Grim Views

Spring, 2001

We have arrived at our <strike>tropical</strike> <strike>temperate</strike> fucking cold new home. It's in the middle of a forest. There's not even so much as a hill in sight. Everything here is frozen, covered in snow, or frozen and covered in snow. I've told the other six to get digging before we all freeze to death and --

-- who the fuck packed a WOODEN axe? Is this some kind of joke?

Well, I can cut down trees with it anyway, so I get started clearing wood. Some of this is that ultralight elven lumber that they never sell us, so there's that at least.

Armok's balls but I hope there's some ore under this frozen clay or else I'm going to have a mutiny on my hands. Imush and Rimtar already have beer frozen into their beards. Good start, you hoopleheaded jackfarts.

Late Spring, 2001

The river still hasn't melted. How did it get here in the first place? Asen had the BRILLIANT idea of digging down into it, then digging a reservoir ABOVE the dining area. Kept babbling about how he'd be able to make a waterfall. Actually, as long as he doesn't fuck up the drainage it looks like it might work. I made him dig a passageway and put in a grate and a floodgate just in case, but none of it will matter if the FUCKING river doesn't FUCKING melt.

Summer, 2001

Six migrants arrived. Well, five and three-quarters. They assure me that this Urist chick is a hell of a clothmaker, but since she arrived MISSING HER RIGHT LEG and hasn't been able to so much as crawl since she got here --

How the fuck did she get here? Oh, they CARRIED her.

We've dug out crafting halls and kitchens and food storage and sleeping areas and a dining room and even a hospital --

-- Nice work, you've put Urist in a bed. And she's refusing beer. Apparently where she comes from, a sick dwarf would rather DIE OF DEHYDRATION than waste booze on a cripple. These fucking hill people are all fucking crazy, but since the river's still frozen --

-- YES THE RIVER IS STILL FROZEN --

-- she's not getting any water. I order Asen to dig me some crypts, and Inod gets to work on coffins. We'll need 'em.

Anyway, five migrants and a bedwarmer arrived and I promptly put most of them to work in the kitchens. Except for Fath, the things that man can do with a mechanism are amazing.

Late Summer, 2001

More immigrants. One of them actually thought this was going to be a tropical paradise. The snowdrifts on the way here didn't clue her in. She gets a job in the kitchens, even though I'm a bit hesitant to trust her with the knives.

Imush and Rimtar have a bet going on which one can go longer without thawing any of the booze out of his beard. They look revolting but since they spend all of their time digging new tunnels nobody really cares. Besides, without any water that doesn't come in small cube form, none of us is exactly sparkling clean.

Asen thinks he's found a magma pipe. Of course, I also caught Asen sitting in a corner licking one of the nuggets of copper we found --

-- oh yes, we struck ore. We found something like a half dozen nuggets of native copper. Hoo fucking rah.

Late Autumn, 2001

The outpost liaison arrived and I told him to bring us iron, steel, pig iron, and all the leather his wagons can carry. We traded cooked food for raw food, wood, and anvils, which is a pretty good trade if you ask me, and got some seeds that some idiot forgot to pack.

Oh, and Asen breached the magma pipe after digging a giant reservoir. I don't know what is WITH this guy and big rooms full of liquid, but since we'll be able to set up a magma kiln to work with all this clay and forges if we ever find metal, I'll forgive him this time.

Winter, 2001

I think this outpost is finally in something I'd be willing to call shape. Food production and more importantly booze production are at steady levels, the kilns are up and running making bricks, we've trapped the shit out of the entrance hallway, and we've got all the necessities. I'm going to lock myself in my office; they can bring me food and I'll give them work orders, but after 12 months sitting in a fortress with these people not taking a bath, I don't want to see any of them anymore. Maybe I'll come out once we get a working well and some soap.

((Year 1 is complete. Download link is here. On to Sindl, who will play until the Spring autosave hits, then pass it on!))

(( I FORGET HOW TO PLAY DWARF FORTRESS SEND HELP. ))

2nd Granite, 2002

Okay so the overseer has locked himself in his office. That's not good. The door's got a slot for papers, and somewhere we can hang a beer keg, though, so I guess he'll be fine.

Everyone said I'm in charge now. They said they drew straws to figure it out, and since I didn't draw any straws that means I had the shortest so - now I'm in charge. Then they handed me a "ceremonial rock of command" (note: investigation reveals it is indistinguishable from any other rock, and also now I have a pile of rocks on my dresser and I'm not sure which is the special one). Then they went off to get more beer.

I guess I should come up with a plan. So. My plan is "find iron" and the followup plan is "make iron into stuff". I feel it's a good plan.

5th Granite, 2002

Ok so apparently there's hematite all over the first cavern layer, so this giant hole to the centre of the planet I'm having them dig is kind of a waste of time.

I'll let them finish it anyway just so I don't look like an idiot. If we find anything cool I'll just pretend that's what I was looking for all along. I'm pretty good at this leader stuff after all!

Also, sending people to get the hematite.

8th Granite, 2002

The river melted! Wow, that was one heck of a winter. Ok, somewhere around here is a lever that should make the waterfall work.

Ok there's no lever that makes the waterfall work so someone will have to make one. Let's see if I can find someone who will listen to me!

20th Granite, 2002

More friends have arrived! Including a furnace operator. That'll be good, because the iron mining has been a success. We sank a few shafts - wow, I feel dirty just writing that - and found a few big pockets of hematite. We're heating up the magma forges and soon it'll be time to make ... stuff. Armour first, I think, I feel that would be a good idea.

27th Granite

I don't like having everyone outside so I am locking the front door. I let everyone come in first, of course, I'm not crazy.

Just the inner gate, too. Both gates would be paranoid.

Also the stairway to the bottom of the world, and there's some adamantite in easy reach down there. I told everyone that's why I had it dug. They're all very excited! But I care more about the iron. A-ha-ha, I am sneaky today.

20th Slate

I pulled the lever and turned on the dining room waterfall! And I learned something very, very important. We installed the waterfall part but nobody actually finished the drain.

The dining room is quite wet. And by that I mean completely flooded, the doors are the only thing holding back the water.

I shut off the water and removed the door, and now that whole level is muddy and wet but at least the dining room is clear again. Oh! And the waterfall down the main stairwell as the flood drained into it looked amazing! Everyone as very impressed with that.

Nobody has quite realized that this means that the bottom of the stairwell is now completely flooded, though. I'm just not going to mention it. The new magma forges should distract everyone from that.

I also learned that all the anvils were outside the main gate when I locked it. So I guess I have to go get them.

22nd Felsite

We're out of meat. Also, there are kittens and puppies all over the place. I solved both problems at the same time.

Someone said the elves were here but then they left right away. I guess they didn't like all the featherwood logs lying all over the place. I hear they get all bent out of shape about that, and then they cry. I mean - over wood! Wood's stupid, if you heat it up it just burns, what good is that? You can't even eat it.

Oh, and, um, someone went insane because they couldn't find something they needed. I - guess I should have paid more attention to that. Oops? I suppose he'll die.

7th Galena

Crazy dwarf died of thirst. Did you know we don't have a necropolis? Well, we don't. So I get to build it! I kind of want to put in a trap-filled labyrinth. Those always sound cool.

10th Galena

YES FATH, I GET IT, YOU WANT MORE CAGES.

1st Limestone

Someone's gone into a fey mood! He grabbed a bunch of stone and cloth and bone. I wonder what he'll make. I'll try not to let this one go crazy! I mean. Crazier than he is right now.

7th Limestone

He made a bracelet. It's ... disquieting. It's got an image of a dying dwarf, and a giant monster leopard on it. I'm... gonna hide this in my pile of rocks and just kind of forget about it.

Humans are leaving. They brought nothing anyone could possibly want. I don't know why they even showed up.

Also these unicorn heart biscuits are amazing, totally worth moving out here and that whole sad incident with the one-legged lady dying on the lawn. Unicorns are delicious! I made a separate stockpile just for unicorn bits and a unicorn-centered kitchen and - this will be great, we can cook unicornfood for everyone who visits. Yum!

27th Limestone

We have a necropolis! Sort of. It's less a labyrinth as it is a bunch of twisty passages with nooks for coffins and memorials and stuff. And... also... a tomb for me with a golden sarcophagus.

I made the sarcophagus myself, though! That totally doesn't count as abusing my authority or anything.

15th Sandstone

ASK ME ABOUT CAGES ONE MORE TIME, MOTHERFUCKER. GO ON.

1st Timber

I formed a militia! Okay, so it's just three people, and one of them is a hundred and ten years old, but it's a start. I converted the dorm room into their barracks - sure they're outnumbered by their own beds three to one, but soon we'll have a real army. With steel weapons! If - I ever get the steel industry set up. Man, this leadership thing is complicated.

27th Tumber

The dwarven caravan arrived! It's good to see fellow dwarves for once - I mean, other than all the guys here, who I have completely gotten bored of. But anyway. They showed up, and I offered them one barrel of unicorn biscuits - for which they traded me everything I wanted! I even bought a stupid jug just because I could. They just kept staring at the barrel while I had all their steel and iron and stuff carted away.

Muahahaha, I am the best at leading.

20th Moonstone

I shut the doors for winter. We're not paying to heat the whole forest! Hah, I'm kidding, we're not paying to heat anything - the ferocious, unstoppable heat of the magma pretty much comes free of charge. And thanks to the deep pool of water at the bottom of it, the main stairwell is kind of turning into a sauna.

I made a drain for the waterfall, kind of, but the river froze over before I could test it. Oh well, that'll be someone else's problem.

Made our first steel bars! Steel axes next. The military's using iron ones for now but we can totally do better than that.

11th Obsidian

Someone made a hat. It's... blue? That's pretty much the best I can say for it. I gotta say, these inspired crafts aren't very inspiring. I guess that's Grimhollows - taking the art out of artifact since 2000.

And I made steel battle axes! Only three for now, since that's how big our military is, but the point is: we can make steel stuff. I think my plan has succeeded!

1st Granite, 2003

Ok! I made it through a year, and other than that one guy, nobody died. I call that a success! We have iron and a little steel and the beginnings of some stuff, and kind of a drain for the waterfall, and more beds and lots of coffins. I think we're in a good place.

I have drawn a straw for who gets to be the next overseer. And by "a straw" I mean a big stick, and I hit someone with it, and I left a note on his unconscious body explaining that he's in charge now. I also left him the Ceremonial Rock of Command - I think. One of them, anyway.

File is available here.

Bart! All yours!