1st GraniteToday, while mining the first rocks of the year, I made a very exciting discovery. While I was working on the eastern residential section I found a small trace of blue in the rock. Upon closer inspection, what should catch my eye but...
I've decided to leave it alone for now, Abod still has a lot of goblin junk to work through. Once we get her caght up on the mountain of iron scraps however, I definatly plan to begin smelting silver for practice weapons and such.
Oooh, it makes me so giddy to think we might actually be rich!
3rd GraniteA goblin raid hit us today. I wish I could say it was notable, but really it wasn't. The human bowman who led the charge was felled by our traps, his name only discovered when we uncovered his body at the end of the fighting. The rest of them fell easily enough to our traps, only one surviving long enough for mulch to need to dispatch it.
Rather a poor show.
10th GraniteAnother batch of elves arrived today, one of them with a garland of flowers in her hair and a long, hawkish nose called me out. She introduced herself Imere Renuarm as she walked up.
"You are Rikkir Esker?" She asked plaintively, almost plainly, expectantly standing next to me as I worked a granite stone into workable blocks. Of course I ignored her. After several minutes without my response she grew impatient and continued without my acknowledgment. "It is quite the beutiful home you have here, carved so magnificently into the mountainside. Ulolgeshud, is it not? Quite a beutiful name."
Finished with my block I began to walk to the stone stockpile, intent on getting a drink. The elf with garlands in her hair smiled as she followed me down, grimacing slightly as we passed the butcher's when Abod was slaughtering on of our Racoon pups. We walked in silence until I reached the stockpile and began to drink, where she attempted to interrupt me once again. "I can see why the other elven traders would want to live near here and never come back. This place, it's rustic charm... it's invigorating. Much more friendly to the druids teachings than any dwarven fortress I have seen before... and I'm over one thousand years old."
Her age didn't astound me nearly as much as her willful ignorance, as she babbled and twittered I grabbed two ☼Cat Tallow Roast☼ and began to walk up to the meat hall, smiling as Mulch left the Mason's workshop I had just vacated and joined me in the mead hall, our children trailing after him like a drunk congo-line (not unlike those we normally make in the midwinter parties). As we sat the elf pulled out her own satchel and removed a few berries, seeming to enjoy them greatly as she attempted to start a conversation once more. "So... these are yours? Quite a lot of them you have, no? What is your name little one?" She spent much of our dinner trying to talk with my children, not showing exasperation as they remained as silent as I as per my instructions.
Finally I walked past the depot, pausing for a moment as we passed the wide gated entrance. The elfs twitter was cut off as I grabbed her tunic and looked her straight in the face, "Get in there." I ordered, pointing to the Olivine platform and giving her a soft shove, Mulch stifling a laught as the elf fell.
Remorselessly I pulled the lever and watched the gates shut on the expecting elves.
Idiots.
11th Granite-13th GraniteThe very day after I locked the elves in their soon-to-be-tomb, a squad of goblins attacked.
these goblins were different, however, their leader had the good sense to bring crossbowmen and attack from the plateau above the forest. They showed themselves suddenly, jumping from behind rocks and shrubs and raining down bolts on us as we were throwing away the garbage their companions had dropped in the last attack.
Vicarrah and Abod were grazed by bolts as they ran from the crossbowmen, yellow-fletched projectiles filling the air behind them as they ran towards the village hollering. At once I ordered the gates closed and forbad anyone from going to clean the gatehouse. Then I asked Mulch to suit up in case he was needed. Althoug I was reluctant to send him against crossbows, he was the most highly-trained of us still alive, and with a shield he even stood a chance of getting the bowmen, should it have come to that.
When he arrived the first of the goblins had climbed past the dry moat, his white uniform marking him as a goblin wrestler, and the dogs were dead, their bodies filled with bolts. Just as the creature topped the upper ridge of the moat Mulch lept forward and struck off his head, a throaty scream ripping from his chest that we were able to hear back in the village as he waved his bloody weapon at the crossbowmen on the far shore of the moat. Upon seeing this, and assessing the state of their companion, the archers withdrew, swiftly melting into the forest before the mad dwarf could catch them.
10th SlateImere went crazy today, in the depot, I watched with glee from behind the fortifications as she ripped her companions limb from limb and began eating their flesh before our very eyes. When she noticed me she almost appeared sane, calling me out again, "Rikkir! Come join me, or better yet... let me join you! Look! I join in your barbaric customs of killing flesh and wasting skin meat and bone! Open the door Rikkir, help me help you be you! Join me, for I am Imere Renuaram Peliavafice!"
I just smiled at her warmly, waving to Abod as she trudged up with a crossbow and turned miss Imere Renuarm Pelivafice into a pincushion.
15th SlateWe've begun construction on a wall so that next time the goblins send marksmen we will be better prepared to defend oursselves. No goblin will ever simply walk through the moat again!
I've also begun a little project to reclaim the gems that are hidden around the source of our brook, should they be sucessful then I will be quite ecastic.
18th HematiteWe hardly noticed the goblin raid this season, so wrapped up were we in our waterworks project.