(The Journal Entries themselves were written by Dwarf Fortress forums member Pirate Bob and editors annotations provided by me)

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

What an exciting development! Last night, after weeks of fruitless attempts at reconnecting to Bronzebanners, we suddenly got a full-strength signal! It would appear that a new sensing locus has developed around a Dwarf named Tekkud Sirabkol, whose journal we were able to decode and translate. As we were decoding his words, his signal merged with the remaining data from the Bronzebanners site and restored full sensing clarity!

I must say this is a rather lucky development for me – my supervisor was dissatisfied with our apparent lack of progress and was just now preparing to have my team reassigned.

Without further ado, I present to you the journal of Tekkud as we interpreted it:

17th Granite, 253.  After fleeing through the woods for days, I found myself in the human hamlet of Ininbemta.  I was fairly sure that all the other dwarves from Bronzebanners, all of my friends and family, were dead.  I had been out hunting when the goblins attacked, and seeing that I could do nothing against the fiends, I fled as quickly and quietly as I could.

I had hardly any food left, and no booze.  I asked the humans where I could find some, but all they wanted to talk about was me helping them kill a bunch of local bandits.  Two of their complaints did interest me – they claimed that a night creature called Ani Stoppedtwilights had killed several dwarves and there was also a nearby group of goblin bandits led by Nako Plagueblind.  I welcomed any chance to kill goblins.  I practiced swimming for a while in the nearby stream, as it had been very difficult for me to cross the many rivers between here and my home.  I then spent the night in the town of Jamasrane.

18th Granite.  Seeing that the humans wouldn’t help me, I killed a river otter for food.  I also helped myself to a few bolts in the forts Lasivonu and Jamasurde.  Those greedy bastards wouldn’t miss them.  I spent the night in Cilbakosha.

19th Granite.  I found the goblin camp, and pelted them with bolts while remaining safely hidden.  While I killed all of his followers, I ran out of bolts before I could kill the leader, Nako Plagueblind.  I “acquired” some more bolts from a nearby fortress killed him the next day.  It was quite satisfying to dispatch these foul creatures, even if my tactics were not very dwarf-like.  I reminded myself that I was the last survivor of my fortress, and I had to be careful to ensure that I lived long enough to avenge my comrades.

After this section was translated, I assigned one of our interpreters to investigate our previous records and determine if we had any other records of this goblin, and surprisingly enough we did! It would appear that Nako is in fact from the same tribe as the goblins which destroyed Bronzebanners the first time.

20th Granite.  I moved west towards Belrokgom to kill the night creature Ani Stoppedtwilights.

22nd Granite.  I found the lair of Ani Stoppedtwilights.  I fired several copper bolts at him, and then beat him to death with the butt of my crossbow after he fell over.  

He had murdered at least two dwarves, and I found a steel chain mail, a bismuth bronze helm and an iron war hammer.  I would put the gear of my fallen brothers to good use.  I went to Belrokgom to report my success, and decided that some more bolts and a large gem would be fair “payment” for my deeds, since the humans offered me nothing.  I recruited Mistrum Duquehnabsiz, and Ersi Rakfilwisho, Bowdwarves, Jalew Thratpingugir, Lasher, and Rimtil Rithatra, Pikedwarf to help me reclaim Bronzebanners.  They were horrified to hear of the fall of the fortress to goblins, and understandably were not very happy working for the humans.

23rd Granite.  Our group traveled north towards the mountains called the Teeth of Jade.  We stopped in several human towns, but encountered nothing of consequence.

26th Granite.  After crossing through the pass in the Teeth of Jade, arrived at Acikasna.  While crossing a river outside town, we were ambushed by dingos.  The dingos were dispatched easily, but sadly Mustrum Duquehnabsiz drowned in the river during the fight.

27th Granite.  We searched for Mustrum Duquehnabsiz in the morning, hoping he had survived, but could not find him.  We tried to recruit more help from the humans in the fortress Mumaithbi, but they refused.  I took some more bolts instead.  The probably would be more useful anyway.  We went to sleep early as we will leave before dawn.  There are no more settlements between here and Bronzebanners.

This is where our first batch of translation concluded, and we used the time it took the translation team to decode the second half of the journal to examine and correct our maps of the region. A minor discovery that came out of this investigation is the sheer stamina of these Dwarves. They seem to be capable of travelling overland at full running speed indefinitely, without suffering from the effects of fatigue or muscular exhaustion!

We also obtained more data on the Dwarven physiological processes, and we have concluded that their constant consumption of alcohol is what makes this amazing feat possible – apparently, rather than metabolizing alcohol and becoming inebriated as humans do, they store the vast majority of their alcohol intake. These stores are used as energy reserves, powering some form of anaerobic energy production process. We have yet to determine the chemistry behind this effect, and it may be that the physical rules of our universe differ enough from the Dwarves’ home that we will need to develop an entirely new theory of Dwarven Chemisty.

For the time being, I have deemed these pursuits as secondary to our mission of observation and translation.

28th Granite.  We traveled west through Udast Zadkel, “The Forest of Corridors”, crossing several rivers.  We arrived at Bronzebanners at dusk.  We approached quietly from the east.  Rimtil stabbed a goblin spearman to death.  Ersi Rakfilwisho was struck down by another goblin spearman, who I dispatched with a blow to the head from my iron war hammer.  We retreated temporarily as Jalew was also injured.  We rested briefly to allow him to heal and the sun to rise.

This entry was accompanied by a sketch of the described event, and its contents were quite puzzling – it would appear that our sensing of images is actually a subjective observation through the individual to whom our sensors are attuned, rather than an objective reading of the physical surroundings. I have endeavored to make the sketch as understandable as possible, but it seems that Tekkud’s mind works quite differently from the Dwarves through whom we had previously observed Bronzebanners.

It would appear that the @-like symbols in the center of the cyan ellipse are representative of the dwarves present, and that the color-variance between cyan and grey denotes the Dwarf’s current visual range. Needless to say, this data is very, very odd.

1st Slate.  We return to Bronzebanners, and I dropped most of my supplies in the middle of the moat-lined path leading to the gate.  We caught a goblin thief hiding along the path, and visciously beat him to death, but not before he somehow managed to rip off one of Jalew’s fingers.  Jalew took out his anger about the finger by lashing most of the flesh off of another goblin spearman.  After this we withdrew again, and were ambushed by giant dingos.  The dingos killed Jalew, and injured Rimtil.

We rested until dawn, and then attacked yet again.  Rimtil charged at a goblin spearman, who literally disarmed him.  I shot the goblin in the arm, causing him to drop his spear, but was unable to defeat him before he bead Rimtil to death with his sheild.  I smashed in the goblin’s skull with my next blow.

Now I am alone.  Sadly none of my brave companions would see the inside of Bronzebanners.  I could not take any chances now.  I fired two bolts at another speargoblin from hiding, and then bashed his head in when he fell unconscious.  I then made my way into the dining room, and took a sip of whip wine from the still.  I hadn’t had a drink in far too long.

Following this are several entries detailing the painstaking search that Tekkud made of the fortress proper, to ferret our the last few goblins left unaccounted for. After satisfying himself that the area was at last rendered safe, he retired to a nearby human village and sent word to the Mountainhomes that Bronzebanners was ready to live again.

I will leave you with several other images gathered during our survey of Tekkud’s mission, and we hope that very soon transmission of Bronzebanners will resume.

This is a view of the entrance road to Bronzebanners, in which we can see the tragic death of Tekkud’s last surviving companion. Also shown is the horrific mess that the goblins made of Bronzebanners during their brief occupation.

This is Tekkud’s glimpse of the primary workshop level of Bronzebanners, again revealing how the goblin occupiers managed to scatter almost everything stored in the fortress, leaving a huge mess for the mission to reclaim the fortress to clean up.

So now that Bronzebanners has been crushed, it’s time for another Adventurer Needed!

Go to this post in the official forums for the challenge and links to the save, and to this post to read about the founding of Bronzebanners.

<3

<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.