Fortress Tinearths – 1062 Spring

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Kogan Rigòthsákrith was an ambitious and thorough dwarf. He closely studied the logbooks of Geshud Ultérdumad, the mason who took command over fortress Tinshot after Rigóth Érithmuzish had drowned while mining a water filled channel. With all this newly gained knowledge Kogan began to plan for the construction of his own fortress, Akrulber, or Tinearths as the humans would call it. It was to be placed in a region called The Tower of Rooters.



In contrast to the deserted location of fortress Tinshot this fortress was going to be built close to a few human towns and not very far away from six other dwarven mountain halls. There were no elf civilizations close by, but that was good because Kogan would have to cut down most of the sparse trees in the region (and elves don't like that).

The temperature would be temperate and vegetation would be moderate, the same as in the Tinshot region, but instead of untamed wilds, this region had sinister surroundings.



He carefully picked his crew: (done by buying skills for the seven dwarves)

Kogan: Competent Miner.

Nil: Miner.
Kogan was aiming for big halls and two miners is a must to get the job done in a reasonably pace.

Ilral: Mason, Novice Building Designer, Stone Crafter.
Ilral would be responsible for cutting doors and furniture and building support pillars and different workshops. When time allowed she would also craft stone arts to trade with the caravan.



Fikod: Wood Cutter, Carpenter, Axedwarf.
Fikod was responsible of cutting trees and making beds and storage bins. He would also be the last line of defence with his skills wielding an axe.

Kel: Marksdwarf, Ambusher, Novice Butcher, Animal Trainer, Novice Animal Caretaker.
Kel would be the team’s hunter, always bringing fresh meat to the fortress. He would also train the dogs to become war dogs or hunting dogs.

Edëm: Fisherdwarf, Novice Fishcleaner, Novice Herbalist.
There’s always rivers and marches with different kind of fish food. At periods with small catches Edëm would gather plants instead.

Tun: Competent Grower, Mechanic.
Tun was a specialized farmer with a knack for mechanics. In the early spring Tun would concentrate on making mechanisms to use with floodgates and levers and as soon the farm plot was flooded he would farm it.

The equipment:
2 Iron Picks, 1 Iron Battle Axe, 30 Plump Helmet Spawn, 27 meats (18 kinds), 25 barrels of liquor. 2 Dogs and 1 Cat.



There was a lot to choose from but Kogan was satisfied. The meat comes in one barrel for each different kind, and free barrels are important in regions with sparse woods. The liquor is also very important, without it dwarves work slowly and lose their temper. The Plump Helmet Spawn is for farming.

1062 Early Spring


The team arrives. Kogan begins mining into the rock where he (the player) wants the entrance to the fortress. Kel grabs her crossbow and quiver and goes into the woods looking for prey. Edëm immediately begins fishing in the river. An area gets designated for woodcutting and Fikod grabs his axe and begins cutting down the trees.



There are a lot of wild animals. There’s one group of warthogs, another with gazelles and warthogs and a third with hippos. Kel the Trapper chooses a warthog and sends a bolt through its neck. (All dwarves follow their orders automatically and try to fulfil them as fast as possible, except when taking breaks, sleeping, eating, drinking, dangers and parties)



The warthog tries to flee but gets winded and moves away very slowly. Another warthog comes to close for comfort and Kel hits it with a newly loaded bolt before it has time to bite him. The warthog gets thrown back a yard and falls down. Kel reloads and kills it before it has a chance to stand up. The first warthog collapses and dies after fleeing a few yards.



Kel has to kill yet one more attacking warthog before picking up one of his kills to return it to… the not yet built butcher’s shop. A spot is chosen for the butcher shop but someone needs butchery or trapping to build it. Kel is busy with hauling the corpse of the warthog so Tun the Farmer gets the butchery job activated. By looking at the Job List one can see that Tun is now building the butcher’s shop. She collects some rock from the newly mined area and brings it to the building site and starts to build.



A stockpile for the logs that Fikod the Carpenter will collect is designated.



There are a lot of stockpile categories to choose from. A refuse stockpile is also designated where bones and corpses will end up. Tun builds a mechanics workshop.



In the picture above Kogan is mining into the rock wall and outside are the two wagons loaded with barrels of food. A dog, a horse and a mule are hanging around. In the middle is the newly built butcher’s shop. Above and under are two designated stockpiles and to the left is the river (animated). There’s also a tree designated for cutting visible to the left.



Edëm reports that there’s no fish in the river. He then goes to a swamp infested with clouds of flies and tries fishing there instead. Almost immediately he gets a catch and return to camp. By looking at his inventory one can see that he’s hauling a turtle. It is also shown by a symbol that’s flashing under the fisherdwarf’s symbol. Now he has to clean it but first he needs to build a fishery workshop.

Kogan is still digging right into the mountain while the second miner soon will be finished with the Upper Entrance Hall. A building plan for a support pillar is placed in the lower part of the room, but Ilral the Mason is busy with hauling logs for the carpenter. This is fixed by turning of all hauling jobs for Ilral. Soon she picks up a stone, carries it to the support plan and begins working. The placement of the pillar might seem a little peculiar but the roof will cave in if a room is bigger than 6x6 in both directions.

The mechanic’s workshop is ready and Tun begins to make mechanisms to be used with floodgates later. A mason’s workshop is built and Ilral begins to construct a couple of floodgates to be used with a farm plot as soon as the underground river is found. Kogan has struck copper ore.



No one seem to be butchering so Kel the Trapper’s hunting job is turned off for a while, so that the animal corpses don’t rot before they get butchered. It has begun raining outside so Kel probably doesn't mind spending some time in the butcher's shop. Suddenly Kogan strucks water, but he had bad luck, causing a flood.



“Flee the mines!” Kogan is carried back through the whole tunnel by the flood of water.



Ilral and Nil cancels their work in the Upper Entrance Hall and flee outside. The flood peaks when it reaches the Hall. Nobody got injured, but the whole site is a muddy mess when the water later retreats.



Ilral the Mason constructs a bridge over the river and both miners begin to mine what’s going to be the farm plot on the other side of the river.



Fikod the Carpenter cancels his fell tree job and builds a carpenter’s workshop and begins constructing beds. The plan for the Upper Main Hall is laid out.



Tun the Farmer is now butchering a gazelle that the Trapper brought back. Ilral begins cutting stone doors. Kogan is now a skilled miner and Nil has become a competent miner.

Mid-Spring.
A room for farming close to the cave river has been mined. It just needs a floodgate and a lever, but everybody fell asleep in the shops and on the floors. Seven beds were ready inside the carpenter’s workshop but they were not yet placed. It is raining outside. Checking what Ilral the Mason thinks about the situation. She is still quite content but is complaining about sleeping on a rough cave floor and the lack of chairs.



When the dwarves have awoken the Entrance Hall is filled with miasma from a rotten lizard. Setting global order to “gather refuse” will make the dwarves haul corpses and other litter to the refuse stockpile outside. Dwarves walking through miasma cause them to think unhappy thoughts which in the long run combined with sleeping on floors, being woken by loud noises, empty wine stocks and so on will make dwarves depressed or angry.



When the floodgate is in place Tun the Mechanic/Farmer builds a lever and then places one mechanism on the lever to link it up with the floodgate. When she is about to go get the next mechanism for the floodgate Kel came in with a kill from the woods and then Tun started butchering instead. Turns off butchery for Tun so that she continues to link the lever to the floodgate instead.

A while later, Kel the Trapper had a hunting accident and fell into the river. Probably a gazelle kicked her. She got winded from swimming and floated for a while down the stream but finally managed to get to dry land.

The fisher is having a lot of raw turtle around him by the swamp. There’s something wrong with the flow of things. The food stockpile is full, made it bigger. A fishery workshop is built and fishing is turned off so that Edëm now focuses on cleaning the raw turtle to make it edible. The Mason is building a bridge over the river outside to make a shorter path for the Fisher and the Trapper.

Late Spring.
Finally the floodgate is linked to the lever. Tun tries to pull the lever but the farm plot isn’t flooded. There’s a need for a second floodgate that has to be linked up to the same lever. The first section of Upper Meeting Hall is now mined, now it’s time to put up beds and move some workshops inside.

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