---Watchword Chapter 5: An Assault Gone Poorly
I had some time, so I played more today. Honestly I didn't remember much of what I'd done build-wise, but that wasn't an excuse for what I found on the edge of the site, where I found Azri hanging instead of in his office like a good bookkeeper. Rather than sleep out in the rain, the trees were cut down in a small circumference- there was even a carpentry workshop, not far from it. Behind that was a half-built house. Not huge, but it had a desk, a dresser, a chair and a bed, and a roof. Oh, and a traction bench for whatever reason. I was pretty sure I hadn't ordered it, but hey- I was kind of drunk, and apparently I'd had the presence of mind to designate it as Azri's shack- the Overseer's office was no longer owned.
Really, it itself wasn't all that strange, and Azri was at least doing the bookkeeping- I had a general clue of how much my guys still had now. What was stranger was the fact I had apparently assigned Azri to every last job in the Therapist (and he'd actually gotten a few points in carpentry as a result).
The things you do while tipsy, I swear.
---
So a checklist- I got the pillars and statues set up in the catacombs and the place was looking suitably dwarfy, so it was worth it hand-selecting the walls to be dug into those fractal-esque shapes after all.
I got the trading depot set up, with a roof and a bunch of statues, after I widened out the entrance. Gonna build a cool skull over the entry, so that the depot is kind of sitting in the skull's mouth.
Place is door'd and furnished, mostly with granite, still haven't set people to engraving though they've been smoothing for a while.
Few more migrants, we're up to fifty dwarves and about ten of them are haulers (why keep bees when you've got fungus?).
Farms stopped working, so I buggered something up there- I might have accidentally forbidden some seeds. Dwarves won't go in the area, crops won't grow, its kind of odd. They built it, though, and it was working for a while.
I set Azri's shack up with a brewery and a cooking stand and designated some walls around them- honestly, I'm kind of liking the little lean-to, it has a rustic feel, even if it does resemble the block-houses in adventure mode. Funky thing is that Azri logged the wood and did it himself, rather than going into the stockpiles, and I'm pretty sure I de-selected his jobs in Therapist to what they were originally (nothing). When I went and looked, though, they'd turned back on so it might have been yet another bug.
All in all, things are going pretty well- the food issue isn't a problem, since I came with enough to last a few years.
---
Elven caravan.
Aside from the wood that had gone into the Overseer's Shack, I hadn't actually logged anything (alright, I tell a lie, some trees were cleared to make the skull entrance, but it was only five or so), so relations were bound to be good. They arrived uneventfully, started setting up shop at the depot and I ordered Azri down there to work on part two of operation Learn Trading. I'd recently read on a wiki that barrels and chests of stuff were 'easier' for traders to carry, and I'd had a few (read: about a hundred) gems cut by what was now my Legendary Glassmaker (and pretty good gemcutter) for when it happened.
Fastdwarf was off for good, now, since I'd gotten almost everything set up and there was no real reason to use it further- so I had time to do a little checking up on my bearded wonders.
Apparently there were a few injuries I hadn't noticed last night. Six dwarves had their skin listed as 'cut open' and their sternums 'gone' (wtf is a sternum), so I quickly paused and set up a hospital. They weren't bleeding on the floors, from what I could tell, and they were still working hard so maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded. I wasn't sure how they'd gotten injured though, unless it was from the traps in the main hallway (which had been finished) or the training room I had set up for the budding military (after I'd looked up how to do it again, as I always forgot).
In comparison, Azri was still a wreck.
Azri 'The Overseer' Forgeworks has been unhappy lately.
He was startled by Goblins recently.
He was irritated by a goblin recently.
I haven't seen a goblin since I arrived here, maybe Azri had been scaring off thieves. Handy.
He was taunted recently.
By who? Dude's been in isolation.
He has complained about the lack of wells recently.
True, but I hope to breach the aquifer soon. I know you need water for dwarves in the hospital, so that's really the next step. Funny thing is that there wasn't actually that big an aquifer- its in the northeast corner of the map, and only one level deep- like 25 squares, total across.
He has felt watched recently.
Um?
He is not looking forward to the future.
This was a lot like 'doesn't want to be here'- it sounded needlessly worried, and I'm beginning to suspect Azri's got a screwed syndrome that just makes him sad or worried all the time. He still went out to the Depot, so there's that. He managed to reach just as the elven liason started heading towards him, and I got the usual screen the elves pop up over their trees.
"What a pleasant surprise! Not a single tree here weeps from the abuses meted out with such ease by your people. Joy! The dwarves have turned a page, not that we would make paper. A travesty! Perhaps it is better said that the dwarves have turned over a new leaf, and the springtime for our two races has only just begun. I must say I was worried of the rumors before now!"
It was kinda nice to read, actually, I'd never seen it before- but I didn't get very long to trade at all, and instead of letting me finish the deal they let me look for about six minutes before I was abruptly kicked out of the screen and I was told the elves started packing up. Azri was heading back to his shack, already- I hadn't even told him he could go from the depot.
What in the actual fuck?
So I deconstructed the depot, again, and claimed their junk for free, because fuck bugged elves. Honestly. It was then that their packmule literally dropped dead of dehydration, making sure they couldn't pick their goods back up- which in retrospect was oddly timed, but definitely helpful. The elves had fled.
---
Taking the time to pick over the contents, I was kind of beginning to understand why most players didn't like elves to start with- it was all junk, toys and instruments made of wood and generally worthless. Only the seeds were really worth picking up, as I could supplement my farms with them if I figured out how to grow stuff other than the four basics (one of which wasn't even food, it was like- cloth, or something? Add clothing to the list of things I didn't quite understand). The dead packmule went into the refuse stockpile, before it started stinking up the place, and I ordered the depot rebuilt.
I also had that aquifer breached, and built a handy well off the hospital- and that shut Azri up about it, so all good things, except that his mood dropped back into miserable. I really didn't get it- he was living pretty well, and didn't want for food and drink, and hadn't complained about his living quarters. Almost all the bad stuff was gone, except He is not looking forward to the future. And the bookkeeping was no longer improving, either. Finally giving in, I pulled up Dwarf Therapist and tagged another likely-looking dorf as the inheritor of those jobs (Urist 'New Overseer' SmeltedTongue), which sucked because Azri was one of the seven and I kinda wanted him to be the big boss- I'd handpicked his traits, after all.
---
It was a fairly long while after all that when the next big event hit. The skin had healed up on all the dwarves, the sternum was no longer listed as 'gone', my swordsdwarves and crossbowdwarves were improving pretty well and had steel armor (thank you, embark) and I was getting the hang of getting orders when
An ambush! Curse all friends of nature!
Wtf, ten elves, seriously? Eat my trap entrance.
They didn't go in immediately- instead they hung around Azri's house (it must have been him that discovered them, as that's where they were when my screen pulled over), but I had the presence of mind to Forbid the door. Apparently elves couldn't open them, which was nice. They stood still out there for about half a minute in realtime (whatever that is in DF, I have no idea), and then started making their way forward. I did actually remember to burrow everyone inside the fort- and no one needed anything outside, so for all intents and purposes the elves were fucked for having to go across a one-block-wide bridge covered in blade traps with a 30-level fall on either side lined with glass spikes and spears. Eventually I'd have the walls lined with ballistae too, but that was a distant dream.
Three went down in a hail of blades- two seemed to explode, and four dodged off the bridge and took the big plummet. Only one survived, though the first trap had gotten him pretty good. I think he was the leader, but he was already routed- my military didn't need to lift a finger. Leaving a trail of blood, the poor dumb bastard actually managed to crawl out of the entrance before falling unconscious, and I unburrowed- my boys already cleaning up the bridge and pit, and fixing the stuck traps.
It was like on cue-
Urist SmeltedTongue has organized a party at ☼Diorite Table!☼
Go figure. But at least they cleaned everything up first before heading to the mess hall, I made sure of that.
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Topic: Watchword [Spoilers] [Horror] [Creepypasta] (Read 5046 times)