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Author Topic: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse (Circus Edition)  (Read 135772 times)

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #195 on: September 30, 2015, 03:25:09 pm »

CHAPTER 83: Royal blood
Year 143
Killcount: 72


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The whole fortress is in shock. Immortal-D the second has died, killed by a syndrome after he defeated a powerful squirrel-fiend. The aftermath of the fight can still be seen all across the place. Long trails of blood, mourning dwarves, cheetahs bleeding out left and right... The bridge where the showdown took place is now a pile of feline corpses, guts, blood and miasma. Still, the population of Whisperwhip must move past this tragedy, and prepare for the fights yet to come.

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Underneath BASE1, the beast known as Xun Bloatedsucker lurks, trapped but unscathed. There will come a time where the dwarves will want to take back the middle caverns, and Xun acts as the gatekeeper. His massive syndrome causes prolonged bleeding and fever, resulting in a somewhat horrible death experience. An unlucky new migrant named Shem was the one to discover the effects, much to her displeasure, and her blood soaks the various hallways to this day.

While Xun may be trapped, and the fight delayed at our leisure, the forces past him grow with each month. No less than 25 forgotten beasts now call the middle caverns their home, a place I've started referring to as DOOMCAVE. In this cursed place, the final fight awaits, where the forces of the Wilted Sack will throw everything they have to destroy the scourges of the Windy Realm, once and for all. Weither they live to take on this fight is another matter entirely.

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Heroes rise and fall, but slowly, the dwarves learn from their past mistakes. Not the ''don't take on forgotten beasts in single combat for no reason'' mistake, for that would be silly. I'm talking about our main problem, syndromes. In time, militia commander Bembul will make a fine, strong and agile soldier out of any dwarf. Some things cannot be trained, however. Disease resistance is one of those things. The residents are called to a grand meeting, where each of them is tested by Dr Melbil, to test their ability to shrug off weird curses and sickness. A few dwarves are exempt from the ensuing draft, such as the World-Famous artist Sakzul, the rest are grouped into a new squad: The Golden Labors. Young Kubuk is skyrocketed through the ranks, and become a captain, thanks entirely to his above-average resistance to common cold. The associated noble bedroom does little to appease him of this dire fate, and he slowly sinks into various tantruming incidents. He will learn. They all will.

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Other dwarves try and improve the military in their own ways. Prince Mistem of all people soon withdraws from society, and relocate to the forges, leaving Lady grace to train on her own for a while. Adamantine, silk and obsidian are claimed...

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The resulting item is... impressive. Worth an entire kingdom, Loverrushes the Diminished Slayer evoke war and strife down to its very name. The item illustrate the wars with goblins, as well as past heroes of the military, and a group of countless forgotten beasts. what's more, those patterns and engravings repeat fractally into infinity, as the very details of Loverrushes are depicted on the item itself. Needless to say, Prince Mistem is now a legendary armorsmith. This is a grand moment for the fort. A sickly dyer once had a mood prior to I-D's death, but his crippling curse prevents him from ever completing a job.

Prince Mistem was initially a noble I joked about, but he has zealously served in the army, and will now outfit its members with top notch steel gear. Just like his late sister, he has become a core element of Whisperwhip in his own way.

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Steel, we will need aplenty. The bone crafters have used most of our supplies decorating top-quality furniture. They'll need to be relocated to other duties. They leave behind an empty bonehoard, or close to. The place was once filled to the brim with skulls and remains when the dumpatorium started to overflow. Nowadays, most of the bones have been used to beautify the fortress. What's left is a pile of mismatched chitin, teeth and shells from various slain megabeasts. A trophy room, if you will.

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Time for some more improvements! The trade depot now looks like a bejeweled game. I like to trade a few large gems from humans, which stay there all year and are then sold back to elves for pets and wood. That way a lot of hauling is saved, and we also avoid offering any wooden stuff to the pointy-ears.

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The courtyard can use a little more tweaks. It is time to isolate and purify the war animal populations. A few dogs are left near each entrance, to drag aggro, while the rest are moved atop Dogshatter Hill, in three separate pen. The large cats are stashed in the various layers of the courtyard, where we once did farming.

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Before any pet is transferred to its new home, I spend a good amount of time observing the hallways and singling out problematic pets. I have any animal that seems slightly ill or infected, as well as any pet it comes in contact with, sent to the butchers. A few months down the line, the healthy pets are now kept on the surface. Any animal that leaves the pens will not be allowed to return here. They'll probably be sent on suicide duties anyway.

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Finally, I start toying around with traffic designations. The initial plan is to improve fps, which it doesn't. It's still a good learning experience, and in time may save lives.

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Before trouble starts brewing again, I relocate most of our bonecrafters to mining and hauling duties. We'll need more marble if we are to start steel production. I'm contemplating expansion plans for the magma forges when...

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Interesting. Another Bronze Colossus. The beast is not alone, tho, as a new batch of goblins march upon Whisperwip. Capturing the animated statue is our priority, but I'm afraid the soldiers will just attack it instead if I try to dispatch the goblins. The steel gates are closed and sealed. We'll just wait this out.

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From atop the towers, we watch as our long-date enemies are getting smashed by a towering metal man, unable to hurt the creature. The goblins are agile however, and the colossus is surrounded 50 to one. It doesn't get to land blows often. This is a long, yet mesmerising spectacle.

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Maybe a bit too long. Once again, I forgot to keep track of the obsidian generator, instead focusing on goblins getting whack-a-moled. The whole thing is now filled with water.

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I can't open a hatch and let the water flow downstairs this time. That would mean opening up the DOOMCAVE. Quick, let's think. Maybe I can just open and close the magma gates and slowly turn the water into obsidian?

The gates are filled with obsidian instead, blocking them. I don't know much about magma.

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While I contemplate a solution to the water problem, more people show up on the surface. The elven diplomat is here, and he wants to complain about our mistreatment of the trees. He starts shooting insults and threats from behind the wall.  The mayor explains that we need trees to make charcoal to make steel gear. The elven diplomat doesn't see the logic or wisdom in that. a wandering bronze colossus hammers the point by punching the diplomat several dozen meters away with a truck-sized fist. The diplomat's corpse stops whining about trees, obviously understanding of the reason we need to make steel.

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The goblins decide that attacking an unkillable creature is not fun at all. After a few of them are trampled by Limul the golem, they just go home. Limul the bronze colossus moves on to his negotiations with the elven diplomat, then stashes himself under the northern wall, waiting. I tell the soldiers to use it as a target practice, but none of them can apparently reach it because of the angle. I leave them there to their own devices while I go and fix the generator.

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Step one, we'll need to cross over the volcano.

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Step two, we'll need to create a new reservoir, meant to empty half the generator and allow the water to evaporate. Why I didn't think of such a device before I sent Lady Asmel to die against Simo the forgotten beast is beyond me.

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On the surface, traps have been installed near the gates. I send the soldiers downstairs to deal with more urgent matter, so they don't kill or engage the colossus. Then I remember civilians will run in fear of colossus. I designate a tree to be cut, and lower the gates. Limul spots the woodcutter, gives chase, and the civilian immediately dashes inside, fearing for his life. The cage traps are sprung. Ka-ching, a new bronze colossus. Maybe I won't cripple the fort with it this time.

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Oh yeah, speaking of more urgent matters, a giant monster made of pig iron is rushing inside HAVEN at godspeed. It has four broad horns and a scorpion sting. It's essentially the Super Saiyen of Bronze Colossi. This could get tricky. Hell, I don't even know if caveins will work against it. We'll have to engage it in direct combat. Normally stings are not problematic, but this fight could last a long time. I'm afraid that some dwarves will get exausthed and fail to dodge a vital blow, contracting some pig-iron poisoning of sorts.

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Olin is first on the scene. he begins to wham the pig iron beast as best he can, but his weapon isn't doing much. Reinforcments show up. Still, the dwarves are unable to do more than cut open the beast, which accomplishes nothing against a pig iron body. My main concern is that the animals will get stung, and transmit the disease to the nearby soldiers. the problem is subverted when the forgotten beast begins to grab and throw the animals around as projectiles.

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Prince Mistem shows up to the fight. I was hoping he'd bring some steel bolts, but he didn't. Oh well. Our broker begins the fight by dodging a flying war lion.

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The beast is unkillable, but the dwarves have top-notch dodging training. This could go on forever... If Lady Grace took it upon herself to grab Smoothbanners like I asked, this would be over. But Kogsak is not the most straightforward dwarf in the fortress. She is known to hit her enemies with an iron bow instead of shooting arrows with it, after all. That's when her squadmate gets an idea. he begins bashing the creature with the shaft of his steel crossbow. The beast suffers various fractures.

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The bridge is raised. If the monster ignores the soldiers and head upstairs, we won't be able to stop it. This is on you, your highness. The broker bashes, and bashes, and bashes...

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The creature finally falls over, it's upper body propelled backwards by the crossbow hits. Prince Mistem has severed the beast in half, after a week of hard work.

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There may be more to him than a misguided noble after all.

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I take a look at the corpse. Both parts would take an eternity to carry back up. I have them forbidden. Whomever was to haul the two chunks of pig iron would certainly die of thirst before completing the job.

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Anyway, time is of the essence. Another stinging monster is upon us. This one isn't too dangerous, but it manages to avoid the trap and reaches the entrance door to BASE1.

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A peasant is curious, and opens the door, ending up face-to-face with a giant monster from hell. he turns around and let the army take it from there...

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Then a cyclop shows up. The dwarves are unimpressed. This gives the newer soldiers some target practice.

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Back to business. before all this clusterfuck happened, we were busy establishing a better steel industry. Prince Mistem is now a legendary armorsmith, but he lacks suitable components to outfit the military. Smelting items, making pig iron then steel bars is a time-consuming process, and we simply don't have enough smelters. a small expansion was created to the west, but it won't be enough. the dwarves begin work on a gigantic magma forge complex across the river. Silver bars are used to create a bridge, and a roof for said bridge. Getting the dwarves to the other side proves simple enough. Getting magma across the river will prove to be... less simple.

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My initial plan is to simply channel the area between magma and water repeatedly. In my head, the magma will eventually win, reach the water, and convert part of the river into obsidian. We just have to roll high on the dice. In reality, the square channeled instantly becomes obsidian, resulting in nothing but clouds of boiling steam filling up the forges and injuring people. I have all forge work suspended to avoid further problems.

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Getting pumps seem to be the solution. We don't have much experience with them (exactly zero) but somehow we have the parts required to build one. I'm assuming they were left behind by one of the exploding dwarven caravans back in the day. The damn things are magma-safe, too!

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A new channel is done, filled with water. then magma is pumped over it. the result is obsidian! Well, the result is replacing a chunk of normal stone with obsidian. we still have made zero progress. I'm not really good with magma, yo.

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Pumps are deconstructed, more stuff is channelled. My new plan is to have the place be open-air, and let magma flow onto solid flooring, so it will leak on all sides. That way we'll actually turn part of the river into obsidian instead of wasting time. It works! Moving the pump once more and shuffling walls and floors around yet another time would solve the problem, but I have another plan. I decide to take a break from this project and prepare my next moves more carefully.


*   *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *   

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While I'm slowly brainstorming ideas to finish the forge, my attention shifts to Edzul, our oldest and strangest resident. The elder dwarf still hasn't been eating or drinking, or at least none of the things he consumed gave him any thought. This is growing increasingly unlikely. I first assumed edzul may be a vampire, but now, i suspect something else.

See, I,ve been corresponding with various people who know a bit about scripting and the way this game works. My initial goal was to eventually find a way to force the queen to migrate here. I assumed she was bugged or something; after all, we did receive the message about the monarch and her entourage arriving in Whisperwhip back in the days. Legend mode tells me she hasn't died, so I assume she is... somewhere. Answers from various knowledgeable people gave me a huge clue:

Quote
That is a hard problem... The thing is there is little known about how migrants happen (or at least i know little). Maybe she is somehow hidden (like vampires do - i forget if it's in 0.34) and that is why there is no info about her?

As a necromancer, her information may be hidden, which mean we couldn't know where she was, or what she was doing. Because the game could be keeping this a secret. A shame. Thinking of dark magic got me thinking, however... What if Edzul is a necromancer? If he truly found the secrets of life and death, he could go without eating or drinking at all. This would explain so much, especially his fixation with the graveyard. I start exploring the legends of the past...

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This is Edzul's story. For 75 years, nothing is known of him. Then he spent 20 years moving from town to town, apparently hunting great beasts. He spent 60 years in the same place, before moving to Whisperwhip on a whim, at the venerable age of 150 years. The story makes sense, in a way. a lonely dwarf, who never belonged, dedicated his early carrier to hunting strange creatures. Eventually he settled down, realising his own limitations. Did Edzul move here at the very end of his days, seeking to relive the glory of his younger self through others? Have he heard of our tales, of great beasts indeed getting hunted down in the caverns of the northern continent? Edzul may have been picturing glorious dwarves covered in riches and trophies, but what he found was a disfunctional society plagued with curses and covered in blood. Most of the heroes were dead, or slowly dying. Of the glory and glamor he imaged, he found none here. Only corpses filling rows after rows of coffins. Maybe that's why Edzul is spending all his time in the graveyard. Those tombs are his shattered dreams, the realisation that monster hunting only brings death on an unimaginable scale. He came to resparkle the excitement of his earlier days, but all he found was existential anguish. You are not alone, Edzul. Many before you have met with soul-crushing realisations in this fortress, gods and mortals alike.

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Let's take a look at the famous Ohe Closebrain. This will make sense I swear. Here we can see that, despite being a necromancer, Ohe's actions are thoroughly detailed in legend mode. I'm not sure why the queen's own whereabouts would be obscured if Ohe's adventures are chronicled. Here we can see that at some point, he became obsessed with preserving his own life. That's when he began scouting the world and making various trips around the globe. Finally, he stumbled upon what he seeked, an old artefact containing the secrets of eternal life: The Relieved Urns. Ohe studied the mysteries of the dark arts, raised a few elven corpses, and eventually became a warlord. Later in life he took the human Tykes Tanbanner as an apprentice.  Ohe still lives to this day, according to the legends, altho he hasn't left the tower of Certainpeaked in almost a century. there he simply stores and write books on necromancy.

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And here we have Cog Floorquests, queen of the Citadel of Clutches. As her eldest daughter found a way to cheat death by becoming a vampire, her mother soon became obsessed with preserving her own life by any means. she began to search for ways to extend her own life. This is the last entry in her profile. Notice any difference with Ohe? Our friendly human warlord of death and doom actually explored the land and found necromantic books. He found them. we don,t know if cog discovered anything. For all we know, she could be out there, still searching for a way to salvage her existence. There are two ways to do this: finding a master, or discovering an artefact. Sadly for her queen, right before she undertook her quest, most of the relics pertaining to unlife were stored in towers, ruled by cynical warlords of the Lavender empire. All the necromancers are humans, and they only take human apprentices. And those humans keep their secret books closely guarded and hidden.

So what' a queen to do if she can't find a master or discover a book? Create an outpost right next to SoothedSlapped, of course. There lies the archfiend Ukas Archescort, both a powerful book writter, and the ruler of most human lands. And she was so close, too! The queen was on her way to Whisperwhip, a successful fortress currently hosting the mightiest necromancer of all: Quula, goddess personified, Ukas in disguise. Shortly before the queen made it here, tho, Quula suffered an existential crisis of her own, and left on a soul-searching journey. If I was the queen, I'd be pretty pissed that a plan twenty years in the making fell flat at the last second.

And desperate. If I was the queen right now, I'd be desperate. She was one of the first of her kind, and gave birth to Princess Kunil in the second year of the calendar. Just like Edzul, she is living her very last days. She must be 157 years old by now, minimum, meaning each breath she takes will be her last. If the queen's actions are shrouded by the game past the point she began looking for necromancy books, then maybe she's found what she was looking for. in that case, she's hidding somewhere, in a necromancer tower, with no desire to ever rule her kingdom again. If she failed to locate a book, then she's probably running around in circles, hoping in vain to find an artefact before her life expires. She's spent most of her life trying to extend her life, instead of living it. In retrospect, hers may be the saddest story of all.

Needless to say, in a few years the queen will be dead by all account, as far as the dwarves of the Citadel are concerned. A kingdom without a ruler is a poor thing, so a question must be answered: Who shall be the next monarch? Duke Tun would be a great candidate, as he's been acting regent for a while. Prince Mistem is also a potential ruler, altho he's the youngest of the royal siblings.

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Princess Kumil is the rightful heir, but just like her mother, she is unlikely to ever reappear, nor would this be a good idea for her to become the monarch. The game's succession rules are muddy at best, so I decide to make my own. The next monarch shall come from an unbroken line starting from queen Cog Floorquest. The monarch must be alive, and residing in the fortress. If you are a vampire or can,t be bothered to visit the capital, someone else gets to wear the crown. I begin exploring the royal genealogy tree. Cog had 9 children, Mistem being the youngest boy, and Asmel the youngest daughter. Most of the other siblings are dead, save for Kumil the vampiress. Kumil herself had seven children, including the warrior Firsal.

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Firsal is dead, sadly, and he wasn't the eldest child. Vucar was, and still is. Sadly, even tho he lives, he is now a 130 years old animal trainer living in a small village. While technically a valid heir, it is unlikely that Vucar will ever move to the fortress before he dies of old age.

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Tun circleoiled, Duke of the Tactical Hill, is the youngest son of Vucar. Should all of his father's children prove unworthy, he would then become our king.

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Cerol Roadponders was Vucar's daughter, and Tun's eldest sister. She didn't live past forty, but left behind quite a lot of children.

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Fifth generation of the royal bloodline, Ablel is Cerol's offspring, but she is a fishery worker living in a backwater town. Just like her grandsire Vucar, she could claim the title, if only she left her old life behind. Until she does, she is irrelevant to the succession, and has no children.

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Rigoth is Ablel's sister, second daughter of Cerol Roadponders. She is the granddaughter of Vucar, the great-granddaughter of princess Kumil, and the great-great-granddaughter of queen Cog Floorquests. she also happens to be a resident of Whisperwhip.

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This must be a strange day for Rigoth. One day she was a mere farmer in a cursed stronghold, and on the next day, she learns that her strange genealogy just made her the Queen of the Citadel. Her husband has sadly been killed a few years ago, but before passing away, he gave Rigoth a daughter...

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The aptly named Sazir Daywhips is now Heir to the Citadel, and the most important person in the kingdom. Unless young Sazir can live to adulthood and marry, the royal bloodline will be broken once more. This must not happen. The ascension of a former resident of Whisperwhip to monarch status is a great moment for the Wilted Sack. By refusing a flawed queen and crowning one of their choosing --altho she does have a claim on the title -- the dwarves are taking matters into their own hands. Whisperwhip is a fully-realised capital, hosting the strangest and most enduring dwarves on the planet, and they have chosen a girl amidst their ranks to lead them, instead of depending on  the rulers of old. Sazir Daywhip and her mother are given temporary noble suites, until more grandiose quarters can be carved for them. here, they will chill safely, amidst masterwork statues and artefact furniture. One such artefact is created for the occasion, a gneiss table for the queen's office, depicting an artefact adamantine buckler and Smoothbanners, the artefact adamantine axe.

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As a new queen rises to lead the Wilted sack to victory, the ultimate fate of her ancestor is left unanswered. While we may never know what happened of Cog Floorquests, her successor needs only turn her head north to see the unmistakable tower of Soothedslapped, in the middle of which is secretly kept an artefact book written by Quula herself...
« Last Edit: September 30, 2015, 04:13:12 pm by Taupe »
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #196 on: October 07, 2015, 04:59:42 pm »

CHAPTER 84: Chekov's corpse
Year 144
Killcount: 74


The fortress is celebrating. For decades, the members of the Wilted Sack have been expecting a queen. They waited, and waited, yet no monarch came. No more. Today, their hard work and sacrifices are recognized, and they have raised one of their own to claim leadership. All hail Rigoth Basementstockades, ruler of the Citadel of Clutches. On the spring of the year 144, Whisperwhip is finally a real capital of its dwarven civilisation.

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The partying is cut short when captain Ushtuth announces that one of his squadmates has been missing for over a week. No one has seen Kubuk recently. Last time someone saw her was... right after the fight with the pig iron beast Ugoth Asmemad. This doesn't bode well. Search parties are dispatched.

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Kubuk is found, dehydrated. Her body is locked in a pit, right under the HAVEN deathtrap. Poor Kubuk must have been kocked down there during the fight, and passed out from exhaustion. nobody noticed her once the bridge was lowered to let the troops back inside. Her death is a serious blow to her friends' morale. The death of another True Handle member is hard to stomach, especially so soon after the tragic end of Immortal-D the second.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Another Kubuk, this one the newly-drafted captain of our most recent squad, is having trouble coping with her new situation. Over a hundred years old, Captain Kubuk was until now a happy mother of seven, living her life quietly in Whisperwhip. Days went by as kittens and lions and dingos exploded or rotted next to her, from plagues she miraculously avoided. Until her elitist resistance to diseases attracted attention, that is. From that point on, she has been the Captain of the guard, leading the newly-formed Golden Labors. an honorable and prestigious title no doubt, but one she never wished for. Kubuk is throwing tantrums left and right, and the moment her namesake's fate is revealed will only make this worse. She will have to cope with her problems. Whisperwhip is an unforgiving place, and we must all be strong. there is no room here for the weak-willed.

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I leave the captain to her mental anguish, and focus on more important tasks. The obsidian generator is still in bad shape, but steps have been taken to resolve this. The bridge has been linked, and the new overflow room is sealed and smoothed. At my command, a lever is pressed. the main chamber empties out slowly, as the overflow room fills up. A courageous resident, if highly stupid, runs in at the last second to gather a pair of socks left by Manager Stukos during the construction. ''Dibs!!'' he screams, before spending 5 days running against the current. The project is halted, so he can be let out.

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Much better. Now both sides of the generator should be able to dry up over the following months. I turn my attention to another hydraulics project that also needs tweaking.

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Most of the new forge magma channel is ready, save for one annoying water tile. I could dismantle the pumps, shuffle the walls around once more, and poor magma into this one square, but I have devised a simpler solution.

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Magma will need to run under the forge anyway. A channel is dug to that effect, which is then connected to the singular water tile. The bridge section is walled off and roofed over with pure silver while the water below evaporates.

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Excess water is pumped back into the underwater lake, to speed things up. this pump will be reused to cast the corner of the room into obsidian, once the channel flows with magma. A large set of tunnels is dug out underneath the future forges, to power all the planned smelters, kilns and anvils. Engravers smooth the floor and engrave the walls, then seal the thing shut with more silver bars.  Magma slowly fills up the channel.

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I take a look at the generator while the engravers are at work. Good, good, the water is almost gone from the overflow chamber. I open the bridge gate once more, to repeat the process and speed up the main chamber's restoration.

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An unremarkable forgotten beast tries to disrupt the hydraulics projects. It dies quickly.

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My own lack of knowledge about pumps prove far more damaging than the salt blob Ngalak. Vucar the shearer was awarded the ''least useful dwarf'' medal two years in a row, and thus became our designated pump tester. the magma forges have been emptied to avoid steam and magma incidents. Vucar sets off to work on the newest pump, and quickly enough, magma starts leaking everywhere. Vucar immediately stops pumping and prepares to leave. I, however, am trying to micromanage the situation. At the same time Vucar cancels his pumping, i click the device and turn it off, unaware of the auto-cancel that just occured. Vucar turns back toward the pump for a split second, and instantly the forges fill up with thick, smelly smoke. Oups. I tell our second most useless dwarf that he just received a promotion.

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At last, the forges are laid out. Whisperwhip now hosts fifteen magma-powered smelters, and many dwarves are put on furnace operating duty non-stop. To account for idlers, sleepers and the usual breaks, a 20-odd group of dwarves are made permanent furnacedwarves, with all other labors disabled. this may seem excessive, but we have a lot of things to do here. Years of goblinite to smelt, copper training bucklers and spears to reforge. Add to that native silver ore veins, steel production, and the refining of adamantine strands, and suddenly fifteen full-time smelters sin't that farfetched. After a small ceremony, the Duchess Stukos Smelting Wing is officially operational, named after our late duchess, who was the head smelter prior to her untimely death.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The strand extractors Sakzul and his apprentices are getting decent at their craft. The time has come to acquire more adamantine, since we can now smelt it back to wafers at a respectable rate. Conveniently, the lower levels of the spire have revealed marble veins, which we also need for steel refining.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Abecu Favawami, a humanoid composed of silty clay loam, smells the unprotected dwarves and launches an assault. he begins by breaking apart a few half-finished walls and ramps, then venture down into the adamantine mine where many undefended dwarves are currently laboring. Oh sh--

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Endok Paddleflanked the Rough Woman of Law, whose entire name suggests a very emasculated husband, is technically a miller heading to do some mining. She also serves part-time in the army, and casually dismembers Abecu into chunks with a few swings of her crossbow when it comes past her. She tend continues toward the mining designation as if nothing happened. Let me rephrase this: A forgotten beast with deadly vapors ambushed our dwarves at their most vulnerable, at the bottom of the earth, and a dress-wearing miller on her way to mine broke it into bits with a crossbow without even stopping. Oh well, 76...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Endok resumes her mining duties, clearly giving no fucks about any poisonous vapors syndromes. Soon enough, the marble layers give way to more granite. I pause the adamantine operation for now. we cleared a good 100 raw stones, and the spire centre is becoming hazy to guess.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Possessed by unknown forces, the animal trainer Doren creates an artefact pair of adamantine greaves using the freshly-smelted cyan wafers. She gifts them to Lady Grace, before heading back to the kennels.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm not sure if her training skills are terrible, or so advanced I can,t fully understand them. the wardogs at the entrance are currently fighting against a non-existing kobold, about which I never got a warning. The kobold is not on the unit list and doesn't have a combat log, but the dogs are definitely attacking it anyway. I don't even...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  *

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The wealth of Whisperwhip continues to grow. The adamantine ores coming out of the mine have filled two levels of the vault already.

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The civilians have created a new artefact cabinet, to decorate princess Sakzul's bedroom. The item depicts her fabled kinswoman, Lady Asmel, striking down goblins and would-be kidnappers. the Heir to the Citadel should feel safe with this around, a piece of art reminder her that kobolds and goblins are kept at bay by our soldiers.

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Adamantine mining is resumed once a new floor is excavated and decorated. the vault is now three stories high, a wonderful building worth more than most of the world combined.

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This beacon of success and power is enough to attract the legendary creature Emuth Taronobom Rodem Lebes. This mighty Roc spawns wings the size of a castle, and dwarfs even dragons. This gigantic foe dashes toward the castle from the western plains. the first dwarf to report for duty is Zulban.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Zulban is the oldest active militiadwarf in Whisperwhip. decades of fighting have not been kind to her. She and the champion Rovod faced countless monsters together, until the various syndromes torn them apart in various ways. Zulban miraculously survived as a cripple for many years, until the doctors experimented enough on Rovod to understand their shared conditions. The evil powers that consume our champion have been contained in Zulban, and she walks once more, albeit with a diminished vision and some damaged nerves.

Zulban is also a special dwarf. Her husband is the World-Famous artist Sakzul Kolkokeb. her young brother Zefon once saved the fortress from a fiery forest titan, and became known as the Firewalker. Her elder sister is called Rigoth Basementstockades, queen of the Citadel of Clutches.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The hammer lord courageously faces the roc Emuth Taronobom Rodem Lebes. A fierce battle follows, leaving Zulban alive but torn asunder. her legs are broken, her whole body is covered in bruises, and her sword and shield arms have both been damaged heavily.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
For weeks, Zulban remains in the hospital, her fate uncertain. her salvation comes from her former squadmate Rovod. Neither alive nor dead, the old champion has been on the operation table for grossly two decades. His rotting and mangled body has been the subject of many operations and experimentations. He will never recover, but his unique condition has trained the doctors of Whisperwhip to unprecedented levels. The fortress sports several legendary surgeons. They quickly get to work on Zulban's case.

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After her fight, nobody believed she would live. Now, she walks again, and her arms have been repaired to functional levels. Only her damaged sensory nerves remain, irreparably caused by an ancient syndrome.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Zulban Relievedabbey the Ochre Speaker of Workers is back on the field. A grand party is organised, where she is awarded the title of Knight of the Citadel. 

*    *    *    *   *    *

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Many things happened while Zulban was recovering. The most notorious one being the new forgotten beast attack. The creature was body-slammed to death by a pack of war lions. Tough luck.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A possessed tresher was inspired by unknown forces, and created a miniature version of Smoothbanners the Patterned Dishes. Now the children can play pretend forgotten beast slaying!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A group of goblins attacked, and used the higher ground to shoot a few pastured animals from above the wall. They were dealt with swiftly, and the more exotic animals were moved indoor to prevent further incidents.

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We told the Gracious Flights that no, they were no longer allowed to keep personal items in the barracks. They kept letting various prepared food items there to rot, filling the whole floor with miasma. This is why we can't have nice things.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And finally, a minotaur child ''attacked'' the fortress. Prince Mistem was the one to dispatch it. With the last beast slain, Zulban is finally out of the hospital, ready to resume her duties. Welcome back, ma'am.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Not a second too soon, either. We have need of your special skills, milady. Of those two new forgotten beasts greeting your revival, one of them threatens HAVEN. Deadly dust, coming in a tiger-beetle package. Nasty creature indeed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
it immediately runs toward our bait animals. The war training is effective; none of the animals flee. This gives us time to activate the bridges and seal the area. You'll notice that the entrance now has ramps. the old ramps in the pool were destroyed by the cave-ins, and I tried to retrieve the stuff at the bottom. They interact weirdly with the passage located above a bridge, preventing people from using them to go north. we can't get out right now, but the beetle could have, had we not been quick on the lever-pulling.

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The room and everything around fills up with deadly dust. There is no way around this. The deathtrap is sprung. I watch the dust settle, as various announcement spam fills the screen. I expect to see a beetle-shaped corpse. instead I find...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I find Om Liceugly the Fatal grave, alive and somewhat still kicking. Bruised and gushing forgotten beast ichor, yes, but still up and standing. It somewhat survived the deathtrap, losing no more than one of its four horns in the process. This creature is resilient. Not even cave-ins will stop it, and it's deadly dust makes it a savage and terrifying foe indeed. If giant boulders are merely enough to break a small horn, it will take countless efforts for the soldiers to defeat Om. I contemplate the adamantine spire once more. The caverns will remain closed, and the open nature of the mine means we won't be able to retrieve more candy from now on. I spend some time reflecting upon the consequences of this foe in our caverns. And then...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
...And then Om Liceugly the Fatal Grave uses his deadly dust breath once more on a wandering lion, and kocks itself back under the impact. His head shatters as it hits the ten thousand megaton remains of a Pig Iron gargantuan humanoid still lying around. Om's brain takes a beating, and stops functioning. The tiger beetle monster has been... defeated?

De

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #197 on: October 07, 2015, 11:43:06 pm »

Oh I see, you decided to change your new queen's title rather than mess around with the coding.  8) What influenced your choice? Did you really want a queen to replace Cog or did she seem more likely to survive than Tun or Prince Mistem? You wanted fresh leadership after the craziness of Cog and her children?

May I offer some tips on dwarf breeding? I haven't really tried it until this version. As far as I can tell in 40.24 nobody grieves for pets or relatives any more, so there's no downside to giving it a go. Make sure you make a really tiny burrow with a statue or something in it, allow the dwarvess access to food and their dining room or a decent dining room and nowhere else. You can't let them go to their bedrooms or they'll hang out down there. You need your candidates to be standing on the same square to converse. You'll have to make a dorm for them and they'll complain. I suppose you could set the burrow up in the queen's quarters. I read that the candidates need to be within 10 years of age of each other (though dwarves live way longer than humans so I don't see why). I believe social skills do matter. The one successful match I've had (they're lovers, haven't gotten to marriage yet) didn't attract my duchess's attention until his social skills had all become competent (this is why setting up the love nest in a public place might help, others will come down to admire the statue garden and help boost social skills). Parties seem to help as well. Zuglar was one of the duchess's courtiers for years and claimed to be friends with her; while the Duchess Gertruda said she'd never even heard of them. Then she threw a party for the Queen's arrival (unannounced and with only her husband and the obnoxious outpost liaison as entourage but that's another story) and during the party she announced that she was now in love with Zuglar. That's another good reason to have the burrow centered around a one statue statue garden, parties. Basically do everything the wiki would tell you to avoid.

Military dwarves are tricky since they can violate burrow designations to train even when you have their squad set to inactive. I had no success with my commander at all; he would show up wearing a leather cap on his head, one sock on his left hand, his 9 pet chickens, and nothing else. I imagine he'd enter the room, abruptly causing all conversation to cease. " 'Sup?" he would say. There would be a few murmurs in response, nothing audible. He'd grab a glass of grape wine off a tray, down it and say "Well I should get back to my recruits, can't let them out by themselves or they'll trip and fall right off the fortifications. "Oh yes, certainly," someone would reply. "Your dedication to duty is admirable," another would manage. Then he'd leave and the conversation behind him would grow increasingly loud and drunken. I had some luck with Zaneg the butcher/axedwarf. He made some friends but never attracted any love interests (as of writing). I think it worked because he was listed at 6 on the list and the dwarves positioned towards the top of the list are preferred for orders and personal training.

I have my population capped low because I'm using an HP pavilion that's a couple of years old and... you know the rest of the story. It's a real pain to spare even a couple of dwarves for courting if I want to do anything ambitious like dig a spare bedroom. It's also hard to start from zero to lovers, takes years, you might try waiting between projects and letting most of the population idle for a month or so to break the ice and find out who's compatible.
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #198 on: October 08, 2015, 12:18:27 am »

Oh I see, you decided to change your new queen's title rather than mess around with the coding.  8) What influenced your choice? Did you really want a queen to replace Cog or did she seem more likely to survive than Tun or Prince Mistem? You wanted fresh leadership after the craziness of Cog and her children?
We've been waiting for the queen for decades now. Personally I wanted to see if she'd raise some undead, but most of the corpses were cremated years ago. As the capital of our civilisation, I felt we still needed a monarch around. when I realised both the current queen and the heir apparent were MIA and would never resurface, I decided we'd build our own queen, with blackjack, and hookers. I could have chosen Mistem or Tun Circleoiled, but didn't for two reasons.

1- They were already established as somewhat-batshit characters, and this wasn't the kind of leader we truly needed as a symbol of hope and prosperity.

2- I've been curious about who the rightful heir would be many generations down the line, for quite a while now. this was a good way to jump into the genealogic trees created by the game and see how the royal family turned up. Beside DF, Crusader Kings 2 has to be the game I sink the most time into nowadays. For those who aren't familiar, it's essentially a political backstab simulator, a slow-paced strategy game where you control and manage not units and ressources, but relationships. You play as a medieval ruler, make decisions both small and life-changing, arrange marriages... You can also bribe, plot or fight your way to higher titles. Upon your death, you quantum-leap into your rightful heir, and continue building your dynasty. The main appeal of the game, to me, lies not in power-gaming your way to succes, but rather in watching the fate of all those people. Even moreso than Dwarf fortress, the game has a way of creating noteworthy personal stories, touching drama and climatic story arcs using noting more than randomly-generated characters and a little imagination from the player. I've once forsaken an entire kingdom, and the honor of my family, to settle a blood feud lasting for many generations. As the dust settled on a country ravaged by plots and civil war, I realised the bitter irony: Neither I nor the people I sacrificed everything to destroy could ever remember why we hated each other. Needless to say, when I got competent enough to use legend mode reliably, I got curious, and started charting the relationships between the various dwarves. I set the rules beforehand. If the branches were dead down the line, then I was ok with Mistem or Tun becoming monarchs. I found the widow Rigoth, however, alongside her aptly named daughter Sakzul Daywhip. She was the beacon of hope this fortress needed to remain strong, and I made her our queen.

I don't see them as rulers, so much as wards. If the fortress can come together and breed a new royal bloodline, nurture it, and watch it grow, then we'll have something beautiful and memorable to fight for. I greatly appreciate the tips about courtship and lovers. Sakzul is young, so I may burrow a few of the children in her beautiful room as retinue. They'll be safer there, happier too. Being within her age range, a few of them should become friends with the princess, easing the courtship process once they reach adulthood.

PS: To any of you who love the stories created by DF, I strongly recommend giving CK2 a shot. The games has some flaws, but if you can cope with dwarf fortress, then obviously starring at a map and waiting while navigating obscure menus won't be that much of a turn-off.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2015, 12:21:28 am by Taupe »
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De

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #199 on: October 08, 2015, 01:45:28 pm »

Yeah, my friend and her husband love CK2 but to play I'd have to buy a new expensive computer, and then I'd have to drop something 500 bucks on the game itself to make it playable. Reading through the list of expansions on Steam it looks a lot like Age of Empires but if you had to buy every single facet of the game separately. Want different colored uniforms for different nationalities? That'll be 2.50 please, apiece. Want to play different countries? You'll have to buy each one you want, don't worry we've arranged them into lists, it's only going to be something like 40 bucks for everything you need to plain Spain, more like 60 to be vikings but hey, Vikings are awesome! I have a dog to feed; I can't spend that kind of money on a computer game.

Edit: It's on sale for 75% off this weekend so you can get it for 159.99. I'd only have to go one week without food.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2015, 01:53:37 pm by De »
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #200 on: October 08, 2015, 03:05:08 pm »

You really just need the base game and possibly two worthwhile expansions thought. But yeah, the game does require some large processing power after a while, and paradox doesnt go cheap on the DLC machine.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #201 on: October 09, 2015, 11:50:27 pm »

CHAPTER 85: Feast
Years 145-146
Killcount: 78

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When we left off, a very powerful forgotten beast had just survived our greatest contraption, only to kill itself. While it's easy to focus on the anticlimatic fate of Om Liceugly the Fatal Grave, I'd like to direct your attention to the cheetah east of the trap. This cheetah (let's call her Shirley) is a cub born and raised in the HAVEN deathtrap. Her parents were war animals meant to attract forgotten beast, and in time Shirley and her sibblings were destined to do the same. Recent events have changed her life drastically. Shirley is now a test subject.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
See, the cheetah cubs ran away after being exposed to the deadly dust. Unless I know they are non-contagious, nobody is allowed to retrieve the corpses, or pasture Shirley and her brothers. Our young heroine is so far untouched by the effects of the syndrome, but her sibblings are quickly beginning to rot away. I can't risk an infection. Not if I can avoid it. This is a great time to do some dwarven !!science!!.

Stage one, parts of the subject's skin and organs begin to rot

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Stage two, the fever forces most of the blood to move toward the damage organs, inflating them. Major arteries slowly emptying.

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Stage three, the subject is looking like crap.  Blood has left the circulatory system entirely, leaving the subject pale. Blood is now concentrated inside the tissues, instead of inside the veins. Major organ failures all over.

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Stage four: As the fever dissolve the tissues, the blood concentrated inside the cells is no longer contained, and begins to pour all over the ground. Skin and tissues no longer able to contain liquids.

Stage five, the subject slowly dies from internal drowning, brain failure and major generalised accelerated necrosys. This is the saddest and most painful death I can imagine.

Who the fuck programmed this game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I can't wait to open the DOOMCAVE. It is filled with countless creatures sporting interesting and varied syndromes, and the place is covered in ashes. Truly, this will be an entertaining adventure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Let's hum, let's focus on something more pleasant, shall we? Our beloved mayor has learned much from the various disasters striking her obsidian generator. She claims a mechanics workshop, and drags some rocks and gems in there, beginning a mysterious project.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I wish she'd have gone for adamantine instead. Whisperwhip now has a lot of cyan metal bars. The third floor of our vault is slowly filling up, and two proficient strand extractors are hard at work, refining the legendary ore. Adamantine artefacts and cumulated bars have increased our wealth to over 30 millions earlier this year.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The absurdly expansive gastronomy of our cooks is also inflating our wealth considerably. The specialty of Whisperwhip is forgotten beast whatever, marinated in beer, and soaked in enough syrup to mask the maddening taste of the underworld.

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It's just a shame that the human's emperor got murdered on his way to taste the local cuisine. But hey, you can't have your cake and eat it without getting stabbed in the face repeatedly.

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And with that, our mayor Mebzuth is done building her artefact project, a schist mechanism. She names it Slothsizzled the Lucid elder, which is a surprisingly appropriate title for her. I hope she learned much from this experience, because we still have some issues to fix...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The generator is clear of water, but someone tried to fix the problem initially by simply opening the lava floodgates. Yes, once again my plan was to hope against physics that magma would race ahead of the water and slowly cast it into obsidian, allowing us to channel it from above and disintagrate the water surplus square by square. apparently misplaced hope is now the core of magma physics, who knew. After this initial mistake, someone tried to dig out the obsidian blocking the floodgate, resulting in an obsidian boulder jamming the floodgate open. Magma quickly fills up the generator.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
We'll just dig above the pool, drop some buckets of water down there, and block the lava flow with obsidian. Then we can repair and unjam the gates, and channel the new obsidian seal from above. Sadly, water evaporates before it can do anything. I scrap the idea.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My third idea is to actually remember I have installed a safety backup set of gates when the generator was first built. Don't ask why i didn't think of this earlier. With the push of a lever, the volcano is sealed. All we have to do now is let the magma leak into the overflow chamber and it'll dry up. Too bad the overflow bridge isn't magma safe, and the mechanisms melt instantly once magma flows through it. Man, magma is hard.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Fuck engineering. I need a break. Ah, a werewolf, excellent. Werebeasts and demons, I understand. you just have to kill them hard enough. ber the sworddwarf understands this as well, and cleaves the creature in various bits before slicing it in half with her steel blade. He earns the title of Wolfcleaver in the process.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Days later, the fortress attracts more strange creatures. this time, it's a pair of forgotten beast. The former is using deadly dust, but enters through the DOOMCAVE. The second puts HAVEN at risk, a strange gigantic alligator emanating toxic secretions. The trap won't work here. One, we haven,t pastured animals there yet after Shirley's family issues. second, the area is still innaccessible because of the awkward ramp placement. Third, the deathtrap isn't reloaded yet. It has been merely a month and a half since Om Liceugly the Fatal Grave began its assault, after all. I have a plan, but we'll need time for the whole army to mobilise.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Oh hi, Shirley! You are exactly the distraction we need right now. Can you look as delicious as possible for a few minutes? Thanks!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The alligator gives chase, while a child deconstruct the backdoor entrance to HAVEN. This was initially a native silver vein that we mined. It was blocked, but still serves as a maintenance tunnel into the caverns when trouble arises, connecting to a stairwell dug into a stone pillar. Fortunately for us, it is naturally straight and quite long.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Shirley and the alligator have a small skirmish, but don't worry the cheetah cub is totally fine and alive. Once the wall is deconstructed, our gigantic foe abandons the (totally alive and healthy) Shirley, and begins climbing the backdoor staircase. The troops are waiting, crossbows ready. Before the beast can react, some dwarves charge it, while the rest unleash a splendid volley of bolts, inflicting various injuries. Leading the charge is ber the Wolfcleaver.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Time is of the essence. If the beast is able to recover from this initial onslaught, it will unleash its special weapon, noxious secretions. The tropps give it no quarter, striking severe blows and critical shots at the alligator. Before the creature can catch its breath, Kogsak herself raises Smoothbaner the Patterned Dish and severs the monster in half.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The legendary adamantine battle axe has a new mistress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, wow crocodiles have a fuckton of fangs.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Before the maintenance tunnel is barricaded once more, I have a few jobs for the dwarves. Retrieving various corpses, and repairing the main entrance, among other things.

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I don't want the haulers to bring all the rocks upstairs, then carry them back up to rebuild the deathtrap. Instead, I turn an old set of exploratory tunnels into a decent-looking stockpile area, from wich we can swiftly reload the contraption one floor above.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The area is excavated, and the leftover rocks are used to reload our deathtrap as quickly as possible. In the meantime, one of the peasants-turned-mechanics during the Tearchance incident entered a mood, and created an adamantine grate. The item is worth everything ever imagined twice.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The creatures of the underworld are restless. a new foe appears, powered by deadly dust.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I take a look at the deathtrap. It isn't fully completed, but this will do. Our newest legendary mechanic did a very good job of wiring up the machine rapidly. I order the support floor tile removed. This will be tight. The animal trainers are still pasturing the last bait animals. Just like the crocodile, this will require a distraction.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob Problemflags is a legendary metalsmith returning from the adamantine mines. He was diligent enough to move leftover stones in the mine back to the fresh stone stockpile. for the fortress, it means precious minutes of extra labor. For the dedicated smith, it means death. Thob, I am so sorry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The creature is too fast, and too close. Even if Thob was to escape it, there is no safe way of closing the bridges between the hunter and the prey. We cannot risk a cloud of deadly dust in the main staircase during peak hours, nor can we let a dwarf infected by deadly dust in. The cavern is full of open space, and Thob won't be able to escape the clouds for long. The smith is thirsty and drowsy after his long trek into the mines.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One mistep is all it takes. The cloud of dust touches Thob by a mere inch. It is all it takes. Deadly changes begin to shake the smith's body.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob knows what to do. He declares himself a soldier in his last moments.

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Thob defeated a troll once, when the enemy infiltrated our defences decades ago. He will not go down fleeing and rotting away. He grabs his pick, and turns around. The cloud fills up with miasma and blood, then slowly disperses. I choose to believe Thob fought bravely.

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His sacrifice will not be in vain. Shasttol's rampage ends here, before the golden bridge, for the dwarves too have a deadly dust of their own.

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On the surface, dwarven merchants depart from their yearly trade, stepping over a mountain of freshly slaughtered goblins. They smile at the bloodied savannah, unaware of the disasters that almost took place in the depths during their stay.

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As they leave, a child emerges from the workshops, displaying our newest artefact, some useless wooden thing. I almost discard the thing with the rest when the artwork on this ring catches my attention. Mebzuth Keyarrow is making a plaintive gesture as she is removed from her position as outpost liason for the citadel of clutches. This happened in the later part of the year 97, when the first dwarven caravan visited Whisperwhip. Mebzuth Keyarrow. This name...

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The mayor. The mayor's last name is Keyarrow. For countless years she has been the outpost liaison for our civilisation, until her first unsuccessful journey to Whisperwhip. At her arrival, the dwarves had abandoned the initial settlement, fortifying themselves higher in the mountain. Whatever Mebzuth reported back at the capital displeased the ruleing council greatly, and she was stripped of her noble position. Three years later, she was exled to the colony that caused her downfall. Suddenly, the mayor's story makes sense. Her experience as a diplomat got her elected, but to her, Whisperwhip is and will always be the cause of her fall from grace. No wonder she gives zero fucks about her office or responsibilities. To her, the title must feel like an ironic punishment, rather than an honor.

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Looking back, I remember that the mayor took over engineering and mechanics when Dumat Constructmirrored asked her to help with a device to flood the fortress with magma. Is this what she has been slowly working toward? Is the mayor secretly planing to obliterate the fortress with some sort of complex device? I can't help but wonder if the various fallbacks of the obsidian generator are her doing, a way for her to get back at the fortress in petty ways. Regardless of her goals, the generator is once again back online after two disastrous years.

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Other projects also see completion around this time. For one, the silver 3x3 staircase now goes all the way back to the bottom of the mine that birthed it.

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Next, we've added a maintenance staircase to HAVEN's entrance, as the ramps explode with every deathtrap activation. It can only be used when the golden bridge is lowered.

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Finally, this outdoor ammo stockpile improved our thief-slaying efforts considerably. Captain Ushtuth emptied a quiver on a kobold, grabbed more bolts from the pile, and finished the quarry. The leader of the True Handles is now a legendary marksdwarf. Yes!

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Not all dwarves are satisfied with those changes. Morul the mechanic is miserable, because all his friends have died over the years and he doesn't have pants. He refuses to grab pants during Clothsgiving because he's miserable. Help yourself, girl. I order about 60 more trousers hoping she,ll grab one of them.

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Hey look Morul, more pants!

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Nope, she's too busy tantrumming.

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There are more important dwarves to take care of, anyway. While overseeing the adamantine spire, I realised something important: each layer is accessed from a single tiny tunnel, and could easily be sealed off. with a single block, each layer of the adamantine spire could be converted into a grandiose tomb for the royal family. Each one a unique room, with hectic designs created by the cyan tendrils. I order our worksforce to smooth and engrave the adamantine spire immediately

Note: after much research, adamantine doesn't really improve the value of the room. A masterwork engraving is 120, a constructed/smoothed wall is like 2 to 8. That means that there isn't really any difference in value between a granite and adamantine room, despite what I was led to believe. I don,t care, this is a badass idea and we are rolling with it. In time, I hope, generations of the new royal bloodline will each have a unique tomb deep within the earth, level upon level of dwarves resting peacefully. right next to them, a hollow tube filled with demons and horrors from the underworld, from which they are miraculously sheltered from. A great symbol for the monarchs of this fortress, if there ever was any.

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More pants arrive in Whisperwhip, ready to find new owners. Morul the mechanic will not be one such owner, sadly. She is found dead, dehydrated. at first i assume she went mad and let herself die. The truth is far more... ironic.

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Morul, in her fury, trashed part of the bridge she was on. She fell in the pit, and slowly died there as a result of her shifting moods. I order a floor built over the broken bridge, because I'm lazy.

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Also, someone made an adamantine crossbow. It is decorated with adamantine cabochons, spikes of raw adamantine, and pictures of an adamantine grate in... silk. Riiight. It will make for a terrible bashing weapon, but act as a very light item for any ranged dwarf. Since all our soldiers are both marksdwarves and melee fighter, I let people decide who will wield Vesselscribes on their own.

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New target practice, people! Perfect timing. The soldiers station themselves down in the caverns, and wait for the flying megabeast to close in on their position. Sadly, the deathtrap is still unfinished. we'll have to take this one down ourselves. The plan is to stash the soldiers near a giant open area, and shoot the creature as it flies over the cavern floor. Damaging the creature will force it to plummet down and hopefully die, before it can come into melee range and use noxious vapors.

Dwarves are... not really good at following plans.

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Zulban, Knight of the Citadel and sister to the queen, wanted to show off, and let the creature move next to her before attacking. Everyone sort of let this happen instead of shooting. After the battle, she and her friend Tun experience some mild symptoms, and check in at the hospital. After a few days, Tun announces that she is now fine, and go back to her room to chill. I watch patiently as Zulban slowly recovers. She is a tough dwarf... Tougher than Tun, in fact, so her recovery is imminent.

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Or so I believed. After a week, Zulban's lungs give in to the infection, and she dies a slow and miserable death in her hospital bed.

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To my chagrin, Zulban's corpse is carried to the military crypts; I couldn't finish any of the royal tombs in time. As she is laid to rest, her squadmates recall the list of her kills: Eighty notable kills, including a rock and two forgotten beast, the last of which got the best of her. Zulban has been in the army for over 40 years, outliving any of her allies save for Rovod, the half-alive champion. The Knight of the Citadel has lived through he great wars, the end of the civil war, and countless sieges. She has withnessed the death of more megabeasts than the world knows of. She has fought alongside all the great heroes, from Princess Asmel and her brother, to the Bronze general, without forgetting the Orions, Immortal-D and so many more. And now, her watch is ended.

Her death affects me in ways i cannot describe. How could a toughened dwarf such as she fall prey to this syndrome, when Tun the soldier/strand extractor got over it so quickly? has our medical staff failed her, focusing on a lesser dwarf when Zulban needed their help?

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The truth is revealed shortly after. Zulban never stood a chance. Tun claimed to be fine, but never made it to his room, dying on his doorstep. His body has just been found, missing for a week.

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A commemorative feast is organised by the queen, to honor her dead sister, killed on duty. The vanquished foe Aco cannot be cooked, for it is made of gems, but plenty more forgotten beasts were destroyed during the year. they are doused in syrup and beer, and served to the whole fort. In fact, forgotten beast roast is all that's coming out of the kitchen nowadays. The cook admit that the Whisperwhip no longer has any plants, nor meat, for it has all been cooked into fabulous meals. All that's left in the pantry, beside prepared meals worth a galaxy, are beer and syrup.

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And without plants, beer too is slowly on the decline.

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I kinda like the idea of eating nothing but forgotten beast marinated in sugar and beer, so I put the pre-designed farms to use. We'll be making just enough plump helmets to keep the booze stockpile afloat. Potash and skilled farmers should be able to produce enough with those little plots to sustain the fortress. We have 4000 units of syrup, and we need two to make a stack of 350 forgotten roast, so we'll be good on that front i think. I want nothing but the roasted corpses of nightmare monsters in our cellar. The 50 year anniversary of Whisperwhip approaches, and we will feast to our succes...

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First, bait. We have animals, but we also have a thousand querns. The magma-proof ones we can't dump, so we'll use as scratching poles for oversized demons. I have like half a hundred of them installed in the traps for good measure.

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Next, a grand project begins. To use the spire as a resting district for the royals, it must first be sealed from the caverns. Silver bars are hauled down to make walls. Miner create new tunnels. Woodcutters clear paths. Idlers carry things back inside. We are truly vulnerable at this time, for many of the workers are exposed in the caverns.

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Using the trap as a gateway would be counter-productive. A new tunnel will be dug, connecting to the entrance of HAVEN from the east.

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Even more workers join the project, retrieving enough adamantine to fill the third level of the vault. Over 700 bars will soon be stockpiled under the forge. The engravers smooth and decorate the leftover stone, creating what will be the first of the royal mausoleums.

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Masons have been building the walls around the digsite in their free time over the years. they are now ready to create a dome that will seal the adamantine spire from the third cavern layer.

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Why there are pools of pig blood scattered across the project site, I don't even dare to ask.

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Shorast the child enters a mood, inspired by all the activity. She gathers a forgotten beast shell, then stops. We have everything she needs, but she'l grab none of them. I produce spare copies of the item she asks, even going so far as making weird pewter bars and adamantine cut gems to fit her preferences. Still, she refuses to obtain anything new. She will go mad, I fear.

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The vault filled, i send the miners to dig silver (we ran out) and marble. to avoid pointless zig-zaggy corridors, I create a more stylish excavation zone under HAVEN's hall. In time, we can reuse this area to create something, like maybe a quern hall or a statue garden. Who knows.

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Finally, the main course arrives. A giant plated flying spider with a poisonous sting. It can go anywhere, it is highly resilient, and it can trap anything in its webs then infect them with its syndrome without meeting any resistance. we could activate the machine for skypigs. We won't. This is a special date for Whisperwhip. It deserves a special foe. I order the troops downstairs...

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Oh and also the duke is chillin in the trap. There's also that. He's protesting against the installation of querns inside this device, I bet. Tun, get the fuck out now.

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The beast is quick as lightning. it flies around the underground lake, up over the trap, and begins to fill the enclave with webs, eating the war lions and wardogs one by one. Have fun, absolutely oversized and terrifying spider, soon you will be the meal. Commander Bembul informs our armorer that now is not a good time to retrieve the corpses of our fallen.

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The beast is distracted, flying one urist over the machine for skypigs. the perfect angle. the troops move a bit further, still on station, and unleash a first volley of bolts. People all over the thread have stated that dwarves cannot be both ranged and melee. They can't do it, they say. Today we prove them wrong. True Handles, Gracious Flights, Joyous Orbs, fire at will!!

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Ok, that's... bad. We can do better. Hurry before the beast gets bored of the pets. Or, yaknow, murders them all.

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The spider eats a dog, and in the process a great shot right in the left wing.

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One marksdwarf in particular is lining perfect shots. the spider's cephalothorax is injured, mixing strange ichor with webs and wardog blood down in the trap.

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The dwarves reload. The beast is now enraged, and grows tired of the dogs. It stares at the soldiers further down below...

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...exposing its heart to our snipers. The beast flinches.

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In a great display of disregarding physics, our marksdwarf of the day lines up a shot againsts the stunned spider and sends a gigantic wing flying upward into the trap's stone catwalks. The monster falls to the ground with great tremors, sending the second wing falling away.

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The beast is faint. The massive body took a beating while falling down, and now the crushed arachnid parts are leaking strange blood all over. the dwarves ponder their next move. Should they go around and finish the creature off before it heals? It doesn't matter. Our foe is soon vanquished, bleeding out from the fall. a shame this tactic could not be applied earlier, to save poor Zulban.

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The terrific shots are credited to Ushtuth's cousin, Nish, who receives the nickname of Wingless Nish.

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The two wings have been flinged in different directions. One landed in an unreachable part of the trap, the other lays at the bottom of the contraption. The creature will be filled with beer, roasted and served with syrup. the wings, i decide, shall remain there as a monument to this important victory.

As the latest forgotten beast bleeds out in the caverns, the calendar switches over to a new, important date. It is the first of granite, 147. Exactly half-a century ago, on this very day,  Whisperwhip was founded. Dumat construcmirrored moved to this strange savvanah to found a shaky colony, mislead by a power-hungry queen. With this latest kill, the dwarves of the Citadel of Clutches have vanquished exactly ten percent of the world's terrifying forgotten beasts. This is only the beginning...

Map archive link: http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-12530-whisperswhips

De

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #202 on: October 10, 2015, 01:15:21 pm »

I was going to tell you that you know dwarves can't switch between weapons right? But I suppose I'll hold my tongue. Though I still think if they'd had to melee they would have beaten at the thing with their crossbows...  :-X

So does the final battle mean you're planning a suicide attack on the 30 monsters in Doom Cavern? Ha, 80 is only 10% of the world's monsters? How did you achieve that? Did you fiddle with the world gen settings?

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Logged
Don't pay attention to the body piles in every fort I play, I swear I'm competent at this game.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #203 on: October 10, 2015, 07:56:04 pm »

I was going to tell you that you know dwarves can't switch between weapons right? But I suppose I'll hold my tongue. Though I still think if they'd had to melee they would have beaten at the thing with their crossbows...  :-X
Everyone basically has a masterwork steel crossbow at this point. Those whop forget bolts get to use their normal weapons, those who bring a quiver will act as ranged dwarves. Steel isn't the best metal for bludgeoning weapon, but there are various material types that silver won't be able to get through.  It's not the best setup ever but in time of crisis any two dwarves that show up at a battle can act as a ranged + tank setup.

So does the final battle mean you're planning a suicide attack on the 30 monsters in Doom Cavern? Ha, 80 is only 10% of the world's monsters? How did you achieve that? Did you fiddle with the world gen settings?
There are about 820 forgotten beasts in the world. Plus three dozen titans, some rocs, and a ton of bronze colossus. The only missing trophy is an hydra, altho those are fairly rare, many died to bigger, tougher megabeasts. I genuinely don't know what happened at world creation. A friend decided to show me how to play the game after we came back very drunk from the bar, and most of the process is still clouded in mystery. I vaguely remember bribes of conversation like:

 ''Do you want this to be high?
-What does it do?
-I'm not sure. It doesn't really matter honestly.
-Ok put it to high''

And bam, a thousand megabeasts roaming the Windy Realm. I only recently learned that this was slightly superior to your typical world.

De

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #204 on: October 10, 2015, 10:32:33 pm »

So in all the fortresses I've played I can only remember facing 4 forgotten beasts (possibly because the whole time I played 34 I only found a cavern once, and when I was a kid and played I usually ended up flooding the fortress frigging around with farm irrigation). Three of them were while playing that glacier fort while reading this and copying your play style. I used to not know what the beast meter did either and would leave it alone, until I realized that turning it to low would make the age change from something other than the age of myth occasionally (not since 40.24 though it seems). I'd do that and barely ever see anything. After reading Whisperwhip, I turned the meter to high and stared in year 5, figuring it was an unusually young fortress combined with a high number that led to so many monster encounters. I don't exactly remember the name of this world since I was mostly experimenting and didn't expect to play it long but I think it's called The Enchanted Plane (which is a name I've gotten before, kind of disappointing) but it has 243 forgotten beasts, not counting titans or weird night creatures.

So that's why I'm mystified as to how you got 820. That doesn't even seem like it should be possible...... Maybe with the largest size setting? Does size effect it? I can't even remember how big the Enchanted Plane is. Large, maybe.

Oh, btw, my friend called while I was counting beasts and I ended up giving him a Whisperwhip highlight reel (Floods, titans, Ollin Bookdear, Skypigs, goblins, giraffe fiend, Lady Asmel, too many animals, Kel, beast attacks, FPS problems, syndromes, army dead, Rovod the immortal, retaking the caverns, machine for skypigs, adamantine, main character dying, exploding animals, Modesty's insanity, Immortal - D and I-D the second, new queen, you can actually equip dwarves with crossbows and melee weapons and have things work out, 10% WTF) with an abridged Doomforests aside. I have a cold and now I can't speak above a whisper and it's your fault, sir.

He admires your ingenuity and unwillingness to use the wiki. He says we should all learn from you and that people who are willing to make mistakes and then fix them go far in life. So you've got that.
Logged
Don't pay attention to the body piles in every fort I play, I swear I'm competent at this game.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #205 on: October 11, 2015, 12:29:50 am »

So that's why I'm mystified as to how you got 820. That doesn't even seem like it should be possible...... Maybe with the largest size setting? Does size effect it? I can't even remember how big the Enchanted Plane is. Large, maybe.
That could be a factor. I'm guessing the number of events is tied to the world. So a world trice as large as your would probably generate around 700-800 megabeasts as well. People probably don't go that far in size to avoid lag, especially in those newer, fancy versions where the world doesn't become static past the first embark.

I have a cold and now I can't speak above a whisper and it's your fault, sir.

He admires your ingenuity and unwillingness to use the wiki. He says we should all learn from you and that people who are willing to make mistakes and then fix them go far in life. So you've got that.
Sorry about that. Thanks for the nice comments, miss Lalonde.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #206 on: October 14, 2015, 07:19:12 pm »

CHAPTER 86: The lone gunmen
Year 147
Killcount: 82


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''Avoid the webs! Grab those dogs and keep them outside while the weavers collect the silk!'' Shouted commander Bembul. Over the last years, the vacuum left by the death of the previous overseers had dragged him to the middle of the fortress's politics. Duke Tun was too busy requesting infintie querns and hunting to lead, and their new queen, no matter how lovely she was, remained an elevated farmer with no decision-making abilities. As the main authority figure for the army, the task of directing Whisperwhip's efforts had passed to the ex-cook. This made a lot of sense; the fortress was after all shaped and propelled by conflict.

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For most of a season after the half-century celebration, Whisperwhip bloomed. No real incident happened, save for a kobold thief. the matter was quickly resolved when half a hundred war animals abandoned their pasture to give chase. Bembul directed the workers as they slowly built a roof and solid walls around the spire tunnels. Pure silver, leading to cyan riches deep underground. Soon, it had been decided, those excavated layers of adamantine would become a grandiose crypt.

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Sure, the workers got threatened at some point by a feathered alligator, but the wolfcleaver and the prince made short work of it, bashing and slicing the creature to bits. The tanners rejoiced, turning the creature into backpacks.

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It was at the end of spring that things took a weird turn, to say the least. A single creature would soon bring Whisperwhip to its knees. It began with this little forgotten beast, a snail composed of flames. The commander gathered the troops, and created a defensive perimeter. As soon as the snail moved, it would trigger their overwatch and give them a free volley. Bembul briefed his men. ''it may lack any special abilities, but flame creatures can hurl fireballs, be ready to dodge it!'' Words came to them soon after, a messenger warning of a meager ambush. ''Send the Golden Labors, they can deal with a few goblins'', said the commander, dispatching the new recruits without a second thought.

The messengers returned, as the army's core was still stationned in the first cavern layer, waiting for a chance to strike.

''Commander, we need reinforcements! The Golden Labors stand defeated!
-I'm sorry what.''

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''Three goblins, sir, they are stationned atop the remains of Dogshatter Hill. We cannot reach them.
-Can't captain Kubuk simply grab a crossbow and fire at them? People carry a ranged and melee weapon in this fortress for a reason. there are ten of them, surely one of the recruits remembered to bring his quiver.''

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''About that, commander. Captain Kubuk positionned herself atop the unfinished wall to get a good shot, but then dodged right into thin air and smashed her skull on the ground. She fell right below the ambushers. One of her squadmate made the same mistake, but he dodged on our side of the wall.
-Ugh. Recruits. Captain Ushtuth, you have the caverns. Joyous Orbs, redeploy to the surface!''

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Bembul reaches the surface with his squadmates, and is briefed on the latest details. Kubuk is slowly dying on the other side of the wall, and the goblins will kill her quickly enough. He orders his soldiers to dwarf the wall.

''Shoot at them, and draw their attention! Doctor Melbil, you'll need to get in there and retrieve captain Kubuk while she can still be saved. We'll distract the goblins.''

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Young Meng follows around behind the doctor. He has something to say.

''What's the matter, little boy? Is Timy stuck down the well?
-...Yes.''

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It seems that Meng's mother Erith tried to retrieve Kubuk's quiver and then dodged into the chasm. For the daughter of Lady Asmel, her decision-making in combat sure is disappointing.

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Dragging her out won't be easy. Just like a fabled fire monster of old, the remaining goblin Amxu is right on the edge of the region, and crossbow fire flies right through him. His own attacks are soon depleted, as the goblin empties his quiver and just... stands there. Workers won't go near him. some of them tried to build a ramp, but got too scared. Still, they must save Erith...

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''Dig a new tunnel!'' yells Bembul. The miners get to work, and bypass the goblin by excavating a new tunnel from one of the grand dinning hall's food supply. Erith is saved, and swims back toward the fortress. ''Sorry guys. Still, that was a good swimming exercise right there!''

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Stunned and unconscious captain Kubuk was dragged to the hospital by the chief ragdoll engineer, Dr Melbil. Bembul barges in the hospital, asking about her status.

''She'll be fine, don't worry. Probably won't be able to fight so well, but her life is no longer at risk.
-How long before she can walk and grasp a weapon?
-Oh, it's hard to say, this could be a week, or a month, or never, I can't exactly...
-No seriously, get her up now, we need her outside immediately
-Commander, this is hardly a good idea...''

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''I don't care if it's a good idea or not!'' interrupts the commander. ''I've told everyone that the items outside were forbidden. All of them but Kubuk's weapon, which -- due to ancestral and obscure dwarven customs-- only she can do. People went outside trying to grab it and put it in a bin, and then dropped all our bins outside because they are scared. We are currently defenceless.
-Well, commander, I would suggest that you find a way to kill this goblin before the whole fortress becomes paralysed. Now let me work.''


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The commander initiates two plans to dislodge the goblin.

''Masons, begin some scafolding and expand the western wall upward three floors, then build a platform. Smiths and siege engineers, begin the construction of more ballista ammo and parts.
-Sir we don't have any siege engineers.
-Well kid you are the siege engineer now. GO!''


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''Miners, start a new tunnel going under dogshatter hill, then dig straight up. Once you reach the surface, the carpenters will slowly build a staircase up, and resume work every time they become afraid and flee their duties.''

The commander looks at the taskforce, and adds ''And use the new tunnel instead of going around the walls, you idiots. The hill is now restricted terrain!''

(See, I told you I'd make use of this whole ''traffic designation'' knowledge thing)

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Back at the hospital, Dr.Melbil writes down his report. Kubuk will require extensive surgery, and won,t be out for weeks at least. There also seems to be a new syndrome circulating in the fortress and killing pets, and some people are throwing tantrums because of the general state of panic. The goblin called some reinforcements, and the newcomers are not out of arrows. People in the courtyard are getting shot at, and pets are getting sniped.

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At least, Lady Asmel's grandson is now save and sound; the surgeries were a success!

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In a fit of wisdom and heroism, Zulban the cook decided to use the tunnel while carrying a bin, and overcame the terror long enough to retrieve Kubuk's main weapon.

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She was promoted to the custom title of ''Fearless bin User'' and given a new, larger bedroom for her bravery. Now dwarves are no longer rushing outside to gather the weapon and dropping more bins around in the process. everything is correctly forbidden, including every single item inside every single bin.

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Just in case, one of the weaponsmith in training went out of his way to create new weapons, so the fort would have means of defending itself until the situation was solved. A new adamantine spear is created, of artefact quality. The art is simple, but since everything or so is made of raw adamantine, nobody will complain.

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Some citizen have reacted to the current events in less stellar ways. datan went out of his way to smash the golden gate guarding the main entrance to bits and bars. Good job, bro. ''I'd have him hammered, but we need every dwarf we can right now'' comments the commander. It's unclear why Datan is miserable at the moment. He has a few complains, but nothing exceptionally desolating happened to him. His psychological evaluation states that he rarely feels discouraged, so he's really just having a mild case of the ''being a fucking bitch'' at the moment.

The metalcrafters rebuild the golden gate with the leftover bars. Far in the background, carpenters finish the staircase, after a month of trouble. The army descends (ascends?) on the goblins and bring order back to the fortress.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

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Much like the fortress itself, Captain Kubuk recovers from her wound, alive but barely functional. She must rely on a crutch to move around, crawling around the fortress as she goes. ''She will remain in the army'' announces the commander. Kubuk's training will make her strong and tough, balancing the negative effects of her injuries. normal jobs would simply leave her as an inefficient cripple.

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The armorers aren't cripple, but they are are inneficient. Whisperwhip now counts three legendary armorsmiths dedicated fully to their craft, yet none of them care to finish the steel items comissioned. They are either on break, or drinking, or sleeping. It's fine guys, the survival of our soldiers totally doesn't depends on your work.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Speaking of soldiers, Commander Bembul and his men are spending all their time in the river, slowly learning how to swim. Bets are made, about who would be the first to surpass the level of dabbling swimmer. Wingless nish seems promising, and surpasses the skill of Squiddwarf within three months of training.

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The human caravan appears during summer, and much crap is traded for needed goods. The merchants offer 200 brewable plants, many iron/bronze/gold items to smelt, and various gems. The fortress has little time or workers to spend on strip mining, yet improving items is always good. Those gems will decorate items to beautify some rooms. As for bronze items, the commander is planning something that will require countless bars, but that's too early to reveal. With those fruits and berries, the brewers will be able to rebuild a sotkcpile of booze, instead of relying on mass-farming.

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The most knowledgeable humans are taken to the bottom of the earth, into the adamantine spire.

''Do you have any idea what this strange patch of grey material is?
-Sorry, dwarf friend, I have never seen such a thing. truly, it is an unknown material...''


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It seems that the residents are not unanimously happy with the new queen. Many of them, especially children, were raised with stories of the necromantic queen Cog Floorquest and her blood-sucking heir. They make artwork about the overthrown ruler as often as they can, to remind everyone of the usurpation.

Despite those little events and slices of life, 6 months pass by. But warfare never rests for too long in Whisperwhip...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *


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''... in the caverns, commander. A towering butterfly with noxious vapors. Thankfully it is trapped behind some fungi.''

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Fall is coming to a close when the messenger brings news of the latest forgotten beast. The first layer of the caverns is at risk. Bembul thinks for a moment, and orders the soldiers to mobilise on BASE1's bridge. ''Idiot, it's a butterfly, trees won't stop it. It's in the name for Kadol's sake!''

Just so, the towering butterfly circles around the stone formation, and heads toward the Machine for Skypigs. The mechanics ask about the trap activation.

''Not yet. We can handle this one. ''

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The war animals in the enclave are doing a decent job of tearing the forgotten beast appart. One stray war dog runs away, feeling numb and pale from the noxious secretions.

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The army holds its collective breath as the potentially infected dog runs past them all. After a few moments, the soldiers assume they are fine, and stop freaking out. ''We are moving out, people'' announces Bembul. ''Long route around the enclave.''

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''Stay stationned! Everyone who gets a clear shot starts firing bolts at the butterfly, but nobody goes in melee! Let the animals take the hits!
-Fuck this, it's gotten shot enough time already. your archers suck, Imma chop it's head off! announces Lady Grace
-Kogsak, you stay here with the rest!
-You're not the boss of me!
-...I'm the militia commander and your godamn father!''


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Kogsak gives essentially zero fucks. I mean, she bashes people with an iron bow, what did you expect. Lady Grace runs straight at the giant butterfly and swings Smoothbanners at it a few times, bringing the beast low. For the legendary adamantine axe, that's a sweet three megabeast in a row.

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For Kogsak, that's... something else. ''Dad, I feel all numb''

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The commander has little time to deal with this issue. News from the surface arrive to BASE1, about a tricky situation. The human caravan haven't left yet, the dwarven merchants are her, and a horde of goblins are hot on their trail. The soldiers rush upstairs, and Kogsak is sent hastily to the hospital.

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Bembul first orders the True Handles to move out and secure a path for the caravan, but it is way too late. Upon seeing the situation firsthand, the commander orders all troops inside, to bunker up and wait for the enemy. The dwarven merchants are for the most part dead, and only a single soldier remains, fighting a desperate battle across the whole map. there is no way in hell those dudes are surviving, and Bembul will not risk men needlessly. his mind is preoccupied by the fate of his daughter, struggling with a disease they don't fully understand. Some soldiers disagree with his orders.

''I didn't sign up to let dwarves die on my watch. that's not what my friend ID the second would have done.'' Captain Ushtuth dashes out, her crossbow ready to fire.

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She reaches the western front. the situation is dire. Thirty goblins, chasing down a lone hammerdwarf and two defenseless merchants. She screams at the merchants, telling them to run toward the safe path she located. As her crossbow let loose of the first bolt, attracting the greenskins' attention, she starts to fully realise the mess she jumped into. Suddenly the situation is reversed. She is the lone gunsmen atop the hill, keeping all the goblins occupied.

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The two merchants run eastward, atop the northern hills. A third of the goblin division give chase, the rest start to surround the two fighters. Stepping over dead dwarves and trashed crates, Ushtuth tries to keep her distance, shooting bolts at the nearest targets while staying out of counterattack range. she enters a martial trance, her dodges and shots alternating in perfect unison. It won't be enough to save her ward, however. The hammerdwarf is overrun by invaders, dragged to the ground and savagely dismembered by the horde. Ushtuth is now alone, with the whole army between her and the fortress...

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The Tactical Hills erupt into a bloody battle. Dwarven merchants running for their lives, trolls rushing in from the southern gate, being reppeled by human guardsmen, while the main dwarven troops are guarding the western gate from the largest invading force...

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Bembul mounts a solid defence. Good soldiers surround him. The Wolfcleaver Ber is swinging shield and sword at everything in sight, cleaving opponents as easily as butter.

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From atop the unfinished wall, Wingless nish has taken position, providing cover fire and slowing the goblin's advance.

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The trolls have breached the southern gate. War animals flood down the hill, trying to stop them, but the giant creatures are more than a match for a few dogs. They begin tearing the pets into shreds. Until...

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Kogsak appears from the golden gate, alive and well.

''I'm still a bit numb, dad, but I can fight!''

She rushes to the southern gate, Smoothbanner still soaked from butterfly blood. Trolls begin to fall from her onslaught. Some soldiers notice the tide turning, and decide to abandon the defence to support Ushtuth...

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Of the two merchants fleeing across the hills, one remain. his friend fell prey to the rampaging goblins, who are still hot on his trail. A steel-clad figure hails him, slicing a path through goblin infantry. ''Follow me, I know what I'm doing!'' urges the blood-soaked killer.

The merchant is all too happy to oblige. He runs down the hill, with the gate in sight. countlesss corpses are scattered across the hill, still fresh from his savior's carnage, but more goblins block the entrance, locked with Bembul's squad.

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''We'll have to hold our ground here, and wait for an opening. Stay behind me!
-Why yes, of course! May I have the name of my savior?
-I was born as Olin. But my mother was once the militia commander of this fortress, so I'd like to honor her memory. You may call me Drokles the second''


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Further west, Ushtuth is slowly running out of energy. Her adrenaline-fueled martial trance slowly dies off, and she begins to slow down, giving more and more ground to her invaders. She is about to give up when she notices a shining beacon across the battlefield, sunshine bouncing off shining steel.

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It is Ducim, one of her three surviving squadmates. Her parents were both soldiers, and died courageously against mighty beasts. It is said that ducim herself was born in the midst of battle, while her mother was fending off a siege; thus they call her the Battleborn. She joined the leadership of ID the second when he came of age, and trained under him. Ducim aims her crossbow, and guns a goblin trying to surround her captain.

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From the southern hill appears Oddom, the Everseing Blames. He joined the army to honor his father, Zasit the mighty, whose killcount was second only to the warrior princess herself. Oddom plans on surpassing his father one day, and this field full of goblins is one step toward his goal. He opens fire, helping ducim in gunning down each goblin one by one, while captain Ushtuth retreats. The three of them begin circling the goblins, focusing each foe that tries and get too close to one of them. Even spread by dozens of urists, they act as a single unit. Their coordination is amazing to behold.

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The goblins begin to run. They are shot in the back like the treacherous scums they are. The three lone gunmen look at each other, look at the pile of corpses, look at the dismantled wagons and the scattered goods. ''Time to report back to the commander'' Ushtuth simply says, grabbing a quiver from a fallen guard.

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''Carry those back with you, they are dwarves and deserve a proper burial...'' she adds, pointing at the fallen guards.

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The troops return home. The fallen merchants are given a proper ceremony, their surviving companion making a short and touching speech to the memory of his deceased friends. Commander Bembul gathers the whole fortress outside, save for brewers and smelters. He goes over the list of goods and corpses, and reminds everyone of what will be dumped, melted or stored. His squad is to stay here, ready to thwart any ambushes that would endanger the haulers. The courtyard is full of dead dogs and dismembered trolls. there are five wagons scattered over the savannah, over a hundred dead goblins. Hundreds of loose arrows and bolt waiting to be collected, enough scrap copper to be reforged into a castle, and scattered goods farther than the eyes can see. ''There goes our next two seasons of work'' reflects the commander. This will be a long year.

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''Hey dad look at my shield. Look at it dad, my shield is amazing! Imma give it a name! Imma call it... Dorennarir! Yup, that's the name of my shield now. HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT DORENNARIR, THAT'S MY SHIELD LOOK AT IT!

...A very long year.





Spoiler: ooc notes (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: October 14, 2015, 07:29:05 pm by Taupe »
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De

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #207 on: October 14, 2015, 10:27:53 pm »

The lone gunmen is kind of a pun.  8) I like it. And hey, Kogsak did do something! The comedy relief squad are shaping up after all.
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Don't pay attention to the body piles in every fort I play, I swear I'm competent at this game.

Catsquidcat Overlord

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #208 on: November 14, 2015, 04:18:14 pm »

I have been thoroughly enjoying this so far, I am looking forward to the next post.
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Oh, and the demons killed a second lake.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse
« Reply #209 on: November 17, 2015, 02:31:19 pm »

CHAPTER 87: Breadcrumbs
Year 148
Killcount: 85


A full season is what it took to clear most of the mess. The army intercepted a few thieves and ambushers during this period, preventing any misfortunes. Haulers worked day and night to retrieve (read: dump) most of the stuff left by the caravans. Why they still took the time and effort to bring so many trinkets to Whisperwhip, commander Bembul would never know. For reasons unexplained, the human caravan from the last year still lingered in the courtyard, its guards alert and ready for trouble. Fighters in search of glory and battle, no doubt. Their help in fending off thieves was much appreciated. As long as they stayed, the soldiers of Whisperwhip would have an easier time defending the gates against smaller forces.

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His daughter Kogsak now sported an adamantine breastplate of legendary quality, created by the armorer-training program. In time, they may have a warrior fully-clothed in artefact garbs.

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Lady Grace was now as swift as her name suggested. During the most recent Forgotten intrusion, the soldiers took position and shot the flying invader down. Kogsak was the first upon it, climbing down the ramps at lightning speed and landing a decapitating blow before the creature could ever react.

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The locals were so confident in her ability to kill things that this woodcutter didnt interrupt his work as a battle raged a few urists to the north. He just chopped down fungi trees like it was nothing.

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''It's just a forgotten beast'', the woodcutter said. He'd seen plenty die over the years, and hardly gave a crap anymore.

Or was it? There were still creatures out there that could humble any dwarf, no matter how long he's lived in Whisperwhip. Lord Commander Bembul was marinating in his swimming area when the news reached him, of a new foe sporting deadly dust entering the upper caverns.

''Fetch the captains, and prepare for a defensive stand. We'll use the traps, but I want the soldiers ready in case of trouble.
-Sir, the captain, she's... she's given up on everything.
-Kubuk? Yes, after her fall, and injuries, I can see how she'd be miserable
-No, sir, not her...''


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It was captain Ushtuth. The will to live had left her just like that, without warning. One of their best soldiers, a veteran of many battles, and the greatest marksdwarf to live. Melancholy was not a new sight in Whisperwhip. The poor captain would soon be dead, just like that.

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Ushtuth simply stalked the graveyard, making her way to the shrine of Olin Bookdeer, her childhood heroine. Olin herself let herself die of thirst instead of watching the children fight each other. Both girls joined the army in their teenage years, and fought monstruous creatures, going out of their way to defend the innocent. In the end, even their death would mirror each other. It was a sad kind of poetry, one the Lord commander had no time for right now.

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Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A massive cyclopean ankylosaurus was assaulting the fortress, armed with deadly dust and solid plating. The army was facing a powerful foe.
''Human guards, the caverns are under attack! You have the courtyard!
-Understood, sir!''
replied a tall, sturdy human woman.

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''So, what's the situation here?'' he asked as he reached BASE1. People were obviously in a panic. Some woman was whinning about her child, another about a pet. They came to their senses and explained:

''Commander, we were working on a side-project when the beast arrived. A sort of... pillar. We wanted to drop buckets of water over the fire sources, to maybe retrieve some of the gear left by commander Drokles the first.
-I did not approve of this.
-Well, there it is still. Now the children and pet are out there!''


He knew what he should be saying. What Ustuth would have wanted him to say. But he had to make tough calls, for the fortress.

''We can't risk it. If they can't run fast enough...''

Captain Ustuth would have ran out there. She would also have died, but... she would have tried. Is that why she gave up on life? Because she knew such decisions were bound to happen?

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

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''A kobold, ma'am!'' screamed one of the merchants. The creature was sneaky, but not enough to trump the fine nose of a pregnant water buffalo cow.

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''You heard the little dude, that's our time to shine!'' declared Or, self-appointed leader of the human soldiers.

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The humans had given chase. A few decades ago, the Lavender Empire was at war with this dwarven civilisation. Now, eager fighters were swarming to the capital to join the various fights. Gain glory, gain experience. Or was such a person. She led the charge, and her squad charged across the prairie.

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''Better than fucking training!'' she yelled, as her spear went through the bugger's skull. She smiled for a moment, then turned her head to the south, to see another fight scene.

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''Qulla be damned, I didn't come here to get outdone by a fucking leopard!''

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  *

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''What part of lure it to the trap did he not understand?'', a worker complained. A legendary weaponsmith took it upon himself to carry a llama down in the caverns as bait. that part he accomplished brilliantly. Then he spotted a block left by the construction team, and went to pick it up right under the beast's nose. Now the llama was running lose, useless, and the weaponsmith was sure to die.

''Send a dog closer to us, before the last bridge. Run as soon as the dog is pastured.
-Dad, I'm bored, Imma get a drink or whatever.
-Kogsak, no we need to...''

But Kogsak was gone.

*    *    *    *    *   *   *    *    *
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Odok was running for his/her life. The poor dwarf was simply picking up bits of goblin arms, when a bunch of full-sized, non-chunky goblins assaulted him. (or her). He ran, and ran, winded and tired, but he could not stop. He had to reach the walls.

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Thankfully, Kogsak was looking for a drink nearby. She was very, very fast. Swift as only a fully-trained dwarf wearing mostly adamantine could be. She took a full day to finish her drink, then valliantly charged outside.

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Odok is saved at the last second by the furious onslaught of the captain.

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Yet, at this very moment, a master thief comes out of the shadows and commits a gruesome murder. The child Ushrir has been struck down...

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The master thief escapes. There will be no mercy for his companions left behind. Smoothbanner the Patterned Dish begins a deadly dance, chopping limbs and head alike, as a cook would slice a fruit.

*   *   *   *   *   *

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''So what did I miss. You guys still luring that ankylosaurus to the trap?
-Kogsak, be more respectful, our best weaponsmith has just died.''


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The beast goes for a dog, then a chicken. Slowly, but surely, it makes its way to the trap.

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''Hey, hold the fucking phone, that's my chicken!'' announces an offended Momuz. He disappears into the smoke.

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''Nobody moves.'' orders the commander. ''He's taking the bait. One last dog and he'll spot the trap.'' Many have died, but the beast is too dangerous to be let loose. Should it spread its dust into the trap without entering it, or run into the fortress first by wandering around, many more would die.

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The dog is dead on the spot. The forgotten beast has now noticed the war animals pastured nearby.

''Do it.''

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The deed is done.

''Refill the trap!''

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''...And the animals, I guess''. They'll need a new weaponsmith as well, but he doesn't say that out loud.

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One of the soldiers is taking the death of captain Ustuth harded than expected. He lashes out on the most precious dwarf of the fort, a highly-skilled strand extractor named Listat. The poor dwarf's lungs are crushed on impact, tainting the cyan vaults with blood. The widowed Sazir, world-famous artist, is now the only strand extractor of Whisperwhip.

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The adamantine already extracted is put to good use. Someone has created an artefact shield.

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The murderer spent too much time down in the vault, tantrumming. In a fit of ironic punishment, the gods let him die of thirst moments before he reaches the booze depot.

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''Get your shit together, we have a new foe'' announces the Lord Commander.

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The beast is sniped before it can reach BASE1.

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Not a moment too soon, either. The goblins are back.

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''By Kadol, where is my daughter this time?''

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''Chill, dad, I'm getting a drink from the topmost level of the furthest tower.
-...''


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''And, hum, now I'm off to sleep, really.''

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''Hey commander, I'll be in the caverns, hunting or whatever!'' declares Tun Circleoiled before crawling to the depths.

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''Are you kidding me?!? Captain Or, we'll cover the south gate. Take care of the trolls moving in from the north!
-Understood, little dude!''


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Hammer lord Thikhut is ordered to deliver the monthly note. He's had enough. They all know querns are not to be exported. ''Who would buy them anyway?'' He snaps.

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In the middle of all this war and tantrumming, it seems that the only miner left to venture to the spire and retrieve adamantine is Tulon, who's missing his entire left arm.

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''He'll be fine,'' says the doctor. ''His ability to grasp is only ''somewhat'' impaired.''

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The newest law-giver comes to deliver a notice to the rogue guards. He dies before he can make it, tho. Captain Or and her men remain in the courtyard, and greet the newest bunch of merchants and guards, who don,t quite understand why they are still here. From atop the tower, the savannah has been replaced by a new biome; Whisperwhip is located at the earth of a Blood Biome.

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Lord Commander Bembul meets with doctor Melbil, to hear about Thikut's condition:

''I'm afraid he'll never calm down completely. he's been assigned to HAVEN, but he won't listen to any doctor orders to move there. he's just, breaking shit.
-We'll keep him close, just in case.
-Oh, but on the bright side...''


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''...We've finally located the hammerer's finger that was misplaced in the latest siege.
-...''


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''Everyone is very psyched about it. The medical staff is throwing a party as we speak.''

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This conversation is interrupted by two peasants carrying a wounded farmer.

''He got shot in the chest at point blank while hauling spare helmets'', they explain. The poor lad will not live through the night.

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Thikut, his second in command, has finally snapped. During training, he turned around and raged, shooting an innocent farmer before being chopped into pieces by Ber the Wolfcleaver.

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Ber and his pal simply resumed sparring over his dead, bleeding body.

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This place is going to shit, reflects the Lord Commander. So many good man losing their mind in a single season. Bembul muses over the condition of his army while admiring Thikut's steel crossbow. He used it to bash two forgotten beasts to death in his career. Up to this point, he never really gave any signs of sadness or depression. It all happened so fast...

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The nobles too are getting restless. they now have new demands. The mayor seeks to have a copper door installed in her bedroom.

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Her wish is fulfilled quite literally.

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The dwarven traders want the two human caravans to vacate the trade depot. They can't access it. Bembul explains to them why this isn't a problem by unleashing 50 war animals and a squad of human soldiers on  single goblin.

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A furnace operator went to get a drink and forgot her baby in the... river. Good parenting there. she can't get to it because of the currents, so the baby's been there for a month. The baby was told he had permission to use the river as a water source, because babies are dumb like that.

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''So, commander, I *may* need a crystal glass window in my underground throne room.
-Are you serious, Tun?
-Quite.''


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''We can never have enough adamantine around, sir!'' says Sazir the artist. ''Look what we can do if we have more. I told One-arm Tulon to stop being lazy and get more ores.
-Shouldn't you guys be making pairs of gloves, instead of only left gauntlets?
-You know nothing about art, Lord commander.


Doctor Melbil has some demands as well, altho his make more sense.

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''We need soap. We have fat lying around, but the only barrels remaining are... out of reach.''

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''I'll get your barrels, doctor.''

The Lord Commander gives orders to animal trainers, masons, and miners. It is time to retake DOOMCAVE.
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