Lapis Lodging
A Dwarf Fortress Story
INDEX
World Introduction
Year 100 – Setup
Year 101 – The Year of Progress
Year 102 – The Year of the Forge
Year 103 – The Year of Glorious Battle
Year 104 – The Year of the Goblin Siege
Year 105 – The Year of the Guild
Year 106 –
Trophy Room
World Introduction
In the year 100, a group of 8 dwarves lead by Dumed Shecedoslan left the dwarven capital of Spottin which runs the East-Fortress of Grasping Kingdom occupying the eastern side of the known world. While traveling north the 8 dwarves hit a large rock in the road and their wagon collapsed, leading to the creation of Lapis Lodging a tiny outpost nestled in next to a mountain range with a sprawling forest below.
Year 100 – Setup
The first year was filled with digging, crafting, and essentially setting up shop with all the basic nescessities a dwarven town would need. Little apartments, a dining hall, temple, tombs, jail cells, mushroom farms, warehouse spaces, and workshops were constructed from rock and stone.
During the hustle and bustle of early autum, the dwarves were too busy working to notice that a child had gone missing. It wasn’t until the mother noticed her 13 year old son Eral Tomusvutok hadn’t been seen in a week! This caused a mild panic at Lapis Lodging, yet no one had time to search for the boy and so they prayed for his safe return.
Almost a full season later the boy’s ghost appeared near his mother, who at the time was carving stone near the temple doors. Having to face the realization that her child was indeed dead and floating right infront of her, frightened poor Urvad Daturzon. Luckily the ghost had no ill will and only wanted to show his mother that his skeletal remains sat atop a tree.
The outpost of dwarves quickly gathered the corpse and engraved a slab for poor Eral Tomusvutok. The ghost did not return.
Having lost a child the outpost built a small wall around the entrance and added a death maze for possible future intruders. A main entrance gate was constructed and everyone slept a little easier, well almost everyone. The mother of the lost boy Urvad Daturzon started a militia of 10 strong dwarves who smelted iron spears and shields the following weeks, establising The Angry-Dead or Ustoshnokor militia.
Winter is almost over and the new year is looming over Lapis Lodging. With plenty of supplies in stock, a mild despair emerging from it’s citizens, and hordes of unmined potential; the bright future can almost be seen through the misty haze of early spring.
Year 101 – The Year of Progress
Lapis Lodging made it’s way from outpost to Village, as this year was nothing but expansion and crafting. The jewels we found digging out our home were cut and traded for goods (mainly seeds and clothing). Our craftsman spent almost the whole year making bins full of stone cups, which also traded nicely.
We established a tavern called ‘The Bar of Ages’. Many humans have started to visit bringing news of the outside world and most of our citizens have made it their local watering hole, as it’s the only watering hole.
Our milita: The Angry Dead, continue to train and equip themselves with spears, warhammers, and shields. Armor is next year’s issue as we continue to dig for copper but fail to find any.
This year’s MVD awards go out to:
Kosoth atastbomrek; our local Jeweler as his beautifully cut gems, earned us a hefty sum of trading value, and Dastit Akumlokum; our local master miner. Without them Lapis Lodging wouldn’t be what it is.
With enough citizens we finally had an open position for entrance watchmen. Local young dwarf Uvash Sodelmenge was appointed militia captain of the 1 dwarf milita named Ilusanan or The Everseeing Night. His sole duty is to stand at our entrance and make sure nothing unwanted enters, also keep an eye on the animals.
With extra protection now above the village we also added some extra protection below. The mine’s have an official entrance with an emergency iron gate. The future entrance to the deep mines, as right now it’s just “the mines”.
With all of this growth we did have 1 tragic event. Local dwarf Thikut Dorendumat was in The Ivory Temple when he suddenly started ripping off his clothing and began wandering the halls babeling to himself. He did not recover and died of dehydration days later.
Year 102 – The Year of the Forge
This year started out in the most unfortunate way. Two goblin snatcher’s were spotted attempting to kidnap our children just outside the entrance by The Everseeing Night. Bells were rung and alarm mode was activated. The Angry Dead geared up and met in the 1st floor entrance area, levers were pulled to raise and lower the respective bridges (Death maze door open and regular entrances closed).
Sadly our 2nd Gem Setter Ingish Unibasiz pulled the outside main entrance lever while Uvash chased the snatchers away. This caused Ingish to become stuck between both gates. Someone realized this and pulled the lever to let Ingish back inside but poor Ingish was admiring the beautiful iron gate before him and moments later was crushed by it. (In game last thoughts: “I was near to a Bridge. It pleases me.”)
After the goblins were chased away and Ingish’s body was cleaned from the bottom of the Gate we had an election to appoint the new mayor of our new village. Welcome to the stage, Mayor Ezum Kacotholin, 88 years young master Stonecutter.
Lapis Lodging continued to grow. Both in population and GDP as more dwarves made the journey to live here. We were able to forge entire sets of armor to outfit the entire militia. We established a guild hall for farmers and a new temple for The Sweet Fellowship.
A Minotaur was spotted on the horizon tromping through the trees. Our militia geared up and ran to meet him in the forest.
Towards the end of the fight the minotaur picked up one of the dwarves by the foot. The dwarf slipped out of his sock and fell to the ground, losing his spear. He then bit the minotaur in the leg and held on for dear life.
The minotaur soon after lost its ability to stay conscious and fell down. Our militia leader then quickly struck an iron spear into it’s head ending the fight.
Not soon after the fight a conversation began about expanding our military potential. We created a militia for crossbow dwarves called “The Allied Earths” and a militia specifically for warhammers called “The Holy Hammer”. Our Angry Dead militia switched from being a blend of spear and hammer to only spears. The local barracks were expanding and a shooting range was installed.
The caravan came and we traded our bounty of crafted items and jewels for seeds, food, and a few dogs.
Year 102 was over and Lapis Lodging had a bright future.
Year 103 – The Year of Glorious Battle
As snow began to melt, 3 fisherman were fishing in the nearby creak when they spotted a 10′ tall two headed man running straight at them. As they fled in terror the Ettin caught up to one and pushed him down, stomped on his right hand, then on his head.
The two dwarves running from the monster saw this happen to their friend and were filled with vengeance. They ran back to fight the Ettin hand to hand and were quickly killed.
After the massacre the Ettin charged for the entrance to Lapis Lodging and our militia met him outside where they quickly and easily defeated the two headed monster.
Soon after the Ettin was felled a group of military grade goblins showed up and demanded tribute. Lapis Lodging denied their request and sent out our militias. It was time to test out our new recruits and armaments.
The battle was quick and bloody. Four of our dwarves were seriously injured with only 1 dieing from their wounds. That dwarf was Oddom Tishakzuntir.
The next month a renegade fish person chieftess showed up in the tavern. Later that person’s body was found at the bottom of our local waterfall with someone elses blood splattered on her mangaled skeleton.
Later a cyclopse showed up and was easily taken down by our elite warriors.
Year 104 – The Year of the Goblin Siege
The snow began to fall and unknown horrors marched towards out fair fortress. Four giant spiders, a dire rhino, and thirty goblins showed up at our door. Our hubris from the years before proved fatal and all of our militia dwarves were lost. We slayed two of the giant spiders and a few goblins but it was not enough to save the fortress, and so the gates were raised. Leaving all who were still outside to an undignified death.
Once we stopped sweating after realizing the goblins had no way of knocking down the front gate, total war mode was activated. We made spears, sheilds, and iron armor for almost every dwarf inside the fortress. Great halls were dug, furniture moved, stones etched, it was a cacophony of jobs. Unnessessary crafts were put on hold and only the essential growth of the fortress was our focus.
By the end of the year the goblin siege had wandered off and we lowered the main gate once again. Our militia now 80 strong was ready for the next problem but so was our understanding that closing the gate should not always be plan B.
A candelight vigil was held for the loss of our original militia “The Angry Dead”.
Year 105 – The Year of the Guild
Because of the growth spurred by iminite destruction guilds and temples had popped up wanting space inside Lapis Lodging. We were happy to oblige and quickly filled in the dug out space with fine crafted, statues, chairs, tables, ect.
Due to the lack of proper burials this year could also be named the year of the ghost. As ghost after ghost had come to haunt or citizens. We engraved slab after slab to put these angry spirits to rest.
Year 106 – Current Year
I haven’t been showcasing the current fortress build as it’s gotten so big it takes too much time for me to do every year. Here’s a link to a level by level showcase of the Year 106 Lapis Lodging.
Year 106 Lapis Lodging – Floor by Floor
Currently playing.
Trophy Room
These are the monsters Lapis Lodging’s warriors have felled in battle.