All right, here's the spring and summer of Horseanus...
1st GraniteI, Neopolis Clutchcrystals, am proud to write this journal. For, you see, finally I have risen above the life of a Hauler / Mason-in-a-pinch, and my true talents have been recognized. For I am Neopolis, Dwarven Therapist, and as of today: fortress manager.
I do not know what motivated the king to send me and my wife to this fortress, and why good sir Crashmaster made me the next overseer. My wife insists he did it to shut me up, but I believe she's simply jealous that he saw my true talent...
Now, I have not been here for a long time, but one of the things I noticed upon doing my first round of the fortress was that there was a woman sleeping in the dining room.
I woke her up immediately and asked why she did not sleep in one of the many gorgeous bedrooms that were created by my predecessors. She answered that while they were lovely rooms with lovely beds in them, they were not technically "bedrooms", and she would not sleep in them.
I checked the dossiers, and she was right. None of the rooms were designated as bedrooms. My first official action would be to make all these lovely rooms available as lodging for the dwarves. A good start!
I was not given a lot of time to bask in the glory of doing something good for dwarfdom, as a scout reported that Kubuk Earthengift was killed by a pair of blind cave ogres. What she was doing 113 levels below ground, I will never know, but it pains me to see a good dwarf die in my first day of managership. As the beasts are hovering around the stairs, I have sent the Horseanus military to dispatch them... If these caverns weren't so full of resources, I would have them sealed off. Regardless, I will urge the dwarves to be cautious.
6th GraniteTragedy strikes once more... The militia captain was asleep, and an overconfident wrestler tried to take on a blind cave ogre by himself. Needless to say, he was quickly beat to the ground. The ogre then attempted to kill the unconcious dwarf for FIVE DAYS. FIVE DAYS STRAIGHT. HE WOULDN'T DIE.
In an ironic twist of fate, the wrestler bled to death mere seconds after the militia commander arrived and crushed the ogre's skull. My prayers go out to the brave wrestler who may have saved the fortress from an ogre attack.
In other news, I have been busy working on improving the overall happiness of the dwarves, though I imagine the deaths aren't helping. My most recent accomplishment is expanding the dining room, which was also improperly designated, leaving part of it unused. My wife is glad that she can feed our daughter at an actual table now...
7th GraniteI have made myself a humble office, so that dwarves may come to me for my psychological advice. My first client was a woman named Tobul Furnacedent, who was ecstatic, constantly yelling "The Humor of Spires"! I did not find spires inherently humorous, so I asked her to elaborate, when she showed me this.
I asked the fortress appraiser how much this would be worth, and he estimated that it would be worth as much as 40.000 rocks. Of course, we won't be selling so precious an artifact... But maybe we can use it for a trap?
12th GraniteToday, when I was ordering the construction of extra stills, Crashmaster came into my office. He asked why "Deep Penetrator" had not been completed. I asked him what he was rambling about, when he took me down several levels below the ground to show me a most peculiar construction.
He didn't want to elaborate any further, all he did was tell me to pull the lever. I did. This resulted in the loudest crash I have ever heard. I am sure even the thrice-cursed Muskoxes were shaken. I feared for my life, but Crashmaster seemed pleased. What in Armok's name had he done?
"What in Armok's name have you done?" I asked him. Grinning proudly, Crashmaster said that he spent the entire winter digging out a huge column of stone, held up by a single pillar which I had just collapsed. The construction had dropped hundreds of levels and landed in the magma sea, moving the magma up into the basin.
I was amazed. It had actually worked, the cistern had filled up with magma. All I had to do was open the floodgates, and we would have infinite fuel.
....Of course, there were 3 levers, all of them unmarked. Using my talent for dwarven psychology, I theorized that a normal dwarf would link the upper lever to the upper floodgate. Bravely, I pulled it.
My logic was sound! The cistern is filling up as I write this... Soon, our metal production will increase tenfold. I'll have to give Crashmaster some sort of reward for this ambitious project.
18th GraniteA skeletal gremlin popped up in the caverns today. When the soldiers went to defend their homes, the foul creature vanished into a wall. Its corpse was never found. We're all quite puzzled.
8th SlateAnother strange incident... After an uneventful few weeks, Crashmaster came into my office bleeding from both his feet. He reported being attacked by a skeletal rat. All the miners ran, and when the vermin chased Crashmaster, he was backed into a corner. During the attack, however, the creature vanished much like the gremlin. Is Crashmaster protected by Armok himself? In any case, I've ordered a stone hatch cover to protect the mines from any more cavernous creatures. Crashmaster is bleeding heavily, but he insists he can keep working. I admire the man's dedication.
13th SlateMigrants have arrived. For some reason, no migrants have arrived at all for at least a few years, I wonder why that is? I can not let these people stand outside in the cold where the muskoxes dwell, so I'll let down the bridge and pray that Armok will smile upon us once more.
All the migrants ended up safely inside. I felt content with eluding the muskoxes. Horseanus now has a grand total of 96 dwarves. Suddenly I got a disturbing message... A skeletal troll is wrecking the forges.
I immediately told the military to stop stationing at the front gate, and ordered the bridge to be raised. A hatch cover isn't going to hold this bad boy back.
Brave Doc Holiday charged against the beast alone, as he was now approaching the craftsman's floor. While his attacks seemed ineffective, the monster had trouble damaging Doc, too. I prayed for Doc's safety, and the tide of battle was turned by a stray dog. The dog latched onto the skeletal troll and gave Doc time to stand up and regain his composure. The troll was slain with no casualties.
27th SlateAnother strange happening. A gem cutter came into my office today, a migrant with no combat skills whatsoever. He claims that he went into the caverns and found himself cornered by a skeletal troglodyte. He fought back against the stronger foe, but he reports that, much like the gremlin, the troglodyte vanished. Is Armok smiling upon Horseanus? In any case, I have taken in the gem cutter for daily therapy sessions.
8th FelsiteI worry about the progress of Project Deep Pentrator. The magma basins have been partially filled, but not far enough to steadily supply the forges with fuel. Had Crashmaster made a fatal construction flaw? If he has, there is little to be done about it, now. However, I would soon find that I had other things to worry about...
...Uh oh.
The forgotten beast moves at incredible speed towards the upper cavern. An unfortunate metalcrafter holds the beast off for a while, its poison gas causing the fight to be rather one-sided.
Ome reaches the bridge that leads to the fortress... If it is not held back here, the chaos will be immense. Luckily, the brave militia captain Nil Zafalerush is guarding the bridge with her life. According to her resumé, she has also slain the last forgotten beast to besiege Horseanus... Hopefully she will be able to hold him off long enough for her comrades to arrive.
A dwarf who happens to be passing by to pick up a log joins in on the fight, but leaves off once the beast bites off one of his hands. Meanwhile, Nil seems to be single-handedly beating the monstrous pig!
Doc Holiday shows up and together they defeat Ome. I will have to remember to give these dwarves better weapons... Though they won with hardly a scratch on them, it took them several days to take down the beast! I wonder if the gas will cause them any trouble...
24th FelsiteI ordered the dwarf who lost his hand to build a siege workshop. According to my theory, doing work can distract you from intense pain. Also, I thought we needed a ballista in case a siege shows up.
I also came across this interesting mockery of physics.
31st FelsiteSpring is over. I have enlarged the drink supplies, built several more workshops, and watched over Horseanus as it faced the wrath of a creature of the underworld. I've still got three more seasons left... I can only wonder.
3rd Hematite"GamerGrrl"'s daughter came up to me today. I hadn't seen her in weeks, and she was looking quite pale. The seven year old girl asked me to assign her to a workshop. Now, I don't normally let children work in workshops, but the determination in her voice frightened me. I did as she asked, though it's not like I would have been able to stop her.
18th HematiteThe mayor wants us to make coins. Even with all my insight into the dwarven psyche, I don't know why. We don't have a lot of metal, nor an economy, but I suppose I'll have to try and oblige.
21st HematiteThe little girl is still at it... She's assembled three complete animal skeletons in that workshop, she kept coming into my office yelling at me to slaughter the "pitiful insects"... The girl scares me. Luckily, I haven't seen her today, yet. Maybe she's satisfied?
25th HematiteShe's back. I don't even know how, I was just working on updating some stockpile records when she was standing behind me and whispered"Languishedtop" into my ear.
That's the most impractical thing I have ever seen in my entire life... I'm glad all this is over with, or I would have to perform therapy on myself.
31st HematiteThe month of Hematite is over. I've made a few more stills, increased the size of the furniture stockpile, and gave the guard captain that dinner room he kept bugging me about. Give a guy nobility, and it goes straight to his head...
8th MalachiteI think by now it's safe to say that Deep Penetrator has failed. The magma flow just isn't consistent enough to power the workshops. Considering there isn't much to lose anymore, I'm going to pull one of the other levers and see what happens.
It did not solve my problems. The left lever caused a floodgate all the way at the bottom to stop, interrupting the magma flow towards the cistern which now has a huge pillar of stone resting in it, and the right lever opened a floodgate I can not possibly fathom the purpose of.
I feel bad for Crashmaster. He put a lot of time and effort into this. Now we still don't have a proper fuel source... I'll have to get those coins made some other way.
17th MalachiteWell that's just fantastic. We ran out of barrels. Right as I was in the middle of constructing a non-magma powered smelting installation! We'll have to be very careful with expending wood... Foraging from the caverns is a dangerous thing to do. Luckily we have a lot of drinks, so the barrel problem won't be a huge issue - for now.
25th MalachiteThe coins are done, and they've got quite an odd design. One side has our queen on it, which makes sense, but there's an elf on the back. I asked Kosoth Strappinganvil, the metalcrafter responsible for the coins, why he would put one of those tree-loving hippies on our coins. He claimed that it wasn't a depiction of an elf, but a depiction of a statue depicting an elf... Apparently a few years ago someone here decided it'd be nice to make an elf figurine. Typical.
At least the mayor is satisfied.
8th GalenaMore migrants! These ten bring the population of Horseanus over a hundred. It's becoming harder to keep everyone busy, but at least things are still running smoothly... And I managed to take in all the migrants without anyone being torn apart by skeletal muskoxes. That counts for something, right?
Oh, whoops. Forgot that one. Sorry!
12th GalenaThe ballista is finished! Should we ever wish to open the door with a siege waiting in front of it, then we will be sure to give them an unpleasant surprise. Now, however, the only thing swarming outside is a bunch of skeletal muskoxes. No way I'm opening the door for them.
17th GalenaA skeletal Rutherer managed to climb up our stairs and scare the weaver. I've put all web gathering jobs on halt and ordered the destruction of the undead... However, half of our squads aren't properly equipped yet due to a lack of quivers. Sigh...
The squads also encountered a gremlin on the way. Both of them vanished. Is this something undead are supposed to do?
Rest coming... eventually.