Chapter 9: Fire and Sword
Journal of Thrakha'zaguul.
Granite 253
A new year dawns on Ghoshash Snazaga. We have not yet grown rich, but we have plenty to survive. Our crafts-orcs have created fine bows, swords and spears; and armor of leather and bronze: the warband grows strong and the clan-holding is secure for the time.
At the new year council the ale flows, and plans for the coming season are formed. Warchief Broken Mind and Ranger-chief Firehawk bring a report from the miltary. Clanmates! it reads: With your support we have crushed warbands of the treacherous elves and the savage tigermen. However we will soon face greater foes and for this we need stronger weapons. Our brave raiders have stolen the plans for a Heavy Weapons Armory from the proud humans. Our intrepid miners have rended mithril from the depths of the earth. It is the time to reform and modernize the military! However the clanmates reply: We only have 8 bars of steel, and 1 boulder of mithril, and a few scraps of coal. Your reforms may take more than a few new-moons. In the end the clanmates agree to the following.
The bow-warband wants stronger ammunition to face armored enemies, so the Fletcher will be assigned to make some metal and gemtip arrows. But the clanmates agree: we will not today raid the elves for great bows or enchanted arrows. The Orcish Arrows squad takes on 1 new snaga recruit, and now has 6 total.
The gun-warband has two muskets, and wants to use these black powder weapons to crush our foes. The clan agrees to smelt 20 bars of silver and mint 20 stacks of coins. The Freelancers will then use this coin to obtain bullets. The gunners would like more bullets than this. The clanmates suggest that the gunners could jump into a bottomless pit and see if they find some more bullets there. Gamerlord and Cpt. Higgs form their own 2-orc musket detachment (The Gory Muskets). Our flachette-gun squad, The Plague Gunners drafts 2 more snaga to fill the slots, 4 total.
The melee-warband reforms. Our master swords-orcs design a new heavy warband uniform called the 'Juggernaut' kit. Juggernauts will use patternwelded daikatana crafted from mithril and steel at the Damasc shop: a longsword as deadly as macuahuitl, but with a razor edge that penetrates all but the finest armor. Juggernauts will equip tower shields and platemail: upgraded at the Heavy Weapons Armory from orcish armor, steel, and Dwarven tools. The clanmates agree to several more raids on the Dwarves to collect steel and toolkits. Dohon and Mavj create a new squad in the Juggernaut pattern (The Black Elders) and are given the highest equipment priority. They also collect 2 new recruits.
Broken Mind is given promising fresh Uruk and Orc recruits for the Malignant Dances, 6 total. The Dances equip fine spears looted from the fallen elves and steel hammers stolen from the dwarves, with light armor of lamellar leather and salvaged mithril mail. The Orcish Arrows and the Malignant Dances maintain the highest degree of order and readiness while the other squads 'modernize'.
Taskmaster Trak'Ruhn has his goblin shanty-workers make some magma-safe stone anvils for the new Heavy Weapons Armory. Miners extend the exporatory shaft into the eastern side of the cavern finding some more interesting materials: emerald and wolfram deposits.
Slate, 253.
The factory turns out mail and shields for the new recruits; and weapons for ongoing Raids. Miners dig out the found silver veins for coins, and for the hope of striking more mithril. Craftsorcs turn tigerman-fur wool into yarn, then to bags. Bags are needed by the Damasc artisan to hold mithril powder. The artisans have organized a forge shop-floor towards production of Juggernaut equipment, although for some time they will still struggle with shortages of steel and fuel.
A group of 24 migrants, bringing our numbers to 80 adult orcs. Among them a legendary woodcrafter and several other Artisans. Best of all, the renowned Tomia175 has arrived and brought with her an entire detachment of four dreamwalkers! Tomia is a legend for her medical skills and even has a bit of experience with a sword. Tomia speaks: I bring my travel-clan to found a Sorcerer's Temple. This powerful and dangerous arcane knowledge is forbidden in soft large cities, but is needed here in the savage wilds. Listen: the wealth and martial prowess of Ghoshash Snazaga draws the attention of the Barbarian Nemesis, Meph the Mysterious. What will you do when he arrives, with a century of dwarves, three-dozen of cave crawlers, a squadron of iron men? Perhaps you will shut the gates and starve? Perhaps you will open the gates and die with glory and valor?
A mighty cheer of VICTORY OR DEATH from the clanmates. I am not sure this was exactly Dreamwalker Tomia's intended rhetorical point, and yet the miners already run eagerly to delve her temple.
Tomia175 has been inspired and claims a leatherworks! Behold, "Amazedspewed the veiled Coils," a tough leather jacket, with tough leather spikes, and with images of an Armok's shroom in tough leather. Perhaps it is an omen.
Gwathlobal and Tomia convince the Raiders to begin to attacks on the Drow to get some extra bloodsteel for the Altars of Storms in the new temple, and see if we can get anything else of value for the Dreamwalkers. In fact, we are very lucky, in just three attempts we get already an Arcane Forge blueprint, Raise Dead spell, Blademaster weapon society codex, and a couple packs of darkmoon arrows. The bad news is that we have now transformed every tree on this site into charcoal or longboats. Now that we have cloth crops for sails and rope coming in it is probably past time to switch to xebec raid ships, which use some less wood.
The flachette and musket squads, sharing the duty of patrolling the keep, have some friendly competitions.
Felsite, 253.
We furnish the Great Hall with enough tables and chairs for the clan, but just with rock furniture at the time. Miners get a big soil cavern delved for fungiwood and pigtail farms, and for wolf-pups to grow and train.
A wereskink is detected by the watch-geese, and soon is driven away by volleys of fire from the ranged squads. But, this uses the last of the musket-balls in hand. Just as the first peasant orcs exit the fort after alert: they run into a Elven spear-squad at the back door! This time the patrol is lead by an elite Druidic bow-elf.
The elf gets off only one shot (clipping the wing off a stray condor) before the melee orcs tear him to pieces. The spear-elves scatter but we let them run without chase, wary of a counter ambush. Bow and Flachette rangers post to the wall turrets. Indeed an Elf unicorn archer-calvary squad arrives shortly: it is good we were not caught in the open. One or two mad elves are mounted on giant thrips and gunned down as they attempt an assault on the wall. The bow-orcs cripple many of the unicorns, but their bone jagged arrows glance off the assassins' fine elven armor. We unlock the back door, and the melee squads stand ready. The elf captain is perhaps our first worthy foe - respendent in mithril mail, a Druidic sworddancer with the skill to match any of our champions with a blade. At just this critical moment Firehawk and Ilena leave their post and rush downstairs! only to reemerge a few seconds later. *Twang* One shot, a glint of the sun off a copper arrows head, and suddenly the elf lord stands grasping his bloody side in disbelief. *Twang* A second shot, a rush of darkness and chill air, and the elf falls to the ground, destroyed utterly by the fell enchantment of Firehawk's darkmoon arrow.
The melee orcs rush from the gate and slaughter the remaining calvary as they flee: the cowardly elves still hold practically full quivers to recover. Firehawk is slightly disappointed to learn that the vaunted elvish archers carried composite bows of no better make than our own, but we do recover a three-dozen of enchanted arrows.
Hematite, 253
I take a break from stone detailing the atrium of the Dark Temple space to finally meet with the Clan Liason. Those decadent fools are still willing to pay a premium for goblets and many sorts of crafts.
We give the money-grubbing Freelancers more hard earned shillings for ammo, and Gamerlord unloaded half of them already into one giant red panda. Gamerlord speaks: it is better than a giant red panda eating the farm-snaga! Although snaga do not cost so many shillings. As Hematite moon comes to an end, we find another 11 migrants. Broken Mind finishes the panda off with a single strike from her war-claws.
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Topic: Ghoshash Snazaga, "Cleaver of Ignorance," a ¤MDF Orc Fort¤ tutorial (Ch 22) (Read 100945 times)