CHAPTER 42: Fire and bloodFall of 117
The fortress carries on without incident, until some early fall morning when Immortal-D announces the arrival of a new monster.
''it's another giant bird! It has come to avenge the fallen Elk bird king!''
It flies rapidly above the volcano, and is heading toward BASE1's entrance. I mobilize the Turquoises of Hair, and Immortal-D has the Contests of Fortifying on the move. We can hear the monster stalking us on the other side of the door. It speaks in a strange tongue, screaming and cursing. No doubt an ancient vengeance wish spoken in name of the Bird king, which was slain in Whisperwhip this spring. I'm afraid that the beast's words may hold some secret power, so I order everyone to swarm the creature. Poisonous stings are not the deadliest of abilities, not with the dodge training imparted by Immortal-D.
Charge! The beastslayer is the first to charge outside, and shoot the monster at point blank, shattering its spine. The now quadraplegic Osprey crashes to the ground. The troops jump on him and pummel it to death. It's so one-sided I actually feel sad for the thing. I express my feelings out loud.
''Do not feel sorry, general, warns me Immortal-D. I can understand the things it said when it arrived.
''Veangeance, Justice. Fire and Blood''. The ancient birds of the world have sworn an oath to see this fort perish by their talons, and more will come. We cannot rest, I'm afraid. Not until all the birds in the world are dead.''
I dismiss Immortal-D's words. The son of manager Stukos is a great soldier and leader, but his reports are delusional at times. Whisperwhip has known far worse than birds, especially if they are all as weak as Osnusm the Osprey.
I'm told as we get back upstairs that a child was overtaken by some strange mood, and withdrew to a craftdwarf workshops, taking the traditional ressources of this fort with him. Ugly stone, red zircons, and various parts of hyenas and dingos. I can't wait to see what uninspired mug he comes up with. Not.
As long as the caverns are not easily accessed, travelling up and down is a pain in the ass. We'll need more backpacks and flasks, to accomodate the new trainees. Quivers, we have plenty. Work on the second bridge room is suspended for now, thanks to Tun ordering about 10 new querns last season.
Oh, it's a scepter. Again. We have trice as many scepters as we have nobles, but great job, kid. The rise of a generic goblin as our enemy is truly the most important thing to capture about the history of this place.
Speaking of craftdwarfship, the slab for our old beastslayer has not been placed yet. Better put it where it belong, that Ustuth may finally rest in peace as she deserves. Her death was most weird. Doctor Melbil confirms that it may have been an infected old wound from a feline, but it was reopened and magnified overnight by the spell cast by the forgotten beast that Ustuth vanquished. Her sacrifice will not be forgotten.
Enough thinking about dead soldiers, let's focus on live ones. During her recent fights, Drokles the lasher has become a mistress of her craft. She is now a formidable dwarf indeed, despite her absolute pessimism. Her nickname is particularly interesting. Drokles Saviormetal, the Friendly River of Machines. does she wish to apprentice as a mechanist? I'll talk about the mayor.
Nevermind, the mayor is busy mentioning that we are out of wood every seven seconds. That's annoying. I tell him to shut his idiot mouth, grab an axe, and venture in the caverns to fetch some by himself. Hey, Drokles, we have a temporary spot open in the mechanical department!
I'll let the mayor suffer quietly in the caverns, maybe for a few days, before I tell him that he has a new guest. I watch the horizon as the new Law-Giver of the Lavender Empire crosses the plains and head toward the fort.
Oh. Fuck. Shit. By armok, an ambush springs out right above the lawgiver's head. He's way too far for us to do anything. I order Asmel to murder what she can and make the corpse disappear. If anyone asks, he never made it, we never saw him. He's the 5th lawgiver of the Empire since Quula left the position 3 years ago. It's apparently a more cursed job than teaching children to fight off the dark arts ever was.
speaking of magic, the encrusted gems in the workshop room continues to grow. One of them is now surrounded by the bones of no less than three megabeasts. I swear someone in this fort is crafting a bone golem right there in plain sight.
Right before the end of fall, the farmers announce that a pig has died of starvation. Their numbers have grown quickly during the last year, and now they cannot feed themselves. I relegate the issue to Dumat, who puts the slaughtering courtyard to use once again. I have more important things to manage.
For example, this goblin sneaked right to the entrance of the fort. Could it be that cutting the number of soldiers of the wall was a mistake? Three fighters and a lion give chase, but the greenskin manages to outrun even the king of the jungle. Curses!
His friend appears as the fighters return, and attacks a child, knocking him aside. The fighters chase after him too. This one isn't so lucky!
And yet, it turns out this was just a diversion. The first goblin followed the fighters to the fort, and made off with a baby while his friend distracted our guards! His parents are incredibly upset!
Immediately after the kidnapping incident, no less than 5 barn owls revert to a wild state. they are torn appart by war lions and dingos, as their owners stare at the scene with horrified looks on their faces.
The barn owls are not going down too easily in some parts of the fort. One dingo, which I assume is the real Slim Shady, is getting it's ass kicked by a fucking bird. Then three more barn owls join the frey, and start causing a havoc.
A hyena close to rebelling is inspired by the barn owls, and tries to eat a puppy. Why did we even bother with pets.
At least the situation outside is contained. kobolds have joined the fray, but a soldier manages to intercept them before anything bad can happen
again.
Oh shit even more bird attacks all of a sudden. Could Immortal-D be right? Are the birds rising up against Whisperwhip, like the Osprey proclaimed? No, I will not believe such stupid tales. I am a practical man, not a superstitious lunatic like my newest squad leader.
Someone crafts a harp to calm the owl. It sort of works, but only because the number of barn owls is now basically a sixth of what it was before. TrifflingPaddle will be placed in our vaults, alongside Kel's artifact drum.
Ah, Kel and her recent obsession for drums. She is decorating everything she can with a picture of this instrument. Her team of bonecrafters have been hard at work. Bags and armor pieces are being beautified everyday. Buckets are especially awesome in Whisperwhip, the average bucket being priced at 1000 urists. A third of the bonehoard has now been emptied. According to Led, we now have close to 300 totems. I send Dumat to trade them to our fellow dwarven merchants, alongside any wooden equipment left by the elves, and our tons of used cloths. There is way too much to bring to the Depot in time, but Dumat gets in two solid trades, obtaining drinks, some metal and high-quality bolt, as well as steel armor for the recruits. He gets rid of over half of the intended trade goods littering our stockpiles. A good merchant visit, all and all.
As the year draws to a close, Immortal-D barges into my office once more.
''It's the third bird this year! Do you believe me now? This one breathes fire, just like I said! fire and blood, the birds are here to get their revenge on us!
-Silly idiot, stop lecturing me and get your squad down there!''
This majestic Grouse of Fire is up to some nasty stuff. It foregoes the fort, and instead demolishes the steel door leading to the lower levels. The hatch cover is next, torched by the firey breath of the giant bird. The creature remains there, chanting something strange, while sitting at the entrance of the unexplored depth. What kind of dark creatures is he summoning from below? Immortal-D doesn't want to find out, so he orders his guys to charge.
three dwarves go in, while Immortal-d and Catten remain outside of the fireball's range, shooting with their crossbows. Once the beast has been slain, they immediately change back into their civilian clothes and walk back casually, without looking back. Because cool guys don't look at explosions. The battle went very well, with nobody getting injured in any way.
the corpse of the creature is glowing, still on fire. The three melee dwarves move in to investigate, and attempt to haul the corpse back to the surface to butcher it. Then smoke fills the air, and the small chamber leading downwards turns into a thick mess of ashes and nauseous gas. The corpse of the Grouse starts to flicker, and explodes in a goey cloud of blood.
Now Endok is glowing as well. He doesn't know what the hell is happening, but his name is flashing rapidly. This shouldn't be happened. Why is his name glowing. Tell me now game, tell me now.
Lor and the Unburnt Doren are also flashing now. What the hell is going on? None of them bears any scratch! What kind of sorcery did the Grousinder cast upon the party? (Grouse+ cinder, actual pokemon concept I'm selling to game freak live)
Nothing in the caverns below. The ground around the creature itself is filled with a strange liquid, which nobody can identify.
I check medical records. Doren was once diagnosed with a forgotten beast syndrome. Maybe that's what this is? Lor and Endok are also part of the Contests of fortfifying, so this could just be a result of an old syndrome. Maybe the flashing is harmless, or a bug. Doren has killed 3 beasts, and faced quite a bit more, now is not his time. He is the most badass dwarf we have here, so a little bit of smoke isn't going to shake him.
Doren explodes into a geyser of blood. Every single part of his body starts to exhudes a torrent of sanguine liquid. There is so much blood around that a cloud pops out of his body the instant this issue kicks in, mixing up with the smoke to create a brown fog around him. On the plus side, he's no longer flashing.
lor is trying to get out of the cloud, when suddenly, he too transforms into a geyser of thick brown smokey blood. He starts to get up, and finally exits the cloud of heavy smoke left by the burning bird carcass. He starts heading toward the base, where he'll receive some much needed medical care, and a medal.
lor's name is no longer flashing. His body starts to bleed heavily, tho, and within second every part of his body is now pissing fluids everywhere. He looks in front of him, up the ramp, where he hope to find the exit, or some help.
...But there a few meters in front of him, the only thing he recognizes is the lifeless corpse of the unburnt Doren, slayer of many monstrosities. Doren didn't make it far. Lor knows the same fate awaits him. He stops, and collapses on the floor. The corpse of the two comrades now lie together, lifeless, bathing in a pool of their mixed blood.
Quickly, everything is forbidden. nobody is going in there. There is nothing we can do to save those poor souls.
Immortal-D stares back at the cloud of smoke and blood, clenching his fists. At this very moment, he knows that Endok is in there, waiting for the flashing to stop, and the life to erupt out of him. This is the worst fate imaginable. ''It should have been me, he mutters. I'm their captain...'' He wants to mourn the death of his friends, and honor their noble sacrifice. After all, they died to slaughter an ancient beast, and save the fortress. Yet any amount of joy he can find in this soon turns to sorrow and bitterness. He knows, deep down, that this isn't over. More will come.
Vengeance. Justice. Fire and Blood.
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