12th Hematite, 207, Early Summer

[cabbitzilla]

I spoke too soon regarding the madness that struck Morulrulush. No sooner had I sent the messenger out with a status report but that our beloved Baron's mind snapped leaving him a gibbering wreck. His Consort and son took it well; the ease they demonstrated to adapting to life without him speaks volumes about his emotional stability. I wish I knew what had pushed him over the edge, though, to prevent it from happening again. Baron Omristlolor hasn't been the only death; there've been two others that seem unrelated along with a badly injured dwarf who apparently is an utter idiot.

The body of Kib Telingzuglar, one of our quartet of legendary engravers, was found perhaps two miles west of the fortress proper. Not a mark on her, just simply dead. We've been unable to find the cause of death... simply that she was seated and apparently comfortable on a log a sharpening stone and chisel in her hands. At least she was comforted by his trusted tools in her passing. She's survived by her long-time friend and lover Mosus Arelzas, who spent nearly a week drunk as a lord in the wake of her passing.

Olon Tekkudvabok, child of 'Undertaker' Toolchannels (one of our wrestling champions) and Tun Laborsculpted (an up-and-coming swordsdwarf) was captured by a fey mood that drove him mad. He barricaded himself in one of the craftsdwarf workshops and screamed himself hoarse about our utter lack of tortoise shells. It cast a pall over the entire fortress to lose one so young, not to mention that every member of our military liked him. He was one of the skilled ones that seemed destined to take his place amongst our champions. Sadly his life was cut short, victim of a fey mood that struck him down.

And in the 'bloody idiot' department comes Eshtan Kogankubuk. This fool of a dwarf decided out of the blue that the fortress was in dire need of Ash lumber. Two witnesses have come forward and said that he left the front gates singing about chopping down trees and the wonders of the great outdoors, an axe over his shoulder as he headed due west. Ordinarily this would've simply been a case of a slacker wasting time in frivolous pursuits, but as you already know from the military status report due west is also the direction that the quartet of catapults were doing their range training in. After all, that's where the kobold warren is, and the direction they'd come from. You can probably guess what happened next: one of the catapult operators saw movement in the distance, came to the conclusion that it was obviously a kobold scout and lined up and fired down range.

Ast Nishzuntir has been praised -highly- for making such a skillful shot regardless of the accuracy of his assumption. Several engravings of the nigh impossible shot have already popped up in spots around the fortress. The boulder flew as if on rails and slammed into the moron of a carpenter, pitching him head first into a pond. He was helped back to the fortress once it became apparent that an error had been made; kobolds don't typically curse in dwarvish. At present he's 'resting', recuperating from a broken arm and a badly broken leg. He was saved any further injury by the fact that his head is harder than the boulder that nailed him. I've told Ast to make sure he loads a heavier projectile next time. He wandered off snickering about lobbing lead at the next one.

As the months pass we continue to grow in population. Baroness Erush Agkulet and I have had several conversations with Thob Oslanozkak (the current Mayor) about re-opening immigration to Kubuklisat. Mindful of the disaster that Morulrulush turned out to be, it had been decided to keep things limited until we were sure that we could support the full population of a mature mountainhome. I believe that we're ready for the next wave of dwarves, and both of them seem to agree. The fall caravan will bring a council representative along with them, and the final decision will be made then.

The tax collector and I finally worked out our differences over his fondness for copper items. A pity about the marble throne though; his head proved the harder material, but it got his attention for long enough for me to explain the whole thing about not being able to pull copper out of our collective arses. Now he's ranting about not exporting anything made of black bronze... which we ALSO have none of, which makes it simple to just nod and walk by.

The residences are coming together beautifully. Half of the proposed cluster has been dug out, cleaned up and engraved already. Furnishings are being installed as they're coming available, and several of our more ambitious dwarves have already moved in. It's a beautiful pattern on charting paper, resembling a tree in shape. The other side of the hallway will mirror it, though construction on that half is shelved until the population requires it. Give the riches we've dug out of the mountain and the plentiful nature of iron, we intend to be here for quite some time.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a trading representative from the human realm of Dur Sporro. I'm told it means 'The Empire of Raining', and is supposedly a blessing of sorts for the farmers working fields above ground. Terrible thought, really, when there're perfectly good crops that will grow in the caverns as nature intended. Ah, well, the humans have never made much sense, but they're hale and hearty compared to their Elven counterparts. Damned swishy treehuggers.

'Elaine' Itebsavot, Administrator of Kubuklisat

Comments

[elisabeth.livejournal.com]

All of the stated events have occurred. The 'talks' with various people are a RP adornment, though. I really did lose a child to a fey mood because we didn't have any damned shells. :( Baron really died of melancholy, Kib got greased somehow on the far side of the map, and Eshtan really did end up with broken limbs (yes, it's that detailed... it's insane). The tax collector really does make random demands and/or ban imports/exports of various materials. So do all of the rest of the nobles, for that matter.

Morulrulush was one of my first fortresses and the disastrous end was absolutely epic. I had a baby go into an enraged psychosis. He beat the Mayor to death with his chubby little hands, and then made an axe from the poor man's bones. Said baby then slaughtered a full third of the populace before I could get some military dwarves in, and he killed half of them before being killed. Then his mother (my strongest and best trained swordsdwarf) went bananas about her baby being killed and things went to hell in a bucket.

http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Main_Page is the wiki. Some of the stories ( http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Stories ) are hysterical. :)