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[wierd]

I think I can match his mspaint skills...  Dunno if I can find the time to do them though. My current job is... Lets just say the time I actually get to spend sitting down is.. Fleeting.

[methylatedspirit]

200×200 images at 16(?) colors. I can't even make pixel art; best I can do is trace my calculator's font!

[Superdorf]

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28th of Malachite, 1050
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Solitarian was bored. She'd been carving rock pots for months now, which had been monotonous enough, but now she was done and there just... wasn't much else to do. Everyone was just kind of waiting around for Scourge to finish whatever she was working on down below.

Well, Solitarian wasn't going to stand for that. She was queen! She'd make her own entertainment! Stirred to action, Solitarian grabbed some slate blocks from the mason's, lugged them down the stairs, and set to work.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

She'd worked in mechanics before, back in the underdark-- had gotten pretty good at it, actually. It was about time she gave it another go.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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8th of Galena, 1050
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That first stint with the puddingstone had startled her, sure, but Scourge was no quitter-- not when magma was at stake. After the first disappointment, she'd simply moved her excavations higher, on the clean dry lignite, and all was now ready.



Yes. Yes, this was very nice. Now it was time to give it life.
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Scourge first gave worship to her god, Nunur the Copper Abyss, Lord of the Caverns, Lord of the Silent Waters-- for it would not do to perform such a great and dangerous labor as hers without first yielding proper homage. Her prayers complete, Scourge descended, enraptured, once again into the uttermost bowels of the earth. There she worked with caution, listening for the burning river at each swing.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The lignite crumbled quickly. Scourge stopped, and listened, and felt, and knew the blood-fire was close.
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Dodok worked quickly, feverishly, like she'd done in that first week-- but in eagerness now, not in terror. In a very little time, her work was ready, and Vindcara took it upon himself to install it.


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With the final precaution complete, Scourge descended one final time to finish what she had started. She had planned her work well, taking the passage to the very edge of the burning sea, and now she needed only break the last wall from above.



Scourge worked carefully, carefully now, as the magma groaned behind the incandescent stone. The groanings grew louder-- louder-- and knowing what was to happen, Scourge scrambled up and away.

The wall gave.



Scourge snickered, cackled as the rushing feldspar crashed, torrential, under her feet, under the stone. The air burned, the earth crackled, and still Scourge cackled, standing triumphant over a tiny apocalypse of her own devising. Scourge cackled, and was glad that day to be a dwarf.
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After that, all the dwarves had to do was rig a couple of Solitarian's mechanisms to get the floodgate to lower. A simple pull of the lever, and slowly, surely, quietly, the magmaworks began to fill.



It was autumn. Nobody had paid much attention to summer. Dodok built a trade depot.



Soon she would be building magma smelters.
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Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

Magma brings out the poet in me. For this, I apologize. 

[methylatedspirit]

For the purposes of this fort, is using bridges as indestructible floodgates an exploit?

Also, since we clearly have access to magma, can you drop one unit of smokerock into the magma sea for !!SCIENCE!!?
Also also, do you think that there's a way to get visitors? It would be interesting if anyone actually visits despite the whole 'no civs' thing.

[Blackchibisan]

Still room for someone to jump in and claim a dwarf? Cause if I'm going to be part of a succession game, I want to get in early before my computer risks being melted.

[Superdorf]

For the purposes of this fort, is using bridges as indestructible floodgates an exploit?

Nah. I... really should have done that actually.

Also, since we clearly have access to magma, can you drop one unit of smokerock into the magma sea for !!SCIENCE!!?

Sure, probably.. From what I've seen so far, smokerock appears to be magma-safe; at least, it lets me build forges with the stuff.

Also also, do you think that there's a way to get visitors? It would be interesting if anyone actually visits despite the whole 'no civs' thing.

Huh. I wouldn't... expect visitors to show up? Certainly none have yet, and I put up a tavern for people. But maybe. Undead civs are weird.

I'm a little scared to try, tho... I learned the hard way in my last fort, visitors in a reanimating biome inevitably become foot-soldiers in an ever-growing zombie apocalypse. The poets die first, then the military types, and pretty soon they can kill whole caravans... and it just gets worse from there. 

Still room for someone to jump in and claim a dwarf? Cause if I'm going to be part of a succession game, I want to get in early before my computer risks being melted.

Sure, I think so. We're a little short on dorfpower right now, but Atir the hammerdwarf, Dodok the wood/stoneworker, Thikut the planter, and Adil the brewer remain available-- they're all female, mind. You could wait for the next living migrant wave if you preferred.

I'll add you to the turn list, at any rate.

[methylatedspirit]

If my understanding is correct, visitors can get caught in evil weather, turning them into zombies, yes?
Which is on many levels an oof and an oopsie combined.

[Superdorf]

If my understanding is correct, visitors can get caught in evil weather, turning them into zombies, yes?
Which is on many levels an oof and an oopsie combined.

They can-- but we don't have evil weather, not counting explosive smokerock cave-ins. Here, visitors would get violently dismembered by the local wildlife, then reanimate looking rather the worse for wear. It is terrifying.

[Superdorf]

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9th of Limestone, 1050
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A shout from outside. The trade caravan had arrived.



There was no outpost liaison. There had been no outpost liaison since the Elder Days. Nevertheless, a few bold merchants had decided to brave the wilds, and here they were, with their goods and their pack animals and their guards-- but their wagons moved on, for the wagons would never fit through Dodok's meager hatch cover.

The merchants moved slowly, oh so slowly, trusting the guards to protect them and their goods. Daedalus ground his teeth as the hours crawled on, hoping against hope that the Grim Jungle would be kind to its clueless visitors.
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14th of Limestone, 1050
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By great luck, only a wombat wandered the landscape-- a wombat, quickly spotted and easily slain. A caravan axedwarf claimed the kill.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The wombat lay dead, but now the giant sparrows returned, the flesh hanging from their bones. On the merchants crawled, and still Daedalus watched, raging at the stupidity of the merchants. How they had survived and reached the Grim Jungle in the first place, Daedalus could only wonder.


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15th of Limestone, 1050
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"That's the last merchant!" said Daedalus, running into the dining hall. "They're ready for trade; we need stuff to sell them! What do we have?"

Vindcara leapt to his feet, saying: "What do we have? We have two barrels of finest mincings, from my own kitchen! The underdark will pay well for such fine meats!"

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

OOC: Yecch.

"Wonderful!" cried Daedalus. "Anything else? Anyone?"
Tink. Tink. Tink.

"Anyone?"
Tink. Tink. Tink.

"Wait, what's that sound?"
Tink. Tink. Tink.

"Solitarian?"
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"What... what are they?"
"Mechanisms!" chirped Solitarian, chiselling away at a gear. Tink. Tink. Tink. "I've been working on them for awhile now!"

"But... what do they do?" asked Daedalus.

"Oh, lots of things!" said Solitarian. Tink. Tink. Tink. "You can build traps, bridges that move, pumps for magma... didn't you ever wonder how those things worked?"
"I can't say I have."

"Well, I wonder. I wonder all the time!" Tink. Tink. Tink. "So I looked into it, and I liked it, and I've been tinkering with these ever since. They're very nice, don't you think?"

"...Yes. Yes, actually," said Daedalus. "Say... how much do you think these are worth?"

"Worth?" said Solitarian, frowning slightly. Tink. Tink. Tink. "A fair bit, I should think. Why?"

"Nothing," said Daedalus, but the slow grin was spreading once more across his face.

Tink. Tink. Tink.
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18th of Limestone, 1050
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Well, the good queen Solitarian herself came up to trade, and she turned out to be a pretty cunning salesdwarf. She started off selling Vindcara's meats for more food, drink, cloth and metal, and then once the merchants figured they had a good deal, she brought out the mechanisms and went into some kind of hour-long dissertation on their wonders, flipping the little cogs and latches to demonstrate their use. The merchants were enthralled, and Solitarian came out of it with some rather impressive pieces of bronzework.



All in all, it was a good day.
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Spoiler: OOC (click to show/hide)

Yeahhh, I have no idea what mechanisms are supposed to look like.

[methylatedspirit]

Hold on, booze can be minced? And there's enough of a difference between mincing technique between cooks, that the mincing has a quantifiable quality level? A substance that is liquid at room temperature and pressure can be minced?

Also, mechanisms are probably just a bunch of assorted "mechanical" components, like gears, springs, ball-and-socket joints and rods, that have been fused together by dwarven magic.
When two mechanisms are chosen to link a lever and a bridge together, for instance, the natural beardwavium in every adult dwarf forces the mechanism in the bridge to move with the mechanism in the lever.

[wierd]

Yes, to both of those questions, and it has been so since .40d at least.

[Blackchibisan]

That's fine. I'll claim Adil. XD I'll try and keep my eye on this so I know when my turn comes.

[Superdorf]

Hold on, booze can be minced? And there's enough of a difference between mincing technique between cooks, that the mincing has a quantifiable quality level? A substance that is liquid at room temperature and pressure can be minced?

My current headcanon is Vindcara's allowing the wine to evaporate into a sort of alcoholic mushroom jelly, then mincing it. It doesn't make much sense, but it never made much sense in the first place, so... eh.

That's fine. I'll claim Adil. XD I'll try and keep my eye on this so I know when my turn comes.

You're welcome to Adil! But if you'd rather...

We've just recieved four more migrants: a husband and wife, and their two children. The couple bear professions deemed useless by Daedalus, and so will be drafted into the military as their own hammer-squad at the first oppurtunity. They'll either die horribly, or become fearsome warriors of legendary skill. Probably both.

[Blackchibisan]

As Dwarvish as that sounds, before I even requested I wanted to pick a brewer. Aside from death in combat there is none that show greater love for their fellow dwarf than those who craft for them only the finest booze to keep their minds and hearts deep within the mountains.

[Superdorf]

Ahh, I didn't see that request. So be it!