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[rickvoid]

Seriously? Is it that simple? Perhaps my human fortress is doable then.

[The_Fool76]

I've only read the first dozen or so posts, but this is a really engrossing story. Kudos.

However, what's really killing the immersion for me is your use of "your" for "you're" and "it's" for "its". It's a small thing; you're telling such a good story that this is really its only problem, but it's still kinda getting to me.

So my old enemy, punctuation, we meet again! 
Sorry about that, I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to punctuation.  (Most days I'm lucky there are even commas present.)

For me I hear words in my head as I read them so if they sound the same they are the same even if they don't look the same on the page.  This also causes Fun with spelling but thankfully I can compensate with spellchecker for that. 

I realize its it's irritating to some so I'll do what I can to keep an eye out for it, but I'm afraid that short of having someone else proofread every post your you're probably going see it continue to happen time to time.

As for the humans, nope not one chunk of rock.  Can't even request rocks from them. 

[Dante]

Don't worry about it, I actually got used to it by the time I read the whole thing.    It's just sort of weird that you managed to use the exact inverse of normal punctuation for a while. 

Oh man, I hate aquifers, and you have three of them? I get the feeling you're going to have fun.

[rickvoid]

Advance apologies for the off topic.

Started a new settlement in an area surrounded by hostile Elven outposts. Dwarves and Humans were both at war with the elves. This area only had a two-level aquifer, but it only had two levels above the aquifer. I could probably have pierced it, but after screwing around with it I managed to drown my only miner leaving his pick trapped.

Caused a controlled cave-in though. That was fun!

[The_Fool76]

Splish Splash

Hearing Gear's wail of despair, Mandy climbed down the rough stairs Gear had dug into the ground. “What happened?” she asked when she reached the bottom.

Gear just pointed at the puddle of water in resposne.

“Oh gods... not an Aquifer! Does nothing go right in this hell of a forest?” Mandy cursed.

“Is everything alright down there? The pick didn't break did it?” called Em from the top of the hole.

“No, it's not alright! The pick is fine but we hit an aquifer and can't get to the stone.” Mandy shouted back.

“Oh well I can't help you there I am afraid. I don't suppose you have time to discuss what sort of trade goods you would be interested in next year?” asked Em.

Mandy climbed back out of the ground with a scowl on her face. “No, I don't. Now if you will excuse me I have to deal with this. I really don't want to have to work and sleep in mud rooms. The wood was bad enough. Gear, you go round up everyone you can we are having a meeting in the dining hall.”

“Well don't take too long, I don't want to wait around here forever.” said Em walking back to the trade depot.

Mandy muttered something under her beard about elves all being nuts even if they didn't act like elves as she ran off to the dining hall and waited for the rest of the dwarves to arrive. Once the room was full and everyone was accounted for Mandy spoke, “As I'm sure Gear told you by now, we have a bit of a water problem.”

“We would have had to be deaf not to hear her Chief.” commented Skuz.

“What are we going to do now?” asked Vulk.

“I'm not sure.” replied Mandy. “I was hoping someone might have an idea.”

“Perhaps we could pump the water out?” suggested Brick.

Mandy frowned. “Do you know how long it would take to make all the pumps? And without stone we would have to do all the pumping by hand.”

“Well I don't know what else we could do.” said Art. “Perhaps Athel will bring some stone with her?”

Mandy shook her head. “I really don't want to rely on that foul woman any more than I have to. Though it looks like we might be forced to.”

“Not nessicarly.” said Loki looking thoughtful.

All the dwarves turned to look at her causing her ears to turn red from all the attention. “Well go on.” prompted Mandy.

“We could drop some of the dirt above the aquifir into it creating a dry plug of dirt that we could then dig through.” explained Loki.

“You mean like a cave in?” asked Vulk.

Loki nodded.

“Sounds dangerous.” said Mandy.

Loki shrugged. “It's either that or we wait on Athel and hope she has some stone.”

The dwarves spent the rest of the day discussing details of the operation. Once they had ironed out all the details, including what to do with all the displaced water after they dropped the plug, Mandy went out and oversaw the digging operation. Gear did most of the digging with some help from Skuz. Everything went without event until it came to digging the pool out at the bottom. Skuz had gone up to get a drink leaving Gear to dig out the pool on her own. Gear had gotten most of it dug out when suddenly she slipped on the muddy ground.

“AYIEEE!” yelled Gear as she fell into the muddy water with a loud splash. She flailed her arms in a mad panic having never learned to swim. She gulped water as her life flashed before her eyes. Why didn't she wait for Skuz to return? Her toes bumped against the bottom of the pool and, praying to Othud, she she shoved with all her might towards the edge of the pool.


(Gear gets swimming lessons)

[rickvoid]

This is why, when I finally breached my first aquifer this morning, I did the channeling in sections, from the in side out. Start at the middle, then carve out squares around it till the hole is as big as needed.

Also, bump.

[The_Fool76]

Big Bada Boom!

Gear hauled herself out of the water, her beard soaking wet. She had drunk more water in the last few seconds than the rest of her life. The flat lifeless taste lingered on her tongue. She caught her breath as she stood at the edge of the pool before she decided to heck with this. Skuz could dig out the rest of it, it was her turn to dunk her head in some refreshing sunshine.

Skuz passed the soaking wet Gear in the tunnel leading to the dig site. “What under the earth happened to you?” he asked as he pressed himself to one side so she could clamber past.

“The mud down there is slick so watch your step.” she replied with a scowl. “I sure hope Loki knows what she is doing because I don't want to have to try this a second time.”

“Well, go dry off, you smell worse than a wet wardog.” Skuz responded.

Gear contrived to accidentally knee him in the stomach as she finished squirming past. “Oops, sorry about that. Dang narrow passages.”

Skuz attempted to gasp out a few choice curses but Gear was well out of earshot by the time he got his breath back.

Gear had almost finished the pool herself so it wasn't very long at all before all of the digging was completed. Loki had installed a wooden support near the top to keep the whole deal from falling down. Skuz wasn't too familiar with some of the sciences but despite Loki's assurance that the whole thing would stay put, he still felt nervous about all that dirt suspended over him by a simple wooden plank. The way he remembered such things being explained to him as a child was that all things were made from earth and the earth spirits clung to each other as a young child does to it's mother. As long as there was a solid connection between two things of earth they would stay put, but the moment you removed that connection the smaller spirit would panic and make a rush to join the larger causing a cave in.

Skuz didn't really consider a plank of wood to be a solid connection but apparently it was enough to satisfy the earth spirits as the dirt stayed where it was when he dug out the last bit of connecting dirt. Sighing in relief at not being buried alive he scrambled up the passage to inform Mandy that the work was done.


(The dropzone for plugging the aquifer layer.)

Mandy stood looking down at the board at her feet. If what Loki had said was right, once she removed this the dirt would fall down into the hole plugging up enough of the aquifer for them to dig through and down to stone. Of course a great deal of dust would result potentially knocking her into the hole after it. She doubted that the fall would kill her but it would knock her out at least and all that water wouldn't drain back down the drain holes they had cut right away. She wished she could have given this job to someone else, perhaps that creepy Jarvious fellow. She was in charge though and giving the dangerous tasks to someone she was less fond of would have been just the sort of thing a Noble would have done. She would not stoop to such a depth as that even if it did mean risking broken bones at the bottom of a muddy hole.

Sighing she decided that she had put this off long enough. It was time to see if this crazy idea of Loki's worked. She hoisted her axe and took aim at the wood support.


(Mandy yanks out the support floor.)


(Kaboom! Gee, I hope Mandy is OK.)

[The_Fool76]

This is why, when I finally breached my first aquifer this morning, I did the channeling in sections, from the in side out. Start at the middle, then carve out squares around it till the hole is as big as needed.

Also, bump.

That is actually how I designated the digging, but since I used ramps, the diggers had a tendency to hop down into the pool after digging out a ramp as dwarves prefer to dig ramps from the same level instead of from the top.  Lots of canceled dig messages due to dangerous terrain.  Fortunately, since I was digging with ramps, they could quickly clamber out without me having to make an extra access point.  (And they got a little swimming practice in as well)

[elizar]

I remember in the 2D days that you could not really hope for the dwarves to make a beeline for the shore. How was it for you in the modern days of 3D, seconds spent as minutes agonizing and cursing whenever a dwarf made it's way away from the shore?

[The_Fool76]

I've actually yet to have a dwarf drown from digging out an aquifer with ramps this way.  By the time the pool gets big enough to be a danger they have picked up enough swimming to be fine.

Interestingly, dwarves don't really head to the nearest shore.  Instead it looks like they path towards the nearest meeting area since they are currently jobless while swimming.  So if a dwarf falls in on the far side of a ramp lined pond they will ignore the close side and instead swim across the entire pond.

[Akigagak]

I take it I've been killing stuff while this was going on?

Not a bump. Really.

[rickvoid]

Bump bump bump.

Breathe, damn you! Breathe!

Bump bump bump.

(/ThreadCPR)

[The_Fool76]

Sorry guys, I've been house sitting and thus away from the fort.

I'll have an update today.  Promise!

[The_Fool76]

Stone, Glorious Stone

Mandy coughed and waved her hands trying to clear the cloud of dust out of her vision. Somehow she had avoided falling into the pit when she had knocked the support free. Eventually enough of the dust settled that she was able to see down into the pit. The plug now filled the bottom of the pit where the pool once was. The water from the pool was sloshing about on the top and slowly draining back down into the aquifer layer. It looked as if the project had been a success but they wouldn't really know until someone went down there with a pick. First they needed to wait for the water resting on top of the plug to finish draining and then to dry off. It wouldn't do to ruin all their hard work by digging a hole in the top and letting all the water resting on the plug to flood it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Mandy decided that the top of the plug had dried out enough that they could risk digging through it. Once again Gear was in the lead with a pick. Everyone held their collective breaths as she burrowed into the ground. A short while latter her head popped up out of the hole she had dug. “Siltstone! And it's dry!” she cried out. There was a collective cheer at this pronouncement. They now had real stone, their days of living surrounded by wood were over. Gear however didn't look entirely satisfied.

“What's wrong?” asked Mandy.

Gear looked at her, “Well I know siltstone is stone and all but it's hardly what I'd call a proper stone.”

Mandy shrugged, “It's far better than what we have now, which is nothing, but if it will make you feel better, why don't you keep digging and see what lies under it?”

Gear grinned, “With pleasure!” She then scurried back down the crude stairs she had cut and the sound of a pick against stone rang out from below. Gear was down in the hole for the rest of the day before she re-emerged with a huge grin on her face.

“What did you find?” asked Mandy.

Gear grinned even bigger, “Come see!” she said.

Shrugging, Mandy followed gear down into the ground. At the very bottom of the hole a welcome sight met her eyes. The grainy brown of the siltstone gave way to smooth white stone. Placing her hand upon the cool rock Mandy grinned. “Marble” she said with reverence. Gear nodded, grinning. Mandy lost herself for a bit picturing vast marble halls and ornately carved rooms. “This is so much better than wood and do you know what the best bit is?” Mandy asked Gear.

Gear shook her head. “No, what?”

An almost feral grin split Mandy's face. “Where there is marble there is often iron. And we can use the marble we mine to make something even better. Steel.”

“Ooooh.” Said Gear.

Mandy nodded, “I think I may keep this little fact hidden from Athel when she shows up. With a good supply of steel weapons and armor, even the queen's royal guard would have to think twice about attacking us. Yes, one day I am going to feed Athel to that bear of mine.”

[elizar]

I'm looking at the Dwarfpedia, but on the Marble page, I don't see any iron ore listed there. However all three types of iron ore are listed in the Siltstone page.

Still a nice find. Very nice.