6th Autumn,
Well, not much happening. Just working on the various construction projects and hauling things. Still melting all the useless gear, and still making all these glass blocks and windows. Also, Duke gave me a sketch. He seemed displeased with this one, though .
14th Autumn,
Caravan came. Same as always, we will open a week after they come to ward off ambushes.
It appears somebody pulled the lever. We don't know who, they are going straight into the pipe!And of course there was an ambush from the 'cabinets', who are engaging the traders as we speak. Duke was able to get the speardwarves and crossbowdwarves to their positions, so if the bridge is too slow we won't be overr-
It appears a hobgoblin caravan came. Wow. In the end everybody went home and we have a swordsdwarf trapped here. Hopefully we can let him out without any trouble.
5th Mid-Autumn,
One of the babies born from captured invaders has grown into a child. Lets see what happens.
Of course, Duke looked at the kid through the cage doors and started to tell him nonsense stories. I dunno what is happening here. Toony joined up with this endeavor, except instead of telling the stories he screamed them, and then showed them magma.
I don't think this will end well.
16th Mid-Autumn,
Migrants, who got attacked by an ambush the second they entered the map. If there are any survivors, we will let them in. Heck, if they survive this they deserve to get in.
Aaand, they didn't. I had the marksdwarf team take them out. A shame, a complete waste of good dwarves. Then again, when I think about it, where are all the graves? I had better set up an area for them somewhere.
24th Mid-Autumn,
Duke wanted to test how 'friendly' the invader children were, so he rigged up their cage in the caging pit. Zigzag will hook up the cage to a lever, which will release the hostile parent into some cage traps. If the children are hostile, the traps will get them. If not, who knows what will happen.
Also, I set the hall to the skull tomb(Yes, we all know about it. Because of this strange enforcement of not digging outside of specific bounds we need to consider every space as potential expansions) as the new hall for graves. I'm sure it would fit whatever theme was trying to be achieved.
30th Mid-Autumn,
While the children of the invader were released with no death, and the mother was re-caged, somebody opened the blasted entrance gates! I would blame the children, but no other levers were pulled and only a few of us know the difference between the entrance levers and the magma flooders. There was an ambush waiting outside for us, but thanks to some quick acting both the speardwarf squad was there to deal with them and the bridges were retracted. Thanks also to a pit Duke ordered built, the invaders fell into the underground lake where some marksdwarves were waiting. The only death was a peasant who rushed out to get some steel items. Dammit, only immigrants who don't die seconds after coming get that equipment!
20th Late Autumn,
Well, that was a rather boring month. The one invader that survived the drop was lounging around the lake all month, scaring the dwarves that could see her through the ichor-filled water. Not to mention the area Duke designated to be surrounded by glass was filled, forcing us to walk around it. What the hell does he expect to do with it? Then today he rushes in and tells me we need to paint everything red. He says that before we flood the world with magma, so I guess that is what he wants. Before I go and pull the lever, I told the stoneworkers to smooth everything. I'm sick of seeing these bare walls.
Day of Ashfall
As the workers continued to work on removing the limestone cap, I returned to the sanctuary to speak with duke again. This time all the Esagu words were crossed out in green paint. Duke was standing on his iron coffin, looking out the glass windows. As I approached, a great plume of Miasma crept out of the lake due to the bodies of the invaders, blocking light from entering the windows. That shadow seemed to end his madness, as his tense figure melted into calmness. He sighed to be free again, and I approached.
He must have known I was there, as he spoke to me before I introduced myself.
"Today we have a guest with us. He has helped me with these moments, as he knows his way around madness." Before I could ask him what he meant, somebody walked out from behind a nearby window blocked with green paint. It was Toonyman.
"Before I had to wait for my friend outside these walls to free me. Now with his help, I can do these meetings more frequently. Even with this improved situation, we must hurry."
"Wait, who is your friend?" I asked with a shaky voice. I was not used to him talking sense. He turned to me from his coffin and jumped down in front of me.
"I've read your journal, he is the mysterious bowman. He was one of the few who survived the fall of Dumatthedak, and saved me from being one of the victims. You must show him respect every time he comes, as he is one of the people responsible for keeping her from coming back."
"Esagu?"
Dukes face contorted in pain when her name was spoken, and I could see the gleam of madness flare in his eyes for a second. His voice was not angry, but weak.
"Please... don't mention her. She has had her grip on me for too long."
There was an akward silence as we waited in the dark, then Toony spoke up. Not in his usual shouts of lunacy, but his calm madness.
"Beez. She hold nothing of my twitches. Whipfin lasts!"
Now normally I would dismiss this, but Duke spoke up.
"Indeed. Your madness is entirely self-induced. And thanks to your plans Speargroove will always last."
He then coughed and looked at me, suddenly realizing I could not understand Toony. Or what was happening.
"Oh, right. Toony make the magma flood plans. They failed, but other leaders took up the plans and succeeded in flooding the surface in magma. I plan on making it deeper, thus the floodgates on the fortifications. Thus nobody will be able to reach us and free h-"
Suddenly he seized up, curling into the fetal position. There was a small tremor in the ground, and we all braced for a cave-in. Toony rushed out, where shouts of workers and the sound of falling blocks breached the sanctuary. I rushed to protect duke, and noticed the shadow of the miasma plume was gone. He was no longer sane. I would get no more answers now, but questions. The chief among them: what the hell made that sound?