I'm going to post in three-month blocks. Today is Granite to Felsite, or the spring months.
Also this is because the FPS is so much lower than I am used to. I usually run forts at 200, then get bored of them before they get big enough to slow down much. Going from that to 10-20 FPS is unpleasant.
Anyway, fairly uneventful year aside from that flood.
Journal of 'Dadam' Shaketome, The Holiness of Fording, Engraver and Hoardmaster, Mountainhomes, Year 116Granite 1:
I've been alerted by a runner that the king wishes to see me. I already know what the dicussion will be about. As the original overseer of this fortress-cum-mountainhome, fifteen years ago now, I suppose King Morullikot holds me responsible for its current state. For the past several years, I've been doing my best to simply keep out of fortress politics. I count supplies, engrave walls, cut lumber, and keep my head down around the nobles. That is no longer possible, it seems.
Granite 1, Addendum:
Well, I was correct. The king is dissatisfied with his lack of coffers, as well as his consort's growing malaise and insanity. The woman believes herself both a royal consort and some type of guard, probably due to the apalling lack of adamantium and gold lining her room. A number of other nobles are whining about the state of their mandates as well, and the king is acting as though the world will come crashing down around us if this doesn't get sorted out.
As for who, exactly, is to sort this out, I have been given one year to make the nobles and royalty happy with life here, as well as to restore some sort of order and sanity to the place. For the first time in years, I've taken a stroll through the halls, actually looking at their design and layout. I'm not sure that a year is enough time for the monumental task of correcting this place. Still, the fortress plainly functions, as we are exceedingly well stocked in food and general provisions, and want for little more than luxury.
Below is the current state of the fortress by my rough overview:
Granite 2:
Well, I've orderd three more decent coffers placed in the king's room, which should satiate his lust for storing things. Of course, finding his room on the fortress schematics took me nearly half an hour. The king himself is farming just below the surface. I don't understand nobles. Anyway, I also have included plans to expand his holdings beyond a single room. Though it's tolerable, I feel that more glory is required for royalty, as eccentric as they may be.
For his consort, I designed a large, luxurious series of chambers. However, I left for a drink just after finishing them. After I returned, I found that the doddering nutter of a woman had drawn nonsense all over the plans. The king, however, has decided that it represents her true wishes, and I've thus been ordered to have the rooms carved exactly as she "designed" them. I'll have to look for her current room later, so that I can reassign it once her new one is complete. I would ask her if she intended these as changes or if she was just bored, but she is busy attacking random people and toppling workshops.
Her 'designs' are pictured below:
Granite 3:
Hopefully as time passes, I will have this place more under control, and won't need to make entries daily. A rather morbid fellow came up to me today and informed me that we were 'nearly out of graves'. I don't know what sort of profession leads one to come across that fact, but he is correct. I've ordered the expansion of the necropolis. Unfortunately it will have to wait until the royal chambers are carved. Hopefully no more than five or six of us will die in the meantime.
The perceived bedroom shortage seems to be under control. It turns out that most of the rooms were available, but held up in the bearuacracy that has grown in this fortress. The rooms weren't assigned as bedrooms, and we just happened to have around thirty rooms listed as "hospital/free bed". I have rectified this error, and since the beds have already been constructed, I will be providing more rooms regardless.
Granite 11:
I've located the queen's bedroom, and found the reason that she has not been using it. An injured farmer by the name of Olon Likotasdug has been resting in her bed. This has left the queen sleeping in the hallways and then screeching at her lover about it, and he in turn shouts at me.
I will allow the resting farmer to keep resting there, mostly out of spite. The new chambers are coming close to being at least usable, though engraving them will take some time.
Granite 12:
The elven diplomat has arrived, doubtlessly pleased with the massive deforesting and then deshrubbing campaign led by the previous overseer.
On a happier note, a pleasant turn of events for our resident insane consort. Her room apparently crosses a vein of native platinum. I'm sure it will look wonderful sparkling in her smoothed walls, since I've been forbidden to order it mined out.
Granite 13:
Oh, would you look at that? Somehow, my new bedroom-shortage solution involves mining the area directly south of the queen consort's chambers, and cuts through a platinum vein. Odd that two unrelated veins would be so close to one another.
Granite 15:
The idiot consort pulled the lever to refill the waterfall, thinking it meant the waterfall in the shopping area. Instead, she has managed to flood the dining room, with a number of children inside, as well as flooding her new chambers, the king's current and new chambers, the hallway, a few dozen barrels of booze, and probably a half dozen workshops. I've had the lever pulled again, but I'm not sure how reasonable it is to assume that worked at all.
Also, the elven caravan has arrived. They will have to wait until the current crisis is over. As an aside, the elven diplomat actually had little to say. He requested we refrain from cutting down trees. The king refused. The elf left.
Granite 18:
A child has become possessed. I hope he can walk/swim to whatever shop the spirit requires.
Granite 27:
I've finally become able to leave the queen consort's new chambers, since the floodwaters have receeded. I don't know if it will ever be safe to turn the dining room water fall on again. Work is resuming on the chambers and et cetera. The child has occupied a craftsdwarfs shop, and is gathering resources for something or another.
Slate 1:
How I've managed to survive a month in this position, I don't know. The possessed child has gathered felsite, a few chunks of obsidian, a few shells, a few bits of glass, and some cloth. I don't know what for. He's begun work, however.
Slate 4:
The child has managed to create a felsite flute of outstanding quality and middling actual value. I don't know how he got the spider silk to actually form spikes, but there you go. The flute hasn't been played, and the child mostly rocks back and forth in the corner of the room, telling everyone not to play it. I suppose I will just put this with the other useless trinkets.
Slate 7:
Miners are all worried about the dampness of the walls of the new graves. Telling them that it is just leftover dampness from the flooding above accomplishes nothing. I'm rezoning for graves elsewhere.
Slate 15:
Remember those dead animals in the water works? They are now rotting and the stench in the dining room is overpowering. I can't figure a way to get any dwarves in the works to clean it up, so I suppose we will just have to bear it.
Slate 20:
The engraving of the new royal consort chambers is going well. I've created quite a few masterpieces. I hope the 'guard' queen is satisfied by this work.
Felsite 1:
Engraving is still going smoothly. The new graves are all dug out and are being filled with coffins as I write this. The queen is becoming more satisfied with her lack of gold-lined furniture and platinum-encrusted tooth brushes each day.
Felsite 9:
The same morbid dwarf who told me that we were running low on graves now informs me that some migrants have arrived at the fortress, 'knowing it may be their tomb'. I wonder if this guy's activity is some sort of fey influence I am unaware of. Only about half a dozen new workers arrived.
Felsite 13:
Finally, the consort's chambers are good enough for her approval. With that out of the way, I must go find some other method of keeping everyone working. As for the consort herself, she has delivered yet another child to the world. This child is her seventh. It's suspicious, to me, how she keeps having children when she doesn't share a bed with the king. It is less suspicious when I noticed how much time she spends 'sparring' as part of her guard duty.
Felsite 25:
Things are settling down at the fort. I'm not sure what else really needs to be done to get the place in order, so I'm just treading water for a while.