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Iron Fist

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Voting closed: December 15, 2013, 05:37:07 am

[exodius1]

Spoiler: Chapter XXIX Addendum: Talks (click to show/hide)

Solymr managed to get into RIN HQ, after convincing their secretary that she has some more important things to do. She directed her steps towards KB's office and entered to find it empty. Light was coming from under door to his dining room. Solymr entered and locked the door behind her. Kb was sitting at his table, cleaning and maintaining his new blades. She waited till he acknowledged her presence.

'You know, I was always under an impression that one should announce themselves when entering someone's quarters.... Maybe I was wrong. How may I help you, Ms. Solymr?' KB did not look up from his swords, still cleaning them with a small spider silk cloth.

'You need to stop this right now.' She asked.

'What? I know spider silk is expensive but it works best with steel polish I am using.' KB did not look up from his task.

'You need to stop with the secrecy, the tyranny, the propaganda and the power games with the rest of the fort.' Solymr's voice was ethereal, as usual.

'I beg your pardon? Secrecy is my job, I was sworn into it by the King. Propaganda, one way or the other, will exist without me. And I am not one causing any power games. Now tell me, even if I would why would I listen to you? You are nobody. Just a glassmaker... Unless there is something you are not telling... Ms Glowyeyes.' KB was looking at one of the blades in close details, examining how did the cleaning went.

'I know you want this fort and their inhabitants to survive, but all the secrecy and fighting is hurting our chances. One of the biggest issues is the backdoor entrance to the fort that apparently no one here knows of except your agents.' She continued.

'Now, aren't you a funny one... Let me tell you a little secret, but in return I want to know one of yours... There is no backdoor entrance, the defences of this place were pathetic before we entered the scene. Now it is nigh imposible to get in or out without my knowledge. So tell me, Ms. Solymr, WHAT are you?' KB finally looked up at the glassmaker.

'I'm nobody. Just a glassmaker. Now I need the real answer. How did you get in the first time?' Solymr tried to change subject back onto what she wanted to know.

'Ah, aren't we a little liar... And pray tell me, what happened to your voice? Did you smoke one too many quarry bush leaf cigars when you were but a dwarfling? No need to hide things from me, I will figure them out sooner or later. And "later" may involve a lot of sunshine.' KB ignored the question posed by the dwarf before him.

'Stop trying to divert my attention. It doesn't work with me. Neither does any kind of intimidation. You probably noticed that some people already know of the existence of the backdoor. Where is it?' Solymr did not show any anger with her face but her tone made the message clear.

'There is no back door. Stop trying to interogate me, it is my job. And you did not answer my question either, as an uninvited guest I presumed you would show a little bit of courtesy. Seems that once again I was wrong.' KB continued to look at the Glassmaker, untroubled by her tone.

Solymr looked straight into KB's eyes.

'I'm not the uninvited guest here. I remind you that you came here without explanation on how you entered and why did you really took control of this place. The most baffling thing is why you insist on antagonizing Flame so hard when he has the support of the fort and you both have the same goal. I know you're not trying to eliminate him because you had many chances of doing so.' She said.

KB sprung from his seat with undwarven speed, grabbing front of Solymr's shirt and shoving her against the wall. One of his swords, the one with the goddess of fate, was in his right hand, placed closely to Solymr's throat.

'Now listen very carefully. I do not know what you are. I know that you are not supposed to be here. There are no records or mentiones of any migrant that mathces your description. Unless you want to find yourself in a very uncomfortable position you will stay out of my way. I am not going to listen to a lay man, much less someone who is clearly not one and yet pretends to be.' He said straight to her face.

Solymr smiled. The conversation was going according to the plan.

'I'm sure you will listen to this: Red's death was deemed an accident because no one knew that an assassin could get in and out undetected. What would happen if they knew? Unless you try to make this right, this will happen: no matter if I die or I live, the information that Red was murdered by an assassin and that you are conceiving who did it and how will come out. Flame and the rest of the fort is waiting for an opportunity to brand you agents as enemies and revolt against your rule I'm not afraid of dying. In fact me dying would put you in a very tough situation.' She continued, sure of her victory over the Overseer.

KB returned the smile. Finally someone who knew how to play the ball.

'That assassin was here before our changes. And yes we know about him. Or rather knew. I will let you on on another secret, just because amuse me. That person worked for a private arms dealer and was caught trying to assassinate royal blacksmith. And Blacksmiths security was not half as good as ours is now. The assassin squealed everything before even anyone mentioned torture. I was told he even defecated himself before the hearing. That arms dealer, and all his friends, family and accomplices were captured, interrogated and executed as traitors to the state.

As for your death and the supposed rebellion... DO you really think King would let it go unpunished? Do you really think I am the best agent he could sent here? I propose you rethink that, because if anything happens to me this place will be put under martial law... And not the nice kind of it.' KB pulled away his sword and pushed the glassmaker towards the doors. 'Now kindly leave, if you ave nothing important to say. I have some more work to do.'

Solymr ajusted the shirt and softened the glare.
"Thank you. I'll talk to Flame and explain that you aren't too bad after all.

Now I'll tell you something. This place has interested entities out of this world. Some of them try to destroy it and some try to make it prosper. I work for the first to fail and the second to succeed.

But I'm sure you knew some of that, since the founder of this place and good friend of Flame is now the King's advisor."

Solymr opened the door and left quietly.

[peregarrett]

Oh. That was... stylish.

[flame99]

So the alternate thread I've been working on may die before it gets started. A siege has just arrived, and I've yet to even locate all of the entrances, let alone figure out how to secure them. Still, I'll try to hold out.

[exodius1]

I know Flameboy does not like to double post so I am posting this just in case he wants to post something^^

[exodius1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPatfgoNBRo

We will come back to the story soonish, and as the new title may suggest it will be RIN-centric (so what else is new?). I do hope you are enjoying the story so far... If not, why are you still here^^

[flame99]

Dwarf-o-cracy: The Story of a Dwarvern Republic (AKA Murderwheel: The Succession Fort) is live! The first turn will be up soon, and if you want to reserve a turn, please post in the thread.

[exodius1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is an aftermath of one of RIN training sessions, there are some leftovers from prevoius ones but majority is fresh, also there is some in the Arbiter box as well but I could not be bothered to take a picture of that^^

[exodius1]

Alright, so as a proper teaser here is the updated map, get a good look at it^^

I will start working on the update on Friday^^

[peregarrett]

waiting =)

[Solymr]

Hey welcome back! I missed this.

[exodius1]

Spoiler: Chapter XXX (click to show/hide)

We found it was a message KB was attaching to post-bats leg. King will be pleased, he knew that for sure. Now the difficult part begins.



~~

‘So what now?’ Sunshine has asked when RIN secretly met in the arena to train.

‘We train, fortress militia train and we wait for the order to retrieve it' KB answered.

‘What is it?’ Blade Weed Pudding pondered.

‘Not it, girl. It. And you will know when we find it.’ KB gave the answer to the former bonecarver. This girl managed to sabotage highly sophisticated mechanism and was a great addition to the squad... And Flame’s face when he saw her in uniform for the first time was priceless to KB.

Sunshine scratched on his adamantine suturing.

‘I wonder why the doctor used Adamantine Strands.’ He said with his usual smile. ‘Works the same as normal thread but is much more wasteful.’


~~

The wait to scout the ruins seemed to be justified so far, not only undead had been seen on the site, things that were much more nefarious also called it their home.


~~

Sometimes just killing an opponent is not enough. Sometimes their corpses are hung outside the walls for intimidation.

But sometimes dwarves go a step further, Likot Tulonosust has gained his place in the fortress by doing something rarely done... taking a limb of one of the enemies of the fort and making a useless trinket out of it, signifying how little they mean as beings.




~~

21st of Felsite 24 seemed like a perfectly nice day. Elven Caravan just arrived, despite all the previous ones never returning, snow storm has passed and even the food tested better, or at least less vile. But nothing is ever perfect in the world.
Goblin siege has swept through the land, and was upon the gate in no time.

‘I cannot lock the gate!’ One of the peasants screamed in panic. ‘The Control doesn’t work!’ All the eyes in the fortress turned at Pudding.

‘What?! Not my fault, this time!’ She pouted.

‘Everyone to the gate! Hold the positions!’ Ordered KB.

‘I AM THE MILITIA COMMANDER HERE!’ Flame responded. ‘Everyone, do what he said!’


But before everyone could get to the battle stations the inner door broke, letting in a wave of blood-thirsty trolls. Luckily a part of the siege has been locked outside by the peasant who figured out that he was supposed to pull the lever instead of pushing it.

As the battle started Flame disappeared into the Depot and no other dwarf saw him for the rest of the battle.

‘You suburb son of an elf!’ he was heard cursing for a brief moment before mass of green bodies obstructed the view completely.

Cobalt Trail gave display of their full potential, by bashing punching scratching and biting through the enemy ranks.

Kb was not far behind and he has shown what made him the warrior that he is.



The battle inside the Depot has ended decisively in favour of the defenders. After the last head was bashed in the combatants could take stock on what have happened.

KB looked carefully around at unharmed dwarves. Most of them had no more than couple of bruises. He had noticed something amiss.
‘Where is Flame?’ He asked out loud.
‘You are standing on me, you elfite!’ Croaked something KB took for just a random pile of giblets. Proud Commander has been reduced to a pile of bloodied body parts in a metal casing.
He was carried to the hospital as soon as possible but it may have already been too late, the infection took hold.

~~

‘Thank you all for coming in. As you know RIN prouds itself on efficiency and well run operations.’ He looked at the faces of gathered who listened carefully. It was a first time for many of them to see inside the HQ. ‘But this mission we cannot undertake alone, we need the support of the whole fortress. And that is why you are here. For the first time in over 20 years we had been allowed to give sensitive information to the prominent figures of the fortress.’

‘So what do you want to tell us?’ Gar stood next to the door, waiting to be allowed to go back to his duties.

‘Give me a second and I will tell you. First though I need to tell you this. What you are about to hear is very important information and I would apprieciate if you would avoid discussing it in the public.’ KB took a deep breath. ‘Here it goes: We are here to retrieve and ancient relic from the Ruins beneath the fortress. We could just take it and run but that would doom you and neighbouring land so instead we decided to ask for your assistance. If you help us you will not only survive this ordeal but also be heroes of legends.’

‘Wait, wait.’ Interupted Khahm who was substituting Flame as the Temporary Commander. ‘You are telling us to retrieve some trinket from the bowels of the earth that may as well kill us... and alternative you gave us is certain doom? No wonder Commander doesn’t like you.’

‘I admit it may sound like a foolish thing but this trinket will help us to remove all threats to our civilization. Think globally! Dwarves will stop being forced to cower from undead hordes of the necromancer! We will not need to fear our treasures being stolen by kobolds as soon as we avert our eyes from them! Mothers will not have to fear their children will be abducted when playing outside!’ KB tried to make it sound grand but he could not vouch for the results.

‘I for once approve.’ Sumyunguy nodded. ‘Our Lord would see it true that this world need purging. You have full support of the Clergy, agent of the king!’ Others looked at each other. There were only four of them, including the Priest. Gar, as the law-enforcer, Khahm, as the Temporary Commander, Vgray, as Flame’s second in command and Sumyunguy, as the head of the clergy.

‘Fine. We will see what we can do.’ Khahm responded, knowing that once Flame gets up he will have his skin for this.

~~

Flame was confused. A second ago he was cursing some goblin who managed to hit him and now he was observing a glorious display of two colours, red and black-with-yellowy-tint, which clashed in a colourless void in front of him. The sight was breathtaking, beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Flame could do nothing but watch. Sometimes he though he heard voices. Back off, you sickly courtesan! He is mine! male voice would sound. As if I would pass on such a nice soul. female voice answered. As the time went on the red colour seemed to undulate slower and slower, as if its strength was fading...

Sorry for lack of pics in certain parts, Fraps ate them^^

[Solymr]

Oh shit. Does anyone die?

[exodius1]

Oh shit. Does anyone die?

Wait for the chapter and you will find out.... But it's Murderwheel so what do you think?

[Solymr]

I think you should write it up already :< 

[exodius1]

If you want something to do while you wait go read Dwarf-o-cracy^^