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[Dame de la Licorne]

12th Malachite, 201
Libash, the fisherdwarf, volunteered to take some time off fishing and take care of the training.  He doesn't seem to appreciate the summer's heat at all, and has built the kennels indoors, next to the masonry.  The summer here truly is very different from the ones back in the Mountainhome.  It is much wetter, raining nearly every afternoon and almost unbearably muggy when it doesn't, and I wish I were back in the cool halls of Olon Thasdoth, with the dry summers I knew as a child.  Olon Thasdoth...we will not let that great civilization die.

[Dame de la Licorne]

8th Limestone, 201
Autumn has arrived, according to our makeshift calendar, though so far it still feels like summer.  After struggling most of the summer, Libash has managed to train both of the dogs into war dogs, who now follow him everywhere.  They are very loyal animals.  I believe I will ask Logem to take one and leave the other with Libash, since they are the two most at risk of our small group.

[Dame de la Licorne]

10th Limestone, 201
Libash came racing into the halls, shouting something about unknown dwarves.  This is worrisome news, if the dwarves could find us, then perhaps the Tuxumstozu goblins could follow us as well.

Later
It seems these dwarves are part of a merchant caravan from the civilization of Kabcatten, in the north.  Apparently they pass through here on their trading route every fall, and were curious as to what we were doing here.  I told them we were a scouting party, but not our civilization.  I also added that we were looking for new supplies in our war against our goblin enemies. 
The merchants seemed to accept the explanation, and told us that the civilization of Kabcatten only extended to the other side of the mountains, and the merchants actually traded with a human town just a little further west.  Our valley is apparently the easiest access.
"Wal," the merchant leader said, rising.  "We can't tarry here long, but if'n yer want ter trade a bit, git a depot up.  We'll hang 'round for a few weeks if yer like."
"We don' 'ave much to trade."  Durien replied, "but we'll see what we can do."

[Grath]

Urist Grath, Forumite, has mandated additional pages of story.

[Dame de la Licorne]

11th Limestone, 201
I've asked Ast, as the only one of us with any experience working with stone, to make some trade goods out of the loose stuff lying around everywhere.  I don't know how much we'll be able to make before the merchants have to leave, but anything we get will be more than we'd expected.

[Dame de la Licorne]

13th Limestone, 201
Ast built the trade depot before starting on the trade goods, and although the eyesore will definitely be torn down as soon as these merchants leave, for now it serves its purpose.  The merchants are unloading their pack mules, and among their supplies I noticed an anvil.  An anvil!  But it costs more than our meager outpost is worth, so it will not be part of the trade spoils, to Litast's dismay.  But if we can persuade the merchants to stop and trade the next time they come through the valley, and bring an anvil, I'll try and convince the others to make enough trade stuff so that we can get an anvil, and Litast can then start making the high quality metal weapons and armor.

[Dame de la Licorne]

8th Sandstone, 201
The merchants are leaving in a few days, but I've managed to trade the few shoddy idols and other crafts Ast crafted out of left-over stone for some more fish and cave wheat seeds.  Next summer, we will have BEER!  If we can figure out how to grow the seeds...hmmm.  Now who could spare time to farm?  This will require some thought.
I also bargained very hard and managed to come away with some thread, enough for two ropes I think, if we are careful.  I'll chain the dogs just inside the entrance of the tunnel, to help protect us.
So, farming and weaving, and the digging out of a farm room...the list of things to do just keeps getting longer with only seven of us to do the jobs.  I would pray to Ifin Ostathkirar, god of fortresses, for more workers, but I know those prayers would be in vain.  Well, we must do the best we can with what we have.

[Dame de la Licorne]

10th Sandstone, 201
The merchants are packing up their goods, preparatory to leaving.  I did manage to persuade the leader to return next year, though he said he couldn't promise to bring anything specific.  The matter of the anvil, therefore, will be left up to fate.  I believe Litast is already praying to Etur Rallolokmoldath, god of fire and metals, for the anvil to be part of the caravan's goods next fall.  As soon as the caravan departs, the depot will be removed, and Ast is already working on plans to build a new one within our tunnels.  I think that our remaining here another year or two will be long enough to prepare us for the journey east, especially if we get that anvil, but I'll run the idea by the others, just to make sure.

[Dame de la Licorne]

12th Sandstone, 201
We are agreed to remain here for at least another year, and to that end will spend the winter making these tunnels a little more comfortable.  Ast wants to place the new depot in the cave currently housing the fishery, and we agree that moving the fishery elsewhere will be beneficial, at least as far as the miasma it regularly generates is concerned.  We have so much to do that there is little time to dump the garbage where it belongs.  Ablel is currently carving out spaces for the workshops several levels below our sleeping quarters, far enough so that the noise shouldn't bother those of us who like to sleep in or nap.  Ast is now dividng her time between the masonry and the craft shop, and already there is a small improvement in the quality of the crafts she creates.  Still shoddy work, but not as shoddy.  She calls herself a novice stonecrafter, and I suppose that is as good a term as any.

[Dame de la Licorne]

2nd Timber, 201
Three dwarves arrived at our caves this afternoon, a family group, looking more like something the cat dragged in than dwarves.  We offered them some of our food, which they devoured as if they hadn't had anything to eat in days, poor things.  After dinner they told their tale.
They hail from a small town west of Olon Thasdoth's Mountainhome, which was attacked by Tuxumstozu at the beginning of last winter.  Needless to say, the town suffered the same fate as the Mountainhome and these three escaped with only their lives and the clothes on their backs.  They went to seek help from the Mountainhome, only to find it as we remembered it, with everything of value gone.  They say they have been walking ever since, not knowing where to go, and they ended up here.  The great gods and goddesses must have guided their feet and brought them to us.  My unspoken prayer has been answered and we have two extra sets of hands to help with the tasks.  'Tis a pity I cannot force young Tholtig to work, but Kib and Kivish, his parents, will be very useful.
Kib, it seems, is a dyer by trade while Kivish is unspecialized.  I believe I will assign Kib to the fields (we have no need of dyeing), and hopefully she will be able to convince Tholtig to help, at least a little.  Kivish appears to have a problem with authority, but for now he will pitch in wherever he is needed, as we all do.

[Dame de la Licorne]

12th Timber, 201
Both Kib and Kivish have been practically bending over backwards the last few days, clearly desperate to give no offense to anyone, to the point that Kivish has been smoothing the floor in the new workshop area when he isn't racing between living area and dump, thanks to Litast's less-than-subtle hint.  Although I certainly appreciate his work, there are other things I consider more important than smoothed walls and floors.  Like food and drink production.  Logem could use a hand gathering plants, and I have told Kivish as much.  After all, gathering enough food for seven is easier than gathering enough food for ten, and we don't know how harsh the winters here are.  Fall has arrived with a vengeance and the temperatures are dropping each day now, though it still isn't as cold as in the Mountainhome of Olon Thasdoth. 
Tholtig hasn't budged from his mother's side since their arrival, and reminds me a bit of a puppy, the way he's always trotting after her as she hauls things around.
Ablel, working on her own authority, sank a shaft through the obsidian just south of our tunnel, and found the magma pipe on the same level as our entrance.  She was smart about it, however, and placed the shaft as close to the base of a small cliff as she could, such that it is always in shadow and therefore difficult to see unless you're right next to it.  Litast is lobbying for a magma forge to be dug out, even though it can't be built without anvil.  I've added it to the to-do list, but it isn't very high in importance.

[Dame de la Licorne]

4th Moonstone, 201
Our dog bitch gave birth to two puppies today, a male and a female.  Kivish wants one of the pups, but I'm going to have them trained into more war dogs instead.  We will be very vulnerable when we resume our journey, and the more protection we have crossing the mountains, the happier I'll be.
Relocation of the workshops progresses, and already most of the raw food is in a dedicated storage room near the new still and fishery.  Ast is making stone blocks out of the alunite Ablel found, and is insisting that all of the workshops be built using the alunite blocks.  Bit annoying, really, I mean, white everywhere?  Sure, everything goes with white, but it's so...bland.  And why should we be building things out of blocks when we're just going to leave again in a few years?  Then again, I suppose I understand it, we have no real home, so we may as well make this place as homey as possible.
At any rate, construction has begun on the new depot, and since Ast designed it, it will be built out of...you guessed it, alunite blocks.

[Dame de la Licorne]

19th Moonstone, 201
"Thief! Protect the hoard from skulking filth!"
Litast's cry rang throughout the rough tunnels, summoning us to battle with the unlucky kobold.  But this kobold was fast, and hard as we ran after it, it always managed to run just that little bit faster.  We chased it far from the fort, until we had to stop, clutching our sides and heaving for breath.  And the little pest escaped.  The good news?  It didn't have the time to take anything.  The bad news?  Everyone, anyone and their cousin would know we were here, since kobolds found it impossible to keep their mouths shut about anything.  Our safe haven...had just vanished.  It is now only a matter of time before word gets back to Tuxumstozu that we are here.  The only mitigating factor, is that no one outside of our small group knows that we are all that remains of Olon Thasdoth, but we cannot count on that to save us.  I will call for a meeting, to decide what to do.

[Dame de la Licorne]

20th Moonstone, 201
We all gathered in the dining area this morning to discuss the Kobold.  The fact that it go away was most disturbing, and it has been the only subject under discussion since yesterday evening.  Here follows the account, noted as accurately as I am able.

Litast was the first to speak.  "We all know tha' kobolds can' keep a secret, ter save ther lives!"
"Yeah!"  Several voices spoke as one.
"We ain't safe here!" Kivish added.  "The goblins'll find us an' kill us all!"
"We have ter leave.  As soon as we can." Kib looked down at her son, cuddled close on her lap.
But Ablel disagreed.  "And yer think we'll find someplace else safer?  Someplace they won't find us?"
Silence followed her words as she looked around the room.  "Yer think we kin cross th' mountains ter the east without danger?  That there ain't any big, frightening animals or goblins beyond?  What fantasy world 're yer livin' in?"
"We could always go north, to Kabcatten."
"No we can't!  We do that, we're admittin' that Olon Thasdoth, the greatest dwarven civilization in recorded history, is gone forever!"  Durien jumped to his feet.  "I won't allow it!"
"But we can' stay here."  Litast argued.  "We're defenseless!  We'd be no more than an annoyance, forgotten as soon as we were swallowed!"
"That's true," Ablel agreed.  "If our tunnels remain th' way they are.  But," and she started to smile, "what if our defenses become second-to-none?  We have th' magma, we have iron ore.  Th' dogs 're already breeding, an' we kin make this a nicely defensible spot, wi' th' right diggin' an' engineerin'."
Durien began nodding to himself, and stepped up beside Ablel.  "We've already started carvin' these tunnels an' makin' them inter a home, tasks that would have ter be done wherever we ended up.  And in this world, is there anywhere that is completely safe from our enemies?  We 'ave a nice spot 'ere, wi' plenty 'f opportunity fer secret escape tunnels an' whatnot.  If'n we work together, we kin survive here, and wi' th' favor of the great gods and goddesses, we kin rebuild Olon Thasdoth to be better than before!  Surely tha's why we were allowed to live and brought together?"
As Durien spoke, some heads began to nod, while others who had been adamant on leaving looked uncertain.  After a bit more argument, it was decided that the dwarves would remain in Scarbasement, and the gathering was adjourned so that new plans could be drawn up for the first of the defenses they now required.

[Dame de la Licorne]

22nd Moonstone, 201
We've come up with a plan to turn this hole in the ground into a suitable fortress, erected for the glory of Olon Thasdoth.  We must address to things to begin with.
First, the fortification of our entryway into a killing ground capable of dealing with any number of goblins.  We have no one with any engineering skill, so whoever the lucky engineer is, they'll have to train themselves.  But we will place a number of cage traps at the entry, as well as chaining the war dogs as sentries, providing some protection.
Second, in the case of any siege, obtaining any outside resources is difficult and so we will build a large wall complete with a moat, surrounding a water source and a number of trees.  Access will be from underground alone, and the construction will also serve as an escape route, for each cardinal direction will come complete with a drawbridge for use as an escape, should we need it.  Hopefully, if things should become that dire, the Tuxumstozu goblins will be unable to catch all of us, and some will escape.