We don\u2019t have any food. Our soil is hard as rock. Our water is spoiled and rotten. We\u2019ve lost the only one of our number who knows how to use a weapon. Winter has set in, we\u2019re out of supplies, we\u2019ve just lost contact with the outside world, and we\u2019re all going to die.<\/p>\n
I think they wanted me to make a speech. After dinner, they expected it. I really did try to scrounge one up, but in the fifteen minutes I had to come up with something the best I could manage was, \u201cWell, we\u2019re still alive right now.\u201d That\u2019s the highlight, really. That\u2019s the one thing we\u2019ve got going for us right now. I just wish I could find some way to capitalize on that.<\/p>\n
I got to my tent, got out my stationary, and sat there for two hours trying to draft a single order. Nothing came to me. There are no animals nearby to hunt. Farming has proven entirely pointless. Our water is bereft of fish or basic drinkability. The pointless excavations beneath the surface are complete, and we have nothing to fill them with but the stone these excavations produced.<\/p>\n
So\u2026that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got, actually. Lots of stone that needs moving. I draft a motion forthwith. Yes. Yes, that\u2019s precisely <\/em>what we need to get us through this rough patch, actually. Yes. Yes! Why didn\u2019t I see it before! See, no, once we get the stone squared away outside, it\u2019s all solved! That\u2019s what we need to do! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes They took the stone out today, I guess they didn\u2019t have anything better to do. It\u2019s that or hunt for vermin, or sit in the corner and think and think and wait for the water to come around. Besides, it\u2019s all squared away now, all<\/p>\n Squared All nice and neat, and it\u2019s like a perfect grid and the fortress makes sense now<\/p>\n I did it right, we did it together and we<\/p>\n I got a letter today. It\u2019s a letter from a nearby fortress. It asked me what I wanted when they came to trade again. I sent it back. We don\u2019t need anything! We\u2019re fine! It\u2019s all fine over here. We don\u2019t want to trade our perfectly good stone for their worthless carts of meat and food and<\/p>\n Things went so well today<\/em>. There\u2019s a lot of stone squared away, all<\/p>\n Squared we\u2019ve got a neat little tomb here<\/p>\n It happened today. It happened, as sure as the sun going down and coming up and going down and going down. Smiley got up today, and she looked at her farm, and she looked at the fortress. And she walked to my tent and looked at me, and didn\u2019t say anything, and I didn\u2019t say anything, and she didn\u2019t say anything, and then she left and I waited and waited and I heard the screams.<\/p>\n I looked out, and there was the woodburner on the ground<\/p>\n who will burn our wood<\/p>\n and she was hitting him and hitting him and screaming and gnashing and tearing and people were yelling<\/p>\n And we stood and we watched her, as the burner bled to death on the ground, and we looked at him with eyes wide with frustrated envy<\/p>\n Squared away, it\u2019s just like I planned it.<\/p>\n Squared away.<\/p>\n Squared away.<\/p>\n Four of us now. Just me and Sparky and Fishy and a new guy, I don\u2019t know him. We just sit and drink water and get rats to eat and sit and sleep and sit. We don\u2019t talk. That\u2019s good<\/em>. I don\u2019t really have much to say to them. I did appoint Sparky as the new leader, since he has seniority over the fish guy. Or girl, I, you know, I guess I didn\u2019t ask. Funny, now that I think about it. Really funny.<\/p>\n They look at me sometimes, and I feel sorry for them.<\/p>\n What just happened<\/p>\n I\u2026something just happened. It was important. And funny, too. I haven\u2019t stopped laughing since it happened, a few minutes ago. I was in my tent, and I was nibbling on a fieldmouse, and I saw a guy. He was a new guy. Not the new guy, a new guy. And I asked him who he was, and he blinked, and he said he was one of the new workers.<\/p>\n I asked him what new workers.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cOne of the new immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n There were 14 more of them.<\/p>\n They walked to my tent. They walked to my tent, past the black water, past the abandoned fields, past the stacks of half-finished beds and the immaculate stone piles, past the bodies that sat bloated and foul in the frustrated winter sun, and they asked what I would have them do.<\/p>\n I knew just what they should do. It would be the best thing for the fortress. The best thing for everyone<\/em>. Including me.<\/p>\n I got up. I gave each one a pick, and I told them to follow me. I took them away from the fortress, to a place I knew from when I was finding the place to make the best fortress ever. It was a wall. A stone wall. It looked like the others, but it was hot to the touch and you could hear strange noises if you put your ear up to it.<\/p>\n I told them to gather around, to cluster up to the wall, and dig just as hard as they could.<\/p>\n They didn\u2019t listen. They looked at me, and I knew there was nothing else I could do here. We were done. I was done. It was over.<\/p>\n You know, I\u2019m glad it worked out like this. Everything fixed itself so quickly. I was afraid it was going to drag on, but I think all of my problems are solved now. I think I did a good job. I did the best <\/em>job. I can see that now.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We don\u2019t have any food. Our soil is hard as rock. Our water is spoiled and rotten. We\u2019ve lost the only one of our number who knows how to use a weapon. Winter has...<\/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-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-play","tag-dwarf-fortress","tag-kahdzbar","tag-lets-play"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nyes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
\nyes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
\nyes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
\nyes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes<\/p>\n
\nAway<\/p>\n
\nAway
\nAnd some people are hungry now, but that\u2019s not new, is it? Hungriness is good. It\u2019s the fire. It\u2019s the crucible that makes us strong, makes us hard, like stone<\/p>\n