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[QuQuasar]

Cheesesplatter Edibility Experimentation Log

Experiment 5
Subject: "Carrot" - Small ground crop with orange underground growth and aboveground leaves.

17-A - Leaves: Cookable.
17-B - Root: Both edible and brewable. Makes a odd tasting but strong alchohol.



Experiment 14
Subject: "Cherry Tree" - Large entity with a significant number of appendages that thin the further they get from the main body.
Similarities to other "Tree" entities noted.

14-A - Trunk - Found to be inedible.
14-B - Leaves - Found to be inedible.
14-C - Flowers - Slightly better tasting than leaves. Edible as a garnish in cooked meals.
14-D - Fruits - At first believed to be inedible, found to gradually become more appetizing over time via a process known as "ripening". Very sweet, and fermentable.

Note: At this point it seems like a fair assumption that the wood of surface world trees is universally inedible. Team members are no longer required to participate in edibility testing.


Experiment 23
Subject: "Ryegrass", common ground cover

23-A - Foliage: Found to be inedible.
23-B - Can be milled into Rye flour, which shows promise as a base for other dishes. Grain is fermentable and makes for a dry beer.


Experiment 26
Subject: Unknown small dark round objects, at first assumed to be a variety of berry, later established to be the droppings of local wildlife.

26-A: Objects found to be inedible.

Note: Test subject has requested that assessment of potential edibility be run by multiple team members prior to testing.

[Sanctume]

Sanctume gnawed at a cherry wood log lately, the experience was disgusting. 

[Superdorf]

Sanctume gnawed at a cherry wood log lately, the experience was disgusting.

Superdorf bows his head, in silent homage to the unknown test subject of Experiment 26.

I'm loving this so far. It's... refreshing, after the endless carnage of Breakfastpit.

[DwarvenLord]

Any updates QuQuasar?

[QuQuasar]

OOC: I've decided to dorf everyone who has posted in this thread and in the other one for the sake of naming all the founders as well as some of the better members of the first migration wave. Apologies if your dwarf is an arsehole (that is a joke because all dwarves are arseholes).

Superdorf - Potmaker (F), Founder
Immortal-D - Herbalist (F), Founder
Blackchibisan - Recruit (M)
Zuglarkun - Armorer (M)
Gchristopher - Cook (M)
Splint - Miner (F)

Now, on with the show!


With Specialist 07, "Sanctume" (neutralization of threats) no longer able to participate in mining work due to martial training of his new apprentice, "Blackchibisan", a new member of the team has been assigned the code name "Splint" and taken up the profession of miner. I currently have him channeling a circular ditch around the settlement, that we will endeavor to fortify in the future.

Encountered surface-dwelling species log
 
Species 23
Class: Humanoid
Sapience: Unknown
Threat Level: Potential (non-hostile during first encounter)
Description: Humanoid, with chitin(green) covering upper body. Facial structure resembles that of a surface dwelling insect("Grasshopper").


 
First encountered by Specialist 01, "Quasar".Two specimens sighted. Specialist 01, "Quasar", ran away screaming like a baby vocally informed other team members of the threat. Entirety of local militia (Specialist 07, "Sanctume") deployed in response. Both entities fled, making disturbing chittering noises all the while.

It is now Autumn. The foliage of many of the local Tree entities has turned a horrifying blood red, possibly as a visual warning. Team members have been advised to keep their distance and report any hostile behaviour immediately.


The caravan has arrived.





No representative of the Deepholds attended the meeting. Unfortunate... but not unsurprising. The decision had not yet been made when we left, but I guess now we know the choice of the Deep Ones. We cannot risk allowing the last bastion of our kind to be discovered by our ancient enemies.

Those of us who venture to the surface will not ever again be allowed to return.

... sigh... very well. We will live in exile and work to save the Deephold, even if we will not see it ever again. I will inform the others of the news before we begin the trade.


All team members have been informed. They took it admirably. I was worried some would insist we abandon our mission, but that did not happen and only three of them punched me in the face.


Specialist 03, 'Lordy' (Brewing, Medicine, Brokery) conducted the trade. First, our drink.




In total, we had produced 519 units (1689☼) of alcoholic drink, a wide variety of wine and beer fermented from above-ground plants, primarily harvested from the wild by Specialist 04, 'Immortal-D'. A delicious taste of what (we hope) is to come.

Next, the food of Cheeseplatter:



In total, we had produced 155 units (9006☼) of edible food. As our cooking specialist I believe I have done the best I could in the mincing of locally produced edibles, and estimate that no more than 2% of our output is lethally poisonous.

Some of the more interesting food samples follow:



A salad made from various savory foliage as well as cooked slices of "yam", and garnished with candlenuts.



The root of a "Taro" plant, stuffed with various sweet fruits including cherry and "Car-am-bola", (which the two children have taken to calling "Star fruit",due to it's shape). A delicious, tangy dessert.



I found that "macadamia nuts" (the small hard growths of a certain variety of local trees) are ABSOLUTELY FUCKING DELICIOUS edible. I am now PRODUCING NOTHING BUT NUTS integrating macadamia nuts into the majority of my output.

After feedback provided by team members who KNOW NOTHING OF DELICIOUSNESS have different preferences, I am BETRAYING MY CRAFT reducing the ratio of nuts to other foods in my output.


The supply caravan has provided a wide variety of goods in exchange for our produce, including new animals, leather, iron and replacement barrels. We appreciate the deepholds trust in us and will continue to work to the best of our abilities for the betterment of dwarven palates.

As of this moment Cheesesplatter has no prepared food or drink. However, Specialist 05, 'Superdorf' (Pot making) is producing a green glass pot as I write this, and I am showing my new apprentice 'Gchristopher' how to mince edible foodstuff into a roast. The team will not be food-less for any significant period of time.


State of the fortress:



Work continues. Splint will attempt to complete the ditch before the end of autumn, which will serve to slow any hostile forces. Further reinforcement will be up to the next overseer.

Speaking of, study of the history books has revealed an important fact. In the ancient times, some outposts were run consistently by single overseer from their beginning to their eventual downfall, generally some time over the overseers death.

Others were handed to a new overseer each year. The justification behind this odd form of governance appears to be that the yearly overseers would "compete", presumably out of pride, to better service the members of the fortress than the previous overseer did. The history books are unclear about whether or not this actually worked, but they do seem to agree that so called "Succession Forts" were far superior (or possibly "far more interesting"? The archaic dwarvish is a little hard to translate) than their more stable single-overseer counterparts.

For that reason, we will be adopting this form of governance. The next overseer, whomever that may be, will take my place at the start of winter.

[QuQuasar]

A hostile species was detected assaulting a child on the southern border.



Fortunately, "Santume" (who, of course, wields a spear) and "SQman" (who still carries the axe he used to use for felling trees) were present to assist.



SQMan's wrist was badly injured halfway through the fight. Hand or not, however, he was still able to return the injury with a decapitating strike of his own.



Sanctume showed significant improvement in his shield and spear technique, blocking strikes and returning with sharp, precise jabs.



Unib, the child, also comported himself admirably, distracting the enemy at opportune times. He will have to learn proper combat form if he ever wishes to join the militia, though this can perhaps be forgiven, since he is two years old.

The results of this incident have been logged.

Encountered surface-dwelling species log
 
Species 25, "Mandrill Man"
Class: Humanoid
Sapience: Sentient. Likely sapient.
Threat Level: Medium (Hostile during first encounter)
Description: Humanoid, with fur covering body. Facial structure resembles that of a surface dwelling primate ("Mandrill").


 
First encountered by Dwarven Child Unib and Planter SQman. Four specimens encountered. Group reported to have made hostile vocalizations ("loud hoots and whooping") before attacking. All were killed in armed response.

Dwarven casualties: SQman's hand (injured). Medical attention provided by 'Lordy'.

OOC: This is a mental image. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It depicts a two year old dwarven child latched onto the arm of a monkey man by the teeth. An axedwarf is sneaking up. The monkey man is confused. The dwarven child is angry. The axedwarf is focused.


To prevent undue trauma as a result of witnessing the carnage wrought by Cheesesplatters militia (I fear the creatures we fought today will not be the last), I have requested that Splint prioritize the construction of a dumping pit in the hills on the south-east side of the settlement.

Wait, we what?



Curious. The bones of the south-eastern hills are not dirt, as we naively assumed, but gypsum and iron ore.

If that's the case... does that mean the water table doesn't extend into the hills? This warrants investigation. If we can just bypass the aquifer...


Excellent!



The dwarves of Cheeseplatter may not be able to return to the deepholds, but we can yet return to the deep. There is a way around the aquifer, though the bones of the hills. In time, we will take advantage of that. For now it is simply good to know, and should provide a major boost to morale and maybe reduce the frequency with which other team members punch me in the face.




Dwarves on the horizon. And, bonus, their arrival revealed an uncut ramp in our defenses. I've sent Splint to take care of it.

Let's see, what do we have to work with here?



Nine dwarves, and not one of them a child! The deephold must have been truly impressed by our macadamia nuts produce to send us such a useful group.

Their labors are as follows:

* A talented woodcutter. She claims our return to the surface awoke something deep within her, and her axe now hungers for the flesh of tree. As she has no other useful skills (fish cleaning doesn't count), I am more than happy to send her out to kill a few Larch.
* A novice armourer. As we already have two such specialists, this one will not be particularly useful.
* A talented clothier.
* An expert stonecrafter. We will need to begin quarrying from the hills if we are to make use of this one as a potmaker.
* A High Master Cheese Maker. We are truly honoured to host such skills in our humble settlement.
* Another (novice) cook. No. We need a brewer. You are a brewer now. No cooking.
* An 'adequate' surgeon, and two traders. They will join Sanctume and assist in defending Cheesesplatter.


I know that look. Specialist 05, 'Superdorf' (Pot making) has been taken by a Strange Mood.



It is good to know that even the light of the surface world cannot keep us from our innate dwarven gifts. We will ensure she has all she needs, and see what she produces.



... or we will taunt her mercilessly for being a damn idiot. You're the one who laid claim to our only glass furnace, Superdorf! It's not like you've got any shortage of sand! Make some!

... no? Nothing? Can you even hear me? [waves hand in front of Superdorfs face]

Yeah, she's out of it. Somebody get me some of that bronze, I want to make a new furnace and get her a damn lump of green glass before she goes insane.


... I just had a terrible thought. I think I vaguely remember Superdorf saying she loved crystal glass at one point.



This... this is going to work, right? We need our potmaker.

[Superdorf]

Ahh, just my luck. I get dorfed as Hairy Potter^TM and promptly go insane. Can't reuse the name, either... hm. Time to come up with something else.

[Splint]

If you haven't produced a preferred material, they'll take whatever the next best thing is far as I know. Just draft one of the simpletons to make a hunk and make them an assistant glass potter.

Or don't. I'm just a ditch digger.

[Sanctume]

"Anticipation of death is worse that death itself." -- Sanctume, single "O" seven.

[Immortal-D]

Herbalist, eh?  ... I have ideas   That said, can you put up a profile of my Dorf?

[SQman]

So there's gonna be a moat on this one too? Personally I'd go for a wall first, then moat around it, but you do you.

Is there a corpse disposal system in place? Even the most basic dumping zone under an atom smasher? Seeing the screenshot with the mandrill man chunks gave me a bad flashbacks to one of my recent forts that was dealing with a bad case of troglodyte corpses scattered everywhere.

By the way, I'm sure the artifact will be something cool, like a glass portal or a glass instrument, not a perfect fake gem. It wouldn't be worth the hassle if it turned out to be a useless bauble, would it?

[Sanctume]

So there's gonna be a moat on this one too? Personally I'd go for a wall first, then moat around it, but you do you.

Is there a corpse disposal system in place? Even the most basic dumping zone under an atom smasher? Seeing the screenshot with the mandrill man chunks gave me a bad flashbacks to one of my recent forts that was dealing with a bad case of troglodyte corpses scattered everywhere.

By the way, I'm sure the artifact will be something cool, like a glass portal or a glass instrument, not a perfect fake gem. It wouldn't be worth the hassle if it turned out to be a useless bauble, would it?

I like the circular Moat, and have a project idea that can probably be doable within a year. 
I wonder how many z-levels is the aquifer. 

I'd can probably have time to do my usual 5+z single pit garbage smasher. 

[Splint]

I tend to just chuck them in a ditch outside. No miasma, no accidents (but I'm also lazy in the regard.) Could work for a short-term solution.

[QuQuasar]

Oh thank goodness!

Uh, I mean...

Subject (Specialist 05, "Superdorf") currently undergoing a Type-B ("Secretive") Strange Mood, was feared lost after a preference for Crystal Glass was established. However, upon production of two (2) units of raw green glass, she procured the materials and her Mood entered Phase 2. Per the latest available data on Strange Moods, we believe the danger has passed. Given the ingredients involved, we currently anticipate the production of a "Perfect Gem" (Category 3, "Useless") artifact.

In spite of that, the subject's anticipated skill increase in the field of glass blowing is likely to prove an immense boon to the fortress, and will more than make up for the time and productivity currently being lost.


As anticipated, the artifact is category 3.




With the defenses completed (Assuming both entrance bridges are raised, access to Cheesesplatter now requires climbing. To compensate for lack of flat ground on the South-East Border, a palisade has been constructed), we focused on the construction of wooden pens to provide additional control over the positions of our domestic animals. Once gates are installed, the creatures will be less prone to wandering.



As part of this effort, we have begun construction of a meat-processing facility. Surfaceworld vegetation is a lot more tasty than plump helmet, but Dwarvenkind requires protein.


The nights grow colder and the leaves on those trees that turned red have begun to fall. This must be what the history books called "Winter".



Regardless, we still have plenty of food to work with, and it is past time to pass the fortress on to the next in line.

Spoiler: "State of Cheesesplatter" (click to show/hide)

z=3 (South-Eastern Hillside)

z=0 (Surface)

z=-2 (Cellars)

Points of interest:

* All trees remaining within the bounds of the settlement are either edible, brewable, or both. Generally speaking, they should not be cut down unless they're in the way.
* if you plan to expand the moat, the command I used was "digcircle chan 85" for the innermost circle and "digcircle chan 89" for the outermost one. Centerpoint is the trade depot.
* The boardwalks are a notable fire hazard.

Save is here, and has been reverted to ASCII:

Cheesesplatter - End of Year 1

Good luck Sanctume! Remember to record your trade quantities.

[DwarvenLord]

Just because it useless doesn't mean it isn't satisfying. Also, just to note this for my turn, I don't use tilesets, so it will be the vanilla game sprites.