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[Dame de la Licorne]

14th Moonstone, 204
"A human has sprung from ambush!" Libash screamed, even as he charged the intruder.
"A human?!  Bu', we haven' done anythin' ter th' humans!"  Durien cried in confusion, but he grabbed his axe and went to investigate. 
He found himself confronted not only by a human, but also by five goblins.
"A child-thief victim?"  Wondered Durien, but the time for wondering was short as he began to swing his axe at the dreaded foes.  One swing, two swings, the third swing sent the human crashing into the mountainside, breaking his neck and killing him instantly.
Meanwhile Libash had taken on the goblins and was bleeding from several wounds.  Just then Litast and Thob arrived at the entrance.  Litast had come to see what the commotion was about and Thob was returning to her post.  At the sight of the battered and bloody Libash surrounded by goblins, they rushed pell-mell to the aid of their friend, reaching him just before Durien, and the three dwarves ripped the goblins apart.
"Go git some res'," Thob told her duty partner, and Libash didn't argue, turning and limping towards the gate.  The dwarves followed behind.
However, just before reaching the gates another human/goblin party ambushed them. 
"Git inside!"  Libash was told, as the others joined battle to cover his retreat.  Again, Durien smashed the human into the side of the mountain, while Thob and Litast chased down the goblins.
In the end, although the goblins fled as fast as their legs could carry them, none could outrun the dwarves.

[Dame de la Licorne]

22nd Moonstone, 204
Ablel came across two child-thieves just outside the gates, that must have come with the ambushers we fought a few days ago.  She killed both of them, but I've decided that the entry must be fortified with more traps, and a mix of cage and stone traps should do the trick, for now.  I'll build them myself, if I have to.

[FluffyToast J]

This is really good, keep up the awesome story telling!

[Dame de la Licorne]

20rd Obsidian, 204
With all the high-priority construction outside and inside, smaller issues like bedrooms have been proceeding very sluggishly.  But we now finally each have a nice-sized bedroom and no longer have to sleep in what we now consider to be more of a barracks.  Unfortunately, we still lack doors, so privacy is still at a premium, but less so than before.

[Dame de la Licorne]

1st Granite, 205
With Kib working full-time in the fields and Logem spending all his time brewing, our food supplies are stable, and we manage a little variation in our meals.  All the rest of us are still trying to complete the defenses, with the enclosure wall taking up most of our time.  I have developed a new respect for Ast, who knew it took so long to make blocks? 

[Dame de la Licorne]

7th Granite, 205
"Hullo, dearest Zuglar," Durien greeted his lover as he always did, and then did a double-take.  "Wha' were yer doin' down thear?"  He asked, indicating the very roughly carved workshop level that would eventually be devoted to all sorts of metalworking.
"I was carvin' ou' th' fortification b'tween the channels 'n' th' magma pipe.  It was on th' to-do list."
"Oh, alrigh' th-----WHAT?!  An' yer jus' had ter do it yerself?!  After I specifically tol' yer ter not do anythin' dangerous?"
"Calm down, you can see I'm fine.  Besides, wif all th' smoothin' I've bin doin', I've become quite dextrous.  'Sides, it needed ter be done."

Log entry
I suppose I couldn't really blame her.  After all, getting final access to the magma was the most dangerous task still left to us, and I didn't want to send another of our few companions to their assured deaths.  I am almost glad that she didn't tell me, as I would have spent all that time worrying over her safety had I known what she'd been up to.
Somehow, the good news has spread to everyone, and Litast is busy drawing up the plans for his permanent forge.  No more worries about fuel!

[Dame de la Licorne]

20th Granite, 205
The elves returned, bringing more useless items.  Among them, a donkey in a cage on top of another donkey.  Somehow they had managed to balance the caged donkey perfectly atop their pack donkey, using some kind of weird elven magic.  They also brought wooden shields, but we now have real iron ones, so those are completely worthless to us now.  I did manage to get some thread off of them, quite cheaply, and the cloth Thob will produce will come in handy for making seed bags, we're running out.  In turn, I managed to load the stupid elves down with all of the goblin junk they would willingly take.  Even though they refused to touch anything of leather, bone or wood, that still made quite a nice dent in the pile of completely useless stuff cluttering up our stockpiles.

[Dame de la Licorne]

18th Felsite, 205
Things proceed calmly enough, for now.  I've been seeing Ablel and Litast together a lot lately, probably trying to convince her to find him some ore.  Although with all the iron that Ablel has already located and dug out, I don't know what more he could want.  I hope he isn't bothering her too much.

[Dame de la Licorne]

16th Hematite, 205
"Cum on!  We'r almost thar!"  Quesa called back to her companions, pointing ahead to the rather high hill that marked the home of these dwarves.  Strange creatures, she mused as she urged her horses to a faster gait, choosing to live in the dank, dark underground where light was non-existent.  But I will make a profit here, dwarves are well-known for being the best metal-cra---.
"Gaaaaiiiiiieeeeehhhhh!!!!!"  The sudden scream split the air, startling Quesa from her private musings.  Irritated, she turned to see who had acted so rashly, but was stunned into stillness at the sight of the goblins.  Six or seven, she estimated, and all armed.  The mercenaries immediately attacked, protecting the wagons and pack-animals as per their contract, but the goblins were already almost upon Quesa's wagon.  She urged her horses to a gallop but, pulling the heavily laden wagon, they couldn't go fast enough and the goblins swarmed her, pulling her down from the seat.  One of the goblins swung a hammer and that was the last thing Quesa saw.
The mercenaries arrived and, at the sight of her lifeless corpse, ripped into the goblins in fury that such tiny creatures should dare to attack a human.  When the other merchants realized that Quesa had gone to join the gods, they took to their heels and fled from the goblin threat, even though the mercenaries had taken care of all the goblins.
Quesa's husband; however, remained behind near Quesa's corpse, sobbing as if his heart was broken and leaving his camel to wander where it would.

-------------------------------

"Whar did tha' scream come from?"  Litast asked Thob, leaving the safety of the fort.
"It sounded like it goblins!"
"Huh?"  Litast turned, and the movement probably saved his life as an arrow whooshed past his ear.  Thob was already taking on two of the goblin menace and, before Litast could react, one of the goblins ripped off one of her arms.  Enraged, Litast charged the offender, swatting aside the intervening goblins as if in a trance and knocking one into the cage traps protecting the entrance.  He didn't even notice that one of the invaders he killed was actually a dwarf.
Thob was could feel the darkness closing in as blood poured from the stump of her arm, but she refused to die yet.  If she were to die, then by Datan she would take these miserable beings with her.  She managed to knock one down hard enough so that it didn't get up again, and then got then began pummeling the other even as it started to strangle her.
By the time Litast got to her, she was barely alive, spending all her energy on ripping the gobln apart.  Litast gave it a punch to the head, and it keeled over, already grievously injured.  He fell to his knees beside Thob.
"A'...the'...dea'?"  Thob gasped, and the rattle in her throat as she spoke was a death knell.
Litast nodded soberly and took her hand.  "Yeah, the're dead.  Yer killed 'em."
Thob smiled, and her eyes drifted shut.  "Te'.....Duri......I......"  But her message would remain forever unspoken.
As if echoing the dwarf's sentiments, it began to rain, a drop falling on Thob's hand and more sliding down Litast's cheeks.  Roughly he wiped them away and picked up the body.  Durien would have to be told and that would be more difficult than facing another goblin raiding party.

[Dame de la Licorne]

20th Hematite, 205
We've spent the last few days mourning and burying Thob.  She now has a coffin on the same level as Datan, the fisherdwarf.  Her weaving skills will be missed, but no less than her friendly self.  We now only have 10 adult dwarves, and 4 children.  We cannot afford to lose any more if Olon Thasdoth is to survive and be great once again.  I will have to think on the best way to accomplish this.

In other news, scouting has revealed the source of the screams we heard the day Thob died.  The goblins clearly had sent at least two raiding parties, and one came across the human merchants.  One of the humans has remained behind, refusing to leave the spot where the other human died, loyal as a dog.  He didn't notice when we took the corpse and tossed it into our refuse dump (the bones will be useful as bolts), but simply sat where he was, rocking back and forth.  Disturbing.  We will keep an eye on him, just in case he decides to do something foolhardy, like slaughter us all.

[Dame de la Licorne]

23rd Malachite, 205
The human has spent the last month and a half in the same spot.  The ten of us remaining gathered together yesterday by mutual agreement, to discuss what should be done since clearly he wasn't going to leave.  We finally decided to put him out of his misery.  At least in death he can be with his fallen comrade, since he seems to be so attached to that human.  The duty was carried out this afternoon, and his corpse has joined his comrade's in the dump.  I really need to learn to carve bone, we have so much of it now.

[Dame de la Licorne]

3rd Limestone, 205
Libash has healed and has begun training more war dogs, we are down to two from the five he managed to train before his injury.  Vucar remains a-bed, still with a broken leg.  I'm beginning to wonder if she will ever heal for it has been over a year now, with little improvement.  I hate to ask Ablel to carve out another tomb, it seems so defeating, but perhaps we all should have one, just in case.

[Dame de la Licorne]

12th Limestone, 205
I'm not sure how to write this, so I suppose it is better to just say it.  More of the Tuxumstozu menace arrived at our gates, and caused great confusion.  In the end, they were beaten back, and we now estimate that there were only three squads of seven or eight each (from the number of corpses), but at the time it seemed there were three times that number seeking to kill us all.  We all took up our weapons, all except Kib who ran for the enclosure with her children.  And though we managed to beat the goblins back, we lost nearly half of our dogs and Zuglar, Litast and Kivish are now gravely injured.
Oh Zuglar, may your goddess Datan guide you on the path to healing and may Ifin Ostathkirar protector of fortresses see fit to guard us, for now half of our useful population (and trained soldiers) are on bed-rest.  I hope the goblins do not realize how seriously they have harmed us in this last attack, for it would surely spell our doom.  There are some among us who are beginning to question the sanity in remaining here, but so far those voices have been silenced by the simple fact that if Tuxumstozu has managed to track us here, so far from Olon Thasdoth, what is to prevent them from tracking us to the end of the world?  I will order those tombs dug, at least if we die we will have suitable resting places.

The Kabcatten caravan arrived the day after that horrifying raid, and came across a sole child-snatcher.  I suppose that, having noticed the carnage surrounding our entryway, which we haven't had the time to clean up yet, that single goblin was enough to frighten them.  At any rate, the caravan left much more quickly than they had come, and without stopping to trade.  Now what am I to do with those useless crafts they had requested?

[Dame de la Licorne]

23rd Sandstone, 205
At last!  Ast has reported that the first level of the enclosure wall is finally complete.  Now for the second level, although that has less urgency than the first.  The second level will have fortifications for marksdwarves, once we have some trained up, which will provide extra protection for the civilians and extra cover for the soldiers.  Now, who to train as a marksdwarf...?  Not that we can spare anyone for permanent duty.

[Dame de la Licorne]

3rd Granite, 206
The winter has passed quietly, with no goblins or other issues.  It would seem that we inflicted such heavy losses on the last goblin raiders that they need time to regroup, which incidentally also gives us time to heal and strengthen.  But with only six of us to do the work of ten, things are taking longer to get done.  In truth, we've given up on hauling anything to the appropriate stockpiles, other than food, just because we don't have the dwarf power to do that and all our other jobs. 
There is; however, a piece of good news.  After nearly two years on bed-rest, Vucar is up and about, ready to tackle some of these jobs.  Although she is a bowyer by trade, and did make some fine crossbows when she first arrived, I have reassigned her to take over my carpentry jobs, making bins and barrels as we can never have too few of either, particularly barrels for booze.  This will free me up for other jobs, like mechanics and bolt-carving.  Now we just need the other three to heal up...  Particularly Litast, as none of the rest of us have a clue of how to work metal.