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[Baron Baconeer]

Cook and eat, thank you. I'm not a savage, you know.

[Xvareon]

I know. It just seemed better to not put the word 'cook' in there at the time. Sorry if I offended you.

[Argonnek]

She might be demanding silk, or even yarn. She most likely wants silk, so I suggest you bring about the "discovering a cavern" arc of the story if you want her to live. If not, well, lets hope she doesn't destroy the door if she goes berserk.

[Baron Baconeer]

By the way, any chance that we could get a dfmaps(orwhatwasitcalled)picture of the fort? Would be nice to see the place.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Deler

19th Slate, 258, Mid-Spring

Me and my big mouth... I just brought up the idea that maybe what that Clothier woman wanted for her 'artifact' might in fact be silk cloth, and not rope reed. It's a long shot, but it just might work; only thing is, everyone knows silk only comes from spiders, and where do spiders like to live? That's right, dark, damp, dangerous caverns. And we have one right under our feet. It won't take long to reach; thanks to Garth nearly falling through it's roof last year, we know exactly where it is, and already have a tunnel down there. We just need to breach the ceiling of the cavern and carve some downward staircases. It'll most likely be dangerous, but Ludoc seems to be excited at the prospect of strange creatures in underground caves. Me, I just want to get down there, get whatever silk we need, and seal the damned cave back up behind me.

Thank Armok we have reliable masons.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Vergil

1st Felsite, 258, Late Spring

It's the turn of the month, but that's not the only good news. We've managed to gather a fair quantity of silk from the cavern layer without incident, and it seems to be just what erith needed for her construction. No sooner did our weaver finish with the thread then she practically snatches it out of her hands and runs back to the workshop without a word. She has stopped sketching pictures and started doing strange...... yet somehow... Dwarfy... things to the cloth. If these 'artifacts' are like what Cerol told us, we'll have an extremely valuable item on our hands. And silk, too, so we know it's high quality to begin with.

Only those weren't the biggest webs we saw down there. Some of them look like they were made by a spider as big as a horse. I concur with Deler about wanting to seal up the caverns; we still don't have enough manpower to do a safe, proper exploration. We will continue to draft blueprints and carve out the infrastructure of the western wing of the Fortress. We are very well off now, and have private bedrooms for every single Dwarf in the place, if a bit small. Our food stocks are large and holding steady, and we've already finished digging out a second storage hall adjacent to the first; also completed work on our refuse pile expansion and added two additional Butcher's workshops. Deler is taking a break from mining to forge a second set of steel armor, and a few recruits have already volunteered for the militia.

Here's a look at what the Fortress interior is currently like;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is our primary industrial sector for now. Most of our production is based here, including farms and storage. Bedrooms are located a few floors down, and we're preparing furniture for a larger dining hall. We will eventually move operations to the western wing, which is currently under construction.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Infrastructure on this side of the Fortress is still undergoing construction. The main barracks is below, though we have a large keep above the drawbridge as well. We've already finished irrigating a second farm several floors down, so all we need to do before we can move our operations over is complete work on water systems, defenses and bridges. The design allows for a great amount of aesthetic as well as defensive potential. We plan to put our hospital and medical storage area, as well as a well, around here as well. We will install pressure plates in likely avenues of enemy advance, if they breach our doors they will trigger the rising bridges. I plan to have other high-security systems installed later, but we need to get basic functionality up first. Our biggest problem at present is shifting all this junk rock, but that can wait until we finish our priorities.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Deler

5th Felsite, 258, Late Spring

I feel mildly insulted. The Dwarves seem to think that this...



...is somehow better news than me completing a masterwork set of steel plate. Seriously, a silk thong? is that the best she can come up with? She calls it 'Aziz Kel', meaning 'Flash of Metal'. Whoever wears this is gonna be doing some flashing, alright. Anyways, our appraisers looked over it and say it's worth about 2200 dwarfbucks. Not that much for a 'legendary artifact', but Cerol assures us there is still good news...

"I think we can expect nothing less than peak performance from her now," Cerol said. "because she still has some of the absolute focus and inspiration from making that artifact. She likely won't be able to make something on that scale again, but the experience she gained from it will prove invaluable."
Garth whistled. "So basically what you're saying is, we can expect her to make more of these thongs?" he said with a grin. "I could use some of those..."
"Belt up," I snapped. "we don't need to hear about your stupid fetishes."
Cerol cleared his throat and continued. "And no, there won't be any side effects. She's done with it now, and completely safe." a smile. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she--"
A loud shout broke him off. "Hey, you lot! You gonna help me with this aqueduct system or what?" It was Aez, clothes caked in rock and coal dust like all of us. He was probably right, though. The worst was over, and we've got an extremely skilled Clothier out of it, and... a... interesting piece of work. We're just finishing work on the well structure, only thing now is to tap the river. We've finally got the barracks dug out, and furnishings are piling in the doors as I write. Everything should go fine from now on, unless Garth decides to do a streak ending in a cossack dance before jumping in the river and no. that... no. just a bad dream. bad, bad dream.

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Vergil

15th Felsite, 258, Late Spring

Amazing how quickly word passes.  It hasn't even been a year yet, and already it looks like Ravencrown is becoming a popular center for trade. the Elves arrived today with a small caravan.

"Traders? Elves? how did they find out where we were?" Baron snapped.
"Aye, I find it hard to believe the Dwarves would just go and tell a bunch of Elves where we were..." Garth agreed.
"Unless it was our poet friend," I reasoned. "he probably told them about us... he'd spill everything he knew for the chance to talk -- and not about stone crafts."
I sighed in resignation, knowing this was going to be a difficult day. you had to be very careful when dealing with Elves, or you risk them bolting out your gates at the first sight of sawdust.  In fact, back in the surface towns, I remember hearing the Elves used to do trade with us, except we didn't have that much in stone or metal goods, and one incredible moron thought it would be funny to offer them a wooden bin loaded with goods he was too lazy to remove one by one. the Elves promptly ran off, and returned the next year...

...and another moron offered them a collection of skull totems...
...next year it was fine, honest stone crafts -- menacing with wooden spikes...
...next year it was a bunny rabbit -- in a wooden cage...
...next year... they vowed revenge the second they got out of the gates and disappeared, never to return. a few of our outlying villages reported other disappearing people, though, another huge disadvantage of building in woods.  I just hope they think we're good, honest mountain dwarves with plenty of stone crafts. the latter is true, however.

"Greetings, friends from afar!" I began, hoping the poet's routine would work on them. "Greetings, good Dwarf," the lead merchant, a tall, well-dressed female said. "what Fortress is this? I had no idea you were this far south already." A lie? I couldn't tell, but there wasn't time to worry about it. some of them frowned in thought, and I treaded very carefully at that point. "This is Ravencrown, my friends, newest pearl in the necklace of our beautiful mother." the lead merchant looked puzzled. "Your mother?" I smiled, knowing this would work. "Is she not beautiful?" I said, gesturing dramatically to the high peaks in the distance. "See how she..." and recited the same words we'd heard from the Dwarven caravan merchant. A few emotional ones among the Elven caravan wept at the speech, and all smiled. any doubt that we were true mountain Dwarves was gone in that instant. Shutting back a tear, the lead merchant clasped my outstretched hand. "May we come in, good Dwarf? perhaps we could trade, and enhance the beauty of both our mothers together." my smile was fixed as I lead the caravan across the massive, yet grand bridge into the Fortress proper, which was still under construction as masses of workers flitted about, casting curious glances at the caravan but otherwise saying nothing.

I noticed one of our fish dissectors... mental note, give better jobs... carrying crates of goods I had specifically picked for the trading to be unloaded at the depot.  Looks like I passed the test... seems that poet was on to something after all.  These elves really are so tall just to hold in all that emotional energy.  things should go smoothly from here, but I'll leave a report anyway if they meet incident or notice the voracity of our lumber industry.

Thank Armok I had the foresight to block sight of the butcher's shops and workshops with doors.

[Argonnek]

It's back! Hurrah!

[Xvareon]

again I apologize for the wait... lots of things going on, including a wedding. but all done now and I should be able to continue with regular updates. thank you all for your continued support, and I hope I continue to impress. 

[Xvareon]

The Journal of Shorna

1st Hematite, 258, Early Summer

Summer has just arrived, an incredible blessing for us; people were beginning to complain about lack of variety in their drinks. I'll admit, wine does get boring after the ninth barrel straight, even though we managed to hold it off a while with some plant gathering and trading with those elves; the best we ended up with was whip wine. but the pig tail crop is going in today, so we'll have ale for the next several months, if not more. we might want to think about a greenhouse or above ground farm sort of thing in the future, though... oh wait, I forgot! we were planning to build more farms near the cavern layer for greater diversity. I'll see how that's going once the crop up here is finished. Garth and the rest of the miners are still busy mining out rooms and our masons are getting the infrastructure ready for us to move in; living stone sure beats wood and quarried rock back in Gloryfissures. days have been kinda sleepy lately, had one Kobold thief and -- can you believe it? -- another giant eagle. Ludoc sure is going crazy, but the rest is all just humdrum daily work, of which there's plenty to go around.

oh, but there's plenty of fun, too. it's always interesting watching Deler's cats running around catching those pesky vermin, and now we have... let's see... two grown cats and four kittens. six cats, every one of them a hunter. there are so many vermin carcasses piling up that we expanded our refuse pile up here, and the eggheads in the planning room have been mumbling about something called an... atom smasher for the one we're building in the new fortress wing. I dunno about atoms, must be some new word the eggheads thought up for trash...

[Argonnek]

Always a pleasure to read your writing, Xvareon.

[Xvareon]

Haha, why thank you, Argonnek.  it's the first time I really tried for a community story, so it's good to hear positive feedback to let me know I'm going the right direction. let me know if you have any ideas I should implement into the storyline.

[thegoatgod_pan]

Really cool fort, any chance you'll adopt the deep dwarf traditions and settle one of the caverns like a personal mushroom forest grove?

[Ganondwarf]

Only a damned fool would dare build a fortress aboveground, as any good Dwarf should learn.

Doh!  (check the link in my sig)