Times have been changing. The golden age of victory has dimmed. Dwarves have been dying and ghosts rising to haunt the living, old grizzleguts all falling to age as age made their bodies fall apart. There was something quite sad when Uvash L. Tiger keeled over in the middle of a military demonstration, Unib Titans was found screaming drill commands to young recruits - as a ghost beyond the grave and old Professor Cog was fast asleep atop a pile of records. Cog didn't wake up.
Then there was Feb Phrasecobalt the Macabre. Not always known as the Macabre, Feb Phrasecobalt was a quiet Dwarf; happy and optimistic, rarely discouraged, modest and all round relaxed. He was well loved by many, and to see Feb crack up and lose it was grueling for all.
At the age of 7 Feb was involved in a terrible accident whilst playing with his brothers and sisters. He fell down several flights of stairs due to this accident and severed his lower spine and broke one of his legs. I refused to give up on little Feb and there was something admirable about how even without the use of his legs Feb soldiered on, exceeding in his craftsdwarfship and military drill. As he neared the age of 22, having studied under some fine elite Captains, Feb might have become a great instructor - after all, what better way to motivate the young ones than to have their instructor kick their backsides without any functioning use of his lower half?
Regrettably whilst his physical wounds healed, mental wounds were left behind. Feb would eventually grow miserable. Long after his accident the trauma of his injuries still haunted him. There was nothing the doctors could do to fix those wounds or give him use of his legs back. He would've recovered but Armok gifts and curses with his visions. He saved one Dwarf from a coma with his visions, now he took one Dwarf from happiness with his visions.
Having gone into a demented macabre state Feb grew solitary and disturbed. This eventually developed into full blown insanity, and Feb went stark raving mad, running around through the Fortress until at last starvation claimed him.
And so ended Feb Phrasecobalt the Macabre, formerly Feb Phrasecobalt the Optimist.
There was little time to mourn after the Titan attacked.
The Titan was a clumsy three-eyed
dimetrodon with enormous thin wings of stretched skin and ensnaring webs vomiting forth from a mouth shielded by oval scales. Well, all of it was shielded by oval scales.
It bypassed the ground defences by virtue of its hideous wings and landed right on top of a wall segment, steadily smashing through a floor hatch to get at the juicy morsels hiding below. This all took place within walking distance of one of the largest barracks within the Fortress, a taskforce was assembled rapidly. Several dozen elite soldiers and fresh recruits eagerly marched up to the hatch, ready to bust through and catch the Titan off guard.
This is the point where the beast crashed through the hatch and caught the taskforce off guard. Caught in the chokepoint every single Dwarf except for one was immobilized by its great webs. Doctor Onul Bloodmachine on the one hand and Zoslu Ustxuutol on the other.
Doctor Onul Bloodmachine had a well earned reputation for her surname. Zoslu kept trying to catch her but she was too fast, kicking it shins, lodging her axe in its wings - after striking its front leg with her steel shield she was finally in a position to deal the killing blow.
And off went Zoslu's head.
Have you read Datan and the Eagle, I believe it was called?
Yes!
I hope they breed, and produce a kingdom of eagles on your roof. Except they'll start dying in a couple of years, and it could be like the ravens all over again.
I am worried a bit about that, as I have spotted more eagles popping around and disappearing from ledges with disturbing regularity. A small lockdown has been ordered to curtail eagle movement, they fly through shafts and passageways like noble rats, gremlins and kobolds. I do not look forward to their reincarnation as undead gargoyles clawing at my Dwarves' eyes.
As a side interest after the birth of one particular Dwarf of incredibly healthy stock I began surveying my Dwarves for one trait in particular: The tall and humongous amongst the Fort.
The Fort has been blessed with Dwarves born of excessive proportions. About 5% of the Dwarven population are larger than humans. They are all being given the titles of Shukar to add to their names, I hope to one day create a squad purely out of gargantuan Dwarves (by Dwarven standards anyways).
I've been thinking about this. Bastiongate and Silentthunders are somewhat similar, but very different.
I think this mostly comes from our perspectives on solving problems. When I come up against an insurmountable problem, I find a way around it. When you face an insurmountable problem, you throw the full force of your will and creativity against that fucker and you solve it.
Faced with an infinite siege, Silentthunders would fight it to the last. Your whole fortress is geared for war. Every building is a fortress. Every citizen is a soldier. Every resource is a weapon. You would throw bolt and blade, demon and undead, magma and traps at the enemy. Every step the enemy took would cost them dearly. It would be an epic tale. But eventually you would fall.
Faced with the same situation, Bastiongate would simply seal its doors. No way the siege is getting in here. Life would continue as normal.
For that matter, it shows in how we deal with sieges now. When you get invaded, your 100-plus-man military charges out and slaughters the enemy. I catch most of the invading force in traps and finish off the stragglers with my 10-man military.
I thank you for your praise and find it uncannily relevant; it brings bloody tears to my eyes (or perhaps that is a terrible affliction at work).
After finally finishing two lines of cage traps to hopefully capture some humans, I decided to boot up force siege to get a modest amount of humans for capture. Forts like Bastiongate where defence is a grim automated killing machine show there's more than one way to skin a cat, and I needed some humans for R&D. The last siege didn't accomplish my objectives because I actually wanted to catch some humans, but they refused to enter any of my killing fields. So some trap lines were set up more directly outside in the hopes that at least some humans would be captured.
And humans did arrive. I had anticipated 20 at most, and so made no preparations for siege. I expected many humans to be captured and the rest defeated with ease.
What I failed to realize was that after Eslo's first assault tested the defences of Silentthunders she decided to take a more proactive role in the next assault. It is notable her soldiers all hail from different corners of the earth, some riding horses, some camels - others with cinnamon skin like my Dwarves or peach or copper skin from other human civilizations no doubt incorporated one way or another into the Empire. Their weapons are exotic, their names unusual to even their peers - war lions and mosquito riders fighting alongside pikemen, lancers, camel halberdiers and horse archers. Rescued from goblins or absorbed from neighbouring human Kingdoms, probably both; Eslo was undefeated in her long list of battles, and her army had everything.
She herself was little more than a great skinless lizard who fooled the humans into believing either her martial prowess or her divinity. Dangerous, yes - but Dwarven blades could cut her just as well as any demon.
The real challenge lay in her army. It had everything from every weapon and war animal the entirety of human civilization had access to.
None of my Marksdwarves are in position in the gatehouses and the undead forgotten beast I intended to unleash failed to release because I forgot to link it to any mechanisms. All hatches have been batted down and 155 soldiers have been mobilized for war. The Dwarves sleep fully armed and armoured and some sleep underneath vital fortifications to ensure response times are stellar. This time around I don't believe a clean open battle will be possible. In spite of some setbacks Eslo hasn't seen all of our dirty tricks yet.
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Topic: Ravens are murder. [SPOILERS] (Read 163271 times)