Spring 1055, in which the elves make a request, the caverns are braved, and a great work involving magma begins.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – There are some really big monsters out there. We need really big weapons. I talked to the architect today about getting some heavy weapons built. I also asked if there was a way to dig a moat and fill it with magma. He and his assistants got excited and started talking in a weird language, with words like “torsion” and “crannequin”.
They were looking right at me when I made the request, but I’m not sure if what they are talking about now has anything to do with what I said.
Maltose, Duke – It is the vernal equinox, and founding day! First, I will have the porters bring my bath tub out of storage. Then, I shall select the choicest barrels of brew for the festival! With all the performers around, the citizens are sure to enjoy this celebration!
Two dwarves and a goblin sing by the goblinite statues in the fairgrounds. The dwarves are disoriented by the sun, as indicated by the flashing cyan “X”.
Thornbeard, Scout – a large force is approaching from the southwest. They wear helmets with the symbol of the skinless gecko. Our soldiers expected this, and are already in position.
Maltose, Duke – Curse these party crashers!
Maltose, Duke – After the battle, I personally led the civilians through the gates to congratulate our heroic defenders, and assist any who had been wounded.
Violence had happened even within the barbican. There was a dead invader right in the courtyard, and dead dogs. Another invader dangled precariously from the tower roof. Enemy bolts and arrows were lodged in unexpected parts of the stonework.
Outside, in the forest, a terrible fight had left piles of dead. Fortunately, they were mostly enemies. Four wounded dwarves were still alive. I helped carry a soldier with a wrenched knee to the hospital.
The hospital. A recovering squad leader (blue) leaves his bed. Duke Maltose (purple) brings an injured soldier (gray) to the northeast room.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – Damn hospital has more vomit than blood. I appreciate everyone going above to carry the wounded back, I really do. But those civilians aren’t used to the sun and puked all over my floor when they carried the wounded in. It’ll be a miracle if none of my staff breaks their neck slipping on the filth.
Thornbeard, Scout – The deep barracks was empty during the siege, except for a napping mechanic. Blind cave ogres have no eyes, but they can sense prey even through stone. That must be how it knew to kick in the diorite door to get at the mechanic.
Praise Zefon Yearlingfountains, for the mechanic had finished his work on the traps before taking that nap. The ogre is caged in the zoo now, and the mechanic is at the tailor getting a new pair of trousers.
Maltose, Duke – Our architect, Hana, and his assistants have completed the engravings in the ducal audience chamber. They tell the whole history of the Last Hills region around Alegate. There is a section devoted to when The Dragon destroyed the town that used to be up the mountain from here, showing all the known victims, with their names inscribed by their likenesses.
There are also many images of night creatures and those they abducted or ate. There are a few images of the rare cases when a warrior managed to hunt down and slay one of these monsters.
The history of Alegate is there, too, both happy and sad. The political assignments, the great works of craft, the battles, and even the poor baby who drowned that cold winter.
Some of it is hard to look it, but it is an impressive place to receive foreign dignitaries. The prisoner seems to enjoy them, too.
One of the more personal engravings in the audience chamber. Fark hates mosquitos, which happen to be common around the local river.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – The armor did a lot of good. Of the four who were wounded badly enough to show up in the hospital, three had bruising and wrenched joints, but their armor had kept the weapons out of their flesh. The only exception was a squad leader who caught an arrow in the neck. The swaggering fool tore it out himself before he came down here. That’s going to be a nasty scar.
Maltose, Duke – Sidaya, representative of the elves, came to speak for his nation in our grand audience chamber. He wanted Alegate to agree to cut no more than 100 trees before his next visit. Wanting no trouble with the elves, I listened to him respectfully, and discussed the particulars. In the end, he agreed to a limit of 117 trees between now and this time next year. I think it was not just my words that gained this concession, but the grandeur of the chamber. He will take tales back to his nation of the skill of the dwarves.
Sidaya is less polite than the human Law Giver.
Once negotiations were done, I shared some choice wine with the visitor. It loosened his tongue, and he shared news from the elven forest. The necromancer attacks have stopped, but the Vigorous Confederacy still held the elven settlements it had taken in 1050. Raiders, based in those settlements, had been troubling the elves ever since.
Sidaya finds it bewildering that the humans are so offended by the eating of defeated foes. Among the elves, it is a time-honored tradition. Sidaya said it is a common topic to discuss at the dinner table, after a human attack.
Argus, Broker – The elven caravan did not arrive this year. I hope the merchants are still alive. If they’re dead, they can’t bring us mates for our tiger and bears. The animal trainer already has the beasts attacking on command. We need more. Lots more.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – I found the architect and his assistants in the corner of the Drowned Langur, behind a wall of empty steins and half-eatten Roc roast. There were charcoal sketches everywhere — pumps, windmills, floor plans and more. All around the sketches were arcane marks. Some of the marks looked like math, but there were weird symbols mixed in like “∑” and “√”. There was a thin slab leaning against the wall with very emphatic lettering stating “MAGMA IS NOT LAVA”.
The dwarves planning this have an excited, sleep-deprived, giddy look about them. Architect Hana keeps referring to it as The Great Work.
When I asked how it was going, Hana said they had thought about making a system of pumps to move the magma to the surface. It would take two or three years to build, but would theoretically be able to send a high-pressure spray of magma once complete. They could power the thing by building a massive array of windmills or water wheels, and linking it all together with a complex system of gears. The problem was that the power infrastructure was likely to be torn apart every time an army of the skinless gecko or legendary monster showed up, and that happened pretty often in Alegate.
Their best plan so far was to build a track system that wound down from inside the barbican to the magma sea. It would be a 142 story ramp carefully engineered to wind around the caverns. Special mine carts could be made that, once full of magma, could be pushed to the surface. The dwarf would dump the magma into a drain that led under the wall to the moat outside, then shove the cart back down the ramp, where it would descend on its own, very rapidly, back to the magma sea.
The biggest technical challenge was loading the magma into carts. Working anywhere near magma is horribly dangerous, so they were designing a machine that would load the carts while the dwarves stayed clear of the open trench to the magma sea.
Work will begin shortly.
Argus, Broker – those siegers left a lot of armor, weapons, and exotic clothes out in the field. I wonder how much the next caravan will pay for that. We’re going to need more storage space.
Thornbeard, Scout – with the diorite door broken, a squad of heavy infantry is exploring the deep cavern near the fort. They found some monsters out there in the ash, but so far our soldiers are the toughest things in the deep cavern. Woodcutters are taking the chance to harvest the nearest giant mushrooms.
Soldiers moving across the ash (gray) and sand (yellow) floor of the deep caverns. They occasionally pass a brightly colored giant mushroom trunk.
Soldiers walking past one of the lakes in the deep caverns. This one has the top of a giant red mushroom poking above the surface.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – monsters make good eatin’. Roasted hungry head, reacher steaks, fried crundle, and gremlin soup. All fresh from downstairs.
Thornbeard, Scout – The crundles in the caverns are a problem. They are the size of koalas, but they don’t look like cute teddy bears. They are scaly little imps with long horns and claws. Any woodcutter that encounters one can easily stomp on it, then tuck it in their belt to take back to the kitchen. Unfortunately, there is never just one. A dozen is more common.
When the crundles see our heavy infantry, they scatter into the stalagmites. Our dwarves, in heavy armor, have trouble catching them.
Chasing crundles (red “c”) among the stalagmites.
Thankfully, we have the cavern cat. One of the fortress cats has given up hunting creepy crawlers and dragonflies, and prefers bigger prey. This cat must be blessed by Zefon Yearlingfountains, for it is successfully hunting the crundles. When the crundles flee the tight spaces to get away from the cat, our soldiers are waiting.
Cat (gray “c”) chases a crundle (red “c”) toward the dwarves.
Maltose, Duke – The Drowned Langur has become a base for adventurers. Two visiting warriors decided to go through the breach into the deep caverns. Our soldiers see them down there from time to time, fighting monsters.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – we have our first heavy weapon. They brought up bright red goblin-cap wood from the deep caverns and built a catapult in the barbican.
Thornbeard, Scout – The soldiers exploring the caverns found a new godmetal spire. The part they discovered is 81 stories above the magma sea — far taller than any found before. If it is solid, we will have a vast amount of adamantine.
Argus, Broker – In a mining accident, the mine cart ramp knocked a hole through the roof of a previously unknown section of the middle caverns. The middle caverns are the home of the giant one-eyed, three-horned monitor lizard. Through the breach, we saw the corpses of cave crocodiles, ten times the size of a dwarf. They had been torn in half. We could also see a horrible gargantuan spider that had shot its webs all around, but had not been able to stop the great monitor from smashing it into gooey white ichor. The spider’s fangs were red with the monitor’s blood, and there were pools of the monitor’s red blood deep enough for a dwarf to bathe in, but the monitor had not been stopped by that amount of blood loss.
I sat myself down on a boulder and made sure the dwarves got that breach sealed fast.
A typical section of the middle caverns. Pools and trails of gore. Dead ogres, dead cave crocodiles, and more. Clouds of miasma (purple) rise above the rotting bodies.
Thornbeard, Scout – A massive pit was found in the deep caverns. The soldiers found a narrow path winding down the side of the void, and made an expedition to the bottom. It drops nearly to the magma sea. An entire fort could be built within that pit.
Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – the soldiers are getting too cocky. A pair of terrified scholars came in the north gate, shouting that a cyclops was right behind them. The soldiers asked, “How many elephants?” When the scholars looked confused, the soldiers clarified, “How many elephants big it it? Two, like that living blob of evil fire last year? Four, like The Roc?” When the scholars said it was larger than an elephant but smaller than two, the soldiers just shrugged.
The cyclops is caged in the zoo now.
Maltose, Duke – We have wrought the godmetal! The first creation is an adamantine battle axe. It is now carried by Commander Meng. All citizens who behold this item in our Commander’s fist feel pride swelling in their chest.
Argus, Broker – A microcline door has replaced the smashed diorite door. The deep caverns are sealed again. All military and woodcutters are back inside. We have plenty of wood. Lots of colors.
The deep barracks. Attached is a stockpile of colorful fungus wood. There is a dead gremlin that got past the traps but not the soldiers (green “g” in red box.) The red “c”s here are kittens, not crundles.