Back to normal

21st Felsite: 

I lower the front gate, and the elven traders blithely stroll in and start unloading their goods.  They brought plenty of logs with them, adding to the irony of this whole affair.  They also have a tame tigerman bowyer in a cage, who I buy out of sheer curiosity. I buy another tame tiger as well, maybe we can get a breeding pair. I also clean them out of logs (for creatures who claim to care so much about the trees, they sure do sell them for cheap), food, booze and barrels.  Only a handful of our vast musical instrument collection is needed to pay for all of it.

With the doors open, our dwarves rush out to collect the remains of our comrades and some of the goods of the fallen traders.  Rather than risk prolonged exposure to the outdoors, I designate tunnels to be dug to bring the goods from the fallen traders inside, to be followed by resealing the entrances.



24th Felsite: 


While out gathering logs, hauler Kol Gusilmesir is ambushed by a Badger Man.  I send the military out to try and rescue her, but she manages to escape on her own before the troops arrive, with heavy bruising but no cuts.  She should recover.  In contrast, the badgermen clan will not, as I instruct our squad to eliminate them.  Our Marksdwarf gives his artifact crossbow its first real test on the ambushing badger:

Not a tremendously good shot, but the badger man was immobilized at the edge of the map long enough for an axedwarf to run up and relieve him of his head, so it got the job done.  The other badger clan members were similarly extirpated, keeping the outdoors safe while our dwarves secured as much of the loot out there as possible.

On a positive note, Adil Emenzasit, a low-skilled Gem Setter had been overtaken by a secretive mood, and had grabbed the jeweler's workshop, one yellow zircon, and got to work.  Shortly thereafter, an artifact figurine had been created, and we now have a legendary gem setter.

1 Hematite

For some reason, all the logs in the far southeast corner had been cut down but not hauled, while the easily-accessed logs around the stream were uncut.  And while the moatworks are not complete enough to keep all our foes out, they are complete enough to make it a very long, dangerous walk along the exposed northern edge of the map (where two dwarves were already cut down) to get to the northern edge.  The trenches to get the fallen trade goods and corpses are successfully dug and resealed.  I resolve to build retractable bridges across the moats, to allow easier access for ourselves and caravans, while keeping sieges at bay.

With the immediate danger past, and our danger room installed, I go to relieve our Legendary Stone Crafter from all military duty, and realize I had enlisted an entirely different stone crafter with the same nickname. His skills are not needed for carving rocks, so he can continue carving rocs (or cave swallows, or whatever those feathered bastards were) instead.

(Seriously.  Finding who you want in the list of names in the military interface already sucks so much, yet giving a bunch of guys the exact same nickname makes it even worse, a feat I would have thought impossible.)


While fixing this, I see our weaponsmith is almost to legendary skill.  I assign him to make a bunch of spiked balls for the trap hallway, and use copper for it since we have so much of it.

15th Hematite

Another of the messes I was left with is successfully cleaned up.

 
Shortly thereafter, another message:

This one must have just arisen, as I didn't even see the ghost.

And it was not done by raising memorial slabs, but properly, by putting what was left of their bodies in coffins made by dwarven hands, and safely interred underground.

27th Hematite

I release our stray tigerman from his cage.  Aside from being thirsty, he seems friendly enough.

4th Malachite

The few months of peace after the chaos I was faced with at the start of my term are almost unnerving.  I keep expecting the alarm bells to go off, yet nothing is heard except the steady clink of hammers and the low rumble of smelters.  Could we possibly achieve prosperity here?

I turn my attention to furnishing the apartments.  Some of the wood retrieved from the caverns is... unusual.  

 

(Nether-cap is wood that is magically freezing cold.  It can survive being submerged in magma. That they made a bed out of it is priceless.  A farmer was sleeping on it not too long after.)

20th Malachite

The mayor complains to me that her lodgings and office are not up to the standards expected of an official of her status.  I look and see that her office, dining room and bedroom are all in the same room. I give her two of the empty bedrooms for a dining room and office, but she is still not satisfied.  I release the table and chairs in her living quarters from being office and dining room, and she smiles.

(Overlapping rooms have lower value for each overlap.)

24th Malachite

More migrants arrived, possibly hearing that we survived an entire army of goblins.  Why they would want to move TOWARDS an area with hundreds of goblins is beyond me, but there are eight more foolhardy souls heading to the fortress. Only one of them has any skills we need (a talented surgeon) so it looks like the second military squad has arrived.  I order the weaponsmith to craft ten silver warhammers.

I send out the military to escort them along their unnecessarily long walk around the half-completed moatworks. I set up a stone block stockpile outside the door, and set it to take blocks from the massive warehouses inside.  I will build bridges as quickly as I can, but there have been so many other tasks to complete first.

1st Galena


Another child is born, this time to one of our farmers working the field.

Things are going well, but the traps are being very slow to install.  I turn the Mechanics labor on for Josh and Miranda.  While Miranda started complaining about her preference for mining, I pointed out we had plenty of lignite for the time being, and she really was the next best mechanic we have.  I also draft the entire wave of immigrants.

7th Galena

Our sole Marksdwarf continues his mastery of his artifact weapon, and becomes our first Champion.

12th Galena


A human caravan has arrived, from the southeast.  None of the bridges are ready, so at least they came from the least inconvenient side.  I send out an escort; I have not yet drafted the second squad, but I worry the goblins will be trailing the traders.