SPRING 128 - PART 2The plan was set in motion. The pump stack was to be built, and the sooner the better! Some were displeased about the delay of any non related jobs, like adequate lodgings for everyone or finally supplying the mayor with his rightful comfort.
Four dwarves were drafted in the wood burning squad. Their task was simple : provide enough charcoal to keep the glass furnaces burning hot for Kzel and his three apprentices. The glassmakers were to built 35 sets of block, corkscrew and tube, and by their most pessimistic estimate, they would be done by the end of spring, provided the wood burners worked fast enough.
Draignean and his two miners set off in the northern outer moat entrance and started digging down, for the closest magma pool was directly below. A little off-centered from the rest of the fortress, but the closest they could get. They also quickly dug out a massive cistern to hold the fiery liquid, just below the ground, near the northwestern end of the settlement, as well as a pipe leading to the predicted output of the pump.
It wasn't long until they reached the first cavern layer. Kzel winced at the news. He had hoped to avoid it entirely, but they had hit a rather high area that would require masons to secure. All dwarves currently unassigned were drafted as stonecutters to ensure speedy work, and the laying of stone began at once, while the miners were taking an alternate path to keep digging from the bottom. Work came to a halt however, when a rather perceptive dwarf identified one of the webs laying around everywhere :
Giant Cave Spiders. One the deadliest foes in the caverns below, save for some beasts long forgotten. Most of the area they were at contained nothing but banal cave spiders, but the sturdy strings were now easily visible in the distance, seemingly getting closer. The mighty monsters did not fly, so they were safe for the time being, unless an unlucky dodge makes a dwarf fall to his doom. Accessing and walling off the ground layer would have to be fast though, or the beast might be let loose on the population, causing great havoc before it can be stopped.
Unwilling to let the entrance bridge unguarded since they had heard nothing from the surroundings foes for too long, Kzel ordered operation to resume as they were critical to the settlement's (and his) life. After convincing them to trust their good quality crossbows and their half empty quivers to at least slow down the beast were it to come nearby, the mason resumed their work in haste, not even bothering to come back up to eat or drink before fetching more stones and laying down walls.
As bad news always come in sets of three, the miners once again came to Kzel with grim news. While digging up, they had hit the second cavern layer this time, and had spotted alarmingly close webs very similar to the ones seen by the mason before. Thankfully, there was now more than enough masons to bravely go and secure this hole as well. They had hit a particularly low area, with the ceiling already directly above us, so a single level of stone would suffice.
Both operation were successful without even a sighting of the fabled beasts, its presence still only revealed by the large amount of webs laying around everywhere. Maybe it had wandered off further away from the settlement. Kzel did not ponder the question too much as he laid the sand in the furnace and began his work, a task he had repeated far too often already in his opinion, and yet nowhere near enough.
The final step in the construction of the pumping casing was now underway, in the third layer of the caverns. The goal was pretty simple : get as close as possible to the magma, while hanging from the ceiling, and then build walls up from there. The lack of silk was a great relief for the many workers on the task, even though the area was anywhere but empty :
Giant blobs, cave crawlers, troglodytes, all manner of monstruosities lived down there. Thankfully, none dared brave the magma that was separating them from a juicy meal, and any beast getting too close was met with a volley of bolts that quickly dissuaded it from sticking around any longer. These crossbows were certainly coming in handy, but the bolts were getting rarer and rarer, now that the bones were used up.
The wood burners and lumberjacks had done a splendid job clearing the forest next to the bridge and burning enough charcoal to smelt enough glass components, so Kzel authorized the use of wood for further bolt crafting. The production would be faster than with bones, and the bolts more potent. If kzel's plan works, wood will have much less critical value, so the decision was deemed a good one, even by an increasingly unhappy mayor, the only dwarf to complain despite having nothing to do but brew drinks all day.
While the 10 man squad of marksmen was getting bored guarding the bridge, a loud footstep was heard and the nearby pond started to ripple like crazy. A mighty roar announced the presence of a powerful beast, a roar seemingly coming from two voices at once! Hood immediately knew what the creature it came from was : an Ettin. A powerful giant with two heads, that can smash bones and trample dwarves as ants. The titan was however slow and clumsy, and despite its size couldn't cross the waist-high water or the small gap the settlement had as only structural defense.
Predictably, it beelined to the bridge, and the sharpshooters were ready for him. A volley of bolts was fired, and another, and another. The beast at first shrugged off the weak bolts, but as more and more of them hit critical area best left unmentionned, it started to pull back. However, a cease fire was not an option, and such a big target provided very good training for the least experienced members of the squad. The army started to pursue a little further down the bridge, while one soldiers rushed in melee after running out of ammo.
The situation was possibly dangerous were the ettin to strike back, but all the two heads could think about now was retreat. Bolts were still raining down on each of them, and the wilderness wasn't far. After nearly exhausting all of the squad's ammo, the beast went down, falling from the grievous wounds it had suffered.
Upon hearing the soldiers report, Kzel was unhappy. What if an ambush, or worse, a siege was to come now ? Producing more bolts would take time, and still not all dwarves had received their due. Wasting their bolts in the pursuit of the beast while it was clearly fleeing was something they could *not* afford. Grumbling, he ordered the beast left laying on the ground instead of butchered, its huge skeleton hopefully deterring any willing invader from venturing forth.
Alas, as soon as things calmed down a bit, a snatcher was spotted as it came out of stealth to strike at one of Kzel's children ! An outrage such as this was unbearable for the recent father. All nearby civilians opened fire at once on the goblin, who did not have any time to bag its victim. Fleeing away towards the bridge, it encountered the military dwarves, and they opened fire on the master thief too. Caught in a crossfire of bolts, the nimble goblin somehow still managed to make it out to the bridge, and almost escaped, until finally a stray shot put an end to him.
Now that the pump stack's casing was complete and floor were being dug out to provide links between pumps, the question of power was next. Knowing close to nothing on the matter, Kzel chose to follow Billybobfred's earlier design, gathering energy through great wooden machines turning with the wind. They would need a lot to power the 35 pumps and the safety mechanisms every 6m, built to prevent a global collapse were one pump's construction canceled or another otherwise destroyed.
The closest safe area was near the danger room, a room full of spikes that had seen little use since Kzel came in power. Above it a giant flooring operation was started, leaving holes here and there to provide connection to the ground layer of gears and axles. They needed about 400 power units for the pump stack if estimates were accurate, and the production facility would use up many gears and axles that would need energy as well. After a tiring work for all architects, mechanics and carpenters, it became apparent the goal was widely overshot.
The contraption was providing nearly 1000 power units, while only requiring a couple hundred. The power they had at their disposal was therefore almost the double of what they needed. Unwilling to dismantle the device that took long weeks to build, Kzel made a note of the available power and its easy access for anything else requiring it. Maybe more pumps could be added later. Maybe they could even use it to dry the moat and replace the water with magma. Leaving such ideas for later, he returned to the construction of glass components.
Indeed, as amazing and unbelievable as it was, the glassmakers were the late element of the construction. Everything was ready, save for 5 pumps still missing some critical pieces. The massive ranks of masons, now without jobs, were started on paving the magma supply and cistern, to prevent some pesky tree from growing and blocking the flow. The wood burners were converted to ore smelters, and started building some magma workshops in the area their furnace previously was. The rest was tasked with hauling back up all the metal Draignean and his team of miner had dug out in the meantime, about a 100 units each of Galena and Tetrahedrite. That would be enough ore to provide the metal needed to outfit Airfail with its first squad of hammerdwarves, and also make yet more bolts.
Finally, as spring was getting to an end, the final pump component were finished. Kzel and his team dismantled their furnace to build their magma counterpart while architects were laying the final pumps, and soon everything would be ready. The pump stack had been tested level by level by dwarf power and the design deemed safe. For safety, two stopping options were built, a first lever controlling access to power while the other opened or closed a hatch covering the input tile of the whole machinery. All that was left now was to built the remaining pumps, and finally connect the power to the tower of pumps so they can start doing their work.
That's spring over, the migration to 31.21 went without a hitch and the magma pump is almost completely finished. I'll get started on crafting some copper armor and silver war hammer for a melee squad, and continue work on the surrounding wall.
Author
Topic: Airfail the Fortress of Tragedy (Succesion Fort, NEEDS OVERSEER) (Read 18712 times)