Year 6

Once again Copper Market turns to me for their leadership. It appears the loss of a dwarf has compelled the last overseer to take extended leave, putting myself in charge. Well, you can't make goblin soup without losing a few dwarfs.

Since we are besieged, I spent the majority of spring under lockdown. the first priorities were to train up the militiadwarfs in lieu of any breaches, and build serrated steel blades to line the entrances. second priority was to get Sir Hatty's insane mechanisms to function, which we spent all of spring reverse-engineering and fixing.

All of this was in vain however as shortly after spring ended the siege was lifted, and was followed by an elven caravan. although i have no love for the elves and thier fancy tree-hugging ways, i stayed my blade as the Fortress had more pressing matters to attend to.

We begun work on a more fitting burial area. the upper area has several columns, each corner adorned with a statue beneath which a dwarf has been laid to rest. there is a grand foyer in the center, to which any overseer can lay a mosaic of their choosing. I selected a sword drawn in microcline to simulate the look of adamintine, but it pales in comparison to the real metal. i have half a mind to tear it up and start again.

the human caravan came in the summer, but was again followed by a siege. this time the Fortress was prepared. We funneled the majority of the goblin regiments through the new front entrance, the first such regiment which routed completely on a single steel weapon trap that was laid at the beginning of the bridge path. Those that pushed forward were met with a deluge of water, washing them into the pit.

The result was less than satisfactory. Some of the goblins landed on ledges used to carve out the pit; others fell into the pit, but failed to die on impact, instead simply shattering every bone in their body. if I'm going to throw a goblin down a pit, i want them to EXPLODE when they hit the bottom.

The remaining squads ended up routing except for a few crossbowgoblins, who were dispatched by the militia with moderate casualties. Militiadwarves lost and those unfit to fight were removed from active duty and replaced by new recruits for training.

As Autumn arrived we saw to it that the fort's vital necessities were addressed. the Dwarven reactor saw some water evaporation and plant growth issues jamming the wheels, which were fixed once the river froze over and access into the reactor was reached. the pit itself was dug deeper, but the ledges remain to be carved out a Z level at a time. Also it was decided to increase the width of the grate bridge to 3 tiles worth, in order to prevent any further falling mishaps.

a Dwarven Caravan came along with our country's liaison, who has offered to make our fort a Barony. I graciously accepted, and nominated a militia dwarf who had lost both arms in battle to be our baron. I feel he has lost enough for the fort to deserve this station.

After the caravan had left, another siege befell the fortress. as the water trap was drained in order to fix the reactor, minimal defenses prevent invasion, and as such I ordered a full lock down of the fortress until it is ready. the Grate bridge additions have yet to be linked to the lever, and our trash compactor is still incomplete on the left side. our new militiadwarves are hardly fit for fighting, but I've done all I can in the name of Copper Market. as spring dawns i resign my post and offer good luck and condolences to the next overseer.

Year 5

As the wagons brought me forth to copper market my curiosity was a tangible almost tangy taste in my mouth (this could be the pump helmet stew however). As I complimented the wagon driver for his speedy travel I saw that indeed the entrance was still the same as when I left it. Odd I thought but perhaps this region turned out to be peaceful?

When I entered the fortress I could hear the yells mourning dwarves. I was scarcely inside when the mayor approached me with complaints of improper quarters. As I inspect the various floors I found much madness and little method. Craft dwarf shops cluttered to the brim with trinkets. Vast complexes of workshops with none of their required materials anywhere near them.

Worse yet all the classic signs of government projects with out oversite: apparently my predecessor began a massive entrance with bridges and pitfalls and a water reservoir powered by a dwarven reactor no less. My predecessor attempted to explain its maddening construction to me but alas I could not understand its arcane designs. I fear only armok knows its true purpose.

Needless to say I had my work cut out for me. I spent my months having the dwarves haul the various trinkets up and hollow out proper storage areas near the workshops and farms. I also took this time to raise a proper military including a town guard of marksdwarves. They are still rather green but militia was able to kill some kobold ambushers.

As the river froze I was able to add some much need security counter measures. I constructed fortifications to keep the large more murderous beasts out while still allowing water to pass through.

During my last month a host of goblins arrived and tragically our apprentice armor smith was unable to get into the safe confines of the fort in time. Armok knows what he was doing outside... I fear I must relinquish command of the fort with the vile threat is still quite underway.

Good luck next overseer.

In memory of Stodir Limulbab, armor dwarf, gentledwarf, hero. May his name be remembered song and its praise echo through the mountain halls.

Year 4

I have decided that this fortress needs an entrance. One that is both grand and defensive. I have set the dwarves to start digging it, so that it may be completed before my reign is through.

 

 

Before the spring thaw, it was decided to increase the size of the army. Sadly, A dwarf named “Cilob Timnarobok” decided that it was a good time to stand on a lake. He sadly fell in and drowned, while holding a silver battle axe. The Captain of the Guard was grief stricken, blinking on and off, trying but failing due to dangerous terrain over and over to get this axe. He was forbidden to retrieve any of Cilob’s belonging. The Captain is having a memorial service this week for the fallen axe.

     

Nomal Akmamkubuk the Hunter felled a black bear this week. The eating will be good.

I have decided that this place is too… blocky. It will be smoothed, in the name of Armok.

 

Vabok Ilonuzol the Blacksmith has been taken by a mood, and has claimed a Metal smith. I will do my best to provide him what he need, but understand that sometimes stone walls are the only option.

Without going insane, he has create a…… BRONZE CABINET

 

Thanks to the many ambushes, we have lost our entire army. Twice. There are now 4 goblins, who sit outside chasing the cats, and slaying all of the brave souls who are sent in after them. Hopefully they will be cleared before the next merchants come.

 

On the bright side, a blacksmith has started a mysterious construction in the metal shop. Which got us a bronze short sword:

 

It turns out that the goblins have left, which is good. For the human merchants that have arrived anyways.

 

Wait, no, there's a siege now.

We have locked the enemies outside, letting the siege pass at least until our front door is ready for them. Sadly, the human merchants who made it inside at the last moment were unwilling to eat our dwarven food, and went insane. The donkey was especially bad off, becoming very agitated and attack the nearby humans. Luckily, an axe human still had enough wits to kill the donkey.

A visitor came today. Seemed very… steamy.

Another fey mood, another metal item, made for our hunter who killed the bear (it’s funny how the bear get’s more grizzly with every story) and two of the forgotten beasts we have seen.

There have been rumors of some type of earthworm that has been heard rumbling, and seen through the well in the bottommost level. My assumption that some type of hallucinations are being caused by the… water *shudder* they have been drinking.

Migrants have arrived. They will be great additions to the army of builders for the new hall.

The Goblins ambushed us. Luckily, the Kobolds did so at the exact same time and place. They… don’t like each other.

 

And thus a very constructive year comes to an end. The main hall, which most of the dwarves were diverted to, is finished, aside from hooking a couple of things up, and a lever that is being pulled as we speak.

 

First thing that was finished is the The bridge of crossing, which will make our foes cross this long, winding bridge before they will ever reach the inner depths of our fortress

If still needs some mild smoothing, and a finishined 3 wide retractable grate bridge, but other wise it is there. The mechanics have been ordered to connect the grates to a lever in the lever room, however due to his short memory (I believe the alcohol is having an adverse effect on the population), he has not yet been told to connect the leftmost grate.

Above the bridge, is the mandatory trap:

These bridges are right over the tiny little bridge below. When they are opened, the water will rush out, pushing any on the bridge 6z pit.

This is the pinnacle of dwarven technology. A water reactor, which produces more energy then it takes to run it! As you can see, the reactor is then connected to a row of pumps, to help speed up the fill of the flood cistern. I assume that grates would be nice to add, but I never got around to adding them. Luckily, winter ice makes it so that you can drain the access area at will. The levers above control the reactor and pumps. They are labeled for the convenience of the next mayor/despot.

 

The next is the entrance seal:

This is a suspended block that will be able to seal off the fortress in times of great peril. Due to a mistake in dwarven construction, or entrance is mildly too open at the moment, so this will do nothing. Luckily, this is currently being fixed by a dwarf sent to pull a lever for the following two blocks:

Which will seal off the dwarf made entrances that shouldn’t have been there.

 

We do have a haunting from a ghost currently, due to the many deaths of 4 squads or so of dwarves, that we did not have the coffin capacity for:

Luckily, the only requirement is that they are put to rest. The mason’s are supposedly right on that.

 

There is currently an ambush outside, we just kind’ve ignore them with a tightened door:

We also closed the downstairs well, due to rumors that it was haunted by Vesh, and also my dwarven ideals when it comes to water:

 

With that, I go to find a room to stay in. Hopefully far away from any crazy Despot’s who come in the future.

Year 3

The first task i've taken upon myself is to improve the standard of living of all dwarfs in Copper Market. This entails improving their quarters along with increasing the food supply. So far i've increased the farm plot by at least 3x and i've begun giving every dwarf his/her own statue and cabinet in their own quarters. I've also begun digging farther down and have reached the first cavern. Construction of a well has begun and should be finished soon.

It seems like as soon as i started a huge wave of migrants came in. 23 new men women and children have decided to join CM in the hopes to find a new life. Construction of new rooms has begun, though the current rooming pattern confused me for a while, i was able to figure it out.... i think.

Just when i was getting in the groove of making things work, just started making steel bars and was going to start making some steel battle axes/spears, i get ambushed by five goblin spear men. things don't look too good. i might lose at least one man. Not only am i to receive the first ambush, but during this ambush an elven caravan shows up AND a thief starts to steal from me. All within the first season.

To make matters worse, the glitch where the military decides to keep training even when they are commanded to attack is still active. So i had to deactivate the barracks in order for them to do anything. So far so good.... >.< Lost half of my untrained military... time to start strengthening them with some real weapons, armor, and training. Also, the scorpion did pretty much nothing but get stabbed. :C

Before i could even finish construction of the new rooms for the 23 new migrants, a new load of 7 showed up. hopefully some of them will have some helpful abilities.

So i was unable to trade with the elven caravan and they were all pissed at me because of it. Right when the human caravan comes to give me a second chance, i get ambushed again! at least this time i have some spear/axe dwarfs who are more or less trained (adequate or novice) with steel or iron weapons. we'll see how it goes this time!

This battle did not turn out any better than last. My military is down to two dwarfs, and the Giant Scorpion has fallen. My next task now is to retrain a suitable military and make some disk traps in our entrance. Also, it seems that in the confusion of an ambush, one of my own dwarfs (an engineer no less) has fallen into our own cage traps. This speaks well for the competency of the fort. That was the end of my second season.

The influx of migrants seems to be pretty constant. Another dozen or so migrants. Most notably a trader and a suturer. So at least the hospital will be a little more helpful.

After i realized that no one was releasing my dwarven engineer from the cage, i removed the building which freed him. Unfortunately he is now dying of starvation, thirst, and is unable to grasp anything. And nobody is bringing him to the hospital... Poor guy. He has officially died of thirst. So much for helping him out.

Due to the loss of the giant scorpion i've decided to replace it with the hippo. Supposed to be a lot harder to kill, and can knock enemies on the ground. so that should be helpful. I've also been forced to create a tomb for all the fallen members of our fort. It's on the same layer as the barracks. I feel like this will give them a constant reminder of what will happen if they don't train as hard as they can.

New trade caravan has come in. Dwarfs this time. Hopefully this doesn't lead to another ambush. This would be my third and i'm not fully prepared yet. While the gear is getting better, the skill is still too low. The militia commander is a proficient axedwarf, but everyone else is either novice or not axe dwarf so far. i've taken advantage of the dwarven caravan and stocked up on a lot of booze for the fort, along with some steel and bronze to help trap and armor making along. within a short amount of time everyone in the military should have a steel breastplate.

Winter rolls around and i feel rushed to do as much as possible, but i don't know what else to do really that time wont take care of. the food supply is sustained, and even too much really. I need more barrels to hold all of it. Booze production is at a stand still because of the lack of barrels. I want a stronger army, but that takes time from them just training. If i were attacked right now i know i'd lose a lot of my militia due to lack of skill. other than that things have been going pretty well. we'll see what happens this last month.

Just when i thought i was home free, thinking two ambushes would be enough, nope. that's not enough. i have to get the first forgotten beast as well. He doesn't seem too hard, but it'll basically be one on one since i only have one proficient fighter and the rest are all still learning. but he has a steel battle axe and a steel breastplate, so i think he'll be okay....

FUCKING OWNED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT BITCH.
GG you little bitch. See you in hell. I sent my militia to meet him right when he came in contact with the hippo. The timing was perfect, he didn't stand a chance. There were some injuries, but really the best outcome i could think of happening happened. so yay for that.
And as soon as celebrations are finished for the victory over the last battle, another FB shows up. Luckily it is in the caves and there should be no entrances from the cave to my fort. There are a few holes that were made from the stairway down, but i patched those up with wall.... hopefully it can't fly (even though it has wings) and it can't destroy the walls. and it seems that because of the inaccessibility of my fort, he disappeared as quickly as he showed up. he's no longer on the unit list, most likely lurking in undiscovered locations in the cavern.

In the ending months i checked the unit list many times looking for the FB to show up again. He would come and go but with no direction in his step. So for now we're good, but it's definitely sure that the first dwarf to open a path to the cave better run quickly, because that's going to be a big fight.

Year 2 (252)

Player: Alex P

1st Granite 252 Early Spring - Today I became defacto management for the Fortress of Marketcopper, after the previous manager mumbled something about bacon sausages and took off into the forest. The fort's constructed design so far is both beautiful and maddening. the bedrooms have been built in the same room as the workshops, a stairway leads down to nothing but bedrock, and No dining rooms exist save for a single table and chair. despite the self-bestowed title of Market Copper, no metal forging business even exists! much work remains to be done this year before i return to Ordumed capital.

5th of granite 252 - No sooner had i taken over I found out that Zuntir Rovoddasnast was only assigned to Cheese Making duty. I'll have to audit everyone's everyday tasks and make sure they perform not for their own whimsical needs, but for the very livelihood of the fortress.

25th of Granite 252 - New migrants have arrived. good, this should give the others their first break in 20 days.

5th of Slate 252 - I found a bunch of dwarves milling around the well talking the latest gossip. when i interrogated to them as to their duties, they brought up excuses such as the "workshops are already in use" or "i have no digging or woodcutting implements". If that's the case, BUILD MORE WORKSHOPS. MANUFACTURE TOOLS. CHOP DOWN THE TREES WITH YOUR HANDS AND MINE ROCK WITH YOUR TEETH IF YOU MUST. these dwarves have no work ethic. In other news to snow and ice finally melted, allowing us to fish for extra food.

11th of Slate 252 - The chief medical dwarf has been in a strange mood lately. I haven't been able to get him to do anything besides sit in the corner of the furniture stockpiles while muttering under his breath. i'm not sure what is on his mind, but i best go about my business of building up our workshop wing.

21st of Slate 252 - no sooner had i created a jewelery workshop did the Chief Medical Dwarf grab a gem and immediately start cutting a banded agate with legendary precision. He calls the gem 'Tilesh Mishthem' which is disturbing behavior, however I believe he has found his calling.

13th of felsite 252 - an elven caravan has arrived. I certainly hope they are not angered at the massive logging operation centered around the Trading Depot.

4th of Hematite 252 - *ATTENTION ALL DWARVES* YOU WILL NOTICE A NEW THEFT DETERRENT STATIONED IN THE ENTRANCE CORRIDOR IN THE FORM OF A GIANT DESERT SCORPION. THIS SCORPION WAS RECENTLY PURCHASED FROM THE ELVEN TRADERS. PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED BY ITS PRESENCE. EXERCISE CAUTION, AND KEEP IN MIND NO VENOM ANTIDOTES ARE CURRENTLY STOCKED SHOULD ANY ACCIDENT OCCUR. -THE MANAGEMENT

2nd of Malachite 252 - More migrants have arrived to claim their fortune. little do the fools know that here, nothing will be found but toil and death.

13th of Galena 252 - Mistem Atheltun, a migrant Furnace Operator began speaking in tongues and began feverishly cutting a tigereye gem perfectly with no previous knowledge of gem cutting. All the while he was constantly repeating the word "Thalalmothdast". i'm beginning to think the jeweler's workshop is haunted.

26th of Galena 252 - I was shocked to learn the plump helmet supply had run out, for the simple reason that the dwarves were not being tasked often enough to plant them. I ordered the butchering of 4 donkeys to feed the people for the next few days while making sure an ample number of dwarves sow the fields each season.

22nd of Limestone 252 - Yet MORE migrants! will they never learn?

23rd of Sandstone 252 - The Final Solution Dining Room located several floors below the entrance to the fort has finally been completed. It. Is. LEGENDARY.

19th of timber 252 - The dwarven Caravan has come from Ordumed has arrived, and we have plenty to trade for their goods. on a darker note, the year is coming to a close, yet some of my projects are only half finished. i fear for their timely completion, and have ordered all mining dwarves to cover double-shifts and ignore less important tasks.

27th of timber 252 - Aban Thabumiton has carved yet another artifact from rough Chrysoprases at the very same Jeweler's shop as the others. I still do not know if this workshop is a blessing or a curse.

11th of opal 252 - The traders have come and gone. my idiot brokerdwarf offended them in later negotiations, which means we will have to gather or grow our own cloth and leather in order to make trade goods and clothing. In other news, the Bedrooms are complete, and all beds are built and placed. The workshop wing is also complete, although most food processing has been left at the upper level for ease of access to materials. Extra stockpiles have been placed for various goods, as well as a makeshift hospital, complete with traction benches. the metal forges are in full auto to produce as much iron as possible, but no flux has been found to kick off the steel mill. I guess some things you can't help, but it would be nice to have steel for the militia, or for that matter to have ANY weapons for the militia.

Year 1

Upon disembarking from our wagons we were greeted with the biting cold of the mountain lands that would be our new home "Market Copper". I set the dwarves to work immediately chopping down wood and clearing out an underground farm near several frozen ponds which we will then breach when this winter freeze has thawed. Let us hope our supply of food and alcohol holds us until then and our beards do not freeze off.

Spring's warmth has finally graced us and the snow and ice has begun to thaw. I had our miner breach the side of the pond flood our farms and depositing the rich invaluable mud. We quickly patched this hole up with a wall continued excavation this time for an underground cistern and well.

Just after dawn a half dozen raccoons appeared in the distance and they appear to be heading straight towards our loot pile.

We managed to kill several of the raccoons before one made off with an axe and another with rope.

The well has been successfully completed. Now we are no longer dependent on our crops of mushrooms fermented in stale cave water for drink.

Tragedy has truck Market Copper today. A roaming sasquatch necessitated creating a make shift military. The first brave dwarf Etur Stinthadzuglar who arrived to the sasquatch was killed in the line of duty. We were unable to catch the sasquatch after a frantic chase that took many hours. Eventually the beast left and we solemnly laid Etur to rest.

These past months have been relatively uneventful. I started hollowing out a large portion of the earth for additional storage and workshops and cursory dig into the stone to begin construction of a more proper fortress.