Sorry for the dissapearing act, been busy with a couple projects, tests, and the usual distractions. However without further ado here is year one of the Ocean of Flames!
***************************************
"I think we're almost there." Rentorian said as another nasty bump almost knocked him from his seat in the wagon. "Didn't you say that yesterday?" Kazack replied as the wagon crested the mountain. "Most lik-" Rentorian was cut off as the wagon started moving down mountain faster and faster, the leads and limbers snapping as the animals drawing the wagon strained at the sudden weight. The wagon went clattering down the mountain before it hit a small plateau with a resounding crash that shattered all four wheels. As everyone came rushing down the mountainside they heard Rentorian shakily call out from underneath several barrels of beer "We're here." before falling unconscious.
***************************************
From the personal notes of Rentorian, Overseer
We've scouted out the surrounding area and found the perfect place to start digging out our fortress. Its easily defended and cut off from most of the mountain unless you can fly or climb sheer cliffs. In any case it will be good to work a pick again, I haven't done that in years...
Granite 8
Muldoon decided to start hunting today... Most of the animals we've seen so far have all been out in the ocean, nothing that a hinter like Muldoon could work with. That's when Muldoon pointed out a pair of... well monsters that had just crested the mountain. They were massive scaly monsters, they looked a little like the velociraptor that my cousin had fro a pet a while back but much much larger, I've been told these things are called Tyrannosaurs... But what really drew me was it's mouth, massive and filled with enormous teeth I can only imagine could tear a dwarf apart with ease. And Muldoon is going to try and hint that thing! With a crossbow! Maybe I should have Extol start making a coffin...
Granite 10
HOLY- IT- I- I don't really know what to say... was digging out the trade area when I saw Baron Baconeer run by with a manic grin on his face just repeating "He caught it! He caught it!" I think Baconeer might have been chuckling too. I followed him out to his temporary butchers shop and saw Muldoon, dragging the massive corpse of one of those monsters he had pointed out to me into camp by the tail like it was nothing! That was when Baconeer started pulling out a pile of knives and meatforks and cleavers and things I don't even have names for! A monster hunter and someone with more knives than sense... I don't think I should let either of them read this now...
End of Spring Report:
I figure I should put in some sketches of how the fort is progressing since I've been so busy digging out the fortress to write.
Hematite 25
Today we had our first wave of migrants! Unfortunately they had some... bad news. They were all really excited to be here and to see me, if a little surprised by how small the fort was at the moment. They just kept asking me about the sword, were was the sword, could they touch the sword. It took a while to get it out of them but apparently the queen had told them that we had sent her a message that we had managed to find adamantine and had made a masterful weapon out of it already. I was pretty quick to tell them that we hadn't found any adamantine, let alone made beautiful weapons out of them. I saw all their faces slowly turn from confusion to horror when they realized what that meant. Every dwarf has heard the stories, castles made of a stone that we cannot work, containing hordes of the dead, bound by some evil to defend the fortress for all eternity in their undeath. And at the center of each fortress a weapon, forged by the gods and placed there to hold that evil at bay. I'm not sure if the queen was making things up or if she really sent us here knowing what was just under our feet...
Bah, rambling again... In any case the migrants were Stukos Etostsazir the carpenter, Zas Fikodatst the fisherdwarf, Minkot Nilenkos the soap maker, Asem Bavastlimul the tanner, Atis Fikodkib the milker, and Momuz Domasidok the woodcutter. I reassigned Atis to mine with me and had Minkot start working our furnace. They weren't too happy about that but we don't really have much use for a milker or a soap maker quite yet.
End of Summer report
It's amazing that summer has really ended already, the only things of note were the migrants and the news that there might be a bastion of pure evil here, between that and all the mining I haven't had much time or events to write about. Here are this season's sketches:
Limestone 27
More migrants today! I'm glad to see that there are so many people willing to come here to help us out, even if they are coming here because of a lie. They had come here about the sword too, I don't think the queen will be able to keep using that to get people to come here much longer. There's no way we would only make one weapon if we had a source of godmetal right? In any ase this season's migrants were Tholtig Giginalath the mason, Solon Ezardakost the animal trainer, Kadol Dorenesmul the leatherworker, Doren Gikenmonom the chees maker, Dodok Kadolment the engraver. I'm glad that there's another person here that shares my passion for engravings, even if all we really use our skills for right now is to smooth out the living areas.
Timber 16
Outpost liaison and a caravan from the mountainhomes came by today! We'll finally be able to send a real message to the mountainhomes as well as trade away some of our crafts for some more food and drink!
Timber 20
Theo got together with the merchants and hammered out a deal with the merchants. They took all the crafts Sir Kibble had been making in his spare time and we got a rather large amount of food and drink, Theo will also be able to turn the plump helmets we bought into plenty of fine beer.
End of Autumn Report
I suppose I should take more breaks during the season instead of just mining and smoothing all the time... Oh well, there will be time for more entries when we've established a good fortress.
Now all we have to do is add the hatches and connect it to the ocean, I'll be digging out a shaft and then channeling that shaft to reach the ocean. I've heard stories about people underestimating the water pressure and destroying their forts by stupidly connecting to the sea from underground.
Moonstone 20
The merchants left today, I'm not sure why they stayed here for so long, we traded with them pretty promptly and made it pretty clear they didn't have anything else we wanted but they just stuck around eating and drinking our stocks. Lazy bastards.
I guess that adds the merchants to the list of people I can never let read this too though.
Opal 17
The outpost liaison finally got around to a meeting with Theo. Why is it that everyone that doesn't come here to stay waits around for so long before they get around to doing actual work anyway?
In any case they we asked that they some food and drink and as much flux stone as they can carry. It's not a pleasant thought that steel production will be entirely dependent on getting flux from the mountains but it's better than no steel at all. The liaison also gave us a list of things that will apparently be worth a lot of money next year. The only thing on the list that I think we'll be making is the figurines, the other things we'll wither keep for ourselves, like food and drink, or just aren't going to make a lot of yet, like maces.
End of Winter Report
It's amazing that the year is already over... I had been hoping to have more luck with capturing some wild animals and taming them, but it's surprisingly difficult to set up proper trap nets on mountains. Maybe we'll have more luck next year.
Also
This is the outline for the beginning of my Corridor of Flames. The volcano stretches up far above the beach so I'm going to try and divert some of that magma to bridges set up above the corridor that is being built and connected to a single lever that when pulled will drown anyone in the corridor with magma... Although I should probably make a way to quickly drain it too...
*****************************************
Holy hell that was long. Although most of it's length was just fluff, still longer than I expected. Hopefully it makes up a bit for my disappearance.