Dinaroozie the Lesser
Soundbridge 2: Return to Soundbridge
Good grief. It seems like so long since I was in charge of this place. It’s one thing to reside in a fortress, but quite another to view the place as a whole again - artists in residence don’t necessarily get a full picture of the defenses under construction, that kind of thing, you know. But I’ve had to step down from the noble field of artistry; when the fortress sends you the call, a dwarf must stand up and (eventually) heed that call. It’ll make for an interesting change of pace, that’s for sure.
Or perhaps not. So far things seem to be more or less under control. Our military stands strong, and we have enough meals and alcohol for many months. I see now why my leadership as artist in resident (or King Artist as I prefer to call myself) has been requested - this place needs to be made fun again! A task to which I am well-, perhaps uniquely, qualified. First thing’s first though; I have to look at the papers and remember what’s going on in this sprawling place. Once that’s done, I feel confident that things will get underway.
Okay, see, this is because nobody ever listened to my advice about fortress beautification. I blame myself in many ways. Our legendary stonecrafter and gem setter were busy building a roof and hauling a table, meanwhile our fortress’ cultural output is in the hands of novices and philistines! I have reassigned the tasks to make for a more tasteful situation. And with that, onto more important matters…
I suppose in good conscience, the first thing I should be doing is finishing the giant roof over the upper level of the fortress. This makes sense. Happy though our dwarves are, surely the indignity of having to regularly be exposed to the vile sky rankles. This project will leave us with a large force of semi-skilled masons, however… I feel that it might be best to keep them in work afterwards with something a bit more… creative. In the meantime though, it appears that the roof is proceeding slowly on account of all the masons having to haul stone from deep within the earth to do their job. It reminds me of a joke that I can’t bring to mind right now. In any case, I’ve arranged for a stockpile of stones to be hauled to the completed part of the roof to facilitate the masons.
In other news, a wave of migrants have arrived - twenty, in all. They will be useful for a project I have planned. It has come to my attention that, although Soundbridge technically is a fortress and has dwarves in it, it is not really a dwarf fortress on account of our metalworkers lacking access to magma-fired forges and equipment. To remedy this, I will construct The Habitat - a society of deep-dwelling dwarves, living near the magma, their very homes monuments to the glory of dwarven civilisation. We will be needing a new housing project soon anyway - this seems to me the most logical place to put it.
Ah! It seems that vile force of darkness has arrived at our doorstep. The goblins are many - some reports are as high as thirty, though I’m sure they are exaggerated - and moreover, they have among their number several axe lords as well as a goblin general. It seems that once again, the time has come for me to see what the Soundbridge military is made of! Needless to say, as I am more of a lover than a fighter (or in any case, definitely not a fighter), I shall be entrusting the marshalling of our forces to the mighty Canius.
Good lord! The goblins came out of nowhere. The primary force has proved to be a distraction from a flanking force approaching from the east, and they are now virtually upon us! Who knew goblin hordes riding on cave crocodiles could be so stealthy? Fortunately, though initially they seemed to be dragging their feet, at least some of our military has shown up to put a stop to things - how matters proceed from here, though, is up to fate.
Our military has made swift work of the few crocodile-mounted sword goblins that made it through the main gate, but they were unable to help themselves working along the line of invaders, which acted as a fuse to lead them to the explosion of archers waiting for them outside the gate. Worse, they were caught up in the gate entrance by some foul goblin beast or another - something called a ‘jabberer’, I heard someone say, but who can say what that actually is? - and while they were dealing with this situation, the goblin bowmen were able to rain arrows onto them. It appears that one of our new recruits, Obok Kastmedtop, bravely took the brunt of the volley, absorbing what must have been fifty arrows on behalf of the rest of the regiment before succumbing to suffocation. His or her sacrifice will be remembered!
Things were looking grim at this stage, but somehow one of our elite swordsdwarves got free from the melee and launched himself at the archers, not unlike a cat being thrown into a group of pidgeons. It only took another twenty seconds for the rest of the regiment to finish off the jabberers but by the time they arrived only two archers remained alive, and they were fleeing the scene. They didn’t get far.
Great god - a ballista arrow was just flung with abandon through the dwarves. When I ordered them to fire at will earlier, that was before the gates were breached and our dwarves were in the firing line in the confusing mess of battle. Don’t our siege operators have eyes? I have ordered them to stop firing at will, and it appears nobody was hurt, but it’s probably worth pointing out that if ‘nobody was hurt’ is good news for your artillery team, some changes may be necessary. In any case, it appears that the invasion is over, and we have suffered only one death - our recruit who acted as a dwarven shield. One swordsdwarf also broke their arm and is currently suffering from mild unconsciousness, but is expected to make a full recovery as soon as someone gets around to dragging them to the hospital.
A slight wrinkle has also appeared in our diplomatic situation. It appears that the goblins were not our only visitors - an elven caravan also appeared at the same time. More importantly, the goblins were not the only visitors who won’t be leaving. I only found out about this because some dwarves were observed stealing elven crafts from a location to the west of the fortress, where a dead elf was lying near a caged water buffalo. I’m sure they weren’t planning on telling me about any of this. Stealing elven crafts is serious - if these dwarves’ identities are discovered, they shall be flogged for their poor taste in personal accessories. Whether this incident ends up affecting our diplomatic status with the elves remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, the roof construction continues apace. This is good, because this recent invasion, reasonably good though its outcome was, has opened my eyes to a pressing need. War animals? No! Traps? No! Archers? Probably, but that’s not what I’m getting at! We must construct The Chalice - a great stone container suspended above the entrance to the fort, filled from the sea, and ready to be unleashed upon the hapless invaders below it. Naturally this will require sealing our fortress entrance, as well as the construction of a great deal of mechanisms and floodgates. Worth it, though, when we can observe our foes drowing in a sea of our own creation!
A bowyer who was taken by a strange mood earlier has been milling around on account of our lack of a bowyer’s workshop. Needless to say this is easily fixed, except that I was distracted by an invasion - now it’s a race against time to see if we can accomodate our moody dwarf while his sanity remains intact. We shall see.
Spring is over. Our recent goblin incursion caused a bit more trouble than first thought - the hospital contains no fewer than four dwarves. They seem to mostly be minor situations, but even so, I’ll keep an eye on them. It is of particular importance that our swordmaster recovers to full health. Also, our fey bowyer has finally begun a construction of some kind, after hauling a truly astonish mass of materials to the workshop - nine different ingredients will go into this particular masterpiece. With the fine summer months ahead, hopefully we can finish our roof and begin some of our other projects.
