Year 1, FALL
This morning Lorbam, the fortress mason and architect, came and informed me that he had just designed the greatest bridge he had ever imagined. I told him that was fantastic, and then I asked where the bridge was so I could see it. He immediately shoved a pile of pages with indiscernible lines and strange symbols towards me, and I realised these were just plans for a bridge. Before I had time to react to what was going on, he told me proudly he'd go build that bridge up right now, and left. The end result was not as good as he had imagined.
As we were mining our new Magma forge room, again our miners reported they had struck a strange blue rock. This rock had become almost a nuisance, as this is the second time our mining efforts were thwarted due to it. I told my miners again to change location. I have a feeling this is going to happen again unless we stay clear of the magma pipe.
We seem to be suffering a pet problem, as all 28 wardogs seem to be spontaneously giving birth inside that cage. With this many dogs, I'm still wondering if 28 dogs was such a good idea. I told my scout to keep cramming any pups that manage to flee the cage back into it. And with that, I go back to my daily farming tasks.
Then this happens, graphite. By Armok that rock can ignite! And we're planning to run magma over it! I am beginning to tire of all this nonsense, I told my miners to continue digging that damned magma channel and we'll take care to haul whatever dangerous rock they dig out. Then we'll simply wall off the rest of the vein with something less combustible.
An outpost liaison, an extremely well dressed and well mannered dwarf had arrived today just up north from our outpost. A caravan had also arrived, although they were on the other side of the brook with that damned Giant Eagle. I pray for their lives.
Luckily the Giant Eagle seemed to almost shy away from the caravan guarded by Axedwarfs and Hammerdwarfs. Our proudest true dwarven warriors were less then no match for that thing, an elephant size bird capable of creating many a horror story and for good reason. When my Queen Lolor spoke to me before I departed on my journey, she told me to be wary of two creatures that meant dwarven death: Giant Eagles and then in hushed tones, Carp. While I pondered why in the world fish of all things would present any sort of danger, one of the miners Vuccar interrupted me, saying the bulk of the caravan had made it safely to the Depot tunnel.
I just realised a small problem, we had nothing to trade. In my rush to get the fortress ready I forgot we needed something, if anything, to trade to these merchants, else we would already have a scarred reputation. The giant eagle is being strangely cooperative and letting the idiot portion of the caravan come inside our fortress to get to the safe, underground depot. Why they would want to climb all the way up the mountainside in order to get to the depot on brook level, I do not know.
And then, this thief pops up beside my rather strong carpenter Asmel, and trekking not too far behind was my mighty scout whom had several months of martial training under his belt.
The thief went down quickly but not without a fight. Before he succumbed, he had badly gashed the Asmel's lower arm. It could have been a whole lot worse, as although kobolds are small in stature, they sport a small blade that can often times fatally wound even Dwarves if they get a chance to use it.
Asmel made a surprisingly fast recovery and got back to work. I swear that dwarf is as stout as the very wood he works. I often feel proud simply being privileged to work alongside him.
In the meantime, one of the Caravan's hammerdwarfs is going on a rampage and murdering all the helpless camels, literally sending them flying into rock faces. One day, perhaps we will have our very own militia capable of doing that.
Another thief is found, and this time our mighty Scout is ready for action. He mentally reviews his martial rules, and then gives chase, axe in hand. He catches up with the thief down the mountain and severs the thief's entire arm in one clean bloody slice.
The thief is no match for this mighty dwarf.
While the scout is away cleaning up after the other thief, a third thief pops up! Again our carpenter Asmel is ready to greet the visitor, with his fists.
The giant eagle, through all this fiasco, has been very strangely cooperative, silently looming on it's small cliff side perch. I fear it's planning something, watching us from a close enough distance. I told my dwarves not to provoke it, but they keep going down the mountainside to haul whatever it is they haul. I have a feeling I will need to resort to some drastic measure to keep my dwarves safely indoors.
While all this other nonsense was going on, I began cooking some of our huge stock of booze into some lavish meals, in the hopes to give the traders at least something worth trading for. They must be a hungry lot by now, and perhaps we will be able to procure ourselves an Anvil.
I'll need to work fast, otherwise they'll leave!
Phew, I made it. And boy were they hungry, they were practically drooling over these delicacies I made for them. I managed to swipe a nice anvil, all the meat they had and our secret weapon against that monster bird, a steel crossbow. Once the forges are set up I trust my predecessors will be able to equip a small squad with more crossbows to go strike down that horrible bird.
And then, out of nowhere the Liaison who was stalking me came up and asked me what I wanted to request from next year's caravan, I pondered my choices carefully...
IntermissionAlright guys! I'm going to take a small break and ask you what you'll want to have them bring next year? You'll be the ones playing next so I figure you guys should make the choice.
