Journal of [deleted] Otadrakust
1st Granite, 104
The last leader, Skid, announced today that he was retiring and was going to announce the next leader of Sparkgear next month. In the meantime, we're getting things done as a community again, and so most of us have decided that it would be a good idea to start defending this place better as the frequency of goblin attacks increases. There are two goblins hanging around the entrance, which we currently have sealed off, so my plan is to lay some stonefall traps behind the bridge, have everyone get inside, and let the goblins walk right into it. One of the goblins is an archer, though, so I'm concerned there...
10th Granite, 104
It worked! The archer kept running forward and right into the traps! The wrestler saw this, turned to run, and just as he reached the exit, he went into an interestingly placed cage trap. Now we can begin to fortify the entrance and move the traps up accordingly. To be honest, I wonder why we didn't do this sooner...
Additionally, one of our men, who was fey at the beginning of this month, finished the construction of his artifact. It's a diorite bed valued at 63600. He calls it "Exitcrests the Lake of Vanishing". I wouldn't want to sleep on it, and not just because it's made of rock.
2nd Slate, 104
Skid has decided that I should lead the men, seeing that my trap idea to rid ourselves of goblins worked. I gladly accepted and got right to ordering the men around. The walling of the entrance is almost completely done, and I've ordered the double doors to the side building walled off and had wider tunnels dug to the bottom to connect to the fortress. The trade depot has been moved inside the protective walls, and walls placed on either sides to protect them from arrows. There's also 3 columns of cage traps followed by stonefall traps on the entrance to catch goblins and thieves who attack.
16th Felsite, 104
The new entrance is working wonders. Goblins are being caught in cage traps left and right! However, I feel in case of a larger-scale siege, we may need fortifications, so I've asked for some towers to be built with fortifications on the top of the new walls. I've also been looking into a source of volcanic activity rumored to be somewhere to the south. Maps suggest it should be down there somewhere...
8th Hematite, 104
Summer has arrived. The first level of the towers are complete, but more importantly, we've located the magma pipe! The miners have sketched a picture of what it roughly looks like, so I've ordered them to start work on magma forges. Once they're in place, the old forges that required us to spend long years leveling entire forests will be obsolete!
27th Hematite, 104
As the forges were slowly taking shape, I decided to take a survey of the men to see what labors they perform. I was pleased to know that most of them are working worthwhile jobs, but about a third of them told me their profession was "Firedwarf". I'm not sure when this happened, or who ordered them to be a "Firedwarf", but what they all had in common was that they made charcoal and operated our furnaces. That will absolutely not do. I assigned around half of them to general mason labors, and the others to miscellaneous jobs that needed to be done. Two of them will remain as furnace operators to smelt bars once the magma forges are ready.
One of the men said he makes glass. We have no sand. I smiled at him and helped him into the right direction on being useful.
13th Malachite, 104
Looking back on years past, the population of this fortress has been shaky. The king was slain. Our list of dead is long. All of the men who once served in our military are now dead. This doesn't sit well with me. Now that the magma forges are done and operating, I've ordered the production of four full sets of adamantine plate armor. The next four healthy males that we get will have the right to wear them and defend our fortress. I've also asked the men to start working on an iron tomb located above the magma forges in my honor.
1st Galena, 104
I recall sometime ago, the first overseer, Nankh, had brain damage. He was 'hospitalized' for quite some time, always resting in bed, and we had always assumed he would stay that way. However, today I saw him walking about and chatting with our dwarves completely normally--he shows no signs of any abnormality at all, other than sometimes complaining of back pains...
20th Limestone, 104
My iron tomb is now completed. While I did use up most of the iron producing a pair of statues, a sarcophagus and lining the walls and floor with the stuff, I did locate a cross of hematite veins on the side of the entrance--yes, a pair of them! They intersect each other and so our iron stores are back to what they were, if not more.
12th Timber, 104
Sandstone passed by without much event, but today I was told that while digging through a vein of cassiterite on the outskirts of the fortress, the miners located even more Adamantine. While I was thoroughly impressed, I've heard horrible things about demon pits from times past, and so I only ordered them to dig it up to a point. The strands are being extracted from it now and turned into wafers to continue to fuel the creation of the armor sets, which are now almost complete.
5th Moonstone, 104
A new wave of immigrants have arrived despite the rumors of danger about this place. About 8 of them. As I was hoping for, 4 males with mostly useless jobs arrived and so I dubbed them recruits upon reaching our fortress. They've donned the adamantine armor suits made for them and are sparring with iron warhammers. This is to make them better at swinging around a crossbow, should they run out of bolts. I also ordered a new level of the fortress to be dug out in accordance to their arrival, as we'll need more rooms if people are finally braving this place again.
14th Moonstone, 104
We've located another line of Adamantine on the new level of the fortress. Being wary of demon pits, I ordered the hallways shortened partially and emphasized safety as they dug out the channels for the architecture on the new level.
19th Moonstone, 104
Those safety proceedures I talked about were ignored, it seems. A cavein occured today and three miners fell two levels to the floor. Two of them walked away with minor injuries miraculously, but unfortunately, Skid broke his mining arm in the collapse. He's now resting in bed as the two healthy miners complete the new level with ... close supervision.
26th Opal, 104
A weaponsmith of ours became possessed at the end of last month, and he's begun production of an artifact... "Nicat Asiz", he keeps muttering. He gathered up quite a bit of adamantine, so we're expecting this to be our most valuable artifact yet, even moreso than the adamantine chain Atis created.
20th Obsidian, 104
I've recently been told that the possessed dwarf is now in control of his body once again. The artifact he procured, though he has no memory of it's creation, was an adamantine crossbow. It's valued at just under 10,000 dwarfbucks more valuable than the adamantine chain. As a side of fun, I decided that the first champion who wields it shall be named Warlord. Although I expect my leadership to come to an end, soon, I'll take heart in the fact that the fortress wealth has nearly doubled from roughly 4.8 million to 8 million under my watch. Maybe we can expect some more migrants in the spring...?
1st Granite, 105
Happy new year, Sparkgear.
15th Granite, 105
I've been told that Dungeon Master Shorast Oslanison has been spotted on the outskirts of this region! When he spoke with me, I told him his rooms would be just 3x3 spaces, and that he'd be sharing them with the mayor, and he was none too pleased--until we told him that the walls and floors were lined with adamantine. In addition to the dungeon master, about 20 mostly useless dwarves have arrived. A dwarf also went possessed earlier this month, and has gathered up adamantine, among other things. We expect good things.
14th Slate, 105
The dwarf produced a mug. It's still worth 1 million, but...
Anyways, I've decided to resign after just over a year here as leader. I've brought much good upon this fortress in that short time, however. Among other less notable things, I've given Sparkgear magma, a reliable defense, and four champions in the making. As a note to the next leader of this place, the farms were set to fallow, because we just have too much food, now.
Be sure to point the new migrants in the right direction on what jobs they should take up. I wish the best of luck to our next leader, whoever he may be.
Save: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=1019Map: http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-5784-sparkgearI know my turn still isn't over, but I just thought I'd do it early. But yeah, Duke 2.0 is free to start now if he likes.