Part II:...and the giant coyotes said, “Are you going to eat that?”
Nininimo, the Unspeakable Pits. A cave far in the southern regions of Minbazkar, in the Blizzard of Brushes just off the coast of the great ocean surrounding the lands, the Gulf of Liberation. A barren, freezing tundra with scarce vegetation and covered in snow and ice for most of the year.
This cave, in these lands, is where the West Councils of the Deified Band - a group of human bandits and outlaws of the Cobalt Empires - made their home in the year 325. It was as far from the reach of the so-called 'justice' of the law-givers and nobles as one could get. Any further and one would be crossing into the territory of the goblins of the Hell of Miseries.
This chapter of the story begins here with a group of five animal people who have decided - each for their own reasons - to head north to more civilized lands.
Edu Sandtick is a hard-working, impolite and inconsiderate capybara man trapper who likes excitement and dreams of falling in love. He has a tiercel peregrine named 'Gili Stormgroove' as his pet.
Ceru Sweptslops is a loyal capybara man drunkard, prone to start fights for no apparent reasons. Though he has an overbearing personality, he is quite a humble fellow in the end.
Esala Famecult is a curious fellow, a muskrat man who is offended by proper behaviour, which might be due to his own sloppiness. Despite this, he is quite polite and calm, but stubborn. He seeks knowledge of the world. He has an elk named Tuxum Sweatmouths traveling with him.
Mame Daledoor, a skunk man scoundrel, hails from the elven lands, or more precisely, from Glittersprings, an elven forest retreat not so far to the west of Waterlures.
Mame is a rather passive skunk, easily changing his mind when others are of a different opinion. Despite liking a harmonious existence, he sees violence and war as a useful means to achieve one's goals. He, too, has a pet: Rayali Nightrain, a raven.
Suwu Cleanmusics is a trusting capybara woman huntress who loves merrymaking and partying. Often nervous, she gets somewhat uncomfortable around those who are different from her.
Galena 1st, 331The late night sky was clear that day when Edu, Ceru, Esala, Mame and Suwu, along with their pets, were about to leave the cave they'd called home for a several years. A cold breeze blew from the west, deeper from the frigid tundras. No matter how long they had lived here, none of the animal persons got used to the cold - maybe Esala's pet elk, but since none of them knew how to speak with animals, it wasn't possible to know.
As a farewell to the Otnge, Edu told a joke to make the moment a bit more relaxed. Otnge had tried to persuade Edu and the others to remain, but their minds were set: they would head north to warmer climates, far away from the cold south.
Besides, it was only a matter of time when the Hell of Miseries would take note of the folk living in the Unspeakable Pits: war had been brewing between the goblins and the dwarves of the Fence of Amusement for several years now. The extent of the clashes was not known to the capybaras nor the humans of the cave, but one thing was certain: war creates opportunities.
And there were no opportunities here at the Unspeakable Pits.
Dawn began to break when the group finished saying their farewells. Quite a few of the humans and dwarves tried to dissuade them from their journey, but their efforts were fruitless. In fact, one of the dwarves, Id, decided to accompany them: she was rather impressed by Edu's singing when he had sung to the prophet Kûbuk a goodbye song, and on a whim joined them.
Maybe she too was tired of the place, and singing was as good an excuse as any to change scenery?
As sunset drew closer, the traveling companions reached the Shady Forest far to the east. The dense pine forest was a welcome change to the bleak, flat tundras that they had gotten so used to in these last few years.
While walking through the forest Id spoke of a group of outlaws who had holed up in Bentdent, an old tomb in the Contained Field. Id couldn't say much more about it, and she began to waver about her decision to accompany the capybaras.
...But that was mostly because of Mame the skunk man: Id and Mame were constantly bickering, threatening each other and demanding the other to yield.
It didn't take long until the bickering turned into a fist fight between the two.
Edu intervened and yelled at Id to stop when the dwarf threw Mame on the ground and was about to jump on him to give a good battering. Id yielded, Mame got up, and demanded Id to drop her pouch and knife. Id did as ordered.
The situation calmed.
Edu collected Id's knife and put it away in his backpack.
They made camp at the summit of a volcano for the night. Or for what was left of the night: climbing to the top had taken them more time than expected. It didn't help that Mame and Id had continued their bickering, dragging Suwu along into the mess.
If this keeps going on and on, Id has to leave. Edu thought as he huddled next to the campfire, preparing to sing a song before sleep.
Galena 2nd, 331In the morning, the companions looked at the map that they had 'borrowed' from the Unspeakable Pits: according to it, they were at the easternmost volcano of a cluster of three fiery mountains. Mame was thrilled about these 'great natural places' and insisted that they visit each and everyone of them.
When they came to the Murk of Seers, just a short distance from the volcano, snow gave way to greenery. The lush forests were a welcome change after all the snow and ice that seemingly continued on and on without end.
They visited the other volcanos. It was a short detour, so not much time was lost, but then again, the companions were in no hurry to reach their destination. Which wasn't yet decided upon, except that the direction was north into the dwarven lands.
When night began to fall, an ominous twisted tower was seen thrusting into the skies through the heavily forested, hilly region.
It was Mutetorch, a dark place inhabited by practicioners of foul magics - if the stories were true. Truth be told, not much was known of the place, and it picqued the curiosity of Esala, the muskrat man.
It was his turn to
insist that they go and take a look.
Begrudgingly, the others accepted.
At the outskirts of Mutetorch's grounds, Esala decided to venture alone into the tower. It was not a good idea to go with a large group and risk being noticed: who knows how the inhabitants (if there were any) would react?
Esala was confident that, if alone, he would fare much better than with these blundering oafs.
Around the tower were many small ziggurats. Most of them had been empty, though in one Esala had found some armor and other equipment, which looked like they could fit the capybaras - for him it was too large.
However, the fourth ziggurat Esala entered had a nasty surprise waiting in one of the siderooms: a rotting goblin standing in front of display cases, moaning with a hair-raising voice.
Undead. So, the stories are true! It hasn't either noticed me or doesn't care. I should turn around, but those bags lying at its feet... Esala was tempted to go for the loot, despite his mind warning him that it was a terrible, terrible idea.
And indeed, as he snuck to grab the bags, the corpse shuddered and tried to attack him!
Fortunately, Esala was quicker and managed to dodge out of the way, preparing to make a hasty retreat - for he had no equipment whatsover with him to fight off the shambling corpse.
Esala ran back to the others, certain that the corpse had lost his trail in the dark.
That was not the case: the darkness didn't hinder it and it charged through the snow - if you can call sluggish walking charging. Fortunately, Tuxum, the elk, was a hardy and large beast, and it rushed into the fray before the others knew what was happening.
Soon, the goblin corpse lay unmoving and dead for good.
It was decided that no more venturing to the tower should happen. Esala agreed, still a bit shocked about the encounter.
Galena 3rd, 331The next day they continued their journey, this time heading directly to the north. No more detours. Not this day.
However, things didn't go as planned when they noticed too late a pack of giant coyotes stalking them down the slope, hidden by the dense reedgrass and trees.
Edu leapt downhill as fast as he could, his copper spear raised ready to strike...
...but he was too late.
Esala was the first to fall.
None of the companions were prepared for this.
Edu was soon lying on the ground, bleeding from multiple bite wounds, trying to desperately scramble to safety. Panic set in. All he could was roll away from the charges of the coyotes, stand up, dodge, get knocked down, stand up again, try to run.
It went on and on for some time before Edu realized he was running east through the reeds after losing his spear. Then he realized it was not the only thing he had lost and left behind:
He had left his companions to whatever fate the coyotes had to offer them.
Edu lost track of time as he continued his flight through the forest and brush, it was only when the ground became wetter and the underbrush thicker that he realized he had reached the Helpful Swamp.
He sat down by the bank of a river confluence, made a campfire and sat down.
One of the coyotes had bit him good: his right forearm was gashed and his head was still bleeding. Had he not picked up those steel gauntlets Esala managed to 'retrieve' from one of the ziggurats, he surely would've lost his arm.
Edu prayed to Githu, asking mercy for the soul of the muskrat man.
He prayed to Githu to spare the rest of his companions.
A few hours later Edu heard something rustling through the brush: Suwu and Gili, his pet falcon.
They were alive!
Forgetting his thirst, Edu rushed to them.
Concerned about Suwu's well-being, Edu asked how she was feeling. She seemed shocked and showed her right paw: it was missing the second finger. But she was lucky to be alive. Id, Mame and Tuxum had all died along with Esala. Of Ceru's fate she was not certain. But it was unlikely that the drunkard would've made it.
Saddened by the death of their companions and friends, the two continued their journey. Their spirits were low. They should've listened to the folk back at the cave who tried to talk them out of their foolishness.
Galena 4th, 331The next morning they arrived at the hillocks of Takenmines.
There they headed to the drinking mound, the dwarven equivalent of a tavern. It was crowded with smelly, bearded drunken dwarves. Edu expressed his emotions about the loss of his companions, but the dwarves were not interested. They did, however, enjoy when Edu began to sing 'Amethysts' and joined along.
In fact, once again, one of the dwarves, Inod, was so impressed by the singing, that she decided to tag along with Suwu and Edu. It was probably not so much due to Edu's skill (or more like, lack of) than due to her being, drunk.
They continued their journey. Now it was becoming clear that they did not have a clear destination: they had reached the dwarf lands and were just wandering aimlessly, from hillock to hillock, and passing by several hillocks, which had, according to Inod, been overrun by goblin-kind.
Though they mostly tried to avoid these places, they did stumble into a camp sheltering refugees of the war. They didn't linger there, and continued after exchanging a few words and hearing some rumors.
Eventually the towering Incidental Points grew larger and larger in the horizon, and they arrived at the capital of the Fence of Amusement: Inkedwhims.
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Well, that didn't go as planned (when does it?).
Again I tried to do something nice and peaceful, but since this is DF, stuff happens.
We'll see if any of the two survivors will make it all the way to Waterlures. I'll "recruit" a couple more capybaras from the fortress where they arrived tomorrow when I continue.
I'll do the promised dorfings when we reach Waterlures. Don't want any named characters dying before arrival.
(Also, notice the Ñ in the last screenshot. We'll see if it's the Unaging King himself...)
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Topic: Waterlures - A Capybara Man Fortress & Adventure [DF 0.47.05] (Read 67927 times)