I wrote this a while ago. It gave my friend a chuckle. Maybe you too.
Created by the Overseer of The Playful Razor, a hardy tribe of truly excellent dwarves who resisted the genocide inflicted upon the civilization of The Lenses of Simplicity by the loathesome goblins of The Small Seductions. May this work serve as a guideline for future operations.
-At the fortress of Metaltribes, during the Age of Myth, year 31 and forwards.
Notes on some DFHack Utilities
Remember to take a look in the DFHack gui/control-panel. I have enabled various features to reduce the tedium of certain aspects of overseeing a fort.
These are notes on certain utilities that I either run selectively, or which diverge from the expected behavior of the game. There are many more that are useful or active, such as dwarfvet - which enables healthcare for animals by Animal Caretakers. But this is a behavior I expect from the game, it just hasn’t been implemented.
gui/design is a highly useful tool for designating areas for mining, especially for resource mining. It allows for many automatically calculated shapes, such as a grid and a oval (with the ability to give priority - which is desirable for large but non-urgent mining operations. Follow this by the order to automatically Mine any tiles that have a matching vein.
agitation-rebalance is a fascinating little tool that one may or may not want to enable. It re-adjusts the logic by which Enemies appear in the map, with configuration options.
combine-all is a highly useful order to tell the dwarves to combine stacks of goods into containers until full.
deteriorate is also both useful but interesting command, allowing for things strewn about on the map to slowly deteriorate. I would consider slowing the rate down as the default seems a bit fast, getting rid of things within months. Note that deteriorating clothes do count as “being destroyed”, upsetting the tailors (and generating an alert). A potential perpetual misery machine. I can however set every item type (corpses, clothes, food, usable-parts, unusable-parts) to deteriorate at their own rate with deteriorate frequency #DAYS ITEMTYPE ( example: deteriorate frequency 30 corpses). I have chosen to allow every item type to deteriorate at varying speeds. Including food.
emigration allows unhappy dwarves to leave. May be useful in bigger forts with incurably cantankerous dwarves.
pop-cap and hermit are also of interest, as I have often found the quickly ballooning fort both tedious and uninspiring to manage.
deathcause highly helpful tool to use on corpses to find out what was the cause of their demise
On the suggestion from the Acumen Insane, and trying to resolve the current crisis of not having access to clay or sand, I have used the forbidden tool of changelayer. This turned certain layers of the caverns in to what seemed like Basalt, but once Mined, revealed red sand and fire clay, as expected. As said though, this is a forbidden tool and it’s use may have consequences down the line, as it’s effects reach beyond the confines of the current area. Have I replaced all of the world’s granite with weirdly behaving basalt? We shall see. This may the price way pay to preserve the critically endangered civilization of The Lenses of Simplicity.
Other:
One of my better, if laboursome ideas was to line all tunnels with certain colored stone to make it easier for me to tell which section belongs to which tunnel. This makes it easier for me to tell if a certain tunnel is safe and where it connects to.
Work Orders:
I have attempted to create a list of work orders importable by DFHack that should keep the fortress going theoretically without too much useless job cancellation spam (assuming that the work orders aren’t glitched - how our Stonecutter came to create over a thousand obsidian blocks, I do not know). Of course, this is only a theory that assumes a fairly perfect working conditions in the fort and in the world in general - which has never happened in the history of any fort, in any world, since the dawn of possible time. I also do not have the degrees of autism required to make sure that there’s always just enough raw materials, instead we will gather as much as we can and maybe sell or just dump surplus if necessary. In other words: though many of these orders will check for raw material availability (to avoid cancellation spam - which sounds better on paper than it actually works in practice), they do generally assume a surplus and plenty of stock space. This also attempts to save a stock of certain important items that are needed for artifact creation.
Important Note: when editing Work Orders, do not rely on the quicksave. Use the Export. I have observed Work Orders, Squad Assignments etc. getting lost between quicksaves.
Wood Industry:
Important note on autochop: trees are well known to be vindictive and dangerous, possibly due to their alignment with the elves. As such, great care must be taken when chopping as at times even the most skilled axedwarves have found themselves unable to avoid the falling trunks - leading to injury and even death. This is especially true in heavily forested areas. Be mindful of trees leaning onto one another as these are especially prone to conspiring against their rightful fate as fuel for the great dwarven industry. It is recommended to only assign autochop to the more agreeable fungal trees in the caverns. I do have a theory that this isn’t an issue with younger trees.
Barrels are of the highest importance. Orders attempt to keep a large stock of them available at all times so long as there are enough materials, but if not possible, every day we try to at least make enough for a few drinks. Failure should result in a useful alert about the lack of logs. Note that should the situation become truly dire, we can now make large (and heavy) pots from plain rock instead.
We try to keep a little stock of beds, bins, buckets, splints and crutches provided there are enough logs.
And if there’s a surplus of wood, we make a yearly check that we have a few wheelbarrows and ladders.
Charcoal is made in bulk every month, should there be a need and should there be enough logs. This will burn through our stocks very fast and an active metal etc. industry will quickly deplete wood storages.
30 Ash is made every month if needed and if there are enough logs. This is enough for both Potash and Lye production as planned, leaving some over for glazing (though now that jugs can be made of rock, I’m not particularly interested in earthenwares beyond novelty, though rock is heavy).
10 Potash is made seasonally if needed. Theoretically enough to effectively fertilize up to 10 1x3 size farms every season. There should be an alert if there isn’t enough ash (which should only happen if there isn’t enough wood). Potash can also be refined into Pearlash for making clear/crystal glass but as it’s a novelty need, I don’t care to make the work order for it.
Lye is made as needed, provided there are enough raw materials. NOTE: We DO Need to make the Ashery stockpile (for lye but may as well put ash there too) because it seems Dwarves do not know how to count Lye in buckets, which are often left on the Workshop floor, unaccounted. Meaning Lye production will quickly eat up both ash and bucket storages. Lye in stockpiles will go to a barrel and the bucket is freed for continued use. We do need Lye for soap.
Autism note: Featherwood, Candlenut and Kapok are pretty light materials. Might be worth prioritizing them for bins if they happen to be available in the map. However at the time of writing this, dwarves care not for the choices for wood and consider it all the same. Understandable but inconvenient. In other words, if we want a specific wood for an object, we’ll need a workshop dedicated to taking material only from a stockpile configured to only take that specific wood (and we’ll have to somehow prevent the normal work orders from trying to fulfill through that workshop, making unintended objects from the specific wood). And on that note, Nether-cap is magma-safe, which is important if we want to make Screw Pumps (Pipe Sections and Giant Corkscrews) for magma and don’t have enough magma-safe metal or glass.
Consider the possibility of using the strangely cold nether-cap for a fridge (this has no effect on food spoilage but I’d grant myself style points).
Brewing:
There’s a daily check to make 5 drinks from plants provided that there are 5 barrels and not enough drinks. This should take care of the start of every fort where the intended upkeep order of 50 drinks is too much. I repeat, the drinks are made from plants, which should be easier to achieve than fruit (let alone honey). Beyond that, there’s an attempt to make drinks up to a 1000 units after which brewers may take a holiday. Mead is made should there be honey, and this is checked seasonally. A hive produces honey once per 6 months. Increase frequency should you become hive minded.
While not recommended for drinking, we occasionaly check if some rare Kobold Bulbs have made it into our stockpiles and refine those into Gnomeblight for the purpose of selling or entertainment, if we come by Gnomes. At the time we do not know of other plants to extract anything interesting from.
Food:
Every day we will try to make at least a little bit of food should none be available. Failure should result in an alert. Useful mainly for the beginning of a fort. Failing that, we will seek to maintain a stockpile of at least 1000 units of food, preparing Easy Meals at monthly bulks if needed. Should there be enough surplus of both prepared and unprepared food, we’ll start creating Fine and Lavish meals to our heart’s content.
IMPORTANT: Dwarves can and WILL use Drinks to commit such culinary crimes as Beer Stew. Using alcohol as a material for fine and lavish meals seems to come naturally to them. Thankfully DFHack provides a tool to forbid such foolishness and I have set up an order to ban-cooking all to prevent this - along with preventing the cooking of other useful items as well, such as seeds and oil - I dread to think what kind of meals dwarves create with just oil. Alternative is to just tell the kitchen to only take from the raw food stockpile(s). If you do this, more careful stockpile management is warranted as if the stockpile gets filled, there will be job cancellation spam for the inability to use materials that aren’t in the stockpile.
Or, make really really big raw food stockpiles and manage them manually if the need arises.
Cooks should have the intuitive sense to save any tallow from fat without being explicitly told to do so. There should be enough for soap, provided we have at least some breeding livestock.
There’s also an active DFHack order to automilk any available creatures when possible, and this milk is then made into cheese with autocheese. This seems preferrable to using work orders as the quantities are so unpredictable and every year when Milkers hear the order to milk an animal, they complain if there are none available.
Furniture in general:
We try to keep a small stock of basic furniture at all times. For rock furniture the check is to every month to see if there are 5 available. Rock availability really shouldn’t ever be an issue. This should make quickfort easy, though unfortunately we cannot add quality stipulations to the blueprints. A mere hauler could end up with a bed fit for kings. Of course we can always forego the pre-made plans (though they include zones which we do want), and manually add the 44xhowever many coffers, doors, beds and cabinets to each room with the desired quality constraints. Or perhaps we’ll allow that life isn’t fair and sometimes dwarves just get lucky. However, dwarves who embody the finest dilligence and hone their skills to the greatest levels should receive an especially made statue in their quarters.
Other Frequent Use Rock Items:
Mechanism stock is kept at 5. We’ll need to make a large order once we get into various projects requiring them.
We try to keep empty rock Mugs at 5 but this seemed janky. Order a bunch when you can spare the work time and hope the 5 a year in addition keeps the dwarves happy enough. Of course we’ll want to use finer materials should they be available in abundance.
A few Rock Jugs are made if no better options are available (light metal or earthenware). Rock jugs are very heavy but better than nothing. Jugs are needed for honey and oil and as such aren’t in the highest priority of things to have.
Some Rock Scroll Rollers are made every year if needed, as well as Quires and Book Bindings.
Crafts:
We will cut Gems in bulk every season. Probably worth having a small stockpile for rough gems and an optional bigger stockpile for any items we want to encrust. Sharing with rock stockpile works initially but after a few years, there’s unlikely to be space for anything but rocks there, and gems aren’t as abundant. If this is done, remember to also set a stockpile from which the gems are taken for encrusting.
Daily check for at least a few bones, horns and shells and those will be made into sellable crafts. Please do have a dedicated stockpile for these. Fisherdwarves are very effective at bringing up shells from mussels.
Wax crafts are made occasionally should there be material available.
Every year, 30 rock crafts are made, hopefully by those who wouldn’t otherwise craft but like it, or have relevant aspirations. It’s a hobby we generally allow for those dwarves who enjoy doing it, leaving the above materials for the professional crafters. Though the quantity of items tends to trump quality pretty quickly.
Glassworks and Kiln:
We currently have no access to either sand nor clay. The latter is of little interest now, as mentioned before. Clay jugs are labour intensive to make and have a limited use. However we of course would like to have the option to make clay goods for novelty needs. Glass too. The greenhouse would benefit from a glass roof, at least according to the farmers who insist that the outside crops would grow better with sunlight. I call this superstition, but the dwarves that venture outside into the sun frequently are slightly strange.
We do have an order to make Plaster Powder for the hospital if there are materials available. Currently, we do not. A concern.
Every year we also create a small amount of Quicklime, which is then immediately refined into Milk of Lime for the sake of making the occasional Parchment sheet. (Great idea, doesn’t work in practice because the dwarves don’t know how to count milk of lime. Now i have… a lot)
Making Glass Terrariums (Cages) could be preferrable to metal. They are lighter but still sellable to the ever fussy elves (just tell them we used magma-based technology). They can also be used as aquariums.
Vials are the only thing that necessitates glassworks, and we only need those if we have access to Valley Herbs and thereby Golden Salve - the only use of which is to sell it to humans and elves who like it for some reason.
Blacksmithing
The heart of all that is good and proper in a dwarven society. We have orders to smelt available ore every day until we have at least a 100 bars of metal. 200 in the case of copper (becuase tetrahedrite also produces silver, but less). Fuel is checked for.
We also make a daily check for any objects marked for melting. A melt stockpile for inferior metal goods would be a good idea.
Obviously we would like to have a magma smelter but that may always take a while to achieve.
As the availability of metal impacts the products, we do not have work orders for everything. However the current orders check for material availability so you can just leave them and add new ones to match the materials you do have. Of course, take care to not use bars you bought but intended for something else. You may want to pause or remove orders that attempt to use materials you don’t wish to use.
Current orders are for 3 empty zinc cages. Be careful of creatures dropping things in them as those would be considered not empty. Look into the cages and Dump the offending items.
10 Zinc Jugs for the beekeepers.
10 Zinc flasks for drinks.
10 Sets of Copper Armor (Helm, Breastplate, Two Gauntlets, Greaves, Two High Boots, Shield). Your Armor stockpile is set to only accept the finest goods so make sure to have a melt pile for the inferior ones. The melt stockpile should also get materials from goblins. Mind that getting to the point where the conditions for all the armor pieces are satisfied might take a lot of charcoal, especially with an amateur Armourer.
3 copper Copper Weapons of each type (including picks). It would be nice to make the military be conscious of quality but some just insist upon using whatever they get their hands on, and then they go and get attached to it… This would require a certain amount of micromanagement.
We also make Copper Bolts seasonally.
Chains, bins, etc. are better produced on the base of a need, rather than having them available by default.
Leather and Textile Industry
I have enabled autoshear as this is preferrable behavior to trying to use a work order.
Thread is then spun from any available material. This is checked daily to account for anything we might have by other means than shearing. Not that this will create thread out of things that cannot be made into cloth, notably draltha hair but many other as well.
Plants are Processed into thread daily, in bulk. Notably from pig tails but any other materials as well should they be available. A good pig tail farm should give us plenty of clothing in the absence of finer materials.
Weavers have the good sense to pick up webs without particular instruction, though giving them guard dogs or other animals could be recommended.
Autobutcher should take care of leather industry, provided that we have enough animals.
Available materials are then processed into Thread, Leather and Cloth. A dye dwarf will attempt to dye cloth where possible. Do not dye thread as there will be threads that cannot be used for anything other that healthcare. Remember that there are plenty of ways to create dyes at the Dyer’s Workshop itself, not all need be milled!
Few sets of Leather Armor (Cap, Armor, Gloves, Leggings, Low Boot) are made seasonally if needed. Civilians may use some of these as well (Caps and Gloves). Poor quality items are placed in the trade stockpile as the armor stockpile won’t take subpar wares. Hopefully civilians will help themselves to these rather than the armor stockpile intended for the ranged militia (they won’t, for the dwarven mind thirsts for finery).
If there is an abundance of leather, some shoes are made as well.
We also try to keep a stock of leather quivers and backpacks.
As plant cloth should be plentiful, it is used to keep a stock of bags. Might want to keep an eye on this as the dwarves may have weird ideas on how to count “empty” bags.
On the same note, cloth is used to make every type of clothing seasonally, giving fashion conscious dwarves plenty of choice.
A small quantity of Silk and Yarn clothes are also made yearly, should there be enough materials.
Farmer’s Workshops:
In addition to the relevant industries above, the workshops also have orders to process plants to barrel to turn sweet pods into dwarven syrup, a most necessary delight used for the creation of dwarven rum.
Should Valley Herbs and Vials be available, they will be processed for Golden Salve.
Quarry bushes are processed into bags as leaves and rock nuts, which we may want for oil.
And should we come by papurys sedge, the farmers have been instructed to make sheets from them.
Milling and Pressing:
Milling is a cumbersome affair though we have instructions for a dedicated Mill stockpile which we must use, and set up the mill to only take from this stockpile. This should provide us with dye, some flour and slurry, hopefully without depleting our pig tail storages.
Fruits (Olives) are pressed into oil, along with any pastes from the mill (notably Rock Nuts, from Quarry Bushes), also producing oil.
Any slurry is also pressed into paper sheets.
Finally, we have Soap:
The soaper is instructed to use any tallow and oil they find. This may lead to quite a lot of soap, to the point it may be prudent to sell some.
If we had someone to sell to.
On Animals:
I have told DFHack to use logistics enable autoretrain as it seems without it, Animal Trainers are lazy and do not adequately control our tamed animals, resulting in them forgetting their training, running wild and causing havoc in the fort.
There is the autonestbox order which has piqued my curiosity for years, yet by my observation it hasn’t been necessary. Egg-laying creatures have always been behaving as I expect.
Remember to put nestboxes behind lockable doors as the dwarves can be quite eager to help themselves to freshly laid eggs, which may be an issue if you want to increase livestock. In the case of Elk Birds, remember to put the female in a chain next to the nest box as otherwise they will starve while brooding.
Journal for The Playful Razor
Summer of 33 of the Age of Myth,
when the troubles began. We barely had two years in Metaltribes before we heard the horrific news about the genocide at the mountainhome. Only a few haggard survivors made it here, now the only remaining site of the civilization of The Lenses of Simplicity. Among them The Queen Cudïstgusil Scaldedcopper The Gilded Whims of Wine of the bloodline granted the name of Calmgranite.
Spring of 44 of the Age of Myth
We are over a decade into the fort. There are no trade caravans. We sit upon a hoard of wealth and nobody knows because our tribe is small and insignificant. Yet the scent of our riches attracts the baleful presence of horrors from the deep. Understandable since majority of our riches are made of bone and mussel shells. But they come with a very tiresome frequency and the disposal protocol is becoming a seasonal routine. Perhaps our overflowing trade stockpile should all be dumped into the great magma sea but I fear the psychological impact of such blasphemy upon the dwarves who have carefully honed their skills all this time, hopeful that one day their glorious wares may be celebrated in the wider world. Alas, we haven’t seen a soul from the outside world in a decade. Well, short of the strange folk that dwell in the caverns but their preferred method of communication tend to involve pointed objects and few words. A delicious fine looking sentient mushroom is patiently waiting in the cage guest room but we’ve yet to learn anything of it beyond the fact that it has a vaguely dwarvenoid shape and seems to enjoy moisture. Come to think of it, the last friendly lesser being we met was the endearing but frail Skunk Woman Hammerlady Kadôl Emozumid. Her death came as an unwelcome surprise - who knew that these creatures don’t even live up to a 100 years. Had we realized she sought death by combat, we’d have sent her to the caverns but we enjoyed having her adorable visage in the tavern too much. But I digress. Perhaps the trove of shells and bones indeed gives off an odor we’ve long since become accustomed to, but which repels most decent folk. A concern to be sure.
We shall improve our tavern and library, and teach the local parrots to speak of our great fort. Perhaps new visitors will come.
In the Year 58 of the Age of Myth,
we used makeown upon the aforementioned mushroom creature, making him an official part of our people. While this Plump Helmet Man lacks any means of producing speech, he is in fact very sociable and enjoys spending time in the tavern. We gave him the name Ebbus Spitconfines for he cares not for the confines of the sensibilities of dwarves. Despite these compatibility issues, somehow we have a sense of his internal world - we know his gender, though we have no idea if this relates to any kind of physical feature. He seems very curious about our clothes but unfortunately cannot seem to find a way to wear them. He seems especially keen on the texture of silk and other fine textiles. He also greatly enjoys our food and drink though we aren’t quite sure how. No one has actually seen him eat or drink in the way we understand the action, but he takes our meals and appears plumper and jollier as he returns the empty dishes. He has been given some jobs to perform, and has taken to them with eagerness.
Addendum: unfortunately it seems Ebbus’ psyche is not quite meant for the dwarven society and while he remains in our fort, he frequently refuses to listen any orders beyond hauling, unless we cast makeown on him once more. Our Animal Trainers have expressed interest in training him as a pet.
It has been a struggle to keep my beloved dwarves alive. I must admit, I have used the forbidden time magic more than once to correct for an untimely death or other incidents. However this has resulted in a by far most interesting campaign in greater years, so I shall forgive myself the transgression. With such a small population, each dwarf is precious, each birth is to be celebrated and deaths are to be avoided at all costs. These dwarves must live. I will bend the game to my will and make this fort a Mountainhome, damn The Rules. The lack of trade continues to be a problem and I may soon risk an expedition to attempt to make contact with other civilizations. Despite decorating our Tavern with masterful goods and even an artifact chest (the great Emäth Nilun, The Band of Wearing, a microcline coffer), it has failed to attract new visitors The Queen’s prowess in combat is soon legendary and I have even allowed her to dispatch some of the weaker abominations that frequent the caverns.
In the Year 60 of the Age of Myth,
our dwarves finally regained faith in the survival of the clan. They have begun to produce artifacts so the future generations may remember them. This is a moment of joy, but also a cause for great concern, for if a dwarf fails to produce the artifact they become inspired to create, the consequences may be catastrophic. Many a dwarf have succumbed to madness when realizing their carefully laid plans will not come to be - a relatable experience for any Overseer but most of our kind have learned to accept this as the nature of the game. Not so for the common dwarf. Some may even be overtaken by unhindered rage, causing them to attack anything on sight. The only way to stop these poorest of wretches is to kill them. Not an uncommon occurrence in a large, thriving fort but it could spell doom for ours. This is why I chose to use the forbidden changelayer command - ensuring that I’ll be able to provide clay and sand for artifact production. I pray they do not get into their alcohol addled heads to desire more exotic goods.
Our furniture and armor stockpiles are starting to fill from floodgates and bucklers. The Queen - though otherwise a brilliant and blessed creature - has a strange obsession with both, ordering the creation of a few every season. Our poor mason and carpenter have to continually suffer the horror or art defacement, for we have no choice but to occasionally order the excess to be dumped into the atomizer.
In 61 of the Age of Myth,
during springtime, Ralatöl Silverfound of the bloodline granted the name of Dearbeard created Ádolmis, The Complex Haze, a slate armor stand. She claims this as her family heirloom. We shall not begrudge her this as her service as a Sheriff has been most excellent and furthermore, she is a mother of three, contributing greatly to the preservation of our people.
In the summer, she gave yet another birth! May Rinal Fash, The Ivy of Parching bless her fiery loins!
Another blessing, scholar Vucar Enolled Grizzleracks was inspired to create an alunite crown, Todörishlum, The Elevated Nut… despite the questionable name, it shall be made the symbol to be carried by the monarch. She has an active sense of humor after all. The crown depicts the foundation of the Metaltribes in fine detail, and pays tribute to the first King and the Queen’s father, Erith Twigclasped. May the Righteous Targets preserve him.
In Summer of 65 of the Age of Myth,
we are not alone! After careful consideration we finally risked a minimal expedition to the town of Distanceplays, reportedly belonging to a the human civilization of The Tall Kingdoms, aptly named for humans truly are of ridiculous height. Vucar Enolled Grizzleracks, the expedition leader who at this point is truly a gold tongued devil was sent with Bëmbul Godenoshur Ropecircled serving as his bodyguard. They strongly persuaded the humans to part with a curious device, possibly an instrument of some sort. We promised that should they send an envoy to meet with us at Metaltribes, they shall receive more than fair compensation.
In Summer of 66 of the Age of Myth,
a human caravan has arrived as we hoped! Let us hope for a mutually beneficial relationship. Though it may horrify the dwarves, I shall gift the human envoy a large portion of our hoard as a sign of good will and simply from the practical necessity of making space in our stockpiles that have been accumulating an uncountable amount of crafts through decades of isolation. Hopefully news of our civilization will reach further! Though this may come with drawbacks…
In Autumn of 70 of the Age of Myth,
trade with the humans is going well, with a significant profit in their benefit. We also had a goblin visitor in the tavern, after she thoroughly assured us that she is in no way affiliated with our bitter enemies at The Small Seductions. We of course kept a close eye on her but she left without incident. Interestingly, I feel as if the caverns have become more lively after contact with the humans as well. We were truly struggling to capture anything in there through the decades of isolation, and we went for years eating as elves, with no meat passing our lips. Outside wilderness as well. Now, we have captured several animals the breeding of which keeps our meat and leather industry running smoothly. We even have a breeding pair of rattlesnakes for some exotic flair, but I regret that dwarves do not know how to make anything out of snake skin. Dwarves in snake skin leggings would be a fine sight indeed.
The project of lining all of our pathways to the caverns with certain color stone is proceeding well, though as I expected it has taken years. But it makes it easier for me to track which pathway connects where, ensuring that I can connect and disconnect different caverns and tunnels from each other as needed. A helpful reminder for myself in the future: Think of it as parenthesis (There’s the main route to any given cavern (connection of the caverns with each other (and the route that connects to the fort))), each sealable with a drawbridge. Another helpful reminder: pick the color for the main mineshaft early and build small stone stockpiles for it along the way as it can take quite a while otherwise.This way I can isolate any one cavern, or let the caverns connect with each other (in order to let any beasts fight amongst themselves) and also just secure the main connection to the fort to lead beasts into the containment unit near to the surface where I can use ranged dwarves to kill them or release them to the outside world. On the topic of fort security, I must remind myself that indeed, submerged fortifications are not impenetrable. However passage through them up to my wells generally requires the creature to be able to swim AND climb or fly which is thankfully a rare combination. But I recall losing forts to this vulnerability.
Another laborsome, dangerous but highly useful project would to seal every exit of the map. I have done this before, which gives me near perfect control of any beasts that should appear. Of course the inherent danger of this project is that my dwarves will be building these seals right where the beasts may appear, giving no possibility of escape. Unfortunately of course, I cannot seal water but it’s rare for any beast to appear through water anyway. In fact I remember no such incident (it literally just happened as if to make the point) though I do remember them appearing on the caps of the fungal trees should the be just perfectly positioned in the water so that their cap reaches the edge of the map. Ultimately though, no plan short of vacuum sealing the fort is fool proof after all - and even with a full seal, there is always danger lurking within the minds of the emotionally volatile dwarves themselves.
In Winter of 71 of the Age of Myth,
I decided to send my previous envoy to meet with the other dwarven civilization of The Willful Portal at Windcrescents. Another success! We’ll see if they will send a trade caravan in the Spring. There haven’t been any births in years which is concerning so finding more ways to increase the number of dwarves in my fort would be good.
In the Winter of 72 of the Age of Myth,
we finally also made contact with the elves. While this comes with some drawbacks, we need the trade. While the dwarves of the Willful Portal were willing to trade, their goods were scant and barely alleviated our overflowing stocks. Also, turns out completing books has no or very unnoticable alert! Vucar Enolled Grizzleracks has completed not one but two books, on Metaltribes titled “Unusual Mountainhome” which is surprisingly accurate (apparently his first work, which unfortunately means it’s hardly an engaging read) and… migration patterns. I tried to carefully groom him to becoming skilled in brewing in hopes that he’d produce works on the noble art of alcohol production but alas, he continues to ponder more abstract subjects. But, any book is welcome and now I hope one of the children develops a nature befitting a scribe so we may copy and distribute these books.
We have also discovered that rattlesnakes are very prolific breeders, prone to expontential growth as they give live birth and are ready to mate immediately.
In the Winter of 74 of the Age of Myth,
I decided to give a few of my dwarves some vacation time in order to encourage intimate relations for the sake of increasing the population. One of them immediately went to Meditate on Suicide. This is counter to the idea though understandable, as the other vacationer is an older male twice her age.
Shortly after, the older male gentledwarf also went to Meditate on Suicide. The plan has flaws. Both are spending time in the temples. I gave you vacation for the purpose of debauchery, not piety, damn it.
Thankfully Ralatöl Silverfound of the bloodline granted the name of Dearbeard continues to deliver.
In the Summer of 76 of the Age of Myth,
barely weened from the teat, Dearbeard Shorastston Wirefealty created a truly magnificent figurine of Pak Dipbaby, a man of legend it seems. This human has appeared in many of our works, always depicted perishing. The dwarves seem to love to tell the story of his demise. We even gifted a masterwork statue of him to the human traders, who seemed appreciative. Perhaps my dwarves are just utterly fascinated with the idea of dying of old age. Not that dwarves are immortal, it’s just that they tend to meet their end well before time gets to them.