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[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 14th Granite. (early spring)
Emperor got close to the volcano today. Even the walls of the cave are warm. He made a passage and hollowed out two sides: one for our future trade depot, and one to make a grand staircase to get below the aquifer. We have no immediate need for a depot, however, so I designated that space as a stockpile. While Emperor mines and Dracnor *finally* starts churning out that metal gear, the rest of us begin moving everything we own from the wagon into the cave.

We have fire imps on one side and warthogs on the other. Rick stands guard over the wagon, but he probably won't be able to defend it very well until he gets some equiment.

Shoruke's Log. 23rd of Granite. (early spring)
Today, the fire imps got too close for me to stand. Any closer, I guessed, and they'd be within fire-spitting range of the wagon, which contains all of our food and alcohol, and most of our other supplies as well. I ordered Rick, armed with only his clothes and an iron mace (which, to my delight, is well-crafted), to fight the fire imps off. He charged at them, entering an uncanny martial trance. The imps scattered and fled in the face of his fury. I wonder if that particular trick will work for long.

I am moving our metal creating facilities belowground. The smelter will be set up, used until all of the coal and hematite is processed. Then we will replace the smelter with a forge and churn out some equipment. Rick needs armor.

I wondered, for a second, why Dracnor refused to create a smelter out of obsidian. It was available, and perfectly fire-safe. "It's an economic stone," he responded.
"Screw economy," I responded with my usual eloquence. "We need that smelter, and we need every single stone of hematite we have to turn into iron. Make it out of obsidian. There's going to be more than enough of it." And so the smelter was created.

Emperor gets knots in his stomach every time he tries to dig out a new square foot of the last layer of the grand staircase. "The magma is right below it," he says. "What if I dig too deep accidentally? And fall in, like I almost did with the aquifer. What if-"
I cut him off. "If you keep a cool head, you'll be fine. Your mining has been perfectly fine until now." My little pep talk seems to have worked. He still needs to take a step back and calm down every once in a while (e.g. cancel digging every square), but at least he's getting it done.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 1st of Slate. (Mid spring)
I had Rick chase off two of the fire imps again. One ran away; one blew fire at Rick in the exact same instant Rick clubbed him. The imp was knocked unconscious, and Rick was left defenseless; this is no way for our only warrior to be. So I went back in time* and had him try again. This time, both imps ran. Their absense left Glack some room to cut down some (dead) trees, as well as for me and Elfbane to gather some random plants we found. Thankfully, not all of them were dead. They aren't exactly plentiful, either, though.

Then we realized just how bad our luck is. Rick, while standing guard to the east (keeping the fire imps back by flaunting his mace at them), spoke up. "Hey boss... Shoruke, you should see this." I stopped my plant-gathering (it's really boring work anyway; I was glad for the excuse). "What's up?" I enquired.
Rick pointed to the southwest. "Well," said Rick, "There's good news and bad news. The good news is that there's animals. One-humped camels to be precise." At that particular moment, a gust of wind was obscuring the distant shapes, rendering them as dark silhouettes (how do you spell that?). I had to take his word for it. "The bad news is," he continued, "they're undead." The wind fell, the dust cleared, and I stopped having to take his word for it. There are indeed, at this very moment, half a dozen undead one-humped camels on the horizon.

At least their brains are missing, so they probably aren't smart enough to figure out that they would have a good chance of winning if they tried to engage us in combat. Not that they would have a chance. And they aren't smart enough to attack us. Right?
...
Right?






*e.g. savescummed

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 8th of Slate (that rhymes, loosely)(Mid spring)
Dammit.


I'm not willing to have Emperor dig into wet stone. His nerves are frazzled enough as it is, and besides that, I've heard bad stories. Oh well, at least it's near the bottom of the grand stairway. I'll simply get Emperor (DAMN but it screws me up calling him that when I'm the leader) to dig to the side a short ways so he isn't right over top of the volcano, and continue digging down.
What gets me, though... is that there's a second layer of aquifer. I am starting to really dislike this place.
I hate this place so much, in fact, that I now name it Angcuggán Okbod. I'm not entirely sure why I'm writing this in a dwarven journal, but the name translates into the human commontongue as "the Red Sands of Doom."

The need to take stock becomes more and more pressing with each passing day. I accosted Lambskin and said to her, "I need an office. Make a masonry shop, and make me a chair. Obsidian is fine."
"But I'm a mechanic, not a mason!" She objected.
"You're a mason until further notice," I said flatly. "Now get 'er dun." She pouted so hard I wondered which was longer, her tongue or her lower lip. "Oh fine. When you've made a chair for me, you can make a mechanics shop and start making mechanisms." Well, she stopped pouting and hopped right to it at that, so I guess she's happy.

[Emperor_Jonathan]

E
M
P
E
R
O
R

NOT Emporer. CHANGE IT

[GoldPanda]

Could we get a second pick made so that I can help Emperor, boss?

Or maybe I can start a plump helmet farm if we have arable soil?

... Or any other job that doesn't involve me going outside?

[lambskin]

I DEMAND CATAPULTS FOR SHOOTING ZEE CAMELS!!! Please?

[Shoruke]

I apologize for the spelling mistakes, Emperor. My bad 

Shoruke's Log. 15th of Felsite (Late Spring)
Elfbane seems bored recently. I've been chatting with him a bit, and he has expressed a desire to have another pickaxe. I assured him that Dracnor was working as fast as he could towards having metal production running (he's still processing hematite into iron, but he's almost done now).

Meanwhile, those camels have been edging closer and closer. it's so annoying that I had Emperor dig a channel between us and them. Despite having no brains, they deduced that it would suddenly take them too long to get from the hill to the entrance of our fortress (about... 15 steps) and have left. I REALLY doubt that ruse will work again. In their place is more warthogs. Additionally, all of the fire imps have returned to their volcano, no doubt plotting how to bring about our demise. I don't trust them. Then again, in this heat, anything with the word 'fire' in its name is just begging to be distrusted. It's hot enough around here already, dammit.

Also, Glack now has enough room to make a carpentry workshop. He constructed 7 beds. Sleeping is a lot more comfortable now (whod'a thunk?)

I also had Lambskin start 'spamming' mechanisms. Rick is temporarily armorless, and while it pains me to even think it, he might die. So Lambskin is going to make enough stonefall traps to keep us safe for a while. Hopefully. They are startegically placed at the ends of the defensive channel.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
Lambskin has begun constructing the mechanisms, but has also started mumbling something about catapults. Per-maybe-haps sometime we can indulge her catapult fantasies, but we need the traps first.

Shoruke's Log. Supplementary (squared!).
Maybe I should endulge Lambskin's catapult wishes soon. The skeletal one-humped camels have returned... this time from the northeast, where our defenses are weak (no offense Rick). Maybe I need to have Emperor extend the channel.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 7th of Hematite. (early summer)
The days get longer. And hotter. Much hotter. All I can do is thank Luskal Edëmônam Aran Thun (my god of lightning) that I spend most of my time underground counting widgits and loot and alcohol.

Shoruke's Log. 15th of Hematite. (early summer)
Aw, DAMN. that's not cool.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Red Sands of Doom, indeed. Jaguars, according to legend, are badassed. And this particular jaguar is both skeletal and GIANT. So I decline to send Rick out to fight it, despite there only being one. Speaking of Rick, he's armored now, and Elbane has his pickaxe.




God's Log. When the hell ever, time is irrelevant to me.
It is perhaps worthy of note, that Shoruke actually DID send Rick RFB to fight the 'Skeletal Giant Jaguar'; he did so four times, actually. Rick actually managed to give it a bruise once. Shoruke then changed his plans from "there's only one, go kill it" to "...umm, stay near the fort and hope it leaves."

[theevilmonk]

monk the marksdwarf! whewt

[Shoruke]

Very well, the first idiot peasant volunteer for the military that migrates in will be Monk the Marksdwarf.

Shoruke's Log. 23rd of Malachite. (Mid-summer)
The Jaguar left. It scared Lambskin away from her trap-setting, but otherwise it left us alone. When it had gone far enough from the fort that we couldn't see it, THAT VERY SECOND, half a dozen skeletal one-humped camels arrived. I have shortened Lambskin's trap setting duties, and the moment she is done them, she is free to begin making a catapult and blasting the metaphysical crap out of the camels to his heart's content.

Oh, and...

Makes sense to me. They probably had the sense to not follow our lead and 'shortcut' through the EVIL FRICKING SCORCHING HOT DESERT. I blame the pack animals for that, they were driving. But I digress. I suppose any migrants headed our way simply don't know where we are, and won't know at all until the liason comes. We agreed, before we set off from the mountainhomes, the route we would take to get to the outpost, so the liason will come.

Hmm, I wonder. Is ANYONE going to migrate here? Who the hell would migrate somewhere this hot? I mean, unless they were almost drowned in alcohol recently or something...

Shoruke's Log. 9th of Galena. (Late Summer)
We (as in, I) built the trade depot because it's almost autumn. The traders will refuse to give us provisions if we don't have one.

It's frigging hot. At least it's getting cooler.

And these undead... I swear they're on rotations. The camels left (not surprising) and then, THAT VERY SAME SECOND, the skeletal giant jaguar is back. I AM GETTING PISSED AT THESE SKELETONS!!!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 3rd of Limestone. (early autumn)

But ONLY on the calendar is there really any difference. IT'S STILL FRIGGING HOT.

The caravan, complete with provisions (and hopefully wagon parts) and liason, should be here soon. We all wait anxiously.

The camels left. And guess what? Well, you'd probably get it wrong, so I'll just tell you. GIANT LIONS showed up. I wonder if they're easier to kill than Jaguars. It would be cool for Rick to get some actual combat experience.

Shoruke's Log. 11th of Limestone. (early autumn)
The liason and caravan arrived. I bolted straight to my office (which is a lone chair in the middle of a staircase) and waited for him, eager to start the meeting. He simply walked in and said, "Let's discuss your situation."

"Okay," I began, "We'll need a new wagon to continue on to our designated site. And we'll need more provisions so that we can set up decently."
"You aren't going to stay here?" Enquired the liason.
I was appalled. Stay? Here? THIS IS SPARTA madness. "No, we're not," I told him. "The proposed site was a perfectly viable place to set up an outpost. This place is a scorching hot skeleton magnet!"
"Well, you seem to have set up shop pretty good here, and if the time ever comes that we NEED your outpost, this is an even better place than the corner of the world. None of the other races will think to look for us here. In fact, I hereby use my legislative powers to make this place the new site for the Dwarven Outpost."

Luskal Edëmônam Aran Thun damn it. I guess my only choice is to set up a decent fortress, capable of defending itself from endless packs of skeletal beasts and the goblins that are sure to turn up. At least I get to request what kinds of things the traders bring with them every year. I asked him to bring as much leather, cloth, food (very important), booze (perhaps even more important), metal, and pets (for extra food!) as he could for next year.

Shoruke's Log. 14th of Sandstone. (mid autumn)
Well, this whole debacle has been interesting. Since my last log entry, we finalized a trade agreement, which is an odd one to be sure. It outlines what we need, how much extra it will cost us, and how much extra he'll pay us for certain trade goods next year. Most of the ones we get spare credit for are things we specifically requested him to bring for us. That guy is a dummy.

After we finalized the trade agreements, the liason left, leaving the traders to try and sell me stuff. And just as he was nearing the boundary of our area, the fire imps attacked. They blew fire at him (I suppose they missed; he got away. I couldn't see him through the smoke clouds though.) and lit the landscape on fire. Not much of the landscape, but dry grass spreads fire pretty well, it turns out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thankfully, sand does NOT burn, and our wagon and fortress were spared. Whewf! One of the lions, and one of the skeletal camels that came EXACTLY as the other lions left, were killed. (How does fire kill a skeletal camel? They have no skin and no organs to burn.) Oh, and while I was talking to the liason, one of the fire imps seems to have committed suicide (It's lying dead in the volcano... JUST on the other side of the wall from our fortress. It's creepy).
My biggest complaint of the fire spitting is that the burning landscape engulfed our only cat. The vermin piled up for a bit.
My second biggest (not far behind first) complaint is that with the fires, it got even fricking hotter around here.

This whole time, Lambskin was making mechanisms to trade. Some of them were quite good. We (meaning I personally) managed to trade the mechanisms for some alcohol, an empty barrel, and a caged cat. Yay. DEATH TO VERMIN

Well, despite the liason getting out alive unscathed, the rest of the merchants didn't fare so well. One of the merchants was attacked by a fire imp as they passed the volcano (why did they have to go RIGHT NEXT to the volcano?). His swordsdwarf leapt into the volcano valiantly to fight, diving straight into the volcano to rescue the merchant. The swordsdwarf killed one fire imp, and wounded the other on the arm, and then burned to death in the volcano with his merchant. The merchant's mule, on the other hand, promptly dropped it's burden and ran off.

Hey, guess what that means?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Free stuff! And since the liason (e.g. very important diplomat-type guy whom wars may well be fought over) got away, we don't have to face the wrath of the mountainhomes. Sweet!

[GoldPanda]

All the dead merchant's stuff are ours, he said. Rights of salvage, he said. Oh, by the way, we just need someone to retrieve them from THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO.

NOT IT.

[Shoruke]

Armok's Log. DAY ONE OF AUTUMN.
Shoruke's most recent save file was corrupted by the elves, and so he was forced to savescum (thank me for savescumming) back to the day autumn arrived on the calendar. When we pick up the story, it is about the same time, with these differences:
-The liason and merchants were not attacked
-the landscape was not set on fire
-only one giant lion came, and was replaced by warthogs
-that silly fire imp decided not to commit suicide
-there's no volcano-side loot to claim
-more mechanisms were made and traded; Shoruke bought alcohol (more than before), some random cloth/silk, a dog, and a cat

Shoruke's Log. 24th of Sandstone. (Mid autumn)
MIGRANTS! holy purring maggots, I don't believe it. Who would migrate here? Anyway, the migrant tally came to:
-1 engraver
-1 thresher
-1 mason
-1 wood burner
-1 butcher
-1 farmer
-and 2 stupid worthless idiots peasants.

At least they didn't send me a fisherdwarf. That would be just weird. Why do we need a thresher? Oh well, I suppose he can harvest some of those random bushes outside. Sucks for him. It's really hot out, of course, but at least there hasn't been any brushfires or anything recently. Definately not. Those fire imps DEFINATELY haven't blown fire at the liason, missed, and set the landscape on fire recently. Nope.

Anyway, one of the peasants caught my eye.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He says he wants to be a marksdwarf. I think we might be able to get him a crossbow and some practise bolts, but I wonder how precisely we're going to get him armor. It's such a pity the fire imps didn't attack any of the traders and cause them to drop some loot.

[muwahahaha]

Hmm, a fort with death at every corner.

Sign me up!

Name: Kornash
Gender: Male preferably
Prof: secret goblin spy who will poison you all Uhm.... Farmer/Cook perhaps?

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 25th of Timber. (late autumn)
I noticed one of the farmsdwarves today. He seems to have escaped my notice before, sneaking around the fortress, deliberately checking out every nook and cranny. His name is Kornash.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It seems to me that he harbors thoughts of rebellion. Perhaps it's because my "judge of intent" skill is still only novice, or maybe it's just my imagination, or maybe it's his mumbling of sentences containing the words "secret", "spy", and "poison you all".

I forgot in previous entries to include that we dug out some space to put some food workshops, and a large food stockpile.

We started digging out the 'work' levels of the fortress. They will basically have most of our non-food workshops. They work area of the fortress is Three z-levels (as we dwarves call them, it's roughly six feet in human terms) deep. Each work 'area' will have an input stockpile, an output stockpile, and the workshops will be in the middle level. Each workshop will have a Hatch put over it, so's that if somebody randomly goes crazy while working (I suppose it could happen) we can lock them up in there and not have to deal with any berserk dwarves physically. Another plus side of this system is that it's insanely easy for me to remember where each workshop is.

At one point, the butcher was carrying some vermin remains outside to the refuse stockpile, and was interrupted by a skeletal one-humped camel. Thankfully, the camel was on the other side of the channel. Before I could send Rick to kill the camel (he would have had a good chance, since there was only one of it and he's fully armored) and gain experience, it wandered into one of Lambskin's excellent traps. It is now a pile of bones, a skull, with one odd bone (which doesn't seem to be part of the pile of bones, despite being RIGHT THERE) sticking out.

Something weird happened today. I noticed that, in the unit list, were several gazelles. Most of them were dead. When I peeked out of the fortress ramp to check 'what the hell,' I noticed that the landscape was on fire. The gazelles and a couple fire imps were engaged in combat, and the fire imps seemed to be winning.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wonder if sand burns, because the fire imps have obviously never started a brushfire before. Presuming it doesn't, we should be okay. Except for that one cat who wandered out. Poor kitty. Oh well, it might leave some bones for us, which would be mighty usefull.