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Our uniform shall be blood (red)

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Danger room training shall be forbidden.

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 02, 2013, 03:22:42 pm

[Wastedlabor]

Udib turned out to be prescient, for it was Wami, who had crashed on the mistery lake's shore not long ago, the one that had found the way into the fortress.



"Where's the king!?", yelled Urist McKiwi IV, in the middle of the chaos.

If further proof was needed about the fact Wami had been sent by McDuck himself, king CaptainArchmage III's reply came from the upper side of the staircase.



"Stay back! He's coming after me!"

The staircase was terribly dark and cramped. All squads were called in, but it took them the longest time to even find the way around the fortress. CaptainArchmage couldn't wait... plunging from the top of the stairs, he jumped onto the beast.

"In the name of The Strategic Bodices -- king CaptainArchmage III, leader of the Crazed Picks and ruler of Moltenchannels, shall slay you!"

CaptainArchmage slashed Wami's legs and wings left and right, struggling against the tangle of oozing chitinous limbs.



Balls of fire hit the king multiple times, until his chest was a charred, burning mess. For all his might, the king's body was too small to counter the firebreath, and he fell down the stairs completely enveloped in flames.



"Majesty! Majesty!", yelled Urist McKiwi IV and Ringo, the first ones to arrive to his help. They couldn't see where the king had fallen, for Wami was right between them and the bottom of the staircase.

They both started to fight, hitting the beast again and again, but never reaching the head. One of their pet Black Mambas jumped also on Wami and injected its venom into it, but Wami seemed to be immune.



"We need to get through, Ringo!", gasped Urist, having trouble to find the air to breathe.

Ringo was a smoking mess lying on a corner. Wami was still crawling up the stairs, now with every part of its body except its head broken and bleeding ichor.




"I don't think we are gonna make it", whispered Ringo. Those were his last words.

Mighty CogDiss followed by several recruits joined in. Another blast of fire lethally caught the reluctant manager while reloading the crossbow. The recruits Doren and Morul were turned into crisps too.

Finally, the bone carver Ast Leopardblockades', Urist the Grey I's son, used his anatomic expertise to hammer Wami repeatedly until he skillfully crushed its head.



As Wami exhaled its last breath, the rest of the dwarves rushed in to help the wounded.

Ringo was found still breathing, but shortly after he bled to death. So did Urist McKiwi IV -- and in his honor, Ast the Wami Slayer decided to take his name.

"Where's the king? Can anyone see the king?"

"King CaptainArchmage!? Majesty!?"

The dwarves ran down the stairs, but found absolutely nothing at all, apart from the burning ashes from the battle.

"Where's the king!?", asked Cutey, ready to tend his wounds.

Udib walked down the stairs, calmer, but equally stunned.

"The king... is not."

"Did he burn to ashes? There's no trace of him!"

"I don't think so. This is McDuck's work... CaptainArchmage has probably been dragged down into hell... back to Ardentdikes."

If there was something the dwarves could be certain about, it was that there would be more horrors awaiting ahead...

[Wastedlabor]

Note: The king's body did indeed vanish. I don't know if it was completely burnt, or just glitched into non-existence. There was no death message, neither it showed up in the bookkeeping records.

[notquitethere]

The second monarch to be burned alive by a forgotten beast! If it happens again, we'll have cemented another Moltenchannels tradition.

[Wastedlabor]

Worth noting also that Urist McKiwi managed to die four times in 20 years.

[Urist McKiwi]

Worth noting also that Urist McKiwi managed to die four times in 20 years.

Three times actually. The second one legged it (actually renamed to McZombie, then renamed back to McKiwi IV) with a wheelbarrow of stolen treasure. Possibly the most sensible of our overseers. Can you make sure my fancy armor/sword gets passed on to McKiwi V as well? They've been used by 3 of the McKiwi's so far, and I'd love to set this up as a tradition (unless V isn't a swordsdwarf, in which case the sword can go to someone dashing enough to use it properly).

Edit: Pocket guide to McKiwi's:


McKiwi 1: Drained by a vampire before I ever took a turn.

McKiwi II: Not very dashing siege weapon operator. Learned necromancy from a book stolen from Udib, left fortress with stolen candy leaving behind "Undead decoy" to seek a life of prosperity and not getting killed by horrible abominations.

McKiwi III Dashing swordsdwarf. Originally naive, but eventually became an actually competent leader. Somewhat immune to the possessive effects of McDuck. Tried to expose Udib's scheming to the King and her protege shortly before her death. Completely co-incidentally, unless McKiwi IV decided to keep the letter, everyone she told is now conveniently dead. Died of old age at the same time as UristTheGreyII. Quite dashing indeed.

McKiwi IV: Promising new recruit in the militia (actually a re-renamed McKiwi II) picked out by III as a successor before her death. A fairly normal soldier, with some leadership abilities. Died horribly and painfully in battle just now. Not especially dashing, but probably managed a moderate sprint at least.

Mad Meng: Honorary McKiwi for services to bees.
 

[CaptainArchmage]

Oh hey is this still running? I got an email a while ago but circumstances prevented me from taking up the fortress.

[Urist McKiwi]

Oh hey is this still running? I got an email a while ago but circumstances prevented me from taking up the fortress.

Indeed it is. Wastedlabor's finishing up the current year, but I think it's your turn after that if you're free.

You just got horribly burned to death then cast into a temporally frozen hell-dimension, BTW.

[Wastedlabor]

Last post of the year once the forums stop being hammered. 

[Wastedlabor]

It was times of sorrow for the dwarves. Even Udib had been haunted by the dead. The order to fill the hospital's water reservoir had been given, but then they realized they had no patients to treat -- all the injured soldiers had died.

The Royal Axe Lord completed an alpaca leather shield named Failedsmash the Defective Burdens. He took the name CaptainArchmage IV in honor of the fallen king, even though some dwarves were a bit resentful that he spent all the time in the workshop during the fight.

The dead weren't all buried yet, and the search for the lost king was still ongoing, when a horn was heard at the walls.

"Looks like the smoke from Wami's fires has attracted some distinguished guests!", joked Psuedonym.

Two squads of humans on horses had arrived at opposite sides of the fortress. Dark storm clouds were looming behind them, and the animals were tired and covered in mud.

"That's not much, considering what we've seen", said the old blacksmith AnimaRytak.

"I say we call them to the gates and show them some dwarven hospitality!", said Brofist Starwhack Shotgrasped, impatient to learn some marksdwarf skills.

"There is something wrong here...", said veteran (and Udib's lover) Troll Fur Sock Craftloves. She was one of the original seven, and had seen plenty of sieges already. "It's like not all of the human squads made it to the fortress. They must have met some disgrace on the way here... and it may still be on their heels."

Rain started to fall heavily, and, as if it was a signal, the stormy winds brought wafts of rotten stench.

"I think those humans will soon regret to be here for war rather than to seek refuge", said Udib. "Human pride shall learn a lesson tonight."

Soon the fortress was surrounded by the undead, led by two dwarf necromancers: Lokum Axeowls and Id Typhoonboards. The gates were kept bolted shut, while the humans and their horses were recruited into the dead horde.

[Wastedlabor]

The fortress was quiet while the zombies stalked around. Mad Meng climbed to the walls and cunningly waited for Lokum Axeowls to walk past to shoot a few lucky bolts.



Badly wounded, Lokum had to run for the hills, while Mad Meng, Sebastian2203 and AnimaRytak had some fun shooting zombies with the cultist crossbows. Udib felt tempted to join, but he forgot again to pick up some ranged weapon. Mad Meng grew quite fond of his, after scoring seventeen kills.

Autumn arrived.

A magma crab escaped the volcano, where some of the work on the ancient dike had been restarted, and chased Lucky II around the inner walls.



Before anyone could rush to help, Lucky II stomped it, taking only some bruises and a broken finger. She was indeed lucky it wasn't anything worse, because Cutey the nurse had decided that was a good time to organize the first party of the year.

Akusm the gigantic theropod arrived to the caverns, and Stongun Nightmarecurse the titmouse was heard fighting a zombie in the plumbing of the old hall. Although nobody was really keeping track of all the beasts anymore.

"We still have work to do in the depths of the fortress", said Udib. "It's time to open some slits on that underground lake playa and find out what's on the other side."

Still a bit drunk from the party, Cutey finally fixed Lucky II's finger. A ghost of a soldier that nobody remembered was floating over his bed, haunting her.

The work on the temple was almost complete. Someone found the other vampire of the fortress lost among the many, many cages. Litast Letmosrul was in a complete state of berserk, threatening anyone who came any close to him.

"I better keep an eye on him", said Udib. "Put him close to the caged necromancer, and just in case we ever need to use him, link the cage to a lever in the temple."

And then, suddenly, screams and altercation was heard downstairs. Everybody rushed down to the deep royal chambers, where the stairs to the mistery playa started.



"It's walls... there's a fortress on the other side..."

"It's a demonic fortess!"

"It's the doors of hell. What are we going to do!"

"I'm 108 years old, I'm too young to die!"

"Be quiet! Everybody be quiet!", yelled the mayor Urist the Grey III.

"This is not it yet!", said Udib. "The seal is still in place! But, yes... sooner or later, we'll have to ensure there are no breaches in it! Now you finally understand why we need to be prepared!"

[Wastedlabor]

Winter arrived. Goblin ambushers started to fight the zombies, followed by herds of gigantic tortoises (clearly sent by the elves, which were too coward to show up themselves). Everybody was warring out there to take over Moltenchannels and its secrets.

Olith the peasant zombie went on a tortoise murdering rampage, until one of them became enraged after it broke her shell. Olith was promptly chomped in half.

The demonic fortress had remained completely quiet. The cultists reassured everybody the seal hadn't been completely broken yet, but few dwarves could sleep at night.

With the new threat looming over everybody, the old works started to get completed. The upper walls of Moltenchannels appeared to be mostly finished, the bridges in the ancient magma dike had been linked to their rusty levers, and magma tunnels had been carved to allow flooding the fortress from inside, if the aboveground mechanisms failed. And finally, the hospital was ready to get them through whatever new horrors they had to survive.







The siege seemed to come to an end as new year approached. The volcano dike was open finally, after some failed tries, and ten of the spike traps in the corridor to the demonic lake were linked to another lever in the temple.

Udib's rule wasn't ideal in the military department, and everybody started running around trying to figure out what to wear. He felt his work there was done, and it was time to retire into the temple and let someone else take charge of the gritty aspects of war.

[Wastedlabor]

Save file: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8765

Notice descriptor_shape_standard.txt is modified, and the inorganic_ raws are for IronHand's tileset.

[CaptainArchmage]

Is this save for me? Well I’ll try to get around to it.

Do old saves work on 0.40.01?

[Urist McKiwi]

Is this save for me? Well I’ll try to get around to it.

Yes it is.

Do old saves work on 0.40.01?

Almost certainly not, but you could try a test if you like....getting new migrants would be pretty awesome. Plus since 0.40.01 is brand new, it's likely to have the usual fun set of bugs. Probably best to stay on the old version until we breach hell and kill the fort emerge victorious, then do a new fort in the new version once it's working reasonably well.

Edit: At some point, I'll do a retrospective on 20 years of Moltenchannels....since we've now reached that milestone.

[Triaxx2]

First order of business, make sure the minecarts are still running.