From my fortress diary:
25th Moonstone, 182, Early Winter - Water flooding of the top of guildhalls began this month, but with the sealed passages between the buildings accidentally closed off, the dwarves (restricted to the interior of the halls, via burrows) pathed along the exterior avenues. Four dwarves perished when water flow pushed them off of the streets to fall many z-levels to their deaths. Additionally, one dwarf died on the surface, slain by a goblin ambush before the military could rush to protect him. The total fortress population has been reduced to 96, with no new dwarves having been born since 157.
Welcome to Nugrethshorast.
DFFD: Weatherwires (year 185) (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4983)
DFMA: Weatherwires (upper fortress), (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10717-weatherwires-upperfort) Weatherwires (lower fortress). (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10718-weatherwires-lowerfort) Also, the full and final map (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10823-weatherwires), dated 226, one full century after embark.
TOUR: Starts on page 35. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2850102#msg2850102) It's extremely image-heavy, so beware.
ADVENTURE MODE SAVES: Explore the fort as an adventurer!
Solon Townclenched, the last dwarf. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=5331)
Vucar Tombdeath, plump helmet woman. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=5332)
Osman the Puzzle of Poisons, forgotten beast. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=5338)
Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=5340)
STORY: The Saga of Weatherwires (https://docs.google.com/document/d/14lQhE-rPk2H_kPA61WR5sp6xw0ifR196TjQFmBe8TEk/pub), extracted and presented in a single downloadable document.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/screenshot09162011_154730345.png)
The fortress is a collection of free-standing structures, carved from natural rock, and housed inside a hollowed-out hemisphere. The bottom of the grotto is the bottom of the upper cavern layer, and most of the structures have been carved to match the arrangement of pillars and cavern walls of the caverns. The entire project took the majority of the summer, with the outline of each layer having to be carefully calculated (there was a lot of math involved), and carved out before the next could be worked on.
Miners, carving out one of the last layers.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/miners1.jpg)
As it turns out, the Merchant of Echoing (the fort's parent civ) was destroyed by goblins during the first few decades of world gen, so when Weatherwires was declared the Mountainhome (shortly after excavation began), no queen arrived - she had been dead for more than a century. With the duke (Kogsak Murdershot) dead in a recent tantrum spiral, the only 'royalty' left in the fortress, and thus in the entire civilization, was the duke's wife and four surviving children. At this time (around the year 135), I resolved to make the dome the last impregnable bastion of dwarfdom in the world.
The exterior entrance to the fortress. Beyond the bridge is the surface fortress, built into the caldera of a volcano, which was the home of the dwarves until they moved into the dome.(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/screenshot09162011_154258866.png)
Of course, once the dome was excavated, the massive amount of stone piled at its bottom was debilitating to my framerate, a problem which I resolved by flooding the entire affair with magma, pumped in from the adjacent magma tube. Many dwarves gave their lives in the excavation and flooding of the dome - I thought that my supply of dwarves would be neverending, between immigrant waves and new births. I could not have been more wrong.
Once flooded, the magma was drained into the much larger middle cavern layer, resulting in a pretty looking whirlpool. The magma-proof stone, unfortunately, had to be dumped into the volcano by hand.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/whirlpool.jpg)
In the hopes that the dwarves, sealed underground, might procreate and develop into an essentially limitless civilization, I organized them into clans. Each dwarf that was born in the fortress was given a nickname that was the same as their father's surname. The late duke's children were named princes and princesses, and given the nickname "Murdershot," in honor of their dead father, the last royalty of the Merchant of Echoing. A tantrum spiral or two later, the fortress population had dipped down to about 150, but no immigrant waves had arrived to replace the dead. I assumed then that the civilization's dwarven population had been exhausted, and all dwarves living in the fortress were, indeed, the last of their kind.
For reference, the dome in relation to the above-ground volcano peak, and the other two cavern layers. HFS is visible at far bottom.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/screenshot06172011_135702971.png)
In 157, Kol "Languagemetal" Claspedrelief was born. His birth went unheeded for several years, until the following journal entry:
16th Obsidian, 164, Late Winter - All remaining stone dumped, and the bottom of the dome channeled out. The dome is finally contiguous with the upper cavern layer, and thus the excavation portion of the project (not counting housing within buildings) is complete. Also, the fortress, despite containing married couples who have produced children before, has stopped producing new infants. The only child left is Kol Claspedrelief, of clan Languagemetal, and at 7 years old, is the youngest dwarf in the fortress.
A view of the serpentine causeway (the primary dome entrance) leading from the surface into the central mesa. Visible is the cavern floor, a subterranean lake, and many carved pillars of rock, which match the layout of the cavern layer's pillars.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/screenshot09162011_155056998.png)
Since that journal entry, nearly two decades have passed. The fortress population has dwindled to 96, a combination of engineering accidents, pond grabber ambushes, and the occasional lucky goblin. Kol "Languagemetal" has been designated "The Youngest Dwarf." The surfaces of the four separate guildhalls have been flooded with water, to allow the growth of wild fungi. Eight guildhalls have been carved out of four free-standing structures, connected by a series of causeways. The royal family (of which a mere 3 remain) are housed in their own suites in the citadel located in the north part of the dome.
With no immigrants, no merchants, and no children, these dwarves are the last of their kind. Theirs is the saga of Weatherwires.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/youngest.jpg)
A view of the southeast quadrant of the dome, which is mostly open air all the way to the cavern floor/underground lake. Several pillars are visible in this picture. Bear in mind that the placement of each one was dictated by the layout of the original cavern layer.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/screenshot08182011_222911370.png)
For reference, here is the cavern at about the time when I began excavating. The outline of the dome's 'equator' is designated here, mostly for my own reference at the time.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/Capture.jpg)
Compare the previous picture to these, which show eight out of the nine guild locations present in the fortress. There are two per building, mostly occupying vertically opposite ends of the structures. Each guild 'controls' (in my mind, there's really no in-game effect) a communal guildhall, containing a table and chair assigned to each member dwarf. Each dwarf additionally has their own bedroom, which includes at least one chest and cabinet (more, if that dwarf has many possessions). Additionally, each guild has a leader, who has a separate suite of two or three rooms.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/tophalls.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/bottomhalls.jpg)
When the dome was initially flooded (with magma), it took a while - a couple days of real time, if I recall correctly. When it was finished, I was amazed at just how much magma it took to fill the damn thing.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/drain5.jpg)
Then, I drained it into the second cavern layer. That took a while, too.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/drain1.jpg)
When the fortress was still above-ground, the duke resided in quarters that had been carved out from the inside of the volcano's caldera. Each 'room' was merely a furnished ledge, exposed to the open air, connected to the other 'rooms' by seven z-levels of stairs. In these pictures, you can also see part of the caldera rim, as well as some of the lower parts of the old fort.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/dukes.jpg)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/lowerdukes.jpg)
An interesting note - during the founding decades of Weatherwires, many engravings were made of a legendary beast named Usu Wavedpearl the Murky Deer, the mountain titan. Usu - a gigantic theropod composed of crystal glass - attacked the fortress in the summer of 151. I thought it fitting that Kib Waxpaddled, leader of my marksdwarves, and mayor at that time, should deal with the beast, seeing how he had been demanding crystal glass items for some time now.
A passing knifedwarf (part of a side project at the time; getting dwarves to be competent at using large daggers) by the name of Vabok Earthenfins killed the beast instead. The next year, I received this message:
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/ageoflegends.jpg)
In 152, a plains titan arrived and was slain. The incident passed without much notice (I was more concerned with the dumping of all magma-proof stone into the volcano). In the spring, I was notified that the world had passed into the Age of Heroes. And so, the dwarves of Weatherwires thrust the world out of myth, give it a swift kick in the pants past legend, and into the hands of heroes.
Concerning the fort itself:
I am currently sealing up the various side passages out of the dome, including the cavern layer itself. There will be various doors, operated by levers, which can seal the dome off completely. At that point, the lake can be drained (this is already in place), and allowed to dry. Then, the dwarves can be restricted to their burrows (safe inside the buildings, which are designed in such a way as to be entirely magma-sealed), and the dome can be flooded with magma once more.
This constitutes the last stretch of the second-to-last goal I had assigned myself with this fort. The final part will be to allow the fort to run its course, with the dwarves living out the rest of their natural lives, sealed away from the surface world forever. Hopefully the bug will break, and the dwarves will become fertile once more. If not... well, thus will end the tragedy and legend of Weatherwires.
They're not all related or something, are they? Or you didn't get too many babysnatchers that the childcap bugged?
No, the dwarves are all still fairly unrelated. Everyone in the fort is either an immigrant, or the child of immigrants. There are dwarves who still have no familial ties in the fort. There are dwarves who are lovers. There's even a married couple who has had children before.
It seems the strange child is named Zuglar Fountainclinches, of house Throwerlens. He doesn't appear on the units list (which in my past experiences has indicated child snatching), but he DOES appear in Dwarf Therapist, appearing just below his still-living brother.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/pop96.jpg)
Compare the population listed in DT to that which is listed in-game (one less than my last update, by the way):
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/pop95.jpg)
Since I couldn't check out Zuglar's profile from the units menu, I had to get to it via his brother, Åblel. Oddly, unlike all of his dead siblings, the "z" for "zoom" lit up when Zuglar's name was highlighted...
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/zoom.jpg)
...but when I zoomed to his supposed position (the exterior fort entrance), there was nobody present. (Please excuse the weapon traps defending the entrance - I almost never use traps, but then, this is my first megaproject, so I don't feel too bad about it.)
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/notthere.jpg)
So, I checked Stonesense, on a whim, and...
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/throwerlens.jpg)
There he is. Just standing there. He's been like that since I first noticed, shortly after I noticed that there were no babies in the fort anymore. He's not the only one, either:
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/weatherwires/animalline.jpg)
None of those animals appear in game. They crowd the edges of the map, silently haunting me whenever I want to look at the fort in Stonesense. The entire situation is... bizarre, to say the least.
Concerning the filling of the dome with magma, it's hard to say. Let's check my journal:
1st Galena, 149, Late Summer - PULL THE LEVER
15th Malachite, 150, Mid-Summer - The volcano has drained to the lowest pump level, filling the dome nearly up to the pumps themselves. Only 45,000 stones listed in the stocks menu, a lot of the dome was dug out of magma-safe rock, apparently.
Keeping mind that when the dome was first filled, its volume was smaller (I hadn't connected it to the top cavern layer), and there were a number of leaks (it actually was connected to the top cavern layer), so it might take more or less than a year to fill now. In any case, the flooding was a success, when compared to the amount of time it would have taken to merely dump all the stone by hand:
1st Galena, 156, Late Summer - Mass dumping of all remaining stone (besides stockpiles of obsidian and marble) continues, with about 23,000 stone left to be dumped. In the same time (approximately 5-6 years) that it took to construct the pump and windmill system (which liquefied approximately 60,000 stone), the dwarves have dumped approximately 20,000 stone - of course, additional areas have been excavated and stone added to that total in the meantime.
To give an idea of just how much magma we're talking about here, this is a very zoomed out profile of the fortress, showing the points to which the dome fills and the caldera drains.
(http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c378/MaddogMD/domediagram.jpg?t=1316993861)
And I've had long-term plans to mechanize certain parts of the fort - including flooding of the dome - since excavation began. It is a relatively low priority at the moment, that's all.
11th Opal, 185, Mid-Winter - With a safe amount of backup supplies stockpiled beneath the central mesa, a certain lever in the map room is designated to be pulled. As if by providence, Domas Tanineth, known as "Tickcities," of clan Murdershot, Queen of Weatherwires and the Merchant of Echoing, moves to pull the lever that will flood the entire dome with magma.
IT BEGINS.
(http://www.img.ie/95154.jpg)
As the dome floods with magma, I will be taking screenshots in both DF and Stonesense, and posting them along with relevant journal updates or other vital information.
My question - would this be better placed in a new thread, or should I just keep posting updates in here?
Done and done. As it turned out, sometime in the past I had designated all the exterior walkways as high traffic, and all the interior magmasafe passages restricted, and then I forgot about it. That's been fixed.
The first area to be flooded is the northeastern quarter, between the guildhall claimed by Gloveowners and Gearguild, and the dome wall. As it fills, the magma spills out of the relatively enclosed area and through the serpentine passages between pillars to slowly fill the adjacent areas, including a major avenue (a dwarf is visible walking that street in the SS screenshot).
(http://www.img.ie/a1253.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/06143.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/65085.jpg)
I chose not to drain the underground lake during the second flooding. I need some way in the future to be able to seal the water off completely, and I figure the best way to seal it off in the first place is with magma. Cave-ins were not an option, since I'd have to cave in parts of the dome's structures, and pumps would have been a hassle.
(http://www.img.ie/907ab.jpg)
I agree with this. The chance to read about grand-scale endeavors such as yours is one of the few reasons I still read the Dwarf Mode forums.
The only reason I continued the project when I was bored with it (which has happened a few times) was the hope that people like you would enjoy reading about it.
Draining continues - the buildup of magma in the northeastern dome takes a while to equalize into the rest of the fortress. However, as the magma recedes, I've noticed something quite fascinating:
(http://www.img.ie/20506.jpg)
Those are tiles of red sand, where originally there was only bare rock. I believe this is a result of first flooding with water, thus producing muddied stone, which then becomes muddied floor fungus/cave moss. The magma burns away the vegetation, which results in red sand (no idea why it is specifically red, but it seems to be the same fortress-wide). As an additional side effect, the mud has been removed, so instead of having brown colored tiles of fungus, they are the proper yellow/teal when they grow back in!
CORRECTION: As magma recedes from the actual cavern floor, there are tiles of silt. It appears that the red sand is only present when the original tile (before irrigation) was raw stone. This could be used as an exploit to produce glass on maps with no sand - only rock, water, and magma is needed.
It's the year 190, mid-spring, and flooding has commenced!
(http://www.img.ie/b571b.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/ab176.jpg)
That's the cavern floor, one of the lowest points in the dome. The magma on either side of the isthmus occupies what was originally a lakebed. I've set up a system by which the lake can be drained or filled with water on a whim. Obviously, in preparation for the dome's filling of magma (this being the third time this has been attempted), the lake has been drained of water.
Going is slow, so it might not even be all filled by tonight. Or tomorrow.
Yes, so ostensibly. I've done it before, when I attempted an 'arranged' marriage between the eldest Murdershot girl and another dwarf born in the fortress. They did become lovers, but never married, as they both died in the great tantrum spiral of 135. I've had the dwarves working nonstop since I've started recruiting the merchants, so it simply hasn't been a possibility, or a priority. Now that the dome is flooding, and all the dwarves are living inside it (which has long been my primary goal), I can start work on all these other things.
In this pic, you can see how the magma clogs up on the right, slowly spilling along the avenue and draining into lower portions of the dome.
(http://www.img.ie/65357.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/67219.jpg)
And I'd be happy to provide more information about particularly notable dwarves (the royal family, Asmel Nirsazir, and Vabok Earthenfins spring to mind), once the dome is finished filling. My FPS is hovering around 2 right now, which makes doing just about anything tedious.
As the magma finally begins to spill over the top of the "red" guildhall (the Gearguild and Gloveowners clans have furniture crafted from blood thorn and goblin-cap), the next open area between structures begins to fill. Murdershot Square, located between two guildhalls, the central mesa, and the citadel, is usually a pretty high-traffic area.
(http://www.img.ie/89416.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/28766.jpg)
In the meantime, a little humor:
(http://www.img.ie/63cc9.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/b6929.jpg)
As well, construction of the new dining hall, located at the bottom of a hollowed out portion of the central mesa, has been recently completed. The hall itself is currently below the surface of the magma.
(http://www.img.ie/35617.jpg)
The highlight of the dining hall is Stukosâtrid, an adamantine statue.
(http://www.img.ie/158cb.jpg)
As I have been 'recruiting' every group of merchants that arrives at the fortress, my current population is 158. It feels a little like cheating, but oh well.
My setup (detailed in the previous post), didn't go at all as planned. The cages melted before the prisoners could bleed to death, and a small horde of partially melted, occasionally on fire trolls and goblins burst forth into the heart of the fortress. The invaders left broad trails of blood and grease behind them as they poured into Murdershot citadel, and the red guildhall.
(http://www.img.ie/33190.jpg)
Oddly enough, all the goblins ran north, into the citadel. The prince himself, armed with a masterwork adamantine battle axe he had named the Kingdoms of Satin (go figure), and clad in the artifact adamantine breastplate Healrelieved the Flag of Zeal, stood alone in defense against the foul creatures. He slew three, his first kills since he began training.
(http://www.img.ie/51075.jpg)
The other goblins were slain by the legendary warrior Libash Dippedurns the Ageless Deep of Rhymes, who has sixty-three notable kills, and wields The Orb of Fires, a masterwork adamantine spear. The carnage reached nearly all the way to the Murdershot memorial chamber, where there is basically a constant party (1 z-level above this screencap).
(http://www.img.ie/62279.jpg)
The real danger came in the form of several trolls (one of which was fully on fire) who stormed the red guildhall.
(http://www.img.ie/37370.jpg)
While the prince was busy defending the citadel, the rest of the military was scrambling to make their way to this guildhall. Nobody was there to defend it... nobody, except Cog "Gloveowners" Hammerfuture, furnace operator.
(http://www.img.ie/7ba7b.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/a3685.jpg)
Cog fought off two trolls simultaneously, while the other fiends went through the building, smashing nest boxes and statues. By the time the military arrived, the furnace operator had suffered no more than a few bruises.
An especially exciting part of the whole affair was when Onol Inkswallowed the Worried Feral Berry of Rasps rushed out of the guildhall and onto the causeway to fight a troll. The two dueled along the edge of the avenue, just adjacent to a drop into the magma.
(http://www.img.ie/c6590.jpg)
In the end, there were no casualties, except a few toppled buildings and a peacock that got set on fire. There is, however, a curious matter of a stack of 33 molten copper lying where the cages were, previously...
(http://www.img.ie/85a67.jpg)
And, as always, the dome continues to fill...
(http://www.img.ie/18a73.jpg)
Uh oh. I'd forgotten about that. I hope poor Cog doesn't get too upset.
It's one of the last things on my list. I've been without a Captain of the Guard for a long time. I figured I couldn't afford to lose any more dwarves due to justice mishaps. It'll be reinstated soon, I think. As for a prison for the invaders... well, the cage traps are a recent addition. They usually don't make it past the other traps, anyways.
So, no more bug! I let the game run all day while I was at school to see what would happen, and here it is:
(http://www.img.ie/2a2b2.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/970a9.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/9b4c9.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/7112a.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/212c2.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/4b39a.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/59149.jpg)
These are seven consecutive z-levels showing the patterns of flooding once the magma finally reaches the tops of the buildings. I'd bet that the entire dome will be finished flooding sometime this evening. The sheer volume of molten rock involved in this process is truly staggering.
Thank you very much! In my opinion, part of the fun of DF comes from the communal sharing aspect, so I'm glad you've voiced your appreciation of it.
I've increased the size of the area viewable in Stonesense to 100x100, but it still isn't enough to get the whole dome in a single shot. Unless there is someway to zoom in and out (I haven't seen anything to suggest there is), and so long as the entire map screenshot function is broken, I'll have to settle for taking multiple individual screenshots in Stonesense.
In this case, I've taken four shots in Stonesense from different angles of the artificial magma sea. Visible as well is the temple, the top of the citadel, and the bridges connecting them to the only current exit from the fortress. None of the shots fully capture the entire dome, but together they give a pretty solid idea.
The first picture is oriented to the northwest, and the point of view rotates 90 degrees clockwise afterwards.
(http://www.img.ie/66115.png)
(http://www.img.ie/13437.png)
(http://www.img.ie/417b6.png)
(http://www.img.ie/65525.png)
Magma pressurization.
(http://www.img.ie/3ab66.jpg)
On the upper right, there, is the prince's quarters. His bedroom is built over a channeled out vein of hematite, covered over with steel grates. When the dome was filled to the level of the pumps, the pressurized magma spewed up through the grates with such force that it struck the ceiling. The room flooded within seconds. Luckily, Prince Asmel had just left the room to fill his waterskin...
(http://www.img.ie/73878.jpg)
...but now the magma is flowing down the adjoining corridor and into the rest of the citadel.
The city was designed to be magma-proof, but the red guildhall is now much, much hotter than it was ever meant to be. Molten rock flows up ramps and into the stairwell...
(http://www.img.ie/858aa.jpg)
...and drops down to begin filling the farms.
(http://www.img.ie/91865.jpg)
Nish Degzasit rushes down the long, long corridor to the map room, where he will pull the lever that ceases the pumps.
How many dwarves will die in the heat before he gets there?
(http://www.img.ie/799c7.jpg)
The goblins siege was broken easily by the traps, so it looks like the drainage won't do much except clean up the exterior of the map for me.
Thought I'd take this chance to give some background on one of the fort's most important dwarves: the queen, Domas Tickcities.
(http://www.img.ie/2c971.jpg)
Domas Tickcities is one of the most long-lived dwarves in the fortress, and currently the reigning monarch of the last remnant of the Merchant of Echoing. In the early spring of 126, Domas and six other dwarves (founding a group known as the Diamond Cloisters) embarked upon the volcano known as the Fire of Channels. They struck the earth and founded Nugrethshorast, Weatherwires in the dwarven tongue. Among the seven were also Kogsak Murdershot (carpenter/woodcutter) and Logem Buriedboard (cook/brewer, currently the only other surviving member of the founding seven). Domas herself was the mason of the group, as well as possessing a skill at appraisal. That very spring, she and Kogsak became romantically involved.
In the summer of the first year the first group of dwarves immigrated to the fortress. Among them was Udil Bandwires, a dwarf with some skill with a battleaxe, and Tun Towerhollow, of no real repute. Due to poor living conditions in the winter of 127 (and the death of a pet, if I remember correctly - this happened sometime early this past summer, 2011, so it's been a while), Udil threw a tantrum and slew Tun with her copper battle axe. To prevent further deaths, Domas Tickcities was appointed to the position of sheriff. In a brutal beating, she slew Udil with only her fists. Shortly thereafter, she was removed from the position. To this date, this has been Domas' only kill.
Domas and Kogsak married in the autumn of 131. In the early winter of 132, Kogsak became the baron of the Diamond Cloisters. Due to the lack of any other royalty in the Merchant of Echoing, this made Kogsak the only ruler of dwarves. In 133 he rose to the rank of count, and in 134 the rank of duke. Domas bore him 5 children:
Èrith Futuredagger, eldest daughter, b. 132 d. 150
Cog Archwayward, second eldest daughter, b. 133
Avus Prestigecrafted, youngest daughter, b. 134 d. 136
Asmel Deathchannels, eldest son, b. 135
Olon Stakeesteemed, youngest son, b. 136 d. 151
In early 135, the massive dome project was designated - layer by layer, the outline of the dome was calculated and drawn. Due to a despondency amongst the citizens of Weatherwires, massive parties were thrown, and idleness became the norm. Friendships formed, and lovers multiplied. It was during this year that the old dining hall was graven with images by the master engravers. Various masterwork crafts and equipment were made by the dwarves. Unknown to the dwarves, this year would be the last of an era for the Merchant of Echoing.
In the late autumn of 135, the goblin civilization known as the Scorpion of Recreations attacked the Diamond Cloisters at Weatherwires. The goblin Stozu Nobleticks led the attack. Though the siege was broken quickly, seven dwarves who were outside the fortress perished in the attack. Later that season, the dwarf Stukos Girderopen was struck down by the dwarf Udil Rimlulls the Purged Contingency with Fallengrasp the Poetic Illnesses. This was the only dwarven kill made with the Purged Consistency (a silver warhammer), but it makred the beginning of a legendary tantrum spiral which resulted in the death of the majority of the population at that time.
Due to the death of many of his friends, in the midwinter of 135, Kogsak Murdershot went insane. He refused drink, and died of thirst later that winter.
Domas Tickcities endured the tantrum spiral, and has survived so far, being the last remnant of the dwarven monarchy.
(http://www.img.ie/5a29c.jpg)
The merchant who was tasked with making a statue of Ral Coppercanyon produced over 60 silver statues, none of which were of her only worshiped deity, and about a third of which were of oysters. It turns out that the merchant absolutely hates oysters, so I suppose that's the reason why, but now I've got about 20 silver statues of oysters. I had the remaining statues melted back down into silver, with the idea that I might have an 'oyster room' at some point.
Now the merchant is furious, and throwing tantrums. In the pic above, the merchant was wailing on Ineth Lensbeaks, matriarch of the Thunderbridge clan. She once had seven children, and has been the mayor of the fortress for much of its history, as she is now. The merchant currently has been having the 'Attend Meeting' job, but then throws a tantrum and beats the mayor. Now they are in the hospital, and it is only a matter of time before she flies of the handle again.
Sorry about the lack of updates (for anyone who checks this thread regularly, which I doubt). My piano professor, who was on sabbatical this semester, dropped back in for a surprise lesson and I had to scramble to get a piece ready to present. Occasionally school just takes up all my time, so I have to drop DF for a while. Though, the fact that you can drop it entirely and pick it up again weeks later without any losses in game is one of the reasons I prefer it to all other games (coughcoughWoWcough).
Anyways, I've installed a series of one-tile drains, sealed with nether-cap floor hatches, which connect the magma tube with the second cavern layer, which I might as well start calling the sewer of Weatherwires. All drains lead to the second cavern layer, both water and magma, so the entire cavern is littered with obsidian walls. The bottom z-level of the cavern is a layer of obsidian, which is under a layer of water, which is under a layer of obsidian, which is (currently) under a lake of magma about five or six z-levels deep, and quickly filling as the drains do their work. Near where the water lake was drained from the dome, the walls are encrusted with blocks of obsidian which formed during the second filling, when magma and water flowed through that drain simultaneously. The entire area is just a disaster zone, really.
This is the obsidian that formed below the drain. After it solidified, more water fell on top of it, forming mud, which in turn allowed fungus to grow upon it. Completely unintentional, and kind of interesting looking.(http://www.img.ie/7a84b.jpg)
Now that the top of the caldera is drained, I can fix the entry-way so that it works properly. Also, adding more one-tile drains will make the draining process quite quick indeed.
As well, I have been adding many ropes and chains around the fortress in preparation of the appointment of a dwarf to the captian of the guard. The recent beating of Ineth Lensbeaks was more serious than I though, as Ineth was also the manager of the fort. Production ground to a halt before I could figure out what was going on (she's been the manager for many decades now). Justice must be served (the merchant deserves a solid beating), but about half of the fort is guilty of some crime or another that has gone unpunished since the last time I had a captain of the guard, when this happened:
(http://www.img.ie/90277.jpg)
So, I plan to lock down the entire fort so I have as many idlers as possible. Once dwarves begin to be chained up, I need to have as many others as possible able to provide food and water to those imprisoned. It will be a dark and dangerous time for Weatherwires, when a reckoning-long awaited finally arrives.
(http://www.img.ie/59362.jpg)
Avuz Siguneral, Woodcrafter has died of old age.
Avuz Tourvessels was born in 50. In the midsummer of 133, seven years after the fort was founded, she settled in Weatherwires.
In the midsummer of 136, in the midst of the Great Tantrum Spiral, the mayor, Rigoth Hazecraft, went berserk with rage. Avuz slew her with only her fists.
In 146, Avuz created The Fair Dagger, a spore tree cup. Thereafter, she produced countless masterwork wooden bolts for the marksdwarves' practice.
Now, she has died, at the age of 150. She may have been the oldest of her kind, born scant decades after the crushing defeats at Whiskergloves. Her death marks the beginning of the end for the dwarves of the Merchant of Echoing.
Thanks for the encouragement and appreciation, guys.
does it have a lava spewing phallus, though?
Not explicitly, hah. There is plenty of lava spewing going on everywhere else, though...
The traps on the surface have been deconstructed, and their components transferred into the stockpiles beneath the dome. A few of the green glass axe blades had dozens of kills, with one getting nearly one hundred. The dwarves have retreated through the sealed passage, their paths covered by the rising tides of magma that flood what is now the only way in and out of the dome. The dwarves of Weatherwires, are now alone in their plight, sealed off from the world outside, forever.
The dome was meant to be a utopia - a spectacular city of hewn stone amidst an ocean of magma, where dwarves would not fear for death by goblins, or titans, or nameless evils beneath the earth. Now their utopia has become their grave, the final resting place of an entire civilization. From this point forth, if any visitors should happen upon Weatherwires, all they will find is an abandoned fortress built into the caldera of a volcano, littered with priceless gems and finished goods that were left behind by a race that disappeared overnight.
Now, the final stage of the fort can occur: the draining. The first point of drainage is the hole atop the central mesa. When drained to that level, the tops of all the buildings will become accessible. Since they have been previously flooded with water, they were muddied, and grew swaths of fungus. As discovered earlier in the thread, (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2653899#msg2653899) when magma is applied to muddied stone that has been allowed to grow fungus (not constructions, as I have discovered), it burns away the fungus and leaves behind a tile of soil - in my case, either silt or red sand. Thus, the tops of these buildings, once the magma recedes below them, will first be covered with a layer of ash, which will deteriorate into sand or silt, and then begin to grow fresh fungus. This is extremely desirable from my point of view, as aesthetics are an important part of this fortress, and muddied tiles are perpetually brown - not the teal or yellow of cavern fungi.
Here are a few pics of the draining:
Pre-drainage:(http://www.img.ie/a207b.jpg)
Draining!(http://www.img.ie/85335.jpg)
Stonesense cross-section of the drainage vortex:(http://www.img.ie/29727.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/0881a.jpg)
Meanwhile, deep beneath the surface, the magma continues to drain.
(http://www.img.ie/93a4c.jpg)
As the molten rock recedes, the top of the Gearguild and Gloveowners guildhall reveals itself, its top a plain of scorched ashes, silt, and sand.
(http://www.img.ie/47403.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/41725.jpg)
Asob Medtobedtûl, Ghostly Miner has risen and is haunting the fortress!
And the Trolls have, so far, only crushed approximately one eighth of the coffins. This may become an issue - certain ghosts have not been showing up in the memorial engraving menu. Meanwhile, draining continues...
(http://www.img.ie/ab282.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/a3017.jpg)
Litast Lanlariden Assarmerig Lelum, Swordmaster has died of old age.
Litast Birdspaddled, who would later become known by her earned title, the Circumstantial Clarity of Waning, settled in Weatherwires in 129. As captain of the Silvery Princesses (the fortress' swordsdwarf squad), she was the most skilled with a sword - however, for some reason, she never wielded one into combat after a certain point in her career, preferring instead to bash her enemies senseless with her shield, while her squadmates made for the kill.
Now she has died, at the age of 157, undoubtedly one of the oldest dwarves still remaining.
However, her body was not immediately interred. I quickly discovered the problem - the various unused coffins in the dome had been 'claimed' by the exhumed dead still on the surface. Rather than build rows and rows of empty coffins, it has been decided that all dwarves, upon death, shall be cast into the heart of the earth from whence they came, to be one with the molten rock, and have a slab engraved in their memory.
One of the several side passages that lead from the surface to the dome, previously walled up, was opened, and two dwarves rushed through the claustrophobic, labyrinthine mines to meet the trolls in combat. Two dwarves... Vabôk Earthenfins the Tight Mechanisms of Whirling, and Libash Dippedurns the Ageless Deep of Rhymes. Both are the last survivors of a brutal experiment which took place during the early years of Weatherwires. A group of fresh immigrants in 148 were enlisted into the military, and - to their dismay, I'm sure - equipped with large iron daggers which had been scrounged from goblin thieves. During 149, Libash distinguished herself as a troll-killer, using weapon she later named the Languishing Daggers. Vabôk, however, has a more distinguished record - in 151, 152, and 153, he slew the mountain titan, the plains titan, and a cyclops, respectively. After his third kill, he was named militia commander, and has remained so ever since. With only Libash to train with, the two became legendary knife-users, then legendary wrestlers, and then legendary speardwarves. The two currently wield two artifact adamantine spears (both have over sixty kills), to great effect:
Vabôk wields The Blockaded Pungency.(http://www.img.ie/69906.jpg)
Libash wields The Orb of Fires.(http://www.img.ie/1c120.jpg)
Needless to say, they made quick work of the trolls.
The rest of the military moved to secure the fort's primary entrance, while the civilians went about the work of hauling corpses down into the dome. Since the dwarves were already up there, I didn't see any reason why they wouldn't deconstruct all the coffins in the upper fort and transfer the dead into the dome. Also, I am in the process of sealing the windmill farm, as well as fixing the new dome entrance so that it is troll-proof:
(http://www.img.ie/90150.jpg)
Since up/down staircases and grates do not 'hold' magma (it always recedes into the empty space beneath), this area can be filled with magma, then drained, and be accessible to foot traffic the moment it is cleared without having to wait for the molten rock to dry. When the caldera fills, anything the trolls might be able to destroy will be below the surface of the magma. The blue door at at the end of the grate walkway is Syrupsever, a nether-cap door, beyond which is the passage to the dome.
I am currently deliberating on what to do about the duke's tomb:
(http://www.img.ie/b3508.jpg)
It is a side chamber adjoining the highest ledge of what was once the quarters of duke, during Weatherwires' heyday. Now, it is a lonely place, barely travelled, even by the duke's widow, and seems forgotten by the dwarves.
The statue before the tomb is an exceptionally designed image of Kogsak Murdershot the dwarf and dwarves in marble by Domas 'Murdershot' Tanineth. The dwarves are refusing Kogsak Murdershot. Kogsak Murdershot is making a submissive gesture. The artwork relates to the fall of the dwarf Kogsak Murdershot from the position of duke of the Diamond Cloisters in the midwinter of 135.
Kogsak was removed from the position of duke when he was stricken with melancholy during the great tantrum spiral of that year. He starved to death later that winter.
The problem here is that, unlike the various other coffins in the upper fort, the duke's tomb cannot be deconstructed. Tombs cannot be assigned to dead dwarves, so his resting place must remain where it is, unless he is to be interred into the vast rows of coffins being constructed in the dome. However, his tomb may then be despoiled by trolls when they next arrive, so something must be done about the situation.
During a double ambush, the three squads guarding the entrance - the Silvery Princesses (swordsdwarves), the Silvery Skunks (macedwarves), and the Lone Lashes (lashdwarves) - were drawn out of what was once a heavily trapped corridor and out onto the circular grassy area before the bridge. At that moment, a third ambush appeared: a line of goblin bowmen, stretching the entire length of the bridge. The military rushed forth to slay the intruders, without any sense of self-preservation. A quarter of the way across the bridge, Eral Languagemetal the Lonesome Square of Furnaces, nigh-invincible mace lord and patriarch of the Languagemetal clan, dodged off the side of the bridge. He miraculously survived the impact, breaking both of his upper arms and his left lower arm despite a fall of 7 z-levels.
Ònul Inkswallowed the Worried Feral Berry of Rasps was not so lucky.
(http://www.img.ie/6c865.jpg)
Born in 72, he migrated to Weatherwires in 142. Enlisted into the military, he was given a steel shortsword and quickly racked up an impressive kill list of 59 goblins and trolls, the last of which was slain upon the bridge only moments before he dodged a silver arrow and plunged to his skull-crushing death.
Of the original dwarves (before merchants and their guards were recruited from caravans), 86 remain. 103 of the recruits remain, though most of them remain without rooms. Whenever a citizen dwarf dies, however, the room he was assigned in the dome becomes available, and is distributed on a first come, first served basis. One more room has just become available.
Yet another dwarf has fallen victim to the unstoppable grindstone of time.
(http://www.img.ie/c5a24.jpg)
The year is 205, and Zasit Veiloil has died of natural causes at the age of 154. Zasit, while being a legendary engraver, is most noted for serving as the bookkeeper of Weatherwires since 138, when he migrated to the fortress, until 177, when he was relieved from duty - due to a minor injury, if I recall correctly. In 182, he became romantically involved with the fortress thresher, Èrith Boatsflashed (current age: 146), by whom he is survived. He was not as prolific as other engravers in the fort, but was one of the chief engravers of the dome, and many of his masterworks can be found about the megaproject.
With the dwarves now completely withdrawn from the surface, and the magma at a level low enough to make the entire dome accessible (except the floor, of course), the time has come for the justice system to be reinstated. There are a handful of offenders who will require beatings (the upstart merchant who wailed on the fortress manager, for example), although most criminals are guilty only of the violation of production orders. There are 42 chains or ropes throughout the fortress that have been designated for use for justice, so all that remains is the appointment of a captain of the guard.
The captain should be a child of the fortress, not a merchant or guard, and most of the original immigrants are far too strong and skilled to dole out non-lethal justice. The captain must necessarily have few or no combat skills, of course. After reviewing the possible candidates, there is one dwarf who stands out at as the prime choice; Zon Ironfirst, youngest daughter of the Gearguild clan.
(http://www.img.ie/93a04.jpg)
She is equipped with the ritual weapon of the past captains: an unnamed, exceptional quality adamantine warhammer with a terrifying and unbelievable history.
(http://www.img.ie/cb315.jpg)
Zon is appointed to the position of captain of the guard, her squad appropriately named "The Magical Hammers," and she is set loose.
For too long, the judgements set forth by the dwarves have gone unpunished. Justice must be served.
As another several dwarves pass away, the process of reclaiming the lowest mines has begun. By draining water onto the magma sea immediately surrounding the adamantine vein, I can create an obsidian caisson and obtain as much of the metal as can be safely mined out.
(http://www.img.ie/622cc.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/39166.jpg)
This year, 207, marks the death of Logem Buriedboard, chief cook and brewer of Weatherwires, at the incredible age of 165. Born in the year 42, in the midst of the dwarves' relocation into the mountains from the ancient fortresses, Logem was already 84 when she came to the fortress. Thereafter, she produced innumerable masterful roasts, and ensured a steady supply of alcohol for all. Now that she is dead, the fort is down both a brewer and a cook, permanently.
Something strange, tragic, and yet wholly within the realm of what I've come to expect, has happened.
Domas 'Murdershot' Tanineth, queen has suffocated.
(http://www.img.ie/c9714.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/29bc2.jpg)
By zooming to the location of the queen's cleaning job cancellation, I can deduce, fairly easily, what happened.
Domas Tickcities, on a whim, decided to do some cleaning. She entered her son's bedroom and climbed the stair on the north wall. The stair was originally built in order to access the few layers of the pump stack when it was being built and serviced. It's a fairly standard pump stack, with an adjacent access stairwell that allows access to the pumps via two doors at every z-level - except for a few z-levels, next to the prince's quarters, which share a common wall with the pump stack. At some point, some blood got all over this part of the stack (probably while mining it out), including the tile the door is built upon - it was this tile the queen wanted to clean. There has been blood here for a while - why the queen took it upon herself, at this time, to clean it up is beyond me.
So, the queen opened the door, but before she could wipe off the blood, a sudden rush of water from the 7/7 tile beyond swept through the door and knocked her backwards, off of the stairwell. She fell 2 z-levels, landed on her head, snapped her upper spine, and suffocated.
I've already written a blurb about Domas 'Murdershot' Tickcities (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2690876#msg2690876) previously in the thread, and not a lot remains to be said. She and Logem were the last of the first seven dwarves, the founders of the fortress, and now both have died, by chance, within two weeks of each other. The doom of Weatherwires is rapidly approaching.
The queen's body has been placed in her tomb, atop the spire at the north end of the dome, the highest point in the carven city. The top has been flooded with water, as with the tops of many other buildings in the dome, but since the magma never reached this high, it remains a muddy mess. The small peak is overgrown with cave fungi, untouched by woodcutter or herbalist, untrampled by any feet save those who have come to inter the dead and their belongings.
(http://img.ie/1b777.jpg)
The tomb is shared by three coffins, each a mood-created artifact. The queen's body is entombed in Failedhushed the Music of Balding.
This is a light yellow diamond coffin. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encrusted with earthenware and encircled with bands of reindeer leather. This object is adorned with hanging rings of reindeer leather and menaces with spikes of reindeer leather.
On the item is an image of The Roasted Dot the adamantine chest in light yellow diamond.
On the item is an image of mountains in light yellow diamond. On the item is an image of The Fair Dagger the spore tree cup in fungiwood. On the item is an image of a dimple cup in alpaca wool.
On the item is an image of goblins and dwarves in iron. The goblins are fighting with the dwarves. The artwork relates to the attack on the Diamond Cloisters at Weatherwires by The Scorpion of Recreations in the late winter of 171 during Dusmudkök, "The Scalded Assaults."
From the vantage point at the southern tip of the citadel peak, the coffin overlooks all of the dome.
(http://img.ie/c5324.jpg)
The other two coffins are assigned to the two surviving members of the Murdershot dynasty. Cog Archwayward, being older than her brother, has risen to the rank of queen of the Merchant of Echoing at the age of 73.
The year is 207. In less than two decades, Weatherwires will be celebrating its centennial, if it has not yet been claimed by its inevitable fate.
I had set my game to pause and recenter in the event that this ever happened. Unlike the movie, it didn't happen in the midst of a heated, pointless battle, but considering the dwarven punishments of the previous year, and the untimely death of Domas Tickcities, perhaps it happened at just the right time after all:
(http://www.img.ie/8705a.jpg)
A child of two recruited dwarves, a merchant and her guard (now a legendary woodcrafter thanks a mood), Zasit Portalwines is the first child to be born in the fortress in precisely 50 years.
I cannot know for sure just yet if the curse has been lifted for all dwarves, native and mercantile, or if it is only the new visitors who can conceive. In any case, the birth of young Zasit is an event of importance, that will be recognized as such by anyone who has been keeping up with this thread.
Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
(http://www.img.ie/c4458.jpg)
While channeling away the thin sheet of obsidian within the caisson, so that water could rush in to solidify the next layer of magma and allow me to claim more adamantine, I accidentally designated a tile to be dug without first checking the layer below to be sure that I wasn't digging into a dangerously fun area.
Ushat Bridgedcanyons, a miner who was originally a fortress guard, the moment he breaches into the mysterious hollow.
(http://www.img.ie/2b905.jpg)
1 z-level below, for reference. I should have been more careful... alas.
(http://www.img.ie/53744.jpg)
The year is 208. In a mere 17 years, the fortress would be celebrating its centennial, become a truly legendary 100-year fortress. Instead, the greed of the new queen, Cog 'Murdershot' Archwayward, in the face of lifting tragedy and the victory of hope, has unleashed a nameless evil beneath the earth upon the last remnants of her civilization.
Amidst the bountiful food stockpiles, her spirits high, Bomrek Spikeswound, the first mother Weatherwires has known for almost half a century, takes a long drink of dwarven beer from an exceptionally crafted obsidian pot. Her two infant children, Zasit and Mebzuth, a boy and a girl, burble happily in her arms. Meanwhile...
(http://www.img.ie/c716b.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/69549.jpg)
Meanwhile, Kel Fountainobeys scrambled along the narrow pathway that led out of the caisson. Kel was one of the few miners who aided in the excavation of the dome, and was afforded great respect amongst the miners - he was often considered to be first among them. The demons afforded him nothing.
(http://www.img.ie/67979.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/11202.jpg)
Shortly after I took that picture, the demons attacked and slew the three zombie magma crabs that have been loitering in the magma sea ever since I had discovered it was there. I had contemplated eventually capturing them and putting them on display, but oh well.
The three Pterosaur Devils demolished the entire siege, then flew up above the mountain's peak. They stayed there for months, idly hovering or coasting above the battered ruins of the windmill farm. I can't know for sure how many kills each has, but their inventory and status screens, let alone the names they have earned, tell a fearsome tale.
The first is known as Colorquake the Attack of Combat.
(http://www.img.ie/158bc.jpg)
The second is Punchattack the Molten Thorn of Jaws.
(http://www.img.ie/b7833.jpg)
The third has been named Yearlinglances the Pale Fight.
(http://www.img.ie/75504.jpg)
Each one is spattered with the blood of a dozen goblins and trolls, not to mention the greyish demonic goo from their own wounds.
(http://www.img.ie/1b753.jpg)
Three skinless, bloated pterosaurs with knobbly antennae, drenched in dried red, teal, and grey blood, and covered with scars now constantly circle overhead the abandoned surface fortress, mercilessly attacking any who come near - dwarves, men, or goblins. Truly, the outside world must now think that Weatherwires has been damned.
List my artifacts, you say?
Here we go...
(http://img.ie/caacb.jpg)
(http://img.ie/76224.jpg)
(http://img.ie/20a91.jpg)
(http://img.ie/24318.jpg)
(http://img.ie/96137.jpg)
(http://img.ie/17216.jpg)
(http://img.ie/08b32.jpg)
(http://img.ie/c95bc.jpg)
(http://img.ie/42886.jpg)
(http://img.ie/3a812.jpg)
(http://img.ie/b0384.jpg)
There might be a wooden chair in there somewhere.
I'm kind of against making arbitrary choices to direct the flow of the fort, at this point. The story is honestly just kind of writing itself as it unfolds. I'm just narrating it so that people can read about it.
I should point out a couple of my favorites: Ballshoved, a milk quartz figurine of a bonobo, and The Thunder of Bowels, a named steel short sword. They just made me chuckle.
On this day, the 14th Hematite, 209, a brutal blow was struck against Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/51c24.jpg)
The obliterating power of the magma flows have long been used by the dwarves as a means of ridding the fortress of any excess items. Non-economic stone, in particular, is seen as especially undesirable, and when a new cavern is mined out, the stone is hauled away and thrown into the mouth of the volcano, destroyed utterly by the crushing pressure and heat in the deep. With the deepest mines closed off to the dwarves, and the upper fortress long since abandoned, the only place to dump from is the highest point above the caldera - the ducal suite, now only accessible from the dome.
Knowing full well the danger that would be posed by the two horrific demons that still hover far above Weatherwires, three squads were assigned to defend the passage, so that the dome could be protected in the event of an attack by the pterosaur devils. Each warrior has long since developed legendary skills, so there was no fear that the demons would be able to defeat them in combat. In a way, I was right.
Not long after dumping began, four pterosaur devils erupted from the magma vent and tore through the air towards the duke's quarters. The civilians dropped everything immediately and ran for cover, and as the first demon entered the passage, the champions of Weatherwires rushed forth to the defense of the fortress. Three squads there were - the Lone Lashes (4 lashers), the Silvery Skunks (5 macedwarves), and the Silvery Princesses (3 swordsdwarves). As more demons flew up to perch on the ledge, the dwarves were drawn out of the passage, and it was here that the fiends exacted their price upon the fortress.
Unib Blockadeflame the Elevated Dream (lasher) scrambled away from one of the beasts as it snapped at him, accidentally crawling right over the ledge. Sibrek Paddleshafts the Roof of Trickery (macedwarf), Reg Splashhelm the Worshipful Triangle (macedwarf), and Sodel Inkdipped the Ashamed Image (lasher) were pushed backwards into the open air. As they fell through the familiar upper fortress, seeing the abandoned ruins for the last time, the rest of their squads bravely slew the remaining demons. Dumping of stone continues, and the sacrifice of these four heroes are on the minds of all. They have been claimed by the same obliterating power used so frequently by the dwarves, their bodies and equipment destroyed utterly by the crushing pressure and heat in the deep.
Zon Cloudwheel channeled away the floor, and for a brief moment, sneaked a look into the caisson, a literal hellhole choked with blinding steam, and filled with piles of mud and stone. A thin layer of water covered a freshly formed sheet of obsidian on one side of the caisson, while the other was a roiling crescent of bubbling magma. And in the center - a rough-hewn outcrop of greyish ore, glittering in the dim glow of the magma sea. A sudden spark of greed sprang to life within Zon's heart, so strong that he might have dug a passage down to the ore and started mining away at it himself - but the the twisted, dismembered remains of several magma crabs, strewn about the caisson, reminded him that his safety was far from assured. There were demons nearby.
As Zon reluctantly hurried back up the passage to the dome, levers linked to the supports around him were pulled. Amidst a choking miasma of dust and shattered rock, the dwarf ascended the stairs, just barely making it past the cave-ins in time.
(http://img.ie/88120.jpg)
The operation was a success, in the sense that the flows were stop. The adamantine vein has been plugged with obsidian:
(http://img.ie/6a4c3.jpg)
However, my FPS has not yet been returned to anything normal. The demons are obviously to blame, though I have other things to worry about before dealing with them becomes a priority.
Lacking some mystery material whilst moody, the child, Mebzuth 'Quakedented' Truecaves, went berserk.
The prince, Asmel 'Murdershot' Deathchannels was summoned to deal with the threat. The captian of the guard, Zon 'Gearguild' Ironfirst, happened to be nearby. The two chased the child down, and executed her. The killing was not swift.
(http://img.ie/4c115.jpg)
(http://img.ie/14b61.jpg)
The child bled to death. So it goes, in Weatherwires.
The magma has receded to the level of the second-to-lowest seal, having been drained unceremoniously into the eastern caverns.
(http://img.ie/7b998.jpg)
20 years have passed since the cavern floor was first submerged beneath the magma. For now, it is a charred wasteland, though that will change in time. There are now two great lava lakes, separated by narrow passages choked by apparently heat-resistant giant fungi. To the west, is a lake that is more or less permament - there is no drain, and I intend for that magma to stay where it is. To the east is what was once a natural lake, but was drained and is currently filled with magma. The last stage of the process is to let that magma drain, and then refill the lake bed with water.
As well, excavation of the adamantine continues. Leaving the outcrop exposed to the caisson, the dwarves have gathered almost all of the precious ore that lies below it. In excess of 100 additional units have been gathered, and are being processed into wafers and cloth. I intend to outfit a few key militia members with adamantine cloaks and hoods, in preparation for a glorious battle to rid the fortress of demonic influence and secure the safety of the dwarves of the Merchant of Echoing once and for all.
Apparently, even though a brand new set of adamantine short swords has been forged, the Silvery Princesses refuse to trade in the steel short swords they have been wielding for all these years. I suppose their old weapons, since they've bestowed names by their users, have some degree of sentimental value.
The lake continues to fill. Perhaps the presence of large bodies of both magma and water in the dome would produce an increase in humidity and air flow, if such things were implemented in the game. For now, the magma lake remains a suitable place to dump refuse, while the water lake will provide ample fishing for the dwarves.
(http://img.ie/82143.jpg)
Thus passes Edzul Granitetamed, the last of a handful of legendary weaponsmiths that lived in Weatherwires. Born in 54, she migrated to the fortress in the early summer of 140. She reached legendary skill by crafting bolts for marksdwarves, finally attaining that level of ability around 146. She created many of the steel corkscrews which were used in the magma pumps, and in 166, created Fragrancecross - the appropriately flowery named artifact adamantine warhammer.
The year is 212 - she died at the age of 158, less than a year after crafting a trio of adamantine short swords. They will be put to good use.
Dear Mr. DS:
Post current stock numbers?
Signed,
Malefic Overlord of Flaming Furniture, Maple.
Dear Maple,
Ok, though I'm not sure why you want it.
(http://img.ie/8b4b6.jpg)
(http://img.ie/50808.jpg)
(http://img.ie/a7a07.jpg)
(http://img.ie/4c386.jpg)
(http://img.ie/6825c.jpg)
Sincerely,
Gestalt consciousness of the Diamond Cloisters, DS
Ah! I see. It seemed like an odd request. This one does too, just less so.
(http://img.ie/54075.jpg)
(http://img.ie/5141c.jpg)
Shorast Unâlgusil, Merchant has been struck down.
Ilral is an angry ghost - the first malicious spirit among the new batch of ghosts who cannot be memorialized. I suppose that the dwarves of Weatherwires have forgotten the names of these haunting few, and thus cannot honor them with an engraving in stone and put their tortured souls to rest. Urdim must have either never met Ilral in life, or the planter has faded from his memory - such is the anger of these ghosts at the irreverence of the dwarves that they have begun to lay claim to the bodies of the living and exact their revenge upon the fortress that has forgotten them.
As the months wear on, the dwarves complete beautification projects around the dome. Using the various statues that the fort's craftsdwarves have produced over the years, three statuaries are erected on the cavern floor. The first is located at the foot of the citadel, amidst the natural rock pillars which support the buildings and causeways above, and is easily accessible via a passage from the central mesa. At the center, upon a patio of adamantine bricks, is an obsidian statue of Domas 'Murdershot' Tanineth (crafted by the queen herself, no less) surrounded by dwarves, commemorating her rise to sheriff in 127. Three adamantine statues of travelling dwarves surround her, representing the founding of Weatherwires in 126.
(http://img.ie/14139.jpg)
The second is in the caverns just to the east of the dome, and consists of many statues of dwarves in a ring around a central image of Id Fenceman rising from the grave, once more, as a murderous ghost in 194. Presumably, this event took place during the shifting of graves from the surface into the lower fortress, and Id would have been laid to rest shortly thereafter. The door on the east edge of the statuary leads to the map room.
(http://img.ie/3a6cb.jpg)
The last of the three cavern statue gardens consist of silver and adamantine statues crafted entirely by a single blacksmith, Ëdem Mistêmïngiz. Ëdem, a merchant, was chosen to train as a blacksmith in order to produce a statue of Ral Coppercanyon, goddess of metals. Instead, Ëdem produced statues of many other things - most notable, about a dozen statues of oysters. Curious, I took a look at Ëdem's profile to see why she kept producing images of oysters.
(http://img.ie/cc700.jpg)
Another dwarf who was a less dubious worshipper of Ral was brought in to produce the statue, and did so (the statue which was placed in the temple is laughing, appropriately). The oyster room has been erected in a distant part of the caverns, accessible to the dwarves only via a long walk through natural caves.
(http://img.ie/13bc9.jpg)
In addition to these statuaries, the farms have been moved out of the muddied areas within buildings and to the dome floor, so that these artificially sandy or silty areas can grow many-colored fungi. One such area, located in the center of the red guildhall, has been opened up to the outside of the dome, and is ringed with pillars 2 z-levels high.
(http://img.ie/b5539.jpg)
As always, life in Weatherwires trudges slowly onward.
There is a plague in the fortress.
Not a sickness among the dwarves. In fact, nothing is sick at all. The plague is not a spreading disease - it is a kind of spreading wrongness that afflicts the very earth that the dwarves walk upon. As far as the game itself is concerned, this is obviously some kind of bug, but within the context of this story, the saga of Weatherwires, this plague is the darkest of omens, the manifestation of the will of an angry and vengeful god of murder and death.
This omen has been present in the fort for some time now, staring me in the face. For how long, I cannot say for sure, but I have just noticed it. Take a close look at the screenshot I posted earlier today:
(http://img.ie/b5539.jpg)
Do you see it? Look closer. The color is a little off, so it might be difficult, but it's there. If you can't find it, I've pointed it out with the cursor in this picture.
(http://img.ie/a6130.jpg)
Here, in the heart of the dome, grows a patch of green grass. Indeed, two patches (you can see it in between the two dwarves between the stairs). In any other context, this might be a welcome curiosity, but for the dwarves of Weatherwires, who have forsaken the surface, green grass is a horrific sight. Not only does it remind them of the curses of the world above that drove them into the deeps forever, but it calls to mind an ancient myth, a deity of the Merchant of Echoing who, unlike the various other well-loved and worshipped gods, has no representation in the temple ring which dominates the dome.
(http://img.ie/6c4a5.jpg)
Baros Buriedplagues, god of light and day, but also of murder, death, and rebirth, one of two gods not worshipped by the dwarves of Weatherwires. The surface world is his domain alone, and he has been forsaken along with it. Any dwarf who sees a patch of grass growing in the dome - the darkened, secluded sanctuary which has been sealed away from the surface by fire and stone - could not fail to be reminded of Baros, and the fact that he must view the lower fortress itself as the greatest of profanities. He has made his mark upon the Weatherwires:
(http://img.ie/a4746.jpg)
(http://img.ie/29375.jpg)
(http://img.ie/97687.jpg)
...and as they pass the surface vegetation on their daily errands, the dwarves slowly realize the nature of their misfortunes, and the identity of their malefactor. In 135, the duke Kogsak Murdershot drew up the plans for the excavation of a great grotto beneath the earth, a utopia for dwarves and an escape from the lighted surface world.
It was in 135, too, that the great tantrum spiral erupted. For five years, dwarves died at the hands of their kinsmen, and the duke himself went mad. Determined to carry out her husband's plan, Domas Tickcities oversaw the excavation of the dome. Two decades after digging began, the fort was stricken with infertility. During the flooding, various mechanical issues sought to slow the pumps or cease them entirely. Now, a score of ghosts haunt the fortress, patches of darkness-defying grass grow in the deeps, and one name is on the lips of all: Baros Buriedplagues.
As if to hammer home the point, two more dwarves pass away from old age this year. Both possessed legendary skill in their respective trades, and had been with the fortress since the early years.
(http://img.ie/61204.jpg)
The year is 216. In precisely one decade, the nameless evil will be unleashed and the doom of Weatherwires will be complete. The dwarves continue their drudgery, having fully resigned themselves to their fate.
Feb Blockadeinch and Kogan Crewedboulder had been friends ever since they were recruited from the same caravan and came to live in the dome. Since then, the merchant had gone on to become a legendary grower, while Feb, her marksdwarf guard, had had a mood and created Failedhushed the Music of Balding (the artifact light yellow diamond coffin into which the queen Domas Tickcities had since been interred).
On this day, Feb had recently returned from a woodcutting expedition in the second cavern layer. Every able hand was needed, and Feb was one of the few who had been equipped with a copper battle axe for hewing black-caps. (New bedrooms are being added to various guildhalls, and thus every color of underground mushroom are needed - there is a shortage of black-caps.)
The two women met in Kogan's bedroom below the Languagemetal guildhall, itself furnished with black-caps tables and chairs. While they spoke, the foul spirit Ilral Alåthalod, full of rage at the living, struck again.
(http://img.ie/10123.jpg)
(http://img.ie/3c77a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/722cc.jpg)
Kogan, standing over the body of her only friend, bloody battle axe in hand - while Ilral Alåthalod floats just outside the door, listening eagerly to the gem cutter's cries of remorse:
(http://img.ie/2b820.jpg)
For murder, Kogan has been sentenced to 201 days in prison - it is likely that she will be left to die of starvation in her chains. As Zon 'Gearguild' Ironfirst, captain of the guard, drags her away to her place of death, Kogan's mood grows worse and worse, as the gravity of the situation slowly dawns upon her. Ilral Alåthalod has claimed two more.
DS what happened with the child that phased to another dimension?
Situation remains unchanged. I can still zoom to the spot on the bridge where Zuglar 'Throwerlens' Fountainclinches was nicked. She should be 76 by now, if she's still alive. I have no way of telling.
Another Quakedented child, Kumil Spiraledplank, went into a mood in the winter of 218. His mad requests for leather went unheeded, but instead of simply sinking into a deep depression or fathomless madness, the young child instead flew into a berserk rage, running out of the workshops and down the stairwell, murder on his mind.
(http://img.ie/6646b.jpg)
Kumil ran straight through the Languagemetal guildhall and out of the building, into the coffin garden which lay to the southwest, against the very edge of the dome. The wall at this low point in the grotto was nearly vertical, only curving away at some dizzyingly high point in the darkness far above - but Kumil was not thinking about the achievement of his forbears on this day. His mind was focused on the obese, clean-shaven female dwarf idling in the clearing.
By a twist of fate, the dwarf was none other than the infamous Limul 'Breachedwhips' Gildnut the Great Salve of Amazement. No stranger to combat, Limul had served as captain of the guard from 138 to 165. These years might be considered the golden age of Weatherwires, encompassing the excavation and first flooding of the dome, as well as the initial stages of migration into the deeps - a time before infertility and spectral infestations. During these years, however, the bald captain of the guard was a feared dwarf, an emissary of death in a time when no jails meant beatings were the punishment of choice. Newcomers to the fort scoffed at Limul's choice of weapon, but they stopped laughing once they witnessed the shocking efficiency of some of Limul's beatings.
(http://img.ie/c8885.jpg)
With a murderous howl, Kumil chased after Limul, the two running to and fro through much of of the western part of the dome. Kumil failed to land any hits, and it seemed that the prince or the current captain of the guard would soon arrive to deal with the problem - until, at the entrance to the nether-cap and fungiwood building, just to the south of the citadel, Limul turned and administered her old brand of justice.
(http://img.ie/c43ab.jpg)
(http://img.ie/02424.jpg)
(http://img.ie/1a308.jpg)
Zon Ironfirst, captain of the guard, arrived on the scene only moments later to find her predecessor standing over the child's broken body, blood dripping from her fists. The new captain wielded the same weapon as the last - an exceptional adamantine warhammer - and in that moment Limul laid eyes on the instrument of justice, possibly for the first time since she laid it in a weapon bin in a stockpile years ago. On this day the dwarves are reminded why Limul is called the Great Salve of Amazement.
(http://img.ie/cb315.jpg)
(http://img.ie/bc68a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/58086.jpg)
(http://img.ie/635aa.jpg)
...and also by the frequency of the mayor's perpetually unmet mandates.
(http://img.ie/7305b.jpg)
(http://img.ie/3bbb7.jpg)
Among the dead is Meng Elderfurnace, a planter who settled in the fortress in 130, one of the handful of survivors of the tantrum spiral that would break out only a few years later. Sazir Nutscloister, patriarch of a defunct clan, served for decades as a marksdwarf. Perhaps most notable is Catten Kindnesslashes the Torrid Gaze, one of the legendary swordsdwarves of the Silvery Princesses, who claimed nearly 60 goblins and trolls in defense of the fort.
While the punishment carried out against Vucar the merchant goes almost unnoticed amongst the dwarves of Weatherwires, the death of Ézum Gladnessbridges is noted by many. Having lived in the fort since 138, he was the friend of dozens of dwarves, including the royal family. He served as a marksdwarf alongside Sazir Nutscloister for many years, before taking up the pick again to mine out the adamantine spire deep beneath the dome.
The deaths of these few are considered by the living to be a merciful blessing in the eyes of many. The legendary warriors have long since realized that a slow withering away from old age is more likely than an honorable death in combat - and so they wait, training ceaselessly in the monastic barracks in the south of the dome, eager for the day when the nameless evil will be unleashed. The older citizenry look forward to a peaceful death in their bed in the coming years, but all the younger generation has to look forward to is a death sentence, chained away in an oubliette. Even these fates, however, are seen as preferable to the eternal torture and damnation that awaits those who will still be alive when the obsidian wall is torn down and the endless waves of demons and hellfire, held back only temporarily, is set loose upon the dome.
(http://img.ie/ac509.jpg)
Mosus Ilushat was the last dwarf with any skill in armoring left in the fortress. Id Inkwhirled the Washed Metal of Growls and Imush Humidpillars the Kindnesses of Gleaming had bravely defended the fortress against countless threats. All three had been with the fort since the early years, and took part in countless encounters, joyful and tragic, throughout the history of Weatherwires. Although their deaths are mourned by many, in a few years their individual tales will be forgotten forever, and Mosus, Imush, and Id will fade into the nameless hundreds that the legends will say inhabited the mythical dome.
In the spring of 220, the angry ghost Ilral Alåthalod (Boltedday, in the dwarven tongue, though no dwarf now remembers her name) struck out against the fortress once again. Discontented with merely causing the demise of harmless civilians, the spirit possessed the master lasher Etur Urnwet the Savage Shriek of Tornados. Using the warrior's body for her own ends, Ilral attacked the militia commander, Vabok Earthenfins, to no avail - the handful of remaining military dwarves knew each other far too well, and were too strong on the defense - the commander easily parried Etur's strikes, and soon the tantrum passed and the lasher returned to his senses.
It seemed that Etur was just the latest in a long string of dwarves to be possessed by Ilral and do no real damage to the fort - though, if the possession had happened elsewhere, the result could have been disastrous. The incident was passed off as a near miss, until the captain of the guard dragged Etur off to serve a long sentence in chains for disorderly conduct.
Etur, however, was not to have the peaceful death that so many had suffered, dying of thirst or hunger in chains. The captain of the guard stripped Etur of his military status for the duration of the punishment, but let him keep his equipment - a full adamantine kit, including Archscald the Sable Meditation, an iron whip, and Dellwad, a steel buckler. With his mind no longer focused upon military training, a burst of inspiration came upon him. For a season, he strained against the chain, forgotten by his fellow citizens and brothers in arms, trying to break free and claim a workshop elsewhere in the fortress. Eventually, he grew mad with rage, and he howled like an angry beast in a cage. He had to be put down, lest he get his hands on an innocent passerby.
(http://img.ie/b1c30.jpg)
The military was summoned to deal with the latent threat, and as fate would have it, one the nearest dwarves was Nomal Biglabors the Lush Convent of Dwelling, militia captain of the Lone Lashes and the only remaining squadmate of poor Etur. One of the macedwarves was there, as well as the captain of the guard, but Eral's steel mace did only slightly more damage than the adamantine warhammer - Eral was too skilled of a defender, even in madness.
Against his squadmate, Nomal showed the incredible potential penetrating power of a mere iron whip, named Spuntame the Rumors of Calm, against a full suit of adamantine armor. He landed blow after blow, each strike chipping away a flake of bone or severing a tendon. A strike to the lower spine deftly severed Etur's spinal cord, and he went to the floor. A lash to either hand and his whip and buckler clattered away to the masterfully engraved floor. Nomal landed lash after lash upon the prone dwarf, seeming almost sadistic in the execution, until finally he kicked Etur in the head, burying the toe of his -adamantine high boot- in the lasher's skull.
There are now a mere 10 dwarves in the military of Weatherwires. One is the prince, who is well-trained, but one is also the captain of the guard, who is essentially useless in real combat. As, every year, more of these peerless warriors fall prey to old age, accidents, or draconian punishment, the final fate of Weatherwires seems assured.
As the years wear on, the collected entropy in the dome reaches critical levels, threatening to tear Weatherwires apart despite the approaching year of 226.
Nish Bitemachine, merchant was being trained as an armorsmith, so as to replace Mosus Ilushat, who had died three years before. He set to work, producing copper bucklers repeatedly, and the furnace operators were tasked with melting down each buckler as Nish made them. Once he reached a level of skill where he actually became attached to his works (now of a more respectable quality), he began to grow upset as his creations were melted back down into their component parts. He flew into a brief rage, smashing a nearby statue, which earned him a minor jail sentence (probably not long enough to be a death sentence).
While Zon "Gearguild" Ironfirst led Nish to the prison, the merchant threw another tantrum, turning on the young captain of the guard in a blind flurry of rage.
(http://img.ie/a56b2.jpg)
The captain of the guard is now dead, and the dwarves see no point in finding another to fill the position. In three short years, the end will come for good - of what use will be justice then?
Once again, Ilral Boltedday has indirectly killed a dwarf.
(http://img.ie/9044c.jpg)
The vengeful spirit took possession of Libash Dippedurns the Ageless Deep of Rhymes, and using the spearmaster's legendary skill and artifact adamantine weaponry, made mincemeat of one of the new recruits.
(http://img.ie/40a90.jpg)
Poor Kulet probably thought Libash was simply sparring.
(http://img.ie/32078.jpg)
Vabôk Earthenfins the Tight Mechanisms of Whirling is dwarf that has repeatedly distinguished himself since his arrival in 148. He has 89 notable kills over a span of over 50 years - beginning with Usu Wavedpearl the Murky Deer, the mountain titan Vabôk slew in 151 with Faintletter, an iron dagger; and ending with a dozen trolls and a handful of goblins during the brief reclamation of the upper fortress which took place in 203. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2713296;topicseen#msg2713296)
Alas, his kill list will forever stay at 89.
(http://img.ie/3c9b6.jpg)
At the age of 152, Vabôk collapsed in the barracks. He possessed legendary skill in nearly every non-weapon combat skill, as well as being a legendary speardwarf and knife-user. With only a large iron dagger in his hands (no shield), he slew two titans and a minotaur (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2630537;topicseen#msg2630537) during his first years in Weatherwires, and was promoted to militia commander shortly thereafter. According to legends mode, his second kill - a huge, violet-feathered mite with a regal bearing and poisonous bite - was made with his bare hands.
By slaying these two titans, Vabôk single-handedly made the world pass from the Age of Myth and into the Age of Heroes - with only a single year (152) comprising the Age of Legends.
(http://img.ie/1452b.jpg)
(As a side note, Organswallows the Typhoon of Vandals is pretty cool name for a silver warhammer, and Urist Wildattic the Riddled Neutralization is a pretty cool name for a hammerdwarf. Too bad she died of thirst in 162.)
The passing of Vabôk Earthenfins is representative of the passing of Weatherwires. A great dwarf who, in his early life, shook the foundations of the time itself and changed the world forever. As the years wore on, he only grew stronger, until none could defeat him in single combat. In the end, however, the millstone of time took its toll, and ground Vabôk into dust.
So, too, is the fortress being ground down. Dwarves die from uncontrollable accidents, unfulfillable moods, and unstoppable ghosts every year, slowly but surely. Poltergeists seize items and hurl them at helpless civilians. Pillars of smoke rise from the southwestern quarter. Unwanted clothing in various stages of decay litter the streets. Mischievous spirits occasionally pull levers, and angry ghosts throw dwarves into violent tantrums. Even if the enemy was not being unleashed on the centennial, Weatherwires could not possibly last forever. A few years, decades maybe, but not forever.
Libash Dippedurns has been named militia commander. If she does not die of old age, or is murdered by a ghost, or falls prey to any of the other possible accidents which could happen, she will lead the final defense against the forces of hell which will be released in one year's time.
I just found and read this today, and I must say this is amazing. I don't think I'd ever have the patience to pull off anything even half this awesome!
Hey, thanks. To be honest, I had no idea where it was going when it started - everything just sort of fell into place naturally as the game progressed.
(http://img.ie/84413.jpg)
The appointed day has arrived, and on the eve of destruction, the patriarch of clan Languagemetal, father of the so-called youngest dwarf and legendary macedwarf, dies of old age. Whether it is the will of some nameless fate, or the vengeful god Baros Buriedplages, or some other entity beyond the comprehension of the dwarves, the death of Eral Languagemetal is the last mercy that will be afforded to the dwarves of Weatherwires.
I've uploaded the final map (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10823-weatherwires) to the DFMA, and updated the OP to include the link. I'll begin adding annotations now, and wait to make the final plunge later tonight.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for every fortress drops to zero.
The relentless wearing down of the fortress has reached its breaking point. 37 ghosts of various dispositions haunt the dome, and one in particular has already claimed many dwarves in its hatred for the living (that's about 1 ghost to every 4 dwarves - the current fortress population is 144). The dead cannot be stopped, and so the destruction of Weatherwires, no matter how much the dwarves try to build it back up, is ultimately inevitable. It was decided decades ago that on this day the barriers holding back oblivion would be released, and Weatherwires would find its end not in an agonizing whittling down over the course of decades, but in a fiery blaze of glory, a clash of demonflesh and adamantine which would echo in the dome for eternity.
The military assumes positions under the command of Libash Dippedurns the Ageless Deep of Rhymes. Every squad at the commander's disposal is positioned along the length of the narrow passage into which the enemy will pour. Libash knows that if but a single demons were to break past his defenses and into the vast hollowness of the dome, her forces will be useless - the fiends would simply fly throughout the grotto and pick off dwarves where they stood.
(http://img.ie/7cb3a.jpg)
Immediately to the north of the breach is positioned the Silvery Princesses. To the south, Libash and her surviving squadmate, Shorast Sealmet are positioned alongside the Silvery Skunks. All of these dwarves - even the new recruits - possess legendary skill in their respective weapons.
Behind Libash and her compatriots are positioned the Lone Lashes, now comprised almost entirely by the only survivors of clan Lashhushed. They, too, are legendary warriors, despite having only trained for a few years. The captains are apparently stellar teachers.
(http://img.ie/aa953.jpg)
Positioned behind the Silvery Princesses are the prince and his squad, the Royal Fortresses. Many of these recruits are now legendary axedwarves, but poor Logem "Quakedented" Sparkswords has only been in the squad for a few short months, and possesses no military skills whatsoever. Kol "Languagemetal" Claspedrelief, however, has only grumbled and shirked his training, so despite being in the squad for longer than any of the Quakedented children, he is only a competant axedwarf. Presumably his coddled childhood as the youngest dwarf resulted in a spoiled brat with an over-developed sense of entitlement - in which case, the coming battle will be a sickening wake-up call.
Asmel "Murdershot" Deathchannels, prince of Weatherwires and son of the old duke, thinks back to the days of his youth. He remembers running along the rim of the caldera in the diffused light of the upper fortress, laughing with his brother and sisters, and the other friends of the Murdershot children - Kogan "Ceilingintense" Toolfriends, whose parents died in a cave-in, leaving him orphaned; and Lòr "Lensnarrow" Gearslings, with whom his sister Cog, now the queen, had had a brief affair. But now his siblings were dead, Cog was most likely mad with power, and their friends had gone mad and withered away from thirst or starvation in the tantrum spiral during his childhood. Soon, he would meet them again in whatever afterlife Baros Buriedplagues, the god of death, saw fit to grant him.
Commander Libash has no illusions about this conflict. She knows that the chances of the dwarves winning are slim to none - but she does not confide this in her squadmates. She only rails them onto victory, claiming that this shall be their hour of glory, even though she knows deep in her soul that she leads the last of her civilization into oblivion. Vabôk knew that the fight was unwinnable too, she suspected, although he would have never said it. They were squadmates, not friends - dwarves like Vabôk and Libash, who spent years doing weapons drills over and over, had no friends.
With a heart that felt like it was made of slade, the commander issued the signal to deconstruct the wall. Shorast Rockclearings, a merchant guard turned stonecrafter, moved forth and began to tear down the rough obsidian block wall.
Shorast pulled down the wall, stone by stone - but once the barest breach was exposed, a foul rush of air, reeking of rot and brimstone, broke down the rest of the wall, knocking the dwarf backwards. Immediately, the horde of demons began pouring through the narrow breach in the wall - giant tapirs composed of ash, mongooses composed of salt, and of course, the fire-breathing skinless pterosaurs which had already caused the deaths of four military dwarves. As they descended upon poor Shorast, who hadn't even the time to turn to run, the defenders of Weatherwires rushed in to slay the invaders.
(http://img.ie/a86c3.jpg)
Some demons, the dwarves quickly discovered, were easier to kill than others.
(http://img.ie/953bc.jpg)
(http://img.ie/2669b.jpg)
Others were a bit more challenging.
(http://img.ie/0c869.jpg)
Eventually, after breaking nearly every bone in his body, and setting him on fire, one of the demons landed a kick square on the stonecrafter's head, killing him.
Oh. Im a bit late to address this,
but what is your baby:adult ratio?
There's only one baby. Currently, the fortress population is 144. Well, 143, now.
The battle rages, and the demons claim their first military kill. Rakust Doorpolishes, of clan Lashhushed, fought bravely, claiming a few kills before he was finally taken down. One of the mongoose-like salt ghosts caught Rakust from behind, kicking him with such strengh that the whiplash broke his spine, despite his adamantine breastplate. Helpless and paralyzed, the demons crushed his body mercilessly.
(http://img.ie/2bc44.jpg)
(http://img.ie/806bc.jpg)
(http://img.ie/a63a5.jpg)
I mean in the raws. This might be whats affecting it so...
If you're referring to [BABY_CHILD_CAP], it's at 10000 for both values. Thus, my cap on babies+children is 10000, and I can't have more than 10000% of my adults in babies. It's not the issue, and besides, trying to solve the infertility bug is kind of a moot point by now.
A swordsmaster by the name of Oddom Bellstrussed, formerly a caravan guard, managed to slay a single fiend of shadow before being slain in combat. With well placed strikes to his hands, the enemy shattered his hands, despite his adamantine gauntlets, thus disarming him. After that, it was only a matter of time before the helpless dwarf was slain by the unstoppable demons.
(http://img.ie/c0c48.jpg)
(http://img.ie/276b3.jpg)
(http://img.ie/17855.jpg)
Meanwhile, the only remaining member of the Silvery Princesses, Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, is kicking ass and taking names.
(http://img.ie/60587.jpg)
And, in a truly dwarven display of hypocrisy, Libash Dippedurns left the site of battle to take a quick nap.
(http://img.ie/4c801.jpg)
(http://img.ie/9850a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/681ba.jpg)
Amongst the fallen is Ineth Lensbeaks, matriarch of clan Thunderbridge and long-time manager of Weatherwires. She was appointed to that position in 138, seven years after her arrival, and has filled it more or less since then. Since the the transition to the dome, she has also been elected repeatedly, year after year, as mayor - and thus, her endless mandates for lead items have proven to be the death of Ilon knows how many dwarves. Perhaps unjustly, she was served a strong blow and a quick death - more than her victims were ever afforded.
(http://img.ie/9ba43.jpg)
In the north, the first line of defenses have been broken. The mace lord Shorast Sunstorches the Fair Spikes, captain of the Silvery Skunks, fought bravely to hold back the demons, but in the end they were too powerful. Overrunning him, a fiend of shadow the dwarves have now dubbed "Reksasinrus," Sinpoison, a towering earthworm composed of ash, leads the demons up the stairwell and into battle with the Dignified Hammers and the Royal Fortresses.
In the south, the military scrambles to defend the helpless civilians who have crowded into the hallways. Whether they are truly drawn there by their need to arrange the bodies there into the various stockpiles about the dome, or by their desire to find a glorious end to their civilizations' slow and soul-crushing failure, it is impossible to know.
The prince leads the Royal Fortresses and the Dignified Hammers into combat against the demons, determined not to let them breach the citadel and the dome itself.
(http://img.ie/c148a.jpg)
The prince himself goes toe-to-toe with a pterosaur devil, hacking away with his masterwork adamantine battle axe. Already, he has slain two demons - this only offsets the two Quakedented recruits the demons have killed, however, not to mention the civilians who have died in the tunnels further to the south.
(http://img.ie/9a1c6.jpg)
The true battle rages here, immediately outside of the stairwell leading into the heart of the fortress. Alone, without the aid of any other dwarf, spearmaster Shorast Sealmet defends against seventeen demons of various shapes, sizes, and colors.
(http://img.ie/76931.jpg)
In the southern passage, a single demon clogs the passage, dubbed "Figulovus," Glandmolds in the dwarven tongue. An enormous, horned humanoid composed of snow, Glandmolds has lost both its arms and its left leg - its ineffectual hopping would be humorous, if it had not already claimed four dwarves in battle.
(http://img.ie/a23b8.jpg)
(http://img.ie/895cc.jpg)
With a mighty blow, Asmel Deathchannels cleaves through the last of the demons who attacked through the northern passage. Leading what remains of his own squad and the hammerdwarves who fought alongside him, he charges south through the passage to lend aid to the militia commander.
Little does he know that Libash is absent from her post, and Shorast Sealmet has been slain, outnumbered by a terrifying array of demons.
(http://img.ie/2b015.jpg)
(http://img.ie/11030.jpg)
The only demons left in the fortress are in the deepest part of the mines, either lying in wait or ignorance of the dwarves' weakness. The current fortress population is 93, with 13 soldiers dying in the battle - compared to a hundred demons slain, one might call the battle a victory, but for the dwarves of Weatherwires, even triumph over the forces of hell leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Well, neither more or less. The dwarves--Dwemer--were so rational that none of the gods in existence suited them for worship. So they tried building their own. Long story short, it was a disaster, and the whole of their race vanished, except for one. They were messing with metaphysics that no mortal was ever meant to mess with. Plus, at some point in the past they'd pissed off the goddess Azura and she may also have had a hand in things.
Wow, thanks for the insight. Also, the idea of a race being dissatisfied with the existing gods and thus building their own is pretty damn dorfy.
Another creature has been spotted in the deeps - the Antelope Fiends. A towering antelope with external ribs, a short trunk, and a bloated body covered with patchy, spring green hair. They also possess a stinger, presumably venemous.
In order to complete the stairwell, I had to drain some passages which had been filled with magma for quite some time. The result of draining one passage into the third cavern layer was a rather interesting similarity of shape between the obsidianized lake, a magma vent, and the volcano's lava tube. The pattern had a kind of aesthetic that struck me as pleasing, so I saved a picture of it.
(http://img.ie/40402.jpg)
Also, before the battle with hell, I had set up cage traps in the second cavern layer in an attempt to capture something with skin which could be tanned into leather - all I caught, however, were plump helmet men. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2765067;topicseen#msg2765067) Since then, other creatures have wandered into the traps; a couple blind cave ogres, which were used as training for the recruits, a few rutherers, which did indeed provide leather, and a veritable army of crundles. After the battle, however, another batch of plump helmet men were captured and tamed, and shortly thereafter their numbers began to boom.
(http://img.ie/79763.jpg)
There are four adult females and only one male. There is a male child, but five of the six babies are females. Perhaps the plump helmet men only comprise a small percentage of the species? In any case, the females gave birth while the adult male was still in the cage - and the male child was born before the adult was captured at all. I suppose that plump helmet men are the only creatures in the game for whom the 'reproduction by spores' theory is legitimately appropriate.
As construction of the great stair nears completion, the ghostly planter strikes again. Taking control of Èrith Minedtribe of clan Gearguild, Ilral Boltedday struck down the master lasher Stukos Testorbs, the last remnant of the Lashhushed clan. Èrith, who had been recently recruited to the Silvery Princesses, had already reached legendary skill with his adamantine short sword - a skill which was put to vicious use by the angry spirit.
(http://img.ie/25c79.jpg)
Also, a third type of demon has been spotted in the deeps: the Mite Brute. A great, scaly, slavery mite with thin wings of stretched skin. Truly, the underworld appears to be full of foul creatures.
The great stair is finished, except for the lowest level. It extends in a solid, unbroken column from an engraved chamber below the dome, through the second cavern layer (though it is hidden behind a solid obsidian block wall), through the caisson and the magma sea, and to the base of hell itself.
(http://img.ie/0515a.jpg)
The Grooved Book-Volcanos, led by the militia commander Libash Dippedurns, goes into position at the top of the stair, in case some fiends should strike immediately. The structure is connected to the featureless grey surface of the underworld with a final steel stairwell - no demons are apparently nearby - forming a direct and permanent route directly from the fortress and into hell.
(http://img.ie/04966.jpg)
Two squads journey bravely into the waste: the Silvery Princesses, led by Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, and the Dignified Hammers, led by Shorast Phraseposts the Odorous Temple of Diamond. The Hammers will guard the stairwell from invasion, while the Princesses will perform the first ranging - Èzum leads his squad through the abyss, exploring the area, so that the prime location for a temple can be found.
As the dwarves toil away, smelting iron into steel bars which are then hauled into the deeps to be added to the constructions there, the peaceful and tamed mushroom folk, confined to the top of the southwestern building, are building the foundations of a new society.
(http://img.ie/8a763.jpg)
Although they cannot speak, they can apparently communicate, probably via spores. This particular individual is the oldest - according to Runesmith, she is aged 43 - and is also the most skilled.
I'm not great at interpreting the raws, so I bumped over to arena mode, removed the [ARENA_RESTRICTED] tag from their entry (this is the second change I've made, after adding the [PET] tag), and wrestled a plump helmet man in order to better determine their body layout. From what I can tell, they have no facial features whatsoever - just a head. As well, they have no individual toes or fingers, and no division between an upper or lower arm. Just a head (the mushroom cap, presumably) an upper and lower body, and arms and legs, terminating in fingerless hands and feet, respectively. They are all (always) a plain purple.
Based on these findings, it can be deduced that the plump helmet men are simple creatures possessed of a kind of intelligence completely alien to that of the sentient races, including dwarves. They communicate with spores, which is also presumably how they tell one another apart, and reproduce. They are simple creatures, in body and spirit.
...however, before the end comes, I may attempt to teach them other skills. Curse the map's apparent lack of flesh balls!
EDIT: Found a picture of various mushroom folk on deviantART (http://m0ai.deviantart.com/art/Mushroom-Folk-154545572) - the little guy on the bottom, second from the left, fits the description of a plump helmet man pretty accurately.
The curtain wall is completed, and as the scaffolding is being torn down, an armor stand is placed next to the base of the stairwell and each of the four remaining squads ordered to train in hell.
...not a moment too soon, as a barrage of seven demons assaults the fortress.
(http://img.ie/38373.jpg)
In the battle, the scions of the Vesselplayed and Thunderbridge clans are wounded - though, luckily, a few broken bones are the only wounds suffered. Kol Claspedrelief, the youngest dwarf and the only survivor of clan Languagemetal makes his first two demonic kills - a pair of mite brutes.
Now, the last construction - the final effort of Weatherwires.
Years pass. Old age claims another dwarf - a clothier who has lived in the fort since 144.
(http://img.ie/633c1.jpg)
Those years seem distant now, part of another age. A time, long passed, which now is only a vaguely remembered dream amidst the despondent hell which is Weatherwires.
The scaffolding which was used to construct the curtain wall is removed.
(http://img.ie/b3a78.jpg)
Only one task remains to the dwarves of the Merchant of Echoing.
I was struck with food poisoning last night, so you can imagine my utmost disgust and horror when I boot up DF and four of these things attack:
(http://img.ie/a1918.jpg)
Apparently the previous onslaught was found wanting, and the overlords of hell ordered in what might pass as siege engines amongst the fiends - the bloated, undulating vomit of a thousand demons, given sentience and malevolent will by whatever evil force was contained in the underworld.
The green monsters struck quickly, and militia commander Libash Dippedurns and a mace lord by the name of Rovod Craftlabor the Sour Tusk (wielding Entrancegriffons the steel mace) sprung to the defense. Although the demon's fragile bodies offered no resistance, every time the warrior's landed a strong blow, the thin, vile film which held together the monsters would release a spray of demon bile which knocked the dwarves off their feet, sometimes high above the slade floor, only to come back down with a crunch.
(http://img.ie/84a31.jpg)
Ironically, it is the monster's strength which proves to be their undoing. As the rest of the military rushes in to aid in the defense, Commander Libash strikes a long slice into one of the fiends with the Blockaded Pungency, the artifact adamantine spear once wielded by Vabôk Earthenfins, and the jet of loathsome spew hurled the four demons into the air. The creatures fell back to the surface with a splat, leaving pools of steaming vomit on the black slade. One of the beasts heaves forward, still not quite dead - or whatever passes as death for a blob of vomit.
The creature struck swiftly, crushing the curse-breaker Zasit Portalwines, first child of the Quakedented clan, between itself and the slade floor. 21 years have passed since Zasit was born, and since then no other clans have formed. In all, 20 children were born into the clan, although now only 9 remain, and with their patriarch slain, that number will only grow smaller.
The last green monster collapses to the ground in a burst of its own vomit, and ceases to undulate.
(http://img.ie/b1b71.jpg)
I am so effing glad I posted earlier in this thread. It reminded me to check up on this thread, and goddamn did it deliver.
You're phenomenal at storytelling, DS.
Hey, thanks.
I kinda wish there was a way to stop playing the fortress(without abandoning), and use it as the mountainhome for a new fort. However that doesn't seem to fit in with the theme and flow of the story so far. Either way, I quite enjoyed reading things so far.
Well, I will of course post the save once the fortress is finished for good, which will allow anyone to do a reclaim, or explore the fort in adventure mode.
Glad to see people are enjoying the story.
In the hospital, while waiting to be diagnosed by a physician, Libash Dippedurns the Ageless Deep of Rhymes, for the first time for several decades, is temporarily relieved of her military duties on account of her injuries. As she lets her mind drift from the seemingly endless years of repeated weapon drills and bloody combats, a muse of inspiration descends upon her, and her nigh-forgotten skills as a carpenter, developed in the years before her migration to Weatherwires, come back to her in a flash. The militia commander, despite two broken legs, a broken arm, and a smashed ribcage, drags herself to a carpenter's workshop. Ignoring the protestations of the chief medical dwarf, Libash moves to and from the stockpiles about the dome, hauling raw materials for an artifact. Her creation (appropriately surnamed "The Hides of Perishing") may be the last that Weatherwires ever sees:
(http://img.ie/806a4.jpg)
I've finished making the dome accessible to an adventurer (via a handful of routes), in the event that someone wants to try and explore it. This is all conjectural, however, as every time I've tried to abandon the fortress (so as to check things out in Legends) since the dome was flooded with magma, the game has crashed. I really, really hope this doesn't happen in the very end, but I have a kind of sick feeling that it will.
The horror!
(http://img.ie/83064.jpg)
While slaying the zombie kin of those fungal humanoids in the dome above (whose number has increased to 22), the Silvery Princesses suffered a tragedy. The zombies were hassling haulers who were gathering wood from the lowest cavern layers, and had to be dealt with.
Shortly after slaying the last of the plump helmet zombies, Ducim Lucidbooks of clan Gearguild spotted a zombie magma crab swimming along the surface of the magma vent. He ran along the narrow obsidian edge of the caldera towards the undead creature. There, standing but inches from the edge of molten death, he did battle with the creature that calls the magma sea its home.
(http://img.ie/a4a66.jpg)
(http://img.ie/c9c81.jpg)
(http://img.ie/bb10c.jpg)
A dwarf until the end, Ducim performs a heroic and fearless leap attack into the magma vent. Were the crab a living creature, such a blow might have killed it, but instead the dwarf scraped across his undead foe and sank into the deeps. A death in combat, and to be entombed in the semi-molten rock, is an honorable end, an end achieved by many dwarves throughout the history of Weatherwires - so it goes in a fortress built upon a volcano.
The crab still lives - after a manner - but the Diamond Cloisters holds no grudge. The dwarves of Weatherwires are above grudges or revenge - they are focused entirely now upon the completion of the temple. It will not need to be gaudy, or large, or a engineering masterpiece - the dome itself is example enough of all of these. No, the temple will be modest, in contrast to what the dwarves have achieved elsewhere in Weatherwires. Although, any who look upon it will marvel at its existence, and wonder at what methods the dwarves managed its construction.
Without warning, one of the accursed vomit fiends stuck directly against the base of the stairwell itself. If any dwarf had seen it coming, they would have met it at the edge, or just outside of the curtain wall - but somehow, it managed to penetrate the primary defense. With a violent huff, similar in spirit, no doubt, to the formation of the creature, the green monster filled the interior of the curtain wall with a buffet of deadly vomit dust.
In a single blast of its breath (if you could even call it that), two dwarves are killed and four others injured. Id Whisperstrongs, one of the Quakedented recruits, and Shorast Towndye, last of the Bookpuzzled clan, perish when they are thrown against the steel curtain wall headfirst. As the surviving military bears down upon the blob of vomit, another deadly green cloud rises to the north - the fiend did not come alone.
(http://img.ie/bba04.jpg)
Mercifully, the attack is resolved without further injuries - the warriors destroy the monster who had already attacked, and the one in the north dies to a blast of its own vapor. Injuries suffered, however, render the military effectively defeated. A few dwarves, including the prince himself, suffered several broken bones. All those who took part in the battle, however, suffer from a kind of chronic dizziness - likely a result of exposure to some terrible contaminant brewed in the cornucopia of bile in the interior of the green monsters. Every dwarf suffering from dizziness has left his post to rest in the infirmary, leaving the entrance to the fortress, and the construction of the temple in hell completely undefended.
A squad was kept in reserve for just this occasion. The Silvery Princesses, who have been training in the dome for years, are finally given the order to make the descent. Led by Ézum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, and the other three members are of no small note: Nomal Biglabors the Lush Convent of Dwelling, last of the lashdwarves, now wields an adamantine shortsword with equally deadly skill; Érith Minedtribe, one of the only two surviving dwarves of the once mighty and prolific Gearguild clan; and of course, Cog 'Murdershot' Archwayward, recently elected mayor, daughter of the duke Kogsak Murdershot and queen of Weatherwires.
In the deeps, the sudden appearance of Salt Ghosts - enormous, jagged-toothed lizards comprised entirely of desiccating mineral - forces the military into action to defend the progress the dwarves have made upon the monument. The dignified hammers strike down the interloper without difficulty.
(http://img.ie/13c14.jpg)
Meanwhile, in the infirmary, far away from the clash of combat and the neverending howl of infernal wind, Asmel Deathchannels, son of Kogsak Murdershot and prince of Weatherwires, succumbs to the infection of wounds inflicted upon him by the biliious fiends. He lived in the fortress his entire life - nearly a hundred years - and knew nothing else.
When his sister, the only surviving member of the royal family, learns of his passing, her mood hardly changes. She merely shrugs it off and returns to sparring. The dwarves of the Merchant of Echoing have long become accustomed to tragedy, and the Murdershots are no exception to this. So it goes, in Weatherwires.
Asmel Spiralropes, recently appointed manager, and also the only dedicated herbalist the fortress has had since anyone can remember, carries the prince's body to his tomb atop Murdershot citadel. It is the first time since the queen's death that any dwarf has trod that ground. The entire precipice is overgrown with untended mushroom trees and dense fungal groundcover.
(http://img.ie/a58ba.jpg)
He is laid to rest in the artifact coffin on the eastern edge of the tomb - Glossrivers.
(http://img.ie/19a12.jpg)
The Royal Fortresses are disbanded, and the Quakedented children assigned to train under the tutelage of commander Urvad Pagekissed. The queen takes account - 76 dwarves remain. Construction continues.
EDIT: Shortly thereafter, one of the merchants was attacked by a lone crundle, which managed to tear his throat out and kill him. The crundle has been named Dedukducim by the dwarves, but I can't see the translation just yet, since he got caught in a cage trap. I've got scads of trapped crundles. 75 dwarves remain.
Dine.
That would be one hell of a dinner!
Limul arrives at the summit of the slade hill, the center of the construction site, and sees the green monster dubbed "Nettledepressed," crushing a woodcrafter beneath its bulk. The ex-captain of the guard charges the creature, striking it again and again with her warhammer - but alas, what is this? Instead of wielding one of the masterwork silver war hammers, crafted in Upper Weatherwires in the days of yore by the legendary weaponsmith Iden Sabreroom, Limul has in her hands an exceptional adamantine warhammer, the same warhammer she wielded for decades as captain of the guard, the hammer with which she slew eleven dwarves in the name of justice, the hammer which has so far claimed five demons in her service, the hammer upon which she has bestowed the name: Drunkenfear the Immortal Elevation.
(http://img.ie/54381.jpg)
Limul closes in on the beast and bashes it repeatedly with Drunkenfear, alternating with kicks and bashes with the Defective Shove, her exceptional steel shield. The vomit fiend crushes the woodcrafters skull in, turns towards the hammer lord, and lets loose a blast of demonic bile. Limul is knocked back and stunned, but uninjured.
(http://img.ie/30367.jpg)
(http://img.ie/b1052.jpg)
As Limul shakes her head clear, the green monster cuts past her, charging towards the crowd of noncombatants watching the battle. The captain chases after the beast, weapon at the ready, but the beast spews another blast at her, knocking her off her feet and stunning her again. The crowd scatters, and two clash repeatedly, Limul never able to land a perfect hit, and the beast releasing cloud after cloud of fiendish vomit without doing any damage. Seeing that the situation is helpless, she calls for help from the Silvery Princesses, and not a moment too soon - the beast let out a mighty blast, knocking the Great Salve of Amazement into the air and over the construction. Limul fell to the ground with a sickening crunch, and moved no more.
(http://img.ie/6988a.jpg)
The creature wastes no time gloating over the hammer lord's crushed body. It turns towards a civilian nearby and lets out another blast of vomit - which carries it backwards, slamming it against the wall, and destroying it.
(http://img.ie/35585.jpg)
Ghosts abound in Weatherwires. 36 spirits haunt the fortress - far more than half the number of those dwarves still left alive. Multiple angry ghosts send dwarves into violent tantrums, and reckless spirits overturn coffins or statues. Mite brute extract, left strewn about from constant battle with the fiends, is tracked into the fortress and up the stairwell, gathering on the bare feet of dwarves. Soon after a combat, a dozen dwarves will turn up in the infirmary, dizzy and fainting, with blisters covering their feet. They soon recover, mercifully, though a dwarf often dies of thirst in the hospital, while his comrades continue laboring in the deeps. Also, lack of any hospital care tends to leave injured dwarves to die of infection in their wounds (Athel Standtorch of clan Quakedented suffered this fate during the combat). These factors, combined with the constant demonic assaults and the passing of the elderly every year, threaten to destroy the dwarves of the Merchant of Echoing before their task is complete.
This is a dire state for your fortess to be in, DS, how far along is the temple?
The temple is progressing fairly. At the moment, the construction is being held back by a time-related factor. I'll have pictures up once it's picture-worthy, but right now, it just looks like a mess.
It has finally happened: one of the roving spirits haunting the fortress has directly struck down one of the living.
(http://img.ie/34c01.jpg)
With no way to memorialize the dead, this murderous spirit is the personification of death for the dwarves of Weatherwires. It will claim the living, one by one, until none are left.
Melbil Boneguild, last of the Vesselplayed clan, dies of infection in the infirmary. The dwarves begin to suspect that there is a virulence present somewhere in the deeps, but make no move to combat it. At this point, the stairwell to hell is slick with blood, vomit, and slime, contaminated thoroughly by the dwarves who tread dust and extract out of the abyss and into the fortress. Such a cleaning effort would be an unwelcome distraction from the completion of the final effort.
There are 60 dwarves left in the fortress.
The long shadow of tragedy has hung over Weatherwires for nearly a century, claiming countless dwarves through tantrum spirals, spectral possessions, and demonic incursions. Now, another soul has passed into the shadow, and one more crippling blow has been struck against the Diamond Cloisters.
The attack came from the east - three demons of a relatively rare breed known as the Golden Yellow Monster: a gigantic monkey covered with oval-shaped overlapping scales, twisted into humanoid form. They ceaselessly chant in the unintelligible abyssal language, and their sharp teeth drip poison. The Silvery Princesses retaliated swiftly, and at first their victory seemed assured. Queen Cog Archwayward, last of the royal Murdershot clan, decapitated one of the fiends with little effort, but a surprise attack by one of the other demons caught her offguard. With a single lucky strike of it's claw, the twisted monkey slashed open her skull, sending the queen to the slade floor amidst a pool of demonic goo. The rest of her squad successfully managed to slay the remaining demons, but the damage was been done. The mayor and monarch of Weatherwires is slain.
Thus ends the rule of the last royal family, founded in 132 when Kogsak Murdershot was appointed baron of the Diamond Cloisters. Cog Archwayward was born in 133, the second child of the duke and his wife, Domas Tickcities. Still a child, Cog looked on in 135 and 136 as the fortress tore itself apart from the inside, claiming the lives of both the duke and his youngest daughter. Cog soon became a legendary engraver, and is personally responsible for many of the engravings in the fortress - now, the duty of recording of Weatherwires' final histories falls to another. The queen's body is placed in the third burial receptacle atop the citadel - an artifact black-cap coffin known as the Last Scribe.
(http://img.ie/23c32.jpg)
But it is not only the body of their queen which the dwarves inter in the black-cap coffin; it is the final hope of their civilization, finally laid to rest in the face of ultimate destruction. For, as the dwarves of Weatherwires have come to discover, there has never been any chance for utopia. There has only ever been the desperate illusion that, through perseverance and dedication, the gods might smile upon them and their curses might be lifted, and their race allowed to reign in glory forever. Through scourge after scourge, the dwarves continued to work towards the completion of the subterranean city, willingly blind to their obvious and inevitable fate, fuelled by the grand hope that the dome might one day be inhabited by their kin and progeny. It is this hope that dies, struck a final callous blow by a passing demon in the mid-winter of 330, and is interred atop the citadel in the dome forever.
If any illusions about the dwarves' fate were held by any member of the Diamond Cloisters, they fade away this day like miasma from a long-passed battle, leaving only the countless skeletons of their forbears to stare damningly at the living. Even the surviving Quakedented children, the youngest being only four years old, now bear the heavy burden of the dwarves' final duty. Perhaps it is only the plump helmet men, peaceful and serene atop the southwestern guildhall, who are ignorant of the dwarves' inevitable demise.
The queen's final orders - to complete the monument - are nearly complete.
(http://img.ie/a290a.jpg)
The top of a broad hill, not far from the base of the stairwell, has been muddied with water, and will eventually be overgrown with floor fungus and cave moss. Then, the area will be paved over with roads, which will then be removed, leaving a clean area of sand and silt. So far, it seems that no shrub or tree will grow in the deeps - perhaps the prospect of an abyssal tree farm is inherently impossible. It matters not - at this point, the dwarves are content to convert an area of indestructible, undiggable slade into a moss-covered hill. Eventually, a path will lead from the curtain wall to the center of the hilltop, where a small statuary will contain whatever remnants the dwarves wish to leave behind.
For now, however, the groundcover must be allowed to grow. The flooding mechanism will be removed, and the dwarves shall retreat to the dome, temporarily sealing the passageway to hell. The deepest of deeps has already claimed too many dwarves, and more die every day - Asmel Spiralropes, legendary herbalist, and a couple merchants have perished in accidents concerning the removal of flooding elements. Even in the face of oblivion, the dwarves have a sense of self-preservation - even if it is only a result of their obligation to fulfill the queen's final order.
Somehow, a salt haunt made it past the defenses of the curtain wall, without the military noticing, and flew up the stairwell. Emerging in the engraved antechamber, it slew three dwarves on the spot before anyone even realized the dome had been compromised. The gigantic shelled lizard, comprised of desiccating salt, was named Futurepoisons by the dwarves. The creature burst out of the antechamber and into the hallway, still littered with the ash and salt of its failed kin, and began chasing dwarves back and forth through the tunnels beneath the dome.
Into the tunnels runs Urvad Pagekissed, militia commander and last of the Thunderbridge clan. He was no military legend, but he led the Grooved Book-Volcanos, the last squad left in the fortress - the Silvery Princesses guarded the base of the stairwell far below. He charged at the fiend, but to no avail - the salt haunt quickly broke the commander's limbs, leaving him crippled before losing interest and chasing after a merchant.
It was then that Vabôk Voicedhatchets arrived. The only other active member of Urvad's squad, Vabôk had only begun his training weeks earlier, and still had no skill with a spear. The young recruit in the midst of throwing a tantrum, furious at the deaths of his siblings and long patrol duty. His rage was ended with a mercifully quick battle.
(http://img.ie/3c659.jpg)
Futurepoisons waited in the hallway, as if unsure what to do next. Urvad Pagekissed lay, crippled and unconscious, just around the corner. With the Silvery Princesses rushing to the aid of the fortress, it seemed like he might survive - until a carpenter rounded the corner, undoubtedly on some errand, and the fiend lurched forth. It slew the carpenter, spotted a planter beyond the bend, and charged her. After killing the two, it was only feet from the prone and unconscious commander.
At that moment, Ézum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, militia captain of the Silvery Princesses, charged the beast, named steel short sword in hand. The swordsmaster slashed at the beast, but too late - the commander was slain.
(http://img.ie/501b2.jpg)
With a few more strikes, Futurepoisons the Blue Whiteness (a rather contradictory name?) was slain, and one more kill added to Ézum's already impressive count. With only 48 dwarves remaining, the Diamond Cloisters retreats to the safety of the dome, abandoning the project in the deeps for the time being, allowing the fungus to grow and overtake the slade cavern floor.
Drawbridge it attached to a lever.
Not quite sure what you're referring to.
More or less. There are only four military dwarves of various skill levels remaining, so I've made the decision to dissolve all previous squad divisions and consolidate all previous warriors in a single squad - the Urns of Work. For the next few years, Ézum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances will act as militia commander, training as many recruits as possible so that the dwarves' final return to the abyss will not be cut short.
(http://img.ie/48791.jpg)
So passes Asmel Landbridged, head cook, brewer, and planter of Weatherwires. Asmel had lived in the fortress since 129, longer than any other surviving dwarf, and created literally innumerable masterfully prepared meals for the dwarves of the fortress, right up until her demise. She was 168 - very close to the maximum age of any dwarf - but it is perhaps fortunate that her heart gave out in fright before she was subjected to the brutal killings offered by the fiends of hell.
In the winter of 232, as construction in the deep continues, Nish Evenedknives, chief engraver of Weatherwires, is possessed by the angry ghost Ilral Boltedday. Ilral, already responsible for the deaths of many dwarves since his first days of undeath, shows no mercy now, during the twilight of the dwarves.
(http://img.ie/49015.jpg)
At this time, Nish was among many dwarves who stood along the catwalk of bridges that led from the hole, left by the extraction of as much adamantine as possible, to the flooded area atop the hill to the southeast. Possessed by the angry spirit, the chief engraver turned to the merchant Aban Singlestandards and threw a punch or two. Ilral soon found, however, that Nish's body was built for finer work - engraving and smoothing of stone surfaces, specifically - and so turned the possessed dwarf's attention to the bismuth bronze bridge upon which both of them stood.
(http://img.ie/cc356.jpg)
The two dwarves fall three z-levels to the slade floor, each breaking a few bones upon landing. With most other dwarves occupied, Nish and Aban crawl to the stairwell and begin their long ascent. They climb up and up, Nish constantly retching, but upon reaching the portion of the stairwell that passes between the expansive second cavern layer, Aban passes out from pain.
At that moment, an antelope fiend found its way into the shaft between the dome and the abyss. It is there, in the portion of the shaft which is constructed through the open air of the second cavern layer, that the fiend callously struck down Nish Evenedknives, chief engraver and acting manager of Weatherwires. Aban Singlestandards soon follows him into blessed oblivion.
(http://img.ie/2a057.jpg)
(http://img.ie/03bb4.jpg)
(http://img.ie/3a871.jpg)
(http://img.ie/40773.jpg)
The Urns of Work, stationed atop the hill nearby, rush to the stairwell to defeat the beast. Commander Ézum was asleep in the dome far above, so Érith Minedtribe, elder of the two surviving children of clan Gearguild, was left in charge of overseeing the military operations in the abyss. Érith was no fool - he was already possessed of legendary skill in combat, and as he was still relatively young, was being groomed as a replacement militia commander should old Ézum pass in his sleep.
As they approach the curtain wall, an antelope fiend emerges from the mess of discarded bins and barrels. The dwarves rush forth to do battle, and though the beast proves to be extremely resilient, Érith Minedtribe eventually manages to land the killing blow, decapitating the fiend and neutralizing the threat to the fortress.
(http://img.ie/b9343.jpg)
(http://img.ie/04419.jpg)
(http://img.ie/67295.jpg)
(http://img.ie/22830.jpg)
As the warriors stand triumphant over the fallen beast, a scream echoes from the stairwell beyond, and the horror of realization flashes across their faces - the antelope fiend they defeated was not the one that slew Nish and Aban. The beast they seek, appropriately named Puzzleveiled, is nowhere near the curtain wall - it is already in the dome.
(http://img.ie/12a44.jpg)
(http://img.ie/75633.jpg)
(http://img.ie/6b836.jpg)
As the rest of the Urns of Work clamber up the stairwell, slick with noxious fluids, commander Ézum rises from his slumber and rushes towards the engraved antechamber. The antechamber itself consists of an open cylindrical area, 3 z-levels high and 6 tiles wide, located just off the hallway in which the great battle of 126 took place. Two adamantine doors separate it from the rest of the fortress, making it's location unmistakable to passerby. The entrance is at the top z-level, with a short stairwell leading down to the floor - it is here, next to the stair, where the lever that controls the hatches sealing the stairwell is located. The top of the stairwell itself is located at the end of an engraved hallway beyond the antechamber.
Ézum opens the adamantine doors and comes face to face with the antelope fiend which sits atop the stairs just beyond. With lightning quick reflexes, the commander stabs the Puzzleveiled in the left front leg with his weapon of choice - Clinchlulled, a masterful steel short sword, crafted by the legendary weaponsmith Iden Sabreroom. The strike chips the bone, and the demon charges Ézum and strikes - but the commander dodges out of the way, off of the stairwell, and onto the engraved floor 3 z-levels below. Unlike Nish or Aban, he lands lightly, shaking the stun from his head, while the antelope fiend smashes into the stairwell above him. The fiend rushes down the stairs and corners the commander against the engraved wall, knocking him prone repeatedly.
(http://img.ie/05272.jpg)
The sounds of battle echo down the stairwell, reaching the ears of the rest of the Urns of Work.
Moments later, Érith Minetribe bursts into the antechamber - and finds commander Ézum standing over the lacerated body of the antelope fiend Puzzleveiled, surrounded by pools of demonic goo.
(http://img.ie/62cb9.jpg)
(http://img.ie/979a3.jpg)
(http://img.ie/91861.jpg)
(http://img.ie/50420.jpg)
(http://img.ie/9aa57.jpg)
The commander casually leads his squad back into the deeps. Three dwarves have died this day - it is his intent that no more should do so. There is still work to be done.
The most notable of those that have fallen is Nish Evenedknives. A resident of the fortress for 92 years, Nish has created innumerable masterful engravings since he reached legendary skill sometime in the early 150s. Only two dwarves had been living in the fortress for longer than Nish - Doren Ledkan, weaponsmith and creator of the Orb of Fires (an adamantine spear), and militia commander Ézum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances. Nish has long held the unofficial position of chief engraver - in all likelihood, he is responsible for the majority of the artwork in the fortress.
Now, there is only one legendary engraver left in the fortress: Mistêm Oilytaut, a merchant by profession who has been learning the trade of engraving since she was inducted into the fortress. It falls upon her shoulders to record the final struggle of the Diamond Cloisters - she is the last historian of Weatherwires.
An attack by two topazolite fiends is repulsed by Ézum Openeddoors and Érith Minedtribe. Nomal Biglabors, it seems, is often absent due to his glacial speed, and the long distance between the food stockpiles and his station in the abyss. No matter - the monument nears completion.
In the spring of 233, Edëm Portalceiling the merchant was scared to death, another victim of the murderous ghost Ilral Visioncloistered. Luckily for the fortress, Edëm had recently finished forging the remaining adamantine wafers left in the stockpiles into exceptional and masterwork statues. Her contribution will not be forgotten - indeed, should any woeful traveler find their way into the abyss, they shall find her masterworks enshrined inside a steel and iron mausoleum atop a mossy hill in the abyss.
(http://img.ie/8c95c.jpg)
A road, at first marked by engravings in the slade, but then by a steel paved walkway, leads from the curtain wall to the metallic structure. The opsidian door is an artifact, which oddly enough appears to have been given a first name in the dwarven fashion: Ézum Gladnessbridges. It is encrusted with obsidian, encircled with bands of llama wool, goblin-cap, and yak leather, and menaces with spikes of nether-cap. There are three images on the door: two giraffes in two-humped camel bone; Ducim Laborpatterned surrounded by dwarves on the day of her ascension to queen of the Merchant of Echoing in year 7; and Cog Pastmachine striking a menacing pose and rising from the dead as a murderous ghost in the late autumn of 136 (oddly enough, no sign of Cog Pastmachine has ever been noticed). When the mausoleum is complete, the door will be forbidden and sealed, and the statues inside protected from the demons.
At the center of the room will be a memorial to and a statue of the duke Kogsak Murdershot, patriarch of the royal family and visionary of the dome of Weatherwires. Though he died over a century ago, it was the duke who planned the excavation of the dome and the construction of a subterranean utopia - it is his vision that shaped the fortress, and ultimately his dream that has been crushed.
I'm almost tempted to erect a monument in my own world, if I was a good enough builder to do this fort justice.
It just takes practice, man. I used to be terrible at constructions of any kind, but in doing this fort I've learned quite a bit about the logistics and execution of megaprojects.
Some pictures in Stonesense:
The curtain wall, with surrounding mossy area. The walkway leads away to the upper-right (east). Ézum and Érith stand on the hillside, standing watch and forming the first and last defense against the demons.
(http://img.ie/784c0.jpg)
The monument, nearly finished. A steel and iron structure, sealed by an obsidian artifact door. I sincerely hope that once the door is forbidden and kept tightly closed, the demons will simply ignore it.
(http://img.ie/092a0.jpg)
It seems that, deep in hell, the demons are confounded by the structure. They are apparently unable to breach the door so long as it is forbidden. The statuary inside is safe.
(http://img.ie/a162c.jpg)
Also, the monument is apparently a favorite spot now for the demons. These mite brutes are the second group of fiends I have spotted loitering immediately outside the entrance to the memorial chamber/treasure vault.
(http://img.ie/8b257.jpg)
1: Open up reaction_smelter.txt or whatever reaction txt file you want.
2: Pick a reaction.
3: From that reaction, change the [SKILL:SMELT] to [SKILL:APPRAISAL]
4: PROFIT. Upon repeating the edited reaction, the dorf doing it will now get XP in Appraisal rather than Furnace Operating. Oh right, just to be clear on this, save the edit and reload DF for this to work.
I take no responsibility in sudden unimaginable screw ups that could destroy the whole fabric of the world your fort resides in on. Just to be safe, you could always just make a safe unedited copy of the game and then edit the reaction.
The dome is empty.
(http://img.ie/04a7b.jpg)
The long avenues that wind through the fortress are unwalked except by the occasional crundle that finds its way through the labyrinth of mines beneath the fortress. At some point in the past, when prospects were brighter, statues were placed in the streets - statues of traveling dwaves, relating to the founding of Weatherwires in the early spring of 126. Now, in 223, the only dwarves who walk these streets are those of stone and metal, mute witnesses to the fall of the fortress whose founding they commemorate.
(http://img.ie/31344.jpg)
Workshops, once crowded with bustling dwarves hauling raw materials and finished goods to and fro, now stand empty. Scores of bedrooms, meant to house the beginnings of a utopian empire, are now frequented only by the ghosts of those who slept there in life. Personal belongings litter hallways and open areas alike, the only evidence that there were once dwarves who lived here at all.
(http://img.ie/b6677.jpg)
Communal areas have been abandoned. The living still come to the wells under the citadel occasionally, to wipe their feet clean of whatever foul liquid they have stepped in - usually the blood or vomit of their fallen comrades. They know it is only a matter of time before they, too, are sent to join the others in the afterlife. Mafol Boulderchamber, a merchant, is the next to go; scared to death by Ilral Visioncloistered.
(http://img.ie/ca60b.jpg)
There are 15 dwarves left in the fortress. Of those, two-thirds were inducted into the fortress from caravans:
Goden Mawknife, bone carver.
Onol Plaitorbs, stonecrafter.
Alåth Oilycyclone, planter.
Litast Wiremansion, planter.
Dakost Paddlecreeds, planter.
Stâkud Duskbooks, merchant.
Tun Dyefight, merchant.
Mistêm Oilytaut, merchant and legendary engraver.
Solon Townclenched, merchant.
Reg Oiledsacks, merchant.
There are only three dwarves left who were either willing immigrants to the fortress, or descendants thereof.
Bembul Scouredpaints of clan Gearguild - last member of the original clans.
Nomal Biglabors the Lush Convent of Dwelling, legendary warrior.
Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, legendary warrior.
And then there are the two Quakedented children who have survived:
Såkzul Freerelics, daughter, age 9.
Atír Helmsseed, son, age 7.
I just tried recording a previous post - I'm definitely going to either have to rewrite the posts to work in a more conversational tone, or I'll have to work on my reading. In either case, I'm going to let that issue down until the story has finished.
...and it's progressing quickly to its end. Såkzul Freerelics, one of the remaining Quakedented children, has perished. Prior to the excursions into hell, I had been linking crundle cages to levers in groups of ten, so that the military could get some "hands-on training." The last set of linked cages was never used, so I stationed Èzum Openeddoors next to them and pulled the lever. The crundles scattered like cockroaches, and a few managed to slip past the commander. Two crossed paths with Såkzul, and tore the child apart. All remaining crundle cages are being dumped into the volcano.
Also, quite interestingly...
(http://img.ie/79a54.jpg)
This plump helmet man is flashing between purple and pink, like one would expect a legendary noble to do. Perhaps the fungus men have accepted him as their king.
Hmm, well, I'm of course flattered by any attention that the fort received. I'm not going to be terribly critical of any "historical inaccuracies," since your story is of course taking creative liberties by its very nature. If I'm that concerned about it, I might write my own journal at some point (which would inevitably be the journal of the duke, Kogsak Murdershot, which would then pass to the queen Domas Tickcities after his death in 136, and so on).
It seems alright so far. I'd personally avoid starting a journal that early - you've got decades and decades to fill with interesting material, during a time where literally the only things going on in Weatherwires was excavation. Though, as you've noted, the dates between your story and my notes don't match up, so I'll let you off the hook as far as that's concerned and see where you take it.
My experiments with the alternate save are a bitch, but I might have identified the problem. On a hunch, I decided that the culprit of the crash might be the literally massive amount of animals which show up in both Stonesense and Runesmith, but not in the game itself. I figure that, since they show up in the code but not in actual gameplay, DF doesn't know what to do with them. Here's what they look like in SS:
(http://img.ie/37237.jpg)
The process of going through and marking each of these animals as "dead" in Runesmith is going to take a ridiculous amount of time, but I have finals to study for and term papers to finish, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Peace out, Bay12.
In 1, the Merchant of Echoing founded Mountaindune and Whiskeredgloves, twin mountain halls dug into the mountain range known as the Enchanted Tower. By 18, both settlements had been broken, crushed beneath the heel of so many nightmarish horrors. The dwarves fled into the Enchanted Tower, making their homes in the highest spires, far from the influence of man or monster.
For generations, the Merchant of Echoing was a civilization in exile - a kingdom with no monarch, a country with no capitol. The dwarves must have lived day to day, feeding upon whatever meagre fungus could be scrounged from natural caves, and cowering in fear from the mountain titan, Usu Wavedpearl the Murky Deer. Nobody knows for sure - all dwarves who were alive during those days are dead, except for the commander, Ézum Openeddoors, and no records survive from those dark years.
Then, in 126, more than a century after the ettin Baspu Powerhale slew the last fool who stood in defense of Mountaindune, a group of seven dwarves descended from the peaks of the Enchanted Tower to found a new fortress, a bastion which would house dwarvenkind in peace and prosperity forever. With only a wagon hewed of tower-cap, the pioneers, naming themselves the Diamond Cloisters, struck the earth in the shadow of the Fire of Channels, a fuming active volcano overlooking the Musty Field, a terrifying temperate grassland. At that time, hopes were high, and prospects for the future were grand, despite the plagues of zombie giant badgers and constant goblin raids - and yet, the future seemed bright.
Alas, twas not to be.
It is 234. A mere eight dwarves remain, the last surviving members of a race that has always been struggling against adversity. Out of these eight, however, only one is a natural citizen, and thus a member of the Diamond Cloisters: Ézum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances. Despite being the militia commander, he is only acquaintances with one other living dwarf - the others are doubtless only aware of the presence of a legendary warrior, slayer of countless demons and last remnant of the original fortress.
For the first time, the dwarves of Weatherwires have elected a mayor who is not a member of the Diamond Cloisters - not an original citizen. Tun Dyefight, merchant, has been elected despite her having been strong-armed into joining the failing fortress in the first place.
(http://img.ie/63836.jpg)
Now, more than ever, these recruited dwarves regret their decision to willingly join their brethren beneath the earth. They gave up their mercantile prospects for the promise of endless wealth in the deeps - but they have come to realize that the promise of the queen, Domas Tickcities, was empty. The days of glory and wealth in Weatherwires are over - the artifacts have been sealed far beneath the earth in hell itself, and very soon the fortress itself will fade into myth forever.
The doom of Weatherwires had been apparent to all of the merchants and their guards for decades. The way to the surface was sealed, however, and the levers guarded by the militia. Tun and her comrades were, for better or worse, citizens of the fortress until its end.
Or were they? In the late winter of 234, Tun considers her options. The commander would die soon, she was sure - death itself kept a constant company about him.
(http://img.ie/4802b.jpg)
As the last member of the Diamond Cloisters, Ézum was the only reason the merchants remained in the fortress. Weatherwires was dead, and yet the commander continued training, day in and day out, in the antechamber above the stairwell to hell - but the stair was sealed with obsidian hatches, controlled by levers. Clearly the commander was mad. Tun considers her options - she and her recruited companions could either stay and die, or escape and try risk their chances.
The year was almost out. The doom of Weatherwires approaches.
As the other merchants prepare their belongings and steel their nerves against the challenges to come, one dwarf wanders through the winding, carved streets of the dome and admires the accomplishments of her forbears. Solon Townclenched is the only dwarf left in the fortress with any appreciation for art or natural beauty, as well as the only dwarf to have made the acquaintance of the commander - perhaps it is her capacity to make friends quickly, and her appreciation for the architecture of the dome that has brought her into contact with the old warrior.
(http://img.ie/763c9.png)
From the coffin garden in the southwest corner of the dome, Solon looks to the north. Midway up the building are pillars encircling an open mezzanine, which once contained the cages of dozens of trolls and goblins, captured when traps protected Weatherwires. Years back, those cages were tossed, prisoners and all, into the roiling, molten maw of the Fire of Channels. Two paths lead northward - one passes beneath the guildhall, mere meters above a reservoir of magma, and the other climbs steeply along the western edge of the dome, eventually reaching the tops of two other guildhalls.
Solon turns east, climbing up another winding path. She passes through the central mesa and, on a whim, turns south. After exiting the main hall within the mesa, she looks up, admiring the facade of the imposing barracks. Within this structure, too big to fully capture in a single glance from any direction, the legendary warriors of Weatherwires trained ceaselessly for decades. Also within this building were many chains and ropes, which held countless dwarves over the years - many prisoners died of thirst or starvation here, in this menacing building in the south of the dome. Now, it was populated only by the undead - none of the merchants would dare enter it. With a chill, Solon took one last glance at the entrance of the barracks, and turned northward.
(http://img.ie/a3563.png)
(http://img.ie/93189.png)
To the north of the mesa was the founder's square, decorated by statues of six of the seven original pioneers who formed the Diamond Cloisters. Solon glanced to her right, to the east, and into the municipal garden that formed the mezzanine level of the red guildhall - once populated by the Gearguild and Gloveowners clan.
(http://img.ie/5b296.png)
She yearned for a better view. There was only one place to get it - the top of Murdershot citadel. It was as sacred a place as one could find in the dome, but it overlooked everything, and this might be her last opportunity.
She climbed the avenue leading to the north, up into the mouth of the citadel.
(http://img.ie/c0104.png)
(http://img.ie/629a9.jpg)
Solon had heard that the grove that grew atop the citadel was untouched by herbalist or woodcutter, but it was stunning to see just how overgrown the tomb really was. Fungus choked the smoothed pathway, blocking the intruder's view of the southern edge. Various bits of clothing, all showing some degree of wear, littered the few bits of muddy earth which were not claimed by fungi - the personal belongings of the Murdershot clan.
As she passed through the dense grove, Solon spotted the resting places of the two children. The princess, Cog Archwayward, had been interred into the black-cap casket known as the Last Scribe, on the western edge of the grove. On the opposite side was the diorite coffin, Glossrivers, which held the body of prince Asmel Deathchannels. Since they had been laid to rest, however, fungus had grown around and over their respective burial receptacles. Goblin-caps wound over the princess' casket, forming bulging veins of bright red that stood out against the black-cap artifact. Clumps of hardy black-cap had overgrown the prince's coffin, sealing the coffin shut.
At the southern tip of the citadel's summit, Solon found the queen's coffin, laid upon a smooth granite floor where no fungus would ever grow. Through the translucent light yellow diamond panels of Failedhushed the Music of Balding, the merchant thought she could almost make out the outline of the queen's skeleton - or maybe it was just a trick of the dim light cast off by the magma reservoir. She didn't look too long at the coffin, and instead peered southward out into the dome.
To the left, out over the red guildhall and the dome's main exit, through which mayor Tun was so eager to escape...
(http://img.ie/6aa18.png)
...to the right, over the tops of the other three guidlhalls, thick with fungus...
(http://img.ie/80a79.png)
...and then straight south, to the ringed temple which dominated the center of the dome.
(http://img.ie/c8629.png)
The view was exhilarating, but Solon couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she shouldn't be seeing it. This vantage point was meant for the queen, and the queen alone. She would forever be looking out over it through a pane of light yellow diamond. Unwilling to further disturb the royal dead, Solon quietly made her way back through the fungi-choked grove and back down into the ghost city, following the footprints she had left in the dust.
And here we go! I'll wait on uploading and annotating a map - for now, the pictures will probably be enough, I think.
Our tour starts as we approach from the southwest, across the Musty Field. From here, our path is fairly obvious - there is only one way into the fortress, and it is rather conspicuous.
(http://img.ie/73535.png)
It may not look very high, but this bridge has been the death of more dwarves than I care to count.
(http://img.ie/b0131.png)
(http://img.ie/b4746.png)
These are the only trees left outside. No vegetation larger than a shrub will grow in the Musty Field. It is a dead place.
(http://img.ie/53180.png)
Once, this corridor was heavily trapped. Now, it is bare, except for the piles of bone and rot that aren't shown in the visualizer.
(http://img.ie/c9176.png)
For a long time, the trade depot occupied the spot where this screenshot was taken. You can clearly see the rim of the volcano, as well as the far side of the pillar-lined pathway that encircles the caldera. We will take a short walk around the volcano, so we can see the various negative spaces that have been dug out of the interior of the volcano.
(http://img.ie/cc282.png)
What the visualizers does not render, however, is lava/magma. As we begin to walk clockwise around the caldera, you can see the carved out area what was once the dining hall (the walkway passes directly underneath it), but you can also see the top of the sealed passage - currently the only route into or out of the dome. Usually, it's covered with lava, and thus "sealed."
The dining hall was the first room to be excavated, and resulted in quite a bit of fun learning experience which was put to good use in the dome.
(http://img.ie/862b7.png)
From the far side of the caldera, we can look back and see the entry hallway, 6 z-levels tall at the apex.
(http://img.ie/82bc4.png)
Also from this point, we can look up and see (with a little difficulty) the three ledges that comprise what was once the ducal suite. The highest is dug out of a layer of obsidian, which is rendered as a flat black color - thus it might be difficult to make out. Beyond the highest "room" is the duke's tomb.
(http://img.ie/537cb.png)
From the dining hall area (which was seen in a previous image), we have a good view of the two excavated areas which lie just to the north of the main entrance. The lower area held most of the workshops before the dwarves withdrew from the surface. The upper area was the mayoral suite - like the duke's chambers, it was comprised of three ledges, exposed to the open air. However, the mayor's ledges were separated only by 1 z-level, and connected with ramps - the duke's were separated by 7, and connected with staircases.
(http://img.ie/68b6c.png)
...and a quick glance down reveals the walkway that leads from a chamber beneath the dining hall, into the sealed obsidian block pillar, and down into the dome. That's the next part of the tour - I'll have that posted in a little while.
(http://img.ie/963a4.png)
(http://img.ie/4c310.png)
There is a side passage off the south stretch of the pillar-lined passage. Beyond this is a low-ceilinged, engraved chamber.
(http://img.ie/5a621.png)
In the chamber are dual stairwells which descend into magma. To any visitor to Weatherwires in the past few decades, this has been a dead end. However, at the pull of a lever, the volcano can be drained again, and the magma will recede low enough on the stairwell to provide access to a curious chamber.
(http://img.ie/80589.png)
This chamber looks odd in Overseer because all of those open spaces are covered with steel grates. The moment the magma recedes below the level of the grates, the passage becomes accessible without having to wait for a bunch of 1/7 magma to dry.
(http://img.ie/a9133.png)
The passage out of the chamber leads to obsidian structure within the caldera. This passage is also built out of mostly masterwork steel grates. The entire passage can be made accessible in a matter of days - and just as quickly, the volcano naturally refills when the draining is stopped.
(http://img.ie/970b4.png)
Walking across the grates would be nerve-wracking for any non-dwarf - if any non-dwarf had crossed the passage. If anyone stands here, it has been while lava roiled and surged mere feet below them, occasionally spurting a pillar of molten rock into the air - anyone familiar with volcanoes will recognize this phenomenon. These surges ignore the steel grates - although it hasn't happened yet, it is possible for an individual, while crossing the grates, to be immolated by a blast of lava.
(http://img.ie/14053.png)
This is the last view the dwarves had when they crossed the grates and entered into the darkness.
(http://img.ie/39014.png)
Of course, if you were to look down, you should see a line of steel grates, with a lake of churning magma immediately below. Instead, this is what's rendered:
(http://img.ie/02ca9.png)
At the end of the grates is the nether-cap door, Syrupsevers. It is encrusted with obsidian, decorated with nether-cap and encircled with bands of cat's eye, light yellow diamond and goblin bone. The door (presumably the non-magma side) menaces with spikes of black-cap, reindeer leather, and cave spider silk. On the door is an image of a diamond in diorite, possibly representing the unbreakable fortitude of the dwarves. It is a priceless artifact.
It is also, unfortunately, not rendered in Stoneseer.
Just beyond Syrupsever is a ramp that leads up - if, for whatever reason, something should lodge the door open, the magma will not clog the passage. All that Syrupsever does is ensure that there is no need to wait for magma to dry for the passage to be accessible.
(http://img.ie/b4506.png)
We've passed the magma seal and are now inside the obsidian block structure. A single tile wide staircase leads down - although it looks inaccessible, steel grates connect the top of the stairs to the rest of the chamber.
(http://img.ie/40677.png)
Looking down the stairs, in the interior of the structure. This view, of course, would be obstructed by a masterfully crafted steel grate.
(http://img.ie/42aa1.png)
Here we are at the base of the stairs. The passage ahead leads out of the caldera and into the tunnel system.
(http://img.ie/b2ccb.png)
The passage is long, and generally surrounded by magma - the heat must be devastating.
(http://img.ie/2a967.png)
At the end of the passage is the blessed relief of cooler air, and a small chamber. To the right is the tunnel that leads to the duke's chambers, which have been sealed off from the upper fortress. Now, they are accessible only from this point - and thus, the rest of the dome.
(http://img.ie/4695a.png)
To the left is a doorway which leads to the top of the next stairwell.
(http://img.ie/38441.png)
Once more - the top of the stairwell is made accessible by masterful steel grates. According to my stocks menu, I have over 300 steel grates - and the vast majority of them are used somewhere in the fortress.
(http://img.ie/b5c91.png)
The top of the staircase, looking down. It's gonna be a long climb, but at the end is the real goal of this tour - the dome of Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/51b17.png)
(http://img.ie/75322.png)
After only a few paces, we reach the antechamber it seems empty in these pictures, but at this point in the fortress, it is filled with rows of obsidian coffins. Looking towards the passage beyond...
(http://img.ie/30410.png)
...and back towards the stairwell, from whence we came.
(http://img.ie/61c30.png)
Then, the long hallway. Imagine the reaction of a visitor who, without prior knowledge or even speculation of the dome, enters into it for the first time.
(http://img.ie/1700a.png)
(http://img.ie/a479c.png)
(http://img.ie/460cb.png)
Here we are! The central structure is the temple, first visible from inside the entrance tunnel, although it is also visible from nearly every other point in the dome. Atop the circular temple are a series of statues, representing each god that is worshiped in the Merchant of Echoing. It towers above the central mesa, which acts as a hub for the subterranean city. As well, it is connected via retractable bridges to Murdershot citadel, in the north of the dome.
(http://img.ie/0287c.png)
To the south is the barracks. The actual structure itself is obscured behind many tall rock spires, but you can see part of the pathway that leads to it from the central mesa.
(http://img.ie/cc147.png)
Looking down over the ledge, we can see the cavern floor, and part of the lower entrance to the barracks - in the early years of the dome, the only entrance to the city was via the barracks, which was populated with many legendary warriors, perpetually training. Now, there is but one warrior left, and other entrances have been carved -hose ramps are rarely used. To the right, much closer to our vantage point, is the primary entrance to the mesa. We stand at the top of a winding causeway which snakes down to that entrance.
(http://img.ie/53775.png)
The causeway itself isn't very picture-worthy up close, so we'll skip right to the bottom. Looking back up at the vantage point we just left:
(http://img.ie/c6a76.png)
The entrance to the mesa. Beyond these doors are stairs that lead up - more magma-proofing, dating back to a time when the dome could be flooded with magma at a whim.
(http://img.ie/5cb10.png)
This is the multi-tiered meeting area. Doorways and stairwells leading to various avenues or passages throughout the dome can be found here. Our path lies to the right - to the north.
(http://img.ie/21396.png)
Upon exiting the mesa, we are confronted by the imposing citadel which towers over the rest of the city. To the left is the entrance to the yellow and blue guildhall - mushroom trees atop this structure are selectively hewn to result in a grove of fungiwood and nether-cap. Directly ahead, a causeway leads up into the citadel, and a little to the right is a route that leads down to lower levels. This crossroads is decorated in-game with statues of six of the seven original founders, and thus is known as Founder's Square.
(http://img.ie/b9643.png)
Our path lies to the right - through the mezzanine level of the red guildhall. The top of this structure is overgrown with goblin-cap and blood thorn.
(http://img.ie/98a86.png)
The mezzanine is thick with fungi, 2 z-levels high, and lined with hewn pillars. Two stairwells are here - one leading down (in the foreground), and one up (further away).
(http://img.ie/47424.png)
Coming around the corner, the door we are about to go through comes into view.
(http://img.ie/8a24a.png)
But first, let's take a look between the pillars. From the mezzanine level, we can see the lower route that leads from Founder's Square. The passage beyond the doorway we are about to go through connects with this avenue.
(http://img.ie/a486a.png)
And there, visible above and beyond the monolithic spires of rough-hewn stone, is the highest part of Murdershot citadel.
(http://img.ie/826b2.png)
We move past the doorway and descend down a short passage to the street below.
So, we descend into the street, and then dodge into a side passageway. We're making a quick detour into the northeastern mortuary. It's just through this passageway.
(http://img.ie/80cb6.png)
I decided we'd go this way, because this is one of the lowest points in the dome, but it is also wide open and immediately adjacent to the citadel, which is the highest point. The following two pictures are just the first instance where a structure is too large or viewed too closely to capture in a single snapshot. Also, bear in mind that the entire flat area is literally covered with coffins.
(http://img.ie/43b04.png)
(http://img.ie/44597.png)
Back the other way, we can see how much lower we are than the mezzanine, where we just came from.
(http://img.ie/a3039.png)
And now, back up to the avenue. Looking back, we see just how large the red guildhall is up close.
(http://img.ie/37a47.png)
(http://img.ie/66062.png)
Now that we're back on the avenue, look east - that ramp leads to the lever room, where the myriad hatches and pumps of the fortress are controlled.
(http://img.ie/91a34.png)
However, we are not going that way. We are heading west, through this passage - underneath the citadel.
(http://img.ie/420a9.png)
(http://img.ie/ca669.png)
This part of the path leads through a few of the massive monolithic spires that are adjacent to the citadel.
(http://img.ie/72715.png)
Have issues with vertigo? Worried about columns of poorly supported rock crashing down upon you? Don't look up.
(http://img.ie/99932.png)
This broad area is immediately underneath the citadel. To the left is the entrance to the water source, which itself is connected to various other passages within the city. Once, this part of the dome was always bustling. Now, it is almost always devoid of any dwarves.
(http://img.ie/0a917.png)
And now, we're passing out from underneath the citadel, and into the open air of the dome.
(http://img.ie/9c891.png)
...well, open air in the sense that you're no longer beneath hundreds of tons of solid rock. We're still surrounded by towering spires.
(http://img.ie/39a6b.png)
(http://img.ie/5a594.png)
This happy orthoclase road leads ultimately back to the central mesa, if we follow it straight ahead. To the left is another entrance to the blue and yellow guildhall, and to the right is the aqua and pink guildhall - spore trees and tunnel tubes grow rampant atop this structure. A bit of the temple is visible through the canyons between buildings.
(http://img.ie/02ba0.png)
(http://img.ie/25647.png)
Instead of continuing straight, let us turn right, down this side street. If the dome was still populated by dwarves, this stretch of avenue would undoubtedly be the red light district - it is not often trod (there are more efficient routes, distance-wise), it is dark and cramped, running amidst a claustrophobic array of spires, and it is close to the noxious fumes of molten rock. For some dwarves, these conditions are desirable. For a visitor such as yourself... maybe not so much?
(http://img.ie/7ccb5.png)
(http://img.ie/b57a9.png)
Very quickly, this street narrows and becomes cramped, with little air flow.
(http://img.ie/b6b71.png)
(http://img.ie/59b6a.png)
(http://img.ie/21390.png)
This section of the dome is exceptionally dangerous. Any dwarf who dodges an attack here who goes over the edge will be incinerated in the magma lake that lies immediately below.
(http://img.ie/982b5.png)
(http://img.ie/0b15c.png)
Looking straight up.
(http://img.ie/5a092.png)
Soon, we leave the claustrophobic alley and come into an open area between the aqua and pink guildhall and the next - this guildhall's colors are black and white (black-cap and tower-cap). Although it is not apparent in these pictures, the open spaces on either side of the causeway are filled with magma.
(http://img.ie/a36b0.png)
(http://img.ie/11004.png)
Passing through the archway into the southwestern mortuary. Also, filled with coffins.
(http://img.ie/65447.png)
From the mortuary, we can get a pretty good view at the barracks, which towers high in the east. The low passage underneath the spire immediately in front of us leads back up to the central mesa.
(http://img.ie/9b052.png)
(http://img.ie/41758.png)
We won't go that route - instead, let's head up to the tops of the guildhalls. That road follows the edge of the dome, on the left there. From here, as well, we can see the mezzanine of the black and white guildhall.
(http://img.ie/b6946.png)
And up we go!
(http://img.ie/71b63.png)
As we pass by the mezzanine, go ahead and peek in - it's empty, of course. It used to have a zoo, featuring goblins and trolls. All the cages have been dumped in the volcano - with the goblins and trolls still inside.
(http://img.ie/8ac9c.png)
We're gaining elevation quickly. To our right, you can catch a glimpse of the central mesa and the temple through the guildhalls. That's the other path, down below - once again, that open space should be full of magma.
(http://img.ie/b4433.png)
(http://img.ie/1a674.png)
At this height, the slope of the dome is much more apparent than it was in the coffin gardens.
(http://img.ie/3b190.png)
Looking back at how far we've come.
(http://img.ie/cb67b.png)
And these are the last few ramps before we reach the top of the guildhalls!
(http://img.ie/c7b0b.png)
(http://img.ie/2349c.png)
Almost there!
(http://img.ie/25741.png)
...ah! Finally, after that hard climb, we reach the top of the guildhall. Looking to the southeast, we have a great view of the temple - but we're about to get even closer.
(http://img.ie/1893b.png)
To our left looms Murdershot citadel, and a bridge to the top of the yellow and blue guildhall. This is the route we are going to take on our way to the top of the red guildhall, in the distance.
(http://img.ie/39368.png)
As we walk south across the top of the yellow and blue guildhall, take a look at the top of the citadel. That open space is a statuary dedicated to the royal family. The top few layers were the queen's quarters - while she was still alive.
(http://img.ie/96b26.png)
Here, at the south edge of the guildhall, we're so close to the temple you could almost reach out and touch it. I wouldn't recommend trying, though - it's a 17 z-level drop to the cavern floor. The top of the mesa (not pictured here, but it's been seen previously) is covered with statues of laboring dwarves, commemorating the founding of Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/3c781.png)
To our left is the bridge to the red guildhall. Beyond, you can also see the extrusion that marks the primary entrance to the dome, which we came through.
(http://img.ie/4c89c.png)
As we cross the bridge, look down into the space we're crossing over - it's Founder's Square! To the left is the avenue that leads to the citadel...
(http://img.ie/124aa.png)
...and to the right is the low road, which we didn't take, but met joined with a little further on (you can see the spot in this picture, at the base of the red guildhall).
(http://img.ie/82071.png)
(http://img.ie/b0b79.png)
From here, atop the red guildhall, we can easily see the entrance to the dome, and part of the winding causeway that leads to the mesa.
(http://img.ie/9c20c.png)
(http://img.ie/23228.png)
It's just a short climb to the top of the guildhall, one of the highest points in the dome (excepting the temple and citadel, and portions of the barracks).
(http://img.ie/cac8a.png)
There is little else to see (from our current vantage point) that we haven't already taken a look at. Here is the low road leading from Founder's Square:
(http://img.ie/94698.png)
The rest of the top of the red guildhall, which is accessible through other passages (Oh, and those spaces around the stair? Steel grates.):
(http://img.ie/8832b.png)
A look down into the northeastern mortuary:
(http://img.ie/96764.png)
And that's it! I hope you guys enjoyed it, and my apologies for anyone's computer who gets wrecked trying to load all this pictures. :D
(http://img.ie/26044.png)
(http://img.ie/18612.png)
There is no time for careful deliberation. On the 10th of Felsite, the merchant Stâkud Duskbooks is scared to death by Ilral Visioncloistered. As mayor Tun stands in the dining hall over Stâkud's body, beholding the merchant's final horrified, contorted expression, she resolves that this shall be the last of her mercantile kin to fall prey to Weatherwires. She gives the order for food and drink to be placed in the chamber atop the obsidian spire within the volcano, just behind the nether-cap door, Syrupsevers - enough food and drink to subsist upon during their long voyage back to the high mountains.
After giving the order, Tun stalks through the empty avenues and tunnels to the lever room, coming across no living thing - the dome is a dead place. If she had arrived at Weatherwires during the golden years, she might have stayed, and willingly given her life in defense of her home. But this was not her home, and she was realizing now that it never had been - the dome was a prison at first, and in the end, a tomb. Why had the Diamond Cloisters sought to bury themselves and their civilization within a mausoleum, even one so great? There might have been answers to these questions, but Tun would never know them.
(http://img.ie/84801.jpg)
Meanwhile, the body of Stâkud Duskbooks is interred into one of the available coffins in the mortuary, high atop the barracks, the last dwarf to be given a proper burial.
(http://img.ie/5b20c.jpg)
All the other dwarves busy themselves with moving about a hundred units each of alcohol and food - only two stacks of quarry bush leaf roasts and six barrels of dwarven wine and ale are sufficient for this. The merchant's spirits are high, as, for the first time in decades, they have hope - hope of survival. To remain in Weatherwires is not to invite death, but to welcome it with open arms.
All the other dwarves busy themselves - all except one. The commander, Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, continues his endless training in the antechamber above hell. He is unaware of the merchant's plan to abandon the fortress, and it is likely they they wish it so - he is 165 years old, as long as nearly any dwarf can be said to have lived, and will not last much longer. Why invite the old warrior to leave, to abandon the fortress for which he has seen every single one of his comrades die in defense?
No, the merchants all agree, it is better that he does not know.
Tun reaches the lever room, and with a mighty pull, ten hatches in the deeps slide open.
The final chapter of the saga of Weatherwires begins.
(http://img.ie/76b8c.jpg)
Far above the accursed darkness of the dome, the sun shines bright through the openness of the caldera, illuminating the pillared walkway that encircles the lava lake. A mountain goat walks calmly along the rim of the volcano - no dwarf has trod this ground in years, and even the goblins and trolls that once surged through these abandoned tunnels have moved on, baffled by their enemies' disappearance. The lava lake itself has remained still and serene throughout the years - at least, as still and serene as a lava lake can be. The goat moves along slowly, perhaps looking for a rope reed sock to munch upon.
Suddenly, a low rumbling emanates from beneath the earth, and the lava nearby ripples and bubbles. The goat looks on dumbly, as - slowly, but surely - the surface of the lava begins to sink.
(http://img.ie/9c7c0.jpg)
Soon, the surface is roiling and spitting with waves of lava that churn back and forth. Large bubbles of air, rise up from somewhere beneath and pop violently upon the surface. The surface sinks lower as the molten rock churns about inexplicably - the goat, obviously, has had enough.
(http://img.ie/a7c52.jpg)
(http://img.ie/7a123.jpg)
In the deeps, the ten nether-cap hatches have opened, siphoning off massive amounts of magma into the second cavern layer, incinerating flora and fauna there.
(http://img.ie/50704.jpg)
(http://img.ie/909b2.jpg)
Ten columns of molten rock cascade down the sheer obsidian walls.
(http://img.ie/25193.jpg)
When the various mechanisms of draining the dome were put in place, all were linked, ultimately, to this cavern layer. These drains are no exception. Smoke fills the deeps as decades of cobwebs are incinerated, and the open area beneath the dome is turned into a magma lake.
(http://img.ie/0589c.jpg)
(http://img.ie/17853.jpg)
(http://img.ie/30c51.jpg)
(http://img.ie/96359.jpg)
(http://img.ie/87083.jpg)
(http://img.ie/30aa9.jpg)
The passage itself, however, remains flooded with magma - thankfully, since the dwarves still haven't brought up all the food necessary.
(http://img.ie/bc79a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/94a59.jpg)
Gradually, as the level of molten rock within the volcano sinks lower and lower, the steel grates of the walkway slowly become visible.
(http://img.ie/890ba.jpg)
As I described on the tour, there is no time that the dwarves must spend waiting for the magma in the passage to dry. Once the lava has sunk below the grates, they are immediately accessible - although, the passage as a whole does not become accessible all at once. At this moment, only a portion of the causeway is exposed. The rest is still inundated with lava, as it pours over the obsidian support walls on either side of the grates.
(http://img.ie/c5066.jpg)
In this Stonesense screenshot, the passage is clearly visible. To the right is the top of the obsidian structure, and the descending stairway to the dome. The causeway of steel grates extends across the magma tube (a few grates are visible), and into the grate-floored chamber which, for the moment, is still full of magma. To the far left is the stairwell which leads to the upper fortress.
Note that the stairwell is 3x3, with an open space in the middle, and extends down below the level of the access chamber. This is so that, once again, when the magma recedes below the level of the grates, it becomes immediately accessible - it simply flows down to the lowest level of the stairwell. The open space in the middle is an aesthetic design which is apparent in multiple places throughout the fortress.
(http://img.ie/76139.jpg)
Soon, the walkway will be free of magma, and the way made clear for the merchants. Freedom is only a few short paces away.
(http://img.ie/359b8.jpg)
(http://img.ie/94389.jpg)
The only other dwarf in the dome is, of course, militia commander Èzum Openeddoors. Despite the clatter of machinery and the rumbling of magma echoing through the deeps, he continues training ceaselessly in the engraved antechamber. A dozen ghosts keep him company - a grim reminder that he, too, will soon join them.
(http://img.ie/10305.jpg)
(http://img.ie/182a9.jpg)
The last panels of grating drain clear of magma, and the passage that has been closed since 204, more than three decades, is finally open once more - for what will be the final time, though, not as the merchant mayor intended.
As the dwarves haul their barrels and pots across the causeway, a horn echoes in the distance. War cries in a gutteral yet familiar tongue echo through the caldera, and the color drains from the deserters' faces. Attempting to flee from their doom has only brought it upon them sooner.
For it seems that, in the end, no dwarf will survive the curses of Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/30220.jpg)
Deep below, Solon Townclenched still crawls about the dome without a crutch.
The merchant's screams, and the distant horn call to battle Èzum Openeddoors, militia commander and last member of the Diamond Cloisters. The old warrior sprints up the serpentine causeway and up the staircases to the upper fortress.
The mayor and his two remaining companions clamber across the gates, tripping over each other in their attempts to escape. The chamber with steel grate floors is choked with lava, but the grates form a clear passage to the stairwells.
(http://img.ie/34968.jpg)
The trio reach the top of the stairs, and rush towards the exit - just as a pair of trolls stomp through the doorway, cutting them off. The dwarves panic and scatter as the tusked brutes charge towards them. Tun Dyefight screams down the sealed passage to pull the lever, to seal the passage once again so that the goblins can't get in. She is chased away from the stairs and into a side passage, and is slain moments later.
(http://img.ie/3681b.jpg)
Deep below, Solon Townclenched hears the mayor's plea and slowly begins to make her way to the lever room.
The commander reaches the room with grate floors just as one of the trolls does. He charges the beast and, with two quick strokes, severs an arm and a leg. As the creature collapses to the grates, the commander brutally stabs and slashes it apart, covering the magma-clean steel with sheets of cyan blood.
(http://img.ie/94628.jpg)
(http://img.ie/70ac9.jpg)
(http://img.ie/4117c.jpg)
(http://img.ie/91557.jpg)
His silver eyes have seen decades of horror and grief. Every dwarf he has ever known, save these merchants, are dead. He doesn't really care about anything anymore.
(http://img.ie/00546.jpg)
Commander Èzum reaches the top landing and scans the chamber. Two trolls loomed over the broken body of the merchant mayor, while the two other fools who had followed him this far were separated and running out two different exits - both with trolls on their heels. The old warrior raised his sword and charged the nearest of the beasts with a mighty dwarven battle cry. One slash; two; and suddenly they were upon him. Four trolls surrounded the commander, who - suddenly thrown on the defensive - began blocking and dodging every attack while making none himself.
(http://img.ie/216ab.jpg)
They fought him across the chamber, from the western stairwell to the eastern, never actually landing a blow - but forcing the militia commander to retreat backwards. Four trolls, seeming to be hardly a challenge for Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, who had killed dozens of demons in single combat, or arrayed against him in numbers.
(http://img.ie/9abbc.jpg)
He parries a strike and steps backward onto the eastern stairwell. One troll - Song Sinfulpraises - charges the commander. The beast's attack misses, but his momentum carries him forward, crashing into the adamantine-clad warrior and knocking him back through the air.
Èzum flies back a few feet, over the edge of the stairwell and into open space.
(http://img.ie/4838b.jpg)
(http://img.ie/7c77a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/33578.jpg)
(http://img.ie/a7884.jpg)
The commander shakes his head - the fall caused him no injury, it merely stunned him. For a moment, he appears to be fine, suffering no immediate injuries from the heat.
Then, the trolls come in after him.
(http://img.ie/4751a.jpg)
(http://img.ie/cb6a8.jpg)
The beasts dive into the magma after the dwarf. Trolls are not bright creatures. Their clothing immediately bursts into fire, and they themselves soon follow.
They force the commander back into the corner of the bottom of the stairwell. His leather backpack and waterskin incinerate, and the stairwell is filled with clouds of boiling ale. He still, however, remains unhurt by the heat. Perhaps his complete suit of adamantine armor bestows a limited kind of heat resistance.
(http://img.ie/042b0.jpg)
(http://img.ie/36baa.jpg)
Apparently completely incompetent as well as stupid, the trolls cannot land a single strike on the commander. He parries or dodges the few attacks that come slowly through the thick, painfully hot liquid.
As the battle continues, slowly but surely, the commander's extremities begin to show the wearing and building heat that is seeping through his armor. His hands and feet first, but then the entire rest of his body begins to melt and drip with blood. He still, however, has not actually caught on fire.
(http://img.ie/86561.jpg)
The trolls attack relentlessly, even as their own bodies begin to cook and fall apart to the fire. The commander defends ceaselessly, right up to the end.
(http://img.ie/45c52.jpg)
(http://img.ie/98086.jpg)
Thus ends Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances, militia commander of the Diamond Cloisters and last surviving member of the Urns of Work. In all his decades of combat, he was never truly defeated, and despite reaching the age of 165, never died of old age. Instead, he perishes here, at the bottom of a stairwell, broiled in his own suit of adamantine armor.
(http://img.ie/347cb.jpg)
The trolls who chased him into the magma are incinerated a few seconds later, and the stairwell is choked with smoke. The sounds of the goblin army's bootsteps echo down the hallway, even as the crippled merchant Solon Townclenched, who has now been elected mayor by the three other living dwarves, crawls through the dome to the lever room.
As the commander's melted body is finally incinerated by the pool of molten rock at the bottom of the stairwell, the other trolls descend upon the two dwarves who followed mayor Tun to the surface. Alåth Oilycyclone, previously a merchant guard, is caught from behind as she flees down a narrow passage.
(http://img.ie/3a342.jpg)
Reg Oiledsacks is slain as the trolls surround her outside, at the edge of the caldera.
(http://img.ie/71b60.jpg)
The ill-fated escape attempt is crushed before it can even reach the upper fortress. Three of the six merchants are dead, slain by siege trolls.
(http://img.ie/77065.jpg)
Word of the battle quickly reaches the goblin army as it passes through the fortress' main entrance hall. The small army consisted of no more than 60 goblins and a dozen trolls, and was led by a trio of weapon masters. At their head strides the axe lord Ago Incestrazors, wielding a superior iron battle axe, and leading a squad of swordsmen. Following close at their heels is a squad of spearmen, led by the spearmaster Damsto Pullwitches. Not far behind, leading a squad of hammermen up the bridge, is Kutsmob Controlledseduced, a goblin mace lord.
The news that reaches the captains' ears is unthinkable. Not only were there living dwarves in the fortress, but a new passage had been made clear, which apparently led to a new part of the fortress. The jade-skinned captain Ago Incestrazors rubs his angular chin, peering towards the strangely empty caldera ahead. This new passage must undeniably lead to that refuge where their hated enemy had been hiding all these decades.
After all these years, all those sieges and raids that had swept through Weatherwires, only to find abandoned passages and wealth - but no dwarves - what luck that Ago should be the one who should raid the last mountainhome. Before, he had been just one amongst countless thousands of goblins. Now, he would forever be known as the doom of the Merchant of Echoing, the slayer of the last dwarves.
(http://img.ie/51b61.jpg)
Far below, in the dome, mayor Solon Townclenched heeds the last, screamed wishes of the late mayor Tun Dyefight. Surrounded by restless haunts, Solon slowly crawls out of the citadel. For any other dwarf, the lever room would be a short walk through the streets of the dome. For the crippled mayor, the route is anything but short. There is no other dwarf to do it - Goden Mawknife and Onol Plaitorbs are apparently oblivious to their approaching doom.
(http://img.ie/170cb.jpg)
And so, Solon, the only dwarf left with a sense of urgency, begins the long crawl to the lever room.
(http://img.ie/35004.jpg)
The dome must be sealed once more, and forever.
The goblins pass through the main entrance to the fortress slowly - warily. Perhaps it is the reputation this broad passage has amongst the goblins - countless sieges and ambushes have ended here. There can be no doubt that this was once the heavily trapped corridor that protected the upper fortress of old; one need look no further than the piles of goblin and troll bones that clutter the hall, or the thick layers of blood and vomit that obscure every engraving. They progress with caution - the devilry of the dwarves could never be underestimated.
(http://img.ie/71345.jpg)
Upon crossing through the passage and entering into the fortress, the report of the new passage was confirmed.
With his own eyes, Ago Incestrazors could behold the obsidian structure, apparently rising out of the midst of the volcano itself, and made accessible by a narrow causeway leading from the south. That, Ago knew, was undoubtedly where the stairwell led, that damned stairwell which led down into magma every other time the goblins had searched the fortress. Still, though, the captain suspected some dwarven trick. Two trolls had already been slain - burnt up in battle with one of the dwarven warriors, after they dove into the molten rock after him. The trolls were not too smart, Ago observed.
(http://img.ie/35b1b.jpg)
(http://img.ie/00614.jpg)
Another captain, the spearmaster Damsto Pullwitches, runs ahead of the rest of the army, undoubtedly hungry for glory. His goblin spearmen follow quickly behind. After decades, the way was open, the fat soft underbelly of the dwarven civilization laid bare to his spearpoint - best to strike swiftly, before the opportunity was taken from them once more.
(http://img.ie/9746c.jpg)
Solon pulls herself down the avenue from the citadel, through the founder's square and through the passage underneath the red guildhall. There is no time to look up and admire the wonderful architecture that she admired for so long, nor is there time to consider the fate of the old commander.
(http://img.ie/c0793.jpg)
Her fingers scrape against the smoothed rock floors of the avenue as she continues, single-mindedly determined in her final task. She had to make it in time.
The spearmaster rushes into the engraved passage and pauses, only briefly, at the top of the western stairwell. For decades, magma had filled this space - now, it was made clear, by some dwarven trickery. There was no time to wait. Damsto Pullwitches led his squad down the stairway, the stone still hot from the molten rock which had apparently just receded.
(http://img.ie/76949.jpg)
The avenues are long - long enough for a dwarf who could walk, and staggeringly so for one who could not. Ghosts trailed after Solon, forlorn haunts that watched the dwarf's final effort with incomprehensible sadness. Suddenly, ahead of her, the flat street began to rise. Solon looked up from her hands, which were growing sore with the effort - above her towered the eastern wall of the dome, smoothly sloping away into the darkness high above. Up the ramp just ahead of her was the entrance to the back tunnel, which led to the map room. She lifted herself up and heaved forward.
(http://img.ie/ccc79.jpg)
At the bottom of the stairwell, Damsto finds the siege trolls hard at work, doing what they did best - destroying things. Each troll had chosen a section of the steel grates and was pulling it up, tearing the grate apart and throwing the pieces into the magma below. Silently hoping that the trolls didn't destroy their only escape route, the spearman crossed the lava-hot room, lit from below by churning magma, and beheld the tiny passage which led out to the causeway. His red eyes narrowed.
(http://img.ie/3208c.jpg)
Solon pulled herself past the coffins and spires, towards the entrance to the passage, moving as quickly as she could. If she failed, the myriad treasures of Weatherwires would be vulnerable to the treasure hunters and tomb robbers of the world. She gritted her teeth - the legacy of the Merchant of Echoing would never be plunder for any invader.
(http://img.ie/34b1b.jpg)
And yet, even as Solon swore in the deeps, captain Damsto and his squad passed across the causeway. Just below their feet, the lava of the open volcano roiled and spat - the heat seeped through their boots from the red-hot steel grates. Ahead, the nether-cap door Syrupsevers - one of the dwarves' artifacts. This was it - this was their legendary refuge. The spearmaster threw the door open and rushed inside.
(http://img.ie/14534.jpg)
The sealed passage is breached - the final safeguard of the dome, compromised.
If Solon is aware of the closeness of the invaders, she makes no sign of it, but simply continues. The next chamber has two exits. The north exit leads to a doomed room, a place of fiery death where artifact furniture burns ceaselessly - a relic of more prosperous, and reckless days. Solon crawls between the coffins towards the southern exit - the passage to the lever room.
(http://img.ie/3a8a1.jpg)
(http://www.img.ie/57610.jpg)
The goblins finally reach the bottom of the obsidian block passage, filled with searing heat and the low roar of the magma flows outside. Damsto walks through the tunnel, spear at the ready, but encounters no resistance. The dwarves and their impregnable defenses have finally been broken.
(http://www.img.ie/375ca.jpg)
The mayor reaches a bend in the passage. She eyes the coffins to her left, before turning to the right and continuing the long crawl. The ghosts follow after her, perhaps to witness the final fate of the Merchant of Echoing. These woeful spirits do not cheer her on, or stress upon her the urgency of the situation. For the dead, these final days are merely the culmination of a long and agonizing wait - a wait which, in all likelihood, will continue on into eternity.
(http://www.img.ie/78cac.jpg)
Damsto and his spearmen enter the statue chamber just past the sealed passage. He instinctively makes for the eastern passage, to the long stairwell that leads into the dome. He is driven by instinct, the same instinct by which the goblins knew, year after year during their enemies' mysterious disappearance, that the dwarves were indeed alive in Weatherwires... somewhere.
(http://www.img.ie/40750.jpg)
With an agonized grunt, Solon pushes the steel door open. Using her birchen training axe as a wedge, she props the door open and crawls through the entrance. Three spirits slide through the walls after her. There are 13 levers in this chamber, but there is only one that she seeks. Her journey is almost finished, but she does not - cannot - feel discouraged now. She pulls herself stoically onward.
(http://www.img.ie/c25ca.jpg)
At that moment, as Solon began crawling to the lever she sought, spearmaster Damsto reached the bottom of the staircase. His nostrils flared, taking in the multitude of scents. Dwarves... brimstone... and death. Readying his spear, he moved through the narrow passage, his underlings following closely after.
(http://www.img.ie/8a686.jpg)
(http://img.ie/6c57c.jpg)
The goblins entered the tiered antechamber of the dome - though, in truth, they could not have possibly known what lay beyond. Below them were arrayed rows of coffins, with narrow walkways between. This, the goblins realized with rising fury, must be where the dwarves had placed all of their dead after the battles of 203 and 204. In those years, a great force of goblins and trolls had besieged the fortress, only to find the site abandoned. The trolls had gone about the business of smashing apart the innumerable coffins, defiling the graves of their enemies. Then, suddenly, the dwarves had emerged, without warning, from their hiding place. All the invaders within Weatherwires had been slain without mercy.
The next siege that had arrived, a few months later, had found nothing. There was no sign of the dwarves, or their dead, or any coffins at all. The fortress - at least, that part of it which the goblins could reach - was empty. The dwarves' disappearance had been a mystery.
Until now.
(http://img.ie/bc016.jpg)
These must have been the coffins that the dwarves had claimed in 204, Damsto reasoned, hauled down into this safe hole and sealed away with magma. The spearmaster's jade lips twisted into a sneer beneath his copper helm, and he turned his attention to the prominent passage on the opposide side of the chamber. By a quick count, there were little more than four score dwarves buried here - and, so the stories went, the entire dwarven civilization had died here, in Weatherwires. The rest of the tombs must lie elsewhere... deeper within the tunnels.
(http://img.ie/84735.jpg)
As the goblins began to pad through the hewn passageway, their ears picked up the faint sound of creaking machinery, and an odd thumping sound. Any right-minded goblin knew to be wary when strange sounds echoed through the halls of a Mountainhome, but Damsto laughed at his underlings, dismissing the sounds as the stupid trolls tearing up grates far above them.
The trolls were indeed stupid, and it was true, that they were tearing up grates. Occasionally, one would rend a grate in pieces while he stood upon it, causing him to fall into the magma below.
(http://img.ie/85b50.jpg)
(http://img.ie/a8411.jpg)
(http://img.ie/07676.jpg)
(http://img.ie/0c816.jpg)
But what Damsto and his squad did not notice - or gave no heed to - was the sudden diminution of that ceaseless rumbling which had accompanied them through the previous tunnels, which had echoed loudly within the caldera of the volcano. Any dwarf would recognize that sound: the reverberations caused by the flow of massive amounts of molten rock. And likewise, the sudden ceasing of that sound could mean but one thing.
The draining had stopped.
(http://img.ie/53847.jpg)
Solon Townclenched lay next to the toggled lever atop the ring in the center of the room, gasping for air after her long trek from the citadel. The entire lever room was indeed a miniature map of the dome, with levers tending to correlate to different hatches or seals in the fortress - but these levers, atop the central ring which was analogous to the great temple, controlled the drainage of the volcano; the sealed passage to the surface.
She glanced down from her vantage point, and through the doors below her, she heard echoing cries of surprise and anger, and harsh curses in a guttural tongue. Despite her best efforts, the goblins had breached the dome - the dwarves were truly doomed. The goblins had, in the end, finally made it into the fortress, and it would be those foul creatures - not demons, nor ghosts, nor legendary beast - who finally laid the Merchant of Echoing in its dark and forgotten tomb.
And, she realized, with the only exit quickly sealing, they would seek a way out. They would search every chamber in the fortress. This room - they would eventually find it, and Solon, too.
She crawled down the staircase and made for the door.
Far above, the lava in the caldera settled flat, and began slowly refilling.
(http://img.ie/3819a.jpg)
Up above, however, the carved underside of a massive ring, supported by stone pillars, was lit from below by a circular pool of magma, clearly visible to the goblins. The pool was situated in the middle of a flat area, which the goblins could plainly see was polished - the reflection of the ceiling colored the entire top of the broad, central structure a constantly shifting red. And there, through the blackness, Damsto could see a multitude of the hated dwarves, as if gathered for some kind of meeting, each one a black silhouette against the glow. without waiting any longer, urged his squad down the causeway and into the darkness.
The goblin's own torches had served them well in the mines so far, but from here, atop what was apparently some kind of high causeway, their light fell upon the dark void beyond the walkway and lit nothing. Both the vast wall behind them and the pillars supporting the causeway below them stretched away into the blackness after only a few dozen feet. Their torches' reflections shined in the polished rock beneath their boots. Occasionally, a goblin peeked over the edge of the causeway - and there, away in the blackness, was his own reflection in some black, still lake far below.
(http://img.ie/89235.jpg)
Soon, the invaders reached the bottom of the causeway, and the front of a massive rough-hewn facade rose up in the darkness before them. The causeway spread open into a broad ledge, lined on its edges with coffins, finely crafted of reflective obsidian. The floor was smooth - polished with the wear of countless dwarven feet through the years. Ahead, two doors led to an upward staircase immediately inside the structure, and around it were arrayed three statues. The two flanking statues were masterfully crafted of shining steel - dwarves striking menacing poses as they raised from the dead - but the statue in between the doorways was made of a brilliantly shining metal Damsto had only heard of in myths.
(http://img.ie/a6948.jpg)
(http://img.ie/9ac3a.jpg)
Damsto sneered at the statues. Dwarves. If he and his kind knew the secret of creating steel - let alone adamantine - they wouldn't use it to make something as wasteful as statues. The spearmaster looked the adamantine dwarf in the eye and spat at it. Each goblin in turn spat upon the statue as they passed through the doorways and into the monolithic structure.
(http://img.ie/40327.jpg)
Solon threw herself against the steel door, slamming it shut all the way - then she pulled the lock, sealing the door shut. There was no other way into or out of the lever room, and the steel doors were exceptionally crafted, and designed to withstand force. Well, there was one other way into the map room - but the chance of the goblins finding that way in was incredibly unlikely. She pulled herself into a sitting position against the door, sighed, and looked silently upon the miniature replica of the dome.
(Up until now, I've been referring to Damsto Pullwitches as a spearmaster, but he is actually a pikemaster. Not a huge difference, and I'll probably go back and edit some posts to avoid future confusion.)
Beyond the stairs, inside the massive rock, the goblins found a large open area, though small enough to be lit by their torches. Ledge, ramps, and stairs connected various exits and entrances to the smoothed, engraved floor 20 feet below them. Statues of what appeared to be giant eagles were placed here and there, interspersed between the long tables, lined with chairs. In the far corner, barely within the illumination of their torches, the floor was covered with small piles of bones.
Drawn by instinct, or a distinct dwarven scent, or some other hint of their quarry's location, the goblins creep to the north. They soon find themselves at a five-way junction - the founder's square. By now, Damsto has picked up the trail of one of the last dwarves. He rushes through the mezzanine of the red guildhall, making for the upper stairwell.
(http://img.ie/9ac06.jpg)
Onol Plaitorbs, stonecrafter lay asleep in bed, a few stories up, blissfully unaware of the dangers that he, along with mayor Tun Dyefight and the other merchants, had unleashed upon Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/a5879.jpg)
The pikemaster entered the room, and moved silently to the dwarf's bed. Three ghosts are mute witnesses to the stonecrafter's murder.
(http://img.ie/b70b4.jpg)
Mercifully, he is likely never aware of the goblin's presence. He never awakens.
(http://img.ie/94893.jpg)
Down below, Damsto met Kutsmob Controlledseduced, the mace lord and third captain of the siege. Kutsmob had undoubtedly been following the same trail which led the pikemaster to the stonecrafter, but Damsto quickly informs the mace lord of the killing. Having little idea where the final dwarves were, they decide to split forces - Damsto would head south, and Kutsmob up, to find any other denizens.
(http://img.ie/470ba.jpg)
Just inside the large interior chamber, Damsto found another dwarf: Goden Mawknife, bone carver.
(http://img.ie/2107c.jpg)
Goden turned and ran out of the south exit, and Damsto burst into a spring after him. They crossed a short causeway that led to a massive rock edifice, surrounded by spires of rock that rose from the darkness below and into the void above.
(http://img.ie/4a930.jpg)
The much more agile pikemaster easily caught up to Goden. A deep stab with his silver pike to the dwarf's left lower leg brought his quarry to a stop, and another quick stab to the throat confirmed the kill.
(http://img.ie/c35b0.jpg)
Goden collapsed against the lowest steps of the barracks, his throat gushing noisily out over the stairs. With a third stab to the skull, the pikemaster pierced the dwarf's brain. The gurgling noises ceased, and the grotto was silent.
(http://img.ie/9c88a.jpg)
They cursed and swore amongst each other, wondering where to search next, when their captain called their attention to the top of the nearby structure. Movement! Dwarves, perhaps, or some of their pets. The goblins rushed across the bridge that connected the two stone buildings, and climbed the stair that led to the roof.
(http://img.ie/14acc.jpg)
Kutsmob paused at the landing, the hatch held open, and stared out through the goblin-cap and tower-cap grove that covered the roof. There, scattering in fear at his appearance, was a large tribe of plump helmet men, over which towered two panicking rutherers. The mace lord grinned evilly and charged the nearest humanoid mushroom.
(http://img.ie/0508a.jpg)
The rest of his squad charged up the stairwell and threw aside the grates. With various battle cries and curses, the hammermen charged into the fray, swinging at the mushroom folk with their hammers. With no bones, a single hammer strike to the arm or hand was enough to sever that appendage.
(http://img.ie/6c870.jpg)
The plump helmet men gave no real resistance, being unable to land a single blow. None of the mushroom folk were skilled in any kind of combat, and merely ran frantically about the top of the guildhall like panicking animals. They were brilliant thinkers and philosophers, not warriors.
(http://img.ie/66c60.jpg)
Kutsmob waded through the fray, bashing limbs off of several of the small humanoids with his silver flail, until he passed a little too close to one of the rutherers. The creature, though not trained for war, snapped at the mace lord, biting his right hand (with which he held his flail), and with a quick flick of its neck, tore the appendage free.
(http://img.ie/ab0cc.jpg)
(http://img.ie/4bc65.jpg)
The silver flail clattered to the ground. Kutsmob gripped the stump of his right forearm, which was spraying blood all about, and howled a retreat. He disappeared down the stairwell, and his squad soon followed, withdrawing completely from the top of the guildhall without any further conflict. The mace lord flees from the dome, leading his squad back to the surface.
(http://img.ie/c25ba.jpg)
(http://img.ie/aa7b5.jpg)
(http://img.ie/46425.jpg)
god im DYING over here!
what did that lever do?
what's the "other" way into the map room?
AAAARRRRRGH!
The lever Solon pulled is linked to 10 nether-cap hatches, which cover 10 separate drains which link the magma tube and the second cavern layer. When open, the volcano drains, revealing the obsidian structure - when closed, the volcano naturally refills, sealing the entrance once again. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
As for the "other way" ... I had intentionally made that vague, since it wasn't really important to the plot, it would have taken extra time to explain, and I didn't want to spoil anything for would-be adventurers. But since, as an adventurer, you can just bash down locked doors anyway (and thus break into the map room that way), I might as well tell you.
Way back during the days when the dome was filled with magma, I had plenty of passages in and around the fortress that would not be flooded with magma. Almost the entire hewn city was beneath the surface of the artificial magma sea, rendering it, in the words of Girlinhat (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2653574#msg2653574), a kind of dwarven atlantis. The only parts of the city that were visible above the magma were the ringed temple, and the summit of the citadel. Everything else was connected via small passages between guildhalls.
Since, at this time, the dwarves were still frequenting the surface ("recruiting" merchants, hauling goods to and from, etc.), there also needed to be some kind of tunnel to the surface. That passage which I had planned to be (and has since become) the main entrance - the serpentine causeway/coffin antechamber/sealed passage which has been featured in the past few updates - was still flooded with magma, an alternate route was needed. Thus, bridges (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.msg2685502#msg2685502) were constructed, stretching from the citadel, to the ringed temple, to a long backdoor passage which led directly to the map room. The map room was thus connected to the sealed passage, and hence to the surface.
(http://img.ie/3c622.jpg)
The connection from the map room to the passage itself is still there, but is inaccessible. After the dome was drained of magma, there was no need for the alternate route - a channel was dug, a bridge constructed, and a lever pulled. That route has been closed ever since. However, if one were to find it, it would prove to be much quicker than attempting to navigate the winding avenues inside the dome.
As Kutsmob the one-handed fled from the dome, followed by his squad in a hasty retreat, the other two goblin captains made their way to the summit of the black and white guildhall. Ago the axe lord laughed scornfully at the mace lord as they passed each other upon the serpentine causeway, and gave no heed to the defeated captain's warnings of a "killer rutherer."
After slaying the dwarf at the barracks, Damsto and his spearmen returned to the open-aired dining hall. After climbing another stairwell, they exited the mesa through a doorway to the southwest, and crossed a small bridge into the adjacent mezzanine.
They had crossed countless bridges like these, which crossed the narrow voids between the stone structures, the bottoms of which the torchlight could not reach. The bottom of this expanse, however, was visible as a constantly shifting lake of magma, which lit the entire western half of the dome from below.
(http://img.ie/a6c31.jpg)
The pikemaster ascended the stairs, passing by clusters of apartments which reeked faintly of dwarves - none of them had lived here recently. He reached another dining hall, furnished with tables and chairs crafted out of hard, white fungus. Damsto spat. Fungus - the dwarves loved it, but the goblins hated it.
He left the dining hall through a side passage, went down a ramp, and stood in a moss-covered archway. Beyond was the empty void, lit dimply with magmalight - he was atop one of the structures, Damsto knew. But to the left, inside, was a staircase that went up - a staircase still wet with goblin blood. Readying his pike, the captain ascended the stairs.
(http://img.ie/a3494.jpg)
The plump helmet man scattered as the pike master, the tip of his weapon still dripping dwarf blood, emerged from the steel hatch. He cackled - the mace lord had been defeated by mushroom folk and beasts of burden!
(http://img.ie/7b344.jpg)
Without wasting any more time ridiculing Kutsmob, the pikemaster dove in amongst the plump helmet men, cutting a swath through them with his silver pike. His squad climbed up through the hatches after him, and began driving the small humanoids about, cutting off their limbs before finally delivering the killing blow.
(http://img.ie/5c491.jpg)
(http://img.ie/52060.jpg)
(http://img.ie/13373.jpg)
(http://img.ie/0570b.jpg)
By the time Ago and his squad reached the summit of the building, there was little left to be done. Dismembered arms and legs, all purple and lacking fingers or toes, littered the top of the structure. The few remaining plump helmet man ran, panicked and helpless, from tree to tree, desperately hoping to find some sort of cover. There was none.
(http://img.ie/15c15.jpg)
The goblins descended upon the last few mushroom folk, slaughtering them without mercy. There were no warriors amongst their victims who fought back, no resistance given. They fell quickly and offered no battle.
(http://img.ie/a0580.jpg)
(http://img.ie/08422.jpg)
(http://img.ie/30b51.jpg)
Soon, there was only one left - one of the legendary thinkers and socialites of the plump helmet folk, one of the original few who were captured and tamed before 226.
(http://img.ie/28c80.jpg)
Her legendary skills are of no use to her now. If she could speak, or the goblins could interpret her spore-language, they might have some common ground, some way to communicate - but alas, there is no way to negotiate with these invaders. Perhaps, in her final moments, this great mind finds some kind of peace, some way to cope with her rapidly approaching demise - if she does, we will never know.
The crowd of warriors surround the plump helmet woman, striking repeatedly until all that remains is a pile of finely minced plump helmet.
(http://img.ie/6cc24.jpg)
The goblins stood victorious atop the black and white guildhall, amidst piles of plump helmet tissue and rutherer blood. The dome echoed with evil laughter and the clang of weapons against shields.
They are all likely unaware that they have slaughtered those who would have been the heirs to the dwarves' legacy - though, if they knew the importance of the plump helmet men, and their unique talents, they would have surely sought them out first, upon entering the dome. It is, ultimately, a moot point - the nascent tribe of brilliant, yet innocent plump helmet men, which showed such promise in its infancy, has been snuffed out. Their demise is just one more instance of the cruel hand of fate dealing a callous blow to the accursed fortress.
So it goes, in Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/2aa64.jpg)
The two captains met and discussed their next move, but neither had any good plan - they were baffled. They were sure there was a dwarf in the fortress, somewhere - their intuition, born out of a natural hatred for dwarves, confirmed this - but they had no idea where it was.
(http://img.ie/20489.jpg)
Solon Townclenched silently sat in the map room, her back against one of the mighty steel doors. She was not alone. No less than 21 ghosts floated about her, keeping a grim company with the last dwarf. Among them were many merchants, who she knew in life. Others were merchant guards who had died on the surface, their bodies left to rot by the dwarves of Weatherwires. Soon, she knew, she would join them.
The last dwarf of the Merchant of Echoing sighed and looked out upon the miniature replica of the dome city before her. She was sure that the goblins had found their way into the dome, and had slain her comrades. Her only hope was that the caldera would refill before they could turn and escape - that they too would be caught forever in this haunted dome.
But then, that would hardly change things for the dwarves. As her stomach began to rumble with hunger, Solon reflected upon the fact that, whether or not the goblins were trapped in Weatherwires, her story would end here, in the map room. Nobody would ever know of these final days - unless she recorded it. She pulled herself away from the door and crawled down the ramp, towards the southern exit. Behind that door was a long passageway that led to a dead-end. It was the backdoor route of the fortress, which had only been used when the dome had been filled with magma, and the primary exit had been inaccessible. Now, the only way into that alternate passage was from the map room, or (if one pulled the right levers) from the citadel. But the goblins would not find that route, she was sure.
Solon pushed aside the steel door and crawled into the long hallway. Years ago, as a way for the engravers to hone their skills, the floors and walls of the passage had been smoothed - but they had never been engraved. Although she had no skill at detailing stone, and it was likely that she would die of starvation before her tale was complete, she was surprisingly content.
She was getting used to tragedy.
(http://img.ie/c1197.jpg)
(http://img.ie/abc3c.jpg)
The other engravings - leaves, dwarves, oysters, a shield - are more difficult to interpret. What meaning is contained in these four other images, in the context they hold with one another?
(http://img.ie/a7a1b.jpg)
Two engravings - the dwarves and the shield - Solon etched into the floor. The others - the oysters and the leaves - were engraved into the walls on either side. They form no linear connection, either spatial or temporal, with one another.
(http://img.ie/17177.jpg)
There can be no literal interpretation of the engravings - indeed, as Solon no doubt realized, there will most likely be no interpretation at all. Perhaps, in the distant future, some bold adventurer will find the hidden path into the depths of Weatherwires, and by chance come to find the lever room - it is only a hope, faint and dim, but it is all Solon has left.
(http://img.ie/75647.jpg)
Taken as a whole, the images are an indecipherable pictogram - a confusing and jumbled impression of the last thoughts of Solon Townclenched, the very last dwarf, who had never attempted to make an engraving in her entire life. In her engravings, Solon might have vainly sought to capture some kind of story, to inform posterity of the ultimate fate of Weatherwires. Or, perhaps, they are a scrambled flow of metaphorical images; the emotions of the last member of a species, soon to be extinct, caught in abstract form.
(http://img.ie/c6032.jpg)
Before she can finish a seventh engraving, Solon's hunger becomes too much to bear. The dwarf gives up on the final engravings, and returns to the lever room, searching in vain for some kind of sustenance.
(http://img.ie/30963.jpg)
The last engraving is left vague and unfinished - a tiny mystery in the midst of of an ocean of tragedy.
Overcome by hunger, Solon crawled about the lever room, desperately trying to find any vermin that, by some chance, might have gotten lost in the tunnels and been trapped in the map room with her. Of course, there were none - the room is sealed in all directions, hewn out of solid rock, and has no weaknesses. Just as Solon had sealed herself in, safe against the goblins, she had sealed her fate. She had known, when she locked the heavy, steel doors, that she would suffer a slow death by starvation.
But, at this point, she must figure that it can't hurt to look.
(http://img.ie/a7ab8.jpg)
About her, a morose audience of ghosts hold a silent vigil during the ultimate crumbling of the Merchant of Echoing. A dozen spirits still hang about in the smoothed hallway, studying and judging Solon's final, graven testament. It is likely that these restless spirits are doomed to be the only entities who see these disjointed images - oddly fitting, as the ghosts of Weatherwires will have all of eternity to consider the mysterious pictogram.
(http://img.ie/3ab1c.jpg)
In her final hours, Solon grows increasingly unhappy. Undoubtedly made unbearable by the catalyst of her withering hunger, the weight and stress of bearing the entire Merchant of Echoing upon her shoulders begins to grind down the merchant's mind. She knows that the ghosts, gathered in an audience around her, are only here to witness her slow and inevitable death.
(http://img.ie/40a85.jpg)
What thoughts run through the head of the last dwarf in her final moments? Does she consider how things might have gone differently - if mayor Tun had not engineered their ill-fated escape attempt, or if the adamantine spire had never been breached, or if she had never agreed to submit to the Diamond Cloisters in the first place? Perhaps she contemplates the nature of the myriad curses, laid thick upon the dwarves of Weatherwires, which had began even before she had joined the fortress? Did some malign intelligence intend for her to suffer with the Diamond Cloisters, or was this long, agonizing demise in the dark simply a grand accident, set off when she first arrived at the fortress decades ago?
The answers escape her. Like so many of her fellow dwarves, gathered around her even now, Solon Townclenched will have all of eternity to consider the doom of Weatherwires.
(http://img.ie/4aba6.jpg)
The ghosts watched the last dwarf crawl slower and slower, and then finally stop. The sound of labored, exhausted breathing gradually faded into a heavy, crushing silence, and the merchant's body moved no more.
(http://img.ie/b9c19.jpg)
(http://img.ie/57326.jpg)
Far above, in the chamber that, until recently, been filled with magma, the trolls had wreaked havoc upon the dwarves' masterful designs. The steel grates, which had once covered the floors and allowed the molten rock of the nearby volcano to easily flow in and out of the chamber, had been mostly torn apart.
(http://img.ie/05a65.jpg)
Of course, the trolls, in their infinite stupidity, neglected to leave an escape route for themselves, let alone their goblin overlords who they had unwittingly trapped in the deeps. As the lava of the volcano gradually rose to its former position, the chamber was slowly flooded. The dwarves claimed one more tiny victory as magma splashed across the feet of Song Sinfulpraises, the troll that indirectly slew Èzum Openeddoors the Robust Stoker of Lances. The beast howled in pain as his lower legs burnt away, and then collapsed into a shallow pool of molten rock.
(http://img.ie/8521a.jpg)
As the only exit slowly filled with magma, the goblins stood idly atop the guildhall. The remains of the plump helmet men had rotted away to nothing, but still, they did not move. The enemy was defeated, but also still remained, after a fashion. The only dwarves left in the fortress were a scattered army of ghosts, wielding incorporeal weapons and armor, mutely defending spectral citizens - a grim mirror of what the Diamond Cloisters once was, or might have been.
In the beginning, the duke Kogsak Murdershot ordered the construction of the dome so that it might one day be a utopia, a perfect home for the dwarves to reside in until the end of time. Neither the duke nor his family, who rest safe in their coffins, will ever witness the final state of his beloved dome - unlike the spectral masses who still inhabit the fortress. For those who were immolated in magma or fell into a swirling vortex of abyssal light; for those whose bodies lie forgotten in walled-off tunnels or sealed chambers; for those who suffered any of the innumerable fates which befell the fortress in those last few decades, yet were honored with no memorial and forgotten by the living; for these unfortunate souls, their unlife in the dome, amidst the various triumphs and tragedies of their once-great race, is an endless torture from which there will be no relief.
(http://img.ie/71048.jpg)
(http://img.ie/a6a00.jpg)
(http://img.ie/95515.jpg)
Perhaps they would eventually find their way out through the caverns, or would perish as they are beset upon by nameless things that still lived in the deep of Weatherwires. It is possible, still, that the goblins might remain in the fortress, hoping for a rescue led by the mace lord and his squad. Captain Kutsmob and his hammermen were, in the entire history of their conflict with the dwarves, the only invaders to have seen the dome with their own eyes and lived to escape.
(http://img.ie/c4b70.jpg)
(http://img.ie/32163.jpg)
- - -
And so, despite the dwarves' best efforts to go out in a blaze of glory, fighting nameless demons in the depths of hell itself, the story really ends with a crippled merchant who hides from a goblin siege, and slowly dies of thirst in a dark, hidden corner of the fortress.
Is it a disappointing ending?
For some, maybe.
It might have worked better (i.e. had a better sense of closure) if Solon had had the opportunity to give a tragic monologue in her final, parched moments, before dying - but unfortunately, I am only slightly better than the dwarves themselves at dramatic speech-writing, so what I gave to you was (with a little mixing around) the actual ending, as I perceived it.
So, uh, thanks for reading. Writing these updates was entertaining, if a little depressing at times. I did my best to chronicle the important events that occurred throughout the slow fall of the fortress, and I hope you (the reader, whenever you read this) enjoyed (or will enjoy) it.
I will be frank. In the beginning, I did not plan on the thread turning into what it is now. It just sort of happened. Also, I had doubts at the time that narrating the slow decline of a hundred or so dwarves would be any fun at all. Because, hey, at the time, I saw what I was doing as staving off eventually losing - and "Losing is fun!" About halfway through, I realized that I was not, in fact, staving off losing. In fact, as anyone who has read can confirm, there has been quite a bit of losing going on in Weatherwires.
I soon realized that what I was doing here was losing very, very slowly.
So, that's basically it. I'll begin setting up saves as an adventurer so people can actually explore the fortress. Also, if anyone has any questions concerning the fortress itself, I'd be happy to answer them. There are a few amusing anecdotes, completely unrelated to the main plot, that I have yet to post, as well. Thanks again for reading.