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[elizar]

Brilliant, pure brilliant. I had to go relax when I saw the announcement screen and the fact that indeed, groundhog pups had been born.

[KenboCalrissian]

Brilliant, pure brilliant. I had to go relax when I saw the announcement screen and the fact that indeed, groundhog pups had been born.

Fun fact: That entire narrative came out of the posted small block of the announcements screen.  The kid took a mood, I thought it was interesting because I've only ever seen that happen once before, I remembered I've been nagging myself to add more community-related content, the note about 'Other Grendus' becoming more experienced caught my eye and so a sparring session became the focal point, and that's how it happened.  I just had to work the groundhog thing in there.

The downside is this narration only encompasses at most a week of actual in-game time, slowing down the approach of the anticipated Autumn season just a bit more!

[KenboCalrissian]

Hello Zon!

Kyronea is right; a better trained cook produces more profit!  But you know what produces even more profit?  Dwarven cheese roasts!  You should talk to our dungeon master about getting a cheese industry going.

10th Galena, 208, Late Summer
-------------

Asob apparently scribbled a note on the top of this page while it was still blank.  Where has she been, anyway??  Ever since reports came in about her "teleporting" around the fortress, she's been awfully hard to find.  I've only been able to sit down and have a drink with her once, recently, at a party around a green glass statue thrown by one of the children, but she disappeared randomly from that too.  Must have picked up a fey spirit somewhere down in the mines, and now it's playing tricks on all of us by moving her about.

We're running low on meat, and high on cats.  You do the math.  Regarding cats who own dwarves dwarves who own cats, we have one pet male and four pet females.  I'm not at all concerned about the resident cat population, so I assign every available cat in the cage to be butchered.

Kyronea's cooking proposition comes to mind once again.  Asob is right; A well-trained cook working on Dwarven Cheese roasts would be a grand thing.  That, indeed, would bring the most profit with the least effort.  So, I seek out Kikrost Åblelthestar, 'Bustcrimson,' our dungeon master and robed wonder.

Mildly surprisingly, Kikrost is not talking to animals like I normally find her doing; in fact, she was just leaving the forges with a newly-crafted Nickel bin.  I am more surprised to learn that she has become recognized as a High Master Furnace Operator and a Metal Crafter of moderate skill!

"Ah, Zon!  Thank you for ordering up all of those bins and statues and iron doors!  Metal work has become therapeutic for my rattled nerves.  For me, metal is the most enjoyable beast to tame; while easier to tame than a squacking, roaring, nervous animal, it still provides just the right amount of challenge.  A firm and steady hand is required, lest you get burned, and also a quick hand must keep the metal from taking a mind and shape of its own, but the reward is a treasure that will last many lifetimes."

mew?
chop!

"Kikrost, that's... quite poetic of you!  I'm glad you've been ecstatic lately.  Listen, I'm thinking of getting a cheese industry going, and--"

A loud clatter startled Zon and several other passing dwarves as Kikrost dropped her -Nickel bin- to the floor noisily.  "Cheese!!  Are you mad?!  Nothing is more exciting than cheese!!  Why would you want to go and do something crazy like that?!"

"Um... for profit?"

Kikrost took up a handful of her x+«cave spider silk cloak»+x, formed a pouch with her hand, and hyperventilated into it.  I gave her some time, not mentioning that her efforts probably would have been more successful had she used the grizzly bear leather cloak beneath that one instead.

"To make cheese... oh, sweet Nikot the Ray of Robustness, why am I even telling you this?  You will need a source of milk."

"Precisely what I wanted to ask you about!  I know humans can get milk from cows, or two-humped camels which we have a dozen two-humped camels--"

"No!!  There's entirely too much excitement involved in milking one of those!  Besides, it's disgusting!  You've seen a cow's utter before, haven't you?  It looks like a damned tentacle demon!  Ask any dwarf in this fort; they wouldn't touch it even if the wages were high and their child was sick and the only cure was cow milk!"

mew?
chop!

"Let's not bring up demons of any sort, ok??  Please?  Thank you?  Ok.  Well, where does dwarven milk come from, then?  Surely it can't be any grosser than touching a cow's utter."

Kikrost looked around, making sure nobody was looking.  Of course, with the scene she was making, everyone was looking by now.  "You really want to know?"

"Yes, Kikrost, I want to know where Dwarven Cheese comes from."

"I don't think you can handle it."

I fold my arms over my chest.  It's really hard to keep writing like this.  "Try me."

"Well... tell you what.  Set some animal traps in the bottomless pit and the chasm.  Set as many as you have to spare.  Once you've caught a few things, let me have a look and I'll tell you if you've caught one."

"One what?  Ew, wait, is this going to be vermin??"

"SHHH!!  You're exciting the other dwarves!!"

"I'm incredibly excited!!" exclaimed a nearby Legendary Engraver and apparently also a Professional Furnace Operator

mew?
chop!

"You're not helping, Tholtig Gúradil, Bowelwall!"

"Please stop translating my name into humanese, it's embarassing!"

Kikrost picked up her -Nickel bin- and proceeded to carry it off to the nearest stockpile, shouting back "Oh, and watch out for troglodytes!  I think we've outlived all of the resident caveswallowmen and batmen, but you'll have a couple of trogs left to kill!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Construction of the Flaming Path is being interrupted by wolves.  What, really?  The wolves are below you, dummies!  They can't reach you!  Ugh... maybe they heard them snarling through the walls or something.  I suppose we need to send a few militia out there to drive them off.  I try to find the lowest-skilled recruits so that they can gain some real combat experience, but all three of them are sliced neatly in half by a single swordsdwarf named Ilral Ponderpaper.

mew?

I turn and look as 'Kyronea,' our multi-talented butcher/tanner/cook/cheese maker/grower/miller/brewer/milker/food hauler (wow, overachieving much?) walks past with a Stray Cat (Tame) ready for slaughter.  The cat looks into my eyes, and I stare back at it.

mew?

'Kyronea' continues down the hallway towards the butcher's shop with the Stray Cat (Tame) in tow.  I begin to reminisce about Såkzul Zaskab, my poor kitty I had lost to goblins on 15th Moonstone, 203, Early Winter.  Såkzul, always at my feet where I was likely to trip over him, but also always at my side with a purr and a whisker upturned ever so slightly in my direction.  How I miss that cat... 'Kyronea' and the cat disappear into the butcher's shop.

mew?

"'KYRONEA, WAAAIT!!"



((Commentary))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ok, this time I swear I'm getting to Autumn!!

[Quietust]

Aaaand the inevitable Catsplosion advances 1 step closer...

Kikrost picked up her -Nickel bin- and proceeded to carry it off to the nearest stockpile

Did she? Dwarves always leave their goods in the workshop for some other dwarf to haul away, and dungeon masters don't have any hauling labors enabled.

[KenboCalrissian]

Whoops!  I guess she wasn't, then.  I checked on her at two different times; the first, she was creating a Nickel Bin, and the second time she was actually just leaving a stockpile, standing next to a -Nickel bin- that I assumed she had just then put down.  I guess she was actually passing through to go get some more nickel bars, then.

[The Architect]

The sparring story was very entertaining. I am surprised at how much less of an ass "I" have been lately!

The child / sock puppet / crown affair was particularly amusing.

[KenboCalrissian]

1st Limestone, 208, Early Autumn.
-------------

Boy, what a long summer!  I can't believe so much happened in such a short time. 

((DFMA)) ((Movie)) To celebrate the turn of the season, I release the militia into the bottomless pit to take care of the troglodytes.  Now we should be able to lay down some animal traps and catch whatever it is Kikrost was telling me to catch!

One of the troglodytes fell six levels down and landed near the noble shower.  I send Zefron Katèrith, hammerdwarf, down to finish it off.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For Armok's Sake, Zefron, it's not a toy!  Just kill the damn thing!!  Wouldn't you know, it survived hitting the wall and Zefron had to go and hit it again to make sure it was dead.  Hammerdwarves... nobody's ever promised them to be efficient killers, but they're often the most entertaining.

We had fourteen wooden animal traps lying about.  Honestly, I don't remember having them built, or why we would have constructed them in the first place... but it doesn't matter, they're being put to use now.  I tell the workers where to put each one, and then for good measure I order up ten more to be forged of nickel.

Count Consort Inod has healed beautifully this season.  Her limbs are no longer looking mangled, but she still has a broken right hand and left lower leg.

Wait... what's that over the hill?  Yes!  The caravan from Subetrevod, The Swift Arches, is on its way!  Now, maybe we can proceed with the King's mission...

"Wow, the dwarves finally came to trade!"

"Gah!"  All of a sudden, Asob was right behind me.  "Asob!  You've got to stop doing that!"

"Doing what?  I don't know why everybody's so jumpy around me anymore!"

"Uh, greetings!"  One of the dwarven merchants approached us as the others unloaded their wagons.  "My name is Adil Emäthsazir, known as Bandedbridges by the humans.  We've come to do trade with your fort and perform inspections.  May I please speak with your count?"

"Dead."

"...Oh!  Really??  A fortress this size without a count?  How did this happen?"

Asob butt in to try her hand at lying before I could give Adil a more believable account.  "Err... troglodytes!  They threw him over the edge.  Of the bottomless pit.  Very tragic, really.  He was trying out his new shower, and out of nowhere a troglodyte attacked!"

"Troglodytes??  Unib never said anything about troglodytes... is the count's consort present?"

"Injured!" Asob piped in again.  "She bumped into a goblin master thief's knife repeatedly."

"Whoa, wait," I interrupted.  "Unib?  As in..."

"Unib Tunrithlut, Duchess of the mountainhome of Boatstested.  I suppose you hadn't heard, of course... we apologize for our delay in reaching you!  There's been some... trouble... back home, you see."

"Trouble?  What kind?"

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news... but King Minkot ventured away from Boatstested a few years ago, suspiciously just as Unib began spreading word of her conspiracy theories about a supposed 'baron deathtrap.'  Her claim was that the King ordered the construction of a device that would kill nobles, and their spouses were being held prisoner somewhere to keep from spreading the truth."

I furrowed my brow in confusion at first, but when the pieces started coming together, a dark chill ran up my spine.  "You don't say," was all I could muster...

Adil continued.  "Unib charged the mayor of Boatstested himself, Obok Zirilkivish, as being an accomplice to the king's crime.  At first, people would only mutter the rumors to each other, but Unib literally shouted it from the rooftops, when she wasn't dodging the city guards.  And that's when the King vanished..."

"Vanished?  He disappeared without any explanation whatsoever?" Asob asked, beginning to look quite uncomfortable.

"At first, we thought Unib had assassinated King Minkot, but some of the guards around the castle broke his confidence and let it slip that they had seen him fleeing the castle, dressed as a peasant."

It wasn't for the adamantine after all... that's why King Minkot hadn't really stressed its production - he wasn't interested in wealth, he needed a hideout!  That idiot If only His Majesty had thought of how his escape would make him look!  My throat suddenly felt very tight.  I felt as if I could foresee the bad news coming long before I was told.

"The king's departure made him look guilty, and there was an uprising.  Dwarves fought each other to the death in the halls, a tantrum spiral the likes of which Subetrevod had never seen."

I caught the eye of a peasant lurking about behind the caravan, loitering near the dining hall.  A peasant?  But we don't have any designated peasants... unless a child grew up or something, but from here I can't recognize him, what with all that mud and vomit smeared on his face.  I'll need to assign him a job later.

"That's when Unib broke up the fighting by throwing Obok Zirilkivish in the middle of an armed, angry mob.  She questioned Obok about his involvement, wielding an *«≡Iron scourge≡»*taken from the body of a fallen goblin invader the year before.  Every time he didn't answer a question within five seconds, she'd lash him... though horrifying to watch a dwarf do that to another, somehow the fighters were united through her act.  But he kept silent, all the way to the end, until finally the mob overwhelmed and murdered him, right there in the hall."

The lurking peasant nodded to himself, as if satisfied.  Wait a minute... I've seen those clothes before!  That's King Minkot in his peasant disguise!  How long has he been standing there??  I started to tremble... Asob's faithful hand found my shoulder.

"It's OK, Zon.  We were well away from the tragedy when it happened.  We only had to deal with goblin sieges for the past three years."

"And here I thought the sieges were the reason we weren't contacted sooner..."

"Well, they were a contributing factor, yes.  With the nation in turmoil, we somehow lost track of your outpost, what with the guard and army working to quell the riots.  The last thing we needed was to walk headlong into an area of high goblin activity!  We're actually extremely thankful that you've held off the attacks as well as you did... were you not present as a buffer, surely the Swift Arches could have been overwhelmed in its state of panic."

"This is all... so sudden.  And Unib has elected herself Duchess?"

"She declared a state of martial law in the King's absence.  With Mayor Obok dead, this left her the interim ruling power until the king is discovered and brought to trial."

"Hold on a second!" Asob threw up her hands.  "Didn't anybody question whether or not Unib planned to have the mayor killed so that she would end up with the power?"

"Nobody would dare.  She's proven herself a far more aggressive ruler than Minkot Reliccounsel ever was, and a far more profitable one to boot.  It's the public opinion that they'd rather have her in charge than a cowardly king who runs and hides at the first sign of an accusation."

The peasant-King grumbled something to himself, then disappeared into the dining hall through the door.

"Anyway!  I think I've taken enough of your time.  I shall let Duchess Unib know that you are lacking a proper leader and have her send another straight away.  You should expect one soon.  In the meantime, let us trade!"

I only had seven stacks of varying types of cheese roast brought to the depot.  I want to get a good feel for what I'm getting into with this cheese industry... seven low-quality roasts of cow, one-humped camel, and two-humped camel bought two-thirds of what I wanted from the caravan, and the few bins of crafts and reworked goblin clothing bought the rest as well as some additional trinkets I didn't really think we need, but bought anyway.

I can't help but wonder, though, about a lot of things... Why didn't Minkot tell anyone he left in search of adamantine?  That was his excuse when he got here, and it was a convincing one!  Furthermore, Unib's been here on several accounts and has even voiced her suspicions about what lies within this fortress to me.  She's seen enough of this fortress that she'd put us at the top of her list. 

But... why don't her people know this?  The merchants regard us as a city that they've merely lost contact with during the upheaval of the King's position, nothing more.  They suspect nothing.  Clearly, she has the clout to rally her new nation to battle, so if she wanted she could probably rout us straight off the face of the World of Typhoons.  Why is Unib keeping her suspicions a secret from her people?

[Quietust]

She questioned Obok about his involvement, wielding an *«≡Iron lash≡»*taken from the body of a fallen goblin invader the year before.

I assume Adil meant an *«≡Iron whip≡»* or perhaps an *«≡Iron scourge≡»* - there's no such thing as a "lash" in Dwarf Fortress, though a soldier who wields a whip/scourge is certainly called a Lasher.

It also seems somewhat fitting that Unib, the Royal Advisor (check legends mode on this one - even though the King arrived due to Adamantine, I suspect the liaison still became Advisor), would decide to ascend to the rank of Duchess.

[KenboCalrissian]

I changed "lash" to "scourge," though Unib's surprising behavior was fully intentional.  I'm aware the liaison becomes the king's Advisor if you unlock him normally, but the role doesn't make any sense in the context of this story.  Who's she advising?

I did check histories before writing this part, because I wanted to know who took charge of the Mountainhome when the King left.  I was disappointed to find that Legends provides absolutely no detail related to the King's departure, unless I've looked in the wrong places - but even Boatstested, the Mountainhome he left, does not report his departure, which is strange because it does for every other dwarf who's ever came or went.  For all intents and purposes, he's still in charge.  Same goes for the local government he came from (I'm forgetting the name at the moment).

Most surprisingly, Unib's title hasn't changed.  She's still a liaison according to Legends, which makes sense when you consider the player's fort isn't the only one in the world.  I guess she's just somebody else's liaison now.  To be clear, she's only a "Duchess" insofar as the current story goes.  So far I've reported in-game truth as strictly as possible; this is the first exception I've knowingly made, but it makes good sense regarding the story.

[KenboCalrissian]

2nd Sandstone, 208, Mid-Autumn
-------------

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Who doesn't want their magma towers painted green with vomit?  Ick.  When I finally get magma flowing through this thing, remind me to stay far away the first time it runs.  The stench will be unbearable.

We've executed the last of the goblin prisoners.  No sign of goblins so far this season... hm, I wonder why?  No matter, gives us more freedom to build.

Apparently, we're still considered a cursed death-trap, even though there have been very few deaths for a full year.  I wonder about the rumors that have left this place about our true mission...

The sounds of cats being butchered one by one are too much to bear... I save yet another from Kyronea, naming it Olin Olonlathon.  I know I have too many cats, but I can't help it!  I love cats for their aloofness!  Next time I order cats to be butchered, perhaps I won't have so many done at once...

The windmill tower meant for the underground river is getting some impromptu upgrades.  I'm raising the windmills up one story so that we can turn the second floor into a fortified marksdwarf tower.  Goblins tend to enjoy attacking from this angle the most, so a defensive structure here could prove most beneficial.  We're also digging a channel around the tower to prevent goblin archers from getting too close.

In channeling, we happened to uncover a cluster of aluminum!  How fortunate!  There certainly seems to be a lot of this stuff here, which is a great thing.  I order it mined immediately.

We've been catching cave spiders all season.  Kikrost said this isn't what I'm looking for to produce milk.  Great, so what do we do with all these stupid spiders?  I'd rather they be set free to spin their webs for the weavers to collect, but for some reason releasing them doesn't seem to be an option.  I certainly don't want to tame them...

The season flies by, and already, winter is upon us.  Where Summer felt entirely too long, a calm, productive Autumn has breezed quickly by.  Both windmill towers - one for the underground river, and one for the magma trap - are near completion.  Only a horizontal axle is needed on the former, while the latter still has some work yet left before the windmills go in place.  We need to be extremely careful with the tower's construction since we're dealing with magma, so I don't expect it to be finished any time soon.

((Commentary))

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Expect a few more short updates until the next count arrives.  I'm kind of rushing it to see how long it takes from when the dwarven caravan leaves.  The good news is my fort is only 3 world tiles away from the Mountainhome, so it hopefully shouldn't take long at all for a count to arrive!

[Lord Dakoth]

We've been catching cave spiders all season.  Kikrost said this isn't what I'm looking for to product milk.

Just pointing out an error. I don't mean to be anal, but I am somewhat of a grammar Nazi.

That being said, I can't wait for the next baron to arrive! Once the new release comes out, do you think you're going to keep working on 40d, or switch to the new version and start anew? I dearly hope that this fort gets along far enough to fall victim to a massive mandate-induced tantrum spiral.

[KenboCalrissian]

Wow, how did I do that?!  Maybe I rushed that one a little too much!

[The Architect]

So, I thought I'd step in with some technical info about cages and slaughtering. It wasn't included on the wiki til I edited it in a month ago.

Only one creature can be assigned to a single cage at a time (in the job queue). If you assign multiple creatures to a cage at once only the first animal will be assigned to be caged immediately, but all of the others will be assigned to be released immediately. Same with slaughter assignments: all of your animals will be assigned to be released, as they're no longer assigned to the cage which they occupy, but only one can be slaughtered at a time. So you end up with a bunch of cats wandering around adopting people.

You absolutely have to micromanage, that's all. Oh and if you want to release your vermin, you can move them to a cage one at a time and use a lever. Or you can assign them all to one cage, and all but one will be immediately released and lost (remaining annoyingly displayed in your creatures list forever). You can't contain them; they may randomly wall-walk out of any area you try to use as a silk creation area.

[Quietust]

Actually, my experience has been slightly different.

The cage transfer problem (first one gets caged, all of the others get released) only happens if the source cage has been built - if the source cage is just sitting in a stockpile, then all of the creatures will remain inside until it comes time for them to be transferred.

As for slaughtering, the only animals that get let out of the cage are the ones that have actually been tasked, which is 1 per butcher's shop. If you have only one butcher's shop (and the cage is right next to it), you won't have any problems with animals getting released unless the butcher gets interrupted (hint: disable ALL other labors) or for the very first animal in the queue (since, the moment after you designate the animals for slaughter, the closest dwarf to the cage will most likely not be your butcher).

As for vermin, assigning them all to the same cage won't cause any problems unless, as above, they were already in another built cage - if they're still in an animal trap, they'll just be transferred one at a time. Releasing them can be done as mentioned (cage + lever) or, with a bit of activity zone tweaking, you can just dump the vermin out of the traps - once the dwarf drops the vermin on the floor, it'll just start milling around like all vermin are wont to do. If you need to recapture it, just issue a "Capture live land animal" task (at a kennel or butcher's shop) and make sure there's an empty animal trap near the vermin in question (ideally sitting on a conveniently placed stockpile, and even more ideally with all of your other unbuilt animal traps Forbidden so your trapper picks the right one).

[LegoLord]

Of course, you can always let the dwarves eat the unwanted vermin.