5th Granite, 205, Early Spring (by Asob Mommuzzokun)
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No change in Zon's condition... Hopefully she gets well soon!
I cancelled the tapping of the magma pipe just in time as I realized an oversight. We need to install fortifications to block out nasty fire imps! How awful that would have been if we'd have tapped it without those...
An artifact rope was created! Um... good work? Oh, who am I kidding... If only more dwarves around here were followers of Asën, and knew the true meaning of art. I wonder if the hatches on this image are representative of the many hatches that were created as part of the obsidian farm? We scrapped that part because hooking up 16 hatches to a lever would have been simply overkill and unnecessary, so we have all these spare hatches lying around... I wonder if this was created to call attention to my folley? Come to think of it, "Doctrinespurns" itself sounds like a somewhat anarchistic title. Oh... oh my, what to do? Do the others hate me? Do they plot behind my back?
Um... OK, calm down Asob. Remember, if anyone gives you trouble, you can just make them pull the lever.
With a little direction, we're able to fit the Fortifications without getting anyone stuck. I thought about installing a pump to get the magma over to its final destination more quickly, but in the end decided against it. There would be too much reconstruction involved to get that working, and we don't want to risk pushing the magma up through the forges! Everything looks to be in order, so I give the orders to channel away.
The elves came again... nothing but wood and cloth. Fortunately for them, we're actually really short on wood at the moment because everyone was busy dragging dolomite out of the magma duct, including the wood cutters. That stuff is too valuable to let it just get melted like that!
Unbelievable... their entire caravan is worth 501 dwarfbucks. Can you believe it? I successfully trade for their entire load with a single (narrow giant cave spider silk sock). Pathetic. Enjoy your
one sock, you thong-toting elves... What's wrong? Your other foot cold? Well, maybe you should have brought along another cougar to breed with the one we bought from you last year!
Speaking of exotic animals, we still haven't caught a second Giant Eagle to breed with the first. I decide to have a word with the dungeon master.
I find Kikrost in the kennels where the Giant Eagle is caged. I can't believe my eyes... she's somehow managed to teach the Giant Eagle to hold a mug and drink dwarven beer!
"Er... I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"
Kikrost and the Giant Eagle both turn to look at me. "Oh, Asob! We were just talking about you! Have a seat."
Meep. "It was talking about me? Ohmygodwhatdiditsaydoesithatemeisitgoingtoeatme?!?!"
"Hey! I don't need this kind of excitement in my life, so calm down! No, she's not going to eat you."
"Ah... she? That's good, that's actually what I came to ask you about."
Kikrost raised an eyebrow at me. She clucked at the Giant Eagle, who ruffled her feathers at me. "Nope, sorry, 'fraid she's only into other eagles. And male ones."
"What?! Ohmygodnothat'snotwhatImeantatall!!"
"Gah! You almost made me spill my beer! This is entirely too much excitement in my life right now!"
Ok, Asob... where's that latent reserve of courage when you need it? Time to get a handle on this situation. "Kikrost, what do you think are the chances of catching another male for this one? We'd definitely like to have a clutch of these to keep around the fort."
Kikrost stroked her beard. "Well, how did you catch this one? Didn't you use bait or something?"
"Well... actually, we did leave baited traps to catch a giant bat, but we never did catch one. This eagle, on the other hand, actually found itself in one of our groundhog traps by chance."
Kikrost clucked at the eagle again. This time, it reared its claws and squawked at me.
"Meep."
"Beg your pardon?"
"Oh! Sorry, that meep was meant to be kept internal. Pay it no mind."
Kikrost sipped at her beer. The Giant Eagle clucked away, and Kikrost seemed to be listening. "Uh huh... you don't say?... yes, I hear you."
"Um... what's it saying?"
"
She says she wouldn't mind nesting with another wild eagle. It need not be tame. Her chicks would then be tame, and we could start a breeding program?"
"Hmm... that sounds risky, though, don't you think? What if something attacks her while she's out?"
Kikrost laughed. "Oh, Asob, don't you know anything about reproduction? ((Wiki link))
Creatures breed through spores! All we need to do is chain her up somewhere deep within the fortress where her and her chicks will be safe, and as soon as a male flies overhead she'll get pregnant. In fact, we've probably already missed a few opportunities by leaving her in this cage!"
"I had no idea it was that easy! Well then, we'll set to work building a roost for her right away!"
"Might I suggest you line it with statues? A Giant Eagle is no common prize, and you wouldn't want her to get angry or bored..."
I shudder, and immediately set the miners to work carving out a room specifically for the nursing of Giant Eagle chicks. The miners have been looking for things to mine since the magma project ended, anyway.
And where else does one put an exotic animal but within the dungeon master's own quarters? After all, they seem to get along fine, so they should make great room mates! I decide to do the same with the cougar, too, and made the room into a sculpture garden for everyone to enjoy! Other exotic pets we have will go here too.
Udib Uristnakuth surprised us all again in his quest for collecting silk webs. A wolf attacked him, and he single-handedly wrestled it to the ground and killed it. I think by this point, Udib is a competent enough wrestler that he can more or less handle himself against most predators. Nice!
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1st Felsite, Late Spring
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More migrants! This puts our population at 93! And... huh. No baron. Curses... I guess I devoted too much dwarfpower to the magma project and didn't produce enough wealth. Well... we'll devote our energies to production this year to get the first one.
"Excuse me," a very recognizable voice confronts me. "Are you Zon Castleweakened?"
I turn and see a peasant... but a very peculiar looking peasant, at that! "No, I'm sorry. My name is Asob. Zon is bedridden with a broken leg and I've taken over in her place. Can I help you with something?"
"Not unless Zon has entrusted you with the details of
her mission..." This last part was whispered sinisterly.
I take a closer look at the peasant before me, and... uh.......
"OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMY--"
"Pipe down, will ya?! No one is supposed to know I'm here!"
"OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD!!!"The king grumbled. "I suppose I'll wait until you get this undue enthusiasm out of your system."
I took several deep breaths before I could address him. "Your majesty! What brings you here?"
"Well, Asob, to be quite frank, Mayor Obok advised to me that he didn't think Zon Castleweakened was cut out for this task. One reason I've come is to supervise her in her mission - or you, whoever it is that's doing this. Secondly, I've heard rumors that a
certain precious metal was discovered under these hills."
My heart thumped in my chest. "Oh... you mean..."
"What else could I mean? Tell me, how much of it have you mined?"
"I... well... we... stopped mining it as soon as we found it...?"
"What?! Why? Have you any idea the worth of that stuff?!"
"I do! But it's rumored to house monsters, and our military isn't well enough equipped to handle them..."
"Well, then you'd better get it equipped, and you'd better start mining it soon! Now, show me to my chambers."
Though we hadn't set aside a room specifically for the King, we actually had two spare consorts' chambers in anticipation for the beginning of the project. I assigned King Minkot to one of them and, as expected, it wasn't yet good enough for his tastes. Looks like the challenge begins with getting Minkot's quarters up to specs...
Fortunately, we had
two artifact statues on hand - Istbar Babin, 'The Rose of Friends' the basalt statue, and Stòkïdmasos, 'Impaledtalk,' that ghastly Native copper statue...
Each of these went into his dining room and throne room, respectively, and in his bedroom lies Azuzmozib Kebontishak, 'Somberswallows the Odorous Typhoon' the Galena bed - the bed that I crafted myself.
King Minkot's rooms easily shot up to Royal quality in no time, but I wish I could have said the same for his Royal Mausoleum...
Every stupid statue in the fortress wasn't enough, and then we threw in some masterwork armor stands and
finally after four gem windows it was enough. Oh, if only we'd trained the blacksmiths beforehand... we'd better start doing that now.
His demands burned through the entire stockpile of high-quality chests, cabinets, armor stands, weapon racks, statues, and artifacts that were going to be placed in the baron consorts' rooms to keep them happy. It's almost like we're back at square one...
Dôbar Ushuloddom the Hunter was finally killed by Datannär the wolf, thus ending his animal killing spree just shy of the 60 mark.
Dôbar befriended animals like goblins befriend hygiene: with extreme prejudice.
Author
Topic: Severedcoils - Consort Accumulation Challenge (Score: 5) (40d + DnD 5e) (Read 130311 times)