Shakespear Fortress Chronicles
15th Granite, 53
Expedition Leader Ablel ZuntirdishmabThis winter has seen a great victory: The giant badgers blocking our fortress gate were finally killed! A group of three brave, iron-clad dwarves managed to slaughter them AND a group of rhesus macaques that wandered near the squad. No injuries, apart from a lost tooth.
We now have free access to the overworld once more, and I have ordered more traps to be built. I am also thinking about a memorial for the Great Badger Siege of 52...
A caravan from the Mountainhome has arrived and traded their treasures for our stone crafts and other things we don't need. It is amazing how much the products of our forges are worth! The liaison left with a smile - I hope that the next caravan will bring more animals. We were forced to butcher most grazing animals during the time the badgers blocked our entrance.
Our digging projects are still being worked on. The bedroom area is dug out, a large dining hall has been created and the food storage area is being mined out as I write this down. Ahra and Kumil are incredibly fast. Flandre is busy making beds and Shade is pumping out doors.
I also have to record sad news - one of our glassmakers has gone insane and died shortly after his descent to madness. He recently migrated to Shakespear and almost no one knew him ... but it was still a sad day.
I have been thinking - what would happen if one of us died? I mean, one of us founders? Shade could have easily been killed if he hadn't escaped the giant badger beast. What if he died? What if one of us died? Would we be left to rot on the surface? Or thrown into a cheap wooden casket? This is not a pleasant thought ... In the future Shakespear shall be a rich fortress, populated by many happy dwarven citizens ... And they should live with the knowledge that the seven who laid the foundations of Shakespear are still resting beneath it.
I have to end this entry now... the noble rooms are to be finished soon. From this night on I will have my own bedroom!
---So yay, seems like iron equipment is enough to brutally murder giant badgers. I was afraid of this becoming Dye Harde. We now have
five of them caged, several breeding pairs. And they're already busy. IN THE CAGES. Getting ready for some exploratory mining now, I do know that we have A LOT of z-levels to go through 'till we reach the circus. The lowest level I can go to ATM is 12, and the fortress entrance is at level 120...
Food storage in the upper levels is almost full, I really need to relocate the nomnomnom.
Oh, and our Master Engraver is busy smoothing the heck out of the noble rooms and dining hall.
Also, there's some serious plot going on with the thought of the starting seven dying. More about that later.
Last of all, I'm behind with the dorfing. Will be done tomorrow!