1st of Granite, year 104Another year has begun. And with it the soldiers have new training facility constructed.
Currently only the squad commanded by Rar is allowed to use the facility, and from those four soldiers the two wounded are prohibited to do any training. I believe this has something to do with the possible reassignment to the Dohon's squad, which will take place at some point.
27th of Granite, year 104The child I was ordered to teach has finally entered the age where he can do some minor tasks. This also means that his schooling begins from this point on. Nevertheless I will still keep on writing this diary, just in case if I get tasked to teach others as well.
We also got another group of prisoners. Twenty-two dwarves entered this fortress today, among them few guards and one personnel. That's positive thing, perhaps Stronghammer will make our military stronger now and establish the guard squad under Dohon?
8th of Slate, year 104Our miners and masons have been able to construct a safe route through the caverns bellow our fortress to reach the layers under it. Now there is this huge stairway pipe going right through the cavern, which can later be expanded to allow entrance to said cavern. Currently Stronghammer doesn't want to risk our fortress and open the access there, which is understandable since our military ain't good enough to deal the worst things that can live inside such cave system.
As our miners begun mining bellow the cave they immediately discovered a vein of iron. Stronghammer ordered that all the hematite found there must be mined and melted to iron.
21st of Slate, year 104I have noticed that the distinction between prisoners and the staff has got a bit blurry. It seems rather common that the guards or personnel have made friends with prisoners, even though officially the prisoners are considered lower class. I have also heard that one of our guards, Keywalls, has a lover among the prisoner, the miner called Karakzon. And I just found out that the child who I'm teaching is actually a child of two prisoners. For some reason Stronghammer wanted that specific child to become something more than mere worker.
What I don't understand is why this change of attitude has happened? Has people forgotten why we are here? Our sole task was to keep dangerous prisoners away from mountain home and none of them should be trusted? I honestly can't understand, and here I'm tasked to teach this child the basics required from personnel around here. What should I teach him? Should we actually be friends with the criminals or should we behave like how the king expects us to behave? And are these criminals actually the lowest scums of our kingdom? So many questions and no answers.
22nd of Slate, year 104We have new hero among us! Well, not hero in the military sense, but someone who is going to gain lots of new friends among the citizens of Evercage. I'm talking about Karakzon, the head miner of the fortress.
To give a better explanation of what I meant with the above lets start from the beginning. Last few weeks our miners have been digging through the stone layers frenetically. Mostly this was done to find new veins of metals, especially iron. Only short time ago they were, with the help of masons, able to get past the cavern, after which they found one vein of iron.
Now, earlier this morning I heard rumors that the miners had found something special. Something that would take our fortress to completely new level and bolster our standing among the citizens of the mountain home. Nobody seemed to know what it was until Stronghammer made an official announcement. In the announcement he claimed that the miners had found another cavern, rich of metals and wood.
Everybody seemed a bit disappointed at that. And I must admit I was too. Another cavern? Even though it is full of minerals I didn't see how such thing could be so big thing. But nothing prepared me to what Stronghammer announced next; inside the cavern Karakzon had spotted adamantine! Adamantine! I wasn't able to believe my ears and I have never seen our fortress so quiet. Everybody were shocked, though in positive way.
But the biggest surprise was still coming. Karakzon didn't spot only one but two veins of adamantine! And both veins were right next to the location where stairs would pierce the cavern!
This is extraordinary! I have never heard two veins of adamantine so close to each other. After the announcement was made Stronghammer called Dohon, Rar, Niney and Karakzon to emergency meeting. Perhaps they are figuring the safest method of reaching the veins and how much should be mined.
But what will this discovery mean to Evercage? Several things in fact. First of all item made from it are much, much more valuable, and thus our economy and wealth will gain some serious boost. This will attract the attention of mountain home, resulting more prisoners and better caravans to be sent in our direction. On the other hand it will also attract the unwanted attention. Goblins, vikings and drows come to my mind. But then again adamantine makes perfect material for weapons and armor, and thus our military will be more lethal in combat.
Everybody is anxiously waiting for the decisions about how to handle the discovery. Surely some of the precious blue metal will be mined, but how much, how and when are the questions we don't have answers yet. This also reminds me to teach Lettersea the meaning of this discovery, after all he doesn't even know what adamantine is.
6th of Felsite, year 104The masons have finished the stairs to the bottom of the cavern. The lowest section has also been walled to prevent anything living down there to actually entering our fortress. The first vein is just west from the stairs and it should be easy to reach by miners.