Hey there! you say. Gosh, you're a plump helmet man? That's so amazing! You tell him that you'd never seen a plump helmet man up close before. They're usually locked away in the slaughter pens next to the butcher shop; the most you'd ever seen of a plump helmet man before was cooked into a particularly decadent roast!

The plump helmet man, in true plump helmet man fashion, doesn't speak.


Gosh, so, you were thinking, you know, about how it's such a long trip from here to ShieldDawn. Really long! Maybe even a day and a half! It's really too long for a sweet, young, delicate dwarven maiden such as yourself to walk the whole way. Maybe, you know, you can get a ride? Like, maybe you can ride the plump helmet man like some sort of noble steed! Arrive to the Great Fortress in style, in true Cheesemaker fashion! You'll even give him a cool name, too! Super Plumpy Plumphelmetman! Gosh, isn't that a cool name!? So, what do you think? Can you get a ride?


















Hey there! you say. So you're an engineer, huh?

Yeah! he says. He tells you his name is Cog Uristsodel, and that he's actually a machine operator; perhaps the most noble of the engineering professions. For without his expertise at operating a cork screw and steam engine, many fortresses would go without water, or even elaborate magma-based traps! For how could a water-based binary computer operate without the essential pump stack, or the power provided by the dangerous and unreliable steam engines? How would dwarfkind even do something as trivial as drain the oceans? And HOW, pray tell, would these pumps even get built without the careful, masterful knowledge that only comes from years and years of pump-stack operations?!

You agree that his profession is a noble one indeed.


So, he asks, why are you going to ShieldDawn?

Well, you reply, you've always wanted to go to a Great Dwarven Fortress and ply your trade as a Cheesemaker! And ShieldDawn is about as Great of a Fortress as you can get! Soon everydwarf shall know the name of Misty Wheeldream, the greatest dwarven Cheesemaker who ever lived! It is at ShieldDawn, you say, that you shall make your mark upon the world and fulfill your dreams.

He says that's an admirable goal indeed.

You thank him and ask why he's going to ShieldDawn.


Oh, he says. He's just going to visit his twin sister, Sesh Uristsodel.

Ah, you say. I see.