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[Argonnek]

This is amazing. I love this new perspective! It really shows a lot of insight into the inner workings of Zon and the other dwarves' minds. As for the counting of fish? That's a rather tame form of madness. I wouldn't worry about it.

[KenboCalrissian]

6th Obsidian, 210, Late Winter
-------------

MACAQUES.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Winter has almost entirely passed us by without incident, and then this.  What a mess.  I was hoping for goblins!  A good influx of iron would surely boost our metal crafter training.  The rhesus macaques do offer another form of training, though - marksdwarves and recruits can get some real field experience.  I assign every marksdwarf and all recruits who are still considered wrestlers to deal with the macaques - only one escapes, hopefully to tell its fellow monkeys that the only thing they'll be stealing here is death.

Hrm... I need to work on my one-liners.  They're a little xdwarven cheesyx.

This does remind me of something I've wanted to do for a while.  The guard dogs are simply not dwarfy enough.  We need something more ferocious - wolves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now, I had other options... We have a tame grizzly bear, THAT would have certainly been something!  But then, it dawned on me that anybody who knows how to lift a bow could easily dispatch of our prize pet.  We have a great number of wolves from the breeding program, and they're relatively expendable.

Giant eagles... at the gate.  Hmm... we do have those in ample numbers!  Any stray kobold getting close enough would be ripped to shreds in moments.  Again, we have the problem of seeing them feathered with arrows, but at least then we could butcher its carcass and make some giant eagle roasts.  However, that's two less giant eagles in our "air force," and that's a costly sacrifice.  I will have to deliberate on this.

I notice our crops have been withering, so I reevaluate the jobs of our planters and farmers, and make sure all unnecessary jobs - such as hauling, and especially cleaning with our dump efforts - are stricken from their quotas.  I notice no improvement, and realize our food stockpiles are full.  Well, it looks like we had dug out several rooms north of our stockpiles, so I designate some space for food there.

...Now, that's odd.  Ingish Olonalåth just walked by me as I was fishing.  He seems nervous.  I stop him for a moment to inquire of his current activities, and - stammering - he tells me he is attending a meeting.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What meeting?  Well, it's no matter.  Perhaps Asob wants him for something.  She does like to micromanage the miners a bit, being a legendary miner herself.  Besides, I have some fish that need catching.  This is far more important than wondering what one miner is doing attending some mystery meeting.  Especially now that we have new stockpile space, we can never have enough fish...

...Not enough, Asmel...

[Chaoseed]

Intriguing, yet funny as well! (I must confess to having a weakness for xcheesyx jokes.)

[KenboCalrissian]

1st Granite, 211, Early Spring
-------------

Well, spring is here at last, after a productive, albeit uneventful, winter.  I feel I've made good use of the past two months.

Most importantly, the Big Tent is finished, but there's a backup plan in progress.  It may or may not work... and, right now, I'm a little embarassed about it because it's sloppy and it's going to be late for the arrival of our next Duke.  I don't exactly want to commit my plan to tablet just yet, in case it changes later.

Much micromanagement was done... checked our animals, caged a few strays, found out that our tamed cougar has been milling about freely in the statue garden.  Slipped my mind...  It hasn't hurt anybody yet, but just in case I decide to have it tied up.  It's one more animal on a rope for the gawkers to admire, at least.

The most important thing I did was inspect the military.  I did find some of our military are still wearing greaves and gauntlets of shell, and a few are carrying wooden shields.  Most, however, are using base quality steel and iron in their weapons and armor - thankfully, there's more of the former than the latter, but I'm not happy about the quality.  The weaponsmiths are about done forging their scrap iron swords, and we've finished melting everything we can spare in the entire fortress.  So... well, time to melt the scrap swords and reforge them!  This is taking a while... maybe it's because we have too many smiths training at once?

The workers are starting to exhibit rather strange behavior... even though we have plenty of rooms available, several dwarves (I'm assuming they're the most recent migrants) are preferring to sleep in the barracks rather than take ownership of a room.  There are plenty available... hm, though our engravers haven't begun smoothing them yet.  They've been hard at work either engraving the future Duke's room or performing the odd masonry job.  Perhaps that's it... or perhaps they simply haven't yet grown accustomed to the voices coming from the chambers below.

I was rather disturbed to see Rigòth Åmbin, our resident injured legendary miner, go hungry AND thirsty and nobody was on their way to feed her.  Most, if not all, of the populous should be keeping these sorts of duties in mind!  I mean... I'm too busy, personally, I had animals to count.  So, speaking of worthless animals, I went through the ranks to see who I could dedicate to health care.

Oh, two hunters and an animal caretaker eh?  All three of them were stripped of all duties BUT health care... and yet, it was STILL a weaponsmith who got the water to Rigòth first.  A weaponsmith!  Found time between forging several dozen blades to go get this girl a drink of water!  Meanwhile, two of the three were on break... the third decided he just HAD to finish that important job of collecting a single rock from the opposite side of the fortress and dumping it in the crusher before he got around to feeding the poor girl.  Then, all three of them promptly went idle, so I set them to siege work and furniture hauling.  Some of the ballistas weren't yet loaded, and most of the ammunition was going to the wrong stockpiles, so I remanaged those piles as well.  You boys like hauling so well, how about lugging those massive bolts around...

You're all lucky 'Legon' became paralyzed before he could properly establish a justice system.  The three of you would be hammered for this if it were up to me... wait, it IS up to me!  But... animals.  They're not done being counted yet.  Particularly the fish.  I have to be sure there's enough fish.  Never enough, Asmel...

I wondered if some of this behavior wasn't caused by general morose amongst the workers... personally, I could use a little pick-me-up, so I had our leftover prisoners executed.  Quietust did the honor of pulling the lever.  She said she wanted to study our warriors first hand to see them fight... sure, while that's a good idea, there isn't much to see when all of the fort's marksdwarves and non-champion soldiers take on a goblin and a human.  At least they've all had some practice keeping their balance while slipping around through puddles of their own vomit...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Asob has been extremely busy of late... I've hardly got to talk to her this entire season.  There's been much to mine, and some of the more delicate operations - particularly the Big Tent, and some work being done around the underground river - have taken up much of her time supervising.  She's been getting used to tragedy lately, poor thing.  Just wait, in time she'll learn the solution to that is to just not really care about anything anymore.    Asob, have you even had time to snoop through the logs?  Well, whenever you get a chance, I've got a mug of your favorite strawberry wine waiting for you! 

Look, I'm even learning to appreciate art, just for you!  We're still getting ridiculous amounts of engravings about the founding of the fortress, and of me taking reign... honestly, I'm getting very tired of seeing myself!  But I've been noticing a few of these popping up now and then...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This symbolizes... er, the carelessness of greed?  And, hrm... ok I don't get it, we didn't actually release anything, and the one unfortunate demon to rear its ugly head did so behind a wall of fortifications and was bolted to death without incident.  I'm a little offended by this.  And you say art is supposed to make you feel something, right?  So, there, this is art because it made me feel offended. 

What else can I find that isn't a picture of this damn fort, my damn face, or some Armok-damned crescents...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Uhhmm... yeah.  Asob, you can deal with that one yourself.  I got nothin'.  Maybe someone has a crush on you?

Last order of business... numbers!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aaaand... map!  Drawing that was actually sort of fun that time... hey, maybe I AM starting to like art!  But only because I haven't had anyone to argue about its pointlessness with.

[KenboCalrissian]

FISH.

123456789101112131415161718192021NotEnoughAsmel222324252627282930313233...

*This goes on for several pages, up to "179," then starts over with the numbers written out.*

14th Granite, 211, Early Spring
by Asob Momuzzokun
-------------

I knew it... I shouldn't have worked too closely with the miners!  I've totally missed the obvious warning signs Zon's been showing.  The closer we get to achieving our current goal of breaching the so-called "demon pit," the more she slips toward insanity...  We're taking a little extra time to set up a backup plan, of course, but I think the suspense is getting to her.  There's also no guarantee that either plan will work...

I thought fishing would take her mind off of things, but she's become obsessed with counting... and Asmel, her old nemesis from when she was regional fisherchamp.  If I recall, Asmel made a very short living here, and fell victim to Azinodos the giant bat almost as soon as she arrived.  Zon avenged her with her own axe, but... it must not have been enough.

I've designated a rather large swath of trees to be cleared so that she can take her mind off of things.  She eagerly obliged; between her and two other woodcutters, they've cleared a third of the large area north-west of the fort's entrance in just half a month!

Part of the reason I was working so closely with the miners was because one of our legendary workers was down with a broken leg - but, with the turn of the season, she recovered and is back on duty!  So, that frees me up a bit, and just in time so I can take some of the weight off Zon's shoulders.

It seems like a lot of little things have slipped Zon's mind, actually... we haven't had wood or bone bolts in I don't know how long, so our marksdwarves have been bashing each other in the face with their crossbows instead of actually shooting them.  As soon as we had bolts back in production, the marksdwarves eagerly snatched them up and hit the ranges.  Also, I see Zon has been forging and unforging base quality weapons and statues, but it appears she's missed a rather large number of foreign, base quality weapons of iron and steel.  I've marked all of these to be melted.  I think some of them actually do belong to our soldiers, but there are better weapons laying around!  I don't know why they insist on using inferior arms and armor...

So, a little about what the miners and I have been up to; there is a lot of bustle going on around the underground river.  Suddenly, it is relevant to our interests!  Zon insisted for some reason that I don't say specifically what we're doing with it... I don't know why, but I think she's suddenly superstitious.  She seems to think that every project she's ever written into her diary has failed somehow, and whether or not the act of writing it down is related she doesn't want to take chances.  So... I WILL say that we're not only giving our miners a workout, but also our mechanics and our architects.  We'll soon have another source of power in the area.  Yes, there are windmills right above ground, but we're using exactly their output as is, so we're making some waterwheels.

Oh-- one of the groundhog traps have uncovered a goblin ambush!  We'd better prepare the military...

[KenboCalrissian]

File 0.28.181.40d, Royal Archives 2002-2008: The Fall of Zursalbalad (Severedcoils)
Testimony by Ingish Olonalåth, Miner, delivered to Unib Tunrithlut
on 1st Slate, 211, Mid-Spring,
several Urists North of the border of Zursalbalad proper.

This transcript contains conversation between 2 (two) people: Unib Tunrithlut (referred to as "U:") and Ingish Olonalåth (referred to as "I:")

U: Hello again, my dear Ingish!  Care for some dwarven bread?

I: Bread??  What's that?

U: It's a delicacy made of baked dwarven wheat flour and yeast.  It's normally reserved for the noble classes of the Swift Arches, but I found myself wondering if my friend at the dreaded Severedcoils had ever tried this dish.

I: <Ingish takes the loaf of bread I offer him.  He has clearly never seen this before.  He sniffs at it, nibbles... and blanches!  He then hands it back.>  Tastes like Elf food to me.  Don't you have any plain flour?

U: ...Plain... flour.  No... but I will bring you a sack on our next visit!  Speaking of Elves, we had an ambassador from The Wayward Twigs recently.  They informed us of an... altercation here.

I: Oh.  Yeah, well, it started with the goblins.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I: When we heard the groundhog squealing, we knew immediately what was up.  Just a puny ambush, but some them had bows.  Zon... er, or Asob, I have no idea which one was in charge at the time--

U: Are you saying Severedcoils' management hierarchy is questionable?

I: What?  No, I didn't say that at all.  Asob is mayor, but she passes on many of Zon's orders so it's difficult to tell who ordered what.

U: I see.  Please continue...

I: Anyway, naturally we cheered for our champions to take the field, but whoever was in charge decided these chumps were better off as target practice for the marksdwarves... of which there are only five.  But it turns out five was enough.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

U: So, the goblins were dispatched without incident?

I: The ambush was laughable.  The snatchers were a little more annoying, but a lot more stupid.  The one that bumped into Zon didn't last long, as she still carries her (Steel battle axe) for wood cutting...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I: ...and another picked the wrong lock and found himself squaring off with the entire military, stationed in case more ambushers appeared and besieged the gate.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

U: Grizzly!  Armok would be proud.

I: Armok would be proud of a full blown siege falling under the might of our champions.  This would've pleased Armok about as well as a fart after a light meal.

U: Ah, hoo hoo... yes... So, about the Elves?

I: Ah, right.  Well, a THIRD snatcher jumped in front of the Elven caravan, and they turned and started running away!  From this one puny runt of a goblin!  The five of them and their asses, afraid of a single goblin with a rusty knife!  What a crock... it happened close enough to the towers that Solon and Dodok sniped him out.  But then, in the confusion of the fighting, I think Asob forgot the very first rule of trading with the Elves; Never, ever, ever offer them goods in wood.

U: Oh, she didn't!!

I: She sure did!  Oh, to see the look on their faces again... she tried to hand them a wooden bin filled with wooden shields we were trying to get rid of!  Their noses turned up so far, you could see the twigs poking out of their nostrils!

U: But then, something happened...

I: You've already heard, I take it, so why do you need to hear it again?

U: I'd like to hear the account of someone who saw the altercation.

I: Ah, well... Asob was apologizing frantically, trying to get them to stop packing - all the booze, their ropes, their seeds, everything she had ordered, disappearing before her eyes.  That's when Zon wandered into the depot, goblin blood still dripping from her axe and beard.  "Ha!  Have you ever seen a goblin fly off an axe so hard?" she bellowed.  "If that wall hadn't been in the way, he'd have sailed all the way to the ponds!  See, the trick is you've gotta catch them right about here..." and then... <Ingish breaks off into laughter.>

U: And then what??

I: Then, she swings her axe at one of the merchants, full force, but bringing it to a stop just as it touched his chest.  No harm done, though she left a nice goblin blood stain on the guy's tunic!  Then, just as they started to protest, she goes, "Hey!  You've brought my cougars!  Perfect, now we can start that breeding program!"  When the Elves resisted, she said "You misunderstood... You've brought MY cougars.  And MY booze.  And whatever else this dwarf here said she wanted.

U: She confiscated their goods?!

I: Not all of them.  She let them leave with stupid toy boats and flimsy weapons.  She also took all the empty cages and barrels they had, just for spite.  Oh, it was hilarious!

U: Hilarious?!  This was a political nightmare back at the courts!  They've demanded we halt wood cutting entirely for the next ten years in recompense!

I: <Ingish narrows his eyes at me.  I do not like when a dwarf narrows his eyes at me.>  Are all you bureaucrats tree huggers?

U: No!  We would never agree to such a thing.  We need the wood for beds and useless trinkets.  Plus, we all love the silly looks on their faces at a well crafted +Alder bin+ as much as the next dwarf.  We just don't want the bloodshed!

I: The might of the Swift Arches, threatened by mere Elves?!

U: Never!  They're just really, really annoying!

I: I dunno... I'm starting to believe you might be a hippie.

U: <I am at risk of losing the trust of my contact!  I employ the well-known tactic taught to me in my earliest political training: Dodge the topic with a pointless and confusing rant!>  Surely hippies are deplorable and as a patriot of the Swift Arches I urge each and every dwarf to take part in relocating whales into the middle of open fields far away from the nearest ocean just for the sake of confusing the silly Humans and pissing off the animal-loving Elves.  It's what a true patriot would do.  Are you a patriot, or a whale-in-water lefty terrorist?

I: That all sounded like Elven gibberish to me.

U: Other current events!  Go!

I: Hm, let's see... oh, there was an accident in the barracks.  'Elizar' killed one of the recruits, poor bastard, but at least he learned a valuable lesson about it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

U: Ah, Armok's way of culling those useless in combat.  Aside from that... any strange constructions taking place lately?

I: Indeed!  Asob's directed us to dig out several tunnels around the underground river.  She's also conscripted masons, architects, and mechanics to come down and build some strange contraptions near it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

U: Very interesting... I thank you for your time, Ingish.  I promise you, your efforts will not go unrewarded.

I: Don't forget the sack of flour!

<Strange constructions around the river... What could Zon Rimtarothil Afentumam, Clerk, be up to?  Has she grown bored of dropping nobles into the bottomless pit where she cannot actually witness their death?  Is this the beginning of some sort of drowning scheme?  A new Duke or Duchess will be assigned in the coming Autumn... I will be sure to warn them to avoid the river at all costs.>

Spoiler: "OOC" (click to show/hide)

For serious, I think there's a bug in my save.  Ingish's job has been "Attend Meeting" for at least a season and a half, at least that I've noticed.  I haven't been watching him closely but he seems to spend a lot of time wandering around outside.  He is moving, I just don't know where to.  His "Gen" screen only shows "Miner" and nothing else.   His assigned labors are Mining, Health Care, Stone/Wood/Item/Food/Refuse/Furniture/Animal Hauling, Burial, and Cleaning.  Has anybody experienced this kind of behavior before in 40d?

[Argonnek]

Yep. It was a reasonably well known bug in 40d's heyday. You might want to check out the bug reports subforum for it. You can't post there, but you are still free to read the threads.

[KenboCalrissian]

26th Slate, 211, Mid Spring
-------------

We had a wave of requests this month, each dealt with handily.  When you have 20 magma forges and your nobles only request metal items, there isn't much to worry about.  Tekkud Lenodmeng, Tax Collector, wanted trifle pewter items - hope he likes goblets.  Reg Erushtirist, Duke Consort, demands picks.  We have an abundance of iron right now, so that's what she's getting.  Kib Therlethzaneg, another consort, demands 1 brass item.  She gets a bar. 

It still bothers me that despite our surplus of forges, our forgers are severely lacking in skill.  The forging/unforging of iron swords and nickel statues continues, but I've started to include helms so our armorsmiths are not left behind.  There still appear to be improvements to be considered towards efficiency... To this end, I've reorganized forge proficiencies to allow a more visual representation of worker skill as well as increase motivation in the work place.  From north-west to south-east, forge permissions are ranked by skill.  Two forges are dedicated to dabblers, two are dedicated to legendary workers, and everything in between allows workers with a range of two skill levels, with minimum and maximum skill permissions increasing with each forge.

Unib Dodókimsal, a Gem Setter, has been taken by a fey mood and claims a jeweler's workshop!  He grabs a lot of items, including a (Native platinum block) we got from a trader for no reason!  Glad to see it being put to good use, we'll see what he makes.

We're starting to see a lack of useful jobs - most every need we have is taken care of.  I'll need to start creating jobs solely for the sake of keeping the workers busy.  We can't have them milling about the zoo making friends!  That would be awful.  Unfortunately, Asob is currently not speaking to me after the incident with the elves.  She'll come around eventually.  They're just elves, anyway!  If I had my way, I'd move the depot under the magma trap next year, wait for those hippies to unload, and burn them along with the forest around them.  Unless they brought more cougars, then we'd take those and THEN burn them.

So, it falls to me to come up with things to do.  Let's see... well, the miners are getting bored, so I ordered all ore veins around the chasm that we know about to be dug out and all outdoor refuse to be claimed.  I've also demanded construction of fortifications on top of the ballista towers.  A lot of good that will do all five of our marksdwarves, but we have a glut of peasants who'd be ripe for bolstering our numbers.  We should increase the military anyway, what with the Big Tent primed and ready to drop in the Fall.  Oh, and I loaded our workshops with random jobs for no good reason.

Speaking of the military, they appear to be getting bored as well.  'Other Grendus' staged a grand melee in the barracks.  'Archibold,' 'Elizar,' and the rest of the champions all bashed each other around for a good while all at the same time.  'Other Grendus' reigned supreme in the fight, parrying every blow with the help of Arbostsarvesh, the artifact adamantine buckler.  It hardly seemed a fair fight, but I'm not one to complain - we need reliable fighters like this in the months to come.

Unib Dodókimsal finished his artifact - a milk quartz bucket worth 114000 dwarfbucks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

How one makes an entire bucket out of milk quartz... I have no clue, but now I feel obligated to build a masterpiece well somewhere.  Wait... of course!  I was just recently thinking of installing a well near the barracks to help treat injuries.  Immediately, I order construction of an expansion to the barracks area enveloping part of the ponds.  I will need to brain storm some options on making the well deeper... I may need to engineer a cave-in to punch through the bottom of the pond and into a pre-dug pit.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bloody rat weed!!  Just as I'm about to close this entry, Fikod the Miner runs to me with reports of flooding... The Big Tent!  But I swear that gear was hooked up to a lever and turned off!  I even watched Asob install the mechanisms herself!  Quietust pulls the control lever again, demonstrating that indeed, the lever is not properly functioning.

Immediately, we wall off the area where the water would eventually escape into the fort, and ordered destruction of the middle gear assembly.  The water continues pouring into the room, as it takes quite some time for the workers to reach their job sites...

I wonder why that lever didn't work... wait, I have an idea!  The water wheel lever is ALSO connected to a gear assembly controlling a magma pump.  That same assembly is on another lever, which is disabled... I order that lever to be pulled, bringing the magma pump to a start.  I've dammed up this magma passage long ago, so while the pump starts turning, the magma has nowhere to go.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now, let's pull the water wheel/magma pump lever again (from this point on, I'm going to refer to this lever as "Plan B")

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Success!!  And just moments before that middle gear assembly was destroyed.  I cancel that order now that we have everything under control... but now, we'll need to find a way to drain that room before we can continue working... the simplest solution is to dig a tunnel into the underground river waterfall and allow the water to pour out into there.  Unfortunately, there is no safe way to open the tunnel.  We can't get at it from above, and a cave-in is too risky since we'd have to go through that lever-suspended platform.

We might need a sacrificial miner...

[KenboCalrissian]

So hey, open question to all: I'm bored.

The frame rate's gone totally to hell, I'm actually playing sessions for 2-3 hours at a time and only making it a month and a half with nothing worth writing happening.  The lack of updates isn't because I'm not playing, it's just moving too darn slow for anything to happen.

I don't WANT to call it quits, but I may have to.  I've been wanting to give the new DF a try, and I don't foresee any major events happening beyond cracking the funhouse in what's either going to end in exciting failure or dull success.  Let's face it... I'm running out of interesting things to write about - or rather, the interesting things aren't happening frequently enough to make the time I devote to it worth it.

I'd really like to retry this same challenge, but there are a number of things I need to do differently to make it more successful.  First off, this area is far too large.  It's the smallest area I could find that contained almost every special feature and I got a little excited about that - the end result is I have a giant area including an underground river and that contributes to the slow FPS.  Secondly, I recall the Dukes were delayed several years due to some mistake I made and couldn't nail down for quite a while, so I feel like my score should be much higher by now.

Oh yeah, the question: Who's reading this and actually wants to see it continue in its current state?  If there's a strong enough positive response, I'll push towards keeping the fort alive and see if there's something I can do about the framerate.  Maybe I can wall off the end of the river going into that giant waterfall, and flood/cap off the top of the magma vent to stop the wave patterning going on there.  I do have a ridiculous number of animals but I've caged just about everything.

Otherwise, I'll work towards bringing the story to a conclusion, proceed with dropping the Big Tent when the time is right, and then end the story whether the project succeeds or fails.  Thoughts?

[Argonnek]

I'd like to see this live on, if possible. If not, well, there's nothing wrong with starting over in a newer version.

[Di]

I've enjoyed you writing before (not in the mood for reading the latest updates yet), the story here is great but if you really want to start it anew go ahead it's been dead for long enoughs so no one will start tantrums because of this.

[Chaoseed]

Continue? Yes. Current state? Nah. Go ahead and start a new thing.

[KenboCalrissian]

14th Felsite, 211, Late Spring
-------------

I've noticed dissension among the ranks.  The workers are becoming wary of me... Talk flies around the dining hall of my latest failure.  How could I have allowed the Big Tent to flood like that?  The laborers have been loyal so far, taking mistakes such as the magma trap or the flooding of the underground island above my tomb in stride.  This latest blunder has pushed them all a little too far...

It's not like anyone's been hurt!  It's just... an unfortunate delay.  That's all.  Besides, I'm not the one who pulled the lever.  This time, though... I'm not sure if anyone realizes it yet.  Somebody has to die to empty that pool of water.

Sure, we could pump it out one level at a time... but time is something we don't have.  Our next visitor is on their way...

As our goal of breaking through the adamantine grows closer, I'm becoming nervous of our military strength.  Yes, we have plenty of champions... but it isn't enough.  Asob's nightmare haunts me to this day.  Even though it was ages ago when she described it, I can still remember the details clearly.

I decide to hire on more marksdwarves.  We've been lacking in the past... Three more should do.  Going through our peasants, I also notice one of them used to be a macedwarf and was for some reason removed from the roster.  I reassign this dwarf as a macedwarf and get him equipped.

The metalshop priorities are turning out to be something of a nuisance... My orders for practice equipment were evenly spaced amongst each shop, meaning there are many that will never be completed because we have no dwarves of the correct proficiency.  I may have to revisit this in the near future, but for now it isn't a priority.

In addition to digging drainage for the Big Tent, we're also excavating a rather deep pit for the new well that will be installed by the barracks.  This should serve as another source of happiness for the dwarves - and perhaps give them something else to talk about besides my failures as a leader...

The well-room is nearly complete.  As I inspect it, I pause to admire a charming scene, something that's hard to come by within these sinister walls.  Upon the recruiting of new marksdwarves, a few of the children became interested in marksdwarfship.  Bëmbul Medtobók, one of the city guards, gathered them up to give them a demonstration.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I retire to my chambers to revise some orders... and that's where I find Asob, sipping strawberry wine from her +Alder cup+ in my office.  It appears she's also found my -Diorite mug- from my cabinet and filled it with plump helmet wine.  Well... this has been a long time coming, I suppose.

I sit down opposite her, and she doesn't take her eyes off her +Alder cup.+  I sigh.

"Look.  I know why you're here, and I'm sorry.  I know you wanted to steal the elves' goods by yourself.  There's nothing quite like scaring the pine cones off of those treehuggers!  I know you could've done it yourself, I just got a little excited."

Asob looks up at me.  "You think that's what's wrong?  Zon, this isn't about me.  It's about you!"

"Erm... Ok?  They're just elves.  They're only one rung above kobolds on the annoyance scale."

"I'm talking about your obsessions, Zon!  Of fish.  Of trees.  Of devising elaborate death traps!  I think this mission is taking too much of a toll on your mind."

"What?  I like fish, and trees.  And don't get me started on those... death traps!  I may not be an architect of any rank or skill, but I'm certainly dedicated.  I was given a job to do, and I'm going to do it!"

"Have you given any thought to why they titled you 'the Skinny Morals?'  It's because of what you just said.  Your morals are skinny!"

"Asob, come on!  It's just a title..."

"Have you given any thought as to why you're doing it?  I mean... who are those dukes and duchesses to you?"

"Petty annoyances.  One rank above the elves--"

"They're fellow dwarves, Zon!"

"No.  No, they aren't.  Dwarves are industrious.  Dwarves mine, dwarves build dangerous machinery, dwarves slay foul beasts with an axe if they can, or through convoluted means if they can't.  Dwarves do NOT sit around in the statue garden and make demands of me to build silly goblets, or put random doors inside bedrooms, or put freaking windows inside rooms several stories underground."

"But... I make demands too..."

"Oh, stop.  You're not included.  You do more work than most of the peons around here!  Your demands usually make sense - beds and picks aren't bad suggestions, and I can trust that you're drawing from experience working around the fort when you come up with something!"

"What about Minkot?  You're doing all of this for a cowardly king who can't even look you in the eye anymore.  Why would you continue following his order?"

"I--"

I had to stop and think about that.  I finally understood what she was really asking; Why am I still doing this?  I had been browbeaten into this position, but Mayor Obok is likely dead and King Minkot has no loyalty outside of his own privy.  Nothing is forcing me to do this anymore.  In fact... nothing's been forcing me for the past several years.  I've been doing it because...

"...Because I want to, Asmel.  Because it feels good.  Because before establishing this fort, I lived my whole life within but a shadow of my potential.  Regional fishing champ??  Do you know how hard it is to attain such a title?  It isn't!  You put your line in the water until it jiggles, and then you tug.

"When you pull it out, a shimmering blob of life wiggles on the end of your string.  Its very existence is at your mercy.  And what did you do to earn that kind of power?  You throw a freaking string into the water, and some dumb bass comes and nibbles at it, and now it's up to you whether it lives or dies!  That's life, Asmel!  You can either be the fish, biting at every tasty morsel that happens to float your way, living or dying by the decision of the dwarf who's dangling you on their line... or you can be the one with the string. 

"And that's where I am, Asmel.  I'm the dwarf who's holding the pole.  I'm the one baiting those stupid blobs of life to their doom with levers, shiny beds, flashy trinkets... and when I pull my line, they will know that all their time wasted blabbering politics gained them no real power in this world.  They will learn in their last moments that the dwarf with the power is the one who doesn't dick around and makes shit happen.  They will all learn.  How many fish must I catch before you'll see??  Not enough, Asmel!  It'll never be enough!!"

I slam my fist into the table, knocking my plump helmet wine over.  I glare at my rival, sitting across from me on the other side of the lake.  Line in, line out, fish out.  Line in, line out, fish out.  Asmel grins at me.  Her lips don't move, but I hear her taunts in my head.  "Whatever, Zon!  You'll never outfish me.  The only region you'll be champion of is a barrel full of mackerel!"  The lake seems to be leaking from her face, dribbling down her cheeks from her eyes.  The fishing pole trembles in her hands, and then she casts its hook at me.

An +Alder cup+ full of strawberry wine hits me in the face.  I rub the sweet beverage from my eyes with my beard.  I am back in my office.  Asob is leaving in a hurry.  I blink several times, trying to recall what just happened... and I look down to find that somehow, I've documented the entire event in my journal.  I stare at the words on this page in horror... and I can't stop... can't stop writing!  I can't stop documenting!  What is wrong with me??

Ingish knocks on my door now.  I wonder if he's ever found that meeting he's supposedly attending.  He gives me the news, and I can't help but smile despite the horror I've just witnessed of myself.

Looks like we have company...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[KenboCalrissian]

Di, do you mind if I redorf you?  Yours is the blind, narcoleptic dwarf who's spilling roasts everywhere and spamming up my announcements.  I promise to give her a suitably amusing ending   I can deal with the narcolepsy if you're particularly attached to that dwarf.

[Epithemius]

Only about ten pages in, but it is written wonderfully. Your writing style is rather quite enjoyable, and you've got some great characters going. Posting to watch, as well.