Message #4255

[Anaris]

2 Slate, 1051

I can hardly believe it has been an entire month.  More than a month, actually; I intended to write this entry yesterday, but I was just too tired.

Thus far, we have dug out a bedroom, a farm, and two small workrooms. We have made progress on the dining room, too, but it's not ready yet.  I have included a sketch of the current state of the ground-level rooms.



Before my fellow miner and I made it more than a few steps into the mountainside, the woodcutters had brought down some trees and built a carpenter's workshop just outside the entrance we were digging. I have also had erected a relatively simple butchery and tannery.  This was a good, thing, too, because Ducim "Telrunya", our hunter, brought down a fox, and was able to keep the pelt almost completely intact.  It is now cured and tanned and ready to be made into something useful, and the rest of the fox has been added to our food stocks and our supply of bones for making more bolts out of.

Ducim had to come back for more ammunition already, and says that soon he should be bringing in a prize catch: a giant moose cow! He's already got it badly wounded, and just needs enough bolts to finish it off before he can bring it in for Bembul "Alpha" to butcher into useful parts.

Here is a sketch of the entrance, with its few hastily-erected workshops and refuse pile.



As you can see from this sketch, the snow has melted—mostly.  It still remains in pockets on and around the mountains, and where it had fallen more deeply in the southeastern part of our claim.  In fact, the wagon we came with is sitting right on the edge of the melted area.



The pools in the area haven't melted yet, but I'm sure they will soon.  It's getting pleasantly warm.  I think that this is going to be an excellent climate for a fortress.

And if we get too cold, we can always go stand near the lava tube...

Speaking of which, I've mapped out some plans for making use of that.  It'll be a while yet before we can put these fully into effect, but I've made some diagrams of how I intend to tap the edge of the lava tube for magma we can use to power forges and furnaces.

With some simple shafts dug right up to the edge of the tube, we should be able to then carve some slits into the side—and then run like Rash Abysstwilights, the Faint Tomb of Nights was chasing us so as not to get toasted. Or melted.



Then on the level above, all we need to do is dig some channels down to tap the lava tunnels, and we'll have all we need for lovely magma-powered industry!



We'll even be able to put the stockpiles needed to keep all that work going smoothly directly above them, if I'm any judge.  The edges of all the pools on the plain are clay loam, and that should make the perfect floor for our main storage areas.  Though we will have to work around some of those pools...



Well, that's about all that's happened so far.  To close, I include two broader sketches of the entire area, one showing just the section we have worked, and the other showing most of the area included in our claim. 



In the second one, you can see the edge of the lava tube in the north, and the brook crossing it in the far southwest.



I will write more around the beginning of next month.  I am sure we will have made a great deal more progress by then.