Gumbar's Journal, 23rd Malachite, 315, Mid-Summer[
Here, Gumbar includes a small painting of a bloodied dwarf. Bloody being the mildest possible term when describing their wounds. And I say ''their'' because they're so badly wounded you can't even tell what the dorf's gender is anymore. I mean, this is borderline cruelty. The dwarf was still alive when Gumbar painted this! Dwarves can be such arseholes sometimes...]
Alas, poor Urist, I knew ye well. She went insane after we failed to supply her with ''rocks'' and ''rock blocks''. Which is actually pretty strange, considering that I had about 3 rock blocks carved out specifically for her, and we have about 5 tURInnes of rock lying about.
(''tURInne'' being the equivalent of the human ''Tonne'')
She suffered a painful death; it took 3-4 soldiers and 2 dogs beating, biting, kicking and whacking her with a mace approximately 4 days to kill her. And three and a half of those days were spent unconscious, exhausted and nauseous on the ground with horrific wounds. I will miss her eccentric lever pulling habits and love of elf killing machinery. After Urist was put in a coffin (our second one to be filled), one of the migrants renamed themselves ''Urist the Blue'' in honor of her trials. They, too, will be assigned mechanic duties.
The most worrying thing about all of this is that it proves how inept our military is. I mean, if they can't even finish off a prone, dying dwarf, then how will they fair against fully armored goblins? We may have to consider forging them weapons. But to do that for an extended period of time, we need access to Armok's blood. And to get access to THAT...well, I don't know how we'll get access to that. I'll suggest using up some of our bituminous coal supplies. We do have that Blacksmith guy, after all.
While trapped in the wood stockpile (the fighting place took place just at the entrance), Derek made a new scientific discovery. ''Hey Gumbar, I just realized something,'' he said to me. ''All objects fall at the same speed regardless of their weight. Well, that's if you don't factor wind resistance and other factors into the equation, but the point still stands.''
''...is that information useful for killing things, producing booze or...well...killing things?'' I replied.
''Well, no. Bu-''
''Then I don't care.''
''Bu-''
''Don't care. Sorry. Bye.''
Thing is, I thought I heard him say something disturbing under his breath as I left. I probably misheard, but it sounded something like, ''
I WILL IMPALE YOU ON SPIKES MADE FROM NOBLE BONES.''. I'm just being paranoid, as per usual.
27th Malachite, 315, Mid-SummerGolko announced that we'll be beginning a new digging operation soon. Jack Brunch seemed pretty happy about it, but I'm not too sure. The majority of the other nameless dwarves agree with him, too. In fact, I'm the only one who has voiced a single complaint about the thing as of yet. Golko didn't seem to be listening to me. In fact, NOBODY listened to me. Their minds are all pre-occupied with thoughts of the diamonds, gold and mystical unicorns (that aren't actually hostile. Yeah right!) that Jack keeps going on about. We're screwed, that's all I'm saying.
As for the general state of the fortress, things are pretty okay at the moment. I've seen more attractive fortresses by far, but it serves its purpose. I'm going to consult Diablous and Urist the Blue on expanding fortress defenses. Never got 'round to making those marksdwarf outposts. Might make a trench in front of the drawbridge to protect it from some of the more destructive creatures; things are too quiet at the moment. The quiet before a STORM. Might set some cage and weapon traps around the entrance, too. Diablous will like that.
Miquel seems to feel pretty cut up about the death of the recruit. I gave him a pat on the back and told him that it wasn't his fault, and he seemed to cheer up a bit. I'm still trying to find the guy who actually carried out the killing to give him a few kind words, too, but he always seems to slip away before I can get near him. Probably thinks I'm trying to press him for details on the killing. Or something.
Also, rejoice! Kuntatlosh gave birth to a girl. I suggested that she name the kid ''Sobriety'', and she shot me a foul look. She's still as obsessed as ever over that stupid Staff thing. To ease her temper, I promised that I'll inform her of any staffs I find around the fortress from now on. Which is actually near pointless, because I don't even know what a staff looks like.
And, my last bit of news for the day; a migrant came up to me by the name of ''Goldload Mistpicks'' yesterday. Seems like a nice enough guy. Went on about some sort of surgery that he specialises in. Can't say I listened to him. I drifted off after he said ''Amputation''. He seemed to be getting pretty excited about the whole thing, too.