose it doesn't make much of a difference. As long as they can lend a hand, they deserve to have their names etched forever in the skies. We seven shall be remembered for ages to come! I've left Archimedes in charge of the direct management for now, as he seems to have a knack for dealing with people that I do not, even if he is less qualified. At any rate, the first main order of business is to find the magma source and set up some forges. The mountainhomes couldn't supply us with any Bauxite, so unless we strike some ourselves(Or, better yet, some Adamant!) we'll be using steel for any pumps or the like we need to make. I'm getting ahead of myself though, we've barely finished carving out a shelter. The red sand walls in the initial entrance are somewhat eerie, but I rather like it, I think. While Dain is creating exploratory tunnels to find the magma source, I'll finish the walls and floors inside to turn this into at least something of a livable area. Myra, our cook, is going to throw a fit if I ask her to prepare anything on a sandy cave floor.

22nd Hematite, 1051, Project 'Skyseal'

Dain has discovered a magma pipe. I've ordered the entrance sealed off immediately, construction of appropriate fortifications and tunnels to channel the magma will begin shortly. I think I shall direct the magma deeper into the mountain than our entrance, which, being temporary, would be an inconvenient place to leave a magma pool.

14th Malachite, 1051, Project 'Skyseal'

I've designated the initial forge area and magma tunnels and set Dain to work. Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch up on our inventory. A kobold recently made off with some food from our wagon site, and though I sent Ayla after him, she couldn't quite catch up in time. It served well to highlight our need to keep a record of our supplies. I also need to look into chaining our guard dog near the entrance, as I've no idea where he was when the theft occurred. I've ordered the slaughter of our pack animals to bolster our food supplies until the quarry bush crop comes in. I hate the disgusting animals anyways.

9th Sandstone, 1051, Project 'Skyseal'
The caravan has arrived. I've been too busy with the layout of the fortress to produce anything in the way of material goods for trade, however, they were happy to accept a batch of exceptional quarry leaf biscuits in exchange for some goods. I acquired some raw food to replace the biscuits, a giant cave spider silk rope to chain up our war hound, and some scrap lumber and tin they had. The forge works are near completion, I intend to order Dain to open the channels as soon as I finish writing this. Altogether, things are coming along nicely. There are grumblings at my misplanning of our food stocks, but we have food ready now, and drink to follow from the plump helmets we just acquired, and more still when the crop comes in. We have a dining room and living quarters (Though I personally find the hue of microcline disgusting and intend to relocate my office when it becomes convenient.)

18th Moonstone, 1051, Project 'Skyseal'

It's later than I expected, but the forges are finally ready. I decided at the last minute to have all the loose stone in the area to be flooded removed so as not to contaminate the magma with slag. Our food supplies are not high, but they're stable enough now, though the farm plot likely needs expansion. I've been single handedly smoothing all the stone in the fortress for some time now, and I must say, it's become quite second nature to me. I could smooth a floor through the mountains for our king to walk upon without making him wait a breath I daresay!

5th Obsidian, 1051 Project 'Skyseal'

I've just noticed some freeloader had arrived. Apparently nobody had deigned to tell me about him. When I interviewed the ugly fellow, he told him he was a 'bowyer', skilled in making wooden crossbows. Hmmph! What a useless profession. However, for some reason or other, I took pity on the sod, and rather than having him put to death, arranged for him to work in the forges. We'll be needing many hands in the long run, perhaps with an early start, he might even make something of himself.

Speaking of the forges, I'd made a miscalculation in arranging our supplies. in lieu of a battle axe, I'd requisitioned a couple bars of pig iron, to be manufactured into proper steel once we'd set up a forge. However, although marble is reported to be plentiful in this area, we've yet to find any, and in my haste I ordered Ayla to use the last of our logs make barrels and bins, so we've no charcoal either. However, when Dain first discovered the magma pipe he told me he'd seen a hematite deposit along the wall of it, along with a couple deposits of gems. I'll leave a proper excavation of these materials to later when we can deal with the lava's denizens more... permanently. However, we should easily be able to safely extract a small supply of iron ore, which I'll have made into an axe for Ayla, so we can gather some lumber of our own. I'm glad to report that our levels of booze are more than adequate now, and though we are low on food, the spring brings an opportunity to farm some worth while crops for that purpose. We have some fat that can be prepared as well.

1st Granite, 1052, Project 'Skyseal'

Well, it's been one year since we arrived. Ayla finally got to forge herself a proper axe, and has begun felling trees. Construction of ballistae, barrels, bins, and charcoal shall resume. The basic layout of the first floor of the forgeworks and the stairwells above are all done, so I've ordered Dain to create some exploratory shafts in the northern section of our demesne where the marble will likely lay. A list of things to be acquired from human or elven traders in the following year; bauxite from humans if possible, lumber, charcoal, bags and/or leather or cloth to produce them, more raw food materials (I will not restrict myself to a single variety of food like some mere slave). Aside from that, there is much to be done. Proper rooms for the seven of us (Ayla and Omer have informed me they'd like to share a room) and a proper barracks for our immigrants. A far grander dinging hall; our current one seats only 6, and is not even engraved. I shall endeavour to use up much of the lingering debris in our halls in the construction of mechanisms. I've been neglecting my original calling so that we might have proper walls in here, but once our fortress is properly underway, the goblins will no doubt begin assaulting us, and anything less than exceptional mechanisms simply won't be reliable for the traps I intend to visit upon them. We also need a proper enclosure about our trade depot. Our entrance is large enough to house it, if we chain our dog outside and expand the doorway to accommodate wagons. However, it is embarrassing to have such a simple entrance to our fortress. Once the project is properly underway, no human or elf will ever tell of our fortress again. And although I care little for their praise, the concept of them being in awe of our engraved walls and metal roads brings a smile to my face. But enough of this, I must get back to work. I'll probably do less writing in the coming years, as there is much work to be done!
-----

Here is the link to the file for you Sav. Have fun. http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=226

Edit: In case anyone is wondering, I didn't take any pictures because I have a rather Z level intense style of building, and the only thing I've made so far that will be in permanent use is the forgeworks, which aren't complete. Rather than waste space with a picture of a dining hall with 6 tables, I figured I'd wait until my next turn, when we have some stuff to show off.

[ June 13, 2008: Message edited by: Stormlock ]

[ June 13, 2008: Message edited by: Stormlock ]

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

So who goes first?

[Savok]

I, the leader? Strange they are. But I am told to lead, so lead I shall. First, I shall fix the most blatant error in the past year. There has been no map! A mathematically precise (and, incidentally, useful) map we have now.

Granite 1st
Noticed an alarming clutter pervading the fortress. No time to fully clean, but I shall begin. I ask future managers of this outpost to try to manage clutter.
15th
Kobolds. They fail to steal from the War Dog, but they do escape...
20th
Foolish trader. Accidentally offered a wooden barrel to an elf. A pity, they did have cloth.
28th
Beginnings of Engineering Workshop laid out. Current state merely sandpit for sketching where it shall not be disturbed. I ask that all other dwarves, including future managers, leave my room to be designed by only me.

Slate 14th
Migrants. I shall process them first.
21st
Slow to come, they were, but 23 in all.

Felsite 11th
Kadol Solamkubuk has been possessed.
11th
Later in the day, he began a mysterious construction! We shall see what wonders can be made out of a single stone.
12th
The sleeping quarters have been stained with blood... ah, what a refreshing hue after that microcline - that "Fool's Adamantine."
16th
Kadol Solamkubuk, Serf has created Volalkurol Tadoshot, a Andesite toy hammer! Worth 2400☼. My calculations indicate that that is the lowest possible artifact value.

--------------------
Hematite 1st
Summer begins. Fort cleaner already.
8th
My first weapon of war has been constructed! It is in the quarry, though, since it is merely for practice. After I get a good feel for it (though it will not be hard - the catapult is exceptional), I will let Sakzul, DDROC Commander, become experienced with heavy weaponry.
For future managers: "DDROC=Dwarven Death Ray Operator Corps"
9th
The humans arrive.
11th
They sold us some food, much cloth, and a dog for our ballista parts and food. If we unchain the war dog, we could breed more dogs.
26th
Kidnapper stole immigrant child.

Malachite 3rd
As requested by the former manager, I asked the humans for lumber, charcoal, cloth, and food, but, since humans never have stone, I could not ask them for bauxite.
5th
What? You want to give me an office? *sigh*
Just put a chair by the sandpit and call it what you like.
6th
We struck copper and marble today. The copper shall be processed into war hammers.
8th
The fools! A six-level staircase! Falling down could kill. Periodic hatch covers shall be implemented.
21st
Copper mined out. Shall yield 118 copper war hammers.
You scoff, "Copper war hammers!"?
Masterpiece, tis as good as basic Steel, and shall provide useful smithing practice.

Galena 7th
Bowyer-turned-Furnace Operator unhappy. Will give him bedroom in the Chamber of Forging.
11th
Too many peasants. Will make one another hammerdwarf.
12th
My finest creation: a masterpiece catapult part! I shall endeavor to replicate this feat with a DDR machine.
14th
1 female alligator caught. If another is catchable, a breeding pair, with the aid of a Dungeon Master?
14th
Strange. Aluminum bars, found in the trade depot. They are now forbidden.
25th
Atir Idenatham, a peasant, has the aspect of one fey.
26th
He has taken one andesite boulder, one group of copper nuggets, and five mountain goat bones.

--------------------
Limestone 1st
Autumn begins. Fort mostly clean.
2nd
Atir Idenatham has created Ron Nitem, a Andesite idol! Worth 6000☼. Useless.
We do have a legendary stonecrafter and no dearth of obsidian. Short swords of masterful sharpness shall be created.
7th
The newest hammerdwarf shall now become a swordsdwarf.
22nd
The traders take a great amount of our worthless refuse and give us a great amount of useful, valuable items.

Sandstone 1st
The traders do not have coal. Charcoal must do. Initiate the charcoal burner!
13th
I have duplicated my previous feat. Project: DDR has one masterpiece ballista part.
19th
Migrants begin arriving.

---------------
Some of the pages have been destroyed. There is no record of the events from the middle of autumn to late winter.
---------------
Obsidian 11th
I have been asked to step down and let Dain manage the fortress for a year. Gladly, I accept the offer. Control shall be handed over in two and a half weeks.
12th
Hammer General reached a Great level of skill and became a Hammer Lord.
26th
Last of the copper nuggets smelted.
28th
I end my command.

-------------------------
Read all of the PoIs in the DFMA map for the end of this year. They contain everything I want to say to future managers.

Here's the save.

Note: I'm playing Archimedes, not Sav, since he has a much more fun personality.
Note2: Yes, I do know what DDR stands for.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

The journal of Dain during his rule at Skyseal

Entry 1: As part of the original council of the Skyseal founders it is my turn to govern our wondrous project. It seems instead of the traditional democratic way of choosing a leader, we have opted for a time saving dictatorship method. We will rotate the leadership every year until the project is complete. To keep the peasants happy we will allow for mayors and barons to be elected but these will be merely be our puppets to stop revolt.
As for this year, I plan to maximize the production of green glass blocks. I will have more forges set up and more glassworkers. I also plan to increase the efficiency of our masons as I have learnt a dabbling mason takes 5 times as long to build a single glass wall as a proficient mason. To train the masons I will have a stone-> block processing rooms set up. Effectively shooting two birds with one bolt, as blocks store easier than stone chunks.

Entry 2: I have a few nits to pick with the previous overseers. These shall be fixed immediately.

• Why are there glass statues in the barracks? A sparring dwarf could easily poke an eye out on these dangerous things. (Apparently it causes sparring units to stop what they are doing when they dodging into a statue.)
  
• The sparring dwarves are fighting with proper weapons, i.e. masterwork obsidian shortswords, yet they have hardly a shred of armor to protect from being stabbed to death. They haven't even been properly trained to wrestle and dodge the dwarf crippling blows.
  

Note: Am i right in assuming that temp and weather ini values are allowed to be turned off to increase FPS?

[Savok]

All constructions are constructed nigh-instantly. It is deconstruction that takes some time.
1. There were stone statues previously, so I replaced them with statues of higher value. I had no idea that that was what was causing the "canceled sparring due to dangerous terrain" messages.
2. IME, if a dwarf isn't skilled enough to survive sparring, he isn't skilled enough to deserve to. Dwarves are cheap and train fast. This is, of course, assuming that they're just handed a weapon and maybe some armor and told to go spar.
Note: Yes. Due to the imp, the burninator will still work! You are requested to turn the economy off.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Spring

16th of Granite:  Elves have arrived, as usually they have brought with them nothing of value. I can't be even bothered seizing their goods as it isn't worth my time. They are a nuisance, nothing more.

19th of Granite: I have designated the stone processing room to be dug; however we only have one miner so progress will be slow. This miner seems to be digging through some strange corridor to the south. I have undesignated this corridor in preference to the miner digging out more important things.

20th of Granite: What? No booze, how could this have happened? We don't even have the enough plants to brew a barrel of the magical liquid. I have ordered the building of a third farm plot to supply us with some much needed mushrooms. A couple of idle peasants have also been ordered to attend to the mushroom fields. These mushrooms will quickly be brewed into wine.

6th of Slate: Some migrants have arrived; I have turned most of them into glassmaker/masons. There was even one swordsdwarf among the migrants bringing in some vital steel armor. The fort population is now up to 60.

25th of Slate: You have struck Tetrahedrite! Good news, now we have even more silver and copper to train our furnace workers.

3rd of Felsite: Dodok Uzolibruk the animal trainer was been taken by a few mood this morning. He immediately claimed a craftdwarf's workshop and collected up materials for his secret project.

4th of Felsite: Apparently Doduk couldn't find everything he needed and is now demanding that I bring him some leather and rough gems which I notice we have none of. Let’s hope he doesn't get to angry.

5th of Felsite: I have ordered a puppy to be slaughtered to appease his leather demand and ordered the miner to dig out a gem cluster. Hopefully these tasks get done in time.

Summer

3rd of Hematite: I am going to KILL Archimedes. He is trying to exhort his control even though it is not his time. Apparently he is demanding 3 adamantine items to be made for him or else he will punish one of the metalsmiths. If he wasn't protected by the sanctions of the original council he would be in the burninator for sure.


7th of Hematite: The animal trainer has finally received his demands. I had to slaughter not one but three puppies. He is not much going to be much of an Animal Trainer if we have to kill all of the dogs he is supposed to be training.

11th of Hematite: The Animal trainer has finished his project and has created 'Eagleworthless' a diorite ring. A bit ironic considering it is worth 24000.


13th of Hematite: An ambush! The goblins have broken the peace agreement that had been previously formed. It seems they want to prevent operation Skyseal from ever being built. Everyone inside, lock the doors, we will have to wait this attack out as we are unprepared for these marksgoblins.

14th of Hematite: Two dwarves were wounded today in the fighting. Both were trained with weapons but were turned into porcupines before they could reach their goblin foes. We have managed to lock the doors, but two other dwarves were locked outside, they include the DDR commander and a fisher.
In other less related news it looks like a human caravan has arrived. I hope that they distract the goblins long enough to allow the dwarves trapped outside back in.


16th of Hematite: The past two days have been hell. The humans that arrived proved to be target practice for the more experienced Marksgoblins. Here is a quick rendition of the fight:
http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/movie-636-goblinsvshumans.
The goblins are however still at the gates ready to pounce on any dwarf stupid enough to stick its neck out the door.

1st of Malachite: The goblins are still at the gate however there is some good news. Archimedes has been replaced by Sav as *cough*Mayor*cough*. With Archimedes place being taken away he can no longer demand the adamantine items. Sav has replaced this demand with a ban on the exportation of menacing spikes. I have no idea why he has done this, I suppose he doesn't want me adding metal and glass spikes to all over the children’s toys we sending to the humans.

15th of Malachite: The stone to block processing room is complete. We can now train our masons and also have a place to store our stone. I have 26 mason workshops all set up to convert the stone.

24th of Galena: The goblins are still outside and their tactics seem to be working. Our source of drink has been used up and everyone in the fortress is getting thirsty. Seeing as we have no barrels to brew the numerous plump helmets into and the dwarves don't like drinking sweet pod syrup we are in a difficult situation.

I will let the other council members to vote on what we do. Our options are:
 a) Turn everyone into military and rush the 4 crossbow goblins outside.
 b) Use only our trained military, most are now master shield users so they might be able to hold off the goblins.
 c) Wait the goblins out; they have been here for almost 3 months now so they will surely be leaving soon. I hope.

[Stormlock]

Hmm, a quandary indeed. Our barrel supply issue may be solvable by condensing our syrup supplies into lavish meals, however, it would be unfortunate if the goblins slew our dwarven liaison. My only suggestion to deal with them would be to mine a route directly underneath their feet and attack by surprise from close quarters without giving them a path to rain arrows upon as they retreat. Hopefully the dogs can take the brunt of the arrows, and the miner will be ready with his pick as soon as the surface is breached. It is certainly a risky plan however, especially considering the high possibility of multiple goblin ambushes awaiting undetected above us. Setting up a mechanism to deal with them would be much preferable. If all else fails, drafting 20 to 30 plebeians  should certainly handle the situation. We hardly need any more time wasted on the construction of their diorite artifacts, to be certain. Just be sure to prepare the graves in advance.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

I think the best thing for me to do here is to save and try out an option. If it doesn't work Savescum and try the next option. I usually don't savescum but this is different with people reliant on me.

[Savok]

I would use the trained force. That's what it is for, after all.
I recommend never appointing a sheriff/killing all dwarves who are allowed to punish.

[Run Comrades]

I second the using of trained military.  And I think that the plan stormlock laid out is a good one.  Just make sure to seal the corridor off from the fort after the military gathers in it, just in case.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Autumn

6th of Limestone: The situation has been fixed. I ordered the dehydrated miners to dig out a passage beneath the goblins and stationed my military within this passage. When the time was right I dug an upward stairway at the end and my military burst out upon the unsuspecting goblins. The trained hammerdwarves and swordsdwarves made mincemeat out of the remaining foe. We did however sustain one casualty; the deputy miner who dug out the passage was killed in the fighting. He shall be placed in a royal grave for saving project skyseal. With the situation under control, I let 57 thirsty dwarves out to drink from the ponds.


7th of Limestone: The two dwarves that were trapped outside during the goblin siege were found long dead today. They don't seem to have any bolts lodged in their rotten corpses so they must have died from dehydration or starvation.
   R.I.P- Eral Ducimthak, Fishery worker
   R.I.P- Sakzul Otsusddom, DDR commander

10th of Limestone: The Dwarven mountain homes have sent a caravan, and we finally received it today. Let’s hope that doesn't mean we have more goblins to fight.

18th of Limestone: ANOTHER AMBUSH! This time we are even more vulnerable to destruction as nearly the entire fortress is outside collecting scraps from the previous battle. As the goblins are closer to Skyseal's entrance than most of the dwarves we are in trouble.  I have ordered everyone who is outside to form a militia and attack the swordgoblins, this will result in mass casualties but it is a risk I have to take. Well not me personally but a risk that my workers will have to take.

19th of Limestone: Victory is at hand. Our stout dwarves have withheld the goblin attack. With the help of the merchant escort we have killed a squad of swordgoblins and a squad of macegoblins. However we have sustained casualties.
E.g.



The 6 deaths along with 2 seriously wounded make it a battle costly. You know what we do about the wounded in Skyseal, we feed them to the Burninator. This in my opinion is better than letting them slowly die in their beds wasting our food supply and time. 
Our population is now down to 51.

20th of Limestone: The dwarven caravan left today. I suppose they were scared off by the ambush, or maybe it was because half of their guard was killed by goblins.

15th of Sandstone: The dwarven caravan liaison, which was left behind when the rest of the dwarves retreated, is now asking what we want them to bring next time. I have told him we want any kind of armor we can get as well as some steel and iron. We also requested more drinks, more food and some more barrels. We could not get the needed bauxite as the liaison said the mountain homes are low on it. I suppose that means no lava flood mechanisms are going to be available.

18th of Sandstone: Some migrants have arrived. I have no idea what to do with this lot so I guess it’s a mass military draft migration. 20th of Sandstone: The migration wave was small; our population is now up to 63 only 3 higher than what it was before the goblin attacks. Most of the migrants were children, but there are now 5 more recruits to spar in the barracks.

25th of Sandstone: Today a child came up and complained to me about the lack of beds. I suppose he was right to complain as most of the dwarves here have to sleep on the floor. The barracks is usually packed and there are no private quarters. I should probably fix this with some temporary rooms after the crypts are fully dug out.

11th of Timber: The plump helmets weren't being harvested fast enough and were wilting before being picked. I told everyone to gather harvest instead of just the growers.

17th of Timber: I set out some new stockpiles for furniture, finished goods and food today, lets hope this increases the production time of cluttered workshops.

Winter

2nd of Moonstone: Today a mason has gone berserk. He is currently running around attacking anybody he can find. I have no idea why he went berserk but he is.

3rd of Moonstone: The berserk mason has been taken down. It only took one marksdwarf one shot and he was dead on the floor of the stone processing room.

19th of Moonstone: ANOTHER F!@#ING Ambush. This time it is those skulking filthy kobolds. They have attacked with a group of kobold swordsman. Let’s hope we can survive the 3rd ambush this year.

20th of Moonstone: The kobolds were quickly exterminated. Our victory can be attributed to Archimedes who against all odds spotted the kobolds and took off. The kobolds gave chase and followed him around the base a couple of times. This spree allowed the military to take up position and defend the Skyseal. The hammer dwarves killed all of the kobolds when Archimedes ran back inside the fortress.

4th of Opal: I have mandated the digging of the bedrooms now. They may not be completed in my turn of leadership but I will lay out the designations anyway.

18th of Opal:  ADAMANTINE! - Praise the Miners. Well I wasn't expecting this when I was mining out the bedrooms. I have heard some bad tales about the Adamantine mines in the far north, so I am not going to mine out an inch of the stuff. I will leave that until we actually need it.

14th of Obsidian: My turn as ruler is almost up. It doesn't look like I am going to get the bedrooms finished so maybe the next ruler, Omer, can do that. I have achieved a few things in my turn but not nearly as much as I wanted.

Map of Skyseal after my turn - http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/map-2973-skyseal-skyseal
Read all of the POI's

[Run Comrades]

From the personal journal of Omer
1st of Granite: Today my year-long term as manager of Project Skyseal begins.  We have had, so far, a fairly rough time beginning.  I anticipate many challenges and have many goals for the year ahead.  Tonight will be my last night of rest.  Tomorrow I will thoroughly review the logbooks of previous managers, as well as take a walk around the fort to get a feel for our situation as a whole.

----
Let me know when the save file is up. I'll start tomorrow.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Sorry about the wait for the save file as my internet connection went all kung fu on my ass. I fixed it though so here it is:
 http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=255

[Obsidian]

Great stuff, keep this fortress going

I lol'ed at finding adamantine while mining out the bedrooms ;_;

[Savok]

.
Due to my (apparently poor) expectation of bloodline speed, I thought that a camp "sometime later" in the summer wouldn't be a problem.

I was wrong.
I'm going to have to bow out of this bloodline. Sorry - it was fun.