Season 19 Excerpts from:Journal of the Overseer
Autumn, 1055
As we began shoring up our defenses in the caves, the ogress squad joined with the goblin army. Without a good target, they were aimless and quite boring. Most of their infighting and squabbling were non-lethal; those subordinate were not willing to risk engagement. that hardly meant, however, that they were competent in the way they followed instructions.
Well, it's autumn, and we're expecting the caravan. We need that metal, and a few sock thieves aren't going to stop us. Inside, we reviewed our options, which included collapsing pockets of Earth beneath them and carving our fortifications. ultimately, we went for something a bit more . . . fun.
Seeing as how there was confirmed to be no mummy inside, we knew there was no danger of a necromancer re-animating the corpses.
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The zombies were slow to react to their freedom. They made no real attempt to leave the tomb until one seemed to trip out the door, and then, seeing the sunlight, slowly filtered towards the door. The first ones out didnt go after the goblins, but instead attacked wildlife, which attracted the goblin horde.
The ogresses, however, decided to attack the trap door I set up. which is fine, I put it there for a reason.
At first the conflict was rather muted - goblins were beaten one on one, but we expected mediocre training to lose to unnatural strength and endurance, and all our experience pointed to that being the case. But then the goblins got excited and rushed into the tomb. I would like to think that they thought they had found a secret entrance into the fort, but who knows why they all picked up and went.
I was enthralled by the whole ordeal. I was afraid that due to the zombie triggering the traps inside they would be too few in numbers to impact the siege, but due to the goblin's sloppy tactics the zombies were more than capable of providing a chance for us to attack.
Unfortunately I was interrupted with spam from my messengers. First the loomworkers were unable to find webs to spin, which is ludicrous. There are over 25 webs scattered in the cave. Then, a child had a mood, claimed a shop, and decided to inform me he was constructing his project. Runt, although I am happy to see one so young becoming so industrious.
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With the main force off hunting zombie skeletons, the ogresses were isolated and easily picked off by both our cages and our military. We lowered the Depot bridge and calmly waited for them to resurface.
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As the frenzy of goblin-zombie combat ended the goblins returned to their siege posts to find our door open. We wanted to test our weapon trap as well as clear out the scum as early as possible, so we planned our usual ambush. With no survivors to tell of how we do it, how could they know our usual plan?
Once again the block room would serve its dual-purpose.
Although a few fell into the pits, or got mangled in the weapon trap, more made it through with a few wounds. As they took the predictable shortcut through the block room we slaughtered them. More pushed through, and eventually tried to circle around us, but we were both numerous and organized. Pushing the tide back, we charged into the Depot area, intent of driving the rest off.
The siege was broken and there were perhaps one or two survivors. I have never known the goblins to halt their hostilities once incensed, but one could always hope.
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The artifact child came up to me, and showed me the first piece of good news regarding odd moods I've heard since arriving in-fort.
A floodgate worth almost 100 thousand dwarfbucks. Praise, its functional and lavish!
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A migrant wave arrived, however the migrants refused to cross the tombs and enter our fort, appearing almost frozen in space. It was although they didn't belong here yet were struggling against an invisible rope to make it. After a week of watching their non-stop exertions we left them to their fate, for better or worse.
Notably, a trader was spotting making a small camp, as they were before the zombie sieges. I'm watching them . . .
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Cleanup of the topside siege has been slow and unwieldy. We have the wounded Besmar starving to death while haulers bring in trinkets and our carpenter received four poundings for failure to make chairs. The new mayor, a lowly furnace worker, was immediately replaced with a more competent and predicable stone crafter. He never ordered good dwarves beaten. I will not lose a member of my original seven to a hopped up blue collar rock-roller. phah, the nerve of the beard.
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When the miasma in the hall got particularly bad I went to go check up on Besmar. He wasn't there. I freaked out, searching through the miasma for his body. I couldn't find it. I checked his tomb, and he wasn't there. I searched my logs and could find no trace of him. Nobody ever recovered him.
I went to the training room to ask the boys where he was, and lo and behold there he was, leading an axe demonstration! With a sigh of relief I ordered a physical on him, and it turned out his broken leg had actually healed on its own, and he got up and walked off to train the military without informing me. That guy . . .
The carpenter was not blessed with such healing, and is resting in our hospital.
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An elvish ambush! Rather, one animal trainer and his personal war polar bear squad. A small nuisance, the team missed a chance to pick off a hauler but murdered his cat, sending him into a fit. Luckily, a goblin was spotted skulking and was chosen as the next target. We assembled and marched on the force, which stood no chance.
As we recalled the military, a caravan arrived, with both a human and dwarven diplomat. well, I say human diplomat, but . . . it was about the ugliest human I ever saw.
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A second elven ambush! This one was a bunch of war-bow* wielding nancies. As we summoned the military from the block room a second war party appreared, toting what amounts to elven clubs. Phah, as if their wooden war hammers were comparable to good old iron.
(an elven-only bow that retains the original 'bow' stats while every other bow and crossbow is from 'broken arrow' mod)
A third party sprung from ambush as we readied the soldiers. This one consisted of war polar bears.
The red dot is by the new squad
As we moved outside a fourth ambush revealed itself to the north west. Elite bowelves! If that wasn't enough, it appears as if a fifth ambush appeared from the north, elves riding giant slugs and firing their wooden bows.
The fighting was intense, and as we chased off one group of hippies another seemed to materialize.
What started as a fairly pitched battle soon descended into general chaos. Dwarves became separated and vulnerable, and even more slug-rider appeared:
Perhaps too late to affect the battle, more giant ticks rushed forward to suck the blood from the field.
As the battle wound down, we had lost little, and gained even less. Wooden crap and some more valuable hides
I conducted business with the caravan for their wares, over thirty thousand dollars. Unfortunately the forgotten beast roasts were not brought topside yet, and so I temporarily returned the metal bars and weaponry, instruments. I believe this has helped us immensely, with three of the most important civilizations witnessing our victory. Our wounded are being collected, and the winter air brings that crisp satisfaction that makes me actually enjoy the open air.
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Topic: The Last Fort [FIN] (Read 16341 times)