Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 14th of Hematite. (early summer, year 26)
That was an epic fight. I should have made a movie of it. Rick, Maggarg, Atir, and Sir Geo, with a little help from Elf Driller, took on two squads of goblins, and won. The only casualty taken was Sir Geo's youngest child. One of her other ones came out to watch.

Atir got a martial trance right before the fighting even started, and after it wore off (by now a good few goblins were dead), Maggarg got a similar trance, and boy oh boy was it impressive. At one point Rick had a one-on-one duel with the goblin swordmaster, and won by scrunching the little guy's nose. I sent the markdsdwarves south to head off the third and last goblin squad, but by then, the siege was broken and the goblins were running.

The Aftermath:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, there's a lot of stuff to dump and melt now. I guess I should get those new magma forges up and running, and soon. And I really need to get around to trading with the humans.


Shoruke's Log. 18th of Hematite. (early summer)
Well, I'm done trading with the humans. Emperor breached the volcano, so now we're just waiting for the magma to fill the chamber (and melt some of the damned rocks). All four of our fortress' current nobles are imprisoned within their respective doom chambers. Once they're gone, The Guard is to be disbanded... with the exception of the Captain, who will remain at his post to oversee dwarven justice (as the working dwarf sees it, not as the nobles do). As soon as the new magma smelters are running, we will begin constructing platinum and iron blocks, for use in The Tower and for making our surroundings more regal.

And the king is coming! The whole fortress is in a frenzy (obviously... an artifact was made over the announcement, yeesh). Personally, I figure as long as he pulls his own weight in the fortress, he can live here.

I would describe this situation as "sweeping changes".

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 11th of Malachite. (mid summer, year 26)
The nobles are dead! And I even got a recording of it. Perhaps I'll replay it sometimes to cheer myself up when times get tough.

http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1088-noble-cide

Also, the new magma pits are filling up with magma. All four of the chambers currently have 2/7 depth magma, so we don't need to worry about the magma evaporating. We just wait and the chamber will fill itself.

And, with the death of those FRICKING nobles, now I get to make some drastic military changes. With the exceptions of heroes, champions, and the captain, all of The Guard has been reassigned into the military. Soon I'm going to go through every single piece of equipment this fortress owns, and melt down anything shoddy, or made from lesser metals (such as copper). Then we'll simply remake all the equipment, but better this time. The time to replace plate mail with *plate mail* has come.

[Snuffs]

The magma chambers pleased me greatly.  However, the magma-flushing system seems like a bit of a waste of rock, glass and wood.  Perhaps the next edition should be all-bauxite mechanisms and floodgates, all iron cages, and bauxite levers to replace the nobles' beds?

Also, how do you plan to drain the magma?

...Do you plan to drain the magma?

[Shoruke]

Nice idea for the noblecide rooms... and no I don't intend on retrieving the stuff, although I probably would be able to.


Shoruke's Log. 26th of Galena. (late summer, year 26)
Well, a lot of production has happened in a month. I'm having Dracnor practice his weaponsmithing by making endless streams of iron short swords. I chose short swords, because we also make them out of obsidian, so I'll know what to melt after. Or we could sell them. Or use them as the offerings to the dwarven king!

We've also channeled off pretty much all of that hill to the west and southwest. The miners got scared by the local wildunlife a few times, but help was always just a shout away; Rick, Maggarg, Sir Geo, Flint, and Banzay are all permanently standing guard just outside The Gate. By the way, I'm no longer on the mining/stone detailing crew; I've assigned myself to metalworking duties. The other metalworkers are always busy melting stuff down, so I've taken it upon myself (more or less) to construct the platinum road from The Gate to the fortress boundary.

There are two things that suck about making this road though. One is the heat, which I'm reasonably sure I've mentioned is UNGODLY. The other thing is the wild unlife. Three days ago, was the first time I've ever seen a skaguar up close and personal, and I have no wish to ever do it again. BY GOD those things are creepy. Our military must have nerves of steel to be able to face those things off. Also, it's a little dangerous working so close to the fortress boundary. Why? Because nobody ever looks beyond it, for any reason. Ever. Which means that a pack of skamels could pop up right beside me, and I wouldn't even notice until they were literally on top of me. It almost happened the other day, actually.

Today, Kornash started acting weird. I seem to recall something about him continuously muttering about poison and killing, but since he's on the food crew, I don't get to talk with him much. I should ask Beer Fairsabers about him sometime. Anyway, he has the aspect of one fey, and I just received word as I was writing this that he has taken over a leatherworking shop. Well, he shouldn't have any trouble finding materials for an artifact. We've got like, 1,500 units of tanned hides. *checks the stocks* My apologies. Make that 1,103 units of tanned hides.


Shoruke's Log. Supplementary (i.e. later that same day)
Kornash has already begun his mysterious construction, setting a world record for the time from taking over a shop to the beginning of construction. His one single material is cat leather. This should be interesting.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 1st of Limestone. (early autumn, year 26)
I swear Kornash has to be some kind of genius. He just made a HARP out of cat leather. It's worth 2,400☼. I really, REALLY don't care about the value or the use of this one, I'm just flat out appalled at the level of acoustic genius this guy has to possess. He is now a legendary tanner, as well as being a grand master grower.

I thought a harp had to have a back made of wood, and several strings of different lengths? And that they were HUGE, about as tall as a human? And yet he did it with the same amount of leather that one would expect a pair of dwarf-size shoes to be made from. Dear god. Kornash is a genius of leatherworking, acoustics, and physics in general I guess. I asked Kornash if he would like a more prestigious job in the fortress than his current farming/cooking/butchering duties, but he politely declined... and then started muttering about 'kill you all' again. I guess he's just weird like that.


Shoruke's Log. 22nd of Limestone. (early autumn, year 26)
The roads are coming along decently. We have 6825☼ worth of road value, out of the 7500☼ requirement that the king set out.

But about a week ago I had a... an interesting experience. I was just walking towards the volcano (carrying an iron block; I had to pass the time while waiting for the haulers to get some platinum blocks to the surface), and I bumped into a kobold. I'm not a combatant, and I've never had any experience fighting ever, at all, but I figured SOMEBODY had to kill the kobold and I was closest. Plus, I'm super buff. So I dropped my iron block, punched the kobold right on the nose, and then proceeded to squeeze the very life from his scrawny little torso with my bare hands. After he was choked to the point where his eyes were bulging, I went back to punching and he was dead within a moment.

...you know, killing something isn't as soul-shattering as I figured it would be.

Anyway, the 'metropolis liaison' is here (the mountainhomes have a liaison just for metropolises? How many metropolises are there?)with the caravan, so on top of building the road, we also have to move all the trade goods into the depot and I have to trade them. Of course they come from EXACTLY the wrong direction, and didn't get to use our fancy new road. Oh well. I guess I should make a mental note to offer at least 5,000☼ to the king to entice him to come here, as well.

But what should I offer him? Probably not goblin clothing, that stuff has GOT to be common as rock around the mountainhomes, after all that we've sold them. We should offer him a nice sword or something. Made by someone who likes iron a lot. Hmm... I think we have some of that.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 26th of Sandstone. (mid autumn, year 26)
The caravan is currently on its way out, back to the mountainhomes. This is probably the last time we'll have a dwarven caravan come to trade with us. They're carrying our offerings, and they've seen our platinum road (all shiny and stuff), so the king should be satisfied that we are a wealthy enough fortress to warrant his habitation.

I also set up a trade agreement with the metropolis liaison, though I doubt it will be necessary.

We've also been really, really busy producing things this month. We finished melting down all the goblin iron junk (it's been like, two years since we've been caught up with the melting -.-), so now we've started melting down metal ores. Mostly magnetite. We're also smelting all that annoying bituminous coal we found in The Archives that we can put the coke in bins... and then get it out of the way somehow. We've also made several dozen iron blocks, and have started filling in the marksdwarves' level of The Tower. That particular project is going to take a while. We've also been working on the clear glass part of The Tower, and making it taller, and the top level is almost ready to have its walls placed.

I've also told the engravers to get their butts in gear and start smoothing out The Archives, and I'm designating large quantities of rock to be dumped into the magma to get rid of it. And, to top it all off, Sir Geo just had her eighth child. It really, REALLY likes adamantine. Like, seriously a lot. It also likes crystal glass. That kid should have been born the king.

There's a lot to do around here. I spend most of my time making iron blocks and smelting magnetite, when I'm not doing my part as the metropolis manager and signing production orders.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 13th of Moonstone. (early winter, year 26)
Autumn ended, and the king's conditions for migration were met. Blocks were forged, ores were smelted, a tower was worked on. A plan to transfer wind power deep underground was hatched. A clothier was possessed by the spirit of the Red Sands of Doom, and a goblin army attacked.

Well, I can sum up what happened pretty quickly.


Rick, Maggarg, Sakzul, and Sir Geo (the captains of our currently active squads) were all asleep. Monk was waaaaay down on the very bottom level of the fortress, sitting in his room staring at the wall. The possessed clothier went outside to retrieve some bones for his artifact, and was killed on his way back into the fortress. By the way, now that the hill to the west is only a single tile wide, the goblin army seems more impressive somehow when all three of their squads appear on it... Goblins as far across as the hill itself.

Of course, we're going to have to do this month again. But oh well, 13 days isn't very much to do over.


Shoruke's Log. Right after the siege known only as, The Epic Fail. (I played out the siege just to see how it went)
At the start of the siege, Maggarg was the only militant outside, and he was on the south side of the map, trying to rescue a child from a skeletal camel. So he finishes it off, and starts running west to meet the goblins, and he gets intercepted by another pack of skeletal camels. So he deals with them, and then FINALLY gets to the southernmost goblin squad (wrestlers and bowmen), and gets overpowered and killed. The possessed clothier, who was right outside The Gate, got massacred by the goblins. The marksdwarves and Sir Geo were the only ones to make it outside, And while the marksdwarves were putting on a flat-out pitiful performance (due to lack of armor, and quantities of bolts) Sir Geo was out in the middle of the battlefield. On her own. And by god did she do great.

She took on an elite goblin marksman, and two full squads of goblins, all on her own before she was struck down. Considering that elite goblin bowmen can pierce Rick's heart from across the desert, it's impressive indeed that Sir Geo withstood the marksgoblin's attacks from close range (and then chopped off every one of its limbs except half of one leg).

Congratulations Sir Geo. Of course I'm doing the month over, hoping for a better artifact mood and better siege conditions, but the dwarves of Angcuggan Okbod will still remember this day and your demigodly part in it.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 18th of Moonstone. (early winter, year 26)
I put all of our (now huge) military on guard at The Gate. It was definitely not because I knew in advance that a goblin siege is coming. Obviously, because no goblin siege did come. Some snatchers and a couple ambushes came, but that's just coincidence. Sir Geo's kid died again, though. Seriously, that woman should tell her kids to stop following her when she's on duty.

Also, I've begun this awesome plan to get wind power all the way from the surface, to the kitchens. That way the millers won't need to go outside to mill their frigging plants. Apparently, though, Elfbane took "channel out this square" to mean "channel out this staircase from below, so that you can't get back up". So then he got stuck on a single tile, below surface level but still outside, and puked... so he had to stand, in a very small area, in the hot sunlight, until one of the masons could set up a staircase above him. I think he learned something about channeling today.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 23rd of Granite. (early spring, year 27)
Well, its been three months since the last time I posted in my journal. It's been busy. We've been dumping rocks out of The Archives and into the new magma dump (which serves the additional purpose of melting the rocks away, so I never have to count them again), and ever since I learned that one log can be used to make three tiles of axle, we've completely demolished the wind-powered subterranean quern system and started it over.

The elves came, which happens every year (much to my dismay). But, the goblins also came at about the same time. Coincidence? I think not! I think the goblins and the elves are in league, and the elves just sent out some of their more useless personnel to get slaughtered by the goblins to make us THINK that they're not in league.

Anyway, because some of the elven merchants were killed on their way into the fort, the rest of them decided to 'run away' instead of sheltering inside our walls. Some of them died, some of them got away. Frankly, I wish they would have sheltered here... so that we could receive the double pleasures of killing them ourselves, and getting more of their stuff. I feel we didn't get nearly enough logs from the elves this year. I must find a way of expressing my disappointment with them. Maybe we could kill them all.

Anyway, we've made something like a billion iron blocks, and started filling in the marksdwarves' level of The Tower. It's going to take... well, a good while.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The area designated to be built is 10x10... so yeah, it's gonna take a few hundred more blocks.

A few days ago, I heard that "Ast the Child is throwing a tantrum". So, I checked his position... he was inside a goblin cage. Apparently he had been kidnapped by a goblin who was standing on a cage trap (so of course it was Sir Geo's kid). I tried to make it so that the goblin would be let out (and slain on the spot), but JUST as he was being transferred, Ast the Child died of thirst. I don't even know whose child it was. That goblin still lives, albeit in a different cage, but believe me, his death is going to be brutal.

[inaluct]

When the massive iron tower is done, will it LOOM MENACINGLY over the desert? Like this? Leaning menacingly over those skamels?


I feel like drawing. Trust me, this sort of mood will be good once I learn how to draw well.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

it menaces with spikes of MS paint.

[Shoruke]

"This is a Gray Tower. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. The Tower menaces with spikes of MSpaint.
On The Tower is an image of windows in dark gray."

Good job Inaluct. The red Sands of Doom could use more artwork.

Also, does anyone know how long it takes the king to show up after you meet all of his conditions?


Shoruke's Log. 14th of Slate. (mid spring, year 27)
Spring is another month of furious production. Thuellai, myself, Dracnor, and Zealthesavior are all working on putting metal blocks into place in The Tower. It's going to take a LOT of metal to make the marksdwarf level happen, but it will get done. Our current stock of iron bars is down to 62. So, we've begun melting down some of our more useless iron equipment. Anything iron, without a quality modifier, is going to be smelted into raw iron bars. This is all part of my long-term plan to re-equip the military. Once all of the useless, low-quality equipment is gone, everyone can just randomly pick something up from the stockpile, and it's guaranteed to be quality stuff. Also, I'm having Dracnor forge iron helmets ust as hard as he can when he's not helping out with The Tower; since he likes iron, he doesn't complain about it, and he is quickly becoming a good armorer. He is a skilled weaponsmith and an adept armorer, but since Zealthesavior is a legendary weaponsmith from his fey mood, I'm having Dracnor focus more on his armoring.

Also, I'm having Rovod (the only one of our miners who is not legendary) dig out some of the magnetite under The Archives. Some day, the space that he is digging out will be part of The Archives, but right now it's just raw magnetite walls that we need to mine for iron.

On top of that, the cats in our fortress are turning out to be a great source of food indeed. Kornash has been butchering every kitten born in the fortress for a couple months now, and seems to be enjoying himself. The other cooks say he mutters about poison once in a while, but as long as he's happy (and doesn't poison anything I guess) then it's all good.


Shoruke's Log. 27th of Slate. (mid spring)
Those of long memory may recall that an armor stand was made some years ago by one of our carpenters, who immediately became legendary in his trade. Today, Edzul the legendary carpenter (who hasn't done any carpentry in a few years now, because we live in a desert) was off to go cut down one of the very few trees that grow around here once in a while, when suddenly he bumped into a kobold thief. He readied his axe, bonked the kobold on the nose with the handle (to stun it), and then chopped off its left arm (at the shoulder) and its right foot in the same swing. Then he swung again, severing its right hand from its body and mangling what was left of its right leg and hip. Then he whacked it in the chest, and sent it flying some fifteen feet away, and it died in midair. Inspired by this event, despite not witnessing it, Dracnor created the best piece of equipment he ever had: an ☼iron helmet☼. Shortly after, Mistem (a legendary planter AND stonecrafter) was ambushed by a kobold, right on the platinum road. He dropped the narrow giant cave spider silk cap he was carrying, punched the kobold on the arm, and held it still while Sir Geo came over and beheaded it. Inspired by this event, one of our craftsdwarves created our fortress' first ever ☼rope reed cloth☼. That craftsdwarf is now considered a full-time weaver.

For those who didn't want to read that giant wall of text and are skimming, our carpenter killed a kobold, Dracnor made a masterwork helmet, Sir Geo beheaded a kobold, and we got our first ever masterwork cloth.

[Shoruke]

I had some kind of a bug with Flint. He wouldn't go to his stations, when I put him in his own squad or when he was in Maggarg's. Eventually I discovered he had somehow given himself a single-tile patrol route in the booze stockpile. Anyway, he's all better now.


Shoruke's Log. 11th of Felsite. (late spring, year 27)
I had just outlined what direction the miners should go to find more magnetite, when suddenly, the Queen arrived! With her full entourage. A Tax Collector, Hammerer, and Duke and Duchess also came, but they came from the opposite direction of the queen.

She came from north, while the Tax Collector, Hammerer, and Duke came from the south. Of course this meant that none of them actually got to use the nice platinum road we built for them. She brought her husband (who I guess she married right out of The Guard back at her old mountainhome, because he's a fortress guard, even more so than he is a king consort) but none of her children. She also brought three peasants with her, none of which are her relatives or even her advisor's relatives. They're just three random peasants that showed up with her.

Her royal guards showed up dressed in shiny, full steel armor. It's all trippy and stuff. So of course, I'm going to take it from them at some point and redistribute it to the military.

And the Duke, Duchess, Hammerer, and Tax Collector are all going to have to leave. Soon. The Tax Collector likes lay pewter and green zircon, the duke likes black bronze and clear glass (not to mention cedar wood, which we simply cannot get except through trading), the duchess consort likes trifle pewter and birch, and the Hammerer... well, he kills dwarves.

Apparently, though, the Queen is a pretty good fighter. I am surprised. She knows tracking, armor and shield use, wrestling, marksdarfship, and macedwarfship. In fact, her fighting skills are more advanced by far than her conversational skills are.

[Snuffs]

Eventually I discovered he had somehow given himself a single-tile patrol route in the booze stockpile.

I laughed out loud when I read that.  Sounds like he's got his priorities straight!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 16th of Felsite. (late spring, year 27) (that's five days after the queen showed up)

So, the local wild unlife at the time the queen showed up was a giant skeletal leopard off to the southwest, trying to find some shade under what was left of the hill that used to be there. Then it noticed some fat, slow-moving noble dwarves and decided it would go have a snack. The Duke noticed it first, and ran away, while the Hammerer bravely moved to take the skleopard down. Of course he failed epically; he didn't manage to even bruise any of the beast's bones before his arm was removed, he gave into pain, and was struck down. Now we get his *((steel war hammer))*, and the skeletal giant leopard got the name Lisidkatdir (clash glimmered). Everyone wins! Well, except maybe the Hammerer. But nobody cares about him.

Then the skleopard  the Duchess consort. It chased her all the way to the north side of the fortress boundary, and then stopped next to the volcano. So she got away.

The Hammerer won't even get a fancy tomb, because he was killed before we could make him a nice one, and it's not like you can move a dwarf's corpse between tombs once you've put him into one. So he gets to go into the community tombs like everyone else.

That skleopard will be remembered in the hearts of all of us at Angcuggan Okbod, as the animal who killed the Hammerer for us. We will remember the name Clashglimmered. Actually, one of the engravers was inspired by the animal's show of poetic justice, and rushed off in a fey trance to take over one of the craftsdwarves' shops. He gathered two kaolinite rocks, a bar of iron, a piece of cow leather, and a goblin bone. Then he sat around in his workshop asking for everything he had, plus cloth and some raw clear glass. So now we need to find a log, or some ashes, or some potash so we can make raw clear glass.

In the meantime, we ran out of crappy equipment to melt, so we started on the platinum that we found in the magnetite vein under The Archives. That platinum is going to be our queen's rooms pretty soon.