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[Imp]

Hi everyone.  Enjoyed reading some of the community story fortresses and decided I wanted to offer one as well, hope can spin an enjoyable tale.  This fortress is created with the Dig Dwarfier mod http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=49281.0

This story opens a few decades after Kodor the Prophet of God (depicted as a male dwarf and associated with fate) delivers a prophecy of absolute destruction to his worshipers among the dwarves of The Pillar of Pulleys.  This prophecy warned of a miasma-like plague soon to be unleashed upon the world.  Colorless and odorless, but more potent than miasma, it would not be diffused by open air, absorbed by water, nor blocked out by doors, solid stone, or soil.  It would spread from its sources for leagues, not mere meters.  And it would not simply disgust but rapidly kill every form of life and unlife that it touched.  Further, whenever any organic mass larger than a vermin was touched by this poison, each would soon be transformed into new sources steadily spreading the doom further.

No life upon the planet would survive this coming plague, and it could not be stopped once it began to spread, but it could be contained at the source.  He knew the accursed spot where the end of all life would begin, and if everything which could become a new and spreading source was removed from range before the poison appeared, the virulence would eventually fade and the world would be spared.

But when Kodor looked to the world to select the heroes who would become saviors, none of the races were found capable.  This would be a prolonged and harsh undertaking, for a large range of life lived within this compromised area and most of it was well hidden beneath the mountains there.  Humans were fickle, goblins weak, orcs to easily distracted, elves so attached to preserving life for achieving the extermination necessary, and dwarves, even his, were to attached to their traditions and history to do everything which had to be done.

Of all the peoples of the world, the dwarves of the civilization that worshipped him would be the most cooperative, so these were chosen as the source of the seven children who would be forged into the weapons needed, despite the interference of the other gods and of the dwarves themselves.  Signs and portents would guide all of The Pillar, and exacting instructions were given as to how the chosen children would be recognized and were to be raised.  Equally importantly, every dwarf who would later emigrate to this area was to partake in lengthy rituals to help them separate from their culture, traditions, and personal pasts.  For every dwarf, Kodor warned as he gave the prophecy, the greatest challenge in achieving this task would lie in simply being themselves - especially if they came to this cursed place with their expectations and values intact.




The female king, Erith Willfulchannels, had always been an ardent worshiper of Kodor.  Convinced, she mandated that the Pillar of Pulleys would fulfill the vision of this god.  Days later she gave birth to her fifth child, and signs soon indicated that this boy was one of the chosen seven.  As the word of Kodor required, Erith had all record of this baby's birth removed from the engravings.  She publicly renounced her only son, who was raised by priests in the proscribed manner as were the other six selected children.  Erith could not prevent herself from visiting her youngest child, and she did not keep the truth from her fifthborn as the he grew.  She explained the reasons for her choices, her pride and love for all of her children, and her grief that she could not cherish and honor Paintedscale as fully as she could her others.  Already, as Kodor foresaw, the very nature of dwarves being dwarves acted to threaten the fulfillment of lifesaving prophecy.  Even within his most faithful.


Worldmap of the embark location:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The site has river, underground river, underground pool, lava pipe, chasm, HFS, obsidian, sand, and varying amounts of sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous intrusive stone layers throughout the region.

The embarking details:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

21 each wine, rum, ale, and beer.
10 each pig tail, helmet spawn, cave wheat, sweet pods, and bee queens.
14 each bituminous coal and copper nuggets.
an iron anvil.
44 towercap logs
6 turtles
1 each of 47 different inexpensive foods (everything 2 or 4 DB)

Each of the dwarves was trained to proficient in grower and miner.
The fortress was named Save the World, and the clan was called The Faithful Many-child of Prophecy (This Dwarven language lacking a word for 'children' in plural)

The map at embark

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-8012-savetheworld
There's nothing visible on the units list save the dwarves and their wagon animals, but it does show the lay of the land.

The dwarves available for claiming, naming, and personalizing to some extent  (Please note, these six were all raised to be committed to the prophecy to a great extent, and to believe in it.  They were also to some degree affected by limited contacts with their families and fragments of what they learned of 'normal dwarven lives'.  Later dwarves, especially the nobles, will probably be less indoctrinated, especially as the population increases towards and past 100.  These will also be available for choosing as they arrive, and may fit better with what you'd like them to be, especially if you don't want your dwarf believing or cooperating with this 'end of the world nonsense' - note that few to none of Kodor's worshipers would go that far, but all the other gods are far more dwarfy.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Lastly, here's my dwarf.  Not the leader, but he'll be a fine perspective to tell this tale from even so.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Imp]

early morning, 1st Granite, 434.

We didn't run away.  We went the way you said but we didn't see any signs and then the harness snapped again.  It's broken four times before and each time we fixed it, but we're out of leather and there's not enough left of the harness to tie the beasts together, let alone to the wagon.  We were going to take a barrel each and keep walking, so we'd have enough to drink and maybe it wasn't far, but Geniusglazes said she could see us dying if we did that and Speakshoot says we're in the right spot, the harness breaking and not being fixable is a sign.

But there's no sign here and I know we're lost and we're going to fail.  You promised us a caravan before the year ended, please tell them to take us the rest of the way?

We're stuck here and the others all say we're in the right spot.  They say they're seeing signs in the sky and there's nothing different there.  You told me about giving mandates and I tried to tell them like you'd say it, but nobody's listening, they're getting ready to smelt the copper.  And I don't have a Hammerer or even a hammer to make them sorry.



early evening, 9th of Granite, 434.

There is a sign in the sky!  It's over the whole sky now, it's like the sky's been roofed over.  And Kodor is here and he says he's going to be here a lot cause this is the right place and he's really proud of all of us and especially me.  He said that the others were harder to talk to and so he talked to them first cause he knew I could wait longer.

But the sign in the sky is really special.  All day it has been the blue of microcline and the sun's a forge decorated with tourmalines.  And the sun's almost set now and that part of the sky moved and showed rubies and rose quartz and citrines.  I reached up and I couldn't touch them.  Wheelyoung told me he thinks if we build stairs in the right spot we can get high enough to get them down.  I keep looking up as I carve this and it's getting darker and darker and the microcline's gone to onyx and opal dust.  It's so beautiful.  I wish everyone was here and could see it, it's the best thing I've ever seen.

I'm going to marry Speakshoot*.  I've known her forever but we never could really talk before.  And the sign in the sky's the best thing she's ever seen too.  We have most of the coal cooked to coke and some of the copper's done smelting.  Wheelyoung's working on the first pick now.  There's a cage set up and we have some beds and animal traps carved, but Paintburial says he hasn't seen anything to catch and he's been looking for three days now.  We even have some food unpacked, cause we were going to gather some of the plants, but there's no bushes or trees close, just grass.  And no big animals either.  It's like someone was here doing our job for us before we got here.

Kodor is really happy about it.  He says that he's known about here from before you were born and he's been trying to drive away or kill animals and plants from here in every way he can think of for all that time.  But that there's a lot left, just they're all underground and we're going to have to dig down and search for them.  And that some of them are really dangerous.  And we'd better not forget that we need to survive here for years while we look for them, so we'd better get farms growing soon.


*Game crashed on me (!) and my newest save was before the narrator fell in love.  He's just as fast to fall in love again, but kept picking different dwarves, so I gave up on savescumming to try and recreate and just changed the story.

[Imp]

Somewhat past midnight, 13th of Hematite, 434.

We have some of the comforts of home and our farms are growing well.  We're concentrating on defenses these days, starting with a looping wall wide around the entrance to our cavern.  It's about half finished now, with two newly completed bridges allowing for future passage and waiting for the rest of the wall to be build around them.  We're going to finish this wall before we work on mechanisms.  One of the bridges will lead directly out, the other to a twisting fenced path covered by more bridges.  Those bridges will open onto a short fall down to a another bridge, which will uncover a long and deadly fall.

Though we've still seen nothing alive here except for ourselves and our once-draft-beasts.  We've placed them in the cage so we can mostly ignore them, but I've not spotted so much as a rat or a roach.  None of our barrels are chewed, none of the seed stock has been eaten.  The sky is free of birds and there's no fish in the ponds or the river.  It's much simpler not having to waste time watching for and catching vermin, but I had counted on catching some to sell when the caravan came.  Several of the priests who trained us had little pets, though we of course will never have any. 

[Imp]

near midnight, 28th of Galena, 434

Geniusglazes has been insufferable.  She claims she is called to be a priest and has spent the last two months being contrary.  First she made mechanisms out of the last of the ore we brought from home, insisting that as there were no trees to be seen we had no need to use it for making axes as we'd intended.  We may find vast reaches of towercaps below, we will need picks in the hands of any dwarves who come to help us, for there are innumerable dwarflengths of stone to tunnel through before we can be certain we have found everything we must kill or remove.  None of this matters to her.  We had hundreds of chunks of regular stone around to be used - And she uses the last of our copper ore.

And Kodor departed for his rest right as she began making her claims of being a priest.  So we could not prevail upon him to set her aright.  Then she insisted the bridges we had made were unfit for her mechanisms, and even as we tried to link a lever to each bridge she ran to begin dismantling first one than the other.  As if any dwarf could connect a half-destroyed bridge with any accuracy.  And as we repaired the bridges she tore down the levers.

We'd have killed her, but Paintburial is her lover and killing her now would surely kill him too.  We know there are orcs in these mountains and expect to see them by winter, and with only five pairs of hands and our hearts weighed down by the grief of losing two of our chosen few I am not sure any of us would have found the strength to continue.

Finally we decided to allow her freedom to design the bridges, mechanisms, and levers however she chose as the rest of us continued to work on the maze intended to distract any siegers from the danger below their feet.  She finally did construct plans she would allow us to follow, and at last we have usable bridges to protect the entrances to our cavern.  But it was nearly the end of Galena before all this was done, and the year has turned to Autumn even as I have been carving these words.

Our provisions are almost gone, so we will set aside constructing defenses for these days of early Moonstone and work on brewing booze and carving mugs.  The Depot has just been finished, so we're nearly ready to toast the caravan you promised us this month.  I am not as pleased with our progress as I thought I would be, though for now we stride rapidly along on the glory of the work Kodor has already achieved for us.  The largest living things we have seen here so far have been the plump helmets we have grown.  No vermin troubles our fields or stockpiles, and we've not seen so much as a swarm of flies near the drying up murky ponds.




I've not changed the raws of this Dig Dwarfier at all, except to fix the bug preventing bridges from being connected to levers, thank you SO much blue emu for posting how to fix it, was wondering how to continue this story (or the map itself!) without retractable bridges.  I have no idea why I don't have any vermin or wild animals wandering the map.  The lack of vermin happened to me once for about two seasons on a Dig Deeper map, then mysteriously vermin appeared like normal about mid summer, so I rather hope beasts of all sizes eventually appear here too.  I'd intended to have shrubs and trees on the map as well, but they simply didn't happen to grow.  Makes the task simpler for the dwarves, at least.  And there should be plenty of living challenges underground once each is found - but the units list shows no deaths as of yet, which I've not seen before on a map with underground river or chasm present.  Usually the undiscovered corpses pile up quick!

[gumball135]

Are you letting people have dwarves?
If yes, I'll take one. If it's a guy, call him Rimmington. If it's a girl, call her Peach. Thanks

Also, how did you lose two of the dwarves?

[Imp]

Welcome in, Gumball.  Glad to weave you into the story.  Any skill preferance for Rimmington, or any personality quirks?  Immigrants surely come soon, so if we dont already have what you want, likely he will appear.

No dwarves have died yet.  This version of DF was buggy, and bridges couldn't be linked to levers.  I spent about a month and a half of game time placing and removing levers and bridges trying to understand what I was doing wrong ;p.  blue emu posted a fix to the bug (YEAH!) so game was good again (My strat requires bridges that can move).  But I needed a way to explain that huge waste of time.  Thus one dwarf messing up the building, and the narrator's consideration of killing her or not - and what this would mean to the rest of the colony.

[Imp]

midday, 16th of Limestone, 434

Fountainveiled arrived two days ago.  I remember you telling me he had been retired, maybe no one told him this?  The merchants arrived when we expected and they followed the temporary route we'd made to offer some shelter for the wagons.  But Fountainveiled decided to approach us from the distant river.  I was outside and heard a stranger shouting something about a gift, so I went to investigate.  I found him asleep on his face near a left handed silk glove.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He woke as I neared, rising and lifting both arms before his face, the left a stub missing everything past the middle of his forearm.  He wriggled his remaining fingers as he told me he always brought a left handed glove when he first came to a new outpost, so we didn't forget he was a hero deserving... Well.  I assume he meant deserving an escort, for he decided to take another nap on his beard and stopped speaking mid word.

I carried his gift back to the cavern and told Speakshoot our liaison neared.  Was over a full day later before Fountainveiled finally made it the rest of the way to the cavern. Speakshoot's been urging him to just get onto one of the wagons for an easy ride home, but every time she does he just points his stump at her and shrieks that he has a job to do that he's going to do by his beer and bones.  This would be more convincing if he wasn't passing out every third or fourth step.

Truly, there's not much help we need from a liaison.  A bit of wood, perhaps, so we sleep better as we prepare to search through the stones for the life we must remove from this territory.  We'll have to burn our beds before we're done here of course.  Maybe a little food and drink, to give us more time to search.

But that's not what I overheard Speakshoot requesting.  She did offer to pay top prices for wood and a pittance extra for drink, but she asked as well for a wide range of gems and a selection of valuable metals.  She offered top prices for all sorts of thread as well, and for charcoal, turtles, and lobsters.  She said we wanted leather and chitin too.  Madness.  I've not had a chance to ask her yet what she's thinking.  My own lover, claiming she is to busy to speak with me between the laison's needs, the caravan, and the work we are doing to make goods for trade.

For trade!  We're not here for glorious creation.  We're here to stop the death of everything within and upon the world and making things like that will only distract and slow us.  How can my lover be so blind?  Kodor must wake soon and send us visions, scold us, drive us in the right direction lest we forget everything in the beauty of what our own hands can make.

[gumball135]

Rimmington is an axedwarf who doesn't really believe in any of this ''world ending plague'' nonsense, and just came along so he could kill some stuff.
Thanks. It's great so far.

[Imp]

late evening, 10th of Timber, 434

Seven immigrants arrived this morning, and one of them brought a breeding pair of chickens with him.  The very word of Kodor refuted - living things are to be removed from here, not brought for breeding.  We had sold the animals that pulled the wagon here back to the caravan so they are no longer a problem, but now this is.  Tightnessplanks clings to the chicks and calls them pets, insisting that their offspring will provide excellent meat and leather for us.  The other immigrants agree with him, and worse, so does Speakshoot, Wheelyoung, Geniusglazes, and Paintburial.  For now these animals will remain here with us.

Two of the immigrants are clothiers, one of them the fool who brought the birds, and another is a leatherworker.  The fourth calls himself an animal caretaker - I feel great shame as I wait for Kodor to awaken and observe the stubborn defiance of our people.  The fifth has worked as a fish cleaner, so he to will need to learn other work here as by the will of Kodor no fish swim in this territory's dank pools or river.  The sixth is a peasant, a friendly enough fellow but so cautious he'll say almost nothing about himself.

The seventh, Rimmington, has been trained as a woodcutter, though Kodor will surely not be displeased because he has not said two words about our lack of trees.  Instead he's interested in fighting, and the crucible steel hatchet he brought with him looks far more like a weapon than a tool to me.  He doesn't appear disappointed that we've not found anything to fight as of yet, though he tugged on his beard when I told him we didn't have a standing military now and that he was asked to work with everyone else at various tasks while we finish our defenses.  He does seem the best of this lot though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am extremely disappointed, for not one of these strangers worships Kodor.  Am I to be the only one who will hold to his faith?




just after dawn, 19th Moonstone, 434

My nose is broken and we are under siege by a force of orc bowmen and wrestlers.  They entered our territory a day ago, extremely close to our cavern and while Vesselbeach was working on a bridge only accessible from outside the walls.  I pulled the lever raising the one bridge allowing clear entrance within our walls (as until the labyrinth of bridges is completed there will be no access through the other path in) and the rest of us were safe, though Vesselbeach was trapped outside and still running for the raised bridge, shouting to her lover Wheelyoung for help.

I held my hand to the lever, holding the bridge closed and ordering Wheelyoung back as he ran at me.  Wheelyoung charged and punched me in the face, shattering my nose and sending me flying several dwarflengths over our row of dining tables.  Worse, he then pulled the lever to lower that bridge and ran for the stairs, shouting Vesselbeach's name - leaving the path into our cavern open to the orcish horde.

Happily the same fool immigrant who'd brought the chickens was right there to pull the lever again.  The bridge raised again right after Vesselbeach made it inside, and before the orcs had managed to cover more than roughly half the distance to the wall - Vesselbeach had rounded the side of the wall and past the orcish archers almost within bow range I believe.  I suppose my shattered nose is a small sacrifice to save another pair of hands for Kodor's work, though once we do have time for military training I will definitely learn how to wrestle.  I don't intend to be so easily defeated should a second instance like this occur.

Had the hoard broken through and slaughtered us all, years from now our bones would have become part of spreading the life-destroying poison.  We must not fail, we must not falter, not for love or greed or to avoid pain.  I don't think anyone but myself holds any faith in why we are here anymore.  It has been almost a year now and all we've done is care for ourselves, fashion and store trade goods, and build defenses.  We have not found a single one of the lives hidden here that must be removed - instead we have brought life and more life here, risking dying and leaving our lumber, animals, and bones to feed the plague.  My heart is bleak and I almost cannot stop myself from believing that Kodor has chosen us to be the ones that fail him.

For now we continue to work on the labyrinth of bridges, though from the inside only.  A few of us fashion mechanisms and connect them to the finished bridges, a few others harvest and plant plump helmets while some brew more barrels of beer and rum.  Remmington has chosen to stand near the sealed gate, periodically half climbing the wall to keep an eye on the orcish horde milling a short distance outside.  His hatchet is constantly in his hand, but I'm not sure what he believes he could do with it against a half dozen trained archers should they find a way inside.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Imp]

just past sunset, 12th of Granite, 435

Three days ago the labyrinth of bridges was finally fully connected to their levers.  The orcs remained a short distance outside the walls and Remmington reported that they appeared increasingly impatient and he believed they might leave soon.  The killing fall is not yet fully dug, but with the labyrinth completed they can be contained until that is finished as well.

The bridge guarding the entrance to the labyrinth was opened and the orcs approached, somewhat hesitantly.  Probably quite hungry after almost three months of sieging, but earlier this afternoon they finally all entered the gauntlet.  The lever was pulled to drop them a short distance, a harmless fall into a holding area.  As they recovered from that fall it was clear their nerve had broken and they wished more to escape than attack.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Honestly, all this work and worry about the orcs seems a complete waste of time to me.  What we need to achieve is underground, not above, and a far smaller and simpler barrier could have provided equal protection.  It matters nothing if these orcs leave alive, in fact it's better - they would carry their dangerous, vulnerable flesh away with themselves if they did.  Now we're going to have to ensure that their remains are completely destroyed before disaster strikes, and likely much more time will be wasted sorting through their belongings and weapons.

Additionally, quite a few morions, prase opals, amazonites, and sunstones have been discovered as we dug the pitfall and the tip of a vein of blackmetal was exposed.  My fellows show disgusting excitement over this, and the would-be fish cleaner started a brawl with Speakshoot over whether these small treasures were a gift from his god of metals or from her god of trade, wealth, and jewels.  My lover seemed upset when I refused to support her argument - but neither of them, nor anyone else here seems at all bothered that we have forgotten our duty to the god who shaped our lives and sent us here to prevent end of everything.

[Imp]

Early afternoon, 15th Felsite, 435

Two days after the last siege broke another started, two orcine squads attempting a pincher-like attack.  Both entered the labyrinth at slightly different times and were dropped to wait beside the spirit-broken original squad.  There's been almost constant shouting from the catchpen since then.  Most of us have been quite excited, digging out the deathpit with a will, though no further gems or ores were found.  Once this is over I'm counting on that exitement stirring my fellows into doing more exploratory mining.  Maybe we'll actually start finding some of the hidden lives we're here to remove.  I've been asked to pull the lever to trigger the death fall now, so I'll finish this later.

Early evening the same day

There were forty-eight orcs in our trap, and all but seven died when they fell the eight dwarf-lengths into the deeper pit.  The leaders, despite their better armor, were not among the initial survivors.  Two bled to death within moments of the fall and the remaining five showed no interest in continuing to fight.

Rimmington was quite interested in being the one to put down the remaining orcs, but as none of us had any actual combat experience he agreed to lead us in finishing their slaughter.  He claimed three of the five, with Wheelyoung and Paintburial each bringing down one.  Other than a couple of bruised limbs none of us were hurt.  Wonderful training, I'm sure.  I stayed back during the fighting, though I was ready to fight if we needed every hand.  My nose still aches from when Wheelyoung endangered us all and broke it.

[Imp]

Midday, 28th of Felsite, 435

It's been barely over six months since Tightnessplanks arrived with his breeding pair of chickens.  Both were chicks when they arrived, though the hen matured within a few days of arriving here and the rooster is still a small ball of yellow hair.  When we gathered to follow Rimmington against the last living orcs both the chickens fled belowground and we didn't see them for days.

That hen must have used this time to hide a nest somewhere, because today she appeared with two new chicks following her.  Most everyone's wasting some time from their duties to admire and play with them.  Never mind that we don't even have a mature rooster, or that we're going to have to kill all of them and any others that hatch before we are done here - lets everyone stop work and stare because now we've got three chicks and a proud hen tucked under Tightnessplank's arm.  Maybe people will get back to work tomorrow.

For now that work is still useless, mostly sorting through the bodies and belongings of the dead orcs.  Speakshoot's declared that the corpses will be staked out in the sun until the flesh dries or rots away and then the bones brought inside to be saved, and she has marked out areas for the orcan trinkets, armor, and weapons to be stored.

Out of all the orcish items, only three have any use; a golden crossbow and two crucible steel shields.  The rest is just trash to trip over, but despite that everyone seems excited to discuss the many shades of gold the orcs used in their useless long-armed bows, rose gold and white, violet gold and blue.  Speakshoot's been talking strategy with Rimmington and Wheelyoung, ways to get enough charcoal to melt down the thirty suits of orc-sized crucible steel armor being stacked in the back of the cavern.

I pray hourly to Kodor, that he returns to guide us back onto his path for us.  We, and hope for life continuing into the future, are truly lost without him.

[Imp]

Midmorning, 10th of Malachite, 435

My beloved Speakshoot's greed appears to be easing.  She has driven us for weeks now to count, carry, and pile the many things the orcs brought here, and then to cart their bones into the caverns as soon as the stink left them.  She's hardly rested and barely spoken to me throughout this time, but she seems satisfied and pleased with herself now.  When the seasons turned to summer she remembered to send a few hands to tend the fields, and she had the bridges passable for the human caravan to approach when it found us.

She was ready to listen to a little reason and agreed to trade away to the caravan those orcan items we would have to remove or destroy anyway, starting with their clothing and leather armor.  I suspect she agreed to this mostly because these things cannot be useful to us in any other way, but if her greed is the only service she can offer to Kodor's plan then her greed is my partner and progress when it suits his will.  At least she's listening, and talking, to me again.  It's been months before she last really talked with me or seemed interested in listening to any words I've said, for all she will always love me, and I love her.

She's made mostly sensible choices in her requests of the human liaison as well, offering to pay highly for wood and food, though I know she asked for thread and leather from the humans as well and perhaps a few other things too.  I'd already started walking away as I heard her and I really don't want to argue with her again right now, so I'm not going to say anything to her about it this time.  Maybe things will continue to get better, maybe when all these things are put where she wants them she'll agree to direct everyone to exploratory mining and we can finally begin to accomplish our Plan.

I'd thought I was done carving these words, but as I was finishing I heard a shouted hello from the southwest.  Another group of immigrants has just arrived, a family of four and seven others, bringing our cavern's population to twenty five.  For some reason two fish dissectors have made the journey here, as well as a miller, a dyer, a planter, another clothier, and three more peasants.  Happily none of them brought pets, but unfortunately none of them worship Kodor.  Am I truly the only believer Kodor wants here?

[Imp]

late evening, 24th Malachite, 435

Speakshoot and I have been married for three days now, we are the first in the cavern to wed.  It is extremely restful sleeping next to her, and we are still talking easily with each other.  She agrees that we need to explore the area, and soon, but first she wants us all to set aside some time to learn how to fight.  I do agree with her, I do not want my wife learning how to fight while she carries our children in her arms, nor ever facing having to fight without knowing how.  We'll begin training tomorrow.

A bit before our nuptials Speakshoot had marked out an alternate, protected tunnel for replacing our trade depot.  It seems to be finished now, and if it works the way my wife believes it shall it will allow trade to occur with some safety even if an army of orcs appears a short distance behind the wagons.

I am incredibly grateful to Kodor for having led me to know and love Speakshoot, for guiding us here and giving us the lives that we have.  No dwarf could have a sweeter fate than the life Kodor has chosen for me.  Step by step we shall achieve all of Kodor's goals, each in its own moment of perfection, each framed by our efforts, skill, and lives.

[gumball135]

Good job so far. You're pumping out updates at a pretty amazing rate