All praise to Armok – two lunar cycles have passed without any werebeast activity! Once again we may open our peerless doors to the world.
Sibrek and Meng reassured and inspired us during the quarantine, and now that it’s over, we’ve put Meng himself in charge of the newly reopened tavern! He’ll get to tell his story as many times as he wants, to every friend and foreigner that sits down at our well-equipped tables – including the priceless artifact Nokzamnerrid, central to the small but opulent dining room.
We had a brief scare recently – rumors of a full-scale goblin siege, but in the end it turned out to be two lone soldiers passing by briefly. Let us hope this was curiosity or happenstance, and not an advance scouting mission. Inquiries are underway to determine the source of this intrusion – we would prefer to have the next word in the conversation…
Meanwhile, past tragedies have manifested to torment us – halfheartedly, if I am honest. The stories I hear in The Harvest of Diamond make this haunting rather a letdown!
Our masons have been more diligent than our grave tenders, and many finished tombstones have been installed to prevent any possibility of recurrence.
Our fort has been the site of many deaths now – but mercifully, the great majority of these are foreigners. How forlorn, to meet an end so far from one’s home. But let us take pride in knowing their last moments unfolded in a magnificent fortress, and their memory will not be neglected – I’ve been asking around, and every visitor and resident alike agrees we’ve memorialized every death with proper dignity.
One of the god Tarem’s, well, less morbid sects celebrated the appearance of the ghost as an auspicious sign. In recognition of their optimism and their growing numbers, we’ve dedicated them a new chapel with a haunting image inscribed within:
The project to establish a fishing hole within our keep has been completed, and the lever pulled to open the floodgates.
I have made a slight revision in the plan, however:
The result is now that our Founder’s Memorial statue garden coincides with our fishing hole! Our dwarves now have a chance to ponder their forebears while they fish.
Meanwhile, miners doing exploratory digging in our lowest corridors have reported an entirely different kind of pool – and cause for great excitement!
This will be a great resource, once we establish a well-organized corridor and a site base. We must continue to develop our military so we can secure this resource!
One of our jewelers has been taken with an especially tender whimsy, and has produced a fabulously wealthy, if surprising, artifact:
I can scarcely imagine what it would be like to grow up with a plaything of such opulence – this is by far the most precious treasure I’ve ever laid eyes on – but I am touched at the crafter’s kindness toward our children.
In surveying our farmers’ stockpiles, I noted we have a glut of certain crops. I’ve ordered some outdoor fields reassigned to scarcer plants, so we can diversify our stores somewhat.
Our military has some discipline problems. The East Mechanisms have refused to employ the archery range despite repeated scolding and pleading (genuinely not sure what i’m doing wrong) so to make them earn their keep, we’ve sent them on a foray into the nearby countryside.
They report this was a thoroughly refreshing change of pace, and brought back several ancient, dusty books and scrolls.
Since this went so well, we sent the East Mechanisms back out again to look into the inexplicably ominous tower “Oilfrill” to the south of our Brasslances…
Well. Seems we have some frightening neighbors. I’ve never even heard of a “fist of night” or an “Oilfrill’s mistake” but the East Mechanisms apparently found them threatening enough that they retreated immediately when their stealthy raid was discovered.
What will become of us, living so close to a necromancer?