Dwarf Fortress story - Part 2: Winter is coming
Even though in the first post I called the expedition leader, Cilab as a "he", she's not actually a he but a she. Sorry!
Life is so much more than only wealth. It is friends, food, beer.. happiness. Luckily, we never needed to eat our dogs. I do like dogs, they are our most loyal friends. Even though some of us prefer cats, nobody has the guts to say it outloud.
Every time a cat wanders in the fortress, it has two possible fates: if it's a male, it can live, if it's a female, it'll be butchered on the spot. Head off and the rest in a pot. This is made clear by Cilab. She's afraid of the worst CATastrophe which a fortress can meet.. a catsplosion. Cats breeding will create more cats, who will produce more cats.
The problem with the cats are not only the cats, but as they pick the dwarves they'll live with. Once you are chosen by a cat, you can't let it get butchered. You'll have to get rid of the cats before they choose their dwarf and thus, best way to do it is to prevent cats from breeding. Otherwise the fortress will be filled with cats.
Cilab is damn too traditional. We could just geld the cats and stop the breeding, but he's not into these fancy tricks. I'm sure she's afraid of them.
But now back to dogs. Our dog had puppies today! We all got really excited, but they joy didn't last. We saw a caravan approaching. Even though we didn't have much to trade, we could show off all our gems and crafts we had gotten ready. Cilab asked èzum to trade for an anvil, which we need for our smithy, but èzum is still really clueless about trading. I'm pretty she might even try trading a single wooden craft for an anvil. The traders will just be insulted by this!
We hurried to bring all the gems to our trading depot before the wagons arrived. The traders didn't mind us working there, while they were still unloading.
Cilob met with Uvash, the leader of the trade caravan. They traded news and made trade agreements. Cilob requested for booze, anvils and wood, as the forest we are living next to is quite small. If we'll go big, we'll be in dire need of logs after a year.
We got an anvil and some instruments! èzum calls herself a real trader and keeps on bragging with her success, even though we all felt like we lost more than we won.. we could have got two anvils with all those gems. We can't complain though, as one anvil is better than zero anvils and a load of gems.
We can't craft weapons on gems. We can't kill goblins with gems. We can't get rich with gems.. wait, what? We can get rich on gems. Talking about gems, the first snow rained back on us once again... once again we are without any water and I wish we will survive this winter once again.
Winter is coming
Another group of migrants arrived. They marched through the snow the same route as the caravan had left. It was still snowing so they were delighted to enter the mountain and our Fortress. It was 18 of us now. Cilob still hadn't become friends with any of the last group and now there were more and more people coming.
We finally expanded our sleeping quarters. We thought it'd be easier after a while, but we've been working more and more since we have more people coming all the time. We built our forge and expanded our dining hall too, but we haven't had time to prepare for goblins - or anything worse coming for us.
When we confronted Cilob to ask what he's going to do about the rising threat of looting goblins, she said she has all under control. Then she told us to... build her a mausoleum? I'm getting a feeling we might need someone else to lead us, as even though we are friends with her, she should be a good leader to impress all the newcomers. Otherwise she'll be thrown off from her position.
Blood, sweat and metal
First bars of copper were finished. ùshrir was sweaty from all the work at the forge, but he was pleased with his work. It was no steel, but first pieces of metal we got from our smelter. Some other dwarves wanted to touch the copper bar, but ùshrir swatted them away. Dîshmab the smith was admiring the growing pile of copper bars, when ùshrir brought him the first bar and asked, if it could be used to build a war hammer, and Dîshmab gave him a small nod.
Hammer is the weapon of a dwarf.
Dîshmab and ùsrir were celebrating the first hammer forged in our fortress and asked for a proper meal to celebrate. They marched in the food storage only to find them empty. We all had ignored the farmers complaints about our stocks running short during the winter. We had to butcher our alpacas and a tame duck which was living in our fortress.
Their sacrifice will save all of us. Blood of alpacas will be remembered.
After cold months of mining the spring finally arrived. We could see sunshine again, and even though the small ponds near us were still frozen, we saw the first elven caravan approaching. They hate us, but they appreciate our crafts. They can buy our gems while insulting us for eating meat and for chopping wood. Crazy! They even cage animals and eat human babies themselves! At least that's what my mother used to say when I was being naughty.
Elves bought nothing of value. We traded them some of our masterpiece mechanisms for fresh fruits which they're bringing from the south, but this was nothing but a disappointment. I wish the caravan would have been attacked by goblins at least to make this interesting! Nothing makes me as happy as killing goblins and watching elves scream.
Talking of goblins, Cilob finally got into her senses. We've been constructing archery ranges, weapon storages and barracks rooms in proximity of our entrance. She has also started to get familiar with all the newcomers. The cold and the hunger was good for her, as she understood she's mortal like us.
We all can die and all of us will die. All of our life is preparing for death and fighting against it. Our smithy is running, first military squad has been appointed and now we are ready. I'm already longing after a battle, as the life should be not only about survival, if life is as dull as this winter was. Nobody cares of only mining, eating and sleeping.
Blood and steel. That's what we need. That's what you need.
Ïteb got her share of the blood. She gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter, Atír, together with her husband Besmar. This is the best way to start our travel towards summer.
Afterwords
I was planning to write only from here and there about my fortress to make sure it wouldn't seem boring but.. the start is somewhat boring. I'd feel dishonest if I wrote only about riches, battle and adventure. My biggest issue was to get the smithy up and ensure the food sources.. my foolish cook made lunch from all my seeds and the dwarves were left in hunger.
Hunger and thirst are usually the first causes of a newbie losing their first fortress. Another one is messing up with water and drowning all the dwarves. Life is tough and I've paid my dues.
Love these stories, especially since I can't understand DF. I have to stick to Rimworld!
Thanks, nice to hear :) I haven't played Rimworld but it looks like one of the games which have got their inspiration from Dwarf Fortress, made a bit more simple and approachable. :) Looks like a real fun game too, though.
DF is beyond understanding for most of us, playing games like Nethack and ADOM were a big help in getting in the graphics of the game. Then afterwards, it's been tutorials after tutorials to learn everything important.
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