Whew... Maggarg, don't worry about your turn coming too soon - I just played all morning and got through... the month of Granite. Still, a LOT of things happened as you will see!
Excerpts from the journal of Endok Monangbesmar, concerning the 9th year of Abbeyverse
1st Granite, 1060:
Dresdor keeps pestering me about some meeting or other. I wish he'd go away. I'm trying to sleep.
Apparently there are some boulders sticking up from our road. That, and a strip of it somehow got built out of diorite. I told Dresdor to go fix it then and stop bothering me.
It seems that I'm the leader of the fortress. In fact, I have been all week. Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?
In addition, one of our recruits just died! What goes on in that training room??
Anyway, I've ordered a kennel built near the cages, since there doesn't seem to be one nearby, and I want to see about training that hydra.
3rd Granite, 1060:
We seem to have a nice amount of milk. I've ordered some cheese made. I like cheese.
I also took a glance at our stockpile records and noticed that we have no less than 2790 quarry bush leaves! Obviously, we need either more kitchens, or more cooks.
I'm taking some of our fresh recruits off military duty and having them become cooks. More use cooking than dead in the barracks I say!
4th Granite, 1060:
Champion Uvash Ustuththiz just went berserk for no apparent reason! The entire military has been called to the barracks, and I am going to have to suspend further training until our military reaches a more stable mental state, as the recent deaths of recruits seems to have rattled them.
Thankfully, the berserk champian was struck down without any trouble whatsoever. It seems that the underlings in our military are more skilled than they let on.
http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/movie-715-beserkchampion6th Granite, 1060:
Kazindir's pick your own strawberries seems to be a great success. It's only 6 days into the planting season, and already the entire plot has been seeded.
8th Granite, 1060:
I have started the initial construction for the carp taming project, for what dwarven swimming pool would be complete without some wonderful koi, as the elves say, happily swimming about socializing with the dwarves?
9th Granite, 1060:
The elven diplomat has arrived! Perhaps she will have some pointers about how best to tame carp?
10th Granite, 1060:
At last, my favorite time of year has arrived! The elven caravan has been sighted! While many of my kin seem to dislike elves, I am always thrilled to see what marvelous and exotic animals they will bring with them. Perhaps they will have a giant tiger, or some more of those gibbons of every color imaginable? I just hope Dresdor can make a good trade with them.
14th Granite, 1060:
Trying to get Dresdor to trade with the elves is like trying to set fire to water! He insists that he must first finish his meeting with me! I've told him over and over that his meeting is OVER, however, he still persists. If he keeps this up, we won't be able to trade with the elves! Instead of letting that happen, I have promoted our deputy trader to broker for the time being. While Dresdor is quite right that the elves, alas, have not brought any exotic animals this year, we must nevertheless trade with them, so that we strike up a good relationship, that they might bring their prized animals with them next year.
Later this day, I espied a regular hatchery for alligators! I will think about how best to gain access to the location, so that we may tame them.
A vile force of darkness has arrived! A dozen goblins astride beak dogs, lead by a elite crossbowgoblin! Thankfully the elves are safely inside the walls. It is time to muster the millitary!
An addition second and third force of goblins were also sighted. An elite axegoblin leads a squad of archers, and a elite speargoblin leads a group of lashers and wrestlers. This could get nasty!
15th Granite, 1060:
A group of hammergoblins has also been sighted. All told, the goblins number nearly 50, each riding a beak dog! As a sidenote, it would appear that our legendary miners have no concept of inside or outside, refusing to come back within the walls until they were drafted and stationed indoors.
16th Granite, 1060:
The melee dwarves have been mustered and await further orders, although the marksdwarves are nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, I am ordering them into combat against the squad of hammergoblins, since they do not have supporting fire to worry about, and hence should be easy pickings. Still, the goblins of that squad outnumber us by 2 to 1, 4 to 1 if you count the beak dogs, so this will nonetheless be bloody.
http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/movie-716-seigepartone[EDIT] We now have the second part of the siege to watch!
http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-730-seigeparttwo[/EDIT]
17th Granite, 1060:
The dwarves made short work of the first group of goblins, suffering not a single scratch. Indeed they are all worthy of the title of champion! However, the war is not over - three more groups of goblins remain, approaching us from every direction. Also, our marksdwarves remain nowhere to be seen. I had better do something about this.
23rd Granite, 1060:
Victory! But not without a cost. a handful of marksdwarves bravely held the tower on the outer wall, slaying dozens of goblins, but they kept coming. The melee dwarves were guarding the bridge against the coming bowgoblin squad, but they were far enough away that they did not arrive to attack us until the contest at the tower was over. The tower was eventually overrun, as the surviving goblins made it through the back gate, and stormed the tower, killing every marksdwarf that had heed the summons. Perhaps if more than three marksdwarves had heeded the alarm, things would have been different. Nevertheless, the tower fell. At this time, the melee dwarves, having seen only a single goblin manage to cross the bridge thus far, were recalled to deal with the more immediate threat at the tower. They did so and rapidly routed the two groups of goblins there. Finally, they returned to battle the bowgoblins, which by this time had crossed the bridge and were bearing down on the main gate. They were summarily routed, and we are now chasing down the remaining goblins as they attempt to flee. Our overall losses include three marksdwarves, including at least one elite, and a swordsdwarf with a broken arm and a marksdwarf with a broken lower body. For the goblins, a very large number of them lie dead, along with a larger number of beak dogs. We also captured at least two goblin and no less than eight beak dogs in various cage traps. I project that the cleanup will take all spring, and likely summer too.
((There would be a movie for the rest of the seige, but since there weren't any pauses in the action, I had no place to break up the movie, and hence the filesize was 1.21 MB :-( ))
Given the goblin seige, I allowed anyone to trade at the depot. Imagine my surprise when Jools showed up and made a successful trade with the elves. He even made them a kind offer, which they gladly accepted. Perhaps he likes elves more than he lets on? Then again, he probably wouldn't have been able to have Rigňth Inkybalances, his pet jaguar, if it weren't for the elves.
24th Granite, 1060:
We've discovered another dead dwarf at the bottom of the moat. Looks like our count of lost marksdwarves has risen to four.
27th Granite, 1060:
A group of migrants have arrived. Perhaps they've heard of our marvelous tamed elephants?