EPTStarting somewhat new - if you didn't see in my last blog my world got corrupted and I had to start from scratch (even in my non-blog fortress. ><) so forgive any mistakes I have in my continuity between now and prologue!
I'm taking screenshots in StoneSense so that people can follow along without looking at "ugly" tilesets, if people want I can include non StoneSense pictures in the Part 2!
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As you can see, this place already looks hot. Scorching to be honest, and the mountains were packed to the brim with difficult stone to cut through.
It was with great pleasure that Arb and I started to chip away at the earth with our pickaxes, we were growing tired of the sun beating down upon our brow. We were not, however, growing tired of chugging ale to beat the heat, but we knew we would run out far too quickly. I chose to skip out on weapons and much military training, as we had a loyal pack of War Dogs along, trained by the King's own personal caretakers. Two of the dogs quickly became loyal companions to Haemonculus, and I figured this was for the best - as for now she was in charge of felling trees, I wasn't fancy to her being eaten by the alligators we had spotted nearby. That being said, I had Hazely bring two dogs of her own, and told her to run for her life if an alligator decided it was hungry.
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The shade was the most welcoming thing about our new home, so far.
We dug our way through the mountainside, thankfully the area we located seemed to be made of chalk, which wasn't too difficult to pave through, and somehow ended up creating a very..odd sort of entrance. I'm not sure what happened here, however the end result netted us some decent farm ground. I had suggested we start on simple plump helmets, and Tnkted went to work. I was quite surprised at how quickly he managed to bring our fields to life! A wise choice indeed, he is already proving to be. Hazely is bringing in fish by the dozen, as well, we are already almost out of food storage, yet I have no idea how.
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Quite possibly the strangest Fortress entrance in all of the land! It shall be simple to defend, at least!
Digging down a level, Arb and I set out a simple ground plan. I never realized how difficult getting your caverns dug out could be! Back at home in the obsidian mines, we never really needed a "plan" exactly...it was "dig obsidian". *chuckle* Neggy was able to give us some tips from her days as a mason, though it was more on building design than cavern carving. Eventually Arb and I settled on a rather basic set up, our main goal here was to get everyone inside as quickly as possible.
Heading down yet another level - with the wildlife being as random as it likes to be, we decided multiple layers of defense was best - we started to work on digging out our stockpiles, as well as our industry areas. I had everyone set to work to remove the stone from the floors, and soon we found ourselves with a beautiful storage area.
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As we were breaking down our wagon, and folks were moving things inside, I decided to take a break upstairs to get some fresh air. It was then that the first few migrants came along. It appeared these dwarves had been sent on a similar journey, but their caravan was seized by Goblin raiders. It wasn't necessarily a good thing - it meant the Goblins were in the relative area, but the extra hands were good news in itself. It was only four dwarves, but four is better than none.
I'll be brief in my description of the migrants - I've talked long enough already and there is plenty more to come.
The first person I met with was Riku Alathkiddir - a masterful ladydwarf who seemed to know ale inside and out. I called Hazely over to chat, and it was agreed upon that Hazely much prefered the outdoors and fishing, despite the scorching heat. She assured me she would keep safe - she has two hounds - and that she would promise not to die of thirst. Fair enough, I decided to have Riku take over brewing for Hazely.
Next came an animal dissector - Corrupt Moruzlokak. He had served in the Shield of Wind clan, pulling bones and other useful parts from small animals. I figured this could be useful, however he picked up a bone crossbow and ran off. Not much long afterwards, he went running past with a groundhog, shouting something about a kitchen or a butcher's slab...I had a Butcher's Workshop build especially for him. Hopefully he's able to bring in larger game than rodents in the future, and for now I'll have him set up as a "hopeful hunter"
Next up was a Presser...and to be frank a rather useless profession at this point...named N3rv Othlestiden. I felt like he would be more useful moving things around the fortress, but I also handed him a copper axe and had Haemonculus recruit herself a little woodcutter. She certainly wasn't upset about not having to go out and chop down trees anymore. I really need her building furniture at the moment, anyhow.
The last dwarf was a shearer by the name of Hatchetwound Sigunbesmar.
When I asked if that was his real name, he said, "It's whot people call meh on accounta this hatchet whound." It was a rather gruesome scar on his right arm. No idea how he got it, but it was there. Hatchetwound it is. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea, but I had him head downstairs into the Kitchen as our resident chef and butcher. This way I could keep Corrupt out hunting while he took care of the butchering. For now, I had him cooking meals for the dwarves, which brought morale up quite a bit!
We managed to get everyone inside already, however the meeting hall was put on hold temporarily while we got the storage downstairs set up.
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You can see our dormitory started here, as well as the meeting hall!
Our dogs are breeding like rabbits, we've literally got more puppies in Daggertrust than we do dwarves. The pair of cats that Neggy brought seem to be in the spring mood as well, as now we've got a few more kittens as well.
It took us a bit longer than average to set up, I think. Mostly due to quite a bit of inexperience, as well as the mountain not being particularly easy to settle in. Dwarves near the surface levels need to take breaks very often or they will collapse - I can't afford those kind of losses. Arb and I finally finished the meeting hall, and Neggy did a fantastic job of stockpiling furniture so we could move in quickly!
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Meeting hall! Dogs everywhere, by the King's beard!!!
More migrants appear to be coming in, according to N3rv, he mentioned spotting them while out gathering lumber for Haemonculus. I need to go to the meeting hall and sort these new folks out, as well as converse with the existing population on what to set up next. All in all, we are slowly settling in to our new Mountainhome!
The next steps are to trap up our entrance, get these new migrants sorted out and integrated into our new society, and start heading down into the earth for ores! We have a lot of coal already, it's time to start producing coke to get our smelters lit up bright!
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