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[AlienChickenPie]

The advanced methods used by dwarves to classify stone layers many miles away have proven themselves nearly infallible. Large dwarven settlements owed their existence to these fine methods, but the stoneseers, dwarves of science, have always been bothered by one aspect of their work- Ocean bottoms.
No dwarf, elf or human had ever gone to the bottom of the ocean and returned alive, so their composition was a mystery to the stoneseers. The only thing they had was the ooze and clay model, based on extensive observations. Several distinct types of ocean floor were identified and classified as oozes or clays by their hypothesized texture.
A change of ruler at one of the larger mountainhomes lead to the formation of the very first dwarven oceanography expedition. The chosen site was a vocanic island in the middle of the ocean. The deep ocean around the island bore promises of actual, real-life ooze, waiting to be uncovered. Dozens of stoneseers, skilled workers and plenty of high-grade tools and materials needed to create an off-shore drilling rig were gathered, and the ship set sail in early 1050.
Unfortunately for the hopeful crew, the overloaded ship was taken by a storm. Only a handful of dwarves managed to reach the island, along with a pitiful fraction of the expedition's supplies. Thousands of miles away from civilization and dispatched by the  power of a royal mandate, the survivors had no choice but to regroup and resume their mission.
The following souls gathered around an especially large crate that washed ashore:
A male architect; adventurous, sincere and candid.
A male gearhead; scatterbrained, laid back, compassionate and lacking an aesthetic sense.
A male fisherdarf; unaffected by the suffering of others, self-disciplined and an outdoordwarf.
A female Stoneseer; friendly, intuitive, unmoved by pity or urges and lacking confidence.
A female farmer; Easy to anger, assertive, energetic, helpful, a champion of modesty and seldom open about her feelings.
A female clown; Self-conscious, active, wary of crowds and appreciative of art and natural beauty.
A female ex-wrestler; Nervous yet cheerful, straightforward and reserved.
A breeding pair of miserable-looking dogs that managed to float to shore.

The stoneseer stepped up with a hollow expression on her face, and as if reading a script, spoke: "It seems that we are the sole survivors. Our first order of business is to asses our situation and set up a sustainable outpost. I'm Junior Stoneseer A.C.P. and I'll be taking down your names and professions for the expedition record."
One by one, the dwarves shared their names and professions.

This is the part where you claim the dwarves. I haven't embarked yet, so feel free to alter the professions, but keep in mind that the starting crew is not supposed to be perfect, far from it. As for the supplies, I've got the usual food and drink packed, as well as some seeds, picks, an anvil and copper ore.

Claimed Dwarves:
A.C.P. the Stoneseer
Claw the Fisherdwarf
Exoleet the Architect
Kira the Gearhead
Pook the Farmer
Rayna the Clown
Valter the Ex-Wrestler

[ April 14, 2008: Message edited by: AlienChickenPie ]

[Lord_Frodo]

Can I claim the fisherdwarf? name him Claw.

[exoleet]

I claim the architect, name him Exoleet.
Give him Masonry, Mining (Maybe), and stonecrafting, 3 in masonry, 3 in mining, 2 in stone crafting, and take two cats along with him.

[ April 13, 2008: Message edited by: exoleet ]

[ April 13, 2008: Message edited by: exoleet ]

[THLawrence]

I'll take the gearhead.
Name: Kira
4 Mechanics
3 Mining
3 Weaponsmithing

Also I have hit the oozes and the clay before.
Pelagic Clay   ░
Calcareous Ooze   ▒
Siliceous Ooze   ▒

Interesting point. They are not soils. They drop stones when mined out and cannot be farmed on. It took me three hours of straight digging to find this out.

[PTTG??]

Brilliant Story. I'd like the Farmer, named Pook. Can he have clutched to a few seeds of sweet pods during the wreck?

[ April 13, 2008: Message edited by: PTTG?? ]

[AlienChickenPie]

Two more dwarves remaining, the misfits. Feel free to change them around a little, so long as they aren't something overly useful (the clown is a comedian/intimidator and the wrestler is a wrestler/butcher). I'd like to flesh out these two, whatever they turn out to be, so they ought to be more interesting than some blacksmith or farmer.
I'll check back on this thread in the morning, and hopefully post the first update tomorrow.

[Donnigan]

Dibs on Clown.  Name her Rayna.

[GeneralValter]

I'll take the wrestler, then. However, I would rather you tried

5 wrestling,
3 butchering,
and 2 potash making

instead of just wrestling and butchering. Name him Valter.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Oh... I'm to late. I guess ill just have to take an immigrant next year(if there are any).

[fleacircus]

Count me in for an immigrant too, if possible.

[AlienChickenPie]

Granite 1 1051
The survivors came forward, one by one, and gave their details to A.C.P.
"I'm Claw. I'm a fisherdwarf."
"My name is exoleet. I'm a stoneworker and an architect."
"Kira. I guess you could call me an engineer."
"I'm a farmer, Pook."
"Rayna here, though some of you may remember me as Urist the Clown."
"I was a wrestler. Ms. Valter to you."
"Very well, that's all of us," said A.C.P. as she rcorded the names in her log and kept writing vigorously while walking around and examining the land.

Expedition log, 1st Granite 1051
---
The Cudgels of Beer, along with her sisters The Cudgels of Wine and The Cudgels of Ale, sank due to unexpected weather patterns and left us stranded. The seven survivors listed above gathered near the mouth of the volcano, and are presumed the sole survivors. Scavenged supplies include a 5 unit crate of picks, an anvil, a bag of copper equivalent to 10 bars, an uncounted but reasonable amount of supplies and a single copper crossbow. We should be able to fend for ourselves given these supplies, and live off the sea and human-style surface agriculture once the supplies run out. The job distribution is not optimal, but it allows this. Our present location is cut off from the shore, but given our mining equipment we should be able to dig a proper route.
This expedition's science mission is in peril due to the presumed death of all the Senior Stoneseer and all but one of the Junior Stoneseer.

"A.C.P., quit writing for a second! We got survivin' to do!" shouted Rayna. A.C.P. obliged and walked back to the circle the survivors had formed while she was writing.
Exoleet was sitting on the floor, playing with two wet cats, and Pook was standing in the middle of the circle, holding a soggy bag in his hand. Pook opened the bag, removing a less soggy bag. She pulled a dry bag out of that bag and held it out for all to see. Sweet pod seeds, plump helmet spawn and even some pig tail seeds, all well preserved. "We're gonna live after all!" Pook exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean by that, Pook?" said Claw, "I'm a fisherdwarf and this is the bloody ocean. I could keep us all well fed easily!" "No offense, Claw, but a diet of stinky fish does not constitute well fed." "You're quite disrespectful, do you know that?" "I'll show you disrespectful, you brine sucking prick!" said Pook as she prepared to punch Claw in the face. "ENOUGH, both of you!" thundered Rayna. "Who died and made you leader?" asked Pook and Claw in unison (who later found this simulaneouty embarrassing). "I used to have my own comedy troupe, The Limestone Variety Hour. That's more than any of you can say about your leadership experience. Now both of you, quit bickering. We'll have both farming and fishing." Pook and Claw, satisfied with the compromise and frightened of the clown, backed off and returned to the circle.
"Now, those of you with mining experience should take a pick and hollow out a farm plot for Pook. meanwhile, Claw will set up a fishery for himself, and right after that, you will dig him a passage to the ocean. Understood?" The survivors all grumbled and then went to work.
In an attempt to top Pook, claw set up his fishery right on top of the small clay hill where Pook's fields were dug. To make his decision seem more logical, he marked the area next to the fishery as a food stockpile. The new fortress started shaping up..

While hauling food to the new stockpile, Exoleet discussed the situation with his fellow miners, Kira and A.C.P. "I don't like the direction the fort is going. We've turned that pitiful hill into a small house, as if we're nothing more than short humans. This won't do, we have to start digging out a real fortress, deep inside the rock layers." Both Kira and A.C.P. agreed, and they started digging into the rhyolite. While taking a break, Kira looked up from his preserved mule meat and saw A.C.P. kissing Exoleet vigorously  on top of a pile of mined rock. "Huh!" he thought.

Expedition log, 22nd Felsite, 1051
---
Survival seems well within reach. Underground farms are operational, there's a passage down to the ocean and our more avid stoneworkers dug out a large living space and several nooks for workshops and warehouses. They are currently working on smoothing the living space and building tables and thrones for it. Valter took up carpenting, so we will have actual beds soon. We are all healthy, optimistic and in good spirits. It's likely that by the time next year's caravan arrives, we will have already built a respectable underground  complex and ensured our long term survival.

[AlienChickenPie]

With two different channels for procuring food and an adequate living area in place, the dwarves' basic survival was ensured. Their next mission was to decide what to do.
"We have been sent here to pursue certain scientific goals. As the last remaining member of the science team, I implore you to start considering these goals," said A.C.P. with the same fake tone she used when the survivors first met on the island.
"We're seven dwarves out of the sixty originally dedicated to this goal, and only one dwarf out of the entire 20-dwarf science team remains. We can't do any science right now," replied Rayna, trying to be as nice as she could, which wasn't much at all.
"With all due respect, Rayna, it's not up to you. We all signed the same contract, and that contract puts the science mission above all else once we set up all the basics," answered A.C.P.
"Basics? We've nearly run out of wood and no axes washed ashore. There's a volcano right next to us and an anvil in the furniture stockpile. We should set up a proper metalworking area before we even consider going past the basics,"  said Kira.
Claw seemed to recall something when the forge was mentioned. "I was fishing the other day and I noticed an interesting cluster in the clay loam. I'm pretty sure it was hematite."
"Hematite? That settles it. Go dig the foundations for a magma forge, we'll start our very own ironworks," said Rayna with her power as expedition leader.
A.C.P. seemed convinced. She dropped the fake tone and added "According to the stoneseeing report for this island, some of the ocean floor is marble. We could dig to the ocean floor from below and get some marble for steel!"
With quite a bit of enthusiasm, the mining trio of Kira, Exoleet and A.C.P. went up to the volcano and started digging down.

The three chose a suitable location by the volcano and began digging down. When they reached the same level as the living area, they began to dig west to reach it. Suddenly, Exoleet stopped digging. "What's wrong, sweet pod?" asked A.C.P. "I just hit damp rock, syrup. Looks like there's water in this rock layer," answered Exoleet. "There are no aquifers in rock. Don't you know that, sweet pod?" "I wouldn't risk it." "There's no risk, the metalworking area is not yet connected to the main fortress. Here, I'll do it."
A.C.P. dug into the rhyolite and surely enough, water started pouring out. "This is not right," she said. "Let's get out of here." The three miners quickly got out of the flooding cavern. On their way out, Kira shouted "You nearly killed us, A.C.P! I thought you were a stoneseer, you should've known." "I.. I'm trained in reading stones miles away, not inches away. I'm only dwarven," answered A.C.P. on the verge of tears. "Leave her alone, Kira. She knows more about rock than both of us combined, but everyone makes mistakes," said Exoleet. Kira sighed and suggested to dig a little deeper and try again. The others agreed and began digging the new foundations.

I don't like the pacing so far. A lot of text for very short time spans. It's only 6th Limestone 1051 and I've already written two installments. Would you like the next installments to cover longer time periods with the same amount of text?

[GeneralValter]

Well, we admittedly don't have to hear epic tales of stone hauling and food stockpile designation. If you want to just skip to important events, be my guest.

[AlienChickenPie]

For the next installment, I'll use mainly expedition log sections. Dialog will be saved for the dramatization of significant events. I plan to cover the period up to the arrival of the first caravan in one installment. That should make things significantly less boring and more concentrated, which will be necessary, seeing as goblins, zombies or skeletons aren't available on the island.

[Strife26]

If any Migrants show up, I'll take one.
Name: Terrence.
Terrence used to be a very important stoneseer for an important dwarven kingdom. He came up with a theory that oceans do not have bottoms and actually go on forever. After he was laughed at, Terrence became moody. He eventually wandered about the land. He now goes to this fort in the hope of being vidicated. He is willing to do whatever is needed for his theory to be (dis)proven.