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[Kipi]

25th of Malachite, year 225

Another group of migrants came today. Eight dwarves, among them one skilled armorer. Now, I decided that we need to get the metal industry running properly, so I assigned rest of the migrants from that group to furnace operators as well as one dwarf from previous group. So, now we have eight furnace operators and four smiths. That should be enough to get the industry up and running properly.


14th of Galena, year 225

The hospital is ready. So far it only has beds inside, but at least we have a place where to get diagnosed and healed by our doctor. For practical reasons the hospital was built just next to graveyard.



7th of Limestone, year 225

Now that we have the metal industry running I we established few glass furnaces next to forges. That's because Taricus was able to figure out that cut glass works in adamantine production as well as any cut gems. As we have infinite amount of sand available it means that we are basically able to produce infinite amount of adamantine, as obsidian can always been produced by cooling magma with water. I like the direction where we are going, this means that in no time we should be able to produce equipment for our military from adamantine. With that and army big enough we should be nearly invincible!



19th of Limestone, year 225

Now that everything is running fine I think we deserve some luxury. So, I ordered our miners, as they had nothing better to do, to smooth and engrave the dining hall. That was one week ago and today they finally finished the work. The dining hall is very impressive now, it has become quite pleasure to spend time there, eating, drinking, chatting and examining the pictures the miners did.



10th of Sandstone, year 225

The farming area has been muddied! Finally! Unfortunately the metal workers I assigned to work with the pumps were a bit too eager to work, and so the water level in the farming area is a bit too high for natural evaporation. But, I think the problem can be solved just by opening the floodgates and letting the water drain back to the cavern through the stairs leading down there. Yeah, that's how we will solve this situation.



19th of Sandstone, year 225

Another group of migrants has arrived. Seven dwarves, with one mason and one smith. As we have no need for five smiths I reassigned the one that came with the previous migrant group to another job. She was, after all, the one with least skills in metal working. So, we have forty-seven dwarves living here now. I think we can call this place a real fortress now, with enough citizens to support all the basic industries we need in addition of few special industries.


23rd of Sandstone, year 225

After giving the situation another thought I decided to reassign Inchcrypt back to to smith. I just remembered that we have five forges, so it's only logical to have five smiths.


7th of Timber, year 225

The water level inside the farming area has got low enough for planting. So, we finally have our first underground farm ready, and the farmers are planting seeds even as I write this. I'm delighted, hopefully we will soon be undependable of caravans and the alcohol they bring to us.



19th of Timber, year 225

Dwarven caravan came again, with another new liaison. I tell you, the position of the liaison has become quite unstable, as this is third different liaison we get during year and half.

We bought some wood, gems, glass and alcohol from the caravan and in exchange we gave them some random junk we had in our storages. We need the gems and glass to produce adamantine, as it's quite a process to make those by ourselves, so anything we can get from caravans we take. I also hope that this is the last time we are relying on the caravan in alcohol.

While I discussed with the traders they told me that, when they entered our front yard, they spotted three kobolds running from our fortress. Two of those filthy buggers they were able to kill, but unfortunately one kobold was able to escape. But, as far as they know, it was not able to take anything with it, so no big loss there. Still, the fact that there has been kobolds running inside our fortress without our knowledge is quite disturbing, I think we need to get soldiers stationed somewhere near the entrance.


So, after dealing with the caravan it was time to meet the liaison, Chamberflickered. She gave us another list of items the mountainhome wants to buy from us, I haven't checked the list yet. We ordered some gems and glass from the next caravan to support our adamantine production.

We also discussed about the impossibility of producing adamantine from obsidian anywhere else than here. Chamberflickered was not happy about the news, but there is nothing any of us can do to that, so he just agreed to bring the news to the queen. I also told him about the crown one of our dwarves made, and even showed it to him. We both agreed that we shouldn't bother the queen with such mundane item, as she has far superior crowns already. I think I'll just throw the crown somewhere safe, a place where Orbtheaters should not find it. It's better that way, no need to make her sad with this issue.


23rd of Moonstone, year 225

Taricus came to my office today and he brought some bad news with him. Apparently, in contradiction of what he had claimed earlier, cut glass is not sufficient to the adamantine process. We can use it but the adamantine made with glass is not even close to as good as with real gems. In fact, it has quality of far worse than even normal copper. So, he suggested that we won't use glass to that anymore and instead stick with normal gems.

Now, even though I feel bad about this, I think we should heed his advice. So, we have to rely on the gems we can either find or trade, no more glass. So, what should we do with all the cut glass we have? I think decorative use is the best for now, we have no real need for anything else made from green glass for now. Well, at least the glass industry won't be without any use then.


28th of Moonstone, year 225

I sent our miners to mine the southern mountain. First and foremost they should concentrate on any gems immediately visible, then move deeper in the mountain to mine all the ores they can find along with all the gems the discover. I think there should more than enough work for them to last for a while.


6th of Opal, year 225

While the working in the southern mountain our dwarves ran to aggressive bighorn ram. Now, I don't know what they did to make it aggressive, but the ram decided to attack one our dwarves who was up there retrieving the ores the miners had been able to mine out. I sent Stakeplay up there to deal with the creature, we can't allow it to push anybody down from the mountain. Somebody may get hurt!


8th of Opal, year 225

When Stakeplay reached the mountain he found out that there were several of those rams there. He was able to chase them down from the mountain to east, where he slaughtered two of those. Now, the unfortunate thing is, one of our masons was hurt by the ram. Or rather, the ram pushed the mason down of the slope, and he hurt his left leg pretty bad, the muscles were torn to pieces by sharp rocks. Even though the injury is not lethal I don't think he is going to walk ever again.



4th of Obsidian, year 225

The bighorn problem has been solved. All of them are either captured inside cages or killed by Stakeplay. Now it's safe to go back to work in the mountain.

The doctor has done everything that is possible for the mason, but there is no chance that he will walk again. Still, I'm not one without mercy, so we will keep feeding him for now. Who knows, perhaps there is a way to heal his wounds in the future.



5th of Obsidian, year 225

Our stonecrafter, Sealquakes, has been on strike lately. She has been producing masterwork craft one after another, and now she had completed a toy boat with artifact quality. Dwarves such as she should be highly respected her, she does excellent work and doesn't complain. A true dwarf.



15th of Obsidian

It seems that the news of our reclamation of this fortress has finally reached goblins and they decided to send an ambush here. Seven goblins was spotted near the entrance of our front yard, one of them was trapped inside the cage immediately. I ordered Stakeplay to go near the bridge separating our fortress from the entrance, to deal anything that gets past the traps and the war dogs we have chained near the entrance.


No dwarves were injured during the ambush, though unfortunately both dogs were slain by one goblin. Stakeplay was able to kill three goblins from the four which did not get trapped inside the cage, the seventh one was slaughtered by the weapon traps. So, our defense has proven to be quite effective, at least against such a small force as we were dealing today. Still, we need to improve everything, I fear the next assault is not going to be any smaller.



22nd of Obsidian, year 225

To reward Stakeplay I decided to give him full adamantine equipment, including battle axe. With these new items I hope he will continue to protect our fortress many years more.

[Kipi]

7th of Granite, year 226

Last winter taught us one thing, and that is that we need to improve our front yard to make the entrance more safe. So, I ordered blocks to be made, which will be used to construct walls out there, and bunch of iron giant axe blades to be used in traps. It will take some time before those are ready.

The miners also begun working with small training chamber just north of the barracks. In there we will pit all the goblins we have captured so that our soldiers, namely Stakeplay, may have some live practice. He must learn to fight against goblins in order to survive the ambushes and sieges we are expecting to come sooner or later.


18th of Granite, year 226

As we had only three masons, and only two of them in working condition, I decided to draft three idling peasant to help them with the blocks and mechanisms. At least we should get things done faster, and being drafted even without skills is much better option than wasting time in dining hall.


28th of Granite, year 226

Another group of migrants arrived, twenty-two dwarves in total. I'll figure out tasks to them as needed, there is not much to be done here at the moment.

So, while the migrants were reaching our fortress the training chamber was finished, and one goblin had already been moved inside. It was time to give Stakeplay his first live practice target, as I don't count the ambush and the rams he has been dealing before as practice.


The battle went well, and the goblin lasher was killed after short fight. Unfortunately the lash was quite effective against armor, even when those were made from adamantine. So, Stakeplay took some injuries to his arm, I hope it's nothing serious though.


Now, as is the custom among the dwarves, if somebody manages five kills against notable creatures then he or she must be given a title. I took one title randomly from the pool of titles, which basically means that I randomly chose on title from huge book of titles I got from the liaison last autumn, and so Stakeplay was given the title "the Courageous Curls". Not sure if it fits here, but it has to do. The actual title is not important but the fact that you are awarded one is.



11th of Slate, year 226

I had another discussion with Taricus today.

"I have some good news. I think that, if I tinker with our equipment, I can improve the process of making adamantine."
"Really? In what way?"
"Well, if I modify our alchemical equipment, then we can use cut green glass in the process instead of gems. And I think I can make it more effective, requiring only one piece of cut glass per two obsidian block."
"Are you sure? Just like that?"
"Well, there is one drawback. After I have modified the equipment, we can't use normal gems again."
"Wouldn't it be possible to modify the equipment again to allow normal gems?"
"Nope, I have to make several radical changes. Also, we can not make more of the equipment, as I don't know how. Whoever made those took the secret with him or her."
"So, are you saying that I have to choose, either we use gems or we use green glass?"
"Yes, that's more or less the question."
"And we can't revert back if we choose glass?"
"Yes."
"Well, do the modifications anyway. It's much easier to get green glass than gems around here, so we shouldn't have any reasons to want to revert back."
"Alright. It will take me some time to modify all the equipment we have, so in the meanwhile there is no possibility of producing adamantine."

So, after Taricus is ready, we can really start making adamantine. So far we have been limited by the amount of gems we had, but in future that is not going to be a problem.


25th of Slate, year 226

Taricus came to me today, as he wanted to inform that the modifications in the alchemy equipment has been done and we can resume our adamantine production. This is good, we shall begin the production immediately.


13th of Felsite, year 226

The recent events have obviously inspired one our blacksmiths, Gilddimble. He decided to produce something worthy from the adamantine, and it turned out that he decided to make adamantine throne.


Now, I asked our bookkeeper to take a loot of it, and he estimated that its value is seven hundred thousand bucks. Wow, that's quite valuable throne! I think the queen would like to have one like this, though we are definitely not going to send this to her. It's ours...

Wait! I hear screaming coming outside. I have to go and check what's happening.


Okay, I just came back, it seems that the orcs have found us! The sent small sieging force to attack us. Now, I ordered everybody to stay inside, while Stakeplay is stationed just after the bridge. We hope that the traps will get rid of those filthy creatures, but if some of them does get past those then Stakeplay should be able to deal with them. In worst case we will seal the entrance by raising the bridge by pulling the control lever.



14th of Felsite, year 226

There was far more orcs than we thought, so I ordered Stakeplay to retreat back to inside, after which the bridge was raised. We can't take the risk. So, the orcs decided to come just inside the front yard, and three of them were trapped inside the cages. Now rest of the squad is camping there, waiting for something.



19th of Felsite, year 226

Now that we can't go outside we had to figure out another way to get obsidian from southern peak. And I think I just did it. If we mine stairs inside the mountain, then we can get access to most of the obsidian in that mountain, the only exception would be the ones visible on the surface. And, as our miners have nothing better to do, this at least keep the preoccupied.

[Supercharazad]

Keep it up!

[Kipi]

22nd of Hematite, year 226

I have been elected as the first mayor of this fortress. I'm honored, though the new position brings lots of new responsibilities. But with responsibilities comes also several advantages, like now I'm legally allowed to demand certain quality from my personal quarters. I can also demand products for personal usage, and the workers must obey.

Now that we have advanced to the stage of village, we can also have several new nobilities, like councilors, hammerer, tax collector and captain of guard. Now, I've to give it some thought who will be appointed to what position, though I'm pretty sure Taricus should be one of our councilors, as he has some experience from his former life. But yeah, that can wait until the problem of orcs outside our fortress has been solved.


27th of Hematite, year 226

The stairs to the top of southern mountain peak has been finished. I immediately gave the miners new task, to mine personal quarters to me, worthy enough for mayor. No other noble quarters shall be readied yet, as there is no need for them for now.


28th of Hematite, year 226

I decided that it's no point to keep Apexanvils, our injured mason, alive anymore. As he has no friends around here I decided to lock the doors of hospital, and let him die.


15th of Malachite,year 226

My personal quarters has been mined out, and the miners are now smoothing the walls and floors. After the smoothing I ordered them to engrave every smoothed surface.


The orcs are still out there, so now caravans will come this summer, unless for some strange reason those filthy creatures decide to leave this area. A shame, though not much we can do about it.

Apexanvils is still alive, at least if there is any trusting to the moans coming from the hospital. Few dwarves I have discussed with have agreed that this is best, there is no point to make his suffering any longer than necessary.


19th of Malachite, year 226

Stakeplay wants to go outside. When I asked why, he replied that he left one of his cave spider silk socks outside, and he fears that one of the orcs will take it. Oh really? He wants to risk our whole fortress just because of one sock? Well, access denied! He is not going outside, nor is anybody else, while the orcs are there, waiting for us to do something exactly as stupid as that. Now, I have known several dwarves with bad obsession to socks, but nothing this bad.



23r of Malachite, year 226

I think I have too much time on my hands. Or then not, who knows? Nevertheless, I just noticed this interesting engraving in our dining hall. It presents how one elf was killed by one of the original citizens of Trueworks.


Now, I went down to see Atticshoved and asked where she got the idea for the picture. She told me that she was inspired by one of the diaries she had found, and one entry described how, in desperation of getting more alcohol, one of the soldiers slaughtered the whole elven caravan just to get all the booze they were carrying with them.

Now the image of dwarf striking down an elf standing between the dwarf and booze is hilarious, and stuck in my mind. Though I hope none of the elves see the picture, I believe they have no idea what happened to that caravan, and seeing such an image would raise some... unwanted attention from them.


6th of Galena, year 226

The time it takes from plants to grow is indeed quite long here, so we are not getting many harvest during one year. So, to compensate this, I ordered another farm plot to be readied and planted. We are not yet running out of food or alcohol, but if this siege continues as long as I fear, then we have no access to any caravans this year. So, we need to prepare.



14th of Galena, year 226

The orcs are leaving! Now, this is good news, we can finally open the entrance again and continue our upgrading of front yard. Who knows, we might get a caravan this summer after all.


15th of Galena, year 226

Never trust an orc. Never!

So, the squad sieging us decided to leave, but right after we had opened our entrance another sieging force appeared south from us. Ha! You really think you can lure us out by pulling your forces, then ambush us? Not a chance!


So, I decided to call everybody back inside and lock the entrance once more. Rot there as long as you want, you filthy orcs! You are not coming in!


16th of Galena, year 226

Oh crap! Two or our citizens were still standing one the bridge when it was pulled up, and they drop outside the fortress, in the small valley. And the orcs are heading right towards them! Poor dwarves, I think Soundlanced and Handletraded have no chance of surviving this situation.



20th of Galena, year 226

Yup, it went just as I thought. The orcs headed right to our two fellow dwarves trapped outside, and slaughtered them. Poor bastards, may you rest in peace. We can't get access to their corpses now, so no proper burial to them for time being.

[Kipi]

27th of Galena, year 226

Taricus has been working on something lately, and today he finally decided to show me what he has been up to. He revealed that he has been working on an artifact cabinet, made from adamantine, with decorations made from adamantine, bone, green glass and alunite.


Our bookkeeper estimated that it's quite valuable, ranging from seven hundred thousand bucks upward. There is no possibility to make the reals estimate before we meet the caravan, so then we should know a bit how much such thing would cost in market. But that's just it, we are not going to sell any of these artifacts we have, no self respecting fortress would do that, even if the artifact has low value. Artifact is artifact, and that's it.

While it's nice to have some valuable furniture here, it makes me sad to see adamantine used in such fashion when we could be producing weapons and armors from it. Although I understand, after all we are able to produce all the adamantine we need, we just have been lacking obsidian, which fortunately will change soon.

On the same note, the injured mason has died. So, I ordered the hospital to be reopened, though there should be not much use for it now. No accidents has happened lately, which means no injuries.



7th of Sandstone, year 226

Not much has been happening here lately, the orcs are still outside so we have had no contact to the rest of the world.

I was informed that my personal quarters are finally ready. When I went to check them I noticed that the miners have been doing a great job, I really like my new quarters. Every surface has been smoothed and engraved, which is just as I wanted it to be.

I drafted four peasants to be our cooks. Four kitchen were built as well, and they have already begun turning fat to tallow, which in turn can be used for cooking.

The first harvest is ready, and we have already begun brewing the plump helmets. Now, we are not facing any danger of dehydration here, as we have working well, but the alcohol supplies have got lower than necessary, so we need to brew all the plants we can.


22nd of Sandstone, year 226

I have begun the project of constructing obsidian farm. Yes, that's right, a room where we will produce obsidian by cooling the magma with water. The plan is simple, we pump magma to huge room from the volcano, after which we flood the room with water from above. When the magma has cooled down to obsidian we will drain the water. Simple as that, and we have endless supply of obsidian. And endless supply of obsidian, combined with endless supply of green glass, thanks the god we are living in desert, we have endless supply of adamantine! Hurrah!


3rd of Timber, year 226

Change of plans! We can not use the old water tower, at least not now. One of our dwarves spotted strange creature lurking there, giant raccoon, with three eyes. And it looked aggressive!



So, I ordered that the tower must be sealed for now, and we have to figure out other way to get the water in the obsidian farm, unless we can deal with the creature. And right now I think neither is possible, as the raccoon apparently can swim, that's how it got inside the pump tower in the first place. And, I don't think Stakeplay is ready to deal with such creature alone just yet.


8th of Timber, year 226

One of the furnace operators came to me to complain that they have ran out of obsidian. Sheesh, do I have to do everything myself? Apparently it didn't occur to them that, if they run out of obsidian, they could ask the miners to mine out more from the southern mountain. But no... they want me to give that order! Lazy son-of-bitches!



19th of Timber, year 226

The orcs are gone, and the caravan from mountainhome has decided to be brave and approach us. So, I gave the order that the bridge must be lowered to let them in. Oh gods, really need that alcohol they have with them!


24th of Timber, year 226

The caravan is safely inside now, and I have already been able to do some trading with them. I bought all the wood, food and alcohol they had, with addition of some leather, cloth and raw green glass. In exchange I gave them some of our crafts, which has been accumulating in our storages. Fair trade if you ask me.


1st of Moonstone, year 226

I met the liaison today. Again we have received different one, the rumor goes that the previous liaison was executed by the queen due conspiracy. Nobody knows what did happen, but the queen was absolute in her judgement. So, as I have stated dozens of times already, the position of liaison is very insecure.

The liaison, Taperedgorges, told me how they saw the orcs outside our fortress and decided to wait and see what would happen. They knew our need for alcohol so they weren't so eager to leave without giving us a chance. And I'm happy that they did, we would have ran out of booze otherwise. She also told me that, right after the second group of orcs came, small squad of goblins was spotted as well. Well, it's quite clear that the two races have no warm relationships between themselves, so the two forces clashed just outside our front yard. The goblins were slaughtered by the orcs, who did not take any casualties in the battle. Now that explains all the goblin corpses outside our fortress. On the other hand, few orcs were killed by our weapon traps, as they studied the entrance. Again an explanation of the corpses we have found.

So, after the smalltalk it was time to do some business. I ordered some more alcohol from the next caravan, and in exchange we try to provide them some of the stuff from the list she gave me.


I think most of the items in the list are possible, though meat and cheese we can't provide, as we need all of those ourselves. Still, I think I can agree with this deal. After we finished up the discussion the liaison left to take news of our situation to the queen.


8th of Moonstone, year 226

One of our smiths, Bloodkey, came to my office today. Inspired by the battle against orcs and goblins he had made a spear from adamantine. Now, usually we wouldn't have much use for those, but the craftdwarfship of it is artifact quality, and the shaping of it makes it far deadlier than any normal spear, even the ones made from adamantine, from which this spear was done as well. Now, the law of the dwarves states that no soldier is allowed to use artifact weapons or armor before reaching the status of champion, so this weapon serves no use to us at the moment. But we will keep it safe until we have somebody worthy of being champion.

[Kipi]

2nd of Opal, year 226

The last month has been quite busy, as we have been moving all the corpses and stuff left by orcs and goblins inside the fortress. It was huge task, but I'm happy to say that it's finally done. Also, the masons have finished the walled hallway inside the front yard, though no traps are yet installed. The have also begun constructing another bridge outside the walled area which, after it's completed, will allow us to seal the fortress without locking us inside completely. This allows the rearming and repairing of all the traps inside the front yard and the entrance, which will be crucial in case of sieges.



20th of Opal, year 226

Not much has happened during this month, though the entrance is now completed, apart the traps. I feel much more secure now taht we have two bridges we can use to seal this place up.


The smiths have also begun making some more adamantine equipment, so we can have up to six soldiers fully equipped. That would increase our odds considerably, perhaps we could even kill the beast lurking in the cavern.


1st of Obsidian, year 226

Now that it's safe to travel here, another group of migrants arrived today. Ten dwarves, with no skills we can put in use immediately. Well, I think the male dwarves from that group can be drafted to military, the equipment are almost ready. With the new arrivals our population has climbed to seventy-eight dwarves. Not bad, we have quite formidable fortress here now.


3rd of Obsidian, year 226

So, the equipment for military is ready, and the drafting has been done. Stakeplay will now have five dwarves in his squad, the soldiers are Stockadestrong, Weaknessarch, Gladnesspaint, Uniontour and Barbrazor. May their service be long and bloody!


7th of Granite, year 227

Happy new year!

Well, now that I have said that, lets get back to business. I decided to give our new squad real practice session, so we place one of the captured orcs inside the training chamber, then stationed all the new recruits inside. One of them didn't show up, so I decided to start the practice without him. And have to admit, he was lucky to not to be inside that chamber, those orcs can take lots of damage without even flinching!

Now, the battle too quite long, and the orc was able to kill two of the four soldiers. I think it was a mistake to let it have the equipment it was carrying, but on the other hand who would have been brave or fool enough to try to disarm it? So, there was only two dwarves left, Uniontour and Weaknessarch. They were able to damage the orc pretty badly, but nowhere near as well to cause any lethal injuries. So, I was forced to order few cage traps constructed outside, open the door and hope that the orc would be captured inside cage again. The plan worked, and the two dwarves are still alive.


Unfortunately, the two survivors received some serious injury. Weaknessarch lost both of his arms, and I'm quite unsure how he is still standing and conscious. He also took some wounds on his head, mostly nose and right eyelid. Those should not prove lethal, at least if no infection occurs. He also injured his left leg, though he is able to walk at least.


Now Uniontour on the other hand is big question. He received some nasty wounds on his arms, legs and right side of his head, but nothing should be lost. But it's still unsure if he survives, I have yet to meet anyone who had survived from so many nasty wounds received simultaneously.



So, from six soldiers two has been killed and two has been injured gravely. So, that means we have only two soldiers up and running, Stakeplay and Stockadestrong. I'm sure Stakeplay is not going to like this, but how I was supposed to know that the orcs are so dangerous.

This also brings us another question; how are we going to survive against squads of orcs if four dwarves, equipped in full adamantine equipment, are not able to kill single orc? We need lots of more soldiers, and much more training. And even then I think there is hardly any chances in close combat without something that gives us the advantage. This is something we need to give some serious thought.

[Supercharazad]

What about a long corridor of cage traps?


Then, get the orcs into the traps and take them away to be dumped down a 20-25 Z level pit! (the perfect depth for explosion)

[Kipi]

23rd of Granite, year 227

More migrants, now we have population of eighty-nine dwarves. This is good, I think I need to draft more soldiers quite soon.

So, I went to check those two poor soldiers in hospital. I believe neither one shall return to military, if they survive, due the wounds in theirs hands and arms. But, if they manage to survive, I think we can assign other labors to them. I think Uniontour survives, his wounds are not that bad, though I suspect he will never us those arms again. Still, miracles do happen.



Weaknessarch's situation is far worse, as he lost both arms during the fight. I think he won't be among the living much longer, even if the wounds are patched. It's quite hit mentally to loose both arms and thus not being able to work at all anymore.



5th of Slate, year 227

Weaknessarch has been trying to leave hospital several times already. He has been mumbling something about getting back to training, though he always passes out when he tries to leave the hospital. Poor lad, he can't understand that he has lost both his arms and thus is not capable of being soldier anymore. Now I wonder, who will have the hearth to tell him that?



18th of Slate, year 227

I just got informed that our well is dry. This was discovered when one of the dwarves tried to get water to give it to Uniontour, who is still in hospital. What the hell? It just can't go dry all of sudden! I have to investigate this!


19th of Slate, year 227

Well well, it really is true, our well is dry. But not due overuse, oh no. The pumps have been destroyed! And as the pumps have been destroyed, the water has drained back to the underground lake. Now, we can't be sure, but my bet goes that the raccoon beast we spotted inside the pump tower some time back has destroyed the pumps. Yes, that's the only explanation I can give. The thing is, nobody agrees to go down there and rebuild the pumps, not before the beast is destroyed. Crap! To kill it we need soldiers, and we just don't have the force to take it down, not now at least. So, no pumps, no water, no working well. Unless our doctors are able to heal Uniontour fast enough so that he can leave the hospital, I think he is doomed. It's some kind of ethical question that our doctors have forbidden alcohol from patients, they say that it slows down the healing process.


3rd of Felsite, year 227

Both of the wounded soldiers are out of hospital again. It's a small wonder, but neither one died during the process, nor got any kind of infections. The later itself is quite surprising, taking in account that Weaknessarch lost both of his hands. That usually become fatal, as there is high chance of infections there. But not in this case, no.

Now, neither one actually does anything anymore. They are useless in terms of working. But, they will serve as warning example to all those foolish youngsters who think that being soldier is something worth of dreaming about. There is nothing glorious in battle, unless you are on the winning side and your side doesn't take any casualties. In this case, glory is so damned far away. The orc is still alive, we lost two dwarves and two dwarves are beyond hope of ever working again. And the training chamber, fuck, I'm not going to go inside there for some time, there are pieces of bodies rotting there still, and the walls an floor are covered in blood, vomit and piss. Where is the glory in that, I ask?


4th of Felsite, year 227

I officially released the two wounded soldiers from duty. But, as we need soldiers, at the same time I drafted four other dwarves to replace the soldiers we lost, which brings our number of soldiers back to six. The new soldiers are Crystalwinds, Churchtorch, Speakgalley and Lovelabor. Lovelabor, what a name. I think his parents are either cruel or have strange sense of humor for giving somebody such a name.

Now, none of the new soldiers were happy about the draft, especially since they have already seen what happened to Uniontour and Weaknessarch. Well, that's not my problem if they don't like it, the fact is that we need soldiers, so somebody must be drafted. And they have no assigned labors, so I chose them. Hopefully they have better luck than their predecessors had.

Now that I remember, Stakeplay wasn't too happy about what happened to those four soldiers inside the training chamber. Well, at least he has calmed down a bit now that he got another bunch of soldiers under his command. Still, he made me to promise that the training chamber won't be used again before the soldiers are ready, and even then we should stick to easier opponents and not use orcs as training targets. I think I can do that. It was, after all, just small miscalculation from my part when I gave that order of using orc as practice target.


12th of Felsite, year 227

I have appointed Taricus to the position of councilor today. The proper quarters are still under construction, so he will be given those as soon as possible. The new position also allows him to make personal mandates, though I hope he doesn't get carried too far with those.



16th of Felsite, year 227

The elven caravan arrived today. I'm bit worried as there has been no signs of caravan from mountainhome yet. So, I decided to buy some supplies from the elves, which was not much to be honest. All they had wort of interest was some wood and few barrels of alcohol. Not much, which irritates me somewhat. Three traders with mules, and all that crap. What do they think, where in the hell would we need wooden crafts? Or wooden weapons? I hope the dwarven caravan comes soon, so that we can have real trading going on.


22nd of Felsite, year 227

The caravan from mountainhome finally arrived. They were a bit late, but at least they had a good reason, as they encountered small group of goblins just north from here, and they wanted to kill them before continuing the journey.

So, now that the bargaining has been done I can say that I'm quite happy that they arrived. Our stocks are now full from alcohol and food, we got some silk cloth and wood. And did I mention alcohol? Oh yes, I think we have more than enough now, we should not run out of booze for a while.

I also met the new liaison today. Yep, again there is different liaison visiting us. I think I'm not going to tell what I think about this anymore, I'm sure I have made it already clear several times. So, the negotiations went as usual, I gave our list of required stuff and I got the list from the queen. After that the liaison left the fortress.

[Kipi]

10th of Hematite, year 227

A tragedy came to us today as one of the wounded soldiers, Uniontour, died to infection today. Apparently the doctors did not notice the infection before it was too late, and they decided that it was not worth of mentioning, and that they should give Uniontour the possibility of living rest of his days in peace, without knowledge of incoming death.

Uniontour was buried immediately in the graveyard.


26th of Hematite, year 227

Our population has grown to one hundred, thanks to the latest group of migrants which arrived today. I immediately drafted three of the migrants to work as masons and mechanics, and three dwarves to work as farmers. Rest of them, well, I have to figure out proper tasks them later. For now they can serve as peasants around here.


7th of Malachite, year 227

I can't believe this! I'm not mayor anymore!

Yes, that's right, the citizens of Trueworks decided that my time as the mayor of this fortress is over and that I'm replaced by someone called as Roughnesswatch. This is an outrage! Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it, as the public opinion has spoken. I have, fortunately, retained my position as trader and manager of this fortress, though that's only small consolation.

So, as the new mayor, Roughnesswatch just threw me out from my quarters, claiming them to himself. I was given my old office back, which has been gathering the dust since I was elected as the mayor of this fortress, and I was also assigned one of the new rooms in western worker wing. I'm not happy about this, but as I said, there is nothing I can do about it. I can try to convince the citizens that I'm better mayor though, so when the next election comes I can be reelected. That's going to be big job though.

Now, I have been thinking the reasons why I was removed from the position. There are couple of reasons, the biggest issue I can think of is the accident with the training chamber, four of our soldiers and the orc. That's probably the thing that went over the line in the public, as it was quite a tragedy. Also, the problems with food and alcohol may have caused some distrust, though I can't think of the reason why I should be blamed. But, I have to adapt to this new situation, and try to begin the work of regaining the trust of the community.



16th of Malachite, year 227

The new mayor demands that we produce two items made from lay pewter for him. Now, the interesting part is that we do not have any of that in our stocks, nor do we have the materials necessary to produce it. I tried to explain the situation to him, but without result. Luckily we have no sheriff here, as I never got around appointing one, so if the order is not filled the only result will be the mayor getting bad mood. I think I can live with that, nobody asked him to demand something impossible even though he has the right to make demands now. I hope the community sees that he is not a good leader with this, as I never made any mandates which was impossible to complete. Yes, I mandated some gold items time to time, but at least those mandates were possible, unlike this one.


22nd of Malachite, year 228

The entrance has been upgraded with several rows of traps. Now, when the enemy tries to get inside, they will have to deal three cage traps at the beginning, after which comes three rows of weapon traps with ten large iron axe blades in each trap, after which comes one row of three cage traps again. At that point they have only reached the front yard, after which they must survive from two rows of weapon traps again. I feel much safer now, especially since we have two bridges, controlled by levers, which we can raise as soon as we figure out we have bigger problem that we are able to deal with.


So, when I informed the mayor about it, he asked me to give him full report of our current situation in terms of industries and wealth. Now, I wonder why didn't he asked the bookkeeper to do that, Galleyphantoms has far better knowledge about our current wealth than I do. But he insisted that I must do it, using bookkeepers help in the task. Roughnesswatch also demanded that I include short summary of the report in this diary as well, as it has become the official log of this fortress. So, as I had nothing more important to do, I agreed to make the report.

Now, our population is exactly one hundred dwarves, as I have stated earlier. Our food supplies are rather good now, including the alcohol situation. Our brewers have been able to brew all the plants we have, and all the meat, fish and other substances which are edible have been turned to meals, which we have a plenty. So, especially since we are still expecting two caravans, human one during this summer and dwarven one during the autumn, I can say that our food situation is quite secure. Also, now that we have five farmers among us, I can claim that we can produce more or less enough to support our population, though I still think we should buy all the food and alcohol we can from caravans.


Our fortress is quite wealthy, though most of it comes from the few artifacts made from adamantine. Especially the spear is worth of over million bucks alone, so I think we should not brag about the efficient of our industries just yet. For trading we have been using the random crafts and clothes we have acquired either by producing or from dead goblins, orcs and kobolds or what we found when we came here in the first place.


Our health situations is okay, as we have one seriously injured soldiers but no other problems. The biggest problem is that we have no working well at the moment, thanks to the raccoon beast living inside the cavern. We need to train our soldiers more before we can consider reclaiming the cavern to ourselves, so there will be no fix to that problem in near future.

We have currently one squad, led by Stakeplay and consisting of him and five green soldiers. They are all equipped with adamantine, so there is no need to improvements in there, though more soldiers would always be a good thing. Perhaps we should have another squad of archers, so that they can deal some damage before the enemies are able to engage in close combat? Worth of considering I say.

We have had no problems in justice, though with the mayors impossible demands I suspect there will be some. That's why we have no sheriff, or captain of guard as the correct title would be now. I'm unsure if Roughnesswatch is going to change that, at least he has given no hints of that. And I'm not sure if we even have any proper candidates for that position yet.

Our adamantine production has halted due the problems of getting obsidian. We could make our own obsidian farm, but that would require access to water, which we do not have due the beast living in the cavern. So, until we deal that problem, we have to erly on the obsidian we are able to find through mining. At least we have more than enough cut green glass for the process, our supplies getting over two hundred pieces, more produced daily.

So, that's the summary of the report, the more detailed one was given to mayor. I don't know what he is going to do with it, but I believe some changes are coming sooner or later.


3rd of Galena, year 227

The first change by Roughnesswatch has taken place. He ordered one of our glass furnaces to be teared down and replace by kiln powered by magma. At the same time one wood furnace and ashery was built. When I asked him the reasons behind this he said that we need to start producing clear glass as well as green glass, and for that we need pearlash. Clear glass is needed to make glass boxes, which are required for display cases. When I asked where do we need display cases he replied that we have too many artifacts just gathering dust in our stockpiles, and we should put them in use somehow. And what would be better way to achieve that than to place them in display? Well, I see his point in that, so I'm fine with the changes in the industry. At least we still have one glass furnace producing green glass all the time.


13th of Galena, year 227

Taricus has finally got his new quarters, which are very similar to the ones assigned to mayor. Good for him, he really deserves them.

Speaking of the mayor, Roughnesswatch has ordered another project. This time he wants to expand our glass industry, as we have more than enough sand to produce all those small things we need from green glass. Crafts, boxes, coffins, even blocks can and should be made from glass, at least he thinks so. Well, can't say that he is wrong in that, but I think we need to figure out another use for all the stone we have cluttering this place if we move to glass industry. Perhaps we should build several catapults, those will use all the stone we need.


15th of Galena, year 227

Human caravan arrived today, and the bargaining was quickly done. We bought some wood, rope reed seeds and food from them, unfortunately they didn't bring any alcohol this time.

Now, the rope reed was not actually my idea, but mayors. But I think the idea is rather good one, as we can finally use the farm plot outside our fortress, and rope reed can be turned to either alcohol or cloth, whichever is more needed. It also grown during every other season than winter, so we should be able to get at least one or two harvests each year.

[Kipi]

23rd of Galena, year 227

We are having some problems with goblins and kobolds lately. It seems that several thieves and snatchers have been trying to infiltrate our fortress. Luckily none of them succeeded. Unfortunately, one of our farmers, Tomesdaggers, was ambushed while she was strolling outside by one goblin, and she took some serious injuries. Our soldiers were able to reach her before the goblin was able to kill her, and in the end the goblin was killed. Again, unfortunately, one of our soldiers, Speakgalley, was injured to his right arm, though the wound should not be serious.




I ordered the soldiers to station outside the front yard for now, just in case something else decides to test our entrance.


27th of Galena, year 227

The mayor himself decided to diagnose the wounded soldier, Speakgalley. The cut he got went right through the muscle, damaging the bone, though fortunately there is nothing bad enough to cause the arm becoming useless. So, I hope that after he has been patched up he will return to duty.


The farmer is still a big question, I must consult the doctors a bit later. I hope she doesn't have to stay in hospital for too long, as we have no source of water to give her.


21st of Limestone, year 227

The water problem has been solved, as the new well was built above the cavern. Unless the beast down there can fly it has no access to our fortress through the well, which is good thing.


Both dwarves resting in hospital should be able to get out rather soon, Speakgalley requires only cleaning before he is free to go. Tomesdagger situation is bit worse, as she needs both cleaning and immobilization. The truth is though, we have way to know if she is able to walk anymore. If she isn't then there is hardly anything we can do to her, she will be bed ridden for the rest of her life.


Now, to avoid any further accidents among the civilians, I have ordered that it's forbidden to go outside to gather stuff left behind any creature. This applies to everybody, and farthest they can go is front yard. The only exception is if any of our own dwarves dies in battle, though I suspect we shall not see such thing in near future.


22nd of Limestone, year 227

Speakgalley is out from the hospital, and he has returned to active duty again. There was no permanent damage, at least nothing that should affect to his service in military. I'm happy to hear that, it would not be a good thing to loose another soldier again, even though this time the injury was caused real fight while he was trying to safe Tomesdaggers precious skin out there.


15th of Sandstone, year 227

The project of making siege range has begun. The range, which will serve as our first line of defense as well, will be made from one big walled area, narrow passages running inside it. There will be two sets of siege weapons, south of the area will be the artilleries, which will be used in case of siege, and north will be the catapults, which are mainly used during peace to train the machine users. The catapults will also deal with the random infiltrators.

The project itself is going to be one of the biggest we have had so far, so it will take some time to finish it up.


21st of Timber, year 227

The caravan came again. We bought some wood, metal, sand and bags from the caravan in exchange of crafts from our stocks. The sand and bags are needed to get the expanded glass industry working, after which we can run it more or less independently.

The project with the artillery range has been going rather well, I hope that before winter the outer walls are ready. After that the masons must build the walls separating the narrow passages, after which they should turn their attention to siege equipment rooms. I estimate that the whole thing should be ready sometime during the next year.


10th of Moonstone, year 227

It seems that, even thought I'm not mayor anymore, my achievements here have reached the queen's ears. With the liaison who came with the caravan came the order to promote me to the position of baron, and thus this fortress has become the barony. Me? A baron? I can't hardly believe that, and I have the letter right in front of me! So, I think I'm the highest ranking noble in this fortress again, as my authority overrides even the mayors. This is wonderful!


So, with the new position I'm also permitted to have better quality quarters, as well as personal tomb. The constructions should begin immediately. I'm back in the charge!


12th of Obsidian, year 227
Written by mayor Roughnesswatch

Baron Urist has been refusing to work almost three months now. He has been complaining that he won't work until his personal quarters are ready. I think the power has gone to his head, never before has he behaved like this. He has been also complaining that others have better office than him, like me and Taricus. He just won't understand that he can't get better quarters before those have been finished.


The situation got worse today when Urist decided to throw a tantrum. He was standing in the middle of dining hall when he suddenly picked up several goblets and begun throwing those around. It lasted several minutes, during which he was shouting something about workers being too lazy and that being the reason why his personal quarters are not ready yet. Fortunately nobody was hit by the goblets, and he calmed down by himself and there was no need to call the guards. After she stopped he left the dining hall, leaving all of us there staring after him confused, and I haven't seen him since.



17th of Obsidian, year 227

I see that Roughnesswatch decided to update this diary while I was not working. He even decided to make a comment of my latest tantrum. Yes, it did happen, but everything is fine now. I was just irritated, no, angry because my personal quarters have not been finished.

So, I'm back in the business, and I promise no more tantrums from me.


22nd of Obsidian, year 227

The first phase of the entrance has been completed as the masons finished the outer walls. The next phase consist of building the inner walls, which will separate the narrow alleys from each other. The current plans are that those walls will be made from green glass blocks, which can be produced while the walls are been made. I have ordered the masons to begin the second phase immediately, there is no reason to have long breaks right now.

[Kipi]

Okay, what really happened between 21st of Timber and 12th of Obsidian is that I got the screen that liaison was going to leave. At this point I knew that Urist is going to be my new baron. Then, as I was playing with laptop, I turned it on power save -mode. When I reopened the computer I surfed on net for a while, and when I actived the DF again I noticed that I had forgotten to pause the game, and so it was nearly the end of Obsidian, and Urist was tantruming because he didn't have proper quarters. So, that's what happened. 

[Kipi]

22nd of Granite, year 228

The reign of Urist Gravelrinse has ended. Something inside his head snapped, and he went insane.


Now, the exact reason behind this tragedy is not known, though the biggest reason may be the lack of proper quarters, which were still under construction. Well, the rooms were already ready, but the smoothing and engraving was far from ready. I also told him that he could move to the new quarters immediately if he wanted, even though the work was not ready yet. He never accepted my suggestion. Now, I also believe that the recent accidents, especially the one concerning the training chamber, has been weakening his sanity, with the combination of loosing the position of mayor to me.

After Urist went insane he ran to his new bedroom, and so we decided to lock him inside the bedroom so that he can cause no more harm. He is already lost to us, and we are only trying to minimize the damages, as he has already proven the he is capable of damaging others during his last tantrum in the middle of dining hall.


While we are trying to figure out who will replace Urist in his positions of trader and manager I, Roughnesswatch, am in charge here. The most important task for is to appoint new broker and new manager, as both positions need to be filled. After that we can figure out what to do next. It's also up to the queen if she wants to appoint new baron to here, though I'm quite unsure if she is interested in doing that. I also hope that this tragedy doesn't drop our value in her eyes, it is, after all, not a good thing if the baron dies almost immediately after being appointed.

So, as we need new broker and manager, I decided to appoint Dastot Fathertin to both position. I know she has no skills in managing and organizing, but he is okay trader and I believe he is able to fill the manager position as well. But, if she proves to be unsuitable for the task, I can always replace her with somebody better in managing things. But I think she deserves a chance to prove her abilities.

So, my next task is to write a letter to the queen and explain what happened here. It would be better if the letter reaches her before the caravan and liaison leaves the mountainhome, so that they have clear picture of our situation before arriving here.

[Kipi]

1st of Hematite, year 228
Seasonal update by mayor Roughnesswatch

The spring has passed and summer came, and it's time to write seasonal report of what has been happening here in Trueworks. I know that my predecessor, Urist, wrote updates more frequently, but I have no time to do it almost daily, so I will stick with seasonal updates, and only update this log more often if there is really a dire need for that.

So, the fortress is still trying to recover from the death of Urist Gravelrinse. Even though he was not so popular as mayor I can't deny his achievements in reclaiming this fortress and getting everything running. His body has been buried in personal tomb, with engraved walls and floor. May his soul rest in peace.

The construction of second walled area has been running smoothly, or it was running until the orcs came again. Fortunately we were able to pull every soldier and civilian back to inside and raise the first bridge before any of those filthy beasts was able to get inside. So, as long as they are camping outside there is nothing we can do.


The elven caravan arrived here just before the orcs came, and so we decided to give them a shelter for now. But as soon as the threat is over then they must leave, they are not wanted to stay here more than necessary. The sad thing is, I don't believe we will get caravan from mountainhome before autumn, as the orcs outside are not going to leave anytime soon. So, we must survive with the supplies we currently have, though we were able to buy some alcohol and wood from the caravan. I decided not to buy any food for now, though if it seems that the siege gets too long then we can as well do that.

We have expanded the furniture storage, as it was getting full from all those door, coffers and other things we have been producing lately. At least our workshops should not get cluttered too easily now, though I suspect that another expansion must be done sooner or later. But that's something we shall worry then, not now.

Otherwise it has been quiet around here, though unfortunately I have to inform that there has been missing of deadlines of my mandates. Twice so far the smiths have not produced the items I requested. We have no sheriff nor any jail right now, so I have decided to write down the crimes and the punishments, and when we get a sheriff here then the justice shall be done. Until then the dwarves I have decided to be punished can live normally


Oh yes, now that I remember, the poor farmer, Tomesdaggers, is still in hospital. The doctors said that there should be no reason for her to not to be able to stand anymore, but unfortunately she has been unconscious all this time. Whether it's permanent or not remains to be seen, but I suspect that she will never leave the hospital. Alive that is.

[Taricus]

Diary of Taricus

I'm taking the time to write this a this world seems a bit odd. First off are the larger goblins, "Orcs" they call them. those buggers are able to wipe out a dwarven squad in adamantine.

The second thing is the ability to make adamantine from obsidian and glass. If we knew that back then we wouldn't have had to found craftwaters

Ending this log

[Kipi]

1st of Limestone, year 228
Seasonal update by mayor Roughnesswatch

So, the autumn has come, and there has been quite many events here in Trueworks during the summer.

I'll start my report from the situation of the siege. Now, first of all, the orcs are still outside, but not in the near vicinity of our entrance. They have camped southeast from us, though what drew them there is not normal behavior. You see, during the summer the orcs got more squads helping with the siege, and the force outside is quite formidable already. But, there was also small group of goblins who decided to siege us, but as we already know the goblins and orcs do not tolerate each other, so a fight erupted between them, and it took place at the location which now serves their camp.


Now, after the goblins were dead there was some kind of loyalty cascade among the orcs, or that's what we figured out, as the whole invading force gathered together, and several small battles occurred. Several orcs fled, and though there is no knowledge if any of them died during the fights. I believe not, at least we saw no corpses from the walls. Still, after the battle ceased they decided to camp together, probably figuring out what to do next. And they have not moved since then, which is both good and bad thing. The good thing is that they have not figured out a way to enter our fortress, and that we can now move the outer areas we have had walled without fear of archers trying to kill any of us. The bad thing is that they are still there, and thus no caravan came during the summer.


While the orcs were outside the elven caravan tried to leave. It was impossible to let them out, so they wandered our halls aimlessly, having nothing to do but wait.


Now, as they were forced to stay indoors too long the traders went insane, and we had to kill them before anything happens. I think it's the nature of elves to not survive too long inside and that they really need the sun and clear air, something we dwarves do not. Nevertheless, the elves are now dead and we have claimed their goods as ours, which solved the food problem for a while. Though if this siege continues much loner we are going to be in deep trouble.



While the siege is going we also need secure way to get in and out the refuse stockpiles, and the orcs camping in the slope of northern mountain were scaring the heck out of everybody. So I ordered that small tunnel to be dug out, connecting the underground section of the storage floor to the easter end of the refuse area. It worked as planned, though several dwarves were still scared by the orcs. But at least we had secure route there.


Now, as my third mandate is coming to end without being fulfilled I decided to form squad of guards, led by captain of guards. Braidlancers was promoted to the position, and he got four soldiers under his command, each and every one of them were equipped in adamantine armor and adamantine crossbow. Yes, they will serve as our archers as well, though there is still no place to them actually train yet. That's something we should fix sooner or later. So, after the captain of the guard, which is basically better title for sheriff, was appointed it was time to have the justice to happen. It appeared that one of the archers I assigned in the guards was also one of the two offenders, though that did not save him from the justice. Now, as we did not have jail back then the sentences were turned to beatings. The guard survived without injuries, but the other fella was not so lucky, as he was killed by the beating. Well, at least we have finally some justice down here.


The farmer stuck in the hospital has also died, as I decided to lock the hospital. She was just burden here, not able to contribute to this fortress. I know this may sound harsh, but if somebody is stuck in bed, not able to move anymore, then there is no reason to waste precious food to such dwarf.


Last thing worth of mentioning here is that finally there is enough bedrooms for everybody. That is good thing, now nobody should complain of sleeping unwell due the lack of proper beds. We have also considered giving everybody free coffer, though the final decision has not been made yet. Perhaps in the future.