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Big update will be posted tonight, with Bees, Butchery, and the Blood of Armok.

Also, as an interesting sidenote: that adamantine vein we found was at level 82. Magma level is at -20. That means that there's ONE HUNDRED LEVELS of shiny adamantine in that spire alone.

We's gonna be rich, if we don't die horrible, fiery deaths.

Gogira's Day Off

Gogira looked around at the bustling Dining room, full of her fellow dwarves running to and fro. Apparently, no-one had time to attend the get together she had organized. Damn them.




She was getting sick of this place. The work piled up endlessly, she was somehow expected to keep the entire fortress secure while still running odd jobs, and NOBODY in the entire freaking hole in the ground had any desire to take a break and have a little fun. Remington had spent the entire season locked in that wretched office of this, scribbling endlessly, Nigel worked just as long hours on the stonecrafting benches, and Pergamos kept asking everyone if they had any pets that they didn't want anymore. While carrying a large butcher's knife.

Gogira starting pacing up and down the tables, frustration building. The piercing chirps of the bizarre man-sized grasshoppers that were now roaming the surface dug further at her concentration, until finally it snapped. If no-one else was going to party with her, she would do it herself. And Gogira was a dwarf that knew how to blow off some steam.











Tossing her axe in the stockpile as he walked back through the fortress, Gogira grabbed a keg of rum and sat down on the edge of one of the tables. It was good to be a dwarf.

1st Granite, 131 (Early Spring)

Cainad rushed up to my office and barged in within knocking. Eyebrow arched, I looked him over as he struggled to catch his breath.

"What is it? First you nearly take my door off its hinges, and then you don't even have anything to report?"

Cainad glared at me spitefully. "Don't give me any 'o your shit," he managed to get out as he tried to catch his wind. "Let's see your royal paper-pushing self sprint up one hundred twenty flight of stair, and see how well ye do with it."

I opened my mouth to respond, but never got the chance as Cainad reached into his belt pouch and tossed a small fragment of rock onto my desk. The light flickered oddly off its surface as it rolled, and I reached out to pick it up.

And promptly recoiled back, fingers bleeding from cuts almost down to the bone. "Aye," said Cainad, "It'll do that."

I grabbed a small pair of jewelers tongs from under my desk and examined the rock under the torchlight. It was intensely, unnaturally blue, and upon closer inspection I could see multitudes of razor-thin strands embedded throughout the rock. It weighed very little, but knocking it upon the edge of the desk cracked the edge of the desk instead of harming the rock.

"No," I said as I looked back at Cainad, "It can't be".

"It is."

30th Obsidian, 131 (Late Winter)

Cainad reports breaking through into an immense subterranean cavern early today. Reports of mossy walls, immense, twenty-foot high mushrooms, and bizarre wildlife are starting to come in.



One of our hunters managed to slip into the cavern and shoot up a strange horse-like creature that was grazing on one of the gigantic mushrooms. He ran out of crossbow bolts, though, and the creature's companions chased him off. I've order the caverns sealed off from the main mineshaft until we have a better idea of what is living down there.

I totally dig your layout. I'm much more short-sighted with my forts, usually stuffing all the necessities into a cramped set of rooms and then expanding into the lower levels.

Thanks! Level 6 is zoned as dwarf condos (smoothed 1x4 room for each dwarf, includes door, chest, bed, and cabinet) and Level 7 is noblespace. Level 8 will be tombs/catacombs. Here's the residential blueprint I usually use:





I find that keeping everything orientated around a single central staircase greatly reduces walk distance from any one point to another, as ascending or descending a stair only counts as one tile of movement. It also allows zoning of each Z-level to specific purposes (dining, crafts, military, residential) which helps keep track of everything once you hit 150+ dwarves.

As a bonus, placing hatch covers on the central staircase on each level allows you to lock down access to the fortress on a level-by-level basis, even to building-destroyers (they cannot destroy the hatch cover above or below them, therefore they cannot path to that level).


Just wait until I finish designing the entrance: the design I work with allows a "siege mode" that turns the 20-tile trapfree walk from surface to fortress into a 200+ tile trap filled death corridor with the flip of a switch.

25th Obsidian, 131 (Late Winter)

Another kobold thief slipped in today. I'm a bit concerned at the ineffectiveness of the traps at stopping these intruders: this thief managed to make it halfway down the central staircase before someone found him.






Gogira clearly viewed this as being Round Two versus the kobold menace, and rushed forth to redeem himself in the eyes of his fellow dwarves.






He didn't shut up about it until Cainad eventually knocked him out cold so that we could eat dinner in peace.

TGRR: MAKES COMBAT BABIES.

Well, there is the concept of "dwarven childcare" that some players use.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91093.0

It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care.

I just found out that I am in fact a female dwarf.

This fills me with the sexy.

Remington, is there a sexy little vixen dance I can do or something?

Afraid not... You can get married and pop out dwarfbabies, though! If you're conscripted into the military you'll even take the baby into combat.

Year-End Report

We may not have much on paper to show for our first year, but our basic services and industries are up and functioning.



Level 1: Entrance
Installing a bunch of stonefall traps here... not ideal, but it will have to do until we can get some metal trap components made.





Level 2: Future Military Barracks + Hospital
I've set up the farming on this level, primarily with plump helmet mushrooms. We are producing enough of them to both feed and booze everyone so we shouldn't run into any food concerns.





Level 3: Future Noble Office Space + temp stockpile
We haven't got any nobles yet, but what the worthless parasites do come along the'ye going to be wanting offices of their own. Best to plan ahead.




Level 4: Workshops
This is where the primary industry of the fortress is. Currently we have:
x3 Mason's workshops
x2 Craftdwarf workshops
x2 Jeweler's workshops
x1 Still
x1 Mechanic's shop
x1 Tanner's shop
x1 Carpenter's shop




Nigel seems to be monopolizing the craftdwarf's workshops completely. Pergamos is becoming very popular in the fortress as he is the only one with any kind of brewing experience. Lastly, the Good Reverend and Eater of Clowns are making good use of their masonry skills and making us some furniture. Cainad lists mechanical skills on his resume, but seems to be avoiding the backlog of mechanism work in favor of sulking down in the lower tunnels muttering about edifices. I'm a bit concerned about him.

Also, my humble yet well-appointed office is on this level. I've ordered the walls of the office smoothed and (if possible) engraved. Nothing but the best for the hard-working overseer, am I right?



Level 5: Dining Hall
The extremely spacious dining hall is quickly becoming to go-to spot in the fortress for dwarves on break or slacking off. The northern segment of the dining room has had some floor grates installed that drop down to the next level: I hope to get a lovely artificial waterfall flowing through here next year.

The butcher shops and fish cleaning stations are on this level, separated from the main dining room by an airlocked passage.






Miscellaneous Notes:

• Sweet Armok, there is Hematite EVERYWHERE. We're literally tripping over the goddamn stuff as we walk around. I've ordered the miners to delve deeper into the earth: once we hit magma we'll be able to start up some magma forges and get all this rock converted into sweet sweet iron.
• Many of the immigrants report having military experience: we have 3 potential axedwarves and 6-7 competent marksdwarves. Once we have weapons I will be starting up a militia to protect the fort.
• Getting proper bedrooms dug out will be high priority for the coming year. Everyone is complaining about sleeping on the ground.
• Last week, I noticed that Eater of Clowns was buzzing in his sleep. Not just humming, but buzzing! There is something very wrong with that dwarf.

12th Moonstone, 131 (Early Winter)

After the excitement with the kobold thief, we were able to conduct trading normally. Our goods are not terribly valuable (our stonecrafters are fairly new at the trade) but it is enough to purchase some supplies.






We managed to get a good stock of booze, food, and seeds. Hopefully this should see us through the next year.

21st Timber, 131 (Late Autumn)

The dwarven caravan from the Mountainhome arrived today. In the excitement, a kobold thief tried to sneak into the fortress, but was quickly discovered. As the commander of the militia, Gogira was sent to deal with him.








The skinny little bastard managed to run away, but as Gogira was in pursuit he ran into the SECOND thief head-on.





Screaming his war cry, the axedwarf charges at his foe...






...and promptly gets his ass handed to him.





As Gogira heroically passes out from a small scratch on the hand, the kobold makes a break for it. Unfortunately for him, the caravan had arrived by then. The guarddwarves take him aside and gently explain to him that stealing is wrong.











I have ordered any dwarves not busy with other tasks to begin carrying trade goods to the depot. Gogira has been issued a lollypop and a band-aid.

Too much work to do... need moar dwarfs!

27th Malachite, 131 (Mid-Summer)

Nigel continues to show economic foresight. I saw her just yesterday venturing aboveground to construct a depot for the trade caravans to stop at. Good forward thinking, I suppose.





On a much more important note (for me, anyway) I now have a proper office! I've taken the opportunity to begin inventorying our stockpiles.

10th Malachite, 131 (Mid-Summer)



A dwarven couple and their child turned up on the doorstep yesterday. Armok only knows why they wanted to come here.



Now that some space has been cleared out, we bend our efforts to addressing the rather embarrassing lack of furniture around here.







Nigel works on creating some obsidian trinkets, so that we will have something to trade when the dwarven caravans arrive in the autumn.

Roll call for current dwarves:
http://imgur.com/a/K5Cuy