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Dwarf Fortress => DF Community Games & Stories => Topic started by: Loam on April 19, 2020, 10:56:03 pm

Title: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on April 19, 2020, 10:56:03 pm
Thob Goes to the Surface


Prologue (see below)
Part I: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8129289#msg8129289) | 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8133854#msg8133854) | 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8136720#msg8136720) | 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8138667#msg8138667)  | 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8140400#msg8140400)
Part II: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8140400#msg8140400) | 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8144280#msg8144280) | 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8145976#msg8145976) | 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8149633#msg8149633) | 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8152240#msg8152240) | 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8155685#msg8155685) | 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8156118#msg8156118) | 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8158761#msg8158761) | 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8161011#msg8161011)
Part III: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8162984#msg8162984) | 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8163827#msg8163827) | 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8166596#msg8166596) | 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8169946#msg8169946) | 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8171640#msg8171640) | 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8173333#msg8173333) | 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8174110#msg8174110) | 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8176981#msg8176981) | 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8182447#msg8182447) | 10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8186745#msg8186745) | 11 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8192394#msg8192394) | 12 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8197056#msg8197056) | 13 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8200735#msg8200735)
Part IV: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8220734#msg8220734) | 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8222977#msg8222977) | 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8225398#msg8225398) | 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8233993#msg8233993) | 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8245796#msg8245796) | 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8253965#msg8253965) | 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8259499#msg8259499) | 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8266953#msg8266953) | 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8269075#msg8269075) | 10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8271723#msg8271723)
Part V: 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8282359#msg8282359) | 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8286364#msg8286364) | 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8292166#msg8292166) | 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8297249#msg8297249) | 5 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8299123#msg8299123) | 6 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8301210#msg8301210) | 7 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8310098#msg8310098) | 8 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8310625#msg8310625) | 9 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8312518#msg8312518) | 10 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8329362#msg8329362) | 11 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8341629#msg8341629) | 12 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8341634#msg8341634)


PROLOGUE:
For hundreds of years destructive wars engulfed the western lands, wreaking constant turmoil and ruin on the human and dwarven kingdoms. Once-proud dwarven fortresses crumbled under endless waves of undead invaders, the dwarves driven ever further underground with each successive attack—until only a handful survived, in the deepest mines. Centuries passed; the memory of wars and kingdoms faded, the things of the surface world forgotten in the unchanging gloom of the caverns, where sun did not shine and seasons never turned…

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob Poweraxe was a miner in Lawmined, a dwarven hall deep beneath the Creative Spikes. He was an easy-going, phlegmatic, and unassuming dwarf of seventy-five. When he was a newbeard his parents had inducted him into the “Communion of Saints,” some sort of religion about medicine or something. It sounded nice, but Thob didn’t give it much mind: he wasn’t given to the abstract. If he couldn’t swing a pick at it, it wasn’t worth his time.

For his whole life Thob had dug and toiled in the slate-walled caverns among endless swaths of plump helmets, and he had never strayed far from home. That was about to change.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A couple weeks ago a strange message had arrived in Lawmined, announcing that one Urvad Whipgem had been made the new King of the Sandaled Key, and was calling all loyal dwarves to the ancient mountainhome of Dawngloves. Thob hadn’t known, until someone had told him, that the Sandaled Key had ever had a king, and as far as he was concerned they got along fine without one. Probably Thob would have forgotten about the whole thing, if not for a second strange and more terrible event.

The so-called “boss” of Lawmined was Nish, a thin, graying engineer. He was a good engineer, too, but as a leader he inspired less confidence. Apparently the fact that he called himself “boss” was enough to get the other dwarves to listen to him. Thob had heard somewhere that dwarves used to have “mayors,” and every year all the dwarves got to pick who they wanted to be mayor in what they called an “election.” But that hadn’t happened in a very long time, longer than Thob’s lifetime, if it had happened at all.
   One day Nish called Thob into his office. “We’ve got a bit of a situation, see, and you’re the only one I can spare.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Probably Bomrek had walled himself in again while building, and they needed a competent miner to break him out. Thob hefted his pickaxe.
   “Fact is,” Nish continued sheepishly, “the, er… well, the booze has run out.”
   The pickaxe clattered to the floor. “You’re joking, right?”
   “’Fraid not. Found out at breakfast—not a drop left in the barrels, any of them.”
   “How can the booze run out? We grow more plump helmets than we could eat in a year!”
   “See… we don’t have a still—we can’t make any more. All we have is forges.”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   This was true. There were many forges in Lawmined, and few smiths—and no stills.
   “What’ll we do?” asked Thob.
   “Ah,” said Nish, “not so much we as… you. Someone needs to run out and bring back some alcohol—er, and a brewer who knows how to put a still together.”
   “Run where?”
   “Well, here’s my plan. Remember that letter we got a few weeks back? Said there was a new king in Dawngloves? I figure anyone calls himself ‘king for the dwarves’ ought to know a good brewer or two, and probably has a stockpile full of extra beer.” He stroked the braid of his beard. “You’ll have to go through the caverns… but I figure being a miner you’re used to that.”
   “I don’t know where Dawngloves is, though.”
   “No fear,” said Nish. “Let me show you. I have a map, you see—a map of all the dwarf holds in the world.” He pointed to a ragged scrap of paper on the wall.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“We’re here, in the middle,” he said, then “Dawngloves is at the end of that valley to the west.”
   “Where’s the rest of it?” asked Thob.
   “Rest of what?”
   “The world. There’s got to be something more.”
   “That’s all that’s on the map, isn’t it?”
   “But,” said Thob, “how would I get to those volcanoes up there? There’s nothing in between.”
   “What does that matter? You’re not going up there, you’re going to Dawngloves. Stop changing the subject…”

And so it was that Thob Midorlibash, with only the clothes on his back and a pick in his hand, set out on the dark cavern road to Dawngloves in search of booze. Little did he know how far that search would take him…
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on April 19, 2020, 11:41:37 pm
Is this what you made that dwarf-picture for! Delightful-- and I'm grinning already at the prose. Looking forward to this one.  :D
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: NJW2000 on April 20, 2020, 03:51:31 am
This looks great! Posting to watch.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on April 20, 2020, 08:29:31 pm
Quote from: Superdorf on April 19, 2020, 11:41:37 pm
Is this what you made that dwarf-picture for! Delightful-- and I'm grinning already at the prose. Looking forward to this one.  :D
Yeah, helps me visualize the character. (And improve my art, which has been sorely neglected)

Quote from: NJW2000 on April 20, 2020, 03:51:31 am
This looks great! Posting to watch.
Thanks! Hope it delivers. I have several updates played already, and Thob has been in some interesting situations...
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Imic on April 21, 2020, 05:23:14 am
Posting to watch.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on April 21, 2020, 06:32:37 am
I'm gonna also post to watch.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on April 21, 2020, 08:24:48 pm
In Search of Lost Wine

As Nish had said, Thob was used to extended trips through the caverns: when Lawmined needed ore or stone, he was the one to go out and get it. But that didn’t mean he took the caverns lightly. For Nish it was simple: draw a line between two points on a map and follow it. Thob knew better—he knew of the maze-like passages, spider dens, troll nests, precipitous drops, and dwarf-drowning pools. Even the ancient and long-unused roads that crisscrossed through the caves could lead one astray, as evidently the ancient dwarves hadn’t heard of signs. There would be no “This way to Dawngloves” for Thob… maybe not even a road to Dawngloves.

But Nish was right about one thing: they needed alcohol, and Dawngloves was their best bet, and all things considered Thob was probably the most qualified dwarf to go get it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The plump helmet fields continued a long way out from Lawmined. They were overgrown and essentially wild now, but you could tell they had once been cultivated. Thob watched a pack of troglodytes gleaning the purple caps and munching them brutishly. The creatures left Thob alone, and he certainly stayed clear of them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The muddy, stagnant cavern pools were, as far as Thob was concerned, nothing but a blight on dwarfkind, undoubtedly the creations of Zagith, meant for misery.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Water itself was a weak, tasteless sort of liquid that barely registered on the liver; what was more, the water here was full of mud, dead plants, and dead animals, not to mention the waste of living animals (dwarves included). Doc Lokum said it was “necessary for cleaning wounds,” but alcohol was clearly much more sanitary. He also said that sick dwarves should only drink water, which was pure nonsense. Furthermore, nothing good lived in water: they were either clammy limp-tasting cave fish, or something that wanted to eat you—like that cave crocodile.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some miles south of Lawmined, Thob reached the crossroads. Probably there were more crossroads, but this was the only one he knew. It was also the farthest he’d ever been from the mountain hall.

Thob leaned on his pick as he considered the next move. Nothing in the dark caverns beyond, west, east, or south, suggested where each road went. Judging by Nish’s map Dawngloves could be either west or south, but for all Thob knew the eastward road curled around and headed for the fortress, while the other two ways led straight into magma pipes.

But Nish’s map was all he had to go on. And the way west smelled fresher, somehow. Thob hefted the pick and trudged on. Hours passed in the blackness. The road wound on. He came to a long bridge over a pool, when a grunt startled him into wariness.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A hairy troll stood on the bridge before him. Thob began moving more quietly, but the beast didn’t seem to have seen him yet. He glanced at the white tusks and horns that could separate a dwarf’s insides from the rest of his body, and probably would if the thing spotted him. The bridge was too narrow and too open for him to sneak past unseen. Thob gulped. He saw only one way through. Carefully, cautiously, he eased himself over the bridge and into the fetid pool below.

He hated water, but at least he could keep his head above the surface. Giving the bridge a wide berth he paddled slowly around, like a damn cave fish, through the half-submerged nether-caps and bloodthorns, ever certain that any moment some awful thing would grab his foot and drag him under. He seemed to spend hours in the frigid stagnation before finding the opposite shore and hauling himself up onto the muddy bank, dripping and miserable—but uneviscerated, thank Egesh. He found the road again and struck out. He must be getting close.

Thob was just about over his encounter with the water when the hair on his neck started to prickle up. He was in a tunnel cut through the rock, nothing in sight ahead or behind… but when he took a few more steps something touched him—and then a sharp bite!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Without even trying to see where the spider was, Thob ran. He ran as fast as he could, not looking back, not even trying to be stealthy. If he could run far enough fast enough the eight-legged demon of the deep might lose interest. But he knew he could only run for so long. Breath became labored, sweat poured from his already-soaked skin, leg muscles grew weary. Thob barreled through a pack of naked mole dogs crossing the road and hurled himself around a corner and stopped, panting.

He listened, heard nothing, waited for the sudden pinch of the invisible mandibles… but it did not come. After a few minutes, his breathing mostly normal again, Thob stealthily resumed his treacherous march.

Please, let Dawngloves be nearby…
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on April 30, 2020, 05:10:21 pm
The cavern air began to grow fresher, and a little warmer too. Thob felt he must be getting close.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Turning a corner, Thob saw the caverns open up before him, widening into a large cavity carved in the rock salt—the remains of an ancient magma chamber, he thought, now dry. The road ran into the center of the chamber, where a great staircase spiraled up into the roof of the cavern. This must be Dawngloves. Up above Thob thought he could hear faint sounds echoing down… voices maybe, and footsteps, but it was hard to tell. Relieved, he marched up to the stairs and began to ascend.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At the top of the stairs was a huge chamber, mostly empty, with the shadowy shapes of a few buildings at the edges. A wooden platform lay nearby, laden with various goods and the sleeping shapes of a few dwarves—some kind of dormitory, maybe? Thob himself was rather tired from his journey, and figured sleeping on a platform would at least be better than sleeping on the ground. He found a bare spot, pulled a sack of plump helmets under his head, and soon began to sleep.

When he woke up he noticed two things. First, it was extremely bright in the cave: not the hot angry gleam of magma nor the soft luminescence of cavern fungi, but some light at once clearer and harsher than anything he knew. Second, there was a very spooky sort of dwarf standing over him, staring at him.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

“I don’t know you,” said the old dwarf. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Thob. Thob Poweraxe. I’m from Lawmined, out to the… well, far away somewhere.” He rose. “And um… who are you?”
The old dwarf raised a white eyebrow. “I?” he said, and he stood tall and lifted his head a little and looked down his nose at Thob. “I am Urvad Whipgem—King of the Sandaled Key.”

“Oh, you’re the king!” said Thob. “That’s great! I was lookin’ for you. See we’ve got a problem back a Lawmined—ran clean out of booze! Silly, I know, but ah… you wouldn’t happen to have some kegs to spare, and maybe a good brewer too? Or even a middling brewer, so long as he knows how to build a still. We’ve got all the plump helmets we need, but no still! Imagine that! Oh, and some dwarfpower to haul everything back, and maybe a guard or two—it’s a dangerous trip, let me tell you…”

All this time the king’s brow had been lowering and lowering until Thob could barely see his eyes anymore. Finally he cut Thob off with an impatient bark…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…and left, without answering any of Thob’s questions.


Short one this time, had to focus on other stuff for a while there. Things are quieting down, and I'll be able to get more updates out.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TD1 on May 05, 2020, 02:45:38 am
Ptw
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 07, 2020, 09:15:23 am
Thob’s encounter with the so-called “king” had been disappointing, to say the least. But he wasn’t going to let it stop him: someone else here would know where the drink stockpile was. He decided to take a look around the fort.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
An old temple stood in the corner of the big chamber, a crumbling piece of architecture that had dropped some of its floor stones into a storeroom below. It clearly hadn’t been used in ages. Thob looked at some of the carvings and statues. Most seemed to be images of the temple’s priests, devotees of Doren, goddess of wealth. Maybe that’s why it stood over the hoard?

In the other corner were the remains of a tavern. Thob looked in each of the big stone casks lining the wall, but alas—all empty.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The upper chambers seemed very rudely carved: the walls were stone but the floor was covered in red sand. Maybe these used to be farms.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were several dwarves in these chambers, all dressed in fine garments. They all seemed to be moving around sort of aimlessly, as if they had nothing to do, chit-chatting with each other about nothing in particular. None of them looked like brewers, either.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were two reptile women in the fort as well. They spoke in strange hisses and were generally friendly, but seemed not to know much about the fort’s goings-on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the lower story was the old great hall, lined on one side with display cases and loaded at the end with treasures of ancient dwarven craft. Thob reasoned it would be imprudent to take from the king’s own treasury without asking, but there was one item that caught his attention: a little roll of paper with writing on it. The symbols were old, and Thob had to try hard to figure out what they meant:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Wasted effort, that. But it did make Thob wonder: what’s an elf?

Thob looked all around but found no drinks. Finally he called to one of the dwarves.
“H’lo there. My name’s Thob.”
“Ah, hello,” she replied. “I am Osmod Reasonchurch.”
“So, what do you do around here?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
“But what does an abbot do?”
“Well… the king says I run a monastery nearby. Of course I’ve never been there. No one has. Been abandoned for centuries.”
“The king made you an abbot?”
“Who else?” said the dwarf. “He made us all something: abbots, barons, generals, diplomats…‘nobles’ he calls us.”
“And nobles just… walk around and hobnob?”
“Well… so far, yes. There’s not much else to do. We’re still getting everything set up.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
“Set up?” asked Thob. “I thought this was the dwarven capital.”
“Oh, it was,” said Osmod. “Hundreds of years ago. And it will be again, that’s what King Urvad says!”
“Uh-huh. How’s he plan to do that with a dozen dwarves?” A dozen useless dwarves, he thought.
“Well, I don’t know the details, but he says we’ve got to ‘reclaim our heritage.’ He’s found some of our ancient artifacts and wants someone to go reclaim them.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
“Stoneclapsed? Is that another fortress?”
“Yes. About a day and a half to the northeast, across the desert. But it’s a dangerous trip—none of us are suited for it.”

Thob spoke with some of the other “nobles” of Dawngloves. All of them wanted this or that artifact returned; not one knew where brew or brewer could be found. Still, they were polite enough. Thob was chatting with one so-called baroness, Rîsen, when he let slip some of his more controversial opinions:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The baroness was getting visibly distressed as Thob continued arguing. Hoping to save the conversation Thob tried to lighten the mood a little. He thought for a second, then made the best joke he could think of:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It turned out Rîsen really liked jokes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Either that, or Thob was a gifted comedian. Soon the baroness was cheerful again, and Thob felt he had learned a thing or two about getting along with nobility.

But he couldn’t stand around talking all day. He had a mission: if there was no booze in Dawngloves, he needed to look somewhere else. Another fortress might have a few casks left. He would set out for Stoneclasped.


There'll be more adventure and a lot less plot-buildup (if you can call it plot) in the following episodes: I just needed a rationale for Thob to start his quest. I also hope to get these out a little quicker, now that I'm officially done with school. I'll try to do more illustrations.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 11, 2020, 10:59:45 am
The Great Outdoors

The clear, harsh light Thob had seen upon waking up was even brighter now; it spilled into the upper cavern from a single wide opening in the wall. Thob couldn’t see anything beyond the opening because of the light, but he knew that must be the way out of Dawngloves, out onto the surface. Pick in hand, he stepped from the dimness of the caverns into the light; he had to shut his eyes against the glare, and squint for a long time, but when his eyes adjusted Thob caught his first glimpse of the world above:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A narrow green valley stretched north between two lines of high rock walls. Through the middle of the valley a stream of water flowed, clearer than any cavern water he had seen and glinting in the light. And over all loomed a bright blue dome, stretching to all edges of the visible world and set near its peak with something so bright Thob couldn’t look at it without his eyes hurting.

A short distance away he could make out a few low mounds standing in a wide field; nearby, on the eastern edge of the valley, were a cluster of boxy stone structures. He set out for the mounds.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The surface was covered with a weird spiky green moss, and here and there grew large fungi with very hard stems. Their branches sprouted green flaps, and they looked like big quarry bushes. Everything up here was green; it was honestly a little monotonous, lacking the variety of color the caverns afforded.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When he reached the mounds he had seen, Thob realized they were apparently some sort of earthen dwellings: at least they had doors and floor hatches for entry. There was nobody within, but there was a statue nearby, clearly of dwarf make and recognizably Mingtuth, an important dwarf deity:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob wondered about these tumuli: had dwarves once lived on the surface, among these alien fungi and under the awful glare of that bright thing overhead? Even just thinking about that ghastly light made Thob uneasy, even… somewhat sick. His head spun. He placed a hand on his belly…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This went on for some time.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Maybe he could walk it off. He started towards the stone structures to the east, tortuously treading and heaving with every step.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Whatever had gone on here before, there was nothing here now. There was a room full of tables, one of beds, and in one corner a small temple: a sign beside it read “The Church of Wealth.” There were several smaller shrines as well, although questionably decorated:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Maybe it was a cautionary tale. Thob steered clear of the shrine, just in case.

The nausea hadn’t subsided yet, so Thob kept pacing the grounds. Beyond the farther buildings he saw a copse of woody fungi and a pool of water—and a horrible shape squatting beside it!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The thing looked about like a dwarf with big bat-like wings and wrinkly gray skin, but the worst part was its face: it had no eyes! Some blind cave creature, come from the depths, like himself? But no, Thob knew all the beasts of the underground. This was a surface-dweller: no doubt it had no eyes so it wouldn’t be disgusted by the dreadful light. What a strange and grotesque world he had come to!

Then the thing turned its head to face Thob. It must know he was there! But it made no move to attack, or run away, as another beast would have. Thob waited to see what it would do, but it only sat. Finally, after a while of standing in silence, Thob eased forward. It looked vaguely like a dwarf: maybe it could speak? He spoke calmingly to it:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At least it could speak. Maybe if he got on its good side it could tell him about the area? He tried asking how it felt, as though he cared for its health—but the thing rebuffed him haughtily:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then Thob remembered his talk with the baroness: perhaps the creature liked…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was encouraging—but ultimately fruitless. The creature still wouldn’t talk to him, though it grudgingly laughed at his jokes. After a while Thob gave it up: he left the weird thing to itself, on the bank of its muddy pool, alone. Maybe that’s all it wanted.

On the plus side, his nausea seemed to have passed for good. The light was irritating but sufferable. He continued on his journey.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The greenery began to fade away on either side of the valley, turning into fields of dry white. He passed through another cluster of empty mounds, then saw another group of stone buildings nearby. The ground here was coarse white sand and rock only sparsely vegetated.

As before, all the buildings were empty, but Thob found one altar with a silver divination die left on it. He hadn’t much use for gods before, but in this new world he felt it might be good to have someone above at his back—just for insurance. Standing before the statue of Doren, he made himself as reverent as he could, took up the die, and rolled.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Should’ve known better. That’s what he got for messing with gods.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on May 11, 2020, 04:28:39 pm
I know it's just a bit of trim-and-paste, but your photo editing is excellent. So is your storytelling.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I laughed.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on May 11, 2020, 04:34:43 pm
Ditto-- and scared-miner-behind-tree is downright adorable. :))
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on May 12, 2020, 03:44:42 am
I'm liking the story so far.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on May 12, 2020, 10:54:21 am
I'm enjoying Thob's tale. A sane dwarf navigating an insane intricately generated world is in some ways the essence of the game.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Su on May 12, 2020, 03:58:17 pm
ptw. your writing style is excellent!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 15, 2020, 08:34:41 am
Thanks for reading, everyone, and the compliments!

Quote from: TheFlame52 on May 11, 2020, 04:28:39 pm
I know it's just a bit of trim-and-paste, but your photo editing is excellent. So is your storytelling.
That's probably my favorite pic, actually. I got lucky with the "It is noon" announcement.


For a while now Thob had noticed the light getting dimmer; he had thought it was just his eyes adjusting, until he noticed that the bright thing had almost completely disappeared behind the western mountains. The blue dome overhead was darkening, and everything was taking on the dark subtle hues of the caverns. It was also getting noticeably colder. The sudden change was a surprise to Thob, but a welcome one. Whatever the bright thing had been, it was gone now, and the surface looked a lot more like home in the darkness. Thob realized now how the ancient dwarves had been able to live up here: it was probably that bright thing’s appearance that caused the dwarves to go underground.

He found himself feeling tired—he’d walked the whole length of the valley, almost. There were no beds about, but the green fungus was decently soft in places. He found a good spot and dozed off.

He was awakened by the awful light again. That bright thing was back, hovering over the eastern mountains this time. Thob sighed, but picked himself up and trudged on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Nearby was a large cluster of stone buildings, small towers and pyramids, in front of a much taller structure rising from the sand. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, so Thob decided to go check it out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The smaller buildings were open, and abandoned. Thob looked into one little pyramid, but there didn’t seem to be much inside. It was probably just some old house—maybe this was once a dwarven surface-city?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The main tower was an irregular, imposing structure. Cautiously Thob went inside. The interior was a maze of small rooms and hallways, full of table and chairs but not much else, except for several books and scrolls. They were very old and dusty, but mostly intact. Thob picked up a few and scanned them.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Most of them were about the place itself, which they called “Brightbrand.” They were all in the same hand and signed “Mosus Presentracks.” But they didn’t tell him much about what the place was, or had been.
He thought he’d look around the other structures a bit more. He went over to the nearest one, a boxy building a few stories tall, and looked inside. He saw, to his astonishment, some piles of stuff on the floor, in chests and bags. He crept over to investigate: all the goods were of quality dwarven craftsmanship, and made of good material. This must be a treasury! Since no one seemed to live here Thob thought he’d help himself.
He found, to his excitement, a fine iron pick and a nice iron buckler, which might help against dangerous animals. There was more to the place, and Thob was searching eagerly through the fine goods, when suddenly…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With a rusty rattle of mechanisms a bronze pike shot up from the floor: Thob jumped away just in time to avoid a skewering. The weapon was heavily decayed, but would still have made a mess of his insides if it had hit. Somewhat shaken, Thob decided to leave the rest of the treasures alone; he took his new gear and left the building, and the strange complex, behind.

Ahead was nothing but sandy wasteland. Thob knew he could follow the mountains east to Stoneclasped, but it was a long way off and the land looked forbidding. Still, he had to try. It was his best chance of finding some alcohol.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At last he approached the old fortress, nestled in a corner of the mountains. He hoped there was food as well as booze inside—he’d eaten the last of his rations on the way.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was another temple to Doren inside the top cavern—she must have been a popular deity with the old dwarves. The temple was partially collapsed in the center, but among the rubble Thob saw something glinting in the faint light. He turned over a few blocks, and found two masterfully-worked swords!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He recalled that Osmod, in Dawngloves, had mentioned some dwarven artifacts at Stoneclasped, and these matched their descriptions. He stowed the swords in his pack: maybe if he got them back to Dawngloves, the king would be more likely to listen to him, and help him out.
There was a trade depot here full of goods, and (more importantly) food. Thob took a few rations for the return journey. But the tavern was another disappointment: all the casks were empty, and had been for a long time. Not even the smell of alcohol remained.

He took a look around the lower fort as well, though he didn’t expect to find any booze.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He didn’t find any, but there was plenty of other good stuff around. The old dwarves had left a sizeable hoard down here. Among it Thob found some armor, made of the best dwarven steel: a breastplate, helm, and some mail leggings, along with a pair of iron boots and bronze gauntlets. The stuff was heavy, but you couldn’t ask for better protection. He was in a new world, and who knew what dangers lay in wait for a lone dwarf?

As if to drive the point home, when he came back to the surface several strange creatures had gathered around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
a gray, scaly thing with a knobby trunk paced through the sand;
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
on top of the fort sat a fat, one-eyed black creature with bat wings;
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
and among the rock fields nearby stood a couple small, scaly things with bug-like mandibles, whose skin seemed to let off a dense smoke.
None of the things bothered him, though they watched him warily. Still, he hefted his iron pick and kept a close eye on them. He really hoped the king would help him find something to drink: he couldn’t wait to get back to the caverns.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on May 15, 2020, 02:41:52 pm
Soldier of Ral extract? I don't think I've ever seen an experiment with gaseous extract before. What does it do?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 15, 2020, 06:06:12 pm
I've no idea. Thob gets caught in some in a later episode, but I have yet to see any negative (or otherwise) effects.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 19, 2020, 10:18:19 am
A short bridge episode before part two:

It took Thob another day to get back to Dawngloves. When the bright thing went down behind the mountains it was sweet relief again, but he wasn’t surprised this time when it came back. About when it reached the highest part of the blue dome, he made it back to the fortress.

He was quickly surrounded by the chatty barons, and showed the fruits of his labors to the one who called herself “countess of Dawngloves,” Tekkud Splattertongs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So Thob returned the ancient treasures to the Sandaled Key. The other barons were delighted, and Thob was regarded with no little esteem in Dawngloves, as a “treasure hunter.” He liked the sound of that.

All the rest of the day he told the nobles about his adventure and the strange things he encountered on the way. He learned as much from his listeners as he told, mostly the names of things that he had seen: for instance, the green fungus was “grass” and wasn’t actually fungus, the woody mushrooms were “trees” and weren’t actually mushrooms, the blue dome was the “sky” and was actually nothing at all, and the bright thing was the “Sun” and had been there forever, and was actually the reason anything could live on the surface at all—which made about as much sense to Thob as saying water was cleaner than alcohol (although the surface water had been, to his surprise, noticeably nicer than cavern pools).

The day was drawing to a close when Thob was approached by the strange king of the dwarves, Urvad Whipgem.
   “You made it over the desert and back, with two artifacts, I see,” he said, a gleam in his eye that Thob found strangely unpleasant. “I seem to have underestimated you. Perhaps you would do a special job for me?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   "That depends,” said Thob. “What’s in it for me?”
   “You are, I believe, in need of alcohol, yes?”
   “Haven’t had a drink in three days.”
   “Well, should you accept my job—and perform it satisfactorily—I’ll see about getting a shipment sent over to… what was it you called your hometown?”
   “Lawmined.”
   “Ah, yes, Baron Id’s estate. What do you say?”
   “What do you want me to do?” asked Thob.
   The king’s eyes got a far-away look and he was silent for a moment. Then he said, “Have you ever heard of… the Death Wars?”
   “Can’t say it rings a bell.”
   “No, I suppose it wouldn’t. It all happened very long ago. I’ll spare you the long history lesson, but for many years—years! centuries, really—terrible wars ravaged the world, and practically destroyed civilization. You may have seen how empty everything was out there? Well, that’s why. But in addition to destruction, many of my, er, our artifacts were stolen by enemies of the dwarves. You catch my meaning?”
   Thob nodded slowly. “And who are these enemies?”
   “The Plates of Scouring—once they held vast domains, but they’ve little of their former glory left. Their so-called chieftess, Onget Netyells, is holed up in a towering fortress she calls Brightplums.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “And this Onget has your—that is, our—artifacts, and you want me to get them back?”
   “No, no, no. You’d never make it into Brightplums—not alive anyway. I have a simpler task in mind for you. It happened that a number of these stolen artifacts were lost, in a great battle at a place called ‘Scarredpaddles.’
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “As far as I know they’re still there, untouched after three hundred years. No one lives at Scarredpaddles anymore, so I imagine they aren’t guarded: you just need to get there, find them, and come back, safe and more-or-less sound.”
   “Doesn’t sound too bad,” said Thob. “How far away’s this Scarypads?”
   “Some days journey to the southeast. But you may need to go around the mountains—I don’t know if the tunnels go all the way through.”
   “And you’ll get the booze when I come back?”
   “If you have the artifacts—yes.”
   Several days of travel, over the surface, to this place and back. It sounded like an ordeal, but if it got Thob his drink it would probably be worth it. And why would King Urvad lie to him?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Right then,” said Thob, “you’ve found your dwarf.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on May 19, 2020, 11:19:11 am
king
creepy king
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: DrCyano on May 20, 2020, 03:18:16 pm
Love the story! Keep it up!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Tournesol on May 22, 2020, 05:05:34 pm
Good tale-telling, a delightful read. I must try adventure mode some day, though the ASCII would kill me.

Poor Thob, going for so long wiithout a drink.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on May 23, 2020, 05:27:15 am
Maybe one day he'll get his alcohol.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 23, 2020, 02:04:31 pm
Quote from: Tournesol on May 22, 2020, 05:05:34 pm
I must try adventure mode some day, though the ASCII would kill me.
You have to make your own stories with it, although that goes for all of DF. But if you've got a decent imagination (and a high tolerance for buggy behavior) you can have some really memorable adventures.


On the Road Again

The next morning Thob set out on his journey. To get around the mountains he would first have to return to Scarredpaddles, across the desert. It was a trek, but a familiar one; and when night began to fall he was safely at the old fortress. He took another look around the place, to see if he could turn up anything else—last time he had only been looking for booze, and stumbled upon the swords. Sure enough, searching the main hall he found a magnificent mug, clearly an artifact of value:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the morning Thob crossed over the mountains to the east, and after several hours found himself facing another desert. The rough dirt track that led through the peaks ended at another dwarven fortress, while in the distance he could see another strange tower.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The fortress, as the ancient roadsigns told him, was called Postrelieved, and it was laid out much like Dawngloves or Stoneclasped. There was a small chapel in the upper cavern, dedicated to a certain “Sizet the Sugary Dessert”—not a deity Thob was familiar with, but he sounded enticing nonetheless.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was, unfortunately, no sweet cinnamon in the church, but there were some books. Thob picked up a bit of mathematics before moving on.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The lower floors of the fortress were in serious disrepair: stairs that led nowhere, piles of junk left in the hallways and (somehow) stuck into the walls… but among the rubble Thob found a shiny pair of steel boots to replace his iron ones.

He considered where to go next:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Brightplums was only a short ways to the east: although the king had warned him about the place, his curiosity was piqued, and anyways this “Chieftess Onget” was supposed to have many treasures in her keep. Scarredpaddles was much further to the south. Still, Thob thought it prudent to go after the relics there, then perhaps pass by Brightplums on his way back, just to scope it out.
He decided to head south overland to a nearby fortress; then by tunnels to another on the other side of the mountains, and from there make his way south to Scarredpaddles. He wanted to go from fortress to fortress to check on their beer supplies—if they had any. There was none in Postrelieved.

It took him longer to reach the first fort, called Basementfree, than he had thought. The country was divided into little valleys with impassable mountain walls between them, which he had to go around—journeys sometimes of several miles. Basementfree was at the end of one such valley, situated in a desert of black sand.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was another chapel here: the “Chapel of Radiance,” built by the Light Sect, as he read on the signs. Engravings on the walls depicted ancient dwarves fighting many battles. Losing many battles, actually:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob noted grimly that most of these conquests were the work of the Plates of Scouring—the old enemy of the Sandaled Key, as King Urvad claimed, of which Onget of Brightplums was chieftess. But these battles took place six or seven centuries ago! Had they really been fighting the Plates for so long? And if the Plates had been so unstoppable then, how had they been finally driven back, as they evidently had?

Thob slept at the fortress; when day came he descended the long spiral stair to the caverns, and set off through the tunnels beneath the mountains. It was refreshing to be back in the close, damp, faintly rot-scented air of the caverns, in the darkness under a roof of good, solid stone. The fungi and great mushroom trees, variously colored, seemed to greet him like old friends.
He traveled south through the mazy tunnels for many hours, until he stumbled at last upon the most homely of sights: a field of stubby plump helmets stretching before him and vanishing into the gloom.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Nearby was the entrance to a deep hall, a place just liked Lawmined. It made Thob feel positively nostalgic.
That is, until he took a closer look around.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hovering in the air over the road was one of those eyeless creatures, like he had seen on the surface. This one, however, wore clothes of dwarven fashion. Was it civilized, then? He knew the things could talk: warily, Thob hailed the creature.
   “Hello, there. My name’s Thob.”
   “Greetings,” replied the thing civilly. “I’m Zaneg the glassmaker.”
   There was a pause. “I’m a dwarf,” ventured Thob.
   “Yes, I know,” said Zaneg slowly, as though Thob had said something obvious.
   Another pause. “Ah,” said Thob, “could I ask, maybe… what are you?”
   “The dwarves call us ‘Èzum’s Eyes’,” it said. It chuckled. “I guess Èzum had a sense of humor.”
   “Dwarves? There are dwarves around here?”
   “Used to be. Mistress Vabôk and some others went off to Mythtin a few weeks ago—an old fort east of here they wanted to rebuild. Personally it’s not a journey I’d want to make. There’s talk of dangerous folk about, brigands and the like.”
   “Brigands? In the caverns?”
   “Yes,” said Zaneg. “Hiding out in some mountain hall up north—”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “—by the way,” it asked, “where did you come from?”
   “I, uh, should be going,” said Thob hastily.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Tournesol on May 23, 2020, 02:38:29 pm
Hilarious twist at the ending! "Are we the baddies?"
Quote from: Loam on May 23, 2020, 02:04:31 pm
You have to make your own stories with it, although that goes for all of DF.
Yeah, I know. Am about to publish a chronicle of my current fortress, just need to get the imagery ready. Will be tomorrow at the latest.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on May 27, 2020, 06:06:08 pm
There were several other Èzum’s Eyes in the mountain hall, all willing to chat with Thob (and he with them, although their eyeless stares were unsettling). They didn’t talk about much except the dangerous beasts that lived nearby.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob figured they must be exaggerating. A thing shaped like a dwarf, but a hundred times the size—living in a dwarven fortress? How did it fit through the doors? Likewise their tales about walking nightmares and shadowy demons:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If these were true, the place would be covered up in these monstrosities! And the descriptions of these creatures were vague, characteristic of tall tales. Take, for instance, the so-called “hyena”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “What’s a hyena?” asked Thob.
   “Well,” said the Eye, “it’s sort of like a large dog.”
   “What’s a dog?”
   The Eye looked at him sideways (or would have looked if it had eyes). “A dog? It’s… um, it’s like a small wolf.”
   “A wolf?”
   The Eye furrowed its brow and thought for a moment. “Okay, imagine a naked mole dog, but hairy, and with fangs instead of big incisors. Oh, and it laughs.”
   Probably it was a naked mole dog, but the Eyes, being surface creatures originally, didn’t know what it was and made up all sorts of scary stories about it. He wondered what they’d make of a blind cave bear!

Zaneg the glassmaker had said some of their people went off to resettle the fortress of Mythtin. That would probably be a good place to return to the surface—and maybe to get some booze.
   The trip was short and uneventful, barring one odd occurrence. Crossing a bridge over a cavern pool, Thob was struck with a sense of growing uneasiness:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He couldn’t tell immediately what caused the feeling, but when he had crossed he noticed, some distance away, a troll—unaware of him, fortunately. He guessed his dwarf-sense had reacted to a troll near a bridge, after his last encounter with such a combination. But he passed by without incident.

Mythtin was another dwarven mansion, carved from the brown schist of the mountains. As Thob descended the central stair, who should he meet first but a fellow dwarf!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She looked a lot like King Urvad, both in physical features and in the anxious, suspicious sort of look she cast on everything around her. More strangely, she clutched close to herself a child’s toy hammer and a wooden bracelet. They were magnificently crafted, but still rather odd things for an adult dwarf to carry around.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob greeted her: she jumped a little, turned, and fixed a spooky eye on him. “Ah… hello,” she said, “I’m Vabôk Ramparttunnels.” Then she closed her eyes and stood up very straight and turned her face toward the ceiling, and intoned, “The True Honor of Palisades will reward Knitimage.”
   What knit image, thought Thob, and who’s this True Honor? But he didn’t want to offend her, so he nodded warily and said “Uh-huh” as if he understood. “So,” he said, “what do you do around here?”
   At once Vabôk snapped her head back down and glared at him. “I’d rather not say,” she said, and walked off.
   Thob guessed it’d be pointless to follow her. Naturally, the first dwarf he’d met since leaving Dawngloves turned out to be a crazy and paranoid. Even if she knew where some booze was, she probably wouldn’t tell him. He looked around on his own.
   Mythtin was, to his surprise, abuzz with activity—but not dwarven activity. The whole fort was full of the strange Èzum’s Eyes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They were polite enough, but it made Thob yearn for the company of dwarves all the more. The grand but decaying architecture of the forts he had seen suggested the onetime glory of the dwarven era, now all in ruin or resettled by alien beings. Was there anywhere left, he wondered, where the old grandeur still lived on?

Predictably, there was no alcohol in Mythtin. The tavern was dry, although not empty: several Eyes hovered around, talking and joking. And by “hovering,” Thob meant actually hovering:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He wondered if it might be nice to have wings—it’d simplify his travels greatly if he could just fly over the mountains—but he thought better of it. Being on the surface was bad enough; flying around over it, up in that awful empty “sky,” must be positively terrifying.
   He saw by the outside light that it was getting late, and he was tired. The tavern may have run out of beer long ago, but it still had beds—well, the remains of fungiwood cots, but it was better than cave floor. The room was snug and small, and he was soon asleep.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on May 28, 2020, 02:53:33 am
What a world to live in, not a drop of alcohol left anywhere and no one to make more.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Spriggans on May 28, 2020, 04:28:06 am
"This storyteller is very good !"

Thob sounds so naïve and cooperative. I wonder how he will be when if he ever gets drunk.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Tournesol on May 28, 2020, 07:03:17 am
Taking such an interest in the characters (especially Thob) is what makes this chronicle stand out. Keep going.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 04, 2020, 06:04:06 pm
Ouch, has it been a week since the last update? Sorry, got sidetracked a bit.


In the morning, just before dawn, Thob left Mythtin. But he hadn’t gone far from the fort when he found something odd:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
An old, half-rotten wooden hatch covered a part of the ground here, almost lost amid the undergrowth. Curious, Thob pulled on the iron handle and lifted the hatch up, revealing a tunnel crudely dug into the earth. A secret entrance to the fort, maybe, or a hidden cache of treasure or—hope against hope—alcohol?
   He climbed down the tunnel. In the muddy cave below were no treasures, but a few rusty bits of armor, some tarnished coins, scraps of ragged clothes—and one glaring scarlet eye shining out of the darkness:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With a screech the awful creature lunged at Thob, running on its backward legs, its long tail dragging the ground. “Another dwarf,” it howled, “after so long! I’d almost forgotten the taste!”
   Thob didn’t stick around to hear more: he scurried like a mole up the earthen bank and out the hatch, letting it slam back down over the hole. Then he was away, running headlong to the south, not stopping until he could barely breathe. He stood behind a tree and listened, but there were no sounds of pursuit.
   He took back what he had thought about “tall tales”—it seemed the surface was a place of supernatural horrors.

On his way south he was more cautious. He followed an ancient dirt road for most of the way, avoiding the wilderness—not that the roads were really less wild, but they felt so, and you knew if you followed one you would wind up somewhere there was a roof over your head. But even the roads were not free of danger:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Just after crossing a narrow bridge, two humanoid creatures, gray-feathered and wiggling their branching antennae, shambled out of the brush along the path. They made for Thob, but he was wary; quickly he dashed back across the bridge and lost sight of the things amid the trees. They, too, soon gave up searching for him, and he was able to sneak off, further downstream, and cross.

Not far off the path was, according to the Eyes he’d spoken to, the lair of the supposed “hyena,” the one they called Ïngiz. Thob had learned not to discount these stories of monsters, but the hyena piqued his curiosity: he wanted to know if it had even half the weird features they attributed to it. Soon he found the den—ominously named “the Hole of Catching”—and, sneaking as best he could in his steel armor, crept down the rocky slope.
   The den wasn’t large, and at the other end Thob saw the creature:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He wouldn’t have said it looked like a mole rat, with or without hair, but it was close enough, he guessed. It was nearly as big as he was. He crept closer. The hyena pricked up its ears, sniffed—and suddenly leapt for him!
   Instinctively Thob threw out the iron pick, raising his buckler at the same time to ward off the beast’s jaws. This proved unnecessary, because his first strike with the pick tore into its underbelly and spattered hyena guts all over the floor. The thing collapsed in a heap; in another moment, Thob brought the pick down into its chest, bursting the heart.
   So much for the dreaded hyena, he thought. It was just a wild animal, no different from dralthas or cave crocodiles.

With the rest of the day, Thob made his way east across the valley. He was nearing his destination, Scarredpaddles. When night came down he made camp by a little stream.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on June 05, 2020, 05:04:37 am
Its getting dangerous, what further dangers away him on his quest for booze?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 05, 2020, 12:57:37 pm
Well, he's already faced supernatural threats and indirect attacks by necromancers (their experiments keep trying to clobber him), so for all I know, next he'll find a shrine and nearly get squashed by an angry titan.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 10, 2020, 09:23:38 am
I think I'll make this a weekly thing - it's easier to motivate myself to update it if I have a deadline. Updates may also get more substantial as a result.


Thob woke before dawn when he felt something cold and wet strike his face. In fact, it was striking all over his body, and the patter of it on the grass and leaves around him made a terrific din. He looked up. Water was actually falling from the sky:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He shuddered. This was the kind of thing that could make a dwarf go mad.
   Then he saw, across the stream, a pack of those “hyena” creatures. They didn’t approach him—they just stood there in the falling droplets, as if… waiting for something. It seemed too strange a coincidence that this pack should appear not a day after he killed the big one, Ïngiz. Could Ïngiz have been important, Thob wondered, a leader or patriarch? Could these hyenas have… followed him?

The creatures didn’t seem to pursue him when he left—but perhaps they were just hiding. Thob ventured eastward over the plains. At last he arrived at the mouth of the valley in which Scarredpaddles lay.
   Nearby was one of those abandoned monasteries, and he decided to stop there for a while before moving on. There wasn’t usually much of interest in them, but they seemed good places to rest. But as he entered the ruined temple Thob found something he’d never expected to see:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The temple was absolutely full of books! A veritable storehouse of ancient knowledge! Thob began leafing through some of the more interesting titles.
   Most of the books seemed to be written by two dwarves: Inod Atticbreached and Deduk Pleatedpage. They were curious figures: first, to judge by the dates in their works, they had apparently lived for centuries—
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But more disturbing was some of the content—books about raising the dead that, er, “indulged the author’s fancies”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
These, Thob reasoned, were probably just fiction - whoever heard of "raising the dead"?
   Other books were more banal, such as Deduk’s “Genius” trilogy—books about Deduk writing books:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Many books referenced “Steelpoint,” which, Thob gathered, was the name of the monastery. They must have been centers of scholarship in the old world.

Thob finished his reading and set off to the south—he should reach Scarredpaddles by dusk. But he hadn’t left the monastery far behind when a rushing noise made him turn around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It looked sort of like a hyena, differently colored, and it moved incredibly fast. Thob barely had time to ready himself before the beast was upon him—without time to think he swung his pick…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…and ripped the creature in half. The disgusting spectacle of the two halves of the once-animal flying apart stunned and almost sickened him—but, at the same time, it bolstered his confidence in the power of the pick he wielded. He’d heard some dwarves swear by the axe or sword, but the tool of his trade was all the weapon he needed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
His destination lay before him as the sun began to go down. Scarredpaddles lay beside the old dwarven road, between two ranks of mountains; and, as he approached, Thob saw the valley opening up to the south:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The far-off mountains cradled a large marshland, and at the utter end he thought he made out the dry wastes of a desert. A few ruins stood in the interior and along the rim of the valley. It was the clearest view he’d yet had—everywhere else hills and mountains stood in the way of one’s vision.
   Scarredpaddles was, like almost everywhere else, long abandoned. The hillocks stood empty. Only in one did Thob find any trace of former inhabitation: a lone book lying in the dirt.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob wondered how an “unabridged” story contained only one episode and twenty-seven pages—but to judge by Fikod’s “wild ranting” he wasn’t the sanest dwarf in history.
   Unfortunately, the book was all Thob found of interest in Scarredpaddles. He looked around the mounds and bunkers of the village, in the roads and fields, but couldn’t find any of the supposed artifacts. Hardly a wonder: they had been lost three hundred years ago, and surely in that time someone could have found and taken them. There’d be no way to know now where they were. King Urvad would be disappointed, but that wasn’t Thob’s fault. As night drew on Thob called off his search, and went back into one of the hillocks to sleep.

When he awoke he was surrounded by hyenas.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was no coincidence. He saw it clearly now. They must have followed him, stalked him through the fields until they could strike. He saw it in their shining eyes: they wanted vengeance for their fallen chief, Ïngiz. They wanted Thob’s blood.
   The foremost charged him; he sidestepped and swung, and the beast’s leg crumpled up and it fell. He struck again and shattered it skull. But the rest of the pack was alert—yipping horribly they rushed to the attack. They were too many, Thob thought; they would surround him and drag him down. As they came nearer his mind raced…
   …and, suddenly, everything went… blank.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He saw, heard, smelled everything more clearly, but as if at a great distance, like he wasn’t really there. His body moved, but he didn’t seem to be moving it. He felt nothing, he thought nothing: there was only the pick in his hand, and the enemies to be destroyed.
   He saw one hyena’s head sheared off—then another—a third was pierced to the brain—one had its guts ripped out by the swinging pick—one’s torso was nearly cleft in two—the pick struck and tore flesh and bone—the hyenas quavered, then bolted, dashing away in all directions, but the pick sought them out and brought them low—blood and hyena bits were tossed into the air like some grisly fountain—
   Then it was over, and Thob was back.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Early dawn sunlight filtered through the doorway, and dead hyenas littered the ground. Thob looked in amazement at the destruction he had wreaked. His enemies had fallen before him; they had come to avenge their lord, but had only met his fate.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on June 10, 2020, 10:58:21 am
What lovely carnage.

It is best, when travelling alone in the wilds, to surround yourself with a barricade of campfires before you sleep.
You won't always get warning of the incoming peril. I've had quite a few adventurers in past that went to sleep in dog territory... and never woke up.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on June 10, 2020, 12:08:45 pm
I love all those books.
"Genius for Everyone": it's a book about writing a book about writing a book. If you can untangle all the layers of allegory, it will have done it's job.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on June 11, 2020, 07:20:40 am
Seems like all that's left to remind us of anyone in this world are a bunch of old books.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 11, 2020, 08:44:16 am
Trust me, there are a lot more books in Thob's future.

Quote from: Superdorf on June 10, 2020, 10:58:21 am
It is best, when travelling alone in the wilds, to surround yourself with a barricade of campfires before you sleep.
You won't always get warning of the incoming peril. I've had quite a few adventurers in past that went to sleep in dog territory... and never woke up.
You know, I've never done this and never really had to. Maybe I've just been lucky?

(In any case, Thob's no longer alone - but that's in a future episode!)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 17, 2020, 06:25:49 pm
Scarredpaddles itself had been a disappointment, but Thob was glad he made the journey. Despite the dangers, he felt much more confident in the new world of the surface—which was good, since it looked like he was going to be up here a while before he found any alcohol. It was time to head back to Dawngloves, but he’d take a new route this time, going north along the east side of the valley. There were many old forts to explore in that region.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The first of these was Controliron, in which, he had been told, a “giant” lived. Thob entered cautiously, but there was no sign of anyone.
   As in the other forts he’d been to, a temple stood in the main cavern; its markings said it was for “the Creed of Sweat,” a religion worshipping Ôggon Bridemenace—not a deity Thob was familiar with. Indeed, the architecture of the place, the designs on the temple walls, the shape of the letters, were all subtly foreign. This fort must have belonged to a different tribe of dwarves, not to the Sandaled Key.
   This was affirmed, more or less, by a book Thob found in the temple (what was it with books in temples?). It was a hefty tome, entitled “The Ring of Chance When It Counts”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A “monument to concision” indeed, since it only covered four events—yet somehow took 306 pages to talk about them? Still, Thob knew now he was in the lands of the Ring of Chance. Not that it much mattered these days, he supposed.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The lower floors still held some fine treasures: in particular Thob found a beautiful, finely-crafted pick of the best dwarven steel. This, he bet, could pierce the toughest hides, and most armor as well.
   There were a few more books scattered around also. “On the Trees” talked about something called a “forest retreat,” whatever that was (for that matter, what was a forest?). Then there was “Errors in the Dwarves,” which called itself a chronicle but only contained one chapter:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As lacking as many of these books were in detail, they were the only source of information on the old world that Thob had. It seemed a shame, he thought, to let them molder in obscurity like this. If someone gathered all the books in one place, all the knowledge of the ancients preserved for anyone to read, that’d be a great help to dwarven advancement. And why shouldn’t he be that someone? Thob picked up a bag and put the books he had into it: from now on he’d keep the books he found until he could store them somewhere. This could be the start of something good.

He left Controliron and went north, following the road. Toward evening he arrived at another fortress, nestled at the end of a short valley. As he approached he heard, unexpectedly, the shuffling sounds of footsteps:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Dwarves! They were dressed fairly well, like the nobles at Dawngloves. Thob addressed the nearest of them, a friendly-looking old fellow:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Uh…” said Thob, “sorry, I must of heard you wrong. Praise what?”
   “Lust!” replied King Aban enthusiastically. “Lust, for the glory of Ôggon Bridemenace!”
   It turned out that Ôggon was very popular with the nobles of the Ring of Chance: nearly all of the half-dozen or so dwarves Thob met in Quakegloves (which was the name of this fortress—it was the ancient capital of the Ring) worshipped the Goddess of Lust, and the temple here was also dedicated to her. Thob didn’t consider himself a prude, but it was a little disturbing to find a whole civilization of dwarves not just candid about their urges, but actually worshipping them. It wasn’t something he’d ever do.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Still, he got on well with the dwarves here. They were eager to hear of his adventures: like the nobles at Dawngloves, few of them had ever explored the world.
   “I hear it’s crawling with horrible monsters out there,” said a certain Baron Onul. “Did you run into anything dreadful out there?”
   “Oh,” said Thob, “nothing my trusty pick couldn’t handle. Actually,” he continued, letting a note of pride enter his voice, “not but a few days ago I managed to kill the King of the Hyenas.”
   “The whatnow?”
   “You know—the one they called Ïngiz. His whole pack set upon me, but I fended them off.”
   “Must have been some fight,” said King Aban, not without admiration.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)


More soon, just felt I should break up the episode - it was getting long.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 18, 2020, 11:37:22 am
Has Thob recovered from the shock of these dwarves' culture yet? Looked like he got a little thrown for a loop there when the king cheerily mentioned he was worshiping a goddess of lust.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 18, 2020, 01:07:42 pm
Also, is it me or does Thob have an unerring tendency to run into kings?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 18, 2020, 06:08:03 pm
Quote from: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 18, 2020, 11:37:22 am
Has Thob recovered from the shock of these dwarves' culture yet? Looked like he got a little thrown for a loop there when the king cheerily mentioned he was worshiping a goddess of lust.
He's coping alright, though we haven't heard the last of Ôggon yet.

Quote from: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 18, 2020, 01:07:42 pm
Also, is it me or does Thob have an unerring tendency to run into kings?
He's had that dubious pleasure more often than usual. Although whether they're truly "kings" is its own quandary.


There was a small building in the north corner of the cavern: in it were a few tables and chairs, and a chest full of blank scrolls and quires of parchment. The dwarves at Quakegloves said it was the old “library”—a place where books used to be stored, and where scholars would come to research and write. It sounded just like the thing Thob wanted to start himself. There were no books in it now, but the dwarves said that some were scattered here and there through the fort.
   The temple of Ôggon stood to the south. Despite his reservations about the lust-goddesses cult, Thob decided to check it out. A series of ramps went down into lower and lower basements and sub-basements, one after another, for several floors; when finally Thob reached the bottom, he found to his astonishment—another massive pile of books:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(Author’s note: this is nowhere near the full list of books there were)
The titles ranged over all conceivable topics, and several inconceivable ones as well. Thob began searching the stacks for the most promising works.

   Among the scientific and technical treatises Thob read: Secret Breathing (on pulmonary medicine); Mysteries of the Voice (on the source of the voice); Surgical Tools, My Love (take a guess); To Glue and Glory!, a manual about preparing glue that somehow managed to convey “a hint of viciousness”; and, Thob’s personal favorite:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then there were works of philosophy, questioning or promoting all sorts of dwarven values:
   The History of the Truth, an essay on the value of truth (despite its bombastic title);
   The Wizard’s Guide to Ignorance, which emphasized the value of knowledge;
   Better Rules, on the value of laws; and
   Toil: My Only Mistake, an essay on the value of hard work.

But perhaps the most interesting, to Thob’s taste anyway, were the histories—biography, chronicle, cultural comparison, and many other forms. These he read voraciously, eagerly soaking up their knowledge of the ancient world. Among these works one name stood out, more prominent than all the other authors: Shorast Blademansion, apparently an ancient dwarven historian of no small renown. Quite a number of the histories were his work:
   The Dwarves, Abridged: a serious cultural history of the Ring of Chance, covering the first fifty years of its history, from the very foundation of Quakegloves in year one.
   On The Dwarf: a history of the first general of the Ring, Shem Lockhelms. It was serious enough, but rather self-indulgent and not very well written—perhaps it was an early work?
   Meditations on the Dwarf: another history, this one about an infamous cheetah attack in year 88.
Shorast also wrote about his craft, in several manuals of historiographical practice, like Family in the Modern Era (how to compile family lineages and display them) and Could It Be Reliability? (about finding reliable sources of information).
   There was also an interesting biography that Shorast had written about himself—a form called “autobiography” which Thob had never heard of before: Shorast Blademansion and the Spattered Ear, a dense five-part volume covering Shorast’s career, from his start as a historian in 36, working at the Quakegloves library, to his retirement fifty years later, and discussing some of the discoveries he made along the way (he was, apparently, the very first dwarf to write a biography).

   According to his autobiography, Shorast had taken an apprentice late in his career—another historian named Mafol Crabguild. Mafol’s works were also well-represented in the collection. Many of them, despite being histories, also supported Mafol’s own philosophical views: his Book of the Ring of Chance, a cultural history, emphasized the value of truth, while his autobiography The Dwarves emphasized the value of knowledge—a good thing for a historian to value, Thob guessed.
   Mafol also wrote a biography of his old master: The Birth of Shorast Blademansion. Despite the title, it began with Shorast’s marriage, not his birth. Thob guessed it was metaphorical—Shorast’s “birth” as a historian.
   Thob was impressed by what he learned of Shorast and the other historians. What knowledge and scholarship the ancients possessed! To think that it might all have been lost, in the thousand years between their time and his. More than ever Thob realized how important his “library” would be, if ever the world were to be resettled.

When he had read his fill, Thob went down the central stairs to explore the rest of Quakegloves.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He was surprised when, on the way down, he found a small shrine to Egesh, goddess of his own religion, the Communion of Saints. He wasn’t particularly religious, but it was comforting to find a familiar image so far from home.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Lower Quakegloves was, intriguingly, open directly to the cavern road—unorthodox construction, and in Thob’s opinion pretty bad security. It must date from a time of prosperity, when there were still strong dwarven armies to guard the depths.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The main hall was littered with scattered scrolls, for some reason not kept with the others. A few of the Ring nobility lived down here, including two very old-looking dwarves. Thob introduced himself to one. “Ah, hello,” he replied gruffly, “I am Inod Atticbreached, baron of Glazetin.”
   “Wait a minute,” said Thob, “I know that name… yes, I remember! You wrote all those books—I found them in a monastery!”
   “Yes, I was a rather prolific author in my day. Now if you’ll excuse—.”
   “But that can’t be right,” said Thob, mostly to himself. “The books said Inod Atticbreached lived in the fourth century…”
   “Scribal error.”
   “…and that he could raise the dead.”
   “Oh… ah… sorry, I must take my leave.” Before Thob could ask another question, Inod had disappeared down the hall.

   Thob was still wondering about this strange encounter when another very old dwarf hailed him. “Greetings, stranger!” he said with a flourish. “I am Count Deduk Pleatedpage—humble servant of Ôggon Bridemenace. My!” he exclaimed, regarding Thob, “that ostrich leather cloak simply makes the outfit!”
   “Uh, thanks? My name's… wait.” This was too weird. “Deduk Pleatedpage? I’ve read some of your books, too.”
   “Oh… really?” said the old dwarf, suddenly looking nervous.
   “The ones you wrote about three hundred years ago?”
   “Ha, ha! What a joker you are! Well it’s been a lovely chat, Mr.…”
   “Thob.”
   “… Mr. Bob, but I’m afraid I must be off!” And he, too, disappeared.

Very likely, thought Thob, neither dwarf was who they claimed to be. He bet they weren’t even nobles. They’d picked up these old names somewhere to impress the king and get a place at court. That’s why they bolted from Thob—he’d caught them in their lie.
   That had to be it. Dwarves couldn’t live for three hundred years. Right?


Apologies for the wall of text in the middle. I didn't want to take pictures of all those books.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on June 18, 2020, 06:59:02 pm
Ah Thob, you wonderful oblivious creature. Whatever will you do when you realize at last the nature of these furtive scholars?  :))
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 18, 2020, 07:24:47 pm
Oblivious indeed. Well, he'll learn quick when - and if - he meets a walking corpse following the old dwarves' orders
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on June 19, 2020, 07:25:46 am
We might have to start calling this thing Thob's Quest for Edification.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 24, 2020, 08:44:52 pm
The temple at Quakegloves was probably a good place to store books for the moment: after all, it had kept these ones safe for a thousand years. Thob stowed his collection before turning in for the night. If he came across more books in his travels, he’d try to bring them back here.

When dawn came Thob felt… creative. All this reading had given him an idea: why not try his hand at some writing? He’d read enough to have a general idea of what it should look like. He found an empty scroll in the old library, and a guide on how to write:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In a few hours, he was done:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
NOBODY FORETELLS

No one can tell you what will happen in your life. My name is Thob, and I was a miner for most of my life. But now I am a writer and a librarian. I will tell you how it happened.

I

I found a lot of books on my travels. I was trying to find alcohol, but I found books. But I think that books are important also. So I started taking the books I found. There was a book about some old dwarf I found in a hillock. I found the book, that is, not the dwarf, he’s probably dead because he lived in the 200s and now it’s the 1000s. It wasn’t the first book I found, but it’s an example of what I do: I find books, and take them where they won’t be lost anymore, so that people can read them.

II

Then I found a fortress full of books, or rather a temple in a fortress full of books. That is, the temple was in the fortress, and it was full of books. There was a library in the fortress also, but there were no books in it, just paper. So I read the books in the temple, but not all of them, just the most interesting. There were many books about that value of knowledge, like “Ignorance: Problems and Solution.” I think this an important point, and it’s why I want to save the books I find: so other people can learn that knowledge, which is important.

So you see, no one told me I would find a lot of books and become a librarian, but here I am. I still wish I had found some alcohol, though.
Well, it wasn’t perfect—but not bad for a first attempt, he thought.

Before he left Quakegloves, Thob wanted to try one other thing. His dealings with deities had so far not been very fruitful, but now that he’d found a shrine of his own goddess, Egesh, he thought he might try again. Maybe she’d be more helpful—he was a member of her religion, after all. He went down to the shrine, stood before the golden statue, and rolled the twelve-sided die:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Huh. Maybe the gods were good for something after all.

Thob could head almost straight west to reach Stoneclasped again, and find his way back to Dawngloves from there. But between him and the western mountains was the tower of Brightplums, citadel of the Plates of Scouring.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
King Urvad had said he shouldn’t go there, but Thob felt confident after his exploits against the hyenas. He could at least scope the place out. But he would wait until dusk: he could see well in the dark, and any hostiles might be at a disadvantage.
   The tower itself was a ways off, surrounded by a field of smaller outbuildings. Thob knew some of these structures might hold treasures: maybe Chieftess Onget had stored some artifacts in them? He snuck up to the nearest and peered inside:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The entrance was guarded by a terrifying beast: a six-legged feathery thing with two long horns. But it didn’t seem to notice Thob. Keeping himself pressed against the wall and taking small steps, he worked his way to the stairs across the room. And it worked—he climbed to the upper chamber.
   There was indeed some treasure up here, but it looked to be mostly armor of a size too big for Thob. Still, he stepped over to take a closer look—and suddenly:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The whip flew out of the central pillar and caught Thob right in the solar plexus, punching the wind out of him. Dazed and gasping he retreated down the stairs and, cautiously, out of the building. Maybe the king was right—this place was too dangerous. He crept away, trying to get his breath back, towards a nearby stream, where he camped for the night.

With the dawn Thob was back on the road. The way back led near an old monastery in the desert, which Thob stopped by to check out. It was called “Moonpillars,” built for the Hateful Sect, a religion worshipping—who else?—Ôggon Bridemenace.
   Thob looked in at the local shrine, a small structure named the “Temple of Tentacles.” An odd name for the temple of a lust goddess, he thought… until he saw the artwork:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Well, that was an image he’d not forget soon—however much he wanted to. Thob hurried on his way.

Midmorning came, and water began falling from the sky again. Thob was crossing a grassy plain, keeping to the sparse tree cover to stay reasonably dry, when a shriek brought him up short. He glanced around for the source—
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One of those feathered things with branching antennae was bearing down on him! But this time Thob would not run: he steadied the hand on his pick and readied his buckler.
   The demon swung a fist at him, but he caught it on the shield; in the same movement he struck the creature in the hollow of the knee. The force of his blow and the razor point of the steel pick sheared off its leg, and it fell; it grabbed for him but he dodged aside, planting the pick into its ribs; another strike punctured a lung. The beast gasped and lay still, but Thob’s weapon was already aloft again, and the plunging point smote through the creature’s skull.
   Thob was victorious—but he didn’t feel like it. This wasn’t like the hyenas: they were animals, but this… despite its feathers and antennae, it was almost dwarf-like. They could think and speak like dwarves. True, it had attacked him first, but that didn’t change the fact that he had brought death to a sentient creature. It made him feel…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob drew quickly away from the grisly scene. He would not be the same dwarf when he returned to Dawngloves. He would be changed, somehow older—a hardened individual.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on June 25, 2020, 07:28:58 am
A lust god with a hentai temple, these are the kind of random funny things that make me like this game so much.

Also if Thob was traumatized by the imagery on the walls lets just glad for his sake there was no basement.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on June 25, 2020, 03:47:11 pm
I love this update!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on June 29, 2020, 08:27:20 pm
Quote from: TheFlame52 on June 25, 2020, 03:47:11 pm
I love this update!
Glad to hear it! It's good to have feedback. And I agree, it's a pretty good one (the book is my favorite part, because of course Thob would write a book about stealing books :P)

Here's another brief intermission - I'll still do a proper update sometime this week:

Again Thob passed down the dry valley to Dawngloves. It was now midspring.

When he showed his only find, the artifact mug, to King Urvad, the spooky noble recognized it at once:
(https://i.imgur.com/wAPfhZN.png)
   “Thank you for returning my—ah, our treasure… the treasure of the Sandaled Key.” He turned the beautiful goblet over in his bony hands. “And where’s the rest?”
   “That’s it,” said Thob.
   “What do you mean ‘that’s it’? That’s not it. I told you to bring all the artifacts from Scarredpaddles, yes?”
   “Well, they weren’t there. That’s all I found—and not even in Scarredpaddles.”
   The king screwed up one eye very tightly, and his thin lips started to quiver. “You aren’t… holding out on me, are you? Because that would be… most unwise.”
   “No, I am not holding out on you,” Thob replied, exasperated. “I walked all the way to Scarredpaddles and back, at your request, and on the way I got lost in the caverns, attacked by monsters, ambushed by hyenas, whipped in the chest, and rained on—and all I found was that cup! You should have guessed that stuff wouldn’t stay put for three hundred years, if it’s really so all-fired valuable! You ought to be glad I went at all!”
   The king was visibly taken aback by Thob’s vehemence. After a pause he seemed to relent a little, though his voice was markedly cold. “Perhaps… you are right. No doubt some of my rivals got to Scarredpaddles before I.” He looked at the mug again. “You have done well, considering. You may go.”
   “Wait a minute,” said Thob as the king turned away. “What about the booze? And the brewer?”
   “Don’t fool yourself,” Urvad snapped. “You’ve been out there, you’ve seen what it’s like. There’s nothing left—nothing—no kingdoms, no towns, no breweries, no booze. It’s all gone, and it’s been gone for a long, long time.”
   Thob was stunned. “No booze… anywhere?”
   “Nowhere anyone knows.”
   “How… how did you survive?”
   “Me?” Urvad shrugged. “Never touch the stuff.” And with that he walked away.

A dwarven king who didn’t drink. Thob guessed he had seen everything now.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on June 30, 2020, 09:30:14 am
Ahahaha. Poor Thob. Does he even realize his king is a guy with a penchant for zombies?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 04, 2020, 08:48:27 pm
Thob had had enough of empty promises and vague directions at Dawngloves. Tomorrow he’d set out on his own. He might be a dwarf alone and basically lost in a strange world, but he knew a thing or two about adventuring now. Besides, things were getting desperate:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All the next day he spent marching, back through the desert and into the dry hills beyond. Toward evening he struck a road heading north:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was barely a dirt track now, overgrown with dense grasses, but still discernable. He followed it until it branched in two: the left-hand path leading due north, the right hand north and east. Here Thob halted. There were no signs or anything else to suggest which way to go. So, Thob reached into his pouch and took out a silver coin—there wasn’t anything to buy, or anywhere to buy it, but he kept some lucky coins on hand.
He flipped the coin—heads for left path, tails for right. It came up tails.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Perhaps, Thob thought, it was unwise to follow the advice of a coin depicting a bunch of dwarves being killed. It almost seemed like a warning. But it was just a coin; and anyway, he had already made up his mind.

By midmorning the next day he was well into the northern hills. Coming over a ridge he saw a curious sight.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Large areas of the terrain had been cleared of trees and divided up into oddly-shaped patches: uneven but clearly not natural. Little clusters of structures sat in the middle of the clearings. Thob thought he saw movement out to the east, but couldn’t tell what it might be.

He approached the nearest of the clearings, and the patchwork landscape came into focus: fields, just like the plump helmet farms back home. They were planted with some strange surface crops—well, they had once been planted, he guessed; after some centuries they had gone awfully to seed.
   At last he was among the buildings:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It must have been some sort of village, like the hillocks he’d been to. Only the buildings weren’t made of stone or earth, but from the wood of the above-ground “trees,” which felt a lot harder and heavier than fungiwood or tower-cap.
   Of course, no one was around, but there were a few statues here and there. They didn’t look like dwarves, though: they were roughly the same shape, but distinctly taller and less bearded. And the houses seemed to be built for folk almost half again Thob’s height. He’d heard of supposed “giants”—maybe the people who used to live here gave rise to those rumors?

More importantly, did they know how to brew alcohol? There was a much larger settlement to the north—maybe he’d find something there.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on July 05, 2020, 11:27:59 am
Maybe a human will be the one to save the dwarves from their sobriety!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on July 06, 2020, 03:29:16 am
Hopefully someone still has booze, as a future without booze is a future I don't want anything to do with.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 06, 2020, 08:36:00 pm
Cities of the Dead

A wide paved road led between rows of houses, all run-down, some falling in on themselves. As in the small village, the houses were sized for someone noticeably taller than Thob. They seemed to look down on him as he passed between the rows.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He walked through the desolate streets until he came to a high wall of white stone, encircling an inner town. The towering gates opened slowly, creaking on hinges almost rusted through, and Thob stepped into the narrow streets beyond.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here the houses were bigger, and older. Two tower-like mansions stood side-by-side by the road, overgrown gardens lying before them. The towers were in absolute shambles, a mess of collapsed walls, fallen pillars, and broken stairways. But among the ruins Thob saw the remains of grandeur, such as the vast feasting tables in the southern tower.

As he surveyed the wreckage Thob noticed that, while much of the decay was due to time, in many places the destruction seemed deliberate. Evidence of burning, battering, and the blows of axes and hammers still marked many of the torn-down buildings. This town hadn’t been abandoned on a whim: whoever had lived here had been driven out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He wandered up the main hill until he reached the fortress at the top, surrounded by a curtain wall of the same white rock. A nearby sign called it “The Invisible Palace,” which Thob didn’t understand—he could see it perfectly.
   The palace was deserted, like everything else. In the dark throne room, though, he found a few books lying around: if these people kept some records he might find out what had happened. He picked up a small book called “Factual Human”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He didn’t know why anyone would write so incriminating a document: was this some sort of confession, or were assassinations a thing these “humans” took pride in? Either way, at least he knew what these tall folk had been called. Maybe he’d meet one yet.

He went back down into the outer town, still on the hunt for a tavern. Just as he passed through the eastern gate, however, a detestable smell met his nostrils:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He didn’t see anything dead, though, and the smell was faint, as if… as if something dead had been here a while ago. But there was no sign of scavengers feeding either…

At last, as evening was coming on, Thob spotted the unmistakable sign of a tavern! And what a tavern—even in its ruined state, it was enormous, and he could only imagine what a place it would have been in its day:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But his joy was short-lived. Although the place was stocked with dozens of huge casks, not a single one had even a vestige of alcohol. What sort of booze-draining plague had struck this country? No wonder the town was abandoned.

Night was coming, and Thob looked for a relatively stable shelter. As he drifted through the streets, he heard a shuffling noise—then came the awful smell again, but far stronger. Suddenly, something shambled from the ruins:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It—she?—it was clearly dead a long time, although well-preserved—yet there it was, walking towards him. Walking? No, it was running, straight for Thob with its claw-like fingers raised. Its black mouth gaped horribly.
   There was no time to run. Thob swung his pick and struck the thing’s foot. The desiccated flesh gave way, tore, and the corpse collapsed to the street. But it kept fighting. A scratch barely missed Thob, and he sank his pick into the thing’s abdomen with a sickening squelch. But he couldn’t pull it out; it was stuck. As he was trying the corpse kicked him across the face—the blow bruised him, but it also wrenched the weapon free. With a final swing Thob broke open the creature’s skull. It lay still—but he watched it for some time afterward, just to make sure.

So maybe the town wasn’t abandoned just from lack of booze. Just maybe it had something to do with dead things coming back to life.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on July 07, 2020, 11:43:04 am
I'm starting to think Thob is a necromagnet
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 13, 2020, 10:38:33 am
You don't need to be a magnet for undead to find you in this world.


Thob made it back to the castle, where he spent the night—he figured it was the safest place, and probably no one would mind.

Expecting there’d be little point to keep searching the town (unless he wanted to get jumped by the undead again) next morning Thob decided to move on. He could see another fortress not far away to the north.
   On the northern outskirts of town he found a marvelous structure: a vast temple, ruined but still magnificent.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The statues around the building depicted Egesh Bravedheather—this was “The Shrine of Worth,” a temple of the Communion of Saints! The carved walls depicted many ancient priests, some humans, others dwarves, and others stranger creatures: Thob saw a reptile man and even a troglodyte dressed in priestly garb. Clearly the Communion was much more than the obscure cult he had always thought it to be.
   He felt it appropriate to offer a few words to Egesh—after all, her blessing appeared to have gotten him this far.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…he didn’t really know how to pray, though. Should he start with some kind of icebreaker?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Egesh didn’t say anything. Maybe she didn’t like him enough?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Maybe he should just say what was on his mind.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hmmm…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…
This prayer thing seemed a little one-sided to him. But he felt he’d done his duty, anyway. He left the Shrine and continued to the north.

The castle overlooked a small, abandoned village. Thob became eager when he saw the castle’s name on an old sign: “Beer-Yearling.” A promising name!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The fortress was built of microcline, shining softly turquoise in the light. The walls were high, but the front gate was rickety and opened easily. No one was around. Probably, Thob guessed, it was another desolate ruin, like the rest of them.
   He went over to the keep and swung the old doors open—and saw a living person! She was about his size, though slimmer; long hair of a striking scarlet color fell down her back; she had a daintily upturned nose, and big, round eyes framed by long lashes.
   She was, however, green:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   She started when she saw him. “Well,” she said, “you’re not what I was expecting. Have you come to get me out?”
   “Uh—not exactly. I was looking for booze.”
   She blinked. “Well, would you mind getting me out?”
   “…the door’s unlocked, you know. Couldn’t you get out yourself?”
   “With all those zombies out there? I have a dress and a thin stone knife—how long do you think I’d last?”
   “Alright… anywhere in particular you’re going?”
   “Anywhere but here. I’ve been trapped here way too long.”
   “How long?”
   “Oh, I don’t know for sure. I lost track after about two hundred years.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob must have heard that wrong. “Excuse me,” he said, “but… are you well? You look a bit, um, off-color.”
   “I guess I am a little pale. Comes of being stuck in a tower so long.”
   “That’s… not what I meant. You’re green.”
   “I’m in no mood for jokes,” she said. But when she saw the surprise in Thob’s face she arched an eyebrow. “You really don’t know, do you? What rock did you crawl out from?”
   Thob pointed out the window to the distant southern mountains. “That one, I think.”
   She raised her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a while. “Just my luck,” she muttered.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on July 13, 2020, 11:53:33 am
Quote from: Loam on July 13, 2020, 10:38:33 am
“You really don’t know, do you? What rock did you crawl out from?”
   Thob pointed out the window to the distant southern mountains. “That one, I think.”

I laughed. :))
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on July 13, 2020, 08:19:08 pm
Well the good news is she's not undead.

I don't suppose Thob is lucky enough that she knows anything about brewing or distillery.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on July 14, 2020, 04:54:20 am
A potential friend all the way out here in the middle of these lands of the dead?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on July 14, 2020, 11:33:33 am
Quote from: King Zultan on July 14, 2020, 04:54:20 am
A potential friend all the way out here in the middle of these lands of the dead?
Apparently. Said potential friend also appears to be a goblin... and Thob is ignorantly blundering around, so he doesn't even seem to know what a goblin is.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 14, 2020, 06:25:57 pm
Quote from: King Zultan on July 14, 2020, 04:54:20 am
A potential friend all the way out here in the middle of these lands of the dead?
The world is full of potential friends. You never know - that zombie might be an old friend you haven't met in a while!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on July 15, 2020, 11:45:58 am
Quote from: Loam on July 14, 2020, 06:25:57 pm
The world is full of potential friends. You never know - that zombie might be an old friend you haven't met in a while!
Well, an old former friend. As it turns out, zombies - even zombie friends - don't take too kindly to the living.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 22, 2020, 09:23:07 pm
In which, as it happens, Thob meets some old friends:


The goblin (as she called herself) was named Strodno Ursourar. And Thob hadn’t heard wrong—according to Strodno, goblins did in fact live forever. “Not that it’s always a blessing,” she said, glancing back at the castle they had just left.
   “So,” said Thob, to make conversation, “what’d you do before you got, uh, stuck in there?”
   “I was a surgeon for a while. That’s how I became a holy meadow.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “A what?”
   “I forgot—you don’t know anything. I’m a priestess of Egesh Bravedheather, goddess of healing.”
   “No kidding! That’s who I worship. Well, ‘worship’ is a bit strong, I guess, but I try to, you know, keep in touch with her, generally…”
   “Would you be quiet? You’ll wake the undead.”
   Strodno didn’t seem to like him much. Thob tried to ease the mood with a few jokes and kind words, but that just made it worse:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She liked telling jokes, but Thob’s apparently weren’t good enough for her.

They were heading southeast, towards some of the old villages near the town, which Strodno called “Confineface.” As they walked and talked, a certain smell lingered in the air: the smell of death, getting stronger. Suddenly Strodno grabbed Thob’s arm, and pointed off to the south. A figure was approaching them, a tall creature with long, unkempt hair. The figure was completely naked and, apparently, quite dead.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Strodno began to run away, which Thob considered a good idea; but after a few steps she stopped. “No,” she muttered, “not this time. They stuck me in that castle… I will have my revenge!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Back me up!” she shouted to Thob, and rushed at the zombie.
   An ornamental gemstone knife, unsurprisingly, was not a great weapon, even against bare decaying flesh. But neither was Thob’s pick—both hacked at the corpse, tearing great gashes in its limbs, but nothing seemed to take it down. Suddenly it lunged at Strodno and bowled her over, collapsing on top of her. Rotting fingers reached for her face—until the steel pick pierced into its skull, and it went limp.
   “If you’re going to charge into battle,” said Thob, “we need to get you a better weapon. And some armor.” He scanned the horizon. “I think I’ve got it. Come on.”

The smell of death remained constant as they passed through old hamlets on the way, and obscure figures moved in the misty distance.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Watch it,” said Strodno, “this place is crawling with zeds.” She pointed to the east. “Looks like they’re coming from the tower.”
   “Good. They’ll be gone when we get there.”
   “You’re going to the tower?!”
   “Sure!” Thob said. “Those places are loaded with loot—with any luck, we’ll find some armor in your size.” She just stared at him.
   Just as they approached the village they heard voices—quite a few voices. They crouched, sneaking through the grass until they could see the interlocutors.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A living dwarf! And not just any dwarf—Thob recognized him as Ducim Woodflew, a fellow from Lawmined. What was he doing way up here?
   “Ducim!” he called—Strodno flinched and began looking around worriedly—“It’s me, Thob!”
   Ducim squinted at him. “It is you!” he said. “Hey guys, it’s Thob! ‘e’s alive!”
   At this a posse of dwarves came running.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “When ye didn’t come back,” said Ducim, “we gave ye up for dead. Say—ye ever find any booze?”
   “No; I’m still looking. That’s why I haven’t come back. But why are you out here?”
   “Same reason as you—Nish sent the lot o’ us out for alcohol! It’s an important mission.” Ducim seemed to notice Strodno for the first time. “Who’s this, Thob?” he asked. “Ye all right, ma’am? Ye look a bit… green.” Strodno’s face fell.

Thob and the dwarves from Lawmined chatted for some time, swapping stories about their adventures. Many in Ducim’s crew were pale and retching—signs Thob knew all too well.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “It’s that blasted bright devil up there,” said Ducim. “What kind o’ hell is this ‘surface’?”
   “That’s nothing,” said Thob, “compared to the monsters. Put the cavern beasts to shame, they do.”
   They listened attentively to his admittedly embellished tales. “A hyena,” he said, when asked, “it’s a bit like a manera, but… ten times the size! And it travels in packs of twenty or more!”
   “And ye killed them all? More to ye than I thought, Thob.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   But the day was getting on, and with all those things roaming around Strodno looked worried—apparently she didn’t trust a group of armed dwarves against some half-rotten zombies. Thob thought he’d best be moving on: “Maybe we could travel together?” he asked Ducim.
   The other dwarf, however, shook his head. “We’re hardly in travelling condition,” he said, looking at his vomiting companions. “And anyway, travel where? It’s all ruins—no one around but the undead. I’ve half a mind to head back to Lawmined.”
   “I’m not stopping till I’ve had a drink,” said Thob. “I guess we’ll just keep poking through the rubble, then.”
   “Well, good luck to ye,” said Ducim. “Watch yerself out there, Thob.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on July 23, 2020, 04:53:38 am
Meeting friends from the fortress so far from it, is that unusual?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on July 23, 2020, 07:58:33 pm
I'm interested in where this is going.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheImmortalRyukan on July 26, 2020, 09:32:34 pm
This is pretty good, ptw
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on July 27, 2020, 06:30:31 pm
Quote from: King Zultan on July 23, 2020, 04:53:38 am
Meeting friends from the fortress so far from it, is that unusual?
Well I certainly wasn't expecting it. Considering Thob's one of maybe 100 dwarves still living in this part of the world, meeting more of them is always a noteworthy happening!

Quote from: TheImmortalRyukan on July 26, 2020, 09:32:34 pm
This is pretty good, ptw
Thanks! I like an audience :)


As Thob and Strodno left the village, they were surprised to see another dwarf ahead of them. This one, however, looked somewhat less healthy:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And not far away, on a furrowed hillside, a thin, stringy sort of creature shambled towards them:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once again, Strodno charged in ferociously, with Thob behind her. Good thing the zombies were so clumsy—they didn’t land a hit, but not because they didn’t have the chance. And the only way Thob could see to kill them was a pick to the head: nothing else even slowed them down.
   “So just why don’t people stay dead around here?” he asked, pulling his pick from the zombie’s skull.
   “Well, that’s a long story,” said Strodno. “But I’ll tell you—it has something to do with that tower you insist on going to.”
   Suddenly there was a whistling sound and a thock! as a crossbow bolt buried itself in a nearby tree. Coming up the hill towards them was a hideous creature: small but strapped with huge muscles, armored in gray scales, baring fearsome mandibles—and surrounded by a cloud of vapor pouring from its skin:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Uh-oh,” said Strodno, “Thob, that’s no ordinary zombie! We’ve got to run!”
   But the thing loaded another bolt in its crossbow—it certainly had more dexterity than the other undead—and taking aim at Thob. He raised his buckler just as the bolt struck, and it bounced away, leaving a nasty dent. The creature was now running toward them, trailing smoke as it came:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Don’t think we have time for that,” said Thob, “it’d just shoot us anyway!”
   He and Strodno closed with the monster. Thick steam obscured Thob’s vision so he could barely make out his opponent, but he swung with all his might He felt clothing and flesh rip: fortunately the thing wasn’t armored. But as he had learned, body hits barely hurt the undead. He glimpsed Strodno land a kick on its shoulder that made bones snap, but the creature still moved like nothing had happened.
   In the confusion of smoke and blows, he felt a sudden impact that sent him sprawling—it was Strodno! She had charged the monster, missed, and slammed straight into him. Now she stood over him, slashing with her dagger; the beast deflected the strike with its crossbow, then aimed for the goblin. With a lunge, Thob swung the pick as high as he could—and, praise Egesh, it split the creature’s head in two.
   The smoke began to fade away. “We did it, Thob,” Strodno said, “we killed it.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “And what was ‘it’ exactly? I’ve seen creatures like this before, but not undead ones.”
   “They're called ‘soldiers of Ral’: twisted experiments made by necromancers. This one, though, was a bleak slayer—one of the toughest kinds of undead. We’re lucky to be alive.” She looked at him. “Maybe you’re not so hopeless after all.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Necromancers?” Thob said. “Experiments? Bleak Slayers? What is going on up here?”
   “I guess I need to tell you that long story. Or as much as I know.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on July 27, 2020, 08:32:27 pm
Yes! Tell, tell! :)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on July 28, 2020, 06:31:12 am
Gather around the campfire everyone, it's story time.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on August 01, 2020, 01:03:22 pm
Alright, lots of text comin' y'all's way in this update, but there's no better way to do exposition:


MANY CENTURIES ago, these lands were the home of two great human realms: the Equal Kingdom and the Ferocious Kingdoms. They lived in peace with each other, and with the three dwarven folks to the south—the Sandaled Key, the Ring of Chance, and the Short Gem.

Maybe they’d be here today if not for one person: a woman named Álat Bookbridges.

Álat was a minor official in Trampledlearned, the biggest city in the Equal Kingdom. For years she was just another citizen, until one day she began to be really afraid of death. Now, being a goblin, I don’t really understand how it must feel knowing that, no matter how careful you are to keep out of danger and practice good hygiene, you’ll still end up dead. So I can’t really judge Álat for doing what she did. But I can’t excuse it either. She prayed to one of the dark gods—one of the worst of the dark gods—Vispol Freeknighted the Ashen Law of Matching.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And Vispol answered her prayers: he taught her not only how to cheat death, but how to command it—how to bend the forces of life and death to her will, how to raise the dead and control them, and other, darker powers.

Power comes at a price, though, in this case Álat’s soul. She changed, became more anxious, more paranoid, more grasping, more ambitious—above all, more afraid.

She lived in Trampledlearned for another thirty years, until people began to realize she wasn’t aging like the rest of them. They got suspicious, she got paranoid, and she ran away into the hills. There she hunted out a store of corpses, an ancient battlefield, and raised them to serve her; and she built the first of those many towers, just like that one we’re headed for, and called it Blownslings.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

She was queen of her little undead domain, but that didn’t amount to much at first. Slowly, though, her power grew: she sought out more corpses to swell her ranks; meanwhile other humans heard about her powers and went to learn from her. In a few centuries she had an army and a coven of warlocks around her.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then, sometime early in the 3rd century, she attacked the Equal Kingdom.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At first she was wildly successful—no one was prepared for the undead scourge, and her army swarmed through small towns and villages until they overran one of the major cities of the kingdom, Scouredtruthful.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But pretty soon the humans wised up: the two kingdoms joined forces and fought back. Álat’s army was hardly a well-trained fighting force, and they crumbled under the counterattack.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Fighting went back and forth for a few decades, but around mid-century the humans pushed to Blownslings and destroyed it, taking Álat and her coven as prisoners and slaves.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everyone thought that’d be the end of it. But not too long afterward we started hearing about awful things happening among the dwarves: the long dead rising to destroy the living. This was the early 300s, now. There were rumors all over the region of towers rising in the wilderness almost overnight. We learned soon enough that not all of Álat’s coven had been rounded up: some had fled into the hills, starting their own covens. Other humans—and dwarves, as we learned—were coming to them to learn the secret, while others were making their own deals with the dark gods. Álat had started a movement.

But these new necromancers did even worse things than Álat. I guess it was the power—just went to their heads—but they didn’t just want to not die. They wanted to become gods: to create things according to their own sick designs. The warlocks did… experiments on the people the conquered.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They made them into all those weird creatures you’ve seen, like the one we just killed. And those are the experiments that worked—the failures… well, they had even worse results.

   “Like… the hyenas?”
   “…no. The hyenas are normal.”

The mortal realms put up a good defense, but it just wasn’t enough. The dwarves fell first. Then the Ferocious Kingdoms, which had been almost untouched, were overrun in one fell swoop. Finally the Equal Kingdom, the last mortal remnant, was reduced to a handful of survivors huddled in ruined hamlets.

“But if the necromancers took over everything,” said Thob, “why aren’t they around now?” He gestured to the empty tower before them. “What happened to them?”
   “As it turns out,” said Strodno, “the only thing a necromancer hates worse than the living is another necromancer. Each tower was home to a separate coven, all of them vying for power. Soon they were attacking each other more than the remaining mortals. Towns and towers were razed and left abandoned, undead destroyed or driven into the wilderness. By the 5th century there was only one real power left: the Plates of Scouring, based in Brightplums.”
   “And what happened to them?”
   “Well, that was about the time I was captured and stuffed in a castle for six hundred years. So I’m not sure.”
   “How did you learn all this, anyway? Were you just there for it?”
   “Partially: remember, I’m old. I lived in Trampledlearned, or what was left of it, for a good while. But most of it I got from the beak dog’s mouth.

I was captured in Trampledlearned in 410, I think. For years I was kept in a vast tomb complex, until that was attacked and I was taken to Castle Beeryearling. But soon after that someone else arrived at the castle: Álat Bookbridges.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She had escaped the Equal Kingdom’s dungeons and went off into the hills again, building a new tower. She started fighting again in the early 300s—but by this point she was just fighting other necromancers. Her new tower was eventually destroyed by another coven, the Pristine Rags, in the 440s; she escaped from them when the Equal Kingdom destroyed their fortress, and came to Beeryearling. She was there long enough to tell me the story, but she left the next year. I don’t know what happened to her then.

   “So all that I read about dwarves raising the dead… it’s true?”
   “Probably.”
   “So those dwarves I met in Quakegloves… really are hundreds of years old?”
   “Very likely.”
   “And they’re necromancers?”
   “Almost certainly. Hiding from other necromancers and anyone who remembers the Death Wars—which I suppose isn’t many people. You’ll have to be careful who you trust: anyone who's still alive, probably isn't alive naturally.”
   Thob shuddered. Who else among his kindred—even at Dawngloves, or Lawmined—might be a sorcerer?


The regular adventure will continue in the next update, which I'll try to get up tomorrow or Monday.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheImmortalRyukan on August 01, 2020, 02:34:38 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Loved the info dump, really is amazing the worlds DF can make
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on August 01, 2020, 02:56:21 pm
That's some impressive storytelling! I love the narratives the new update creates.

But what happened to the elves?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on August 02, 2020, 06:19:43 am
Probably got eaten by zombies like everyone else.

At some point our quest might shift from finding booze to finding and killing all remaining necromancers.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on August 02, 2020, 09:33:36 am
Legends Mode is unequivocally my favorite way to play. I have endless fun diving through the wacky soap operas it generates.

In this last research session the best I found was the tragedy of Ohe Wispsweetness, a member of Alat's coven. Ohe was a tavern keeper in Trampledlearned for many years until he was made high doctor. In this position he was approached by Alat to embezzle funds from the government - this was while Alat was the town building official and was taking orders from Bosa Witchguards, a goblin underworld boss.
   In 84 Ohe learned the secret of life and death from Uja Fondledcloaks, Alat's apprentice, embarking on his own career of evil. He taught his own apprentice, Uram Lightspires, and managed to corrupt the baron of Trampledlearned with bribes. Sadly his plans were cut short when he was ambushed by Sana Partnerbasements, leader of a local mob (the Tactical Gullies); he was subdued, convicted of treason (against the mob!) and executed - in Blownslings. I can't for the life of me figure out what Ohe did to cross the mob - he has absolutely no connection to them - but for some reason they came after him.
   But Ohe's story isn't over. In 137 - ten years after his death - he was raised by Alat as a rotten one. But he wasn't able to accomplish anything, even in undeath, because once again Sana Partnerbasements shows up, subdues zombie Ohe, convicts zombie Ohe of treason against the mob again, and executes him.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Moral of the story: don't cross the mob. They will kill you, and then they will kill you again.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   However Ohe did get revenge, of a sort. In 182 Sana died of old age. Uram Lightspires, Ohe's apprentice, wasn't going to let that stand: she went to the mob's fort, raised Sana's corpse as a rotten one, and made the undead mob boss into the leader of the coven's armies. Zombie Sana led the attacks on the Equal Kingdom in 220 until she was struck down by a dwarf - giving her the violent death I suppose Uram thought she deserved...

Quote from: TheFlame52 on August 01, 2020, 02:56:21 pm
But what happened to the elves?
As far as I can tell there were never any elves in this part of the world. What elves there are seem to have trickled in from other places.

Quote from: King Zultan on August 02, 2020, 06:19:43 am
At some point our quest might shift from finding booze to finding and killing all remaining necromancers.
Despite my best efforts the story is shaping up to have an actual plot. It was inevitable, I suppose.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on August 03, 2020, 02:20:03 pm
They made it to the tower grounds without incident. Thob began checking the nearby barrows for treasure: sure enough, he managed to scrounge a full suit of armor for Strodno, along with a sword and buckler. It was an eclectic panoply, and a bit rusty, but still better than nothing.

With some trepidation they entered the tower—but it was as quiet within as without. There were, to Thob’s delight, many books lying around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Don’t go reading too hastily!” said Strodno. “Some of these books are… dangerous.”
   “What do you mean? They’re just books.”
   “Just… don’t read any written in blood or bound in dwarf skin, please?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob read cautiously, but he didn’t see the problem. The books seemed innocuous enough. Most were minor autobiographies or guides to various places, but here and there was an occasional work of literature.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Among the guidebooks Thob was intrigued to find a scroll about Lawmined, written by a former resident who, apparently, didn’t think much of the old homestead:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The most interesting autobiographies came from one Lorbam Faintpaint. His necromantic experiments gave Thob chills, but his attempts at intrigue were pretty laughable. His writing was kind of downer, though.
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The necromancers seemed to have a tendency toward pettiness—particularly towards old flames. One Thîkut Granitepointed wrote two essays about his ex Asmel: Asmel Helmsbrass and the Coming Troubles (about their marriage), and Victory by the Dwarves (about their divorce).
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And then there was Lon Socketlistened’s stunningly self-indulgent The World Without Bestra Subtlelanterns:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Frankly he wondered how such petty people could have conquered the world. But maybe having an army of zombies made things easier.

Having loaded his pack with the worthiest books—even necromancer knowledge, he reasoned, was worth saving—Thob and Strodno headed out. The sun was going down. There were some huts to the south—some huts, and a lot of things roaming around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He and Strodno conversed a bit as they went. She seemed a little more well-disposed towards him; she even laughed at his jokes!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I’ve been thinking,” she said. “I think something strange is going on.”
   “You mean, something other than the zombies and mutants and whatnot?”
   “Obviously. I meant… coincidences. How many dwarves from Lawmined are in the Communion of Saints?”   
   “Just me, I think.”
   “Thought so. But you’re the dwarf who got me—a priestess of the Communion—out of the castle. Didn’t you tell me you prayed at Egesh’s temple just before that?”
   “I see what you mean. And before that, she blessed me with good luck.”
   “Well, all that got me thinking… what if they’re not coincidences? What if they’re signs?”
   “Signs? Of what?”
   “There’s a holy relic of our religion that was stolen a long time ago. It’s called Puresuns—a beautiful jewel sacred to Egesh. Guess who has it now?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Hold on, now,” said Thob, “I’ve been to Brightplums. It’s scary! I didn’t even get to the tower.”
   “But I’ve seen you tackle the undead…”
   “One at a time.”
   “…and you said you’d recovered artifacts before…”
   “Yes, but not ones guarded by zombies.”
   “You’ve got to have some faith! I’m sure this is why Egesh brought us together—so we could recover Puresuns from that witch’s grasp.”
   “Look Strod,” he said. “Faith is all well and good, but blind luck isn’t worth much against the witch-queen of the whole world and her army of zombies. And I’m just one dwarf—one dwarf who has gone without a drink for far too long. I’d need a stiff drink or fifteen before tackling that task.”
   “I didn’t mean right this second,” she said. “We’ll need to be a lot better outfitted… and maybe find some extra hands to help. But just… think about it, okay?”
   “I can’t really think about anything but booze,” said Thob. “Tell you what: you help me find some alcohol, then I’ll think about getting this Puresuns back. Deal?”
   “Alright, Thob,” she said. “We’ll try to find you a drink. If I remember correctly there’s more towns to the north—maybe there’s some alcohol left. We’ll head out tomorrow.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on August 04, 2020, 05:55:19 am
And suddenly another epic quest appears, how will we overcome this challenge, maybe it'll require booze...   Oh wait we don't have any.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on August 10, 2020, 07:10:15 pm
Death and Blisters

They sheltered for the night in a reasonable sound house. When Thob awoke he heard the patter of rain on the roof overhead. That was never a good sign.
   “I was thinking last night,” he said to Strodno when she got up, “I should have a better image—a persona of sorts.”
   “Pardon?”
   “Well, if I’m going to be a big-time undead hunter I need a properly undead-hunter-y name. Something that sounds intriguing and just a little dangerous, so folks know I mean business. Something like…”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “…sure. Sure, Thob. Makes sense. You’re a mystery to me.”

They stepped out into the rainy morning, and the smell of death rolled toward them on the breeze.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were awful sounds coming from the west, also, not far off: clanging, banging, and every so often the squelch of tearing flesh.
   “Alright, Mr. Mysterious the Undead Hunter,” said Strodno, “sound like a job for you?”
   Thob led the way, creeping down the hillside. As the dale below came into clear view he spotted a green-skinned figure clutching a crossbow: another goblin! Though, not a very lively one…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Another bleak slayer,” whispered Strodno. “If we’re lucky it won’t see us, and…”
   They weren’t lucky. It turned to face them and aimed the crossbow.
   Strodno and he drew weapons and rushed in, but almost immediately Thob regretted it. He saw where the smell of death was coming from: a pile of rotting bodies lay heaped at a crossroads. Amongst the carnage stood four other undead figures, armed and armored in bronze and iron.
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One was an experiment: a black-feathered beast with a curved iron scimitar, covered in awful wounds:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob figured they were doomed against so many undead, and bleak slayers at that. But as he looked he saw that the monsters were fighting… with each other. They dealt powerful blows, hammering at each other’s armor and shields with all their unnatural strength—and they seemed unaware of Thob and Strodno.
   But there was no more time to watch—they were upon the ex-goblin marksman, whose bolts had whizzed by inches from Thob’s head. Strodno and he laid stroke upon stroke on the monster, but as usual their strikes seemed to do too little; the zombie dealt kicks and punches, and Strodno took a few bad hits. But at last Thob saw his opportunity and swung for the head.
   The zombie collapsed—but before they had time to think, one of the other bleak slayers spotted Thob, turned and… pointed at him:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
His skin all over felt like it had been rubbed on a rough rock at high speeds, and red blisters formed on his flesh:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Aaaaaaargh!” he cried. “What’s going on?!”
   “It cast a spell!” said Strodno.
   “You didn’t tell me they had magic powers, too!”
   “Come on!” she yelled, “let’s get out of here!”
   He certainly wasn’t sticking around. They left the slayers to fight by themselves.

*   *   *

   “Oh, come on Thob. It’s just blisters. It could have been much worse, believe me.”
   Thob had been moaning and groaning the whole time as they walked north, away from the tower. “But what if they’re infected? What if they mutate into some zombifying cancer? What if…?”
   “Trust me, you’ll be fine. I used to be a doctor, remember?”
   The land to the north was a flat region of plains, surrounding a marshy area in the center. From here they could see a number of settlements and structures—towers, mostly—but what stood out the most were two enormous buildings very nearby.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They looked a lot like the barrows that surrounded the necromancer towers, only much, much bigger. The larger of the two structures here covered a wide area and stood ten stories tall:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “What is it?”
   “A human tomb,” said Strodno. “They built them for their leaders. From the size, this must have belonged to a really important person.”
   Thob went over to the door and tested the handle. It wasn’t fastened too tightly. He fished a bit of wire from his pack and began bending it.
   “What are you doing?” asked Strodno.
   “Picking the lock.”
   “Wait, Thob, don’t—!” But he had already gotten the door open. Peering within he made out a long hallway, empty except for a slab in the middle. He crept inside.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The ‘Boss’? Thob recalled Boss Nish from back home—he doubted if the dwarves of Lawmined would have built anything so grand for Nish!
   “Thob, we should leave,” said Strodno.
   “We haven’t even looked around! There might be treasures in here.”
   He climbed the nearby steps. Sure enough, a pile of grave goods lay in the center. Of course, the armor was too big for him, the weapons he didn’t know how to use, and the crafts and tools he had no use for. He took a step forward to look more closely—but caught sight of something amid the pile:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
No thanks. He’d been battered enough for one day—no need to get himself whipped in the chest again. Strodno seemed pleased to leave, anyway.
   On the way out they heard a rustling in the brush nearby. One of those “experiments,” the gray-feathered ones with antennae, spotted them. It seemed to want to run away, but before Thob knew it Strodno had drawn her weapons and charged the creature, laying into it for all she was worth:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The thing fought back, though it pleaded with the goblin to leave it alone, but Strodno kept the blows coming until—
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   “What was that for?” said Thob in bewilderment. He recalled when he had first killed one of these creatures.
   Strodno didn’t seem at all bothered by the death of a sentient. “They were made by the necromancers,” she said. “You never know which ones still work for them.”
   “But… it wasn’t bothering you. It wasn’t a zombie: it was a thinking, speaking being!”
   “We can’t afford to take chances, Thob. There’s no room for mercy in this world.”
   Thob eyed the goblin askance, but said nothing. He guessed he should remember: this was a much different world than the caverns where he was raised, a harder and harsher world. He should expect a little more cruelty from its inhabitants—it might even help them survive.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on August 24, 2020, 09:28:13 am
Sorry for the break there; I haven't been feeling very creative the past couple weeks.


The wanderers wended westward, walking by a wide river that wound through the wilderness.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Dusk began to close in, and with it came a chill in the air. Up till now the temperature had been, on average, warmer than the caverns; now it was distinctly colder. When they stopped at an abandoned village to camp, Thob noticed the river was a bit more solid than it should be:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strodno assured him this was normal. Normal for the surface, maybe, which wasn’t saying much.
   In the morning the water in Thob’s waterskin was also hard as a rock. He was momentarily distressed by the sudden change, until Strodno pointed out he could just warm it up.

There was another castle built by the riverside—abandoned, of course, but there were plenty of books inside:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Among them were a few books by “Mosus Presentracks”—a name Thob remembered as the author of several works he had found on his very first journey (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=176177.msg8140400#msg8140400)! By now he knew Mosus had been a necromancer; but one essay told about him working with the Sandaled Key to fight an undead invasion:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Defeating an undead horde seemed like a good reason to bubble with cheerfulness.

As they continued on, Strodno was getting more and more insistent about Puresuns:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I told you, not until we’ve found some beer!”
   “Just remember—you promised. It wouldn’t be smart to disappoint Egesh.”
   “If she’s so keen to get it done, she could make it rain good dwarven rum instead of water.”
   “That’s not how gods work.”
   “Hmph.” This whole “faith” thing seemed pretty one-sided.

The river passed through many small ruined hamlets. Most were uninteresting—but while they passed by one village Thob had the strange urge to knock on all the doors and check the huts for sweet pods:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He shook it off, though, and they moved on.

Late in the afternoon they caught sight of another large town, flanked by two towers:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There wasn’t enough sunlight to reach it today, so they found a nearby village and settled into the mead hall. They were just making their way there when tiny, cold flakes began to drift around them, dusting Thob’s beard:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Okay, Strodno,” he said, “I suppose this is normal, too?”
   “Yes. It’s water.”
   “Water is not flaky.”
   “It’s frozen water.”
   “You said frozen water was that hard slippery stuff—‘ice’ you called it.”
   “This is… frozen drops of water. It’s called ‘snow’.”
   Water had too many names. Sure, with booze you had beer, wine, spirits, etc., but those were distinct kinds of booze. Water was just water, tasteless as ever even if it was cold. It didn’t need all these names—it wasn’t parsimonious.
   “Would you mind if we got inside?” said Strodno. “I don’t want to stand around in this blizzard.”
   “You think you have it tough? Let me tell you about me and the Sun…”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on August 25, 2020, 05:17:24 am
The surface is like a whole new world, covered in hostile alien creatures and strange people that are all dead.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on September 04, 2020, 06:34:11 pm
It was even colder at dawn; what was more, the grass had disappeared.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Piles of the cold damp “snow” stuff covered everything to a depth over Thob’s ankles. It clung to his boots and trousers as he trudged through it. This was like walking through a pond, only it was also freezing.

The new town was not as big as the first Thob had seen, but it was still sizeable. They entered the empty streets of the outskirts under a sky that was uniformly dark and gray; the water falling from the clouds seemed unsure whether to be snow or rain.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The rain had soaked the bare dirt between the houses into mud, which was now mixed with the partly-melted snow into a soiled brown mush. It seemed a fitting complement to the dreary weather and the ruins all around.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Elsewhere, though, the streets were clear of both mud and snow; here in the outskirts some old fields bordered the rows of houses. There were small shrines in between the ruins as well, old statues and altars to human gods no one had worshipped in centuries. They passed one ominously inscribed “To the Doctrines of Death.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Cheery thing to worship,” said Thob.
   “You’d be surprised how many mortals did, though,” said Strodno. “It’s partly the reason we’re in this mess to begin with. Guess if you can’t avoid it, might as well try to make friends with it.”
   “I’d just as soon put it off long as I could. That’s one good reason to worship Egesh, I guess—as goddess of healing maybe she’ll keep things running a bit longer.”
   Strodno looked at him with a half-grin. “Why Thob,” she said, “that was almost pious. Sounds like your starting to have some faith.”
   Thob shrugged. “Well I’m not going to make a religion out of it, but… can’t hurt to be on her good side, right?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Much of the town had been built on the face of a steep hill. Houses often stretched out over the precipice, hanging on for dear life.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   As they scoured the streets they came across one building larger and more sound than the others. Thob pushed at the door; it swung open with difficulty, as if something behind it was in the way. And so it was—a lot of somethings:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was an old warehouse, said Strodno, where the humans kept their trade goods. They took a good look around, but most of the stuff was worthless: the clothes and armor were too big, and the rest was mainly trinkets. They might have had value a few hundred years ago, but now they were just bits of shiny scrap. Or… was that what they always were?
   Nearby, in an alley between two houses, Thob spotted a set of stairs descending into the earth.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He and Strodno took a peek inside: it was just a short tunnel, ending in a sudden drop into darkness. There were a few ancient skeletons—two humans, and olm man, and some large vaguely human-shaped thing—but nothing else.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Didn’t know the humans could dig,” he said. “Why’d they live on the surface, if they were perfectly capable of cutting streets in the stone?”
   “This looks like a sewer. Wasn’t exactly made for living in.”
   “Sewer? What’s that?”
   “…dwarves don’t build sewers? How do you… well, never mind. I don’t want to know.”

In the inner city, behind the walls, they found an old temple half-buried in the dirt:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was dedicated to the “Superior Faith.” Thob didn’t know what was so superior about it: most of the statues depicted the same event, some poor sod named Tor getting turned by this superior god into a pangolin:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   They made their way to the castle. It was still sound, more or less, but there was little inside, except for one book Thob found: a short poem called “Couples and the Woman”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Back in the outer town, near an intersection of two streets, Thob heard a strange noise. It sounded like running water, but was mixed with something almost like voices, and it seemed to come from below…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As they drew closer he could tell it was really voices, speaking in words he understood—and quite politely, actually.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The voices were drifting up from a grate in the road. Peering down, Thob saw a narrow stream of water flowing through a stone pipe, absolutely alive with and assortment of aquatic animal anthropomorphs: amphibian, serpent, reptile, and olm men and women. There seemed to be a human down there as well, but he wasn’t looking too lively.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Looks like there’s some folk still here, after all!” Thob said to Strodno. “I told you the sewers would make a good place to live.”
   The goblin just lifted an eyebrow; Thob turned to the grate and shouted down into the dark tunnel. “H’lo down there,” he said.
   The animal folk greeted them pleasantly, though they seemed surprised to see them. “Don’t ssssssee many dwarvesss thesse daysssss,” lisped a serpent woman. “Thought they were all long gone. What are you about sssso far from the mountainssss?”
   “Actually,” he said, “I’m looking for other dwarves—preferably of the beer-brewing persuasion.”
   “Asssssk the chieftesss,” she replied, “she’ll know if there’ssss dwarvesss to be found in thesssse partsss.”
   It took a bit of searching and asking to find the chieftess, a frail reptile woman—the sewer was so clogged with cold-blooded bodies it was hard to tell one from another, but eventually they found her.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob introduced himself. “Hi there,” he said. “I hear you’re the chieftess in this town. I’m Thob the Mysterious.”
   “Call me Uru,” replied the chieftess. “What makesss you sssso… mysssterioussss?”
   “Well… it’s just a name, really. But I do a little undead hunting, from time to time, you know.”
   “Don’t have to hunt for long, I bet,” said Uru, with a sort of guttural burble that Thob guessed was chuckling. “What do you need?”
   He asked about the local area, and whether there might be anyone else still around. Uru was a wealth of information. She knew all about the surrounding countryside, although mostly it seemed from hearsay. “All the humanssss are gone from thessse landsssss, as far as I know,” she said. “I’ve heard that ssssome still wander the ssssssouthern hillsss, but I’ve never been there.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In fact, sometimes her knowledge seemed just a little too complete. When discussing the local regions she would include what she knew of their history—which sometimes went back a thousand years!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I was mostly wondering,” said Thob, “if there’s any dwarves around anywhere?”
   “Dwarvessss? Hmmmm… only dwarvessss I remember lately are the couple over in Pepperdell. Odd ssssortsss, but that’s ssssurface folk for you.”
   “Pepperdell? Where’s that?”
   “A wayssss up to the north-eassst. It’ssss an old fort.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob thanked Uru for her help, and bid goodbye to the amphibian colony. Dusk was drawing near, so they would stay in town for the night—but in the morning they’d set out for Pepperdell. Chances were, Thob reasoned, that even if the dwarves there didn’t know how to brew they’d know someone who would.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on September 05, 2020, 05:18:20 am
Reptile people are a strange bunch hiding in cramped and wet tunnels when they could be living in one of the town's many empty buildings.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on September 21, 2020, 02:19:56 pm
Thob and Strodno set out from the town of the amphibian-folk, following a spur of the big river northward through the hills. By nightfall they were close to Pepperdell; from the heights they could see across the flat fields below to another line of hills in the distance, and Thob made out the shapes of hamlets and another large town.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “That’s Trampledlearned,” said Strodno, “once the greatest human city around—and the place where this whole mess started.”
   “Reckon there’s anyone left?”
   “I don’t know. It was pretty ruined when I was captured there, six centuries ago. But there may be some survivors.”

The next morning they came to the gates of Pepperdell. The fort sat beside a deep stream, its high walls of ancient oak logs towering over the prairie.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The gates creaked open and Thob went in, hoping to see some friendly bearded faces. But there seemed to be no one around.
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Just then, however, he heard a creaking and shuffling sound from an old bunkhouse. When he looked inside he did see some faces, though not bearded and not exactly friendly. Two dwarf women with long white hair stood in the house. They gave off a distinctly eerie aura:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Despite their spookiness Thob hailed them, meaning to ask for a drink, or at least for directions to one. The hags turned glassy, far-off eyes towards him, but made no reply.
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Maybe they were deaf? But they seemed to notice him—at least they looked frustrated at his continued attempts to greet them. Strodno couldn’t get a word out of them either. She turned to Thob. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this place. These dwarves don’t seem quite… here.”
   “Maybe we should take another look around,” said Thob.
   They did so; Thob inspected the rampart surrounding the fort, and found, surprisingly, that it was scattered with books and scrolls of all kinds.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They were all written by the local residents, Thob guessed: Edzul Slingpuzzle and Kumil Figureboat. Some were records of the fort itself, but others were autobiographies. And when Thob read these, he learned the shocking truth.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Memoirs of their marriages six hundred years ago? Touchingly sentimental for the undead. He knew he had recognized that vacant look in their faces from somewhere. “Those dwarves,” he said to Strodno, “they’re bleak slayers. Must be.”
   She corroborated his guess. “But why didn’t they attack us?” asked Thob.
   “Maybe the necromancers who revived them are dead,” she said, “so they don’t have to do their will anymore. Even so, I’m not eager to hang around here anymore.”
   “Me neither. Let’s get out before they change their minds!”

Leaving the haunted fort behind, they crossed the plains to Trampledlearned. The ruins of the city sprawled before them, shining in the evening twilight under a coat of snow. A paved road left the city on the opposite side, leading up to the north.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The town was as silent and dead as the others. They wandered the streets—Thob was, of course, looking for taverns—until nightfall, when they settled into one of the ruined houses to sleep.
   As Thob rose with the dawn and stepped outside, he thought he saw something, a figure of some sort, off in the distance, but he couldn’t make it out:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After he had eaten and unfrozen the water in his waterskin, though, the shape was gone.
   They approached the town keep in the early morning cold. Thob was expecting at most to find a few more books for the library. But as they drew near he heard noises inside:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He hoped it wouldn’t be more zombies. Unconsciously he directed a prayer to that effect to Egesh—and opened the door.
   It wasn’t zombies. Nor, as best he could tell, necromancers. It was four living, breathing beings—although the oddest assortment of beings he had yet seen.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was a Curledbolted’s demon, frail-looking and apparently friendly; a pale elf with green hair and a hook nose; a short, muscular goblin, with features like Strodno’s, and wearing some sort of cloth armor; and a plump but strong serpent man, carrying a spear and dressed in armor, including, for some reason, a boot on his tail:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Goodness,” said the Curledbolted’s demon, “visitors? We don’t get many around here these days.” He squinted at Thob. “And a dwarf, no less? It’s been ages since I last met a living dwarf. I’m glad some have survived these hard times! What’s your name?”
   “My name’s Thob. But you can call me ‘Thob the Mysterious’. I’m an undead hunter, you see.”
   “Uh… of course. My name’s Fafire, and I am a holy sparkle of the Lady of Light, Islas Shimmerglimmer.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Islas? Who’s she?”
   “You’ve never heard of the goddess of the day?”
   “Until a few weeks ago I didn’t know what ‘day’ was… but that’s a long story.”
   “Oh, please tell! Visitors are so rare, we hardly hear of things in the world these days… oh, excuse me. I believe some introductions are in order.”
   The four creatures were all priests, of one kind or another. Fafire and the serpent man, named Cetha, were from the Coven of Light, once a prominent religion in the area. The goblin was named Ngokang; he was, by contrast, a “high umbra” of Kulur, the goddess of night. The elf was called Nemen, and he said he was the abbot of a distant monastery, the house of an order devoted to the True Honor of Palisades, goddess of forgiveness and mercy. Thob asked why he was so far from his home; Nemen, with sidelong glances at Ngokang and Strodno, said he had been forced out when goblins overran the region centuries ago. Thob then asked if he had left any family behind; the elf said he knew only a little of the fates of his children:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Fourth eldest daughter? That’s a lot of kids.”
   “Well, I’ve had a lot of wives.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “It sounds like a pretty violent place, back where you’re from,” said Thob.
   “The influence of the goblin conquest,” said Nemen. “They are… not exactly known for moral behavior—present company excepted, of course.”
    Thob and Strodno gave the priests a brief summary of their adventures, and their goals. “Hmm,” said Fafire, “I don’t know of any brewers, sadly. But if you’re in the business of finding artifacts, you might keep a lookout for some relics the Coven has lost.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Oh? And where might this ‘fallen zombie’ be now?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Well of course he’s dead, that’s why he’s a zombie!” said Thob. “But where is he?”
   “I can’t say, unfortunately.”
   “You should talk to Estrur,” said Ngokang. “He’s another priest of Islas. He’s been looking for some relic—a bit of a robe or something—and he might know where to look. Last I heard he was holed up in the catacombs here.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “And where’s Doordark?”
   “Under the temple,” said Ngokang. “Outside the walls to the north. You can’t miss it.”
   Thob thanked the priests for their hospitality, and went out with Strodno to see if they could find Estrur—though not especially to help him find his relics. Thob guessed anyone who knew where lost artifacts were ought to know where the nearest pub was as well.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Luckyowl on September 21, 2020, 03:06:52 pm
I really love that drawing  :D especially that boot at the end of the serpent man's tail. I laughed so hard when I saw it. What a strange serpent man.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on September 21, 2020, 03:13:46 pm
I know, I love the boot. You don't often see serpent men wearing clothes!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on September 22, 2020, 06:16:47 am
I really like the art, I also like how this went from a small search for booze to an epic quest around the world filled with fights, books, and random artifacts.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on September 22, 2020, 12:57:56 pm
That boot cracks me up!
It's always the little details.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on September 22, 2020, 06:54:22 pm
Quote from: Luckyowl on September 21, 2020, 03:06:52 pm
I really love that drawing  :D especially that boot at the end of the serpent man's tail. I laughed so hard when I saw it. What a strange serpent man.
The boot is the wonderful kind of characterization only DF can deliver. Finding strange people in strange places is a big reason I play Adventure Mode.

Quote from: King Zultan on September 22, 2020, 06:16:47 am
I really like the art, I also like how this went from a small search for booze to an epic quest around the world filled with fights, books, and random artifacts.
That was my hope from the start. I love stories of people who bumble their way into greatness, and I think Thob's turning out that way.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: MadMonkey on September 27, 2020, 07:16:02 pm
Delightful! PTW
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on October 05, 2020, 08:13:19 am
Quote from: MadMonkey on September 27, 2020, 07:16:02 pm
Delightful! PTW
Thanks! I've enjoyed reading your comic as well.


The temple of Islas Shimmerglimmer, the Radiant Sanctuary, was just where Ngokang said it would be: a large, open structure of white stone, its sanctum at the bottom of a deep recess.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But before descending to the bottom, Thob noticed another, smaller temple just nearby. It was mostly in ruins, but he could still make out the name: “The Heroic Sanctum.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Many of the statues were time-worn to the point of being unrecognizable, but at one end of the temple he found a startling one: what looked like a desiccated corpse, but arrayed in symbols of divinity and holding some kind of stone tablet:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “It’s… it’s Vispol,” said Strodno.
   “The dark god?” asked Thob.
   “Yes. This must be his temple.”
   “Why would they build a temple to an evil god?”
   “It’s not that simple. The dark gods aren’t necessarily ‘evil’; sometimes they can actually help people. But they don’t care about people, and whatever boons they give may just as well hurt as help. That’s why you shouldn’t worship them—but that’s never stopped anyone from doing so, humans especially. Look at these statues: you can see how popular Vispol was.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “In fact… it was probably right here that Álat Bookbridges first learned the secret of life and death—in this very temple, over a thousand years ago. Makes you think.”
   “Makes me think about getting out of here,” said Thob. “Let’s find this Estrur fellow and get going.”

They returned to the Radiant Sanctuary and descended into the pit-like shrine. Doors led from the lowest level into the dark catacombs (perhaps, thought Thob, that’s why they called the catacombs “Doordark”?). Narrow passages twisted through the earth, lined with niches where the ancient dead lay sleeping—and Thob hoped they stayed that way. Occasionally they found the remains of more exotic creatures, such as the shells of a tribe of ant folk:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Sometimes the passages opened into great crypts, several stories high, filled with sarcophagi:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Gravestones told the names and lives of those buried nearby. Some deaths were peaceful, mostly those from the very distant past. But the later coffins were filled with those slain in the thousands of battle against the undead—those fortunate enough to be buried, and not have their bodies stolen for the necromancers’ nefarious armies.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob was a little taken aback by the “Slayer of Dwarves” on some of the memorials, but Strodno assured him they meant undead dwarves.
   Sometimes the identities of the deceased seemed uncertain: a few were only listed with nicknames, apparently gained in battle.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And some gave only the race of the coffin’s occupant, all other details being lost.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Not all the violent deaths were from battle, either. It seemed that, in addition to their other cruelties, the necromancers decided to make examples of the civilian populace after their conquests:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   A hole in the northern wall of the crypt led them unexpectedly into another “sewer.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob still thought the tunnels would make a fine place to live, but he guessed humans, being surface dwellers, didn’t have the eyes for it.
   In the deepest reaches of the necropolis they descended into a large, wide-open chamber, with only a single sarcophagus in the center—made, to Thob’s amazement, of solid shining aluminum!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
On the nearby slab was written the name of the entombed: “Lon Irneedin, born in 38, Field Marshal of the Equal Kingdom, 79-103.”
   “Died peacefully at sixty-five?” said Thob. “Is that old for humans?”
   “Old enough,” said Strodno. “Most don’t live past ninety.”
   “Goodness—that’s just the far side of middle-age for a dwarf. I’m beginning to see why this immortality deal was so attractive.”

They scoured Doordark for hours, searching for any sign of the supposed priest, but there was no one in the crypt—not alive, anyway. At last Strodno said, “I don’t think this Estrur is still here; he must have moved on somewhere else without telling anyone. And in any case, I doubt he’d know where to find any booze. I doubt there’s any left in this part of the world at all.”
   Thob sighed. “You’re probably right. But we’ve got to keep looking. Are there any other towns nearby?”
   “Some to the north. Let’s get out of here and see what we can find.”
   They ascended from the catacombs and made their way out of town, following a wide paved road to the north. Afternoon wound on to dusk, and they looked for a place to shelter; hopefully the next few days would bring them more luck.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on October 05, 2020, 09:32:18 am
I noticed the two slabs you examined, the one killed by an echidna man and the one who killed that echidna man. It's very interesting to learn about a world's legends like this.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on October 07, 2020, 06:44:51 pm
Ack! How did I miss this update?!

I can really envision those statues of necromancers "embracing" Vispol: some desperate human, clinging to the god's rotting feet in supplication, peering upward with a face simultaneously fearful and hopeful, while the empty eye sockets of their divinity stare outward, impassionate, far above their heads.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on October 14, 2020, 07:04:50 pm
Quote from: TheFlame52 on October 05, 2020, 09:32:18 am
I noticed the two slabs you examined, the one killed by an echidna man and the one who killed that echidna man. It's very interesting to learn about a world's legends like this.
Agreed; I wish there were more ways of absorbing local lore by talking to folks, reading books/slabs, and so on.
(The echidna man didn't have a very interesting life story, btw... apart from being basically undead Knuckles)


The itinerants kept to the northward road. A day after leaving Trampledlearned they crested a hill and looked down on the land below: at the foot of the hill was another sizable town, but beyond was a sight that took away Thob’s breath in wonder and terror — a boundless expanse of dull blue-green stretching to the horizon, shimmering under the sun; even on the hilltop he could smell salt in the humid breeze:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The “ocean” Strodno called it, and it was, as he feared, made totally of water. So very much water, as if it wasn’t enough that the stuff fell from the sky, and the humans built a city next to it. What a world the surface was!
   There wasn’t much to see in the empty streets of this new town. A few ruined temples were the only buildings of note: a large shrine, they noted was devoted to Islas Shimmerglimmer:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here Thob found a statue of a goblin priest, and was surprised to read the name: “Estrur Ambercurse,” the one they had tried to find in the catacombs of Trampledlearned.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Are all the priests in this world goblins?” he asked Strodno.
   “We’re the only ones left,” she answered, “in any great numbers. Immortality, remember?”
   Further on they found the “Chapel of Dusk,” a temple to Kulur:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
These twin goddesses of day and night must have been quite popular in the old days, for some reason. What did one pray for from a night goddess? Or a day goddess, for that matter? Thob guessed one might pray to Islas to make the sun less nauseating; or, barring that, pray to Kulur to make the sun go away. But Strodno said the humans actually liked the sun, which Thob couldn’t figure, so he let the question drop.
   At the other end of town they approached (Thob with trepidation) the vastness of the ocean. A strip of fine sand, dotted with bits of weathered wood and shells of many sizes and kinds, ran between the land and the sea. The water was rolling in towards the land, pushed by the constant wind, cresting in foam-capped walls that collapsed on the shore and lapped at the sand.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At first Thob tried to avoid the waves, but the spray of mist they made was, admittedly, comforting. In fact, as he stood there, the tranquility of the water and the rhythm of the waves soothed him. Maybe settling by the ocean wasn’t quite such a dumb idea as he had thought.
   Back in town they looked for a shelter, and found a nearly intact house with preserved furnishings, including a few beds!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It’d be the first night Thob spent in a real bed in many days.

Of course there was no booze in this town, either, so at dawn they made for the west, whither another road wound.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Clouds hung over the ocean and the northern hills, and snow blanketed much of the land to the west. They marched through the white landscape under the gray sky, until they caught sight of another town.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Something immediately seemed wrong to Thob about this place — more than the usual abandonment and desolation, that is. He later figured it was his "undead sense" tingling, because as they approached the town, what should dash out of the trees toward them but…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
… a mostly-dead naked human?
   Its pale skin and white hair blended against the snow, and Thob almost didn’t see it until it was upon him. And when it was upon him it fought with more than usual undead ferocity and agility: this must be one of those powerful kinds of zombie that Strodno mentioned. It even took a sword strike from the goblin, straight to the head, without falling — the blade stuck into the thing’s skull but it kept fighting. At last Thob, barely parrying a punch with his buckler, broke its head in two with a pick-stroke, and it shuddered and collapsed.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Strodno seemed somewhat upset as she looked at the corpse:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I’ve seen you kill living things without so much as a tear,” said Thob. “Why get troubled over this? It was trying to kill us, anyway.”
   “Yes… and we did what we had to. It’s just — for all that I know this things is dead… was dead… undead… anyway, for all that it still looks human — looks kind of like us.”
   Thob looked again. Now that it was dead the corpse looked a lot less frightening — apart from the gaping wound separating its skull into halves. It did sort of look like a tall, beardless dwarf. He looked away. “Well… let’s just not think about it. Won’t do us any good.”

There was nothing in the new town to merit much attention: the usual ruined temples, castle, walls, and so on, but nothing even resembling a tavern or brewery. Furthermore there were no more roads leading out from this town, and Strodno figured they had visited all the major settlements of the region. If there was alcohol left in this world it was much farther away, and she didn’t know where to go to find it.
   Around the city were a collection of smaller villages and farms. Somewhat idly, not expecting to find anything, Thob and Strodno approached one cluster of houses — when, greatly to their surprise, they saw an armed elf approaching them through the snow, not undead but apparently fully alive:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She was broad and fat, clad in bronze armor and wielding a length of thick cord tipped with bronze. She called out to them: “Hold, travelers! State your business here!”
   “Uh, well,” said Thob, “we were really just looking around. We weren’t expecting to find anyone here.”
   “You are from these regions, then?” said the elf. “We thought all the people here were dead. You’re the first living folk we’ve seen in months!”
   “‘We’?” asked Strodno. “There are more of you?”
   “Indeed: we’re settlers from the north, come here to find a new home for ourselves.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “My name is Cañar Suitorpage,” the elf went on, “and I led the other settlers here.”
   They introduced themselves, and Cañar directed them into the village. The new folk had settled in some of the old houses: humans, the first of their kind Thob had seen living.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were also several elves in the bunch: these greeted him with calls to “praise mercy,” just like the elven abbot Nemen had — they must worship the same goddess as he did.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   It was a great comfort to be among civilized, more-or-less normal looking folk once more. The settlers welcomed Thob warmly (Strodno they were a little wary of, for some reason) and allowed them to stay the night with them.

In the morning Thob found Cañar again: he wanted to ask her about where she came from, whether it was as desolate as things were down here, or whether there might be some people still around.
   “You see,” he said, “me and Strodno are trying to get back this sacred relic of Egesh — the goddess, you know — which was stolen by a necromancer, and to do that we need to break into her tower, which is guarded by hundreds of zombies — I’m guessing, since I don’t actually know how many there are, but it pays to plan for the worst — and to do that I’m going to need some booze because I’ve gone far too long without it, and there’s none left around here and nobody who knows how to make any more.”
   Cañar looked bewildered. “That’s… a lot to take in.”
   “What I’m saying is, you know where we could get a drink?”
   “Hmm…” the elf mused. “There are a few sizable towns in the north, but I haven’t been to any of them. Things are rough up there. But you might be able to find something there.”
   “I’ll take any chance I get,” said Thob. “Um… could you point us the way?”
   “I can do you one better,” she said. “I’ve been squatting around here with nothing to do for weeks, and I’m more the adventuring type, myself. I’ve made the journey once, and I think I could lead you back, if you’d take me along.”
   Having a competent fighter in the party seemed like a fine idea to Thob, and Strodno agreed. Cañar suggested that, before they leave, they should visit a nearby hamlet where another group of northern refugees had settled: a place called Auraflings.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “You’ll find another warrior there, a man named Alisa Fadedrawness,” she said. “I wager he’d like to come along too.”
   Auraflings was only a few hours’ walk away, and soon they found themselves in another village peopled by a collection of humans and elves. After searching around for a while they found the man in charge: a tall, narrow-eyed human in bronze mail with a spear and shield. “Alisa!” Cañar called. “Look — natives from these lands!”
   Thob explained there proposal to the tall spearman, who seemed impressed with the dwarf’s and goblin’s exploits, particularly their battles with the undead. “I’ve been longing for a bit of excitement,” he said. “And I won’t mind heading back to the north country. Let’s be off!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Now there were four companions on a quest for beer — and stolen relics, incidentally, but mainly beer. Thob determined to set out at dawn for the mysterious lands of the north, where people apparently still lived and booze might yet be found.


I'm going to take a little hiatus for maybe a month or so, now that we've reached a semi-good stopping point. Some RL stuff is coming up and I'll have to figure out how much time I have for this. But don't worry, Thob will return! I've already played the first few updates of Part 3.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on October 15, 2020, 07:43:26 am
Now we've got a proper adventuring party, its like this was destined to become an epic quest.

Also take as long as you need to do your RL stuff as RL stuff is important.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on December 03, 2020, 01:27:29 pm
Hoping to get this back underway soon - should have an update this weekend. In the meantime, have a teaser:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: mightymushroom on December 03, 2020, 06:25:56 pm
 :o
Oooh . . . so . . . glowy. . . .
Must . . . read . . . secrets. . . .
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on December 04, 2020, 06:46:53 am
Glowy thing, we should touch it.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: brewer bob on December 05, 2020, 06:10:43 am
Loving Thob's story and can't wait to find out what happens next!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on December 06, 2020, 09:25:14 am
Part IV: Into the North

With the rising dawn, the four companions set out to the east. Cañar and Alisa said that by following the ocean for some days they could find their way back to their homelands. The party traveled in sight of the waves, keeping the sea to their left as they marched.

Near the edge of civilized, or formerly civilized, lands, they passed through one of the old monasteries and decided to stop for a rest. Thob inspected the temple, wondering if there were any books left lying around, as seemed common in these places. There was a book, in fact, but there was also something much more interesting.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A slab of solid silver, glittering on a bejeweled pedestal. The thing was too heavy to hold comfortably, but Thob moved it into the light and read the ancient runes cut into its surface—cut with a care far beyond any dwarfcraft:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He didn’t know what it meant, nor did anyone else; but someone obviously thought it was worth remembering, enough to carve it in silver. He couldn’t take the slab with him, but he tried to memorize the words—he could copy them down and keep them in the library.

As they traveled they talked, and Thob got to know a bit more about his companions.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Strodno he already knew a little, but she began to open up a bit more with him, sharing her worldview. It wasn’t a pleasant one: she had a bitter and aggressive nature, finding excitement only in fighting. He figured being locked in a tower for six hundred years might do that to someone. At least it seemed to make her brave in battle.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Alisa, the human, struck Thob as a fairly brash but trusting sort. Most of the time, though, he was angry with someone or something. He blamed this on getting into arguments with the others, which he seemed to do with some frequency.
   “Have you tried… not arguing so much?”
   “I don’t argue with them,” he said. “They argue with me.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The elf, Cañar, seemed to like arguing, which no doubt irritated Alisa. She wasn’t as temperamental as the others, though she warned Thob away from her “bad side” (probably the side most easily in range of her whip). Though generally scornful of material things, she had a soft spot for certain moving pieces of art.

The next morning they came to the edge of a wood, all snow-covered; Thob felt ill at ease as they entered, though.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Soon enough he saw why: a pair of wrens perched in a tree nearby—wrens big enough to swallow a dwarf whole! What was more, although the moved about, watching the ground for something (or someone) to eat, they didn’t seem exactly… alive.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Undead dwarves, elves, and humans were one thing. Undead giant birds? Thob didn’t think his little team were up to it. They slipped out of the forest and went the long way round.

Nearby the earth was cleft by a great river, around forty dwarf-spans wide, which would have blocked their way had it not been completely frozen over.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Around midday they entered a more salubrious forest, free, as far as Thob could tell, from any large fowl, living or dead. By evening the forest was giving way to patches of desert, stretches of rock fields and badlands interspersed with green dales. He could see the ocean to the north, and beyond, just on the horizon, the specter of distant land:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They camped in the desert near a frozen stream. In the morning, looking around the campsite, Thob saw they had not been alone that night:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He guessed the beast hadn’t wished to tangle with four armed adventurers, even if they were sleeping.

All that day they traveled through a dense forested country. Cañar called it the “Foggy Jungles,” though it wasn’t particularly foggy that Thob could see.
   Around noon on the following day the party caught a glimpse of something odd: the distant treeline was broken by some taller-than-usual trees. Cañar and Alisa said they were nearing the old elven realm.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In about an hour they had reached the first stand of great trees. Thob gazed in wonder at their huge trunks and vast spreading canopies, far taller and broader than any tree he had seen before.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The elves grew them and lived in the branches, said Cañar. But there were no elves to be seen around here: only a few dark ravens croaked among the mighty trees.
   Ahead they approached another of these “forest retreats,” as the elven settlements were apparently called. Here, however, they were met not with a great tree but a tall, crude tower of stone, surrounded by mounds and trenches of earth:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Goblin earthworks,” said Strodno, “and watchtowers. These are goblin lands?”
   “They are now,” said Cañar. “Have been for a long time: not many remember the old days except the elves.”
   They passed the tower and entered the heart of the retreat. Here Thob was startled to see, not great trees, but some flora he knew very well: enormous tower-cap mushrooms, bigger than any he’d seen before, and growing on the surface!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More mushrooms towered over the trees to the south. Some of these had stores of nuts and berries in them; Cañar said they’d make good provisions, filling but easy to carry.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were several elves sitting on the caps of the great mushrooms. They had the same dark skin and yellow hair as Cañar—these must be her people, Thob guessed. He spoke to one of them:
   “Greetings, elf! I am Thob ‘the Mysterious’.”
   “Ah… hello… whatever you are,” said the elf. “My name’s Fewetha.”
   “Who’s in charge around here?”
   Fewetha shook his head. “There’s nothing organized around here,” he said. “In fact there’s nothing organized for many miles around—we just live off the forest. You might try Lushnights, to the north: if anything’s still standing in the Jungle, it’ll be up there.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There was another large retreat close to the south, so Thob decided to check it out before heading north. As they entered they passed through orderly rows of some odd, branching, spine-covered trees—“cactus,” Alisa called them:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Among the flowering cactus Thob saw a large building, all in ruins; it was the first real building he’d seen in these lands. Judging by the size and design it looked like a temple, but unlike the dwarf and human temples he’d seen it was made all of wood:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The place was all in ruins, of course, but some fine statues still stood. A particularly pleasing piece caught Thob’s eye—the image of a goblin priest (again), but made of pure spessartine gemstone:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Alisa walked up to Thob’s side. “Hmm,” he said, observing the statue. “Doesn’t do anything for me.”
   “Really? I think it’s a fine work.”
   “Who asked you!?” Alisa said, suddenly angry.
   “What?” said Thob. “I was just… replying to you!”
   “Well, I was just… stating my mind! You don’t have to jump down my throat like that! Gods…”  The tall man walked away, grumbling, leaving Thob confused.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A short ways off was another enormous tower-cap, this one far bigger than the others; it had many smaller stems branching from the main one, a pattern of growth Thob had never seen before in the caverns. This, Cañar told him, was a “Home Tree”—sort of an elven palace, where the important elves used to live.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There wasn’t much here now, except a pile of old books. Most of them were philosophical in nature, treatises on happiness and individuality written by an ancient elven sage, Olava Styleprinces:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The only thing living in the Home Tree now was a solitary crow man. Thob asked him how things had been:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “So, pretty slow?”
   “Very. Not much happens here, since the elves were driven out.”
   “Is there anyone still here?”
   “You might try the tavern, or the market.”

The “tavern” turned out to be a patch of bare dirt under the caps of a mushroom grove.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were a handful of tables and chairs clumped at one end, and a chest with some weird instruments in it—but no beer, no barrels, not even any cups! “Didn’t elves drink?” Thob asked.
   “Just fresh streamwater,” said Cañar. “Not likely to find any booze here.”
   The market was similar, an open space among a cluster of tower-caps; but there were people here, quite a few actually—elves, crow men, and goblins, milling about among bins of trade goods.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
From the looks of it, all they were selling was meat. “Is that all the elves trade? Meat?”
   “Funny thing is,” said Cañar, “elves don’t even eat meat. Well, not usually. This stuff comes from the goblins.”
   A few of the elves, in between trying to sell him some giant olm tripe, managed to tell him some about the area and recent events. Thob learned that some people—children, in fact—had been kidnapped from their homes by goblin agents:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “That’s terrible!” he said. “What did they want him for? Ransom?”
   The elf looked at him quizzically. “It’s what goblins do,” he said. “Didn’t you know that?”
   “There aren’t too many goblins where I come from. Strodno there’s one of the few I’ve met.”
   “Well,” said the elf, “if you stay in these parts long you’ll meet goblins enough. Down here, in the forest, there’s not so many—but if I were you I’d stay out of the cities. They aren’t known for their hospitality.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on December 06, 2020, 10:16:46 am
I see it wasn't the slab we thought it was. I'm loving the character interactions. Also, I've never seen a forest retreat quite like that one. Interesting.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: mightymushroom on December 06, 2020, 10:27:04 am
I actually expected that kind of a slab from the circular cartouche.  It's still a secret worth knowing, maybe.

I enjoyed Alisa's interactions with the party.
"Stop arguing with me!"
"...But I was only trying to have a conversation."
"No, that was arguing. See, you just argued with me again!"
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on December 07, 2020, 07:03:09 am
We should track down that demon at some point and make it part of our adventuring crew, maybe if we're lucky it's some kind of dog demon and it can use its enhanced dog nose to sniff out the booze.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on December 08, 2020, 08:26:18 am
Quote from: TheFlame52 on December 06, 2020, 10:16:46 am
I've never seen a forest retreat quite like that one. Interesting.
I think it's because of the goblin takeover - you'll notice the mushrooms have goblin-y names. I guess they cut down the trees and planted more suitable flora fungi. Or maybe these elves are Telvanni, idk...

Quote from: mightymushroom on December 06, 2020, 10:27:04 am
I actually expected that kind of a slab from the circular cartouche.  It's still a secret worth knowing, maybe.
I enjoyed Alisa's interactions with the party.
I half expected some Viking nerd would try to read the runes  :D That would have given away the secret quickly!

Alisa is one of the most well-developed personalities I've met in Adventure Mode. He's a testament to the personality system's ability to create unique, recognizable characters emergently.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on December 13, 2020, 08:49:40 am
On the outskirts of the forest retreat Thob noticed a large camp, a cluster of fires and tents:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the camp were many creatures of different kinds, mostly elves and goblins. They were a ragtag bunch, wandering aimlessly among the tents, trying to keep warm by the fires, or sleeping on the ground.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One of the goblins, a metalworker by the looks of him, greeted Thob as he and his companions entered the camp. He seemed a laid-back, tolerant sort, and willingly told Thob about their circumstances:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “What kind of danger?”
   “The goblin army,” said Mato, as if it was common knowledge. “They came in and took over—those who didn’t want to live under their rule took to the wilderness, like us.”
   “Army?” said Thob. “I didn’t see any army in there. It seemed safe enough.”
   “Oh… well… I guess we’ve just gotten used to roughing it. Come to think of it, sleeping on the ground under a tent isn’t much different than sleeping in a tree.”

Among the elves of the camp there were several who seemed like important personages. Cañar said they were likely the leaders of the old elven civilization, which the goblins had overrun.
   One elf was dressed in a robe and hood made of some kind of coarse fur; she introduced herself as Fewetha Losttree, a “princess” — some kind of elven general. She was concerned about the neighboring peoples, with whom they apparently disagreed about animal rights:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Another dignitary, Enur, called herself a diplomat, though Thob didn’t know what kind of diplomacy he got up to in the forest. He tried to get Enur to talk about himself, but the elf seemed to have a troubled past:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Another elf wore an odd sort of head-wrap, which Alisa called a “turban”; her name was Zolak Girdermaligned. “Zolak,” said Strodno, “that’s a goblin name, though?”
   “Yes — the goblins put me in charge here,” said Zolak. “I’m the administrator of this retreat.”
   “Then… why are you out here in the wilderness? The retreat’s over there.”
   “Ah, but all the people are over here! The administrator ought to be near the people, right?”

Many of the goblins in the camp were armed and armored. Alisa watched them closely. “I don’t trust these goblins,” he said. “I don’t think they’re really refugees.”
   Perhaps he was right, because suddenly, for no reason Thob could tell, a goblins rushed to attack them! Or rather to attack Cañar—she seemed to ignore the rest of the party. And it was really more of a brawl, since they fought only with fists and kicks:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Cañar defended herself well, landing a strong punch to the goblin’s chest that winded her; but the goblin was strong, and punched Cañar’s leg so hard it dislocated her knee:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Before things got worse Thob stepped in. “You’d better stop,” he said to the goblin, “unless you want to fight all four of us!”
   The goblin, wisely, submitted and backed away. Thob asked the limping Cañar if she was alright, and what the fight was all about: she bore the injury well, but claimed not to know the goblin:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “All the same, better not throw your weight around so much.”
   The hefty elf glared at him. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

The party was exploring the edges of the camp when a strong odor came to Thob on the wind: something like… burning flesh. Suddenly Alisa was screaming.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Death? What death? I don’t see any death.”
   But the human only trembled, muttering. Thob turned around. He still didn’t see any death—but he saw something worse:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A horrible, beast, like a tall skinny human, but with four long curving horns and three eyes, and covered in blood—and headed right for them!
   “An ambush!” cried Strodno. “Charge!”
   She ran forward, sword held high. The thing lowered its ugly head and struck her square in the gut. The blow was blunted, fortunately, by her steel leggings, but the shock of it knocked Strodno aside and made her retch.
   Thob, however, was close behind her; Cañar was trying to catch up, but her hurt knee held her back. Strodno wasn’t out of the fight, either; she made a quick swing at the beast, but missed. The monster stretched out a scrawny hand and grabbed Thob by the arm—its grip was terribly strong, and Thob knew that, held like this, he couldn’t break free or dodge away. He had only one chance. As the beast raised its other hand to deal a killing blow, Thob raised his pick…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…and slammed it down into the monster’s head, splitting it wide open.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “A night troll,” said Cañar. “What was it doing out here, in the daytime?”
   “Probably though a camp full of refugees would be an easy target,” said Thob.
   “Looks like it was right,” said Strodno, pointing back into the camp.
   Sure enough, not far away lay the mangled bodies of several elves and goblins. Thob led the team back, surveying the destruction. First they found the remains of Princess Fewetha:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
More bodies cluttered the hills all around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One of the dead goblins had a steel mail shirt, which Strodno took—a little gross, thought Thob, but then again the goblin wasn’t using it anymore.
   The “administrator”, Zolak, was apparently unhurt. “What a terrible thing!” said Thob. “With the princess dead, who’s going to lead these people?”
   “What do you mean, no princess?” said Zolak. “I’m the princess now.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Wait… you can’t just call yourself a princess!” said Cañar.
   “Why not? Who’s going to stop me?”
   “Come on, Cañar,” said Thob, “we can’t do anything about it now.” But the elf eyed the administrator with suspicion.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on December 13, 2020, 10:58:16 am
What a strange place, one minute everyone is sitting around fires being friendly then we turn our backs and they're killing each other, what a strange place the surface is.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Cathar on December 13, 2020, 01:29:03 pm
Getting grabbed by an original night troll is probably the most nervewracking experience, probably on par with getting tackled by a group of undead or failing multiple swimming checks in a row.  Congratulation on the hunt, and all hail the new princess !
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on December 20, 2020, 07:37:21 pm
Quote from: Cathar on December 13, 2020, 01:29:03 pm
Getting grabbed by an original night troll is probably the most nervewracking experience
Tell me about it. I didn't have any business winning that fight - I've had multi-legendary weaponmasters killed by night troll grab'n'gores. Thob is truly blessed by Egesh, I guess.

Quote from: King Zultan on December 13, 2020, 10:58:16 am
one minute everyone is sitting around fires being friendly then we turn our backs and they're killing each other
To be fair, that sums up a lot of Dwarf Fortress... maybe it's not so strange after all  :D


As the party was leaving the forest retreat the next day, they stumbled upon a small natural cave in the ground. There were signs of habitation nearby, so Thob poked his head down to take a look. He was not expecting to see a naked elf:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the elf’s defense, the only nearby garments were a pair of iron boots and a small necklace. The elf shared his accommodations with a goblin skeleton, which was fortunately still dead. Given the utter lack of anything remotely like furnishings Thob figured the elf was either crazy, or some sort of ascetic, or maybe both. He cautiously introduced himself.
   “Hello, dwarf,” the elf replied. “I am Mato Feasthexes. Praise be to the True Honor.”
   “Uh, yes… praise, indeed.” He seemed reasonably sane; ascetic, then. “So… what do you do, here, exactly?”
   “Well, I was butcher for about two hundred years…”
   “Impressive, but what—”
   “…until I was made an administrator of Waningnature retreat. That was, oh, let’s see… maybe three hundred years ago?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob tried to press the elf on his current situation, but Alisa butted in. “‘Administrator,’ huh? So what, you got to boss everyone around and call yourself important? Power is such a sham.”
   “No,” said Mato, “it’s power that makes the elf. Those without power are… well, you see what it’s like.”
   “Typical goblin lies!” shouted Alisa, predictably enraged. “You ought to be ashamed for oppressing those people—as you obviously must have!”
   “I really don’t need strange humans insulting me, you know,” said the elf.
   “Fine!” growled Alisa, “I didn’t want to argue, anyway.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob was unable to get a straight answer from the elf about his troglodyte lifestyle, so he bid him farewell. The party set out through the forest, heading north towards the larger elf cities they had heard about.

The weather was gray, wet, and cold up here. All through their journey that day, through the “Russet Forests,” mist and snow surrounded them, obscuring the sun.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The following day the weather cleared enough for them to see the shapes of giant trees ahead.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But the retreats were deserted: all the big trees were empty and snow-covered, and the only life was some giant red squirrels that Strodno chased around.
   Later that day they reached the large forest retreat of Lushnights. Here, too, massive tower-caps dominated the surrounding forest, along with large fungiwoods, all covered in snow. Atop some of these Thob noticed strange creatures—though what wasn’t strange on the surface?—dwarf-shaped, but covered in long, narrow gray feathers, and sprouting two large wings:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They were as polite as most of the “experiments” Thob had encountered; one told him that there was “nothing organized around here,” a phrase Thob had heard many times before.
   The market of Lushnights was quite a bustling one: elves, goblins, humans, and more of the gray-feathered folk stood around bins and barrels, conversing and haggling.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As before, all they sold was meat. Thob was surprised, though, that most of it came from rare cavern animals, not from any surface beasts—it seemed the goblins had a taste for deep delicacies:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Under the branches of a large fungiwood was a nice, wood-floored space which must have been a tavern, once; a faded sign nearby read “The Wayward Bear”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Though nicer than the other elf tavern Thob had seen, there was still no alcohol to be found.

Outside the retreat, to the north, there was another large camp of what Thob guessed were refugees.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were many canvas tents here, quite close together, with fires burning between. Most of the “refugees,” if that’s what they were, seemed to be goblins.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One of these passed by the party. She had somewhat darker skin than Strodno, and her hair was a bright fuchsia; her clothes were quite fancy, and she wore several ornaments made of bone and hair.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She might be someone of importance. Thob greeted her, hoping to get some information on the local area. “Oh hello, Mr. Mysterious,” she replied. “Call me Ûsbu—a servant of the True Honor.” (This True Honor seemed like a popular sort in these parts) “An undead hunter, you say? I’m something of a hunter myself, you know. Well, less of a hunter, maybe more of an… extraction specialist. A rescue operative, if you will.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Oh, that’s nice!” said Thob. “I just heard the other day about people who go around kidnapping children from their homes—isn’t that terrible? Good to see someone helping these kids out.”
   “Yes, I try to find a permanent home for them.”
   “Before I hunted undead,” said Thob, “I helped tracked down ancient artifacts—the heirlooms of my people, lost for centuries. Ever done anything like that?”
    Ûsbu shook her head. “Not me,” she said. “But if you’re looking for work in that line, I know of a lost treasure to look out for—a mighty hammer they call ‘The Rock of God’, supposed to be held by some ancient warlock. A goblin I know, name of Ducim Planebrass, might pay you well for it.”
   “Really? Where’s this Ducim holed up?”
   “She’s a baroness at the dwarven fortress of Boldwhipped.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A dwarven fortress? Were there more dwarves in this world, still alive, still—hope against hope—making booze? “Where’s Boldwhipped?” Thob asked with barely-suppressed excitement.
   “Way down southeast,” Ûsbu said. “And I mean way down.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob would go as far as he needed for a swig of strong dwarven ale. He thanked Ûsbu for her help; if they didn’t find any booze up north, he knew where to travel next.

Before they could leave the camp, though, the party ran into a bit of trouble. Or rather Alisa did—Thob didn’t know what had started it, but Alisa somehow got in a spat with a passing elven priest. Fortunately it didn’t come to blows, because at the first threat from the priest Alisa caved, quaveringly dropping his spear when the elf demanded it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “He stole my spear!” moaned Alisa as the elf walked smugly away. “Aren’t you going to do something?”
   “Knowing you,” said Cañar, “I’m guessing you deserved it.”
   “We’ll try to find you another one,” said Thob. “There’s got to be some in the towns up north.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on December 21, 2020, 03:31:01 am
This Alisa guy seems to get himself into trouble a lot, and now he's lost his weapon after picking a fight he immediately surrendered during.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on January 10, 2021, 12:50:36 pm
Sorry for the few weeks' delay.


Thob had now been wandering more than two months on the surface… so long that his clothes had started to wear out from constant use:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He himself was wearing out from constant alcohol deprivation. Two months without a drink…

In the pre-dawn gloom, as the party traveled the snowy woods, Cañar suddenly halted and motioned the rest of them to stop. “Something’s off,” she said.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob didn’t notice anything strange… until a horrible shrieking and tearing noise filled the cold air, followed by bellows and roars, all coming from further in the forest. Cautiously they moved ahead until, amid the white-draped trees, they saw the source of the noise: an enormous gray winged form locked tooth-and-claw in battle with a smaller yet no less horrible humanoid figure:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The one shape Thob recognized as a cave dragon—though what it was doing up here he didn’t know. The other looked a bit like the night hag he’d killed, but it had one eye, no horns, and its arms and legs seemed to stick out at weird angles. Both bore many wounds: they’d clearly been fighting for a while now.
   He saw the dragon get a good claw-swipe at the hag, which collapsed to the ground—but the hag paid it back, by ferociously biting its adversary, digging its ugly fangs into the dragon’s scaly hide. To Thob’s amazement, one such bite to its head struck so hard that the dragon fell down abruptly and lay still:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The hag kept savaging the unconscious beast—unaware of Thob and party’s presence. Strodno gave Thob a sidelong look. “No better time,” she said, drawing her sword. Cañar nodded in agreement.
   “Sounds good,” said Thob, raising his pick. “Charge!”
   The companions rushed from the wood towards the monsters. Taken by surprise, the gloom hag offered no resistance to Thob and Cañar’s combined attacks, and soon lay with its head split by dwarven steel. Strodno’s blade hacked at the stunned dragon, and in a few swings she had pierced it to the brain.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Two fewer monsters for the world to worry about. Maybe Thob should add “monster slayer” to his resumé.

By morning they saw a number of hamlets, former human settlements now abandoned, as Alisa said. At least some of them, though, still had occupants: outcasts from a country overrun by goblins, living off the land, sheltering in old huts.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some looked like Alisa, tall and fair; others were clearly of another stock. They wore old, motley armor, decorated with symbols of the ancient human clans: a square-cut gem for the Prestigious Nation, Alisa’s own folk, or the tall cross of the Strong Empire. But national allegiances meant little these days: these warriors just followed the local warlord, a skinny elf woman named Aco. “The humans in these parts made an ancient alliance with the elves,” Alisa explained, “and each other, to fight undead and goblins together. Obviously it wasn’t very successful… but it brought our peoples together, despite our differences.”
   Some villages were devoid of humans, peopled instead by other beings. In one hamlet the party entered an ancient mead-hall, now occupied only by two ragged, sneaky-looking goblins:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They didn’t look menacing, though they seemed surprised to have visitors. Thob wanted to ask if they knew anything about the coutryside. “Hello there!” he said. “I’m Thob ‘The Mysterious,’ the monster-slaying undead-hunting treasure-seeking librarian!”
   “Hmph,” grunted one goblin. “Alright, Throb. I’m Damsto.”
   “… so what do you do, Damsto?”
   “What’s it to you?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Damsto wasn’t very friendly, but his companion, a woman named Stozu, was more forthcoming. “We just camp out here,” she said. “No one really runs this village anymore—but some kobold gang holes up in the houses, so for all intents they’re in charge.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Kobolds?”
   “Jabbering little thieves and skulkers,” muttered Damsto. “Dangerous in an ambush.”
   “The ones here aren’t hostile,” said Stozu, “but don’t expect good conversation from them.”
   Eager to see what these new folk might be like, Thob led his companions into the village. The houses here, he was surprised to see, were built not of wood but of stone—and not actually “built,” but seemingly carved from solid rock, polished to smoothness like dwarven work:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once again Thob wondered: if the humans could build like this, digging in the rock like the gods intended, why did they muck about with wood and bricks?
   Sure enough, one of the homes was inhabited: two more goblins, blacksmiths by their looks, and a handful of tiny creatures, a bit bigger than a dwarven toddler, wearing just tunics and loincloths, gazing at Thob with wide yellow eyes.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They didn’t look dangerous to Thob. But they weren’t talkative either, as Stozu had said—or, if that strange chattery barking was conversation, it wasn’t anything he could understand. The goblins, however, were friendly.
   “Best be careful,” said one, a weaponsmith named Zom. “There’s rumors of skulking vermin ‘round these parts.”
   “Skulking vermin?”
   Zom leaned close and whispered conspiratorially. “Kobolds,” he said.
   The kobolds in the house just looked at Thob, and Zom didn’t seem to notice them. “Uh-huh,” said Thob, “and… where are these kobolds, exactly?”
   “Skulking around a village called ‘Ordertaut’, so I heard.”
   “Ordertaut?” said Alisa. “Isn’t that… what this place is?”
   Zom gave him a puzzled glance. “Now that you mention it… so it is,” he said. Meanwhile the other goblin was trying to chat up one of the kobolds, with little success.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Vermin aside,” said Thob, “how close are we to the nearest town? We’ve had a long journey.”
   “Not far,” said Zom. “Weakenedpelt is just a short walk away, across the river. Though it might not be the nicest place for strangers.”
   “Well, we’ll only be there a little while—we just need some supplies.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on January 10, 2021, 05:55:32 pm
I always love the way you write the NPCs being dumb. It's charming.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on January 10, 2021, 06:25:57 pm
Quote from: TheFlame52 on January 10, 2021, 05:55:32 pm
I always love the way you write the NPCs being dumb. It's charming.
Thanks! I feel that the NPCs' obliviousness to, well, basically anything adds to the general absurdity of Thob's story. It does make it difficult to write dialogue that makes sense, though...
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on January 11, 2021, 07:55:47 am
I've noticed that this world has way more interesting stuff going on than every world I've generated, did you do something special to make it or did  you get lucky with this one?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on January 11, 2021, 01:53:14 pm
Maybe just lucky? I don't recall doing anything different when I made it. I think it's just that, being 1000 years old, a lot more stuff has happened: cities have changed hands time and time again, lots of wars fought, lots of historical folks doing lots of things, etc. I haven't made too many 1000-year worlds in the past because my computer usually runs out of RAM before it can finish generating them... I guess when everyone's dead that isn't such an issue.

Plus, if you take your time and really dig around in Adventure and Legends mode, you can discover a lot of interesting stuff that the game has hidden away. I haven't been doing too much of that this game, though, to preserve Thob's sense of discovery.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: mightymushroom on January 17, 2021, 08:43:53 pm
Just thought I'd share that this morning I had a dream about Thob . . . which is one more than I can recall about Grawr or even Misty, so I guess you have my subconscious's approval.

My dream was about Thob getting mixed up with a dubious group of elf nobility who would hold mini-wars against each other's estates with various side wagers placed on meeting certain objectives. They kept trying to involve Thob and he was just, "Wut?"
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on January 17, 2021, 09:16:18 pm
Quote from: King Zultan on January 11, 2021, 07:55:47 am
I've noticed that this world has way more interesting stuff going on than every world I've generated, did you do something special to make it or did  you get lucky with this one?
I think it's a bit of luck, but frankly, every world has strange things in it if you peer deep enough. It's just that Loam has a way of making the things we don't usually think about seem interesting.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on January 23, 2021, 09:41:03 am
Quote from: mightymushroom on January 17, 2021, 08:43:53 pm
Just thought I'd share that this morning I had a dream about Thob . . . which is one more than I can recall about Grawr or even Misty, so I guess you have my subconscious's approval.
Ha ha, that's great! Even I haven't had a dream about Thob... not yet, anyway.


The Great Goblin Empire

It was about noon—not that you’d know it, for the heavy snow-clouds overhead—when the party came in sight of the town of Weakenedpelt, across the river to the west.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The hither side of the river was dotted with stone watchtowers and earthworks; on the far bank a wall surrounded the central town and the high-towered keep. An outer town sprawled to the north, away from the wall, and all around were fields and scattered huts or farmhouses. Unlike the other towns Thob had seen, this one showed clear signs of habitation: the houses and walls looked sturdy and well-maintained, and there were lights visible in the windows and torches along the ramparts.
   The party crossed the river (an easy crossing, with such thick ice over the water) and approached a cluster of huts some way south of the walls. The houses were not made of any surface wood, Thob realized, and were instead constructed of tower-cap and fungiwood.
   In the doorway of one hut stood a goblin, lounging at his ease. Thob went up to him to ask for directions. “Hello, there!” he said cheerfully. “My name’s Thob.”
   The goblin looked warily at him. “Ngerxung,” he said.
   “Gesundheit.”
   “That’s my name.”
   “Oh… sorry. I don’t speak Goblin.”
   Ngerxung muttered something about foreigners and language learning, but Thob didn’t hear it clearly. “I heard this town is ruled by goblins,” he said. “Is that true?”
   “You’re kidding,” said Ngerxung. “No, you’re not, are you? You’ve really never heard of the mighty goblin empire of The Lost Sins? All these lands belong to us.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Occupied? You mean you didn’t build this place?”
   “Humans built it. But they couldn’t hold on to it, so we had to liberate it for them. Not that they ever thanked us.”
   Alisa was looking more and more angry as Ngerxung went on. “I… see,” said Thob, changing the subject. “We’re looking for some food and drink—know anywhere good?”
   “Try the Doomed Orange, inside the walls,” said Ngerxung.

They made their way up to the town gates. If there had been any humans living here in earlier times, there were none now: the only people other than goblins that Thob saw were a party of amphibian men.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They passed through the big wooden gates into the main city. Densely-packed houses of fungiwood and tower-cap lined the snow-covered streets, shops with signs advertising leather, clothing, and other wares. As they entered, a sound of clanking metal reached Thob’s ears, echoing from the houses; then, from around a corner, marched a procession of goblins bearing weapons and armor blazoned with the symbol of a fruiting tree.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was a motley assortment of arms: axes, swords, hammers, bows, even whips. The soldiers didn’t really march in formation, either, but swaggered about like they owned the place, which in a way they did. “Step aside, provincials,” said one goblin as he approached the party, “Make way for the legion!”
   The soldiers filed past, a seemingly endless stream of them. Finally Thob and his friends managed to duck into a side street — but here, too, more soldiers came sauntering up the road, whether on patrol or parade Thob couldn’t say.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Is anyone in this town not a soldier?” he mused.
   “This is a major provincial town,” said Cañar. “The goblins stationed most of their troops here after the wars, to keep them close to the borders. And soldiering’s more of a hobby for goblins anyway—not much they like better than getting in fights.”
   “Fair enough,” said Strodno.
   “We’d better keep a low profile,” Cañar went on. “Best not to look any more suspicious than we already do. Armed elves and humans aren’t a common sight here, unless they’re outlaws.”

After a bit of searching among the snowy streets they found the tavern they sought. A worn sign showed the image of a round fruit with a knife hovering over it; crudely-formed letters below read “The Doomed Orange.”
   Inside was an assortment of metal tables and chairs jumbled against one wall, and three goblins: one sitting by himself in a corner, another (possibly the innkeeper) idling nearby, and a third standing at one end of the room, speaking loudly in an oratorical voice:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “In a time before time, the mighty Nokast, may his name be eternal, by the power of Vispol rose from the Underworld and established our great Empire upon the earth; and he raised up for himself the palace he called ‘The Tower of Vomit’—a most auspicious name…”
   The tavern keeper walked up to the party. “Well, well,” he said, “I haven’t seen many like you pass through in a long time. Welcome to the Doomed Orange. What can I do for you?”
   “We’ve come a long way,” said Thob, “and we’re quite thirsty. What’s here to drink?”
   “Nothing.”
   “… a tavern with no drinks? You’re kidding, right?”
   “No drinks. Got rooms, though, if you’re interested.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Oh!” whispered Strodno. “I forgot to tell you, Thob: goblins don’t drink! Not booze, not water—we don’t have to.”
   Just great. A whole empire of teetotalers and dry taverns.

Just then another goblin, carrying a big pike, burst into the Orange. She looked around for a moment until she saw the one patron sitting by himself—she pointed at him, cried “There you are!”, and rushed upon him, fists raised. A tremendous brawl broke out between the two, and blood spattered over the tables:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
First they fought with fists only, but at some point the battle turned deadly: the pike-goblin, wielding the long weapon with extraordinary ease in such close quarters, speared her adversary about the head, severing an ear and smashing in his nose. Eventually he slumped over, unconscious with pain—but the beating didn’t stop, until the pike-goblin had stabbed him through the head.
   “By Egesh!” said Thob. “She just… just killed him!”
   “Chances are,” said Strodno, “we’ll see plenty of that in these parts.” Meanwhile the storyteller, apparently unperturbed, was finishing his tale: “…until, in the third year of his reign, our dread lord Nokast was stomped flat by a titan he had valiantly picked a fight with—so ended his illustrious though woefully brief term as our Master.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I don’t think we should stay here too long,” said Thob. “This seems like a dangerous town.” And, anyway, if there was no booze here there wasn’t much reason to stay: they would press on to other, hopefully less parched establishments.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on January 23, 2021, 10:15:05 am
That's a lot of goblin soldiers. I've never seen that even in a goblin town before. Also, the humans "couldn't hold on to it?" Could this part of the world been taken by necromancers and retaken by goblins? It might be interesting to check the tombstones in the catacombs.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on January 24, 2021, 06:37:57 am
Noting says a fun town to hangout in like some rando bursting into the tavern and murdering one of the patrons.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Maloy on February 03, 2021, 04:46:02 pm
I'm only on page 4, but this is one of my most favorite DF stories right now!
It's actually got me playing adventure mode more too!
Great stuff thank you for sharing it!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Superdorf on February 07, 2021, 07:14:50 pm
Quote from: Loam on January 23, 2021, 09:41:03 am
   The goblin looked warily at him. “Ngerxung,” he said.
   “Gesundheit.”

Beautiful.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on February 07, 2021, 08:49:23 pm
Quote from: Maloy on February 03, 2021, 04:46:02 pm
I'm only on page 4, but this is one of my most favorite DF stories right now!
It's actually got me playing adventure mode more too!
Great stuff thank you for sharing it!
Thanks for reading! Glad it's gotten some folks into Adventure Mode - it can be quirky and frustrating at times, but it's got so much depth if you're patient and willing to delve a bit.

Quote from: TheFlame52 on January 23, 2021, 10:15:05 am
Could this part of the world been taken by necromancers and retaken by goblins? It might be interesting to check the tombstones in the catacombs.
I'll admit - contrary to what I said a few posts ago, I *did* just do a bit of digging in Thob's Legends. I felt I needed to know the history of this part of the world, because some of the party (Alisa and Canar) ought to be familiar with it. You might get another lore dump in a future update...

Quote from: Superdorf on February 07, 2021, 07:14:50 pm
Quote
   The goblin looked warily at him. “Ngerxung,” he said.
   “Gesundheit.”
Beautiful.
I was inordinately proud of that one ;D


The party set out for the north, where another cluster of farms and towns could be seen way off in the distance. They camped in the wilderness and travelled all the next day. Along the way they passed the confluence of two big rivers: a scenic spot, with a very nice waterfall that sprayed a fine mist over the ground—a sensation Thob found very refreshing.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strodno was not impressed. “I thought you hated being out in the rain,” she said. “How’s this any different?”
   “Well,” said Thob, “it’s... not as wet?”

The next day they approached the town. Near the outskirts Thob stumbled on yet another small cave in the dirt. Inside was a lone goblin—alone and, apparently, naked. Another crazy ascetic, Thob thought, as he hailed the goblin. “Howdy. Who, uh, are you?”
   “Hello!” replied the goblin. “I am Snodub, the Obscure.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “‘The Obscure’, huh? That’s a good one! I’m ‘The Mysterious’, myself—but call me Thob, that’s my real name.”
   Snodub didn’t have any explanation for his state—all he said of himself was that he used to be a tavern keeper. He did have a set of iron greaves, too large for himself but well-fitted for Alisa; since he wasn’t using them he graciously allowed Thob to take them.

The new town, Prankcloisters, was also surrounded by towers and trenches like Weakenedpelt. The town had an intriguing layout: all the houses and shops were on one side of the river; on the other stood the castle by itself, surrounded by a swath of walled grounds.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As before, the houses here were made mostly of fungiwood, and the inhabitants were primarily, almost solely goblins. The shops, Thob noticed, were almost entirely tanneries and leather clothing shops—Strodno said goblins didn’t use any cloth, except for troll fur. Thob wondered a bit at goblin culture: they had a… unique way with names, for one thing, as he saw in the names of shops:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, the taverns here were also devoid of alcohol. At least they seemed a bit more peaceful. The tavern keeper of one establishment filled Thob in with some local information and the latest news:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Pabat, Thob was made to understand, was the Master of the Lost Sins, a goblin chieftess of considerable age and power; Glacialvine, by the name, was probably some elven settlement. It appeared that the Lost Sins were keeping up their conquests—maybe they really would take over the world.

As they continued wandering the streets, they found one building made of surface wood, not cavern fungi: a three-story structure with a sign, calling it “The Palm of Trade.”
   “What’s this?” said Thob. “Another tavern?”
   “Looks like a counting house,” said Alisa, “for one of the big merchant companies—another human innovation the goblins stole from us.”
   They went inside. The ground floor was a warehouse, filled with empty bins; on the floor above were an assortment of desks and chairs… and a lone human, apparently very old and practically naked, except for a few ornaments made of someone’s hair and a fancy bronze mace.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Visitors?” he said. “Wasn’t expecting you.” He extended a hand. “I’m Ase, Ase Dimplerhymed. Some call me ‘The Oaken Mob’. This servant of war greets you.”
   Thob took the proffered hand uneasily. What was it with all these nudists, he wondered, but he didn’t want to offend anyone so he didn’t ask. “Not many other humans in this town, I think,” he said. “You seem a little, er, out of place?”
   “I’m not from around here originally. My family hails from the south, from the Confederation of Reverence. It seems like an age ago…”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “That’s… quite a long time. I didn’t know humans lived so long.”
   “Is it? I guess living among immortals alters one’s sense of time…”
   “Have you been administrator here for long?”
   “Oh, I’ve had many jobs in my life.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “And you say,” continued Ase, “you are, inter alia, treasure hunters? Fantastic… I’ve got work in that line, if you’re interested. Our company once owned a magnificent jewel, ‘The Abyssal Deeps,’ long lost now—but I think I know where to find it!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The company will reward you generously, be sure of that!”
   Thob said they’d keep an eye out, if they passed by Brandfondled. Then he bade farewell to the garbless dignitary, not without some sense of relief.

Thob was still looking for a replacement spear for Alisa, so when they passed a weaponsmith—“The Cremation of Menace”—that seemed reasonably well-appointed, he stopped in for a look.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After a bit of haggling he got the goblin smiths to trade some iron weapons—a spear for Alisa, a lash for Canar, and a large knife for himself—for a nice pewter ring he’d picked up in some abandoned town.
   Newly equipped, the party spent a bit more time wandering the streets. Thob caught snippets of a conversation between Strodno and Alisa: the human was, as usual, arguing angrily about his controversial opinions, but the goblin pacified him with a few jokes—at Thob’s expense, but he didn’t much mind.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob didn’t know what they had been arguing about. With Alisa it might be anything: the tall man was a wellspring of strange viewpoints, which he held to rigidly and defended vehemently, if not eloquently—as when he loudly proclaimed his feelings towards “so-called ‘friends’”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Beware of friends? Does that include you, Alisa?” said Thob with a chuckle. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given you that spear…”
   Alisa clamped his mouth shut. “Fine,” he muttered, “don’t believe me. Didn’t want to argue anyway…”
   But, with no booze to be had at Prankcloisters and little else of interest, the party decided to move on. Thob was not hopeful they’d find any drink up here in goblin country, but there was one more large town to investigate—the ruins of Handygrown to the east, according to Alisa the ancient capital of the Prestigious Nation.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on February 08, 2021, 06:45:45 am
Thob's more of an archeologist than a adventurer at this point.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: mightymushroom on February 08, 2021, 09:00:59 am
Thob's certainly not a brewer! :P

And Alisa's attitude on treating friends as enemies (and enemies as friends?) perfectly matches his conversational behavior. It makes him feel slightly more sympathetic as a character – he's not trying rile anyone's temper by being a passive-aggressive jerk, he's just fulfilling his side of the relationship where everyone is a passive-aggressive jerk.

EDIT: Although, on reflection Alisa is not so much passive-aggressive as aggressive-passive. He starts things, but always appears genuinely upset when others want to continue in the same fashion.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Dragonsploof on February 09, 2021, 09:00:57 pm
This is really cool and interesting.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Cathar on February 10, 2021, 11:21:28 am
Maybe the true alcohol is the friends we made along the way ?
Alisa is definitely my favourite character. I love how absolutely big mouthed and totally spineless he is. Best combinaison for a companion. I hope he survives
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on February 28, 2021, 06:14:26 pm
I'm still around!


Outside Prankcloisters Thob spotted another of those strange caves in the dirt. Predictably it housed another naked outcast; not so predictably, he had company:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A goblin and an elf, both in the buff although surrounded by cast-off garments and armor. The elf called himself Epeve; the goblin was named Olngo “the Whiskered” (“That would have been a good name!” thought Thob to himself) and claimed to have been a tavern keeper.
   “What’s with all these cave-dwellers?” Thob asked his party, in confidence.
   “I’m not sure we really want to know,” said Cañar.

On the way to Handygrown they passed a small monastery: abandoned, like everything else. Or so they thought. Passing by one of the crumbling buildings Thob heard voices, and took a look inside:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Several elves stood in the old dormitory, most dressed in ordinary elven garb of cloth, but a few wore some kind of armor, made of… wood? And had swords… also wooden. “Is that… normal?” Thob asked Cañar quietly.
   “Yep,” she said. “The old elves didn’t use metals.”
   Thob nodded slowly. The goblin’s conquest didn’t seem quite as astonishing anymore.
   One of the, er, “swords”men called their little band “The Lucky Sins”—some kind of last survivors of the old elven realm. He gave some parting advice to the party: “We’ve had some trouble with the Speakers of Sanctuary, over in Fort Cyclonebook to the east. If you’re headed that way, watch out! There’s been foul goings-on over there—bone-chilling horror, understand?”
   Thob didn’t understand, but he thanked the elf all the same.

In these northern climes some parts of the plain were too frozen to support anything but the hardiest plants; these “tundras” were almost constantly under heavy fog and clouds:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As night drew near they spotted a wood-walled fort amid the snowy fields—Cyclonebook.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Despite the elf’s warnings the place looked calm, and Thob reckoned it’d be warmer inside than out in the weather. The party passed through the old wooden gates, creaking on their hinges.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob saw some goblin soldiers milling around, in the courtyard and buildings. He hailed one, a pikeman, in the mess hall; the goblin returned his greeting cordially. “Better watch out,” said the pikeman, “there’s talk of foul goings-on ‘round these parts.”
   “Uh… so I heard. Just where are these foulnesses supposed to, uh, happen?”
   “Place called ‘Cyclonebook’, I think.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But it was in the fort’s bunkhouse that most of the inhabitants dwelt: a large assortment of elves, humans, and goblins, most of them armed but seemingly friendly.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A number of these folks were officials of some sort: Thob met the “head counselor,” “justiciar,” and the “master of beasts.” But the real leader was an elf named Imi Prestigetaker, who proudly announced that this gang, the Speakers, had been around since the second century.
   Though there was no sign of any “bone-chilling horror,” and the Speakers seemed a pleasant sort, they didn’t seem to want Thob’s party camping in their fort. He and his companions were compelled to make camp in the wilderness nearby, under the cold clouds of the north.

Next morning they approached the edge of another vast tundra; in the distance Thob saw great sheets of ice stretching to the horizon—the frozen waters of the northern ocean:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hours of traveling finally brought them close to Handygrown, around which stood clusters of smaller hamlets and villages. The party entered one such village, and approached the mead hall to see if it had any occupants. They hadn’t gotten too close before loud noises, shouts and cries rang from the house—then, several humans burst from the doors and ran screaming in all directions:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Inside, a dead goblin lay in a pool of blood amidst a few other humans and elves. One of the humans stood over the corpse, and was eyeing the others angrily—but as Thob’s party drew near he turned to them, and charged!
   Strodno stepped up to him and, in a singled swing of her sword, cut an arm from his body.
   Next moment the hostile human was mobbed by nearly everyone present. Even Alisa managed to get a solid stab on the man’s hand. Only Thob stood back and watched the sudden slaughter, wondering just what the hell was going on. It didn’t last long: Strodno caught the assailant as he tried to flee, and nearly separated his torso from his legs.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After this bloody spectacle things seemed to settle down. Thob talked to some of the folks present, trying to figure out who the attacker had been, and why he tried to fight them. The “head executioner,” a man named Kammat, only told him that there had been an “insurrection”—but he gave no details about the dead man’s identity or allegiances.
   “I hope this sort of thing doesn’t happen often,” Thob said as they left the hall.
   “You mean, random slayings for no apparent reason?” said Alisa. “Better get used to it—it’s a part of goblin ‘culture’ that’s seeped into a lot of the humans and elves around here.”
   “But I’ve met lots of goblins,” Thob said, looking at Strodno, “and none of them ever attacked me!”
   “They’re not all bad,” said Cañar. “But they’re volatile—you never know what might set them off.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on March 01, 2021, 05:33:22 am
What a world of violence we find ourselves in, a person dies in every town we enter.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on March 15, 2021, 09:10:59 am
The party approached Handygrown at dawn, a very large town, but very silent: scarcely anything moved in the snowy streets. All around the perimeter the stone towers, which Thob had learned meant goblin occupation, dotted the hills.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Alisa looked somewhat overcome at the sight. “This was the ancient capital, right?” said Thob, “of the Prestigious Nation?” The human nodded. “When did the goblins take over?”
   “Long ago,” said Alisa. “And they didn’t really take over—I’ll give you the short history, if you like…”

*   *   *

THE FALL OF THE PRESTIGIOUS NATION
The goblins of the Lost Sins have been our foes since… well, basically forever. They tried to conquer us for centuries, but weren’t able to drive us out.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then… they came down from the north, from the dark tower of Kindledsteel: the walking dead.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

They attacked our neighbors, the Strong Empire, and took some towns. But our great Queen Kafek drove them back. The next few decades saw some minor trouble with the undead, but they didn’t break us: they weren’t nearly as much of a problem as the Lost Sins, who we fought alongside the elves.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Eventually the undead attacks stopped altogether. A century passed in relative peace. But the undead weren’t beaten, only waiting—and when they returned it was in force.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We—the Prestigious Nation—couldn’t mobilize in time. Turns out the goblins were waiting for this moment. They couldn’t take our towns from us, but the undead proved to be easier targets for them. That’s how they took over—in a short time, half our nation was under goblin dominion, which they of course called “liberation.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meanwhile the undead were still marching. They pushed us back further and further, until finally Handygrown stood alone, our last bastion. Our songs still sing of that battle: with only a hundred men the defenders of Handygrown stood against the undead horde and drove them away—and we heard no more of them for almost a hundred years.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But out peace didn’t last. When the undead returned in the early 300s… Handygrown couldn’t stand. We had too few fighters and no allies. The city fell.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That was the end of the Nation as a state. Sure, our people lived on, but only as refugees in the swamp: we had no towns and no armies.
And, of course, who should come marching in behind the undead to “liberate” Handygrown?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That’s it in a nutshell. The goblins didn’t conquer us—they just stole our land. They’re nothing but bandits and opportunists, however much they boast about their “military might.”

*   *   *

Unlike the other goblin-occupied towns, Handygrown was mostly abandoned. Tower-cap and fungiwood buildings stood empty, while banks of snow piled against doors that clearly hadn’t opened in years. Not everyone was gone: a few folks—goblins, of course—hunkered down in a sizeable tavern:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But the town certainly wasn’t jumping. Thob expected, as they neared the castle, to find only an empty shell of stone (hopefully with a book or two lying around). But they had just passed the gates of the fortress when they heard voices, and not a few:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Sure enough the place was packed: dozens of people, goblins, elves, and some large eyeless creatures crowded the floor. Some were even lying down, as all the standing room had been taken—actually, Thob realized, those people were dead. That explained the blood all around, and probably all the vomiting and wounded folks still standing.
   [**I had a picture of this, but accidentally saved over it. Oops.]
No one seemed to know who was in charge. An elf, who introduced himself as a “lord consort,” told Thob that the place was all but abandoned by the goblin officials.
   “Who’s all this crowd, then?” Thob asked.
   “Priests,” said the elf. “Some old human religion, though you wouldn’t know it by the current clergy. They’ve basically taken over here.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Mind you,” the elf went on, “there’s not much town left to manage. So I guess it doesn’t really matter who’s in charge. As you can see, though,” and here he indicated the blood and bodies, “there’ve been a few… disagreements on that point.”
   “You’re not worried about getting caught up in the fighting?”
   The elf shrugged. “When you’ve lived with the goblins as long as I have,” he said, “you get used to the idea of a violent death.”
   Thob was not quite used to the idea yet, so he decided to clear out before any more “disagreements” broke out.

The party wandered the empty streets until dark. Thob had kept an eye out for a place called the “South Fold”—a counting house—which the administrator in Prankcloisters had told them about. Supposedly someone in there wanted a fantastic jewel returned. But there didn’t seem to be any “South Fold” in town.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on March 16, 2021, 06:51:16 am
It seems like were getting closer to finding out what happened to the world, but no closer to finding the booze.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on April 05, 2021, 06:42:56 pm
Night fell over the city, and with it the dark cold of the northern lands. The party sheltered in a nearby house and made a small fire to ward off gloom and chill.
   Almost as soon as the fire sprang to life, so did the city: suddenly, from all around, terrifying cries, screams, shrieks, wails and moans split the night air and shocked the adventurers into paralyzed silence.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Did anyone,” asked Strodno in a whisper, “happen to notice the moon last night?”
   “What do you mean?” asked Thob.
   “You remember all those naked people in holes?” she said. “Well… I think I might know what’s up with them.”
   Before she could go on, heavy footfalls thumped down the snowy street outside. Footfalls, and some kind of snorting and slavering. Coming straight for the house.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The party huddled together in the corner. Thob hoped no chink in the old walls let the light of their fire show in the street. No one breathed. The footsteps got louder—not the sound of goblin feet, nor the tread of boots, but more like the stamp of some hoofed creature. The sounds drew near the fragile, time-worn door of the house…
   …and passed by, shuffling and snorting into the night. Only after several minutes did anyone relax. “What was it?” said Thob, not really expecting an answer.
   “Let’s hope we don’t find out,” said Cañar.

Somehow Thob got some sleep—and woke up the next morning. Fog shrouded the region. There was no sign of whatever had passed in the night, only a trail of disturbed snow and broken vegetation. Still, the party wasted no time leaving Handygrown.

The nearby hamlet of Brandfondled was, supposedly, where a fabulous jewel had been lost in an earlier age. Thob was eager to see if he could find it—it couldn’t be hard to comb a small village like this for something so precious.
   They neared the mead-hall, the obvious place to begin their search. Much to Thob’s chagrin, though not really to his surprise, sounds of battle rang from the hall. He pushed open the door, expecting to see another brawl between goblins.
   Well, he was half right.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Four goblins lay dead, and not all in one piece. Amid the gory ruin stood two large creatures, half-human and half-beast: one looked vaguely like a twisted sheep; the other, some sort of pig with an elongated snout. Both were covered in blood-matted black hair, eyes aglow as if on fire, and locked in a death struggle.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob stood a moment wondering whether there was any end of new horrors on the surface; then he saw his companions charging the two battling beasts. He sighed, and charged with them, pick raised high.
   Had the monsters not been so absorbed in their own fight, things might have gone much worse. As it happened, the party came out better than they ought to have hoped. Strodno hacked at the terrors with her sword, shearing the sheep-monster’s tail away. The other, pig-like creature bit at her; its teeth glanced away from the goblin’s shirt of steel, but the blow sent her sprawling. A swing of Thob’s pick cracked its skull, while Alisa (showing unusual courage) stabbed it with his spear.
   Cañar, however, had harder luck. The thing’s jaws clamped around her shield arm with a metallic ring, and with tremendous force it ripped the lower half of the elf’s arm away in a spurt of blood. Its victory was short-lived, though, as Thob’s pick dug into its brain.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Cañar wasn’t out of the woods, though. The other monster, the black sheep, with amazing dexterity thrust out a leg and wrapped it around the elf’s neck, then threw her bodily across the mead-hall into a wall. But the companions quickly descended on the remaining monster, and with a few more swings Thob had split open its head as well.
   The elf was bleeding profusely, but some of Strodno’s old skill as a surgeon managed to stem the flow, and Cañar, though a little pale, would live. Throughout she was stoic:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Most important thing is,” she said, “it didn’t break the skin: it just clamped onto my gauntlet.”
   “You lost an arm, Cañar,” said Thob. “I don’t see how a flesh wound would be worse.”
   “That’s how it spreads,” said Strodno. “The curse of the were-blood.”
   Thob was made to understand that the naked cave-dwellers were, probably, not crazy ascetics at all, but these “werebeasts” in their ordinary form. “Some choose to live far from civilization, so they won’t endanger others.” Strodno kicked at the misshapen corpses. “These ones thought they could still live normal lives, I guess. Boy, were they wrong.”
   “You mean… these were people we killed?”
   “That’s a philosophical point I don’t want to get into right now.”

To their surprise, the mead-hall still housed a single goblin, cowering amid the treasures at the back of the room.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
His name was Gozru, the so-called “commander” of the “Ruthlessness of Lambs” (an ironic name, especially under the circumstances). Since the party had just saved his life, he was more than willing to let them take from the hall’s armory whatever they wanted (“Not,” said Alisa, “that it’s really his in the first place”). Alisa got a new mail coat of bronze, and some high boots of the same; Cañar took a replacement shield, which she held less than steadily in her one remaining hand.

Having equipped themselves, the party set out (cautiously) to survey the village. All day, just about, they searched for any sign of a jewel, but all the houses were empty, long abandoned and falling to pieces where they stood. After many fruitless hours they called it quits—they had other places to go, and much more important tasks at hand. “And another jewel to find,” Strodno reminded Thob.
   “How long do those were-things stay… were’d?” asked the dwarf.
   “Until the moon changes,” said Cañar. “Maybe it’d be best if we waited here until tomorrow—by then I bet they’ll have settled down.”
   “That’s just what I was thinking,” said Thob.


Sorry for the glacial pace updates have slowed to - I've been busy on a draft of my (IRL) book. But that'll be done this week, so I'll have more time for Thob!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on April 06, 2021, 05:15:30 am
I'm okay with the pace RL takes precedence, also what's your book about?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Superdorf on April 06, 2021, 11:32:10 am
Quote from: Loam on April 05, 2021, 06:42:56 pm
Sorry for the glacial pace updates have slowed to - I've been busy on a draft of my (IRL) book. But that'll be done this week, so I'll have more time for Thob!

Oh hey, that's big news! Many congratulations :)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on April 06, 2021, 02:32:44 pm
That's great! I don't expect updates, but I do appreciate them when they come. I hope we see an end to Thob's story.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on April 12, 2021, 04:01:11 pm
Quote from: TheFlame52 on April 06, 2021, 02:32:44 pm
I don't expect updates, but I do appreciate them when they come. I hope we see an end to Thob's story.
That's good to know - I just like to be reliable! And I have no intention of leaving Thob hanging, he deserves a conclusion.

Quote from: Superdorf on April 06, 2021, 11:32:10 am
Oh hey, that's big news! Many congratulations :)
Thanks! It's still only a draft, but at least it's complete.

Quote from: King Zultan on April 06, 2021, 05:15:30 am
what's your book about?
Unsurprisingly, it's a fantasy novel :P Don't want to give specific details yet, but it draws a lot from Finnish culture/mythology (I think - I'm not Finnish).
It's more serious than Thob, of course. Speaking of which...


The next day the party scouted around the hamlets outside Handygrown. One of these, Knitimage, was one of the oldest settlements in the Prestigious Nation, according to Alisa.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As they neared the village Thob’s nose picked up death on the wind. Figures moved in the near distance. The dwarf readied a hand on his pick.

The village was abandoned, but fresh sandal tracks in the snow attested to recent movement:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
No zombies lurched at them from the collapsing houses, though — the place seemed quiet.

The weather had cleared a bit when they reached the mead-hall. Thob was relieved to find it populous and apparently peaceful within:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were a few elves and two goblins; the rest were humans, tall and fair-skinned like Alisa, and by their manner they all looked to Thob like persons of importance.
   As they entered, an aged-looking human offered his greetings: “Welcome to my hall, visitors!” He was a fat man with a long, neatly-combed white beard, dressed in robes of coarse gray fur. “Head chef!” he cried, beckoning another human, “prepare a feast for our guests!”
   The “head chef” moved lackadaisically into the back room, while the party came forward to greet their host. “I’m Thob ‘The Mysterious,’ undead hunter, monster slayer, treasure seeker, writer… oh yes, and miner. And you are…?”
   “Surely you jest!” laughed the old man. “I am the law-giver of the Prestigious Nation!”
   Alisa’s jaw dropped open. “But… there hasn’t been a Prestigious Nation for over five centuries!”
   “There is now, friend!” said the old man. “The Nation lives again, and it will prosper under the rule of King Perom Horseclimax!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I’m sorry,” said Thob, “run that by me again?”
   “Horseclimax!” ejaculated Perom.
   “And you’re the, uh, ‘king’ hereabouts?”
   “Indeed,” said the law-giver, “Though I was not always so — I rose from humble origins.”
   “Oh really? What did you do?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “It’s been a long time since we’ve had visitors,” Perom continued. “I’m afraid you’ll find our larders a bit bare — we’ve been on austerity measures, due to the war.”
   “A war?” said Alisa. “Against whom? How? Why?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I didn’t know you cared so much about animals,” said Cañar, impressed.
   “Well, these particular enemies will kill anything that moves,” said Perom, “so there’s not much reason to distinguish, is there? Oh, and besides them, there’s always skirmishes with the goblins.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “You’re fighting over a book?”
   “Among other things. But the book has… sentimental value.”

Most of the mead-hall’s other inhabitants bore various official titles: Thob met a “master of beasts,” a “high treasurer,” and a “royal chamberlain”. None, however, seemed to have any official duties to speak of, except the head chef who brought out a scant meal for the party. The place reminded Thob of Dawngloves, back in his homeland, with all its barons and generals and the king—but no kingdom. If he had been more given to philosophy he might have found this poignant; as he was, it seemed merely absurd.
   Figuring anyone called “head chef” would know where the royal booze was kept, he asked, and received the expected negative answer. The chef did, however, wax poetic about his own favored delicacy:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The most interesting of the functionless functionaries was the “chief doctor.” She was adorned with ornaments made, distressingly, of bones, and carried a heavy ceramic slab—it had something written on it, but she held it close to her body so Thob couldn’t make it out.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The two goblins, an elf bowman, and one human obviously didn’t belong to the law-giver’s entourage, though the human called himself a “leader”. They all looked shifty to Thob. It was therefore little surprise to him when, after they had hob-nobbed with Perom’s people for a while, the so-called leader made a subtle nod to his fellows, laid a hand on his knife, and lunged towards the law-giver. The two goblins drew their weapons, and the elf shot a quick arrow at Cañar that she just narrowly blocked. “Goblin assassins!” she cried. “To arms!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She lashed at the bow-elf; Thob squared up against the human leader, jumping between him and the terrified Perom. Alisa fought one goblin, armed with a hammer: the goblin landed a blow that broke Alisa’s fingers, but Strodno rushed to his aid, slicing off the hammer-goblin’s own hand.
   The hand fell to the floor. Perom looked at it. And, suddenly, the hand began to move.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Oops!” said Perom. “Sorry—I didn’t mean to do that!”
   “Ahhh!” cried a nearby dignitary as the severed extremity groped towards him. He kicked at the grasping claw, and it lay still again.
   Meanwhile the hammer-goblin was now dead, and Thob’s pick had just parted the leader's head from his shoulders:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He was getting quite good at this fighting thing, it seemed. Strodno, Cañar, and Alisa now ganged up on the lone bowman, stabbing, lashing, and bashing, until Strodno cleaved her head apart.
   Everything was quiet for a moment—until Perom let out a little gasp of fright.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “What the…?!” shouted Strodno, grasping her weapon.
   “I’m so sorry!” moaned Perom. “It’s just a reflex, I swear!”
   There was no time to argue the point — there were zombies to kill. Thob noticed, though, as he put down the leader for a second time, that some other of the royal officials seemed unperturbed by the risen dead: one, the mysterious doctor, even seemed morbidly affectionate towards them:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
These zombies, fortunately, proved much frailer than the ones Thob had previously encountered: any sufficient force seemed to dispel the dark magic that animated them and returned them to the grave. Soon the hall was quiet again. “Now,” said Thob, “just what is going—!?”
   The bodies began to quiver once more, and then to stand. “It wasn’t me!” Perom wailed.
   These zombies looked different—fiercer, more knowing. The dead elf looked at Thob, and clenched its fist. Pain shot through his body.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The pain wasn’t crippling, though, and he fought through it. These magical undead were no tougher than their normal counterparts: one good swing, even a solid kick, and they collapsed lifeless:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The erstwhile goblin assassins fell, for the third and (Thob hoped) final time. The hall was a mess:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
“Now,” Thob said, pointing with his pick at the cowering law-giver, “I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: TheFlame52 on April 12, 2021, 05:51:26 pm
That's very nice art!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on April 13, 2021, 03:55:26 am
Quote from: Loam on April 12, 2021, 04:01:11 pm
   “There is now, friend!” said the old man. “The Nation lives again, and it will prosper under the rule of King Perom Horseclimax!”
   “I’m sorry,” said Thob, “run that by me again?”
   “Horseclimax!” ejaculated Perom.
I see what you did there, it's also appropriate that he was a gelder before taking his new position.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Maloy on April 13, 2021, 10:33:34 am
Horseclimax was a professional gelder before?

I think he is secretly trolling the party about the whole thing lol
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: Loam on April 20, 2021, 09:09:27 am
Quote from: TheFlame52 on April 12, 2021, 05:51:26 pm
That's very nice art!
Thanks!


“It’s no good denying it,” said Perom, “I am a necromancer—as are several of my fellows here. But before you go poking those weapons at us, please hear me out. We’re not the people we once were—everything’s changed.”
   “It certainly has,” said Alisa, “and you’re to blame for it!”
   “With respect, sir,” said the law-giver, “you can only imagine how great the change is. I lived in those days. I saw the rise of my folk, and their fall—of which I was, indeed, the cause. That does something to a man. I will tell you what has happened in the intervening centuries; then you can decide what to do with us.”
   “Well,” said Thob, “you seem sincere enough. But keep those hands where I can see them!”
   “Of course,” said Perom, taking a seat. And he began his tale…

*     *     *

I was born nine hundred and sixty-three years ago, in the castle of Rewarddangle, of which I became Baron in my twenty-third year. I was a dutiful vassal of the Nation, ever willing to fight in its wars.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But so much battle, so early in life, took its toll: I became fearful of death, afraid that the True Honor, our goddess of mercy, would punish me for the blood I had shed. So I turned to the coven of Loge Testsavior, the first and oldest of the necromancers, and one of his dark company took me as apprentice and taught me the secrets of eternal life.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Free, so I thought, from fear of death, I grew proud and scornful of mere mortals. I joined Loge’s attack on the Elves of the Soaked Glade and the humans of the Strong Empire. When we overran Weakenedpelt I was in the vanguard. I can still hear the screams of my victims…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…as I changed them into the mutant beasts I called…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   “You certainly have a… way with names,” said Thob.
   “Don’t interrupt!” said Perom. “I’m trying to be remorseful!”

Our campaign of undeath continued as, swollen with the arrogance of immortality, I turned on my own people. The Prestigious Nation reeled from our attacks; I followed the advancing army and took lordship over Authoredlathered.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was then, in the moment of my triumph, that the divine judgment I had always feared fell upon me. Our holds were swarmed by goblins, attacking in huge numbers that we could not push back. They ransacked my hall and took me prisoner.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
For two hundred years I languished in the dark pits—more than two lifetimes of men I spent, a prisoner and plaything of the cruel goblins. It was less than I deserved… but it was enough to turn me from my past wickedness.

I was not the only necromancer whom the goblins captured. When our tower, Kindledsteel, fell to the Lost Sins they imprisoned many others—among them Loge himself, and Loge’s apprentice and lover Sothbod Prairiecolored.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In his imprisonment Loge turned to worship of the True Honor, pleading forgiveness. She granted it: Loge escaped the goblins and fled into the vast swampy wilderness of the east. Sothbod escaped likewise some years later, and somehow—miraculously, I expect—found Loge’s camp.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Finally, I too was smiled upon; I eluded my captors and took to the wilds, where I also encountered my old comrades.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
We three determined to do all we could to right our wrongs. We expected that the Prestigious Nation was no more—that we were all that was left. So we assumed the leadership of our ancient people.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Of course, if we truly wished to resurrect out nation, well, we needed more people. And, er… well, there was only one way to do that.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And they had children, and they had children… and pretty soon, as eternity goes, we had enough for a settlement.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   “You… bred the Nation back to life?” said Alisa, incredulous.
   “With only three ancestors?” said Strodno, appalled.
   “Well, essentially yes. We had new blood now and then—folks captured by the goblins who escaped sometimes wound up in our growing camp—but for the most part its was just us three immortals.”

Our band grew and grew over the generations. We trained for war, we took up arms: we would take the fight to the enemies of humanity, especially the undead. In the southern lands humans and dwarves were still fighting their own plague of necromancers, and we offered our swords to aid them.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
For centuries we battled alongside our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren… and so on. It was in one of these battles that Loge fell, bravely aiding the humans he had once tried to destroy against the undead army of Onget Netyells.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   “Onget Netyells?” said Thob. “The witch-queen of Brightplums? I know her—well, I know of her, anyways. She has that jewel you want, right Strodno?”
   “That’s the one,” said Strodno. “You fought her army, Perom?”
   “Many times. We could never break them, but at least we fought them to a standstill.”

*     *     *

   He paused. “Well,” he said, “that’s about the size of it. A few months ago we decided to finally see how our ancient homeland was faring, and whether we might come to reclaim it. It is… disappointingly full of goblins. But there are, I think, enough abandoned places that we might be able to live and grow, until eventually we are able to challenge the Lost Sins.”
   “Where’s the rest of your, uh, family?” asked Cañar. “You must have a large contingent after so long.”
   “They’re back at our camp in the swamp, waiting for news,” said the law-giver. “There—I’ve explained ourselves to you, as best I could. What shall it be?”
   Alisa frowned. “Let me get this straight. For the past six hundred years, you’ve been breeding and training an army to fight the undead and reclaim the Prestigious Nation?”
   Perom nodded.
   “I can’t tell whether to be impressed or disgusted,” said Alisa. “But do you really think it atones for what you did?”
   “If I may, Alisa,” said Strodno. “All of your people’s enemies—undead and goblins—are immortals. Their leaders will have centuries of experience and skill over any human. If your leaders had the same, like Perom here, that might serve you well. And he’ll know better than anyone else what the undead are capable of, and can prepare for it.”
   “Besides,” said Cañar, “what would we gain by killing them? If they’re willing to help, they may be the best hope we have.”
   Alisa growled. “Fine,” he said, “but you’re no king of mine. If, and when, we restore the Nation, we’ll give it a proper, mortal king, like the gods intended.”
   “Well!” said Thob, “glad that’s settled. But if you don’t mind, Mr. Horse… you know, I’d like to be going before someone else decides to freak out and ‘reflexively’ raise the dead. Besides—there’s booze to find yet!”
   “And gems to recover,” said Strodno.


And with that I'll take another little hiatus, because I've reached the end of my pre-played content. I like to have a buffer of several updates before I post one, so that I know better where the story is going. I'll get three or four episodes played, then I'll resume the story - and hopefully soon Thob gets his drink!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: HakuryuVision on April 20, 2021, 08:20:20 pm
Any update on this is an absolute treat.
Also 'Horseclimax' Fist' is so far my favorite name for any necro experiment.

Take your time!
Really hoping Thob finds his booze!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part IV
Post by: King Zultan on April 21, 2021, 03:40:00 am
I'm willing to wait for up dates for this, as they're always good ones.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on May 25, 2021, 12:25:48 pm
Into the Wild

The cities of the southwest, near Thob’s home, were barren and boozeless; and these northern lands were overrun by teetotaling goblins. To the east Thob knew of nothing but the great swamp and its greenskin inhabitants. But he had heard rumors of a yet-living dwarven realm, far in the southeast, and a fortress that still housed his bearded brethren—and where there were dwarves, surely there must be drink!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
None of his companions had ever been to these far lands, and the journey promised to take many days through trackless country. But they had no other choice.

They didn’t go far before danger caught up with them, in the form of a skinny cave dragon:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What the beast was doing up here on the surface Thob could only guess. It charged the party; Alisa, predictably, fled for his life, but the others (even the wounded Cañar) rushed to do battle. The dragon aimed a sharp talon right at Thob’s eye, but Cañar delivered an impressive kick to the monster’s head that interrupted its swipe. Strodno’s sword ripped into the creature’s guts, and Thob swung his pick into its throat, gouging the jugular:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Strodno was getting into it. She kept shouting about her past kills, as if the dragon could understand and be intimidated:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They hacked at the dragon until it lay still, having bled out on the grass. Strodno wiped the blood from her sword, swung it around, and slid it effortlessly back into its sheath. “Another one bites the dust,” she said. She really was getting into this.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The next day they crossed into the Swamp of Cavities, a vast wetland presumably named for the many muddy holes that dotted its reedy fields (though it might also be a crack at the local goblins’ dental hygiene). The sky was dark with clouds and the air full of falling snow that obscured their vision.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “You know, Thob,” said Strodno as they marched along. “I used to think your whole nickname thing—you know, ‘Thob the Mysterious’—was a bit silly… but I’m coming around to it. After all, famous monster hunters like ourselves ought to have really unique names, to stand out in the stories and all.”
   “Any good ones come to mind?” Thob asked.
   “Well,” said the goblin, “how about…”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “That’s… unique, alright.”

When the clouds and snow finally parted the party caught sight of an imposing tower, much taller and larger than the necromancer towers Thob had seen, and surrounded by dozens of smaller fortifications and a maze of earthworks. This was the goblin fortress of Poisonwarned, the gateway, so to speak, into the homeland of the Lost Sins.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “We’d better steer clear,” said Cañar. “Their patrols scout the area constantly. Four adventurers will look like easy pickings for a squad of goblins.”
   They passed as near as they dared to the dark fortress, unmolested, emerging from the swamp onto a broad plain to the south. A few hours’ journey ahead they spotted an old palisaded fort seated on a small knoll. It seemed abandoned, though in reasonably good condition, and Thob wondered if it’d make a good shelter for the night.
   Searching among the fort’s buildings, however, Thob suddenly heard the noise of footsteps from within—and then, voices.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Cautiously opening the door, he looked in to see a little band of goblins at their ease in the dormitory:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Only one was armed, so they must not be soldiers of the Lost Sins. They wore what Alisa recognized as human-style clothing of the Strong Empire, including a strange headgear of wrapped cloth.
   They were wary of Thob’s party, but he introduced himself friendly-like, and they did the same. One called himself the “chief” of the “Everlasting Girdle-Council,” which was rather a grand name for a rag-tag gang of five. His name, as best Thob could make out, was Ngoso Ngososnungo—he seemed to have some trouble pronouncing it, probably due to his conspicuous lack of nose:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Despite his human clothes, Ngoso was goblin through-and-through: he proudly proclaimed his lineage from a certain “Smunstu Swallowwitches” who led a short and murderous life in the goblin homeland of old:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He knew rumors, also, of current-day affairs in the Lost Sins, particularly the expansionary campaigns of the Master, a shadowy figure named Pabat Murderdance, or “The Rainy Bird”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob wasn’t sure what an “underworld spire” was, but with a name like “The Towers of Vomit” he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.
   Another goblin introduced himself as Amane Adelafawara—an Elvish name, Cañar said—and offered the party a blessing in the name of the True Honor, goddess of mercy. He claimed to be on a pilgrimage, but when pressed didn’t seem very sure of his itinerary. “I go as the goddess moves me,” he said.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob asked the remaining goblins about the local area, hoping to find some settlements nearby, but apart from a few caves the lands were empty for many miles. Alisa, meanwhile, did what he did best…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
…but the pilgrim was a fine conversationalist, and salved the human’s easily-bruised ego:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thob didn’t feel entirely welcome at the goblins’ fort, and as no better lodgings were to be had nearby the party camped nearby in the plains. The night drew on, and the northern cold with it; their little campfire crackled in the gathering gloom.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on May 26, 2021, 03:20:16 am
Dwarven controlled lands in a distant country, it seems there is some hope for Thob's quest after all.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on June 09, 2021, 01:29:44 pm
In the morning a few odd-looking creatures stood gathered near the camp, watching the adventurers with interest—some new kind of necromatic experiments, Thob guessed, for what else could be so evidently an amalgam of other animals? They had deer-like heads atop a man’s torso, with the strong legs of hares and a long tail like a dog; they stood upright, but moved either on all fours or in short hops; and some, he noticed, even had a little pocket in their belly fur!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They seemed peaceful now, but their strong arms and large claws made Thob unwilling to try their patience. The party broke camp and set out quickly.

The sun rose to mid-morning as they crossed over the fields. On their way they encountered an unlikely sight: a lone goblin, clad only in nature’s garb save for a few crude adornments of bone and hair:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob worried he might be some crazed savage or feral goblin, but he approached the travelers without hostility and responded politely to Thob’s hail. He called himself Båx Blackgulf, and said he was traveling to Handygrown.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “We just came from there,” said Thob. “There’s not much to it—mostly abandoned.”
   “It’s for my job. I’m to be the representative up there.”
   “Representative? Of whom?”
   The goblin gave him a suspicious look. “Who wants to know?”
   “Just curious.”
   But Båx seemed unconvinced. “You ask too many questions, dwarf,” he said, and without another word turned away and left.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob never found out why he was naked—but perhaps he didn’t want to know, after all.

Later that day the party crossed a sandy basin, a parched spot amid the fields around:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Across the sand the fields continued; further on they became wetter and wetter until once again they were in the marshes. Dusk found them beside the frozen waters of a wide stream, the upper reaches of a great river that flowed northward through the swamp.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If they followed this stream, Thob thought, they must hit the mountains eventually—and where there were mountains, there would surely be dwarves!
   They made camp for the night beside the river. Alisa was grumbling as they worked, angry as usual about all the arguments that he started, and also muttering about the weather. “Don’t get so worked up over it,” said Thob.
   “Worked up? Me?” said the human. “I’m not worked up about anything.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Oh… well, it just seemed…”
   “I. Am not. Upset.”
   “… right. I can see that.” Alisa turned away and lay down, still muttering.

Thob’s sleep was interrupted by a prickling sensation from his mustache: it always tingled when danger was nigh, even when he couldn’t see it, a sense he guessed had developed during his many years as a miner in the caverns. He got up and took a careful look around the swamp, but saw nothing but trees. Then he looked over the edge of the steep riverbank, down to where the frozen waters lay like a floor of ice:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A pack of large—nay, giant dog-like creatures surveyed the flickering campfire from below. Some more dire cousins of the fearsome hyenas he had faced in the south, perhaps? The beasts apparently hadn’t spotted the party yet and weren’t aggressive, but Thob was not eager to try his strength against such large predators. He roused his companions quietly, and they all withdrew from the riverbank to a (hopefully) safe distance. Even here, he noticed, the wildlife was conspicuously bigger than it should be:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
To avoid being taken by surprise in the night, Cañar suggested they do as the elves: climb the nearby trees and sleep among the branches, where the “dingoes” (so she called them) couldn’t reach. So they did; it wasn’t the most comfortable bed Thob ever had, but at last he managed to get to sleep…

… only to be awakened an hour later by the same tingling sensation, accompanied by snarling and yipping from below:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
These, fortunately, were normal-sized dingoes, no bigger than hyenas. And they couldn’t actually reach the companions, but they waited: at some time the party would have to come down. And in the meantime there’d be no sleeping with all the noise. “Only one thing for it,” said Thob, “we’ve got to get rid of them!”
   “How?” asked Strodno. “We can’t reach them from up here.”
   This was true: they hadn’t a bow among them, or even a pile of stones to chuck. “Then we’ll just have to go down to their level!” said Thob. And, deaf to their shouts of “No, Thob, that’s crazy,” the dwarf leapt down from the branches into the midst of the dingo pack, swinging his pick.
   The humble pick was really a magnificent weapon, he mused, as the first dingo’s head went flying. A terrifying weapon, too: with a single swing that made even Thob’s stomach lurch a little, the next dingo he unseamed from the nave to the chaps:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The other creatures now began to flee for their lives, but few things are more vengeful than a sober dwarf tired of having his sleep interrupted. Thob chased down the stragglers and put them all to the pick, unfurling a carpet of dead dingoes beneath the tree limbs:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Not the pleasantest place to stay the night, he guessed, but perhaps it would act as a warning to any other marauding wildlife. “Sleep in the trees, indeed,” Thob grumbled. He hoped more than ever to find a drink soon—the sooner he did, the sooner he’d be back in the sane world, underground.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on June 10, 2021, 04:02:53 am
Thob: Dingo Destroyer!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on July 02, 2021, 08:55:11 am
The journey south continued, following the course of the river. At last, Thob could see mountain peaks in the distance.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The river ran through a dry, sandy basin. Several streams pooled together here in a small lake – nowhere near the size of the mighty ocean, and fresh rather than salty water.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It reminded Thob of the cavern pools of his home – which meant he was leery of getting too close. The others, however, thought it might be “fun” to walk along the lakeshore. Evidently none of them had been pulled under by a pond grabber recently. But he had to admit that the sun rippling from the faint waves in the water was rather charming.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He still kept his distance though. Every so often he heard a snatch of conversation from his fellows as they walked along:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That night they camped in the fields south of the lake. Strodno suggested that a ring of campfires might be better than just one for deterring nighttime dingo attacks.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It seemed to work, because Thob awoke safely the next morning after an uninterrupted sleep.

The river wound into the southeast, into the thickets of a dense swamp. It was difficult to see far in these woods, but just to the east the party spotted another cluster of towers and earthworks – an outpost of some goblin realm.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another day’s march ended at nightfall. They made camp beside one of the innumerable murky pools of the swamp. The party was tired after the long journey, and no one wanted the bother of setting up a ring of fires tonight. “Probably not necessary,” said Cañar with a yawn. “I think we’ve made it out of dingo country.” That suited Thob just fine.

Of course, they had not made it out of dingo country, as Thob found out when he was jarred from sleep by some all-too-familiar barking.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At least this time the whole party joined in the fray. Pick, sword, and lash struck at the charging hounds to drive them away. Alisa, however, chose a different tactic. He pounced gracefully (so he thought) at one of the beasts, planted his foot in the mud, slipped, and fell into the nearby pool. Adding injury to insult, the angry dingo jumped in beside the human and bit him squarely on the nose, leaving a very nasty cut. And on top of it all, it appeared that Alisa couldn’t swim!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was up to the others to put down the rest of the dingoes. Fortunately Alisa hadn’t fallen too far from the bank, and was able after some struggling to pull himself up, breathless, into the reeds. “You ought to be more careful,” said Strodno as she wrapped a scrap of linen around his mangled nose. The soggy human merely sulked and muttered.

All the next day the party ventured south through goblin country. The greenskins had colonized the upper reaches of the river, so they followed its course now only at a distance.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
All that day and some of the next they trudged through the swamp, until at last they saw the mountains rising just to the south, across the stream. And, in the distant east, Thob thought he could make out the shape of an old dwarven fortress!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The land opened up into a broad plain dotted with some scattered villages – another human folk here in the south? Perhaps they had survived the undead wars that had devastated the rest of the world?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They were almost free of goblin territory now. But as they worked their way to the edge of the swamp they became aware of something behind them, apparently following them:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Probably a goblin patrol,” said Strodno. “We’ve got to keep moving – hopefully we can outpace them.”
   But the goblins, or whoever they were, were persistent. They followed the party at an equal pace out into the plains, where Thob saw just ahead a few buildings of stone beside a stream: a monastery, unless he missed his guess.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hoping to lose their tail, the party slipped in among and into the abandoned structures. Peering out from the doorway, Thob saw that their pursuers had stopped at the edge of the compound. “Waiting for us to come out,” said Cañar. “They don’t want to follow us in and risk an ambush.”
   “Looks like our chance,” said Thob.
   Ducking into the shadow of the old dormitory, the party managed to evade sight and slip away to the south, leaving the patrol waiting beside the monastery. The episode had cost them a few hours, though, and they weren’t able to make the dwarven fortress by nightfall, so they camped in the plains. Even from here, though, they could see many more settlements, both human and dwarven.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: TheFlame52 on July 02, 2021, 07:49:36 pm
Those are settled fortresses! Is Thob's journey at an end?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on July 03, 2021, 03:02:53 am
The time for booze is nearing!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on July 19, 2021, 11:30:54 am
Are you still updating this story, Loam? Just read it through and I'm positively enthralled (necro pun not intended).

Also I'd venture a guess that even if he finds booze here, Thob won't just walk away from this whole epic quest for the leadership of the human race that he's found himself wrapped up in. Thob's journey, I suspect, is very far from over.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on July 19, 2021, 06:00:41 pm
Quote from: PlumpHelmetMan on July 19, 2021, 11:30:54 am
Are you still updating this story, Loam? Just read it through and I'm positively enthralled (necro pun not intended).
Your interest has summoned me, it seems!

But yes, I'm still updating it - a lot slower than I'd like to, though. Motivation waxes and wanes, and right now it's pretty low as I'm working on other projects. I fully intend to give Thob's story a good solid ending though... it may just take a while ;D.

It's always good, however, to know people are still reading (and enjoying) the story! Gives me a push to keep posting. Speaking of which...


Thob felt a sort of homecoming as they approached the old dwarven fortress (called “Drummedbrass,” according to the road signs). Bright yellow stone walls jutted from the mountain cliff in seeming welcome. But inside all was quiet – too quiet: the place evidently hadn’t seen much dwarven life for many years.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With a sigh Thob looked around the empty upper chamber. The tavern, though still in fair condition, was all out of alcohol; the depot held a quantity of old meat and some iron weapons of middling quality, hardly the treasures he expected from a dwarven citadel.
   A temple made of dark stone, named “The Sable Sanctum,” stood in the south wall. And someone had stashed a couple books in here!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The first was a passable three-page poem, bubbling with cheerfulness; the second was an essay about the eponymous Ducim’s student life. Nothing too interesting, but books were books, and Thob added them to the growing collection in his pack.

Only Thob, of the party, had been in a dwarven fortress before, and Cañar and Alisa had never even been underground before. They were wary of the darkness and the steep descent of the central stairway, but Thob reassured them, leading the party down into the fortress proper. Soon the walls pulled away, opening into a great cavern:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Just being underground again made Thob more at ease, but the others looked with trepidation at the looming shapes of the spore trees and blood thorns. “How do you stand it down here?” said Alisa. “I can barely see my own hand in front of my face!”
   “What?” said Thob. “I can see perfectly well – better, actually, now that that awful sun isn’t glaring in my eyes.”
   They made their way into the halls of the fortress. All was deserted. Among the corridors and chambers Thob found one room of a type he’d never seen before. It was floored with wood, furnished with tables and chairs, and along one wall stood a row of pedestals displaying finely-cut jewels. A sign over the door gave the name of the place, along with a designation – “Jeweler’s Guild”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were a few more such rooms in the fortress. They found one displaying ornaments of bone…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
… and another full of leather clothing, named for some reason…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Evidently the dwarves in this part of the world organized their various labors into these “guilds,” though for what reason Thob couldn’t say. But at least they left some neat stuff behind. In the weaponsmith’s guild they found many fine armaments, including a steel spear for Alisa and a sword for Strodno.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Further down in the fortress Thob heard the sound of footsteps; and, upon entering the main hall, found that the abandoned fort wasn’t entirely abandoned after all.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A lone goblin, who called herself Båx Menacespies – “a servant of Gicast,” she said.
   “Who’s that?” asked Thob.
   “He is the Lord of Dance, of course. And I am his sacred belly.”
   “Oh, a belly-dancer.”
   Båx didn’t seem to know much of use – not surprising, since she’d been living alone down here for who knew how long. So they took a look around the old treasures the dwarves had left behind, and found several fine pieces of armor: steel boots and a helm for Strodno, a steel breastplate and iron helm for Cañar, and a pair of fine iron greaves for Thob himself. There were a couple books as well: a compassionate treatise on the value of merriment (a worthy value if there was one!), and a long novel titled “Fires,” which was full of purple prose and attempts at satire that came off as mere meanness.

But after searching the main hall the party found nothing else of note, and made to leave Drummedbrass. Thob hoped the next dwarven sites he found were more populous – and preferably peopled by dwarves. It had been too long since he’d seen his own kind.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: TheFlame52 on July 19, 2021, 07:32:18 pm
A bonecrafters' guild called the Girder of Busts? Perhaps they specialized in corsets.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on July 19, 2021, 07:52:17 pm
Ugh...first a goblin belly-dancer and now a corsets trader guild? I never asked for these mental images lmao.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on July 20, 2021, 05:18:08 am
What a strange fortress, and what's with every site having at least one goblin inside of it?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Maloy on July 20, 2021, 07:08:20 am
Always look forward to these updates!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on July 20, 2021, 10:10:34 am
Quote from: King Zultan on July 20, 2021, 05:18:08 am
and what's with every site having at least one goblin inside of it?
Probably because anyone you meet has a 95% chance to be a goblin...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote from: PlumpHelmetMan on July 19, 2021, 07:52:17 pm
Ugh...first a goblin belly-dancer and now a corsets trader guild?
Maybe she's part of an ad campaign?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on July 25, 2021, 06:16:46 pm
South of Drummedbrass the party passed another abandoned monastery. The abbey chapel was finely engraved, and on the walls Thob picked out the image of a dancing god and his worshipers – this must be the “Gicast” that the goblin priestess had mentioned. Further engravings told him the name of the sect that had worshiped here.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The “Mellow Cult,” of the god of music festivals? Only a shiftless, daydreaming surface-dweller would come up with that, thought Thob. Dwarves worshiped sensible things, like wealth, and industry, and battle.
   Well, most dwarves anyway – Thob recalled with a shudder the devotion to Oggon in his homeland. A dance god was probably better than a lust goddess, all things considered.

A large town lay on the plains to the east, connected to Drummedbrass by a long packed-dirt road. The sun was already setting as the party approached, and rather than enter a strange city at night they decided to find somewhere else to stay and wait for morning. It so happened that a small castle stood on a hill just outside the town:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At the very least, it’d be a shelter from the dingoes. Thob pushed open the wooden gates and entered the courtyard, which seemed deserted. He went to the keep and peered inside – and was surprised to find it stuffed, top to bottom, with books!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Might this castle have been a library, once? There still seemed to be no one around, so the party entered the keep. Thob began to study the books one by one; they were strewn over the furniture and floors in no particular order. They were mostly guides, biographies, and histories, of middling quality: one history devoted all 262 pages to a dragon eating a bird.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As he read, he noticed that most of the books – indeed, very nearly every one – had been written by the same hand, and bore the same name: Ugrad Nutsyawning. What was more, they were almost all about Ugrad Nutsyawning as well.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And most were just about Ugrad writing other books – or, even stranger, about Ugrad storing other books…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob took note of the dates in these biographies: it seemed this Ugrad had lived for several centuries at least, far longer than a usual human lifespan. Thob’s suspicions were confirmed upon reading one particular book:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He was still perusing the clutter of books when two people entered the room. One was a goblin, wearing unadorned garments of elvish fashion; the other a human, a short and very skinny lady with long white hair in two braids. She did not look entirely sane.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Who’s there?” said the goblin. “What are you doing here?”
   “We’re just looking around,” said Thob. “Didn’t know anyone was here. We thought we’d stop here for the night.”
   The goblin gave them a weighing look. “You look awfully well-armed for mere travelers,” he said.
   “Have to be,” answered Thob. “You know… dingoes, and such.”
   “Hmm… yes, well… I suppose you don’t mean any harm, or you’d have done it by now. I am Stasost Ancientwitch.”
   “And I’m Thob. What’s with all the suspicion? Are you the lord of this place?”
   “Good Gicast, no. I’m just a guardian, of sorts. There hasn’t been a lord here in ages – Castle Waneclutches is now used for a very different purpose.”
   “A library?”
   “A prison!” rattled the old human lady nearby, quite suddenly and loudly. “They keep me locked up here, night and day, with nothing to eat or drink! Please, help an old woman, would you?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Don’t listen to her!” warned Stasost. “Don’t be fooled by her innocent victim bit!”
   “So she is your prisoner,” said Thob. “Why? What’s she done?”
   “You really aren’t from around here, then,” said the goblin. He pointed to the woman. “That’s Ugrad Nutsyawning, the necromancer.”
   “Immortal author and genius of the highest order!” shouted Ugrad. “The whole world would know my name – if those Empire goons hadn’t stuffed me in here…”
   She continued ranting, but Stasost spoke over her calmly. “You see why we can’t let her out. And why I have to be wary of visitors. We’ve enough trouble as it is, without another crazed witch in the world.”
   “…one day, though,” Ugrad continued, “my work will get out, and my words will be read! You cannot shut out the truth, Stasost! Do you hear me? YOU CANNOT SHUT OUT THE TRUTH!!” She clutched at Stasost’s robes as she shouted in his ear, but the goblin betrayed no annoyance – he looked like he’d been through this before.
   “How long have you been here,” asked Strodno, “with… her?”
   “I think it’s been… five centuries, now?” said Stasost.
   “Must be hard… I was trapped in a tower for a few, myself – mostly alone, though. I guess it’s better having someone to talk to.”
   Stasost glanced at Ugrad, who had released his garments and sat now in a corner, muttering. “Somehow I don’t think so,” he said.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I guess that explains the books,” said Thob. “You know – why she writes about herself so much.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “At least it keeps her busy, and mostly quiet.”
   “I guess, then,” said Strodno, “that these lands have had the same trouble with undead as the rest of the world?”
   “I don’t know about the rest,” said Stasost, “but yes, we’ve had our share of undead invasions. Mostly in the past, though. The remaining necromancers have hunkered down in their towers, and haven’t tried anything big for a while. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on July 25, 2021, 07:09:10 pm
I love Ugrad's antics. She reminds me a lot of the archetypal mad scientist who's always egotistically ranting about how he'll change the world and show all those narrow-minded fools who called him mad (MAD I TELL YOU! MAD!! MAAAD!!) Also I never tire of seeing your art. Wish my DF art looked half as good. :)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on July 26, 2021, 04:07:07 am
I also like the art you made for this.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on August 02, 2021, 05:04:27 pm
Quote from: PlumpHelmetMan on July 25, 2021, 07:09:10 pm
Also I never tire of seeing your art. Wish my DF art looked half as good.
Well, there's only one way to get better ;)


The party left Castle Waneclutches the next morning, to explore the human city to the west. Just north of the castle they stumbled on a small campsite in the fields:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A few leather bags and scattered items littered the ground; a kobold stood nearby, and another lay in the grass – what was left of one, anyway:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob spied a third kobold on the ridge, looking tired and sweating heavily. Down below another kobold nursed its wounds, and another corpse lay still beside it:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What had gone on here? Had something attacked the little creatures – or had there been some disagreement between the kobolds themselves? Without really expecting to find out anything, Thob tried to ask the kobolds what had happened. Strodno had a different idea:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The kobolds, however, proved too fast for her and ran away into the fields. Thob decided to leave the place before there was any more violence.

The town, which the road signs named “Sprungdreamed,” looked populous and decently maintained. The party entered along a wide paved road running among small houses in the town’s outskirts, where goblins and humans lived side-by-side.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Of course, side-by-side didn’t mean they always got along. One still had to consider the temperamental nature of goblin-kind:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were many shrines to different deities and religions lining the town’s streets:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Likewise, several large temples rose amid the houses, built and decorated in different styles. The largest Thob saw was the Heavenly Sanctuary, a vast open-plan temple to a rain goddess, Julosm the Submerged:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was, naturally, a temple to Gicast: the ornately-carved Chapel of Music, built by the Creed of Candy:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But the temple Thob found most interesting was the Persuasive Cathedral, a grandiose name for what amounted to a sandy hole surrounded by a few columns. But at the bottom of that hole was something Thob thought he’d never see on the surface: magma!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
How the humans had gotten it up here he couldn’t guess, unless the temple itself had been built over a magma pipe. Either way, Thob was a little nervous about what sort of “persuasion” required a magma pit…

The town market was packed with traders, mostly goblin but some human, selling meat and small crafts of bone or gem, along with weapons made predominantly of silver.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The goblins had an interesting marketing style. As with most elements of goblin culture, trade among their kind involved a particularly direct means of resolving disputes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The party came to the great keep in the center of town. Inside was a cramped bustle of goblins, humans, a few elves, and even some experiments:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob had noticed that, despite the great number of shrines and temples in Sprungdreamed, there seemed to be very few priests to speak of. Now he knew why: all the priests, for some reason, were at court, rubbing elbows with dignitaries, representatives, and castle functionaries. There were many different kinds of priests, too, each with its own peculiar title…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the center of all the hubbub was one important-looking elf. Thob expected he was the lord of the castle; he was surprised, then, when the elf introduced himself as law-giver of the whole human kingdom!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(Thob was later shown a gold coin of the kingdom, the Blockaded Empires, which bore the elf’s name, Mokun Sprungstrike. The coin also depicted, to his interest, an exchange of peace between the Empires and the Lost Sins – evidently the Great Goblin Realm of the North had influence even this far south!)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Law-Giver Mokun discussed a few of the empire’s troubles, chiefly the continuing wars against the necromancers. Other than that he had little to say, and seemed to Thob to be a generally unpleasant sort of person:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were apparently no taverns at all in Sprungdreamed, ruined or otherwise, which was disappointing for a people that worshiped a god of revelry. As night drew on the party found a small house on the outskirts where they were welcome for the night:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Naturally, where goblins were involved even being “welcome” didn’t mean you’d have a quiet night. Somehow Strodno managed to start a little fistfight with the locals. Fortunately everyone came out with only minor bruises.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Still, Thob wished she wouldn’t brawl with their hosts – even if goblins didn’t mind, the party would soon be among dwarves who took a dimmer view of that sort of thing.
   At least, Thob hoped they’d be among dwarves. Experience had taught him to temper his expectations, even as sobriety urged on his hopes. One way or another, they’d find out tomorrow.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: mightymushroom on August 02, 2021, 06:13:12 pm
Quote from: Loam on August 02, 2021, 05:04:27 pm
How the humans had gotten it up here he couldn’t guess, unless the temple itself had been built over a magma pipe. Either way, Thob was a little nervous about what sort of “persuasion” required a magma pit…
I don't know about Thob's clan, but my dwarves find magma to be near-universally persuasive for resolving disagreements!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on August 03, 2021, 04:51:57 am
I guess the churches in this town all must advocate violence because there sure seemed to be a lot of it going on.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on August 03, 2021, 04:55:03 am
That would also explain why these human religions seem to appeal to goblins so much.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on September 02, 2021, 07:44:48 pm
oof what a month

Also have run into a not-insignificant issue that rather dampened my drive to work on Thob, which you will read about presently. Nothing that can't be overcome, but it may require some... ingenuity.


In the morning the party left Sprungdreamed and headed west, toward the mountains and the dwarven fortresses therein. Thob’s spirits were high as they progressed over the ancient stone-paved road, drawing nearer to the promise of sublime intoxication with every step. By late morning the shape of the fortress of Planesgirder was visible in the near distance.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But, just as Thob came within a hundred yards of the fortress walls, a very strange thing happened: he suddenly found himself standing, not right before the walls, but well back along the road they had just travelled – several hours’ journey, in fact. Indeed, to judge by the sun’s height, it was several hours ago – still early dawn rather than mid-morning. Thob blinked furiously.
   “Well that was a very strange thing,” he said. “Did we just… travel back in time?”
   “Or was it… just a dream?” said Cañar.
   With a forbidding feeling of déjà vu they started back, again, along the road they had already walked, if they had already walked it. Once again the proud dwarven citadel reared up before the mountain. Once again the companions approached. And once again, upon getting within a stone’s throw from the walls they found themselves a few hours back, along the road and in time.
   Strodno raised a horrified hand to her head. “I think I know what’s going on!” she said.
   “What is it?” asked Thob.
   “An enchantment,” the goblin said. “I’ve heard of such like this – the ancients called them ‘Memory Barriers,’ though I don’t know why. They’re a powerful force, able to manipulate time itself – to make it stand still, or even to reverse the course of events!”
   “So this barrier is keeping us from getting to Planesgirder?” asked Alisa.
   “When we get too close,” said Cañar, “it boots us back through time.”
   “Is their anything we can do about it?” asked Thob.
   “I know of nothing in this world that can remove such a barrier,” said Strodno. “Legends tell of something called the ‘Memory Stick’ that might weaken its power, but such magics meddle with the very fabric of our universe, well beyond the power of any created being to wield.”
   Thob sighed. Just when they were so close… now they must either find another, unensorceled fortress, or wait for some benevolent deity to clear their way. Thob knew which course he preferred. “Well, no time to waste,” he said. “We’ll just have to look elsewhere.”


Sorry for a short update after so long, but I wanted to let y'all know where we're at right now. I'll post another short update in a couple days or so. I'm still waiting to see if I can fix this.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on September 02, 2021, 09:07:09 pm
I love it when DF bugs lend themselves to emergent stories, probably one of my favourite parts of the game. Also probably the closest thing to a procedural magic system we'll get in DF for a few years yet.

Even so, I hope Thob and friends manage to find a way out of this one.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on September 03, 2021, 04:09:03 am
Sucks that you can't get into that fort, and it'll probably turn out to be the only one that has booze.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on September 05, 2021, 05:21:50 pm
Yeah really. But even if that's the case, I have a plan...


Just to the north of Planesgirder a cluster of small earthen hillocks sat nestled at the mountains’ feet. It was unlikely there was any booze about, but the booze wasn’t all – Thob had wanted to see dwarves, too, for he had been too long away from his own folk.

The mounds were topped with charming roof gardens growing all sorts of vegetables. As they wandered between (and sometimes atop) the hillocks, the party heard the sounds of dwarven voices conversing and arguing:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Even here, it seemed, the worship of Gicast had spread: someone had spent an awful lot of gold on a statue in the god’s honor.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob entered the nearest mound by the stone door set in its wall. Inside he found six dwarves in a room full of mushroom-wood furnishings, and floored with a thick carpet of… quarry bushes?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Certainly an efficient use of space, to grow one’s crops in the same room with one’s living arrangements.
   The dwarves here looked different from those of Thob’s homeland – they all had gold-yellow hair and deep green eyes, hooked noses and low cheekbones. Thob hailed them, asking about the land and its people. This was a quiet sort of place, he gathered. The most interesting news was about some locally-important goblin – a priest of some sort – looking for some lost treasures.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Ever the diplomat, Alisa nearly provoked a fight by casually insulting the dwarves’ cherished values:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Cooperation breeds weakness, eh?” Cañar jibed. “That explains a lot about you, Alisa…”

When they went back outside the travelers heard a sudden commotion from the north:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Two goblins darted out from behind a nearby mound and ran past the party. They were followed by several more – all goblins, and all wearing the garb of priests from what Thob could tell. Some looked a bit beaten up. They were all running from a large mound near the middle of the village, to which Thob and his friends now went.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Inside were a several goblins, most of them engaged in fistfights, among a dozen dwarves who seemed neither to be involved in the belligerent disputes or even to pay them much heed:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Hello, strangers,” a farm-dwarf greeted them, as two of the goblin priests socked each other nearby. “Nice to see new faces in town.”
   “Is it, uh, always like this?” asked Thob.
   “Hm? Oh, them? Nothing to worry about – they’ll sort it out between themselves.” The conversation proceeded with scarcely a cautious glance at the struggling goblins, one of whom now was now engaged in throttling his supine opponent.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When the goblin lay dead a wiry but muscular dwarf came up to Thob and introduced himself: Mebzuth Deeparmor, mayor of Humidglazed. Even this dwarf seemed unconcerned by the recent battle. “Um, you know,” said Thob, indicating the deceased, “that one just, like, killed that other guy…”
   “Yeah – that was bound to happen one of these days. Damsto never knew when to shut up.” Then, without a second thought for the dead goblin, the mayor turned to his fellows and began cracking jokes.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Evidently the goblins, though not conquerors, were still so prevalent hereabouts that the dwarves had grown used to their violent tendencies. “They mostly keep it among themselves,” said Mayor Mebzuth. “If they want to kill each other off, more power to ‘em.”

Thob exited the civic mound and entered another large hillock nearby. Only one goblin in here, among a dozen dwarves of all shapes and sizes. One lay very still on the floor, though whether passed out or passed on Thob couldn’t tell.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
All of them, bar the goblin, had the glazed look of dwarves many days sober. This was clearly the local tavern, despite the lack of any obvious alcohol in the room – at least the denizens regarded themselves, not without pride, as “drunks.” Their conversation was about as lucid as one might expect:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The goblin, Snodub, was the tavern keeper (and a “servant of dance” to boot). She had as much right to that title as anyone could, Thob guessed – she’d been running this place for nigh two centuries!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Being so close to Planesgirder,” she said, “we usually get our booze from there – it’s better stuff, made of rare fruits from the humans and elves. Funny, though… we haven’t had a shipment in a while. Something must be wrong up at the fort.”

After a few hours it was time to leave. Thob had enjoyed this stay, however brief, among his fellow dwarves. And they had been hospitable also – seeing his travel-worn and battle-tattered garb they had generously offered some fine, durable clothes for the journey. Thob chose a few pieces that would, he thought, be fitting for a monster-slaying undead-hunter like himself:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The folks also pointed the party south, where more dwarven forts were to be found. Hopefully this time  there’d be no magic walls in the way…
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: TheFlame52 on September 05, 2021, 06:54:01 pm
Nice clothes :D
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on September 05, 2021, 08:23:16 pm
I concur, definitely wouldn't want to run into Thob in a dark pit looking like that.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: mightymushroom on September 05, 2021, 08:39:59 pm
Thob is a rebel without a beer.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on September 06, 2021, 02:32:18 am
All he needs now is a motorcycle hog to ride and he'll be the true leader of this gang.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on September 06, 2021, 02:34:45 am
That's a good idea. Hey Loam, any chance of getting Thob a giant boar mount?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on September 12, 2021, 06:09:18 pm
I'll keep an eye out ;)


Silent Hillocks

On the outskirts of Humidglazed the party came across a group of large hoofed quadrupeds: something like the elk birds from back home, but without antlers or feathers. More necromancer experiments, Thob guessed as he shied away from the big creatures.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
To his surprise, his companions seemed charmed by the beasts, walking up to them and speaking to them, even stroking their flanks and noses. Evidently these creatures – “horses” they called them – weren’t hostile killers like everything else on the surface.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “You know, Thob,” said Strodno, “we could use these horses.”
   “Use them? How?”
   “Well, ride them of course.”
   “Ride them?” Thob had never ridden anything but a minecart.  “You mean… get on its back?”
   “Yes, that’s what ‘ride’ means.”
   Thob looked up at the smallest horse, which still stood about twice his height at the shoulder. “How?”
   Alisa gave him a boost, and suddenly he sat astride the creature, as though on some tall and very unstable tower. He felt dizzy.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “You’ll get used to it,” said the human. “Just take it slow.”
   There were four horses here, and four adventurers, so the others chose a steed and mounted alongside Thob. Now they were ready to set off.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

On horseback they traveled south through the foothills of the mountains. To their right rose the peaks; to their left lay a blasted land, with the ominous shape of a tower in its midst.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The next day, around mid morning, they passed near an old dwarven fortress. The surrounding lands were dotted with a few hillock villages. The fortress itself looked abandoned, but there were signs of life in the villages. Thob decided to check them out – hopefully the dwarves there could tell him more about these lands.
   But as the party drew closer to the nearest village an all-too-familiar scent wafted to them on the wind. Soon they saw the cause: among the scattered trees wandered a handful of undead.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Not too many,” said Thob, “and they’re unarmed. We can take them!” With that he urged his horse into a charge at the nearest zombie. The horse slammed the goblin corpse to the ground with its hooves, and Thob’s pick sailed down to cleave off its head.
   Then Thob looked up. Having charged further into the woods he could see across the little stream to the northeast, where stood a dozen more zombies – all shambling toward him.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And they weren’t alone. In their midst stood a dwarven figure, thin but incredibly muscular, with long unkempt white hair streaming from its head. It wore no armor, but bore a shield in one hand, and in the other a sword so big even a human would have to wield it with both hands. But this thing hefted the sword with ease, and obviously knew how to use it.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob knew by now he was in over his head. As if to drive the point home, the dwarf-thing across the stream raised its sword-arm and flashed its glowing eyes. Suddenly from all corners a thick fog boiled into the forest, obscuring all but the nearest objects.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Nevermind, guys,” Thob shouted to his comrades, “let’s just get out of here!”
   As it happened, the fog was more of a help than a hindrance. Thob and his party were able to lose the horde in the mist and make their escape.

There was another hillock village nearby – hopefully this one wouldn’t be under an undead siege. Everything looked quiet, anyway, as the party rode in among the mounds. Maybe too quiet…
   Then Thob heard muffled noises from the closest mound, emanating from the hatch in the ceiling. He drew closer. Suddenly the hatch burst open – a decaying hand rose, clawing at the earth, and behind it the rest of the goblin corpse crawled up from below!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   So much for a peaceful stay here. Strodno rushed forward and decapitated the zombie in one blow. Noises still rose from inside the mound. Soon the hatch flew open again, and another zombie climbed out: an elf, maybe, though it was hard to tell since it was almost all bones. Thob’s companions took their time putting this one down, apparently preferring to dismember it slowly:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   At last they finished it off. “Guess we better check this place out,” Thob said. “There might still be dwarves here… living ones, I mean.”
   So saying he opened the ceiling hatch and peered down into the dim mound below.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The basement was swimming in blood, decorated with slain bodies and smashed furniture – and inhabited by one large, shaggy-haired humanoid thing.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob tried to slam the hatch shut and run – but the thing was faster. As it bounded up the stairs Thob had just time to throw his buckler up to block its sweeping claw. Suddenly it reached an arm up and grabbed Thob’s leg; with a swift pull it dislocated his hip and sent him sprawling down the stairs. He managed to pick the monster in the leg and sent it likewise to the ground – but it deftly stretched out a hairy leg and caught Thob’s throat in the crook of its knee. The mighty leg began to tighten its grip… Thob felt his air closing off… he swung his pick frantically…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   Thob pried the dead leg from his throat and crawled up the stairs as fast as his broken leg would let him, letting the hatch thud heavily behind him. “Nevermind, guys,” he gasped through the pain. “Let’s just get out of here – and I mean it this time!”
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on September 13, 2021, 01:47:44 am
These places seem to be more dangerous than the last areas with undead.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: PlumpHelmetMan on September 13, 2021, 11:12:56 am
Not often that you see night trolls and undead in cahoots. Wonder what the story there is.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: TheFlame52 on September 13, 2021, 07:57:18 pm
Considering it had just finished killing some Lor's soldiers... maybe not so much in cahoots. I'd say you just got caught up in an attack.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: mightymushroom on September 14, 2021, 02:16:23 pm
I felt a little panic right when she grabbed Thob.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on November 14, 2021, 09:26:17 pm
I'm still alive! Just haven't had much time.


Noon found the party in a flat valley, between an old dwarven fortress, and a menacing tower.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Seeing a few somethings patrolling around the latter, Thob decided to steer clear of it—he’d had enough run-ins with undead for one day. For several days, actually.

The fort was, like most others, abandoned. Being so near the old necromancer tower, Thob couldn’t blame the dwarves for leaving.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The temple in the upper chamber was in partial ruins. Among the scattered debris lay a few old books—guides to the surrounding hillocks, mostly.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The interior of the fort likewise housed some literature, mostly medical texts detailing surgical techniques. At least that was what Strodno said; the handwriting was so bad Thob could barely make out the titles, much less the contents.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the depths of the fortress, however, the party encountered a wonderful surprise. The tunnels were unusually hot down here, and around a curve in the passage Thob saw a red glare lighting up the walls. He turned, half-expecting to find a dragon or some similar nasty. What he saw took his breath away.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A rift opened in the fortress floor, a rift filled with magma, boiling up from the great sea underneath. In the middle of the red rift was a pillar of brilliant aquamarine stone, radiant in the magma glow yet seeming to shine also with a light of its own. “What is that?” said Cañar.
   In all his years of mining Thob had never beheld this stone before, but he knew the old dwarven legends about the most precious metal, found only in the deepest caverns and mines. “Adamantine,” he half-whispered, “it must be!”
   “Adamantine?” said Strodno. “Like diamond?”
   “No, no no!” said the dwarf. “A metal, harder than steel, sharper than glass, light as feathers! Whole kingdoms could be bought with a single wafer!” He pointed at the pillar. “The veins were said to go down to unimaginable depths… This must only be one end of a much vaster column!”
   “So… we’ve struck it rich?” ventured Alisa.
   Thob looked at his pick, then back at the pillar. “Well,” he said, “if you’ve got a way to cross that lava. And then—so the stories say—you’d need a team of specialists to pull strands of metal from the stone, a task that could take months. So no, we’re not rich. Not yet, anyway.” But it might pay to remember this place for later.

Wealth beyond anyone’s wildest dreams was all well and good, but Thob had come looking for booze—which somehow was proving harder to find that fantastic super-metals at the bottom of the world. This fort was dry, but there was another a little ways to the south. The party marched on.
   There were more hillocks in the plains nearby. Despite his recent experiences Thob decided to inspect them further. He was hoping to find more dwarves.
   The first hillock they came to was inhabited… but by humans, mostly. Perhaps these humans had sense enough to live at least partially underground, like normal folks?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There were some goblins here also, including one who called himself “administrator” and called the place “occupied territory.” Thob didn’t quite understand—obviously the place was occupied.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

   Further south the hillocks were surrounded by towers and trenches, sure signs of goblin presence. In the western mountains the smoking spire of a volcano loomed over the hills below.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Nightfall approached as they wandered into another hillock. A couple of strange-looking beasts stood among the mounds: sort of hunchbacked horses with cow-like heads. “Camels,” Alisa called them.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Inside the nearest mound Thob was delighted to find dwarves! The mayor, sheriff, and militia commander of the village of Dipoils, as this place was named.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
So the night passed in friendly fellowship, a welcome break from the anxious nights the party was used to.

The dwarves of Dipoils pointed Thob to Boldwhipped, a mighty dwarven citadel in a dry valley to the west. In the morning, therefore, he and his companions set out over the badlands toward the fortress, and the booze it promised to provide.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The fort was nestled at the end of a narrow ravine, a flat floor of red sand between two great spurs of mountain stone. At the mouth of the valley Thob stumbled across two little burrows in the earth: lairs of wild beasts, or wild people, perhaps.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As he progressed he found that the whole valley was riddled with such burrows:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He avoided poking his head into any of them—he’d had enough of peering into dark holes for a while.

He could see it: the walls of the great fortress rising from the desert. He could hear the din of many voices engaged in conversation and trade. A living fortress, a dwarven capital, sure to have alcohol flowing in fountains! He stepped forward…
   Time seemed to slow. His step hovered in the air, slowly sinking to the sand. He tried to take another step: his foot barely budged from the earth, moving a little, then finally not moving at all. For a moment that dragged on to minutes he stood frozen in time and space.
   Then he was back at the entrance of the valley, looking through its narrow walls at the distant fortress. He sighed. “Another enchanted barrier,” he lamented. Another fortress barred to him. Something really didn’t want him to get a drink.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Maloy on November 14, 2021, 10:12:44 pm
To be so close and yet denied!
I appreciate Thob's resistance to becoming a necromancer btw
Seems like it would be so easy to take that same old route in this world
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: King Zultan on November 15, 2021, 03:44:41 am
Damn the evils of this world, why won't they let poor Thob get his booze!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on January 02, 2022, 01:04:43 pm
Happy New Year! Have a two-parter season finale:


Heading south from the unapproachable Boldwhipped, Thob and his friends entered another hillock-village. This one was mostly populated by goblins, who were, as usual, brawling among themselves when Thob entered.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Among the goblins was one more finely dressed than the others, who stood self-importantly apart from the rest. Thob greeted him and inquired about his station—and was surprised when the goblin introduced himself as a King!
   “A goblin king?”
   “No—well, obviously yes, but also no. I am king of the Dwarves.”
   “Really? Shouldn’t you be in the mountainhome then?”
   “He ain’t the king,” said a nearby dwarf. “Just calls ‘imself that ‘cause ‘e’s married to the Queen!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “That still makes me king!” said the goblin, looking a little deflated nonetheless. “Granted I can’t make laws, or lead armies, or…”
   “Other kingly things?”
   “And how does a goblin become king, or queen, of the Dwarves?” asked Thob.
   “Same way a necromancer does,” said Strodno. “They outlive the competition.”

The rest of that day they traveled south through the Twinkling Forest. The trees were in full bloom and the air sweet with the scents of late spring.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
On the way Thob overheard Strodno and Alisa debating the proper use of martial skill—or rather, Alisa was debating while Strodno tried wearily to avoid giving offense. A fruitless endeavor, as it turned out:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Why must she be so quarrelsome?” Alisa lamented to Thob. “It’s like she’s trying to make me angry!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Within the Twinkling Forest the party came across the ruins of elven settlements: trees taller than ordinary, with wide smoothed branches woven into firm floors, towering over neatly-rowed orchards of fruit trees. But there were no elves, nothing at all actually, living among the trees. All, presumably, had been swept away by tides of undead.
   Unusually for elves, there was a vast and very redundant road network crisscrossing the forest:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Cañar suspected it had been made by humans, who may have driven out the initial undead invaders and taken the forest for themselves.
   They emerged at nightfall into the hills, where a few human villages lay. The first of these, just outside the forest, housed only two humans. One was an armed warrior, and the other called himself “Overlord Hathur.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Overlord?” said Thob. “Sounds important. How wide is your rule?”
   “As far as I can see,” said Overlord Hathur—which, since they were indoors, was not actually very far.
   “And, uh… are your lands well-guarded?”
   “None have dared challenge me yet,” the overlord replied.
   “But if they did challenge you?”
   “Ah… yes, that might be a bit of a problem.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The next day they traveled eastward by road, passing through more ruined human hamlets and towns, but finding little of interest in any. Most importantly there were no taverns, and no alcohol.
   At one point they saw a castle, shining strangely brightly in the hot southern sun. On approaching it Thob was astounded to find that it was made entirely of native aluminum—a fabulously rare and precious metal:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It was not, however, the best choice for building a strong fortification, being light and rather easy to bend. The castle must have been for show, an extravagant display signifying the lord’s wealth and power.
   Inside the keep was another surprise: the castle was full of books!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A quick scan of some of the books confirmed Thob’s intuition: very nearly all of them concerned the lives of two necromancers, Edri Rootshrines and Lokum Letterrighteous.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And, as he expected, a few more than half the books dealt exclusively with the writing and storage of other books.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was a familiar situation, and so Thob was not surprised when he found a wizened, white-haired woman in simple garb pacing aimlessly through the castle—one of the necromancers, he guessed, imprisoned here after the war centuries ago. He was surprised, however, when she greeted him, introducing herself as “Overlord Edri”:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Evidently all it took to be an overlord in these lands was the gall to claim the title, because this Edri certainly didn’t have much else.
   There was another necromancer imprisoned here, a dwarf, probably the Lokum mentioned in the many books. But she did not speak when Thob addressed her. The guards in the castle whispered that she was not only immortal, like Edri, but actually undead, and they gave her a wide berth.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: TheFlame52 on January 02, 2022, 01:24:07 pm
This world is ruled by the immortals. Have we even met a mortal ruler?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: Loam on January 02, 2022, 01:29:09 pm
Quote from: TheFlame52 on January 02, 2022, 01:24:07 pm
This world is ruled by the immortals. Have we even met a mortal ruler?
I think there was one dwarf (non-necromancer) king way back at the beginning, but you're right - there's a seriously lopsided power distribution going on here...


The party pushed on to the east, for Thob had heard that a human city yet stood, not ruined by the endless wars with the undead: the town of Equaledbaths.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If so, it looked like it might be his last chance at a ready drink in the whole wide world.

A short ways down the road Thob spotted another dark lair. Ordinarily he’d have passed it by, but a glint of metal from within caught his eye. He approached cautiously, and peering inside saw that the floor of the cavern was filled with gold and silver coins, gems, pieces of armor, and other treasures—a veritable hoard!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
He was about to venture further in, and perhaps claim some of the loot, but something else caught his eye: a track, a deep footprint in the earth, shaped like a lizard’s foot but much, much larger:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
No treasure was worth being toasted—except booze, but Thob didn’t think dragons drank. He quickly ducked out of the lair and back to the road.

To make good time the party turned off the path and went cross-country, through the woods. Part of the forest ahead, Thob noticed, looked dead and ominous, and they steered clear:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   In the afternoon the town came into view: a large city on a large river. But was it inhabited?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
They entered from the west, and pretty soon Thob saw something that surprised him…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Humans! living ones, too, and in a human town no less! How novel. It seemed perhaps that Thob had found the last stronghold of non-goblin civilization left in this wild world.

Some of the shops and houses were boarded shut and dilapidated, but most were still intact.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Near the middle of town they entered a bustling market, full of human merchants hawking their wares. These wares, it turned out, were mostly meat—and specifically, to Thob’s wonder, meat from rattlesnakes…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Evidently the rattlesnake-part trade was booming, for the town showed signs of great wealth. Thob passed by large and impressive houses, with well-maintained walled gardens, no doubt belonging to wealthy merchants:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The city’s temples were in fine repair as well, kept by multitudes of worshipers. The largest was the Ashen Cathedral, a tall sanctum of ornately-carved sandstone:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This was dedicated to a certain “Tamun the Fated Daggers,” who sounded like an unpleasant deity to Thob…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
… but he supposed worship of war and death was natural for a folk that had known little else for centuries.

But Thob was not hear to find either wealth or religion. He walked the streets with eyes peeled for the tell-tale sign of a tavern, hopefully in good repair and well-stocked with the water of life. At length he saw it: a long, narrow building tucked away on a side-street near the market. The sign proclaimed it “The First Honeys.”
   He pushed open the door. The place was hardly bustling, at this hour, with only a handful of elven toughs hanging about among the usual litter of mismatched tables and chairs. But Thob saw, at the far end, a sight that brought tears to his dwarven eyes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Barrels brimming with beer! filled full with the fruit of the prickle berry! overflowing with usquabae! Even the heady smell, wafting across the room to his sensitive nostrils, reinvigorated Thob—he had forgotten the lovely scent, it had been so long:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At last, in this little pub at the end of the world (in more senses than one), Thob had found the object of his now months-long journey. This called for a celebration. Taking four goblets he filled them brim-full of sweet beer, and passed them to his companions. “A toast,” he exclaimed, “to adventure!” The cups were drained, and, in fine dwarven style, thrown to the ground with a celebratory clang!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After so long, and wearied by travel, the effect was quick, and mounted swiftly with each glass. Even the first brought about a powerful euphoria. “I feel so good!” said Thob, to anyone who would listen, who at the moment was Cañar. The elf, similarly tipsy, echoed his sentiments:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Alisa, the human, seemed to have a poor head for the stuff—this, however, was for the better, as drink seemed to diminish, rather than excite, his usual querulousness.
   “I want *hic* to be friends,” he said, “I want… everyone!… to be friends!”
   Thob put an arm on his shoulder, and slurred out “I couldn’t agree more!”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If Strodno felt the alcohol she didn’t show it. To Thob’s exclamations she was noncommittal: “It’s okay, I guess,” she said, and “I don’t see what’s the big deal about a little drink.” Turning pointedly to Thob as the revelry continued she said, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob was forgetting something, a great many somethings actually, and intended to forget quite a few more as the evening continued. He knew there was a return journey in the future, another long toilsome road back to his homelands, contending all the way with wild beasts, goblin soldiers, and undead hordes. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on these things—he’d worry about them as they came. Now it was time for a well-earned drink… and another, and another, and another…


Alright, I think that's a good stopping point for right now. I intend to take up the story again - Thob still needs to get back home, and there's a certain jewel to reclaim - but I'm not sure when. Whenever I next get bit by the Dwarf Fortress bug. Right now, though, I think I'm going to join in Thob's toast...

Thanks for reading, everyone! And keep an eye out for Season 2...
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: TheFlame52 on January 02, 2022, 01:42:36 pm
It's been an enjoyable read the whole way through! Thob finally found his liquor. I'm looking forward to his future travels. Honestly, this story bites me with the DF bug every time I hear it. Do you think we could get a world download when you're finished?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on January 02, 2022, 01:44:56 pm
Cheers!

You've done a beautiful job of animating Thob's world—this has been a CG&S mainstay of mine since its start. Looking forward to season 2!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
Post by: mightymushroom on January 02, 2022, 07:38:07 pm
Quote from: Loam on January 02, 2022, 01:29:09 pm
At last, in this little pub at the end of the world (in more senses than one), Thob had found the object of his now months-long journey.
*sniff :'(

Quote
Thanks for reading, everyone! And keep an eye out for Season 2...

I am happy and more than happy to read such an epic story. :D Congratulations to you, Loam, and a Happy New Year for Thob, indeed!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on January 03, 2022, 04:16:37 am
Huzza Thob has finally found his booze!

And I shall be hyped for the next season whenever you get started on it.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Maloy on January 03, 2022, 12:02:40 pm
The end of a legend!

Maybe Thob should start a brewery?
hordes of undead, goblin barbarians and immortal tyrants?

No, this world's true ill is the rampant sobriety!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on January 03, 2022, 09:52:32 pm
Ooh, brewery. Community fort?!
After Thob makes it home, of course.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on January 04, 2022, 03:02:02 am
As neat as a Thob themed community fort sounds I feel that he should at least finish his current adventure first.
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: HakuryuVision on January 05, 2022, 09:16:25 pm
So happy for Thob! : )
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Maloy on December 25, 2022, 08:18:29 pm
I'm currently doing a reread of this one Loam!

Your story here and the Museum game actually made me push past the complexity of adventure mode controls and it's actually my favorite way to play the game these days!
So thank you!
If Thob ever makes a return journey one day that'd be great, but if it's done it's done!
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Loam on December 26, 2022, 09:43:38 am
(Didn't expect to find this on the front page today ;))

Wow... did not realize it had been almost a whole year since I finished this up. How time flies!
I was actually thinking about getting a Part II started a couple months ago, but life rather got in the way. I'd still very much like to continue Thob's adventures, though, when I've finished some of my real-life projects (and if I can keep myself from spending all my time on the Steam release :D)

Quote from: Superdorf on January 03, 2022, 09:52:32 pm
Ooh, brewery. Community fort?!
Not a half-bad idea - though I wonder if Thob might be more inclined to found a library? What do you call a library where you get drunk?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: IncompetentFortressMaker on December 26, 2022, 02:49:57 pm
Quote from: Loam on December 26, 2022, 09:43:38 am
What do you call a library where you get drunk?
Sounds like a bookish pub to me. But I'm not one for getting drunk IRL so what do I know
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: Superdorf on December 26, 2022, 03:01:09 pm
Quote from: Loam on December 26, 2022, 09:43:38 am
Not a half-bad idea - though I wonder if Thob might be more inclined to found a library? What do you call a library where you get drunk?

A librewery? A libationary?
Title: Re: Thob Goes to the Surface
Post by: King Zultan on December 27, 2022, 01:12:17 am
Excited for the eventual arrival of part 2!


Wouldn't a library for booze be like a liquor store, but you can't rent the booze.