Surviving the First Year - Part 1

More than what you do in Dwarf Fortress, what’s really important is what your dwarfs do. There lies the FUN. As any good play, the actors and actresses give it a special touch, a special spice that can make or break the spectacle.

So, without further ado, let’s meet the cast of this our lovely Fortress.

1.- Kylar Grey

2.- Queen Chasm

3.- Bec Noir

4.- Piemaster

5.- Cetsuo

6.- Nippleworm

7.- Weeedle

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Wow that's quite the pack. Anyway, after checking the shopping list for supplies we are finally ready to embark towards what will be our new home. A place to call our own and build it up to the sky and above. Or maybe we'll deep to the center of the earth and uncover all the treasures there are!

"Minestrikes" is the name of our new Fortress. Sounds promising right? I'm starting to imagine the grass and animals, the loads of ore and...

In this picture: A rag of 7 dwarves ( :] ), 2 Dogs (d), a horse (H), and a farm animal (W)

Aww shieeeeeeet. Look, I'm sure the brocure said "green pastures" and endless plains, and temperate weather and all that. Maybe we took a wrong turn by the 3rd human village? Or maybe those elves pointed us in the wrong direction? Anyway, whatever the case we are already here, there's not enough food to turn back: it's either this or nothing.

First thing first, we'd need to designate some jobs, chop some trees and build a small shelter. Our leader Nipplesworm quickly decided to make a clearing and use the wood to build beds that will be used in the quarters once they are built. As the most skilled dorf in our party, he took upon himself several administrative jobs. Meanwhile, I was chosen as the groups' (witch) doctor. Considering the haste, and the lack of patients, i decided to use my time helping the mining effort along with our leader and the Ranger, Bec Noir.

Jobs Assigned,

Nippleworm: Maybe we should 

have started with my office.

Death to all trees!

Summary of our current situation...
And it's only spring.

As we were working on securing our supplies inside and avoiding the snow storms, something unexpected happened. Turns out the brochure wasnt lying! As the snow started to melt we discovered and amazing praire of green grass. This will be good soil for future farms.

We finally dug deep enough to a spot we could call safe. Once we start smoothing these rock walls the whole fortress will have a different look. We can use them to engrave our history so that, if anything were to happen to us, there will be a record that we once existed. For now, our leader has decided to build a few quarter rooms North, a kitchen with a dirty zone for a tannery and a butchery South across the rooms, a workshop space West of the rooms and what will be the main dining hall west of the Kitchen.

As supplies of food were running low, Bec Noir, the Ranger, decided to drop the pickaxe, grab his old crossbow and start hunting some fauna.

...but Wait! something happened. Is it true? Is it possible? Yes, it is. It happened. We got some...

Migrants everybody!

The new ones will surely be a help to our fortress. We were overworked but with these new guys it'll should ease the workload for everyone. So hey, let's meet some of them:

Nu came to this fortress full of hopes. She came with her husband while escaping from her family. They eloped because his father was an important businessdwarf and had plans for her to marry her childhood friend and lone heir to the Socks Makers Guild empire (because as everyone knows, the one thing that dorfs like more than capes are socks.). Sadly, for him, she only saw him as a friend. She loved the one of the rangers, who specialized in animal dissection. Seeing as that wouldn't be possible while she was living with her parents, they decided to run away deep into the wilderness and now they are here.

.

Euxo became an adult (by dorf laws) recently. She was living in a small settlement all her life and decided she had enough. She needed adventure and she needed it now. She packed her stuff and at the sweet age of sixteen years old she embarked on a quest, leaving everyone she knew behind, to make a name for herself, gain wealth and become the bigest girl dorf this planet has ever seen. That's how she got here after a rough night at the tavern looking for clues, or a job. She has high expectations of Minestrikes, but, hey, if she works hard enough she might be the next Queen!

With the new guys on the move, we kept working trying to make this lonely mountain into a home. We worked day and night and in the blink of an eye, autumn was finally here, which meant that we'll be receiving the visits of a caravan soon enough.

West of the kitchen: Food Stockpile.
East of the Kitchen: Future brewery.

Autumn is here.

With this we come to the end of Part 1. We've slowly been making progress. The fortress is starting to take shape. The near-term goals should be to stablish a food supply and a water and alcohol supply line which we'll be needing for winter. After that we'll have to start thinking about the military. The only metal I've found so far is Gold, which is not very good for making weapons and armor so we'll have to take a look into that. Thanks for reading, I hope part 2 will be here soon.