SaveFull game directory (Windows) (if you don't want to bother with installing the Dig Deeper! and Raptor mods)
Journal of Magua, 201
We had been travelling all winter, fleeing the chaos of our previous fortress. The Baron, who had had a liking of bismuth, had demanded one too many things be made out of bismuth. The peasants complained that our veins of bismuthinite had long been exhausted, and refused to comply with the Baron's orders, even though they were right and lawful. After the Hammerer was dispatched yet again to deal with the malcontents, the majority of the fortress actually turned against their rightful rulers, slaughtering them. We had tried to intervene, quoting dwarven law that showed that the Baron and Hammerer were both in the right...but in the end, we fled for our lives before the howling mob.
It was for the best. Having deviated from the true way, that fortress was doomed to failure regardless. So it is written.
Seven of us loyalists remained from the winter's travails. As spring arrived, we found ourselves in a most Armok-forsaken wasteland. Our skin blistered in the hellish heat of the sun, and around us we could hear the calls of troglodytes, ratmen, and other less identifiable creatures. Ahead of us, a chasm blocked further progress -- it would take days to go around.
I, as the expedition leader, made a decision.
"Here is where we shall start our new fortress. Here is where the rule of law will reign supreme, and we will flourish for following it."
There were no grumblings. The leader had spoken, and they would follow.
We struck the earth.
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Spring
The land around us was harsh. Safety was a top priority. A room was dug within the shelter of the rock, and our supplies were moved inside with as much speed as could be mustered.
Examination of the land had led us to guess that there was both magma and water underneath the ground. While the supplies were being moved inside, we devised educated guesses about where these would be found, and these led us to drive shafts into the ground, both yielding fruit.
That work completed, a tower was erected around our main entrance, so that we could venture to the surface and look around our new domain in safety, untroubled by the monsters that wandered above. The tower also provided a convenient place to dump our refuse.
Beds were fashioned from the logs we had brought, and chairs and tables from the stones that we had mined. Soon enough, we each had rooms, a welcome change from the rigors of travelling we had endured for months.
We channeled into the side of the magma pipe, and constructed our forges. Our meager supply of copper was used to make axes. Ostensibly, this was to be used for cutting down trees, but almost as soon as we had forged the axes, we realized the folly of that, as there were no trees at all to be cut down.
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Summer
Our supplies were plenty (for we had lost many on our journey), but they were finite. By summer, we knew that we must secure a steady source of food, or we would perish, laws or no laws. Another room was dug out to be our farms, but we would require water to wet the stone and make it useful for farming. A channel was carved from this room to the underground river we had located. We took care here, for our surveyings had shown this river to awash in creatures, so we used fortifications to let the water in, but keep the creatures out.
It didn't work. They squeezed through the fortifications like they weren't there. We killed the creatures that arrived, and then fled and locked the door to the room for the time being.
Again noting no trees in the area, I decided to conserve our supply of wood, and construct a pump to flood the farm room with out of glass. We tapped into the magma pipe and forges were set up, but we required sand from which to make the glass, and the only sand we knew of was on the other side of the chasm.
Rather than risk the dangerous journey of walking overland to the other side of the chasm, we broke through the wall underground, and created a covered bridge that could deliver us directly to the other side in perfect safety. Sand was gathered, and the pump components were made.
Finally, copper axes in hand, we gathered by the door to the farm room. It was unlocked quietly, and then we burst in upon the inhabitants -- frogmen -- and slew them. Quickly, a grate was constructed over the opening to prevent more creatures from spilling forth, and only once that was completed did we construct the pump and flood the room.
The water receded shortly, and the planting began. No matter what would happen here, we would not starve.
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Autumn
Before we had left, I had informed some loyalist dwarves I knew were staying behind of our plans, and they had sworn to me that they would send word to the merchants so they could bring supplies. We made preparations for their arrival, constructing a Depot near our tower, and churning out crafts to trade from the rock we had mined.
Near the middle of autumn, I was atop my tower, surveying my domain, when I espied these merchants. It seemed, however, we had made a fatal flaw in our plan: we had not taken into account the uncountable boulders that were strewn across the land, and the merchants found it impossible to get their wagons anywhere near our Depot. I watched as they loaded up their pack animals to head in our direction, but felt a sadness over all of the other goods left behind in the wagons that we would not be able to trade for.
Still, I ordered the crafts brought up to the Depot. Continuing to watch the merchants, I saw them steer too close to the chasm, and creatures of all sorts poured out. I feared one of them would be injured and they would flee, but their guards made short work of those that came to close, and eventually they arrived at our Depot, bloody and tired but unharmed.
We traded our rock crafts for metal bars, barrels, seeds, meat, and everything they had that was made of steel. They didn't have much, but I informed them of our plans for a new Depot that would allow them to bring in their wagons easily, and they promised to return next autumn. I asked them to bring more metal, more wood, and more barrels.
They left, and again were beset by creatures, but again saved by their guards. I ordered some of the steel bolts fired off in the melee that were nearby to be gathered up, so we could melt them. I then ordered the Depot deconstructed, and everything moved back inside.
Quickly, I sketched out the plans for the new Depot -- I put it on the other side of the chasm, in the room where we gathered the sand, and a tunnel leading off to the horizon, only breaking the surface at the very end. In this manner, the merchants could arrive, enter into our tunnel, and avoid all of the boulders that presented a problem.
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Winter
No snow fell in this hellish heat -- the heat, in fact, seemed entirely unabated by the season.
I was in my chambers updating our stockpile records when news came in that a scout had seen orcs in the distance. This was bad news indeed, for I knew that none of us were capable of fighting with orcs -- the military had been involved in the coup back home, and none of them were sufficiently loyal to have made the journey with us.
Quickly, the door in the tower was ordered removed and replaced with a wall, and I ordered walls surrounding the merchant tunnel entrance to be constructed, so it could easily be defended. Finally, bridges were ordered around the tunnel merchant tunnel entrance -- if they were raised, we would be completely sealed off from the outside world. It would not drive the orcs away, but it would keep us from being slaughtered in our sleep.
So we had met our basic requirements of survival. We had food. We had booze. We had safety. Merchants could arrive and trade with us without having to deal with the dangers of our land. We had magma, and we could make glass.
All we would need now would be some way to deal with invaders. We could last through a siege, but we could not break one. We would need a military, and for that we would need more dwarves. That could wait for a few months, though.
First, we had to deal with the laws. We all knew that the laws were what would separate our fortress from the wild riots of our previous one. We knew that the Baron was within his rights to demand items of bismuth be made even if we had no bismuth. Yet, some of the other dwarves said that a leader who was out of touch with his people could not be as effective as a leader who had practical knowledge.
I argued against this folly; I knew that, as leader, I could get them to follow my wishes by decreeing it, but the truth was, it was tiring being the leader, and having the welfare of the fortress rest on my shoulders, so I proposed a compromise -- that we would each take a turn being the leader of the fortress. This was met with some disbelief, but eventually they came around to my thinking.
Spring seemed an ideal time to hand over the position of leadership, so with my remaining months, I ordered new rooms carved out for myself, and then I made my decree for the year:
Magua's bedroom, dining room, study, and tomb must be the most valuable rooms of their type in the fortress, and they cannot be shared with other rooms.In order to reinforce my decree, I ordered it carved from the rock at the lowest level of our fortress. And with that, I let someone else take the reins for awhile.
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OOC stuff:
The fortress is self sufficient, but very spread out. I'm not sure why I decided to put the Trade Depot on the other side of the chasm, since it takes forever and a day to move stuff from the Craftsdwarf workshop to it. One should probably be relocated closer to the other.
We have 25 logs remaining. Keep this in mind. Our only sources of new logs are merchants, or creating a large tree farm.
The lever (which I didn't remember to (N)ote -- if the next person could do that for me?) controls the bridges by the merchant entrance. Lowering the bridges is the only way to get outside the fort. Merchants should always appear on the three tiles between the bridges if they're up, so should always have access, but immigrants, etc, will need the bridges lowered.
Speaking of immigrants, after creating the saves, I played ahead through Spring to ensure that we would receive immigrants. 17 arrived, and were immediately ambushed by raptors. The results were not pretty.
So you might want to think about a way of getting the immigrants into the fortress without getting everyone killed.
Similarly, the door to the tower was removed so that orcs/raptors could not break it down and kill everyone. Creating an entrance at the tower is done at your peril.
Looking back, I should've brought a pair of dogs, at the least. We have no breeding animals. If possible, buy some from the merchants. We could use the bones to create crossbows and bolts, which would be at least a modicum of defense.
So, who wants turn two?
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Topic: Redtapers, the Fools of Laws -A metasuccession game. (Read 2849 times)