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[Jools]

I do have stuff to do *first*, you know, before I can play DF. You know, the normal boring stuff like shopping, cooking, cleaning, falsifying official documents, tax evasion, outrageous lying, and maybe even going for a quick 5k run before I can pick up Abbeyverse.

Plus I need to build a bit more in my test fortress, get the POC for what I want to do fully working before I inflict it on Abbeyverse. I'd hate to screw it up and accidentally drown one of the former rulers...

I'll post just before I start playing (probably late afternoon/evening) and hopefully will have an update posted tonight.

[Jools]

Righty-ho. It appears that Zerox is no longer with us, which is sad as this succession game's casualties are now up to 2 disappearances and 1 struck by lightning.

Anyway, I shall now take up once more the challenge of leading this fort. Having only just got my first decent powered water-pumping system working in my test fortress, I am now attempting a stupidly large project that I hope will be worthy of the Giant Follies of Abbeyverse.

So there's a non-zero chance of a water-based apocalypse and all the dwarves being drowned. Just thought I'd warn you all.

[Jools]

Diary of Jools Crestwork, Duke Consort, Abbeyverse, 1st Granite, 1062

It appears that our regular system of having Administrators for the fortress appointed from outside has failed us. We were due to have one join us, but he or she has failed to show up, for some unknown reason.

Perhaps someone told him more about this fortress than just the name. That would probably be enough to deter anyone sensible.

Regardless, given that most of the other former rulers are dead, and memory of my rule has faded enough that it seemed like not such a bad time for the fortress, I have been chosen to rule the place for a year. Obviously this is an interruption to my studies of Dwarven Law, but not an unwelcome one. The opportunity for some first-hand experience of lawmaking and diplomacy in the light of my new knowledge is one I shall grasp with both hands... and, ideally, use to beat dresdor over the head with.

I haven't forgotten about the drowning of my relative. Nobody messes with the Dodokkir clan and gets away with it. I may be living under an assumed name, but blood is thicker than water, so "Jools" Dodokkir will be avenged.

Achieving this would be slightly less complicated if dresdor wasn't the Mayor, Metropolis Manager and Hoardmaster. I shall have to undermine him before I can act.

Speaking of which, I note another strip-mining project underway. I approve of this systematic manner of extracting the wealth of this place, but we must be cautious. We do not wish to mine everything in this place at once, and trade it all away, leaving us with nothing but a vast hole in the ground.

While the fort needs many things, it seems to almost run itself now. Some redirection needs to be made towards barrel production and brewing, but otherwise we seem to be pretty self-sufficient. More clothing would be good to have, so I shall order Catten to get to work, but that covers all our immediate needs. We're not short of food - in fact I may try and trade some of it just to avoid having so much around.

I doubt, however, I shall be trading happily with the elves. It appears that from some previous ruler they have extracted promises on limiting our logging. This is not just a problem for our immediate barel needs, but a longer term problem. If the elves set a precedent by establishing de facto jurisdiction over the trees in this area, they could easily gain influence over whatever plans we have, and extend their influence into other areas of our lives - from trees to the bushes, from bushes to our above-ground farms, from the above-ground farms to our underground farms, and then to our butchering process, and finally we shall not be permitted to kill anything more, and must live for what time we can on the food already gathered.

We'll probably still die of old age before we starve, though.

Anyway, I shall start my reign by sending the elves a clear message. By their count, we have murdered 88 of their precious trees, and may get away with 30 more before angering them. I have therefore posted a warrant for the execution of a further 31 trees by the trade depot. This may be a little more theatrical than just yelling at the nearest woodcutter, but that's the entire point.

OOC: This fort is running at about 14 FPS. This may take a while. Also, Maggarg - I can see the gatehouse, I'll try and finish it off at some point, but, erm, not to put too fine a point on it - where's the gate? As in the bit we can shut when the goblins come?

[Jools]

3rd Granite, 1062

I am repeatedly being given the message "Cat (Tame) cancels Dump Item: Too injured". I am impressed by whoever it is that is using cats as beasts of burden. Truly have we dwarves tamed the most headstrong of creatures. And then somehow crippled them... which strikes me as rather wasteful, but not as wasteful as repeatedly telling me about this poor cat.

Our Weavers have run into problems making the robes I ordered made. We appear to no longer have a loom. None of the previous rulers have mentioned its destruction, so I suspect sabotage by some outside force. I have distributed posters ordering the capture of Bobbin Threadbare, just in case. And, of course, ordered the construction of a new loom.

4th Granite, 1062

We've struck Sunstone. And the miner who came to report that fact has been struck by an Iron Maul. I am more pleased by the second fact than the first.

Also, one of our Marksdwarves has gone insane, struck by melancholy. It seems that he's been incarcerated (odd for that to happen to a military dwarf) and is Very Drowsy, Thirsty, and Miserable. Hopefully he can make it to the booze and drink away his woes before the worst happens, but just in case, I'll draft another marksdwarf or two.

9th Granite, 1062

We have struck Horn Silver. As a result of our great silver stores, I have decided to build the new gate out of silver. It's a bit gaudy, but it shows off our wealth, and at least it's not as bad as being buried in an electrum coffin.

10th Granite, 1062

The elves have arrived. My tree murdering program is inomplete, annoyingly. This is partly because I had the chart upside down. We seem to need to murder another 60 trees to send a message. I hope this can be achieved before the diplomat gets here.

13th Granite, 1062

Our Deputy Trader is at the depot, even before the elves have finished unloading. Other traders please take note. While I am tempted to seize all the goods the elves bring, this would establish a precedent for robbery, and given we have far more wealth than they do, this would not be a clever thing to do. So we will trade a ton of high-quality sylvite trinkets for, well, probably everything they bring that's of any use. Especially empty barrels.

Also my official wife the Duchess has commanded that none of our querns be exported. This is a demand that can be accommodated.

16th Granite, 1062

The elven diplomat has arrived. We have 59 trees to cut down to meet our logging targets, 60 to exceed them. I suspect we're not going to make it. Never mind, our sudden deforestation program should send enough of a message.

In trading, we swapped a ton of rock trade goods and a couple of "inherited" pieces of narrow giant cave spider clothing for, well, everything the elves had. Loads of wood, some caged animals (including a black-handed gibbon - maybe we can breed it with the white-handed gibbon to get a grey-handed gibbon) and some other crap I barely glanced over. Seriously, even without selling food we can muster enough wealth to buy the entire elven caravan, and while trading, Tobul, our stonecrafter, has replaced most of what was sold. Maybe they'll bring more next year... or maybe less given what we're doing to the trees.

22nd Granite, 1062

We have struck Amethyst. An Iron Maul has struck another miner. When will they learn?

In other news, I spotted our military on duty. They can stand down for now. It's not like there are any threats nearby. Also it means our recruits can train with their crossbows and become slightly less useless. Not that they're really needed - Cilob, the depressed marksdwarf, is still miserable but happy enough not to be throwing himself off the tower or anything.

And now the Duchess has mandated the construction of a green glass item, in a fortress with no sand. When will she learn?

OOC: Getting spammed with a message telling me a siege engineer can't load a ballista because there's no ammunition. There is a task outstanding to make a ballista arrow, but the Siege Engineer can't make the arrow because he's constantly trying to load a ballista, then cancelling because there are no arrows. I'm trying to fix this by getting someone else to make the arrow, but if it doesn't work I'm just deconstructing the ballista.

24th Granite, 1062

A Planter has been interrupted by carp whilst deconstructing trees. He's stunned and drowning, but hopefully can reach the stairs out of the river before dying.

It seems not. He is surrounded by carp, having chunks ripped out of him, fighting back valiantly and breaking bits of the carp, but moving away from the river exit. I'm having someone sketch his death throes for future engravings.

He has drowned, but not until gaining recognition as a wrestler, and injuring the carp that attacked him. Both have broken bits - one has a broken upper spine and is in pain, the other is unconscious with a broken dorsal fin and tail.

I shall briefly activate our marksdwarves so they can execute these two pests.

26th Granite, 1062

Speaking of pests, the Elf Diplomat was talking to the Duchess about our tree felling limits. Prompted by me, she told him where to stick his hundred-tree limit. He mumbled something about Karma and our drowned Planter who went out to cut trees. My wife made an observation about a couple of carp corpses in the river, riddled with bolts made from the bones of goblins.

I think I can learn many of the finer points of diplomacy from her.

27th Granite, 1062

There are goblins in the cage traps by the entrance. I'm sure there weren't any a couple of days ago. I've sent our melee squad to investigate.

28th Granite, 1062

The elven diplomat has insulted us and left, without a treaty for lumber limits. He also left with his neck, which I was tempted to have my military squade by the gate confiscate from him as he left... but didn't want to set a precedent for killing diplomats. They may come in useful, some day.

2nd Slate, 1062

I've managed to sort a few things out in this fortress. We have more space for caged animals, so we can reset some of our cage traps. We have more barrels. We have tons of wood. We have a gate that opens and shuts, made out of shiny silver. And finally, we are making clothes again. Our loom is complete and working, and our master Clothier, Catten, is churning out more fashionable robes than we know what to do with.

Still, I need to get some booze brewing. We're down to 500 drinks, and still massively short of barrels.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I was planning on making a gate out of a drawbridge, but I sort of forgot.

[Jools]

Nil desperandum, we're sorted now. Though my lever siting may be a little too close to the drawbridge - I'll probably put another one in somewhere a bit safer and busier.

In other news, update:

OOC: Just a note, I haven't begun my Grand Construction yet - I'm technically waiting for a trigger event to occur, that will cause a... mild overreaction in my character, leading to a demand for a pointless yet cool and huge system. But that trigger event hasn't happened, and I'm sitting here just trying to make barrels right now as that's about the only thing of any significance that we're short of (we could use some more stockpiles, but that's about it). So I'm going to start clearing some space and then building now, and only justify doing what I'm doing when the trigger event happens.

4th Slate, 1062

I'm deconstructing some of the old walls and floor to the west of the fortress, the ruins of what is believed to be the system that killed my relative, Jools Dodokkir. Perhaps with the mostrosity gone he can rest in peace.

In other news, I spotted Astesh, the Duchess Consort, out is the sun, helping with the dismantling. She's still unhappy, largely about the unfulfilled status of her ridiculous demands. However, it appears that she has now thrown enough tantrums to qualify as a dabbling thrower. Perhaps we can send her out as part of the fortress' defence next time the goblins come.

Later that day:

Dresdor was out on the bridge, claiming that he was out there to bring an item to one of his many shops, when he spotted a kobold thief. Surprisingly, despite being mainly a record-keeper and bookkeeper, he managed to chase after it, catch it and kill it. He's now a Dabbling Wrestler along with his various other skills. However, he's splattered kobold blood on one of the walls by the North Gate, and is refusing to clean it up himself.

6th Slate, 1062

Another kobold on the bridge. This one was spotted by a metalcrafter called Kodol. Sadly I couldn't watch the fight, but when drafted he claims the squad name "The Axes of Comedy".

I think he has a promising future as a melee squad leader, personally. Or he would have if he had caught and killed the kobold, instead of just chased it off.

9th Slate, 1062

One of our cooks, Tekkud, has begun making masterpiece meals. A Quarry Bush leaves roast, in this case. This is excellent news. I was just getting hungry.

Meanwhile, all sorts of people are fiddling with the prices of goods. Annoyingly, they have always done so, so there's a huge established precedent for their actions and no way to stop them now. I must find a legal manner to stop them fiddling with things while I run the fortress. There should be rules, goddammit!

The elven merchants have informed us they will be leaving soon. I don't know why they'd think I would care - I've already bought everything they brought. Did they expect me to try and buy back some of the worthless crap they're lugging away?

I've expanded the logging program by the main entrance to give them a nice spectacle to see as they leave.

12th Slate, 1062

Our wealth ever waxes. We have struck native gold on the second level of strip-mining. I might order some golden stuff made, to celebrate our wealth... although it appears our metalsmithing system is stalled. There's a task to make a golden statue that's been incomplete for ages, and I see no-one making a start on it.

Meanwhile, one of our Brewers has created a Masterpiece. No, not a drink - that would be far too sensible. He's bone carving. Some sort of skull totem is what everyone's excited about.

13th Slate, 1062

Native Silver. Then Sphalerite. We're not short of minerals.

14th Slate, 1062

Some migrants have arrived, despite Abbeyverse being seen as a dangerous place to live and work.

We have:

A Clothier (who will no doubt weep when he sees the skills of Catten, our legendary Clothier)
A cow calf
A Stonecrafter (We've got a Legendary Stonecrafter already, I don't think the new one will have any chance of keeping up with our current one)
A Peasant (we needed another guard)
A Trapper (we do need to make some animal traps and catch the smaller animals around here)
A Miner (I shall draft him into the Guard, and keep him away from our valuable strip-mining project, he'll only waste the valuable minerals)
A Planter (always welcome)
A Blacksmith (Hopefully he'll start making some metal stuff unlike our lazy or reassigned current metalcrafters)
Another Peasant (aka Royal Guard)
A Milker (Welcome to the Fortress Guard!)

Meanwhile, we have struck mica and sunstone, and Cilob, the depressed marksdwarf, has died of thirst. He was off duty, uninjured, and free to drink whatever he wanted, so I shan't be mourning him.

Never mind, his replacements are already in place and training. And we have doors we can close, so we're not dependent on the military for our safety.

We finally have enough Guards of various types to keep everyone happy. They're all useless, but hopefully their presence will be enough to deter crime.

I shall dig some more rooms, just in case we're short of any for our new arrivals. Small, cheap ones, unsmoothed and suitable only for the poorest among us, but a roof over a dwarf's head and a bed to sleep in. I shall try and slow down the strip mining project enough to get these dug.

18th Slate, 1062

We're out of coffins. Cilob is rotting in the refuse pile. I found one coffin empty and yet unavailable for burial; this has been changed to allow burial. Hopefully his remains will be placed here, but it seems we need another proper graveyard soon. I shall have to cancel the strip-mining project until the space has been dug. I've designated it next to the new living space, for now.

21st Slate, 1062

We need that graveyard more than ever. An engraver has drowned. I think he fell in the water after dismantling the floor he was standing on whilst over the river. Such foolishness will not be mourned. In fact, I shall ensure he is left in the refuse pile and his bones are made into bolts.

23rd Slate, 1062

I found an additional graveyard I hadn't noticed before. It's pretty full as well, though there's space for a few more coffins. This place is more dangerous than I thought.

Speaking of filling graves, Astesh has mandated the construction of three war hammers. I shall try and ensure this request is fulfilled, though with our current logjam in metalworking, I have no confidence that it will be.

Oh, and the Duchess wants querns and I want floodgates. Gah.

6th Felsite, 1062

We have querns, war hammers and floodgates. The nobles are happy and a strong precedent has been set for allowing nobles some leeway in the say of item construction when not actively administrating the fortress. Obviously this isn't something that I appreciate whilst running the fortress, but when I step down it will allow me to continue to direct work.

Later that day:

A Peasant is in a fey mood. As long as he doesn't interrupt barrel construction, this will be a good thing...

7th Felsite, 1062

Deconstructing the old ruins has caused another collapse. No casualties, just one injury and a few animals hurt. Still, it's easy to see why it was left like that for so long.

Our drink supplies are creeping up once more, after a rush job on barrels and de-assigning Brewers from Bone Carving jobs.

Perhaps related to the collapse, our Dungeon Master is now stranded up a tree. I could order a floor built to allow him to escape, or I could just order the tree felled.

TIMBERRR!

12th Felsite, 1062

We're short of doors and beds for the new bedrooms. I'm working on it. Meanwhile, we struck a vein of lignite while digging out the new peasant quarters, so I'm having it dug out. Once it's cleaned out, we'll expand a bit more of the stockpile space (too many workshops are stupidly cluttered) and then I'll re-designate the strip mining.

13th Felsite, 1062

While digging out the lignite, we struck limonite. The mineral wealth of this fortress is always surprising me.

Meanwhile, our Peasant in a fey mood has created a magnetite hatch cover. Now maybe he can make some lovely coffins for us all...

18th Felsite, 1062

We're strip-mining again, and have struck Brown Opal. I have struck another miner. Just go and dig and shut up!

OOC: Pausing for a bit, I want to get through at least half the year today, and still have yet to start my big project (though I've done a good deal of deconstruction, and put a little work in on the tower). I think some things are a bit bugged, though. Cats that seem to be hauling vermin (leading to spamming messages), workshops that aren't restricted in their use in any way that no-one will work in (I built new workshops, dwarves flocked to those instead), some dwarf unable to store an owned item because its inaccessible... there's some weird stuff going on, and it isn't my fault. Just a heads-up for anyone who takes the fort over next.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I hope you didn't strike me D:

[Jools]

I am doing my utmost to keep all former rulers alive. Even when they're miners. Or indeed Elephant tamers, as we shall see...

22nd Felsite, 1062

I checked over the swimming pool today, and was amazed to find some dwarves actually using it. Endok Monangbesmar, one of the fortress' most popular dwarve, was splashing about in the shallows. He's only a dabbling swimmer, but claims it's good for his constitution.

Most undwarvenly, if you ask me.

24th Felsite, 1062

Mica. Again. Then Orthoclase. Then Fire Opal. Then Brown Zircon. This place was meant to be a salt mine, but there is a vast hoard of riches buried beneath the salt.

More Orthoclase. A different pocket of the stuff, apparently. Microcline next.

27th Felsite, 1062

Booze levels are slowly rising, but we need to keep the barrel supply going if we are to get them back up to safe levels.

Meanwhile a Lye Maker has entered a berserk rage. Nobody knows why. The guard are dealing with it, which means they're absent from their posts outside my room. This allows a miner to slip in and report the striking of more Amethyst.

1st Hematite, 1062

Summer has arrived, and with it the strong sun. How I hate the sun. Why must it scorch our eyes so?

I asked around, and nobody seems to know who allowed the sun to become so bright. Some talked about gods, or fate, and Omega tried to explain something about spinning balls hanging in space, but nobody gave me a satisfactory answer. I shall have to research the legal precedents for this, and see what can be done about it.

Meanwhile, we have struck Orthoclase again, and the Lye Maker is still in a berserk rage. He's cowering in a corner of the crypts having picked a fight with a horse and come off slightly worse, and passing peasants can't clean his blood off the walls because of him. If he's not dealt with by the Guards soon, I shall dispatch the military.

Sunstone. Cobaltite.

3rd Hematite, 1062

Dresdor wants some silver crap forged. I've ordered some goblets and other crafts to be made. Hopefully that will keep him happy.

Orthoclase.

4th Hematite, 1062

Asmel Zuglarbekar is now a Champion, a Legendary Macedwarf. Rather wastefully, he's also a Royal Guard. At some point I should redistribute the military so that the better skilled dwarves are in the army, under my direct control, and only the inexperienced and the crippled are in the guard.

Obviously I won't tell the Captain of the Guard this plan.

7th Hematite, 1062

How is anyone meant to do any work in this place? I am constantly being bombarded by messages at the moment. The same three messages. First, people are trying to give water to the berserk Lye Maker, but keep getting interrupted by a berserk Lye Maker. Second, a Fisherdwarf is cancelling fishing because he is being interrupted by a milkfish. Thirdly, our most recently gained Mason is repeatedly complaining that he cannot store one of his owned items, as it is inaccessible. The melee dwarves have been dispatched to deal with the first problem. The crossbow squad is dealing with the second. Once they're done, if the blasted mason is still complaining I'll send the entire military to deal with him.

Now a cat's complaining it's too injured to haul. Great. That's all I need. If I get one more message that I can't do anything about I shall go insane.

10th Hematite, 1062

Sunstone.

Later that day:

A human caravan has arrived. I hope they brought... actually I don't care what they bought, I'll buy it all anyway. Or at least the useful stuff in return for a thousand tons of rock trinkets and skull totems churned out by our crafters. A Guild representative has accompanied them. I shall order booze and seeds (if they have any plants we don't grow), as is my habit, though we're doing fine for both.

12th Hematite, 1062

OOC: 11-ish FPS. Can't all be the human merchants, can it? I think I'll turtle, bring everyone back inside and shut the gates.

14th Hematite, 1062

A side effect of my deconstruction efforts is that I've left a way for non-wagon creatures to enter the bowels of the fortress without having to pass through the Foe Flusher. I'm having this immediately rectified. Meanwhile, I'm having all drawbridges raised just in case there are any goblin ambush squads around.

15th Hematite, 1062

The Guild Representative asked what we wanted from him. I ordered seeds, some tin for Astesh, some bonobo leather for the Tax Collector, some two-handed swords for a laugh, and whatever booze they could lay their hands on. Nothing too urgent, or highly priced, but we'd pay well for all of it.

17th Hematite, 1062

Dresdor has been re-elected. Primarily by not announcing the election, so his single vote secured him another term. I am contesting the result, but hold little hope of success.

24th Hematite, 1062

Trading. Metal bars, rope, cages, animals, food, bags, seeds, weapons, shields... everything of value they had, we bought. I let them keep their toys, crafts and all the clothing they brought that didn't fit us. Plus the anvils, we have loads of those already.

In return, they got tons of crap - rock trinkets, skull totems, and lots and lots of narrow goblin clothing that won't fit us and won't fit them either. They made a 50% profit on the deal but most of the goods we gave them were imported from goblins, so we've just swapped useless crap for useful stuff.

1st Malachite, 1062

The breach in the fortress walls is sealed, and I have re-opened the main gate. Doing so has accidentally squished a donkey that was loitering outside. I shall have it scraped up and made into pate.

In other news, thanks in large part to some trading, we have over 1000 booze again.

2nd Malachite, 1062

OOC: Dismantling the last above-ground-level part of the ruins, I appear to have deconstructed stuff in the wrong order and knocked myself unconscious, along with a bunch of minions. Nobody's hurt, but there's a bit of a mess.

Still OOC: Because I'm still unconscious. Anyway, new migrants. For the second time in a year. I really ought to try and get those new rooms done.

A Gem Setter (Welcome to the Fortress Guard!)
A Speardwarf (listed as a Wrestler)
A mule
A Farmer
A puppy
A Metalsmith
A pair of donkey foals
A Blacksmith
A Peasant
A Bowyer

Meanwhile, Astesh has forgotten a demand. Hooray!

6th Malachite, 1062

Dresdor's infernal ruins tried to claim more lives as they were being dismantled, but they failed. We are still alive!

But just in case something happens, I've ordered the placing of a whole mess of coffins, in the main burial chamber and the peasants' burial chamber. They'll be designated for dwarven burial only - as soon as you allow pet burial, the blasted things are filled with stuff that would be better off made into sandwiches.

I've also stalled the strip mining again, so we can get some more stockpiles and other stuff dug out.

8th Malachite, 1062

The human Guild chappy waved some sort of export agreement at me just now. I spotted crowns as one of the main items they wanted, but I honestly couldn't care less. We're so rich here we could practically buy their civilisation, and replace the wealth in a couple of weeks.

11th Malachite, 1062

Our wealth draws less savoury elements as well as merchants. Goblins are present. One squad has revealed itself by blundering into a cage trap, just south of the outer wall. A lasher, a pikeman and a few wrestlers, one of which is now caged. I shall order the gates closed and the military summoned immediately. And a new pair of trousers, my current ones are wearing a little thin.

Meanwhile there are now three caged goblins, and one human Guild Representative blundering oblviously towards them - and, more importantly, their uncaged squadmates. Blithering idiot of a human.

12th Malachite, 1062

The gate remains open. No-one has yet reached the lever to close it. And guess who seems intent on sprinting out to reload the cage traps?

Yup. Endok.

I'll see what I can do to stop him dying. Meanwhile, the goblins are milling round their leader, who is immobile, stuck in a cage trap, and the stupid human has escaped their ambush by going south instead of east.

Phew. Just before sprinting out of the gate ahead of our military, Endok has changed his mind about reloading the cage trap, and decided he wants a drink instead. I shall continue with the massacre, however. Sooner or later some other idiot will want to reload the traps.

Combat! One Hammer Champion against three goblin wrestlers and a goblin lasher. I wonder how this will end...

With a drowning Hammer Champion. Twenty-four named kills, and the Lasher just knocked him into the moat. Fortunately a following Champion splattered the rest of the greenskins, and the initial one made it to a set of stairs allowing him to climb out of the moat and survive.

16th Malachite, 1062

Astesh has mandated three tin items. We have one tin bar, bought from the humans. I'll give the goblet trick a shot, but I'm making no promises...

[Keldor]

Oh bother.  I can't load this cage trap when I need a drink!

I'll bet that that champion has fallen in the moat before.  I know that Kazindir at least fell in a couple times.  There's a reason for those hatches inside the foe flusher e.e

As for the cats, this is a new feature of the latest release.  Toady reenabled the code to allow cats to bring dead vermin to their masters, but apparently forgot to provide them with appendages usable for such a task.

That engraver no doubt wants one of the narrow items from the dead goblins at the bottom of the moat.  I seem to recall some dwarf with a penchant for collecting narrow iron chainmail.  If you simply empty the moat, I bet the problem will solve itself.  Unless of course he wants one of the ones on the bottom of the river.

Ah yes, and I almost forgot!  One of the miners told me to tell you that we've struck microcline!  Praise the miners!

[Jools]

There's stuff all over the river bed, and not that much in the moat, so I'm guessing it's in the river. Some day we'll have to pump it out.

And collecting narrow iron chainmail is relatively mild compared to some of the other stuff going on. Like the tax collector showing an unending obsession with obtaining new clothes. It's positively unhealthy, and half the stuff she's acquired and never worn. Some of it doesn't even fit her! I'd love to see her try and squeeze in to that pair of narrow jaguar leather trousers she picked up from outside the front gate...

Actually I would pay pretty good money to see that.

Anyway, moving swiftly on - the short update of everything else I've managed to do today.

4th Galena, 1062

I've built a couple of leashes out by the main gate, and put puppies on the end of them. Hopefully they will sniff out any lurking kobolds or goblins attempting to enter the fortress.

6th Galena, 1062

A peasant has been possessed. Bah. I hope we at least get a decent artifact out of this. Also, dresdor wants more silver crap. Hopefully if I can distract him with the shiny shiny silver stuff I can more easily undermine him.

7th Galena, 1062

I'm waiting on the miners for a couple of projects now. They promised they'd hold off on the strip mining after digging out a couple of last veins, but they're taking an age. There are some stockpiles that need to be enlarged (primarily furniture), some digging on the surface, and an important new mural to be dug. Its sited by the peasants' quarters and graveyard, and should hopefully inspire them to greater efforts. I worked on the wording of it myself, and am quite proud with my efforts.

12th Galena, 1062

The possessed peasant has completed a magnetite toy boat. While this sounds like one of the most useless things ever, it's actually rather enchanting. Set it afloat on a small pond and you can make it sail about by drawing it along with another lump of magnetite. Oh, and it has the image of a kobold bulb on it. It's almost enough to make me not want to punch the next miner who storms in proclaiming we've struck some new mineral pocket...

[Jools]

Quick update - not much further in than last night, but Events are afoot. My Grand Plan is revealed, and someone whose name we all know dies!

20th Galena, 1062

Checking the records, a Trapper appears to have been struck down. I have no idea when, where or why.

Oh well. At least he'll have a coffin to be laid to rest in, rather than just being dumped in the refuse pile.

23rd Galena, 1062

Dresdor is demanding bracelets be made. I'll double-check that our Legendary Stonecrafter is churning out crafts that include bracelets, and just cross my fingers...

25th Galena, 1062

The Duchess wants a quern. Again.

27th Galena, 1062

One of our bone carvers has begun making masterpieces. He's learnt the hard way - no fey mood, just cranking out bone bolts by the thousand. He's still not legendary, but this is a pretty good achievement for an ex-leather and wood crafter.

3rd Limestone, 1062

Autumn is here. We're pretty well set up, stockpiles enlarged, new rooms, new graves, less ruins, more booze and so on. And yet I am irritated by something.

It has started raining.

Who permitted that? *I* certainly didn't. Nobody else here has the authority to do that. I've been asking, just to see if anyone has exceeded their authority, but no-one has yet owned up.

This is intolerable. We are dwarves! We should have the final say on when and where it rains! No scheme is beyond the skills of dwarven engineering!

No-one else in this fortress is convinced. They think we should leave it to Nature, or the Gods. Nonsense, say I! We shall take control of the weather ourselves! We shall block out the sun! We shall collect the rain, and only permit it to fall on the land when and where it suits us!

I shall retreat to my rooms and begin work on the blueprints immediately. Thus begins The Weather Project.

OOC: OK, so the plan is to build a series of pumps up from the river to some spot near the top of the Z axis, then build a modular system of reservoirs up there with floodgates underneath linked to levers or possibly pressure plates. So the reservoirs get pumped full of water (and catch anything that falls), and when we want it to, it rains over the area we pull the lever for. Rains rather heavily, in fact - it's essentially just a Foe Flusher system. The plan is to get to the top of Z axis, build an initial reservoir and floodgate over the western gate area, then (using a modular system) expand it out over most of the rest of the map, bit by bit. Except over our fortress - we need some space to grow sun berries and the like. The trouble is that construction is teeth-grindingly slow. It seems my dwarves will find *any* excuse not to build stuff I need right now - though that might be partly my fault, after a huge increase in furniture stockpiles has meant a lot of workshops need uncluttering.

Meanwhile, one of our marksdwarves has become a Champion. She had a party and everything to celebrate. All her friends were invited. Nobody told me about it and I didn't get there until all the cake was gone.

12th Limestone, 1062

A few days ago I noticed that of the only two remaining bits of ruin, both had only a single piece of wall over land, supporting all the rest over the river. One quick dismantling job on each piece of wall and the rest would collapse harmlessly into the river... or at least that was the plan. I designated just one of the jobs, unsure of the results, and waited nervously. And guess who came along to do the dirty work? Why, it was one of our favourites.

Astesh.

One quick collapse later and even though she was standing *beside* the collapsing wall, she's got a broken upper body, left upper arm, and upper spine, and a bruised liver, right foot, right upper leg and right lower arm, she's winded and unconscious.

Oops.

Maybe I'd better make some tin items to make her feel better when she wakes up.

Oh dear. She's suffocated. What the hell am I going to do with all that tin I ordered?

Anyway, I think I won't collapse that other bit of wall, just in case.

Meanwhile a caravan has arrived, from the Mountainhomes. I shall ensure they turn a profit and take many offerings home.

[Jools]

15th Limestone, 1062

'Endok' Monangbesmar, Elephant Tamer Cancels Load Cage Trap: Interrupted by Elephant. Jeese. Just tame it, man!

I notice that in the cage trap he's reloading is a lead cage with an elephant in it. I have idea who's going to carry that back to the fortress - not me, I can tell you.

18th Limestone, 1062

The Deputy Trader is reportedly on his way to the Trade Depot, bearing some goods for sale. I leave instructions that once he's there, he should stay and trade with the dwarven merchants. So what does he do?

He goes to bed. Honestly. And he was seeming like such a good trader, too.

19th Limestone, 1062

An alligator is interrupting work around our main gate. It is in pain, with a broken head and mangled tail. The only animal nearby is a puppy on a chain. Either that's one lucky puppy, or the alligator was previously injured and has dragged itself to our front gate so that someone will put it out of its misery.

I'm sending the melee squad. The alligator is now unconscious, while the puppy strains on its leash in order to stay as far away as possible.

The alligator woke up long enough to chomp on the puppy, before one of our champions wandered along and knocked it flying to it's doom. Blasted wildlife. One of these days I'll get round to having the spawning grounds for alligators walled off.

24th Limestone, 1062

The dead puppy is being swiftly replaced outside the front gate. This is especially urgent as we've just spotted a kobold thief nearby. I drafted the Farmer who found it and he swiftly squished it, but there may be more out there.

28th Limestone, 1062

Trading. Bars, blocks, wood, ropes, cages, barrels, weapons, bolts and a ton of food. Oh, and I bought a load of large gems on the basis that I like them. I excluded a load of stuff from being bought on the basis that it was poor quality but then tarted up with a quick gem encrusting - that makes things stupidly expensive. I must remember that trick - we've got loads of trade goods, and loads of gems.

I left the instruments, trade goods and so on. Not worth our time. I gave them a ton of narrow goblin clothing in return. Completely useless but pretty valuable nonetheless. I then gave them an offering of about 4000 of rock trinkets and skull totems, because I felt I'd screwed them a bit on the deal.

OOC: I think that should bring enough value in to trigger the arrival of the Queen...

[Grath]

Suggestion: Forbid the cage traps during a goblin attack. Then nobody reloads them until you un-forbid them.

[Kazindir]

which is sad as this succession game's casualties are now up to 2 disappearances and 1 struck by lightning.

I DIED DEFENDING YOUR USELESS BODIES YOU UNGRATEFUL BEARDLINGS!


/vengeful ghost.



Ashtesh the Accursed has been struck down! Muahahahaha!


About this here rain thing...
Muddy ground seems to screw up tree growth for a good while - when the outer courtyard (back when it was actually outside the walls) got flooded due to moat and waterfall mishaps, very few new trees grew there for around 5-6years. They weren't being trampled either, as the road is "high traffic" so dwarves mostly actually stay on the roads.

And we seem to go through an awful lot of trees...!

[Jools]

We're not short of wood. The Elves bring a ton every year, and the north bank of the river is practically pristine forest just waiting for an axe.

Plus we've got plenty of coal for the smelters and forges, no need to make charcoal for now.

As for Astesh, I honestly wasn't (a) expecting the job to be lethal or (b) intending to send her to her doom. It just happened. And now there's a ton of tin coming in from the Humans next year, and no-one who gives a damn about the stuff.