Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Enigma]

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
Coolnesstod
Theifofdreams (2)
Enigma (2)
Naril the Wretched
Cousen (2)
Jack A T
The Master

[NRDL]

I don't want a turn, but can I be dorfed.  None of the people you currently have seem cool, so may I please get the next military migrant?  Better yet, get a useless migrant, train him ( or her ) up to be an axedwarf, and let me lop of the heads of our enemies.  Cudgelpriests shall never fall ( until the first  siege ).

[Spaghetti7]

I, also, wish to be dwarfed, but I don't really have a preference of job. Take your pick of who I shall be in this majestic fort.
Actually, you got a free metalsmith?

EDIT: On third thoughts, could I be the engraver? Ta'.

[wypie]

Can i be a miner?

[Theifofdreams]

I'd be interested in both taking a turn later on (If someone explains how to up- and down- load saves.) and being dorf'd as a Mason.

[Enigma]

I'd be interested in both taking a turn later on (If someone explains how to up- and down- load saves.) and being dorf'd as a Mason.

I assume you could use some file-sharing service like rapidshare or some such, but what I'm doing is using DFFD (Dwarf Fortress File Depot) to pass on saves. You have to have an account to upload, but to download you don't need anything, making it good for succession fortresses where not everyone's going to use the same method. Here's a link to the site if you like.

Judging by the relative lack of response, the good people of bay12 either don't like the idea of settling a glacier, or simply want to see the fortress go somewhere before getting into it. Very well; if I don't have a sizeable amount of future overseers by the time I finish up this year (Updating a season at a time until then), it'll revert to being a simple community fort unless lots of folks insist on joining afterward.

As for dorfings, all requests have been compied with except yours, Theifofdreams; my only dorf with masonry currently is the Engraver that Spaghetti claimed; you can get the next mason migrant (or migrant with some skill in masonry).

*****

1st Granite, 260 (Later)

I've ordered the miners to start digging a large ramp, and not to stop until they find stone. Digging that deep should keep us warm, making the ramp large will let the caravans keep warm too, and hopefully we can actually reach stone soon; we need it for just about anything, and while it seems cold enough that ice will stay all year round, I don't like the idea of ice sculptures everywhere... I also ordered us to disassemble the wagon; we won't need it going down, but we DO need all the wood we can get!



3rd Granite, 260

It took us two days shivering out in the cold, but our miners worked ceaselessly, and today we had our first success, however minor; I just got reports that we've struck granite! Both miners are currently digging out a room for us and I'm sure we'll be rushing down to warm up.



16th Granite, 260

Living quarters are arranged for now; a carpenter and mason's workshop have been constructed, along with a relatively large area for us to meet and mingle during our idle time. The alcove next to the ramp is about the right size for a trade depot, we'll have to get one constructed before autumn ends...



The plan is to first get ourselves the necessities; beds, tables, chairs (and my office so I can get to stock-keeping) bring food and wood stocks downstairs, that sort of thing. Once we're all set up on this level, which could take a few months, we will go into the lower levels, digging out a larger living area for ourselves, moving workshops and beds downstairs, leaving the upper area as a sort of "outside" for ourselves, where stone and other overly plentiful materials will be stockpiled while wood, food and brew will be in the lower levels. Wood will be used for beds and fuel, but that is IT; as soon as we got here, I made it clear to all 7 of us that wood would not be used for crafting, weaponry, traps, ANYTHING. We have no way of gathering more wood unless we manage to find a cavern, and in fact, no way of obtaining any more wood aside from the caravans. If all goes according to plan, caravans will come to us from above, as will our enemies, and our dwarves will never have to set foot outside in the freezing cold ever again. Good thing too; I feel like at the rate we're going, we will begin to suffer from cave adaptation rather quickly...

7th Slate, 260

I now have an "office" as I tentatively call it, seeing as it's really just a chair opposite our "dining hall" (more chairs but next to tables). Our resident mason/engraver, some guy named Spaghetti, told me it would have to do until we could get better living conditions up. I suppose he's right. Aside from this, not much going on so far this month, just expanding the living area, and told the miners to dig out one of the levels above us, to dump off all the nasty things that are bound to accrue down here.



Next up we're building a kitchen and brewery, those will be important if we want to survive long enough to see the autumn caravan.

15th Slate, 260

Horse and Water Buffalo that dragged the wagon here are getting hungry, but we have no way of feeding the grazers here. Going to have to butcher them before they get too thin...

20th Slate, 260

Got started on counting up our stocks properly; most of the administrative tasks fall onto me as expedition leader, so for the next few months I probably won't be doing much other than working or writing this journal. Sounds of our animals' protest as Zulban Lolorakrul led them to the butcher's shop didn't make my job any easier, but at least they're quiet now. Smells terrible though.



Going to send a copy of this log back home with the autumn caravan, seeing as we're making it so far already. A sort of "screw-you" to the queen, and to show that her execution methods could use some work.

7th Felsite, 260

Trade Depot constructed, and it's really really cramped here. Still, it'll all get better, you'll see Enigma, you'll see...

27th Felsite, 260

Spring's drawing to a close, and what can I say, so far we seem to be doing alright. Food and drink stocks are up high, although that will change awfully fast if migrants start coming (why they would, I have no idea). We haven't gotten to work on farming, but now that we have the necessities up and running, I'll order Sazir and Wypie to start working on a plan for that, smash some ice on the ground to irrigate, get some mud so we can have more drinks. By the time the caravan comes we should have plenty of cut gems along with rock mugs to send back to the mountainhomes, enough to get us some more drink and food as required, along with wood, LOTS of wood. The cold air makes its way down the ramp to us but it's still much more bearable down here than up there. We've managed to get everything from the wagon underground by this point, meaning that wildlife and other unfavorable guests won't be able to take our stuff, however last I checked this glacier was a barren lifeless block of ice; we are the only living creatures around here, which is both encouraging and foreboding, depending on how you look at it. Last time I went to the surface there was nothing there but me, and with the wagon gone, the world was perfectly flat around me, a bright glossy sheen on the ice reflecting sun into my eyes no matter where I looked and blinding me. Asen Mishakrimtar, our farmer came up and joined me, obviously just as impressed by the emptiness as I was. He laughed and said to me; "Funny how this place is. Anything could be happening out there right now. It could be that some band of goblins just attacked our capital, Queen Kadolottem dead and us freed of all obligations. She could have reconsidered this mission and ordered us to come back as soon as we hear from her. We could be forgotten, but for all this emptiness... it wouldn't matter. We probably won't be seeing anyone, friend, foe or creature until that caravan comes in autumn. We're in the dark," he grimaced as he looked up towards the sun, "yet it's still so damn bright. Get back inside, Enigma. You have stocks to update." He grinned at me as he stepped back down the slippery ice ramps. I took one last look accross the barren glacier I now called home, and followed him inside.

[charred_gp]

This definitely sounds like a Fun fort. Count me in for year two. And if possible, could I be dorfed as a miner?

[Theifofdreams]

I'll look into DFFD. And it's getting interesting already.

[Enigma]

@charred_gp: I'll set you up for year 3 seeing as Theifofdreams already asked for the next year, so assuming he gets to know DFFD he should be fine.

@Theifofdreams: Just read what I said above but replace you with him and him with you.

Update later tonight, probably.

[Theifofdreams]

Guess you're still busy.
I'll try to make sure to finish the second year fairly quickly, but no guarantee on my story telling prowess yet.

[Enigma]

Guess you're still busy.
I'll try to make sure to finish the second year fairly quickly, but no guarantee on my story telling prowess yet.

Yep, RL issues, you know how it is. I'll try to make up for it with double-season update, although before handing off the reins I'd really like to see more people in line. Also getting water from ice is harder than it sounds...

[Theifofdreams]

  Isn't it though? I still haven't gotten a reliable method...

[lastofthelight]

I'll take a spot in line, please. I havn't gotten into community forts before, but I know how to take a screenshot, have played DF for years, and can write. Looking forward to it! I guess I'll decide who to be after more time has passed when I can see the migrants.

[accoro]

turn & dorf me, if at all possible

[The Master]

I'm already in multiple succession fortresses,(all the while managing MY OWN) but I'd love to still be dorfed! Miner, Male, Caster Bon.