Bay 12 Games Forum

My king was a brave warrior and a brilliant strategist. A veteran of a dozen wars, his whole life had been spent on campaign. At the age of 39, he could reasonably expect that to continue for many years more, ending with a glorious death in battle.

Instead, he died of syphilis that year.

((Just a brief reintroduction))

A New Arrival

"A spearman? Of course we need you! If you've held a weapon before, we need you. Plus, you made it through the hell out there on your own, just to get here? Yeah, you're in the militia. What's your name?"

"Balnash."



"And I'm the Soldier. Yes, that's my name, nothing else. Let me show you around the place."

Balnash shook his head. "Don't need to. I know all about Oceanbridge." With that, he saluted her, and left the barracks.

The Soldier sometimes felt like she was the only dwarf left in the world who hadn't lived in Oceanbridge before.

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((Ok, so here's the story bit, following from this post: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93958.msg3407390#msg3407390. Finally just laying some things out))

Meanwhile, Back in the Future (Part One)

"Follow me, my friends! And mind the waterfall!"

"We are already following you, Wilberforce. And we can't mind the waterfall when it and the stairs are the same damn thing!"

The four dwarfs stumbled down the slick cavern steps as waves of sea water rushed down after them. Wilberforce Amber Ropenourished led the way, followed by Remalle, Neo, and Derm. Above them, Oceanbridge was collapsing.



"Let me explain what we're doing! My theory, " Wilberforce said, shouting to make himself audible over the deluge, "is based on several solid facts, and a lot of guessing."

Neo slipped on a loose step and swore. "Can't this wait until we get to solid ground?" he said.

"No! There may not be any solid ground to find! To continue, we know for a fact that the dead did not begin to rise until the construction of the bridge! We also know that our god Rakust, lord of the dead and so on, also represents the passage between life and death! It is my theory that Rakust, the bridge, and the whole mess we find ourselves in are all now inextricably linked!"

"So... why are we going down here? Aside from the fact that there's no where else safe?"

Wilberforce smiled. "Why, it's simple Neo, my old friend. We're going to talk to Rakust."

They reached the bottom of the stairs.



Another foot high wave of sea water came pouring down after them, where it joined a number of other streams from the upper levels. The water spilled over granite outcrops, snapped ancient stalagmites from the floor as it picked up speed. By the time it reached the center of the huge open chamber where the dwarfs found themselves, it was a river. And the river poured over the lip of a pit, into a pool of magma.

The sound was unbearable.

Neo shouted something to Remalle, who screamed something to Wilberforce, who nodded. The four of them moved into a side tunnel, where the noise was less ear shattering.

"So, you want to talk to Rakust. The God."

"Yes."

 "All right. And how do we do that?"

Wilberforce stopped smiling and shrugged. "I'll admit that I'm not sure. Still, I thought it worth a try. We've all talked to the dead before, hell, we've all been dead before! Frankly, there's none more qualified than the four of us to request a meeting with the god of the dead. He'd be rude to turn us down." He stopped. "I... I begin to realize that this may all seem nonsensical to-"

Remalle interrupted. "Actually, no. It makes perfect sense to me. I've seen a lot of things in the time since Oceanbridge was destroyed, and I... and I've heard some things... It might be possible to talk to a god."

Neo, sounding a bit giddy with anxiety, said "Let's try it then. I mean, why not at this point." He turned in the direction of the magma pit and shouted "Hey Rakust! What the hell is your problem?"

It would have surprised most of them if he received an answer of any kind. And it surprised them all when they did, and when the voice came out through Remalle's mouth. (It surprised Remalle most of all, as he found he had no control of his voice, or his body)

"PAIN"

The voice rang out like steel shattering, and both Neo and Derm jumped. Wilberforce was caught off guard as well, but he composed himself and said, "Well! That's our god, then. The monosyllabic one. Sorry about this Remalle, but you seem to have become the, uh, voice of god. Is that all right?"

Remalle didn't answer. "Doesn't look all right," Derm said. "Look at his eyes." Wilberforce did, and immediately regretted it.

However, the voice continued. "TRAPPED, FREED, TRAPPED AND SET FREE AGAIN. WHY? HOW?"

Neo and Wilberforce exchanged a glance. "This is what you wanted, right? You should ask him your questions, and do it quickly, before something horrible happens to Remalle! Something even more horrible, I guess."

"Right! So, first: Is it our bridge that's trapped you, and how? Are you the reason behind the constant attacks we've had to endure since the whole thing started, are you the reason the world is so awful now and lastly," Wilberforce took a deep breath, "How do we fix all of this?"

Remalle, (or Rakust, it wasn't clear whose expression it was) looked confused. "BRIDGE... YES. BROKEN AND RUINED. TRAPPED,. I CALLED FOR HELP, AND IT CAME." Remalle/Rakust looked directly at Wilberforce, his eyes blazing. "I CALLED, AND HELP CAME FOR ME FROM THE NORTH IN BLOOD AND ICE. I AM CALLING FOR HELP NOW. IT WILL COME, LITTLE LIFE..."

Wilberforce looked away, and said, "Yes... well, never mind that for now. Since you do seem capable of speaking in complete questions, I'll ask you again. "How do we fix this? The bridge broke once, and things only got worse, so that's not the only problem. How do we fix whatever went wrong?"

For a long stretch of time, all they could hear was the thundering of the river, and the explosions of steam from the magma pit.

Then Rakust answered. "SACRIFICE"

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

Next: What Happened Next

((two more long post like this one, and things might finally start to make sense. I hope.))

Sweet mother of mercy this thing is still going?

((I cannot be stopped. I'll get Balnash back in in the next update.))

From the Journals of Aban Brothertreaties

And another soldier died of thirst today. I guess that's not really surprising, as we still haven't managed to find any clean water, anywhere! The hospital is empty again, at least.



Shortly after that, one of the dead soldier's friends started throwing a tantrum. (Gods, this is how it always starts). Gar calmed her down with a good solid punch to the face, but she's still not happy. Or rather, she's more unhappy now, what with the broken nose.



Well, whatever! When disaster strikes again, we'll be ready. Gar's still making the finishing touches on his shelter, but that'll be done soon, and we've started construction of a kind of "floating fortress" in the middle of the bridge. Because there's nothing safer than being suspended over an unfathomably deep and wild ocean, filled with murderous fish. I'm serious. Nothing around here is safer than that. That's just what Oceanbridge is like.

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Next: Story

((Thanks for the thoughts, people. I'll try to stay alive and sane and writing, though the codeine is making those last parts hard. Woo.)))

((I'm glad you're enjoying it! It's a busy time in my life right now, I am literally one day away from getting a culinary arts certification. Nothing amazing, but I've been working towards it for some time. Anyways! A very very short update, to show that I live))

Around the Fortress, Spring 203, Part One

Now Neo wasn't the only one building the bridge. In fact, it was hard to find a dwarf who wasn't. Neo was, of course, leading the effort, which sometimes involved teaching an animal trainer what a stone block was and why you didn't have to hit it with a training mallet in order to get it to do what you wanted.



The goblins on the bridge watched the small army of novice masons make their way down to the very end, and then watched them return. They hadn't tried to stop them yet. This might have had something to do with the fact that the Soldier and her militia had taken up position around the goblin general, and were getting in some light sparring practice.

"Don't use that adamantine sword like a hammer, Olon! It's light and sharp, right? That means it's meant for slicing and stabbing goblins, not bashing them to bits! Now, show me how you would kill a goblin the right way!"

The goblin general had not spoken for some time now.
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Next: More Little Details

I don't have a huge book collection myself, as I move around too much and books are heavy. But I do plan on raiding my father's collection of science fiction and fantasy for this. He's been collecting and reading them since the early sixties, and my sister once counted around 1000, or so. Not including all the old issues of Analog, etc.

I like to see books around, just in general.

Sure, count me i! I read a lot of books no matter what, but it might be interesting to actually see how many.

I might try to do it without counting re-reading too. I re-read a lot of books just for the sake of relaxation.

(edit: wait, was I supposed to send you a pm about this?)

Since you so thoughtfully provided the detroit area map, I didn't even have to look for the neighborhood I grew up in. It's yellow, which seems about right. Lower-middle class first ring suburbs, hey.