* The dwarves of Chambergraves, while inspired by the Baroness's demands to build a protective wall in 1055, endured such slaughter in the process that by 1056 they were demoralized and unsure of what direction to take, though they enjoyed the safety from immediate external destruction.
* Led by the ravings of a disturbed child, the fortress came under the sway of the more isolationist dwarves who, rather than exploiting the child's image for their own gain, seem to have been genuinely inspired. They are opposed by Lokum Kilrudneth, Mayor and soon to be champion, who came to Chambergraves a simple cheese-maker. The Mayor considered the more extreme isolationist plans to be approaching communal suicide. However he could not directly move against the isolationists.
* Work starts on removing the large outdoor stockpiles and workshops, while at the same time building space inside the chasm and the spire too hold the fortress's quite large inventory. Almost all of the military is decommissioned, and nearly every dwarf is tasked with construction and hauling duties. A wave of migrants is one by one given a trowel and a mortarboard and sent into the depths of the chasm to work.
* During the whole year, traders are not permitted in. They stay outside the fortress walls, holding camp and muttering, and eventually leave. One trader from the east shouts curses all day and warns he will not go anywhere until he trades. By this time the depot has been reduced to rubble and is being picked for valuable items to haul inside. The trader is ignored. True to his word, he stays put until he dies of thirst where he stands, right outside the fortress wall. His mule dies with him in the same way with the same attitude.
* The chasm does not yet have access to drinking water. As the condition of two wounded dwarves worsens, the Mayor orders the bridge be lowered to give access to the stream. While some dwarves go to get water other dwarves rush off to get various equipment left laying outside, taking many livestock with them, getting lost among the stairwells cut into the cliff. The Mayor stands ready to raise the old armies of the fortress and command them to victory if so much as a kobold appears. But the child-prophet runs around haranguing the dwarves to get back isnide, forbidding that they touch various things with some elaborate ritual. Additionally some key stairwells are cut to isolate the clifftop from the bottom. All dwarves are retrieved safely and there is no attack all year in fact. The Mayor's faction loses much power.
* A water supply is created in the chasm, but too late for the wounded who die of thirst anyway. Apparently there is an act of heroism here, where the floodgate to fill up the pond is not quickly closed, and starts to overflow and cascade down into the fortress's food stockpiles. The tax collector braves the long, perilously narrow bridge with water flowing over it to reach the lever. Though some describe the scenario as "win-win".
* Food and drink is moved in as fast as floor space can be created for it. At the same time some of the larger natural ledges within the cavern are opened up and then the other stockpiles are moved to those, although this is not a permanent solution, the isolationists never tire of reminding everyone.
* The isolationists meanwhile sever the magma connection between the spire and the world outside, and take steps to create a better pool of drinking water that can travel with the spire when it falls into the chasm. The pool is eventually deemed not large enough, but plans for a pool taking up a whole level of the spire are not implemented, as construction work cannot be spared for anything elaborate.
* A human diplomat inside the fortress at the beginning of the year is ignored by the isolationists, and in his recklessness throws himself off a walkway to splatter on a ledge-stockpile far below. However other diplomats and representatives manage to get out cleanly when one of the two waves of migrants are let in, and their tales are the source of much of this history.
* Bit by bit, the old fortress is stripped and crammed inside the chasm. An old stockpile of food by an abandoned farm is rediscovered. An artifact door left in some old sleeping quarters outside the wall is retrieved by tunnel, then the tunnel is sealed. The large open yard that was once the heart of the fortress is now just a field of refuse and horrifying memories.
* The isolationists, having accomplished all of their goals by early winter, now argue among themselves about the best course of action, and get embroiled in details about how to eventually sever the spire completely from the chasm, and what to do about the complex upper works. The Mayor siezes the opportunity and orders a depot structure set up, and begins to say that perhaps now is the time to make the fortress a home again, establish a small but capable military, get production and trade going, do some real work towards providing housing and meeting the demands of the nobility, and live like decent dwarf-folk. This talk becomes popular among dwarves numbed from months of toil and sloppy, rushed masonry jobs. The Baronnes, who all year has been a strong silent supporter of the prophet-child and the isolationists, now seems pleased with her newly engraved room and its arifact door that the Mayor provided, and has stopped attending the meetings of the WAFD. The prophet-child, too, has not issued any new urgent commands, and as 1057 rolls around the fate of Chambergraves is still uncertain.
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Topic: The Chasm-Challenge (Read 31048 times)