Dwarf Fortress: The RP (Dead)

[Zacharine]

Sorry guys, but I'm absolutely knackered at the moment. Long day at the office and so forth.

I'll have replies up tomorrow.

Oh, and as to what Pyroguy86 asked: task lists are fine, but I would prefer it if you did roleplay the stuff.

Noncritical stuff you can even GM in, just stay out of things like 'Oh, and my miners found diamonds buried in a large coal deposit next to a vein of adamantium.'

Don't worry, if you do cross a line, I'll let you know - and either retcon it, or incure a Karma point penalty. But honestly, small time stuff I'll be likely to accept without any problems; it's the veins of coal, valuable gemstones and veins of various ores that you might want to think twice.

But remember, if it is logical and fits, and you can point this out to me, I will be far more understanding.

EDIT: further delay by a day. These 12h days, handling one small crisis after another, are killing me. Damn corporate competition laws, and day-specific schedules of a multi-million project...

Well, at least the pay is g- come to think of it, it isn't. It really isn't. Oh well, beggars can't be chooser and all that.

 

[EvilJoe1]

Thats all good, take your time.

 

[STE3L]

lol, atlest you get paid. school you don't get that lugzury

 

[Zacharine]

Ahh, back with more. Man this was a hectic week.

@EvilJoe1: I could draw a map, however that isn?t exactly information any of your dwarves know. So I?d have to levy a karma cost to everyone. And/or, to any individual action that uses the knowledge to your advantage before you?ve gained that knowledge ?in-game?.

So: if everyone agrees to a small one-time karma penalty for the map, as well as a karma penalty for every action taken using knowledge from that map without it being known in-game, I'll post a map over here. OR for a fairly hefty one-time individual karma penalty I can make the map and PM it to those who want it. Any action taken with that map as basis without corresponding in-game information would be without karma penalties.

 

[Zacharine]

Hmm... its a start i guess...

Spoiler: OOC

Do we just continue giving commands like these?

Well since we have food the next priority would be weapons and defense:

First, I would send four dwarves down into the mine to dig deeper so that more ore could be possibly found.

Second, I would send five more dwarves to using the new-found wood to build makeshift barriers around the village, and to repair what buildings we could. If the buildings cant be repaired tear them down and start the anew.

Third, I would set the last dwarf as watch. You don't know if the princess guards would come again.

Gabbro puts up a hard resistance within the bowels of your mines. You dig deeper, but it is slow going. As of yet, you?ve hit nothing new: the layer of gabbro seems to be deep. The same story is repeated in both of the deeper shafts that were chosen for further digging, but on a first look the dozen unused offshoots dug out by dwarves of past generations show no signs of being any more lucrative.

Until, after two weeks of digging, one of the dwarves runs to you from all the way at the bottom of the mines. At first, you fear a collapse or some kind of accident has happened. But then your keen eyes focus of what the dwarf, unidentifiable from beneath all the soot, is carrying.

A gold nugget. You?ve struck an actual gold vein. The size and quality of the deposit are as of yet unknown, but finding gold is rarely a bad thing. But then the pessimistic side of you rears its ugly head: should the Nobles find out? the image of a small dwarven army with siege engines around your village is not a welcome one.

On other matters, the construction of village defenses is going fairly well. For the moment forgoing the old wall, you judge a simple palisade with a few archery towers to be a sufficient deterrent in the near future. If nothing else, no one can just walk into your camp, or beasts visit your food stores with impunity. Already the main gate, part of the old wall, with a somewhat if extremely poorly working set of stone doors, is the only entrance on the western side of you village. With a cliff face on the north providing adequate protection from all but the most agile mountain animals, you are confident a week more will see the eastern side blocked off as well, with the southern side taking less than a week in addition at the current pace.

So far, many of the buildings in the village have proven too unstable to repair without extreme care. All but the stone foundations can be considered scrap. This has lead to a problem: deconstruction would be in many cases slow and dangerous, though not as slow as rebuilding them part at a time.

As of the day when gold was struck, you?ve yet to seriously touch any of the old buildings, having seen it wiser to finish major portions of the palisade first.

As you contemplate the new finding, and the problem presented by the old buildings, a dwarf you?d sent to palisade construction runs towards you. A small group of dwarves is approaching, and from a distance they appear unarmed.

 

[Zacharine]

Thats all good, take your time.

You leave the wagon where it is; it is hardly quiet to pull around. Instead you load the crossbows with the surplus bolts that weren?t in the quiver carried by your guard. Sneaking closer and closer to the large pit, you are careful for any guards, but find none. Instead, you see the humans have gathered around the altar, all dozen of them, as they?ve just slaughtered a goat on it and are busy chanting in some unknown language. As you sneak closer, still undetected, you see one of the humans going to the side where Gurnmor Ingelsson lies tied and unconscious.

As the human begins to drag your dwarf towards the altar, you know time has run out. Twenty paces is the distance between your group and the altar, according to your estimation. You raise a hand as signal, and drop it down. Two bolts fly into the night.

One falls woefully short, despite the high ground you have; the crossbow fell apart before the bolt had properly left it. The other however, is a perfect hit to the unprotected side of the man dragging Gurnmor. The man cries out in pain, and falls to the ground with the bolt sticking from under his ribs. The humans react surprisingly quickly, and you need not know their language to understand the essence of what they are saying: ?more sacrifices?.

It is a glorious, if somewhat short-lived battle. Surprised from close range, lacking tactics and cohesion, unarmored, without shields and only a few clubs long enough to have equal reach to an axe, they are quickly slaughtered to the last man, without any additional injuries to your group.

Now that the battle is over, you take a closer look around the altar. This place has the markings of a seasonal camp, seeing occasional use every now and then. There are a couple of old fire-pits, old tools, stone knives colored by blood, and the bony remains of long-dead sacrificial animals. But there are no houses, no shelter beyond a rudimentary and torn fabric pinned by slender trees next to a larger boulder. Inside it, you find the crossbow and armor and weaponry of Gurnmor Ingelsson.

The altar itself you scrutinize only in passing; some of the markings you recognize as symbols of malicious spirits known to dwarves. Greater spirits at that, as they have individual names. You scoff at the stupidity of these humans, for worshipping such duplicitous and self-centered ghosts of creatures? ages dead. You?d love to smash this crude stone altar to pieces, but dare not: with blood having been spilled on it on this very night, it is impossible for you to say if the spirits worshipped could retaliate somehow. But this altar is somewhat hidden, there are no settlements nearby that you know of and only fools would begin to sacrifice on an altar like this. It should be safe to let it be for now, and without further sacrifices the cleansing light of the sun should in a few days scatter whatever power this place might have.

As the sun rises, your party of six has already left the site far behind, the wagon rolling nicely on the fairly smooth ground, and Gurnmor Ingelsson complaining a headache from ?mosquito bites? allows your dwarves some needed laughter after what happened on that night.

It is the early evening of the eleventh day after you set out from Cold Rocks Hold, when you finally reach the Southern Road, that travels east from Hammerfell. You estimate you are a day, at most two, away from the settlement. You see a group of dwarves approaching you from the eastern side of the road, riding what appear to be small horses, as you set up camp for the night. It is only a group of four, but even from the distance you see they are well armed, as the setting sun makes their grey metal armor shine brightly. Discreetly, your group keeps their weapons near just in case, as the dwarves reach you and dismount.

One of them approaches you, dressed in steel breastplate, chainmail and helmet, fine boots, and armed with a fine bronze shield and several throwing axes at the least. Etched into the breastplate and painted blue is the symbol of Clan Stronginthearm, one of the most prominent clans in Hammerfell due to their consistently large contributions to the militia and defences of the village.

?Ho there, friend!? the dwarf greets you. ?What brings you to the South Road??

(Regarding the map, see my short separate post before this.)

 

[Zacharine]

I will wait to mine for gems, I could us those gems as points for spears and such later on!
(I used to play Runescape a lot...)
[While on that subject, do I actually have any gem-crafter dwarves?]

I will permanently assign the best farmer dwarf the duty of tending to the plants.

send two dwarves to mine for limestone, something such as that could be use as relics for the alter, or for the alter itself.

have one dwarf begin building sheilds for all from the excess wood

And I will send the other dwarves to build traps in the forest, both pit traps for the large animals and box traps for the small animals.

Something as sacred as an alter should be built by everyone, after the traps are built the plants have been tended to, and the miners have come back everyone should work together to build an alter.

Okay, answer me this in your next posting: do you want the traps to kill or to capture? goes for both the smaller traps, as well as the trap-pits.

You don?t have actual gem-crafters, though every dwarf knows the absolute basics of everything. Also, using gems as spearheads seems kinda wasteful for combat purposes: sharpened rock of one type is pretty much only so sharp; the difference between gem-quality and plain rock, at least based on what I know, isn?t that much (at least on lower-class gems). Hm, not sure though. Will have to check once it becomes pertinent.

A few days pass. The labour outside, both for splitting limestone boulders for transport, as well as digging pits and setting traps taking their toll on your dwarves. Never before have they felt the glare of the sun this badly. The rest of your beer and ale stores are consumed rapidly, and trips to the river are commonplace. But despite a cloudless sky and hot temperatures in the plains, work gets done.

You?ve brought a few bigger slabs of limestone back with wheelbarrows that can be described as functional in polite company. Naturally, the two dwarves using them to cart the limestone are cursing the hapless constructs all the way to the nine hells, and openly threaten to take a swing at the carpenter who made them after sampling the mushroom rum. But you now have enough limestone to craft two decent sized doors, or construct a small altar. There are also over a dozen smaller pieces, ranging fist-sized to head-sized. The otherwise fallen mood, resulting from hard physical labour outdoors under the harsh summer sun, has been counterbalanced somewhat by your quick response to their religious needs.

The carpenter meanwhile has been busy working the lumber to shields. With no metal to use as rims, and rope and yarn pretty much used up for the main door, he was forced to use your supplies of leather for binding materials, which are now almost out. But you now have enough good quality wooden shields to give two for every dwarf.

There are also several pits dug, deep enough that a dwarf standing on the shoulders of another dwarf are not able to climb out without assistance. The pits have been covered to the best of your abilities with grass and leaves, supported by thin wooden crossbars underneath. The smaller traps, mostly basic wooden cages for the little animals are also in place. It remains to be seen how effective they will be; the smaller creatures have a remarkable sense of self-preservation bordering on absurd, as they skitter away or hide in holes on the ground from the slightest movement or noise your dwarves make. Some of them, you?ve never even seen, only heard, as they travel in the branches or undergrowth.

 

[Zacharine]

to do:
1. make funeral arangments, some what lavish. give a speach saying that we all knew what could happen and how Hild would want us to carry on.
2. arect a alter in the tunnle, as a reminder and tribute to the battle and to armock. (if he realy did help, better show our thanks, right?)
3. clear some of the near by trees and begin sculpting the stones outside.
4. train the guard. mock fights if need be.

as for myself, i work on controling the spazems and as a whole, get to a better state of health.

"..may she find a place in the Halls Of Moradin, and blessed be her rest."

The mood is sombre as your last words die down, and the stone door blocking the entrance to your first small crypt is sealed. It was created with somewhat haste, but with attention to detail, as it was dug to the walls of a secured cavern near your main hall and engraved with runes telling of her greatest achievements.

Just as the door mechanism slams shut and locks it for what is intended to be forever, pain begins to wrack your body. Heedless of your wants and needs, your legs cramp up in agony, forcing the nearest dwarf to lend you hand so that you do not fall flat on the floor. You grind your teeth in frustration and pain, waiting for the poison-induced seizure to pass. A few moments later, your muscles begin to loosen up, and you are left panting for air. It takes a moment to recover, and you see the members of your clan look at your. Their faces show no pity or contempt, but concern and grim determination.

You take one final steadying breath, and begin to give orders.

You've already declared the blood-red stone walls of the Tunnel sacred. Sending in a pair of dwarfs to mine it out, you tell them to be reverent and careful, as it is these stones that you've decided shall serve raw materials for the altar you plan to erect there.

When the rest of the tasks have been assigned, you notice your carpenter staying behind as the others leave.

He says he has a few ideas for militia training equipment. He is no mechanic, but with a series of pulleys and gears it ought to be possible to create a series of moving targets with wooden training weapons. Perhaps, with a windmill topside and wooden power axle, it could even be automated. But he also stresses that he is even less an architect than he is a mechanic, and designing and assembling a windmill is beyond his know-how.

As the days go by, your food stores are beginning to look grim on the meat side of things. You have plenty of food, but is is mostly mushrooms and vegetable dishes. With the way things have gone, morale is more important than ever, and a varying foodsupply is an important part of it. And that same train of thought leads you to another problem, though of somewhat more personal in nature. Your stores of medicinal herbs are dwindling, and you have enough for only a few weeks of continued poison-purgative treatment left. The battle has also left your antiseptic supplies dangerously low. Many of the herbs can likely be found from the woods, or traded from others; perhaps from one of the human towns that should be populating these woods with far greater density than their outposts in the arid plains. Of course, with the first death already behind you, you are somewhat hesitant to order any expeditions away to scout the area around you though intellectually you know it has to be done sooner or later.

You've selected your best fighter, Ian Thunderhammer, as your militia commander and your permanent guard. He managed to show some organizational skills during your period of unconsciousness, and also fought bravely beside you during the assault of the spiders. This has however left you without a dedicated woodcutter, but swinging an axe against wood takes no real innitiate ability to learn fast.

That again leads your thought back to the spiders. The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. As a leader of a clan, you know the food supply issues regarding groups. Even if you'd assume the caverns below would normally be filled with bats, giant mole-rats, lizards and the like, there is now way for a host of spiders that large both in individual and gorup size to survive any significant lenght of time. A horde taht large should have starved to death, much less have never existed, without some significant unknown food supply multiplier.

You have no solution to the dilemma as of yet, all you know is that the horde you fought was literally impossibly large for what you know of these caverns so far.

You wait until the eve before midsummer to erect the carefully smoothed and carved stone slabs from the Tunnel of Slaughter into a proper altar, and dedicate the altar to Armok. As you are no priest, you are a bit shaky on the proper rituals and prayers for consecration, but overall you feel Armok has accepted the altar as his own.

For two weeks since the burial the clan has worked hard, and now, as they lay their own meager offerings to the altar, they await the small feast that has been prepared at the meeting hall. You have no complaints of their work moral; on the outside, the seven natural limestone pillars have been mostly evenly smoothed. No tree stands within 100 paces of the enterance to your home. Inside, you've begun to mine the hematite ore, and your first batch of coke, processed from lignite, awaits at your smelter. Iron production can begin shortly, though it will be a shaky start unless more sources of fuel are found, or a significant amount of manpower dedicated to the smelter and forge, along with several wagonloads worth of wood.

The feast was a rousing success, despite the somewhat meager portions of meat served: your last rations on that front are spent, though your mushrooms keep growing at a good pace. Already you've made several kegs of rum from the surplus, something that has so far been a definate, if small, mood uplifter.

So, I'm ready on your part to take the training wheels off so to speak, like I did with EvilJoe a bit earlier. I'll edit this post with the item/facity/stores list, and we can see if you want any retcons (costing karma points), or if there are any mistakes (which I'll naturally fix if you spot any). Once we both agree on the status of your Fortress, I'll save the list to my files and we continue onwards as before, albeit with both less limitations, and no character shields.

EDIT:

Clan size: 9 dwarves including you as the leader.

Inventory as of Midsummer ingame time:
Processed metals:
- none

Unprocessed metals:
- Iron ore, 5 bars worth.

Stored Wood:
- Lots, 30+ cubic dwarves.

Stored food and drink:
- Berries and mushrooms for several meals for everyone.
- Rum (5 kegs), wine (2 barrels)
- Enough farming space and planted seeds to provide mushrooms, and later other plant products, as comfortable singular (if unvaried) foodsource for every dwarf year round with little rationing. Mushrooms provide plenty of surplus.

Tools and weapons:
- Crafting tools of all kinds
- several picks and shovels (mix of copper and steel)
- Two spears
- Two bronze battleaxes
- two steel handaxes
- 10 wooden shields (2 reinforced with steel).
- Four full sets of cured and hardened leather armor (full set = everything but a helmet).

Stored stone/available without mining:
- 50+ blocks of limestone.
- 1 fistful of sard gemstones (uncut)

Working facilities:
- A smelter.
- A forge.
- A mason's workshop
- A carpenter's workshop
- A mechanics workshop
- A small still (can produce only rum and wine until something other than mushrooms available)
- A kitchen
- good bedrooms for every dwarf.
- A meeting hall/dining room.
- Consecrated altar to Armok

Resouces available with work (lower limit is what is known to exist for sure, upper limit are educated reasonable guesses made by your dwarves):
- Lignite, 15-25 buckets of fuel after processing (1 bucket= enought to melt and craft a bar of metal. Continuous work reduces this, as there will be less need for reheating the smelter/forge)
- Hematite (Iron ore), 60-150+ bars worth.
- Sard gems (low worth) 5-10 fistfuls
- aboveground access to small ponds
- aboveground forest
- Unknown number and type of woodland creatures.

Clan treasure & trophies:
Hammer Steel- pendant, glows differently according to intentions of others nearby.

Alerts&Other:
- Medical supplies running low.
- No meat stored / reliably available
- No reliable, constant access to running fresh water / aquifer.
- Plans for efficient, elaborate, weight-triggered spiked trap-pits.

You are unsatisfied with anything? Last chance to use brownie/'gods take pity on you' points and ask for minor retcons regarding stores, facilities, buildings, availability etc. After you confirm this, it'll go down in records on my files about your clan.

 

[DragonofDecay86]

The leader of the band nods to the dwarf who brought him this news. It is a grim sign, whether the nobles have come back or a rouge group of dwarves have decided they could try and take the Iron Fists, it wouldn't end well.

"Grimhein, Didoof, and Thyron... go grab what weapons you can and bring them out. Have them aimed at the dwarves as they approach in case the decide to try anything. The rest of you get back to doing what you were, i will take that gold nugget... its best that we just leave the gold vein alone for now until we repair our fortress." Gragon says, grabbing the nugget and placing the gold nugget in a pocket.

-three dwarves (including leader) defending walls with what little weapons they have
-five dwarves gathering wood and stone for the repairs
-two dwarves begin to tear down the smallest buildings

Spoiler: OOC

Did you mean this kind of roleplaying? I added the commands at the bottom so they were easier to read

 

[STE3L]

will try to post tomorow or monday. lot of cachup to do...

 

[One Seven One]

Okay, answer me this in your next posting: do you want the traps to kill or to capture? goes for both the smaller traps, as well as the trap-pits.

Both are ment to kill.

And if you were asking what I should use the limestone for, I'll use it for the alter and after some preparation I'll get more dwarves to get limestone for doors.

As for the labor
- Five dwarves to gather fruits, plants, and seeds.
- Three to check the traps and take home whatever my be found.
- One + me to search for rocks that could be used for spears and such.
- And the other has the permanent job of tending to the plants.

"Men, In a short time we've already made a place we could call home, you've all made me proud and I'm proud to be called your leader."

 

[EvilJoe1]

"Good evening friend and brother dwarf, honor to clan Stronginthearm. We are on our way to Hammerfell, we are to set up trade from the new settlement of Cold Rocks Hold. Will you favor us by breaking bread in our camp tonight?"

 

[STE3L]

yes it all seems in order to me.

my to do list for this round:

1, sent to scout party's, two dwarfs each, to scout the near by Forrest and make wooden traps (both to capture and to kill), take samples of all the nearby herbs, flowers and leaves, also be on the look out for any good landmarks, secondary entrances (to emplane how the spiders service with no food in the caves) or water, marking any on a map. orders are to hight tail it if they see larger tracks or anything that may be dangerous.
2, work with the carpenter and anyone with relevant experience to draw up potable plans for traps and the training rig, testing any plans that we think will work on a much smaller scale.
3, begin work on a well and work on digging out the Lignite

 

[Zacharine]

The leader of the band nods to the dwarf who brought him this news. It is a grim sign, whether the nobles have come back or a rouge group of dwarves have decided they could try and take the Iron Fists, it wouldn't end well.

"Grimhein, Didoof, and Thyron... go grab what weapons you can and bring them out. Have them aimed at the dwarves as they approach in case the decide to try anything. The rest of you get back to doing what you were, i will take that gold nugget... its best that we just leave the gold vein alone for now until we repair our fortress." Gragon says, grabbing the nugget and placing the gold nugget in a pocket.

-three dwarves (including leader) defending walls with what little weapons they have
-five dwarves gathering wood and stone for the repairs
-two dwarves begin to tear down the smallest buildings

Spoiler: OOC

Did you mean this kind of roleplaying? I added the commands at the bottom so they were easier to read

Exactly like this.

OT:

Your weapons, meager as they are, are brought nearby, and your clan is silently preparing for a fight.

For the moment, it seems unnecessary, as the leading dwarf from the group yells from afar.

"We beseech thee, venerable Iron Fist! We are of the clan Bold Steel, falsely accused and unlawfully exiled from Mountainhome! We are leaving the mountains for good, but are low on all supplies and poorly equipped for the dangers of the road! We beseech and beg thee, venerable Iron Fist, aid us in time of need!"

You are a bit out of touch with clan matters of Mountainhome, but you have never heard anything ill of the Bold Steel. But it is not like the Nobles to exile an entire clan without good reason. These people may very well be genuine, or a true band of outlaws.

You food stores contain a lot of meat, and you have some tanned hides. There are some basic tools, your own weapons you could offer, and of course, wood of all sizes. But your own situation is not that much better than theirs, if their plight is genuine.

Tradition states that as you are not kin by blood you are not required to help them, but giving what you can spare would be honorable. Doing a quick recount of your stores, as estimating the size of the group approaching as around dozen, donating about half of all you have- weapons, food, hides and tools alike- could be considered generous, and if you so demand, indebt them to you. Half your food and animal hides, plus some tools, would be kind and traditional minimum for blood relatives (which you are not).

The group, having heard no response for the minute you pondered all this, continues towards your gate. They are ~200 paces out, well within range for a crossbow, drawing by hand a wagon that mostly empty from what you can see.

 

[Zacharine]

"Good evening friend and brother dwarf, honor to clan Stronginthearm. We are on our way to Hammerfell, we are to set up trade from the new settlement of Cold Rocks Hold. Will you favor us by breaking bread in our camp tonight?"

The dwarf seems pleased, but does not approach closer.

?Were it that I could and thank you for the offer, but duty calls. We are on a long-distance patrol, and still have some leagues ahead of us to travel. It is good to see a friendly travellers, for I fear we may not have too many in the future. Dark times are ahead. Mountainhome has all but closed their gates, roumours say several clans have left or were exiled. They talk of a power struggle over there, and if Mountainhome falls to further chaos no settlement will escape unscathed. As if that wasn?t enough, human bandits are plaguing the distant parts of the trade roads and goblins tribes are more up and about than usual. Hammerfell prepares for the worst.?

You grimace from these news. Mountainhome must have been more badly off then you guessed.

?Certainly the gates of Hammerfell are not closed? We have travelled a tenday over the plains to meet our kindred. And what is this of Mountainhome, what clans have left?? you ask.

?Shelter and trade you will find and friends are always welcome to Hammerfell, but do not expect a feast or low prices. As of the clans, I have heard rumours, but know for certain only of one:The Blood Helmets. Ask around Hammerfell, the mayor if no one else, is sure to know. Safe travel and Moradin be with you.?

You return the well-wishing, and watch them mount up and ride away.

You arrive at high noon the next day. The walls are high, and seem to be sturdy. You pass under a steel porticullis, the guards stopping you only to ask where you are from and your business to Hammerfell before letting you pass.

The guards too seemed to be of clan Stronginthearm, well armed and armored.

You head to the center of the small village; there are not that many buildings topside, but you spy several access points to underground facilities. One of the buildings is a large green stone pavilion, supported by marble pillars.

It is the marketplace for caravans, and only legal place in Hammerfell for caravans to sell their wares. In short order, you have your wagon pulled under the dome, and your samples ready for a bit of show and tell.

Luck seems to be on your side, as the pavilion is otherwise empty. No other caravans or traders competing for attention.

News has spread around the town fairly quickly, and you see several dwarfs gathering, standing a respectable distance away while you unload. But then one of them approaches confidently as you finish unloading. She dressed better than others, in blue and purple silk, and wearing an elaborate golden amulet of Issaries the Earnest, patron of traders and commerence.

This she-dwarf must be the settlement Broker.

Well, forget about impressing the local populace or asking for an audience first. When it comes to trading and deals, she is the final word of the community and supreme judge, answerable only to the mayor. Some rumours say at Hammerfell the position is so prestigious and important enough that whomever holds the title of Broker has to publically disavow any clan connections for the duration of the office. But if you wish any sort of long-term agreement, at Hammerfell it is above all else the Broker whom you must convince.

She is also fairly young, and of not insignificant beauty, with her braided beard and raven-black shoulder-lenght hair. In fact, she seems only in her fifties, and younger than you. You can only hope that instead of a ploy to distract you, this is more of a sign that she hasn't held the position for long. Nonetheless, there is the sinking feeling in your gut that negotiations with her will be tough.

So, what are you prepared to promise in future, what items are you interested (both immediately and in future), and how hard are you prepared to haggle (on a scale from 1-10)? Push too little, and you will get undervalued for your goods/overpriced. Push too hard, and you might anger the Broker, meaning no long-term deal at this point + the locals will not be inclined to trade with you on normal prices.

Also, is there something else you wish to accomplish while in town, and any specific tricks or methods to achieve the trades you wish?

 

[Zacharine]

Rest of posts up tomorrow. Was too busy today at work to even have coffee breaks free for non-work related topics.

If anyone missed my last short general post

So: if everyone agrees to a small one-time karma penalty for the map, as well as a karma penalty for every action taken using knowledge from that map without it being known in-game, I'll post a map over here. OR for a fairly hefty one-time individual karma penalty I can make the map and PM it to those who want it. Any action taken with that map as basis without corresponding in-game information would be without karma penalties.

regarding EvilJoe1:s request for a map.

Also, pyroguy86 got the right idea about RPing the stuff. Props for that. In fact, if you wish, you can even RP a bit more of the stuff. Don't be too afraid of making decisions and outcomes to the small situations, simply stay away from stuff that would give you significant advantage or be illogical in context.

 

[DragonofDecay86]

"We are short on supplies this season, but you may come and take what we have to offer. You may also have your woman, children, and elders stay inside our walls if you plan on staying for a few days to rest. We know how unfair the nobles can be." Gragon stated, motioning for his clan to lower their weapons.

Gragon motioned for Didoof to go and grab what little supplies that were free and ready them for the Bold Steel when they came forward. What was taken was half of their food supply, a few tanned hides, and a wagon full of wood. It was all dumped together and awaited the Bold Steel clan to come and pick it up.

The other dwarves were either sent back to repairing the buildings or cutting wood for new buildings.

 

[Zacharine]

Snip

Another week passes with barely a notice. The traps have, despite your best efforts, remained empty. Curiously, not even the trap pits have been ?triggered?, their thin wooden and soil covering undisturbed by anything large enough to crash down. The feline tracks that went near one and through the soil where you dug the pit, now swerve around it. It is as if the felines know, or at least suspect, that something has changed in the ground and bears them ill will. In the case of the smaller traps, you see signs that the smaller critters are avoiding the area where the smell of your dwarves linger ; this seems to include the smaller wooden traps. Perhaps, with a little waiting, better results will be achieved though in the case of larger animals you are uncertain as at least the felines have shown some signs of intelligence.

As a curiosity, when checking the traps, one of your dwarves saw a crocodile almost leap out of the water, and attempt to attack one of the feline creatures that was out drinking. However, it failed, as it seems the felines have adapted a pack mentality to even drinking: three keep watch while one drinks, and the warning given by the alert members was sufficient for the drinking feline to jump back far enough to avoid the deadly jaws of the croc.

Fruits, seeds and leaves at least seem plentiful, though you quickly forage edible ones from close vicinity. Plants of all kinds you know you could dig out and transplant nearer to your entrance with some work, but are somewhat uncertain of prospective results: there is not too much shade to be had near your small palisade, and many of the plants seem to prosper when away from direct, scorching sunlight. The addition to diet is welcome, as plain mushrooms can get kind of bland no matter how well prepared.

As far as finding rocks for spears, you find plenty. In fact, the very natural walls of your home contain some, and the deeper tunnels are made of chalk stone. All it requires is digging it out, cutting to suitable pieces and sharpening the edges. Outside, you find only more chalk laying on the ground, and small lumps of limestone. Hardly optimal in either case, but in lack of any hard stone, Obsidian or metals, it will do.

Surprisingly, your underground farm is doing well. Too well in fact, if your dedicated farmer is to be believed. He has not watered the soil in several days, and yet it remains moist. You are somewhat uncertain what could be causing it, but your first instinct is to not worry too much about it. After all, it is benefitting you, so why bother?

 

[Zacharine]

"We are short on supplies this season, but you may come and take what we have to offer. You may also have your woman, children, and elders stay inside our walls if you plan on staying for a few days to rest. We know how unfair the nobles can be." Gragon stated, motioning for his clan to lower their weapons.

Gragon motioned for Didoof to go and grab what little supplies that were free and ready them for the Bold Steel when they came forward. What was taken was half of their food supply, a few tanned hides, and a wagon full of wood. It was all dumped together and awaited the Bold Steel clan to come and pick it up.

The other dwarves were either sent back to repairing the buildings or cutting wood for new buildings.

As they near you, you see a few very young children peer their heads from behind the adults at your words. And once they actually arrive at your gates, their relief is palpable. Indeed, their wagon is almost empty, with only a single barrel of water, one hammer, an axe and a saw in it and a length of rope, covered by a torn and ragged piece of leather. You trade greetings, and exchange a few words, before showing them what you have prepared for them to take away. One of the females even begins to cry in relief at seeing the prepared barrels of meat and the fresh hides certain to offer shelter from wind, sun and cold. And as they see the wagon of wood, they praise your generosity in face of your own clearly visible lack of prosperity.

They say they are heading northwest, to area where the wooden lands turn into the hilly wastelands of the north. Your gifts have brought hope back into their hearts, and they promise to never forget the kindness and honor you showed to them. As they depart, a mere hour after you saw them, they say they never again intend to deal with Mountainhome, as long as the nobles are in power at least, but they shall always consider the Iron Fists their friends. As is proper, your clan takes the compliments humbly, and with stoicism and dignity, but you can see they wholeheartedly approve of your decision.

Two more weeks have gone by since then, and the early marks of autumn are becoming visible. Not much new stone has been needed for repairs as of yet, as most of the foundations are in good order. Wood, on the other hand, has been going as fast as you?ve managed to cut it.

So far, out of your settlement?s 12 aboveground buildings, you?ve fixed four, one of them being the storehouse repaired earlier. Before the fall of your clan, the repaired buildings acted as an armory, a combined aboveground butchery/kitchen and a backup dormitory for visiting dwarves and students. However, only the butchery and kitchen retain any semblance to what they used to be, as the buildings are mostly simply sturdy wood walls and a roof, resting upon stone foundations.

You have also managed to finish the eastern portion of the palisade, with the southern side being the only part without any solid protection.

As more and more of the settlement sheds off the dust and disrepair of years past, the mood in your clan seems to rise appropriately. Getting back to work, not just for themselves but for the future of the clan, has done wonders for your clan?s self respect and dignity.

Your decision have not been questioned, but Didoof and Grinheim among others have expressed a certain puzzlement regarding your decision to leave the vein of gold alone. Certainly, their statement goes, mining gold and then trading it for services or items you lack would help the clan prosper.

Sometimes you wonder if they are too naïve to believe the Nobles would leave you alone, when they have already raided you in all but name once already. Though on the other hand, perhaps their natural inability to grasp the thoughts of Nobles on instinctual level is a blessing more than anything. After all, it isn?t like the Nobles have done a good job of keeping the situation stable, or acted with any particular level-headedness.

 

[Zacharine]

yes it all seems in order to me.

my to do list for this round:

1, sent to scout party's, two dwarfs each, to scout the near by Forrest and make wooden traps (both to capture and to kill), take samples of all the nearby herbs, flowers and leaves, also be on the look out for any good landmarks, secondary entrances (to emplane how the spiders service with no food in the caves) or water, marking any on a map. orders are to hight tail it if they see larger tracks or anything that may be dangerous.
2, work with the carpenter and anyone with relevant experience to draw up potable plans for traps and the training rig, testing any plans that we think will work on a much smaller scale.
3, begin work on a well and work on digging out the Lignite

With priorities reorganized, it comes as a pleasant change to the daily routine for your clan. Outdoors, though it is often raining a little, has fresh air and holds almost as many secrects as the bosom of mother earth.

Pleanty of plants, roots, herbs and berries are gathered, but there are plenty of ones that are unknown to you. Unfortunetaly, most of what you do recognize are useless as nothing more than poor spices, or as foodstuff to make a meal more robust, and you've found no plants with medical qualites known to you. One that is unknown to you, is a smally berry that upon crushing releases a stench quite unlike any other, as you find out to your own detriment.

Your dwarves do manage to implement over a dozen smaller trap cages, some with wooden spikes and some with not, to trap some of the smaller critters scurrying about. So far, you've identified at elast two different kinds of moles (one of them has surprisingly tender meat, as you know from past experience), over a dozen species of birds, and several animals that are entirely unknown to you. But there is nothing larger than your head in the vicinity, at least from what your dwarves found out.

They also report they've seen no secondary enterances to the caverns, nor anything that might seem palatable to a spider even assuming they could get to it.

They do draw a fairly good map of the surrounding close area: there are several small ponds of water near, plenty of variable wood ranging from oak to birch, and the ground is solidly packed and dense with roots. But they report no signs of civilization, no large animal tracks, nor anything truly interesting. To them, a forest is a forest is a forest, and it has only so many practical applications.

It is the end of the tenday following midsummer, and you've mined the small deposit of lignite clean. 8 buckets worth of it is stored, wet and safe, while the rest has been used to create bars of iron. You now have 14 bars of iron, waiting for use, at your stores.

Somewhat interestingly, the lignite was connected to the caverns below, and mining it out created a new enterance, albeit a small one. When your miner noticed this, he came back to report double-time, as he saw something unexpected.

Spider corpses, laying on the cavern floors. You never fought that far, and even from afar it is easy to see these spiders were mutilated badly. They died where they lay, and yet you didn't kill them.

Your mason quickly blocked and walled off the new enterance, making your fortress once again secure.

On that matter, you've called for designs for the training equipment, but it is slow going. The combination of gears, rope, materials and size are somewhat of a headache, as there are no mechanical geniuses among your clan. You have plans that ought to work with dwarf power, and easily upgraded to wind power, to drive the training equipment, but the size alone will not make this an easy project: as it stands, the primary gear system would be larger than your own bedroom, need to be supported from beneath for it not to collapse. This would essentially mean the floor of the training room would need to be carefully built over the majority of the gears.

You also have plans for a well, but ran into a snag right off the bat: a well is pretty useless without a source of water. You'll need to find and underground lake, an aquifier, or dig out a water silo beneath your main fortress and then somehow fill it up.

As you hear a thunderstorm hammer the outside, and water again begins to seep into the rocks around you, you think here just might be a way to turn things into your advantage. A multitude of carved aqueducts at your walls and ceilings might channel the water to where you want, but it would be a monumental undertaking: not because it is difficult, but because the stone crafting it would require would be extremely slow going in order to completely cover your home ceiling with such miniature water ducts.