Print

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

[DoctrZombie]

=Events as they occurred, 22nd of Opal, 1058=

Ruefus drank deeply of the cool refreshing water from a wooden bucket. She couldn’t help but notice the initials at the bottom, carved in by Besmar Olonmuzish, the fortress leader who sat beside her even now, changing the bandages on her lower right arm. Between the water, the medical care, hell even the bucket, Ruefus probably owed Besmar her life. The old military dwarf saw things differently, however, and Ruefus could see the guilt in his eyes.

“It isn’t your fault, Besmar. You made a decision to hollow a ramp into the Cliffside, and that decision was a good one. If we had followed your instructions but dug from the top down instead of bottom up, the collapse wouldn’t have even occurred… Really it’s my fault…” Ruefus moved her arm and winced in pain. Her arm was wounded in ways that only time could heal.

“Thank you, my friend, but if I am not to blame, then neither are you. Accidents happen I suppose. I’m just glad nobody gave their life over a slab of granite.” The guilt appeared to fade from his face as Besmar thought about the successes the fort had achieved over the last few months. It was at that moment that Xombis knocked on the door.

“Sir, Our food stocks have become dangerously low, since Cookie is unable to hunt, and the farms have begun to bear fruit. Plump helmets will make for fine meals, but I need an extra pair of hands to help pull them up.”

Besmar sighed. Work was plentiful these days. Extra hands were not.

Ruefus grinned re-assuringly. “Go. I’ve drank my fill for now, Besmar. I’ll be wantin’ one of those Plump Helmets in a few days anyway.”

~~~Diary of Besmar Olonmuzish, Army supply officer, 1058~~~

-22nd of Obsidian
Nothing has happened in a month, and I felt the need to write this in the log. We Dwarves are a patient folk, and so a month without anything interesting to report is actually a bit of a relief. It is customary though that I record an entry to this effect.

-1st of Granite, 1059
Spring arrived, and with it the year has changed. Although the air is a little warmer, there is not much difference here. Our work proceeds in all of our projects slowly. We really could use the reinforcements promised by the King… Or the Anvils promised by the King. Really I need to stop relying on those Promises…

-9th of Granite
Today is a great day for FireAnvil; Nifo has struck the final blow against the rock and with it hot magma flows into our fortress’s magma pit. In a matter of days the smelting of ore into bars can begin! I will offer a toast at dinner tonight, and tomorrow I will smelt the ceremonial first copper bar!

-12th Granite
FOOLISHNESS! TRAGEDY! Xombis has foolishly sacrificed himself into the magma by attempting to "clean" it! He mumbled something about cleaning up all that nasty ash on the magma funnel and walked upstairs with a mop and bucket! I heard the screams of agony from my room. By the time the six of us got to him, all that remained of him were wisps of smoke...
   

We don’t have any tombs ready, but Xombis perished in a way that requires none… what a horrible way to go. I will take up the task of Farming from now on…

-13th of Granite
As if by some horrid demonic knowledge of our Tragedy, the elves have arrived...

=======
Edit reason: Refering to Ruefus as a man instead of a woman. oops.

[ May 29, 2008: Message edited by: DoctrZombie ]

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

My dwarves seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with cleaning as well.
Be it cleaning up the blood half-way through a seige, or doing some dusting in the demon pits, they were there, ready with a can of mr sheen and a yellow duster.

[Sparksol]

It brings to mind a fort I had; the magma trench had just been filled, and some poor dwarf went in to clean it up. The spiral began immediately as dwarf after dwarf followed either to either clean up the remains of another dwarf or to collect their burning belongings.

[DoctrZombie]

Fortunately it looks like everything of value melted instantly, so nobody else is going to be jumping into the fire. Just to be safe I might floor/wall it off...

[Frelock]

Aw, shucks.  First death and it's not Cookie the hunter?  Darn, I, in my sadistic fashion, was hoping for some horrible death with wonderful details alongside heroism and tragedy.  But it's only Xombis, and death by cleaning... However, now I have a great excuse as to why my room's so dirty.  If I clean it, I'll die!

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Nooooo. Poor Xombis died in such an un-dwarfish way. He should have meet his demise in battle as all dwarves should. Oh well, I suppose death by magma is better than death by drowning.

Great story by the way.

[DoctrZombie]

Hey all. Just got back from vacation, haven't had time to play DF yet, so if I do an update today it will lack any gameplay content.

[DoctrZombie]

=Events as they occured, 13th Granite, 1059=

The heat from the magma was not what brought a scowl to Besmar's face, as he and the five other dwarves from Zirilzuntir stood gazing down into the hot glow of the subteranian volacno. It was his turn to speak for the dead.

Clenching a small stone object in his fist, he bellowed out to the lava, not so that his companions could hear, but so that the gods and spirits could.

"We Dwarves revere our warriors, our soldiers, who die in battle to save the lives of our kin. Not often do we stop to think about the other dwarves who battle every day for life. Xombis was a farmer and a brewer. We all know the usefulness of a good brewer, but in the mountainhomes nearly anyone can toil the earth and bring up fruit. Out here, in the wilderness, a farmer, like a soldier, keeps us all alive. Many nights have we slept with full bellies thanks to Xombis, but now he has left us to join his ancestors."

Besmar tossed a stone craft, shaped like a plump helmet, into the pit, where the red ooze swallowed it up with barely a gurgle, caring little for the plight of dwarves.

"Rest well, Xombis." Besmar nodded his respect to the mountain, and with the others, returned to his duties.

[muwahahaha]

Wow, you're really great at story telling, its hard to believe that its only just turned to the second year. Keep it up!

EDIT: Oops.. its not the first year anymore....my bad...  

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: muwahahaha ]

[DoctrZombie]

=Events as they occurred, 25th Granite, 1059=
Besmar stared at the grizzly bear that sat nearly twice his height behind a cage made of only fallen branches and grass woven into thread. It was clear to the dwarf that the creature could easily burst from the cage and devour all in sight, but not for the Elven magic that warped its fragile mind. He desperately wanted to trade for the creature, as it would make a fine outpost guardian, but the blasted tree humpers didn’t believe in wagons or in forcing work animals to pull them, so there was no logistic way to trade bundles of fine dwarven stone crafts for the bear and have the elves able to pick up and leave…something that Besmar wanted more than the bear.

Boatsmoke dropped off the last of the wooden bins laden with fine dwarven stone crafts, but the look in the Elvish eyes wasn’t what Besmar expected. With fine craftsmanship like this, the Elves should be prancing around in the fields celebrating the kind of deal they were about to receive, but instead they stared open-mouthed with disgust.

Besmar signed out “Damnedable Elves!” and dumped the bins out onto the depot floor, then sent Boatsmoke back to the stockpiles with the empty wooden bins. The elves seemed immediately placated. “Ah! Some of your more…Ethical goods!”

“Ethics Ain’t got nothin’ to do with it Elf! This is Capitalism! Keep your pointy-eared ethics out of my trade depot!” For a moment it seemed as though the loathsome crap the elves had brought with them wasn’t worth the snobbish self-importance of the traders who brought it, but then Besmar spotted something he could find use for.

“How much do you want for the fox?”

~~~Diary of Besmar Olonmuzish, Army supply officer, 1059~~~

-26th Granite
I managed to trade away our fine dwarven stone crafts for some forestry-hippie-crap. In truth, I managed to get some foreign seeds as well as food and some wine, which we will need for when the King’s reinforcements get here. In addition I secured a fox!
I had to complete a survey on animal cruelty to get it, but after I made some arguments as to the war effort against the Goblins, and how much nicer the forest would be when it was burning to the ground at Goblin filth hands, the Elves seemed a little less reluctant. If I can get my hands on another fox, We can start breeding them and soon we will be able to ship their pelts back to human lands, where they will fetch a good price! Not that I’ll let the bloody Elves know about it, of course.

-6th of Slate
Today, Boatsmoke informs us, is his birthweek! He has chosen to throw a party in our dining hall to celebrate, and I believe it is in the best interest of our dwarves that we have some time off! I’ve ordered every able bodied dwarf to take a break and enjoy the festivities, which could last all week! Unfortunately for Boatsmoke, this means only 4 of us will be in attendance. He doesn’t seem to mind though; the only person he seems to be having any real interest in is Nifo.

-19th of Slate
Boatsmoke is STILL throwing his party! Unfortunately I had to order all Dwarves back to their normal duties, but Kira and Boatsmoke continue to drink into the night. Nifo and Boatsmoke have become an item, apparently they really share some Dwarfish things in common and all it took was a week and a half of partying to determine it. Best of luck to them both, to find love out here so far from home.

-26th of Slate
Boasmoke’s party finally ended yesterday, and today Kira has decided to throw a party of her own! When I asked her why, she said she didn’t have a reason! PFHASW! Youth today… I let her throw her party but I doubt anyone will attend. We’re all still sleeping off Boatsmoke’s bash.

Edit reasons: one minor punctuation fix. Date fix

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: DoctrZombie ]

[DoctrZombie]

~~~Diary of Besmar Olonmuzish, Army supply officer, 1059~~~

-8th of Felsite

FINALLY! While out gathering food from shrubs surrounding the entrance to our fortress, Kira noticed a band of Dwarves scaling the cliffs to our home. By the time they reached the trade depot, we were all in attendance to welcome them to Zirilzuntîr.

Added to our Roster:

-1 brewer
-1 Foal
-1 Craftsdwarf
-1 Siege Engineer
-3 Peasant (1 becomes Jonathan)
-1 Armorer (Kornash)
-1 Hunter
-1 Fish Cleaner
-1 leatherworker
-1 Butcher
-1 Engraver
-1 soap maker
-1 lye maker
-1 fishery worker
-1 animal caretaker
-1 carpenter
-1 mule
-1 Planter

18 dwarves and 2 livestock in all. Frankly, I'm impressed with the King.
He sent a good variety of skills which we don't already possess! This will relieve the backlog of work for the rest of us, and we can focus at the jobs we were brought here for. There are two major problems with so many new bodies however… First, we need to tunnel out many more bedrooms. I have assigned all of our skilled miners to this task. Secondly, we will need food. With Cookie Incapacitated, our food stores have not been rising. Fortunately, many of the migrants possess the skills needed to remedy this situation. I am pleased with the results.

Because there is much work to be done I've given one of the peasants the task of helping our experienced kin with mining.

He worships a god which none of the rest of us do…Äs the foggy cat, a Female dwarf associated with the circles of lies and mist. I will have to keep my eyes on any dwarf who worships those spheres of influence... Sounds like illusionism to me!

Perhaps the most appropriate addition to our group is another Armorer. I have assigned him to work with Kira. As soon as we have an Anvil or two, this fortress will begin to ship out quality items home.

-10th of Felsite
One of the planters has withdrawn from society. Strange since she just got here...

11th of Felsite
She claimed our craftsdwarf shop. I suppose I should build another one... ungrateful migrants... I was just about to have a good talk with the planter about how important farming will be to the maintenance of this colony, but now she refuses to converse with anyone!

I’ve seen this malady before. Legends tell of Dwarves who become inspired by the fates to produce wonderful artifacts. A Dwarf who cannot fulfill these dreams will likely go mad… I will try to provide anything this woman needs, but I’ve got a fortress to run.

[Dwarfaholic]

Woot! Boatsmoke the par-tay master!

[muwahahaha]

Cool, migrants are here finally, I was beginning to think the king had abandoned the fort!

Also, I like raw adamantine? that could make for an interesting event if i happen to have a strange mood...

[DoctrZombie]

--Today's post would be bigger but I accidently deleted half of it! Argh!--

=Events as they occurred, 18th Felsite, 1059=

Bomrek the planter shoved the crude chalk image of a stack of cloth in Besmar’s face again, but said nothing, only glared at him with lost eyes.

“I already told ye, woman, Make it out of silk cloth, we don’t have no plants!” Besmar pointed a stubby finger into the ungrateful dwarven woman’s chest. “If ye don’t like it ye can get back to the fields and grow it yerself!”

With that, Bromrek threw the drawing at Besmar’s feet and stormed back into the crafts shop, sitting at the table where the logs were gathered and drumming her fingers impatiently. Besmar groaned his distaste, for this woman was slowing the production of stone crafts which were desperately needed for the next trade caravan… very undwarvenly.

Kira approached quietly, and stood waiting behind Besmar. After a moment of head scratching, the old dwarf turned and yelped with surprise as he nearly crashed into Kira. “ACH! By the bearded gods don’t scare me like that!” Besmar huffed his annoyance as he regained his composure. “What else must I be bothered with?”

Kira tried not to chuckle, having played this game on a number of occasions with the old coot. “Sir, I’ve assigned five of the less useful immigrants to spar as a unit in the new barracks. Currently I’ve given the group leader an axe and the others will train in martial combat.”

Besmar nodded his approval. “Ah, good. We should work on getting them crossbows and setting up a shooting range adjacent to the future barracks sleeping quarters right away. Put the rest of the group to work setting up workshops immediately. I want to be pumping out bone crossbows and bolts for the new recruits as soon as possible.”

Besmar glanced back at the Planter Bomrek as she sat whistling and waiting in the craftsdwarf shop. He pulled idly at his beard as he wondered aloud “How will we get some good plant fiber cloth for that crazy she-dwarf?...”

[DoctrZombie]

~~~Diary of Besmar Olonmuzish, Army supply officer, 1059~~~

-20th of Felsite
I’ve gone through all of the stockpiles and can’t find a single pig tail plant, thread, or bolt of cloth! I know we purchased several bags of pig tail seeds. I imagine they were grown and brewed instead of turned into cloth. Come to think of it, we do have several barrels of Dwarven ale… Curses!  I’ve assigned some of the new migrants to gather wild plants in hope of securing some rope reed or pig tails.

12th of Hematite
Ah, the Human caravan is here! Unfortunately they are just a few days early from my projected completion time of the tunnel that will allow wagons to access our Depot… Also to my distress they have an anvil and a number of other fine goods that we cannot afford because our craftshop is currently in the hands of a mad woman!

20th of Hematite
Today I met with Human Guild Representative. We didn’t do much other than exchange pleasantries before I was called away to work on other important fortress problems. I am considering assigning someone else to the position of Fortress Broker, which reminds me that I also need to assign someone as Sheriff. Fortunately all the dwarves have been obedient and hardworking, but that won’t last forever and when someone slips up I will need a competent dwarf holding the reins of justice.

22nd of Hematite
I managed to trade some of our stone crafts in return for a bin full of cloth. We don’t yet have enough goods to trade for an Anvil, unfortunately, due to someone stealing our craftshop. I brought the bin down to Bomrek not a moment too soon. The woman was frothing at the mouth, but she took the cloth and began work immediately.

27th of Hematite
Bomrek created a wonderful Ashen crown called "Silkyawns the Brilliant Tempest", worth a pretty 6600. It is decorated with Ash and encircled with bands of Maple. It is adorned with hanging rings of rope weed. Personally, I think it’s more fitting for an elf than a dwarf, but her skill in wood crafting clearly rivals even the pointy-eared hippies! Feels good to beat them at their own game. I’ve ordered her to build wood crafts from now on, and let her continue to use the shop. Hopefully she’ll produce enough fine wood cups to trade for an anvil before the humans leave, but I doubt it.

28th of Hematite
I submitted request to the Human Guild Representative for seeds, plants, anvils, and some fancy metal bars to produce fine crafts out of. He will be discussing with the merchants the types of goods they need back in Human Lands from us, but really I expect we will be providing nothing but stone crafts for the year, as we still cannot afford an Anvil. With Cookie incapacitated, even our prepared meals lack the spice and flavor to woo merchant purses.

16th of Malachite
Finally negotiations are complete and I can get back to real work! The Human Guild Rep left, happy with our trade negotiations and assurances that we will get fresh supplies next year in return for our goods. I gave him our assurances that all things will be in a greater state of affairs when he returns, although personally I am not sure I believe such things myself. Three caravans have come and gone and we still have not been able to produce enough goods for an Anvil, in spite of my best attempts. The thought had occurred briefly to me that I should simply seize the anvil from the humans, but the King’s orders are to make friendly with both Human and Elf as long as we are at war with the green menace.

We will redouble our efforts for the Dwarven Caravan in the fall. If the king sent an anvil, we’ll be buying it.