-
---++++Nokzamzatthud ++++---
0=Battlejudge=0
We need a motto.
(https://i.imgur.com/JNdIRSh.png)
A late night. The group was about to depart, and merely await a dwarf named Doren. They had all only arrived within the past five minutes, so the leader of the group, based upon the fact she was the only one with any paper work, hopped up on a crate. "Right then, everyone, while we wait, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Nish Letmorulush. I'll be leading this expedition."
One woman huffed. "Don't suppose you have actual skills do you?" She said, giving her an accusing glare, one shared with another one. Clearly they assumed Nish was some namby-pamby noble's daughter.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" She said with a smile. "I joined the Miner's Guild several weeks ago, and my foreman says I'm quite competent at it!" She laned back and smiled at the she-dwarf who had asked.
"Much too polite." The other said. "Has to be some noble's brat."
"Riiiight." The accuser said. "Well, I'm Thikut Tekkudestog. Got assigned to this job by the Colonel in Lancegild."
"And what did you do, if you don't mind my asking? Were you a soldier, or?" Nish asked with a cock of her head. Thikut looked away, evidently embarrassed as she mentioned something about fish.
"Uh huh, well a fish disec-"
"Cleaner. I was a fish cleaner before I enlisted." Thikut cut Nish off, looking even more embarrassed, and aggravated, than before. Nish simply nodded, and looked to the other woman beside her. "And you miss?"
"Asob Storluathel. Conscript, but I wanted to be a glassmaker like my parents. They were putting me through the wood burning course when I was handed my duty notice. Not sure why I was put here half a continent away, but I can only make the most of it right?" She said with an uneasy smile. "I always did dream of being a great hero, I j-just didn't think i-t'd be directly... More through traps..."
"Meng and I will make sure you're entirely fine." A woman in smithing attire said, elbowing another whp had a big woodcutting axe.
"Please don't group me with you. I met you yesterday, we're not friends." The woodcutter said with a flat, annoyed tone. "Meng Astilised. Amatuer craftsdwarf. Woodcutter."
"And I'm Urist Imukuzol! Perhaps you've heard of me? Anything I've made?" The smith said with a hopeful smile.
Everyone shook there heads, instantly deflating her spirits. "Of course nobody has..." She leaned up against the wagon and huffed in frustration. "Suppose this is why my master is sending me. Make a name for myself and all that."
Nish nodded at the three. And then turned to the only male dwarf in the bunch. "And y-"
He quickly snapped to attention and belted out his rank, name, weapon class, and the noble who assigned him to the duty per monarch request for an infantrydwarf. "Corporal Vucar Kisazir, Swordsdwarf in service of Baron Kogan of Constructbear! Assigned to Southern Expedition per request of Queen Rith!" He looked absolutely nerve wracked, and was trembling slightly.
"Oh gods, a careerist..." Asob mumbled.
"Relax Vucar! We're all friends here!" Nish said, holding up a hand.
Vucar relaxed somewhat and apologized. "Sorry, family's always been soldiers, had the regimentation beat into me."
A few minutes and small talk later, and Doren arrived with a wheelbarrow full of obsidian, gold and silver ore. "Evenin' folks." He said as he went round the back and started loaded the rocks into the back.
"You must be the man we were waiting for. Good to meet you..."
"Doren Gatinkubuk." He said as he up ended the wheelbarrow. "And you'd be right."
"Ah! Good, I'm Nish. I'll be leading this expedition."
"Good for you, what noble popped you out to warrant a leadership position?"
"I-I... Well-"
"Save it, don't care."
"R-Right.... All abord everyone! I'm sure the donkey and the horse are getting anxious all tethered up." Everyone boarded then, with Asob taking the reigns.
"Question." Thikut said as she looked over what were at th time a fair stock of food and drink, among other things. "We're our weapons and armor? Thought the baron here was supposed to issue us some basic gear."
"Oh, that? Sold it." Doren said as he took a bite out of a dried cave fish.
"WHAT!?" She and Vucar said in unison.
"Well I had to leave something for the ore and the obsidian. Otherwise it woulda been stealing." Doren said between bites. "Not in the mood to get a hammering."
"Alright, so we ave a thief and someone who dislikes nobles. Anything else you wanna tell us? They you dissect small animals maybe?"
"Nah. Trapper, not a dissector." There was a pause as everyone stared at him in abject horror. "What?" It took a few minutes to finally sink in. "Oh. Right, yeah. I'm a miner as well. Trapping's a hobby."
And then came the collective sigh of relief. Asob urged the beasts of burden onwards with that, though Vucar berated him for beign careless with government property, which Doren blew off as he settled in to sleep and Nish went up to sit with Asob as navigator.
Alright guys, I know I'm back for another one. Believe it or not however, this one is mostly to sharpen my writing skills for a bigger project involving knights and the various horrors of ZM5. However that's going to be fairly intensive on mods from my end regarding a specific character, so I'll both need help with that when I get around to the final bits of mods I want to add (specifically a single-use immortality juice, and fireproof logs, and figuring out a research system for it.)
That means I won't always be doing my typical journal style of writing, but shoot for something more in line Nomekast.
Now, goblins have died out, and humans are getting their asses kicked up one side of The Malignant Beak and down the other. However, I think we have a good premise set up here that outright justifies starting as much shit as we possibly can with the elves and if we want to be extra douchey, everyone else, including our southern neighbors. So it's kinda like Bandithorses (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169790.0) (in fact, I had planned to name this fort Battlehorses, but didn't want two forts with "-horses" in the name.) Go show those dudes some love in thier criminal endeavors!
The main difference is we're here for a reason - to anyone else, we're a trade post. But the real goal is as said, a staging point to launch raids on the elves, in a vain hope to take pressure off the surviving humans and slow the elves' encroachment north towards the homeland.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ibk71HF.png)
This is our map.
We are deep in elf country, with three civs all jammed in that jungle, with plenty of human holdings likely to contribute troops as well. I can also confirm a Roc, a Hydra, and either 7 were creatures in the general region, or 7 refugees as well, so I plan to act accordingly because of the possible weres. I also don't know if we have any metal or coal on site, hence most of our supplies being that.
MODS IN PLAY
Just some minor mods that I've done, apart from LC's terrible weapons pack. It's almost all just items, basically. Apart from these, there are no other mods.
LC's Terrible Melee Pack - Everyone has been given access to a truly awful array of weaponry fit only for common peasantry - woodcutting axes, pitchforks, and more will give everyone much more ramshackle armies.
Dwarf Great Weapons - Dwarves have access to their own new two-handed weapons, in the form of Dwarven great swords, axes, and hammers.
Variety Weapons - Spiked flails and war picks for everyone who uses metal, as well as flails and morning stars for dwarves.
Hammer and axe pendants - Just for fun. Count as cape/cloak type items and made of metal. Could block an attack occasionally. Somehow.
Hats replace caps as civvie headwear.
Fearless Hounds and Horses - Dogs have been made fearless, and will fight to the death at their masters' sides (regardless of who it is, man, dorf, or whatever.) Likewise, Horses show no fear, as those used in combat (or reared by dorfs) are acclimated to frightening or even downright intolerable conditions. I've also made horses trainable for war.
GOALS
Basic Survival at present.
Pick fights with every elf civ around us.
OPTIONAL: Antagonize The Brave Treaties.
OPTIONAL: Antagonize the humans to the north.
-
0=UPDATE ARCHIVE=0
UPDATE 1: Piercing Howls (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7801061#msg7801061)
UPDATE 2: Elephantine (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7801581#msg7801581)
UPDATE 3: Journal of Vucar I (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7801932#msg7801932)
UPDATE 4: Multi-Firsts! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7802444#msg7802444)
UPDATE 5: Artifacts (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7804299#msg7804299)
UPDATE 6: Bad Hunters (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7807767#msg7807767)
UPDATE 7: Bodycount (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7811934#msg7811934)
UPDATE 8: Mountainhome (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7818792#msg7818792)
UPDATE 9: Asob's End (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7830925#msg7830925)
UPDATE 10: Amas is Watching (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7913825#msg7913825)
UPDATE 11: Death to the Forest God (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7942315#msg7942315)
INTERMISSION: SLOPPY IMAGE-ONLY TOUR (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7915071#msg7915071)
-
BODY COUNT
Standard fare: Red for violence, orange for insanity, yellow for accidents, purple for abduction, and cyan for old age.
RAID KILLS: 1
INVADERS SLAIN
Elves: 763
Humans: 0
Goblins: 0
WEREBEAST TALLY: 6
MEGABEAST KILLS
The Ettin Bokanir Utast Takru, Slain by Colonel Vucar
The Forest Titan Dakaslud Uxo Masnam, Slain by Spearman Iki
0=THE HONORED DEAD=0
The Fort's lost are posted here, along with caravan staff and of course raid casualties.
FORTRESS CASUALTIES: 28
RAID CASUALTIES: 1
FOUNDERS DEAD: 2
Thikut Pickbend, Axedwarf - Killed battling zombie yaks.
Litast Cavelulled, Hunter - Stomped to death by zombie elephant.
Kivish Tanpages, Hunter - Stabbed in the head by a zombie unicorn
Lorbam Rhythmicaxes, Speardwarf - Suffocated, kicked in the head by elven mount.
Teshil Coasthunder, Spearprophet - Drowned, died fighting the horse that knocked him in a pond.
Asob Dimplering, The Mechanical Shove of Howls, Macelord - Stomped by the war elephant Cato after collapsing from exhaustion.
Tun Wiltedgem, Bard - Killed by Olin Metaldashed's zombified corpse.
Gisep Kindlingkneaded, Human Swordsman - Head gored after blacking out from exhaustion, Killed by an enemy unicorn.
Reg Shootclapped, Axedwarf - Knocked unconscious by horse kick, strangled to death by elf swordsman Mina Urgelizards.
Sidaya Thinleap, Human Spearman - Drowned, knocked into pond by an elf spearman.
Ezum Pulleyvoice, Predator - Fatally injured by tantruming bard.
Iki Praisedgorges, Human Spearman - Infected by werewombat curse, struck down by Colonel Vucar.
Rith Goldcrushed, Dwarven Child - Infected by werewombat curse, struck down by Colonel Vucar.
Kivish Weaktrades, Macedwarf - Kicked to death by enemy horse.
Besmar Axesunken, Performer - Killed by a tantrumming bard.
Raid Death: "sergeant" Kadol Bellhelps, torn to shreds by a lion.
Tirist Graylenses, Spinner/Militia Recruit, failed mood (berserk, strangled by an engraver.)
Anri Kingdomstone, Human Bard - Went Berserk, Struck down by Axelord Zas.
Nesik Fullreigns, Goblin performer - Went berserk, killed by Judge Ber
Tholtig Ripeposts, Bard - Stress-induced madness, dehydrated to death.
Fikod Orbsrises, Bard - Accidentally killed by Guard-issue beating.
Kadol Bellscrews, Predator - Accidentally killed by Guard-issue beating.
Covema Rambold, Human Bard - Old Age.
Olin Metaldashed, Bard - Old Age
Icar Ledbeans, Human Bard - Old Age
Opi Landgulf, Human Bard - Old Age
-
0=COMMUNITY=0
Art, Journals, RP That is suitably amusing, all that goes here for easy access.
Unkown72
Multi's Journal I (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7804433#msg7804433)
Multi's Journal II (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7808091#msg7808091)
Multi's Journal III (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171275.msg7813357#msg7813357)
-
Three weeks of travel, three weeks of seeing the devastation of the war. The dwarves were all nervous of course, seeing as the humans were getting the worst of it. Burned and conquered towns and hamelts, the rare sacked forest retreat. It was no wonder they'd been sent to establish a halfway point with the southern dwarves. Along the way, they had picked up three horses - two mares and a stallion - after they had followed the dwarves for nearly two full weeks and stared at them menacingly every night at the edge of their camp fires, the dogs seeming to not care about them, which made it worse.
It was only resolved when Doren went up to them one night and found that they had brands on them from Channelslid, which told them why the horses had followed them - they smelled dwarves, or perhaps seen them or heard them speaking dwarven one night.
The remaining leg of the journey was quiet, though they heard what sounded like a hyena in the distance during a full moon. Upon arrival, they pastured the horses and the one donkey and rested for the night. Upon sunrise, they became slightly uneasy - on one hand was an unsettling brook that looked like a spindly hand reaching towards their wagon on the hill in the sea of light blue bubble bulbs and snow-white downy grass. On the other, a barren mountain, made from mostly solid dolomite, with exposed pockets of gypsum.
(https://i.imgur.com/aLW7Mhh.png)
Solid dolomite.
As in no exposed metal like there should be.
Nish began to panic of course. No metal meant no weapons, no valuable trade goods, no wealth, no golden tables or chairs for when she ebcame a baroness!
Her shocked stare at the white-flecked-with-yellow hillside was shaken when Vucar jostled her and told her she was making weird, choked, squeaking-of-despair sounds.
"We'll be fine." He said, thumping his chest. "We brought plenty to get at least the three of us suited up, and we should be more than a match for any elves!"
The fear was obvious in his voice at the end.
Nish tried not to think about it, quickly scribbling up a design for an entrance on the side of the wagon.
(https://i.imgur.com/94q0ZAj.png)
Doren grabbed her charcoal stick and quickly widened the hallway with odd notches in it.
(https://i.imgur.com/UBMIKlS.png)
"Why on earth did you do that?" She asked, snatching her stick back.
"Gotta think big. Ornate. Notches for statues, a nice big hallway, think big girl! Cause it looks like the gods have given us a right fucking." He said, then he just shook his head and mumbled "Especially you, Doren..."
But they set to work, Nish handing out what few orders she could - She and Doren would begin shaping the outside of the entrance, while Meng lumbered some trees for furniture. Thikut took the carpentry tools out of the wagon and volunteered to do the work, starting with shields for herself and Asob. As the sun waned in the sky though, they heard it: Piercing howls. Ice wolves.
Everyone was shocked at how quickly Vucar had put together a crafting table and demanded two logs. "I can make an axe and a sword with it. Wolves bearing is due south. They'll either come for us or wander in by chance. Need weapons. We kill them fast enough, We can use them. Make armor. Make food."
He seemed to be in a trance as his fearful face worked furiously once he got a hold of a log, shaping it inexpertly to hold a sharpened lump of obsidian. He pointed at Thikut as he worked. "No shield. Axe is too big."
"But-"
"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND ACCEPT IT THIK. YOU'D LIKE TO STAY ALIVE RIGHT?" He said with a twitch in his eye.
" Yeah, but.... Gods damn, man."
"THEN SHUT THE HELL UP, AND LET ME DO MY SHIT YOU WILL GET A WOODCUTTING AXE AND YOU WILL LIKE IT."
"We're gonna need a leader." Urist said, watching the woods closely.
"Well, how about the careerist here?" Thikut said, gesturing to Vucar.
"Works for me." Asob said with a shrug.
Once he was done he gathered up their shields, a crude grain flail Thikut had made, and the sword and axe, and threw it all into a pile apart from the sword and a shield. "I ACCEPT THE POSITION OF COLONEL!" He bellowed, clearly scared out of his mind. "PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
"Vucar, you need to chill the hell out."
"I WILL DO NO SUCH THING PRIVATE. WE'RE FIGHTING GOD DAMN ZOMBIES."
(https://i.imgur.com/KtjulWA.png)
Asob and Thikut looked at eachother and then back to Vucar, who had spun around and was pointing into the woods to the southwest. "FORWARD SISTERS!"
They fell in, weapons in hand. Thikut and Vucar both looked unsteady, like they had trained to fight one-handed and two-handed respectively, while Asob gave her flail a practice swing. Slow. Unbalanced. The two women both simply muttered prayers to their patron gods, while Vucar babbled to himself.
"Amas please forgive our trespass into this unholy mountain you have tried to bar us from. I understand now this pack is a punishment sent unto us to test our resolve. Victory gives bounty, defeat gives death. We shall perform our duties to queen and country and surrender ourselves to the judgment of your antlers." He kept repeating this over and over as well as the phrase "Do not doubt, doubt is death."
All it did was unsettle his sisters-in-arms.
As they moved through the brush they could hear one of the wolves howl, and the response was somewhat distant. "We kill this one and we have better odds." Vucar said as he tightened his hold on his sword.
"Then let's do this!" Asob shouted as she charged out of the bushes and slammed bodily into the wolf, her flail bouncing harmlessly as she swung on the charge. Vucar and Thikut followed suit, with the latter delivering a heavy chop to its head as it stagged up, but this did little to perturb it. It leapt for Asob, only to bounce off her shield, and upon sighting Vucar, leapt for him.
He held it up on two legs as it snarled and scracthed at his shield, its head impaled on the sword from a stab. Its fruitless clawing was interrupted when Thikut sank her nails into its side and hurled it off the newly-christened Colonel. Asob bashed it in the head, twisting it unnaturally and whacked it again with her shield rim, to no avail. Thikut however followed through on an upward slash with her "axe" and shattered one of the wolf's back legs, while Vucar ran his sword through a front leg.
It was at this point they gave up on smashing its head, and started slicing off parts of the thing - first paws, then a tail, as they desperately tried to put it down as a second wolf closed the distance. It was only after an agonizing thirty seconds of desperate slashing and bashing (and a few kicks,) that Vucar sliced off the wolf's head, cutting its snarling off abruptly.
"OKAY! Now that that's d-" Vucar was cut off by another howl as a zombie ice wolf barreled into him. Asob shoulder arged the beast off him as Thikut dove on it as it got up, sinking her teeth into its flesh, and gripping her axe close to the head, slammed it into the wolf's side, cutting it open.
"Move Thik!" Vucar said as she drove his sword into the wolf near the open wound in its side, and ripped upwards, causing it to fall silent and unmoving.
Asob quickly helped the axedwarf up, and they looked at the blood running down her left arm and right hand. "It's fine" she quickly said, opening and closing her hand and moving her arm. "Can still move'em."
"We'll get you stitched up as quickly as we can." Vucar said, gesturing to an approaching wolf. "They were scattered. We can do this."
Asob went around a tree, intending to either flank or head off the next wolf while Thikut and Vucar took positions together and attacked at the same time, slicing the front paws off the wolf, with Vucar bashing it back down with his shield. As it tried to get up, Asob appeared behind it and swatted it into the grass. This aggravated the wolf even more than its hate for life already did, and it managed to flop itself around and gnashed at her, teeth scraping across her right thigh.
"Auhg! You little shit, EAT THIS!" She bellowed in anger and brought the head of her flail in on a wide arc, knocking a tooth out of the beast's head. This didn't dissuade it as it bit Thikut, whom the bash had sent the wolf towards on her foot. She smashed it in the side with her axe in retaliation, and finally a headshot took it down, with Vucar yanking his sword out of its now-mangled head.
Thikut immediately dropped to her knees and let out a mighty huff of exhaustion. "By the gods, what the fuck are these things made of?"
"Undeath and hate." Asob answered, flopping against a tree. Then there was another howl.
"You two stay here. I think I can kill the last one." Vucar said, charging into the woods.
"Arright boss," Thikut said with a wave. "Don't mind us, we'll just sit here."
(https://i.imgur.com/ft6HLUx.png)
Vucar wasn't listening. As he cleared two feather trees, he spotted a wolf sniffing about, and it looked up.
The two locked eyes and charged.
The wolf struck first, missing as it swiped its claws at him, to which he countered by kicking it hard in the side. When it staggered to regain its footing, it leapt at him, and he threw up his shield and braced, causing it to bounce off and give him an opening, which he used to slice open its side. Any other creature would have dropped at the crack of broken ribs, but the zombie simply attacked again.
Vucar jumped away, slicing its left front leg as he went, and as the wolf stumbled and rolled, he managed to cut apart its back right paw, leaving it unable to stand. He jumped on it then, and began slashing wildly at it. cutting away its remaining paws and blocking its bites easily. After several slicing at it ineffectively for a full minute, a slash to its head - one of several - finally killed it.
As Vucar returned to the other two, Doren appeared in the brush. "Thought you guys might need a hand." He said, hefting his pick. "But I guess I'll have to settle for helping one fo the chew toys here." He then helped Asob up, while Thikut hopped along with Vucar.
A day later, the two had been stitched up by Urist, and everyone lived in fear of strangled brays, as undead mountain goats roamed by above them.
"Asam is watching us." Vucar said.
Everyone else was hoping that those goats weren't his eyes.
And there's our first update!
I'll be honest, this was the opposite of what I was expecting. I had made ice wolves tamable and added them to mountains in the hopes of training them, but it seems the mountain is a resurrecting biome! So that's a... Mixed blessing, I guess. It also seems there is absolutely zero metal on the map besides the fun kind, which means we will be entirely reliant upon sticks and clubs once we run out of metal that we brought. I had brought that and more coal and obsidian because I hadn't expected the zombies.
So of course we got zombies, which has basically derailed my plans entirely, hence the current title.
Additionally, the fight went way better than I was expecting, with frankly trivial injuries sustained by Asob and Thikut. Also it turns out Vucar is a brick shithouse as far as dwarves go, being indefatigable and mighty. And has a stick jammed so far up his ass you could be forgiven for thinking he was an ultramarine. I had only selected soldiers based on dreams to be soldiers.
Oh, and an owl corpse attacked us while I was settignt his up. Nothing important, but the presence of elephants and an undead owl makes me think zombie elephants might be a thing.
All aboard the fun mobile, right guys? Also, next update will come in the morning or afternoon. Elephants were involved.
-
Another Splint-fort? Man, you just don't tire of these don't you. I'm more a passive reader, but sure dwarf me as Bear.
-
Another Splint-fort? Man, you just don't tire of these don't you. I'm more a passive reader, but sure dwarf me as Bear.
I almost certainly do not. Just need to find that story that keeps me playing and I think this'll be it until I get my mods sorted out. Hell, I'd still be playing Riverrun if I hadn't lost the save to it.
Gave you a mason married to a legendary gem cutter. Hope that does the job for ye.
Next update: Elephants and migrants.
-
Mid-Felsite, 538
"Elephants sure are majestic, aren't they?" Doren said one sunset.
"The fuck is wrong with you?" Asob said, stopping at the absurdity.
"Just ignore him." Urist said as she finished up a wolf skull totem. "He talks nonsense every so often."
"Ain't nonsense if it's true." Doren said as he got up. "Doesn't change the fact that the things are fuckin' terrifying, speakin' of which, a horse is attacking one." He made a 'toodles!' sort of motion and swiftly bolted into the entrance hall.
Vucar had already taken off at the mention of "horse attacking," much to everyone's surprise. "AMAS TAKE YOU, DEFILING PACHYDERM!!!" He bellowed as he went. When he arrived, th horse was still vigorously beating the elephant as it tried to escape the horse, only to constantly get its tusks caught on the larger trees. And already exhausted, it could do little as the dwarf came barreling into it with a shining obsidian sword. Unable to do much more, it tried to fight, but the horse had worn it down and it quickly fell to the brutality of the dwarf, which proceeded to mercilessly slash at it's head.
Eventually, it died. Vucar wasn't sure if it was blood loss or if he stabbed it enough to make part of the head collapse, but it was something. Of course there were more angry whinnies and he had to follow that damnable horse.
****
"I can't fucking believe it." Asob said as she saw the horses, rigged up with makeshift ropes made of vines, dragging dead elephants back to the bolt-hole of a fortress. "What in the fuck possessed you two to go out there and fight elephants?!" She said to Thikut and Vucar, who both looked, quite frankly, exhausted.
"The fuckin' horses." Thikut said, dragging her axe behind her.
"I have no idea what possessed them to attack the beasts, but we had to do something..." Vucar said, looking like he was already reliving the horribleness of the past month and a half. Elephantine genocide included.
"How many did you..." Asob counted them out and looked astonished. "How the hell did you two kill five elephants!?"
"I DON'T KNOOOOOOW!" Vucar screamed in despair as he huddled under the wagon, reliving being attacked by the dead, evidenced by his babbling about the howls.
(https://i.imgur.com/8rWYYRM.png)[/i]
****
Mid-Summer, 538
(https://i.imgur.com/cBCtwqh.png)
A group of dwarves approached from the south. Dirty, tired, and sober. They were lead by a mason named Bearskie, who introduced himself to Nish, who went with Vucar and Asob to meet the new arrivals at the edge of their camp.
"This is my Wife, Onol Tashlotvutok." He said, the stout woman confirming with a wave and a smile.
"Onol Tashlotvutok, the gemcutter?" Nish said in disbelief. "The one that made The Ancient Fire?"
"Tha's right ma'am." Pride a my family, or so 'm told."
"Wow, guess those gems we found are gonna be put to good use, eh?" Asob said, giving Nish a nudge.
"What in the world are you doing here?" Nish asked in shock at such a skilled dwarf.
"Was visitin' family down south. Got lost." Onol said with a shrug. "'S'all There is to that really. Dunno about those two." She added, gesturing to an engineer and a gem setter named Lokum and Rovod respectively. Lokum found himself quickly drafted and handed a wooden club and a shield, as well as a wolf skull fashioned into a helmet and leather gloves reinforced with claws.
"What sort of elf shit is this?" The engineer said.
"We don't have the proper facilities to arm everyone properly." Vucar explained, looking genuinely sorry. "It'll be a while yet before we have real weapons in hand."
****
Early Autumn, 538
Work continued apace, with the gem setter and cutter busying themselves with smoothing the notches in the entrance hall, and Bearskie carved dolomite statues. Nish went to help Doren finish digging the eventual well, the access to which had already swallowed him. When they broke through the stone and saw eachothers' picks, they congratulated eachother on a job well done. By Malachite's end, rooms for a tavern were dug, and being used as temporary housing, to give those who wished it some degree of privacy.
There were also statues finally being placed into smoothed out notches. Some glorified the gods, others...
(https://i.imgur.com/MkwQchL.png)
Not so much. Everyone began debating on what the thing was meant to be, and eventually came to the consensus of what was known simply as a Forgotten One. That aside, new homes were dug, including two "family homes" that had a second level with three small bedrooms, clearly meant for the children of the two couples. Urist meanwhile was given a lavish home with a connected workshop - currently unfurnished of course.
(https://i.imgur.com/7lvCWHv.png)
And before they knew it, early Autumn had come, and with it a caravan from the north. The leader of the caravan, a Craftdwarf named Zulgar, didn't seem impressed with the fortress. "This is supposed to be a trading hub?" The liaison said, clearly skeptical.
(https://i.imgur.com/96esw2U.png)
"That it is, ma'am. We're ready for commerce!" Nish said. She then shot Bearskie who had brought out a featherwood box and zoned out staring at the alcohol barrels marked on the wagon. "Bearskie!" Nish snapped.
"Huh? Oh, right. Sorry." "He unlocked the bin and opened it, proudly - at least as proudly as a sober dwarf could - displaying the array of trade goods - amulets, totems, figurines, and the like, made from, much to the caravan master's surprise upon appraising them, ice wolf and elephant bone, as well as ivory.
"Where on earth did you find a dead elehpant to carve this stuff from?" She asked, holding up a superiorly made figurine Meng had carved in her spare time.
"We... We didn't find a dead one." Nish said sheepishly. "We uh, we, er, our militia that is, killed five of them."
"Right, with what weapons, that paddle with the bladelets? Or maybe with that hunk of rock tied to a stick I saw your "axedwarf" training with?"
"Yes, actually."
"..."
"Riiiight." Zulgar quickly whipped out a scroll box and handed it to Nish. "Letter from your parents." Then another. "And news from the homeland you may share with your staff."
"I'm sorry, Staff?" Doren said as he dropped a bin of crafts in the depot, giving an accusing stare at the government official.
"Fellow citizens, then."
Nish was quick to hand the liaison a set of paperwork as well, placing orders for drink, ore, coal, metal bars, reporting the abject failure of the survey team to find a spot with ore, and that the place was infested with zombies and that the horses were being unreasonably belligerent with the local wildlife. After that business was concluded, Nish set about her bartering.
****
The four soldiers stood around a table in the future in, a box of items and Nish before them. "Everyone, I'm afraid I was unable to aquire full suits of armor like you asked." The militia immediately groaned in various annoyed tones. "But!" She said as she opened the box. "I did get something."
She set three pairs of bronze boots (one high and two low,) two sets of bronze gauntlets, two bismuth bronze helmets, an iron cap and set of greaves. "I managed to get this, and Asob, while the traders mostly brought mining gear, I did manage to snag this!" The chain of the spike-headed flail hit the table with a thunk. While its quality was about par for a novice smith, it was still a real weapon, and one Asob loved at that! She eagerly snapped it up and flung it around giggling like a child with a favorite toy, and hitting Lokum in the side of his head with her tossed aside grain flail.
Everyone scattered while Lokum hid under the table until she was done, and everyone ewas excused after they tooled up. Because they had all gone without a brew in far too long, and now ten barrels sat in the stocks.
****
Mid-Autumn, 538
Migrants arrived at mid-day, 7 in all. Most surprising however was the arrival fo Bearskie's mother, Reg and father, Nidor; the latter of whom was both a monk of the holy power and an axedwarf. He joined the militia on the spot, stating that "you miscreants look like you scarcely know how to wield your weapons. How are you supposed to kill heretics with such poor finesse?" They then explained their lack of armaments and he simply dimissed it as a minor hiccup in the gods' plan for them.
"Dad, why are you even here?" The mason asked, trying to change the subject.
"Why I was leading this band of pilgrims of course!" He said proudly. "I lost my axe during a scuffle with a few chimps, but otherwise I've protected us well!" He then pointed to the bars that were in place that Nish was hanging a sign that read "Amsel Usan."
"Oh, that's the tavern. Nish told the caravaners to let travelers know we're out here. This is allegedly a trade stop."
"Think she could have chosen a less ominous name?"
"She drew it out of a hat."
"Ah. The Sacred ritual. Of course." He said, suddenly understanding. "Well then, let's have us a look at this supposed Tavern!"
The two dwarves went in and found the othersalready having a dance while the caravan master lead an A Capella rendition of The Phrases of Amethyst (with Asob as the singer,) whilst a dancing line for The Reticence of Smiles had formed almost up to the door.
(https://i.imgur.com/1ZdsR87.png)
"Well well! Already it stands full of merriment! A good omen!" Nidor said proudly.
"I suppose we should join in. Frankly none of us have had a break in months, so this'll be nice."
****
Late Autumn, 538
The remainder of fall passed without much incident, though the militia found itself now five strong, all properly armed with metal weaponry, mail shirts and helms, and, apart from Vucar, shields in hand. There was a small tidbit however: Two mercenaries searching for an artifact, a human and a dwarf. A human clad in wooden armor, and bearing an elvish name.
"We should kill'em." Asob said as the militia huddled up in the corner.
"Aye. He's an infidel! And damned dirty elf in a man suit at that!" Nidor added.
"We don't know what country he's from though." Vucar said, humming. "We could anger one of the larger ones if we got butchering every explorer and artifact hunter that wanders into the city."
Nidor and Asob looked at Vucar, to eachother, and back to Vucar. "So?" They said in unison.
"He's a filthy elf!" Nidor hissed.
"And how do we know they aren't spies? or theives looking for a dwarven artifact?" Asob added.
"Doesn't matter." Thikut said, gesturing to the door. The dwarf and elf left, leaving a few of the dwarf's coins on the table as payment for the two mugs of beer they drank and departed, though not in any real hurry.
"Must not be here." Vucar said with a shrug.
Beyond that, only a handful of visitors trickled in, and Asob was forced to euthanize a majestic unicorn following its rather brutal treatment by the horses when a foal ran the poor thing into the herd.
(https://i.imgur.com/d6t8pP5.png)
A quiet end to the season.
A bit later than I woulda liked, but I had a commission to work on and errands to run today. I have dwarfed Bearskie, and premptively dwarfed Nidor, should you see this.
I timed opening the tavern well, as Thikut's stress wa sstarting to pile up, but she's better now, with her strss going from almost 2100 down to 80 and dropping. Everyone else is in good spirits, despite the some minor PTSD from the militia since they had to fight zombies and elephants, but otherwise? We're doing great!
We have metal weapons and armor enough for at least the soldiers we have, and Asob finally got a kill, with her shiny new mace no less! Poor unicorn.
But yeah! Still need a motto, and next up will be a journal from Vucar.
-
Hey split! Been a while! A lot of stuff happened concerning me but i'm back and wanna actually participate at least partially instead of just lurking.
Can ya Dwarf me with the name as Multi?
"When everything is going fine, you know something's wrong." Good for a motto? or "Battlejudge - When all goes wrong, blame the Elephants"
-
Seem a bit wordy. I had considered "WE ARE THE LAW" but then I remembered we're just legalized bandits.
And welcome aboard! Wanna wait until a migrant wave or select a dorf from the extent population?
-
Feel free to dorf me as one from the next Migrant Wave, makes it easier to make journals for them without greatly impacting your current story in any way.
Could always make the motto "Please help" if you wanna keep it short
-
Mm. Like how you described the embark, even if that image is too big for smaller screens.
Though no megaproject plans, on such big embark?
Also, there's nothing stopping sinisters from having husking murk or rain of snow white to my knowledge; near as I can tell only lessening of danger is no giant animals. Though if it hasn't rained by now it isn't going to.
Are you going to set up necrobacon facility?
Like the dance. Don't yet know what to think about everything else. They have personalities, I suppose.
-
Mm. Like how you described the embark, even if that image is too big for smaller screens.
Though no megaproject plans, on such big embark?
Also, there's nothing stopping sinisters from having husking murk or rain of snow white to my knowledge; near as I can tell only lessening of danger is no giant animals. Though if it hasn't rained by now it isn't going to.
Are you going to set up necrobacon facility?
Like the dance. Don't yet know what to think about everything else. They have personalities, I suppose.
I hadn't had any plans, really. Figured I'd leave that to you guys to decide. Annnnd I have no clue how to resize images unfortunately.
Funny thing though, I figured it'd be raining constantly, being a jungle and all. But it hasn't rained once. Not even evil weather. not that I'm complaining, cause rain is the worst stressor ever..
-
Mm. We'll see; I'm doubtful as even surface castles built over multiple years still take usually less than 48x48 tiles, and this is supposed to be practice fort. Well, there's room, I guess, though I doubt about time to fulfill it.
It's pretty easy to suggest scaleless plans though, but I'll refrain out of consideration for manpower for now.
You can do [img width=123]https://img.png[/img]. Then said image is downsampled and can be clicked on to resize to original size.
Things I dislike about evil rain:
1) It's ugly.
2) It wastes fps.
3) It gets everywhere...Wait, not that one. That it isn't properly weaponizable.
-
JOURNAL OF VUCAR KIRSAZIR
1st Moonstone, 538
Sword and Mail. the traditional tools of dwarven bandits. I've taken my new blade to the barracks, which still hasn't been roofed over. It's heavy, but it's of fine make. I gave Thikut the shield that should have been hers to start with.
6th Moonstone, 583
Two undead barn owls attacked this morning while we were working on a smeltery outside the main entrance (to give some of us an excuse to avoid cave adaptation according to Nish.) Nidor's pet horse foal stomped the things to death, but I'm fairly certain people are gonna have nightmares over the whole affair.
(https://i.imgur.com/VWvOe2y.png)
12th Moonstone, 538
Held a little party for Meng today! She made a stunning figurine of Onol, and she was absolutely ecstatic, because it was a big dream she had. Heh, considering she didn't really know what she was doing and still managed that, maybe the three of us who want to be great heroes will manage to do so?
(https://i.imgur.com/6Zz0HOk.png)
13th moonstone, 538
Got a chance to test my sword. Bearskie was running from an undead Wombat, and I happened to be at the entrance.
(https://i.imgur.com/lmIfSMN.png)
I owe Urist a few sovereigns, because this is so much fucking better than that those obsidian things!
18th Moonstone, 538
A grim dream. Amas had taken the shape of a blood red cloud over the fortress, woke up screaming. Thikut yelled at me t shut the fuck up, and I asked Nish to put in an order for doors so I wouldn't wake people with night terrors.
19th Moonstone, 538
Nish is fucking deaf! I asked for a door and got a cabinet. How the fuck am I supposed to block screams about blood cloud gods with that?
25th moonstone, 538
(https://i.imgur.com/LIJF6lU.png)
Yaks. I've told everyone to form up by the gate in the morning. Time to test our new weapons.
****
The squad had positioned itself on a hill overlooking the heard, a ground nest of bees buzzing lazily in the air, accosting Mountain Avens, trying to get pollen from flowers not yet in bloom. "Where's Lokum?" Thikut said, looking around after noticing only one jangle of chain-on-stick.
"Something about Shut eye before the fight." Asob answered. Thikut grumbled in irritation.
"A crusader cannot be expected to burn and purge without a good afternoon nap first." Nidor said, drawing his axe. "Besides, it means more Glory from the Eight for us!"
"He's a fucking coward and you know it." Thikut said, hefting her own shining bronze axe.
"Shut up, both of you. They're down there." Vucar said, pointing to a yak coming up the hill, one eye hanging from its skull. "LET'S DO THIS! GLORY TO THE MOUNTAINHOME!" He bellowed, and ordered his troops forwards as he charged.
However, being far more heavily armored, Nidor and Asob surged forward and took the first yak with shockingly little effort, the monk managing to bury his axe into the beast, pinning its head to the ground, while Asob wheeled her flail up and brought it down, smashing its skull with a loud and wet crunch. "Hell yeah!" Asob said, tapping shields with the monk. "We owe Urist big time."
(https://i.imgur.com/iLxVIkG.png)
"Teamwork in dispatching the unholy ones is always a good thing." Nidor said, nodding to Asob. He had been filled in on how difficult it had been killing the first batch of zeds with the weapons they had before. He spotted the next, and yelled "Follow me crusaders! FOR THE DIVINES!!!"
"Wait, Nidor, we should wa-" Before Asob could finish her sentence, Nidor had leapt at the undead cattle! And landed flat on its head between its horns. For a brief moment, all three of them looked confused. Then the yak huffed and threw him over the nearby incline.
(https://i.imgur.com/X1ehYl0.png)
He hit the ground with a rattle of chain armor as he bounced down the ramp and the clunk of his axe bouncing across the thin topsoil covering the rock. "Nidor, you okay?" Cam a call from above, Thikut by the sound of it.
"Urf..." He grumbled, grabbing his axe and getting up. "Never fear crusaders, the divines have shielded me from the undead!"
Vucar came rushing down, taking up position beside Nidor as the next yak approached. "Sounded more like Urist's mail to me."
"Yes, well. The gods work through our artisans."
The yak charged into them as Asob and Thikut fought the second yak above, with Vucar throwing up his sword, smashing it guard first into the middle of its forehead, and held it in place. "HIT IT! FUCK'S SAKE. CHOP THE FUCKER!"
Nidor complied, and gave it a might swing, bellowing curses as he went! And his axe bit deeply, but sadly failed to disable it or take off its head. It did make the yak stop trying to push Vucar back, and its one eye to Nidor turned and narrowed. Nidor, understandably, hastily yanked his axe out and chopped again, digging into its side before it managed to throw Vucar off and turn its attention to the monk.
This was interrupted by a cry of "SHIIIIIIIIT!!!!" followed by Thikut following in Nidor's footsteps and smashing into the ground a short distance away on her stomach, her own axe bouncing across the ground. And then her shield bouncing off her iron cap as she tried to get up, sending her back down.
Vucar chucked a rock, which distracted it, and as the beast charged a braced dwarf in almost full armor, Nidor leapt into action, smashing his axe into its head as he landed on it! This seemed to finally do the trick, as the yak went down and didn't rise again.
(https://i.imgur.com/GjWPyie.png)
Vucar quickly ran back up the slope, concerned about Asob, just in time to see her send the front portion of its head flying up in an arc from an upper cut of a swing with her mace! The carcass, now without power, whatever that might have been, stumbled and flopped sideward.
****
26th Moonstone, 538
I needed sleep, but the fight was a success. No injuries besides Thikut's bruised pride over getting chucked like a ball over the side of the hill and her shield bouncing off her own head. Two kills for Asob, one for Nidor.
28th Moonstone, 538
Had the dream again. Why?
3rd Opal, 538
Another little celebration! Thikut made her first masterwork cabinet. not bad for a "rock-chomping thundercunt" as Asob so artfully put it during an argument two days ago.
8th Opal, 538
Got a new mail shirt. Feels like a better fit. Old one was put in storage.
16th Opal, 538
Saw an odd sight. Basically Kadol and Urist elbowing eachother while they worked. Speaking of which, Kadol has joined the militia! Apparently he wanted a sledgehammer according to Nish in exchange for being our metalcrafter. Told him she couldn't give him a weapon unless he enlisted in the militia, and seeing as he can handle stress, or so he says, I gave him a greathammer. "The hell is this? I asked for a sledge!" He protests. Well, I told him a greathammer needed two hands two and to suck it up. It was close enough. Fairly certain i heard him complain about it being too well balanced.
(https://i.imgur.com/6XzdCHT.png)
20th Opal, 538
I put in an order for a sledgehammer. Kadol won't stop complaining that it's "Not the same."
28th Opal, 538
Sodel got assigned to plant gathering. Apparently when she protested, Thikut backed Nish up and told her that she was gonna do it on the "Fuck you, we like beer and you're the only one who might know what plants are drinkable" platform. Considerign we're down to 70 mugs worth of brew, I'm inclined to agree.
1st Obsidian, 538
Obsidian. Feh. Obsidian.
4th Obsidian, 538
Got Kadol his stupid sledgehammer. Armor in the works. Solid bronze.
10th Obsidian, 538
Apparently, and thankfully, a coati got beaten to death by the horses. From what Doren says, the things are an irritating little bunch. Almost as bad as keas.
12th Obsidian, 538
I think I'm gonna have to have words with Sodel. We need plants. Everyone else is too busy or doesn't know anything about plants.
And here we have a third update! Man, the difference metal gear makes, huh?
Most of the work that got done during this update was more of the main residential thoroughfare being completed, and the militia being armed and armored (mostly, anyway. Still need leg armor.) I also noticed a disturbing trend of militiadorfs biting zombies. Dunno if this is some kind of odd role reversal shit going on or what, but it's strange. Also saw two dwarves using the same workshop at the same time: Kadol and Urist. Rare sight indeed.
Now, due to the horses deciding to fight the elephants earlier and a steady supply of (questionably) edible undead from the mountain, food is a non-issue. We will be fully able to survive off red meat and offal indefinitely. Brew on the other hand, is a different story, as we're down to around 50 units as of this update and literally nobody knows how to forage. We have a well built, of course, but that's more of a bandaid for a broken arm than a fix.
But, that aside, things have gone well. Too well. I get a terrible feeling something either horrible (I'm betting either a vampire or a werebeast,) or stupid is about to happen.
Also, @ Frames: Agreed on it being ugly and an FPS hog, though I'm still confused by the lack of rain. I checked, and I do indeed have weather enabled. But still. Not complaining.
-
If it is were-beasts, then just let them infect all of your dwarves. Easy stat gains for your militia and less worry for combat :3. Just gotta worry about the occasional massacring dwarf.
Jokes aside, it'd be a treat if it turned out Nidor was a vampire or were-beast, would explain the recklessness.
-
I have a good motto for you : "Autem inevitabilis"
It will go very well written in strong letters on your flags and banners
-
I have a good motto for you : "Autem inevitabilis"
It will go very well written in strong letters on your flags and banners
Care to translate it?
If it is were-beasts, then just let them infect all of your dwarves. Easy stat gains for your militia and less worry for combat :3. Just gotta worry about the occasional massacring dwarf.
Jokes aside, it'd be a treat if it turned out Nidor was a vampire or were-beast, would explain the recklessness.
Well I know he's lying about his actual name, as he has a spy/special profession, likely from a stint in the military as he had pre-existing combat skills. He also appears to worship most, if not all, of our deities, so I figure it can be chalked up to religious fervor. Plus he has a spouse, so he can't be either one.
In other news, baby was born, and we murdered a guy for an artifact steel bow. And robbed the elves.
-
I would like a dwarf:
Name: Autz
sex: male
profession: scholar or bookkeeper or manager
Title: Great leader
-
Yaks.
Hoofed menace? Could be...skull-crushing.
Nidor is very optimistic, trying to ride undead yak in battle.
I wonder, does one work slower while laying down when two dwarves are in same workshop?
The translation would be "It was inevitable". Of course, dwarven language doesn't actually contain words "it", "was" or "inevitable", being a collection of nouns and adjectives. Closest would be either words for fate or destiny. ...I'm not sure that fits the ramsshackle group here, who seem to be mainly portrayed to care about not dying to undead and grand halls.
(The booze situation reminds me of this chapelcomic strip (https://www.chapelcomic.com/59/))
Steel bow is pretty useless with no ammo, though. Did you mod that in?
-
@ Frames: Actually she caught a horn with her neck and went down. between her neck getting destroyed and her head getting bent 90 degrees, she wasn't gonna survive. To her credit, she did stay alive until she was brought to safety, but I had to throw her corpse outside in the jungle so she wouldn't reanimate (it was bad enough losing a friend, but getting attacked by her corpse would have probably wrecked Vucar and Asob.) Wasn't anything any amount of armor would have stopped, since the fatal wound was the torsion breaking her neck.
And I have no idea, didn't seem to impede either one.
Bah to the booze situation. 25 drunkards arrived so i put them to work gathering plants. Eventually we'll have enough to brew before the rest of these ingrates eat them (which they seem hellbent on doing.) And yes. I'm going grand in constructions since I can't go grand in furnishings.
And the bow it turns out, was a named weapon. Dunno where it came from though, since I don't recall giving humans access to steel in the version of DF like I did for the main project. But that's okay; I can buy ammo from the humans and steal it from the elves.
@ Auzewasright - I'll see if I can find you a suitable dwarf then. I made Fleeting Frames the Manager.
Just a note to everyone, posting is treated as a request for a dwarf that way you got a very tiny (and belligerent, life-hating apparently) horse int he race. Update coming tonight.
-
If you want to dorf me, I'd really like to be dorfed as a human mercenary when you have those. If possible not too old, male or female doesn't matter and weapon doesn't matter either. But I'd really like a human :D
Also thanks fleeting for the translation, explaining my own jokes would have been really wierd
-
Can do Cathar! I'm sure we'll get a few mercs sooner or later. Might launch a raid against a minor retreat to rile the elves up, maybe steal some cattle.
-
1st Granite, 539
(https://i.imgur.com/xhbAqdj.png)
The dwarves mill about, doing thier daily duties. Nish has been trying, unsuccessfully at that, to get Sodel to harvest plants. Plans were also drawn up for small temples to Bomrek and Megob, nestled in behind double thick stone walls in the residential district; they have never been particularly popular deities, so small houses of worship were deemed sufficient. It was also here that Dorenr evealed the real reason for the obsidian: To carve statues of the gods, which Nidor approved whole heartedly of.
****
Mid-Granite
The horses seemed to know that bones were being gradually used up by Meng's near endless and obsessive carving. They looked up at Bearskie, and he was disturbed by the odd glares of a mare and her foal. He looked back to his block-splitting, and when he looked up, the two were in the process fo attacking an elephant!
(https://i.imgur.com/0tVpFNo.png)
By the time Asob and Vucar came, as the closest militamen, the foal was already down with a smashed leg. As they fell upon it, shattering bones and cleaving the skull of the pachyderm asunder, they knew the herd was bound to blunder into the horses again, and so took it upon themselves to hunt down the rest - a dangerous undertaking, but as Vucar noted: "We have real weapons now."
It was a three day long endeavor, with the herd slain to an elephant. And as they returned, they spied a human approaching from the north. A human bearing a legendary steel bow: Curuodiya, "The Tired Temple."
(https://i.imgur.com/viT1rid.png)
It mattered little if it was a true artifact to the dwarves. "It's dwarven steel, that's reason enough to kill this thief." Thikut argued. Nidor, Asob, and Kadol agreed.
"We wait and see." Vucar said sternly. He was the one in charge of the militia, and if this bowman was even half decent, at least one of them would get shot trying to take it by force, and he knew it. "If she's looking for work, we take up the elven art, because she'll be better qualified to teach us how to fight with bows."
"You're insane!" Thikut said, pointing at him accusingly. "You're a lunatic to think dwarves would fight like elves!"
"Men use bows too though." Kadol said, coming around to Vucar's argument. "Still, Steel's steel."
"We give her a chance. She tries to bolt with our steel, we put the infidel down." Nidor said, folding his arms.
Of course, later that night they found out what this "Organized Severty" was - A willow mug made by a legendary dwarf woodcrafter near 300 years ago - and the human had no plans to stay. This the militia could not allow. Lokum and Thikut were tasked with the dispatch, but the human was at least shrewed. She noticed two armed dwarves come in, weapons drawn, and swung around, drawing an arrow, readying it, and letting fly! Only to hit a puppy and kill it instantly. This turned out to be a poor life choice, as the dogs, which littered the tavern like refuse, swarmed her.
A strike to her back as she backed away from the dogs indicated just how bad her situation was. She got pushed back into the dogs, and grabbed from behind, the dwarf yanking her leg up, twisting her ankle violently as she did so, causing her to scream like a banshee as the archer's ankle snapped. It was over from here, as the dwarf in question, Thikut, delivered multiple heavy axe blows as the dogs snapped and bit at the human, who screamed and flailed and fought in a desperate, snarling rage against her attackers.
This rage paid off in a minute way as a pup clamped onto her arm and she managed to bash it in the head and throw it off, the blow twisting its neck and sending it skidding away, likely paralyzed and not long for this world. The bowman kicked and growled, and began to crawl for the visitor's rooms, when she felt her left knee shatter and metal ripping flesh: Lokum had finally gotten a clear swing, and took it, interrupted the human's attempted escape.
"You think you can steal from us and get away with it?" Thikut snarled as an axe blow finally overtook the many heavy leathers the human wore, destroying her leather scales. "NOBODY STEALS FROM THE DWARVES!" She bellowed, and brought her axe down with a final, chunky, thunk into the human's skull.
The elves who arrived shortly after saw the corpse being carted out, and Thikut simply asked them "I trust there'll be no objections about taking what's ours?"
One of the merchants simply stepped aside and gestured to their trade goods.
(https://i.imgur.com/GI6moDL.png)
****
27th of Granite, 539: First child born in the fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/wV7qOhj.png)
Could have been a better birth, as Rovod admitted herself. "The horses probably thought I was dying for a while, but here he is!" Rovod said, displaying the little boy proudly. "Your father's gonna be thrilled to meet you when he gets home little Rith!"
****
Migrants arrived in the waning hours of the day. They were greeted by Vucar and Lokum, and one of them was warmly jostled by the latter.
"Kivish! Good to see you my cousin!" He said, giving him a big hug.
"Oh, Lokum, you... You're here too..." He said half-heartedly. "Good to uh.... Good to see you."
"I'm more than here, I'm a member of the militia!" He said proudly, displaying himself with a wave of his wool cloak, showing off the shimmering, well maintained bronze. "Come, come, I'll show you around!"
Kivish turned to Vucar, face begging for help, and he simply shrugged and left him to be dragged away.
Other notables included Frames, and Administrator and his wife, and Multi a metal crafter and amateur hunter and his wife, a sapper confusingly also named Lokum. There was also Maskwolf, a wood burner who was quickly drafted and given a greathammer due to his impressive strength (much to the currently-single father's dismay,) and Talonis, the Legendary Bowyer who made Roomrubs, the Oder of Treason. There was also Morul and Zas, the former of whom had a needed sense of duty and ability to handle stress, the latter of whom's overinflated self-worth, compounded by having already killed a human to creat an artifact bone floodgate known as Toothvulture and an equal ability to deal with such made them ideal. Zas let slip as he arrived that he had once lived among the elves until the murder, and had been cast out.
There had also been Risen and Reg, a marksdwarf and axedwarf respectively, who had met in their time as soldiers elsewhere. Risen, among others in the 25 dwarf load in all, also meant that a troop of marksdwarves was due.
****
9th Slate, 539: First Artifact Built
It was a strange sensation. Urist looked at the bars in her arms. Bronze and silver. Commerce and war. Life and death. s she stared into the bronze bars at the top of the heap, she saw it. Amas in a blood red cloud, looming over the fortress, eyes glowing with otherwordly purple light, antlers bearing down upon the entrance...
(https://i.imgur.com/Iz3QEgE.png)
She dropped the bars, all but one. She said nothing to anyone as she barreled through the dwarves around her to her forge, barricading herself in. Two days later, she emerged.
(https://i.imgur.com/ij6m9Dw.png)
It was an unusual gauntlet, far too intricate to be of regular dwarven make, even for an artifact, and the detail among the fighting men and elves was astonishing! Right down to beards on the men, leaves in the helms of elven warriors. She went to Vucar with it, and held it out to him. "Take it." She said.
"Urist, there you are! We were worried you were going to go crazy in there." Vucar said with a great deal of relief. Last thing anyone wants is to watch their friend go crazy or havign to kill them if they go berserk and try to beat people with a misshapen lump of whatever material they were working.
"Take it."
"I... Are you sure?"
"You'll need it outside more than I will in my bedroom."
Vucar nodded and unfastened his old gauntlet, and slipped on the new one, marveling at how well it fit his beefy hand. As the pair went up, the saw three aggravated dwarves coming in. "FUCK NIDOR." Thikut said as Vucar opened his mouth to ask what had happened.
"I'm sorry?"
"We learned zombies don't die if you cut them in half." Asob said, helping a wheezing Lokum along. "Nidor cut one in half and it gored Lokum and knocked the wind out of him."
"Clearly it was powered by a darker spirit!" The Monk said in defense of himself.
"You are a giant, whirling tornado of failure Nidor." Thikut said as she went into the tavern, grumbling something about him not being able to kill zombies correctly. She also screamed so loud she could be heard outside when she realized that she'd left her mail shirt on the wagon while she got a new tunic.
(https://i.imgur.com/bbUAsfC.png)
It didn't help that Likot reported another heard of yak soon after. After the ensuing clash, they hoped the beasts would leave them for the foreseeable future. As Nidor had to be brought back in with a shattered knee.
(https://i.imgur.com/DxENiQ5.png)
And Thikut had to be brought back in on her shield.
According to the report given to Nish by Vucar, she had become surrounded when Asob was slow to join the group (needing to kill the yak head she'd torn off another zombie earlier that day,) and a yak had shoved Lokum away from her, forcing her to fight two alone. She managed to roll away after being fatally gored in the neck and trampled, Nidor tried to send her off with proper final rites in the field. "She's still trying to kill me with her glare!" was apparently his words when she grasped his axe pendant and threw it aside, apparently unwilling to accept her death by "unruly half-rotted cattle" - at least that's what the Colonel assumed since since that was all he could make out amid the curses she was hurling at Nidor for trying to do funeral rites on a living dwarf, and if he tried again she'd "take him with her when she really went." Sadly, she didn't remain long as they hurried her into the hospital and set her against a wall accross from Nidor so he wouldn't accost her.
(https://i.imgur.com/LmOus4E.png)
To her credit, she indeed refused to die until they had brought her to safety, but the makeshift hospital found her soon dead, with a bloody note scribbled into it that said "IN WOODS, NOT MOUNTAIN"
Her body was quickly carted away where it wouldn't reanimate after her armor was removed.
****
Fath was amazed by her new room: Spacious, 4 blocks by five, furnished with a featherwood-framed bed with a mattress jammed full of Downey grass, a featherwood cabinet, and a chest with a small stock of items, which she presumed belonged to someone who had moved out, as several people had been shuffled around for "picking the wrong rooms." She had flopped onto her bed and let out a gratified sigh, only to be alerted by a knock on her door.
"Door's open!" The frankly elven-built dwarf said, and in came the rustling mail of Vucar, who had the bin under his arm.
"Evenin' ma'am." He said, making his way over to the bed. "I'm told you're someone who is a bit more of a thrill seeker."
"A bit sir, aye." She knew what was coming. Him opening the bin revealing a suit of bronze armor, an axe with dried blood, and a wood shield pitted by horn impacts. "Guess you're here to collect on the room, huh?"
"If you think you can handle it." The armored dwarf said with a nod.
Fath picked up the axe and gave it a swing. Satisifed, and visibly terrified, she turned and gave the Colonel a nod. "You can count on me Colonel. I'll do the fort proud. And I'll try not to catch any yak horns with my neck."
Vucar said nothing, simply saluting her and departing.
****
11th Hematite, 539
Humans arrived from the south, having evidently come up on a return trip for goods from the Brave Treaties. Unlike the elves, the dwarves welcomed them with open arms, and trotted out crates of goods. Why you may ask? Becaus unlike the elves, the humans brought things worth buying. Most importantly alcohol! It wasn't much, but it was something. Plus the guards killed a zombie, which the dwarves considered a bonus considering it was an eagle, and they were known for getting lost in fortresses on occasion while alive, nevermind being loud, squawking monsters actively seeking the blood of dwarves. There was also the human bard who joined the fortress, simply wanting to learn dwarven tavern songs. He was commended for his bravery.
****
28th Hematite, 539
The dwarves were getting excited: Word had come from the miners: The Temple has been carved out! Complete with small shrine rooms to honor all the divines!
(https://i.imgur.com/91cFXXv.png)
Nidor was of course quite pleased, and voiced his approval multiple times, to the irritation of many, but the arrival of a group of migrants distracted everyone from his preaching. Odd thing was, there was a peasant who claimed to be the migrants' Great Leader, and he and his wife swiftly moved into what was intended to be the bookkeeper's quarters.
So, after being delayed by some... Private projects we'll say, here's an update to brighten your morning!
As you can see, we lost Thikut, but I found a suitable miller to replace her. We also have entire families arriving now, and the militia now has 9 members, as well as enough weaponry for a full squad of marksdwarves and most of a squad's worth of rangers to fill it with. Just need a volunteer to lead it, and another squad.
Said other squad is to be lead by a dwarf who will dual wield meathooks. I would love a volunteer for that. Why? Be cause crazy person wielding meathooks, that's why.
The temple is halfway done, we were dicks to elves, bought out a human caravan, got two migrant waves, and stole an artifact bow that belonged to some random human 300 some odd years ago that his descendant, who we murdered, only found 8 years ago. A few premptive dwarfings happened, and those who've asked or posted in the thread are now dwarfed and in play.
Another will come, but I got some work to do, so updates will probably come late in the night.
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Dorf me as a migrant mechanic/weapon-smith, everything else is relatively unimportant.
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Could i see my dwarf and his wife's description and just my dwarfs skills? And could we get an overview of the fort as well if possible?
I'll gladly volunteer Multi for dualhook Madman if no-one else wants it, seems like it could be an interesting life choice
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@ Frames: Actually she caught a horn with her neck and went down. between her neck getting destroyed and her head getting bent 90 degrees, she wasn't gonna survive. To her credit, she did stay alive until she was brought to safety, but I had to throw her corpse outside in the jungle so she wouldn't reanimate (it was bad enough losing a friend, but getting attacked by her corpse would have probably wrecked Vucar and Asob.) Wasn't anything any amount of armor would have stopped, since the fatal wound was the torsion breaking her neck.
And I have no idea, didn't seem to impede either one.
Bah to the booze situation. 25 drunkards arrived so i put them to work gathering plants. Eventually we'll have enough to brew before the rest of these ingrates eat them (which they seem hellbent on doing.) And yes. I'm going grand in constructions since I can't go grand in furnishings.
And the bow it turns out, was a named weapon. Dunno where it came from though, since I don't recall giving humans access to steel in the version of DF like I did for the main project. But that's okay; I can buy ammo from the humans and steal it from the elves.
@ Auzewasright - I'll see if I can find you a suitable dwarf then. I made Fleeting Frames the Manager.
Well, force transfer ignoring armor is intended, yup. Feels like dwarves are naked, though, that's the kind of injuries it delivers.
Gameplay-wise, having bows be stronger but require traded for ammunition is a neat idea. Gives a sense of progression while making one depend on the world.
The manager - Hm, who's that? Nish? I'm not sure... Clearly too extroverted to represent me, though.
The horses seemed to know that bones were being gradually used up by Meng's near endless and obsessive carving. They looked up at Bearskie, and he was disturbed by the odd glares of a mare and her foal. He looked back to his block-splitting, and when he looked up, the two were in the process fo attacking an elephant!
(https://i.imgur.com/0tVpFNo.png)
More like dogs than horses. I wonder, what'd happen if you gave their tags to all wild animals.
Your choice to not tame elephants is an interesting one, though. An undead elephant factory could be quite the boon to wealth.
And yeah, that seems to be just a named weapon - one kill, no "highest quality" or even any quality, elven? name...
Might be not dwarven steel at all, due mods or otherwise, tbh.
You could get artifact steel bow in a strange mood, but then it'd say they're artifact. And regular bows are only made by human and elven civs. OTOH, steel is supp-hm.
I wonder if killing a creature made of steel would give the killers' civilization access to steel?
Poor combat AI, though little hope for one surrounded anyway.
"Oder of Treason" - typo?
The blatant ignoring of "family heirloom" or the like is pretty rich, though. Well, the bow was a family heirloom too, so there is symmetry.
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Could i see my dwarf and his wife's description and just my dwarfs skills? And could we get an overview of the fort as well if possible?
I'll gladly volunteer Multi for dualhook Madman if no-one else wants it, seems like it could be an interesting life choice
You presently seem content hunting elephants, unicorns, and anything else that wanders in. I'll get you some profiles shortly though.
@ Frames: Nah, nah. Nish is just the mayor and broker. Your dwarf arrived as a migrant with administration skill.
My choice for elephants being food rather than weapons or as a necrophant steak factory is more because of the following.
1. Undead Elephants would probably be nigh unkillable without a large army or lots of metal traps, neither of which I have (nor can I produce, due to my reliance on metal imports; I'm being extremely careful to only make bronze or iron when I need it to equip new recruits with.)
2. The amount of attention they'd need is attention I can't spare, simply because of all the shit four legendary craftsmen and two butchers are churning out.
3. My pastures are sufficient to tend horses without them bolting off to murder innocent pangolins (usually,) but I doubt they'd be sufficient for elephants.
As to armor, it was something nothing would have helped anyway, cause she took that hit right to the throat. Even without getting paralyzed she almost certainly would have bled out between the muscle ripping and major artery getting torn. Plus I'll be honest, only like... 3 out of 10 soldiers have leg armor, and it's all the great weapon users (who are receiving priority for armor because they have no shields to fall back on.) So Nidor's injury was inevitable and I'm shocked it took this long for use to have someone injured.
Bow: My theory is that dwarven immigrants grant access to steel similar to necromancers granting steel to their undead, and at least 4 of our migrants are former residents of the nearest human civ, which has a substantial minority of nearly 500 dwarves, only less than that because they migrated here. Still, an artifact is an artifact. This also confirms that dwarves can and will migrate from other non-dwarf civs to your forts, as Maskwolf's wife still lives in said human civ. This presumably means that if a civ falls, but still has former citizens absorbed into other civs, they'll abandon the surrogates to "come home" as it were.
And no typo there, the artifact is called The Oder of Treason. This is Dwarf Fortress, names tend to not make sense remember? :P
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Ahah. Still no idea which one it is.
You can kill undead elephants by cave-ins or telefragging. Last can be even automated by having the parents chained, children wander into doom™, reanimate, then walk into a cage trap that is then taken to an elephant cage stockpile where they're moved to minecart for splitting into component parts.
(Though even just a starved corpse in a cage in a minecart would make the minecart a terrific weapon with its weight.)
I suppose you could pasture the elephants, but separating the children from parents will be a pain then.
Names tend to use words, though. I take it oder is a real english word? (3rd language)
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Apparently it is a typo, cause I could have sworn that was how Odor is spelled. Turns out Oder's a river in central Europe, so I learned something new today!
(https://i.imgur.com/kKxbVZE.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/mCed5AX.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/oDrMjuE.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/yCQPTGQ.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/yrUYsDB.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/bOq4MrA.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/YdmaKS3.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/AR2dNMV.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/qcb63pa.png)
In other news, some soldiers passed through carrying an artifact scepter. Too well equipped for me to take it by force unfortunately.
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Likes steel? Bloody hell, focus her attentions on getting mechanics up, pick a worthless stone you have far too much of and just let her crank them out until she regularly kicks out some masterworks. As well as maintaining her armour-smithing skills, too.
What are the fort's stocks of bones like? Enough to churn out about 30 bone short swords?
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Man I could equip the entire fortress in exceptional/masterwork bone armor if I felt like it with the amount of large animals (living and not) I've killed with the militia and having two legendary bonecarvers. Don't have bone swords or spears though, didn't think of that. And I wish I had noticed that, she'd be perfect for making steel gear while urist handles the rest. But consider it done. We have more diorite and dolomite than we know what to do with anyway.
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If you need her to, then get her to throw together some steel armour. Also, in her bedroom, if she has her own room, set up a bars stockpile which only accepts steel, 1x1 and no bins. She should get some good vibes whenever she goes to her room and sees some steel. Later, I'll get you to make something out of steel to install in her room instead, but for now, steel might be too precious to waste on ludicrous furniture requests.
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Aha, Ilral Claspbow. *searches for name & administrator*
Well, no wonder I couldn't find them, they have been only mentioned as a profession on immigration.
Gut abd nussm U gyess, - I mean, Hit and miss I guess.
Stats are crap, wants to be both a scholar and a warrior...Wonder if I can combine them?
|(https://i.imgur.com/8rnsJel.png)|
Yes, sorta. Sorta I can XD
You could build a "ladder" entrance consisting of pair of doors in a ladder-sort of way. Then when you get someone with an artifact scepter, you can lock and seal them in while still keeping fort open for everyone else.
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@ Kaos - Right now it is, and not using her armoring talents would be a waste, but having an additional mechanic (one's a soldier and the other will get swamped if I ever need tons of mechs for something,) is always good. But once Vucar has a suit of armor (he's tied for best soldier with Nidor and has the most kills by far, on top of his rank in the militia,) then I'd be happy to have someone pick up blacksmithing to make her a full suite of steel furnishings over time.
Which would be easier if the damned caravan wasn't insisting on bringing all the inconsequential shit made of steel with almost prohibitively expensive decorations on them, further exacerbated by Nish's earring hoarding....
@ Frames: I hadn't actually checked his stats or dreams. Would you like to join the militia? If so, sword and board or two-hander? I can arrange for him to have full bismuth bronze gear eventually. He's at least a baseline dwarf apart from being quick to tire, and being flimsy and lacking in willpower is only really a deficit if he actually gets hurt. In all other areas, he's as average as a dwarf can get- Average strength, agility, and so on, and not particularly resistant or susceptible to stress - which makes him an acceptable recruit if you want to enlist.
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"Is susceptible to disease"... Yep, that's me.
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Ooooooh. This seems cool. Dorf me as a military peep with a war hammer. Don't care what sex. WE MUST PURGE THE UNCLEAN!
I do suggest making 'medals' by decorating various objects of a dwarf's armor and clothing with details of what they did.
Although for monk-man (monk-dorf?) I say you cover his stuff in decorations of the gods as holy symbols against the undead and such. (Do it to mine and any other 'Combat Clergy' too!)
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Got a particular name in mind? I happen to have a hammerdwarf available I hadn't mentioned the name of. As far as the medals and such, may only be able to imply it, since soldiers won't give up the armor they wear unless it was manually assigned.
EDIT: Update will hold until species is able to name thier dwarf, and I get a vote: We have four artifacts walked onto fortress grounds by a troupe of mercenaries, and they aren't exactly well armed (most dangerous things they have are a greathammer and a crossbow.) It's a mixed force of dwarves and humans with a goblin. Do we attack once they enter the fortress and claim these items as our own?
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Well what's the full force of the military that we have?
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Well what's the full force of the military that we have?
We currently have 9 dwarves, all armed with actual weaponry, and a mixture of bronze, copper, iron, and steel armor, though not everyone has good leg armor (Maskwolf has copper chain leggings for example,) and Vucar has most of the steel sitting to be allocated to him once a full suit is ready. However, Maskwolf is currently laid up due to an elephant breaking his knee with a joint lock.
The artifact hunters comprise a mixture of dwarves, humans, and a goblin. The dwarves have similarly patchwork armor, but some of it is Steel and so functionally impervious to a good bit of our weapons. The humans are equipped partially with wooden armor as well. The goblin is unarmed or unarmored and so presumably a wrestler or the leader. Weapons consist of a steel crossbow with iron bolts, silver greathammer, a few copper or bronze shepherd crooks, a copper nailrope, a copper sapper's e-tool, a steel scythe (which is one of the artifacts,) and a wooden spear, as well as two scepters and a mug being wielded as weapons by two fo the artifact hutners.
EDIT: Basically numbers are evenly matched, and while mostly better armed, they have some better armored dudes. However, we could also tip the scales and pasture the dogs and horses in the tavern with the militia and lock the doors if you guys think we should take this stuff.
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Hmmm, i'm a bit iffy on it, but i think we can take them if we do it cautiously. So, i vote a cautionary yes.
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Everyone besides Maskwolf McBrokenKnee is in position. The tavern is sealed. Anyone within is now a belligerent party.
Wish us luck.
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If the battle goes well, I would like the great-hammer for study purposes.....and that artefact steel scythe is obviously a holy object, it should be installed in the temple so it can be worshipped as befits a weapon
fingered ... oops no, touched by the gods.
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Battle was successful, though we now have a bunch of traumatized civilians due to being in the tavern. Also had to rekill two of them when they reanimated. All artifacts are being moved deeper in where they can be kept safe while a museum is built.
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Call him/her Speciesunkn0wn. :P
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Call him/her Speciesunkn0wn. :P
Species it is.
Alright, so I was busy working on some commissions all night, so update is delayed. Will put something togather when I wake up. Casualties consist of Maskwolf's leg injury, and an herbalist who got shot in the thigh. We're up 5 artifacts counting an artifact mug Maskwolf's daughter made.
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Midsummer, 539. Nish holds a speech in the tavern, thanking everyone for electing her Mayor.
(https://i.imgur.com/QfaxsTW.png)
[NOTE: If someone wants to write up a speech, I'll happily copy and paste it in here.]
While the Mayoral rooms were dug, only a bed was ready. However, Onol organized the engraving squad and they quickly set about smoothing the rooms out. And Nish's first act as mayor was dispatching Vucar to kill a number of skeletal chinchillas, as a show that under her mayorship, the dwarves of Battlejudge would be safe.
(https://i.imgur.com/TEVXnxK.png)
On top of this, she made a suggestion that the Militia assemble and hunt the elephants that had once again wandered into the area. Given he had several green recruits, Vucar was reluctant, but Nish was Mayor, and as such, her word was law until the nobility established itself here. And besides, they were a hazard to their rather belligerent livestock. The hunt would happen the following morning. It's strange, when he thought about it. They were terrified of these things due to the old legend of Boatmurdered, but perhaps looking back that was just the results of stupidity and poor equipment.
The trio of hunters lead by Multi, quivers laden with exceptional featherwood training bolts, made him stop and stare.
Definitely stupidity. Had to be.
****
Autumn arrived quietly, with Maskwolf earning the rank of novice Hammerdwarf from his actions against the tusked menace. And several iguanas. And an Armadillo. Nobody has managed to find out what exactly made him bludgeon the two iguanas and an armadillo with his hammer.
The only things of note was a bard being hired to work the tavern as a performer, and the arrival of several dwarf soldiers, searching for a legendary earring. Nish couldn't help them, telling them that all she knew is that Elven nobles used earrings as symbols of office, so perhaps among them would be a good option.
****
Nidor was behaving strangely since communing with several of the gods. Peculiar... Secretive even. He seized the bone cutter station and took wood, leather, and gems both cut and not, and set to work. After about hree days of effort, he emerged with an axe! Sadly it was one sized for a child, though he claimed the gods sent his ancestor to him in his sobriety to guide his hand in its creation.
(https://i.imgur.com/I8E66TM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/GsadoXc.png)
This was punctuated by yet more soldiers looking for artifacts, which began to unnerve the militia, and a group of migrants, who brought the burgeoning fortress' numbers up to 74, including the three resident bards and the many children that hopeful parents brought with them. Several proved fitting militia candidates, being mentally hardy sorts and reasonably quick or strong. And many rangers also came, hearing stories of "The dwarves who hunt elephants."
****
The kitchen opened, as did the still, and there was much rejoicing! The first product was a number of stuffed roasts, with the main component being yak sweetbread, meaty stews with unicorn eyes, and skewered roasts of giant macaque.
(https://i.imgur.com/IjPulry.png)
There was also an announcement to the militia: New uniforms were being made and would be issued once sufficient greaves had been produced. And to that end, ore was no longer being preserved. A second announcement was also made: Once the militia was equipped, the squad would train one season out of the year, every spring.
****
Winter came and crept in as work orders were issued, and the "Great Leader" became a ubiquitous sight in the various stockpiles, and even accosted travelers, demanding to know what they were carrying "for reference." A golden statue was casted and placed in its notch in the temple's central hall, while masterworks were churned out by the armful. One such item prompted Nish to ask why Kaos hadn't worked the Steel they had into suitable armor, and to her surprise, she stated she wanted a private forge to do such delicate work in, similar to what Urist had. As such, Nish promised her a proper workplace to call her own, on the condition she put her masterful skills to use outfitting Vucar, as commander of the militia, in her finest work.
(https://i.imgur.com/JdYHatV.png)
A number of new beards also joined the fortress internally, including one to Multi and his wife.
****
Late Winter, 539
[OOC: I KNEW IT, I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!! I KNEW ONE WAS GONNA COME EVENTUALLY, THEY ALWAYS DO!! UNLEASH THE HORSES!!!!]
(https://i.imgur.com/zaKibqf.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/VrSI9lC.png)
[HORSES: MOSTLY MAULED. GECKO: STOMPED INTO SHIT BY ANGRY BLOOD HUNGRY HORSES. ALL WILL FEAR THE DWARVEN MURDERHORSE.]
****
"Keas! There's Keas outside!" Multi bellowed from the butchery. "Someone call the militia!" The call went out: Undead in the hills, and the skies. Those on the ground were now a mere nuisance. Those in the sky? A creation of the devils themselves. Thieving, vile beings. The worst sort of fucking parrot. And undead ones were worse, for no amount of shouting and waving deterred them from stealing mail, sword, or even anvil. The militia mustered.
(https://i.imgur.com/MCAnrSX.png)
Morul and Species were the first into position, and first to be sighted by the thieving green magpies! Morul made the first move, swatting the kea into the ground with all his might!
(https://i.imgur.com/pAQeVF0.png)
The proceeded to try and snap at him with a beak that was poking out of a caved in hole in the top of its torso, which understandably lead to Morul screaming like a small child and whacking the thing into the air as hard as he could. Thankfully, when he hit it a third time, it remained still. A second swooped down, and now in a perpetual screech of terror, Morul bashed it away and chased it as it bounced along the ground, and caved its head, silencing the green menace as well. His screaming and hammer flailing unnerved Species who wasn't much help. Nidor however...
(https://i.imgur.com/8vgJOAb.png)
Was used to such nightmarish beasts, and dispatched one as it swooped low with a single swing! The remaining ones dove as well, striking at Fath and Species, but were no match! As they returned, dispatching a wombat corpse and crushing the reanimated head of the undead kingsnake, there was a report from one of Multi's hunters of Elephants in the area. Their arrival coincided with the madness of one of Maskwolf's children, who was possed by some spirit or another. Nidor claimed it to be the work of the gods, while most, considering her babbling about something in old dwarven, seemed to indicate something less divine. A possession by Thikut's spirit perhaps, trying to leave something to the fortress for interring her in a dolomite mausoleum?
(https://i.imgur.com/e5PrNey.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/dlMrJ3f.png)
However, as the child set to work - and the militia set out to slaughter the hated pachyderm before it riled up the war herd and forced their hand anyway - a band of mercenaries arrived. What they wanted was unknown, though they bore several artifacts: Lodpos, the Quartzite scepter, Carenieremo, a legendary (though not in the workmanship sense,) scythe that slew a feared werebeast, Ondilinrom, a legendary commemorative mug, and Fushurubal, a legendary towercap scepter.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZHXUPeC.png)
They were not particularly well armed either, equipped with a mixture of weighted shepherd crooks, a single greathammer, a crossbow, a rope with nails, a wooden spear, a sapper's entrenchment tool, and bare hands. But it would need to be considered without Maskwolf, who had his knee broken by the trunk of an elephant, though thankfully he didn't pass out until after [name] had caved its head in with his sledgehammer. Upon sighting the treasures the explorers had however, the militia quickly drew up a plan: They would bring several dogs and the weregecko slayer Osharreg the Battlehorse into the tavern, and lock the door once the militia was position inside.
Then they would attack, slaying the artifact hunters and claiming their treasures for the fortress.
****
They hadn't noticed at first. Dwarf fortresses always had animals running amok. What did they care if a bunch of dogs and a horse were in the tavern? They didn't notice the soldiers. They had seen the barracks outside, and saw the elephant hunt. Clearly they were just coming in for a refill of their flasks.
"NOW!" Vucar bellowed as the milita attacked.
The goblin, who had introduced herself as Puja, fell first. A blow from a flail to the back of her head. The dogs snarled, the horse charged. Togi fell next while a dwarf named Ushat was struck in the stomach as she tried to stand with a massive hammer. A human named Togi was allegedly the best fighter among them, and that dwarf with the greatsword killed her in three swings. And the horse... It seemed to be filled with unnatural rage. Few had ever seen a horse do what it did. It crushed a dwarf's head with its teeth, and fatally kicked another in the head the same minute. Dakost tried to flee, only to be swarmed by civilians who pulled him down and left him open to a spiked ball crashing into his head from the end of a chain.
Stinthad, the group's marksdwarf, had excused himself to the temples, and so died deep in the fortress while visiting the temple, though he managed to shoot Sodel the gatherer before he went. Alath meanwhile was attacked by the horses outside, and drowned in a pond. The fight was actually quite quick and brutal, and there were no apologies to Inod, whose Nephew was the dwarf lasher kicked in the head. The bodies were quickly carted out, though the goblin and one of the humans reanimated and had to be reslain by a motley band of bards and dancers, as well as a few dogs, as the militia had to go into the fortress depths to kill the marksdwarf.
Four artifacts for the price of a non-permant bolt wound to a plant gatherer? A fair trade any day of the week. And technically, this was five artifacts, as shortly after, Maskwolf's daughter emerged from her work station with a gypsum device in hand!
(https://i.imgur.com/Sm79DC7.png)
"Don't worry about the dwarves, we'll bury them accordingly." Vucar said to the emotionally shocked Inod.
"Don't talk to me Vucar." He said as he got up and went out of the tavern.
Vucar followed, and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Inod, we-"
"You killed my nephew for a cup. Don't talk to me Vucar."
"....T'be fair, we've killed on the same grounds before for more useful things." Inod didn't care for thos and threw a cup of water in Vucar's face as he departed.
****
Late spring, 540
"So, how's Inod doing?" Vucar said as he took a seat beside Nish one night in the tavern.
Nish shrugged and took a sip of her wine before answering. "He's... Well, he's still stressed, and the bodies that nobody felt like moving alarmed him, but I think he'll be okay soon enough. Told him not to haul anything and to tak time off from engraving to visit the temple, maybe take up pottery to fill his crafting itch. How's about Nidor?"
"Well, between work and training he hasn't been able to go to temple, or spend much time with his wife. But he loves teaching, and more annoyingly, preaching. He's able to proselytize his little heart out and he's enjoying teaching others how to fight. Bet he'd have been a military scientist if he hadn't become a crusading monk." Vucar took out his gold flask and took a swig of some of the last alcohol in the fortress. "Damn, empty..." He mumbled after only two glugs.
"So why did you do it, Vucar?" Nish asked, staring at her elephant roast.
"Because." He said quietly, a look of grim portent in his eyes as he turned to her. "We're here to start a war aren't we?" He finished, holding up a scroll box addressed to Nish.
"HOW-" Nish quickly stopped herself and lowered her voice to a hiss. "How did you get this!?"
"Caravan master from up north dropped it on the ramp outside the gate. Thought it was just some regular news." He then handed it over to the mayor, who quickly snapped it up and shocked it under her shirt. "My men deserved to know, Nish."
"But-"
"No buts. We're honest soldiers, and if the crown wants a war, we'll get it a war. That's why we killed them. The more treasures we hoard, the more enemies Battlejudge makes."
Nish said nothing.
"Find us a target on the map, Nish. We'll hit the elves in two years. Should give me and Nidor time to shape the others up into proper fighting dwarves" Vucar departed after that, leaving the stunned mayor in silence amid the music and dancing of the tavern and its rotation of patrons.
"Honest soldiers, he says..." Nish mumbled to herself. Who could possibly say that after seeing this Letter? "Not gonna be much better than bandits before too long and you know it Vucar."
Okay! So we're into the summer of 540. Things of note wer murdering a band of treasure hunters the militia getting (more or less) fully outfitted, and the temple itself is finished aside from two minor shrines, because our masons failed to follow basic instructions and wasted obsidian on random dwarves instead of the gods Doren and Etur. We're up five artifacts, murdered at least four citizens of the Abbey of Equity (evidently you can do that if they're acting under a different civ.) and now have a slowly growing cemetery out front because of it, as well as a growing heap of cartilage, birds, and others.
I'm thinking we'll slowly swallow our chunk of jungle with a slowly growing dolomite necropolis, with the visages of the dead glaring at wilderness around them on top of their tombs.
I've also got a museum almost ready to open, just need a potash maker and glass maker to start making clear glass bpxes for displays of our treasures. There was also the weregecko which the horses absolutely brutalized before Fath (the nearest fighter) could even reach the beast. We basically have a wall of hooves and muscles in front of any possible intruders. I'm also looking through legends for a nice low population settlement to sack, and I might draft the hunters as cattle rustlers (which Multi, as named dorf, would be leading.) Being eever more effective ambushers means they'll probably be able to lift all sorts of critters from the forest retreats before they catch on. Speaking of which I have 4 prospective militiadorfs waiting for a suitable lunatic to lead them to war, and one spot left open in the main unit.
I'm also open to named for our squads, and for the coming library, for which I have designated the space for due to complaints of lack of abstract thinking from people. I've also assigned a dedicated performer in the only resident expert ugog and rimtar player, which amounts to being an odd combination of being an expert bagpipe player and guitarist apparently, if anyone wants that.
Not my best writing, but still. Got it up! Sorry about the delays!
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Gonna be making a diary entry for Multi here soon, quick clarification before i do, Multi leads a militia squad full of rangers or am i mis-reading?
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He doesn't yet, but he's one of the better ambushers so once I have 10 legendary ambushers (should be noted, you and your fellow rangers' inept ammo choice has lead to impressive skill gains while attacking elephants as well,) I'm gonna form'em up and have them act as cattle rustlers since they should easily be able to ghost the elves and steal thier livestock in crazy amounts.
Which we'll swiftly sell or eat.
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Multi's Diary - Entry 1
Alright well, th' wife wanted me ta start writin' in one o' these, says it helps gets our minds off o' things an' t' be frank with ye, I need t' get me mind off o' everythin' thas happenin' lately. 'm an old dwarf, one with a history. Kicked out o' 3 other places fer reasons I ain't gon' put down on paper, 'specially in a place where anyone can read 'em. Long story short, lots o' fights, lots o' hidin', an' a lot of stealin', all ta keep alive ta live to th' next day.
'm a survivor, an' 'll fight if I hafta, but if I can survive without havin ta, or by doin' somethin' else like ambushin' or sabotagin' or stealin', then yer damn right i'mma do it. I've told the head o' this place i'm willin' ta do it for this here fort too, if they can get me dwarves with skills that would be useful doin' it with. I ain't the most read person out there, thankfully the wife's been teaching me since we met in the last fort, managed to get married and have 2 kids with 1 on the way before they found out I was pilferin' ta keep us all fed. Though in my opinion I think they just did it to get the wife outta there, she's the sweetest cup o' raspberry wine don't get me wrong, but threaten her or anyone she cares about and she becomes a demon, scares the shite outta me if i'm bein' truthful.
This place feels different though, I get a feelin' that it's my last stop, not gonna be goin' anywhere else from here on out, means i'll die here and ta the sweet merciful gods I follow i'm hopin' its either by age or by wife, and not by some attackers or the people livin' here. The last 3 forts I went ta had a madman on every other corner, made me think I was a madman too, who knows, maybe I am, but for now I ain't and that's good enough for me. Thas enough for a first write, wife's callin me fer dinner, says there's actually cooked food instead o' just raw plants, I don't mind if it ain't, I love me some bloated tubers, but a dwarf needs variety in his palit- pale- pall- food pyramid.
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For a squad name, how about The Starlight Foundation?
Reasons: The Starlight Foundation is a children's support group for kids in hospital, etc. Also, our most famous cattle rustler was Captain Starlight. I'm imagining sending out a group of volunteers to collect money for the children stolen by goblins and worse, and once the heavily armed group find something worth stealing, they make off with it and return home.
Or Billy's Kids - USA's most successful cattle rustler, but I can't think of a 'cover story' for them being out causing mischief. (Like we really need a reason, but it is good for RP).
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I just wanna say I love the fact that your first thought was to use a children's foundation as a cover for grand larceny (essentially.) It's delightful. :P
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Yay! I have kills! :D
How do you find where the roasts and crap are? I really want to see what my dwarves are cooking, but the stocks menu doesn't let me see stuff...
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You have to use the look k(default is k) and hover over the meal stack (or the barrel they're in, hit enter, and then the meal stack.) nothing special for descriptions, but you get some interesting combinations. Like mushrooms, syrup, and eyeballs.
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I just wanna say I love the fact that your first thought was to use a children's foundation as a cover for grand larceny (essentially.) It's delightful. :P
Standard for anything associated with DF ... you take something inoffensive and use it for nefarious purposes ... actually, I like that name too, "Nefarious Purposes"
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Just as a head up, may not be an update today. Got lotsa work to do on several drawings.
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Just a little bump post, I got some free time to work on the fort this weekend, so I figure I'll put this forward: Which style of writing do you guys prefer? Journals or the more narrative-y way?
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I like the narrative type interspersed with screenshots.
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Just a little bump post, I got some free time to work on the fort this weekend, so I figure I'll put this forward: Which style of writing do you guys prefer? Journals or the more narrative-y way?
Well, either way could work really, as in i like both. Cause if you do Journal's, you can start leading story and the like when you want/need to, and allows you to RP more as well. Doing it narratively makes it easier on you on updates and their format, alongside making it so that we have all the info we need to make our own journals.
So i say, why not both? When you need to Update, then do it narratively so that we can make relevant diary/journal entries, and whenever you have free time make a Journal entry for any characters you think are important enough to warrant one.
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Well I ask because I was able to do a pretty good job of it in Riverrun. It's just a matter of one being easier to do - and thus faster. Plus without dates the narrative format does leave something to be desired on times that things take place. Hell, the last couple updates a year zipped by in each.
But two of the three vocal folks say narrative, so narrative it shall be! Once I finish this last commission and finish unfucking my mods. Making a mace out of lead-cored steel works better when you actually remember to put in the file with the materials, among other things.
EDIT: There's just so much irony in the fact the elves are battling a human civ that has a tree as its symbol.
EDIT II: And now there's a zombie elephant that's stomped a hunter to death and killed a dog.
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Wait quick question, in the embark OP you listed the gods of our civ, where'd you find that? I like learning about the various worlds i generate and i think it'd be helpful when i do my own Community Fort/Story Fort when i get the time. If you don't mind me asking, that is.
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The old fashioned way is to go through your dwarves (I think your starting seven as a worshipper of each god your civ has,) but I usually use Legends Viewer, which is a utility that partially relies on DFHack (specifically the exxportlegends info command.)
I have the world's legends pulled up on it, which has allowed me to quikly reference things like various artifacts treasure hunters are after, gods, and the like.
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Okay, i got bored so i started reading through multi's Wife's stuff again, and i just noticed this
(https://i.imgur.com/IFkhqCw.png)
What kind of badass did I marry??? Why spiders??? No wonder Multi is afraid of his wife fucking christ.
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Probably one of the most utterly humorless gits to walk the world. But then, it does say she doesn't care what people think of her, so it's entirely plausible she ate a spider on a dar as a kid or something and liked the taste.
Update coming at some point today concerning the zombie elephant. They're way less of a threat if you take away thier ability to stunlock smaller targets by chopping thier legs out from under them.
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Summer rolled in with concern. Artifacts were brought in by a massive band of treasure hunters, but their numbers were many and it was unknown how feircly they would fight against the fortress - a wrong move could lead to the slaughter fo the fortress, leaving the residents unable to act despite the numerous goods. However, they also brought news from the front lines, from many sources.
(https://i.imgur.com/7EJUf85.png)
[I legitimately was simultaneously filled with greed and filled with ire because I had no way of separating the ones with the artifacts to slaughter them. I also tried just targeting those individuals, and understandably the whole group became hostile, so i rolled back on that and sicced the militia on some zombie wombats instead.]
(https://i.imgur.com/QSRU1ts.png)
Evidently the humans up north had launched multiple offensives under the command of an elf by the name of Famime, though none of the travelers talking about the war stuck around to see how the battle went, and understandably so.
****
It had finally happened. Bad luck on a kill. Litast had requested the militia help her slay a surviving elephant that hadn't yet left the area. "It'll be easy!" she said. "You guys have killed a like... Twenty-four of the beasts between the nine of you." This was true, and so the militia marched out, surrounded the bolt-pegged animal, and put it down. They departed, not really thinking much about where they had killed it when Litast arrived and began getting the hitches ready before she went to get some towing animals.
As she finished tying the knots, she heard a nearby war dog growl. She grabbed her weapon, mistakenly assuming the dog's barking was due to a zombie owl, which was known to be in the area. As she scanned the skys however, she heard something rustle, grown, and get up behind her. And down below, they heard it.
The trumpeting.
It is a sound all dwarves in the jungle fear. The distant strangled trumpeting of a dead creature. A dead elephant. One that had decided to defy death and return to haunt dwarf kind once more.
Litast was far from armed for this, as she panicked and fired a single bolt into its shoulder, doing virtually nothing. When it limped at shockingly quick speed at her and grappled her with its trunk, she bashed it again and again. Hers was no elephant bone or featherwood crossbow, intended to be as unencumbering as possible so a soldier could load and fire as quickly as possible. No, she had a sturdy steel arm, but it just wasn't meant for this. The she felt her right knee collapse, and she was quickly swung up, and in a wide arch, smashed into the ground, hard enough to crack bones. The pain was breif at least, as the ebast smashed her head before one of the dogs she had trained leapt at it, meeting its head as well to the tusks.
(https://i.imgur.com/VqpY3fc.png)
When Multi realized he was short a hunter when he was assembling them to go after a herd of unicorns, he immediately sent word to the militia, who went to where they last saw her. Asob, Vucar, and Nidor found her remains, and engaged the beast that took her. Asob attacked first, her initial assault ripping through the flesh and skin on the front of the beast as it lumbered along towards her and missed the heavy swing of its tusks at her. However, it still had enough oomph to charge forward, swiping its trunk upwards and sending the macedwarf flying!
She hit the ground with a rattle of chain and clank of bronze plates, and though she might be joining Litast, when Vucar lept in, swinging his sword like a bludgeon at the zombified monster! With a mighty smash, there was a sound of cracking bones, but it wasn't enough and the elephant swatted him as it turned his way, while Nidor had ducked around it and managed to get underneath, where he began hacking at its legs like a dwarf possessed! one leg, then the next... And to his horror it didn't topple and tried to stomp him, though this didn't seem to perterb the monk much as he dodged the attack and chopped into a third leg, finally sending it sideways.
He quickly followed up by clambering onto the brutish being, wildly chopping at its head, drawing great arcs of blood and snagged muscle with every hack! But this still failed to silence the beast, and it grappled and threw him a short distance, though thankfully like with Asob, he was no worse for wear as his armor tanked the force of the impact. And speaking of Asob, it was she who would bring vengeance! She got to her feet and charged the beast, screeching like a banshee and flail swainging like a tiny meteor on a chain! She hopped its trunk, and as she swung mid-air, the spikedhead came crashing down!
She then proceeded to bounce off the zombie'es head and tumble into Vucar, but the result was still what mattered: The beast was dead. Again.
****
(https://i.imgur.com/H9mKiDG.png)
Inod was getting worse. It seemed every day Nish needed to console him, to the point where she placed a mandate against him and his wife to take time off work and to stay well away from the temporary body field. It seemed that the tipping point that pushed Inod into depressive episodes was having the misfortune of actually seeing Litast get pounded into mulch while hauling in a mangled mountain goat zombie. The constant booze shortages didn't help matters in the slightest. Still the timely arrival of the human caravan that summer with a breeding pair of guineafowl helped, and Nish had several gypsum items placed in his room to hopefully brighten his spirits.
He seemed to be slowly getting better, but constant emotional episodes over the death of his nephew and seeing Litast die were doing their harm to his psyche.
****
The traders were shocked. Simply shocked. on this trip, they had brought tens of thousands of sovereigns in ore, stone, preserved meats, fish, and the like. Steel armor, ammunition. And they had still managed to not only make almost 40,000 in profits on this single stop, but even things they had charged extorionate prices for they met by orders of magnitude. They even sent a single box laden in the finiest carvings of bone they had seen, and various lesser metal trinkets, valued at some 20,000, as a tribute to the homeland.
"Why would you give us this much?" One trader asked. "This is insane, not that I'm complaining."
"Because." Nish said with a smile. "We have designs that require the world know our wealth, and even if we lack metals to mine here, we have vast quantities of other valuable goods to sell!"
She didn't tell them the part where it was meant to entice enemy forces to the area, even if that was a little over a year away.
****
Things went well as autumn rolled through. Migrants arrived, most notably among them being another warrior monk, and Teshil Acoturot, a known prophet. What drew them here was anyone's guess. There was also Likot, who was described by both his wife and fellow travelers as perhaps one of the most vulgar dwarves to ever walk the earth, and his bravery and sense of duty lead to him happily taking up a dual-wielded set of arms: A cleaver and a meat hook, as befitting his role as a butcher, and Kaos' Nephew who took up a flail of silver, a emtal he treasured greatly. The Prophet, these two dwarves, and a number of other "Prospects" for the militia were inducted swiftly.
Urist's forge burned as orders for new weapons and suits of bronze were placed, while Kaos went over her work space: A spare anvil, racks for storing armor, a chest for materials. She held in her arms six bars of bismuth bronze, intending to warm up on simple pendants that marked dwarves as militiamen who would soo be launching punitive strikes to assist the humans. She looked to the box of steel ingots sitting nearby, and smiled. Just enough for a single full suit. She then thought about the lack of weapon traps, and then the lack of another smith. Then she looked to her steel ingots.
(https://i.imgur.com/9d32jPf.png)
She liked scythes, this much was certain, Perhaps she could be allowed access to whatever copper could be made, that she could train in the art, as well as learn to make mechanisms (or rather, relearnt he task, as it had been weeks since she had assisted in that duty,) so the fortress could be protected by dozens of whirling blades of copper? She'd have to talk to Nish about it, but for now, she set to work.
****
"Multi, this needs to stop." Came a slightly muffled voice from Multi's doorway.
"What needs to stop?" Multi didn't pay the intruder to his home any real mind. Engravers had been coming and going all day to smooth his kids' rooms, apparently out of a desire to look at something other than an empty nobleman's house and courtyard.
"You and all your godsdamned hunters!" Vucar said, holding up two fingers. "This is the second hunter in the past three months who was killed because of this carelessness!"
(https://i.imgur.com/IDdjPAN.png)
"Ain't my fault soldier boy." Multi said as he restringed his crossbow. "I don't tell'em what to hunt. Nor where fer that matter. I just make sure they all remember to fill their quivers 'fore we head out."
"That doesn't matter. Everyone else says that you're the head ranger, that makes those deaths your fault."
Multi didn't say anything as he drew the string back and shot a shoddy practice bolt into the wall, the featherwood snapping into splinters and leaving a noticeable divot in the wall. He mumbled something about getting the string just tight enough to prick elephant skin. "How's 'bout you, Vuc? That mean the fightin' dorfs you're gonna be leadin in a year will be on yer head?"
"How did you-"
"Sea bandits out east got a sayin' Colonel. Loose lips sink ships."
After a full, awkward minute of silence, Vucar grumbled. "You keep running your idiots out into the bush. But leave the killing to us." Vuar grabbed the door as he turned around. "We don't leave intact bodies behind like you retards."
Vucar slammed the door at that, and once the stomping of metal was gone, Multi just looked down the sight he had attached to his crossbow, making sure it was on straight. "Hook, line, n' sinker." He said with a chuckle before standing up, grabbing a quiver of bolts, and heading out to meet with the other hunters.
****
He'd been heading in after a solo drill to kill time before dinner. The sun was low in the sky, when he heard a horrible sound above and behind him. An angry growling, throaty howl. Like someone butchering the sound of a rimtar while performing A Capella.
(https://i.imgur.com/29DOVTt.png)
He looked up as he snapped open the straps that passed as a scabbard and made himself ready, only to have to throw up something akin to a block and a strike in one as the beast leapt at him! The guard of his sword dug into the armpit of the foul monster and he wrenched it over with a mighty heave!
The beast hit the ground, and he ripped back towards himself, his typically dwarven build keeping him well planted for the move. The effort resulted in a very unwelcome (for the werelizard anyway,) amputation of its entire right arm. It snapped at him and swiped its claws, but he simply backed off, mainly to avoid the dreaded bite-and-latch, which his drill masters made abundantly clear would almost always do worse to him and his fellow soldiers. When it tried again, he managed a sidestep and slashed upwards, cutting the monster's chest open with a spray of blood! His weapon came round and rested the blade on his shoulder while ducking a claw swipe, and laid into the monster with a vicious gut punch!
The beast stumbled back and hissed at him before coming again, and this time he had designs on removing the threat of a bite. He gripped his sword-hilt tight and swung the pommel as hard as he could, as it was the part both closest and best suited to battlefield dentistry. And so the pommel hit, and thanks to his dwarvenly might, there was a loud crunch from the impact! While it would have been debilitating on its own, the blow followed though like a freight train and - much to Vucar's surprise and horror due to the sheer brutality - there was a terrible, wet tearing sound. The werelizard's head popped off.
Or more accurately, he had bashed it in the face so hard he had torn off its head. As the head flew off with the majority of its neck attached, he stood there and blinked.
(https://i.imgur.com/4OM8tyH.png)
"How the fuck did I do that!?"
****
Winter came quietly, for the most part. However, Inod continued to deteriorate, and now there were assaults and disorderly conduct levied against him. Nish started putting up posters, looking for dwarves who held the the law in at least baseline regard. She knew arresting him would simply make his situation worse, but every time he appeared to improve noticeably, he would have an emotional episode, bringing him right back down. In truth, she was plotting a murder. She would have him arrested and locked in the lower level of the unfinished prison, and left to die. Prisoners died all the time due to the negligence of orderlies, so nobody would question his demise under such conditions.
(https://i.imgur.com/oyuhNdd.png)
There was also the opening of a museum, and the creation of an artifact, which was going to be given to Lorbam as his badge of office, similar to Vucar and the gauntlet Urist had created. A band of elven mercenaries had also arrived, but fearing them to be spies and not mere mercenaries, they were slaughtered by the militia with ruthless efficiency. Tombs were built one after another, and those treasure hunters who were unburied were finally interred, the graves having swallowed up a fair stretch of ground. Few zombies had entered the area, leaving the militia to dispatch the occasional big game for the sake of the hunters' safety, but the soldiers knew what was coming in a year.
The most important operation in the kingdom's history.
And there's a delayed update!
Suffered a few casualties this time around, all due to the hunters killing shit on the mountainside using metal bolts from the human caravan with throat shots. I really wish hunters would avoid evil ground like the plague if it causes reanimation. We've also got some new artifacts, a library (which I had to swiftly fill with tables and chairs because everyone instantly stopped using the tavern to eat in and bitched about a lack of tables or chairs, depending on what had been installed at the time.)
We've also had Vucar go One-Bash-Dorf on a werebeast, killed a bunch of elves, opened a library, and greatly expanded the necropolis. We also basically bribed the shit out of the caravan to bring increasing amounts of shit next year with a truly monstrous profit margin as well as easily hitting the monarch offering threshold. Once I start stirring up shit we should be seen as a massive and very easy target, just a matter of the militia not losing anyone during the initial operations.
Inod's also basically spinning his wheels on the stress front, because every time his stress goes down, he "relives being shocked by the death of somebody" even though at this point it happened over a year ago, by which time most people will have gotten over the death of an extended family member (a nephew at that, who he likely didn't know all that well since they lived in different places accordign to legends viewer.) At least enough to where they don't randomly flip out with PTSD-like symptoms. I mean fuck's sake, the Militia isn't all that badly stressed and they've had to fight zombies, elephants, a zombie elephant, and two of the best fighters in the militia saw one of their friends die. He's assaulted three people, presumably found stuff to throw around, and yelled at Nish every other week for six months, and every time his stress goes from 26k to 25-24k, he has an episode and it puts him right back to 26k. So at this point I'm writing him off as a lost cause. The kind of sheltered life he must've had to survive until coming here is truly staggering to think about.
Also, I noticed an interesting bit of synergy with hunters and the militia. The hunters will still go out and recover bodies and drop them off at the butchery if you order the militia to take their would-be prey. And yes, I did imply Multi, by not being in an actual position of authority, skirted responsibility and basically has the militia doing his job for him. Seems like something he'd do.
Enjoy! I'll try to get another one up in a day or two.
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Could you set up a burrow for the hunters?
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I probably could, I'm just too lazy. I hate fiddleing around with Burrows beyond the "RUN BITCH, RUN!" one to make everyone retreat into the fortress during attacks.
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Shorter entry this time, but here ya go.
Multi's Diary - Entry 2
Well, here I go again, writin' in this thing. Promised I would write in it, so here I am. Gotta say, this fort is gettin' worse, but it's kinda expected. Th' militia captain, names Vucar, came and yiped at me about my hunters, sodding fool is what he is. I'll do my job, but makin' sure my hunters live and can do their's safely is yours, if ya can't even do that, then what good are ya fer? With every death that happens, I know my own is gettin' closer.
That Dwarf, Inod, is gettin' worse though, in my opinion I think they should take 'em onto the militia so they can serve some good before they go mad. Just like every other fort, somedwarf is gonna go mad at some point and it's lookin' like Inod is the one. Though with Vucar's yipping i'm startin to think that maybe I should start havin' my hunters go in pairs instead of singles, means less huntin' gettin' done, but at least they're safer, and I might be a right bastard but I won't be th' cause of someone not coming home to their families, lord knows i've had to suffer from that already and I ain't gonna wish that on nodwarf. Something to think on... Wife's accla-accli-accle- gettin' on pretty well though, saw her eating a spider the other, crazy as she is, which means that she's gettin' along well if it's any sign of anythin'. Well, we'll what th' future holds I guess...
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Ya know, it's starting to be apparent that a majority of our problems are coming from either Undead or Elephants
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Right now the issue is just Inod, really. People getting killed at all is unusual for my forts, nevermind reckless hunters. But Inod is apparently not able to function with his nephew dead because of his personality, which I think is magnifying the "shock" moodlet by an overblown amount. He should be getting better, but he's not because of it despite all the positives in his life which are overwhelming in number compared to that single mood hit.
He's so bad that even if I chucked him in the militia it wouldn't do any good, because he'd freak out during or immediately after a single battle and probably not do very well during the training season (since he keeps bitching about being away from family, despite him not taking time to go to the tavern the same time s his wife.) He has pets, gypsum crap to make him feel better, a family to satisfy the family need, a temple with shrines for specific god worship for that, and he's just not improving because he "becomes totally helpless in stressful situations." I'd exile him if his wife wasn't a legendary clothier.
Normally I'd just turn the hunting labor off for the hunters, but I'm trying to get these 'tard wranglers to max out thier ambusher and get a decent amount of marksmanship training in before I squad'em up.
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Right now the issue is just Inod, really. People getting killed at all is unusual for my forts, nevermind reckless hunters. But Inod is apparently not able to function with his nephew dead because of his personality, which I think is magnifying the "shock" moodlet by an overblown amount. He should be getting better, but he's not because of it despite all the positives in his life which are overwhelming in number compared to that single mood hit.
He's so bad that even if I chucked him in the militia it wouldn't do any good, because he'd freak out during or immediately after a single battle and probably not do very well during the training season (since he keeps bitching about being away from family, despite him not taking time to go to the tavern the same time s his wife.) He has pets, gypsum crap to make him feel better, a family to satisfy the family need, a temple with shrines for specific god worship for that, and he's just not improving because he "becomes totally helpless in stressful situations." I'd exile him if his wife wasn't a legendary clothier.
Normally I'd just turn the hunting labor off for the hunters, but I'm trying to get these 'tard wranglers to max out thier ambusher and get a decent amount of marksmanship training in before I squad'em up.
I'd suggest disabling all of Inod's labors and let him just idle around for a while.
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I've tried that, but then he complained about not doing anything creative and not practicing a craft. I've at least reduced his bad thoughts to just him and his wife apparently not liking eachother that much and not practicing a martial art (which is something I damn sure ain't letting him do.)
EDIT: Doing some field testing for the main project's mods and seeing how well ZM5's stuff plays together from four separate packs. May be a bit on an update.
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Ooh, a splint fort, dorf me up. No preferences
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Welcome to the militia then buddy. Dunno if you've ever actually stuck your neck into one of my forts. :P
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Welcome to the militia then buddy. Dunno if you've ever actually stuck your neck into one of my forts. :P
Lurked, never joined
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Guys I got an idea. Should we send Inod on a de facto suicide mission to try and rile up the elves? Or would that seem too cruel and heartless?
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That was what i was suggesting actually, when i suggested putting him on the militia. It's a good idea, but it could also send his wife and any friends he has into more negative moodlets, which could wind up with us having multiple Inods.
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Believe it or not, despite seeing corpses, being attacked by zombie owls, the long initial period without temples or a library, the booze shortages, being attacked by zombie humanoids, and bedroom shortages, everyone else is at 1.5k or less (and that's only due to having to be on burial detail or from the zombie tavern incident I think,) with many having several thousand negative stress.
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I believe you have done everything possible to try to cure him, but it sounds like he is one of those dorfs where everything has come together in such a way that nothing you do will help.
Maybe some good will come from sending him off on a 'working holiday' to an isolated Elven Retreat on the other side of the forest.
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If he'd just stop thinking about his dead nephew - I mean really? Your nephew? if it was his son I'd understand, but most people would tell you to get the fuck over your nephew dying once you start punching people over it - he'd recover fine. Two years of robberies means I got some kit I can give him to hopefully blend in, if only for an RP reason.
Into elf country he goes.
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Good news gents, we're now at war.
EDIT: And without Inod dying despite cocking up one raid and openly assaulting another! he's even beginning a rapid recovery out of nowhere, I'm also deactivating all hunting labors and placing Multi and the hunters in the militia. Multi, it should be noted, is now a legendary marksdwarf (one of two now,) and one of three elite marksdwarves. His men will likely be extremely deadly when the first engagements begin.
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So ... you're saying we discovered an in-game cure for grief? Send the grieving on a raid and slaughter some elves. Or would you say coming back onto site reset his emotions/thoughts?
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Oh cool, nice to know that i'll actually be useful when engagements begin. Here's hoping i don't get oneshotted via bite when the first engagement happens (as that seems to be a theme for the dwarves i grow attached to in my own forts)
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So ... you're saying we discovered an in-game cure for grief? Send the grieving on a raid and slaughter some elves. Or would you say coming back onto site reset his emotions/thoughts?
I think it's more that apparently the act of equipping various nice things for military service provided him with tons of positive thoughts (as everything he wears now is above standard quality,) that absolutely overwhelmed his shock thought.
Oh cool, nice to know that i'll actually be useful when engagements begin. Here's hoping i don't get oneshotted via bite when the first engagement happens (as that seems to be a theme for the dwarves i grow attached to in my own forts)
Well i had to take him off hunting anyway. No time with family, no merrymaking, and no bedroom thoughts were taking their toll. I just gotta build a barracks for him and his squad to train at.
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Seems he's taken joy in slaughter recently today!
And lots of nice, shiny uniforms probably helped
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It very much did, and it seems he's finally accepted his nephew's death, so now it's just a matter of hoping he doesn't see anyone's dead body, because Frames is currently being beaten to death with a shovel by an enraged - and fully equipped - Militia Prospective who failed a mood due to a critical yarn shortage.
EDIT: And the militia was absolutely useless (one decided she needed a new boot before protecting people from the crazy shovel dwarf, Multi was asleep, nobody else nearby was armed besides Meng and she ran away.) An angry mob coming out of the eating hall and temple beat the offending nutter to death.
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(https://i.imgur.com/UXUEJiR.jpg)
Figured to tide you guys over, I'd post this. We have an elf named Duto Flaxensqueezed, who apparently grew up in The Confederacy of Reason, one of the two human civs duking it out with The Pelt of Iron and The Jungle of Dangling, who is a highly unusual elf, for the following reasons.
A. Doesn't care about nature
(unusual)
B. Worships a human god of the sun
(also unusual)
and C. Wants to rule the world.
(most unorthodox for an elf.)
The above rough image was inspired solely by these three facets, and I intend to make her a Sergeant when she applies for citizenship. Why? Because clearly if she's going to rule the world she has to kill everyone who can live long enough to plot against her - that is to say, any other elf that doesn't bend the knee or cast aside their silly worship of trees. And what better tools to kill potential competition with than dwarven steel and dwarven soldiers?
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Elves can apply for citizenship? I didn't know that. I take it it's possible for other races to do so as well? I haven't played DF in quite a long while so this is kinda new to me.
Either way, that's looking pretty dope, nice job! This Elf sounds like all other Elfs should look to them for guidance.
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Elves can apply for citizenship? I didn't know that. I take it it's possible for other races to do so as well? I haven't played DF in quite a long while so this is kinda new to me.
Either way, that's looking pretty dope, nice job! This Elf sounds like all other Elfs should look to them for guidance.
Yep! Multi-race forts are now a thing via the new petition system. Rescued prisoners and bards will apply after a couple years of long-term residency/sanctuary, allowing them to lead squads and stuff. Mercenaries sadly don't, but far as I can tell they'll stick by thier sergeants to the end. Should you have such citizens who manage to get hitched, you could feasibly end up with home grown populations fo elves or humans who are firmly dwarves in outlook.
In fact, we currently have two human citizens now. Will be posting an update tomorrow most likely.
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A bump to inform you guys that next update is gonna feature one hell of a fight. Also I learned that elves from different civs don't like competing over enemies. Two squads from two civs came to blows when one stabbed the other's squad leader in the neck with a sharpened pole. Three were dead before the militia got to murder any of them. Our war herd also sold their lives dearly to buy time for the militia to arrive and stop a massive pile of elves, bears, and whatnot.
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"Unacceptable!" Stodir bellowed with a stomp. "What on earth makes you think sending my husband to die is the correct course of action!?"
"Ma'am, Inod's been getting worse, and worse, and worse." Vucar began, stepping back to the door, and reaching behind himself to undo one of the two clasps holding his sword on his back. "Nish has done everything possible to accomodate him, but assaulting three people was the last straw. We have to do something.
"And because of that, you sentence him to death? Sentence his son to grow up without a father?"
"This is how it starts, Stodir. You've seen him. Stumbling around obliviously, sitting in the fetal position in the main hall, weeping in the library-"
"Actually that one was because of the book he was reading." Stodir said abruptly, cutting him off. "He said the prose int he story was masterful."
"Don't interrupt me." The Colonel said, holding up a disapproving finger. "Once people start punching, that means we need a fortress guard. He's lucky nobody was on active duty as well." He lowered his at that, enough to rub his eyes. "I've seen tantruming dwarves get beaten into paste or cut to ribbons when they swing on fighting dwarves." After a moment of silence, he continued on. "At least this way, if he dies, he dies doing something useful."
"You mean starting a war."
"The Confederacy needs help, Stodir. So does the Union. The whole reason we're here is to start a war. Several, in fact."
The Clothier ran her hands through her hair. "And how is that useful?"
"Your husband goes from dying alone in prison - which is what Nish was going to do, and don't interrupt me - to a Sergeant who was instrumental to opening a second front against the elven menace and aiding our allies in both the Union and Confederacy." He crossed his arms as he finished, awaiting the wife's response.
"Fine." She said, after several actual minutes of silence and pacing, and Vucar being made incredibly uncomfortable after the first half a minute or so. "Do it. But I want a mausoleum built for him like all the others. Body or not."
****
Inod looked proud of himself, if a bit haggard. He was marching off to the northeast. He looked utterly bizarre, clad in a mixture of elf armor, and elephant bone bits, as well as bearing a bronze spear. Elephant leather boots, gloves, and helm covered his head, an ice wolf pelt was layered over wooden chain links which made an odd clacky sound instead of the typical jangle of normal chain armor. He had a wooden shield of obvious dwarf make, and in his other hand a superior-quality bronze spear. He was told, quite simply, to snoop. Steal something if he got the chance, but he was a scout, though to fight back with all his dwarfy might if at all possible if caught.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Nish asked with a strong hint of worry.
"No," Vucar said with a somber stare at the grumpy dwarf in his motley mixture of equipment as he left. "But it was only a matter of time once he started to punch things."
"And people."
"Definitely after the people."
****
Inod, in defiance of all logic and reason, returned. A hundred elves, who should have been able to tell he wasn't some random adventurer, failed to discern his ill intentions.
(https://i.imgur.com/rcn4olW.png)
He came back with both books from the minor retreat that had been rumored to be there. He also had a report to give on something else.
"Perfect target, Colonel." He said as he laid out the map and pointed to it on a table in the mayor's office. "Less than ten baddies. Perfect dirt hole to lay to waste."
(https://i.imgur.com/mQFzsB4.png)
"Any ideas on numbers?" Vucar asked with crossed arms. "I'd prefer we not go stomping about if there's an even fight on our hands."
"Lemme put it like this. I could hit the place alone, probably kill one or two. leave one to spread word."
"So three then." Nish said absently. "Yes. Do it."
And so the mason went. After roughly a week, he again defied expectactions and returned, this time with blood smeared upon his spear and armor. When asked about it by nish, he simply told her "The crown wanted a war, so I gave'em one."
(https://i.imgur.com/7SlAm8j.png)
****
Spring didn't come quietly for the fortress. Once again a hunter's blundering lead to an undead unicorn attack, though this time with the militia nearby to help, as well as several angry citizens. Onget, the hunter in question, as well as Erib the clothier and the foudner DOren were all injured, though the former two far worse than the latter, with Onget's liver punctured and hand split in half, and Erib's hand mashed. Doren meanwhile was only lightly injured with a minor cut, while Ryukan, the militia's newest member, was left traumatized fight the undead.
****
The season continued apace, with Vucar left irritated at indecisive soldiers as he tried to give them some amount of choice in their gear: Some had mismatched equipment, such as a steel boot on one foot, and a bronze on on the other, or conflicting disciplines. Fathwas the most troublesome, insisting on using the old obsidian sword he had used instead of the bronze axe she'd used just as well before. He yanked both it and her shield from her hands and put an iron greatsword in front of her and told her "if you want to be stupid, be stupid correctly."
There were also murmers of people using those useless brush hooks, and Maskwolf having to be told to use his greathammer, as for whatever reason he decided to use an iron one-handed one, despite being given an equipment slip that specifically denoted no shield. The prophet was also seen using a brush hook. A copper brush hook. Which are only made to satisfy Nish's demented hook lust.
Vucar found himself praying for a means to sort that out, but doubted it would come any time soon, and as a punishment for everyone else being so stupid and careless with their equipment, made his squad train for summer instead of taking their off season. The groans were numerous.
****
Nobody knows what happened. How she got ignored.
(https://i.imgur.com/c3Pi2ge.png)
She snapped. As she was running with a single bolt of yarn, freshly made just for her, she snapped. And more importantly, she was armed. She was a "Prospective." A dwarf who had been drafted but not yet seen battle, against the undead or the elves (who had yet to appear.) She was fully armed and armored, due to begin training the coming autumn.
(https://i.imgur.com/T51gWUf.png)
The only ones nearby with any weapons were Meng, with her woodcutting axe, and Multi, as well as one of his "Predators," a dwarfess by the name of Thikut. There was also Reg, Inod's only subordinate, and Frames, the fort's manager of several years now. He had considered joining the militia, and now had to act in an improvised capacity. Reg had only her buckler, and hadn't yet picked up a weapon from the armory or the forges, having only been inducted that morning.
Frames and Reg pounced, while someone int eh distance shouted for Thikut and Multi to get down to the work stations. Frams provided a ready distraction for the heavily armored dwarf, but was quakly shoulder barged into the wall and struck with the sharpened blade of Tirist's sapper spade. There was a loud crunch, and yet Frames fought on, while reg tried several times to bash the enraged blood crazed dwarf down with her buckler, only for it to shatter on the dwarf's armor.
(https://i.imgur.com/i0K0Hsx.png)
Undeterred, they continued their assault while one of Reg's coworkers came barreling into the fight. Frame and Reg both landed solid blows to Tirist's head, but Reg only found a successful way to injure her hand, while Frames' strike landed a blow to her exposed jaw, knocking several teeth free. Tirist, understandably, took exception to this and broke his ankle with a kick. As Frames went down though, Zas plowed right into the rager bellowing something about havign Reg's back.
(https://i.imgur.com/eBTqP1x.png)
Soon however more - distinctly unarmed, not-armored, noncombatant dwarves - piled on though, due to about a half dozen of them having just left the temple and seeing the fight in progress. Among them was Kaos who according to reports tore off Tirist's ear. Despite her and Reg strangling and beating Tirist unconscious (while other dwarves and the dogs bit and grappled her, keeping her from causing further injury to anyone,) an attack dog was blamed for the death, presumably out of concern that they'd be charged with murder. Tirist's body was quickly thrown into a wheelbarrow and thrown outside to prevent reanimation.
(https://i.imgur.com/M1Bi3Kx.png)
Frames was badly mauled, with broken ribs, a fractured skull, and injured liver, along with an injured ankle. Reg and Zas both had multiple cuts and bruises, and many dwarves were traumatized by the fact that Tirist had to be killed via strangulation. Tirist's husband was understandably upset by this.
****
The humans arrived shortly after, and with them came a band of treasure hunters, who were promptly ignored. Someone's pet horse also died somewhere in the fortress, and while bing carted out reanimated. Likot, one of Lorbam's men, quickly put it down with help from Doren, but not before the undead horse smashed his shield hand. Some time around the humans' departure, Vucar was declared a master warrior by his peers, and by the sacred hat drawing, named "The Mountainous Pine" for his werelizard kill some time ago. Additionally, a bard named Gisep applied for citizenship, and enlisted with the militia. "I got a good thirty years or so left in me." she said. "I wanna spend them chasing an old dream."
(https://i.imgur.com/0gIEWEL.png)
Once Inod, Reg, and the elderly, if very spry human began training, and Maskwolf, Lokum, Nidor were declared master warriors by thier peers, it was decided: A punitive strike on both the nearby retreats of Weaknessrained and Glacialspears would be launched. The militia set out in short order, and at sunset, they returned, in time to see an herbalist bolting in and out of a workshop.
(https://i.imgur.com/dm8qX53.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ypd3UZH.png)
A few days later, the strange dwarf also emerged from the outdoor bone processing stations, holding a fine mug aloft, just in time for a caravan rolling by to see and marvel upon it!
(https://i.imgur.com/5JdOn5c.png)
They also marveled at the unicorn being caged. "A gift and a message for her Highness." Nish told them. in turn, the caravan master informed her that the homeland's armies were already launching attacks into the elf lands, having heard about the attacks earlier that year from traveling bards. Of course, this meant the order from the caravan from the north wasn't shocking.
(https://i.imgur.com/f80NWQA.png)
And of course the season didn't go entirely smoothly, with a roadbuilder named Id getting mauled by a pack of undead chinchillas, though thankfully not killed. Several bards also filed for citizenship, and another human joined the militia, with Kaos tasked with forging the bronze plate that would gird them against the coming battles.
****
Winter came, such as it was in the dry heat of the jungle. Plans were drawn up for the next raid on Glacialspears, when a call came from the northern part of the woods. An odd voice, which sounded like a goblin, one with a strange accent.
(https://i.imgur.com/VBHXZRD.png)
The milita, who was just leaving the barracks, could see the familiar conical wood-slat helms of elves in the woods as they ran towards the shout of alarm. They could see a goblin brandishing a brush hook, blocking two arrows with a metal-plated shield and demanding they come up and fight him like men. This statement was odd, coming from a goblin. An elf obliged him and charged up as another arrow shattered on his shield and he ducked another. While those two fought however, the dwarves spied a third group, who proceeded to get into an argument with the other two groups, evidently from separate elf queendoms. One spearelf, presumably the leader of this third group, proceeded to stab the officer of one of the other squads when they heard something that sounded unkind in elven said.
(https://i.imgur.com/YflTmkN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ENshIxg.png)
Evidently this elf wasn't amused. By the time the militia was upon them, three elves had died in the apparent dispute. Ryukan led the charge alongside Lokum, now wielding a proper morningstar mace instead of the second-hand human flail he had used for a while, not that he needed it as he smashed an elf swordsman's head with a solid punch and Ryukan killed her foe by slicing off the tree warrior's legs. Ryukan had shown amazing skill with that greatsword as well, impaling another elf's head and sending another sailing off in a bloody arch, while Maskwolf punted a spearelf backs everal steps into Morul, who hit the elf so hard that her head exploded into gore, sending chunks of brain and skull flying with shattered wooden slats from her helmet.
(https://i.imgur.com/jLzjQbt.png)
The squad continued onwards as the last one from the two main quarrelers fell, her head crushed under the weight of Species' sledgehammer with what he described as a satisfyingly meaty combination of a thud and a crunch.
(https://i.imgur.com/Nvy4uRs.png)
Another group of elves was spotted by the newly-minted Hammer Lord, though Vucar lead the way this time, killing a bowelf and two sword elves in just a few moves - two heads sent flying or tumbling away from their owners, while the bowelf's head was split in half before he slammed his crossguard in the eye of a fourth elf, who staggered back screaming and dropping her shield and spear to clutch her destroyed eye. Zas cared little for the elf's plight and removed her head after Morul snapped her left knee with his warhammer
They swept up and down the hill in a violent mostly-bearded tide, sparing none, not even the goblin. While he bore a Union army uniform, the fact he was alone, and that one of the elves claimed the goblin drained their comrade during the battle, left the dwarves distrustful. When the elf made the claim, Morul simply said "Good to know." Before caving in his skull. Back to the south however, there was a sudden commotion and a stampede of horses. Evidently another squad had been revealed by a pair of horses and two over enthusiastic recruits.
(https://i.imgur.com/2rbjROl.png)
The first recruit, who was in the lead, was set upon by the war herd almost instantly, and stomped into a hideous, mushy paste, with one being dubbed Reasonpaged as a result. But that wasn't the extent of it. As the ten fighting dwarves approached, they could see several of Lorbam's men heading to the scene as well, weapons drawn, when Udil yelled for them to turn around and let Vucar's squad deal witht hat mess. As the warherd charged, the elves barreled out, mostly mounted on a mixture of horses, bears, and unicorns.
Undeterred, Reasonpage whinnied at the elves and their mounts (which only the elves and their horses could understand,) that the "Unbeards would die." and for the herd to charge into the elven ranks, while a foal, dubbed now Cosmosgold, tackled the second recruit and his horse into a pond. The herd's mind had apparently been made up. They would surely die, but for years the dwarves had been good to them, keeping them pastured and no slaughtering them for food or troubling the mares for milk to make their cheeses. And such kindness was rare from the short ones, and so it was only fair that they repay that kindness, and delayed the enemy as long as the herd was able.
Lorbam meanhilw, charged in with Teshil, both bearing bronze spears, while Enure tried to fire into the melee from across the ponds. Lorbam was faster than Teshil, and leapt over two ponds into the fray, not sure what else to do as the mighty warhorse Oshareg fell to bear teeth and elven spears. It was all they could think to do, as the hardened veterans were still some way off. When he hit the dirt and rolled like a demented beardy armadillo, Lorbam stabbed wildly into the mass of animals and elves. He disappeared into the chaos of stomping and biting beasts.
(https://i.imgur.com/Hex6SVm.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/xcpRWhQ.png)
He would not come out.
Teshil pressed on, unsure what was going on in the mass. He turned as he heard Enure yell his name.
"We have to fall back! There's no way two of us can fight that!" She yelled, firing another bolt into the mass.
Teshil looked at the stampeding and biting and other general horribleness. "We have to save Lorbam!" he shouted back.
"Fuck Lorbam, he literally jumped into it, if he dies its his own fault!"
"His wife and son would disagree, Enure. As would our own families. Would you prefer your remains be left to the elves?" He hefted his spear and made ready to advance. "Dead or not, I'm bringing him out of there. No dwarf deserves to be eaten by such foul things." With that, he charged into the fray, knowing full well Lorbam was likely already dead, and running to his own demise while a third bolt flew into the crowd. Or he would have been had a bear not run roughshod over him without a rider to flee an angry horse.
(https://i.imgur.com/O1HcmEm.png)
"Bullshit to that Teshil, The Colonel and his men are almost here, just kill that fucking bear! Multi's wife is cleaning one of the catacombs!"
Teshil, angered by the impertinent bear, asked what the hell she was doing there. According to Enure, Maskwolf's eldest son had come of age and while helping with construction had vomited all over one of the mausoleums. It helped to be truthful, plus Enure didn't have the heart to tell the Prophet that Lorbam, along with much of the herd, was already dead.
(https://i.imgur.com/HNGVpjA.png)
By the time reinforcements arrived, they consisted of just Morul, as he was the only one who ignored the elf with the uncooperative bear mount that had bounded past the Colonel's squad. He waded in, hammer winging like a tornado of blunt force trauma. One elf hit the ground screaming she couldn't feel her anything, while three more and two bears suffered broken arms or legs, and one unlucky elf that tried to bunch him got his hand bitten for his trouble. At some point however, he felt an odd sensation in his hammer arm, and realized his wrist was broken> This sent him into a rage, and he began beating his enemies with his other hand (as there hadn't been sufficent shields for everyone, he had gone without.)
Maskwolf arrived in time to see Teshil float to the surface of a pond, as well as an enemy horse that weakly managed to pull itself out, having apparently knocked him unconscious in the water and barely survived its own attack.
(https://i.imgur.com/YyzwdBG.png)
Zaneg, one of Likot's men, also arrived with Multi's dwarves and did the same pond jumping Lorbam had, though Multi was himself engaged with a now-riderless bear, its rider having been pulled off some ways back by Sergeant Likot himself. Multi and Udil desperately tried to evade claws landing whatever hits they could, which wasn't much considering Udil didn't have a weapon and only a second-hand bismuth bronze shield to fight with. After a minute of desperate fighting he finally turned and fled, not seeing the bear go down to a bolt shot into its back by Multi.
"Gods damn it Udil, get back here! The hell am I supposed to do, fight an army with 15 bolts and harsh language!?"
"FUCK YOU YOU AREN"T MY SERGEANT!!!!" The recruit said as he fled. Which in fairness, was true. However his sergeant had just finished using his butchery tools on a better trained elf. When the bear tried to kill Multi, he just shot it in the neck as if it were an after thought and ran to Likot, whose face had several deep gashes and looked like he'd just dunked his arms in a barrel of blood, owing to the dead elf on the groun who looked like they'd been tossed into a running millstone.
"Ye arright Likot?" He said, looking him over while loading another shot.
Likot shrugged. He had no armor and was covered in cuts and scraps due to the shortage of steel for melee officer uniforms.
Back at the main fight, Morul fell beck, demanding to know what the fuck happened when he saw Asob and Nidor coming, with Lokum and Fath bringing up the rear. She gestured to the wasted veterans chasing a single elf recruit.... And the dead bears and equal number of trained elves. None the less, they charged into the growing pile of battered elves and horses Maskwolf was creating. In the distance, he could also see Rykan tackle the fleeing elf and Species bring the hammer down on its head.
Now that the veterans had joined the battle though, things went from looking bad, to a slaughterhouse for elves and thier precious beasts. Vucar arrived as Maskwolf's pile of battered toys was being laid to waste, having chased down and slain a unicorn mounted elf and a bear. Zaneg at some point had his shield arm broken, and bolts began raining into the fray as Multi got his dwarves into position. Soon, this fight would be over.
****
So much death. That was all nish could say as she stared, slack jawed at the horrible sight. Elves, horses, and bears lay in mangled heaps, and she could see Teshil's corpse already beign carted away for burial, with somoen coming with a stretcher to get Lorbam for the same purpose. Only two dead, if one hadn't counted the dead war herd, which was killed almost to the last. Those few not among the fallen beasts were those that hadn't been penned back up in the fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/EiGYigc.png)
At least two families were now in mourning, Likot's squad, between Tirist going mad and this battle, had been decimated, leaving him with Zaneg, who had a broken arm, and Udil, who had fled in the face of the enemy. Many of the soldiers had never seen battle properly, and were horrified by the viscera and mangled bodies. In addition, Morul's arm was broken due to an equipment shortage, and Sergeant Likot was covered in cuts that needed to be stitched.
"So, regret taking this post, Rupert?" Came a familiar voice. It was Vucar.
"R-Rupert?"
"Multi says its what bandits call call over-enthusiastic nobles who lead military expeditions." He was still coated in the blood of elves, bears, and all manner of other horrible viscera.
"I... Yes. I do. I didn't think-"
"That this shit would hit home, right." After a long silence, he said "More are gonna die, y'know."
Nish said nothing, simply staring with horror at the corpses.
"I'll see who I can round up to fill out our squads. Talk tot he travelers, see if they can give us an idea of a place we can burn down."
Again nothing, but at least she nodded.
This was going to be a very long, and very bloody war.
Hoooooooooooowee gents, look at this!
We got an insanity case, human citizens, and elves! Whole lotta them. Like... holy shit. Final score, not counting horses.
Elves: 2
Battlejudge Dwarves: 72 kills, counting the goblin who really was a vampire (I looked him up in legends viewer; was suspicious of his flashing icon.)
We also have two kids who migrated in come of age, lost most of our horses (though they lasted way longer than dogs would have) and got us a newly minted hammerlord out of it. Also, to refer to earlier posts: Elves sufficiently riled. Inod's also recovered, though we currently have many, many traumatized dwarves from all the carnage. Nish is probably going to be busy for months consoling people, especially Tilesh and Lorbam's wives. We also got to see a bit of infighting happen among elven forces, which may mean we got hit by all three civs at once and two of them don't like eachother very much.
Sadly, among the dead horses was Oshareg, killer of the weregecko. Think we should mount the heroic horses in the museum once they rot to skeletons?
I've also updated casualty and kill tally accordingly.
Hope this update justifies the wait boys and girls!
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Congrats on surviving.....I'm back to the forge to make better and more armour.
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Before i make my next journal entry, would it be possible for ya to send me screenshots of Multi and his wife's Relationships?
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Congrats on surviving..... I'm back to the forge to make better and more armour.
In between bouts of grieving. Lorbam was your dwarf's nephew, and unlike Inod's, he y'know. Actually lived here.
Before i make my next journal entry, would it be possible for ya to send me screenshots of Multi and his wife's Relationships?
Evidently Multi's only ever associated with two human bards and his family for any length of time, a 50 year old man named Tunul, and a 55 year old man named Sidaya who based on thier dreams wanted to be a warrior poet and an explorer respectively. None of multi's (rather large) extended family is house either. Should be noted counting Kadol, the son he's had here, he and Lokum have four kids, though only one here.
In stark contrast, Lokum's got an uncle and two cousins on site as well as an equally large extended family off it, and has associated predominantly with human bards (including Sidaya,) as well as the elf bard I intend to make a sergeant when she applies for citizenship, Duto. She also knows the fort's legendary chef Olon Urnjewel (who is also Kaos' husband,) and one of the two legendary carpenters, Adil Stonebasement.
Nobody has actual in-game friends besides the founders, and the above mentioned people are only passing acquaintances, but for narrative purposes that may as well be friends, since the sheer volume of shit that needs to be carted around and constant craft good output needs to buy out all the metal, clay, glass, and drink on the human and dwarven caravans are functionally preventing any relationship cultivation.
Didn't get screenshots because seriously, the two of them both have absolutely monstrously sized extended families. Multi alone has near 80 family members among all the cousins, uncles, aunts, and nephews, as well as 9 siblings (he's the third oldest after two older sisters and four younger brothers and two younger sisters,) all four grandparents on both sides, plus his own folks. his wife has 61 and is third youngest after four brothers and two sisters, with two younger sisters behind her in family line.
EDIT: I trust nobody cares if we refer to our Fortress Guard as Judges and have it led by a dwarf named Dredd.
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Multi's Diary - Entry 3
Goddamn upstarts these days goddamnit. Went out ta shoot some elves that were fightin eachother an' took Udil with me so that I could test 'em. Found a Bear an' decided that that was good enough but the motherfucker left me right after. The Bear wasn't important, shot that thing cause I was more than pissed at th' moment, one bolt to the neck took it out and I found myself pissed an' alone. Udil yelled somethin' about me not bein' their ser- sar- commanding officer and they're goddamn right, cause if I was I woulda shot him for actin like a wus and runnin' from a fight. You're in the goddamn militia and yer runnin' from one measely little bear? That's sad to see. Damn, I need ta vent, before I tear this thing in half with the feather i'm writin' in it with...
It could be said later that night people could hear loud shouts of anger and frustration, most consisting of "GODDAMN PANSY" and "NEXT TIME ILL GIVE YA SOMETHIN' WORTH RUNNIN' FROM! YE BASTARD!". Suffice it to say most people avoided Multi's general direction for a few days until he calmed down.
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Should be noted, Udil wasn't one of Multi's squad. His marksdwarves actually did thier jobs pretty admirably, even if Enure and Mafol are collectively's a massive bitch. Nobody ran, nobody tried to charge into melee with a bone crossbow, and they all contributed once the veterans got stuck in (with multi's throat-shot kill being pretty notable actually.) Udil was the only one who ran away like a frightened child, and why he had no weapons I can only guess at.
Right now we're having a morale issue with three particular dwarves and it's almost entirely due to being alarmed/horrified/uneasy over the people who tried to kill them shockingly enough, being responded to with lethal force. There really should be a value multiplier or something to make martial cultures (like dwarves and goblins inherently) much more resistant to such things.
Lokum and Multi are also both bent out of shape but it's for mostly the same reasons, though Multi's wife has apparently gotten a boost to her excitement seeking due to all the dead people.
Quite frankly I need to limit the work load somehow. Everyone's sad because they don't have time to pray, or they don't have friends, or family to spend time with. Even though it seems like everyone and thier cousins take the time to go read at the library.
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Should be noted, Udil wasn't one of Multi's squad. His marksdwarves actually did thier jobs pretty admirably, even if Enure and Mafol are collectively's a massive bitch. Nobody ran, nobody tried to charge into melee with a bone crossbow, and they all contributed once the veterans got stuck in (with multi's throat-shot kill being pretty notable actually.) Udil was the only one who ran away like a frightened child, and why he had no weapons I can only guess at.
Right now we're having a morale issue with three particular dwarves and it's almost entirely due to being alarmed/horrified/uneasy over the people who tried to kill them shockingly enough, being responded to with lethal force. There really should be a value multiplier or something to make martial cultures (like dwarves and goblins inherently) much more resistant to such things.
Lokum and Multi are also both bent out of shape but it's for mostly the same reasons, though Multi's wife has apparently gotten a boost to her excitement seeking due to all the dead people.
Quite frankly I need to limit the work load somehow. Everyone's sad because they don't have time to pray, or they don't have friends, or family to spend time with. Even though it seems like everyone and thier cousins take the time to go read at the library.
Yea I know he isn't one of Multi's squad, though I am glad that my dwarves did good. Gods, I'm married to either a psycho or a badass though, and I love it! Maybe my wife should be on the militia too...
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Well she's in now, in Inod's unit. She was the only one close enough to deal with a chinchilla attack.
In other news, we're slated to become the capital soon, and two people have inherited nobility titles for one reason or another. Vucar also now has a weretortoise and an ettin under his belt.
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Well here's hoping Inod doesn't get her killed, who knows, maybe she can help him shape up.
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Okay, so I'm telling you guys up front I've cheated with DFhack's fill need command. There are four reasons.
1. As and Mafol wouldn't just fucking snap so I could bury them and be done with it. I was sick of them taking up Nish's time when needed her on excavation and slapping me with job cancellations.
2. Enure I think had Nish stuck in attend meeting mode because she had been arrested.
3. Exiling people isn't the dwarven way. Elves exile trouble makers. Dwarves make them suffer.
4. For whatever reason, nearly everyone was complaining about not getting to go to temple despite us getting to a point where they should have been able to go and fill the need. I dunno if it's meaning to imply everyone needs a personal shrine (stupid and impractical,) or for whatever reason the shrines available weren't "good enough" or too crowded or what. Additionally, there were constant "Lack of decent meals" complaints, which makes no sense if they want "exotic" foods that are impossible to get even via trade because of the neighbors you have available.
The stress system seriously needs to be re-evaluated for how certain things are handled.
EDIT: I'm sure Inod will be fine as a commander once his discipline's up enough. He finally recovered and isn't responding too poorly to undead and such.
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Just a bump to let you guys know that the whole drawing thing's been eating up time like a son of a bitch this week, so I'll be hammering out an update for Saturday.
You guys have any ideas for drawings I could do from the fort? That aren't the massive clusterfuck that killed Lorbam and Teshil, that is.
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A nice, serene scene of dorfs praying in the temple. Or an interpretation of the
sweatshop workshop area where the dorfs create amazing masterpieces.
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A nice, serene scene of dorfs praying in the temple. Or an interpretation of the sweatshop workshop area where the dorfs create amazing masterpieces.
A line of angry dwarves waiting outside the temple which has an “Occupied” sign
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A velvet rope blocking the entrance to the temple, guarded by a bouncer with a clipboard whose favourite expression to any angry dorf demanding access, "Youse not onna list...."
Can we get a list of the non-dorf residents of BattleJudge and what their position in the community is?
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A nice, serene scene of dorfs praying in the temple. Or an interpretation of the sweatshop workshop area where the dorfs create amazing masterpieces.
A line of angry dwarves waiting outside the temple which has an “Occupied” sign
A velvet rope blocking the entrance to the temple, guarded by a bouncer with a clipboard whose favourite expression to any angry dorf demanding access, "Youse not onna list...."
Can we get a list of the non-dorf residents of BattleJudge and what their position in the community is?
The Battlejudge Temple: The most happenin' nightclub in the world!
As to the nonhuman residents, none of them have any great standing, and consist almost exclusively of humans from either the Confederacy or the Union. There's also 4 elves (three bards, one scholar,) and a glut of elf-raised humans.
Non-humans of note presently discounting Duto who hasn't come into a position of notoriety yet, are Thothil, the elf scholar, and the humans Salore who serves as an axewoman in the militia and Gisep the Old, a swordswoman.
EDIT: Y'know what's fun? The power going out randomly for 10 minutes right after you finish designating a big digging project.
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… snip …
EDIT: Y'know what's fun? The power going out randomly for 10 minutes right after you finish designating a big digging project.
Been there, raged at that.... Thankfully, it didn't happen during saving, that's painful when it happens.
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On the upside, I know elves will be showing up at some point in winter (I got a notification about an ambush about a minute before the power went out,) so I'll be having the militia on high alert.
Although I'll give the elves credit, I only got that notification because I had sent a squad out to hunt unicorns for bits. Fath tripped over one of them.
And looking at the screenshot I got saved, they did in fact have unicorns. Just not the ones I was sending the militia after when they blundered into the pointy-eared fucks.
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Just logged on for the first time in half a year and I see Splint has a new fort up- huzzah! I will catch up tomorrow, until then I wish you all the luck against your foes.
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Just logged on for the first time in half a year and I see Splint has a new fort up- huzzah! I will catch up tomorrow, until then I wish you all the luck against your foes.
Welcome to the fold good buddy. Got you set up with a Bowyer who came in. Legendary one.
We're now up three unicorns, a wombat, a dwarf visitor who got mauled by the wombat and mercy-killed, and two more artifacts for the museum. Update at some point today/tonight.
EDIT: I don't know how this keeps happening, but somehow, somewhere, someone is putting vomit in our drinks.
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Time went by slowly to the dwarves fo Battlejudge after the battle. A fair number of the citizens grieved for the deaths of Lorbam and Tilesh, as they were cousins or nephews of many. It just seemed like the days dragged on. in truth, before they knew it winter was almost over. A child had made a great bone chain that was swiftly placed in the museum, as were other artifacts, including two left by a marksdwarf who was visiting, killed by an undead wombat as she was not equipped to fight the dead, unlike Zas who dispatched the undead snarling thing with ease. On her corpse were two treasures, a copper high boot of some repute or another, and Weatherplane, a famed crown.
(https://i.imgur.com/EcighOW.png)
As she was a citizen of the Abbey of Equity, she was given a burial in a mausoleum, and these treasures packed safely away in the museum, behind the safe latches of a display case. And, along with the death of one of their fellow citizens, even if they weren't a resident of Battlejudge, everyone was given a distressing reminder of their mortality by the hollowing of a massive buriel site in the forest, and some 250 diorite coffins commissioned to fill it.
****
"What the hell is your problem Enure!?" Meng said as she shoved the angry dwarf off the mason.
"EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING IS A PROBLEM!!!" She bellowed. Enure was in the throes of a tantrum, and had stabbed Udil in the leg with the hunting sword she and all the other marksdwarves had been issued to polish off downed enemies, since hammers they could use one-handed were in short supply and while non could speak against the quality and accuracy of Talonis' elephant bone crossbows, they just didn't have the heft needed to cause harm. "THERE'S DEAD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, THERE'S NO COWS, AND NO WINE!!!! WHY IS THERE NO DWARVEN WINE!?"
She carried on while Meng kept her away from the injured mason. Once Udil was rescued (Enure calling him a coward who deserved to die as he was hauled off with a broken knee,) the monk-turned-marksdwarf went on a rampage, attacking a fisherdwarf, knocking over a statue, and mauling a stray cat. In response to this, plans were drawn up - where possible, pedstals of preferred amterials would be made, as would goods of the sort someone liked. Nish was in damage control mode, and had plastered bear parchment posters everywhere for recruits in the Fortress Guard.
Her prayers were answered, as were Vucar's, when migrants arrived from the south in mid spring. Among themw ere decent enough candidates for both the fortress Guard, and dwarves to fill the gaps left in Likot's squad, as well as potentially fill them out. Among them was apeasant who would not answer to anything but, according to his wife, "Dredd." He quickly assumed command of the Fortress Guard, informing that he would prefer his forces be referred to as Judges, since as soldiers and enforcers of order, they would likely have to act as such in dangerous situations.
He and his wife both expressed surprise at the sight of partially prepared rooms, while several other adults in the 16 dwarf group were quickly press-ganged into the militia. This new Captain also proceeded to question people of any past incidents, and proceeded to knock several teeth out of Inod's head for assaulting two people, and ENure's punishment was merely deferred until the prison was ready, out of concern for Dredd accidentally beating er to death, given her lighter armor than Inod.
The humans arrived not long after, in time for Fath's official christening as a Sword Master.
****
"Hey Vucar, what's up?" Onol said absently as she carved a chunk of raw green glass into a rough square shape.
Vucar seemed surprised by that, though he chuckled. "Startin't to learn whose armor sounds like whose, huh?"
"Nope, just yours. You've been in here four times the past month. Finally decided on a name?"
"Yup. Here." He said, holding out his sword.
Onol looked up from her cutting table. "Right then. Leave it on the end of the table there, I'll see about getting something done with it."
"Thanks Onol. I don't know any of the other craftsdwarves, so..."
"Yeah, yeah, no worries. Go on now."
(https://i.imgur.com/Oel2iPP.png)
****
Summer moved along at its own pace, with As the Carpenter and Mafol, one of the Predators, were taken off any labors, to unwind from their alleged stress, as was Enure. The threats of violence, constant cycles of depression, and bouts of emotional terror caused by the battle the past winter were devestating them. However, not all was ill. Another marksdwarf succeeded in creating a valuable treasure, while another article of war was granted the name "Weightedkiss."
(https://i.imgur.com/fY86ocy.png)
There was also hope given by the arrival of Ingish the Mercenary marksdwarf (who quickly had her crossbow yanked out of her hands and replaced with whatever she deemed suitable to fight in mlee with,) who was shunted into Likot's squad.
(https://i.imgur.com/zAvTEQP.png)
Lokum was also clamoring for either a place in command, or a place in a squad. That was soemthing for her to speak with her husband about however.
****
(https://i.imgur.com/9ka7Xc6.png)
A third beast had come, this one the shape of a tortoise. Vucar didn't know what to make of these things, besides corpses. And it seemed the horses that had survived the winter agreed, as one flanked the beast as it swung and missed a foal and was bucked in the spine. Vucar charged in with a roar as the beast flopped to shore after being knocked in, but his heavy overhead swing only resulted in the removal of a limp and useless leg as it rolled away from the stomping mare as it tried to cave in the werebeast's chest. He was quick though. When it lashed out at the horse, he delivered a hard kick to its side, revealing a soft underbelly undefended by a hard skin or shell.
He wasted no time, dodging a clawed hand and sweeping his blade across its chest, the creature making a horrible gurgling roar as his blade became jammed up in the ripped flesh and lung tissue, having slid neatly in between the ribs. Once he pulled it free, he dodged two more strikes and planted the tip of his sword into the ground, kicked the beast in the face, and used his mighty blade as a lever with his body slamming into the ground to lop off its right arm! he quickly rolled away after elbowing it in the head (narrowly avoiding getting his arm chomped on,) and rolled away while the mare kept the beast distracted.
Once up, he brought his sword to bear in a wide arc, and brought it crashing down with a satisfyingly wet "Shluk" sound, the head rolling away harmlessly from the humanoid turtle's body.
****
(https://i.imgur.com/AWRwvpK.png)
The militia mustered at the call of terror. Fath and Nidor took a step towards the great abomination, only for Vucar to tell them to stand their ground.
"I got this." He said casually, readying his sword.
"You sure about that Colonel?" Zas said, looking unsure of his leader's intentions.
"Positive. What kind of leader would I be if I didn't deal with these sorts of things myself?"
"A more sane one for starters." Asob said, shaking her head in disapproval. "But... You do you I guess."
"I intend to." the dwarf said with a wave as he marched into the woods towards the sound of an arguing dipshit.
He returned some time later, coated in a thick layer of ettin blood.
****
A monk arrived the morning of 15th Galena. He looked somber, and began asking questions, though not for the usual treasure hunting. He sought Morul Elderrims, and Adil Stonebasement. When he found them, he handed each a letter.
"I'm sorry." He said to them both. "Your kin fell during an assault on the elves."
Neither said much for a day after that information, and the creation of an artifact did little to rouse their spirits.
(https://i.imgur.com/4UVFd7Z.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/FMtu6AW.png)
****
Winter slowly approached the fortress, such as it was in the unpleasant dry heat of this place. Kikrost, one of the new recruits from the fall migration, had came back in following cries for help with two artifacts. He refused to answer on what had happened to the dwarf who had left with them and was heading south, but he mentioned something about a zombie wombat.
(https://i.imgur.com/VsG9Ow3.png)
There was also the matter of Autz, who created a great work, and two additional citizens being added from the ranks of bards and poets. It was revealed to the leadership that Nish was using these bards essentially as a slower form of population growth. While not as slow as generational growth, it was still a lsuggish process, though now the militia had four new members.
(https://i.imgur.com/JkqkLin.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/UoqiiUB.png)
(Didn't get one screenshot like a doof. We have a human named Imimi in the militia now.)
Among them was an elf named Duto, who went to Vucar and demanded a command position after showing her papers.
"You sure about that?" the dwarf said, eying her suspiciously. "You'll be fighting a whole lot of your kin."
"Ah, but you see, I want to be a seen as a great and powerful leader!" She said with a flourish and a sing-songy sort of tone. "And what better way to achieve that than by ingratiating myself with the finest craftsmen in the world?"
Vucar just raised a brow at her. "Aye, so what's the real reason?"
"Not buying it huh? Alright then." She placed her hands on her hips and looked him dead in the eye. "I want to rule the world, and every Empress has to start somewhere. And I'd much prefer to have the people who can oppose me be either instead loyal friends and allies," Her eyes narrowed. "Or dead. And only elves and goblins would be able to live long enough to question me without intervention."
"So you want to kill everyone in three countries who could feasibly live long enough to be contendors to an imperial throne."
"Exactly, Colonel. And what better intervention in the life expectancy of elves and goblins than dwaven steel?"
He mulled it over, the smile on the elf's face being rather... Unsettling. It was confident and full of life, but he could see venom behind her eyes. She quite possibly viewed her own kind as genuine impediments to her own future success. Against his better judgement, he said with a sigh "Fine then. I'll talk to Kaos and Urist about gettig you suited up with a suit of Officer's armor. Any particular weapons?"
"Yes, actually. I'd quite like one of your short swords, and a knife like Sergeant Multi wears on his belt. No shield."
"Well, you're braver than your kin. I'll give you that."
****
The winter continued on, Duto joined by a human woman anmed Sidaya and a dwarf dancer named Sazir. "They respect the pursuit of power" she told the COlonel when she swore them in without his approval. "The human has an innate urge to fight, and the dwarf wishes to be seen as a great warrior. That's good enough."
Asob, Gissep, and Ryukan had to rescue a visiting elf bard from a trio of undead mountain goats, though more out of concern for thier fellow citizens than the elf. The elf was left battered and near dead, with her instrument and book about goblins taken (though the latter was found smeared with goat blood in a bush.)
More barracks were built, facilitating both Inod and Duto's units' proper training and reducing the crowding int he first barracks. Traps made of various human-made weapons and Nish's precious Brush Hooks were put in the door to Multi's barracks going outside after security bars and a new entrance form inside the fortress were equipped. Soap was made, books were written
And then, in mid-spring. It happened.
(https://i.imgur.com/4foI3fs.png)
(Full entourage. Sure. One other person and his wife are totally a full entourage.)
His arrival was less eventful than expected. He had only his wife and the Liaison, Zuglar, with him. He was surprised by the ready-made rooms, and more surprised by the willingness of the engravers (who were bored with the tedium of smoothing the fortress' inner surfaces.) All that was missing was the tomb, which Nish played off. "We weren't expecting you until summer, you eminence." Is what she told him. And a hammerer, as an ardent believer in the rule of law, the king pointed out.
"My lord, might I ask what happened to Queen Rith?" The mayor asked with a bit of concern. "Or General Deepwhip?"
"Dead, both of them. My Mother died a warrior's death at Mansionsprinkle." The King said somberly. "I'm told she took at least two elves with her, which is commendable given her lack of training."
"It was a phyrric victory. A hundred-thirty three dwarves and men against two hundred odd elves." Zuglar added. "But the only one out of 16 separate assaults on the old capitol. Several of which I should say, came over the mountains."
"So what?" The colonel said, the dwarf having been at Nish's back the whole time. "It's logical, if dangerous, to cross Amas' doamin to shorten the trip."
"You misunderstand, Colonel. They came from the east."
Nish and Vucar looked at eachother with grave concern evident in the eyes of both. "What do you mean, 'came from the east?'" THe colonel said once the shock disappated.
"The Sky of Harvesters attacked us out of the blue. As they have no holdings out here, I can only assume they are trying to do for the Elves we've agitated out here that we are for the Confederacy and the Union."
Vucar sighed. So much for properly coordinating the war effort in the heart of the enemy's territory. "Well, who is the new General?"
"I've appointed a dwarf named Tirist to defend the old Capitol for the foreseeable future." The king said. "And I will assume given your equipment and the pendant that you're the Colonel of this fortress militia."
"Aye you highness, that I am."
"Excellent! I saw several of your soldiers on the way in. I'd like to do my mother's memory proper honor and enlist."
Vucar shook his head. "P-Pardon sir?"
"I've something of a fondness for bronze, and my mother did her part in the wars. I'd like to do the same."
"I... Well, we've had need of soldiers. Unfortunately, my unit has no opening, but there are.... Eugh." Vucar rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sergeant Inod, and Sergeant Duto."
"Duto."
"Yes."
"Is it a human or-"
"She's an elf, yes."
"You put an elf in a position of authority in your militia."
"I know, sir. But she volunteered to lead a unit. And honestly, I would recommend serving with her. Inod's..."
"Unreliable?" Nish offered.
"Emotionally unstable." Vucar said as a counter.
After a bit more discussion, and meeting the sergeants in question, the king chose to join Duto's unit, and proclaimed it his royal guard, much to the chagrin of several of the more veteran soldiers. But at least the king was willing to fight.
----
Hokay. Late on the update. Got drunk last night.
So we got the monarch! More underwhelming entourage than I was expecting honestly. But considering the old capitol got attacked 16 times in two years, ten of them by the same civ crossing over the mountains to get to it, I can forgive that. Got the militia situated with a couple more barracks, built up the fortress a bit more, and expanded the place.
We gained multiple new citizens, and it seems humans in the world have some innate need to fight, so that's good for the militia. We have bunches of bards and such coming due for full citizenship, gained a single merc (And so far only the one,) and steel armor is very slowly being produced for everyone, as I'm buying up as many bars and ores as caravans will bring.
Additionally I had to cheat to recover Lodpos, as I wanted it in the museum and pumps wouldn't have worked, as the pond it sits in is connected to the brook. I also had to run fillneed to reduce everyone's stress for the time being, particularly in relation to "lack of decent meals" and not being able to worship despite there being ample places to do so for those who worship the gods of The Abbey of Equity. Also, Have no idea how or why it keeps happening, but somehow people keep drinking vomit. I've counted at least three cases directly, which includes problem dwarf Mafol and dear Sergeant Multi. THis means there's almost certainly more, leading me to wonder if it's due to vomit in a bucket somewhere.
We've also been saddled with two barons, likely due to previous ones being killed or dying of old age (I have yet to investigate this in legends viewer as to the cause,) and aquired more artifacts from visitors who were incapacitated by the undead.
Interesting bit of... Lore I guess behind our kings as well. The first was killed by a hydra the first five years of wold gen, and the next died the year after in a forgotten beast attack, and one family proceeded to stay in power uninterrupted until 391 where it was supplanted by another dynasty following an heirless queen's death. However, via a different branch of the family, the main dynasty has since reclaimed power. Now we just need to ensure King Uvash is able to sire at least one kid so the dynasty remains in power.
The king, speaking of him, likes bronze, miraculously enough. May put a display case holding a full suit of masterwork bronze armor in his office once the military is fully equipped. Any suggestions for what to equip him with for a weapon? I'm thinking of importing an iron longsword as a badge of office and decorating it with bronze and unicorn bone, or maybe giving him a steel dwarven great sword or great axe (while workable, the great hammers aren't as useful against the elves' mounts.)
Also, art projects planned! A portrait of Sergeant Duto, and that Night Club temple idea you guys put up earlier. May also do that rough draft once Duto earns a title.
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I prefer the steel great axe, a symbol of power, righteousness and authority. Anyway, STEEL.
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I'm very slow at getting around to things, it seems. Haven't been on Bay12 in any serious capacity for probably two years now, got your message, and still didn't get around to reading it for a few weeks.
So has my dwarf's status or job changed at all during this time, or has he mostly been doing his wood burning stuff?
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I'm very slow at getting around to things, it seems. Haven't been on Bay12 in any serious capacity for probably two years now, got your message, and still didn't get around to reading it for a few weeks.
So has my dwarf's status or job changed at all during this time, or has he mostly been doing his wood burning stuff?
During his off time yeah. He's been readily beating things to death with a large hammer otherwise.
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Don't think i'll be able to get an entry out soon, as i'm currently in the process of moving to a new state.
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Don't think i'll be able to get an entry out soon, as i'm currently in the process of moving to a new state.
Ah, that's fine. External involvement's been pretty lo anyway, so I'm not bothered by it.
I've come to a conclusion: We need a squad or two of straight up mercenaries. Why have none shown up besides one? Do I need to tap the caverns to get more (with useless monster hunters mixed in?)
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On the topic of the as-yet unknown motto, perhaps "Fear the Murderhorse"?
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On the topic of the as-yet unknown motto, perhaps "Fear the Murderhorse"?
Considering most of our horses are dead, I dunno if that's applicable anymore.
Unrelated (at least to this fort) looks like I'll have to settle for a once a week update schedule. I'm already a day behind on my drawing stuff for the week. In the meantime, preparations need to be made for my big big project, specifically in the area of mods.
There's no bad ideas, but for the syndrome-based magic upgrades/buffs I'd need to find a third party to make them and any energy weapons ideas will be acting on full gameplay and story segregation. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171569.0)
Specifically looking for armor and weapon ideas as well as how to do research, and how a simplified version of making the advanced gear can go. Additionally I'm not opposed to possible attack interactions or permanent stat upgrades of various combos (in lieu of having to make new castes, as well as allowing these to be used by non-human citizens)
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Okay, so been playing the fort some this past day. Had an interesting encounter involving a treasure seeker with a title dropping dead, netting us four new artifacts, and an elf attack. Personally, i think they're spread thing, cause the attack was rather anemic.
We got hit by a totally untrained and unequipped cavalry force, and got two new titled dwarves for it.
EDIT: We also apparently have a new form of tantrum available - "Brawling under the influence" which the game treats, as said, like a tantrum.
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Bump to let you guys know why the update slipped. Been busy with commissions, and working on a mod, which I've just released a portion of!
(http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171665.0)
If you've paid attention to the casualty roster, we've lost three more people. I have yet to add the invader tally, but suffice to say, considering the situation we actually got off stupendously light because of who spotted the elves, and I found a suitable replacement in the form of a unicorn fisting farmer who shall take up the Flail of Asob and beat unicorns to death with that instead.
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Another bump. Kill tally updated, along with two more deaths (one from old age resulted in a zombie dwarf killing someone.)
I've also learned that it's far more efficient, if tedious, to manually assign weapons. Because several incompetents in the militia have multiple skills in weapons because they keep ditching the one they have some more "valuable" ones intended to arm soldiers having to make due with shitty elf salvage. The officer corps is also underequipped because of how equipment assignments are handled if you let the troops handle it themselves with generic orders - Duto for example, has absolutely no armor besides her regular clothing, because all the other units get first pick of all the steel due to being older units, while the king is all nice and armored up because his orders were for generic metal armor.
Update tonight for sure.
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Aha! A new Splint fort! Wonderful.
I haven’t been active on here for awhile. I just joined the Marine Corps so most of the past few months have been spent with absolutely no technology whatsoever. Glad I could get back in time to get in on this relatively early.
I’d like to claim one of the warrior bards. Name them Jolly.
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Spring moved quietly for the people of Battlejudge. The king took well to a steel great axe, recommended to him by Kaos, the resident steel expert, while he donned bronze armor made by both her and Urist.
"It's fine armor!" he said with a smile as he fastened Urist's finest creation to his hand. "Very fine indeed."
He had ordered since arriving a month ago, regular bolt production, already handled by the craftsmen ceaselessly churning out wooden bolts for Multi's team to train with, while Tobul, the fort's longtime tavern performer by trade (and one of the few from the homeland,) had darted off, speaking in old dwarven and building a hatch cover of gypsum before the season was out.
(https://i.imgur.com/lD5rxU2.png)
In the area of art, the king's chamber was also swarmed by engravers eager to do some real work, with Autz and Onol creating several masterful depictions of battles between humans and elves or the founding of the fortress. He seemed pleased, especially when several items were moved into his chambers from the museum (which as a side benefit, rendered these items slightly more secure.) But there was an odd report from a hunter who was on watch duty: A dwarf shambling about, one he didn't recognize.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZDXRLnu.png)
Maskwolf was dispatched to investigate, due to his skill and weapon. "Pound that poor sod into a pile of slop. Don't need an undead dwarf running around." The Colonel had said.
"Should I check his pockets afterwards?" Maskwolf said jokingly upon being given the order. He fastened his masked helm on and went for the door out of the tavern.
"Couldn't hurt, he might have some good stuff." Vucar called out to him. And indeed the dwarf ha.d Maskwolf returned with four artifacts as well as news of having killed a zombie dwarf and two zombie marmots - An armorstand made of solid black zircon (somehow,) a crossbow, a scepter, and a book.
(https://i.imgur.com/gnbqeLz.png)
****
(https://i.imgur.com/XMGi9RD.png)
Asob stormed up to a hap-hazard assemblage of soldiers, not all equipped fully by the looks of them. "Where the hell is the Colonel? And Reg?"
"Bed." Gisep said, drawing her sword. Asob huffed and looked around.
"And Maskwolf?"
"Library I think." Inod answered. "He might not even know we're on alert for something serious."
"Are you fucking kidding me!?" She rubbed the bridge of her nose, clearly aggravated. "Never fuckin' fails, the bad guys always show up when the best killers are taking a damned nap..."
"Except Reg. She's not really all that great." Someone said.
"Doesn't matter. I'm acting commander. inod, you're my second. Anyoen know what we're up against?"
"Standard fare." Imimi said, readying his flail. "War beasts and some riders."
"The gods saw fit to bless us with give-away tallies!" Nidor added. "They appear to be nothing but untrained rabble, from what Onol said."
Asob grunted and ordered the milita forwards. Even if some lacked weapons or had too much gear (specifically Species, who already had a hard enough time of using a sledgehammer with both hands, nevermind one with a buckler.) In less than five minutes, battle was joined, and half a dozen elves were dead, as were their mounts, and Noloc, a recent addition was left minus several teeth, courtesy of a horse-elf who kicked him in the face. Soon the fight had devolved into more of a disorganized rout as the militia chased down the scattered and panicked elf riders.
Some were thrown from their unicorns which ran about in a panic, while those with horses were swiftly ground up by the engine of dwarven (and some human) might. In the end, Zas was seen standing atop the southern hill bellowing all would fear "The Admired Light of Salves," while several stragglers could be heard screaming about fleeing "The Mechanical Shove of Howls" as the sight of Asob.
(https://i.imgur.com/U0VgIV4.png)
Only a single elf on a unicorn at a full gallop escaped into Amas' domain.
He would likely not survive to return home.
The only wounds were Noloc's injured jaw, several teeth scattered about, and Dastot, who was less "injured" and more "absolutely horrified." The rest of his squad found him by the road mumbling about Species "usin' the elf's head like a golf ball" and it "popping like a rotten muskmelon." The sun-induced nausea didn't help. Nor did the sight of a bard trying to start a fist fight with Multi, who after the second punch in the chest he threatened to shoot, which given his past displays of marksmanship would be virtually guaranteed to be lethal.
(https://i.imgur.com/3VIbZe1.png)
The bard was hauled away by one of the Judges after he passed out in a massive - and growing - puddle of vomit. And died soon after, not to the drink, but to the Judge, who beat the bard senseless and left him gasping on the floor after throwing him into the floor with an arm lock. When Nish asked, two others said that Fikod, the bard in question, had said something to the effect of "FACK OV YA DAMNED PEG" and tried to hit Judge Ber with a stone mug.
(https://i.imgur.com/5JVnOGj.png)
****
Summer passed without further incident, and the palisade was raised. Soon there would only be two ways into the fortress, and the days of elf cavalry being free to rampage unchecked into the fortress would be over. Autumn however, would be significantly less quiet.
(https://i.imgur.com/AtPB2pO.png)
Asob raised the alarm and quickly readied herself. "Come and get me treefuckers! I LAUGH IN THE FACE OF DEATH!" She shouted as she charged the elves. A barrage of arrows flew comically off in the wrong directions, with only one needing any real effort to avoid on Asob's part. A flurry of dodges and exchanged blows later left two elves paralyzed and a horse unable to stand, while Ryukan charged in from behind, slamming her greatsword like a club into a spearelf's leg, snapping it like the pine his greaves were made of.
(https://i.imgur.com/GvK11Co.png)
Vucar wasn't far behind, bellowing a war cry in old dwarven as he went, getting to see Asob leap from a stump and a large boulder to bring her flail down like a meteor into a swordelf's head, causing it to faceplant into the back of the elf's startled elephant and slump off its saddle. The battle raged from there, with someone yelling Maskwolf was coming with Morul and Fath as well as they retreated into the fortress. In but a few swift, hard movements though, the elves' mounts were becoming unruly, and some even trying to force their mounts onwards only for the beasts to flee.
(https://i.imgur.com/HLcOvsc.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/0tKcvQw.png)
But Asob was still alone, surrounded by enemies and over-exerted. An Elf managed to punch her once, causing her helmet to dig into her neck slightly, and another blow from the same elf injured her knee, not that it mattered as she couldn't stand fully anyway due to mounting fatigue. However, when the elf (now confident she couldn't chase him,) tried to flee, all he heard was "OH NO YA DON'T!" and felt the impact of a metal ball with his thigh from behind.
(https://i.imgur.com/Gj7jr4J.png)
But that was Asob's final action, as she faceplanted thereafter, and there was nobody to stop the elephant - one of the few not panicking - and the elf riding it from stomping her into paste, as Maskwolf, Morul, and Fath were trying to keep two elephants and their riders from getting through the palisade gate, and Ryukan and Vucar hadn't finished the last rider and elephant they were faced with. As it fell, Vucar wrenched his sword out of the beast's head and looked up to check on her.
(https://i.imgur.com/FqGFrle.png)
"KILL THAT FUCKING ELEPHANT!" Be bellowed in a rage and charged the elves. Ryukan followed close behind as an elephant by the gate breathed its last thanks to a hammer blow from Morul. The trio heard the colonel yelling "WE WILL HAVE REVENGE!" over the general din of panicked beasts. Meanwhile, one of the royal guards, the still-untrained Sazir, had herded a group of unicorn riders towards the southern gate, where Multi, Onget, and Mafol took up positions and shot a unicorn out from under an elf, who galloped out of cover and shot at them - only to find his mount disabled as a steel bolt from Multi and a silver one from Mafol hit the front and back right leg respectively.
The elf fired a shot at Multi, but to his surprise as he looked up at the inbound arrow, a dwarf's form suddenly blocked his vision: Lokum, with one of the Judges, was barreling towards the elves, and caught the arrow with her mail shirt. He took the opportunity to send another steel bolt sailing over them into the unicorn's head, sending it tumbling down the hill. An angry mob consisting of Lokum, Ber, Dredd himself, and Catten the Fisherdwarf quickly formed and beat the elf (and resultant zombie,) to death.
The last thing of note from the chaotic battle was Kivish the farmer, who had managed to disable a saddled up unicorn despite a puncture in his side. Fath found him, and after dispatching the unicorn before it regained consciousness and finished the unarmed farmer off, helped him to his feet. "So." She said, sheathing her sword. "Looking for a change in jobs?"
****
"Two wounded dogs, cross them out, no caretakers..." The head physician said as he went through the list.
"Kivish, Farmer." he hummed as he looked the irritated and visibly pained dwarf over. "Fractured right false ribs, puncture wound... Stitches, dressing, possible traction."
"Catten, Fisher. Neck, cut from arrow. head, two cuts, arrow. Ankle, broken. Probably a kick.... Set bones, crutch. Stitches and dressing too." He continued on. "Dredd, Judge. Head cut, arrow. Stitches and dressing."
He sighed and shook his head. Drunkeness and bravado caused by elite soldiers being at hand. "Rofa, poet. Head, neck, upper body, and left leg, caused by wrestling an undead elf. Stitches, possible reset for the ankle. Crutch and dressing." He sighed when he looked at Ber. "Ber, Judge. Kicked by elf. Ankle broken. Set bone, needs a crutch."
****
When the autumn caravans came, most of the remains had already been cleaned up, and the caravaneers marveled at the palisade and new stonework that had risen since last year. Trade wen smoothly, the usual exchange of bone and pottery baubles and the scant metal crafts for drink and metal. The king regularly mandated the production of bolts, his love for the item leading to a regular standing order for bolts instead of the periodic orders for them from the mayor's office.
A dormitory was ordered to be built, and Kivish enlisted with the militia to replace Asob (who now had a monument witht eh trusk of her killer by the main gate, apparently to "Prove to her she was avenged." This lead to many to believe Vucar was becoming a touch superstitious. There was also midwinter's uproar in the form of a kea attack which left two dwarves covered in cuts and scratches save for two in the incident - Sergeant Multi, who made number of displays of marksmanship, mostly in the form of killing every undead kea with two bolts save for two, which he took down with a single bolt each, decapitating both.
(https://i.imgur.com/Inhd4Hi.png)
There was also Rith the planter, who found herself in the King's guard along with a human who had gained citzenship after rescuing on of Kaos' children, Shem, from an undead eagle two weeks after helping slay the keas. Duto as a result felt the need to prove she could face the undead as well and struck down a zombie owl, wolverine, and kingsnake within a few days, and added an armadillo in for good measure, and actually complained about a lack of ice wolf zombies.
There was also an expansion of housing as well, as weather anyone wanted to admit it or not, the fortress now had a massive underclass of musicians and performers. One of whom died of old age, and left four dwarves and a human hospitalized, with many people involved having several teeth knocked out by the old dwarf's corpse, which was laid back to rest by a treasure hunter visitng the temple, who crushed his head with her sledgehammer. Sadly, Tun Wiltedgem, one of the wounded, died en route to the hospital, as did one of the dogs in the temple at the time.
(https://i.imgur.com/luSpVzd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Xgx6Yka.png)
When spring came around at least, many were more at ease with several squads activating for yearly training, with the passing of the year being celebrated wioth an artifact.
(https://i.imgur.com/U8ZVIgC.png)
OKAY! So, update's late. My bad on that guys.
So we have so far killed nearly 200 elves and war animals. Which frankly is less than I was hoping for by now, but the civ screen seems to indicate massive offensives against the elves everywhere north of us, and it looks like two mountainhalls have fallen, likely to some kind of megabeast. We have a ton of artifacts now, the militia's expanded to three full melee squads, Multi's full ranger squad, and two half squads (the Judges and the Royal Guard.)
Major construction is more or less complete and came out looking wonky, but kinda nice, since the fortress is predominantly made of dolomite (and gypsum/diorite, but we don't talk about those stones.) As such, with the completion of the palisade, made from a myriad of different wood types, and all nobles are nice and housed adequately. I've also ordered all donkeys to be slaughtered to get rid of them, and built a dorm and slum housing
Raids have stopped because I found out that sending units on raids disowns their quarters, which is irritating, cause it seemed like the best way to agitate the elves into attacking us, though given all the attacks apparently going on against them, they may just have too many fires to put out to worry about us, apart from that last attack which claimed the venerable warrior Asob, who to her credit still managed to take down several elves and animals and held off elephant cavalry while reinforcements made their way to her. Had it been anyone else, the attack would have been much bloodier for our side.
Overall though I'm now in the tedium state of the fortress, having nothing better to do and nothing on hand to press forward a story, since the objective was met - getting our civ involved tipped things massively against the elves.
However, I do need to ask you guys how you feel about the fort.
Personally I'm getting annoyed with it because of some design choices I flubbed on (I have found I love columns and it's too late to redesign the fort around a nice fancy main hallway,) as well as issues with equipping the military and launching raids, in addition to my rubberstamp practically leaving me inundated with people I have little to no use for and too numerous to screen for military service unless one does something particularly brave and amazing. Basically avoidable mistakes in hindight, but you know what they say about that.
Additionally, Meph's asked me to run a fort to showcase his tileset mod, and I have an excuse to employ my prehistoric critter pack, as well as test a few other things, and employ ZM5's What Lurks Below and Lands of Duality mods, settling in a savage good biome most likely.
So, do you guys want me to continue on and try to improvize something for a story from here? Would you guys like to open this up to a succession mode? Would someone else want to take over the fort in general? Retire it with the goal being fulfilled more or less?
Aha! A new Splint fort! Wonderful.
I haven’t been active on here for awhile. I just joined the Marine Corps so most of the past few months have been spent with absolutely no technology whatsoever. Glad I could get back in time to get in on this relatively early.
I’d like to claim one of the warrior bards. Name them Jolly.
You're a braver man than I. A mixture of cowardice and an unwillingness to part with my private shower kept me from enlisting.
Timing's awful for here though, depending on how opinion goes.
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First consideration, Splint - if you're not feeling it, don't force yourself. That's not fun.
There have been some great moments here and you should feel like you accomplished something worthwhile, starting a war with the two hereditary enemies of dorf-kin - elves and elephants.
So … if you feel it's time to move on and tackle a new challenge, I'll take the next available mechanic/weaponsmith.
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Honestly, I'm up for whatever you decide to do Splint. Doing a new one with ZM5's mods and Meph's tileset could be a real unique thing (especially with how disturbing a majority of those creatures are in the duality mod) and I think you should go for it if you really want to do it. Feel free to improve an Ending for this or just retire it altogether really, up to you.
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@ Kaos - The elephants were more of an unintended consequence of having to fight them (I think I actually drove them locally extinct in the wild,) so dwarves wouldn't get themselves killed wrangling the horses.
Most of the issues are in fort aesthetic and quarters getting disowned when sending out raiders, so in the future I'll have to have a dedicated raiding team sleep in thier barracks.
@ Unknown - The only downside is most of ZM5's stuff, if not all of it, will stick out like a sore thumb, as will many of my prehistoric critters since they lack graphics. I'd also like to say your dwarf in this particular fort has been, without a doubt, the single most useful marksdwarf I've ever had. Consistent headshots since his first battle, even if the elephants were too big to kill with bolts to the head.
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Also, didn't mention this, but I use Meph's obsolete font when I play DF, so I will be looking forward to seeing what the new font looks like.
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Well if that's the case from the whole two people who were able to be active at all, I suppose the final question is do we want to include the Terrible Weapons mod (it's where Species got his sledgehammer and where the brushhooks come from.)
I'm going to go ahead and make preparations and retire this fortress unless someone wants to take it over. Will have a save up soon enough.
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Look forward to the desperate attempts of dwarves trying to survive an absolute circus-fest of weapons assailing them in various species hands. Forget Strike the Earth, Strike them where it Hurts!
Too bad the Dinos lack graphics- I'd like to see a dwarven take on Jurrasic Park, especially since for once the dwarves would have to top covering the world with magma since that is... basically the plot of the last Jurrasic World movie.
Also: I wanna see Raptor-Demons and Tyrannosaurus Rex-Demons XD
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Is that a LCS reference at the very beginning?
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Not sure what you mean. I was just never able to come up with a good tagline/motto.
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We need a motto.
The default LCS slogan is "We need a slogan!"
(LCS is Liberal Crime Squad, a game made by Bay 12 Games before the Dwarf Fortress era.)
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Oh, gawd, no wonder I didn't notice that. Last time I played that was.... Fuck, back in 2014 I think? At least, anyway.
Considering another update amid all manner of nonsense I've been doing preparing for the semi-showcase Meph asked me to do. Anyone want in on it now? Just need a single-work name that can be whatever you want (embark crew is full up with NPCs.)
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Forget Strike the Earth, Strike them where it Hurts!
there's your Tagline right there.
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Okay boys and girls, we return. Now, due to a little fuck up with my computer, I'm flying blind and probably lost several events and screenshots with my old .txt file and such. But that will not perturb me. How is our sociopathic elven sweetie take over the world otherwise?
****
Mid-Spring, 544
Spring. A time of war, generally. The elves often preferred to launch their raids this time of year. The winter before, rumors arrived of the Innocent Unions and their enemies in the elven nations of The Jungles of Dangling and The Whimsical Sparkle had ramped up their war efforts, and raids and assaults were painfully commonplace now. From time the time a column of smoke could be seen from the highest point of the mountains the dwarves dared venture, signaling the truth of this.
Unicorn soap and jewelery fashioned from bones of these creatures, as well as elephants and bears, were commonplace and marvelously made, and the militia trained ceaselessly for war.
Id, an engraver, set about on her life's conquest with the guidance of unknown forces. More and more some blamed Amas and his baleful gaze cast from the mountain. With Gypsum, gold opals, and armadillo leather, she began in earnest.
(https://i.imgur.com/fPnDfWd.png)
Many in the militia meditated on war at Nidor's insistence, and Vucar had begun preaching about Amas. What brought this about was anyone's guess, but he kept proclaiming that every battle would see Amas watching, and if he deemed the dwarves unworthy, he would snatch some of the militia away in the cruel beak of death. But Id would not be one such unlucky dwarf, as several days later she emerged and held aloft her greatest work!
(https://i.imgur.com/lLPL4rV.png)
Plans were also drawn up, mainly to honor the dead and the conquest of Battlejudge -and dwarfkind as a whole - over nature. A 12 story dolomite tower surrounding the feather tree above the entrance of the tombs, with a glass dome at the apex affixed by a shining silver base. Construction began, as the tombs below were expanded and smoothed to account for a now large elderly human minority (though several of the oldest, near 100 years, were moving as if they were much sprier than they had any right to be.)
Early Summer, 544
The first floor was finished by Hematite, or rather, nearly was. For in Hematite, Species raised an alarm. A horde of dismounted elven warriors accompanied by at least one apparently unridden bear, and likely more.
(https://i.imgur.com/6gjI5aJ.png)
"You dare to cage even the trees, you butcher!?" The lead elf yelled as she charged the dwarf, a barrage of arrows sailing over her head.
"I"m a metalcrafter you blind little tart!" He said amid the arrows that he effortlessly ducked and dodged. "But I don't just beat metal with my hammers!"
He brought his sledgehammer, slung on his back with a leather strap forward with a click of a silver clasp, and smashed her foot in retaliation as he surged forward. He quickly disabled two, but was quickly forced back and knocked into a pond, though amid that constant attacks, this proved a blessing in disguise - he was one of only a tiny handful of dwarves who knew how to swim in the entire fortress, and being thrown in allowed him a small break from the horde's direct assault.
Gisep, Fath, and Iki stormed up from the tombs, with Zas and Maskwolf some distance away, but still close enough to reinforce. While Species had claimed first blood in breaking the elf's foot and snapping another's neck, Gisep claimed the first kill when she cleaved an elf archer's head form his shoulders. She and fath proceeded to brutalize an elf spearman, with Gisep climing the next kill, and as a third, and then fourth and mroe began to stream in through the last opening in the tower base, she smashed her shield apart on an elf's chest.
Fath took her head in retaliation for daring to break a dwarven masterwork. The growing number of human and dwarven soldiers soon piled out, with Reg the axedwarf and Fath fighting shoulder to shoulder while Species flopped and floundered about like an angry fish dodging and parrying arrows shot into his pond and Gisep flanked, pulling one of the apparent enemy commanders from her bear and slaying her and the beast in short order. Swords and axes bit into the elven host, and in less than five minutes, 8 of the intruders were dead, and Gisep and Fath were soon buried under elven warriors - Fath and Reg getting separated in the chaos, and Maskwolf waded into the elves while they tried to pile onto Fath.
(https://i.imgur.com/b0BaICy.png)
And then, tragedy. The sheer numbers of elves coupled with the loss of her shield left her open for a bear to clamp down on her arm. And soon, more beasts from the woodlands and a dozen elves killed the old human, though she took five elves with her.
(https://i.imgur.com/HSeapVJ.png)
Around this time Nidor had apparently arrived to the north of the tower, and began chopping down a squad of elves by his lonesome, which soon escalated to battling bears and horses alone an with little difficulty. Vucar passed him before the animals attacked, and with shrieks of horror among the elves of "The Mountain Pine," he torn into their rear while more reinforcements arrived from the build crew to the west. Fath meanwhile suffered a broken hand, and was forced to wield her buckler like a crude weapon, shattering ribs, twisting limbs until they broke, and knocking teeth loose as she hopped, rolled, and dodged about.
But all was not well for the defenders, even in this situation. Reg was dealt a hard kick to the side of the head and knocked out, and was soon chocked to death by an elf swordsman, while the spearman Sidaya had her ankle snapped and was shoved into the pond to drown.
(https://i.imgur.com/IezzLEk.png)
This did not deter the defenders, who were killing the invaders far quicker than they could hope to kill the dwarves. Though they stood victorious, and Inod was declared a spearmaster, the unicorn, which strangely bore a dwarven name on its harness, that had killed Gisep had escaped, Nidor's pursuit waylaid by a trio of elven archers who got in his way. The elves responsible for Sidaya and Reg's however were not so fortunate. The soldiers who had survived were near exhaustion, and Zas actually fell over after declaring enough excitement for one day. Clean up would be long and unpleasant, both thanks to all the severed limbs, and because of pending duties.
(https://i.imgur.com/ktMWUnr.png)
The place was a mess of twisted, mangled corpses and meals in waiting in the case of the warbeasts. Vucar meanwhile simply stared at the mountain.
"You see it too, don't you." Nidor said as he walked up from behind the colonel. "In the clouds."
"Yeah. There's a reason I told the others not to get cocky. Amas judged us. And he took those men."
To everyone else, the clouds looked like formless red masses, as they always did. To Vucar, Nidor, and any other hard-line Amasans?
(https://i.imgur.com/tLfspEy.jpg)
The glare of a god.
Okay, so this update to revive Battlejudge is a quickie. Multiple casualties during an elf assault while constructing Nature's Cage as I'm calling the tower going over the tombs. We also got an artifact, though that's less interesting.
There were more soldiers nearby than I figured on, but that only helped, and Species got insanely lucky when he got knocked into the pond (he was very rusty, but still adaquate is adaquate.) Sidaya wasn't so fortunate. There was also that named Unicorn which was strange, cause it had a dwarven name.
I've also named most of our units.
The Coalmakers (Under Colonel Vucar.)
The Plainswalkers (Under Sergeant Inod; comprised almost exclusively of humans.)
The Predators (Under Sergeant Multi, comprised almost exclusively of legendary hunters.)
The Battle Judges (Fortress Guard under Head Judge Dredd.)
The Royal Guard (Under the elf Sergeant Duto.)
The Dusk Raiders (unformed, designated raiders against elves in the future.)
Sergeant Likot's squad has yet to be given a name.
So yeah, next plan is some kind of temple to appease Amas. Maybe get him to give us a less dogshit artifact and maybe not kill more of our soldiers with unicorns and bears. I am open to suggestions, and remember.
AMAS IS WATCHING US ALL.
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Damn, that was a pretty brutal siege - especially that unicorn head-stab.
Amas looks really badass - mentioned it before, but the "bird skull with antlers" aesthetic always seems to look good no matter what.
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It's back!!
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It's back!!
It is indeed!
So, before I go doing another update, is there anything specific you guys want to learn about in terms of the fortress, its world, or whatnot?
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Maybe a few stone-sense pics of the surface constructions and features to give us some ideas for future projects.....
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Unfortunately, four attempts to launch stonesense ended with immediate CTDs. But a tour will be up within the next couple hours.
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Damn, must be the Kaos Kurse, others have reported the same thing, but it always works for me. Of course, it is a resource hog and slows everything down so I don't usually have it active for long, just enough to take a few scaps and then putz around in paint.
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A warning, this fort's gonna be excessively harsh on the eyes for some, what with it being Vanilla ASCII. It will also be rather sloppy, because I didn't do like I did in Riverrun and build a sprawling expanse, but crammed everything in a few Z-levels. Being more or less vanilla means I also had less cause for big, expansive wings branching off corridors and structures and whatnot.
(https://i.imgur.com/XHNd2qx.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/elfsL9I.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/fZamRnb.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/CQgxhLt.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/YPVk1QM.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/2aOvBg0.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ExIRIRz.png)
A note in this last one, the tombs are directly under Nature's Cage (which I hope to make the cap from clear or crystal glass, as they use pearlash made from tree.)
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The great gears of war turn, my friends. It's story time with Uncle Splint out of character.
In trying to aid the humans of The Furious Confederation, The Innocent Union, and Realm of Good, King Uvash Languagepage of the Abbey of Equity sent forth an expedition to found Battlejudge, deep in elven territory. In the year 540, the plan was put into motion, and the small outpost launched provocational raids against the elves of The Whimsical Sparkle and Jungles of Dangling. While few died, the dwarves caused a general raucous and stole a number of items, as well as leaving one civilian dead.
These elves, understandably, didn't like this. They were quite upset in fact.
The two queens convened and agreed to assault Battlejudge, as well as other outlaying hillocks and fortresses, and so what is now known as The Fierce Conflict and The Outrageous War began. However, in the east, the Sky of Harvesters mobilized as well, late that year, igniting The Crazed War that winter with an assault on the then-capital of Mansionsprinkle, though the first swing by the Sky of Harvesters landed at Bouldertaxed.
(https://i.imgur.com/ze9uwC6.png)
The elves lost. Badly. The leader of the assault and another elf would be taken prisoner, and the attack entirely beatn back. This would repeat itself at Shieldseed, with more prisoners taken by the dwarves. They'd only get one "win" at Hazyearth, shown at the bottom of the screenshot. And they even lost there despite having the upper hand on a tactical basis, with the leader being killed in a skirmish outside the hillock by a trio of dwarf militiaman.
The rest they were generally outwitted once the militias actually got their shit together and fought back, as shown below.
(https://i.imgur.com/QreJNMi.png)
In some of these fights, it seems they retreated as soon as even slight resistance came up (particularly with the Violent and Searing Assaults, as well as The Assault of Blazes, where they seem to have retreated as soon as a stray bolt or a pothole full of sharp rocks came up. But then there's The Assaults of Savagery, which was the main strike.
Under the command of the Human Omo Lyricalwork, they marched through Amas' domain, and a combined force of humans and dwarves under the command of General Alath Deepwhips met them in battle. Despite the lopsided losses, it should be noted many of the dwarves and humans who died were untrained civilians, suggesting the attack began in some outlaying area before General Alath's men could respond. During the course of the battle, General Alath would be killed by the elf wrestler Coce Mirthvaulted in a lethal martial arts bout. This elf would die during a raid later that year against the humans on The Abbey's eastern border by another elf, a clerk in the employ of some hamlet.
In kind, the Dwarf Kivish Dutyiron would kill the elven company's commander.
Alath had also fought off The Assaults of Murdering which in hindsight had been a mere probing attack two months previously, in Opal of 540. Following his death, the greatest military mind in dwarven history would take the spotlight.
General Tirist Gatetargets
While she would hone her skills in very minor border raids launched by the Sweltering Saturnity (who were provoked into war by a raid from Battlejudge,) and Whimsical Sparkle, her true time would be two years after assuming command in 543, not long after King Uvash relocated to Battlejudge, when The Everlasting Tusks joined their cousins' war effort. After all, General Alath had been an inept rube who was dead by his second battle. Surely with their overwhelming numbers and fresh troops, they could run roughshod over the Abbey of Equity!
(https://i.imgur.com/5dj4YGO.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/QHAg5qc.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/sbOGFhn.png)
They couldn't.
Not only was General Tirist a deadly warrior in her own right by this point as you can see, she was a frighteningly lethal tactician. The Routed Sieges for example saw nearly 1000 elves, humans, and beasts pitted against a motley mix of 103 humans and dwarves and a smattering of human-raised elves. This was a constant thing, and it really sets the mood for the war now. Instead of a barely iterate rube leading the defense of the homeland, General Tirist is working these poor bastards over like an unruly gimp.
The Sweltering Saturnity's campaign actually halted that year, as in they stopped trying to attack anything, and everyone else just kept getting their teeth kicked in by Tirist's army in the past two years. She isn't making any offensive operations, but god damn is she scary.
Show here is also other battles. She apparently whipped the Sky of Harvesters so badly in 543 (despite the body count being fairly low,)that it'd take two years for them to take another swing at the Abbey on the field.
(https://i.imgur.com/82YU1cO.png)
And as you can see here she's fast become one of the best tacticians in the damned world. The only ones better at war than her are the elven princesses who have been at war for almost 50 years. That's right kiddies, General Tirist is fast becoming as good a military strategist as people who have both been alive longer than her and been doing the whole "war" thing for far longer. Many of the nobility have also earned glory and proven themselves in the eyes of their subjects under the General. Some examples:
Baroness Cog Bridgedduty, The Dignified Lord
Baron Ushrir Inkedfaithful, The Time of Heaviness
Baroness Vucar Tombweight, The Unions of Reining
Baroness Dumed Holdtomes, The Bodice of Sorrow
Baron Urdim Bootnight, The Azure Trust of Scrapes
Baron Oddom Wheeledstirs, The Secretive Ocean of Spoils
This is setting a precedent for a warrior nobility, alongside Barons Morul and Adil, currently residing in Battlejudge (who have yet to earn their own titles, though they've taken part in numerous battles by now.)
It may also be very possible that General Tirist is beginning to be regarded as an avatar of Messog Takenbite, the Equitian goddess of War, Death, and Disease, back in the homeland.
Well, that concludes story time and a dive into legends mode since we started. It's basically an endless nightmare of war in the northern hemisphere, and while the humans are in downright terrible shape from decades of fighting, The Abbey of Equity is poised to demolish elven dominion over the northwest. It also seems that the elves literally cannot be bothered to bring their "A" game, sending woefully inexperienced general to lead their assault forces. If they keep doing that shit, eventually Tirist is just going to breeze by them in terms of raw skill in anti-elf tactics.
An actual update is coming soon, along with a portrait of General Tirist, as I went into adventure mode on the copy I used for the legends dive to see what she looked like.
-
Mid-Summer, 544
Tidings were grim all around. With so much death and general unpleasantness from the battle, and previous news of war in the east, several were unhappy. Those who were, were taken off corpse hauling duty and given crafts to occupy them. But one human who had gone unnoticed, Anri the bard, lashed out in anger and frustration, fatally injuring the Predator Ezum pulleyvoices when he shoved him to the ground at the ramp into the main hall, and stomped on his throat, crushing it.
(https://i.imgur.com/ioLgO1z.png)
Baron Adil, professing previous military training, took the dead legendary marksman's place. The Judges in kind, were swift, merciless, and quickly beat and imprisoned the offending bard. And the baron wasn't the only one doing something of note. Two weeks later, a human arrived, looking to join the library: A master martial artist.
(https://i.imgur.com/zajRMtO.png)
His skill, as some residents put it, as a "grandmaster elf puncher," made his entry into the fortress easy. But this aside, all that could be truly spoken of was construction on the Nature's Cage being slow going, mostly due to having nowhere to centralize construction. But then the winter came.
And elves followed with it. Infantry elves it seemed, but elves all the same, and history was proving even elves could get lucky.
(https://i.imgur.com/dvF3V8Y.png)
Not that Maskwolf cared, seeing as the only soldier to face them (the rest in the fortress or working on the cage,) he deigned to headbutt the lead elf, yelling "HEADBUTT!" to his attacker's confusion before contact was made. The human nearby, who was dumping an armful of iguna scales and old nervous tissue, retreated at the hammerdwarf's order to fetch reinforcements. He alone would hold the line.
Three others stormed him, but it did little to frighten the hardened war dwarf - one found his shield arm crushed, another her foot mangled beyond recognition. Arrows flew past or bounced harmlessly off his mail. A quick jab, and an elf fell, unable to breath. When another leapt upon him? He scrambled to his feet and smashed her thighbone, causing her to pass out from the pain. A spearelf attempts to flank him? He bit down on his spear hand. They kept trying to surround him - and he simply kept snapping their limbs like the twigs they loved so much.
(https://i.imgur.com/pe0dvsp.png)
By the time reinforcements poured from the gate in the form of nearly the entirety of the Coalmakers, come to assist their brother in arms, they saw three elves dead already, some crawling away in panick, and others reaching up, groaning in elven for help or to be put out of their misery, with bone spurs poking through ripped flesh and blod smeared about the land. At least one elf's head was partially smashed in, and another's looked to have exploded on the paving stones. The last simply went down as they saw Maskwolf's greathammer connect, and simply not move afterwards.
(https://i.imgur.com/xKHHpNf.png)
But the tide would not abate yet. A shower of arrows came from the hillside above as the Coalmakers arrived in force, ready to finish off the piles of mangled elves Maskwolf had left them.
(https://i.imgur.com/e7eT4rK.png)
Kikrost, Ingiz, and Species made first contact, Species smashing in an elf's head at the same time as Maskwolf, who had gone into a mechanical motion, hammer coming up, and them coming crashing back down on the elves - their helmets offering just enough resistance to make their deaths slightly more drawn out. As the first group of elves were ground into a hideous bloody smear on the ground, Maskwolf, missing several teeth from a boot to the head and over-exerted pointed northwards.
"More of'em... Dozens..." He said between heaves.
(https://i.imgur.com/yMgKcmB.png)
His comrades turned, and readied themselves, marching forward with Nidor alternating between preaching about Messog Takenbite and loudly proclaiming the elves to be intruders into the domain of Amas.
They crashed into the wall of wood and flesh, horses and unicorns appearing amid the chaos. As hammer fell upon Skull, one thing stood out: "THE DANK PORTAL WILL DRINK YOUR BLOOD!"
(https://i.imgur.com/CnPHVtu.png)
And drink its blood it did, as to the Coalmakers' other weapons. At the end of the battle, no dwarf lay dead, but a count of 104 elves lay in a mangled and dismembered heap. There were injuries, but comparatively speaking? It was an abject slaughter, which was concluded with a name bestowed upon a morningstar as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/CHNjfTD.png)
The wounded reported to the hospital of course: Kikrost with a smashed nose and minor cuts on his neck and head, Vucar with bites consistent with a horse's teeth on his foot, Maskwolf of course minus four more teeth, but also bearing a cut where his helmet had dug into him courtesy of a spear haft, and Zas with a broken wrist. They were all in and out in just a few hours.
- - - - -
Construction continued throughout winter. It was slow and ponderous: Only one dwarf was trusted to fell trees, so dolomite was used instead of the originally planned featherwood floors, and windows were decided upon to allow light into the tower, allowing the tree to still thrive under the careful watch of the dwarven inhabitants. Little of note truly happened, beyond the goblin bard Ote starting a fight in the tavern, and just as before, Judge Ber was dispatched to dispense justice.
By knocking out several of his teeth and shattering both of his knees. "That'll learn ye." Is all the Judge said as she went back to hauling the truly monstrous amounts of items cluttering the fortress.
(https://i.imgur.com/yE3PKm1.png)
However, the winter would not pass entirely without incident. Chaffing under endless hauling work, Anri the bard finally snapped and attacked Zas in a rage - who was off duty and doing his regular job as abone carver. The fight was over quickly. He simply shoved Anri down with a stab and decapitated him, and quickly ordered the body to be carted away.
(https://i.imgur.com/qXqkXhF.png)
Following this, the goblin Ote petitioned for citizenship. "I been around longer than any a you stunties been alive. hell, been alive longer than a dozen of you put together. But you run a tight ship." High praise coming from a goblin. Especially one who had his legs broken by a Judge and witnessed the summary execution of a fellow bard by a soldier. And then there was the werewombat.
(https://i.imgur.com/GGz1ro1.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZbeM5dl.png)
A child got involved in the fight, Rith, the son of the fortress' premier engineer Lokum. Iki used the brave son of Battlejudge as a distraction and though he now had a destroyed left eye and several other bite wounds, she struck the monster down with a solid thrust into its chest, sparing him from being torn to shreds. But then, Iki turned on the boy, intent on killing him when Iden stepped in and stopped her. The wild-eyed and panicked spearman told Iden the boy had to die thank to the numerous skin-tearing wound.
"Iki, if you kill the boy, you'll have to die too." He said, scooping the angry child up who threw a rock he had tried to beat the beast with at the mangled carcass.
"Why? I'm only doing my duty. That kid's infected!"
"So are you." The craftsdwarf said quietly, pointing to Iki's spear hand, and the blood dripping from it. It was a shallow wound, unnoticeable thanks to the adrenaline.
Iki simply slumped against the wall in the hospital in the wake of this, and only perked up at all when Colonel Vucar told her they'd just have to keep an eye on her, though the kid was clearly done for.
- - - - -
Spring arrived with the pain of the wombat, and the death of a 90 year old member of the fortress, a human woman by the name of Icar. Thankfully, she was carted off from the food stocks (her last act having been storing a huge pile of grizzley bear-based roasts.) But then Ustuth who tended to the burial, came running into the fortress shouting alarms: "THE FOREST HAS COME TO KILL US!"
(https://i.imgur.com/K8jJ9yL.png)
The monster then proceeded to chase a wounded war dog, and then get itself trapped in the Nature Cage, the doors to which Baron Adil proceeded to lock behind it. They wouldn't have long, as it would easily topple the gold bars between the doors, but the troops acted quickly. The Predators would move in to provide support fire, just in case the monster had use of webs. Iki would face the monster alone.
"Death or Glory, Iki." The Colonel had said. She knew what he was hoping for.
So as the bars came down? She charged forward, ready to meet the beast.
(https://i.imgur.com/7ymfsP1.png)
After inflicting a few wounds though, the monster fell, unable apparently to defend itself!
(https://i.imgur.com/ML4UY3n.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/qhN7cWt.png)
Iki panicked at this point as the Predators approached waving and shouting congratulations for "Slaying the spirit of the forest itself." She simply yelled at them to get away as the sun began to set, and locked herself in one of the tombs. As the Colonel arrived on the scene, a terrible noise reverberated through the fortress from Rith's room, and from the tomb.
(https://i.imgur.com/fqoKxoT.png)
The Predators, who had been trying to get Iki to come out, took up positions and he put his hand on the door. As he threw it open, iki burst forth and leapt at a passing dog, being greeted by a stream of metal bolts! Iki was disarmed almost immediately as the Predators let fly, and Vucar dove on the beast, slashing away an arm and a foot as the beast savagely mauled the poor hound. A second salvo pinned her to the ground, and Vucar executed her, his crossguard and blade shearing off her head at the neck.
(https://i.imgur.com/1r3ZW9n.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/zqstojy.png)
And she would not be the only one to die this night, as Vucar moved into the fortress with intent on putting down Rith as well. And he delivered on this, putting the infected boy down as the moon was giving way to the sun.
(https://i.imgur.com/LjkRr65.png)
Thankfully, the rest of Spring seemed content to go by without further incident. Except for Tetha. Tetha decided to start a fist fight.
(https://i.imgur.com/KxuO4rr.png)
- - - - -
Summer comes, and the dwarf continue to work diligently. There was talk of a festivel time being planned for after the human caravan arrived and business was concluded, since many were unhappy due to not getting to spend time with friends and family (or make any of either.) However, summer had arrived, and that meant one thing: War.
Species had spotted them, but had ample time and distance to form up with the others. He reported what seemed to be a case of severe infighting among the elven warhost.
The dwarves advanced (alongside some off-duty fighters who were fetching things from the nearby pile of armor and clothing) up the hill, meeting a few forward elements and laid into the enemy's flank. Blood sprayed about as limbs were sever, throats slashed, and bones broken. This was the Royal Guard's first engagement, and they aquitted themselves well, killing elf and beast alike with the same viciousness as the Coalmakers whom they marched beside. But the enemy just kept coming, and coming, and coming... Some were overworked, and luck for the militia was bound to run out as Kivish Weaktrades, a macedwarf and cousin of Kaos, fell in the line of duty.
(https://i.imgur.com/kvpl6FO.png)
In response, Nidor bestowed a name upon his war axe, consecrating it in the name of Amas after the battle.
(https://i.imgur.com/LDBBgZo.png)
The after battle tally was conducted soon after by Duto, who based on Species' report, indicated some two dozen of the enemy died by their own cousins' blades and spears, while the rest died to dwarven metal. 132 elves died on that hill, irrespective of who killed them, and with the numerous beast, the count rose to 164. There were celebrations and congratulations all around of course, as there was weeping at the sheer mindless carnage of it all. The humans arrived around the time clean up nearly concluded, and they were mvarvled - and horrified - by the bin after bin of gear salvaged from some 200 elven soldiers.
They understandably didn't question or complain about this, especially when several bin were offered free of charge.
Kadol the bone carver did though. Not of the commerce, but of the general state of affairs. As did Kadol the Hunter. The former punched several dwarves in the library, while the latter toppled statues.
(https://i.imgur.com/r1M82jZ.png)
Dredd dispensed justice on Kadol the carver, while Judge Inod took care of the hunter, breaking multiple bones on the unfortunate but unruly dwarves. But it had to be done. There was also the dethroning of Nish from the position of mayor, but the militia corrected this error at swordpoint when they pointed out her wider range of conciliatory skills - and the fact that the usurper Nesak didn't have any friends in the fortress. The trends of beatings and upset dwarves, all while veteran warriors hogged the crafting workshops and made a mess for the common folk to clean up was starting to make some uneasy.
some even began to believe that the forest was making its displeasure known, as the tower continued to rise around the captive tree. Plummeting morale gave it some credence, though some said it was simply because of the mess the militia made, and the lack of time off for citizens to mingle and make friends, or lack of suitable work for them to do. Of a particular issue was Kadol the Bon Carver, who continued to be a problem after getting out of the hospital - only to subsequently be beaten and severely injured again by Judge Inod.
Things were otherwise quiet aside from Duto bestowing a name upon her sword, "The Confining Liberty."
(https://i.imgur.com/bAP4sBt.png)
As autumn came however, Kadol the hunter began to show just how much an an issue her "stress" was becoming. Talonis caught a book with his neck, and Kadol even flat out shot someone in the chest during her tantrum!
(https://i.imgur.com/fuIvLYn.png)
Judges Ber and Inod proceeded to beat the hunter, knocking out several teeth and destroying her trigger hand. "Not gonna do that again are ya?" Ber said after a final punch to the hunter's head. She didn't respond.
Nor was she breathing.
"Ah shite..."
- - - - -
The autumn was marked mostly by successful trade following kadol's official death announcement, and the birth of a baby girl!
(https://i.imgur.com/MMuZeJx.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/sGVSPK3.png)
When others questioned Maskwolf about his wife (as some found it odd he arrived without her,) he informed them of the reason. While traveling through goblin country (though in truth it had been under human dominion for 100 years,) she was over taken by a strange mood, and when the locals failed to provide the silver she wanted for her artifact, she went made with rage, forcing the local guards to imprison the frothing, feral she-dwarf. "It was.... Saddening. But in truth, not unexpected."
Meanwhile two problem citizens, Kadol the bone carver and Aspka the human bard, were drafted and once Kadol was out of his depression, were to be sent to Glacialspears. "They'll either win and burn the place down, or die. Win-win for us." Vucar had told the mayor and nobles.
(https://i.imgur.com/7almOR1.png)
Aspka returned alone not long after and reported Kadol being "Torn to fucking pieces" by the locals. He was sent out again when in the tavern he expressed continued stress from other unrelated events, and sat in a depressed heap for two days outside the fortress before heading off. She returned later from a more quiet task, and admitted to "running like a bitch" as Vucar worded the report when handing it in to Nish.
(https://i.imgur.com/EmQdDqd.png)
Soon after, she was rolled into the Plainswalkers, if only to give her a better outlet for pent-up aggression. As soon as the caravan left, the bulk of the population was also swiftly herded into the Merchant of Murders, where Nesik the goblin bard promptly started a fist fight while drunk, got beaten by Judge Ber (as the entire fortress guard was there,) and hospitalized. It was hoped that by locking most of the population into that damned tavern, at least a few friendships would form, and people would stop complaining about "being lonely."
"It'll either be that or they'll all kill eachother in a drunken orgy of madness, violence, and bad human music." Was one comment from the militia units that were training.
AND WE HAVE AN UPDATE! A good bit of time has passed in game, being nearly 546. We've also likely slain the very heart and spirit of the forest itself with the death of Dakslud.
Honestly aside from the attacks by the elves, very little of note happened. No "true" artifacts made (probably because of our prolific writers guild,) only one kid born, and some deliberately botched raids to try and get rid of a couple problem citizens, which natural selection sorted out. I think Aspka is salvagable.
One worrisome one is Maskwolf, who is getting pretty down. Not helped by the fact he doesn't get to spend time with his kids (as they're adults now, and one is even in the royal guard!) And his wife is in the loony bin up north - she apparently went berserk, but wasn't killed, when she failed a mood while residing in a human-controlled goblin site. The majority of folks are doing fine though.
This update also brings our death count to *over 20!* Woo! Normally it's not something to celebrate, but considering we had zombie mountain to deal with, and the sheer quantity of various bloodthristy animals brought along by the enemy, it's surprising it took this long, even if a chunk were due to accidents and old age.
I hope the update's not underwhelming guys. Will have a portrait of the good general later this week.
-
That's a really great screenshot to start an update with.
Sure got a lot of named weaponry by now - I kinda wonder what exactly influences it (if it is influenced by personality values, anyway), it rarely occurs in my forts.
Mentioned this before, but I can't help but find it somewhat amusing that the werewombat was just a minor footnote, rather than the big "oh shit, panic" moment it usually is.
-
Heeeeeey everyone. So, obviously that picture never happened. Been a long-ass time in fact. I was going to make an update a while back, but never got around to it due to what I've found since.
So, Battlejudge is being formally retired as an active fort of mine. Why is this?
For starters, the game simply derailed my plans. I'd planned to take a far more offensive stance originally, but the looming threat of the military gear corruption and rooms being unassigned to soldiers sent on missions monkey-wrenched it, cause people would move into the soldiers' bedrooms while they were gone, even if they'd only left for a couple days, leaving the militia homeless.
I've also found I've written myself into a corner and can't continue this story in a way I'd personally feel happy with, as the game itself will likely see Battlejudge destroyed/abandoned without me directly supervising it to ensure military personnel don't leave and our stuff stolen in the newer versions. So, to this end I'm going to put the game save aside for whoever might decide to play it and perhaps finish the Nature's Cage, or be more willing to accept the eccentricities of the game.
I can't even upload it to DFFD as it's a smidge too big, so you'll have to get it via google drive here. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BI2gJiunOJgoY8Gy_7NnGdN-kGsfAu4O/view?usp=sharing)
Battlejudge's world is also a couple versions behind, and been brought forward to I think 47.05, so there's going to be a strange surge in guilds and whatnot being formed when looking at legends. The fort's also lousy with performers and the like because I was an idiot and rubberstamped their petitions. There's also no ore local to the area besides the blue stuff, which I ain't attempted pursuit of.
Even if things didn't go to plan, this fort was kinda fun since it basically started a war that's consuming the northwestern part of the map. I'll see you guys in whatever stupid thing I decide to try and do next.