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[Geb]

Field Reports of Tannen Rimtarazin, Trusted Lieutenant
3rd Sandstone, 301



A simple, productive day. I have been shooting at the muskox again, scoring some good hits. These bone bolts are too weak to do any real damage, but it is the hits that matter. I will order production of metal bolts as soon as possible, until then this will be simple enjoyable target practice.

Heavy rock doors are being produced, and TheVamp is producing mechanisms that we can use to securely lock them as the list demands.

96: "My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa."

All seems well.


The two dwarf requests are in:

Derm has been given the jeweler/bone carver and will be kept in mind for little pointless jobs.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

and I'd rather not call anybody in my fort dwarfguy2, so you've got a minion called Guy the Second

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

breadbocks:    How do you adjust the requirements and room demands? Is that scaled from the precedence tag?

Urist:   We need all the bone we can get for bolts, and given that crossbow training is mandatory for all military dwarves, on a woodless map, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[breadbocks]

breadbocks:    How do you adjust the requirements and room demands? Is that scaled from the precedence tag?

No. I took those off. Would a prisoner be expectant of high quality rooms? I can put them on, and if I do, do you want jealousy? It makes them get a bad though from higher-ups getting better rooms. If not I'm going to assume you want it off the other nobles. You can go here to see all the possible tags, and the monarch also had the receive diplomats tag, but I took that off. I intended to give that to the DM. Thoughts? The only nobles I was going to leave un-cast down were the military nobles, and I would change the general to trusted lieutenant. I was also going to move some responsibility tags between the military. I see this as a dictatorship, and as such, military leaders are, for example, the people who you'd speak to if you wanted to get a new position, or a break.

Also, I had to make a change to the monarch code. I forgot the tag that would enable the DM to escort the monarch. But don't copy-paste the code. I'll give you the whole entity code once I finish it.

[Geb]

I'll have to give this some thought. None of it is an immediate concern and I'd like to keep it that way.

The requirements to have the DM turn up could be ludicrously high and I wouldn't mind, since I'm sitting on a mountain full of ore and magma, and I don't really want him turning up until the fort is prepared.

[breadbocks]

Again, with the settings I have it at right now, 50 dorfs, 100,000 exported wealth, and 130,000 created wealth. Is that late enough/high enough? I could always add a 0 to the end of those two numbers..... in fact, I will.

Now you need 50 dorfs, 1,000,000 exported wealth, and 1,300,000 misread other requirements. Should be 13,000,000 created wealth. High enough?

[Tuxman]

derp derp derp...

Anyway, i was thinking.

First, dwarf me plz. 

An aspiring axedwarf called Ghaz Ireheart. He is a freedom fighter who is very loyal to the overlord, but has a little too much mercy.

He is easily angered. He is passionate about freedom from oppressive governments. He is merciful. He resorts to violence quickly. He is jaded.

And on the side, I have an idea.


You should make a legitimate face for the fortress. A couple noname migrants run the front as the "Starting Seven" with a legitimate system for trading and such. That way the elves and humans and possible dwarfs won't get suspicious. After the legitimate face, there will be a trap-infested corridor to lead to the real fortress.

Thus is a good idea for evil intruders.

Oh yea, it should be easily capture-able and magma-flood-able.

[breadbocks]

I like that idea quite a bit. Rackets always need a shop front. Otherwise they'd be caught.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Woodless? Giant cavern 'shrooms?

[Geb]

Field Reports of Tannen Rimtarazin, Trusted Lieutenant
17th Sandstone, 301

Our security is not good enough. We only realised that a band of dwarves and their animals had arrived when they knocked on our door. They were able to walk to within ten paces (ten short paces!) of our home without being contested, without even being noticed!

It is good that our surprise project has been completed early.



It's difficult to explain in mere words how satisfying it is to pull that lever, to watch the fake wall panel slide aside, and to see the monstrous siege bolt revealed to the unsuspecting fools beyond. If only we could install an extra viewing window... but that would ruin the surprise. It doesn't stop me imagining, and that gives a very happy thought indeed.

The Legionaries were summoned, and with a sharpened tower cap log poised ready to be fired straight through all of them, the new minions gave no complaints as their arrival orders were verified and their belongings searched. One by one they were allowed in and their professions recorded for job assignments, until only a single dwarf remained.



I must admit, a smile came to my lips as DoomPotato shoved the worthless peasant back into the entrance hall without having to be ordered, leaving the idiot comedian to stagger straight into the line of fire of the Surprise...



TheVamp needed no prompting either. Whether she fully accepts our orders as valid or not, she's willing to obey them, and for that I can forgive her obsessions. She tells me that the look on the comedian's face as he realised what was happening must have been the funniest thing he ever did. I wish I had been able to see it, but no matter, there will be other opportunities.



I am proud to be in command of the minions today. As instructed they have read our orders, and while they may not understand them all, they understand enough and they do their duty.

30: "All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief."

I was personally summoned to verify that rule 13 had been applied correctly. I am happy to say that it was, and in a very enthusiastic manner. Perhaps that is an understatement for skewering the corpse on a ballista bolt twice as long as it was tall, leaving very little of the ribcage remaining. It is a waste of scarce wood of course, but I cannot bring myself to complain about that when the results are so perfect.

13: "All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal."



If there is one lesson to learn from this it is that we need to watch over the fort entrance. The mountain is a perfect watchtower already, all that is needed is to prepare a secure area from which the minions can see out without our enemies seeing in. We need only wait, and eventually an armed threat will come. We must be prepared, we must be equipped, and we must see it coming. There is a lot of work still to be done.


Addendum to Field Report
Excerpt from production records, west hall work area and commentary by Tannen Rimtarazin



Nobody knows where this item came from. One of the new minions, a chemist and lye worker, claims to have made it in his spare time, but he also claims to have never worked wood before in his life. We cannot spare any of our remaining logs to allow him to prove his claim that he has gained an almost magical ability to work timber, and yet the item was not brought here by any of the minions. The minion calls it his "artifact", a word that I find telling.

5: "The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness."

Could this be a magical artifact, as referred to by the list? It is not my place to make this judgement. I cannot be sure that this is not an important item, so I must secure it. The language of our orders is strange as usual, but I understand its meaning. I must construct a vault in a location that none would expect, both strong and secret.

[breadbocks]

According to Burn Notice, a floor safe can be incredibly strong, until it gets taken out. Thus, dig a pipe deep into the ground, to the cavern, in fact, make a 10x10x1 room of a strong metal, walled in and roofed over, and once you are sure it cannot be penetrated (That's what she said), floor over the top.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Just toss it in a 3x3 room under the throne room secured by a retracting bridge behind the throne.

[Tuxman]

To make it a safe deposit box, you need to make other boxes to accompany it, or it will stand out. Make a locker room for all your dwarves with 3x3 or 2x2 or 1x1 rooms with doors. Have one be designated as a dump, and dump all artifacts there. Have others have coffers in them for your dwarfs. Designate the coffers as barracks and give them out. Deposit box area.

May want to add a large safe room for gold and silver coins. Get a lobby with guards to guard the treasure. There should be tables with glass windows in front of them to make teller areas.

Bam, instant bank. Good inconspicuous place to store artifacts. Pesky-do-gooders will go for the gold (large safe room) and forget the deposit boxes, where there's no insurance that they can get in

(An idea babbled out from one of the migrants, Ireheart Axebane)

[Geb]

To make it a safe deposit box, you need to make other boxes to accompany it, or it will stand out. Make a locker room for all your dwarves with 3x3 or 2x2 or 1x1 rooms with doors. Have one be designated as a dump, and dump all artifacts there. Have others have coffers in them for your dwarfs. Designate the coffers as barracks and give them out. Deposit box area.

May want to add a large safe room for gold and silver coins. Get a lobby with guards to guard the treasure. There should be tables with glass windows in front of them to make teller areas.

Bam, instant bank. Good inconspicuous place to store artifacts. Pesky-do-gooders will go for the gold (large safe room) and forget the deposit boxes, where there's no insurance that they can get in

(An idea babbled out from one of the migrants, Ireheart Axebane)

I'm trying to decide between a few conflicting ideas of how to do this, two of which have been suggested here already. This is actually a good enough suggestion that I'm going to keep it in mind even if it doesn't get used for the artifact vault. I get the feeling that this fort will eventually need a lot of secret places.

and don't worry, I haven't forgotten about your dwarf request, you'll be in as soon as I get to expanding the Legion.

[Geb]

Field Reports of Tannen Rimtarazin, Trusted Lieutenant
7th Timber, 301

With the completion of the new upper level workshops and the carving out of a new set of rooms for my personal use, it is time to sit down and manage this fortress properly.



To allow a full time watch to be kept over our entrance, I need a larger, more flexible Legion. For now two squads will serve for our purposes, which means having to take on untrained minions. Solid leadership is the key to getting the best out of these recruits with minimal training, and yet... solid isn't quite the term I'd use to describe the leadership we have. DoomPotato has taken command of the morning patrol, who call themselves The Constructive Hardiness, and will beging training them in basic unarmed fighting. I have given command of the evening patrol to one of the new minions, a soldier called Ireheart who says he knows a few tricks that he can teach the others. That's not the confident statement of competence that I would hope for in a captain of the Legion of Terror, but he's the best of what's available. Ireheart's squad call themselves The Pulleys of Murdering. They have been given the west hall for training. I'm sure they'll learn something.

Clearing out cover and potential security hazards proceeds on schedule in the stockpile,



but the laboratory remains beyond description. The doctor has been left with free rein over our animals for long enough to turn the communal hall into a literal bloodbath. Getting this place cleaned up is not going to be a simple task, and for now, I won't even try.



The important task is, of course, the artifact vault. Following the orders will be more complicated than I had originally thought. The relevent item is Rule 5, which is clear enough.

5. The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

By implication, it says that the mountain of despair where we live should be guarded by a river of fire and dragons, but the artifacts should not. I presume this is to ensure that the items are never destroyed by the volcano itself. This is not necessarily a problem, we have no dragons but we can certainly build a magma moat, and we can build a vault on the foothills outside it away from the mountain. And yet the orders are also clear on how magma should be used.

76. If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

87. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

It would seem that a bridge over magma is forbidden, yet a magma moat is mandatory. I was pondering this dilemma in my office when interrupted by Doc Zaerosz' polite knock on the door. I record my conversation with him as accurately as my memory will allow, as I am absolutely certain I will want to review this later, if only to wonder what lunacy made me agree to it.

The doctor spoke with a deceptively soft voice as he entered,   "I have finished with the cattle for now. I believe we will have approximately 50 new bolts today, once my assistant has finished with them. However, we have other matters to discuss."

"And what matters are these?"

"I have a request for a working crew so that I may obey the orders of the List. Specifically, I refer to rules ten and ninety-five, concerning the handling of prisoners."

The doctor paused as I looked through the slabs onto which I had etched copies of the Overlord's List, watching patiently.

10. I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

95. My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

"You want to have quarters and a workroom carved out near to where our dungeons will be?"

"No, lieutenant, I wish to have quarters and facilities constructed outside the fort, or as the List puts it, outside the borders. Rule ten specifically demands that captured enemies should not be questioned within the administrative boundary of the fortress, and I believe that they should not be brought inside at all. You will need a prison, lieutenant, and a man to run it. You will need a competent dwarf, somebody with the anatomical knowledge for both healing and harming, to take command of such a facility. You have only one such dwarf."

Perhaps I was influenced by thoughts of the vault, also placed outside our borders, and of visions of what mighty defensive lines those borders may one day become.

I gave permission to proceed.

Oh, by Kasben's Beard, we are going to be putting the two most important secure locations in the settlement on the outside of our main defensive line! I am going to regret this. Without a doubt, I am going to regret this.



Profile shot for Ghaz Ireheart is up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He's not an axedwarf yet, just a novice fighter, but I'll be training every legionary in both axe and crossbow eventually. He'll get there.

[Riversand]

Heh. i am so... digging this. I would love to have a Dwarf, male preferably, and work on trap making. He will call himself 'Kezan' with a self proclaimed title, "The Architect" A dwarf who loves to make traps. doesn't care for who, as long s the traps will be used in some form. He loves using complex designs, and simple alike. as long as it captures, maims or kills. He pledges his loyalty to the overlord provided he can make traps, for the overlord's cause of course, and not against.

He would probably have beady eyes,  and a slight twitch of his lip whenever he is thinking of some sort of insidious trap.

I hope this isn't too... much to ask.

[Zaerosz]

HahaHAAA...Phase one begins~