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[Riversand]

Kezan approaches Urist the red, with a scroll. architectural work. On the scroll, designs of a trap system, in the entrance corridor, to deal with the sure to come goblins, and other threats. "Urist, goblins always have a way of finding dwarves, that honestly perplexes me... setting up a series of weapon traps, that are not deadly by themselves, but instead, draws the group of goblins, which tend to come, deeper, wounding them, till they retr4eat, and make a run for it back through the field of traps. Said series of traps are very common in various mountain-homes... so, in case anyone snoops around, we can say that it is because of the goblins. This set of traps may also help us deal with... unwelcome guests... such as the titans of legend seeking to take that which is the Overlords." His main idea, is to utilize one to two giant sawblades per trap setup. "This idea cal also be utillized outside, where the traps and their triggers can be hidden beneath the snow."

[Imp]

Imp Solozasob, speaking in her own defense.


"I am relieved the boss decided my Masterpiece has not violated any of our laws.  I worried in my use of our historic king Hammertrees image, fearing that this would be seen as a sign that my loyalty to our Overlord was compromised.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  I simply cannot read, or write.

 I overheard those weird merchants and their stupid leader talking about the sanctity of trees.  Trees?  Valueless, common, weak trees?  It's not my place to say anything.  But I obsessed over what I wanted to say.  Even after the boss had us strip 'em of most of their stuff and slew their leader, I still wanted my say.  It grew and grew in my mind, until nothing else mattered.  'Cept the Overlord, of course.

There's only one way to really keep out such annoying cultists, to restore our 'Calm Banks'.  Hammer Trees.  I believe my grate was a perfect way to say this."

[Geb]

Field Reports of Tannen Rimtarazin, Trusted Lieutenant
18th Galena, 302

All production has been halted today, and my studies have been interrupted. The newly functional magma smelters have been able to create only two batches of coins before the alert was called for battle and work stopped. I must admit to disliking the waste of using precious metals on such unartistic items as coins, but that is exactly the point. The Overlord needs funds, gold and silver that can be spent, not trinkets that can only be admired.



I should have ordered weapons to be made first. The fortress has been attacked simultaneously from two fronts: on the surface a band of armed humans approached our gates





and from below, a great roar and great, thumping, battering blows against the tunnel walls as a mysterious beast tries to reach us.



On both fronts the defenses give us time to plan. On neither front can invasion be tolerated. Urist the Red was found unconscious, fallen face down in an empty wine barrel and unable to swear to the quality of her work so I was forced to assume that the beast in the tunnels would eventually break its way through her walls. Thinking beings with weapons are a more immediate threat, however.

The humans approached under the pretence of being merchants, but even at our door they do not drop their weapons. The trickery is transparent. I leave chief technician Vamp to deal with them, a task that she is only too eager to accept. The entire stock of ballista ammunition is used in the slaughter, but soon only one human remains.



One human survived, cowering in the corner hidden from the Surprise hatch, and upon opening the doors to check the corpses he leaped into the fortress screaming and babbling. I wanted to know why they had come here and who had sent them, but the List is strict.

16. I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

I killed him without asking.



The next task would be less simple. The threat from below sounds like a mere animal, unthinking, and yet we have not planned for such a battle. The only edged metal the fortress has produced is coins and the only weapons are the ones I hold.

I led the hunting mission personally.



As Timmi tore down a section of wall brick by brick I made sure the legionaries were inspired, made sure they were prepared, and made sure they knew that they'd get a bronze bolt through the head if they ran away.





Captain Ireheart's squad lead the charge, wrestling the monster to the ground as soon as they reached it regardless of the danger. Two of them lost their lives in the struggle but they succeeded in pinning the creature still enough for me to begin firing upon it. As it was riddled with bolts, the monster blasted a great gout of fire at the legion, killing a third soldier, the woman still shouting her battlecry as she fell, blackened and clearly beyond saving. In the smoke and confusion, one of DoomPotato's squad made the killing blow, twisting one of the bolts embedded in the writhing body to tear through its mysterious organs, silencing the beast forever.

My own part in the battle was limited, the rules of the List constraining my fire down in the caverns among rock pillars.

82. I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

Among the survivors were four wounded, Captain Ireheart taking a gash across his leg, several burns, and one legionary with his leg completely torn off. They now face the biggest threat they have yet seen since joining the rebellion - being treated by Doctor Zaerosz. I must remind them not to use the word "experiment" until they are capable of defending themselves again...

[Gutanoth]

This Fort looks like it's gonna be fun. Are you still aking dwarfing requests? and what are you going to do about any pesky nobles that come?

[Geb]

This Fort looks like it's gonna be fun. Are you still aking dwarfing requests? and what are you going to do about any pesky nobles that come?

I'll keep taking requests as long as there are unclaimed dwarfs. You're stuck with a choice of mason, mechanic, metalworker or soldier, there's really not a lot else that happens in this fort, although there will soon be a call for a talented uniform designer.

As for nobles... we'll see.

[mr. macduggan]

Dwarf me as a competent psychaiatrist, as per rule 64.
If there's any way to give him more social skills like consoling and comedian, do it, and name him Urist McFreud

[breadbocks]

First, is there any way of making a magma pump to the depot? 

This Fort looks like it's gonna be fun. Are you still aking dwarfing requests? and what are you going to do about any pesky nobles that come?

I'm working on it. I had forgotten about it for a bit.

Also, I'm considering taking out the mayor. Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm defiantly going to have to remove Tax Collector.
And while I'm at it, how many mandates and demands do you want the DM to ask for?

[Geb]

First, is there any way of making a magma pump to the depot? 

This Fort looks like it's gonna be fun. Are you still aking dwarfing requests? and what are you going to do about any pesky nobles that come?

I'm working on it. I had forgotten about it for a bit.

Also, I'm considering taking out the mayor. Thoughts?

EDIT: I'm defiantly going to have to remove Tax Collector.
And while I'm at it, how many mandates and demands do you want the DM to ask for?

I think we need to talk about this in detail. I'll PM you.

As for the trade depot magma, yes I could do that very easily now, but then I'd need to make a second entrace so that work on the gatehouse didn't stop. The Surprise ballista is quick and... tidy, sort of.

[breadbocks]

As for the trade depot magma, yes I could do that very easily now, but then I'd need to make a second entrace shop front so that work on the gatehouse didn't stop. The Surprise ballista is quick takes 4 steps for the first shot, 4 steps for each shot afterwards(Woodcutting, carpentering, opening floodgate, shooting, reload) and... tidy, sort of can't aim at half of the targets.

Fix'd that thar post for ye. Magma is the KEY.

[breadbocks]

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2994

Copy/paste that into your RAWs folder. Delete entity_default.txt, and rename overlordmod that. I do believe 10 demands and 50 mandates should be fine.

[Geb]

Defense Planning Meeting, 24th Galena 302
Events transcribed by Chief Engineer Vamp

Magma Chief Julius cleared his throat, bringing the meeting to a start. "Now then lads, take your seats. As you all know, most of the masons are down in the cave sorting out the crypt after that unfortunate incident with the cavern beast, so we've only got the one architect here to advise us. We've got to build an impenetrable defense, better even than our own front gate, and it has to work without dwarfs on guard. This is a serious challenge as I'm sure I don't need to tell you, which is why our three work crews are working in cooperation on this one. So, miss Red, now that we've got iron being produced, how do you want us to build the vault walls?"

Urist the Red paused in thought before replying, "I've only ever worked with stone. I've never had to build a wall that could stand up to an attacker who had time to use the proper tools. Iron should do it if you can join it properly though. Have you got any way to make the walls solid iron? How can you seal the bricks together?"

"Oh, lots of ways miss, lots of ways. There's soldering, that's where you use a metal like tin as a sort of glue. You lay down powder in between the things you want to join and some flux, then you stick it all in the forge until there's a tight join. Of course we can't do that with the whole room as I'm sure you can understand! Or then there's brazing which is similar except that you use..."

Urist tried to interrupt, "Uh... Julius"

"... but you wouldn't want to use that in such a small room, not if you like breathing air at least, but then there's various kinds of welding..."

"Julius, I don't need this much detail..."

"... friction stir welding is really interesting, you see what you do is you get a steel pin, a chain and a gear mechanism, then you get some sprightly young peasant to turn the handle as fast as it'll go..."

"All I need to know is whether you can seal iron bricks together into a strong wall. I don't need you to teach me how to do it, I'm just the designer."

"... or then there's catalytic welding, that's really rare to see anybody trying it because you need the blood of an iron man, but if you can get it? Oh my, if you can get it you're really in business! You use that to dissolve part of the..."

"Julius! Can you build a wall or not!?"



The other dwarves slowly moved over to the other end of the table, leaving Julius and Urist to their discussion.

Kezan took the pause as an opportunity to present his plans. "I know how we can defend this vault properly. The wall doesn't really matter, if somebody makes it that far then we've failed already. What we need is traps. There's loads of spare copper, more than we need for making bronze, so I say we use some of it. I've got these schematics for a sawblade trap, you see? You put a giant saw-edged disc on the end of this swinging arm, with a gear to make it spin against that pinion..."

Tekkud the metalsmith was the one to interrupt this time. "Oh not another one! Cut this short. What will it do, and what do you need us to do."

"Er... well, ok. All it would need is gears and some huge sharpened copper discs. You can make those easily enough can't you?"

"Alright. Yes. Sheet copper isn't a problem, just hammer some copper flat, not difficult at all."

"Right, and so what happens is that anybody who treads on that trigger next to the wall releases that pin, then... whirrwhirrrrWHIRRRRR whooom! SLICE! and suddenly they've got no limbs."

The assembled dwarfs paused to imagine this, even the arguing pair over at the other end stopping and turning to stare at the wild gesture as Kezan imitated the sound of a slicing disc.

"Vamp, you'd better look at this. Will it work?"

"It'll be very noisy, and slow to trigger. It's not exactly subtle. What's to stop them dodging the blade?"

"Oh, that's easy, you just put in more blades. Leave nowhere safe to dodge to. It's a confined corridor isn't it?"

A pleased grin spread over the faces of everybody around the table as they imagined this, visions of a corridor full of shining razor edged death behind every face.

"Let's do it."

[LAAT501legion]

Then LAAT says:Hey boss, I have a godd addition to the defense system.What if we dig a hole in front of the entrance, put traps there(Preferibly Upright spears connected to a lever) ,put a drawbridge on top of it, and we connect it to levers? When the enemies come, we retract the drawbridge, they fall, we put the drawbridge over them, and start pulling the  trap lever like a berserk.I thnk it's a good idea, what do you thing?

[dwarfguy2]

guy the second piped up, adding "and according to rule nine, we should probably include a pressure plate triggering a spray of high-speed projectiles. it should be labeled 'traps off'."

[Riversand]

heh. i think that fairly well captured how much of a trap-nut Kezan is. His passion is building traps, and seeing that they kill, maim, or disfigure their victims. in that order of preference highest to lowest.

[Geb]

Field Reports of Tannen Rimtarazin, Trusted Lieutenant
2nd Timber, 302

I have spent the past weeks in research, that I may better understand the orders left by the Overlord. I have confiscated every copy of the classical texts that I could find among the minion's personal belongings and read them all. That part in itself was quick and simple. The part of the research that took weeks was in trying to explain it all to Timmi... If she had only said "but why?" in her most irritating tone one more time I swear to Kasben I would have declared her a traitor and saboteur, sent to waste our time. Fortunately for her, rule 61 demands patience towards advisors, not summary executions.

61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

My topic of study has been the Artifacts. I now believe I understand the Overlord's purpose in sending us here.

In his work The Dialogue of the Stones the great philosopher Vabok Brickcleavage wrote of the strange moods of inspiration that take hold of dwarves in every new settlement, fevers of creation that give rise to Artifacts. He believed that the spirits of an area were drawn to dwarven minds, minds that could understand their crafts and do their work. Any new fort would then draw in the spirits of the surrounding lands, satisfying their demands one by one until eventually their every idea was made real and the settlement would be left in peace.

If this is true, the value of settling here is in the claiming of these spirit visions. Our very presence here is a mining of ideas and a claiming of Artifacts for the revolution.

The student of Brickcleavage, his successor Olon Wheelgrip disagreed. In his greatest book Histories of Avarice and Industry he claimed that the spirits were not of the land, but of the stone. It was the act of breaking rock that released these moods of creation. But of greater importance, he described speaking with dwarves who had felt the inspiration, who had worked in cooperation with the spirits and learned from them. These dwarves had gained a skill in their craft that bordered on the magical, knowledge granted by accepting the mood.

This, I cannot help but think is our true purpose here. We are claiming not merely artifacts, but the skills of the earth itself. Rule 22 seems to support this interpretation.

22. No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

I know now how to proceed. I must be taken by a strange mood. I must gain a talent to attract the spirits, and I must claim some of their power.




Following this revelation, I had an opportunity to see a mood with my own eyes.




One of our metalworkers became uncommunicative, retreating into a daze of thought and working as though he had no awareness of anything but the forge.



He created a shield made as a finely worked grid, a lattice of struts riveted to a skin of aluminium, making it as strong as a block wall yet as light as a silk shirt. For now, it seems I have found a dwarf to satisfy the requirements of rule 21:

21. I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman footsoldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

Eventually, however...

Such skill must be mine.




3rd Timber, 302



I have been forced to abandon my plans to present the shield to Ghaz Ireheart for his work in the cavern. Doc Zaerosz reports that his leg will never heal. While in most respects he may be an untrustworthy maniac, if there is one field where his knowledge is unparalleled it is wounds.

This presents a problem. Good service must be seen to be rewarded, even in a crippled minion, however, the fort cannot support a useless dwarf. It is still possible that Zaerosz is mistaken so Ireheart will be given three months to recover. If he cannot walk by then... he must quietly and in secret be made to disappear.