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[Battlecat]

OOC: I apologize for the missing pictures in the early chapters!  I've restored as many as I could but unfortunately, the earliest images are lost to the ether.  I hope you enjoy this story in spite of the missing pieces.

The events of 25th of Sandstone 299, Mountainhome Halls of Architecture

The yelling is clearly audible through the heavy stone door of the Master Architect’s office.  This one sided arguement has been going on for some time now.  “What do you mean not appropriate for the mountainhome?!  Nothing seems to be appropriate for mountainhome except for boring, traditional design.  We have the means and dwarf power to make this place so much more!  Consider this design I’ve been working on for example, it would work quite nicely on the mountaintop and it would be visible leagues!”

You can hear the murmur of a much calmer voice speaking. 

The yelling resumes:  “Too expensive and time consuming!  And what do you mean dangerous?  If they can’t swim, they shouldn’t jump in the water should they?  There are more important things than safety and security.  There are halls filled with dwarves just lazing about and hardly working as it is.  We’re dwarves, there’s nothing beyond our reach!”

A second sterner, sharp voice speaks up, again impossible to hear through the stone door. 

“Fine then, if the king himself has decided to let this place stagnate then we have nothing more to discuss.”  The door slams open and an angry looking dwarf stomps out.  He turns and yells “I’ll just have to find a place where my ideas won’t be scorned.  Mark my words though; someday you and our timid leaders will regret this decision!  And then you’ll come looking to see what Cog the Architect has built!”

3 Years and half a world later:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Erib the miner looks around from the vantage point at the side of the hill.  “Are you sure we’ve arrived in the right place Cog?  The horses are dead and I don't think we can get this cart up this hill.  If we have any further to go, we’ll have to leave most of these supplies behind.  There's no way we can carry all this.”   

Cog makes a show of studying the map, then he crumples it up and throws it at the ground.  “Of course we’re in the right place, it was picked out by the head of the cartographers guild, that slime sucking coward.  Look around us, extensive trees and a nice brook for us to use for irrgation, fishing and for a power supply.  Just like it says on the official map here.” 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Yup, no doubt that this is the place.  At least it isn’t too hot yet since it’s still spring.  Better grab your picks and start digging in before our food starts to rot or something else comes up.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is more than just a shortage of water in our futures.”  Cog snorts in disgust, "I guess the King really is to timid if this is his idea of an effective execution." 

Out of character Introduction

Spoiler: Here’s the real map that Cog didn’t see before departure (click to show/hide)

 

Greetings everyone!  Welcome to my first attempt at a journal/community fortress for Dwarf Fortress.  This will primarily be a chronicle of the trials and successes during the construction of Towersoared, primarily told from Cog’s point of view.  I don’t claim to be a great storyteller, but I’m looking forward to learning. 

Here are the 6 dwarves available for you all to claim initially.  Feel free to pick any nickname you like for them, these are just their official names.  I chose the starting skills for my own comfort since I’m not a fantastic player.  Also I’m pretty sure Cog wouldn’t accept a group of peasants to start, so everyone is pretty talented at a couple of disciplines.  However if your chosen dwarf has aspirations away from their current profession I’ll see what can be done. 

Spoiler: Catten Ubalmafol (Miner/Armorsmith) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Erib Idzagod (Miner/Weaponsmith) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Iteb Zonshar (Carpenter/Blacksmith) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Libash Likotkokeb (Mason/Engraver) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Zan Othilrimatar (Stonecrafter/Mechanic) (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Zaneg Zatamlikot (Planter/Brewer) (click to show/hide)

Towersoared is going to be a repository of architectural insanity if I have my way.  I've got several design files full of mad ideas but more suggestions are always welcome.  I plan to construct this fortress with 3D visualization in mind, starting with Stonesense as soon as I figure out how to get it working.  First updates coming soon as the dwarves get settled in to their new home. 

[Tuxman]

Way 2 go!

I'll take Catten Umbalmafob


Catten Umbalmafob
Miner/Armormith

Story: Catten was a miner back at the mountainhomes. Only a year into mining when the new fortress opportunity arrived. She took it, seeking success. She is naive. She knows armorsmithing because her father was an armorsmith and had forced her to learn his craft before she joined the mining core. It isn't her best point, but she can hold her own. Years of mining have made her very physically strong. She is curious. She likes to please others. She measures her worth in the opinions of others.

Likes: Dogs for their simplicity.
Dislikes: Cats, elves, her current family.

[Shaostoul]

OH MAN! I know who I am being!!!

Zaneg Zatamlikot (Planter/Brewer)

Name him Worm!

I would like him to be away from the rest of the group cause he likes to be alone. Security and stability of his work place is a must! No creature should be able to get in until after the go through the rest of everyone else! Also if you could make him a miner so he can dig his own stuff as well. (Be fitting to the name Worm.) His plots must be the best ever! Use only premium products (As in, use the most expensive and best tasting products for producing food for everyone.

Oh man... I just keep thinking and thinking about what I'd do and all kinds of silly contraptions I could come up with... Like there being no way into his section, he drops down food to all the others. If there happens to be another loner farmer you should put them together.

[Pwnzerfaust]

I'll take a dwarf. Zan Othilrimatar (Stonecrafter/Mechanic), namely. Nickname him Pawn.

Always been a fan of how machines work, and making them work himself. Dreams of making an in-doors watermill power plant.

[Urist Imiknorris]

EDIT: Wow, I'm blind.

I'll take Libash.

"Urist Imiknorris" is a perfectly normal mason. Or he would be, if not for his ambition. He is studying architecture under Cog and seeks to furnish the entire fortress with masterful stone objects.

He insists using statues to hide a magma-flood device in the fortress's entrance and wishes to have a bedroom overlooking a floor grate onto which goblin prisoners are dropped from as high as possible.

[Pwnzerfaust]

Psst, Urist. Look at the post directly above yours. :[

[zlurker]

I guess I'll take Iteb. o_o Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll develop a George Washington type syndrome towards trees.

[RCIX]

I guess that means i'll have Erib.

Following Urist:

"Rogue Idzagod" is a perfectly abnormal miner. He has a hobby of trying to forge a perfect pick, which usually results in a large inventory of picks stashed in his personal chest. His ultimate goal is to make a combo platinum-adamantine pick, but he's pretty far off from that. Thus, he wants to learn weaponsmithing to improve his skills

[Battlecat]

(OOC): Thanks for your interest everyone!  Glad to see the Dwarf selection process got sorted out without my involvement!  I’ll see what I can do about your requests as the game goes forward.  I’m sure we’ll see more migrants soon so if any readers are looking for a dwarf, just let me know.  Now, on with the story!   

From Cog’s Journal, 1st of Granite, 302

I don’t have long until Catten and Rogue Idzagod are done digging the first rooms, so this will have to be quick.  Apparently our illustrious leaders aren’t satisfied with forcing me into an effective exile over my ideas.   No, they had to make sure to trick me into heading to one of the more miserably barren places in this half of the continent.  At least they didn’t fake the presence of ore and the volcano. 

I have a sturdy, although rather odd group of dwarves who chose to join me.  Mostly we’re getting along just fine, but it seems that Catten and Iteb have developed a bit of a grudge.  I think it started as an argument about the benefits of stone over wood or something like that.  They don’t seem to be speaking anymore though. 

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.  Too many ideas to jot down, not enough time!  Now thanks those spineless bureaucrats back home it looks like survival is going to have to take priority.  Catten is waving at us; I think the first tunnels are ready.  Time to get our supplies indoors. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Events of the, 2nd of Slate, 302

Pawn Othilrimatar wiped his brow as he headed back to the wagon for another load of food.  Cog certainly had brought a lot of materials, including sufficient wood to make bed for everyone despite the shortages here.  He looked up at the clear sunny sky, and then squinted at a small dot in the middle.  He tapped Urist Imiknorris on her shoulder as she walked past. 

“Urist, what is that thing up there?” he asked. 

Urist looked in the direction indicated by Pawn and then turned slightly pale.  “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it doesn’t look friendly.” 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They exchanged a glance.  Pawn sighed, “Looks like we’d better hurry up and get everything inside before it notices us.” 

[Battlecat]

From Cog’s Journal, 19th of Slate, 302

Finally, I hauled the last batch of lumber inside myself.  Now we’ll be relatively safe from that Nightwing creature unless it decides to come visit.  Pawn is installing some cage traps at the front entrance just in case and we’ll get some barriers up so we can seal the place down soon.  I’ve got a bad feeling about this place.  Something doesn’t seem right. 

The fortress itself really isn’t much yet, but its home for the moment.  At least we have beds and a dining hall.  Once I have a small office set up, I’ll be ready to start putting my plans together.  Here’s a quick sketch of our completely uninspired home so far:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh and I suppose getting some farms figured out might not be a bad plan either.  You should have seen the look on Pawns face when I told him that we’d need some mechanical work to control the flow of water into the first farm.  I think he’s eager to put his talents to work on something more complex though.  He looked a little bored when I told him that once he was done with the mechanical work, I needed him to put his stonecrafting talents to work on the off handed chance a caravan makes it out here.   

Events of the 4th of Felsite, 302

From their vantage point they watched as Nightwing dove down on the helpless camel.  They watched for half an hour as the beast taunted and slowly ate away at the camel before it finally collapsed to the ground. 

With an angry look on his face, Cog watched as Nightwing flew away leaving the whithered corpse of the camel behind.  “Stupid bloody nobles sending us to this place.” He muttered to himself.  “Well, at least it wasn’t one of us who found out we’ve got a vampire in the neighbourhood.”

From Cog’s Journal 10th of Felsite, 302

Nothing like some farms, very soon we’ll have our first crops ready.  Funny that Worm insisted that they be so far away from everything.  Unfortunately with our shortage of water, we have few options if we want to successfully irrigate our fields.  Still, can’t blame him for wanting to dig in considering that creature we saw.  I suspect that some of my ideas won’t go over so well thanks to that thing.  At least it seems to have departed from the area for the moment.   

From Cog’s Journal 16th of Malachite, 302

I’m quite stunned to report that a small group of migrants have arrived.  A family of four, plus a cheese maker they met on the way here.  The way things were going, I would have thought that our noble leaders would have forgotten to mention us to potential migrants.  This certainly bodes well for the possibility of seeing a caravan this fall. 

Not only is Vucar Shemlir a high master metalcrafter, but her husband Asmel Loloroth is a novice glassmaker!  With all this sand, I think he’ll be getting a lot of practice to make a name for himself in the near future, assuming he’s not planning on changing jobs.  Not much call for a cheesemaker yet but I'm sure we can find something for him to do.  I'll have to see what his interests are.

(OOC): We’ve got three new migrants plus the children.  Here are the three adults:

Spoiler: Zuglar Dodokanam, Adequate Cheesemaker (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Vucar Shemlir, High Master Metalcrafter (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Asmel Loloroth, Novice Glassmaker (click to show/hide)

[Urist Imiknorris]

Cheese maker > wood burner/furnace operator. Make ye some gold crafts.

[alxnotorious]

Are you allowing more people to claim the migrants? I'd like to claim Asmel.

[Battlecat]

(OOC): Good call Urist, I think that’s a perfect task for our new cheesemaker.  Now I just need to mine out some gold! 

Alxnotorious:  Yes, the new migrants are available to claim.  Asmel is now your dwarf. 

From Cog’s Journal, 7th of Malachite, 302

I have an office!  Finally managed to get the first round of planning done.  Specifically, I’m trying to figure out how to tap the volcano.  I plan to put magma to good use in the future, so I need a fairly generous amount.  Granted I got a few odd looks when I told my fellow dwarves the dimensions of the magma channel.  And yes, it is indeed my intent to dig a 3 tile wide “channel.”  This will probably take Catten and Rogue the rest of the season to finish, but it will be a good warm up for the future.

From Cog’s Journal, 28th of Sandstone, 302

As if things aren’t frustrating enough here, apparently this is a pretty cold desert.  The murky pools outside froze over last night. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Events of the, 2nd of Timber, 302

“Hello, is anybody here?”  Erush Ariden, the outpost liason looked cautiously around the rather narrow tunnel leading into the mountainside.  She shook her head.  “Not even enough space for a wagon,” she thought to herself.  “What a place to be sent on my first assignment.” 

She made her way inside and got directions from the first dwarf she saw to Cog’s office.  In all honesty the place wasn’t terribly impressive.  Narrow, unfinished hallways and loose stone scattered around the halls.  If this was the best Cog had to offer, his detractors from mountainhome would be laughing themselves silly.  Still, it had only be a short time, but there weren’t any signs of any grand plans in action. 

Finally she got to a door at the end of a hallway.  She knocked loudly on it.  Inside a loud voice yelled, “Go away!  I’ve got work to do here!  These stupid documents won’t finish themselves you know.”  She cringed a bit, and the pushed the door open.  “Excuse me sir . . .”

A short, balding dwarf burst out of his chair at a desk covered in mounds of paper yelling “GO AWAY I SAID AND FURTHERMORE . . .  Oh wait, I don’t recognize you.  Are you a new immigrant?” 

“I’m your duly appointed liason with mountain home sir” she said, cringing a bit.  “I think there are a few immigrants walking with the caravan though.” 

Cog snorted, “I do apologize, it’s the first time in almost 3 months I’ve had to sit down and work.  Come in, let’s talk about what the nobles back home have to offer.”

From Cog’s Journal, 25th of Timber, 302

Figures, I’d come within a whisker of alienating our liason.  Well, at least she was fairly reasonable to talk with.  Seems to have a good head on her shoulders although she did point out how poor this place looks.  Can’t blame her, what with being focused on survival for the past few months.  At least things are starting to look up.  We’ve got four new migrants as well as the caravan in the house. 

Our newest immigrant cheesemaker seems to have a good head on his shoulder and was apparently quite chummy with the merchants on the trip out so I sent him off to take care of trading.  He did quite well considering we only had four boxes of stone crafts to trade.  At least we should have enough food to get us through a couple more seasons. 

Pretty soon I’m going to be asking our miners to take a serious risk.  It’s finally time to breach the magma pipe.  I think they drew straws on the job already; Catten seems surprisingly enthusiastic about it considering the dangers. 

[Battlecat]

Events of the 23rd of Moonstone, 302

Catten made her way towards the planned location of the magma pipe breach.  While Cog had carefully planned the site to provide escape routes, it was still a highly dangerous task.  Even worse, he wanted her to breach the pipe in three separate locations to ensure a high flow of magma into the massive trench.

Finally she found herself face to face with the hot obsidian wall that  divided her from the magma.  She lifted her pick and began her attack on the wall at the first breach.  The wall suddenly gave way and magma began to pour out towards her, and into the trench beside her.  Quickly, she dashed up the stairs into the narrow access corridor and then down to the second breach. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The second wall fell as quickly as the first.  But in a moment of confusion due to the increasing fumes, instead of dashing upstairs into the safe corridor she outran the lava around the corner and up the hall to the third site.  The third wall was the most dangerous, especially with the magma rising in the two halls behind her.  But at long last it fell as well.  She deftly dodged to one side as the magma began to pour through and then she dashed up the stairs.  Looking back down at the increasing flow of magma, she breathed a sigh of relief and then started the walk back to the central fort to report to Cog that the magma was on the move. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[alxnotorious]

Oooo, the description of Catten taking down the magma wall was kinda intense. A+

Since Asmel is basically useless as a glassmaker, could you make him into a sort of resident mooch? Like useless job-wise only existing to eat, drink, sleep, and socialize. He also demands a room made of pitchblende if possible. He likes pitchblende.