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Murdoc

DF Succession 01 :: LUNGFURNACE ::

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An Idle Thumbs Forum Succession Fort

The Legendary Plane

The Age of Myth ▪1051▪

A time where living gods and mighty beasts still held sway

▪▪▪Contents▪▪▪

Year 01 --Murdoc Stouthate--

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

▪▪▪ Preface ▪ Summer 1050 ▪▪▪

Friends, the situation in these ancient halls is becoming ridiculous. The Outrageous Lantern, whom founded our mountain home, Sealfrenzies, have gone overboard, into, well, the outraeous. It was nearly 60 years ago when they abolished the Hall of Lords and took he crown from newy appointed king, Zulbar Slickcrafted, whom was a large supporter of our order. By now, we can all assume that the Outrageous Lantern ploted the assassinatation in a plan to place the ostentatious Nish Drivenknife in the throne.

While very young at the time, most of our senior members, including myself can remember cleary how that moment immediatly changed the dynamics of Sealfrenzies. Our esteemed hall, The Fainted Lanterns, was founded on the principles to balance the peacockery and jaunty ideals of the Outrageous Lantern with a more conservative and responsible approach.

However, cutting off our political power in the Hall of Lords, we have been absolutely ineffective in curbing the grandiose and high-falutin governing in Sealfrenzies. Also, on a very personal note, the junior citizens won't get the hell off my mushroom lawn!

Over the winter we have prepared with a small expedition of our most elder members to leave Sealfenzies in the spring and set out to establish our own mountain hall. It will be decades, if not centuries before our new home will equal Sealfrenzies, but be assured when the fortress has reached this status we expect our entire Hall to leave the Outrageous Latern and join us in our new home.

▪▪▪ Lungfurnace, Year 01 ▪▪▪ Spring 1051 ▪▪▪

Our perilous journey has ended! After a long trek topside that resuled in the loss of some of our more senior members will not be in vain. We arrived near the steppes of a virgin rock, The Mortal Axe. Traveling along the brook of Wisperwatch, we followed the brook for weeks when our expedition leader, a young military man of sixty spotted the ridge with two tall peaks poking into the awful blue abyss.

Even in late winter, there was no snow, nor ice and the tropical vegetation has our woodsmen salivating over the possibilities. After our miners did some geological samples the site proved to be more than suitable to begin construction! The local wildlife seems docile, consisting of numerous lungfsh, a few elephants, a variety of birds, and, as we found out later, a pack of rats.

We scouted around for a week to find a suitable spot to break ground for our claim and there were an abundance of spots to make the initial settlement. This caused much disagreement between the seven of us, as each area offered a different strategy for establishment. It was clear that our expedition leader, Dibsric Snorestorer, while capable of leading an expedition, military, and possibly a mountain hall, was not qualified for the initial civic planning. Extensive preperations was made for the journey, but there will always be some holes in any plan; ours first being that we had no skysodding architect!

So I, Murdoc Stoutehate, a mechanic, was chosen to plan the initial settlement in hopes to create a long term foundation for growth and prosperity.

The initial site was clear to me, we didn't want to take on anything too big to begin with, but wanted a spot that had enough potential to grow into legend. The twin peaks stuck out like two giant smoke stacks with Whisperwatch river cutting straight between them. We couldn't ask for a more appropriate region, Whisperwatch would be used as a water and power source, fishing, and defense. The two large peaks would be carved out into monumental military fortresses while the smoke from our fires of industry billow out from the stacks to let all those knows that dwarves reign here!

We named it Lungfurnace.

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▪▪▪ Lungfurnace, Year 01 ▪▪▪ Summer 1051 ▪▪▪

Summer has arrived, so I happy to announce that we have established the first level our settlement camp to cover our heads from that raging inferno of a sun. It is no Sealfrenzies, but we have beds to sleep in, a meeting room, adequate storage and a few craft shops. Our most notable craftsmen, Fatcat MacMeadjaw has been working nonstop on tables, chairs, doors, and beds.

Our expedition leader, Dibsric has organized a militia of the most qualified members; unfortunately everyone is too busy with settlement tasks to actually organize and train. This may have cause some concern in the future, but at the moment, with only seven of us, we cannot support a full or part time military. With this in mind, I believe it to be prudent and responsible to get some basic defenses built for the entrance, but so far we have spotted nothing hostile in the region.

What is most important to me is to get our agriculture sectors up and running along with some minor commercial interests for trade. We have plenty of food and drink, but I do fear if we don't start irrigation quickly we may be in for a grizzly winter.

On a personal note; This is no call for alarm, but there has been talk between a few of us about the odd noises being heard throughout the corridors at night. Some believe it to be a wild bird, others think this mountain may be haunted, but what I can personally attest to is that there is a noise moving through the halls and it is, what I can best describe, akin to a trumpeting bird. Hopefully we can solve this mystery, as it is causing some fears among the group.

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▪▪▪ Lungfurnace, Year 01 ▪▪▪ Winter 1051 ▪▪▪

Pardon the lack of record keeping for an entire season, but Fall proved to be the most productive thus far. While history may find that my age is catching up with me I will remain on record to being too productive to bother with cataloging mundane civic tasks, and not some senile mossback.

Fifteen workers arrived in early Fall, double the number of our current settlement! Many of them friends and members of The Fainted Lanterns back in Sealfrenzies. A much needed mason and book keeper, Boost Bindbeard among them along with some other peasents and skilled laborors. Though not a miner among them, a proffessional in high demand at the moment as expansion is slow.

Immediately, Boost was set to work on building some walls around and above us, rock grates to block anything flowing in from Whisperwatch and the miners were able to channel the brook into a semi-functional moat. Much work still remains on the cliff above the entrance, with squaring them off and building walls along the edge.

Irrigation efforts started in the Fall within several large rooms below on the second tier. Call it over precaution, but a permanent grate was installed, a flood gate attached to a nearby lever was also built to help in these efforts. When the flood gate is open, water will flow from Whisperwatch into the large rooms and produce the suitable mud needed for farming. One oversight that can be easily corrected, is that instead of flowing water directly into the rooms, would be to build a small hallway "tunnel" to direct water to various parts of the tier.

Thankfully only one minor hiccup occurred in the irrigation effort. Some peasant stumpy decided to remove a much needed door during the flooding process which resulted in some very minor water in unwanted areas. As I write this, there is no flooding left, however the ground in the hall of the second tier is now a bit soft. With the overall success, I have switched my focus from mechanic to planting crops as we are running out of food quickly after the new arrivals.

Booze is also running low, so our expedition leader and only brewer has set to work in the still...however that effort quickly ended after a lengthy search in the store rooms proved that we didn't bring the adequate plants for brewing! Absolute tragedy! How a dwarf expedition set off with no method of brewing could potentially put The Fainted Lanterns and Lungfurance in the History Book of Foolishness, which so far has only been reserved for the most stubbiest of naives.

Thankfully we have the seeds, so planting should be done quickly and the liaison from Sealfrenzies is expected to arrive this season, which hopefully will prove something adequate for brewing.

With the year closing and many tasks left unfinished, I feel unsatisfied with my time. The first year of Lungfurnace may have been uneventful, but without incident we have established farms, workshops, dorm rooms, a meeting hall, and some pretty O.K defenses. We won't starve and hopefully with a functioning brewery so we won't be with out booze. I have many notes for short and long term plans to propose which I will leave with my successor for civic planning.

So with that, I return to my full time duties of grower and planter in hopes the next planner can expand on the foundation and maybe even give us all our own rooms, as the dormitories are getting crowded.

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Murdoc Stouthate's notes for future developing.

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At last, that lollygagger has gotten back to his planting. If i had known it was him would take over planning duties while i set up the militia and stills i would have turned around and gone right back to Sealfrenzies.

I regained the reins early after winter and immediately recoiled at the mess i found. Childishly scribbled plans for walls and bridges and who knows whatnot - who would even waste their pack space with such coloured pencils?! An entrance hall of suitable proportions, but lacking even a single such engraving or smooth surface to soothe the eye (mayhaps the planter sees it wise to prance about outside, but not I). To add to the insult, there were still no private rooms built. A year is a trifle long to be sharing with those youngster migrants. Empty bellies and emptier mugs were the order of the day (and not a barrel to be found-am I to let my beer spill on the dirt?).

Still, all is not lost, there is a still a planter head on those planter shoulders. We have several fields of well irrigates soil and a farming rotation set up. 21 new migrants arrived soon after my return to power, no doubt hearing of my ascent and wanting to bask in my glory. Though it will be lean pickings for a while, the workforce will be fed in due course. I moved all the required workshops temporarily outside to allow expansion of the industrial quarter and gave orders for beds, doors and some other furniture.

On the defence front, the lungfish aren’t proving the menace we first assumed, so I’ve left the militia on low alert and begun the building of walls surrounding our holdings. Mr. Planter and I agree on that much at least.

Summer

The carpenters, masons and still have moved back inside and storage space has been designated. Expansion of the workshop areas and the relocation of industry underground continues. Also, several new bridges and curtain wall are under construction to better aid defence.

I have also begun what I am calling the Dig for Dwarven Dignity. Having procured several extra picks from the human traders I have begun the relocation of living and dining quarters to a lower level. Each dwarf shall have his own bed in a small but sumptuously decorated room, with a newly build kitchen and brewery providing food to the dining hall across the way.

A major disaster was narrowly averted when Elven traders were mistakenly offered wooden objects. Damn tree-huggers. From what I can ascertain, they are married to trees or whatnot. In any case, war was barely averted, and the traders left immediately without further discourse. Next time Jake VG Rodkin tells me he played at trader as a child I shall not believe him.

Autumn

Autumn saw our first casualty. Zulban Kalbungek went start raving mad and died of “getting locked in a room with no food”. Our newly appointed doctor Atis tells me it is an all too common malady.

However, on the bright side, a second possession of our master gemsmith led to the creation of a Thubinomal Udarmuthir, a sardonyx encrusted sardonyx. I’m not sure how he did it, but it sure is pretty.

Traders from home also appeared and we had a fruitful trading session, providing many masterful rock craft objects in exchange for some sorely needed hospital supplies. The supplies were used to set up a new hospital in the old dormitory.

Winter

Winter proved uneventful. Construction was completed on rooms for each and every dwarf. Doors for each and every dwarf to follow. I also designed and decorated a sumptuous tomb for myself, as is fitting a past leader (not that I’m dying anytime soon).

Another arftifact was created – Thabumakith Aval Nin – a palm toy boat. An object of such wonderous beauty it is.

My mners have begun to expand the northern level 0 hall to make a barracks. Though the wall outside provides some defence, we are sorely lacking any military presence.

All that remains now is to write instructions for the dwarf who is to follow on his year long leadership stint. It hasn’t been decided quite yet who it is to be, but I’m sure he will do a fine job.

Note: oooooh, I found those colour pencils. I take it back, I love them!

Note: The lungfish aren’t going away and an elephant is being contrary.

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Can't believe I got this gig. My past credentials involved only a couple of dozen Dwarves at my command. Here I am at Lungfurnace finding 40 plus dirt covered beards staring at me in hope of wisdom and knowledge. Poor buggers.

Anyway looks this Dibsric chap has been busy this past year. Most of everything for immediate concern is either up and running or on its way. There's something that bugs me every time I pass the entrance hall though and I can't get it out of my mind: dirt. Dirt and wooden doors. I fucking hate dirt and wooden doors. They have to go. My immediate orders are to carve back some of that crap and clad it in some nice solid dwarven stone. Siltstone seems to be in abundance at the moment so that'll do. While I'm at it I have the stone pillars leading down to the trade depot engraved and stick some nice statues around the place to impress the foreigners on their way in. It looks like shit one level down but at least the initial impression is a bit better now.

The spring that follows is busy. Amongst the wandering Lungfish I carve out a new training barracks and clad the walls in stone. Dibsric has made himself Military commander it seems but is slacking hard; I give him a decent training schedule which I'll attend myself every now and again, just to keep him in order. I've noticed Cerol Olonam, one of the miners has been in a pretty bad way in the hospital since I arrived too. Chief Med says his right leg and ankle are screwed and he doesn't know if he'll walk again. We'll see if we can do anything for him.

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The rest of the spring involves tidying up the 1st floor of the fort, creating stone doors and replacing those horrible wooden ones. I appoint a manger to make production of the doors easier and upon slight envy on seeing Dibsric's tomb, I start work on a similar endeavour. I also order poor Zulban Kalbungek who's been left to rot in a room upstairs to be buried in a communal burial ground opposite the grand tombs to be. About this time more bloody Dwarves turn up. 16 migrants! Good job there's rooms already being built. I'm already lost in dwarf management hell though so they can all be wall builders for now.

The spring ends in tragedy. Zasit, one of the guys I roped into helping build a wall, proved to me in the most fatal way that he wasn't lying when he said he didn't know how to build a wall. I'd intended to expand across the river into the west hill to create a proper area for military production and training later on. After building the connecting bridge one floor up, I ordered it to be enclosed with walls and roofing. Reports are confused, but after the dust cleared, Zasit was no longer in sight. A rescue mission was attempted to search the river bed below but the current here is fast and we can only assume the worst. Plans to expand are temporarily on hold for now in memory of poor Zasit.

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Summer comes. Militia training continues, the curtain wall around the outside is ongoing (despite several reports of wild elephants disrupting the builders) and my tomb is coming along nicely. Trade is going as well as I know how and apart from some git appointing himself mayor and making a fuss about his lodgings (and an inexplicable ban on exporting scepters), things are fairly calm. I'm still struggling with the amount of Dwarves here but most seem to be working for now.

Autumn comes. My how time flies! I have expanded the fort little. Mostly making sense of what's here already and making a few superficial improvements here and there. I decide to review plans for expansion into the west hill and begin carving space. I plan two fortified towers, north and south to rise out of the hill providing archer and ballista/catapult placements in the future. The rest of the season passes by in a whirl of dwarven therapy, stockpile confusion and Elves. At least the fort is seemingly well fed and boozed up.

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Those elephants are becoming a nuisance though. There are at least five of them harassing builders on a regular basis. The guys in the Militia are getting itchy with their new skills too so I give them the go ahead to test their mettle with the beasts. Reports say they were on the west hill near the curtain wall so off we go. As soon as they see us they stampede. Onto the curtain wall.

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Five elephants, five dwarves all running across my amateurishly built wall. I hope the brickwork holds up! It takes only minutes before Dibs, Rodkin and I corner them at the end of the wall, what will they do? They turn around of course and stampede back towards us. Dibs is sent flying off the wall almost instantly. Rodkin has better luck and fires an arrow as they pass injuring one of their hooves but onward they trample towards myself sending me flying off the wall. Picking my bruised body off the floor below, I call a retreat. We hobble back to the barracks and seeing poor Cerol on our way, still in agony, I fear the worst for the other militia (and silently curse the Chief Med's name). Amazingly all are accounted for and report only bruised limbs and battered pride like myself. The elephants must pay one day! I start training some war dogs.

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Winter. A potash shortage rears its ugly head. Why is that damn Ashery still empty? Who's in charge here?! I need lye and I need potash made! I'm losing the plot. Lost in a sea of mini tasks and losing sight of any long term goals. I order water to be channelled under the hospital in hopes to build a well. That it might help that useless Chief Medical Officer I can only wonder. Cerol almost certainly will never walk again. Shortly after this I'm reminded of a mad dwarf who has just perished of thirst in his room. Almost immediately another is taken by a strange mood and he's craving shells. He's doomed. I draft a few more into the military in hopes of leaving something of worth to the place when my time is up.

Why hasn't the well been built yet? Where's that chain I ordered? Oh that's right, that strange moody bastard has taken the forge. I can't build another due to a shortage of anvils, there's no trade caravans in sight and I have no shells to appease the fool. I make do with putting the last touches to my tomb, wishing for an early grave and sit down to watch the madman in the forge. As he cackles and fawns for his shells I watch the winter pass by and dream of that small community I once called home.

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Entrance, Barracks and Hospital.

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Overview. Outer wall stretching around the outside.

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My Tomb! Can't wait.

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Forgot how to play it, so sure! I'd be up for a round or two.


Re-reading the olds posts, I totally forgot half of that stuff, that was a pretty cool fortress looking back.

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I LOVE (reading about / watching other people) PLAYING DWARF FORTRESS!

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I want to but I don't know if I can make myself do it. Especially not before I refresh my memory about how the game even works. U:

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Yeah Twig, I think I'll start something up this weekend and go through a basic tutorial just to remember the, well, basics.

 

Should we start a new? Who wants to go first? I do not, since i think I started the last one. 

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I've not played since then and managed to pick it back up in around 2 hours. Like falling off a bike.

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Who is up for it then?

 

Dibs

Murdoc (Maybe)

Twig (Maybe)

 

Voyeurs:

Reyman

 

I don't mind starting. We can continue to rotate if we survive 1 year each.

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amazing

 

i have a dwarf fortress icon on my desktop...and then 2 or 3 more bookmarks on dwarf fortress FAQ/wiki

hey stare at me, intimidating, every time i load my computer.  even this post is giving me dwarf fortress anxiety

 

i'd also like to keep tuned to this post...but frankly have nothing to add

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Don't anyone worry about skill level. Half the fun of DF is the inevitable 'fun' that leads to your demise. If you go 2nd or 3rd, the 1st lord should have the basics up and running so you needent worry too much and can concentrate on building a fortune for the next poor sod to defend.

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I would be happy to join in on this. Like most of the interested parties, I played quite a lot about a year ago but haven't touched it much since. Unlike everyone else, I don't plan on doing a refresher course before jumping right in, so this ought to be hilarious.

Edit: Wow, no DF update in almost two years. I guess it's been about two years since I played then.

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Oh I'm totally in, no maybes about it.

Hopefully the no updates means that they are working on a cleaner follow up that will also give them money; or valve hired them or something.

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Ok, Murdoc, Dewar, anyone else, PM me a dwarf name that shall be you. I'll do the 1st year.

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I'd definitely be interested in reading about the outcomes, if that fuels anyone's fire to play. DF is an amazing spectacle. I unfortunately don't have the time I'd need to learn the game and participate.

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I tried to get that graphical mod working this weekend... I banged on it for a couple hours with no luck and gave up. 

 

Think I'll go back to the simple sprite mods again and actually try to play the game. There seems to be a lot of changes since I last played in setting up the world.

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