I seem to have left my "Make Soap From Nothing" reaction in...oops.
Oh, and Ashton is wearing a larch (kind of wood) helm, with an image of a highwood in pine. When will this madness cease?
EDIT: I decided to start an "alternate universe" to pass the time. So far, the manager made an artifact mechanism, the caverns have been breached for wood and silk, and the trap field is almost complete. Oh, and BTW, this contains a little spoiler for what is outside the walls. Also FYI, this is LONG.
Slate 1, 7
I promised I would drive off this siege. It's been a month, and my plans have almost reached fruition. Soon, the entrance gate will fall, and all will see the might of Armorsouls.
The gates open, the ettins charge towards the western one, as the eastern one has been walled off. They must cross a bridge that we made but do not seem to care. They have waited for months for blood, and think they are about to get it...
Meanwhile, life is going on normally inside the walls. Bridges are built as roofs, well a roof, walls are put up, and masterwork mugs are made.
Suddenly, a tigerswordsman is caught in an entrance cage! An ambush! Curse them! No others are spotted, but that means little.
The ettins reach the south bridge earlier mentioned. Their leader lags far behind, as he lets the archers charge ahead. The foremost of the archers pass the kobold corpses, mouldering in the harsh glare of sunlight. A couple tigeraxemen are caught, and a couple others flee.
...Why are the ettins taking their time so much?
Slate 2, 7
The forerunners pass the corner, the swordettin lagging behind, not even near the bridge. ingiz Gildodor notices one of the marksettins and flees partway through making a brid...wait, why is there a gap in the wall? True, it is past a pond, but I thought BrickT said he fixed all of those holes!
The first ettin reaches the gate...then the second...then they are caught, and the third reaches the gate...more and more prisoners. And still the swordsettin has not reached the gate.
Oh dear. Kubuk Bookmurk, a recruit wielding a dagger and a river spirits barrel, holding an oak shield and wearing a highwood helm, and with sutures and bandages wrapped around a copper spear in his right upper leg, is wandering carelessly into the area where some ettins may soon wander...Indeed, three have passed the first trap line by passing over the traps that caught eight of their kin and four tigermen.
And still the swordettin has not reached the bridge.
Kubuk drops the river spirits, noticing the crossbowettins rounding the corner. He charges at three and enters a martial trance, but aside from avoiding bolts little comes of it. One of the three takes a shot at a domestic animal--I don't know which one--and returns to close-range fire. Four others close, and the swordettin is ALMOST at the bridge.
However, Kubuk can easily hold them off. His stabs have already put one of the two-headed deuces in extreme pain while Kubuk himself has a bruised kidney and a couple cuts. I order the others forward...oh, is it the 3rd already?...and the swordsettin has FINALLY reached the bridge. Almost a day after his men reached the gates. One of the lead-from-the-rear types, I guess.
Slate 3, 7
Kubuk has left the martial trance. Several marksettins gang up on him, while one decides to charge forward--or limp, rather, as he is the one that Kubuk gave a broken right hand, a fractured left lower arm, a fratured left upper leg, and a bruised right lower leg. A couple of fools decide to store...something...in the stockpiles. They notice that now ALL of the non-caged ettins are charging, despite Kubuk's attempts at stopping them.
One is caged. Another two. Two more. One left, plus the swordsettin, who has crossed the bridge. I order the militia to kill the leader. However, Kubuk is too busy, engaged in a deadly dance with the last uncaged marksettin. Kubuk cuts the ettin's foot, but no other wounds are notable. Dastot Breedbolts, a swordsdwarf (excellent choice, given the first name) and Geshud Bridgeddeep, wielding an elvish pine sword, come to aid their dagger-wielding spear-in-leg companion, as do Lorbam Citykindled (a recruited marksdwarf) and I.
...And, of all times, a tigerwoman thief appears and charges toward the fort. Likot Rithast quickly slices off a leg, then a hand, then a foot, then the same lower arm that had the hand, then that same upper arm, then a hack in the lung, then she died. At some point the last marksettin got killed or caught, and the swordettin FINALLY got around the corner. Several dwarves, including a couple soldiers who just wanted to rest, got interrupted by the late appearance of the swordettin. And...a swordbold showed his stinking face. The soldiers gang up on the tigerman, leaving the swordsettin free to walk into a cage trap.
Ah, wait...
Slate 4, 7
Which is less expected, that another day passed without my noticing it or that Ashton is now unconscious, with head, upper body, and feet cut open; head and upper body bleeding; lung broken; and spine fractured?
in addition to the swordsbold, three bowbolds have been spotted, and there may be others still. No, wait, there's a fourth out there. Wit, someone smashed in the swordsbold's head. Swiftly, the bowbolds are cut in half--not literally--and the last couple flee. We give them a run for whatever they use as money, though...great, five marksgoblins and a macegoblin. What's next, a couple minotaur snatchers fightin over who gets to steal Datan?
A silver bolt hits Lorbam, a recruit, in the foot, knocking him over. Now Obok Channelguards. Now Dastot Breedbolts...we may be doomed if action is not taken. I order the gates to be closed. May Asmel have mercy on my soul, surely He understands...And now Dastot is dead, his brains bashed out by a goblin crossbow...now Ibok, punched in the brain...now Lorbam, hit with a morningstar. I order a retreat to around the bend of the entrance.
The goblins are in the fortress! I broke the siege, but doomed the fort! Woe is me...
But what is this? Three of the bowmen stumbled into cage traps! We may have a chance...
Slate 5, 7
Urvad Toolclouds fell unconscious. But the goblins seem to be fleeing...and some cyclopes, lashers from the look of them, show up. Five, but one was caught. Another, too, but two others got through the trap field and another is running along the outside of the wall. Odd.
Our defenders are being pounded, this being the second group of large humanoids to attack in the past week. No rest, battling for four days nonstop. Some were slain, some fled when the foes seemed defeated to rest and lick their wounds, unaware that others were around the corner.
And now another tigerman thief, who is destroying Geshud Bridgeddeep. I must not flee...must stay...THIS IS ARMORSOULS! YOU ABYSSALY-SPAWNED ABERRATIONS SHALL NOT TAKE IT!
DocHeimer collects Ashton from the battlefield, or maybe Kogsak Inkedforests, a metalcrafter caught in the melee...but he wanders further, seemingly intending to collect all of the fallen.
Likot bled to death. Urvad was lashed in the head. Doc dropped his wounded, mumbling something about the wounded in his hospital being more important than those in the field or something like that. But he mumbled and ran when he should have...run faster? I dunno. A lasher started lashing and gave Doc into pain...then a lash to the head, and the wounded are doctorless.
Another day passed, unnoticed.
Slate 6, 7
Geshud somehow escaped the thief to gain the non-coveted position of "keeping a cyclops out of the fort by distrating it with his prone, weakly struggling form." Yes, gallows humor. I need it to keep sane. Remember what happened to my sanity the first year? This is worse. Ah, Geshud is dead. That cyclops is the last here, with also only one bowbold around. He lashes the metalcrafter in the head, killing him, before chasing Ashton. Impressivly, while the latter cannot strike at the former, the latter is blocking the foremost's...look, Ashton's staying alive, staying alive, oh-oh-oh-oh staying alive and all that. However, the cyclops is also chasing Edem Salveletter, a beekeeper, and Bomrek Gearrooted, a mason, into the western gate area that I had walled off. The cyclops will chase them into the corner and kill one or both after finishing off Ashton. WHY IS EVERYTHING I DID TO KEEP EVERYONE SAFE BACKFIRING HORRIBLY?
Slate 7, 7
Aaand Ashton is dead. The cyclops lashed at his heart and then his mind. I feel like such a failure. But...he is running from the deadend towards...Mistem Crewlance, a leatherworker, and ingiz Gildodor, a farmer? ingiz gets head-lashed, as does Mistem. This last lasher--Dostust Hatebrigand the Past Colors--is a great scourge to this settlement, wielding a silver "chain whip." Truly, if--nay, WHEN--hes slain, I will have his whip mounted over my door...somehow...
Unib Intensebootsm a woodburner, and Domas Craftcrux, a butcher and axeless axedwarf, are attacked next, in the front trap corridor. Unib flees, leaving Domas to take the punishment. Where is the militia? Cut down to four, all needing rest. Including myself, I shamefully admit. Oh, and the butcher got head-whipped...and the cyclops, blundering towards Unib, falls into a cage trap!
A week after the gates were opened, the carnage-finally-ended. Oh, and someone actually pulled the lever, interesting. I order BrickT to be the new chief medical dwarf and decide to let someone else take over Armorsouls.
