Bonepillar: Summer of 544((If this is too long, let me know and I'll spoiler the whole thing down))
1 Hematite
Tosul Crevicebronze, Overseer of Bonepillar, was sitting in his office examining reports when Deduk Mobpaddles burst through the door and slammed the corpse of a Peregrine Falcon onto his desk.
Tosul looked at the deceased avian, then at Deduk.
"That is a dead bird."
"Course it is! It's bleeding demised! It’s passed on! This falcon is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet Armok! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! Its metabolic processes are now history! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible!! This is an ex-falcon!!
"I get it, it's dead. And why exactly are you showing this to me?"
"Because even though it's dead, it just nearly killed that donkey we have tethered up top."
Only now realizing the significance of the animal, Tosul rose. "What? But how did it get in? We're sealed off from the surface!!
"Apparently not. Hell if I know, though. Maybe it squeezed through one of the fortifications?"
"Well, see if you can find out. The last thing we need is more undead getting in. What happened to the donkey?"
"Beastie's not long for this world, I'm afraid. Damn bird damaged the lungs."
Tosul sighed. "Might as well butcher it then. Wouldn't want the meat to go to waste."
4 Hematite
It had been a long day, full of reports of undead slaughtering wildlife and crafts dwarfs complaining about materials. Tosul had just left the booze stockpile and was headed to his room, more than ready for a full night's sleep.
Ugh, I feel like I could sleep for a week... Sleep would not be in his immediate future, however, as when he opened the door he was greeted by a ghastly sight.
There was a dwarf in his room, entirely white except for the large red crater in her chest. Tosul knew this dwarf-but the last time he had seen her, there had been a dead draltha on top of her.
"Aban? What are you doing here? I thought-"
That was as far as he got, before the ghastly specter shrieked, toppling his bed as it flew through the eastern wall of his room.
Eshtan, expedition leader and self-proclaimed Failure, poked his head out of his room. "What was that? Sounded like a ghost!"
Tosul looked at him and nodded, before turning to walk away.
"Where you going, lad?"
Tosul turned to look at Eshtan as he walked away. "To make amends."
5 Hematite
"That's some mighty fine work there. But why did you have to make it? You're the Overseer now, any engraver could have done it."
Tosul and Zulban were standing in front of the newly engraved memorial slab to Aban, placed with the other slabs in the great hall.
"No, it had to be me precisely
because I'm the Overseer. My job is to keep every dwarf here safe. How can I do that if all a death means to me is another designated task? When I engrave the slab myself, I
know that dwarf: their life, their loves, and their death. When dwarves stop being people and start being drones, that is the moment I have failed as Overseer."
Tosul picked up his engraving tools and walked back to the Craftdwarf's Workshop. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more engraving to do."
10 Hematite
"Ugh!"
With a grunt, Zon swung her pick into the stone, clearing away a chunk of schist. She looked into the hole she'd made, then grinned.
"Hey, cobaltite! I think I'm gonna take this room. I've always liked blue."
Hearing his coworker's words, Moldath ambled over.
"Easy now, you know the rules. Can't claim a room until the bed's down."
"Yeah yeah, I know. But even if I don't get this one, it's gonna be nice to have our own rooms for once."
"I hear you. We've been sleeping in that cramped old dormitory for too long. I actually faked being sick once just to get a chance to sleep in the hospital beds."
"That's what it was? Come on, man, I had to dig the whole lower stairwell on my own when you were 'out sick!'"
"Aw, shut yer trap. Now let's get back to work. Maybe the next room will be all Cobaltite."
15 Hematite
"Human Caravan to the west!"
"Dammit, that horse corpse is already right on top of them!"
"Get the airlock open, they might make it!"
"By Armok, that thing's tearing them apart!"
"Most of them are either dead or gone, but I can still see two, one heading for the airlock and the other running north!"
"The first one's in, and the second's turning around!
"Oh my Armok, that water buffalo's still alive!"
"Not for long..."
"Second human's in! Seal the airlock! Sodel, head to the depot. You know how to talk with other races."
"On moi way."
Sodel entered the depot in time to see the two humans, a male and a female, embracing.
“You’re alive!”
“It was close there at the end, but I made it. Are the others…?”
The male shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Sodel coughed lightly, and the couple turned to face her.
“Oi don’t know exactly what happened up thar, but you’re safe here now. Undead should clear out in a month or so if you’ll be wanting to get home, but until then Depot’s got accommodations.”
The female stepped forward. “Thank you so much. I’m Tuma, this is Zaziz. I don’t know how we’ll ever repay you… all we brought in are the clothes on our backs.”
Zaziz grunted. “You’re welcome to the stuff outside if you can get to it, but…” He fell silent, allowing the groans of the wandering undead flow through the depot for a moment.
“I don’t think it’ll be worth it.”
27 HematiteSoon after midday, there was a knock at Tosul's door, shortly followed by Deduk entering the room.
"Tosul! It took a fair spot of bother, but I've puzzled out how that falcon got in.
Excited, Tosul stood up. "Really? How?"
Deduk grabbed an old report from Tosul's desk and began to draw on the back.
"So a fortification looks like this, correct? Curving in toward the center? Well it's not visible from strait on, but if you stand against it like this-"
Deduk stood with his back to the wall and craned his neck back so he was looking at the roof.
"-you can see a huge blooming hole! Anything with wings could swoop right in!"
Tosul put his hands together and pursed his lips, a studying Deduk's schematic. That big? This could be bad. We're lucky a falcon's all that found it. If one of those bats got in..." Tosul shook his head.
"We need to get that patched up as soon as we can, but we should be safe unless something with wings-"
Crash! Smash! Bang!Logem Ochretwist slammed the door open, shouting, "Tosul! Get up here!"
Deduk gave Tosul a look. "You just had to say it."
...
Tosul stepped back from the fortification, pale, and ran off into the fort.
"I need people getting those floors on top built now! Tuaiq, Nil, get your squads ready! If we're lucky, the undead might take it out, but we can't count on it!"
"Not gonna happen, sir!" Tuaiq interrupted. "That thing's inorganic, undead only go after things that bleed."
"Dammit!" Tosul kicked the nearest rock, before he leaned down and picked it up. "Anyone who can haul, let's cover that hole!"
He ran towards the tower, with several others in front and behind him.
Every dwarf reacts differently to stress. Most, when encountering an undead abomination staring at them from the foot of a tower, turn and run. Others are able ignore the crime against nature and go on their way. Others, like the Weaver Iden, resort to violence.
Iden, upon seeing the undead cow at the base of the tower, became filled with rage, leapt form the tower, and began punching it. Another dwarf, a furnace operator by the name of Amost Ningtekkud, followed after while another pair comprised of Cheese Maker Tekkud and Legendary Glassmaker Bomrek, charged a nearby draltha corpse.
Tosul heard the screams from ahead and rapidly changed his mind about the correct course of action. “Everybody back!”
He got back into the main hall just in time to avoid getting walled in the passage.
“What are you doing!?”
TheCheeseMaker blinked, taken aback. “We heard the screams and thought everyone was dead. We grabbed what was nearest and sealed it up.” He patted the wall, made of pure coke. Other side’s got an aluminum one. That giant gem ain’t getting through here.”
“But PyroTechno’s still in there!” Tosul flew at the wall, tearing it apart with his bare hands.
TheCheeseMaker stepped forward. “Tosul, think about this. If that Titan gets in, we all die.”
“And if I don’t get this wall down, PyroTechno dies!”
“Never mind whatever you’re talking about, We’ve got another problem!” cried Tuaiq, running up with his crossbow ready. “Migrants to the northeast!”
Tosul stopped working for a brief moment. “Open the airlock.”
“They’re in the heart of the Jungle of Frothing, and that Titan’s out there too. None of them are going to be able to get past both!”
Tosul looked Tuaiq dead in the eye. “We’re not leaving them to die. Open the damn airlock.”
Tuaiq shrugged. “You’re the boss.” As he walked toward the levers, he murmured under his breath, “I just hope you know what you’re doing.
…
Sodel, Tuma, and Zaziz looked up from the Depot’s table, where they were sharing a meal.
Tuma stood. “What’s going on, why is it opening?”
Sodel stood as well. “Probably a moigrant party coming boi needs rescuing. It’d be noice if the Overseer would give us a bit of warning next toime.”
Footsteps could be heard coming from down the hallway. “Here comes the farst one now. Oi’ll greet ‘em, no need for you two to get up.”
Sodel stepped out of the depot.
…
The migrant party, 6 in all, huddled close together as they walked through the dark jungle. Ast Daselkol, a Farmer and the youngest of the group, turned towards Nil Shagogmeng, the group’s
de facto leader. "Are you sure this is the right way?”
Nil glared at him, the fear in his eyes readily apparent. “Of course it is! We just need to keep moving, we’ll-”
He was interrupted by a scream from behind, and Ast whirled to see Solon quivering in fear, his gaze locked on half a porcupine, crawling toward them with dead, milky eyes.
fwooshAst ran at the thing and kicked it, sending it spiraling off into the trees.
fwooshShe turned back to the other three dwarves, and—wait, three?
“Where’s Solon and Mestthos?”
Nil roughly pushed her forward, his panic readily apparent now.
“L-let’s just keep moving. Th-they’ll find us, th-they
fwooshknow the way.”
Ast dug her feet into the ground.
“You just want to leave
fwooshthem?” She turned toward the rear dwarves. “You two can’t--”
But there were no rear dwarves.
Ast broke away from Nil’s grasp and ran to were the other dwarves
fwooshhad been. “Where did they go? Nil, did you--”
But Nil was gone too.
Ast looked around, terrified, at the dead trees and decaying grass. “Guys? Th-this isn’t funny! Come back!”
ThumpSomething landed on the grass next to Ast. Curious, she bent to pick it up, then recoiled in horror when she realized that it was Nil’s leg, wet with blood.
Shaking, she turned her head upward.
For a brief moment, she saw the bodies of her companions strewn atop the trees before the looming jaws of the undead giant bat filled her vision.
fwoosh…
Tosul pulled one last piece of coke out, letting the hastily-constructed wall fall down around him and revealing the empty stairway. The sounds of something moving could be heard from up above.
Tuaiq raised his crossbow as it moved closer to Bonepillar’s entrance… then lowered it as PyroTechno stepped through, a relieved look on his face.
“Oh, thank Armok! I thought I was gonna die in there.”
Tosul gave Pyrotechno a quick pat on the back before stepping back up to the wall. “CheeseMaker, get this wall back up. Any word on those migrants?”
Deduk approached, his face pale. “You might want to take a look at the airlock…”
…
Tosul walked silently to place the slab, ignoring everyone who tried to speak to him.
10 Malachite“We lost the Titan.”
“What? How do you just
lose a Titan? It’s massive, and bright purple!”
Tuaiq shrugged. “It flew up to the top of that big dacite bolder, then dove in. Hasn’t come back out. It’s probably in the caverns somewhere now.”
18 MalachiteLokum Channelledsunken the carpenter was Tosul’s 3rd visitor today.
“New bedrooms are a great idea, but in order to make beds we need wood, and all the wood we have is outside with the undead.”
Tosul considered his options. “Retrieving the outside logs is too risky, and the caverns are too overrun with undead to try and claim an area. But maybe…” Tosul started walking to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To get the miners. We’re going to find another cavern.”
28 MalachiteMoldath peeked his head through the hole he’d made. “Either this pick is more effective than I thought…”
“…or I just found another cavern.”
Lor poked her head out next to his. “Over there, to the southwest—is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah, it is! A magma pool! Looks like this is our lucky day!”
“Not the pool, you dunce. A blind cave ogre could see that! I mean next to the pool, by the magma crabs!”
Moldath squinted into the darkness, then his eyes widened. “By Armok, it’s the Titan!”
“Seal it off!”
16 GalenaLor and Moldath dug deeper and deeper, in search of a cavern containing neither undead nor a giant murderous gemstone.
As they dug deeper and deeper into the rock, however, they reached a point where their pickaxes didn’t shatter the stone so much as sink into it.
“What the…” Lor yanked her pick from the wall watching as the stone hardened as it cooled around her pick. “That stuff’s almost molten!”
Moldath sighed. “Looks like we can’t go any deeper. If there’s another cavern somewhere, we missed it.”
27 GalenaLor wiped her brow as she climbed the stairs back towards the fort. It had been a tough day of digging, and she could use a drink. As she passed the peepholes into the second cavern layer however, something purple caught her eye.
It was the Titan, somehow managing to stay airborne despite a missing wing. Several large cracks ran through is body and remaining appendage—the Titan had certainly seen better days.
By Armok… thought the miner.
What could have done that?
Meanwhile, 15 levels below…Moldath was still hard at work, having just gotten back from a drink break himself. As he cleared away a chunk of diorite, he felt warmth emanating from the rock behind it.
More of that semi-molten crap behind here, I’ll bet.Moldath, unconcerned, smashed the fragile barrier of warm stone, and was surprised to find that the rock behind was not semi-molten, but fully molten.
“By Armo-” was all he got out before the tide of magma engulfed him.
Autumn has come.
((So there's summer! Bit bloodier than Spring.
And did someone the rules for titan-attacks? According to the wiki, they shouldn't show up until we hit 80 dwarves, and I've had 2 purple web-spewers in 2 seasons! wonder if they're related...
Anyways, apologies for slowness, mischaracterization, and flagrant Monty Python, and I will see you at the end of autumn!))
<EDIT: Population stands at 38.>
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Topic: Bonepillar, lair of the undead cave beasts - Succession Fort [40.24] (Read 29954 times)