Autumn and Winter 1057, in which dire news comes from the east.

Thornbeard, Scout – My dog is grandmother to most of the war dogs in Alegate. When we walk the grounds, the hounds recognize and respect her.

There are always some of her progeny stationed in the towers. They do an excellent job of braying the alarm when kobold thieves approach our gates. This drives the kobolds away, to seek easier places to burgle.

The scholars say kobold tribes live in caves. They have no real speech, so they live like animals. But something drives them to steal, so these caves are filled with a thousand years of stolen artifacts.

None of those artifacts are from Alegate.

One of the engravings in the Duke’s audience chamber.

Maltose, Duke – Alegaters are always well-appointed. Since the early days, our skilled bonecarvers have produced pleasing art. Most citizens of alegate wear examples of this on their person.

As I write this, I am wearing two bracelets and a ring of gray langur bone, a turkey bone bracelet, and an excellent dingo bone ring. The Dingo bone ring is my favorite. I have seen others with mussel-shell jewelry, and some wear things that were made from the bones of forgotten beasts or The Roc.

To this bone-art is being added wrought gold. When our smiths are not producing steel armor or godmetal weapons, they will pick up one of the gold nuggets that litter our stockpiles and create a bauble.

A growing number of citizens are sporting this new fashion.

Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – My hospital is in the east rock delvings, near the lead stair. The Gray Langur is on the west side, over where we first got around the aquifer. So when Lokum and I are heading to the Langur, we have to go through the long tunnel in between.

Now, my fellow citizens of Alegate are a respectable bunch. I enjoy all your company very much. So please don’t get the wrong idea when I say that I dreaded going into that rough-hewn tunnel, where I had to shove, climb, and crawl to get around you all. But there it is. It seemed like every time I needed to get to the other side, everyone else in the fort also needed to be on whatever side they weren’t.

So, I am very happy about what has been done with that tunnel. It is much wider now. That rough floor has been smoothed and polished like a mirror. The decorations on the sides are a nice touch — those statues and engravings and giant pillars are palatial.

Now that the hall is so grand, some times Lokum and I meet at the grand hall for lunch. I particularly like to sit by my favorite statue of Argus.

One of the statues of Argus.

The grand hall is a geologic showcase. Most of it cuts through white limestone. At the center, there is a band of gray magnetite (~) running northeast to southwest. In the magnetite band are gem clusters (*) of indigo tourmaline and green chrysoprase. One of the southern pillars has metallic inclusions (£) of white platinum and yellow limonite.

Maltose, Duke – This Queen’s representative brought troubling news regarding our homelands. Slappedcrystal, after enduring nearly two years of siege, fell to the servants of the skinless gecko. All the defenders — dwarf, human, elf, and goblin — were slain.

That fortress dates back to when the first bridges were built between our nation and the Vigorous Confederacy. Now our enemies from the south are using it as a headquarters, from which they stage attacks on more of our lands.

Settlements recently assaulted by the servants of the skinless gecko.

Settlements that were attacked:

• Letterflags was a dwarven farming hillock that was destroyed in 521 by The Roc. It was reclaimed recently by our nation. The locals repelled a small attack.
• Chainedpaddle was a dwarven farming hillock until it was destroyed by The Bronze Colossus in 998. Humans of the Vigorous Confederacy have since moved into that place. They defended it against a small force.
• Mirrorthrower, a great old fortress, was besieged by a large army of goblins in the Summer. The siege is ongoing.

The Queen’s order is that we keep our troops here, and hold Alegate. We shall do so, but our thoughts are with those who fight in the east.

Argus, Broker – the caravan from the capital is here. We gave them goblinite copper and worn clothes. They gave us books, parchment, and leather.

So boring. They never bring big, dangerous animals like the elves do.

The dwarven caravan arrives. The road is sparkling white, except for where autumn leaves color the way. The wagons are pulled by yaks, water buffaloes, and horses. Each wagon is guarded by a dwarf on foot; a speardwarf (brown), axedwarf (blue), sworddwarf (teal) or macedwarf (red.)

Maltose, Duke – Alegate continues the tradition of sending tribute to Her Majesty The Queen. As always, we send samples of our best brews. This time, we are also including trinkets of Alegate gold.

Thornbeard, Scout – The zoo has been expanded to make space for the many animals we have trained, and dangerous prisoners we are keeping. It spans the area between the original Grey Langur, and the grand hall.

In the northwest, empty silver cages (!!) are stockpiled. In the northeast, the grizzly bears (B) have their own area (red for cubs.) Gorillas (G) also have their own section. The black bears (both female) and the tiger share space. All the adults are war-trained except for the black bears. They do not take to military training as readily as the others.

Zoo annexes have been dug. The west annex holds animals that are trained but were born feral: langurs, a hungry head, a crundle, and two ravens. The east annex holds prisoners: goblins, trolls, blind cave ogres, and a cyclops.

The other trainers and I have accumulated rare knowledge in the taming of exotic animals such as langurs and crundles. The head zookeeper has documented our techniques, and is sending the bundle of scrolls back to the Queen, so that our entire nation can benefit.

Winter 1057

Maltose, Duke – Today, there was another victory for Alegate. When a werebeast came charging up the north road, our military sallied forth to meet it. By the craft of their gear and the courage in their hearts, they defeated it without any hurt being done to our soldiers. Huzzah!

Thornbeard – The beast was another werelamb. One of the bards recognized it, and told the story.

This was not the same werelamb that attacked us in 1050. The one that attacked before had been a girl from a little human hamlet. The one who attacked today had been a human boy living in the capital city of the Vigorous Confederacy.

The two werelambs were siblings, in a way. They were both bitten by the general-become-weresheep known as The Routed Howl. When the boy was infected, and ran off into the wilderness, it was only the beginning of tragedy for the boy’s family.

The boy was the son of rangers, and had one older brother. Only a year after the boy’s infection, the Vigorous Confederacy invaded the elven forest. The parents went west with that force, leaving their remaining boy behind. The parents were both slain by elves.

A few years later, the brother turned 12, the minimum age of enlistment. The brother joined the army and departed for the elven forest immediately upon his birthday. He was slain by an elf in 1053.

And so, this cursed human-child, who arrived in Alegate in the shape of a monster in 1057, was the last of his line.

Tonight, I will pray to Zefon Yearlingfountains on this family’s behalf. May their spirits be reunited in the afterlife.

Argus, Broker – There are more tooth marks in the alarm yak now. They are little, though, and the yak will survive. This yak has survived a surprising number of attacks. Maybe this yak is immortal.

Also, the yak’s mate, back in the courtyard, had a calf! Maybe we’ll have a herd of immortal yaks!

Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – A visiting mathematician wrote a new scroll on chicken parchment for our library. It was very informative. It is called “Foundations of the Moving Sun”, and is about how the sun travels around the world. I can feel my mind expanding from these insights.

Thornbeard, Scout – There was a particularly troublesome pack of crundles in the deep caverns.

They had a nest on top of a giant goblin-cap mushroom. The mushroom was growing out of the silent lake. The crundles can climb across walls and ceilings to get at it, but our soldiers could not get at them.

If only we had a hunting-trained giant cave swallow. It would have flown up there and made quick work of those little imps.

The soldiers came up with a plan. A miner dug a long tunnel above the deep caverns, then dropped a stairwell that almost–but not quite–broke through the cavern wall.

Then an engraver bored a shooting hole through the wall, a short distance from where the pack of 18 crundles had their nest.

Next, an archer climbed into the stairwell and began sniping from this hunting blind. The crundles, unable to get at the archer, were either transfixed by bolts and fell into the lake, or they climbed down to flee to the shore.

At the shore, behind a stalagmite, the heavy infantry was waiting. They finished off any crundles that escaped the archer.

While the infantry waited, a wild troll charged out of the cavern wilderness. The massive beast managed to shove one of the soldiers to the ground, but then the soldier’s comrades killed the troll.

That should keep our wood gatherers safe for a while.

The engraver prepares the shooting slot. A stack of crundles (c) lurks atop the giant mushroom. The white triangles are parts of the mushroom-caps that are stained with creeping eye ichor. There is gorlak blood nearby, too. It is possible that the blood and ichor is from a fight involving the same gorlak that was eventually killed by the fiery forgotten beast.

Fark, Chief Medical Dwarf – The Great Work is complete. We have brought the blood of the earth up from the magma sea to the surface. We have a moat of hot lava.

NOW let’s see them try to get in here.

The hot lava moat of Alegate. No other fortress in the world has such a defense!

Maltose, Duke – A messenger arrived with grim news from the homeland, and sobering orders.

State of the invasion.

Mirrorthrower has fallen. That was one of our greatest fortresses. The servants of the skinless gecko have taken this mountain hall as their own.

Furthermore, the mountainhome, Quakeringed, is under attack. If the mountainhome falls, our Queen falls with it.

The messenger brought word from the Queen. Should Quakeringed fall, and she dies along with her husband and young child, there will only be two family members left for the succession. One is her childless daughter, who lives in the far north. The other, her eldest child, has settled in Alegate.

Imagine my shock when I found that the prince was our very own Bathru the weaver! This is the same Bathru who was husband to Hode the Miner, that heroine who survived such dangerous mining missions before becoming one with lava. It was Bathru who has woven such wonderful silks from the webs of cave spiders.

Bathru and Hode arrived back in the Autumn of 1050, in the first year of Alegate. In 1051, their only child was born right here in Alegate. The boy turned six this year.

We were already determined to hold Alegate against attack. But now we have even more reason to do so. Should Quakeringed fall, our weaver may well become the King of the Granite Abbey.

We must keep him and his son safe, in the name of the Queen.