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[RavingManiac]

I suggest making as much of the fortress above ground as possible. We're humans, not filthy, burrow-dwelling midgets.

[Omath Erius]

Turns out the spot I picked at random (just wanted a river/brook and some mountain, didn't use regional prospector) has a chasm. I've never had a chasm before, though I've read about them and their uses. You tell me if this is an "odd" chasm,

I think it is:

Right on the edge of the map.

Events of the 24th of Granite, Year One:

The seven humans peer below into the depths of the chasm. Various hides and bodies scurry below in and out of the darkness. They had heard tales from the Dwarves of the vicious Giant Cave Spiders that lurked in such places. Although they could not see them, the mere idea that one MIGHT be in thier presence sent shivers down their spines.

"What are we going to do about it?" Someone asks.

Jack, feeling a need to be the one with all the answers, suggests, "We have platinum don't we? can't we just seal it off with that?"

Ori, fueled by her experience in working with rocks, shoots down the idea. "We have Platinum ORE, it's very weak in its current state, we need to smelt it first."

"Oh... how do we do that?"

In place of an answer, she merely shruggs her shoulders.

Ejel takes advantage of the silence to speak up, "They aren't bothering us right now, might've even learned their lesson. I say we leave 'em alone fer now. I'll just kill 'em if they try anything funny."

It was decided that this was the only option, and the issue was settled.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 20th Slate, Year One:
The prickle berries finally sprouted today, so barring Olev doing something completly stupid, we'll have something to eat for awhile.

A few days ago it was apparantly decided that we needed a "Trade Depot" because apparantly the Dwarves coming in Autumn refuse to trade anywhere else. I'm not sure whats so "magical" about it though, its really just a big square of mudstone with the words 'TRADE DEPOT" in white paint.

We've all moved into our rooms now, we're living in tiny holes in the ground with nothing but a bed and a cabinet, the walls are still bare from Kupe's half-assed attempts at mining. Jack assures me that I'll have the HONOR of smoothing every goddamn room when I'm finished with higer priority tasks.

These, "high priority tasks" basicially consist of moving barrels of food and drink from where the wagon broke down indoors. Since Kupe can't be bothered digging out a food storage when we still need a dining room, the barrels are just being placed randomly about the entrance.

In other news it appears we settled in the middle of a goddamn warzone. It appears the local Elk are warring with the local chasm-folk.

The Elk are winning:


In addition to the ones we killed, more and more ratman and batman corpses keep showing up outside. On the odd occasion that we actually have a break, its become almost a pasttime of ours to watch Elk systimaticially break every limb on one of the verminmen's bodies.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 1st Felsite, Year One:

One of the batmen that wasn't brutally slaughtered ambushed Jack again today, theres something about him that makes everything in the vicinity want to kill him.

A long chase ensued, untill eventually the batman caught up and hit Jack in the right leg. Stumbling, he fell to the ground and was about to be horribly maimed Ejel caught up and tackled the beast to the ground.

Four swings of his axe sent four of the batman's limbs in four different directions. A final swing put the dislimbed creature to rest.

Watching him brutally destroy one of those things without a scratch made me glad he was on our side.

Jack in contrast as various bruises about him from his two assassination attempts. He now walks in a very paranoid manner, nervously looking behind him every other step or so, it's kinda sad.

From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 1st Hematite, Year One:

I find it odd that I pierced through to the other side of the hill on the first day of summer, signalling a temporary halt to my duties as miner and beginning to my duties as "ramp-remover".

A few days ago I caught Jack brewing the Prickle Berries into some kind of wine. The resulting conversation went something like this:

"What the hell are you doing?"
"Brewing some berries."
"Why?"
"The Dwarves said that alcohol makes you work faster...for some reason."
"We already have plenty of brew anyway! What we don't have is food, and what we don't NEED is our only food source being made into some half-assed wine. I don't know about you, but I REALLY don't want to have to eat those ratman corpses."

In other news now that all the chasm creature body parts are rotting, it's been decided that Ori should be making them into crafts so we have something to buy neccessities with. A few of us, myself included are disgusted by the idea of wearing an amulet made of batman bone.

Quite frankly I don't understand what kind of idiot would buy this crap.

 

[Omath Erius]

This isn't a double post, because noones posted here for three days.

Relationships have been updated, i'm not writing them up because it's one picture.


Jack and Ori sittin' in a tree...
and then Kupe and Ejel now have a grudge.

Events of the 5th of Hematite, Year One

The group looks around at the ground below them, Overnight the surface of the chasm had been covered in the horrid white substance that signified so many deaths.

Silk, SPIDER silk.

The fear was becoming more tangible now, of massive caver spiders, fangs covered in acidic goo, sneaking into their rooms at night, and slaughtering them while they sleep.

From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 7th Hematite, Year One

This morning I contemplated removing the "Year One" from my entries seeing as I don't really think we'll survive this one. Today marked the day we officially ran out of prickle berries to plant. Olev and Jack assure me that we'll have plenty of seeds once we eat the proverbial fruits of the first harvest.

In a possibly related story, goats randomly showed up outside the dining room, in the area that would eventually become the "great hall".



I have absolutly no idea how they got there, it didn't really matter, we just sent in Ejel to deal with the problem. Ejel, the lucky bastard, the six days of the week we aren't in life-threatening danger he just sits around leeching our dangerously low food supplies.

I'm not going to describe the results of the battle, i'm just going to say that a butchery has been set up, and let you infer the rest.

The events of the 15th of Hematite, Year One:

The human caravan arrived earlier than expected, the report stated they would be recieving dwarves in Autumn and that would be it for this year. The dwarven inspectors that came with the humans gave the impression that they might not appear in the fall, so supplies would need to be purchased now.

Seran was tasked with showing the inspectors around the "fort" which was as much a fort as a building made of pillows that children so often make, except enven more poorly defended.

As Seran showed them about, he saw their gruff Dwarven faces light up with glee when they saw the platinum and other valuables readily exposed and waiing to be processed scattered about the area.

For awhile Ejel had been stationed near the chasm, he wasn't really defending from the creatures below so much as he was putting the horribly injured batmen that had managed to survive fights with the Elk out of their misery. When Seran and his followers approached the area his normally light-hearted face turned grim.

         "We think there is a Giant Cave Spider in the depths below." He pointed at the mysterious webbing on the ground.

The dwarves looked at the webs for a few seconds, and burst into hearty laughter.
        "Lad! These webs are from completly normal, completly harmless Cave Spiders! You aren't gonna die, in fact, if you can keep the wee little kittens from eatin' all of 'em, you'll be rich!"

Meanwhile, inside the fortress, Jack, nervous in having to deal with the traders, even though he had never had any experience with trading or even evaluating an item's value. Pretending to be "On Break" or "Checking a chest" Despite the fact that no chests existed in the area, let alone one in his possession.

Ori, who had developed a relationship with Jack, eventually  entered his room. She looked very sentimental, but when she walked over to Jack's bedside, she beat him over the head with her trusty mallet.

   "Ya idiot, they aren't gonna be waitin' out there fer you to grow some balls ferever! If ya don't get yer ass out dere by sundown, we're sending out Thor to do the trading."

In truth, this was just a bluff, but at the mere mention of giving Thor any kind of responsibility, Jack bolted out to stop the madness.

     "Listen," Jack opened, "before we start I need to ask you guys, how do we smelt ore?"
The humans, who had heard of the platinum vein from the inspectors, had expected to recieve a plethora of valuble platinum goods for their goods, were sorely dissappointed. The leader of the caravan however, sensed a great oppurtunity to capitalise on their ignorance.

        "Well, yer gonna want to let a metalsmith take care of that when one shows up." The trader began, a devilish grin on his face, "but you're definitly gonna need a high-quality anvil like this one here." He rested his hand on an iron anvil currently being used as a table to hold stacks of cloth.

        "How fortunate you have one then!" Jack exclaimed, "Will these be enough?"
He lifted up the single sack, and dumped the various bone crafts onto the counter.

The traders said nothing, instead just staring at Jack giving off a facial expression which said, "Are you serious?".

Dejected, Jack quietly asked to instead purchase a bin of leather and some berries with the crafts, and quietly went back to his room.

[Omath Erius]

The Events of the 27th of Malachite, Year One:

Although drink was in plentiful supply, food levels were low to the point where another harvest would be neccessary to survive the winter even with only seven. So it was natural for many of them to worry when it was reported that even more mouths to feed had arrived.

It is also worth noting that, as Ori delved further into a relationship, she also gained considerable power, "power" being relative. It eventully reached the point where Ori replaced Jack as expedition leader, although he kept his other duties.



So Ori also assumed the duties of interviewing the new immigrants.

As far as luck, it was bountiful, the recorded arrivals were:

1 Clothier
1 Armorer
1 Fisherman
1 Leatherworker
1 Mason
1 Weaponsmith
1 Metalcrafter
1 puppy, kitten, and donkey foal

Besides the metalworkers, who would need reassignment untill an anvil clould be attained, every single arrival was extremly useful to the fortress.

Of all the immigrants, two in particular caught her attention.

The first was Ravus, the fisherdwarf. His clothes were torn and ragged and various scars adorned just the visible parts of his body. Every question asked was met with a quick, simple one-word answer.



The second was Xern the mason, even though Ori was also a mason, her various other duties had limited her ability to preform the most basic acts such as furniturecrafting. He carried a large sack with him, which inspection revealed to carry various stones.

[Zerox]

Goody! Lol'ed at the part with the anvil.

[RavingManiac]

Ravus stood at the waters edge, rod in hand.

Others saw him as an idiot, unable to speak coherent sentences, fit only to spend the rest of his days in the idle job of fishing. They were wrong.

Ravus was not a fool, he was merely broken.

He remembered to silhouettes, moving silently through the water, scales glistening in the moonlight. The shock and horror on his lover's face as she was pulled under, screaming. Squad after squad of swordsmen rushing at the beasts, only to be cut down and torn apart. An entire village of men women and children, wiped out in a single night.

In the end, Ravus remained. It would be his destiny to avenge his people, to crush the fishy menace, to liberate mankind from the monsters.

Ravus gingerly dipped the hook into the surface of the river, and waited. It would be a long battle.

[Omath Erius]

Support!

Dwarf Fortress!

Alternate Perspectives!

By your powers combined I am...

CAPTAIN UPDATE!

Events of the 15th of Galena, Year One:

It is Olev this time, and a Giant Mole. He was lucky Ejel noticed and began pursuit. He is chased by the mole far out of the relative safety of the fortress into the plains. Finally, he is grabbed by the legs and brought down. Having no choice, he stands up and finds himself locked in vicious hand-to-hand combat with his aggressor. Grabbing the mole by the face, he throws it to the ground and begins to exchange blows. The fight seems to last an eternity before Ejel finally reaches the battered combatnents and with one swift swing of his axe sent the Giant Mole to the depths of Hell.

Olev is covered in bruises, and walked with a limp, clutching his spleen. He wouldn't be farming for awhile, but atleast the metalworkers had something to do now.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 4th Limestone, Year One.

It turns out Olev getting the crap beaten out of him was a good thing. An expedition to collect the mole corpse revealed a nearby pit.

A moist pit.

In short, a lack had evaporated here, the most fundamental laws of nature say that water can't freeze in the winter in the same biome that it dissappears in summer. One of the few things the dwarves actually told them about this. Worry of having to brew their low food supplies ceased, and there was much rejoicing.

Looking back, it's kind of strange to be celebrating a lake evaporating.

Today also marked the day Xern was rescued. The idiot was constructing the walls for the 8th and final bedroom on the surface, and managed to wall himself into Jack's room.



Amazing these idiots can remember to eat every week...

From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 24th Limestone, Year One:

As per the request of our resident insane clothier, a loom and other clothesmaking utilities have been constructed, and work on producing "valuble" cave spider silk goods has begun.

Although I've spent most of my recent time underground, digging out bedrooms for the new arrivals, but I understand a recent outburst of thievery occurred. Two kobolds, both escaped with nothing eight rhesus macque, four horribly massacred, one escaped empty handed, three took some bone crafts. Then there was the naked mole dog, that got the idea to enrage and try to fight Ejel.



BAD MOVE

I kinda feel sorry for Ejel, he barely gets to eat, drink, or sleep and spends 9/10 of the day running after random threats around the area.

The Events of The 4th of Sandstone, Year One:

A crowd was gathered around a stool in the public garden. On top of the stool was the resident insane clothier,

"Hark! Listen to me! The blood-red stone signifies your doom! Repent to thine holy god and seal off the blood-red stone with the bones of our slain enemies! We must show the vile spirits of the blood-stone our power!"

Needless to say, noone was believing him, they just found humor in the clothier making wild hand gestures as he shouted nonsense.

However, noone besides The resident insane clothier had any idea what the red stone was. Even Xern, when asked said he had never seen the rock before and returned to packing various select specimen of the stone into his sack.


Scary.



(I just realised beside that obscure picture of Xern, you all have no idea what the fortress looks like, i'll post a map in Spring.)

[Omath Erius]

Barring a miracle, I won't be able to update untill Monday, so someone keep this thread bumped.

Maybe it's just pie in the sky, but I could swear my FPS improves when I play as humans.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 7th Sandstone, Year One:

More migrants arrived today, bringing our total to 22. Getting to know them as individuals seems increasingly less important as the amount of labor we get increases, but it's good to know what they do for now, so the totals are:

One Engraver.
One Armorer.
One Kitten.
One Furnace Operator.
One Butcher.
One Craftsman.
One Glassmaker.
Two Peasants.

The only one that bothers me is the glassmaker, who knows full well we have absolutly no sand here.

Ever since Jack got that office, he spends basicially all day in there. He hasn't left for so long the door is developing cobwebs.

The Events of The 17th of Sandstone, Year One:

Walking along the entrance hall, carrying a barrel to the new food stockpile, was Rud Wuridar, a new immigrant. Suddenly, he collapses on to the ground. Within a few moments, he leaps up to his feet and runs into the craftsman's shop,  forcefully ejecting its current occupant.

Almost immideatly after locking the door to the workshop, he bailed out the window and went to retrieve a log (for they didn't bother to bring them back to the fortress after cutting them down.) After grabbing one, he returned to the shop, threw it in through the now shattered window (he hadn't bothered to open it when jumping through.) and went back to grab another.

By now several people had gathered around the workshop, some curious what was happenning, some just finding entertainment in watching him run back and forth. After grabbing three logs in this manner, he climbed back inside, and began doing something mysterious and unknown. The only hint they had to what was going on inside was the strange chants he recited inside,

"Opi! Oce! Opi! Oce! Opi! Oce!"

Finially, the resident insane clothier pushed his way to the front of the crowd and began his preaching,

"You thought you could ignore me! Now, the spirits of the blood-stone have tooken this poor soul, who works to open the portal to the unspeakable horrors of the deep! You there, Ejel! you must save us! Kill the possessed man, and DESTROY this already tainted place."

Ejel did stad at the entrance, brandishing his axe, ready to strike down anything hostile, though he didn't believe the clothier.

They stood there for awhile, nervous about what would happen, untill finially, the worknoise ceased.

Rud emerged from the room, now filled with ash and sawdust. His clothes were badly ripped in several places.

Suddenly, he thrust his left hand into the air, revealing the object dangling in his grip, as it gleamed in the sunlight, he shouted to the heavens,

"BEHOLD!"



Still grinning from ear to ear, Rud watched as sever of his fellow men fell to their knees at the magnificence of the amulet.

He placed the amulet on his person, went back to his bedroom, and promptly collapsed on his bed, exhausted.

[Obsidian]

This is some great stuff, I'm waiting for Monday eagerly.

[Glacies]

Jacks' log

Well, that bleeding sap managed to wall himself in a space behind my room. Why the hell was he running around installing secrect rooms all over the place? And, more to my confusion, it seems that SOME people want to live a dry, puritan lifestyle. "Oh jackie, we dont need booze, we're fine, really!" Pah.

Maybe it was a mistake to hand the leadership roll to sugar, cause' she isn't telling anyone what the other hand is doin'. Of course, we're also getting flooded with new folks. Seems that those folks have yet to come face to face with an elk or the'd be the hell out of here. I wonder if I can convince Ori to give me a wardawg to protect me from those horrible things. Shouldn't have read the Nist akath diaries..

Not that I even wnt to think bout' elk at all, or cave spiders, or any nasty critter, for that matter. Although I would like that one that kicked me bad to be made into a coat.

And what the hell was Thor doing trading out there? Mean ol' stumpies. Can't wait until we have something better than these crappy bone crafts to trade with. Wish I had some elk meat to cook. I could make a mean roast outta them, and show em' all what a waste of berries it is not to brew em'.

[Omath Erius]

Right, it appears I need to clarify a few things.

1.) We don't have a river, we have a brook, so Ravus will be taking out repressed anger on turtles instead of getting revenge on fish.

2.) We have a grand total of four elk last count, we are at the South edge of the map, and they are in the North. The few times we've even gotten near them they leave us alone, the only things they fight are the batmen, WHICH THEY BE THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF.


From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 19th Timber:

It's Winter now, but the only sign is that the leaves have dissappeared from the trees. It's still warm enough to work outside with no real precautions.

     I spoke with Rud today, who has been increasingly active in fortress activities, he said the Dwarf that possessed him was part of a party sent to build a fortress here about 300 years ago. He had the inspiration for an amulet of great power, and attempted to create it. The overseer of the Dwarves at the time had ordered him executed for wasting valuble wood. After his death, he had waited here for three-hundred years, long after the settlement crumbled to an end, waiting for a body who could ;ive out hios plan and bring Opi Oce into the world.

    He also says that the Dwarf lives in the amulet now, and I frequently seeing him talking to it. It kinda creeps me out.

    I've been stuck smoothing the dining room walls with Opi for the past few days, when I asked why she had to, "grace me with her presence", she said The resident insane clothier had kicked her out of the craftsmen's shop.

    My curiosity took over, and I went to check on him. When I arrived, I found hundreds of hundreds of silk crafts scattered about. The cloth he had been spinning was being turned into goods at a rate of about one every three seconds. He would stitch together a doll, or a scepter, and quicly toos it off to the side to begin work on another. In the three minutes or so I stood there watching him, I was hit with four crowns, two scepters, and a cat that tried to sleep in his workspace.

At least we'll have enough for an anvil next year...


Events of the 20th of Timber, Year One:

The group had been given five plump helmet seeds for use to start underground farming, The Dwarves had assured them these "magical plants" would grow inside the mountains.

Kupe leaned aginst the dug-out underground farming area, watching Olev place the five seeds under some rocks and toss some water on them.

       "This ain't gonna work" he said as he put the last seed down, "Rocks can't store enough water to keep even a fungus healthy..."

       At this, a light clicked in Kupe's head, "Then we just give the plants a lot of water, an infinite supply if you will." He picked up his pick and began to chip away at the eastern rock.

        "W-what are you doing?" Olev asked. Instead of giving an answer, Kupe replied, "Tell Ori to build a floodgate", and kept digging.


Fearing for his life, Olev ran out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
 

[Omath Erius]

Needs more sign-ups..

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 9th Moonstone, Year one:

We expected one or two to die along the way, they said that was bound to happen, even to them.

We didn't expect this.

It started like they all do, a batman was running around disturbing the craftsdwarves. We sent Ejel down to take care of him, he bravely rushed into the beast axe at the ready.

It drew its blade, and swiped a surprise attack, cleanly severring Ejel's left arm off. The arm, still gripping the axe fell to the ground aside the battle.

Defenseless, he charged at the batman, football tackling it to the ground and punching away with his one remaining arm. The batman screamed wildly, slashing his blade back and forth it struck Ejel once more in the chest, piercing his armor.

As Ejel fell off, clutching his spleen, I saw Rud, the one who made the amulet, rush past me and leap on the beast, preventing it from finishing off Ejel. He slung wildly, landing vicious blow after vicious blow, tears of rage flying from his face with each strike.



Wounded and potentially dying, the batman fled back in to the depths of the chasm.

Rud chased the batman to the edge of the chasm, before returning to the crowd of people who had gathered around Ejel's body.

He was already dead, speaking no last words to carry out. He died quietly and calmly, the way he lived his life.

Our population is down to twenty-one, and a tomb has been commissioned for Ejel.

The other casualty is named Thrun, he hasn't actually died, but he's short one leg, has a severly torn up torso, and may be suffering from brain damage, so he will probobly die anyway, but we must try to save him anyway.

From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 19th Moonstone:

I think this picture accuratly describes the events of the day:



Rud found a kobold thief today, he has unofficially taken Ejel's place since the...event, and, brandishing the latter's axe, Slaughtered the poor creature with one swing. That's the good news.

The bad news is also shown, despite what the Dwarve's told us, what all logic told us, the river froze over today.

We've been told to suspend construction on the tomb to avoid overexerting ourselves so we don't drain our supplies of alcohol, it's all we have now.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 8th Obsidian, Year One:

Jack has been given the goahead to brew excess berries into wine for us to drink. That still leaves the problem of Thrun, who's body can't process alcohol in his condition.

Rud spoke with the dwarf living in his amulet, who told me to give Kupe the green light to resume construction of Ejel's tomb. Skeptical at first, I allowed it because I don't really care if Kupe dies. Almost immideatly after he begins swinging the pick, we struck gems:



For the past few days we've found animal corpses around the fort: one donkey foal, one puppy, one kitten. Today, while tracing the source of the murders, Rud found the confronted the culprit.

It was Cusid Filledslaughter, as we called the batman that killed Ejel.

Rud, now Ejel's full-fledged replacement and ceremonial apprentice, confronted the beast at the top of the hills above the fortress.

It was a quick and decisive battle, one swing across the chest, one severring the arm, one severing the head and Cusid fell. Holding the beast's head in his hand, he stood at the peak of the hill and let loose a ferocious roar, giving sign to all below not to harm this fortress.

Very Majestic.

From the journal of Kupe Evholkan, 10th Obsidian, Year One:

Most of us were bedridden, dehydrated, we had almost no water left. Then we got the news.

Jack rushed inside shouting, cheering, drawing attention in general,

"The river has thawed! It's a miracle! A MIRACLE!"

For the next few hours everyone in the fortress could be seen in the river, splashing, slurping, rejoicing, well... almost everyone. Thrun is probobly permanently unable to leave the fortress with his lack of a leg and all, and Olev is apparantly suffering from delirium, laying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Now isn't the time to think about such things, now, we enjoy the water and plan for when it happens again next year.


(I promise a map will be in the next update, as soon as I figure out how to make one. To make up for the sort-of delay, their'll be a special surprise to go with it.)

[Omath Erius]

Seriously people, i'd like you to start requesting humans before I start sounding desperate.

Wait...damn.

From the Journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 27th Obsidian, Year One:

Today we finished Ejel's tomb. It isn't quite, "finished" actually, it still needs to have all the rocks hauled out and the floor needs to be smoothed over.



Olev finally recovered from what we think was severe dehydration. He'd been lying in his bed staring up into space trefusing to eat or drink, or even sleep. We managed to get him up and about, but there isn't really any farming to do now untill Spring hits in three days.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 1st Granite, Year Two:

At last, Spring has arrived! We can, if nothing else, take pride in the fact that we've survived one year in the pitiful hole-in-the-ground, but we still have six years left. The next year should be easier, the dwarves and elves will probobly begin to trade with us now, which means more supplies to improve the embarrassing living conditions.

I've tooken the liberty of drawing a map of the area and summarizing our status, Jack is still unable to compute the value of the fortress, but that can wait.



and the map:

http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/map-3125-lacywaves

Twenty-one of us, counting the vegetable. One dead, and we can only expect more.

Now isn't the time for such negative thoughts, a party has been organized in the commons, which I must now attend.

[Omath Erius]

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 2nd Granite, Year Two:

We were gathering up Ejel's clothes to be buried with him, when I discovered this:



Oh dear...

The Events of The 10th Granite, Year Two:

The Elves pulled within the territory of Pethitirum, carrying with them typical Elven caravan goods. Of course, elves is incorrect, in reality, a single elf accompanied by some animals to pull the wagon.

By the time this single elf reached the depot, the respectable amout of silk crafts were already awaiting him, and Jack sat at his chair, smiling.

He had never actually seen an Elf before, but had heard about them and their fickle tastes, as the Elf entered the depot, the curtain was drawn, and trading commenced.

A few hours later, Kupe waited outside the Depot for Jack to emerge with the spoils.

As Jack walked out of the depot carrying his goods, Kupe began to ask, "Hey, Jack! What'ja ge-".

He had been interrupted by the scene before him, Jack was grinning from ear to ear, and amongst the cloth, wood and longland grass seeds, was a massive black bear, calmly sitting in a cage which was well over four times his size.



Jack, noticing the surprise on Kupe's face, glanced at the bear and said, "Her name's Saya."

Shivers were sent down Kupe's spine as he realized that not only had Jack bought a bear, but he had named it, "It's a she?"

"Shes a she." He corrected him, and began to haul the various goods off to the stockpiles.

Kupe spent a good deal of time next to the cage, staring into the bear's eyes, as if attempting to talk to it with his mind.

"Saya" he finally whispered, and walked off.

From the journal of Ori Gasomanoth, 17th Granite, Year Two:

While attempting to determine the differences between the rope reed cloth we purchased, and the silk cloth he was used to using, our resident insane clothier, now weaver was forcefully ejected from the craftsman's workshop. It was Olev this time, but unlike when Rud had his, instead of quietly gathering his materials and busily working at it in seclusion. Olev sits in the shop loudly shouting,

"I NEED TREES! I NEED SHELLS! I NEED METAL BARS!"

We have wood, which he hasn't made any attempt to retrieve yet. What we don't have is shells or metal. Ravus is diligently working on gathering turtles, but there are people just standing there egging him on, and I'm not sure he's used to the pressure.

The problem is metal, we still have no anvil, so the best thing we may be able to do is simply bear (no pun intended, if Jack is reading this) the mindless shouting untill the backup arrives in the form of the human caravan this summer.

The events of the 28th Granite, Year Two:

Thrun, the one who had been injured by that batman that killed Ejel so long ago. Was lying on his deathbed, some of those who had been there to see the blows, Ori, Kupe and Thor gathered around him has he wheezed and coughed up blood.

He had been in extreme pain almost constantly since the attack, so it was probobly a relief to finally be able to die, but tears still rolled down the cheeks of those around him.

He called Ori close to him, and being a furnace operator, whispered into her ear,

"You don't need an anvil to smelt metals."

and then he collapsed onto his bed and said no more.

He was immieadtly pronounced dead, and just as Ori was about to give the order to construct a furnace, a scream was heard from the surface.

Running up to the main hallway, they saw with horror, a large batman standing in the hallway. Two dead at his feet and another below him, unable to flee. The scars on the batman's body gave it away immieadtly.

This was Cusid Filledslaughter, the batman that killed Ejel, and supposedly died to Rud, yet here he was, having killed two more, and about to strike down a third.

As Cusid raised his arms to strike down the poor soul, Kupe tackled him to the ground, and swung his pick towards Cusid's head. It was caught in mid-swing, inches from his face, and he kicked Kupe away, without even showing any signs of effort. He flew through the air and collapsed on the ground a few feet away.

Ori let out a scream, alerting Rud to Cusid's presence. Although she wondered how he had even gotten in here without alerting Rud, who stood guard at the entrance.

She then proceeded to charge into Cusid, pelting him with vicious punches and kicks.

It proved ineffective, as his skin was to tough to damage without a weapon, just as Cusid prepared to send Ori flying as he had done to Kupe, Thor grabbed him from behind, restrianing him, and heroicially attempting to keep him from doing any more damage. It worked, and Cusid struggled to free his arms from Thor's grasp, untill eventually simply overpowering him, his clawed hands broke free and dug into Thor's thigh.

He collapsed to the ground, and despretly tried to crawl away fro the large, imposing figure which walked ever closer to him. As Cusid raised his arm to plunge it into Thor's flesh, Rud arrived on the scene.

Rud leaped over the prone Thor, brandishing his axe, and sent a ferocious swing down towards Cusid's face. Cusid attempted to raise his arms to block the attack, but the blow was too strong.

The single blow severed clean through both arms, and cleaved into Cusid's face before emerging on the other side. It was clear that this time, Cusid was really dead, as it's hard to survive with your brain cut in half, yet Rud continued to hack at the body lying on the ground, cutting him into more and more indistinguishible pieces.

The total count was two dead, a metalsmith and a leatherworker, Everyone else would be fine.

A few hours later, Thor and Seran sat in their room, they had developed a strong relationship with each other. Seran had been the one who was about to be killed right before the three of them showed up.

"Thor," Seran spoke, a little bit of fear in her voice, "When I was laying there, watching you nearly get killed by that thing, I worried about you. I want you to promise me you'll never put yourself in a dangerous position like that again."

"I can't do that" replied Thor, "but I can do something to make sure I'm never as helpless as I was then."

He looked over at the hammer lying across the top of his cabinet. Taking it from it's resting spot, he twirled it around in his hand, and walked out the door.

[RavingManiac]

Screaming, Ravus swiftly brought his fist down onto the prone turtle. There was a resounding crack, and shards of shell and lumps of gore arced through the air. Viewed from above, the result was an unholy red splatter in the landscape, with Ravus in the center, panting.

The deed done, he slowly walked back to his fishing rod by the water's edge, sat down, cast the line, and resumed his daily routine. His face was an expression of perfect contentment.

p.s You DO know that you need fish cleaners to process the fish, right?