<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 First, a second dwarf grew withdrawn and secretive, but sadly we lacked the metals needed to produce a working Metal-Forge, and he wasted away with dehydration babbling to himself the whole time.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.