There are never enough. From what I've seen a lot of people sign up and then real life happens so extra is always good. On a completely unrelated note, I lost a bunch of pictures I had taken do to a utility I added to make it easier (i.e. I didn't have to save every picture through MSPaint). So a lot of semi-interesting (is anything in the first year really that exciting?) events pictures were lost.
Your turn now Khenal.
The Militia Commander really is beginning to frighten me. He has been compulsively butchering any large animals in the fortress and now wears only clothes made from the bones or skin of those he's slaughtered. He even fought an alligator and came back unscathed, complaining the alligator had "pussed" out and hid in a lake. . . I've made him Militia Commander purely because I have no idea what else to do with him.
I wanted you see what I had equipped the militia commander with. He slaughters creatures while wearing their brothers. FEAR HIM! The caravan has finally arrived. Our cook has been trying to deal with the massive influx of meat and organs by cooking it up. I, in an executive decision, decided to sell a barrel of the finest prepared meals our fortress had on hand and some porcelain goods. In return I was able to get milk, cheese, a steel spear, a few bins of leather, some seeds, as well as some other items merely to even out the trade agreement. I don't want the Mountain Homes to think of us as TOO generous after all.
Just as I was having my eventual tomb engraved, I realized we had agreed to have a dwarf be the symbol of our colonial group, "The Single Wheel." Why would a dwarf best represent "The Single Wheel"? Whoever pulled that over on me must have been one smooth talker.
Seriously, a dwarf... a dwarf? As Winter set in I realized we must find the caverns, after all, what kind of dwarf goes around grubbing on the surface all the time. I directed the miners to dig a staircase, I wasn't prepared for what would come next however. Apparently we settled right over a nest of foul rodent men. The miner said he thought there were about 10 of the suckers around. It also appears they have settled right next to a gold vein that could prove most valuable in our endeavors, for the time though, I decided the best course of action would be to begin professionally outfitting our army so as to be able to deal with these foul vermin when the time came.
There are a whole lot of blowgunners there, and I'm worried about poisons so I actually have stepped up Iron production. I'm hoping once they are all outfitted in Iron they'll be able to take the hostile rodent(wo)men out without a hitch. I'm beginning to worry even more about the Militia Commander, I personally saw him biting a Turkey that had "intruded on his land". If I didn't know any better I'd say he was rabid. It's only half-way through winter and the Commander has been looking at me funny for a while now, I think it might be time to take my leave.
He bit a Turkey... he seriously bit a Turkey. After wrapping up a few loose ends I took aside a no name record-keeper and told him he was in charge now, and that I was hoofing it back to the Mountain Homes, better to die on the road than to die at the hands of the dread "GraniteAngel". I gave him my four rooms complete with decorations, hopefully he keeps quiet and I don't have to worry about him following behind me
-Diary of V-Norrec, now exiled from WeatheredCastle by choice leaving a decoy behind him, Autumn through Spring of 552/553
I did good, yes?