OOC; I will for sure, but I'm a few years behind in posts now, I don't have an older save but will put it up as soon as I catch up.
Journal of Asob Oilyfortress: 59:
In the start of the new year the north refuse incinerator was magma flooded as it was nearly full. The inlet flow was found to be too slow for it's size, however a buffer reservoir dug into the magma supply passages directly above the inlet hatches should correct this. The south refuse incinerator has been dug out and is being cleared of debris.
The last of the golden grates and statues are being installed over the lower waterfall drains. It will be a while before it is operational; the power plant is just half finished, only two pumps are built and the power transfer equipment passages are not even laid out yet.
It seems the elves won't show this year as the disgusting toadmen have returned already. Kogsak instructs the three trainee squads of axedwarves, hammerdwarves and speardwarves to watch closely as there will be a test at the end of the battle.
The squad of toads advancing from the north come under crossbow fire from The Bronze Whip who patrol the roof and walls. Their accuracy is much improved. The first wounded toad dives into a pond to escape but bleeds out from it's wounds. The second is knocked out and The Bronze Whip pepper it with bolts as the rest of it's squad flee.
The toad squads from the east form two groups. As the first enters the blockhouse they are met by The Deep Palisade, led of course by Kogsak in a martial trance who disregards the armed toads to the point she considers combat with them merely as training. The trainees watch in reverence for the master.
As the second group arrives the slaughter spills outside and flows southwards following the retreat of those few toads that can still move.
After the siege is routed the trainee squads nervously assemble as ordered in a previously unused room in the training facility. They have all donned newly assigned sets of freshly forged steel armor on the way. As they are made to wait they adjust the straps on their armor and murmur dread rumors that Kogsak plans to fight against only the nine of them. When the drawbridge seals the room they go suddenly quiet.
With Kogsak and The Deep Palisades watching from above haulers start tossing prisoners down onto the trainees.
Chaos and carnage are the order of the day. Bloody chunks and dismembered limbs occasionally fly up through the fortifications on the second level. Kogsak notes slow improvement in their technique as they compete with one another for the killing blow on each prisoner thrown in.
The test continues for hours. Only when all the trainees are tired, hungry and thirsty does Kogsak halt the flow of prisoners. She seems quite pleased with their performance. I mostly just see a pile of gore that's taller then a bronze colossus at it's highest point. At least it's not my job to clean it up and the south refuse incinerator is now ready to accept the lot of it. The north one has been nearly re-filled to capacity since it's test run.
With the excitement over, The Deep Palisade go on patrol around the stockade and obsidian tower. There has been no enemy activity throughout the summer and it is suspected that ambush squads lie in hiding out there. Tables and chairs are finally being installed in the dining room to the delight of everyone. The miners, supplied with food and drink have been digging a U-shaped shaft off of the entrance hall and linking it to a staging area near the refuse incinerators of which the north one is currently in operation. Soon they will go back up and start a second shaft of a slightly different design.
Autumn rolls around, the second shaft is nearing completion and the south incinerator is already filled with the refuse from the training room which is summarily burnt in magma.
Up top of the shafts the rest of the detour construction proceeds well. A catwalk is made to one of the rock pillars and retracting bridges built to drop invaders into the pit. The other detour is having supports built on top of it's rock pillars to hold up it's temporarily hanging floor.
Despite ongoing patrols, when the trade caravan from Dobar Or arrives they blunder right into a waiting ambush. The outpost liaison doesn't look back and is quickly reaches the safety of the stockade.
Their guards engage most, but not all of the goblins. The Deep Palisade is called in to assist.
The caravan guard do what then can but one merchant is isolated and picked apart slowly by his goblin tormentor. I now regret not sending a different squad as The Deep Palisade are still in transit from the other side of the map.
Some of the merchants are stricken by melancholy, presumably due to the loss of one of their own so close to their destination. A camel goes berserk and cripples a merchant before it can be put down. More merchants become melancholic. I've seen it all before, they are a lost cause, The Deep Palisade are withdrawn into the stockade and the merchants left to their fate.
In the chill winter air the sounds of the despondent merchants' suffering reach inside the stockade walls. Kogsak comes to me with an idea to divert attention from the lost souls outside; A Killing Contest. I would just have to arrange it, announce it and keep track of the bettings, a simple task for an experienced bookkeeper and manager such as myself.
Having little of value, most dwarves wager part of their booze rations on their favorite amongst The Deep Palisades. It is without any doubts that I bet three entire barrels of plump helmet wine on Kogsak. Normally common, plump helmet wine is a rare treat in this fortress made even more so by the failure of this year's trade caravan. The contest will be in two parts, mostly for suspense but also to allow a break for drinking and mutilated corpse removal. The contestants take their positions and agree on scoring rules.
Watching from above I could tell the differences from the earlier training slaughter. The Deep Palisade were professionals and it could be seen it the power and confidence with which they fought. They put the mechanical efficiency of spinning steel discs to shame as they split the unfortunate prisoners into virtual fountains of limbs and gore.
After a quick clean-up the second part of the contest consisted of armed and armored prisoners. The killing was noticeably slowed and each contestant no longer had to fight the others over individual victims. Mistem Kadolvir the mayor and the outpost liaison Momuz Ducimmunest seemed unusually happy and together gratefully thanked me several times for letting them in on this "arrangement," I was gracious if only slightly confused, almost the entire fortress was watching the event.
As the contestants left the training room to cheers and congratulations all the way down the hall their scores were tabulated. To my shock and dismay Ushat had out-killed Kogsak by 42 confirmed kills!
My wine! As I lay in my room miserable and lamenting the loss of my hoarded plump helmet wine I could hear Mistem and Momuz laughing, cheering and toasting each other in Mistem's room next door. The sound of much booze was in their voices. I didn't care what made this meeting of the mayor and the outpost liaison so riotous until they burst in through my door with the news.
It turns out that Kogsak had set the whole thing up. She planned on throwing the competition from the start and had let the mayor and the outpost liaison in on it telling them it was my idea. They collected a lot of unfortunate dwarves' booze rations and drank most of them that night. Kogsak even won a elephant's weight in booze betting against herself through intermediaries.
I couldn't possibly be mad at being left out of the plans. There would have been unrest if the organizer of the contest had walked away as with as much liquid assets as those three, and true nobility for three barrels of wine was a bargain one didn't need to be a bookkeeper to recognize.
The fortress is quite livable, our main defense weapon nearly complete, before two years are out I expect to have all our industries and luxuries fully established underground and all traces of our surface dwellings removed.
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Topic: Stormrack, Magma Hammer redux (Read 16964 times)