I didn\u2019t eat breakfast today.<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t feel like it, really. I mean, I might not have eaten if I\u2019d had a breakfast right out there in front of me. Not even if it was, say, some roasted cow steaks with mushroom garnishes and a flask of chilled beer. Not even if I had a massive cut of pan-friend pork with a side order of chips and some spring water. I might have just, you know, skipped out on eating anyway.<\/p>\n
Plus, I think skipping brekky was a good show of solidarity with the men.<\/p>\n
Ah, yes, speaking of. Today, I thought I\u2019d nip outside the tent and see how things were getting on with the excavation, maybe check the food barrels to see if we\u2019vd sorted that out yet. At this juncture, it came to my attention that six or seven strange dwarves were trotting up the stairs with armfuls of stone.<\/p>\n
I watched, hesitant to address or interrupt any of them. They ignored me for the most part, absorbed as they were in their heavy lifting. I just watched in silence as they trotted along in single file.<\/p>\n
At this point, Rocky walked up the stairs behind them, wiping his brow.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew lot\u2019s working pretty hard,\u201d he said. \u201cHelps with the waste disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded, smiling as brightly as possible. \u201cDelighted to hear it! Well, that should smooth things over, then.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes flickered towards the food barrels. \u201cYeah.\u201d He fell silent for a moment, then shook himself. \u201cCourse, this is temporary. Once we\u2019ve got them working their actual trade, that\u2019ll probably help us to no end.\u201d<\/p>\n
I kept nodding and smiling.<\/p>\n
For the rest of the day, I moseyed around to the original (surviving) dwarves, trying to ask as delicately as possible for information about the new workers. Eventually, I managed to get a list of their names and trades. I didn\u2019t quite work up the courage to ask when they\u2019d arrived\u2014I confess, I was a bit too embarrassed to have not noticed a half-dozen new workers arriving.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have the list on me at the moment, but I know one of them was a clothier, one of them was an animal trainer, and one of them was a\u2026wood burner? Yes, a wood burner. Which will no doubt be quite useful, what with all of the wood we have. I mean, it\u2019s not going to burn itself. Obviously. Also, there were a few that were designated simply as \u201cpeasants\u201d.<\/p>\n
I do remember quite distinctly the absence of a farmer, rancher, or fisherman of any kind.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly more interesting, living with such a large group of dwarves. The place is really starting to feel like a lived in fortress. Not that I\u2019m saying it\u2019s unkempt or disorganized\u2014far from it, actually. There isn\u2019t much food waste around the place at all, and we\u2019ve stacked up the stone quite neatly outside. True, we now have about half as many beds as people, but that still works out provided we get people working in shifts, which will no doubt begin to happen naturally within a week or so. And true, we don\u2019t yet have workshops for the craftsmen set up, but once we do I\u2019m sure the walls will echo with the sound of creative endeavor.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, one of the dwarves is a diplomat, so we now have a liaison to the outside world. Just this week, we were brought to a meeting to discuss possible trade agreements with a nearby dwarf settlement! I can\u2019t tell you how amazing that felt\u2014I\u2019ve sat in on many such meetings between many such fortresses, but I never thought I\u2019d be the presiding party in one! Now, to be sure, those meetings are usually interminably dull hour-long festivals of back-and-forth concerning furs and spices and whatnot, so I wasn\u2019t excited for the event itself so much as the idea of having it. Mercifully, our meeting turned out to be rather short indeed.<\/p>\n
When I got back, the food situation proved to be as vexing as always. I felt capable of addressing it properly, though, now that I had a full stomach from the pre-meeting meal and post-meeting pastries. I immediately scheduled a campaign of foraging, irrigation, and fishing involving all available parties. Satisfied that we were making progress, I retired.<\/p>\n
When I awoke, I couldn\u2019t help but notice nothing had been done. I inquired about this, and had the situation put into rather sharp relief.<\/p>\n
According to three of the dwarves from the gathering party, there were no remaining berries within a very large radius, so foraging was out of the question. A few of the more green-thumbed dwarves have helpfully informed me that potash is required to properly fertilize the farm plot. They had no ideas on how to acquire this, and (to be honest) didn\u2019t seem entirely clear on what it was. As for the fishing party, well\u2026that brings me to another tiny issue.<\/p>\n
Namely, the drinking water seems to be\u2026well, you know. Just a bit\u2026off. As of late. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s nothing serious, it\u2019s just that our water\u2019s had a bit of character to it. If you\u2019re in a picky mood, it might even out you off drinking it. So, you know, we haven\u2019t been drinking as much lately. I asked Fishy if it might have anything to do with how there aren\u2019t as many fish anymore. He replied, but I couldn\u2019t quite make out what he was saying\u2014his throat was a bit hoarse. I think it was a \u201cmaybe\u201d.<\/p>\n
With fish off the menu, I decided it was time for desperate measures. I ordered a few dwarves to take the ox around and have him slaughtered\u2014we need a bit of a pick-me-up, and if roasted ox doesn\u2019t do the trick, nothing will. There wasn\u2019t quite enough ox meat, so I also ordered them to slaughter a donkey. They\u2019re both four-legged mammals of equivalent size, so I shouldn\u2019t think they\u2019ll taste all that different.<\/p>\n
Sitting there, eating my bite of oxen, drinking my water (with character), and looking out over the band of hardy dwarf-folk, I suddenly felt quite satisfied. I mean, we\u2019ve got the manpower, we\u2019ve got the will to succeed, and we\u2019ve got each other. The bottom floors are almost cleared out, we can see our way towards getting a renewable food source, and we\u2019re even starting to be acknowledged by the other settlements. Looks like we\u2019re almost out of the rough, after all. All we need is a few steady weeks after this one, and the pressure might be off for good.<\/p>\n
Smiley has just informed me that tomorrow is the first day of winter.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all going to die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I didn\u2019t eat breakfast today. Didn\u2019t feel like it, really. I mean, I might not have eaten if I\u2019d had a breakfast right out there in front of me. Not even if it was,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[188,200,300],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-play","tag-dwarf-fortress","tag-kahdzbar","tag-lets-play"],"yoast_head":"\n