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Huzzah!

26 (81.3%)

Bah!

6 (18.8%)

Total Members Voted: 32

[Flaede]

hehe. "600 years later..."

next we'll have goblins with bar codes on their heads, and lazer sight swords.

[TALLPANZER]

I have this strange feeling that Skrunge survived, he waits for you all to return

[Jim Groovester]

Maybe rebooting was a bad idea.

Anyways, transparent bump attempt.

[Iituem]

Goxa's Journal
1st Granite, 70

Well, those trolls died quickly enough - now we're just left with the horses that dragged the wagon here.  Good thing we stole the good ones instead of that half-dead team; I've no idea what would have happened if we'd gotten here without anyone to eat.  Let's start digging.


Later entry

Rithi's Russet Fangs!  The earth has shifted around us!  The wagon was destroyed in the earthquake, and we took shelter at the only place we could - the very edge of the firepit!  It seems that the obsidian crust around it was able to stay solid when the rest of the mountain crumbled.  Nevertheless, when the worst cleared we found ourselves on the edge of a precipice with barely walking space around us.



Issue one is, of course, water.  Ignoring for a moment the fact that we have an incredibly limited supply of food in this icehole, if we don't get a better drink than sucking on ice cubes soon we'll all die of dehydration.  The problem is that with the wagon gone there isn't a single scrap of wood in this entire frozen waste, and we can't burn horses.  Well, we can burn horses, but not reliably enough to melt water.  Ozo has a rather questionable solution to our problem, but right now it's the best we have.  The scavenger and nurse slaves will work on mining out the necessary materials.


24th Granite, 70

It's been over three weeks with barely any fresh water.  There have been times I haven't been able to feel my mouth for sucking on ice.  Finally, though, we have something approaching a solution!  After much work, Ozo and Zom, the builder slave and bookslave, managed to devise and construct a working magmaduct to melt the ice.  I supervised, as is fitting.  I'm proud to say that my plan has yielded us a fresh source of water - although we want for buckets to actually collect any of it.  I suppose that's next on the list - fortunately the mountainslide revealed a number of fresh veins of ore that the slaves can work at extracting.

[Iituem]

I opted to take a couple of weeks' break to sort out some other things and work on a different DF project - the good thing about the rather different map is that it really is a much more fresh start.  This Frostbite should turn out somewhat differently - at least in the architectural sense.


Edit:  For one thing, there's a massive frickin' pipe of magma sticking out of the mountainside.  That absolutely has to fit into my architectural designs somehow.

[Jim Groovester]

It appears I spoke too soon. Good to see it back.

Also, that's a pretty crazy feature of the landscape you've got there.

[TALLPANZER]

Glad to see you back. I very much enjoy reading you work.

[Argonnek]

Are there any gobbos left to claim? If so I'd like one.

[Iituem]

27th Slate, 70

We have an anvil perched somewhat precariously over the edge of the magmaduct (Surely flammaduct?  Lavaduct?  I don't know.)  and once Ozo finishes the stonework for furniture we may finally get a proper well going.  I've given orders to ration food for the present, but it looks like there isn't much in terms of wildlife out here.  We may have to resort to the horses sooner than I'd like.


1st Haematite, 70

It's been three months since we arrived here, and no sign of any of Rithi's hounds.  Thank... well, I don't know what.  Certainly not the gods, fickle bastards.  Ever since I found that collar, we've been running.  In some ways it's a relief to know that we can finally stop.  Of course, we may have to run soon anyway - if we can't get meat, this place will just become our tomb.

There are grumblings amongst the frees, of course.  Uzulek and Kiku have just taken to sparring constantly in the common hall, waiting for our masters to find us.  I get the feeling Uzulek's getting a little tired of the constant sniping from Kiku - he does like to find the snide side of things.


28th Haematite

I milked a horse today.  That is how low I have sunk.  I am a frigging milk-maid.  I swear the other frees are laughing behind my back about this, but damn it we need food and the slaves are all busy.  I'm trying to curdle this stuff into cheese, but frankly I haven't more than a rough idea how to do it.  Can we even eat cheese?  I would think so, it comes from an animal.  I've had cheese before as a sort of sauce to go with meat, so that works, right?

Mind you, I've had leaves on meat before as spices and you can't really sustain yourself on those, so who knows whether this is going to work.



------

Fun thing about being a goblin - the [BONECARN] tag makes them not only able to eat bones but obligatory carnivores.  I'm not sure they can even eat prepared meals, it's that bad.

Next wave of migrants, I'll be bringing back some of the characters that were there before, and I'll add in new goblins that have been claimed when that happens too.

[Iituem]

Ozo's Slate
22nd Malachite, 70

So I got bored with all this construction grit and started cutting out some statues.  The place needs prettying up, and I'm sure as hell not going to go around smoothing every surface by my lonesome.  The frees, of course, barely lift a finger to help - but guess what?  I get to pick what to sculpt.  So those beggars can enjoy two fine statues of a fly, a statue of some generic goblins - not even us! - and three statues of my fellow slaves.  Two of them are of Zom, who has the decency to allot me a little extra meat on my ration, so I carved her holding up a sceptre or something.  Or maybe a snake, who cares.

Rithi's Claws, I need a drink.  I haven't had anything stronger than ice-cold water for almost half a year now.  The nurse slave, Stosbub, used to make some sort of illicit moonshine when the master wasn't looking, even though we weren't supposed to have alcohol.  Well, I made a statue of her too.  I'd have done it of her holding up a goblet, but the stone broke, so she's just ended up making a sort of plaintive gesture.  Ah, never mind.

So I'm looking at the entrance to our little burrow and thinking - that's one wide open access point there, isn't it?  The mistress seems nervous about something or other (or else we wouldn't be on this ice cube), so maybe we ought to give any potential visitors something to look forward to.  A warm reception, perhaps?



3rd Galena

News from upstairs.  Some sort of confrontation with a bunch of raiders.  Good news for us was they were out of weapons and supplies and we've got plenty, thanks to that forge I set up.  Nearly broke into a fight, but turns out that free, Kiku, knows their boss!  Talk about coincidence.  Well, they pulled them into the mess hall and got to chatting, and it looks like we're teaming up.  They even brought a child, which is great because I can finally have someone small enough to get into the narrow bit of the furnace and clean it out!

Problem is, we've got maybe a month's provisions left shared out amongst all of us.  If we can't work something out, we'll be literally at each other's throats out of hunger.



Journal of Argonnek Tickpriced, Blacksmith-At-Arms
3rd Galena, 70

After weeks of travelling, we finally get to the firehole we've heard about and it turns out there are squatters already there.  armed squatters, at that.  Fantastic.  Worst of all, that old snake Kiku is lounging around playing 'noble defender', an act of miscasting if ever I saw one.  Their mistress took a semi-reasonable approach to matters, and I negotiated stay for myself at the price of my slaves.

For now, at any rate.  We'll see how things turn out once we have weapons of our own.

[Iituem]

14th Galena, 70

Snodub called a halt to the train of donkeys, laden with fresh loot from their last raid.  The other raiders nodded and began lighting pipes and tucking into their ration packs for strips of dried beef, because two of the three things that always happen when a military group comes to a stop are having a smoke and taking a bite to eat.  Snodub decided to relieve himself of the third option and, because there were no trees available, walked a short distance so that he was behind a crest.

As the snow hissed softly into steam in front of him, Snodub was remarkably surprised to feel a sharp point pressing into his back behind.

"Stick 'em up," growled the goblin with the spear.

"I'd love to oblige," said Snodub, quite loudly, "but if I did that, my aim would go everywhere.  Might I enquire as to what I can do for you - other than remove my hands?"

"You can tell your men to give up everything on that train and embrace a new life of slavery, unless you want to have some brand spanking new air holes is what."

"Now see, I find that proposition quite amenable, but I doubt my men will.  Do you, boys?"

The goblin with the spear became aware of the ring of laughing, decidedly armed raiders surrounding him.  Snodub chuckled and shook himself off, tucking his pants back up and turning to face his would-be captor.

"So, you looking forward to embracing a new life of slavery, boy?" the captain said with a smirk.

"Not bloody likely," said the spearman.  "Up and at 'em, boys!"  What had looked like mounds of snow around him suddenly burst upward, revealing themselves to be cloaked and snow-covered goblins armed with spears, swords and one with an axe.

"Easy now," said the axe-goblin, raising it and his shield carefully so they were visible by all sides.  "Let's not be hasty - the odds aren't good for any of us right now."

"So what do you propose?" asked Snodub.

"Depends how talkative you're feeling," said the axegoblin.  He sniffed.  "Is that quarry leaf?"

"Freshly stolen from a dwarven farm, yes."

"Alright.  How about we all put our weapons away and have a smoke?  I'll send one of my boys - well, girls mostly - over to get the boss.  She'll probably want to have a good long talk with you."

The raider captain studied the axegoblin carefully, then nodded to his men.  The other raiders lowered their weapons and at the axegoblin's signal the ambushers lowered theirs as well and stepped back.  Snodub offered his hand to the axegoblin.

"Snodub, captain of this band," he said.  The axegoblin took his hand and shook it.

"Uzulek.  Welcome to Frostbite."

[OmnipotentGrue]

[Iituem]

Goxa's Journal
16th Galena, 70

Well that was a stroke of fortune.  Ozo whipped up a few iron goblets and a replacement dagger for one of the raiders and Snodub was more than happy to let us take a cut of their haul - mainly the leather and meat they'd harvested during their travels through the elven forests to the south.  I passed off some kobold-skin story about us being religious pilgrims, don't know if he bought it and don't care.  The point is that we have meat - even if they did rob us blind in terms of value.  Truth is they knew we were desperate and pushed for a ruthless kind of deal, but you can't eat iron.

Well, unless you're a colossus.  I assume those probably do eat iron.  Or maybe just bronze.  But how would they smelt it?  Maybe they just eat copper and tin and nature takes care of the rest.

Okay, I've been awake far too long haggling.  The slaves are probably busy eating some of the rat meat we brought in.  Me?  I'm having some kobold.  Thank Rithi for thieves, eh?

[Iituem]

Goxa's Journal
3rd Sandstone, 70

A fatal accident today, losing one of our most promising slaves.  The nurse slave had been assisting the scavenger, Skrunge, for some time in the mines.  While excavating the side of the mountain there was a miscalculation and a cave-in occurred.  Not the first time, but the problem was that a large floe of ice cracked open - containing liquid water inside.  Stosbub must have been knocked unconscious by the fall, because when we found her the water had covered her and frozen - encasing her in ice.

The worst part is, we won't be able to recover the pick, since the freezing shattered the handle.  I've ordered a new one forged.


Ozo's Slate
3rd Sandstone, 70

She's dead.  The first of us to go, no doubt.  Rithi's teeth, there goes my chance of ever drinking that moonshine again.  Skrunge's even more bent up about it than I am, having worked with her all these months.  Even Kiku's not cracked a joke about it, which is a surprise.  Didn't think he got on with any of the slaves.  Well, here's to you, Stosbub.  You made me good drinks, so I'll do the best I can for you.  The frees don't think you should get a coffin, but you know what?  Screw them.  I've made you one anyway.  Skrunge says he can hide it in the mines so nobody sees, but even if we'll never get your body, at least your name might remain.

[Argonnek]

I'm really enjoying the story, Iituem. You are a Legendary Writer.