22nd Hematite, 251, Journal of JusticeMigrants have arrived! We’re not really ready for them yet, but at least there aren’t too many of them. I’m going to meet them near the entrance and see what they can offer.
“Please state your name and profession before entering.” Most of the dwarves look tired and out of breath. I think they were running the last leg of the trip.
“SethCreyid Artobolon, High Master Cook,” says the first.
“Excellent,” I reply, “We’re putting the kitchen and breweries in soon, and I’m getting very tired of raw meat and plump helmets. Next?”
“Drim Soshcilob. I don’t really have a profession, but I can read and write and I’m good with numbers.”
“We don’t have a record keeper yet, so we can try you out in that position. We don’t have an office yet - or a chair, for that matter - but I’ll see what I can do to get you set up.” I wasn’t sure that we really needed a record keeper yet, but it couldn’t hurt to have one. “Next!”
“Barthic Sefolmûthkat, Tanner.”
Now this dwarf doesn’t even look winded. Tough looking guy, too. “Hmm, well, we don’t have much call for a tanner right now. We’ll see what happens, but have you considered a career in the military? Strong dwarf like you could be very useful there.”
He replied with a grunt and a shrug. I’ll have to see about setting up a barracks.
Two others came forward while I was thinking about the barracks. I think they said they were a fisher and a farmer, but I didn’t catch their names. I caught the third just as he was saying “milker.”
“Mason,” I say.
“Huh? No, I said I’m a milker,” he replied, looking bewildered.
“And now you’re a mason, unless you can figure out how to milk a male camel. Welcome to Kilruddatan.”
Now that Trooper is back to work (I can see him putting together our trade depot), I think I’ll take a break, work on some sketches, and see how the others are doing.
23rd Hematite, 251, Journal of JusticeI’ve finished some sketches of the basic layout of our current tunnels and the surrounding area. I’m putting them in the back of the journal for easy access
here. I have some reports from the others.
Snark was resting in his room, and didn’t look very happy about being disturbed. “And what do you want? More floors to polish?”
“Smoothing the bedrooms was your own idea, don’t go glaring at me. I came to talk to you about weapons.”
That softened his expression a little. “Yes, well, there’s not much here to make weapons. Gems, nickel and trees.” He continued, his expression darkening. “And don’t you even think about telling me to make or use weapons made out of wood, except for training. I won’t stand for that.”
I held up hands, “I’m no elf to fight iron with wood. But we need some other options.”
We discussed some alloys we might be able to use, and I went searching for miners to inquire about some of the ores involved.
I found Jon and Dave working side-by-side on the dining hall access corridor. Dave has gained considerable skill with the pick; chunks of garnierite go flying with every blow of his pick. Jon had some good news for our King, but bad news for us. “We’ve found more gems, platinum, and tetrahedrite. So far, I haven’t hit any kind of rock that is likely to contain iron ore,” he reported, shattering a large section of rock with a carefully aimed blow.
I nodded. “Snark noticed the tetrahedrite vein near the mechanics workshop. Any chance that you’ve found any casserite?”
“Not yet,” Jon said. He paused, running his fingers through his hair. “We could dig down and look for granite. There’s usually some casserite in granite layers. Thinking about making bronze?”
“That’s the idea,” I replied. “Bronze armor and silver war hammers to get us by until we find something better.”
“What I want to know,” Dave began, “is when the clinic will be finished?”
“I just ordered some of the new stone coffers brought up, and another operating table. Should be ready for a couple of patients soon. Hopefully we won’t need it for a while.”
Dave didn’t look very pleased by this news. “What about clean water? We don’t have any soap to clean wounds, and without at least clean water, infection is a major risk. The ponds outside aren’t very clean, and the brook is pretty far. We also need bandages.”
Hopefully someone will come up with a solution. Rae ran past with a mechanism for the farm, but I decided to talk to him and Vel later, once the farm is ready.
18th Galena, 251, Journal of Justice“I’m impressed, SethCreiyd. You weren’t exaggerating about your cooking skill,” I told him when I saw him near the entryway.
Seth was the first to use our new kitchen, turning out a masterpiece hedgehog meat roast almost immediately. I caught the smell earlier, and couldn’t resist a nibble.
“No, I wasn’t. As long as we’ve got something to cook, I can make meals fit for nobility. I noticed there wasn’t much left in our food stockpile, though.”
“Well, we’ve got a pile of fish that need to be cleaned. That should keep us fed until Vel’s first harvest, and we should have just enough plump helmets for wine until then. I have to get back outside; I’m trying to clear a path to the south for wagons to come through.”
It was actually thanks to Drim that I knew about the food shortage and the uncleaned fish. I had totally forgotten to have a fishery built. He brought it to my attention after writing up the inventory in his new office. He said it was “a bad sign to run out of meat so soon.”
22nd Limestone, 251, Journal of Justice“Barthic, I’m appointing you Militia Commander and putting you in charge of The Brilliant Cloisters. It’s just you and that milker for now, and we don’t have any weapons for you, so I want you to train as wrestlers for now. Once we have some hammers, I’ll want you to use those.”
“Good,” he replied.
Now that autumn is here and we have some trade goods, I’ve started thinking about defense. I’m going to start having some traps put up by the entrance as well. Our food supplies are still critically low, but are increasing rather than decreasing now. I’ve ordered Vel to stop hauling items for now, so that she can spend more time planting crops. I need to go find Snark...
I found him heading for his bedroom. “There you are, Snark,” I said. “Now that the forge, wood burner, and smelter are set up, we’ll have some work for you soon. I’m going to want that tetrahedrite smelted as soon as possible and a pair of silver war hammers for The Brilliant Cloisters.”
“The sooner you leave me alone so I can sleep, the sooner I can get to work,” he replied. Good enough. I’ll need to have Vel find some time to turn out some armor, even if it’s only copper.
“Justice!” I hear someone yell. One of the migrants, a skinny female whose name I didn’t catch when she arrived, was standing in the doorway. “There’s been very little for me to do around here besides hauling items around. No hides to tan, very little to brew, no leather to work, and no animals to milk.”
“Well, what would you like to do?” I ask.
“I noticed no one has put together the loom or clothier’s workshop. I’ll put those together for now in case we need some bandages for the clinic. Patchy is my name after all, so I ought to learn some sewing.”
“Feel free. I’m sure it will make Dave happier.”
I should start asking the others what they think we should have the next group of migrants work on. Perhaps larger quarters, or a glass industry. Stronger defenses, maybe a wall to protect the trade depot and our fortress entrance, or a stone road to prevent trees from blocking the path to the depot.
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Topic: BronzeIron, a dualcommunity fortress (Read 5811 times)