Lancescour 4: Meeting Room and Workshops

1st of Hematite, 125.

I am Ilral Amusewires, one of the seven musician dwarfs to found the outpost of Lancescour. led Our expedition to a forested area at the western base of the Tower of Escorts mountains was led by Olin Oiledspiraled. Kib Atticgrove and Morul Painteddie carved out the beginnings of our underground fortress. Zuntir Sidepages, Avuz Zenithsword, and Bomrek Mastercanyon gathered food, including fish, cranberries, potatoes, yams, and other vegetables. Great stacks of lumber line the edge of the mountain, cut down by Olin and me.

I demolished the wagon with my copper battle axe, adding the reusable ginkgo wood to our wood piles. Zuntir and I then gathered the yams, potatoes, cranberries, and prickle-berries from the nearby land to store in the upper level storage room. Bomrek joined us and explained some of the properties of different herbs and vegetables. We discovered Olin and Avuz asleep among the meadow grass, and we all had a chuckle. Those lovers spend a lot of time together; it’s good to see. It is a shame we all have to sleep on the grass,though; snoring in the rain is not a good time.

Morul dug out rooms on the lower floor for workshops and storage for materials. He also created a room on the same floor as a general meeting room. Even without furniture, it is a welcome change from leaning against the wagon in the rain. Zuntir and I were the first to spend time there. She talked at length about the herbalism Bomrek had told us about. She had a great time, but I found it boring. Thankfully, the two stray dogs joined us, breaking the monotony.

Stray horses and dogs in the meeting room; Kib and Morul dig out the workshops.

Once Morul, with some help from Kib, completed the workshop rooms, he built workshops for carpenters and masons with dark green gabbro stone. Avuz and Olin hauled wood and stone to the new workshop storage areas. I immediately set to making several wooden chairs, and Morul started making rock tables. We will soon have some places to sit in our new meeting room.

Our leader, Olin, has been walking around nervously rubbing his hands together. “It’s been so long,” he said. “Since I have been able to pray to The Chances of Distraction.” He told us a little about the deity of games. He then proceeded to get drunk. “You know, we’re the Crowded Tomb, here. The seven us. Seven musicians without any real future, cast out of our former home among The Maroon Helms. The Crowded Tomb, ugh, and without a single cup to drink this ale.”

Kib continued mining out a tunnel, finding kimberlite, orthoclase, and clear zircon. We’ll have a variety to choose from when making furniture, crafts, and jewelry. She said she’s hoping to create some individual bedrooms for us soon. With my novice carpentry skills, I plan on building beds for everybody as well. Olin tells me with I will get better with practice. Why can’t we just be good at skills immediately?

Introducing Bomrek Mastercanyon

15th of Felsite, 125.

Welcome back. I am Zuntir Sidepages, one of the seven founding dwarves of Lancescour. Today I’d like to introduce our jeweler-herbalist, Bomrek Mastercanyon. Last month, he turned 86 years of age. He traveled with us from the northern Still Spikes mountain region to the Tower of Escorts mountain region in the South. Though not that strong of a friend, he was always very friendly during the trip. However, he always went off by himself and shook his head while we were merrymaking.

In conversation with Bomrek, you’ll notice first his very deep voice. Then you note that he is very modest. He doesn’t talk much about himself, but has a great respect for the work of others. He admires talented artists and dreams of creating a great work of art himself someday.

Jewelry currently captures his interest, and he has a desire to work with silver and tiger iron to create something beautiful. I wouldn’t be surprised if he drew inspiration from the mountains he so loves. Which is probably why he worships Id, the Maroon Helms deity of mountains and caverns. Otherwise, the religion seems to hold little interest for him. His apparent lack of ambition will probably get in the way.

Settlement work has kept all of us busy. He has not had the chance to work with jewelry at all yet, beyond carrying gemstones out of the way while Kib dug our rooms and hallways into the mountain side. He’s been helpful to her during her work, though not actively participating himself. During the months at Lancescour, Bomrek has been more involved in gathering and examining plants, leading to a new interest in herbalism. Truth be told, he lacks intellect, so it may be a struggle.

He keeps his head shaved clean with a medium-length pale-taupe beard and mustache. His skin is the same dark brown as the rest of us, and wrinkled to show his age. The mustache stays neatly combed and the beard in double-braids. They both show flecks of gray that match his slightly wide-set slate gray eyes. His beard covers a round chin, and above his mustache pokes an upturned nose. His ears are short.

Bomrek wears a natural brown dingo leather dress with giant-cave-swallow leather trousers. Over this he wears a white cave-spider silk robe covered by a midnight blue llama wool cloak, with the robe’s hood pulled over a white cave-spider silk cap. Upon his feet, brown sheep leather shoes sit over gray alpaca wool socks. He wears brown pond-grabber leather gloves under midnight-blue sheep wool mittens.

Basically, he just wants everybody to get along and for things to stay nice and quiet. He values leisure time, freedom, and the law. I believe he looks forward to Lancescour being a quiet fortress where he can sit back, drink some date wine, and sing The Barricade Fortress in The Sparkle of Lace musical form.

Lancescour 3: Olin and Avuz Find Love

1st of Felsite, 125.

We, the seven musician dwarf settlers of Lancescour, make progress carving out our new home. Our expedition leader Olin Oiledspiraled and my friend Avuz Zinethsword have been spending a lot of time together. We all knew something was happening, but it didn’t seem like they did. But early this month, we saw them kissing while gathering cranberries.

Kib dug and dug night and day, carving out our storage room.

Bomrek checked in on her, “You work so hard; can I get you anything?”

She said, “It’s almost done, but I’m so thirsty.”

He hurried out of the main hall, grabbed a willow bucket from the wagon, filled it with water from the brook, and brought it to her. She was so grateful and he smiled.

“Someday,” she said. “We’ll have some cups to drink our water.”

He agreed. “I hope it’s soon.”

Morul finished the stone floor and walls of our main entrance hallway and depot room. Kib completed carving out the storage room. They look so beautiful now that they are finished. The remaining five of us devoted a little over a week to hauling inside everything from the wagon and the plants we’d gathered.

The dwarves of Lancescour haul supplies into the general storage room.
The dwarves of Lancescour haul supplies into the newly dug general storage room.

Taking a break, I had a drink by the wagon with Zuntir. She grumbled about how she hates drinking without cups. I said it was nice to cut down trees as it made me feel useful, and that hopefully we could use that wood to make cups soon.

She crumpled her pigtail cap in her hands. “It’s awful to think we came all this way with no cups.”

The next day, I overheard Olin talking to Avuz about cutting trees. “It’s such an amazing feeling, when my copper battle axe makes that final cut and the tree falls.”

“That sounds wonderful,” she replied, mimicking an axe swing with a potato plant. “Hopefully we can use all that wood to make some chairs and some workshops.” And then she went into a discussion of the benefits of chairs and cups.

While we hauled stuff, Kib dug stairs down to the lower level and started work on some areas for a small meeting area and work shops. We’re all excited about having a place to make cups and beds soon. While digging, she found more native gold, and also olivine, cassiterite, and kimberlite. This land is rich in its surprises. Kib and Morul met in the storage room to share a lunch of raw rat meat, leaning on their copper picks.

Having completed hauling, Olin, Avuz, and Bomrek went back out to gather plants. Olin and Bomrek examined each other’s harvests and talked about what they were learning about each. By the end of the month, they both opted to become herbalists. “I am, of course, still the expedition leader.” said Olin. “Even if I am an herbalist who loves to cut down trees.”

I’m glad Olin and I love cutting down trees, because we have so much wood for building stuff now. And with Kib cutting out rooms for workshops, hopefully that will happen soon. As much as chairs would be nice and I definitely want some cups. it’s beds I want. I am so sick of sleeping in the grass and rain. It seems we’ve scared off all the dingoes, but I have seen a couple of opossums wandering about.

 - Ilral Amusewires 

Introducing Avuz Zenithsword

Hello again. I am Zuntir Sidepages and I’m writing descriptions of the characters around this new outpost of Lancescour. Today, I’ll provide an introduction to my good friend Avuz Zenithsword. She is one of the seven founding dwarves of Lancescour and currently works as our fish cleaner. I catch them and she cleans them. Admittedly, she not that good at her job yet, but none of us really are.

She knows that we all get better with practice and has voice great respect for putting in the work to develop a skill. As a great example, she’s a very competent singer and her deep voice often leads the songs. She is also a competent speaker, which I knew took courage to develop. She rarely asserts herself in regular conversation and when she speaks she has difficulty with her words. Even as her friend, I know she struggles with social relationships. Her friends know that she values their friendship and that she has a wonderful sense of humor.

She worships Babin, the Maroon Helms deity of justice and death, same as Ilral and me. Avuz takes it a bit more seriously than either of us though. She shares this dedication to religion with our expedition leader Olin Oiledspiraled; Perhaps this is why they’ve become such good friends so quickly, even if they worship different gods.

Avuz was born 2nd of Galena in 39, making her 86 years old. Her hair grows pale taupe; but ever since it started to show fleck of gray, she has kept it clean-shaven. She has a very round chin leading up to her slightly flattened very short ears. Around her protruding gray eyes, her dark brown skin has started to show some wrinkles.

She wears an Alpaca wool dress covered by a llama wool robe and a pig tail cloak and hood.. A cave spider silk cap sits upon her head, covered by the pig tail hood. Underneath these, she wear Yak leather trousers. Her hands stay warm under sheep wool gloves and pig tail mittens. Dimple dye casts most of her clothing in a midnight blue. The exceptions are her trousers retain their natural brown, the clock and hood are their natural gray and her cap is the natural silk white.

I’ve known Avuz for a long time and I know that her dream is to someday create a masterwork. I’m not sure yet of what kind, and I’m not sure she does either. It may be poetry; She was always a fan of the poetic riddle “The Barricaded Fortress” about Ekast. She’s also a fan of dances to melancholic Silken Luxuries, especially the circle dance of The Veneration of Euphoria. That always seemed strange to me, since she finds people who fight to be distasteful; but she also has a love of long swords, so who knows?

 - Zuntir Sidepages

Lancescour 2: Strike the Earth!

1st of Slate, 125.

We seven dwarf musicians turned settlers have been working nonstop. We first arrived in the Tower of Escorts mountain region on the 15th of Granite. This forested area between a mountain range and a brook houses our humble Lancescour, outpost of The Maroon Helms.

Our expedition leader Olin Oilspiraled assigned us to jobs and for the most part we’ve stuck to them. Sometimes it feels like he doesn’t trust as as much as he did before; I suspect he just can’t remember who he’s told what. He’s an old dwarf, born all the way back in 83. His pale taupe hair gets a little more gray each day. He keeps his beard neatly in double-braids and ties his long hair back in a pony-tail. Olin seems to be a bit addle-brained. He frequently forgets things and gets easily distracted.

My name is Alral Amusewires. I’ve spent most of my life writing poems and playing drums; The past two weeks, I’ve cut down tree after tree. The work satisfies me though. If I’m not swinging my copper battle-axe at a tree, I’m remembering the last time I did. It frightens the area dingos when the trees fall, and that gives me a laugh.

After scouting the area, Olin pointed to the side of the mountain hidden behind some trees, “That will be the entrance to the fortress Lancescour!” Kib Atticgrove and Morul Painteddie started digging immediately. There hardest work as surely been their’s. Morul took to it and declared himself. It may help that he spends so much time with Kib. She is certainly the most charming and beloved of our crew.

Olin, Bomrek, and Avuz gathered all edible plants from an area near the entrance. Once they had that cleared, we have started piling up all the wood that I’ve chopped from surrounding trees. Zuntir Sidepages has been checking the area swamps and water hole for fish and has managed to find some, though it did take a while.

Lancescour Dwarf Fortress Screenshot
The beginnings of dwarf fortress Lancescour, with trade depot room and partially carved storage room.

With the first strike of the pick, Kib found violet spessartine, a pretty gemstone with a deep violet-pink color. Bombrek Mastercanyon looked up from picking cranberries to take a look. He nodded approving, thinking of how he may make jewelry with it in the future. Near the entrance, Kib and Morul carved out a room destined to be our trade depot. In this room, they discovered native gold and clear zircon. They dug a narrow tunnel past the depot room and have started work on a large room for general storage. The mountain side consists largely of granite and gabbro stone throughout.

Our little community make progress. I certainly look to getting out of the rain and having someplace to gather besides around the wagon. It’s still fully loaded with the supplies we brought, waiting on that storage room to be completed. The two horses that pulled the wagon quietly wander about the forest. Four stray animals adopted us along the journey: two cats and two dogs. Once we are able to move inside and rest, I may claim one of the dogs.

 - Ilral Amusewires