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Jacquerel · 09-04-2012, 04:25 AM

Jacquerel's log;

1st Granite 151

I was recently posted to The Bust of Nuts to relieve the former outpost leader in some kind of managerial capacity. Frankly I have no particular taste for life on the outskirts of civilisation but having found myself lamentably short of coin and in possession of some rather hefty gambling debts.

The contracting company hired me on for a year and I have yet to receive my return papers... though I am sure they will arrive presently. I have no intention of staying in this drafty keep longer than necessary.

We arrived a little early and so I was forced to occupy myself heaving an axe around and chopping trees, not my idea of a good time. Then, once I was finally handed the stockbooks I immediately noticed a glaring problem.
[Image: 01.png]

This must be rectified IMMEDIATELY

13th Granite, 151

Disaster averted, I scanned over the logs again and noticed we didn't really

have much to trade. Mountainhome said they'd fancy a few instruments and it can't really be that hard to carve a few stone flutes right? I bravely discarded my axe (and the privelege of working under the disgusting sunlight surrounded by murderous woodland creatures) and volunteered myself for the task.

Turns out we didn't have much stone lying around though and it seems a waste to use the wood when we need it for charcoal (plus elves won't take it, as much as I hate dealing with them) so I deputised a couple of men to go and find us some more.

26th Granite, 151

[Image: 02.png]

Tragedy strikes!
With our defences still unfinished and men regularly walking to and from the fortress to gather wood and fish, some bizarre creature that I'm told is part man, part lion tamarin ran into our grounds, bit off a fisherman's finger and then fled.

The military isn't prepared (or indeed, existant) enough to do anything about this at present and there is far too much to do for me to draft anyone, but this slight will not be forgotten.
It also further reinforces the need to hurry up and finish these walls and moat.

26th Slate, 151

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After only a month lying on the ground outside someone finally relents and drags wounded Ushrir to a hospital bed.
Frankly his whining is getting a little annoying. We know he was savaged by a wild animal but all it did was tear off his finger! He could have walked himself to a bed, but no!
Progress on our various architectural projects is slow but steady. I've got a man digging up walls just so that we can get at the copper ore inside, though what we'll use these rooms for later I don't know. Beds I suppose.

27th Slate, 151

Just in time too really, as more migrants have arrived. Recruits for a band to take out those monkey men? Perhaps!

[Image: 04.png]

Soap? Doesn't he know that washing destroys the body's natural oils?
Drafted.

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The fewer bees we have around the place the better, in my opinion.
Drafted.

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Now here's a dwarf worth having around!
We could always use more brewers but I think this man will be better suited making sure our new recruits don't brain themselves with their practice maces or something.
He can be in charge.

[Image: 07.png]

You know I'm not quite sure how many military dwarves we can support right now, dangerous as this place is. Perhaps I'm going to have to find something else for the beekeeper to do if we keep getting experienced men and women like these...

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More children, wonderful

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A noble pursuit but we don't have any gems, we could always use more stone detailers I suppose.

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And we certainly don't need TWO gem workers!

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And the gem setter's kid. No sign of her other parent, I shall make sure not to ask.

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At this point I start to worry if they're sending anyone at all who has useful non-military skills.

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Masons, Miners and Fishermen aren't useless but other than that... no, not really.
Our population has exploded in a single day, at least we have a lot of food spare.
Not sure how long that's going to last now.

Now that everyone's gathered to be counted we have 45 citizens, a full 20% of whom are too young to hold a pick.
It's... going to take me a little while to get all of this in order.

16th Felsite, 151
[Image: 14.png]

Elves have arrived. As much as I hate dealing with them I think we're going to need whatever supplies they've brought to cope with our newly increased population.

[Image: 15.png]

While loading the goods, one of the men suddenly dropped his barrel and boarded himself into a workshop, a pain because we still don't have enough beds. I really hope he finishes whatever he's up to in there pretty sharpish.

27th Felsite, 151
[Image: 16.png]

It's... a man-sized wooden box. What are we going to do with this? Why was this necessary?

"This is a highwood cage. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. On the item is an image of Aru Bendcalm the dwarf in highwood."
I don't think we even have an Aru Bendcalm here, hopefully he can at least put something he's learned here to good use...

[Image: 17.png]

At least trading with the elves has been more exciting than expected.

14th Hematite, 151

The elves have left again and I didn't quite get as much out of them as I had hoped, despite my efforts most of our tradable goods were still of the wood and animal variety that they do not particularly approve of. I shall perhaps consider conscripting a few more people to make flutes with me before the mountainhomes emmisary arrives.

5th Malachite, 151
[Image: 18.png]

After a titanic effort our fortifications seem to be nearly done, with only a few spots for archers left to fill in. The moat has been flooded and so once the last walls are built we can move the animals out to pasture there.
We don't actually even have any archers but it might be a good idea to put som e towers at the corners so people can keep an eye on what's going on.

Or ballistae.

I like ballistae.

[Image: 19.png]

The drive to give beds to 45 dwarves is coming along... slower. Most of the rooms are at least dug (perhaps not in the most efficient fashion, as it was meant to be a mining effort initially) and mostly need to be filled with furniture.
For now people tend to fall asleep in the dining room, which I am sure is perfectly comfortable.

[Image: 20.png]

Let none say I would put my own comfort before that of my kinsmen.

9th Malachite, 151
[Image: 21.png]

By Armok, more parasites come to leech off our success. We're running out of booze again.
At least there's only 13 of them this time. The burrows are becoming cramped, I can't wait to get out of here.
I asked if any of them had my return pass but there's no sign of it yet...

8th Limestone, 151
Some guard towers in the corners of the fortifications are coming along nicely, but more importantly...

[Image: 22.png]

Ballistae.

23rd Limsetone, 151
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Dear Diary, I uh... I...

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Look she told me it couldn't happen the first time!

[Image: 25.png]

At least there's no doubt as to who the father is.
Maybe... maybe I'm not going to be leaving at the end of this year?

This is a lot to take in at once.

Oh some other new dwarves arrived too but who cares about them my room needs some more beds.

1st Timber, 151
[Image: 26.png]

Oh, not again!
Hopefully it'll turn out something useful this time...

[Image: 27.png]

He keeps going on about... gems? And wood.
We've got plenty of the latter but he's just going to have to live without the former.
We've not found any and I'm not made of money!

12th Timber, 151
[Image: 28.png]

Oh, at last!
Maybe Ilral's in luck, I'll see if they've got any cheap shiny things.

[Image: 29.png]

Somehow in the excitement a Lion Tamarin Woman that I frankly didn't even know we had (when and why did anyone cage a Giant Tamarin Woman?) escaped and is causing chaos in the bedrooms.
Time to put our shiny new military to the test, I think!

20th Timber, 151

[Image: 30.png]

[img]

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/51926430/Dwarfort/31.png[/img]
Once our brave soldiers finally catch up to the depraved animal, the battle is brief and bloody.
The nefarious creature's head and arm are swiftly removed, putting an end to its rampage with no casualties or even injuries!

All this training has clearly paid off.

Now somebody please clean that up, it's meant to be someone's bedroom...

1st Moonstone, 151

Alas, the traders didn't have any gems and everything they did bring was exorbitantly expensive.
They vastly undervalued my masterful stone instruments if you ask me, what does it matter if you can't actually get a sound out of a stone banjo? It's an art piece!
Still, our food and alcohol supplies should be pretty firmly shored up from the exchange even if we couldn't afford any of the more luxurious armour.

10th Moonstone, 151

[Image: 32.png]

Nobody cleaned up that corpse, nice going guys! It's not stinking up my bedroom you know, that's where the rest of you are sleeping.

What, I should have done it? I'm a busy man you know, I've got a fortress to run and a son now!

[Image: 33.png]

See look! Trade agreements!
Clearly they were more impressed with my instruments than they let on because they promised to pay well above cost for more of them.

15th Moonstone, 151
[Image: 34.png]

I may have made the possibility of buying gems from the traders sound more like a certainty than a chance when explaining it to Ilral.
When I owned up to their not actually turning out to have any he uh... didn't really take it well.

[Image: 35.png]

As I ducked out of the way and beat a tactical retreat he charged, but in his rage he just continued on and punched the first dwarf he saw.
This turned out to be a bit of a mistake.

[Image: 36.png]

He took a single bolt to the head and was killed instantly.
Considering the girl's only had a couple of month's training that's possibly scarier than how the poor man snapped... though maybe getting myself a bodyguard wouldn't be a terrible idea?

1st Granite, 152

I got some mail a couple of weeks ago, something about return papers and my replacement arriving soon?
Not quite sure how they think I'm going to leave, I've got a family to think of now and I don't think anyone else could possibly cope at running this dump unsupervised, I'd better make sure they don't get themselves lost or killed or something.

I'll just hang around for another couple of years to make sure things are ticking over nicely and the kid can walk, then we'll see what happens.

Yeah...

Enclosed here is a map of the fortress as it stands, along with a second annotated one. Some of the organisation is a little... haphazard. I'm sure you'll work it out eventually.

Map
Annotations

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