CHRONICLES OF GEMCLOD
Early spring 262: Swamp, the Beaufiful Swamp
Praise the miners! We have struck stone! This time Leperfish was mistaken and there was no aquifer below the mud. On the contrary, we found rock mere feet under. Mudstone and hematite. This means iron, and it also means we have found a good place. Filth and muck may sometimes conceal beauty and richness.
Beauty such as the Great Hall!
While Star Guarded and K0npeito started digging through the mud and red sand (swearing heavily and claiming they weren't fit for manual labour), the rest of us had to find some other occupation.
CommaToes decided to murder all the trees nearby, finally finding an use for his axe. We're not taking any chances, he said and he was right. There may not be any thick forests in the vicinity, but the mere presence of the treacherous trees might attract Tree Loves... or worse.
Vox Nihili explained he's as skilled in wood use as in metalsmithing and went to erect a palisade from all the murdered logs.
Enzer shrugged, took the second axe and went to help CommaToes. She says she learns quickly but right now she's just gently nudging the rotten trunks, hoping they will fall down.
That left me and Leperfish. And because a dwarf should never idle, we needed to find something to do. In the end we settled for a nice game of checkers.
So we spent the first few weeks of the year expanding the dig and building a stockade. It will still take weeks, if not months to finish the Entrance. However, one can only play checkers for so long. So it came to pass that me and Leperfish got bored again.
Then, somehow, we got this idea to take a look around and explore the swamp.
Look, what's that? would I cry as we went sloshing through the ankle-deep mud.
It's a rat! explained Leperfish, observant as ever.
And that one? It's the same but has horns and a double tail!
I think it's demonic.
And so on an on, until we identified all of the fauna around.
And what are those? I think I've never seen those, said I, pointing to a herd of bigger animals across the murky stream.
Leperfish had no idea so we had to summon our animal expert Star Guarded, but even he was no wiser. The other dwarves noticed us just standing by the stockade and also went to look. It was CommaToes who finally solved the puzzle: he saw these animals during one of his war campaigns. He says it's a kind of a dog, just with a beak.
That's good. We all love dogs. Star Guarded is already planning to catch himself a breeding pair.
This swamp is such a wonderful new home.