17th Felsite, Year 9, Late Spring,
Crustypeanut strode into one of the few available offices of the fort. Earlier that day, while he was minding his own business cooking up a delightful meal of turtle biscuits, a dwarf strode in and told him that he had been elected 'Mayor' for the remainder of the year as the previous leader, a dwarf by the name of Basque, had contracted a case of Dwarfpox, and would be out of commission for a while.
Crustypeanut, the fort's chef, was not much of a leader. He lacked confidence in almost everything he did, and he wasn't very compromising with others. However, he had been elected Mayor in a quick vote, probably due to his popularity as the person who makes everyone dinner all the time. That job is second in popularity to only the brewer. The only reason one of them wasn't voted in is just that – two brewers to split the votes, which allowed the chef to take the win. Not that he was very happy about this.. but he would make do.
The first thing he did as mayor was try and sort everything out. Talking to his aide, a dwarf suspiciously known only as “The Therapist" who apparently couldn't been seen by anyone else, Crusty looked over the job list of the fort.
It was a mess.
Crusty was a stickler for perfection – he believed that specialization was the key for anything. It was how it went in the kitchens back at the Mountainhomes, and thus he would apply the same logic in a fort proper. As it stood, the job lists were way out of wack. A large number of dwarves had nearly every job assigned to them – there were dozens of dwarves with the masonry, wood burning, plant processing, soap making, mechanics, potash and lye making, animal training, and hauling jobs on, to name a few.
While he was fixing this, a dwarf rudely barged into his office, scaring the living crap out of him. “Mayor! A huge, flaming serpent is attacking!”
“What? No, those are just fire snakes.. they're always there in the magma tube.”
“No! This isn't one of those, this is a giant serpent! Made of fire! Its huuuuge!”
The soldiers were ordered to organize and attack the beast.. the axedwarves Uvast and Sakzul were the first two to the scene, and although they were able to slice off it's fiery mandibles, they were struck down. The rest of the soldiers followed suit, and after a violent battle, the beast had been felled. A number of dwarves lost their lives in it's wake, including one of the two crossbowdwarves, Bimbul, a recruit by the name of Tirist, and finally another recruit by the name of Tersr. Before Tersr died however, he had felled the great beast, then was consumed by fire shortly after.
Only one of the surviving soldiers had any type of injury. The lone swordsdwarf, Lokum, had the fat burnt off from her lower body. This didn't bother her much at all, and she resumed training.
As for the caves from which the beast entered, much of it was consumed by fire. Many plants and precious webs were burnt to a crisp, though the fort proper was spared such a fate. The fires lasted a better part of a month before dying off.
While this battle raged, numerous other things were happening. The elven traders came, nearly at the end of spring. The broker was told to seize anything and everything of value, including a mountain of cloth, some booze, fruits and berries, cages, a horse, barrels and buckets, some shields, and various medical supplies. The elves left with barely the clothes on their backs. If they were dwarf-sized, they wouldn't have even left with that.
Another thing that occurred was a wedding, of all things. It was between one of the farmers and a carpenter; a wedding reception was organized in celebration.
Goblin thieves were also running amok, and two children were taken in the night. Crusty reminded himself to request a pair of breeding dogs next time the dwarven caravan was here, so he could get guards stationed at the entrances. A third child was taken a few days later.
25th Felsite, Year 9, Late Spring
Crustypeanut observed a rather odd doorway. There was a large sign on it that said “DO NOT OPEN”, and it was locked. He asked his therapist about it, and while doing so he looked like he was talking to thin air to the other dwarves. Did they elect a madman? Only time would tell.
It seems, the door that was locked, was the door to the well. There was another door upstairs just above it that led to the exact same well, also locked. While looking at the blueprints, Crusty noticed that if one of these two doors were to be either opened or destroyed, it would be catastrophic. The ENTIRE fort would be flooded, as the well got it's water directly from the river. He commissioned walls to be built to seal the doors permanently.
2nd Hematite, Year 9, Early Summer
Excavation finally began of the new fort proper. The entrance would be moved to the other side of the river, where a tunnel was to be built leading down far below, even past the first caverns. A large layer of marble was found, and the fort proper was to be built in solid marble. A large team of dwarves were sent to begin excavations after the rudimentary bridge was built. A proper bridge, made of solid gold, would be built later, along with a paved road of the same material.
This fort would be highly organized and would consist of only the finest materials and craftsdwarfship.
14th Hematite, Year 9, Early Summer
A hammerdwarf threw a tantrum today. He was unhappy due to one of his friends dying in the recent forgotten beast attack. Luckily, nobody was hurt, and all he did was throw a single object and yell obscenities in the caverns, before calming down and going back to training.
21st Hematite, Year 9, Early Summer
Dangit.
The fort proper had finally been reached, and was being excavated. Though the layer had plenty of marble, it also contained a large amount of cobaltite.. the fort wouldn't be as uniform as he had hoped, but he'd make it work nonetheless.
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Topic: A succession game for first-timers and/or new players. [Now with more tantrums.] (Read 26896 times)