1st of Hematite
"Crazy Cow" Likotasmel, Expedition Leader
Seasonal Fortress Report
We have tunneled out the basics our fortress will need. We have a dining room furnished with tables and chairs, a dormitory set aside, and we have dug out extensive pockets of silt to create room for stockpiles. As I write this, we are moving food into the fortress proper.
Other than the deposits we can see in the cliff, we have struck no metals. Our fortress is dacite with small pockets of orpiment, although an inconvenient loam deposit got in the way of our workshop area. Once the caverns are breached and spores begin floating in, that place will look like care bears came and puked all over it.
I began to set up a farm before I realized that I had forgotten to bring any seeds. Bashing my head into the dacite wall, I told the diggers to mine up to the top of the hill, the mason to create a shelter, and set out to dig up some plants. I found several specimens starting to sprout up through the snow, although nothing edible yet. We killed the mule and water buffalo that were given to us by the Mountainhomes, and chained a war dog next to the entrance.
Once migrants arrive, I'm going to get them to smooth and engrave the whole thing here, and I will set up some magma forges before Fall. Then, exploratory mining will commence, and hopefully we will find some good hematite veins.
However, I am sure that, despite my wonderful job here, I will be replaced as leader of this outpost. That will not happen, at least not without a fight from me. If I am forced down, I will make life difficult for whoever succeeds me, and I know exactly how.
I was thinking of doing something tame, A Spoony Bard, like putting the refuse stockpile in the dining room and turning on outside refuse gathering, but I have something more... devious in mind. I hope you like spikes.