"Raptorbreak," the first Mesozoic Dwarves community fortress!PARTICIPANTS:- Raphite - male - MAYOR / miner.
- Fath Steelshaper - female - ARMORER / metal-, weapon-, blacksmithing.
- Derm Trapmaster - male - MASON / mechanic (traps).
- Samus, Harbinger of Doom - male - WOODCUTTER / axedwarf
- Gyron - male - CRAFTSDWARF (wood, stone, bone, metal) / hammerdwarf
- Khamero - male - MARKSDWARF / hunter
- Whitha - female - ENGRAVER / trapper (children/divination)
RULESGame Version: Mesozoic Dwarves mod.
Population Cap: 80
Game-Ending Conditions:- Death of all original seven dwarves (community members).
- Release of new version of Dwarf Fortress.
- Unrecoverable save corruption by my glitchy computer (will be making regular backups).
Reporting: I will write up the events of Raptorbreak at the conclusion of each winter, or perhaps seasonally if significant events are happening quickly in a given year. The narrative will be added to this first post, and I'll bump the thread at the same time.
EMBARK SITEWorld Name: The Universes of Wonder.Embark Description: The dwarves are travelling to 5x5 territory of wilderness on "The Continents of Trading," where a mountain range called "The Romantic Wall" meets a temperate savanna known as "The Polished Plain." Dwarven geographers and seismologists at the Mountainhome report that the area has sparse trees and is crossed by a brook, named "Cradlesilt the Esteemed Gall," and contains a magma pipe, and underground pool, and a node of the most precious metal known to dwarvenkind. The soil of the savanna is a yellow sand. The site is near the equator, far to the south of the Mountainhome, and westward of the great ocean known as "The Cremated Waters." Reports from terrified travellers tell of highly-populated Velociraptor communities in the immediate area, as well as sightings of Orkk armies in the evil marshes to the south.
Civilization Name: The Cloudy Daggers. The King,
Bembul Daycities, inherited his position from his mother, after a rather unremarkable career as a fishery worker. However, the King's late wife,
Solon Lancersense is likely to be a personal hero of our hunter,
Khamero. Both before and after marrying into royalty,
Solon Lancersense was a hunter. She slew numerous gallimimus and hypsilophodon, managed to kill a dangerous kentrosaurus, and in a feat that defies belief, she managed to personally bring down FIVE tank-like ankylosaurus for The Cloudy Daggers. Further, she ambushed and slew the notorious and deadly deinonychus known as
"Kingdomopen," a hated enemy of the civilization. Finally, she met a glorious and honorable death while ambushing another named deinonychus enemy: the foul
"Mouthfortunes." The dwarves shall construct
Raptorbreak in honor of the memory of
Solon Lancersense!
Group Name: The Raptor-Lances, "Razotkubuk," in honor of our late huntress-queen,
Solon Lancersense.
Fortress Name: Raptorbreak, "Razotokab."
PLAY ALONG!Seed information:
Generating world using parameter set MEDIUM
Seed: 1470413812
History Seed: 2755274756
Name Seed: 1360207240
Requires
Mesozoic Dwarves mod.
THE STORY SO FAR The glorious dwarven King, Bembul Daycities, desires that the empire expand, but the lands are wild and dangerous. The Mountainhome nobility is seeking a group of volunteers to take a wagon into the wilderness and strike the earth for a new fortress. The primary goal of the new fortress,
Raptorbreak, is to establish a military outpost to wage war against the seething hoards of velociraptor that run in a murderous plague across the land. Also,
Raptorbreak is to serve as a show of strength against the bestial Orkks, should they take notice of the dwarven activities. Other threats may also rise against the Mountainhome, and
Raptorbreak is to serve as a powerful frontline to discover and defeat any such unanticipated attacks.
Year 201: When the wagon stopped, the dwarves looked across the savanna. Nothing was moving there, but it was more heavily wooded than had been expected. In the mountains two herds moved among the boulders: some snorting styracosaurs with their spiked frills and snout horns, and some armored edmontia resting like bony boulders themselves. Nothing huntable, so Khamero put away his iron crossbow. They chose a niche in the mountainside to make their encampment; a traditional site for dwarven halls. Raphite lifted the pick from among the supplies, unfamiliar in his hands, and started chipping away at the slopes around the niche while the other dwarves hauled the supplies from the wagon to roughly sorted stockpiles.
Fath chained up two of the tame centrosaurs near the slope that led to the niche. In addition to the two centrosaurs chosen by the embark party, the Mountainhome provided two additional centrosaurs to pull the wagon. With three males and one female, establishing a breeding stock would be slow, but perhaps some wild females could be trapped in the mountains.
Raphite began digging a downward staircase, and immediately breached the top edge of a magma pipe. A brief panic ensued as he spotted several firedactyls swimming through the molten rock, hissing and croaking out their stony cries at the shaft of light that struck down through the black roof of their baking lair. Derm quickly moved to pave over the opening with stone floors, sealing the threat back into the rock, back into their memories. Meanwhile, Whitha saw that the niche was so full of rough rock that trade wagons would be unable to access it, so she began smoothing over the ground to create a path.
The beginning of summer found Gyron at work on some wooden beds, tables, and chairs. Tempers had been growing short after a season of sleeping on the stony mountainside, of eating out of barrels while standing. Raphite carved out a hallway that led into room dug out of sand, where the dwarves set up temporary living quarters. The chained centrosaurus were moved underground into niches in the hallway. The dwarves were looking out over the savannah, watching as a herd of enormous triceratops migrated into view, when Samus came climbing up into the camp after having spent a season felling trees. He drained a barrel of cave beer, and then hung around to help with hauling tasks for awhile.
Raphite was growing worried about the turtle supply, which was quickly diminishing. He had no experience farming, but began experimenting with an underground farm in the sand room. Gyron came down to announce that he, Fath, and Derm had completed a bridge that led to the mountain niche encampment, and that work was nearly done on some stone walls to completely protect the area. Derm arrived in the room carrying an armful of stone mechanisms, and began work on a lever that he planned to connect to the access bridge. Whitha began carving fortifications into the outer walls, and Khamero used his crossbow expertise to put together enough wooden crossbows to arm the entire party.
Just as concern was growing over the food supply, Khamero spotted a herd of harpymimus on the savanna. He picked up his iron bow, quiver of steel bolts, and his spinosaurus leather armor, and went out to hunt. The animals spotted him as he closed in, but he slowed one with a skillful shot to its upper body that wounded its lung. It became winded, and he ran it down. At point-blank range, he shot it again. And again. The next bolt tore off one of its legs. The next mangled its right arm. Still, the harpymimus lay there alive, writhing. Finally, a shot tore out its throat, and it died. He carried the corpse back to camp and butchered it, and Samus came off the savanna to cook up the flesh and fat into meat biscuits.
As the season changed to autumn, Samus decided to stay in camp and help with odd jobs. He had clearcut the central savanna, with the timber still awaiting collection. The growing danger of a velociraptor attack made working far from the fortress unwise, at least until winter when the velociraptors were dormant. The female centrosaurus produced a single hatchling, but it was another male.
Gyron and Derm designed and built a trade depot out of stone blocks, which the other dwarves admired happily. The caravan from the Mountainhome would be arriving soon, so Gyron made a totem out of the skull of Khamero's harpymimus kill, and began working on stone instruments. One day, dwarves in the Mountainhome would use them to play songs of the glorious victories of Raptorbreak.
The stock of cave beer was running low, and Raphite hoped that the wild plump helmets that he had planted would grow in soon. A few of the purple mushrooms did grow, and Samus brewed them into enough wine to last for a little longer. Derm had long been planning on setting a series of cage traps along the borders when winter arrived, and so Fath began working on some wooden cages. Gyron surprised two ornitholestes thieves as they tried to cross the bridge, and he leapt at one to attack. Both managed to escape, and disappeared into the mountains, chittering in their unintelligible speech. As the first signs of winter appeared, Kahmero spotted some hypsilophodon in the savanna, and again took up his crossbow.