Halloween 2023 - Spookyfort Presents:
~φ~
The story goes that one man let his greed get the most of him. He built his theme parks with profits first and fear second. Safety wasn't a concern.
All the corners cut left an avalanche of sawdust.
He was buried by it.
His home, his grave, the monument to profits gained and bottom-lines met...
That's that old building up on the hill.
That's the
~φ~
(http://scriptshadow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-Overlook-Hotel-movie-version.jpg)
~Overlook~
~φ~
Welcome to Spookyfort IV: The Overlook
Previous Spookyforts:
Spookyfort I: Crystallake (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177319.msg8195759#msg8195759)
Spookyfort II: Boomstick/Dogsoldiers Double Feature (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177319.msg8309734#msg8309734)
Spookyfort III: Livingdead (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8412951#msg8412951)
Ghoulish Rhouls:
- Turns are as long as you want to play. The fort will end on October 31st, so the more turns we can get in, the better!
-That said: try to finish up within 3 days of grabbing the save.
- If you need to bail after playing for only a couple weeks in-game, upload and post. No worries!
- Spookyfort is in 50.09 50.10 50.11 this year! ZM5 and Splint provided Zombies Ate My Dwarves, which does not have graphics. I suggest staying in ASCII unless doing any designations, which then I switch back to graphical mode for, because...well you know.
Spook the dwarves, but try not to kill them! The zombie lawyers will take an arm and a leg...
~φ~
Spooky Mods:
From ZM5:
Zombies Ate My Dwarves (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=168066.0)
Special thanks to Splint for patching it to 50.+
From delphonso:
Lovingly handcrafted book titles and a pumpkin crop (which, incidentally, requires The Pumpkin Patch (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8505510#msg8505510)...sorry!)
Over-spree-ers:
delphonso - Prelude (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8504166#msg8504166) :: Foundations (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8504581#msg8504581)
Splint - Frights and Magic (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8505852#msg8505852) :: Skulking Filth (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8506090#msg8506090)
delphonso - Persistence (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8507283#msg8507283)
Splint - Dwindling Mountain (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8507720#msg8507720) :: Something Else... (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8507896#msg8507896) :: Prisoners and Predators (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8507896#msg8507896)
Quantum Drop
Y-Y-Y-You?
Halloween 2022 - Spookyfort Presents:
~φ~
Seven dwarves trudge through ankle-deep snow, their spiked boots digging into the permafrost below.
"This is the place," mumbles one of them. The wagon comes to a skittering stop, the water buffalo groan and slump - frosty whiskers surrounding their nostrils.
"Well, looks peaceful enough...," says another. "I had it in my head we'd be up to our necks in monsters by now."
A fungal crow peaks out from below a tarp on the cart. It lets out a swampy caw.
On the horizon, a shambling skeleton locks its leg around the neck of a 2D stickman. A predator drops its invisibility camouflage, then is stabbed with a needle by a mad doctor, who is in-turn tazed by a Combine soldier. A squonk watches on from the shadows, crying. Then, a squawking is heard somewhere above the misty clouds.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/2c/36/4DAPTquX_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/4DAPTquX)
~φ~
Welcome to Spookyfort III: Livingdead
Spooky Rools:
Turns are as long as you want to play. The fort will end on October 31st, so the more turns we can get in, the better! Try to finish up within 3 days of grabbing the save.
If you need to bail after playing for only a couple weeks in-game, upload and post. No worries!
There are a lot of mods here, but in my limited play-testing, I didn't get any crashes outside world-gen...but uh...maybe save frequently just in case.
The map is mostly a Joyous tundra, but also includes some Untamed Wilds. I'm expecting some odd creatures on the surface...but the caverns are likely insanely dangerous.
Spook the dwarves, but try not to kill them! We don't want any legal trouble...
~φ~
Spooky Mods:
In no particular order...
From Fireizzle:
Hieronymus Bosch Creatures (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179816.0)
Monster People (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179911.0)
Fearsome Critters (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179907.0)
UFO Aftermath/Aftershock (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179811.0)
Yokai Creatures (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179809.0)
From Enemy post:
Assorted Creatures Pack (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163773.0)
- Half Life, AVP, Birdemic, Beginning of the End, Christmas, Gray aliens, King Kong, Killer Sharks, Godzilla, Dragons, Plastic army men.
From Mundus (Seraphim on DFFD):
Elden Ring (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179822.0)
Beldam (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15452) (Special thanks for the last-minute update!)
From Splint:
Splint's Miscellania (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=178269.0)
From Mobbstar:
Manymancy (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=179277.0)(This one will probably not appear because I had to cut the world gen pretty short... Next year!)
From ZM5:
Lands of Duality (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=170730.0)
Zombies Ate My Dwarves (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=168066.0)
What Lurks Below (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=167606.0)
From delphonso:
A special little secret that /ALSO/ won't appear because the world gen was cut so short
Overspookers:
delphonso - Slightly Spooky (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8413420#msg8413420)
Salmeuk - Part 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8413631#msg8413631) :: Part 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8413647#msg8413647) :: Part 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8413780#msg8413780) :: Part 4 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8414696#msg8414696)
SQman - No Sleep Spook (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8414940#msg8414940)
AvolitionBrit - Part 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8415057#msg8415057) :: Part 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8415746#msg8415746) :: Part 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8415874#msg8415874)
brewer bob - Poisonous Concoction! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8416013#msg8416013)
nogoodnames - Dr. Goodname (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8416187#msg8416187)
delphonso - Falling like Sno (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8418287#msg8418287) :: Salmeuk's Screenspooks (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8418421#msg8418421)
nogoodnames - LRI-00N (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8418602#msg8418602)
Salmeuk - Part 1 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8418869#msg8418869) :: Part 2 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8418953#msg8418953) :: Part 3 (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8419247#msg8419247)
nogoodnames - The Incident. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=180374.msg8424984#msg8424984)
Also this year, delphonso made a horror-themed game for a gamejam. Here! (https://delphonso.itch.io/sleeper-wildjam-50)
~-~-~=-~=-~(Above post moved from original OP)~-=~-=~-~-~
Meet the neighbors:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/ec/b4/BcztlrdH_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/BcztlrdH)
This world is already insane.
Who wants a turn!? I'll be playing tomorrow, hopefully, and will try to blast through the first...year-ish or so and then we can start to enjoy the true chaos of this year's pack.
I recall from last time, gigantic hordes of purple monsters that self replicated and completely destroyed all FPS
so yeah, sign me up
On the list!
Crystallake had some amazing moments. I am still particularly fond of the dwarf who was transformed into a horrible eye-covered fleshbeast, but remained a citizen and fully peaceful.
https://gfycat.com/admirableunnaturalconure (https://gfycat.com/admirableunnaturalconure)
Spooky me up and spook me in
God that's an awesome TV.
Was this a request to be put on the roster?
Not very eventful so far, but everything has to start somewhere. Either way, it looks like it will be a really fun one, can't wait to see more.
I've checked out the magical smoke, by the way, and...
...it makes dwarves weak for a few days. It's one of the more benign weather effects in ZM5's good/evil biome mod. Doesn't even cause fever.
(https://i.imgur.com/ONFK1zs.png)
6th of Limestone
no sleep for days now. fear the King under the Mountain might come crawling up my rear end . he is dead, they say, but I aint buying no dead king who just appears and disappears.
afraid all the time. but also thinkin about that cloud o' mist above, you know, the good cinnamon smelling one. just about the best thing I ever had in my head I think, and I wouldn't mind catching another whiff if you know what I mean. they say its poison but nothing smelling that sweet could be poison!
I asked to be the one with the axe, instead of Sto. Sto seemed ok with this, but later just sorta told everyone I was leader now? that whoever held the axe was the one with the power to lead Livingdead?
10th of Limestone
Upi the 2-dimensional stickman has quickly become one of my best friends, despite his flat personality. its a little awkward though when you're lookin for somewhere to lay your head and end up in the same bed as him without noticing .
Olin Dederal and the caravan from Zamnuthtulon arrived on this day. we threw cheap trade goods at them by the handful; in return we found ourselves with a strange selection indeed. All kinds of beasts had sprung up from the demonic magic released by the King under the Mountain, and enterprising dwarves saw fit to capture, tame, and trade them as pets.
(https://i.imgur.com/q3WAQU9.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/FNZ6x3z.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/d5TjJgN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/6kpOmyS.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ra67lTn.png)
I fell in love with the shaggy cow beast almost instantly. what a magnificent specifimen, productive and look at those massive shoulders!! however the stingy trader left me hanging. . so we ended up trading our bone goods for some steel bars and a goose.
And no, before you ask, I dont think my inebriation affected negotiations.
11th of Limestone
new smoke arrived, and i was happy to go for a sniff. I didnt tell anyone, you know, they wouldnt understand the urge I dont think. i said I was going for some more logs, took the axe, and no one said a thing!
this mist or whatever was pink and seemed sticky, like it was crawling along the ground instead of floating.. my mind was already imaging of the taste of sweet pod candy or some amazing, unknown fruit, as I walked into the cloud.
(https://i.imgur.com/Ut5mDsQ.gif)
No. Just cinnamon. but its amazing and I sit here inhaling the strange fumes, feeling intoxicated, forgetting all else.
ooc: same cloud I think, I just have a strange colorset installed that plays with the colors so much as to shift an orangish hue to a pinkish.
22nd Limestone
we cut down the remaining trees in the area. they will grow back in the coming years, but for now the wood is necesary. the fruit, hazel nuts and sand pears and peaches and plums, were gathered and brewed into various delicious autumn wines, and enjoyed with flank steaks cut from the waterbuffalos.
12 Sandstone
the traders left.
(https://i.imgur.com/Qweooco.gif)
a snowstorm arrived. then, this:
(https://i.imgur.com/BRNBCws.png)
large booming explosions rocked the surface, shaking snow from the low shrubs, as the merchants engaged some unknown threat. reports came: yellow striped dog things causing shrieking explosions had ambushed the wagons.
it appears the description is incorrect for the houndeyes, who otherwise act similarly to the halflife mob. i do NOT want to meet the bullsquid....(https://i.imgur.com/lovGmWm.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/56X9W0i.png)
all was well and quiet after some time: the so called Houndeyes were not much of a threat.
Finally, for a ridiculously eventful day, migrants arrived. Livingdead now had 20 living dwarves. Four were drafted into a squad, destined to train in the art of killing things with gigantic axes, but for now were commanded to practice their deadlifts and calisthenics.
(https://i.imgur.com/1zJcIcB.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/iKb8b3i.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ZGMYp4a.png)
21st of Sandstone
frost spirits have infested the booze pile. not much can be said about these little wriggling, glowing creatures, mysterious as they are, except their voracious appetite for meal and booze alike. some of the dwarves claim the little spirits have blessed them, to unknown effect:
(https://i.imgur.com/Hc9o47J.png)
2nd of Timber
A strange awful sight: leaf-ed and terrible, a dual-headed beast sprinted across the snowy fields. One head threatened with a large toothy overbite. The dwarves were called underneath, while the smiths worked furiously on the axes.
(https://i.imgur.com/74ZLWHG.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/a71e5WH.png)
8th of Timber
the caverns are rich with lignite and iron. We risked a momentary breach to grab some of the black stone, to fuel the furnaces to make the blades to fight the beasts above.
(https://i.imgur.com/3XZvi0V.png)
21st of Timber
we dont go to ravenholm
(https://i.imgur.com/5JQEEDa.png)
also,
(https://i.imgur.com/VqoBAvk.png)
1st of Opal
Winter arrives, and with the change of seasons our food supplies have been threatened.
It was decided we would send the four axedwarves, led by the esteemed fighter Edzul Cagelanced, to clear the surface. behind the gate, Houndeyes chirped and squeaked to one another, as if intelligent.
(https://i.imgur.com/hEJb3vb.gif)
The fight was quick, painless... for the dwarves.
(https://i.imgur.com/mcBhvLt.png)
15th of Opal
I had a nightmare, she had black, black eyes,
(https://i.imgur.com/25P1yWN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/CClWtIj.png)
so I woke up and puffed my pipe pensively while looking towards the horizon
25th of Opal
one of the migrants brought a great deal of skill in armorsmithing, and before I could say anything turned the remaining stocks of charcoal and iron bars into admittedly beautiful shields. But still, he was scolded for not thinking of the numerous other useful things we could have made. More wood will be burnt into fuel, and lignite and coal prospected for.
(https://i.imgur.com/Jeigv5a.png)
28th of Opal
A new temple space was excavated, and dedicated to Gulgun, god of Dreams and Nightmares. The name is a mouthful, "The Mysterious Sanctuary of Murder," but that's whats trending these days. we're expecting large crowds of visiting visitors, expecting a good spooking. To that, plans have been drawn for a large skeletonry. for making skeletons and skeleton themed merchandise.
(https://i.imgur.com/nDBrslY.png)
14th of Obsidian
A new statue was commissioned :-*, in silver:
(https://i.imgur.com/DMrLH3Y.png)
Truly the stuff of nightmares
Asen turned out a literal masterpiece. First Try. no lie...
(https://i.imgur.com/dnRfg3q.png)
maybe these spirit blessings are more than goblin snot.
1st of Granite
Spring has arrived. The axe is still mine. The blessings will continue until morale improves.
(https://i.imgur.com/E7a8V0E.png)
9th of Granite
Elves? Elves. Perfect excuse to go topside and inhale some of the cinnamon dust. Mmmm. Dust.
(https://i.imgur.com/v8rcL0u.png)
We are now the proud owners of three snowmen. Their biology is a mystery, but they seem to enjoy the occasional sip of brew so they can't be that strange.
6th of Felsite
A new line of toys for export:
(https://i.imgur.com/GpUb9a2.png)
also, strangers at the door. A pair of oddities:
(https://i.imgur.com/j2FFN6K.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/HFcD4yX.png)
and the first artifact proves... mundane:
(https://i.imgur.com/8fShd2P.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/wi7c3wr.png)
bedrooms are lookin good:
(https://i.imgur.com/pmFgLmr.png)
20th of Felsite
(https://i.imgur.com/YTWwnqq.png)
Quattuordecaplets?!?!
chicks hatched, insanity ensued until we stuffed them all in cages. we feed them scraps through the bars and they seem happy enough. We're not quite hungry enough to eat the fungal crows..
(https://i.imgur.com/Q1Hv8Sx.gif)
14th of Hematite
Summer brought a caravan. Elephantmen.
(https://i.imgur.com/zCAhBhj.png)
And then, shortly after... another caravan?!
(https://i.imgur.com/5151Evb.png)
The lion people! Nye Nye Nyemhors!
Wait, whats that? Surely not another caravan!
(https://i.imgur.com/Acehls1.png)
uhm. stahp.
TIL there is a menu for selecting from multiple present caravans. wow.
Spare shields were traded for....... beautiful, gigantic sapphires. piles of bounteous meats, dried, pickled, or still alive. . fruits, wines, bags of seed and sand, glass, handfuls of shining jewels, bars of platinum and bins of cloth, leather, and everything one could need. also cheese. and this thing"
(https://i.imgur.com/yvlxzSY.png)
1st of Galena
New caverns discovered, after plunging the 3-wide hallways further into the depths.
Upi the stickman went exploring. And found more than he bargained for:
(https://i.imgur.com/KYRU47g.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/DK89oKt.png)
We rolled up his corpse and stuffed him in one of the coffins. We'll miss the skinny lad.
Upon review of the local cavern geology, it was decided to carve out a pasture of sorts, removing the stalactites and creating a safe, open space for whatever creatures we decide to collect.
(https://i.imgur.com/yvBb4Aj.png)
Later that week, a horde of pygmies ran up the ramps and into our hold. They were dealt with.
(https://i.imgur.com/pryPCIq.png)
Following this, an apparation by Tarn himself appeared and murdered one of our dwarfs:
(https://i.imgur.com/6SiGMng.png)
8th of Limestone
One of the migrant spooks took to a mood, claiming the smithy and a single silver bar. A week later, they produced this:
(https://i.imgur.com/fN9d3Ry.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/hLtbg7n.png)
The third cavern layer was located, and quickly sealed.
(https://i.imgur.com/9veOvdu.png)
18th of Limestone
The traders arrived, we opened the gates, then that BEAST leapt out of the shrubbery and swallowed one of the dwarves whole.
(https://i.imgur.com/KLkeCXK.png)
just kidding, did I spook you? turns out, the blooming beasts seem rather afraid of us.
2nd of Moonstone
Winter arrived. I went to get some coffee, and low and behold came back to this:
(https://i.imgur.com/Spt6LnS.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/1G2B6cj.png)
pirates.
Pirates? de-limbed.
(https://i.imgur.com/emHLigJ.png)
Forgotten beasts? Ignored.
Poisonous Headcrabs? um actually this one got us
Our resident elephantman was ambushed and poisoned by a headcrab. Beware the caverns.
(https://i.imgur.com/wPay8L7.png)
A horde of pygmies rushed up the ramps, straight to the trade depot. Some were killed, but two pygmies laid hands on some of the nicest gems we had purchased from the caravan. And then strolled off into the wintery forests, never to be seen again.
(https://i.imgur.com/TRrZswV.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/K2gdBIY.gif)
they tricked and treat-ed, all right
Spring arrived, and then in the few frames it took me to pause the game, a child was born:
(https://i.imgur.com/59JzqKe.png)
. . . that child must be the chosen spook.
I hand the axe of leadership over to the next fool fellow.
Overview:
(https://i.imgur.com/2gnFegO.png)
Cavern Pasture, not sealed but somewhat secured:
(https://i.imgur.com/edNFcYE.png)
Save: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16108
I was horrified.
I'm somewhat sleep deprived, trying to drown the headache with Red Bull; I had spent 90 minutes waiting for my bus to get home; it's kind of chilly outside; a load of pink onesies is spinning in the washing machine. Perfect day for some writing.
Doctor S. Q. Mann looked around the anatomical theater; not a single student remained, only him and the dissected corpse of an old dwarven woman. The grim, stern gaze of the surgeon, for a second, turned into a creepy smile of excitement and satisfaction. "Finally, I can gather materials", he thought, "The greatest project a dwarf can undertake, and it will be realized by my hand! Limbs can be found in the graveyard, hidden in freshly buried caskets, but organs need to be fresh for the New Urist to be created."
The doctor looked closely at the insides of the corpse. "The brain of the old demented crone will not do, I need a young dwarf, preferably a man; she died of kidney failure, so these are useless; the liver is in a decent state, however I believe I can find a better one. The stomach, guts, and most importantly the heart, now dead, will soon live inside my creation. Just a few quick cuts of my scalpel..."
The door to the room were suddenly kicked open, and three burly dwarves barged in. "In the name of His Undying Majesty, you are under arrest!", one of them screamed in a high-pitched voice, "Put the scalpel down, criminal!"
"Criminal... Pray tell, constable, what is that I have done?"
"Three accounts of grave robbing, corpse desacration, theft, vandalism; there's more, but you should already know how much trouble you are in."
"Hah! You, simple people, will never understand that there are no means vile enough to justify the possible outcome of my actions. You can arrest me, but should you? Should you deny a man the chance to become a god? Deny him his right to apotheosis? My work may bring a new era to dwarfkind, age of the titans, living deities capable of creating life from death."
"The man has lost it. Tekkud, club him into submission.", the policeman ordered. One of the dwarves walked slowly towards the doctor, raising his baton. Mann decided to protect himself with his scalpel, but before he could even raise it, the police baton hit his skull with great strength, knocking him out.
(https://i.imgur.com/jb6fwMP.png)
I have no idea how I got here. I remember pain, talking about hammering, wind and cold, and smell of cinnamon. Livingdead, this is where I am; I don't know how I know that. My body shows clear signs of beating, so perhaps hammering did happen? For some reason I have the badge of the outpost overseer pinned to my jacket, which means...
A dwarven settlement is like a living organism, composed of many members, each with its own role, its own diseases. As a doctor, it is my duty to examine the state of the place. If nothing else, I will learn something more about my new home.
(https://i.imgur.com/XCep7OG.png)
Near the entrance is a pile of various corpses and body parts, some perhaps useful, many not likely. Rotting flesh generates vermin and diseases that I would not want to see in Livingdead. I may have to take care of it, now that I am in charge.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZPnciXl.png)
The bulk of the town is located on a single level, just above the caverns. The basic amenities seem to be in place - food and drink production, forges, bedrooms, a temple, and a nice dining room. HOWEVER... There is no seeds for underground crops. Someone was trading for fruit and vegetables, it seems, and I cannot say we are short on food. I immediately ordered to cook all the meat lying around, because there is no reason we should eat like savages.
(https://i.imgur.com/98naZhT.png)
The gem industry in Livingdead was... vestigal. this was one of my first orders - building a makeshift storage area for gems.
(https://i.imgur.com/3Fur8Zl.png)
I could not be allowed to work in peace, of course. Two jolly elves and their reindeer came to trade. I wonder what they brought. Someone has been making tons of giant corkscrews, probably in anticipation for a massive delivery of colossal wine bottles? I heard the corkscrews go for a lot, if those elves are not as troublesome as wood elves.
(https://i.imgur.com/dyDeuo3.png)
The elves did not have much. Out of pity, and because that bugged me, I had a cage stuffed with fungal crows given away for some instruments, waterskins, backpacks, clay (although we're sitting on a kaolonite deposit), and reindeer cheese.
(https://i.imgur.com/mz73unM.png)
Meanwhile, a pile of creeping rot somehow crawled into the fortress, and ripped a chicken apart! Repulsive monstrosity!
(https://i.imgur.com/kRkkE8e.png)
The monster fell before it could harm anybody else. It is time for my work...
The creeping rot is nothing more than a pile of rotting tissues, moving around like a putrid amoeba. I could differentiate half-liquified muscles, gelatinous fat, rubbery skin, even blackened bones, something unusual in slimes and oozes. I theorize that these beasts are not naturally occuring. A large animal might have been turned into this here monstrosity.
While most tissues could be found, I failed to locate any internal organs. Cutting open the creeping rot's body revealed only pustules full of disgusting sludge, likely the last meal of the thing, as the larger pustules are where its gaping maws lead. Curiously, the slurry seems to be a result of bacterial decay rather than actual digestion.
I had the carcass thrown out to the refuse pile. I really hope nobody tries to butcher it.
I should add that even a mask filled with perfume-soaked rags could not mitigate the smell of rot. Note to myself: conduct autopsies outside.
(https://i.imgur.com/7RXfoli.png)
Well, I underestimated the creature. After the fight with the creeping rot, some of the unarmed hammerdwarves suffered a horrible illness. Bomrek's body started rotting due to the contact with flesh-eating bacteria that covered the abomination. A good doctor might be able to treat this affliction. Might, because it is difficult to make promises in cases such as this.
(https://i.imgur.com/gOpnr4s.png)
No, there is too much work for a single man! I'v rallied some people with basic medical skills to help with tending to patients. I also had a few chests and traction tables made for the hospital, because a well-equiped medical facility should is like a liver of a dwarven fortress.
Bomrek, unfortunately, could not be saved. It was mostly my fault; I could have called for help sooner. My patient, Kumil, is getting better, but there is still plenty of work to do before he's safe.
As it turned out, the hospital wasn't even a hospital, but rather something akin of a barrack. Go figure.
(https://i.imgur.com/JB4Dj27.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/2P38em4.png)
While I STILL fight the cursed infection, the new branch of industry is flourishing. Many people shun bone crafts, regard them as too morbid. I, however, greatly value the ability to turn dinner leftovers into profit.
(https://i.imgur.com/CmN7muA.png)
I was... surprised, to say the least, when a crocodile-headed man came up to me and introduced himself as the lord consort of... somewhere. That would not be so strange if he didn't come here to become a mercenary. Well, he looks kind of scrawny, but he's still larger than any dwarf. Unfortunately, his weapon of choice is a bow.
The a total of 17 dwarves came. I'm not the most sociable of dwarves, so I'll let them take care of themselves.
(https://i.imgur.com/8BJOrSi.png)
Suddenly a stone detailer on the main level stopped working, and ran into the craftsdwarf's workshop. He rolled two mudstone boulders in, and then started giving vague signs that people interpreted as begging for some leather. I ordered to slaughter a donkey that came with the migrants.
What happens next is up to the next person who takes the reins here. I'm not cut out to be an overseer. I could not even make sense of the fortress despite having a whole year to do it. I will stay in the shadow, though, and mend broken flesh instead of broken designs.
Jeez, that was way too fast!
I accidentally went all the way to late spring, but that's not a problem, I hope. Nothing of note happened this year, and quite frankly, I haven't done all that much either. I'm really rusty when it comes to DF, so I might have done much less than I would when I was in my "prime". Eh, everyone is alive, at least. Except that one guy.
Notes and suggestions:
-The military needs outfitting. I've ordered some iron stuff, but we've ran out of materials;
-I've made an atom smasher for sentient creature corpses, but haven't put the dumping zone yet :P
-The mayor lives in a hovel. I was supposed to fix that, but I didn't feel like it;
-Farming needs some attention. I've made a small farm with blueberries and bilberries aboveground, but we need cloth badly (apparently it's too cold to grow hemp);
Save file here! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16111)
Overseer Report Year 7
On the 3rd of Hematite,Festivetomes the Coincidences of Symmetry was created an artifact mudstone amulet
(https://i.imgur.com/IbyjLmy.jpg)
On the 14th Galena 7 Slowwards the Chartreuse Plan the legendary bronze war hammer is created, exactly what me need to fend of these monstrosities
(https://i.imgur.com/IMZLyvZ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/jwc2TjO.jpg)
On the 3rd of Limestone, reports from the surface of two serpent men from the volcano manor (wherever that is) guiding these horrifc looking aliens towards us, i dispatch the squad and no casualtys but the weapons they had prove dangerous, if they had more of them it could of been far worse.
Alien 1
(https://i.imgur.com/sWpCaIS.jpg)
Alien 2
(https://i.imgur.com/bGXvctX.jpg)
Alien 3
(https://i.imgur.com/JGjMrTw.jpg)
Serpent Man 1
(https://i.imgur.com/GlLS2B6.jpg)
Serpent Man 2
(https://i.imgur.com/rHHhjSK.jpg)
On the 1st of Moonstone, something horrific approaches, strange humanoids dressed as medical staff approach, i dispatch the squad and we unfortunatly suffer one casualty.
Nurse 1
(https://i.imgur.com/7zCl6pb.jpg)
Nurse 2
(https://i.imgur.com/8gDXxcK.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/K7a0Dro.jpg)
Nurse 3
(https://i.imgur.com/vbhpkl1.jpg)
Orderly
(https://i.imgur.com/1lAGBfC.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/WDPpjto.jpg)
Zulbans Fate
(https://i.imgur.com/7Vfii7H.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/k31v14l.jpg)
Slowwards the Chartreuse Plan. I am baffeled how the dwarf wielding the weapon could lose it to the pigmys. Hopefully we will get them back, pygmys are kill on
site
The year has been okay, we have continued our plans to dig out the library as my mind floods with ideas, this is going to be the worlds first library it must be perfect right Urist. I have attached our plans for it. (https://i.imgur.com/0GuPWMf.jpg)
Personal Log of Dr. Goodname
Date: 14-04-27
Longest Road Initiative
This document and any enclosed materials are restricted to Site Administrator level or above.
Unauthorized viewing is punishable by summary execution. Do your part to prevent data breaches. | | (https://i.imgur.com/ltJBrCH.png) |
It is, of course, unnecessary for me to note the tremendous strain that our organization has been under since the awakening. Suffice it to say, we were caught with our pants down. We have to scramble and make do with whatever limited resources are still available to us. That is why I'm here now, at Site-03 or, as the locals call it, the fortress of Livingdead. To collect and assess information on this new world we find ourselves in. The Initiative had a finger in this place's creation, of course, but due to our constraints we had to leave it to local administration. For provincial work, it's not half bad, although the defences leave a lot to be desired.
I arrived a little over a year ago, and had intended to lay low a while longer to prepare my research. Unfortunately, recent events have forced my hand. A massive security breach nearly compromised the entire site. The civilian overseer before me performed admirably in instituting a lockdown. However, given the dangerous and rapidly evolving situation, I have decided to assume direct administration of the site.
On first glance, our stocks appear to be at an acceptable level. The plump helmet farms should provide the bare necessities for survival, and we still have plenty of dog roasts. I am somewhat concerned by the presence of eggs from the anomalous fungal crows in our food stocks, but no ill effects have been observed thus far.
(https://i.imgur.com/2nLcy5s.png)
My first order was to conduct some seismic readings. They confirmed that the invading army has retreated to the surface. There were also some unusually strong rumblings coming from the caverns, but we can worry about that later. With the enemy on the surface, I gave the order to reclaim the living quarters. My effort was frustrated by the parade of fools who thought the lockdown had been fully lifted and tried to get to the upper levels. However, the dormitory hall was eventually sealed without incident. We have reclaimed the site bar the refuse dump, trade depot and surface farm.
For now, we have time to lick our wounds and bury our dead. The burying would go a lot quicker if someone hadn't decided that every pet guinea pig deserves their own masterwork stone coffin. Sigh.
(https://i.imgur.com/GCobK2u.png)
There's no telling how long it will be before we can retake the surface. The army above is still tramping around. Do they even need to eat? At least, it seems, they don't posses infinite patience and aren't too dedicated to breaking in. Hopefully they will move on to easier prey in time. In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. Cataloguing what we already have, improving our defences, constructing containment chambers. I will put this place to use yet.
"Strike the Earth! Break the horizon!"
Dr. Goodname
Chief Administrator, Site-03
Save's up: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16122
I'll try to get the write up done tomorrow.
We're under siege again. The army seems a bit weaker but we also have very few decently trained soldiers. Things are secure though, and we now have access to steel.
Oh also,
We have a new pet. Well, sort of...
Edit: aaaaand I just realized I accidentally locked our carpenter in the second cavern layer. Might want to save her.
DFFD seems to be down - so here's a link to (https://drive.proton.me/urls/43J1XX4YGG#yf0X2Zz9VbRI) another host. I'll repost it to DFFD if I wake up in the middle of the night.
I'll post my report tomorrow, as many seem to be doing. Unfortunately the fort is running very slow for me - so I think I only got through two seasons in the three days I played. When I opened the caverns it came to a crawl and upon closing it up, it sped up until a siege arrived... So uh...sorry to leave you with that, but they're locked outside the fort. No major risks right now. Even the siege I think should be quite possible as most of them are unarmored.
I believe Salmeuk is the next to go - going back in the thread, I didn't notice any other requests for turns. If I missed you, let me know.
---=============---
Sno's Journal
Livingdead, 15 Years After The King Awoke
(https://images2.imgbox.com/bc/30/aocy5bn1_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/aocy5bn1)
This place is a tomb. Corpses upon corpses pile up.
Don't take that as a bad thing! At least they're not my corpse.
Seems Oddom the Carpenter got trapped in the caverns. I designate a hole cut in the stone to let her back in.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/5b/22/98LVXgyQ_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/98LVXgyQ)
Of course, since we're going for some sort of record, every dwarf in the fort rushed out into the caverns to collect some corpse or another.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/8b/02/K7BjJbR9_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/K7BjJbR9)
The headcrabs took that as an invitation, but the military made quick work of them.
Addressing the "mysteries" people are talking about - the King woke up 5 years ago. That's the beginning of time and I won't hear anything about mysterious fogs, mists, or time warps. Look. Let's all focus on writing whatever Avolition said - a book was it? Maybe his new invention will clarify the issue. I'll help as best I can:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/a3/56/FpGMP9ZP_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/FpGMP9ZP)
Ahem...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/79/e0/cTUbfYh8_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/cTUbfYh8)
Just when I was about to seal the caverns back up... well -
(https://images2.imgbox.com/7e/7e/cFKOcinl_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/cFKOcinl)
This sent Avolition spiralling into madness.
I was just about to join them...I'll never get those bookshelves back in the right positions...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/5b/d2/xsNypWHx_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/xsNypWHx)
I do my best to order everyone to stay inside - then set a few dwarves on the wall-building tasks. Of course, dwarves keep dropping stuff on the construction site, then refusing to move it because of how much I yelled at them before.
Three days into trying to build the wall, things are getting dire:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/7f/88/5Ya2TcMJ_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/5Ya2TcMJ)
Also...Why is there a dead body in the well?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/52/e0/DPtRDs8y_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/DPtRDs8y)
Oh! My axe!
(https://images2.imgbox.com/48/68/i7QDsUvf_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/i7QDsUvf)
The customary overseer's axe seems to have been abandoned in the stairwell. I'm no stickler for tradition, so...I just leave it there. Also I can't find the weapons stockpile, but that's unrelated for sure.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1f/1c/V4axW6vf_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/V4axW6vf)
Boiling clouds of miasma roll out of the body stockpiles. We'll never make use of all these corpses.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/41/a5/m9Eelc5F_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/m9Eelc5F)
As I walked through the halls of Livingdead, hauling a skeleton with too many limbs, I passed the mudstone guardian of the fort.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/cc/a5/on8KlDVE_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/on8KlDVE)
Someone has placed a crossbow and bolts in its arms. A beautiful addition!
(https://images2.imgbox.com/66/33/NJbpwQFP_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/NJbpwQFP)
Apparently Oddom would have preferred to stay out in the caverns...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/0e/2b/c6NvxRde_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/c6NvxRde)
She walked past the barracks and seems to have had a change of mind.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/48/b8/Prortp5h_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/Prortp5h)
Things seem to be going just fine.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/d5/a3/RitR4hlt_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/RitR4hlt)
(https://images2.imgbox.com/ba/9e/yKEjNU7t_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/yKEjNU7t)
a note, written on the backside of a papyrus record sheet, found in the office of Lolor Stillgranite, bookkeeper. She must have let it fall underneath the dresser and forgotten about it.
====
When are they going to start making me count the bodies? I think I should count the bodies.
a few scratched out, aborted attempts at lists are seen here
After cross-referencing migration reports and sightings of visitors, vs. reports of those who were confirmed alive, or otherwise managed to escape this deathtrap of a fortress, as well as the military kill counts and various sightings of local wildlife, it looks like there are over 1000 dead things that must be accounted for. Right there at the bottom of my list is Salmeuk, one of the previous overseers. Cause of death unknown.
(https://i.imgur.com/dUrZ1Ns.png)
the full list
(https://i.imgur.com/wvvNhmT.gif)
Unfortunately, evil creatures collect themselves on the surface at this very moment. An unnatural alliance between asylum patients, alien zombies, mythical beasts, and worst of all, horses.
Our gate will hold, and I will keep counting. Until starvation or violent death or old age, I will keep counting.
ooc: Lolor has the greatest single character page I have ever seen:
food makes life worth living, I guess:
(https://i.imgur.com/c88I3uS.png)
we have some free labor, for sure:
(https://i.imgur.com/IqFgJJe.png)
<insert standard "who dug all these unused rooms and passages?! why so much stoneeeeee?!!!" complaints here>
this adamantine planned dig site is precipitous at best. I think I'll leave it there, tantalizingly.
(https://i.imgur.com/vjJgNzR.png)
finally, The Bright Blossom of Knowledge is worth a screenshot:
(https://i.imgur.com/XlpVUJV.png)
Date: 15-01-06
Longest Road Initiative Confidential
Having assumed direct control of the site and stabilized the initial situation, I, Dr. Goodname, set about restructuring the site and reorganizing our ramshackle militia. The end goal of this exercise being the capability to secure, contain, and study a number of Longest Road Items of interest. I also began cataloguing and preparing proper containment for the LRIs we have in our inventory.
Using the most skilled remaining members of our former militia, three new squads were created. The first being Site Security, armed with blunt maces and tasked for everyday law enforcement and threat management. The others were arranged into two Special Response Teams. They are SRT-Alpha “Devil’s Tower Lumberjacks” and SRT-Beta “Nail Problems”. SRT-A are equipped with axes while SRT-B use war hammers. The team leaders are authorized to select and train promising civilians in low-priority occupations in order to fill out their ranks. There is also a fourth “D-Class” squad of low-skill minimal-equipment draftees. They are intended to be used in situations requiring a response but on which it would be inadvisable to risk high-skill teams. They are not to be told what the “D” stands for.
Training rooms and barracks for all four squads were designed and scheduled for construction. Security immediately went to work enforcing site rules.
(https://i.imgur.com/UWbV6mB.png)
Occurrences of LRI-002 have been recorded before, but the first one under my watch occurred in spring.
(https://i.imgur.com/WxQKqah.png)
It was a fairly typical instance from an unskilled dwarf. I have included an image of the resulting LRI-002-1 in the following document.
| (https://i.imgur.com/FP181py.png) |
A typical instance of LRI-002-1. Composition and material use
appear entirely random, yet instances maintain an odd appeal. |
|
Item #: LRI-002
Item Class: Fluffy Wambler
Special Response and Containment Procedures:Instances of LRI-002-1 have proven extremely useful for both practical and aesthetic purposes. As such, they are authorized for use within Site-03 with administrative approval. When not in use, LRI-002-1 instances are to be placed on an appropriate pedestal within a secure abnormal object containment chamber.
Description: LRI-002 is a psychological state which occasionally afflicts a random dwarf within Site-03. To date, no instances of LRI-002-1 have been observed outside of Site-03. Whether the phenomenon is unique to Site-03 or if it simply manifests at a much lower rate in other locations is a matter of ongoing scholarly debate.
Subjects afflicted by LRI-002 begin by taking on one of a wide variety of emotional extremes. Regardless of their emotional state, the following behaviour plays out the same. The subject will proceed to the nearest workshop which corresponds to their greatest productive skill. If the subject somehow has no productive skills, they will proceed to the nearest basic crafting workshop. Upon reaching the workshop, subject will “claim” it and disallow any other use of it. Subject will not leave the claimed workshop for any reason except for the gathering of materials until the fulfillment of LRI-002. Subject will then depart to gather all materials needed to construct LRI-002-1.
Upon obtaining all necessary materials, subject will begin construction of an instance of LRI-002-1. Subjects appear to have ingrained knowledge of the location of their needed material. If none of the needed material is available, subject will frantically attempt to inform passersby of the material type they need. These attempts at communication vary by the subject’s mood, and may be near incomprehensible. Materials are gathered in a set order and will not be gathered out of order, even if a material is unavailable. The material may be implausible for the resulting instance of LRI-002-1. For instance, a piece of furniture cut from a single gem. The means for construction are unknown.
If the subject is interrupted or impeded in any way during any of these steps, they will react alternately with rage, despondency, or raving outbursts. Fulfillment of subject’s demands is recommended if at all possible.
Upon fulfillment of LRI-002, a single instance of LRI-002-1 is produced. LRI-002-1 is a crafted artifact with quality that exceeds the best examples a master in its field of production would normally be able to produce. The quality of an LRI-002-1 is always exceptional regardless of the creator’s original skill level. Instances of LRI-002-1 are nearly indestructible, with no observed damage occurring from everyday wear and tear or deliberate assault.
Subjects who successfully complete an instance of LRI-002-1 are usually thereafter able to perform at the top level of their chosen skill. Regardless of this gained skill, no subjects have been seen to create an object of LRI-002-1’s quality again.
There are, however, some cases of LRI-002 where the subject did not gain skill upon completion. In such cases, the subject takes on a certain mood. Subjects questioned on this have described their state as “possessed” with them feeling out of control of their body and not fully aware. Further investigation of the source of this “possession” and potential item reclassification are pending.
Summer passed without notable change outside. The siege continued unabated.
(https://i.imgur.com/vVgiQIJ.png)
However, in autumn, reduced seismic readings were heard from above. The hastily made walls that have kept the site safe since the we lost the gate were carefully disassembled. It was confirmed that the enemy had left the area. The site lockdown was lifted to the sound of many feet rushing to the surface on important sock-collecting missions.
(https://i.imgur.com/mwj3Oqu.png)
Top priority was given to repairing and improving the gate system to prevent future enemy incursions. The result was an outer wall encompassing the outdoor farm field as well as the original entrance, with a double gate system.
(https://i.imgur.com/qihlwHp.png)
To go with it, a gatehouse was dug out just below the aquifer level. It doubles as a lockdown shelter if needed. A barracks for the Special Response Teams was dug out next to it to allow rapid response to dangers on the surface.
(https://i.imgur.com/8iF1gQg.png)
Digging the barracks revealed that the layer it was dug from is rich in iron ore. With a large source of iron, coal and marble, we have all the ingredients needed for a large scale steel industry. Our security forces can be quite well-equipped in the near future.
With the siege lifted, we received a small wave of migrants. Eight in new dwarves arrived, bringing the site’s total population to 88. However, the usual autumn caravan did not arrive. I also received a petition for official citizenship from Nutu, a sekhemetian bard. In spite of his anomalous nature, I believe he can be an asset and so approved the petition.
We also received another instance of LRI-002.
(https://i.imgur.com/xlwZVFO.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/nyPFBsd.png)
Unfortunately, winter saw the arrival of another large invading force.
(https://i.imgur.com/kF3UEOM.png)
A large variety of anomalous creatures was spotted with the invaders. A lockdown was ordered immediately. Most citizens were safely secured inside. However, two farmers were still working in the outdoor field, and our best chef was apparently foraging the wilds for ingredients. He ran up to the outer gate and, upon seeing it was closed, fell asleep beneath it.
(https://i.imgur.com/po6iiK8.png)
The -for lack of a better word- monsters that made up the vanguard of the attacking force quickly descended upon the entrance. They were apparently unwilling and/or unable to scale the outer walls. Most surprisingly, the beasts did not bother the chef while he slept. The two farmers describe how they piled on top of the chef, but did not harm him until he woke up. Sadly, he was killed upon waking, but not without a fight, if the reports are to be believed.
(https://i.imgur.com/rH7xITR.png)
Once it was clear the monsters wouldn’t kill the farmers, I authorized the opening of the inner gate. They made it inside, and the gate was sealed again.
After that, the outer gate was toggled a few times, crushing the monsters gathered beneath it. I admit, I found the squelching sounds it made quite satisfying. However, most of them scattered and the remainder of the army did not approach the gate, so the siege would not be defeated via such antics.
Trapped again, I refocused efforts on creating containment areas for our captured LRIs. One containment chamber was constructed for LRI-003 instances, or cave pygmies as the locals call them. I know some will be quite happy with this development.
| (https://i.imgur.com/mWODVUB.png) |
An instance of LRI-003 peaks out over a cave ridge. |
|
Item #: LRI-003
Item Class: Elephant
Special Response and Containment Procedures: Captured LRI-003 instances are to be contained withing a standard humanoid group containment cell or within a secure metal cage. Instances are to be kept out of view of the general site-03 population. Eye contact with instances of LRI-003 is to be avoided at all times except under approved testing conditions. Uncontained instances of LRI-003 are to be captured if possible. Should capture prove difficult or the instance presents a danger to personnel, site security is authorized to terminate the instance.
Description: LRI-003 is a species of small humanoid life forms native to the underground cavern layers. Their skin is pale white or grey. Their most striking feature are their blank, white eyes. However, they are not blind, and possess a human-equivalent level of sight.
Instances typically appear in large groups and will aggressively attempt to reach populated areas. Once there, they will attempt to cause disruptions and steal valuable items.
Cave pygmies have shown to be of near-sapient intelligent, although lacking the ability to speak. Their intelligence and ability to pull levers presents an acute threat as our collection of LRIs grows.
LRI-003 instances are roughly the size of a dwarven toddler. As such, they present little physical threat to most dwarves unless severely outnumbering them. A more subtle threat is the apparent mind-altering properties of LRI-003. Specifically, LRI-003 seems to inspire paranoia of itself, perhaps as a defence mechanism. It is speculated that this effect is most intense for anyone who has looked into the eyes of a LRI-003 instance. Multiple individuals have exhibited varying levels of paranoia toward LRI-003, including two former site overseers. It has become common for personnel to blame minor annoyances or bad luck on LRI-003, and what they might do next is often a conversation topic around Site-03.
The most extreme rumours surround an incident in which an instance of LRI-003 stole a highly valuable LRI-002-1 weapon instance. The weapon was in the possession of a militia member at the time, who evidently made no attempt to prevent the theft or reacquire the artifact. It has since been speculated that the militia member was under “mind control” by the LRI-003 instance. The nature and severity of this effect is currently under investigation.
Note from Dr. Goodname: Can we be certain the excess paranoia around LRI-003 is an effect of the creatures themselves and not a property of the stolen LRI-002-1? Perhaps that object has the property of spreading fear and hate of its thieves.
I also received reports of what was described as a minor earthquake. Further analysis lead to the conclusion that it was some form of titanic battle between two enormous unidentified entities in the second cavern layer. A series of sealable chambers were dug out and small breach was made in the cavern wall. The entity now known as LRI-004 was seen charging the breach with unexpected speed. The trap was triggered, but took longer to activate than expected. LRI-004 was contained but as a result, is in an unintended position.
Note: future capture chambers of this design should feature lockable doors for better control of the subject’s movements.
| (https://i.imgur.com/stycbvP.png) |
Illustration based on the description by D-██ who
assisted in capture. |
|
Item #: LRI-004
Item Class: Echidna
Special Response and Containment Procedures: LRI-004 is currently contained within an access tunnel of capture zone one. As soon as possible, a new containment chamber must be constructed and LRI-004 trapped inside. Until permanent containment can be achieved, the wall sealing LRI-004’s temporary containment area must not be removed.
Description: LRI-004 is a very large cavern-dwelling creature of unknown origin. Its body appears similar to a giant sloth, except it has three eyes, six limbs and its hair is very long, straight and transparent. It has several scars and wounds following its fight with LRI-005. LRI-004 is thought to be unintelligent, but frequently expresses itself through deep, croaking vocalizations. Despite its resemblance, LRI-004 has been observed to move far faster than a proportional sloth would be expected to. During capture, LRI-004 rapidly moved toward Site-03’s interior as soon as a path to it was opened.
The most notable attribute of LRI-004 is its ability to spew thick strands of webbing in an area around it, which can completely entangle other creatures. It uses this ability when threatened or hunting. The strands have a tensile strength greater than steel, and are thick and sticky enough to ensnare very large creatures. Using evidence from the site of their battle, it was determined that LRI-004’s webbing was strong enough to temporarily constrain LRI-005. The entity is entirely immune to the effects of its own webs. Applications for LRI-004’s web making ability are currently under consideration.
The corpse of the entity LRI-004 was fighting was found deeper in the caverns, now dubbed LRI-005.
| (https://i.imgur.com/XWraET5.png) |
Artist's recreation of what LRI-005
would have looked like while alive. |
|
Item #: LRI-005
Item Class: Neutralized (presumed formerly Echidna)
Special Response and Containment Procedures: No further response required.
Description: LRI-005 was a very large cavern-dwelling organism resembling a serpent. It weighed an estimated 12 tons and had a body length of approximately ██ meters. It was covered in jagged, silver-coloured scales. Along its back, several of these scales were expanded and fused to form a protective shell. The ribs of LRI-005 protrude externally from its body. Anatomical observations suggest that this was the normal state of LRI-005 and not the result of damage or decomposition. It is unknown what function this unusual adaptation served.
The remains of LRI-005 were identified shortly after the containment of LRI-004. Its body was severely damaged and covered in the webbing produced by LRI-004. The surrounding area had been coated in a large volume of blood from both LRIs. Based on seismic readings, it is thought that LRI-005 fought and was neutralized by LRI-004 roughly ██ days prior to LRI-004’s capture.
The tip of LRI-005’s tail features a structure similar to a scorpion’s stinger, including venom glands and an injector. Due to decomposition, it is impossible to determine the potency of LRI-005’s venom, save that it was insufficient to kill LRI-004.
LRI-004 could be an invaluable asset to the site if its web slinging can be controlled. Think, you could incapacitate an entire army! We must research ways to exploit this ability.
To round off the year, another instance of LRI-002-1 was created. Unlike the other two I observed, this one is quite intriguing. The most noticeable thing about it being its material, adamantine. An item of interest in its own right and likely deserving of LRI classification.
(https://i.imgur.com/8Q6TqHK.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/ukoD9OI.png)
With the new year upon us, I believe the site is ready to be returned to civilian control. We are no longer in crisis and I have always found myself to be a better researcher than leader. I will remain, watching from the background. For the pursuit of knowledge and the future of our civilization.
“The Longest Road is one we all must walk.”
Dr. Goodname, Site Administrator
(https://i.imgur.com/ltJBrCH.png)
Hoooly crap, that list of the dead. What in the hell happened?
I have no idea. We are lacking the reports. It's almost as if more time passed than was physically possible. The death is inexplicable and ever-present. Maybe it's the pygmies. Maybe it's the frost spirits, slowly poisoning us with their blessings.
(https://i.imgur.com/qvqLDKh.png)
The blessings will continue.
===
the horde above
(https://i.imgur.com/Z84DDN5.gif)
We snuffed out any hope of escape after we installed the surface keep. One way in, one way out. Keeps things simple, safe, but we're always feeling like a small dog backed into a dead-end alley like this. Such is the life of a dwarf.
(https://i.imgur.com/eVihwgp.png)
Some expansion has occurred, certainly.
(https://i.imgur.com/FHtJi2g.png)
A masonry was designed in the middle floors, between caverns 1 and 2, designed for access from above and below.
It was noted that SOMEONE sold or killed or otherwise absconded with my beautiful, hand-raised flock of psuedodragons. When I find out who did this I will personally chain you to a waterbuffalo before letting it loose in the third cavern layer. Do you know what lives in the third cavern layer? Fool! I warmed those eggs in my sweater for three months!
Instead of those wonderful little firebreathers, we're left with dozens of furry bastards, otherwise known as puppies. Much less exciting, though I suppose they are pretty cute. I know - we'll stick 'em in a cage near the ticket booths for marketing purposes. Brilliant.
(https://i.imgur.com/sujJ4wY.gif)
While we were under siege, we kept the inner gate open so as to access the blueberry fields so nicely dug into the surface soil, within our keep. This was fairly safe, we thought, but little did we know that they had brought flying wyrvens to accost us.
(https://i.imgur.com/0FHsQcu.png)
Poor Nutu was peppered with sharp stones from a flying, mounted slinger, before being vivisected by this strange beast, who also appeared out of the blue:
(https://i.imgur.com/vEDNEBP.png)
The gate was closed, but not before four more dwarves sprinted outside, desperate for blueberries. or something. Turned on by the scent of fresh blood, the other wyrvens and strange invaders began to climb the walls .
(https://i.imgur.com/rdYwNKd.png)
Things are going just swimmingly as our mayor claims yet another re-election.
What do you mean, things are dysfunctional around here?
(https://i.imgur.com/iqo7vVs.png)
===
What should we do with all this copper? my god!
(https://i.imgur.com/F9DaVUa.png)
===
OOC: a paired group of Giant Bluejays and Fire Imps proved deadly for my FPS. we went from 120 to 60 . thanks you pathfinding flyers you
Summer arrived, and the siege broke. Hordes of patients, doctors, and other so-called abominations retreated south through the melting snowfields. One of the wyvrens was spotted carrying the corpse of a dead giant bluebird, presumably for a later picnic.
The surface stunk like a dentists office, and was littered with syringes and oddly shaped glass bullets. So, not unlike most bachelor parties.
(https://i.imgur.com/EVyD6Xn.png)
Also, these strange blue robot skulls were found. How odd!
(https://i.imgur.com/1LECBJP.png)
It was decided to create a corpse processing center near the surface, in the shape of a gigantic red skull. More pictures to come . .
We decided to use up some of this copper in the task of covering our entrance keep, in a gigantic metal pyramid. Work was fast, as the copper was mostly near the surface.
(https://i.imgur.com/PwCz4WN.png)
caravan came, I requested eggs. lots of eggs.
(https://i.imgur.com/UqZLK7x.png)
we managed to make a coffin for every citizen! some of them are even masterwork quality marble.*
*please note we are working on making beds for every citizen and if you could just remain patient as this is a far more difficult task than you might imagine, especially considering all this effort we are taking to make sure you are buried properly when I mean if ... if you die.
The red skull room, in progress:
the start
(https://i.imgur.com/FZYECt3.png)
further on
(https://i.imgur.com/QG5rIxA.png)
end of summer
(https://i.imgur.com/2S6eOgx.png)
I noticed a large number of artifacts carelessly strewn about, so I threw them all in the first temple:
every pedestal is an artifact
(https://i.imgur.com/VjCSYr1.png)
We chose to install a jeweled skylight in the roof of the copper pyramid, slightly recessed so as to prevent destruction. It remains covered in snow for the moment, but by next summer it will prove a brilliant sight:
(https://i.imgur.com/dNbfsvD.gif)
The bookcases were finally installed, completing our grand library:
(https://i.imgur.com/TIS1n0l.png)
Then, the first day of Winter:
(https://i.imgur.com/5QnrDlu.png)
ooc: everything on the surface is forbidden for now, we could use DF hack to clean it all or leave it if you enjoy the, um, aesthetics of chaos. some of our excess furniture and stone was destroyed, and many of the dwarves are sad. *looks askance* yeah that has nothing to do with enforced, regimented labor for every free hand in the pursuit of large vanity constructions. not at all.
They sent three squads, led by a disgusting strange alien thing. We hunkered down and nothing really came of the siege, at least in early winter.
(https://i.imgur.com/ibP4DQo.png)
We adjusted the military training schedule to 1/3 of the year instead of 2/3's. morale is low.
This awesome artifact spiked glove was made:
(https://i.imgur.com/rNA3Bpz.png)
Work continued, but the snakemen annoyed me. A side entrance, just a simple staircase and bridge, were dug in an attempt to capture or bait the siege into smaller groups. It worked.
(https://i.imgur.com/Q5qWphB.gif)
(https://i.imgur.com/KHeZn38.png)
However, the fighting was brutal, and the snakes were wielding gigantic medical saws and wearing high tech space suits. For some reason. This hammerdwarf died when the snake chomped down on his head then sawed off his neck. That's metal AF.
A second wave was baited, this time twice as large. But in attemping to capture them we misjudged the timing, and were forced to engage in the tight hallway.
the single, unbuilt door that forced this engagement.
(https://i.imgur.com/vxGMj40.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/oPycOFN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/2hPqoEh.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/y9gpPWV.gif)
The fighting was epic, taking place in this large magnetite chamber full of large, misshapen iron boulders. Only two dwarves were lost, with Avolition claiming many kills. The siege is broken. We never fought the alien, which is good, since aliens are far too spooky for my taste ever since I watched Signs when I was far too young.
With that, spring is here, and my turn is complete. tl;dr Endless winter, pink mists, and furnishing tasks.
save is here: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16126
bonus gif of snakemen wandering through luminescent clouds:
(https://i.imgur.com/7SYK4Hc.gif)
| (https://i.imgur.com/enOOas0.png) |
An instance of LRI-005-3, AKA a “dentist” demonstrating some
typical biomedical instruments. |
|
Item #: LRI-005
Item Class: Echidna
Special Response and Containment Procedures: Any approach of Site-03 by LRI-005 entities is to be treated as an invasion of the site. A general alarm and curfew is to be instituted and all external entrances of the site sealed. The strength of the invading party is to be assessed by Initiative personnel for further response. If the invasion is judged to be manageable, Special Response Teams Alpha and Beta have permission to engage and eliminate the threat. They are authorized to implement whatever tactics the team leaders deem acceptable, with support from site security and D-class volunteers as necessary.
Should any personnel or civilians be captured by LRI-005, they are to be considered dead. If a former captive attempts to return to the site, they are to be terminated on sight and their body submitted for autopsy. Under no circumstance are individuals with prolonged or unsupervised contact with LRI-005 to be allowed into Site-03 without a full physiological and psychological assessment by site medical staff.
Description: LRI-005 composes a civilization which is extremely hostile to both the Longest Road Initiative and its patron civilization, The Excavated Roads. While LRI-005 is thought to be relatively small, having only two known settlements and comprising less than 50 confirmed individuals, it has nonetheless proven a very potent threat. This danger is exemplified by Incident LRI-005-14, in which Site-03 is was breached by an invading force of LRI-005, resulting in ██ deaths and the site being left in a prolonged state of emergency lock down.
Individual members of LRI-005 vary significantly. However, they are universally humanoid and bear the trappings of medical professionals. Each instance of LRI-005 usually bears a number of biological and/or mechanical enhancements. These vary in form and function, with some being integrated tools or weapons while others may provide no obvious benefit. It is unknown if LRI-005 members were originally non-anomalous humans prior to receiving these augmentations.
Several typical sets of augments have been observed to occur frequently together, leading to the loose classification of 5 distinct LRI-005 members:
LRI-005-1 “Doctor”: Seemingly at the top of the LRI-005 hierarchy, these variants have been observed to be very intelligent and versatile. Their chief augment is a grotesquely enlarged right arm, with a mechanical device bearing several syringes replacing the hand. They have been observed using these syringes in combat. Each syringe contains a unique fluid capable of inflicting a number of different ailments on a chosen victim.
LRI-005-2 “Surgeon”: Easily identified as the most severely altered LRI-005 individuals, LRI-005-2 possess, among other alterations: 3 additional arms, each ending in an organic weapon, external prehensile intestines, poisonous breath and extremely sharp metal claws on each finger. In combat, LRI-005-2 instances have been observed to target one victim to isolate from backup. The instance will then proceed to grapple the victim and [DATA EXPUNGED]
LRI-005-3 “Dentist”: Another high-ranking class, LRI-005-3 is known to have a fascination with teeth and an even greater inclination towards sadism than other LRI-005 entities. In combat, LRI-005-3 instances have been observed to utilize a tranquilizing gas to subdue victims and then attack their mouths with an integrated drill.
LRI-005-4 “Nurse”: An all female class, they, along with the male “orderlies” compose the bulk of the LRI-005. Their bodies are relatively free of alterations, but their heads are always horrifically deformed. They move in what is described as an “unsettling, jerky, yet surprisingly quick” manner.
LRI-005-5 “Orderly”: Evidently the male counterparts of the nurses, LRI-005-5 are the most physically imposing members. Their bodies are enlarged, with disproportionate limbs and muted identifying features. They are thought to be completely immune to pain and extremely resilient.
To make up for their low numbers, LRI-005 has been observed to use various anomalous beasts to supplement an invasion force.
In the Spring of year 16, a LRI-005 invasion force was sighted approaching Site-03. After a relatively successful defense strategy was employed to handle an earlier LRI-006 incursion, it was believed a similar strategy could defeat this invasion. Events played out as follows:
[06:12]First reports of LRI-005 activity. Lockdown procedure initiated. Civilians were ordered to proceed underground in advance of the closing of the main gate to Site-03. A defense force composed of Special Response Teams Alpha and Beta, site security and a number of D-class was assembled in the upper level barracks.
[06:14]An instance of LRI-005-5 spots the last civilian to evacuate the surface. It breaks away from the rest of the attacking army to pursue the civilian. Both reach the main gate at the same time, and the LRI-005-5 attacks the civilian.
[06:15]The civilian inflicts some minor injuries on his attacker, but is quickly beaten down and killed. However, his distraction provided enough time to close the main gate and prevent the LRI-005-5 from entering Site-03.
[06:20]The site defenders were ordered to open the postern gate and meet the invaders in the adjacent mined-out chamber. It was hoped that the narrow staircase running to the postern gate would force the invaders to enter single file, giving the defenders a numerical advantage as they emerged.
[06:22]The first LRI-005 entities emerge from the postern gate. They prove to be more resilient than expected and difficult to take down, but the overwhelming number of defenders eventually wears them down.
[06:24]The rate of LRI-005 entities entering the combat zone increases significantly. The defenders begin to be divided into separate melees. Casualties begin to be reported.
[06:25]Some of the defenders push the invaders back through the gate and follow them up the staircase. The narrow area makes combat difficult and neutralizes the numbers advantage.
[06:26]Most fighting now confined to the entrance staircase. Mass casualties reported.
[06:30]LRI-005 largely defeated. Surviving invaders scatter and flee.
Followup: Many casualties could have been avoided if the fighting remained in the intended combat zone. Additions to defenses ordered to limit combat displacement.
The casualties among SRT-Alpha, “World Tree Lumberjacks” were particularly high, with the team being reduced to two members. The team captain was among the dead. Senior surviving member “Avolition” promoted to captain.
Total casualties: 10 Initiative personnel, 1 civilian... and 1 cat.
something gets me about the SCP-style, and this was a wonderfully executed take ..
also, echidnas? *shudders, thinking of Smallhands*
Senior surviving member “Avolition” promoted to captain.
perhaps it was meant to be, all along.
Foundations
Uhh...Hmm...
Corpulent...slab...triage?...
Atmel! Atmel, get in here! What the hell is this?
I don't remember asking for any sort of status report. Besides, I can't read this stuff.
Solon 'Johnny' Whippedsubmerge: 15 years for corporate sabotage.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/11/54/4JwatO3a_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/4JwatO3a)
Geshud Vaultmeetings: 4 years for destruction of temple property.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/ba/e8/nY6QmqCM_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/nY6QmqCM)
Tosid Wheelgears: 8 years for leaving a goblet on the floor.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/e2/6c/bFAj7zNs_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/bFAj7zNs)
Sazir Tradeplunge: 5 years for executing a prisoner while performing duties as hammerer.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/d7/9e/CbaOoNQK_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/CbaOoNQK)
Rith Galleyflames: 3 years for caravan robbery.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/0c/08/z4gVFdG6_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/z4gVFdG6)
Mosus Bolttops: 10 years for exporting helmets.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/c0/34/pZuuzojw_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/pZuuzojw)
Bembul Boatcontrols: 7 years for drowning tavern patrons in plump helmet wine.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/39/56/47TwArjD_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/47TwArjD)
I...uhh...I forgot my glasses. Look, just bring up the camera feeds.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/45/eb/CVv3NC4D_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/CVv3NC4D)
Ooooo, that looks good! What's that dwarf's name?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/bd/8b/aRYRg8Ce_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/aRYRg8Ce)
Ugh, c'mon. Alright, so what are these 'prisoners' getting up to? I told them to build me a big house, but...well it looks like they're just digging holes out there.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/6c/bb/4HRiJKQO_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/4HRiJKQO)
What is that? A bat?
Get Horror Resources on the line...we've got to terrify these dwarves! We've got to have some reports to hand over to Shoottomes, otherwise she'll start thinking we look like books more than businessmen. I dunno, send whatever they've got!
Look at these bastards! They're practically celebrating. If I didn't know better, these idiots think they've been...set free!
(https://images2.imgbox.com/40/04/g10Ycl5l_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/g10Ycl5l)
Atmel, don't...Stop. Put those papers in the bin right there and burn them yourself.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1c/6b/Sr73WbKs_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/Sr73WbKs)
What? MORE?
C'mon, we've barely spooked the first group. Oh, wait! What's that?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/62/41/f4YBKTlR_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/f4YBKTlR)
Oh... that looks good! What dwarf is that, Atmel?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/38/75/ZsMRjXrZ_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/ZsMRjXrZ)
Damn it.
Oh good, the newest spook has arrived!
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f7/87/GxoVoRDt_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/GxoVoRDt)
Look, I haven't even been to Argentina, but I'm sure it's terrifying.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/83/91/6iYTAei6_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/6iYTAei6)
Oh, Argenta? What exactly is that?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/9f/65/l4yJBeFL_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/l4yJBeFL)
Alright, well that seems pretty spooky. Just a dwarf in a costume, of course, but our actors and design team are top-notch, so...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/d2/51/JEjWFHSY_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/JEjWFHSY)
I'm going to fire someone.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
He's Got The Shin
All play and no work makes Johnny a dull boy...
Been a few months since me and the rest of the boys got sent up-state to here...Whatever the hell this is.
Not that I'm complaining. Fresh air, no guards, as many pineapple as you can pick. It ain't bad out here at...what's it called? The Overlook. Odd name, considering we'll be digging straight down - make an escape through the caverns, is what most of us were thinking. Ain't too hard down there, last any of us had seen, but that was a few years ago...you know how things change down in the caverns. No need to be hasty, boys. We've got time and plenty of work to do.
First thing is showing off for the lawman, when he swings around.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f8/0f/yrketc3E_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/yrketc3E)
Here comes the warden, boys. Wait, call her "Outpost Liaison". Not sure why she's playing coy...wait
(https://images2.imgbox.com/66/9f/gsl02rAm_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/gsl02rAm)
Something just ain't right about her...can't put my finger on it exactly...
(https://images2.imgbox.com/2d/90/z4OMKm5Y_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/z4OMKm5Y)
Well, I asked her about the cavern situation - as indirectly as I could. Couldn't get two cents out of her. Mostly she just talked about kidnappings. Real dreary conversation, honestly. Ain't looking forward to seeing her next year.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f0/81/LNe9L4zE_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/LNe9L4zE)
Mosus, sweetheart, you get anything for those bracelets we made?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/eb/ee/SKZ2KrvV_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/SKZ2KrvV)
I...didn't think those things were real. Well, all the more reason to get the hell out of here.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/c2/ec/P64r4M6K_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/P64r4M6K)
Keep this in mind, boys. Worst case becomes worst case, and we can fight our way out of here. Just a bit of elbow grease and we'll be hoofing it to elf-land in no time.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/54/f5/joSxfCmW_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/joSxfCmW)
Let's check it out boys...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Alright, the new head of HR better watch his ass if he doesn't want to be shitcanned too.
What's he got for us?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/7b/ff/Z7jXTw41_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/Z7jXTw41)
Honestly not inspiring much. Atmel hand me that stack of pink slips.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/f9/d2/mbqsQirt_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/mbqsQirt)
Alright, I'll give him a chance. Please don't tell me he looks like a little blue guy too. Damnit! What the hell is happening with costuming!?
Oh shit!
(https://images2.imgbox.com/de/39/20KeBHj5_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/20KeBHj5)
That thing really went hogwild on Tosid...Is he...is he gonna be alright? Oh...Oh no, it's going for more.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/5c/83/hZGrzEFP_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/hZGrzEFP)
Well, surely 10 dwarves can beat up two guys in blue suits...right?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/db/9d/wSjAtWA6_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/wSjAtWA6)
I think I'm going to puke...
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Heh. Shoulda known it wasn't that easy. Can't expect the law to be that dumb, at least not all the time. Didn't expect them to really go for it though. Monsters is what they are. Should be them who's locked up.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/33/15/o6kGQgMV_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/o6kGQgMV)
We dragged a few beds into the dining room as a make-shift infirmary. Thanks to the volunteer medical staff, no one's dead. Got a few swollen limbs - probably infections - but everyone's back up and walking. We sealed off the caverns and another little blue guy showed up. This one... well.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/20/0d/KoCgpyyf_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/KoCgpyyf)
At first, I thought they were doing some voodoo on me, but then I felt...well I felt great.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/b0/db/bjD4DI9g_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/bjD4DI9g)
The message is clear. We're here to stay, boys. Still better than the last one. No solitary here, the meals are what we make them, and the wine keeps flowing.
Could be worse, boys.
Don't like those turkeys sipping blood from the hospital, though.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/6e/f2/rXwlTlV5_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/rXwlTlV5)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
OOC:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/15/2c/qYFBnrpe_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/qYFBnrpe)
My body is ready for the spookening, and by that I mean I want a dwarf.
(https://imgpile.com/images/Dltchk.png)
Fikod 'Zultan' Authoredmansions: 10 years for medical malpractice.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Avolition! Death comes for you next! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16865)
Try to finish within 3 days, if you can. Or just upload whenever you're done. Some of the ZM5 stuff is pretty deadly, so...good luck!
Sign me up for a turn and dorf me in the time being, please. (Preferably as a weaponsmith or medical staff member.)
Yes... this location is ripe with raw materials for my latest project.
The inmates will provide the necessary immaterial elements during their time in this complex; and if need be, the organic components. (Undesirable though they may be.) It galls me that I must cohabitate with such dullards, but science demands sacrifice of us all. I will simply have to endure, and hope that there are others who share my... vision.
Those narrow-minded parasites in the mountainhome will regret sending me here!
Overlook Save Here! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16865)
Introducing... The Pumpkin Patch!
Patch download here! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16873)
My mom always said, "you only need to be as smart as your mistakes are dumb."
(https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?q=85&c=sc&poi=face&w=1000&h=524&url=https:%2F%2Fstatic.onecms.io%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F13%2F2017%2F10%2F13%2Ffriday1-e1507927750506.jpg)
Here's the skinny: I edited 4 things alongside ZM5's mod.
I changed the book titles files to a bunch of movie references.
I added pumpkins to the game.
I added the word "look" to the language file and
added it to the dwarven language.
The book titles file is not checked for integrity before the game launches, so that doesn't need to be edited or replaced.
The game is going to run from the "data" file, including the installed mod file and the vanilla file. If you haven't run the game yet, it will check the mod folder for the correct mod, then move it to the installed mod file under data.
So, 3 things need to be fixed. I moved the pumpkin to ZM5's plants, so when you install the ZM5 mod from the file above, you're covered.
Language files MUST be overwritten, I couldn't find a way around this. For convenience, the zip above is structured correctly, so it should just overwrite everything for you without doing any hunting (tested on my own clean install).
Installation:
-Delete your ZM5 ZAMDs mod if there is one in your mod folder.
-Drop the folders from the zip into your Dwarf Fortress install folder.
-Let it overwrite whatever it finds.
-Get spooky
This is the Pumpkin Depatcher (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16886) - to remove the changes to the vanilla files. I recommend you revert the vanilla files as soon as you finish a turn with Spookyfort to avoid issues with other fortresses.
Persistence
From the incredibly secret journal of delphonso Cold Weakghost.
These damn costumes are so itchy. How are any of these actors keeping this shit on?
Makes you wonder if they're really actors, afterall. Can't ask that question, though - no, not these days. Union issues, you know. Better contracts, all that. Anyway, this have been...suspicious out here at the Overlook, so I decided to send my best man on the case.
Of course, Atmel was murdered along the way by a predator. We found him with neither skull nor spine. But don't worry, we don't need to pay anything out for that - act of God/Higher Intelligences does include aliens. Yes, even if they do it in person. No worries there.
With no one left to trust, I had to go in myself...
Also I wanted to make sure my room looked nice.
(https://images2.imgbox.com/1d/dc/ujzxwoIo_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/ujzxwoIo)
These morons haven't suspected a thing - and honestly, that's part of the problem. This was supposed to be a prison, and there's more legally employed people here than slav-ahem-prisoners.
Where are they even gaining funding? We send them next to nothing...What's all this in the trade depot?
(https://images2.imgbox.com/3b/b1/YFgXWux9_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/YFgXWux9)
By Kash...I'm ruined.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I've been here close to a week and there's something...going on. I'm mostly just staying in the tavern - occasionally stepping down to the dining halls or the...artifact prison. This place is disgusting...it's downright...multicultural.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWyyo.png)
But I've seen it. These dwarves are militarizing. These Argentinians are really getting under their skin.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQB9HM.png)
I slipped down a few levels and saw what clearly looks like...ugh...progress.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBhGk.png)
They're working on steel. I'm sure of it. Can smell it on their beards.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Apparently, in my absence, Horror Resources are still at it.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBd4u.png)
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBTOi.png)
This wasn't a lot to deal with, especially with all the personal security the prisoners have hired. But that didn't slow down HR one bit...
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQB5Nw.png)
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBUQl.png)
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQB7bb.png)
The dwarves rushed to slam the gate shut, but I pointed out that Bembul was still out there.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBNl3.png)
Delmont said he'd rather face hell itself than leave a dwarf behind.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQB1XS.png)
Then we all just agreed to not talk about Bembul again.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Something got in! And I'm still trying to get out! An absolute brawl occured in the hallway outside the tavern. I pretended to be playing music too loudly to notice. Hope everyone's okay...
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQBIp8.png)
There's been a lot of doctors sent to prison lately. Not my job to ask questions about that, but...well, I'm sure the doctors are on it.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWePx.png)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The prisoners are building something suspicious down there... A drunken Bob explained the whole scheme to me.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWa7L.png)
He said it was a 'chthulu', but honestly I haven't seen one of those in decades.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Nevermind, it was just a garbage disposal facility.
I snuck down and saw it. The kids in this place are fucked up.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWjLj.png)
I don't know why. I was born in a jail too and I turned out fine.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Crisis averted, for now. It seems these dwarves are slow as slugmen when it comes to steel production.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWplP.png)
Nothing left to do but pull up a book and wait this whole siege out.
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWSQ1.png)
(https://imgpile.com/images/DQWETW.png)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
OOC:
So, I intended to build a few squads and arm them, and instead have just made a ton of steel. I built one squad-set of iron armor (boots, gauntlets, helm, greaves, breastplate, mailshirt, shield and axes), but didn't equip a group or anything. We have enough steel for an additional set (hopefully of good quality after the smiths finished the iron stuff.
There are roughly 60 residents in the fort and probably half of that is argenta, grays and babies. The siege is only a few dudes, but didn't want to risk the trauma of bum-rushing them with unarmed peasants.
Save is here! (https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16885)
Salmeuk, it's on to you, if you're up for it! Splint, I'll put you back on the rotation. I've been a bit too busy to update the main page, but will try to tonight after all my other stuff.
I might actually print this one:
(https://images2.imgbox.com/e0/e2/E2RmVilJ_o.png) (https://imgbox.com/E2RmVilJ)
My daughter made her first Jack-o-lantern!
(https://matrix-client.matrix.org/_matrix/media/v3/thumbnail/matrix.org/mGcSYoPJhBkMEeyycWNiOwYN?width=800&height=600&method=scale)
I've sent messages to Sal, dik, and Qua - we'll see if someone takes a turn before the end!
The prison-wagon ground to a halt a mile before The Overlook. Grim-faced guards jumped down from the running boards and blunted front end, preparing to disgorge their living cargo. Weak sunlight cast a bright gleam across their copper-and-bronze armour as they marched around to the back, wrenching open the doors and dragging the first wretched pair of prisoners out.
An iron-haired dwarf, his face lined with age and exhaustion. His clothing was tattered and filthy, made ragged by travel and lack of maintenance. His eyes were ringed with dark circles, and his nails bitten and picked down past the quick; dried blood crusted the tips of his fingers. The dwarf barely resisted as the guards half-helped, half-shoved him down from the wagon’s rear onto the dry grass underfoot, moving with the slow, stumbling gait of a sleepwalker. One of them roughly pulled him upright and began to unlock his shackles, but he barely reacted, lost in his own thoughts.
It had been a long chase indeed to catch him, but with the list of charges and price on his head, this had been the inevitable conclusion of his flight. With his resources (legal and otherwise) exhausted, his body wearing down from the stress, and a veritable library of evidence against him, he had opted to throw himself on the mercy of the justice system and come what may.
The sentence had been less than he had expected, though severe enough. The worst of the charges had been dropped – in no small part due to the evidence he himself had provided against his former employers, and the agreement to serve in their “experimental release program." But it would still be a year at the very minimum before he might be judged free to re-enter society; until then, The Overlook would be his home.
The other contrasted him sharply. Her ankles were shackled together with weighted iron chains; her mouth muzzled by a dark brown leather mask that had been strapped to the lower half of her face. The doctor’s smock she wore was smeared with brown-red and grey stains, tattered at the ragged edges and split open in a dozen more. Over it, a tight, restricting device pinned her arms to her sides with strong buckles and straps, weighed down with a number of iron chains that secured the whole array further to the point where she could barely move. It was chevroned at the shoulders with bright scarlet strips, marking her as one of the few prisoners requiring restricted transport. A nametag had been crudely stitched onto its breast – Dr. D. Lolorodom.
Unlike her companion, she seemed incapable of holding still despite her restraints. Her head twitched restlessly from side to side, as much as she could move it with the restraints binding her, one foot impatiently drumming up and down on the wagon’s wooden floor. Her eyes flashed furiously as the wagon halted; they made her contempt for the guards clear as she was “helped" to the ground before the fortress. Her guard – a copper-clad woman with the cockaded bronze helmet of a captain – shoved her forward to stand beside the first prisoner.
“Here’s what you’ll need to get back up to speed," The copper-clad dwarf tossed a tied-shut folder at the two of them. “Though I doubt you need it, eh?"
She laughed at her own joke, already striding off toward the wagon again. The rest of the prisoners were being unloaded. Most had the simple green or white of low-risk prisoners – unlucky debtors and petty criminals, workers who’d failed to meet their bosses’ orders and tax-dodgers, a handful of granite-faced felons guilty of simple assault or cruelty. One or two of them bore the blood-red stripes and weighty iron shackles of restricted transport prisoners; another had the bright yellow of a convicted military felon. These ones were helped down none-too-gently by the guards, whose hands never strayed far from their weapons as the prisoners staggered back to their feet.
The exhausted-looking dwarf slowly regarded the image on the cover, before bowing his head almost to his chest as his shoulders began to quaver. He was uncertain whether to rage or cry or simply just break down in shrieking gales of laughter at the sheer irony of his situation. He’d often heard it said that the ghosts of your past caught up to you back in Hallstraded, and so it had in the most literal fashion possible.
His companion proved rather more enthused. Her eyes widened as they flickered across the cover; behind the leather mask, the flattened edges of her broad, unfinished mouth slowly quirked up into a smile.
"Quantum" Wardedbridges and Dr. Lolorodom looked toward the distant mouth of The Shin, and only one did so with trepidation.
5th Slate
Quantum trudged into the Overseer’s room slowly, his eyes flicking warily from side to side. He’d been in The Overlook no more than an hour or two, and already he was on edge. It had been an unpleasant business getting in to begin with, and pure luck that there had been enough of a break in the siege for them to scramble through the main gate and into the dark tunnels beyond. They’d heard the creatures’ howls of rage ringing from the stone as the gate slammed shut behind them, but all of them had managed to reach safety before the creatures could them. Based on the wet noises he'd heard afterwards they were busy taking their rage out on the local wildlife, just as they'd been in the initial break.
Most of the passers-by had been fairly terse, though one of them – Splint, he’d called himself – had been kind enough to point him the direction of the Overseer’s office.
The current warden – whoever he might have been – was seemingly absent beyond the folder left on his desk. Beside it, a note had been left. Hesitantly, Quantum reached out and turned it over. On it, some wag had scrawled a message for the new overseer in block capitals: “YOUR PROBLEM NOW, IDIOT!" and what looked like a crude, hastily added drawing of pants.
Grumbling under his breath, he shoved it off to the side and began to read the remaining papers. Much of it was what he had expected: production orders and stockpile records, roughly labelled diagrams of the prison’s layout and terse explanations of what was to go where. He skimmed through them quickly and sorted them off to the sides and front, parcelling them out based on their topic until he finally reached what he had been looking for.
The prisoner records. He took his time reading them, familiarising himself with the very literal rogues’ gallery before him. A brewer-turned-accidental-poisoner and a doctor with a list of malpractice accusations longer than he was tall, a husband and wife pair with a dozen dead animals to their name, a discharged ex-soldier who’d been sent here for spiking his boss’s ale with horse piss and a litany of miscreants besides. He felt the pounding in his temples growing worse with every word, though he clung to the distant hope they wouldn’t be too terrible a lot.
He was nearing the bottom of the pile and the papers he’d feared to find when the door creaked open and the other inmate from the wagon came swaggering in. Dr. Lolorodom almost casually dropped herself into the chair opposite the desk without bothering with a greeting, eyeing him up and raising a finger before he could speak.
“Well, we certainly lucked out getting into this place." She remarked, stretching herself out like an idle cat. “Even if the architecture is rather too morbid for my taste – what is with their obsession with pumpkins and ghosts? – it’s certainly roomy enough for the lot of us and then some. Can’t say too much about their hospitality, considering how much booze I’ve had to buy these cloots before they started flapping their jaws, and the supply and provision situation is frankly aaa–"
“Is there a point to this, doctor?" He growled, placing his head against the table with a wince. His temples were pounding again. “Or did you come here merely to talk at me? I would not presume you to be so familiar with –"
“Well, I’ve been asking around the place while you went and moped around in here," She leaned across the table, her voice taking on an almost conspiratorial tone. One hand idly trailed across the polished stone before coming to rest on one of the papers, then spirited it away into one of her sleeves. “And a good number of them want you to run this freakshow."
“…You cannot be serious, Doctor." Quantum slowly raised his head from the table, fixing her with a bloodshot stare.
“As a heart attack. Your reputation has preceded you, I’m afraid – the last known survivor of Camp Crystallake, and the fool who tried to cover it up." She laced her fingers together before her, smirking slightly. “They want you in charge, because you’re one of the few with experience of liaising with the maniacs running this place. And, I would wager, because half of them want you to bite it when you smeg up."
Quantum slowly lowered his head back toward the table, fingers interlacing over his face as he started muttering something under his breath. While she couldn’t hear it, she could pick up enough of the tone to know it wasn’t polite. She merely chuckled, leaning across the table with a smug, wicked little grin.
“Cheer up, Quanty!" She leered. “I’m sure your administrative talents and… prior experience will come in handy running this place. But, you know, I'd always be happy to take some of the weight off your back."
From the look on his face, she might as well have handed him a goblet of graving acid and ordered to drink it to the last drops. But the former DFM occultist-turned-crisis-manager merely nodded, and settled into the now-vacant chair, beginning to busy himself with the documents flung out across the table. He was already busy drawing up a new set of tunnels by the time she started for the door, letting the shape of a horned skull and ribcage form on the blank parchment before him.
"Doctor."
(https://i.imgur.com/o9TTf13.png)
She looked back at him. Quantum slid the paper across the tabletop toward her, a tight grimace on his features.
"Get this design to the miners and tell them to get cracking. Tell 'em you've got my authority to do so." He gave her a tight, strained-looking smile. "Assistant Overseer Lolorodom."
The doctor grinned and nodded, then left without another word, melting into the crowd and walking briskly through the corridor outside. The main tavern and its surroundings were crammed with off-duty inmates and labourers, a handful of them bearing the ramshackle armour of the fortress militia. Others ran past at speed in their own little gangs, shouting orders to each other or straining and sweating as they heaved boulders or buckets of metal ingots past her toward the industrial quarters of The Overlook. She heard a snatches of a dozen different conversations, shouted at each other over the general hubbub and the heads of the wandering personnel.
“Did y’see wot Eral’s up to? Gone an’ shut ‘erself up in that shop of hers; ain’t said word in days!"
“Two rounds says she goes an’ craps out some overembellished trinket."
“Sal’s in good form – didya see some of those pumpkins e’s gone an’ carved up on the walls?"
“Aye, that I did. Scary stuff, eh?"
“Get your hand out of my pocket, or I swear I’ll feed you to a goddamn predator."
“There’s a meal in my fly!"
Dr. Lolorodom rolled her eyes at the noise, shoving her way through the crowd with the papers clutched firmly in her hand. She hoped the former DFM manager could whip these imbeciles into shape before his inevitable replacement arrived. It would be… difficult, if he did not. Such conditions were hardly conducive to her research, both physically and mentally. And the materials at hand – less than quality, to state the least. Grumbling to herself, she walked on.
At the edge of the tavern, she spied her target: a rough-looking, dusty dwarf in ragged overalls, a pickaxe hanging from the worn leather belt at his side and a miner’s cap perched on his head. He was at the centre of a small cluster of similarly-dressed labourers, all of them busy chattering or slugging back drink after drink from the rough metal and tone mugs the tavern had to offer.
She couldn't help the smug grin creeping across her face as she snagged the arm of one of the roughnecks, puffing herself up and handing him the papers. "Boss's orders; get this mined out, on two of the lower levels."
The miner started to say something, but she was already underway again. The doctor strode on purposefully until she could find an isolated corner, where she finally stopped. Her head snapped to either side with almost reptilian speed, checking for any eavesdroppers or snooping inmates, before returning her gaze ahead. Carefully, she stepped forward and pressed herself against the damp stone to minimise her profile.
There, she slowly withdrew the paper she had snagged from his office and hidden inside her sleeve, regarded it for a few tense moments, then slowly seized it with both hands and tore it in half, then into quarters and eighths and finally into nothing but a handful of confetti-like shreds that she cast aside before storming off back toward the main fortress, mind already re-aligning itself toward her plans for this place. The weary old fool wouldn't know what he had chosen to take in trust, now, and her experiments - so rudely interrupted by the close-minded fools in her former home - could resume themselves uninhibited. The
After all, she thought to herself with grim amusement, They're dead men already.
Behind her, unseen by guard or inmate, the remains of her criminal record and its attached solitary confinement order settled in pieces on the stone. Among them, a few words still showed: "Experiment," "Necromantic craft," "Immaterial weaponization," and one half-illegible, underlined several times in an unsteady hand - "R_v__im."
(Introduction done. Will work on the actual turn events tomorrow.)
For the first time in several weeks, there was a true sense of celebration among the halls of The Overlook.
The gem-maker who had hidden herself away weeks ago in the gem-cutting store had suddenly emerged from her seclusion this morning and walked triumphantly into the tavern, dragging the fruits of her work behind her.
(https://i.imgur.com/qe2AYEk.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/LDl4PN5.png)
The sight of such fine craftsdwarfship had already lifted the spirits of the inmates, and the news from the lookouts had only compounded that. The besieging force outside had finally had enough and upped sticks almost overnight, departing to menace some other place with demands for proper pay and fair employment. It was good news for a fortress with a population as rowdy as The Overlook’s residents, and a party was in full swing already in the pumpkin tavern.
Quantum had been rather less enthused. What in all of the hells had she been thinking? Dragging an artefact behind her in a place filled with debtors desperate to pay off what they owed; it beggared belief! He’d ordered it put in the same place as those made during the previous warden’s reign – behind a set of upright iron bars like those on the cells, visible enough to be admired but not easily stealable.
Still, he reflected, it was probably for the best.
It was a universal truth that every dwarven fortress, prison, and settlement was reliant on four things: booze, metal, overseers, and a steady stream of failures. (However much of a tautology the last two might be.) Steel, iron, and a number of other precious metals were in abundance, at least, despite the lack of things being forged. But the alcohol situation – that was rather more troubling. Even without the roughnecks busily knocking back keg after keg in the tavern, there were barely a dozen barrels of brew in the whole prison.
As if to purposefully stoke his ire higher, the new company policy in the introductory file demanded that a form several pages thick be filled out before a production order be issued. He was halfway through filling it out when a cry went up from outside:
(https://i.imgur.com/afQzk7U.png)
Swiftly following that was the heavy crash of armoured footsteps, and the sound of shouting. He paused for a moment, hesitant, then returned to the form again. Again, he was soon broken from it as one of the militia’s captains came crashing in through the open doorway, iron spear in hand. Her face was twisted into a look of fury, teeth bared in a snag-toothed snarl and her cheeks red with exertion.
“Well, should’ve known this was going to happen sooner or later…” Quantum muttered, raising his head with a muffed groan. He tilted backward slightly in his chair, giving the militia captain a clear shot at his chest. “I know what you’re here for, Captain. Get on w –”
“I assure you, overseer, you bloody well don’t!” The captain snapped, raising her spear to point back toward the fortress gates. “Bastard in some kind ‘a fat suit’s out there, tearing a couple of the bards up. We can get out there an’ try to rescue ‘em, or leave the poor bastards and focus on whacking it. What’re your orders?”
“Do what you think is necessary.” He was already returning his stare to the form. “So long as they don’t get in.”
The militia captain halted for a moment, staring incredulously at the overseer, before shaking her head and departing at a run, slamming the door behind her. Silence reigned for a few minutes more. He took a sip from the mug on his desk, silently enjoying the burn from the alcohol. It was a recommendation of the doctor’s – a way of lifting his mood, and giving him the energy needed to deal with the endless reams of paperwork seemingly needed for anything.
He was almost finished with the form when there was another knock at the door, this one strong enough to send it swinging in on its hinges and crack off the stone wall beside it. Quantum started in surprise at the noise, the jerk of his arm accidentally knocking his inkwell over. A black flood of ink rolled over several of the papers on his desk; only a frantic scramble and luck kept it from blotting out the form he had been filling in.
“Armok give me strength!” Quantum growled, stabbing his pen back down into the righted well and starting at the doctor. “What is it this time?”
“Just me, Quantum.” Dr. Lolorodem swaggered in through the doorway with a grin on her face, eyes flashing with excitement above the restraint-mask that hung around her neck. “Did you hear the news?”
“About the attack?”
(https://i.imgur.com/xqazwyR.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/aJLOL0R.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/uRZBfq1.png)
“Aye! We’ve got a bunch of those bloody malefactors incoming. I already saw that thing gut one of these irritating minstrels in front of me, Quanty.” Dr. Lolorodem’s tongue flicked out over her dry lips, putting him in mind of a lizard about to strike at its prey. “And I want them. I want to see what makes them… tick. Ah, the things to be learned!”
Quantum merely stared at her for a moment, trying to dredge up an appropriate response, before finally just shaking his head to himself. Whatever the leather-masked dwarf meant, he neither fully knew nor cared; but if he didn’t get this order filled out soon, she’d be learning firsthand whether a screw press and bill could turn a dwarf into a passable wine.
Recognising a dismissal when she saw one, the doctor swiftly rose to her feet and went briskly striding off toward the sounds of fighting, humming to herself as she imagined the things she could learn from the captive Malefactor.
(https://i.imgur.com/muOEKYq.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/GFYsrg6.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/byjWnPK.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/tyOqiSw.png)
“Wax-brains! Clay-skulls! What have you feldspar-eyed idiots done?”
“Killed it, boss!” One of the militiamen answered with a grin, pointing his spear down at the broken corpse laying on the ground beside him. One of the predators of The Overlook was already enthusiastically sawing up the body, seemingly oblivious to her objections and ire.
“You are certain of it?”
By way of answer, the swordswoman almost casually walked over to the twitching corpse and kicked it hard between the stumps of its legs. The bloated corpse twitched with the force, its dead weight shifting slightly. Her iron boot sunk in almost to the heel and as she pulled it free, it brought a trailing length of intestine with it. Almost at the same time, the predator working on the corpse tore the spinal column and head free completely with the aid of its blade.
“That answer your question?”
The doctor’s eyes flashed above the mask set above her neck, her teeth grinding together hard enough for her jaw to creak.
“Then I suggest,” She bit out, one word at a time. “That you assist me in bringing this refuse down to my cell. I have work to do and things to learn, despite your utter failure to follow o—!”
She was building steam for another stream of curses when the inmate rolled her eyes and cut her off with an annoyed bark of her own.
“Hang it, doc, and stop squalling. We’ve got rid of them; what more does it matter?”
“Squalling” was the word indeed. At this Dr. Lolorodem’s ire rose to such a fevered pitch that she simply threw her hands up into the air in utter frustration and stormed toward the bodies, cursing all the way as she hauled them back off toward the fortress and through the corridors to the cells she had claimed as her own. There, she practically threw the corpses off against one of the walls and stalked off to her writing desk.
“I told them! I told them a dozen damned times! “Take the creature alive.” AND WHAT DO THEY DO?” She ranted to herself, furiously scribbling with each word. “They tear the damned creature apart! Well, no more!”
(https://i.imgur.com/20trKtg.png)
On the parchment before her, a shape began to take form, basing itself off the plan that Quantum had passed to her several days before. A blunt square, funnelling into a broad, open space – and every inch of it lined with cage traps, rigged to snap shut the moment some unfortunate creatures put so much as a toe out of line.
“This should work – the construction of a new way into this hovel, and I’m lining it with every possible means of incapacitation possible! I refuse to let this sentence be the end of my research!”
That done, the doctor half-flung her pen back to the desk and stormed out of the room with the parchment in hand, already seeking out a labourer to conscript.
The dying days of Spring saw the caverns opened again at the Assistant Overseer’s advice; according to her, the soil and mud down there would provide plenty of space for farming mushrooms and cave-plants the next time disgruntled contractors came knocking. More importantly, it would begin to let them alleviate the alcohol shortages that had been plaguing the fortress.
The forges were roaring, as well, hawking up thunderheads of exhaust smoke into the sky. The smelters and forges were running at full capacity again on Overseer Wardedbridges’ orders, churning out new steel ingots from a fresh hematite vein, forging them into steel arms and armour for the militia. Already a few of them were walking the halls with their new gear equipped, torchlight silvering their shiny new steel armour and gleaming off the honed edges of axes, spears, and even a couple hammers. (A handful, too, had been requisitioned by the doctor for her own purposes.)
Beneath the grey lid of forge-smoke and cloud cover, The Overlook’s corridors were abuzz with activity. The Overseer’s first floor plan had been carved out in full, and anyone not busy with gathering fermentable plants or setting up the first, tentative cavern-farms or working in the roughly hacked-out forge levels had been tasked with smoothing the rough stone. Quantum himself had not been out of his office in days, save for the constant stream of signed work orders and the occasional plan for another expansion of the cell blocks; even these were sent mostly through the doctor.
(https://i.imgur.com/fl2spGf.png)
The relative calm was shattered by cries of alarm and the sudden tolling of bells. Hematite had arrived, and it was bringing with it a less than welcome sight – a half-dozen twisted creatures, led by a pair of twin-headed brutes, cresting the hill and preparing to surge down the slopes toward The Overlook’s entrance.
It was comical, in its own way, to see the sudden mayhem spread across the field as the rabble of Chaotic Beings slammed face-first into a swarm of ravening Gorgers as they burst from ambush. Eagar for the taste of something new, the bloated humanoids wasted no time in hurling themselves at the two-headed creatures, practically frothing at the mouth in their eagerness to bury their jaws in living flesh.
The militia halted at the mouth of the tunnel, bunching up around the gate in a confused mass as the stone portal was winched shut again. The alarm bells were still tolling somewhere over the shouting and the slither of stampeding boots. Members of each squad were still arriving piecemeal; others ran this way and that with weapons and shields at the ready, blocking the already-tight tunnels further. Most of the civilians were already running for the shelter of the tavern, or the deeper cells.
It would be several tense hours before they were relieved of duty. By that point, the bulk of the invasion forces had ripped each other apart, leaving a carpet of fleshy debris strewn across the crest of the Overlook. What few remained had run straight into the cage traps of the new entrance, much to the delight of the doctor. She swiftly conscripted a half-dozen hauliers to assist with dragging the newly-caged catches down into The Overlook’s deeper reaches.
That, however, proved the extent of excitement for Hematite. No wagons came to disgorge new shipments of prisoners or trade goods; no disgruntled contractors came to shout their outrage at the closed gates; even the gloomy figure of the ghost drifting around the fortress halls seemed strangely subdued. The closest thing to it was the occasional request for citizenship by the hired entertainers, the sound of arguments drifting from the tavern, and the rare screeching noise from the newly carved “Solitary Confinement” cells in which the doctor had taken up residence.
Limestone, too, proved curiously calm for the first fortnight. Crops continued to be harvested and fruits gathered; the alcohol stores slowly ticked their way up toward replenishment. A handful of cave-dwelling troglodytes made efforts to rush up into the central stairwell through the caves, only to be snared in the traps set there. They were promptly hauled off to the Solitary cells, to the mockery of the hauliers accompanying them and the delight of its sole (so far) occupant.
(https://i.imgur.com/GN9YJ1N.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/HzF766L.png)
An artefact was even created by one of the younger members of the fortress, albeit after several days spent babbling in tongues and occasionally frothing at the mouth.
The only thing worrying was the discrepancy in the records. A dozen steel weapons had gone missing – swords and axes, spears and shields – without so much as a trace. None of the work details knew anything of what had become of them, and a thorough search of the cells by the militia had turned up nothing more dangerous beyond the occasional mouldy biscuit or outraged labourer startled from their rests.
With no evidence and the inmates growing more restless with each day, Quantum reluctantly gave the order to cease the searches. Wherever they had gone, he could only hope it was not a portent of darker things.
The midpoint of the month saw the first new shipment of prisoners arrive at The Overlook. As before the prison wagon came rolling up to the gates of the prison, and the guards hauled their living cargo out onto the rain and blood-wet grass before it. Most of them hastily made for the lower, narrower slit of the trapped entrance, seeing the sentries on duty there and the large bridge standing upright at the main tunnel’s mouth. One among them, however, made a point of striding toward the closed gateway and shouting her demands for entrance up at the stone.
Hearing it, but not the individual words, one of the inmates near to the entrance lever went over and hauled it into the “open” position. Then she heard the words, and cursed several times as she realised what she’d just set in motion.
“Let me in, you ruddy dimwits! I’m the outp—”
It was at that exact moment that she took one step too far, landing herself right in the middle of the area where the gate would descend.
There was a wet crunching noise, a heavy *thump* as the gate struck the ground, and a long moment of silence broken only by the rattle of lowering chains and mechanisms.
The pair of dwarves manning the gate ran out to help, but they needn’t have bothered. The drawbridge had ironed the outpost liaison flatter than weeks old beer.
It was then they noticed the marking on her shoulder: an almost cartoonish ghost sewn into the fabric of one sleeve, “DFM” in bright thread beneath it.
The reaction was swift: after a brief round of inventive cursing and a resolution of the guards to not inform the grumpy old git of an Overseer or his maniacal assistant, the body was scraped off the dirt and propped up with the assistance of a couple wooden splints. A battered hat and old coat were hastily thrown onto the corpse to hide the worst of the damage, before it was hauled to its feet by two of the inmates. They carried it forward into the halls of the fortress with its dead weight slung between them, legs dragging slightly on the smoothed stone.
Despite the busyness of the corridors, they attracted surprisingly little attention as they went trekking through the halls. Most of the inmates were busy partying, drinking themselves into a stupor in the taverns or running about to and fro in the hollowed out meeting areas. Those few who cared enough to stop and look closer often quite swiftly left at the expressions on their faces, though a handful were perceptive enough to see the outline of the patch against the coat, or recognise the facial features under the hat.
At first, they terrified the pair; they felt their hearts leap into their throats every time their eyes flashed with recognition, instinctively bristling with the fear of discovery. None of them, however, raised the alarm. They merely gave subtle, knowing smiles or touched a finger to their lips before pointedly turning their heads away, letting them pass deeper into the prison’s guts. The two had just begun to think they might get away with it, when the Overseer himself emerged from one of the nearby corridors, eyes immediately settling onto the figure.
“Ah, hello. I presume you are the outpost liaison?”
“Satisfactory, Overseer.” One of the two – Kosoth Bodiceshocked, her name tag read – replied, pitching her voice at a deliberate falsetto. Her mouth barely moved, but neither did the corpse’s, covered as it was by the brim of the hat and collar of the coat. “Not quite as pleasant as I had hoped, but your men have helped greatly. Excuse me – I must be underway.”
“So soon?” He blinked in surprise, head turning slightly onto its side. “I thought you would have wished to... well, to speak with us – myself and my deputy. Gain an understanding of how things have been…”
“I am afraid that will not be necessary, Overseer.” Beside Kosoth, Ustuth Machinelucky silently strained to make the corpse’s head shake – just enough to convey disagreement, without giving away the game. “We are quite satisfied that one of your… experience should be capable of running the prison without a repeat of the past.”
Quantum flinched backward at that, hesitated a moment longer, before slowly shaking his head to himself and starting to amble away.
“Well… well, I hope you enjoy your visit, at any rate, madam.”
“Nice work, Kosoth,” Ustuth muttered as they moved on, half-manhandling the corpse down the central stairwell and entering into the space the Overseer had ordered carved out. The Solitary Wing’s iron doors loomed out of the gloom ahead.
“Thank you, thank you.” She gave a mock-ironic bow, grimacing slightly as the corpse’s head flopped forward. “I might start up my own puppet show at this rate. ‘Performances every hour, on the hour! Dead people a speciality!’”
“Yeah, har bloody har.” The other muttered, shoving him past. “Let’s just get this done and out of here already…”
The Solitary Wing lived up to its name in both senses of the word. The place was almost completely deserted despite its recent completion, the heavy iron doors into each cell firmly bolted shut and the closely set bars thick with cobwebs. Only the echoey, half-distant slithering of caged things broke the silence as they manhandled the corpse deeper into the shadows.
Before long, they found the cell they were looking for: like all the ones in the wing, it was little more than a blank iron portal mounted on a set of heavy-duty hinges. *Un*like the rest of them, it bore a familiar name, etched in bronze against the grey metal: Dr. D. Lolorodem, MD.
Neither dwarf bothered with niceties; a knock at the door and an unceremonious dropping of the corpse sufficed, followed by the sharp slap of shoes on the stone as they went sprinting off before the door could open. Skidding around the corner, the two of them paused as they heard it grind open.
“Oh, the things I can foresee in your future! So much potential; so many things I can create from a fresh cadaver!” The doctor’s voice carried faintly from the cell they had hidden the body in, her tone high and manic. “And the immaterial power already infused within your flesh and bone – just delightful! Yes, you will be just perfect as raw materials for my newest experiments!”
The pair of gate guards exchanged a look with each other, the desire for drinks intensifying, before synchronously turning and walking away without a backward glance.
Moonstone proved almost wholly without incident, to the private enjoyment of many and the ire of others. The “Solitary” wing of the prison continued its slow march toward population, few of the inmates having any desire to dwell in the hard, unsmoothed cells. The forges continued to burn, the brew-vats continued to pump out alcohol, and the work orders continued to flow from the Overseer’s office. The company even saw fit to send another batch of miscreants and fresh-faced convicts to the fortress, almost a dozen new inmates swelling the ranks of the labour details.
The sole burst of excitement came from the arrival of the latest hostile rabble intending to lay siege to the fortress. Centauroid creatures, half-humanoid and half-canine, came barrelling over the crest of the hill at the head of a smaller host of chaotic entities.
The militia were already mustering at the main gate and the ancillary trapped entrance’s small chokepoint when the situation changed. From the undergrowth, the reptilian forms of predators sprung to ambush the chaotic host, their wrist-blades effortlessly passing through armour and exposed flesh alike, solid slugs pulping bone and flinging the howling beasts backward in sprays of gore. More than a few fell outright, headless bodies stampeding mindlessly this way and that, or crumpling to the dirt and going still.
(https://i.imgur.com/RpR2kUN.png)
The chaotic host was fighting back, but it wouldn’t be enough. The predators were small in numbers, but ferocious in manner; while one or two of them went down with their armour ruptured and blood spilling from cracked bones or torn flesh, far more of the opponent had fallen than them. Before long the remaining predators had finished dismantling the slaughtaurs and the associated beasts, and had set their eyes on the Overlook.
Like the last batch, however, they had not reckoned with the traps in the Overlook’s false entrance. Two ran straight into the field and were swiftly snared in the cages, mechanisms and ropes ticking and snapping as they triggered. A roar rose from the militia’s collective throats at the sight – half triumph and relief, half disappointment that there would be no chance to fight today despite the everything.
The rest of Winter passed without so much as a whisper of trouble.
Slate heralded a new change in the fortress – by the overseer’s authority and his deputy’s order, a couple of new rooms were hacked out of the stone, near to the grave-rows. Traction benches and beds were swiftly dragged in and bolted to the floor, the Overlook’s first proper hospital quickly starting to take shape.
(https://i.imgur.com/iPBg758.png)
It would seem to have come at exactly the right time. Many of the prisoners were suffering from untreated injuries of one kind or another, ranging from simple cuts and bruises to shattered bones and badly sprained limbs. Quantum and the doctor stood at the mouth of the hospital, watching the beds gradually fill with a steady stream of wounded inmates.
“Disturbing, ain’t it? That they were just walking around like that, not even carin’ about their hurts.” She shook her head. “Still, good thing we have them set up now, eh?”
“Mmh.”
She turned her head slightly, curious. “You do not approve?”
Quantum shrugged his shoulders; a slow, weak motion of his arms. “I am ill, doctor. I cannot sleep, nor am I never properly awake. My head throbs and buzzes like a hive, and my body aches all over. I just need to keep going…”
Gently, she laid a hand on his arm. “You should lie down, Quanty. Get some rest. I can keep an eye on things for you.”
He stirred sharply at that, one hollowed eye flicking open to regard her with an odd mix of emotions; something between guilt and suspicion and a strange, deep wariness.
“No… No, I’ll be just fine. I don’t want to burden…”
Ignoring his protests the doctor guided him over to one of the beds and half-pushed, half-laid him down, almost idly waving one of the dwarves assigned to the hospital over. “Get some rest, Quanty. I’ll cover for you, and you’ll be in good hands with Zultan here.”
Before the chief medical dwarf could even protest, the doctor was away again, practically sprinting off toward the isolated cells of the Solitary wing. No sooner was she past the iron doors, the doctor felt her face slowly twist into a maniacal grin.
To subvert command of the fortress had been an almost trivial measure. One mug of her brew a day, mixed with a special ingredient of her own making and a specific plant from the outside. Harmless on their own; but together, they formed a poison capable of eroding its victim’s cognitive and staminal capacity. Not enough to kill, but just enough to slowly render them helpless and reliant on others for all but the least strenuous of tasks. Enough, perhaps, for the walking malpractice lawsuit in charge of the crude hospital to finish him off on accident.
With the Overseer out of the way, she could finally start her project in earnest. She was right on the verge of fetching her first test subject when a dwarf burst in, panting with exertion and his hair mattered with sweat. The doctor resisted the urge to growl aloud as she bid him to speak.
“’pologies fer the intyerruption, boss,” He rasped. “But we got a bunch of those damn chaos-creatures up top, and they wanna speak wit you.”
(https://i.imgur.com/JYrcS6c.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Ih1ziXU.png)
The meeting that followed was as short as could be expected. The chaotic host had come again, demanding an artefact in exchange for peace. With Quantum indisposed, the doctor had answered for him with her usual brashness: a dozen threats – each quite anatomically impossible – and a rather strong invitation to leave.
The resultant siege was relatively short, by the Overlook’s standards. With the gate drawn up and the sole way in being through the trapped entrance, only a handful of days passed by before the besieging delegation left, grumbling and cursing all the way. Those few who had dared the trapped corridor were simply left behind, to the mercy of the inmates. Only one of them – this one the leader of the group – remained, staring back at the fortress for a long moment before spitting something to the floor, snarling in a language no living throat should produce.
Down in the darkness beneath the fortress’s foundations, something ancient stirred.
Malachite 14th
Another wagonload of inmates trundled to a halt before the Overlook. Scarcely had they stepped down from the wagon before they were being ushered into the fortress and funnelled toward the stone stockpiles, shift overseers shouting orders. The main cavern was alive with the sound of construction as dwarves, argenta, and even a couple of the grays worked together to press stone slabs against one another, forming strong walls around the little patch of muddied farmland they’d acquired.
The tempo of their work, however, was sharply disrupted by a sudden, bellowing roar from deeper within the caverns. Something huge and dirty-brown shifted amidst the passages, a dark leviathan slithering toward the gathering in a way that practically radiated murderous hunger. The dwarves saw it almost as soon as it them, but their labours rendered them slow to react.
(https://i.imgur.com/Tj03q5y.png)
Miyufa, on the other hand, had no such handicap.
It came howling out of the darkness toward them in full frenzy, hood flared out, head swinging from side to side. Blood mottled its scaled hide and the thin, stretched-skin wings projecting from its bulk. The forgotten beast had already claimed its first victims from the cavern’s indigenous populations; a limp, feathered shape still hung from one immense fang, venom dripping through the hole that the creature had bitten cleanly through the cave swallow man’s chest. Blood fell steaming from shallow gashes between its scales and in its head, where the birdlike creature had ineffectually raked its talons across against the predator before being felled.
The immense cobra reared up on its tail before striking forward, quick as a whip. Its flailing tail cracked off the stone walls of cavern and fortress alike, sending labourers scattered in every direction to avoid it. Most of the workers were quick to react, scrabbling to their feet and rushing for the stairs, squeezing past each other in their haste to escape, tangling with the militia’s soldiery as they came crashing down the stairs.
(https://i.imgur.com/xb9DtXq.png)
One, however, was not so lucky. The beast caught a particularly unlucky ranger by the neck as he turned to flee, buffeting him with its atrophied wings to keep him off-balance before flashing forward to sink its huge fangs into one of his arms. Teeth sticking fast and pumping venom into its prey’s blood, the beast began to drag the screaming ranger back into the dark, pausing only to almost casually tear off and swallow one of his legs in a single bite.
That decision, however, had proved ruinous. The dwarves were upon it before the beast could finish its current victim, axes swinging and curses screaming through the air. Hard blows from several steel axe heads ripped scales apart with wet cracks and bruised the fat beneath, or else tore deep gashes into the muscle. Others clambered up onto the beast’s curving spine to press the attack, hammering their weapons and fists into the scales and tearing at whatever exposed flesh they could find. What had begun as a quick, simple snatch-and-swallow on the beast’s part was rapidly bogging down into a quagmire.
(https://i.imgur.com/rV0Vuha.png)
The beast fought back with the savagery common to its kind, thrashing its huge bulk around, whipping its tail around itself like a makeshift scourge. It was not nearly enough. Its movements were slow and predictable, slowed further by blood loss and the torn muscle fibres throughout its body; the dwarves simply leapt out of the way and lunged back in to rip more scales free, or to tear fresh gashes into the exposed flesh. One dwarf in particular, this one bearing the masterwork arms and armour of a captain, managed to mount its flailing spine fully and slam her axe into the side of its neck.
(https://i.imgur.com/bznyTyF.png)
The axe went deeper than she had expected and stuck firm; the blade had found a natural seam in the creature’s far-apart scales, a gap to the flesh below just large enough to admit the weapon’s business end. The immense cobra snarled and spat as it realised the sudden danger, thrashing about to try and throw her off, but it was too late. The militia captain leveraged the whole of her considerable weight downward in something between a stamp and a kick, the steel blade biting deep enough to sever the spine and a good bit of the creature’s neck tissue. Its own weight and frantic movements did the rest.
With a noise like tearing leather, the serpent’s body crashed to the cavern’s stone in a spray of ancient gore and fragments of scale; several foot away, its head followed suit. A long moment of utter silence came and went, before the caverns rang to the sound of cheers and victorious cries.
In a result both surprising and disappointing for the hospital staff, very few of the dwarves required treatment of any kind. The unfortunate ranger would likely never walk again – (“I’d sooner drag myself in the dirt than have that quack minister to me!” he’d said, dragging himself away from a disappointed-looking Zultan as she put down a wooden peg leg and several iron nails) – but the rest of the civilians and even the military had no more than a handful of cuts and scrapes between them.
Below, deep within the Solitary Confinement blocks, an altogether different hospital was far busier. It was a simple, blocky little room, hollowed directly out of the stone and connected to the main wing by a thin tunnel of unsmoothed stone.
Dr. Lolorodem was not the only figure occupying the hospital. Almost two dozen cages decorated the perimeter of the room; Orderlies, Plastic Surgeons, goblins, zombies, and a half-dozen other breeds of creatures occupied them, restrained by heavy chains or rendered paralysed by splint-suits and injected chemicals. Most were still dead, or close enough that it barely mattered; those that were wished for it, if they remained capable of doing so. None retained more than a third of their skin or two-thirds of their muscle and tendons; few had the totality of their organs and bones still within them, the flesh stripped away to serve as raw materials for the doctor’s latest round of experiments.
Despite their mutilations, no sound emerged from the bodies. Vocal chords and tongues had been the very first elements removed, lest they disturb her concentration. As the dark frown currently marring her features could attest, it had meant very little.
Resting on the table were the results of her latest experiment: a narrow-bladed steel sword, scarcely three fingers wide at the base but as long as a human was tall; beside that, a simple, crude-looking coil rifle.
A closer look would put the lie to their seeming simplicity. The serrated edge of the blade was not made of metal, but of teeth that seemed to grow from the metal itself. The handle was itself made a humanoid’s hand, joined with the steel across the top in lieu of a thumb, such that the fingers of the wielder would interlock with the fingers of the hand; above that stood a circular cross guard formed from re-shaped ribs. A spike of bone projected from the base, a knife-length projection for stabbing and parrying in close combat. The surface of the metal was streaked with scarlet and Verdigris, seeming to ripple and pulse with an internal life of its own. Were one to look particularly closely, they would see the near-invisible mist of spores floating like a miasma around the blade.
The coil rifle had been similarly modified. The metallic firing coils were wrapped around with lengths of tendon, creeping like bindweed around the barrel and reaching down to the trigger; the simple sights had been replaced with a small arch formed of abraded tusks, jutting up from the steel. Beneath the long, circular barrel a slit-pupiled, shrivelled eye had been crammed into a modified vent, to assist the user’s aim; within the trigger guard, a hammer of still-bloody bone twitched restlessly. Were the trigger to be pulled, it would send not a bullet flying from the barrel, but teeth long and sharp enough to punch through the exotic metals of a predator’s armour and rend the flesh behind; ones that would expand through the victim’s body like a nest of growing thorns, shredding them apart from the inside out.
The doctor regarded both of them with something between silent revulsion and utter ire.
This pair had seemed promising. However, they had run across the great stumbling block in all of her research: there was simply not enough immaterial energy in the region to empower the weapon successfully. She had hoped the nature of the penal colony – the near-constant sieges, the misery of the population, the endless, grinding labour – would provide enough charge to ensure the experiment’s success.
Weapons created from all the vicissitudes of these advanced creatures’ bodies, feeding on the strength of their purpose and the power inherent to their being, the sheer potential behind them and their purposes into the steel of the devices. All the magnificent could-have-beens and things that they would have created had they not come to this fate, funnelled into the devices for the sake of increasing their power.
The theory was sound, she was sure of it!
Yet these ones had failed to meet her expectations. Lacking the necessary immaterial state for full conversion, they were little more than powerful – and quite exceptionally ugly – weapons rather than the tools of army-breaking power she had desired to replicate and re-create. She had hoped that they might at least stand a chance of matching those she’d crafted before the narrow-minded fools had found and imprisoned her, even if they were a pale shadow of what she wanted them to be, but there had been no such luck.
Her ire building, she seized the sword in her hand and flung it across the chamber. It struck one of the walls with enough force to throw up a spray of sparks, then clattered sullenly to the pitted ground. Something leaked from it, half-vapour and half-liquid; blood and spores stained the stone. The coil gun joined it a few moments later.
She’d dispose of it, in time. For now, it was time for another round of experiments and surgical work; another attempt at replicating the weapons she had dug out of that ancient, abandoned complex so many years ago in the Black Hills.
She would learn the secrets of their construction, no matter how many lives and souls it took.
ENDNOTES
I think I got relatively lucky with this turn. Sieges kept coming, but they’d either just mill around outside or run into an ambush (typically Predators, sometimes Gorgers) and then wipe each other out; never saw any of the necromorphs either, which was a bit of a let down in terms of Fun potential. Wasn’t really much in the way of tantrums or dorfs losing their shit either, which kind of sucked.
Honestly don’t think this was my best work in either story or gameplay, but I did what I could and added some bits of sp00ky architecture to the place, along with a couple new artefacts. Thanks for the turn, Del, and good luck with yours!
The doctor paused for a moment.
There, in the murky darkness, three arcane sigils sizzled in the air. They were branded on nothing, carved into no stone nor woven into fabric. They simply were.
And there was a meaning to them, powerful enough to imprint itself on the air. A prohibition. A command. That fear must be cultivated among that which feels it. That for a maker of such emotion to fall is inconceivable. That what cannot be visited upon a subject immediately must be saved for infliction of a later date. That when all avenues of doing so are exhausted new ones must be made, to ensure its continuation.
That the maker must endure, no matter how long, no matter what darkness it may pass through, no matter whether the recipient lives or dies nor whether the world itself might change –
The inscription resolved, and Dr. Desma Lolorodom beheld it:
FRIGHTEN EACH YEAR.
Quantum looked wearily down at a tankard of purple wine. Treasures worth a thousand freedoms laid behind iron bars all around him.
Johnny and Splint walked into the tavern with the calm of a murderer. "Another year," Johnny stated.
Quantum waited for more explanation, none arrived. "I've done my time, two ways now. Find someone else."
Splint chimed in, "There is no one else. No one will take the job, so you can't step down."
"Give it to the doctor, then."
"Which doctor?" Johnny asked. An Argenta witch-doctor gave him a side-eyed glance. Johnny continued, "We've got about 15 people with medical degrees here. Zultan? Lolorodem?"
Splint, again, "Doesn't matter. They've got more important things, all of them." He tossed the DFM manual onto the table in front of Quantum. Quantum considered his options - flee? Grab the next caravan out? Throw a punch? This place is a powder keg, a brawl would break out in an instant, and he could slip out unnoticed. Mothdast Ozleb in tow, he'd be set for life. That's the issue, though, isn't it? You start a brawl and you're just as likely to catch a predator knife to the neck as the next guy. Set for life, alright - 1 minute, plus.
One of the grays waddled over to the table, his skin promptly fell off and a naked, sweat-drenched dwarf crawled out. Everyone's suspicions had been confirmed: Cold Weakghost was simply a dwarf in a costume.
"Don't freak out, guys. I know you've all been thoroughly tricked, but I was in there the whole time."
"We know," they all said.
"What? How?" Delphonso asked, looking truly incredulous.
"When people started dying, we all learned real quick how to spot a suit. The suits aren't nearly as deadly as the real things." He paused. "So, what did you want? Overseership."
"Afraid I can't, my boy. Conflicting interests, legal liabilities. That sort of thing. You should know that. The CEO can't be seen running a prison directly."
The three overseers looked at each other, then jumped on Delphonso.
-=-=-=-
In the bat-offices, three ex-overseers have tied Delphonso, CEO of Delphonso Frights and Magic, to a chair. The interrogation began.
"You could have gotten us killed. You DID get some people killed."
"Look, the Bembul thing...how was I supposed to know?"
"Not that, you idiot," Splint interjected, "This whole thing!" He threw his arms up in the air. "This whole stupid prison is a death trap, and you've been sending waves of murderous monsters to our doorstep! What the hell is wrong with you?"
Quantum noted, "Who has been sending them, Delphonso? You've been here for a few years. Who's in charge while you're away?"
"...I'm not sure, actually. My secretary, maybe? You see, my second in command, Atmel, well he was the one who was supposed to come here, but I found him decapitated by a predator about halfway here."
Johnny looked up from some paper he'd been scribbling on, "Who knew you were here? The raids went deadly around the time you showed up. Remember the bloodbath in the hallway? Well...the first one. That was right after you arrived. Right after you stopped giving orders."
Delphonso thought it over, with what little brain-power hadn't yet been destroyed by whisky and cigars. "No one."
Johnny finished, "No one except Atmel."
Splint put it together. "Whose body conveniently didn't have a head. How close did you check?"
Delphonso stammered, "Well, well, there was a predator about, you know. Those things are nasty, so...I was in a hurry, you see?"
The door slammed open, a steel-shelled goliath with a spear rushed in, breath fast and heavy. "Overseer...s! The enemy have come. 60 odd from the Dark One's Army. They're already at the gates! What's the order?"
-=-=-=-
The battle outside The Overlook is in full swing. Ghastly devils fly about, hurling motes of fire at military dwarves and conscripted bards alike. Gelatinous ghosts flatten and reform behind shields and axe-swings, enormous fish-men rend armor asunder with razor-sharp claws.
"Watch your back!" Splint shouts. Delphonso ducks low, dodging a firebolt that lands in the fields, briefly illuminating the first pumpkin to grow at The Overlook. He stands back up, a spear shaking in his grasp.
Quantum Drop swings a broken leg of a limestone throne, as close to a warhammer as was on hand, and shatters a skull inside a body of jelly. Johnny pins a skeleton down with a table, and Splint puts an end to it by rolling over it's exposed head with a wheelbarrow. The tides felt as if they were turning, then they heard the shouts inside the fortress proper. The children, grays, and already insane rushed out, terror in their eyes. The overseers ran in, shouting commands to the militia dwarves to pull back. Delphonso tried to follow but was knocked down by Zultan, who was rushing to recover a fallen dwarf.
On the ground for just a moment, Delphonso looked up at the looming mountain. He saw his beautiful manor-home there. Terraces and balconies. A hundred and a half rooms, for friends, family, any one. All a possibility still. He smiled and barely felt the fireball hit his chest. He was immolated instantly.
The three overseers found themselves looking down the main hallway, vomit and blood still faintly on the air. They heard a mad cackle from below. Then, the whining whir of...was that one of the coil guns? A bolt of blue flew out of the darkness and caught Johnny in the heart. He fell with a surprised look on his face. Doctor Desma Lolorodem walked calmly toward the overseers. Her surgeon's mask was not quite right. Too tight. Too close. Too much...a part of her own skin.
Purple sigils floated behind her, in a script indecipherable in their fear. The remaining two overseers turned and ran. They felt their fear echoing out of them, somehow building - feeding - charging - creating The Doctor.
-=-=-=-
"The Overlook?" Atmel asked toward the window, smoke lingering around him, still.
"It's been destroyed, sir." A sharply-dressed secretary looked at a clipboard. "No inmates remain at the construction site, except one. Inmate #1783452 - Desma Lolorodem. She managed to run off all the remaining inmates as well as the contractors from DLA. Though the DLA representative guarantees that their job was finished before Lolorodem made an appearance.
"Good, then." Atmel drew hard from a cigar. The orange glow reflected in the window. The night was dark and cloudy, with the moon giving a faint glow to a patch of clouds. "You may go."
For a moment, the secretary thought they spotted a tear on Atmel's cheek, but left without asking more.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
OOC: I'll come back around and edit anything that is...incongruous. Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! My daughter is now old enough to really celebrate. We did pumpkin carving, a treasure hunt, and trick-or-treating! Happy Halloween and scare you next year!
(https://i.etsystatic.com/24624781/r/il/08e154/2566870491/il_fullxfull.2566870491_3h05.jpg)