1 Granite 1051.
We struck the earth on the first day of 1051. It struck me as apropos, symbolic even, to start anew with the year. I'd spent some time designing the beginnings of the fortress, keeping in mind there was no need to dig all of it at once. Farms and lodgings first, I decided. Carpentry and masonry could be done on the surface until we had a chance to move into good, solid rock.
I tried to make something that was compact and aesthetic, but also easy to add on to. I knew that no dwarf could manage a fortress for long and retain his sanity. One year was the usual period, and I didn't want to leave my succesors with too much of a mess.
But I'd grown tired enough of the cramped quarters I'd had before to design something a bit larger for us.
So we started in earnest. The miners dug, Domas chopped some trees with that axe, Sakzul fished. Sodel wandered off muttering about berry-picking, and I took freshly-dug rock for my own work.
10 Granite 1051
Turns out all the aquatic life had migrated into the brook, so even the few pools of water were useless for fishing. Ah well, I'd intended to make the brook safely accessible anyway.
14 Granite 1051.
Yes, the food stockpiles extend under the brook a little bit. Deal with it.
18 Granite 1051.
I know it may be early, but I had Domas throw a few beds together and put them someplace temporary. No use in sleeping on rock or sand if we don't need to.
23 Granite 1051.
By Tesum's left buttock, a giant eagle! I really hope it doesn't decide to be too friendly.
25 Granite 1051.
Curses! I made the Fishing Alcove slightly too wide. Or, alternately, slightly too far north. Either way, it's going to have to be partly rebuilt. It's doubly galling that I'm the one who put up those walls...
11 Slate 1051.
This place is looking nice already. We've hit upon some iron ore and some gems. I'm not a metalworker or a gemsmith though, so I'll leave the exact specifics to someone else.
14 Slate 1051.
I thought I'd have to figure out the arcane working of mechanisms, but it turns out the fisherman already knows about them! Good, I'm overworked as it is, and we need some to properly prepare our farming area.
21 Felsite 1051
A lot of preliminary mining done, and we have a rough dining room.
It's by no means a legendary one but it's a start. And hey, it's better than eating standing up.
10 Hemetite 1051.
The irrigation of our underground farm was accomplished without incident...
Except the water levels are far too high. I talked it over with Sakzul and we're going to make a pump to remove the excess. It shouldn't take much.
But first, a break!
24 Hemetite 1051. Whoops. THe area I told the miners to excavate next was set up for metal industry, rather than crafting. I was going to get to it eventually, I just wanted a place to put my masonry shop first!
8 Malachite.
Three dwarves have appeared over the horizon! When I asked them how they found us, one of them told me they were in Wagon Three and they'd swung too near to some goblins. Maybe the rest of the wagon survived, but more likely not.
One of them was a fellow mason who'd somehow ended up cleaning fish most of the time. Faugh, I say, let the fishers clean their own fish (or at least let peasants do it) and we masons must ply our trade!
16 Malachite.
And I pressed one of the new migrants into service to operate our pump. It worked perfectly and the water is beginning to subside. Soon we will have farms of delicious sweet pods and quarry bushes!
28 Malachite.
And even with the...ahem, slight issues, I seem to be on or even ahead of schedule! With the help of the second mason I have put together a Trade Depot out of bauxite. It's a nice red color, really...
19 Galena 1051.
Our spare battle axe has gone missing!
Evidently I didn't take enough care in moving our possessions safely indoors. This will be rectified immediately.
1 Limestone 1051.
Autumn already!? We don't have anything for the caravan when it comes...
Apparently Tobul used to work with wood. Well that's kind of useless, but stone is
like wood, isn't it? Close enough, anyway. Now that the miners have gotten around to digging out the crafting space, I showed her the craft shop and left her to it.
10 Limestone 1051.
I've reduced the amount of exposure our fort has to the world by temporarily erecting a bit of a bridge. Eventually we'll want a proper entrance but this will work for now.
6 Sandstone 1051.
More stragglers! Two more dwarves, the sad remains of Wagon Three. One completely unskilled dwarf and one skilled in both clothesmaking and armoring. Now there's an eclectic skill mix. We invited them to share some of our strawberry wine and longland beer, and then put them to work. At the moment we were trying to set up some decent stockpiles.
16 Timber 1051.
Well, we finally got our caravan from civilization. They didn't even come from Egucerol, but rather, Estilthob. Apparently old queen Edem has spread out the trading duties. The liason traveling along with them was a tough-looking dwarf called Ingiz Itonsazir. And wouldn't you know it, she carried a hammer. Probably to remind us that dwarven justice applies even out here in the middle of nowhere.
Turns out nobody has any trading experience. After a bit of dickering I decided I might as well do it myself, get a feel for it. We had a reasonable food supply so I passed over their food and drink for the most part in favor of some cloth and leather. We had some stone trinkets but they didn't account for much.
I let Lokum handle the hammerdwarf. Was surprised it wasn't Dumas she wanted to speak to, but whatever. Lokum, of course, was busy mining.
15 Moonstone 1051.
As we clear out the stone and prepare to tap the magma vein so we can start our metal and glassworks, I have taken upon myself to make preparations
It's a dangerous job, though we all hope there will be no tragedy involved.
17 Moonstone 1051.
The brook froze overnight! We will have to make certain to have our own underground water supply once it begins running again in the spring. A lack of water in a time of crisis can be deadly.
24 Moonstone 1051.
We have safely tapped the magma! Though the hammerdwarf, tagging along behind Lokum, came dangerously close to being engulfed by it. Now that would have been a bad way to start out.
8 Opal 1051.
By Tesum eighth testicle! Someone neglected to put in a proper door on the magma level! Fortunately there's nothing under there...but now there never will be. It's a hazard future managers will have to be aware of if they build up from below.
I'm going to have those ramps floored off for now. It's just too dangerous. In fact, I'll do it myself.
15 Obsidian 1051
Most of the brook unfroze today. Except the bit where the Fishing Alcove is. Damn you, nature!
25 Obsidian 1051.
There goes the rest of it. The sound of the ice cracking and rushing is really reminiscent of a cave-in. Very disturbing.
1 Granite 1052.
And here we are. Not a bad year all around, I suppose. I didn't get anyone killed, but just the minor disasters were enough for me. I'm going to retire, pass on the management to whoever wants it...and spend some time with Doren. Turns out she's as much of an architect as I am...
--
OOC: Not a particularly Fun year, but it was mostly setting up. Now, if we were in an evil biome that would be punctuated with the chopping of skelks.
The fort needs tidying up like whoah. On to the next person!
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Topic: Ardentdikes - Absolute disaster - (31.25) (Succession)(Need Players!) (Read 222823 times)