1004U - AUTUMN
There was naught yet seen a stranger season than this one for Inen Vakun.
At first all seemed well. Crazyteddles and his new apprentices Slashes the Swordsdwarf combed the palisade looking for possible entrances and exits, breaches, sabotage and all of these things in general. The rest of the military including Jacen, IPunchFaces, Blunderbooze, Aqua and Skeweri, they stayed behind to train.
SLASHES:
A hardy female dwarf already learned in the ways of marksmanship who took interest in swordplay.
Nothing was discovered at fault. The palisade was goblin-tight and secure. Even in the uncertain hills to the east where the elevation and slopes made constructing barriers difficult.
Satisfied, they checked on the front gate where Bayar and his three new apprentices were puzzling over how to build a wooden gatehouse without any wood. Stocks were all drained still by the need for charcoal, ash and PBD's giant wooden pillars. There wasn't enough coal to make more battle axes, nor enough wood to make more work axes, and thus lumber harvesting was being conducted by two or three scant dwarves also harried by other tasks. The three of them took it in stride and resolved to get the gatehouse done as soon as trade allowed for more axes and for PBD to be finished with his . . . thingy.
PATIENCE, PUFFCHEST & BUBBLES:
Dorna's entryway defence bridge sat right beside the gatehouses. Beneath lurked a watery death.
Dorna herself was still an elusive figure. She emerged only a few times during the season to call a meeting about the breached caverns and to help Crazyteddles hook up the last couple of goblin cages to a lever since Greymist was busy filling out Dorna's constant need for mechanisms. She really needed a lot of them.
Greymist's only work besides making mechanisms was to construct something of her own design at the request of Lekza: Greymist's S.M.A.S.H.E.R. (Special Mechanized Apparatus for Subduing Horribly Extraneous Refuse). Dwarf power was the only power available to her, so she hooked it to a lever in the hallway. The device was surrounded by six doors for easy access and even easier lock-out of wandering pets or workers, making it a safe and effective way to pulverize unwanted trash into a thin fertilizing paste.
It had been constructed out of the insane number of blocks Babalos had been producing in the new masonry zone. His squares were looking even more square than ever. He'd even taken the time to knock out a few very well-made doors for the fort which would prove to elevate general morale just by the mere sight of them.
***
Some fellows showed up mid season.
Notable amongst them was a surgeon with prior battle experience and three guild representatives: a farmer named Flieroflight, a butcher and trainer named Rath and a glassmaker named Gordy who introduced himself to the mayor as soon as he could before going about getting plans set up for a glassmaking suite.
He'd brought plans but they were set aside in the light of the sandy area he desired being too loamy to collect for proper glassmaking. A temporary zone was dug out near the entryway to the lower chambers and mines. It would suffice for autumn to be worked on during the wintertime.
His face fell a bit when he learned that charcoal was in short supply due to labour organization issues. He compromised to collecting sand in whatever bags were available in the meantime.
Flieroflight marched off to the farms where he'd be most useful. Rath set off to inspect the meat stockpiles and check the cages.
***
Down below Besmar McHolmes began to carry out Vabok's plans to create a small soaping empire. Ash had been burnt during earlier seasons which she turned into caustic lye with the help of a couple of spare URISTs. The lye became soap: glorious thick and fatty elephant soap! Her office could wait.
Nearby Greymist and UristImiknorris quietly produced rock cogs for the grand dwarven machine.
Deeper still found Mipe, Johnny Digs and Stiric facing another entire world. Breaching it had given way to a grand gust of musty, sweet smelling air. All three of them immediately began to cough and sneeze from the face-full of myriad spores which drifted up on a mysterious wind and rooted in the moist dirt above.
Valrandir would not be pleased with the sudden presence of cave fungus all over . . . well,
everything.
The miners took a few cautious steps into the gloom of the caves, peering at the strange haze that seemed to drift and glint in the musty air.
"Cave spider web," murmured Mipe as she rubbed some between her fingers, "Excellent stuff for Lekza's production zone."
They stepped around the corner to see how deep and far back the caves went. They looked gigantic, expansive, many dwarf-heights tall with tubes thick enough to build small villages inside of.
"There's more of those webs over here!" shouted Johnny, "These ones look even bigger and . . . thicker!"
It took them less than a minute to reach the top of the staircase. The cavern entry was quickly sealed off in a sloppy fashion, which had inspired Dorna to call a meeting about reforming the blockade into something much more aesthetically pleasing and easily modified.
The miners agreed that, under watch from the military, they would clear out some of the walls and build something more square-shaped. In the meantime they were safe from whatever lurking terrors existed down there. One brave URIST managed to nab some silk before the bricking was complete.
Brave, brave Zefon. Lekza had demanded it of him: she was terrified that Dorna's mandate would go unanswered and that she would be punished as the representative of the cloth industry of Inen Vakun. She was so terrified about it that she became paranoid and went into hiding in the spare clothier's shop, worried someone might sabotage her chances of completing the order.
She lurked inside sketching pictures of cloth and sneaking them underneath the door.
Zefon's one unit of silk wasn't enough for her and it wasn't until Valrandir completed trade with the mountainhomes that she finally began working on her project.
Unfortunately for her by the time she'd had enough silk Dorna's demands had shifted from cloth to precious metals.
Perhaps even more unfortunate for EmperorJon and his apprentice as the caravan hadn't brought any gold along with them.
The trade itself had gone smoothly: bins full of rock mugs were lugged up to the depot along with clear tourmalines cut by some of the URISTs and a few spare other items of clothing, mostly goblin-scavenged.
"Brought the steel y'wanted, the gypsum too. Plenny o' booze as well," said the liaison.
"Yes, yes, excellent. I've been dragged away from my office for another delightful exchange. This'll be all. Take these drinking receptacles. They're much more sanitary than two-hundred mouths sucking from the same fifty taps, you know."
Once the trade was complete, Valrandir meandered back to his office to complete some spare paperwork.
And stumbled in to find that not only had his masonry shop had somehow turned from a proper workspace into a pile of rock blocks and dust, but someone had flipped his bed over.
Foul play was at hand here.
***
"Now, when those gobbos come rushing out, give 'em no mercy. I've handed you a real sword there and I expect you to use it. Gotta spill some blood first to get yourself in tune with jes' how deadly a sword can be. I'll be right by yeh practising my swings on 'em. Once you've gutted these two I'll hand you a spare wooden sword and we can work on diff'rent techniques. And remember, you're close and personal here. This ain't the archery range, lassie."
Slashes nodded and the lever was thrown.
"Aye . . . well, it's not like you're a stranger to slaughter, then! Nice work. We'll make the next two last a bit longer."
***
IPunchFaces wanted desperately to go down and learn just how many kinds of faces there were to punch in the underground, but a more pressing issue was at hand.
PBD's project was near complete and somehow some Mandrills had gotten in and were harassing everyone. Nothing that a little punch to the face couldn't fix. Three of them were giving the workers trouble. He got to one of them and administered some knuckled justice.
In his chase the other had gotten spooked and ran for a hiding place.
It chose the wrong hiding place.
The last one ran for the trapped exit with predictable results. Crazyteddles checked and found that the reason they'd managed to get in was that there were already seven more caged up at the rear entrance and nobody had designated a place to put them. So now they had eight caged Mandrills, whooping and shrieking away inside of wooden cages. Surely they'd be able to think of something to do with eight monkeys.
***
Aaronius, plagued by a lack of wood for his carpentry, sort of wandered about. A URIST came up to him at one point and told him that an order had come through to "remove his bed." Thinking that this was some sort of mayoral mandate or something of the kind he complied, figuring that if his bed needed to be swapped out he could just replace it with one of better design.
He didn't think too much of it at the time, but it wasn't long before he realized that URISTs are idiots who do whatever they're told. As they hauled his bed out of the room, he thought with a rising panic "I'm not ever going to see that again, am I?" He pursued the worker in hopes of finding out where he was taking it.
Up above, PBD's project was two floor units from being complete . . . and somebody was sleeping on the damn thing again.
PBD ran into Aaronius while entering the fort. They both looked around to see URISTs sleeping everywhere but their beds. On the ground, amongst the booze, in the dining room. Everywhere.
They also noticed that many URISTs were hauling beds.
In fact, almost all of the bedrooms in the lower quarters were completely empty.
All of them had been hauled into the SMASHER by the URISTs.
Winter came with the echoes of the SMASHER repeatedly pounding beds into a splintered mess.
THE FORT AS IT SMASHES
At least not all the beds were destroyed. It's impossible to say WHO told all the URISTs to start undoing beds, but thankfully Aaronius had one Furniture Hauling for his carpentry trade and got suspicious about why an order for his bed to be deconstructed was put through.
Might want to stop that URIST! Deconstruct the lever! Do something! We're already short on wood and those are our precious beds! Valrandir, you now have no masonry shop but thankfully you were making blocks for
most of the season. Whoever deconstructed it did it while you were out trading. Your bed also needs to be reinstalled but hadn't been dumped.
Dorna's mayoral needs aren't being met. This may make her rage.
I bought steel bars, silk cloth, gypsum powder, a few spare picks and axes for lumber and a couple of pieces of armor: an iron mail shirt and a steel cap. I didn't ask for anything in particular from the caravan: mostly just more steel and some charcoal.
Anyway, if you've already posted orders from the cavern post just link me to them. Otherwise, state your affairs, pose your questions and make your screenshot demands.