Indeed! But I think that if you don't have an abusive relationship with Dwarf Fortress, you're doing something wrong. Probably.
In other news: despite the game crashing, the save actually went through! I'm carrying on, but in the meantime here's an IC version of what's been going on...
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Guildmaster's Log
It's hard to keep track of the date nowadays. It's my fault, really; I'm the one who wanted us to move underground instead of staying near the surface, where the damnable harpies keep haranguing us. Not to mention the werewolves, though they are few in number and fall to our militia easily enough--or the giant badgers, who thankfully we've only seen from a distance so far. I've heard the stories; I'd rather deal with harpies and werewolves any day, mark my words.
On the subject of our militia, Inod the Mighty has fallen. Frankly, I wasn't all that surprised--despite his remarkable skill, a stiff breeze could knock that man over, and he was barely holding together as it was. It does bring into focus a very serious problem, as his death was easily preventable--rather than falling prey to one of the enemies that plagues us from the surface, he keeled over on the mountainside, giving in to an infection. If only we'd had a proper hospital, he might still be alive--and I've heard the arguments that we already
have a proper hospital, but considering that said hospital is the same ten cramped beds that we've all been sleeping in, you'll forgive my skepticism. The saddest part is that, despite the setbacks, the hive is dug out and construction on beds for everyone is slow--we've had to resort to buying wood from caravans while the axedwarves are for all intents and purposes on strike--but steady. If he could have hung on for just a while longer, he might've gotten treatment.
This situation is sadly typical of Spearfalls at the moment, I'm afraid; no sooner is one problem solved, or at least delayed, than another one crops up. I'd set Eral, our best engraver, to prettying up the rooms a little bit, and would have set him on the dining hall next--but before Kosoth's rampage had even run its course, Eral had claimed a workshop for himself and started babbling on about needing silk, the same as Kosoth had.
It was about then that Morul, our resident Spinner, informed me that silk could be found deep underground. I nearly cuffed him for waiting this long to inform me, and for playing me for a fool, but then he explained that we wouldn't be
mining for silk, but that there were vicious spiders that lived in massive caverns underground, and that we could collect their webs like we did from those on the surface. I guess I should have listened to more horror stories before coming this far out on the frontier.
Work was at a stopping point on the grand dining hall by then, at least as far as the miners were concerned, so I ordered them to dig down until they'd breached a cavern for us. Vicious spiders and other cave creatures or no, I wasn't going to have another dwarf going insane on my watch. Or so I thought.
Webs we found indeed, but nobody would collect them until the area was safe. By the time I sorted through what they were talking about, figured out that the cavern was concealing one of those monstrous, hairy creatures that the goblins keep, got the military to deal with it and finally started collecting material for silk, Eral was quite lost to us. He's been running around the fort naked for days now. Moldoth willing, we'll have silk enough for the next time this happens, but the cost is that we now have enemies below us as well as above.
One more mad dwarf, and in the meanwhile Kosoth has died. Stone that would have been used for tables and chairs is being devoted to coffins, and I fear that this is not the last time such a decision will need to be made. Our situation is slowly improving, but every brick on that road is mortared with dwarf blood.
I grow bitter with the management of this place, I'm afraid. I long for the days when my only responsibility was ensuring a steady supply of cheese in the grand halls of the mountain home. But now? My next duty is to greet the fresh group of migrants that just arrived and are waiting in the new dining hall.
I expect my speech will be a simple one: Welcome to Spearfalls. You're damned.
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Up next: yet another Mood, and hopefully a finished dining room. I'm probably just going to speed through the next year unless something particularly interesting happens. Been a long enough turn already.