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[NW_Kohaku]

1st Granite 126

Happy friggin' New Year.

We laid the wagon to rest for the last time.

It's a good spot, material-wise, but it is very problematic to get a good sense of where we should set up shop.  The slopes of this stream's bank are terribly steep.  I decided to settle on just using the small valley near the banks of the stream as a temporary starting point, and ordered the miner to start shifting away some of the sand to start some sort of temporary shelter.  Just something to get a roof over our heads and sort out the wagon's goods.

I told - and I have to start learning these others names if I'm the leader, now don't I? - Wilkins the carpenter to get the wagon deconstructed, then go chopping up some of the local trees, so we could start getting some beds to sleep in.

Ordered a few areas to become "pastures" pretty much wherever there was enough flat land in a single spot for it, and got the others to start separating the livestock before they start biting each other.

Before making the final leg of our journey, I stopped at the human town, and sold some of the leftover steel bits and an extra pick for some livestock I figured would help us more.  Now we have a couple extra dogs, some goats, and even a couple alpaca, just to splurge a little.  All breeding pairs.  We'll get meat, milk, and wool from these. 

I've tasked myself with searching the local fauna for edible plants.  I have a little training left over from my alchemy research in identifying some edible aboveground plants, and there's nothing better to do until the miner finishes digging out our hole, anyway.

... These workers and animals sure are noisy, though.  I me----

*the journal's page ends in a scratching streak of ink*

*An alligator has just made a beeline from the water to our wagon the instant I unpaused the game for the first time!!!  It is attacking the dogs and waterbuffalo near the wagon while the dwarves run for cover.*

(I guess we were too close to the alligators at embark - HAHA! oops...)

Spoiler: images (click to show/hide)

[Darvi]

Well see ya later! Heheh.

[NW_Kohaku]

2nd Granite, 126

Well then, let me revise my previous entry.

My first priority is to set up a kennel, and train these dogs to be better war dogs. 

The dogs performed admirably, swarming the alligator in a concerted effort, and taking it down with only one dog getting injured. 

Or rather, the female dogs did.  The male dog I bought just sat on the wagon and watched it all.  Damn useless males.  Never good for anything.

Speaking of which, I should get that doctor a sword as soon as possible while I'm at it, but for now, I'm going to work on getting a carpentry and mechanic workshop up as soon as possible.  We are putting cage traps near that river.  I see another alligator in that water.

I think that it would be a true shame to let all the dogs we have die off though, so we cannot risk all of them in swarming the next threat that approaches.  I think we should make sure at least one female stays safe.  Somewhere safe... clearly by my side.  Yes, I'm going to make sure one of these noble female war dogs stays very safe by my side. 

Yes, because the dog needs my protection.  That's it.  Nothing at all stressful that would require me to want a large animal I just trained to kill on sight for me by my side at all times, while not giving one to the others, no not that at all.

[NW_Kohaku]

By the way, Darvi, Dutchling, I have permission to change some of your labors, right?

I especially need some hauling labors to get this crap from the caravan and inside, where there aren't alligators patrolling the waters.

I can also turn on the butchering labor on Dutchling... (He's a low-skill doctor, right?  That's basically the same thing as a butcher, right?)

We'll be eating 'gator burgers tonight...

[Darvi]

 

[NW_Kohaku]

I'll take that as a "yes".

By the way, I can build walls, but I'll need masonry turned on for some other people like you, Dutchling, if I'm going to build walls.

I'll need to build walls to cut off access to the riverbank, unless we want more alligator incursions.

[NW_Kohaku]

Oh, wait, nevermind, Darvi attracted the other alligator while hauling some of our supplies into the fort.  Fortunately, I have four trained attack dogs following my character (since I trained them all), so if I can just get my character, and her dogs, to go near the alligator, that should solve the problem.

Hopefully, I'll even get there before Darvi gets eaten!

Run, Darvi, Run!

[Darvi]

*runs*

[NW_Kohaku]

A close call for Darvi, fortunately, the alligator has bad aim, and fell into a ditch while chasing Darvi.

[NW_Kohaku]

As a way of guiding Darvi away from the alligator, I heroically order the construction of a new masonry workshop, turn off Darvi's hauling labors, and forbid all but the logs in the direction I want him to run.

Because that's how leadership works.

EDIT:
I'm not sure exactly how it worked, but I somehow actually managed to lose the alligator by doing that.  Darvi ran off in a different direction, and the alligator kept running in a straight line, then realized Darvi wasn't in front of him any more, stopped, looked around confused, and just sat there.

MY COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP HAS SAVED THE DAY!

[Darvi]

Huzzah! ^[i_i]^

[Dutchling]

^^^^^^^^ (few posts up)
yes of course you have permission to change some of labours, as long as you change them back when a migrant comes with that skill (or rather, a player gets dorfed with that skill).

[Rolan7]

A triumph for bizarre fortress-administrators, and their hack doctors, everywhere!
Animals called the alligators they go the house

[NW_Kohaku]

1st Slate, 126

Damnit, has it been a month, already?

I haven't had time to do much serious work.

Another alligator attacked Darvi, the mason.  I managed to call out to the hapless dolt at just the right moment, and get him to change direction at just the right moment.  The alligator fell in a ditch in the slope, and when it climbed out of the ditch, it lost track of where Darvi had run.

Unfortunately, the stupid reptile just kept running up the mountain.  I got the war dogs together, and tried to chase it, but it just kept going on up there.  Now it's lazing around on top of the mountain among all the bubble grass.  I hope it chokes on a fairy. 

I don't have time to go chasing it down, though.  It's been a month, and we're only just setting up our first farms.

I managed to find a few random plants in my foraging to start up a small above-ground farm, in addition to a below-ground farm.  We've got whip vines, strawberries (I look forward to the wine!), prickle berries, and a bloated tuber (which we can't farm, unfortunately).  I don't think any sun berries grow around here, though, so unless some elves bring some, we probably won't get any. 

I don't have time for that, either, however.  The miner finished digging out the holes where the rooms will be (once the mason starts actually making some doors), and we've got beds.  Now he's tunneling into the limestone and hematite.  I want a weapon in the hands of at least one of these clods.  We can't rely upon 4 war dogs for our defense forever.

I'm setting up the wood furnace and smelter, now.  It's just out in the open air.  Can't be helped, no room for it tunneled out yet.  We'll just deconstruct it later.

Wood might be a problem.  Maybe we should just tunnel down to the magma sea, and set up a magma forge down there?  That'll solve the wood problem, and we don't have the time to set up a system to bring the magma to us.  It's a temporary solution, but that's all I've got at the moment.


8th of Slate, 126

Struck the caverns. 

Fortunately, it was a grazing blow.  The damn miner kept going up and down the stairwell I had him dig to mine other little side projects instead of staying on task when I needed him to repair the damage he did in the caverns.  Anyway, I got a side-passage set up, and walled off the opening into the caverns. 

Merco, the miner, seems to have tracked some cave fungus spores and tower cap spores up with him.  There's a tower cap sprouting in Dutchling's room now.

We'll need to make more permanent lodging preparations earlier than I thought. 

Anyway, struck warm stone, but haven't uncovered the magma sea, yet.  This'll give us some free glass and ceramic material.  With the fire clay I have from the top of the sand spire, I'll be able to make ceramic pottery for the rest of my days with the magma kiln set up.  That's one more resource we'll never have to worry about again. 

The soil layers are deep.  We can probably set up a tower cap farm belowground, as well.  That's another problem we won't have much to deal with.

The only thing is trying to get our fortress secure.  This slope makes a mess of any attempts to defend the place.  Our best bet is to just throw a wall or ditch along one side of the slope, but it's hard to find a good spot to put it.  It's going to be an ugly mess of zig-zags.

Ah well, I can't put it off any longer.

[Darvi]

Maybe I should stop wearing those pants made of alligator feed :V