SPRING
Upon becoming overseer I observed for some strange reasons the caverns hadn't been accessed at all, strange considering the massive amounts of resources which can be found in them, the thrill of adventure and the opportunity to create unique architecture.
Acting on this observation for the first three months on the surface industry continued as usual whilst the miners were tasked with building a tunnel too the caverns and then carving them into a habitable space, much more natural and beautiful than the low square rooms of the old fortress call me an elf but what I'm doing looks fricken' awesome.
The spring time elf visitors discovered a goblin ambush, they both annihilated each other.
SUMMER
Alright everything's going exactly to plan, I've got people down here setting up workshops and building a floor over the magma pipe which we'll be able to use as a space for storage and forging once it's complete.
Ok, well, it's ready now, I've got beds down here and my personal rooms are complete, all surface activities are to end now as the caverns are ready to move into, theirs still some work to do though, setting up personal bedrooms, underground farms and a hospital, that sort of thing.
About a dozen or so goblins tried too siege the fortress, whilst a wee bit of a nuisance they were dealt with accordingly, the losses were acceptable although our commander, Conan was killed by a lucky strike. After the battle I gave each of the marks dwarfs a sword to go alongside their crossbows and some steel armour if they get attacked in hand-to-hand combat.
AUTUMN
Well I've been ordering people around a bit just polishing up the place, we've got a dent hospital which is doing wonders for all the miners who keep getting themselves killed though nothing to be done for the grazing animals starving other than feed them but everyone's much too busy for that!
Some old artifacts have been dug up too, there's a statue of sarvesh somebody or other in the dining hall, I've got a pretty decent cabinet I found and put in my new personal suite, there's a pair of supposedly magical boots and a legendary crossbow which the captain of the marksdwarf uses, the only other artifact of note is an alunite mechanism lost somewhere in the old fortress which I believe to be a component of a bridge. All the other artifacts are useless trinkets I've not bothered to try and recover. Oh, and after a look through the bestiary we seem to have a bunch of goblins, but most interestingly a living statue made of bronze - very impressive and also a Minotaur, they're both on display in the dining hall and as a last resort can be set free after an evacuation.
Gosh, this is strange the third incidence of goblin activity this year, there seems to be about 30 this time and 5 or so trolls though all melee. I'll send the military to meet them, we outnumber them slightly though I'm not feeling too optimistic just in case. It also appears a human trade convoy has showed up at the same time, hopefully they'll help.
The battle didn't go too well most of our military was depleted and all the humans died, though they retreated with similar losses. The battle however wasn't without a spectacular highlight. The Marks Dwarfs whom I equipped with swords were versatile and absolutely deadly. They'd shoot from afar with their crossbows crippling the enemy and then charging in with a mixed flurry of crossbow bludgeons and slashes from their swords making short work of goblins and trolls alike, they must have trained this technique when I wasn't looking, Meng, the captain of them killed eleven by himself.
WINTER
Well all the basic amenities for a fortress now are mostly in place so whilst everything runs smoothly I'll try to work on rebuilding the military. I'll outfit everyone like the markdwarfs, heavy steel armour, crossbow in one hand and short sword in the other and name them the shinobi after the fabled ninja's in fiction whom are famous for controversial fighting styles.
When we recruited the new military we had a total of 26 shinobi in three squads though most had never picked up a weapon. In addition to the normal combat drills part of their training regime involved standing in a room which was booby trapped to train their reflexes dodging flying arrows and spears which would just out of the ground, the living statue was allowed to roam in a pen where the recruits could ping bolts of it's impermeable surface for target practice though that scheme didn't work well. Out of frustration Meng, the commander set free the minotaur and statue to run amok the dining hall for an intense practice session, the Minotaur was cut down with ease, the statue was good for a while not causing more than a few broken bones but some idiot swung his sword too hard at it showing off and cut the damn thing at half, made a great practice dummy though I was rather hoping to catch the two back again. Most the Shinobi describe themselves as adept or skilled now, well I've just sent them to clean a few monsters out of the caverns, 2 have died in training incidents but otherwise for three moths training.
I'm pleased just 10 days until the new year, what could possibly go wrong now? The populations at a healthy 154 and we have a good amount of food too.
Sorry guys
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