Year 3, Tustong Slet Usek our Uninvited Guest

Let me first preface this entry by saying that it feels like we failed to accomplish very much this year. However, there were a lot of things that happened to make this the most interesting chapter in the history of our little fortress thus far.

Our first crime took place early this year. Poor Dumat was found guilty of violating a production order and he was visited by Eshtan Fathsemor, our captain of the guard, who gave him a proper beating to punish him for his crime of failing to produce 3 breastplates in the allotted time.

Thankfully, we had our hospital prepared and waiting. He was quickly tended to and was back on his feet in no time.

Truth be told, we all think Mayor Ineth may be going a bit mad. 3 breastplates had been produced after the issuing of the mandate and we all saw the ledger where he had clearly marked the mandate as being fulfilled. Somehow, this crazy person managed to get reelected for another term.

Last year when Eshtan Fathsemor created "Amazedskewered" (the Mango Wood cup Artifact), she engraved upon it the image of a Rodent woman and a troglodyte. At the time I pondered if some clairvoyant force had granted her a vision of the caverns that doubtless laid below our fortress home.

It wasn't very long into this year that we found those very caverns.

And Eshtan's prophecy held true for the presence of Rodent men lurking in these subterranean caves. No sign of any troglodytes yet, but I'm sure they're out there.

Our mayor quickly ordered the breach to be sealed. He deemed our military too small and too poorly equipped to begin clearing out these wild and dangerous halls.

However, with dozens of dwarves idling about lazily at any one time, it was clear we needed to expand. So we took stock of our resources and what ores were currently available to us. From what little we could see of the caves, we found something promising...

Veins of Cassiterite laced the walls of one section of the caves. Up until this point we'd only had access to tetrahedrite which we've smelted into copper for our military's weapons and armor. With this cassiterite we could make a bronze alloy which would be far, far better than the copper we're currently using.

It's still not comparable to steel, but beggars can't be choosers.

So it was decided that we would spend the season growing our military and preparing a secure beach head where we could properly enter and breach the caverns with a minimal loss of dwarf-power.

In the middle of our planning session we were interrupted by a deep bellow from outside our fortress. Dwarves that were out gathering plants and fishing in the river came running inside screaming that we were under attack.

 The Cyclops Tustong Slet Usek had appeared.

There was no time for anything else, we needed to enact our military strategy as quickly as possible. Our two squads had been training for nearly a year, they were under equipped (some of them only using their bare hands), but they were all we had.

Tustong was charging towards our front gate. Thankfully some dwarf threw the correct lever in time to prevent him from reaching us.

Once all of the civilians were safely withdrawn into the fortress, the second lever was thrown, sealing the entrance. If the military failed here today then at least the rest of our people would be safe.

Unfortunately Urvad Vaultboarded was still crossing the bridge when it was raised. The poor dwarf was thrown into the air and landed in the middle of the courtyard looking stunned. Thankfully his injuries weren't more severe, opening the fortress again while Tustong roamed free simply wasn't an option.

Our trap lined hallway wasn't as trap lined as we had wanted. Two measly cage traps stood waiting for the massive cyclops. If the gods were smiling on us then perhaps those two traps would be enough.

The third lever was thrown, dropping the drawbridge at the end of the hallway and leaving a clear path for Tustong to reach us. The cyclops sensed this vulnerability and instantly stopped terrorizing the local wildlife to come and slaughter tasty dwarves.

But the gods decided to have a little fun with us...

Tustong charged towards us, right over the top of one of the random cage traps that we'd laid out to snare wild animals for taming. With a clang and a roar of anger and frustration the Cyclops was rendered harmless.

Our military squads stood looking dumbfounded for several long moments before pounding on the drawbridge to sound the all clear.

All of the defenses were lowered and the civilians cautiously returned to work. One poor dwarf was given the arduous task of hauling the massive caged cyclops back into the fortress.

We still have yet to determine exactly what we're going to do with him. Some think we should put him on display in the dining hall, others think that constructing a gladiatorial arena would be a good idea and provide much entertainment. We have yet to reach a consensus on this matter.

With the cyclops taken care of, we noticed that we had a distinct lack of safe pasture for our growing herd of animals. Cheese has become a staple within our fortress thanks to our small herd of yaks, and our textile industry is heavily reliant on our sheep and alpacas.

The breaching of the caverns released a number of spores into the air that had begun to transform muddied regions into mossy vegetation that our animals seemed to enjoy grazing on.

So we decided to re-task the irrigation system we had built for our farms to prepare an area that we hope will become a large pasture that will last us for a very long time.

Meanwhile, 20 more dwarves were drafted, which doubled our current military strength. The mayor issued dozens of work orders for copper based weapons and armor as well as wooden spikes, corkscrews, spiked balls, and training weapons to fill traps with which to guard the entrance to our fort.

Our manager, Igniznoton Ceiling birth (who was one of our original 7 settlers), spent the entire evening locked in his office approving work orders and ensuring that they reached their proper workshops. So many dwarves commented on the scribbling sound of his quill as they walked past his door that he was given the nickname "Scribbles."

Work began on digging out the tunnels. We chose a location close where the cassiterite veins appeared to be the most densely clumped. We hope this will allow us to secure a small section to begin with and then expand once we've upgraded our weapons and armor to better materials.

Since then we've dug out a secondary barracks where the new squads train day and night while keeping watch for any incursions. The hall is lined with a number of weapons traps that are currently only stocked with wooden weapons. While they may not kill any invaders outright, we hope that they will at least soften them up for the militia to take over. A drawbridge as been placed directly in front of the location where we'll breach into the caves. All that's left is to connect it to the lever in the barracks and we'll be just about ready to begin our expedition.

But this wasn't everything that took place this year!

First, we had two moody dwarves this year.

First was Zulban Thobudar, who is a wax worker that's been pulling double shifts on our furnaces.

 He claimed a Craftsdwarf's workshop and quickly set to work gathering the things he needed.

 
 To be honest, I don't expect very much from any one of these moody dwarves anymore. It's kind of a crapshoot if they produce anything worthwhile.

 Zulban's artifact ring, with it's terrifying name, proudly displays the image of our only useful Artifact thus far. The Silver Spear Isrirniral, also known as the Ultimate Portents. While this ring may in fact be capable of flaying someone, instead it's going to go find a home in a box somewhere and never see the light of day.

Despite my misgivings about moody dwarves, I was actually a bit excited when Reg Nomalirtir became possessed by an idea and seized a metalsmith's workshop. We all waited patiently to see what he would create for us.

Oh...joy...

A single gauntlet. The left one. How wonderful. Another item to join the others in the dust bin.

At least it has an interesting name. If you're having difficulty reading it, it's called "Kindlingtrap the Messianic Chill." That sounds kind of ominous. Too bad it's all but worthless.

I have but one more piece of news to write before I begin to detail the changes that were made to the fortress this year.

 A liaison from the Mountainhomes at last! We were overjoyed that our king was finally able to send someone to us. Perhaps there is hope for the people of the Tools of Glorifying after all.

However, the traders that he arrived with were less than pleased with our goods. Even when we offered them a sizable profit margin they refused to yield anything we had asked for. They very rudely, and abruptly, left immediately afterwards.

It should be noted that this trade failure is not the fault of our Broker. His trade skills have served us very well over the last few years. We simply weren't prepared for such stinginess from our own people!

Ah well, we didn't truly need their goods, but it would've been nice to be able to bring in more supplies.

As I promised in my previous update, we focused very heavily on expanding our industry and increasing our efficiency.

The first step to this was dealing with the massive sprawling stockpiles that were cropping up all across the fortress. It was time to dedicate a small area to the storing of goods, and it was time to reacquaint ourselves with the feat of dwarven engineering known as the Quantum Stockpile.

For whatever reason our seed storage stockpile still refuses to work, but the rest of them are functioning as intended. Dwarves scurry in and out of this room on a near constant basis. We may need to consider widening the stairways in order to allow for more efficient travel.

Directly beneath the Stockpile room is where we place our new workshop.

We will eventually expand even further and have already dug out the floor below to allow for more workshops to be placed.

Everything has been moved from the old workshop. Aside from a few remaining boulders, it now stands empty and waits for us to come up with some future use for it.

Then, of course, there's the future pasture that we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately our mayor tends to be incredibly neglectful and left the water running a little too long. While there was no serious flooding, it is taking a bit longer than expected for the water to evaporate. We ended up removing one of the rear doors to give some of the excess water a path to drain away.

Hopefully the water will be gone before long so that the new pastures can begin to grow quickly.

Our clothes were beginning to run ragged. In an effort to avoid naked dwarves running through the halls, we set up the first stages of our textile industry. However we now find ourselves needing to expand our storage industry so that our people have somewhere to actually store their discarded belongings.

Other than the cavern entrance that's nearly completed, we haven't made much progress in other areas. First, let's go over the report of our stores and wealth.

We've nearly doubled our food stores since last year and more than doubled our created wealth.

However, we're still struggling with the production of drinks. We managed to get by for a little while by making mead from honey, but we've been unable to keep up with demand.

Our farms are also struggling, with the traders from the Mountainhome refusing our goods, we were unable to replenish our plump helmets, making it nearly impossible for us to sustain our farms. This ultimately results in us having nothing with which we can brew alcohol.

I believe we may be able to fix this by simply regulating what are chefs are actually allowed to cook with and saving most grow-able products for brewing, at least until our stockpile of seeds has increased.

For the next year we'll be focusing on trying to increase the number of beehives we have and thus increase the amount of honey available for brewing mead.

We'll also be breaching the caverns which should, hopefully, allow us access to the underground plants we need to get our farms moving forward again.

Because our population has expanded so dramatically (nearly 40 more dwarves arrived this year!), I won't be listing everyone's names out like I did previously.

While our victory over Tustong was somewhat lackluster, such luck has me thinking that perhaps the gods are on our side after all. For this reason, I believe that we are destined to create a grand fortress that will one day serve as a new seat of glory for our people.

FloodedHalls, Year 2

Somehow it's already been a year since my previous update. I'd like to say we've accomplished much over the last several seasons, but in all honesty we're beginning to struggle. Our small fortress has grown so quickly that we're running into severe issues with production and finding our supply chains grinding to a halt.

Before I delve into that, however, I feel we should take the time to document all of the changes that have taken place over the last year.

We had 3 dwarves become incredibly moody this year and they produced the first Artifacts to come out of our fortress.

Not long after my previous entry, Eshtan Fathsemor withdrew from society and claimed a Craftsdwarf's workshop for herself. We were all extremely excited to see what she would create.

Oh...

 It's pretty I guess...but I'm not sure when this event actually took place. I think Eshtan may have some clairvoyance related to the unexplored caverns deep below our fortress. We'll have to reach those some day soon and see if she is correct about the presence of Rodent Men and Troglodytes.

Our second moody dwarf took place not long after the expansion of the kitchen. This time it was the child, Thikut Calmtreaty who arrived last year with his parents and his brother. I remember that migration very clearly. It was just the family of four and their pet peacock.

He also claimed the Craftsdwarf's workshop. Note to self: Suggest adding more Craftsdwarf's Workshops to the Mayor, so we can avoid having the craftsdwarf interrupted every time one of these moody dwarfs gets busy.

Thikut sat in the shop looking moody for quite a while and scribbling away at drawings. It took us a while to interpret his drawings as the materials he needed to complete his task. Unfortunately, we didn't have access to the bone and cloth he wanted. 

We'd already carved out an area for expanding our workshops and we had sheep and alpacas, so we quickly set to work shearing the animals and built a loom to create the cloth. 

The other task was a little more grisly. We conducted an assessment of our available livestock and decided that the majority of them were necessary to our day to day operations. Ultimately, it was one of the stray cats that was sent to the butcher so that little Thikut could get the bone he needed.

No sooner had the cat been slaughtered, than Thikut set to work gathering his materials and toiling away.  

 Honestly, we weren't expecting very much out of him and we were surprised. Another useless artifact to go gather dust in some chest somewhere.

And now he'll be a legendary bone carver when he grows up. I suppose that might be useful, if we suddenly have a lot of bones and nothing to do with them. Which is a distinct possibility.

Our third mood was more like a possession. This dwarf, Thikut Labordikes, took over a metalsmith's forge. Finally we might get something useful from these moody Dwarves.

 Finally a useful item! This spear will be much appreciated by our fledgling militia which has been struggling to find enough materials to create the armor and weapons they need. 

Speaking of the Militia, we began recruiting dwarves into two squads and created a rudimentary training room for them near the entrance. 

Yes, that's a baby, her mother is standing behind her. She's the first born child of our Captain of the Guard who is none other than Eshtan Fathsemor, the very dwarf who created our first artifact. 

Eshtan was chosen for the position of Captain of the Guard based on her distinctly underwhelming strength. The mayor thought it was best that criminals survive any beatings they receive at her hands. She hasn't needed to use those skills yet however and has spent most of her time training with her squad of crossbow dwarves in the armory. 

In fact she gave birth to her baby in the middle of a training session. Now that's dedication!

We had one other baby born this year. Little Dastot Gladeinks was born to one of our Leatherworkers, Moldath Magicfountains. 

Another child arrived with one of the migrant waves this year which brings the total number of children in the fortress up to 5. While it is good to know that our people will continue to repopulate after the devastation of our nation by the elves of the Youthful Jaws, having children within the fortress at this point in time simply causes more strain on our already struggling supplies.

We desperately need to expand our industry and production of critical items, namely food and drink. Too many of our dwarves still drink water on a regular basis! This is unacceptable!

We made some progress this year on beginning the expansion of our fortress.

Things have been peaceful here, but a healthy dwarf is a prepared dwarf. We focused on shoring up our defenses around the entrance to our home. Eventually there will be moat separating the main entrance from the rest of the outside world with a retracting bridge that we can withdraw during attacks.

The small hall way on the right will eventually be lined with a myriad of dwarven traps. We'll weaken our enemies as we funnel them towards our militia. There are a few different images here to help give you a clearer idea.

 You may have noticed that we moved the livestock away from the entrance and off to a roofed pasture off the side of the main hall. Now that we have some defenses in place there's no need for them to keep watch any longer, they've also become one of the few things keeping us from completely starving and it would be a massive blow if we lost one of them to a stray arrow.

We expanded the workshop level this year, but we're running into production and supply issues again. We've realized we're going to have to migrate all of our production to a new level with a better lay out and better organized supplies. Just storing all of our resources is becoming an issue.

We may have to take advantage of the massive feat of dwarven technology known as the "Quantum Stockpile." Otherwise I foresee us dedicating multiple levels just to storing resources.

The farms that we were just starting at the end of last year are now in use. They're struggling to keep up with the demand of the fortress, however. I think this may be due to the fact that too many of our people are tasked with too many different projects. We may need to revisit our policies on assigning labors to dwarves.

As I mentioned previous, we expanded the kitchen and also added on to the dining hall. The majority of the walls and floors within the dining hall have been smoothed and engraved which now allows our people to relax and socialize in a more attractive environment.

In the image below you can see the farms a bit more clearly. I think there will also need to be some investigation as to the exact nature of all of these seeds we've been accumulating. I believe the majority of them are for surface plants that won't grow in our underground farms.

As much as it loathes me to suggest it, we may have to consider expanding our farming operation to some "surface" farms.

We have access to an excessive amount of lignite, between this and the wood on the surface we should be able to power a massive industry. We just need to build it.

The area near the cistern was expanded and we began work on a hospital. It currently has a very low capacity as there hasn't been much call for healing. We'll look into adding more beds in the near future.

Each hospital bed is separated from the rest of the hospital by a door. A single space is left at the end of the hall. Should we be attacked by a were-creature and one of our people becomes infected the door can be locked and a wall can be erected in front of it to prevent further spread of the disease. We'll be incorporating secondary doors at the end of each wing and if all else fails we can wall off the entire hospital.

We've heard too many tales of past fortresses that have fallen to a spiral of were-creature infection and re-infection. That is not how our fortress will die.

We have nobles! Originally this level was designated as offices as it's situated right above the bedrooms and allowed the Book Keeper and Manager easy access to their work. However, with the election of Ineth Zatadumat as our Mayor and the addition of a Captain of the Guard, we were forced to build better quarters, as well as offices, for the both of them. 

Our illustrious mayor has been in charge for less than a year. In that time he forbid the trading of Breastplates (he defended this decision by telling me that we needed to expand our militia and trading away the few breastplates we had would be folly). No sooner had that mandate ended then he instructed us to make even more breastplates, which we were already doing.

Long story short, he's basically just been telling us to do what we were already doing, which I suppose isn't such a bad thing as far as noble requests are concerned.

The bedrooms for the rest of us have been expanded greatly. We now have ample room for everyone. Every dwarf has a room of their own. The walls and floors have been smoothed and engraved with detailed depictions of our history and culture.

If you remember last year's update, the stairs were flood due to the overfilling of the cistern. We've since drained the water from that location and are now able to access these stairs to proceed even further into the earth.

Last year we hadn't yet built an office for our Book Keeper to conduct his work so I was unable to include an accurate final tally of our fortress's wealth and stocks. This year I am pleased to present you with this.

We are slowly but steadily accumulating wealth. Our number of citizens has continued to climb and we've officially reached village status. Our military consists of only a handful of dwarves at the moment, but we'll be looking to expand once we have access to a steady supply of metals.

Our greatest concern at the moment is our store of drinks. The current number is unacceptable for any fortress belonging to dwarves. We can't allow this to continue. Beyond that, our secondary concern is food production. At the moment we're getting by on eggs, cheese, mussels and turtles, and what we can buy from traders. We need a more reliable source of food and we need it sooner rather than later.

Our population has reached a grand total of 67 dwarves, with roughly 20 migrants arriving this year.

We have much to do this next year. Expanding our industry and especially building up our food stores is going to be our primary focus. We'll also be searching for iron and other metals, up until now we've only had access to copper and silver, We'll need more than that if we want to survive whatever the future has in store for us.