Forbidden Land

Diary of Silver Shovel, fourth overseer of LamNil, StoneHammer

1st of March 1004
I've been selected as the new overseer. HammerStone is on the way of becoming a great fortress. In such dangerous lands, security and provisions are my biggest concern.

After strolling around, I've discovered the barracks are empty. We have no military. And checking the trap systems, they seem sufficient to defeat any enemies coming from outside or inside, but not an entire siege if those griffins manage to enter in Equestria somehow.
We have few peasants to choose from, and most of them are busy doing and training the professions they were assigned to. I'll wait for new immigrants to draft for the local army. And until then, weapons and armor must be forged.

As a side note. My thoughts focused on the strange herd of elephants I saw roaming around the other side of the river outside. I thought about building a catapult line of defense and bombard their territory to train our siege operators. But such thing would startle not only the elephants but also the animal trainers who seem eager to capture them and train them.
They must be out of their minds, but for now, there's bigger things to worry about...

4th of March 1004
Checking the provisions, and their aren't the higher numbers I hoped for. I told the farmers to expand the farm plots and to start planting the first mushrooms of the year.

10th of March 1004
For the armor and weapons, we could use copper for now. I checked the walls of the mines by the river and saw a small vein. I ordered the miners to start digging there but It's going too slow. We only have two miners and one of them is on the hospital healing a nasty looking left arm. I don't know what caused It, but I'm noticing that many peasants and farmers are in similar shape.

15th of March 1004
Amazing! Our only workable miner struck silver while digging the copper!

The previous overseer Fox Tail came to me saying we are not low on food after all. We got tons of prepared food.
Prepared food? So these guys aren't the proud kind of sitting on the dark munching on cold mushrooms?
That's so... undwarflike... but whatever.

1st of June 1004.
Early summer. Fox Tail kept bothering me we are not low on food, with the kitchen staff on his side, I made the production of the farms slow down a bit. Time to focus on the magma forges.

I'm ordering the construction of another magma smelter and bronze bars to be cast.

3rd of June 1004
The production of glass crafts was interrupted when our glass maker had an idea. Maybe his strange mood was caused by the lack of skilled and healthy miners, who have been digging a space for a magma furnace. I stopped the mining of copper until the area is finished.

Meaniwhile, I took notice of a veeery unsafe giant tunnel near the magma forges.
You see, instead of leaving the safe supports of natural raw rock, the previous overseer instead ordered to digging of this huge hallway, supported by rock pillars that look unstable! I also noticed a small lava flooding by the end of the hall near a support, blocked by rock floodgates. I think It's an emergency system to collapse the entire roof here, but if some pony dwarf in a tantrum would kick the lever, the result would be a huge mess.

13th of June 1004
While conducting the mining operation, with a unskilled mechanic drafted into the miner job, the underground river flooded!
We weren't so lucky this time... the water claimed the life of a dwarf. However, the improvements of the bridge saved the life of a farmer dwarf mare and her pet cat, who kept holding the bridge until the water calmed down.

17th of June 1004
Three griffin thieves infiltrated our fort, somehow going through the traps. They were ripped apart by our dogs and the militia.

19th of June 1004
More invaders! Glad to see our cage traps are still working. We caught an entire group of mandrills. I'm starting to worry about the amount of caged and tamed animals. Nopony seems to adopt them, except the... battle scarred elephants...
The amount of cats and dogs running around the halls is getting annoying! But none of the animal trainers seem to want to geld them! This is gonna be a problem in the future.

22th of June 1004
Used some steel bars to create a new glass workshop and a new smelter. This is well speed up the metal production. The glassworker who went nuts claimed a normal glass workshop and didn't found what he was looking for and didn't say what It was. I suspect of a shell so I ordered our fishers to look for a turtle or mussels. Hard to believe this big place has no shells, so perhaps It's a kind of glass we don't have and he seeks.

25th of June 1004
Well dammit. We couldn't find what he was looking for and went full insane. Now he walks around depressed babbling to himself. I heard rumors he had a weird fascination for demons, perhaps It was for the best.
He later jumped in the river and drowned...

23th of July 1004
I've been seeing a lot of cages going to the animal stockpile. It's becoming too full and the trappers beg for more empty cages. I putted the work order, while the trainers are taming the wild elephants and mandrills. I would like to see the mandrills chained where we have been experiencing minor attacks. Unfortunately, they can't be trained for combat, but they would attack anything that would get close.

2nd of August 1004
The idiots accidentally released an elephant and a calf! They are now running around interrupting everypony nearby. The beasts and the workers seems equally disturbed as I am, we don't even know if they were tamed or not.
At least they stopped complained about the lack of empty cages. I'm starting to think if this is the time for my catapult plans. The area where the elephants pass by in the other side of the river seem to be full of them. I'll begin the construction of catapult parts while observing their moves.

3rd of August 1004
Only today I noticed some stupid shit. The previous rulers placed most of the workshops and the stockpiles outside the fort!
Everything is clustered out there, and nopony seems to go outside since the two elephants are still there. As I write this, the supposed TAME adult, who seems to be the mother of the calf, just stomped to death a war dog who got too close. I hope the catapults aren't too far to be interrupted by her, confessing that this place has proven to be gigantic and too confusing to know where I am...

5th of August 1004
The elephants responsible for all this seem to be the male calf, who just killed another war dog by stomping It's head into a pulp!
It's better to put this elephants out before he gets a name for his infamy. I don't know who opened the cages by accident yet but was obviously a responsible for the animals. If I could find who started this and who "trained" those animals, there would be a public scandal.

7th of August 1004
A war dog somehow finished the adult elephant, and right now somepony told me another war dog killed the calf who walked too close of the fort's entrance. While watching this, another elephant got released from a cage, but strangely doesn't seem to disturb the dwarfs unlike the other two dead elephants. I'm having a theory that once these pachyderms taste pony blood, they can't be tamed properly.
Again, a public scandal would be the best thing right now...

10th of August 1004
The mayor (not sure who elected him in the first place) finished the ban of exporting red spinel stuff. I don't know why he did this before, but soon enough he's gonna mandate something worse.

27th of August 1004
Started the construction of the catapults, but nopony seems to work on It. Either the parts are too close of the tamed elephant, or the workers are lazy. If It's in the first option, I don't blame them, after what this fortress went through in that week...

4th of September 1004
That tamed elephants has been interrupting the workers far too long and I've been having a bad feeling about her. I assigned some war dogs near her in case stuff happens.

Later on, a mare from the militia ran outside and bravely started fighting the elephant with a sword! Finally, somepony who shares my hate for this beast.
The battle continued with the girl only slightly wounded while keeping striking the elephant. She wounded the beast mortally in the chest.
The last moment was strange. The captain of the militia arrived there just to steal the glory, while his pet cat stood on top of the wounded elephant until It bleed to death.

The battle ended, with the mare promoted to leader of her squad in honor of her bravery!

13th of October 1004
Merchants! And will waiting for them to arrive, a griffin thieve showed It's stupidity by running towards the entrance's gates just to be slaughtered by two dogs and a soldier.
Meanwhile, a mason saw in the distance some supplies of a dead dwarf or griffin, and ran through the fields. And he didn't notice the pack of elephants... Rest in pieces peace. Our fortress population is now 75.

15th of October 1004
Traded some low value bone crafts for the exotic meals these merchants brought. I know pony dwarfs like something else besides mushroom based cuisine.

20th of October 1004
I noticed that many dwarfs were relaxing while all the food I traded was sitting in the trade depot outside. I asked them about It, and they said they have been ordered to not touch any food or do nay hauling of It. I told them to resume It, but maybe they stopped because It was a problem back then.

26th of October 1004
The mayor mandated we built two red spinel items. Now I see why he had banned the export before.

23rd of November 1004
A group of lamias jumped out of the underground river killing a dog and a cat. They were quickly killed by a soldier and some peasants.

30th of November 1004
Autumn is coming to an end.
A worker got a crazy idea and claimed a crafts workshop while picking random stuff from the stockpiles. He stopped and he's babbling stuff. I noticed a piece of glass, so I wonder if he needs more. But the problem is that our farmers keep taking the bags to stock seeds instead of letting some free to transport sand!

A guy organized a party in the statue garden, only to slow down our productions.

2nd of December 1004
Winter has arrived, and doesn't start well.
Due to poor time management and laziness, the red spinel item mandate missed It's end without any of the items built. The mayor showed his frustration and enacted the ban of exporting jet items.

I'm not sure how to progress this fortress. My effort is now the construction of living quarters for the dwarfs working on the bank of the magma river.

5th of December 1004
The construction of the rooms for the magma workers is a bit slow, but by building these near the river bank in a safe distance while allow them to work and rest faster, without losing time walking around between the magma forges and their breaks. Now with a small stockpile of food and drinks near them too, the production of metal would double.
I've heard of a fire imp attack previously, so I ordered the construction of some stone-fall traps near the workshops by the magma river.

8th of December 1004
Again, by laziness and bad time management from the workers, no clear glass was made and the worker with an idea went insane and made quite a scene!
He started babbling loudly, they ran across the river bridge, jumped into the river, REMOVED HIS PANTS, came back up, ran across the hallways with his lower body all naked until he found his room.
I told them to lock his door quickly! This stopped him from shocking the most sensitive ladies...
He later died of thirst.

12th of December 1004
This place is a mess sometimes, but I feel grateful that I'm here and not fighting the war in the Crystal Mountainhomes.
So I ordered to start digging the tombs for the previous rulers of StoneHammer, and me included in honor of this place. They told me my tomb was receiving "extra attention" but I believe I'm entitled. They should have though about building one for themselves before, at least they can be grateful I'm making some for each one of them.

29th of February 1005
The magma work are is almost finished. Only missing the trap systems and the furniture in the rooms.

Winter is coming to an end peacefully, just like my reign in the fort.
None of the other pony dwarfs seem to want the position of overseer, so I sent a letter to our king in the Mountainhomes along with a merchant group that visited some months ago.
Hopefully he will answer this quickly.

To whoever gets the position, good luck.

PS: I'll leave my diary in the desk of the office. I have some suggestions to the next sucessor:
- Check the job lists - There is some inefficiency.
- Cloth industry - The population is starting to complain about their old clothing.
- Glass industry - The inefficiency made two guys go nuts and kill themselves.