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[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 5th of Galena. (late summer, year 20)
Summer (e.g. the really froaking hot season) is almost over. Just 25 more days. I think I can make it by staying belowground.

One of the fortress guards died recently during training. I really don't know why I keep them around. I've given up trying to replace all of them. The replacement will come with the next wave of migrants.

Speaking of migrants, they were too nervous to come again this season. I guess it's because of the goblins. Or maybe they've heard of MES or NCS (Mad Elf Syndrome and Name Changing Syndrome).

We're flat out of clear-glass making supplies. Flat out. We have like five logs, which we're using for beds. Inaluct took the last of the pearlash and made a masterpiece window, and now we're back to making green glass blocks for the green glass hallway.

Someone had enough free time on their hands (one second) to throw a party, and thusly excuse themselves from all work for about two weeks. I am also in attendance of this party (I must attend all parties in order to maintain a healthy relationship with the dwarves I oversee), along with two other. A party of four isn't such a big deal.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 9th of Limestone. (early autumn, year 20)
Autumn. Like summer, except the trees change color. It's not really much cooler. GAH!

By the end of last month, we had seven militant dwarves 'resting'. Now we have four. I think we need more armor, somehow. And I really hope we get some immigrants.

Arena construction is... slow. Everything is done, except for two mechnical connections (which are in progress) and the windows for one side (which are... kinda permaybehaps almost in progress). Having no wood sucks.

I decree that this month is "Rick go kill everything that isn't dwarven" month. I will have him spend copious amounts of time chasing down the local wildlife and unlife, gaining both kills and combat experience ad nauseum.

Someone engraved a very odd picture. I mean, it's like, the strangest thing ever. It's a picture of a human, with a panel of buttons and a box in front of him. This box is hooked up to another box which is making a whirring sound, and is apparently connected to every other similar box on their strange planet, Earth. This human is typing onto his panel, and the first box has words like,

"Subject: Re: Angcuggan Okbod"


And


"This is a great story so keep it up 

And I'd like a dwarf too thanks
Name:Flint
Proffesion:Swordsdwarf
Gender:Male

Ty"

It's weird. I don't understand this engraving at all. Apparently it's related to Flint's acceptance into this very fortress. Here's the official description of the engraving, which doesn't do it justice.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wonder how I know so much about the graphical details of the picture? Here, I'll try and copy it into this journal...



Just LOOK at all that detail! Our engravers are the best. And I managed to copy every detail of the entire image! I'm amazing!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Sometime... like... halfway through early autumn. I didn't check.
I sent Rick out to kill the warthogs. And while he went to the northwest corner to do so, the goblins showed up... led by a LEGENDARY bow-goblin. I quickly consulted the civilization records, and that very goblin was the right-hand-gobbie to the leader of the gobbo city. So I told the entire military to go after them, but since Rick was the only active military dwarf, he was the only one to get there in any kind of decent time. Anyway, the goblins killed our legendary carpenter, as well as another woodcutter (they had to take the woodcutter on three-to-one. They just shot the legendary guy a couple times and that was it for him). Then Rick appeared, killed the legendary goblin, killed one of his marksgobbos, and got injured. Finally. They had been shooting at him the entire time, you understand, he's just that good at defending himself. But he was injured in the hand, and managed to run a few steps back to the fortress before they broke his leg, too. They unloaded their entire quivers at him, but didn't manage to injure him any further. The goblins then charged at him and began trying to bludgeon him to death with their metal bows. Then an axedwarf and a swordsdwarf came to his aid, and fended off the marksgobbos, but it was too late for Rick. He sustained injuries to several parts of his body (three broken limbs, several nervous injuries, some mangled fingers) and soon bled to death. The last thing he noticed was that the late legendary goblin marksgobbo/leader was wearing a crown of goblin bones.

Wait, this scenario sucks. Let's try that again.

REDO!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Second try to fend off this fricking ambush-spam.
What an odd day this is. It's not even a day of the month. Oh well.

I sent Rick to fight off some wild boars, but he went to go get a drink instead. While he did that, I arbitrarily decided that it wasn't necessary to harvest the plants and cut the tress outside. The moment Rick got outside, the goblins ambushed the dwarves hauling skamel bones back to the fortress. None of the civilians were killed. Rick went to town on the goblins, killing about four of them, and was just about to start on the local leader/elite bowgoblin when that same goblin got an insanely lucky shot at Rick: right through the heart. All of his other shots had simply been deflected or bounced off Rick's armor, but that shot went straight through the armor, through him, and hung limply out his back. Rick never had a prayer after that. He died within two seconds. Damn.

REDO!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Third try.
What an odd day this is. It's not even a day of the month. Whoa, deja vu?

For no reason at all, I decided that no civilian dwarves should be allowed outside, and that the entire military should guard the fortress entrance. Then I told them to go patrol the south perimiter for a bit because I had a feeling the goblins were going to come from that direction. Not that the feeling was based on anything. Then "a vile force of darkness" appeared... from the north. I told the military to go that way and fend them off. The hammerdwarf went that way (he was just inside the gate when I issued the command), and Rick went that way, but the other two dwarves who were outside kept going south for some FUBAR'd reason. The hammerdwarf tried to engage all the goblins on his own (no mean feat, ESPECIALLY when you're a fairly new recruit and there's like 18 gobbos) and went into a martial trance. But he died, injuring three different goblins. Then Rick arrived, and ALSO got a martial trance. He defeated six goblins in no time flat. The rest fled (three got killed by Rick on the way) in the face of the dwarven [trANCE] token.

Not quite good enough.

REDO!

[Axe27]

I think Rick going down fighting, and then Rick getting shot through the heart was hilarious.

Running out of dwarves already?

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Fifth GOD DAMN try. Don't even ask about the fourth.
For no apparent reason, I ordered all civilians to remain indoors, all the military stationed outside the gate, and some doors and coffers to be built.

Despite the random timing of these decisions, I got worried when the goblins didn't show up when I thought they would.
And didn't show up again.
And didn't show up.
And still didn't show up!

I got worried, wondering if they were spending their free time (whilst we waited around idly) organizing three, four or maybe even five simultaneous ambushes. Then... the "vile force of darkness" appeared. Those aren't my words, that's what the other civilians were muttering. Anyway, we had about 5 dwarves amassed at the gate, and I ordered them to charge. Rick (not surprisingly) got there first, entering a martial trance. Fear the {TRANCE} token. He began tearing some of the goblins apart, one at a time (not nearly fast enough), and then the other dwarves and his pet dogs appeared to help him out. With four melee dwarves (especially Rick), one marksdwarf, and two war dogs, we managed to drive back 18 goblins. The goblin siege was composed of 6 macemen and a dozen or so wrestlers. Two macemen made it out, and maybe a few of the wrestlers too. But goblin losses were high, and ours were ZERO. Their stuff is ours!

And for no reason at all, I feel like mentioning that none of the goblins were legendary at all or even 'master' in their profession. I honestly don't know why I brought that up. It's not like any legendary goblins have ever showed up here. It seems odd to me that I would randomly bring that up. I guess I'm having deja vu again.

Wait, 'again'?!? I've never had deja vu before that I can remember! Am I going crazy?!?

Shoruke's Log. 12th of Limestone. (early autumn)
Everyone can go outside again, Rick is about to get back to harrassing the wilderness creatures, and I just re-read my entire journal. It took me a few days. But I learned something very interesting.

Apparently I am able to go back in time when I need to, for the fortress' sake. This action causes me to send time back without carrying my 'present' conscience with it. So, basically, I do it to try and get luckier. And I seem to take different actions every time I go back in time. Well, I suppose I'll know this forever now, unless I go back in time to before this point.

It also appears that Armok himself, and one of his friends named "god", have written in my journal, too. What an honor! It seems they've stopped recently, though. I wonder why none of the dwarven gods (besides Armok) write in peoples' journals.

Well, back to life.

Armok's Log. Supplementary to Shoruke's.
God has died. It kinda sucks, but after living for a billion billion years, you kind of get to see it all, so he wasn't too miffed about going. Anyway, he died because some dwarf, Shoruke, discovered that he was real. This changed his 'faith' into 'fact', which means he suddenly was required to conform to the laws of the universe, which he was unable to do, and vanished in a poof of mixed logic and nothingness. The rest of us gods, of which I am the most superior (and most physically present, allowing me to physically write this), are perfectly fine because we belong to mystical creatures. The human God, however, is toast. Oh well, he was wussy anyway.

[Shoruke]

Log of Rigoth Isonkikrost, Baroness. 28th of Limestone. (early autumn, year 20)
I say, I had the most terrible fright this morning. I woke up slowly, as I always do, and there was another dwarf, standing right next to my bed, towering over me. I gasped in shock. He didn't even seem to care what trauma I had just gone through. He simply said to me, in the hoarse voice of one who talks to commonfolk too much, "Let's discuss your situation." Well, I thought he meant that I was being held hostage. "I'll give you anything you desire, just let me live!" I pleaded. "Well, your Broker Shoruke is discussing that with the traders. Now let's make a trade agreement for next year."

Well that eased me right up. By 'my situation,' he meant the situation of our beautiful fortress. Well, that darling Shoruke had left me a note outlining what he figures the fortress needs. I was surprised to learn that he did not ask for leopard leather more firmly than all the other leathers. I really must chastise this oversight later. Anyhow, I read the note off to this liason, and he jotted it all down. Now we shall discuss the export agreement.

Shoruke's Log. 3rd of Sandstone. (mid autumn)
The baroness really is a fat fool of a pig. I told her not to ask for anything with more than one 'tick' (technical term; used to define how badly one needs something) of urgency. But she went ahead and put leopard leather as full priority. Yeesh. I really need to let her know what things like that do to our fortress. Anyway, the dwarves are almost done dumping all the goblin loot into the fortress, and now we can start moving some of it into the depot for me to barter with. We're down to 101 dwarves now; one of the fortress guard was stabbied during training, right through the lung I suppose, and suffocated. Not that the loss of one of The Guard affects the fortress' hauling speed.

Anyway, I wonder if there's any way to get all the hauling done faster. I widened the major hallways a few months ago, but transport speed is still a little too slow for my standards. We have 101 dwarves, for Armok's sake! One would think that work could get done faster than this. At this rate I'm worried if I'll even be able to get the trading done before the caravan leaves; we lost a lot of time getting the goblin loot in here.

Oh, I forgot to mention this before: the very most terrible irony. One of the goblin's macedwarves was killed by Sakzul the marksdwarf. Guess what kind of bolt Sakzul was shooting? ☼Goblin Bone Bolt☼ s. Oh, the cruel irony. I love it.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 13th of Sandstone. (mid autumn, year 20)
I traded with the dwarves... once again, the initial amount of goods I had sent to the depot for trading was insufficient. GARR! Within that same instant, I ordered that several dozen more goblin/elven clothes be brought to the depot. So now me and one engraver are trying to transport a few dozen scraps of clothing, while all the other dwarves are 'storing item in stockpiles'. Gah! The stuff we bought will wait for us in the depot until we come for it, but the traders are only likely to be here for another week at most. It kinda pisses me off.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 19th of Sandstone. (mid autumn, year 20)
Well, we barely managed to get everything to the depot in time, and I traded for the rest of the stuff we wanted, including some steel equipment. Some of it will be given to Rick, and some (like the "giant axe blades") will be melted into steel bars and made into equipment for our dwarves.

Meanwhile, Flint has become our first 'master' level militant (unless you include that one marksdwarf from the fortress guard but personally, I DON'T). Kudos to Flint on becoming Swordmaster.

And apparently we have made some clear glass blocks. I don't remember that. Oh well. I made a clear glass block stockpile outside, and construction on the glass tower has begun. Unfortunately, we STILL aren't done the arena, so we aren't going to be making any more clear glass blocks until that's done. Oh well, it's pretty close to completion. We only need 27 more windows... wait, that's quite a few, considering how much work they take. Damn. Still, we have like 10 glass pillars up outside.

Shoruke's Log. 21st of Sandstone. (mid autumn, year 20)
Sakzul the marksdwarf has become 31337 (elite). Kudos.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 28th of Sandstone. (mid autumn)
Fath the Axedwarf has earned himself an extra couple names, due to his part in defeating the most recent goblin insurgence.

Rick's kills increase in number by the day. Now he gets a break (e.g. some sparring sessions.

The arena should be done soon. Regardless, I'm going to do some quick lever-tests, and then I'm going to station Monk in the 'turret' and let the camels loose. Of course, they won't be able to so much as touch him, while he'll be able to "shoost" them all he wants. Of course, I'll have a military squad stationed nearby in case he runs out of ammo or something.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
Sir Geo's arm was broken during sparring today. We seem to get at least three broken arms per season. You really cannot have any idea how hard it is to keep track of all of them.

NO IDEA!

They don't tell me they're injured, there's no official report, my only ways of keeping track are a) visiting every. single. bedroom. Including the barracks. and b) scrolling through the list of what everyone's doing, and seeing how many people are "resting" but not "sleeping".

There's a difference now? They both involve being unconscious, recuperating, and being unable to avoid traps.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary Squared.
Those nobles. They haven't made a production mandate in too long. I don't trust their silence. And I don't like their work ethic, either.
Baroness: "If woodcutters cut wood, and stonecrafters craft stone, shouldn't nobles just noble?"
Me: "and just what does that entail?"
Baroness: "I sit around my way too expensive bedroom and stare at the walls."
Me: "...if you weren't a noble, so help me..."
Baroness: "But then I wouldn't be NOBLING now would I?"
Me: "SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!"

It's fun being quasi-noble. I get to shout at the baroness and without going to jail, but I still get to avoid hauling duties.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 20th of Timber (hmm, alliteration). (late autumn, year 20)
I wondered why the caravan isn't gone yet. During their stay, someone accidently pulled the "trap the elves in the hallway" lever, and one of the traders' mules was in the way of one of the floodgates. Then it moved before the lever was pulled again. Now there's one floodgate, randomly closed while the rest are open, and it's in the caravan's way. Oops. I'll have someone from the military stand in that spot again so we can rectify this.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
Apparently my understanding of mechanics is lacking. The floodgates have fixed themselves. I must congratulate Lambskin and the mechanics on creating a self-correcting system.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary Squared.
Confrimed, the humans are actually leaving. All of them, not just the ones with mules. Whewf, close call there.

WE ALMOST GAVE THE HUMANS MAD ELF SYNDROME!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Like, REEEEEEEEEALY early winter. (Year 20)
The skeletal bastards camels launched an assault on the fortress! Well, they stayed beyond the channel and therefore the traps, but they were interrupting people trying to use the refuse stockpile. So, I told Sakzul and Mebzuth (the marksdwarves who were standing guard of the gate right then) to shoot at the camels across the channel. They got the subliminal hint that I wanted them to attack the camels, but they didn't seem to appreciate that I wanted them to stay on the fortress side of the channel. Sakzul (he's legendary, remember?) squandered his like, 5 bolts, and then suicidally rushed past the traps to try and bludgeon the camels to death. To absolutely no avail. He got a broken arm (and spleen), and when mebzuth tried to rescue him (he also had only about 5 bolts and used them unwisely) he was trampled. And in the middle of the fight (just after the part where Sakzul starts his suicidal rush) guess what day it is? WINTER! Which means I can only redo half the fight. Dammit. This is gonna be tough.

REDO!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 2nd of Moonstone. (early winter)
Encounter defeated. Now here's the part where we get into the difference between "winning" and "achieving the objectives". Sakzul is going to be out of action for quite some time. And Mebzuth took a shot to the head, so he's out for at least three months as well.

Here's how it went. The save time was just as Sakzul began melee combat with a camel. He was winning. He keeps pounding the camel until its friend arrives... and then starts losing. He got pushed into the channel. Trying to crawl out (and therefore be closer to the beds), the camels go in after him. He runs through the channel, being pushed faster by the camels. Meanwhile, Mebzuth is topside, unloading his quiver at another camel, which charges straight through his volley and two stonefall traps, loses all four of its limbs but keeps going (dedicated much?), and manages to reach up and gash Mebzuth's forehead somehow. Mebzuth clubbed it to death with his crossbow, and then limped off to the infirmary to heal. Rick arrives in the channel shortly after, where the camels have almost caught up to Sakzul. All three parties converge at the same time. Rick, of course, won; Sakzul sustained injuries to *checks* whoa... I need a list.

-upper body, mangled
-lower body, broken
-right arm, bruised
-left arm & hand, broken
-left leg, bruised
-right leg, minor injuries but not broken
-right ear, neck, & lower spine, minor injuries
-nose & left shoulder, bruised

and the camels are obviously dead... I mean destroyed.

I am 'dumping' a bunch of steel equipment we have lying useless in the stockpiles into a small room, just off the barracks. Then I will station Rick in there, and have him switch from his iron stuff to steel. He won't have a FULL set of steel, but it will be almost complete. I wonder how invincible he'll be wearing steel instead of iron.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. Screw the date.
So I forgot to save after saving Sakzul and Mebzuth's hides from death. Then I tried to have Monk fight in the arena... and there were issues... which resulted in a hammerdwarf's wasteful death. So I savescummed... right back to Sakzul's catfight with the camels.

Apparently it was a long series of strokes of amazing luck that saved Sakzul. I tried about twenty times to save his hide again, and I'm only keeping the last one because it's the only one that worked. It involved me telling him "screw the enemies stick to your station" and "leave the wildunlife alone" and "GET BACK HERE IDIOT". Both of the marksdwarves are out of commission. But Rick (and Fath the Axedwarf) saved the day.

Now as soon as Rick finishes his drink, he's out to go kill the OTHER skeletal camels that just replaced these ones. I hate the elven druids for their undeads and their hippyness and their huge clothing.

AND I'M SAVING RIGHT NOW DAMMIT

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
Actually, all of Sakzul's wounds were fairly superficial and he's already up and at 'em again. Lucky bugger.