24 GraniteTosul sat in his new office, letting the weight of Gwolfski’s words rest on his shoulders for a few minutes.
Everyone here is depending on me… Tosul thought.
I can’t let them down!He rose and began to survey the fortress that was now under his command.
It was easy to tell that Bonepillar had been built as an emergency shelter rather than a traditional, architecturally designed fortress. Passages ran every which way throughout the fort; up, down, left, right, north, and south, and Tosul got lost several times trying to connect the interior geography with itself in his head.
As he wandered near the kitchen, Tosul heard frenzied barking from the north, then saw a dwarf rush out of a door before hastily slamming it shut.
Tosul recognized the dwarf as TheCheeseMaker, Bonepillar’s cook. “What’s going on in there?”
Sheepish, TheCheeseMaker rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, that? That was the dogs. I was checking the nest box, and the dogs got excited. They, uh, they like me. Probably the smell of cooked meat…”
“That was awfully loud for just an excited greeting. How many dogs do we have?”
“Last time I counted, forty-two.”
“Forty…” Tosul fell silent, then moved on, shaking his head.
Soon after, Tosul was approached by Tuaiq Uacca, Bonepillar’s militia commander.
“Hey, Tosul, do you have a minute?”
More than a little intimidated by the burly dwarf, Tosul stopped. “S-sure. What do you need?”
“Listen, I know you’re gonna be busy, with the whole running Bonepillar and all, but If you have the time, could you try and get me and the boys somewhere to train? A militia’s great and all, but without any training we’re just going to be effectively waving sticks around.”
Tosul mentally adjusted his priorities. “Sure thing, I-I’ll get right on it.”
Tuaiq smiled. “Thanks. Oh, and one more thing- that Peasant who arrived with you. Nil? I’ve seen arms like his before. Get him a hammer, and He’ll be smashing undead skulls like there’s no tomorrow.
With that, Tuaiq strolled off.
The last stop on Tosul’s fortress tour was the Mechanic’s workshop, where Zulban, one of the founding members of Bonepillar, was putting the finishing touches on his latest mechanisms.
“Hey, Zulban, can I ask you something?”
The older dwarf grunted, then put down his tools. “What is it now?”
“There’s a bunch of levers around Bonepillar, but none of them are labeled. Do you know what they do?”
Zulban simply shrugged.
“B-but you’re the one who hooked them up! How can you not know?”
“I put them up, yeah, but that was a couple of years ago, and so much has been going on since then, most of them’ve slipped my mind. I know the two in the main hall control the airlock, cuz they were first, but as for the rest, you’re on your own.”
Zulban turned back to his work.
“Thanks, I guess.”
With a sigh, Tosul headed back into the fort.
9 Slate“Migrant party on the horizon!”
As soon as the cry went up, Tosul ran toward the airlock, barking orders as he went.
“Tell the elves to pack up, now’s their best chance to get out safely! And as soon as I’m through, switch the airlock!”
Tosul ran past the trade depot, full of elves, and over the bismuth bridge as soon as it opened. Emerging into the sunlight, he saw the migrant party staring dumbfounded ahead of them as the horde of undead ripped apart a flock of kea that had recently entered the area.
Knowing that a single sound would send the horde running strait toward him, Tosul waved frantically, hoping that one of them would glance in his direction.
Before long, one of the migrant dwarves spotted him, and the group as a whole started moving towards Bonepillar’s entrance.
As the new dwarves filed in, Tosul counted heads. “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleve- Where are you going?”
The dwarf, a ranger by the looks of him, turned towards Tosul, surprised, and gestured towards the pole he carried. “Fishin’”
“You’ve seen what’s out there! Do you have some kind of death wish!?”
“Fine, fine, you don’t have to shout at me.”
The hapless dwarf abled inside, but the brief altercation had attracted unwanted attention.
“Seal the bridge!”
As soon as the bismuth bridge rested vertically, Tosul turned to the dwarf who looked to be in charge of the newcomers, a white-bearded older dwarf. “How many made it?”
“Uhh, looks like twenty-one, plus a few pack animals and pets.”
“And how many… didn’t?”
“Two donkeys and an alpaca. You saved our lives there, son!”
Tosul smiled. Maybe he was doing something right.
8 FelsiteVucar Spreadabbey, Bonepillar’s new mechanic, hadn’t been seen for several days. So it was more than a little surprising when Tosul saw her run into his office.
“Take a look a this!”
“Whoa… Is this where you’ve been?”
“Yes! I don’t know how to explain it, I just had a feeling that this needed to be done. And now…” Vucar looked down at her hands. “I feel like… like I
know mechanics now, like I never did before!”
“That’s amazing, Vucar!” Tosul stood, handing the mechanism back to her. “Now we just need to figure out somewhere to put it…”
17 FelsiteLogem Ochretwist sprinted through Bonepillar. He pushed past Iden Oardye, newly appointed chief medical dwarf, and nearly knocked over PyroTechno Dyepaddle, who dropped his armload of freshly-smelted coke.
He careened into Tosul’s office, startling the Overseer, who was going over Bonepillar’s stocks. “You’ve got to get up here, now!”
Seeing the panicked look in Logem’s eyes, Tosul followed without question.
“What is it?” he panted as they approached the top of the fortress.
“I was up top planting this season’s blackberry crop, and, well,” The farmer pointed through a fortification. “Take a look for yourself.”
Later that day.“Tuaiq, get your Marksdwarves in the tower. If we’re lucky, the Titan will thin the undead, but if it decides to come for us, that floor hatch on top of the tower’s not going to keep it out. If it comes close, give it everything you’ve got.”
“Yes sir!” The militia commander ran off to gather his men.
“Nil, I want your melee squad positioned under the tower entrance. I know you’re inexperienced, but if that beast gets past Lidku, you’re our best defence.”
Nil gulped “Y-yessir!” He went to gather his squad.
Tosul turned to the rest of the assembled dwarves. “The rest of you, be ready for anything. We don’t know what’s going to happen up there.”
19 Felsite“Hey, Overseer?”
Tosul looked up, seeing Tuaiq standing in the doorway of his office. He stod up.
“What is it? Did something happen?”
“Big spider’s dead.”
“Really? Congratulations!”
Tuaiq shook his head. “No, no. We didn’t do nothing. Beastie took down a pair of undead, one of ‘em a dwarf, then went after a draltha, and then…”
A thought occurred to Tosul. “Did it… you know… get back up?”
Tuaiq smiled. “Lucky for us, no. Fight was on the living side of the treeline.
Tosul let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. But if just one of those monsters an take down a Titan… what could it do to a dwarf?”
25 FelsiteIamblichos, Bonepillar’s resident Wastrel, lay shivering in a corner. “I-I can’t go back up there. I-it can s-s-see me through the fortific-cation… The eyes… oh Armok THE EYES!”
Tosul stood up. Despite having killed the Titan, that undead Draltha was proving to be more trouble than good. Just by nature of its presence, it was blocking access to the upper farms. Lidku’s marksdwarves hadn’t been much help either--the piercing bolts not fazing the beast.
“Geshud, see if we can get a wall built in front of that fortification. If the farmers can’t see out, they shouln’t be bothered by the Draltha.”
The stoneworker had just saluted saluted and ran off when Tosul heard TheCheeseMaker’s voice behind him.
“Overseer, we’ve got a problem…”
Tosul turned, and saw TheCheeseMaker holding 6 squirming balls of fur.
“It’s puppy season.”
It is now summer.
OOC:
Whew! So there’s Spring. Apologies if I screwed up anyone’s characters.
Fort population is currently 44.
Sorry for the wait! I can tone done the detail of future write-ups if this one’s too long.
Author
Topic: Bonepillar, lair of the undead cave beasts - Succession Fort [40.24] (Read 29831 times)