<The following is an excerpt from the personal journal of the third Dimensional Sensing Project team lead>

I am almost at a loss for what to say; it is difficult not to feel empathy for these creatures we have been watching, but it is also impossible for us to do anything that affects them. This means that all we can do is watch tragedy unfold, and record it as well as we can.

The fact that savagery and violence give us some of the best data we’ve ever seen about the dimension which we are observing leaves all of us with a vaguely guilty feeling; I have requested trauma counselors from the military support program for our staff.

As usual, I will leave Stukos the honor of describing current events.

Early winter, 252

Sadly, the flush of success and creation can never last.

After the fight with the coati, I ordered our mechanic and our most experienced military immigrant to devise a training room which could maximize our soldiers’ expertise in combat. They devised a fiendishly complicated ‘Training Room’, complete with blunted automatic spears and simulated combat.

Sadly we learned too late that even blunted spears can kill a baby still in its mother’s beard-sling, and little Adil Dodokamal was killed during a training exercise. His mother is upset, but understands that it was another unavoidable sacrifice for progress. She will be fine.

Hopefully that will be the worst this winter has to offer – it is the coldest one we’ve ever experienced and the crops are feeling the frost.

Following this entry was a long and extremely detailed list of every asset in the fortress, down to the loose rocks in the stonework stockpile. I have elided the boring parts and skipped to the next events; believe me, I am saving you much pain. I had to read every word for my final report but you don’t have to!

Anyway, there are two more, much shorter entries, both from the end of the winter. Unlike the precise and beautiful calligraphy of the previous entries, these two seem almost rushed and unsteady, as if Stukos was distracted or pressed for time.

Late Winter, 252

Another tragedy – a nurse named Meng Locunetur was found, dehydrated and mummified, in the lower mineworks this morning. I ordered the military recruits to conduct a full investigation, but we suspect she simply got lost and trapped in the rubble.

Regardless, I cannot shake a nagging feeling of danger, so I have ordered the recruits to double their training time per day. We have to be ready, if my feelings are true.

252

This is the last report I will make. The goblins came under cover of night while we were distracted by the elven trade caravan.

Of the 68 adults and 8 children who were alive and happy this morning, there are now only myself and my two best miners alive. We will go out and give the best our bodies can, but we are outnumbered and wounded. We are going to die so we may live forever in glory.

Shortly after, we detected a severe degradation of our sensing clarity. I immediately ordered full scans to be taken of the fortress’ final state. What follows is our last sight of Bronzebanners.

In this final image, we can see the blood-soaked dining room. In the center is Stukos herself, charging to her final end.

As soon as Stukos died, our datafeed cut off entirely. We are working to reestablish our imaging, but with little success so far.

<The following is an excerpt from the personal journal of the third Dimensional Sensing Project team lead>

Excellent! The translation team has just delivered me their report on the Summer of Bronzebanners Year 252 and it’s full of interesting details!

I will hand the narration over to Stukos again, as her skill with words is better than my own.

Autumn, 252

It has been a very active summer – it would seem that with the reawakening of the sun’s warmth has come renewed activity amongst our neighbors as well.

First, the words of triumph. Cerol Mengiseth emerged from her workshop a few weeks ago, looking haggard, malnourished, and quite satisfied. She triumphantly presented me with a wonderous work of art, an incredibly intricate earring. She told me its name was Desortimnar Mangrodilral (“Entrancetaper the Ashamed Treaty”) and it was amazing. Mostly carved from ashwood, it had small iron studs and intricately shaped loops of magnetite and yak leather dangled from it. In the center of the loops was a small iron depiction of a Dwarf-child.

This leads us into the words of loss. The child depicted in the earring’s curio was one of the summer’s misfortunes. First, a second dwarf grew withdrawn and secretive, but sadly we lacked the metals needed to produce a working Metal-Forge, and he wasted away with dehydration babbling to himself the whole time. His name was Ushrir Lirujreg, and he was sadly an unavoidable casualty of progress.

Later in the summer, we had another tragedy – a massive creature, later identified in the Grand Imperial Zoological Doctrine as a giant coati, fatally mauled one of our jewellers, a woman named Lokum Defastbomrek. I hurriedly drew up a squad of volunteers, declared them to be the first military squad of our fortress, and then sent them out to extract retribution form the beast. They were successful, and its pelt now decorates the main dining hall.

The third tragedy was the child Fath Uzolsinsot, the baby daughter of Lokum. In her deep depression at the loss of her mother, she wasted away as many orphaned babies do. Apparently she was Cerol’s niece, which explains why she seemed so conflicted about the earring.

Additionally, the caravan from the Mountainhomes arrived; stocked full of nothing but meat. I was very angry with our trade liaison – he was supposed to bring us an anvil and a selection of weapons and armor. In the end, we traded him some of our woodcrafts for a good store of meat, to be kept preserved for emergencies. He promised to return next year with weapons and armor. We will see.

As the first chill of autumn settles in, it seems like we have all that we need to keep us safe and happy through the winter. We also expect an Elven trade caravan during the cold season, which should allow us to barter for a wide selection of excellent drink and pets with our stonecrafts.

It looks like the winter will bring some interesting activity as well; the translation team seemed very excited at lunch.

<The following is an excerpt from the personal journal of the third Dimensional Sensing Project team lead>

We have been able to settle into a comfortable rhythm which allows us to gather a fairly complete picture of Bronzebanners’ development. It is amusing to me how the creatures’ development and growing expertise mirror my own team’s experience during this time.

I will allow Stukos to speak for them, as we have been able to copy and translate most of her personal logs.

Summer, 252

If only the fools in the Mountainhomes who sneered at my faith in my settlers could see us now.

Several groups of new settlers have arrived in the last year, and our fortress now totals 50 Dwarven adults. Even more exciting, we have had our first batch of births as well, with 5 babies born throughout the spring.

At the end of the spring, as the last of the chill was forced out by the sun, a second miracle happened. Cerol Mengiseth, a woodcarver working in the crafting halls, suddenly claimed an entire craftshop and kicked everyone else out. I visited her to make sure she was ok, and she was hard at work scribbling plans for some sort of device, her words written in some kind of code.

When she saw me, she snapped “Metal bars! And the skin of a yak!” and then glared at me so fiercely I hurriedly left again. I flagged down the first few dwarves I came across and ordered them to set up a smelting operation immediately.

I then visited the paddock and ordered one of the largest yaks we had to be slaughtered, and a feast prepared from its meat. I also ordered one of the recent immigrants, who happened to be a tanner by trade, to set up a tanning station in the main trade hall. I’ve seen this kind of mania in a Dwarf before, and it signals the creation of a great work.

We expect more information to be forthcoming – a large data package was just delivered to the translation folks, and we think that it contains some major events.

In closing, I will include some more recent images of the fortress, to show how they have expanded their holdings.

We can see how the living level has expanded to house the new arrivals.

Here in the crafting center, we can see the recent improvements – two new storage areas and their associated workshops have been dug out and set up.

<The following is an excerpt from the personal journal of the third Dimensional Sensing Project team lead>

My SIO informs me that, overnight, they were able to collect and translate a huge amount of data, and produced a report on the state of the Dwarf-creatures’ outpost (apparently called a ‘Fortress’ in their language) at the end of their first year.

I will let the images speak for themselves as we begin the summary:

This is an annotated schematic of Bronzebanners’ ground-level structures. Of note are the water-filled ‘moats’ which appear to both guide and defend incoming trade caravans, and the large stairwell at the extreme west end of the fortress which apparently provide access to both the upper and lower levels.

This is an annotated schematic diagram of Bronzebanners’ only above-ground level; apparently the entire space inside of the hill containing the fortress’ entrance has been hollowed out and is being used for finished goods storage.

This is a schematic diagram of Bronzebanners’ first belowground level, which is entirely devoted to housing. Also shown is the water-filled trench which forms the protective caravan moat.

This is an annotated schematic diagram of Bronzebanners’ second subsurface level. It seems to be the center of manufacture and crafting for these strange, industrious creatures. It would seem that they have divided their workshops by the type of raw materials used, in order to expedite their access to stockpiles.

My staff inform me that the only thing of note to happen in the fortress’ first year was the production of a very unusual drum. It would appear that one of the farmers was suddenly gripped by a strange mania, demanding that a craftshop be set up and reserved for him alone. He then proceeded to collect some very odd materials and disappear into the workshop in a flurry of fevered crafting. When he emerged, he was triumphantly clutching a wooden drum adorned with spikes of yak bone, which he called Lathonstettad (“Mythtaxes”).

The most unusual aspect of this object is that it apparently radiates some sort of unusual energy wavelengths, which can be picked up by our sensing equipment. Our SIO has theorized that it is the presence of this type of object that allows us to pinpoint some locations, while others are opaque to us.

She hasn’t, however, been able to explain why the later existence of these objects allows us to find the site before their construction. She went into a technical description of temporal mechanics and cross-lateral dimensional radiation analysis, but it was far too technical for me to follow. I did get the distinct impression that she had no idea either, and was hurriedly trying to make a convincing-sounding answer. I just nodded and patted her on the shoulder, told her to keep up the good work, and departed while shaking my head in bemusement.

Further updates will be issued as warranted.

<The following is an excerpt from the personal journal of the third Dimensional Sensing Project team lead>

I was awakened early this morning when the lab hotline rang urgently, demanding my attention. It seems that the translation systems made a breakthrough overnight, and we were able to decode a significant quantity of what seems to be the historical log of our new observation site. It would seem that the leader of the expedition identifies herself as Stukos Gembishfikod (“Sealglazes”). I will let her words explain our discovery. Anything appearing inside (“parenthesis and quotes”) is simply a translator’s note; either for a term which we ca’n’t accurately reproduce with our language or for a name or other given appellation.

Winter, 250

This is the first entry for the civic record of the outpost to be named Kilrudzulban (“Bronzebanners”). I will begin by introducing myself and my six hand-picked settlers.

My name is Stukos Gembishfikod, and His Majesty the King of our mighty tribe “The Prime Paddles” has deemed me worthy of being given leadership of this mission as a reward for my long and honorable service in the gem mines. He gave me almost 1500 (“dwarfbucks”) and ordered me to select six other stout Dwarves to accompany me and a selection of goods sufficient for our survival.

I am honored by His Majesty’s faith in me, and I am certain that our operation will be a resounding success.

The first thing I did was to narrow our selection group, and it became rapidly apparent that none of our male brethren were stout enough of beard nor strong enough of will to accompany us. Once that determination was made, the selections became much easier.

First, I chose two of our most loyal and skilled miners, Id Stinkib (“Strifenet”) and Kivish Basenlibash (“Sprayaxes”). Both have loyally served the Mountainhomes for more than sixty-five years. Rather than recognize their long toil and loyalty, the Crown chose to imprison them both for crimes which they had not actually committed: Id was accused of disrespecting a noble, interfering with the course of royal business, and raising her voice in the presence of a high official, all charges stemming from an incident where she took up defense of a downtrodden sister-Miner. Kivish was this other; the charges which she was facing that led to Id’s outburst were wasting royal resources, committing unsanctioned artwork, and theft of Gem-labors. She was only attempting to make the mines in which they all worked more beautiful by leaving some deposits of gemstones in their natural locations, and carving the walls around them to accentuate their beauty. Unfortunately, the foreman could only see the value of the gemstones she had refused to collect.

My next selection was for a hardy outdoorsDwarf, one who would brave the sun and the weather to collect for us the wood of the trees in our destination. I selected Stukos Idenagesh (“Paddlecontest”) for this task. She is renowned – or perhaps notorious – for her handicraft with an axe. Unfortunately for her, this handicraft was demonstrated when she hewed her supervisor in twain for years of verbal abuse in the workplace. I am certain that no such misfortune will befall her at Bronzebanners.

I then decided on a pair of Craftsdwarves – a mason and a carpenter. Both are highly skilled at their trade and will be vital to the furnishing and comfort of our new home.  There are few carpenters more deserving of this honor than Moldath Godenginet (“Ropecrewed”). Moldath had been languishing in the Mountainhomes as a lowly sub-apprentice, Tinker class, because she had a habit of crafting wonderous and intricately detailed furniture regardless of what she had been assigned to craft. As she was assigned to the Bridgebuilder’s Union, this naturally caused her to appear to be shirking her duties.

As for a mason, I was instantly certain that Atir Idathezum (“Amusehame”) was the best Dwarf for the job. She suffered from almost the exact opposite of Moldath’s fate – she had been repeatedly reprimanded for producing, in her supervisor’s words “Severely un-aesthetic stoneworks, and morally horrifying engravings” for her fact-accurate depictions of our old fables of demonkind in her carvings. Even if her former supervisor couldn’t see the brilliance in her work, I certainly could.

Lastly, I decided that it would be best to bring a Dwarf I was certain would support me and serve loyally as my second-in-command. I selected a sturdy and extremely unimaginative farmer named Aban Oslanlitast (“Windtorches”) whose only reputation was that of allowing other Dwarves to lead her, as long as she was kept safe and allowed to sink her hands into the rich loam of her fields.

I have high hopes for our expedition. I have ordered a large supply of Giant Raven meat, a local delicacy which happens to be my favorite meal, and a selection of fine Dwarven alcohols, as well as several sets of mining and stonecrafting tools. I have been assured by the King’s surveyors that our assigned site has an ample supply of metal ores and gemstones in the belowstone. A caravan is assigned to visit our site after about six months of occupation, to take our first products and to determine our supply needs for the following Spring.

All that remains now is to gather our equipment. We set out in the morning for what, I am told, will be a two-month trek through the winter snows. We should arrive at our new home by the beginning of Spring, should all go well.

It would seem that our phase of the Project is more successful than the previous observations – while they found a group of criminals who had opted for exile rather than imprisonment, we have a group of happy, loyal, and optimistic volunteers. I have high hopes for their, and our, success.

That’s all I have time for now. I can hear the phone in the study ringing again; I really should get to the lab.

The first thing that I did after being assigned to the leadership of the Dimensional Sensing and Analysis Project  was thoroughly review all of the records left behind by my predecessor. He frequently wrote at great length and detail about his excitement, caused by the amazing discoveries they were making.

I honestly thought him a bit melodramatic and overwrought; I assumed that the duties couldn’t possibly be as awe-inspiring as he made it out to be. I was wrong.

This morning we finally got the new equipment calibrated and signals started flooding in. At my first glimpse of the new discoveries, over the Sensor Interpretation Officer’s (SIO) shoulder, my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. I realized that I was looking at an alien world, that I was perhaps the second human being to ever see it. Even with most of the detail obscured by the translation from the strange wavelengths this alternate-dimension used as light, and with the resolution very poor from our inexperience, it was still the strangest and most incredible sight of my life.

Our SIO has informed me that data transmissions from the site have given us a few, poorly translated names for the regions we have sighted; I am attaching to this report our best images and our translations, as best as we can. When my predecessor said the translation software ‘needed work’, he was being generous.

Without further ado, I give you Tethaomon, “The Destined Realms”!

Our first glimpse of the new region, the first data interpreted by our phase of the Project.

In addition to the full-scale map, we have managed to obtain some better-resolution images of an area from which some promising signals are emanating.

This is the western region of the main southern continent, called “The Continent of Attics”. I have no idea if our translation software is functioning at all, let alone properly.

Finally, our highest resolution image yet., with the general area of interest indicated. My SIO informs me that by the end of the week we should have some much more detailed images, and that what we have so far is a good start. I simply nodded and smiled at her.

Our highest resolution inmage yet, with the region of the Fortress apparently called “Bronzebanners” marked.

As best as we can tell, this outpost is being built into the side of a mountain called “The Equivalent Point” and it sits at the intersection of a forest called “The Forest of Corridors” and the foothills of the mountains, called “The Hill of Eviscerating”.

My SIO tells me that the location is near the shore of a brook called “The Meandering Disappearance”, which is the only name that really makes any sense to me. These creatures we are observing are very alien.

(The following is a reproduction of a memorandum from the newly installed ‘Project Rerecovery Team’ for the Dimensional Sensing Project. The original memorandum was classified ‘Top Secret’ but has, through a strange quirk in temporal mechanics, become unclassified 72 years BEFORE it was produced, rather than after.)

To: Dimensional Sensing and Analysis Project Lead <NAME REDACTED>

From: Replacement Team Lead <NAME REDACTED>

Subj: Rerecovery progress and sensing records

Ma’am,

It has taken us about two weeks to remove the old equipment, scour the worst of the soot and burn damage from the operational surfaces, and install and configure the new gear. At a loss as to the sorting of the debris, we have coded all recovered material as ‘Potential Remains’ and had them delivered to the forensics team.

<NAME REDACTED>, our primary sensing monitor, has told me that in practise, this equipment functions nothing like he learned in the training program. Despite this slight setback, we have finally begun recovering decipherable data.

It turns out that the first team was using a highly unorthodox, completely redesigned, and mostly jury-rigged antenna array. Without the specific details of their equipment, we have been unable to reacquire the old signal. However, we have finally found a new repeating data source, apparently from a similar but different dimension. The sensorium coordinates are <REDACTED>.

The first full decoding report should be issued from our communications and records officer within the next 48 hours.

Respectfully,

<NAME REDACTED>, Project Team Leader