The Nourishing Merchant, year 260
Minkot Kadolottem (Hatchetsanctum), Queen of The Nourshing Merchant
This lady is truly remarkable, and has the survival skills and cunning to truly deserve to be queen. Born in 179 (making her 81 years old at the time of embark), she married the general of The Nourishing Merchant, Ral Uzolsazir the same year he became such, presumably so she could have greater control over the military rather than out of any feelings of love or compassion, seeing as they never had any children. As general, Ral had his hands full; from late summer of 247 to that year's late winter, Ral was attacked no less than 6 times, the last attack being carried out by the dusk freak bride Led Lorbamasen (Standardgravel), and culminating in the destruction of his left upper arm, followed promptly by his death. On an interesting side note, Led herself was once the general of another dwarf faction called The Grizzly Vessel, a civilization which according to Legends mode, was plagued by the upper figures constantly being abducted and transformed into night creatures.
Moving on; Ral may have gone through a lot in his one-year tenure as general of The Nourishing Merchant, but that was nothing, NOTHING compared to Minkot's troubles, mostly because she managed to survive through all of them. From early spring of 247 through midwinter of 249, Minkot was attacked FOURTEEN times by various night creatures, and the attacks probably would have continued if the worldgen didn't end in 250 (it's 260 now because of my weirdly successful 6 year fort among others, but that's another story). She always managed to escape unscathed, except for one event in midwinter 248, where her left ear was smashed apart by a vile man wife Aleya Thithucaya Thateme Nawara (Snarledsounded the Tunnel of Twilight). If you couldn't tell from the pretentious name, this particular night creature was formerly an elf. So there's a brief history of the important bits of our civilization!
*****
Hello there fellow dwarves! Don't really know what to say aside from this is a succession/community/a-little-bit-of-both fortress that has one thing which shall separate it from the rest; it is being carried out on a glacier! Oh I'm sure it's been done before, but you know, probably a bit unique right? The area I've chosen for embark is actually rather nice, with shallow and deep metals, along with a severe deficiency of aquifer. With a bit of luck, this works out for the best, and otherwise, well there's much fun to be had! So if you'd wish to be dorf'd or you want a turn in the bloodline, merely state your wishes below! Turns are one year, from 1st of Granite to 1st of Granite as usual.
(On a side note, group names and fortress names were given to me randomly, I believe that they're fitting.)
EDIT: Just throwing in some proper rules;
This is a succession/bloodline fortress. Every player will get a week to play a year in the fortress, before using whatever method of file transfer they choose to hand off the save to whoever's next in line.
You are not allowed to kill the fortress, not on purpose anyway. If something stupid happens, like you accidentally strike magma or hit the HFS prematurely, savescumming is OK, but try to avoid it unless it spells death for the fortress in a not-cool way.
Please no modding, this is vanilla and shall stay vanilla.
If within the week the overseer hasn't finished up their year, then either the previous save will be given to the next overseer, or if all parties agree, the partially completed year can be "finished" by the next overseer instead.
*****
Journal of Edzul 'Enigma' Siknuglikot, Expedition Leader of The Tight Hammers
15th Obsidian, 259
Well we moved out this morning. Me and 6 other dwarves are on our way northwest, some sort of colonization mission. I guess our Queen really is a forgiving lady-dwarf despite her violent past. The way she grinned when she told me to load the wagons with "extra wood", that was unsettling, but then again she's quite the unsettling lady herself, what with that sliced ear and all. That's what got me on this trip in fact, commenting on that ear. I used to be in the royal court you know, an apprentice doctor under the grand surgeon himself. The queen was sick with... something, I don't know what, and I was bringing her a bucket of water, when talk turned to my work. At the time I was starting to work on cosmetic surgery, you know, fixing up wounds so they don't look so bad, adjusting the looks of dwarves. Not a very common or called-for profession, but an interesting one nonetheless. I mentioned her ear, and offered to try and fix it. Man alive that was a bad mistake, she had my off the job and into refuse hauling before I could say "Alenanan save me"! It wasn't until a month ago that she told me I would be leading an expedition, Alenanan bless her soul. She let me choose my team too, I got a quite varied skillset in that.
I tried to convince one of my woodcutting friends to come with, but the queen insisted I wouldn't be needing to use the axe where I was going. I guess there's wood there and ready for our arrival and we'll get a migrating lumberjack later on. She gave me a map of where we were going, it's awful far to the north... and Sazir's bothering me again, she's always asking questions. I guess that's why she has so many friends, she seems to know everyone in this group despite me choosing pretty much at random. Better at compromising and chatting than me anyway.
27th Obsidian, 259
I'm getting worried. I'm the best navigator I know, and we're definitely following the map properly, but lately we've been surrounded by nothing but empty, snow-covered plains, no trees in site. Maybe it's some sort of desert... a really cold desert... with lots of precipitation. Hopefully we'll come out the other side soon or we'll be behind schedule.
28th Obsidian, 259
THAT BITCH!
1st Granite, 260
I can't believe her! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS! Of all the STUPID PLACES for us to get sent, a GLACIER?! Of all the ALENANAN-DAMNED PLACES we get sent to a giant block of ICE? We won't survive a day out here! The other dwarves are eying me, they think this is MY fault! I swear, if I ever see that evil hag again...
It's later in the day, around noon now, and I've calmed down. I'm looking around for some answers but I see nothing, just the light blue sheen of the ice below us. The other 6 are sitting in the wagon; the extra layers we brought along aren't doing all that much to stop the freezing cold. We aren't going to survive out here... Sazir walked up to me, and asked through chattering teeth, "What now, fearless leader?", with an attempt at a rye grin. The cold diminished her smile a bit, but not by very much. I remained silent, contemplating what to do. Nothing for it; I will order our miners to dig. If we want any hope of not freezing to death before the caravan comes (if it ever will come), we will have to dig through the ice, into the rock. If our geological reports were correct, there is no underground water, which would normally be a boon, but without a river for a water source, growing plants will be difficult. I'll consider making it to autumn's caravan an accomplishment, any more than that is a mere bonus. At least I have a motivation to live though; if I survive this, Minkot Kadolottem will be going under the knife, and not just for facial surgery...
*****
That's all for now, sign up for your turn or your dorfing below! Don't worry about being a newb here either, I haven't had too much experience with DF myself (but I have gotten a glacial fortress up-and-running before, just not for long
), and by the time the second year rolls around, if everything goes to plan I should already have craptons of wood from the caravan and my original stock (40 something logs I brought along for embark), a farm set-up (no underground water but I have a plan
) and designations for all the *important* labours. My turn will be carried out with the standard tileset and I'm using dwarf therapist for those of you who wonder.
TURNS (Still accepting more):
Enigma
Theifofdreams
charred_gp
lastofthelight
accoro
Pisano
Cousen
Varnifane
CoolnesstodTheifofdreams (2)
Enigma (2)
Naril the Wretched
Cousen (2)
Jack A T
The Master