The dwarf walked across the glacier and the stranglers followed.
Strong winds tugged at his drakescale armor, and you could almost hear him grumbling into his beard. Just... just that this dwarf did not grumble. It wasnt efficient. It served no function. And this dwarf, he did not do anything for a reason. Which is exactly the reason the majesty the king himself selected him and sent him to Hellfire. The outpost liasons and caravans reported a vast army of tigermen besieging the fortress, and no sign of life was seen from it for several seasons. So this dwarf, some call him a specialist, others call him a beardless son of a goblin whore of the grandest kind, was sent to solve that problem.
Scouting the hills he counted over 100 invaders, tigermen, mounts and their general. He made his way to the fortress gate and scaled the ice walls. Inside he took a glance around, noticing piles of unsorted crafts lying in the open, an unused trade depot and a staircase winding down towards the mountain below. He started to descent...
The dwarves that saw him where shocked. Long time underground, isolated and cave adapted they looked different from this foreigner, who strode, leaving puddles of molten snow behind, to the mayor.
"Read this" he said.
The mayor, while suspicious, did recognize the royal seal, still unbroken, and began to read. A decree, giving the leadership of Hellfire to their new, temporary overseer, a dwarf called Meph, for one year. The king is worried about the lack of progress from this his outpost and wants a full report.
"Who is this Meph ? And how will he and his entourage make his way to here, with the invaders outside ?" asked the mayor the scout in front of him.
"I am already here" said Meph. And smiled the tiniest of smiles. And not a very pleasent one at that...
The first day he met with all the dwarves of status, gathering infos and touring the fortress. The little that existed. About 10 workshops, no industries setup... he quickly ordered a meeting of the nobles and stared at them with cold eyes.
"Is this a joke ?"
No one dared to answer. The Captian of the Guard was playing around with his dagger, the mayor just stared at the floor, only The Prophet of Armok was brave enough to at least look at him.
"So let me sum this up for you. You are free to correct me, whenever I am wrong of course... Lets see: This fortress has 79 inhabitants, 30 of them children, and from the working 49 there are 12 idle. The rest is doing not much. Most of the workshop are horribly cluttered, there are no industries except farming and some stoneworks. We have 500 plump helmets, but they are not allowed for cooking. There is not a single drop of alcohol in this fortress, and the only watersource is one lone well with a 14lvl drop till it reaches water ? We have no livestock to speak of, and some inbred bastard thought it was nice to train the only mastiff for hunting. HUNTING! On a glacier! We have 1 Miner, but 6 Woodworkers. AGAIN, ON A GLACIER WITH NO TREES! There are no weapons, no armor, no mines, no metal, no fuel. Only a quarter of the people have beds. The military is a joke, and the only burrow is a single room without access to water or food. You have hundrets of olivine stones in every hallway, but disallowed working with it. Besides the 100 man strong army outside the gates you did breach into hell, with no hope for migrants or caravans coming by ? There are not even bins or barrels aviable, all goods clutter up the few stockpiles you have, and no one can brew anything ? And the worst part ? Each one here is jolly good friends with everyone else, AND EVERYONE WILL FREAK OUT IF ONLY ONE OF YOU DIE!"
Silence. Still no one spoke.
"Raze it all down."
"I want every piece of furniture broken down, every room redesignated, every workshop deconstructed. All stockpiles deleted, and FOR ARMOKS SAKE STOP THE FARMING ALREADY. We have 500 plump helmets, no need to waste time planting more. Build a stoneworking area, I want 6 masons, 4 crafters, 4 stonecutters, 4 magma safe workshops and 2 mechanics up and running by nightfall. Oh, and sent everyone up to the surface, I dont care if the puke out their heart, as long as you get rid of cave adaption, your military is even more useless with it. Make stone bins and barrels and start to brew more drinks. I want the diningroom wall razed down and more wells, lets say 5, to be build there. All legion and berserker dwarves should sign up in the military, and all labors will be reassigned by me personally. Oh, and one last thing: You are all fired. I will put a less useless selection of dwarves into your positions. You can leave now"
After this harsh welcome the dwarves of Hellfire seemed to find some new reason to work. The reason are unfortunate accidents that might happen to anyone who did not do what this bastard from the mountainhomes demanded. The first thing that happened was the closing of Cavern lvl1, as well as the opening of cavern lvl2, building cagetraps and a moat with bridge first. Woodcutters started harvesting the crystal trees in relative peace, and some silkwebs were gathered and made into cloth. The wells gave water, while the stoneworkers started producing bins, barrels and buckets, blocks and furniture. 3 more dwarves where ordered to mine, the brewers went to work... soon enough the stockpiled looked better, the food was stored in barrels, the crafts in bins, the legendary jeweler started producing valuable tradegoods. A little magma area was dug deep below the earth and the smelting of ore began, very slowly at first. Old ghosts were put to rest, the new nobles got their rooms. Even the peasants got their own rooms, with beds and cabinets. Everything seemed to move upwards.
Deep below the surface a special project was developing. Enough Iridium was extracted to form a wafer, and Meph himself went to the newly build Temple of Armok to pray for a Golem Heart. And with this one try he did recieve. The golem forge was build within the week and a couple of peasant volunteers selected to serve as Hellfires new military. 3 of them were sent against the dark strangler siege. 3 massive metal constructs against 100 unarmed stranglers. They had no chance. Limbs were ripped off, blood was running down the glacier, and even with stranglers piling up on them, a single fist through the head did kill the enemies general, breaking their fighitng spirit and eradicating the siege. Distracted by this victory, two misfortunes happened in the fortress. The first one was the unusual initiative of the Captian of the Guard, who did beat a criminal to death. A criminal who was a friend of everyone else. Far away, below the earth, extracting strands from raw adamantine, Corai was suddently stricken by a sadness so deep that he stopped to work, stopped to eat or drink. He now wanders the deep, melancholic, waiting for a slow death. The other strike against Hellfire was the arrival of a huge force of antmen, in cavern lvl3. Locked away from the fortress they pose no acute danger, but as long as such a big invading force is nearby, no caravan will risk trading with us.
A higher level of technology was developed after the success of the golems was seen by the dwarves. Research on weaponry and armory started, but proved unsuccessful so far, adamantine weapons are in production and the magma smelters are working full time. A magma elemental did sneak in, but was quickly dispatched by the milita commander and his stone axe. Sadly a peasant was mauled to death and almost plunged the fortress into chaos. Having lived so long in isolation the dwarves of Hellfire do know each other way too well.
Meanwhile Meph sat down at his desk and wrote a letter to the king. Sesmingly all the problems were solved, but one. A tantrum spiral was unavoidable, sooner or later one would destroy this outpost. Drastic measure were needed... a cleansing. To ensure the survival of the fortress the current population had to go, and must be replaced with new dwarves that are not as close to each other. Meph pondered about this for a long time, and then decided that he could fake a big battle, causing deaths, inducing a spiral he would prepare the fortress for. Golem guards and dogs to catch straglers, the mightiest and most dangerous inhabitants would go down in a battle before the tantruming even started. He ordered 5 Golems more to be build, 20 adamantine battle axes, and went to work... to invade hell.
The dwarves of Hellfire, sure of success and drunken with greed, agreed to the plan of attacking hell, not knowing what would await them. The old wall was razed down, staircases were build in the hollow spire and the demons came. Many fell before the stout dwarves and their shapr axes, the golems proved their worth, and a team of 6 even made it down to the very bottom of hell. Sourrounded by webs, the demons did converge on them from all sides. In the end, 43 demons died, but hundrets more came and replaced every one cut down... and so the number of the dwarves dwindled, and the shaft was shut down once more. The last named hero, Aseaheru, went berserk in the hospital, killing 5 of his injured brothers before he could be locked in. He earned the name "Shadowmatches the worthless Galleys" for his crimes. The rest of the population went mad, melancholic or died to berserking dwarves and children alike. But the plan worked. 12 Migrants did arrive, migrants with no connection to the slaughter, no bad thoughts and no friends in the old fortress. They were quickly equipped with finest adamantine armor and weapons, strong enought to even repell a gremlin force in cavern lvl2 and a tigerman siege on the surface. This show of strength was too early though, and many paid with injuries that no doctor could heal... in a fit of dwarven geniuity the named their squad "the bald demons" to honor their fallen brothers.
Meph, Barricedkeyes the glossy Spatter of Ruthlessness, did survive the battle against the tigermen and even a brawl with a brute of steam. The only other survivor of the demon massacre is the Golem Mayer of Hellfire, Disuth Clobberdlashed, who now serves as a voice of reason. Devoid of any emotion he leads the newcomers to rebuild the fortress. He himself cant do much work unfortunately, since he lost both his arms and both his legs to the demons. How he was rescued is unknown, but he resides now immobile over his folk.
Unnoticed to the dwarves, the forgotten beast Daslut arrived in cavern 1. A giant glass python emitting deadly dust, it swims in the cavern lake, unseen and unknown so far. Unable to reach the fortress this uninvited guest poses no threat to us.
Another group of migrants did arrive, and despite the slow death of the last remaining former inhabitants, the population is back up to 30 dwarves, even the lifestock amount is growing. The jewels of our pet population are a golden goose and an armored war dog. The food and booze supplies are plenty for such a small group, and adamantine euqipment is ready for the new army. The only dislikeable part is the active siege status, with another underground ant army in the still unbreached third cavern. And of course, the woodworker... a seemingly vicious dwarf, that sneaks around and was cought staring hungrily at other dwarves, muttering to himself about flesh, delicious flesh... he was quickly lured into an empty room and walled in. Another simple, no-nonsense reaction by Meph.
But deep below, in cavern 1 the forgotten beast managed to enter the fortress. Unknown how it achieved this it was seen in the basements, slithering with its glass body, making horrible scratching noises and carving deep slashes into the floor. The track was easy to follow, and that is what Meph did... no one of the militia went down when they were ordered to. I am hungry, I must eat, I am tired, I must sleep, oh, sorry, my equipment is not good enough. Cowards, all of them. From the 9 dwarves in the squad only two went down to meet the beast. One was the Chief Medical Dwarf, curious about the deadly dust and afflicted syndromes. The other was Meph. And there it was, a 40ton beast, the size of 10 elephants. A giant phyton made out of glass, fuming foul vapors from its mouth. With adamantine Axe and Spear ready they attacked, chipping away glass here and there, dodging the blows, dancing with the beast. Shattering the body with his axe he felled the beast, and the Chief Med Dwarf cut of its head with his spear. But of course it was too late. Both of them were hit by it's dust, and lay down with heavy bruising all over their body, exhausted and blind, losing hold of both weapon and shield. Helpless, next to the splintered corpse of their enemy. Waiting for help, waiting for the full effect of the dust.
Both were brought to the hospital and awaited a long recovery, but they survived. The danger was over. And as a shining bright testament for the deeds, seemingly a reward for the hard work, a caravan arrived, together with a diplomat. The newly appointed broker traded away jewel-encrusted goods worth close to 50.000 dwarf bucks, buying an endless supply of plants and meat, fish and booze, wood and barrels, seeds and tree acorns. One farm was from then on used to grow fungi wood, since surface farming proved impossible on the glacier so far. The diplomat sat down with the Golem Mayor, supervised by the still injured Meph, and together they decided what the fortress needs best. With a small army and few dwarves a better defense system is welcome, as well as the higher developed arms and weapons of the mountainhomes. Landmines and turrets, blueprints and magic tomes were ordered. As to prove a point a goblin ambush was spotted near the main entry, and the combined forces of Hellfire and the caravan guards could repell them, with only one guard falling before the vicious lashes of the greenskins. None of the dwarves of Hellfire did die, but the hospital was in a flurry of activity to cope with the many injuries. With newly made soap and traded cloth and thread this was almost trivial work.
OFFTOPIC
(the last four chapter I had to play twice, I did have a crash because I had too many programs open and my netbook doesnt like that one bit. I tried to replay them as close as possible, but if some items/walls are slightly different, you now know why. EDIT: I did replay it by now, and the only difference is that the traders arrived with wagons and even more goods, the goblin ambush was held back by the now bigger caravan guard alone, with a slade great axe, no less. And the forgotten beast is still in the caverns. I did allow myself a short period of fastdwarf1 to store the bought food, since I hate to replay things I already have done, especially boring things like stockpiling. Please excuse this lapse.)
Life continued in the fortress. An artifact was made, laughing dwarves watched cowardly goblins flee the battlefield, exploration shafts were dug and ore was found. The biggest part of the winter was spent hauling... the traded goods, the rubble, the clutter. The bodyparts of fallen enemies were made into finest crafts of bone, and food and booze was plenty. The old adamantine mine was reopened, and the upper levels of the spire excavated. The hatch that leads downwards was kept tighly closed however.
Meph in the end, fully recovered:
Overview:
Comparison from one year ago and now:
One day, the dwarves of Hellfire have sworn, we will open it again.
Short summary:The fortress was the worst one I have ever seen. Nobles unhappy, no bins/barrels, almost no beds, wrong burrows, everyone friends with each other; meaning long times as idles, constant sieges, no mining, no ores, no metal, no weapons, armor or ammo. And no booze and only one well, which still baffles me, because of 500 plump helmet lying around. Raw, uncooked, unbrewed...
I did solve the immediate problems, worked from the start towards golems and adamantine, solved the siege problem, and decided to get rid of all the "friends" by invading hell, making heavy casualties and forcing a tantrum spiral. I thought the golems would survive, but only the golem mayor did, luckily 2 migrant waves appeared to save the day. The caravan was epic, bringen 4 wagons and 2 packanimals, setting the food/booze up till end of time. Rest is pretty standard. I couldnt do much to make the fortress "nice", I had little time for that.Recommendations for future overseers:
- Next year the caravan has turrets and blueprints, prepare at least 100.000 in tradegoods. Easiest way: Adamantine Masterwork Items. - You have tons of gems and a gemsavant child. I hope he grows up soon.
- Use the butchers to use up all the bodyparts, making bones
- Build a dozen kitchens to make all food into lavish meals
- Try to build an outdoor farming area
- Recruit more miners and dig an actual fortress that looks nice
- Ranged units are lacking so far, make a crossbow/gun/javelin squad
- Seriously get the weaponry and armory going, for upgrades
- No Golems or Mages, not with so few dwarves
- Keep the caverns closed for now, except some woodcutting maybe
- A roof over the fortress entry would be nice against archers
- The save actually ends mid-winter, to give a month for the next player to get used to the fortress.
Stock screen
Before After
Meat 27 320
Fish 5 492
Plant 549 309
Seeds 261 681
Drink 0 1529
Other 55 1014
Wealth 134926 1479937SAVE DOWNLOAD:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=6246
Author
Topic: HellFire-The Masterwork succesion fort! 34.05 Be glad its not evil. (Read 33021 times)