The tales of Wildnesspaged and the treasures it supposedly holds has, on more than one occasion, encouraged a group of foolhardy dwarves to attempt a journey to retake it.
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From the journal of Id Nishdeg, expedition leader of the first dwarves to attempt to reclaim Wildnesspaged:"1st of Granite: We have arrived at the fabled Wildnesspaged and can confirm that the maps are right. There is a scar on this land, and the tower of Wildnesspaged stands in the middle of it, like a dagger still in the wound.
It seems we are not the first visitors the fortress has seen since it became silent; animals and creatures of every kind have ravaged it, strewing about the furniture and treasures that were once inside. Broken barrels and cabinets are now nests for all manner of creature while nature slowly reclaims its stake. The trees have managed to grow again, but there remains something very sinister in the air.
My fellows are wary and uncomfortable. Something about the silence seems off. We spotted some goblins not too far away from the fortress, but they dared not approach. Do they know to fear our dwarven might, or does something lurk inside that scares them more than we do? Tomorrow we find out. Tomorrow we go in."
No further journal entries were found.---------------------------
From the journal of Sarvesh Eshtannitig, expedition leader of the second group to attempt to retake the fortress:"1st of Granite: It has been a year since Id's expedition left the mountainhomes and we have decided to follow his trail more cautiously. We arrived at the location of the fortress to a very eerie sight: the Tower of Wildnesspaged, silent and foreboding, and Id's expedition's wagon, abandoned and overgrown. The supplies inside were still good, the barrels still sealed tightly, the seed bags unpierced. My guess was that they ventured forth into the fortress and were taken by whatever vile force has taken residence in it.
I have ordered the construction of a temporary outpost just north of the Tower. We will fortify it and hone our combat skills before venturing inwards. Most of what has been strewn about is re-usable, needing only minor reparations. Dwarven craftsdwarfship is, after all, the best in all the land."
"6th Hematite: Our temporary outpost is nearly finished and our stocks are enough to carry us through several winters. We have not yet seen any caravans, but we were able to salvage enough goods that trade should be bountiful. I think we will opt to trade for weapons and armor.
Not everything is well, however: we have lost Amost Ulingendok. He was our dedicated fisherdwarf, but as the frozen seasons here last longer than usual, the rivers were solid ice and un-fishable. As such, he took up hunting thanks to the many bolts we were able to scavenge.
He was unable to find any of the fabled unicorns we heard talk of, but he did encounter a small tribe of shy goblins. They did not attack, so neither did he, but they were careful to avoid us. Something has these monstrosities scared, but at first we thought nothing of it.
Amost must have discovered what it was, though, since one evening, he failed to return from his hunt. We set out to search for him and came upon his corpse, a most unsettling sight: there was not a mark on him, no wound or bruise. Only an expression frozen on his face, that of pure terror, so much so that his spirit could not bear to remain.
This place is evil. We will begin training immediately."
"17th Malachite: Our outpost is complete, just in time to welcome a group that followed us out. There weren't many back in the mountainhomes that were brave enough to come with us, but I no longer blame them. These six new should give us the edge we need when we venture inside.
The plan is thus: we lock our outpost to avoid outside invasion and dig a tunnel to enter Wildnesspaged from underground. Whatever it was that took Id's expedition will likely be expecting us at the front gate.
As a further testament to the reliability of the dwarves of Wildnesspaged, the traps at the front gates of the Tower are still functional; there are two cages which have trapped both a giant toad and one of the fabled unicorns. These will make fine trophies for our humble (and temporary) dining hall."
"9th Limestone: Our military is ten strong. It is time we breached Wildnesspaged.
Unlike our stargazing-mooncalf predecessers, we will not waltz in through the front gate. If these old maps of Wildnesspaged are accurate, we should be able to build a tunnel that leads directly into the forges. From there, we will barricade the exits and take an initial survey of the area. This is how we will take it: piece-by-piece.
The digging has already begun. We should breach the walls by the end of the month."
No further journal entries were found.---------------------------
With the loss of this second, better-prepared expedition, the legends of Wildnesspaged took a darker turn in their telling. There were now rumours of ghasts and other demons. The most convincing tale -- the one that became most widely-believed -- was that the original dwarves of Wildnesspaged had awakened one of the Old Titans who destroyed them, and any other dwarves that came afterwards. So convinced, in fact, were the leaders in the mountainhomes that the next party to be sent out to Wildnesspaged was sent out of punishment. A brutal band of killers, led by Tulon "the bloodthirsty" Uzolshameb, was banished to Wildnesspaged where it was assumed they would perish. What follows are the found journal entries:"1st Granite, 25: We've heard the legends, but we're not scared. There's nothing we've met that doesn't bleed, and we're good at making things bleed. Legends be damned; if they knew their history instead of listening to rumours they'd remember that it was originally thieves and killers that founded Wildnesspaged in the first place. All we're doing is taking it back.
12th Granite: We've ventured inside and can already confirm that Wildnesspaged is a haunted place. There were ghostly apparitions that walked these halls, particularly the old living quarters, but that didn't stop us from choosing beds we thought were comfortable.
We went down as far as the stairs in this place will lead and we discovered an unfinished living quarter and dining hall, but with a working well. While we were contemplating this, a cave crocodile came charging out of the lower caverns. Took Mebzuth totally by surprise, poor bastard. Got his entire lower body just ripped right off. Still, gave the rest of us enough time to grab our weapons and take it on, and now it's a pile of blood and bone. Looks like it might be good for cooking, too.
Ast lost his nose in that fight, so now we're going to see if the hospital still works.
All in all, not a bad start. Cursed my hairy dwarven arse!"
No further journal entries were found.
The main entrance to the fortress is a large hall with a tower that goes up from its right half. The tower goes up about four floors where a retractable bridge permits access into the hills. This is mostly to allow ease-of-access for my dwarves since it serves no tactical purpose.
The main burial chambers are located outside the fortress and double as a historical hall. I once had a dwarf remain over the grave of a loved one for so long that they died of thirst.
The top floor of the fortress is only one level above the Meeting Hall, but about four or five levels undergound. There's nothing particularly remarkable about its development or content. The food stores just keep growing, being anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 units of food at any one time. The apartments themselves no longer need to grow as there are more rooms than living dwarves (there's more apartments on other floors).
From the main hub of the fortress, you can access every other part. In general, except for a few back-tunnels, the dwarves have to pass through the main meeting hall to get anywhere. From the apartments to anywhere else, they'll be forced to run into each other on a regular basis. The meeting hall also has a well and an enormous banquet-style table.
The floor beneath the meeting hall has the main bulk of the apartments. It's also where I have the wood shops and the metal smiths, as well as the military barracks and the jail.
The bottom floor is where I keep all the stone. One of the things I hate when digging out a fortress is all the extra stone stockpiles you wind up with, so what I do is set one or two masons to do nothing but carve blocks out of the stone we gather. In the earlier stages of the fortress, this is fine, as construction runs rampant and blocks are needed. When a fortress matures, however, it's less effective, as the block stockpile just grows and grows.
I assign our Yak and Two-humped Camel to it. Rimtar Entrancepapers, the grudge-filled Jeweler, and Sibrek Foggate drag the confused animals over.
We dig down six levels before striking Gabbro, a suitable mineral for carving out the large rooms we will need. According to the DF Wiki article, Gabbro contains a lot of interesting thing, Diamonds among them.
The apartments finish without a hitch and each dwarf is furnished with a bed, a cabinet, and a coffer. The meeting hall is hollowed out, the starting wagon is taken down, and now we focus our attention on building the kitchens and food stores!
And here's a shot of the doomed little dwarves, so happy, yet so hopeless:
Right, so, time to priotize objectives. Goblins aren't going to attack for a year or two, so we should spend our first year securing proper lodgings and food.
Yes, the Jungle of Influences, right next to the brook known as Dregestigma the Undignified Length. A ton of different minerals and heavy forests. The warm weather will keep my dwarves from dying of thirst and the neutral wilderness will prevent hunting injuries.
