Datanerith Entry 1: Strike the Earth!

I chose my embark site carefully. Moderate temperature, heavily forested, 12 z-levels of mountainside, a small river... and, of course, no aquifer. I forgot if there was any kind of flux stone, but I do know to expect some metal. Soon, I hope. I spent as much time setting up my group, Zamnuthetur ("The Excavated Boulders") as well. Starting off, we've got a clerk, a doctor, a fisherdwarf, a farmer, a carpenter, a mason, and a miner.

Clearly.

By the way, you'll notice I'm not running any graphic pack here. What can I say, I'm old school. I like my Dwarf Fortress like I like my women: simple, weird looking, and better left to the imagination.

(please dont tell my girlfriend i said that)

The embark site is nice. There's some scary wild animals nearby; a few hippos and alligators, even a stingray that might bother my fisherdwarf. But, nothing evil. No necromancy or hordes of skeletons on my horizon. I like the tall, steep mountain; I might carve out a wide section of the mountain near the bottom and make a big 'ol Erebor or Iron Forge kind of entrance. No fancy stone visible right away. There's a tiny river - a brooke, really - right there at the bottom of the map. Maybe I'll get a mill up? I got a lot of plans for Ironlabors, or, in the original dwarvish: Datanèrith.

That's the river there. You can tell because it's blue.

That's assuming I don't get killed by goblins first. Or a tantrum spiral. Or a vampire dwarf. 

Or hippos.