DF: Welcome to Locunmisten (Part 1)

A quick note for you, Beautiful Reader, before we begin. You may notice me changing the style of the blog a few times. I'm just trying to find something that goes well with what I'm writing, but that is also easy on the eyes. Enjoy!

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You pick up the old, leather-bound tome. It feels heavy and fragile, as though it would dissolve into dust at the faintest breeze. It is encircled with bands of iron and decorated with ash wood. On the item is an image of dwarves in granite. The dwarves are travelling. The artwork relates to the founding of Locunmisten by Tulon Uzoludist in 105.

The writing inside the tome is ornate, precise, and densely packed, although not much of the tome seems filled, and a sizeable portion of it looks stained in blood. It is with a scholar’s mind that you sit down, ready to read the story of Locunmisten.

Early Winter, Year 104

It’s been seven months since graduation and I’m finally ready to receive my first Overseer assignment. About time, too; sitting around with my thumbs up my ass was getting old. Clerical work isn’t too bad, and they got me chopping wood for the winter, but I want to leave my mark on the world, and I didn’t spend 5 years studying to make tables and chairs.

Of course, I have to write an Overseer’s journal to keep a record of how everything will go. Failure to do so, I was told, would result in severe, umm, “hammerings”.

Early Winter, Year 104

I finally got the list of the six dwarves that will make the journey with me. The others each have various areas of expertise, but I don’t think that will be the most efficient use of their talents. I think I'll streamline the various jobs into broad categories:

I’ve highlighted my own name for clarity’s sake, and I guess I’ll be working as a woodworker for the time being. Everyone has to pitch in, after all.

Note: For this first part, there will be a few notes I will jot down to help newcomers understand what is happening in the game. Those of you familiar to the game can skip those if you want, and those not interested in playing can skip the tips I put there; however, reading the notes will still help you understand. The image above shows an app called Dwarf Therapist which helps with assigning jobs to dwarves.

Tip: Although there are many ways of defining jobs, there does not seem to be any single “right” way of doing this. I prefer to have dwarves sorted into broad categories instead of having over-specialized dwarves, but that’s not really the norm from what I’ve seen. Don’t worry too much about job specialties: you can always change them later!

That list was given to me directly by the queen, by Zasit Fucking Betandodok. I always thought she was an ineffectual diplomat, and the meeting only confirmed it; she seemed only half-interested, and ended the discussion with “Ok, see ya, don’t get yourself killed too soon.” Regardless, she said I would be the first Overseer of the Locunmisten outpost - or “Riseportals” in the common tongue - and I’ll be damned if it won’t grow to be the greatest outpost that stuck-up noble has ever seen. She mentioned something about there being lots of trees, and to be wary of angering elves or something, but I wasn’t paying too much attention at that point.

We’re leaving two days from now, I’ll update you when we get there.

Early Spring, Year 105

After two months of trekking through the mountains West of here, we finally made it to the site. Now that I’m here, I’m not too certain about the site. There’s a large hill to the West, towards the mountains, but there are a lot of trees. Whatever, for better or worse, this is where Locunmisten will rise.

Early Spring, Year 105

Yesterday I’ve surveyed the site a bit, and I think we’ll create the fortress opening slightly lower than where we ended up stopping. I’ll dig out a courtyard at a later date. Maybe this’ll help defend the fortress from the local kobold tribes.

Note: Ok, there are quite a few things I need to point out in the above image. First of all, in the lower-right corner you’ll see a number, 144. This is the current z-level, or height; 143 is one level below, and 145 is one level above. Second, pay attention to the rest of the screen, since there will be many recurring items. First, the two brown circles near the bottom of the open area are tree trunks (in fact, there’s a woodcutter next to the right-most one). Next, the black area is undiscovered, un-dug rock or soil. The coloured blocks surrounding the open area are walls, and by the colour we can see that the top half is soil while the bottom half is clay (not really important to know). The green triangles you see are ramps, meaning that there is a slope at that location to the above levels. Finally, the brown line extending to the left is a designated area for digging. Miners, when available, will dig those blocks.

I’ve also asked Tholtig (the other woodcutter) to survey the area for any wild beasts, and he came back and told me that the surrounding land is peaceful, save for a small roaming family of pigs. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those.

Mid-Spring, Year 105

About a month and a half has gone by, and we’re doing pretty well. I asked the miners to dig out a passage way to the front gate for protection, and it went pretty well. We’re drowning in wood logs, and so I think we’ll have no problem creating bins and barrels in the future.

I’ve created a carpenter’s shop and placed orders doors and beds. I’ll create a small dorm near the entrance: Overseeing Management Principles Vol. 1 states that those dorms are useful and can be repurposed as barracks later on.

Mid-Spring, Year 105

Disaster struck today. While digging out the courtyard, a portion of the ceiling a miner was standing on collapsed. A rock fell on my head, and the miner got his chest crushed, but I think we’ll be okay.

Late-Spring, Year 105

We’re almost done with spring, and so I’ve asked the miners to dig out some places for farms. We’ll grow some plump helmets first, those delicious mushrooms, and see if we can maybe grow some dimple cups later on. So far, food is not a worry, although alcohol is making itself scarce, and we’re surrounded with vegetation so we can live off of scavenging for the time being.

And with that, summer has arrived.