Official letter of acceptance of the position of Acting Expedition Leader of Paintedprinces 1st Granite 1052 - 1st Granite 1053.Ma'am,
As much as I am honoured to accept your offer to assume the position of Exped Leader of our outpost, I must warn you that I am a Miner and a Mason. I am neither a polition nor academic, and know nothing of leading Dwarves. That being said, I will of course make every attempt line the coffers of our fair nation. Most of my fellow Dwarves will probably survive too.
Yours,
McStill
First Entry.Upon assuming command of the expedition I climbed the very narrow staircase to the peak of the mountain and surveyed everything that had been ditched in my lap. At the time I very much wished that I could turn down the offer, but the Queen has never been one to take such responses well. She'd likely have somebody come and throw me into the volcano. Looking over the fort I realised something. The previous leader may have done a fine job under difficult circumstances (those Elephants look violent, and we’ve all heard the stories of other expeditions eaten alive by them), but this place is a mess. There are half constructed buildings littering the side of the volcano, the remnants of out caravan that we arrived with over a year ago sat in disrepair at the base, along with old, run down building’s we no longer use. Not only had nobody cleared away our initial settlement in the sunlight, but inside was almost as confusing. It will take me some time to get orientated to the layout of the place.
Second Entry.It is not as bad as I originally thought. I have had everything deconstructed outside and the materials pulled safely out of the sunlight. I have also taken the time to look over the previous Exped Leaders office. There were several blueprints sat there, but none of them were complete, named, or especially easy to read. I decided to help her to finish them, and dumped them into the volcano. I have a monumental task ahead of me. We currently have a perfectly serviceable foothold in the hillside. We can produce booze and other basics, but the only thing protecting us is a couple of old hounds sat in a hole in the mountain. Also, and perhaps more importantly we live in a volcano, yet we have no access to the magma for our forges? What sort of oversight is that?
Third Entry.I have started my fellow miners working on access to the magma. It’s a dangerous job, but work all Dwarves thoroughly enjoy! What can’t be made better with magma? Also I’ve started to sketch out plans for a pathway on top of the mountain which will allow easy access for trade caravans, and also allow me to dump malcontents and invaders in to the volcano at the pull of a lever!
Fourth Entry.The magma reservoir is complete and filling nicely. When it fills up I shall order the construction of a Smelter and Forge. To that end I ordered a series of exploratory shafts to locate suitable ores to being construction of weapons and armour.
I completed my plans for the entrance. And work is well underway. If all goes well we should be finished by the time Winter arrives, just in time for the Dwarves to retreat back inside and magma gaze through the cold months. Unfortunately a few Dwarves were stupid enough to fall into the magma as they attempted to construct walls on the walkway. We lost three dwarves that day, but it doesn’t matter, we’ve had a lot of migrants these last months! I was unsure what to do with the migrants, so I ordered them all to begin smoothing the stone surfaces of the outpost. That should keep them busy until I can assign them real jobs.
Fifth Entry.The walkway is complete and functional! A trade caravan from the mountain homes arrives along it last week, commenting on our beautiful magma views and the quality of our stonework. Sometimes, being in charge is good. I unloaded all of our stone crafts on the traders, and took leather, cloth, booze and steel in return. I asked them to return with more booze and meat next year.
Now that our entrance is secure and our forges are operational, I decided it was time to create some weapons. With the steel purchased from the traders I ordered the construction of 3 Battle Axes. These will be put to good use on our military (when I get around to making it). I also ordered iron Battle Axes and picks constructed.
Several days agoI wished to wash my clothes in the pools that litter the countryside below the mountain, but because of our walkway over the mountain I found that I couldn’t reach them! I decide that I simply must be able to get to that water if we (heaven forbid) run out of booze. I ordered a shaft dug to the base of the mountain to our original camp site before we began digging, 2 years ago. Unfortunately, there was a small hill blocking the path I wished my rear entrance to take. After consulting my diggers and architects I realised the best possible path I could take would be to move the hill. This is a simple task, as all Dwarves know. Dwarven Science invented supports and levers for just this reason. Unfortunately, our cook and his pet dog decided at the exact moment I pulled the lever that he really MUST know what was under the large black floating rock mass. He’s now sat, with his dog, in our waste stockpile. He probably needs a tomb at some point.
Anyway, despite the moron standing under a collapsing hill we finished the rear entrance with the installation of a curtain wall, a few traps to keep it safe.
Final Entry.This will be my final entry as Expedition Leader. I believe I accomplished quite a bit. I fortified the front entrance, built a sealable rear entrance. I also build an area by the rear entrance which is both outside but only accessible from inside the fortress. At the moment I have our refuge piles there, but in the future I believe it is the perfect place for a statue garden and zoo. The infrastructure is in place for our next leader to equip a military (or other, metal related tasks).
There are a few things I neglected though.
Food and booze production is not yet what it could be. I have heard rumblings below the rocks, so believe that somewhere below us is a
source of water which could be pumped up and used to irrigate more specialised farms. If a water source could be tapped we could very much do with a
well so that our Dwarves may clean themselves inside. Also, apparently, some Dwarves think that everybody sleeping in a
wooden bed is a requirement. I cannot understand why any dwarf would want to sleep on wood, when there is perfectly good stone right under it. But we only have around 20 beds, with a population of 57 dwarves. I suppose the carpenters aren’t doing much yet, so they could build more, if required. Also, work on a
military would be a great idea!
This is me closing my last journal entry as leader of Paintedprinces. It’s been more fun than I expected.
McStill.
P.S. I hope those whining Elves like the present I left for them around our Trading Dept!
P.P.S. We really need to find some shells. This guy really, really wanted shells. I ended up walling him in so he didn't go berserk and kill half my fortress.
Well, that's the end of my turn. I hope turn 3 turns out as well as (I think) my turn did. You can download my end of turn save from HERE. I put the dwarf sprites in myself (from the Genesis mod), but took them back out again before I uploaded, if you're wondering why your Dwarves look different to mine.
Good luck!
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Topic: The Legend of Paintedprinces (Succession Game) (Read 8386 times)