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[varnish]

I'm not sure what caused the flooding, having not done many reclaims myself. Normal or not, the entire magma pump tunnel thing is filled with water, and it doesn't appear to be draining. Very annoying.

Another interesting result: Before the above ground was salt water, and the underground fresh. Now it's all salt water. Do dwarven desalinization plants still work?

Violent ghosts are funny. But, I don't want people to be beaten to death with their own arms.

Well, who would?

[varnish]

((tiny update))

From the Memoirs of Wilberforce Amber Ropenourished

Now, dear readers you might well wonder what else we learned from these two, considering all that they must have seen. Very little, which is a disappointment all around, really. I’ve pressed them a bit for details on their adventure in the jungle, which I can see making quite a story! But all I’ve got from the man is that it was miserable, hot, and that rats ate all of their food, “so we ate the damned rats”. Remalle, who is a mass of scars, seems able to remember very little.

Meanwhile, the infestation of ghosts has proved more trouble than thrills! Poor Neo is badly, badly hurt.



Broken back, and all. We’ll do our best for him, but not one of us is a doctor, so our best might be pretty mediocre.

We have a few new fellows around, wandered in from parts unknown. No news from them either, but the more here, the better, I say. One goes by Kogut II, a relation of an original inhabitant. The other, Kogut’s wife, calls herself Ishar. Not her real name, of course, hardly a dwarfs name, that one.



She took it from one of the more dramatic carvings in the dining hall, depicting a strange animal being pierced through the eye by a crossbow bolt. Ghastly stuff, really. Par for the course here, dear readers.


Next: Putting Ghosts to Rest 101

[neo1096]

If I recall correctly, that may heal. It's only severing that would permanently remove my ability to walk.

[peregarrett]

I think we should make coffins and slabs. Set the memory hall all along the Bridge!

[varnish]

If I recall correctly, that may heal. It's only severing that would permanently remove my ability to walk.

((I think it's a bit worse than that. He won't get up, and with no source for water on the map... Anyway, small update #2!))

Ishar was examining the engravings in what was being called the Baying Troll Gallery (an alarming number of the creatures were depicted), when she found Remalle. He was kneeling beside a smooth, chest high piece of limestone, chipping away at its surface with a steel chisel.

Curious, she asked, “What are you up to, Remalle?”

Remalle didn’t look up from his work, but said “I’m carving a memorial tablet for Zulban.”

“Zulban?”

“That’s the name of the angry spirit that attacked Neo. I vaguely remember him from the... old days. He was always pretty easy to upset, you know. Didn’t like being left out of things. I just thought if I made something... to show him he’s not forgotten, he might leave us all alone.”

Ishar watched in silence as Remalle carefully carved a short message into the polished face of the rock. It only took a few minutes.



“That’s it then. I put down what I remember about him.” He frowned, sensing that Ishar noticed the lack of... details. “Well, I didn’t know him all that well. He did like his bracelets, though.”

Working together, they stood the memorial up in the tombs, setting it in a corner near a vein of gold.

Perhaps it would work.





Next: Problems

[Ishar]

Another interesting result: Before the above ground was salt water, and the underground fresh. Now it's all salt water. Do dwarven desalinization plants still work?

When passed through a pump, any water becomes fresh. As far as I know, wells don't do this, and melted ice isn't good for anything. And you already have a shitload of useless water in the magma pump stack, and in the lower levels, so that seems like a logical place to start.

And, if you don't mind me saying, I find violent ghosts beating people up with their own body parts hilarious.

[varnish]

When passed through a pump, any water becomes fresh. As far as I know, wells don't do this, and melted ice isn't good for anything. And you already have a shitload of useless water in the magma pump stack, and in the lower levels, so that seems like a logical place to start.

((... Well, damn it all. Anyways, short update three! That's what you get!))

From the Memoirs of Wilberforce Amber Ropenourished, Mid-Winter 196:

A sad day, dear readers, as I was forced to lay the remains of my dear friend Neo to rest in the catacombs here at Oceanbridge.



We fought for him, I’ll say that. Not one of us didn’t take a turn at the medical books, looking for treatments. Breaks were immobilized, wounds sutured, splints splinted. But he never woke, and he never took water or food.

So I buried an old friend today. I took the time to think back on our journey here; the time we got lost in the Jungles of Murdering, fighting off giant squid in the Hideous Seas, the time Neo was almost devoured whole by an alligator... And I remembered the bad times, too. And then we all drank a toast to him, using the traditional barrel of mourning. Followed by the traditional second barrel of what were we doing, who knows, here’s another toast to you fine fellows! And the third barrel, the one you wake up in the next morning, sick as a dog.

We move on, as before. Alkhemia found a lower section of the magma pump forge, and with a few swings of her pick, let the water loose. There’s a poem there, something about water swiftly, etc, pouring swiftly, and so on. You know the words.



Soon we’ll see this pump. I’ve no doubt that Peregar is eager as a duck. Ducks, I believe, are very eager.


Next: Return of the Ape-Men


((I know I'm missing some dwarfings and redwarfings. If I missed you, let me know! I am far too easily confused.))

[Ishar]

Hm, an idea: Have you built the WHOLE magma pump stack before it was flooded? If at least the mining part is done, you could free it quite easily: pump out water from the level of the first pump somehow, and then use the magma pumps to drain water from the levels below. That should clear things up. You'd have to do something about the surplus water though, but the fort is short on drinking water anyway, so might as well store it.

[Dermonster]

Soulchopper here!

[neo1096]

Nooooo! Requesting redorfing when possible. Same name and objective to be a lasher. Maybe I possessed someone!

[varnish]

((I thought I already got Derm in? Well, he's dwarfed anyway, and will be seen soon. In the meantime, this update:))

Oceanbridge (Briefly) Besieged:

Bayar and Wilberforce were looking hauling more stone blocks up to the bridge when the Scout came racing to meet them

“Enemies at the gate! Looks like... some sort of six armed apes! Shall we raise the bridge?”



Wilberforce shook his head, and carefully set down his block “No. Let the traps give a few of them a taste of our steel, then we’ll meet them on the field!”

the Scout grinned "Damn right! Now that's the kind of order I like!" He ran off to gather the rest of the troops.

Bayar, meanwhile, climbed a ladder onto the wall, and watched as the things charged... and kept charging, straight past the gate. He shouted down “Well, it looks like they’re ignoring the traps for now. They’re attacking... looks like a yak?”

Wilberforce climbed up, and looked to where Bayar was pointing. “Poor beast. Can't save it though. We'll hold here and wait for them to tire of it.”

....................................

Peacespray was, as his name indicated, a peaceful yak. He loved nothing more than grazing, and urinating in tremendous streams (as the other half of his name indicated). A simple yak, with simple pleasures. But like any peace loving creature, he had his limits. And when a bunch of manner-less six armed apes interrupted his best grazing time, Peacespray lost his temper.

The first ape-man was fortunate; Peacespray only gored him a few times before crushing his skull with his hooves.



The second punched the yak’s tail, bruising the muscle. That was all it managed to do, as the enraged yak bull turned, knocked it down, and... taught it a lesson.



The rest of the ape-men fled, hooting in terror. Peacespray snorted and pawed at the ground a few times, but once he saw the threat had ended, he returned to his grazing, satisfied.



the Scout returned, astonished to find the battle was over before he'd even had a chance to fight.

"I think we need to train up some war yaks."



Next: Migrants and Waterfalls

[varnish]

((Well, anyway.))

From the Memoirs of Wilberforce Amber Ropenourished, Spring 197

One year, my readers! And, if the records we’ve found are telling us the right thing, six years have passed since this fortress was founded. We inaugurated the new year properly, with a good old fashioned waterfall.





It’s just a little thing, but Peregar and Alkhemia are rightly proud of it, and the mist it scatters about the dining room is quite refreshing. We have no need to fear accidents with it, as well, as we’ve built a nice fence just for that circumstance. No one will fall to their death after a night of slight excess here. Not down the waterfall, at least.

And more migrants arrived at the gate.



To my surprise and uncertainty, they came with news of the mountainhomes, but nothing good. The queen raves in her chambers, strange sounds echo in the caverns, doom approaches. A saga in the making, and not one I’d like to a part of. Those saga writers rarely have a place for dwarfs such as myself. It’s all Shield-Dwarf this, Olon’s Bane that, and on and on. Tiresome stuff.

But I digress. The migrants! I’ve met a few exceptional fellows. Another Neo, which is odd. I’d not thought it a common name, and he seems almost the brother of my old friend.



A doctor by the name of and rank of Colonel Kurtz. Doctors of any sort are, of course very welcome here. No doubt we might have saved Neo’s life with the expertise of someone like him. Seems calm and rational, just the thing a doctor should be.



And last of all, a dwarf skilled with a hammer, name of Doctor Kill Patient. Why we’ve got a doctor in the army and a colonel whose a doctor is a puzzle, but not one I intend to solve. He and Derm are training as I write this, and, dear reader, the noise from Derm's steel great axe meeting Patient's steel warhammer is more than a man like me can bear. I'm off to the brewery, for a bit of the thing that soothes.

Derm:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next: Violent Ghost Babies

[Hitty40]

May if I ask, is G still alive or is this a new reclaim? I'm confused.

[varnish]

G is alive and well! Same reclaim, at least so far. I apologize if I've made it confusing.

[IcepickTrotsky]

Scribblings of Balnash

They sent out some new dwarves to reclaim the place.... why I can't imagine, maybe the lot 'of 'em at the Mountainhomes are sadists. Well, I dragged Remalle outta that deathtrap, and we subsisted until the reclaimers showed up.

The new expedition leader, some fella named Wilberforce, is a real piece o' work, he's actin' like he's gonna take this place by storm. Well here's hopin' he does and the opposite ain't true.