Fightanus Year 1 - Spring/Summer
We arrived in this godforsaken place expecting the worse. A quick glance around assuaged many of our immediate fears. No skeletal giant eagles. No zombie carp. It was quiet. TOO quiet. Or maybe just quiet enough. Time will tell. In fact, the only thing moving seemed to be some Hoary Marmots.
I immediately ordered our woodsman to cut down what sparse trees there were, down the hill to the West. If the rumors were true and these foothills WERE haunted... who knows if we might get another chance to collect more wood.
I simultaneously ordered our miners to strike the earth where they stood... we had all already experienced enough sun for a lifetime, and we were all eager to get back inside some nice cozy tunnels. The mason promptly got to work building a defensive wall.
Top priority? Food. Well... booze. But that's a type of food. Sort of. We mined towards the river, and dug out a farm plot location, as well as room for a kitchen and still.
The construction went smoothly. Floodgates were in place, hooked up to levers thanks to our crack mechanic. The lever on the left opens the river floodate, flooding the room. Lever on the right opens the drainage floodgate. The room drains directly to the outside, which in essence leaves a "back door" into our fortress wide open. I unfortunately lack the engineering prowess to design a more secure drainage system. I don't think the others in my expedition have caught on to this, thank Armok.
Problem. The farm plot drainage tunnel is so long and so horizontal that it isn't very effective. We have been waiting with increasing impatience for the room to fully drain for over a month now. Without a farm, the planters can't plant. Without plants, the brewer can't brew. We have depleted our reserves:
This is especially embarrassing because I (as a fine, upstanding dwarf) understand that dwarven life REVOLVES around alcohol. It is typically the cornerstone of any fortress I foreman. The other dwarves' grumbling is becoming less and less veiled. They are making a point of taking more and more frequent "breaks."
My solution? Simply dig out more of the cavern, to spread the remaining water. Effective, but ultimately a little embarrassing. At least it worked. Finally, we have booze:
Things remain quiet. No animals, hostile or friendly, anywhere that we can s...
Oh, that bold son of a bitch. Who does he think he's stealing from?
His partner nearly got away. Cue benny hill music as we chase him in single file, across the hills:
It was a very, very near thing, but this is one Kobold that won't get to report back our whereabouts.
I spent the remaining weeks of summer digging out proper bedrooms and a proper grand dining hall. The kobolds also taught me a valuable lesson. I've chained our two war dogs by the entrance, and am furiously working on implementing a generous helping of stone-fall traps.
Although, to be frank, without a well-defined entryway, our entire operation feels very exposed. I didn't really think this thing through. With any luck, I'll be able to get out of this godforsaken place by next spring. Then it will be someone else's mess to fix...
On top of that, my forts would be boring to most people, as I typically don't lose any dwarfs---except for the occasional baron/baroness who find themselves pulling a lever endlessly in a room that somehow got walled in.
