9th Limestone
Summer was mostly uneventful, except for the raising of our armory.
This autumn I plan to build the structures for what will be our second step in moving the brook, which involves draining the most aggressive rivulet and damming it's entrance. I've already talked it over with Mulch, and he agreed that it seemed the next logical step in our excavation of the area. Ukat seemed happy too, when I tried to enlist her support in the idea.
She spent the next three days in her house making diagrams and graphs.
The only problem I've had with it is that it may require some of us to go outside of our defenses, should we get ambushed outside of the gates we would have little to no defense. It's a worrysome problem, but there really isn't much I can do about it. We really do need to clear that land.
10th Limestone
Work on the mini aqueduct was suspended due to an ambush. It was led by the Guard Perad Nohusladgi (a human hammerman) who met a tragic end when 'heroically' leading his squad.
After his death they quickly departed.
12th Limestone
A second ambush consisting of a single wrestler followed the first.He jumped out and screamed at the top of our lungs, charging the nearby war dog.
I hardly laughed more the night that Pete tried to juggle... juggle wooden logs that is.
13th Limestone
A third squad consisting of three speargoblins attacked the west gate today. I have a feeling that we have seen the last of the goblins for this season, it's rare that more then two squads attack, and three is nearly unheard of. I'm headed out now to go build the aqueduct that will safely get the riverwater flowing down the slope.
20th Limestone
A goblin has made off with my baby! NO!
I must get him! I must stop them! /----
to use their hands as /----------/ turn them
into potash wi/-----/ a spoon! tear them apart!
Oh Mulch, mulch... what have I done? What will I tell him? The thief is long gone and I have no idea where to look.
ARRRRGGGHHH
21st Limestone, Mulch Diggum's log
Rikkir has locked herself in the bedroom and refuses to open the door, even for me. I'm getting worried that the loss of little Bembral might be too much for her. She has locked the mechanism and barred it with our table, and only responds through the grate was telling me to go away.
I'm worried about her.
23rd Limestone - Echo's diary
Rikkir went back to work yesterday. Frea had said that she had locked herself in her bedroom for nearly three whole days. Normally I wouldn't believe her, but looking at how disheveled she was I'm starting to think that she might be right.
I don't know, Its almost like I don't really know Rikkir anymore. I mean, we talk... but not much and never for long. Back nine years ago when we started she was the one who had convinced me to start cutting loose, to relax and just have fun. Now, however, she seems dark... broody. Scary.
She went back to mining today, but even that seems different now. She digs recklessly and angerly, chopping at the stone as if it was the flesh of the goblin who had stolen her child. Microline! Perhaps she was in her mind!
It's not my place to say anyway, I'm going back to work.
7th Timber - Rikkir's Diary
Today Sarek Eshan was injured when I was digging out the brook, breaking her leg as the loose stone that she was standing on gave way when I removed a pillar supporting it.
This brook is awkward to work with, it cannot stand on it's own and yet I need to treat it almost exactly like regular stone in all other regards. It's thin, flakey, and above all else... wet.
I must be more careful in the future.
22nd Timber
Frea has given birth to her third son today. Perhaps my children will not lack for potential husbands after all!
1st Opal
I noticed Frea talking with Abod today about the plans to divert the brook while I was in the wine cellar the other day. I don't think she knew I was there. She mentioned how I had been different ever since the abduction... how I was getting reckless and hotheaded. When Abod had spoken in agreement, she even went as far to say that perhaps it was time somebody else lead us.
The nerve! Although it pains me to admit it, I have a feeling that soon, possibly very soon, something bad will come of this talk. I must act, I must consolidate my power, in particular with the children and Echo, the former who will have far more say in six years, when they will be old enough to understand everything and will be given proper jobs to match their freshly-aquired dwarven sense of duty, and the latter to ensure that even if Frea does convert my oldest and most devout friend to her cause, that I will still hold a majority among the adults.
I really hope nothing comes of this. I really do.
The Events of Opal 5th
It was a dreary day, the early morning fog not quite dispersed from over the western bank of the brook in Ulolgeshud. In mourning for the darkening of the sun, the cattails that lined the murky waters that marked the edge of the moat for the last mountainhome hung heavy and low, their heads full and ready to burst with seeds and their colors dark and thick. However, the goblin Komalix Snuslu didn't care about the weather, or the shape of the plants that lined the river. No, his gaze was locked on the dwarf child playing before him Feb Eshan.
Greedily the wrestler licked his lips, his knuckles cracking slightly as he used them to keep his upper body out of the mud that surrounded the foliage he had taken refuge in. His silk clothing long since stained with the brown substance. Ignoring his discomfort, the goblin instead thought of what he would do with the child. He could kill it, taking it's few possessions and using the meat to fill his stew. Being so young, it could hardly be as stringy and tough as some of the human adults he had eaten in the past. At least, he expected the child to be comparable to veal. The meat tender and unaged.
Or, he could take the child's flesh and make a sculpture, using the bones as a support and shaping the flesh as his will desired. With the proper preparation such a sculpture could last for years, slowly decaying until the only portion left are the bones.
The third and final option however, was probably the best. At least in the eyes of Komalix. He could take the child alive and make it his own. It was a little old, being bigger and stronger than most, but Komalix could see that it was still young enough to be impressionable, tamable. He could take it, make it his own. It was rumored that another goblin had done the same with a very young child, hardly more than a baby, and that he was growing up swiftly now that it had been seperated from its dam. With such a child, once captured and tamed, he could do whatever he wanted to it. None of the other goblins would stop him, no matter how barbaric the action, and whatever pleasure he wanted could be his. Yes, that would be best. To steal it and keep it for his own. A cute little pet.
With a heave Komalix stood and began to creep towards the child, his eyes glowing red as he reached out and grabbed for the child's bare leg, attempting to drag it away.
The young creature squealed, sending out a shot and drove a fist at Komalix, stunning him and awakening a rage within the goblin. With a snarl he grabbed the leg and pulled it close, making to break the limb and then make off with the child. One small injury would heal, after all, and the prize was worth it.
Komalix almost didn't see her, a much taller and thicker dwarf rising from the shrubbery nearby, the stones that she had been affixing to the bank discarded as she swung her pick at him with impossible speed. There was no time to relax, just pain as the blow drove him to the ground. The pick pinned him as it landed, and the world faded to black as the dwarf spoke quietly in her own language, "Nobody touches my child. NOBODY!"
20th Obsidian
Frea has openly opposed me, claiming that my loss of a child makes me unfit to be the leader of our small band. When it was put to a vote, the final tally was four to three: Ukat, Mulch, and Abod voting for me to remain as our official leader, while Pete and Echo voted for Frea. My overtures to the planter were in vain, mostly because she works far more closely to the cook and they know each other so well.
I'm starting to fear what may happen when our children grow up. I must begin planning my campaign to remain in power NOW, before she wins any of my children over to their cause when they become old enough to hold sway in our town meetings.
21st Obsidian
Some goblin snatchers harassed us when we were doing more work on the moat. the war dogs quickly tore it apart. I am tempted to assign some war dogs to myself in order to increase the protection of my children.
Of course, that would mean I'm tripping over dogs as well as kids, as opposed to just kids right now.
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Topic: Last Dwarves in the world. Ulogeshud[Community Fortress] (Read 50762 times)