Dwarf Fortress Story part 3: Silver and bones

apsu (65)in #dwarffortress • 8 years ago

Since the elves left, all we've been doing is mining. Mining, mining, mining. We've found more gems and some silver. Red tourmalines, bandfire opals, white chalcedonies... Mindless digging, day after day brought only a little pleasure to us. It looks like we might never find any iron from here. We can't make steel without iron and without steel, we could as well be elves.

A group of new migrants arrived. Our fame has grown as the caravans have told other settlements about us. Typical immigrant is a dwarf who is looking for a new life, when he or she hasn't succeeded in the old life. They are somewhat useless in here too.. fishers, papermakers, beekeepers.. at least some were decent folks. Some hunters, soldiers with combat experience, skilled craftdwarves looking forward to work with our gems and silver.

However this was something unexpected. Our population grew instantly to 41. That's over double than before.

I got worried we'd might get some kobolds or goblins ambushing us.. they must have heard of us since all these dwarves have too. We are attracting some real attention now.

We had our three barracks rooms and an archery range finally ready. Cilob appointed two new military squads, a melee squad "The Stormy Bells" lead by a newcomer, Kogan Uzolsazir. He didnt' have any friends amongst the newcomers, so Cilob didn't see him as a threat. Ïteb however was commanded to be the lowest ranked soldier in the squad. It was meant to be to mock her, but Ïteb was pleased to get practicing her skills once again. Bookkeeping had dulled her combat senses, but now she had to do both. Manage the bookkeeping and the military duties.

The archer squad was created using all the newcomer rangers. There were five dwarves with marksmanship experience. The most skillful one was Bëmbul. He knew some of the other rangers and was pleased to lead the group. Even if there was any risk of him rebelling, dwarves armed with crossbows are no real threat to real dwarves - those who use axes and war hammers in fights. Bëmbul is nobody to be scared of.

Or that's what we thought. Soon after giving the position of militia captain, he somehow flipped. Nobody was sure what caused it to happen, but he just ran off to a workshop and started to.. draw pictures of skeletons?

We had no way of helping him. He didn't want to leave, nobody could work in the workshop, so the butcher decided to give Bëmbul some bones. He butchered an animal hunters had brought and finally Bëmbul got to work.

After few days of work, he had finished what he had started. Bëmbul had created a hoary marmot bone door called Delethfullut. It was like he had woken up from a trance and suddenly he had extraordinary skills in bone carving. Funny thing though, he told us he had never before carved anything from bones.

Real funny.. I can't even imagine how it would feel to serve under a man like that. Maybe it'll be a strength, maybe it'll only frighten the others.

Kobolds! Our fears came true and the filthy thieves have started entering our Fortress area. We met two of the thieves just outside of our Fortress entrance!

Damn filthy thieves! Cibol ordered our military squads to drive the kobolds out.. or actually to kill them, but kobolds run fast and they have no intent of fighting. It'd still be a good run for the soldiers.

However, our soldiers were faster than any of us had thought. The kobolds tire quickly and our eager soldiers caught up one of the kobolds and killed it on the spot.

One of the dwarves, Ast, got stabbed in the foot and suddenly we all noticed what we are missing:
a hospital

Our miners started to quickly dig a room for a hospital area. We managed to get the beds, operation tables and got some basic goods for the hospital. We still needed soap, some cloth and such things for future.. or maybe even now.

Nobody knows how well Ast will recover. The wound is not bad itself, but we don't currently have any clean water or soap. If the wound gets infected... Ast will be lost. Death is a part of life, but we have to fight.

We can't have someone die at our fortress. Not yet.

Cilob was shocked. We weren't prepared. Next time we will be. Soap and water can save a dwarf! Can you belive that. SOAP AND WATER

Next time we'll have them both.

#gaming #fiction #blog #writing