1002U - SPRING
Powder Building Designer and Doctor Valrandir sat in the shade of some mango trees when the miners came out to offer their report. The Designer had been sketching beside the war dogs since they'd arrived and had only muttered "Need raw materials for the depot" when queried. The Doctor, having finished with his blueprints, spent the rest of the time trying to keep his personal affects as clean as possible.
"Doc, we've got a problem," said EmperorJon as he slapped mud off of his trousers.
It was the last thing that Valrandir had wanted. Not the problem itself, of course, but the mud dust flying all over his doctor's bag. With haste he pulled it aside and began fanning it with his handkerchief, making sure to not touch the leather itself.
"Yes? Yes, of course. Problems. We've all got problems. I've been sitting on a rock picking ants off of myself with a tweezer for the past 12 hours. Problems of all kinds, us. What's
your problem? Is it serious? Does it require medical attention?"
"Well-"
"Because if it does," said the doc, "We'll have to amputate since the last proper medical facilities we could have used are a week's tromping through the forest back where we came from. Was there a pick accident? A cave-in? What?"
"Well," Mipe said lumbering out of the cool shade of the entryway they'd carved, "We've got the most of the place hacked out with no problems. Didn't even stub a toe."
"Excellent.
Most excellent," the doc was still distracted by the mud dust, "I'm sure we'll be sleeping like kings in days. As soon as we've got beds, of course."
"Well, Crazyteddles seems to have taken a shine to downing trees. He's got a big pile of lumber going over there. Surely we'll have beds in no time."
"And tables, too," muttered the doc, "Something to keep the dirt off of my bag. So, wood isn't the problem. The mining wasn't the problem. You have a cold? I have some . . . honey extract . . . somewhere in here."
"No no, nothing like that."
"Well then, out with it man!"
EmperorJon and Mipe exchanged glances, "Well . . . we've tried to follow your plans to a T but apparently we're standing on a watershed. The basement is flooded to all heck. There's no way we'll be able to dig down to rock unless we find some way around it."
"An aquifer," Powder Building Designer offered, "We're standing on an aquifer."
"Whatever it is, we're not going to get very far unless we plan around it," EmperorJon said as he tapped one of the kegs, "And it's a damn good thing we brought a woodcutting axe."
"No rock?" Stiric looked dismayed, "I need to get my workshop up. My guild isn't going to like this."
"Aye, no bloody rock yet until we get ourselves a plan."
After swilling their booze down EmperorJon and Mipe began grinding the edges of the cliff back and flattening them. Jon seemed concerned about erecting a perimeter and getting the yaks penned in. As they set to work CrazyTeddles began propping up tree trunks to form a wall. In little time an enclosure was in place. Teddles, with a newfound affinity for wood, did his best to imitate what rumours he'd heard about how carpentry workshops might be set up. The result wasn't anything special but for a dwarf lacking any knowledge in the matter it was a fine woodshapin' shack.
By this time, everyone had been working tirelessly for long hours. The miners had told everyone "I just need to . . . sit for a moment," before collapsing drooling and exhausted in the mud. The Doctor, lacking a bed, had painstakingly constructed a cloth tent under which he curled up in an uncomfortable slumber occasionally brushing his clothes off unconsciously.
Cap'n Blunderbooze did his best to slap together something like a bed while Crazyteddles worked on the palisade up on upper slopes. After the beds were finished he moved to chairs and then tables. His products would have been called fine for any human home but to the eye of a dwarf they looked both malformed and uncertain of themselves.
Afterwards, he turned his attention to the mud in the farming zone and set to ploughing it into something workable.
All the while thoughts of the bumblebee colonies outside dominated his thoughts.
The food was brought inside to ensure it's safety from rodents. The doctor insisted on this. All seven did their best to haul it in except for Powder Building Designer. He was too busy sketching up plans for a depot to receive the caravan they'd been promised. Blunderbooze drafted Mipe, who was at a loss for what to do in the absence of stone to mine, for planting sweet pods with the intent of getting some fresh booze flowing. Stocks weren't getting any more full at the rate they were going.
"You mind diggin' in the dirt, Mipe?"
"It's my job," she shrugged.
By the end of Spring, the burgeoning fort had an initial shape but its progress was encumbered by the presence of groundwater beneath them. Nearby the river continued to gurgle and flow. Fish of all kinds could be seen leaping in its waters, including the rather conspicuous
clown loach.
THE FORT AS IT STANDS
You guys have a dormitory with seven beds, a dining room with five tables and five chairs, four farm plots with seasonal plants, a kitchen, still, farmers shop, butcher shop, tanner's shop, a food stockpile, a carpentry zone, a palisade that is currently being expanded to fit our two yaks, an entryway, an empty barracks, a depot which was constructed right after this screenshot, a mason's workshop with no stone to work in it, and most annoying of all an aquifer
right underneath you, one Z-level down. You have easy beehives, tons of fish to fish for, and tons of clay . . . but no stone yet.
Okay! Next season's orders! Come at me, Urists!