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Chapter 10 - The Life After Massacre

27th of Hematite, year 163
Written by Martyrdikes

There is only three of us left. The last insane dwarf died yesterday.

Unfortunately it seems that Lilith has found a new way to torment us; the fallen comrades of us have been raising from the death, appearing as ghost lingering around the chamber. Now, I Know such things has occurred before, and I think I know a way to put all these ghosts to rest; we must build gravestones for each and every fallen dwarf to commemorate them. That's going to be huge task, but I think we have more than enough time in our hands here.


15th of Malachite, year 163
Written by Martyrdikes

Everywhere I look I see rotting corpses. And the miasma coming from those is terrible. But as there is only three of us left we have no time to move the bodies yet, we need to secure our food supplies first.


25th of Malachite, year 163
Written by Martyrdikes

We have agreed on how to distribute the work we must do. I will take care of gravestones and other stone and wood work, Shieldpeaceful is in charge of attending the farm and brewing alcohol and the child, well, she helps where ever she can. We have already moved some of the corpses to the small room designated to that and we should expect our first harvest during next month.

Even though our situation is grim I'm still quite optimistic that we can pull this off, perhaps we can later try to mine some coal from upper levels of the fortress to produce some metal for bins and barrels. The truth is that we need the metal, as there is so few logs left and not many trees are growing in this chamber. But that's something we must worry later, right now we have more important tasks ahead of us.


6thth of Galena, year 163
Written by Martyrdikes

We agreed that it takes too long to remove all the stone from the corpse stockpile, so instead of trying to do that I dug small room near the surface. Free from stones the room makes it possible to get rid of the corpses in our living area.

7th of Felsite, year 163
Official log of survivors, written by Lolor Martyrdikes

I have lost track of how long we have been here. But I know that our ranks are getting thinner, there are no more than fourteen of us alive.

Since the previous leader died to wounds caused during the rebellion, I have been assigned to lead this group. I have appointed Shieldpeaceful as our new sheriff, as she is the only other council member alive.

We are trying to get some more food from farms, so I ordered that everybody must help Shieldpeaceful. More food means better chance of survival.

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While the dwarves tried to survive inside the small chamber, elven caravan arrived to the fortress. Poor elves never knew what was waiting for them, and so they approached the entrance without hesitation.

The silence confused the traders. Where was everybody? Why nobody had came to meet them? So many questions, but they had no answers yet.

Well, the poor elves ran straight to group of demons waiting downstairs, near the depot.

Without weapons the elves had no chance against the demons. Fortunate to them two of the six traders were able to escape the wrath of the demons, hopefully spreading the word of what had happened in Craftwaters.



8th of Hematite, year 163
Official log of survivors, written by Lolor Martyrdikes

There are only three of us left who still own at least a little bit of sanity; me, Shieldpeaceful and girl Merchantiron. Rest of the survivors, nine from twelve, are insane, and we don't expect them to live much longer.

So, it's up to us three to start living again, and first task after the farms have been set up is to move all the corpses littering this chamber to somewhere out of sight. So, I mined small room next to this chamber, where all the corpses can be hauled. I know it's not much, but at least we don't have to suffer from the rotting.

11th of Granite, year 163
Personal log of Knifeled

This is the last note I write in this diary. I hope it survives so that people in future will learn from our mistakes.

Our defense has been broken, and the demons are rushing towards us.

I gave the order to seal the safe chamber by closing the floodgates, perhaps giving enough time to our masons to build the last piece of wall dedicated to the sealing. Everybody who happened to be inside the chamber when the floodgates were closed will hopefully survive, as they shall not come out before the situation has calmed and the demons have left this fortress. I don't belong among those lucky ones, as I saw that my place is among the soldiers, to give orders and help the wounded ones. All our military leaders are dead, and I'm the highest ranking officer still alive and able to give orders.

I have accepted my fate, and I wish that some day the survivors can emerge from the chamber and rebuild this grand fortress. For it would be a shame if everything is destroyed just because of our greed. And I wish somebody will some day find this diary and learn from our actions. For we have learned that adamantine is dangerous, and should only be mined if the immediate sealing of the vein is possible. We did not have that possibility, and now we are going to die in hands of Lilith and her army of demons.

I'm coming, Armok!

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Even though the few though the safe chamber was sealed by floodgates, the chaos had spread inside it as well. Because of loosing so many friends all of the dwarves were spiritually in bad shape, and it was only a question of time before somebody snapped. The first dwarf to do so was the former clothier Peakedlance. Due the all chaos and misery she had seen she went crazy and begun punching and kicking one of her fellow dwarf, Tradedwinters.

As there was no soldiers nor guards sealed inside there was nobody to stop her, and so she was able to keep mauling the poor dwarf.

In the meanwhile one of the masons was able to finish the wall to seal the chamber from outside world. If the dwarves locked inside were able to calm down and reestablish the food industry, perhaps there was a chance that they would survive. At least the demons had no way to enter the chamber.
'

Outside the chamber the demons kept killing everything living in their vicinity; dwarves, animals, anything was free meat to the demons. The carnage had already extended to the second floor, where all the stockpiles were.

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13th of Granite, year 163
Official log of survivors, written by Kogsak Bootcloisters

I have been elected to be the leader of this sad group of survivors. That means I'm also the new mayor of this fortress, though I do not like to hold that title. But, since somebody must be in charge, I accepted the position.

First day inside the chamber has passed, and the situation is not good here. Twenty-four dwarves are living here with me, rest of the population was left outside to the hands of demons.

Our morale is getting low. Nobody likes the situation, and the voice belonging to the entity calling herself Lilith is speaking in our minds. She keeps recalling the names of the fallen dwarves, at times mocking us of how poor fight we were able to provide. She also tries to convince us to let them inside, as our death will be swift if we do. I know she is just trying to get us to fall from sanity, but we must hold on tight, we can not let our spirit to slip beyond hope.

Unfortunately few dwarves have already beyond our hope; Tradedwinters, Actedropes and Fealtylabor have gone mad, and they are attacking anybody coming near them. Nobody wants to stop them, as getting close would only mean beating to death. I blame nobody, as I'm myself a coward in my hearth, and I'm just hoping that the three dwarves' sanity return so that we can work together.

The following hours revealed to the dwarves of Craftwaters what Skinnywalled had released; the demons of hell and, with them, Lilith herself.

In dwarven mythology there was no mention of such character, but in human mythology there was. It was said that Lilith was some kind of mistress of the demons, perhaps even one of the first created. By who and when there was no knowledge nor theories, but it was believed that she led the huge army of demons in hell.

During the centuries dwarves had encountered demons, mostly when they had dug too deep, there were stories of even armies of demons spotted in the ruins of old fortresses. But nowhere were mentioned that the forces were led by somebody or something.


So, the demons were set free, and those had clear path to the fortress. The first dwarf who fell under the monsters of depths of hell was who else than Skinnywalled. The cook Astesh Idolirons saw the whole thing, and she was even able to flee before the demons noticed her to share her tale.


"From personal diary of Idolirons

What I saw today I can not describe. But I have to try, as the image of what happened to Skinnywalled is burned in my head.

I saw her emerge from the adamantine mine, and right after her was dozens of strange things. This was right after the strange voice spoke in my head, mind you. So, later I learned that Skinnywalled was able to breach the hell itself, and released group of demons, led by demon called Lilith.

Now, right after Skinnywalled emerged from the stairs leading down I saw her face, filled with terror. She tried to run to me, but one of the demons grabbed her with winged arm, preventing her to flee. At that point Skinnywalled tried to swing her pick towards the demons holding her. She succeed hitting the thing, but there was no harm caused by the pick. By then another creatures had come, and begun kicking her down. Arms, legs, everything was broken by those savage kicks, and after there was no working part of body left in Skinnywalled one demon kicked her in head. I saw the paw going through the skull, blood, pieces of shattered skull and pieces of brain flying to the wall.

It was too much to me, so I begun to ran, and never looked back again. I'm surprised I'm still alive."


The news Idolirons brought startled the whole fortress. Every soldiers was ordered to group in the hallway leading to the adamantine vein, though the hope was already lost. Few dwarves heard Knifeled muttering something about "I told her, but she didn't want to believe. Who is the fool now?" It was unclear who Knifelede meant by "she", but popular believe was that it was Soapalope who she meant, as Soapalope was always against the preparations, saying that the tales were just that, tales.

23rd of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

The forgotten beast is dead!

Unfortunately the military took some serious casualties, though only one baby has died so far.

Besides the dead baby four soldiers received some heavy wounds. It appears that the dust the creature was breathing was very corrosive, melting anything it touched.

Worst damage was caused to Icesilvers. Since she lost the baby during the battle, and since she has lost few other children during her time in Craftwaters, according to doctors the chance that she survives this is very, very slim. The poor lass was in so bad shape that the only thing we were able to recognize her was the fact that she was carrying her dead baby. We were even surprised to find out that she is still alive, though the breathing was very difficult.

Second wounded soldier was Bombur. Even though there were some serious wounds in his skull and chest, and even when the doctors suspected that his heart has taken damage, I still believe he will survive this. But time will tell.

Third wounded soldier was Granitewhiskered, the captain of the squad. She took some damage to his head and chests, but the worst thing was that she lost her left arm completely. I saw a pool of melted skin and bone on the ground, and basing on what Bombur was able to tell me indicated that her left arm just melted away. I can't imagine how much that had to hurt.

The last wounded dwarf was Flickermetals, though as he was trapped inside the cage due passing out while standing over trap, we have not been able to determine his wounds yet. But I fear those are grave too, at least how he looked inside the cage.


24th of Obsidian, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

Granitewhiskered and Icesilvers are already under the diagnosis. It may take a while, as the doctors noticed that the dust is still corroding their body. Both dwarves have already lost parts of their bodies, like lips, eyelids and so on. We fear that none of the dwarves will surive this.

17th of Opal, year 162
Personal log of Knifeled

The husband of Icesilvers heard about the incident that happened yesterday. Gods, I have never seen him so angry. He rushed to the station point where Flickermetals still was, and begun mauling him with his axe.

In his fury Releasedmansions beaten the shit out from the poor dwarf, wounding him very badly. Others weren't interested in stopping him as they all saw this to be justice. Flickermetals had, after all, no reasons to hit neither Icesilvers nor the baby.

Apparently the wounds, even though those looked bad at the first glance, weren't too serious. Broken nose should be the worse thing left from the beating Flickermetals got, so no harm done there. Personally I too believe the beating was justified.


OOC: Great, just great! Look what you did Taricus!  Why you had to die just about ten days before release? 
But seriously, looks like I don't have to mine adamantine at all, I think I'm dealing with full tantrum spiral sooner or later.