Whew, sorry about that. Just got in an hour ago and played out most of spring now.
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1st Granite, 11~It wasn’t a happy new year. Someone suggested throwing a party to celebrate; I think Dermonster. We didn’t.
We’ve been in the Malodorous Jungle for a few days now, trying to get the wagon as close as we could to the volcano, our intended location. Though the travel part of our job was almost over, nobody except Dermonster seemed all that cheery.
As we arrived at the base of the volcano, there was an unearthly wailing sound that emitted from the mountain’s heights. We all stopped as we heard it, the unnerving echoes taking forever to finally fade away. It sounded like something dying – many somethings. We stood there for a moment, horrified, unconsciously grouping closer together.
“Well!” said Bodark, who had just returned from investigating the suroundings, “this seems like a good place to set up camp!”
We didn’t bring much with us except some meat and booze. We had been ordered not to dig; there was no hope of procuring ore to smelt – thus no anvil. Jyrvus would have to fill other jobs for now. I told Rykue that he could hunt later, after we had cleared the trees in our new site. I really, really hoped someone else would tell him that there was nothing alive out there. The way he gripped his axe handle unnerved me.
Jyrvus has been content to start putting up walls. He knows he isn’t going to get a forge any time soon, but doesn’t seem to be bothered. Or bothered much by anything, really. We heard a skeletal eagle cawing at the night a few days back, and he seemed to just shrug it off.
The site was clear. I mentally tried to plan out what we’d need to start our base of operations, hoping to assert my leadershi—
“Okay, everyone, let’s get going! I need those trees down and all our supplies over in the center there! We’re going to need a cabin for sleeping and eating, a stable, some farmland, and a workhouse right away. Let’s show some hustle, you dwarves.”
Bodark again. He’d outdone me again. Fine, let him handle the project, I guess. I’ll be happy enough to be indoors.
…
4th Slate, 11~We’ve spotted some imps creeping around outside the magma pipe. They’re a little scrappy-looking. Some exposed innards, that sort of thing. Though by now I’ve had my share of unnerving. With luck, they won’t come our way.
We’ve started work on our palisade perimeter – a thin, wooden wall that will (hopefully) protect us from attackers. I’m still trying to plot out a defensive measure, though – we need to leave our trade depot accessible to supply caravans. I suppose that’ll be up to me. Bodark’s got the group’s support, but I seem to be the one following through on his lofty ideas. The de-facto leader himself keeps staring at our camp and looking upwards, as if imagining things to come. Things are still a mess, though, so hopefully he'll root himself in the present for a while.
It’s taken a little while to get our beds and tables into the makeshift cabin. My bed took especially long to make, and I was forced to sleep on the floor one night. Though I suspect Demonster, she always seems so cheery that I’m second-guessing myself. I’ve never seen a dwarf
actually whistle while they work before.
Rykue has finally approached me about her constant woodcutting duties. “Listen,” she said, “it’s been about a month. I want to go out there and kill something. All this tree cutting is dulling my axehead. Are you gonna let me get to it, or will I have to stay in here and kill something, instead?” Subtle. I blatantly lied and told her to wait just a bit longer; surely, something living would wander through. If not, I’m blaming Bodark.
Gutendorf’s given me a lot of hassle about her new duties. She argues that she’s a master clothier, capable of crafting the finest garments. I argue that we don’t have a farmer. She’s been complaining to Bodark, I think, but the more her stomach grumbles after eating the jerky-like cat meat we brought along, the more right she proves me.
Irvin continues to not do much. He’s been standing around the fields with the animals, watching them graze. I told him we’re going to need to butcher a few if we start to get low on meat, and he just grinned to me with his head tilted a little too far forwards. That was the end of the conversation.
The hollow caws continue to get louder each night. I’m not excited for what’s to come. Not that that changes anything.
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So, yeah. Not much to see so far. Going to do more conversational stuff between the dwarves once I have some defense done; until then, I need to orc-proof myself some more (although no, I won't be just sealing myself inside).
Did Gutendorf just turned into woman farmer? Awesome!
Yup - I was out of male dwarves, and nobody had volunteered to be a farmer yet. As much as I'd like to follow through with dorf requests, there's only so far you can bend without a food source.
Yep, seeds and vegetation will have to be gathered from the start, And we don't really have any farmers at this point anyway, so we will have to make due with meat from my animals and whatever we might be lucky enough to hunt for a while. Just as long as we keep a breeding pair, maybe slaughter the wagon randoms, and hope we get puppies and colts quickly.
As to stone, I'd like to see strip mining myself, start with the top of the mountains, channeling it down to the flat ground, using the stone from that to make the castle with. Will we be making the stones into blocks before use? That seems more rl castle building to me, than just slapping stones together. For now though I suggest getting a wooden palisade up quick, just for some protection around the stockpiles and such. Maybe get a lean-to bed dorm set up.
I'm a little worried about water myself, not sure what we have from that embark screen. With all the skeleton type stuff around, Injury recovery is going to be important.
There's actually a fair amount of lakes, and we've got a well up (brought a chain and dug out a single square of rock for a mechanism; we've got a pick but I'm restricting its use heavily).
We'll be mining out rock to use eventually, but until we get some migrants, it's wood time. Hoo-yeah. And yeah, they'll be open strip-mine quarries. I'll do my best to carve blocks since it's nicer, but if I'm in a hurry, source material it is. Next on the to-do list is defense, then a stable, then a workhouse.
For those curious, since I forgot to screencap it: We embarked with 100ish slabs of cat meat, 200 barrels of booze (50 of each type, since I don't think we'll be brewing anything anytime soon), two axes, a pick, five dogs, and two horses - and we got a horse and a mule with the caravan.
That giant skeletal eagle bothers the hell out of me. I have no idea what to do if it attacks. Bloody fliers.
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Topic: The Castle Mightygrips: Cancelled. [community] (Read 48012 times)