The first thing to do is secure a food source. Our options at present are farming, fishing, hunting, or butchering all our animals. I'm going to go with farming as it allows us to have a low-cost and semi-renewable food source, along with fishing. Hunting is more resource-heavy, though the rewards are greater: in addition to food, we can make leather, crafts and ammo from the bodies, but at this point, we don't have the
8th Granite, 251, Early Spring
So far so good.
Kel is digging out the tunnels that will lead down into our fortress, along with Ushrir the stoneworker, while Msetthos is cutting down trees and Dodok is fishing. The other four are just lounging about waiting for something to do.
6th Slate, 251, Mid-Spring
Decided to get everyone to do something after all. We ran across some gems while Ushrir and Kel dug out the temporary shelter, so that gave Atir something to do. Meanwhile, Mafol and Mestthos cut down wood and build furniture, and Zon and Dodok have fished out so many mussels from the river that a lot of them are rotting already.
The stench must be awful.
7th Slate, 251, Mid-Spring
Kel was so impressed by Ushrir's mining skills that he officially named him Miner.
12th Slate, 251, Mid-Spring
The first meeting hall has officially been carved out!
Ushrir is going to take a break from mining and start building doors, thrones and tables, leaving Kel to mine out the food stores and dormitory on his own.
13th Slate, 251, Mid-Spring
Since the dormitory isn't finished yet, Mestthos the woodcutter fell asleep right in the grass outside.
21st Slate, 251, Mid-Spring
And how the food storage is ready! Finally, no more leaving mussels out in the sun to rot. Instead, we're going to stuff them into a dank cavern where the stench will spread easier.
Hm.
28th Felsite, 251, Late Spring
Things are going worryingly well.
The shelter is finished, with a functional dining room next to the food stores, and a dormitory that has more than enough beds for everyone. Work has started on underground mushroom farms for a renewable food source.
Meanwhile, we have so many mussel shells from all those mussels that I've asked Atir to start making crafts out of them. Maybe we can start encrusting them with all those Tiger Irons we keep finding.
1st Hematite, 251, Summer
Summer is officially here. A trade caravan should be showing up anytime now. I should appoint someone to be broker, if at least temporarily. Better yet, I'll build a Trade Depot so we can actually do some trading!
I took a look to see what shell crafts Atir might have made, only to notice he hadn't done a damn thing!
"I'm too busy hauling these... logs, yeah," he said when questioned about it. I can't blame him, though. The stench from that fishery full of rotten mussels is suffocating.
3rd Hematite, 251, Summer
Atir made a ring, amulet and crown out of mussel shell.
I think he's mocking me.
9th Hematite, 251, Summer
Work has begun on the main fortress. We're going to start with what will be the main hall and then set up the private apartments.
2nd Malachite, 251, Mid-Summer
Things are trudging along uneventfully. The new main hall is nearly complete, Atir has managed to use up all our available mussel shells, and our water buffalo was stung by a bee.
I should make beehives!
4th Malachite, 251, Mid-Summer
New main hall complete! Ain't it beautiful?
11th Malachite, 251, Mid-Summer
Atir was done with the mussel shells, so he went back to cutting gems and started encrusting those amulets, crowns and rings with said gems. As he did so, a honey badger came out of nowhere and scared the crap out of him, then ran away.
If that thing starts to be a probem, I might have to do something about it. I'll keep an eye out.
But in more important news, migrants have arrived! This is important.
First thing I'm going to do is turn off all the hauling and farming for the original seven. Immigrants are going to get all the grunt work, which includes hauling, cleaning, smoothing out the hallways and joining the military.
If any of them have the slightest bit of martial training I am sending them after that honey badger.
Alright, so let's see who we've got...
12th Malachite, 251, Mid-Summer
Cerol "Shoteven" Keskaldeg, who appears to be both an accomplished carpenter and leader. That is surprisingly more useful than I anticipated.
She doesn't know anyone in the fortress yet, but she does worship Risen and Omer.
Coming up behind her is Zas "Romanticmines" Abiravuz, a muscular, mustachioed dwarf with long sideburns. He's a miner, among other things, but that will immediately make him useful. Here are two immigrants that may be upgraded to full member quite quickly!
He worships Urosh Ngathsesh Vesh and Kadol.
Following behind them is Mosus "Daggercudgels" Uristastesh, a gem setter. Actually, he has a number of basic useful skills, but remains a novice in all of them. He's going to be a hauler for a while, but he'll likely fill a needed role soon enough.
He also worships Kadol and Urosh Ngathsesh Vesh who, by the way, I just learned is also known as Urosh the Puke of Dust.
After that comes Ast "Organurn" Inashvucar, who calls herself a woodworker but I've noticed is also skilled with a sword and armor. I think we have our honey badger hunter!
She worships Risen and Shigin Sobirnoram, a deity of the Rough Craft that takes the form of a male dwarf and is associated with freedom.
I'm going to keep her on hauling duty for right now and sort out the new sleeping arrangements, but as soon as I've got a moment I'm sending her off after that badger.
Kubuk "Polishrags" Delethunib is next, and among his incredible skill set is the ability to walk on crutches. That will come in useful when he is inevitably maimed horribly by a goblin ambush. He calls himself a cheese maker, but I call him
He worships Kadol and Shigin Sobirnoram.
Then along comes Ral "Cryptuttered" Momuzgutid, a creepy nickname if I ever heard one. She's good at pottery, which might be useful if we had any clay or designs to have clay. But since we don't, she's another hauler! Or maybe a hallway-smoother, we'll see.
She is a casual worshipper of Omer and ardent worshipper of Shigin Sobirnoram.
And then following behind is a cute little puppy and a yak calf. We'll put the yak in the pasture with the other livestock and let the puppy roam around. Who knows? It might make a good war hound later.
So, six new dwarves, that's not bad. It's better than the waves of 20+ we can expect to get later. I'm acturally going to relieve some of the present workers a little. For one thing, Mosus is now going to concentrate on turning our mussel shells into crafts, freeing up Atir to concentrate on his first love: gems.
Zas is going to help with the development of the main fortress with his mining skills, so I believe that should automatically earn him a private apartment, which leaves the question of what I should do with our new carpenter. Cerol is accomplished, but Mafol is competent. However, Mafol is also a good people-person, so maybe I'll make her our new broker for when the trade caravans arrive. That would mean Cerol gets herself an apartment, too.
Ast is immediately being made into Coalclinched's first militia member. This does not necessarily earn her any priviledges yet, but it does place her in the nobility next to our expedition leader. We'll see how she fares against the honey badger. She's a skilled swordsdwarf but all we have are axes. I wonder if this means she'll try to wrestle it.
Hmm, better see if I can't get my hands on a sword first.
4th Galena, 251, Late Summer
That badger is good at hiding, but it can't hide forever! As soon as it shows its little face, it's going to get a face-full of Ast!
Meanwhile, the apartments are more or less finished and are now just waiting to be furnished. Production moves along at a satisfactory pace and I believe the next move is to create a working kitchen environment. That means kitchen, still, and butchery, which also means we can start on leatherworking and crafts.
26th Galena, 251, Late Summer
Cerol and Mafol keep switching carpentry jobs. While one builds furniture, the other tends to the farms and vice-versa, which I feel is fine! As long as the crops get harvested before they rot.
I've noticed we're getting dangerously low on alchohol, so I sped up the construction of the kitchens. We now have a still and the fishery has also been moved inside. It's going to take a lot more dwarfpower to get the place running properly, but once we do we'll likely prosper!
No sign of the honey badger, though that one buffalo got stung by a bee again.
I think our expdition leader, Zon, who has been doing nothing but clean mussels from their shells, can also take some time out from that incredibly busy schedule of constantly taking breaks to brew us something to drink.
3rd Limestone, 251, Early Autumn
Autumn has just arrived, and to mark the occasion, our bee-stung buffalo gave birth to a calf!
I think I'm going to build a pen enclosure and a farm.
21st Limestone, 251, Early Autumn
The dormitory is complete, counting 18 beds total. That should accommodate whatever wave of immigrants happens by.
And not a moment too soon, either! Here comes another wave...
We start with Rigoth "Craftstall" Rigothshukar, who calls herself a bone carver. The only real useful skill I see is knowing how to cook, which is good, because we still have plenty of mussels for her to fry up! Zon has also been brewing a lot of wine, though, some maybe they'll be fried in wine.
Damn, those mussels are starting to sound good...
She worships Urosh the Puke of Dust (seriously, what?!) and Stelmith Legankal Gathilkoshosh Mishthem.
Next up is Kikrost "Releasedmirror" Sobironul, an animal trainer and novice beekeeper. I'll get to the beekeeping once we have a farm up and running, but until then, hauler!
He worships Risen and the Puke of Dust. Why.
After that comes Kol "Swordtrample" Dastottangath, whose nickname makes him sound like she trips over swords all the time. She is definitely not joining the militia.
She worships Omer and Shigin Sobirnoram.
Then we have Rovod "Cudgelwires" Asteshshorast, a
But now here's the interesting part: she showed up with her husband and son, both of whom are following behind.
The husband, Rigoth "Rainorb" Udarvabok, is a lot less interesting or useless than his wife, so he'll definitely remain stuck on hauling duty.
Their son, Limul "Strappingwork" Nefastducim comes running in behind them. I like the nickname: it implies he's going to actually do some work other than run around aimlessly like a child, though I doubt it.
And the last immigrant to join this merry band is Bim "Bridgequakes" Sazirrushrir. I don't know why, but I already like her! Possibly because she's a competent record-keeper and knows something about setting bones. We could use a bookkeeper!
She worships Kadol, but really, who even cares?
Well now, that puts us at 20 dwarves. I'm going to make a couple of them field-workers, possibly Rovod and her husband, just so we can keep up with all these new mouths to feed.
24th Sandstone, 251, Mid-Autumn
Everything reamins smooth. In fact, the halls are being smoothed!
There's only Mosus, the one I assigned to make crafts out of mussel shells, who's been sort of withdrawn lately. I mean, not that I blame her, all those mussel shells, the constant stink, it's enough to drive anyone mad...
25th Sandstone, 251, Mid-Autumn
And sure enough, she took over a craftshop. Just closed it up tight and isn't letting anyone in, remaining secretive in her new little lair. Whatever she has planned, she's not sharing it with anyone, and it doesn't appear to be mussel-related.
She let slip a small piece of parchment under the door, though, and it's covered in sketches of bones and leather... Hm.
4th Timber, 251, Late Autumn
I decided we didn't need the horse. It was eating up the precious grass the buffalo need, and we won't be able to shear it or milk it (I don't think. Well, maybe we can. The question becomes, do we want to? The answer is no. No we do not). So I ordered it butchered for the meat, bones and leather. Much more useful.
Of course, the second Zon butchered the animal, Mosus was suddenly at the door with a crazy gleam in her eye. She was carrying more of that sketch paper, depicting bones and leather. No one questioned her as she grabbed the horse's skeleton and ran back down to the craftshop.
13th Timber, 251, Late Autumn
A caravan has arrived from Dumatrigoth, our home civilization also known as the Rough Craft. I assign our cook, Rigoth "Craftstall" as the new broker since she seems to be a pretty good judge of intent, so she'll be able to see if the traders are trying to screw us over.
Welp, time to put all those mussel shell goods on display!
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