Chapter 89: From the journal of Stinthad Kekimtobul
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1st Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
Well autumn has arrived, and things seem to be okay-
Oh who am I kidding, it's awful! We got absolutely destroyed by tiny kobolds! There are so many wounded soldiers that I'm not sure if me and Silent Thunder can tend to them all. For the time being, I've thrown the fort into lock down until I can get thing straightened out. Aside from Chaza's noble sacrifice, nobody has died...yet. However we can't take any risks, especially with half the military constantly vomiting in the hospital.
I only briefly talked to Root about her absence during the battle. She blamed it on an elf spy drugging her alcohol, and is now scouring the fort for signs of an intruder. I'm not even going to bother arguing with her right now.
4th Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
Actually things might not be as bad as I thought. Between all the injuries that turned out to be minor and the soldiers who prefer to fight through the pain, the hospital doesn't have that many patients. Don't get me wrong, this was still a complete failure but it's not quite as disastrous as I originally suspected. Some soldiers are definitely going to need extensive treatment before they are fit for duty again.
9th Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
With things becoming a bit more stable, I figured that it was no longer necessary for me to constantly stay in the hospital. If something comes up I'm sure Silent Thunder can take care of it until I get back. I decided that I'd take use of my freed up time to trade with the humans.
The humans were nice, as usual, and seemed to be eager to get their hands on more pointless stone crafts. Having resolved the booze crisis on my own I wasn't sure if there was anything we really needed from the humans, but it turns out they brought along far more goods than I had anticipated.
They had a wide diversity of metals for sale, many of which are not easy to make here in Reveredtour. With plenty of cash to spare I decided to buy out their metal stock. We need as much metal as we can get anyways.
I also purchased a large quantity of crossbow bolts. I'd been having the forge masters make bolts out of iron, but bronze is a superior metal. Steel would be nice, but humans don't produce it. I never quite understood why. The method to producing steel is not a heavily guarded dwarven secret, and I can't think of any cultural traits that would prevent humans from making it.
Well in the end it doesn't matter I suppose. Those crossbow bolts actually cost a good chunk of cash, so the trader's profit margin wasn't as high as I usually allow it to be. Regardless, they seemed happy enough. The humans get a bunch of stone statues, we get sharp bronze bolts. Everybody wins!
Well except for whoever gets hit with the bolts I guess
13th Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
There hasn't been any sign of either goblin or kobold activity, so I think it's safe to lower the bridge. Keeping the fortress locked up when there aren't even any visible threats outside is just silly. Unfortunately, I discovered something wrong with bridge when it was raised.
The recent conflict with the kobolds has covered my pretty bridge with blood and vomit! I really hope this stuff will wash off. But given that that dining room still has layers of vulture blood in it, I doubt that will happen. I liked that bridge to...
17th Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
I noticed that the humans were preparing to leave Reveredtour. Normally I wouldn't mind, as we had finished trading, however I had an...issue with the goods they sold me. So I tried talking to the merchant Bedo about it before he left. I didn't want to come off as rude, but there was a major misunderstanding.
Stinthad: "Excuse me, could I have a moment of your time?"
Bedo, Human Merchant: "Ah Stinthad! Thanks again for the wonderful crafts you have traded to us. We were just getting ready to leave. I trust that there won't be any...unfortunate incidents, such as the kobold invasion?"
Stinthad: "Oh of course not! Well, I mean, I hope not. But I need to talk to you about some of the stuff you sold me."
Bedo, Human Merchant: "Oh...is there a problem?"
Stinthad: "Kind of. As you know I bought a lot of the alcohol you brought along, including what I had assumed to be some kind of exotic drink. However upon closer examination it appears to be...blood."
Bedo, Human Merchant: "Yes. That is blood. Many different types. Lamprey blood, dog blood, my personal favorite muskox blood-"
Stinthad: "Yeah but I thought it was booze!"
Bedo, Human Merchant: "No refunds."
Stinthad: "But it's blood!"
Bedo, Human Merchant: "No refunds."
Stinthad: "But-"
Bedo, Human Merchant: "No refunds."
Stinthad: "Fine! But what the hell am I supposed to do with a dozen barrels of blood?!?"
Zega, Human Crossbowman: "Well, you could do what the ancient darnen warriors did and have your soldiers bathe in it. The blood will then harden in protective layers over their skin!"
Root of all Evil: "SEE? I FUCKING TOLD YOU THAT WAS A LEGITIMATE TACTIC! AND NONE OF YOU BELIEVED ME!"
Kem, Human Axeman: "Oh don't be ridiculous. How could blood possibly form a protective armor?"
And from there the soldiers started a debate over the merits of blood armor and other potential applications for gallons of it. I stopped listening because I was starting to feel nauseous around the time one of them mentioned flooding organs with toxic blood and throwing them as makeshift bombs.
24th Limestone, 1057, Early August
I'm getting really concerned about Goden. It's been a long time since she last showed herself in public. From the sound of things, she locked herself away in her office. To make matters worse some of the children followed her down there. If you listen closely you can hear her ranting endless about something but it all sounds like crazy gibberish to me. The children eat it up though. You'd think the parents would be concerned about their children being locked away in the abyss but after consulting them they think it's just permanent day care.
It's not like they're ritualistically slitting their throats, but it's still pretty creepy.
26th Limestone, 1057, Early Autumn
Well, not all of the children are wrapped up in Goden's insanity. For example, little Scotth266 is celebrating her first birthday!
Isn't that just lovely? Sad that Vallorn won't be around to see his children grow up. However, there was a note he left before he died. He said to read it only if he should fall in combat. It was a birthday card, along with a request that I make Scotth266 a special gift for her birthday.
A buckler to be exact.
...that's kind of morbid when you think about it. Still, no way I'm going to deny the wishes of a dead man on his daughter's birthday.
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OH GEE MAYBE I SHOULD UPDATE THIS DAMN THING MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK
Fate conspires against this LP recently. This is the first day I've been up to the task of working on an update. I'd like to say things will get better from here on out, but we all know how that turns out.
Something important: the game decided to dump a huge migrant wave on me and I'm out of names for dwarves. I'd rather not go back to using vanilla names to avoid confusion so please tell me if you want your name added to the list. If you died you can be re-dwarfed with priority below those who have yet to be dwarfed, however you have to make your name something different. It can be similar though, just not identical.
