Unfortunately, you didn't turn out to be so amazing in combat. You were one of the soldiers that was called on recently to deal with multiple skelk incursions, and got your head smashed in before I could even finish your Hut of Exile.
Journal of Eric, Head Stoneworker of Hellcannon
7th Moonstone, Early Winter
The remainder of the autumn and the last few days have been filled with obedient industry, and not a whole lot worth discussing. This morning we tried to take advantage of the elves’ leftover animals on the surface, and whaddaya know; someone was assaulted by skelks. One of them killed two of the animals, a cat (profit!) and a goose (whatever…) and beat the crap out of one of the giant eagles, a female, (damnit!) but that was about all they managed to do before the militia put them down.
I finally found our danger room and assigned the squads to it. This should significantly speed up their training, assuming we’ve produced enough armor for them.
That damn ghostly merchant that assaulted me ripped One the Beast Slayer’s leg off. She needs to be put down!
15th Moonstone
A skeletal gremlin attacked the slowly-dying human traders. Sucks to be them, don’t it?
There are too many cats. We must cull the cats!
Mayor Kikrost was pissed that nobody fulfilled his mandate, so sentenced one of the soldiers to 101 days in prison. Poor fool wouldn’t stand a chance, so the Axecutioner chopped him up instead. No friends, no remorse. Some other unnamed soldier made an artifact black-cap crossbow, worth 66000.
We figured out that two of the levers in the control room are attached to doors near the stairs that will flood the fortress. The one next to them was connected to a support that was rigged to collapse on top of the population’s favorite statue garden. I’m not sure how that was supposed to help us during an invasion, or anything for that matter. I disabled that trap immediately this spring, however, so no casualties. It’s worth just taking that lever down. The next one in line wasn’t connected to anything in the first place so we just removed it this spring, and the sixth in line controls a set of bronze retracting spears in the doorway into the dorms to the East of the control room. Never even seen that one before; rather unnerving. I do believe Gizogin has been setting himself up to murder us all. Overall, we've figured out the purposes of all but 3 of the levers. Across the room from those are the new ones we installed for the drawbridge and flooding trap.
21st Opal
We had to clear up another Skelk group up top. One soldier was killed before being activated (he was the reason we chose to eliminate them) and Strategia was badly injured as the first to arrive on the scene. All that training was for nothing, apparently. He quickly recovered, though.
Four more spike traps were found outside the statue gardens. Mayor Kikrost has charged Gizogin with the attempted murder of our entire population. Looks like he won’t be bothering us for a while. Rather than sentencing him to death, he has been forced to live out the rest of his days in an open hut on the surface, with no booze and only a single crop of plump helmet spawn, no building materials or pick, and only a bed as furniture. Truly a fate worse than death.
The waterwheels in the aquifer have completely failed to produce power. We’re going to redirect our power acquisition efforts, but to what I cannot say. I designated a new wood stockpile explicitly for nether-cap, and restricted the other two from using nether-cap. The carpenter’s shop there should be able to produce nether cap corkscrews to keep up with demand, which is less than 20.
6th Obsidian
The year is almost over, and I’ve yet to complete much of anything. The fortress is in good shape, but that won’t last if the militia is composed of a bunch of nitwits with no gear, and we don’t even have a basic trap setup to keep goblins at bay.
Urist Imiknorris and Gizogin picked a fight with some skelk. Not expecting much from them, but they’re certainly defending themselves well.
7th Obsidian
Gizogin was struck down. Urist is holding his ground, mostly by being charged and knocked on his ass. He’s surviving, though. Etur? Not so much. She just entered the fight, pulling just one skelk away from Urist, and isn’t looking too good. Amost arrived and saved Urist from an eternity of bruised buttocks, and the broker Mosus just barely prevented Etur from being struck down, taking some bruises herself. Etur suffocated shortly thereafter. We’re going to recover the gear she and Gizogin were wearing and call it a winter. On the 28th of Obsidian I will seal the doors.
12th Obsidian
There was a pedestal inside that pillar, but nothing on it to even suggest what could have been on it.
19th Obsidian
The militia was on Skelk duty for some stupid civie, and finally put down the last of that herd. Within an hour, more elk appeared on the horizon. Living, breathing elk. The Evil of this region has been slowly slipping away, I can feel it. None of the other dwarves agree with me, but I definitely feel better. Like some immense, malodorous cloud has finally parted, and life is beginning to conquer the wastes. Now if only the ghosts of the dead would stop bothe- Oh wait I’m undead. Hah! Almost told myself to lay down and die.
That stupid woman that’s always getting into trouble brought her children into the danger room with her and both suffered some injuries.
24th Obsidian
The old wounds are beginning to bother me. They’ve been infected for some time, but I’ve been able to keep it under control until recently. The doctors won’t have a look at them, though.
With nothing better to do with the last few days of the year, I’ve instructed the stoneworkers to start smoothing the walls of the fortress. The woodsdorfs are bringing in more nether cap, and the forges are producing more nickel pipes, but we still can’t afford to build the pumps yet. I’m gonna take a break and write up my final report for the next overseer. And avoid burning anything, unlike the last few.
Overseer’s Notes
Eric, Head Stoneworker of Hellcannon
First of all, congratulations on winning the elections, and have no fear; you aren’t inheriting any particularly difficult duties. The overseer’s job is simply to assist the mayor and other nobles in running the day-to-day aspects of the fortress and carry out their orders. Considering the majority of nobles don’t really DO anything, your schedule should be almost entirely of your own design. However, I have to leave you with some notices of jobs to be completed from my own agenda, all of which we can afford to have postponed for some time.
First on the list, and the only one that will be necessary to complete with haste, is completing the trap hallway. You may wish to postpone opening it to the surface, though…Next on the list is the magma pump stack. It’s fairly confusing, but all of the components above the second caverns have their place. Once you build all of these pumps and the ones in the caverns, you’ll have a functioning magma pump stack. Nether cap corkscrews and nickel pipes are being manufactured currently, and by mid-spring there should enough of a supply to complete the project. I’ve left notes at the locations of components. If you’re not completely incompetent, that should be enough, but feel free to ask me, Arcangelsd (our Head Engineer), or any of the other stoneworkers or mechanics involved, as they have their orders.For items of least concern, we have:
1) Ensuring all the soldiers are geared up with at least bronze equipment, including silver blunt weapons and adamantine blades. Quality wasn’t important in manufacture…
2) Ensuring the soldiers are training in the danger rooms
3) Definitely need a full-time hospital.
4) Obtaining more minerals. Specifically need cassiterite and tetrahedrite for bronze, and galena for silver. Garnierite can be used for nickel pipes and eventually furniture and the lead from galena can be used for basic metal crafts. Adamantine would be nice, but is in extremely short supply.
5) Require a prison.
Now, I’ve been in poor health and would prefer to retire to basic materials production. The more prominent stoneworkers have gotten elaborate rooms, complete with workshops, on level 116. I anticipate that you will make good use of the labor forces available to you, and appreciate that they are vastly more competent that they were at the beginning of my term. Good luck, and may the stones flee in terror from your pick!SAVE!