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[Frelock]

I'm pretty sure sealing doesn't help with clutter at all.  Lead bins (and other really heavy bins) are the only things I know of that are 100% effective in containing clutter.  That and magma...

Anyhow, an excellent first installment.  I look forward with great anticipation to the rest of the series!

[sneakey pete]

Congratulations!

Yeah, from what i've found, lead or really full bins are the way to stop clutter. anything with a weight of less than a certain amount (might be 1000, not sure), get randomly flung around.

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

((Darn. And here I thought that by walling off my 50 bins of finished junk that'd take care of the dispersion problem. Ah well, it'll be cluttered then.))

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

Deep within the earthen embrace the goblin Snodub Mutogxuspgas paced. The workers should be about through by now, despite the uncanny hardness of the earth where they had been instructed to dig. They should not be doing this, she knew. Goblins were not meant to be dwarves, not meant to tunnel so deep. But yet how could she refuse her god? As High Priestess she should have been beyond such doubts, but the promise of unearthly power as told to her by her Olsmo still left her with questions. He'd explained the necessity of it, and then tortured her for her questions, but she was intelligent and a far too useful tool for him to completely dispose of. But these were nothing new to her, and she reveled in her worship.

It was the changes to their structure that seemed so out of place. The wars hadn't been going well, and she knew the alliances with the other tribes had been strained by it. The dwarves had proven to be an uncannily resilient yet mortal foe. Yet mortal. She smiled, knowing full well that they had the advantage there. Clicking her toungue and snapping her fingers brought her two attendants, lesser priests both, running. They were both well trained and she felt that such an escort would be prudent, all things considered. One did not venture below the surface of Gaxusnang unprepared.

She met no impediment to their progress as they navigated the complex tunnels warrened underneath the surface. No creatures disturbed their pace, and not idly she reflected that heavy use could accomplish much. But there had been significant cost. Her tribe had been weakened by the wars, and add to this the necessity of maintaining an underground presence and the cost of using inexperienced labor as miners. If only the soldiers had brought more dwarven prisoners back with them! They were expendible, but also much less likely to cause cave-ins that would slow or stall progress. She passed the patrols guarding the entrance to the mines without thought and began descending as she nearly trampled over a goblin in her haste. It recognized her and began grovelling on the ground.
"Most holy Priestess, I have been sent to tell you that we have nearly reached where you have commanded. We can hear the hollowness of that accursed rock."
She merely nodded and walked by, nodding to one of her attendants who slowed enough to administer a few well-placed kicks for the temerity that the laborer had in addressing her.

They slowed again as they approached the dig site, copper digging tools littering the ground and a pair of crude and guttering torches were all that marked the area, apart from the strangely pusling blue stone. The feeble tschik-tschik of picks stopped mintues after she arrived as one of the goblins broke through a crumbling section of wall into the pitch-black chamber and clambered in to explore it. No sound could be heard from within after mere seconds. One of her attendants grabbed a torch while the other shoved the miners to one side and they prepared to enter the chamber. She made a note to have the goblin that entered killed. She was so close to her god's goal she would not risk having an underling cause complications. The three stepped through the hole into what appeared to be a vast chamber.

Or so it had seemed at first. It was only then that Snodub realized that her initial perceptions had been wrong. The torchlight simply didn't seem to illuminate the room as the darkness itself strove against the light. She could see no weapon here, nor source of power that they could use to help defeat their enemies. No tomes of knowledge, nor wealth with which to cement alliances. They advanced through the room only to discover it quite small, a mere enclosure in the stone, but despite their advance still darkened as though no torch could penetrate the depths. A small figure stood, strangely immobile near one side of the room. She whispered to her attendants to have the miner's legs broken first in punishment for it's boldness.

The pair advanced on the silent figure, but as they approached the miner turned to face them and they paused, hesitantly. In that hesitation the priest holding the torch simply exploded, showering the room in gore and blood, torch dropping to the ground and nearly dying before again sending out it's feeble light. The other priest was jerked into the air as if by hidden strings and a raspy gurgle managed to escape it's lips as the air around it slowly crushed the life out of it. It was then that Snodub knew fear. The miner advanced on her haltingly, as if unaccustomed to it's body, as she stammered out:"The great Olsmo has sent us here, we are but his humble servants."

The miner looked at her then and she quailed beneath the gaze. Where eyes had been stood now two pits of blackness, pulling her into a maelstrom of oblivion. The miner laughed then, the reverberations of it shaking the very foundations of the fortress, an ugly sound, bespeaking a host of unnatural deaths. He pointed a finger at her and commanded:

"Call your people together. In one hour I shall instruct you all in the true meaning of sacrifice."

Snodub dared not to doubt, nor to disobey that command. The force of it crushed her ability to think as she raced out of the tunnel. But the thought sent her insinuated itself in her psyche. Here was a new god that they could worship. A god that would grant unto them the power that they would need to defeat their enemies!

Back in the small room a figure of shadow walked away from his prison, thoughts awhirl. His lieutenants had survived then. Or at least some of them. But Olsmo would pay for waiting so long to seek out his old master, they would all pay for his imprisonment. Just as soon as he unbound the magical locks which held them in place. That was a simple matter for one of the ancient gods of chaos. And he had here the primary ingredient, already waiting and prepared. The blood sacrifice of only a few dozen was required, but it pleased him to make an example of these lower races. They would all perish, and then with the combined forces of the others they would unleash devastation upon the world such as it had never known.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had only been a month since he had departed from the ruins of Kilrudmorul, heading back to his home. But his dreams haunted him and he woke quickly. He knew what he had seen, and it had been what he'd been warned of in other visions. His conversations with his god had told him much of the times before, but little of what to expect in the now. Perhaps it was his attunement to the earth that saved him when the destruction came. Perhaps it was divine providence. Or perhaps it was simply good luck that he'd been in a place where the earth hadn't opened up to swallow whole mountains, or shot up through the plains like gigantic spears. The earth buckled and lept as though struck a massive blow, one which punctured it to the very core. Fissures miles long had opened up into the earth, vast sinkholes formed and the grinding of stone was heard for nearly five days before the land quieted again. Yet he had been fortunate enough to get by with only mild injuries, scrapes and bruises that would heal in time.

It was the end of the world as he knew it.

Strangely he felt fine.

[Aardvark]

Now kids. This is what we call foreshadowing. This is by no means good foreshadowing, but great foreshadowing. Now go watch some pictures of female dwarves that are only wearing their beards

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

The king paced back and forth in the cave as he waited. Dourly he reflected on the degeneracy of his title. It had once been a grand thing, a symbol of pride and honor, a reflection of their race. That was before the thrice accursed queen had gained control. He was still unsure how it had happened. Her father had been reasonably popular, which had shifted the power in his family's favor initially, and with his death perhaps many felt his children would continue his legacy. And then after his death they had all gone ... strange. Several died bizzare deaths, under bridges, or abandoned on the outskirts of the mountainhomes by their guards and attacked by goblins, others had simply disappeared, left to travel or hidden in seclusion until only she had been left. Nobody questioned it until now, now that it was too late. Now that her degeneracy had crippled their military, wars left them weakened and their own people despondant and untrusting of royalty. It seemed oddly fitting to him that she should die of an accident, crushed underneath a horse reputedly as she ... no, it would not do to dwell on such matters.

In any case, a guard cleared his throat near the entrance and Tosid signaled him to let the guest in. He eagerly wanted to meet with his supposed 'nephew-in-law'. If he as anything like the dwarf that his niece had married he had some hopes that things would work out.

Initial appearances were not overly favorable, though the dwarf carried himself with a dignity and feline grace common that strangely reminded the king of the great hunting cats. His clothes were dirty and worn, not to mention stained beyond repair. But appearances were nothing to go by in these perilous times. The king himself had taken to holding audiences and meetings in mere caves near the cliffs that had once housed the seat of power of thier kingdom. All else had been destroyed in the earthquakes. Sazirgeb, Gusilnakis, even Dorenemal had little left to show for their erstwhile labors. The king and some others had been spared when the tower came crashing down through the layers, burying much of the central fortress itself in tons of stone and killing many of the inhabitants. That alone nearly broke the kingdom, but the hordes of monsters and abominations that poured out of the earth to seek new holes in the ground to hide in had been far worse. Much of their military had perished saving the others, and still the patrols were being sent out to gather in as many as could be found. It would be a long time before everyone had received word and gathered.

The king shook his head, clearing his thoughts from the idle woolgathering that tended to set in these days. It was hard not to be distracted by better times. Life had become difficult for them all, and hard work and harder dwarves would be what saw them through it all. And in the dwarf before him he sensed a bit of that steel core that would be needed to see them through.

Grimly the King nodded as the dwarf bowed at the waist.

"Paulus, I've been eager to meet you and wondered if I would have the chance."

"Yes my King."

A frown crossed his face. "Enough of That. We're practically related, in an un-official indirect round-about sort of way. Tarin hasn't fully been able to explain it to me, but you can call me Tosid."

"Very well, Lord Tosid." a small smile played across Paulus' face.

"I suppose you wonder why I had you summoned and brought before me?"

Another small smile. "Not really my King. Our homes lie destroyed and it is said you will lead us over the sea to rebuild. I assume you wish me to help with that endeavor by founding another home for us."

The king was taken aback only slightly and motioned for Paulus to sit in the chair opposite to his. All were smoothed obsidian of considerable quality and Paulus' hand could not help running across the dark surfaces, a sigh escaping his mouth. This guesture was not lost on the King who merely nodded.

"Aye, it's one of the few pieces we've managed to salavage from what's left of Dorenemal. I've still a few crews over there, but it's dangerous work with the cliffs being unstable and the sea beginning to under-cut the cliffs."

"The sea?" He hadn't realized it had been that bad. There had been hundreds of miles of low-lying plains and tundra between their cliffs and the sea last he had been here. Most of that an evil place and infested with undead.

"Aye, I only allow volunteers to go in now, but there's little enough. By now I expect even Avuz's temple has fallen into the waves and only a little of the northern stretch of road remains. We've removed what silver from it we could."

Paulus merely nodded, almost numb, but couldn't help wondering about his own secret that lay hidden in the cliffs.

"We think it'll hold there, provided no more earthquakes hit, but I'm afraid we're in dire straights financially. We'll have enough to get everyone over the water I think, but not much else. I see you've heard what's to happen. But I invited you here to tell you why."

"Why?"

"Yes, I want you to know the reasons behind our move. Some of our people will wish to stay, but I feel it is ill advised. You see... ahem ... I've had a vision." He raised his hand here to ward off any questions, though none were forthcoming. "I have had Avuz herself appear to me. It was she that told me that we should seek a new home across Irreantum, the great waters. I sent out an expedition as to found a place as soon as possible afterwards, but communication between here and there is minimal and I want to be sure there will be a place for us to go when the rest of us arrive.

You... don't seem overly surprised by my vision. Do you have doubts?"

"Hmmm..." Paulus too had been thinking, partially distracted. "No. I too have seen a place in a vision, only a dream, or perhaps a dream of a dream with a strange talking mountain goat. She showed me a place, showed me where I should go and I knew that this would be asked of me." There was more that he kept back, the real reason why that place had been chosen. It was not his information to reveal.

"Then you'll do it?"

"Aye, my King."

"Tosid."

"Aye, Tosid."

"Excellent. We'll need many such places of refuge in this new land I hear. Reports claim that it's a wild place, very unlike our home here. I'll have the papers given to you, though I'm afraid I've little to spare in the way of funds. Enough to get you and some others passage across. From there you're on your own, I'm afraid."

"We'll manage. I'll ask around. Surely there's a few crazy enough to go traipsing off into the wilds with me."

He laughed lightly. "From what I hear you'll have no shortage of volunteers. I only hope that you'll be successful. I need you to build a place of safety for us, Paulus. A place from which we can grow."

"Is that a direct order then?"

"No, you're free to chose. I'll not bind you so. But we need this, Paulus. You must see that."

"I do. Don't worry. I'll go, and you'll have your Mountain of Refuge."

"Thank you."

"Milord."

He bowed and left.

The king shook his head. That had been remarkably easy, considering all the other meetings and demands placed upon him. If only all his people were like that, he thought.

We could move mountains.

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

Spring sometime of 1068 2 Journal of Paulus Fahlstrom

Things have worked out well enough I suppose. Seven of us set out by ship from the rocky cliffs of our previous home. The sailors are mostly human, some from the empire of Matuduur to our south, others from various kingdoms of our new home. Technically our ship is a human merchant vessel, which was paid to transport us, but there were many stops along the way and we've had time to engage in a bit of bartering to obtain our necessary supplies. Of course, that meant giving up some of our own equipment in the process. Much of our armor has been sold off to acquire the wagon and supplies we would need. Some of that went as 'payment' for special services to the captain. It was he that was able to find us replacements for poor Udib and Monom who were washed overboard at sea. It still leaves five of us originals, as well as a strange dwarf named Oddbodd, who we picked up at one of our port stops. Seems he's a mechanic of dubious origins, though from what we've spoken about he's talented enough in the field. I doubt I'll have too much time to practice my old profession and it'll be good to have another mechanic on hand should it be needed.

But I get ahead of myself. I acquired this journal, made and bound from the skin of some animal called a 'giraffe'. Sounds exotic to me, but then, we rarely got more than the odd, bear, wolf or goat back home. In any case, there were several of us that set out. Ragnar, Fre and Kolok all came with me, though much of our belongings were lost when Dorenemal was struck by the earthquake. Fre mourns the loss of her prize gemstone, the large Heliodor that she obtained after the defeat of the original goblin leader of Vilesewers, the goblin name for Dorenemal. Another of our original seven was Crush, brother of the guard slain by the titan that Kuli killed. It seems his parents had a sense of humor. All nine children of theirs were named the same, both male and female. I can only hope he's not a shiftless womanizing layabout like his brother was. Fre already doesn't like him. Neither does Ragnar for that matter, but at least Ragnar has her axe to threaten him with. Regrettably all of Fre's kitchen equipment was lost, too. Udib, a stoneworker and Monom a farmer came with us as well, but as I mentioned, they were swept overboard during one the massive storms that seem to riddle these waters.

Once we got far enough east things seemed to calm down, thankfully. I can't express how glad I am to be off that boat. I think I spent the entire voyage below-decks, green as a pine forest. My legs still feel weak from it all and I dislike even reminding myself of the motion. Ugh.

Oddbodd we picked up in some port on our way here. Seems he was looking for work after an abandoned attempt at an ocean fortress. Something he called a waterbore. I'll have to look over his drawings sometime.

Pete is our final addition, thanks to the captain, and our guide to our location. You see, she (yes, I know, her name is Pete) was hired from the local populace to take us to where my maps indicated we should start. She's a native of this new continent and one of her kin took the first group of settlers to their home while they surveyed the maps that had been made. Compared to us she is bronze-skinned to the extreme, but even the native humans make her look as pale as us in comparison. We've seen a few since we've docked and they're very tall, even for humans. Most of the ones we've seen are obviously either scouts or warriors, and wear only little clothing, carrying large oval shaped shields made of wood and hide and even larger spears. Most of their spear tips appear to be steel or iron and roughly a foot long. We'll try to make sure we stay on their good side.

It's been a day since we've ported and I'm feeling steady enough to write this as I doubt we'll have much time once we get underway. Pete informs us that we've got a long, long road ahead of us. Much of which is infested with dangerous nations, swamps and wild animals. A wagon is being built as I write, and our goods loaded so it looks like we'll be underway soon.

I feel I must note that we were forced to trade our clothing away for new ones at our last stop. It was simply getting too hot to wear the heavy furs. Even now in early spring I can feel the sweltering heat and humidity around me, a strange contrast to our frozen home. The bugs... aah the bugs. I could write volumes about them and their size, but I won't. I'll be too busy swatting them and making sure I don't get carried off.

I can only hope the secrets of Dorenemal are safely destroyed or remain hidden under the heart-shaped lake along the high cliffs. Where we're going we won't need enemies following us. They'll already be all around.

(Below is a map indicating the initial route of the first group of settlers (Tosid's group) and the second.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((And character profiles. I did the best I could to match them up. Ragnar, you're still female... sorry, but a good match. Too bad you don't like pixies anymore. You even still worship a volcano-related god. Fre, your's was easy to choose. And Crush, congrats, you have a Microcline block and even like the stone. Sorry, Pete, you're a girl too, but a native of the continent. Kolok, Ragnar's persuaded you to worship her deity. Oddbodd, well, I read through Aredolush and references to your character previously, how much of that do you want me to work in?))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

((Ok... I think I have the world-file here!

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=813

This is the region 1 folder. If you want to see where the fortress is located try looking at the Reclaim option.

Anything else you guys want from Dorenemal let me know. I'll obviously keep a pre-abandon save just in case.))

[Frelock]

((Thanks Paulus.

By the way, what happened to Aardvark?  Wasn't Fre in love with him?  Personally, I think she'd mourn the loss of him rather than her nice gem.))

[Aardvark]

((Thanks Paulus.

By the way, what happened to Aardvark?  Wasn't Fre in love with him?  Personally, I think she'd mourn the loss of him rather than her nice gem.))

((He will arive soon, I asked if he could come to but it was full then. He might arrive in the seckond group.))

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

((Aardvark's got it right. You two probably said some overly mushy and sentimental goodbye at the docks which some sailor witnessed and harrassed you about before you kicked him in the nads and threw him overboard. First migrant wave I'll find someone appropriate for him. Of course, getting you two to be friends again may take some doing... not sure how I'll manage that. But we'll see.

Oh... and for those that try out the save... um... I learned some important things.

1. Walling all the useless crap off somewhere does nothing. For some reason even with it walled in and the gates sealed all of the super light stuff wound up in massive piles strewn all over the OUTSIDE of my walls. Must be some sort of quantum tunneling effect.

2. Don't have your gates sealed and have enemies at your fort when you abandon. (Ahem) My apologies for those who venture in. You'll have to deal with about 250 rotting corpses (Should you reclaim) or tons of bones all over the place (should you adventure there). Apparently that means the two goblin ambush squads actually won and all the dwarves inside the fortress died rather than fled. Ah well, live and learn. Or at least learn. My dwarf is even lying dead in his room!

I assure you all that I've learned from this and the next go around I'll do my best to make things as clean as possible. I could have probably managed to make things cleaner, but it would have taken years in game time to trade away all that crap and since I have no magma, nor a chasm there's no other actual way of getting rid of it.

Except perhaps dumping it in a lake... maybe I'll have to try that. Anyways, next post should bring us to the beginning of the second chapter.))

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

20th of Obsidian 1068 2

Well, we've been travelling around the top of the mountain range that will presumably be our new home for a while. The areas surrounding it is a vast wilderness. Pete calls it a savanna. We have seen several animals that are new to us, many of which Pete says are dangerous, but tasty.  I have seen a giraffe now and a more awkward animal I can't think of. It's no wonder they get hunted. You can see them a long ways off. Now that the wagon is able to move properly again I've taken time to catch up on writing.

The past months have been a gruesome slog though swamps and jungles the likes of which I couldn't have imagined before this. For much of the jungle I was up front with Pete using my sword to clear the vegetation. Pete kept referring to it as my 'machete'. She thinks we're crazy for settling in the south and has told us so numerous times. Personally I suspect that she is overreacting, but at least she's kept us alive these last few months. We lost one pack animal to quicksand, losing much of our armor in the process. Another was lost to a giant crocodile near the river. We tried to recover some of the baggage but were unable to. I even lost my sword in the process, stuck in one of the giant creature's sides, before we saw more approaching and were forced to retreat. I swear it must have been at least six dwarf-lengths long. Our animal didn't suffer long, I suspect the massive animal dragging it under and rolling it till it stopped moving had something to do with that.

Once we were attacked by large snakes but drove them off quickly, and twice by monkeys. Thankfully no harm done except a little bit of pride on Ragnar's part. She was helping get the wagon out of the mud with the rest of us and one of the annoying creatures, a rhesus macaque, according to Pete made off with her axe. She vowed to eat monkey for a month.

On our way we passed near enough to see the mountain range to the south of our route that Pete informed us was a bad place to go. Apparently it's infested with lizardmen. Four different tribes of them. And on and off we've had to chase off thieves. Mostly tigermen.

For Pete's part she has done a good job of keeping us out of trouble, and she was well worth what I gave to the captain. Had I not, I doubt we'd have made it this far. Secretly I think that Pete had a bet going with some of her kin that took the others in. When they saw how woefully ... uninformed we were about the dangers of this place they immeadiately began taking bets on survival rates. From what Pete mentioned, only once mind, we were given even lower odds than the first group on account of our going south. According to them no 'civilized' groups live south of the mountains. I'm not sure I like the sound of that.

The savanna we're in now is hot, to say the least. But it's not without plant and animal life, which is good. And the hard-packed soil, much of it sandy, shows traces of good minerals, some even out in the open. Supposedly we'll make our location at nearly the start of the year. Very fortuitous I'd say. I'm more than ready to get off this wagon and get some work done.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I hope there's copper and zinc in these hills.
Oddbodd has dreamed of Olonkulet, city of brass today.

[Paulus Fahlstrom]

1st of Granite 1069 3

Paulus stood next to Fre on the wagon, doing his best to maintain his balance as they crossed the uneven terrain, with it's clumps of grass and low-lying shrubs. Few trees blocked his view, and most of those were tallish and bare in the lower areas where animals could still have reached them. A heat shimmer lay on the horizon despite the time of year, though there were occasional mud-ponds that they came across that hadn't dried out yet. He swatted at an acorn fly buzzing around his ear as he kept his other hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun and get a better view of the mountainsides as they travelled along them.

He spotted something that looked promising.

"Fre, take her over that way a bit. Yeah, up ahead there, those twin outcroppings."

The two spurs of rock seemed like fingers of the mountains, clawing into the sandy savanna, but as they got closer they noticed another feature, further south of them. A massive gash in the land, a huge crevasse split the mountainside a short distance away from where they sat on the wagon. The others were a short ways behind, except Kolok, whose sole remaining weapon meant he had to stay near the middle of the group where he could help protect from any animals. Or other more intelligent enemies.

Fre called out:"Heeeeeaaaaagh." and the musk-ox slowed to a halt. Not that it had been going fast to begin with.

Turning around Paulus waited for the others to close the gap before announcing:
"This's it mates. This be the place."

Signs of relief etched their faces, even Oddbodd who had stoicly shouldered his portion of the weight. All except Pete. Her scowl was visible to all. Almost angrily she countered,
"This? A few mud-holes for water and a cursed crack in the rock is what we have then? I've spotted at least a dozen better spots in the mountains as we passed, just the last few days." She scanned the cliff-sides.
"All I see in the hills here is copper. Copper and stone. No exposed iron, no exposed veins of gems. Are ye sure you're in the right place?"

Paulus nodded, unswayed.

"Aye. This is it. This is exactly where I saw."

No one commented at that peculiar statement but Pete saw that she would not win the argument, despite being the guide, and de-facto leader.

Fre had already begin loosing the animals from the wagon as Paulus turned.

"All right! Let's strike the earth. If Tosid want's his place of refuge then let it be here. Here be Onol Kenet, Onol Lened. The mountain of safety, the mountain of shelter."



Everyone sprang into action then. They'd had time to discuss who'd be doing what as they travelled, though somehow Crush had managed to not get any specific assignments. Paulus and Ragnar grabbed the two picks from the wagon and began to carve into the side of the south-eastern finger of rock as the others began off-loading the lumber and other supplies. A temporary shelter would be erected first according to Paulus' plan, with many of the workshops outside as they carved out the true entrance and dwellings. Pete had been convincing; the need to be well defended in these wild lands was a high priority.

Fre and Pete would see to the food provisions, with Pete helping to point out specific plants that were edible. Many of the edible growths were similar to their own home, but with distinct differences due to climate. Kolok took to augmenting the wood supply and clearing the land around the entrance in order that wagons could properly come and go. Oddbodd began setting up the workshops, including a woodburner, forge and smelter which Paulus laid out the designs for. If they were to stay and survive they knew they'd have to work long and hard to get settled. And the year had only just begun.

[sonerohi]

Crush would motion that he be pressed into any job there needs work done in, and he also motions that Paulus be crowned a demi-god for finding a dwarf that likes microline.