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My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
Journal of Berry Guardrhyme on the 13th of Granite, 130
My Little Fortress : Journal of Berry Guardrhyme
By: Pnoy
Berry Guardrhyme
Commander &
Domestic Security Captain
Merchants have arrived from the Mareland today, it's good hear everypony is doing okay from back home. Despite the ongoing war with the changelings and their allies, the forces of evil. Our leader, Forest Gloss, is planning on sending the merchants back with tons of goods for little in return. All in hopes of good word reaching the Mareland about our development.
Hopefully this will attract more migrants, and with that, more recruits into my corps. We are limited in number as of now. There are few here I can depend on in a fight, so I have a full plate on my hooves ensuring this settlement's safety. I have already setup guard posts around the fortress and am planning out patrol routes for when we start getting numbers into our ranks.
Thankfully our expedition leader has some wits about him and is helping me to put most of my measures into place. This will help a lot around here when it comes time to deal with an emergency.
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw - Militia Roster
By: Pnoy
Berry Guardrhyme
Commander &
Domestic Security Captain
We had a torrent of new migrants come to our settlement after word had spread of our glory. Albeit, a little premature. However, the bribe to the merchant has had its desired effect and now I have plenty of bodies to fill my ranks.
However, most of these are peasants with little to no skills, and most only meager in the arts of war, it will take quite some time to whip them into combat ready shape.
We also have our uniforms prepared and ordered. The forges burn hot under the night casting our gear, which I fear, may see its use faster than I anticipate. Forest Gloss grows more anxious to delve into the depths. Although this is our main goal, we have to be cautious, we are going into the unknown and I want to be ready for whatever could be out there. The newly entitled mayor, is becoming more and more tiresome of waiting and less patient. I just hope we can bide enough time to train these new guys adequately...
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My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
Journal of Forest Gloss on the 24th of Opal, 130
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw - Journal of Forest Gloss
By: Pnoy
Journal,
We have come along nicely since I last checked in with you, oh sacred book of mine. We have expanded nicley into the depths, though we have yet to encounter any caverns which many tell tales of their glory.
We have constructed a hospital wing as well as the CMO's quarters to go with it, so he can be readily available at all times for his patients. The hospital itself is located between the shaft in which we continue to dig, and our settlement, although it is closer to the surface. I assume venturing into the deep will be a treacherous feat, and I am preparing for mishaps along the way. To get by without an injury in the near and distant future would be miraculous. So it will be nice to have the hospital closer to where it will most likely be needed the most.
We have had several deaths, idiotic and silly in nature. Pegasi appear to have gotten themselves trapped atop structures on the surface and had been starving to death while I was preoccupied with our subterranean affairs. It appears they had no trouble getting up on the roofs with their wings, but getting down confused them. I have constructed staircases leading down from the roofs of all of our self supporting structures to prevent this from occurring.
We have had an explosion in our population. Swelling from seventy-one to one-hundered and twenty-seven total residents with the assimilation of several recent migrant waves. The many births also account for at least twenty or so of our current residents.
We have also been experiencing an alarming growth in raids from rogue goblin thieves and snatchers. Fortunately we have several skilled rangers and hunters who roam our lands. With help from our tamed animals, they track down these menaces and either chase them off or dispatch them before they can do any real damage. Though we have already had several instances where our militia had gotten involved, it is good experience for them I suppose.
Trading has been slow, and we haven't been exporting nor importing much, if at all, lately.
With the growth in our population as I mentioned earlier, this requires us to produce more food to keep up. While we have managed that at least, we still fail to make any kind of surplus, which bothers me. In the event we are besieged, we would absolutely have no food in storage and we would be forced to try to fight the besiegers off, and realistically, we don't have the resources nor might to pull such a thing off. I will be prioritizing food and seed imports the next time we get a visit from the merchants.
We have expanded much of our storage to keep up with our accumulation of products and assets. Our farm plots are also considerably bigger as our crop yield continues to improve.
As we dig deeper into the Equestrian rock, I have been deviously preparing trap laden tunnels if the instance came to where a beast from the depths tried to work its way up our mine shaft.
I would also like to mention the notable work Berry Guardrhyme has done in establishing a firm security presence around the settlement. Though, I do question his team's capability to handle things in a fight. He assures me they will do just fine, but that they will be better off when they get more experience under the blade.
On that note, our forges have been slow in providing them their equipment as our blacksmiths are generally unskilled and novice. I keep reminding myself patience is a virtue when it comes to these things, but for ponies sake can nopony manage a decent horseshoe at least?
Perhaps maybe our real blacksmiths were too busy starving themselves on a roof... that, ironically, they flew onto... Idiots...
Perhaps that was uncalled for. Hopefully their beloved ones won't discover this journal by chance.
Goodbye for now,
Forest Gloss~
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My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
Journal of Forest Gloss on the 10th of Sandstone, 129
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw - Journal of Forest Gloss
By: Pnoy
Journal,
Forest Gloss... Forest Gloss is the name. I am the Expedition leader as of now, responsible for everything that is Craterstraw, under 'the oh so glorious nation, and her divine majesty's, Creamy Girdles' . A sick joke really...
Why would anypony in their right mind, name anything after an oddity of sporty undergarments? I mean really...
...Sigh... I digress...
We settled the area two years ago, and since then, we have made excellent progress in establishing a strong, self-sufficient and prosperous city. We are still far from achieving this however, but we are well on the right track to it.
As the leader, I initially made the decision to go underground, for many reasons. The area is mountainous. but rich in shallow metals and minerals just below the surface. Resource and construction wise, it will save us a lot of both to carve our homes into the earth rather than to construct them from the ground up.
Also, there are rumors of great plunders deep beneath the Equestrian surface, and unlike any settlement before our time, we are willing to be the first ponies to go on such an endeavor.
As I mentioned, resources are a concern, however, the region is heavily forested and wildlife abundant, but that does present us with additional opportunities.
Us ponies are not akin to consuming flesh, but due to the rapid expansion of our population and increasingly larger migrant waves coming in from the Mareland, our food stores and production are struggling to keep up with the quickly growing demand.
Though food is a concern, we have a river in the area and have already constructed a well to provide us with limitless, filtered water. Granted, the river doesn't dry up...
Our farm land is meager and the yield is poor, we can't possibly ascertain self-sufficiency until this is properly addressed and a solution is put into practice. I have also recognized major security concerns with all our farm land being on the surface. However, there is not much I can do about this other than to train and provide additional security forces. In the event of a siege, for now, we will have to fight them directly as to not being trapped and starved, at least until we construct walls to enclose our farms.
Our underground settlement has several main constructions that act as the backbones to our society.
First is the grande meeting hall. Fitted with long rows of tables and enough seats to accommodate all of our residents as well as many additional guests. Also in the back of the meeting hall are all the workshops to prepare and supply hearty meals. Though currently, they are quite stagnant with a lack of food to process, other than the butcher, with small game. Many festivities are held here as well. Anypony is welcome to host a party or celebration, I have to say, not many have had time for such an occasion recently.
We have a "Main Street," so to speak. It is a construction that houses many different workshops. The workshops are public and available to ponies as they need them. It's a busy area, thriving with activity. Ponies hurrying about their business, in and out, usually either carrying materials to their place of work, or transporting a finished good to a storeroom. It is our economic engine, a beautiful symphony of labor and industry.
Other constructions we have finished, include a catacombs, thankfully, which has not seen any notable use, as of yet.
Two barracks and an armory for the security forces.
A throne room, mostly for more customary, formal practices.
Dormitories and mass housing projects, nopony shall sleep on any floor during my rule. Separate living conditions for nobles have been provided with additional privileges and offices. I need them to perform their tasks efficiently after all, their jobs are vital to our stability and ability to account for logistics.
Due to the presence and access to an abundance of coal and metal ores, we have already established our forges. Though we have not yet begun active production, as lack of a skilled blacksmith prevents us from doing so.
Progress is stable and at a good pace as of now, a few of our residents are unhappy due to the sparsity of food and it is starting to effect their productivity.
Future plans include expand our developments above ground and to establish a hospital in the event of a medical emergency.
Thank you journal for taking your time to listen to my tale thus far. This is Forest Gloss, signing off.
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw - Possessed
By: Pnoy
YOU HAVE TO!
YOU HAVE TO DO IT!
YOU HAVE TO DO IT NOW!
DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!
...
DOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDO-
...It- It's impossible...
... !!!
...hehehehe...
...hahaha... Loooooserrrrr!
LOSER!
What?
Why are you so sad?
Oh...
It's their fault.
Isn't it?
Why isn't it?
Why wouldn't it be?
It has to be...
They're stopping you... HOLDING YOU BACK... LOSER!
Kill them....
KILL THEM!!!
DO IT.....
Yes... You understand now don't you?
It's their fault, they don't want you.
It IS the only way....
The crossbow, steal it, steal it from the armory. It will be useful.
It will help kill.
Spiral Glacier doesn't like you...
The Potter... He hates you...
Because he didn't want you to do it, it IS his fault.
SHOOT HIM!
...hehehehe...
No, I am leaving now.
...hehehe...
...
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My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw
Journal of Music Twinklesquirt on the 14th of Moonstone, 129
My Little Fortress : The Tale of Craterstraw - Journal of Music Twinklesquirt
By: Pnoy
Bee Fragranceamber, completely lost it today. I knew it was only a matter of time before that nut job finally snapped. The lazy coon has been up to no good today, he was a hunter, and a damned good one until some time ago.
He just moped about, and wouldn't let anypony near his damned workshop. I needed to cut some wood the other day and he would just threaten my life if I got too close. I told security but they completely ignored me.
Figures...
Well the bastard was put to rest in a spot in the catacombs now, thank the heavens.
He tried to make an attempt on somepony's life right out in front of Main Street in front of everypony! He some how managed to make way with one of the crossbows stored away in the armory and took a shot at Spiral Glacier, fortunately he missed. I don't know what came over him and he started panicking, swinging at everypony. Me and a couple others managed to get on him before he hurt anyponyelse.
But then the bastard pulled out a knife!
We backed off a little bit until the guards showed up. God... It was a massacre, the idiot swung at our commander Berry Guardrhyme.
They say he has dealt with goblin ambushes single-handedly, and some even say he took down a Bronze colossus armed with only his boot. I tell you, he isn't much when it comes to weapons, but he doesn't need them. He gave that loon a quick buck and the force from his kick knocked Bee's head of completely!
Sure will keep me from double crossing the guard...