Initial Embark

Our embark location will be a bit north of Girderrealm (an empty site of The Sizzling Lashes) by the Savegall brook in the Plain of Blood. It will have sand, a small soil layer, shallow metal, deep metals and flux stone. I’m hoping to also find shallow magma, but it’s not a guarantee. I like to have an embark size of 4x4 so that I have options. The home fortress is a fair ways to the southwest on the other side of the eastern mountains.

Fortress name: Uzol Og (Oil of Clubs) Group name: Utharuzol Og (The First Oil of Clubs) Symbol: The Clasps of Roughness (image of a circle and stones)

Preparations:

  • 3 picks, 1 battle axe, 1 iron anvil
  • 10 of each of the four types of dwarven drink
  • 10 pig tail and plump helmet seeds, 5 of the others
  • 2 thread, 2 rope, 2 cloth
  • 5 gypsum powder
  • 1 each of various 2 point meats (about 15-25 pieces, different animals)
  • 4 copper bars, 30 pieces of gabbro

Skills:

  • Three miners
  • One woodcutter
  • One dwarf with no item preferences boosted with social skills (probable mayor is Fath Ezumsosh)

Animals:

  • 2 female / 2 male dogs
  • 2 female / 2 male cats
  • 3 female / 2 male pigs
  • 3 female / 2 male turkeys
  • 3 female / 2 male peacocks

At this point, I have about 230 points left. I spend about 130 points on training up three of the dwarves (not miner / wood cutter) with armor / shield / archery / dodge / teacher skills.

The rest I spend on copper bars (ended up with ten). That will let me create armor for the two dwarves with military training quickly.

First steps

Immediately pause and issue some orders:

  • o-m to turn off mixing of things in the same barrel/pot/bag
  • o-h so that only farmers harvest
  • o-r-o-v to gather refuse from outside (and get vermin cleaned up)
  • o-F and turn off everything except “Claim your dead”
  • o-W and turn off collection of webs
  • o-z and set fishing to zone-only

Spring 396

We have embarked at the mouth of the Savegall brook. The land is mostly flat (but rises to the west) and there are some trees, but it is not densely forested. The only critters at embark are a skunk and echidna. We have humans, elves and dwarves as neighbors and are at peace with the goblins. There should be flux stone, sand and both shallow and deep metals on the map. Initial digging reveals the presence of copper ore (tetrahedrite) which is likely the shallow metal.

DF2014: Teyo Asada (396) Surface Entrance

The large blue area near the wagon is the planned “sun well”. That will be a vertical dug out area that I floor over with rock blocks and use to house bedrooms / temples / libraries and other things. Because it will have been exposed to the sun it will be considered “light” and dwarves that spend time in there will not have their cave adaptation increase (nor will it decrease). The downside of a “sun well” design is that it requires thousands of rock blocks to be made and placed.

The entrance to the fortress will be down in the lower-right quadrant of the map. There will be an outer gate on the surface, with an inner gate down below on Z140. There will be a high walled compound to the east of the entrance along with walled pastures to the north/south/west of the entrance.

DF2014: Teyo Asada (396) Z140 Entrance

This is a pretty standard entrance design. The primary gate faces east at the lower end. Note the 90-degree turn before you get to the main tunnel which is important for defense. The alternate entrance will be out the south end where the Trade Depot is currently located. The alternate entrance will be a way for caravans to enter from the far corner of the map. The long north-south corridor serves as temporary pasture / storage / workshops for now. It will eventually be dug out to create a route for the caravan wagons to descend to the future location of the trade depot.

Beds, rock pots, rock nestboxes, rock mechanisms, tables, chairs, wood barrels, wheelbarrows, minecarts and the collection of plants / wood from the surface are an early priority. There’s also a large food stockpile and other stockpiles to get stuff out of the wagon and into the main tunnel. The iron anvil went into a furniture stockpile immediately after the tunnel was dug so it’s in a safe place.

Dogs get pastured in the entrance area around the Trade Depot. Cats go further down in the tunnel, followed by pigs and the birds. The turkey hens have already claimed the three nest boxes that were placed (I’ll place about 12 nest boxes right away). Hopefully the eggs are fertilized. I need to check with the t key and then forbid any fertilized eggs.

Draft animals have already been butchered, tanned and processed into raw food. Some of the surface plants have been turned into alcohol.

I haven’t decided whether to build a dodge-me bridge to the west of the main crossroads. I’ll probably prep one, but may also put bridges in place to make it a five wide tile entrance bridge that can be turned into three narrow dodge-me bridges as needed.

Founders

  • Ilral Risenalmosh (Coalgleamed), miner
  • Kadol Delerior (Steeltools), miner
  • Dastot Logemkoma (Paintedspread), miner
  • Ilral Kolangen (Wheelfair), woodcutter
  • Fath Ezumsosh (Hamesandals), expedition leader
  • Tobul Rashnish (Deathtraded), peasant
  • Cilob Bokbonied (Heatherracks), peasant

Winter 396

Migrants so far:

  • Tholtig Atheldakas, carpenter
  • Tun Uznil, militia commander
  • Ilral Kekimber, leatherworker
  • Onget Asumer, stonecrafter
  • Aban Lertethvabok, herbalist
  • Asen Lertethvutok, planter
  • Sakzul Tathtatzaneg, wood burner
  • Tirist Urdimgusil, recruit
  • Kikrost Kiravucar, baby

Next Story Year