(Sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll edit them in in a bit. I'm just finishing up winter right now in game. Btw, does anyone know how to generate huge amounts of power? We'll need that to power the magma pump stack I made. I won't be finishing it this year, but I've stockpiled a bunch of iron corkscrews and pipe sections for my successors, and dug out the actual "structure" of the pipeline)
15th Sandstone, 254:
Much has happened since my last entry in this book; I have had little time to devote to my personal projects, and even less to devote to these memoirs. A troop of perhaps a dozen elves mounted on giraffes attempted to infiltrate our fortress. Fortunately, they were detected well before they reached the walls by the peasants cleaning up Watchedgleam’s exterior. Unfortunately, not a single one of them was harmed, and as such, I have no excuse to start cutting them up. I still must determine what organs a dwarf can and cannot live without. Lungs, heart, and brain known to be absolutely essential, but some reports indicate that the dwarven liver is, surprising, not a necessary or even important organ. The implications of that are fascinating.
The battle against the elves was brief, even given the sad state of our military. The “Overseer” was encouraged by her advisors to shut the gates, and did so, ordering the militia to mass in the trade depot. We then let the elves in, and being the witless fools they are, our guests didn’t even hesitate to consider the possibility of a trap (or several, as it happened to be). All of the invaders not slain by the traps in the entrance hall were shot or cut down by the soldiers, who managed to avoid the worst of their arrow fire due to the cover afforded to them by the depot’s walls. Work continues on the shaft to the magma sea, and I’ve been told that the bulk order of iron corkscrews and pipes have been completed, as well as the stone blocks and mechanisms. We’ll need to be careful which of the latter two products we use however; it seems our masons and mechanics are too dull to realize that the mechanisms must be able to withstand magma, and as such should only be built out of the sturdier stones.
Back towards the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of having a mother of one of the fortress’ wretched children in my office babbling about how she feared her son gone made; the boy had begun acting strangely she said, mumbling about something called “Rasuk Rethal.” Having seen many cases like this before, I rushed to lock up all the craftsdwarves’ workshops in the fortress, but to no avail; the child had already found his way into the one on the upper level. Given the particulars of the boy’s condition, and his general lack of professional skills, it seems likely that he will produce a scepter, crown, or some other ornamental, yet useless piece of jewelry that we can’t even sell for fear of the child going on a murderous rampage-though if it were my decision, we’d do it anyway, and send the retch to Room 101, just to be sure. Of course, since the child dragged the skeletons of our most recent guests (a small host of goblins) into the workshop with him, it’s certainly possible we might be gifted with a moderately useful bone weapon. Either way, the boy shall be sent to Room 101 afterwards; he’ll be no use to us anymore, and would be better as a lookout in the caverns than anything else.
Shortly thereafter, we discovered that a weaver who’d been thrown in in the dungeons for violating some ridiculous law enacted by the “Overseer” had died of dehydration. As the cause of death is so obvious, and the patient is most certainly dead, I have opted not to tamper with the body for the time being. I’m starting to wonder whether putting Reg “in charge” was a good idea…
16th Sandstone: I’ve received reports of a string of bizarre events; hallucinations, odd sounds, ect in Watchedgleam. Reg believes that it is due to the presence of “restless spirits”; while such things may very well exist, given the very clear presence of the undead in our immediate vicinity, I am skeptical in this case. Even if we are hosting ghosts, I would very much like to see what they’ll do.
20th Sandstone
Excellent. It appears that the blasted child who took over a craftsdwarves’ workshop has produced something potential useful: a goblin bone buckler. However, seeing as he seems to be as clueless with bone carving as ever, I’ve had him sent to Room 101. On a side note, the magma pump line will need a great deal of power. I’m currently debating whether to focus on that, or leave that project till next year (I have decided that Reg will have to go come Winter, after that incident with the Weaver. I also have come to realize that I sent both of her useless daughters to Room 101: I must make sure she never discovers that while in power, or the Omega Contingency will need to be put into action early...)