Because it is actually poisonous sulfur and ash, partially solidified in the frigid air

D'aww, little drunken angel

I love watching Dwarves swarm onto a project, like a hive of insects

Guess who just volunteered for militia duty?

So there I was, scaling a mountain for no reason...

Waste not, want not

Neat

Wagon party!

Normally, I'd be content with once a week. For now however, both my FPS and time remain abundant, so please enjoy Chapter 2Anvilmastered! Home of the elusive volcano-reindeer. Don't eat that yellow snow!Year 2 continues much the same as year 1; a veritable wonderland of valuable but useless gemstone, struggling to make enough food, and equally useless but useless weather. In case anybody is wondering what life is like in AnvilmasteredIt's like that. I noticed that one of the Miners has curled up to sleep with a barrel of wine, and I don't mean in a cutesy way, he is actually sleeping in the food stockpile.On the plus side, this means I don't have nearly as many married Dorfs sharing a bedroom as I expected, which means fewer children. The downside is I must divert my Miners & Masons to building another bedroom wing much sooner than I had planned. While that is going on, a Weregecko arrives on the scene. I have not yet built any advanced scouting, so the evil thing is upon me before I can react. The Weregecko picks a fight with somebody's pet Cavy that was hanging out with reindeer. This stalling was not enough though, and it shredded a migrant farmer before changing back into a Fire Imp, of all things. I quickly assemble a coffin and shove it into a corner of the mountain near the reindeer pen. I'll move him to the crypts, once I have built them.In light of this incursion, I order the peasants to work on fortifying our most precious resourceExpansion continues, and as the last of the stray boulders gets moved to the Craftdwarf area, my number of idle Peasants skyrockets. The early years of a Fortress have become weird for me; I'm efficient enough that all the menial labor is done well before I transition to special projects, so I end up with half the Fort being idle for several years until the infrastructure is in place.My train of thought is broken by the announcement that an immigrant carpenter has completed his artifact. It is decorated with hanging wood, and studded with wood.This does make me realize that I can't simply wait for enough skilled migrants to find their way here, not in these conditions. I'm gonna have to train a few newbies from scratch. This goes as well as you'd expect.Quite a few of the migrants are actually really good Miners, and even brought their own gear, which is a nice change of pace.I reassign the labors, and now have 7 dedicated Miners. With that much Dorf power, it's time to start working my way towards the volcano. As I begin, the caravan arrives to the south. Naturally, they climb up and over the peaks, probably so they can brag about their dangerous travels.I noticed a Finished Goods Bin as being rather valuable, which is odd since I haven't actually produced anything besides furniture and reindeer. I mark it for trade, and investigate.Yes, that is a bin full of the bloody, shredded, ash-snow covered garments of that one farmer. Even for Dwarves, that's cold manTo close out the year, a fanciful woodland critter comes bounding over the hills to investigate all the noise.It spends the next 4 pages getting smashed to pieces by the caravan guardsAs I watch them leave, I notice a commotion at ground level. Turns out, I never set a meeting area, so idle Dwarves have been gathering at the wagon; in the freezing, fanciful-critter infested wonderland that I call 'West'.Next time on Anvilmastered; a new Dining Hall, edging closer to the lava, and debating the point at which it turns back into magma.