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[Justice]

I was thinking of having you hunt a few months out of the year.

Hmph, looks like silver is the only weapon-class metal that can't be a crossbow   

[Un67]

I'll take any male dwarf, and name him 'Un67' please. If you can find a metalworker, then that would be all the better.

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

I'll take any dwarf. Preferably male.
'Gaxkang'

[Justice]

3rd Timber, 251, Journal of Justice

Another group of migrants came in while I was defending our territory from encroaching vegetation.  Trooper filled me in while I was getting a drink.

“Hey Justice, have you seen the new group of migrants?” he began.  “I’ve spoken with a few of them.  Gaxkang’s a skilled mechanic, so we can take Rae off of that duty.  He’s a miller, too.  I was thinking... now that we have a few more bodies, we should should start putting up a wall and maybe dig a fosse around the depot and entrance.”

I waved for him to continue while I chugged some more dwarven wine.  “Well, “ he went on.  “There’s a bone carver, name’s Un67, who claims to be pretty good.  Once I get some...” he trailed off, as Rae walked in carrying something.

“BOLTS!” Trooper exclaimed, almost knocking Rae down in his enthusiasm.  He snatched them up and ran off with a frenzied gleam in his eye.

I stared, swallowed, belched, put down the barrel, and asked “What was that all about?”  Rae replied, “Trooper’s been waiting for new bolts for months.  We didn’t have much besides wood to make them with, though.  That and copper now.”

“Well, if he manages to kill anything with those, we might be able to get Un67 to provide him with some bone bolts.  Have you met any of the new migrants?”  Rae frowned, “No, not really.  I’m going to go make a few more bolts and get back to work on the rock crafts.”

I went down to check on Snark and see how the weapon production is going.  I saw some silver, copper, and lead bars when I peeked in the smelter on my way to the forge, so that’s working out.  A fat migrant bumped into me carrying a log into the wood furnace... I guess Snark must’ve intimidated him into providing him with fuel.  Snark was working on what looked like a silver war hammer, but interrupted me as soon as I opened my mouth.  “We’re not producing enough mechanisms.  Traditionally, a new mine like this should be well protected by traps and devices.  You should put one of these new dwarves on it.”  With that, he turned back to the anvil and continued working on the hammer.  I decided to leave it at that, and left him a note to make some copper bolts when he ran out of silver.

Drim spotted me leaving the forge from his office and bounded over to chat.  “I’ve been going over some records one of the migrants, a former clerk, brought with him from his old fortress.  Did you know that many of our settlements were attacked within a few years of their founding?  We should get some defenses built, right away!”

Protection seemed to be on just about everyone’s minds lately.  “Well, track down all the new migrants who aren’t doing anything else, and inform them that they are now masons.  We’ll start with a wall around the entrance and trade depot, dig a fosse in front, eventually get a drawbridge up, and then build up a couple marksdwarf platforms, just in case.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Justice]

7th Timber, 251, Journal of Justice
I heard some loud bangs coming from the barracks, so I thought I should see what was up.

“Barthic, what’s going on?”  I asked.

“Trying out my new hammer.  It’s good,” he replied.  Actually, even from across the room I could see that the *silver war hammer* was very well made.  Plain, unadorned, but powerful.  I'm sure the King would hate it.  Barthic continued waving it around and pounding the wall and floor with it, occasionally unbalancing himself and stumbling.  He will definitely need more practice.

Trooper passed by carrying in a deer, so I guess those wood bolts worked after all.  Construction has started on the north part of the wall, but it will probably take at least several months to complete the whole thing.  It might be best to forge another pick and have one of the new migrants quarry out some stone right by the construction site, but we’ll see how it goes for a while longer before interrupting Snark.

I think I’ll sketch the construction site on my way out.  Not that it looks like much, but it will be nice to look back on the beginning when it's finished.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Justice]

22nd Moonstone, 251, Journal of Justice
The trade caravan has come and gone.  None of us had any experience trading, so I handled it myself.  I was surprised to get as much as we did from them for our collection of stone trinkets.  Even a cow for our milkers to work with.  Trooper met with the liaison, requested some iron, steel, bulls, a few other animals, and some different kinds of food for variety.  For their part, the mountainhome wants prepared foods (they found out SethCreiyd was here), toys, and for some reason, windows, and is willing to pay a lot for them.  I caught the end of the meeting in the dining hall when I was grabbing some turtle roasts.

“The King will also be expecting an appropriate offering next year.  This place was founded to provide precious metals and gems to the mountainhome, and he wants some evidence that progress is being made.”

I guess we’ll have to make something appropriate to King Astesh’s tastes.  We have a little platinum and some gems, so we should be able to come up with something.

[Justice]

17th Malachite, 252, Journal of Justice
Everything goes by so quickly when the alcohol runs out.  Almost like I’m moving in slow motion, myself.  I should never have thrown that party; it led to a lumber shortage that led to a barrel shortage, leaving us unable to brew any more drinks.  Arrival of additional migrants exacerbated the problem.  We now have 40 dwarves here, and I’ve lost track of most of them.  I’ve heard we were visited by kobold thieves as well, though they fled as soon as Barthic’s squad reached them at the entrance.

There is some good news.  An elven caravan came while things were getting critical, and, despite Drim’s objections to trading with them, I did so anyway.  They brought a significant amount of lumber as well as some barrels and a little booze, all of which we desperately needed.  The trader tried to tell me some other things, I think a warning about other elves or something about an elvish deity and this mountain, but I was far too sober to pay any attention.  Our supply of drink is still critical, but production has resumed at last.

One of the newcomers, Moldath, took over a forge in the confusion and created Shelretíddor, “Trancelark”, a copper breastplate encircled with bands of copper, a truly incredible piece of craftsdwarfship.  I placed him in charge of armor production, though I think we need some better metals before it goes into full swing.

We have a glass furnace ready and have dug an access tunnel under a hillside with red sand, but since we needed to use our charcoal carefully due to the lumber shortage, we did not start making any glass.

The King’s gift is coming along.  I’ll do a quick sketch of it in the margin.


If only there was a way to sketch a taste or smell.  Here is an example of SethCreyid’s latest masterpiece.


Finally, the wall surrounding our entrance is complete, with some simple stonefall traps around the drawbridge to discourage wild animals from entering.  It should be sufficient to block any hostile force from getting in, unless they have wings.  It lacks any other defensive features, however - no sniper towers, fortifications, or redoubts to hold Trooper’s new marksdwarf squad.  Barthic’s squad has received some reinforcements, all equipped with silver war hammers.  We badly need better metals for armor however, as they typically have a few pieces of copper protective gear or nothing at all.

[Trooper0102]

That's my cue for my journal!

I'll reuse this for the entry.

[Justice]

20th Malachite, 252, Journal of Justice
Found these sketches in a corner of my workshop under a pile of scrap. I must have made them while I was sober and covered them up while desperately turning out barrels... I can't remember all of what happened then, and what I can remember is a little hazy.  I now remember Un67 telling me “Ach, we’ve got ta have more traps outside laddie.  Stonefall traps may do a bit, but we’ve got ta have more power ta stop anythin’ serious.”  I think Snark railed at me for a while about the lack of quality metals, but I was so sober by that point that I was barely conscious, and I’m not sure he would have made much sense anyway since he was just as far gone into the water as I was.  I’ve requested some large copper trap components.  Don’t know if they’ll help, but they’ll keep Un67 and Snark out of trouble for a little while.

Rae is starting to get fairly good at stonecrafting.  Apparently I’ve been sketching some examples of his work, or at least some of the more unique pieces.  Most of these are depicting historical events, including the ascension of King Astesh.  Perhaps we should offer that one along with the platinum weapon rack.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Un67 also has a historical piece, made from shell.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now, I should get back to making more barrels.  Dwarves are emptying them even before they can get moved out of Patchy's still, but no reason not to get a little further ahead.  We need more for other kinds of storage anyway.

[Justice]

27th Malachite, 252, Journal of Justice
Olon Kathirreg has created a goshenite scepter named Matzágod, which I’ve sketched below.  I’m starting to think that the forces that inspire us to create great works don’t like our King; this artifact was made from a single cluster of rough goshenite.  Incredible workdwarfship, to be sure, but not the kind of gaudy mishmash he seems to prefer.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now that Snark finally has more work to do, he seems to have decided to sleep for week instead.  Our armorer is doing his job though, churning out copper armor.

5th Limestone, 252, Journal of Justice
I just finished trading with the humans.  A couple of kobold thieves followed the merchants, but Barthic chased one off and drove a second into the caravan guards.  We traded for everything useful they had except the bronze armor; it wouldn’t fit any of us, but we could have melted it down and reforged it.  Perhaps next year.  We traded away all of our stone crafts and totems in order to provide the traders with a good profit, but we still have other goods to offer when the mountainhome caravan arrives.

Our miners have struck gold and are starting another set of exploratory mining tunnels.  Our new farmer’s workshop is providing a place to milk our horses, cows, and donkey, as well as equipment to process pig tails into thread.  Patchy is constructing some bags out of pig tail cloth for holding sand... we’ll be able to start making glass soon.  I think she needed a break from the non-stop brewing.  We have traction benches in the clinic now, and I expect some soap soon as well.  Snark’s huge trap weapons have been installed just inside the drawbridge now.  I’d like to have more of those on both sides, but we don’t have a lot of extra copper left.

I think I’ll go on break for a while.  We’ll probably run out of barrels, but I’ve been annoyed by flies and no one listens when I complain about the lack of a well lately.  I think I need another project to get myself motivated before winter gets here.

[Justice]

((I'm pretty sick.  I probably wouldn't have anything to post due to this, but when I'm sick minor annoyances like 'Stonesense doesn't work right' really bother me, and now that I have a fully functional Stonesense I figured I may as well throw some images up.))

15th Limestone, 252, Journal of Justice

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I’m still officially on break, but I’ve actually been updating my sketches and getting The Blockaded Confederacies, a new Hammerdwarf squad led by Tobasco, formed.  I think two squads of three hammerdwarves will be more efficient than a single squad of six.  I’ve also drawn a few more detailed sketches of the landscape.

These are the new schematics, showing the precise measurements of everything in the fortress.  I also have some more colorful drawings, a little less accurate but showing more details.  I've drawn in and labeled all the dwarves that were around at the time as well.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Our wall, drawbridge,  and trade depot, complete with human merchants.  I should probably have those stairs taken down... they were used to assist construction and don't go anywhere now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The entryway is up at the top of this drawing.  You can see Zulban walking past the drawbridge control lever up there.  Down at the bottom is our farm and main storage room for seed, meat, plants, sugar, cheese, syrup, milk, etc.  The workshops by Kadol are the butcher's shop, tannery, and leatherworker's workshop.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's a better view of the food production center.  On the right you can see the prepared food storage area - where all the booze and SethCreyid's delicious meals are stored.  You can see tabasco's legs sticking out of a barrel in the corner.  Vel is taking some plump helmet seeds to the fields to plant.  We have two stills and two kitchens, although only Seth is allowed to cook, the extra kitchen is sometimes used to render fat into tallow.  Off of the raw food storage area is the farmer's workshop, where plants get processed into dwarven syrup, thread, and the like, and where milking and cheese making happens.  There's also a quern tucked away just to the right of the workshop, though you can barely see it, where we can mill dwarven wheat into flour.  Finally, on the opposite side of the kitchens, is the fishery where our fisherdwarves clean their catches.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The top of the drawing is the just off the entryway and down a flight of stairs; the clinic, complete with several storage containers, operating tables, a couple traction benches (I couldn't really draw those... they're complicated) and four beds.  Hopefully we won't need more than four, but there's plenty of room to dig out more.  Directly beneath the meal storage area, on the bottom of the drawing, is the dining hall, which seats sixteen.  It's considered our nicest room, despite the relatively low quality of most of the furniture.  Too bad we have to trade away or offer that platinum table... it would be a valuable centerpiece.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All the workshops.  You can see the lye maker's workshop and the soap maker's workshop under construction on the left.  The forges and furnaces are up at the top, and other crafts on the bottom and right sides.  Drim's office, a workshop-sized room with a stool, is also in this area.  Rae is hard at work at some stone crafts, Kadol is busy in the mason's workshop, Patchy is working the loom and clothier's shops, and I have no idea what Snark is doing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And here are the dorms.  We probably need to expand them again, and soon, so that we have a place to put additional migrants.  I tried to draw myself drawing myself drawing myself in my room, but I don't think it came out very well.  I really hope no nobles come by.  We really don't have anywhere to put them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These are my doodles of some of the surrounding area.  I’m sorry to say that we are not winning the war against the trees... there are just so many of them, and so few of us who are equipped to battle them.


Finally, I have a larger view here.  I imagine this is what it must have looked like to that vulture that chased me away from the stream while I was sober.

[SalmonGod]

This looks awesome.  Would love to be dwarfed as SalmonGod.  No preference.

[Justice]

16th Timber, 252, Journal of Justice
We’ve made some good progress since my last entry.  The offering to the King is looking “good” so far.  I’m hoping to get it studded with silver before the caravan gets here; they’re due any time now.  We finally have an indoor well, right around the corner from the clinic, so should we have any injuries the nurses will have a much easier time of cleaning and watering their patients.   I'm sitting on the edge of the drawbridge, planning future additions to our defenses.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Justice, I’ve got those shields and breastplates you requested,” I hear from behind me.

“Thanks, Moldath was it?  Copper or no, they’re better than pig tail tunics.  And with your skill, they might even help against iron.  Briefly.”

He shakes his head.  “I wouldn’t count on it.  Those copper kobold daggers, maybe.  Oh, and call me SalmonGod.  I hate the name Moldath.  It’s bad luck to have a name like that when you live at the foot of a mountain.  Everyone jumps when someone yells ‘MOLDATH!’ to get my attention.  Oh, Vel said she hadn’t seen you in the food storerooms in a while, so I picked up some of this mountain goat spleen roast on my way up.  I think it has turtle, goat lung, and goat heart in it, too.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“Thanks.  Say, is that Trooper sprinting up the hill like a swarm of toads was after him?”  I asked.

“I think so,” SalmonGod answered quizzically, “but... toads?”

“Trooper detests toads.  Wait, who is that dwarf chasing behind him?”

Just then, the wind died down, and I could make out what Trooper was yelling... “Liaison!  Caravan!”

“Go fetch the weapon rack, SalmonGod.  That must be Likot Rigóthmeng.  I need to go have our trade goods brought up... probably SethCreiyd’s meals should be sufficient.  Maybe I can offload some extra plump helmets as well.  I hope they brought us some usable metals this time.”

[Justice]

26th Timber, 252, Journal of Justice
“Thank you for your business, and I’ll see to it that King Astesh gets this offering,” Sigun Lednoram said as we concluded our negotiations.  Due to our barrel shortage, I was perhaps a little overgenerous... Seth’s food fetched a fantastic price, but the traders were not carrying a great deal that we needed.  A few metal bars, some extra cloth and leather, a little meat for variety, but not what we really needed - a large supply of iron or steel.  Sigun also refused to take any plump helmets without also taking the barrels they were stored in, so it looks as though we won’t be able to free up any barrels that way.  I’m not sure how Snark and SalmonGod are going to react when I tell them we only managed to acquire two bars of steel.

15th Moonstone, 252, Journal of Justice
The liaison is still chasing Trooper around, badgering him about a meeting.  I imagine the noise is why Trooper returned empty-handed from his last hunt.  I think he’s just finding random tasks to spite Likot at this point... he hauled a random item from the trade depot and just passed me on the way to the well to fill his waterskin.  In other matters, Cog Thocitkeskal, of previously unremarkable skills, had a fey mood and created another artifact, Arrosgídthur “Throwngrasped”, a schist hatch cover, encircled in bands of schist with an image of a dwarf in cedar.  We’re mining out some gold and silver we recently stumbled across.  Perhaps we’ll decorate the dining hall with it, unless I hear some better ideas.

16th Moonstone, 252, Journal of Justice
Trooper finally decided to conduct the meeting in his bedroom.  Probably so that the liaison would have nowhere to sit.  I decided to listen through the wall of the adjacent bedroom.

“We need iron, pig iron, and steel,”  Trooper was telling him firmly.  “Those are heavy to transport, and really not worth a great deal in raw form. Wouldn’t it be better if we manufactured whatever you needed and shipped that to you?”  Likot responded.

“No.  Iron, Pig Iron, Steel.  Nothing else.”

“I see.  Naturally, even if I can get the merchants to go along with this, they’ll charge a premium for transport.  I’ll leave a copy of the economic forecast with you... we are anticipating a drop in demand for prepared food in the coming year, so you may want to take that into consideration when planning for the next caravan from the mountainhome.”

After he left, Trooper came into Bëmbul’s room with a smirk.  “Thought you’d be here.  You should probably take a look at this.  It doesn’t look like we can get good value out of much of this.  Bone scepters aren’t worth all that much to begin with, crowns only if they’re metal and well decorated... nothing we can really mass produce anyway, except the clothing and seeds.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“I guess it was too much to hope for that we would get double the value out of Seth’s dishes two years in a row,” I replied, after looking over the list of goods.  “Still, we can at least ramp up our cloth production.  Even if we keep our loom going continuously, our pig tail supply will probably last until summer, and then we can grow more.  Dimple cups grow in the winter, right?  We can get those going right away and use them to dye our cloth.”

Time to stop writing, I have a bunch of stuff to organize.  And barrels to make.  Always, more barrels...

19th Opal, 252, Journal of Justice
Idle dwarves hanging out in the dining hall was a common sight a month ago, but now everyone is very busy.  The furniture storage area has been expanded and is being filled up with clutter from the workshops.  We have a second Mason’s workshop going, assigned for Cog’s own personal use, glass is being made again, trees being felled, bones being carved, metals being smelted, dimple cups being grown, cloth being weaved, and tunnels being dug.  A dyer’s workshop is under construction, so we may be able to begin dyeing our cloth soon.

[Zrk2]

Can I have a miner. Or a smith, either one works.

Name: Zrk2