((Summer went by a little faster and things seem to be operating pretty smoothly.))
--1st Hematite, 202--We had our welcome meeting today.
“Alright everyone, I’m Monom Telerith and as the acting administrator of Thobfel I would like to officially welcome you to our little fort. I hope you’re all settling in well.”
“Mica…mica, mica, mica!”
“Er, yes Kadol found some Mica a couple of days ago. Lets, I guess lets give him a round of applause?” The dwarves clapped slowly and unenthusiastically.
“Now.” I continued. “Many of you have already noticed that you’ve been assigned new roles that may not be perfectly what you’re used to, but they’re roles which we need filled right now. Are there any questions?”
“Mica?”
“Where are the bathrooms?”
“Why am I so fat?”
“Are you staring at my thighs?”
“Where did that dwarf get that tea from?”
“Did you say “acting” administrator?
The last three really threw me. In particular Ii was tough to concentrate on anything other than Zefon, standing against the far wall of the dining room, sipping a cup of steaming hot tea. Dammit! Where is she getting it from!? Why has she not run out yet!? Why is a bloody dwarf drinking tea!?
--2nd Hematite, 202--Mebzuth shot down a unicorn! Shiny white steaks for everyone! But…dammit! She dropped it next to a pond and a pike is scaring everyone away. Hmm. Looks like that’s where the dwarven caravan guard got himself killed last year too. We’re gonna have to do something about this.
--10th Hematite, 202--I’ve taken the loss of the unicorpse pretty hard. Mebzuth doesn’t seem to be taking to her new job as a trapper. She threw her gear down in disgust and… Hmmm, one moment. There appears to be a disturbance outside.
(Written in a hurried scrawl, later) Seems she dropped the animal trap she was working on, grabbed some chalk and took over our crafts shop. This can’t be good for our budding meat and pet industry.
--11th Hematite, 202--She locked herself in, worked feverishly through the night and produced…a chalk toy boat. Well, Zefon told me it’s likely worth nearly 5,000 limuls. I know stone, and it IS rather nice but five thousand? I can’t believe it’s over five thousand.
--16th Hematite, 202--Human caravan arrived. Zefon is meeting with some scrawny joker name Galka Alimxim. Sounds like a phony name to me. I’ve asked the merchants if they brought any tea but they’ve denied it. In any event it’s not like they were here last year.
--17th Hematite, 202--The meeting was short. Apparently this Galka twit asked Zefon for, and I quote, “powder”. He didn’t specify what kind but tapped his nose. I’m not sure what he thinks all this white rock around us is but he’s going to be sorely disappointed if he really expects “powder.”
Apparently a pair of the caravan guards decided to go for a swim. We didn’t know until we heard the screams.
--18th Hematite, 202--The mason Monom Telerith meets with human merchant Galka Alimxim.Monom: So, this is where we’re stockpiling our stone for the moment. Most of our ores are inside but I’d like to build an ore house up top here.
Galka: I beg your pardon?
Monom: I said I’d like to build an ore house. You know, a place for ores. Probably won’t be ready until next year though.
Galka: oh, really? I didn’t know you dwarves were into that kind of thing.
Monom: Didn’t know? We’re bloody dwarves mate of course we like ores. That’s all some dwarves can think about.
Galka: Well sorry. I’ve never heard of that before.
Monom: It’s pretty common knowledge that dwarves are fond of ores.
Galka: I’ll keep it in mind for next time. (to other merchants) Hey guys, guess what they might have set up next year!
I’ve never seen a human so excited to see a bunch of ores. It’s actually kind of refreshing.
--23d Hematite, 202--A goblin snatcher came around today but only managed to stab a dog. Poor bugger.
Ushat’s dog was just eaten by the very pike that’s keeping us away from the unicorpse. I’ve given this fish the name “Nistkesh” or, “Fear Tails” in the common language. For our dwarves are afraid of it and turn their tails and run.
This is good wine.
--27th Hematite, 202--It’s been roughly ten days since the humans arrived. So I see Zefon just standing around, drinking tea in the depot but there’s no business being conducted. I ask what the matter is. Turns out one human with an anvil strapped to camel keeps getting close to the river only to run away when he sees the damned pike. I keep telling them that we don’t even WANT an anvil but they insist on waiting. When I asked one of the merchants about it he simply replied, “Is bad luck to trade without Anvil Camel.” I think they’re high on something.
--28th Hematite, 202--Anvil Camel finally made it to the depot.
We’ve emptied out the pool that Nistkesh was sitting in by mining a cistern underneath. Grates kept the fearsome fish in its place while the water slipped out underneath it. It’s far too late for the unicorpse however, which is rotten through. At least we get some unibones and a uniskull to make trinkets out of. I almost felt sorry for losing Nistkesh. Think of what we could have done if we could have captured and tamed that awesome, fishy power.
Zefon has traded a bunch of Mebzuth’s stone crafts for a few things. Nothing we need really, a pick, a couple of copper weapons, a few bags and such. They only brought one barrel of booze. If a dwarven caravan did that it would be tantamount to an act of war.
Mebzuth keeps cranking out nifty trinkets. She’s like a machine. We’ve hardly traded away the original batch and she’s already put out a much larger one. I hate to lose her as a hunter but she’s clearly far more valuable as a crafter. We’ve traded most of the second batch for even more stuff we don’t need. I instructed Zefon to leave out the masterwork goods. She agreed, but we offered the humans a masterwork idol, scepter and ring as gifts to take to their ruler.
--21st Malachite, 202--Operation “Give Everyone A Cabinet” is about halfway finished. I made a few alterations to the dining room. The northeast bedrooms have been removed to expose that nice sard floor. I think it gives the dining room a bit of class. Oh, and I’ve also mined out (part of) the limonite vein that ran through the dining room area. We’ve replaced it with chalk walls. Doesn’t look so bad.
I’ve, er taken the liberty of moving Zon Ezumum’s quarters closer to mine. She’s a nice lass. Oh, and I’ve moved my quarters and taken a few liberties with decoration. Nothing fancy, a cougar here, a statue there and so forth.
Life goes on as usual. I’ve put a food stockpile across from Zefon’s office when I learned that some of our biscuits went bad. I’m going to have to do something about the stockpiles around here. They weren’t bad for seven dwarves, but we need more storage space.
Zefon is still drinking that bloody tea! For Rakust’s sake we don’t even HAVE a kettle in the fort!
--15th Galena, 202--Little new to report. I’ve started the chapel to Rakust. It’s just a little place for now but I’m sure that it will grow in time, and then shrink as its members come to understand her message. “When you wake in the morning, consider suicide.” Amen preacher. Life is pretty good at the moment. Only, lately I’ve not been considering suicide and that troubles me. I threw myself down a flight of stairs yesterday but my heart really wasn’t in it.
I’d like to put up a few more workshops and diversify our industries a bit more, exploiting our core competencies with a focus on productivity, but I need to clear out more of this stone first.
--20th Galena, 202--I’ve started construction of an aboveground tomb for myself to uh…to use up surplus stone. That’s the ticket.
I got sick of waiting for someone to carve up those unicorn bones and I’ve assigned the two fisherdwarves to do it.
We really need to build more bins and barrels.
I should be thankful that operations are moving so smoothly, but something just isn’t right. It feels like something is missing.
((And that is the end of summer))
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Topic: EvilCheerio's Tholfeb "Deeparrows" Succession game (Read 8567 times)