Winter, 1051

A second thief shows up, but is promptly chased off by the caravan guards.


My legendary stonecrafter uses the last of my rocks. Time to start rounding out some rooms.


The ponds that formed part of the outer defense froze over. We're building walls on the ice.

The caravan leaves, so we can no longer rely on them for protection, so we set up a barracks.

And assign a pair of dwarves to squad The Whips of Craft, and have them start training. I'll leave it to the next leader to properly supply and equip them.

Other then some exploratory mining and a few snowstorms, nothing else of interest happened during winter. Our population stands at 20, with very sufficient food and booze stocks.

Uploaded save Granite 1, 1052.

Summer and Fall, 1051

This is the account of the first summer and fall seasons of  Earthdance.

We got 8 migrants this summer, including an expert diagnostician who assumed the role of chief medical dwarf.

 We disregarded the fact that he's also an accomplished butcher; I'm sure the two are unrelated.

I order all the useless immigrants to start building the walls we blueprinted months ago for our outer defenses, and we brought a bunch of wood our foresters chopped inside the walls. We also start a bridge over the river to the south.

The hallway between the surface and the rest of the fort has been set with traps. There's also a few around the entrance on the surface.

Five more immigrants! I guess we'll tolerate them since they brought an Accomplished Brewer.

My manager refuses to finish his meal.

We immediately build him a Craftsdwarf's Shop next to the Mechanic's and Mason's shops.

The manager doesn't even have time to claim the workshop before the caravan and liaison arrive.

And the moron wants rocks and bars, and we have no metal industry going yet. Moron! Maybe the traders can help the poor fellow out on his journey to enlightenment.

I just realized the Manager is also our broker. What an absolute freaking moron! I've transferd his responsibilities as broker to our tanner who's a Novice Appraiser until the Manager can get his act together.

We trade some beer and a caged fox for some metal bars from the traders, and immediatly the manager grabs them and starts his construction.

I finish meeting with the liaison and make sure he is very clear that it is of upmost importance that we have toys from the Mountainhome next year.

A goblin thief shows up and immediately runs off. The caravan guards are in hot pursuit.

Spring 1051 for Earthdance

Welcome to the founding of Earthdance.

I'm using Lazy Newb Pack 4.3 and roughly following the chart From Caravan to Happy Dwarves. I suggest we not use any reveal tools. Dwarf Therapist is acceptable. Turns are 1 year/1 week; if you can't finish the next person picks up where the previous finished.

Embarked at this location in Strasp Angstur with the lazy newb embark profile.

I set out with 6 companions: stalwart fellows ready to make a name for themselves. We're no longer content to live a life of ease and comfort in the MountainHome; we desire excitement and adventure. We've agreed to rotate leadership of the fort; I'll lead for the first year, then one of my companions will lead for the second, and so on.

Our first order of business is to locate a vein of metal and pierce the mountain. Oh yeah, we're going to name our fort Earthdance.

Appearantly we also have a thing against mountains, or even hills. Our new settlement is in the middle of a forest. You'd think we were elves or something. I'll make sure at some point in the future we make it clear we are no tree huggers.

There's a few patches of snow left on the ground. Since we're in the middle of a forest, there's no way to identify a vein of ore, so we'll just randomly dig a hole in the ground and hope for the best.

We've set up a rough governing body.

Thank the gods! We've struck copper and iron ore!

Now to set up some farms. We got a plot and a still built. Nothing more comforting then making one's own booze.

Set up living space for myself, my bookie, and everyone else. I've ordered my engravers to smooth the walls and floors of my bookie and my rooms. We'll see if they can get to it before I get mad.

First of summer of the first year, good booze production, so our future and moral is high. Never-mind that we have no military.

My fort as it stands before I go to sleep on the 25th of Hematite, 1051.