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(got to keep on moving))

From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties

There's still a lot that we don't understand about the underworld, I've found. It's filled with all sorts of creatures that I would never have imagined existing in a sane world. (Not that we have one of those). From strange tapir beasts, to kangaroo monsters, to flying eyeballs to... rutherers.



What the hell is a rutherer? The soldiers who killed the trio that came up reported that they had "huge tails" which tells me exactly nothing. I guess I should be thankful that they're a thing that we can kill, and not a thing that kills all of us.

The soldiers were having fun, though. They chased the things over half the fort. I guess that's good for morale.



Now I'm just hoping that the mayor is almost finished yelling at the merchant's leader about cheese. I need to talk to her, find out just what we're dealing with out there. If there still is an out there.

...............................

Meanwhile

"Oh, I'm just singing my digging song. I've been digging so long that I forgot the words to my digging song, but I don't care because I'm singing my digging song, and I've been digging so long that-. "

"Let me know when you get close to an actual tune, Ishar."

"Ok!"

"Please stop, Ishar, I mean. That is what I meant." Remalle looked around. They'd been digging in sand for a while now. Dense, packed sand. Sand that was so close to being sandstone that only a dwarf could tell the difference, and only then if he looked very very close. But still sand. And it was becoming more... sandlike, if that was the right term. That meant something important. He just needed to remember what it was.

Then he heard a sound that he hadn't heard in a long time. "Listen, do you hear that sound, Ishar? I think that those are waves. We're at the other side, I think. Just underneath the shore."



Ishar looked up, as if she could see through the sand, and said, "Yeah, I do hear the waves! We've made it! Let's not waste anymore time. To the surface!" She swung her pick at the ceiling, bringing down a heap of wet yellow sand.  "It's funny, you know, I think I noticed the goblins and giants talking before I even noticed the waves."

"The what?" And then he heard them too. Unfortunately, it was because Ishar had opened a hole to the surface, and there were a pair of goblins playing in the surf a few feet away.

It was going to be a long run back to Oceanbridge.

................................

Next: The Rest of the World (Isn't Doing Too Well)

The Merchants

The caravan that had arrived at the gates only just barely qualified as such. There were two overloaded wagons, significantly piled up with what looked like barrels of booze. The wagons had been driven to the entrance of the fort by a group of five dwarfs. Probably dwarfs, at least. That, or they were piles of dirt that learned how to move about on there own.

Balnash saluted Aban when he saw her. "Look at this mess. I don't think I ever saw a group of people as pathetic and filthy as that." He gave that some thought. "Apart from all of us here, I mean."

"But they are people, right? Not... not like, walking skeletons wearin' skin as a disguise, right?" The other guard looked to Aban for an answer.

"I... oh, come on Slime, I don't want to be thinking about that if we let them through the gate. Just let me talk to them, all right? We'll worry about being murdered in our beds once we're drunk enough to sleep in them, or something."

The wagoneers, or caravaners, or secret undead (whatever they might be) were milling around at the base of the fortress wall, looking lost and muttering to each other. Aban greeted the group as formally as she could. "Hey! Who the hell are you people?"

The dwarf who answered was the best dressed, or the cleanest of them. She stood up straight, and called back, "Ah, someone yet lives. This is Oceanbridge, is it not? The cursed fortress? The center of the doom that has blighted our world?"

"Well, yes. The first one, I mean."

The merchant literally jumped, which was a strange thing to see someone actually do. "I knew it! Quickly, turn the wagons around. If we run as fast as we can, we might make it back to the jungle alive." She started to push the others, who were still looking very confused.

"Wait, wait! Don't run away! We aren't... we aren't all that doomed anymore. And we would really, really like to know what's going on in the rest of the world! Isn't there anything you need? We can trade with you!"

The last part got their leaders attention. She stopped pushing her guards "Ah... We do need weapons. It is a dangerous path we follow. Though not as dangerous as this place, I would believe."

This might actually work, Aban realized. "Weapons? Well, yes, we have weapons. We have weapons everywhere. You're standing next to at least three spears right now." The merchant leader looked down. "Yes, you see, right under all of those heaps of skeletons you're standing on. Wait! I said don't run!"

...................

From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties

We traded with the merchants! Not that they had much, but they did have enough wine to keep us going for a bit longer. I'd like to say that I've talked to the caravan's leader, found out some more things, and so on. But I can't.

Because she's been trapped in the mayor's room for two weeks.



 I fear for her.

............................

Next: I promise nothing.

Oh most definitely.

Maybe it's like the last words of Vespasian, "Alas, I am becoming a god,". You're so shocked that you straight up become a Roman emperor and die.

I was inspecting my line of soldiers, as a few arrows from a slowly advancing enemy fell here and there. One of them fell here and there right into my face. And I realized that, annoying as it was, that sort of thing actually has happened in the real world, in history. Can't really complain about it being unrealistic.

From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties:

Nothing is happening. Every day I go out to work on the bridge, and I wait for everything to fall apart, and every day, all that happens is nothing. Oh, there are still a few goblins scattered around, like I mentioned before. They're mainly in the old arena, and the soldiers like to take potshots at them, but that's still nothing.



What can I record in here? Well, one the soldiers had a kid today! A baby girl, it seems. Yet another child running around underfoot, I guess.



Huh. You know, I can't even begin to imagine what a child would think of this place.

................................

A Conversation

"Hello there, Aban my dear friend!"

Aban threw down her pen, wondering for the thousandth time why she hadn't had Gar make a lock for her office door. "What? Oh, Mayor, um, Belgium... What do you want."

The mayor was smiling, and bouncing from one foot to the other (For no reason, of course). "I just wanted to remind you that no one has made me any fine flatware, so I might have to have someone tortured soon, and that there's a whole bunch of friendly merchants waiting to see you!"

"Look, I still don't really know what flatware is and... Did you say merchants? That's impossible. It's autumn. The humans always come in the summer."

"There are dwarfs! Just like us! Not like me, of course, but just like you!"



Aban ignored that, as she was to busy muttering to herself, "There are still other dwarfs out there? Where the hell did these people come from?"

.................................


Next: Things Happen (Slowly)

Ok people. Yes, you are hungry. Yes, you've been working hard. Yes, you deserve a meal. But there's something more important you should be doing now.

They've mentioned that they are working on optimization for this patch as well.

I am very glad to hear this.

spoiler alert: hitler would not like any of these posts

because he would have died already

of natural causes

unless you're resurrecting hitler i guess in which case why do you care if he likes your posts

It could also be a time traveling Hitler.