Sphala's jounal:
Well, as usual, things are all messed up and it's fallen to Mama Sphala to sort things out. Me! Just a humble mason an statue-carver, and they've asked me to sort things out around here.
They've put be in charge as I'm one of the longest-lived here. Wes Caesar was in charge for a bit, after Arzun had his little episode.
He didn't last to long before running off and refusing any further responsbility, so word came down to the meeting room that I'd be put in charge next.
Then again, Yerp and I have the most to lose here. It's not just saving the mountainhomes we have to worry about. It's our own family, the two of us and our three darling children.
Arzun's spends most of his time hiding in his opulent quarters. Goodness, I did make quite a few statues for him, didn't I? I thought he'd been exporting them.
I think I'll have to keep my distance from Arzun for a while. After they told me I'd be in charge, I went through his office, looking for the fortress records and trade agreements. Some of the things I found in there were a bit disturbing. I can't say I'm not flattered, but I'm a married dwarf, and Yerp and I are traditional in our wedding vows. Marriage is for eternity, not just for life.
Oh, getting back on the subject of the fortress. It's getting badly overcrowded. What bedrooms we have are tiny, barely large enough for a bed and a little bit of floor space each.
Our farms are small and cramped as well.
I spoke with Di the farmer, and she told me that they didn't even have room to store the produce the farms were producing. Plump helmets were withering in the fields! We were sent here to provide the Mountainhomes with food, and look at it going to waste.
Even more shamefully, the horrible beast from the depths that we killed was left to rot in the caverns. There was plenty of good meat on that monster.
I'll have to speak Ahra about expanding the storage rooms. Good old Ahra, always ready to work hard mining for the fortress.
Our hospital also could use expansion.
Professor Harken tells me it's really quite small, especially if our military is going to be taking on both forgotten beasts from the depths and armies of goblins on the surface. He handed me some plans for a larger facility, including a dedicated well just for the hospital.
We do have a decently sized military now, don't we? Peregar is still in charge, being the most experienced military dwarf we have here.
He's training another crossbowdwarf by the name of 'Firelordsky' now, a recent addition to the military.
Oh, remember how I thought I remembered our soldier Derm dying of infection, and then being back in the military? I wasn't misremembering! Professor Harken tells me that Derm's soul somehow migrated into another body, some kind of possession or something. I can't understand how it works, but Harken tells me that there's no need to worry about it.
After Derm, two other dwarves took on the names of the fallen heroes Kalugog and Hatebeard, but Harken tells me these aren't cases of possession, just young dwarves taking inspiration from those two brave soldiers.
With so many soldiers, I'll have to speak with Cheveux about the status of our weapon and armor stockpiles. He's been wanting us to mine some more of Asen's gift to work with.
Oh, and as I was looking at the food situation, a dwarf with the odd name of 'Paladin Mitch' asked me about opening up the caverns for fishing. It doesn't seem safe to me, with all the monsters down there, but I'll look into it.
Speaking of odd names, and I'm not usually one to speak, so, but I hear there's a bonecarver going by the name 'Urist McHuman' in the fortress. Urist, of course, is a nice traditional name, but I'm fairly certain there's no humans in this fortress at the moment.
That's it for now. I have such work to do!