[I'm posting from work, because I have no classes on Tuesday afternoons, and all the goblins children are at class instead of reading over my shoulder or asking to using the computer to play K-pop videos. But this mean I don't have my notes so I may have to edit in the names later]
Prologue: A woman was the start, I suppose it usually is. She was sleek with the grey robes of a metalworker and had a silky beard to die for. We'd been partying for hours at the Basalt table and everything had gone the mistiness of drink long before. I should have wondered; but peasants must take their luck when they can.I never saw it when she put the--the whatever into the +brass goblet+ before sliding it across the table to me, but when I felt the dark flooding up into my eyes I gave her one last look and I knew.
"I'm sorry, Dastot, or whatever your name is", she whispered. "It's you or my husband..."
I woke up to the chill of the outside, and a boot against my ribs.
"You'd better get up", said someone. "They said you're in charge".
I arose. In all directions, Trees. Dark, dense trees as far as the eye could see. Web-tangled and ancient. In the distance to the north the gleam of a brook. Nearer, ponds sit still. Waiting. With me are six other dwarves around a wagon, wearing the teal of peasanthood and haunted expressions. "Where are we?"
The dwarf who'd awoken me gave me a pitying look; "The Dour Forest".
I laughed. "The Dour Forest? Don't be silly. If we were in THAT hellhole we'd be dead already".
On cue, the unmistakable howl of a werewolf came from the south. The Dwarf winced. "For Armok's sake don't say things like that. We're here. We need to do....something!".
I inhaled. Then did it again, because it felt good and I wasn't sure how many other times I'd get to do it. "They didn't just leave us here to die? We have SOME supplies?"
Another dwarf waved from the wagon. "Seven picks. Couple of axes. Anvil. Food. Booze. Seeds.", he shrugged. "I figure we have an excellent chance to survive long enough to get eaten."
"What are those spiderwebs over everything?" I wanted to change the subject. "They look---wrong".
"Phantom Spider Webs", intoned someone.
The wind was pretty loud for a moment.
"What are phantom spiders like?"
"Don't know", shrugged a dwarf. "Shall we wait here and find out?"
Spring We started by digging a channel around us. I've been in enough fortresses that regretted not doing this as a first thing and then couldn't do it later. With a werewolf around I want a nice big ditch between him and myself. We manage to carve out a pretty sizable defended area around the wagon[OOC: about 1.5 screens in each direction]. Sometimes trees got in the way of the channel-line, we left them be. They'll block movement just as well as the ditch (and if you saw these trees, you wouldn't want to squeeze past them either). All the spiderwebs we keep outside the ditch, but we get some decent-sized ponds inside. Also numerous trees. I don't want anyone leaving the perimeter any more than necessary.
Well, actually, we nick a pond at the north-west corner and in floods part of the channel before getting stopped by tree-breaks. We don't want water in the channel in case there's a winter freeze.
Inevitably, one of us (a certain Nils) manages to find himself outside the channel on completion, which means we have to build a bridge from the remains of the wagon to let him back in. We dismantle it soon as he's over, and turn ourselves to digging down. Fortunately, our donkey, horse and two cats remain within the perimeter.
The first layer is Silty clay. Useful, but we'll have to go through it to get some stockpile space, too many ponds around. Plus our ditch getting in the way
Second level is Clay Loam. We dig an intersection radiating out from the stairs and start digging out big rooms. A farm can go to the south east, a wood storage to the south-west, a furniture stockpile to the north-west and a food storage to the other direction that you can probably figure out for your own damned selves. It's fast work, but it seems to take forever because we're digging UNDER the ponds, and every swing feels like an invitation to get flooded.
We go down another layer and hit mudstone. Not the prettiest of rocks, but it's rock and it's got a good chance of having iron. We repeat the 4-way intersection in the rock layer and start digging out workshop space. I want beds. Doors. Tables. Chairs. MECHANISMS. Mechanisms. For some reason we really want mechanisms. Oh, that's right. We're surrounded by a ditch now. That means a bridge. And because of where we are, that means a bridge we can RAISE.
One of us saw a carpenter at work once: it was he who dismantled the wagon and put up the bridgette for Nils. While the rest of us are mining, he's up top taking tentative axe-swipes at trees. [EDIT: Daskot's memory is foggy. Nils (now Neo) himself was out toying with axes. It was another dwarf who built the bridge. Neo got his carpenter job when he was left behind to dismantle it, and I threw woodcutting at him the same time). I tell him to collect enough wood for beds and then get to making a farm. A little mean to put three big jobs on one dwarf, but I want as many of us as possible mining.
Well, that and carrying things down to the new stockpiles. I keep the refuse zone on the surface. The Blood Gnats won't mind the smell. I'm really trying hard not to look at the things the cats are catching.
That werewolf is out there still.
We all collapse from exhaustion while the workshops are being put up. Farm's planted. Mechanics shop, Masonry, and Carpenter's shop are underway. I took on mechanic duties myself Need bedrooms.
Oh yeah, we hit Picture Jasper. Cute.
Another layer of stone shows us more mudstone. I order the 4-way motif repeated [EDIT: Whoops, no I didn't]and have 4x1 bedrooms dug out of the eastern [currently only] branch. Beyond them, I designate a nice big area to be our dining hall.
The rest of the season it's just work. I put axe-person on making beds (and farming, and brewing as well. Something tells me I should be spreading the effort a bit and tell a few of the others to help with the farming in between bashing the mudstone. I announce everyone's jointly responsible for masonry duties (except me, I want as much time to make mechanisms as possible.)
We hit more picture jasper and Jet clearing out the dining hall. Oh, and Limonite. If only we weren't such klutzes at mining. I don't dare order the vein dug right now, we'd lose too much ore.
When our bridge is sited, it's going to be a race between the Werewolf realising we're here and me getting the mechanisms installed and the bridge raised. So, must keep making mechanisms.
[To be continued]
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Topic: Fogcrystal. A Domestic Comedy with Werewolves (Read 11026 times)