Cog’s Journal, 10th of Timber, 310 Today I authorized the start of excavation of the stairwells, storage and hallways on the south side of the dining hall. They’ll start moving upwards to the bedrooms on the south side very quickly as well. It’s time to get a bit of symmetry in place. Not to mention, enough room for all the dwarves living here.
Another dwarf just came by to ask about joining the military.
He has aspirations to become a marksdwarf. He’s got a lot of work ahead of him to catch up with the rest of his squad, but this does put the marksdwarf crew up to 5 dwarves. At least it’s a lower risk position when compared with joining Derm’s squad this late in their career.
Also, the suggesting regarding the forgotten beast seems to be setting up a quarantine facility for the dwarf or dwarves assigned to kill it. I’ll have to ensure that the isolation facility is well furnished to prevent unhappiness from the resident.
Cog’s Journal, 12h of Timber, 310Hard to believe it’s that time already. The dwarven caravan was spotted coming over the hills towards our fortress. I’ve dispatched Derm and his soldiers to greet them. If they have half of what I ordered last year, we’ll be well set for the dining room window project in the coming year.
Events of the, 15h of Timber, 310Derm and his squad were out near the gates walking with the caravan and its guards as they approached the fortress. They were close to safety when the unthinkable happened. A siege had slipped up on the despite their careful watch. Worse or better still, a squad of axedwarves had arrived right next to the arriving caravan. Fortunately, they hadn’t expected Derm and his squadmates to be out here with the caravan guards.
Without a moment’s hesitation he shouted for reinforcements and then brandished his axe and charge the nearest goblin, his soldiers close behind. Derm and his squad quickly cut into the goblins and chopped them to shreds before they had a chance to even take a decent swing at them. Derm lead with a particularly beautiful shot right through a goblins spine, and then continued with maiming several more.
Then a shout went out from the caravan guards behind them, “We’ve got Trolls back here!”
Derm turned and shouted to his squad, gesturing with his axe, “CHARGE”! Derm could already see a second squad of goblins close behind the trolls. He quickly beheaded one troll, removed the legs of a goblin and then chopped another troll in half. Just as the fight was wrapping up, the hammer lord charged up behind him. Derm casually opened the hammer lord’s throat with his axe.
The remaining goblins and trolls fell without incident. Derm ordered his squad back to the gates, there were two more squads of goblins approaching from that direction. He arrived at the gates just as the last merchant went inside. He looked over at the goblins, there were no archers in these two squads. Again, he sounded the charge, this time the hammerdwarves and crossbow squad were close behind. Derm took great joy in the slaughter that followed, the military ensured that not a single goblin escaped.
But there were still two squads left. Over above the gates there was a squad of trolls wandering around. And coming down out of the hills was one last squad of macegoblins. Derm quickly decided what to do about the situation. “You lot go take care of the goblins. I’ve got the trolls covered.”
The trolls were not grouped together and were kind of wandering aimlessly. Derm was confident he could take care of them. The first troll charged with a roar. He easily evaded the trolls clumsy attack and took off one of its toes with his axe just for kicks. But that was just a start as he tore the troll into several pieces with his axe.
The second troll was even easier as Derm chopped one of its legs off, sending it tumbling to the ground where he quickly dispatched it. The third troll met a similar fate.
The rest of the squad was still up in the hills. The remaining goblins sounded the retreat and were leaving the area. The next trolls actually screeched in terror when they saw him and tried to avoid him. But Derm wasn’t going to let them escape that easily.
With a flourish of an axe, he send the arms of the last remaining troll flying through the sky and then shouted out the victory of Towersoared once again!
A fine battle once again. No injuries, not even to Shorast the Unlucky. And the merchants were safe and unloading at the depot now. Even better, he had fourteen more kills to his credit, eight of which were trolls. Now it was time to consider what to do about the poisonous eight legged turtle down in the caves. Well, maybe after he got a drink first.
OOC: That was extremely lucky. Glad I’ve started dispatching a squad to meet up with the merchants lately.
@breadbocks: That’s one option. I’m really hoping that the gas isn’t too powerful. I’ll have to carve a pleasant quarantine room. I think I’ll set it up at the back of the jail.
@Urist Imkiknorris: Perfect, I’ll get the miners started. Under floor magma heating will be a bit further out, but I’ll set it up to be carved at the same time I get the dining hall channels put in place.
@ushilzagith: Welcome aboard! I’ve posted your dwarf above. He’s a former member of hauling crew three responsible for masonry and refuse hauling only. He’s one of the few dwarves I’ve found with a long straight combed beard instead of braids. In future sieges I'll keep track of what you're up to just like Derm. In this case, you weren't promoted before the siege.
@Dermonster: We'll have to see. Honestly I'm quite concerned about how dangerous the poison could be. Derm the Soulchopper is tough as nails and super strong but he's actually still sitting at Very slow to heal!
@Tuxman: Actually, you’re already training with your full steel weapon at the moment. As it turned out, low ranking military members don’t seem to spar. They mostly seem to go with individual training. By the time they start sparring, they’re more than safe to work with steel. Besides, dwarves still don’t rearm properly when they’re deployed, so it’s easier just to have the real weapons in hand.
@Syntic: So many interesting comments and ideas. I’ve got some in character responses from Cog’s end in the next update. This one was getting pretty long due to the siege.