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[Particleman]

Okay, so I'm setting up a challenge fort for myself. The rules are essentially this:

-No starting supplies, skills, or food. I get one wagon, one pack animal, seven dwarves with NO skills, and that's it. No seeds, no equipment, nothing. I'd dump the animal as well, but I can't.

-Can only buy 1 pick, and can only dig out two levels of soil OR one level of rock per year. A single 2x3 stairway is allowed to pass through layers, but that should be the only digging you do on that layer unless you "spend" your digging rights there. If I get a miner immigrant, awesome, I can use his pick freely, and I can make all the picks I want once I have the capability, but I can't trade for more than 1.

-No trading for food (except seeds, and only one bag of seeds per trading civilization per year)

-No trading of food (i.e. no selling prepared meals)

-Allowed to breach the caverns early via a 1x1 up/down stairway shaft for the purpose of spawning underground plants and trees, but no mining or planting on pre-muddied tiles and no harvesting of pre-existing underground plants unless you 'spend' you digging rights on that level.

-No dug out space may be more than 5 tiles from a wall or support, natural or constructed. Up and up/down stairs count as supports. Caverns are an exception to this.

That said, welcome to Patternedbasements.

Log of Ast Odomoddom, expidition leader



So here we are. Seven dwarves with an empty wagon, one mule, and the clothes on our backs. We're exiles. Oh, they didn't CALL us exiles, of course, but that's what we are. No, we were to set out and establish a new colony for our king, the crazy bastard. And we had to leave right away, so we didn't even get a chance to grab, say, a pick, or an axe, or even a barrel of booze. Do they expect us to drink water? I'd rather die of dehydration, personally. I was just barely able to grab some biscuits for us to eat along the way, but they're gone now. Oh, did I mention all seven of us are male?



Also, our wagon's front axle broke, so we're stuck here in the middle of nowhere, with no supplies of any sort. I turned to the others. "Well, looks like we're here! You." I pointed to three random dwarves I'd never seen before we were exiled together. "Start gathering plants. And you start fishing. You two help me break up the wagon for wood and don't go anywhere." There was some grumbling, but they got to it.

With a bit of work I managed to carve the logs from the wagon into a passable workshop and a pair of wooden axes. I tossed them to the other two dwarves who didn't have anything to do and told them to get chopping trees. They were incredulous at first, but they stopped thier protests after they saw the look in my eye.

A few minutes later Sarvesh, the dwarf I'd told to get fishing approached me, holding up something that looked like an old sock. "We can't fish here."

"Why not?"

"This is why not." He gestured with the sock. Looking closer, I realized it was actually a fish.

"What the hell is wrong with it?" I asked, looking at it closer.

"Some kind of rotting disease. See, it's falling apart already." He gestured with the fish, a chunk of its side falling out. "You're welcome to eat it if you want, but I'll be damned if I'm going to eat it. I don't think the other guys will either."



"Fine, fine." I pointed to the workshop. "Get to making barrels then, so the plants don't get eaten by flies. And make some beds too."

While he got to work on that I started setting up a hut. It was ugly and barely shaded us from the sun, and there were splinters everywhere, but it was at least shelter, and better than sleeping under the damn sky. Every time I looked up at its horrible blueness I felt like I was going to fall straight up into it. I ordered the beds moved inside and assigned one to everybody.



Eventually I managed to produce a cask of beer. It sucked. BUT it was at least alcoholic, and better than the swill we'd had to steal from a human town, so I managed to spare myself and the men from the indignity of having to drink from the river. Everybody agreed that it was the best drink they'd hever had. Can't say I disagree, what with the last real drink to grace my tongue having been over a year ago, before we were exiled.

Things went on like this for a few days. Zas and Ral cut wood, Sarvesh made barrels, Libash, Thikut, and Vabok picked berries and roots, and I made booze. To be honest, it was a relief to get off that damn wagon and having to stare at the mule's backside all day, but enthusiasm was flagging. It was different, but not really much better. I told Sarvesh to take a break form making barrels and start constructing another building. I also pulled Vabok from gathering plants and told him to see if he could get any of the seeds we'd collected to grow.



After a few days, while I was working on the new building, Sarvesh ran up to me in a panic, screaming something! "KARVELS!"

"What?"

"Gators!" he shouted, pointing to the northwest.

[Particleman]

I went to the workshop and quickly cobbled together annother axe and tossed it to Sarvesh. "Go kill 'em."

His face fell. "Me?! Why me?"

"You saw 'em first, you get to kill 'em. Besides, think about how good they'll taste once we butcher them! Some meat would be a welcome addition to our stocks."

"Meat, yeah..." he mumbled, heading off to the northwest. I went back to working on the building. A bit later I looked around and noticed Sarvesh hadn't returned yet. After a bit of investigation I discovered his whereabouts.



Oh well. Can't do anything about that now. Too bad he didn't kill at least one of the gators first, though. I noticed Zas looking rather dejected as he came back to the main camp to grab some berries to eat. Evidently he'd been friends with Sarvesh.



A few days later we all gathered around the main camp to hold a memorial service for Sarvesh, since we could hardly retreive his corpse. We had a drink in his memory, then went back to work.



I pulled Zas and Ral off woodcutting for a while to help me finish the new building. The death of Sarvesh had hit everyone pretty hard, but it was my hope that the new dining hall would help lift thier spirits.

As were were finishing up the roof we spotted some motion along the brook. I forget who noticed it first, but I was headed towards the worshops to grab an axe in case the gators had decided to cme harass us again, when I heard an unfamiliar voice calling out. Taking a closer look, I realized it was... Dwarves!



I just stared for a moment, thinking I was imagining it, but Zas jostled me out of my stupor by shoving me towards them. "Your'e the leader, right? Go talk to them!"

True, I'd pretty much been organizing things, but I hadn't really thought of myself as the leader. Muttering under my breath, I approached the newcomers, hoping it was someone from the mountainhomes come to retreive us. No such luck... As I drew closer I realized that they weren't in much better shape than we were. One of them, a woman who introduced herself as Urdim, told me thier story. They'd been sent out on some dumbass mission from a noble, similar to ourselves, and had been ambushed along the way by goblins. They were following the river in hopes of finding civilization. I just laughed and gestured to the shoddily constructed workshops and splinter-filled buildings further down the stream. "You found it! Or something like it, anway. Far as I know, we're the only other dwarves around for a thousand miles."

All four of thier faces fell, falling further when I explained that we'd been sent out with literally no supplies (aside from the food I'd stolen) and had been unable to mine at all since our arrival. Clearly they'd been hoping to get out from underneath the horrible blue sky. I told them they were welcome to stay if they were willing to work. Unsurprisingly, all four accepted the offer. I told them to get to work setting up a cabin for themselves to sleep in and went back to work on the dining hall.

There was no Armok-damned way in hell I was going to add another story to the cabin we already had- being above ground at all was bad enough, much less that far away from even the surface. That's something a noble would order.

Life went on for a while. Nothing worth writing about happened, aside from the completion of the dining hall. Everyone agreed it was fantastic to have a place inside to eat. I also ordered the construction of another cabin, for storing food, and a trade depot. Not that I much expected any trade caravans would ever arrive, but it was better to be prepared. After a bit of thought, I also ordered yet another cabin built, this one very small. It was going to be my office. Hell, if they're going to call me the leader I might as well have an office.

In mid-autumn it happened again. This time it was eight survivors, including two children (oh, lucky us...) from a failed settlement a few miles away. I was beginning to wonder if the spot we'd stopped in was a nexus for outcasts. Unfortunately, none of them had thought to bring along a pick. I just told them to get to work on another cabin for them to sleep in then find something constructive to do. I didn't really give a damn what they did at this point.

To be honest, I kept having nightmares about falling into the sky. Being out underneath it for so much of the last year was starting to get to me. I began daydreaming about digging down into the earth with my bare hands. As if to cement the fact among the others that I was slowly losing my mind, I ordered a plot of Rat Weed planted. It's common opinion that booze made from Rat Weed tastes like sewer water

[Particleman]

Log of Ast Odomoddom, expidition leader, 15th Timber, 51

Amazingly, a caravan found us, way the hell out here in the middle of nowhere. Admittedly I'm baffled by HOW they managed to find us, but I'm not complaining. I was hardly able to contain my joy as I saw them coming through the section of forest we'd cleared to the northwest. We had practicaly nothing to trade, but I was hopeful that we could convince them to spare a few picks so we could actualy start digging and get out of this blue and green hell.

I was disappointed to find that they'd brought us all of... a horse and a donkey's worth of goods, but I still held out hope that they might have at least a single pick they could spare. Maybe some plump helmet spawn, as well. It felt like a lifetime ago that I'd tasted one.

Unfortunately the liason, Adil Tandomas, informed me that thier animals were already moing slowly- any more weight and they wouldn't be able to move at all. They only thing we really had worth trading was booze, and even if they'd had room for it, all the booze we had wasn't worth the single iron pick they had... Deperate, I hurriedly constructed a workshop next to the trade depot and began carving crafts out of the wood we'd collected. I shouted at the nearest three dwarves to do likewise- I didn't give a damn who they were or what else they were doing, this was more important.

After a few weeks, we still weren't able to bring ourselves close enough to the worth of the pick but still within the weight allowance of the animals until I realized something; they had several low-quality copper items... Not many, but a harp, a puzzlebox, and two copper crossbows should be enough to melt down into a copper bar that I could reforge into a serviceable pick. In my desperation and excitement to finally get properly underground I had overlooked the obvious.

Relieved at the solid prospect of finally being able to start something resembling a proper fort, I granted Adil the meeting he'd been badgering me about. I told him we wanted plump helmet spawn. And many as his caravan could carry. It wasn't until later that I realized this was unneccesary- we'd be able to harvest all the plants we wanted from the caverns underneath our feet. He told me he wanted legwear, large gems, cloth, and (haha) seeds. I called him an elf lover and kicked him out of my office. He chose the moment after that to inform me that the king had declared that
Patterendbasements was to treat the ecology delicately, which, in short, boiled down to the fact that by order of the king, we could only mine one layer of stone or two layers of soil per year, not counting the year we'd already spent here. I looked at him like he'd grown a second head, but I knew it was futile trying to argue with a mandate from the king himself.

It wasn't until after the caravan had left that I realized we didn't have a way to make charcoal, because we didn't have anything to build a wood burning station with. I wanted to die. One of the guards murdered one of the alligators that had been lurking around, but its body fell into one of the ponds, so we weren't able to retreiive and butcher it...

Horribly depressed by my oversight, I spent most of the next season in the warehouse, drinking. Not being exposed to that Armok-damned blue demon above us made me feel a bit better.



I emerged feeling somehwat refreshed, but not by much. Shuddering as I emerged into the light of the sun, I ordered a gazebo to be built so I could brew our booze supplies in the shade. I was baffled by how the others seemed to be adapting to ife on the surface, like... like a bunch of humans!

I also noticed that the wood stockpiles were getting full. I told the others to start storing it on the roofs of the structures we'd cobbled together with the remnants of our dwarvenity and dignity. Later I called everyone together to explain my mistake and ask that they forgive me for my foolishness. They seemed more forgiving that I'd thought they would- evidently I wasn't the only one that the Blue Demon was driving mad. I think I might have been the only one to realize it, though...

On an up note, the dwaves I'd taked with gathering plants FINALLY found some rope reeds. I told one of them, Iteb, to process them and make some bags so we could organize all the damn seeds that were everywhere. He warned me that they wouldn't be very good and probably pretty ugly, since he'd never done that before, and I told him I didn't give a shit as long as they were serviceable.

[Particleman]

Once the caravan had left, taking with them our hopes of finally getting out of this blue and green hell for at least the next year, nothing much happened. Life continued much as it had. We farmed, brewed, and made trinkets to give to trade to the caravan next year in the hopes of being able to afford a pick.

More to keep some of us occupied for a while than any practical reason, I had a wall built around our... "city." It was mostly for show. I didn't have any confidence that flimsy wooden boards would be able to keep anything out. I considered having a roof built over the entire thing, to keep the Blue Demon at bay, but even though we had wood coming out of our ears, we didn't have nearly enough for that.

Oddly enough, I felt a bit better once the wall was completed. True, it was made from flimsy, splintered wood and wan't sturdy enough to keep anything bigger than a cat out, but at least it blocked the view of that endless green expanse.

Once the wall was done, we still didn't have much of anything to do. Not like we could build traps or anything, lacking stone or metal to make into mechanisms.



Oh, and now the elves have found us. I wonder how much worse better things can get. Not that I gave much of a damn, but I decided to see what they'd brought.



 

I almost cried when I realized what they were. I hadn't seen them since I was a child. I practically threw the useless copper crap we'd gotten from the dwarven caravan at them (since the tree-humping bastards won't accept anything made from plants) in exchange for the seeds and immediately ordered a new farm plot built. I also ordered barrels turned out nonstop so I could start brewing the instant the harvest came in.

I also ordered the booze warehouse expanded, as it was getting full.

A couple weeks later I was told that the expansion for the warehouse couldn't be completed, due to not having enough wood, but I didn't really care. I was already working on turning out barrels of Sunshine. I told whoever it was had mentioned it to go chop some more wood- I wasn't really paying attention at this point. I also had the gazebo over the still deconstructed- it didn't make much of a difference anyway, since I had to keep venturing out under the eye of the Blue Demon to get barrels and plants.

The first sip of Sunshine brought memories of my youth flooding back. I'd only had it twice before, when I was a child. Some friends and I had sneaked into the local baron's private reserve and stolen a barrel of Sunshine when I was fifteen. The second time had been during a festival a few weeks later, to celebrate the baron's "mysterious" death at the hands of blind cave ogres.

A few days later I was informed that we'd completely clear cut the entire forest and we were running out of barrels for food storage. Admittedly I was a bit surprised at this, but I ordered  the roofs taken off the dining hall and warehouse. I hated to do it, but not letting all our foot rot was more important. I also told the farmers to stop planting, except for a small patch of sunberries. We had enough food to last us for some time.

To keep everyone busy, I told them to tear down the 'city wall' and build it again. It was a pointless exercise, but it was better than doing nothing. Dwarves left unoccupied for long periods tended to succumb to madness rather easily. Meanwhile, I started taking stock of everything we had.

By Mid-autumn of 52, the booze warehouse had been completed, though we had to sacrifice about half the city wall to finish it. Slowly we were adapting to living on the surface. I seemed to be the least content under the glaring eye of the Blue Demon, most everyone else was quite happy to be constantly tearing down and rebuilding the wall, despite the constant, hateful glare of his single eye.



I was beginning to worry that either I was insane, or that I was the only sane one left. I'm not sure which would have been worse. I took solace, though, in the idea that the dwarven caravan would be arriving soon, and would hopefully have a pick with them- this time, we should be able to afford it.

[darkflagrance]

Maybe you should make this a primarily aboveground fort, elaborately decorated. Even with the pick, you won't be able to breach rock for another year, and therefore the underground will be essentially useless except as a storage location.

[Particleman]

Making everything primarily aboveground was more or less my intent.

Also, I evidently didn't adequately explain what I meant about 'digging rights' in the first post. Once I get a pick, I could, if I chose, dig all the way down to the magma sea and build stuff there. But the only way I could get there without using my digging rights on any of the layers above would be to dig a single 2x3 stairway through all the other layers- further digging on any other layer would be forbidden until the next year.

[Particleman]

Log of Ast Odomoddom, expidition leader, Timber 16th, 52

Adil and the caravan FINALLY came by again today. I pulled a few dwarves from thier endless destruction and reconstruction of the wall to haul the crates full of wooden crap crafts we'd made to the trade depot. Amazingly, they had a much more reasonably priced bronze pick this time around. I also bought a bag of plump helmet spawn. I loaded thier animals up with all the wooden crap they could carry- I never wanted to see another piece of wood again. Not doing anything to assure the other dwarves of my sanity, I grabbed the pick the instant the deal was made and began digging with laughter that sounded maniacal even to myself. The Blue Demon affects every dwarf differently, I've heard, and I wasn't one of the ones who prospered beneath his eye.

I don't know how long I dug. I only stopped when my pick sank into the stone up to the hilt with no resistance. Pulling it out, I widened the hole a bit.



"Well! This'll  do just fine..." I said to myself. All the other crazy bastards were still farting arond up on the surface with the Blue Demon. What they were doing I have no idea, but I didn't really care and wasn't about to find out. I shouted up through the stairs for someone to come down and plug this hole with some stone or something (and telling someone to do something with stone was something I had been fearing I would never be able to do) and continued digging, doing a bit of exploring until I found a suitable spot.



It had water, plants, and everything else a dwarf could want (except magma) I shouted at the herbalists to come down and start picking mushrooms as I began digging out a new office and bedroom for myself. I also shouted orders at whoever might be listening to wall off the cavern I'd discovered using whatever crapstone was handy- in this case mostly orthoclase. I think I might also have shouted something to the planters about getting off thier asses and planting some respectable goddamn food as well, but to be honest it's a bit hazy.

I was informed later that two of the peons had gotten married while I'd been digging.



Once my bedroom, office, and just for the hell of it, dining room were dug out, I felt rather different. Being underground had been an enormous relief. The others seemed rather glad about it, but those crazy bastards were always happy...

I resolved never to face the Blue Demon again. I'd live the rest of my life underground. The others could go aboveground if they wanted, but I'd never set foot on the surface again. I had the still deconstructed and brought down to an alcove next to my room. Once that was done, I had a look around and considered my next actions. There was a fairly large vein of gold exposed to the north, but I wasn't confident in my abilities to mine it successfully... Instead, I grabbed the first peon I saw, Tekkud, and handed her the pick. "Congratulations!"

She eyed me suspiciously. "For what?"

"You're our new chief miner! Get to work!" I took her down to the cavern and showed her the gold vein, instructing her to dig around it until she was confident in her skill, then dig it out.

Meanwhile, I retired to my new, underground office and began planning out what I wanted to do next while the others finished sealing off the cavern from the rest of the underground. Never know what's out there...

(Large pic)

[Particleman]

I ordered the wall rebuilt- this time, out of proper stone, and once Tekkud felt confident in her mining skills, I had her mine out some of the tetrahedrite veins she'd discovered.

I also told the others that whoeverhad any experience working a forge should set one up, along with a smelter and wood burning station- on the surface, preferably, so those of us underground didn't suffocate when the fires used up all the air. I also had some stone floors built under and around them to minimize the risk of accidentally starting a forest plains fire. I had the roof of the warehouse removed as well- sectionally, of course, so they didn't decide that the section someone else was clearly working on removing would make a good place to stand.

Annoyed by all the webs being spun by cave spiders- enormous bugs larger than a dwarf's hand- I had a loom and clothier's workshop built and told the first laborer I saw that she was now our weaver and clothesmaker.

Slate 26th, 53
More migrants. Eight of them. Oddly, they weren't outcasts or from a failed settlement. No, they were from the mountainhomes. They told me they'd been sent here deliberately, to "help" us. A woodworker (Ha, ha, ha... you guys are hilarious, sending us a woodworker. Because we only had wood to build with for so long. Ha, ha, ha), a soapmaker, a dyer, a fish cleaner, a wood burner, a strand extractor (like we're going to find adamantine here...), a planter, and one poor schmuck with no discernable skills. I told them to build a cabin for themselves and find something constructive to do.

Felsite 15th, 53
Elves came by again. I ignored them. We didn't have any stone to spare yet, what with having only a single miner and lots of things needing to be built, nor did we have any metal crafts to trade to them. The wall was almost done, though. I had plans for when it was though.

I was told that Rith, who was now our smith, evidently, was ALMOST done smelting the first chunk of tetrahedrite ore. I was annoyed that he was only that far long the process of making two new picks after more than a season of work, but I couldn't do much about it at the moment.

Felsite 21st, 53
Picks are done! I told the first two laborers I saw to grab them and start digging. They protested, as they didn't know anything about mining, but I told them that neither had Tekkud, and look at her now. She'd turned out to have quite the talent for it. They exchanged glances but didn't object any further. Meanwhile I went back to brewing. We had a lot of booze already, but you could never have enough. Construction began on some stairways I'd planned out on the surface.

Hematite 3rd, 53



Oh for the love of Armok, what now?

[Particleman]

Thikut cliamed the craftdwarf's workshop next to the trade depot that we never got around to taking down. screaming about how it was his now. I'd heard of this phenomonon, though I'd never seen it. To be honest, I was surprised it had taken someone this long to completely lose his mind.

For some reason he decided he need wood. Yeah, he'd lost it. Once he'd collected a few logs he started screaming about how he needed some kind of body part. I had one of the planters set up a butchery next to the booze warehouse and slaughter a donkey foal we had loitering around. Evidently that wasn't good enough for Thikut, as he kept bellowing about how he needed some kind of body part, but refused to tell anybody what, exactly, he wanted.

In the meantime, I had some grates set up over the edge of the big underground lake just south of my new living quarters and told another laborer that she was now our head fisherdwarf. The miners continued thier exploration to the north, digging out large areas I intended to eventually covert into bedrooms for the rest of the community.

Kivish, our weaver, gradualy ventured deeper and deeper into the natural caverns in search of cave spider webs. I warned him to be on guard for blind ogres and giant swallows and Armok knew what else, but he didn't seem worried. I figured I might as well let him- if he discovered something unpleasant in his ventures, his screams would surely alert the rest of us in time to wall ourselves off.

Later, the fisherdwarf I'd appointed came to me and told me there simply wasn't anything to catch in the rivers running by the cavern. I was doubtful of the truthfulness of that, but I told her to go back to her regular duties anyway.

Malachite 19th, 53
Thikut left the workshop today. He refused to talk to anyone or eat or drink anything. Any time someone tried to get him to eat he just pushed it away. I've never in my life seen a dwarf look so miserable.

At least those point-eared treehumpers finally left. I also said to hell with it and had the miners dig out some walls seperating the cavern we were already settling from the rest of the underground wilderness. We could build some new walls to keep the rest partitioned off.

Galena 13th, 53
Some human traders arrived. As with the elves, we didn't have anythign to give them. I'd been focusing more on getting the place livable than turning out trade goods. I figured we might as well rectify that and had one of the laborers, Meng, start turning out stone mugs, as he claimed to be rather accomplished at such tasks.

Galena 26th, 53
Most of the sections of natural caverns we'd uncovered have been successfully walled off. There are a few open spots, but those lead in from the rivers, and I don't think we'll be encountering threats from the water. Even so, I sent someone to do a bit of exploring and locate chokepoints we could wall off easily. I was informed there weren't any. So I said to hell with it, and had the smith start turning out some axes and armor. If something comes along to kill us, we'll kill it right back.

[Particleman]

Limestone 18th, 53
Thikut finally died of dehydration while laying in his bed. I ordered a coffin placed and had him buried. The miners finished digging the expansion to the north, so I had them head up and dig some storage rooms just below the surface.

Sandstone 17th, 53


Oh hell, not again.

Sakzul ran to his cabin and began pacing around anxiously, muttering something to himself. We tried getting him to talk to us, but he acted like he couldn't hear us.

Suspecting he might just not have the facilites he wanted, I ordered a mechanic's and bowyer's shop set up. He still refused to leave his cabin. Checking around, I saw that we also lacked a way to process gems or leather, so I had those facilites constructed as well. The instant the leather works was completed, he charged towards it, nearly knocking Erith into a pond, and declared it was his. Then he ran to the tannery, where the leather we'd gotten from butchering the mule in an attempt to appease Thikut, and ran back to the leather works screaming something about bricks. I queued some up at the mason's works station. Several made of diorite and orthoclase were made, but evidently these weren't good enough for him. Like Thikut, he refused to explain anything.

I ordered another coffin made.

A few days later it occurred to me that he might just want more leather, besides the one hide he's claimed already. I had a donkey butchered and the skin tanned. Sure enough, Sakzul dashed over to the leather works and grabbed the hide almost as soon as it was done. Apparently he wanted even more leather, as he continued screaming about it and stone blocks. I marked the mule and a stray kitten for butchering as well.

Timber 27th, 53


Sakzul FINALLY got started on whatever he was obsessing over once he'd claimed a stone block and three pieces of leather. At least he won't starve himself to death like Thikut did. Hopefully.

Moonstone 4th, 53


Oh. Wow. Great.