Cog’s Journal, 10th of Felsite, 313 Apparently Comp had a bit of a scare down in the caves. He’s fine and seems to still be comfortable with his plan. In any rate, I’ve sent Derm down to conduct a patrol in case any other troglodytes are hiding in the caves.
Anyhow, that’s not the purpose of today’s journal entry. Today I officially commissioned the new trading depot.
I had it built out of Cobaltite blocks to get a nice blue color. I’ll be ordering the removal of the old depot today. The new depot has an advantage that it’s actually accessible to wagons via the spiral ramp.
Cog’s Journal, 18th of Felsite, 313 The Elves arrived today. With the new depot gone, they’re officially the first traders to brave our new entrance. I’ve sent the hammerdwarves out as a courtesy since they Elves have played straight with us the past few years. They also don’t seem to have sent a diplomat to complain about tree cutting which puts me a generous mood. I was going to send out Derm just on the off chance a goblin ambush showed up, but he was absent. His squad said he was down in the caves again.
I’m sure he’s harassing the troglodytes again. Those critters seem to be coming in droves lately.
While I was up checking off boxes to send down to the new depot, I stopped by the jewelcrafter’s workshop. They’ve been rather busy.
Not quite as good as I was expecting. I was curious why and check the job assignments. Turns out one of our gem cutters had done most of the work, he had been miss-assigned as a gem setter. I don’t have the supplies to spare to restart the project right now so we’ll keep working on this one. It looks pretty good for a throne that started out assessed at 4000.
But there’s no sight of them stopping yet. Still lots more gems, metals and bone to add.
Cog’s Journal, 2nd of Hematite, 313So the Elves didn’t make it into the depths. They proceeded straight through our old entrance and right to the old depot location. Apparently my order to remove the depot wasn’t followed fast enough and once the Elves finished unpacking they refused to move until it was time to go. Not great trading this year but they did bring some animals that will be very useful in the near future.
I hope we can get this old depot gone before the humans show up.
Cog’s Journal, 14th of Hematite, 313Today a Kobold Thief popped up near our old entrane and stabbed Zon Zuntiruzlir in the chest. He'll survive, it wasn't serious. I ordinarily don’t worry much about thieves, but this act calls for retribution. And Derm can easily outrun Koblods now . . .
It didn’t even manage to run as far as the dining hall from our old entrance.
Events of the 20th of Hematite, 313It happened while excavating the North Industrial Hall. Alath, daughter of Amsel was digging away, Obok and Kib were both nearby as well. Suddenly she heard Obok gasp in surprise and then let out a shout of fear. She looked up just in time to see the ground under Obok crumble away. Obok hung in midair for a moment, defying gravity. Then he started to shimmer like a mirage and then he was gone.
Alath let out a shriek of horror and ran over to examine the site. Wait, there was still something there. She looked closely and there was a faint outline of a dwarf hanging in midair where Obok disappeared. She grabbed a rock and threw it. It flew right through Obok. She felt a shiver down her spine. This wasn’t natural, and it could have happened to any of them. He was gone.
Cog’s Journal, 21st of Hematite, 313This is more than just a little terrifying. Obok, one of our miners vanished into thin air today. I went to survey the site today and an unmoving shadow is still visible. There is a chill in the air of the Northern corridor. In honor of Obok, I intend to leave a stairway up to his shade on the off chance that this is a temporary effect. It would be pretty terrible for him to return to this world and plummet 6 stories to his death.
OOC: Yup, I’ve hit the dreaded dwarven ghost problem. I know how to fix it but until Runesmith works with 31.14, Obok gets to hang out for a while. You know, it looks like this might be a repeatable process. All you seem to have to do to get a hanging dwarf is save your game right at the moment the dwarf finishes carving a channel out from under himself.
@Comp112: Yeah, you’ve officially become a miner already. It seemed appropriate; with the increasing troglodyte traffic it would have been pretty hazardous to leave you down there defenseless. Besides, this way you’re helping the fortress as well.
@Tuxman: I can certainly handle that for both the human and dwarven trade caravans this year. The Elves decided to ignore my new facility since the old one wasn’t gone yet. I’m particularly looking forward to writing up the dwarven liaison.
@dermonster: I can probably handle that. How large are you thinking? Also, how about an 18 story depiction of it in the form of gemstone windows in the dining hall? It’s in the works already in fact.
@Syntic: Interesting, I haven’t heard of that particular bug. I’ll poke into it sometime in the next couple of days. I suspect it’s mostly just been pure luck for Derm since he has been actually injured. His thumb is still showing as a red injury as it hasn’t healed up yet.