Summer Year Three, POV Haika
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I gave the order today to make some clear glass furniture with the pearlash we have currently. Since I do plan to make a more fitting mayor's room above the current bedroom cells, I want to have the furniture ready when the glass blocks are available.
According to stock records we currently have sixty-five charcoal ready to fuel the block furnaces, along with ten glass blocks ready for construction. There may be some gaps in the floor or walls, but hopefully we can get a basic frame up to build inside of, until we get some tower caps from the Dwarven caravan for more fuel.
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Almost as quickly as summer begins the humans show up. They seem a very ragged lot, wherever they are living the conditions must not be much better than they are here. In any case, meals are moved to the trade depot, along with what little crafts we have to trade.
I was very generous in giving away some of Chyla's meals. In the hopes to encourage the humans to bring more next time. A few bars, some seafood and metal weapons were all they had. We traded for it all and we still had several /very/ expensive meals left that I couldn't bring myself to give away. Chyla has been working hard, making all these masterwork mussel roasts.
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It seems the humans brought friends.
All military are ordered to defend, the marksdwarves are already atop the walls ready to shoot them where they stand. Neo and his melee squad are ordered to patrol the entrance to the walls in case any of them get too close. The rest of us are staying inside until they are dead.
Also... they brought elephants with them. Crafty goblins. They are mostly melee types, a handful of wrestlers, and one lasher with two maces. The humans with the caravan should help as well if they get too close.
Apparently it was Draconor's horse Dishmab who found the lead scout of the ambush party near the wall while the others were still out in prime range of crossbows.
The battle was mostly over before it really began. I will say however that the horse of Draconor's is vicious. It took out two of the goblins who tried to wrestle it with only taking a bruise and a few scratches.
Meanwhile, another crafty plot was found out, as a goblin thief tried to sneak in the back door during the confusion. Unfortunately for him, he opened the door right in front of the axedwarf Lorbam.
That particular goblin was quite impressive as he flew through the air backward. The pieces that Lorbam's axe chopped off scattering around, as the crossbow bolts rain down from above. Lorbam charged to the center of the battlefield and stood atop the fallen lasher's corpse; the look of glee on his face when he found another thief trying to hide behind the body was priceless.
Suffice it to say that goblin didn't make it away either. I gave the all clear and orders to begin gathering the loot from the bodies as well as getting everyone back to work on wall building that the goblins threw into havoc.
As we moved to retrieve these items, another goblin, this time a master thief was found trying to get past the guard dog at the back door. I wonder what goes through their minds when they sneak past a door. The dog barks, and several armed human guards turn to look at him, as well as the archer dwarfs on the glass floor above, and the courtyard full of civilian dwarves, war dogs, and a donkey.
I suppose it's something along the lines of: "Oh Shi-*gurglesplat*"
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Ugh, we didn't make it through all this completely unscathed, the dog at the back door was hurt, and bled out before any of us noticed. I've ordered a replacement chained there, and all of us give our respect to the fallen animal. It died in battle, and served us well.
It seems however we are out of trained war dogs that aren't already doing other things. So, the cougar brought to us by the elves will take the spot for now. Lets see how the goblins deal with the mountain lion.
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I've ordered one of the glass furnaces to shut down and be removed. It was made of rough orthoclase that would be better used elsewhere. Making use of some of the metal bars brought by the humans, I've set up a mason's shop on the first underground mud pit.
The plan will be to use the stone to make a quern to grind plants with. I must remember to ask the Dwarven caravan to bring a few more boulders of rough stone next year for emergencies.
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As we have a large stockpile of leather hides, I've given Pokes the task of turning them all into various leather goods for our military. Anything to keep him away from the war dogs. Torturing a cat or two is one thing, but those dogs are an important part of our defense.
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The humans continue to try and trade with limited resources. From what little I could ask for I chose to request crossbow ammo, some nickel bars, and cows milk. The milk I'm hoping they will bring in a barrel of some sort, be it metal or wood, either way we will make good use of the container once we turn the milk into cookable cheese.
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The military is really beginning to shape up. We have three legendary champions in the fortress guard, and Neo's melee group is rapidly approaching them. I did notice however that these champions were all wrestlers, I have given them orders to don armor and start training with weapons. The better skilled they are, the better off we will be in the future.
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Having finally become fed up I've taken it upon myself to make some zinc goblets. The mandate is therefore fulfilled, but it seems rather wrong to me having to do it myself. My room above has started taking shape, and we were able to move a bed up there. Though it's not really ready for me to live in just yet. As autumn approaches we continue to train our military and my thoughts drift between possible projects to increase our defenses. Hopefully the goblin attack this season doesn't become a trend.