Just got what I believe to be my very first
ever Forgotten Beast! Which led to a bit of a tale. Sure do wish nesting spoilers worked so this wouldn't eat half the page...
I thought that the worldgen fort I was reclaiming had no cavern access. I don't know why I was at all confident of this, since I had recently been shown a totally new section of it by a kobold thief, but I was very quickly proven wrong. This is... Something of a problem, because this fort has never seen a serious threat before. The only dwarf to have ever seen combat is Olon Kenudib and, well...
...her record isn't particularly awe-inspiring, even if you include the first Kobold she encountered, who ran away rather than face an unarmed dwarf. (Although the way she killed the other is a story in itself.)
Olon ran headlong after the foul intruder, down an unlit rampway just large enough for a single dwarf. To the side of her, a chasm yawned hungrily, ready to swallow her up if she made even a single misstep. (A chasm later found to be 115 levels deep, since the rampway had a shaft dug out beside it the whole way down, though she knew at the time only that the scrap of nameless trash knocked down in her frantic pursuit fell far too long without a sound for comfort.)
This rampway led into an undiscovered portion of the fortress, far below the point where it was believed to end. 113 floors below, in fact -nearly the whole way was not only an unexplored portion of the known levels, but completely undiscovered. Nevertheless, Olon pursued her foe without hesitation the entire way, not knowing if it might lead to a sudden drop or give way beneath her feet; her duty was plain, and she would see it through.
When the dwarven warrior (if, a treacherous part of her heart whispered, one could really call her any such thing, untrained as she was and having faced but a single giant olm in battle - a foe, moreover, that she was still recovering from, her broken toe unhealed and her head unpleasantly dented) finally reached the bottom, her quarry had already disappeared into the darkness. She pressed on, guided by the feel of the dust it had stirred up on her skin and the faint hiss of its breath, far too aware that she had no way to tell if she was about to step into a forgotten trap or find herself stumbling into a pit.
Her path took her down a narrow corridor, seemingly a dead end until her questing fingers found a stone door to her left. Carefully, she pulled it open, expecting that any moment she would be struck by the dagger she had seen just before the thief vanished into the depths. But no blow came, and when she stepped inside (pulling the door shut behind her to slow any escape as she did), she saw its glowing eyes were some distance away.
Both froze for a moment. The kobold moved first, lunging towards Olon with a barking shout, unexpectedly loud after the near-silent chase. She charged forward to meet it, only to find the rush was a feint as it continued past her, delayed but a moment by the door. But that delay was enough that she emerged into the hall but a step behind it, throwing a wild punch at it. The skulking filth looked over its shoulder just in time to dodge, stumbling into a wall with a yelp of pain before trying to continue its flight.
Off-balance and exhausted, it barely got a few steps further before Olon grabbed it from behind, dragging it back by the lower jaw (an unintended hold that could have been rather unfortunate if she hadn't been strong enough to hold it open), and flung another punch down at the wriggling beast. This time, it connected, the kobold's foot trapped between her fist and the unyielding stone of the floor. She felt hot blood spray against her, her quarry's bones shattering and slicing through its skin and flesh.
The thief collapsed against the dwarf, slumping to the floor as she released it. It still had a dagger, but the pain too great for it to do anything but let out a low whine, curling in on itself. She looked down into its yellow eyes for a moment, the only thing she could see in this darkness, and drew her fist back for a final blow. Then she hesitated, feeling it paw weakly at her leg with a pitiful whimpering bark.
That, she decided, was something she wouldn't mention later.
It pawed her leg again, and Olon Kenudib, proud dwarven soldier, plunged her fist downwards, blood further coating her body as she felt its skull give way beneath her hand. She watched a moment longer just to be sure it was enough, the new position of its rapidly dimming eyes showing just how much damage she'd done, then stepped over the newly made corpse, walking slowly back towards the ramp to the levels she called home.
Still, our other recruits are brave enough, despite their lack of training. It had direct access to the only level of the reclaimed fort that Yelledseals is actually starting to make use of, and it just so happened to arrive right as several dwarves were storing wood down there. One of the recruits, fortunately, was with the party at the time - you can see him holding the beast off while the rest, including his lover, escape.
Olon, however, has other plans. She found what seems to be an abandoned armory on her way back from killing the kobold thief, and now she's planning to make good use of it. As are the rest of the dwarves, since one of them was enlisted to build a wall there and remembers that it might be safe...
The last remaining member of the militia? A newly-married captain, first appointed to a separate squad so she could guard the exit while Olon chased down the the thief. She's currently thirteen floors up, making her way down to help distract Thepani. Her husband, on the other hand, is one of the four who were hauling wood.
Zuglar falls quickly, the toad having no need for its poison - the one thing to be thankful for is that, unnaturally large or not, toads don't seem to be good at biting, since it tried but couldn't get past his clothes. And now Ast is but a floor away. With the civilians already running and Thepani separated from them by two doors it's going to have to break down, she should arrive in time to let them get away.
...although with Olon (currently back to civilian in hopes she'll run away) having gotten lost on the way to the armory despite it being a straight run down the central shaft, this plan may have some issues.
Olon escapes, the beast stopping to topple a tanner's shop after maiming her. The trouble is that while Thepani doesn't seem inclined to give chase, Ast just showed up, and now
she's needlessly endangered, since everyone else is safely below for the time being. Well, with the admittedly-important exception of our chief medical dwarf, but she's getting away too.
Ast escapes even less harmed than Olon, and - after a bit of Benny Hill with pathing where it went to the previously-safe path and forced the chief medical dwarf to go back the way she just had along the previously-locked path - everyone arrives safety in the armory.
...unfortunately, lacking any safe access to food, booze, and water -and with Ast having bravely, but foolishly, charged up from the armory to try to restore the safety of the fortress
after I cancelled her orders to because she wasn't properly equipping herself, which I didn't get a good screenshot of - the settlement soon passed quietly into the night.
