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[LilGunmanX]

Ahh, artifacts are always so much fun! So exciting... 

Also: I'm so looking forward to seeing what my dorf [Donpatrick] does in other people's turns. First succession game, so I'm mad excited!

On my turn Donpatrick was a military dorf who conducted his duties in a workmanlike manner.  No outstanding skills yet at that time, but he was never on break when the fighting started, so he got a few ogres/harpies and I think a goblin kill to his name.

Felcis you seem to be running a tight ship.  The military seems to be handling everything thrown at them well (and with full adamantium gear they sure better).  This fort seems to have a rather high number of non-fatal injuries.  Usually in my forts the doctor never has anything to do, since the dwarfs are either fully healthy or completely dead.

I've never thought to murder the traders' pack animals before.  A very dwarfy solution.

A Dwarfy solution indeed  Hadn't thought of that one before!

I'm also surprised that my dwarf got so high up in skills this quickly! Is there some way to make dwarves legendary more quickly, other than just killing things? My dwarves always take EONS (meaning I literally have never had a legendary post-.10) to train, and even when they kill things they don't gain that much from the slaying. There must be a solution to this issue, no?

[Baron Baconeer]

This succession game is made of pure epicness and cat tallow, so I'd like to ask one thing. Can I get dorfed? I want to make a name as a glorious hauler suicidal ambusher some medical dwarf, animal trainer, soldier, or maybe even the baron, if fulfilling mandates sounds fun.

[Mzbundifund]

I'm also surprised that my dwarf got so high up in skills this quickly! Is there some way to make dwarves legendary more quickly, other than just killing things?

It's a little hard to troubleshoot, since the military controls are so overly complex now.  Assuming your training schedule is properly set up, a danger room (which we have here in Bellwaxed) helps a lot.  For whatever reason dwarves with high defensive skills seem to spar a lot longer.  So the boosts to armor/shield/dodge from a training room could be the difference.  High quality armor and shields probably helps too.  You might download the save and look at how the training schedule is set up, if you're interested.

[Felcis]

Journal of Felcis Nokgollikot, manager of Bellwaxed

Hematite 526:
The summer arrived with the usual heat that accompanied us since we settled down here at the 'Flighty Hills'. In other seasons there is barely any water to be found in the pools on the surface, but the warmth of the summer sun can even be felt in the depths of our dining hall.
It takes more than a little heat to halt dwarven ingenuity, however, as the Miner Momuz Egommebzuh seeked to prove with another stroke of inspiration.

He promptly claimed a Mason's Workshop and searched for suitable materials.

His search was quite fruitless, however. I tried to have a little talk with him, but he remained silent the entire time. I could steal a few looks at his confusing design plans which included bones and leather, though, and ordered a horse and a camel to be slaughtered. We are rich in lifestock but poor in prepared meat and a part of them may very well find a place on Momuz's next legendary masterpiece.
 

Malachite 526:
Momuz finally begun his work! I paid him another short visit but could not say what he was missing before.

Maybe the slaughtering inspired him to do some gruesome decoration.

As the collecting of the foreign "valuables" littering the surroundings of our fortress took far to much time, I ordered a hole to be opened at our main wall to shorten the way to our trading depot. We installed some doors of course, so that potential danger stays outside were it belongs.

In the middle of the month the mysterious construction was finally finished. This time it really was a coffer, named "The Allied Sand"! Excellent work!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The image shows us Zes Oiltin, the deity of metals and fire, who of course has an important place in our pantheon as she represents two of our most valued resources.
I paid Momuz yet another visit to congratulate him and award him the title of a Master of Masonry, but he refused me, saying that the godly inspiration taught him to hit rock much more efficient with a pick instead of how to work stone into furniture. I was confused at first, but granted him his wish and indeed it seemed like his mining-skills had greatly improved. Either way, his work is greatly appreciated.

A child named Kib Semoroltar cheered up our everyday life with a little party.

Everything was moving along at a fine pace, so I had no objections.

A forgotten beast named Zanor Disuthuthgúr was heard wandering around in the first cavern.

It is of no danger for us as of now, because everything is sealed of, but I´m sure that we will have to face it someday.

On a more positive note, our miners finished their work on the new defensive structures. This allowed them to dig out some more and smaller rooms for our growing population. I also ordered to establish a new graveyard, to grant our dead a more respectful burial than in that cramped old storage room we used so far.

Also, our military was strengthened by two exotic new members.

I hope they will breed soon.


Galena 526:
No new pioneers from the capital arrived in summer.

While new workers would always be welcome I am not surprised by that. The hot weather makes for an uncomfortable travel and the capital was most likely also in need of strong arms to protect it.

The summer was almost idyllic so far...not even the wildlife made any trouble. But, as our kind is well aware, there is no peace to be had in this world, as our smooth skinned foes again proved by paying us a hostile visit.

Their timing could not have been worse, as our new entranceway, and thus the shooting range for our siege weapon, was ALMOST completed. Their numbers are quite strong, too, with 11 swordsmen and 13 archers, all armored in bronze and riding horses. As the equipment of some of our soldiers is not in the best of shape I quickly ordered to close our doors and drawbridges to buy us some time to produce the missing armor pieces and properly equip them.

As if to calm the atmosphere and mock the efforts of the invaders, the Plebian Meng Akathimush organized another party.

I enjoyed only it only for a short time, but I was later told that the songs of heroic deeds served as a great motivation for our soldiers.

As valor alone makes for a poor safety measure I took another close look at the battlefield and the enemies strength. As their archers greatly outnumbered and most likely also outskilled our marksdwarf militia, I conceived that we should lure them all inside, weaken them with our spikefield and then just hack apart their entire army in close combat with our superior adamantine-clad champions. The soldiers got ready to face them soon in the next month.

With the siege continuing, autumn made it´s appearance...
--- AUTUMN (because I forgot to make a screenshot)  ---
...and with it came a few more unexpected surprises, as we would later see.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always the season marks the end of the post. Autumn should be up tomorrow.
Yeah, the fortress seems to be very safe so far and our adamantine-clad soldiers should be superior to whatever enemies appear. I am really curious what challenges this fortress will face in the future and when the ultimate FUN will show itself.
Btw.: Momuz did indeed go from "Expert"- to "Legendary"-Miner, because of that artifact. His Masonry-skill was unchanged. Is that maybe a little bug? Not that I would complain...

@Baron Baconeer: I dorfed you as a relatively fresh soldier. Unfortunatly we got no real nobles so far.

@LilGunmanX: Your dwarf really is badass, maybe even one of the strongest soldiers of the entire fortress so far.
I never had problems with the training of melee dwarfes...just give them a room to train and a tight schedule. I think one experienced soldier with the "Teacher" skill also helps, but I´m not exactly sure. Marksdwarfes on the other hand REALLY take forever to train, unless you let them shoot/hunt dangerous wildlife.

[MrNuke]

Felcis said:

Their timing could not have been worse, as our new entranceway, and thus the shooting range for our siege weapon, was ALMOST completed. Their numbers are quite strong, too, with 11 swordsmen and 13 archers, all armored in bronze and riding horses. As the equipment of some of our soldiers is not in the best of shape I quickly ordered to close our doors and drawbridges to buy us some time to produce the missing armor pieces and properly equip them.

Prepare for some FUN^TM

[LilGunmanX]

I'm also surprised that my dwarf got so high up in skills this quickly! Is there some way to make dwarves legendary more quickly, other than just killing things?

It's a little hard to troubleshoot, since the military controls are so overly complex now.  Assuming your training schedule is properly set up, a danger room (which we have here in Bellwaxed) helps a lot.  For whatever reason dwarves with high defensive skills seem to spar a lot longer.  So the boosts to armor/shield/dodge from a training room could be the difference.  High quality armor and shields probably helps too.  You might download the save and look at how the training schedule is set up, if you're interested.

Wait, you mean there's a better way to train your dwarves other than just setting them to train constantly as per their defaults?

EDIT: So I built a danger room, put some dorfs in it, and suddenly I'm shitting legendary axe/hammerdwarves. What the hell? Isn't the danger room only supposed to train defensive skill? Because I was literally seeing axedwarf/fighter/striker/etc... come out of there, with only medium increases in armor-user/dodge.

Not complaining, but what the fuck? 

[fivex]

I'm also surprised that my dwarf got so high up in skills this quickly! Is there some way to make dwarves legendary more quickly, other than just killing things?

It's a little hard to troubleshoot, since the military controls are so overly complex now.  Assuming your training schedule is properly set up, a danger room (which we have here in Bellwaxed) helps a lot.  For whatever reason dwarves with high defensive skills seem to spar a lot longer.  So the boosts to armor/shield/dodge from a training room could be the difference.  High quality armor and shields probably helps too.  You might download the save and look at how the training schedule is set up, if you're interested.

Wait, you mean there's a better way to train your dwarves other than just setting them to train constantly as per their defaults?

EDIT: So I built a danger room, put some dorfs in it, and suddenly I'm shitting legendary axe/hammerdwarves. What the hell? Isn't the danger room only supposed to train defensive skill? Because I was literally seeing axedwarf/fighter/striker/etc... come out of there, with only medium increases in armor-user/dodge.

Not complaining, but what the fuck? 

the danger room trains everything: Dodging, weapon skill, armor user, ect. Except for the ranged skills. I think

[Mzbundifund]

I believe parrying uses and trains the weapon skill, and I'm pretty sure dwarves can parry the danger-room traps.

[LilGunmanX]

I'm also surprised that my dwarf got so high up in skills this quickly! Is there some way to make dwarves legendary more quickly, other than just killing things?

It's a little hard to troubleshoot, since the military controls are so overly complex now.  Assuming your training schedule is properly set up, a danger room (which we have here in Bellwaxed) helps a lot.  For whatever reason dwarves with high defensive skills seem to spar a lot longer.  So the boosts to armor/shield/dodge from a training room could be the difference.  High quality armor and shields probably helps too.  You might download the save and look at how the training schedule is set up, if you're interested.

Wait, you mean there's a better way to train your dwarves other than just setting them to train constantly as per their defaults?

EDIT: So I built a danger room, put some dorfs in it, and suddenly I'm shitting legendary axe/hammerdwarves. What the hell? Isn't the danger room only supposed to train defensive skill? Because I was literally seeing axedwarf/fighter/striker/etc... come out of there, with only medium increases in armor-user/dodge.

Not complaining, but what the fuck? 

the danger room trains everything: Dodging, weapon skill, armor user, ect. Except for the ranged skills. I think

I see. Thank you for the help! If I had known that, I definitely would have started building them sooner! Although the fact that I even need to build one in order to have reasonably trained dwarves is a little strange...

Oh well! At least I have them now! ;P

[Felcis]

Journal of Felcis Nokgollikot, manager of Bellwaxed

Limestone 526:
The slightly cooler season had come, leafs were falling and horses were still standing around with humans on their backs to continue the siege.

The soldiers were becoming more and more eager to sweep the invaders of our lands, but we still needed some time for preparations. Two harpies appeared to distract them a bit, but one was killed and the other heavily wounded by one wardog and some traps.

The wounded creature then flew away, only to return a few hours later. This time it lost a few limps including a wing to our soldiers. It was still somehow able to fly one-winged, though. I was truly an impressive sight...

...that didn´t last very long. Foolish harpies...they never learn.

A few days later even my patience had finally run it's course, so I decided that our military was ready enough to face the invaders. I odered our bridges to be lowered and our squads to take point behind the walls.

The humans seemed to sense our traps and only approached slowly and hesitantly. They crossed the first bridge, shot our wounded wardog...

...and then stopped right in front of our spikefield. It was almost as if they were waiting for...

...reinforcements, yes...that's the word. Without any kind of fancy sieging fanfare another 2 human soldiers appeared, both leading a squad of goblins. On the other hand, I wasn't sure about their relationship to the other army, as humans and goblins, however big their hate against us may be, are not exactly known to have a friendly relationship with each other. I was waiting for them to meet, remembering the image on Dignato's artifact...maybe they will bicker about plunder and start infighting...maybe...

...well, maybe they both just hate us more than anything else.
They just exchanged friendly greetings and started running towards the next bridge. Annoyed by the seemingly universal hate against our race I just ordered tha activation of our always reliable spike-field.
The spikes worked as effective as ever, crippling and killing the greenskins with mechanical precision. The cries of agony coming from outside caused our Plebian Rakust Avuzuthmik to throw another party.

The military promptly stormed outside after hearing about the party. No doubt they wanted to end this siege fast to not miss the usual drinking and pissing contests. Well, it really seemed to be necessary anyway, as the humans remained careful and got their horses as meatshields against our spikes. Our soldiers let out a frightening battlecry to finally confront the vile...

...fleeing humans?
It seems like the sight of dying goblins and horses combined with the charge of our soldiers scared them so much, that they decided to go raid somewhere else. I´m not sure if I should be happy about this success or be ashamed of our civilization for getting harrased by such enemies for so long. I decided to just get drunk and forgot what happened for the rest of the month.


Sandstone 526:
The strand extractors from lower Bellwaxed informed me that there were no more raw rocks of adamantine to be found in our stockpiles.

There were still some minable veins near the metal industry which I ordered to be mined out, but I guess we need to reopen the ways to the other mining places soon.

On a positive note, the new expansion of our entrance is finally done!

As you can see once we close the two sidebridges the level below, the enemies are forced to go over this way, which is positioned on the same level as our siege engine on the left. The two bridges can be retracted seperatly and to trap our unlucky foes between them and leave them at the mercy of our siege operators and archers. Any enemy standing on the bridge when it gets pulled in...well...

...he or she may be glad to at least have a rather quick death after falling on bronze spikes from 4 levels height.
DuckThatQuacks seemed to be very satisfied with construction and can barely contain his anticipation to finally shoot at some living targets.


The Plebian Feb in the meantime got every care he needed and has left the hospital, to start working again.

Good work Mzbundifund!


Timber 526:
Timber arrived and so did the caravan from the mountainhomes.

And a rather big one at that.

They moved inside with great hurry and for a good reason as we hear a loud meowing from the northwest.

One of our cats named Kôbuk spotted another group of goblin archers led by a human. It tried to run back to our doors...

...only to discover even more archers, led by an elf this time. The archers, aware of being spotted by the cunning feline, open fire...

...but only manage to grace it´s tail at first.

It's luck was running out fast, though, as their arrows crippled it without mercy.

The elf then proceeded to wrestle and strangle it. I always knew that their love for nature was a mere fassade to have a pretense for getting on other races nerves.

And finally the cat died from it's wounds and the lack of air. It's sacrifice will not be in vain, though, as I used the distraction to let our army charge at the invaders and avenge Kôbuk with a quick surprise-attack.

Arrows were filling the air, but silver, copper and iron are no match for adamantine. Well mostly at least...

...as the strongest armor can´t protect the soldiers from forgetting to wear it. I shall have a few stern words with them after the battle.
While the goblin-slaying was going along another group of hammer-goblins led by a human appeared.

They quickly decided to flee though, after seeing all the corpses littering the ground. Once again the victory was ours!

The wounded dwarves promptly went to the hospital to get treated. The first treatment was more of a educational one though, as I visited and promptly scolded them for their carelessness. But I was sure the doctor would treat them soon enough.

After I temporarily relieved him from the militia that is...

When the battle was still raging our Plebian Sigun Iklistzublan was strucken with a fey mood. I´m looking forward to displays of great courage and valor!

He then claimed the Craftsdwarf's workshop next to our trade depot to also impress the traders and boost our reputation even further.

Good thinking there!

Then Winter has come.

I doubt there will be snow though.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again, everything is going along quite fine. I also think that I will complete most of the things I planned to.
Winter and the save is coming this evening or tomorrow!

@LilGunmanX: Well, I never really needed it. Normal training sessions and battles always worked fine for me so far.

[Baron Baconeer]

Baron Baconeer has been ecstatic lately. He didn't die in the first siege he fought against.

This game is getting even better due to the fact that we can actually fight againts enemy sieges, instead of spending the time hiding behind walls. Great job. 

[xczxc]

Awesome season, I can't wait to see duckthatquacks in action.

How many soldiers do we have?

[Felcis]

Journal of Felcis Nokgollikot, manager of Bellwaxed

Moonstone 526:
With the "colder" season appearing the traders grew more and more restless and I can understand their worries. It may be different here, but the mountains of our mountainhomes may be covered in deep snow even now. It would've been impossible to return for the traders if they stayed any longer.

Also it would be great to finally be rid of the low quality equipment lying around everywhere.

Yes...and of all those hauling tasks distracting our workers and doctors.

Our Broker Mistem Zuglarmoamot is oblivious to such problems, though, as he continued to slack of somwhere else. As my patience had finally ran it's course I ordered that just anyone else should conduct the trade. And so someone did, to the delight of the traders.

Well, thank you.
I traded mostly crafts and old equipment from our enemies for wood, metals, glass, leather, animals, booze and meat. As a show of goodwill and loyality I also offered one set of adamantine armor (minus plate and greaves) and a few trinkets as a present to her majesty.

Great hopes and awe were written plainly across their faces as the took the legendary metal and stowed it safely onto their mules. This new Queen may not truly be the legitimate successor to the throne, but she still IS the ruler of our nation at the moment and thus we should try to show our loyality to earn her trust and these gifts may also help to restore hope and order at the capital. Also, we can spare them anyway.

As the caravan left, a child threw another party to see them of.

Well, why not? Though I hope these constant celebrations won't make our people decadent and lazy. We are still on an important mission here.

Meanwhile another child was born.

Congratulations, Kib Shigósvabôk!

Meanwhile the treatment of our wounded...

...still hasn't started because of hygenical issues...but after that...

...he was refilling the strength he needed for such a difficult task. Yes...

Some scary laughing heralded Sigun Iklistzublan finally beginning the mysterious construction!

That looks...interesting...

One of our wounded soldiers named Domus Ledkir gave birth to a girl in the hospital.

You certainly don't see dwarves giving birth in a hospital very often, as that is far are more common with the weakly humans.

AND the treatment of said wounded had finally begun. And wow...

... our doctor really went out of his way to secure her health now. I asked him wether the adamantine sutures really were necessary, but as he explained to me that the spine is a central and very sensibel part of the body full of difficult to treat nervous systems. According to him, only the mythical adamantine can safely compound damage done to nervous tissue.

Well...seeing the results now it seems like he was totally right. I wonder if that also reinforces her spine to prevent future injuries.
I hope the other soldiers still in the hospital also recieve such a great treatment.

Opal 526:
The mysterious artifact got finished: It's a harpy bone short sword named "The Bewitched Omen"!

Spoiler: The Bewitched Omen (click to show/hide)

I wonder where the other materials had gone. I also doubt that this artifact will be of much use in a real combat. Sure, it's unbelieveable sharp for something made of bone and it should be far too flexible to break, but to penetrate bronze or steel, good metal will be more fitting. Be it as it may, Sigun Iklistzublan is now a legendary bone carver and prompty started to craft more bone bolts.

Also the first of the four big watchtowers surrounding our fortress is finally completed!

As you see it has one room underground as a basement, one at the surface, three above and of course a roof. The ground level can be used to place a siege engine later and the highest room is meant for groups of Marksdwarves. The other rooms can be used to store ammo or food reserves or as small housiing/living rooms for the garrison. I ordered to also install a small archery range on the roof, in case some soldiers will be stationed there for a longer time.
As I said, there is one tower at each corner of our fort.

The other three all have a finished ground level and stairs to the top, but the rest of it varies in completion. I may still finish the NE-tower, but the rest will be up to my successors.
All those towers are connected to the main fort and to each other by an underground path that encircles the main fortress, but can be isolated from it by a single drawbridge, so there should be no additional security risks

The mayor did hold a meeting with the diplomat.

He ordered some more leather, woods, animals, metal and some other goods. Unsurprisingly, the mountainhomes still were in dire need of weapons and armor.

I'm not sure why they do desperately need leather amulets, though...

True words, my friend...

Then I heard the worrisome tidings that our doctor Mzbundifund, after taking care of another wounded, was somehow "frozen" in front of the well while supposedly preparing a cast of gypsum plaster.

My guess is that he was missing his crossbow drills and now was even daydreaming about it, so I redrafted him again for the militia and that promptly got his spirits up and his legs moving again. Let's just hope he does not forget to finish his medical work again.

Obsidian 526:
The recovered mother and spearfemdwarf Domus Ledkir got attached to her adamantine spear.

Not very surprising, when one considers the beauty of that weapon.

And just when I thought that the year of my overseer's duty will fade away quietly with a very eventless Obsidian, our jeweler Atîs Idenurvad began laughing and decided to celebrate the new year her own way.

By taking over the Jeweler's Workshop and running around like mad in search for various materials.

But this will be a present for my successor, as my reign will end now.


I will end my journal with some last reports about some sideprojects:

First of all my housing project was successful and is almost complete.

We have more than enough rooms, beds and chests for every inhabitant of our fortress now and even quite a few spare rooms for future migrants. We still lack a few doors and cabinets though, but that should not be a big problem as they are already in production.

The new graveyard is also mostly finished, but of course it's still very empty.

Let's hope it won't need further filling too soon.

Also, as befitting my position as an overseer, I ordered my office to be enlarged and a small bedroom and tomb be build near to it.

You will forgive me for my little selfishness, but there was more than enough time at hand for this and it will most likely greatly help me with my work.

Our honourable doctor and former overseer Mzbundifund received similiar new housing space directly next to our hospital.

I hope that this will help him to tend to our wounded even faster!

And finally here are the stats for the years-end.

Looks quite solid, if I say so myself.

So...I will return to being a humble manager and the torch will now pass on to another. I wish you every luck and hope for Bellwaxed to continue on it's way to greatness. Let the world behold our dwarven survival spirit even longer!


With best regards.

- Felcis Nokgollikot, manager of Bellwaxed

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phew, finished.
More OOC-descriptions and the save will soon come in a seperate post, as this is already damn long.

[Felcis]

Well...first of all the most important thing:
HERE IS THE SAVE

Next a summary about what I accomplished:
- Expanded the entrance to allow the siege engine to properly work (I hope).
- Built the guard-towers on the corners of our fortress. The SW-tower is finished; the others still need work, but are all usable on the ground level.
- Dug out a large new housing space and gave every inhabitant his own bedroom. The shortage of furniture is mostly fixed, with the exception of a few doors and cabinets.
- Mass-produced stone-blocks for constructions.
- Dug out a new big graveyard.
- The dining hall has a lot more chairs and tables and is completely engraved now.
- Dug out quite a few ores and produced large amounts of metal bars (mostly bronze, brass and silver).
- The military is almost perfectly equipped now. The main melee squad (10 dwarves) is armored and armed in mostly complete adamantine with a few bits of high quality bronze here and there. The part-time Marksdwarf-Militia (8 dwarves), which mainly consists of founding dwarves and other workers, is armored in light leather with adamantine mail shirts and helmets. The full-time Marksdwarf-Squad (consisting of one soldier so far) is armored the same, but with a real leather armor on top of the mail shirt.
- Food and booze supplies are still on a good level.
- 3 Artifacts got finished and another one is in the making!
- No one died, except for a few animals (yeah...boring I know). =O


Things I did not accomplished and should most likely be done at some point:
- As I said, the 3 of the 4 towers are still unfinished and need a bit of work. It's not that vital I think and I don't want to burden the next players with their completion, but at least the almost finished NE-tower should be completed, as it allows for a good shooting at our entrance. Just build a few more floors and walls and carve fortifications in the highest room.
- Raw Adamantine is running short and should be mined again; be careful though, I get the feeling that the clowns are near.
- I did nothing to the caverns, except for closing a few small gaps. I think the way to new challenges can be found there. Also there are still at least two forgotten beasts down there.
- We got no justice system whatsoever. It is not really necessary but it often contributes greatly to the Roleplay, the Fortress Design and, of course, the FUN. I think I even produced an adamantine mace as the ideal weapon for the captain. 
- You should keep an eye on the equipment of the military, despite our great armor; especially DonPatricks armoring may still need a bit of work...
- Well...as I said my year was not THAT challenging, at least what pure survival was concerned. Maybe we need to make our own challenges some day, if it stays that way. 


Final words:
As I already mentioned before, this was the first time I actually played a year in a succession game, and it was a great deal of fun. I'm really looking forward to what will happen to this fortress in the future!

Good luck to fivex or whoever will suceed me!

[Baron Baconeer]

I just noticed that the goblin civilization lacks any remarkable leaders. I think they've been already slaughtered in the ambushes. Heehehee.

EDIT: Also, Baron seems to be the father of one of the babies born this season. Weird.