My tenure begins with a flurry of orders. The wood corners of our palisade are to be torn out and replaced with solid stone block towers. The boulders littering our halls are ordered dumped down the shaft to land amongst our busy workshops. One mason's shop becomes three; one craftdwarf's shop becomes four. The walls leading the flow of water into magma are ordered lengthened.

This is where we come upon trouble. As dwarves rush forward to complete the masonry, a giant bat ambushes them from out of the darkness! Apparently some of the dwarves were confused as to whether the bat was truly "giant," perhaps befuddled by the Mondulites' lies. The creature was a CLEAR specimen of Battus Biggus, a dangerous but cowardly species.



Boing, the so-called "hunting peasant" was taking part in the works and attacked. Ah yes, I forgot to mention. Through threat of force and promise of reward I've gotten most of the useless rabble to at least contribute to the masonry-work of Gemclod, although their contributions remain extremely limited for the moment.



The giant bat, swift and fearsome, pursued Boing up the small aqueduct. Boing, carrying the baby Penguingo on her back, sloshed desperately through knee-deep water as the terrible creature quickly caught up with her. Leperfish happened to be nearby, and gave the call for the militia. The call was relayed through the fortress, but the militia would have to run through the length of our tunnels to give aid.



The beast is mere steps behind Boing, hunger in its eyes.



The giant bat grasps at Boing and her baby with the vicious, hand-like claws at the end of its wings, but Boing and her child manage to narrowly escape its hold and start running the other direction, toward help!



As Boing runs, the bat grabs at her baby, trying to tear the infant from her back! But Penguingo gives the giant bat a bit more than it expected, punching out at it from her position on her mother's back!



The giant back is incensed at being injured by the tiny dwarf, and manages to get a good grip on Boing's attire. Before it can sink in its teeth, though, Boing slips out of her dress, leaving the garment in the enraged beast's grasp!



Boing manages to navigate toward the fortress proper, the giant bat directly on her heels. The giant bat overtakes her, and the two scramble upon hot, slippery obsidian amongst clouds of steam, mere feet from the edge, where magma awaits. But help is now seconds away.



Confronted with the well-armed militiadwarves, the giant bat flies over a nearby wall after sustaining only a single wound. The dwarves give pursuit.



The bat is cornered nearby. Enzer, the fierce Axedwarfette, charges the much larger foe. She knocks the beast to the ground, and in the chaos that follows manages to cut it in half with her copper axe. I make a note to commission better gear for her as soon as possible.



The kill marks her seventh. She is the type of stout dwarven warrior that our people need. Leperfish is lucky to have her as his own.



Some time after the confrontation, I notice that, as predicted, magma is leaking into the chamber excavated by Leperfish. I shake my head in disbelief at such shoddy engineering- had I not ordered the forge moved, YeOldeButchere or I might have been down there smithing when the disaster occurred, and we could have lost the fortress's only anvil. I will make securing proper forging arrangements a priority.



A cave fish is sighted in one of the underground lakes. Perhaps we will yet dine upon seafood in this place.



Mehuyael, an engraver, is taken by a fey mood. He quickly gathers up two pieces of quartzite and gets to work in a craftdwarf's shop.



Within a few short days, Mehuyael completes his creation! A beautiful quartzite sceptor, engraved with an image of two spore trees. I take it as an omen that we should delve into the caverns, where such trees are abundant. Too long have our carpenters made do with inferior palmwood.



Just as I write this, I receive word that a giant rat was spotted absconding with a fine dwarven stew. How the rat possibly made it to our larders remains unanswered, but the relatively harmless event serves to underline our need for increased security. Once the masonry is complete on the outdoor work, I will focus on securing the lower levels of our home.



It is hard to believe that a month and a half has already passed. Work proceeds briskly, but we are in need of more hands. I fear my fortifications may not be complete in time. May Kudust empower us.

dreamy wrote :-

Tonight I dreamt, that another artifact had been created in Gemclod by a dwarf named Mehuyael.

It was a quartzite scepter. All craftsdwarfship was of the highest quality. It was encrusted with quartzite. On the Item was the image of two spore trees in quartzite.



I don't know where this fascination with Gemclod artifacts is coming from. Maybe it's the emptiness that has come the mountainhome, while they seem to prosper.